International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: UNESCO-UNEVOC Handbooks and Book series Editor-in-Chief: Dr Rupert Maclean, UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany
Associate Editors: Professor Felix Rauner, TVET Research Group, University of Bremen, Germany Professor Karen Evans, Institute of Education, University of London, United Kingdom
Editorial Advisory Board: Dr David Atchoarena, UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning, Paris, France Dr Andr´as Benedek, Ministry of Employment and Labour, Budapest, Hungary Dr Paul Benteler, Stahlwerke Bremen, Germany Ms Diane Booker, TAFESA, Adelaide, Australia Mr John Budu-Smith, formerly Ministry of Education, Accra, Ghana Professor Michel Carton, NORRAG c/o Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland Dr Chris Chinien, Workforce Development Consulting, Montreal, Canada Dr Claudio De Moura Castro, Faculade Pit´agoras, Belo Horizonte, Brazil Dr Wendy Duncan, Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines Dr Michael Frearson, SQW Consulting, Cambridge, United Kingdom Dr Lavinia Gasperini, Natural Resources Management and Environment Department, Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy Dr Philipp Grollmann, Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BiBB), Bonn, Germany Dr Peter Grootings, European Training Foundation, Turin, Italy Professor W. Norton Grubb, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley, United States of America Dr Dennis R. Herschbach, Faculty of Education Policy and Leadership, University of Maryland, College Park, United States of America Dr Oriol Homs, Centre for European Investigation and Research in the Mediterranean Region, Barcelona, Spain Professor Phillip Hughes, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia Professor Moo-Sub Kang, Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Seoul, Republic of Korea Dr Bonaventure W. Kerre, School of Education, Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya Dr G¨unter Klein, German Aerospace Centre, Bonn, Germany Dr Wilfried Kruse, Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund, Dortmund Technical University, Germany Professor Jon Lauglo, Department of Educational Research, Faculty of Education, University of Oslo, Norway Dr Alexander Leibovich, Institute for Vocational Education and Training Development, Moscow, Russian Federation Professor Robert Lerman, Urban Institute, Washington, United States of America Mr Joshua Mallet, Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, Canada Ms Naing Yee Mar, UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany Professor Munther Wassef Masri, National Centre for Human Resources Development, Amman, Jordan Dr Phillip McKenzie, Australian Council for Educational Research, Melbourne, Australia Dr Theo Raubsaet, Centre for Work, Training and Social Policy, Nijmegen, Netherlands Mr Trevor Riordan, International Labour Organization, Bangkok, Thailand Professor Barry Sheehan, Melbourne University, Australia Dr Madhu Singh, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, Hamburg, Germany Dr Manfred Tessaring, European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, Thessaloniki, Greece Dr Jandhyala Tilak, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi, India Dr Pedro Daniel Weinberg, formerly Inter-American Centre for Knowledge Development in Vocational Training (ILO/CINTERFOR), Montevideo, Uruguay Professor Adrian Ziderman, Bar-llan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
UNESCO-UNEVOC Head of Publications: Alix Wurdak
Rupert Maclean · David Wilson Editors Chris Chinien Associate Editor
International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work Bridging Academic and Vocational Learning
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Editors Dr Rupert Maclean UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Education Hermann-Ehlers-Str. 10 53113 Bonn Germany
[email protected]
Professor David Wilson University of Toronto Canada
Associate Editor Dr Chris Chinien Workforce Development Consulting Montreal Canada
ISBN: 978-1-4020-5280-4
e-ISBN: 978-1-4020-5281-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008930131 c Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com
Dedication to David N. Wilson
This International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work is dedicated to Professor David N. Wilson. David Wilson contributed significantly to the development of this handbook, from the planning stages and the process of identifying contributors, through to the assembly of completed chapters into a prototype. It is very unfortunate that David did not live long enough to see the final product of his hard and cherished labour. However, he will be remembered for his leadership role and the important intellectual guidance he provided to this project. David Wilson was an outstanding teacher and a world-class scholar in the field of development education. He has trained and mentored many graduate students who are playing key leadership roles in development education throughout the world, be they policy-makers, researchers or practitioners. As a researcher, David has contributed substantially to furthering our understanding of the field of comparative education and of development education, particularly as it relates to education for the world of work. His prolific scholarly contribution is a legacy left behind as a testimony of his commitment and dedication to his profession and to the advancement of knowledge and of humanity. David was firmly committed throughout his life to international development and, as such, was very keen to use education as leverage to improve human conditions with regard to poverty alleviation, improved equity and justice, especially in developing countries. Those who have worked with David over the years will unanimously agree that he was not only a good collaborator, but also a good friend. David will be missed a great deal, but his memory and sphere of influence will live on through his students and through the legacy of his extensive range of scholarly works.
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Preface
The idea of developing and publishing an ‘International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work: Bridging Academic and Vocational Learning’ goes back to discussions between myself and David Wilson as early as 2001.1 We commenced work immediately; nevertheless, it has taken some seven years to bring the Handbook to full fruition. Readers will not be surprised by the time it has taken to complete this project, since this has been a mammoth, complex undertaking, involving some 218 authors, 197 chapters and a manuscript of 1.2 million words, which is now published in six volumes. This Handbook is the first of its kind, bringing together leading educational researchers, policy-makers and practitioners from all parts of the world; and from developed and developing countries. At every stage the aim has been to develop chapters of the highest quality. Thus, the matter of quality assurance has been at the forefront of our minds throughout the project. I hope that all who read this Handbook will agree that the considerable time and effort involved has been more than worth the trouble. In 1991, the World Bank published a policy paper written by John Middleton, Adrian Ziderman and Arvil Van Adams. This was widely interpreted (and also widely misinterpreted) to say that school-based technical education was not a sound investment. The consequences wrought by this policy paper had a strong impact on TVET, earning the authors a reputation going well beyond their intentions. In a gesture to redress this involuntary milestone, we invited one of these authors. Arvil Van Adams, to write a prologue to this International Handbook on a subject of his own choosing. He decided to discuss the non-governmental delivery of TVET in Sub-Saharan Africa. On behalf of the editors, I wish to acknowledge the contributions of the many individuals who have worked so hard through all the different stages to bring this Handbook to successful completion. Thanks are conveyed to all the authors for their commitment to this project and for their well-conceived, scholarly contributions. Recognition is also due to the section editors for helping to co-ordinate the work of the authors and, most importantly, for their efforts to ensure content validity and the high quality of chapters. Secretarial and editorial work by staff in the UNESCO–UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education, in Bonn, Germany, under the able vii
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leadership of the Head of Publications, Ms Natalia Matveeva, with assistance from Joachim Lapp, was also an essential contribution to the successful completion of this Handbook. Ms Matveeva’s work was subsequently taken over and brought to a successful conclusion by Ms Alix Wurdak. Special thanks are due to Associate Editor Professor Chris Chinien, who agreed at short notice to become a joint editor of the Handbook, and so enabled its successful completion after the untimely death of General Co-editor, David Wilson, in October 2006. In addition to being a Section Editor and the author of several chapters in the handbook, Chris made a substantial contribution to finalizing the content and structure of the whole Handbook, especially with regard to quality assurance. Special thanks also to John Fox for desk editing the entire manuscript so professionally, thoroughly and in a timely way. Finally, we would like to thank Harmen van Paradijs and Marianna Pascale of the publishers Springer for the considerable care with which they have assisted and guided this project throughout the lengthy period of gestation. UNESCO-UNEVOC, Bonn Germany
Rupert Maclean
Note 1. This Handbook is part of the larger ‘UNESCO-UNEVOC International Library of Technical and Vocational Education and Training’, which consists of two Handbooks, a book series and various other publications. Full details are provided on the following pages.
UNESCO-UNEVOC International Library of Technical and Vocational Education and Training International Library of Technical and Vocational Education and Training
Work is a major feature in most people’s lives. Not only does it provide them with the means to meet basic needs, such as food, clothing and shelter, but also the type of work undertaken by individuals and groups has a major impact on their self-identity, social status and standard of living. Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is concerned with the acquisition of knowledge and skills for the world of work to increase opportunities for productive work, sustainable livelihoods, personal empowerment and socio-economic development. The UNEVOC International Library of Technical and Vocational Education and Training is a series of publications that provide comprehensive information about many cutting-edge aspects of TVET. The Library showcases best practices and innovative approaches to skills development for employability and seeks to create an effective bridge between research, policy and practice. It is an on-going project and publications prepared as part of the Library complement each other. Elements of the Library are:
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UNESCO-UNEVOC International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work: Bridging Academic and Vocational Learning; International Handbook of Technical and Vocational Education and Training Research; UNESCO-UNEVOC Book Series ‘Technical and Vocational Education and Training: Issues, Concerns and Prospects’; UNESCO-UNEVOC Discussion Papers; UNESCO-UNEVOC Annotated Bibliographies of Technical and Vocational Education and Training; UNESCO-UNEVOC Case Studies of Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Selected Countries.
Most of these publications are published by Springer Science and Business Media, and some others by UNESCO-UNEVOC itself. The audience for the publications in the Library includes policy-makers, practitioners, administrators, planners, researchers, teachers, teacher educators and students, as well as colleagues in other fields interested in learning about education for the world of work and TVET in developed and developing countries, countries in transition and countries in postconflict situations. ix
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UNESCO-UNEVOC International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work: Bridging Academic and Vocational Learning General Editors: Rupert Maclean and David N. Wilson Associate Editor: Chris Chinien Springer — (2009) English The UNESCO-UNEVOC International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work is the first reference tool of its kind. It provides a comprehensive coverage of cutting-edge developments in research, policy and practice in TVET within a single source and aims to assist those involved in TVET at any level in making informed decisions and to further advance and improve the field. The six volumes and nearly 200 chapters of the Handbook cover such topics as: TVET policy and reform; financing TVET systems; TVET teacher education; assessment in TVET; TVET research and curriculum development; participation in formal TVET programmes; regional TVET profiles; information and communication technologies in TVET; TVET for youth and in ageing societies; TVET in informal economies and in countries in post-conflict situations. Some 220 TVET experts explore the prospects and challenges in each of these areas from diverse perspectives. The authors are from developing and developed countries, UN agencies, universities, national and international research centres, leading training institutions, national and international statistical offices and ministries of education. Order the International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work: Bridging Academic and Vocational Learning from: http://www.springer.com/ education
UNESCO-UNEVOC Book Series ‘Technical and Vocational Education and Training: Issues, Concerns and Prospects’ Series Editor: Rupert Maclean Publisher: Springer English While the International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work provides a survey of the field, the Book Series explores selected aspects of TVET in depth and focuses on topics that require a more detailed analysis. The series closely follows new developments and innovations in TVET and showcases these. It presents best and innovative practices, explores controversial issues and uses case studies as examples. Topics covered in the Book Series include: the vocationalization of secondary education; international perspectives on teachers and learners in TVET; TVET for sustainable development; TVET in the informal sector; the transformation of TVET
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in transition economies; how changing work situations form personal identities; understanding learning for and throughout working life; TVET as a factor of lifelong learning; vocational content in mass higher education; self-directed learning in TVET; modern apprenticeships and qualifications research. Titles published to date (as of February 2009) are:
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Vocationalisation of Secondary Education Revisited, by Jon Lauglo and Rupert Maclean (eds.), 2005. Meeting Basic Learning Needs in the Informal Sector: Integrating Education and Training for Decent Work, Empowerment and Citizenship, by Madhu Singh (ed.), 2005. Training for Work in the Informal Micro-enterprise Sector: Fresh Evidence from Sub-Sahara Africa, by Hans Christian Haan, 2006. The Transformation of Vocational Education and Training (VET) in the Baltic States: Survey of Reforms and Developments, by Frank B¨unning, 2006. Work, Subjectivity and Learning: Understanding Learning through Working Life, by Stephen Billett, Tara Fenwick and Margaret Somerville (eds.), 2006 Identities at Work, by Alan Brown, Simone Kirpal and Felix Rauner (eds.), 2007. International Perspectives on Teachers and Trainers in Technical and Vocational Education, by Philipp Grollmann and Felix Rauner (eds.), 2007. Work, Learning and Sustainable Development, by John Fien, Rupert Maclean and Man-Gon Park (eds.), 2009. Rethinking Work and Learning: Adult and Vocational Education for Social Sustainability, by Peter Willis, Stephen McKenzie und Roger Harris (eds.), 2009. Technology and Vocational Education for Sustainable Development: Empowering Individuals for the Future, by Margarita Pavlova, 2009.
Order publications in the UNEVOC Book Series ‘Technical and Vocational Education and Training: Issues, Concerns and Prospects’ from: http://www.springer.com/ series/6969
Handbook of Technical and Vocational Education and Training Research Editors: Felix Rauner and Rupert Maclean Springer — (2008) English Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) research has become a recognized and well-defined area of interdisciplinary research. This is the first handbook of its kind that specifically concentrates on research and research methods in TVET. The book’s sections focus on particular aspects of the field, starting with a presentation of the genesis of TVET research. They further feature research in relation to policy, planning and practice. Various areas of TVET research are covered, including on the vocational disciplines and on TVET systems. Case studies illustrate
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different approaches to TVET research, and the final section of the book presents research methods, including interview and observation methods, as well as of experimentation and development. This handbook provides a comprehensive coverage of TVET research in an international context, and, with special focus on research and research methods, it is a cutting-edge resource and reference. Order the Handbook of Technical and Vocational Education and Training Research from: http://www.springer.com/education
UNESCO-UNEVOC Annotated Bibliographies of Technical and Vocational Education and Training Editor: Natalia Matveeva Published by UNESCO-UNEVOC English The UNESCO-UNEVOC Annotated Bibliographies of Technical and Vocational Education and Training are a series of literature reviews on key issues in TVET that provide information about the latest developments, current innovations and best practices. The Bibliographies reflect the range of currently available literature, such as articles, books, government reports, documents of UN agencies and donor communities, research theses and other sources available on the Internet. They provide bibliographical aid to policy makers, researchers and practitioners in TVET. Titles published to date in print and electronic format:
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TVET for Sustainable Development, 2004. Women and TVET, 2004. Youth Unemployment: Meeting the Needs of Youth, 2004. Exploitative Work: Child Labour, 2004. Occupational Health and Safety, 2004.
Access or order the UNEVOC Annotated Bibliographies of Technical and Vocational Education and Training free of charge from: http://www.unevoc.unesco.org/ publications
UNESCO-UNEVOC Discussion Papers Editors: Rupert Maclean and Natalia Matveeva Published by UNESCO-UNEVOC English (some titles are available in other languages) The Discussion Papers facilitate the dissemination of crucial research and innovative ideas in technical and vocational education and training (TVET). They are shorter documents that aim to stimulate debate about TVET issues and promote the field. The topics covered in the Discussion Papers range from orienting TVET
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for sustainable development to establishing national qualifications systems and analysing statistical data on access to formal TVET worldwide. Most of these Discussion Papers are published by UNESCO-UNEVOC in collaboration with partner institutions. Titles published to date in print and/or electronic format include:
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Orienting TVET for Sustainable Development, 2006. The Development of a National System of Vocational Qualifications (in cooperation with the Scottish Qualifications Authority), 2006. The 6Es Plus Education Makes Seven: Why Is Education Central to the Youth Employment Summit (YES) Campaign?, 2006. Research for TVET Policy Development, by Jon Lauglo (in co-operation with InWEnt — Capacity Building International), 2006. The Bologna Declaration and Emerging Models of TVET Teacher Training in Germany, by Frank B¨unning and Alison Shilela (in co-operation with InWEnt — Capacity Building International), 2006. Participation in Formal TVET Programmes Worldwide: An Initial Statistical Study (in co-operation with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics), 2006. Approaches to Action Learning in Technical and Vocational Education and Training, by Frank B¨unning (in co-operation with InWEnt — Capacity Building International), 2007. Education for Livelihoods and Civic Participation in Post-conflict Countries: Conceptualizing a Holistic Approach to TVET Planning and Programming in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2007. Why Do German Companies Invest in Apprenticeships? by Klaus Schaack, 2008. The Changing Status of Vocational Higher Education in Contemporary Japan and South Korea, by Roger Goodman, Sachi Hatakenaka and Terri Kim, 2009. Why Is Skills Development for Work/Employability Essential if EFA and the Dakar Framework for Action Are to Be Achieved? (in press).
Access or order UNEVOC Discussion Papers free of charge from: http://www.unevoc. unesco.org/publications
UNESCO-UNEVOC Case Studies of TVET in Selected Countries Editor: Efison Munjanganja Published by UNESCO-UNEVOC English The Case Studies of TVET in Selected Countries provide in-depth information on issues of specific importance in the TVET systems of selected countries and regions. An initial collection of case studies from Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia is in preparation.
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Revitalizing a Technical Training Institute in Kenya. A Case Study of Kaiboi Technical Training Institute, Eldoret, Kenya, by John W. Simiyu, 2009.
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Access or order UNEVOC Case Studies free of charge from: http://www.unevoc. unesco.org/publications
Other UNESCO-UNEVOC Publications In addition to the publications that form the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Library of Technical and Vocational Education and Training, UNESCOUNEVOC also publishes stand-alone publications both on its own behalf and jointly with other organizations. These include newsletter, books, reports and brochures on key TVET issues.
Newsletter (Bulletin/Forum) Editors: Maja Zarini and Natalia Matveeva The UNESCO-UNEVOC Bulletin is the newsletter of the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre. It informs TVET experts about the activities of UNESCOUNEVOC, UNEVOC Network members and other agencies engaged in TVET. It is the only international newsletter that brings together the major international agencies involved in TVET in order to report on their activities. The Bulletin contains a supplement called UNEVOC Forum. The Forum is distributed with the Bulletin, but is also available separately and on the web. Researchers, policy-makers and practitioners from around the world are invited to contribute their views in the form of a long article on a key issue, concern or proposal regarding TVET. Both the Bulletin and Forum are available in print as well as in digital format and are distributed to about 2,600 individual/institutional recipients. The UNESCO-UNEVOC Bulletin and the UNEVOC Forum are published several times each year. Both are published in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Access or order the Bulletin and Forum free of charge from: http://www.unevoc. unesco.org/bulletin
Learning To Do: Values for Learning and Working Together in a Globalized World UNESCO-APNIEVE Sourcebook No. 3 for Trainers, Teachers and Students in the Area of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (UNESCO-UNEVOC and UNESCO-APNIEVE) Editors: Lourdes R. Quisumbing and Joy de Leo Chinese, English This book examines values education in the workplace. It is comprised of modules related to core values that are crucial for personal development. Integrated into TVET, these values can prepare workers and citizens with the knowledge, values,
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attitudes, behaviours and skills they need to be able to participate fully in their economy and work—effectively and responsibly in a globalized world. This Sourcebook is conceived as a teacher’s manual. It follows the steps of a holistic teaching/learning cycle and contains lesson plans that can be adapted by TVET educators to be integrated into their own training packages, lessons and resource materials. Shortly after the English version of the Sourcebook appeared in 2005, it was translated and published in Chinese. Access or order the Sourcebook free of charge at: http://www.unevoc.unesco.org/ publications
Agencies for International Cooperation in Technical and Vocational Education and Training: A Guide to Sources of Information Published by UNESCO-UNEVOC English This Donor Agencies Guide has been conceived for key personnel engaged in the development of projects and programmes. The guide provides an overview of sources of Official Development Assistance by the twenty-two Member States of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Its focus is on technical and vocational education and training. The Guide includes information on:
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Current trends in international co-operation policies; Potential donors and their policies; Donors’ requirements concerning project definition, project and budget management, assessment and evaluation techniques, and reporting procedures.
Access or order one of the most frequently requested titles free of charge from: http://www.unevoc.unesco.org/publications
Motivating for Skills Development: A Campaign Package English, French, Portuguese and Creole (DVD with sound track) English (booklets with texts, illustrations and transcript of sound tracks) The aim of the ‘Skills Development Package for Learning and Working’ developed by UNESCO-UNEVOC is to help facilitate the organization and implementation of awareness and motivation campaigns for marginalized groups in least-developed countries. The idea behind the Package is to offer a platform and produce an environment that would motivate people living in adverse economic conditions to enrol in TVET courses and take up self-employment activities in order to improve their economic situation.
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The backbone of the Skills Development Package for Learning and Working is a set of DVDs. These are complemented by a series of documents that support the material that can be viewed on the DVDs. The Package is in itself not a tool for skills development, but rather an ‘eye opener’ and ‘discussion starter’. It is anticipated that targeted groups will be encouraged to engage in tasks similar to those shown in the DVDs. Order the Package free of charge from: http://www.unevoc.unesco.org/publications
TVET Teacher Education on the Threshold of Internationalisation (UNESCO-UNEVOC and InWEnt) Editors: Frank B¨unning and Zhi-Qun Zhao English This book has been written as an outcome of the conference ‘Development and Implementation of a Master Degree Standard for Teacher and Trainer Education in TVET in East and South-East Asia’, which took place at the University of Tianjin, China, in December 2005. The conference represents an outcome of the close co-operation between InWEnt – Capacity Building International of Germany, the Ministry of Education (MoE), Beijing, China and UNESCO-UNEVOC, and it set a precedent for the further development of master degree programmes in TVET. This conference summary will be of service to both researchers and policymakers involved in teacher and trainer education in TVET in East and South-East Asia, as well as for the broader context of joint initiatives in the area concerned. Access or order free of charge from: http://www.unevoc.unesco.org/ publications
Special Issue of PROSPECTS, Quarterly Review of Comparative Education (UNESCO-UNEVOC and UNESCO-IBE) Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish Rupert Maclean, Director of the UNEVOC Centre, was Guest Editor of the September 2005 issue of the IBE journal PROSPECTS. This issue focuses on the topic of ‘Orientating Technical and Vocational Education for Sustainable Development’ and contains eleven contributions dealing with its various aspects of this theme. Order the Prospects from: http://www.springer.com/education
Vocationalisation of Secondary Education: The Come-Back? Article, published in Education Today newsletter, UNESCO
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In 2005, UNESCO-UNEVOC made contributions to a major article (4 page-spread) in the issue of Education Today, the newsletter of UNESCO’s Education Sector, on ‘vocationalisation of secondary education’. Access or order a reprint of the article free of charge from: http://www.unevoc.unesco. org/publications
Meeting Reports UNESCO-UNEVOC publishes final reports of all the meetings it organizes on its own behalf or in collaboration with other partner organizations. Copies of the reports are usually sent to all meeting participants and to specifically interested parties. Access or order the UNEVOC meeting reports free of charge from: http://www. unevoc. unesco.org/ publications
Information on UNESCO-UNEVOC To inform its public about the main areas of work of UNESCO-UNEVOC and of activities undertaken during each year/biennium, UNESCO-UNEVOC regularly updates and publishes the following materials:
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Mission statement UNEVOC in Brief (brochure) Flyers on areas of work Annual/biennial reports
Access or order these materials free of charge from: http://www.unevoc.unesco.org/ publications For more information about the UNESCO-UNEVOC Publications Programme please consult our website at http://www.unevoc.unesco.org/publications or send your request to: UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training UN Campus Hermann-Ehlers-Str. 10 53113 Bonn Germany Tel.: +49 228 8150 100 Fax: +49 228 8150 199
[email protected] <www.unevoc.unesco.org>
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Contents
List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxix List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xlvii Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Foreword:
TVET for the Sustainability of Human Kind . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lxxiii Rupert Maclean and David N. Wilson Prologue: Skills Development in the Informal Sector of Sub-Saharan Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cxiii Arvil V. Adams VOLUME 1 Part I Overview 1 The Pedagogical Roots of Technical Learning and Thinking . . . . Ron Hansen
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2 A Conceptual Framework for Technical and Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Jay W. Rojewski 3 Towards Achieving TVET for All: The Role of the UNESCOUNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Astrid Hollander and Naing Yee Mar 4 TVET Glossary: Some Key Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Jeanne MacKenzie and Rose-Anne Polvere xix
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Part II The Changing Context of Work and Education Section 1 Changing Workplace Requirements: Implication for Education Margarita Pavlova and L. Efison Munjanganja I.1 Overview: Changing Economic Environment and Workplace Requirements: Implications for Re-Engineering TVET for Prosperity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 France Boutin, Chris Chinien, Lars Moratis and Peter van Baalen I.2 The Right to a New Utopia: Adult Learning and the Changing World of Work in an Era of Global Capitalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Budd L. Hall I.3 Decent Work for All: From ILO Initiative to a Global Goal . . . . 111 Peter Poschen I.4 Redefining Gender Roles in the Workforce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Karen F. Zuga I.5 Anticipation of Skill Requirements: European Activities and Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Manfred Tessaring I.6 Redefining the Status of Occupations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Walter R. Heinz I.7 Changing Work, Work Practice: Consequences for Vocational Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Stephen Billett I.8 Traditional and Transitional TVET Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Poonam Agrawal I.9 Partnering to Meet the Needs of a Changing Workplace . . . . . . . 203 LuAnn Hiniker and Robert A. Putnam I.10 Bridging the Learning Divide: A Study into Adult Learning and Peer Mediation in the Workplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 David Johnson Section 2 Education and Training in Informal Economies Madhu Singh
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II.1 Overview: Education and Training in the Informal Sector . . . . . 235 Madhu Singh II.2 Tinkering with the Tinker: Meeting Training Needs in the Informal Sector of Chad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 Joshua A. Muskin II.3 The Traditional Informal Apprenticeship System of West Africa as Preparation for Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 William Ahadzie II.4 Initiatives to Link TVET to Self-Employment in Ghana . . . . . . . 277 Robert Palmer II.5 Criteria for Training Policy in the Informal Sector: Demands and Challenges in Latin America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 Enrique Pieck II.6 Informal Learning at Work: The Case of Working Children in Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 Laila Iskandar II.7 Informal Learning and Work: From Genealogy and Definitions to Contemporary Methods and Findings . . . . . . . . . . 319 Peter H. Sawchuk II.8 New Learning Spaces in TVET: The Contribution of Social Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 Terri Seddon, Kathleen Fennessy and Kathleen Ferguson II.9 Social and Cultural Aspects of Informal Sector Learning: Meeting the Goals of EFA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349 Madhu Singh VOLUME 2
Part III
Education for the World of Work: National and Regional Perspectives
Section 3 Reforming National Systems of Vocational Education and Training David Atchoarena and Peter Grootings
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III.1 Overview: Changing National VET Systems through Reforms . 365 David Atchoarena and Peter Grootings III.2 Latin America’s Efforts in the Vocational Training of Young People from Poor Backgrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379 Claudia Jacinto III.3 Accountability and Career Technical Education (CTE) Policy: A Brief Review of Six States of the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 Joshua D. Hawley and Alexandra de Montrichard III.4 The Regional Perspective of Vocational Education and Training 411 Mike Coles and Tom Leney III.5 Vocational Education, Training Reform and Regional Integration in the Middle East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 Munther Wassef Masri III.6 The Influence of Qualifications Frameworks on the Infrastructure of VET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 Mike Coles and Patrick Werquin III.7 Reforming Skills Development, Transforming the Nation: South African Vocational Education and Training Reforms, 1994–2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453 Simon McGrath III.8 Reform of Vocational Education in the Russian Federation . . . . 469 Olga Oleynikova and Anna Muravyeva III.9 Vocational Education in the Netherlands: In Search of a New Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483 Jan Geurts and Frans Meijers III.10 Facilitating Policy-Learning: Active Learning and the Reform of Education Systems in Transition Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499 Peter Grootings
Section 4
National Initiatives for Reengineering Education for the New Economy Joshua D. Hawley
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IV.1 Overview: Regional Reviews of TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515 Joshua D. Hawley IV.2 To Vocationalize or Not to Vocationalize? Perspectives on Current Trends and Issues on TVET in Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531 Moses O. Oketch IV.3 TVET in the Asian Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects . . . 547 P.P.G. Lionel Siriwardene and Muhammad Ashraf Qureshi IV.4 Transforming TVET Systems with the CPSC in the Asia and Pacific Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565 Man-Gon Park IV.5 European Action Programmes for Lifelong Learning . . . . . . . . . 583 Johanna Lasonen IV.6 VET in the Baltic States: Analysis of Commonalities and Differences of Reforms in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania . . . . . . 597 Frank B¨unning and Berit Graubner IV.7 Education and Training Needs of Rural Communities: A Situational Analysis of Selected Villages in Fourteen Provinces of Fiji . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609 Paula Cavu, Isimeli W. Tagicakiverata, Seveci Naisilisili and Viliame Rabici IV.8 Social Partnership in Vocational Education and Training in Lithuania: Challenges and Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619 Lina Kaminskien˙e IV.9 Integrating Education and Work: The Status of Vocational Education in Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637 Luc´ılia Regina Machado and Carlos Roberto Jamil Cury IV.10 China’s Higher Technical and Vocational Education: Development and Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649 Jing Mi and Aihua Wu IV.11 The Adoption and Adaptation of the Work-Team Concept in Urban Thai Workplaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659 Chitrlada Burapharat
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IV.12 Globalization of the Labour Culture in the Republic of Korea: What ‘Tripartite Relations’ Mean for Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673 Phoebe Moore IV.13 Involvement of Labour-Market Partners in TVET in the Russian Federation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689 Olga Oleynikova IV.14 Strengthening TVET to Achieve Lifelong Learning for All: Historical Snapshots and Recent Initiatives in Myanmar . . . . . . 703 Naing Yee Mar IV.15 Technical and Vocational Education and Training and Rural Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721 Lavinia Gasperini IV.16 An International TVET Programme Development by the International Baccalaureate Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735 Monique Conn IV.17 A Profile of TVET in the Asia and Pacific Region: A Survey of Progress, Innovations and Promising Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749 Chris Chinien, Elspeth McOmish, Mohan Perera and Alex Chinien
Section 5
Learning for Employment and Citizenship in Post-conflict Countries David Johnson and Lyle Kane
V.1 Overview: Vocational Education, Social Participation and Livelihoods in Post-Conflict Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767 David Johnson and Lyle Kane V.2 From Assessment to Planning: Hope for TVET in Uganda . . . . . 775 Bilal Barakat, Lyle Kane and Alex Inglis V.3 Linking TVET to Economic Opportunities in Post-Conflict Liberia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787 Lyle Kane V.4 Deepening the Divide: The Differential Impact of Protracted Conflict on TVET Versus Academic Education in Palestine . . . . 799 Bilal Barakat
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V.5 Co-ordinated Programming for Skills Development and Livelihoods in Post-Conflict Societies: What Promise Does TVET Hold for Southern Sudan? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813 Zuki Karpinska V.6 Vocational Training in Post-War Sierra Leone and Liberia . . . . 827 Andrew Benson Greene Jr. V.7 TVET and Community Re-Integration: Exploring the Connections in Sierra Leone’s DDR Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835 Julia Paulson V.8 TVET, Women and Conflict: Palestinians in the Lebanese Civil War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 849 Rachel Yarrow VOLUME 3 Part IV The Management of TVET Systems
Section 6 Policy and Management of TVET Systems Rupert Maclean and Chris Chinien VI.1 Overview: Navigating the Policy Landscape: Education, Training and Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869 Dennis R. Herschbach VI.2 Research for TVET Policy Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 891 Jon Lauglo VI.3 The Reform and Governance of Public TVET Institutions: Comparative Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905 Keith Holmes VI.4 National Versus Regional Policy Dimensions of TVET . . . . . . . . 921 Peter Noonan VI.5 Planning for Education and Work: Alternatives and Issues . . . . 939 Dennis R. Herschbach VI.6 South African Technikons and Policy Contestation over Academic Drift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 961 Andre Kraak
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VI.7 New Policy Actions and Government Roles: China’s Reconstruction of TVET Systems Since the 1980s . . . . . . . . . . . . 977 Deyu Sun, Jingwen Lu and Jun Li VI.8 Some Generic Issues in TVET Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989 George Preddey VI.9 An Overview of Contemporary TVET Management Practice . 1003 George Preddey Section 7 The Economics and Financing of TVET David Atchoarena VII.1 Overview: Issues and Options in Financing Technical and Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1029 David Atchoarena VII.2 Education, Skills, Sustainability and Growth: Complex Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1037 Kenneth King VII.3 Financing Mechanisms and Instruments: A Conceptual and Operational Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1051 Richard Walther VII.4 Financing Training Through Payroll Levies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1075 Adrian Ziderman VII.5 Financing Vocational Education and Training in South Africa 1091 Martin Gustafsson and Pundy Pillay VII.6 Voucher-Financed Training for Small Businesses . . . . . . . . . . . . 1107 F´elix Mitnik VII.7 Employers’ Participation in Training Finance: An Example from Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1123 Candido Alberto Gomes VII.8 Funding Lifelong Learning from a Life-Course Perspective . . . 1137 Barry J. Hake VII.9 Economic Perspectives on Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1155 Gerald Burke and Christopher Selby Smith
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Part V Teacher Education for Vocational Education and Training
Section 8 The TVET Profession Stephen Billett VIII.1 Overview: The Technical and Vocational Education and Training Profession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1175 Stephen Billett VIII.2 Professionalization of VET Teachers and Lecturers and Practices in TVET Institutions in an International Perspective 1185 Philip Grollmann VIII.3 Teachers, Instructors and Trainers: An Australian Focus . . . . . 1203 Erica Smith VIII.4 TVET Teacher-Training Requirements in the Russian Federation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1219 Vasiliy P. Kosyrev, Petr F. Kubrushko and Andrei N. Kouznetsov VIII.5 TVET Teachers and Their Professionalization in China: A Problem Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1229 Zhiqun Zhao and Lianwei Lu VIII.6 The Development of Training Modules for Instructors . . . . . . . 1243 Fred Beven VIII.7 Literacy and Learning: Are TVET Professionals Facilitators of Learning or Deliverers of Knowledge and Skills? . . . . . . . . . . 1259 Jean Searle VIII.8 Vocational Education in the Private Sector in Brazil . . . . . . . . . 1271 Elenice Monteiro Leite, Marinilzes Moradillo Mello and Nacim Walter Chieco VIII.9 TVET and Teacher-Training Curricula: A Developed National Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1285 Vasiliy P. Kosyrev, Petr F. Kubrushko and Andrei N. Kouznetsov
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VIII.10 Vocational Qualifications: The Role of Trade Unions as Negotiation Fora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1293 Antˆonio Almerico Biondi Lima and Fernando Augusto Moreira Lopes VIII.11 Vocational Education and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1307 Gaudˆencio Frigotto, Maria Ciavatta and Marise N. Ramos VIII.12 A Technical and Vocational Teacher-Training Curriculum . . . . 1319 Bonaventure W. Kerre VIII.13 Transforming Teachers’ Practice Through Action Learning . . 1333 Stephen Billett VIII.14 Professional Learning and TVET: Challenges and Perspectives for Teachers and Instructors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1351 Christian Harteis VIII.15 Industrial Attachments for Instructors in TVET Delivery . . . . 1367 Sarojni Choy and Sandra Haukka VIII.16 I Hate Left-Handers or Occupational Health and Safety Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1383 Richard Gagnon VIII.17 The Bologna Declaration and Emerging Models of TVET Teacher Training in Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1393 Frank B¨unning and Alison Shilela VIII.18 Standards for Occupation-Directed Professional Development of TVET Personnel in Developing Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1407 Peter Gerds VIII.19 Curriculum Research and Design as a Subject of TVET Teacher Training: Practice and Experiences from Two International Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1423 Joachim Dittrich VOLUME 4
Part VI
Education for Work: Research, Curriculum Development and Delivery
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Section 9 Research and Innovation Felix Rauner IX.1 Overview: TVET Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1443 Felix Rauner IX.2 Methods of TVET Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1461 Felix Rauner IX.3 TVET Research as an Aid to Improved Policy and Performance in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1469 Christopher Selby Smith IX.4 Repositioning the Role of Research in the Innovation of TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1483 Anneke Westerhuis IX.5 TVET Research as a Dimension of Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1495 Klaus Ruth IX.6 Modellversuchsforschung: Pilot Project Research in Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1505 Peter Dehnbostel IX.7 TVET and R&D Evaluation: The Potential for Optimizing TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1521 Ludger Deitmer and Lars Heinemann IX.8 TVET Research Organizations and Scientific Communities: Challenges to the Institutionalization of TVET Research . . . . . 1535 Wolfgang Wittig, Uwe Lauterbach and Philip Grollmann IX.9 Qualifications Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1553 Felix Rauner IX.10 Measuring Educational Quality in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1563 Robert D. Renaud Section 10 Curriculum Development and Delivery Felix Rauner X.1 Overview: TVET Curriculum Development and Delivery . . . . 1579 Felix Rauner
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X.2 The Mutual Shaping of Work, Vocational Competence and Work-Process Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1593 Nicholas Boreham and Martin Fischer X.3 Situated Learning and Cognitive Apprenticeship . . . . . . . . . . . . 1611 Michael Gessler X.4 Curriculum Approaches and Participative Curriculum Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1627 Georg Sp¨ottl X.5 The Deskilling and Upskilling Debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1639 Ulrich Heisig X.6 The Pedagogy of Apprenticeship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1653 Uwe Lauterbach X.7 Approaches to Designing TVET Curricula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1669 Richard Huisinga X.8 Collaborative Work-Related Learning and TechnologyEnhanced Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1687 Alan Brown, Jenny Bimrose and Sally-Anne Barnes X.9 Action-Based TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1699 Hans-Dieter H¨opfner X.10 Vocational Learning: Contributions of Workplaces and Educational Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1711 Stephen Billett X.11 Work-Based Learning: An English Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1725 James Avis X.12 Language Mastery Development within TVET for Professional Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1739 Andrei N. Kouznetsov X.13 Why do German Companies Invest in Apprenticeship? . . . . . . 1747 Klaus Schaack X.14 Workplace Learning: Metacognitive Strategies for Learning in the Knowledge Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1763 Hugh Munby, Nancy L. Hutchinson and Peter Chin
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X.15 Literacy, Design and Technology: New Contexts for Learning and Skills Development in South Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1777 David Johnson X.16 The Education Gospel and Vocationalism in an International Perspective: The Promises and the Limits of Formal Schooling 1791 W. Norton Grubb and Marvin Lazerson X.17 The Vocationalization of Secondary Education: The Relationships between Vocational and Technology Education . 1805 Margarita Pavlova X.18 Valuing Experience as well as Knowledge in Schools . . . . . . . . . 1823 Ron Hansen Section 11 Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Vocational Education and Training Maja Zarini, Tapio Varis and Naing Yee Mar XI.1 Overview: The Growing Role of ICTs in Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1835 Maja Zarini, David N. Wilson, Naing Yee Mar and Tapio Varis XI.2 The Pedagogical Framework for On-Line Learning . . . . . . . . . . 1847 Shyamal Majumdar XI.3 A Short Method for Building Web-Based Teaching and Learning Systems: the CPSC Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1863 Myong Hee Kim and Man-Gon Park XI.4 ICT Application in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1879 Boris Kotsik, Natalia Tokareva, France Boutin and Chris Chinien XI.5 Technology and Leadership in the Fourth Wave of Environmental Changes with Ubiquitous Technology . . . . . . . . 1895 Man-Gon Park XI.6 Knowledge Workforce Development for ComputerSupported Collaborative Work Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1911 Man-Gon Park and Myong Hee Kim XI.7 The Role of ICTs and TVET in Rural Development and Poverty Alleviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1923 Chiranjib Kumar Basu and Shyamal Majumdar
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XI.8 Switched on: International Approaches to Skills Development through ICTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1935 Maja Zarini XI.9 VOCED: The International Research Database on Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1947 Miriam Saunders and Radhika Naidu XI.10 What are the Limits of ICTs and Media in the Delivery of TVET? An Australian Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1959 Peter Kearns XI.11 Education System Profile: South Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1971 Tracey Wallace XI.12 Integrating TVET with Open and Distance Learning: Taking Skills Training to the Doorstep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1989 Vinay Swarup Mehrotra and Avant Kumar Sacheti XI.13 Distance Education: The State of the Art in Career and Technical Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2003 Christopher J. Zirkle VOLUME 5
Part VII
Learning for Life and Work: Bridging Academic and Vocational Education
Section 12 Participation in Formal Programmes of Learning and Skills Development Rupert Maclean and Hendrik van der Pol XII.1 Overview: Participation in Formal Programmes of Learning and Skills Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2025 Natalia Matveeva and Joachim Lapp XII.2 Access to TVET for All: An Essential Basis for Education for All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2039 Phillip Hughes XII.3 The Challenges of TVET Global Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2053 Manuel Cardoso
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XII.4 Making Global Classifications of Types and Levels of TVET . . 2067 Andy Green, Moses O. Oketch and John Preston XII.5 Trends and Issues in TVET across the Globe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2081 Moses O. Oketch, Andy Green and John Preston XII.6 Statistical Overview of TVET across Educational Levels . . . . . 2095 Manuel Cardoso XII.7 The Ethics of TVET Policy and Practice: Issues of Access and Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2163 Richard G. Bagnall XII.8 Special Needs Education and TVET: The Perspective from the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2177 Michael W. Harvey Section 13 Education for the Changing Demands of Youth Employment Karen Plane XIII.1 Overview: TVET for Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2197 Karen Plane XIII.2 Skills Shortages, Over-Education and Unemployed Youth: An International Dilemma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2211 Kenneth Gray and Sang Hoon Bae XIII.3 New Directions for High-School Career and Technical Education in the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2229 Richard L. Lynch XIII.4 Occupations in Demand/Youth Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2247 Antoaneta Voikova XIII.5 Pathways and Transitions from School to Work: Australian Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2263 Annette Gough XIII.6 School/Workplace Partnerships: A Case Study of Four Vocational Studies Programmes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2279 Marcelle Hardy and Louise M´enard XIII.7 Vocationalized Secondary Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2295 Jon Lauglo
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XIII.8 Vocational Guidance and Career Counselling in the European Union: Origins and Recent Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2313 Frederic J. Company XIII.9 ‘White-Collar’ Work or a ‘Technical’ Career? The Ambitions of Fiji Final-Year School Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2329 Pam Nilan, Paula Cavu, Isimeli W. Tagicakiverata and Emily Hazelman XIII.10 14–16 Year Olds Taking Vocational Courses in English Colleges: A Dumping Ground for the Disengaged or a Real Alternative? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2343 Norman Lucas XIII.11 Reconciling the Competing Policy Platforms in TVET? Promulgating ‘the 6Es Plus Education’ for Youth through Social Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2357 Karen Plane Section 14 The Skills Debate in an Ageing Society Tom Karmel and Rupert Maclean XIV.1 Overview: TVET in an Ageing Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2375 Tom Karmel and Rupert Maclean XIV.2 Policy Framework on the Retraining for Reskilling of Older Workers through Specialized TVET Programmes . . . . . . . . . . . 2385 Theodora Josue Tesoro Gayondato and Myong Hee Kim XIV.3 Reskilling for All? The Changing Role of TVET in the Ageing Societies of Developing Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2401 Margarita Pavlova and Rupert Maclean XIV.4 The Changing Context of TVET for the Workforce in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2417 Jagmohan Singh Rajput XIV.5 The Reform of the TVET System in the Republic of Korea for an Ageing Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2431 Hong-Geun Chang XIV.6 Will We Run Out of Young Men? Implications of the Ageing of the Population for the Trades in Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2445 Tom Karmel and Koon Ong
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XIV.7 The Ageing Labour Force and the Retraining of Workers in the Republic of Korea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2457 Jihee Choi XIV.8 Technical Entrepreneurship Development for the Aged . . . . . . 2469 Man-Gon Park and Suresh Kumar Dhameja XIV.9 The Ageing TVET Workforce in Australia: Issues and Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2487 Hugh Guthrie and Phil Loveder XIV.10 Working and Lifelong Learning among Older Workers (45+) in Japan: Implications for TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2499 Toshio Ohsako VOLUME 6
Part VIII Lifelong Learning for Livelihoods and Citizenship
Section 15 Adult, Continuing and Lifelong Learning Chris Chinien and Madhu Singh XV.1 Overview: Adult Education for the Sustainability of Human Kind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2521 Chris Chinien and Madhu Singh XV.2 The Emergence of ‘Workforce Development’: Definition, Conceptual Boundaries and Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2537 Ronald L. Jacobs and Joshua D. Hawley XV.3 The Challenge for ESD in TVET: Developing Core Sustainable Development Competencies and Collaborative Social Partnerships for Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2553 Chris Chinien, France Boutin and Karen Plane XV.4 Key Competencies: Overall Goals for Competence Development: An International and Interdisciplinary Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2571 Dominique Simone Rychen XV.5 Education and Training in the Context of Poverty Reduction . 2585 Bernd Overwien
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XV.6 Recognition, Validation and Accreditation of Non-Formal and Informal Learning and Experience: Results of an International Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2597 Madhu Singh XV.7 Self-Directed Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2615 Stephen D. Brookfield XV.8 New Learning Strategies and Learning Cultures in Companies 2629 Peter Dehnbostel XV.9 PLAR, Training and Efficient Labour Markets: The Canadian Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2647 Bill Empey and Christine Newton XV.10 Transformative Learning Theory and TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2661 Karen Magro XV.11 The Implications of Cognitive Style to Adult Distance Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2679 Cindy Marie Isaak-Ploegman and Chris Chinien XV.12 Competency, Meaningful Learning and Learning Styles in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2697 Richard Gagnon XV.13 Workplace Essential Skills in Policy and Practice: A Canadian Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2713 Erik de Vries XV.14 Adult Numeracy for Work and Life: Curriculum and Teaching Implications of Recent Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2731 Gail FitzSimons and Diana Coben XV.15 An Innovative System of Vocational Training in the German IT Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2747 Rita Meyer Part IX Assessment of Skills and Competencies Section 16 Recognition, Certification, Accreditation and Quality Assurance in TVET Karina Veal XVI.1 Overview: Competencies, Qualifications and Recognition . . . . 2763 Karina Veal
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XVI.2 The Certification of Competencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2777 Danielle Colardyn XVI.3 Modularization and Modular Delivery of TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . 2793 John Stanwick XVI.4 Diverse Approaches to the Recognition of Competencies . . . . . 2811 Danielle Colardyn XVI.5 How Do We Measure Up? Benchmarking the WorldSkills Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2827 David Hoey XVI.6 Validation of Educational Programmes: Comparing Models and Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2841 Grazia Scoppio XVI.7 Regional Accreditation and Certification of TVET Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2853 Ligaya Valmonte and Man-Gon Park XVI.8 National Qualifications Frameworks: An Analytical Overview 2867 Michael F.D. Young XVI. 9 Developing a National System of Vocational Qualifications . . . 2881 John Hart XVI.10 National Qualifications Frameworks in Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2899 Bonaventure W. Kerre and Astrid Hollander XVI.11 Implementing National Qualifications Frameworks: Problems and Possibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2917 Michael F.D. Young XVI.12 Labour Mobility and Mutual Recognition of Skills and Qualifications: The European Union and Australia/ New Zealand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2935 Chandra Shah and Michael Long XVI.13 Quality Assurance in TVET in Romania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2953 Magdalena Balica Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2971 Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3003
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List of Figures
Introduction Technical and vocational students as a share of total secondary enrolments, 1998 and 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lxxxiv Prologue Conceptual framework: informal employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cxvii Prologue Enterprises are active trainers world-wide (as a percentage of total training) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cxxiv 1 Alternate philosophies for TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 2 Visual representation of the conceptual framework for TVET . 25 I.1.1 The NCC competitiveness pyramid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 I.3.1 The four elements of decent work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 I.5.1 Estimated time lags(a ) between new skill requirements and job market entry of the first cohorts with the new skill profiles (a) dependent on national institutional, legal, formal, etc., factors. 148 II.6.1 The design of CID’s non-formal ‘schools’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310 II.6.2 Waste Recycle Facilities Manshiet Nasser-el Mokatam . . . . . . . 315 II.7.1 Learning in working life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324 III.7.1 Visualizing the Human Resources Development Strategy . . . . . 461 III.9.1 From training factory to career centre: two main dimensions for re-design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488 IV.2.1 Informal sector employment as a share of non-agricultural employment, selected African countries (1990s) . . . . . . . . . . . . 542 IV.4.1 Population growth rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569 IV.4.2 Comparative population growth in more- and less-developed countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568 IV.4.3 Population density in the Asia and Pacific Region . . . . . . . . . . . 569 IV.4.4 Growth of the ageing population (60 years and above) . . . . . . . 570 IV.4.5 The number of people living on less than $1 per day, 1990, 1996 and 2001 (millions) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572 IV.4.6 Components of the CPSC web-based teaching/learning system (WB TLS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579 IV.7.1 Comparative levels of education (by gender) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615 IV.7.2 Factors that determine training choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616 IV.8.1 Models of interaction of vocational activity with education systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621 xxxix
xl
IV.8.2 IV.8.3 IV.10.1 IV.10.2 IV.10.3 IV.10.4 IV.10.5 IV.11.1 IV.12.1 IV.12.2 IV.14.1 IV.17.1 IV.17.2 IV.17.3 IV.17.4 IV.17.5 IV.17.6 IV.17.7 IV.17.8 V.1.1 VI.7.1 VII.3.1 VII.3.2 VII.3.3 VII.6.1 VII.6.2 VII.8.1 VIII.2.1 VIII.2.2 VIII.2.3
List of Figures
Model of the social partnership for developing vocational and vocational training standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The organizational model for final qualification examinations . A diagram of the Chinese vocational education system . . . . . . . New student enrolments in technical and vocational education in 1998 and 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total student enrolment in technical and vocational education in 1998 and 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Numbers of technical and vocational education colleges from 1998 to 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Structures of technical and vocational education providers in 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The team as a bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Three phases for the creation of a new labour-management culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Composition of the future-oriented labour/management community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Drop-out rates in primary schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The planning and management of TVET in the Asia and Pacific Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The involvement of developed, developing and least-developed countries of the Asia and Pacific Region in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . Countries in the Asia and Pacific Region with various national development plans for TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . An overview of the provision of TVET for All for designated groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The availability of TVET courses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mode of TVET delivery using ICTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . New competencies acquired through TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Measuring TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A conceptual model of the field of TVET and conflict studies . Trend of enrolments and entrants in vocational secondary schools (1995–2004) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Common characteristics of the European vocational training systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Common characteristics of the African vocational training systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Common and specific characteristics of the systems . . . . . . . . . Coefficient of diversification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Utilization of opportunities for diversification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A model of lifelong learning with a ‘learning gap’ . . . . . . . . . . Dominant TVET teachers’ formal qualifications . . . . . . . . . . . . Mapping development perspectives for vocational schools and colleges for some European countries and regions . . . . . . . . . . . Direction of individual strategies of vocational teachers . . . . . .
625 627 650 651 652 652 652 662 674 676 709 750 751 752 755 760 761 762 763 770 979 1064 1065 1073 1115 1116 1141 1188 1192 1197
List of Figures
VIII.5.1 VIII.5.2 VIII.12.1 VIII.12.2 VIII.16.1
VIII.17.1 VIII.17.2 VIII.17.3 VIII.17.4 VIII.18.1 VIII.18.2
VIII.18.3 VIII.18.4 VIII.18.5 VIII.18.6 VIII.18.7 VIII.19.1 IX.4.1 IX.6.1 IX.7.1 IX.9.1
IX.9.2 X.1.1 X.2.1 X.9.1 X.9.2 X.9.3 X.9.4 X.12.1
xli
Types of TVET teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Teacher education systems in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . An integrated school curriculum for the twenty-first century . . The technical and vocational education and training cluster in Kenya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The characteristics inherent in organized work in democratic societies, showing the inevitable tensions that develop between them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The consecutive model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The top-up model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The blended model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Magdeburg model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Qualification levels for TVET-teachers/trainers . . . . . . . . . . . . . The complete system: thirty-six national TVET teacher-qualification standards by combining nine core fields of activities and four TVET teacher-qualification levels . . . . . . An example: the core field ‘assessment’ with its specific standards on the four TVET teacher-qualification levels . . . . . . Flexible and coherent career pathways within the Ethiopian standard-based national TVET teacher-training system . . . . . . Pathway I: coherent and full academic programme . . . . . . . . . . Pathway II: coherent academic four semester programme, combined with in-service-teacher-training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pathway III: short-time-programme, combined with in-service teacher training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The four learning areas, from novice to expert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Interfaces between the traditional knowledge and innovation chains (after Bruijn & Westerhuis, 2004, p. 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The cyclical process of scientific monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Evaluation cycle of an actor-oriented programme evaluation . . The interaction of education and training, work and the object of work in analytic and design-oriented perspective as a topic of research and teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Action-oriented professional interviews carried out in teams . . Knowledge and know-how in the tense relationship between education and qualification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Work-process knowledge of a German skilled worker . . . . . . . Interdependence of competence for action, structures for action and execution of action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The cycle of self-reliant/action-based learning and working . . . Different learning and work assignments require different stages of self-reliant learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A new didactic approach for TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The seven-element model for the selection of languageteaching contents for TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1232 1234 1321 1322
1384 1399 1399 1400 1401 1414
1415 1416 1417 1418 1419 1420 1429 1484 1513 1529
1556 1559 1581 1599 1700 1702 1706 1708 1743
xlii
X.17.1 XI.1.1
XI.2.1 XI.2.2 XI.2.3 XI.2.4 XI.2.5 XI.2.6 XI.3.1 XI.3.2 XI.3.3 XI.3.4 XI.3.5 XI.3.6 XI.3.7 XI.3.8 XI.3.9 XI.3.10 XI.3.11 XI.3.12 XI.5.1 XI.5.2 XI.5.3 XI.5.4 XI.5.5 XI.5.6 XI.5.7 XI.5.8 XI.5.9 XI.6.1 XI.6.2 XI.6.3 XI.6.4 XI.6.5 XI.6.6 XI.9.1 XI.9.2 XI.11.1 XI.11.2
List of Figures
A model of ‘working technologically’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The number of pupils per computer and the number of pupils per computer with an Internet connection in European secondary education (ISCED 2 and 3), 2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One-to-one or one-to-many relational . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Many-to-many . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Technology, learning objectives and instructional models in three generations of distance education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . On-line learning based on objectivism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . On-line learning based on constructivism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Learning components based on the proposed eclectic model . . Basic components of an e-teaching and learning system . . . . . . The various components of the CPSC WTLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sample page in the CPSC WTLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Registration form and log-in/log-out buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Outline of a theme paper presentation with VOD . . . . . . . . . . . Lecture screen and video screeen of a VOD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The use of the e-board for questions and answers . . . . . . . . . . . An e-board for assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Multiple-choice type questions used in an on-line examination Students’ general information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Score management: tasks, projects, examination . . . . . . . . . . . . Creating multiple-choice type questions for on-line examination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The concept of ubiquitous computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Electronic cyberspace and smart real space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Components of a ubiquitous home environment . . . . . . . . . . . . Components of a ubiquitous living room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Components of a ubiquitous classroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MIT’s Oxygen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TRON architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The u-Korea project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The 8-3-9 strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Components of collaborative work environments . . . . . . . . . . . Workplace trends according to Bill Gates (2005) . . . . . . . . . . . . Digital work style according to Bill Gates (2005) . . . . . . . . . . . E-commerce model with multilateral work environments . . . . . The model of knowledge workforce development . . . . . . . . . . . Model with knowledge workforce development for CSCW . . . The VOCED home page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A sample record resulting from a VOCED search . . . . . . . . . . . Percentage distribution of learners in the education system . . . Inequities among the provinces of South Africa in the percentage of schools with computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1816
1840 1849 1849 1850 1851 1852 1855 1865 1866 1866 1867 1868 1869 1869 1870 1870 1871 1871 1872 1897 1898 1899 1900 1900 1902 1904 1905 1905 1913 1914 1914 1918 1919 1920 1947 1953 1974 1981
List of Figures
XII.3.1 XII.6.1 XII.6.2 XII.6.3 XII.6.4 XII.6.5 XII.6.6 XII.6.7 XII.6.8 XII.6.9
XII.6.10 XII.6.11 XII.6.12 XII.6.13 XII.6.14
XII.6.15
XIII.2.1 XIII.2.2 XIII.4.1 XIII.4.2 XIII.4.3 XIII.4.4
XIII.5.1 XIII.6.1 XIV.1.1
xliii
ISCED mapping diagram showing levels and destinations, and UOE’s modified version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Regional averages for vocational gross enrolment ratios at ISCED 2, 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Regional averages for VGERs at ISCED 3, 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . Distributions of vocational gross enrolment ratios at ISCED 3, 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Regional averages for VGERs at ISCED 4, 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . Distributions of vocational gross enrolment ratios at ISCED 4, 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Regional averages for gross enrolment ratios at ISCED 5B programmes, 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Distributions of gross enrolment ratios at ISCED 5B programmes, 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Regional averages for percentages of technical/vocational enrolment in secondary, 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Percentages of technical/vocational enrolment in secondary by GDP per capita (logarithm), 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Percentages of technical/vocational enrolment in upper secondary by GDP per capita (logarithm), 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . Percentages of technical/vocational enrolment in secondary, by overall secondary gross enrolment ratio, 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Percentages of technical/vocational enrolment in upper secondary, by upper secondary gross enrolment ratio, 2002 . . . Percentage of technical/vocational enrolment in upper secondary, by its gender parity index, 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Percentage of technical/vocational enrolment in upper secondary education, by its transformed gender parity index, 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gender parity index for the percentage of technical/vocational, by the gender parity index for the total gross enrolment ratio, upper secondary education, 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The technical workforce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The source of individual labour-market advantage . . . . . . . . . . . Enrolment in secondary general and secondary vocational schools, 2004/2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Percentage of an age cohort enrolled in vocational schools . . . The youth unemployment rate in Bulgaria, 2001–2004 . . . . . . . Public expenditure on measures designed for young people (as a percentage of total expenditures on active labour-market policies) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Participation rates of full-time students aged 17 years . . . . . . . Typology of work experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Population pyramids: age and sex distribution, 2000 and 2050
2061 2104 2105 2106 2107 2108 2109 2110 2112
2113 2114 2115 2116 2119
2120
2121 2212 2221 2250 2251 2258
2258 2265 2281 2376
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XIV.2.1 XIV.2.2 XIV.2.3 XIV.2.4 XIV.2.5 XIV.2.6 XIV.2.7 XIV.2.8 XIV.2.9 XIV.2.10 XIV.2.11 XIV.2.12 XIV.3.1 XIV.3.2 XIV.3.3 XIV.3.4 XIV.3.5 XIV.3.6 XIV.5.1 XIV.5.2 XIV.5.3
XIV.5.4 XIV.5.5 XIV.6.1 XIV.6.2 XIV.6.3 XIV.6.4 XIV.6.5 XIV.6.6 XIV.6.7 XIV.6.8 XIV.6.9
List of Figures
The world’s ageing population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rate of increase in the share of the population aged 60 and above . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Growth of the older population in developed and developing countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Model of enabling agents for transformation of the older person through retraining and reskilling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Congruence model for retraining older workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . Essential qualities of a change leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sectors for policy formulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Proposed policy framework—global change leadership . . . . . . Key sector relationships for older worker retraining . . . . . . . . . Relationships between key sectors in older worker retraining . Proposed policy framework: local TVET application . . . . . . . . Global/national/local relationships and the older worker . . . . . Median age by region, 1999–2050 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Projection for the population distributions for China . . . . . . . . . Projection for the population distributions for India . . . . . . . . . Comparison between and Canada and China by sex and age for 2000, 2025 and 2050 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The structure of a human activity system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The structure of learning activity for the elderly person . . . . . . Basic structure of the vocational competency development system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scheme of lifelong vocational competency development . . . . . International comparison of participation in vocational competency development programmes among adults (aged 25–64) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vocational competency development participation by company size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vocational training participation rate by gender and age . . . . . . Commencements by age and sex, 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Apprenticeship and traineeship commencement rates for the trades (proportion of age cohort) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Apprenticeship and traineeship cancellation rates for the trades (as a proportion of commencements) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Five-year net attrition rates for the trades (per cent of employment) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Impact of demographics on the supply of tradesmen . . . . . . . . . Age distribution of people in the trades, various years . . . . . . . Projections of employment in the trades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Comparison of the average supply scenario and the base demand scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Comparison of the worst supply scenario and the base demand scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2386 2387 2388 2390 2390 2391 2393 2395 2396 2396 2397 2397 2402 2403 2404 2405 2410 2411 2432 2433
2436 2437 2437 2446 2448 2448 2449 2450 2451 2452 2453 2454
List of Figures
XIV.7.1 XIV.8.1 XIV.8.2 XIV.9.1 XV.2.1 XV.3.1 XV.4.1 XV.8.1 XV.8.2 XV.11.1 XV.11.2
XV.12.1 XV.12.2 XV.12.3 XV.12.4
XV.13.1 XV.13.2 XV.15.1 XV.15.2 XVI.3.1 XVI.5.1 XVI.5.2 XVI.5.3 XVI.5.4 XVI.5.5 XVI.5.6 XVI.6.1 XVI.10.1 XVI.10.2
xlv
Changes in age structure of the Korean population, 1960–2050 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Science and technology entrepreneurs’ parks: the mechanism for industry and TVET institute linkage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Science and technology entrepreneurs’ parks: functions and activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Age profiles of TAFE teachers in 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Workforce development framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Capacity-building for sustainable development and learning communities in VET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DeSeCo’s overarching conceptual framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Organizational typology of company-based learning . . . . . . . . . Kinds of learning and knowledge in companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dick and Carey’s model of instructional design for practitioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Final model to bridge the gap of differential learning gain across cognitive style in the context of adult distance education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Certain characteristics associated with Kolb’s learning styles . Teaching contents favoured by students of all learning styles and their typical behaviour during a lecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Teaching contents favoured by students of all learning styles and their typical behaviour during a role play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Teacher and learner assist each other in their personal and professional development when the teacher takes into account their respective learning style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sample from an essential skills profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Example of authentic workplace materials (AWMs) . . . . . . . . . Regulations on advanced vocational training in ICTs . . . . . . . . The work processes typical of security management . . . . . . . . . Approaches to modularization across various countries . . . . . . Pie chart of visitors’ age profile at WorldSkills 2005 in Finland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Form for subjective marking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Raw results from four different competitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marks on a common axis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marks adjusted by standard deviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marks adjusted for 400–600 range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Type of questions used in the AMSC validation questionnaire . Namibia: qualifications of the NQF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mauritius: qualifications of the NQF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2459 2481 2481 2490 2545 2566 2574 2638 2640 2687
2688 2703 2708 2709
2711 2721 2722 2751 2752 2797 2830 2834 2835 2836 2836 2837 2846 2909 2910
“This page left intentionally blank.”
List of Tables
Introduction Prologue Prologue 1 2 3
4 I.3.1 I.5.1 I.10.1 II.2.1 II.2.2 II.3.1 II.7.1
II.7.2 III.3.1 III.3.2 III.3.3 III.3.4
Desirable worker attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xcix Persons employed in the informal sector: selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (latest available year) . . . cxviii Share of youth in Ghana (15–30 age group) who have gone through an apprenticeship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cxxvii Issues to consider when developing the curriculum component of a conceptual framework in TVET . . . . . . . . 29 Contemporary approaches to teaching and learning in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Illustration of components and contents of a conceptual framework for TVET from past, current and future perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Possible components in TVET programmes based on conceptual framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Summary of suggested decent work indicators . . . . . . . . . 113 National skill requirement forecasting and early recognition activities, as of 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 A summary of the research questions and techniques for data collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 Education and training of entrepreneurs and apprentices . 250 Basic professional skills, knowledge and attitudes for participation in the informal sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 Duration of apprenticeship in Ghana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 Livingstone’s agency and knowledge structure dimensions of learning model (from Livingstone, 2005, p. 981) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322 Eraut’s typology of informal learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323 Basic information on state education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398 School information on career technical education in six states (number of schools) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398 Student information on career technical education in six states . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399 Basic information on career technical education . . . . . . . . 401 xlvii
xlviii
III.3.5 III.3.6 III.4.1 III.7.1 III.9.1 III.9.2 IV.2.1 IV.2.2 IV.2.3 IV.4.1 IV.4.2 IV.4.3 IV.4.4 IV.7.1 IV.7.2 IV.7.3 IV.7.4 IV.14.1 IV.14.2
IV.14.3 IV.14.4 VI.3.1 VI.4.1 VI.4.2 VI.6.1 VI.7.1 VI.8.1
VII.1.1 VII.3.1 VII.3.2
List of Tables
Core indicators and sub-indicators: career and technical education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405 Achievement of core indicators by state (2003–2004) . . . . 406 Policy levers and the open method of co-ordination (OMC) 415 The National Qualifications Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456 Remarks concerning the effectiveness and efficiency of the qualifications structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485 Implementation of strong learning environments . . . . . . . . 493 The features of TVET in selected African countries . . . . . 536 Percentage of TVE enrolments in secondary technical and vocational education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538 Percentage of technical and vocational education expenditures in total education expenditures . . . . . . . . . . . . 543 Population, population density and population growth rate: selected Asian countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567 Percentage of the older population by region in 2000, 2015 and 2030 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569 Number of Internet users in CPSC member countries . . . . 572 CPSC-RING for technology transfer, education and training services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577 Training needs choices by province (female) . . . . . . . . . . . 614 Training needs choices by province (male) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614 The number of participants by gender and age groups . . . . 615 Total participants by educational level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615 Intake by type of course in the government technical institutes (GTIs) in 2003/2004 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713 Teaching staff and students in the government technical institutes (GTIs) and government technical colleges (GTCs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713 Teaching staff and student relationship in the State agricultural institutes (SAIs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714 Skills training in TVET institutions under various government ministries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715 FET transformations in South Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 911 TVET students 1995 to 2004, Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 934 Annual hours by sex, 1995 to 2004, Australia . . . . . . . . . . 935 Enrolments in higher education, 1993–2003 . . . . . . . . . . . 962 China’s vocational education system, 2004 . . . . . . . . . . . . 979 Differences between governance and management roles for autonomous TVET institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 993 Advantages and limitations of using payroll taxes to finance TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1032 Overall data for the four European countries . . . . . . . . . . . 1053 Overall data for the four African countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1054
List of Tables
VII.3.3 VII.3.4 VII.4.1 VII.4.2 VII.4.3 VII.5.1 VII.5.2 VII.6.1 VII.6.2 VII.7.1 VII.7.2 VII.9.1
VIII.2.1 VIII.2.2 VIII.5.1 VIII.6.1 VIII.6.2 VIII.8.1 VIII.9.1 VIII.12.1 VIII.12.2 VIII.12.3 VIII.12.4 VIII.12.5 VIII.13.1 VIII.13.2 VIII.13.3 VIII.15.1 VIII.18.1
xlix
Major categories of activity financed by particular financing sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The modes of intervention by public authorities, companies and individuals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mechanisms for encouraging enterprise training: strengths and weaknesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Payroll levies: advantages and limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . Issues in levy scheme design and implementation . . . . . . . Public spending on education and training, 2005 . . . . . . . Public FET in colleges and in schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Number of vouchers placed by the programme . . . . . . . . . Composition of the demand for vouchers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FEMC sources of funding by unit, 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FEMC average annual expenditure per student and tuition by unit, 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Overview of expenditure and participation in education and training, Australia, 2003 (approximate figures) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ideal types of the conceptualization of vocational education core tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A comparison of professionalization levels of vocational teaching profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DACUM-chart on China’s TVET teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . Comparative table of generic employability skills by country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Employability skills framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The TVET market in Brazil: 1999–2000: estimate of schools, students and budget of the main agencies . . . . . . . Comparison of Russian and American credit hours in TVET teacher training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Course descriptions in each option at the Department of Technology Education at Moi University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M.Phil. degree in technology education course design . . . Core, required and elective courses for an M.Phil. degree in technology education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D. Phil. degree in technology education course design . . . Elective courses for the D.Phil. degree in technology education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Perceptions of the utility of action learning . . . . . . . . . . . . Conditions that make action learning successful . . . . . . . . Conditions that inhibit action learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Key barriers to maintaining vocational competence through ‘return to industry’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The nine core fields of TVET teaching activities assigned to the four levels of qualification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1067 1069 1085 1087 1088 1092 1099 1112 1114 1131 1132
1157 1195 1198 1239 1250 1251 1274 1286 1326 1327 1328 1330 1331 1343 1344 1344 1376 1421
l
IX.1.1 IX.5.1 IX.8.1 IX.9.1 X.1.1 X.2.1 X.3.1 X.3.2 X.3.3 X.4.1 X.9.1 X.9.2 XI.1.1 XI.2.1 XI.2.2 XI.3.1 XI.5.1 XI.5.2 XI.6.1 XI.6.2 XI.6.3 XI.7.1
XI.7.2 XI.12.1 XII.3.1
XII.3.2 XII.6.1 XII.6.2
List of Tables
Twelve vocational disciplines as defined in the international framework curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1447 Structures of TVET in Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1501 Grouping of TVET research associations into research strands and disciplinary frameworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1536 The six dimensions of practical knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1554 On the structuration of vocational curricula . . . . . . . . . . . . 1582 An example of a ‘Lernfeld’ for the industrial electronics mechanic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1606 Situated cognition and situated learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1612 Cognitivism and social constructivism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1616 Cognitive apprenticeship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1620 Levels of vocational educational scientific research . . . . . 1635 Overview of the components of action competence . . . . . . 1701 Comparison of teacher-centred teaching and trainee-centred teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1705 The new schooling paradigm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1837 Characteristics of Web-based training types . . . . . . . . . . . . 1859 Desirable shifts required in various pedagogical dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1860 Main software tools used in the implementation of the e-teaching and learning system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1873 Trends in computing systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1897 Eight new services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1906 The traits of a twenty-first century knowledge-based economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1912 Deficiencies in the Gosplan workforce planning exercise and the lessons to be learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1916 The roles that the New Zealand Government should assume 1917 Income/poverty in selected regions in the world, 1981–2001: the percentage of people living on less than US$1/day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1924 Some initiatives in applying ICTs to rural development . . 1930 Some typical courses provided by open and distance learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1998 An overview of different conceptions of ‘formal’, ‘non-formal’ and ‘informal’, as applied to education and learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2055 Definitions of programme orientations according to ISCED and the UIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2057 TVET provision by level and ISCED 5B programmes (number and percentage of countries) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2096 Index of diversification of TVET programmes, by region (number of countries) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2098
List of Tables
XII.6.3 XII.6.4 XII.6.5 XII.6.6 XII.6.7
XII.6.8 XII.6.9 XII.6.10 XII.7.1 XII.8.1 XII.8.2 XII.8.3 XIII.2.1 XIII.2.2 XIII.2.3 XIII.4.1 XIII.4.2 XIII.5.1 XIII.9.1 XIII.9.2 XIII.9.3 XIII.9.4 XIII.9.5 XIII.9.6 XIII.9.7 XIII.9.8 XIII.9.9
li
Typology of TVET provision, by region (number of countries) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vocational enrolment at ISCED 4 by vocational enrolment at ISCED 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vocational enrolment at ISCED 5 following vocational enrolment at ISCED 3 and 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Highest vocational gross enrolment ratios at ISCED 2, 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Comparison of vocational gross enrolment ratios and percentages of technical/vocational enrolment for selected countries, 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Presence of vocation and 5B enrolments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Secondary education, ISCED 2 and 3: vocational enrolments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Post-secondary education: non-tertiary vocational enrolments: tertiary 5B enrolments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Matrix of key aspects of TVET of ethical concern . . . . . . Career and technical education legislation . . . . . . . . . . . . . Special education legislation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Other significant federal legislation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . University enrolment as a percent of the age cohort: 1950 and 1993 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Occupational groups ranked by earnings and net opportunities (projected through 2006) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Job shortages for each educational category in small- and medium-sized businesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Strengths and weaknesses of the State enrolment plan in Bulgaria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Unemployment in SEE compared with the EU average . . Apparent retention rates of full-time secondary students in Australia, from Year 7/8 to Year 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Form Six enrolments by race, 2003–2004 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Form Seven enrolments by race, 2003–2004 . . . . . . . . . . . TVET enrolments by number of schools and gender 2003–2004 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FIT franchise TVET enrolments 2003–2004 . . . . . . . . . . . Parents’ occupations (coded), expressed as a percentage . Student career ambitions (coded), expressed as a percentage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Favourite and least-favourite subjects by school, n = 1012 Ranking of factors influencing personal career choice, n = 1012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Responses to ‘Have you ever met anyone with that job?’, expressed as a percentage, n = 1012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2099 2101 2102 2104
2111 2126 2131 2143 2168 2179 2180 2181 2215 2219 2220 2252 2257 2266 2330 2330 2331 2331 2335 2335 2336 2337 2337
lii
XIII.9.10
XIV.2.1 XIV.3.1 XIV.5.1 XIV.5.2
XIV.5.3 XIV.6.1
XIV.7.1 XIV.7.2 XIV.7.3 XIV.7.4 XIV.7.5 XIV.7.6 XIV.8.1 XV.1.1 XV.3.1 XV.3.2 XV.3.3 XV.3.4 XV.8.1 XV.8.2 XV.9.1 XV.9.2 XV.14.1 XVI.3.1
List of Tables
‘Family or community member’ responses to ‘What is your relationship to that person?’ expressed as a percentage, n = 827 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The four action Ps for older workers in the transformation process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Task categories and expected relationship of performance with age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Public expenditure on vocational training as a percentage of GDP in selected OECD countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Education and training expense rate to total labour cost according to the number of people employed (unit: thousand won) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Directions of vocational competency system reform . . . . . Difference between demand and supply projections for the trades, 2040 (+ indicates potential surplus; − potential shortage), per ’000 persons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The year of reaching critical shares of the population aged over 65, selected countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Changes in the dependency ratios and median ages, 1970–2050 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Trends in the labour-force participation rates by age groups 50 years and older, by gender (%) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Differences in the level of basic skills by age, gender, educational attainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Labour-market status of older people in Korea, 2000 (%) Participation in continuous education and training (CET), by age, gender and educational attainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . The aged population in Asia and the Pacific countries, 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Workers aged 25 to 54 years taking employment-related training, 1994–1995 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conceptual framework for sustainable development skills Breakdown of KSAs identified for environment, society and economy before the validation process . . . . . . . . . . . . Breakdown of KSAs identified for environment, society and economy after the validation process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Broadly transferable sustainable development competency profile for the workforce (SDCP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Work-related learning models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Comparison of traditional and new learning cultures . . . . Similarities and differences in PLAR among jurisdictions in Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2002 Red-Seal statistics for plumbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adult numeracy learning in Domains One and Two . . . . . Comparisons of approaches to modularization across six countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2337 2392 2409 2434
2435 2439
2454 2458 2460 2461 2462 2463 2465 2473 2528 2554 2555 2556 2557 2632 2643 2652 2656 2734 2798
List of Tables
XVI.5.1 XVI.5.2 XVI.5.3 XVI.5.4 XVI.6.1 XVI.6.2 XVI.6.3 XVI.7.1 XVI.7.2 XVI.7.3 XVI.10.1
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Technical description applying to each skill . . . . . . . . . . . . Aspects of criterion for ‘Snowman Building’ . . . . . . . . . . Proposed objective marking for Criterion A . . . . . . . . . . . . Criterion F broken down into aspects of criterion . . . . . . . Sample, returns and response rate for AMSC validation study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sample, returns and response rate for PLQ validation study Sample, returns and response rate for OPME validation . . The APACC scoring level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Distribution of points in the seven-point criteria . . . . . . . . The APACC accreditation levels and status awarded . . . . The national qualifications framework in South Africa . . .
2832 2833 2833 2834 2847 2849 2850 2861 2861 2862 2909
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Contributors
Arvil Van Adams World Bank, Washington, United States of America. Poonam Agrawal PSS Central Institute of Vocational Education, Bhopal, India. William Ahadzie Centre for Social Policy Studies, University of Ghana, Accra. David Atchoarena UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning, Paris, France. James Avis School of Education and Professional Development, University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom. Peter van Baalen Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands. Sang Hoon Bae College of Education, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, United States of America. Richard G. Bagnall Department of Educational Policy and Administration, Hong Kong Institute of Education, China. Magdalena Balica Institute of Educational Sciences, Bucharest, Romania. Bilal Barakat Department of Education, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Sally-Anne Barnes Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom. lv
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Contributors
Chiranjib Kumar Basu FAITH Healthcare Private Limited, New Delhi, India. Fred Beven School of Education and Professional Studies, Faculty of Education, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. Stephen Billett School of Education and Professional Studies, Faculty of Education, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. Jenny Bimrose Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom. Nicholas Boreham Institute of Education, University of Stirling, United Kingdom. France Boutin D´epartement de linguistique et de didactique des langues, Universit´e du Qu´ebec a` Montr´eal, Canada. Stephen D. Brookfield School of Education, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, United States of America. Alan Brown Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom. Frank B¨unning Department of Vocational Education and Human Resources Development, Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany. Chitrlada Burapharat College of Arts, Media and Technology, Chiang Mai University, Thailand. Gerald Burke Centre for the Economics of Education and Training, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Manuel Cardoso UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Montreal, Canada. Paula Cavu Learning Centre, Fiji Institute of Technology, Fiji. Hong-Geun Chang Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Nacim Walter Chieco National Industrial Training Service, Brasilia, Brazil.
Contributors
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Peter Chin Faculty of Education, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada. Alex Chinien Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. Chris Chinien Workforce Development Consulting, Montreal, Canada. Jihee Choi Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Sarojni Choy School of Learning and Professional Studies, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Maria Ciavatta Fluminense Federal University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Diana Coben Department of Education and Professional Studies, King’s College, University of London, United Kingdom. Danielle Colardyn International Expert on Comparative Education and Training Policies, Paris, France. Mike Coles Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, London, United Kingdom. Frederic J. Company Blanquerna Faculty of Psychology, Educational Sciences and Sport, Ramon Llull University, Barcelona, Spain. Monique Conn International Baccalaureate Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. Carlos Roberto Jamil Cury Department of Education, Pontifical Catholic University of the State of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Peter Dehnbostel Helmut Schmidt University – University of the Federal Armed Forces, Hamburg, Germany. Ludger Deitmer Institute Technology and Education, University of Bremen, Germany. Suresh Kumar Dhameja Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Education, Manila, Philippines.
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Contributors
Joachim Dittrich Institute Technology and Education, University of Bremen, Germany. Bill Empey Prism Economics and Analysis, Toronto, Canada. Kathleen Fennessy Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Kathleen Ferguson Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Martin Fischer Institute Technology and Education, University of Bremen, Germany. Gail FitzSimons Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Gaudˆencio Frigotto University of the State of Rio de Janeiro and Fluminense Federal University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Richard Gagnon Facult´e des sciences de l’´education, Universit´e Laval, Quebec City, Canada. Lavinia Gasperini Natural Resources Management and Environment Department, Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy. Theodora Josue Tesoro Gayondato Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Education, Manila, Philippines. Peter Gerds Institute Technology and Education, University of Bremen, Germany. Michael Gessler Institute Technology and Education, University of Bremen, Germany. Jan Geurts Chair Pedagogics of Professional Development, The Hague Technical University, Netherlands. Candido Alberto Gomes Chair on Youth, Education and Society, Brasilia Catholic University, Brazil. Annette Gough School of Education, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Berit Graubner Freelance Slavist and Anglicist, Stuttgart, Germany.
Contributors
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Kenneth Gray College of Education, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, United States of America. Andy Green Institute of Education, University of London, United Kingdom. Andrew Benson Greene Jr. International Education and Resource Network, Freetown, Sierra Leone. Philip Grollmann Institute Technology and Education, University of Bremen, Germany. Peter Grootings European Training Foundation, Turin, Italy. W. Norton Grubb Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley, United States of America. Martin Gustafsson Research Triangle Institute International, Pretoria, South Africa. Hugh Guthrie National Centre for Vocational Education Research, Adelaide, Australia. Barry J. Hake Centre for Learning in Organisations, School of Education, Leiden University, Netherlands. Budd L. Hall Office of Community-Based Research, University of Victoria, Canada. Ron Hansen Faculty of Education, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada. Marcelle Hardy Education Department, Universit´e du Qu´ebec a` Montr´eal, Canada. John Hart Scottish Qualifications Authority, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Christian Harteis Institute for Educational Science, Regensburg University, Germany. Michael W. Harvey Special Education Department, Teachers College, Ball State University, Muncie, United States of America. Sandra Haukka Centre for Learning Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
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Contributors
Joshua D. Hawley College of Education and Human Ecology, Ohio State University, Columbus, United States of America. Emily Hazelman Learning Centre, Fiji Institute of Technology, Fiji. Lars Heinemann Institute Technology and Education, University of Bremen, Germany. Walter R. Heinz Graduate School of Social Sciences, University of Bremen, Germany. Ulrich Heisig Institute Labour and Economy, University of Bremen, Germany. Dennis R. Herschbach Faculty of Education Policy and Leadership, University of Maryland, College Park, United States of America. LuAnn Hiniker University of Minnesota Extension Service, Rochester, United States of America. David Hoey WorldSkills International, Haarlem, Netherlands. Astrid Hollander UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany. Keith Holmes Sussex School of Education, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom. Hans-Dieter H¨opfner B¨uro f¨ur Organisationsentwicklung und Berufsbildung, Berlin, Germany. Phillip Hughes Centre for UNESCO, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. Richard Huisinga Department of Education and Psychology, University of Siegen, Germany. Nancy L. Hutchinson Faculty of Education, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada. Alex Inglis Department of Education, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Cindy Marie Isaak-Ploegman Learning Assistance Centre, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. Laila Iskandar Community and Institutional Development, Cairo, Egypt.
Contributors
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Claudia Jacinto UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Ronald L. Jacobs Center on Education and Training for Employment, Ohio State University, Columbus, United States of America. David Johnson Department of Education, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Lina Kaminskien˙e International Relations Department, Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Crafts, Kaunas, Lithuania. Lyle Kane Department of Education, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Tom Karmel National Centre for Vocational Education Research, Adelaide, Australia. Zuki Karpinska Department of Education, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Peter Kearns Global Learning Services, Canberra, Australia. Bonaventure W. Kerre School of Education, Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya. Myong Hee Kim Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Education, Manila, Philippines. Kenneth King Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Vasiliy P. Kosyrev College of Engineering Pedagogics, Moscow State University of Agricultural Engineering, Russian Federation. Boris Kotsik UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education, Moscow, Russian Federation. Andrei N. Kouznetsov Foreign Languages Department, Moscow State University of Agricultural Engineering, Russian Federation. Andre Kraak Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa. Petr F. Kubrushko Moscow State University of Agricultural Engineering, Russian Federation.
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Contributors
Joachim Lapp UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany. Johanna Lasonen Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyv¨askyl¨a, Finland. Jon Lauglo Department of Educational Research, Faculty of Education, University of Oslo, Norway. Uwe Lauterbach Centre for Planning and Financing in Education, German Institute for International Educational Research, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Marvin Lazerson University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States of America. Elenice Monteiro Leite TVET Consultant, S˜ao Paulo, Brazil. Tom Leney Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, London, United Kingdom. Jun Li Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada. Antˆonio Almerico Biondi Lima Ministry of Labour and Employment, Department of Qualification, Brasilia, Brazil. Michael Long Centre for the Economics of Education and Training, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Fernando Augusto Moreira Lopes International Metalworkers’ Federation, Geneva, Switzerland. Phil Loveder National Centre for Vocational Education Research, Adelaide, Australia. Jingwen Lu Huaibei Coal Industry Teachers College, China. Lianwei Lu TVET Teacher Training Center of the Province Shandong, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, China. Norman Lucas School of Lifelong Education and International Development, Institute of Education, University of London, United Kingdom. Richard L. Lynch College of Education, University of Georgia, Athens, United States of America.
Contributors
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Luc´ılia Regina Machado UNA University Centre, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Jeanne MacKenzie National Centre for Vocational Education Research, Adelaide, Australia. Rupert Maclean UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany. Karen Magro Faculty of Education, University of Winnipeg, Canada. Shyamal Majumdar Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Education, Manila, Philippines. Naing Yee Mar UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany. Munther Wassef Masri National Centre for Human Resources Development, Amman, Jordan. Natalia Matveeva UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany. Simon McGrath UNESCO Centre for Comparative Education Research, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. Elspeth McOmish Formerly Section for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Education Sector, UNESCO, Paris, France. Vinay Swarup Mehrotra Pandit Sunderal Sharma Central Institute of Vocational Education, National Council of Educational Research and Training, Bhopal, India. Frans Meijers Chair Pedagogics of Professional Development, The Hague Technical University, Netherlands. Marinilzes Moradillo Mello Secretariat of Education of Guarulhos, S˜ao Paulo, Brazil. Louise M´enard Education Department, Universit´e du Qu´ebec a` Montr´eal, Canada. Rita Meyer Department of Education, Helmut Schmidt University – University of the Federal Armed Forces, Hamburg, Germany.
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Contributors
Jing Mi College of Vocational and Technical Education, Tianjin University, China. F´elix Mitnik Agency for the Economic Development of C´ordoba, Argentina. Alexandra de Montrichard University of Massachusetts, Amherst, United States of America. Phoebe Moore European Studies Research Institute, University of Salford, Manchester, United Kingdom. Lars Moratis CSR Academy, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Hugh Munby Faculty of Education, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada. L. Efison Munjanganja UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany. Anna Muravyeva Centre for Vocational Education and Training Studies, Moscow, Russian Federation. Joshua A. Muskin United States Agency for International Development, Rabat, Morocco. Radhika Naidu National Centre for Vocational Education Research, Adelaide, Australia. Seveci Naisilisili Learning Centre, Fiji Institute of Technology, Fiji. Christine Newton Prism Economics and Analysis, Toronto, Canada. Pam Nilan Faculty of Education and Arts, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Newcastle, Australia. Peter Noonan Centre for the Economics of Education and Training, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Toshio Ohsako Freelance Consultant, Stockholm, Sweden. Moses O. Oketch Institute of Education, University of London, United Kingdom.
Contributors
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Olga Oleynikova Centre for Vocational Education and Training Studies, Moscow, Russian Federation. Koon Ong National Centre for Vocational Education Research, Adelaide, Australia. Bernd Overwien Institute of Social Sciences and Historical-Political Education, Faculty of Humanities, Technical University of Berlin, Germany. Robert Palmer Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Man-Gon Park Division of Electronic, Computer and Telecommunication Engineering, College of Engineering, PuKyong National University, Busan, Republic of Korea. Julia Paulson Department of Education, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Margarita Pavlova Griffith Institute for Educational Research, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. Mohan Perera Formerly Section for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Education Sector, UNESCO, Paris, France. Enrique Pieck Research Institute for the Development of Education, Ibero-American University, Mexico City, Mexico. Pundy Pillay Freelance Economist, Randburg, South Africa. Karen Plane Centre for Research in Education Equity and Work, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. Hendrik van der Pol UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Montreal, Canada. Rose-Anne Polvere National Centre for Vocational Education Research, Adelaide, Australia. Peter Poschen Policy Integration Department, International Labour Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. George Preddey Tertiary Education Consultant, Wellington, New Zealand.
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Contributors
John Preston School of Education, University of East London, United Kingdom. Robert A. Putnam Department of Workforce Education and Development, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, United States of America. Muhammad Ashraf Qureshi TVET Consultant, Islamabad, Pakistan. Viliame Rabici Learning Centre, Fiji Institute of Technology, Fiji. Jagmohan Singh Rajput India First Foundation, New Delhi, India. Marise N. Ramos Faculty of Education, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and Joaquim Venˆancio Health Polytechnic School of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Felix Rauner TVET Research Group, University of Bremen, Germany. Robert D. Renaud Department of Educational Administration, Foundations and Psychology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. Jay W. Rojewski College of Education, University of Georgia, Athens, United States of America. Klaus Ruth Institute Technology and Education, University of Bremen, Germany. Dominique Simone Rychen Swiss Federal Statistical Office, Neuchˆatel, Switzerland. Avant Kumar Sacheti Pandit Sunderal Sharma Central Institute of Vocational Education, National Council of Educational Research and Training, Bhopal, India. Miriam Saunders National Centre for Vocational Education Research, Adelaide, Australia. Peter H. Sawchuk Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada. Klaus Schaack Capacity Building International (InWEnt), Magdeburg, Germany. Grazia Scoppio Department of National Defence, Canadian Defence Academy, Kingston, Canada.
Contributors
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Jean Searle School of Education and Professional Studies, Faculty of Education, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. Terri Seddon Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Christopher Selby Smith Centre for the Economics of Education and Training, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Chandra Shah Centre for the Economics of Education and Training, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Alison Shilela Faculty of Education, Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, United Kingdom. Madhu Singh UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, Hamburg, Germany. P.P.G. Lionel Siriwardene UNESCO Consultant, Oxford, United Kingdom. Erica Smith School of Education, University of Ballarat, Australia. Georg Sp¨ottl Institute Technology and Education, University of Bremen, Germany. John Stanwick National Centre for Vocational Education Research, Adelaide, Australia. Deyu Sun College of Educational Science, Anhui Normal University, China. Isimeli W. Tagicakiverata Learning Centre, Fiji Institute of Technology, Fiji. Manfred Tessaring European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, Thessaloniki, Greece. Natalia Tokareva UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education, Moscow, Russian Federation. Ligaya Valmonte Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Education, Manila, Philippines. Tapio Varis Faculty of Education, University of Tampere, Finland.
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Contributors
Karina Veal UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany. Antoaneta Voikova Ministry of Education and Science, Sofia, Bulgaria. Erik de Vries Human Resources and Social Development Canada, Gatineau, Canada. Tracey Wallace Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada. Richard Walther International Consultant, Saint-R´emy-L`es-Chevreuse, France. Patrick Werquin Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris, France. Anneke Westerhuis Centrum voor Innovatie van Opleidingen, ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. David N. Wilson Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada. Wolfgang Wittig Institute Technology and Education, University of Bremen, Germany. Aihua Wu Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China. Rachel Yarrow Department of Education, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Michael F.D. Young Institute of Education, University of London, United Kingdom. Maja Zarini UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany. Zhiqun Zhao Institute of Technology and Vocational Education, School of Education Technology, Beijing Normal University, China. Adrian Ziderman Economics Department, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel. Christopher J. Zirkle National Dissemination Center for Career and Technical Education, Columbus, United States of America. Karen F. Zuga, School of Teaching and Learning, College of Education, Ohio State University, Columbus, United States of America.
Foreword TVET for the Sustainability of Human Kind
The New Economy is creating new opportunities as well as new challenges and uncertainties. Although the right to well-being is entrenched in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, millions of people today are living in conditions of extreme poverty, which deny them the opportunity to exercise these fundamental rights. I would like to draw from the reflection made by the Family Care Foundation regarding what the world would look like if it were reduced to the size of a village of 100 people. According to their analysis: 80 people would live in sub-standard housing; 67 would be unable to read; 50 would be among the malnourished and one dying of starvation; 33 would be without access to a safe water supply; 39 would lack access to improved sanitation—and five would control 32% of the entire wealth. This unequal distribution of education and wealth is the root cause of many of the problems facing the world today. It is our business to remedy this situation before we come to regret not having remedied it. Education and training have a key role to play in this regard. The former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, repeatedly reminded us that education is the key to unlocking the cage of human misery; the key to delivering the potential of every human being; the key to opening up a future of freedom and hope. There is a general consensus that education can pave the way to freedom from poverty and hunger. Even primary education by itself has a number of positive effects on development: an increase in productivity in the formal and informal sectors of the economy; a positive effect on innovation in agriculture; a decrease in birth rates; and an improvement in health and nutrition— educated people are healthier because they are more likely to eat a properly balanced diet. The Bonn Declaration on Learning for Work, Citizenship and Sustainability, resulting from the UNESCO Conference ‘Learning for Work, Citizenship and Sustainability’ in October 2004, states that technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is the master key that can alleviate poverty, promote peace, conserve the environment, improve the quality of life for all and help to achieve sustainable development. Work is a major feature in most people’s lives. Not only does it provide them with the means of survival in terms of food, clothing and shelter, but the type of
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work undertaken by individuals and groups also has a major impact on their selfidentity, social status, standard of living and quality of life. TVET is currently faced with major implications posed by the displacement of the traditionally strong focus upon so-called manual work in favour of mental work—the shift from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. The meaning and practice of work are also changing as globalized networks of production and trade spread across the globe. The boundaries between manual and mental work are fading away and becoming problematic, as many traditional forms of work, and preparation processes for learning to work, undergo change. TVET is concerned with the acquisition of knowledge and skills for the world of work to increase opportunities for productive work, sustainable livelihoods, personal empowerment and socio-economic development in knowledge economies. To increase their chances for employability, young people and adults need skills that are adaptable and relevant to the demands of today’s societies, which require individuals to possess a combination of knowledge, practical and social skills and positive attitudes and the ability to adapt to rapidly changing work environments. There is a timely need to re-examine important matters relating to the changing world of work, such as educational and training institutions, learning processes, necessary competencies and effects upon labour markets, school-to-work transition, the role of gender, matters of equality and equity, the respective roles of government, business, industry and trade unions, the dominant didactics for learning a profession, the assessment of competencies, declining birth rates and the ageing workforce, amongst many others. This is merely a brief listing of aspects that are examined and documented in this Handbook. There are great expectations that TVET can contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals relating to Education for All by overcoming the long-existing disparity between North and South, reducing poverty and promoting social inclusion. However, its widespread implementation requires considerable investments. Consequently, when planning for TVET, policy-makers and decision-makers must be able to make informed decisions that are supported by evidence-based information. There is, unfortunately, a paucity of evidence-based information about TVET. This Handbook, therefore, will start to fill that critical information gap by re-examining the world of work and its diverse aspects and documenting them in order to provide the best answers and best practices to improve TVET. It should assist those involved in TVET at any level in making informed decisions. For the first time in the history of TVET an important reference tool has been produced that provides a very comprehensive coverage of research, policy and practice within a single source. Through this seminal contribution, the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre has been successful in capturing much of the knowledge of the world’s leading experts in the field for the benefit of future generations. As the Assistant Director-General of UNESCO, I am very encouraged by this collaborative scholarly effort. It is through initiatives such as these that the status of TVET will be enhanced so that it can fully play its role as an enabling instrument for economic prosperity and social development. I commend Rupert Maclean, Director of
Foreword
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the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre, for spearheading this project which also assists UNESCO in contributing to critical reflection in education and training and to capture, preserve and share knowledge for the betterment of humankind. Assistant Director-General for Education UNESCO, Paris
Nicholas Burnett
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Introduction Rupert Maclean and David N. Wilson
1 Background: The Study of Work and Occupations The interest of researchers in various academic disciplines of study, in work, occupations and employment-related areas is long standing. In the case of sociology, for example, it has existed since the beginning of the discipline’s history in the mid-nineteenth century. Emile Durkheim (1933), in his first major work entitled The Division of Labour, first published in 1893, examined the relationship between employment in modern industrial society and the creation of social order. It is both natural and logical that this should be the case, because work is a central activity in the lives of most people and all societies. However, it is only since the research undertaken at the University of Chicago, particularly by Everett Hughes and his associates from about the mid-1940s, that occupational sociology has achieved independent status as an area of study within sociology. Before this time, despite the large and often rich body of empirical studies that had been accumulated over the nineteenth century, the content of this area was decentralized amongst a wide range of subject areas within sociology, such as industrial sociology, rural sociology or demography. In the United Kingdom and continental Europe interest in sociological aspects of the world of work can be traced back over approximately two centuries, an examination of important aspects of this area being found in the writings of various social philosophers, economists, historians and (later) sociologists. In 1776, for example, the father of classical economics, Adam Smith (1937), published a book called An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of the Nations in which he explored the effect of the division of labour on the productivity of labour. As part of his analysis, Smith examined the social impact of changed production methods on various occupational groups and the broad society. Some early sociologists, such as the founding fathers of the discipline, Marx, Weber and Durkheim, examined work in a relatively broad sense, largely focusing upon a study of the labour force and alienation, which they regarded as being particularly important. Only to a limited extent did they undertake a study of any particular occupation, trade or profession. Emile Durkheim (1933), in The Division of Labour, examined and emphasized the importance of changes in the division
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of labour and the effect this would have upon the move from a state of mechanical solidarity to that of organic solidarity within a society; Karl Marx (1961, orig. 1846) stressed the fundamental importance of labour in human history and in helping to define the humanness and identity of mankind; and both he and Max Weber (1947, orig. 1922) examined the relationship between work and alienation, Marx being primarily concerned with the alienation of factory workers while Weber expanded the concept of rationalization. Weber also undertook a detailed study of particular occupations, including the political, the scientific, the professional and the Chinese literati. Some other precursors of modern sociology who showed a particular interest in the study of work and/or occupations include: Frederic Le Play (1937) who, in his mammoth six volume work entitled The European Working Classes, undertook empirical studies of the life and working conditions of various occupational groups; Charles Booth (1902) who organized investigations into the Life and Labour of the People of London; De Mann’s (1929) studies of the manual worker; and Dreyfuss’s (1938) work on the salaried employee. In the United States, the development of the sociology of occupations appears to have occurred almost as a by-product of the work of Robert Park (1925) and his associates at the University of Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s. As part of their major interest in the ecological and social integration of various groups living in inner city, ghetto-type areas of Chicago (see Wirth, 1928), Park and his fellow researchers studied a variety of low status, often marginal occupations such as the hobo (Anderson, 1923), the prostitute (Donovan, 1920), the taxi-dance-hall girl (Cressy, 1932) and the professional thief (Sutherland, 1937); and generally adopted a social-psychological and social-interactionist approach to the occupation studied. They were interested in what Everett Hughes calls ‘the dirty work in society’, and the ways in which the practitioners of such work were able to overcome or control the problems and tensions associated with it. Some went beyond this narrow focus on low-status work to study various more respectable occupations whose practitioners were not concentrated in the inner city areas. Examples are the studies undertaken on sales staff in shops (Donovan, 1974a, orig. 1929) and the school-teacher (Donovan, 1974b, orig. 1938). Later studies undertaken by Mayo and Lombard (1943), and by those involved with the famous ‘Hawthorn studies’, widened existing approaches to the study of work and occupations. These studies were concerned with important aspects of industrial sociology, such as the study of work organizations, industrial relations and human relations in industry; and they adopted a psycho-sociological approach to the study of men and women working in groups. Academic interest in and research about the sociology of work and occupations waned in both Europe and North America from the late 1930s until after the Second World War. Although there are no doubt many reasons why this eclipse occurred, one could speculate that it was partly due to a reduced interest in and confidence about the value of the empirical, largely descriptive studies of occupations that had been generated; and was also due to the fact that despite the large number of studies
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accumulated, no truly satisfactory theoretical framework for the study of work and occupations had been developed. It was not until the work of Everett Hughes, a major intellectual figure at the University of Chicago whose influence was substantial from about the 1940s onwards, that a coherent sociological approach and theoretical framework within which occupational groups could be analysed was developed. This framework evolved as a result of many diverse types of work being compared in order to identify the common denominators. It was only after a plausible theoretical orientation was accomplished that occupational sociology achieved the academic status of becoming a sub-field of sociology, being taught as a separate field of study in many European and American universities. The growing importance of and interest in this area was clearly indicated when a major international journal, Sociology of Work and Occupations, specifically devoted to this area, was founded in 1974. Everett Hughes (e.g. 1937, 1949, 1952, 1958a, 1958b, 1971) is the pivotal figure in occupational sociology. Hughes states his goal as being ‘to learn about the nature of society itself from the study of occupations’, the more immediate purpose of his study being to describe and understand the behaviour of the people who are involved in different kinds of work (Soloman, 1968). Hughes’ influence on this area of study has been enormous, for apart from his own insightful and voluminous research output, virtually all of the major figures in occupational sociology, such as Oswald Hall (e.g. 1948), Howard Becker (e.g. 1952), William F. Whyte (e.g. 1943), Blanche Geer (e.g. 1966), Julian Roth (e.g. 1963) and Dan Lortie (e.g. 1975), were either students of Hughes or were clearly influenced by his ideas and theoretical approach to the study of work and occupations. Hughes and those influenced by his approach to the study of work were responsible for extending and diversifying the body of studies on occupations to include doctors, lawyers, teachers, dance musicians, white-collar workers, railroad workers, soldiers, ministers, cleaners, nurses, librarians, salesmen, boxers, ‘quacks’ and real-estate agents. As a field of study, the sociology of work and occupations may be defined as the application of the principles and concepts of sociology to a particular social phenomenon—that of occupational life and people at work. Nosow and Form (1962, p. 3) argue that, as a sub-discipline within sociology, the sociology of work and occupations is organized around five substantive themes. These are: (a) the social nature of work and related phenomena such as leisure activities; (b) the analysis of occupational structure and the causes of changes within it; (c) the study of individual occupations in terms of such matters as recruitment, training and careers; (d) the ways in which the occupational structure and individual occupations articulate with other segments of society, such as in the case of occupations and systems of social stratification; and (e) the study of a particular occupation in order to highlight a problem in the broader society, such as those who are employed in the mass media and the operation of the political structure. These five areas are, of course, not totally self-contained for there are substantial areas of overlap between them.
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Occupations may be viewed as a cluster of skills belonging to those who also perform similar roles (Nosow & Form, 1962). The thing which identifies the occupational role—and separates it from other roles—is that it is a specific activity with a market value which people are paid to perform.
2 Why Study Work and Occupations? Several interrelated reasons may be advanced to explain why the study of work and occupations warrants the serious attention of researchers, policy-makers and practitioners. Work is an important and highly pervasive activity in the lives of many people, for a substantial part of men’s and an increasing percentage of women’s lives are spent in work-related activities. In view of this, many people have an interest and curiosity about the occupational world. In addition, since work consumes so large a part of the waking hours of many people, it follows that it should be of major interest concerning our understanding of human behaviour (Pavalko, 1972). The task of the sociologist is to develop concepts and categories which will assist in an explanation of the organization of society, and the behaviour of people within it, and so the study of work and occupations is of importance if this is to be achieved. Occupations are also social roles. As such, specific occupations serve to locate their incumbents in a matrix of other social roles and link them to others through work-patterned interaction. When Hughes (1958a) refers to the ‘social drama of work’, he draws attention to the fact that, just like the playing of other social roles, work involves the process of social interaction with others. Occupations are a fundamental link between individuals and the larger society, because occupational roles are an important element of social structure and so affect one’s participation in other segments of society. A person’s occupational status is, for example, the main factor which affects his/her entry into and location within the social structure and stratification system of their society (Chinoy, 1955). It can also be demonstrated that occupational roles are a major source of personal identity, for the nature of work leaves a deep and lasting influence on the lives and personality of people. Hughes (1958a) emphasizes that the social relationships into which the practitioner’s work throws him or her has a great influence on their occupational personality; while Waller (1961, orig. 1936), in reference to the work of the professional, puts it this way: Those who follow certain occupations are continually thrown into certain kinds of social situations. These social situations call for, or are best met by, a certain kind of reaction on the part of the [worker . . .] long practice in the social techniques enjoined upon one in a profession makes these the deepest grooves, and at length they grow so deep that there is no getting out (p. 376).
Following on from this point, it may be said that occupational groups represent distinctive sub-cultures that have a variety of shared norms and values into which the individual is likely to be socialized. The occupational culture can have a substantial
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effect on the individual’s outlook and identity. Sorokin (1947), in referring to the socialization of the individual into the culture of a particular occupation, says that each occupation tends to remake its members in its own image—the longer the individual stays in the same occupation the deeper being the transformation. Thus, an individual’s occupation can be a good indication, in broad terms, of the individual’s likely social construction of reality, since a wide variety of attitudes, values and behaviour are correlated with a person’s occupation. The study of work also assists us to understand how social life is possible, because occupational differentiation and independence help to explain how order is maintained in the social structure. Work is an important basis of social cohesion and integration in society, and results in what Durkheim (1933) called organic solidarity. For all of these reasons, the study of work and occupations is an area of considerable importance which is of both theoretical and empirical interest.
3 Technical and Vocational Education and Training One important area of work and employment consists of those occupations which centre on the application of technical and vocational skills to the world of work. It is estimated that some 80% of occupations are of this type (UNESCO-UNEVOC & UNESCO-UIS, 2006). The field of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) has changed throughout history, usually in response to the demands made upon it by the societies it serves. The current term—TVET—requires both definition and differentiation from other designations. Vocational education and training are probably as old as humanity, and knowledge, skills and belief systems have been transmitted from one generation to the next since the origins of humankind. Over time, various terms have been used to describe elements of the field that are now conceived as comprising TVET. These include: apprenticeship training, vocational education, industrial arts, technical education, technical/vocational education (TVE), occupational education (OE), vocational education and training (VET), career and technical education (CTE), etc. Several of these terms are commonly used in specific geographical areas. For example, in Europe the term vocational education and training (VET) is in common usage, while in the United States the current term is career and technical education (CTE). In addition, many in the field are advocating the use of continuing vocational education and training (CVET). There are also several different dimensions that can be used to define vocational education and training—for example: its venue (company-based, apprenticeship, school-based), character (initial, continuing), etc. At the second International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education, held in the Republic of Korea in 1999, UNESCO and ILO (in consultation with their respective Member States and partner agencies) jointly agreed upon using the term technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in future in order to unite the field. There has also been discussion to add TVET to the UNESCO ‘Education for All’ (EFA) and ‘Education for Sustainable Development’ (ESD) initiatives.
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Strengthening and upgrading TVET is also regarded as important for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The definition of TVET adopted at the Korean Congress is: Those aspects of the educational process involving, in addition to general education, the study of technologies and related sciences, and the acquisition of practical skills, attitudes, understanding and knowledge relating to occupants in various sectors of economic and social life (UNESCO, 1999).
The many designations for the field are probably a by-product of practitioners’ responses to changes in demand over time for skills and technologies used in workplaces, the globalization of production, the increasing utilization of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and related matters. Similarly, changes in TVET policy and practice reflect differences in opinion among practitioners and researchers. What has not changed, and appears to be increasing, is the growing emphasis on lifelong learning—and re-learning—associated with TVET. Silvern (1968) focused upon this issue while delineating the differences between education and training. He characterized education as ‘womb to tomb, erection to resurrection’, which can be interpreted to mean lifelong and continuing. His definition of training mirrored its perception at that time as being supplemental to education and focusing upon procedural learning. Subsequently, we have witnessed a convergence between these two—previously distinct—fields. According to Finch and Crunkilton (1999, p. 14), TVET refers to education and training that prepares persons for gainful employment. TVET can take place either in formal schools (i.e. kindergarten through to grade 12 or 13), or increasingly in post-secondary community and/or technical colleges, or informally by means of training at the workplace and increasingly by distance media. Many TVET educators favour the integration of academic and technical/technological curricula. The education and training of so-called knowledge workers suggests that this integration trend will predominate in the twenty-first century. This is because learning sophisticated technological concepts requires a sound foundation in mathematics, science and communications skills, and also an understanding of technology. The study of vocational education has a long-standing history, beginning in the 1880s when urbanization, mechanization and industrialization became the major forces driving societies. By the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, nations established skill formation institutions and organizations, together with branches and sectors. Often, these institutions established close links to business and industry. Other institutions became part of the public domain. Well-developed systems of stratified skill formation developed in public institutions during the twentieth century in Europe, while in English-speaking countries connections with business and industry became stronger. The growth of industrial society, and subsequently post-industrial society, witnessed the changing role of education and training institutions. In this Handbook the overarching term TVET will be used to refer to all elements of this particular field of study and practice.
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4 The Return of TVET to the Development Agenda1 TVET has fuelled phenomenal economic growth in some countries and fallen short of expectations in others. Globalization is prompting governments to take renewed interest in this branch of education, still perceived by some as second-class. It is every politician’s nightmare: unemployed youths hanging out in the streets with little chance of finding a job or going to university. While the parents of those youths may digest their own dashed hopes for a better life, frustration can reach revolt when that bleak horizon confronts the next generation. For governments—rich or poor—the solution seems straightforward. Catch those individuals before they become alienated by teaching them skills in secondary school to carve their niche in the labour market. Of course, reality is never so simple, which partly explains why TVET does not achieve acceptance by all. Principals and teachers point to the heavy expenses required to develop curricula, train staff and equip classrooms for these specialized subjects, which generally cost three times more than academic courses. Yet, for many parents and students it remains a ‘second-class’ education. The truth is that TVET provides training but not the guarantee of a job. Even the world’s most sophisticated and expensive programme is doomed to fail if the labour market cannot absorb the students, despite their skills and expectations. This backdrop has led many experts and policy-makers to conclude that training is best left to the workplace, especially after the radical policy shift by the World Bank, which was once considered TVET’s staunchest supporter. The very first World Bank loan for education, granted in 1963, was for TVET, which accounted for about 40% of all educational loans in Sub-Saharan Africa up until the early 1980s. But in 1991, the Bank reversed gears, thanks to a policy paper, co-authored by Arvil Van Adams. Widely respected, Adams retired from the Bank in January 2008 with a single regret: people took us—the policy—too much at face value. The easy message of our policy was that TVET is not a good investment but that ignores the nuance of what we said. We argued for a shift away from heavy investment in workshops, instructor training and curriculum in order to invest resources into policy development. The point was not to do away with TVET but to reform the policy process (Adams in UNESCO, 2005, p. 2).
In view of the impact that the World Bank’s paper had in the following decade over policy leading to loans for TVET drying up, Arvil Van Adams was invited to write a Prologue to this International Handbook in which he reviews the non-governmental delivery of TVET in Sub-Saharan Africa.
4.1 A Time-Bomb But few appreciated the nuance of Adam’s analysis and TVET virtually disappeared from the international aid agenda. The World Bank began investing heavily in primary education at the expense of TVET, which now accounts for just 8–9% of
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educational spending. International strategies intended to reduce poverty completely ignored the need to develop skills. As Riordan of the ILO puts it: We are now seeing a skills-divide emerging with the least-developed countries falling further and further behind, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (Riordan in UNESCO, 2005, p. 2).
To this may be added ‘a time-bomb waiting to happen as hundreds of thousands more youth finish primary school and look for secondary education or work opportunities which do not always exist’ (Iwamoto in UNESCO, 2005, p. 2). In many of the least-developed countries, pupils have little chance of either pursuing their schooling or finding a job. ‘So we advocate a new vision of vocational education that focuses on practical or “life skills” integrated at the primary or secondary levels, depending upon the country’s resources’ (Iwamoto in UNESCO, 2005, p. 2).
4.2 A Growing Interest In countries rich and poor there is a growing interest in TVET. ‘Countries realize that it’s a means to jumping on the bandwagon of globalization. This is reflected by the tremendous shift of employment from the United States and Europe to India and China, where you have such highly skilled work forces. By substantially investing in TVET, these countries laid a major plank in their economic foundations’ (Perera in UNESCO, 2005, p. 2). For UNESCO, TVET goes beyond the narrow confines of economic planning. It is part of a larger vision for promoting sustainable development. Since its founding, UNESCO has been developing recommendations and organizing policy debates, while serving as a policy advisor for governments trying to reform or create vocational education systems. As UNESCO notes: In the past, there was a supply-side vision, which created serious problems for developing countries. Either they invested heavily in trying to import foreign models of higher education, which produced a surplus of white-collar expectations. Or they tried to set up highly specialized training schools, which didn’t correspond to labour needs. Today, the goal is to teach students to adapt to changing working conditions, instead of locking them into specific jobs and skills (Perera in UNESCO, 2005, p. 2).
Unfortunately, these new directions do not come with any road maps. As Fred Fluitman of the ILO says: ‘secondary education systems are pretty much the same. But every TVET programme is different and just about every government is constantly trying to tinker with it’ (UNESCO, 2005, p. 3). In short, constant innovation is a key ingredient in the reform process. If done properly, the results can be spectacular. The Republic of Korea is an example of how TVET can fuel stellar economic growth. While no model should be emulated, the Korean experience offers key lessons. First, the government took a sequenced approach to education. Money did not start flowing into TVET until the country had nearly achieved universal primary education. By design or accident, major investing began in the early 1980s,
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just as labour shortages started to pinch the economy. To make the ‘big push’ into export-oriented manufacturing, construction and service-oriented sectors, the country needed a new stream of skilled workers. At the same time, policy-makers in the Republic of Korea were beginning to be alarmed by a growing appetite for higher education. People would become ‘over-educated’, expecting white-collar jobs in an economy thirsting for new sources of skilled labour. By expanding TVET, the government planned to satisfy its forecasted labour needs while reducing pressure on universities to enrol more students. Today, in the Republic of Korea, about 40% of secondary students are enrolled in TVET. Yet, it is still perceived as a second-class education! So the government is trying to open pathways to higher education. First, TVET students are now getting a healthy dose of academic subjects so that they can apply for a place in university. In some schools, academic and vocational students share as much as 75% of a common curriculum. The government is also channelling public and private investment into new post-secondary training institutes to kill the myth that TVET is an academic ‘dead-end’. The ultimate challenge lies in keeping abreast with technological change. To keep curricula relevant, the plan is to tighten links to the private sector. For example, the Republic of Korea is now experimenting with its own version of Germany’s famous ‘dual system’, which traces its roots back to post-war reconstruction. It has opted for a ‘2+1’ programme, combining two years of classroom studies with one year of apprenticeship.
4.3 Promoting Partnerships Similar reforms are taking place in China, where a third of all secondary students are enrolled in vocational schools, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. However, it is difficult to draw parallels between the two countries. Whereas a labour shortage shaped the Republic of Korea’s policy reform, China is grappling with a labour surplus, with job creation lagging behind the growing economy. And while the Republic of Korea had the luxury of tailoring a new system to foreseen needs, China must overhaul an antiquated machine. To do so, China has found an ally in the private sector. Private companies are providing finance, materials, apprenticeships and guidance as representatives sit on school advisory boards. These partnerships reflect a key element of the Chinese vision of lifelong learning: schools will develop and broaden students’ capacities and the workplace will provide training (Hou in UNESCO, 2005, p. 3).
4.4 Open-Door Policy Ironically, the great bastion of communism may be increasingly lured to the private sector, while countries of the former USSR are not so keen to relinquish State control of their TVET systems.
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Here, the Czech Republic is doing well. This is one of the few countries where vocational education enjoys a prestigious reputation. About 75% of secondary students are enrolled in TVET, compared to 25% who attend purely academic schools. Instead of abandoning the system to market forces, the government has given greater freedom to principals and teachers to update curricula and introduce new occupational fields, as opposed to the specific skills associated with a particular job (Klenha in UNESCO, 2005, p. 3). Another major selling point is the ‘open-door’ policy to higher education. All secondary students can take the Maturita examination, which is a pre-requisite for university entrance examinations. In addition, some of the new post-secondary training institutes (set up over the past ten years) allow students to transfer directly into universities. The Russian Federation is also planning to decentralize its TVET system, permitting regional governments to administer their own programmes. But it is not an easy task. Most of the schools can barely be called educational institutions. ‘But they do keep youth off the street and provide at least one member of a family with a hot meal every day. The State’s TVET schools are one of the few remaining welfare institutions for young people and poor families’ (Grootings in UNESCO, 2005, pp. 3–4). Previously two-thirds of Russian workers were trained in elementary vocational schools and 22% of the population have a secondary vocational education, which is 1.5 times higher than those with a college education.
4.5 Finding Funds Ways are being discussed to enable TVET students to pursue higher education or training. New internship programmes might also dynamize the system. ‘The problem lies in finding the money. The private sector is too disorganized for any serious partnership [and so] the State must invest in this generation and the country’s future’ (Grootings in UNESCO, 2005, p. 3). Governments far poorer than the Russian Federation are doing just that. Botswana, Ghana and Kenya have been shouldering the burden since World Bank loans dried up in the 1990s. Instead of setting up a separate stream of specialized schools, these countries have ‘vocationalized secondary education’. While the curriculum remains academic in nature, between 15 and 30% of courses focus on practical subjects like agriculture, management and entrepreneurialism. The aim is to redress the imbalance between the aims of a purely academic secondary education and the needs of society.
4.6 Investing in Future Generations UNEVOC has published a series of reports evaluating the impact of vocationalization in Sub-Saharan Africa (Lauglo & Maclean, 2005). There has been tremendous political support for these courses in Kenya, Ghana and Botswana. Botswana, in
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particular, has made huge investments to introduce information processing and computer skills at the secondary level. Ironically, the problem may lie with the high hopes and expectations raised by these courses. Parents are rushing to enrol their children in classes that are supposed to lead to jobs. Demand is so high that it is politically impossible to contain the new curriculum to a few regions where it might be tested and refined. As a result precious resources might have been spread too thin. The bottom line is that about 80% of jobs in poorer countries require some form of vocational skills. The urgent challenge is therefore to bridge the demand for jobs with the actual needs of society. Politically, governments cannot afford not to invest in the skills of future generations.
4.7 Example: Rebuilding in the Arab States UNESCO is preparing plans to rebuild the vocational education system in Iraq once the security situation has stabilized. Close to US$3 million in extra-budgetary funds have been recently earmarked for this purpose and additional funds are promised. UNESCO is also increasingly active with TVET projects in other Arab States, which are trying to reduce their reliance on expatriate workers. For example, over the past five years, UNESCO has been assisting Libya to vocationalize its entire secondary education system and revise the curricula of post-secondary training institutes. In Bahrain, where 65–70% of secondary students are enrolled in TVET, the government has financed a UNESCO project to create a ‘centre for excellence’, providing specialized teacher-training services and lifelong-learning programmes for adults.
4.8 Global Trends in Technical and Vocational Education Globally, almost 50 million students were enrolled in technical and vocational education in 2002. Nine out of ten were enrolled at the upper secondary level, typically designed to serve youth aged 15–20 years. The global average is that one in five upper secondary students is enrolled in technical and vocational programmes. However, the enrolment rates vary widely by regions. In Europe and East Asia, including China, such programmes account for 50 and 33%, respectively, of upper secondary enrolment. In the other regions, technical and vocational enrolment is far less common. In Africa and South America, the share is less than 20%, and in North America and West Asia less than 10 and 4%, respectively (Fig. 1). Nevertheless, it should be noted that, in the last decade, secondary enrolments have skyrocketed world-wide. From 1998 to 2006 alone, the number of secondary students grew by 15%. However, this growth is largely due to increases in general secondary students. Public/private partnerships and the involvement of the corporate sector in TVETrelated programme activities mounted by UNESCO are becoming increasingly
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60 1998
55
2002
50 % of upper secondary enrolment
50
47
40 34 30 23
22 20
19
19
18 16 10
10
9 4 m
0 Africa
North America
South America
East Asia West Asia
Europe
World
Note: m = missing Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Global Education Digest, 2005. www.uls.unesco.org
Fig. 1 Technical and vocational students as a share of total secondary enrolments, 1998 and 2002
important. For example, in December 2008, UNESCO signed a four-year partnership agreement with the United Kingdom-based StratREAL Foundation2 to cooperate in the field of entrepreneurship education in the Arab States region. The objective of this partnership is to support decision-makers in the development of educational policies and programmes that integrate entrepreneurship education in the education systems of the Middle East and North Africa. The activity represents a significant and sustainable contribution to skills development for youth across the Arab States region. The StratREAL Foundation provided extra-budgetary funds to UNESCO. The activity is being managed by the UNESCO-UNEVOC, which developed the proposal and submitted it to StratREAL through UNESCO Headquarters. Skills development for the world of work needs to be tailored to the needs of the economy and the labour market, given that the private sector is the recipient of the TVET-trained workforce.
5 A Short History of TVET To trace the origins and development of TVET is a daunting task, because one must simultaneously trace the origins and development of humanity. The approach used here is to develop cross-cutting themes. Among the themes chosen are tools,
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technology, culture change, cultural transmission, specialization and fabrication. Researching and writing history is possibly the most inexact science, because the researcher and author must largely rely upon previously published sources. The danger in reliance on such sources is that of repeating the biases of their authors, since ‘history is rarely written by the losers’. The history of TVET is difficult to trace because it has been embedded in a plethora of other histories. That is to say, until the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution, what we call TVET today was not considered very important by historians. Therefore, the researcher must cull many historical accounts in order to glean snippets of TVET history. Having said this, not everyone will share the same enthusiasm for those snippets selected and analysed here. This is because what is deemed important by one person may not necessarily be deemed important by others. With these ground rules, we can now proceed to examine the origins and development of TVET, as perceived by the editors of this Handbook.
5.1 A Historical Continuum to Explain Technological Change Alvin Toffler (1981) situated technological change on a historical continuum that is helpful in setting the context for this chapter. His three ages, or ‘waves’, began with the Agricultural Revolution, which took place from about 8000 B.C. to A.D. 1700. We ourselves suggest that Toffler should have included a hunting and gathering stage preceding his first wave. We also suggest that Toffler’s Agricultural Revolution could be divided into a subsistence phase, prior to 8000 B.C., in which families, clans and tribes consumed what they produced, a feudal phase, and then the family farm phase, which is now being displaced by the new ‘industrial’ model of an agrobusiness phase. Toffler neglected to consider that his ages/waves overlapped in time and space. The domestication of animals is also a feature of the development of agriculture to which Toffler may have not given sufficient emphasis. A report from the HapMap project, which built on the decoding of the human genome in 2003, attributed gene changes in East Asians and Europeans 6,000–7,000 years ago to the spread of agriculture to Europe from the Near East at around the same time that the shift to rice farming became widespread in China (Wade, 2006). Another useful approach to understanding the origins and development of TVET is to trace the development of tools and technologies and relate these to education. Durant (1954) has suggested that a ‘stone in the fist’ may have been the first tool. He also posited that fire led ‘to the fusing of metals, and the only real advance in technology from Cro-Magnon days to the Industrial Revolution’ (ibid., p. 96). He continued by noting: a rock—sharp at one end, round at the other to fit the palm of the hand—became for primeval man [sic] hammer, axe, chisel, scraper, knife and saw. [. . .] Gradually these specific tools were differentiated out of the one homogeneous form: holes were bored to attach a handle, teeth were inserted to make a saw, branches were tipped with the coup-de-poing [a sharp rock] to make a pick, an arrow or a spear, the rough-surfaced stone became a file; the stone in a sling became a weapon of war that would survive even classical antiquity (ibid., p. 95).
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A word about gender and gender differentiation of skills is necessary. From earliest pre-history in most cultures males dominated the hunting of game while females dominated the gathering of wild foods and garment-making. Tool-making may have been dominated by males, perhaps due to their body strength. However, in settled agriculture considerable cultivation was undertaken by females, although it is likely that agricultural implements may have been fabricated by males. Toffler’s second age/wave was the Industrial Age, which he dated from A.D. 1700 to 2000. Tjaden (1995) observed that an important characteristic of this period was the separation of goods production from consumption. Eventually, another important characteristic was the division of production into the fabrication and assembly of components, which led to the development of assembly lines. This ‘industrial model’ also influenced the structure and organization of the education system. It is important to realise that the transitions from one so-called age to another are: (a) not cut-and-dried; (b) slow rather than abrupt; and (c) neither continuous nor complete. It should be borne in mind that, according to Rifkin (1995), The End of Work may reduce demand for many occupations, but persons will continue to be needed to fabricate, maintain and repair most of the attributes of our civilization, at least for the foreseeable future. This salient fact suggests that, in the transition from the Industrial Age to the Information Age, education systems must make provision for the education and training of both ‘traditional’ and ‘knowledge’ workers, rather than an ‘either/or’ proposition. The abrupt termination of one type of education and its replacement is not an option; rather, a lengthy transitional phase is anticipated. Toffler’s third wave, called the Information Age, was said to have begun in the United States in the mid-1950s, when ‘white-collar and service workers outnumbered blue-collar workers’, according to Tjaden (1995). It is argued here that Toffler’s paradigm appears somewhat simplistic because what actually seems to be happening is the merger of attributes of previous ages/waves.
5.2 The Evolution of TVET Education and training began in pre-history with the transmission of knowledge and culture from one generation to the next. Culture is defined here as the beliefs, values and technologies shared by a discrete group of people. Hostetter (1974, p. 209) wrote that ‘the teaching of technology as part of man’s knowledge began when early cave man taught his son to master the skills needed for survival’. The use of tools, beginning with those made from flint, evolved as humans evolved. Recent primate research has found that tool-making exists among some primates and is transmitted to their young. In the pre-historic hunting and gathering society, skills were passed from parent to child as members of small, usually related, migratory groups. The transition from this stage to the settled cultivation of crops marks the beginnings of civilization—and with it recorded history. Tools made this transition possible and grew more diversified because of the transition. The education and training that occurred is best embodied in the Chinese proverb: ‘Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.’
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Specialization in societies and cultures most probably began during the subsistence phase of the Agricultural Revolution, when sufficient surplus food was amassed to enable some persons to ‘work’ in areas other than cultivation, hunting or gathering. The first two socio-cultural specializations were likely the clergy and teachers. Specialization probably paralleled the development of settled agriculture and settlements. Gallinelli explained that: Children learned the skills of their parents by watching carefully and imitating the process until an exact duplicate could be produced. This method of conscious-imitation was the methodology by which crafts were ‘taught’ in one way or another until well into the 1400s (1979, p. 19)
While ‘at first all of the simple tools, weapons, and religious and domestic objects were formed by the people for their own use’ (ibid.), differentiation between socalled ‘academic’ and ‘training’ teachers likely commenced with further specialization into builders, potters, leather tanners, armourers, wool, flax and cotton-spinners, tailors, etc. In some cultures separate castes developed for specific trades—e.g. in India the patel caste of leather-workers—while in what became ‘Western’ cultures separate guilds developed in the fabrication and commercial fields. Each specific group, caste, guild, etc., designated certain persons as educators/trainers, later called meister (or master) in Germany, to supervise the learning of new entrants to their field, known as apprentices. In contrast, training for the clergy mainly comprised a shaman, priest, rabbi or guru, who instructed a group of students. The former group evolved into the skilled trades, while the latter evolved into religious and, subsequently, academic groups. Gallinelli noted that: In ancient Jewish culture, the law required parents to teach boys a trade. The boys were to go to the Rabbis for religious instruction in the mornings and learn the father’s trade in the afternoon (1979, p. 20).
As tools became more complex, and the knowledge and skills to use them became more specialized, parents and/or elders were no longer able to teach their children the sum total of their knowledge. Gallinelli observed that ‘new social developments went hand in hand with new technology and people no longer had to be the jacks-ofall-trades of earlier times’ (1979, p. 19). An Asian example of these didactic changes is provided by Clark, who quoted the fifth century B.C. philosopher Lao-Tse (also known as Lao-tzu): ‘If you tell me, I will listen. If you show me, I will see. But if you let me experience, I will learn.’ And so began one of the first active learning philosophies (Clark, 1999).
Eventually, their offspring were apprenticed to craftspersons or artisans with the specialized skills and tools for particular trades. These craftspersons would impart the craft at which (usually) they were an expert in exchange for unpaid, or low-paid, work. As the system developed, apprentices began to live with the craftsperson, and received subsistence until becoming accepted as tradespersons themselves. Formal apprenticeship may have begun as early as 2000 B.C. to train scribes in Egypt.
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Subsequently, rules governing apprenticeships were included in the Code of Hammurabi in 1760 B.C. in Babylon. Barlow adds that: The rise of Athens was accompanied by an increase in the practice of trades required by the growing city. A definite occupational classification developed, regulating various workers into a caste system. The industrial workers, although free people, were generally of the second class. Yet the work of the artisan is our best evidence of Greek achievement. Throughout a long history, the craftsmen and artisans of Rome were composed of a mixture of slaves and freemen. They acquired their skill in the only way possible, that is, through family apprenticeship (1990, p. 6).
While early Christian monks also divided their days between manual labour and prayer, the early Benedictines organized this regimen into seven hours of labour and two hours of reading. Gallinelli noted that: This requirement [. . .] meant that some monks spent their labors copying manuscripts and the writing, illustrating and binding of the manuscripts led to the development of the craft of bookmaking (1979, p. 20).
Gray and Herr noted that: Owning a set of tools, which were scarce and therefore valuable, and knowing how to use them became an important alternative to agriculture or domestic service. It was during these times that the term ‘journeyman’ [sic] evolved, indicating that an individual owned a set of tools, possessed the skills to use them, and was free to ‘journey’ to various jobs (1998, p. 6).
Craftspersons ‘were eventually brought together by their common interest in a craft to form social groups—and out of these evolved the crafts guilds of the Middle Ages’ (Gallinelli, 1979, p. 19). A number of sources provide information on the nature, function and history of the guilds, such as: Guilds were associations in which, from the 12th century, people who worked in the same trade or craft joined together in a town or city. Guilds wrote their own bylaws, rules that were binding upon all members of the guild. These rules and regulations defined how things were to be made and set ‘consumer-friendly’ prices (CEDEFOP, 2004).
While Gallinelli wrote that ‘printing was not invented until the 1400s’, one may note the interesting co-incidence between: the invention of moveable metal type, jikji, in Korea in 1377, and then 78 years later by Gutenberg in Germany. [. . .] One can only wonder if the Korean invention of moveable metal type was communicated to Europe, resulting in its re-invention by Gutenberg. Such speculation is facilitated by the proximity to Korea of Kaifeng in China, which was the beginning of the Silk Road which facilitated trade with Europe (Wilson, 2003, p. 19).
Barlow observes that: The Renaissance, a period of about 250 years, began in the fourteenth century with a great revival of learning—for the few. [. . .] During the whole of this wonderful and terrifying period of contrasts and conflicts, we may find the stabilizing influence of industry, trade, and craftsmanship. Society became dependent upon the new burgher class and the arts-andcrafts guilds (1990, p. 7).
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Guilds functioned to control entry to occupations, thereby protecting the income earned by their skilled labour. Guilds [. . .] were an important part in apprenticeship as they established the quality standards for the product and practice. During the peak of the guild system, which occurred between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, the yeomen were protected by strict regulation of hours, tools, prices, and wages (Clark, 1999).
In addition: A strict hierarchy held sway throughout Europe under the guild system: apprentice, journeyman, master. The title of master was the only written evidence of competence, while ‘certificates of apprenticeship’ confirmed completion of the first stage of training; [while] the family generally paid the master a fee to cover the apprentice’s food and lodging. The apprenticeship generally lasted from two to four years, and longer in very specialised occupations (CEDEFOP, 2004).
Apprentices were either paid nothing or a small percentage of the wage structure set by the guild. A graduated percentage payment system later developed and became enshrined in legislation. It may be noted that: The period of apprenticeship ended without a specialised examination when the apprentice was ‘discharged’. Each trade or craft had its own customs for this ‘discharge’ and for the former apprentice’s acceptance into the community of journeymen. Journeymen’s vocational qualifications were recognised in other countries. Generally without family ties, they travelled from place to place, to augment and broaden their skills by learning from masters in other countries: an early form of occupational mobility in Europe. After journeymen had acquired sufficient experience, they would apply to a guild for admission as masters (CEDEFOP, 2004). The guilds of craftsmen and small merchants in almost all medieval towns developed this training system in the 14th and 15th centuries across Europe. The Guilds lost their enormous social and economic significance with the demise of feudalism and in the period of protoindustrialisation in the early 19th century (Frommberger & Reinisch, 2002, p. 81). In the centuries that preceded the introduction of machine-made parts, craftsmanship of a high order was required to manufacture accurate, durable clocks and watches. Such local craft organizations as the Paris Guild of Clockmakers (1544) were organized to control the art of clock-making and its apprenticeship. A guild known as the Clockmakers’ Company, founded in London in 1630, is still in existence (Clark, 1999). The increasing fragmentation of both production methods and the social system led to the dwindling significance of guilds in the late 18th century. Their internal dissolution and their final abolition, sanctioned by the French Revolution, was a stimulus for new organizational and institutional concepts of vocational training. Since all intermediaries between the State and individuals had been removed, and as the traditional craft-trade training forms were not competitive, the State was itself obliged to develop and realise new concepts of vocational training (Meyser, 2002, p. 126).
The Industrial Age, defined by Toffler, transformed the fabrication of goods by craftspersons into the fabrication of components for assembly by other, less-skilled, workers. The earliest manifestation of these changes in production began in England, where the textile industry developed and displaced French and Belgian hegemony, thus marking the rise of British economic and, subsequently, military development.
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Introduction The Industrial Revolution, which began in England around 1760, completed a development whose seeds, both intellectual and tangible, had been sown in the pre-industrial era. In the face of the flourishing textile industry, the prescriptive strength of the old economic order could not resist the sudden growth of capitalism, and the importance of an apprenticeship as a prerequisite for working or managing dwindled. It is noteworthy that the Elizabethan Statute of Apprentices that dated back to 1563, which approved and sustained the seven-year training period stipulated by guild code, remained in force, at least on paper, until 1814. It was only at the culmination of industrialisation, starting in 1812, that there was parliamentary debate on the retention of the old English economic order which, in practical terms, had long since become defunct. The old, professionally oriented crafts and the country’s conservative, romantic bastion took a final stand against the representatives of liberal economic thinking (Deissinger, 2002, p. 33).
Legislation to govern apprenticeship arrangements began in the 1600s in England with ‘laws providing relief for the poor’ who ‘were given an opportunity to become apprenticed to learn a trade,’ according to Gallinelli (1979, p. 20). Increasingly, State intervention in Europe and later in North America began to encroach upon the control of the guilds. Gallinelli notes that: ‘France established a system of trade and technical schools as substitutes for the apprenticeship system.’ He also noted that the German ‘apprenticeship system was not nearly as affected as were those of England and France’, remaining ‘firmly placed within the guilds’ (p. 22). Although the guilds in France were abolished during the French Revolution in 1791, ‘modern’ vocational education and training may date from the establishment ´ of the Ecole des ponts et chauss´ees by Jean-Rodolphe Perronet in France in 1747. This pioneer institution was the model for The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in ´ the United States of America. After the Revolution, the Ecole polytechnique was established in 1794 and both institutions established the TVET path followed by France. There are other early institutions whose history is less well-known. One example is given by Derivianko, who traced the development of TVET in Russia, noting that ‘on 14 January 1701 [. . .] the first school of mathematics and navigation was opened in Moscow by decree of Peter the Great, the Russian tsar and reformer’ (2004, p. 159). While better known as philosophers of education, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) believed it important to learn a trade; Johann Pestalozzi (1746–1827), who has been called the ‘father of manual training’, advocated combining school with workshop learning; and Friedrich Fr¨obel (1782–1852) focused upon creativity and self-activity when establishing kindergartens in the 1800s. Educational reform at the turn of the twentieth century drew from the writings of Pestalozzi and Fr¨obel and came to be called ‘The New Education Movement’. Barlow noted that ‘it would be late in the 1880s before the idea of combining trade and academic education in the school was tried seriously’ (1990, p. 8). The study of TVET also has a long-standing history, beginning in the 1880s when urbanization, mechanization and industrialization became the major forces driving societies. Derivianko indicated that: In 1866, the Russian Technical Society was founded. [. . .] One of the departments of this society was entirely responsible for managing primary vocational education and assisted
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in opening specialist educational institutions for training master craftsmen and workers in Russia. [. . .] The Imperial Russian Technical Society developed the principles of specialist education; it also created a number of awards for technical and vocational education and mobilised public support for maintaining existing and opening new specialist educational institutions (2004, p. 160).
Victor Karlovich Della Vos (1820–1890), Director of the Imperial Technical College in Moscow, may be designated as the originator of the task analysis method for the sequentialization of working knowledge in vocational didactics, which eventually became the basis for competency-based TVET.3 Della Vos drafted the rudiments of this idea in 1868, when he decided to introduce a compulsory work placement for his engineering students to compensate for their lack of practical experience before starting studies. His system mandated that: Students had to complete six sequential courses in wood-turning, model carpentry, forging, metal-turning, mechanics and mould-making. Course sequences were based on job and task analyses from various occupational fields. This form of vocational learning gained international renown at the 1873 World Exhibition in Vienna under the name ‘Russian system’ (Wiemann, 2002, pp. 141–42). Apprentices began by learning to perform and master simple tasks. In a precisely predetermined sequence, the tasks gradually became more challenging. After its presentation at the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1873, this method spread to many other European centres of education and training (CEDEFOP, 2004).
Subsequent to the transfer of Della Vos’ system to Germany, it spread to France and North America: The World Exhibitions in Philadelphia in 1876 and Paris in 1878 also gave considerable attention to vocational training and contributed to the dissemination of the production school concept and the instructional workshop method. Indeed, by 1920, specialised institutes with workshops had been founded everywhere in Europe where industrial potential was to be accompanied by such measures (Meyser, 2002, p. 130).
Field (2001, p. 109) attributes the development of programmed instruction to behaviourism, which arose from Thorndike’s doctoral research. He wrote that Thorndike’s stimulus-response model ‘followed important parallels to Pavlov’s earlier animal experiments’. He further noted that ‘it has been argued that Pavlov’s work was taken up by Victor de la Vos [. . .] who presented his ideas on task analysis as a basis for curriculum design at the Philadelphia Exposition.’ France founded new commercial and technical production schools after the loss of the war against Germany in 1870/71. By the early 20th century an extensive school-based vocational ´ training system on several levels was in place. These numbered the six Ecoles d’Arts et ´ ´ M´etiers, four Ecoles Nationales Professionnelles and 70 Ecoles Pratiques (Meyser, 2002, p. 126).
Hanf describes the impact of Della Vos upon TVET, as follows: In 2003, 135 years later, several hundred courses across Europe evidently adhere to the principles expounded in 1868. Undoubtedly, the ‘training course’ is the most successful and effective learning system in the short history of industrial vocational training. Its didactic concept has merited an unprecedented dissemination across all European industrial countries (2002, p. 15).
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Della Vos’ impact was also attributed by SENAI in Brazil to the serie met´odica ocupac¸ionais [shopwork methodical series] developed by Ricardo Mange in 1934 and adopted by the Servic¸o Nacional de Aprendrizagem Industrial (SENAI). SENAI has been replicated in nineteen other Latin American and two Caribbean nations since its founding in 1942. By the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, nations established skill formation institutions and organizations, together with branches and sectors. Often, these institutions established close links with business and industry. Other institutions became part of the public domain. Well-developed systems of stratified skill formation developed in public institutions during the twentieth century in Europe, while in English-speaking countries connections with business and industry became stronger. The growth of industrial society, and subsequently post-industrial society, witnessed the changing role of education and training institutions, with the establishment of national training institutions, national training boards and, later, the development of regionally responsive and flexible centres of expertise and research. Several sources provide information on the origins of the present German ‘dual system’. craft trades again became the normal models of occupational training, thanks to the Handwerkerschutzgesetz (Craft Trade Workers’ Protection Act) of 1897 and the support of policies favouring SME expansion. [. . .] In contrast to the advanced industrial nations of England and France, this mentality prevailing in Germany guaranteed the survival of the Meisterlehre (apprenticeship with a master craftsman). A second characteristic of the German [dual] system is that the institution of the Berufsschule (vocational school) has been a fixture in the vocational training landscape since the end of the 19th century. This has enriched training content but also formally dovetailed theoretical education with practice in a company. The craft trades asserted that companies were the ‘correct’ learning location for vocational training. Berufsschulen arose [. . .] in which craft trades played a leading role as the ‘model of German vocational education’, and the successful attempt to rehabilitate the German education system with the help of ‘classical German vocational training theory’. However, the dual system is not an educational theory construct. It emerged from the practical consideration that in-company vocational training needed to be complemented (Deissinger, 2002, pp. 30–31).
Elsewhere during the nineteenth century, apprentices often attended ‘continuation schools’ in the evenings or on Sundays. These repeated the curriculum taught at primary schools and imparted the theoretical knowledge needed for particular trades. By the end of the nineteenth century, these schools had developed into ‘vocational schools’. In addition to vocational education and training, students were also taught citizenship skills. Today, both elements are still part of apprenticeship: learning on the job and in vocational school. That is why it is referred to as the ‘dual system’ of training (CEDEFOP, 2004).
With the improvement of the steam engine by James Watt in Scotland in 1765, and its initial applications to the railways and textile industries, the Industrial Age began. This gave the United Kingdom the impetus to dislodge continental European domination of production and trade. The CEDEFOP study noted that:
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The guild system was abolished—along with the traditional seven-year apprenticeship. Untrained, low-paid labourers operated the machinery in the factories. For many years, the rapidly growing industries had little need for skilled workers, so young people received no training (CEDEFOP, 2004).
In England, North America, Australia and elsewhere mechanics institutes developed in the early 1800s, along with ‘charity schools’ to educate the poor. Barlow noted that ‘the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, which was founded [in 1785], had by 1821 embarked upon a full-scale educational program’ (1990, p. 10). Gallinelli observed that ‘the Boston Asylum and Farm School founded in 1814 was one of the earliest of the charity schools, and it provided education for orphaned boys.’ Instruction was also provided ‘in one of several trades’ (1979, p. 23). He further noted that: The mechanic’s institutes and lyceums provided further education for their members in both day and night school programs. Technical institutes were also established, such as the Rensselaer Institute founded in 1824 (ibid.).
Perhaps the most significant government initiative for TVET was the Morrill Act, signed by the United States President Abraham Lincoln in 1862, to establish land-grant colleges ‘to teach subjects related to agriculture and mechanic arts in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes’ (Gallinelli, 1979, p. 24). Gallinelli also noted that ‘one offshoot of the movement [in the U.S.A.] to train engineers was the development of the Manual Training Movement by John Runkle of The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Calvin Woodward of Washington University’. Barlow added William Harris, Superintendent of Schools in St. Louis, Missouri, and E.E. White, President of Purdue University, to this group of educators (1990, p. 15). Gallinelli wrote that while they ‘were developing programs to train engineers’, they: discovered that the engineering students lacked rudimentary skills in the use of tools and knowledge of basic mechanics. They were impressed by the methods used by Victor Della Vos [. . .] which were demonstrated at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 (1979, p. 25).
We have observed university engineering students in Brazil being taught workshop skills by SENAI instructors in SENAI schools, which has taken this system even one step further. Barlow noted that: the first school to offer specific trade training with supplementary studies directly related to each trade was the New York Trade School, founded [. . .] in 1881. In contrast to the plan of instruction of the New York Trade School, the Hebrew Technical Institute, founded in New York City in [. . .] 1883, offered a greater range of subjects of a general nature. It may be classed more properly as a technical school rather than a trade school (1990, p. 18).
In Ontario, Canada, John Seath, who studied TVET systems in Europe and the USA and later became Superintendent of Education and developed modern technical education; and Newton Wolverton, who inaugurated the first Manual Training
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department in 1886 at Woodstock College, played a similar role to that of Runkle and Woodward. It is interesting that Woodstock College eventually became McMaster University, presaging the academic and mission drift that has been affecting TVET institutions in the late twentieth century. The respective national association(s) of manufacturers advocated on behalf of TVET from 1895 in the USA and 1897 in Canada. Both initiatives led to the promulgation of federal legislation to develop TVET. In Canada, the Technical Education Act of 1897 provided for the establishment of technical schools, or the addition of technical wings to existing high schools. Landmark legislation in the United States was the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917, which stayed in force until 1963. The establishment of the Toronto Technical High School in 1891 also resulted from lobbying by the Canadian Manufacturers Association and the Dominion and Labour Council. A similar initiative in Brazil in 1942 by the Confederac¸a˜ o Nacional da Ind´ustria led to the development of SENAI, initially in S˜ao Paulo, and subsequently on a national basis. Other advocates for TVET in the USA during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries included John Dewey, Charles Prosser, David Snedden (Gallinelli, 1979, p. 28), E.L. Thorndike (noted earlier) and Frederick Taylor, the ‘founding father’ of industrial management and workforce education. While these advocates disagreed about the methods and mechanisms for the promotion of TVET, they were in agreement about the value of TVET. For example, Prosser ‘believed that vocational education courses should not be taught by general educators and that vocational education should remain separate from general education’. Dewey rejected the notion that ‘what was good for industry was good for the people’. Instead, he advocated that educators should ‘use industry to make schooling more active and more meaningful to students’ and that ‘education should provide the skills and attitudes for living in an era of science and technology’ (Gallinelli, 1979, p. 28). Also, in Canada, Australia and the United States of America, the large-scale training provided for workers engaged in munitions and materials production during the First World War was followed by TVET programmes and legislation that set the stage for TVET developments in the 1920s and 1930s. These nations also developed similar relief and training programmes to alleviate the effects of the Great Depression during the 1930s. Similar war-time training initiatives took place during the Second World War, followed by the development of post-war TVET legislation and system-development in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. During World War I, a system was proposed for on-the-job training that would provide more consistent and efficient training in order to more quickly produce trained workers. In 1917, in response to the need of 450,000 new workers by the Emergency Fleet Corporation of the U.S. Shipping Board, Charles R. Allen developed a way of training shipbuilders, which involved four steps: (1) SHOW or prepare, (2) TELL or present, (3) DO or apply, and (4) CHECK or inspect. From Allen’s work and from research done by the Army during World War I several principles of training instruction were developed:
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Training should be done within industry by supervisors who should be trained how to teach. Training should be done in groups of nine to eleven workers.
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The job should be analysed before training. Break-in time is reduced when training is done on the job. When given personal attention in training, the worker develops a feeling of loyalty (McCord, 1976, pp. 32–36).
A great deal of training system design originated during the Second World War in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Many of the antecedents of present-day TVET systems owe their origins to this period. The post-Second World War expansion of community and technical colleges in the USA and Canada utilized wartime TVET lessons to build effective non-degree postsecondary systems. During World War II, the need for a method of fast and efficient training became urgent. Training Within Industry, an advisory service formed by the National Defense Advisory Commission, developed the systematic on-the-job training method called JIT (Job Instruction Training). There were four steps to this method:
r r r r
First, prepare the learner. Put him at ease, explain what the job is, and explain the importance of the job. Second, give a step-by-step presentation of the job. Explain the what, when, how, why and where of the job, then demonstrate them. Have the learner explain each step, then let the learner demonstrate each step. Third, do the performance tryout. Have the learner do the steps under supervision. Fourth, follow-up. Inspect the work regularly (Hardman, 1963, p. 97).
According to Hardman (1963), JIT is useful primarily in teaching manipulative skills, but could be disappointing with more complicated tasks. An advantage of JIT is its flexibility; one variation has the teacher and learner switch roles. In order to be successful JIT requires adequate supervision and uniform application throughout the plant.
5.3 Important Trends and Changes in TVET History has been defined as the extension of the past into the future. Thus, the intention of this International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work is to do precisely that. Jacques Delors wrote that ‘the concept of learning throughout life [. . .] emerges as one of the keys to the twenty-first century’. He further noted that the concept ‘goes beyond the traditional distinction between initial and continuing education [and] meets the challenges posed by a rapidly changing world’ (Delors et al., 1996, p. 22). Another recent trend is enrolment of recent university graduates at community and technical colleges, to add occupation-specific credentials to their bachelor of arts degrees which have not led to their employment. Since many of these (mainly liberal arts) graduates are choosing TVET courses in the community and technical colleges, this trend—called reverse transfer—is important and is quite likely to become even more pronounced in the years to come. One trend, noted earlier, has been the impact of academic and mission drift upon TVET. While these phenomena have probably always been operative, what seems
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to have changed during the past few decades has been the pace of these phenomena. Notably, the transformation of ninety British polytechnics into universities in 1995 is viewed as the beginning of this accelerated pace. The impact upon quality TVET has not been viewed in a favourable light. This is because when there is a change in status, prestige, funding, etc., priorities and quality also appear to change—often not for the better. The education and training of knowledge workers requires different educational policies, facilities, curricula and, above all, teachers. Teachers must be transformed from those who impart knowledge to those who facilitate learning. Curricula must be transformed from mechanisms to deliver facts into mechanisms to promote and facilitate learning and thinking. Some writers assert that a competency-based approach to curriculum development can facilitate this transformation. TVET curricula have been in transition from its Industrial Age ‘mix’ of 50% theory and 50% practical to one that is 80% theory and 20% practical, paralleling the transition from the Industrial to the Information Age. This shift from a manipulative to a cognitive focus accompanies the convergence of ‘academic’ and TVET curricula. Knowledge workers may be defined as those who use logical-abstract thinking to diagnose problems, research and apply knowledge, propose solutions, and design and implement those solutions, often as a team member. The impact of technological modernization upon many aspects of education— and particularly upon curricula—necessitates basing the education of future knowledge workers upon a firm foundation. This foundation should include provision of a sound understanding of mathematics, science, technology and communication skills. Rather than compartmentalizing knowledge, technology affects all aspects of life and necessitates a broader understanding of what technologies are, how they work, how they have been applied to real-world problems, and how they affect our lives. This technological education foundation at the elementary and secondary school levels should then be augmented with a broad-based curriculum, prior to the commencement of specialization in post-secondary education. To avoid ‘cluttering’ curricula, many education systems have adopted a cross-curricular approach to infuse common themes in as many curricular areas as possible. Moreover, specialization has increasingly differentiated upward from the second to the third level of education. A policy encouraging continuous, lifelong learning should supplement the ‘basic training’ of knowledge workers by the delivery of ‘just-in-time’ education and training when new knowledge is required at the workplace. Many assert that individuals are likely to have three or more different occupations and/or careers during their lifetime. This necessitates workers learning how to learn in order to recycle themselves when moving from one position or workplace to another. In order not to overlap or duplicate work by other authors in this Handbook, we will end our short historical examination at this point. The historical material in other chapters complements this introductory chapter and enables other contributors to bring our knowledge of the development of TVET up to the present. Originally, the direct preparation for work was the main goal of TVET and this remains prominent in many developing nations. However, with the technological
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revolutions and innovations in science and technology during the twentieth century, new domains of knowledge and new disciplines have become important at all levels of education and training. Further, the upward differentiation of TVET from the first to the second level and then to the third level of education was an important development of the twentieth century and set the stage for the twenty-first century. The current focus is increasingly upon preparing knowledge workers to meet the challenges posed during the transition from the Industrial Age to the Information Age, with its concomitant post-industrial human-resource requirements and the changing world of work. TVET is currently faced with the challenges posed by the displacement of the traditionally strong focus upon manual work in favour of mental work, or at least the changing mixture of competencies required in the workplace. The boundaries between manual and mental work are fading away, as many traditional forms of work and the respective preparation processes for learning to work undergo change. Key problems in the field of TVET include pathways and content leading to generic or very specific professions and jobs. The dual system in Germany, for example, is an artefact of the German Berufskultur concept, while in many other countries a culture (or approach) developed to match labour-market needs with individual education and training in a mixed model of qualifications. In addition to pathways and content in terms of generic and specific competencies, and the way these goals are being justified at local, national and international levels, new demands in terms of employability, re-training, lifelong learning, personal growth and flexibility, transferability and mobility are imminent. The terms ‘education’ and ‘training’ also require elaboration. Essentially, the goal of education is ‘to create independent problem solvers [with] sufficient depth of understanding’. In contrast, the goal of training ‘is to teach people to follow prescribed procedures and to perform in a standardized manner’ (Gray & Herr, 1998, p. 159). What appears to be taking place in the changing ‘world of work’ is a convergence between these two—formerly distinct—points of view. This convergence is important for the future of education, particularly TVET. Draxler and Haddad (2002, p. 4) observed that knowledge, ‘both basic and applied, is being generated very quickly and is growing exponentially’. They claimed that ‘more new information has been produced within the last three decades than in the last five millennia’. Their forecast was that ‘we should be poised for dramatic technological advances and breakthroughs in the macro frontiers of the universe on the one hand, and microscopic secrets of the human body on the other hand’.
6 TVET, EFA and ESD The third goal of the Education for All (EFA) Framework for Action adopted in Dakar, Senegal, in 2000 (UNESCO, 2000) stipulates that the learning needs of all youth and adults should be met through access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes. Since this is basically what TVET does, the linkage between the two thrusts already exists, but must be strengthened and broadened in the future.
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The fourth EFA goal seeks to increase adult literacy rates by 50% by 2015. The adult and continuing education role played by TVET institutions has contributed to the improvement of literacy in the past, and should continue to do so in the future. Further, it must be recognized that ‘literacy’ itself also changes over time; and that Education for All does not necessarily mean the same education for all. The literacy requirements of both globalization and technological change necessitate enhancement of literacy education and training to keep pace with these phenomena. Fosen (2002) noted that the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre foci are quite similar to these EFA goals. Therefore, ‘potential synergies’ were suggested through integration and linkage. It was noted that the long-term UNESCO objectives established at the Seoul Congress (UNESCO, 1999) were:
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To provide TVET for all; To orient TVET for sustainable development; To strengthen TVET as an integral component of lifelong learning.
Meanwhile, Atchoarena (2000) has advanced an emerging policy and research agenda that included three areas:
r r r
The transition from school to work, including the need to make TVET institutions more responsive to the needs of the labour market. This concern motivates the global interest for apprenticeship schemes and work-experience programmes. Reforming the institutional framework to finance and govern TVET—a key principle being partnership with industry. The establishment of national training boards and of national training funds represents an important trend in this effort. Promoting competency-based training and establishing national qualification frameworks are also a significant trend in an increasing number of developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD) in the United States surveyed industries, commerce and governments in 2000 to identify desirable worker attributes for the twenty-first century. CORD’s list includes:
r r r r r r
Basic skills, including English; Planning, decision-making, critical thinking and problem-solving; Inter-personal communications skills, sensitivity to workforce diversity and cultural awareness; Ethics, management and leadership skills; Hands-on training in specific demand occupations; Computer training including Internet training.
Our own list is given in Table 1. SEAMEO (2001) identified eleven important trends and directions for TVET in its member nations, as follows:
r r
Clear national policies for TVET; The concept of lifelong learning;
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r r r r r r r r r
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Competency-based training (CBT); Development of demand-driven TVET; Flexible TVET delivery systems; Encouraging a competitive spirit among TVET providers; Strong public TVET systems; Recognition of TVET; Quality output and outcome; Research and evaluation to improve TVET; Apprenticeship systems. Table 1 Desirable worker attributes
Personal competencies
r r r
The ability to communicate effectively; Tolerance for ambiguity; Demonstrated leadership.
Technical/professional competencies
r r r r
Problem-solving; Up-to-date technical knowledge; Negotiation skills; Strategic thinking/planning. Ability.
Inter-cultural competencies
r r r
The ability to operate in other cultures; International job experience; Language capabilities.
7 Key Issues and Challenges Concerning TVET 7.1 The Image and Status of TVET TVET has consistently faced problems stemming from the negative image commonly held by students, parents and many sectors of societies. This issue is also related to the lack of student motivation to enrol in TVET programmes. These difficulties must be met with a renewed effort to raise the public perception of TVET. There are available some excellent examples of the promotion of TVET for employment. One aspect of this promotion has to do with the following issue.
7.2 After ‘Basic Education’, What? As nations implement Universal Primary Education and proceed to consolidate nine or more years of ‘basic education’, other countries have already achieved universal access to secondary education and are increasing participation in post-secondary education. This progression results in the upward differentiation of TVET from primary to secondary and secondary to post-secondary levels of their education systems. Issues of access to education and equality of treatment within education become increasingly important. An important question concerns the fact that after nations have implemented basic education they must then effectively address
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the question of student flows into ‘academic’ and/or TVET streams, which is also an access and equity issue. In nations where unemployment is endemic, TVET, particularly in areas fostering entrepreneurship and small enterprises, becomes increasingly important for the future. Tilak (2003) characterizes TVET as an ‘equity measure’ because it promotes ‘equity with a rural bias and serves the needs of relatively poor people’, as well as being an ‘antidote to urban-biased elite education’ (p. 675).
7.3 The Promotion of TVET for Girls and Women This is essentially an issue of access to TVET and, once girls and women enter TVET institutions, how they are received and accommodated. While many exemplary programmes have been developed and implemented during the past several decades, there still remains considerable work to be done. Changing the ‘macho’ image of TVET participants and workers has not been easy, but it has taken place. One of the best examples was the programme developed by the Canadian International Development Agency for SENAI in Brazil in the 1990s. The extension of TVET to occupations that are relevant to girls and women has also contributed to the increased participation of women and girls. Attracting more female instructors and administrators into TVET is going to be a major challenge in the future. However, as good as previous aid and development initiatives were, an evaluation of aid provided by DANIDA (2002) noted ‘the weak involvement of women in Danish-supported VET activities’. This suggests that these initiatives need to be increased in the future.
7.4 TVET Planning It is imperative to recognize that most UNESCO Member States are at different stages of social and economic development. This has a direct bearing upon TVET needs and training systems; therefore, each nation must plan relevant TVET institutions and programmes to meet its current and projected future needs. The length of compulsory schooling, the percentage of participation in education, the locus of TVET and many other factors reinforce the necessity to plan for the specific conditions existing in each nation. Abrahart and Verme (2001) stress that labour-market policies should ‘fit in with education priorities’ and ‘should be directed towards basic education or towards adult re-education and retraining’ (p. 127). Although there has historically been a time lag in the collection, processing and analysis of labour-market information (LMI), the rapid pace of workplace change necessitates its timely provision to TVET institutions in order to prepare workers with new skills and to re-train existing employees. Moreover, the acceleration of globalization and the outsourcing of both blue- and white-collar employment have made both human-resource planning and TVET planning more difficult.
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Several developing nations have addressed problems of youth unemployment, the vocationalization of secondary education and population growth by promoting entrepreneurship education and training. The DANIDA evaluation carried out in 2002 noted that entrepreneurship training is an important activity in private-sector development and much training is provided for this in DANIDA-supported programmes. They cite the Micro-Enterprise Development Project for the jua kali (informal) sector in Kenya, the innovative Manufacturing Advisory Centre (MAC) in South Africa, the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector in Uganda, including the introduction of entrepreneurship curricula in both schools and polytechnics, in collaboration with DANIDA and the Japan International Co-operation Agency. Similar initiatives have been undertaken in Botswana by the Department of Vocational Education in the Ministry of Education. TVET institutions should improve their capacity to make use of LMI, including market signals, indicators and intelligence, for planning and curriculum modernization. Governments should develop strategies to help TVET sectors respond effectively to labour-market needs and to deliver training programmes to respond to these needs. TVET institutions should also maintain and enhance their linkages with employers and develop capacity to gather LMI to contribute to the curriculum development process.
7.5 TVET Facilities and Equipment A perennial problem in TVET is the high cost of construction, equipment, maintenance and the provision of consumable training materials. Routine and preventive maintenance have also constituted perennial problems. These issues have implications for TVET finance, instructor training, curriculum development and the delivery of instruction. If one of these attributes is diminished, the others are affected. Many TVET systems have utilized cost-recovery, industrial levies, linkage with enterprises and employer participation mechanism to address this issue.
7.6 Workplace Health and Safety The impact of HIV/AIDS upon youth and working-age populations is a major challenge to be faced by TVET. If the very youth and workers educated and trained in TVET programmes are rendered incapable of working due to HIV/AIDS, then the investment in their future is lost. Moreover, since teachers and instructors have also suffered a high incidence of HIV/AIDS, the very educative process is in jeopardy. The lack of sustainability for both populations is poignant. The DANIDA evaluation mentioned above (2002) noted that ‘HIV/Aids awareness-raising activities have been integrated into all DANIDA-funded VET programmes’. This newest challenge has overshadowed traditional issues of workplace health and safety that have always
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concerned TVET personnel. However, all of these issues will continue to be of extreme importance in the near future.
7.7 The Organization and Administration of TVET There are many systems and variations for the organization, governance and administration of TVET. While the majority of TVET systems are public in nature, others are para-statal and still others are private. Within some governments, the locus of TVET has alternated between the ministries of education, labour and specifically TVET. Dual systems merge public and private organization, administration, finance and delivery. During the past two decades, an increasing number of national TVET systems have been re-structured under the aegis of national training boards or authorities. It is likely that this trend will continue in the future. The management of change is important to ensure that TVET systems keep pace with technological change and the needs of each nation. This is equally important in the organization and administration of TVET to prevent ossification. CINTERFOR (2000) highlighted ‘the importance of management training’ for TVET administrators. Similarly, the DANIDA (2002) evaluation noted ‘the shift in recent years in the focus of VET programmes, from technical skills to organisational and management issues.’ This will continue to be an important issue in the future.
7.8 TVET Curriculum Reform and Development In many nations TVET curricula have lost their relevance to the requirements of the labour market. In other nations, for a variety of reasons, employers prefer to employ untrained youth or ‘academic’ graduates and provide on-the-job training. One salient trend is the growing convergence between TVET and ‘academic’ curricula, resulting from technological change. In addition, the ‘traditional’ curricular balance between theory and practice has shifted in recent years. TVET curricula need to respond to these trends by enhancing the ‘foundation’ provided to students in mathematics, science, communications and an understanding of technology. Some exemplary new curricula have been developed in mechatronics, biotechnology, ICTs, robotics, rapid prototyping and similar ‘new’ fields. A related issue concerns who participates in curriculum development. If the needs of the workplace are to be met, then workplace participation in curriculum development—through advisory boards or other mechanisms—is even more relevant than in the past. Another curricular issue is the movement to competency-based curriculum development and instruction.
7.9 Teaching and Learning As TVET becomes increasingly more knowledge oriented, the role of the teachers and instructors must change from the didactic imparting of skills and knowledge to
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the facilitation of learning. This requires a quantum change on the part of TVET teachers and instructors, but is an essential step in the education and training of knowledge workers for the workplaces of the future. The changing role of TVET instructors involves ‘linking occupational related (academic) studies with technical subjects’, according to CINTERFOR (2000). The increasing use of ICT and other media also contributes to this shift in teaching and learning methodologies. Since many nations have developed dedicated institutions for training TVET and polytechnic personnel, change should also take place in these institutions in order to foster the desired teaching and learning methodologies.
7.10 TVET Teacher Education UNESCO-APEID noted that the second International Congress on TVET in Seoul (UNESCO, 1999) called for ‘a new breed of TVET teachers and a new paradigm of training them’. The round-table held by UNESCO-APEID called for ‘the development of prototype training materials that model effective and responsive content and the application of learner-centred approaches’. The Philippine Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) highlighted ‘inadequacies in knowledge, skills and industrial experience’ of TVET teachers and noted that they ‘must be able to transmit to the trainees actual occupational and practical skills which are relevant to present practices in the workplace’. Similarly, CINTERFOR (2000) noted that ‘broadening the role for instructors will require changes in the way TVET instructors are educated in teacher training courses.’ In addition to modernizing pre-service TVET teacher education, increasing attention must be devoted to the in-service education of existing TVET personnel, otherwise these desired changes may not be achieved—and so will be lost.
7.11 TVET Teachers’ Conditions of Service In some nations TVET teachers and instructors are not treated in the same manner as are ‘academic’ teachers with regard to their various conditions of service. In particular, issues of different terms for remuneration, promotion and benefits are a source of frustration. This often leads to alienation and high teacher turnover, especially when highly qualified TVET personnel can be tempted away by higher salaries in commercial enterprises.
7.12 Relationship Between TVET and Enterprises As has already been noted, employer participation in curriculum development has become increasingly important. In addition, TVET personnel need to be encouraged to participate in industrial attachments in order to both maintain viable
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relationships with employers and to enhance their knowledge and competencies. Similarly, the development of viable student attachments is increasingly important. The improvement of linkages with enterprises can be accomplished in many ways—one important mechanism being through public/private sector partnerships. The DANIDA (2002) evaluation highlighted the importance of private sector development programmes that link Danish enterprises with enterprises in partner countries in which DANIDA finances related training activities with up to 9% of the total cost of training. This new departure in bilateral development assistance might contribute much to addressing issues of industry/TVET linkages and finance in the future.
7.13 The Growing Importance of ICTs for TVET Information and communications technologies (ICTs) have become increasingly important for TVET, both in terms of content and delivery. The addition of ICTs to TVET programmes and curricula (preferably as part of a cross-curricular focus) will assist modernization of the field. The use of ICTs to deliver TVET courses, in both formal and informal settings, will assume even greater importance in the near future. The ICT contribution to the development of teaching and learning resources has been phenomenal and, if anything, is likely to continue to increase in the near future. One important example is the increasing usage of simulation software, which some claim can substitute for some of the ‘hands-on’ manipulative workshop training in TVET. Another important aspect of ICTs has been the exchange of TVET information between nations through the UNESCO-UNEVOC network, the ILO network and other multi-lateral and non-governmental networks.
7.14 TVET Finance With even traditionally well-funded TVET institutions experiencing financial difficulties, it is and will increasingly be necessary to develop additional sources of finance. The issue of public/private sector partnerships noted above is one avenue for broadening participation in TVET funding. Cost-recovery has traditionally been an available option and is becoming even more attractive in the new Information Age. Abrahart and Verme (2001) stress the importance of ‘the use of student or trainee fees for TVET’ with exemptions for unemployed and government-sponsored trainees (p. 127). They are sceptical about rate-of-return studies, noting that higher returns to general education ‘may say just as much about excessive costs and the poor structure of vocational education systems as it does about the subsequent benefits to students’. Here, they mirror our own scepticism about World Bank rate-ofreturn-based policies favouring decreased investment in TVET. The traditional ‘levy finance’ systems remain viable options. Many post-secondary TVET institutions have developed new sources of finance during the past few decades. One example is
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the national training funds referred to earlier. Part of these initiatives also involves donations of expensive and rapidly-obsolete equipment to TVET institutions by cooperating enterprises. Tilak (2003) notes that TVET is ‘necessarily expensive’ and cautions that ‘poor investments cannot yield attractive returns’.
7.15 Testing and Certification While national systems of testing and certification remain necessary and continue to require improvement, one salient impact of globalization has been the international recognition of qualifications. The establishment of national training frameworks in a large number of nations has begun the broader recognition of competencies and qualifications. The UNESCO-APEID round-table referred to earlier identified many important issues concerning the role of national occupational standards in TVET curriculum development. These issues are also of major importance in the design and development of testing and certification mechanisms and will continue to be of importance in the future. The CINTERFOR (2000) and UNESCO-UNEVOC (2001) small island States’ meetings added the issue of ‘accreditation framework(s) for national, sub-regional’ and regional recognition of TVET qualifications. This issue is related to the larger regional accreditation systems in Europe and elsewhere. Both types of regional recognition will continue to be important in the future. The impact of international student testing—the International Association for Educational Achievement (IEA), the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA)—while more visible upon ‘academic’ education, is also influencing TVET. Also, the desire of international/multinational employers to hire persons with recognized qualifications is affecting (and will increasingly continue to affect) hiring practices. While this is current practice at the university level, it has also become increasingly important at the technician, technologist and skilled-trades levels.
7.16 Some Other Important Issues Other related issues include the Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) articulation between TVET and ‘academic’ institutions and programmes, ‘reverse transfer’, the enrolment of degree-holders in community and technical college technical programmes and joint degree-diploma programmes. Academic drift and mission drift concern the conversion of polytechnics and other post-secondary TVET institutions into universities. These newer trends are highly likely to increase in importance in the future. In one respect, these issues are all related to the progression to continuing and lifelong learning. These issues also relate to worker re-training, upgrading and job change. The promotion of ‘a seamless educational infrastructure in collaboration with trade unions and employers’ organizations’ is noted by ILO/CINTERFOR to be one of the major changes in TVET in the Caribbean
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(CARICOM) nations. Similarly, the TechPrep initiatives in the United States have developed a ‘seamless’ education and training infrastructure which begins in high school Grade 10 and flows through completion of community and technical college programmes.
8 Conclusion: Where Next? There is a need to re-examine the world of work, with regard to: (a) its educational and training institutions; (b) learning processes and necessary competencies; (c) its effects upon labour markets; (d) school-to-work transitions; (e) the role of gender; (f) principles of equality and equity; (g) the roles of government, business and industry; (h) the dominant didactics for learning a profession; (i) the assessment of competencies; (j) the effects of flexible pathways and curriculum systems; (k) the relationship between human capital formation and TVET systems—among other features of the field. These are some aspects of the TVET field that need to be examined and documented in order to provide the best answers and best practices to improve TVET, and bridge the gap between vocational and academic education in the twenty-first century. It is hoped that this Handbook will fulfil this role. In developing the structure and content of this Handbook, the intention of the editors has been to review developments that have occurred in the field of technical and vocational education and training that contribute to the improvement of the field. The Handbook is intended to reflect best and innovative practices concerning research, policy and practice affecting TVET and education for the world of work and, wherever possible, concrete case studies have been used as examples. The authors who have contributed to the Handbook are representative of the various regions of the world and of major international organizations involved in TVET. In addition, the editors chose to balance contributions by academic authors with those by practitioners, who have often not been able to participate in these discussions in the past. The audiences for which the Handbook is designed include policy-makers, practitioners, administrators, planners, researchers, teachers, teacher educators, students and colleagues in a range of fields who are interested in learning about TVET, in both developed and developing countries, countries in transition and countries in post-conflict situations. The editors appreciate that this has been a tall order given the enormous variations that exist worldwide in the structure and functioning of economies, systems of production and of underlying education systems. For example, one of the things that the World Bank learned in its work on TVET more than ten years ago was that OECD models introduced into Africa did not work because they were too expensive and could not link up with local labour markets (which were mostly located in the informal sector). Some studies have explored the transfer of TVET models from developed to developing nations and the difficulties encountered which hindered successful transfers. A recent World Bank study of TVET in Sub-Saharan Africa reinforces this view, and documents the central role of employer training, which is in contrast to the high
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performing Asian countries where well-managed and well-financed formal TVET institutions have on the whole been effective. In the light of such evidence, the purpose of the Handbook will be to provide information on different models of TVET that occur in different parts of the world, while not suggesting that such models are necessarily easily transferable or appropriate for countries at different levels of development and with different cultural and socio-political backgrounds.
Notes 1. The material in this section of the chapter draws upon ‘Vocational education: the come-back?’, in Education today (UNESCO, 2005) to which the authors of this chapter, and UNEVOC, made major contributions. 2. <www.stratrealfoundation.org/> 3. It could be speculated that Della Vos may have been the descendent of one of the trades/ craftspersons brought to modernize Russia in the late 1600s by Peter the Great.
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Smith, A. 1937. An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. New York, NY: Modern Library. [Originally published in 1776.] Solomon, D. 1968. Sociological perspectives on occupations. In: Becker, H.S., ed. Institutions and person. Chicago, IL: Aldine. Sorokin, P.A. 1947. Society, culture and personality: their structure and dynamics. New York, NY: Harper. South-East Asia Ministers of Education Organisation. 2001. Issues and trends for TVET in Southeast Asia. <www.voctech.org.bn> Sutherland, E.H., ed. 1937. The professional thief by a professional thief. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Tilak, J.B.G. 2003. Vocational education and training in Asia. In: Keeves, J.B.; Watanabe, R., eds. International handbook of educational research in the Asia-Pacific Region, pp. 673–86. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Tjaden, G.S. 1995. Measuring the information age business. Atlanta, GA: Georgia Institute of Technology. Toffler, A.C. 1981. The third wave. New York, NY: Bantam Books. UNESCO. 1999. Lifelong learning and training: a bridge to the future—final report. Paris: UNESCO. (Final report of the second International Congress on TVET, Seoul, 1999.) UNESCO. 2000. The Dakar Framework for Action. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO. 2005. Vocational education: the come-back? Education today, April-June. UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 2005. Global education digest. Montreal, Canada: UNESCO-UIS. UNESCO-UNEVOC. 2001. Asia-Pacific Conference, Adelaide, Australia 26–28 March 2001. <www.unevoc.unesco.org> UNESCO-UNEVOC. 2005. Learning for work, citizenship and sustainability. Bonn, Germany: UNESCO-UNEVOC. (Final report of the UNESCO International Experts Meeting.) UNESCO-UNEVOC; UNESCO-UIS. 2006. Participation in formal technical and vocational education and training programmes worldwide. An initial statistical study. Bonn, Germany: UNESCO-UNEVOC; Montreal, Canada: UNESCO-UIS. United Kingdom. Department for International Development. 1996. Labour market signals and indicators. London: DfID. (DfID Education Research Paper, no. 15.) Wade, N. 2006. Still evolving, human genes tell new story. New York Times, 7 March. Waller, W. 1961. The sociology of teaching. New York, NY: Wiley. [Originally published in 1936.] Weber, M. 1947. The theory of social and economic organization. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. [Originally published in 1922. Translated by A.M. Henderson and T. Parsons.] Whyte, W.F. 1943. Street corner society: the social structure of an Italian slum. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Wiemann, G. 2002. Lehrgangsausbildung: a European prototype of a universal industry-based training method. In: CEDEFOP, ed. Towards a history of vocational education and training (VET) in Europe in a comparative perspective. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Wilson, D.N. 1974. Towards an anthropology of educational planning in developing nations. Educational planning, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 18–28. Wilson, D.N. 1990. The deleterious impact of premature rate-of-return studies on LDC education policies: an Indonesian case. Canadian and international education, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 32–49. Wilson, D.N. 1991. A comparative study of the transfer of the SENAI model of apprenticeship training from Brazil to other Latin American nations. In: Wilson, D.N.; de Moura Castro, C.; Oliveira, J., eds. Innovations in educational and training technologies. Turin, Italy: ILO. Wilson, D.N. 1992. An international perspective on trainer competencies, standards and certification. Toronto, Canada: Ontario Training Corporation. Wilson, D.N. 1993a. Reforming technical and technological education. The vocational aspect of education, vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 265–84. Wilson, D.N. 1993b. The effectiveness of training boards in Canada. Geneva, Switzerland: International Labour Organization. (Training Policy Paper, no. 109.)
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Wilson, D.N. 1993c. The effectiveness of national training boards. Geneva, Switzerland: International Labour Organization, Training Policies Branch. (Discussion Papers Series, no. 110.) [With Roy J. Adams.] Wilson, D.N. 1995. The delineation and certification of occupations in Canada. In: Oliveira, J.B., ed. Occupational standards: international perspectives. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University, Center on Education and Training for Employment. Wilson, D.N. 1997a. Discussion paper on the reform of technological education. Toronto, Canada: Ontario Ministry of Education and Training. Wilson, D.N. 1997b. The German dual system of vocational education and training: a comparative study of influence upon educational policy and practice in other countries. In: Kodron, C. et al., eds. Vergleichende Erziehungswissenschaft: Herausforderung—Vermittlung—Praxis. Cologne, Germany: B¨ohlau Verlag. Wilson, D.N. 1998. Defining international competencies for the New Millennium. Ottawa: Canadian Bureau for International Education and Human Resources Development Canada. Wilson, D.N. 1999. A new wrinkle in planning post-secondary education in Ontario: B.A. degree holders enroling in colleges of applied arts and technology. Educational planning, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 3–22. Wilson, D.N. 2000. Technical-vocational education and training. In: Poonwassie, D., ed. Introduction to adult education. Toronto, Canada: Canadian Educators’ Press. Wilson, D.N. 2001a. Reform of TVET for the changing world of work. Prospects, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 21–37. Wilson, D.N. 2001b. Technical-vocational adult education. In: Poonwassie, D.H.; Poonwassie, A., eds. Fundamentals of adult education. Toronto, Canada: Thompson Educational. Wilson, D.N. 2003. The future of comparative and international education in a globalised world. In: Bray, M., ed. Comparative education: continuing traditions, new challenges and new paradigms. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Wilson, D.N. 2003. Knowledge workers and knowledge management in the workplace. (Symposium on Adult Education: Learning Opportunities for the Future, Canadian Defence Academy, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 18 June 2003.) Wilson, D.N. 2005. The education and training of knowledge workers. In: Zajda, J., ed. International handbook on globalisation and education policy research. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Wirth, L. 1928. The ghetto. London: Cambridge University Press.
Prologue Skills Development in the Informal Sector of Sub-Saharan Africa Arvil V. Adams
1 Introduction Since first recognized in the early 1970s, the informal sector of Sub-Saharan Africa has become a growing source of employment for large numbers of youth, but also for older workers pursuing entrepreneurial goals and others adjusting to structural changes in the region’s employment (Bangasser, 2000; Liimatainen, 2002; International Labour Organization [ILO], 2002a; Johanson & Adams, 2004; Becker, 2004; Haan, 2006; Fox and Gaal, 2008). Initially viewed as a safety net for those unable to find employment in the modern sector, the image of the informal sector has begun to change with time and the education of those entering it. More workers have begun to view it not as a temporary stop while searching for employment in the formal wage economy, but as a preferred destination offering opportunities to those wanting to become entrepreneurs. In countries throughout the Africa region, where job growth in the formal wage sector has stagnated making it difficult to absorb rising numbers of new entrants to the labour force, self-employment has opened opportunities for youths who are acquiring higher levels of education and skills (Fox and Gaal, 2008). Rising levels of education are producing higher earnings in the informal sector. In Ghana, using household data from the 2005 Ghana Living Standards Survey, the comparison of earning gains estimated with multiple regression analysis showed returns by level of schooling for self-employed workers in the urban non-agriculture sector that approach or match those of wage workers in the urban non-agriculture sector (World Bank, 2008). A cursory look at countries in Sub-Saharan Africa shows that informal sector activities maintain a significant and, in some cases, dominant share of their respective markets covering mining, manufacturing, commerce, finance and other sectors. Examples of this employment are seen on the streets and in home-based activities in countries like Nigeria, Kenya and Senegal in the vending of food and small merchandise, in health care by traditional healers, the tailoring of garments, and the manufacturing of furniture and repair of automobiles. The size of the sector, estimated to account on average for 42% of gross domestic product (GDP) in twenty-three African countries in 2000, is forcing governments to acknowledge its
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existence and importance to the national economy and the welfare of those employed therein (Schneider, 2002). In South Africa, with a larger formal sector, the informal economy still contributes between 7 and 12% of GDP (Devey, Skinner and Valodia, 2006). Confronted with evidence of the informal sector’s growing importance, this prologue examines the question of how workers are prepared with skills for these jobs and how governments are encouraging further investments in skills alongside a menu of other interventions that would raise productivity and earnings in the sector. It looks closely at the unique character of skills development in the sector and the roles played by schools and employers as providers of skills. Unlike the formal sector where workers may be specialized, those working in the informal sector must have skills to perform multiple functions and few can afford long spells away from work for training. These features set skills development for the informal sector apart from that for the formal sector. The chapter examines recent research covering measurement of employment in the informal sector, impediments to investing in skills within the sector, and policies and programmes to expand this investment. It extends earlier work on this topic carried out under the auspices of the World Bank (Johanson & Adams, 2004). The purpose is to examine what is currently known about these issues, identify gaps in knowledge, and offer a strategy for expanding skills development in the informal sector. Recent research, for example, like that mentioned above in Ghana showing the changing character of employment in the informal sector and the prospects of growing returns to skills, casts a new light on employment in this sector. Further inquiry into the robustness of these findings is merited in other countries to deepen our understanding of how skills influence the welfare of those who create their own employment in the informal sector and how investment in skills can be expanded. While recognizing informality in the economy and the importance of skills to the earnings of those employed in the sector, the chapter does not address incentives for this informality or suggest ways in which the informal economy might be formalized. The chapter does attempt, however, to unravel differences in the informal sector as a means to better understand how the welfare of those employed in the informal sector can be improved through investments in their skills. It provides a framework of questions for further study to meet this challenge. Finding ways in which to improve the working condition of those employed in the informal sector is part of a broader agenda defined for promoting decent work in the global economy (ILO, 2002b).
2 Measuring the Informal Sector The ILO first introduced a statistical definition for the informal sector in a January 1993 Resolution adopted by the fifteenth Conference of International Labour Statisticians (ILO, 2002a). The attention paid to the measurement issue was generated by interest in the size of the informal sector and its contribution to national in-
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come and economic welfare. A decade later, this interest has grown to include the increasingly precarious nature of employment in the formal sector, joining that in the informal sector, as previously secure jobs and benefits were being threatened by growing global competition. The result has been an effort to derive a broader definition of informal employment. This was reflected in a subsequent Resolution adopted in December 2003 by the seventeenth Conference of International Labour Statisticians (Hussmanns, 2004). Interest in the two concepts—employment in the informal sector and informal employment—has driven efforts to define and measure the informal economy.
2.1 The Conceptual Framework Just how are these concepts defined? The conceptual framework adopted in defining employment in the informal sector and informal employment uses a building-block approach that disaggregates total employment along two dimensions: type of job and type of enterprise. Labour-force surveys have been a primary source of data for measuring informal sector employment and informal employment. These surveys are conducted on a regular basis in most countries and are used to produce data on the two concepts by adding additional questions pertaining to the informal sector and informal employment (Hussmanns, 2004). Household surveys identify informal production units and then administer ‘enterprise’ modules as part of the household survey, thus adopting a mixed household and enterprise survey approach to measurement of employment in the informal economy. The two-step mixed survey approach is considered superior in coverage to using separate household or enterprise surveys (Roubaud & Razafindrakoto, 2007). Within the household survey, the type of job held in the informal sector covers the self-employed, own-account workers, contributing family workers, paid workers and members of producers’ co-operatives. In the absence of an enterprise module, the self-employed, own-account and contributing family workers are sometimes used as a proxy for informal sector employment. Where an enterprise module is used, informal sector enterprises are defined as unincorporated private production units owned by individuals or households producing at least some non-agricultural goods or services for sale or barter. Their size in terms of employment is below a certain number threshold determined by national circumstances, but often defined as under ten workers. These enterprises are not registered under specific forms of national legislation and may be separated into production activities that are legal, legal but underground or illegal. Informal employment can also be found outside the informal sector and includes unpaid family workers, workers with precarious employment in formal sector enterprises, and certain employment in households producing goods exclusively for their own use or employing paid domestic workers. The sum of employment in informal sector enterprises and that outside in these three categories defines informal employment. For an illustration of the building-block approach to measurement of formal and informal sector employment and also informal employment see Fig. 1.
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Fig. 1 Conceptual framework: informal employment Source: Roubaud & Razafindrakoto, 2007.
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While the study of employment in the informal sector is important for capturing the contribution of this sector to national income and welfare, the separate study of informal employment, going beyond the informal sector, has attracted the attention of policy-makers concerned with the increasing precariousness of employment in all enterprises. The ILO has expanded its traditional attention on employment in the informal sector to include informal employment as part of its ‘decent jobs’ agenda. Preceding the interest of the seventeenth Conference of International Labour Statisticians in the informalization of employment, the ILO set out to measure employment in the informal sector leading to the publication in 2002 of the ILO compendium of official statistics on employment in the informal sector. The 1993 ILO Resolution on employment in the informal sector provided national statistical agencies with a degree of flexibility in their definition of the informal sector and this produced problems in international comparability. Following recommendations by the Expert Group on Informal Statistics (the Delhi Group), a set of recommendations was offered in 1999 for the harmonization of national definitions (ILO, 2002a). The 2002 ILO compendium contains harmonized measures of informal employment, but for only seven countries globally, while also reporting measures based on national definitions for another thirty-eight countries.1 Only one of the harmonized country reports—Ethiopia—is from Sub-Saharan Africa. While there is a growing awareness of the informal sector by governments and its importance to national accounts and measures of economic activity and well-being, national statistics capturing the concept continue to vary from country to country. These differences are attributed to:
r r r r r r
Criteria used to define the informal sector, for example, employment size of the enterprise, use of registration status; Branches of economic activity covered, particularly concerning the inclusion or exclusion of agricultural activity; Inclusion or exclusion of paid domestic employees employed by households or producers of goods for their own final use within their households; Inclusion or exclusion of persons with a secondary job in the informal sector; Inclusion or exclusion of persons engaged in professional or technical activities: and Geographic coverage, some for urban areas only.
Caution, therefore, has to be exercised in making cross-country comparisons of published informal sector data. Careful attention must be given to the concepts and methodology used in each country in national statistics for the informal sector. One of the lessons drawn from this for further study of the informal sector is the importance of benchmarking the definition and methods used by a country’s national statistics agency, and if special surveys are undertaken, using the ILO’s building-block approach to define carefully the concept used in each country in order to harmonize definitions for comparison or to understand their differences. While recognizing the importance of informal employment outside the informal sector, this chapter is largely focused on issues of employment in the informal sector and the skilling of its workforce. It does not address skills in the formal wage sector.2
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2.2 A Profile of Informal Sector Employment The ILO’s 2002 report provides a glimpse of those employed in the informal sector. Table 1, drawn from the ILO report, presents informal sector employment using national definitions for countries reporting from Sub-Saharan Africa. The variation in this table of the percentage employed in the informal sector reflects the differences in national definitions. The share of informal sector employment varies from nearly 20% in Botswana to over 90% in Mali where agricultural employment is included in the national definition. Though not reported here, the share of informal employment in rural areas tends to exceed that in urban areas. Considerable churning of employment in the informal sector is noted in South Africa by Devey, Skinner and Valodia (2006) with slightly over 44% of those employed in the informal sector in September 2003 continuing to work in the informal sector in March 2004. Table 1 Persons employed in the informal sector: selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (latest available year) Employment (’000) Year
Total
Men
Employment as a percentage Women
Total
Men
Women
21.1 174.8
39.4 100.7
12.3 50
27.6 41
1444.2
3370.6
56.4
85.7
485.6 1572 1531.1
690.2 1746 838.3
19.3 46 57.3 74.2 57.5 94.1 31 22
91 25.7 28
96.4 38.2 15
National definition Botswana Benin∗ Cameroon∗ Ethiopia Madagascar∗ Mali South Africa Tanzania
1996 1999 1993 1999 1995 1996 2001 1991
Kenya
1999
60.5 275.5 119 4814.8 239 1176.1 3319 2369.4
Small or micro-enterprises (national definition) 1881
1090.4
790.6
36.4
43.9
29.5
Source: ILO, 2002a. ∗ = urban only.
Self-employed workers, most of whom are own-account workers and unpaid family workers, are considered the major component of the rural and urban informal sectors. Becker (2004) estimates that 70% of the informal sector is comprised of those who are self-employed with the percentage rising to 81% if South Africa is excluded. The number of self-employed in non-agricultural activities, measured by household surveys, has increased over the past two decades. Own-account and family workers represented nearly two-thirds of the non-agricultural labour force in Africa. Women’s share of informal employment is higher than that of men’s in about half of the countries for which data are available. Women comprise most of the unpaid family workers and are often undercounted, since many are home-based. Trade accounts for a major share of informal sector employment. From a survey of South Africa, Lund and Skinner (2003) report that informal employment is concentrated in the retail and wholesale trade with just over half of all informal sector workers located in this sector. A significant number
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are also employed in construction, manufacturing and services. Over 10% of those engaged in the informal sector have jobs in manufacturing and this is considered low in comparison with other developing countries. Haan (2006) reports that trade activities, including street vending and ambulant trading, are the most important segments of the informal sector in Africa, usually constituting half and sometimes up to 75% of employment. The self-employed dominate employment in the informal sector. In a survey of the characteristics of informal sector enterprises in Botswana, Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe, Mead and Liedholm contend that on average almost two-thirds of all informal sector enterprises are one-person businesses (quoted in Haan, 2006). Most of these enterprises are labelled as subsistence level firms with only a small likelihood of growing into larger enterprises. Earnings and profits in these small enterprises are low by comparison with larger enterprises that hire other workers. These small enterprises are sometimes referred to as the ‘working poor’.3 Still, evidence from a number of countries confirms that average incomes in the informal sector are generally higher than official minimum incomes and earnings from agriculture. Earnings of self-employed non-agricultural workers in Ghana in 2005, a proxy for informal sector workers, were 35% higher than those for selfemployed agriculture workers (World Bank, 2008). Fox and Gaal (2008) conclude that earnings in the informal sector pull workers out of agriculture with average incomes in the informal sector of most countries being at least 50% higher than those in agriculture. The impact on poverty, they report, is positive with data from a number of countries showing that households whose main economic activity is in the informal sector have a lower rate of poverty—the highest poverty rates are always in agriculture. Having a family member earn income in the informal sector raises household incomes. The education levels of those employed in the informal sector are generally lower than those in the formal sector (Liimatainen, 2002). However, this pattern is changing as young workers are entering with more education. Low education levels limit trainability and lead to modest skill levels. In a survey of five African countries— Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe—Haan (2006) reports that about half of informal sector workers have either no education or primary education, and less than 5% have a post-secondary education. Slightly better results are reported by Walther (2006) for South Africa. In contrast, a survey of those employed in the informal sector of Nigeria found larger numbers with a post-secondary education (14%), and some 45% with a secondary school certificate (NISER, 2007). Finding ways to continue education and promote skills training forms an important challenge to improving productivity in the informal sector and reducing poverty.
3 Building a Skilled Workforce in the Informal Sector Skills for work are acquired in different settings in classrooms, workshops and on the job. They are provided by public education and training institutions, private forprofit and non-profit institutions, and employers through training in the workplace and outside. Training may be taken to qualify for employment or to upgrade skills
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and prepare for the introduction of new technology in production. For those working in the informal sector, some or all of these approaches to skills may be used. Public and private schools can play an important role in preparing individuals for creating their own employment by providing them with a technical skill, usually through a technical and vocational education curriculum. A commonly used approach to self-employment is working for another employer and acquiring skills on the job, either informally or through an apprenticeship, before leaving to set up one’s own business. Each approach has strengths and weaknesses.
3.1 Public Technical and Vocational Education and Training Public secondary and tertiary schools with technical and vocational education programmes have played a smaller role than might have been anticipated in preparing workers for informal sector employment (Atchoarena & Delluc, 2001).4 Originally developed at the time of independence in the 1960s to meet the expected skill requirements of industrialization, these institutions have been slow to respond to the structural change and growth of the informal sector (Brewer, 2004; Haan, 2006; Liimatainen, 2002; NISER, 2007; Filipiak, 2007). Structural adjustment programmes and tight government budgets contributed in the 1980s and 1990s to deteriorating facilities and equipment and the inability of these institutions to update programmes and respond to the shift to informal sector employment (ILO, 2002b; Johanson & Adams, 2004). Other impediments also stand in the way of the public sector’s response to meeting the skills challenge of the informal sector. The training offered by the public sector is considered theoretical in focus without sufficient opportunities for practice and biased toward white-collar jobs in the wage sector (Liimatainen, 2002). Entry requirements and fees are often too high and the training methods used better suited to a more literate population. The courses offered are considered rigid and too standardized to meet the multi-skilling needs of the highly diverse informal sector. Where public financing is used without accountability for results, these institutions have few incentives to reflect and adjust to changes in the demand for skills (Ziderman, 2003). Weak accountability influences not only the responsiveness of the public sector to special needs of the informal sector, but in a more general way to the changing demand for skills in the formal sector. The population targeted for this training and the mode of delivery are also factors behind the failure to reach out to the informal sector with skills. Public technical and vocational education programmes are largely focused on the full-time student preparing for entry into the world of work and require sustained periods of time in school. The focus on pre-service training is not matched by a focus on in-service training for those already employed. This model has proved ill-suited to those among the poor seeking to combine school and work in a part-time fashion to provide families with income and, similarly, to meet the needs of older workers who are unable to afford time away from work to undergo training. A more flexible
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approach is needed. Examples of this are found where schools have adopted modular, competency-based curricula that permit flexible entry to and exit from training at hours not interfering with the workday. The Kenya Jua Kali programme (Kiswahili for ‘work under the hot sun’), offering training vouchers to those working in the informal sector in the mid-1990s, provides an interesting window on the response of public training institutions to the demand for skills that these vouchers created. The vouchers were observed to produce a positive supply response to the demand created for skills, but mainly from non-governmental organizations and from master craftspersons in the informal sector. New programmes were developed tailored to the needs of voucher recipients and offered during off-hours to fit work schedules. Public institutions showed little interest in adapting their traditional programmes to respond to this new source of demand (Adams, 2001). The motivation for responding to new sources of demand like this with innovative programmes is diminished where public institutions are unable to retain locally-generated income for quality improvements and incentives for instructors. The recent introduction of entrepreneurship education represents an innovation in public secondary and tertiary education institutions that is relevant to the informal sector. These programmes help develop attitudes favourable to starting one’s own business and provide knowledge and skills for running a business, e.g. business law, accounting and bookkeeping, credit and finance, and marketing.5 Farstad (2002) examined entrepreneurship education programmes in secondary and tertiary education institutions in Botswana, Uganda and Kenya. He found instructors generally well qualified, but observed no immediate impact on the numbers of students leaving school to start a business. The fact that students did not immediately start new businesses is not by itself an indicator of failure on the part of these programmes. Farstad acknowledged that the more traditional route to self-employment starts with an initial period of apprenticeship or wage employment to gain practical experience and build professional self-confidence. In a comparison of graduates of general secondary education programmes and those from technical and vocational education programmes, he observed that the latter group was more likely to start businesses within a few years of graduation. The technical education provided a skill that was then honed on the job with an apprenticeship and wage employment before setting out to start a new business. Entrepreneurship education has encouraged schools to think outside traditional patterns of pedagogy and classroom instruction. Periods of mandatory work placement have been introduced along with compulsory development of a business plan subject to examination and grading. In Kenya, entrepreneurship education is delivered with the assistance of small business centres attached to all public postsecondary and some private technical and vocational education institutions. In Botswana, students benefited from the requirement that they establish and operate a student enterprise. Co-operation between training institutions and private enterprises in curriculum development and training delivery was found to add value in the three countries studied (Farstad, 2002).
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Other options for engaging public education and training institutions in skills development for the informal sector are discussed below in the section on employers and traditional apprenticeships. The low educational background of many of those employed in the informal sector opens opportunities for greater attention of public sector institutions to adult education and literacy programmes, and to the offering of what is becoming known as second-chance education tailored to the needs of those who have missed opportunities for early education (World Bank, 2007; Adams et al., 2007). Where found, these programmes have provided low-cost education to open doors for employment, but have not been carefully evaluated for their impact on further training and earnings.
3.2 Private Providers of Skills While the public sector has been slow to respond to the changes in demand for skills brought about by growth of the informal sector, private institutions have been more responsive to this demand (Brewer, 2004). These institutions are of two types: for-profit and non-profit institutions (Bennell, 1999). The for-profit institutions have grown in numbers in the 1990s with the decreased capacity of public providers (Atchoarena & Esquieu, 2002). While many are registered trainers and follow official curricula and prepare trainees for government trade tests like their public counterparts, a large number are unregistered, small in scale and form part of the informal sector themselves. They appear as storefront operations that can be observed in any African city. Tuition and training fees constitute the main sources of income for these institutions, although registered institutions may receive subsidies from the government. Largely dependent on fees, for-profit institutions are concentrated in urban districts and less frequently found in rural areas. They are responsive to demands for skills, adjusting quickly to changing needs. The programmes offered often require limited investment in equipment and facilities and provide easy market entry and exit for the providers. Commercial courses are popular, including IT programmes. Other soft courses cover tailoring, driving schools, food preparation, auto repair, cosmetics, etc. Programmes are often of short duration to fit the ‘just-in-time’ learning needs of trainees. Fees are kept low, but still are not affordable by the poorest of the poor. Quality varies widely where standards are left to the provider (Johanson & Adams, 2004). Private for-profit providers could play a larger role in the provision of training to those in the informal sector. Their programmes are demand led. Their sometimes modular short courses are well suited to a more flexible delivery of skills training for those who cannot afford long spells away from their work. Expanding their role will require attention to the capital market constraints they face and the incentives needed to encourage more services in rural areas and to the poor. The promotion of private training associations could also open opportunities for co-operation and reduction of costs, while providing a framework for accreditation and quality assurance. Examples of these associations merit further study.
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The term non-governmental organization (NGO) generally refers to a range of non-profit organizations that include providers of training (Haan, 2006). Churches and international agencies play an important role in this capacity, along with national and local community-based organizations. NGOs include local branches of strong international NGOs and national NGOs with wide coverage and smaller ‘community-based organizations’. Training by larger NGOs is sometimes linked to other support services for small businesses, including micro-credit. Small business incubators, operated by NGOs, often offer entrepreneurs a package of business services, including training, but have not been carefully studied in Africa. Large church-based training NGOs like Don Bosco and secular NGOs like Opportunities Industrialization Centres (OIC) are found in a number of African countries. Many of the smaller church-based NGOs and community-based organizations maintain a strong social emphasis in their training outreach to the rural poor, minorities, women and the handicapped. Their training activities tend to have social and cultural rather than economic objectives with the result that their training is of limited value in helping participants enter into self-employment (Haan, 2006). They focus training on traditional trades. Curricula are outdated and the training offered is theoretical rather than practical. Quality is low. Services are generally free-of-charge, but with some beginning to charge minimal fees. These NGOs serve the poor, but they offer little that translates into preparation for selfemployment. What Haan (2006) calls ‘traditional training NGOs’ are larger in size and specialized in skills training. Don Bosco schools are an example. They benefit from international assistance and tend to resemble training provided by the public sector with full-time, centre-based training of long duration directed at wage employment in the formal sector. In many respects they look like modern, better equipped versions of public technical and vocational education schools. The quality of training offered in these traditional training NGOs tends to be better than that found in public institutions, offering more practical experience, but still without a focus on self-employment. These institutions are more likely to reach rural areas and serve the poor. Their financial base, however, is often limited and insecure.
3.3 Enterprise Investment in Skills Enterprises are a source of demand for and supply of skilled workers. They train and provide needed skills and experience for employees to promote competiveness and profitability. Some workers who are trained may choose later to take their skills and create their own employment. The training offered by enterprises tends to be short-term in nature and uses the firm’s own skilled workers or engages external vendors for its delivery. The training may be offered on-site in the enterprise, such as a typical apprenticeship, or off-site in an institutional setting. The World Bank provides a profile of enterprise training in over 100 countries world-wide through its Investment Climate Assessment (ICA) surveys. In Fig. 2, these surveys show
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considerable variation in enterprise training across regions with enterprises in SubSaharan Africa being active trainers. An earlier version of the ICA surveys in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Regional Programme for Enterprise Development (RPED), captured training by enterprises in the mid-1990s and the correlates of this training (Biggs, Shah & Srivastava, 1995). Enterprises found to be active trainers were large in size measured by employment, active exporters, users of technology and beneficiaries of foreign direct investment (Johanson & Adams, 2004). RPED surveys in Kenya, Zimbabwe and Zambia found that the training of workers was selective, with those having higher levels of education more likely to be chosen by the enterprise for training (Nielson, Rosholm & Dabalen, 2007). Smaller enterprises, especially those with less than ten employees—a proxy for the informal sector—are less likely to train. In Kenya, Zimbabwe and Zambia, only 4.6% of firms with ten or fewer employees trained in comparison with 81% of firms with 151 employees or more (Nielson, Rosholm & Dabalen, 2007). The impact of this training was favourable on the output of enterprises and wages of workers. A 1% increase in the workers trained from the sample average of 9% translated into a 60% increase in value added for all firms and a 99% increase for micro and small enterprises. Training was estimated to increase wages on average by 15–21% (Biggs, Shah & Srivastava, 1995). The returns to training for micro and small enterprises, noted above, raise the question of why a larger percentage of these firms do not train. A number of factors are offered to explain this pattern. Already observed is the fact that the education
Fig. 2 Enterprises are active trainers world-wide (as a percentage of total training) EAP = East Asia and the Pacific; LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean; SSA = Sub-Saharan Africa; ECA = Europe and Central Asia; MENA = Middle East and North Africa. Source: Tan, 2006.
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levels of workers in the informal sector are lower than those in the formal sector. With a small number of workers performing a wide range of tasks, multi-skilling is required, which can be expensive. The time away from work by a single worker in a small firm can be costly in foregone output. Small enterprises in the informal sector also face cash flow constraints in paying for training and a lack of professional capacity from human resources officers who can define training needs and design training programmes. For many in smaller firms, there may also be a lack of awareness of the benefits of training. While each of these factors requires careful consideration, one of the possible solutions to constraints on training comes in the form of support for industry associations (Johanson & Adams, 2004). The formation of industry associations and their engagement in training can offer solutions to a number of the problems above. These associations can promote a greater awareness of the benefits of training among small enterprises, help in defining training needs for members and the design of appropriate training programmes, contribute to economies of scale in the delivery of training, reduce the unit cost to the enterprise, establish training standards for a sector and certify the skills acquired as a means to promote the quality of the training offered. This role is already played by construction associations and many others and could be expanded. There has been little rigorous examination of the effect of these associations on skills development in the informal sector.
3.4 Employers and Traditional Apprenticeship Traditional apprenticeships are by far the most important source of skills training in Africa for the informal sector, with these apprenticeships concentrated in West and Central Africa (Haan, 2006; Filipiak, 2007). Liimatainen (2002) estimates that up to 70% of urban informal sector workers in Africa have been trained through the traditional apprenticeship system. The Ghana Statistical Service, for example, found 207,000 youths registered as apprentices in 2002, while in this same period a much smaller number of young people, just over 50,000, was enrolled by public and private providers (World Bank, 2008). Traditional apprenticeships in the informal sector consist of private contractual arrangements between a parent or apprentice and a master craftsperson who agrees to provide practical training in the workplace, ranging from several months to three or four years in duration, and subsequently certify the training in return for a fee or reduced earnings while learning.6 Traditional apprenticeships are distinguished from other formal apprenticeships registered with a government agency, usually a ministry of labour, and administered by employers and worker organizations. Traditional apprenticeships as individual contracts are self-financing and self-regulating and provide practical, handson training with good prospects for employment after the training. At the same time, traditional apprenticeships suffer from the weak level of education of those entering apprenticeships. Few have passed beyond lower secondary education and many will not even have completed primary education. Literacy is an issue. Choices of trades follow gender biases. Master craftspersons, in turn, do not provide theoretical
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knowledge alongside practical experience and, more often than not, teach out-dated technologies. Pedagogy varies and there are few market standards available for judging the quality of the training provided (Johanson & Adams, 2004). These apprenticeships are available in a wide range of trades, mostly in bluecollar occupations, and are a substitute for school-based instruction.7 Most trades offered by public and private training institutions can also be mastered through a traditional apprenticeship. The flexibility of apprenticeships in combining work and learning, their affordability and self-financing, their connection with future employment, and their generally lower entry standards make them attractive as a source of skills to disadvantaged youth. Haan (2006) reports that apprenticeships are less evident in Eastern and Southern Africa than in West and Central Africa with youth sometimes described in the former merely as ‘helpers’. Still, in countries like Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, he finds large numbers of youth who are acquiring skills in informal enterprises under the guidance of a master. In Kenya, available information indicates that some 40–60% of informal sector operators acquire their skills through apprenticeships. Household data from the Ghana Living Standards Measurement Surveys in 1991/1992 and 2005/2006 provide a profile of changes in apprenticeship over time. Table 2 compares the share of youth aged 15–30 years who have gone through an apprenticeship in each period. The share entering an apprenticeship has been rising for young men and women, but with a higher growth rate for young women. Apprenticeships are more evident in urban than in rural areas. Education levels for youths are rising as a consequence of Ghana’s efforts to provide basic education for all and the share of those following their education with an apprenticeship is also rising at each level of education except post-secondary. While those with a technical or vocational education are likely to acquire their skills in an institutional setting, those with a general education are more likely to pursue skills through an apprenticeship. Studies of traditional apprenticeship in other African countries could examine the robustness of these patterns. An apprenticeship opens opportunities for employment in the informal sector, but also in other types of employment as seen in Table 2. Those working in the private informal sector as self-employed or wage workers are likely to have acquired their skills through an apprenticeship. Reflecting the growing importance of traditional apprenticeships, 51% of youth in non-agricultural self-employment in 2005 acquired their skills in this manner—a rate twice that of the earlier period. With consumption levels used as a proxy for family income, apprenticeships are accessible to all income groups, but favour those who are better off. Those in the lowest consumption quintile demonstrate much lower rates of participation in apprenticeships. There is a question of whether traditional apprenticeships should form part of a strategy for skills development in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is doubtful, for example, that small firms in the informal sector acquiring their skilled workers through apprenticeships will contribute in a significant way to the export-led development strategies of many countries. Moreover, the ability to leverage large numbers of apprentices is constrained by the number of skilled craftspersons available. These
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Table 2 Share of youth in Ghana (15–30 age group) who have gone through an apprenticeship 1991/1992
2005/2006
Urban
Rural
Total
Urban
Rural
Total
Gender Male Female
36.0 21.1
18.1 11.1
21.9 13.9
46.7 40.7
19.0 20.1
27.3 26.3
Age group 15–19 20–24 25–30
10.6 34.5 28.8
5.2 16.4 21.4
6.1 20.8 23.7
30.9 44.3 46.2
6.9 24.4 24.3
11.1 31.0 31.9
Education level No education Some primary Primary Secondary (lower) TVET Secondary (higher) Post-secondary
15.1 16.7 25.4 38.5 22.2 14.7 13.3
5.8 15.9 10.5 25.9 12.5 13.5 11.1
7.5 16.0 13.3 29.9 19.2 14.3 12.1
21.4 42.1 54.1 60.4 20.0 29.6 7.6
6.9 16.6 25.5 43.2 19.2 17.5 3.4
8.7 21.4 32.6 50.9 19.8 25.7 6.5
Type of employment Wage public sector Wage private sector formal Wage private sector informal Self-employed agro, paid Self-employed agro, unpaid Self-employed non-agro
9.1 50.7 53.8 12.2 16.2 27.0
12.7 56.4 57.5 16.3 7.6 24.2
10.8 52.7 55.2 16.0 8.4 25.7
12.4 28.0 36.0 32.2 22.1 56.8
10.9 42.5 49.6 18.8 8.4 44.1
11.9 31.6 41.2 19.7 9.2 51.2
Standard of living Lowest quintile Second quintile Third quintile Fourth quintile Highest quintile All
12.1 6.9 25.9 27.0 31.4 26.9
8.4 10.3 14.0 17.1 28.4 14.4
8.6 9.9 16.4 20.3 30.0 17.5
30.3 36.2 35.9 43.4 49.6 43.5
9.4 15.2 25.1 31.5 41.3 19.6
10.9 18.3 28.0 36.7 46.9 26.8
Source: World Bank, 2008.
considerations aside, improving traditional apprenticeships can contribute in a positive way to employment and poverty reduction. As shown in Table 2 for Ghana, traditional apprenticeships are a source of skills for employment in both the formal and informal sectors. Those employed in the informal sector earn more than those in agriculture and improving their productivity with skills can further contribute to poverty reduction (Fox and Gaal, 2008). As presently structured, public vocational and technical education programmes appear to have little to offer employment in the informal sector, but this could be changed if public financing for these institutions is instead shifted to focus on outcomes, such as their success in serving target populations of master craftspersons and apprentices, rather than simply financing inputs, i.e. classrooms, courses offered, instructors hired, etc. Performance-based budgeting for public institutions could provide incentives to upgrade technical skills for master craftspersons and
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improve the pedagogy they use (Ziderman, 2003). More attention and accountability could be given to these institutions in partnership with traditional apprenticeships for addressing the low levels of basic education that handicap the training of apprentices and master craftspersons and for providing the complementary theoretical training needed to accompany the practical training of apprenticeships.8 It is reasonable to question whether emphasis on skills alone will improve the productivity and incomes of those who are employed in the informal sector (ILO, 2000). The improvement of financial services and access to credit are often listed as critical needs in surveys of small businesses, along with secure worksites and access to new technologies and business services (Liimatainen, 2002; Riley & Steel, 2000). NGOs play an important role in the provision of these services to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, often offering a menu of services alongside training. Working through informal sector employer associations, as already noted, can further assist in organizing services, particularly in skills training, by using their size to reduce the cost of training needs assessments, establish competency standards, develop curricula and certify skills obtained in traditional apprenticeships. National training authorities (NTAs) in a growing number of countries throughout Sub-Saharan Africa influence training policies and resources for training. Training funds operated under NTAs or independently, as described below, can play a role in providing incentives for NGOs and industry associations to serve the training needs of the informal sector (Ziderman, 2003). In Cˆote d’Ivoire, the Vocational Training Development Fund helps NGOs organize training for informal sector enterprises (Johanson & Adams, 2004). Chafa (2002) describes the Skills Development Initiative of Malawi’s Technical Entrepreneurial Vocational Education and Training Authority (TEVETA) and its efforts to obtain credit in the national training system for skills acquired through training in the informal sector. There are few rigorous evaluations of these programmes available and more attention needs to be given to their impact on apprenticeship. The same can be said for the impact of apprenticeships and other forms of training on employment and earnings.
4 Policies Encouraging Enterprises to Invest in Skills Government policies to encourage enterprises to invest in skills subsidize the cost of this investment through various measures. The incentives may vary in their impact on the actual amount of training done. Twenty-one countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have introduced training funds financed by payroll taxes, while others, such as in Namibia, have recently proposed such a scheme (Ziderman, 2003). These funds reimburse enterprises for the cost of qualified training undertaken. Training vouchers are also an instrument used by governments and training funds to subsidize the cost of training by enterprises and individuals (Patrinos, 2002). Offered to master craftspersons and workers in the informal sector, vouchers can help pay for training
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selected by the worker. The cost of training is also subsidized by governments by allowing enterprises to deduct eligible training costs from their income for tax purposes or providing tax credits for qualified training expenses. The introduction of training levies on payrolls is used globally to mobilize additional resources for skills development (Ziderman, 2003). The fairness of the levy is judged on the taxation principle that those who benefit from the resources spent on training should be those who pay. Payroll levies have been used to finance the provision of training by national training organizations, as is found in Latin America in such countries as Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela, but also training directly by enterprises where a levy-grant system is adopted and administered through a training fund. Enterprises are reimbursed in a levy-grant system for the cost of qualified training expenditures by these funds. This is the dominant model found in Sub-Saharan Africa. The impact of these funds on training in the informal sector, however, is limited. Most funds exempt smaller enterprises (below fifty employees) from the payment of a levy because of the higher administrative cost of enforcing compliance on the part of these enterprises. Dar, Canagarajah & Murphy (2003), in a review of international experience with training funds, found that small employers do not benefit substantially from these schemes. The financial incentives offered are insufficient to offset the other factors mentioned earlier that deter training by small enterprises. As a result, training funds with levy-grant schemes tend to favour larger enterprises, particularly the training of more highly educated and skilled workers in these enterprises.9 There are exceptions, however, as found in Malaysia and Singapore. Both countries recognized the low participation on the part of small enterprises in their levygrant funds and set out to address the problem. Among the solutions offered were subsidies for conducting training needs assessments, pre-approved training courses not requiring costly application and justification, and the use of excess training capacity of large enterprise by smaller firms. Singapore offered training vouchers to enterprises with less than fifty employees that could be used to pay up-front training costs to ease cash flow problems. The vouchers helped Singapore’s Skills Development Fund reach 65% of enterprises with ten to forty-nine workers and 14% of those with fewer than ten workers (Hirosato, 1997). Limited evidence is available in Sub-Saharan Africa on the initiatives of national training funds to reach small enterprises in the informal sector. Other voucher programmes have been introduced to encourage training in the informal sector (Johanson & Adams, 2004). The Kenya Jua Kali voucher programme, described earlier, was successful in its pilot stage in expanding the supply of training to workers in the informal sector and lowering cost. There was evidence of its positive impact on the earnings of participants and strengthening of the capacity of local Jua Kali Associations responsible for distribution of the vouchers, but problems were encountered with corruption in scaling up that led to high administration costs (Adams, 2001; Riley & Steel, 2000). A similar voucher programme targeting informal sector enterprises was offered in Ghana in the early 1990s that largely failed due to lack of attention in the design to the marketing and distribution of the
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vouchers (Johanson & Adams, 2004). The role of vouchers in training is an area that merits further study in Sub-Saharan Africa. Worldwide, countries allow enterprises to deduct the cost of training from their income as a cost of business before taxes, but for the informal sector where small enterprises may not earn sufficient income to pay taxes or may avoid taxes altogether by not being registered, these deductions provide a limited incentive for training. The same result may apply to tax credits that are targeted to selected enterprises in return for agreed training and employment actions. Where the credit can be refunded to the enterprise in the absence of a tax liability, this may serve as an added incentive for training and even registration of the enterprise, but once again may not be sufficient to prompt small enterprises in the informal sector to train. As a general conclusion, the impact of these various financial incentives on training is not well documented for enterprises in the informal sector.
5 Moving the Skills Agenda Forward Employment in the informal sector is now an important feature on the landscape of Africa, accounting for a significant share of GDP and influencing the well-being of a growing number of households. Its character has changed ever so slightly as growing numbers of those who now enter this employment do so with higher levels of education than those before them and with entrepreneurial aspirations that look at this employment as a preferred destination for their future, rather than merely a staging ground in the on-going search for wage employment in the modern sector. Capturing the scale and characteristics of informal employment and its contribution to national welfare and poverty reduction is a first step for many countries in defining policies that can promote gains in productivity and incomes in this sector. Among these policies are ones that would improve the skills of those employed in this sector.
5.1 Elements of a Strategy A strategy based on what is known about the informal sector for improving skills as a means to promote its growth and productivity and improve the incomes of those employed in the sector needs to include the following:
r r r r r r r r
Acknowledging the existence of the informal sector for policy; Raising the educational and literacy levels of those employed therein; Recognizing the complementarity of training with other small business services; Promoting sustainable financing for skills development; Strengthening traditional apprenticeships; Defining a role for public providers of skills; Building the capacity of industry associations; Monitoring and evaluating outcomes for skills development.
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The informal sector has emerged as a reality and has to be recognized for policy purposes. How it is treated by governments will probably influence its future as an instrument for employment and poverty reduction. Forcing compliance with the regulations and imposing the taxation of an industrial economy through stronger enforcement measures is likely to drive it further underground or out of existence altogether. Finding the right balance of regulation and taxation that recognizes the higher risk and costs associated with operating a small business and providing the incentives for expansion and formalization of its activities forms a challenge for governments. Looking for ways in which government policy can support skills development in the informal sector is one way to promote the growth of small businesses and improvements in household welfare. The low education level of many of those employed in the informal sector impedes the upgrading of their skills and their capacity for absorbing new technologies. Policies that promote adult education and literacy and that offer second-chance education programmes enabling youth and adults to acquire non-formal education, recognized as equivalent to the basic education offered by traditional education, can open up opportunities and incentives for further investments in skills by workers and enterprises (World Bank, 2007). Investments in skills, as noted earlier, are part of a menu of services that are needed by small businesses, along with opening access to credit and business services (ILO, 2000). Policies that open credit markets and clear the way for non-governmental organizations to form and deliver these services along with training can create a more favourable investment climate for enterprises in the informal sector. As suggested above, countries with training funds can adopt new approaches like those used in Malaysia and Singapore that remove the barriers to investment in skills faced by small businesses. At the same time, public expenditures on skills development can be more effectively targeted through vouchers and tax credits to improve the incentives for investments in skills by informal sector enterprises. Costsharing is possible through these instruments. The Kenya Jua Kali programme, for example, shows how these targeted expenditures can be expanded to subsidize and improve the access of small businesses to technology and other business services, and also that these businesses are willing to share the costs (Riley & Steel, 2000). Traditional apprenticeships are observed to be a solution for skills development that works well in the informal sector, but there are steps described earlier that can be taken to improve the outcomes of this training without destroying what already works well. There are roles that can be successfully played by public education and training institutions to serve the informal sector, if financial incentives are in place to encourage this. Emphasis on adult education and literacy programmes are part of this process. The introduction of education equivalency programmes—so-called second-chance education—is designed for those who have left traditional education and are unlikely to return to this learning environment, but can be reached through non-formal programmes of education. There are many examples of this in Latin America, but fewer in Sub-Saharan Africa. Public technical and vocational education through reforms adopting modular, competency-based curricula delivered in
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a more flexible timeframe can teach students basic theories underlying a trade to complement the practical skills taught by master craftspersons in traditional apprenticeships. Industry associations serving the informal sector are prevalent in many countries throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. Strengthening these associations so as to play a more active role in advocating skills development by members, defining training needs, designing and delivering short-courses, and engaging employers in setting competency standards and skills certification, including those for apprenticeships, can help address many of the issues that impede the investment of small enterprises in skills. Skill certification may also be undertaken as part of national qualifications frameworks and extended to cover apprenticeships (Johanson & Adams, 2004). These are some of the elements of a skills strategy suggested by this review of how skills are acquired for the informal sector. Refinement of this strategy and policies supporting skills development for the informal sector need to be informed by regular monitoring and rigorous evaluation of programmes. There are interventions that do not seem to work well for further skills development in the informal sector. Among them, training funds that are expected to promote training carried out by enterprises show limited evidence of this as far as small businesses are concerned. As suggested, there are tools that these funds could use to encourage training by small enterprises, but examples in Sub-Saharan Africa are largely absent. Treating training expenses as a tax deduction offers an incentive for training in larger enterprises, but this policy is unlikely to have an effect on training in smaller enterprises that operate at the subsistence level and pay hardly any taxes. Tax credits may in turn be a more effective tool for smaller enterprises in the informal sector. Smaller NGOs focusing on social and cultural skills rather than economic ones do little to help beneficiaries create new employment. Finally, public vocational and technical education that remains rigidly focused on skills for the formal sector at a time when this employment is stagnating provides little benefit to those who must find their employment in the informal sector.
5.2 The Role of Government This chapter has reviewed the sources of skills development in the informal sector along with their strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for improvement. It has highlighted questions along the way where more research is needed to deepen our knowledge of skills in the informal sector. An over-riding theme of the review is the need for more data and information on the informal sector and its participants, particularly how the numbers and characteristics of those employed in this sector are changing with time and the factors affecting these patterns. From this review, it has been possible to sketch the elements of a strategy for moving the skills agenda forward for the informal sector. Fully developing the strategy, however, will require filling many of the knowledge gaps that remain around employment and skills development in the informal sector and adding to our confidence in other findings offered by a small number of countries.
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What can governments do as part of this strategy? While governments need to promote a more friendly investment climate for those who create their own employment, where skills are concerned their role in policy development and reforms to promote a more equitable, market-responsive training system for all is of greater importance than initiatives to provide or finance training for the informal sector. Policies that open the market to private providers, including NGOs, are important to expanding access to skills and reducing demands for public expenditure. Policies that provide information to the market about the skill requirements of jobs available and the quality and relevance of training offered by different providers can lead to a more efficient allocation of public and private spending on training. Policies that promote competition in delivery and financing and enforce accountability among providers can together improve training outcomes and lower costs. These actions by government serve the interest of all workers, not just those in the informal sector.
Notes 1. The ILO (2002a) reports that more than sixty countries have started to collect and publish data on employment and other characteristics of the informal sector. 2. For a review of skills in the formal sector of Sub-Saharan Africa, see Johanson & Adams (2004). 3. Bennell (1999) distinguishes between what he calls ‘survival’ enterprises and enterprises with ‘growth potential’. He argues that the former require few skills and therefore it is difficult to see how ‘conventional training services could significantly increase productivity and incomes’. 4. In a study of the informal sector in seven African countries, Filipiak (2007) estimates that on-the-job training, self-training, and traditional apprenticeships account for 95% of training in the informal sector. Senegal, for example, has some 400,000 youth in apprenticeships compared with 7,000 in technical and vocational education and training. Monk, Sandefur and Teal (2007) in Ghana, using a household survey, found that 80% of training is acquired through on-the-job training and traditional apprenticeships. 5. While curricula for entrepreneurship education are often locally developed, other packages have been developed and tested by donors, e.g. ILO’s Start/improve your business and GTZ’s Competency-based economies through formation of enterprises (Haan, 2006). 6. Haan and Serriere (2002) estimate that fees for traditional apprenticeships average about US$70 per year. The ILO in 2006 estimated fees to average US$160, ranging from US$22 to US$616. In 2005, Palmer (2007) estimated the average apprenticeship fee in the Ashanti Region of Ghana to be US$42 with a range from $13 to $173. 7. In South Africa a new learnership scheme has been adopted to broaden the present apprenticeship system beyond traditional blue-collar trades to include white-collar occupations in the service sector, as well as the informal sector (Gill, Fluitman & Dar, 2000) 8. The German dual system training provides an example where this complementarity has been achieved, but it has proved difficult to accomplish in other settings where the roles and responsibilities of the public sector and employers for skills development are not defined in this fashion. 9. Given the tendency noted earlier for large enterprises to train without subsidies, training funds are subject to criticism for their high deadweight effects. That is, the funds pay firms to train who would have trained without the subsidy. At the same time, these funds correct for a ‘free rider’ problem that transfers the cost of training more evenly across firms of all sizes and types.
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References Adams, A.V. 2001. Assessment of the Jua Kali Voucher Programme. <siteresources.worldbank.org/EDUCATION/Resources/278200-1099079877269/5476641099079934475/547667-1135281552767/Jua Kali Pilot Voucher Programme.pdf> Adams, A.V., et al. 2007. Education, employment and earnings in Ghana. Washington, DC: World Bank. Atchoarena, D.; Delluc, A.M. 2001. Revisiting technical and vocational education in SubSaharan Africa: an update on trends, innovations, and challenges, Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. (IIEP/Prg.DA/1,320.) Atchoarena, D.; Esquieu, P. 2002. Private technical and vocational education in Sub-Saharan Africa: provision patterns and policy issues. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. Bangasser, P. 2000. The ILO and the informal sector: an institutional history. Geneva: ILO. (ILO employment paper, 2000/9.) Becker, K.F. 2004. The informal economy: a fact finding study prepared for the Swedish International Development Agency. Stockholm: Sida. Bennell, P. 1999. Learning to change: skills development among the economically vulnerable and socially excluded in developing countries. Geneva: ILO, Employment and Training Department. Biggs, T.; Shah, M.; Srivastava, P. 1995. Technological capabilities and learning for African enterprises. Washington, DC: World Bank, African Technical Department. (Technical paper, no. 288.) Brewer, L. 2004. Youth at risk: the role of skills development in facilitating the transition to work. Geneva: ILO. (Skills Working Paper, no. 19.) Chafa, J. 2002. Informal sector programmes in TEVETA of Malawi. Lilongwe: TEVETA. Dar, A.; Canagarajah, S.; Murphy, P. 2003. Training levies: rationale and evaluation from evaluations. Washington, DC: World Bank. <siteresources.worldbank.org/INTLM/Resources/ TrainingLevies.pdf> Devey, R.; Skinner, C.; Valodia, I. 2006. Second best? Trends and linkages in the informal economy in South Africa. Durban, South Africa: University of KwaZulu-Natal, School of Development Studies. (Working paper, 06/102.) Farstad, H. 2002. Integrated entrepreneurship education in Botswana, Uganda, and Kenya: final report. Oslo: National Institute of Technology. Filipiak, E. 2007. Vocational training in the informal sector: the outcomes of a field survey in seven African countries. (A Powerpoint presentation prepared by the Research Department, Agence franc¸aise de d´eveloppement, Paris, France.) Fox, M.L.; Gaal, M.S. 2008. Working out of poverty. Washington, DC: World Bank, Africa Region. Gill, I.; Fluitman, F.; Dar, A., eds. 2000. Vocational education and training reform: matching skills to markets and budgets. Washington, DC: World Bank; Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Haan, H.C. 2006. Training for work in the informal micro-enterprise sector: fresh evidence from Sub-Sahara Africa. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Haan, H.C.; Serriere, N. 2002. Training for work in the informal sector: fresh evidence from West and Central Africa. Turin: ITC/ILO. (ILO Occasional Papers.) Hirosato, Y. 1997. Skills development fund: a preliminary assessment of a financing alternative for enterprise-based training in the context of APEC. Nagoya, Japan: APEC. (GSID APEC discussion paper, no. 17.) Hussmanns, R. 2004. Measuring the informal economy: from employment in the informal sector to informal employment. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO, Bureau of Statistics. (Working paper, no. 53.) International Labour Organization. 2000. ILO activities concerning the informal sector: thematic evaluation. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. (GB.277/ESP/1/1.) <www.ilo.org/public/ english/standards/relm/gb/docs/gb277/pdf/esp-1-1.pdf> International Labour Organization. 2002a. ILO compendium of official statistics on employment in the informal sector. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. (STAT working paper, no. 1.)
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International Labour Organization. 2002b. Decent work and the informal economy: abstracts of working papers. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO, Employment Sector. Johanson, R.; Adams, A.V. 2004. Skills development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank, Regional and Sectoral Studies. Liimatainen, M.-R. 2002. Training and skills acquisition in the informal sector: a literature review. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. (IFP/Skills Informal Economy Series.) Lund, F.; Skinner, C. 2003. The investment climate for the informal economy: a case of Durban, South Africa. Durban, South Africa: University of Natal, School of Development Studies. <www.wiego.org/papers/2005/unifem/21 lund skinner SA durban case study.pdf> Monk, C.; Sandefur, J.; Teal, F. 2007. Apprenticeship in Ghana. Oxford, UK: University of Oxford, Centre for the Study of African Economies, Department of Economics. Nielson, H.S.; Rosholm, M.; Dabalen, A. 2007. Evaluation of training in African enterprises. Journal of development economics, vol. 84, pp. 310–29. Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research—NISER. 2007. Report of baseline study of employment generation in the informal sector of the Nigerian economy. Ibadan, Nigeria: NISER. (Prepared for the Africa Capacity Building Foundation and the ILO.) Palmer, R. 2007. Skills development, the enabling environment and informal micro-enterprise in Ghana. Edinburgh, UK: University of Edinburgh. [Ph.D. thesis.] Patrinos, H. 2002. A review of demand-side initiatives in education. Washington, DC: World Bank. <www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2003/11/03/000112742 20031103154746/Rendered/PDF/269590Patrinos0Review1of1Demandside.pdf> Riley, T.A.; Steel, W.F. 2000. Kenya Voucher Programme for training and business development services. Washington, DC: World Bank, Africa Region Private Sector Group.
Roubaud, F.; Razafindrakoto, M. 2007. The informal sector in the LDCs: an economic and statistical perspective. (A powerpoint presentation at United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, 29 March 2007.) <www.unescap.org/stat/isie/Data-Collection-Instruments/index.asp> Schneider, F. 2002. Size and measurement of the informal economy in 110 countries around the world. Canberra: Australian National University. (A paper presented to a workshop of the Australian National Tax Centre.) Tan, H. 2006. In-service skills upgrading and training policy: global and regional perspective. (Paper presented at the MNA Job Creation and Skills Development Conference, December 2005, Cairo, Egypt.) Walther, R. 2006. Vocational training in the informal sector: report on the South Africa Field Survey. Paris: Agence franc¸aise de d´eveloppement. (Working Paper, no. 30.) World Bank. 2007. World Development Report 2007: development and the next generation. Washington, DC: World Bank. World Bank. 2008. Ghana: job creation and skills development draft report. Vol. 1: Main document. Washington, DC: World Bank. Ziderman, A. 2003. Financing vocational training in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank. (Africa Region Human Development series.)
VOLUME 1
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Part I
Overview
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Chapter 1
The Pedagogical Roots of Technical Learning and Thinking Ron Hansen
1 The History of Technical Learning and Thinking The early history of technical learning for the purposes of this account includes the period from 700 BC to the Industrial Revolution. The earliest forms of ‘technical being’ were associated with the controlling of fire. Through fire, humankind was able to cook food, melt metals and shape simple tools. Eventually people became miners, smiths, carpenters, masons, weavers and so on. Systematic learning, if there was such a thing during this stage, is not well documented. It was a trial and error process. The first evidence of organized learning came from groups who valued a trade, skill or craft. In ancient times, the Jews, for example, sent their children to school for religious studies in the morning and skill development in the afternoon. Failure to give a Jewish boy an honest means of livelihood (manual trade) was excluding him from becoming a useful member of the community (Bennett, 1926). Furthermore, the Jewish people felt that labour held religious significance. It was regarded as a man’s [sic] duty. At no point in the pre-Renaissance period is there evidence of what would be called a system of instruction. Sons and daughters learned from their fathers and mothers. Their goals were always survival and betterment for the family members and eventually for larger communities of people. Even if a son was taught by someone other than his father or mother, the relationship was a paternal one—master and apprentice. During the Homeric Age (700 to 300 BC), handicrafts people in Greece occupied a place of respect for their mechanical aptitude. Later, however, banausic or mechanical arts lost their status. The beginnings of a stigma emerged. Manual arts were thought to be for the peasant class and not fit subject matter for upper-class youth. In 300 BC upper-class boys, according to Bennett,1 were taught drawing. The lower classes continued to be apprenticed under a master as in earlier times. Interestingly, the orators, lawyers, physicians and cooks of that time also employed the apprenticeship method in their training. Christian monks, much like the Jews, elevated manual labour. Labour was required of everyone—weavers, carpenters, curriers and tailors. Similarly, the Benedictines made manual labour a cardinal principle. Their thought was that labour banished indolence (the enemy of the soul). For every moment in the day that they celebrated the praises of God, they devoted one hour to labour, and two to reading. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 1, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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The religious zeal and missionary enthusiasm of the Benedictines2 carried them from Italy, north of the Alps, into Germany. Germany became filled with monasteries, each of which became a centre of civilization. Many of the church structures in Germany dating from 900 to 1200 AD are the work of the Benedictines. Bookmaking and modernized buildings followed the development of the printing press in 1450. The sole educational institutions of this period (900–1500) were monasteries. Their subject matter was religious writing. Outside of these monasteries, participation in skilled labour was the principal means of education, though not the kind of education which was recognized as such by schools. As trades and crafts developed, i.e. became more differentiated and specialized, apprenticeship included a large body of information, tools and techniques. The master was to teach the recipes, rules, applications of science, mathematics, as well as the art of the craft. The method was imitative and all instruction took place outside of school walls. A new conception of the process of learning began to emerge in the 1400s—the same spirit that led to the discovery of new methods for the schools. According to Bennett, this period spawned two new fundamental ideas upon which modern instruction in the manual arts has been built (1926, p. 30). The first is that the senses are the basis of thought and, consequently, of knowledge. The second is learning by doing. The idea that children could learn by working through a process and making something by themselves, with tools, was seen as rational thinking. The placing of handicrafts in schools followed. It was Francis Bacon (1561–1626) who helped make the transition from learning based on the writings of antiquity to learning based on nature and the arts of daily life. Comenius followed (1592–1670) by advocating learning that starts with the senses, then memory, the intellect, and finally the critical faculty. ‘The child perceives through the senses; every thing in the intellect must come through the senses’ (cited in Bennett, 1926, p. 36). British thinkers began to contribute to the technical learning story in the 1600s. In 1663 Moxon published a volume entitled ‘Mechanik exercises or the doctrine of handy works’. The subjects ranged from smithing to joinery and made extensive use of illustrations. Locke (1642–1727) became the main spokesperson for the idea that education should ‘fit a boy for practical life’ (Bennett, 1926, p. 61). Rousseau (1712–1778) took Locke’s ideas a step further. He believed agriculture was the most respectable of all arts and professions. Next to this came smithing and then carpentry. Bennett quotes Rousseau: ‘The great secret of education is to make the exercise of the body and mind serve as relaxation to each other’ (1926, p. 80). Ultimately, technical learning found its way into the school curriculum across Europe alongside classic academic subjects, such as mathematics, science, language, history and religion. Four distinct movements, three in Europe and one in the United States, are debated in the literature for their uniqueness and contribution to technical thinking and learning. Each provides an important element in the evolution of a socio/experiential pedagogy. Each shows how different cultures influenced or, adapted to, the Industrial Revolution: the Russian system of workshop instruction; sloyd in Scandinavia; manual training in Western Europe; and vocational education in the United States.
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1.1 The Russian System of Workshop Instruction One of the first societies to analyse tool processes and construction methods employed in the mechanical arts was Russia.3 Progress in teaching mechanical arts had been slow until the Russians institutionalized technical learning. Earlier studentlearning methods (prior to the 1800s), e.g. imitative or apprenticeship, were unsatisfactory. The lack of an effective ‘system’ of instruction created a problem for which a solution had not been devised. About this same time a Mr. Della Vos was appointed to lead a new institution which became known as the Moscow School of Trades and Industries (later decreed in Russia as the Imperial Technical School). He developed a six-year programme of instruction that would be considered college level today. The school was organized through instruction and construction shops. Large contracts for development/project work were taken on by the school and carried out partly by hired workmen and partly by the students. The machines they constructed included steam engines, pumps and agricultural machinery. Students were permitted to work in the construction shops only after completing required courses in the instruction shops. The goals or ends of instruction were to teach the fundamentals of mechanical arts in the least possible time, in large groups, with a strong knowledge base and in steps that would allow the progress of each student to be assessed. Each art or distinct type of work had its own separate shop, e.g., joinery, wood turning, blacksmithing, locksmithing. Large display boards were used to provide enlarged samples of wood joints, drawings, models, etc. The time devoted to joinery, as one example, was fourteen hours per week for one year. Each student was required to keep a ‘workbook’ recording the successive steps in each exercise, e.g. laying out, squaring stock, cutting and planing. Students could master the elements of the arts in a progressive sequence from easy to difficult. This separation of instruction and construction shops, along with the development of sequential exercises, led people to believe that mechanical arts could be taught in school settings. The way was paved for technical instruction in schools—at least the perception that it could be taught was beckoning and compelling (using the same methods as in the other school subjects). The Imperial Technical School provided a more economical and effective substitute for apprenticeship, or at least the early part of apprenticeship. Reference to the developmental potential of project work in human terms is not mentioned in the literature. Similarly, the Russian analysis does not mention how one mechanical art might differ from another in terms of its fundamental nature and how that nature might somehow define unique or distinct learning methodologies for each, or in fact if either suited itself to being taught in schools.4 The issue of whether or not such teaching or curriculum design was vocational or general was not an issue. The literature also highlights the important contribution that the Russian diligence and analysis made to tool and machine design. The word ‘design’ was not one that was used in those early days. However, it was an important outcome of the ‘system’ used in the many pioneering European schools that emerged through the 1800s, including that of Pestalozzi. The transfer of knowledge and designs
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that were tested and refined is remarkable. The Diderot Encyclopedia5 is a testimony of the contribution that European pioneers made to technical knowledge in the 1800s. In summary, the Russian system of workshop instruction and tool design proved that mechanical arts could be analyzed and their fundamental elements arranged and charted. It demonstrated that one instructor could successfully give instruction to a large number of young workers and students at the same time. It also showed, after years of trial and error, that whole-class instruction had to be supplemented with one-on-one instruction, suggesting that learning of technical means is not always viable in large-group situations. Furthermore, to ensure mastery of each step or operation the teacher needed to evaluate the student’s progress, i.e. exercise diligence. Without these safeguards or what Bennett called pedagogical procedures, lack of patience and attention to detail often resulted in waste of materials and unsatisfactory finished products, e.g. failed joints, awkward designs. Organizers and leaders learned that the teacher must be an expert craftsperson in the work he or she is teaching and must keep up his or her competence. Teacher credibility stemmed from being able to demonstrate and inspire.
1.2 Sloyd: Scandinavia’s Contribution to Technical Learning Sloyd (slojd, sloid) is a Scandinavian term that dates to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was the term used to describe what Nordic families did in the harsh and dark months of winter to pass the time. Webster’s International Dictionary (Babcock, 1971) defines it as a system of manual training developed in Sweden for training in the use of tools and materials, but emphasizing training in wood carving as a means to this end. Another historical analysis of sloyd gives credit to Finland for its origins. Kananoja, Kantola and Issakainen (1999) researched the archives and found that Uno Cygnaeus, a Finlander, first founded sloyd. In either case, families would sit beside the stone hearth fireplace in their cottages making tools and handicrafts out of wood. At first the tools and handicrafts were those needed for survival on the farm. Later they served an economic purpose as they could be sold to others in the spring and summer months. Home sloyd eventually died out and was replaced by school sloyd. Apparently, the abuse of alcohol had resulted in a breakdown of the skill and character of young Swedish men. The revival was prompted by a national education policy that introduced it into schools as a subject of study. The history from that point on differs across the Scandinavian countries. Each contributed something to the programme and tradition known today in all Scandinavian schools as sloyd. Finland was once a part of the Russian Empire. In grateful appreciation for the loyalty of the Finnish people in helping him resist the onslaught of Napoleon, Alexander II promised Finland a new and complete primary school system. The designer of that system (1860s) was Cygnaeus. In his early years Cygnaeus acquired considerable manual skill, thanks to his father, who took him to various workshops.
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Also, for five years, he lived in Alaska where he learned about both the governing class and aboriginal people. He ascribed some of his thoughts on the need for and character of popular education to these experiences. His philosophy was that children, young and old, should be educated through the senses to appreciate the aesthetics and functionality of independent artisanship and problem-solving. This meant the use of one’s hands in building and making artefacts. In 1866 his plans for a system of public or folk schools (as they were called) were enacted into law. He first set up a teacher-training school at Jyv¨askyl¨a. Student learning was divided among book studies, domestic industries, and work in the garden and fields. He believed that handwork should lead toward future practical efficiency, yet the school should not become a technical or trade school. On these grounds, handwork was made one of the fundamental subjects in the school established by Cygnaeus and in all folk schools. Meanwhile, in Sweden a successful merchant in Gothenberg, August Abrahamson, retired to Naas (twenty kilometres away), a former hunting area of the King of Sweden. Within this great estate were forests with oak and birch trees, pastures, a castle and isolated villas. Abrahamson was a lover of nature and art, but with an interest in bettering the conditions of the common people. Thus, in 1868, at his wife’s suggestion, he opened a sloyd school. Originally this was intended for the boys on the estate, but it quickly expanded and needed leadership. Otto Salomon (1849–1907), a nephew and technical student at the Technical School of Stockholm, was invited to operate the school. In 1872 an industrial school (Arbets-Skola) for boys who had graduated from the folk school (the same concept as in Finland) was established under Salomon’s direction. The course covered two years, fifty weeks a year, ten hours a day (seven for sloyd, three for other subjects). In 1874 a similar school for girls was opened. The need for capable teachers soon became evident. Naas, as such, developed into a summer teacher education institution, with teachers from all over the world attending to learn about the pedagogy (human development) associated with handwork. Though there is no evidence that Salomon was acquainted with Della Vos and the Russian system of work instruction, he based his curriculum on a series of tool exercises and elementary forms of construction. Unlike Della Vos, however, he combined his exercises into the making of useful articles. There were three characteristics of educational sloyd as developed by Salomon: making useful objects; analyses of processes; and educational method. Salomon gave credit for the educational method characteristic to Cygnaeus. The pedagogical plan always included working from the easy to the difficult, from the known to the unknown, and from the interests and capacities of the children. Drawing or sketching often preceded project work. First, he tried to make sloyd teachers out of artisans; later he spent more of his effort in making sloyders out of teachers. Salomon believed that teachers should use one-on-one instruction in their teaching. He admitted that whole-class teaching was more economical but not sufficiently educational. Students from age 11 to 15 participated in sloyd. In Denmark Ansel (Axel) Mikkelsen,6 a manufacturer, began in 1885 to teach manual work to his apprentices, and a few other children. It wasn’t long before he
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heard of Salomon and Cygnaeus’s work. At his own expense, he started a sloyd school in Copenhagen. What developed was the Danish sloyd system. The general characteristics of Danish sloyd were: the starting point of all instruction should be the natural interests of the child; the materials used should be wood and the tools only those in common use; the course should be organized using a small or limited number of specific models and an unlimited number of co-ordinate (generic) models; it should be flexible to meet the varying needs of individual pupils; both whole-class and individual instruction should be used; tools should be selected or constructed to suit the child’s size and strength.
1.3 Manual Training in Western Europe The manual training movement is primarily a central and western European phenomenon, although the idea found its way to North American shores where it was renamed manual arts. More importantly, perhaps, it is a story of class differences, boyhood labour and schools as instruments of elitist beliefs. In France7 and Germany,8 as in many European countries, manual training grew out of an earlier type of workshop instruction, which was chiefly economic or industrial in its purpose. Beiderman and Goetz were two prominent leaders who figured in the German manual training movement. Goetze took Biederman’s ideas and went a step further, writing an important book entitled ‘Die Erganzung des Schulunterrichts durch praktische Beschaftigung’ [The completion of school instruction through practical activity]. Based on Biederman and Goetze’s ideas, manual training in German schools began to flourish. First a German Association for Boy’s Handwork (Leipzig Boy’s Workshop) was established. Then in the summer of 1882 a course for teachers was established. Within a span of ten years teacher training was provided at all major population centres across Germany. Goetze was made director of a special teacher-training college in Leipzig that was associated with the Leipzig Boy’s Workshop. Ultimately, the pedagogy associated with manual training came to be known as the ‘Leipzig method’ and the world-renowned German respect and valuing of technical learning in schools was born. The question of what form technical learning should take in the schools was also addressed in the German story. Because of resistance to technical learning by headmasters and other school leaders, Goetze raised the question of whether or not manual training should be a servant to other school subjects or independent. Many headmasters felt that technical learning should be offered in the curriculum if it helped students learn natural history, geography or physics. Is manual training to be admitted only on account of the service it renders to other branches of education, or whether, by virtue of its peculiar educative influence, an independent position is to be assigned to it in the system of education? We [The German Association for Boy’s Handwork] side with those who take the latter view. Manual training can neither do its own work nor be an efficient auxiliary to other subjects unless it be methodologically organized on an independent footing. Unless manual training is to become mere amateur
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bungling, it cannot possibly depart from the natural method of proceeding from easy to difficult (cited in Bennett, 1926, p. 178).
In England a different story was evolving and the principles upon which manual training and the school system were to be founded were being fixed. Before the Industrial Revolution, the ruling class in England, according to Bennett, accepted the idea that, in an ideal society, it was essential for a large proportion of the people be ignorant and poor. It took a hundred of years of debate to change this idea and to adopt a system of elementary schools at public expense (1926, p. 220). Elementary schooling would not be available and free to all children in England until 1905. At the same time lower-class parents felt it was their right to profit by the manual labour of their children. Many parents needed all the revenue that children could earn. To correct this situation the church became involved, followed by schools of industry. Volunteer teachers came to the rescue of poor children and a movement known as the ‘Ragged Schools’ emerged. Out of the Ragged School Movement came the polytechnics intended for the social, moral and educational improvement of adults. Independently, from 1824 to 1848, the Mechanics Institute Movement flourished with many of the institutes becoming technical schools. The technical curriculum for England was being shaped. They [the mechanics institutes] were intended to help mechanics learn about the principles behind mechanical objects, tools and machinery. However, it soon became apparent that a minimal level of language competence was necessary between people who were trying to convey the principles and those receiving it. This experience helped precipitate the opening of schools for children. Eventually, art and technical schools also came into being to provide skilled workers for industry. Fuelling the growth of technical schools was intense industrial competition between England and Continental Europe. It was felt that Belgium, France and Germany were gaining prestige over England in the race to industrial supremacy. The issue of what kind or form of education was needed to propel and sustain industrial development was being debated. In the end, a system of elementary schools provided instruction in basic literacy to age 10. Forms of handicraft were evident in the schools—but sporadic. Needlework is identified in the literature as one prominent craft. Early on, inspectors of needlework and drawing were appointed in London. Coincident with the emergence of both schools and crafts in them, the problem of child and juvenile delinquency was becoming prominent. The English solution was to incarcerate them in schools where they could learn heavy crafts. Here was a solution to the government’s need for public obedience and industry’s need for workers. ‘Industry schools’ were born. Moral reform was twinned with technical learning.9 In Scotland, a school quite different in character and with more egalitarian purposes was giving shop work a serious place in the curriculum. Allan Glen’s Institute in Glasgow was established in 1853 together with a free school for elementary education. It eventually became a school of secondary and technical education. Articles made by students were of their own selection and became their own property upon payment for the material consumed. In Scottish tradition, once a student mastered a
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scale model of wood, he or she began to work for the institution. Eventually, shop courses became a regular feature of schools in both England and Scotland, some with wonderful traditions of excellence and spirit. The debate about the function and form of technical learning in schools paralleled those on the European continent. Some school officials saw manual training as a distinct and important subject area; others viewed it as an adjunct. The one element that separated the English story from the rest of Europe was the role of the City and Guilds Institute of London. In 1886 the City and Guilds of London and the School Board formed a committee to plan the equipping of four schools for woodworking. Classes were visited by many men and women interested in the problems of education. Reports from the School Board of London for 1888 suggest the students were highly motivated and inspired to stay in school because of these classes. Another influence that impacted on manual training in English schools came from Naas in Sweden. Beginning in 1884, teachers from England began travelling to Sweden to take courses in sloyd. Armed with Salomon’s models and techniques, as well as an enriched summer experience, these teachers began to promote sloyd in their schools. A group of sloyd workers took shape and the promoters of manual instruction found themselves representing two more or less opposing groups of teachers. One group depended on the City and Guilds, the other on sloyd philosophy and practice. Finally, an experiment integrating the two approaches to manual training was undertaken. The result was ‘English Sloyd’.10 The English system of manual training in the elementary school was thus set. Unfortunately, the Education Department was unable to reconcile the two factions, partly because they were more focused on technical education. ‘It [the Education Department] could not catch the full significance of manual training as a vital factor in elementary education’ (Bennett, 1937, p. 247). Ultimately, a teacher preparation syllabus was established and teachers (some from other subjects and some artisans) were certified to teach manual training as a subject. Handwork, in spite of the turmoil over philosophy and means, became a staple in English elementary schools leading quite certainly to the arts and crafts for which British craftspeople are now famous. Technical education in England is a distinguishable but separate part of the whole story. While the general education advocates won out in rationalizing elementary school manual training as a non-trade oriented learning programme, the same fate would not befall technical education. The term technical education and the contents of classes under this name came to include: a group of general education subjects in the elementary and higher schools, to very trade specific teaching, to higher instruction in science and engineering, and to commercial studies. One other backdrop to the technical education story in England began in 1851 and lasted till the end of the century. In 1851 the Great Exhibition was held at the Crystal Palace in London. This was intended to showcase the superiority of British manufactured articles. It did, except for the category of superior skill and refined design. In this area, France was clearly superior. In 1855 the European countries met the British challenge by inviting the United Kingdom to compete in the Exposition Universelle in Paris. This revealed remarkable progress on the Continent. Again in 1862 in London, Britain
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was confronted with a host of rivals. The Paris exhibition of 1867 provided further evidence that the United Kingdom could no longer claim supremacy. The education of continental workers was clearly superior.11 In the final analysis, the Great Exhibition of 1851 was a very significant turning point in the technical school learning story. Envy among nations clearly had a significant impact on technical thinking and its position in schools during the midnineteenth century. Its [technical learning and thinking] stock increased dramatically in the public sentiment. But did it make any difference for technical teachers and students in the schools? The evolution of schooling in the twentieth century would surely prove, once and for all, how technical learning was central to both individual development but also economic development.
1.4 The Vocational Education Movement in the United States Bennett marks 1906 as being the beginning of the vocational education movement in the United States (1937, p. 507). Manual arts had been expanding in the high schools. Specific trades and apprenticeships were being identified by labour unions and manufacturers. Students were looking for practical and profitable workplace opportunities. Debates about social versus economic agendas took a back seat to the government’s needs and wants. After much wrangling at the federal level, the Smith-Hughes Act was passed (1917), paving the way for federal monies to be spent on buildings and equipment for specific occupational training. The purpose of vocational studies was to fit boys and girls for a job. Its integrity was tied to the ‘educative value of work’. Eventually, vocational guidance became a complimentary force that cemented the movement, both in schools and in the work sector. Students needed sound advice on which trade or occupation to choose. Also taking a back seat was the issue of whether or not technical learning should have cultural or industrial purposes. There was too much exciting work to be done in the schools associated with teacher training, curriculum and facility design. Discussion of what form technical learning should take in schools was overshadowed for the moment. Eventually many secondary schools and institutes would be known (reflecting the vocational nature of studies in them) as vocational schools. In his summation of the 1870 to 1917 period, Bennett traces the issues or interests that gave technical learning and thinking in the United States its substance. Throughout the years of effort to obtain the law [Smith-Hughes Act], there were three constantly recurring and conflicting interests that had to be harmonized or at least propitiated. One was between the manufacturer and the labor union; each wished to regulate vocational training in order to control the labor market. Then there was the conflict of ideals between those who feared that vocational training would lower the standard of cultural education. And finally, when the need for vocational training was admitted, some believed that it could be effective only when separated from the public-school work of general education; while others insisted on the unity of control in public education and saw no good reason for a dual system. The law passed was probably the best compromise that could have been obtained at that time (1937, p. 550).
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2 The Irony of Displacing Technical Thinking and Learning Regardless of whether or not technical learning and thinking is marginalized in the school systems of most Western societies, it is useful to critically examine the model that currently dominates and governs how children learn in school environments. Increasing numbers of pedagogues point to the flaws in the classic academic model of learning adopted in schools (Greenfield, 1993; McLaren, 1998; Rogers, 1997). Acceptance of and reliance on the school-knowledge-acquisition model also raises an important question. What are the limitations of that model of learning and thinking for technical teachers/students and for schools generally? Debate about the validity of scientific knowledge seeking and ordering in recent decades has been robust (Kuhn, 1962), but also ubiquitous. Seldom is any credence given to a knowledge-generation model or theory that emerges from people who value ‘doing’ as highly as ‘knowing’. Scholars point to the scientific method as a source for deriving new knowledge and validating it. The knowledge-seeking and validation process is known in the literature as ‘positivism’. Acceptance of positivism, even though it enjoys a nineteenth century history, has come under increasing scrutiny. Kuhn’s challenge to positivism, along with that of Hooker (1987), points to a renaissance of thinking regarding sources of knowledge. Missing from the science-based knowledge-building model is a way of learning that recognizes technical knowledge and knowledge that comes from experience. Finnigan and Layton refer to this in their annotated bibliography on teaching and learning in the third culture. So far as the schools are concerned, these developments [the recognition that technological activity is fundamentally different from science] have a direct and practical implication. If there is a distinct ‘technik’[technical thinking and learning], with characteristics which distinguish it from the sciences and humanities, should it not have a place in the general education offered by the schools? Are there, indeed, three cultures, not two as C.P. Snow suggested, the third corresponding to the creative, problem-solving and productive activities of the engineer? Ought we not to recognize more clearly in curriculum terms that the fundamental difference between science and technology is social, a difference in values between a community whose sovereign value is ‘knowing’ and another whose ultimate goal is ‘doing’? And if the answer to each of these questions is ‘Yes’, what problems arise in relation to teaching and learning in the third culture? (1994, p. 2).
Questions about the validity and verification of knowledge as the featured commodity of schools are also found in the field ‘sociology of knowledge’. Rogers (1997), in her paper on new views of knowledge and its representation in schools, illustrates the differences between subject-matter learning and disciplinary learning. She explores some of the problems posed by using disciplines as the primary source of authority in shaping the curriculum, and goes on to propose a more radical, alternative model for thinking about the curriculum. The alternative integrates the influence of the disciplines with other influences, such as the child’s world, the particulars of context and the knowledge of professions. She argues that we should think more broadly about the possible sources of influence and authority for the curriculum in schools.
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As nations and economies rush to claim a ‘knowledge-based’ lifelong learning model, the need for technical education to have its true nature and form properly recognized and valued, in and out of the formal learning institutions, is vital. Why would anyone want to exclude knowledge from everyday life in a learning model? A paper subtitled ‘Towards a sociology of lifetime learning’ (Rees et al., 1997) challenges the normative focus on ‘the learning society’ as one that can and should be driven by more than human capital theory. The authors conclude that a narrow approach looking only at human beings as capital will detract from an adequate theory of lifetime learning. There is a classic question that plagues educational policy and thought. It may also underscore why there was a lack of rebuttal from practical people who know how they learn when solving everyday problems. Can schooling, when separated from everyday reality, ever be relevant? Dewey writes: ‘Connect schooling to everyday life and the curriculum will, of necessity, be relevant’. Layton underscores the same point when he states that schools decontextualize knowledge (1993, p. 15): ‘A general characteristic of school technology and one which makes it different from many other school subjects is its engagement with practical action in the made world. No subject challenges the historic role of schools as institutions which decontextualize knowledge quite so strongly as does technology.’ Buchmann and Schwaille perceptively ask: Can knowledge be acquired and retained independent of practical action, by observing and imitating others and by extracting knowledge from experiences coded in text? Does learning in schools always have to be an interpretation of reality rather than reality itself (1983, p. 11)? Technicians and technologists who know how they learn through experience are often not informed about where knowledge and the school curriculum comes from, much less whether or not it is valid. And, even when they do, their voices and the platforms from which they might express themselves are remote.12 The fact that such knowledge and its dissemination was contrived or that something might have been lost in the translation, or that it might be at least once removed from world or human reality, as such, is not resolved. Sheridan writes: ‘schooling contributes to a priority of legitimacy of literacy, and this denies the legitimacy of experience, which is necessary for learning’ (2000, p. 23). School-teachers, unfortunately, technical or otherwise are seldom fully informed of this dichotomy/irony.
3 Epilogue The knowledge-oriented tradition that underpins schooling in Western societies continues to enjoy an unquestioned place in the minds of most parents, policymakers and professional educators. At the same time, the importance and place of experience versus knowledge as an orientation or tradition for learning awaits definition and institutionalization. The literature overview in this chapter draws out three important features of the academic versus experiential learning divide. First, the need for a deeper understanding of what it means to be technical and to think and learn technically in a human and social sense requires documentation
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and clarification. Second, how and what one learns when being technical is an elusive but culturally significant pedagogical terrain. Third, technological learning, as a cultural phenomenon that defines societies and governs economic prosperity, is undistinguished. A ‘first principles’ or critical analysis may be the only one that offers hope for reform. And, ironically, the one place where answers and enlightenment are traditionally found, i.e. the school, is the genesis of the problem. Formal learning institutions, thereby, are not likely to see it in their best interests to pursue a full and honest analysis. Teachers are not taught what Lindeman and other educational philosophers have known for some time—‘education conceived as a preparation for life locks that learning within a vicious circle. Youth educated in terms of adult ideas and taught to think of learning as a process which ends when real life begins will make no better use of intelligence than the elders who prescribe the system’ (1926, p. 3). In other words, we have become habituated to a method of achievement that is, in essence, antithetical to intelligence and to technical learning. Teachers are not taught or given this important contextual information in their training/education. The absence of this understanding and teachers who know nothing of the problem lies at the root of a huge dilemma in schools. Ironically, this ‘missing understanding’ is spoken about informally in workplaces and around the kitchen table all the time by families and people who trust their experience and life’s work ahead of what they learned or did not learn in schools. Lindeman puts it bluntly: ‘Too much of learning [in schools] consists of vicarious substitution of someone else’s experience and knowledge’ (1926, p. 6). In fairness it should be said that the ‘learned’ colonialists who attempted to share and rationalize this new-found way to learn and think were probably sceptical and euphoric at the same time. Book learning would eradicate a perceived and increasingly legitimized problem—illiteracy. Peasants and pagans who roamed many regions of the world using oral forms of communication were thought to be backward and their ways limiting. Settler and colonialist cultures felt that the printed word leading to widespread reading and dissemination of information would homogenize and standardize people and cultures. It did. The technical printing press, among other things, paved the way for a single and widespread way of transmitting important information and ultimately knowledge. What they [settler cultures] failed to recognize was that both the oral and the written forms of information dissemination and the ways of learning that go with each are equally significant and inextricably connected. Wisdom, it was thought, could be passed on from one generation to another by book learning. Can it? Does experience not intervene? The fact that the two kinds of thinking and learning [academic versus technical] are very different may be one of the explanations why technical thinking and learning have not found a home in formal teacher-education practices. There is a resulting universal conundrum. The notion of constructing knowledge and creating academic subjects for its dissemination is itself an anomaly. The pedagogical terrain in recent years has been tempered by the introduction of design as a precursor,
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if not a stand-alone component, of what is sometimes referred to as ‘Design and Technology’ in the schools. The notion of designing is often so prominent that undertaking a technical project and learning to be technical is discarded or deferred. Design and technology serves as a reminder of what happens when technical thinking and learning is defined in a school general education context. It becomes what McLaren (1998) calls another socially constructed subject.
Notes 1. Bennett was a professor of manual arts at Bradley Polytechnic Institute in Peoria, Illinois. He devoted a good deal of his life to documenting a comprehensive history of manual training and industrial education. His material provides a comprehensive review of the pioneers associated with pedagogical thought about technical thinking and learning. 2. ‘Through the promotion of agriculture, the handicrafts, and art, along with religious instruction for all, and book learning for a selected few, the Benedictines became the civilizers of barbarians and examples of enterprise, thrift, and Christian culture’ (Bennett, 1926, p. 20). 3. There is some debate about whether or not the French were engaged in systematic instruction ahead of the Russians. Pannabecker (2004) found evidence of formal technical instruction in Paris, France, as early as 1808, and certainly by 1828. 4. Two contrasting examples are joinery and blacksmithing (metal work). 5. The Diderot Encyclop´edie ou Dictionnaire raisonn´e des sciences, des arts, et des m´etiers (1751–80) is a compendium of thirty-five volumes that is considered the centrepiece of the Age of Enlightenment (Pannabecker, 1998). 6. Two authorities on Mikkelsen’s contribution to sloyd are Bent Illum and Benny Gaarde. The National Institute for Sloyd Teacher Training, in Copenhagen, contains the documents that record Mikkelsen’s contributions to Danish sloyd. 7. The following quote typifies how the French thought about manual training: ‘In France there is absolutely no sympathy with any kind of manual instruction that pretends to aim at purely educational results and entirely ignores the industrial condition of the country’ (cited in Bennett, 1926, p. 107). 8. Thanks to Waldemar Goetze, leaders of the manual training movement in Germany were not driven by the economic advantages of instruction in handwork but by its general educational value. After apprenticing for a year, Goetze went to the University of Leipzig. There he was able to study Friedrich Karl Biederman’s clear and democratic ideas on education. 9. The objective of the industrial work in those schools was ‘not to make profit of their labour, but to help them acquire habits of industry, skill in some useful art, and such correct moral habits as to render their service desirable’ (Bennett, 1926, p. 227). 10. It was shown that the instruction [City and Guilds curriculum] stimulated the intelligence and improved the physique of the children; that the discipline was pleasant to the learners; and that, whilst it gave reality to much of the abstract teaching of the school, it endowed the young workers with manual skill and adroitness that remained with them a permanent possession for life (Magnus, 1910). In 1892 an epoch-making book entitled ‘Woodwork’ detailed methods of procedure in teaching woodworking. English sloyd differed from Swedish sloyd in that the making of any object had to be preceded by the making of a working drawing. 11. John Mill, in a pamphlet entitled ‘What is industrial and technical education?’, summarized the results of these world fairs as follows: ‘The Great Exposition of 1851, and those which have been subsequently held, have given a rude shock to our insular pride and self-complacency by showing us that our former excellence in numerous branches of manufacturing industry has been lost’ (cited in Bennett, 1926, p. 277). 12. Hansen (1996) describes the apologetic nature of technological studies teachers in his teacher socialization research.
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References Babcock, P. 1971. The Webster’s New Third International Dictionary (unabridged). Springfield, MA: G. & C. Merriam Company. Bennett, C.A. 1926. History of manual and industrial education: up to 1870. Peoria, IL: Chas. A. Bennett Co. Inc. Bennett, C.A. 1937. History of manual and industrial education: 1870 to 1917. Peoria, IL: Chas. A. Bennett Co. Inc. Buchmann, M.; Schwaille, J. 1983. Education: the overcoming of experience. American journal of education, vol. 92, pp. 30–51. Finnigan, R.; Layton, D. 1994. Teaching and learning in the third culture? An annotated bibliography of issues in engineering education. Leeds, UK: Centre for Studies in Science and Mathematics Education. Greenfield, T.B. 1993. The man who comes back through the door in the wall: discovering truth, discovering self, discovering organizations. In: Greenfield, T.; Ribbing, P., eds. Greenfield on educational administration: towards a humane science, pp. 92–119. London: Routledge. Hansen, R. 1996. Program equity and the status of technological education: the apologetic nature of technology teachers (Editorial). Journal of technology education, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 57–63. Hooker, C.A. 1987. A realistic theory of science. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Kananoja, T.; Kantola, J.; Issakainen, M. 1999. Conference proceedings: Development of Technology Conference. Jyv¨askyl¨a, Finland: University of Jyv¨askyl¨a. Kuhn, T.S. 1962. The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. Lindeman, E. 1926. The meaning of adult education. New York, NY: New Republic Inc. Layton, D. 1993. Technology’s challenge to science education: cathedral, quarry, or company store? Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. Magnus, P. 1910. Educational aims and efforts: 1880–1910. London: Longmans, Green. McLaren, P. 1998. Life in schools: an introduction to critical pedagogy in the foundations of education, 3rd ed., pp. 171–98). New York, NY: Longman. Pannabecker, J. 1998. Representing mechanical arts in Diderot’s Encyclop´edie. Technology and culture, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 33–73. Pannabecker, J. 2004. Inventing industrial education: The Ecole d’Arts et M´etiers of Chˆalons-surMarne, 1807–1830. History of education quarterly, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 222–249. Rees, G. et al. 1997. History, place and the learning society: towards a sociology of lifetime learning. Journal of education policy, vol. 12, no. 6, pp. 485–99. Rogers, B. 1997. Informing the shape of the curriculum: new views of knowledge and its representation in schooling. Journal of curriculum studies, vol. 29, no. 6, pp. 683–710. Sheridan, J. 2000. The silence before drowning in alphabet soup. Canadian journal of native studies, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 23–32.
Chapter 2
A Conceptual Framework for Technical and Vocational Education and Training Jay W. Rojewski
1 Introduction Unprecedented changes in work, family, community and political life in the twentyfirst century—fuelled by myriad phenomena such as globalization, market deregulation, the worldwide influence of capitalism, and a need for knowledgeable workers skilled in information technologies—confront people in every region of the world. While these phenomena pose significant economic, social and cultural challenges, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) professionals are particularly challenged to develop, adapt or redesign strategies to address the needs of workers and society. But, what drives the changes and modifications made to TVET programmes? Even more basic, what is the essential purpose of TVET programmes in an increasingly global economy requiring highly-skilled and highly-educated workers? Should TVET be viewed solely as a means for preparing people for specific types of work or as a means of providing academic education for living in a democratic society? Should purposes differ at secondary and post-secondary levels? Where is TVET headed in the foreseeable future, and what factors affect this direction? Answers to these questions—and many more—depend on any number of possible factors, not the least of which are the underlying philosophies, implicit assumptions and common vision held by those responsible for TVET. Presumably, this information can be collected and coherently presented in a conceptual framework. In this chapter, I attempt to articulate ‘a’ (rather than ‘the’) conceptual framework for TVET. Because of differing views about the nature of TVET, a conceptual framework must accomplish several goals to be effective and useful, including: (a) explaining the general purposes of TVET; (b) reflecting the underlying beliefs and perspectives of its constituents; and (c) shaping current activity and future direction—it cannot be developed in a vacuum. Many constituencies must be involved to provide a comprehensive view of TVET and its applications in classrooms, boardrooms, living rooms and factory floors. Therefore, this framework should be viewed as an initial point of departure for discussion and debate rather than as an arrival at the final destination.
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2 Nature and Role of Conceptual Frameworks Theoretical and conceptual concerns regarding TVET have often taken a back seat compared to changing political and economic landscapes dominated by shifting governmental and international agency policies and initiatives. Any attempt to articulate a framework for TVET is also fraught with potential points of contention about the ultimate purpose(s) of TVET, the diversity of countries and constituents served and their sometimes conflicting needs, and the degree of reliance on governments or international agencies to provide guidance and definition. A conceptual framework contains: (a) principles or ‘generalizations that state preferred practices and serve as guidelines for programme and curriculum construction, selection of instructional practices, and policy development’; and (b) philosophy which ‘makes assumptions and speculations about the nature of human activity and the nature of the world [and] helps vocational educators decide what should be and what should be different’ (Miller, 1996, p. xiii). Conceptual frameworks should accomplish several things, including: (a) establish the parameters of a profession by delineating its mission and current practices; (b) account for historical events by allowing understanding of how we got to where we are; (c) establish the philosophical underpinnings of the field and underscore the relationships between philosophy and practice; and (d) provide a forum for understanding directions of the field. A conceptual framework does not necessarily solve all problems or answer all questions, but it should provide a schema for identifying critical issues and allowing for solutions. Frameworks should be fairly stable, but have the capacity to change over time and adapt to external factors. Any conceptual framework for TVET must be flexible enough to allow for differences in secondary or post-secondary programmes and accommodate changes in various economies and countries, but at the same time identify underlying assumptions, beliefs and values that are consistent for all types of programmes and are not readily subject to change. Not a small order!
3 Philosophical Underpinnings In the United States, TVET emerged in the early 1900s in the midst of debate about the nature of vocational training in public education. A general consensus had emerged about the importance of establishing vocational training in public schools as an alternative to a classical, academic tradition. However, a disagreement existed about the specific design and implementation of public vocational education. Two historical figures, Charles Prosser and John Dewey, have come to represent opposing positions on the nature of vocational education. Prosser’s views on social efficiency, while lacking the qualities of a formal philosophic system (Miller & Gregson, 1999), posited that the major goal of school was not individual fulfilment but meeting the country’s labour needs. A bulwark of social efficiency was the preparation of a well-trained, compliant workforce (Doolittle
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& Camp, 1999). TVET was organized and rigidly sequenced, an emphasis was placed on hands-on instruction delivered by people with extensive experience, and programme funding and administration occurred via a system that was physically and conceptually separate and distinct from academic education. While strongly supported by a majority of TVET proponents at the time, Prosser’s approach to vocational preparation has been criticized in recent years for being class-based and tracking certain segments of society—based on race, class and gender—into second-class occupations and second-class citizenship (Hyslop-Margison, 2000; Lewis, 1998). In sharp contrast, Dewey believed that the principle goal of public education was to meet individual needs for personal fulfilment and preparation for life. This required that all students receive vocational education, be taught how to solve problems and have individual differences equalized. ‘Dewey rejected the image of students as passive individuals controlled by market economy forces and existentially limited by inherently proscribed intellectual capacities. In his view, students were active pursuers and constructors of knowledge’ (Hyslop-Margison, 2000, p. 25). Dewey’s work is recognized as a significant part of the philosophy known as pragmatism. In the last several decades, pragmatism has been identified as the predominant philosophy of TVET. Change and reactions to it are significant features of a pragmatic philosophy (Miller, 1985, 1996; Miller & Gregson, 1999). Pragmatic education seeks to prepare students to solve problems caused by change in a logical and rational manner through open-mindedness to alternative solutions and a willingness to experiment. The desired outcomes for pragmatic education are knowledgeable citizens who are vocationally adaptable and self-sufficient, participate in a democratic society and view learning and reacting to change as lifelong processes (Lerwick, 1979). Miller and Gregson cogently argued that a proactive stance to change in both the profession and society best reflects contemporary thinking in TVET and should be adopted. This position, known as reconstructionism, emphasizes the role of TVET in contributing solutions to problems such as discrimination in hiring, the glass ceiling experienced by women and members of minority groups, or poor working conditions. ‘One of the purposes of vocational education should be to transform places of work into more democratic learning organizations rather than perpetuating existing workplace practices’ (1999, p. 30). Another issue directly connected to philosophy is the relationship of vocational and academic education. Not only has vocational education struggled with self-definition, but also with determining how it fits with an academic curriculum. Miller and Gregson (1999) instruct us that public education in the United States has been influenced historically by the blending of two fundamental schools of thought—idealism and realism—into a philosophy labelled essentialism. Essentialism is characterized by an emphasis on basic academics (the Three Rs), respect for the existing power structure and nurturing of middle-class values (Sarkees-Wircenski & Scott, 1995). Education from an essentialist’s perspective includes the notions that: (a) ideas, concepts and theory should hold a more dominant place than preparing for a life role as a worker and producer; (b) learning theory reflecting a behaviouristic approach
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Pr
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Purpose of TVET is to meet needs of labor market. Characterized by sequential organized curriculum, instructors need extensive business/industry-related experience. System separate from academic education (Sarkees-Wircenski & Scott, 1995)
ial ism
These three philosophical positions are applicable to TVET. Specific choices about the nature and scope of TVET depend on the specific combination of philosophies selected to define a particular programme.
Purpose of TVET is to fulfill individual needs for personal fulfillment and life preparation. Characterized by an emphasis on problem-solving and higherorder thinking, learning is constructed from prior knowledge (Miller, 1985, 1996)
Pragmatism (Reconstructionist strand) Purpose of TVET is to transform work into democratic, learning organizations. Proactive rather than perpetuating existing workplace practices. Adopts a stance against injustice and inequity in work issues (Miller & Gregson, 1999).
Fig. 1 Alternate philosophies for TVET
and memorization should build over the individual’s personal experiences; and (c) a subject-matter should emphasize the so-called basic skills and preparation for college (Sarkees-Wircenski & Scott, 1995, p. 25). How should the presence of several different philosophies in TVET be treated from a conceptual standpoint? I suggest using a three-dimensional triangle to represent the prevailing philosophies, each side representing one of three prominent philosophies found in the field: essentialism, pragmatism and pragmatism with a reconstructivist strand (see Fig. 1). Philosophy is at the core of any conceptual framework. The specific tenets represented by the three philosophies reviewed here hold different answers to questions about the ideal nature and scope of TVET that, in turn, dictate the types of decisions made on curriculum structure, instructional strategies, programme delivery, etc. Identifying three influencing philosophies complicates matters, although the field seems to be converging on the pragmatic (combined with reconstructionism) position (Miller & Gregson, 1999).
4 Notions of the New Economy Economic developments often have major influences on the content and direction of curricula and programmes. Until recently, those developments had been gradual, fairly steady and, for the most part, predictable. However, more recently, most economists and labour analysts have identified a new economy emerging around the world (globalization). While specifics about the new economy are sometimes in
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dispute, most peoples’ understanding (e.g., Carnevale, 1991; International Labour Organization, 2001; Mandel, 2000; Reich, 2000; U.S. Department of Labor, 2000; Weinstein, 1997) of the emerging economy includes at least some of the following core characteristics.
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Manufacturers, spurred by advances in technology, maintain an accelerated level of growth in productivity. Businesses are in a continual production mode. However, the emerging system of production is shifting away from high-volume mass production to high-value production, and from standardization to customization. The globalization of business markets results in substantial increases in competition for manpower and goods. Competition is particularly keen for highly-skilled workers. The largest manpower needs are for persons with innovative and creative methods for: (a) producing new products and services; or (b) promoting and marketing these new goods and services to consumers (Friedman, 1999; Reich, 2000). Information handling—e.g. storage, transfer and production—continues to increase in importance in the new economy. Low overhead costs require workers to be able to manipulate data and provide customized, rather than mass-produced, information and services. Business management practices are undergoing extensive restructuring and can be characterized by: (a) continued downsizing; (b) a premium placed on personnel who can manage knowledge as opposed to people; and (c) an increasing reliance on outsourcing for most work. ‘Managers will become brokers/facilitators; there will be more technical specialists, more lateral entry, and shorter, flatter career ladders. Instead of the old-style division of labor into discrete tasks, job functions will converge, and work teams will consist of individuals who alternate expert, brokering, and leadership roles’ (Kerka, 1993). Fierce competition will affect both for-profit and not-for-profit institutions, resulting in pressure to be innovative and to do it all better, faster, cheaper and continuously. Restructuring will occur frequently in order to achieve the greatest efficiency and productivity.
What does all of this mean? Hawke observed that ‘the very essence of work has undergone a massive transition within the last decade and, for vocational education, this is having major implications’ (2000, p. 1). Smaller entrepreneurial groups linked to trusted name brands are likely to be big winners in the new economy. To remain competitive, the people comprising these enterprises must ‘continuously cut costs, lease almost everything they need, find the lowest-cost suppliers, push down wages of routine workers, and flatten all hierarchies into fast-changing contractual networks’ (Reich, 2000, p. 6). The decentralization of decision-making and reorganization of work structures around semi-autonomous, task-oriented teams will be the norm. Many of the implicit rules that have governed employment during the latter half of the twentieth century—e.g. employees who expect steady work with predictably rising wages, a clearly defined employer/worker relationship, and a clear separation
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between work and family—are no longer in sync with the emerging reality of work (Hawke, 2000). Instead, Reich (2000) foresees the end of steady work, the necessity of continuous effort regardless of tenure or seniority status, and widening inequality in wages paid to top- and lower-level workers. The new economy requires that workers possess a broad set of abilities, including both technical and interpersonal/communication skills. Higher-order thinking skills, such as decision-making and problem-solving, as well as flexibility, creative thinking, conflict resolution, and managing information and resources will also be expected (Carnevale, 1991; Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, 1991). Workers will also need to commit to lifelong learning, and organizations will need to provide on-going retraining for the existing workforce to remain viable. The International Labour Organization (2001) describes how the new economy is influencing the methods of instructional delivery and types of learning most desirable. Two consequences of this are, first, a shift in teaching methodologies away from the transfer of facts to students as passive recipients and, instead, towards teaching students how to learn and instilling in them the curiosity to do so. In short, how people learn is becoming as important as what they learn. The second consequence is observable in high-tech firms exposed to fast-paced competition. The ability to learn, to transform existing knowledge into new knowledge is a source of competitive advantage of increasing significance. Changes in the economy will also influence family and community life in many ways. In fact, Reich (2000) concluded that ‘rewards of the new economy are coming at the price of lives that are more frenzied, less secure, more economically divergent, more socially stratified’ (p. 8). The high-powered work force of the twenty-first century requires more and more employees to work late, be available at all hours, develop contacts and connections, and stay current with new developments. The new economy is also beginning to fragment communities, countries and geographic regions into those groups that have access to education, resources and the like, and those that do not. Reich explains that the growing demand for high-skilled workers is juxtaposed against the pressures of competition pushing the earnings of employees in routine jobs down. Thus, disparities in earnings continue to grow. TVET stands poised to affect positive change in terms of support, preparation and guidance in the areas of people’s lives likely to be affected. However, to be relevant, professionals must critically examine and modernize their underlying assumptions about the world of work and family life, and be willing to reconcile ‘the way we’ve always done things’ with emerging directions of the economy and needs of the work force.
5 Components of a Conceptual Framework 5.1 What Does a Conceptual Framework Entail? Much, if not all, of the information needed to develop a coherent perspective of the field has been addressed and is available through descriptions of the workplace
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and work force, research, opinion and everyday practice found in national and international arenas. Construction of the framework presented here, then, has capitalized on this information in an effort to synthesize and reflect current streams of thought and practice, rather than devise a new vision. The conceptual framework for TVET proposed here is offered as a graphic illustration of the relationship of major components that shape the field (see Fig. 2). While relationships between various components are given, the major function of the diagram is to serve as a starting point for discussion about the conceptual underpinnings of the field. Global pressures and expectations
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The new economy Globalization
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Programme evaluation Student learning, motivation, and achievement
Community and societal expectations
Fig. 2 Visual representation of the conceptual framework for TVET
5.2 General Assumptions TVET professionals hold certain beliefs and assumptions about the purpose of the field, the curriculum and so forth. It is important that these often-unstated beliefs be identified, so that confusion or misinterpretation about an articulated conceptual framework is minimized. To Miller (1985, 1996) philosophy is synonymous with conceptual framework. It is mentioned here so as to acknowledge the pervasive role of philosophy on both our assumptions and implementation of TVET. The assumptions listed here (adapted from several sources, including Copa & Plihal, 1996; Hoachlander, 1998; and Lynch, 1996) are not exhaustive, but rather serve as examples. Assumption 1. The purpose of TVET is to enhance the vocational development characteristics of an educated person. Vocational development is a lifelong process of developing the capacity for assuming vocational responsibilities; that is, the expectations for accomplishments in social and economic roles where individuals take responsibility to provide services or
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produce products of value to themselves and others. Long-term career development should be emphasized, rather than an exclusive focus on entry-level employment. Assumption 2. TVET must be dynamic and address the on-going changes found in workplaces, homes and communities so as to serve the needs of the larger society and interests of individuals it serves. The overarching structure conceives of work broadly and in the long term, encouraging generalization of learning and connections to work-based programmes and ideas. Assumption 3. A knowledge base exists that under-girds all of TVET, regardless of occupational specialization. A rigorous, coherent programme of academic study exists and can be identified for all programmes. Assumption 4. Changes in TVET must be concomitant with reform in academic specializations, and with educational reform and renewal in general. Assumption 5. Strong connections between high-school curricula and ‘the full range of’ two-year and four-year post-secondary opportunities must be forged. Assumption 6. TVET should address the long-term needs of successful economic and social development of individuals, and not the narrow, short-term interests of special-interest groups, business or industry.
5.3 Past Conceptual Frameworks Pratzner (1985) framed his discussion of the traditional paradigm in vocational education around six primary components: subject matter; beliefs in theories and models; values; methods and instruments; exemplars; and social matrices. This framework reflects an enterprise that serves the interests of employers, provides decontextualized instruction for specialized entry-level jobs, values job placement and earnings, follows a rigid, prescribed curriculum, uses norm-referenced and standardized tests to assess student learning, and has a considerable support network of professional associations and clubs. More recently, Copa and Plihal (1996) challenged the existing paradigm in vocational education, arguing for substantial change. They suggested a broad-field approach to curriculum integration where vocational and technical education is offered as a comprehensive subject for learning about work, family and community roles and responsibilities. A major advantage of this approach is that ‘the separate-fields structure fails to recognize the growing importance of the interaction among work, family, and community responsibilities and interests’ (p. 103). A major drawback to acceptance of Copa and Plihal’s proposal is that TVET would need to be reconceptualized with the likelihood that firmly established (entrenched?) traditions, organizations and structures would give way to new ones built on the principles of one broad field of study. While these changes could provide TVET with a focus needed to address emerging issues related to work, family and community, it is doubtful that a wholesale change will occur.
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Grubb (1997) advocated a shift from job-specific vocational preparation to a more generic, academic-based approach similar to Dewey’s notion of education through occupations. Four general practices framed Grubb’s new vocationalism. First, the purpose of secondary occupational curricula should be more general in nature rather than job specific. Second, traditional academic content would be integrated into occupational courses while occupational applications would be integrated in academic courses. Third, education through occupations would require a different school (institutional) structure designed to encourage curriculum integration, such as the use of career academies or school-within-a-school designs using career clusters as organizing themes. Fourth, several other elements would need to be incorporated into teaching, such as: (a) the availability of various work-based learning activities; (b) a hierarchical connection of educational and training opportunities; and (c) use of applied teaching methods and teamteaching strategies that are more contextualized, more integrated, student-centred and active. Lynch (2000) describes a new vision for TVET that supports emerging aspects of the new vocationalism. He proposed four major themes, including: (a) infusion of career planning and development activities throughout the educational process; (b) embedding TVET reform within the broad context of general education reform; (c) development of contemporary programmes based on the needs of business and industry; and (d) instituting a K-14 education model where all students are prepared for post-secondary education. Six components are also outlined in Lynch’s framework emphasizing both student achievement and school reorganization. They are to: (a) organize programmes around major fields of study; (b) use contextual teaching and learning; (c) infuse a work-based learning contributing to mastery of industry standards; (d) use authentic assessment, (e) increase use of career academies, and (f) implement successful models of tech-prep.
5.4 A Contemporary Framework In Fig. 2, major components of TVET are represented by five categories: curriculum; instruction and delivery options; student assessment; clientele; and programme evaluation (accountability). Philosophy, whether implicit or explicit, provides the motivation and impetus for actual practice and affects all areas. The influence of internal and external forces on the field, such as the new or emergent economy and globalization, the expectations of global institutions (e.g. World Bank, United Nations, etc.) and transnational corporations, student learning, and the expectations of society and local or regional communities are recognized. 5.4.1 Curriculum Curriculum reflects the state of the field: what is considered important, what is being taught and how it is taught (Lewis, 1999). Discussions surrounding required curriculum components have shifted the debate from a narrowly defined set of academic
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abilities toward a broader set of academic or general competencies, technical and job-specific skills, interpersonal abilities and behavioural traits. Three core curriculum issues are representative of the new vocationalism: (a) integration of academic and career and technical education; (b) articulation of secondary and post-secondary programmes; and (c) connections between school and the world of work. Lynch (2000) identified four predominant schools of thought, each defining the purpose of TVET according to the interests of primary stakeholders (see Table 1), including: 1. Curriculum emphasis on ‘education through occupations’ (see also Grubb, 1997), where TVET serves as the instructional (contextual) modality for teaching traditional academic content. 2. Focus on providing instruction around broad career clusters, along with specialized skills to the one-third of high-school graduates who are employment-bound (i.e. have not prepared for, nor entered, post-secondary education immediately upon graduation). 3. Provide TVET to the 8–12% of most educationally disadvantaged students who need extensive (concentrated) job training to enter the labour market upon highschool graduation. 4. Organize TVET programmes to be congruent with contemporary and successful articulated models (agreements between a high school and a community or technical college). Provides ‘non-duplicative, sequenced study that integrates academic with career and technical education, uses work-based and work-site learning, and leads to degrees, certificates and career placement’ (p. 17).
5.4.2 Instruction/Delivery Options Biggs, Hinton and Duncan (1996) asserted that major changes in the educational infrastructure are necessary to support and build a quality work-preparation system. A number of contemporary teaching innovations have emerged or assumed a greater role in TVET. Table 2 summarizes approaches to teaching and learning. Each approach requires new methods of pedagogy to accommodate teachers’ emerging roles as collaborators, facilitators of learning and as lifelong learners, as well as familiarity with the workplace and the ability to make school settings reflect workplace environments (Naylor, 1997). 5.4.3 Student Assessment The emphasis of many educational reform initiatives on higher-order thinking skills, such as problem-solving, critical thinking, reasoning and so forth, and expressed dissatisfaction with conventional testing approaches, demands that different approaches to assessing student learning be implemented (Johnson & Wentling, 1996). Most educators refer to this new form of student evaluation as authentic, or
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Table 1 Issues to consider when developing the curriculum component of a conceptual framework in TVET TVET is modality for teaching Four schools of Employment through traditional academic content; thought on TVET occupation; integration of academic and curriculum Employment-bound; vocational education; Educationally disadvantaged; Instruction on broad career clusters, along with specialized Tech-prep models. skills; Extensive job training to enter labour market; Non-duplicative, sequenced, and articulated secondary and post-secondary programmes integrating academic with TVET.
r
r
r r r
r r r
Components of TVET curriculum (workforce education)
r r r
Common core; Job-specific/content area specialties; New vocationalism.
r r r
Implications for TVET teacher preparation programmes
r
Curriculum components
r r
r r
Study of work, family and community as a composite of vocational roles and responsibilities; Focused on traditional vocational subject areas; Broad array of integrated academic (thinking skills, personal qualities) and general competencies, technical and job specific skills, interpersonal abilities, and behavioural traits. Assessment; Curriculum framework (general education, common core, specialized workforce education and workforce preparation; knowledge of learner, pedagogy, instructional technology, and professional education; and occupational and educational experiences); Standards of knowledge and practice; Philosophical foundations/principles of TVET.
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Approach Tech prep
Characteristics Articulation agreement(s) between secondary and post-secondary institutions; ‘2+2’ design (2 yrs secondary plus 2 yrs post-secondary leading to associate degree or certificate in specific career); Common academic core.
Strengths Combines academic rigour and applied instruction; Option to continue to baccalaureate level (‘2+2+2’ design); Appropriate for nearly all career areas.
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r
Integrated vocational and academic education
r r r
Career academies
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Modifications of academic and vocational philosophies; Applied focus in learning activities; Balances theory with application; Co-ordination between teachers and counsellors.
School-within-aschool run by team of educators; Career field focus rather than specific job preparation; Integrated academic and vocational content; Includes workplace skills; Employer involvement.
r r r r
Uses TVET settings to apply and reinforce academics; Life-relevant education; Didactic instruction replaced with activity-centred instruction and problem-solving; Appropriate for all students. Career focus may keep high-risk students in school.
Challenges Resistance to career-oriented concepts; Securing support from stakeholders; Limited resources (funding); Uncertainty of post-secondary curriculum reform; Addition of work-based learning.
r r r r r r r r r r r r
r
Requires organizational change in schools; Requires interdepartmental co-operation and collaboration; Design and implementation takes time; Need for administrative and community support. Scheduling conflicts. Requires involvement of business and industry. Requires collaboration and co-operation between academics and TVET professionals; Limited instructional resources.
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Table 2 (continued) Approach Work-based youth apprenticeship
Characteristics Work experience and learning in industry; Linkage between education systems leading to high school diploma and post-secondary diploma or certificate; Collaboration among groups; Modeling, scaffolding, fading, coaching.
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Strengths Creates a learning situation that emphasizes the skills and knowledge required by the workplace.
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School-based enterprises
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Operated by traditional programmes; Written training agreements specify what students will learn and employer’s responsibilities. Students produce goods or services for sale to customers.
r r r
r
Co-operative education
Challenges Requires significant employer participation, workplaces are transformed; Potential conflict between employers’ and students’ needs.; Requires collaboration between schools and employers.
r r r
r
r
Students obtain part-time jobs; Work-based learning; Use as a screening device for new employees.
Students apply academic knowledge to work and gain understanding of business; Instructors maintain control of instruction.
r
r r r
Lack of co-ordination between students’ school and work experiences is common; Use as a screening device by employers for new employees. Focus can shift to production rather than instruction; Lack of understanding about how learning occurs in workplace.
Sources: Table structure and some content from Biggs et al., 1996. Additional content from Kincheloe, 1999.
performance-based, assessment. Authentic assessment has three fundamental goals: reforming curriculum and instruction; improving teacher morale and performance; and strengthening student commitment and capacity for self-monitoring (Inger, 1993). At its core, authentic assessment is a reaction to the deficiencies perceived in traditional approaches to testing. It requires students to demonstrate their grasp of knowledge and skills by creating a response to questions or a product that demonstrates understanding (Wiggins, 1990). This type of assessment reflects the complexities of everyday life and a belief that learning is actively constructed knowledge influenced by context (Kerka, 1995).
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A variety of options are available for conducting authentic assessments including: portfolios; exhibitions; checklists; simulations; essays; demonstrations or performances; interviews; oral presentations; observations; and self-assessment. Rubrics, scoring devices that specify performance expectations and various levels of performance, are used to establish benchmarks for documenting progress and provide a framework for ensuring consistency (Kerka, 1995). 5.4.4 Clientele While the historic roots for vocational education were in providing job-specific training to working class (non-college-bound) youth, the contemporary world of work requires fewer of the manual job skills required a century ago. Today, ample evidence shows that the work skills required in the twenty-first century include higher-order thinking skills (reasoning, decision-making, problem-solving), flexibility, interpersonal skills and technological literacy. Not only are cognitive skills in demand, but many jobs now require some type of post-secondary education (less than a baccalaureate degree) for entry-level. Currently, TVET programmes serve several primary functions ranging from integrated academics instruction to tech-prep to job preparation for employment-bound and educationally disadvantaged youth. These diverse goals aim to achieve very different ends and are often at odds with one another. Lynch (2000) suggests that upwards of one-third of all secondary students in the United States enrolled in career and technical education programmes are not college-bound. Another 8–12% of students are identified as being educationally disadvantaged. Both of these groups require job-specific preparation to transition from school to adult life. However, recent trends to promote articulated secondary/post-secondary programmes may overlook this substantial proportion of programme enrollees. And, when services are available, they are often relatively low skilled, entry-level jobs that offer limited advancement opportunities. 5.4.5 Programme Evaluation Accountability has become a hallmark of educational reform initiatives in the United States. Federal legislation requires that states develop evaluation systems to assess four core indicators of student performance, including: (a) academic and vocational achievement; (b) programme completion; (c) successful transition from school to post-secondary education and/or employment; and (d) accessibility and equity. Although programme evaluation is mandated, criticisms exist about the criteria and methods used to collect data, and the usefulness of evaluation results (Halasz, 1989). Indeed, collecting data to respond to these federal mandates can pose considerable challenges. Given current mandates and future projections, a conceptual framework in career and technical education must include performance indicators that examine legislative mandates and the underlying philosophy, as well as specific outcomes, practices and inputs. Halasz (1989) indicated that school culture and stakeholders’ needs must also be considered. ‘A variety of information should be collected (personal,
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instructional, institutional, societal and so on) from multiple sources (teachers, students, administrators, parents) using multiple methods (survey, interview, participant observation, historical, archival)’.
6 Conclusions and Future Steps 6.1 Summary Table 3 summarizes the main components of conceptual frameworks for TVET— past, present and future. Historically, the conceptual framework of TVET has revolved around specific job training, clear distinctions between academic and vocational education, and preparing adolescents to transition from school directly to work. Curriculum and instructional approaches relied heavily on an essentialist philosophy where students were viewed as products and taught in ways that reflected the industries they were being prepared to enter. In sharp contrast, the emerging conceptual framework reflects efforts at local, state and national levels ‘to broaden vocational education—integrating the curriculum more closely with rigorous academics, improving articulation to post-secondary education (two-year and four-year), and stressing long-term preparation for productive careers that will be subject to increasing technological change and economic reorganization’ (Hoachlander, 1998, p. 1). Secondary programmes will continue a trend that focuses less on specific training for immediate entry-level employment upon graduation. Rather, they will provide more general knowledge about the workforce, offer career awareness and exploration activities in specified career clusters, nurture higher-order thinking skills development, and support students in making initial decisions about their career goals and plan post-secondary activities necessary to achieve those goals. Post-secondary education, on the other hand, will remain in the best position to prepare students for specific jobs.
6.2 Implications for the Curriculum The implications of any proposed conceptual framework for TVET are substantial. While myriad other arrangements or contextual structures can address the question of specific content to include or exclude, a relatively simple, straightforward approach focuses on the types of instructional content needed in three areas: general workforce education; content area specialties; and professional development. These areas are broad enough to incorporate issues recognized as integral to the emerging vocationalism (see Table 4). 6.2.1 General Workforce Education Aspects of curricula that focus on general workforce education assume that a substantial portion of the knowledge and experiences that define TVET cross specialty
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Table 3 Illustration of components and contents of a conceptual framework for TVET from past, current and future perspectives Components Purpose, theories, models
Past
r r r r
Teacher education
r r r
Social efficiency; Essentialism; scientific method; Serves employers’ interests; Job training and preparation for less than a baccalaureate degree. Work experience and job expertise paramount; Focus on job skills preparation; Teacher-directed instruction.
Current
r r r
r r r
Pragmatism; Some aspects of progressivism (Dewey); Preparation for work and post-secondary education and training (mostly associate degree). College education focusing on general and specific labour market preparation; Focus on academic and vocational skills instruction; Emphasis on contextualized / facilitated learning.
Emerging
r r r r r
r r
Curriculum
r r r r
Narrow focus on entry-level, job specific skills; Separate vocational content areas; Separation of academic and vocational education; Rigid prescribed curricula.
r r r r r r
Four curricular strands; Education through occupations; Integration of academic and vocational education; Job-specific, entry-level training; Tech prep; Dual enrolment.
r r r r
Pragmatism with reconstructivist strand; Progressivism; Critical perspective; Preparation for work and post-secondary education and training (all levels). College education focusing on common core, specialized content area(s), and integrated academics; Comprehensive approach to learning using occupations as modality; Emphasis on contextualized / facilitated learning. Multiple options, including curricular strands currently available; Common core of workforce education for all regardless of post-secondary plans; Integrated (academicvocational) curriculum; Career clusters used to direct specialized instruction.
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Table 3 (continued) Components Delivery options
Clientele
Past
r r r
r r
Behaviourism; Applied academics; Co-operative education.
Alternative track for less academically able students; Increasing emphasis on special populations.
Current
r r r r
r r
r Student assessment
r
Standardized and norm-referenced testing.
r r r
Programme evaluation
r r
Quality based on industry standards; Job analysis.
r
Cognitive learning theory; Tech-prep; Career academies; Work-based apprenticeships.
Different programmes and purposes for different student groups; Moderated emphasis on special populations tempered with phrases like ‘all students’ and renewed use of quality standards; Multiple constituency groups. Standardized testing; Industry-based skill standards; Emergence of alternative assessments (e.g. portfolios, authentic assessment). In U.S., state plans following guidelines established in federal legislation;
Emerging
r r r r r
r r r r
r Note: Information for past components column adapted from Pratzner, 1985.
Multiple options available; Democratic ideals reflected in instructional content and process; Separation between school and work less distinct. Multiple constituency groups; Inclusion of all students with continuum of outcomes available.
Standardized testing; Established alternatives to assessment; Criterion-referenced testing.
Quality based on variety of factors including dropout, retention, graduation rates, job placement, transitions to post-secondary education; Occupational analysis.
36
J.W. Rojewski Table 4 Possible components in TVET programmes based on conceptual framework
General workforce education
Content area specialty
Professional development
r
r r
Entrepreneurship;
r
Knowledge associated with career clusters;
r
Agriculture and environmental sciences;
r
r r
r r r r r
Foundations and philosophy of TVET (including changing nature of work place, new economy); Communication/ interpersonal skills necessary in work place; Communication, interpersonal, and leadership skills required when dealing with various constituencies; Higher-order thinking skills such as problem-solving and decision-making; School-to-work transition issues for all students; Balancing work and family life; Employability skills (workforce readiness);
r r r r r r r r
Arts and communications;
r
Business, marketing, information management; Family and consumer sciences;
r
Health services; Human services; Manufacturing and engineering technology;
r
Technology education.
r r
Contextualized teaching and learning; Integration of academic and vocational education; Work-based learning (e.g. apprenticeship, co-operative education); Articulation of secondary-, post-secondary, school/business instruction; Student assessment (formal, informal, alternative methods) and programme evaluation; Working with diverse student populations; Notion of lifelong learning; TVET teachers as change agent in school and community.
Acquiring a sense of social justice regarding the effects of work on individuals and society.
Note: Adapted from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, 2001. While a useful taxonomy, other organizational structures have also been proposed, e.g., the National Skill Standards Board proposes fifteen large economic sectors to structure vocational specialization (Hoachlander, 1998).
area boundaries. A common core of knowledge about the world of work is assumed stressing topics such as: the function of work and family life in society; economics and systems of production and distribution; cultural aspects of work, the family and society; development and application of higher-order thinking skills; employability skills; and job-seeking skills. The nature and underlying assumptions of general workplace education topics suggest an integrated approach to instruction where students from all vocational specialty areas are grouped together. This approach
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should not only help students understand the need for a broad-based approach, but also nurture a sense of professional commonality and shared purpose.
6.2.2 Content Area Specialty Regardless of the specific structuring system used, some form of content area specialization will, in all likelihood, persist. While maintaining some aspect of traditional vocational education, teachers and students will increasingly be exposed to something other than business as usual. Regardless of the specific curricula and structure of TVET programmes, all must satisfy three essential requirements: They must prepare participants to: (a) address long-term prospects, not just entry-level jobs; (b) achieve high levels of academic proficiency and mastery of sophisticated work-based knowledge and skill; and (c) access the full range of post-secondary options for programme participants (Hoachlander, 1998). No small task.
6.2.3 Professional Development TVET professionals must be able to incorporate an array of possible teaching strategies in classroom, laboratory and work-based settings. Traditional teaching approaches will need to be supplemented with greater emphases on emerging pedagogical approaches, such as integrating of academic and vocational education, and contextualized teaching and learning forums. Knowledge about the diversity of students and school settings will continue to be a critical element. The successful implementation of changes to TVET programmes, and the field as a whole, requires recognition of the slow and difficult process of reform. Teacher educators and trainers must be especially aware of and understand how to successfully negotiate the change process.
7 Final Words It seems appropriate to take stock in the future of TVET. Many authors have contributed to an on-going dialogue about the nature of contemporary and future TVET. Ideas and options have been proposed, articulated and studied. Yet, action is slow. The development of any conceptual framework is of little value if action does not result. Collectively, the field must be willing to tackle tough questions and debate potentially contentious issues delineated in the professional literature to arrive at and then maintain a clear and concise framework. Such a framework can guide funding priorities, programme development, classroom instruction and relationships with external constituencies. To do otherwise runs the risk of glossing over fundamental issues and concerns, repeating the same arguments and issues for another century or—perhaps worst of all—allowing others (e.g. national and regional governments, funding agents, business and industry leaders) to make decisions for the field.
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Acknowledgments Earlier versions of this chapter were published as ‘Preparing the workforce of tomorrow: a conceptual framework for career and technical education,’ a monograph commissioned by the National Centers for Career and Technical Education for presentation at the 2002 National Teacher Education Conference, Scottsdale, AZ (ERIC ED 461 771), and an abbreviated article of the same name published in the Journal of vocational education research, vol. 27, pp. 7–35. Additional information was originally published in an article entitled, ‘Globalization and the internationalization of research in career and technical education,’ published in the Journal of vocational education research, vol. 28, pp. 3–13.
References Biggs, B.T.; Hinton, B.E.; Duncan, S.L. 1996. Contemporary approaches to teaching and learning. In: Hartley, N.K.; Wentling, T.L., eds. Beyond tradition: preparing the teachers of tomorrow’s workforce, pp. 113–46. Columbia, MO: University Council for Vocational Education. Carnevale, A.P. 1991. America and the new economy. Alexandria, VA: American Society for Training and Development. (ERIC ED 333 246.) Copa, G.H.; Plihal, J. 1996. General education and subject matter education components of the vocational teacher education program. In: Hartley, N.K.; Wentling, T.L., eds. Beyond tradition: preparing the teachers of tomorrow’s workforce, pp. 91–112. Columbia, MO: University Council for Vocational Education. Doolittle, P.E.; Camp, W.G. 1999 Constructivism: the career and technical education perspective. Journal of vocational and technical education, vol. 1, no. 1. Retrieved from: <scholars.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JVTE/V16n1/doolittle.html> Friedman, T.L. 1999. The Lexus and the olive tree: understanding globalization. New York, NY: Anchor Books. Grubb, W.N. 1997. Not there yet: prospects and problems for education through occupations. Journal of vocational education research, vol. 22, pp. 77–94. Halasz, I.M. 1989. Evaluation strategies for vocational programme redesign. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University, ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education. (ERIC ED 305 497.) Retrieved from: <ericae.net/db/edo/ED305497.htm> Hawke, G. 2000. Implications for vocational education of changing work arrangements. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University, National Centers for Career and Technical Education. [Professional development speaker series.] Retrieved from: <www.nccte.com/events/ profdevseries/20000720geofhawke/index.html> Hoachlander, G. 1998. Toward a new framework of industry programmes in vocational education. Berkeley, CA: MPR Associates. Hyslop-Margison, E.J. 2000. An assessment of the historical arguments in vocational education reform. Journal of career and technical education, vol. 17, pp. 23–30. Inger, M. 1993. Authentic assessment in secondary education. New York, NY: Columbia University Teachers’ College, Institute on Education and the Economy. (IEE Brief, 6.) Retrieved from: <www.tc.columbia.edu/∼iee/BRIEFS/Brief06.htm> International Labour Organization. 2001. World employment report 2001: life at work in the information economy. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Retrieved from: <www.ilo.org/public/english/ support/publ/wer/overview.htm> Johnson, S.D.; Wentling, T.L. 1996. An alternative vision for assessment in vocational teacher education. In: Hartley, N.K.; Wentling, T.L., eds. Beyond tradition: preparing the teachers of tomorrow’s workforce, pp. 147–166. Columbia, MO: University Council for Vocational Education. Kerka, S. 1993. Career education for a global economy. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University, ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education. (ERIC ED 355 457.) Retrieved from: <www.askeric.org/plweb-cgi/obtain.pl>
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Kerka, S. 1995. Techniques for authentic assessment. Columbus, OH: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education. (ERIC ED 381 688.) Retrieved from: <ericacve.org/docs/auth-pab.htm> Kincheloe, J.L. 1999. How do we tell the workers? Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Lerwick, L.P. 1979. Alternative concepts of vocational education. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, Department of Vocational and Technical Education, Minnesota Research and Development Center for Vocational Education. (ERIC ED 169 285.) Lewis, T. 1998. Toward the 21st century: retrospect, prospect for American vocationalism. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University, ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education. (Information series no. 373.) (ERIC ED 423 421.) Lewis, T. 1999. Content or process as approaches to technology curriculum: does it matter come Monday morning? Journal of technology education, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 1–16. Lynch, R.L. 1996. The past, present, and future of vocational and technical teacher education. In: Hartley, N.K.; Wentling, T.L., eds. Beyond tradition: preparing the teachers of tomorrow’s workforce, pp. 1–22. Columbia, MO: University Council for Vocational Education. Lynch, R.L. 2000. New directions for high school career and technical education in the 21st century. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University, ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education. (Information series no. 384.) (ERIC ED 444 037.) Mandel, M.J. 2000. The new economy: it works in America. Will it go global? Businessweek Online, 31 January. Retrieved from: <www.businessweek.com/2000/00 05/b3666002.htm> Miller, M.D. 1985. Principles and a philosophy for vocational education. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University, ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education. (Special publication series, no. 48.) (ERIC ED 250 497.) Miller, M.D. 1996. Philosophy: the conceptual framework for designing a system of teacher education. In: Hartley, N.K.; Wentling, T.L., eds. Beyond tradition: preparing the teachers of tomorrow’s workforce, pp. 53–72. Columbia, MO: University Council for Vocational Education. Miller, M.D.; Gregson, J.A. 1999. A philosophic view for seeing the past of vocational education and envisioning the future of workforce education: pragmatism revisited. In: Paulter, A.J. Jr., ed. Workforce education: issues for the new century, pp. 21–34. Ann Arbor, MI: Prakken. National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. 2001. Career and technical education standards. Arlington, VA: NBPTS. Naylor, M. 1997. Vocational teacher education reform. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University, National Center for Research in Vocational Education. (ERIC ED 407 572.) Pratzner, F.C. 1985. The vocational education paradigm: adjustment, replacement, or extinction. Journal of industrial teacher education, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 6–19. Reich, R. 2000. The future of success. New York, NY: Knopf. Sarkees-Wircenski, M.; Scott, J.L. 1995. Vocational special needs, 3rd ed. Homewood, IL: American Technical. Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills. 1991. What work requires of schools: a SCANS report for America 2000. Washington, DC: United States Department of Labor. (ERIC ED 332 054.) United States Department of Labor. 2000. Futurework: trends and challenges for work in the 21st century. Executive summary. Retrieved from: <www.dol.gov/dol/asp/public/ futurework/execsum.htm> Weinstein, B.L. 1997. Welcome to the new economy. Perspectives, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 1–4. Retrieved from: <www.unt.edu/cedr/dec97.pdf> Wiggins, G. 1990. The case for authentic assessment. Washington, DC: American Institutes for Research, ERIC Clearinghouse on Test Measurement and Evaluation. (ERIC ED 328 611.) Retrieved from: <www.ed.gov/ databases/ERIC Digests/ed328611.html>
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Chapter 3
Towards Achieving TVET for All: The Role of the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training Astrid Hollander and Naing Yee Mar
1 Introduction: TVET Related Issues and Concerns within UNESCO 1.1 Understanding TVET Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is concerned with the acquisition of knowledge and skills for the world of work. Throughout the course of history, various terms have been used to describe elements of the field that are now conceived as comprising TVET. These include: apprenticeship training, vocational education, technical education, technical-vocational education (TVE), occupational education (OE), vocational education and training (VET), career and technical education (CTE), workforce education (WE), workplace education (WE), etc. Within the context of UNESCO and according to the 2001 UNESCO Revised Recommendation concerning Technical and Vocational Education: Technical and vocational education is used as a comprehensive term referring to those aspects of the educational process involving, in addition to general education, the study of technologies and related sciences, and the acquisition of practical skills, attitudes, understanding and knowledge relating to occupations in various sectors of economic and social life. Technical and vocational education is further understood to be: a. an integral part of general education; b. a means of preparing for occupational fields and for effective participation in the world of work; c. an aspect of lifelong learning and a preparation for responsible citizenship; d. an instrument for promoting environmentally sound sustainable development; e. a method of facilitating poverty alleviation (UNESCO, 2005b, p. 7).
In this broad definition, the term ‘training’ is not explicitly highlighted, with greater emphasis being placed on ‘education’. This simply reflects on the earlier division of roles with regard to TVET within the United Nations system, whereby UNESCO’s concern used to be centred on technical and vocational education, as part of the R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 3, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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Education for All (EFA) initiative, while the International Labour Organization (ILO) focused on aspects of training for employment at the workplace by stressing the concept of decent work and the welfare of workers as a global demand to be satisfied today. By giving prominence to joint efforts of promoting the world of work, international participants at the second International Congress on Technical and Vocational Training (Seoul, April 1999) clearly pointed out that: The two most renowned international agencies in the field of vocational education and training, UNESCO and ILO, need to address this issue seriously, so that we stop talking different things about what should be the same thing, and stop insisting that UNESCO’s role is vocational education, while ILO’s role is vocational training. This is not role splitting, but rather hair splitting! (Masri, 1999, p. 13).
In the light of such international attention being paid to the need to share collective responsibility for workforce development, the term ‘training’ was included in UNESCO’s terminology when referring to workplace and workforce education. In addition, in aiming to promote the implementation (and realization) of TVET as a fundamental human right, the concept of training for particular skills or appropriate types of work-related practices over a period of time has been introduced as part of UNESCO’s strategic objectives and activities. This makes sense, especially as the notion of educating and training individuals to be fitted or matched to jobs for life is being replaced by the necessity for lifelong learning. It becomes clear that learning no longer takes place only in the form of formal school education, but also in non-formal and informal settings, at the workplace, and through participation in economic and social life, in partnership with the private sector and employers.
1.2 Why is TVET Important? The purpose of TVET is to make people (self-)employable and to be a vehicle of transition for individuals to the world of work. Thus, in the ideal case, TVET leads to (self-)employment and income-generation which is expected to contribute to the individuals’ and their communities’ well-being. In line with this argument, TVET is often considered as a mechanism for poverty alleviation and a vital contribution towards the attainment of international development goals (such as the Millennium Development Goals and Education for All) as well as towards sustainable development. While this argument appears logical, it nevertheless needs to be used with care, since a number of other factors have to be in place for TVET to actually have an impact on phenomena such as poverty. In a situation of economic stagnation or jobless growth, even the well-trained and best-educated have problems finding employment and earning a living, let alone the poor and marginalized who often do not even have access to education and training. For TVET to effectively contribute to (self-)employment and poverty alleviation, there needs to be a labour market which can absorb the TVET graduates and provide them with decent work and an
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income that allows them to live. In view of this, the purpose of TVET must permit a concentration not only on poverty alleviation but also on (self-)employment. There also is sufficient observational and research evidence to suggest that there is a need to improve adjustments between the labour market and available human resources. Thus, the extent TVET should be focused on skills development depends on the main policy set by countries (Lauglo, 2005, p. 4). Coombe (1988) explained that economic goals were the main driver behind TVET policies, though personal development goals and socio-political goals are also identified in some countries. Overall, TVET should evolve through the educational process by initiating strategic education planning which is ‘more analytical and less political’ (Wheelen & Hunger, 1998, p. 3) and policy-oriented to foster all-round development of nations. The 2004 World Bank Report on ‘Skills development in Sub-Saharan Africa’ sums this argument up clearly: Getting the macroeconomic context right remains the essential first step in focusing on skills development. Training does not create jobs. Skills are a derived demand and that demand depends on policies for growth and employment creation (Adams & Johanson, 2004, p. xv).
Influencing the ‘demand’ by focusing on policies for growth and employment creation lies beyond the scope of the work of UNESCO. Instead, the organization concentrates on optimizing the ‘supply’ of skilled labour. The general assumption is that TVET can only make a better contribution to poverty alleviation if it is of good quality, relevant to the demands of the labour market, and inclusive and accessible to all, especially the poorest of the poor. However, since there is ample evidence to indicate that well-prepared and trained workers increase productivity, one could argue that in the long-term the benefits of increased productivity will lead to impact growth and employment creation (de Moura Castro & Verdisco, 2000, p. 46).
1.3 TVET within the Context of UNESCO Originally, direct preparation for work was the main goal of TVET, and this remains prominent in many developing nations. However, with the technological revolutions and innovations in science and technology during the twentieth century, new domains of knowledge and new disciplines have become important at all levels of education and training. The current focus is increasingly upon preparing knowledge workers to meet the challenges posed during the transition from the Industrial Age to the Information Age, with its concomitant post-industrial human resource requirements and the constantly changing world of work. TVET systems are no longer expected to educate and train for a stable job, but to produce individuals who are innovative, capable of evolving and adapting to changing circumstances. There is a shift from the concept of ‘TVET for employment’ to ‘TVET for employability’. But within the context of UNESCO, TVET goes beyond even this concept; it is also understood as a preparation for responsible citizenship and an instrument for
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promoting sustainable development (compare the definition above). UNESCO sees the role of TVET as educating the whole person, not just the worker. This implies the adoption of a ‘holistic approach to skills development for employability and citizenship by placing emphasis within skills training programmes on developing a sense of values, ethics and attitudes to prepare the learner for self-reliance and responsible citizenship’ (Quisumbing & de Leo, 2005, p. v). This broad understanding of TVET stems from the proposition formulated in the 1996 report to UNESCO by the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century, Learning: the treasure within, which postulates that education throughout life is built upon four pillars: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be, and is based on UNESCO’s overall mandate ‘to build peace in the minds of men’. While ‘learning to do’ seems to be the pillar most closely linked to TVET, the authors of the report argue that the four pillars cannot stand alone, but are ‘four paths of knowledge [that] all form a whole’(Delors et al., 1996, p. 86). It is this holistic view that distinguishes the work of UNESCO in TVET from those of other organizations, as it goes beyond the demand for TVET for purely economic purposes. The notion of TVET differs from one UNESCO Member State to another and between communities. Each country (and community) is characterized by its own unique socio-cultural, political-legal, technological and economic context, having a strong impact on the educational environment. These variables in societal environments may not compromise the educational activities of a country in the short term, but can, and often do, affect its long-term developments (Hellriegel, Slocum & Woddman, 1998). In addition to these societal considerations, governments, local communities, educational suppliers, learners and trends in labour markets directly influence the effectiveness of education and, in turn, are affected by it. These are multiple, contextual variables that need to be considered in order to best understand human intentions and interactions in different cultural settings (Sirotnik, 2000, p. 184). And it is UNESCO’s task to make sure that its work takes these contextual variables into account. TVET is dealt with at several instances within UNESCO as the Organization aims to respond to the many diverse needs of its currently 193 Member States. All parts of UNESCO that have an involvement with TVET are jointly responsible for the successful implementation of the global TVET Programme. The specialized TVET Section at UNESCO Headquarters is responsible for overall strategic planning and programme design in consultation with UNESCO-UNEVOC, and other relevant Education Sector Divisions. It functions as the TVET focal point in the Organization for contributions to the Medium-Term Strategy and the biennial Programme and Budget; reports to the Organization’s top management and Governing Board; strengthens strategic alliances with other multi-lateral organizations (such as the International Labour Organization) with a view to anticipating and addressing emerging policy issues in TVET; co-ordinates the implementation of UNESCO’s normative instruments regarding TVET; responds to requests from Member States for support; generates prototype resource material; provides technical support and backstopping for field-office activities; and participates in programme monitoring and assessment with UNESCO-UNEVOC.
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The UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training is responsible for research on new trends in TVET, independently and in co-operation with the other UNESCO education institutes; publishes books and manuals; co-ordinates the UNEVOC Network; acts as a resource centre for information on TVET systems; disseminates information to TVET stakeholders worldwide; co-operates with multi-lateral partners at the research and implementation levels; implements activities in co-operation with field units and promotes capacity-building for TVET policy-makers and practitioners in the Member States. The various UNESCO field offices often have the closest contacts with the relevant stakeholders in Member States and are therefore valuable partners for both UNESCO Headquarters and UNESCO-UNEVOC in the implementation of activities at regional, sub-regional and national activities. In this article, however, the focus will be on the work of the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training.
2 The UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training The UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (UNESCO-UNEVOC) assists UNESCO’s Member States in strengthening and upgrading their TVET systems. It is at once UNESCO’s specialized centre for TVET and the hub of a worldwide network of TVET institutions, the so-called UNEVOC Network. It acts as part of the United Nations mandate to promote peace, justice, equity, poverty alleviation and greater social cohesion. The Centre assists Member States in developing policies and practices concerning education for the world of work and skills development for employability and citizenship, to achieve:
r r r
access for all, high quality, relevant and effective programmes, learning opportunities throughout life.
The Centre aims to contribute to increased opportunities for productive work, sustainable livelihoods, personal empowerment and socio-economic development, especially for youth, girls, women and the disadvantaged. Its emphasis is on helping to meet the needs of developing countries, countries in transition and those in a post-conflict situation.
2.1 Background UNESCO has been active in the field of technical and vocational education for more than thirty years. The idea to launch a comprehensive project on technical and vocational education dates back to 1987. In that year, UNESCO held its first International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education in Berlin, Germany.
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At this congress it was proposed that UNESCO should support the establishment of an international centre for research and development in technical and vocational education. UNESCO Member States supported this proposal and identified TVET as a priority area within UNESCO’s range of programme activities, recognizing its enhanced capacity to emphasize the role of technology in society, including the vocational aspects of that role. This new understanding stresses the importance of non-formal (or non-institution-based) TVET for young people in developing countries and particularly the need for TVET to seek actively the participation of marginalized population groups. As explained above, the rationale behind this is the assumption that TVET can play an essential role in promoting economic growth and the socio-economic development of countries, with benefits for individuals, their families, local communities and society in general. As a consequence, in 1991, the General Conference of UNESCO decided to launch the International Project on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (UNEVOC). Two years later the UNEVOC Implementation Unit became operational in Berlin. At the second International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, in 1999, participants requested UNESCO to further strengthen and prioritize TVET within UNESCO’s work and supported the launch of a long-term programme on TVET. In the same year, the General Conference of UNESCO adopted a resolution authorising the Director-General to establish an international centre for TVET in 2000. The Government of Germany generously offered to host such a centre in Bonn. A Host Country Agreement between Germany and UNESCO was signed on 12 July 2000. The UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training started its work in September 2000 and was officially inaugurated two years later—on 8 April 2002.
2.2 The Mission of UNESCO-UNEVOC The UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre acts as a key component of UNESCO’s international programme on technical and vocational education and training. It also works to support UNESCO’s mandate for Education for All and Education for Sustainable Development by assisting Member States to improve and integrate TVET as part of their educational planning, and align TVET with the tenets of sustainable development. As the hub of the global UNEVOC networks, the Centre has an additional, specific responsibility—to develop vibrant global networks of TVET professionals, organizations and institutes. It is in these three key result areas that UNESCO-UNEVOC develops and implements its activities to assist UNESCO Member States to elaborate policies and practices concerning education for the world of work and skills development for employability and citizenship. 2.2.1 Global UNEVOC Networks There is significant scope of countries to share their experience in technical and vocational education. There is a need for mutual co-operative assistance between all countries,
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regardless of their state of development. Provision should be made at the national, regional and international levels for regular exchange, making use of contemporary information and communication technologies, of information, documentation, and materials (UNESCO, 2005b, pp. 49–50).
In line with this statement taken from UNESCO’s 2001 Revised Recommendation on TVE, the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training acts as the hub of the worldwide UNEVOC Network. It can be demonstrated that networks, as a vehicle for education reform, are vital for enriching learning environments and for facilitating members to interact. As such, specific networks serve as opportunities for learning and socialization, and the necessity of building a TVET community via networks has become a recurring theme in the reform literature (Keating, 2000). The idea behind all networking initiatives of the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for TVET is that educational reforms that have worked in one country or setting may well also work in another country if modified appropriately to meet local conditions. Through access to information, countries can learn from each other’s experience, whether they are success stories or disappointments. The Centre also creates networks with its closest partners and creates synergies with UNESCO Headquarters, other UNESCO institutes and centres and field offices. It also works in close partnership with other relevant institutions, such as specialized agencies within and outside the United Nations system, bilateral and multilateral donors, national institutions, non-governmental organizations and the private sector. This is an important aspect of the work of UNESCO-UNEVOC, since the improvement of TVET worldwide can be achieved most effectively if several agencies make a concerted effort through working together. It is also a way to avoid duplication of efforts, and to make best use of available human and financial resources. 2.2.2 UNESCO-UNEVOC’s Efforts in Achieving EFA In the past decades, UNESCO’s focus in education was mainly on achieving universal primary education (UPE). While this is an essential goal, it has been recognized that access to primary education alone is not sufficient and that basic education for all is not synonymous with UPE. It has become clear in all parts of the world that basic education can no longer be limited to primary education. Currently, education systems do not allow young people to obtain and strengthen the complex set of competencies for life, including technical and vocational education. [. . .] Lack of technical and vocational education and training, including entrepreneurship and training for creativity, hampers employability (UNESCO-IBE, 2004, pp. 11, 13).
Especially since the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, in April 2000, there has been extensive consultation and rethinking about the concept of Education for All (EFA) and what is involved in achieving a basic education which prepares for work and life. As more children and adults receive and complete elementary education, it is important to offer them relevant further education and to teach them skills
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for the world of work that enable them to work in dignity, supporting themselves and their families, as well as being respected and effective members of a community. TVET particularly contributes to achieving the EFA goals 3 and 6:
r r
Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes (Goal 3); and Improving all aspects of the quality of education, and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy, and essential life skills (Goal 6).
The Dakar Framework for Action further specifies that ‘all young people and adults must be given the opportunity to gain the knowledge and develop the values, attitudes and skills which will enable them to develop their capacities to work, to participate fully in their society, to take control of their own lives, and to continue learning.’ It continues by saying that ‘such opportunities should be both meaningful and relevant to their environment and needs, help them become active agents in shaping their future and develop useful work-related skills’ (UNESCO, 2000, p. 16). TVET, or education for the world of work, is one of the providers of such learning and life-skills programmes for young people and adults. With the change to work patterns demanding higher skills, more technical and analytical knowledge and the capacity to work productively in teams, young people must now have a preparation that goes beyond basic literacy and numeracy and includes both vocational and social skills, together with values that help to build harmonious societies (UNESCOUNEVOC, forthcoming). TVET needs to be as dynamic as the economies and communities it serves. Rapid changes in technology and employment patterns, in demographic growth and social expectations, and many other factors drive the need to reform as well as to expand TVET. Especially in countries of scarce resources, the efficiency and effectiveness of TVET is of paramount importance. Particularly since the 1999 second International Congress on TVE held in Seoul, with its strong focus on TVET reform, and since the endorsement of the Revised recommendation concerning technical and vocational education in 2001(see UNESCO, 2005b), UNESCO has been assisting Member States with TVET reform within the framework of Education for All. Furthermore, the UNESCOUNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training is uniquely placed to provide technical assistance and advisory services to governments, training authorities and many TVET institutes in developing countries, countries in transition and those in post-conflict situations that are increasingly interested in TVET reform. 2.2.3 TVET and Education for Sustainable Development Finding approaches to development that balance economic and social progress, address cultural difference, conform to global, national and local needs, and respect ecological values and limits is the key to sustainable development (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2006, p. 5).
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People in every country of the world must plan for, cope with and find solutions to issues that threaten the sustainability of our planet. Sustainable development is not a fixed concept; rather it is a culturally-directed search for a dynamic balance in the relationships between social, economic and natural systems. Sustainability is a complex concept and cannot simply be ‘prescribed’, but it can be taught and learned. It is the aim of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) to use education at all levels to impart the competences and knowledge that are necessary to address the global issues for sustainability that affect communities and nations (UNESCO, 2005a). DESD runs from 2005 to 2014 with UNESCO requested to lead activities and develop an International Implementation Scheme (IIS) for the decade. The IIS fosters collective ownership of the decade and emphasizes the importance of partnership amongst and between those with an interest in furthering education for sustainable development. Within this context, the alignment of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into TVET has been nominated as one of the key areas for collective UNESCO effort, and the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for TVET has already assumed leadership for a number of initiatives. TVET is important in this context as it affects attitudes towards sustainability held by future workers. The changing nature of the world of work, especially due to globalization and technological change, demands that TVET develop a skilled, committed and motivated workforce that understands how global changes impact upon local opportunities for business and industry and how these changes impact upon the quality of local social, economic and environmental conditions. The greater the exposure of trainees to sustainability concepts, practices and examples, the more likely the desired workplace culture change will take place in the future. TVET is a consumer and producer of resources and therefore has many different concerns about sustainability, such as over-exploitation of natural resources, ill-health and grinding poverty, which threaten the ability of future generations to satisfy their needs and wants. TVET needs to re-orient its curricula to imbue students and trainees with the conservation and sustainable use of resources, social equity and appropriate development, as well as with competencies to practise sustainable tasks at the workplace. UNESCO’s guiding Revised Recommendations on TVE took into account the notion of sustainable development, recommending that TVET should: (a) contribute to the achievement of the societal goals of democratic, social and cultural development, as well as the traditional emphasis on economic development; (b) lead to a broad and, when necessary, critical understanding of science and technology; and (c) empower people to contribute to environmentally sound sustainable development through their occupations and other areas of their lives (UNESCO, 2005b, p. 9). These three concepts are crucial to aligning TVET for sustainable development, and they framed discussions at the International Experts Meeting on ‘Learning for Work, Citizenship and Sustainability’ (Bonn, October 2004). The Bonn meeting, together with the Bonn Declaration that came out of it, deliberately addressed these forward-looking concepts. At that stage, the Decade for Sustainable Development had not yet been launched, and the role for UNESCO in providing leadership on educational issues was still unclear. Only eighteen months later, the concepts had
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been adopted as a key plank in UNESCO’s 2006/07 Programme and Budget with the request that TVET effort be directed towards assisting UNESCO Member States align their national TVET systems to be consistent with the objectives of sustainable development (UNESCO, 2004).
2.3 UNESCO-UNEVOC in Action As mentioned above, UNESCO’s key functions are to act as a laboratory of ideas, standard setter, clearing-house, human and institutional capacity-builder and catalyst for international co-operation. The Organization sees itself as a forum for intellectual co-operation that brings together experts and advises governments in the field of education with the aim of achieving quality education for all. In line with this, UNESCO-UNEVOC has developed a number of strategies, activities and instruments that the Centre uses to work towards achieving progress in the three key result areas identified above: TVET and EFA; TVET for sustainable development; and strengthening the global UNEVOC Networks. The Centre’s work especially focuses on:
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strengthening the policy-making capacity of Member States; improving the institutional capacity, especially of UNEVOC Network Members; and fostering international co-operation.
The proposed activities constitute either direct support to Member States or support of infrastructure and provision of services, and can be grouped under the following headings:
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capacity-building and seminars; advisory services; knowledge sharing; research and publications; and global networking and promotion of partnerships.
As the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre is the hub of the UNEVOC Network, most of its activities are targeted at and for the direct benefit of its UNEVOC Centres. Since UNESCO is an organization of Member States, the activities are always demand-driven and tailored according to the needs of the Member States or target groups involved. 2.3.1 Capacity-Building and Seminars The globalization process, which affects economies and labour markets alike, increasingly requires staff involved in decision-making, planning, research and the development of TVET to be aware of worldwide developments and of solutions that are transferable and/or adaptable. Particularly, TVET experts from developing countries, countries in transition and those in a post-conflict situation often do
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not have access to the latest developments in TVET or to the opportunity to frequently up-grade their knowledge and abilities. Therefore, the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for TVET supports the development of human resources in key positions through a range of instruments, such as national or regional policy definition and capacity-building in planning, research and development. This support includes a range of modalities, such as workshops and seminars, small project grants, mobile training teams, fellowships and the implementation of projects. Examples of key issues brought up by Member States include: improving the status of TVET; HIV/AIDS and TVET; TVET for sustainable development; curriculum reform; harnessing ICTs in support of TVET; promotion of public/private partnerships and labour-market orientation; reducing the drop-out rate; promoting inclusive TVET; promoting quality assurance mechanisms for TVET; and assessing national and regional future skill demands. Some examples of concrete activities are described in the following text boxes. Box 1. Learning and working: motivation campaigns for the informal sector In many countries, traditional forms of learning have improved in recent years. Governments are making efforts to ameliorate the state of TVET and skills development. Nevertheless, in many countries there are population groups who do not have access to formal forms of training and learning opportunities and are therefore often marginalized from economic life in their communities. These groups would benefit from developing their occupational skills. UNESCO-UNEVOC therefore seeks to make skills development more attractive and accessible through informal learning opportunities. Based on an earlier UNESCO-UNEVOC activity pertaining to improving the status and accessibility of TVET, and on materials developed by UNESCO as part of the Global Action Programme on Education for All (Youth Project), UNESCOUNEVOC has developed the multi-media campaign package ‘Learning and working: motivating for skills development’, to motivate young people to acquire basic livelihood skills. Package I is a tool to facilitate the organization and implementation of awareness and motivation campaigns for marginalized groups in least-developed countries. The idea behind this campaign is to offer a platform and produce an environment to motivate people living in adverse economic conditions to enrol in TVET courses and/or to take up self-employment activities in order to improve their economic situation. The backbone of the package is a set of DVDs which show simple, traditional, but yet innovative ways to produce goods with low-cost materials and very simple tools demonstrating that vocational skills can be acquired and used to produce useful or marketable goods and services. The DVDs are complemented by a series of documents that make it easy for those interested in the running of the campaigns to have an orientation when implementing campaigns at the local level.
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The campaign package is in itself not a tool for skills development, but rather an ‘eye opener’ and ‘source for ideas’. The targeted groups will be encouraged to engage in tasks similar to those shown in the DVDs. The package has generated a high level of interest, especially from organizations from developing countries, where access to relevant learning resources is often scarce.
Box 2. Social partnerships for TVET: Central Asia Improved relevance and alignment of TVET with economic and employment trends are of crucial importance for a successful TVET system. This can be achieved, for example, through a closer involvement of social partners and stakeholders in TVET policy, planning, administration and implementation. Social partnerships for the development of TVET emerged as an issue of high priority for TVET leaders from Central Asian Republics and UNESCOUNEVOC facilitated co-operation among UNEVOC Centres and candidate centres in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan with partners in Germany for a mobile training team (MTT) to address this issue. A MTT is one of a number of instruments employed by UNESCO-UNEVOC to address its goals with regard to capacity-building in developing countries and countries in transition. Through the MTT, selected senior TVET specialists from UNEVOC Centres can learn rapidly and reflect about innovative and best practices on a given topic, while they are on a study tour in a country offering such best practice. In July/August 2005, four TVET specialists, one each from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, came to Germany for a Capacity Building International (InWEnt) training seminar on social partnerships in TVET, with a special focus on assessment and certification. They also participated in a number of field visits to German TVET institutions. Upon return to their countries, the participants of the MTT organized national seminars to share their newly acquired knowledge with other TVET specialists and social partners, such as trade unions and employers’ organizations, and to identify possibilities of applying the concepts in the respective national contexts. The MTT led not only to a significant improvement of the skills and knowledge of the four individual TVET experts who came to Germany but, through the national dissemination workshops, had a much broader impact on the countries involved. Through this activity, a foundation has been laid for the building of social partnerships in TVET and UNESCO-UNEVOC urges the UNEVOC Centres and their partners at the national level to take the necessary further steps.
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2.3.2 Advisory Services Worldwide, countries are facing the challenge of improving the capacity of their workforce to respond to their national development needs and to the demands of a rapidly changing global economy, and are increasingly recognizing the role TVET can play in addressing this challenge by equipping individuals with relevant skills and knowledge. In order to play this role, TVET systems need to be reformed to meet the needs and expectations of their clients. However, a large number of countries not only lack the funds, but also the capacity to manage and implement the necessary reforms. In this case, they can seek technical assistance and advisory support services from UNESCO-UNEVOC. Through its technical assistance services, the Centre can offer assistance to UNESCO Member States in:
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fact-finding, policy definition and national development plans; improving the institutional capabilities of UNEVOC Centres; formulating or reviewing TVET educational practice; facilitating co-operation between donors and recipients; and identifying experts for consultancy services.
Box 3. Guide to donor agencies in TVET International co-operation agencies have different approaches, methodologies, planning horizons, communication levels, financial regulations and submission and reporting procedures. As UNESCO-UNEVOC receives many requests from TVET institutions in developing countries with regard to resources for funding, the Centre developed, in 2004, the ‘Guide to donor agencies’. This publication provides an overview of sources of development assistance by the twenty-two Member States of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which are major donors in development co-operation. It focuses especially on support services for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and skills development. It is intended to facilitate access to information on:
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current trends in international co-operation policies; potential donors and their policies; donors’ requirements concerning project definition, project and budget management, assessment and evaluation techniques, and of reporting regulations.
It is perhaps the most frequently requested title of the current UNEVOC publications. It can also be accessed on-line through the UNESCO-UNEVOC website.
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2.3.3 Knowledge Sharing UNESCO has an important role to play in promoting and sharing best and innovative research and practices among countries. The need for greater knowledge management and knowledge sharing, particularly with and among developing countries, were amongst the main reasons to set up the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training. In developing countries, there is a great need for concrete information on best and innovative practices. Experience shows that what works well in one country has a good chance to also work well in other countries, with adjustments made to accommodate local conditions. Such transfer of knowledge and experiences helps to avoid the wasting of resources and is faster and easier to achieve than individual searches for solutions. Although the main interest is in cases of best and successful practice, disappointments can also be of help, as they give examples of what should be avoided. UNESCO-UNEVOC has in the past mainly, but not exclusively, worked on a sub-regional level. Such co-operation among neighbouring countries is important, because in many cases these countries face similar difficulties and should therefore look jointly for appropriate solutions. Additionally, UNESCO-UNEVOC enables a transfer of knowledge from developed to developing countries. A major part of this exchange takes place through the UNEVOC e-Forum, where relevant messages are exchanged between more than 600 TVET experts from over 122 countries on an almost daily basis. Through its clearing-house function, the Centre collects and disseminates relevant documentation on TVET. The clearing-house is designed to be a resource base for ministries, policy-makers, educational institutes, international agencies, consultants and others seeking information on TVET. The information and documentation service fulfils the following functions:
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Enquiry and reference services: responding to requests for information; Research services: searching, retrieving and editing information using the materials available at UNESCO-UNEVOC and other resources (including the Internet) and providing responses in the requested format; Distribution of UNESCO-UNEVOC publications.
One means through which UNESCO-UNEVOC facilitates access to information is the Internet. Information about all of UNESCO-UNEVOC’s work, including its activities and publications, is available on the Centre’s website. The website has been re-launched in 2006 to offer more interactive features and a more user-friendly navigation: www.unevoc.unesco.org 2.3.4 Research and Publications UNESCO-UNEVOC is concerned with contributing to the international debate on key aspects of TVET. The Centre publishes the results of research related to TVET through its major publication project, the UNEVOC International Library of Technical and Vocational
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Education and Training, which is a series of publications that provides comprehensive information about many ‘cutting-edge’ aspects of TVET. The library showcases best practices and innovative approaches to skills development for employability and seeks to create an effective bridge between research, policy and practice. Topics covered include TVET reform, TVET in the informal sector, TVET teacher education, etc. Discussion papers, annotated bibliographies, meeting reports and national profiles of TVET are also produced. While the Internet gains more and more ground in international professional exchange, print media still have an important role to play, particularly in countries with limited access to modern information and communication technologies. The Centre will apply an integrated concept for publishing and disseminating professional information; conventional forms of publishing will be harmonized with those on CD-ROM and on the Internet. 2.3.5 Global Networking and Promoting of Partnerships The major part of the above-mentioned activities, especially in the area of capacitybuilding and advisory services, is addressing members of the UNEVOC Network. While some UNEVOC Centres may primarily be beneficiaries of the international exchange, others contribute actively to the development at national, regional and sub-regional levels. In UNESCO-UNEVOC’s international activities the UNEVOC Centres play a prominent role. Action is taken to up-grade the Network of UNEVOC Centres through a range of means, such as the following:
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training seminars for key personnel in UNEVOC Centres; fostering national networks directed by UNEVOC Centres; increasing international co-operation between UNEVOC Centres through regional and thematic clustering; increasing membership in the UNEVOC Network.
It is expected that through building networks in their own countries, a trickle-down effect to other institutions and colleagues is taking place.
3 Conclusion We, the participants in ‘Learning for Work, Citizenship and Sustainability’, a UNESCO meeting of international experts on technical and vocational education and training, are agreed that, since education is considered the key to effective development strategies, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) must be the master key that can alleviate poverty, promote peace, conserve the environment, improve the quality of life for all and help achieve sustainable development (Bonn Declaration—UNESCO, 2004).
This part of the Bonn Declaration, which was developed by the participants of the international experts meeting ‘Learning for Work, Citizenship and Sustainability’, expresses a very high level of expectation towards the role that TVET can play in addressing and even overcoming some of the most pressing challenges the world
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is facing today and will be facing in the future. It is the aim of the UNESCOUNEVOC International Centre for TVET to respond to these expectations and to make a contribution to assist UNESCO Member States in achieving TVET of good quality for all. Given the limited human and financial resources of the Centre, this is an enormous challenge, which the Centre tries to tackle by concentrating on activities that focus on a small group of persons in key positions and have a potential multiplier effect. This idea is at the core of the Centre’s networking activities and co-operation with other agencies and partners, and much of the success of the Centre’s work in capacity-building and knowledge-sharing depends on its partners’ abilities to act as multipliers and to organize follow-up activities at the local level. In order to take stock of the Centre’s work during its first five years of existence, independent evaluators and TVET experts from Europe, Africa and Asia conducted a review of the work of UNESCO-UNEVOC in 2005. As major achievements of the Centre, the evaluators acknowledged: the networking activities of the Centre through the UNEVOC Network and the e-Forum; the promotion of TVET reform towards achieving the EFA goals; the contributions to the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development; the promotion of best and innovative practices in TVET; the high level of inter-agency co-operation; and the strong publications programme. But the evaluation report also highlighted some challenges where further improvements are necessary, for example, in the area of follow-up and outcome monitoring and evaluation of the Centre’s activities. It is essential that UNESCO-UNEVOC introduces quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods as part of its activities, otherwise it is not possible to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the activities’ impact. Evaluation and monitoring should not be restricted to the actual UNEVOC activity, but also examine the follow-up steps taken by the direct beneficiaries of these activities. As the Centre enters its second period of six-year planning (2008–2013), it is timely to reflect back as well as to look forward. Successes, challenges and lessons learnt need to be taken into account in order to strengthen UNESCO-UNEVOC’s role as UNESCO’s major vehicle for progressing the TVET agenda and to achieve its goal of becoming the pre-eminent global centre for TVET, in support of the development of accessible and quality TVET all over the world. Acknowledgments To a great extent, this article draws upon information available in a variety of UNESCO-UNEVOC documents (e.g. UNESCO-UNEVOC brochures and flyers, biennial reports, project documents and programme frameworks) as well as the Centre’s website (www.unevoc.unesco.org). These documents are not explicitly referenced in this article.
References Adams, A.V.; Johanson, R.K. 2004. Skills development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank. Coombe, C. 1988. Survey of vocationally-oriented education in the Commonwealth. London: Commonwealth Secretariat.
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Delors, J. et al. 1996. Learning: the treasure within. Paris: UNESCO. (Report of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century.) de Moura Castro, C.; Verdisco, A. 2000. Training unemployed youth in Latin America: same old sad story? In: Atchoarena, D., ed. The transition of youth from school to work: issues and concerns. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. (Second International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 26–30 April 1999.) Hellriegel, D.; Slocum, J.W.; Woddman, R.W. 1998. Organizational behaviour, 8th ed. Florence, KY: South Western College Publishing. Keating, D.P. 2000. Human development in the learning society. In: Hargreaves, A. et al., eds. International handbook of educational change, p. 699. Toronto, Canada: OISE, University of Toronto. Lauglo, J. 2005. Vocationalisation of secondary education revisited. In: Lauglo, J.; Maclean, R., eds. Vocationalisation of secondary education revisited, Vol. 1. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Masri, M.W. 1999. The changing demands of the 21st century: challenges to technical and vocational education. (Keynote speech presented at the second International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 26–30 April 1999.) Quisumbing, L.R.; de Leo, J., eds. 2005. Learning to do: values for learning and working together in a globalized world. An integrated approach to incorporating values education in technical and vocational education and training. Mitcham, Australia: APNIEVE. (UNESCO-APNIEVE sourcebook no. 3.) Sirotnik, K.A. 2000. Ecological images of change: limits and possibilities. In: Hargreaves, A. et al., eds. International handbook of educational change. Toronto, Canada: OISE, University of Toronto. UNESCO. 2000. Dakar framework for action: meeting our collective commitments. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO. 2004. The Bonn Declaration. UNESCO. 2005a. Guidelines and recommendations for reorienting teacher education to address sustainability. Paris: UNESCO. (Technical paper, no. 2.) UNESCO. 2005b. Revised recommendation concerning technical and vocational education (2001). In: UNESCO, ed. Normative instruments concerning technical and vocational education. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO-International Bureau of Education. 2004. Quality education for all young people: challenges, trends and priorities. Paris: UNESCO. (Final report of the International Conference on Education, forty-seventh session, Geneva, Switzerland 8–11 September 2004.) UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, ed. 2006. Orienting technical and vocational education and training for sustainable development: a discussion paper. Bonn, Germany: UNESCO-UNEVOC. (Discussion paper series, vol. 1.) UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, ed. Forthcoming. Why access to Technical and Vocational Education and Training for All is essential if Education for All is to be achieved. Bonn, Germany: UNESCO-UNEVOC. (Discussion paper series, vol. 4.) Wheelen, T.L.; Hunger, J.D. 1998. Strategic management and business policy: entering 21st century global society. 6th ed. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley-Longman.
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Chapter 4
TVET Glossary: Some Key Terms Jeanne MacKenzie and Rose-Anne Polvere
1 Introduction The glossary in this chapter has been compiled to complement the Handbook and, although not an exhaustive list, aims to reflect the terminology found in the recent literature of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) research, policy and practice internationally. The most common and significant terms (including acronyms) are listed and, in some cases, national and regional variations have been included. In compiling the glossary, the selection of terms was aligned to the aspects of TVET examined in the Handbook. To maintain an international perspective, other national and international glossaries and thesauri were consulted in conjunction with current TVET literature from around the world. These sources are listed as references at the end of the chapter. The glossary is organized alphabetically for ease of use. The entries contain the term, its definition and, where definitions have been written by other organizations, the source of that definition. Unattributed definitions were created in-house at the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). For some terms, where, for example, there are regional differences, more than one meaning has been provided.
2 Sample Entry Term in English
Transition from school or training to work The process of transferring from school to the workforce or further study (Source: NCVER); May also be referred to as: School to work transition (USA); Transition from school to work (AUS)
Origin of the information
Country where variation is used
Definition providing the meaning of the term
National or regional variations
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3 Glossary Accelerated training A period of intensive vocational training or retraining which enables workers to obtain the necessary qualifications in a much shorter period than usual in order to enter an occupation at the required level. (Source: VOCED) Access and equity A policy or set of strategies to make vocational education and training available to all members of the community, to increase participation and to improve outcomes, particularly focusing on those groups that have been traditionally underrepresented. (Source: VOCED) Access to education and training Conditions, circumstances or requirements (for example qualification, education level, skills or work experience) governing admittance to and participation in educational institutions or programmes. (Source: CEDEFOP) Accreditation The process by which a course or training programme is officially recognized and approved. (Source: NCVER) Accreditation (of skills and competences) See Certification (of skills and competences) Accrediting authority An organization with the authority and responsibility for accrediting courses and training programmes. (Source: NCVER) Accreditation of prior learning (APL) See Recognition of prior learning Active labour-market programme A programme designed to increase the number of people in employment or to improve the employment prospects of a target group, e.g. by the payment of subsidies to businesses who take on long-term unemployed people. Adult and community education (ACE) Education and training intended principally for adults, including general, vocational, basic and community education, and recreation, leisure and personal enrichment programmes. These are delivered by the ACE sector, which includes the organizations and providers who deliver adult and community education programmes, including evening and community colleges, community adult education centres, neighbourhood houses, churches, schools, technical education institutes, universities (continuing education) and universities of the Third Age. Adult education Education of adults; educational programmes designed for adults, often incorporating approaches to education which draw on the learner’s life or work experiences, involve learners in planning the learning activities, encourage learning in groups, as well as more self-directed learning. (Source: NCVER)
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Adult basic education (ABE) Remedial or school-level education for adults, usually with emphasis on the literacy, numeracy and social skills needed to function within the community or to gain employment. (Source: NCVER) Adult learning The processes by which adults learn and build on their existing knowledge and skills. (Source: NCVER) Adult literacy and numeracy The ability to read, write and use numbers and numerical information, specifically in adults. Alternated training Education or training alternating periods in a school/training centre and in the workplace. The alternance scheme can take place on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis depending on the country. Participants are not contractually linked to the employer where they do their practice, nor do they generally receive remuneration (unlike apprentices). (Source: CEDEFOP) Apprentice A person contracted to an employer, undergoing initial training for a recognized apprenticeable occupation during an established period. (Source: VOCED) See also Trainee Apprenticeable occupation Occupation for which apprenticeship has been officially approved, usually through legislation. (Source: VOCED) Apprenticeship A system of training regulated by law or custom which combines on-the-job training and work experience while in paid employment with formal off-the-job training. The apprentice enters into a contract of training or training agreement with an employer which imposes mutual obligations on both parties. Apprenticeship contract Verbal or written agreement binding a would-be apprentice and the prospective employer. (Source: ILO) Articulation The arrangements which facilitate the movement or progression of students from one course to another, or from one education and training sector to another. See also Credit transfer system Assessment (of skills and competences) The sum of methods and processes used to evaluate the attainments (knowledge, know-how, skills and competences) of an individual, and typically leading to certification. (Source: CEDEFOP) Assessor A person qualified to carry out assessment. (Source: VOCED)
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Awarding body A body with the authority to issue qualifications (certificates or diplomas) formally recognizing the achievements of an individual, following a standard assessment procedure. (Source: CEDEFOP) Basic skill 1. A fundamental skill that is the basis of later learning or is essential for employment. (Source: NCVER) 2. The skills and competences needed to function in contemporary society, including listening, speaking, reading, writing and mathematics. (Source: CEDEFOP) Benchmarking The process of comparing an organization’s performance, practices and procedures with those of leaders in the same or a different field of activity, in order to identify areas for improvement. (Source: NCVER) Best practice Management practices and work processes that lead to outstanding or top-class performance and provide examples for others. (Source: NCVER) Used for: Good practices. (ILO) Career and technical education (CTE) (USA) See: Technical and vocational education and training Career counselling See: Guidance and counselling Career development The continuous planning carried out to advance a person’s career based on experience and on any training undertaken to upgrade qualifications or to acquire new ones. (Sources: ILO; VOCED) Career education An educational programme conducted during secondary school to give students informed guidance, counselling and instruction enabling them to make a suitable choice of career and to help them prepare for it. (Source: ILO; VOCED) Career guidance See: Guidance and counselling Certificate An official document, issued by an awarding body, which records the achievements of an individual following a standard assessment procedure. (Source: CEDEFOP) See also: Diploma Certification (of skills and competences) The formal acknowledgement of successful achievement of a defined set of outcomes. (Source: NCVER) Communities of practice Networks that emerge from a desire to work more effectively or to understand work more deeply among members of a particular specialty or work group. They
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focus on learning, competence and performance, bridging the gap between organizational learning and strategy topics and generating new insights for theory and practice. Comparability of qualifications The extent to which it is possible to establish equivalence between the level and content of formal qualifications (certificates or diplomas) at sectoral, regional, national or international levels. (Source: CEDEFOP) Competence The individual’s demonstrated capacity to perform, i.e. the possession of knowledge, skills and personal characteristics needed to satisfy the special demands or requirements of a particular situation. (Source: VOCED; ILO) Competency standard 1. An industry-determined specification of performance which sets out the skills, knowledge and attitudes required to operate effectively in employment. Competency standards are made up of units of competency, which are themselves made up of elements of competency, together with performance criteria, a range of variables, and an evidence guide. (Source: NCVER) 2. Statement developed by industry specifying the competencies required by workers for each sector of the workforce. (Source: VOCED; ILO) Continuing education Educational programmes for adults, usually at the post-secondary level in personal, academic or occupational subject areas. (Source: NCVER) Continuing vocational education and training (CVET) Education or training after initial education or entry into working life, aimed at helping individuals to improve or update their knowledge and/or skills, acquire new skills for a career move or retraining, or continue their personal and professional development. (Source: CEDEFOP) Co-operative vocational education A combined programme of study and practice, applying originally to the United States, whereby legal employment is provided for secondary school or university students together with a regular school or university curriculum, organized on an alternating schedule of half-days, weeks or other specified periods. (Source: VOCED; ILO) Credit The acknowledgement that a person has satisfied the requirements of a module (subject) or unit of competency either through previous study (credit transfer) or through work or life experience (recognition of prior learning); the granting of credit exempts the student from that part of the course. May also be referred to as: Status or Advanced standing.
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Credit transfer The granting of status or credit by an institution or training organization to students for modules (subjects) or units of competency completed at the same or in another institution or training organization. (Source: NCVER) Credit transfer system A system which provides a way of measuring and comparing learning achievements (resulting from a course, training or a placement) and transferring them from one institution to another, using credits validated in training programmes. (Source: CEDEFOP) See also: Articulation Cross-cultural training Training in communicative, behavioural and attitudinal skills required for successful interaction with individuals of other cultures. It is often given to personnel about to undertake overseas assignments. (Source: ILO; VOCED) Decent work Sufficient, productive work in which rights are protected, which generates an adequate income, with full access to income-earning opportunities and adequate social protection. (Source: ILO) Digital divide The gap between those who can access information and communication technologies and use them effectively, and those who cannot. (Source: CEDEFOP) Diploma A formal document certifying the successful completion of a course of study in the vocational education and training and higher education sectors. See also: Certificate Distance education A mode of education in which students enrolled in a course do not attend the institution, but study off-campus and may submit assignments by mail or email. (Source: NCVER) May also be referred to as: Distance study or Distance learning. Dropout Withdrawal from an education or training programme before its completion. (Source: CEDEFOP) E-learning Learning supported by information and communication technologies (ICTs). (Source: CEDEFOP) Education/industry relationship Relationship between students, educational institutions and industry. (Source: VOCED) Education/work relationship Relationship between educational programmes or courses of study and status or opportunities in the workforce. (Source: ATED)
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Emerging occupation Occupation that is new or that consists of a new combination of existing skills and knowledge, for which considerable demand exists or is projected. (Source: VOCED) Employability 1. The degree of adaptability an individual demonstrates in finding and keeping a job, and updating occupational skills. (Source: CEDEFOP) 2. Relates to portable competencies and qualifications that enhance an individual’s capacity to make use of the education and training opportunities available in order to secure and retain decent work. (Source: ILO) Employability skill(s) The skills which enable people to gain, keep and progress within employment, including skills in the clusters of work readiness and work habits, interpersonal skills and learning, thinking and adaptability skills. Employer-funded training (UK) Training either institutional or work-based, involving delivery by external or inhouse training personnel and paid for by the employer; May also be referred to as: Employer-sponsored training (USA, Canada). Enabling course A course designed to equip a student to take up a new subject or course by covering the gaps between the student’s existing knowledge and skills and the subject or course prerequisites and assumed knowledge. See also: Pre-vocational course Entry into working life See Transition from school or training to work Entry-level skill A skill required to commence employment in an organization or more generally, to gain entry into the workforce. (Source: NCVER) Entry-level training Training undertaken to gain entry into the workforce or further vocational education and training. Entry-level qualification The minimum qualification required for employment in a particular occupation. Equivalence of certificates See Comparability of qualifications Flexible delivery A range of approaches to providing education and training, giving learners greater choice of when, where and how they learn. Flexible delivery may include distance education, mixed-mode delivery, online education, self-paced learning, self-directed learning. (Source: NCVER)
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Flexible learning The provision of a range of learning modes or methods, giving learners greater choice of when, where and how they learn. (Source: NCVER) Formal education Education or training provided in educational institutions, such as schools, universities, colleges, or off-the-job in a workplace, usually involving direction from a teacher or instructor. (Source: NCVER) Further education (FE) Post-secondary education, including higher education, adult education, and vocational education and training. (Source: NCVER) Further education and training (FET) (UK, South Africa) See Technical and vocational education and training Further training 1. Global term for training subsequent, and complementary to, initial training. (Source: ILO; VOCED) 2. Short-term targeted training typically provided following initial vocational training, and aimed at supplementing, improving or updating knowledge, skills and/or competences acquired during previous training. (Source: CEDEFOP) Generic skill A skill which is not specific to work in a particular occupation or industry, but is important for work, education and life generally, including communication skills, mathematical skills, organizational skills, computer literacy, interpersonal competence and analytical skills. (Source: NCVER) Governance The manner in which power and authority are exercized by both public and private bodies; covers management, legal framework, accountability and transparency. (Source: ILO) Guidance and counselling A range of activities designed to help individuals make educational, vocational or personal decisions and carry them out before and after they enter the labour market. (Source: CEDEFOP) Used for: Career counselling; Career guidance; Vocational guidance High-technology industry An industry that employs a large number of scientists and engineers, invests heavily in research and development, and has great potential for extremely rapid growth through the emergence of new products and processes. (Source: ILO)
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Hybrid skill A mixture of the skills and knowledge, possibly from different disciplines, generally required in sectors applying high technology. (Source: VOCED) Industry training council A body established by an industry or business sector to address training issues. (Source: NCVER) Also: Sector Skills Council (UK) Informal economy Part of the market economy in that it produces (legal) goods and services for sale or other forms of remuneration, covers informal employment both in informal enterprises (small unregistered or unincorporated enterprises) and outside informal enterprises; not recognized or protected under existing legal and regulatory frameworks. (Source: ILO) Informal learning Learning resulting from daily activities related to work, family or leisure. It is not organized or structured (in terms of objectives, time or learning support). Informal learning is in most cases unintentional from the learner’s perspective. It typically does not lead to certification. (Source: CEDEFOP) Information society A society in which information technology, computers and telecommunications are widely used to facilitate communication nationally and internationally and to promote access to libraries, data archives and other stores of information held by private organizations or in the public domain. (Source: ILO) Initial vocational education and training 1. General or vocational education carried out in the initial education system, usually before entering working life. (Source: CEDEFOP) 2. Pre-employment training for an occupation, generally divided into two parts; basic training followed by specialization. (Source: ILO; VOCED) See also: Entry-level training; also:Initial training In-service training Training and professional development of staff, often sponsored by the employer, and usually provided during normal working hours. (Source: NCVER) Also: Inplant training Information and communication technology (ICT) Technology that provides for the electronic input, storage, retrieval, processing, transmission and dissemination of information. (Source: CEDEFOP) Also: Information technology
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Innovation Making changes in something already existing, as by introducing new methods, ideas, or products. (Source: Concise Oxford Dictionary) Key competency Any of several generic skills or competencies considered essential for people to participate effectively in the workforce. Key competencies apply to work generally, rather than being specific to work in a particular occupation or industry. (Source: NCVER) Key performance measure (KPM) One of a set of measures used to monitor or evaluate the overall efficiency or effectiveness of a system, which may be used to demonstrate accountability and to identify areas for improvement. (Source: NCVER) Know-how 1. Practical knowledge or expertise. (Source: CEDEFOP; adapted from New Oxford Dictionary of English) 2. Includes technological and managerial components. (Source: ILO; VOCED) Knowledge economy An economy that is driven by ideas and knowledge, rather than by material resources, and in which the keys to job creation and higher standards of living are innovation and technology embedded in services and manufactured products. (Source: ILO) Labour force The economically active population, employed and unemployed. (Source: ILO; VOCED) Labour market The system of relationships between the supply of people available for employment and the available jobs. (Source: ILO; VOCED) Labour mobility Refers to the movement of members of the labour force between areas or industries. (Source: ILO; VOCED) Learning community A community that promotes a culture of learning by developing effective local partnerships between all sectors of the community, and supports and motivates individuals and organizations to learn. (Source: CEDEFOP) Learning organization An organization where everyone learns and develops through the work context, for the benefit of themselves, each other and the whole organization, with such efforts being publicized and recognized. (Source: CEDEFOP)
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Learning outcome(s) The set of knowledge, skills and/or competences an individual has acquired and/or is able to demonstrate after completion of a learning process. (Source: CEDEFOP) Learning region A region in which all stakeholders co-operate to meet local learning needs and devise joint solutions to local problems. (Source: CEDEFOP) Learning society A society in which learning is considered important or valuable, where people are encouraged to continue to learn throughout their lives, and where the opportunity to participate in education and training is available to all. (Source: NCVER) Lifelong learning All learning activity undertaken throughout life, with the aim of improving knowledge, skills and/or qualifications for personal, social and/or professional reasons. (Source: CEDEFOP) Lifewide learning Learning, either formal, non-formal or informal, that takes place across the full range of life activities (personal, social and/or professional) and at any stage. (Source: CEDEFOP) Minimum competency An essential skill for a given age, grade or level of performance. (Source: NCVER) Modular training The breaking down of whole educational qualifications into useful sub-units (modules) each of which has measurable outcomes that are assessed (and in some cases certified) in their own right as well as contributing to a larger overall educational outcome (primarily a qualification). Multiskilling Training workers in a number of skills, enabling them to perform a variety of tasks or functions across traditional boundaries. Multiskilling may be horizontal (broad skilling), vertical (upskilling) or diagonal (contributory skilling). (Source: NCVER) Mutual recognition of qualifications The recognition by one or more countries of qualifications (certificates or diplomas) awarded in one or more countries or across regions in one country. (Source: CEDEFOP) Non-traditional occupation Occupations in which certain groups are under-represented; usually applies to so-called male or female occupations. (Source: VOCED)
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Occupational qualification The combined aptitudes and skills which permit someone to take up a job. (Source: ILO) Off-the-job training Vocational training undertaken away from the normal work situation; it is usually only part of a whole training programme in which it is combined with on-the-job training. (Source: CEDEFOP) Online learning Learning via educational material that is delivered on a computer via an intranet or the Internet. On-the-job training Vocational training given in the normal work situation; it may constitute the whole training or be combined with off-the-job training. (Source: CEDEFOP) Pathway of training Various combinations of education, training and employment activities that individuals may undertake over time to reach a certain destination, for example a desired qualification or type of employment. (Source: ACER) Planning of training Regulations and arrangements adopted by governmental or other institutions responsible for vocational training. (Source: ILO) Post-compulsory education Education followed by an individual after the minimum legal school-leaving age. (Source: CEDEFOP) Pre-vocational course A course designed to prepare people for vocational education and training or work, including bridging courses, basic literacy and numeracy training, or training in job skills. (Source: NCVER) See also: Enabling course Pre-vocational training Training arranged primarily to acquaint young people with materials, tools and standards relating to a range of occupations, to prepare them for choosing an occupational field or a line of training. (Source: ILO) Prior learning The knowledge, know-how and/or competencies acquired through previously unrecognized training or experience. (Source: CEDEFOP) May also be referred to as: Prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR) (UK) See: Recognition of prior learning Private training provider A non-government training organization, including commercial providers (providing courses to industry and individuals for profit), community providers
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(non-profit organizations, funded by government or community sponsors), enterprise providers (companies or other organizations providing training mainly for their own employees), and industry providers (organizations providing training to enterprises across an industry). (Source: NCVER) Qualification 1. Certification awarded to a person on successful completion of a course in recognition of having achieved particular knowledge, skills or competencies. (Source: NCVER) 2. The requirements for an individual to enter or progress within an occupation. (Source: CEDEFOP) Qualifications framework A structure for setting out the levels at which vocational qualifications accredited by regulatory authorities can be recognized. Recognition of current competencies (RCC) The assessment of a person’s current capacity to perform; it applies if an individual has previously successfully completed the requirements for a unit of competency or a module and is now required to be reassessed to ensure that the competence is being maintained. Recognition of prior learning (RPL) An assessment process that assesses the individual’s non-formal and informal learning to determine the extent to which that individual has achieved the required learning or competency outcomes. May also be referred to as: Accreditation of prior learning; Validation of informal/non formal learning. Reentry student An individual who returns to an education system programme or institution following an extended absence. (Source: VOCED) Refresher training Training to refresh skills and knowledge which may have been partly forgotten, usually as a result of a temporary interruption in occupational life. (Source: ILO) Retraining Training to facilitate entry to a new occupation. (Source: NCVER). May also be referred to as: Reskilling Return on investment in training (ROI) The measurable impact on an organization of training in terms of value adding, productivity and profitability. School to work transition (STW) (USA) See: Transition from school or training to work
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Short course A course of vocational education and training which stands alone and does not usually lead to a full qualification. A statement of attainment may be issued on successful completion. (Source: NCVER) Skill An ability to perform a particular mental or physical activity which may be developed by training or practice. (Source: NCVER) Skill development The development of skills or competencies which are relevant to the workforce. (Source: VOCED) Skill obsolescence Acquired aptitude and knowledge for which there is little or no demand or which is out-of-date either through technological and scientific advances made in the equipment used, a marked change in job requirements or through the gradual disappearance of a trade or profession. Can usually be rectified by retraining or skill upgrading. (Source: VOCED) Skill shortage Shortage of a particular skill in the labour market. (Source: VOCED) Skill upgrading Training to provide supplementary and generally higher-grade qualifications and knowledge within the same trade or profession to enable the trainee to better his/her work situation and eventually to make themselves eligible for promotion. (Source: VOCED) Skills analysis An identification of the skills or competencies needed for each job. (Source: NCVER) Skills audit An identification of the skills required and held by the workforce. (Source: NCVER) Special needs education Educational activity and support designed to address special education needs. (Source: CEDEFOP) Specialist training Advanced level training to broaden specialized knowledge of a particular task, function or aspect of an occupation. (Source: ILO) Student placement See: Work experience
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Sustainable development Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. (Source: UN/ISDR) Teacher in VET 1. A person whose function is to impart knowledge or know-how to students or trainees in a vocational school or training centre. (Source: CEDEFOP) 2. The vocational teacher’s functions tend to overlap with those of the trainer; the teacher usually works in a school situation and gives both related instruction and some, if not all, of the practical training. (Source: ILO) Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) Post-compulsory education and training, excluding degree and higher level programmes delivered by higher education institutions, which provides people with occupational or work-related knowledge and skills. May also be referred to as: Career and technical education (CTE) (USA); Further education and training (FET) (UK, South Africa); Vocational and technical education and training (VTET) (South-East Asia); Vocational education and training (VET); Vocational and technical education (VTE) (AUS) Trainee A person undergoing training or education with an occupational bias. (Source: ILO) See also: Apprentice Trainer Anyone who fulfils one or more activities linked to the (theoretical or practical) training function, either in an institution for education or training or at the workplace. (Source: CEDEFOP) Training allowance Stipend or other payment made by an employer or from public funds to an employee undergoing training for a certain period, usually outside the normal place of work. (Source: ILO) Training course planning and design A set of consistent methodological approaches employed in designing and planning training initiatives and schemes aimed at achieving set objectives. (Source: CEDEFOP) Training culture An environment in which training is seen as important and is closely linked with business strategy, particularly in creating competitive advantage for an enterprise. Opportunities are given to all employees to participate in training to develop their skills and competencies. (Source: NCVER) Training evaluation The systematic collection and analysis of data relevant to the development and implementation of learning activities.
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Training institution Any body which imparts vocational training. (Source: ILO; VOCED) Training investment Expenditure of an organization on training for benefit; improvement factors include increased productivity, reduction of waste, improved employee retention and improved profitability. Training levy Levy imposed on employers with a view to financing training activities. (Source: ILO) Training market A system of competition among public and private providers in the provision of vocational education and training. Training of trainers Theoretical and/or practical training for teachers or trainers. (Source: CEDEFOP) Training policy Combination of decisions, objectives and guidance emanating from an official body to fix the goals and priorities for vocational training. (Source: ILO) Training programme 1. Designed to achieve a specific vocational outcome, may include course, module (subject) and on-the-job training. (Source: NCVER) 2. Training activities defined in terms of objectives, target population, contents and results. (Source: ILO) Training provider An organization which delivers vocational education and training programmes; may be public, private or non-governmental. Transferability (of skills and competences) The capacity (of skills and competences) to be transferred to and used in a new occupational or educational environment. (Source: CEDEFOP). May also be referred to as: Transfer of training Transferable skill Skills that can be introduced in a different socio-cultural or technical environment, or that can be used in other occupations. (Source: ILO) Transition from school to work (AUS) See: Transition from school or training to work Transition from school or training to work The process of transferring from school to the workforce or further study. (Source: NCVER). May also be referred to as: School to work transition (USA); Transition from school to work (AUS); Entry into working life
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Transparency of qualifications See: Comparability of qualifications Validation of informal/non-formal learning See: Recognition of prior learning Vocational and technical education (VTE) See: Technical and vocational education and training Vocational and technical education and training (VTET) See: Technical and vocational education and training Vocational education and training (VET) See: Technical and vocational education and training Vocational education and training in secondary school Programmes allowing students to combine vocational studies with their general secondary education and providing industry-specific training that gives them credit towards a nationally recognized vocational education and training qualification; the majority of programmes give students opportunities to do unpaid work or vocational placement and, in some cases, the programmes involved paid work. May also be referred to as: VET in Schools (AUS); tech-prep (USA); School/industry programme. Vocational education teacher See: Teacher in VET Vocational guidance See: Guidance and counselling Vocational preparation Programmes designed to ease the transition from school to work, enhance the employability of young people and teach them how to cope with the world of work. (Source: ILO) Vocational rehabilitation Measures aimed at enabling a disabled person to secure, retain and advance in suitable employment and thereby to further such person’s integration or reintegration into society. (Source: ILO) Vocational teacher See: Teacher in VET Work-based training Training provided by an organization primarily for its own employees using the employer’s own staff or consultants. Work-based training can be conducted either on-site or at an off-site location. (Source: NCVER) Work experience Unpaid work undertaken by secondary school students as part of their careers education. May also be referred to as: Student placement (USA). Workplace change Changes in technology, changes in process and changes in the market and the wider economy that affect workers, their tasks, the structure of the organization
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and/or the product/service or the technology used in the organization. May also be referred to as: Changing world of work. Workplace learning The process of learning through experience at the workplace, both formally and informally, and through different forms of working arrangements, such as teams or one-to-one. Also the creation of a learning environment in the workplace. (Source: VOCED)
Sources ACER ATED CEDEFOP
Concise Oxford Dictionary ILO NCVER
UIE UN/ISDR VOCED
Young people’s participation in post-compulsory education and training. Camberwell, Australia: Australian Council for Educational Research, 1991. Australian thesaurus of educational descriptors, 3rd ed. Camberwell, Australia: Australian Council for Educational Research, 2003. Terminology of vocational training policy: a multilingual glossary for an enlarged Europe. Brussels: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2004. Concise Oxford Dictionary. 10th ed. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1999. ILO Thesaurus. Geneva, Switzerland: International Labour Organization, 2005. Knight, A.; Nestor, M. A glossary of Australian vocational education and training terms. Adelaide, Australia: The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), 2000. Glossary of adult learning in Europe. Hamburg, Germany: UNESCO Institute for Education, 1999. Glossary. Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. <www.passlivelihoods.org.uk/plow/default.asp?id = 5 > VOCED Thesaurus. Adelaide, Australia: The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). <www.voced.edu.au/thesaurus/index.php>
Part II
The Changing Context of Work and Education
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Section 1 Changing Workplace Requirements: Implications for Education
Margarita Pavlova Griffith Institute for Educational Research, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia L. Efison Munjanganja UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany
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Chapter I.1
Overview: Changing Economic Environment and Workplace Requirements: Implications for Re-Engineering TVET for Prosperity France Boutin, Chris Chinien, Lars Moratis and Peter van Baalen
1 Introduction Globalization has created a new world order for doing business. New information and communication technologies (ICTs) have dramatically changed the way we live, learn and work, and even the way we think about work. The synergy of combining globalization with new information and communication technology has led to the emergence of the new economy. The new economy has created new opportunities as well as new challenges and uncertainties. Many workers have been displaced and dislocated, while a significant number of young people are structurally unemployed or under-employed. Skills polarization between so-called mind or knowledge workers and unskilled, low-knowledge workers has widened the gap in income inequalities. Youth, women and older workers are the groups most affected. While these changes have brought about considerable challenges to TVET, they have created new opportunities for change and innovation (Chinien et al., 2002). This overview provides a brief definition of the new economy and highlights its distinctive features. The crucial importance of human capital as a comparative advantage in global competition is examined, as well as the effects of this new economy on development and national prosperity. The effects of the new economy on jobs and skills are discussed and the strategies being adopted by countries in various regions of the world to re-engineer technical and vocational education and training (TVET) to respond to these opportunities and challenges are reviewed. A brief summary of the all chapters included in this section is presented to conclude this overview.
2 Demystifying the New Economy Several conceptions of what has become widely known as the New Economy have surfaced over the years. Many of these conceptions seem to acknowledge that this new economy refers to an economic era that is characterized by a new set of economic activities, economic volatility, new organizational architectures R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 I.1, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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and paradoxes. Two global trends seem to particularly explain this new economy: globalization and the widespread use of ICTs. Globalization has led to the proliferation of market forces, freer trade and widespread deregulation, while ICTs are creating new companies and new industries before our eyes (Shepard, 1997). Castells (1996) speaks of the prevalence of intertwined global and information features. It is informational because productivity and competitiveness of units or agents fundamentally depend upon their capacity to generate, process and apply knowledge-based information; it is global because the core activities of production, consumption, and circulation are organized on a global scale (Castells, 1996, p. 66). In summary, the new economy can be defined as a knowledge and ideas-based economy where the keys to job creation and higher standards of living are innovative ideas and technology embedded in services and manufactured products; it is an economy where risk, uncertainty, and constant change are not the exception but the main rule.
3 The Network Economy According to Shapiro and Varian (1999), the central difference between the old and new economies is that the first was driven by economies of scale whereas the second is driven by the economics of networks. The information technology revolution has resulted in the development of advanced infrastructure technological networks. These networks enable and induce global communication and information-sharing at decreasing cost and increasing speed. Knowledge is being transferred through these interconnected ICT applications, and it functions as the glue that holds networks together. These information network routes have become the highways of the modern age, akin to the railways, roads and canals of the industrial era. All sorts of intangible goods can be processed, stored and distributed over the networks in an easy and cheap way. Both information and communication technologies, together with the global scope they create (and therefore knowledge), are central parts of the network economy. The on-going process of globalization has resulted in the omnipresence of business in the global marketplace. Many firms now have multiple production sites, regional headquarters and numerous distribution channels at their disposal. Just-in-time systems, computer-integrated manufacturing and integrated inter-firm networks have contributed highly to the streamlining of production, de-massifying of factories, inventories and supply chains (Webster, 1995). The use of new technologies has resulted in the internationalization of core economic activities, such as the functioning of financial markets, multinational enterprises and the production of highly-skilled personnel. This global interaction now forms the basis for management, productivity and competition, which are expressed in more divergent ways than has been the case in former times. These changes in the economic landscape bring about different scope, different dynamics and a different mode of organization in the business environment.
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4 New Organizational Models In a network society that is heavily based on the importance of knowledge, facilitated by technological advancements, new organizational models are being created in order to cope with current and future environmental challenges. We are witnessing the restructuring of organizations according to principles of, among others things, flattening and downsizing, business process re-engineering, subcontracting and outsourcing of non-core activities, creating multifunctional project teams, empowering employees, increasing workforce flexibility (multi-skilled workers), expanding the externalized workforce, replacing highly specialized machinery for flexible manufacturing systems and developing multipurpose information systems. The network organization symbolizes these new organizational models and can best be defined as ‘long-term arrangements among distinct but related for-profit organizations that allow those firms in them to gain or sustain competitive advantage’ (Jarillo, 1988, p. 70; Alstyne, 1997). By means of complex outsourcing infrastructures and effective supply chain management, (scarce) resources can be allocated wherever and deployed whenever necessary, in order to add value.
5 The Importance of Human Capital in a Knowledge-Based Economy While the new economy has challenged all nations, no matter how large or small, or how rich or poor, various trade agreements and global investments which emerged from this new world order have also created unlimited opportunities for growth and development. However, the globalization of businesses and the orientation of production around global value chains have created a very competitive trading environment (Industry Canada, 2007). In this new economic environment competitiveness has become the mantra of prosperity. Although, there is some controversy regarding an acceptable definition of competitiveness, the OECD ‘defines national competitiveness as the degree to which a country can, under free and fair market conditions, produce goods and services which meet the test of international markets, while simultaneously maintaining and expanding the incomes of its people over the long term’ (National Competitiveness Council, 2006). In an economy that is increasingly based on knowledge, human capital is considered as one of the most important comparative advantages to compete successfully in the global market and knowledge is positioned as a competitive resource. Based on renewed interest in the human capital theory, there is now a general consensus that a well-educated workforce is a key element to achieve competitiveness and prosperity. The management guru Peter Drucker once wrote: ‘The most valuable assets of a 20th century company was its production equipment. The most valuable asset of a 21st century institution, whether business or non-business, will
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be its knowledge workers and their productivity’ (1999). The Conference Board of Canada notes: ‘more than ever, employers depend on knowledgeable and skilful employees to create value-added products and services, efficiently and effectively, so that they can compete successfully’ (2001, p. 3). Economic prosperity in the global economy is becoming highly dependent on an ability to develop, attract and maintain a well-educated workforce. Recognizing the importance of knowledge, the Lisbon Summit (CEDEFOP, 2007) established an ambitious strategic goal for making Europe ‘the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion by 2010.’ Education was a centre piece of that strategy. This radical transformation is based on the recognition that human resources are the European Union’s (EU) main asset and that investment in people is as important as investment in capital and equipment to achieve growth and improve productivity: ‘Never before had the EU been so clear about the crucial role of education and training in achieving economic progress and social inclusion’ (Otero & McCoshan, 2005, p. 8). As a result of these changes, the demand for skilled workers often exceeds the supply in many sectors of the economy. While education is considered a key for achieving economic progress and social inclusion, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is viewed as the ‘master key that can alleviate poverty, promote peace, conserve the environment, improve the quality of life for all and help achieve sustainable development’ (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2004). As a consequence, there have been sustained efforts in all regions of the world to improve the education and training systems, especially that of TVET.
6 The Miracle of Economic Development is within Reach The 1990s saw Ireland move from being among the ‘poorest of the poor’ to being one of the most rapidly growing industrialized countries, earning the name of the ‘Celtic Tiger’. Many factors have been invoked to explain Ireland’s economic boom (Burnham, 2003). The consensus that emerges is that not one, but numerous sensible policies, and internal and external situations, coalesced to contribute to the achievement of the Irish Miracle, including investment in physical infrastructure and human capital. Figure 1 shows the competitiveness pyramid model which helped to propel the economic prosperity of Ireland. As illustrated, the human capital element depicted by ‘labour supply’ is positioned as an essential enabler to achieve high productivity and sustain economic progress. Ireland initiated important educational reforms in the 1980s to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of its human capital. In the area of TVET, funds were invested in the expansion the existing regional technical colleges. These institutions now offer tailored and flexible programmes, targeted at regional industry clusters. Ireland can now offer to investors a young, highly skilled and English-speaking
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Fig. 1 The NCC competitiveness pyramid Source: National Competitiveness Council, 2006.
workforce (OECD, 2006). Educational reform was an important enabler to the incredible success of the Irish economy. It is noteworthy that sustainable growth is at the apex of the Ireland’s competitiveness model. An important consideration: many people still believe that the goal of sustainable development and that of economic development are irreconcilable. Our ecological footprint suggests that our unsustainable approach to development is causing major ecological disasters, contaminating the air that we breathe, the water we drink, and causing other forms of irreversible harm to the environment. Reversing environmental degradation has become a global priority and world leaders recognize that environmental protection cannot be achieved without due consideration to economic and social development. The concept of sustainable development emerged from this critical reflection regarding the interdependence and interconnectedness between environmental protection and economic and social development. Sustainable development is thus commonly defined as ‘meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’ The Irish competitiveness model embraces this triple bottomline paradigm. Education has the potential to equip the workforce with the critical skills that will enable workers to contribute to the goals of sustainable development. These skills clusters have been identified (Chinien et al., 2003) as follows: ethics and values; integrated decision-making; responsible use of resources; valuing diversity; safety and well-being; and continual improvement.
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7 The Benefits of Education and Skills Development Recent research shows that a one-year increase in average educational attainment of the population can yield a 5% increase in short-term growth and an additional increase of 2.5% in the long-term contribution to faster technological progress (Council of the European Union, 2004). Research sets the private rate of return on one year of education in terms of employment earning in the range of 7 to 15%, while the rate of social return is approximately 7% (Sweetman, 2002). A study conducted by the Australian National Centre for Vocational Education Research found a positive association between highest education level and employment and wages (Karmel & Nguyen, 2006). The 2006 assessment of the performance of the education systems of OECD countries also revealed that: ‘investment in education brings high social and private return, with completion of upper secondary education bringing a particularly large payback for individuals’ (OECD, 2007). Although the connection between skills and economic progress probably exists, it is less straightforward than sometimes assumed. ‘Skills are not the only, perhaps not even the most important, competitive factor in Europe’ (Otero & McCoshan, 2005, p. 8). The relationship between education and productivity is more complex than presented in most public policies. For example, Canada’s productivity level is not proportional to the share of the workforce with tertiary education. In contrast to the United States, which is among the most productive countries of the world, it achieves a high level of productivity using a small core of highly-skilled engineers and technicians and a large segment of low-skilled workers. Paradoxically, a significant proportion of university graduates in the United States are underemployed (Gray, 2002). Consequently, ‘blanket upskilling’ of the workforce would not necessarily yield higher productivity (Otero & McCoshan, 2005). In spite of the general consensus that education contributes to productivity which leads to prosperity and decent work, research conducted by Kusakabe (2005) showed differential effects of education for low-income, high-income and OECDincome countries. While primary education was important for lower- and higherincome countries in the 1980s, the correlation is now getting weaker. Secondary education is no longer a key determinant of growth in OECD countries as it used to be during the 1970s. However, it became key determinant of growth for lowerincome countries during the 1990s. Finally, in the period 1990 to 2000, tertiary education became an important determinant of growth for lower-income countries. This observation has led Maria Torres to severely criticize the emphasis of donor countries and other international organizations on literacy and primary education for developing countries—as it became obvious both will not pay dividends in the short term. Torres (2004) noted that countries of the North have realized the importance of human capital for economic development and social cohesion and inclusion. The ‘haves’ are still taking massive action to ensure a skilled workforce that will drive innovations and maintain competitiveness in world trade. These same countries have a double standard for countries of the South by advocating literacy development at the expense of skills development (Torres, 2004). The World Bank used to grant up to 40% of its educational loans for the development of TVET in developing countries. Today, educational loans for TVET account for only 8 to 9%.
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8 Effects of the New Economy on Jobs For some people, work over the past decade has become technologically complex, demanding sophisticated work skills. Others, as a result of unemployment, have been denied the satisfaction that comes from the challenge of work and the sense of achievement gained. The job market and jobs have become sharply polarized by a simultaneous increase in jobs requiring post-secondary education and casual jobs for unskilled workers. This polarization of the labour force is widening the inequalities between the haves and the have-nots and between the educated and less educated. Tuijnman noted: ‘Alienation, social exclusion, unemployment and slow productivity growth are among the consequences of limited capacity of some countries to adapt and fully exploit the opportunities offered in the global knowledge economy’ (1997, p. 4). The ILO (2007) reports that 195.2 million people were unemployed worldwide in 2006, despite strong global economic growth which has failed to translate into significant reductions in unemployment or poverty among the working population. There are 1.37 billion working people who are living on US$2 a day. Even the developed countries have not been spared. Maxwell noted: ‘despite all the talk about the explosion of knowledge-based economic activity and its contribution, 2 million adult Canadians work for less than $10 an hour—about one in six employed people’ (2000, p. 1). Surprisingly, many of these people are well educated. One-third of them have a post-secondary diploma or degree. The United States is experiencing the same kind of phenomenon. The results of recent surveys indicated that the rate of under-employment among four-year college graduates in the United States ranges from 40% to as much as 50% in the social sciences. Underemployment is severely taxing young, highly-educated workers (Gray, 2002). The ILO analysis suggest that young people aged 15 to 24 represent nearly half the world’s jobless, although they account for only 25% of the working-age population. Halving the world youth unemployment rate would add at least US$2.2 trillion to global gross domestic product, equal to around 4% of the 2003 value, according to an ILO analysis (ILO, 2004). Moreover, whether they are young adults or adult workers, ‘a high number of socially excluded people is a burden on economies and limits growth and investment in innovative and future-oriented areas and sectors’ (Tessaring & Wannan, 2004).
9 Effects of the New Economy on Skills Contrary to popular belief, the decline of industrial jobs in advanced economies is only partially related to globalization. Technological change has had a more profound impact on the labour market: ‘today’s workplaces are often in multi locations characterized by cultural diversity’ (Lynch, 2002, p. 7). Furthermore, in many organizations, relationships among competitors, suppliers and customers ‘are complex and boundaries have blurred between organizations and their environments’ (Hiniker & Putnam, 2002, p. 8). Advances in technology have helped to de-massify
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production, reduce economies of scale and boost industrial productivity to the extent of de-industrializing the economies, thus causing a movement of labour from industry to the service sector. There is a public perception that all service sector jobs are low-skill and low-paying. In reality, however, many good and well-paying jobs for highly-skilled workers have also been generated by the service sector, especially in more advanced countries (Camdessus, 1997). There seems to be no consensus regarding the impact of technological change on the workplace and its effects on jobs and skills. Some believe that technology is de-skilling jobs, while others argue that technology is up-skilling jobs. Tenets of up-skilling would argue that, in this emerging knowledge-intensive economy, the proletariat is being replaced by a ‘cognetariat’, where work is increasingly shifting away from manual tasks toward symbolic processing (Toffler & Toffler, 1995). The concept of ‘mind workers’ or knowledge workers has emerged from this transformation of work and it appears to be the fastest growing type of worker. An ILO study indicates that the introduction of ICTs can contribute both to up-skilling and deskilling of workers: ‘On the one hand, ICT can downgrade skills and competence to single-task machine-tending and, on the other, it can upgrade skills and competence to multi-task work relying on greater creativity’ (ILO, 2001, p. 9). The European Community’s ‘White Paper on education and training’ (1995) indicates that, with the advent of new technologies, Europe is moving toward a ‘cognitive society’ in which work content will be limited to tasks requiring initiative and flexibility on the part of the worker. The re-engineered workplace expects workers to perform ‘more complex tasks, use new technologies, involve less direct supervision of workers, and acquire the use of higher skill and knowledge levels in making-decisions and solving-problems individually and as members of collaborative work teams’ (Frantz et al., 1996, pp. 1–2). In the same vein, Lynch (2002) reported that ‘less than 20% of the workforce is in jobs classified as unskilled’ (p. 8) as opposed to 60% in 1959. The synergy of combining new technologies with human skills in the postindustrialized society has created a controversy regarding the effects of technology on skills. Those who posit that technology has augmented skill requirements advocate increased specialized job-skill training. On the other hand, proponents of the de-skilling concept argue that many trade skills traditionally imparted in TVET are no longer valued in the high-performance workplace. For this reason, they recommend the development of solid, basic foundation skills as well as generic, broadly transferable employability skills (Budke, 1988). This trend is more apparent in the service sector where entry requirements are less well-defined (Quebec. Ministry of Education, 1998). These conflicting messages ‘exacerbate a traditional split among educators and policymakers concerning the appropriate role and function of job training and vocational education’ (Budke, 1988, p. 11). Technical knowledge has a short shelf-life and workers of the future may expect to work on short-term assignments, on a contract basis, or within several project teams. They may have to work for more than one employer at any given time or even start new careers several times. Lifelong learning or continuing vocational education and training (CVET) is therefore an important element of the TVET system
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for continuous upgrading to keep pace with changing skill requirements. Lifelong learning is also desirable ‘in order to remedy the failures of traditional educational and socialization processes’ (Gasskov, 2001), which can have major consequences on employment prospects, labour productivity and decent work. However, research indicates that people with a low level of education are left behind in lifelong learning, while the more educated obtain more education and training. In some instances, lifelong learning has become the exemplar par excellence of the ‘rich getting richer’ (Myers & De Broucker, 2006). Furthermore, the United States Bureau of Labour Statistics indicated that the amount of training provided by the employer varies according to gender, age group and type of occupation, with workers in the service sector being less likely to receive training. This situation exacerbates qualification differences by up-skilling the already most highly skilled, rather than those that need it the most.
10 International Survey of TVET Reforms There is some strong empirical evidence demonstrating that TVET can indeed help to achieve economic growth by improving workers’ productivity (Malgen & Hopkins, 1998). Almost all nations have modernized, or are in the process of modernizing, their education and training system in order to ensure an adequate supply of highly-skilled workers. Reform initiated in the United States began with an open letter to the American people entitled ‘A nation at risk: the imperative for educational reform’, which was followed by a series of other successive policy initiatives: ‘Workforce 2000: work and workers for the 21st Century’; ‘Investing in people: strategy to address America’s workforce crisis’; ‘America’s choice: high skills or low wages’; and ‘The Secretary’s Commission on achieving necessary skills’. Canada responded by hosting a national summit on innovation and learning. A two-pronged innovation strategy emerged from that summit. The first was ‘Achieving excellence: investing in people, knowledge and opportunity’, which focuses mainly on creating and using knowledge as a national asset; strengthening Canada’s science and research capacity and, finally, building an innovative economy. The second innovation strategy was ‘Knowledge matters: skills and learning for Canadians’, which called for investment in people as a country’s most important resource, strengthening skills and learning, and enhancing opportunities for all to participate (Government of Canada, 2002a, 2002b.). Within the framework of the Lisbon goals, the main thrust of the reform movement of the European Union has been centred on: linking TVET to productivity, employment and social cohesion; improving the quality of TVET; establishment of national and European qualification frameworks; establishing a quality assurance framework; developing occupational standards; benchmarking TVET; improving the image and relevance of TVET; governance and financing of TVET; lifelong learning; recognition of prior learning and foreign credentials; improving social dialogues between stakeholders; addressing the needs of youth, displaced and older workers; and access and equity.
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Developing countries are also uniting their efforts in using TVET to harness the benefits of the knowledge-based economy. The African Union (AU) wants Africa to take advantage of education to carve its way to prosperity in the knowledge-based economy. In its Plan of Action for the Second Decade of Education (2006–2015), the AU ‘recognizes the importance of TVET as a means of empowering individuals to take control of their lives and recommends the integration of vocational training into the general education system’ (African Union, 2007, p. 1). The AU also reports on some TVET reform initiatives that have been very successful in Africa. For example, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Tanzania and Zambia have all established national training authorities and Ghana is in the process of establishing a Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training. A survey conducted by UNESCO (2005) indicates that Botswana, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Gambia, Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania and Togo have already adopted a national plan for TVET, while others—the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, the Seychelles and Uganda—were in the process of drafting or adopting a national strategy. Eight countries (Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Yemen) reported having implemented national polices and strategies for the development of TVET. The survey also revealed that two-thirds of the countries in the Asia and the Pacific region have implemented a national strategy to govern policy formulation and the planning and management of TVET. Over half of these countries have established specific initiatives to ensure the relevance of TVET with the world of work and to monitor the progress against some established benchmarks. This survey also revealed that the great majority of developing countries were using the UN Millennium Development Goals and UNESCO’s Education for All as the underpinning foundation for TVET reforms. Australia has also established a national strategy for the improvement of TVET for the period 2004–10, which has very similar objectives to the Lisbon goals and has been instrumental in achieving highly successful TVET reform in the country. The Australian success story in TVET is the result of successive and repeated commitment to TVET demonstrated through various policies, planning and investment initiatives formulated in the key national strategic plans, namely: ‘Towards a skilled Australia’ (1994–98); ‘A bridge to the future’ (1998–2003); and ‘Shaping our future’ (2004–10). Since 1998, Australia has showed a real commitment to fully develop and improve its TVET system. Today, the Australian TVET system is ‘recognized as among the best and most innovative in the world’ (McGauran, 2004).
11 Blueprint for Re-Engineering TVET UNESCO and the ILO have both made some very concrete recommendations for reforming TVET (UNESCO/ILO, 2002). A recent survey indicates that the great majority of States are using these recommendations as blueprints in their reform
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initiatives. The comprehensive national strategy adopted by Australia for improving TVET from 2004–10 is show-cased here as it adequately captures various worldwide initiatives for re-engineering TVET. The underpinning priorities of that Australian strategy are:
r r r r r r r r r r r r
Increase participation in VET and improve performance of learners (particularly employed people). Improve access to information, guidance and counselling. Raise the image of VET and improve public recognition of its employment outcomes. Achieve equality in VET participation and learner attainment. Make sustained investment in technical and further education institutions (TAFE) and other registered training institutions. Promote partnerships between training providers and industry to drive innovation. Implement flexible funding models and planning and accountability approaches. Develop sustainable funding and encourage cost sharing. Strengthen industry’s role in anticipating skill needs and developing products and services to meet them. Improve learning pathways and transition from school to work. Improve the quality of VET. Simplify access to international VET markets (NCRVE, cited in CEDEFOP, 2007).
12 Overview of the Contributions To set the stage for the contributions included in this section, this overview has painted a picture of the landscape within which TVET must reinvent itself so that it can meet increasing expectations. Below is a brief summary of the nine chapters in this section which will each provide a more in-depth treatment of the various issues raised in this overview.
I.2 The Right to a New Utopia: Adult Learning and the Changing World of Work in an Era of Global Capitalism, by Budd L. Hall The author discusses economic globalization as a form of global market utopia and its impact on the lives and work of individuals. He then elaborates on possible responses to the form of this market vision, especially answers from the sphere of education and training. He finally endorses the right to what he calls a new utopian vision: ‘a vision which responds to the collective needs of the majority of persons in the world, not simply the few’.
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I.3 Decent Work for All: From ILO Initiative to Global Goal, by Peter Poschen Jobs have been polarized as good and bad jobs by the new economy. Peter Poschen’s chapter deals with the concept of decent work, which has been developed and applied by the ILO in recent years and which has been taken up by an increasing number of governments, as well as development organizations and other institutions. He discusses the relevance of decent work as a goal and a framework for policy formulation and gives examples of how the concept has contributed to policy debates at both national and international level. Special attention is given to the role of technical and vocational education and training in this context.
I.4 Redefining Gender Roles in the Workforce, by Karen F. Zuga Women are often left behind in various aspects of economic development. This chapter puts the focus on questions regarding redefining gender roles in the workforce. Aspects are: the contemporary roles of women and changes in these roles over time; issues and concerns that educators, trainers and society face as a result of such change or lack of change; and the influence of policy on that change. She finally discusses the question of how in particular vocational and technical educators should react as a result of the changing roles of women in the workforce.
I.5 Anticipation of Skill Requirements: European Activities and Approaches, by Manfred Tessaring Forecasting labour-market requirements and skills needs has become a very challenging task in the context of the new economy. Modern societies are characterized by rapidly changing social and economic conditions, increasing openness, permeability, complexity and therefore uncertainty. This development results in a need for new instruments that allow the early identification of skill requirements and facilitate updating and re-adjusting the design of education, initial vocational training and continuing training. In his article, Tessaring gives an account of European activities and approaches to deal with this situation.
I.6 Redefining the Status of Occupations, by Walter R. Heinz Heinz’s contribution focuses on the controversy regarding the concept of ‘occupation’. While there is a lot of literature suggesting that the concept of occupation is outdated, Heinz argues that ‘there is no end of occupation, but a transformation towards a new constellation of training, competence, work and company organization,
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due to a complex combination of economic, cultural and social changes’. His discussion focuses on Germany as a prototype for an occupation-centred society characterized by a highly standardized system of vocational education and training.
I.7 Changing Work, Work Practice: The Consequences for Vocational Education, by Stephen Billett Billett’s contribution discusses the changing characteristics of work, work practice and work requirements, and the impact they have on vocational education and training. His chapter provides an overview of different patterns of change to work and working life and discusses policy and curriculum practice associated with each.
I.8 Traditional and Transitional TVET Systems, by Poonam Agrawal Various forces are transforming the TVET system. In his chapter, Agrawal deals with the role of tradition when social and economic developments require education systems to adapt. Agrawal argues that ‘whatever is transitional today may become a tradition in times to come and something that had been a tradition may again find a place in transitional and futuristic systems’. He concludes that tradition needs to be viewed and discussed in the local context with in-built reference to the global scenario.
I.9 Partnering to Meet the Needs of a Changing Workplace, by LuAnn Hiniker and Robert A. Putnam Best practice examples and lessons learned from various countries indicate that social dialogues and stakeholders’ involvement and partnership are key elements for successful TVET reforms. The chapter deals with partnerships between education and industry. This can provide the technology and innovations necessary to provide a flexible learning framework to meet the needs of today’s lifelong learners. Fostering collaborative and innovative partnerships will help enable business, industry and higher education to transform in this high-speed information age. Nationwide studies will provide the identification of key characteristics of the changing workplace and evidence of the potential for successful new partnerships. The lack of highly-skilled workers, the growing needs for access to education by lifelong learners and the difficulty in forming fruitful partnerships are addressed in this paper.
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I.10 Bridging the Learning Divide: A Study into Adult Learning and Peer Motivation in the Workplace, by David Johnson Finally, David Johnson’s chapter points out that there is a significant number of working people with low basic skills and information technology skills who have difficulties in accessing learning provision. Johnson argues that, while there is no shortage of supply-side solutions to raising the skills levels of adult learners, there appears to be a significant problem on the demand-side. The failure to bridge this ‘learning divide’ has created a wide training gap in the United Kingdom, which has denied many adults access to learning and career opportunities. Johnson outlines a research project which seeks to address the difficulty of engaging or re-engaging working and other adults in learning opportunities through trade-union learning champions and a methodology for studying the learning trajectories of those who do.
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Shapiro, C.; Varian, H. 1999. Information rules: a strategic guide to the network economy. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Shepard, S.B. 1997. The new economy: what it really means. <www.businessweek.com/1997/46/ b3553084.htm> Sweetman, A. 2002. Working smarter: education and productivity. The review of economic performance and social progress. Ottawa: Centre for the Study of Living Standards. Tessaring, M.; Wannan, J. 2004. Vocational education and training: key to the future. LisbonCopenhagen-Maastricht: mobilising for 2010. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. (Cedefop synthesis of the Maastricht study.) Toffler, A; Toffler, H. 1995. Creating a new civilization: the politics of the third wave. Atlanta, GA: Turner Publishing. Torres, R.M. 2004. Lifelong learning in the South: critical issues and opportunities for adult education. Stockholm: Sida. (Sida studies no.11.) <www.iiz-dvv.de/Englisch/Publikationen/ Supplements/inhalt 60.htm> Tuijnman, A. 1997. Results and highlights from an international perspective: IALS in relation to economies and labour markets. (A symposium on literacy, economy and society. Presentation materials. Canada.) <www.ibd.ab.ca/files/west-one.pdf> UNESCO. 2005. Profile of technical and vocational education and training (TVET): a survey of the progress, innovations and promising practices to gauge the impact of UNESCO recommendations on TVET. Paris: UNESCO. (Unpublished document.) UNESCO-UNEVOC. 2004. The Bonn Declaration: Learning for work, citizenship and sustainability. (UNESCO International Meeting of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Experts, Bonn, Germany, 28 October 2004.) UNESCO/ILO. 2002. Technical and vocational training in the 21st century, Paris: UNESCO; Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Webster, J. 1995. Networks of collaboration or conflict? Electronic data interchange and power in the supply chain. Journal of strategic information systems, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 31–42.
Chapter I.2
The Right to a New Utopia: Adult Learning and the Changing World of Work in an Era of Global Capitalism Budd L. Hall
We make, by art, in [. . .] orchards and gardens, trees and flowers to come earlier or later than their seasons; and to come up and bear more speedily than by the natural course they do. We make them also by art greater much than their nature: and their fruit greater and sweeter and of differing taste, smell, colour and figure, from their nature. Francis Bacon, New Atlantis, 1627. I think economic life is for teaching our species it has responsibilities to the planet and the rest of nature. Jane Jacobs, The nature of economies, 2000.
1 Introduction In this article I will do four things: examine economic globalization as a form of global market utopia; discuss the impact of this project on our lives and on our work; explore responses to the form that this market vision takes; and, finally, make a case for new utopian visions. John Carey, in his introduction to the Faber book of utopias (1999), tells us that: ‘Anyone who is capable of love must at some time have wanted the world to be a better place, for we all want our loved ones to live free of suffering, injustice and heartbreak.’ He goes on to say of utopian ideas that: ‘their imaginative excitement comes from the recognition that everything inside our heads, and much outside, are human constructs and can be changed.’ He ominously notes as well that: ‘They [utopian projects] aim at a New World, but must destroy the old’ (p. xi). I have found Carey’s views on utopias and his encyclopedic anthology of visions from all ages and from all parts of the world fascinating and helpful. The idea of utopian projects helps me to understand both the power of the current market dreams and the importance of recovering our own right to create new utopias. Globalization is a utopian vision. The creation of an integrated twenty-four hours per day economic system that allows total freedom for investors to find cheap money to borrow and high returns on investment anywhere in the world—is a dream. That all limits on corporate and individual profits would be removed—is a dream. That all workers in all countries would be integrated into global networks of production R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 I.2, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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and consumption that produce untold profits for investors—is a dream. That responsibilities to shareholders could take precedence over health and safety and environmental concerns—is a dream. Evidence of the power and excitement of this dream is that multinational corporations have joined with political leaders to promote this idea as the only dream leading to the possibility of making a better world. Not only is globalization the way for individual investors to accumulate riches beyond their wildest fantasies, but (thank heavens) the market utopia is also—its architects would argue—the best hope we have ever had of reducing poverty and creating a better world at home and abroad. The global market utopia is a dream, but it may not be our dream. It may not be a dream for all. And bear in mind, as I have earlier noted, that like all utopias this one ‘must destroy the old’ (Carey, 1999).
2 The Global Market Utopia Globalization is being experienced through a variety of forms and practices. Important dimensions of globalization also include the economy, the State, communications, movements of people, sales of arms, and violence and crime. The most dramatic financial figure, which illustrates the contemporary global market, is that each day about one-and-a-half trillion disconnected dollars change hands in financial transactions totally apart from funds needed for global trade purposes. These transactions have to do with currency speculation by private and public banks, with investments of all kinds through the computerized stock markets of the world, with bond undertakings at both private and State levels. Political leadership in most parts of the world has joined the call for each of us to play our part in the competitive global market. Products are assembled everywhere, sold everywhere, crossing borders sometimes scores of time before finding an ultimate place of rest or sale. And the movement of durable goods does not stop with sale. Within days, weeks or years most of the goods produced in the contemporary world will be discarded and our goods then rejoin the global search for another resting-place. If we live in cities, we send our waste to rural areas. If our waste is poisonous or toxic, we will send it to the furthest reaches of our countries or, failing that, to the poorest parts of the world where countries fight over the right to become a dumping ground for the waste of the rich. Jobs, health and safety conditions, environmental regulations, human rights and immigration policies are thrown out as deregulation on a global basis strips national legislation of its force. The State itself has taken on global forms. The richest States of Europe now work together in a powerful economic union where the restrictions and limitations of individual governments are giving way to regional forms of State control. In Asia, no serious economic decisions are taken by a single State government without direct or indirect talks with governments of trading partners, such as Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan and, increasingly, Malaysia and Thailand. The United Nations system and related regional banking and development agencies are a further layer of an internationalized State
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function. These multi-lateral bodies have more power and influence in the medium and smaller States, with institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank taking on nearly full control of economies in the least-powerful States. Crime and violence are also disturbing features of our globalizing world. The complex combination of rich country drug use and poor country weak economies creates patterns of international activity taking advantage of all the modern means of communications and money transfers. All of the world’s people are caught in vicious patterns of cruelty and violence that spill over into each and every one of our homes (Commission on Global Governance, 1995). The arms trade is another dimension of globalization. While overall world expenditure on the military has declined since the 1989 accords between the former USSR and the United States, the arms trade itself has taken on a new life. The United States in particular has accelerated its sales from roughly $9 billion in 1987 to over $22 billion in 1992 to over $50 billion in 2000. In that same period the former USSR has decreased arms transfers from $30 billion to $2.8 billion. According to the war historian John Keegan: Those who have died in war since 1945 by cheap, mass-produced weapons have, for the most part, been killed by small-calibre ammunition costing little more than the transistor radios and batteries which flooded the world during the same period (1994).
Among the low-cost weapons that cross our borders each day are landmines produced for a few dollars each and capable of killing or maiming a person with ease. There are an estimated 100 million landmines distributed in roughly sixty countries around the globe (Grimmett, 1994). While money flows with the speed of light, goods and services at the speed of air and sea transport, people are also more mobile than ever before. The combination of economic destruction, civil conflict and positive inducements to move has created global movements of people. In global terms, over 100 million people are refugees against their choice, living in countries that they were not born in (UNHCR, 1995). Of course, people do not move as easily as either goods or finance capital. Much of the contemporary movement of peoples is involuntary movement as economic and political refugees are forced to shift from their homes in search of security or a means to survive. This is in spite of the fact that obstacles to the movement of people from the poorer nations to the richer are exceedingly difficult to overcome. It would seem that at least one vision of the ‘market utopia’ is that people will stay in communities where low wages can be sustained while technology, tools and capital will move freely. In Canada, for example, money can move between Mexico, the United States and national financial institutions with ease, but for people it is more difficult. The open capital market has not produced an open labour market. In spite of the legal restrictions against movement between these three nations—partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)—there are very large illegal movements of people from Mexico to the United States, some illegal Canadian movement into the United States as well, and vast displacements of persons from the rural areas of Mexico, Canada and the United States to places where their chances of finding jobs are better. As Miguel Darcy de Oliveira and Rajesh Tandon observe:
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‘the weaker, the more vulnerable, the powerless, those who do not produce or consume anything of value for the world market, those who can hardly be privatised or internationalised, are becoming expendable’ (1995, p. 7).
3 Further Impact of the Global Market Utopia 3.1 On Children Canadian scholars John McMurty and Teresa Turner, in a paper on the impact of globalization on the world’s children, argue that: ‘In truth what unifies global corporate investment patterns today is a ruling principle that is blind to the well-being or ill-being of children’ (2000). Dependency on gross national product (GNP) and similar economic indicators is obscuring a rising tide of social disintegration and exclusion. The cry is expressed on the ground with the unprecedented horror of families selling their own children in exponentially rising numbers as sex-slaves into the new free market economies, with tens of millions of children across the world now driven not only into forced prostitution, but street beggary, slave labour and military enslavement as a consequence of the impoverishment of their families in the globalization dynamics (McMurtry & Turner, 2000).
3.2 On the Rise of Social Exclusion The impact of globalization is not, of course, only on children or only in the majority world countries. In 1999, the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation of OECD came out with a study that examines the role of adult learning in overcoming exclusion. In this study they draw attention to the report provided for the meeting of Social Policy Ministers in 1998, which notes that: The labour market has turned against low-skilled workers, who in all countries are more likely to find themselves unemployed, non-employed or earning lower wages than their better-educated colleagues [. . .] Unemployment remains high—35 million or 7% of the work force [. . .] over half of all unemployed persons had been so for more than 12 months [. . .] households where children are present are much more likely to have low incomes than they were 10–20 years ago (CERI, 1999, p. 18).
Accumulated evidence from the ‘rich’ countries is that there are widening income inequalities, worrying levels of unemployment and inactivity and growing poverty often amid a general increase in affluence. In Ontario, Canada, household incomes after taxes dropped from $43,500 in 1990 to $41,800 in 1997. For those in the poorest 20% of the income spectrum there was a 7.3% decline from $12,066 in 1995 to $11,185 in 1997. In the entire group of OECD countries, there are a growing number of families where there are no wage earners, as well as a vast majority where all adult members of the family are obliged to work. Indeed, one in five of all households in OECD countries are now considered ‘work-poor’. They are
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working, but at such low-income levels as to leave them below the poverty line in their respective countries.
3.3 On the Environment On 24 November 2000 we learned that the Global Conference on Climate Change meeting in The Hague had failed to reach agreement on measures to be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And this occurred just over one year after we learned that two islands in the Kiribati Archipelago in the South Pacific were the first to be submerged by rising sea levels due to global warming—others in the area are also in danger. Canada, along with Australia, Japan and the United States, was one of the countries that was reluctant in making an agreement that would in any way slow down the super-heated production of automobiles or cut back other industrial processes threatening the rest of the world. Canada has the highest per capita consumption of energy of any country on Earth. But rather than take a creative look at what we might do to provide leadership for greener options, the Canadian government prefers to hold out for its vast forest areas to be considered as credits in the global warming game for their role as global air filters. The facts of the matter are that those kinds of life-styles and consumer patterns that fuel the global market utopia are a cancer for the planet. In the insightful work by Wackernagel and Rees, Our ecological footprint, they outline a method for determining the percentage of the world’s resources that we use as individuals, as communities or as whole nations. Their complex formula points out that if the entire world were to achieve the same levels of development and growth that characterize those of us who live in rich countries, we would need four entire planets worth of energy resources to satisfy these demands. Clearly we are on an ecological collision path between a utopia of the rich and the carrying capacity of a still fragile planet.
3.4 Effects on the Structure of Work As capital has loosened itself from the restrictions of the nation-State, so too has production. In Canada we assemble ‘American’ automobiles from parts that are made in both Europe and Asia and flown in for ‘just-in-time’ assembly in the auto plants of southern Ontario and Quebec. The tomatoes we buy in Canada (except during our short growing season) are harvested by women workers in Mexico where regulations on the use of toxic chemicals for production are lower. There are few clothes now available for purchase in Canada that are made—to use that old fashioned concept—‘at home’. On the North American continent, as in other parts of the world, production has been growing dramatically in the border area between the United States and Mexico. There, in what are called the maquiladoras, lower-paid Mexican workers, a majority of whom are women, live in company dormitories, work in U.S.-owned factories and send money home to their families
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in poverty-stricken northern Mexico. But, in a newer trend, we are also seeing, for example, that New York City immigrant sweatshops can be as competitive on the global market as similar workplaces in Thailand (Sassen, 1991). I am indebted to a colleague, Brian Milani, for his book Designing the green economy (2000) and its insights on the restructuring of work. Technological change has had an extraordinary impact on production. The dominant tendency, however, remains the one which has prevailed throughout the age of industrialization: that of the de-skilling of direct production. Rifkin in his study of work change in the United States estimates that 90 million jobs in the U.S. are vulnerable to replacement by machines. More and more, we are finding that creative, fulfilling jobs are becoming rarer and rarer: ‘islands in a sea of work degradation’ (Milani, 2000, p. 39). The explosion in producer services has fed into a polarization not only between nations, but also within nations as the fastest growing categories of workers are janitors, sales clerks, fast-food workers and security guards. Contrary to popular opinion or policy documents from governments, most new jobs are and will be low-paid jobs. The U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics projected the greatest number of jobs as cashiers, janitors, truck drivers, waiters and waitresses. In a recent report from Statistics Canada, it was reported that the fastest growth in jobs for men in Canada was as truck drivers. And at the same time the State continues to push for more ‘flexibility’ in labour conditions. In the province of Ontario, the Conservative Government introduced legislation that would make it legal for workers to work up to sixty hours per week if asked by their employers, after a tradition of nearly fifty years of a forty-hour work week. At the same time, it is well documented that the pay of senior executives has grown much faster than average earnings. Some 86% of executives in the top 500 companies in the United States received an average salary of $8 million dollars a year in 1999. In doing so, they earned 60% more than any of their counterparts in any other part of the world. They were compensated at a rate thirty-four times that of the average factory worker. This compares with multiples of fifteen to twenty in Europe. If there has been a growth in low-wage work for those fortunate enough to work in the larger globalizing companies of our rich countries, we are seeing a dizzying variety of new practices in the workplace. As Foley notes in his book on strategic learning: ‘As corporations and national economies compete for market share, it is increasingly recognized that what makes the difference is the quality of an organization’s human resources—its workers and managers’ (2001, p. 9). It follows that there is a dramatic need to engage workers and managers in the goals, vision and ambitions of the new enterprises if a given sector or company is to tap the larger reservoir of worker-manager knowledge advance in the global market. The attraction for the owners of twenty-first century businesses is the various approaches from high-performing teams, learning organizations, spirituality in the workplace or ‘360◦ ’ training. Increased performance and productivity are the bottom line. If the workforce can create more collective knowledge for company competitiveness, feel more involved in the destiny of the company and generate massive profits for the shareholders, so much the better.
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4 Responses to Globalization All present understood that the free market was another name for God, but then again, when one got to thinking about it, the market, like God, didn’t always answer everybody’s prayers. Lewis Lapham, The agony of Mammon, 1998 (p. 23).
Lewis Lapham is the editor of Harper’s magazine, a liberal publication in the United States of America. Some years ago, he had an opportunity to take part as a journalist in the Davos World Economic Forum, the club of 1,100 corporate and world leaders who collectively drive the Global Market Utopia. His account of his experience has been published in a book subtitled ‘The Imperial Global Economy Explains Itself to the Membership in Davos, Switzerland’. What is particularly insightful about this account of corridor conversations and as a witness to presentations by the most powerful of our world are the huge layers of uncertainty. The overwhelming topic of conversation (aside from remarks about the Monica Lewinsky affair which had just been revealed) was about the search for security on the one hand and the search for a moral grounding on the other. On 6 November 2000, Business week, an influential business magazine in the United States, published an article entitled ‘Global Capitalism: Can It Be Made to Work Better?’ The writers noted that: ‘There is no point denying that multinationals have contributed to labor, environmental and human rights abuses.’ They quote John Ruggie, the then Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, as saying that: ‘The current system is unsustainable.’ And in one of the most chilling admissions I have yet seen, they report that: ‘The downside of global capitalism is the disruption of whole societies’ Eric Hobsbawn, one of the most respected western historians, in his seminal history of the twentieth century notes that: ‘for the first time in two centuries, the world of the 1990s entirely lacked any international system or structure’ (1994, p. 559). He goes on to say that: ‘In short, the century ended in a global disorder whose nature was unclear and without an obvious mechanism for either ending it or keeping in under control’ (1994, p. 562). He closes his work with a plea to look towards something new: The forces generated by the techno-scientific economy are now great enough to destroy the environment, that is to say, the material foundations of life. The structures of human societies themselves including even some of the social foundations of the capitalist economy are on the point of being destroyed by the erosion of what we have inherited from the past. Our world risks both explosion and implosion. It must change (pp. 584-85).
Jorge Nef, a global security political scientist, in a study published by the Canadianbased International Development Research Centre, cautions us that: the seemingly secure societies of the North are increasingly vulnerable to events in the lesser secure and hence underdeveloped regions of our globe, in a manner that conventional international relations theory and development have failed to account for (1997, p. 13).
Nef continues adding that: ‘In the midst of the current crisis, the established flow of information, ideas, science and worldviews is being shattered’ (p. 94).
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Benjamin Barber, a political scientist based in the United States, has outlined his views in a fascinating book called Jihad vs. McWorld. Jihad forges communities of blood rooted in exclusion and hatred [. . .] McWorld forges global markets rooted in consumption and profit, leaving to an untrustworthy, if not altogether factitious invisible hand issues of public interest and common good that once might have been nurtured by democratic citizenries and their watchful governments.
‘Unless we can offer,’ Barber continues, ‘an alternative to the struggle between Jihad and McWorld, the epoch on whose threshold we stand is likely to be terminally post-democratic’ (1995, p. 7) What about geographers? The American author Herod notes in the introduction to his book, An unruly world? Globalization, governance and geography, that: ‘One might be tempted to proclaim at centuries end the emergence of an unruly epoch of ungovernable, turbulent and disorderly global space’ (1998, p. 1) Lester R. Brown, the respected director of the Worldwatch Institute, notes that: ‘In effect, we are behaving as though we have no children, as though there will not be a next generation’ (1998, p. 19). Daly and Cobb, in their powerful plea for an economics that reflects the environmental and human realities of our planet, note that: At a deep level of our being we find it hard to suppress the cry of anguish, the scream of horror [. . .] the wild words required to express wild realities. We human beings are being led to a dead end—all too literally. [. . .] The global system will change during the next forty years, because it will be physically forced to change. But if humanity waits until it is physically compelled to change, its options will be few indeed (1989, p. 13).
5 Responses from the Worlds of Adult Education and Training Adult education and training are intimately linked to our daily lives, our working lives, our legislative and professional possibilities and, obviously, to the larger political economic frameworks of our times. Adult educators and trainers have a complex approach to the changing world that we are facing. Given the dominance of the global market utopia, we might look at responses from the communities of adult education and training as facilitating this utopia, at making the best of global market implications or transforming relations of power. In fact, our adult education and training policy frameworks quite often contain elements of all three educational responses.
5.1 Facilitating a Market Utopia The British Secretary of State notes in the foreword to the 1999 Green Paper on Learning to succeed that: The skill needs of the future will be different from those of today and it is clear that we will not keep pace with the modern economies of our competitors, if we are unable to match
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today’s skills with the challenge of the developing information and communication age of tomorrow. As labour markets change, we must develop a new approach to skills and to enabling people, and businesses, to succeed (United Kingdom. Secretary of State, 1999, p. 2)
Indeed, there has been a dramatic growth in adult education participation in the past ten to fifteen years. According to Belanger and Federighi, the percentage of the adult population participating in some form of adult learning activities in 1994/1995 in the industrialized nations ranged from 14% in Poland to 53% in Sweden, with Australia and Canada at 39% and 38% respectively (2000, p. 6). The vast majority of this provision is for labour-market learning in areas of new information technologies, restructuring of larger enterprises and training related to lower-end employment opportunities. National adult education policies in Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, India, Ireland, Slovenia, South Africa, the United States and Venezuela have emphasized this important new requirement for global survival. The provision of vocational education is, of course, also an area into which the private sector has itself moved with the utmost vigour. Adult learning is not only needed for the global market, but in many ways has become part of the global market itself. Adult learning has been variously estimated to represent a huge potential global market—if it could be fully privatized—of upward of US$90 billion. Prior to 2001, in the province of Ontario in Canada, private universities had not been legal. As a result of openness on the part of the government, however, some sixty proposals in the Ministry of Education sought endorsement from private for-profit universities waiting to move into the field.
5.2 Making the Best of the Market Belanger and Federighi’s recent transnational study of adult learning policies, Unlocking people’s creative forces, makes perhaps the most eloquent case for an adult education framework that responds to both the economic as well as the individual and collective demand for adult learning. Written in the spirit of the 1997 Hamburg Declaration, of which Belanger himself was the architect, this book makes the case for a broad vision of adult learning meeting a variety of needs: In order to survive and improve their lives, adult men and women on every continent are striving to develop the means to enhance their capacity to act and to understand the ways of the world. Adult learning also has strategic importance for economic actors today. Risk management strategies, economic policy, environmental and health policies all invariably rely on continually raising people’s competencies and skills. Similarly, traditional and new types of popular movements and national liberation projects call for strengthening and spreading the capacity for initiative so that people can deal with the challenges facing them, bring about change and take an active part in economic and social development (2000, p. 2).
One of the most creative approaches to taking up the global market challenge from an adult learning and organizational change perspective that I have come across is the recent work carried out by the Australian adult educator Griff Foley. Better known for his work on teaching and learning processes and for his widely respected
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writings on radical or social movement learning, Foley has in the past several years entered fully into the world of the workplace, learning and change. In a book on what he calls ‘strategic learning’, Foley outlines a vision for an approach to organizational learning that he feels is both strategic and emancipator: A ‘strategic learning’ approach rejects the attempt to recast adult education and learning simply as an instrument for improving performance and productivity. It sees learning as complex (formal and informal, constructive and destructive, contested and contextual). It assumes that critical and emancipatory learning is possible and necessary. It asserts that a first step to their realisation is an honest investigation of what people are actually learning and teaching each other in different sites—workplaces, families, communities, the mass media, social movements (2001, p. 20).
Foley also calls for a new foundation of workplace learning. He considers that an appropriate analytic framework for workplace learning should include: (a) the nature of and reasons for the long-running global economic crisis; (b) the character and logic of the capitalist political economy; (c) the character and logic of work in capitalism; (d) the experiential learning of people in changing workplaces; (d) the unconscious dimension of workplace learning; and (e) gender relations in workplaces (p. 63).
5.3 Resisting and Transforming It may be argued that more adults learned about the nature of global market structures and the problems generated by them in the several days of the Seattle demonstrations before the WTO meetings in 1999 than from any adult education conference yet organized. There has been a dramatic increase in social movement learning linked directly to the anti-globalization struggles. Young people, trade unionists, activists from the majority world came together in Seattle, as they had in lesser numbers in other cities before and as they have since then in Prague, Washington DC and Windsor, Ontario, Canada. A new global civil society is a reality. The same computer networks, which support global flow of capital, are beginning to support a more active flow of ideas for resisting and transforming the global market frameworks. I would urge those interested to log on to the global web-sites of the ICFTU (www.icftu.org) for a rich array of educational materials and ideas for strategic thinking about all aspects of globalization and its transformation. You will find language for policy documents and collective bargaining that goes beyond the adaptation to global markets. Similarly, LabourStart, a project of the Labour NewsWire Global Network (www.labourstart.org) is a sophisticated educational and information service for trade-union educators and others interested in a labour perspective on the changing workplace. The world of adult education networks itself has undergone substantial changes. The International Council for Adult Education (ICAE), a global network of some 700 local and national NGOs interested in adult learning, organized a sixth World Assembly of Adult Education in Jamaica in 2001, calling for global advocacy towards adult learning for individual and collective transformation in the age of
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globalization. One of the most effective regional groups affiliated with the ICAE is the Asia and South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education (ASPBAE). Their web site (www.aspbae.org) is another vital resource for a transformative vision of adult education.
6 The Right to a New Utopia The most powerful instruments for transforming the world that we have are our own minds. UNESCO’s 1985 Declaration on the Right to Learn spoke, among other things, of the right to imagine. We have the right to a new utopian vision, a vision that responds to the collective needs of the majority of persons in the world, not simply the few. We need to grasp the power of the utopic vision for ourselves. The global market utopia is held in place by coercion and force, but it is most firmly supported because we share at least a part of the dream that this global utopia speaks to, but does not deliver. In part, we want to believe that by following the strictures of the global market we will find our way to a more secure world. Linda McQuaig, a Canadian journalist, in her recent book, The cult of impotence: selling the myth of powerlessness in the global economy, notes that: We have become convinced that we are collectively powerless in the face of international financial markets. And with the widespread acceptance of this view the rich have proceeded to create a world in which the rights of capital have been given precedence over and protection against interference from the electorate (1998, p. 283).
She argues that, in the case of Canada, we have been ‘sold’ a myth of powerlessness because it serves the interests of the current ruling alliances—not because, in fact, we do not have any power as citizens. I believe that her arguments hold true for many parts of the world. We have both the ideas and the means of implementing these ideas, if only our gaze could begin to be focused on new directions. It is a time to claim back the power of the utopian vision. In claiming back the power of a vision of the world that we want—as opposed to the world we do not want—adult learning has an important role to play. In surveys conducted in Canada, it has been found that adults already engage in, on average, eight hours of autonomous informal learning on their own. The individual and social demand for learning is a transformative force of the greatest power. The adult learning and training world is further rich with already existing networks, websites, newsletters, conferences and other structures of communications to support social demands for adult learning. We have established approaches that research has proven to be effective in supporting adult learning in a variety of settings. It is time for the resources and capabilities of the adult learning communities to support the search for new utopian visions. New utopian visions are found in local community gardens, in community shared agricultural schemes, in individual and family choices to live more simple lives, in the large and still growing movement for ‘green economic development’, for social economies of varying kinds and in the literally millions of creative ideas that women and men are engaged in as ways to survive in a world
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which they do not like, yet know not how to change. It is time for us to claim the right to a new utopia in our workplaces. Adult education and training can support the release of our creativity and imagination. We have the right, as Paulo Freire said, to become agents in our own history. For those of you who doubt the power of citizens working together, consider this fascinating account in the Economist’s publication The world in 2001: The anti-capitalists have been winning the battle of ideas [. . .] despite having no ideas worthy of the name. In 2001, their influence on governments and in boardrooms is going to increase. Equally worrying is the influence that they are having with big western companies which nowadays feel obligated to bow down before bogus nostrums of ‘corporate responsibility’.
And in another article in the same issue, Activists have already seized the initiative on global trade. They succeeded in scuttling both the OECD’s Multilateral Agreement on Investment in 1998 and the launch of the WTO’s new global trade talks a year later [. . .] This means that at the very best trade liberalisation is stalled (emphasis added).
In Which world: scenarios for the 21st century, Alan Hammond of the Worldwatch Institute reports on a research project that extrapolates current global trends in three different scenarios. This research suggests that, roughly speaking, the contemporary context provides evidence for what he calls Market World, Fortress World and Transformed World. In Market World, we see the extension of the global free-trade agenda—what I call the global market utopia. It is however a vision, which still contains nearly all prevailing economic and political power and influence. Fortress World arises in the scenario that sees market-led forces failing to redress social disparities, eventually leading to stagnation and fragmentation. Resources are shifted rapidly to security issues to contain growing violence and conflict. In Transformed World, also drawn from existing trends and the beginnings of new global civil society movements, we see a society with transformed values and cultural norms in which power is more widely shared and in which new social coalitions work from the grassroots up to shape what governments do. The market still exists, but it is balanced by other needs. In reality, of course, the future, as the present, will contain aspects of all three scenarios, but in what proportion, in what combination and for whom? Ulrich Beck explains it this way: ‘There is no lack of ideas for changing society. Today (just as in earlier revolutions) many contemporaries carry plans for changing the world around with them in their breast pocket or their heart’ (2000). Gandhi, according to Vandana Shiva (1998), elaborated the concept of swadeshi, an economic self-reliance based on the conviction that: ‘people possess both materially and morally what they need to evolve and design their society and economy and free themselves of oppressive structures.’ Indigenous knowledge, long suppressed, offers ideas for the future as well. From the book by Sefa Dei, Hall and Goldin-Rosenberg: We need to understand and move beyond the often genocidal effects of decades of colonialism and maldevelopment practices [. . .] We need to call for locally defined models of
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sustainability which will prevail the lived realities of local peoples with all their social, cultural, political, spiritual, moral and ecological goals and aspirations (2000).
Samir Amin, the veteran majority world political economist, notes that: ‘a humanistic response to the challenge of globalisation inaugurated by capitalist expansion may be idealistic, but it is not utopian: on the contrary, it is the only realistic project possible’ (1997, p. 10). In closing, I am reminded of the late Julius Nyerere, the first President of the United Republic of Tanzania, who had so much faith in adult learning. He set a target for us in 1976 at the first World Assembly of Adult Education when he noted that the primary goal of adult education was to convince people of the possibility of change. All other goals can be achieved if we believe that change is possible.
References Amin, S. 1997. Capitalism in the age of globalization: the management of contemporary society. London: Zed Books. Bacon, F. 1627. New Atlantis. <www.constitution.org/bacon/new atlantis.htm> Barber, B. 1995. Jihad vs. McWorld. New York, NY: Ballantine. Beck, U. 2000. What is globalization? Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Belanger, P.; Federighi, P. 2000. Unlocking people’s creative forces: a transnational study of adult learning policies. Hamburg, Germany: UNESCO Institute for Education. Brown, L.R. et al. 1998. Vital signs 1998: the environmental trends that are shaping our future. New York, NY: Norton. Carey, J. 1999. The Faber book of utopias. London: Faber. Centre for Educational Research and Innovation. 1999. Adult education and the allieviation of social exclusion. Paris: OECD. Commission on Global Governance. 1995. Our global neighbourhood. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Daly, H.E.; Cobb, J.Jr. 1989. For the common good: re-directing the economy towards community, the environment and a sustainable future. Boston, MA: Bacon. Darcy de Oliveira, M.; Tandon, R. 1995. Citizens: strengthening global civil society. Washington, DC: Civicus. Sefa Dei, G.J.; Hall, B.L.; Goldin-Rosenberg, D., eds. 2000. Indigenous knowledge in global contexts: multiple readings of our world. Toronto, Canada: OISE/University of Toronto Press. Foley, G. 2001. Strategic learning: understanding and facilitating organizational change. Sydney, Australia: Center for Popular Education. Grimmett, J. 1994. Conventional arms transfers to the Third World. Washington, DC: Library of Congress. Hammond, A. 1998. Which world? Scenarios for the 21st century. Washington, DC: Island Press. Herod, A. 1998. An unruly world? Globalisation. governance and geography. London: Routledge. Hobsbawn, E. 1994. The age of extremes: the short 20th century. London: Abacus. Jacobs, J. 2000. The nature of economies. New York, NY: Vintage Books. Keegan, J. 1994. A history of warfare. New York, NY: Vintage Books. Lapham, L. 1998. The agony of mammon. New York, NY: Verso. McMurty, J.; Turner, T. 2000. The effects of globalisation on the world’s children. Guelph, Canada: University of Guelph. [Unpublished.] McQuaig, L. 1998. The cult of impotence: selling the myth of powerlessness in the global economy. Toronto, Canada: Viking. Milani, B. 2000. Designing the green economy. New York, NY: Rowan & Littlefield.
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Nef, J. 1997. Human security and mutual vulnerability. Ottawa: IDRC. Wackernagel, M.; Rees, W.E. 1995. Our ecological footprint: reducing human impact on the earth. Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: New Society Publishers. Sassen, S. 1991. The global city: New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Shiva, V. 1998. Swadeshi. Weekend observer. New Delhi. United Kingdom. Secretary of State. 1999. Learning to succeed: a new framework for post-16 education. London: The Stationery Office. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 1995. The state of the world’s refugees: in search of solutions. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Chapter I.3
Decent Work for All: From ILO Initiative to a Global Goal Peter Poschen
1 Introduction This chapter introduces the concept of decent work developed and applied by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in recent years and increasingly adopted by governments, by the United Nations system as a whole, by development organizations and other groups. It discusses the relevance of decent work as a goal and a framework for policy formulation and presents examples of its contribution to policy debates at national and international level. The presentation highlights the inter-relations between technical and vocational education and training, development priorities and decent work.
2 Decent Work: The Concept and Its Relevance Work is a major part of the life of most people. It takes up much of their time and energy, is one of the main forms of integration into society and an important factor for creating self-esteem and identity. Work is also the main source of income and livelihood for the vast majority of people. The nature of the work they do is thus a fundamental determinant of their quality of life (Mehran et al., 2002; Sennet, 1998). From the perspective of societies and economies, work is the driving force of growth and development. Well-being, poverty reduction, social cohesion, the ability to adapt to the forces of globalization and to attain sustainable development all depend to a large extent on work as a factor of production and distribution. For individuals as well as for societies and countries, work thus plays a pivotal role for sustenance and development. Social and economic outcomes for individuals, enterprises and economies are determined not only by the volume of work performed but critically by its quality. The central role of work and its quality was analysed by ILO Director-General Juan Somav´ıa in his first report to the International Labour Conference in 1999. The report culminated in the introduction of a comprehensive concept of work and the workplace which he called ‘decent work’. The report broadly defines decent R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 I.3, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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work as: ‘opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity’ (ILO, 1999). This definition captures the broad and varied dimensions of work in an expression that everyone can appreciate (Ghai, 2003). It encompasses four inter-related dimensions as shown in Figure 1:
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Employment: the availability of an adequate number of productive, quality jobs that include skills development as an essential ingredient. Social security: protection from work-related injury and from a lack of income due to the loss of employment, to illness or old age. Rights in the workplace, in particular fundamental rights like freedom of choice and equality of treatment. Social dialogue, i.e. the ability of workers to participate in making decisions that affect them and to represent their interests collectively.
Decent work for all has since been adopted as the central goal for the ILO and by governments, employers and workers’ organizations in the 180 member countries of the organization. It has also become the organizing principle for the ILO and much progress has been made with turning the notion of decent work into a concept that can be applied to social and economic analysis and policy formulation. As one of the first steps, the components of decent work have been identified in greater detail in order to be able to understand the inter-relations among them and with other development concerns. Operationalizing the concept also required making it amenable to measurement, so that goals can be set and advances towards achieving them can be assessed. Both purposes are served by a set of statistical indicators that has been suggested by Mehran et al. (2002). Looking through the eyes of working people, ten general characteristics of work have been identified which can be assessed by some thirty specific indicators as shown in Table 1. They include skills training as Indicator 10 under the characteristic adequate earnings and productive work. The lack of data on skill levels and development in many countries is an important limitation for assessing the status and progress of this dimension.
Fig. 1 The four elements of decent work
Employment + income
Social protection
Basic rights at work
Social dialogue
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The development and use of indicators of decent work is still incipient, but some important insights have already been gained. These include the fact that it is possible to capture most decent work dimensions in ways that are relevant for everyone. Assessments can focus on actual outcomes and conditions for workers, such as the Table 1 Summary of suggested decent work indicators Indicators EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES 1. 2. 3. 4.
Labour force participation rate Employment/population ratio Unemployment rate Youth unemployment rate Time-related underemployment rate
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Share of wage employment in non-agricultural employment
UNACCEPTABLE WORK 6. 7.
Children in wage employment or self-employment (percent by age) Children not in school by employment status (percent by age)
ADEQUATE EARNINGS AND PRODUCTIVE WORK 8.
Inadequate pay rate (percent of employed below 1/2 of median hourly earnings or absolute minimum, whichever is greater, by status in employment) 9. Average earnings in selected occupations Excessive hours of work Time-related underemployment rate 10. Employees with recent job training (percent with job training during last twelve months provided or paid for by employer or State) DECENT HOURS 11. 12.
Excessive hours of work (percent of employed, by status in employment) Time-related underemployment rate (percent of employed persons working less than hours threshold, but available and wanting to work additional hours)
STABILITY AND SECURITY OF WORK 13. 14.
Tenure less than one year (percent of employed persons who have held their main job/work for less than one year, by age) Temporary work (percent of employees who classify their jobs as temporary)
BALANCING WORK AND FAMILY LIFE 15.
Employment rate for women with children under compulsory school age (ratio to employment rate for all women aged 20-49) Excessive hours of work
FAIR TREATMENT IN EMPLOYMENT 16.
Occupational segregation by sex (percent of non-agricultural employment in maleor female-dominated occupations and index of dissimilarity) 17. Female share of employment in managerial and administrative occupations (ratio to female share of non-agricultural employment) Share of women in non-agricultural wage employment Female/male wage or earnings ratio, selected occupations Female/male ratios or differences for other indicators
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Indicators SAFE WORK 18. 19.
Fatal injury rate (per 100,000 employees) Labour inspection (inspectors per 100,000 employees and per 100,000 covered employees). Excessive hours of work 20. Occupational injury insurance coverage (percent of employees covered by insurance) SOCIAL PROTECTION 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26.
Public social security expenditure (percent of GDP, separately for total, health services and old-age pensions) Public expenditure on needs-based cash income support (percent of GDP). Beneficiaries of cash income support (percent of poor) Share of population over 65 benefiting from a pension Share of economically active population contributing to a pension fund Average monthly pension (percent of median/minimum earnings) Occupational injury insurance coverage
SOCIAL DIALOGUE AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS 27. 28. 29.
Union density rate Collective wage bargaining coverage rate Strikes and lockouts (per 1,000 employees)
SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONTEXT Output per employed person (PPP level) Growth of output per employed person Inflation (consumer prices where available) Education of adult population (adult literacy rate, adult secondary school graduation rate) Composition of employment by economic sector (agriculture, industry, services) 30. Informal economy employment (percent of non-agricultural or urban employment) Income inequality (ratio of top 10% to bottom 10%, income or consumption) Poverty (percent of population subsisting on less than $1/day and less than $2/day) Bold italics indicate cross-reference to indicator presented in another section.
actual application of regulations rather than the legal existence of provisions (for examples, see ILO, 2006). Skills development is one of the more difficult dimensions in terms of outcomes. The proposed indicator measures training received, i.e. an input, rather then the level, relevance or benefits of the skills acquired for the worker and the enterprise. The notion of decent work implies a particular concern for the poorest and most vulnerable. It is therefore not so much the average value of an indicator that matters, as its distribution, for example with respect to men and women. As will be seen in the following, the more specific definition of decent work and relevant indicators have been successfully applied to tackle a range of development problems.
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3 Decent Work: An Aspiration, a Goal and a Policy Framework Decent work can be interpreted as an aspiration of people, as a goal that societies, countries and the international community have set for themselves, and a framework for shaping policies to achieve the objective of decent work for women and men everywhere (Egger & Sengenberger, 2001). As has been seen above, decent work takes on a specific meaning readily applicable to the work and life situation of individuals. It applies equally to women and men, to young and older workers, to nationals and to migrants. Decent work explicitly includes all working people and is not limited to employees who receive wages or salaries. It is an aspiration that is equally valid, though often harder to realize, for the self-employed, for farmers, for home-workers and entrepreneurs. By the same token, it applies to rural and urban workers, to farms as well as workshops, factories, offices and shops. Over the last few years, the concept and the indicators have been used to assess the situation of workers as individuals, of the workforce of enterprises and economic sectors, in local communities, for entire countries and to shed light on international phenomena like globalization. While decent work is a new term, its content is rooted in international law and agreements. Relevant international legal instruments include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948; in particular articles 22, 23 and 25), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1996), the Declaration and Commitments adopted at the World Social Summit in 1995, the ILO Constitution, the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (1998) and the body of International Labour Standards (ILO, 2001). This rights perspective helps to understand that decent work is a universal aspiration and goal whose precise definition will vary from country to country. It contains both absolute values, thresholds, which are non-negotiable minimum standards for decent work, and more ambitious objectives in keeping with the historical, economic and cultural context of a country. The minimum standards include in particular those enshrined in the ILO Declaration. These include the freedom from forced labour and from child labour, the realization of equality of opportunity and treatment at work, and the right to organize and to bargain collectively over working conditions. Over and above this threshold, decent work can be seen as a relative, evolving goal. Like the goal of sustainable development, the notion of decent work is progressive and changes over time. As a national goal, decent work can be defined in the light of national priorities and circumstances and can be reached through different routes. However defined, the goal of decent work is complex. Its four components of rights, employment, social security and social dialogue are inter-related. As a social goal, decent work both contributes to achieving other economic and social development objectives and depends on them. This implies that decent work needs to be integrated into the overall national development goals and policy agendas.
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Policies pursuing a set of national development goals can be mutually supportive or at cross-purposes. This applies, for example, to economic policies, which condition the creation of employment opportunities. It is also relevant for national human resource policies, which link health, basic education and employable skills to an economic development strategy or to enterprise investments in skills to improve competitiveness. The discussion of decent work and enterprise competitiveness in Box 1 illustrates the point.
Box 1. Decent work, skills development and enterprise competitiveness The continuous upgrading of technology, lower trade barriers, more integrated markets and the growing importance of information and knowledge systems have all led to a greater demand for skilled workers and renewed emphasis on the skills and competence of the workforce. The motivation, skills and organization of labour represent essential elements in competitive strategies of enterprises. Wide recognition has been given to the training and upgrading of workers’ skills to manage complex production or service systems, often based on advanced computer and information technology, but it cannot work as a stand-alone measure. Enterprises will only invest in training if they can be reasonably sure to retain the trainees. Workforce rotation and the drain of skilled workers are determined by job satisfaction, which includes objective factors, like wage levels and benefits, but also subjective elements, like the fairness of treatment. Training is only one dimension of enterprise competitiveness and is itself dependent on an environment in which workers are motivated and enabled to learn, innovate, and apply new technology at the workplace. This, in turn, is a function of work organization, worker participation and working conditions. Whether or not an enterprise will reap the benefits of skill development will also depend on its organizational and managerial capacity to link technology and skills to achieve the product quality, price competitiveness and to market them successfully. For a recent discussion of the role of human resources development for sustainable enterprises see ILO (2006). Countries face similar challenges with respect to skills development in tune with their comparative advantages, industrial development strategies and the risk of brain drain through migration. Source: Adapted from Egger & Sengenberger, 2001.
Policy coherence is therefore critically important for the realization of decent work for all. This applies to different levels of policy-making. Increasingly, decisions that directly affect work places are made rather far away from their location. If it is to make headway, the goal of decent work needs to be incorporated into development priorities and pursued by coherent policies at international, national and local level.
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4 International Initiatives to Promote Decent Work for All Globalization is not a new phenomenon, but has clearly accelerated over the last two decades, increasing the role of supra-national institutions in shaping economic and social development. Relevant institutions include the international financial institutions, inter-governmental policy organizations, such as the World Trade Organization, trans-national enterprises and investors, as well as civil society organizations. The ILO has responded to the growing importance of the international level with a number of initiatives.
4.1 The World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization In order to stimulate constructive dialogue and overcome the impasse in the debate about globalization, the ILO Director-General established an independent World Commission in 2002, jointly chaired by the Presidents of Finland, Ms Tarja Harlonen, and of Tanzania, Mr Benjamin Mkapa. The commission’s twenty-six members were broadly representative of the diverse and contending actors in the debate, including a Nobel laureate in economics, politicians, parliamentarians, social and economic experts and representatives of business and multinational corporations, organized labour, academia and civil society. In spite of its diverse composition, the commission arrived at a consensus. Its report (World Commission, 2004) acknowledges that globalization has immense potential, but also observes that ‘there are deep-seated and persistent imbalances in the current workings of the global economy, which are ethically unacceptable and politically unsustainable. [. . .] Seen through the eyes of the vast majority of men and women, globalization has not met their simple and legitimate aspirations for decent jobs and a better future for their children’. The commission took the view that the benefits of globalization can be extended to more people and better shared between and within countries, with many more voices having an influence on its course. It advocates ‘a process of globalization with a strong social dimension based on universal values and respect for human rights and individual dignity; one that is fair, inclusive, democratically governed and provides opportunities and tangible benefits for all countries and people’. The commission emphasizes that ‘people are most directly affected by globalization through their work and employment. For the gains from globalization to be widely shared, countries, enterprises and people have to be able to convert global opportunities into jobs and incomes’. Decent work for all is thus a pivotal objective for a fair globalization. In its recommendations, the commission called for a ‘focus on people’, including respect for their rights, cultural identity and autonomy; decent work; and the empowerment of the local communities they live in. It stressed the role of institutions, including the State, productive and equitable markets, fair rules and accountability to people of the public and private actors with power to influence the outcomes of globalization.
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4.2 Skills for a Fair Globalization The commission made an effort to do justice to this vast and complex subject and rejected the suggestion that there are simple solutions. Education and training are discussed as part of a complex problem calling for an integrated solution (see paras. 269-277, as well as 482-487 of World Commission, 2004).The commission identifies education as one of the key elements to enable and empower people: People can only contribute and benefit from globalization if they are in adequate health and endowed with knowledge, skills and values and with the capabilities and rights needed to pursue their basic livelihoods. They need employment and incomes and a healthy environment. These are the essential conditions, which empower them to lead a self-determined decent life and to participate fully as citizens in their local, national and global communities.
Education and skills are therefore at the centre of a fair and inclusive globalization and broad access to opportunities is vital. The commission notes that all countries that have benefited from globalization have invested significantly in their education and training systems. It suggests that education policies may have a stronger effect to offset the negative impacts of globalization than labour-market policies. It advocates a plurality of investments and incentives for training and the development of national qualification schemes. In order to reduce the need for expensive infrastructure in tertiary education and in vocational training, the commission recommends the extension of distance learning in developing countries with support from the North. One of the commission’s findings was that one reason why social goals, such as employment, fail to be given priority at the global level is that international organizations with different mandates do not work sufficiently together. In order to overcome this problem, the commission recommended ‘policy coherence initiatives’ by the relevant organizations.
5 The Policy Coherence Initiative on Growth, Investment and Employment This initiative is the first to follow up on the recommendation. It brings together the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the ILO, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN/DESA), the World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Representatives of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and of employers’ organizations also participated. The goal of generating more decent jobs in the global economy is largely overlooked in international policies. While there is general acknowledgement of the importance of the issue in the mandates of international organizations, there has been no concerted effort to address it. The Policy Coherence Initiative is an attempt to improve upon the status quo by forging a consensus among relevant international
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organizations about integrated policy packages for specific problems that would balance economic, social and environmental concerns. The ‘benign neglect’ towards the employment objective has not been working (ILO, 2004). Economic growth does not automatically translate into enough decent jobs. High unemployment and under-employment remain serious problems in many parts of the world. Rather than leading to discernible improvements in the global employment situation, the last two decades of globalization have given rise to new stresses in labour markets. Compared to the 1950s and 1960s, open unemployment in the industrialized countries is significantly higher. Data for developing countries are patchy and less reliable but, taken as a whole, they do provide grounds for serious concern. Open unemployment rates are surprisingly high in a number of these countries, contradicting the conventional wisdom that unemployment is not an option in developing countries without systems of unemployment insurance. At the same time, there is evidence that precarious and low-productivity employment in the informal sector has expanded as a share of total employment. This reflects the slow growth of employment in the modern sector. As a result, a high proportion of those who have jobs are working poor, i.e. their income is insufficient to buy the basket of essential goods and services that defines the poverty line. This poses a serious threat to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, but more importantly to social peace, stability and democracy. In the industrialized countries the link between employment and globalization has mostly received attention because of anxieties over the transfer of jobs to the developing world and the potential ‘race to the bottom’ in employment conditions and labour standards in global production systems. While these issues have to be dealt with in order to maintain support for globalization, they should not deflect attention from the more important positive agenda of what can be done to enhance the overall employment impact of globalization. Constructive alternatives to a reversal of the process of globalization lie in finding means to achieve a higher overall rate of employment creation, strengthening the adjustment mechanisms for workers affected by dislocation, and adapting to the new competitive pressures from developing countries. More generally, it is also in the interest of the industrialized countries to support policies that contribute to higher and more stable rates of growth in the global economy. This is likely to boost growth and domestic employment creation in developing countries and hence attenuate some of the pressures of a global competition for jobs. Similarly, on the issue of the quality of jobs in global production systems, the solution does not lie in impeding the growth of these systems, but in strengthening the array of initiatives that are on the policy agenda for eliminating abuse and ensuring steady improvements in productivity and the quality of jobs. This requires action on several fronts. If the root problem is excessive market power enjoyed by transnational corporations and major buyers in these global production systems, then issues of anti-competitive behaviour will have to be dealt with. At the same time, cooperative solutions need to be found to mitigate any ‘race-to-the-bottom’ pressures arising from the competition for foreign investment and jobs among developing
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countries. This needs also to be supplemented by action to strengthen compliance with core labour standards and to promote collective bargaining within global production systems.
6 Global Policy Challenges in Skills Development Poverty reduction, a successful integration into global production systems or adaptation to changing global markets cannot be achieved by a single policy measure. They require coherent sets of policies to maintain effective demand, to stimulate investment, to improve productivity and to distribute the benefits widely. These policies include well-aligned exchange rates, safeguards against large and sudden international capital flows and measures to smoothen the economic cycle. Policies also need to include measures to overcome barriers for those working in the informal economy and for those affected by structural changes. In both situations, skills development is a vital element of a broader package of measures to facilitate access to the formal economy, to adopt new technology and become more productive or to reintegrate into expanding sectors of the economy. Box 2 sums up the policy challenges for skills development in that context. More specific examples of sets of measures, including appropriate technical and vocational education and training, are discussed in the country case studies below.
Box 2. Decent work for all: global policy challenges in skills development
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Investment in education and training. There is a critical need for a greater overall investment in education and training, particularly in developing countries, for all people (including women and groups with special needs, such as people with disabilities). Education and training investments should be closely linked to economic and employment growth strategies and programmes. Responsibility should be shared between the government (primary responsibility), enterprises, the social partners and the individual. Basic education, literacy and core skills. Literacy and basic education cannot be leapfrogged. Urgent reforms are needed to improve basic education and the literacy of people in the poorest countries. The development of ‘core work skills’ (such as communication, problem-solving, etc.) is an important part of the reform to prepare individuals for the knowledge and skills-based society. Reforming vocational education and training systems. To make lifelong learning for all a reality, countries will need to make major reforms of their vocational and education and training systems. School-to-work schemes for young people should integrate education with workplace
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learning. Training systems need to become more flexible and responsive to rapidly changing skill requirements. Reforms should also focus on how learning can be facilitated, not just on training for specific occupational categories. Recognizing an individual’s skills. Many people have acquired skills from a wide range of non-traditional sources, but these go largely unrecognized. It is critical that people should be able to have their skills recognized as part of a national qualifications framework, irrespective of where the skills were obtained. Promoting social dialogue on training. There is an urgent need to involve the social partners more closely in discussions on training policy and skills development, if the desired reforms and increased investment are to become a reality. It is clear that governments can no longer be the sole voices on education and training. The more successful training systems are underpinned by a strong social dialogue process. Advocating labour market programmes for disadvantaged people. Promote active labour-market programmes, including effective approaches to skills acquisition and development, in formal and non-formal settings, for people who are disadvantaged in the labour market—including people with disabilities. Reforming employment services and promoting co-operative efforts between public and private employment agencies. Public employment services are usually the dominant government institution responsible for providing a variety of active labour-market programmes, but their capacity often needs strengthening. In addition, recent international trends in the growth of private employment agencies and the outsourcing of public services provide new ways for public and private agencies to work together.
Source: ILO Global Employment Agenda, <www.ilo.org/public/english/ employment/skills/policy.htm> The international forces of globalization notwithstanding, the national level remains arguably the most important for shaping a response to the challenges and opportunities of globalization and for realizing development goals, including that of decent work for all.
7 National Initiatives to Promote Decent Work for All As the World Commission pointed out: fair globalization starts at home. People continue to live locally, within nation-States. While the forces of globalization are the same everywhere, their impact is very situation-specific. Most of the decisions that shape people’s work and life situations are still taken within countries.
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Strategies for national economic and social development therefore ought to differ from one country to another. Stereotypical national responses to globalization are not only less effective, but can have disastrous consequences. Witness the application of the structural adjustment programmes and of uniform recipes for economic growth in the 1990s (see, e.g. Stiglitz, 2002; Zagha, 2005). The ILO has therefore worked with its member countries to put the concept of decent work into practice at the national level. One of these initiatives will be discussed here: the Decent Work Pilot Programme.
7.1 The Decent Work Pilot Programme The task of developing practical methods for promoting integrated approaches to decent work policies at the national level was entrusted to a Decent Work Pilot Programme (DWPP). The objective of DWPP was to test the relevance of an integrated approach to meet national development goals and priorities, built around all four components of the decent work agenda: rights, employment, social security and social dialogue. For a general discussion of the Programme see ILO (2006) and Berar-Awad (2005); for more information please consult: <mirror/public/english/bureau/dwpp/> The DWPP operated from 2002 to 2005 and included eight countries: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Denmark, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Panama and the Philippines. These countries deliberately represented different regions, cultures and levels of economic and social development The programme was guided by a number of principles derived from the above discussion of the concept of decent work: (a) the entry points of the programme had to be defined at the country level in consultation with the national partners and in line with the overall national policy priorities in each country; (b) the complexity of the world of work in the context of globalization required multidisciplinary and integrated analysis and policy responses cutting across all four strategic dimensions of decent work; (c) actions to promote the four strategic objectives of decent work—i.e. rights at work, employment, social protection and social dialogue—were more effective and mutually reinforcing when cast into a single, coherent approach; (d) practical solutions required integrated ILO support at the country level, mobilizing resources and expertise, but also partnerships with other stakeholders. The major thrust was therefore to define the specific decent work platform within the framework of policy and reform agendas that were of prime concern to the country. The decent work agenda proved to be a comprehensive and flexible policy platform that can be defined nationally and can be applied in very different
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socio-economic and political contexts. The focus and entry points of the programme in each country are different and specific. Each represents a unique combination of policy issues. Each programme also shows the value of a policy agenda that can relate decent work to the national economic and social priorities at hand and engage a broad range of stakeholders and build partnerships. Looking across countries and the wide range of entry points that were retained, three overarching themes emerge as the main policy preoccupations at the country level. These are: (a) poverty reduction; (b) facing up to global competition; and (c) democratization and realization of fundamental rights. While these are not mutually exclusive goals, the hierarchy in priorities and focus varies from one country to another, whether the overarching priority is a national poverty reduction strategy, trade and financial liberalization policies, economic restructuring or the realization of human rights. The outcomes achieved through this pilot effort have been very encouraging. In all pilot countries, decent work has been adopted and used as the analytical and operational framework by national partners. It has enabled partners and policy makers to appreciate the central role of decent work for realizing national development priorities and for understanding the dynamic inter-linkages between economic and social goals. In all countries, integrated policies, action plans and strategies have been formulated, adopted and/or implemented that link the four elements of decent work and embed them in national policy frameworks. Kazakhstan, Morocco and Panama have allocated substantial resources and are implementing policies and programmes adopted with the help of the DWPP. Bahrain is implementing an integrated set of labour-market reforms and the Philippines are field-testing an integrated approach to local economic development. Bangladesh and Ghana have adopted policies and integrated them into the poverty reduction strategies, the blue-prints for national development in those countries.
8 National Decent Work Programmes Skills development, technical and vocational education and training have been an important element in a number of national programmes. The nature of the problem and the context in which a solution had to be found varied significantly from one case to the next, underlining the need for country-specific and integrated policy responses. In countries like Denmark, skills development is an integral part of an institutionalized and well-resourced mechanism to keep a small and very open economy competitive and to allow enterprises and the workforce to adjust to structural and technological change. The close integration of social and economic policies has been very successful, as documented by Egger and Sengenberger (2003) and summarized in Box 3.
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Box 3. Decent work in Denmark: employment, social efficiency and economic security The Danish experience demonstrates how policies can achieve both economic and social efficiency. The country is among the leaders in international rankings for economic performance and competitiveness, but also for human development, job quality and subjective job satisfaction. Flexibility, equality, social security and broad social participation were explicit policy goals. The combination of goals and policies allowed the national economy to remain open to world markets by strengthening the capacity to adjust rapidly to the changing global situation and cushioning the negative effects of external economic shocks. Well-timed macro-economic policy and active labour-market policies have been mutually supportive. Access to low-cost social services enables both men and women to take up employment. A policy of wage restraint based on the co-ordination of a decentralized wage bargaining system supplements the gains in enterprise competitiveness from rising productivity. Strong employers’ and workers’ organizations and continuous dialogue with the government at both national and local levels sustain this policy mix. The Denmark study shows that objectives, which are often regarded as incompatible and subject to trade-offs, can be managed through an appropriate policy mix. While there is little legal protection against dismissal and enterprises are rather free to adjust their workforce, there is a high level of income security and an effective mechanism for reintegration into work. Training plays a key role in this managed labour market mobility. Almost one-fifth of the total workforce participates in a labour market training scheme in any given year. The large income transfers and, in particular, the high level of unemployment benefits do not act as a disincentive to gainful employment, when combined with an extensive labour market policy that promotes obligations as well as rights. Unemployment spells in Denmark are among the shortest in Europe. Labour market flexibility need not be at the expense of social security; rather the two can go hand in hand. Source: Egger & Sengenberger, 2003.
The emphasis in Panama has been on matching skills development with demand and labour-market opportunities in a country that suffers from falling competitiveness and labour productivity, as well as from uneven access to education and training (Br´u & Del Cid, 2002; Egger, 2002). The programme in Morocco was faced with a more specific challenge: restructuring the textile and garment industry in the face of the expiry of the quota system under international trade agreements. The sector is considered vital for the country’s development. A major export earner and highly labour intensive, the sector represented 42% of total industrial employment in 2000 and 71% of the workers
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were women. Entering the high end of the market with better quality, just-in-time delivery and the social image of producers as a sales argument was seen as the most promising strategy. The action plan adopted and implemented by the social partners in the sector and the government includes an investment in skills development. The effectiveness of that measure does, however, depend critically on the ability to improve work organization, working conditions, the resolution of conflicts in enterprises and on extending improvements to the supply chain where conditions are often precarious. A custom-made training programme was designed and widely applied in garment enterprises to bring about the required changes in practices. At the national level, the programme was instrumental in aligning the needs and responses of the sector with those of the government’s industrial and human resources policies as well as linking up with a large foreign aid project for vocational training. For more information see: <mirror/public/english/bureau/dwpp/countries/morocco/index.htm> The context for skills development in the Ghana Pilot Programme was totally different from the above. The focus of the programme has been on poverty reduction, particularly in the micro- and small enterprises that make up the informal economy. These enterprises are the bulk of all enterprises in Ghana and the single most important source of income for households. Many of those working in the informal economy are poor. They face numerous problems to survive, yield a decent income and grow. Shortages of vocational as well as entrepreneurial skills are among the problems commonly encountered, but policy interventions have to address all binding constraints to bring about improvements. A single-minded focus on training would not be effective. The programme has successfully tested a model of change based on local economic development, which included various training components as detailed in Box 4.
Box 4. Ghana: skills in the informal economy Four out of ten Ghanaians are classified as poor according to the 1998/99 Ghana Living Standards Survey. That would be 8 of the 20 million people in Ghana today. Poverty reduction has thus been declared the top national development priority. Between 25 to 30 per cent of the people who depend on the informal economy for their livelihood are poor, making them the second largest group of poor after subsistence farmers. In addition to providing often very low and unstable incomes, decent work deficits abound in the casual works and micro- and small enterprises that make up the informal economy in Ghana. The Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) is the national framework for policies, resource allocations and interventions to combat poverty. To contribute to this process, the Decent Work Pilot Programme used a two-pronged strategy: first, it enhanced the capacity of social partners to participate meaningfully in the GPRS process and to place decent work on the policy agenda; and, second, it has developed and tested an integrated approach to improving
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productivity, conditions and incomes in the informal economy at the local level. This approach is to be incorporated into national policies to decentralize initiatives for poverty reduction. The revised GPRS II, renamed Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy, was adopted by the government in September 2005 and endorsed by donors. It identifies employment as a central objective and means of poverty reduction. Priority sectors for investment and development have explicitly been selected on the basis of their employment potential. Specific programmes concerning the informal sector, local development, productivity and wages, as well as skills development, in particular the Skills Training and Employment Placement (STEP) programme of the government, are included in the text and the policy matrix. The local economic approach has proved to be a viable strategy for decentralized, pro-poor growth, which is led by small enterprises assisted by national and local government in a private/public partnership. It has led to improved governance, improved efficiency of government spending, better revenue collection, and small enterprise development benefiting poor groups, including a large proportion of women. It has also helped to identify ways skills development can be better targeted and integrated. Orienting skills development to meet real needs and opportunities has been one of the main challenges. In the districts, training was provided as part of a package supported by local and national government to upgrade sectors with economic potential. It included both vocational skills linked to quality requirements and improved technology and critical entrepreneurial skills for the operators of small businesses. The training was made a precondition for access to loans with which to finance the investments in improved businesses. The local economic development scheme is informing the government’s strategy for the informal economy, which is currently being formulated by an inter-ministerial group. It is to be replicated in other regions of the country as part of a major youth employment programme and of the new employment policy to be implemented as of 2006. Source: Government of Ghana, 2005.
9 Conclusions and Outlook As the preceding discussion has shown, decent work has proved to be a useful concept for analysis and for policy formulation. Much of its strength resides in its ability to reflect complex realities and to integrate relevant dimensions. There has been growing momentum since its adoption in 1999 in many quarters and parts of the world. A summit of African heads of State in Ouagadougou in 2004 embraced decent work as the best route out of poverty. The Summit of the
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Americas in Mar del Plata in November 2005 adopted a detailed agenda to promote decent work on the Latin American continent. The European Commission has issued a directive ‘Promoting decent work for all’ (Commission of the European Communities, 2006). A crucial step towards making decent work a global goal has been a Ministerial Declaration at the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in 2006 expressing ‘the urgent need to create an environment at the national and international levels that is conducive to the attainment of full and productive employment and of decent work for all as a foundation for sustainable development’ (United Nations, 2006) Meanwhile, the ILO has been building on the experience of the Pilot Programme and adopted Decent Work Country Programmes as its mode of co-operation with individual member countries. Integration and policy coherence continue to be hallmarks of these initiatives. They are particularly relevant for the effective use of supply factors, like technical and vocational education and training. Over a relatively short period of time, decent work has evolved from an ILO internal concept and initiative to a recognized key contribution to sustainable development adopted and pursued by numerous institutions—nationally and internationally. Vocational educational and training will be an essential input for realizing the goal of decent work for all.
References Berar-Awad, A. 2005. Decent work as a national goal: the experience of the Decent Work Pilot Programme and other related initiatives. (Paper presented to the second South-East Asia and the Pacific Sub-regional Tripartite Forum on Decent Work, Melbourne, Australia, 5-8 April 2005.) Br´u, E.; Del Cid, M., eds. 2002. Panam´a: pol´ıticas de empleo y trabajo decente para la d´ecada del 2000. San Jos´e, Costa Rica: ILO. Commission of the European Communities. 2006. Promoting decent work for all. Brussels: European Union. (COM (2006) 249.) Egger, P. 2002. Globalization and decent work: options for Panama. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO, Policy Integration Department. (Working paper, no. 3.) Egger, P.; Sengenberger, W. 2001. Decent work issues and policies. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. [Mimeo.] Egger, P.; Sengenberger, W., eds. 2003. Decent work in Denmark: employment, social efficiency and economic security. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Ghai, D. 2003. Decent work: concepts and indicators. International labour review, vol. 142, no. 2, pp. 113-145. Government of Ghana. 2005. Growth and poverty reduction strategy II (2006-2009). Accra: National Development Planning Commission. International Labour Organization. 1999. Decent work. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. (Report of the Director-General, International Labour Conference, 87th session.) International Labour Organization. 2001. Reducing the decent work deficit: a global challenge. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. (Report of the Director-General, International Labour Conference, 89th Session.) International Labour Organization. 2004. Enhancing the employment impact of globalization. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. (Background paper for the second Technical Meeting on Policy Coherence, 2-3 November 2004.) [Mimeo.]
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International Labour Organization. 2006. From pilot to decent work country programme: lessons from the Decent Work Pilot Programme. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO, National Policy Group, Policy Integration Department. Mehran, F., et al. 2002. Measuring decent work with statistical indicators. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO, Policy Integration Department. (Working paper, no. 2.) Sennet, R. 1998. The corrosion of character: the personal consequences of work in the new capitalism. New York, NY/London: Norton. Stiglitz, J. 2002. Globalization and its discontents. London/New York, NY: Penguin Books. United Nations. 2006. Draft Ministerial Declaration of the High-Level Segment. Geneva, Switzerland: UN Economic and Social Council. (E/2006/L.8.) World Commission. 2004. A fair globalization: creating opportunities for all. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. (Report of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization.) Zagha, R., ed. 2005. Economic growth in the 1990s: learning from a decade of reform. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Chapter I.4
Redefining Gender Roles in the Workforce Karen F. Zuga
1 Introduction Watching television coverage of world events, we have become accustomed to images of women as police, in the military and on rescue teams. Women in nontraditional roles have been slowly creeping into our subconscious. We are also seeing more women in our communities working in professions that were dominated by men. Gender roles are being redefined and this modifies our ideas of women’s work. Public relations images of ‘Rosie the Riveter’, used during the Second World War in the United States, purposefully recruited women into essential war-time production jobs and just as quickly reconverted to images of domestic women when the need had passed (Honey, 1985). But women did stay in manufacturing jobs. Many females continued to work in industry. Today, everyone is getting the message that work roles are changing. What are society and those of us who are technical and vocational educators doing to facilitate this change? In this chapter I am going to discuss questions regarding redefining gender roles in the workforce. These questions will include: What are women’s roles today? Have women’s roles changed over time? What kinds of issues and concerns face educators, trainers and society because of change or lack of change? How does policy influence change? and What should vocational and technical educators be planning and doing as a result of the changing roles of women in the workforce?
2 What are Women’s Roles in the Workforce? Today, as in the past, women are still concentrated in service professions such as teaching, health care and government service. In most countries, they do not stay in school as long as men, suffer from occupational segregation, are more often found in part-time jobs, have not achieved earning parity with men and hit a ‘glass ceiling’ (Blau, Ferber & Winkler, 2002). There is some change, however. An overview of the condition of women and work reported by the United Nations concludes: R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 I.4, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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Women now comprise an increasing share of the world’s labour force—at least one-third in all regions, except northern Africa and western Asia. Self-employment, part-time and home-based work have expanded opportunities for women’s participation in the labour force, but are characterized by lack of security, lack of benefits and low income. The informal sector is a larger source of employment for women than for men. More women than before are in the labour force throughout their reproductive years, though obstacles to combining family responsibilities with employment persist. Women, especially younger women, experience more unemployment than men and for a longer period of time than men. Women remain at the lower end of a segregated labour market and continue to be concentrated in a few occupations, to hold positions of little or no authority and to receive less pay than men. Available statistics are still far from providing a strong basis for assessing both quantitative and qualitative changes in women’s employment (United Nations, 2005d).
3 What Evidence of Change is Apparent? Using data that was taken in 1970 and 1998, Blau et al. (2002) illustrate that, although there is much variability from country to country, there has been an increase in women’s participation in the workforce. Some of the variability is due to the economic circumstances in each country at the time of data collection. For example, there is a difference between developing and developed countries. In some countries, there may have been significant growth in the participation of women, but the starting point was so low that these rates still remain some of the lowest in the world (World Bank, 2004). In other countries, such as Russia, the change in government and economic problems resulted in a decrease of women in the work force (Blau et al., 2002). Regional differences also cause cultural differences and attitudes with regard to women’s roles in society (World Bank, 2004). However, the undeniable trend is that more women are working than at any other time in history, and they are also entering non-traditional jobs (Shackleton, 1995; Crompton, Gallie & Purcell, 1996; Blau et al., 2002). However, the change is slow and women still have a lower economic status than men (Shackleton, 1995). Data regarding the education of women show an increase in women completing higher levels of education (Shackleton, 1995; United Nations, 2005c). The illiteracy gap between men and women, even though acute in south central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and North Africa, is closing. Comparing data from 1960 to 2000, the more recent numbers reveal that in economically advanced countries and those of the former Soviet bloc, educational attainment figures are close to parity, while in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, women
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receive only 60 to 76 per cent as much schooling as men. However, these figures do represent an improvement from 1960 (Blau et al., 2002; United Nations, 2005c). Women benefit from education that goes beyond high school and involves college and vocational and technical education. They have higher levels of employment and higher wages as a result of increased levels of education. The growth in literacy rates among women and the increasing investment in their education in many parts of the world are encouraging for the future of women in the work force (Shackleton, 1995; Blau et al., 2002). However, the cost of educating women often prohibits their access to education when men are perceived to be the main wage earners in the culture (Elder & Johnson, 2001). Over the past twenty years there has been an increase in part-time work (Gallie, 1996; Rubery, 1996; Boll´e, 2001). The disturbing data regarding the increase of part-time work for both men and women and the growth of women in part-time employment is a change that echoes the late twentieth century concern about the deskilling of work. It signals a change in the way business is conducted and it could have far-reaching ramifications for all workers and their job security. In all countries far more women are part-time workers than men. Whether or not part-time employment is a benefit or a penalty has not yet been determined, although part-time employment is on the rise. One outcome of this rise could be an increase in the demand for vocational education and training as a more insecure work force encounters a need for additional education. Even though women have lower educational attainment, earn less, are in different occupations and hold fewer senior governmental positions than men, their attainment and participation rates on all of these criteria have improved over the past thirty years (Blau et al., 2002) as many countries focus policy on providing educational opportunities and integrating women into the workforce.
4 What Education and Training Concerns are Relevant to Women’s Roles? Several problems identified above deserve further discussion as they relate more closely to vocational education and training. The differentiated and lower levels of education that women experience in some countries, the segregation of work that occurs and the larger numbers of women in part-time jobs are all problems that are related to vocational education and training.
4.1 Education United Nations data provide the following conclusions regarding women and education:
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The gender gap in primary and secondary schooling is closing, but women still lag behind men in some African and Southern Asian countries.
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Two-thirds of the world’s 876 million illiterates are women, and the number of illiterates is not expected to decrease significantly in the next twenty years. Women have made significant gains in higher education enrolment in most regions of the world; in some regions, women’s enrolment now equals or surpasses that of men. More women than men lack the basic literacy and computer skills needed to enter ‘new media’ professions. In many countries, women represent a rapidly increasing share of Internet users (United Nations, 2005c)
Developed nations have the greatest parity in educational attainment for women and men. For example, United States’ data from 1999 show that at all levels of completion, from less than four years of high school to four or more years of college, completion rates of men and women are within 2.5 percentage points (Blau et al., 2002). Basic education and the resulting literacy form a foundation for vocational and technical education and training. Education and training help to open doors to women in the work force, first, to work and, second, to work in non-traditional jobs. The very first problem encountered with regard to the redefinition of gender roles in the work force is a basic education or lack thereof. However, it is access to higher education that helps women to advance beyond non-skilled work. A problem with higher education for women is that it may be differentiated from higher education for men (Shackleton, 1995), and if it takes the form of on-the-job training, women are less likely to receive it (Shackleton, 1995; Gallie, 1996). Lack of training is one contributing factor to the limited number of jobs available to women.
4.2 Occupational Segregation Occupational segregation is consistent throughout the world; it exists everywhere (OECD, 1998; Anker, 2001; Barbezat, 2003; Blau et al., 2002; Estlund, 2003; United Nations, 2005b, 2005d). Essentially, women are segregated into jobs related to health care (such as nursing), clerical work and social services (such as education). Blau et al. state that: women are more likely than men to be concentrated in clerical and service jobs, whereas men are more likely than women to work in higher-paying jobs, such as skilled craft occupations. Similarly, although the representation of women in the professional category actually exceeds men’s, men are more likely to work in lucrative professions such as law, medicine and engineering, whereas women are more often employed in lower-paying ones, such as elementary and secondary school teaching and nursing (p. 211).
Explanations of why occupational segregation persists are many and are often related to economic theories. Human capital theories relate occupational segregation to choice and the labour market segmentation view relates it to institutionalized discrimination (Shackleton, 1995). No matter what theory is used to explain the phenomenon, what is important is the effect that occupational segregation has on
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the economy, society and training. Anker (2001) states that occupational segregation ‘is wasteful of human resources, increases market inflexibility, and reduces an economy’s ability to adjust to change’ (p. 129). Furthermore, he states that gender stereotypes have negative effects on education and training and that this perpetuates inequality. With regard to education, women do not receive the opportunities that men do for training, especially when it is company sponsored (Leach, 2000; Gallie, 1996), but also when it is part of public vocational and technical education (National Women’s Law Center, 2002; National Centre for Vocational Education Research, 2001; Phan, 2001). Regarding the similarities and differences between men and women with regard to skill, Gallie (1996) states that job qualifications and experience levels were similar, but that: ‘The exception was training; men were more likely to receive training’ (p. 155). Moreover, the National Women’s Law Center has issued a report (2002) requesting the appropriate federal offices to investigate sex segregation in vocational and technical education. As a result of their study, they found that: Thirty years after enactment of Title IX, the patterns of enrollment in vocational and technical programs look shockingly similar to the patterns that existed prior to passage of the law. Biased counseling, the provision of incomplete information to students on the consequences of their career training choices, sexual harassment of girls who enroll in non-traditional classes and other forms of discrimination conspire today to create a vocational system characterized by pervasive sex segregation. Young women remain clustered in ‘traditionally female’ programs that prepare them for low-wage careers and do not provide them with the training or technical skills necessary to enter high-wage jobs. Young men, on the other hand, fill a vast majority of slots in programs leading to higher-wage careers that can provide true economic self-sufficiency (p. 3).
Associated with the occupational segregation of women is the lower income that is endemic in jobs and professions dominated by women. In fact, the infusion of women in fields such as public relations has had the effect of lowering the income of the members of that profession! One way of dealing with the income disparity is to try to improve the status, hence the wages, of traditional women’s work (OECD, 1998).
4.3 Part-Time Work In most countries, women take up a larger share of the part-time labour market than men (Elder & Johnson, 2001; United Nations, 2005a). In many cases, part-time work has been encouraged by governments (Boll´e, 2001). Part-time work can be a benefit, but it can also be a trap when people are forced into it against their wishes. While seen as a way to help young people enter the work force and allowing those with families to work, the very groups that part-time work is intended to help—the young and women—are over-represented in the part-time work force (Boll´e, 2001; Wajcman, 1996). Part-time work can have a negative effect on job advancement and opportunities for job training, and can be viewed as under-employment. If the choice is between no employment and part-time employment, then, it is a benefit.
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However, if the choice is between unemployment or under-employment, there is no benefit. Part-time work also contributes to disparities in income and benefits, further widening the gap between the economic status of women and men. An Australian study of vocational and technical education graduates found that women were more likely than men to accept part-time work. Although women participate in VET on an equitable basis with men, they still have not achieved fully equitable employment outcomes on completion of their vocational training. According to the 2000 students outcomes survey [. . .] After completing their vocational training, women were much more likely than men to have part-time work (32.1% compared to 13.3%) (National Centre for Vocational Education Research, 2001, p. 10).
There has been a growth in part-time workers in general and that growth can have consequences for education and training. Again, this is a double-edged sword. On one side, employers may not be willing to support training for part-time workers. Part-time workers often lack security, job benefits and basic worker’s rights (Elder & Johnson, 2001) which can block the opportunity to train. On the other side, part-time workers may need to re-train more often. However, their training is more likely to be at their own expense.
5 How are These Concerns being Addressed by Policy? Policies are the result of economic and cultural constraints and they guide the workforce and the path to the workforce—education. In many countries, religion plays a major role in cultural constraints by forming the basis of a nation’s legal system and creating defined roles for women. Education, in turn, carries out cultural mandates and government policies by controlling workers’ destinies via educational opportunity and reproducing cultural norms and values (Carter, 2004). Policy regarding vocational education and training, from culture as a result of values and norms, government as a result of legislation, precedent as a result of legal action, business as a result of need, and education as a result of planning, all feed into how we can address the changing role of women in vocational and technical education. Not all policies work as expected and some agencies are more influential than others. However, policy is seen as the main means for achieving a ‘convergence between men and women’s human capital’ (Shackleton, 1995, p. 229).
5.1 Cultural Values and Norms Culture plays the largest role in keeping women in their place. Cultural norms create roles for women in society and they vary from region to region. They can be liberating or inhibiting with regard to women. What is fascinating, though, is that throughout history, even though cultural norms have limited the roles that women could take on, women have challenged the limits to those cultural norms by going
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to school and entering non-traditional jobs. As active members of society, they have brought about change in cultural values. When women push for change, there is often resistance. Frequently, women are controlled through a culture of violence, making women dependent upon a male protector and restricting their behaviour and access to all of the options provided to men (Miller, 2001; Akhaluola, 1999). If women believe that they will be abused by men when venturing into non-traditional places and activities, then they will stay away from them. The underlying idea of a dominant male plays out in occupational segregation in the workplace (Miller, 2001) and in vocational education and technical training (Lakes, 2004). Lakes offers us a view of how young males in traditional vocational and technical education, threatened in the global economy by the lack of work like their fathers had, engage in an array of exaggerated masculine behaviour. As young white men become more threatened by their inability to obtain good pay, they become more committed to the ideal of a traditional job, wife and family, blaming minorities and women for their inability to achieve their expectations. When they act upon their beliefs in classrooms and in the workforce, women and minorities often suffer in these ‘hostile’ climates (Miller, 2001).
5.2 Government Policies and Legal Action Government policies and educational opportunities have not always been effective in countering occupational segregation. Estlund (2003), while discussing the role of law and women’s roles in the workforce, makes a case for the ameliorating effect of working together, daily, on the job by citing several studies and anecdotes of ‘co-operative interdependence’ (p. 90). A major part of her thesis is that: The law has a well-established role in securing equal opportunity in the workplace [. . .] Antidiscrimination law should be interpreted, applied, and if necessary reformed so as to affirmatively promote workplace integration. [. . .] Workplace integration advances the compelling societal goals of mending and narrowing social (and especially racial) divisions and of promoting genuine equality on the basis of race, ethnicity, and gender (p. 145).
This is a critical point with regard to women transforming the workplace and vocational and technical education. Women need to be in the workplace and in educational programmes in order to fuel the process of change. It is their presence that encourages men to respect their abilities and contributions to the job at hand, as well as the potential to do a non-traditional job. One of the most common types of government-created laws regarding vocational and technical training is the support of educational programmes via legislation and government funds (Miller & Vetter, 1996). In the United States, the initial federal vocational education act, the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917, provided the first government funding for vocational and technical education in that country. As general support for vocational education, this act and those that followed, created the gendered system of vocational education that now exists in the United
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States. Continuing government policies which support general education are not effective in increasing women’s enrolment in vocational and technical education (Miller, 2001). ‘Gender-neutral subsidies to training may indeed lead to greater increases in men’s access to training than to that of women’ (Shackleton, 1995, p. 227). As suggested by Estlund (2003), laws that prohibit discrimination are needed. They help to create environments where women and men work together and, in time, begin to change the culture. Internationally, these laws and policies are embodied in key human rights documents, such as the 1979 International Treaty on the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, often initiated by the United Nations (Carter, 2004) and provide for the right to work and education. These treaties often influence policy-making as many countries legislate equal rights for women regarding education and work (Dyanko, 1996; Mboya, 1998; Amao-Kehinde, 1999; Egbo, 2000; Lakes & Carter, 2004). There is another legal approach to advancing the role of women in the workforce that has to do with the upgrading and enhancement of traditional women’s work by creating career paths, updating job classifications, reorganizing work and promoting pay equity (OECD, 1998). Legislation to provide equal pay for substantially equal work has been passed by legislators in several Western nations (Blau et al., 2002). As in all legislated change, enforcement of the policy depends upon the actions of citizens who can oblige compliance through the courts. That is the point of Estlund (2003), who believes that legislation and court action combined place women in non-traditional roles in the workforce so that change can begin to take place. Government agencies are another avenue for policies that foster change in the roles of women in the workforce. For example, in the United States, National Science Foundation Policies have helped to provide funding for projects that involve under-represented groups. Boudria (2002) describes a National Science Foundation funded programme that has encouraged female enrolment in non-traditional subjects, such as engineering and computer technology. Small changes such as this one, promoted by foundation policies, can help to spread change.
5.3 Business and the Economic Policy Evolution As business leaders begin to appreciate growth in women’s economic capacity and power as both workers and consumers, they have begun to shape policies that influence the role of women in non-traditional jobs. From the early days of the Industrial Revolution, manufacturers realized the potential of women and children as cheap labour. In Lowell, Massachusetts, in the early 1800s young, single women were recruited for manufacturing work in the textile mills. This tradition is carried on today by the maquiladoras on the Mexican border of the United States, in clothing factories operating in Asia, and in the telephone computer help centres in India. Over the years the concept has been the same. Young women, desperate for employment, will work in jobs with repetitive tasks for
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smaller wages than men and in ‘sweatshop’ conditions. Today, there is a new twist to save the corporation money: part-time work, which in many cases eliminates the need for employers to provide benefits. Yet, it is this kind of work that women see as a means of getting into the work force, getting ahead and becoming financially independent. Furthermore, it is their financial independence and the growth of wealth in the hands of women that have helped to raise the consciousness of corporate managers about the value of women in leadership and management positions, to the extent that the advancement of women in management is seen by the corporation as a ‘bottom-line’ with regard to corporate success (Burke & Nelson, 2002, p. 4). The goal on the part of business and industry executives is to ensure that women graduates and consumers will notice opportunities in management. Essentially, then, the use of women as workers leads to their ability to become stronger consumers and, as consumers, they begin to influence the policies of the corporation. In addition, they help to develop the economy of the country by contributing to its growth. In the end, more women in the workforce helps to improve a nation’s economy (Anker, 2001). While there is a reason for business and industry leaders to invest in women’s vocational and technical education, changes over the years in World Bank policies have shifted from favouring public responsibility for vocational and technical education to specialized, private institutions and employer training (Leach, 2000). In view of other data clearly indicating that women are not provided with equal access to employer sponsored training, this policy change is disturbing. It could lead to a problem for women to advance into all kinds of jobs, even when this is in the best interest of business, industry and the economy. The reversal of the World Bank policy is another indication of the confusion with regard to how best to redefine gender roles in the workforce and the value of doing so.
5.4 Educational Policy Educational policies for all citizens can form the foundation for improvement in the number of women who access vocational and technical education. In most Western countries there is a closer parity amongst women and men with regard to a basic education, with women leaving basic education with an overall better achievement than men (Shackleton, 1995). This foundation is an important first step in transforming vocational education with the goal of enrolling more women. While improving basic education for girls and women, several African researchers have indicated that the priority in creating opportunities for women in vocational and technical education is to provide for the basic education of girls and women (Mboya, 1998; Amao-Kehinde, 1999; Egbo, 2000). In fulfilling this goal, they recommend a concerted effort to improve the quality of education for girls and women and this effort would require an affirmative action programme to increase funding for separate but equal girls and women’s schools and boarding facilities (Egbo, 2000). Other suggestions from a group of African educators for reformed educational policies include: (a) defraying the cost of education for girls and women, since
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the high cost will not be taken on by their families (Mboya, 1998); (b) providing funding for women in literacy programmes in order to encourage their attendance (Egbo, 2000); (c) providing business start-up funding for women to encourage them to take advantage of educational opportunities (Amao-Kehinde, 1999); (d) reducing the instances of early specialization since girls are subject to peer pressure at the time when irrevocable choices are made (Mboya, 1998); and (e) conducting educational programmes for the public in order to help the public accept non-traditional roles for girls and women (Amao-Kehinde, 1999). Clearly, there is a need to create innovative educational policies that can improve the role of women in vocational and technical education.
6 What Should Vocational and Technical Educators do to Foster Change? As noted in an Australian study, there is a tendency for the literature of vocational and technical education to focus on women as the ‘other’, providing a perspective of disadvantage rather than advantage (Butler & Ferrier, 1999). Education and employment data do indicate a disadvantage for women in the workforce, but there have been policy changes in some countries that assumed that there was no disadvantage. In recent years, some governments have backed away from providing policies and financial support for helping women to gain entry into non-traditional jobs in the workforce (Culver & Burge, 2004; Lakes & Carter, 2004). In some cases, people may have thought that the job was already done or, in other cases, they may have objected on cultural grounds. However, these policy changes have not stopped the slow, but consistent entry of women into non-traditional work. Vocational and technical educators need to face the present reality of women in all types of work and the need for women, especially those in poverty, to be able to enter any job in order to provide a means of supporting themselves and their families. Getting middle-class women into non-traditional and higher paying jobs is good, but getting impoverished women into non-traditional and higher paying jobs is an essential move towards social justice. As a part of the wider society, vocational and technical educators need to address the societal problems that inhibit the full participation of women in the workforce (Kerka, 1999). There are a number of things that vocational and technical educators can do to promote women in the workforce and speed the transition to full integration. These things all relate directly to their roles as teachers and are discussed, in order of importance, below.
6.1 Teacher In-Service Education to Address Cultural Values Many vocational and technical educators have pointed out that the vocational and technical classroom is still a hostile place for girls and women (Culver & Burge, 2004; Lakes, 2004; Pae & Lakes, 2004; Reid, 2004; Zuga, 1999) and that the
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teacher has a large responsibility for helping to improve that climate (Reid, 2004; Zuga, 1999). Most important to the goal of transforming vocational and technical education is providing in-service education to teachers so that they can address their own and the peer-to-peer bias that exists in the classroom. Reid (2004) provides a list of cultural competencies that adapt well for vocational and technical educators. They should:
r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r
Ensure that they are aware of their own biases and limitations and are knowledgeable about how these affect the guidance process. Recognize the range of social variables that lead to cultural differences and know about the effects of oppression, racism, discrimination and stereotyping on themselves and others. Understand differences in communication styles and their impact. Be open about the guidance process and actively seek the client’s understanding about the purpose of the interaction and their view about working together. Actively engage in training and educational opportunities to enrich their understanding and effectiveness for working with culturally different groups. Be aware of the impact of negative reactions and treatment experienced by culturally different groups and seek to understand this, and not devalue the experience. Understand how and why traditional and established approaches may be inappropriate and seek out research and other material that will enrich their understanding. Engage in outreach work with clients outside the normal work setting to broaden their understanding. Respect clients’ beliefs, values and views about what guidance can offer and what their community can offer, and be aware of any conflicting values they may have. Value the language of the client and do not judge a language or manner of speech as an impediment to the guidance process, and will refer to others when their (practitioner’s) linguistic skills are inadequate. Recognize that institutionalized methods of assessment may be unhelpful and create barriers. Be aware of discriminatory practices at the individual, social and organizational levels. Make genuine attempts to advocate with, or lobby on behalf of, clients who overcome relevant discrimination. Extend their communication skills so that they are not limited by a singular cultural approach. Be open to alternative ways of helping, including using the resources of the client’s community (Reid, 2004, pp. 178–79).
Implementing these competencies would be the first step in transforming vocational and technical education to meet the needs of the increasing number of women and minorities who want to become a part of the workforce. No other changes or efforts can be successful if girls and women cannot feel comfortable in their classrooms and laboratories while studying for a new career.
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6.2 Affirmative Action in Vocational and Technical Education Once the teaching cadre is ready to address the needs of all students, there needs to be affirmative action taken to provide women with gender-sensitive vocational and technical education (Fenwick, 2004; Malik & Aguado, 2004; Amao-Kehinde, 1999; Zuga, 1999). In some countries, that will mean separate and equal facilities (Lasonen, 2004; Egbo, 2000; Amao-Kehinde, 1999), while in all countries it might mean using a wide range of teaching strategies to address the needs of all students (Malik & Aguado, 2004; Zuga, 1999). Malik and Aguado have provided a comprehensive list of teaching strategies for career education and guidance that are appropriate for all teachers.
r r r r r r r
Experiment with varied grouping arrangements in order to encourage social cooperation (e.g. ‘study buddies’). Provide multiple approaches to teaching to accommodate diverse learning styles (verbal, visual and auditory materials, projects, collaborative work). Teach classroom procedures and norms directly, even things that are usually taken for granted (e.g. how to get the teacher’s attention). Recognize the meaning of different behaviours for the students (e.g. how do they feel when they are corrected). Stress meaning in teaching (ensure meaningful learning, e.g. making sure students understand what they read, relating abstract concepts to everyday experiences). Know the customs, beliefs, and values of students (e.g. analysing different traditions for common themes; discussing different ways in which knowledge is constructed). Help students identify stereotypes and racist or sexist messages (analysing curriculum materials, news from the media, etc.) (Malik & Aguado, 2004, p. 66).
Implementing these teaching strategies will help all of the students in the class, no matter what gender, ethnicity or level of educational proficiency. Other affirmative action includes changing some of the structures and processes of vocational and technical education. This would include actively recruiting and making places for more girls and women in vocational and technical education, providing adequate facilities such as appropriate toilets for women (Lasonen, 2004), providing more web-based courses in areas where women have not had access to non-traditional programmes (Aichouni & Othman, 2004) and providing financially sponsored training for women who need assistance to return to school (Fenwick, 2004; Mboya, 1998). One can use very different circumstances and reasoning to encourage affirmative action worldwide. In the United States, Conroy (1998) found that schoolgirls had unrealistic expectations of their educational attainment leading large numbers of them to opt for a four-year college degree that would result in graduates who could not be absorbed by the labour market. She suggested that earlier exposure to career education about opportunity for vocational and technical education could help to
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avoid future under-employment of these young women. In Africa, Mboya (1998) asserts that women need to have financial assistance as a necessary condition to enable them to attend vocational and technical schools. Either families cannot afford to send girls on to further schooling or women who have family responsibilities cannot afford to go to school without assistance. For very different reasons, active recruitment of girls and women and affirmative action with regard to vocational and technical education is needed worldwide. In addressing vocational and technical education for the informal economy where there are more women employed than men, Singh (2000) stresses the need to view this ‘as decentralized activity, in which local businesses and associations and community initiatives are a leading force in skills development’ (p. 617). He further adds that this work needs to be done as close to the future employers as possible. Evans (1996) suggests that there are several types of programmes that are needed in order to increase women’s participation in vocational and technical education. They include bridging programmes that update women for re-entry into the workforce, conversion programmes that help women to change direction, and community-based, role-related programmes that are geared to local environments and more traditional roles of women. The strength of this approach is that the programmes are tailored to the needs of groups of women in different contexts.
6.3 Critical Vocational and Technical Education Vocational and technical education needs to adopt a more critical stance. Trapped in an ideology that eliminates reflection in the effort to teach job skills, vocational and technical educators need to question their practices and values more often (Fenwick, 2004; Malloch, 2004; Irving, 2004). Irving provides a model of career education that puts social justice into practice, but also models a critical stance towards teaching. He provides three key dimensions:
r r r
opportunity awareness (that looks beyond progression in education and employment through the inclusion of alternative pathways); self and social awareness (concerned with the development of a sense of individual, collective and cultural being); critical understanding (that examines and interrogates the various political, economic and social discourses that influence the construction and distribution of work, and impacts on how we might shape our lives) (Irving, 2004, p. 19).
If vocational and technical teachers were to implement these three dimensions in their daily practice, then they would begin to develop and practice a more questioning and critical form of vocational and technical education. In this way, vocational and technical education, social justice for all students—women and men of all ethnicity—could evolve over time.
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6.4 Public Education for Gender Equity Once the vocational and technical education community begins to improve its performance in teaching women and diverse cultural groups in their classes, then it will be ready to reach out into the larger community to provide advice and guidance for the general public and managers and workers in business and industry. A critical step in the transformation of the workforce will be to provide management education for gender equity to business and industry managers (Dyanko, 1996; Fenwick, 2004). The evolving workforce is not just a vocational and technical education problem, but a much larger one for those who participate in the workforce. Change can be facilitated by vocational and technical educators if they have demonstrated their ability to transform their own practice with regard to inclusion of diversity and social justice. Training managers for equity would be a fitting final effort for vocational and technical educators as they help to ease the inevitable transition of the workforce. Helping parents and community members to learn about opportunities for women to work in non-traditional jobs should help to continue the process of evolution with regard to gender roles in the workforce.
7 Conclusion While women in the workforce are still underpaid, segregated into ‘women’s work’ and often doing part-time jobs, there are more women in the workforce than ever before. More women are receiving a basic education that, in turn, is fundamental to advancement in the workforce. Their presence will create change and will lead to women’s roles being redefined. Examples of that change are already visible through the media and through the policy changes instituted by a number of countries. Vocational and technical educators will need to meet the needs of more women as they move on from basic education to vocational and technical education. In order to meet the needs of women, traditional practices will need to be re-examined. Genderfairness and social justice in vocational and technical education will need to become a part of daily practice. By preparing for and adapting to the growing numbers of women in the workforce, vocational and technical educators will create better forms of vocational and technical education that address the needs of all people.
References Aichouni, M.; Othman, M. 2004. E-learning in technical education and vocational training: from concepts to practice. (Paper presented at the third Saudi Technical Conference and Exhibition, Riyadh, 11-15 December, 2004.) Akhaluola, F.C. 1999. Socio-cultural barriers to the active participation of women in the economic development of Nigeria. In: Esomonu, N.P.M., ed. Women education for active participation in the next millennium, pp. 122-130. Awka, Nigeria: MAR DAT Educational Research and Publishers.
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Amao-Kehinde, A.O. 1999. Enhancing female participation in science and technology in the next millenium. In: Esomonu, N.P.M., ed. Women education for active participation in the next millennium, pp. 1-12. Awka, Nigeria: MAR DAT Educational Research and Publishers. Anker, R. 2001. Theories of occupational segregation by sex: an overview. In: Loutfi, M.F., ed. Women, gender, and work, pp. 157-188. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Barbezat, D. 2003. Occupational segregation around the world. In: Moe, K.S., ed. Women, family, and work, pp. 177-97. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. Blau, F.D.; Ferber, M.A.; Winkler, A.E. 2002. The economics of women, men, and work. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Boll´e, P. 2001. Part-time work: solution or trap? In: Loutfi, M.F., ed. Women, gender, and work, pp. 215-238. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Boudria, T.J. 2002. Implementing a project-based technology program for high school women. Community college journal of research and practice, vol. 26, no. 9, pp. 709-22. Burke, R.J.; Nelson, D.L. 2002. Advancing women in management: progress and prospects. In: Burke R.J.; Nelson D.L., eds. Advancing women’s careers: research and practice, pp. 3-14. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. Butler, E.; Ferrier, F. 1999. ‘Don’t be too polite, girls.’ A report on a critical literature review of women, work and VET. (Paper presented at the AVETRA Conference.) <www.avetra.org.au/abstracts and papers/09 BUTLER.pdf> Carter, P.A. 2004. Education and work as human rights for women: a feminist analysis. In: Lakes, R.D.; Carter, P.A., eds. Globalizing education for work: comparative perspectives on gender and the new economy, pp. 19-42. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Conroy, C.A. 1998. Influence of gender and program enrollment on adolescents’ and teens’ occupational and educational aspirations. Vocational and technical education, vol. 14, no. 2. <scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JVTE/v14n2/JVTE-2.html> Crompton, R.; Gallie, D.; Purcell, K. 1996. Work, economic restructuring and social regulation. In: Crompton, R.; Gallie, D.; Purcell, K., eds. Changing forms of employment: organisations, skills, and gender, pp. 1-20. New York, NY: Routledge. Culver, S.M.; Burge, P.L. 2004. Gender equity in vocational education in the United States: the unfinished agenda. In: Lakes, R.D.; Carter, P.A., eds. Globalizing education for work: comparative perspectives on gender and the new economy, pp. 189–202. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Dyanko, A. 1996. Current issues and trends in technical and vocational education. Paris: UNESCO. Egbo, B. 2000. Gender, literacy and life chances in Sub-Saharan Africa. Buffalo, NY: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Elder, S.; Johnson, L.J. 2001. Sex-specific labour market indicators: what they show. In: Loutfi, M.F., ed. Women, gender, and work, pp. 251-69. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Estlund, C. 2003. Working together. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Evans, K. 1996. Barriers to participation of women in technological education. In: UNESCO, ed. Promotion of the equal access of girls and women to technical and vocational education. Paris: UNESCO. (ED 398 458.) Fenwick, T. 2004. Gender and the new economy: enterprise discourses in Canada: Implications for workplace learning and education. In: Lakes, R.D.; Carter, P.A., eds. Globalizing education for work: comparative perspectives on gender and the new economy, pp. 131-52. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Gallie, D. 1996. Skill, gender, and the quality of employment. In: Crompton, R.; Gallie, D.; Purcell, K., eds. Changing forms of employment: organisations, skills, and gender, pp. 133-59. New York, NY: Routledge. Honey, M. 1985. Creating Rosie the riveter: class, gender, and propaganda during World War II. Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press. Irving, B.A. 2004. Social justice: a context for career education and guidance. In: Irving, B.A.; Malik, B., eds. Critical reflections on career education and guidance: promoting social justice within a global economy, pp. 10–24. New York, NY: Routledge-Falmer.
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Kerka, S. 1999. Has nontraditional training worked for women? Myths and realities no. 1. Columbus, OH: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education. (ED 435 037.) Lakes, R.D. 2004. Working-class masculinities and schooling: new considerations for vocational education. In: Lakes, R.D.; Carter, P.A., eds. Globalizing education for work: comparative perspectives on gender and the new economy, pp. 43-58. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Lakes, R.D.; Carter, P.A. 2004. Afterword. In: Lakes, R.D.; Carter, P.A., eds. Globalizing education for work: comparative perspectives on gender and the new economy, pp. 203-208. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Lasonen, J. 2004. Poverty and powerlessness in Ethiopia: shaping gender equity through technical, vocational education, and training. In: Lakes, R.D.; Carter, P.A., eds. Globalizing education for work: comparative perspectives on gender and the new economy, pp. 97–110. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Leach, F. 2000. Gender implications of development agency policies on educational and training. International journal of educational development, vol. 20, pp. 333-47. Malik, B.; Aguado, T. 2004. Cultural diversity and guidance: myth or reality? In: Irving, B.A.; Malik, B., eds. Critical reflections on career education and guidance: promoting social justice within a global economy, pp. 56–72. New York, NY: Routledge-Falmer. Malloch, M. 2004. Where are the women in vocational education and training? An assessment of technical and further education (TAFE) in Australia. In: Lakes, R.D.; Carter, P.A., eds. Globalizing education for work: comparative perspectives on gender and the new economy, pp. 153-68. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Mboya, M. 1998. Girls’ and women’s participation in scientific, technical and vocational education in Tanzania. In: Bendera, S.J.; Mboya, M.W., eds. Gender and education in Tanzanian schools, pp. 125-136. Dar-es-Salaam: DUP (1996) Ltd. Miller, D.C. 2001. What is needed for true equality: an overview of policy issues for women. In: Peterson, K.J.; Lieberman, A.A., eds. Building on women’s strengths: a social work agenda for the twenty-first century, pp. 45-66. New York, NY: The Haworth Social Work Practice Press. Miller, J.V.; Vetter, L. 1996. Vocational guidance for equal access and opportunity for girls and women in technical and vocational education. Paris: UNESCO. (ED 391 949.) National Centre for Vocational Education Research. 2001. Women in VET, 2000: Australian vocational education & training statistics, 2000. At a glance. Leabrook, Australia: NCVER. (ED 461 726.) National Women’s Law Center. 2002. Title IX and equal opportunity in vocational and technical education: a promise still owed to the nation’s young women. Washington, DC: NWLC. (ED 468 221.) Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 1998. The future of female-dominated occupations. Paris: OECD. Pae, H.K.; Lakes, R.D. 2004. Preparation for (in)equality: women in South Korean vocational education. In: Lakes, R.D.; Carter, P.A., eds. Globalizing education for work: comparative perspectives on gender and the new economy, pp. 85–96. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Phan, O. 2001. Women in vocational education and training: an analysis of 1996 and 1999 data. Leabrook, Australia: NCVER. (ED 457 381.) Reid, H. L. 2004. Beyond the toolbox: integrating multicultural principles into a career guidance intervention model. In: Irving, B.A.; Malik, B., eds. Critical reflections on career education and guidance: promoting social justice within a global economy, pp. 172-85. New York, NY: Routledge-Falmer. Rubery, J. 1996. The labour market outlook and the outlook for destabilization of social and economic relationships. In: Crompton, R.; Gallie, D.; Purcell, K., eds. Changing forms of employment: organisations, skills, and gender, pp. 23-39. New York, NY: Routledge. Shackleton, J.R. 1995. Training for employment in Western Europe and the United States. Brookfield, VT: Edward Elgar. Singh, M. 2000. Combining work and learning in the informal economy: implications for education, training and skills development. International review of education, vol. 46, no. 6, pp. 599-620.
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United Nations. 2005a. Statistics and indicators on women and men: economic activity, Table 5b–Part-time employment. United Nations. 2005b. Statistics and indicators on women and men: economic activity, Table 5d. United Nations. 2005c. Statistics and indicators on women and men. The world’s women 2000: Trends and statistics. Chapter 4: Education and communication. United Nations. 2005d. Statistics and indicators on women and men. The world’s women 2000: Trends and statistics. Chapter 5 – Work. Wajcman, J. 1996. Women and men managers: career and equal opportunities. In: Crompton, R.; Gallie, D.; Purcell, K., eds. Changing forms of employment: organisations, skills, and gender. New York, NY: Routledge. World Bank. 2004. Gender and development in the Middle East and North Africa: women in the public sphere. Washington, DC: World Bank. Zuga, K.F. 1999. Addressing women’s ways of knowing in order to improve the technology education environment for all students. Journal of technology education, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 57-71.
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Chapter I.5
Anticipation of Skill Requirements: European Activities and Approaches1 Manfred Tessaring
1 Introduction In contrast to the rather rigid manpower supply and demand projections in the 1960s and 1970s, the objectives and approaches of forecasting, in particular in the fields of education, training and skills, have changed considerably. This is due to the fact that industrialized societies nowadays are characterized by increasing openness, flexibility, complexity and, therefore, also uncertainty. The ‘mega trends’ impacting on education and training, e.g. globalization and internationalization of economies, job markets and even of education and training systems, demographic transition and the transformation towards an information and knowledge based society in the context of lifelong learning, can be taken as familiar ground which need hardly be discussed in detail in the context of this chapter. However, these trends affect the education and training systems of European countries to a different extent: these systems vary considerably across countries and so does the educational attainment of populations.2 Against this background, the search for skills and qualifications that are ‘fit for the future’ and how they can be designed and implemented in curricula and educational/training routes are increasingly gaining in importance. Appropriate measures call for substantiated findings on skill requirements in a longer-term perspective, as well as information on new qualifications, competences and requirements that have not yet been defined by statistics and classifications. Early identification and anticipation of future skill needs is of the utmost importance for educational and training policies. This also becomes evident when considering the time lag between the occurrence of an event (e.g. technological innovation) triggering new or substantially different skill requirements and the point in time when the first cohorts leave the system with these new skill profiles. Depending on the training system of the country in question and the relevant institutional, legal and formal regulations,3 there may be a time lag of as much as ten years (see Figure 1). This is also the approximate time frame which projections should at least cover if their results are to be policy-relevant and not arrive too late. More long-term projections are necessary for fundamental reorientations or redesign of the education and training systems.
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Time lag
Cumulated time lag
0.5−1 year
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1−2 years
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2−3 years
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Recognition and identification of new skill requirements Design/revision of skeleton curricula in initial training Implementation in the training system Young people commence training in the revised training programmes Completion of training, job market entry of the first cohorts with the new skill profiles Passage through working life
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Fig. 1 Estimated time lags(a ) between new skill requirements and job market entry of the first cohorts with the new skill profiles (a) dependent on national institutional, legal, formal, etc., factors. Source: Tessaring 2003, based on Descy & Tessaring, 2002, p. 300.
At individual level and in the framework of lifelong learning, on the one hand, the fundamental objectives of such efforts are the optimal design of individual life and career biographies and pathways. Societal objectives, on the other hand, are prevention of unemployment and inappropriate employment and avoiding the exclusion of disadvantaged groups, which can be decisively achieved by means of future-oriented and targeted education and training provision. And, finally, information on the future requirements of work in enterprises is of central importance to human resource development and continuing training within companies. A majority of scientists and political and economic stakeholders agree that flexibilization of work and working careers, the dissemination of information and communication technologies in virtually all areas and the growing role of ‘knowledge’ are increasingly calling for flexible, broadly-based and transferable skills—in parallel with and complementary to ‘traditional’ specialized skills and working qualities. At the same time, however, openness, flexibility and the movement away from (formal) ‘qualifications’ towards a more comprehensive understanding of ‘competence’ in many countries, which includes non-formal and informal forms of learning and knowledge acquisition, is making it increasingly difficult to anticipate and define the knowledge, skills and competences required in the future.
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Whereas it was previously a question of applying an ‘equilibrium approach’, and detecting and forecasting functional and formal qualifications at a high level of aggregation, today the focus is increasingly on more comprehensive and qualitative approaches which are not intended to replace, but to supplement the ‘traditional’ methods and provide differentiated and exploitable information on changing trends in work requirements. It should be pointed out here that efforts to identify and forecast skill requirements decisively depend on the type of education and training system and the job markets in the country in question: the question as to what is to be forecast and how this forecasting is to be conducted will be seen in a completely different light in vocationally-oriented labour markets with nationally defined training and qualification standards than in countries with predominantly competition-based or internal labour markets. Other factors which will play a role, to mention but a few examples, are differences in planning and control and the participation of the various societal groups (governance) at centralized, decentralized/regional or sectoral levels, as well as the increasingly indistinct boundaries between general and vocational education and training, continuing training and even between vocational training and higher education in many countries.
2 Approaches to Identify Future Qualification and Skill Requirements A whole series of quantitative approaches to the forecasting of the supply and demand of skills and jobs have been developed in recent decades, ranging from macro-economic projections to surveys among enterprises and the workforce at micro and meso level, including the regional and sectoral level (for an overview see: Tessaring, 1998, 1999; Wilson, 2001; Descy & Tessaring, 2002). However, although they may be consistent within a given socio-economic framework and important for fundamental long-range policy strategies in view of their long-term character, macro approaches cannot provide detailed insights into specific and new qualification and skill requirements. Furthermore, long-term projections are of only limited relevance for individuals standing before educational/training or career decisions and expecting information on employment prospects in the coming few years. Similarly, enterprises are more interested in short- and medium-term skill trends. On the other hand, specific findings on skill developments at micro and meso level cannot always be generalized. Moreover, they generally tend to refer to present skill requirements or needs foreseeable in the short or medium term. These are some of the reasons why European as well as other countries have long been searching for methods, approaches and data from which they can derive information on future skills and new qualifications not yet delivered by the education and training system. In complement to quantitative approaches, qualitative methods, e.g. Delphi or scenario methods, are increasingly applied, often ‘enriched’ by quantitative information relating to the various areas of relevance to the development of education and training (e.g. demographic or macro-economic trends, job market
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structures, social developments, etc.). By drawing on expert knowledge from various areas, the aim of these approaches is to place possible and/or expected alternative education and training trends in a wider context as a means of deducing appropriate strategies and responsibilities. The decisive difference between these and quantitative methods is not only that trends on both the supply and demand side can be dealt with simultaneously, but also that ‘anticipation’ is no longer based on calculations backed up by figures and statistical techniques, but takes place ‘in the minds’ of experts consulted and depends on the strength of their knowledge and their sources of information. It is therefore of decisive importance for the quality and relevance of these approaches that they be theoretically substantiated, that the ‘right’ and relevant questions are asked and, above all, that suitable experts are found from all fields of activity (research, politics, business, social partners, etc.) and prompted into constructive co-operation. The variety of approaches—also within given countries—raises a further, by no means insignificant problem: how can the findings obtained via the different channels be collated, compared and rendered exploitable for policy action at national or supra-/international level? There will always be contradictions between macroeconomic and specific sectoral or occupational projections or enterprise surveys. The reasons for these contradictions lie in differences in the time horizon, the depth of aggregation, the information and data basis and the methods. The question is: how do those responsible for the planning and management of the education and training system handle these contradictions? What can be done to place their decisions in a reliable and reasonable framework that is not dominated by the interests of individual groups? And, last but not least, what conclusions can be drawn for the delivery of information to guide the educational/training and career decisions of the individual? These are questions that can only be briefly touched upon in the present context. Instead, the following sections seek to provide an overview of relevant activities at both European and national level.
3 Forecasting and Early Identification Activities 3.1 Activities at European and International Levels At the European level, the European Commission has and continues to support a number of related projects, particularly in its programmes Leonardo da Vinci and Targeted Socio-economic Research (TSER) and their follow-up programmes, and also within the framework of the European Structural Fund. In 2002, the European social partners4 adopted a ‘framework of actions for the lifelong development of competencies and qualifications’ (European Trade Union Confederation, 2002). The first of the four priorities is to ‘identify and anticipate the competencies and the qualifications needed’. The implementation of this objective is envisaged at two levels: at enterprise and at national/sectoral level.
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A number of forecasting activities conducted in recent years at both European and international level are presented below: 1. In the ‘Employment in Europe’ reports, the European Commission/Eurostat publishes information on sectoral employment growth at irregular intervals. Those sectors identified as sectors with high (previous and expected) growth are generally those in which the proportion of the lesser skilled is lower than elsewhere. 2. The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS), one of the institutes of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, has presented a series of—qualitative and quantitative—forecasting studies in recent years which also touch upon aspects of education, training and skills. In the framework of the ‘Futures’ project, launched in 1998, the IPTS provided insights into trends in the demographic, social, economic, skill and technology fields, as well as their impact on competitiveness and employment up to 2010. The reports drawn up in the framework of this project comprise analyses and trends of various socio-economic aspects of European society, whereby the focus is on their relationship with technological development. The conclusion of future trends is not or only partially based on projections in the technical sense, but is largely the reflection of estimates and assessments of the participating experts or takes the form of scenarios. The reports were discussed and summarized in five panels: demographic and social trends; ICT and the information society; natural resources and the environment; the political and economic context; life sciences and the frontier of life. The panel study and the research reports are published in the ‘Futures Report series’ (further details: ). In 2001, in conjunction with the Information Society Technologies (IST) Advisory Group, DG Information Society and thirty-five European experts, the IPTS published a series of scenarios on the future development of information and communication technologies taking account of: (a) socio-political factors; (b) enterprise and industrial models; and (c) the demand by key technologies for ‘ambient intelligence’. The scenarios also included aspects of learning, human resources management and competences (European Commission. ISTAG, 2001). 3. The European Commission’s Forward Studies Unit conducted a project entitled ‘Scenarios Europe 2010: Five possible futures for Europe’ (European Commission, Forward Studies Unit, 1999). The project draws on the expertise of European Union (EU) officials in a process of brainstorming and reflection. The scenarios encompass all the important aspects of European development: markets, the economy, employment and technologies; social, political, demographic, cultural and changing values; globalization and EU enlargement; the role of national and European organizations, social partners and NGOs, etc. 4. In view of the EU enlargement and the resulting challenges in the coming decades, the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) prepared, within the study ‘Four futures of Europe’, scenarios addressing socio-economic trends within European countries and their implications for reforms and policies, including labour market participation, investments in human capital and skill demands (de Mooij & Tang, 2003).
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5. In 1999, CEDEFOP, along with the European Training Foundation (ETF) and the Max-Goote Expert Centre (University of Amsterdam), initiated a scenario on vocational training in Europe with the participation of five EU Member States and five central and eastern European countries. The scenario is based on a Delphi survey among several hundred vocational training experts per country, asked to indicate expected trends, strategies and players in the field of vocational training. The findings provide an insight into possible and probable developments of vocational training systems (up to approximately 2010), by examining trends in the following three important contexts: (a) the economy and technology; (b) employment and the job market; (c) training, skills and knowledge. The project also provides information on possible strategies and players in the field of vocational training (van Wieringen et al., 2003). 6. CEDEFOP has, in early 2004, established a network Skillsnet on the early identification of skill needs. The aims are to generate innovative solutions concerning the early identification of skill needs and to transfer findings to education and training policy and practice. The project looks for similarities across territories, sectors or occupations in order to identify common European and international trends, and also examines the needs of specific groups, such as low-skilled people and small and medium-sized enterprises. In the context of this network, conferences and workshops are organized or planned on specific and topical themes (for example: skill needs in tourism and new technologies such as nanotechnologies). Conference proceedings and other papers are available for download. A particular focus is attached to the transfer of findings into education and training policies. The network is open to all; specific sections are only accessible by network members. For more information see: <www.trainingvillage.gr/etv/Projects Networks/skillsnet>. Publications so far: Schmidt et al., 2003; Schmidt et al., 2004. 7. Several CEDEFOP publications in the recent years address issues of future skill needs, forecasting and anticipation.
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The publication ‘European trends in the development of occupations and qualifications’ features a summary of contributions to CEDEFOP’s ‘Ciretoq’ network. It summarizes, among other things, the main macro-trends in the development of occupations and qualifications; the socio-economic context and systems development; development of supply and demand in initial vocational training; inter-enterprise and in-company developments and local/regional competition; and EU programmes and outcomes of vocational education and training research (Sellin, 1999; Sellin, 2000). Since 1998, CEDEFOP has been publishing regular ‘Reports on vocational education and training research in Europe’ covering a wide range of issues. The reports include a presentation and analysis of the latest forecasts on skill supply and demand. The research reports consist of a comprehensive
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background report with contributions from reputed scientists, as well as an extended synthesis report, featuring a summary and a critical appraisal of this and other research studies. The first research report (Tessaring 1998, 1999) addresses the future of work and skills, and presents approaches and findings of both quantitative and qualitative skill and job supply in various EU countries. The second research report (Descy & Tessaring, 2002) provides a detailed overview of quantitative and qualitative forecasting activities at national level in various EU and non-EU countries and of relevant activities at regional and local level. The contribution by Wilson (2001) also features a discussion of skill projections at enterprise level. The synthesis report provides information on the latest forecasts and scenarios in Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and a number of central and eastern European countries. 8. In 1990, the OECD launched the ‘International Futures Programmes’, consisting of four interrelated and mutually supportive elements: (a) OECD Forums for the Future: a platform for informal, high-level meetings with the aim of testing new ideas, developing fresh perspectives on problems and advancing the understanding of strategic economic and social issues; (b) OECD Futures Projects: targeted and multidisciplinary research and policy analysis on certain subject areas, which are in particular from the Forum conferences; (c) OECD Future Studies Information Base: a documentation system (CDROM) providing the key findings and conclusions of published and unpublished literature worldwide; (d) OECD International Futures Network: a global network of some 600 persons from government, the economy, research, who share a mutual interest in long-term developments and related policy aspects. More information on: <www.oecd.org/sge/au/>
3.2 European Initiatives Anticipating and Forecasting Skill Requirements The following text provides a summary of selected activities relating to the forecasting and anticipation of skill requirements in a number of European and OECD countries. These initiatives encompass a wide range of quantitative and qualitative approaches at the level of sectors, occupations or qualifications, derived from statistics or information drawn from enterprises and experts. 3.2.1 Frequenz.net, Germany: Early Identification of Qualification Needs Within the framework of the ‘Initiative for early identification of qualification needs’, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research set up a network ‘FreQueNz’ directed towards future-oriented issues concerning the development of
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qualifications. Altogether eleven institutes participate in this network with specific approaches and themes; all results are published. The information and communication platform (<www.frequenz.net>) provides information on projects, products and services, partners, literature database, newsletter, events and links. Part of the ‘FreQueNz’ network activity is the project ‘Qualification needs in the OECD countries’ carried out by the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB). The project analyses micro-economic models in a string of OECD countries and on the basis of this information and other elements, carries out cross-country comparisons, in particular in a number of specific sectors (services, computers, health and care).
3.2.2 National Observatory of Employment and Training, Czech Republic: LABOURatory The Leonardo da Vinci project ‘Regular forecasting of training needs: comparative analysis, elaboration and application of methodology, “LABOURatory”’, sponsored by the European Commission, was set up in 1998. The aim of the project is to draw up forecasting methods applicable not only to western but also to eastern European countries. The project is co-ordinated by the Czech National Observatory of Employment and Training. The project’s first step was to take stock of forecasting activities in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia. The second phase of the project involved the presentation of methods and models used in forecasting training needs and their application in various countries: (a) quantitative models and their application in the Czech Republic; (b) comparative analyses and forecasting activities in Poland; and (c) regional and sectoral methods (case studies for the hotel, catering and tourist trade in the Czech Republic, France and Slovenia). The publications (National Training Fund, 1999, 2001) include an overview of the methods, applications and findings as well as the conclusions on possible improvements to the methods.
3.2.3 European Training Foundation: Regional Skill Needs in Five Candidate Countries In 2001, in co-operation with national partner organizations, the European Training Foundation (ETF) carried out a survey on skill needs in specific regions of five candidate countries (north-west Bohemia/Czech Republic, southern Estonia, the southern Hungarian plain, Lithuania and the Lubelskie district of Poland). The purpose of the survey was to conduct an intensive qualitative assessment of emerging regional skill requirements in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to examine demand-related perspectives in the context of the local infrastructure supply and to prepare the development of intervention strategies. The survey included 952 SMEs located in economies in various phases of the transition process (Kerr, 2003).
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3.2.4 Career Space Consortium: The Demand for ICT Skills in Europe The Career Space Consortium, comprising a number of major electronic companies alongside the European Commission, has set itself the aim of analysing information on the situation and perspectives of skills and skill requirements in the field of information and communication technologies in Europe and to draw up appropriate recommendations for education and training policy—in particular with a view to narrowing the current ICT skills gap (CEDEFOP, 2001; Curley, 2003). 3.2.5 Overview on Country Initiatives on Skill-Need Anticipation and Forecasting With no pretension that the information is exhaustive, up-to-date or correct in every detail, Table 1 gives an overview of the institutions in Europe involved in skills and occupational forecasting activities as well as the approaches applied. Further information and source references can be obtained from the contributions in Schmidt et al. (2003).
4 Summary and Future Co-Operation Identifying and forecasting future skill requirements—at the level of individuals, enterprises and society as a whole—and implementing these requirements in the framework of the education and training system has long been the subject of intensive research efforts and political discussion. Societies characterized by rapidly changing social and economic conditions, increasing openness, permeability, complexity, and therefore uncertainty, are seeking new, alternative or complementary instruments for the early identification of skill requirements and their implications for the design of education, initial vocational training and continuing training. Such approaches consider the future skill requirements of target groups, enterprises, sectors and regions, and increasingly incorporate options and alternatives for policy and strategic actions. In this context, the objectives of the early identification of skill requirements may in fact differ substantially:
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Projecting future developments/trends of supply and demand of existing (formal) qualifications; Forecasting changing skill profiles in a given occupation, sector or region; Identifying newly emerging skills and requirements; Analysing the increasing or declining significance of contents or elements within specific qualifications; Detecting new configurations or bundles of skill elements in a given activity; Taking into consideration competences (acquired formally, non-formally or informally) instead of formal qualifications, etc.
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Table 1 National skill requirement forecasting and early recognition activities, as of 2002 (a ) Country
Institution
Approach/Method/Data sources
Comments
Czech Republic
CERGE-EI
Macro-economic projection model: extension, replacement and recruitment demand; those leaving the education/training systems; balancing supply and demand; macro-economic forecasting model for the tourism sector in the region of north-west Bohemia.
Ministry of Employment
Integration of macro-economic forecasts in an ‘integrated system of typical positions’ (ISTP) to determine qualification requirements and training needs.
Based on the ROA and ESRI forecasting models; implemented within the Leonardo project, ‘LABOURatory’. In the set-up phase.
AKF
Macro-economic projections of labour demand according to level of education/training and sector at national and regional level; projection of labour supply according to education/training categories based on demographic trends. Short-term forecasting of skill requirements in the regions, combination of job-market data with panel data from surveys among enterprises and experts.
Denmark
Regions Germany
IAB/Prognos IAB BLK
FreQueNz
‘Early identification of qualification needs’; sponsored by BMBF; eleven participating research institutes. Approaches: job vacancy analysis; reference enterprise surveys; examination of regional continuing training provision; examination of the skill supply of vocational schools and colleges; utilization of the network of specialized associations and chambers; development of methods for the on-going observation of skill trends; skill trends in the service sector; identification of trendsetters; comparative international studies; skill structure report; skills report and skill trends—online.
FORCEM
Observation of skill and training requirements, including at sectoral and occupational level.
On the basis of various projections (of e.g. IAB/Prognos, etc.) Further details in the relevant articles in this publication or at the FreQueNz website: <www.frequenz.net> M. Tessaring
Spain
Long-term macro-economic demand projections per sector, qualification level and field of activity; carried out on an irregular basis since 1986. Projection of labour force supply and the those leaving education/training on the basis of the educational accounting system (BGR) (on an irregular basis). Macro-economic projection of skill supply and demand (on an irregular basis).
In the development phase.
France
Institution
Approach/Method/Data sources
Autonomous regions
Observatories to identify skill requirements at regional level.
OBINCUAL/ Ministry of Employment BIPE
Network to identify key qualifications/skills and sectors and future trends in occupations, jobs and occupational profiles; scenarios, Delphi surveys, etc. Macro-economic projections of skill and recruitment requirements per occupational category, sectors and (to a certain extent) region; supplemented by scenarios. Qualification needs at national, sectoral, regional and local levels; skill supply and projection of school-leavers and those coming out of training; employment perspectives. Changing skill requirements based on expert/enterprise surveys and job market analysis.
OREF
C´ereq Finland
Ireland
Italy
Central Office for Education Ministry of Employment National Board of Education
Projections of occupational and skill trends (supply and demand), since 1976.
ESRI
Regular macro-economic projections of skill requirements per sector.
´ Expert FORFAS/ Group on Future Skill Needs
Short- and medium-term forecasting of the supply and demand of skilled manpower in certain sectors and areas, in particular ICT and research.
Government, network
National surveys on short- and medium-term job and skill requirements per sector; surveys on regional and occupational skill needs; scenarios; annual recruitment needs; medium-term macro-economic forecasts. Various skill requirement projections.
Regions Netherlands ROA
Comments
In the set-up phase.
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Table 1 (continued) Country
Manpower supply and demand: short- and long-term trends. Medium- to long-term macro-economic projections of manpower supply and demand per educational/training and occupational category, combined with scenarios and experts’ forecasts.
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Short- and medium-term macro-economic projections of skill supply and demand according to sector; incorporation of mobility and substitution processes; projection of school-leavers
Co-ordinated by the Ministry for Employment and Social Affairs
Table 1 (continued) Institution
Approach/Method/Data sources
Max-Goote Expert Centre Various organizations, government
Scenarios of educational and training trends.
National Observatory
Short- and medium-term projection of manpower requirements according to sector, occupation and educational/training level, including a regional structure; projection of those leaving the education/training system and manpower supply
Portugal
Ministry of Employment
Surveys on the short-term training requirements of enterprises according to sector and region.
Slovenia
HRDF
Surveys on the training requirements of enterprises (in certain regions). Development of the tourist sector and training requirements (in certain regions).
Poland
Sweden
United Kingdom
Projection of skill requirements.
Projection of recruitment requirements and transitions from education/training to employment; balance of supply and demand.
Swedish Foresight
Projection of long-term technical, social and economic trends (including education and training) and their interaction on the basis of an expert panel and additional information.
IER
Macro-economic long-term projection of manpower requirements according to qualification levels, including regional and local structures; forecasts of those coming out of training; on a regular basis.
DfEE
Compilation and analysis of job market trends, on a regular basis.
DfEE/Skills Task Force
Skill requirement projections.
NIESR
Qualitative projection of training requirements.
QCA, London University, etc.
Scenarios on skill requirements in various sectors and regions.
a. The abbreviations are explained in Schmidt et al., 2003. Source: Tessaring, 2003.
Preparatory work; projection of global labour supply available. Implemented within the context of the Leonardo project ‘LABOURatory’.
Implemented within the context of the Leonardo project ‘LABOURatory’
Partially in the set-up phase
M. Tessaring
Central Statistical Office
Comments
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Country
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The channels and the approaches used in the various countries and by the different scientists are extremely diverse. Some countries have already made considerable progress, whereas others are only at the beginning of the process—either due to a lack of relevant experience and skills, or because the relevant organizational infrastructure or support on the political level is not yet sufficient. Access to this information is frequently difficult and co-operation across national borders—despite a certain degree of progress in the recent past—is not yet well-developed. From this perspective, the network Skillsnet established by CEDEFOP in 2004 could provide the starting point for future intensive co-operation—both between scientists and research institutions from different countries, as well as between researchers, policy-makers and practitioners. Both aspects are of the utmost importance: exchange of experience and transnational research co-operation should serve as a driving force for the further development of methods and approaches. The involvement from the very outset of policy-makers and practitioners—including the social partners—is designed to raise awareness among the stakeholders of the relevance of and the need for a future-oriented design of education and training—based on concrete information and recommendations—and thereby encourages them to provide support in terms of personnel, finance and organizational resources.
Notes 1. This is a revised version of a paper presented at the Conference on Early Identification of Skill Needs in Europe, Berlin, 30-31 May 2002 (Tessaring, 2003). 2. Cf., inter alia, the analyses in CEDEFOP’s first two reports on vocational training research in Europe (Tessaring, 1999; Descy & Tessaring, 2002) and the extensive bibliographies indicted in both reports. 3. E.g. duration and permeability of training courses, involvement of the social partners, government, chambers of commerce, etc., competence and implementing regulations. 4. European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC); Union of Industrial and Employers’ Confederations of Europe (UNICE); European Centre of Enterprises with Public Participation and of Enterprises of General Public Interest (CEEP).
References CEDEFOP. 2001. Generic ICT skills profiles: future skills for tomorrow’s world—Career Space. Thessaloniki, Greece: Cedefop Panorama. Curley, M. 2003, Addressing the ICT skills shortage in Europe. In: Schmidt, S.L. et al., eds. Early identification of skill needs in Europe, pp. 122–127. Luxembourg: EUR-OP. de Mooij, R.; Tang, P. 2003. Four futures of Europe. The Hague: CPB. Descy, P.; Tessaring, M. 2001. Training in Europe: second report on vocational training research in Europe 2000—background report. Luxembourg: EUR-OP. (Cedefop reference series: vol. II.) Descy, P.; Tessaring, M. 2002. Training and learning for competence: second report on vocational training research in Europe—synthesis report. Luxembourg: EUR-OP. (Cedefop reference series.) European Commission. Forward Studies Unit. 1999. Scenarios Europe 2010: five possible futures for Europe. Brussels: European Union. [Edited by B. Gilles, A. Michalski and L.R. Pench.] <europa.eu.int/comm/cdp/scenario/index en.htm>.
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European Commission. ISTAG. 2001. Scenarios for ambient intelligence in 2010. Seville, Spain: IPTS. (Final report compiled by K. Ducatel et al.) European Trade Union Confederation. 2002. Framework of actions for the lifelong development of competencies and qualifications. Brussels: ETUC/UNICE/CEEP. Kerr, L. 2003. A demand-side analysis of SME skills needs in regions of five candidate countries. In: Schmidt, S.L. et al., eds. Early identification of skill needs in Europe, p. 286–303. Luxembourg: EUR-OP. National Training Fund. 1999. Forecasting education and training needs in transition countries: lessons from the western European experience. Prague: NTF. National Training Fund. 2001. Forecasting skill needs: methodology elaboration and testing. Prague: NTF. Schmidt S.L. et al., eds. 2003. Early identification of skill needs in Europe. Luxembourg: EUR-OP. (Cedefop reference series, 40.) Schmidt, S.L. et al., eds. 2004. Identifying skill needs for the future: from research to policy and practice. Luxembourg: EUR-OP. (Cedefop reference series.) Sellin, B. 1999. European trends in the development of occupations and qualifications, vol. I. Luxembourg: EUR-OP. Sellin, B., ed. 2000. European trends in the development of occupations and qualifications, vol. II: Findings of research, studies and analyses for policy and practice. Luxembourg: EUR-OP. (Cedefop reference document.) Tessaring, M. 1998. The future of work and skills: visions, trends and forecasts. In: Tessaring, M., ed. Vocational education and training: the European research field. Background report, vol. I, p. 271–317. Luxembourg: EUR-OP. Tessaring, M. 1999. Training for a changing society: a report on current vocational education and training research in Europe 1998. Luxembourg: EUR-OP. Tessaring, M. 2003. Identification of future skill requirements: activities and approaches for European cooperation. In: Schmidt, S.L. et al., eds. Early identification of skill needs in Europe, p. 306–25. Luxembourg: EUR-OP. van Wieringen, F. et al. 2003. Future education: learning the future—scenarios and strategies in Europe. Luxembourg: EUR-OP. Wilson, R.A. 2001. Forecasting skill requirements at national and company levels. In: Descy, P.; Tessaring, M., eds. Training in Europe: second report on vocational training research in Europe 2000—background report, vol. II, p. 561-609. Luxembourg: EUR-OP.
Chapter I.6
Redefining the Status of Occupations Walter R. Heinz
1 Introduction In the past thirty years we have seen waves of re-assessments carried out on the world of work in the wake of the declining industrial society: the degradation of work (Braverman, 1974) was prominent in the 1970s; the end of the division of labour and the upgrading of work (Kern & Schumann, 1984) in the 1980s; the end of work (Rifkin, 1995) in the 1990s; and the end of the career (Moen & Roehling, 2005) at the turn of the century. Will we witness the end of the term ‘occupation’ in the years to come? While Rifkin (1995) propagated the decline of the labour force on a global scale in the post-market era, as the consequence of massive job cuts in production and marketing of goods and services, Moen & Roehling (2005) argue that the lock-step pattern of career is dissolving, that it never existed for women and is becoming less and less the employment pattern of men. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, there is rising job insecurity, discontinuous employment and the requirement to upgrade one’s skills, a structural shift of the relationship between education, training and employment that has generated the ‘contingent work-life course’ (Heinz, 2003). In this chapter, I shall argue that it is not the end of the term occupation, but a transformation towards a new constellation of training, competence, work and company organization, due to a complex combination of economic, cultural and social changes. The following discussion focuses on Germany, because it is a prototype for an occupation-centred society with its standardized system of vocational education and training (VET) and a close fit between certified skill qualifications and employment status and careers (e.g. Schwarze, Buttler & Wagner, 1994; Solga & Konietzka, 1999). The extent to which the status of occupations has to be redefined in post-industrial service societies can be demonstrated by looking at the effects of structural and cultural changes on Germany’s well-organized system of occupations.
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2 Occupation Defined There are several forms of work: housework and career work; paid and unpaid work; creative and routine work; dependent and autonomous work. One form of work is occupational. Ever since the Reformation people were situated in society by reference to their social origin and their occupation (Weber, 1976/1904). One has an occupation—a nurse, a lawyer, an accountant. The assignation of people to occupations, on the one hand, promotes the culture of a society because occupations represent recognized and valued tasks and serve the economy by contributing to the wealth of nations. On the other hand, however, occupations also indicate different ranks, levels of prestige and participation rights in society. They mirror the structure of social inequality, because they are coupled with social and ethnic origin, gender and education. For a first approximation, ‘occupation’ can be defined as a specific pattern of labour, aptitude and competence, constituted by society and held stable over a certain historical period. When these patterns are formalized and regulated by institutions, they gain long-term validity and serve to orient people in their vocational choice. From the perspective of social science, the notion of occupation has two basic features: first, it reflects the social division of labour at a certain stage of a society’s economic and cultural history; second, it is a matter of a person’s identification with a certain pattern of gainful activity. An occupation cannot be reduced to vocational education and training, employment or working at a job, because it is the core medium linking a person’s life-course to the political economy and the work culture of society. This meaning has been fundamental to the understanding of the material and symbolic aspects of occupations ever since the analyses of society by Karl Marx and Max Weber. An occupation mirrors the location of an individual (and his/her family) in the social structure of society and determines the individuals’ life-chances. Traditionally, occupational work also implies a model of a division of labour between a household and employment that reflects the gender relations in a society (Hochschild, 1997; Kr¨uger, 2003; Moen, 1992). With increasing participation by women in service sector occupations, the issues of gender segmentation in the employment system and solutions to the problem of reconciling occupation and family life have become urgent for social policy and for companies’ human resources management. The manifold aspects of an occupation, however, make it difficult to arrive at a concise definition. In the context of capitalist democracies, an occupation implies at least the following characteristics (Beck, Brater & Daheim, 1980; Dostal, 2002; Jahoda, 1982): 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Freedom to choose a certain occupation; A source of social identity and life planning; A focus for organizing human capital (knowledge and skills); The allocation of rights and duties (social status); The representation of society’s values (achievement; individualism/collectivism).
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In sum, an occupation is the point of convergence of skills and activities, working tools and procedures, social status and career mobility. This notion, for example, informs the definition given by the German Federal Employment Agency (cf. Dostal, 2002): An occupation is an integrated set of qualifications, a specific combination of knowledge, practical and social competence (skill profile). It attaches tasks to a set of qualifications and differentiates levels of activity (autonomy vs. restriction) at work and is a major property of the stratification of society. Entering an occupation requires education and training, a preparation that leads not only to a certain skill profile, but also creates legitimate expectations concerning working conditions and income. Having an occupation is a crucial prerequisite for participation and consumption in society. Furthermore, an occupation is an indicator of social (in)equality because it links the person with particular segments of the labour market, where the exchange of labour power and wages is negotiated according to employers’ requirements. This process of status allocation decides a person’s life-chances; thus, it structures social stratification. An occupation also facilitates the matching of skill supply and demand and reduces the costs of job search and of recruiting employees. Last but not least, the notion of an occupation supports the social integration of individuals in the context of the cultural and economic institutions of society. Because of the close coupling among VET institutions, the organization and conditions of work and social security, an occupation is a fundamental principle of social and economic structures—in its most developed form in German-speaking societies. The ideal model of occupation-centred work is built on the idea of a social contract and champions a stable arrangement between the distribution of occupations, the requirements of societal reproduction and individual needs—an arrangement that is embedded in a system of industrial relations and social security (‘social market economy’). This coupling of skills and employment has advantages for the employers with regard to training, recruitment, standards of good work and promotion; for the employees, it conveys social identity and provides a long-term employment perspective. Furthermore, through its connection to firms, work teams, unions or associations, occupational work constitutes communities of practice that provide social recognition and occupational commitment.
3 Redefining Occupation In reality, the arrangements that represent occupation-centred work are thwarted by economic interests, mainly business strategies such as cost-cutting, the creation of lean organizations and competition on the labour market. These factors tend to restrict the matching of skills and jobs and create less employment security and continuity than the social contract would lead us to expect. Recent research (cf. Kurtz, 2001) shows that there is a contradictory development. Occupational credentials gain in importance by entering the labour market, while in fact they are losing their exchange value for stabilizing workers’ identity in the sense of promoting
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their social integration. Since the shaping of one’s life-course is contingent on the extent to which continuity of participation in the labour market is possible, the accumulation of human capital as a resource for negotiating job contracts becomes more important, though employment careers cannot be taken for granted anymore (Heinz, 2003). The accumulation of educational degrees and vocational certificates becomes essential for succeeding in the competition for employment. This is a major reason why most job-seekers and workers invest in education, VET and continuous training—they expect, as a result, opportunities for decent work, income and advancement. The principle of occupation still legitimizes the validity of individual and social investments in the process of skill formation and, at the same time, strengthens the education and training system as an institution contributing to the reproduction of social inequality via differential access to the hierarchy of occupations. There are two questions that need to be dealt with: what are the consequences of the new design of work and uncertain career prospects for the meaning that individuals attach to the notion of occupation? And to what extent will the linkage between technical and vocational training, occupational certificates and employment be weakened? Answers are not easy to be found, because empirical data that would permit us to analyse the interactive effects between structural change and subjective response are scarce. The redefinition of occupation is an element of social change in the transition from an industrial to a service and knowledge society, along with the decline of traditional agencies of social integration, such as family, neighbourhood, workers’ solidarity and employers’ benevolence. This means that living circumstances and life-course become more dependent on labour-market opportunities, and learning an occupation is a prime resource for social integration. Certified skills are still the entrance ticket to good jobs; they facilitate access to continuous employment, the upgrading of skills and retraining. The routes to an occupation, however, are getting much more difficult to pass, because employers are offering far less training places for occupations with prospects. This requires that school graduates and job-seekers engage in much more exploration with an increased risk of failing to land an employment contract. This creates an ‘individualized occupational orientation’ (Berger, Konietzka & Michailow, 2001), which differs from the traditional concept of occupation by being ‘work in progress’—not based on the expectation of a lifelong commitment to the occupation that has been learned. With rising unemployment and increasing numbers of working poor, the coupling between occupation and employment has also become more tenuous in recent years in Germany. There are two complementary developments that have weakened the occupational model: massive lay-offs, outsourcing, franchizing as a form of fake self-employment and non-standard work, on the one hand; and the demand for skill profiles that are adaptable to the companies’ shifting organizational needs, which tend to question the utility of occupational competence. When work time and tasks become more mobile and less predictable, because companies are reacting to market forces much faster than in the period of mass production, then the workers’ capacity for coping with multiple demands gains in importance.
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4 Global Competition, Local Institutions and Values Occupations are embedded in the economic and social history of society leading to the division of labour and the education system. Depending on economic and technical developments, as well as value change in society, fields of occupation may only be stable for a certain period; they constantly lose and gain in number and importance. The decline of crafts and the rise of person-centred services is an obvious example. In the transition to the service society, there has been an increasing differentiation of national and transnational spheres of occupational work. The expansion of financial services and of the media industries has created a number of new highly skilled occupations. There is no general pattern, however. Occupations show path-dependent modifications in response to global change. They adopt different directions in conservative, liberal and social-democratic welfare societies (Esping-Andersen, 1990, 1996). Depending on the respective balance between markets, social services and the active labour-market policy followed by the State, societies develop and maintain different institutions for regulating training, labour-market entry and exit, and industrial relations. These institutions can promote—but also impede—processes of adapting occupations to economic and technological change, because they continue to shape policy decisions and tend to reproduce the basic features of social structures and occupations. The Scandinavian countries, for example, have managed to increase women’s employment by expanding the public service sector in combination with creating occupations in the primary labour market. This policy has led to an upgrading of skilled person-centred occupations and more gender equality in the division of labour between family responsibilities and employment. An active labour-market policy with job creation in the public sector also prevented a rise in the number of working poor in the service sector, a trend characteristic of liberal welfare States such as the United States of America and the United Kingdom. The (neo)liberal strategy and the social democratic policy can be contrasted with the development in countries with a mix of conservative welfare policy and stepwise deregulation of the labour market, like Germany, where the information and communication technology and new forms of work organization are implemented by creating new skill profiles in a reform of its VET-system aimed at modern occupations. This kind of restructuring, however, leads to an increasing risk of social exclusion for the unqualified and those who cannot upgrade their qualifications because they lack social and material resources, such as unskilled youth, single mothers, migrants and unemployed older workers. Because of the dynamic nature of occupations and social mobility, the empirical monitoring of processes that are redefining the status of occupations on the national level is difficult—and at the international level it is almost impossible. Thus, systems of classification must be kept open for future developments in job activity patterns, which include at the minimum the variations in tasks, activities, means, qualifications and social status. For international comparisons, it is important to distinguish between references to employment occupations and to training occupations. For example, in Germany, there are about 30,000 occupational titles and 350
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recognized training occupations according to the federal Vocational Education and Training Act. In addition, there are quite a number of school- and college-based and academic occupations that belong to the expanding category of professions. In the United States, there are no recognized VET occupations, but college and university-based occupations linked to the BA degree (Grubb, 1999). Applied skills are culturally unpopular and are not regarded as providing access to jobs and careers, though the large enrolments at community colleges indicate that there is a demand for intermediate skills. As comparative research shows (B¨uchtemann, Schupp & Soloff, 1994; Heinz, 1999; Shavit & M¨uller, 1998), German institutions concerned with transition from school to work provide certified, flexible and nationally recognized skills that support the process of matching workers and occupations. In order to grasp the impact of global competition on the extent to which occupational change is occurring, the structure of occupations must be compared across countries. Since nation-specific fabrics of institutions and local values define and stabilize the respective employment systems and the cultural meanings of jobs, occupations and professions, conducting such a comparison is challenging. There are international attempts, though, for classifying and comparing occupations that are the starting point for answering the question of to what extent, and why, the status of occupations is undergoing a transformation. The International Labour Organization (ILO) has been developing the ‘International Standard Classification of Occupations’ (ISCO) since 1923 (see Hoffmann, 1999) with an updated version in 1988. This classification serves as a guideline for comparative research on the changes of occupations and labour markets. ISCO is based on two dimensions of skills: (a) their level of complexity, range of activities and degree of specialization; and (b) the kind of knowledge, tools, equipment, materials, type of goods and services. This definition does not take into account, however, the type and level of education and training necessary to qualify for a certain occupation. Though there is a more or less close relationship between the structure of skill levels, the complexity of work and educational levels, this definition is meaningful only for those societies that have an elaborate system linking VET with the structure of occupations and the labour market. ISCO-88 covers ten major groups of occupation according to the respective level of skills, twenty-eight sub-major, 116 minor and 390 unit groups. These categories descend from general to more specific occupational details and can serve as a guide for categorizing and comparing national occupational structures. To complicate the comparison of occupational change across nations, most post-industrial service societies have their own system. In the United States, the ‘Standard Occupational Classification’ (SOC 1998) is more specific on the levels of the minor (‘broad’) groups (449) and detailed occupations (821). In Germany, six occupational areas based on economic sectors and twenty fields of occupations are distinguished. The obvious variations for classifying occupations result from using the dimension of ‘level of specialization’ in different ways and by being silent in regard to the educational requirements of occupations. More refined classifications for the purpose of assessing changes that call for a redefinition are called for which combine economic sector and occupational status with skill level, education and specialization. In the light of the trend
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towards the ‘flexible specialization’ of work in post-industrial society (Priore & Sabel, 1984), such a refined taxonomy could improve the collection of comparable data on the extent to which occupations are shifting to multi-skilling (hybrid skills profiles) in the context of required organizational flexibility and lifelong learning.
5 Reasons for Redefining Occupations The causes, processes and consequences for the constitution, development and modification—as well the vanishing—of certain occupations tend to be discussed by referring to the economic and technological forces, globalization and the rise of information and communication technologies. However, there is no deterministic relationship between the progress of technologies, skill requirements and the restructuring of occupations (cf. Kurtz, 2001). The restructuring of occupations can best be understood not as being driven by the economy or technology, but as a process of social construction that involves the divergent interests of relevant agents— companies, policy-makers, educators, unions, customers, bureaucracy and, last but not least, the workers themselves. The creation, consolidation and branching of occupations, as well as their modification, are based on a social process of negotiating the supply of skills and the demand for workers. If this negotiation turns out to be successful, standards of training, membership and execution of tasks arise that regulate the interaction between workers, employers and customers. Such a process may take several decades, as in the setting up of crafts in the context of guilds in mediaeval Europe; or just a few years, as in the creation of Information Technology (IT) and media occupations at the turn of the twentieth century. New service occupations were established in order to manage the implementation and use of computers, new care facilities, financial transactions (analysts), information services (call centres), etc. The demand for IT and media services continuously generates the need for employees with technical, sales, and social and consulting skills. Such skill profiles define new occupations that differ from their predecessors by being open to changes in their composition. The fast expansion of technical and person-related services, however, did not generate well-defined occupations, but rather a range of jobs, from casual work to professional work. The high-end occupations, as well as the less-qualified jobs, are growing at the expense of traditional production, sales and office work. These changes are resulting from a process-oriented organization of companies and work situations that is supposed to be more efficient in responding to market forces and customer demands than the occupational model of designing and performing work. This new model is tied to a skill-based division of labour and promotes primarily the execution of tasks, instead of planning and problem-solving in the context of overlapping, multi-occupationally composed project teams. Such flexible forms of organizing work come to characterize manufacturing and service companies that require employees to be prepared for co-operation and self-control in flat status hierarchies. This restructuring also leads to a much more flexible regime of work-time, especially in businesses that depend upon customers and clients. This
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regime has been labelled the ‘24/7-work-week’ (Presser, 2003), e.g. twenty-four hours a day for seven days a week. In the United States, almost half of the work force is employed in non-standard time regimes, due to the constraints on service jobs that dictate flexible work time. When work is performed under time pressure in combination with new tools, new procedures and in company with co-workers, employees cannot rely on their experience-based calculation of time frames for services and innovative manufacturing activities. These changes impact on the qualifications that are sought by employers: procedural and technical skills must be combined with sensitivity for customers’ variable wishes and the personality of colleagues. Based on their skill profile, employees must perform multiple tasks, e.g. manufacturing, repairing, selling and customer advice. Changing teams, locations and different customers require communicative competence, role-playing and, increasingly, foreign language skills as well—usually English. Competence requirements thus not only increase but are also changing in their composition towards a mix of technical, sales and communicative skills in order to solve hard- and software problems for IT users or to support families in the care of ailing grandparents. As OECD reports (e.g. 1996), there is a rising level of education in all postindustrial service societies that is not just a response to new skill demands, but reflects a cultural change towards post-secondary education and lifelong learning, promising a working life that can be shaped according to individual talents and goals. This trend towards a new political economy of education is also at the roots of the ‘Bologna-Process’, which promotes the introduction of the Anglo-American system of academic certification—the BA and MA—in Europe by the year 2010. It is still a matter of academic debate whether these trends are evidence of the knowledge society with increasing autonomy at work (Stehr, 2000) or a transformation of the supply and demand negotiation pattern towards a flexible employment society (Sennett, 1998), which may endanger the image of occupation as a vehicle of career continuity that used to provide social identity in the past. There are only a minority of skilled workers who benefit from more autonomy at work, because there is a widening gap between the educational accomplishments of workers and their actual employment: under-employment and non-standard work are widespread experiences for recent generations of job-starters (Livingstone, 1998). The better qualified ones, however, tend to be integrated in social networks of alumni and job-contacts, and thus are better prepared to cope with uncertain and discontinuous careers. At present, there are two possible scenarios that may redefine the status of occupation in post-industrial service societies: a decline in occupational commitment; or a professionalization of occupations.
5.1 A Decline in Occupational Commitment The reduction in regular employment and the requirement to engage in continuing training, cope with wage cuts and the risk of long-term unemployment all contribute to a creeping de-valuation of occupation as the key for entering and staying in the
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labour market and as a marker for continuity in one’s life. When work contracts become short-term and individualized, the employees must learn to behave like entrepreneurs and act in a self-rationalizing manner, because they have to compete in the labour market over and over again. Occupational skills are taken for granted, but they are not enough to keep a job with prospects. Employees and job-seekers need self-management skills in order to come to a rational and efficient arrangement with the varied demands of firms in respect to time, location, content and conditions of work. A new type of employee, the entrepreneur of one’s own skills (‘labour power entrepreneur’), has been described by Voss (2000), an employee who can navigate the work orientations and practices that correspond to the fast-moving and highly demanding work situations in the IT, media and financial services fields. When a loose coupling between certified skills and work activities becomes the norm, then a person’s commitment to the occupation they once learned will weaken in favour of optimizing job opportunities and taking chances by changing occupations, or at least integrating new features into their skill profiles. This, however, means reshaping one’s ensemble of knowledge and aptitudes on demand, corresponding to the principle of ‘just-in-time’ in the manufacturing industry. Such a flexible orientation towards content and the work context reduces commitment to one’s occupation and may have long-term stressful effects on the worker’s self-identity.
5.2 From Occupation to Profession The other scenario is the upgrading of occupations in a process of (re)professionalization. Professions are one of the three forms of organizing work, together with markets and administrations (Freidson, 2001); they are characterized by specific expertise, self-organization and self-regulation. Prominent examples are lawyers, doctors and architects. While in Anglo-American societies professions have developed from the bottom-up by gaining a strong position in society, in Germany and France professions, similar to trades, were defined by the State and regulated by education, training and certification institutions. Professions differ from occupations by providing and requiring more autonomy in the design and practice of work and by being based on an academic education. They create their own standards for assessing their output and implement practices of self-control that tend to be core elements of a code of ethics. Professions can be regarded as providers of solutions for crucial service problems of modern societies, in the sense that they command a field of knowledge that can contribute to the regulation of crises (e.g. illness, crime and housing) in the context of core social values like health, justice and safety. There are four central properties that characterize a profession: 1) It is in charge of providing a socially important task through a set of special knowledge, e.g. illness is cured by medical expertise. 2) It establishes a relationship with a central value of society. 3) Education takes place in an academic setting offering abstract knowledge and communication skills.
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4) Formal knowledge and its certification, as well as continuing skill improvement, is regulated by associations (in Europe in negotiation with the State), which organize and defend their monopoly of expertise by strategies of social exclusion and control of the client market. The wearisome dispute between the medical profession and the association of clinical psychologists in Germany about the recognition of psychological psychotherapy and its integration into the system of health insurance is an exemplary case. In his seminal paper, Wilensky (1964) proposed a model of a stepwise generation of a profession, a model which may also be applicable to the transformation of an occupation into a profession. A job turns into a full-time gainful activity; a body of skills is defined that can be learned; then a curriculum and educational providers are established; a professional association is founded; finally, a code of ethics is set up. Public recognition tends to be conferred in a process of licensing by State authorities, which implies the definition of educational requirements. The case of the semi-professions is instructive in regard to the redefinition of the status of occupations, because it shows how occupations in the fields of personcentred services, like caring, nursing, physiotherapy and social work, struggle for recognition as self-responsible fields of expertise. They will only succeed when they can convince the State authorities—as well as their clients—that they command the formal and practical knowledge for analysing a problem (diagnosis), deriving a solution (inference) and putting it into practice (action, treatment) (cf. Abbott, 1988). The diagnostic competence is the feature that distinguishes a profession from a semi-profession and an occupation; because this competence rests on abstract, theoretical knowledge—it requires an academic education. There are indications that highly skilled production workers may experience a re-professionalization by learning at work. Recent case studies in German automobile plants (Baethge-Kinsky & Tullius, 2005) show that flexibly standardized manufacturing can generate learning-friendly work constellations that promote an upgrading of workers’ knowledge and participation profile. Knowledge of the flow of production and marketing processes, and for some workers also of IT and business processes, develops from design-oriented settings. Such a learning process improves not just productivity, but also workers’ satisfaction. Although we cannot assume that all criteria of professional work are met, there is a pro-active redefinition of the status of productive work that is based on occupational competence acquired through TVET.
6 Is There a Discontinuity Between TVET and the Employment System? In the last decade of the twentieth century, a controversy in regard to the future of the occupation in post-industrial society began, a debate which is less optimistic about the prospects of transforming occupations into professions. Flexible employment and social skills are taking over from careers and technical skills, a tendency
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that weakens vocationally-based work in favour of process-centred work requiring readiness for a ‘constant flux’. In Germany, the system of occupations is still linked to the VET-system, which passes on less theoretical than practical knowledge and operates with rules and regulations that do not seem to adequately prepare the young generation for rapidly changing work situations. Therefore, it is likely that many occupations that do not succeed in transforming themselves into professions will turn from complex social and cultural units into a fluid mix of competence profiles and activity patterns. If this scenario should become reality, such a shift would reduce the occupation to its functional characteristics of employability. This could have severe consequences for the allocation of life-chances in the context of the knowledge society for those who cannot afford to invest time and money in a permanent up-grading of their skill profile. The growing importance of a highly skilled and flexible labour force leads to a shift towards more individualized employment patterns, putting a premium on selfguided and self-responsible decisions about the choice of an occupation. Depending on the outcomes of a series of difficult decisions, apprentices and trainees cannot expect to be employed by the company that trains them. For an increasing number of qualified job-seekers, the transition into employment has become protracted, bridged by voluntary work, temporary jobs and spells of unemployment. Training and labour market data (BMBF, 2004) show that, since the mid-1990s, firms have reduced their intake of apprentices and tend to recruit people for positions at the middle-management level. They do not train their own experienced skilled work force, but prefer college graduates. There are indications that employers’ recruitment strategies take occupational qualifications for granted, but they do not regard them as a guiding principle for hiring employees. The knowledge-intensive technical and person-centred tasks require that education and training experiences are equipping workers with a flexible combination of cognitive, methodological and practical skills. Such skill profiles tend not to be generated by the conventional TVET that has its roots in crafts, trades and manufacturing. Therefore, a structural crisis of the German VET-system and similar institutions in other societies is impending (cf. Baethge, 2001). The signs of crisis cannot be denied. There has been a 20% decline in training places since the 1990s; in financial services it is much steeper (30%). Instead of VET-graduates, more college graduates are hired, which blocks the advancement of skilled workers. In responding to the decline of occupational training, Germany’s dual system of VET is re-forming itself by concentrating on basic or core occupations that promote a flexible approach towards innovative and challenging designs at the work place. The main target is to improve workers’ capacity for occupational activities in variable and unpredictable employment circumstances by work-process learning and continuing training. These are promising reforms that are also changing the relationship between in-firm training and vocational schooling in the direction of upgrading the quality of basic and continuing theoretical education in college curricula. Such an institutional arrangement would create some similarity with the vocational education provided at further education colleges in the United Kingdom and at community colleges in Canada and the United States, albeit with the added
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value of a close coupling of in-firm training and nationwide recognized occupational credentials. The extension and specification of knowledge and skills with a wide range of utilization drives the reform of TVET curricula, which takes place hand-inhand with the reduction in the number of training occupations (‘core-occupations’— Rauner, 2000). This modernization in numbers, content and form of TVET already occurred in other countries in the 1990s, where there was not the successful legacy of an internationally profiled export industry (cars, machinery), such as in Switzerland and Denmark.
7 Outlook In post-industrial service society there has been a transformation from an employment system based on a strong linkage between education, training and occupation to a system which operates according to the criteria of employability, cost-efficiency and flexibility. This leads to a diversification of types of employment with an increase of service jobs, self-employment and contingent careers. These developments are path-dependent and will take two possible routes in the future: a devaluation of occupation on the labour market and as a signpost for life planning; or a transformation of occupations into professions. It is likely that an enhancement of a training-and-employment culture in the context of lifelong learning will not be enough for a redefinition of the status of occupations that would benefit workers, if it is not combined with a new social contract providing employment and social security in the context of flexible work and discontinuous careers.
References Abbott, A. 1988. The system of professions. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Baethge, M. 2001. Beruf – Ende oder Transformation eines erfolgreichen Ausbildungskonzepts? In: Kurtz, T., ed. Aspekte des Berufs in der Moderne, pp. 39–68. Opladen, Germany: Leske & Budrich. Baethge-Kinsky, V.; Tullius, K. 2005. Produktionsarbeit und Kompetenzentwicklung in der Autoindustrie. SOFI-Mitteilungen, no. 33, pp. 39–53. Beck, U.; Brater, M.; Daheim, H. 1980. Soziologie der Arbeit und der Berufe. Reinbeck, Germany: Rowohlt. Berger, P.A.; Konietzka, D.; Michailow, M. 2001. Beruf, soziale Ungleichheit und Individualisierung. In: Kurtz, H., ed. Aspekte des Berufs in der Moderne, pp. 209–37. Opladen, Germany: Leske & Budrich. Bundesministerium f¨ur Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), ed. 2004. Berufsbildungsbericht. Berlin: BMBF. Braverman, H. 1974. Labor and monopoly capital: the degradation of work in the 20th century. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press. B¨uchtemann, C.; Schupp, J.; Soloff, D. 1994. From school to work: patterns in Germany and the United States. In: Schwarze, J.; Buttler, F.; Wagner, G., eds. Labour market dynamics in present day Germany, pp. 112–41. Frankfurt a.M., Germany: Campus; Boulder, CO: Westview. Dostal, W. 2002. Der Berufsbegriff in der Berufsforschung des IAB. In: Kleinhinz, G., ed. IABKompendium Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, pp. 463–74. N¨urnberg, Germany: IAB.
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Esping-Andersen, G. 1990. The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press. Esping-Andersen, G., ed. 1996. Welfare states in transition. London: Sage. Freidson, E. 2001. Professionalism: the third logic. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Grubb, N.W. 1999. The subbaccalaureate labour market in the United States: challenges for the school-to-work transition. In: Heinz, W.R., ed. From education to work: cross-national perspectives, pp. 171–93. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Heinz, W.R., ed. 1999. From education to work: cross-national perspectives. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Heinz, W.R. 2003. From work trajectories to negotiated careers: the contingent work life course. In: Mortimer, J.; Shanahan, M., eds. Handbook of the life course, pp. 185–204. New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. Hochschild, A.R. 1997. The time bind: when work becomes home and home becomes work. New York, NY: Henry Holt. Hoffmann, E. 1999. International statistical comparisons of occupational and social structures: problems, possibilities and the role of ISCO-88. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Jahoda, M. 1982. Employment and unemployment. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Kern, H.; Schumann, M. 1984. Das Ende der Arbeitsteilung? Munich, Germany: Beck. Kr¨uger, H. 2003. The life-course regime: ambiguities between relatedness and individualisation. In: Heinz, W.R.; Marshall, V.W., eds. Social dynamics of the life course, pp. 33–56. New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter. Kurtz, T., ed. 2001. Aspekte des Berufs in der Moderne. Opladen, Germany: Leske & Budrich. Livingstone, D.W. 1998. The education-jobs gap. Boulder, CO: Westview. Moen, P. 1992. Women’s two roles: a contemporary dilemma. Westport, CT: Auburn House. Moen, P.; Roehling, P. 2005. The career mystique: cracks in the American dream. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, ed. 1996. Lifelong learning for all. Paris: OECD. Presser, H.B. 2003. Working in a 24/7 economy: challenges for American families. New York, NY: Russel Sage Foundation. Priore, M.; Sabel, C. 1984. The second industrial divide: possibilities for prosperity. New York, NY: Basic Books. Rauner, F. 2000. Zukunft der Facharbeit. In: Pahl, J.-P.; Rauner, F.; Sp¨ottl, G., eds. Berufliches Arbeitsprozesswissen, pp. 49–60. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos. Rifkin, J. 1995. The end of work. New York, NY: G.P. Putnam Sons. Schwarze, J.; Buttler, F.; Wagner, G.G., eds. 1994. Labour market dynamics in present-day Germany. Frankfurt a.M., Germany: Campus; Boulder, CO: Westview. Sennett, R. 1998. The corrosion of character. New York, NY: W.W. Norton. Shavit, Y.; M¨uller, W., eds. 1998. From school to work: a comparative study of educational qualifications and occupational destinations. Oxford, UK: Clarendon. Solga, H.; Konietzka, D. 1999. Occupational matching and social stratification. European sociological review, vol. 15, pp. 25–47. Stehr, N. 2000. Die Zerbrechlichkeit moderner Gesellschaften. Weilerswist, Germany: Velbr¨uck. Voss, G.G. 2000. Unternehmer der eigenen Arbeitskraft: einige Folgerungen f¨ur die Bildungssoziologie. Zeitschrift f¨ur Soziologie der Erziehung und Sozialisation, vol. 20, pp. 149–66. Weber, M. 1976/1904. The protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Wilensky, H.L. 1964. The professionalization of everyone? American journal of sociology, vol. 70, pp. 137–58.
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Chapter I.7
Changing Work, Work Practice: The Consequences for Vocational Education Stephen Billett
1 Changing Work, Changing Workers This chapter discusses the changing and emerging characteristics of work, work practice and work requirements, and their consequences for vocational education. Changing patterns in work and working life are proposed as comprising: (i) the kind of work available; (ii) how individuals participate in work; (iii) what constitutes competence within that work; and (iv) those participating in work. The consequences for vocational education are systemic in terms of the kinds of occupations that need to be developed, variations in and complexity of work requirements, shifts in employer/employee relations, and the demographic shifts in those who will need to be supported by vocational education. The chapter examines these patterns of change to work and working life, and discusses policy and curriculum practice associated with each. Overall, it argues that the changes to work make it more demanding, and the frequency of change in work and how work is carried out demands careful, comprehensive and targeted preparation and on-going development. Moreover, with broader participation in the work force and longer working lives, the arrangement for this preparation and on-going development will need to be targeted, differentiated and sustained.
2 Changes in the Kinds of Work Available In the last quarter of the twentieth century and continuing into this, there have been considerable changes to the kinds of work available across and within countries (Handel, 2005; McBrier & Wilson, 2004). Changes in the demand for particular kinds of paid employment (occupations) are shaped by continuities and transformations in the requirements for vocational practice in particular countries or regions. As these requirements are subject to constant change, the demand for particular occupations transforms both the amount and kinds of available paid work. Through this process, some occupations are reshaped, transformed or simply disappear. This means that the availability, location and accessibility of particular kinds of paid work also change. Although the character and scope of these changes differ across R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 I.7, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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countries and economies, there are some trends that are consistent across many countries espousing Western-style economies. These trends include a reduction in the demand for ‘semi-skilled’ and ‘unskilled work’ and an increase in demand for professional, technical and administrative work, and also service work—yet much of it ‘low skill’ (Noon & Blyton, 1997). For instance, there has been a considerable decline in the number of workers engaged directly in agricultural work, which impacts on farm workers and farming communities. In the United States, the decline in farming employment commenced in the early 1950s, and levelled off by the mid-1970s (United States of America. Department of Labor, 2005). The agricultural sector and agricultural communities experienced a decline resulting in only a fraction of the former numbers of people employed in farm work. However, this sector remains a major source of employment. Because of the centralization and intensification of food production in the United States, many more workers are employed in the processing and distribution of farm products: ‘from the gate to the plate’. This change indicates a shift in the forms of work required or available in this sector. There has been a significant decline in employment within manufacturing in many Western countries. Between 1940 and 2002, American manufacturing employment declined from 48% to 28% of the workforce (Employment Policy Foundation, 2003); in Australia between 1983 and 1999 it declined from 18.1% to 12.8% (Pusey, 2003). Like agriculture, the impact of this decline impacts both individuals who work in those sectors and the communities in which they live. Some of this decline has been the result of labour-saving technologies and also manufacturing work being exported to other countries. Thus, while manufacturing work in countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States has declined, it has grown significantly among the Korean labour force and now constitutes the single largest category of employment at 32% (Korean Economic Planning Board, 2005). Alongside this there is the centralization of specialized manufacturing (e.g. aircraft, automobiles, shipbuilding), which sees particular forms of high and specifically skilled employment restricted to particular locations and countries. Thus, in different ways, the transformation of economic activity through increased use of technology, the export of jobs to other countries and emerging community needs is having a profound effect on the availability of particular kinds of work. Yet, any claims of a general trend towards high-skill work are contradicted by a burgeoning service industry sector in some countries, such as Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, where this kind of work is often low paid and low skill (Carnoy, 1999). In these countries, there has also been some growth in the allied health and community work sectors (e.g. community health and care of the aged) that are emerging as responses to changing demographics. Yet again, much of this work is characterized as low paid and low skill. With the growth in employment being largely within professional, technical and service work, there is a hollowing out of mid-skill work and polarization between high- and low-skill workers. These patterns of growth, like those of manufacturing and agriculture, are largely unidirectional indicating structural changes in the work
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available. For instance, in 1940, American managers and professionals made up only 18% of the non-farm labour force, yet by 2002 they comprised 32% (Employment Policy Foundation, 2003). Barley and Orr (1997) claim that the number of professional and technical jobs in the United States has increased over 300% since 1950, overshadowing increases in sales work (248%) and managerial work (182%). Yet, other shifts in the labour market complicate this trend. During the 1980s, there were significant declines in mid-level managerial positions in the United States. At a time when many African-Americans were gaining middle management jobs, they are claimed to have experienced declines in their careers more frequently and more severely than their white counterparts (McBrier & Wilson, 2004). This suggests another dimension of the hollowing out thesis, based on factors other than human capital. The reduction of manufacturing employment in Australia has been overshadowed by the decline in private-sector employment (31% to 20%), matched by a comparable increase in private-sector employment (Pusey, 2003). Although reflecting the trend of strong employment in professional and managerial work, the shift from public-sector to private-sector employment for such large numbers of Australian workers would lead to significant impacts upon their work, careers and the course of their lives. Thus, even within employment categories that are experiencing overall growth, there can be quite different outcomes for groups of workers. Barley and Orr (1997) claim that many jobs have been so transformed that the existing occupational categories no longer reflect the division within contemporary workforces. For instance, transformations in the printing industry have seen a wholesale change in the skills required as hot-metal printing processes were replaced by informationprocessing and offset technologies. Clearly, as work requirements change, quite different sets of skills are required to secure and maintain employment in these sectors. Significant patterns of change are occurring in the kinds of work available in particular countries, localities and in what constitute categories of occupations. There are long-term consequences for these occupations, as well as for those people and communities wishing to maintain secure employment in particular kinds of occupations. The implications include the capacity to sustain a career throughout one’s working life, and the prospect of dealing with shifts in locations, wholesale transformations in work requirements and even the demise of particular occupations. For vocational education, it means that, beyond initial preparation, there has to be curriculum and certification arrangements that can facilitate occupational transitions throughout a person’s working life.
3 Changes in Participation in Work The ways in which individuals engage in work and the organization of that work are being transformed—and in diverse ways. This has implications for the capacities that individuals require and how their skill development is assured throughout
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their working lives. There are shifts to increasingly ‘non-standard’ forms of employment practices. These can comprise contingent forms of employment (e.g. part-time, contract based and non-continuing) that, in the main, are involuntary (Lipsig-Mumme, 1996). Across many Western-style economies, the number of workers who are employed in these kinds of work arrangements is high and increasing. In Australia, Pusey (2003) notes that full-time employment declined between 1985 and 2000 from 82% to 74% of the workforce. In the United Kingdom, the percentage of employees working part-time increased from 21% in 1991 to 27% in 2000 (United Kingdom Labour Force Survey, 2005). Similarly, temporary jobs increased from 4% to 8% and self-employment rose from 7% to 11.6%. There are also other forms of non-standard work that are reshaping the organization and conduct of work, such as working from home or otherwise being remote from the worksite. The advent of low-cost forms of information technology has provided circumstances in which workers are less required to be physically located in a particular workplace. Yet, as with contingent work, these workers refer to difficulties in maintaining their contact with and their understanding of what constitutes the requirements for work, particularly as these are subject to change (Noon & Blyton, 1997). As with the changes to the kinds of occupations that are available, these nonstandard forms of employment are deployed and experienced differently across workforces. Involuntary contingent work arrangements are less likely to be experienced by highly-skilled or highly-paid workers, but are more likely among lowerpaid and low-skilled workers, such as those in the service sector (Bernhardt, 1999). These employment arrangements are counter to orthodox labour-market practices, as they are typical of times of high unemployment. Yet, in countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, contingent work situations have continued even within times of soaring economic activity and performance. All this contradicts and stands in contrast to what was predicted for the contemporary workforce. In the 1990s it was forecast that most work in Western economies would become highly skilled, increasingly self-managed and highly discretionary (Carnevale, 1995). Yet such arrangements have only been accorded to a minority of workers (Bernhardt, 1999; Berryman, 1993). Highly-skilled professionals are most likely to experience these arrangements, but they remain a remote prospect for service and retail workers. As Bernhardt (1999) suggests, some retail work is deliberately downskilled to secure low levels of pay and maximize opportunities for using part-time and contingent workers. Technology, which is increasingly becoming a requirement of workplace performance, can be used to de-skill these workers, including marginalizing their discretion. For instance, massive technological investment by the retailer Wal-Mart has been used to keep inventories responsive to turnover patterns. Here, some tasks are being transferred to the suppliers themselves, who can re-supply stores based on access to records about product sales (Bernhardt, 1999). Yet, these changes have been driven by technological and process innovation—not on the basis of making work more expansive and skilled. Although these are not ‘high-performance workplaces’, their operations are highly profitable. Hence, it
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is unlikely that retailers like these will engage in expanding employees’ working opportunities. The prospects for expansive work practices are based upon perceptions of the complexity of work and the standing of workers. Darrah (1997) noted in a company manufacturing computers that the system designers were seen to have the most high status and were afforded greater levels of support and professional development. Yet, analysis of the work conducted by production workers indicated that their skill requirements were at least as demanding as those of the system designers. Nevertheless, the production workers were rarely given opportunities to develop their skills further, nor were they involved in organizational decision-making, even that associated with production matters. Thus, perceptions about the standing of individuals’ work can influence how they participate in and contribute to the workplace. Moreover, the bases upon which employers support employees in their on-going development throughout their working lives also appears to be marked by diversity. Studies from America and across Europe indicate the same trend. Employers are more likely to spend funds on and support younger, more educated, skilled and male workers who speak the native language than those who are older, less educated and skilled, female and who do not speak the native language (Brunello & Medio, 2001). They are most likely to support the kinds of workers who are best able to fend for themselves, probably because these workers are seen to be more valuable and less replaceable. Thus, consideration of expansive and high-performance workers needs to include the broader requirements for being able to perform vocational practice in dynamic, intense and differentiated circumstances. This suggests requirements for the development of workplace capacities that go beyond technical competence and emphasizes how this knowledge might be applied, managed and used strategically in fluid and transforming work practices. Beyond the prospects of institutional support (e.g. workplaces, educational institutions), the agency of individuals as learner-workers will be central to their effective on-going participation in work.
4 Changes in the Requirements for Work It follows from the above that the requirements for work performance will change continuously throughout individuals’ working lives. Regardless of whether work is up-skilling or down-skilling, the requirements for work are changing. This means that individuals will need to maintain their workplace competence actively. These changing requirements will be manifested in particular ways across workplaces and will vary in terms of the breadth and scope of change. Yet, some requirements are likely to comprise work that is more: (i) non-routine; (ii) specialized and diverse; (iii) intense; (iv) conceptual; (v) discretionary; (vi) complex; and (vii) based on interactions with others, tools and artefacts. Each of these has implications for vocational education.
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4.1 Work is Becoming Less Routine Regardless of whether work is being up-skilled or down-skilled, it is increasingly subject to change and transformation. This makes it less routine, demanding continuous learning. Production and service cycles are getting shorter (Bailey, 1993). Technology brings about changes as it moves through cycles of introduction, growth, stability and then further change (Bartel & Lichtenberg, 1987), with these cycles becoming increasingly close together and overlapping. Consequently, workplace competence premised on engagement with technology can be fleeting. A car mechanic claimed that each model of automobiles has particular nuances associated with its operation, maintenance and mechanical problems. Beyond general mechanical knowledge, familiarity with particular models of cars is central to mechanics’ workplace competence developed over time in working on these vehicles (Billett & Somerville, 2004). However, the replacement of one model by the next nullifies the value of existing nuanced knowledge. The mechanics must learn, through experience, the mechanical foibles of the new model. In this way, the frequency of change that workers are subject to reflects the frequency with which they have to learn anew. Some implications for vocational education are as follows. The degree to which the requirements for work are different or new to the worker makes this learning an easier or more difficult task. Learning about new requirements that are similar to what has been experienced before are easier to learn because of the existing knowledge base. Changing from one form of word-processing package to another might not be too difficult. However, tasks that are novel to an individual can represent a significant learning task, with the danger of overwhelming their learning ability. Importantly, beyond the objective requirements of the tasks to be learned, the degree to which the task is novel is person-dependent. That is, what will be a routine activity for one person may be non-routine for another. Women returning to clerical work after being principal care-givers for their children are confronted by significant transformations in the technological requirements of clerical work (e.g. using word-processing, spreadsheets and electronic mail). For the worker whose previous competence was with a typewriter, there is a requirement for considerable skill development. The degree to which learning tasks are novel to individuals is likely to determine the level of support required to guide their effective work performance. Generally, new learning or the adaptation of existing knowledge is the kind of learning that would most likely require guidance by more expert monitors. This can include demonstrating practices, elaborating concepts and assisting individuals’ access to knowledge that they might not otherwise be able to learn.
4.2 Specialization and Diversification A need for specialization or diversification—or both—arises as workplaces change. Particular technologies require individuals to become specialized in their operation, because expensive equipment or complex processes require specific expertise.
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Conversely, and particularly in workplaces that have reduced the number of workers, the remaining workers are required to perform a wider range of tasks. Individuals might need to be more broadly skilled and engage in a wide range of activities that demand a broader range of work competencies. The motor mechanics referred to above have noted the way that longer vehicle warranties have changed their work. These warranties tend to wed car owners to the garage from which it was purchased and mechanics’ jobs become concerned with maintaining close contact with and providing a service for a client over a longer period (Billett & Somerville, 2004). Mechanics may have to develop skills associated with communication, explanation and being patient with clients’ complaints or requests. Therefore, depending on the degree to which individuals are asked to develop specific skills or to be more broadly skilful suggests different but particular kinds of skills development. Both the scope and depth of work requirements demand particular kinds of vocational preparation: the broadening of the vocational base and the development of specialization through richer procedural and conceptual knowledge of particular domains of activities.
4.3 Intensity of Work To provide high-quality goods and services, work is becoming more intense through the need to compete locally and globally. For instance, changes to medical practices have made nurses’ work more demanding. Hospital wards once contained recuperating patients who required little intensive care by nurses, who could then focus their attention on the sick patients who really needed their care. Now patients often recuperate elsewhere (e.g. at home), leaving hospital wards for the really sick patients requiring the nurses’ attention. The latter’s work has become more challenging. Managing such work requires monitoring, prioritizing and conducting multiple tasks simultaneously (Bertrand & Noyelle, 1988). This requires considering a range of factors, making and enacting decisions and monitoring execution of a number of tasks simultaneously. Higher order capacities are required to manage work that is intense, and these capacities have to be developed for effective work practice. Developing these kinds of capacities represents a key goal for vocational education, yet such capacities are not likely to be easily developed through classroom-based activities.
4.4 Conceptual Requirements Work requirements might also become more opaque—difficult to comprehend and increasingly reliant upon conceptual and symbolic knowledge—particularly where technological requirements are high. There have always been conceptual elements to working knowledge (e.g. force factors, process considerations). These are gradually becoming a requirement for contemporary and emerging work practice. Technology more often requires particular understandings on the part of workers premised
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on conceptual and symbolic knowledge, than when individuals engage more directly with their work activities. Computer-controlled lathes, for instance, require levels of symbolic and conceptual knowledge that are distinct from those required for operating a manual lathe (Martin & Scribner, 1991). The former requires that the operator utilizes digital co-ordinates and commands, that are more abstract and may be more difficult to comprehend and learn than those from physical engagement and observation (Zuboff, 1988). Similarly, while bedside computers can ease nurses’ workload through performing routine monitoring tasks (CookGumperez & Hanna, 1997), this technology requires understanding operations and functions represented in digital form, rather than those physically engaged with or through observing a patient. Further, the separation between the operator and the object upon which they are working makes the task of understanding more difficult (Zuboff, 1988). With increases in technology use, the requirements to work with forms of conceptual and symbolic knowledge are likely to become more common, and therefore a goal for vocational education. Because of the demands associated with the learning of conceptual and symbolic knowledge, it may be necessary to use specific instructional devices to secure understanding. Without specific instructional interventions this ‘hard to learn’ knowledge will not be successfully learned.
4.5 Enhanced Discretion and Complexity in Work Although the promise of high-discretion work has not been realised universally, the discretionary qualities of many forms of work are increasing for many if not all workers. Job expansion (e.g. cross-skilling) and changes to workplace practices, such as the flattening of organizational structures, often introduce increased demands for workplace discretion (Noon & Blyton, 1997). These changes may require workers to make more decisions and take into account an increased array of work-related factors, thereby making the requirements for effective performance more complex. Complexity refers to the number of compounding factors that need to be considered or taken into consideration when enacting a work task. From the examples above, work requirements are becoming more complex because of their novelty, job expansion or specialization, the conceptual knowledge needed to be exercized, and the broad range of discretionary qualities required. For many, the demands for effective work performance are increasing. Ironically, this may not be the intention of workplace management, who may even wish to simplify and de-skill work (Danford, 1998). Yet, the range of factors that underpins much of contemporary and emerging work, including the constancy of change, suggests that—regardless of these intents—work itself is becoming increasingly demanding about maintaining competence, because of the kinds of barriers that are erected to subordinate and control, around which workers have to work to exercise their sense of self as individuals and workers.
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4.6 Workplace Interactions In addition to the changing characteristics of work tasks as outlined above, the requirements for workplace interactions with others and with technologies are changing and likely to increase. Across a range of occupations and kinds of work practice, there seems to be a growing demand for individuals to work as teams, even if they are not interested in or empowered through these arrangements (Darrah, 1997). Nevertheless, the distribution of activities across groups of workers and flatter organizational structures premised on a reduction in direct supervision (McGovern, 1996) demand increases in workplace interactions. These include requirements for negotiation and working with others in order for work to be commonly understood, shared and conducted. Such requirements are complicated by the breadth of work individuals engage in, the cohesiveness of teams and common understandings about work (Billett, Smith & Barker, 2005). The ability to communicate and the capacity to engage with others are emerging now as basic requirements for work. Beyond being able to communicate orally and in written form, there are also work practice requirements that are both a product of and premised on workplace interactions. Moreover, and related to the requirements for developing the conceptual and symbolic capacities required for work, there are the requirements to interact with tools and artefacts, and with technologies of different kinds—and to communicate about it. So, together, the growing requirements for interactions with others, tools and technologies suggest that these aspects of work performance require particular capacities and, therefore, new forms of development. Overall, the requirements for contemporary and emerging work practices are more demanding than in the past. Yet, not all of these requirements are new. There have always been new activities, specialization and diversification, intense forms of work and conceptual underpinnings for effective work, discretionary qualities and capacities. However, currently—and also probably in the future—there will be a requirement for these capacities to be learned with greater frequency. The outcome will result in making work more demanding and therefore requiring more thorough initial preparation and continuity. It seems that initial vocational preparation will need to be thorough and go beyond just work techniques and providing for the on-going development of vocational practice.
5 Changes in Who is Participating in Work Having identified changes in the forms of work available, their conduct and performance requirements, there are also changes noticeable in those who are participating in work; that is, in those who require initial preparation and on-going development throughout their working lives. The most significant increase in many Western countries is women’s participation in the labour force. Between 1970 and 2000, the proportion of women aged over 16 in the American labour force increased from 43% to 61% (United States of America. Department of Labor, 2005) and is
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currently at 47% of the total work force. This increase in women’s participation is closing the gender gap, with female workers predicted soon to outnumber males. In Australia, the percentage of women aged between 25 and 34 in the Australian labour market has increased by three-quarters in just one generation: from 41% to 71% between 1970 and 1996 (Pusey, 2003). Similarly, in the United Kingdom their participation has increased from 42% in 1980 to 47% in 2000. Being married now has less effect on women’s participation in the workforce (McGovern, Smeaton & Hill, 2004). In 1960, fewer than 20% of women with children under the age of 6 participated in paid work, yet in 2004 60% of these women and 75% of women with school-age children are participating in paid work, which is consistent with the overall level of participation by women (Jacobsen, 2004). American women are now marrying and having children later. They have fewer children, can access childcare, are less willing to interrupt education for marriage and more likely to have a career before marriage (Jacobsen, 2004). Moreover, they have benefited from education to secure better paid work (Loutfi, 2001). The increases in women’s remuneration are believed to be based on: (i) women’s educational attainment, particularly in post-graduate education; (ii) work experience and lifetime hours worked; (iii) remuneration in some female-dominated occupations and sectors that has modified demand and supply; and (iv) measures to combat blatant forms of gender pay and promotion discrimination (Jacobsen, 2004). Thus, across many Western countries, women are participating more in the paid workforce than in earlier times. There are variations in this trend, with women’s participation in paid employment being the norm in northern Europe and Scandinavia, whereas in Japan women are still expected to leave the workforce upon marriage. However, despite increased levels of participation and work that is well remunerated, women have failed to secure benefits comparable to those of males. Women are more likely to be employed part-time than their male counterparts, leading to truncated and unsatisfactory career options (Tam, 1997). The distribution of occupations in which women work tends to be quite narrow, often concentrated in particular occupational fields. Some 25% of American women report being employed in administrative support positions, compared to only 5% of men. Only 2% of women against 20% of men report being employed in precision production work (United States of America. Department of Labor, 2005). Similarly, even in the relatively emancipated Nordic countries occupational segregation is relatively high (Anker, 2001). Overall, women are also in receipt of lower levels of pay, although the gap is closing (Jacobsen, 2004). It also seems that prospects for women remaining competent and enjoying successful careers depends upon developing positive work identities through workplaces that support their career trajectories. Yet, this may not always be available to them. The division between those who are highly skilled and paid and those who are lowly skilled and paid is not distributed equally across national populations. In the United States, African-Americans and Hispanic Americans disproportionately participate in low-wage work encouraging the development of an entrenched underclass perilously placed in evolving working life requirements, and whose employment is often located in precarious service work (Bernhardt, 1999). Levels of education also
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distribute work options, with workforces being characterized by increasing levels of qualifications. In 1940, the majority of the US labour force (75%) had less than a high-school education (Employment Policy Foundation, 2003). Yet, by 2002 those who had not completed a high-school qualification were estimated at only 10% of the adult labour workforce. So, recipients of lower levels of education may struggle to secure effective and continuous employment. Older workers are now a focus of attention in many Western countries. In the United States, some have been required to stay at work longer because of limited public pension schemes. However, the phenomenon of older workers is now predicted to be experienced more widely. Demographic changes in many countries mean a requirement to work and remain competent far longer, as well as growth in the provision of human services, including care for an ageing population (McNair et al., 2004). There is little evidence to suggest that older workers become less competent or capable (Baltes & Staudinger, 1996), although there is a decline in reaction times and physical strength, which can affect some kinds of work performance. Specific training and older workers’ experience can compensate for some of these declines (Sigelman, 1999). However, given the constantly changing character of work, older workers may well need additional support to learn new requirements as their existing capacities become redundant. They may need to reaffirm their competence more often and at the cost of existing competence and identity. One view suggests that, as older workers become an increasing component of workforces, employers will provide adequate support for their skill development. However, experience calls for caution in supporting this optimistic view. Just as there is little evidence of widespread employer-sponsored childcare to support workforce participation by women with young children, there is no guarantee that employers will support older workers. Instead, the privileging of younger workers may be accentuated by their relative scarcity and they will likely remain the focus of enterprise support, rather than older workers. Of course, this will be affected by circumstances. Overall, opportunities at work and impacts of recession are likely to impact most heavily on disadvantaged groups. These impacts are not wholly based on human capital (e.g. educational levels and experience), with factors associated with race, age and ethnicity apparently shaping opportunities. So, changes in participation mean a need to develop and maintain work skills for a longer and potentially discontinuous working life as individuals move in and out of the workforce. There will also be a need to focus on specific skill formation for workers at different stages of their working life.
6 Changing Work, Changing Workers Having identified changes to work, working life, work requirements and participation in work, it is important to understand and address the impact upon individuals. Workers will experience these changes. Ultimately, the enactment of work is a human process and individuals will bring particular capacities, identities and a sense of self to their work in different ways and in different measures throughout
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their working life. Consequently, the changing requirements of work are engaged with, negotiated and made sense of by individuals whose backgrounds and experiences are diverse and differentiated. The inevitability of change brings with it not only threats to existing competence, individuals’ standing and confidence, but also individual’s different capacities to respond to those changes. In combination, the capacities, identity and agency of people to engage with and secure appropriate development, on the one hand, and the degree by which workplaces or other agencies, including vocational education and training institutions, on the other, support that development will shape the prospects for individuals to maintain their competence throughout an increasingly long, but turbulent, working life. Yet, many vocational education systems are premised on standard curriculum provisions and industrybased requirements that serve to deny the importance of the relevance and tailoring of these provisions to meet individuals’ needs. Thus, curriculum and instructional frameworks that are responsive to the diverse requirements of learners, rather than viewing them as having universal starting points, capacities, levels of readiness, etc., are likely to be required.
References Anker, R. 2001. Theories of occupational segregation by sex: an overview. In: Loutfi, M.F., ed. Women, gender and work, pp. 129–155. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Bailey, T. 1993. Organizational innovation in the apparel industry. Industrial relations, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 30–48. Baltes, P.B.; Staudinger, U.M. 1996. Interactive minds in a life-span perspective. In: Baltes, P.B.; Staudinger, U.M., eds. Interactive minds: life-span perspectives on the social foundations of cognition, pp. 1–34. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Barley, S.R.; Orr, J.E. 1997. Introduction: the neglected workforce. In: Barley, S.R.; Orr, J.E., eds. Between craft and science: technical work in US settings, pp. 1–19. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Bartel, A.P.; Lichtenberg, F.R. 1987. The comparative advantage of educated workers in implementing new technology. Review of economics and statistics, vol. 65, pp. 1–11. Bernhardt, A. 1999. The future of low-wage jobs: case studies in the retail industry. New York, NY: Institute on Education and the Economy. (Working paper, no. 10.) Berryman, S. 1993. Learning for the workplace. Review of research in education, vol. 19, pp. 343–401. Bertrand, O.; Noyelle, T. 1988. Human resources and corporate strategy: technological change in banks and insurance companies in five OECD countries. Paris: OECD. Billett, S.; Smith, R.; Barker, M. 2005. Understanding work, learning and the remaking of cultural practices. Studies in continuing education, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 219–37. Billett, S.; Somerville, M. 2004. Transformations at work: identity and learning. Studies in continuing education, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 309–26. Brunello, G.; Medio, A. 2001. An explanation of international differences in education and workplace training. European economic review, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 307–22. Carnevale, A.P. 1995. Enhancing skills in the new economy. In: Howard A., ed. The changing nature of work. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Carnoy, M. 1999. The great work dilemma. In: Ahier, J.; Esland, G., eds. Education, training and the future of work—1, pp. 62–75. London: Routledge.
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Cook-Gumperez, J.; Hanna, K. 1997. Some recent issues of professional literacy and practice. In: Hull, G., ed. Changing work, changing workers: critical perspectives on language, literacy and skills, pp. 316–34. New York, NY: State University of New York Press. Danford, A. 1998. Teamworking and labour regulation in the autocomponents industry. Work, employment & society, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 409–431. Darrah, C.N. 1997. Complicating the concept of skill requirements: scenes from a workplace. In: Hull, G., ed. Changing work, changing workers: critical perspectives on language, literacy and skills, pp. 249–72. New York, NY: CUNY Press. Employment Policy Foundation. 2003. An economic primer to white-collar reform. Washington, DC: Employment Policy Foundation. Handel, M.J. 2005. Trends in perceived job quality, 1989 to 1998. Work and occupations, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 66–94. Jacobsen, J.P. 2004. Women as labor force participants: effects of family and organisational structure. (Paper presented at Reaching the Top: Challenges and Opportunities for Women Leaders, Boston, MA.) Korean Economic Planning Board. 2005. Yearbook of Korean statistics. <www.itu.int/dms pub/ itu-d/md/02/isap2b.1.1/c/D02-ISAP2B.1.1-C-0028!!PDF-E.pdf> Lipsig-Mumme, C. 1996. Bridging the solitudes: Canadian perspectives on research partnerships in the new work order (keynote address). (Paper presented at the ANTARAC Annual Conference, Melbourne.) Loutfi, M.F. 2001. Women, gender and work: an overview. In: Loutfi, M.F., ed. Women, gender and work, pp. 3–20. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Martin, L.M.W.; Scribner, S. 1991. Laboratory for cognitive studies of work: a case study of the intellectual implications of a new technology. Teachers College record, vol. 92, no. 4, pp. 582–602. McBrier, D.B.; Wilson, G. 2004. Going down? Race and downward occupational mobility for white-collar workers in the 1990s. Work and occupations, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 283–322. McGovern, P. 1996. Trust, discretion and responsibility: the division of technical labour. Work, employment and society, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 85–103. McGovern, P.; Smeaton, D.; Hill, S. 2004. Bad jobs in Britian. Work and occupations, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 225–49. McNair, S. et al. 2004. Changing work in later life: a study of job transitions. Guildford, UK: University of Surrey, Centre for Research into the Older Workforce. Noon, M.; Blyton, P. 1997. The realities of work. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan. Pusey, M. 2003. The experience of Middle Australia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Sigelman, C.K. 1999. Life-span human development, vol. 3. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company. Tam, M. 1997. Part-time employment: a bridge or a trap? Brookfield, MA: Aldershot. United Kingdom Labour Force Survey. 2005. <www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nscl> United States of America. Department of Labor. 2005. What jobs do American women and men have? <www.prb.org> Zuboff, S. 1988. In the age of the smart machine: the future of work and power. New York, NY: Basic Books.
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Chapter I.8
Traditional and Transitional TVET Systems Poonam Agrawal
1 Introduction Human ingenuity, supported by an instinctive urge to explore and learn, manifests itself in dynamic creativity. It transforms itself into a mechanism for transferring ‘acquired’ knowledge and accumulated experience to future generations. The whole process of acquisition and evolution of knowledge and its transfer is covered by the term ‘education’. It also covers various transitions, reforms and adaptations that are taking place more frequently in the current context. The fast pace of development is driving even ‘established’ societies to conduct a process of continuous review and reforms. With respect to technical and vocational education and training (TVET), throughout the world countries are constantly trying to adapt it to a new economic and social order. However, whatever is transitional today may become a tradition in times to come, and something that had been a tradition may again find a place in transitional and futuristic systems. Tradition need not be discarded without scrutiny; similarly, transition cannot be delayed or deferred. Yet, it needs to be viewed and discussed in the local context with in-built reference to the global scenario. It is relevant to carry out an overview of the manner in which education systems evolved in different societies. For the purpose of this chapter, the focus will be on TVET systems.
2 Ancient (Traditional) TVET Systems Education, in its real sense, has always been perceived beyond literacy and numeracy. In India, in olden times, education was imparted in the ashrams (Gurukuls) of rishis (saints). The students, irrespective of their socio-economic backgrounds, lived together in the Gurukul from the age of 5 or 6 years until the Guru adjudged them (each individually) fit for the responsibilities of life. The education was wholesome, and neither differentiated into levels (primary, middle, secondary or higher) nor forms (academic, religious, moral, career oriented). It included knowledge, character-building and skill-training through the ashram’s dayto-day work, e.g. cooking, cleaning, farming, gardening and cattle-rearing, amongst R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 I.8, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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others. The students were taught to develop qualities of self-reliance and to respect mutual equality. This system also gradually spread into small villages and continued for thousands of years. Some world-famous universities of India, such as Nalanda, Taxshila (now in Pakistan) and Vikramshila, were based on this system of education (Narottam, 2000). Besides this, the two age-old methods of on-the-job learning (apprenticeship) and learning within the family tradition existed in ancient cultures. In ancient and mediaeval India, young children were exposed from childhood to the skills relating to the family vocation, leading to intensive training within the family that gradually made them masters of that vocation. It was also the responsibility of the elders in the family to educate children about moral conduct and behaviour, and initiate them such that they could face the challenges of life and assume responsibilities with the appropriate level of preparedness. Education within the family was also a tradition in Ancient Egypt. By precept and example, parents would instil into children various educational principles, moral attitudes and views of life from a very tender age. Parents familiarized children with ideas about the world, their religious outlook, ethical principles and the correct behaviour. Education covered both general upbringing and training for a particular vocation. The children did not usually choose their own careers but adopted the family vocation (Tour Egypt, 1999–2003). Reverence for the gods, respect for law, obedience to authority and truthfulness were the most important lessons to be taught. Girls were taught by their mothers. They learned to spin, weave and sew. References to the Roman period contain some interesting details about the training of girls to become weavers and spinners. At this time, weavers usually sent their children to be taught by colleagues in the same trade. The master undertook to return any payment if he failed to get his pupil through the whole course (Tour Egypt, 1999–2003). Later, around 200 BC, the Romans borrowed some of the ancient Greek system of education. They began sending their sons to school outside their home at age 6 or 7. Some girls also attended schools with their father’s permission. The children studied reading, writing and counting. At age 12 or 13, boys from the upper classes attended ‘grammar’ school, where they studied Latin and Greek grammar and literature. At the age of 16, some boys studied public speaking at the rhetoric school, as preparation for life as an orator (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2006). Thus, in ancient civilizations, before the advent of the industrial era, home and apprenticeship were the main systems for educating children. In other words, vocational education was an integral part of the system characterized by handwork (manual work)—Ancient China being an exception. China is one of the oldest countries with an education system. In the period 770 BC-476 BC, private schools existed through which different schools of thought—e.g. Confucianism, Taoism— were taught. These schools continued to exist although there were times when State education became popular. Vocational education first appeared in China in isolated schools around 1870 (Xinli Wu, 1991).
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3 Transitional TVET Systems As cultures progressed, the demands of development necessitated formalization of education imparted outside homes in schools and colleges. The institutionalization of education split societies into those who could take advantage of such education and others, who remained disadvantaged and marginalized for various reasons. The split was more evident in developing and under-developed countries than those of the developed nations. People came to be differentiated between intellectuals and working class, the latter remaining uneducated or educated to a very low level. An overview of the development of education in different parts of the world brings to the fore some characteristic features of the institutionalization of education. Firstly, the pace of the development of education and ideologies was not uniform throughout the world. Traditionally, the TVET systems in a country were determined and influenced by factors such as demography, culture, the social system, extreme political turmoil (external rule, world wars) and the struggle for survival. These systems varied from one country to another, with some countries being closer to the norm than others. Secondly, the integrated system of imparting knowledge about manual work (skills) gave way to two distinct systems of education: general and vocational (or technical) education. Even today, general education aims to enhance general proficiency, is mostly knowledge based and does not prepare the learner for any specific job or occupation. Vocational education, on the other hand, was specifically designed to develop competencies associated with particular occupations. Traditionally, in many countries, general education and vocational education are conceptually and operationally separated from each other; vocational students not being admitted to academic education. Vocational education is usually offered at secondary or upper secondary level (leaving school after the tenth or twelfth years of schooling, respectively) and terminates with a certificate. There are some options for continuing vocational education leading to a higher diploma, but it still remains at a sub-university level without any articulation with academic education. Vocational education and vocational training were also distinctly differentiated from each other by their relative emphasis on knowledge and skills. Vocational education programmes were designed to develop a considerable knowledge base along with skill development, while in the case of vocational training there was often very little, if any, theoretical content. The target groups, mode of delivery and management also differed. The delivery mechanisms varied depending on comprehensive schools, differentiated schools, polytechnics, technical colleges, Fachhochschule, technical and further education (TAFE) institutions on the one hand, and training within industry on the other. Some countries offer technical and vocational education in differentiated schools, e.g. vocational schools that are separate from general secondary schools, offering specialized courses preparing learners for specific vocations and are terminal in nature. Malaysia, Philippines and the Republic of Korea are some examples of this type of vocational preparation. In Europe, Germany stands out as a very strong and successful example where skill training is provided by industry.
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Some countries have focused on developing primary and secondary education, while others prioritized higher education. Relative emphasis between general, technical and vocational education (and in the latter case between theoretical content and practical experience, i.e. between education and training) also differed markedly. Barring a few exceptions, vocational education was considered as an alternate educational path for low achievers, school-leavers/dropouts, the less intellectual or for children from lower socio-economic strata. It aimed at preparing the low or middle order of the workforce by inculcating specific occupational skills. In this chapter, we will come to see all of these variations as we study the TVET systems of different countries/continents, how these systems developed and also how changes have taken place, such as dissolving distinctions and boundaries during reforms. In Latin America, during the period between these countries gaining independence and the First World War, interest was more directed at developing higher education, as the secondary education of elites took place through tutoring systems. Educational content was copied from Spain and Portugal, although there were also some British and French influences. Between the First and Second World Wars, the basic role of secondary education was to prepare elites for privileged social, economic and political positions as it was almost exclusively oriented towards access to higher education. Vocational education, through schools of industrial art and commercial education, was kept separate from secondary education and specifically aimed at preparing people for manual work (Corval´an-V´asquez, 1988). By 1960, technical and vocational education came to be recognized as part of secondary education, but still prepared students only to enter the world of work and, hence, was regarded as low-status education. Nevertheless, countries like Brazil, Argentina and Colombia significantly expanded their provision of technical and vocational education. After 1960, developments, such as the realization that education was an instrument of modernization, the necessity of involving the middle and lower-middle classes in political structures in order to enlarge its base and several educational experiments led to diversification, which opened up entry to higher education in universities to technical and vocational school graduates, provided they qualified in entrance examinations. Needless to say, general secondary education remained the main path for entry to university education and retained its higher social status (Corval´an-V´asquez, 1988). Among other factors, growing urbanization has also been an important influencing factor. Argentina, Cuba and Costa Rica, with early urbanization, had relatively more developed education systems as compared to other Latin American countries, and represented higher enrolments in TVE (25 to 50%). Brazil developed a strong TVE system owing to rapid industrialization (Corval´an-V´asquez, 1988). A societal demarcation was evident in the United Kingdom through its grammar school and regular school system, the former for the intellectual elite and the latter for the masses (Ishumi, 1988). This two-track system appeared in Africa as a prototype in Nigeria and in its modified form elsewhere. In the United States of America, Cooper Union, Pratt Institute, Hampton Institute and Tuskegee Institute were among the pioneer trade schools in industrial, agricultural and home economics training,
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initially for African Americans. The University of Minnesota established the first regular public vocational secondary school in the form of an agricultural high school in 1888. The federal government took a significant step to promote vocational education, passing the Morill Act (1862), in pursuance of which land-grant colleges were established. After this, a number of acts and bills led to the development of vocational training in the United States, which helped to upgrade the workforce. Even in the nineteenth century, some kind of vocational and technical education systems existed in most Asian countries. Certain countries, like India, were ahead of the others. However, most of these countries, including India, had to start afresh after attaining independence. In Sri Lanka, the TVET system has evolved over a period of 100 years with rapid expansion after independence in the 1950s. In India, the deep-rooted and celebrated system of education in the family tradition and apprenticeship with a focus on working with one’s hands was strategically destroyed during the period of colonial rule. The implanted system forcefully propagated by the British, commonly known as the ‘Macaulay System’ and intended to prepare people ‘to serve the British rulers’, was not concerned with the growth and development of India as a nation. This truth was realized by the great thinkers, such as Mahatma Gandhi. His experiments in education in South Africa and India led him to conceptualize basic education (nai talim) in India. He visualized education as a basic tool for the development of national consciousness and the reconstruction of society. Character-building by education through good deeds, the development of virtues, the ability to find solutions to problems and the development of intellect through craft were the main elements of basic education. Gandhi stated: ‘In my definition of education, there is no wall of brick and cement separating intellectual training from vocational training, but the latter includes the former, that is, it provides scope for development of the intellect’. The visionary thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi became reflected in recommendations of various commissions and policies and are relevant even today. In India, vocational education was perceived as a continuum of exposure, orientation, exploration and training. It was recommended that students should be exposed to a variety of work of a practical nature, to become oriented towards work, and be given time to explore various vocational options before choosing their final field of specialization. With a view to linking education and productivity, the Education Commission (1964–66), also called the Kothari Commission, recommended that work experience should form an integral part of general education. This concept was essentially similar to the philosophy of basic education, although it was more broad based and included several modern productive activities. Consequently, the National Policy of Education (1968–86) in India reemphasized vocational education in schools, introducing work education from classes I to VIII, pre-vocational education in classes IX and X, and vocational education as a distinct stream in classes XI and XII. The work-oriented education offered at elementary level under a variety of nomenclatures—e.g. work experience, work education, life-oriented education, craft education, socially useful productive work—is meant to prepare children to face life with a proper attitude, knowledge and skills in relation to work. This is expected to promote social, personal and vocational development and ultimately lead to a smooth transition to the world of work
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(Agrawal, 2000). The policy document on Vocationalization of Secondary Education (1976) is a landmark in the history of vocational education in India. However, its success is ‘patchy’ and fresh debates are going on at present to introduce reforms. The eighty-third amendment to the Indian Constitution has made eight years of elementary education compulsory; however, it is yet to be achieved. A policy of ten years of common school curriculum is pursued, after which streaming into general and vocational or technical education begins. However, industrial training institutes (ITIs) take both class VIII and X graduates and train them according to the needs of specific industries, offering certificate courses of varying duration. Some states in India, e.g. Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, also run technical schools after lower secondary stage (class VIII) in which, in addition to the common curriculum, one vocational subject is offered. These schools mainly feed the polytechnics. India has a chain of polytechnics (more than 1,300) providing broad-based education after class X in engineering and some non-engineering areas. The polytechnics usually offer three-year programmes leading to a diploma (Postlethwaite, 1995). Technical and vocational education in India is generally separated from academic (general) education and does not enjoy a reputable status, except for higher education in engineering and technology which are fed from the academic stream. In 1972, the National Education Commission of Bangladesh, appointed immediately after independence, recommended the diversification of secondary education from grade IX onwards. In China, although the history of vocational education can be traced back about 130 years, the ‘Schooling System of 1902’ laid down systematic regulations for vocational education. However, until 1949 progress was slow until the People’s Republic of China was founded, after which vocational education witnessed substantial improvement and development. In the 1950s, thousands of specialized secondary schools and skill-worker schools were established (CIIC, 2004). In China, technical and vocational education (TAVE) is one of the four distinct sectors of education. TAVE is mainly offered in specialized secondary schools, skilled-worker schools, secondary vocational schools and advanced technical and vocational colleges. Nine years of compulsory education in China covers education up to the lower secondary level. Specialized secondary schools offer four-year programmes for the lower-middle school-leavers, i.e. after nine years of compulsory schooling. In Japan, the first national Vocational Education Law, passed in 1894, marks a long history of national support. However, the ideology is quite different. The education system is not built up around specialist vocational models. Mastery of one subject area (skills) is not what the Japanese society or employment sector is looking for. In general, Japan takes a ‘broader view’ rather than a ‘subject-specific’ approach on technical and vocational education. Nine years of schooling is compulsory in Japan. After six years of elementary education, students learn pre-vocational subjects at lower secondary level, which is three-year education. Streaming into general and specialized courses starts from upper secondary level (three years of full-time schooling). However, a majority of students enrol for general education. This may be because, in Japan, willingness to adapt to a concrete working situation (i.e. in
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the employing company) and being productive is highly valued. On the contrary, high priority was given by the Republic of Korea and Taiwan to specific vocational education as they entered the industrial era. In Australia, there are nine years of compulsory education. Most of vocational education takes place in the TAFE system, the most accessible tertiary education in Australia, with entry in principle after ten years of education; however, in practice, it is now after twelve years of education. TAFE institutions offer a wide variety of courses classified into the following six streams: professional, para-professional, trades, other skilled, preparatory and adult or further education. Courses in the first two streams lead to a diploma or associate diploma; in the third and fourth streams to a certificate; the fifth and sixth streams offer less formal or shorter courses not leading to any certified qualification. The majority of TAFE courses are conducted on a part-time basis, concurrent with employment, but there is also a provision for full-time study (Kurian, 1988). The TVET systems in European countries show substantial diversity, despite their developmental similarities. Education in the United Kingdom is compulsory from 5 to 16 years of age (eleven years). Some vocational courses are offered in comprehensive schools; some technical secondary schools also continue to exist; however, most vocational education is given through a separate ‘further education system’ called technical colleges or colleges of further education (Kurian, 1988). There has been an effort in the 1980s and 1990s to give more technical and vocational orientation to secondary education, and a course of technology, which includes craft and design, has been included as a compulsory ‘foundation’ subject. A two-year programme of training for school-leavers is offered outside the school system consisting of vocational, some general education and work experience, known as the Youth Training Scheme. In France, ten years of schooling is compulsory, after which streaming of secondary education occurs for general and technical high schools. There is also a provision of technical higher education (two years) leading to a diploma. Unlike Germany, technical and vocational education has never been considered an attractive option in France. Schooling is compulsory for nine to ten years in Germany. After four (or six) years of primary education, there are three options for grade 5 (or 7) to 9. The Hauptschule, the Realschule and the Gymnasium, as well as a comprehensive form (Integrierte Gesamtschule). Among these, the Hauptschulen offer vocational education preparing students for entry into employment and are attended by most young people. At tertiary level, Fachhochschulen, requiring successful completion of twelve years of schooling, train students in the practical application of scientific knowledge. Every young person in Germany with nine years of general schooling must attend some part-time or full-time professional qualification programme. The specialized secondary schools include commercial secondary schools (Wirtschaftsgymnasium), which offer some business subjects in grades 11 to 13 and technical secondary schools (Technisches/Berufliches Gymnasium or Technische Oberschule), which lead to higher education in technical fields. These are slight variations of academic programmes only. The real vocational and technical
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education, however, takes place in many different specialized schools. These are part-time vocational school (Berufsschule), full-time vocational school (Berufsfachschule), the extended vocational school (Berufsaufbauschule), the specialized secondary school (Fachoberschule) and the technical school (Fachschule). Part-time vocational schools are the most common vocational schools in Germany providing compulsory part-time schooling with practical apprenticeship training leading to a certificate. This dual system forms the usual route to trades for most young people. However, there are opportunities for its articulation with advanced qualifications through the Berufsaufbauschule, Fachhochschule, etc. The Fachhochschulen are university polytechnics, established in Germany and German-speaking countries—e.g. Austria, Switzerland—preparing students for a variety of technical specialties and leading to good employment prospects. Fachhochschulen are an important source of training for engineers, accounting in 1992 for two-thirds of the engineering degrees awarded in Germany. The government has planned to divert more engineering students from universities to Fachhochschulen, to develop a more highly skilled workforce and to boost the economy, especially in the former East Germany. In addition, Germany has two- or threeyear higher education programmes in vocational academies (Berufsakademien), which integrate practical training in industry with theoretical education in a local university (National Science Board, 1996). The Fachhochschulen differ from polytechnics in other countries as they are unique examples of higher vocational education offering not only a diploma but also bachelor’s and master’s degrees (no doctoral programme, however). In India also, vocational courses have been introduced at bachelor’s degree level since 1994, but these are far from comparable to the Fachhochschulen. A number of countries, such as India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Singapore, have polytechnics and technical colleges forming an important component of the post-secondary vocational education system. Greinert (2004), while analysing European vocational training systems, suggests that VET has evolved quite differently, even in countries that have experienced similar economic and social development. The process of European industrialization did not produce a uniform model, but rather more or less destroyed the age-old, roughly homogeneous craft/trade-based vocational training methods. Three general types of VET systems are identified: the liberal market economy model in the United Kingdom; the State-regulated bureaucratic model in France; and the dual corporate model in Germany. The three countries have different priorities in the area of industrial relations and labour law. In the case of the British liberal model, the market directs the supply and demand relationship, the qualification demands depend on their possible application in the labour market. The bureaucratic, Stateregulated model, first implemented in France, uses the education sub-system to create a political, power-based relationship between capital and labour. The ‘disadvantaged’ workers are ‘qualified’ with the help of a State-regulated and financed education sector, including vocational training. The dual model of Germany uses a new independent, self-referral system of vocational training linking labour, capital and the State. Mainly run by industry, companies are the primary learning location for vocational skills. The learners also attend a vocational school financed by
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the public sector. Although largely isolated from the general education sector, its success can be understood by the fact that in Germany even small enterprises are highly organized, training is viewed as a long-term investment for industry and the education sub-system (the dual system) is a ‘normal track’ for the majority of youth. This is in contradiction with several other countries where vocational education and training is considered to be an alternative option for low achievers. Thus, if this model were to be successfully replicated in other countries, it would demand pre-conditions typical of Germany. Various other vocational education and training models in European countries arising throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are modifications, variations and/or combinations of these three models.
4 The Contemporary Context and Reforms Traditionally, historical, cultural, political and sociological features affected the TVET systems in a country. Later, the pace of urbanization and industrialization, technological revolution and labour demands impelled expansion and reforms. However, in the most recent decades, globalization, the emergence of a knowledge society, liberalization and employment equations in free economies have necessitated rethinking the policies and long-existing structures of education and training. Concerns for gender equity, social equilibrium and justice have placed demands on policies and programmes for specific social groups. The mandate is to reach all and build human resources for all areas of need within emerging global society (Agrawal, 1999). There is a renewed emphasis on the development of skilled but adaptable human resource in the international arena. The Delors Report projects four pillars of education, in which ‘learning to do’ essentially represents vocational education and training (Delors et al., 1996). In the present context, TVET is being seen as a major human resource development strategy. In the Asian region, there is a common realization of the importance of skills in socio-economic development, as reflected in the conference report on case studies on TVE in Asia and the Pacific in 1996: ‘The future international competitiveness in trade and increases in national productivity will only occur by having a skilled work force capable of meeting the technological changes of the 1990s and beyond’ (NIER/UNESCO, 2002). In Indonesia and Malaysia, the reforms that took place in 1984 were meant to make students more employable and entrepreneurial, while preparing them for lifelong education. This led to creating a better image of TVE with the result that enrolment increased (Wilson, 1991). The modernization process in China, carried out since the 1980s, led to rapid expansion of TAVE, accounting for about 45% of total enrolment at the upper-secondary level. To cope with global changes and sustain competitiveness, Germany has enacted a Vocational Training Reform Act in 2005. This act aims at securing and improving training opportunities of high quality for all young people, irrespective of their social
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and regional origins. The success of vocational training within industry is enhanced by training support programmes for disadvantaged trainees, e.g. those with learning disabilities, socially disadvantaged trainees, disabled trainees and those with language difficulties (immigrants). In recent years in the United States, corporations and labour organizations have established the majority of new vocational and cultural centres. Public high schools have placed a renewed emphasis on students to meet general academic standards and also learn a trade.
5 Lifelong Learning, the Role of Industries and Trade Unions Nowadays, merely acquiring knowledge and skills is not enough. Liberalization, globalization and rapid technological changes have substantially changed the world of work. Traditionally, formal training aimed at preparing a worker for a lifetime of employment. Now the trend is towards frequent and multiple career changes, part-time and casual work. This necessitates continued lifelong learning and training strategies that are able to cope with changing technology and employment demands. The work force needs to be flexible and adaptable. The emphasis is on competitiveness, interpersonal skills and the ability to sustain employment by adapting to changing job requirements and circumstances. Traditional concepts are being redefined and the relationship among and between knowledge, information, training, learning, qualifications, skills and employment are being understood afresh. The distinction between education and training is not as clear-cut as it used to be. Different countries have responded to this situation in different ways. The Australian approach is to develop competencies essential for work in all young people and to lay the formation for their continuing vocational education and training. The TAFE colleges and other publicly-funded infrastructures already have wide coverage but, in order to cope with future demand, the Australian Government is promoting an open training market called ‘User Choice’ in which a learner can select preparation from any registered training organization, be it public, private or solely an enterprise. Chile is also following a similar pattern of privatization. Countries like China, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Republic of Korea are focusing their attention on creating a new breed of highly skilled employees, equipped with skills such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, the ability to handle information, etc. The objective is to make a niche in the global market. Singapore has developed a set of such key competencies called ‘critical enabling skills’ (ILO, 1999). Expenditure on continuing training in European Union countries has registered significant increases (65% in Belgium since 1987; multiplied by four in Greece between 1988 and 1990), while handling joblessness for the long-term unemployed through vocational training is a top priority with many countries (M¨unch, 1996). In Asia and the Pacific the concern for employment is even more vital. Globalization adversely affected the employment scenario in East Asia. The situation in
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countries like Indonesia, Philippines, the Republic of Korea and Thailand, became quite alarming (ILO, 1999). Asian and African countries anticipate tackling the problem of unemployment through the global migration of labour. Training also has to address the concerns of the informal sector. The ILO (1999) suggests that efforts to generate training and employment should aim to create an environment conducive to income-generating activities, provide skill training, business training and access to credit, particularly for socially disadvantaged groups. The relationship between pre-service and in-service vocational training varies from country to country. In Spain, continuing vocational training also covers basic general education, while in countries like Belgium and the Netherlands it is not covered. In Denmark, general in-service training is a part of continuing vocational training, while in countries like Ireland and Portugal it is not. A clear distinction exists in countries like Germany, Denmark and Luxembourg between initial and continuing vocational training. In Portugal and Greece, initial vocational training for adults is part of continuing vocational training (M¨unch, 1996). These differences can be attributed to the initial training itself. In Germany, for example, there is an important system for preparing the majority of young people for skilled employment, but this is not the case with most other countries. Trade unions have a crucial role to play in retraining and updating the workforce and are also geared up to cope with changes, renewed requirements of vocational training and the need to ensure greater and better participation on the part of industries. In some instances, trade unions determine the training needs, negotiate with the government, create suitable upgrading and updating programmes for the workforce, motivate the workers to undergo training and, in certain cases, also manage the training programmes and the institutions. In Argentina, trade unions offer vocational training with a significant coverage. In Brazil, major union federations and their affiliates run training programmes. In Mexico, unions are involved with the certification of occupational competencies. Some central unions in Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil are think-tanks for workers’ organizations and give research input on training aspects (ILO, 1999). The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has established a training company that delivers training in various specific areas—e.g. electronics, hydraulics and core skills—leading to certification. It also acts as a broker for its members. Despite certain differences, enterprises play a major role in providing continuing vocational training and it is generally well understood that it is a crucial factor for sustaining and facing the challenges of a fast-changing economy and technological advances, as well as answering the concerns of social equity. In China, skilledworker schools are run by enterprises and professional organizations, with State guarantee of employment (Postlethwaite, 1995). The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has recently renewed its objectives and strategies to promote skill development as a priority industrial issue. ACTU is seeking to maintain an industry-led vocational education system that responds to employment needs, develops strategies to give equitable access to VET opportunities to non-standard workers and to disadvantaged people within the labour market, and improves the TAFE system to respond to industrial needs, employees and the
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community (ACTU, 2005). Prior to the 1990s, Australian industries were not taking a keen interest in employee training, but the situation thereafter has changed to some extent. Various employer groups in the European Union understand that offering opportunities for initial and further vocational training in keeping with the needs of industry is in the interest of both the employers and the employee. Nowadays, not only vocational training but regular and appropriate further training and lifelong learning throughout a person’s entire working life is crucial to maintaining efficiency, productivity and the employee’s employability (ECEG/EMCEF, 2004).
6 Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Strategy in TVET ODL, mainly referring to pedagogical aspects, has wide-ranging implications not only for delivery but also on the instructional design, reach, impact and quality of education. As well as being advocated as a means of reaching a large number of learners at one time, it is also viewed as a strategy for gender equity and social justice. The flexible mode of delivery offering possibilities for lifelong learning, learner-centred approaches and high adaptability to changing demands are added advantages. However, issues of quality have been a concern with ODL and this has to receive special attention if it is to accrue real benefits. Australia is a country with probably the greatest number of courses and degrees offered through distance learning. The Australian Flexible Learning Framework for Vocational Education and Training, 2000–2004, a collaborative commonwealthstate strategy, elaborates nationally agreed goals, principles and actions designed to give a boost to flexible learning (Australia. DETYA, 2001). In Turkey, vocational and technical open education high schools offer educational opportunities and teach vocational knowledge and skills through distance education. The Ministry of National Education projected that, in 2000–2001, more than 77,000 students received vocational education through these schools. Distance education in China started in the 1950s as correspondence education, with education via satellite taking shape in the 1980s. In the 1990s, developments in information technology led to faster delivery of distance education, which is serving as a strong mechanism to offer programmes for vocational and technical education and training (CERNIC/CERNET, 1998–2000). India initiated correspondence courses in teacher education in the early 1960s. Now a strong network of ODL through a central open university (Indira Gandhi National Open University) and state-level open universities has been established that also offers vocational programmes. At school stage, the National Institute of Open Schooling offers about seventy vocational courses of various levels and duration through the correspondencecum-contact mode. This, in fact, has been the global trend. ODL started primarily with correspondence courses and accelerated with the satellite system. With the advent of the era of information technology, a form of e-learning has been made possible that is being
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seen as a strong strategy to bring within the fold of education those who for various reasons have been left out of the regular school system, as well as for training and retraining employment seekers and the employed, according to the changing job profiles.
7 Conclusion Society constantly reinvents itself through education. It is a process by which the young generation builds its roots and becomes prepared for the future. In a dynamic surrounding, nothing that is growing or that facilitates growth and development can be static. Education is a facilitator of growth and development and, hence, cannot afford to be static. It demands a constant change without compromising with continuity. The key is to strike the right balance between ancient and modern, ideal and real, while neither the key nor the balance are ever static. Consequently, designing education is a continuous endeavour of exploration, experimentation, invention and reinvention; with a pace that the society demands. The proverbial rigidity of education systems reflected in resistance to change has to vanish in the face of fast global transformation. Education is the key to understanding the current scenario, but it has to be relevant and effective. While knowledge is necessary, it becomes functional only when supplemented with competencies and skills. Never before was there as strong a need as today for TVET to adapt itself to serve as a critical binding force between society, productivity and sustainable development.
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European Chemical Employers Group (ECEG); European Mine, Chemicals and Energy Workers Federation (EMCEF). 2004. Joint position paper on education, vocational training and lifelong learning in the European chemical industry. <www.emcef.org/Committees/ SD/Che/2004/ECEG-EMCEF-Decl-EN.pdf> Greinert, W.-D. 2004. European vocational education ‘systems’: some thoughts on the theoretical context of their historical development. European journal of vocational training, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 18–26. International Labour Organization. 1999. Skill in Asia and the Pacific: why training matters. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. (Technical report.) Ishumi, A.G.M. 1988. Vocational training as an educational and development strategy: conceptual and practical issues. International journal of educational development, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 163–174. Kurian G.T., ed. 1988. World education encyclopedia. New York, NY: Facts on File Publications. M¨unch, J. 1996. Continuing vocational training in the countries of the European Union: diversity of functions and special problems. European journal of vocational training, vol. 1, no. 7, pp. 3–7. Narottam, P. 2000. Nai Talim in Gujarat, philosophy and development. Amdavad, India: Gujarat Nai Talim Sangh, Gujarat Vidyapith. National Institute for Educational Policy Research/UNESCO. 2002. Implementing UNESCO/ILO Recommendations for TVET. Tokyo: NIER. National Science Board. 1996. Science and engineering indicators. Chapter 2: Technical Education in Germany, France, Japan and South Korea. <www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind96/ch2 cont. htm> Postlethwaite, T.N., ed. 1995. International encyclopaedia of national systems of education, 2nd ed. Oxford, UK: Pergamon. Tour Egypt. 1999–2003. Education and learning in Ancient Egypt. <www.touregypt.net/ historicalessays/lifeinEgypt7/htm> Wilson, D.N. 1991. Reform of technical-vocational education in Indonesia and Malaysia. Comparative education, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 207–21. Xinli Wu. 1991. The potential for technical education in the People’s Republic of China. Journal of technical education, vol. 3, no. 1.
Chapter I.9
Partnering to Meet the Needs of a Changing Workplace LuAnn Hiniker and Robert A. Putnam
1 Introduction Knowing how our profession is evolving can help us position ourselves for the future. Some of the trends we describe are already emerging; others can be foretold from current and emerging events. All are supported by data and demographics gleaned from many sources, both academic and industrial. Two major forces— global competition and rapid technological advances—have profoundly changed, and will continue to change, the nature and content of work in the workplace of the future. The world of work has entered a new economic era that has no precedent in the past. This new economic age is the result of many shifts that have happened in the global socio-economic, industrial and political environment. These shifts have created new paradigms based upon technology, people and industrial organizations, which differ significantly from those that we have relied upon for decades. These shifts are happening continuously and at an ever-increasing pace. In today’s business environment, the only constant is change. This new economic age is challenging in many ways, but it also provides us with new opportunities as individuals, organizations, nations and the world. But for businesses to prosper in this ever-changing world, they must completely rethink how and why they do what they do, and prepare their members well to work in this new environment. In other words, the new economy will require new paradigms in how we educate, train and develop the workforce (Hartanto, 1993). Sustainable competitive advantage is no longer based on technology or machinery. Corporate leaders are saying that people are our most important advantage. Through downsizing, restructuring and reorganizing, many organizations are creating high-performance work systems and transforming themselves into learning organizations. They are giving more responsibility to workers, who have been asked to do more with less (Bassey, 1990). The American economist Lester Thurow of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has reminded us that: ‘in a global economy of the twenty-first century the education and skills of a workforce will end up being the dominant competitive weapon’ (Thurow, 1993). Similar admonitions have come from Carnevale (1991), Reich (1992), Judy & D’Amico (1997) and others. In this brave new world, Shield (1995) reminds us,
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education and training systems must not be based upon knowledge acquisition at the expense of knowledge application; upon past practice; or upon theoretical models with little or no consideration of application, data-based needs analysis, or planning for quantitative or qualitative evaluation.
2 The History of Work-Based Education One of the first models to be put in place, first in manufacturing but later extended to all industries, was Frederick Taylor’s The principles of scientific management (1911). With authority, it was argued, a manager could get anything done. Systems were created, developed and implemented by management. Workers were only there to run the system under the supervision of management, while productivity problems were the result of failure to follow procedure. It was argued, therefore, that workers really did not need to know very much. When this centralized planning method proved unsuccessful—as it almost always did—jobs were ‘dumbed down’ leading to even less worker involvement and, inevitably, to a cycle of industrial decline obvious in the late 1970s and the 1980s. These centralized planning axioms developed under Taylorism suggested that management goals were specifications for performance. Actually, when used to reduce or replace worker input, they were primarily tools for shifting blame away from management when the centrally planned systems didn’t work—which they seldom did (Bradley, 1993). Today, ‘scientific management’ has been largely discredited. In a survey of employersponsored training in the United States, Lakewood Research (1995) found that 54% of all budgeted training dollars were aimed at programmes for managers and professionals rather than for workers. In addition, 64% of training managers reported that they expected their budgets to remain the same or be cut for the next fiscal year, despite an increase in training requests from their organizations and increased corporate profits. A more recent report by Lakewood Research on the Dun and Bradstreet organizations (2001) shows that, despite the fact that the non-exempt employees greatly outnumber managers and exempt professionals in the American workforce, only 36% of training spending is directed at them. An argument could be made, perhaps, that workers do benefit indirectly from the training their bosses get. It would appear that a considerable amount of research-based analysis is needed in education and training policy in both the public and private sectors. The purpose of this chapter is to suggest a starting point for the development of a work-based learning system, which will serve a motivated, highly-skilled and welleducated workforce. This system must be developed using the tools at our disposal, while working under real-world constraints. Innovative partnerships, as discussed in this chapter, may help achieve this goal. Albert Einstein reminded us that: ‘the mere formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution. [...] To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and makes real
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advances in science’ (Fields, 1993). We suggest that the first step is an understanding of the problem using the elements of good research as suggested by Anderson (1990), Bassey (1990) and Hammersley (1992): determine the question, collect data and then conduct a systematic, critical inquiry in order to explain, generalize and predict. A good place to begin our investigation into what work-based learning should be is to try to understand what the workplace of the future will be like and who will work there. What do emerging trends and current and projected data tell us about the work organizations and demands of the future? What about the people who will work there? What will their needs be?
3 The Workplace of the Future Analysis of a review of the literature revealed six major areas of structural organizational change that will have a significant impact on development-oriented practices in and intended for the workplace. In a study commissioned by the American Society for Training and Development (McLagan, 1989), it was found that the pressures for workplace productivity will intensify, and that the pace of change will continue to accelerate with organizations and industries looking beyond obvious efficiency gains to more systematic ways of being low-cost producers of high-quality products and services. Research by Grant Thorton LLP, a major international accounting firm, found that 78% of mid-sized companies surveyed are reducing cycle times and that ultimately, speed and agility will become the critical requirements for survival for mid-sized manufacturers (Cantwell, 1996). Work will continue to change rapidly because of advances in technology and, according to Peter Drucker (1994), time has become the most valuable business resource. In a study of best practices by industry leaders in the United States and Canada, researchers identified the practices of quantifying and measuring reductions in cycle time, employees’ recognition of their responsibility to continuously improve their work processes, and employees’ understanding the compelling need for change as a major difference between highperforming and low-performing companies (Yearout, 1996). Further evidence of this trend is found in the report by Lakewood Research (1995) that 84% of businesses reported measuring the reactions to training provided by the employer, 60% reported evaluating behaviour when they returned to the job, and 43% reported measuring the business results of training provided—all a dramatic change in the past few years. The useful life of information was estimated at ten years in 1980 by the software industry, at two years in 1995, and estimated at fifteen months in 2002 (Olson, 2002). Recent anecdotal information from a variety of sources in manufacturing and service industries, both in the United States and Europe, confirms this trend. The ‘do more with less’ refrain will be a dominant theme in work organizations in all industries in the future. The second clear structural change occurring across industrial sectors is that more people continue to do applied knowledge work. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in 1950, 60% of all jobs in the United States were classified as non-skilled; in 2000, only 15% were.
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Virtually every group of adults examined increased their participation in adult education between 1991 and 1999, often in ways that reduced disparities in participation that had existed in 1991. Although the widespread increase in participation in adult education has been accompanied by an elimination of some inequities, in many cases the highly educated and high status groups that have been the traditional beneficiaries of adult education remain the main beneficiaries today (NCES, 2002).
Workers will continue to have greater access through technology to the information needed to do their jobs, and are therefore less dependent on hierarchy and structures. As cycle times decrease and change accelerates, the ability to apply skills quickly and effectively is becoming more important than simply having skills. Technology is continuing to take over a category of jobs, which do not require critical thinking. Automation engineers use the rule of the ‘three Ds’ to determine which jobs will be automated: dirty, dangerous and dumb. In the emerging work environment, knowledge skills such as judgement, flexibility and personal commitment are now the most valuable skills to the organization (Yearout, 1996). A third very clear trend is that work organizations in all industries and sectors will continue to shift their focus to the customer and quality. It will be pervasive because it is a key competitive characteristic. In tomorrow’s work organization, customer and quality focus will continue to permeate the organization, with every employee clear about the value he or she adds internally, as well as for external customers. One of the greatest differences between high-producing and low-producing companies identified in recent research was that employees in high-producing companies understand the link between their tasks and the organizations’ strategic plans and goals, and that change in the high producers is driven by customer needs and expectations (Yearout, 1996). The pervasiveness of this trend can be seen by the variety of work organizations that have endorsed the quality movement. Within the past decade, the United States Department of Defense, Organizational Dynamics, Inc., General Motors, Ford Motor Co., Daimler–Chrysler, Kroger Food Stores, American Telephone and Telegraph, General Electric, Proctor and Gamble, health-care organizations, schools, hotel chains and many other organizations have proclaimed their conversion to quality. Lakewood Research (1995) reported that 70% of those surveyed from the Dun and Bradstreet list of organizations in the United States employing 100 people or more are providing employer-supplied training in at least one of the current quality initiatives. They also noted that 82% report providing training intended to develop a customer focus, and 74% of manufacturers report adopting total quality management, with 50% reporting transitioning to a teams-based structure. In 1995 the Baldridge Quality Award, the equivalent in the United States of the Japanese Deming Quality Award, was piloted with health care and educational organizations. An emphasis on customers and quality is obviously not an issue in only a few industries and sectors, but has become a way of conducting work in most industries within the realm of new technological advances. The Lakewood Research report (2001) states that 37% of all employer-sponsored training in the United States is devoted to teaching computer skills.
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In the work organization of the future, a fourth major and clearly developing trend is that in many organizations the arena for planning and action will be global. McLagan (1989) predicted that markets, resource pools, competition, partnerships— or all of them—will cross national lines. For some, competitors are suppliers or even customers. Relationships are complex and boundaries have blurred between organizations and their environments. One study indicated that in the automobile industry, Japanese and American management attitudes became remarkably similar with each national group acquiring some of the other’s philosophy. A study by Yauas (1995) of Asian managers and American managers in the electronics industry showed a great deal of ‘convergence’ in management attitudes and practices in the entire Pacific Rim. The International Standards Organization has also greatly homogenized practices of management and production through its ISO 9000 standards and sub-standards. In addition, the pressures created by international trade unions and agreements, such as the European Union (EU), the North American Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), will intensify internationalism in all industrial sectors and in both the industrialized and the non-industrialized world. In the work organization of the future, business strategies will become more dependent on the quality and versatility of the human resource. As McLagan (1989) noted, whether they rely on improved productivity, quality or innovation, the strategies of the future will not be delivered if the organization’s human resources are not capable and committed. Organizations that apply only money and technology to problems, without bringing the people along, will not survive; especially in industries in which knowledge, skills and willingness to change are critical to competitive advantage. Confirmation that the message is clear to competitive industries is demonstrated by expenditures. Total dollars budgeted for formal training in 1998 by United States organizations with more than 100 employees was US$52.2 billion; an increase of 3% from 1994 and the 2001 report indicates US$56.8 billion dollars budgeted for formal training (Lakewood Research, 1995, 2001). Shawn Miller of Eastman Kodak could have been talking to every work organization in the future when he gave the advice ‘train everyone’ (Miller, 1995). Training has become so important that the Baldrige Award criteria, ISO 9000, QS 9000, ISO 14000 standards and MRP II (the Eastman Kodak total quality standards) all have a category or requirements for a formal training plan and a disciplined approach to training. Finally, all of our data and sources agree that work structure and design will change dramatically. In most major industries in all sectors, hierarchies have already begun to melt into or have been replaced by a flatter and more flexible organizational design. The boundaries between individual jobs are blurring, with more team accountability, flexible and multi-skilled job designs. Major downsizing and other initiatives that emphasize doing more with less have also had a great impact on worker flexibility. As large companies, such as Sears and IBM, which tend to represent their industrial sectors, continue to move to a more decentralized work environment, this trend, already strong, can only accelerate.
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4 The Impacts of Change The next task is to ask what these projections and our interpretation mean for the development of work-based learning. What will the workforce needs be in the work organization of the future? How will the changes in the workplace affect the workforce? What knowledge and skills will workers need? How will these impact work-based learning? Each of the six identified areas of major organizational structural change dramatically increases demands upon the people who work within the organization. As these changes occur, demands made upon any work-based learning system will also change. It would be of value to examine each of the changes to see what they mean in terms of the skills and knowledge that will be required. Pressures for workforce productivity will intensify and the pace of change will continue to accelerate. Organizations are still downsizing and still expecting workers to do more with less. Overall, 31% of United States industries employing over 100 people reported downsizing in 1998, but in industries employing 100,000 or more, the percentage was 56%! Another 25%, but as high as 46% in some sectors, reported increasing the use of ‘outsourcing’, up from 14% in previous years, and 21% overall. As high as 30% in some sectors reported increasing the use of ‘contingent’ workers. ‘Reengineering’ was also popular, with 35% overall, but as high as 59% in some sectors being involved. Of the US$56.8 billion total dollars budgeted for formal training in 2001, the amount of US$19.3 billion will go to outside providers of training products and services (Lakewood Research, 1995, 2001). In slimmed-down organizations, with fewer workers to do the work, and the nature of the work changing rapidly, those fewer workers are going to need to learn to do additional tasks frequently, and to work more effectively. Obviously, any future-oriented work-based learning system will have to be grounded in solid fundamentals, close to or linked to its application, and emphasize ‘learning to learn’. More people today are doing applied knowledge work, which requires judgement, flexibility and personal commitment rather than submission to procedures (Carnevale, 1991; Marshall & Tucker, 1993; Judy & D’Amico, 1997). Creating competent knowledgeable workers who can apply what they know with the ability to keep pace with rapidly changing technology will be a key challenge. The emphasis will not be what the worker knows, but what he or she can do with it (Drucker, 1994). The Hudson Institute reports that net job growth between 1994 and 2005 is greatest in three categories: professionals, service workers and technicians. ‘The high-paying “professional specialty” occupations are expected to grow by 25 per cent between 1994 and 2005, faster than any other major occupational category. On the other hand, the low-paying “service occupations” are also slated to grow by 23 per cent in these years’ (Judy & D’Amico, 1997, p. 77). Organizations will continue to shift their focus to quality and customers. Of the nine current industrial trends identified by Lakewood Research (1995), six were quality or customer driven. Overall, 58% of the organizations, but as high as 80% in some sectors, report adopting ‘total quality management’. Overall, 50% of the organizations, but as high as 69% in some sectors, report development of an
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‘organizational vision’. Overall, 78% of organizations report ‘teaming’ with 61% of the total workforce involved. The largest change from 1994–95 was an increase from 34% to 44% of organizations who report that they now ‘partner’ with suppliers and customers. The change to a customer-oriented, group-centred and broad-based responsibility and application in a total quality environment has tremendous implications for traditional work-based learning, which has stressed isolated and intensive skill acquisition and single practitioner application in narrowly defined parameters of responsibility. The arena for planning and action will be global. Any successful work-based learning system must be prepared to serve clients who work in a global setting. Flexibility and adaptability are no longer merely desirable, but are required. Indicative of this is that 53% of United States companies with over 100 employees provided training in ‘diversity’; 51% provided training in ‘strategic planning’, and 16% provided training in a foreign language (Lakewood Research, 1995). Also, 72% of mid-sized United States manufacturers recently surveyed by the accounting firm Grant Thornton reported that they planned to increase their emphasis on developing foreign markets as a result of various regional and world trade agreements (Cantwell, 1996). Diversity is now a dominant feature of all work, while teaching the skills required to function effectively in diverse work settings must become a major thrust of work-based learning. Business strategies will become more dependent on the quality and versatility of the human resources. An anecdote might be an appropriate example here. A technician was summoned to a company to repair a major piece of manufacturing equipment. The plant manager looked on anxiously, as the production line was stopped. The technician removed the metal inspection cover, then, shaking her head, replaced it. She then walked to the rear left side of the machine and tapped it with a hammer. The machine lit up, reset itself and began operating again. Before leaving, the technician presented an itemized bill which read: ‘Tapping the machine with hammer, $1.00, knowing where to tap, $999.99’ (Burban, 1995). A look at the relevant literature indicates that many organizations are getting the message. Lakewood Research (1995) reported that 72% of United States organizations employing 100 or more people provided training in ‘leadership’, 60% provided training in ‘decision making’ and ‘listening skills’, 58% in ‘quality improvement’ and ‘delegation skills’, and 57% in ‘problem-solving’ and ‘managing change’. Between 19% and 35%, depending on sector and size, provided some form of ‘remedial training’. The 2001 report by Lakewood Research reports that the most frequently offered training sessions focus on computer applications for end-users, technical skills/knowledge and customer service, while training for computer systems/programming, executive development and sales is far less frequently provided. ‘The training most frequently provided on a weekly or monthly basis consists of new employee orientation, product knowledge, customer education and new equipment operation’ (Lakewood Research, 2001, p. 48). Work structure and design are changing dramatically. As organizational hierarchies become flatter, the result is more flexible work organization designs. Increases in responsibility and accountability for many workers have also increased.
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As organizations become leaner, clear lines between jobs begin to blur and the fewer workers must acquire more skills to accomplish more tasks. Teams carry out complex operations and everyone must work more effectively. An effective work-based learning system in this environment must have maximum flexibility in content and delivery.
5 The Workforce of the Future Now that we have some understanding of what the workplace and work organization will be like, and some understanding of the demands that will be made on the people who work in these organizations, our attention must be turned to the people who will work in these organizations. Any effective work-based learning system must meet the needs of the learners it serves. What are their needs likely to be? What unique problems must the system address? What resources will be needed? What challenges must be met to prepare the workforce of the future for the workplace of the future? When we examine the data, the first thing that they tell us is that the workforce is changing as fast as the work organization, but not in the same way, and not for the same reasons. One similarity, however, is that the changes are structural. This means that the changes have begun and will continue and intensify through all industrial sectors. An advantage is that since some of the changes have already taken place, we can examine some impacts of those changes. The first of three structural changes in the workforce that the research identified is that it is rapidly becoming more diverse. In the United States it will be more female and non-white than male and white in the future (Johnson, 1987; Carnevale, 1991; United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1994; Judy & D’Amico 1999). In Western Europe, judging from recent events, this also appears to be the case. Literacy gaps will widen, with increasing proportions of the adult population classified as ‘functionally illiterate’ as the demands of technology accelerate skill requirements. Inability to function adequately in the language of the workplace is another emerging problem (Chissman, 1993; National Center for Education Statistics, 2002). When it is considered that that the birth-rates of all the Western industrialized democracies have remained relatively low for some time, the challenges that relate to an older workforce are added. The South to North and East to West migrations in all parts of the world accelerate the multiculturalism of the workforce and add even more diversity. It is clear that to educate and train the future workforce, management practices, communication processes and development issues must be addressed forcefully. The second major workforce change reflects a value shift: people will expect meaningful work and involvement. They will see their skills as resources to be used. They will have access, through technology rather than hierarchy, to more of the information they need to do their jobs. They will expect to participate in decisions, as well as in the wealth they help create. Studies by Hatcher and Hill (1993) involving regional industries in the United States noted that, for several years, workers had
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been exhibiting increased work ethic scores on measurement instruments as compared with workers in the region in comparable industries of a generation ago. Productivity indicators, however, did not always rise. Closer investigation revealed that the workers, while believing that they should always do their best, were sometimes reluctant to do so if they believed that their input was not valued by the organization and that they would not benefit from their increased effort. These findings are consistent with the literature of the past forty years, which consistently identified worker involvement as one of the more important motivators. As Breisch (1996) notes: In the 21st century, people will gravitate toward organizations that add a unique valuable dimension to their lives. [...] The choice is clear: You can either compete by offering high salaries and wages or work to create an environment that makes people beat down your door to get in. The only way to survive in the 21st century is to build a dynamic, creative environment that motivates people.
It should also be noted that employee empowerment is a prominent feature in all total quality initiatives. Any work-based learning system designed for tomorrow’s workforce must emphasize the concept of the worker as a value-adding human resource. Finally, a shift is occurring in the nature of the contract between organizations and their employees. Merit is replacing loyalty as the basis of the bond between the worker and the work organization. Evans (1976) observed that as the skills of a worker became noticeably improved, their loyalty tended to shift toward the skill area, and away from the employing organization. The effects of continuing massive industrial plant relocation, outsourcing even in knowledge industries and professions, the dominance of the knowledge professions in compensation, and extensive corporate downsizing in all industrial sectors have now made this a major structural change in the workforce. Technology is changing the way we live, work, play and learn. Successful partnerships between education and industry can provide the technology and innovations necessary to provide a flexible learning framework to meet the needs of today’s lifelong learners. Fostering collaborative and innovative partner ships will help enable higher education to transform in this high-speed information age.
6 Types of Partnerships The National Alliance of Business has been instrumental in examining and promoting partnerships. In their report ‘Partnership planning structure for business/education/ government partnerships’, they outline the following categories for partnerships and indicate that most partnerships fall under one of these areas: 1. Partners in public policy These partnerships are collaborative efforts at the national, state or local level, among businesses, schools and public officials that shape the public and political
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debate, bring about substantive changes in state or federal legislation or local school governance, and affect the overall direction of the education system. Partners in systemic educational improvement. Systemic educational improvement partnerships are those initiatives in which businesses, education officials and other community leaders identify the need for reform or improvement in the education system, and then work over the long term to make those major changes happen in the system. These partnerships generally affect a large number of youth, combine and channel resources in a different way, and bring about lasting institutional change. Partners in management Management assistance partnerships provide school officials with management support and business expertise in a broad range of areas. Some management partnerships address administration and organization reform in matters such as increased principal or teacher autonomy, labour management relations, flexible personnel and incentive systems, purchasing efficiencies and plant and equipment issues. Others address such areas as management information systems, strategic planning and goal setting, legal insurance, finance, accounting and tax assistance, organization development, performance standards and productivity, public relations and school-building management. Partners in teacher training and development Businesses involved in teacher and counsellor training and professional development provide opportunities for school personnel to update, upgrade or maintain their skills. For example, to learn the latest developments in science or mathematics, or learn more about the labour market, industries and business in the community, workplace needs and career opportunities. Partners in the classroom Classroom partners are business volunteers who improve the learning environment by bringing their business or occupational expertise directly into the classroom for students and teachers, or bringing the classroom to the business. The activities are planned and co-ordinated with the school staff, generally are tied to the school year or semester and can focus on the needs of the school or of the individual students. Partners in special services Special-service partnerships provide short-term, project or student-specific activities or resources to help with a specific problem or need, such as awards, recognition programmes, scholarships and other incentives, professional memberships, fund-raising, donating or sharing equipment or educational material, sponsoring career fairs or book fairs, hosting receptions, sponsoring student teams, etc. These partnerships can include both financial and staff support, but are generally shorter term, are confined to one school, one teacher or one class, and they involve less business time and money (National Alliance of Business, 2001).
In an earlier report ‘The fourth R: workforce readiness’, the National Alliance of Business gives detailed information regarding the types of activities involved in all
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types of partnerships, as well as the amount and type of resources that are necessary, the commitment and leadership of top management, the focus of the activity and scope of involvement and investment. The major focus of these partnerships is identified under the following categories: public policy, systemic education reform, leadership, professional development, classroom enrichment and special projects (National Alliance of Business, 1987).
7 Learning Partnerships Technology learning partnerships can provide a flexible learning framework to meet the needs of today’s lifelong learners. Fostering collaborative and innovative partnerships will help enable higher education to transform in this high-speed information age and provide new e-learning opportunities for the adult learner to help address the needs for today’s highly-skilled workforce. Electronic networks and the Internet increase an individual’s opportunity for gaining an education in a variety of new modes. Students are no longer differentiated by manner of attendance and learning is distributed across networks, geographic areas and age spans. ‘Learners expect seamless, lifelong, affordable, asynchronous, interactive diverse, customized, specialized, learner-centered higher education’ (Hill Duin, Baer & Starke-Meyerring, 2001, p. 59). The challenge to educators remains that of assisting students to achieve learning from today’s diverse information-rich environment. E-learning incorporates courses that are web-based, as well as those delivered through video-conferencing and combinations of the two. Innovative e-learning is an exciting and challenging endeavour for business educators and trainers. It is critical that e-learning courses adhere to the same standards and quality as those courses taught in the traditional classroom, yet they provide additional flexibility to placebound learners. In a report from Berg, manager of education programmes at WMX Technologies, it is reported that businesses want to form partnerships, such as: return on investment/results orientation, school accountability, positive image/public relations, good communication, school reform. Companies learn what they do not even know they are going to learn, such as: what it is to be a teacher today. While businesses want partners who want to learn, grow and change (1995). The report goes on to explain how a partnership should be started. Universities need to think about the important benefits to their students when entering into partnerships and I believe a very important aspect of this report is the section on what students need from partnerships: 1. To be able to connect what they are asked to learn in school with ‘real life’ applications. Business can provide a ‘sneak preview’ of the world of work and give students a reason to study and do well. 2. To take responsibility for their own learning.
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3. To understand that they must be lifelong learners. Finishing high school or college is no longer enough. 4. To be proficient in technology, especially computers. Waste management garbage trucks now have on-board computers. Students can no longer say to themselves: ‘Well, I can always be a garbage truck driver if I drop out of school.’ 5. To be exposed to a variety of career options and understand the educational and experiential paths to various careers. 6. To figure out what they have a natural aptitude for, enjoy doing and could develop into a career. 7. To be exposed to real-life success stories and role models. 8. To set higher personal goals (Berg, 1995).
8 Internship Opportunities through Partnerships The United States Department of Labor predicted that 18 million graduates will be competing for the 14 million college-level jobs in the year 2005. Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich pointed out that 80% of these jobs will require some vocational training, according to the Watson study (as cited by Gault, Redengton & Schlager, 2000). Experience is a major issue when it comes to the job search. Practical experience is a key attribute that entry-level professionals can offer as structured work experience related to career interests. The National Society for Experiential Education reports that one out of three four-year college students worked as an intern prior to graduating. The research states that work-experience programmes are more likely to receive increased research attention and faculty support when a clearer link is established between on-the-job experience and career development (Gault et al., 2000). Higher education research has focused on improving teaching methods and modalities and pedagogical processes, which operate in the classroom setting. There is a lack of research into the efficacy of internships, which diminishes the perceived legitimacy of field experience programmes, and as a result they remain marginal to academic programmes (Migliore, 1990; Gault et al., 2000). There are three terms that are commonly used to describe higher education programmes that pertain to learning through employment in industry: there are co-operative extension programmes, which refer to state-sponsored agricultural work experiences; co-operative and internship are the two university names most often used to describe field experience opportunities for students. Co-operative students tend to work full-time while internship students tend to be part-time (Gault et al., 2000). In their study of internships, DiLorenzo-Aiss and Mathisen (1996) describe a typical internship programme as being characterized by four criteria: (1) a specified number of work hours; (2) the work may be paid or unpaid; (3) credit is awarded; and (4) oversight is provided by a faculty supervisor or co-ordinator or other university representative and a corporate on-sight supervisor.
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Interns are expected to be novices, not experts. They are very different from consultants. When consultants are hired, they are expected to be experts in their respective fields. Also, it is intended that through the internship experience students gain knowledge in an area where they have received academic training. The intern may be a student or faculty intern and is expected to gain specific skills pertaining to tasks in which they already possess general knowledge (Peak & O’Hara, 1999). There is little information in the literature regarding predictors of internship success and outcomes of successful internships. According to Beard & Morton, there are six predictors of internship success: ‘These include: (a) academic preparedness; (b) proactivity/aggressiveness; (c) positive attitude; (d) quality of worksite supervision; (e) organizational practices and policies; and (f) compensation’ (1999, p. 42).
9 Summary and Conclusions In this chapter we have presented the necessity for the development of a work-based learning system that will prepare a motivated, highly skilled, well-educated and selfdirected workforce for the work organization of the future. In order to present the elements and challenges the system must face, we have outlined six major structural changes in the work organizations of the future revealed by our research. We have also analysed what these changes will mean in terms of demands upon the people who will be working in them. We next turned our attention to the four structural changes that are occurring in the workforce itself, then attempted to interpret the meaning of these. We provided a discussion on partnerships between business and industry and higher education that may help to fill the needs of today’s lifelong learners. It is beyond the scope of this chapter to factor analyse the workplace organization and the people who will work in and operate it; such a task must be left to future research. Two major conclusions, however, can be drawn: 1. The escalating pressures of productivity, change and technology, combined with increasing diversity from many directions in the workforce, make it imperative that in order to maintain our standard of living, a true work-based learning ‘system’ must be developed built upon co-operation between all stakeholders. This must include education, government, labour and industry. All levels of public and private education must be articulated, and education and training (specific task-oriented training as compared to general multi-purpose education) must be moved closer to or linked with its applications as a result of accelerating change. 2. The total quality demands of the workplace combined with the changing values of the workforce make it imperative that the quality model be nurtured along with industry and educational partnerships. Innovative partnerships will help to meet the challenges of a work-based learning system needed for the future. Elements of this system must include:
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Clearly understood and agreed upon goals; A focus on customers, both internal and external;
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Commitment to excellence in which all functions focus on continuous improvement; Commitment to teamwork; Decision-making based upon measurement and data; Commitment to lifelong learning; Partnering to meet the needs of a work-based learning system.
References Anderson, G. 1990. Fundamentals of educational research. New York, NY: Falmer. Bassey, M. 1990. On the nature of research in education. Research intelligence, vol. 20, no. 36. Beard, F.; Morton, L. 1999. Effects of internship predictors on successful field experience. Journalism & mass communication educator, vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 42–53. Berg, L. 1995. Suggestions for successful school/business partnerships. Oak Brook, IL: Division of Education Programs. Bradley, L. 1993. TQM for schools. New York, NY: Technomic. Breisch, R.E. 1996. Are you listening? Quality progress, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 59–62. Burban, M. 1995. Factoring ethics into TQM. Quality progress, vol. 20, no. 10. Cantwell, M. 1996. News. Quality progress, vol. 20, no. 1. Carnevale, A. 1991. America and the new economy. Washington DC: United States Government Printing Office. Chissman, M. 1993. Leadership for literacy. New York, NY: Collers. DiLorenzo-Aiss, J.; Mathisen, R.E. 1996. Marketing higher education: models of marketing internship programs as tools for the recruitment and retention of undergraduate majors. Journal of marketing for higher education, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 71–84. Drucker, P. 1994. The effective executive. New York, NY: Harper. Evans, R. 1976. Philosophy of vocational education. Skokie, IL: Bell & Howell. Fields, J. 1993. Total quality for schools. Milwaukee, WI: ASQC Press. Gault, J.; Redengton, J.; Schlager, T. 2000. Undergraduate business internships and career success: are they related? Journal of marketing education, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 45–53. Hammersley, M. 1992. Some reflections on ethnography and validity. Qualitative studies in education, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 193–203. Hartanto, F. 1993. Training and developing the workforce. New York, NY: Artdo. Hatcher, M.; Hill, D. 1993. Workforce studies. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee. Hill Duin, A.; Baer, L.; Starke-Meyerring, D. 2001. Partnering in the learning marketspace. Vol. 4: EDUCAUSE leadership strategies. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Pricewaterhouse Coopers. Johnson, W. 1987. Workforce 2000. Washington, DC: Hudson. Judy, R.W.; D’Amico, C. 1997. Workforce 2020: work and workers in the 21st century. Indianapolis, IN: Hudson Institute. Lakewood Research. 1995. 1995 industry report. Training, vol. 32, no. 10, pp. 37–53. Lakewood Research. 2001. 2001 industry report. Training, vol. 38, no. 10, pp. 40–75. McLagan, P.A. 1989. Models for HRD practice. Alexandria, VA: American Society for Training and Development. Marshall, F.R.; Tucker, M. 1993. Thinking for a living: education and the wealth of nations. New York, NY: Basic Books. Migliore, S.A. 1990. National study shows progress and needs in strengthening institutional support for experiential education in combining service and learning: a resource book for community and public service. Raleigh, NC: National Society for Internships and Experiential Education. (Edited by Jane C. Kendall.) Miller, S. 1995. Smooth sailing for your quality program. Quality progress, vol. 20, no. 10.
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National Alliance of Business. 1987. The fourth R: workforce readiness report. Washington, DC: NAB. National Alliance of Business. 2001. Partnership planning structure for business/education/government partnerships. <www.nab.org> National Center for Education Statistics. 2002. Education statistics quarterly, vol. 3, no. 4. Olson, D. 2002. Personal interview. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University, Department of Information Technology. Peak, D.; O’Hara, M. 1999. Internship and consulting engagement: management of the university’s liability. Journal of managerial issues, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 56–76. Reich, R. 1992. The work of nations. New York, NY: Vintage. Shield, G. 1995. Technology education, innovation and management. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer Verlag. Thurow, L. 1993. Head to head: the coming economic battle among Japan, Europe and America. New York, NY: Warner Books. Taylor, F.W. 1911. The principles of scientific management. New York, NY: Harper Bros. United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. 1994. Employment situation. Washington, DC: Department of Labor. Yauas, B. 1995. Quality management worldwide. Quality progress, vol. 20, no. 10. Yearout, S. 1996. Secrets of improvement-driven organizations. Quality progress, vol. 21, no. 1.
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Chapter I.10
Bridging the Learning Divide: A Study into Adult Learning and Peer Mediation in the Workplace David Johnson
1 Introduction: The Learning Divide As we enter the twenty-first century, it has become clear that the rapidly changing nature of our working lives, public lives and private lives requires us to engage continually in new forms of learning. It is now accepted wisdom that everyone needs to be able to learn throughout life, both to remain employable and to fulfil his or her potential. The problem has been accentuated as the United Kingdom, like elsewhere in Europe, moves rapidly towards a knowledge-based economy and it is becoming clearer that, in many communities, a significant number of adults are disengaged from learning and have poor basic skills. There are also significant numbers of working people with low basic skills and information technology skills who have difficulties in accessing learning provision. But, while there is no shortage of supply-side solutions to raising the skill levels of adult learners, there appears to be a significant problem on the demand side. It seems that efforts aimed at engaging in learning programmes those adults identified as having learning or skills deficits do not take account of how the trajectories and life histories of adults and young adult learners influence their dispositions towards learning. This arises, in part, from the limited use of methodologies for gaining insights into the learning histories of adult and young adult learners and, in part, from the limited conceptual understandings applied to the nature of learning. Our failure to bridge the learning divide between those who want to and can access learning provision, and those who are unwilling—perhaps because of their prior, and possibly unsatisfactory, experiences of learning—has created a wide training gap in the United Kingdom, which has denied many adults access to learning and career opportunities. The National Skills Task Force (2000) reports that over half the workforce has no qualifications above National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) level 2 and that one in three employees say that their employer has never offered them any training. A particular concern is with levels of basic literacy, numeracy and information technology. The Moser Report (Moser, 1999) showed that one in five adults have such poor reading skills that they would not be able to find the entry for ‘plumbers’ in the Yellow Pages. A recent survey in the West of England showed that 33% of employers with five or more employees in Bristol identified
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skills gaps1 in their organization. The most frequently mentioned shortages included basic literacy and numeracy, basic IT skills, technical and specialist skills, and work ethic and motivation. The most frequently occurring skills shortages in basic literacy and numeracy, technical and specialist skills and basic IT skills were found in the transport and communications sector. But it is not only the workforce that we should be concerned about. There are strongly held views amongst social reformers that learning throughout life is necessary as the United Kingdom becomes more plural and socially diverse. Indeed, there is evidence from the Cantle Report (United Kingdom. The Home Office, 2002) that community/social cohesion is threatened when there is a high incidence of poverty and unemployment and low levels of education and skills. Yet, many communities on the ‘wrong side’ of the learning divide are vulnerable and tentative in their consideration of further learning. Importantly, traditional outreach methods have not had much success in bringing them into learning provision. As noted above, there is no shortage of policy imperatives to address the problems of low basic skills within the workforce and in the poorest communities. Following the publication of the Moser Report on basic skills in March 1999, the Basic Skills Agency was asked to set up a task force to look at how to encourage 3.5 million adults to improve their basic skills. The learning agenda appeared to be shaped by concerns of ‘falling standards’ and ‘illiteracy’ and ways needed to be found to ‘remedy’ the problem, ultimately to create a workforce able to compete in a global economy and informed citizens participating at all levels in society. In 2001 Skills for life: the national strategy for improving adult literacy and numeracy skills was published (United Kingdom. Department for Education and Employment, 2001a). It set out the governments’ strategy to raise standards of literacy, language and numeracy among the adult population. A key strand of this strategy was to provide each learner with access to a high-quality learning experience recognized by national qualifications. By early 2001 a new teaching and learning infrastructure had been developed comprising a set of national standards for literacy and numeracy, core curricula for literacy and numeracy, a standardized screening tool—Fastrack, a set of national tests for literacy and numeracy at levels 1 and 2. A second policy document, Success in adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL provision (United Kingdom. Department for Education and Skills, 2002) places individual learners at the heart of the ‘Skills for Life’ strategy. It sets out a clear statement of entitlement which confirms that all adult learners should expect to have: (a) free access to impartial advice and guidance on how to improve their skills; (b) a confidential report based on diagnostic assessment which identifies their strengths and weaknesses in literacy, language and numeracy; (c) an individual learning plan that identifies realistic milestones and targets; and (d) a relevant programme of learning which has been developed using national standards matching their aims and ambitions to their current abilities and future potential. It is clear that these policy strategies are important and that they underline a political will to tackle the issues. However, there appears to be a central problem, as already pointed out above—the failure of traditional outreach methods in bringing those who have disengaged from learning into meaningful learning provision. One
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strategy, keenly pursued by the government to strengthen the United Kingdom’s competitiveness and improve the employability and adaptability of the workforce, is making available information and advice about what learning opportunities exist and how to gain access to them. Central to this strategy is the provision of ‘drop-in’ information, advice and guidance centres, several of which are located in the centres of many British cities. While these centres report some success in putting those seeking new learning opportunities in touch with learning skills providers, it is not altogether clear whether this is sufficient to break what is increasingly seen as a vicious intergenerational cycle of learning ‘poverty’ and unemployment. To address this problem, a research team, consisting of members of information, advice and guidance centres, trade-union learning units and members of the academic community, has advanced an innovative experimental research initiative aimed at bringing members of the workforce and of ‘learning poor’ communities into ‘activity settings’. By activity settings, we mean a space in which people engage with each other in meaningful, structured activity (Engestrom, 1999). The activity settings are made up of trade union ‘learning champions’ who recruit workers, like themselves, into a forum for discussing opportunities to learn and advise about gaining access to such provision. The use of trade union learning champions is an important innovation in promoting lifelong learning in the workforce and is recognized as such by the government, as the following quotation from the ‘White Paper on Enterprise, Skills and Innovation’ shows: We are committed as a government to ensuring that union learning representatives can play a part in both the competitiveness of the enterprise and the personal investment and gains for the individual employee from lifelong learning. These representatives, trained through a partnership between the TUC [Trades Union Congress] and government, have been particularly successful in encouraging adults to learn who have not had any education and training since they left school. We will consult on how to give statutory backing to the network of union learning representatives (United Kingdom. DfES, 2001b, p. 3).
Thus, the study proposes that the use of peers who have had experience of engaging in learning opportunities and who are ready to ‘champion’ the idea are more likely to be able to break down resistance to learning. Further, the activity settings will provide a unique opportunity to study the complex nature of adult learning directly, especially such considerations as decision-making, internalization of information and advice, transforming knowledge and externalizing action. The research initiative is discussed here and, whilst no data are available at this time, we feel that the rationale, design and methodology are worth sharing and perhaps testing in other contexts.
2 New Directions for Research into Adult Learning The experimental research proposal discussed here responds to two major concerns. The first is a concern to provide an intervention that will bridge the learning divide, i.e. to (re-)engage disaffected adults excluded from learning and the economy. The second is to develop a better understanding of the nature of adult learning.
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The research builds upon and extends the work of previous research projects funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) of the United Kingdom, specifically those within its Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP). In particular, it takes account of the work of Rees et al. on learner identities (1997) and seeks to extend the questions raised by them in respect of creating a learning society. The proposal also draws on the work of the Transforming Learning Cultures in Further Education Project (TLCFE) funded under Phase II (Bloomer and James, 2002), which is concerned with transformation at both the level of individuals and at the level of collectives (including both formal and informal structures). The study discussed here seeks to further explore the conceptual issues around ‘mediating learning through interaction and participation in common learning practices’ highlighted by Bloomer and James. There is a good synergy between this and the project under discussion, both in terms of method and the development of theory and its application. The TLCFE is assessing the utility of a range of theoretical constructs (including ‘communities of practice’, ‘learning cultures’, ‘activity theory’) for understanding the authentic practices around learning (see, for example, James, 2002). Further, the work of the ‘Improving Incentives to Learning in the Workplace’ research project of the TLRP is also of key importance to the research discussed here, particularly the data that are emerging on the relationship between hidden abilities (or tacit forms of key competencies) and positive or negative socio-biographical experiences. The study will build on these understandings in developing new insights into how learners’ biographies influence their attitudes to learning. Its aims are simple:
r r r
To increase access to and sustain participation in learning in community and workplace settings through peer mediation. To enhance learning outcomes (basic skills, or ‘new’ literacies) through peer mediation and guided participation. To gain a deeper conceptual understanding of how adults learn in informal and work settings.
3 The Research Problem The project will seek to extend the debate on what constitute basic skills and test a new approach to providing information, advice and guidance through peer mediation—the use of learning champions in workplace activity settings. With regard to the first point, the project contends that conceptions of the literacies needed to develop an active competitive workforce are outdated and do not take account of recent shifts in forms of production. According to Gee et al.: There is now a shift towards forms of production which employ new ways of making goods and commodities, serving more differentiated markets, or niches, through segmented retailing strategies. There is now a great deal more attention paid to the selling environment at every level of production, from design to distribution (1996, pp. vii-viii).
This shift to ‘new ways of working’ has meant new demands in the literacies required ‘to do the job’ (Johnson et al., 2002). Street (2001) argues that in these
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new ‘project-focused’ work orders, members of the team combine to design, negotiate and develop products for sale and distribution. To accomplish this they need to be equipped with such discursive skills as negotiation, persuasion, the ability to present and listen to arguments, develop material for presentation on communication devices, such as slide projectors, multimedia projectors and computer displays. A number of authors (Johnson & Kress, 2003; Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1996; Heller & Pomeroy, 1997) argue further that reading and writing practices are only one form of literacy. To be literate in the current world of work, learners also need control of iconic systems such as those found in the ‘Word for Windows’ environment, with combinations of signs, symbols, boundaries, pictures, words, texts and images. In the public sphere social and community relations are also subjected to radical change (Johnson et al., 2002). The United Kingdom is a diverse and plural society and new literacies and discourses are necessary to help us build stronger communities and to empower individuals to engage more effectively with others in community and society. In respect of the second point, there is a growing body of evidence showing that information, advice and guidance services are making a difference to the lives of individuals (Bysshe et al., 2002). However, it has also become clear that there is not much research on the nature of guided participation and its effects on adult learning (Hughes, 2002). In particular, little is known about how peers and professionals might mediate the ‘biographical experiences’ of learners as they construct meaning within and between a range of formal and informal life experiences. Little is known also about the ways in which learners adopt (internalize) learning gained through interactions with others, and indeed how these are adapted (transformed) and applied to different situations (externalized). Research to date draws attention to the fact that learner identities are shaped through their different experiences of learning. Learning occurs across a range of contexts, such as the formal (traditional education and training institutions), nonformal (learning that takes place alongside the mainstream provision at the workplace, clubs, etc.) and informal (learning processes which are not intentional) (Alheit & Dausien, 2002). It is the cumulative experiences of learners that we are interested in and propose that, through a process of guided participation, these experiences and biographies will be revealed and used as a basis upon which to build new learning experiences. We argue that it is through engaging in shared activity with others that the subjects of the research interpret their experiences and generate biographical meaning (Alheit & Dausien, 2002, p. 11).
4 Research Questions From the theoretical framing of the problem discussed above, the research team proposes to explore the following propositions: Proposition 1: Through eliciting the learning biographies of adult learners, we will develop a better understanding of the personal, interpersonal, situational and cultural factors that promote or inhibit their participation in lifelong learning.
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Proposition 2: Learning dispositions, including motivation, self-image, esteem and self-confidence, are enhanced through guided participation and mediation offered by learning champions. Proposition 3: Learners acquire basic skills and ‘new’ literacies through situated learning, and transform and extend these.
5 Research Design This is an intervention study that sets up activity settings in two contexts: the community and the workplace. It then studies the activity settings. In the main, it is oriented to looking at how people participate in socio-cultural activity (interactions between new learners, learning champions, learning providers, employers, etc.). Through observing and tape recording these interactions we will seek to identify how the participants mediate each other’s understandings of the social world. In particular, we are interested in how participants use their biographies and narratives to achieve this. Because we are studying these interactions over time, we will be in a position to determine changes in individual understandings brought about through guided participation as we study the changing discourses and narratives. Through analysing the continuing discourse, we should be able to identify points in the activity cycle where internalization (adopting information or ways of doing things), transformation (critical self-reflection) and externalization (seeking solutions) occurs.
6 The Intervention 6.1 Establishing Activity Settings In order to explore these propositions, the research adopts an intervention strategy (Cole, 1995; Wertsch, Del Rio & Alvarez, 1995) that is discussed below. Working in collaboration with a range of partners in the post-compulsory sector (the Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) networks, the Trades Union Congress Learning Services, the Learning and Skills Council, the Guidance Council, community education services, workers education associations, amongst others) the project will establish ‘activity settings’ (Engestrom, 1999) in some of the most disaffected communities in the West of England and in a range of workplaces. An ‘activity setting’ is defined as a particular community or workplace setting in which ‘new’ learners are paired or work in groups with more experienced social partners and work out how to manage a new situation on the basis of their own and shared biographies. In the workplace activity settings, the more experienced social partners are Trade Union Learning Champions who will promote the value of learning through offering information, advice and support to their colleagues, particularly those most distant from learning.
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In establishing community-based activity settings, the research project will seek to influence those communities with the lowest levels of participation in education and employment in the West of England. It is worth noting that six out of thirty-four wards in the city of Bristol are amongst the worst deprived (education and employment indices) in England (United Kingdom. Department for the Environment, Transport and Regions, 2000). Here, community learning champions will be trained and deployed. The community learning champion as an enabler or learning friend is an emerging innovation and the research project will serve to test its efficacy in reaching the ‘hardest to reach’ communities. To underscore the importance of this innovation, a community-based organization, The Community Learning Service, has received £1.1 million from the West of England Learning and Skills Council (LSC) to develop a framework to enable disengaged adults and disaffected young adults to take their ‘first steps towards learning’. Part of the remit of the Community Learning Service is to recruit and train community learning champions from these communities and interest groups, which may include single mothers or refugee communities. This organization will work with the research project in deploying and supporting community champions. The project aims to set up activity settings in ten communities and ten small, medium and large companies in the West of England. Twenty community learning champions and twenty workplace learning representatives will be introduced into community and workplace activity settings. These learning champions form the basis of the outreach and support model we seek to study. Each learning champion will recruit up to five disengaged adult learners into the activity setting. Our partners suggest that this is realistic and evidence from the trade unions shows that, typically, workplace learning champions assist eight to twelve colleagues a month. We thus envisage a total of 200 learners recruited through learning champions, participating in activity settings. As new learners engage more and more with learning opportunities, other opportunities will arise in the activity system for them to be provided with more structured guidance in their learning choices and possible employment options. The activity setting will then be expanded to include IAG workers who are trained for this task. The learning champion will, however, continue to meet with the learner on a regular basis, which is once every eight weeks over the two years of the activity cycle.
6.2 Researching the Activity Settings In the activity settings, new learners will be encouraged to share their histories, fears and anxieties about learning. Learning champions will mediate the understandings of new learners by sharing their own biographies and learning histories, as well as providing them with information about new learning opportunities. The interactions between learning champions and newly recruited learners, as well as the interactions between learning champions, new learners and others in the activity settings, such as learning providers or employers, will be recorded and documented over a two-and-a-half year period.
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Every eight weeks, learning champions and new learners will meet more formally. At this time, the learning champion will conduct a semi-formal conversational interview with the learner. The research team will carry out conversational analysis (Sacks, 1992; Potter, 1996) on up to 200 narrative accounts and other evidence of interactions in the activity settings.
6.3 Addressing the Research Propositions and the Nature of Data Proposition 1: Through eliciting the learning biographies of adult learners, we will develop a better understanding of the personal, interpersonal, situational and cultural factors that promote or inhibit learner participation. Research questions: How are learners’ identities shaped by educational and training experiences? How do learners’ biographies influence their attitudes to learning?
The study aims to document the stories of 200 new recruits to learning. The technique we propose to use is broadly known as narrative enquiry. Narrative enquiry is a methodology that places participants centrally in the research process (Bishop, 1996). According to Te Hennepe (1993) their lived experience and their ways of knowing and sharing knowledge brings validity to the research process. Narrative enquiry maintains and respects the integrity of storytellers and the knowledge and culture they represent. It allows the researcher and the researched to co-construct narratives of the research process. According to Glynn (2002), it offers an approach that might highlight how the research process and outcomes may be understood through the agency of the key research participants, rather than through the agency of the researcher alone. The method outlined here is sensitive to capturing the discussions and interactions arising out of guided participation. Bishop (1996) defines narrative enquiry as a process based on a series of semi-structured interviews, which are recorded and transcribed. Transcripts serve as a basis for further enquiry through reflective discussion and collaborative validation. Bishop describes how participants revisit the issue under discussion through spiral discourse. In this study, community learning champions and workplace learning champions will be provided with tape recorders to record the ‘stories’ of the adult learners they are working with as they navigate their way through new learning journeys. The stories will thus be both backward looking (historical) and current. Through the recording, we should be able to derive both quantitative data (number of learning opportunities engaged with, over what period of time, etc.), as well as qualitative information (how good were these experiences? were they different from earlier experiences of learning? etc.).
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Learning champions will record all interactions, including telephone and face-toface conversations, where possible. Where recording interactions are not possible, the learning champions will make diary notes onto their tape recorders. Proposition 2: Learning dispositions including motivation, self-image, selfesteem and self-confidence are enhanced through guided participation and mediation offered by learning champions. Research questions: How can learners’ motivation be maximized? How can learners’ image and self-confidence be enhanced?
6.4 The Story-Line Method During the formal interview conducted every eight weeks during the research period, learning champions will use a semi-structured interview schedule to ask learners to recount their experiences since the last meeting. These discussions will be recorded. Learning champions will use the interview schedule to probe specifically whether learners feel their self-confidence is growing, their self-esteem and selfworth is altering, and whether they are more motivated. At the end of the interview the learning champion will ask learners to evaluate their experiences and events by marking a position on a seven-point Lickert-type scale. Over time, these points will be linked to produce a story line. There are three ideal typical story lines. A progressive line might show an increase in motivation and self-confidence over the two-and-a-half year period. A stability line might show periods where respondents feel there has been no change. A regressive line shows a negative change in dispositions. Advantages of the story-line method include that it is quick and easy to make, and may be perceived by respondents as an interesting and creative mode of selfexpression. Another advantage is that respondents evaluate experiences and events themselves. This can be very difficult with other narrative research methods. A further advantage is that subjective evaluations of experiences and events can be quantified. In order to establish the reliability and validity of story lines, the research team will match the completed story line with a transcript of the narrative in order to detect which events or experiences might have produced a positive or negative change in learning dispositions. Proposition 3: Learners acquire basic skills and ‘new’ literacies through situated learning, and transform and extend these. Research questions: How do learners apply what they have learned and transform knowledge? A central aspect of the research is to gather data on how information is internalized, transformed and applied. Rogoff (1995) uses the term ‘participatory appropriation’
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in contrast to internalization to refer to the process by which individuals transform their understanding of and responsibilities for activities through their own participation. Engestrom (1999) further elaborates on the idea that human beings do not simply soak up new information and knowledge, but actively transform it in the ‘activity cycle’. We will seek to operationalize the concepts of internalization, transformation and externalization by analysing the continuing discourses and conversations in the activity settings. We will use the techniques of conversation analysis (Sacks, 1992). Conversational analysis (CA) is used as an analytic approach to interpersonal engagements in a variety of settings, including conversations in casual, didactic or workplace settings. Central to this concept is the view that talk is a communicative act and situated in a social and cultural context. In discussing the methodological significance and social application of CA, Hutchby and Wooffitt argue that ‘an essential feature of CA is that concepts are developed from, securely rooted in, empirical observations of recorded, naturally occurring talk-in-interaction’ (1998, p. 8.). Speaking of the relation of CA to other forms of discourse analysis, Wood and Kroger write that ‘CA is an extremely rich source of ideas about actions, structures, and devices that can serve as analytic resources’ (2000, p. 200).
7 Additional Data Sets The project will develop a number of additional data sets in collaboration with partner organizations. These data sets will serve as measures of comparison and evaluation and are described below:
7.1 Baseline and Outcomes Surveys A household survey will be conducted by the Learning and Skills Council at the start of the project and will act as a baseline. It will be repeated after three years. It has been agreed that we work with the survey team in identifying questions, including those that give an indication of confidence in applying for jobs, motivation to learn, current uptake of learning and work opportunities, etc., against which we will later contextualize the findings arising from our interventions. The survey is normally conducted as a household survey in which enumerators are employed to interview one in every six households.
7.2 Measures of Literacy and Basic Skills Measures of literacy, numeracy and information technology will be collected through the learning providers. The Fastrack screening tool will be used as a
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Table 1 A summary of the research questions and techniques for data collection Research questions
Techniques
Data collected by
Type of data
Type of analysis
1. How are learners’ identities shaped by educational and training experiences? How do learners’ biographies influence their attitudes to learning? 2. How can learners’ motivation be maximized? How can learners’ image and self-confidence be enhanced? 3. How do learners apply what they have learned and transform knowledge?
Narrative enquiry
Learning champions
Qualitative
Content
Story line
Learning champions
Quantitative and Descriptive qualitative
Conversational Research team Qualitative analysis
Conversational analysis
Measures of comparison
Household surveys
Quantitative
Descriptive; correlations
Basic skills and literacy
Tests
Quantitative
Profiles
Outcomes
Economic modelling
Quantitative
Regression analysis
Additional data sets Learning and Skills Council Adult Basic Skills Strategy Unit Consultant
baseline measure of adult literacy and learners will be asked to take formal tests. This process will be managed by the Adult Basic Skills Strategy Unit.
7.3 Economic Analysis An economic analysis will be undertaken. The proposed economic model is tuned into assessing the intermediate outcomes for individuals involved in the project. This includes enhanced job or further learning search strategies, higher take-up and retention in learning and work opportunities. It also assesses longer-term outcomes for the individual in relation to their communities, such as enhanced quality of life, citizenship and democratic participation in community affairs. Finally, the model looks at longer-term outcomes for the economy, including a reduction in skills, gap shortages and enhanced levels of income.
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The data required to run the economic model will be collected in the West of England area at the time of the first baseline survey, and again in the outcome survey to be conducted towards the end of the project. Individual data, including characteristics of individual learners will be collected within the activity settings. Table 1 provides a summary of the research questions and techniques for data collection and analysis.
8 Outcomes The data sets described above will be subjected, where possible, to a multi-theoretical analysis (Cumming & Wyatt-Smith, 2001). We have already indicated how, through conversational analysis, we will derive data from interactions in the activity settings. These data will be discussed in a fashion that integrates perspectives arising from psychological theories of cognitive development with analyses drawing on theories of ‘learner voice’ or social and cultural capital, or cost-benefit analysis. The multi-theoretical, integrated nature of the analysis reflects the essence of a socio-cultural approach. According to Engestrom (1999), an activity system is a multi-voiced formation. In it we hear the different viewpoints and approaches of various participants. To study it therefore requires a particular methodology that is not reducible to a single technique (Scribner, 1985). Both Cole (1995) and Rogoff (1995) show how multiple, interrelated levels of analysis overcome the limitation imposed by traditional disciplinary divisions. The question is no longer whether a research effort falls into psychology, sociology or anthropology—rather, the desire and need to address complex issues without being hamstrung by traditional disciplinary boundaries or, indeed, the unhelpful boundaries between research and practice.
9 Conclusions This paper argues that there is a significant learning divide in the United Kingdom and that this is helpful neither for its projected economic growth trajectories, nor for its aims to achieve social cohesion. There are several policy initiatives that increase opportunities for learning in the workplace and in the community. The real problem is encouraging a wider uptake. We have argued here that more traditional outreach methods, such as ‘drop-in’ centres, have limited success. We have proposed a more innovative method for engaging (or re-engaging) those who have dropped out of learning and for studying the complex nature of adult learning. Whilst there are no findings to share, we hope that the design experiment outlined here will provide some thoughts for those grappling with similar concerns about how to bridge the learning divide; and to encourage the learning poor to become the learning rich.
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Note 1. Skills gaps are defined in the WESTEC survey as the gaps between the skills currently available within an organization’s workforce and the skills that the organization needs to achieve its objectives.
References Alheit, P.; Dausien, B. 2002. Studies in the education of adults. Leicester, UK: NIACE. Bishop, R. 1996. Collaborative research stories: Whakawhanaungatanga. Palmerston North, New Zealand: Dunmore Press. Bloomer, M.; James, D. 2002. Educational research in educational practice. Journal of further and higher education, vol. 27, no. 3. Bysshe, S.; Hughes, D.; Bowes, L. 2002. The economic benefits of career guidance: a review of current evidence. Derby, UK: University of Derby, Centre for Guidance Studies. Cole, M. 1995. Socio-cultural-historical psychology: some general remarks and a proposal for a new kind of cultural-genetic methodology. In: Wertsch, J.; Del Rio, P.; Alvarez, A., eds. Sociocultural studies of mind. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Cumming, J.J.; Wyatt-Smith, C.M. 2001. A multi-theoretical and multi-disciplinary approach to literacy education and curriculum research. Melbourne, Australia: ACER. Engestrom, Y., 1999. Activity theory and individual and social transformation. In: Engestrom, Y.; Miettinen, R.; Punamaki, R., eds. Perspectives on activity theory. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Gee, J.; Hull, G.; Lankshear, C. 1996. The new work order: behind the language of the new capitalism. London: Allen & Unwin. Glynn, T. 2002. Addressing cultural issues in a collaborative home and school literacy project. (Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the British Educational Research Association: University of Exeter.) Heller, S.; Pomeroy, K. 1997. Design literacy: understanding graphic design. New York, NY: Allworth Press. Hughes, D. 2002. Extending opportunities and building new horizons. Derby, UK: Centre for Guidance Studies, University of Derby. Hutchby, I.; Wooffitt, R 1998. Conversation analysis. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. James, C. 2002. Designing learning organisations. Organization dynamics, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 46–61. Johnson, D.; Kress, G. 2003. Globalisation, literacy and society: redesigning pedagogy and assessment. Assessment in education: principles, policy and practice, vol. 10, pp. 5–14. Johnson, D.; Garrett, R.; Crossley, M. 2002. Global connectedness and local diversity: forging ‘new’ literacies at the point of confluence. In: Claxton, G.; Sutherland, R.; Pollard, A., eds. Beyond the box: the confluence of cultures in education. London: Trentham Books. Kress, G.; Van Leeuwen, T. 1996. Reading images: the grammar of visual design. London: Routledge. Moser, C. 1999. A fresh start: improving literacy and numeracy. London: Department for Education and Employment. (The Moser Report.) National Skills Task Force. 2000. Skills for all: research report for the National Skills Task Force. Sheffield, UK: DfEE. Potter, J. 1996. Representing reality: discourse, rhetoric and social construction. London: Sage. Rees, G. et al. 1997. History, place and the learning society: towards a sociology of lifetime learning. Journal of education policy, vol. 12, no. 6, pp. 485–98.
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Rogoff, B. 1995. Observing sociocultural activity on three planes: participatory appropriation, guided participation, and apprenticeship. In: Wertsch, J.; Del Rio, P.; Alvarez, A., eds. Sociocultural studies of mind. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Sacks, H. 1992. Lectures on conversation, vol. 1–2. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. (Series editor: G. Jefferson.) Scribner, S. 1985. Vygotsky’s uses of history. In: Wertsch J.V., ed. Culture, communication and cognition: Vygotskian perspectives, pp. 119–45. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Street, B. 2001 Contexts for literacy work: the ‘new orders’ and the ‘new literacy studies’. In: Crowther, J.; Hamilton, M.; Tett, L., eds. Powerful literacies. Leicester, UK: NIACE. Te Hennepe, S. 1993. Issues of respect: reflections of first nations students’ experiences in postsecondary anthropology classrooms. Canadian journal of native education, vol. 2, no. 2, p. xx. United Kingdom. Department for Education and Employment. 2001a. Skills for life: the national strategy for improving adult literacy and numeracy skills. Nottingham, UK: DfEE Publications. United Kingdom. Department for Education and Skills. 2001b. A White Paper on enterprise, skills and innovation. London: The Stationery Office. United Kingdom. Department for Education and Skills, 2002. Success in adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL provision. Nottingham, UK: DfES Publications. United Kingdom. Department for the Environment, Transport and Regions, 2000. Indices of deprivation for wards in England. London: DETR. United Kingdom. The Home Office. 2002. Community cohesion: a report of the independent review team. London: The Home Office. (The Cantle Report.) Wertsch, J.V.; Del Rio, P.; Alvarez, A. 1995. Sociocultural studies: history, action and mediation. In: Wertsch, J.V.; Del Rio, P.; Alvarez, A., eds. 1995. Sociocultural studies of mind. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Wood, L.A.; Kroger, R.O. 2000. Doing discourse analysis: methods for studying action in talk and text. London: Sage.
Section 2 Education and Training in Informal Economies
Madhu Singh UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, Hamburg, Germany
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Chapter II.1
Overview: Education and Training in the Informal Sector Madhu Singh
1 Introduction This section is based on selected contributions to the theme of learning and work. It deals with using work as a means of gaining insights into learning, education and training and pedagogical processes in different cultural and ideological contexts and countries. Two contexts are important. On the one hand, the chapters point to the effects of certain economic trends, such as the increasing importance of knowledge for the economy. The other can be said to be contexts characterized by poverty, precarious work conditions, informal economic activity and rampant unemployment, coupled with social inequalities and exclusion. However, while skills development and human capital formulations are as important for an enterprise as are human development strategies that stress the importance of knowledge for new economic and production thinking, it is equally important to acknowledge the alternative or community perspectives, and to recognize the growing and alarming patterns of economic and political inequality that seemingly underpin the move towards the ‘knowledge economy’. Addressing this integrated agenda means that economic growth must be accompanied by measures addressing social sustainability. And this means recognizing that both the informal economy and formal sector are significant in production; it also means a new role for a government that oversees the relationship between the market and civil society; and that justice depends upon recognition and capability development, as well as equity and redistribution. The discussions on informal and non-formal learning suggest important linkages and shared concerns that hint at possible areas contributing towards bridging the research agendas between the different worlds. Given the supposed economic interlinking underway as part of the globalization process, it is important to find ways and means of overcoming the gaps in the research agendas and to include the absent voices. Whether in developing countries or in the developed countries, sweeping reform programmes are being introduced that predict a growing interrelationship between knowledge, skills and the labour market. Everywhere it is being argued that a
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competent workforce is not only a prerequisite for economic health, but is the most important ingredient in arriving at an appropriate policy mix for economic survival. Underpinning these policy prescriptions is recognition of the changing nature of work and work organization, as well as the interests of those from a more pedagogical and training background. The new emphasis on continuous learning and personal and professional development has led to a mainstream focus on widening provision for those adults and young people with minimal skills and qualifications. Whether young workers or school-leavers are in or out of work, attention has been intensified on the reasons and causes of low or non-participation in training or educational opportunities. In many countries, new partnerships between the State, individuals, employees, employers and communities are assuming greater responsibility for ensuring ‘employability’ in the future. Though education and training remain key areas of attention and concern, they are now being subsumed within a lifelong learning perspective. Lifelong learning has been used to define the importance of learning as opposed to education and training, and its on-going nature, as opposed to its completion when young. Bridges and collaborations between formal, non-formal and informal learning and between enterprises and the training institutions are seen as important and are being announced via new innovative partnership arrangements.
2 Training Needs in the Informal Economy One of the big problems in developing countries is that national technical and vocational education and training (TVET) programmes have little in common with the true needs of the economic sector. The result is that sizeable populations of the educated can be found among the unemployed, the consequence of which is deep social disenfranchisement, most notably among young people. At the same time, there is also a clear lack of appreciation for vocational training among young people, because it is considered to be of low social standing. As a result, the best students choose to follow academic education. Many governments in developing countries have begun to respond to this training deficit with strategies and policies based on a ‘demand-driven’ approach to TVET that stimulates the ‘production’ of trainees with competencies, defined explicitly by the employment sector. In some countries, this has included greater attention to training that occurs in the informal production, service and commercial sectors. Emphasis is being put on raising the quality of training and performance in order to strengthen simultaneously the economic welfare of individual artisans and their families and of the nation. An implicit goal of such a process is the eventual ‘formalization’ of the informal sector, in order to raise the economic and social benefits of the sector.
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3 Overview of the Contributions II.2 Tinkering with the Tinker: Meeting Training Needs in the Informal Sector of Chad, by Joshua A. Muskin Muskin examines the potential of the informal sector to contribute to the readjustment of national TVET strategies and policies, drawing on research conducted in Chad in the mid-1990s. Following other researchers, Muskin has tried to reveal the ‘quality’ of skills required to operate productively in the informal sector, even though the levels of attainment of the collection of generic and technical skills, knowledge and attitudes, vary widely across the many entrepreneurs and trades. The training needs include: fundamental theory; elements of basic design; techniques and basic knowledge; specific products and services; basic business skills, attitudes and habits; organization of operations; fundamental cognitive skills; and basic school-related technical skills. The basic challenge of training for informal sector participation is to prepare both future and current owner-operators with satisfactory competence equally as technicians and entrepreneurs, covering each of these eight categories. Training has to take into consideration the diverging training needs in terms of content, as well as delivery of the ‘low’ and ‘high’ end of the informal micro-enterprise (IME) sector. The analysis yields four broad recommendations for improving training in Chad’s informal sector. The first is that an institutional capacity should exist to assist the informal sector’s members, individually and collectively—particularly through related trade associations—to assess and articulate their specific training needs. The second recommendation is to adopt policies and initiate strategies designed to improve the quality of apprenticeship training. The third one concerns professional skills up-grading for owner-operators. Finally, while training may be a potent catalyst to the sector’s development, other factors, such as credit, material and other inputs, equipment and markets, comprise the individual elements necessary to enable new technological capacity. This capacity must, in turn, transform into greater performance, both in the sector and in the overall economy.
II.3 The Traditional Informal Apprenticeship System of West Africa as Preparation for Work, by William Ahadzie In close association with the pervasive informal sector is the increasing interest in the system of traditional apprenticeship. The interest is not only on the part of academic research and in professional disciplines, but also as an active policy issue. This is not surprising, given that this system has proved to be an enduring and an effective source of skills for many developing countries. The apprenticeship system is an important system of knowledge transfer in the process of human capital
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formation. Equally important is its contribution to how individuals are socialized into the cultures associated with the acquisition of skills in an informal setting. Perhaps a more convincing argument for the reappearance of interest in traditional apprenticeship is the inability of formal systems to deliver the types of skill sets that are required to ensure employability of the ever-increasing new labour market entrants and to contribute to overall poverty reduction. In this chapter, Ahadzie examines apprenticeship as an emerging model for thinking about learning. Apprenticeship entails a learning process in which we not only learn to do something, but we learn also to understand the principles of operation together with that knowledge which informs what we are doing. Without this essential understanding we would be unable to vary the activity. Ahadzie traces the historical development of apprenticeship in West Africa and shows how it has a different trajectory from that of systems in Europe and elsewhere. The source of apprenticeship in West Africa is to be found in the form of institutions that have evolved to solve problems of training in a society where technology is essentially static and where the utmost importance is given to indigenous education, which is concerned with the systematic socialization of the younger generation into the norms, religious and moral beliefs and collective opinions of the wider society. It also places a strong emphasis on learning practical skills. Ahadzie emphasizes the importance of State and non-State actors in removing the constant risks of eviction or police harassment that craftsmen experience, and calls upon improving the efficiency of the basic education system and formulating comprehensive national policies on technical and vocational training. He suggests a reengineering of existing institutional, legal, financial and instructional arrangements and recommends that occupational standards should be developed for the crafts in the traditional apprenticeship system. Moreover, workshops should be identified and developed into centres of excellence and the instructional abilities of craftsmen in the informal sector should be improved. He suggests financial reforms and innovative funding mechanisms. He also argues for undertaking research studies, especially on the transition between acquiring skills and entry into self-employment, on the high mortality rates in micro-enterprises in the informal economy, as well as on the set of skills delivered by each craft. Continuous research on female apprenticeship and institutional and cultural practices should also be undertaken.
II.4 Initiatives to Link TVET to Self-Employment in Ghana, by Robert Palmer In addition to traditional apprenticeship models, there are attempts to provide preemployment skills training through short-term training programmes. These aim to transfer skills for self-employment quickly. Palmer analyses two of these initiatives in Ghana. One is the integrated Community Centres for Employable Skills (ICCES), and the other is the Skills Training and Entrepreneurship Programme (STEP). While these programmes have had an important role to play in Ghana and in other
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countries in the African continent and elsewhere, they have failed for many reasons. Parents and youths continue to prefer academic education; most graduates from these short-term programmes find it very hard to utilize their acquired skills in the labour market; there is often decreasing support from the local community; the training is of poor quality; governments have not supported these programmes with adequate finances and policy and regulatory frameworks. Finally, programmes have been badly managed. Palmer argues that in order for skills acquisition to be more effectively translated into skills utilization, more attention needs to be paid to developing conducive learning environments. Programmes need to be accredited only and when they meet the required standards of good delivery and quality learning and training.
II.5 Criteria for Training Policy in the Informal Sector: Demands and Challenges in Latin America, by Enrique Pieck Poorly educated, unemployed youth—particularly those from socially and economically disadvantaged communities—have become a grave problem in developing countries. Not only is basic education not accessible to many of them, but often the quality of education is so poor that even receiving a full primary education is not a guarantee that one will have acquired basic competencies. Formal basic education has not been providing the skills and competencies needed to prepare school graduates for their incorporation into the world of work. In this context, the articulation of skills development with basic education becomes crucial. While schools can play a positive role for working children and adolescents, the traditional school concepts have so far resulted in their exclusion. The question that arises, therefore, is how young working people acquire competencies and what competencies are crucial for their lives and work. Considerably more young people acquire occupational competencies through an informal apprenticeship than would be possible through government or NGO-run programmes. The Delors Commission Report is also appealed to regarding the necessary shift away from knowledgedominated learning to a focus on the abilities of the learner. In his paper, Pieck proposes a two-pronged strategy. On the one hand, non-formal strategies, such as bridge courses, are needed to prepare children for entry into schools and remedial learning centres which provide pedagogic support to consolidate school performance. On the other hand, many government programmes highlight the need for multiple ways of delivering schooling and regard educational programmes outside the formal school system as suitable for ‘balancing work and education’ and thereby for addressing the reality of work in the lives of poor children. In both strategies, however, the stated intention is to address the question of equivalence with the formal system. The impact of these policy debates and trends has meant that the importance of social as well as economic outcomes is being emphasized in TVET. The focus on technical and vocational learning is being extended to embrace and support community development.
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II.6 Informal Learning at Work: The Case of Working Children in Egypt, by Laila Iskandar In the context of the realities of adult poverty in economies with high unemployment rates, as well as poor-quality vocational education and still poorer returns on basic education, the question arises of what can be done in the context of that reality for working children to make them acquire a measure of learning and equip them with market-based vocational skills, basic educational skills and learning that will help them live in sustainable ways and contribute to the development of their communities. In her chapter, Iskandar explores the case of two learning sites for working children. One is the case of brick factories in Egypt and the other is that of recycling. In both the cases, training and education have been incorporated into traditional economic activities originating from the local cultural and social environment itself. Not only is learning linked to the reality of work, but the learning organization of non-formal education is flexible, community-based and extends to the home and the street; it is social, fluid and involves earning by learning, as well as experience that is filled with dignity and respect, and one that values, for instance, the waste recyclers as individuals. The teaching methods are participatory; learning is experiential; the school environment is democratic and self-financed; learning schedules are flexible; instructors come from the neighbourhood; assessments are individualized; and learning is self-paced. As a consequence of this approach, this type of non-formal education is able to achieve greater learner involvement, ownership and commitment. It is clear from this example that education and training programmes for very poor young people and adults need to offer very clear, concrete and immediate reasons to justify enrolment and ensure perseverance. Iskandar concludes by calling upon educators, policy-makers and the industrial sector to revisit the issue of working children and their learning needs within the present reality of informal workshops that provide a basis for their vocational education. She also suggests that policy-makers should combine the dual role of nonformal education in informal workshops with the provision of basic learning needs, health and occupational safety, business skills, etc. for children and youth in that sector. She advocates a curriculum based on a reading of the popular economy. And, finally, she argues that teachers should be trained to be ‘facilitators of learning’ and that they should be professionals in the non-formal vocational sector of education.
II.7 Informal Learning and Work: From Genealogy and Definitions to Contemporary Methods and Findings, by Peter H. Sawchuk As we develop our educational and training systems for lifelong learning, the distinction between education and training becomes increasingly blurred. Whereas some skills are learned at school, others may be acquired in non-formal adult
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learning programmes, at work or in the local community. Informal learning activities are also gaining in importance. This enlarged view of learning emphasizes the informal acquisition of skills on the job and in social movements of popular education. All this is relevant from the point of view of developing flexible lifelong learning policies for informal economies, in situations where many young people and adults have not received good initial schooling. For the lifelong learner, it is not important whether the learning situation is classified as education or training or whether training should be added to education, or vice versa. What matters for such a learner is—instead—the education of the whole worker, not because it is required for production alone, but because it affects him or her as a unique being with a social and cultural understanding of the world. Work cannot be reduced only to what people do to earn a wage. Work also includes the value that people add to organizations and society more broadly, including individual, social and historical features. The broader notion of work also includes housework, voluntary work and informal learning activities. Work has to be seen in this inter-connected way that penetrates all social spheres. Just as the expanded notion of work has challenged the dominance of paid employment, in the same way informal learning challenges the hegemony of institutionalized formal and structured education. In his chapter, Sawchuk reviews leading models of learning and work, which when taken together demonstrate the basic genealogy of informal learning: (a) direct engagement in the world rather than internal thought alone, as represented in Aristotelian thought; (b) each model demonstrates how the learning it describes is flexible and inclusive of diverse knowledge forms in relation to the original UNESCO imperatives; (c) learning is political—it has to do with control which expresses the spirit of the critiques of the likes of Freire and Illich; and (d) each model attempts to establish the value of, and thus the motivation for, building more clearly articulated assessments of informal learning as represented by the more recent policy initiatives to recognize prior learning. All these non-formalized ways of learning contribute to how we understand informal learning and work today. Finally Sawchuk reviews a major critique of the informal learning concept, before turning to the leading methods of investigating informal learning and work and the key findings they have offered to date.
II.8 New Learning Spaces in VET: The Contribution of Social Partnerships, by Terry Seddon, Kathleen Fennessy and Kathleen Ferguson To promote citizenship and democracy, as well as to rebuild civil society, it is necessary to create spaces and opportunities within society so that citizens may actively participate in it. NGOs, social movements, community development associations and trade unions are taking charge of these spaces and demanding that others be
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created. In most of these places, learning had always occurred but had not been formalized or recognized through the mainstream policies and practices of education and training. Although these new learning spaces have a well-defined relationship with government, they are nonetheless autonomous from the government. They give an opportunity to the participants to negotiate their position actively and deliberately vis-`a-vis centralized government and policy processes, as well as in relation to the education and training system and to agencies and community networks. The appearance of a growing number of new learning sites is a reflection and manifestation of a transformation in institutionalized relationships between State, market and civil society. Most importantly, new learning sites are an opportunity for local communities to partner with the government. In their chapter, Seddon, Fennessy and Ferguson look at social partnerships as a type of new learning space that is informed by a community development orientation in education policy. They document the character of social partnerships and their contribution and implications for TVET. They define social partnerships as localized networks that connect some combination of local community groups, education and training providers, industry and government to work on local issues and community-building activities. Social partnerships in TVET are categorized into three different types: enacted partnerships, community partnerships and negotiated partnerships. Social partnerships support learning both at the level of the partnership, where participation in partnership supports an educative process for participants, and at the level of the learning initiative, which supports learning by beneficiaries to enhance their educational and employment pathways. Youth and young adults benefit not only through the promotion of their vocational education and training, but also through engaging in interactions and activities inherent in partnership work. This relational learning develops their self-knowledge, self-awareness and self-management. Relational learning is a fundamental asset for the transitory workforce. They offer a particular kind of pragmatic and experiential learning which challenges and transforms fundamentally the specific and situated learning goals of institutional learning spaces. Social partnerships make a distinctive contribution to TVET, extending beyond the kind of skill formation that characterizes traditional vocational learning to embrace lifelong development as citizen actors. Partnerships are fundamental to moving away from a top-down governmental approach towards multilateral governance. Partnerships are crucial to this governance context because they are sites where skills and other resources can be shared and where experts can engage with community members. It is claimed that localized partnerships benefit industry, governments and communities. Seddon, Fennessy and Ferguson conclude by pointing out some contradictions that are inherent in the concept of new learning spaces. Even if new learning spaces exist outside established education and training institutions, this does not necessarily mean that productive relationships with a local school cannot be realized by social partnerships.
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II.9 Social and Cultural Aspects of Informal Sector Learning: Meeting the Goals of EFA, by Madhu Singh Although much of the attention and energy, especially in partnerships, between workplaces and educational and training agencies are directed at the development and maintenance of initiatives with the enterprise, there are others who are more interested in trying to understand the wider societal linkages and the practice of work and learning. There is a strong move towards situating learning as part of a culturally embedded aspect of human action. In order to understand and study learning, it is necessary to consider the local practices of the learner and to situate these practices against the unfolding lives of learners in different contexts. Such an approach not only opens up appreciation of what counts as learning, but also incorporates concerns about informal and non-formal learning outside the traditional formal system. In her chapter, Singh argues that if vocational training and education are to cater for the informal sector, then they need to take into account the traditions and values of the system of vocational learning in working life and be interwoven with basic education. Education for All (EFA) goals are paramount in this respect. If we are to achieve these goals, the multiplicity of social and cultural contexts in which learning takes place should be also taken into account. Openness to intercultural dialogue is an important condition for meeting the goals of Education for All. At the same time, there should be sensitivity to incorporating foreign experience into existing domestic practices. The very philosophical foundations of various educational theories that are being propagated should be questioned in the light of the diverse social and cultural experience. Acknowledgments The editor responsible for this section would like to thank two of her interns, Evgeny Postnikov from the Russian Federation studying at the International Bremen University, and Anna Philippi from Regensburg University, Germany, for their assistance with editorial work.
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Chapter II.2
Tinkering with the Tinker: Meeting Training Needs in the Informal Sector of Chad Joshua A. Muskin
1 Introduction Without wading into debates on cause and effect or on the transferability of models,1 it is widely asserted that where economic development has taken root, national rates of literacy, education and training are relatively high (Cummings & Dall, 1995, p. 5; Lockheed & Verspoor, 1990, p. 1). This occurs, particularly in developing countries, despite the custom of national TVET programmes to train to standards that have little in common with the true needs of the economic sector—in other words, the ‘supply-driven’ approach. The result is educated unemployment co-occurring with many unfilled technical positions or the presence of foreign skilled workers2 (Middleton, Ziderman & Van Adams, 1993, pp. 51–66). Many developing country governments, with their international donor partners, began to respond to this training ‘short-circuit’ in the 1990s with strategies and policies based on a ‘demand-driven’ approach (Middleton et al., 1993, p. 101; Wilson, 1996). They stimulated the ‘production’ of trainees who matched more precisely the worker profiles, in numbers and, especially, competencies, defined by the employment sector. In some countries, this has included greater attention—official or not—to training that occurs in the informal production, service and commercial sectors, albeit following different strategies. This phenomenon, notably the potential of the informal sector to contribute to the readjustment of national TVET strategies and policies, is the topic of the present chapter, drawing from research conducted in Chad in the mid-1990s. Formal TVET tends to be highly selective, a consequence of the few places and the high unit cost. In many countries, this situation results in recruiting graduates who have at least one more degree than that required for enrolment. By definition, this relegates a large portion of a country’s youth to unemployment or underemployment, while technical jobs remain unfilled. The TVET sector continues to suffer from criticism that its programmes are not adapted to the real needs of the workplace, that students are trained in theory but fail in practice and that the graduates lack both suitable workplace behaviours and acumen for independent employment. The study in Chad, as well as similar experiences in other countries, provides strong reasons to look to the informal sector to fill this gap. Quantitatively, the number of ‘spaces’ available is exponentially greater and the cost of training enormously R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 II.2, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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less. And, as training occurs in the workplace, the question of relevance also disappears—while that of quality clearly remains. Certainly, looking to the informal sector to replace formal TVET is ridiculous, but equally certain is the inability of the TVET sector to meet the demands of the workplace. Consequently, it seems legitimate to study the prospects of training within the informal sector as a way of strengthening linkages with the formal sector.
2 Characterizing the Informal Sector The informal sector has long been where the bulk of employment, production and domestic consumption occur in the developing world. Illustrating this point for Kenya, King & Abuodha (1991, p. 10) assert that: The informal sector [. . .] is the ordinary economy in which the bulk of Kenyans gain their livelihood. It is not the informal sector that is somehow special and extraordinary, but the formal sector, which encompasses such a small portion of the economically active population.
Based on United Nations (1996, p. v, 13) figures for all of Africa at the time, the informal sector comprised up to 70% of non-agricultural employment and 34% of non-agricultural gross domestic product (GDP). Birks et al. (1994, p. 22) trace the concept of the ‘informal sector’ in Africa to Keith Hart’s coining of the term in 1965 and to the prominent International Labour Organization study in Kenya (ILO, 1972). (Similar studies at the time occurred in Sri Lanka and Colombia.) After about a decade of relative inattention by donors, governments and practitioners—despite the sector’s unabated vibrancy and growth worldwide and persistent international research (King, 1996, p. 8)—international interest bounded to renewed prominence with Hernando de Soto’s book, The other path (1989). Not without controversy,3 this work captured a consensus view that the micro- and small enterprise sector contributes critically to national economic well-being. In their work Skills acquisition in micro-enterprises: evidence from West Africa, Birks et al. (1994) describe the contemporary strategic interests of the international donor community in the informal sector. Looking at training needs and practices in the urban informal sector settings of four countries, the authors find what many other studies4 have also found: a robust, active, widely varied set of activities and actors. This assessment relates equally to the sector’s production and commercial aspects as to the nature of the training methods and challenges found there. The present chapter aspires to follow in the tradition of this work by Birks et al., adding the particular case of training in the informal sector of the Chad, based on a study conducted for the World Bank in 1996–97. Specifically, the present analysis begins with a brief overview of the informal sector, highlighting its inherent heterogeneity and offering a basic profile of its participants. Turning to its substantive focus, the investigation covers: (a) what one needs to know to operate and evolve successfully in the informal sector; and (b) how artisans acquire information, skills and attitudes, both as apprentices and
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as active entrepreneurs. The chapter concludes with a series of four recommendations offered to raise the quality of training, and therefore performance, in the sector and, consequently, to strengthen simultaneously the economic welfare of the individual artisans and their families and of the nation. An implicit goal of such a process is the eventual ‘formalization’ of the informal sector, with the understanding that such a process must be gradual and natural, as a forced process would jeopardize the integrity, and thus the economic and social benefits, of the sector.
3 The Informal Sector: A Study in Heterogeneity A central obstacle confronted by this and virtually all studies of Africa’s informal sector is the sector’s prodigious heterogeneity (cf. Birks et al., 1994, p. 23). Such diversity may be attributed to a few discrete factors:
r r r r r
the nature of activity: production, service or commercial; the nature of the technologies used: modern or traditional; the number of people: from no or few apprentices or workers to several, and even paid workers; the level of interaction with formal sector institutions: including financial, training and business; and the level and type of education and training, of the artisan/entrepreneur, apprentices and paid workers: from no formal or non-formal education or training to high levels of both.
The different definitions of the sector range from casting the participating firms and entrepreneurs as frequently illicit, unorganized activities (e.g. de Soto, 1989), to their portrayal as small but commonly officially registered businesses (Birks et al., 1994, p. 22; King, 1996; Muskin, 1991). What most descriptions tend to share are their smallness of size, their reliance on limited, mostly rudimentary technology, the local nature of the clientele, a high degree of competitiveness with uncontrolled entry by new participants,5 and apprenticeship as the major means for transmitting skills and knowledge. The present chapter deals with the sector’s heterogeneity in two ways. First, it limits the field by concentrating on the production and service sub-sectors, excluding merchants and petty vendors. This decision is due mostly to the central purpose of researching technical training needs and provision, especially apprenticeship-based, which aspects pertain minimally to strictly commercial activities (Birks et al., 1994, p. 56). As such, subsequent references to the ‘informal sector’ in this chapter should be understood as excluding the informal commercial sector. Second, the chapter includes sector participants across trades with small, medium and large operations and exhibiting varying degrees of formality in their training, organization, finances and entrepreneurial relations. This broad stroke approach is important quite precisely because of the lack of uniformity in defining the informal sector. More strategically, it permits a more functional reflection on what
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an evolution from informality to formality might look like. This last comment requires the strong caveat that such a continuum will likely be very different from one context to another and from one trade to another, as demonstrated by King & Abuodha (1991) in their comparisons of candlework artisans to other trades. In this regard, a broad stroke may also cast some light, even if dim, on what factors are likely to be most context-sensitive.
4 The Context of Chad Based on the 1995 Human development report (UNDP), Chad ranks 162nd out of 174 countries on the human development index. As in many countries, this extreme poverty can be traced largely to a recent history of armed conflict, including both a civil war and subsequent war with Libya that consumed the country before and throughout the 1980s. However, though formally ended in 1990 with the forceful accession to power of Colonel Idriss D´eby, the effects of the conflicts endured, afflicting the country physically, socially, psychologically and, of course, economically (cf. Nolutshungu, 1996, p. 297–300; Ouadoua, 1996, pp. 38–40). More directly concerning the vocational training sector, these impacts were visible in the loss of educational infrastructure—none of the government’s vocational training or professional education institutions survived the fighting—a withdrawal from training by the government and private businesses (concerned more with their immediate survival than with long-term growth), and an increased, albeit modest, role for private institutions (mostly non-governmental organizations) in providing vocational training. Beginning with a joint government/donors round-table, held in Geneva in 1985, Chad situated the development of its human resources among its most important national priorities. The participants focused on three spheres of activity—basic education, technical and professional training, and wage-earning work—which constituted together ‘the principal motor of Chad’s potential’. The topic of subsequent round-tables held in N’Djam´ena in 1989 and 1990 and again in Geneva in 1993, the responsibility for achieving this development fell to a high-level interministerial commission (Comit´e national pour l’´education et la formation en liaison avec l’emploi—CONEFE). In particular, the commission was charged with the creation and initiation of a strategy to bring Chad’s education and training policies and programmes into harmony with the priority needs of the employment sector, to which the donor community devoted significant resources (Chad. Minist`ere du Plan et de la Coop´eration, 1993).
5 Chad’s Informal Sector and Its Participants Focusing on the informal sector within a formal education and training for employment framework might appear counterproductive. Yet it is highly relevant in Chad where informal economic activities play such a crucial role in the national economy.
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This is true equally at the macro and micro levels. Panhuys (1990, pp. 3–5) attributes this importance to both employment and national income factors, counting in 1988 up to 70,000 individuals working in N’Djam´ena’s informal sector alone. He contrasts this with an estimated 45,000 workers employed nationwide in Chad’s formal, modern sector. In N’Djam´ena, Panhuys estimates that the informal sector employs around 70% of the total economically ‘active’ population, placing N’Djam´ena’s informal sector among the most significant of all sub-Saharan African cities. These workers operate primarily in the commercial sector (63.2%). Of the balance, 27.4% operate in the service sector and 9.4% in production activities. He counts a further 12,300 micro-enterprises, of which 700 are artisanal workshops, 550 service operations, 200 transporters and 10,900 shops. Looking at the financial ‘bottom line’, using figures from 1984, Panhuys reports that the informal sector accounted for 28.4% of Chad’s GDP, of which artisanal production accounted for 5.7%. If one excludes the portion of GDP attributable to agro-pastoral production, the relative importance to national income of the informal sector in 1984 leaps to 62.5% (1990, p. 5). While these figures refer to a date over twenty years ago, both conditions in Chad and trends for the informal sector across Africa (United Nations, 1996; ILO, 1991) offer little reason to believe that the sector’s relative importance has changed significantly. To the contrary, extrapolating World Bank (Webster & Fidler, 1996, p. 12) figures from some years ago—1994—that estimated the informal sector’s contribution to GDP of 66% for all of Africa, one may suppose that the sector’s significance has grown. The research upon which the present chapter is based was performed for the World Bank and Chad’s CONEFE in 1996. The data and analysis derive from a study of a representative sample of 399 informal sector entrepreneurs—also referred to here as ‘artisans,’ ‘tradesmen/women’ and ‘entrepreneurs’—and 1,454 apprentices distributed over Chad’s five major cities (Ab´ech´e, Faya-Largeau, Moundou, N’Djam´ena and Sarh) and operating in eighteen major vocational categories,6 divided among the modern and traditional sectors. The sample included approximately 10% women, virtually all in traditionally women’s trades. While an analysis of differences between women and men artisans must await a future study, Birks et al. (1994) anticipate that significant differences are likely. Looking at tailoring, one of the rare trades (with hairstyling) in which both men and women operate (other than commerce), they note that ‘on average, female tailors are more highly educated than their male colleagues’ (p. 46). Further, women’s entrepreneurial behaviour is distinct in switching ‘between work and domestic duties’ and with an ‘average life of [. . .] enterprises [that] is shorter than that of male tailors’ (ibid.). As regards training, more women have formal backgrounds in another vocation (p. 52) and only 25% of women (versus 75% of men) ‘have apprenticeship experience’, which tend to be shorter than men’s (p. 61). Nevertheless, Birks et al. found ‘relatively little difference in the desire for training by gender, and no significant difference in the types of skills demanded’ (p. 52). These and the other differences point to clear disadvantages for women ‘with respect to [. . .] “more attractive” [economic] activities’ (p. 61), which situation they attribute to
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structural issues of gender that extend well beyond the domain of training and trade. Clearly, more and separate study and analysis are warranted. A general profile of the common owner-operator and apprentice in Chad’s informal sector reveals an endemic poverty both financially and technologically. This situation is immediately obvious in the frequently dilapidated state of the associated infrastructure and the penury and poor condition of the equipment and materials used. This poverty is found also in the low quality of products and services they offer and the artisans’ slim profit margins, also observed by King & Abuodha in Kenya (1991, p. 97). Limited technical ability, as well as the other shortcomings observed, surely trace, at least in part, to the persistently low levels of education, literacy and mathematical ability of the entrepreneurs and their apprentices, as well as by the preponderance of those with little or no formal professional training (see Table 1). For example, of the 349 entrepreneurs providing this information, 26% have no formal schooling and 22% have no more than four years. The average level of schooling attained for the 74% with any formal education was about seven years. Barely 20% of the entrepreneurs reported having prior formal professional training, in this case for an average period of three years. The vast majority have learned their trade entirely through the traditional apprenticeship system, lasting an average of about 5.7 years. Under normal circumstances, one could expect that the apprentices, representing a newer generation, would exhibit more favourable levels of education—a conclusion that Birks et al. (1994 p. 46) derive from their study. This does not appear to be the case in Chad; which distinction may be attributable to the war, as indicated above (cf. Ouadoua, 1996; Esquieu & P´eano, 1994). On the contrary, a larger proportion of the 1,454 apprentices surveyed (29%) have no schooling at all, with only 19% having completed four years. The average level of schooling for those with any formal education is 6.7 years, slightly lower than that of their employers. Of the current group of apprentices, the average time they had spent with their employer was 4.1 years, while a full 25% reported having been ‘in training’ in the same enterprise for six years or more. The idea that an apprentice needs over six years to achieve professional competence is highly unlikely—unless the quality of instruction is completely abject. Table 1 Education and training of entrepreneurs and apprentices
Level of schooling achieved None 1 – 4 years Completed primary school (CEPE) Completed junior secondary school (BEPC) Completed senior secondary school (Baccalaureate) Koranic schooling Professional training Yrs of apprenticeship training, average (for former apprentices, average)
Entrepreneurs
Apprentices
Average–7 yrs 26% 22% 26% 15% 3% 35% 20% (3 yrs average) 5.7 yrs
Average–6.7 yrs. 29% 19% 27% 11% 1% 26% (3.8 yrs average) 4.1 yrs 3.1 yrs
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Indeed, the entrepreneurs indicated almost unanimously that apprenticeship training, regardless of their profession, should not exceed three years. The prevalence of such long tenures in apprenticeship training in Chad may be explained by the two factors: (a) it is extremely difficult to launch a new business due primarily to the absence of start-up capital, with few reasonable credit options available to informal sector operators, who lack the requisite collateral and influence; and (b) most apprentices are related to the owner-operator, so their status of apprenticeship after a few years of training might more appropriately be that of family worker. Birks et al. (1994, p. 61) add to these explanations that time spent by a ‘former’ apprentice as a worker may be viewed as a complement to his/her training.
6 Operating in Chad’s Informal Sector: What One Needs to Know Training-needs studies, typically undertaken by economists, have tended to focus on quantitative assessments of the employment sector, calculating the number of openings for specific job categories based on some manner of manpower planning or forecasting methodology. Among other shortcomings, these assessments commonly ignore the particular labour needs and opportunities of the informal sector. In more recent studies (e.g. Birks et al., 1994; King, 1996; King & Abuodha, 1991; Muskin, 1997), researchers looked directly at the informal sector to try to reveal the ‘quality’ of skills required to operate productively along with the methods by which these skills are transmitted, acquired and upgraded. The present study was designed and conducted within this more recent tradition. More specifically, the researchers sought evidence by which to determine the combination of knowledge (savoir), know-how (savoir faire) and affective dimensions (savoir eˆ tre) associated with productive performance and prospects for evolution within Chad’s informal sector. One fundamental limitation facing the study was the common difficulty informal sector artisans have in describing the technical requirements of their respective trades. While they easily explain what they need to know how to do, they are less articulate concerning what they need to know on a more fundamental, functional level as regards the manipulations and tasks they perform daily. (This same conclusion may be drawn from the findings of Birks et al., 1994, pp. 53–54, albeit indirectly, and King & Abuodha, 1991, p. 97.) As such, an artisan’s actions appear to be dictated much more by a combination of rote repetition and trial and error than by a studied, conceptual mastery of the many technical functions that comprise her or his trade. Approximation and aesthetics prevail over precision and consistency, resulting in products and services that are acceptable mostly because they are cheap (cf. Muskin, 1991, pp. 218; Muskin, 1997). The related conclusion is that informal sector entrepreneurs are handicapped in the quality of their work and, consequently, in their prospects for professional evolution;7 although most express overall satisfaction with their level of basic knowledge and skills, at least within the present impoverished national economic environment. This sentiment does not, however,
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prohibit them from asserting a desire to receive training (as shown below)—albeit as a lower priority—in what Birks et al. (1994, pp. 52–53) call ‘generic’ or entrepreneurial skills employed in all trades and in new technologies. Notwithstanding the limited ability of informal sector entrepreneurs to identify explicitly their major training needs, the present researchers revealed by means of a more implicit analysis several technical and operational requirements. Specifically, the researchers uncovered many of the major actions, techniques, tools, equipment and products in order to generate a basic list of the skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary for the mastery of each vocation (see Table 2). The purpose of this inquiry was not to produce an ‘average’ list of training needs, nor to prepare specific job profiles for each trade. Rather, the table represents an illustrative enumeration of what should be mastered for successful vocational performance across trades. Therefore, the analysis benefits particularly from having observed those artisans who appeared to be most accomplished professionally. It should be noted that this list surpasses in both breadth and depth what a similar list compiled for workers in the formal sector would include, where specialization and the high division of tasks is the norm, especially between the production and business dimensions of an enterprise. Similar efforts to articulate basic competencies for successful artisanal performance appear elsewhere, including: Birks et al., 1994; King, 1996, 1977; King & Abuodha, 1991; McLaughlin, 1989, 1979; Muskin, 1997, 1991, among several Table 2 Basic professional skills, knowledge and attitudes for participation in the informal sector Fundamental theory associated with a particular trade, such as electronics, combustion me
chanics, design and basic physics. Elements of basic design by which to represent in two dimensions, in writing and/or verbally
a final product or series of steps in the accomplishment of a product or service, both as a simple rendition and as a creative process. The range of techniques and basic knowledge required to operate the specific tools, machinery and other equipment associated with a particular trade, including their operation, maintenance and repair, as appropriate. Knowledge of the range of techniques and properties associated with the manipulation and transformation of a particular profession’s basic materials and other inputs necessary to create a product or perform a service. Specific products and services, or a variety of qualities, designs and purposes suited to a range of clients of a particular trade, especially more contemporary versions. Basic business skills, knowledge and habits, such as simple accounting, savings, costing, advertising or marketing, negotiations (with clients and suppliers), and strategic partnering (or sub-contracting). Organization of operations, both internal, as regards specific productive activities of a trade and the broader management of an enterprise, and external, as pertains to co-operation with other entrepreneurs from the same or different related trades or areas of economic activity, and interactions with other institutions, including financial entities, again according to production and management-related matters. Fundamental cognitive skills necessary for basic and more advanced problem-solving, including the analysis and diagnosis of a problem or situation, the articulation of a sequence of logical steps and, ultimately, creativity and innovation. Basic school-related academic skills, notably functional literacy and numeracy.
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others. These other studies often dissociate skills, knowledge and attitudes within broader sub-groupings. Birks et al. (1994, p. 53), for example, distinguish between ‘technical’ (or ‘craft-specific’) skills and ‘generic’ (or ‘non-craft’) skills, with the latter group’s referring to ‘basic business skills, knowledge and habits’ and the ‘organization of operations’. Technical skills refer to the theoretical, design, manipulation, material, equipment and product aspects of an artisan’s repertoire, which differ from one trade to another. Concerned more by the technical realm, McLaughlin (1979, pp. 164–68) attributes difference to the ‘nature’ of the skills required by an artisan, proposing a spectrum of skill combinations, ranging from the rudimentary, largely repetitive ‘non-symbolic activity’ (e.g. changing a car tire) to a ‘knowledge component made up of symbolic information’. Such skill requires substantial analytical effort and ‘sophisticated diagnostic skills’, such as fixing a car. However, such heuristic nuances typically escape the awareness of the practising artisan. Rather, he/she is likely not to differentiate between non-symbolic and symbolic knowledge, assigning both types of ability to innate intelligence and persistence (Muskin, 1991, pp. 294, 413). In other words, professional skills and knowledge cannot be learned or transmitted abstractly but derive from a native ability and evolve through practice, practice, practice. This perception is central to the training methods that dominate the sector, as shown in the next section. It also sheds considerable light on why it is so difficult for those who have evolved in the informal sector to move successfully to a more formal, more secure professional status. The levels of attainment of the collection of generic and technical skills, knowledge and attitudes, whether symbolic or non-symbolic, of course varied widely across the many entrepreneurs interviewed, as it surely does for artisans generally. Similarly, the importance of these abilities to an individual’s economic success differs significantly across trades and, maybe more importantly, for individual entrepreneurs with different market aspirations. (This observation reflects the contextspecific orientation of Ashton and Green’s (1996) argument—see note 1—though at the micro-level.) Finally, even complete mastery of one, a group or all of these competency categories offers no guarantee of success by an owner-operator. Rather, he/she may still suffer from poor market performance within Chad’s moribund national economy. This, of course, must be another major consideration for artisans as they consider their own and their apprentices’ on-going training. Still, an entrepreneur’s prospects for succeeding and progressing in his/her vocation are surely extremely slim if he/she does not have adequate control over the full set of professional aspects, both technical and generic, that comprise her/his work.
7 The Provision of Training in the Informal Sector The basic challenge of training in the informal sector is to prepare future and current entrepreneurs with competence as technicians and as entrepreneurs, covering each of the categories presented in Table 2. The level of this competence will ideally suit the individual’s professional aspirations and the public’s demands.
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The gap between ‘actual’ and ‘ideal’ vocational capacities is considerable. This is due to a variety of factors, such as access to technology and training, general market poverty, the national and sectoral policy environment, and individual levels of education and factors affecting information, inputs and markets. While Birks et al. (1994, pp. 52–55) found that ‘entrepreneurs generally desire a blend of technical and managerial’ skills training, the following analysis focuses on the technical dimensions. This research bias is matched by the artisans’ and apprentices’ ignorance of business matters. It is unclear whether this resulted from their own ignorance or to interpreting the researchers’ interests as predominantly technological. Notwithstanding, the study does not completely exclude the business, and many of the training modalities that the respondents described pertain to generic skills. Thus, the acquisition of skills occurs almost exclusively through apprenticeship. Indeed, apprenticeship has been one of the most defining characteristics of the informal sector since its ‘discovery’ in the early 1970s. McLaughlin (1989, p. 6) describes this institution as follows: Apprentices learn by observing the master and more advanced apprentices, by asking questions, and then by attempting to perform the routine themselves. Training is intensively practical; no instruction in a school sense is ever given. Because training tends to focus on the immediate problems of the work itself, apprentices in highly technical trades usually develop little theoretical knowledge [. . .] except when their training is supplemented through a repair manual or personal textbook. This often results in proficiency in assembly, disassembly, and replacement procedures, but rather unsystematic and random diagnostic procedures and unfamiliarity with the most efficient technology for the purposes at hand.
A similar portrayal emerged from the present study. Indeed, this contrast highlights, along with the work of others (e.g. Birks et al., 1994, pp. 56–59; Fluitman, 1989; Muskin, 1991), the diversity in apprenticeship. This divergence might be explained by family links between apprentices and entrepreneurs, which the entrepreneurs claimed to be the case 63% of the time, with another 11% being the children of family friends.8 The actual stages identified in training apprentices were remarkably similar, with distinctions arising from unique technical aspects. In 81% of the cases, the owner-operator claimed full responsibility for instruction, while 9% alleged to assign this role to an assistant. It should be noted that 18% of entrepreneurs had only one apprentice, and over two-thirds (68%) had between one and three. Despite the entrepreneurs’ claim as exclusive trainers, the apprentices indicated that their peers usually played some role in their training, where older apprentices existed. Clearly predominant were ‘hands-on’ training strategies, with the most widely identified method being the apprentice’s observation of work being performed by others. With regards to ‘supervised work’, the actual level of supervision varied depending on the particular stage of the apprentice’s training and the complexity of the task. The relative absence of formal instruction methods, such as technical documents, lessons and complementary training bespeaks bluntly its rote, repetitive, static nature. Clearly theory plays at best a minor—and usually no—role in the training.
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There is a transfer of the motions, the aesthetic and, to a lesser degree, the intuition of a vocation, reflecting the strong valuation of innate knowledge, which cannot be taught but can be practised. What they do not (and generally cannot) transmit is a vocation’s science. Similarly, the rarity of outside training and of practice on mock products reflects a lack of attention to more advanced manifestations of ‘symbolic knowledge’. Ultimately, this translates into inability (and maybe disinterest) of future artisans to innovate. A basic strategy of ‘observe, imitate and repeat, repeat, repeat’ clearly prevails, seemingly attributable more to a lack of mastery of the basic concepts by most entrepreneurs than to a decision to emphasize praxis over theory. The majority appears simply ill-equipped to provide more than a rudimentary, practical training. As a consequence, the next generation of informal sector artisans is destined to be similarly constrained. Despite the image of consistency in the informal sector, neither the government nor the particular trades have developed rules or standards to guide vocational training. In only 39% of the cases did entrepreneurs claim to use set standards in training their apprentices. On the other hand, over 80% of those interviewed affirmed that they would like to see accepted standards applied. The lack of standardized norms pertains equally to the levels of technical knowledge, know-how and competence expected of the trainee at the end of the programme. Artisans either employ intuitive judgement to determine the readiness of an individual trainee, or the apprentice makes this decision independently. The latter scenario may depend as much, or even more, on economic factors as on technical ones. Virtually all of the entrepreneurs say that they use firm criteria to assess an apprentice’s success. Not surprisingly, no theoretical, experimental or creative elements were evoked, let alone business skills. One consequence of this is the wide variation in the length of apprenticeships. This largely anarchic situation results in a broad range of quality in the preparation of apprentices, just as it yields diversity in the products and services they will eventually provide. Given the one admitted commonality of training—the virtual absence of theory and basic technical comprehension—it may be assumed that the range of vocational preparation falls mostly at the low end of the spectrum, between mediocre and barely acceptable (with the marketplace eliminating the unacceptable). However, even given the harshness of this critique, this is not intended as an indictment. Rather, considering the current economic and social context of Chad, most citizens would not be able to afford the greater costs associated with an improvement. The methods the entrepreneurs reported to employ to improve their own performance demonstrate a similar emphasis on praxis over theory. The most common approach is trial-and-error. Artisans tinker (bricoler in French) and persist until all the pieces go back together, the object performs properly or a specific problem is overcome. For artisans, this ‘experimentation’ can result in innovations, but generally there is little motivation to do this given the limited purchasing power of the marketplace. One major exception is when a new technology appears from outside,
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usually imported. In this case, artisans try to acquire some outside source of information or instruction. They rank highly ‘consultation with other entrepreneurs’. When such options are unavailable, the owner-operator must resort to bricolage. The virtual absence of both government and private institutions as sources of training and technical assistance bespeaks loudly both the poverty of the sector technologically and the crucial importance of intervention that the government was pursuing at the time with the World Bank, the International Labour Organization and other donor partners. Indeed, reflecting the findings of Birks et al. (1994, p. 54), Chad’s informal sector entrepreneurs indicated a strong interest in receiving training in innovations and business aspects. It is difficult to affirm whether self-reliance in professional development is due primarily to a lack of interest, of anticipated rewards, of time, of money, of opportunities or of some other factor. However, the findings suggest that the lack of opportunity may be most important given the nearly unanimous (94%) interest evoked by the entrepreneurs in formal technical training. The strength of this interest is evident further in the artisans’ willingness to devote time and money to their own vocational development. Specifically, they indicated they would spend an average of 9.6 months in training (not full-time), with over half (54%) proposing a training of one to six months. Equally strong confirmation appears in the acceptance by 85% of the group to ‘put their money where their mouth is’—ready to pay for formal training. Despite this interest in training, it is important to note that entrepreneurs assign relatively low importance to formal training when compared to other factors, mostly economic (cf. Webster & Fidler, 1996, chapter 3). They placed greatest importance on better access to credit, materials, tools and equipment, electricity and transportation, among others. As a land-locked country with limited natural resources,9 Chad faces both much greater prices for imported goods and has few means by which to substitute for them. The cost of electricity in Chad provides a shocking illustration, which, at the time, was over six times greater than in neighbouring Nigeria (Webster & Fidler, 1996, p. 14). A natural consequence of these higher prices is the importation from neighbouring countries of cheaper (and often higher quality) items. Several entrepreneurs alleged that the government facilitates external competition. Other factors identified included the unregulated, massive entry of new participants into the sector and the extremely low purchasing power of the national population. Clearly training alone offers only a very partial response. Yet, the enumeration of these other factors also underscores the importance of the ‘generic,’ managerial, financial and others skill areas—in addition to the technical ones. Appraising the overall picture of skills acquisition and transfer for apprentices and artisans, the provision of training may be characterized as ‘enclaved’, largely closed off from outside influences. This refers most basically to the widespread absence of complementary training, of other information sources, and new technologies to expand professional expertise. It refers also to a lack of vision, both individual and sectoral, for independent innovation and progress. The obvious result of this sectoral closed-mindedness (whether voluntary or imposed) is strong conservatism, leading to technological and commercial inertia.
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There is little external motivation or capability for the sector’s participants to advance in their methods, resources and performance. Consequently, they remain ‘locked’, as Birks et al. (1994, p. 51) state, ‘into the technologies and ideas of previous generations’. However, the detrimental effects of this attitude seem to be recognized—due to the efforts of the government and NGOs. This evolution is apparent in the eagerness of entrepreneurs to pursue outside technical training. At the time, capturing this self-professed enthusiasm had become one of the priority challenges undertaken by the government, supported by its international development partners. The task is formidable.
8 Implications for Policy and Practice Two basic conclusions seem to emerge from the analysis of the present study. First, the quality of skills and knowledge, and their transfer (by apprenticeship training and professional skills upgrading) in Chad’s informal productive and service sectors is extremely low. This situation constrains both current productivity and profits and the prospects for professional evolution. It shackles the growth of the overall economy, and consequently the broader arena of social development. Second, and more optimistically, apprenticeship training may represents a major approach for creating future producers and service providers in what was, and likely remains, Chad’s most important economic sector. This represents the major message from the study. Interventions to improve training in the informal sector are clearly and strongly warranted as a means to raise overall quality and efficiency. Insofar as such improvements yield better products and services for clients and increased income for entrepreneurs (and higher tax revenues and import-substitution opportunities for the government), they should translate into increased income and welfare beyond the sector as well. This effect should spill over to the formal economic sector, due both to stronger operational linkages with the informal sector (primarily in the form of outsourcing) and to the provision of skilled labourers. Indeed, the study found that approximately 20% of apprentices having completed training ‘graduated’ to wage employment in the formal sector. With higher quality training in the informal sector, and with more reliable standards in assessing completion, the potential to increase this percentage is attractive from the perspectives of both logistics and economics. More particularly, the analysis yields four recommendations for improving training in Chad’s informal sector. 1. An institutional capacity (public, private or, more likely, mixed) should exist to assist the informal sector’s members, individually and collectively to assess and articulate their specific training needs. 2. Policies should be adopted and strategies designed to improve the quality of apprenticeship training. A growing economy demands that apprentices receive better theoretical foundation and a greater mastery of the knowledge, know-how and affective dimensions of their vocation.
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3. Any improvements to apprenticeship training should be matched with efforts to provide professional skills up-grading to the entrepreneurs. Given that the current population of informal sector entrepreneurs will comprise a significant portion of the sector’s operating capacity for many years to come, any sectoral improvements will surely be postponed if this group is not included. 4. These three recommendations imply greater co-ordination and co-operation across the informal sector and within the individual vocational areas. One measure of improved performance is the achievement of greater efficiency. As such, the many members of the informal sector and each vocation may wish to move to greater coherence in the definition of the skills, as well as in the methods by which to attain, transfer, maintain, expand and certify them. The preceding recommendations also suggest the value of further developments in the participation by governmental and non-governmental agencies, as well as the private sector, in supporting the informal sector. This approach may represent the best chance for the informal sector to emerge from its present inertia as it is the most likely way to introduce ‘new blood’ into the system; particularly where international partners are involved.
9 Conclusion Training is clearly a logical place to initiate a process for improving the informal sector, as the sorts of strategic interventions proposed for the sector’s and the general economy’s overall development—technological, organizational, financial—all imply increased capacity on the part of the owner-operator and his/her apprentices. However, as both Ashton and Green (1996, p. 39) and King & Abuodha (1991, p. 97), among others, caution, changes in training and education are only part of a much more complex structural dynamic, with political, cultural, economic, and other dimensions. Without complementary evolution in these strategic domains, the impacts of any education and training reform are likely to be greatly limited, nil or even contrary to those sought. As pertains more directly to the entrepreneurs in Chad’s informal sector, while training may be a potent catalyst to the sector’s development, other factors, such as credit, material and other inputs, equipment and markets, comprise the individual elements necessary to enable new technological capacity and this capacity must in turn transform into greater performance. This dynamic association is one to which the entrepreneurs in the sample were especially sensitive. Without these complementary elements of a comprehensive, integrated strategy, entrepreneurs will likely suffer both from lower motivation and opportunity to pursue further training, as well as from decreased means by which to translate training into economic benefit. ‘Training for what result—for training’s sake or for profit?’, they rightfully asked. Within the informal sector’s and Chad’s overall present context of economic poverty, training without other initiatives would constitute for most the proverbial tree falling in the forest: it is uncertain that it makes a sound if there is no one there to hear it.
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Notes 1. For example, Ashton and Green (1996) assert that it is ‘incorrect to assume a linear and automatic connection between skill formation and economic performance’ (p. 3). For the purposes of the present chapter, the author addresses only peripherally issues of equity and overlooks altogether the informal sector and micro-entrepreneurs. 2. For example, in both Togo and Haiti, there is a strategy of bringing in skilled technicians and production managers from abroad (in Haiti, as far as from the Philippines). 3. The controversy rests primarily with the degree to which the informal and formal sectors are integrated, with Marsden (1990) and King & Abuodha (1991, pp. 72–86) describing stagnation among informal sector firms, with no viable links to the formal sector. 4. Among the many oft-cited works that comprise such studies of the informal sector are: King & Abuodha, 1991; Fluitman, 1989; Haan, 1989; ILO, 1972, 1985; Jarousse & Mingat, 1990; King, 1977, 1989, 1996; McLaughlin, 1979; Moser, 1978; Peattie, 1987; Peil, 1970, 1979; and Rathgeber, n.d. 5. King (1996, p. 184) observes that the assumption of ‘ease of entry’ is not always true: ‘Because of these community [and family] specializations in trade and commerce, it is by no means clear that the informal sector [in Kenya] can be characterized as having “ease of entry”, as was argued by the original [ILO] Kenya Employment Mission in 1972.’ 6. Modern sector jobs fall roughly within ten major categories: barber/hairdresser; welding/metal construction/auto body work; sewing (clothing); electronic repairs; electrical installation/repair; masonry/construction; two-wheel mechanics; carpentry; photography; and auto repair/electrical systems. The traditional sector jobs divide among eight basic categories: jewellery; leather work (tanner, shoemaker, etc.); blacksmithing; pottery; food transformation; basketry/bamboo furniture making; sculpture; and knitting. 7. King & Abuodha (1991, pp. 72–86) describe this same phenomenon in Kenya, referring to an artisan’s ‘technological confidence’, capturing his/her ability and experience with production shifts and machine-making. 8. It should be noted that the data concerning this issue are somewhat contradictory. Nonetheless, the conclusion that most apprentices are related to their master holds true. 9. Both the government and its international partners are hoping this situation will change soon for the better, the result of efforts to exploit significant oil reserves.
References Ashton, D.; Green, F. 1996. Education, training and the global economy. Brookfield, VT: Edward Elgar. Birks, S. et al. 1994. Skills acquisition in micro-enterprises: evidence from West Africa. Paris: OECD. Chad. Minist`ere du Plan et de la Coop´eration. 1993. R´eunion de Suivi de la Table Ronde, Gen`eve III, Sous-secteur Education-Formation-Emploi: Programme d’Actions, Document de Synth`ese. N’Djam´ena: Ministry of Plan and Co-operation. Cummings, W.K.; Dall, F.P. 1995. Implementing quality primary education for countries in transition. New York, NY: UNICEF. De Soto, H. 1989. The other path: the invisible revolution in the Third World. New York, NY: Perennial Library. Esquieu, P.; P´eano, S. 1994. L’enseignement priv´e et spontan´e dans le syst`eme e´ ducatif tchadien. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. (Research report no. 103.) Fluitman, F., ed. 1989. Training for work in the informal sector. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Haan, H. 1989. Urban informal sector information: needs and methods. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. International Labour Office. 1991. The dilemma of the informal sector, report of the DirectorGeneral—Part I. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO.
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International Labour Organization. 1972. Employment, incomes and equality: a strategy for increasing productive employment in Kenya. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. International Labour Organization. 1985. Informal sector in Africa. Addis Ababa: JASPA. Jarousse, J.; Mingat, A. 1990. Training, income and operation of the formal and informal labour markets in Africa: the case of Niger. Dijon, France: CNRS/IREDU/Universit´e de Dijon. King, K. 1977. The African artisan: employment and the informal sector in Kenya. London: Heinemann. King, K. 1989. Training for the urban informal sector in developing countries: issues for practitioners. In: Fluitman, F., ed. Training for work in the informal sector. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. King, K. 1996. Jua Kali Kenya: change & development in an informal economy. London: James Currey; Athens, OH: Ohio University Press. King, K.; Abuodha, C. 1991. The building of an industrial society: change and development in Kenya’s informal (jua kali) sector, 1972 to 1991, a summary report. Edinburgh, UK: University of Edinburgh. (An occasional paper of the Centre of African Studies.) Lockheed, M.E.; Verspoor, A.M. 1990. Improving primary education in developing countries: a review of policy options. Washington, DC: The World Bank. (Draft prepared for limited distribution to the participants at the World Conference on Education for All, Jomtien, Thailand, 5–9 March 1990.) McLaughlin, S.D. 1979. The wayside mechanic: an analysis of skill acquisition in Ghana. Amherst, MA: Center for International Education, University of Massachusetts. McLaughlin, S.D. 1989. Skill training for the informal sector: analyzing the success and limitations of support programs. Washington, DC: The World Bank. (PHREE/89/05.) Marsden, K. 1990. African entrepreneurs: pioneers of development. Washington, DC: International Finance Corporation, World Bank. (Discussion paper, no. 9.) Middleton, J.; Ziderman, A.; Van Adams, A. 1993. Skills for productivity: vocational education and training in developing countries. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Moser, C. 1978. Informal sector or petty production: dualism or dependence in urban development. World development, vol. 6, no. 9. Muskin, J.A. 1991. Primary schooling and the informal economic sector of Cˆote d’Ivoire. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania. [Doctoral dissertation.] Muskin, J.A. 1997. Becoming an independent entrepreneur in the informal sector of northern Cˆote d’Ivoire: what role can primary schooling play? International journal of educational development, vol. 17, pp. 265–83. Nolutshungu, S.C. 1996. Limits of anarchy: intervention and State formation in Chad. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia. Ouadoua, O. 1996. La Guerre Civile au Tchad de 1979 a` nos jours et ses cons´equences sur les structures politiques, sociales et e´ conomiques. [Unpublished monograph.] Panhuys, H.F. van. 1990. La promotion du secteur informel Tchadien: bilan-diagnostic et propositions d’appui. (Mission report for the International Labour Organization and the Minist`ere du Plan et de la Coop´eration, Chad.) Peattie, L. 1987. An idea in good currency and how it grew: the informal sector. World development, vol. 15, no. 7, pp. 851–60. Peil, M. 1970. The apprenticeship system in Accra. Africa, vol. 40, pp. 137–50. Peil, M. 1979. West African urban craftsmen. The journal of developing areas, vol. 14, pp. 3–22. Rathgeber, E. No date. Education and employment in the informal sector: a review of some recent African research. Ottawa: IDRC. [Mimeo.] United Nations. 1996. Demographic yearbook, 1994. New York, NY: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. United Nations Development Programme. 1995. Human development report. New York, NY: UNDP. Webster, L.; Fidler, P., eds. 1996. The informal sector and microfinance institutions in West Africa. Washington, DC: The World Bank. Wilson, D. 1996. Reform of vocational and technical education in Latin America. Washington, DC: Inter-American Dialogue. (PREAL Occasional paper series, no. 2.)
Chapter II.3
The Traditional Informal Apprenticeship System of West Africa as Preparation for Work William Ahadzie
1 Introduction The traditional apprenticeship system in West Africa is gradually beginning to attract increasing interest not only for academic research and in professional disciplines but also as an active policy issue. This is not surprising given that this system has proved to be an enduring and an effective source of skills for much of West Africa. But its resilience is also attributable to its positive association with the equally pervasive informal sector of West African economies. Perhaps a more engaging argument for the resurgence of interest in traditional apprenticeship is the inability of formal systems to deliver the types of skills that are required to ensure employability of the ever-increasing new labour market entrants and to contribute to overall poverty reduction (Fluitman, 2005). This chapter examines the nature of traditional apprenticeship in West Africa from both historical and current perspectives. It focuses on a number of pertinent issues. These include: (a) describing the genre of apprenticeship systems operating in West Africa, both in the formal and the informal milieux and how these interact with each other; (b) the social background of apprentices and craftsmen; (c) the conditions under which apprenticeship occurs; (d) the impact of kinship ties in the functioning of the apprenticeship system; (e) the gender dimensions of apprenticeship; and (f) the factors that inhibit the efficient operation of the traditional apprenticeship system. The bulk of the material in this chapter comes from a review of the existing literature. The remaining part is from a survey on informal apprenticeship undertaken by the author in Ghana.
2 Conceptual Considerations Socialization is a lifelong process (Parsons, 1951, p. 208). Therefore, socialization experienced by a person in childhood is not sufficient to enable him or her to play all the roles expected in later years. Primary socialization creates the basic structure of personality. To this must be added secondary socialization processes that provide the context in which, through imitation, the individual’s role R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 II.3, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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behaviour is influenced (Musgrave 1967, p. 18). Many young people come into apprenticeship already equipped with elements of primary socialization and therefore undergo behaviour change associated with secondary socialization. The socializing process of the apprenticeship system seeks to prepare them for adequate performance of their social roles under some implicit assumptions. These individuals are perceived as moving along normal developmental gradients and it is generally assumed that they are motivated to change and that the essential task is to provide the appropriate learning opportunities. Other conditions in most of their life situations are generally presumed benign and are unlikely to impede their development. This perspective of the conceptual framework is anchored on this explanation. Thus, the concept of occupational socialization involves not only imparting specific job-related skills to a person, but also teaching a set of values and ethics that applies to his or her work and the unofficial rules that new entrants and senior workers in an organization are expected to observe in relating to one another (Calhoun, Light & Keller, 1994, p. 122). Merton (1957, p. 41) had earlier described occupational socialization as the process through which the neophyte is transformed into a regular member of a profession. Oyeneye (1979) provides an illustration of this process of transformation by stating that after a neophyte has been recruited, he/she starts to learn the necessary skills and techniques peculiar to his/her future occupation. Through contacts with senior members in the occupation, colleagues and clients, the neophyte begins to identify himself/herself with the work, developing an occupational self-image. The transformation process is usually conceived in terms of stages along a career path on which the neophyte is evaluated regularly and given increasingly difficult tasks as he/she continues his/her training. Such evaluations are based on the mastery of extrinsic skills and techniques related to the work and a set of intrinsic qualities that the neophyte is expected to show as an aspiring member of that occupation. The process is completed when the neophyte is fully accepted into the community of practice.
3 The Development of Traditional Apprenticeships The historical development of apprenticeship in West Africa shows a different trajectory from that of the systems in Europe and elsewhere. Lane’s (1996) historical account of the English system suggests that apprenticeship in England was regulated initially by guilds and later through legislation. She notes that the most enduring piece of legislation on apprenticeship in England was the Statute of Artificers formulated in 1563 from the rules of the mediaeval craft guilds. The act was intended to control apprentices’ status, training and personal freedom until the term was complete; they were to be dependent on their masters for the essentials of life (food, shelter, clothes) and to live with the master as part of the family. Lane’s (1996) account suggests that the English apprenticeship system collapsed during the late nineteenth century.
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The source of apprenticeship in West Africa is to be found in the form of institutions that have evolved to solve the problems of training in a society where technology is essentially static. In discussing the philosophical foundations of what they term indigenous education, Bray, Clarke and Stephens (1986) argue that African philosophy tends to define people in terms of the social context to which they belong. In this sense, one cannot deliver effective education to an individual without establishing a direct link between the goals and content of education and community aspirations (Ocitti, 1993, p. 36). Quoting Durkheim, Bray et al. (1986, p. 103) assert that a great deal of the content of indigenous education consists of moral education. Morality here is a system of rules and actions that predetermine conduct. An essential element of morality is the spirit of discipline, which in turn presupposes the existence of organization and authority. To act morally is to act in the light of a collective interest, since the domain of the moral is indistinguishable from the social domain. Indigenous education, however, has not only been concerned with the systematic socialization of the younger generation into the norms, religious and moral beliefs and collective opinions of the wider society. It also placed a very strong emphasis on learning practical skills. It was not considered sufficient to develop a set of social goals for the education system. The institutions and modes of transmission of knowledge were regarded as equally important. The operation of secret societies is not significantly dissimilar to that of the training of religious specialists and occupational skills. The Fon of Benin and the Creoles, Mendes, Temnes, Konos and Sherbros of Sierra Leone (Bray et al., 1986) have a long history of using secret societies for training. In Benin, priests and mediums are taken into isolated and remote training centres, similar to seminaries and convents in orthodox Christian faiths, and are transformed into new personalities. The transformation involves the learning of a new language or dialect, the assumption of a new name and the shaving of the hair. Bray et al. (1986, p. 106) note that, in addition to religious instruction, the recruits learn practical skills like how to make priestly garments and such items as necklaces, mats and baskets for sale to the common people. They are also given extensive training in the healing powers of herbs, plants and roots. This is intended to make them apply spiritual and material healing principles in the treatment of the sick. A traditional doctor is expected to use not only his familiarity with the healing properties of plants, herbs and roots, but also his knowledge of the spiritual universe that enables him, among other things, to release the hidden powers of the medicine. Training such diviners can stretch over a considerable period of time. Among other things, these cases underscore the inter-generational linkages that the institution of education creates. The transmission of appropriate attitudes, beliefs, rituals, work ethics, skills and communal attitudes makes the institution a force of social integration and cohesion (Bray et al., 1986, p. 112). Such purely traditional forms of education and training are no longer as pervasive as they were many years ago. Processes of social change provoked by colonial experiences have altered the nature of society that allowed such forms of education
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to flourish. In the place of these indigenous training agents appeared the type of traditional apprenticeship systems we find in most West African countries today. These systems have assumed many of the socializing functions of the indigenous educators. Current cultural induction and instructional practices that combine skill training with moral upbringing take their source from the indigenous education systems.
4 The Types and Nature of Apprenticeship 4.1 Formal Training A wide range of training systems in West Africa operate in both formal and informal settings. Acquiring skills in these diverse systems is conditioned by different sets of factors. Formal training systems are largely supply-driven and ‘without knowledge of or concern for labour market realities’ (Fluitman, 2005). They tend to target the wage sector and they are offered mostly at job-entry level; they are essentially pre-service types of training. Other variants include in-service training for workers. Formal training systems are time and occupation-bound as, for instance, a three-year course in masonry in a technical institute. Institutions offering formal training are both government-sponsored and private-for-profit institutions. The current formal training system in West Africa has been unable to deliver the skills in demand on the labour market and therefore has not made any considerable contribution towards eliminating youth unemployment. Its marginal effect on the employment situation derives from a number of factors. First, formal training lacks relevance and has not been able to address the realities of the low absorptive capacity of the wage sector, under-employment and low performance at the work place. Links between training institutions and potential users of skills are weak or non-existent and therefore generate no feedback. Second, organized training is accessible to a relatively small number of those who need it. The limited coverage also means, in effect, that in-service training opportunities do not exist for people in employment to upgrade their skills. An equally important factor that has reduced the effectiveness of formal training in increasing employment rates concerns equity. Access by different social groups is unequal. Disadvantaged groups, such as women and the disabled, encounter social barriers as they seek access to organized training. The generally low educational backgrounds of women and girls places them at a disadvantage in their bid to secure formal training. The fourth point is the low quality of training offered in formal institutions. Achieving quality training requires sufficient qualified instructors, adequate and appropriate training materials and high student participation rates. Even though per capita costs are relatively higher in training institutions than in schools, the figures show a more rapid decline in financial allocations to formal TVET institutions. This affects the maintenance of equipment and the purchase of training materials, leading to the compromising of practical training. Inadequate investments in instructor
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training and in maintaining salaries at competitive levels have caused a migration of staff to industry. All this translates into poorly prepared trainees. Formal training remains a major agency to deliver the manpower requirements of modern industry and to spearhead the drive to bridge the digital divide, as well as for the promotion of information and communications technology. But its impact on the labour market, however, is slight. The gap is filled by the enterprise-based training that occurs in the traditional informal apprenticeship system.
5 The Traditional Apprenticeship System 5.1 Common Features The traditional apprenticeship system accounts for the largest proportion of skills acquisition in the informal sector in West Africa. The World Bank (1993, p. 8) estimates that approximately 55% of informal sector operators acquired their skills from informal apprenticeship. The estimate is 84% for French-speaking West Africa. In spite of linguistic and geographical differences, traditional informal apprenticeship systems in West Africa show similar basic characteristics, as follows:1
r r r r r r r r
Apprenticeship emphasizes a hands-on, practical approach to training. Apprentices learn their craft by observing then imitating the master-craftsman at work. Apprenticeship is offered in traditional trades, such as tin-, gold- or blacksmithing, leather work, weaving, and ‘modern’ trades such as auto-mechanics, carpentry, welding, etc. Apprentices begin work on simple tasks and move on to more complex tasks when basic skills are mastered. Trainees work with master craftsmen for an unspecified length of time that can vary, depending on the context. Training in the informal sector is product specific; apprentices may not learn the whole spectrum of skills associated with a craft, but rather the discrete steps involved in making a product. Because many trainees do not learn a craft completely, they are considered semiskilled at best after completing traditional apprenticeships. Apprentices receive little or no remuneration (some pay a fee to the entrepreneurs), although some are provided with meals and shelter.
5.2 Social Background of Apprentices The system recruits its trainees broadly from low-income groups. For these people, apprenticeship is the best way of achieving self-employment. It also serves as a vehicle for social mobility. This is more evident in the traditional crafts that are situated within specific rural communities of one or two dominant ethnic groups. Closely
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related to the low-income background of apprentices is the matter of educational qualification. Even though the trend points to apprentices having increasing levels of educational qualifications at the point of entry, the general levels are still low. A third of those in apprenticeship dropped out of basic education as a result of many factors, including poverty. It is difficult to claim that the 51% who have completed basic education possess sufficient literacy and numeracy skills to enable them to assimilate types of knowledge that new changes in technology are introducing. Entry into apprenticeship does not follow from success in the basic education system. On the contrary, apprenticeship appears to be responding rather to the weakness of the education system. Articulation between basic education and traditional apprenticeship has become an enforced link instead of an officially formulated one. A weak basic education system, therefore, undermines the rate and quality of knowledge and skill absorption in the traditional apprenticeship system. The importance of education in skill-building was emphasized by the mastercraftsmen themselves. Poor as the quality of educational attainment of apprentices is, education features significantly in the decision of craftsmen to recruit apprentices. Some 64% of entrepreneurs prefer to recruit apprentices who have completed basic education. This is particularly true for modern crafts. What they are essentially looking for is the ability of an apprentice to reason and work out solutions to a problem rapidly with minimal supervision. As basic education becomes universalized, the training system will benefit from recruiting only educated apprentices.
5.3 Age of Apprentices Like that of the craftsmen, the age of entry into apprenticeship is also rising slowly. The upward shift of the average age of entry has not only resulted from both legal and constitutional provisions, but also from changing expectations and cultural practices. The practice of recruiting children at a very early age into apprenticeship has been surpassed by the desire of parents to raise literate children and also by the growing aspirations of children themselves to acquire higher levels of education. Even in the largely traditional Kente weaving setting of Bonwire, where tradition upholds the early introduction of children into adulthood, the emphasis on children acquiring education prior to entering into apprenticeship is becoming widespread.
5.4 Recruitment Processes The recruitment process is a cost-effective system based more on a referral system than on a commercially driven arrangement. In both the traditional and modern crafts, apprentices are recruited mostly through personal contacts. The differences between the methods of recruitment are in the degree of openness. In the traditional crafts, masters tend to recruit apprentices whose sponsors they know, or whom they
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are related to. Craftsmen are wary of the social sanctions that would come in the form of product/service boycott if they accepted a ‘stranger’ apprentice over the one recommended or introduced by a member of the lineage or the larger ethnic group. In contrast, recruitment for the modern crafts operates on more open principles. Recruitment is dictated by factors other than consanguinity and social pressure. The possession of a specified minimum level of education and financial resources are key considerations. As a secondary agent of socialization, the apprenticeship system has evolved practices that initiate novices into the craft and facilitate the internalization of knowledge, attitudes and skills throughout the apprenticeship period. Induction of initiates in some crafts involves a ritual that is characterized by a combination of solemnity, festivity, celebratory activities and legitimization processes. It has assumed the form of a rite of passage offering the young apprentice a transition into adulthood. The mark of religiosity reflects expectations of divine presence in the transfer of skills from the master to the apprentice. That attribute also functions as a means of social control. Consenting to abide by the rules spelt out during the induction ceremony is considered a serious commitment, especially if it is accompanied by invocations expressed in an esoteric language. The process strikes terror into new recruits in the apprenticeship system. Compared to formal training programmes, drop-out rates in traditional apprenticeship are very low. The use of traditional conflict resolution approaches and the fear of stigmatization account for the high persistence rates in this form of skill acquisition. Even in situations where the master has abandoned the induction ceremony in favour of a cash payment from the apprentice, a time is set aside to orientate the apprentice to the demands of training and the expected conduct. For traditional crafts, the induction ceremony presents an opportunity for reaching verbal agreements. And these, by all accounts, are as binding as the agreements made during admission rituals. Inculcating the fear of the supernatural into a neophyte is an attempt to reinforce the forms of religious worldview that the apprentice received during the period of primary socialization at home and in the larger community.
5.5 Contracts and Fees The making of a formal written contract is largely limited to modern crafts where the relationship between the craftsmen and the apprentice is not based on blood ties. The types of written contracts examined during this study are intended to bond the apprentices to the craftsman. They contain no clauses stating the content or substance of training and, in some cases, not even the actual duration of training. A lot of discretionary authority has therefore been assumed by the craftsman. An equally significant weakness of the written contracts for the informal sector is the fact that these documents do not have the type of legal backing that formal sector apprenticeship contracts have. This makes the former largely unenforceable in courts of law. Even if they could constitute the basis of litigation, there are several alternative
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traditional mechanisms that are easily invoked to resolve training disputes, therefore rendering the written contract null and void. Above all, there is the view that the master is infallible. In this sense, the apprentice is obliged in all cases of dispute to submit to the authority of the master. Violations of written contracts as a result of the unassailable position of the craftsman do not make the contract work in the interest of the entire apprenticeship system. Weaknesses in contractual arrangements have resulted in arbitrariness with respect to the charging of fees, the duration of apprenticeship and the substance of training. This study found that the fees charged are a function of several factors, including the type of craft, the disposition or financial expectations of the craftsman, the geographical location of the training setting, and the relationship between the master and the apprentice. It may also be noted that the craft associations are beginning to assume a major role in setting the upper limits for the fees that may be charged. Craftsmen are left with the discretion of charging the full fees or revised rates. Generally, fees for traditional crafts, with the exception of gold-smithing, are lower than those charged for modern crafts. In Bolga and Tamale, most apprentices hardly paid any fees at all. There was rather an up-front contribution that came in the form of the items requested for the induction ceremony. The non-payment of fees is explained by the fact that the apprentices and masters are of the same lineage. The inheritance factor becomes the driver of the training relationship. In these contexts also, the master acts in loco parentis, in the sense that the apprentice stays in the same house with the master and provides household services, as a child would do for his parents. For modern crafts, fee-paying is still widespread. Craftsmen in the modern crafts consider training as a complementary income-generating venture and therefore do not waive the payment of fees. Where the apprentices are too poor to pay the initial deposit, he or she is nonetheless taken in on a mutually agreed payment schedule. The arrangement of providing apprentices with feeding allowances during the entire training period appears to work for the benefit of the apprentice. Alongside the fear instilled in apprentices during the induction ceremony to ensure completion of the apprenticeship, the feeding allowance is another inducement for persistence. The cost of food received by apprentices during the entire training period ultimately exceeds the nominal amount paid as fees. This is especially so when the craftsman has also provided the apprentices with tools. The exact levels of excess for the different crafts have not yet been empirically established but, given the observations made, it can be asserted that the feeding allowance, the tools and even the time expended in instructing apprentices represent a recuperation of the apprenticeship fee by most apprentices. This, in effect, means that it is the craftsman who subsidizes training. If the fees vary, the working conditions are just as diverse. This study has found that the working conditions of apprentices are problematic. Working hours are long and unregulated and therefore give extensive latitude to entrepreneurs to exploit the labour of apprentices. On average, apprentices work close to ten hours per day. For the new apprentice, a lot of the day’s work includes valet and other services for the craftsman and senior apprentices. This reduces the actual time-on-task to about a
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tenth in the first six months when the apprentice is under probation. Much as this may remotely have some justification, it exerts an adverse effect on the duration of apprenticeship and the amount of knowledge that is internalized. There is thus an inverse relationship between the amount of valet services rendered and the level of competence attained.
5.6 The Working Environment The physical working environment also poses health and safety risks to both apprentices and masters. The working environment is totally devoid of any ergonomic considerations, a factor that accounts for the high annual rate of ill health suffered by apprentices. Lack of protective clothing has led to injuries (in some cases, permanent disability) by apprentices. It has also been found that the gender-neutral facilities provided at the workshop inhibit access by girls to non-traditional vocations. The poor physical environment reduces the effectiveness of instruction and therefore fails to enhance optimization of skill acquisition.
5.7 Instructional Approaches The study has found that the instructional process itself does not conform to the sequenced pedagogical approaches that facilitate skill training in the technical and vocational training system. The most common approach to skill acquisition revolves around observation, imitation and later repetition. This closed-circuit approach to training derives from the fact that the pedagogical knowledge of master-craftsmen is in-bred and therefore is incapable of expanding beyond the system’s limits. Apart from the lack of pedagogical skills, the typically haphazard training also derives from the absence of training standards and training guides for most informal sector crafts throughout the sub-region. In Ghana, craftsmen in dressmaking, tailoring, electrical installations, especially those with some level of education, were found to be using a training curriculum that had been adapted from those of the National Vocational Training Institute and the Ghana Educational Service, either by the craftsmen themselves or by their trade associations. The need to train to given standards is motivated by the fact that the apprentices in some of these crafts are encouraged to take trade tests administered by these institutions. The pass rate obtained by those apprentices who take the trade tests suggests some measure of internal quality control. For a training system that is hardly evaluated by external assessors, developing training standards that are amenable to regular review in response to changing technologies will increase its internal and external efficiencies.
5.8 The Socializing Role of Traditional Apprenticeship An important observation is the nature of occupational socialization for apprentices. In traditional crafts, the mechanisms employed are closer to those used for primary socialization, while in the modern crafts the tendency is towards those orientation
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practices used in formal bureaucratic organizations. Occupational socialization occurs in the concrete situation of the workplace, irrespective of the type of craft. Through anticipatory socialization, the apprentices acquire risk-bearing and management skills that are critical to entrepreneurship in the informal sector. Contrary to perceptions of a chaotic work environment in informal sector operations, this study found the existence in the traditional apprenticeship system of undocumented rules, regulations, procedures and patterns of social relationships that provide the means by which apprentices are made to share the common goals of the workshop. The attitudes and values appropriate to the roles and status they will acquire after completing training are obtained in real-life situations and are guided by these unwritten norms of the workplace. How much of it is internalized is dependent on the level of assertiveness of apprentices and on the openness of the workshop environment.
6 The Duration of Apprenticeship Unlike mediaeval Europe, where the Statute of Artificers regulated the duration of apprenticeship, the length of apprenticeship in West Africa is influenced by age, the ability of the apprentice to assimilate lessons and achieve skill competence, the length of the probationary period, the financial status of sponsors and by the specifications in written contracts concerning apprenticeship fees. Therefore, widespread variations in duration exist within and between the trades. In Table 1, the shortest average length of apprenticeship is twenty-eight months recorded for masonry and the longest is for gold-smithing. It took an average of sixty months to complete a full apprenticeship in gold-smithing. In a minority of cases, intelligence and respect for authority have a role to play in when an apprentice completes training. Smart apprentices are graduated within set training times. Apprentices perceived by the master to be of low or intermediate abilities, or who are slow learners, took longer to acquire skills. Usually, such apprentices are made to serve a probationary period of up to six months. During such times, the master’s temperament, the apprentices’ commitment to learn, punctuality and regularity at work are assessed. Good conduct but weak ability extends the length of training for some apprentices. Intelligent ones who exhibit problematic behaviour are either cautioned or eventually expelled before the agreed training
Table 1 Duration of apprenticeship in Ghana Trade
Duration in months
Trade
Duration in months
Weaving Leatherwork Blacksmithing Gold-smithing Gun-smithing Welding
34.3 36 54 60 57.1 39.2
Auto Mechanics Electrical Installation Carpentry Masonry Tailoring Dressmaking
40.1 41.3 36.1 28 30.5 36.1
Source: Ghana Statistical Service, 2000.
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duration is reached. Cases have been noted in which craftsmen have been asked by sponsors of apprentices to extend completion as a result of inability to meet completion costs. The observation here is that where written indentures are absent, the duration of apprenticeship among apprentices learning the same craft can vary greatly. Even where written contracts with fixed training duration are entered into, only a few masters graduated their apprentices within the stated periods.
6.1 The Completion Phase Some mysticism is attached to the disengagement of apprentices from a master. Throughout West Africa the belief is held that craft practice for a newly qualified craftsman would be unsuccessful if he or she did not undergo graduation rites or if he or she absconded without permission. Graduation or passing-out ceremonies, during which rituals are performed, are these days being commuted to a cash payment by some craftsmen or are performed by others without any religious observances. In such instances, they take the form of purely secular celebrations signifying the acceptance of the apprentice into the craft as an independent member. Where it is held, the graduation ceremony is usually a time for feasting and merry-making. It has social significance for the apprentice, but also creates a nostalgic environment for the craftsman himself. Food and drinks are provided by the apprentice and his sponsors for all the invited guests. The guest list includes family, friends, other craftsmen, members of trade associations or craft guilds and the general public. Prayers are offered by any member of the clergy present—imam, guild head or an elder. The high point of the ceremony occurs when the master confers his blessings and well wishes on the new craftsman. At this point the latter is formally ‘freed’ or ‘unbound’ by his master of many years. If he exhibited good conduct and diligence during training, he may receive a gift of working tools and/or a cash donation from his master as a parting gift. These are intended to help him start off as an independent craftsman. Certificates are not given in the traditional crafts, especially where the apprentice is a member of the family lineage. But for modern crafts, it is at this time that the graduate is presented with a certificate. Those who take external trade tests also receive their certificates at this ceremony (if the certificates are ready!). The certificate bears the name of the apprentice, the number of years spent in training, a photograph, his signature and that of his master.
6.2 Beyond Training Two options are open to the newly qualified craftsman: starting out as an independent craftsman; or seeking wage employment. As much as 69.4% of apprentices expressed interest in starting their own business once they completed apprenticeship.
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Almost 19% intended to seek wage employment outside their immediate locality. Some 11% indicated they would stay with their masters for up to two years to ‘master the job’. Of those making up this last group, the bulk (82%) were in automechanics, welding and electrical installation. This is understandable given that the graduating craftsmen may not have learnt how to deal with all the conceivable problems they would encounter in actual practice. The remaining 18% is made up of apprentices in gold-smithing and gun-smithing. The findings, however, show that more than 43% of apprentices continue to serve as journeymen with their masters for average periods of three years. High start-up costs, the unavailability of land and hostile planning policies tend to obstruct the ability of newly qualified craftsmen to set up on their own. A tracer study will yield detailed information about the time taken to transit from graduation to establishment as an independent craftsman.
7 Policy Implications Policy intervention can affect the apprenticeship system externally or affect the training domain. Expanding the traditional apprenticeship system depends on pursuing policies that reduce the costs of training and improve access to credit, raw materials, technology and markets for the craftsmen. These are beyond the immediate control of the craftsmen themselves. The responsibility to formulate such policies falls essentially on State and non-State actors outside the apprenticeship system. Collaboration among all partners will create the appropriate policy intervention for expanding the training system. A major policy intervention that can guarantee the survival of the apprenticeship system is the removal of the constant threat of eviction or police harassment for craftsmen who have violated planning laws in the locations of their workshops. A third policy intervention that is exogenous and yet related to the traditional apprenticeship system is that of improving the efficiency of the national basic education system. It has been argued that adding vocational elements to primary school curricula or ensuring that basic education school-leavers are literate and numerate is the best way of preparing them for further training and also making them ready for the world of work. The second category of policy interventions occurs within the domain of training. Here, the emphasis is on the formulation of comprehensive national policies on technical and vocational training. Existing policies are fragmented and limited in scope. So far, the formal training sub-sector attracts the largest proportion of government support. This supply-driven system is exclusive, inefficient and unresponsive to labour-market needs. A national training policy should be all-embracing. Fluitman (1989, p. 211) states that policy intervention in the apprenticeship system would be successful if it paid attention to:
r r
Addressing the specific needs of the apprentices and master-craftsmen; Promoting a hospitable working environment through reducing all forms of hostility to informal sector operations;
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Introducing a system and mechanisms that would facilitate co-ordination and linkages between the formal and informal sectors of the economy; Creating opportunities for intended beneficiaries to be part of the decisionmaking process; Promoting the technological advancement of the informal sector, which in turn will drive the apprenticeship system; Supporting the development of training standards for the apprenticeship system; Creating the appropriate legal and institutional structures to support the traditional apprenticeship system; Facilitating access to post-training support that encourages easy start-up of businesses.
8 Recommendations The recommendations here suggest a re-engineering of existing institutional, legal, financial and instructional arrangements in lieu of promulgating an entirely new national policy on the development of the apprenticeship system. The following could be seen as short-term measures. Institutional reforms: The stigmatization of vocational training as being reserved for the academically weak needs to be changed through a sustained civic education campaign. Legislative changes: The existing legislative instrument should be revised to contain clear provisions empowering the National Apprenticeship Council to mobilize resources to encourage, promote and facilitate the formation of functional national trade associations in support of the informal sector; Pedagogy related reforms: The problems of relevance of the curriculum, instructional methods and instructor quality and quantity can be solved in the long-term if current approaches are changed. Occupational standards: It is recommended that, in order to achieve standardization in training across the country, occupational standards should be developed for crafts in the traditional apprenticeship system. Such an approach will eliminate the problems of variable training standards. The stakeholders include industry, employers’ associations and trade associations among others. Some workshops should be identified and developed into centres of excellence in all districts and used to validate training standards. A programme of training in pedagogy should be introduced to improve the instructional abilities of craftsmen in the informal sector. Government regulations on apprentice training should be made available to all craftsmen. Financial reforms: Traditional apprenticeship should benefit from governmental funding. The sources of funding for both the public and private training systems should be diversified through a continuing search for innovative funding mechanisms. A tax-exempt training levy system is recommended for
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national adoption. Resources should be mobilized from both local and international sources for the development of the sector. In-depth studies providing the basis for identifying and assessing the key needs of the sector should be undertaken.
9 The Research Agenda In spite of the findings of this and other studies, a lot remains to be learned about the traditional apprenticeship system. A comprehensive policy on the system will require more detailed information on key aspects of its operation than is currently available. Given the existing emphasis on employment generation, there is a need to undertake studies on the transition between acquiring skills and entry into selfemployment. A tracer study of apprentices who completed training within a cut-off period would be an appropriate approach. Such a study will establish not only the factors that promote or inhibit entrepreneurship, but also give an indication of transition rates between the completion of apprenticeship and becoming a craftsman. The intervening factors will be useful in formulating policy on bridging the time and resource gaps. Closely associated with the above is a study on the causes of the high mortality rates in micro-enterprises in the informal economy. The factors may be exogenous or endogenous. The results will also help in identifying the specific policy initiatives that should be pursued to prevent early exit from micro-enterprises. Such premature deaths reduce training opportunities for young people. A major area of focused study in the apprenticeship system is that of the content of training by trade. It will be useful to undertake a study of the set of skills delivered by each craft. Such a study will aid policy-makers in determining what the shortcomings are and what is needed to offer standardized training for apprentices in the informal sector. It will help in recommending how much the average skill-acquisition time should be. One major area that requires continuous research is that of females in apprenticeship. Traditional apprenticeship is still male dominated and the current conditions under which apprenticeship is offered to girls outside the traditional female crafts are not favourable. Obstacles derive both from cultural perceptions and physical barriers. Studies into the traditional apprenticeship system should not be sporadic and driven by the research interest of individuals. In the face of the need to reach development paradigms that are founded on indigenous institutional and cultural practices, studies into apprenticeship should be undertaken at the institutional level over time. Panel data are required to give a broader picture of the operations of the system.
Note 1. This is taken from <www.adeanet.org/wgnfe/publications/abel/abel3.html>
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References Bray, M.; Clarke, P.; Stephens, D. 1986. Education and society in Africa. London: Edward Arnold. Calhoun, C.; Light, D.; Keller, S. 1994. Sociology, 6th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Fluitman, F., ed. 1989. Training for work in the informal sector. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Fluitman, F. 2005. Poverty reduction, decent work and the skill it takes. In: Beveridge, M. et al., eds. Reintegrating education and skills and work in Africa. Edinburgh, UK: Centre for African Studies. Ghana Statistical Service. 2000. Ghana living standards survey: report of the fourth round. Accra. Lane, J. 1996. Apprenticeship in England, 1600–1914. London: UCL Press. Merton, R.K. 1957. Social theory and social structure. New York, NY: The Free Press. Musgrave, P.W. 1967. Towards a sociological theory of occupational choice. The sociological review, vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 33–46. Ocitti, J.P. 1993. An introduction to indigenous education in East Africa. Bonn, Germany: Institut f¨ur Internationale Zusammenarbeit des Deutschen Volkshochschul-Verbandes. Oyeneye, O.Y. 1979. The role of education in development with particular reference to the apprenticeship system in Nigeria’s informal sector. Birmingham, UK: University of Birmingham. [Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation.] Parsons, T. 1951. The social system. New York, NY: The Free Press. World Bank. 1993. Ghana 2000 and beyond. Washington, DC: World Bank.
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Chapter II.4
Initiatives to Link TVET to Self-Employment in Ghana Robert Palmer
1 Introduction In Ghana the main system for technical and vocational education and training (TVET)1 for self-employment is the traditional apprenticeship system. Then there is the school system with its vocationalized aspirations; the long-standing political and policy concern over the high levels of youth unemployment have led to repeated attempts by the government to make the education system more orientated to the world of work by promoting school-based TVET (Palmer, 2006b). In addition, there have been other attempts, though with less longevity, to provide long-term pre-employment skills training in vocational training institutes (VTIs), short-term skills-upgrading for traditional apprentices and master-craftsmen, and short-term skills training for the ‘unemployed’. The long-term schemes parallel, for example, Kenya’s Youth Polytechnics or the Botswana Brigades, and the short-term schemes parallel any number of short-term emergency initiatives aiming to transfer skills for self-employment quickly. This chapter will analyse briefly some of these initiatives that have attempted to link TVET to self-employment in Ghana, and will assume the following structure. First, we will briefly examine the history of attempts in Ghana to link education to self-employed work by making the school curriculum more vocational. We will note that since the mid-nineteenth century there have been repeated attempts to promote TVET as a major solution to youth unemployment. Second, we examine an example of a long-term (three year) pre-employment vocational training programme; the Integrated Community Centres for Employable Skills (ICCES). We will note that the ICCES programme has remained on the sideline of Ghana’s TVET system almost ever since it was initiated in the late 1980s. Today, the training delivery context of ICCES is poor and graduates’ employment outcomes are disabled through lack of post-training support. Nonetheless, many graduates are working, though usually in low-end informal micro-enterprise activities and often not using the skills they have acquired. Third, we examine an example of a short-term skills training programme; the Skills Training and Entrepreneurship Programme (STEP) which was initiated in Ghana as a result of an unemployment exercise in late 2001 and has provided some
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25,000 people with skills. However, having suffered a series of set-backs it has since been ended ahead of time. Finally, we conclude that one of the key problems faced by graduates of selfemployment orientated TVET programmes, like ICCES and STEP, is that it is often difficult to utilise productively skills that have been acquired through training, and that more enabling environments need to be promoted, especially for informal micro-enterprises in rural areas.
2 The Historical Framework of Linking Education to the World of Work Philip Foster’s classic Education and social change in Ghana (Foster, 1965a) examines over 100 years of educational reforms and showed that in Ghana since the late nineteenth century there have been repeated attempts to promote school-based technical, vocational and agricultural education as a ‘solution’ to unemployment (particularly of young school-leavers). In fact, since the 1847 Education Committee of the Privy Council, there were repeated attempts in British colonial educational policy in Africa to make the school curriculum less ‘bookish’ and more relevant to the world of work. Since the publication of Foster’s monograph in 1965, there have been four further attempts to reorient the education system better towards employment, and particularly self-employment. The 1966 Kwapong Educational Review Committee, the 1972 Dzobo Educational Reform Committee and the 1986 Evans Anfom Committee and, most recently, the 2004 White Paper on Education Reforms all sought to make the school curriculum more relevant to work (Palmer, 2005, 2006b). The underlying assumption of the Ghanaian skills development agenda has been the provision of vocational skills to young people—making them employable, equipping them with the skill and know-how to enter and/or progress in selfemployment and, ultimately, reducing poverty through raised incomes. But there is really very little research evidence to back up this optimism. Indeed, internationally, there is not a great deal of evidence linking skills training with poverty reduction and/or growth.2 For example, the assumption that by orientating the curriculum more towards vocational subjects graduates will be more ‘employable’ and be able to access work opportunities more easily was a main reason behind the vocationalization of the junior secondary school in the 1986/87 reform (Palmer, 2005, 2006b,). Nevertheless, as we note above, there is little evidence to back up this assumption. In a discussion of the vocationalization of the junior secondary school, Akyeampong comments that he: did not find empirical studies conducted in Ghana that support the economic benefit argument of vocationalization of the secondary school curriculum—for preparing students for paid and self-employment. Many simply assume this to be the case—an assumption which is firmly imbedded in the discourse of TVE in Ghana at both school and policy level (Akyeampong, 2005, p. 9).
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The most recent educational reform in Ghana, as outlined in the White Paper on the Report of The Education Reform Review Committee (Government of Ghana, 2004a), outlines a number of changes to the education system and carries the implicit assumption that something must have gone wrong with Ghana’s education and training system—that is why there are so many unemployed school graduates (Palmer, 2005). Among other things, the White Paper proposes to extend senior secondary school from three to four years and diversify it into four streams: vocational, technical, agricultural and general education (cf. Palmer, 2005). The government, in the planned diversification of senior secondary school level and the attempts at providing skills for youth (e.g. ICCES and STEP), is following the same logic as it has in the past: providing skills to young people will lessen problems of under-/unemployment. Those skills programmes that have been evaluated were externally funded, like the World Bank’s Vocational Skills and Informal Sector Support Project (VSP) (1995–2000), which was focused on skills upgrading for master-craftsmen and traditional apprentices (Palmer, 2007, 2006b). In contrast to these donor-evaluated projects, the majority of Ghanaian programmes that target self-employment creation in the informal sector have not been evaluated in depth. Two such government-funded skills programmes are the ICCES and STEP schemes, which we will examine in more depth below. The employment outcomes of both of these programmes have never been evaluated. The paradox of Ghanaian education is that, in spite of these repeated policy attempts to expand TVET, it remains weakly developed in practice. This has led some to observe that TVET has been neglected by the government. However, Foster (1965a) has argued that, in fact, it is not the government that has placed a low priority on school-based TVET, but the parents and students themselves. As noted, since 1847, there have been numerous white papers and reforms trying to promote TVET. But this has been countered by repeated efforts, on the part of the parents and youth, for a more general curriculum that could better access the emerging, if limited, occupational opportunities in the colonial exchange economy, or later in Ghana’s formal sector.3 While Gold Coast/Ghana educational policy, therefore, has been very much concerned with the development of technical and vocational skills training, public opinion and demand have shaped an education system that, in practice, has remained largely academic. While repeated attempts have been made to promote school-based TVET since the late nineteenth century, there has not been a similar emphasis on TVET delivered in VTIs or in on-the-job traditional apprenticeship training, although some projects have supported VTIs and on-the-job training. Nonetheless, the TVET system—as a whole—in Ghana today remains weak and disconnected (Palmer, 2005, 2006b). We will not discuss any further the many attempts that have been made to promote school-based TVET (promoted in the hope of orientating youth towards manual work), but rather the more recent efforts made at promoting pre-employment skills training in VTIs and short-term skills training for the ‘unemployed’. As we noted earlier, we shall examine two such programmes: the Integrated Community
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Centres for Employable Skills (ICCES); and the more recent Skills Training and Entrepreneurship Programme (STEP). In each case we shall look at the history of these initiatives, their main objectives and scope, the problems that have been experienced and which have constrained the training delivery context, and what evidence there is, if any, on self-employment outcomes from these initiatives.4
3 Integrated Community Centres for Employable Skills Introduced in the late 1980s as part of recent educational reforms, the Integrated Community Centres for Employable Skills (ICCES) is now an agency under the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment (MoMYE) comprising a network of about seventy, predominantly rural, vocational training centres around the country (cf. Palmer, 2006b). The central concept for ICCES has been to ‘train the youth [. . . ] with a view to making them employable, preferably self-employed within and around their own communities’ (ICCES, 1996, p. 5). ICCES offers students a three-year vocational course in traditional trades such as carpentry, masonry, dressmaking and hairdressing, and leads to a National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) trade certificate. Illiterate/semi-literate ICCES students have the option of taking a non-written competency-based proficiency test with the NVTI. Trade teaching includes both practical and theoretical courses, supplemented by other subjects, principally mathematics, English, agriculture, public education and entrepreneurial skills. ICCES is essentially designed as pre-employment training for the informal economy and it is expected that students will become employed, mostly self-employed in enterprises, upon completion. In 1986 UNICEF supported the Ministry of Education (now the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports) in the establishment of twelve pilot ICCES centres around the country. Support was substantial during the UNICEF period, with this agency providing support for administration, equipment, workshops, transport and follow-up support. After the end of the UNICEF support in 1992, the government, lacking the financial resources to continue the level of support UNICEF had provided, turned over the funding of ICCES to the communities, essentially converting ICCES into a network of community-supported VTIs. The ministry took on a facilitating role, but gave very little financial support to centres. In passing ICCES over to the communities, the government essentially stripped back ICCES from its original form—the provision of training integrated with other support services—to the provision of training alone. In other words ICCES provides an interesting case of a heavily financed donor programme (which included post-training support and provision of tools in twelve pilot centres) that was later stripped of these features by the government, expanded nationwide (handed over to the communities) and has consequently become a quality-starved pre-employment provider offering training alone.
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In 1995 ICCES was moved to the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare (now the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment). By the mid-1990s ICCES was in crisis—community support had dwindled; local artisans (recruited as trainers) were not being paid; and national service (i.e. military) personnel were brought in to fill the gap. In practice, the expected financial support from communities, chiefs and so on was not forthcoming and many centres collapsed. Those that survived had some form of external financing (e.g. the Ghana Education Service supporting Nerebehi ICCES, Ashanti) or had strong community links (e.g. Tetrefu ICCES, Ashanti). By 1998 about forty centres had collapsed. Between 1999 and 2001 ICCES centres around the country were in a very precarious position and, apart from receiving some tools from the directorate, very little government support was provided. Since January 2002 the government has become more involved in ICCES by starting to pay the salaries of instructors (but still with no other support for materials, running costs, etc.).5 ICCES is supposed to have a key role in the current government’s skills drive, with the stated intention of having at least one ICCES centre in all 117 districts of Ghana. Since 1986, ICCES has expanded from twelve to some sixty or seventy ICCES centres around Ghana, but they are still suffering severe quality constraints and have virtually no follow-up support. The practical training at ICCES centres usually takes place in situ at the training centre, but can sometimes involve on-the-job learning. This occurs either when the centre does not have enough material for practical lessons and the instructor takes some trainees away from the centre to help with his private work, or when the centre has an outside contract to work on. Centres are sometimes given contracts, usually by the District Assembly, to build a nearby school classroom block for example. In this case, the masonry and carpentry trainees would get some work experience outside the school setting. However, these contracts are infrequent. These opportunities, however, exclude the female ICCES trainees due to the nature of the work. Unlike traditional apprentices, therefore, ICCES trainees—especially if female—spend the majority of their time learning in an institution, far removed from the on-the-job training experiences apprentices should expect.6 ICCES centres suffer from a number of constraints that hinders the delivery of quality training. We shall note some of these below (see also Palmer, 2006b). The first constraint is lack of financial support from the government and lack of managerial competency on the part of the ICCES Directorate, leading to, sometimes acute, shortages of textbooks, as well as tools and materials for practical classes. As we noted above, since 2002 salaries have been paid by the government. However, remuneration is low and frequently delayed, leading to problems of recruiting and retaining qualified instructors. The government covers the salaries of five instructors per centre, but centres often have more than this number. Infrastructure, equipment and running costs are supposed to paid for by the collection of training fees and through funding partnerships between ICCES and other agencies. However, these funding partnerships are weak (Box 1) and the training fees collected are often insufficient.
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Box 1. Funding partnerships and ICCES running costs Despite being called the Integrated Community Centres for Employable Skills, ICCES as it operates at the moment might be more appropriately called the Independent Community Centres for Employable Skills; centres largely have to rely on their own initiative and skills to generate finance for running costs (other than salaries), equipment and infrastructure. Numerous ICCES centres around the country have received bilateral support from different organizations including: foreign embassy small-grants schemes (principally from the United Kingdom and Japan); the supply of expatriate volunteer teachers (from Britain’s VSO, Japan’s JOCV, SYTO and, formerly, the United States Peace Corps);∗ or other bilateral financing from ad hoc overseas trusts, or Ghanaian/International NGOs (e.g. World Vision). These bilateral partnerships might help to develop individual centres, but do little for the overall development and functioning of ICCES nationally. ICCES remains a very weak and chronically under-funded agency in Ghana. The ICCES Directorate should take the lead in co-ordinating partnership support to ICCES centres, but it lacks the capacity to do this. As a result of lack of guidance, support or training on how to manage relationships with supporting agencies, individual ICCES centres are usually not fully aware of how to manage their partnerships—if they are lucky enough to get them in the first place! Particularly, ICCES centres are usually not aware of the reporting requirements for grants and this has led to a breakdown in the relationships between ICCES and agencies, such as the British and Japanese small-grants schemes, as well as with volunteer agencies such as VSO, JOCV and the Peace Corps. The actual sourcing of partnership support by individual ICCES centres is made worse both through the lack of training of centre managers, and the lack of accessible, easy-to-follow guidelines from the agencies themselves. The precarious, and often ad hoc, nature of the partnerships between individual ICCES centres and various agencies does not go far enough to raise the overall quality of ICCES training provision. ICCES centres provide low-quality training in an unco-ordinated environment. The employment outcomes of ICCES graduates are not known to the government, as there are no evaluations in place at the Directorate, but undoubtedly the weak partnership arrangements do not contribute to quality employment outcomes. ∗
VSO—Voluntary Service Overseas; JOCV—Japanese Overseas Cooperation Volunteers; SYTO—Student and Youth Travel Organisation (SYTO, based in Accra, partners with the British BUNAC—British University North America Club—to send British volunteers for, usually, short-term placements of three to six months).
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Secondly, the rural locations of ICCES makes them undesirable work places for instructors, most of whom are from the larger towns or cities, since there is a general absence of amenities, services, entertainment, infrastructure and housing. Moreover, many of the students at ICCES centres come from poor (farming) backgrounds and sometimes find it hard to pay the fees. This leads to a general deterioration of overall quality since the fees raised are supposed to pay for all running costs—other than salaries. The third problem arises from the fact that ICCES is serving a dual function: it is terminal for many, but the NVTI certificates that graduates leave with can be used to gain entry to further formal education or training. However, pupils place great emphasis on gaining these certificates and hence instructors teach aspects of certain trades more with examinations—rather than self-employment—in mind. Indeed, practical training frequently suffers and often does not receive as much attention as was intended in the design of ICCES. It is passed over in favour of more academic and theoretical subjects useful for the examinations. As we noted earlier, one of the reasons why TVET in Ghana has never developed fully in practice, in spite of repeated attempts by the government, is that students and parents demand more academic subjects. The desire of many ICCES trainees is to undertake further (preferably) formal training after ICCES; hence the focus on passing NVTI examinations. This means that the practical vocational training objective of ICCES is often subverted as a result of pressure from trainees and their parents for more academic and examination-orientated teaching. In one recent survey in 2005/2006 of 162 ICCES graduates, it was found that 42% had studied after ICCES, the majority of whom had undertaken formal City and Guilds training, and a further 20% had pursued apprenticeship training. It is usually the male graduates (who have taken courses like masonry or carpentry) who are most likely to continue their training in formal VTIs to achieve higher certificates, with a view to gaining formal employment, often teaching. The latter pathway—where ICCES graduates pursue apprenticeship training—suggests that the training received at ICCES is not of sufficient practical orientation to allow graduates to become self-employed (Palmer, 2006b). On graduating from ICCES with ‘employable skills’, ICCES trainees receive no post-training support, no assisted access to credit facilities and, generally, have weakly developed enterprise networks. This makes it all the more difficult for many of them to navigate their pathway into the labour market (Palmer, 2006b). With such a disabling training delivery environment, the labour-market outcomes of ICCES trainees are thus very mixed. Nonetheless, new evidence points towards most graduates finding some form of income-generating activity, albeit in low-end informal micro-enterprise activities, including farming. The government has not been able to collect any data on the employment outcomes of ICCES graduates. This has been replaced by anecdotal evidence, observation and assumption. However, a recent study of 110 ICCES graduates who were not in further training showed that 85% were reportedly undertaking some form of paid work. Some 15% were described as ‘not working’, but it is likely that they were assisting on their family farms. About 33% (36 out of 110) of all the ICCES graduates
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were working in informal self-employment (excluding farming), 36% (40/110) in informal wage employment and 14% (16/110) in the formal sector.7 If we assume that those reported as ‘not working’ were actually working on their family farm, a further 16% (18/110) of the group can be said to be working informally. Another 17/110 were reported to be ‘not working’, while only one was actually reported to be ‘working on the family farm’. Informal employment, therefore, accounted for some 85% of all graduates’ work (49% informal self-employment, including farming, and 36% informal wage employment). However, female graduates appeared to be significantly disadvantaged compared to their male counterparts; 40% of females in the study were categorized as ‘not working’8 (compared to 5% of male graduates), with a further 44% of female graduates in informal self-employment (excluding farming) (compared to 28% of male graduates) (Palmer, 2006b). The disabling post-training environment means that many ICCES graduates are unable to use the skills they have acquired; 30% of all graduates (21% of male graduates and 50% of female graduates) were not using their skills in their current employment activity according to Palmer (2006b). These figures assume that those classified as ‘not working’ were indeed working on their family farms.
4 Skills Training and Entrepreneurship Programme Another example of an initiative from Ghana that aimed to link TVET to selfemployment creation is the recent Skills Training and Entrepreneurship Programme (STEP).9 This was very high on the government’s skills training agenda between 2003 and 2005 and followed directly from its unemployment exercise in late 2001. STEP was essentially a short-term (three to nine months) pre-employment vocational training based largely in rural areas and aiming to provide those registered as ‘unemployed’ with the skills needed to become self-employed. The objectives of the STEP programme were:
r r r r
To offer a short (between three and six months) demand-driven competencybased vocational/technical training; To make trainees self-employable, instead of relying on the central government to offer them jobs, which are hard to come by due to budgetary constraints; To stem the drift from rural to urban areas in search of non-existent jobs; To reduce the endemic poverty and create awareness for wealth creation (OforiAtt, 2004).
Very little has been written on the STEP programme to date (mostly internal or consultancy evaluation reports, e.g. Preddey, 2005), and not, to the author’s knowledge, for a wider audience.10 And yet it provides some useful lessons about providing training only—STEP was meant to be complemented by micro-finance, but this has been very slow in becoming a reality. Following the 2001 unemployment census in Ghana, which revealed that most of the unemployed wanted to acquire skills enabling them to become self-employed or
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employable, STEP was initiated—a government-supported training programme. It was intended to reduce poverty by providing employable skills and other assistance (including access to micro-finance) to the unemployed enabling them to become productively employed, mainly self-employed in the informal economy. Funding was made available by allocations from the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Fund for three principal components:
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r
Skills training delivered through vocational training providers: As of March 2005, about 25,000 unemployed people have undertaken STEP training through formal public and private training providers. STEP training courses run for three to twelve months in fifty-eight training areas (see Box 2). Skills enhancement for master-craftsmen and skills training delivered through apprenticeship placements: Master-craftsmen go through a few days’ training with Ghana Regional Appropriate Technology Industrial Service (GRATIS) to make them more effective trainers. Skills training is then conducted by attaching up to ten trainees to a master-craftsman to undertake a workshop-based apprenticeship for up to twelve months. Micro-finance component: This component, launched in December 2004, was intended to provide start-up and working capital to enable those trained under the STEP programme to set up their own enterprises. Funding was to be made available from HIPC funds to micro-finance institutions (MFIs) for on-lending to qualified trained STEP graduates. Two MFIs are participating: the Women’s World Banking Ghana (WWBG); and the rural bank network under the Association of Rural Banks APEX (ARB-APEX).
Box 2. STEP training courses
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Three-month courses in twelve training areas, including: Bamboo processing; batik tie and dye; bead-making; bicycle repairing; food processing; floral works; hospitality and tourism (ten weeks); printing; rural craft; steel bending; textiles; and soap production. Six-month courses in forty-two training areas, including: Ashanti cloth-designing; auto-body repairs; auto-engineering; autoelectrical; building and construction; beautician; basketry and bead making; cane/basketry; carpentry and joinery; carving; carpentry/furniture-making; cosmetology; dress-making/tailoring; electrical; electronics; food-processing; food-processing technology; food-processing materials packaging; hairdressing; jewellery; information and communications technology (ICT); Kente weaving; leatherworks; machining; painting and decoration; multimedia production; perfumery/detergents/hair-care; plumbing; pottery/ceramics; radio and television; photography and video production; production of concrete; refrigeration and air-conditioning; tailoring and apprenticeship training;
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traditional cloth-weaving; traditional footwear-making; textiles+medi printing; weaving; wood processing; welding and fabrication. Twelve-month courses in four training areas, including: Apprenticeship training scheme; draughtmanship and construction; foundry; garment construction.
Source: Preddey, 2005.
There were meant to be three training phases to the STEP programme: phase 1 commenced in February 2003; phase 2 in December 2003; but phase 3 was discontinued. There have been other constraints hindering the outcomes of the STEP programme (Palmer, 2006b): 1. Lack of demand for these types of skills: The STEP programme is highly centralized: skills-needs assessments are conducted at NVTI Headquarters in Accra. There has been no real attempt at establishing demand for skills and product types at the local level, and district assemblies sometimes complain about STEP delivering ‘useless’ courses. There is a danger of market saturation as too many are being trained in similar trades in the same area. 2. Microfinance: Representatives of STEP training providers are unaware of whether any loans had been taken up. WWBG and ARB-APEX view the capacity of STEP graduates to understand the conditions of lending as inadequate. WWBG considers that providing micro-finance to STEP graduates is a social programme and is not commercially viable. STEP borrowers are a higher risk than other borrowers, being new ‘customers’ with low educational attainment. Anecdotal evidence points towards difficulties in STEP graduates accessing loans and, in some cases, the VTIs that provided the training are asked to act as guarantors on loans made. Obviously, VTIs are not in a position to do this. 3. Weak training environment: Many entrepreneurs who were given apprentices to train could not provide a decent training environment, i.e. protective clothing, etc., and were ill-resourced in tools and equipment. In return, the entrepreneurs complained about receiving insufficient funding to adequately train apprentices. The duration of training is not considered long enough, especially in trades like welding and carpentry, leading to the creation of ‘half-baked’ apprentices. Training has been criticized as having a traditional approach to production—one that is not competitive and not productive. 4. Employment outcomes unknown: Except for anecdotal evidence, no one really knows what has happened to the substantial number of STEP graduates since the programme’s inception. The indications, from those who implemented the STEP programme at village-level, have been that STEP graduates feel the programme has helped them to acquire useful skills. However, while the STEP trainees have been able to acquire various useful skills, being able to utilise them in the labour market appears to be proving difficult. Indeed, there is concern that many (if not
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most) STEP graduates are not faring well in the labour market and not using the skills they have acquired. 5. A numbers game between planned and actual people trained, and between the total reach of STEP and total demand: The proposed STEP budget for the second phase provided for 1,000 proven master-craftsmen to undergo skills enhancement so that they could take on 5,000 new apprentices. The actual outcome, according to GRATIS, was that 1,140 STEP apprentices were placed with 120 master craftsmen who had received limited pedagogical training provided by GRATIS from their own resources. The total number trained under STEP to date is about 25,000, a small percentage of the annual approximately150,000 junior secondary school graduates who finished school and cannot enter further formal training. 6. Other problems: STEP suffers from management problems. Post-training support is inadequate. There was a significant risk for the government that the original programme title—Skills Training and Employment Placement—implied that STEP has a large capacity to place unemployed persons in jobs. But STEP was not meant to be a job-creation programme—rather it was meant to empower unskilled or low-skilled unemployed persons to find or create work by themselves. Hence, the title of STEP was changed to Skills Training and Entrepreneurship Programme in the GPRS II. A further issue relates to the delivery of the STEP training, which was done through existing VTIs throughout the country, including ICCES discussed above. In the case of ICCES delivering the STEP programme, registered STEP trainees ‘enrolled’ for the period of their training at a particular ICCES centre. STEP training, which was meant to be kept separate from regular ICCES training, was often delivered by ICCES centres to all the students, regardless of whether they were STEP trainees or regular three-year ICCES students. This cross-over had both positive and negative repercussions. On the one hand, existing ICCES trainees were able to benefit from the STEP training being conducted; e.g. ICCES dress-making students benefited from learning batik or soap-making intended for the STEP trainees.11 On the other hand, however, it is likely that the training quality was reduced as the centres were only supplied by the government with sufficient materials to cover the STEP trainees—and not any extra bodies.
5 Conclusion We noted at the beginning of this chapter that since the late nineteenth century and right up to the most recent proposed education reforms (2004) there have been repeated attempts to make education more relevant to the world of work in Ghana. We also noted that these attempts have failed in the past as parents and youth have consistently preferred academic schooling offering greater possibilities for finding better paid employment. Even in VTIs that are geared towards providing youths with practical skills in an effort to promote self-employment, low-quality training
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environments (due to resource constraints) and youth and parents’ preference for continuing formal education have often subverted the intention of these VTIs and made them more ‘academic’ in nature. Youth and parents are well aware of the occupational realities of the Ghanaian labour market and that most people do actually work in informal micro-enterprises. The problem facing most youth as they graduate from self-employment orientated TVET programmes, like ICCES or STEP, is that while they have acquired skills during their training (even if the quality of the skills taught might be low) most find it very hard to utilise these skills productively in the labour market. Indeed, the environment in which most graduate trainees find themselves is quite disabling.12 In order for skills acquisition to be more effectively translated into skills utilization, more attention needs to be paid to developing policies that enable, rather than constrain or disable, informal micro-enterprises—and especially those in rural areas.
Notes 1. TVET in this chapter refers to school-based TVET, vocational training centres/institutes and on-the-job skills training provided in both the formal and informal sectors. This definition largely corresponds to the government’s Draft TVET policy framework for Ghana (Government of Ghana, 2004b). 2. See King and Palmer (2006b) for a state-of-the-art review of skills development and poverty reduction. 3. This is because parents and students see academic schooling as more ‘vocational’ than vocational education proper (Foster, 1965a, 1965b). For a recent ‘revisiting’ of Foster’s vocational school fallacy, see King and Martin (2002) and Foster (2002). 4. For a general, recent overview of employment outcomes from education and skills training in Ghana, see Palmer, 2006a. 5. Personal communication to the author by the Director of the ICCES, 18 November 2004. 6. Though traditional apprenticeship training is known to have many weaknesses (see World Bank, 2004), on-the-job training does at least help youth develop social and enterprise networks that are crucial to accessing support for subsequent enterprise start-up (Palmer, 2006b). 7. Informal wage employment usually takes the form of informal contracts with formal construction companies. Male graduates in building and construction trades are most likely to get this type of work, paid on either a per-day or per-month basis and typically lasting only part of the year. Construction companies often do not officially register these workers (Palmer, 2006b). 8. Although, as noted above, it is more likely that they were working on their families’ farms. 9. STEP initially stood for Skills Training and Employment Placement Programme when it started in 2003, but was later renamed in the Growth and poverty reduction strategy (GPRS) II (cf. Government of Ghana, 2005) as the government was concerned that those trained under the STEP expected the government to provide them with employment after training (Palmer, 2006b). 10. But see Palmer (2007) for an earlier summary. See Palmer (2006b) for a detailed discussion on STEP. 11. Personal communication from the ICCES/STEP co-ordinator for the Ashanti Region, May 2004. 12. For a discussion of the types of enabling environment that enable or disable education and training outcomes, see King, Palmer & Hayman (2005) and King & Palmer (2006a). For a review of education, training and poverty reduction outcomes in the context of the enabling/disabling environments in Ghana, India, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and South Africa see Palmer et al. (2006).
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References Akyeampong, A. 2005. Preparing students for work in Ghana: is vocationalization of secondary education working? (Paper presented to the eighth Oxford International Conference on Education and Development, ‘Learning and Livelihoods’, 13–15 September 2005, New College, Oxford, United Kingdom.) Foster, P. 1965a. Education and social change in Ghana. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Foster, P. 1965b. The vocational school fallacy in development planning. In: Anderson, C.; Bowman, M., eds. Education and economic development. Chicago, IL: Aldine. Foster, P. 2002. Commentary: the vocational school fallacy revisited—education, aspiration and work in Ghana, 1959–2000. International journal of educational development, vol. 22, pp. 27–28. Government of Ghana. 2004a. White Paper on the report of the Education Reform Review Committee. Accra: Vice-President’s Office. Government of Ghana. 2004b. Draft TVET policy framework for Ghana. Accra: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. Government of Ghana. 2005. Growth and poverty reduction strategy (GPRS II). The coordinated programme for the economic and social development of Ghana (2006–2009). Accra: National Development Planning Commission. Integrated Community Centres for Employable Skills. 1996. Integrated Community Centres for Employable Skills ICCES: background information. Accra: ICCES Directorate. [Mimeo.] King, K.; Martin, C. 2002. The vocational school fallacy revisited: education, aspiration and work in Ghana, 1959–2000. International journal of educational development, vol. 22, pp. 5–26. King, K.; Palmer, R. 2006a. Skills development and poverty reduction: the state of the art. Edinburgh, UK: University of Edinburgh. (Post-basic education and training working paper, no. 7.) <www.cas.ed.ac.uk/research/projects.html> King, K.; Palmer, R. 2006b. Education, training and their enabling environments: a review of research and policy. Edinburgh, UK: University of Edinburgh. (Post-basic education and training working paper, no. 8.) <www.cas.ed.ac.uk/research/projects.html> King, K.; Palmer, R.; Hayman, R. 2005. Bridging research and policy on education, training and their enabling environments. Journal of international development, vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 803–17. Ofori-Att, A. 2004. (Keynote Address by the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment on the second Graduation Ceremony of STEP Programme at the City Educational Complex, Bohyen, Ghana, 17 March 2004.) [Unpublished document.] Palmer, R. 2005. Beyond the basics: post-basic education and training and poverty reduction in Ghana. Edinburgh, UK: University of Edinburgh, Centre of African Studies. (Post-Basic Education and Training, working paper series, no 4.) <www.cas.ed.ac.uk/ research/projects.html> Palmer, R. 2006a. Education, training and labour market outcomes in Ghana: a review of the evidence. Edinburgh, UK: University of Edinburgh. (Consultancy report for a DfID-funded research project.) (Improving the Outcomes of Education for Pro-Poor Development, working paper, no. 1.) Palmer, R. 2006b. Tinker, tailor, farmer, trader: skills development, the enabling environment and informal micro-enterprise in Ghana. Edinburgh, UK: University of Edinburgh, Centre of African Studies. [Doctoral thesis.] Palmer, R. 2007. Skills for work? From skills development to decent livelihoods in Ghana’s rural informal economy. International journal of educational development, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 397–420. Palmer, R. et al. 2006. Educating out of poverty? A synthesis report on Ghana, India, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and South Africa. Edinburgh, UK: University of Edinburgh, Centre of African Studies. (Draft report for DfID.) Preddey, G. 2005. Skills Training and Employment Placement (STEP): the programme document and performance appraisal, and proposals for enhancement. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO, Skills and Employability Department. World Bank. 2004. Skills development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank.
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Chapter II.5
Criteria for Training Policy in the Informal Sector: Demands and Challenges in Latin America Enrique Pieck
1 Introduction The concepts ‘literacy’ and ‘schooling’ raise a number of questions concerning their relative importance, ranging from what is understood by literacy and schooling to what their purpose is in today’s world and what their relationship is to the labour market. What are the benefits of schooling? To what extent does school prepare one for life? What are the implications of not being schooled or literate in this modern world? Schools are supposed to impart a variety of basic skills that will allow individuals to function adequately, both socially and in the market place. To what extent have schools accomplished this? These are some of the questions addressed in this chapter on educational and training issues in the Latin American context.1 The focus is on several pivotal questions. If the lowest schooling levels and early insertion in the labour market occur in the lower-income sectors, how well-prepared are these sectors to function adequately in the labour market? In terms of basic skills training, what are the challenges that face the formal school system and training and vocational institutions? What educational and occupational strategies have been implemented to help youth, adults, women, peasants, indigenous populations, migrants and other disadvantaged segments of the population to become productively integrated into the labour market? What lessons have we learned from them? In order to address each of these basic questions, this chapter has been divided into several sections. A brief introductory overview of a number of educational indicators in Latin America is followed by the challenges that skills training initiatives must address in this region. A third section briefly outlines the trend that has accompanied the recent concern with making occupational training programmes available in deprived sectors, with special emphasis on young people. In closing, this chapter addresses the pivotal issue, namely key considerations for the formulation of productive insertion policies inspired by lessons and contributions emerging from various projects undertaken in the region.
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2 The Shreds of Literacy and Schooling in Latin America Despite the important progress made in the 1990s, education in Latin America is still a rather depressing affair. While basic education coverage has been recognized as near universal, important gaps in universal coverage still remain, particularly in rural areas. At present, education systems seem more concerned with the quality of education and ensuring its relevance and capacity to deliver the skills that are necessary to fare well in life. However, statistics are not encouraging in this area. Brunner (2000), who synthesizes the educational problems affecting the region, helps us to gain some perspective and reflect upon the challenges that have yet to be met. Some of the typical problems are as follows:
r r r r r r r r r r
At the regional level education lags behind, is underdeveloped or partly developed in the best of cases. In some countries coverage is incomplete and exclusion is high. The capacity to compensate for the cultural deficits of children and youth from underprivileged homes is weak. High repetition and drop-out rates translate into substantial wastage. Learning outcomes are poor. There are limited human resources and educational materials, which are usually mismanaged and/or misused within the system. Articulation mechanisms among and between the various levels of the education system and its environment are weak, particularly when it comes to the labour market. The educational level of the labour force aged 25 or older is mediocre (averaging five years) and 14% of the population is still mired in illiteracy. There are marked differences in education between the richer 10% (eleven years or more) and the poorer 30% (fewer than four years) of the population. The generation of knowledge aimed at improving the teaching/learning processes and promoting public policies for the sector is weak.
In light of a substantial increase in educational coverage in a large number of countries, the percentage of the population currently accessing the middle level of education—a level that in many countries represents the upper threshold for most—has also risen.2 The implications to be drawn from this fact seem fairly straightforward. Since this level frequently represents the last rung on the educational ladder, at least in terms of the lower socio-economic sectors, the challenges it poses and the support it calls for are quite evident. Research conducted in Mexico has revealed that while 12% of non-poor youth between the ages of 20 and 24 have completed tertiary education, in the case of disadvantaged youth this figure drops to 7.3% (Pieck, 2000). The challenge therefore lies essentially in providing basic skills training that facilitates successful performance in the workplace and in reinforcing this middle level through training focusing on minimal occupational skills, which would help to improve early insertion in the market place. Clearly, investing in human resources training while the individual is still in the second cycle of formal education makes considerably more sense than investing later in
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compensatory education (ECLAC, 2000b, p. 109). Research findings on functional literacy levels point to the lack of quality that is evident in the delivery of basic and secondary education. Some have gone so far as to claim that completion of the school cycle does not necessarily guarantee that the individual will have a real mastery of reading, writing and mathematical skills, which means that the teaching imparted at schools is insufficient to cope with the demands imposed by the school’s own environment (Infante, 2000, p. 181). What, then, is the good of receiving an education? What problems prevent the education system from fulfilling its primary mission, namely delivering minimal basic skills? Additionally, if no guarantee can be given that schools do perform this basic function, what can we expect from sectors of the population that do not have access to education, or those that are forced to resort to a marginal source of education of dubious quality?
3 Educational Equity and Productive Insertion Seen from the perspective of equity, students from lower-income families tend to exhibit the lowest levels of academic achievement. In the context of the existing relationship between education and the replication of poverty, studies show a positive correlation between the education of parents and that of their children. In other words, the likelihood of acquiring or not acquiring adequate minimal education is closely linked to the parents’ educational background and income level in poor households. It has been found that parents of 80% of urban youths have completed less than ten years of schooling; in fact, between 60 and 80% of these adults fall short of the basic educational threshold required to access well-being levels (ECLAC, 2000b, p. 101). What, then, are the chances for individuals to forge ahead? Today only 20% of young people whose parents did not complete primary education finish secondary education. However, among individuals whose parents completed at least ten years of education, this percentage rises to more than 60%. Data from another regional research project (Gallart et al., 1996), conducted in five Latin American countries, point to the impact of poverty on the academic achievements of young people. The data highlight that the attendance rates, the average school years completed and the percentage of individuals with secondary education are substantially lower among the poor than the non-poor. Attaining seven years of basic education is no small achievement in the region. However, here again the differences between the poor and the non-poor are dramatic: approximately twice as many disadvantaged individuals have failed to complete more than six years of education. The poor also bear the brunt of unemployment, experiencing double or more than double unemployment rates. One of the major challenges is to facilitate the productive insertion of groups living in deprived areas. This requires that one reflect on the restrictions that currently exist in the formal labour market and question the extent to which the
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formal education system prepares an individual for the world of work and the relevance of the skills acquired. It also evokes the traditional concern with the classic incoherence between the supply of education and the demands of the labour market. A glance at the relationship between education and work reveals that a large portion of the gainfully employed population is not sufficiently educated to move beyond the income levels associated with the lower occupational categories. Also, even if educational inequities are high among social strata in the region, they are nevertheless lower than inequities regarding income levels (ECLAC, 2000a). An important question is how much schooling is needed in order to ensure a productive insertion that allows one to break away from the poverty cycle and move beyond the lower levels of occupational income? According to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), ten years of schooling represents the minimal threshold required if education is to play a significant role in breaking this cycle. Based on estimates prepared by ECLAC, it takes twelve years of education to have a 90% chance of staying out of—or moving beyond—poverty (ECLAC, 2000b, p. 105). However, as pointed out earlier, achieving seven years of basic education in the region is already no small achievement (Gallart et al., 1996). Where does hope lie for these populations? From the above it can be said that, in connection with the question of basic skills, the warning lights are flashing for the underprivileged segments of the population. This draws attention to the acute problems in the education system that prevent schools from assisting individuals, especially those from lower income groups, in acquiring basic skills. It also highlights the fact that there are large segments of the population that never go beyond basic education and groups that are already part of the educational gap, having dropped out of school, or exhibit critical deficits in basic skills acquisition and, thus, find themselves in dire need of the skills that would ensure their insertion into productive activities. It has become painfully clear that the limited access of lower income groups to good quality instruction has restricted access to better paying jobs. It has also become clear that there is a need to formulate training, occupational and educational strategies to compensate for the educational deficits characteristic of these groups. How are we to deal with these challenges? What strategies should be used?
4 Two Orientations Guiding Skills Training Policies The desire to impart critical basic skills implies that one must first distinguish between two groups: (a) those who are already part of the formal education system; and (ii) those who are not part of that system—that is, those who have dropped out and lag behind others from an educational point of view. Regarding the educational needs of the first group, the focus needs to be on basic skills and those abilities derived from the processes of globalization and technological development. Regarding the second group, it is necessary to update basic skills and impart occupational
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training, since it is ultimately—though not solely—the labour realm that determines the educational demands and needs of this group. For those attending school, especially for more vulnerable groups, the challenge is to establish a set of measures at the basic level of education. In recent years, a number of programmes aimed at enhancing the quality of education have been formulated as a strategy to rid the education system of inequality and inequity. Many of these strategies have been guided by a positive discrimination—giving more to those who have less—as a means of equalizing the educational status of large groups of the population. In this field of education various initiatives have been undertaken by private stakeholders, popular education movements and NGOs, as well as by governmental institutions. The strategies adopted reflect the different ways the problem has been perceived. While some programmes have attempted to compensate for the impoverishment under which schools in lower income areas operate by upgrading their infrastructure, equipment and materials, others have been geared towards the teacher as a way of spurring better educational practices; still others have sought to incorporate curricular innovations; finally, there are those that favour economic support initiatives (scholarships, school breakfasts and so forth) intended to mitigate the dearth of resources afflicting these groups and to help prolong the permanence of the student population in the education system by lowering repetition and drop-out rates (Jacinto, 1999). On the subject of quality and equity of the education system, it may be said that educational reforms may prove insufficient if limited exclusively to the internal curricular, administrative and financial aspects of a school. To assess their real impact and counteract the negative effects produced by poverty, wider links to social policies are needed (ECLAC, 2000c). Given the economic needs of lower income households, improving the quality of education alone is enough neither to keep young people from dropping out nor to prevent them from repeating. Basic education initiatives seek to counteract the condition of exclusion and neglect that has been imposed on some groups of the population living in poverty. Experiences such as Fe y Alegr´ıa (Faith and Happiness), Colombia’s Escuela Nueva and the educational activity of Mexico’s Consejo Nacional de Fomento Educativo (CONAFE) represent alternative and compensatory modalities intended to offer these segments of the population a higher quality of educational provision and expand coverage in isolated areas. For those who have dropped out of the formal education system, lack of literacy and schooling problems surface as severe deficits when it comes to the use of basic skills. Again, this condition affects essentially disadvantaged groups that face a different set of challenges regarding their integration into the labour market. Productive integration into the market represents a major and immediate challenge and entails in turn the provision of basic skills and occupational training. Therefore, any mention of schooling and literacy points to the need to educate members of these groups in life-skills; that is, in abilities that bear specifically on work. With regard to this group, initiatives have been advanced in the realm of nonformal education and training programmes and within vocational training institutes. The major task of these educational modalities is to facilitate the successful insertion
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of young people and adults from lower income groups into productive activities. What has been done in this area? To what extent have occupational training strategies focused on the lot of the underprivileged?
5 In Search of Training Strategies for the Disadvantaged Training programmes designed to meet the needs of young people and adults from lower income populations are not plentiful (King, 1988). These sectors have traditionally been excluded from such programmes. While vocational training institutes have neglected these sectors in their programmes, adult education has failed to incorporate the work component into its activities. With very few exceptions, and apart from a new-found concern on the part of some institutions to bring occupational training closer to the poor, this kind of training has become a veritable ‘no man’s land’ in underprivileged sectors (Pieck, 1998). Occupational training initiatives have been targeted primarily at the formal sector of the economy, forgetting that vast numbers of Latin Americans live in poverty (40% in Mexico, 80% in Honduras, to mention just two instances) and engage in some kind of economic activity, essentially in the informal sector. However, past failures have shown that programmes are urgently needed that are suited and responsive to the necessities and characteristics of the contexts of disadvantaged sectors (Leonardos, 1999; Pieck, 2000). Unfortunately, as pointed out by Bennell (1999), the role that technical and vocational training may play in eradicating poverty has been underestimated within the framework of social strategies adopted by developing countries, even if rhetoric acknowledges technical training as an essential component of public policy. In recent years—perhaps to counteract the structural adjustment programmes that typified the past decade—greater interest in developing programmes for these vulnerable groups has been evinced. These programmes range from those of an essentially compensatory nature to the more comprehensive initiatives that aim to incorporate these populations into their national development plans.3 In time, the lessons learned have overcome narrow-minded views whose only strategy was to rely on mere training, the idea being that technical courses would have the necessary power to link the population to their labour world. These traditional occupational training projects have raised questions about the short-sightedness of training strategies, both in terms of programme design and objectives, especially in the context of volatile markets. Another matter of concern is the need to acknowledge that the demand for qualifications through training programmes has become insufficient as the sole criterion of positive discrimination, particularly in markets where the greater complexity of production technologies does not necessarily go hand-in-hand with higher qualification requirements (Vald´es, 2001). The need to think of professional training in a broad sense and not simply as occupational training alone has emerged from both past successes and past failures. Growing importance is being attached to focusing on cultural issues. Emphasis is being placed on teacher training and on the need to design comprehensive curricula. Part of this new-found holistic approach derives from the need to integrate the
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objectives of occupational and social inclusion. In the past, there was a tension between concerns of occupational objectives and those associated with housing, health, education and other social welfare concerns that are crucial for the success of training and productive strategies. There is a need to adopt a comprehensive approach to the actions undertaken and to establish co-ordination mechanisms among the various levels and stakeholders.
6 Some Criteria for Policy Design Some criteria can serve as guiding principles for developing training policies in deprived sectors. The following considerations are derived from experiences in various countries in Latin America.
6.1 Diversity, Equity and Quality The different kinds of populations, their cultural and social diversity and the nature of their learning demands require a more accurate definition of what is commonly understood by ‘disadvantaged groups’. Diversity in the types of training intervention is necessary. In recent years, the importance of addressing the heterogeneity of the population making up the underprivileged sectors has been pointed out repeatedly. While some initiatives carried out by the government and non-governmental organizations have used focal strategies as a key criterion in the elaboration and development of programmes, a more global, longer-term strategy is needed that includes structured plans and actions, as well as a clear view of the target population and the features each programme should include in order to respond adequately— both in the long and the short terms—to the educational needs of disadvantaged groups, be they peasants, migrants, rural women or urban youth. It implies the need to enrich the programmes with a view to maximizing their impact on each of the target groups. Furthermore, it demands a clear understanding of requirements based on the needs and characteristics of the subjects and their environments. Clearly, a programme aimed at the occupational training of disadvantaged urban youth will require educational re-insertion and comprehensive vocational training strategies, complementary social programmes in fields such as health and recreation, as well as in work-support programmes. Likewise, programmes aimed at attaining the productive insertion of indigenous women will need an accurate description of their contexts and potential, their age range and the nature of their expectations. It also requires the co-ordination of these programmes with their daily activities. Educational policies thus conceived fall within the realm of positive discrimination and are underpinned by differential strategies (Schmelkes, 1996). In other words, they should take into account approaches that offer the lower income population a chance to access a quality educational supply that is sensitive to their needs
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and interests, while granting them an opportunity to advance by means of higher education and occupational training initiatives. In this way underprivileged segments of the population would benefit from multiple educational opportunities through access to: (a) diverse programmes and alternatives in the various contexts; (b) the possibility of moving freely among them; and (c) viable mechanisms to advance to higher levels of education.
6.2 Education and Training: Everywhere, Anytime Permanent education implies the establishment of education and training systems that favour lifelong strategies and are linked to the development of educational and training paths at various levels. It points to the necessity of filling a number of voids within the system—for example: by creating vocational training and general education paths beyond the compulsory stage; introducing work-related experiences at the compulsory stage; designing modular systems so that courses given at different levels and through modalities of education and training may be combined; establishing secondary education that allows for technical and academic achievement; and opening diversified paths to higher education that interconnect with other systems and levels. Of crucial importance here is the development of technical education, an issue undoubtedly still unresolved in numerous countries and calling for the incorporation of important components of occupational training and culture into mainstream education. It suggests the importance of generating flexible and diverse articulations between the formal and informal sectors that are sensitive to the educational and occupational trajectories of underprivileged groups. Proposals of this sort are urgently needed in the region, particularly where vast segments of the population lack basic skills training and where the last years of basic education are nowadays the upper threshold in a large number of countries before people join the labour force.
6.3 Two Dimensions, Two Strategies Concern for formative strategies, such as basic education aimed at productive insertion, needs to be seen in the context of the dichotomous world where globalization and polarization coexist. There are two essential dimensions to the problems that socially disadvantaged groups have to confront: (a) international competitiveness and globalization; and (b) social integration and exclusion (Gallart et al., 1996; Jacinto & Gallart, 1998). On the one hand, the mutations of the labour world resulting from the advent of new technologies and production patterns demand that special emphasis be given to an education that promotes skills and aptitudes facilitating both insertion into the labour market and social mobility. On the other, spiralling unemployment, a precarious labour market and endemic poverty levels point to the essential task of developing the skills that will allow men and women to become productive members of society. In developing countries, it is not just a
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question of finding work but also one of guaranteeing sustenance and sustainable livelihoods to all concerned. In view of these two scenarios, the tasks that fall to technical and vocational training and education in underprivileged sectors should focus on: (a) adapting and responding to the various contexts and needs of marginalized sectors by making available relevant and high-quality education; and (b) facilitating access to new skills and technological literacy in order to promote employability among low-income sectors and to prevent the emergence of further social exclusion processes. On the one hand, the idea is not to keep underprivileged groups from accessing new skills. Rather, they should be given the opportunity either to join the formal labour market or to continue on to higher levels of education. On the other, every effort should be made to offer lower income groups the tools they require to facilitate their productive insertion by providing them with highquality basic education and training that is congruent with local needs and labour characteristics.
6.4 Catering to the Impoverished Sectors: What Does it Entail? While most training programmes reflect the demands of the formal economy and market, attention must be paid to the fact that a large percentage of people, particularly the young, eventually settle in the informal sector of the economy. This sector calls for a very specific type of learning that training programmes will have to confront. Among the underprivileged segments of the population, the labour world takes on a specificity of its own that will ultimately define the characteristics that any programme should have if it wishes to meet the training needs of this sector. Work acquires a specific meaning in poor areas, especially in rural areas, where it is closely linked to the physical environment and to survival strategies. In this distinct setting, productive insertion demands relevant training programmes capable of satisfying their particular economic survival (Pieck, 2000). This type of strategy, particularly when directed at a population’s underprivileged groups, makes necessary a reformulation of the notions of work, employment, employability and productivity. These terms do not necessarily follow the logic of the formal labour market, nor do they imply that the skills being promoted are necessarily linked to the technologically oriented sectors. The strategies must consider the characteristics and needs of specific groups, and programmes must heed the nature and features of their contexts—as well as the particular training needs of the populations living in impoverished areas. Clearly, at this level quality becomes directly equated with the relevance of the contribution the programmes make to the specific needs of the various population groups. In other words, the success of a programme will be contingent upon how relevant the acquired skills actually prove to be in the workplace and whether individuals use these skills in economically productive ways (McLaughlin, 1990).
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6.5 Problems Associated with Small Business Endeavours On the subject of promoting small businesses in the informal sector, some reservations are in order, since training in the informal sector raises some questions worth reflecting upon. One of them has to do with the reproduction of self-employment under precarious conditions. We are well aware of its limitations in terms of age, work experience, lack of capital, limited social networks, etc., which often translate into high-risk and unrealistic ventures for low-income youths (Ram´ırez, 2000; Messina, 2001). Be that as it may, it is important to recognize that, given the restrictions of the formal labour market, a large number of young people will enter the informal sector one way or another. This implies that training programmes need to incorporate curricular elements designed to impart interdisciplinary skills that are common to both the formal and the informal markets. In the case of adults, where there is a greater chance of finding technical skills and practical experience, training programmes must adopt on-the-job training strategies and be closely linked to the particular needs of the economic/productive activities of that sector of the population (Vielle, 1995). A training strategy thus conceived has the capability of responding to the actual concerns of the people, a feature not too often found in training programmes.
6.6 The Integral Dimension of Every Economic/Productive Activity The integral dimension of any productive insertion endeavour is an essential component of any occupational training strategy. Meeting a project’s immediate demands (e.g. loans, specific courses) will not accomplish much in the absence of a diagnosis that can provide a holistic solution to the problems affecting the various projects of a specific population. In this regard, addressing these projects from the point of view of dimensions, such as organization, production, commercialization, technical processes, accounting systems and division of labour, regardless of the magnitude of the particular business endeavour, is of paramount importance. In some cases, support may come to small operators in the guise of technical assistance, in others it may translate into accounting services for projects under consolidation. As a result, technical training becomes a training/consultantship effort, which approaches potential projects from an integrative perspective. That is to say, it does not merely offer an immediate response to a project’s technical or economic need but emphasizes the way in which the support or funds are being efficiently used. In other words, it becomes a response based on an integrated analysis of the economic and productive activity, and results in an improvement plan designed to contribute solutions capable of steering any business pursuit in the direction of an economic development project. The integrated perspective of training programmes evinces the insufficiency of technical training initiatives and funding strategies, taken as isolated components. This basic premise—an integral view of projects—has been conspicuously absent from the development of technical training programmes aimed at deprived sectors. This has resulted in an educational supply that elicits no interest beyond the boundaries
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of the course itself and, on occasion, appears irrelevant and apathetic to the impact of the promoted courses.
6.7 Articulation of Training with Basic Education A key consideration in occupational training for deprived sectors is the importance given to basic education conceived as a pre-requisite for occupational training and as the cornerstone of lifelong education. Basic education is the chief guarantee of the skills demanded by employability. In this regard, it is important that occupational training programmes include school re-insertion strategies, especially when one considers the deficits exhibited by youths from vulnerable sectors. It is important to articulate occupational training initiatives with basic education and to devise plans that create linkages between the different educational strategies and schools, so that students who are undergoing training may, at the same time, complement their basic education. In this respect, articulation strategies between both systems are indispensable. While this is a foremost preoccupation of the literature and research, much of the road still remains untraveled. Few undertakings have cared to incorporate basic education components into their curricular strategies and plans. In other instances, this has been accomplished through informal institutional agreements whereby students fill in their basic education voids while involved in occupational training programmes. Building bridges between initiatives by both types of institutions—educational and training—are essential to the drafting of such agreements.
6.8 The Necessary Confluence between Sectors Among the training strategies aimed at underprivileged groups, the co-ordination of programmes with institutions from different sectors is currently considered a sine qua non. In fact, it is the driving force behind the manifold possibilities of technical training. It is through co-ordination activities with institutions concerned with finance, organizational matters and commercial activities that the knowledge acquired through training will lead to productive insertion and the creation and development of small business endeavours. This crucial factor guarantees that the various programmes will have a positive impact on the expansion of economic activities and help in turn to improve the target population’s living conditions. The importance of addressing the training of deprived sectors from an inter-sectoral perspective is supported by the basic premise that training in and of itself is not enough, and through the recognition that the promotion of social inequality is not restricted to the educational domain. Thus, the importance of dealing with problems from various fronts (Vald´es, 2001) is highlighted. Along these same lines—and on the assumption that any educational process will be intertwined with various dimensions—integration becomes an indispensable component of training policies. Integration also points to the importance of
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acknowledging that the inherent complexity of the groups involved requires a multifaceted approach whereby health, housing, recreation and so forth are also taken into account, since training alone or simple insertion in the labour market will neither guarantee social insertion nor the outcomes that training programmes anticipate. A case in point is the design of occupational training programmes aimed at marginal urban youths relying on co-ordination efforts with social programmes to ensure that the curriculum will also contribute to the resolution of social and cultural issues. It is not simply a matter of integrating them into technical training courses, but one of seeking the participation of different sectors and organizations in the fields of education, labour and health. This becomes indispensable just as much as the creation of links to women, youth and peasant organizations, trade unions, etc. The idea is to formulate joint strategies and offer integral answers to problems that must necessarily be dealt with from various fronts.
6.9 Tensions between Efficiency and Equity A distinct tension found in programmes is that generated by efficiency versus equity. The process of selecting young people who will participate in training and support programmes represents a typical case. It is a common practice that the filters used in the selection process—for the sake of the efficiency of the programme—place priority on youths who are not necessarily from the poorer sectors (Messina, 2001). Thus, it is not unusual to find that the rational criteria adopted by institutions, programmes and funding agencies are at cross-purposes with the guidelines for integrating disadvantaged young people. The rationales run counter to each other and call into question the scope and objectives of equity promoting programmes.
6.10 Practical Innovations: Upgrading Non-Formal Education While non-formal education programmes contribute to alleviating the harsh economic conditions that prevail in these communities and may prove interesting to some target groups (such as women), the marginal nature of these programmes has prevented them from both acquiring the required level of quality and becoming legitimate sources of occupational training. An interesting feature of these programmes is that they lie on the borderline separating what constitutes occupational training from what does not—a fact that may lend the efforts needed to cross from one side to the other a certain amount of appeal and viability. All this should be part of a strategy intended to advance occupational training in these sectors starting from what is already there. It could be argued, however, that innovations in the field of vocational and technical training and education could simply entail: (a) rethinking non-formal educational programmes; (b) relying on local support; and (c) joining efforts through the combination of complementary services (Leonardos, 1999). This could well be the case of non-formal education in deprived areas—a marginal modality and the only training
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alternative in rural areas that is being imparted to low-income groups, involving courses of a domestic nature (cooking, handicrafts, beautician) or trades (carpentry, blacksmithing), and are imparted to low-income groups usually in rural areas. Raising the quality of these programmes demands inter-institutional collaboration involving the revision of learning programmes, curricular models, teacher-training initiatives and an improved infrastructure. This would facilitate the improvement of the profiles of graduating students and the generation of links that ensure continuous technical training, as well as the development of productive activities backed by financial, business, organizational and marketing assistance. These could be valid alternatives that reach out to those living in that ‘no man’s land’ represented by today’s occupational training efforts in the poorer regions (Pieck, 1998; Bennell, 1999). Through their relationship with various institutions—health, early and basic education, nutrition, etc.—these programmes, rather than serving a merely social and political function, would take on real significance as a legitimate, relevant and useful educational supply, especially for rural and marginal urban women (Pieck, 1996).
7 Conclusions This review of some experiences and indicators for designing educational and training programmes for disadvantaged segments of society suggests a set of considerations in connection with sine qua non aspects of policy formulation and with the myths surrounding such programmes. We have seen that basic education or enhancing the quality of training courses is simply not enough. Neither the mere delivery of technical training courses nor the positive discrimination criteria that ignore contextual variables is alone sufficient. The lessons learned make it clear that an integral approach is indispensable. They highlight interventions in different sectors, and articulations among the different systems and sub-systems. They also imply a greater appreciation of the role played by occupational training in responding to such antithetical needs as modernization and poverty. They also stress the importance of taking into account the nature of and needs inherent in impoverished environments, as well as the urgent need for programmes to be relevant—particularly when the educational supply is being directed at deprived areas. Perhaps one of the vital elements of these initiatives is the importance of combining the context with the learning needs. The inescapable conclusion is that occupational training in these sectors requires intervention mechanisms different from those intended for the formal market. Finally, the evidence of deficits in basic skills and the resultant lack of employability make it mandatory that any occupational training programme includes articulations between technical and basic skills as part of its curriculum. Likewise, they emphasize the importance of developing links between educational and technical training systems, as well as between formal and non-formal modalities, in order to respond to flexible and shifting itineraries characteristic of a population that moves
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between one system and another, a population that has no other way of harmonizing its own educational and labour trajectories. Clearly, what is needed today is a strategy capable of reconciling policy in the fields of education, occupational training and employment. Today’s problems suggest the need for occupational training councils that would include the following among their key functions: (a) orienting and co-ordinating the initiatives of the various institutions that relate to this field; (b) setting up links between institutions of the various sectors (NGOs, the private sector, public organizations); and (c) helping to design methodologies and strategies capable of meeting the training needs of the informal sector. This strategy would seek to quantify the conception and practice of occupational training on the basis of the confluence of actions and actors who at present neither identify themselves with this activity nor are part of it.
Notes 1. Some parts of this chapter were originally published in Singh, 2005. 2. The middle level is that level of schooling that follows the completion of an average of ten years of formal education. 3. Some examples of this type of initiatives are Honduras’s Programa de Educaci´on para el Trabajo (POCET); Costa Rica’s public workshops organized by this country’s Instituto Nacional de Aprendizaje; Uruguay’s training centres; and Colombia’s SENA initiatives.
References Bennell, P. 1999. Learning to change: skills development among the economically vulnerable and socially excluded developing countries. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. (Employment and Training Papers.) Brunner, J. 2000. Globalizaci´on y el futuro de la educaci´on: precisiones, desaf´ıos y estrategias. (Paper prepared for the Seminar on Educational Prospects in the Latin America and Caribbean Region, Santiago, Chile, 23–25 August 2000.) Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. 2000a. Panorama social de Am´erica Latina 1999–2000. Santiago: ECLAC. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. 2000b. Equidad, desarrollo y ciudadan´ıa. Santiago: ECLAC. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. 2000c. La brecha de la equidad: una segunda evaluaci´on. Santiago: ECLAC. Gallart, M.A. et al. 1996. Adolescencia, pobreza y formaci´on para el trabajo. In: Konterllnik, I.; Jacinto, C., eds. Adolescencia, pobreza, educaci´on y trabajo, pp. 95–130. Buenos Aires: Losada/UNICEF. Infante, I. 2000. Alfabetismo funcional en siete pa´ıses de Am´erica Latina. Santiago: UNESCO/OREALC. Jacinto, C. 1999. Programas de educaci´on para j´ovenes desfavorecidos: enfoques y tendencias en Am´erica Latina. Paris: IIEP/UNESCO. Jacinto, C.; Gallart, M.A. 1998. Por una segunda oportunidad: la formaci´on para el trabajo de j´ovenes vulnerable. Montevideo: Cinterfor/RET. King, K. 1988. Training for the informal sector in developing countries: issues for practitioners. Adult education and development, vol. 30, pp. 18–30.
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Leonardos, A.C. 1999. Non-formal vocational training programmes for disadvantaged youth and their insertion into the world of work: towards a framework for analysis and evaluation. Paris: IIEP/UNESCO. (IIEP Occasional papers.) McLaughlin, S. 1990. Skill training for the informal sector: analysing the success and limitations of support programs. In: Turnham, D.; Salome, B.; Schwarz, A.D., eds. The informal sector revisited. Paris: OECD. Messina, G. 2001. Modelos de formaci´on en las microempresas: en busca de una tipolog´ıa. In: Pieck, E., ed. Los j´ovenes y el trabajo: la educaci´on frente a la exclusi´on social, pp. 401–28. Mexico: UIA/IMJ/Cinterfor-ILO/UNUCEF/Conalep/RET. Pieck, E. 1996. Funci´on social y significado de la educaci´on comunitaria. Mexico: UNICEF/El Colegio Mexiquense. Pieck, E. 1998. Educaci´on de adultos y formaci´on profesional: incidencia y posibilidades en sectores de pobreza en Am´erica Latina. In: Jacinto, C.; Gallart, M.A., eds. Por una segunda oportunidad: la formaci´on para el trabajo de j´ovenes vulnerables, pp. 187–224. Montevideo: Cinterfor/RET. Pieck, E. 2000. Educaci´on de j´ovenes y adultos vinculada con el trabajo. In: OREALC/CEAAL/CREFAL/INEA, eds. La educaci´on de personas j´ovenes y adultas en Am´erica Latina y el Caribe: prioridades de acci´on en el siglo XXI, pp. 102–42. Santiago: OREALC/ CEAAL/CREFAL/INEA. Ram´ırez, J. 2000. La formaci´on laboral de j´ovenes pobres desempleados: necesidad de una estrategia consistente y de un marco institucional sostenible. Bolet´ın Cinterfor/ILO, no. 150, September–December. Schmelkes, S. 1996. Hacia la equidad: innovaciones en el medio rural en Am´erica Latina. In: Consejo Nacional de Fomento Educativo, ed. Encuentro Latinoamericano de innovaciones educativas en el medio rural, pp. 23–40. Mexico: CONAFE. Singh, M., ed. 2005. Meeting basic learning needs in the informal sector. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Vald´es, T. 2001. Empezar a trabajar en sociedades sin empleo: apuntes para la orientaci´on de los perfiles profesionales de inserci´on. In: Briasco, I., ed. Pol´ıticas para grupos desfavorecidos: recomendaciones para la acci´on, pp. 21–24. Madrid: OEI. Vielle, J.P. 1995. El trabajador del sector informal como sujeto de la educaci´on de adultos: un intento por redimensionar la categor´ıa de ‘pobre’ en la perspectiva de una estrategia renovada de educaci´on para el trabajo. In: Pieck, E.; Aguado, E., eds. Educaci´on y pobreza: de la desigualdad social a la equidad, pp. 373–96. Mexico: UNICEF/EI Colegio Mexiquense.
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Chapter II.6
Informal Learning at Work: The Case of Working Children in Egypt Laila Iskandar
1 Introduction When poverty is widespread in urban pockets and severe in rural areas, unemployed and under-employed adults seek solutions to macro-economic changes in several ways: they have to survive for long periods without income; send their children out to work; pull girls out of school; seek assistance from religious institutions; and lean on family relationships (if they have maintained them). Female-headed households are more exposed to deprivation and, therefore, are more likely to send their children out to work. Recent studies refer to the need for a multi-dimensional approach to respond to the particular needs of working children. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that the worldwide number of child labourers between the ages of 5 and 17 is 256 million. Out of these, 171 million work in hazardous occupations, while 110 million are below the age of 12 (www.ilo.org/childlabour). These data distinguish between working children and child labour, to accommodate the reality of children in low-income countries and in economies in transition. They point to the need of going beyond aggregated statistical data in order to understand working children and their families. While poverty in the South is an overarching reason for child labour, other reasons also account for the phenomenon: the declared and hidden costs of education, as well as income lost when children do not work. In cultures where child labour is accepted and where social protection policies do not exist for families in financial and economic distress, greater numbers of children go out to work.
2 How to Engage Working Children with Learning? The debate around working children in the South and their learning needs has continued among practitioners in the field of education and development, who may have been playing a catalytic role in that field. They are now poised to transfer lessons learned and influence policy decisions springing from their understanding that Egypt’s working children today will be Egypt’s working youths and adults in R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 II.6, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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the next decade. Hence, the need to invest in them as Egypt’s human capital while eliminating barriers to their full development. The debate centres on the following points:
r r
While countries have legislation against working children and in favour of compulsory basic education, the reality is adult poverty in economies of the South with high unemployment rates, as well as poor vocational education and still poorer rates of return on basic education. What can be done in the context of that reality for working children to make them acquire a measure of learning and equip them with market-based vocational skills, basic education skills, and learning that will help them live in sustainable conditions and contribute to the development of their societies?
3 Creating Social Partnerships and Enlisting Community Support So far, we have witnessed the introduction of only fragmented and partial solutions, which point to the urgent need for learning from concrete actions in communitybased experiments relying on a reading of the context in which these actions have been carried out. NGOs have been implementing projects that address the learning needs of working children directly in the neighbourhoods providing employment opportunities for children in local workshops. Some children are employed in particularly hazardous occupations, such as leather tanning, pottery making (i.e. kilns), car repairs and garbage collection. While designing models for non-formal learning, NGOs have also provided alternatives that improve the working and living environments of these children. The context of poverty dictates an approach recognizing that children cannot be forced out of employment when their parents are unable to be gainfully employed. A common vision and understanding should recognize that separate actions cannot provide fragmented solutions to unrelated phenomena. In most cases, the symptoms testify to the existence of serious socio-economic problems, deeply rooted in the lives of vulnerable and deprived children and youths. Approaches tested in Egypt have shown that some mechanisms can work effectively; they are described below (Ministry of Social Affairs/World Bank, 2004). Non-formal learning for working children is effective when community support exists. This support can help in, for example, offering literacy classes or establishing one classroom schools. The local council (municipality) and locally elected members of parliament can actively work towards obtaining and officially providing health care for working children through government health clinics. They can establish programmes in youth clubs, combined with vocational training. In collaboration with community leaders and the local city council, working children who were not enrolled in school or who have dropped out are supported in acquiring official documents (e.g. birth certificates) so that they can then be enrolled in formal schools. Community leaders endorse the call to avoid children being employed in hazardous occupations. Local mosques also advocate this message.
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Another important measure is collaborating with local workshop owners to influence working conditions so that children are prevented from undertaking hazardous work. For this reason, contracts with workshop owners include clauses to guarantee the provision of safe working conditions for children. Another solution to protect children is to provide them with alternatives. They may, for instance, be given safe jobs within the same workshop or may be withdrawn from one workplace altogether and given training in safe occupations. Job training takes place in local workshops specifically designed to employ children in these new, safe occupations after their apprenticeship periods have ended. This model requires that alternative workshops should be established and equipped, if they do not already exist in a particular neighbourhood. Families receive financial compensation for withdrawing their children from hazardous occupations, while comprehensive educational programmes are designed for these children. It is important to work closely with the parents of working children by, for instance, conducting awareness campaigns and providing parental education. Other measures include recreational field trips for working children and their families, which combine activities with parental guidance and education. Collaborating with neighbourhood schools is also important as it helps to: (a) train teachers in local schools to use child-friendly teaching methods; (b) train social and psychological counsellors to support children who are experiencing difficulties in education and are unable to pay school fees; (c) provide alternative education in one-classroom schools; and (d) extend social outreach services to vulnerable and deprived families. Activities undertaken by NGOs are of fundamental importance in improving the situation of working children: 1. Networking with influential supporters, such as local members of parliament, the under-secretaries in the Ministry of Health, the head of the local administration, the head of the local council, and the directors of the local departments of youth, social affairs and labour. 2. Informing the mass media about the phenomenon through orientation sessions, press conferences and special workshops, and therefore receiving support from journalists. 3. Establishing community committees and recruiting community leaders to consider measures for tackling local needs and problems and for mobilizing community resources. 4. Establishing a network of partners to support efforts for training in, for example, public and/or private training centres and industries. At present, no formal mechanism exists at local community level for the design or provision of learning opportunities for working children. A large number of community-based models exist that are worthy of consideration for replication and up-scaling at the national level. The proposed Community and Institutional Development (CID) model (see Fig. 1) accepts the current economic context which obliges children living below the poverty line to work, and introduces learning for the marketplace integrated with learning for life-skills and basic education. This
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THE BUSINESS
THE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
Learning linked to the market – vocational and business skills
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Life skills - community learning
Standardization Quality control Prices and wages Design Diversification Creativity Customization Exclusivity Sales policies Marketing strategies
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Justice Build on existing skills Linking the rich to the poor Conscientization options Income generation Social well-being Health and hygiene
THE SCHOOL Basic education needs
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Learning by doing Individualized instruction Literacy Hygiene Critical thinking Problem solving Socialization Recreation Excellence Co-operation
Fig. 1 The design of CID’s non-formal ‘schools’ Source: Adapted from Iskandar, 1994.
model draws on resources at both central and community levels that can be mobilized and integrated into a cohesive system. CID has been working with communities where there are a large number of working children. Typically, their way of life has the following features: (a) a high incidence of work-related injuries; (b) they come from families where their siblings work as well; (c) earnings are handed to their families thus pooling resources and contributing to the family income; (d) they are illiterate; (e) they would like to participate in recreational and sports activities; and (f) they suffer from malnutrition and stunted growth.
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4 Exploring New Learning Sites: The Case of Brick Factories Brick manufacturing is an ancient activity in Egypt, particularly in Upper Egypt. There are nearly 2,000 brick factories in Egypt (Environmental Management and Technology Fund/Egypt Environmental Initiatives Fund, 2002).
4.1 Working Conditions in the Brick Factories The location of kilns is determined by the proximity of the factories to the clay source, water and workers. The employees lack education and suffer from poor health and hygiene facilities, lack of social protection and occupational hazards. Brick factory workers usually come from villages in Upper Egypt—the South— where a declining economy, increasing family size and static land holdings have forced many people to migrate. Poverty in the rural governorates of Upper Egypt encourages a large number of migrant workers and their children to work in the brick factories of greater Cairo. Their skill in brick-making already acquired in their villages of origin is an asset in finding employment in urban brick-making factories. Families send their children north with older brothers, uncles or neighbours seeking work. Most of the work in brick factories requires little or no extra training, which means that there is always room in any given factory, on any given day, for wandering day labourers searching for a livelihood. Thus, the brick-making industry in Egypt has come to be a sort of guaranteed last resort for children, men and youths seeking work. Their market is the low-skilled and unskilled sector. Employment regulations in this branch of the economy are informal—to say the least (Community and Institutional Development, 2003a). These children are not enrolled in schools and will become illiterate workers in adolescence and adulthood. They are thus in dire need of non-formal educational opportunities in order to break the cycle of poverty from perpetuating itself in the next generation. Working conditions in brick factories are harsh and take their toll, especially on children. The long hours of exposure to the scorching sun, the poor quality of drinking water, poor sanitation and poor nutrition result in ill-health for all workers. The absence of clinics nearby and affordable primary health care further exacerbate the situation of workers, particularly children. Most brick factories are far removed from clinics leading to a slow response to emergencies, accidents and injuries. Water consumed by the workers is delivered by water merchants in containers that are often rusted and in poor hygienic condition. Water supply is irregular and sometimes workers have to wait half a day without water. This has an impact on children’s occupational health as they are exposed to long hours of work under the scorching sun. The absence of sewage networks in both rural and urban homes has resulted in people building pit latrines in an unsupervised manner with inevitable insanitary conditions. Children, women and men often lack many essential legal documents, which means that they cannot benefit from any form of social assistance or health insurance.
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Brick production is fraught with occupational hazards resulting from careless practices in the handling of bricks, donkey carts, machines and kilns. On-site accidents or health problems of varying degrees of severity are quite common, often resulting from unsafe practices or the heavy weights carried on workers’ backs leading to deformation of the spine, kidney stones (or gallstones) and heat stroke. Children inhale dust and smoke from the kilns, leading to respiratory problems. Cuts are common injuries as workers are required to handle the fragments of broken fired bricks with their bare hands. Cuts and bruises are typical of barefoot workers who walk over debris on the ground. Children frequently fall off stacks of bricks or the back of a truck, but the greatest numbers of accidents that happen to children involve donkey carts. A fully-loaded cart can cause serious injury if it runs over a child. Donkeys kick and bite and are notorious for unpredictable behaviour. The link between animal health and human health is strong and greatly impacts children’s health, as they have to deal with donkeys more than any other group of workers. Thus, veterinary care of animals should be considered a priority as sick animals can infect workers, spread skin diseases and delay production. Animal pens are in need of attention too. Migrant workers in the factories live in clusters of dusty and untidy overnight rooms, each housing approximately eight to twelve people with uneven floors and poor ventilation. Toilet facilities consist of an empty room with what would have been a pit for a latrine (if it had ever been completed).
4.2 Learning for Children in Brick Factories The learning model for children working in brick factories revolves around a rightsbased approach focused on improved living and working conditions for working children and youths. It integrates non-formal learning around health, literacy, brickmaking skills, construction skills, life-skills, business skills and advocacy for working children’s rights. A non-formal learning programme, therefore, cannot be limited to basic education in the traditional sense or to life-skills. It must link the vocational aspect of brick-making (in this instance) to all aspects of learning and advocacy for working children’s rights. The curriculum has to offer lifelong learning opportunities in the context of the brick-making trade: all the years invested in brick-making know-how would be lost if working children were pulled out of the factories and directed to school learning that is totally unrelated to the market place. Obviously, education and development practitioners do not deliberately plan to be concerned with children who are working. Yet, the fact that these children are encouraged to enter the brick-making trade by their parents, and the certainty that they will not learn any other trade in a better way in vocational schools, presents a strong argument for providing them with onsite learning opportunities. Their life chances will also be improved if this education is carried out before they reach adulthood. An innovative approach to the design of learning links engineering technology transfer with environmental learning and life-skills for children, youths and adults.
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It considers the engineering and vocational aspects of the production process indivisible from the content of non-formal learning. In the specific case of brick-making in Egypt, the non-formal learning model is linked to a technology transfer from the use of oil fuel in the kilns to a cleaner energy source—natural gas. This is part of a Climate Change initiative that strikes deep into the heart of local brick-making communities—it provides a model of how Kyoto can be brought all the way to Cairo. The following strategies have been proposed for the implementation of nonformal learning: 1. Use of a rights-based approach. Factory owners are informed that they have a primary responsibility towards their workers, being answerable for the present conditions in which they live and work. While not threatening to penalize owners for employing children, the former must be made to recognize their responsibility towards the education of the children working in their factories. They are thus enjoined to partake in the vocational upgrade of learning inside their factories. They must therefore address some of these inequities and conform to human rights standards through contributing financially to these inputs. 2. Establish a potentially replicable model that can be extended to all brick factories in the region and possibly in all of Egypt. It focuses on community mobilization strategies through training and/or education and leads to advocacy. 3. The design of the non-formal learning programme ensures children’s access to rights and social protection networks. 4. Design of the learning model is based on a developmental as well as an educational approach: community-based initiatives inside factories form the core curriculum. Participation/inclusion is observed by enabling the voices, interests and initiatives of those living in poverty. They participate in upgrading their physical space, as well as organizing interventions. They are engaged in this way as stakeholders as well as learners in the development, implementation and evaluation of initiatives that are meant to help them. At every step the principle of local ownership of initiatives by brick factory workers is observed and strengthened. 5. Ensure that learning strengthens communication and information flows to children to create an environment where dialogue, negotiation and consensus are reached. 6. Build the curriculum on the existing and long-standing experience of other community-based organizations and initiatives in the area of curriculum design, teachers’ guides, learners’ workbooks, etc. It integrates vocational learning relevant to brick making and relevant to the technological conversion from the use of oil as a fuel to natural gas. The outcome of implementing these measures will become a model for improved living and working conditions for workers in other brick factories (children, young people and women) integrating non-formal learning around health, literacy, lifeskills, business skills and advocacy skills. This will result in learning and teaching materials/manuals for brick-factory children. Teachers are trained from among the young people working in the brick factory.
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Non-formal vocational education is, therefore, offered to working children within their present context. It not only improves their knowledge of trade and vocational skills but also intends to break the cycle of deprivation for future generations through formal basic education. It is proposed as a national vocational policy in contrast to vocational education at present dispensed through formal structures and leading to the acquisition of skills of inferior quality unrelated to the job market.
5 New Learning on Recycling Sites Mokatam recycling neighbourhood records an estimated 500 recycling workshops employing children and youths (ICED, 2005) (Fig. 2). These workshops purchase locally produced recycling equipment and provide workers with vocational skills linked to the market, which is fraught with occupational hazards. As in the previous case, the non-formal learning models used in the recycling sector do not seek to remove working children from such situations. Rather, they seek to protect children from the most dangerous work, promote their contribution to the environmental benefits accruing from recycling, increase the vocational learning offered in the recycling workshops, augment the income opportunities offered by such a sector, and add the basic education and development learning that empowers working children to becoming full citizens in their society and economy. Every one of these workshops is a vocational training centre in its own right. While aspects of occupational safety are missing and courses are not presented in ways that lead to structured, self-paced, individualized lessons, learning processes can be converted into such programmes. The point is that they provide an immense base of vocational learning for working children and youths in a trade that is not offered in any vocational training institute. Furthermore, this trade has multiple benefits as it recycles materials from the entire nation and performs actions that are positive for the environment, reducing the need for landfill and the danger of materials being left exposed in open dumps. The educational solution proposed has been implemented at the community level in Mokatam’s rag recycling and paper recycling ‘school’ for girls and women, and plastics recycling ‘school’ for boys (Iskandar, 2002). It combines informal education for working children and young people deprived of a formal education and creates a curriculum focusing on education for sustainable development. It is based on the assumption that children working in these sectors are perfectly able to learn and that this rich reservoir of knowledge about labour markets, trading, credit, local technology, survival strategies, social capital, community solidarity, etc., should be the basis for designing non-formal content and a curriculum. This knowledge is owned by the vast number of people involved in this sequence of waste collection and recycling. For them, waste is a valuable resource and a major means of livelihood. Conversely, waste management has traditionally been perceived as a technology, management and engineering issue. Keeping towns clean is viewed as a challenge, rather than as an opportunity to employ thousands of rural migrants and unemployed
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Fig. 2 Waste Recycle Facilities Manshiet Nasser-el Mokatam Source: Community and Institutional Development.
and unskilled workers who flock to urban centres on a daily basis. Municipalities in the South have spent millions of dollars introducing capital intensive, culturally unsuited technologies transferred from countries of the North. Few officials have been able to perceive it as a people-centred issue or a non-formal learning opportunity for the masses of unemployed, unskilled and illiterate populations of the South. On the contrary, waste management in the cities of the South is a highly people-centred issue. It is a rich field for designing non-formal learning for the vast numbers of urban poor and justifies a second look from planners, officials and decision-makers (Iskandar, 2005). Since only the poorest of the poor engage in this work, it is better for governments to improve their standard of living and maintain their learning in the non-formal sector of education rather than destroy their livelihoods. In this way, we would be making the first attempts to break the cycle of poverty perpetuated across generations while addressing the out-of-school learning needs of working children in the informal sector—not just the recycling sector—in an innovatory manner. With the help of the appropriate ministry and the support of the municipal authorities, this sector can provide enormous non-formal learning opportunities. These actors are crucial in turning the learning from recycling into ‘decent work’ based on guidelines of the International Labour Organization (Anschutz, Scheinberg & van de Klundert, 2006). Once more, community-based initiatives have successfully engaged recyclers in income-generating activities that have been rich in learning content focused on
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product-based recycling, marketing and sales, business maths, community credit systems, vocational skills revolving around locally produced recycling machines, maintenance of machinery and upgrading of technical vocational skills (Community and Institutional Development, 2003b). Although the informal sector has played a crucial role in turning waste into a resource and providing a non-formal learning opportunity for the largely unskilled and illiterate population of working children and youths, there is a new wave of privatizing waste management in the urban centres in the South. This jeopardizes a whole world of learning as learners in that sector are now being made redundant by powerful interest groups. This policy clearly demonstrates the failure of policymakers to connect their macro-economic actions and the potentially huge opportunities to transform the informal economy into an equally huge vocational sector while providing education for the working children of marginalized workers. This is an opportunity to overcome child labour for the next generation. The Mokatam recycling schools for girls and boys vindicate this view because mothers can send their children to that ‘school enterprise’. Indeed, they even seek early childhood care in the neighbourhood for their pre-school children. Policy implications can be summarized in the following way. Maintaining access by the poor to work in recycling is in essence the same thing as maintaining access to learning opportunities. Privatizing this work to multinational companies using new machinery, therefore, takes away access to this critical learning resource. This means that non-formal learning is not an isolated sector with no connection to any others. In fact, non-formal learning is a vibrant sector wherever there are working children. Before they make decisions that may seem to have little or no impact on education, policy-makers need to review their perception of the various sectors of the economy and revisit the potentially strong learning content that can be generated by various industries, sectors and trades. Using appropriate labour-intensive and semi-mechanized technologies increases vocational learning opportunities for the poor, while importing high-tech machines would take away learning channels for the illiterate and unskilled in the informal economy. Mergers, which tend to consolidate enterprises, further destroy vocational learning opportunities for working children and young people. Politicians need to research how to protect market aspects of the informal economy, which includes more actors and responsive markets than formal ones. Since so many learning and employment opportunities are provided to the poor through vocational skills in the informal market, policy measures need to look seriously at how to dignify work in that sector and teach young workers aspects of occupational safety. Evictions and forced relocations of workers destroy social capital and community learning. Upgrading living, housing and working conditions provides a wealth of opportunities for non-formal and lifelong learning in areas of health, credit, rights, vocational and technical skills, community organization and business skills, among other things.
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6 Raising Some Crucial Questions
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Would it not be better for non-industrialized countries to design economic systems based on the education and development aspects of the economy, instead of just on the macro-economic indicators of income and growth? Would it not be better for policy-makers to view informal sector workshops as vast and potential fields for vocational training and adopt incentives for workshop entrepreneurs to enrol the children in their workforce into non-formal learning, instead of harassing them unsuccessfully with laws that are not enforced? Would it not be more effective to design non-formal vocational education programmes that take place in the workshops of the informal economy, rather than import expensive donor-driven vocational programmes based on high-tech economies that target a pitiful handful of learners when compared with the masses of workers in the informal economy? Would it not be better for non-industrialized countries to design systems based on socially constructed models of production, engaging working children in vocational learning within the context of traditional systems, rather than importing irrelevant economic development models from the North? How can we educate policy-makers to take non-formal education seriously and appreciate the critical role it plays in education for sustainable development, as well as its inextricable links with all aspects of the economy?
7 Conclusion In conclusion, we invite educators, policy-makers and the industrial sector to:
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Revisit the issue of working children and their learning needs within the present reality of informal workshops to experience a paradigm shift in how these workshops can be made into potential vocational education training centres; Examine the informal and popular economy with a view to understanding the way it is organized to respond to markets and also its ability to meet employment generation needs for vast numbers of the urban poor. It does so in a way that the formal economy has been unable to satisfy for the past few decades in the countries of the South. Encourage the redesign of national policies towards working children to combine a dual role for non-formal education in informal workshops and thus provide these children and young people with basic learning needs, health and occupational safety, business skills, etc. Plan for a curriculum design in the non-formal sector of education based on a thorough understanding of the distribution of working children in specific sectors of the informal economy, e.g. agriculture, brick-making, metal-working workshops, recycling, leather tanning, etc. Train teachers to be ‘facilitators of learning’, to establish teachers’ credentials and the professionalization of educators in the non-formal vocational sector.
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References Anschutz, J.; Scheinberg, A.; van de Klundert, A. 2006. Addressing the exploitation of children in scavenging: a thematic evaluation. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO/IPEC. Community and Institutional Development. 2003a. Baseline report on socio-economic conditions of brick factory workers in Arab Abou Saed, El Saff District, Giza, Egypt. Cairo: Egyptian Environmental Initiatives/Fund Canadian International Development Agency. <www.cid.com.eg/> Community and Institutional Development. 2003b. Final report on youth against exclusion. Paris: UNESCO. Environmental Management and Technology Fund; Egypt Environmental Initiatives Fund. 2002. Operational manual for clay brick manufacturing in Egypt. Cairo: Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs. International Center for Environment and Development. 2005. Integrating community based waste management. Cairo: ICED. (Report submitted by Community and Institutional Development on the Business Development Component of the Italian Debt for Development Programme.) Iskandar, L. 1994. Mokattam garbage village. Cairo: Community and Institutional Development. Iskandar, L. 2002. Ecological education in the living environment. In: Hautecoeur J.-P., ed. Ecological education in everyday life, Alpha 2000, pp. 21–43. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, and UNESCO Institute for Education in collaboration with the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. Iskandar, L. 2005 (Paper presented at the tenth Sardinia International Landfill Symposium, Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy, 3-7 October 2005.) [Unpublished.] Ministry of Social Affairs; World Bank. 2004. Social Protection Initiatives Program implemented among seven NGOs in Egypt. Cairo: Ministry of Social Affairs.
Chapter II.7
Informal Learning and Work: From Genealogy and Definitions to Contemporary Methods and Findings Peter H. Sawchuk
1 Introduction Informal learning and work is a topic that over the last decade or so has exploded onto the research scene. It is increasingly the subject of myriad large and small-scale empirical efforts, as well as policy and practice across governments and a range of organizations. In this chapter I review the key issues relevant to developing a comprehensive understanding of informal learning and work. To do so, I present a brief history of the origins of the informal learning concept arguing that key principles— namely, the importance of personal experience, flexibility, local/indigenous knowledge, control/power and learning recognition—embedded in this genealogy still inform scholarship today. Following this, I review leading models of learning and work (from Livingstone, Eraut and Illeris) endorsing an eclectic range of theoretical points of emphasis which sees formality and informality as a continuum and not dichotomous categories. I take some time to review a major critique of the informal learning concept, before turning to a review of the leading methods of investigating informal learning and work and the key findings they have offered to date. Before getting started, however, it is important to begin with a brief discussion of the concept of work itself.
2 Expanding Concepts of Work Although history shows work has had a range of meanings, today, under capitalism, work is regularly considered to be what people do for a wage; and, thus, as Williams (1983, p. 335) points out, work in this common-sense meaning actually refers to a specific social relationship. However, as David Livingstone and members of the Centre for the Study of Education and Work (CSEW) at the University of Toronto have perhaps most persistently articulated, this common-sense approach is inadequate for fully understanding both the creation of value that human beings add to organizations and society more broadly and it is inadequate for understanding the character of paid work in terms of its full range of features (individual, social and historical). In other words, learning that takes place within and beyond the R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 II.7, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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paid workplace is deeply interwoven and mutually constituting. Livingstone (e.g. 1998, 2005; Livingstone & Sawchuk, 2004) argues that in the same way informal learning has emerged to challenge the hegemony of ‘formalized education’, so too must an expanded notion of work challenge the hegemony of paid employment as constituting work-based learning: The main reason for the change in thinking about ‘work’ is that with the expansion of commodity production and wage labour into more and more service areas of life, it becomes harder to ignore or deny that those still performing similar domestic and community services without pay are doing important work. The increasing participation of married women in paid employment puts pressure on them to do less domestic labour, on their partners to do more and on both of them to recognize and renegotiate divisions of this labour. Declining time for and interest in volunteer work beyond the household has also accentuated the centrality of this sort of labour for sustaining community life (Livingstone, 2005, p. 977).
What researchers like Livingstone (2005), Eichler (2005), Schugurensky and M¨undel (2005) have recently articulated, supported in some ways by ‘social capital’ perspectives of the likes of Putnam (2000) and in particular by the seminal work of Waring (1988), is what many, though not all, of us know: that housework and voluntary work and the myriad, unrecognized informal learning activities that support them are work, albeit unpaid; vital to society on their own, and overlapping with the world of paid work as well. In Canada, for example, Jackson (as cited in Livingstone, 2005) establishes that the monetarized value of housework was between 31% and 46% of the country’s gross domestic product. But this is not simply a question of credit and, in some sense, social justice. I argue that even where we confine ourselves to discussions of paid work, an awareness of all forms of (paid and unpaid) work allows us to see the interconnections, or overlapping and interpenetrating effects that multiple social spheres produce. Before moving on to review further research on informal learning and work in conceptual and then methodological terms, however, it makes some sense to try to understand a bit more about the origins of informal learning.
2.1 Genealogy of Informal Learning and Its Significance for Work Informal learning as a concept applied to paid work has in fact only emerged in the last decade and a half. Nevertheless, this emergence has been a long time coming. It has its roots in both political and intellectual projects. In this section, I will demonstrate that most, though not all, of the themes that orient scholars of informal learning and work today have origins in specific historical periods and contexts. To begin, it is not hard to argue that the history of informal learning is connected to the history of epistemology from Ancient Greece to the early twentieth century. For example, Andersen, Boud and Cohen, (1995) outline in their discussion of Aristotle’s argument for the role of experience over ‘pure thought alone, uncontaminated by the world’; John Locke’s extolling of experience as that which teaches what reason cannot; John Stuart Mill’s positive distinction between formal instruction and self-education; and John Dewey’s faith in the organic connection
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between education and personal experience. Without further detailing their discussions of Maria Montessori, Kurt Hahn and A.S. Neill, we see that the distinction between ‘pure thought’ and education as opposed to learning through experience has a long history. In the contemporary context, according to Colley, Hodkinson and Malcolm (2003), the notion of ‘informal learning’ is largely rooted in the term ‘non-formal education’. Beginning as part of UNESCO’s 1947 report dealing with developing countries, non-formal education was positioned, at that time, as a partial solution to achieving capitalist economic development, liberal democratic order, a modern State and rising standards of living. They point out that non-formal education was seen as an alternative to the massive State formal schooling infrastructures of advanced capitalist countries. Moreover, it was thought to be flexible and responsive to the population, integrating local/indigenous forms of knowledge. Colley et al. (2003) go on to address further developments past the immediate post-Second World War period, including the work of the famous literacy educator Paulo Freire (1973) in South America (i.e. the slums of S˜ao Paulo). His work articulated the direction of a whole movement of popular adult education that was highly politicized, aware of power relations, sided with the poor, underprivileged masses, and linked to the distinction between formal ‘banking’ education models and less formalized learning vis-`a-vis ‘conscientization’. At about the same time, parallel concerns arose in scholarship as diverse as Illich’s De-schooling society (1971) and Tools for conviviality (1973) and Allen Tough’s seminal studies of ‘self-directed learning’(1967, 1971). In both cases, the issue of control is highlighted (though political elements were obviously dealt with quite differently). These politicized elements of the historical origins of informal learning were, of course, not without their contradictions. Partially in response to these earlier periods, there emerged in a number of countries around the world an interest in recognizing the full range of formal and non-formal education that people undertook. Notably, paid work became ratified as an important element of the conversation. This is expressed, for example, in the British context through the National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) system in 1987. Elements of the non-formal education critique, already partially resident in vocational and apprenticeship programming, had become established at the policy-level of State training systems (cf. Foley, 1995 [Australia]; Bjørn˚avold, 2000 [Europe]). These key periods and elements are not merely interesting points of history. While unevenly articulated in scholarship, all contribute to how we understand informal learning and work today. As the saying goes: ‘we may be through with history, but history isn’t through with us’.
2.2 A Comparison of Models In a series of articles published since the late 1990s, driven by both the need to understand the nature of informal learning in relation to other forms of learning and
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an interest in generating aggregate estimates of levels of activity across the Canadian population, Livingstone eventually offered this set of definitions (e.g. 1998, 1999, 2005): When a teacher has the authority to determine that people designated as requiring knowledge effectively learn a curriculum taken from a pre-established body of knowledge, the form of learning is formal education, whether in the form of age-graded and bureaucratic modern school systems or elders initiating youths into traditional bodies of knowledge. When learners opt to acquire further knowledge or skill by studying voluntarily with a teacher who assists their self-determined interests by using an organized curriculum, as is the case in many adult education courses and workshops, the form of learning is non-formal education or further education. When teachers or mentors take responsibility for instructing others without sustained reference to an intentionally-organized body of knowledge in more incidental and spontaneous learning situations, such as guiding them in acquiring job skills or in community development activities, the form of learning is informal education or informal training. Finally, all other forms of intentional or tacit learning in which we engage either individually or collectively without direct reliance on a teacher or an externally-organized curriculum can be termed self-directed or collective informal learning. In the most expansive conceptions of human learning, self-directed learning may be seen as coterminous with life experience itself (Livingstone, 2005, pp. 980–981).
He summarizes this definitional system in a figure, reproduced here as Table 1. Table 1 Livingstone’s agency and knowledge structure dimensions of learning model (from Livingstone, 2005, p. 981) Primary agency Learner(s)
Teacher(s)
Knowledge
Pre-established
Non-formal education Further education
Formal schooling Elders’ teachings
Structure
Situational
Self-directed learning Collective untaught learning
Informal education Informal training
The Livingstone model emphasizes issues of agency or control against the mediation of learning (in all forms) by knowledge/skill artefacts (e.g. curriculum, lessons, tricks-of-the trade, etc.) that are primarily established either in the situation of learning itself or imported from elsewhere. Informal learning and informal education are largely defined, in this model, in terms of the character of the knowledge form or structure as ‘situational’ (as opposed to ‘pre-established’). He includes amongst these both taught and untaught learning carried out either in self- or collectivelydirected ways or with the guidance of an expert other (e.g. mentor, teacher, coach, etc.). This model, while useful for introducing us to the concept of informal learning, is but one of many competing models. Indeed, like all available models it has generated criticism (e.g. Colley et al., 2003). Here I contrast it with the model offered by Eraut (2004) (see Table 2). Eraut’s model, like Livingstone’s, provides an overview
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Table 2 Eraut’s typology of informal learning Time of focus
Implicit learning
Reactive learning
Deliberative learning
Past episode(s)
Implicit linkage of past memories with current experience.
Discussion and review of past actions, communications, events, experiences.
Current experience
A selection from experience enters episodic memory
Future behaviour
Unconscious expectations
Brief, nearspontaneous reflection on past episodes, events, incidents, experiences. Noting facts, ideas, opinions, impressions; asking questions; observing effects of actions. Recognition of possible future learning opportunities
Engagement in decision-making, problem-solving, planned informal learning Planning learning opportunities; rehearsing for future events.
Source: Eraut, 2004, p. 250.
of what he terms the formal/informal continuum, but unlike Livingstone it places in the forefront issues of time and levels of cognitive information processing from unconscious and implicit processing to conscious, goal-directed problem-solving. In Eraut’s basic model issues of control figure less prominently, while his assessment of the range of information processing is much more nuanced than Livingstone’s. Eraut’s model, modified from his earlier work (2000), demonstrates the many dimensions of informal learning involving different functions of memory, reflection, discussion, engagement and planning. On an individual basis, the model offers a coherent orientation to the full range of cognitive (conscious and unconscious) responses embedded within the informal learning process. The Livingstone and Eraut models both contrast with another approach in the field. Illeris & Associates (2004) offer a model directed specifically at the range of learning that takes place in, through, or in some other way related to the paid work process. Their collective approach is summarized in Figure 1 (reproduced from Illeris & Associates, 2004, p. 31; drawn from the work of Jørgensen & Warring). Neither as direct in addressing issues of control, nor as explicit in addressing the different types of cognitive information processing, the Illeris and Associates model is however particularly strong in its emphasis of broad mediating factors that shape all learning. Specifically, the model suggests that learning at work is mediated by three key classes of factors (technical-organizational, social-cultural and individual) that are always in tension and mutually acting on one another. Technicalorganizational learning environment factors include the division of labour, autonomy and application of qualifications, and the organization of opportunity for communication/interaction. In the Illeris model, social-cultural learning environment factors refer to such items as communities of interest/practice, workplace culture, political dimensions of work and labour relations, and so on. Finally, individual employee learning potential expresses both cognitive and socio-emotional
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INDIVIDUAL LEARNING POTENTIALS
COGNITION
PSYCHODYNAMISM
WORK IDENTITY
THE TECHNICALORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT Social Level
WORK PRACTICE
THE SOCIALCULTURAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
WORK
Fig. 1 Learning in working life Source: Illeris & Associates, 2004, p. 67.
(psycho-dynamic) dimensions as they relate to individual skills/knowledge, individual education/training, motivation and life-history, factors that integrate learning across paid work and other social spheres. The triangular connections between points as well as the arrows emphasize how these factors mediate one another. Taken together, these models offer distinctive examples of the three basic orientations that make up the scholarly work on informal learning and work today. Indeed, again when taken together, these models demonstrate remarkable continuity with the basic genealogy of informal learning we began with in the previous section:
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Direct engagement in the world rather than internal thought alone as represented in Aristotelian thought; Each model demonstrates how the learning it describes is flexible and inclusive of diverse knowledge forms in relation to the original UNESCO imperatives; Learning is political—it has to do with control which expresses the spirit of the critiques of the likes of Freire and Illich; And, finally, each model attempts to establish the value of, and thus the motivation for, building more clearly articulated assessments of informal learning as represented by the more recent policy initiatives to recognize prior learning.
Informal learning at work is the product of the interaction of all of these factors over time producing skills, knowledgeability and expertise leading to accommodation, co-operation as well as intransigence, resistance and revolt. Across the three models it is important to heed the clarification that Colley et al. (2003, p. i) have made in their seminal effort at comparative integration: Learning is often thought of as ‘formal’, ‘informal’ or ‘non-formal’. This report suggests that these are not discrete categories, and to think that they are is to misunderstand the
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nature of learning. It is more accurate to conceive ‘formality’ and ‘informality’ as attributes present in all circumstances of learning.
2.3 The Challenge to Notions of ‘Informal Learning at Work’ I will return to the situated/socio-cultural approach to learning again in the following section, but here I wish to emphasize its role in a powerful critique of informal learning that has emerged from one of the leading voices in work and learning analysis today, Stephen Billett. Situated/socio-cultural approaches to learning, broadly speaking characterized by the works of Scribner (1985), Lave and Wenger (1991), Engestr¨om & Middleton (1998), Wenger (1998), are summarized in many ways by the work of Billett (e.g. 1995, 2002; Billett & Somerville, 2004). In particular, his work in Billett (2002) lays out the most direct confrontation of the informal learning at work question where he rejects the adequacy of the concept altogether. He shares with Eraut (2004) and Colley et al. (2003) a resistance to seeing informal and formal learning as categories. Billett, however, goes further to argue that describing learning through work as being informal is ‘negative [i.e. it indicates what it is not rather than what it is], inaccurate and ill-focused’ (p. 58). All learning, whether it is in a school or a workplace, is participatory and goal-directed; to arbitrarily establish boundaries of informality/formality expresses what he terms ‘situational determinism’. Importantly, drawing on, amongst others, the work of Lave (1990), Billett goes on to say that ‘although not intentionally stated in a syllabus, the pathways of activities in workplaces are often inherently pedagogical, as well as focusing on the continuity of practice through learning’ (Billett, 2002, p. 59). Certainly, there is much that is correct in the Billett (2002) position, particularly as it might apply to those analysts rushing to categorize and measure different species of learning, such as in the international lifelong learning policy community. Likewise, the concept of mediated practice, which is central to Billett’s critique, as I also argue in Sawchuk (2006), does, in fact, help overcome the structure/agency problem. However, this does not necessarily mean the demise of the concept of formality/informality. Clearly, there are different social arrangements within organized instructional and non-taught learning situations (Sawchuk 2003a). Moreover, the origin of knowledge/skill artefacts (i.e. imported from the outside or indigenous to the social group or situation) matter. In addition, we might also note that formal/informal distinctions may be linked to socio-political relations of institutional legitimacy/illegitimacy. That is, in keeping with the knowledge/power thesis of the Livingstone model (see also Livingstone & Sawchuk, 2004), relations of legitimacy/illegitimacy are always a function of communities of interest as ratified through their linkages with (dominant or insurgent) societal institutions. While certainly not all informal learning is illegitimate and linked to insurgent, oppositional communities, just as certainly we know that there is no formal learning that is not legitimated from the perspective of some organized, articulated political project. Thus, as always, power matters, and formality/informality may be a portal into recognizing such relations.
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3 Methods and Key Findings for Studying Informal Learning and Work 3.1 Case Studies, Ethnography and Interview Research Case study, ethnographic and interview research are by far the most prevalent forms of research carried out on informal learning and work. This is to be expected since the term informal learning has not been around very long and, in this context, research will tend to be inductive and exploratory as opposed to deductive and based in hypothesis testing. Colley et al.’s (2003) review of case studies summarizes major findings. In terms of definitions, the authors conclude that the characteristics of formality and informality are present in all learning situations in one way or another and meaningful conceptualization might revolve around the balance of these characteristics rather than the analytic isolation of them. Importantly, emancipatory or oppressive processes or outcomes are not exclusively linked with any type of learning. Likewise, Eraut (2004; Eraut et al., 2000) provides a review of research methods to do with informal learning and work. They remark, similar to Colley et al. (2003), that interview studies are the most common. Eraut notes that interviews on the subject of informal learning and work are not, in fact, particularly easy to conduct. To begin with, interviewees do not regularly recognize their informal learning, the resultant skill/knowledge is ‘either tacit or regarded as part of a person’s general capability rather than something that has been learned’, and that learning discourse is dominated by ‘codified, prepositional knowledge’ (Colley et al., 2003, p. 249). According to Eraut (2004), interview research on informal learning has made use of a variety of organizing ideas including: self-directed learning projects (e.g. Tough, 1971); key lifetime events (e.g. McCall, Lombardo & Morrison, 1988); recent life-changes (Fox, Mazmanian & Putman, 1989); and critical situations that called for new learning (Slotnick, 1999). To these we can add the learning life-history (Livingstone & Sawchuk, 2004) and the biographical approaches (Dominice, 2000; Doray & B´elanger, 2002) which, like the approach in Eraut’s own studies, do not necessarily seek out extraordinary events but rather focus on on-going agency in context. This list is far from exhaustive, but it should be clear that there are those methods that seek to analyse informal learning and work based on breaks in routine (e.g. critical incident) or through the flow of everyday life with or without such breaks. Either way, though the quality of analysis varies, illuminating one typically leads to a better understanding of the other. The political dimensions of interview and ethnography research on informal learning and work is brought out perhaps most coherently in Livingstone & Sawchuk (2004, Chapter 1), where it is added that in the case of interviewing manufacturing and services workers specifically (Eraut’s own studies have focused on professionals), there are a range of political and cultural issues at play. Moreover, in Sawchuk (2003b, pp. 23–25 and Chapter 6), it is demonstrated that the language of learning and education—including informal learning and work specifically—is
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used very differently across social groups. Together, these effects are referred to as a hegemonic/historic block of presumptions (universalism, individualism, pedagogical, cognitive) that, in particular, pervade interviewee’s accounts of their own informal learning at work making it difficult to assess accurately.
3.2 Survey Research Disturbingly, Colley et al. (2003), as well as Eraut (2004) appear to suggest that survey research may not be particularly useful for the study of informal learning at work. At the very least, they each argue that it is premature to measure informal learning before a better understanding of the concept is established. Despite these misgivings, as Livingstone (2005) has noted, there have been a number of attempts to assess informal learning and work using survey methodologies. In reviewing survey methodology from recent studies in Finland, the United Kingdom and Canada, Livingstone notes that most questions of informal learning appear to follow after those addressing initial schooling. Moreover, the surveys he reviewed also tended to dichotomize learning in organized courses and learning done on one’s own. Together, Livingstone argues, these factors may produce a bias toward under-reporting, as respondents are made to pre-framed activity in terms of its formal characteristics. He goes on to criticize many survey studies for producing superficial rather than deep accounts of informal learning. Nevertheless, internationally, we can see from the reviews produced by Livingstone (2005) that there are many important findings that survey research on informal learning and work has yielded, for example:
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though content may differ, there is no significant difference in the incidence of informal learning activity across social groups; there is no strong relationships between the amount of time spent on informal learning and prior educational achievement; though school drop-outs may discourage students, they are not discouraged learners when informal learning is taken into account; a person’s age had little impact on the amount of informal learning that they do.
Livingstone notes that, in the last decade, the most extensive surveying of informal learning has been conducted in Canada. These include the 1998 New Approaches to Lifelong Learning (NALL; n=1,562) and the much larger 2004 Work and Lifelong Learning (WALL; n=9,063) surveys (Livingstone, 1999; and Work and Lifelong Learning, 2005 respectively). A summary of the comparison between the two surveys in WALL (2005) shows job-based, housework-based, volunteer work-based, and general interest informal learning dropped in Canada since 1998 resulting overall in a 4.1 hours per week difference (16 hours per week in 1998 versus 11.9 hours per week in 2004). This difference was linked to rising total paid work hours. Presumably the critique of authors such as Colley et al. (2003) is related to the lack of clarity in the relationship between how people understand and articulate their
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responses (i.e. how they interpret the questions unevenly across the sample) and the actual changes in behaviour, though the comparative dimension (1998 versus 2004) at least partially deals with this source of variance. My point here is that, certainly, findings like this are relevant to the study of informal learning and work. Surveys can set the stage for furthering the cycle of inductive/deductive research on informal learning and work. Clearly, they produce results (e.g. the drop in total hours per week or that hours per week reported tend to be comparable across socioeconomic groups, etc.) that demand explanations, and thus contribute to a broader social scientific knowledge-building process.
3.3 Micro-Analysis Finally, we turn to what I will refer to here as situated micro-analytic approaches to the study of informal learning and work. For this it is important to note that each of the approaches looked at up to this point has tended to presume rather than empirically demonstrate the inner workings—that is, the active process—of informal learning at work. That is, how exactly do we know ‘informal learning at work’ when we see it? Interview researchers rely on interviewee’s accounts of his or her informal learning, and as such the data is an expression of discourse and not the actual informal learning practice itself. Even most ethnographic research employs what ethno-methodologists have called glosses for actual practices of informal learning. As Jackson (2005; see also Suchman & Jordan, 1990; Barab & Kirshner, 2001; Sawchuk, 2003a, 2003b) has pointed out in her discussion of research methods and informal learning at work, there is a very real need to clearly articulate ‘what constitutes the actual’ of informal learning at work. Generally speaking, while situated micro-analytic approaches take these matters seriously, at the same time they have tended to eschew the term learning itself. The traditions from which they originate—including pragmatics, communications, ethno-methodology, conversation analysis, cultural or socio-cultural (i.e. non-experimental) psychology, symbolic interactionism and anthropology—tend to use terms like speech-exchange systems, distributed cognition, participatory accomplishments, and perhaps above all the term social practice. At the conceptual level, clearly these approaches have had influence on scholars of informal learning and work (e.g. Fenwick, 2001; Billett, 2002, etc.), however, rarely has this influence extended to the use of micro-analytic methods. As Engestr¨om & Middleton (1998) and Luff, Hindmarsh and Heath (2000) note, typically fine-grained analysis is done on strips of recorded interaction and talk in natural settings within situated microanalytic research. These settings have included airline cockpits, airport control towers, subway control centres, court-rooms, child development centres, purchasing offices, banks, science labs, and just about any other setting imaginable; wherever, it seems, quality recorded data of actual participatory events can be accessed. Analyses of this type have discovered the local invention and reproduction of mindful practice on the individual and collective levels; how expert practice comes about on an everyday basis. Much of the research is interested in the role of work and
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technological design; how everyday environments actually shape communication and cognition at work; how, for example, the use, misuse and alternative uses of computer artefacts leads to the reproduction as well as change in workplace cultures; how interaction at work is either organized or dis-organized by changing goals and objects of work; and so on.
4 Conclusion I began this chapter by noting the importance of expanding our conception of work. This expansion was in many ways expressed in the three key models of work and learning discussed in which past learning and broader areas of social life necessarily shape practice in the paid workplace. The models exemplified issues of power/control, broad processes of cognitive information processing including socioemotional and unconscious elements, and how informal learning is mediated by technical-organizational and socio-cultural spheres. Indeed, collectively these models express similar features established historically in the emergence of the informal learning concept. Minimally, what we can note is that people come with learning histories, and workplaces are embedded in broader institutional networks that are economic, cultural, political and historical. Finally, we saw that there are a range of different methods and epistemological matters to consider when addressing issues of informal learning and work. Too frequently, the full range of methods and conceptual approaches are foreclosed by individual researchers. Reversing this trend undoubtedly will serve analyses of informal learning and work into the future.
References Andersen, L.; Boud, D.; Cohen, R. 1995. Experience-based learning. In: Foley, G., ed. Understanding adult education and training, 2nd ed., pp. 225–39. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin. Barab, S.; Kirshner, D. 2001. Guest editors’ introduction: rethinking methodology in the learning sciences. The journal of the learning sciences, vol. 10, nos. 1–2, pp. 5–15. Billett, S. 1995. Workplace learning: its potential and limitations. Education and training, vol. 37, no. 5, pp. 20–27. Billett, S. 2002. Critiquing workplace learning discourses: participation and continuity at work. Studies in the education of adults, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 56–67. Billett, S.; Somerville, M. 2004. Transformations at work: identity and learning. Studies in continuing education, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 309–26. Bjørn˚avold, J. 2000. Making learning visible: identification, assessment and recognition of nonformal learning in Europe. Thessaloniki, Greece: CEDEFOP. Colley, H.; Hodkinson, P.; Malcolm, J. 2003. Informality and formality in learning: a report for the Learning and Skills Research Centre. Leeds, UK: University of Leeds. Dominice, P. 2000. Learning from our lives: using educational biographies with adults. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Doray, P.; B´elanger, P. 2002. Changing working conditions, lifelong learning and biography in a new economy. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto, Centre for the Study of Education and Work. (WALL Working paper series.)
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Eichler, M. 2005. The other half (or more) of the story: unpaid housework and care work and lifelong learning. In: Bascia, N. et al., eds. International handbook of educational policy, pp. 1,023–42. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer. Engestr¨om, Y.; Middleton, D. 1998. Communication and cognition at work. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Eraut, M. 2004. Informal learning in the workplace. Studies in continuing education, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 247–73. Eraut, M. et al. 2000. Development of knowledge and skills at work. In: Coffield, F., ed. Differing visions of a learning society, vol. 1, pp. 231–62. Bristol, UK: Policy Press. Fenwick, T. 2001. Socio-cultural perspectives on learning through work. New directions for adult and continuing education, no. 92, winter. (Special issue.) Foley, G., ed. 1995. Understanding adult education and training, 2nd ed. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin. Fox, R.D.; Mazmanian, P.E.; Putman, R.W., eds. 1989. Changing and learning in the lives of physicians. New York, NY: Praeger. Freire, P. 1973. Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: The Seabury Press. Illeris, K. & Associates. 2004. Learning in working life. Fredricksberg, Denmark: Roskilde University Press. Illich, I. 1971. Deschooling society. New York, NY: Harper & Row. Illich, I. 1973. Tools for conviviality. New York, NY: Harper & Row. Jackson, N. 2005. What counts as learning? A case study perspective. Toronto, Canada: Centre for the Study of Education and Work, University of Toronto. (WALL working paper series.) Lave, J. 1990. The culture of acquisition and the practice of understanding. In: Stigler, J.; Shweder, R.; Herdt, G., eds. Cultural psychology, pp. 259–86. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Lave, J.; Wenger, E. 1991. Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Livingstone, D.W. 1998. Education jobs gap. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Livingstone, D.W. 1999. Exploring the icebergs of adult learning: findings of the first Canadian survey of informal learning practices. Canadian journal for the study of adult education, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 49–72. Livingstone, D.W. 2005. Expanding conception of work and learning: research and policy implications. In: Leithwood, K. et al., eds. International handbook of educational policy, pp. 977–96. New York, NY: Kluwer Publishers. Livingstone, D.W.; Sawchuk, P.H. 2004. Hidden knowledge: organized labour in the information age. Toronto, Canada: Garamond Press. Luff, P.; Hindmarsh, J.; Heath, C., eds. 2000. Workplace studies: recovering work practice and informing system design. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. McCall, M.W.; Lombardo, M.M.; Morrison, A.M. 1988. The lessons of experience: how successful executives develop on the job. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books. Putnam, R. 2000. Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of American community. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Sawchuk, P.H. 2003a. Informal learning as a speech-exchange system: implications for knowledge production, power and social transformation. Discourse and society, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 291–307. Sawchuk, P.H. 2003b. Adult learning and technology in working-class life. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Sawchuk, P.H. 2006. Adult learning theories: an inter-disciplinary mapping of analytic power and politics. In: Fenwick, T.; Nesbit, T.; Spencer, B., eds. Learning for life: Canadian readings in adult education. Toronto, Canada: Thompson Educational Press. Schugurensky, D.; M¨undel, K. 2005. Volunteer work and learning: hidden dimensions of labour force training. In: Bascia, N. et al., eds. International handbook of educational policy, pp. 997–1,022. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer. Scribner, S. 1985. Vygostky’s use of history. In: Wertsch, J.V., ed. Culture, communication and cognition: Vygotskian perspectives, pp. 119–45. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
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Slotnick, H.B. 1999. How doctors learn: physicians’ self-directed learning episodes. Academic medicine, vol. 71, no. 1, pp. 28–34. Suchman, L.; Jordan, B. 1990. Interactional troubles in face-to-face survey interviews. Journal of the American Statistical Association, vol. 85, no. 409, pp. 232–41. Tough, A. 1967. Learning without a teacher: a study of tasks and assistance during adult self-teaching projects. Toronto, Canada: OISE Press. Tough, A. 1971. The adult’s learning projects. Toronto, Canada: OISE. Work and Lifelong Learning. 2005. Basic findings of the 2004 Canadian learning and work survey. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto, Centre for the Study of Education and Work. (WALL working paper series.) Waring, M. 1988. If women counted: a new feminist economics. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row. Wenger, E. 1998. Communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Williams, R. 1983. Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, rev. ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
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Chapter II.8
New Learning Spaces in TVET: The Contribution of Social Partnerships Terri Seddon, Kathleen Fennessy and Kathleen Ferguson
1 Introduction In our times of rapid technological, economic and cultural change, new learning spaces are emerging as a significant aspect of international public policy. They include workplaces, small businesses, community settings, private and community training providers, learning networks, and even commercialized units within public education and training. These new learning spaces are distinctive because they are not simply positioned and co-ordinated as an extension of centralized government and established educational providers and institutions (or ‘old’ learning spaces) but are in a definable relationship with the government as a consequence of deregulatory trends and decentralized governance that is apparent on a global scale. While undoubtedly influenced by State policy and resource imperatives, the defined relationship with government means that new learning spaces have some kind of autonomy from the government. They create a space for their participants to consciously negotiate their relationship to centralized policy processes and mainstream education and training provision, and to other agencies and community networks. In this respect, the emergence of new learning spaces is a manifestation of shifting institutionalized relationships between State, market and civil society that, in principle at least, enables communities to work in partnership with the government. This chapter provides a window on new learning spaces in Australia by focusing on the contribution that ‘social partnerships’ make to technical and vocational education and training (TVET). These social partnerships operate as learning networks by linking localized groups with external organizations operating across different scales (global, national, regional, local, city, workplace, family) to form decentralized and potentially powerful networks for tackling localized social and economic issues. They provide distinctive opportunities for active, collaborative learning at the local level and link communities of learners with networks of external educational and employer bodies. In this way, they consolidate an area-based capacity for action and decision that has been harnessed to address issues of social exclusion and deprivation, and community building through improved economic and educational development (Green, 2002; Green, Wolf & Leney, 1999; Geddes, 2005, p. 18; Smyth, Reddel & Jones, 2005). R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 II.8, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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We begin by considering new learning spaces in general and the conditions that have privileged learning and led to the diversification of sites in which learning is supported and recognized. Our argument is that new learning spaces are an effect of deregulatory agendas in education and training, and the specific kinds of new learning spaces reflect the way education and training have been co-opted into the economic and social development agenda. We then focus on social partnerships—a specific type of new learning space. Drawing on our research into the way social partnerships in TVET have been formed and developed in the Australian context, we document different types of social partnerships, how they are framed, formed and maintained, and the kinds of learning that are supported through them. The final section of the chapter comments on the contribution of social partnerships to TVET.
2 Approaching New Learning Spaces Our point of departure in analysing ‘new learning spaces’ is the pattern of centralized education and training that developed throughout the twentieth century in Australia. The broad parameters of this history of education are similar in many countries around the world. In Australia, this institutional design emerged in the late nineteenth century when the previous mix of voluntarist and market-based educational provision was brought within the domain of government through the formation of public education systems. This shift in co-ordination progressively formalized learning in specialist education and training institutions with a dedicated bureaucracy and professionalized workforce. The partnership between State, bureaucracy and professional workforce established an institutional distance between the worlds of education and the worlds of work and family life. All children were compelled by law to attend school and for most children this meant attending local public schools that structured learning in increasingly distinct pathways (sometimes offering particular work-related learning, e.g. professional education, technical education) to work and adult life. This centralized educational design accomplished important learning achievements, but also institutionalized selection and sorting processes in terms of educational outcomes. Post-1945, this structure of learning diversified to accommodate different social groups (e.g. extending technical and university provision, increasing the proportion of the age group in education, attending to cultural diversity). From the mid-1980s, the character of this diversification began to move away from the assumption that centralized public education was the primary principle in educational design. Instead, there was pressure for diversification that recognized learning in sites other than institutionalized education and training (e.g. in workplaces, communities, families), affirmed private educational provision and actively deregulated existing education and training institutions and workforces along business lines through the implementation of corporate managerialism. These trends were partly driven by broad changes in work and society, but also by fiscal pressures
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in an education system that provided for more and more people. These drives were accompanied by policy/public rhetoric that affirmed the importance and benefits of learning sites beyond schools, technical and further education (TAFE) institutes, and universities. These ‘new learning spaces’ were acclaimed as being more flexible, friendly and more able to provide localized solutions to problems of school-to-work transition, work-related learning and adult retraining for work than the centralized public education system with its mix of education and training institutions. These learning spaces appeared ‘new’ in contrast to the ‘old’ learning spaces forged, throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as liberal (and later social) democratic government built a centralized collective capacity to organize and co-ordinate learning across nation-States. In practice, they were mostly places where learning had always occurred but had not been formalized or recognized through the mainstream policies and practices of education and training. In workplaces, community settings, families, churches and popular movements (e.g. political or environmental movements), learning had always been one dimension of the activities. Mostly, this learning was not the primary focus of the setting but occurred in an incidental and embedded way as part of being a worker, or a member of a community, church or family. Sometimes there was explicit instruction, for instance in workplace training or religious education, but this focused learning was generally oriented towards the induction of participants into that community, its place and culture. Such learning did not lead to credentials or structured learning pathways that gave access to particular education and employment opportunities or career mobility but, rather, helped to socialize and consolidate people’s membership and sense of belonging within localized networks and to build social capital. Despite their prior existence and their distinctive contribution to socialization, these new learning spaces have taken on features of a more focused and reified approach to learning. In some cases, existing patterns of embedded learning have been brought within the formalized qualification structure that publicly recognizes and accredits competency. For example, young people working in their family’s business or farm can have their skills acknowledged to obtain a nationally recognized qualification, transferable across Australia, within the Australian Qualification Framework. In other cases, enterprises and community agencies have become formally accredited as providers and have delivered training programmes leading to national TVET qualifications. Sometimes, dedicated groups have arisen to provide specific training programmes in a niche market. Taking advantage of shifts in the regulation and funding of learning, such groups have formed small-scale private or not-for-profit training providers that support particular learning pathways (e.g. offering training in particular industries, providing language instruction to international students, assisting older community members to develop computer skills). Existing education and training institutions have also participated, forming commercial units and being accredited as training organizations, as a way of addressing shortfalls in public funding for public education, or providing particular community services. For example, the Methodist Ladies College, one of Victoria’s most
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prestigious private schools, is a registered training organization (RTO) and offers community education programmes to local residents. Equally, in many state schools the school council or parents and friends committee has argued for community education activities and courses run through the school. The generalization of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the Internet mean that new learning spaces exist, increasingly, not only as tangible places of face-to-face learning but also as technologically mediated spaces where learning occurs via webbased training, discussion forums, web logs and games. Our point is that new learning spaces are a historically-specific development arising as an aspect of wider social, economic and cultural changes. The interactive effects of globalization and the ICT revolution, economic restructuring that drives privatization and deregulation, and economic integration that is liberalizing markets for capital, labour, goods and services provoke their emergence and shape their character. Their significance is disputed as analysts and activists debate the practical implications of globalization and the best way of assessing impact (either using aggregate measures at national or global level or impact on particular groups of people at the local level). These debates become controversial as policy and practice is questioned by sceptics who argue that the concept of globalization is being used ideologically to drive change in ways that support aggressive right-wing capitalism (Held & McGrew, 2003). In education, these contradictory developments have privileged partnership with the government and active choice-making and self-management by individuals and groups. These trends are advocated by global policy agencies, like the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Bank and UNESCO, and by national governments as supporting mature service delivery (OECD, 1994a, 1994b). While market mechanisms were initially emphasized throughout the 1990s, especially since the Asian and other financial crises, resurgent interest in poverty and its conceptualization and measurement have begun to shift the policy focus. Concerns about growing global poverty and the limitations of structural adjustment programmes in developing countries have been complemented by concerns about economic reform and the widening gap between rich and poor in developed countries. This is drawing greater attention to the contribution of education and training in social cohesion (Stegliz, 2002; OECD, 2005). Poverty, it was argued, is not one-dimensional but requires action on: (a) income and basic needs amongst the poor; (b) human development focusing on health, education, longevity and other human capabilities of the poor; (c) social inclusion addressing social dialogue, political participation and a voice amongst the poor; and (d) jobs necessary for growth and sustainable livelihoods. Addressing these integrated agenda means that economic growth must be accompanied by measures addressing social sustainability. And this means recognizing that: (a) both the informal economy and formal economy are significant in production; (b) government governs in relationship with the market and civil society; and (c) that justice depends upon recognition and capability development as well as redistribution (Chen, Vaneck & Carr, 2004, pp. 5–6; Fraser, 1995; Sen, 1999).
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The effect of these policy debates has reshaped, in small ways, the image of the good society that sits behind public policy processes from those established in the heyday of market reform. In TVET, the importance of social as well as economic outcomes is being reaffirmed. The focus on technical and vocational learning, which became narrowly employment-related through the 1980s and 1990s, is being extended to embrace and support community development as a critical policy lever in realizing development goals. This community focus acknowledges the contributions of families, communities, public enterprises and firms to global productivity, as well as the need to mobilize these resources by building local capacity for action and decision-making that addresses economic development, jobs and growth, supports human development, and facilitates social inclusion and participation, particularly amongst those who are ‘at risk’. These discursive shifts have begun to reframe TVET, acknowledging the way learning is integral to sustainable work, life and citizenship.
3 Social Partnerships and TVET Social partnerships can be defined as localized networks that connect some combination of local community groups, education and training providers, industry and government agencies to work on local issues and community-building activities. Within the Australian context, social partnerships in TVET can be broadly categorized into three different types, according to their origins and purpose (Seddon & Billett, 2004; Billett, Clemans & Seddon, 2005). These are:
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Enacted partnerships. These partnerships are initiated by external agencies but their goals are congruent with those of the local community. For example, the Commonwealth-funded Enterprise and Career Foundation (ECEF) was established to promote school-to-work transition by providing schools in the partnership with support and funding. This arrangement developed interdependencies between partners and was thus valued both by local and government participants. In Victoria, Local Learning and Employment Networks (LLEN) were established by the government to facilitate partnership between local community agencies in providing education and training services for young people, especially for youth outside the school system who were disengaged or at risk. Community partnerships. Originating in the community, these partnerships connect with external agencies to secure the support and resources needed for addressing specific local problems. Negotiated partnerships. This type of partnership is longer-standing than either the enacted or community partnership models described above, which have developed relatively recently in response to specific concerns at the local level. Although negotiated partnerships also address local concerns, they are formed between partners with reciprocal goals to secure a service or support from outside the community. This requires effective negotiation of the partners’ differing interests and agendas as the following examples demonstrate.
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Social partnerships in TVET are formed to address local capacity-building. They commonly develop particular learning initiatives to support learning by specific groups of identified beneficiaries. Yet, through the work of building the partnership and designing and negotiating learning initiatives, participants gain new skills and the ability to deal with issues of concern to the community. Social partnerships support learning at two levels: (a) at the level of the partnership, where participation supports an educative process for participants; and (b) at the level of the learning initiative, which also supports learning by beneficiaries to enhance their educational and employment pathways. Where beneficiaries learn as a consequence of designed work-related learning experiences, participant’s learning-through-participation diversifies learning outcomes beyond specific work-related knowledge, skills and dispositions, and potentially enlarges an individual’s capacity for civic engagement and active citizenship.
3.1 Framing Social Partnerships Since the 1980s, decentralization has shaped educational delivery, representing a paradigm shift from centralized and hierarchical authority residing in the government to more horizontal decision-making and localized governance. More recently, governments have adopted whole-of-government approaches that bring different departments together across portfolios within particular geographic areas to address intractable social problems and to promote social and economic development. In Australia, these area-based social partnerships in education are commonly targeted at youth and young adults who are considered ‘at risk’ of becoming marginalized or excluded from social participation because they have not found a place within either formal education or structured training, or gained employment. Early school-to-work programmes were essentially top-down government-funded initiatives that focused on encouraging local communities to assume greater responsibility for shaping vocational training opportunities for young people. Government departments in education and training worked with schools and TAFE providers to develop structured programmes and credentials. These programmes were based on the old democratic welfare-state partnership model, which meant that social welfare provision was the responsibility of bureaucratic government, organized capital and labour. These old forms of partnership emphasized shared institutional goals and ways of thinking. Within the partnership, consensus was assumed and any conflict was resolved by administrative provisions or through recognized industrial relations processes and procedures. Social partnerships, on the other hand, bring together a coalition of stakeholders to provide access to vocational education and training that may or may not be provided by or within organized TVET agencies. These partnerships presume individualism and self-regulation, whereby social obligation is mediated through individual choice, consent and personal accountability. The assumption is that individuals are actors, not passive subjects, and that they have the capacity to make a tangible difference to social life. Social partnerships emphasize local solutions and focus on
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supporting networks through which individuals collaborate to provide opportunities that not only meet immediate local needs but also potentially enable beneficiaries to engage in the wider world. Formed to address local concerns, their longevity is directly related to the achievement of short-term goals and specified outcomes. The shift towards local decision-making means that new social partnerships are pluralist in character and also transient by nature. In this scenario, the government’s role is redefined as a facilitating rather than a controlling agency. The government continues to steer policy and practice less by command and more by creating contexts within which decisions about vocational education and training are made. Instead of being accountable to the sovereign and unifying authority of the State, new social partnerships encompass multiple voices and interests, and are based on a mix of tacit understandings and contractualized agreements, more than formally defined obligations that are lived on a day-to-day basis. This is a decision-making situation that is described as ‘governance’ rather than government (Jessop, 1998; Rhodes, 1996). In these respects, new social partnerships are both more singular and complex than older forms of either voluntary organization or government partnership. They entail a deliberate negotiation of different interests in the construction of partnership capacity for action and decision-making. This partnership formation and maintenance is an achievement realised through distinctive practices of partnership work which achieve shared goals agreed by members of the partnership and also support learning through participation by those who become involved.
3.2 Constructing Partnership Capacity In Victoria, thirty-one LLENs were established between 2001 and 2002 in response to a government inquiry into post-compulsory education (Kirby, 2000). The LLENs were expected to revitalize localized, co-operative approaches to vocational education and training, and to help realize the government’s objective of retaining young people in education or training until they completed Year 12 or its equivalent. Although the LLENs had very different experiences in their early stages of partnership building, they now form an important part of education and training provision. They have strengthened links between education and training providers, increased collaborative planning and delivery, engaged industry and community partners and attracted resources, including funding, to support disengaged or ‘at risk’ youth (Victorian Learning and Employment Skills Commission, 2005, p. 4). The LLEN were initiated by the government and formed according to a central design: they are incorporated bodies separate from the government but reliant upon it for policy direction, support and some funding. The Victorian government defined the boundaries for the geographic distribution of the LLENs across the state and stipulated governance requirements. Having a modest budget, the LLEN depend upon local volunteer support. Rather than actually providing vocational education and training, the LLEN acts as a brokering agency, forming networks and connections between employers, schools, TVET providers and other
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community agencies, to better address the learning needs of young people, particularly for local youth who might not complete secondary schooling. The establishment of LLENs brought a new organization into the prevailing framework of increasingly decentralized educational provision and area-based networks of youth, education, training and employment agencies. It left the LLENs in a somewhat ambiguous situation and existing providers sometimes viewed them suspiciously. To address this positioning and realize their purposes, LLEN organizers had to work hard to build relationships of trust and collaboration amongst local agencies. Inevitably, the insertion of a new social partnership into an existing set of relationships engendered tensions for the individuals involved and between participating agencies, which invariably competed for scarce resources (funding and volunteers) even though they shared a commitment to working with young people. Learning how to navigate conflicting interests and agendas for the good of young people distinguished the LLENs both as new social partnerships and learning spaces in TVET. The process of LLEN development entailed the construction of a capacity for action and decision-making amongst multiple interests. Other social partnerships have different genesis to the LLENs, but the process of building capacity to realise a set of concerns or goals that have to be identified, agreed and met collectively is common to them all. The formation of social partnerships depends upon constructively collaborating with others to secure resources, align needs and accomplish goals. This capacity development encompasses more than organizational development because it must also engage with the overall context within which the partnership and its participants interact and operate. Participants typically describe this process of capacity development as building trust in others as a basis for effective engagement and participation. We have called this process of building relationships of trust to construct capacity for action and decision-making ‘partnership work’. Partnership work is the interactive and collaborative process of working together to identify, negotiate and articulate goals, and to develop processes for realising and reviewing those goals. Effective partnership work embraces and harnesses the contributions of local partners and external agencies, their interactions and transformations in collective work. These processes of working together allow communities to identify and represent their needs and to secure quality partners and partnership arrangements that will enable them to achieve their objectives. They also allow the government and non-governmental agencies to understand and respond to local needs, to utilize local resources and enhance capacity for local governance. Our research on Australian social partnerships has identified five dimensions of partnership work. These are: 1. Cultural-scoping work involving identifying, reviewing and refining the partners’ interests and concerns, and developing a framework for collectively realizing goals, identifying achievements and renewing commitment. 2. Connection-building work, which involves building trust and commitment, encouraging participation, and developing processes that are inclusive and respectful.
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3. Capacity-building work with partners in developing the infrastructure, resources and skills needed to achieve collective goals. 4. Collective work, which involves constructing consistent, transparent and workable procedures for partnership and developing effective communication and leadership. 5. Trust-building work, which means establishing effective processes for engaging and informing partners, and encouraging co-operation and collaboration. As an executive officer at a Victorian LLEN observed, it takes a ‘lot of work’ to build relationships of trust and get ‘everything right’. Constructing a social environment where people feel at ease and able to contribute involves hard, labour-intensive work that makes considerable demands on people’s interpersonal skills, their capacities for cross-cultural communication, and their willingness to engage in emotional labour. In this way, partnership work is never complete. Participants must continue to work at building relationships and realising outcomes if trust is to be maintained between the partners. This ongoing work is commonly sustained for a while but then undercut because resources become scarce, people move on and skills are lost. The formation and maintenance of social partnerships is a significant social achievement, through which volunteers and paid employees construct local capacity for action and decision-making in a governance context. The examples illustrate that this work is rarely straightforward, but it can achieve outcomes and participants commonly report a sense of being energized through their involvement. In practice, the actual capacity developed by social partnerships is inevitably variable. It is limited by the knowledge, skills and experiences of participants, the sustainability of funding and other resources, the endurance and energy of volunteers who often do partnership work in addition to their main job, and the willingness of partners, including the government, to endorse the process of working together. It is also affected by the prevailing ethos of competition that exists between many agencies and the patterns of conscious or unconscious inclusion and exclusion that prevail. Yet, despite these challenges, social partnerships act as one type of new learning space, supporting localized learning initiatives for specified beneficiaries and also providing a context for self-reflective and dialogical learning through participation.
3.3 Learning through Participation By their very nature, social partnerships in TVET are sites for work-related learning that aim to improve the life chances of the partnership’s beneficiaries, whether disengaged youth or adults undertaking vocational education and training. In addition to these explicit educational objectives, social partnerships are also spaces in which participating partners engage in new learning through the interactions and activities inherent in partnership work (Fennessy, Billett & Ovens, 2006). This relational learning is described by participants in terms of:
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developing self-knowledge, self-awareness and self-management; nurturing democratic values: trust, respect for others, civic and personal ethics, intimacy, care, empathy and tolerance; improving interpersonal and social skills: observing, listening, interacting, planning, experimenting, problem-solving, negotiating and appraising; understanding personal/local needs in the context of broader social, political and economic processes and systems; adapting and using social and political procedures/processes for local benefit; and developing resilience: the capacity to remain committed and to adapt to changing circumstances.
While these kinds of learning are important for securing a social partnership’s procedural goals, they are also distinctive. Within and through a partnership’s interconnected contexts, participants construct meaning through their relationships with others. This process of learning through partnership work engages participants in developing attitudes, values and skills that can build social capital and democratic citizenry. The pursuit of shared goals develops reciprocity, which in turn creates a web of networks founded on shared values that can build social trust (Putnam, 2000; Field, 2003). In partnerships, participants learn how to exchange views and tolerate diversity, and to respect sameness and difference in others. This learning process has the potential both to enrich individuals and enhance their collective capacity for civic commitment and action. Like other forms of deliberate civic education, partnership learning can encourage future civic engagement by reinforcing respectful egalitarianism and by shaping skills in co-operation, negotiation and dissent (Gastil, 2004; Martin, 2003). Conversely, if participants fail to build relationships based on trust and mutual respect, democratic behaviours and values may be discouraged rather than fostered. Our research into Australian social partnerships suggests that this relational learning supports learning outcomes that traditional educational institutions do not generally emphasize. By fostering learning about the self and the self in relationship to others, and encouraging learning through active engagement with others, the social partnerships in our studies became transformative learning spaces for participants. Specifically, these new learning spaces seemed to help participants to position in ever-expanding and intersecting networks so they learned ‘how to be’ as much as ‘how to do’ (Bauman, 2002, p. 40). They supported personal and cognitive learning that extended beyond the individual or personal to wider cultural and social levels. Emphasizing contextual and embedded learning, the social partnerships developed enhanced individual competence and agency, and brought about collective learning, which is more complex than the aggregate of individual learning processes (Delanty, 2003, p. 601). This learning increased capacity for action and responsibility, and helped participants develop a perception of self as a social actor shaped by their relations with others. And by enlarging capacity for action and sense of responsibility, relational learning facilitated the individual’s active participation and may
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encourage the collective cultural learnings that underpin citizenry and strengthen civil society. Forming cohesive and inclusive learning spaces, the social partnerships we researched valued collective rather than individual performance (Billett et al., 2005). For many participants they provided a respectful and supportive setting through which people could find a sense of belonging. However, they could also be exclusionary and insular spaces. By valuing ‘we’ so highly, participants established a strong sense of ‘us’, as opposed to ‘them’ outside the partnership’s boundaries or networks. Participants need to consciously develop self-awareness and empathy to nurture the partnership as an inclusive learning space. One participant expressed this as ‘walking the talk’ and displaying ‘profound grace’ towards one another. Another reflected that it took time and patience to foster the mutual respect implicit in being willing to tolerate opposing views. The shared process of learning about relationship shapes social partnerships as collaborative and co-operative learning spaces. Participants described it as an energetic and empowering process of working together and building trust. Learning was neither didactic nor incidental, but instead it was embedded in the process of ‘coming to a common view’. As a citizenship learning process, this builds the individual’s self-esteem, self-respect and autonomy. The collaborative process of working together serves to encourage flexibility, helping participants to become more pragmatic and capable of adapting external policies to local needs. Participants explained that it allowed partners to develop workable solutions and to realise that there was ‘no set way to solve problems’. As a learning domain, social partnerships, like other forms of civic engagement, can endow individuals with affective capacities that enhance readiness for learning, including formal education. By building self-awareness, a sense of belonging and identity, partnership work can empower the individual and strengthen personal agency. By building a sense of community, it can generate collective learning, which may then transfer into a process of social or cultural change.
3.4 Partnerships Contributing to TVET Contemporary policy acknowledges that there has been a shift from top-down government towards multilateral governance. In this context, the government remains the locus of power, only intervening to add value, but policy becomes the domain of chosen experts and those in community consultation (United Kingdom. Cabinet Office, 2000, p. 7). Partnerships are fundamental to this governance context because they are sites where skills and other resources can be shared and where experts can engage with community members. Each partnership constitutes a distinctive, localized nexus in which diverse knowledge flows converge. They are places where knowledge-sharing strategies can generate innovative ideas, shared understandings and agreed solutions to intractable problems. If partnerships vary in their roles, mix of interests and efficacy, their specifically local nature is central to future planning strategies (OECD, 2001).
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It is claimed that localized partnerships benefit industry, governments and communities (Nelson & Zadek, 2000). They create value for industry by enhancing community and client networks, boosting information sharing, publicizing corporate goals and products, and permitting intelligence gathering by firms, especially in relation to recruitment. There are financial benefits because greater cohesion means better productivity, and less time and resources spent on managing disputes. For governments, partnerships present the challenge of moving from a ‘command and control’ state to a more complex, enabling position, which offers greater political legitimacy through consultation. Such ‘joined-up governance’ emphasizes dialogue and sustainable outcomes, and partners become more committed to projects they were instrumental in effecting. For communities, partnerships are seen to endow a sense of ownership by building trust amongst diverse groups and enabling local control. Competency gained through managing local affairs assists communities and individuals to interact with corporations and government with greater personal ownership and collective capacity. Local groups become active agents capable of exerting their influence over the political actors working alongside them. In this way, partnerships are seen to support the kind of personal development and skills acquisition that build civic processes (Kosky, 2002). The extent to which social partnerships actually realize these policy claims is disputed. One set of concerns relates to the complexities of partnership work and the difficulties in realizing goals and aspirations. Research shows that the challenge of negotiating shared goals amongst many different partners and building capacity for action and decision-making is compounded by funding and accountability frameworks, and by the expectations of host organizations. Cultural difference, patterns of tacit knowledge, disputes about professional expertise, factionalism and protective self-interest can undermine effective partner relations. Inexperience in governance, lack of constructive feedback and no effective policy-making structures can reduce the capacity of partnerships to operate successfully and achieve their goals (Seddon & Billett, 2004, p. 20; Clegg & McNulty, 2002; Jones & Bird, 2000; Rees, 1997). Some critics argue that area-based initiatives such as social partnerships have never worked in a consistently effective and sustainable way (Power, Rees & Taylor, 2005). They are intrinsically problematic because they tend to work in opportunistic and pragmatic ways, and are vulnerable to the effects of short-term funding and participant burnout. Other commentators maintain that social partnerships, as well as addressing some kinds of social inclusion, create social exclusion. For example, by targeting individuals to reduce exclusion in areas of high unemployment and low literacy, particular groups may be stigmatized and a culture that depends upon those most in need being obliged to demonstrate their deserving status may be fostered. Policy intervention can then become a means of disempowering the local community (Gibson & Cameron, 2001, p. 12; Peel, 2003). The parameters of funding schemes can also accentuate exclusion. For instance, a partnership required to report particular performance targets may optimize success by enrolling learners who do not have severe social or learning disabilities. In any case, a partnership’s capacity to orchestrate or provide services is inherently constrained, which inevitably means that potential beneficiaries or potential partners may not be included. While
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partnerships create a sense of agency among participants, actual empowerment only happens when people feel able to change their lives. For some critics, social partnerships are mostly associated with reduced state responsibilities, shedding influence and activity to local interests, rather than with the emergence of new local governance structures. It is argued that, as instruments of neo-liberal governance that promote self-governing, responsible neo-liberal subjects, social partnerships are used by the state to manage the disruption and social breakdown accompanying deregulation, privatization and the erosion of the welfare state (Geddes, 2005; Whitty & Power, 1997; Lawn, 2001; Robertson & Dale, 2002).
4 Conclusion Our own sense is that social partnerships are inherently contradictory new learning spaces. They are clearly deregulatory in their effects because they do provide means of organizing learning activities beyond established institutions of education and training. They undercut the traditional universalistic ethos of public education by enabling particular learning support for targeted groups. Yet, our research shows that they can also form productive relationships with local schools, TAFE institutes and universities, bringing agencies together to support skill formation and other personal, relational and civic learning amongst particular groups of young people and adults, and in ways that enhance the range of provision to accommodate multicultural diversity. The linking up of different agencies can be particularly productive, leading to shared understandings of the commitments and constraints in agencies, which can enable resource sharing and innovative problem-solving. Partnerships are, by their nature, highly localized and reach into local community networks, feeding information flows, supporting consultative processes and legitimizing policy initiatives and local implementation. These features benefit industry, government and the community, and can enhance community capacity-building. Yet, partnerships are also a policy device that can be used by government to show that something is being done. They are a means of addressing local concerns and advancing social as well as economic outcomes, but they are also a cheap and smallscale option. While promising forms of associational democracy, they tend to privilege some voices over others. They are not always able to address the construction of an appropriately horizontal communication and policy structure to support local governance. Ultimately, social partnerships do construct and consolidate social exclusion as well as social inclusion. This is true of every policy instrument. Even the ostensibly universalistic public education systems have served some more than others— confirming disadvantage as well as addressing it. Social partnerships do seem to encourage individuals to become deeply committed to a group and its cause while the partnership functions. At its best, the affective, relational learning that individuals experience develops understanding of self and other, and fosters a sense of belonging and community. At its worst, this sense of belonging may endorse
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exclusionary attitudes and behaviours, if partnership work is not guided by democratic procedures, if participants lack respect for difference, and if trust is absent or remains undeveloped. This tension between inclusion and exclusion is problematic for participants, but learning how ‘to be’ in a network of relationships and within shifting boundaries is an inherent part of partnership learning. As an educative process, partnership work has the potential to enlarge the individual’s sense of self as a member, as a citizen, and increase their capacity for civic engagement and active citizenship. Relational learning developed through participation in partnerships is transferable to other group-learning contexts. It is a fundamental asset for the transitory volunteer workforce that many social partnerships rely upon. It is this kind of learning, rather than the procedural or declarative learning associated with the designated outcome of a partnership arrangement in vocational education and training that distinguishes social partnerships as distinctive new learning spaces. They offer a particular kind of pragmatic, experiential relational learning that challenges and reformulates the specific, situated learning goals of traditional learning spaces. In this way, social partnerships make a distinctive contribution to TVET, extending beyond the kind of skill formation that characterizes traditional vocational learning to embrace lifelong development as citizen actors. Acknowledgments This chapter draws upon material and ideas developed within a larger research team, which also includes Stephen Billett, Allie Clemans and Carolyn Ovens. We also thank the Australian Research Council, the National VET Research and Evaluation Program, and the Department of Education and Training Victoria for their support in funding the projects that inform this chapter.
References Bauman, Z. 2002. Society under siege. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Billett, S.; Clemans, A.; Seddon, T. 2005. Forming, developing and sustaining social partnerships. Adelaide, Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. [Unpublished report.] Chen, M.A.; Vaneck, J.; Carr, M. 2004. Mainstreaming informal employment and gender in poverty reduction. London: Commonwealth Secretariat and International Development Research Centre. Clegg, S.; McNulty, K. 2002. Partnership working in delivering social inclusion: organisational and gender dynamics. Journal of education policy, vol. 17, pp. 603–07. Delanty, G. 2003. Citizenship as a learning process: disciplinary citizenship versus cultural citizenship. International journal of lifelong education, vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 597–605. Fennessy, S.; Billett, S.; Ovens, C. 2006. Learning in and through social partnerships. Australian journal of adult learning, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 9–27. Field, J. 2003. Civic engagement and lifelong learning: survey findings on social capital and attitudes towards learning. Studies in the education of adults, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 142–56. Fraser, N. 1995. From redistribution to recognition: dilemmas of justice in a post-socialist age. New Left review, no. 212, pp. 68–93. Gastil, J. 2004. Adult civic education through the national issues forums: developing democratic habits and dispositions through public deliberation. Adult education quarterly, vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 308–28.
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Geddes, M. 2005. International perspectives and policy issues. In: Smyth, P.; Reddel, T.; Jones, A., eds. Community and local governance in Australia, pp. 13–34. Sydney, Australia: UNSW Press. Gibson, K.; Cameron, J. 2001. Transforming communities: towards a research agenda. Urban policy and research, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 7–24. Green, A. 2002. The many faces of lifelong learning: recent education policy trends in Europe. Journal of education policy, vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 611–26. Green, A.; Wolf, A.; Leney, T. 1999. Convergence and divergence in European education and training systems. London: University of London Institute of Education. Held, D.; McGrew, A. 2003. The great globalisation debate. In: Held, D.; McGrew, A., eds. The global transformations reader, pp. 1–50. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Jessop, B. 1998. The rise of governance and the risks of failure: the case of economic development. International social science journal, vol. 50, no. 155, pp. 29–45. Jones, K.; Bird, K. 2000. ‘Partnership’ as strategy. British educational research journal, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 491–506. Kirby, P. 2000. Ministerial review of post-compulsory education and training pathways in Victoria. Melbourne, Australia: Department of Education, Employment and Training. Kosky, L. 2002. Knowledge and skills for the innovation economy: a statement by the Minister for Education on the future directions for the Victorian vocational and education training system. Melbourne, Australia: Department of Education and Training. Lawn, M. 2001. Borderless education: imagining a European education space in a time of brands and networks. Discourse, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 173–84. Martin, I. 2003. Adult education, lifelong learning and citizenship: some ifs and buts. International journal of lifelong education, vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 566–79. Nelson, J.; Zadek, S. 2000. Partnership alchemy: new social partnerships in Europe. Copenhagen: The Copenhagen Centre. <www.copenhagencentre.org/> Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 1994a. Apprenticeship: which way forward? Paris: OECD. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 1994b. Vocational training in Germany: modernization and responsiveness. Paris: OECD. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2001. Governance in the 21st Century. Paris: OECD. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2005. Emerging education policy issues in OECD countries: meeting of OECD Education Chief Executives. Paris: OECD. <www.oecd.org/document/10/0,2340,en 2649 33723 35378698 1 1 1 1,00.html> Peel, M. 2003. The lowest rung: voices of Australian poverty. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Power, S.; Rees, G.; Taylor, C. 2005. New Labour and educational disadvantage: the limits of area-based initiatives. London review of education, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 101–16. Putnam, R. 2000. Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of American community. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Rees, G. 1997. Vocational education and training and regional development. Journal of education and work, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 141–49. Rhodes, R.A.W. 1996. The new governance: governing without government. Political studies, vol. 44, pp. 652–67. Robertson, S.; Dale, R. 2002. Local states of emergency: the contradictions of neo-liberal governance in education in New Zealand. British journal of sociology of education, vol. 23, pp. 464–82. Seddon, T.; Billett, S. 2004. Social partnerships in vocational education: building community capacity. Adelaide, Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Sen, A. 1999. Development as freedom. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Smyth, P.; Reddel, T.; Jones, A., eds. 2005. Community and local governance in Australia. Sydney, Australia: UNSW Press.
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Stegliz, G. 2002. Globalisation and its discontents. London: Allen Lane/Penguin. United Kingdom. Cabinet Office. 2000. Wiring it up: Whitehall’s management of cross-cutting policies and services. London: Cabinet Office, Performance and Innovation Unit. Victorian Learning and Employment Skills Commission. 2005. Review of the local learning and employment networks, June 2004. Melbourne, Australia: Department of Education and Training. <www.vlesc.vic.gov.au/vlesc/news publications/ publications.htm> Whitty, G.; Power, S. 1997. Quasi-markets and curriculum control: making sense of recent education reform in England and Wales. Educational administration quarterly, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 219–44.
Chapter II.9
Social and Cultural Aspects of Informal Sector Learning: Meeting the Goals of EFA Madhu Singh
1 Introduction Statistics reveal that in most of the developing world more than 50% of the population is engaged in unorganized work, in household production and service organizations that constitute the so-called informal sector. The informal sector is characterized by micro-enterprises that require small investments, often combine a household with production, and enjoy minimal State regulation because of the high cost of legislation. The establishment of one’s own enterprise represents a viable opportunity for overcoming poverty and providing work to others (Sethuraman, 1976). The ILO World employment report says that the majority of new jobs in developing countries are being created in the informal sector, which employs about 500 million workers (ILO, 1998). A lack of skills for a large section of the labour force, as well as a lack of sufficient job growth in the formal sector of the economy, has resulted in growth for the informal sector. The informal sector is making an enormous contribution to national economies, but remains a weak area for governmental policy. In the field of education, people in the informal sector are characterized by low levels of formal schooling, high drop-out rates from school and lack of access to tertiary education. This is particularly so in the case of women, who make up almost two-thirds of all those employed in this sector. In this chapter, it is argued that if vocational training and education is to cater to the informal sector, then it needs to take into account the traditions and values of the system of vocational learning in working life and be interwoven with basic education. Education for All (EFA) goals are paramount in this respect. But if we are to achieve these goals, the multiplicity of social and cultural contexts in which learning takes place should also be taken into account. Firstly, in this chapter the key characteristics of the informal sector are discussed in the light of various socio-cultural contexts. Secondly, the framework of EFA is suggested as a prerequisite for responding adequately to the needs of learners in the informal sector. Thirdly, the pathways to integrating TVET and EFA are suggested and concrete policy recommendations are drawn. A brief conclusion summarizes the main points.
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2 Informal Sector Learning Vocational training and education of people working in the informal sector have long been neglected. The colonial power’s legacy in the field of technical and vocational education in many developing countries prevented vocational education from reflecting local approaches (Crane, 1965; Watson, 1994). Vocational education failed to support local socio-economic development, especially in the informal sector. Multilateral assistance to vocational and technical education in developing countries has often concentrated on physical facilities for formal technical vocational schools and to the diversification of secondary education through the integration of pre-vocational education in general education (World Bank, 1991). Local cultures have been totally disregarded in the transfer of technologies. Technical assistance has also completely overlooked the problems that have arisen in many developing countries because of massive migration from the countryside to the cities and the growing informal sector. The vocationalization of the rural curriculum has not been made attractive enough to promote a demand for vocational education in rural areas. Rather, it has been used to stabilize traditional agricultural life by providing a ‘second chance’ solution to the problem of students who drop out of school without occupational skills (Grubb, 1985). What is more, the issues of diversification and vocationalization of secondary education have been dealt with in purely economic terms (earning opportunities, better jobs and higher technical fields). Since the mid-1980s there have been some attempts by international institutions, churches, foundations and other sponsors to provide vocational training in order to prepare young people for work in the informal sector (Fluitman, 1989). The discussion on vocational training and education for special target groups from the informal sector has particularly engaged agencies involved in development co-operation, many of whom are now modifying their sector concepts in the light of the expanding informal economy (NORRAG, 1996; Lohmar-Kuhnle, 1992). However, the tendency up to now has been one of promoting State-sponsored vocational education and training for the formal and modern sector and a project-oriented approach for the informal sector. As a result, formal vocational training and education continues to cater to only a very small sector of the economy (Boehm, 1997) and does nothing to meet the learner’s needs for basic education. However, one must not forget that this issue should not be regarded solely as a means of improving the macro-economic climate of a country, but also as an important way of bringing personal enrichment to informal workers in terms of creating awareness about one’s own choices and opportunities. For this reason, integrating basic education and vocational training in a holistic way appears to be crucial. Despite the growing acknowledgement of this fact, the issue of integrating basic education with vocational training has not been given due attention so far. Moreover, overall trends point to the fact that public technical and vocational education institutions have often not had a good record in efficiency and flexibility and are sometimes far removed from local cultural and social—as well as market—realities. One of the major obstacles here is the absence of a linkage between vocational education and the country-specific patterns of basic education. Therefore, placing
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particular training programmes within a broader framework of basic education provided through informal learning (e.g. literacy classes at the work place) should be seen as one of the ways to overcome this obstacle. To sum up, it is necessary to learn from the informal sector, especially as we are living in a time of major changes in the context of a more competitive global economy. The resulting concerns are not simply ones of employment but also of attaining secure livelihoods and the right to work for all (Lawrence, 1998). There is a whole sector of people outside the formal labour market who neither have access to regular jobs at present, nor the promise of permanent jobs in the future, nor are finding other solutions to the problem of work. Their learning needs too must be given due consideration. But that should be done while keeping in mind the variety of socio-cultural contexts in which learning takes place so as to reach every learner. The next section looks at the patterns of socio-political and cultural differences that exist in the informal sector and how they affect the basic educational needs of learners.
3 Social and Cultural Contexts and Basic Learning Needs The basic learning needs of people in the informal sector are influenced by the actual socio-economic and political conditions operating in the informal economy. The informal sector is highly heterogeneous, including production units providing different services in a wide range of economic activities. Typically, three categories are distinguished in the informal sector (ILO, 1998, p. 167): (a) the small or microenterprise sector is the strongest and most dynamic sub-sector; (b) the householdbased sub-sector, where most of the activities are carried out by family members; and (c) the service sector, which comprises domestic helpers, street-vendors, etc. Basic learning needs of individuals and communities differ according to their perceptions of these needs. Often the very poor and illiterate communities involved in the informal economy are excluded from information and knowledge since their learning needs are assumed to be limited in scope. Participants in the informal sector in developing countries are very likely to be poor and have low literacy rates and skill levels. While young people and adults at the ‘upper end’ of the informal sector may have some degree of education (a minimum of primary or secondary education), those in the ‘lower end’ are often illiterate. In the Asian and Arab contexts, the majority of young people and adults acquire the essential skills for performing an informal sector activity outside the school system. This generalization cannot be made for the Latin American context, however, since there the system offers more than four years of schooling to more than 50% of the population (C´orvalan, 1997). Existing data indicate that children, youth and adults in the informal sector have unmet basic learning needs. Such needs vary according to age, gender, context and culture. Women need to be singled out as a specific target group in the informal sector, as they are over-represented. In Asia and Africa their share in the informal sector is estimated to be typically 60–80%. This is an underestimation, however, since unpaid family help and home-based workers have been excluded from this
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calculation, and it is in these categories that women make up the largest percentage. In Latin America, self-employment generates nine out of every ten new positions for women, but since they require few qualifications, these positions are also marked by greater instability in employment and a lack of social protection. Silveira and Matosas (2005) found that in Latin America 49.7% of female employment was informal while for men the figure was 43.8%. Domestic work accounts for 22% of the new jobs for women generated between 1990 and 1998. Women are under-represented as employers in the micro-enterprise sector. However, the authors also point out that a number of new fields—such as new technological services, phone sales, consultancies, Internet, out-sourced manufacturing, small-machine assembly and many other activities that have to do with the transfer to the productive field of many domestic activities—have been added to the traditional tasks of clothing and textile services, and these generate new educational and training requirements. The informal sector is also the predominant employer of child labour in developing countries. Conservative estimates suggest that 20 to 30 million children work in South Asia alone. Iskandar (2005) points to the existing economic factors that instigate child labour in Egypt: female-headed households are often among the most vulnerable and rely largely on child labour as a source of income. Therefore, the only realistic way for working children to attain literacy and other basic education skills is to receive proper training at the work place. The informal sector also tends to be exposed to a high degree of injury, although there is little or no formal health insurance mechanisms. When layoffs occur in the formal sector in urban areas, the poor, who are most likely to lose their jobs first, go to swell the ranks of the urban poor in the informal sector. The growing number of drop-outs from the school system makes up the pool of cheap labour; they are absorbed in the informal and domestic sectors, where the terms and conditions of work are extremely limited. By their very nature, informal enterprises are especially vulnerable to dynamic changes in the economy, such as changes that result in technological redundancy. Given the absence of formal safety net mechanisms, informal sector households must find ways to reduce vulnerability by tapping into informal group-based networks that have been developed over the years. Overwien (2005) argues that there is a close connection between these social networks and the existence of social movements and learning processes that can support productive potential through cooperative economic activities. He says that the learning processes linked with such social networks have been neglected in earlier investigations. However, in recent studies researchers have begun to trace the links between educational approaches imposed by the government and a practical approach based on people’s need to survive. In general, the literature has tended to view the informal sector in developing countries as a fallback option to gain a livelihood by those who cannot participate in the formal sector. While such a view has some basis, it ignores the growing evidence that certain people prefer to work in the informal sector. First, informal sector jobs can offer flexibility in participation and, second, for many it offers the
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promise of higher returns because in most developing countries certain markets are inadequately serviced by formal enterprises, such as small repair services for all kinds of mechanical and electrical devices—from watches to cars. While it is important to bear in mind this dual picture of the informal sector, the fact remains that overwhelming numbers of the poor are concentrated in this sector. Their work in the informal sector by no means enables them to escape from poverty (Singh, 2005).
4 EFA and the Needs of Learners in the Informal Sector As already been mentioned, vocational education is usually guided by the logic of improving the country’s macro-economic indicators. But it should not be forgotten that very often learners in the informal sector lack not only useful occupational skills but also basic education. Vocational training as such does not deal with learners’ basic educational needs. What is lacking here is a more learner-oriented approach. As many observers have pointed out, today educational planners proceed from the objective needs and not from the potential of the learner. Learning is perceived as one of the ways to make the labour force more useful (cf. Overwien, 2005, p. 45). Therefore, it seems to be highly important, first, to meet the new goals of EFA that emphasize the significance of basic education; this would not only enhance vocational training in the informal sector but also create an additional incentive for further learning and a chance for smoother entrance into the formal system of education. The Jomtien Declaration on Education for All (WCEFA, 1990) introduced the concept of ‘basic learning needs’, which refers to the basic needs of individuals, groups and societies. It identified seven areas of basic learning needs common to children, youth and adults: surviving; developing one’s full capacities; living and working in dignity; participating fully in development; improving the quality of life; making informed decisions; and continuing to learn. The Dakar World Education Forum (2000) alluded to the Delors Commission’s four pillars of learning—learning to be, learning to do, learning to know and learning to live together—and in addition reaffirmed that education should be geared to tapping each person’s talents and potential, as well as developing learners’ personalities, so that they can improve their lives and transform their societies. The UNDP’s notion of basic learning needs is related to human development goals. According to it: ‘The most basic capabilities for human development are to lead long and healthy lives, to be knowledgeable, to have access to the resources needed for a decent standard of living, and to be able to participate in the life of the community’ (UNDP, 2001, p. 9). The Memorandum on Lifelong Education of the Commission of the European Communities states (2002, p. 5): ‘The knowledge, skills and understanding that we learn as children and as young people in the family, at school, during training and at college or university will not last a lifetime.’ It mentions that high-quality basic education for all is an essential foundation, as well as learning-to-learn skills and a positive attitude towards learning. According to CONFINTEA-V, the fifth International Conference on Adult Education (Singh, 1998b, p. 2):
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The objectives of youth and adult education, viewed as a lifelong process, are to develop the autonomy and the sense of responsibility of people and communities, to reinforce the capacity to deal with the transformations taking place in the economy, in culture and in society as a whole, and to promote coexistence, tolerance and the informed and creative participation of citizens in their communities, in short to enable people and communities to take control of their destiny and society in order to face the challenges ahead. It is essential that the approach to adult learning be based on people’s own heritage, culture, values and prior experiences and that the diverse ways in which these approaches are implemented enable and encourage every citizen to be actively involved and to have a voice.
Literacy is a foundation and remains at the heart of both the most basic and the most sophisticated competencies. But the concept and scope of literacy have changed over the past decades. The renewed vision of literacy emphasizes it as a social responsibility and that it is acquired in broader socio-economic interventions: literacy goals include literacy acquisition, development and effective use, and literacy can only be made sustainable by creating literate environments and literate societies. The international community no longer sees these basic learning needs as compartmentalized but as part of the broader aim of learning and the lifelong learning process, where basic learning is embraced as a social and cultural practice shaped by the context of daily life. Education today is seen as having two main objectives: ‘education for living and education for making a living’ (Nathan, 2005, p. 129). That is why the need to integrate vocational education and EFA seems to be indispensable. Vocational training in the informal economies has already been given a considerable amount of attention. This chapter argues that proper attention should be given to individuals and their learning needs. As has been correctly pointed out by many observers (cf. Nathan, 2005), the success of training depends a lot on a broad foundation of basic education. This would also strengthen vocational education as individuals who possess basic educational skills can situate themselves better in the labour market. It has been noticed (cf. Silveira & Matosas, 2005) that any working activity nowadays requires that an individual should be able to determine his/her course of action, to make use of his/her own resources and capabilities and be aware of his/her own limitations. Indubitably, such an individual is unthinkable without having basic educational skills. That is why the purpose nowadays is to marry vocational training in the informal sector with the goals of EFA to tackle the learners’ needs more efficiently and to enable them to engage more fully in the learning process. This should be the rationale behind educational planning in the informal sector. This goal, in turn, needs to cater to the requirements of local development and be based on an understanding of the kinds of competencies people in the informal sector want, need and utilize, the socio-economic and cultural contexts within which they work, and how they cope and what skills, capabilities, attitudes and values are required in order to sustain their livelihood strategies. It is believed here that the concept of EFA is more sensitive to the socio-cultural contexts in which learning takes place as it acknowledges the existing cultural and linguistic diversity, stresses the importance of local knowledge and traditions, and emphasizes education through intercultural dialogue.
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5 Pathways to Reconciling TVET and EFA The aim of the present chapter is to outline the measures needed to integrate vocational training with the EFA goals and then draw some policy recommendations to put the new integrated model in practice. As has been discussed earlier, openness to intercultural dialogue is an important condition for meeting the goals of EFA. It has been noted that EFA, due to its essence, is the concept responsive to a variety of socio-cultural contexts and, thus, has an added value in the pursuit of cultural openness by different governments. Nonetheless, the major finding that needs to be taken into account in the course of policy formulation is the need to remain sensitive to incorporating foreign experience into existing domestic practices. The very philosophical foundations of various educational theories that are being propagated should be questioned in the light of the diverse social and cultural experiences. As Elias and Merriam have poignantly described it: To understand adequately a philosophy of education then, one must analyze it within the context in which it originated and developed. This does not mean that the particular theory cannot be adapted to other cultural situations with some degree of success. But there are problems with these attempts at application to differing cultural contexts (2005, p. 12).
The research conducted in the area of informal sector learning should be closely associated with the participation of people actually employed in the informal sector so as to have a clearer picture of what their needs are with regard to basic education. People employed in the informal sector represent a very heterogeneous group and their needs for vocational and basic education will certainly vary accordingly. In order to reach every learner we need more elaborated methodologies that would emphasize such techniques as: (a) survey research and in-depth interviews allowing for a thorough investigation of individual preferences; (b) micro-analytical approaches demonstrating what actually constitutes informal sector learning; and (c) action research that aims at the exploration of new forms of learning, such as self-directed learning, key lifetime events, critical situations, etc. Learning from the periphery is another crucial component that needs to be taken into account for the successful integration of vocational training and basic education. The whole variety of local approaches to vocational education and training should be given due attention when implementing the EFA goals. The central design of new educational strategies needs to be augmented with local knowledge, traditions and languages to make basic education more attractive for those employed in the informal sector in order to meet the goals of EFA. Equally important is the development of informal institutions and organizations as they focus attention on people’s empowerment and the active participation of individuals in their communities. The input of informal organizations in informal sector learning will increase awareness about the importance of the social and cultural context as people’s direct participation in those institutions promotes communication and mutual learning. In this way learning becomes a part of the fabric of everyday life closely associated with the social practices exercised in everyday situations.
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Informal institutions and organizations, being community-oriented, well-disposed and participatory, promote and strengthen social partnerships among different stakeholders and orient people in the informal sector towards direct engagement in the design of learning strategies and educational policies so that they may define their basic learning needs and their preferences may be taken into account. Finally, it needs to be recognized at the State level too that a bridge has to be built between formal education and vocational training for skills development. Politicians should realize that there is no successful work performance detached from literacy and basic education skills, and that adequate educational programmes need to be designed having this rationale behind them. Education systems need to be open to the informal sector, so as to release its economic potential and satisfy people’s needs for learning in a broad sense.
6 Conclusion This chapter has discussed key issues concerning informal sector learning and tried to relate them to the institutional, economic, social and cultural influences operating in peripheral economic sectors. These sectors have been neglected by both official and international vocational education and training programmes. It has proposed a vocational educational strategy oriented towards a conception of the individual as a whole, and her or his social and cultural context. It has sought to relate systematic learning, based on prior competencies, to the positions individuals occupy within society’s structures and to institutional and cultural influences. First, the concepts of teaching and learning that have relevance for the informal sector, as well as the social and cultural contexts of vocational learning, were examined. Then, it was argued that meeting the goals of EFA is an important prerequisite for responding adequately to the needs of learners in the informal sector. Based upon these arguments, recommendations for the design of adult vocational training and education systems that would integrate TVET and EFA were proposed. It has been argued that our present notion of vocational education and training institutions preparing human capital is too narrow an approach to training. It concentrates too heavily on individuals in educational institutions and in this sense it ignores the wider social context within which much learning takes place, and puts too much emphasis on vocational training at the expense of basic educational skills. Therefore, integrating EFA and vocational training would be an effective way to achieve the goals that are behind any educational practice: personal development in terms of creating awareness about one’s own choices and opportunities, empowering, and valuing human rights. This, in turn, should contribute to the unveiling of a new, genuine humanism, which is not hegemonic, rhetorical or concentrating on absolute truths, wielded by victors or representatives of some cultures, but oriented toward the recognition of a multiplicity of lived experiences, various forms of knowledge and cognitive justice.
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References Boehm, U. 1997. Diversified system development in vocational training aid: curricular consequences. Education, vol. 55/56. (A biannual collection of recent German contributions to the field of educational research.) Commission of the European Communities. 2000. A memorandum on lifelong education. Brussels: European Union. C´orvalan, O.V. 1997. Introduction: comments for the reader on ‘Education and training for the informal sector’. Education, vol. 55/56. (A biannual collection of recent German contributions to the field of educational research.) Crane, R.I. 1965. Technical training and economic development in India before [the Second] World War. In: Anderson, C.A.; Bowman, M.J., eds. Education and economic development, pp. 142– 66. Chicago, IL: Aldine. Elias, J.; Merriam, S.B. 2005. Philosophical foundations of adult education, 3rd ed. Malabar, FL: Krieger. Fluitman, F., ed. 1989. Training for work in the informal sector. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Grubb, W.N. 1985. The convergence of educational system and the role of vocationalism. Comparative education review, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 526–48. International Labour Organization. 1998. World employment report, 1998–1999: employability in the global economy—how training matters. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Iskandar, L. 2005 The informal sector: non-formal education settings for working children. In: Singh, M., ed. Meeting basic learning needs in the informal sector: integrating education and training for decent work, empowerment and citizenship. Dordrecht, Netherlands: UNESCOUNEVOC/UIE/Springer. Lawrence, J. 1998. Adult education and jobs, or sustainable livelihoods? In: Singh, M., ed. Adult learning and the changing world of work. Hamburg, Germany: UIE. (Report on Theme V of the fifth International Conference on Adult Education, 14–18 July 1997, Berlin.) Lohmar-Kuhnle, C. 1992. Occupation-oriented training and education for target groups from the informal sector. Bonn, Germany: Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation. Nathan, C. 2005. Trade unions and adult learning for women construction workers in the informal sector. In: Singh, M., ed. Meeting basic learning needs in the informal sector: integrating education and training for decent work, empowerment and citizenship. Dordrecht, Netherlands: UNESCO-UNEVOC/UIE/Springer. Northern Policy Research Review and Advisory Network on Education and Training (NORRAG). 1996. Issues and implication from sector papers and discussions on TVET and skills development: researcher and agency perspectives. NORRAG news, no. 20, pp. 35–47. Overwien, B. 2005. Informal learning and the role of social movements. In: Singh, M., ed. Meeting basic learning needs in the informal sector: integrating education and training for decent work, empowerment and citizenship. Dordrecht, Netherlands: UNESCO-UNEVOC/UIE/Springer. Sethuraman, S.V. 1976. Jakarta: urban development and employment. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Silveira, S.; Matosas, A. 2005. Gender and the informal economy in Latin America: new challenges and possible answers for labour training policies. In: Singh, M., ed. Meeting basic learning needs in the informal sector: integrating education and training for decent work, empowerment and citizenship. Dordrecht, Netherlands: UNESCO-UNEVOC/UIE/Springer. Singh, M., ed. 1998b. Adult learning and the changing world of work. Hamburg, Germany: UIE. Singh, M., ed. 2005. Meeting basic learning needs in the informal sector: integrating education and training for decent work, empowerment and citizenship. Dordrecht, Netherlands: UNESCO-UNEVOC/UIE/Springer. United Nations Development Programme. 2001. Human development report 2001. New York, NY: UNDP. Watson, K. 1994. Technical and vocational education in developing countries: western paradigms and comparative methodology. Comparative education, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 85–97.
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World Conference on Education for All (WCEFA). 1990. World Declaration on Education for All. Paris: UNESCO. World Education Forum. 2000. Dakar framework for Action. Paris: UNESCO. World Bank. 1991. Vocational and technical education and training. Washington, DC: The World Bank. (A World Bank policy paper.)
International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: UNESCO-UNEVOC Handbooks and Book series Editor-in-Chief: Dr Rupert Maclean, UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany
Associate Editors: Professor Felix Rauner, TVET Research Group, University of Bremen, Germany Professor Karen Evans, Institute of Education, University of London, United Kingdom
Editorial Advisory Board: Dr David Atchoarena, UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning, Paris, France Dr Andr´as Benedek, Ministry of Employment and Labour, Budapest, Hungary Dr Paul Benteler, Stahlwerke Bremen, Germany Ms Diane Booker, TAFESA, Adelaide, Australia Mr John Budu-Smith, formerly Ministry of Education, Accra, Ghana Professor Michel Carton, NORRAG c/o Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland Dr Chris Chinien, Workforce Development Consulting, Montreal, Canada Dr Claudio De Moura Castro, Faculade Pit´agoras, Belo Horizonte, Brazil Dr Wendy Duncan, Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines Dr Michael Frearson, SQW Consulting, Cambridge, United Kingdom Dr Lavinia Gasperini, Natural Resources Management and Environment Department, Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy Dr Philipp Grollmann, Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BiBB), Bonn, Germany Dr Peter Grootings, European Training Foundation, Turin, Italy Professor W. Norton Grubb, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley, United States of America Dr Dennis R. Herschbach, Faculty of Education Policy and Leadership, University of Maryland, College Park, United States of America Dr Oriol Homs, Centre for European Investigation and Research in the Mediterranean Region, Barcelona, Spain Professor Phillip Hughes, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia Professor Moo-Sub Kang, Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Seoul, Republic of Korea Dr Bonaventure W. Kerre, School of Education, Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya Dr G¨unter Klein, German Aerospace Centre, Bonn, Germany Dr Wilfried Kruse, Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund, Dortmund Technical University, Germany Professor Jon Lauglo, Department of Educational Research, Faculty of Education, University of Oslo, Norway Dr Alexander Leibovich, Institute for Vocational Education and Training Development, Moscow, Russian Federation Professor Robert Lerman, Urban Institute, Washington, United States of America Mr Joshua Mallet, Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, Canada Ms Naing Yee Mar, UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany Professor Munther Wassef Masri, National Centre for Human Resources Development, Amman, Jordan Dr Phillip McKenzie, Australian Council for Educational Research, Melbourne, Australia Dr Theo Raubsaet, Centre for Work, Training and Social Policy, Nijmegen, Netherlands Mr Trevor Riordan, International Labour Organization, Bangkok, Thailand Professor Barry Sheehan, Melbourne University, Australia Dr Madhu Singh, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, Hamburg, Germany Dr Manfred Tessaring, European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, Thessaloniki, Greece Dr Jandhyala Tilak, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi, India Dr Pedro Daniel Weinberg, formerly Inter-American Centre for Knowledge Development in Vocational Training (ILO/CINTERFOR), Montevideo, Uruguay Professor Adrian Ziderman, Bar-llan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
UNESCO-UNEVOC Head of Publications: Alix Wurdak
Rupert Maclean · David Wilson Editors Chris Chinien Associate Editor
International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work Bridging Academic and Vocational Learning
123
Editors Dr Rupert Maclean UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Education Hermann-Ehlers-Str. 10 53113 Bonn Germany [email protected]
Professor David Wilson University of Toronto Canada
Associate Editor Dr Chris Chinien Workforce Development Consulting Montreal Canada
ISBN: 978-1-4020-5280-4
e-ISBN: 978-1-4020-5281-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008930131 c Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com
Contents
List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxix List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xlvii Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Foreword:
TVET for the Sustainability of Human Kind . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lxxiii Rupert Maclean and David N. Wilson Prologue: Skills Development in the Informal Sector of Sub-Saharan Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cxiii Arvil V. Adams VOLUME 1 Part I Overview 1 The Pedagogical Roots of Technical Learning and Thinking . . . . Ron Hansen
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2 A Conceptual Framework for Technical and Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Jay W. Rojewski 3 Towards Achieving TVET for All: The Role of the UNESCOUNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Astrid Hollander and Naing Yee Mar 4 TVET Glossary: Some Key Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Jeanne MacKenzie and Rose-Anne Polvere v
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Part II The Changing Context of Work and Education Section 1 Changing Workplace Requirements: Implication for Education Margarita Pavlova and L. Efison Munjanganja I.1 Overview: Changing Economic Environment and Workplace Requirements: Implications for Re-Engineering TVET for Prosperity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 France Boutin, Chris Chinien, Lars Moratis and Peter van Baalen I.2 The Right to a New Utopia: Adult Learning and the Changing World of Work in an Era of Global Capitalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Budd L. Hall I.3 Decent Work for All: From ILO Initiative to a Global Goal . . . . 111 Peter Poschen I.4 Redefining Gender Roles in the Workforce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Karen F. Zuga I.5 Anticipation of Skill Requirements: European Activities and Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Manfred Tessaring I.6 Redefining the Status of Occupations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Walter R. Heinz I.7 Changing Work, Work Practice: Consequences for Vocational Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Stephen Billett I.8 Traditional and Transitional TVET Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Poonam Agrawal I.9 Partnering to Meet the Needs of a Changing Workplace . . . . . . . 203 LuAnn Hiniker and Robert A. Putnam I.10 Bridging the Learning Divide: A Study into Adult Learning and Peer Mediation in the Workplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 David Johnson Section 2 Education and Training in Informal Economies Madhu Singh
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II.1 Overview: Education and Training in the Informal Sector . . . . . 235 Madhu Singh II.2 Tinkering with the Tinker: Meeting Training Needs in the Informal Sector of Chad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 Joshua A. Muskin II.3 The Traditional Informal Apprenticeship System of West Africa as Preparation for Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 William Ahadzie II.4 Initiatives to Link TVET to Self-Employment in Ghana . . . . . . . 277 Robert Palmer II.5 Criteria for Training Policy in the Informal Sector: Demands and Challenges in Latin America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 Enrique Pieck II.6 Informal Learning at Work: The Case of Working Children in Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 Laila Iskandar II.7 Informal Learning and Work: From Genealogy and Definitions to Contemporary Methods and Findings . . . . . . . . . . 319 Peter H. Sawchuk II.8 New Learning Spaces in TVET: The Contribution of Social Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 Terri Seddon, Kathleen Fennessy and Kathleen Ferguson II.9 Social and Cultural Aspects of Informal Sector Learning: Meeting the Goals of EFA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349 Madhu Singh VOLUME 2
Part III
Education for the World of Work: National and Regional Perspectives
Section 3 Reforming National Systems of Vocational Education and Training David Atchoarena and Peter Grootings
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III.1 Overview: Changing National VET Systems through Reforms . 365 David Atchoarena and Peter Grootings III.2 Latin America’s Efforts in the Vocational Training of Young People from Poor Backgrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379 Claudia Jacinto III.3 Accountability and Career Technical Education (CTE) Policy: A Brief Review of Six States of the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 Joshua D. Hawley and Alexandra de Montrichard III.4 The Regional Perspective of Vocational Education and Training 411 Mike Coles and Tom Leney III.5 Vocational Education, Training Reform and Regional Integration in the Middle East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 Munther Wassef Masri III.6 The Influence of Qualifications Frameworks on the Infrastructure of VET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 Mike Coles and Patrick Werquin III.7 Reforming Skills Development, Transforming the Nation: South African Vocational Education and Training Reforms, 1994–2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453 Simon McGrath III.8 Reform of Vocational Education in the Russian Federation . . . . 469 Olga Oleynikova and Anna Muravyeva III.9 Vocational Education in the Netherlands: In Search of a New Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483 Jan Geurts and Frans Meijers III.10 Facilitating Policy-Learning: Active Learning and the Reform of Education Systems in Transition Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499 Peter Grootings
Section 4
National Initiatives for Reengineering Education for the New Economy Joshua D. Hawley
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IV.1 Overview: Regional Reviews of TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515 Joshua D. Hawley IV.2 To Vocationalize or Not to Vocationalize? Perspectives on Current Trends and Issues on TVET in Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531 Moses O. Oketch IV.3 TVET in the Asian Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects . . . 547 P.P.G. Lionel Siriwardene and Muhammad Ashraf Qureshi IV.4 Transforming TVET Systems with the CPSC in the Asia and Pacific Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565 Man-Gon Park IV.5 European Action Programmes for Lifelong Learning . . . . . . . . . 583 Johanna Lasonen IV.6 VET in the Baltic States: Analysis of Commonalities and Differences of Reforms in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania . . . . . . 597 Frank B¨unning and Berit Graubner IV.7 Education and Training Needs of Rural Communities: A Situational Analysis of Selected Villages in Fourteen Provinces of Fiji . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609 Paula Cavu, Isimeli W. Tagicakiverata, Seveci Naisilisili and Viliame Rabici IV.8 Social Partnership in Vocational Education and Training in Lithuania: Challenges and Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619 Lina Kaminskien˙e IV.9 Integrating Education and Work: The Status of Vocational Education in Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637 Luc´ılia Regina Machado and Carlos Roberto Jamil Cury IV.10 China’s Higher Technical and Vocational Education: Development and Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649 Jing Mi and Aihua Wu IV.11 The Adoption and Adaptation of the Work-Team Concept in Urban Thai Workplaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659 Chitrlada Burapharat
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IV.12 Globalization of the Labour Culture in the Republic of Korea: What ‘Tripartite Relations’ Mean for Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673 Phoebe Moore IV.13 Involvement of Labour-Market Partners in TVET in the Russian Federation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689 Olga Oleynikova IV.14 Strengthening TVET to Achieve Lifelong Learning for All: Historical Snapshots and Recent Initiatives in Myanmar . . . . . . 703 Naing Yee Mar IV.15 Technical and Vocational Education and Training and Rural Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721 Lavinia Gasperini IV.16 An International TVET Programme Development by the International Baccalaureate Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735 Monique Conn IV.17 A Profile of TVET in the Asia and Pacific Region: A Survey of Progress, Innovations and Promising Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749 Chris Chinien, Elspeth McOmish, Mohan Perera and Alex Chinien
Section 5
Learning for Employment and Citizenship in Post-conflict Countries David Johnson and Lyle Kane
V.1 Overview: Vocational Education, Social Participation and Livelihoods in Post-Conflict Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767 David Johnson and Lyle Kane V.2 From Assessment to Planning: Hope for TVET in Uganda . . . . . 775 Bilal Barakat, Lyle Kane and Alex Inglis V.3 Linking TVET to Economic Opportunities in Post-Conflict Liberia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787 Lyle Kane V.4 Deepening the Divide: The Differential Impact of Protracted Conflict on TVET Versus Academic Education in Palestine . . . . 799 Bilal Barakat
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V.5 Co-ordinated Programming for Skills Development and Livelihoods in Post-Conflict Societies: What Promise Does TVET Hold for Southern Sudan? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813 Zuki Karpinska V.6 Vocational Training in Post-War Sierra Leone and Liberia . . . . 827 Andrew Benson Greene Jr. V.7 TVET and Community Re-Integration: Exploring the Connections in Sierra Leone’s DDR Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835 Julia Paulson V.8 TVET, Women and Conflict: Palestinians in the Lebanese Civil War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 849 Rachel Yarrow VOLUME 3 Part IV The Management of TVET Systems
Section 6 Policy and Management of TVET Systems Rupert Maclean and Chris Chinien VI.1 Overview: Navigating the Policy Landscape: Education, Training and Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869 Dennis R. Herschbach VI.2 Research for TVET Policy Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 891 Jon Lauglo VI.3 The Reform and Governance of Public TVET Institutions: Comparative Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905 Keith Holmes VI.4 National Versus Regional Policy Dimensions of TVET . . . . . . . . 921 Peter Noonan VI.5 Planning for Education and Work: Alternatives and Issues . . . . 939 Dennis R. Herschbach VI.6 South African Technikons and Policy Contestation over Academic Drift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 961 Andre Kraak
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VI.7 New Policy Actions and Government Roles: China’s Reconstruction of TVET Systems Since the 1980s . . . . . . . . . . . . 977 Deyu Sun, Jingwen Lu and Jun Li VI.8 Some Generic Issues in TVET Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989 George Preddey VI.9 An Overview of Contemporary TVET Management Practice . 1003 George Preddey Section 7 The Economics and Financing of TVET David Atchoarena VII.1 Overview: Issues and Options in Financing Technical and Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1029 David Atchoarena VII.2 Education, Skills, Sustainability and Growth: Complex Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1037 Kenneth King VII.3 Financing Mechanisms and Instruments: A Conceptual and Operational Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1051 Richard Walther VII.4 Financing Training Through Payroll Levies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1075 Adrian Ziderman VII.5 Financing Vocational Education and Training in South Africa 1091 Martin Gustafsson and Pundy Pillay VII.6 Voucher-Financed Training for Small Businesses . . . . . . . . . . . . 1107 F´elix Mitnik VII.7 Employers’ Participation in Training Finance: An Example from Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1123 Candido Alberto Gomes VII.8 Funding Lifelong Learning from a Life-Course Perspective . . . 1137 Barry J. Hake VII.9 Economic Perspectives on Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1155 Gerald Burke and Christopher Selby Smith
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Part V Teacher Education for Vocational Education and Training
Section 8 The TVET Profession Stephen Billett VIII.1 Overview: The Technical and Vocational Education and Training Profession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1175 Stephen Billett VIII.2 Professionalization of VET Teachers and Lecturers and Practices in TVET Institutions in an International Perspective 1185 Philip Grollmann VIII.3 Teachers, Instructors and Trainers: An Australian Focus . . . . . 1203 Erica Smith VIII.4 TVET Teacher-Training Requirements in the Russian Federation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1219 Vasiliy P. Kosyrev, Petr F. Kubrushko and Andrei N. Kouznetsov VIII.5 TVET Teachers and Their Professionalization in China: A Problem Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1229 Zhiqun Zhao and Lianwei Lu VIII.6 The Development of Training Modules for Instructors . . . . . . . 1243 Fred Beven VIII.7 Literacy and Learning: Are TVET Professionals Facilitators of Learning or Deliverers of Knowledge and Skills? . . . . . . . . . . 1259 Jean Searle VIII.8 Vocational Education in the Private Sector in Brazil . . . . . . . . . 1271 Elenice Monteiro Leite, Marinilzes Moradillo Mello and Nacim Walter Chieco VIII.9 TVET and Teacher-Training Curricula: A Developed National Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1285 Vasiliy P. Kosyrev, Petr F. Kubrushko and Andrei N. Kouznetsov
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VIII.10 Vocational Qualifications: The Role of Trade Unions as Negotiation Fora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1293 Antˆonio Almerico Biondi Lima and Fernando Augusto Moreira Lopes VIII.11 Vocational Education and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1307 Gaudˆencio Frigotto, Maria Ciavatta and Marise N. Ramos VIII.12 A Technical and Vocational Teacher-Training Curriculum . . . . 1319 Bonaventure W. Kerre VIII.13 Transforming Teachers’ Practice Through Action Learning . . 1333 Stephen Billett VIII.14 Professional Learning and TVET: Challenges and Perspectives for Teachers and Instructors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1351 Christian Harteis VIII.15 Industrial Attachments for Instructors in TVET Delivery . . . . 1367 Sarojni Choy and Sandra Haukka VIII.16 I Hate Left-Handers or Occupational Health and Safety Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1383 Richard Gagnon VIII.17 The Bologna Declaration and Emerging Models of TVET Teacher Training in Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1393 Frank B¨unning and Alison Shilela VIII.18 Standards for Occupation-Directed Professional Development of TVET Personnel in Developing Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1407 Peter Gerds VIII.19 Curriculum Research and Design as a Subject of TVET Teacher Training: Practice and Experiences from Two International Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1423 Joachim Dittrich VOLUME 4
Part VI
Education for Work: Research, Curriculum Development and Delivery
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Section 9 Research and Innovation Felix Rauner IX.1 Overview: TVET Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1443 Felix Rauner IX.2 Methods of TVET Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1461 Felix Rauner IX.3 TVET Research as an Aid to Improved Policy and Performance in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1469 Christopher Selby Smith IX.4 Repositioning the Role of Research in the Innovation of TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1483 Anneke Westerhuis IX.5 TVET Research as a Dimension of Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1495 Klaus Ruth IX.6 Modellversuchsforschung: Pilot Project Research in Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1505 Peter Dehnbostel IX.7 TVET and R&D Evaluation: The Potential for Optimizing TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1521 Ludger Deitmer and Lars Heinemann IX.8 TVET Research Organizations and Scientific Communities: Challenges to the Institutionalization of TVET Research . . . . . 1535 Wolfgang Wittig, Uwe Lauterbach and Philip Grollmann IX.9 Qualifications Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1553 Felix Rauner IX.10 Measuring Educational Quality in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1563 Robert D. Renaud Section 10 Curriculum Development and Delivery Felix Rauner X.1 Overview: TVET Curriculum Development and Delivery . . . . 1579 Felix Rauner
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X.2 The Mutual Shaping of Work, Vocational Competence and Work-Process Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1593 Nicholas Boreham and Martin Fischer X.3 Situated Learning and Cognitive Apprenticeship . . . . . . . . . . . . 1611 Michael Gessler X.4 Curriculum Approaches and Participative Curriculum Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1627 Georg Sp¨ottl X.5 The Deskilling and Upskilling Debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1639 Ulrich Heisig X.6 The Pedagogy of Apprenticeship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1653 Uwe Lauterbach X.7 Approaches to Designing TVET Curricula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1669 Richard Huisinga X.8 Collaborative Work-Related Learning and TechnologyEnhanced Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1687 Alan Brown, Jenny Bimrose and Sally-Anne Barnes X.9 Action-Based TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1699 Hans-Dieter H¨opfner X.10 Vocational Learning: Contributions of Workplaces and Educational Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1711 Stephen Billett X.11 Work-Based Learning: An English Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1725 James Avis X.12 Language Mastery Development within TVET for Professional Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1739 Andrei N. Kouznetsov X.13 Why do German Companies Invest in Apprenticeship? . . . . . . 1747 Klaus Schaack X.14 Workplace Learning: Metacognitive Strategies for Learning in the Knowledge Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1763 Hugh Munby, Nancy L. Hutchinson and Peter Chin
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X.15 Literacy, Design and Technology: New Contexts for Learning and Skills Development in South Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1777 David Johnson X.16 The Education Gospel and Vocationalism in an International Perspective: The Promises and the Limits of Formal Schooling 1791 W. Norton Grubb and Marvin Lazerson X.17 The Vocationalization of Secondary Education: The Relationships between Vocational and Technology Education . 1805 Margarita Pavlova X.18 Valuing Experience as well as Knowledge in Schools . . . . . . . . . 1823 Ron Hansen Section 11 Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Vocational Education and Training Maja Zarini, Tapio Varis and Naing Yee Mar XI.1 Overview: The Growing Role of ICTs in Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1835 Maja Zarini, David N. Wilson, Naing Yee Mar and Tapio Varis XI.2 The Pedagogical Framework for On-Line Learning . . . . . . . . . . 1847 Shyamal Majumdar XI.3 A Short Method for Building Web-Based Teaching and Learning Systems: the CPSC Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1863 Myong Hee Kim and Man-Gon Park XI.4 ICT Application in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1879 Boris Kotsik, Natalia Tokareva, France Boutin and Chris Chinien XI.5 Technology and Leadership in the Fourth Wave of Environmental Changes with Ubiquitous Technology . . . . . . . . 1895 Man-Gon Park XI.6 Knowledge Workforce Development for ComputerSupported Collaborative Work Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1911 Man-Gon Park and Myong Hee Kim XI.7 The Role of ICTs and TVET in Rural Development and Poverty Alleviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1923 Chiranjib Kumar Basu and Shyamal Majumdar
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XI.8 Switched on: International Approaches to Skills Development through ICTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1935 Maja Zarini XI.9 VOCED: The International Research Database on Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1947 Miriam Saunders and Radhika Naidu XI.10 What are the Limits of ICTs and Media in the Delivery of TVET? An Australian Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1959 Peter Kearns XI.11 Education System Profile: South Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1971 Tracey Wallace XI.12 Integrating TVET with Open and Distance Learning: Taking Skills Training to the Doorstep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1989 Vinay Swarup Mehrotra and Avant Kumar Sacheti XI.13 Distance Education: The State of the Art in Career and Technical Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2003 Christopher J. Zirkle VOLUME 5
Part VII
Learning for Life and Work: Bridging Academic and Vocational Education
Section 12 Participation in Formal Programmes of Learning and Skills Development Rupert Maclean and Hendrik van der Pol XII.1 Overview: Participation in Formal Programmes of Learning and Skills Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2025 Natalia Matveeva and Joachim Lapp XII.2 Access to TVET for All: An Essential Basis for Education for All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2039 Phillip Hughes XII.3 The Challenges of TVET Global Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2053 Manuel Cardoso
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XII.4 Making Global Classifications of Types and Levels of TVET . . 2067 Andy Green, Moses O. Oketch and John Preston XII.5 Trends and Issues in TVET across the Globe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2081 Moses O. Oketch, Andy Green and John Preston XII.6 Statistical Overview of TVET across Educational Levels . . . . . 2095 Manuel Cardoso XII.7 The Ethics of TVET Policy and Practice: Issues of Access and Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2163 Richard G. Bagnall XII.8 Special Needs Education and TVET: The Perspective from the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2177 Michael W. Harvey Section 13 Education for the Changing Demands of Youth Employment Karen Plane XIII.1 Overview: TVET for Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2197 Karen Plane XIII.2 Skills Shortages, Over-Education and Unemployed Youth: An International Dilemma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2211 Kenneth Gray and Sang Hoon Bae XIII.3 New Directions for High-School Career and Technical Education in the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2229 Richard L. Lynch XIII.4 Occupations in Demand/Youth Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2247 Antoaneta Voikova XIII.5 Pathways and Transitions from School to Work: Australian Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2263 Annette Gough XIII.6 School/Workplace Partnerships: A Case Study of Four Vocational Studies Programmes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2279 Marcelle Hardy and Louise M´enard XIII.7 Vocationalized Secondary Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2295 Jon Lauglo
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XIII.8 Vocational Guidance and Career Counselling in the European Union: Origins and Recent Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2313 Frederic J. Company XIII.9 ‘White-Collar’ Work or a ‘Technical’ Career? The Ambitions of Fiji Final-Year School Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2329 Pam Nilan, Paula Cavu, Isimeli W. Tagicakiverata and Emily Hazelman XIII.10 14–16 Year Olds Taking Vocational Courses in English Colleges: A Dumping Ground for the Disengaged or a Real Alternative? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2343 Norman Lucas XIII.11 Reconciling the Competing Policy Platforms in TVET? Promulgating ‘the 6Es Plus Education’ for Youth through Social Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2357 Karen Plane Section 14 The Skills Debate in an Ageing Society Tom Karmel and Rupert Maclean XIV.1 Overview: TVET in an Ageing Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2375 Tom Karmel and Rupert Maclean XIV.2 Policy Framework on the Retraining for Reskilling of Older Workers through Specialized TVET Programmes . . . . . . . . . . . 2385 Theodora Josue Tesoro Gayondato and Myong Hee Kim XIV.3 Reskilling for All? The Changing Role of TVET in the Ageing Societies of Developing Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2401 Margarita Pavlova and Rupert Maclean XIV.4 The Changing Context of TVET for the Workforce in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2417 Jagmohan Singh Rajput XIV.5 The Reform of the TVET System in the Republic of Korea for an Ageing Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2431 Hong-Geun Chang XIV.6 Will We Run Out of Young Men? Implications of the Ageing of the Population for the Trades in Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2445 Tom Karmel and Koon Ong
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XIV.7 The Ageing Labour Force and the Retraining of Workers in the Republic of Korea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2457 Jihee Choi XIV.8 Technical Entrepreneurship Development for the Aged . . . . . . 2469 Man-Gon Park and Suresh Kumar Dhameja XIV.9 The Ageing TVET Workforce in Australia: Issues and Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2487 Hugh Guthrie and Phil Loveder XIV.10 Working and Lifelong Learning among Older Workers (45+) in Japan: Implications for TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2499 Toshio Ohsako VOLUME 6
Part VIII Lifelong Learning for Livelihoods and Citizenship
Section 15 Adult, Continuing and Lifelong Learning Chris Chinien and Madhu Singh XV.1 Overview: Adult Education for the Sustainability of Human Kind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2521 Chris Chinien and Madhu Singh XV.2 The Emergence of ‘Workforce Development’: Definition, Conceptual Boundaries and Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2537 Ronald L. Jacobs and Joshua D. Hawley XV.3 The Challenge for ESD in TVET: Developing Core Sustainable Development Competencies and Collaborative Social Partnerships for Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2553 Chris Chinien, France Boutin and Karen Plane XV.4 Key Competencies: Overall Goals for Competence Development: An International and Interdisciplinary Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2571 Dominique Simone Rychen XV.5 Education and Training in the Context of Poverty Reduction . 2585 Bernd Overwien
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XV.6 Recognition, Validation and Accreditation of Non-Formal and Informal Learning and Experience: Results of an International Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2597 Madhu Singh XV.7 Self-Directed Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2615 Stephen D. Brookfield XV.8 New Learning Strategies and Learning Cultures in Companies 2629 Peter Dehnbostel XV.9 PLAR, Training and Efficient Labour Markets: The Canadian Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2647 Bill Empey and Christine Newton XV.10 Transformative Learning Theory and TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2661 Karen Magro XV.11 The Implications of Cognitive Style to Adult Distance Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2679 Cindy Marie Isaak-Ploegman and Chris Chinien XV.12 Competency, Meaningful Learning and Learning Styles in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2697 Richard Gagnon XV.13 Workplace Essential Skills in Policy and Practice: A Canadian Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2713 Erik de Vries XV.14 Adult Numeracy for Work and Life: Curriculum and Teaching Implications of Recent Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2731 Gail FitzSimons and Diana Coben XV.15 An Innovative System of Vocational Training in the German IT Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2747 Rita Meyer Part IX Assessment of Skills and Competencies Section 16 Recognition, Certification, Accreditation and Quality Assurance in TVET Karina Veal XVI.1 Overview: Competencies, Qualifications and Recognition . . . . 2763 Karina Veal
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XVI.2 The Certification of Competencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2777 Danielle Colardyn XVI.3 Modularization and Modular Delivery of TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . 2793 John Stanwick XVI.4 Diverse Approaches to the Recognition of Competencies . . . . . 2811 Danielle Colardyn XVI.5 How Do We Measure Up? Benchmarking the WorldSkills Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2827 David Hoey XVI.6 Validation of Educational Programmes: Comparing Models and Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2841 Grazia Scoppio XVI.7 Regional Accreditation and Certification of TVET Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2853 Ligaya Valmonte and Man-Gon Park XVI.8 National Qualifications Frameworks: An Analytical Overview 2867 Michael F.D. Young XVI. 9 Developing a National System of Vocational Qualifications . . . 2881 John Hart XVI.10 National Qualifications Frameworks in Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2899 Bonaventure W. Kerre and Astrid Hollander XVI.11 Implementing National Qualifications Frameworks: Problems and Possibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2917 Michael F.D. Young XVI.12 Labour Mobility and Mutual Recognition of Skills and Qualifications: The European Union and Australia/ New Zealand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2935 Chandra Shah and Michael Long XVI.13 Quality Assurance in TVET in Romania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2953 Magdalena Balica Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2971 Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3003
VOLUME 2
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Part III
Education for the World of Work: National and Regional Perspectives
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Section 3 Reforming National Systems of Vocational Education and Training
David Atchoarena UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning, Paris, France Peter Grootings European Training Foundation, Turin, Italy
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Chapter III.1
Overview: Changing National VET Systems through Reforms David Atchoarena and Peter Grootings
1 Introduction The future of technical and vocational education is generating heated debate nearly everywhere in the world. Of course, this concern is not new, but globalization, the collapse of planned economies and the failure of development policies in the fight against poverty have put it back at the centre of national and international policy debates. As a result, vocational education reform constitutes a vibrant area of public policy and research. In many countries the issue is no longer about partial and isolated change measures but rather about changing overall systems. This means not just addressing all the different building blocks of national systems (system-wide), but increasingly even how vocational education and training systems are functioning (system-deep). The role and place of vocational education and training as part of overall lifelong learning systems is on the agenda, even though individual countries are at different stages of readiness to face the challenge. This section gives an overview of some of the key issues and developments in vocational education and training around the world at the start of the twenty-first century. It looks in particular at what exactly drives current attempts to change national systems and makes an attempt to identify some commonalities. The section will pay special attention to more recent approaches and initiatives that countries are using to trigger off system-wide and system-deep reforms, such as the development of national qualifications frameworks, regional co-operation and knowledge-sharing, improving accountability and making better use of research. The section includes also a number of country case studies to illustrate the extent to which the various general and specific drivers operate in particular country contexts. Together, the chapters of this section provide evidence for the fact that everywhere there is not just one specific but a complex constellation of drivers at work that include economic, technological, political but also—and perhaps increasingly— educational ones. The emphasis given to each of these differs from country to country depending on existing institutional and political environments and, of course, also on outcomes of past policies. However, even though there is no easy way to identify what works best, there is still a lot to be learned from other countries. The chapters that follow have been selected within such a policy-learning perspective. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 III.1, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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2 Old, New and Continuing Issues and Their Changing Contexts At the turn of the twenty-first century, some of the old contextual issues that launched vocational education and training policy debates have re-emerged, such as: youth unemployment in developed countries and poverty in developing ones; the low status of vocational education as compared to general and higher education; and the need to adapt curricular programmes to new learning requirements. Some new issues have emerged as well, such as: (a) the need for reform of vocational education in transition countries; (b) the impact of globalization; (c) demographic developments leading in most industrialized countries to a rapidly ageing workforce, (d) in many developing countries, an increasing number of young people seeking access to education and work; and (e) the discourse on developing lifelong learning systems in response to these overall challenges. Indeed, some issues seem to be everlasting, such as: (a) the need for occupational flexibility given changing product markets, technologies and work organizations; (b) the role of the State versus that of the private sector; and (c) the need to secure relevance, efficiency and effectiveness of vocational education and training generally. But old and new policy issues are now arising in completely different policy environments and will therefore also be discussed and treated differently.
3 Short-Term Versus Long-Term Objectives Governments’ interventions in the field of vocational education and training have always been motivated by a mix of short- and long-term motives, with the shortterm issues often becoming dominant simply because they are political priorities. This has happened in many European countries where the fight to combat youth unemployment during the 1970s and 1980s frequently led to series of ad-hoc measures to get young people away from the labour market. Improvements of overall quality, relevance and status of vocational education became difficult because of the dominant concern for reducing school drop-out and providing basic qualifications to low school achievers. These measures have taken place in many countries at the cost of developing a high-quality overall vocational education and training system that would provide in a balanced way qualified people at all levels of ability. Sometimes, the—certainly unintended—effect of many short-term measures has been to further decrease the status of vocational education by signalling that training is really for those who do not succeed in education. Nowadays, in many—impoverished—transition countries, there is a similar tension between short-term attempts to preserve the social welfare function of vocational schools and the long-term one of addressing the reform of their qualification function. A dramatic lack of resources forces countries to make choices—and choices are by necessity focused on issues of immediate concern. As a result, in many cases, public vocational schools find themselves increasingly trapped in a vicious cycle of becoming schools for children of the poor without being able to provide them with the knowledge, skills and competences to prevent or escape from
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poverty. Also here, overall improvement of qualification levels and a balanced provision of qualifications that emerging labour markets are demanding is not properly addressed. Also here, vocational education—already of low status—finds it increasingly difficult to be seen as an attractive alternative for general and academic higher education. Most developing countries are still caught in the middle between a plethora of local, NGO-driven and often unsustainable development initiatives, regularly including training and national education policy reforms advised by international donors. Both regularly lack local ownership and are dependent on resources and capacities offered by donors. The importance given to vocational education and training has changed over time in international donor policies with periods of heavy investments in large public training systems (basically buildings and equipment) followed by market-driven short-term training measures aimed at satisfying the needs of the private sector. None of these approaches has as yet been able to properly address the varied learning needs of people working in different positions in either the formal or informal economies of the countries.
4 Reform Histories Some countries have gone through various waves of vocational education reform since the 1970s when the first period of extensive industrialization came to an end and traditional vocational education and training systems that prepared for highly standardized and—often very simple—occupations sought to adapt to changing economic and employment conditions. Some have been more successful than others. A number of countries, in particular those in which vocational education was well established and respected, both among employers and students, have kept their systems fairly stable and have merely sought to gradually optimize what existed. Yet others have missed out on the need to adapt to modernization needs during the 1970s, such as many developing countries and all of the centrally planned countries of Eastern Europe and the former USSR. Whereas the latter are currently undergoing a difficult process of systemic reforms of their systems, many developing countries have remained highly dependent on educational policies and priorities provided by international donor institutions that had become increasingly anti (public) vocational education and training. In the same period, on the other hand, several countries in South-East Asia have managed to establish effective ways of developing the knowledge, skills and competences of their populations.
5 Common Trends and Developments but No Convergence This great diversity of contexts, objectives and histories makes it complex to assess vocational education policies, but it seems that there are nevertheless some commonalities in current reform thinking. There is an increasing attention to embedding
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vocational education and training in local or regional development, for mobilizing and continuously improving competences and, hence, for improving the quality of learning processes and outcomes. There is also an increased appreciation for the fact that a new balance needs to be found between local development and innovation, on the one hand, and overall national quality assurance frameworks, on the other. In addition, there is a growing concern, motivated by globalization and migration trends, that the reforms of national vocational education and training systems need to be placed in an international perspective. The international dimensions of vocational education and training are becoming more and more important—in a way similar to what has already happened with higher education and, indeed, employment systems and labour markets. Finally, and perhaps only in embryonic forms, there is increasing attention and concern for those for whom education and training is in the end all about: learners, and the teachers and trainers that assist them in developing the knowledge, skills and competences that they need. This new concern is very much based on a better understanding of why so many of the previous attempts to reform vocational education and training systems have not brought the anticipated results. They usually were designed for people and not with them; they also tended to focus on structures and institutions rather than on the people involved. These common strands are present in most of the policy debates and developments in vocational education and training around the globe, though not in the same ways and not to the same extent. They also do not point in any way to convergence of systems and policies. While the challenges become increasingly similar, policy responses remain specific.
6 Back to Core Business? The increased attention to learners and learning approaches mentioned earlier is only one element in the current discourse on vocational education and training reform. However, it is important to note that this return to what can easily be called the ‘core business’ of education and training systems follows earlier reform initiatives that focused on other aspects: (a) their governance (through increased involvement of social partners); (b) administration (through decentralization and increased accountability of education and training institutions); (c) funding (involving the private sector and students and their parents in financing arrangements); (d) assessment (giving more attention to learning outcomes and separating assessment from teaching and learning); (e) quality assurance and transparency (such as through developing national qualification standards and frameworks); (f) mobility, openness and pathways (such as through recognition of prior learning and restructuring of educational sub-systems); and (g) curriculum reform (making curricula more flexible and competence based). A return to the core business of education and training also signifies increased attention for those who are actually learning and helping them to learn. This is remarkable, since the earlier reforms have concentrated on the roles and responsibilities of other actors and stakeholders: social partners, administrators, assessors,
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people working in educational support institutions and professionals outside the schools. In fact, in several countries, earlier reforms were directed at making the outcome of vocational education and training less dependent on teachers and trainers, such as by moving from so-called input-based to outcomes-based standards, by stressing involvement of the private sector, giving greater importance to work-based learning and separating learning from assessment. Currently, there seems to be a reversal of this trend—or at least a remarkable shift in emphasis. Teachers and trainers are increasingly becoming recognized in their dual role of educational professionals and of stakeholders in reforms. They are again seen to be important for organizing learning processes, but the nature of learning processes has changed from being teacher-centred to student-centred. They also become appreciated as stakeholders in reform and without whose contribution nothing would really change in the classroom. One of the major challenges that countries are facing, therefore, is to bring these different stakeholders and focuses of attention together in an overall and coherent reform policy that will enable education and training systems to help people develop the knowledge, skills and competences that are needed to survive and prosper in a globalizing world.
7 From Partial to Overall System Reforms? The issue of developing overall and coherent reform policies has yet another dimension that needs to be examined. The increasing need to pay attention to the quality of learning contents and processes does not mean that this can be simply added on to the list of policy measures undertaken so far. On the contrary, focusing on learners, learning processes and those who should enable and facilitate learning may well require a fundamental rethinking of those aspects of education and training systems that have until now in most countries been given priority. For example, decentralization becomes more than merely giving more administrative autonomy to lower levels in the system. It will also imply improving the capacity for schools to dialogue and co-operate with other organizations involved in education and training at the local level and to be able to identify and cater for the learning needs of divergent groups of people. Moreover, it will require developing capacities at school level for initiating and implementing innovations in response to the education and training needs of the local communities that they are part of. This, in turn, will have implications for the functioning of national and often centralized support institutions, as it will have consequences for the ways in which national authorities fund and promote such school-based innovation and development work. But decentralization of this kind can only be successful and productive when it is framed by overall national qualification standards and frameworks that can secure adherence to agreed quality standards across the country, or groups of countries. Otherwise, decentralized initiatives may put the very existence of transparent national systems with open pathways at risk. Obviously, for these very reasons in many countries the move towards new learning contents and approaches is a heavily debated one.
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Generally, awareness of ‘whole-system’ reforms has undoubtedly increased, however, and the search is for those interventions that can ‘drive’ overall reform by triggering off related changes in how the vocational education and training systems operate in a particular context. Changing individual aspects of vocational education and training systems will have little impact if other aspects remain untouched. This understanding has been a strong factor in the current drive for system-wide or whole system reforms. It has also led to a rethinking of the logic or rationale along which systems were structured and functioning. This, as a matter of fact, appears to be the most difficult dimension of education and training reform as it implies fundamental redefinitions of the roles that key actors and stakeholders are playing. Successful reforms therefore require that sufficient space, time and resources are devoted to enabling reform learning to take place. Neither institutions, organizations nor individuals change from one day to the next.
8 Balancing Major Reform Drivers Carnoy determines the global challenges for educational planners in this way: Globalization together with new information technology and the innovative processes they foment are driving a revolution in the organisation of work, the production of goods and services, relations among nations, and even local culture. These changes put a lot of pressure in education to change (1999, p. 14).
He also identifies three types of reform as responses to the pressures of globalization by the education sector: competitive-driven reforms; finance-driven reforms; and equity-driven reforms (1999, p. 37).
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The basic characteristics of the competitive-driven reforms are an emphasis on the macro issues of the education system. Changes are introduced in the area of administration and management (decentralization, privatization, management of resources). Emphasis is put also on the issues of meeting the standards of achievement, and on teacher recruitment and training. The main purpose of this type of reform is to increase the quality of education in order to produce a better educated labour force. Finance-driven educational reforms have as a main target the reduction of public expenditure on education and making the use of public funds more efficient and effective. These reforms are advocated by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, in particular with regard to developing and transition countries, and try to shift funding from secondary to basic education, expand the secondary sector through privatization, especially its technical and vocational part, and to reduce the cost of public education by increasing the teacher/pupil ratio. Finally, equity-driven reforms place more emphasis on equality of educational opportunities and on basic education, with the latter taking on a wider meaning than basic literacy only. These reforms aim at integrating marginalized groups in society and at reducing social exclusion and poverty.
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It is probably true to say that since the 1970s equity-driven reforms (including the ones that focused on reducing youth unemployment) have increasingly made way for reforms driven by finance and competition considerations, or combinations of the latter. This is equally true for developed countries as for developing countries, where reforms have been driven largely by the international donor community. It has also been the case for the reform of VET systems in transition countries that have found themselves in the same ‘receiving’ situation, at least until very recently. The challenge that most countries are facing now, however, is to find a proper balance between all three types of reform: (a) they need to develop a well-educated labour force in order to secure sustainable growth and welfare; (b) they also need to make their education and training systems affordable in the mid and long terms; and (c) they need to secure social cohesion through education and training in order to develop a certain degree of political stability.
9 Specific Drivers Remain Country Specific Whereas globalization forces increasingly create an overall environment of policy challenges to which all countries have to respond, priorities and emphasis on particular aspects continue to differ. However, there is also an increased interest in international or regional co-operation and exchange. Indeed, one of the most exciting developments is exactly the growing interest of countries to learn from others. But changes are occurring here as well. Even though short-term action may often still be dominant, there is a growing tendency to consider whole-system reforms instead of addressing isolated aspects by single and unco-ordinated measures. This has necessitated, as mentioned earlier, a broader involvement of stakeholders at all levels of the system, including those working inside schools and training centres. Moreover, the very need for ownership, fit-in-context and sustainability has also led to a review of traditional international assistance and co-operation that was largely based on policy copying and best-practice emulation. Instead, active policy-learning, local capacity-building and approaches that aim at helping-countries-to-help-themselves have emerged as part of the international co-operation rhetoric. Having said this, it is clear that countries differ in the extent to which they have created favourable conditions—such as through earlier reform initiatives—to address the new challenges. For example, there are countries that have traditionally or as a result of recent reforms given schools high levels of autonomy, improved the dialogue with social partners, strengthened innovative and development capacities of schools and teachers, created open pathways for everybody all through their education and training systems and have sufficient budgets to continue further development and innovation. These countries are clearly better equipped to face the challenge of improving the quality of learning and learning processes than those countries where reforms have aimed at different objectives having no immediate relation with organized learning. The latter will have to combine the development of an enabling environment with seeking to improve the quality of learning processes and outcomes.
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This also reminds us that giving emphasis to particular aspects in one country may not have the same ‘driver’ impact as in another country. An example of this is the current discourse on learning outcomes. In countries where there has been a strong tradition of paying attention to the quality of learning processes, such as in countries that favour vocational didactics, giving more emphasis to learning outcomes may in fact contribute to improving their quality even further. In countries that have given more weight to assessment processes and where there is little or no tradition in the professionalization of vocational teachers and trainers, this may result in a further refinement of assessment criteria and procedures and a continued neglect of learning processes. Thus, drivers do not have automatic trigger effects, nor are the effects that they may generate always the same. Also here, the existing context plays its role. Of course, these are not natural laws and an understanding of possible impact and unintended effects may very well help to achieve success even though the existing environment is not optimal. Placing past and on-going reform experiences in their proper context of time and space may therefore lead to better national reform policies in the future. This is what policy-learning is about.
10 Overview of the Contributions This section presents contributions that cover some of the more recent debates and developments on vocational education and training reform from different parts of the world. The chapters that follow provide illustrations of how different drivers for change operate in different contexts and may—or may not—prompt related changes in the overall system of vocational education and training of a country. They include analyses of a variety of country-specific developments, of thematic issues and of reform strategies and approaches. They neither cover the whole world nor all the key thematic issues. We have had to be pragmatic and selective. Together, the chapters do give a reasonably good overview of the key aspects that will need to be taken into account for long-term VET reform policies in any country in the world. The analyses provided should not be seen as presenting best practices that can easily be copied or emulated elsewhere. On the contrary, and we have stressed this already several times before, these are all context-bound reviews and case studies from particular environments and specific periods in time. Nevertheless, they contain valuable experiences that may function as eye-openers and provoke policy-learning. Above all, they show that different aspects of vocational education and training are intimately interconnected and that isolated and partial measures may have undesirable—even if unintended—consequences if the overall challenge of any reform of vocational education systems is not firmly kept in mind. The objective is to have a system in place that enables people to learn the knowledge, skills and competences that are useful and relevant for them to live a decent life through decent work.
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III.2 Latin America’s Efforts in the Vocational Training of Young People from Poor Backgrounds, by Claudia Jacinto Across the world, youth unemployment remains a sensitive issue. In a context of global educational expansion, early school-leavers face an increased risk of exclusion. School-to-work transition constitutes a fertile research field for investigating social and educational change. It also constitutes an active domain of public policies. But education is only one of the variables that determine school-to-work transition. Social characteristics, such as ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status or rurality, have a significant impact upon the work prospects and the life experiences of young people. As illustrated by the experience of Latin America, targeted programmes are sometimes implemented as part of broader social policies for youth. In this region, many youngsters leave school with few or no qualifications. In the context of an overall increase of educational levels, the costs of dropping out are higher than ever because—as in other parts of the world—employment opportunities for the unskilled have diminished. While increasing participation in vocational courses cannot be an end in itself, VET is sometimes used as a strategy that helps to keep children and youth off the streets. The large numbers who are neither in education, work nor training are increasingly seen as contributing to the incidence of juvenile crime, teenage pregnancy and drug abuse. There is currently an extensive debate regarding the focus of these programmes and their contribution to the social integration of young people. Many people are asking themselves whether: (a) it would be better to reintegrate these young people into a formal education system so that they can be guaranteed access to twelve years of education; (b) vocational training alone may create an opportunity for these young people to find a decent job, or produce livelihoods with enough income to pull them out of poverty; (c) the initiatives have been adequately linked to a range of public policies; (d) it has been possible to overcome the tendency to create ‘supply side’ courses that do not take sufficient account of the actual demands of the labour market; and so on. The central question for the author is to what extent and by which means these initiatives can contribute to generate a valuable ‘second opportunity’ for young people from low-income households with low educational backgrounds. The answer is a cautious ‘yes’, but only if these measures lead people into qualifying paths that provide access not only to work, but also to further education and training.
III.3 Accountability and Career Technical Education (CTE) Policy: A Brief Review of Six States of the United States, by Joshua D. Hawley and Alexandra de Montrichard These authors address accountability, an issue that has come to the fore as part of the ‘new public management’ discourse and the reform of the state and the public
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sectors for which it used to be responsible, including in many countries vocational education and training. Accountability is a critical issue for state and federal government in the United States. The approach under the current policy regime is to consolidate the requirements for accountability under the Consolidated Annual Report (CAR) framework. However, there are continuing problems creating an appropriate accountability framework for career and technical education (CTE), as vocational education is referred to in the United States. The development of academically oriented CTE under the most recent legislation has forced states and the federal government to confront the contradictory goals of preparation for the labour market (career development) and further studies (college preparation). As an academic programme, CTE needs to be responsible for ensuring that all young people have basic skills, while also being adequately prepared for success in the labour market. Accountability is the practice of holding schools, districts and teachers responsible for providing quality education and holding students responsible for their performance. As part of the push to hold school systems accountable, standards and (to varying degrees) accountability systems were developed both at the state and federal levels. This is a development that has also taken place in many other countries, for example through the change from so-called input to outcome standards as the basis for funding. The big question everywhere remains how a system can be developed that measures outcomes in such a way that this also leads to improvement of the educational process: what educators would call a formative assessment approach.
III.4 The Regional Perspective of Vocational Education and Training, by Mike Coles and Tom Leney Coles and Leney argue that actions taken to strengthen regional co-operation are among those that shape national VET systems. An important reason for this is the fact that, increasingly, countries in a region (such as Europe) are confronted with similar pressures for change. As the authors also stress, it is probably not the case that common pressures would lead to common responses through reform. The country or regional context will require bespoke solutions. However, the elements of changing VET infrastructure might be expected to show some commonality and the process of change itself could have features that are created through policy-learning from reforms and trials in other countries and regions. First experiences with a co-ordinated approach to policy-learning, the European Union’s Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC) and a review of a number of more specific cases, including the European Qualifications Framework, illustrate some of the obstacles that are to be found on the way towards making regional co-operation transform itself into knowledge-sharing and policy-learning.
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III.5 Vocational Education, Training Reform and Regional Integration in the Middle East, by Munther Wassef Masri Chapter 5 takes the issue of regional co-operation to a more operational level based on recent experiences from the Middle East, a region that has traditionally profited from the presence of regional agencies and projects. There are a number of ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ that emerge from that experience, especially in terms of ensuring that regional co-operation leads to local ownership and context-fit of reform initiatives. National stakeholders rarely have the means or capacities to initiate or coordinate knowledge-sharing and joint involvement in projects and are therefore depending, as is the case with the European Union countries, on supra- or international agencies. The Arab world has developed its own regional institutions and there are yet other multilateral and bilateral ones as well. Even so, as is clear from history, the mere presence of such agencies does not guarantee effective reforms. But the growing need for VET reform within countries may also lead to a better use of the opportunities that such regional institutions offer for better policy development and implementation.
III.6 The Influence of Qualifications Frameworks on the Infrastructure of VET, by Mike Coles and Patrick Werquin Chapter 6 examines the ways in which the existence of a qualifications framework influences several structural aspects of VET, such as management of the supply and demand for skills, the institutional arrangements, the financing of VET and the way the VET system interfaces with other learning systems and VET in other countries. Given this potential impact, developing national qualifications frameworks can provide strong tools for reforming national VET systems. The authors illustrate how this may work: qualification frameworks make explicit the relationship between qualifications. They aim to increase transparency and to show potential progression routes; they can become the basis of credit-transfer systems. They are overarching tools that can be used to engage all stakeholders in developing and co-ordinating the qualifications system. Often they are used as tools for regulation and quality assurance. At the same time, a qualifications framework can open opportunities to potential learners, because it makes progression routes clear and can offer the opportunity to rationalize qualifications by reducing the overlap between them. In all of these ways, frameworks create an environment where the whole qualifications system can be reviewed. This means that the management of the qualification framework can be used as a tool to enhance many policy responses that countries are adopting in response to the lifelong learning agenda—of which VET is a very important component. It is rather a decisive component when it comes to global economic performance and coping with emerging issues.
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III.7 Reforming Skills Development, Transforming the Nation: South African Vocational Education and Training Reforms, 1994–2005, by Simon McGrath However, national qualifications frameworks (NQF) do not always easily fulfil these promises, as is shown by the case of South Africa. In an era where vocational education and training reform is common, South Africa provides one of the most striking national case studies of the complex interplay between international discourses of both economic change and VET reform and historical and contemporary forces at the national level. Moreover, the twin imperative of economic and social focus for VET is made particularly complex and challenging by the legacy of apartheid. The author concludes from his review that the transformation of the VET system in South Africa has proved far more complex than was realized at the point of departure. Developing new institutions, creating a workable NQF, transforming funding and delivering new programmes have all been attempted at the same time as expanding the system and radically reforming access. Inevitably, too, South Africa has found itself faced with many of the tensions that affect VET systems globally, most particularly the difficulty of balancing social and economic imperatives and of ensuring that national departments of education and labour work together effectively. The country now faces the challenge of reviewing the whole process in such a way that the key successes are allowed to continue. The elements of the system that need radical overhaul can be identified or abandoned. Honest self-reflection needs to be carried out with maintenance of public support for the system. If such a process can be successfully negotiated, McGrath argues, then the South African skill revolution may come to a truly successful conclusion.
III.8 Reform of Vocational Education in the Russian Federation, by Olga Oleynikova and Anna Muravyeva The Russian Federation has not yet reached this point, as the authors of Chapter 8 make clear. Tensions between the qualifying and social protection role of vocational education and training institutions remain one of the big challenges yet to be solved. Moreover, only fairly recently, wider reform requirements have become understood after an initial phase in which the inherited VET system was merely allowed to survive while administrative responsibilities were transferred to regional levels, without the necessary financial, institutional and human resources to enable the system to adapt to radical changes during the transition period. The authors end on an optimistic note. There may not have been much of a national VET reform policy until now, but at the same time a wealth of experience has
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been acquired at local levels, where schools have been forced to act, often profiting from international assistance. Given the wide range of good practices that exist in individual VET schools that could serve as a resource for developing modern and effective models of VET in the country, the authors argue that networking of VET schools should be encouraged to enhance information exchange and sharing of good practices. This seems to be the only feasible way to envisage a continuation of on-going reforms and modernization efforts.
III.9 Vocational Education in the Netherlands: In Search of a New Identity, by Jan Geurts and Frans Meijers Chapter 9 provides a review of VET reforms in the Netherlands, including many of the issues dealt with by other authors in preceding chapters. It is a story of trying to learn from the past while looking across borders. It is also a story where structural change and pedagogical innovation come together in the growing understanding that the role of the school, as an institution, needs to change fundamentally from being an industrial education factory towards becoming a career centre. Such a change implies that learning to change as a result of instruction must become a process of knowledge construction. It also implies a change from making available standard one-size-fits-all programmes towards developing personal competences based on the capacities and interests of learners. Support for these developments that are currently transforming the Dutch VET system are also found in so-called new-learning theories that are based on constructive instead of traditional behaviourist or cognitivist approaches.
III.10 Facilitating Policy-Learning: Active Learning and the Reform of Education Systems in Transition Countries, by Peter Grootings Grootings argues that statements regarding local ownership and fit-for-context have become more and more popular in the donor community, but that in practice traditional policy transfer or policy copy of presumed best practice and conditional assistance have continued to dominate. He explores the opportunities for applying active or constructivist learning principles for educational reforms in transition countries. There are four aspects to be considered: (a) the question of ‘why’ these new principles have any relevance at all; (b) the implications of new learning for ‘what’ education reforms should cover; (c) the process of educational reform itself and in particular ‘how’ reform policies are developed and implemented; and (d) (typical for all active-learning approaches)
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the tensions and contradictions between the ‘how’ and the ‘what’ when trying to implement active learning. Seeing policy-makers as (policy-)learners, international policy advisers should consider themselves as facilitators of policy-learning processes, similar to the new roles that teachers are developing as facilitators of learning processes. The current debates about learning processes, learners and new teacher roles, therefore, are also of immediate concern for policy-makers and their advisers. Policy reform is a learning process for the simple reason that no blueprints exist.
Reference Carnoy, M. 1999. Globalization and educational reform: what planners need to know. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP.
Chapter III.2
Latin America’s Efforts in the Vocational Training of Young People from Poor Backgrounds Claudia Jacinto
1 Introduction Many of the social programmes developed within the framework of the struggle against poverty and/or unemployment in Latin America since the 1990s were focused on improving the entry of young people from low-income and low-education households into the workforce. The method most often used was to offer short vocational training courses, hoping that this would help place these young people in an occupation at a basic level. There is currently an extensive debate regarding the focus of these programmes and their contribution to the social integration of young people. Many people are asking themselves whether: (a) it would be better to include these young people into the formal education system so that they can have at least twelve years of education; (b) vocational training alone can create an opportunity for these young people to find a decent job and lead lives with enough income to pull themselves out of poverty; (c) the initiatives have been adequately linked to a range of public policies; and (d) it has been possible to overcome the tendency to create ‘supply side’ courses, which do not take into account the actual demands of the labour market, etc. This chapter intends to contribute to this debate by summarizing the approaches of the programmes that began in the 1990s, their strengths and weaknesses, and some recently created models attempting to provide new answers to the difficult question of how to introduce young people from impoverished backgrounds into the labour market.1 We look at training models and their links to the job market (particularly their focus on formal employment or the informal sector, including the creation of micro-enterprises); their generally poor links to formal education; the association mechanisms they propose between public and private institutions; the profiles of the targeted population; and achievements in cases where sufficient information is available. The central question we intend to clarify is to what extent and by which means these initiatives can contribute to generating a valuable ‘second opportunity’ for young people from low-income backgrounds, taking into account the process of devaluation in qualifications which is happening simultaneously, changes in the content and types of employment, and the scarcity of the latter.
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2 Inserting Young People into the Workforce Differences in educational and employment opportunities, as well as an unbalanced income distribution, are clear structural phenomena in the region. Globalization, the opening of markets and the structural adjustments initiated in the 1990s add to this background of exclusion and have reinforced a productive heterogeneity. Although a certain technological and organizational modernization has taken place inside the leading productive sectors in recent decades, productivity in informal small and micro-enterprises still remains stagnant and, in many cases, outdated forms of production persist. Between 1990 and 2004, economic growth could be considered deficient and erratic, and gave rise to growing unemployment, an increase in low-quality jobs and widespread emigration (CEPAL, 2005). The proportion of the informal sector in the urban job market jumped from 42.8% in 1990 to 46.7% in 2003. At the same time, differences between the average income in the formal sector and the informal sector increased from 59% to 72% (CEPAL, 2005). While the formal salaried employment sector varies according to annual economic growth, there is clearly a duality in the self-employment sector: one part survives under precarious, low-income conditions; while the other, less important, is composed of more efficient productive units— in many cases small businesses profiting from certain jobs outsourced by large companies. This job-market decline and increase in segmentation did not impact equally on every population group. One of the most affected was certainly young first-job seekers. As a matter of fact, demographic tendencies, as well as the expansion of schooling towards universality of primary education and large, but nationally very different, increases in secondary education, led many to believe that the relative position of young people in the workforce would improve during the 1990s. A range of developments, however, contributed to prevent that belief from becoming reality. On the one hand, secondary education enrolment rates meant that participation in the educational process is still falling short of universality. Even in the countries of the southern region of Latin America (el Cono Sur), with high rates of schooling for children, more than half of young people do not graduate from the secondary level. The most critical problems still existing include high rates of repetition and drop-out, and in many cases a poor quality of educational supply. Simultaneously, the basic qualifications required to obtain quality jobs drift upwards towards completion of secondary education, whereas the region shows a devaluation of degrees, certificates or diplomas as the average educational level of young people rises. On the other hand, erratic economic growth coupled with increasing unemployment affected young people particularly, since first-job seekers and employees with a high turnover are mostly young. Compared to the total workforce, the unemployment rates for the young are double. For example, while at the end of the 1990s the general urban unemployment rate was 10.2%, the average unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 24 was 19.5% (Weller, 2003). These figures add to deteriorating recruitment conditions and low salaries.
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Whereas the position of young people in general is difficult, the situation for those from poor backgrounds and/or with low educational attainment is still worse. Unemployment rates increase notably among those who are poor and as educational levels drop. Women, especially those with low formal educational levels, encounter the biggest problems to enter the job market. In fact, among the low qualified, young women show unemployment rates surpassing by more than 50% those of their male counterparts, while in the group with the highest educational level (thirteen years or more) this gap is ‘only’ 20% (Weller, 2006). In an environment demanding completion of secondary education as a necessary but not sufficient requisite to obtain a good job—or even just a job—what can be expected from learning programmes focused on specific vocational training and immediate placement in the job market? Very often the limited effects of ‘one time’ training programmes have been questioned and the need is emphasized for projects targeted to the most disadvantaged—i.e. the young—to surpass the purely assistance approach and to be linked with integral policies of development and social integration (CINTERFOR/ILO, 1998; Jacinto, 1999; Gallart, 2000). The specific training approach, however, has been a model followed by many programmes, and this still continues to be the case.
3 The 1990s: Traditional Approaches and New Training Models In a context of structural transformations, whose effects on the labour market have just been summarized, social expenditures—with financing by the co-operation agencies—tended during the 1990s to be oriented toward compensatory measures, placement and vocational training programmes, many of them intended for young people who had dropped out early from secondary (or even primary) school. These programmes adopted various forms of management. Among the outstanding ones, three are predominant within collective procedures focused on the training of disadvantaged young people: 1. There are still some vocational training measures based on regular, public training establishments, managed by tripartite authorities of professional training or departments/ministries of education; 2. New types of supply through ad hoc programmes were implemented, delegating training to diverse institutional agents, many of whom are private non-profit organizations (known as organizaciones de la sociedad civil—OSCs) or private training institutes. These new types of supply through ad hoc programmes include: 2.a) Programmes adopting competitive ‘open-market’ models through bidding for the selection of training institutions and courses; 2.b) Programmes granting subsidies to organizations working with disadvantaged groups.
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However, both inside the regular supply of vocational education and training, as well as with the new models, certain common tendencies can be observed, such as the establishment of public/private alliances and a profound decentralization favouring regional organizations and local governance. Below, we will analyse in detail these different types of occupational training for unemployed young people, especially those from poor backgrounds with low levels of education.
3.1 The Traditional Supply of Vocational Training In the regions, the supply of vocational training for young people not completing secondary education has since the 1950s been under the responsibility of the tripartite institutes of vocational training or the training institutions dependent on the relevant departments/ministries of education. Programmes bearing the name ‘apprenticeship’ constituted the first public policy for training and employment directed specifically at young people (Casanova, 2004).2 The groups being enrolled in many of these conventional centres were not, however, generally the most disadvantaged, but learners who—at least potentially—could find places in the formal sectors of the economy. It was only at the beginning of the 1970s that programmes started to be implemented specifically for the informal sector; for instance the SENA of Colombia, the POCET in Honduras and the talleres p´ublicos de capacitaci´onproducci´on (public learning and production workshops) in Costa Rica. Financed and maintained by public funds and with instructors employed as civil servants, these institutions implemented a valuable know-how and provided a low-resource population with vocational training, counselling and, sometimes, loans to start up micro-enterprises (Gallart, 2004). Under these circumstances, timetables tended to be flexible and the training programmes adapted to the perceived needs. Very often, these training centres maintained a close relationship with community associations and diverse OSCs offering parallel services locally. Within the participating population, young people received training to start work in specific jobs (generally in traditional occupations) under self-employment conditions or, in some cases, as entrepreneurs. As will be discussed later, the general lack of work experience among young people weakens their possibilities to establish themselves as microentrepreneurs.3
3.2 Ad Hoc Occupational Training Programmes As already mentioned, beyond these offers of traditional institutions, the 1990s witnessed the frequent implementation of social programmes and ad hoc measures against poverty, oriented towards providing vocational training to disadvantaged young people who did not normally have access to institutions of formal training. Many of these programmes were designed by the State, with a great deal of financing from co-operation agencies and multilateral banks, and were implemented by many different institutions and organizations.
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The two predominant models (see above) within these ad hoc programmes will be examined next. 3.2.1 The ‘Open-Market’ Model The most important programme model was developed principally by the ministries of labour and/or employment, and financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and, in some cases, by the World Bank. The ‘open market’ model adopted consisted in the outsourcing of courses to what were basically private institutions (there were also some public ones) by means of bids. The institutions supplied flexible, work-based training oriented to the formal labour market, including placements in companies, and were responsible for course design and for finding placements for the young people. Another method corresponding to the open-market model is the system of ‘vouchers’ allowing workers to select their own training courses according to their needs. Inside this training model, a range of training courses in various occupations were sub-contracted to a wide range of institutions and organizations, both public and private, such as trade unions, technical OSCs (some with an extensive experience in the field, and others recently created) and private training centres. One example of implementation of this open-market model is the national training programmes for disadvantaged youth carried out in several Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Peru, Uruguay), known as the Chile Joven (‘young Chile’) model. Some traditional vocational training institutions also participated in public bidding for training courses of this type, for example, the SENAI, SENAC and SENAR of Brazil. These programmes exemplify a short and reasonably inexpensive training, combined with stages of training ‘at work’ through placements. In some cases, these programmes have reached better labour market entry results, slightly superior to those of other agencies, because their courses were more oriented toward concrete opportunities in the labour market. It was clear, however, that their positive impact was closely dependent on the general buoyancy of the labour market and the individual size and design of the programme. In Argentina, for instance, a grand-scale programme (its goal was to train 200,000 young people under age 30) was conducted during a period coinciding with a massive increase in unemployment figures. Consequently, its effects on the entry of these young people into the labour market were almost nil (Devia, 2003). In Uruguay, by contrast, where the programme operated on a much smaller scale and with various designs adjusted to different sub-groups of young people, the relative results for the young participants were satisfactory (Lasida, 2004). One weakness in this category of programmes was its poor contribution to enhancing training institutions. Many of the participating training centres in these short-term programmes for the disadvantaged developed more flexible approaches than the traditional institutions, but lasted only a short time and were hardly sustainable.4 The desire to develop an alternative model to the traditional institutions, capable of overcoming bureaucracy and to avoid providing training courses not related to the actual demands of the labour market, seem to have affected the
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sustainability and promotion of institutional learning. One of the dilemmas for vocational training supply is still how to create outsourcing conditions that stimulate experimentation, generate stable technical teams and institutional sustainability, at the same time establishing links with the labour market and leading to acceptable results after completion of the training (Jacinto & Bessega, 2001; Lasida & Berrutti, 2002). The bidding approach for courses specifically focused on the needs of unemployed young people continues to be the model implemented during the last ten years in countries like Peru and Uruguay, and also Colombia where SENA is still active as the national vocational training authority. 3.2.2 Subsidized Programmes for Organizations Working with Disadvantaged Groups Another type of ad hoc programme was developed within the framework of the Ministries of Social Development and/or institutes for young people, and financed in many cases by multilateral agencies. Under this scheme, OSCs, foundations, churches (particularly the Catholic Church), national training institutions, local governments, etc., received subsidies from the State to provide the learning programmes. The training in these cases is geared toward the informal sector, selfemployment and/or the creation of micro-enterprises. Usually, these social programmes encourage alliances between different public organizations, including health services, education and training institutions and private agencies enhancing social well-being, such as banks awarding micro-credits, youth centres, etc. Subsidizing organizations working with poor populations often allows the adoption of more flexible strategies, adjusted to the individual characteristics and expectations of the young people themselves, and for longer periods. In many cases, these programmes tend to develop a more complete approximation of training and combine the learning of technical skills with social competences (also in the broad sense; for example, training for citizenship), skills in seeking work and work guidance. These programmes, however, showed low concern for the technical quality of the courses and lacked clarity regarding the expected results (Jacinto, 2002). There was little emphasis in the placement of learners and little guidance toward concrete occupational opportunities, even in the informal sector. Occasionally, these training courses were oriented to the development of entrepreneurial capabilities in general, without having any link with the learning of particular technical skills, nor specific follow-up to a business sector. They did not take into account whether or not the selected young people had the experience and the personal characteristics to manage their own enterprises (Jacinto, 2002). Nevertheless, another relatively significant part of these social programmes focusing on young people promoted the setting up of micro-enterprises, using a more specific and complex approach. In these cases, mechanisms of selection, training and post-training guidance were included. However, these programmes were more demanding (sometimes including micro-credits) and frequently excluded the poorest, as the enrolment conditions required the participants to already possess a business and/or a secondary qualification (Jaramillo Baanante, 2004). To be successful,
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some evidence was required that the young people had a certain level of business initiative, either experience in salaried work, entrepreneurial skills or an idea for a business plan (Lasida, 2004).
3.3 Achievements and Limitations of the Strategies from the 1990s To sum up the general procedures developed in the 1990s within the framework of programmes targeting the inclusion of young people from poor backgrounds into the labour market, the following features can be noted:
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More flexible training approaches were adopted, as the implementation of courses and projects was carried out by sub-contracting public and private agencies offering various types of training, rather than traditional vocational training institutions. Whereas a certain consensus can be observed about the need to start modifying the State’s preference to organize social policies (i.e. its institutions, human resources, equipment and infrastructure) from the supply side, the adopted mechanisms, both the ‘open market’ model and the subsidized programmes, did not lead to efficient vocational training corresponding to the needs of the young people, the demands of the job market or socio-economic developments. Instead, they resulted in haphazard action with more or less quality and efficacy, according to individual cases. In spite of its diversification and flexibility, the training organizations experienced difficulties with the design and implementation of the learning. First, they had to confront new duties related to curricular design, institutional management, interaction with other institutions and with the labour market, and they did not necessarily know how to respond to these challenges. Secondly, many organizations revealed their weaknesses in administrative and financial management. They also showed knowledge deficiencies about strategies for institutional planning and internal communication (Jacinto, 2001). One weakness was that almost none of the actions taken established links with existing formal education. The certificates that were awarded did not imply any recognition or equivalencies in formal education or regular vocational training, even though the majority of the young people enrolled did not possess a secondary qualification, and although one of the outcomes of enrolment was that almost 30% of these young people returned to formal education (Jacinto, 2004). As mentioned earlier, considering how difficult it was for young people, particularly the most economically and socially disadvantaged, to find quality employment, the programmes tended to foresee entry into the formal (salaried) labour market. However, programmes that promoted the creation of micro-enterprises and/or self-employment also played a relevant role. In his analysis of thirty-seven programmes, for example, Jaramillo (2004) identifies twenty-two that were exclusively oriented toward self-employment and another fifteen that included measures for salaried employment and self-employment at the same time. While the impact of the programmes, measured by access to formal employment, differs
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among countries, in most cases it can be said to be very limited and only produced slight improvements in some sub-groups (Jacinto, 2004). Concerning the results of the programmes that might have promoted micro-industry and selfemployment, these also tended to be very sparse, considering the small percentage of new companies that were able to survive their first year. In addition, the programmes with the highest potential (i.e. including training, follow-up and micro-credits) tended to exclude young people from the most disadvantaged sectors (Jaramillo, 2004).5 Although training has sometimes been linked with other formative and cultural actions, these links do not seem to be vital in the selection or evaluation of courses by the central management of programmes. The broadest approaches, linking the training programmes to other local or sector development projects and to the social integration of young people, remained generally restricted to small-scale experiences with little coverage (Jacinto, 1999).
Generally speaking, these measures reveal an attempt to provide greater opportunities to young people confronting increasingly exclusive social contexts and more complex labour markets. Its most relevant aspects are precisely the fact that they express the urgent need for a programme and the permanent improvement of its strategies, increasingly emphasizing the use of concrete job opportunities. Many of the initiatives, however, proved to over-simplify the problem of young people entering the labour market, particularly those belonging to the most disadvantaged groups. On the one side, they emphasized the question of low skill levels without sufficiently taking into account the role formal education plays in the job-market selection, and the exclusion tendencies of the labour market itself. In addition, the basic view of young people tends to be short-sighted if it fails to cover the social and cultural issues than constitute the fact of ‘being young/adolescent’, nor taking into account the heterogeneity of social and educational situations that characterize disadvantaged young people within geographic, local and family contexts. In fact, it turns out that the situations of the young people targeted are very diverse: from groups very marginal and isolated (indigenous people, homeless children, etc.), to those from poor urban districts or rural young people. Finally, beyond the diversity of the measures, we should not lose sight of the fact that these initiatives covered only a small fraction of the potential population composing all of the young people who dropped out of school without any qualifications. Indeed, in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Honduras, most young people aged 18 to 25 do not complete secondary education. In recent years, only in Argentina and Chile did a majority of the young population complete secondary education. Meanwhile, in Brazil, Paraguay and El Salvador, more than 60% of young people did not complete secondary education; this percentage is more than 75% in Costa Rica and Honduras. In all of these countries there are significant inter-regional differences, with young people living in large metropolitan areas being the ones most likely to complete secondary education (SITEAL, 2005).
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4 Testing New Ways The expansion of formal schooling and the introduction of new technologies, particularly in the information and communication sector, affect not only working practices but also everyday life. It is also clear that an occupational strategy for the disadvantaged based exclusively on vocational training for traditional jobs has its limitations, as has been shown in most of the experiences mentioned. Despite these limitations, many of the measures have followed those same patterns. More recent programmes are now trying new models as a response to some of the limitations or weaknesses of the traditional approaches. One aspect that has received particular emphasis is to achieve a better integration of the formative and inter-sectoral approaches. We can differentiate the following strategies in this field:
4.1 Initiatives Promoting Alternative Educational Paths During recent years some social and employment programmes have encouraged young people and adults to finalize their basic and/or secondary education through learning strategies (in many cases, part-time schooling) that attempt to respond in a more pertinent way to their needs and interests more than traditional educational services. Some initiatives of this type in Argentina, Brazil and Chile have gained momentum in recent years, as well as in other countries. Among the experiences of this type, the example of Chile is probably the one that has been most systematically implemented and evaluated. The flexible and free method of promoting training forms part of Chile Califica (Chile Qualifies), a programme under the auspices of the ministries of education, labour and economy/finance. The World Bank finances 50% of the loans and State contributions cover the other 50%. This pattern is structured in learning blocks and envisages both classroom and self-learning activities. It works with cost-free books supplied by the Ministry of Education. The State also evaluates the students’ progress and awards certificates. Between 2002 and 2004, using this system, 42,000 persons acquired a basic education certificate and 74,000 a secondary education certificate. An interesting aspect of this programme is that it achieves better completion rates than those of traditional educational paths for adults (Letelier, 2005). Some studies have reported positive results in income and occupational level, especially among women and young people.
4.2 Integral Experiences Linking Training with Job Integration One example of a recent programme that decided to focus on training and job-entry for occupations in new technologies is the so-called ENTRA-21 (2005). This programme supports training developed by OSCs and youth employment projects in ICTs with a fund of US$20 million, co-financed by Fundaci´on Internacional para
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la Juventud (FIJ) and the Fondo Multilateral de Inversiones (FOMIN) from the Inter-American Development Bank. The programme subsidizes projects of approximately US$375,000 for up to three years. Until July 2005, ENTRA-21 had carried out twenty-four projects in sixteen countries, reaching 11,227 disadvantaged young people. Some interesting aspects concerning the design and execution of this programme are worth mentioning. First, its focus was on occupations using new technologies with a broad approach to training that included not only learning about technical abilities but also personal and social skills, as well as job placement. It also emphasized public/private co-operation in design and implementation, in order to join resources and facilitate job integration after training. This last aspect represents the most outstanding point of the programme: its commitment to job entry from its very inception. Consequently, mechanisms to assist young people during the job-entry process were put into place. It intends to be not just another VET programme, but a job-integration programme including training. The job-placement results for young people have been satisfactory, achieving rates between 40% and 68% of entry into the job market within six months after training.
4.3 Programmes Using ‘Positive Discrimination’ Mechanisms These practices include:
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Programmes that stimulate the enrolment of young people facing the greatest difficulties, such as first-job seekers in Brazil; Other programmes in other communities have created ‘sheltered’ job opportunities in the public sector. This means reserving jobs or activities for young unemployed people who otherwise would not have the opportunity to enter the labour market if it were not for this strategy, as in the case of the city of Montevideo. This practice demonstrates an interesting strategy of positive discrimination that focuses on creating job opportunities for the most disadvantaged young people. Obviously, this strategy is not without controversy: critics point out deficiencies in the services; trade unions argue that the young are taking jobs away from other workers.
5 Some Reflections on the Future Course of Action Obviously, the problem has multiple facets, tied to national development and growth strategies in a broad sense. Within a region where social inequalities are extreme and poverty has increased, these hard-fought programmes have made progress in consolidating a system of education, training and social guidance for those young people with minimal opportunities. Some strategies attempt to go beyond the more limited visions of vocational training by creating better links to formal education,
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promoting entry into the labour market and a more equitable distribution of employment opportunities. Some points must be outlined regarding opportunities for young people in disadvantaged situations:
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Since the period of formal schooling has expanded, and a long period of education continues to be the best option in terms of finding a job, becoming part of society and conducting a career, we can draw at least three major conclusions about formal education: – Young people dropping out of school face increasingly disadvantaged situations in a labour market where secondary education may not be entirely sufficient, but is absolutely necessary for entry into the labour market. There is a need to reinforce incentives for young people to remain in school and promote the return of drop-outs into the education system. – During their time in school, all young people should acquire the general basics and fundamental skills for work and social integration. In this respect, the pathetic results of formal basic and secondary schooling and the differences among socio-economic groups clearly indicate the need for change. – Bridges between and within different educational paths and learning environments (formal schooling, vocational training, workplace) need to be created and/or reinforced to encourage the social significance of education for young people entering the labour market.
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Concerning programmes and/or measures specifically designed to improve the entry of young people into the job market, it should be noted that there is no evidence of positive results from unselective mass programmes. Consequently, it seems advisable for these programmes to be specific, directed at specificallyselected categories of young people, carefully evaluated and adjusted to specific niches or sectors of the economy. Inevitably, the broad heterogeneity of young people in the region must be taken into account. Their problems are different according to socio-economic levels, gender, educational level, ethnicity, etc. Therefore, it is necessary to identify this diversity in order to formulate proper solutions. More generally, it can be recommended that vocational training programmes in this region should: – be dual, that is to say, they should include components of school training as well as on-the-job learning (internship/placements, etc.); – have an integral design, apt for promoting the development of not only technical, but also personal and social skills; – be able to follow-up the integration of persons into the labour market; and – only for some carefully selected groups of a population, promote selfemployment and the creation of small enterprises, supporting them with financial services, training and counselling.
As evidence shows, account must be taken of the fact that these measures will reflect general trends in employment closely. One remaining issue is to profoundly
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reinforce the links between the various educational services and programmes. In Latin America, formal education and vocational training represent two distinct paths that co-ordinate neither their functions nor their resources. They depend on different sectors of public administration, or operate even on a private basis, and are far removed from constituting a unified system (Jacinto, 2002). One of the greatest current challenges seems to be the design of a strategy leading the population to qualifications. The strategic objective would be the implementation of national systems that could link education, vocational training and diverse mechanisms of learning and entry into the labour market. Better links are not only needed to increase efficacy and efficiency; they also drive the broader field of equity, prophesying in this way a wider system of lifelong education, able to cope with social, cultural, economic and technical changes and offering access to diverse training options. Acknowledgments I am grateful to Victoria Gonz´alez for her assistance in researching and to Veronica Diyarian for her collaboration in writing this text.
Notes 1. Based on the results of regional research covering five in-depth case studies of training programmes for young people in various Latin American countries undertaken in 1999/2000 (Jacinto, 2002). Comments on the most recent developments come from data compiled on several case studies of programmes in recent years, available online at: <www.redetis.iipeides.org.ar> 2. Training programmes leading to a qualification, usually lasting two years, and including work placement in industry. 3. Moreover, training supply for micro-entrepreneurs tends not to recognize their internal heterogeneity: from subsidized micro-enterprises with little viability in the market place to selfemployment with a potential to grow, or even competitive micro-enterprises in certain market niches. According to Gallart (2004), the programmes focused on disadvantaged populations trying to make the weakest micro-enterprises more competitive, even though most of the time this is just not feasible. 4. Many were created just to participate in the programmes (Jacinto, 1999). 5. The promotion of self-employment experiences and/or micro-enterprise opportunities for young people from low socio-educational backgrounds seems to require extensive follow-up, including measures like: support in the selection of viable niches for products or services; training in management, marketing and skills related to the activity; access to loans; and technical assistance for an extensive period, including psycho-social support (Ru´etalo, Lasida & Berrutti, 1998).
References Casanova, F. 2004. Desarrollo local, tejidos productivos y formaci´on: abordajes alternativos para la formaci´on y el trabajo de los j´ovenes. Montevideo: CINTERFOR. (Herramientas para la transformaci´on, no. 22) Comisi´on Economica para Am´erica Latina. 2005. Estudio econ´omico de Am´erica Latina y el Caribe 2004–2005. Santiago: CEPAL. <www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/DesarrolloEconomico/9/ LCG2279PE/LCG2279 e RE.pdf>
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CINTERFOR/OIT. 1998. Juventud, educaci´on y empleo. Montevideo: CINTERFOR. <www.ilo. org/public/spanish/region/ampro/cinterfor/publ/juventud/> ´ Devia, S. 2003. ¿Exito o fracaso de las pol´ıticas p´ublicas de capacitaci´on laboral a j´ovenes? Evaluaci´on del programa testigo ‘Proyecto Joven’ de Argentina (1993–2000). Buenos Aires: UBA. ENTRA-21. 2005. Informe de gesti´on. <www.iyfnet.org> Gallart, M.A. 2000. El desaf´ıo de la formaci´on para el trabajo de los j´ovenes en situaci´on de pobreza: el caso argentino. In: Gallart, M.A., ed. Formaci´on, pobreza y exclusi´on, pp. 241–302. Montevideo: CINTERFOR. Gallart, M.A. 2004. Habilidades y competencias para el sector informal en Am´erica Latina: una revisi´on de la literatura sobre programas y metodolog´ıas de formaci´on. CINTERFOR bolet´ın, no. 155. <www.cinterfor.org.uy/public/spanish/region/ampro/cinterfor/publ/boletin/155/ pdf/gallart.pdf> Jacinto, C. 1999. Programas de educaci´on para j´ovenes desfavorecidos: enfoques y tendencias en Am´erica Latina. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. Jacinto, C. 2001. Contextos y actores sociales en la evaluaci´on de los programas de capacitaci´on de j´ovenes. In: Pieck, E., ed. Los j´ovenes y el trabajo: la educaci´on frente a la exclusi´on social. Mexico: CINTERFOR. <www.cinterfor.org.uy/public/spanish/region/ampro/cinterfor/ temas/youth/doc/not/libro273/epieck7.pdf> Jacinto, C. 2002. Nuevas alianzas y estrategias en la formaci´on para el trabajo de j´ovenes desfavorecidos: estudios de caso en Am´erica Latina. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. Jacinto, C. 2004. Ante la polarizaci´on de oportunidades laborales de los j´ovenes de Am´erica Latina: un an´alisis de algunas propuestas recientes en la formaci´on para el trabajo. In: Jacinto, C., ed. ¿Educar para que trabajo? Discutiendo rumbos en Am´erica Latina, pp. 187–200. Buenos Aires: La Cruj´ıa. Jacinto, C.; Bessega, C. 2001. Fortalecimiento institucional de entidades de capacitaci´on para j´ovenes desfavorecidos. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. Jaramillo Baanante, M. 2004. Los emprendimientos juveniles en America Latina: ¿Una respuesta ante las dificultades de empleo? Buenos Aires: IIPE-IDES. <www.redetis.org.ar/ media/document/id522 fieldfile1.pdf> Lasida, J. 2004. Estrategias para acercar a los j´ovenes al trabajo. Buenos Aires: IIPE-IDES. <www.redetis.org.ar/media/document/id521 fieldfile1.pdf> Lasida, J.; Berrutti, E. 2002. Foro Juvenil, ensayos y aprendizajes para las pol´ıticas de educaci´on y trabajo. In: Jacinto, C. et al., eds. Nuevas alianzas y estrategias en la formaci´on para el trabajo de j´ovenes desfavorecidos: estudios de caso en Am´erica Latina. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. Letelier, M.E. 2005. El programa de nivelaci´on de estudios de Chile: estrategias educativas y formativas para la inclusi´on social y productive. (Paper presented at the workshop ‘Estrategias educativas y formativas para la inclusi´on social y productiva de todos’, Instituto Nacional para la Educaci´on de Adultos, Mexico D.F., 14–15 November 2005.) Ru´etalo, J.; Lasida, J.; Berrutti, E. 1998. Formaci´on para el trabajo de j´ovenes de sectores de pobreza en Am´erica Latina. ¿Qu´e desaf´ıos y qu´e estrategias? In: Jacinto, C.; Gallart, M.A., eds. Por una segunda oportunidad: la formaci´on para el trabajo de j´ovenes vulnerable, pp. 7–32. Montevideo: CINTERFOR/OIT. (Herramientas para la transformaci´on, no. 6). <www.cinterfor.org.uy/public/spanish/region/ampro/cinterfor/publ/jacinto/pdf/jacint2.pdf> SITEAL. 2005. Tendencias interregionales en el porcentaje de j´ovenes que no complet´o la secundaria. <www.siteal.iipe-oei.org> Weller, J. 2003. La problem´atica inserci´on laboral de los y las j´ovenes. Serie macroeconom´ıa del desarrollo, no. 28. Weller, J. 2006. Inserci´on laboral de j´ovenes: expectativas, demanda laboral y trayectorias. Bolet´ın redEtis, no. 5. <www.redetis.org.ar>
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Chapter III.3
Accountability and Career Technical Education (CTE) Policy: A Brief Review of Six States of the United States Joshua D. Hawley and Alexandra de Montrichard
1 Introduction Accountability concerns are at the top of the list of issues that career technical education (CTE) administrators are currently forced to deal with. As it has evolved in the United States, state CTE policy is trying to juggle missions that include preparation for careers with current efforts to improve the academic achievement of youth. This focuses attention at the state level on the articulation of public policies that ‘thread the needle’—allowing students to master both occupational content and academic skills. The United States Federal Department of Education’s (DOE) web-site for CTE reflects the three themes CTE is trying to balance for career and technical education:
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Increasing academic achievement; Fostering post-secondary transitions; and Preparing students for high-skill, high-wage careers.
This emphasis on a variety of outcomes for CTE is reflected in the academic and policy literature. One recent report from the Association for Career and Technical Education stresses the critical role that academic skills play in current CTE practice. The policy paper lays out a framework for CTE in the twenty-first century suggesting that CTE programmes offer both rigorous academic and vocational content. The authors described the issue as follows: ‘we believe that CTE courses and instructional methodologies have a place in the high-school environment, and that there should not be an artificial split between academic coursework and vocational studies’ (Association for Career and Technical Education, 2006, p. 3). Additionally, the long-standing programme from the Southern Regional Education Board emphasizes the importance of academic skills for improvements in the quality of CTE coursework. The recent empirical work done by High Schools that Work illustrates the gains when students in CTE achieve high levels of academic as well as vocational content. Bottoms and Young (2005) provide data that if students take at least four credits of maths or college preparatory English as part of a CTE programme, 80 to 90% did not need remedial coursework in college. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 III.3, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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This focus on accountability has come to a head while the Federal Government’s main policy on education, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), faces continued resistance from states. They continue to object to the appearance of unfunded mandates within the legislation. The difficulty persists when developing performance measures related to curriculum standards. A 1999 report on state-level accountability strategies asserts that: most of the measurement issues related to the conflicting purposes of vocational education (school reform versus workforce development) and governance/system delivery (centralized versus decentralized) are quite complex. All states are working on parts of the system or systems. It is hoped that the parts eventually sum to a whole (Rahn, O’Driscoll & Hudecki, 1999).
Nevertheless, states have historically developed strategies to measure and assess the performance of high-school vocational education in each of these areas. The current debate centres on expanding the accountability systems defined by NCLB, but balancing those accountability demands that are unique to CTE programmes.
2 Accountability and Federal Policy Accountability is the practice of holding schools, districts and teachers responsible for providing quality education and holding students responsible for their own performance. As part of the push to hold school systems accountable, standards and, to varying degrees, accountability systems were developed both at the state and federal levels. As of the 2003/2004 school year, with the exception of Iowa, all states have developed standards for all their core subjects (English/language arts, mathematics, science and social studies/history), as well as school report cards available to the public (The Editors, 2004). The 1990 and 1998 Carl D. Perkins Vocational-Technical Acts (Perkins II & III) required states to set up accountability systems for their local vocational programmes. Perkins III also added incentive performance funds for states. These frameworks have guided contemporary accountability systems in the sample states, but the debate at the federal level threatens to derail this progress. The various proposals from the White House, Senate and House of Representatives offered very different visions of career and technical education accountability systems. The Council of Chief State School Officers reported that President Bush’s 2005 Budget Request expanded achievement and accountability goals from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)—renamed the No Child Left Behind Act—to CTE. This movement, if it occurred, would emphasize achievement of academic outcomes, but still require states to demonstrate workplace preparedness. The Senate and House of Representatives versions of the current Perkins’ Legislation do not extend the accountability goals to CTE in a wholesale manner, but focus on allowing states to define the accountability system that CTE programmes must meet. This legislation at the secondary level focuses on defining the types of indicators that states must meet and requires continuous improvement in educational progress of career-focused students (Association for Career and Technical Education, 2005).
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The future of CTE accountability is therefore in question, but only in terms of emphasis. The key question is: will CTE accountability remain divided between labour-market outcomes and academic success, or focus narrowly on the academic outcomes?
3 What is an Accountability System? Before reviewing state-level accountability, we focus on describing the definitional issues behind accountability systems. The following paragraphs describe the current literature/focus on accountability at the state level. The National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) did a review of state accountability and large-scale assessments in 2001 and outlined the essential elements shared by state assessment systems (National Association of State Boards of Education, 2001). According to NASBE, effective assessments systems:
r r r r r r
have rigorous and detailed standards that are specific enough to determine what needs to be evaluated; are designed to address specific goals and purposes (such as student remediation or school district assessment); balance validity, reliability and efficiency; inform instruction and have consequences; have mechanisms to encourage schools and districts to align their instruction and evaluation with the standards; and have a clearly articulated relationship with national measures of student performance.
Most scholarly literature on accountability evolved in recent years to focus attention on this broad interpretation of accountability to include standards systems, testing and curriculum frameworks, as well as numerical standards for achievement. In the context of CTE, the research on accountability varies considerably.
4 Issues Raised in the Literature on Accountability and CTE Our literature review identified three key areas of concern: the integration of vocational education and general education accountability, the quality of CTE programmes and the integration of federal, state and local accountability.
4.1 Accountability of Vocational Education and General Education CTE is affected by both school reforms, such as No Child Left Behind, and workforce development reforms such as the Workforce Investment Act. In their report on state-level accountability strategies, Rahn, O’Driscoll and Hudecki (1999) argue
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that this creates a tension in purpose, standards, accountability systems and governance structures, which plays itself out differently in various states. Measures that might be called ‘school reform’ items and are used by many states include the percentage of students scoring at below a specific level on an academic test, or the percentage of students enrolled in college preparatory coursework. Secondly, measures that might be called workforce development are represented by other indicators, such as the percentage of students passing certifications/licensure exams or the percentage placed in a job related to the training. School reforms have spurred the development of accountability standards and systems for general education focused on core subjects (English/language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies/history). However, the degree to which vocational education accountability standards are integrated into more general educational standards varies. As of 1999 this had only happened in a few states (Rahn et al., 1999; Stasz & Bodilly, 2004).
4.2 Quality CTE Programmes The 2004 National Assessment of Vocational Education (NAVE) report focuses on the priorities set out by Perkins III and identified strategies that would help improve secondary vocational programme performance. These include strategies for academic achievement, increased occupational and technical skills and workforce outcomes. To enhance academic achievement the report suggested making this a more explicit focus in Perkins, supporting curriculum development to strengthen the academic content of vocational courses, integrating academic and vocational education, focusing funding to programmes with proven academic content, and investment in focused teacher training to improve teacher quality. The report quotes a study not yet released that indicates: ‘states have begun to reference or encourage academic content in vocational course guidelines [. . .] States spend the highest share of state leadership funds—nearly 20 per cent nationally—to promote integration’ (White et al., 2004). However, at the school level integration is still not widespread and the report lists a series of barriers to this integration. To raise occupational and technical skills in high schools the authors suggest that challenging content and performance standards are required for vocational courses, linked with end-of-course technical assessments and that rewards and sanctions be in place for programmes based on performance. Finally, to improve employment and earnings, particularly for non-college-bound students, the recommendations are to encourage implementation of vocational programme course sequences and promote work-experience programmes. Other areas identified as key to programme quality and improvement include the linkages between secondary and post-secondary education, which NAVE finds are strong among CTE faculty, enhancing the use of technology and employer involvement.
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4.3 Integration of Federal, State and Local Accountability In accountability there is a potential conflict between federal, state and local needs. Federal requirements tend to focus more on programmatic accountability and aggregated measures that allow cross-state comparisons. Local accountability systems may be more useful to schools for programme improvement, whereas more standardized data collection facilitates comparisons across schools and districts at the state level. ‘The result is a patchwork of “systems” at the local and state levels, each moving toward accountability with different data and reporting requirements’ (Rahn et al., 1999). One early report argues that: vocational education is particularly susceptible to ineffective, high-level policy-making because local conditions play such a large role in program planning and performance. Programs are planned with an eye toward local economic needs, and program performance is measured in terms of placements, which are found primarily in the local area (Stecher & Hanser, 1992).
This report thus focused on the need to ‘understand local accountability mechanisms and their relationship to more highly aggregated state policymaking’. The authors found that ‘local accountability systems exist, although they are often informal and unsystematic’ (Stecher & Hanser, 1992). They identified four key components that account for much of the variation in the quality of local accountability systems: measures, information, feedback loops and change mechanisms The level at which accountability data is collected at the state also varies depending on whether they have centralized or decentralized governance structures and/or delivery systems (Rahn et al., 1999).
5 Methodology 5.1 Sample The six states studied and visited included Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Ohio. The states selected for this study are different from each other. The population size, labour-market composition and unemployment rates vary. All but two of the states are governed by the State Board of Education; in the other two cases it is the Higher Education Board that has legislative responsibility for CTE. Table 1 shows that the states vary from smaller north-eastern states, such as Massachusetts, to larger mid-western states like Illinois. All of the states have designated CTE systems. Table 2 shows that the states have a variety of mechanisms for implementing vocational education. In the case of Illinois, for example, of the 665 public high schools in the state, there were only twenty-six schools offering CTE, and these were
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Total enrolment in public schools (Student numbers) Diploma recipients (Student numbers) Total state expenditures for education ($ millions)
Year
IL
MA
MI
NJ
NY
OH
2002 2000 1995 1990
2,084,187 2,048,792 1,943,623 1,821,407
982,989 975,150 915,007 834,314
1,785,160 1,720,626 1,641,456 1,584,431
1,367,438 1,313,405 1,197,381 1,089,646
2,888,233 2,882,188 2,813,230 2,598,337
1,838,285 1,835,049 1,836,015 1,771,089
2002 2000 1995 1990
116,657 111,835 105,164 108,119
55,272 52,950 47,679 55,941
95,001 97,679 86,180 100,522
77,664 74,420 67,403 69,824
153,879 141,731 136,234 146,307
110,608 111,668 109,418 114,513
2000 1995 1990
18,441 — 9,867
9,515 6,524 5,024
16,701 — 9,623
16,323 — 9,208
34,837 — —
16,024 — 9,206
Sources: 1. National Center for Education Statistics: 2. National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortia: <www. careertech.org/reference/states/stateInfo.asp>
Table 2 School information on career technical education in six states (number of schools) IL
MA
MI
NJ
NY
OH
All public high schools
665
280
763
311
852
826
Public schools offering CTE – Comprehensive high schools – Vocational high schools – Regional/area vocational/career-technical centres Public schools offering solely vocational instruction according to the National Association of State Directors Public vocational education schools in 2001–2002 according the NCES
26 – – 26
–
–
–
98 60 – 38
–
26
45
29
50
25
76
0
43
12
38
25
68
Sources: 1. National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortia: <www. careertech.org/reference/states/stateInfo.asp> 2. State sources:
r r r
Illinois: <www.isbe.net/career/pdf/avc directory.pdf>, <www.isbe.net/research/pdfs/quick stats03.pdf> Illinois and New York internal state documents. Correspondence with state director’s office in January 2004.
3. Hoffman, 2003.
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organized as regional vocational technical centres. In contrast, New York had 852 public high schools, ninety-eight of which were offering CTE. Within New York’s system, however, sixty high schools were comprehensive in nature and offered vocational schooling as a part of their programme while thirty-eight were regional vocational technical centres. Table 3 shows both the number of secondary and post-secondary students enrolled in CTE in the six states. The proportion of students in CTE at the secondary level varies from a low of 18% in Ohio, to a high of 55% in Illinois. While 79% of post-secondary students in Illinois are classified as CTE students, in Massachusetts only 39% of students are focused on vocational areas. Table 3 Student information on career technical education in six states Students in public high schools Secondary students enrolled in CTE % of secondary students enrolled in CTE Students at public community colleges Post-secondary students enrolled in CTE % of post-secondary students enrolled in CTE
IL
MA
MI
NJ
NY
OH
550,301
233,179
471,950
310,010
708,456
534,536
302,631
46,071
205,020
79,838
256,295
95,253
55.0%
19.8%
43.4%
25.8%
36.2%
17.8%
339,151
80,070
186,847
132,808
245,842
179,077
268,604
31,842
151,459
65,710
143,397
165,839
79.2%
39.8%
81.1%
49.5%
58.3%
92.6%
Source: National Association of States Directory of Career Technical Education Consortia: <www.careertech.org/reference/states/stateInfo.asp>
Several contextual issues surround the issues of accountability and curriculum in these states. Firstly, both Perkins’ legislation and state implementation leave an enormous range of variation in how programmes are established and how a vocational completer/concentrator is established. These are important contextual issues, because they govern the scope of a vocational programme. In most cases the interviews show us that states have very inconsistent views on the definition of a CTE programme or the designation of a vocational completer. Current efforts by the federal Department of Education Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) and others to better define these categories go to the heart of decisions about what unit to assess in vocational education.
5.2 Data Collection Every state except one was visited by a researcher. An interview protocol was developed by staff familiar with career and technical education and state policy. It was reviewed by key members of the research team and served as the basis for the
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discussions with the respondents. At one site the respondents were interviewed by telephone. The focus of this study was a comparison of accountability systems for CTE programmes. The study documents the basic characteristics of accountability systems in each state by determining:
r r r r
What are the standards for CTE programmes? How are these standards measured? What types of tests are used to measure CTE student performance? How are the results of these tests used?
Additionally, we focused on documenting state by state:
r r
the level of CTE and academic curriculum and accountability integration; the effects of school reform legislation, specifically No Child Left Behind, on CTE programmes.
Respondents from six states were interviewed individually or in groups for about 11/2 hours each. A total of sixteen people participated in the interviews. Additionally, the states supplied us with copies of their accountability plans, the current state plan for CTE, and other studies that helped inform our data collection efforts. Each interview was taped and transcribed. The transcription was imported into a computer analysis programme—N’Vivo. These files were the main source of data for the analysis.
5.3 Data Analysis From the transcripts generated for this study the researchers developed a set of initial codes using N’Vivo software. These codes were based on the interview protocol, producing an initial list of twenty-three codes. These twenty-three codes were grouped into five folders, representing data collected on the following key categories of information: CTE administration; CTE programme requirements and definitions; measures and assessment systems; CTE links with occupations and industry; curriculum; and current legislation. A coding report was printed from N’Vivo software for each of these categories. The codes were applied to specific sets of text on the basis of a reading of the transcripts and subsequent analysis.
6 Results 6.1 CTE Organization and Administration Overall, CTE forms an important component of the state secondary education systems across our six states. While the country has a federal Department of Education, constitutionally the education systems are state level responsibilities (Fowler, 2003;
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Table 4 Basic information on career technical education IL Type of governance structure
Funding strategy
States with dual enrolment policy High-school graduation requirements
State Board Authority Post-Secondary Governing Board. Funding based on student participation Cost reimbursement Instructional units Student weights State Foundation grants
MI
NJ
OH
•
•
*
NY
• Graduation contingent on performance on state-wide exit or end-of-course exams Curriculum requirements
MA
*
*
•
•
*
*
*
Note: Ohio states that it will carry out graduation testing requirements and curriculum requirements connected with the Ohio diploma; students must meet both requirements in order to earn an Ohio diploma after 15 September 2006. Sources: Karp et al., 2004.; Klein, 2001, p. 13.; Krueger, 2004; Silverberg et al., 2004; National Assessment of Vocational Education, 2004; The Editors, 2004, p. 109.
Stasz & Bodilly, 2004). This implies that the provision and co-ordination of vocational education is the responsibility of the states. The states we studied vary in a wide range of governance and administrative responsibilities (Table 4). In terms of overall state-level co-ordination of CTE, there are effectively two major models: control through the K-12 education system; or the post-secondary system. In the case of our six states, all but two are administered through the traditional K-12 education system. Only New York and Illinois are controlled through the post-secondary system. This difference is crucial, illustrating the bias towards secondary-level vocational schooling. In recent years, however, other states, such as Alabama and Kentucky, outside of our sample, have retooled their vocational education systems to integrate economic development into the administration of vocational schooling (Grubb et al., 1999). Moreover, state funding of vocational schooling varies considerably. As described in a recent study of vocational funding, there are markedly different funding mechanisms that states have in place to provide for vocational services (Klein, 2001). The amount of money states have available from the federal government for state-level accountability has declined as a percentage of Perkins’ funds, and there is some evidence that this has affected the ability of states to shift accountability systems (Stasz & Bodilly, 2004). In our six states, there is no predominant model of funding, with some operating on a per pupil basis and others on a state grant basis. In all cases, the state administration extends its control to curriculum frameworks and in many of them this includes matched tests to assess student performance.
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What this implies in the national context is a core curriculum requirement that needs to be met by all secondary school students regardless of curricular focus, as well as specific vocational competencies that are typically industry or field specific. The long-term outcome of the push for accountability, however, has driven more and more states to require a high-stakes test during high school as a mechanism to ensure that all students attain a minimum level of skills. Of our sample states, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Ohio all require CTE students to pass a graduation test, while New York also requires the Regents Tests (Bishop & Mane, 1998). The following section examines the perspectives on accreditation and programme design in the six states participating in qualitative interviews. It then moves on to a consideration of how states define CTE completion.
6.2 Programme Accreditation/Approval As described in the definitional section, CTE requires detailed understanding of school-level performance, as well as a focus on student achievement. Schools are to be judged as systems under the NCLB Act. In each of the six states, CTE systems are governed by a local legislative system that defines the CTE programme and student, and in some cases specifies the accountability provisions that the programmes must meet in order to remain in compliance. Of the six states, the state of New York and the state of Illinois provide for interesting contrast in contemporary programme approval processes. In the case of New York the programme approval process for CTE includes the following: 1. An internal review that takes into account the opinions of the teachers, as well as employers in the locality; 2. An external review that includes both employers and community or post-secondary education partners; 3. Articulation agreements; 4. A defined work-based learning programme; and 5. Identification of industry-based tests. The New York programme process seems distinctive for two reasons. First and foremost, it includes a state mandate for articulation. Second, the state is focusing on encouraging work-based learning. While most CTE programmes will include workbased learning, it is usually left to instructors and schools to decide how best to carry it out. Moreover, the interview with the state director’s staff stressed the positive role that businesses play in determining demand for the programme by actively engaging in the programme design and proposal process. The Illinois programme approval process is different, but offers an alternative vision of how CTE programmes should be developed. As defined by the state leaders in CTE, the programme approval process is as follows:
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1. Programmes are defined and proposed based on the local labour market (Employment Regional Delivery Systems), which allows programmes to reflect local labour-market demand. 2. Schools outline the potential post-secondary careers for individual students (both career and educational). 3. Programmes describe the industry certifications or tests; and 4. Provide course descriptions. There are some striking differences when the Illinois programmes are compared to New York. The Illinois programme focuses on assessing demand in the labour market, but the specific employer role is quite difficult to discern. In contrast, the New York programme appears to require more detailed external review. Moreover, the Illinois programme still includes an emphasis on CTE that connects to secondaryonly programmes, while the New York criteria appears to require some linkage with post-secondary education.
6.3 Other Programme Criteria State programme criteria for CTE programmes appear to be quite similar. States all have criteria for curriculum and staffing. What varies is the current move in some states towards providing more specificity around the type and level of employer involvement. The New York criteria, in particular, offer some hope that states are recognizing that the role of an advisory committee needs to include requirements for employer assessment of programmes, rather than leaving this decision up to the local administrators or teachers.
6.4 Definition of a CTE Concentrator The definition of a CTE concentrator is not common across the states. There is a wide variation in state regulation about the types of criteria that go into a concentrator definition. Firstly, as the description shows, some states define concentrator by the number of credits or hours they have taken in CTE, while others focus on the level of schooling (11th or 12th grade). A third strategy is to designate all those who reach the last level of vocational schooling as concentrators. The following example comes from Michigan and represents one of the most specific attempts to define concentration in CTE coursework: Concentrator: A secondary student that has successfully completed 60% of a state-approved career and technical education program must have a minimum of 7,200 minutes per year, except for trade and industry programs that must have a minimum of 14,400 minutes per year. The threshold level would vary depending upon the sequence of courses and number of courses and number of minutes for each individual occupational program.
Moreover, there are differences in the ways states characterize students who complete CTE coursework—or completers. The most common characteristics of com-
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pleters include the following: finishing an approved sequence of courses in a CTE concentration; completion of a set of courses as defined by state regulations to satisfy Perkins’ requirements; or enrolment in a programme for at least two years that meets the common criteria set by the state for career and technical education. The following definition comes from Ohio and clearly represents one of the most elaborate completer frameworks: Completer: Secondary program completer—a student who has enrolled in and completed an approved workforce development program (typically 450 hours) AND has demonstrated sufficient mastery of their vocational and academic subject matter to prepare them for their career and lifelong learning goals as set forth in their individual career plan AND is no longer enrolled in secondary school.
Recent work carried out on the definition of a secondary vocational education concentrator leaves no doubt that the states intend to come up with a firm definition that can be applied nationwide (<www.edcountabilty.org>, Summer 2005 Workshop). Some of the most contentious issues are the following:
r r
State or local role in determining sequence of courses: Should there continue to be a state-mandated sequence of courses that determine attainment of a vocational concentrator, or should this be a locally determined set of courses? Threshold for deciding when someone is a concentrator: As revealed in the interviews, states use different cut-off points (number of credits completed, entrance into last class in sequence) on when to decide if someone has become a concentrator.
7 CTE Standards Following the discussion of accountability and CTE in the background section, we studied individual state implementation of CTE standards in six states. The basic issues that we see in this section are the standards that states use to measure the quality of CTE, the trend in terms of performance on the current federal standards, and the current debates around federal CTE standards.
7.1 State CTE Measures Interviews and a review of the basic legislation confirm that states utilize the same system, called the CARS (Consolidated Annual Report) measures, to evaluate the performance of CTE. These measures are divided into four core indicators: student attainment; credential attainment; placement and retention; and participation in and completion of non-traditional programmes. Table 5 lists these standards and includes both somewhat traditional measures of student success, such as academic achievement, as well as more difficult-to-measure items, such as post-secondary placement and retention.
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Table 5 Core indicators and sub-indicators: career and technical education Core Indicator 1. Student attainment This indicator seeks to assess student attainment of the challenging state-established academic and vocational and technical skill proficiencies at both the secondary and post-secondary levels. 1S1—Secondary Academic Attainment; 1S2—Secondary Vocational and Technical Skill Attainment; 1P1—Post-secondary Academic Attainment; 1P2—Post-secondary Vocational and Technical Skill Attainment. Core Indicator 2. Credential attainment This indicator seeks to assess student attainment of a secondary school diploma or its recognized equivalent, a proficiency credential in conjunction with a secondary school diploma, or a post-secondary degree or credential. 2S1—Secondary Completion; 2S2—Proficiency Credential with Secondary Diploma (Not required for 2000/2001); 2P1—Post-secondary Degree or Credential. Core Indicator 3. Placement and retention This indicator seeks to assess vocational and technical education student placement in, retention in, and completion of post-secondary education or advanced training, placement in military service, or placement or retention in employment. 3S1—Secondary Placement; 3S2—Secondary Retention; 3P1—Post-secondary Placement; 3P2—Post-secondary Retention (Not required for 2000/2001). Core Indicator 4. Participation in and completion of non-traditional programmes This indicator seeks to assess student participation in and completion of vocational and technical education programmes that lead to non-traditional training and employment. 4S1—Participation in Secondary Non-Traditional Programmes; 4S2—Completion of Secondary Non-Traditional Programmes; 4P1—Participation in Post-secondary Non-Traditional Programmes; 4P2—Completion of Post-secondary Non-Traditional Programmes.
States are currently allowed the authorities to decide which indicators will be used to assess the achievement of these measures. The approaches states take to determine which indicators are appropriate to measure success vary substantially. In terms of the academic achievement measures, state-level definitions of CTE academic achievement suffer from the same problems as the achievement measures for secondary education overall. For example, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio and Massachusetts use their state-generated tests as a way of determining if CTE graduates are meeting academic achievement goals. New York uses the Regents Exams as a measure. In contrast, Illinois uses graduation or completion of schooling as the academic measure. The indicators used to assess the vocational achievement measure vary more substantially. While New Jersey and Illinois continue to utilize the same indicators of graduation or course completion, programmes in Ohio and Massachusetts use achievement of specific vocational competencies, such as a state-specific test for vocational subjects, to show achievement of vocational subjects. Michigan and New
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York based the state indicator of achievement of a specific grade-point average in vocational subjects. New York measures the percentage of CTE completers who attain a high-school diploma. Finally, states assess the effectiveness of post-secondary completion through various strategies which currently vary substantially, from use of student surveys conducted by local schools in Massachusetts or Michigan, to use of state-level administrative records to determine employment or educational status of students after graduation in New Jersey or Illinois.
7.2 State CTE Performance Given the variation in the measurement systems adopted by the states, it is no wonder that a review of the most recent data shows such a wide variation in achievement. Table 6 shows the current achievement levels for the six states. It is remarkable that some states maintained a 95% or better measure in any of the indicators. The variation in the achievement of academic measures ranges from a low of 68.12% in Michigan to a high of 95% in Illinois. Interestingly, the results in Table 6 do not correspond to the most stringent measures. For example, while New York’s Regent Exams present a substantial challenge to high-school students, and having 77% of CTE graduates pass those tests seems significant, it is more difficult to judge why only 68.2% of Michigan youth in CTE in the 11th grade reach the state-defined threshold level of career and technical education. This measure is a less rigorous one than the Regents Exams. Secondly, it is interesting to note that states that use unemployment insurance data to measure the placement rate reported fewer students with successful placement rates. Illinois and New Jersey have lower placement rates, while states that use locally-generated surveys, such as Ohio or Massachusetts, have close to 95% of CTE students reported with successful placement. This result supports the empirical literature that suggests using unemployment insurance data as a way to investigate student outcomes.
Table 6 Achievement of core indicators by state (2003–2004) Academic achievement Vocational skills Diploma/equivalent/ degree/credential Total placement
Illinois
Massachusetts
Michigan
New Jersey
New York
Ohio
95%
70.59%
68.12%
93.05%
76.87%
94.61%
> 95 > 95
92.42% 92.42%
87.75% > 95
90.52% > 95
81.09% > 95
59.19% > 95
76.36%
> 95
94.82%
81.95%
> 95
92.22%
Note: >95 = actual performance of this indicator is greater than 95%. Source: <www.edcountability.net>
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7.3 Perspectives on the Accountability Measures Interviews with the state staff responsible for CTE showed that states are aware of drawbacks to their current systems. While the state systems currently have helped in terms of understanding the implementation of Perkins, there is a more tenuous linkage to the use of these systems for performance improvement. When asked directly about how the CARS data are used in the state, respondents described that they are used in assessing local programme performance, but indicated that state capacity to judge if local programmes are effective is hampered by the lack of staff to evaluate programmes or the fact that local education systems are accountable to local authorities rather than to state departments. There are states that are moving towards using data for performance improvement on a more systematic level. One state started doing regional workshops where districts learn about the data that was collected and focus on how to use it.
7.4 Perspectives on Data Quality There is a widespread understanding that the data used to measure the effectiveness of CTE at the local level needs extensive review before they can be used to assess programmes. The most common system is for states to require that Perkins’ data or other state accountability information is entered locally and forwarded to the state department. This situation introduces a lot of potential error into the measurement of student attendance, graduation or testing. In addition, among those states that rely on local authorities to survey graduates, schools potentially can produce inaccurate estimates of student success because of poor knowledge of data collection practices among local school professionals.
8 Other Indicators of Accountability It is critical for accountability to include data that can improve performance rather than simply assessing programme success or failure. In this light, our qualitative study asked state administrators about the measurement of classroom practices, like work-based learning as well as career counselling. In both cases, the states we surveyed varied considerably on the assessment of work-based learning, but none actually collected data on career counselling centrally. They left open the possibility that this information is potentially available at the local level. However, it reveals that a large part of what might be considered CTE is not documented by the states. Work-based learning data is available in a number of states, because it is measured as part of the attainment of advanced vocational competency. In one state, for example, the state laws require that students completing a co-operative programme get an assessment at the school level. These assessments, however, are not integrated into the state level accountability system, but are assumed to be available for local teachers and administrators to improve performance.
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However, another respondent pointed out that some important changes had been made to the co-operative system, including providing professional standards for cooperative education co-ordinators. This still implies a relatively passive accountability system in this one state, where the state may set broad criteria for professional conduct but does not monitor the operation of work-based learning. To a certain extent, other states brought up the issue of work-based learning. However, none of the states built work-based learning into their accountability process as far as can be concluded from the interviews. Work-based learning becomes more important, however, as internships and other forms of school and work integration become popular in general and vocational schooling.
8.1 Curriculum Frameworks Because of the continuing evolution of CTE and, in part, due to the influence of the standards movement, states have often aggressively increased the level of occupational competency required, as well as focusing on formally building academic and vocational integration through curriculum frameworks. This aggressive push has meant increased academic performance among CTE students, and opens the door for better occupational performance through integrated activities. Sometimes the curriculum frameworks, which are proposed often at the state level, run up against local control of curriculum. For example, states mentioned continued resistance among schools, but noted that this had decreased over time.
9 Conclusion Accountability and curriculum reform are increasingly impacting state career and technical education systems. The Perkins III legislation focused state-level energy on the larger questions of how to define indicators that will allow them to account for spending of Perkins’ funds. This shift in accountability follows decades where vocational schooling has both led other education systems in monitoring the outcomes of schooling, but largely fallen behind the K-12 system in crafting state-level tests. In part, this is due to the nature of vocational school curriculum and testing, where both academic and vocational skills are integral parts of the educational enterprise. This is also, unfortunately, due to perennial problems with staffing shortages and possibly an implementation problem at the state level. While many staff have left CTE at the state level and have not been replaced, there remain difficulties implementing the new vision of integrated workforce development systems at the state level (Kister, 2001). A review of the current accountability framework under Perkins and of state indicators revealed some important differences among states in how they approach accountability. It is significant that while a number of states extended the testing from K-12 high schools to vocational programmes, such as New York, a number still use different measures, such as graduation. It is important to note that these
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measures are not weak in terms of data, but if they are not used consistently this means they cannot be compared effectively against more academic measures. Similarly, state assessment of occupational knowledge is variable. While a number of states have invested in centralized testing systems, others rely almost solely on teacher-developed tests or industry assessments. While the latter offer some assurance that completers are consistently being evaluated, the former offer no such comfort. Moreover, the data are not comparable between states, and the Data Quality Institute Report in 2005 did not propose a possible solution to this problem. In terms of curriculum, the current trend is clearly to move to career clusters. While many states have curtailed in-house curriculum development staff, most maintain active staff working with local schools and districts to develop a highquality curriculum for vocational programmes. The framework adopted by all the states studied in this chapter focuses on career clusters. There are differences, however, as some states (such as Ohio or New Jersey) have moved ahead quickly and use the clusters as the basis for all curriculum, programmes and career counselling. States and other national governments can gain something from this brief review. The following suggestions follow from the state comparisons: 1. Academic indicators. While some states are distinguished by having outcomes based on labour-market performance for employment after graduation, states need to be careful to measure the academic performance of graduates rather than relying upon the graduation rates as indicators of performance. The current strategy of relying on graduation rates or completion rates to compute students’ success might be compared against the approach of using a standardized test to measure achievement. Given the labour-market value of basic skills, this would seem to be an important concern. 2. Vocational competencies: The potential solutions for vocational competencies are more problematic, but looking at Ohio’s home-grown testing system might be useful, as it uses career clusters to define potential outcomes. States often use industry-generated tests, but these are frequently not comparable. One other possibility is simply to use a common test that measures completion of certain general competencies, such as teamwork or technology, which are shared across different vocational fields. Acknowledgments This study was commissioned as part of a larger review of vocational education by Rutgers University and the State of New Jersey under contract to the Center on Education and Training for Employment at the Ohio State University. We appreciate the generous funding and also the insightful comments from both groups. This manuscript represents the opinions of the authors. Thanks are also due to Dr Christopher Zirkle and Ms Hyo Sun Kim for helping with data collection, preparing the tables and providing feedback on the study design.
References Association for Career and Technical Education. 2005. Side-by-side comparison of House and Senate bills with 1998 Perkins Law. Washington, DC: ACTE.
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Association for Career and Technical Education. 2006. Reinventing the American high school for the 21st century: a position paper. Washington, DC: ACTE. Bishop, J.H.; Mane, F. 1998. The New York state reform strategy: raising the bar above minimum competency. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies. Bottoms, G.; Young, M. 2005. High schools that work. Atlanta, GA: Southern Regional Education Board. Fowler, F.C. 2003. Policy studies for educational leaders: an introduction, 2nd ed. New York, NY: Prentice Hall. Grubb, W.N. et al. 1999. Toward order from chaos: state efforts to reform workforce development system. Berkeley, CA: University of California, National Center for Research in Vocational Education. Hoffman, L.M. 2003. Overview of public elementary and secondary schools and districts: school year 2001–02. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (No. NCES 2003-411.) Karp, M. et al. 2004. State dual enrollment policies: addressing access and quality. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. Kister, J. 2001. State leadership for career technical education. Washington, DC: The National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium. Klein, S. 2001. Financing vocational education: a state policy-makers’ guide. Berkeley, CA: MPR Associates. Krueger, C. 2004. Career and technical education: a briefing memo. Denver, CO: Education Commission of the States. National Assessment of Vocational Education. 2004. Final report to Congress. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of the Under-Secretary. National Association of State Boards of Education. 1998. Public accountability for student success: standards for education accountability systems. Alexandria, VA: NASBE. Rahn, M.L.; O’Driscoll, P.; Hudecki, P. 1999. Taking off! Sharing state-level accountability strategies: using academic and vocational accountability strategies to improve student achievement. Berkeley, CA: National Center for Research in Vocational Education. (No. MDS-1206.) Silverberg, M. et al. 2004. National assessment of vocational education: final report to Congress. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of the Under-Secretary, Policy and Program Studies Service. Stasz, C.; Bodilly, S. 2004. Efforts to improve the quality of vocational education in secondary schools: impact of federal and state policies. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation. Stecher, B.M.; Hanser, L.M. 1992. Local accountability in vocational education: a theoretical model and its limitations in practice. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation. The Editors. 2004. Quality counts 2004: Count me in. Education week, January 8, p. 7. White, R. et al. 2004. The structures and challenges of vocational education funding and accountability systems: a report prepared by the academy for educational development for the national assessment of vocational education. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of the Under-Secretary.
Chapter III.4
The Regional Perspective of Vocational Education and Training Mike Coles and Tom Leney
1 Introduction The trading of goods and services is not necessarily constrained by geographical, social, cultural and political differences. Markets are often diverse in nature and goods and services are usually tailored to meet specific needs of the marketplace and of potential customers. There is also a market for people with skills: people engage in training and move to places where they are more likely to sell their skills through work. Vocational education and training (VET) is mostly localized in terms of where people develop their skills, but is generally more wide ranging in the transfer of those skills. Whatever the specificity of training, a notion has grown everywhere that a person may increase the value of their skills by using opportunities to apply them more broadly. Nowadays, this extends beyond local, regional and national boundaries, so that the supply side of VET is now at least partially responsive to the wider geographical market. On the demand side, there is now better articulation of the skills that are needed in the work place and this is communicated through various markets—some local, some further afield. Thus, it is clear that, through this interaction with skills markets, VET is an integrating factor with the potential to bring about greater levels of articulation across geographical, social, cultural and political boundaries. Looking at VET from a different angle, we can see that it is shaped by actions taken to strengthen regional co-operation. Economic factors, such as the availability of natural resources, regional economic strengths and weaknesses, inward investment, and environmental and safety factors, all shape the form of VET. Institutional arrangements have a powerful influence on the quantity and quality of VET. Global markets for goods and services also influence the general level of VET activity. Some factors are within the control of a region or country—others are not. These diverse influences mean that VET systems cannot develop in isolation from other VET systems and some kind of regional integration is inevitable. A good example of regional co-operation in terms of the supply and demand for VET is in North-Eastern Europe. At first the Nordic Council of Ministers, for whom education, training and labour market issues are an important dimension, was concerned only with Finland and the Scandinavian countries. More recently, the Baltic R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 III.4, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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countries have become closely involved, and the network is expanding, perhaps as far as the St Petersburg region in Russia, as well as in Poland. This example clearly shows how zones of mutual trust can grow quite rapidly in continental regions, helping to extend the mobility of labour. Numerous global regions are looking at the possibilities of co-operation of this kind. A consequence of VET being honed to meet specific needs and used as a tool for regional integration is that it has taken on a wide range of forms. Other chapters in this book will engage with these different forms of VET.
2 Common Challenges What are the pressures on VET systems that tend to lead to greater unity between regions and countries? Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development studies (2006) and research into progress towards the Lisbon Goal (Leney et al., 2005) identify, not surprisingly, economic pressures as the main driver acting on VET systems. Countries want to strengthen the link between the education system and employment and point to the discrepancies between skills needed in the workplace, job training and qualifications. Economic pressures arise in response to global economic trends, as well as local and national economic situations, such as the need to be responsive to innovation, the development of work organization and of human capital. These generic pressures act as a force for regional integration in VET since they focus attention on responding to common skill-supply issues. Vocational qualifications systems are also believed to have potential for improving the link between education and work, for establishing new pathways from education into employment and for reducing barriers to learning, for example by using new forms of pedagogy and assessment. Economic needs are perceived to drive innovation in production. Research shows that innovation often takes place via continuous learning on the part of people in the workplace and that forms of learning at work are changing; for example, there is an increasing effort to organize on-the-job learning and utilize self-directed learning. Consequently, learning structures in the workplace are becoming more complex. In particular, the focus is no longer solely on acquisition of technical knowledge, but has widened to include softer skills, new values, new codes of behaviour and the remodelling of past experience. This has resulted in expansion of training provision across regions and greater use of more diverse recognition systems. Some countries emphasize assessment of vocational ability, recognized through qualifications, as important for employment stability, improved remuneration, and quick and efficient recruitment. Recognition of vocational ability is also expected to reduce risks related to employment, on both the employer’s and the employee’s side, by preventing mismatches engendered through poor information about workers’ skills. Many countries report that rapid economic growth has produced skills shortages and this has exerted pressure to develop the VET system by creating more-efficient and faster responses to changes and emerging needs in the labour market.
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Another pressure on VET systems arises from the potential advantages of mobility of labour and the expectation that they should deliver international recognition of skills, including the recognition of formal, informal and non-formal learning that has been carried out in other countries. Among the European Union (EU) countries, there is a commitment to increase mobility of workers and learners across country boundaries. This requires transparency in VET systems and encourages countries to build education and qualification structures that are consistent with other countries in the Union. Recent proposals for a European Qualifications Framework are designed to make it easier for one national qualifications system to articulate with another, without superseding national systems. The European Qualifications Framework will also provide a further means of comparison through the referencing of national qualifications to a single set of levels. In many countries, low population growth coupled with increased demand for high skills has focused attention on growing skill shortages. This means that older people need to be provided with learning opportunities reflecting change in working practices, a policy challenge to which many countries have been slow to respond. Clearly, the outflow of older skilled workers, resulting in a waste of knowledge and expertise, can also lead to pressures on labour markets, and this is exacerbated in most European countries by recent trends for earlier retirement, particularly among males. The demographic shift has had an impact on the need for (re)training older people, on retirement schemes, pension funding and family life. Several countries highlight the challenges VET systems face as a result of immigration flows. These pressures include the need to identify skills gained in other countries compared to the national skills recognition system, as well as the need to accept learning that has not been previously recognized through qualifications. There is pressure for more flexible vocational education and training systems for people in disadvantaged situations as a means of improving social inclusion through education and subsequently work. Social and cultural issues are therefore not divorced from the economic, demographic and immigration issues noted above. At the same time, it is generally recognized that people engage in learning for economic reasons, to improve employment prospects, and for personal development and social reasons—social status, better citizenship and so on. These pressures also include a perception of the need to broaden the current provision of education to include such aspects as values, behaviour and citizenship. There is also a requirement to offer learners more choice and more flexible ways of gaining credit for their learning. The need to give recognition to informal and non-formal learning also falls into this category. Technological innovations and the global spread of information and communications technologies are creating pressure for countries to be using the most upto-date methods of production and service provision. The move towards leaner production systems and working organizations—and the risk of rising unemployment rates—brings with it a need for enhanced training and retraining in the use of new technologies. This means that qualifications systems need to adapt to allow the recognition of new knowledge, skills and wider competences related to the use of new technologies.
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The pressure to develop learning opportunities means that, in some countries, providers have been required to differentiate course offerings in response to more selective demand. This pressure has had a strong impact on the growing amount of VET provision at post-secondary and higher education levels in many countries over recent years. This demand is expected to grow as lifelong learning provision expands and develops the need for even more learning (Leney et al., 2005). Developing VET as part of lifelong learning requires examination of the structure of provision, including: (a) the links between working life, schools and higher education; (b) the content of programmes; (c) the quality and relevance of provision; (d) resource provision and management; and (e) the roles and responsibilities of different partners and stakeholders. Countries in an OECD study (2006) accept that there is an argument for allowing scope for lifelong learning goals to shape the way the education and training system operates. Stronger linkages are needed between learning at different stages of life and between the formal and the informal structures. Countries suggest that more diverse settings for learning will be needed and different partnerships between funders, providers and qualification bodies will be needed leading to more integrated provision. In future, departures from the existing VET infrastructures are likely to be substantial, at least for some countries. The fact that all of these pressures on VET systems are common to many countries might be expected to add impetus to their reform agendas. It would probably not be the case, though, that common pressures for reform would lead to common responses. The country or regional context will require bespoke solutions. However, the elements of changing VET infrastructure might be expected to show some commonality and the process of change itself could have features that result from policy-learning about reforms and trials in other countries and regions.
3 Instruments from the EU Experience The European Commission—working with the member states—has a remit for the development of some policies in the field of education and training. In certain policy areas, member states have transferred responsibility to the EU so that the Union can use ‘hard’ methods of co-ordination, but for other policy areas, such as lifelong learning, including VET, subsidiarity prevails. This means that member states retain responsibility for legislation, policy development and implementation. In VET, therefore, the European Union cannot mandate but has to find ‘softer’ policy tools— involving voluntary co-operation. Obviously, this limits the policy instruments available at the European level that have an impact on an area such as VET, for which governments are determined to retain their autonomy. The range of policy levers that could (but may not) be used for the European level development of VET is shown in Table 1. Table 1 shows that in the case of lifelong learning (including VET) subsidiarity means that mandates and inducements have limited use. The EU can create leverage in some circumstances through capacity-building and systems changing, as the use
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Table 1 Policy levers and the open method of co-ordination (OMC) Policy instrument
Policy assumptions and expected effects
Lever for EU under the rule of subsidiarity?
Mandates Rules intended to produce compliance. Inducements Transfer of money in return for certain actions.
Capacity to demand compliance. Most will comply but maybe not all. Sufficient funding provided to generate results; funding drives change, also with unintended outcomes. Some funding to initiate change: Expect/hope that best practice models produce cascade or ‘pump-priming’ innovation. New entrants to old institutions that are not producing results generate change or reform.
No
Capacity-building Transfer of money for purposes of longer-term investments.
Systems changing Transfer of authority to alter system of delivery.
Hortation Use of proclamations, speeches, public relations campaigns to exhort people to take the needed action. Deliberative change Voluntary and collaborative change processes—bottom-up reform, usually encouraged from higher up.
Assumes players are motivated by images, symbols or values.
Relies on collaboration in experimental activity and the identification and voluntary exchange of good practice, etc.
No
To a limited extent
Indirectly—e.g. in-sector reforms through encouraging social partner activity or Leonardo programmes. Yes. The Lisbon process and OMC.
Yes. The Lisbon process and OMC.
of European structural and regional funds demonstrate. The reform of VET and further education in Ireland is a case of EU capacity-building, in that consolidation funding—which is the additional funding made available to Ireland, Spain, Greece and Portugal when they first joined the EU—made a significant contribution to reforms. However, ‘hortation’ and ‘deliberative change’ are the main policy instruments used to drive education and training policy at the European level. The ‘soft’ method of European co-ordination for VET and several other policy areas is a form of co-operation between governments, social partners and other European stakeholders. It is known as the open method of co-ordination (OMC), which is intended as a means of spreading best practice and encouraging greater convergence towards the main EU goals. The four key stages agreed for the open method of co-ordination, as they apply to education and training, are: 1. identifying priorities and benchmarks; 2. conducting benchmarking exercises to gauge the progress of the EU member states towards the identified benchmarks;
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3. identifying instances of good practice and best practice; 4. through peer review, finding effective and practical ways to share best practice. At the time of writing, the OMC is still a young policy instrument for education and training in the European Union. As a ‘bottom up’ method for sharing and developing best practice, it is being relied on to generate innovation in VET. This depends on the willingness of the stakeholders to make progress, rather than respond to ‘top down’ mandates and inducements. In the first two or three years of operation, OMC in education and training has concentrated on the first stages—identifying priorities and benchmarks; conducting benchmarking exercises within the constraints of available data, and beginning to identify good practice, particularly in aspects such as quality assurance, advice and guidance, the recognition of informal and nonformal learning, and developing a European Qualifications Framework as a point of reference. With lifelong learning, including VET, identified as of high importance to the development of a knowledge society and a knowledge economy, the fourth stage of OMC—called variously peer review, policy-learning and bench learning—now has to play a key role. Such a process across nations and systems is by no means straightforward. Different traditions, drivers and barriers may frustrate the attempt to identify the extent to which good practice can readily transfer from one system to another.
4 Benchmarking to Bench Learning It is the pressures to change VET systems, and the instruments in place to support the process of creating greater articulation between the systems in different countries and regions, that have created an awareness of the need to move away from comparative performance to a greater focus on understanding the dynamics of system change in different country settings. In the past, the setting out of high-class benchmarks based on the best-known country practice was thought to have the potential to stimulate VET performance in countries with lower performing systems. A respect for the knowledge of local conditions (opportunities and constraints) was probably amongst the motives for such an approach. These local conditions were thought to be the dominant determinant of the shape of reforms. There were probably political pressures too arising from the dangers of explicit interference by European development programmes with the governance of processes within European Union member states or regions. The focus has shifted to a more mature policy of sharing, co-operation and mutual support for national and regional reforms across borders, as witnessed by the cooperation programmes led by the Education and Training Foundation in the European Union candidate and accession countries. Policy-learning is a well-researched tool that defines a process where the experience gained in different country contexts for reform is of value to outside observers. It is now accepted that the various processes of policy-learning are more likely to lead to stable and effective outcomes of reform processes than the simplistic notion of policy borrowing. Contextual
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differences in countries and regions are not something that can be controlled as in a scientific experiment. They are powerful, pervasive and valued and are therefore generally non-negotiable. The process of VET reforms can be enhanced by ensuring that key players have exposure to the advantages and disadvantages of different models of VET systems and access to experts who can interpret the evidence for policy-making, whilst respecting national infrastructures and resisting over-complex solutions and simplistic, rapid routes to decisions. Interaction with managers and policy-makers from other jurisdictions can safeguard and optimize the impact of the exposure phase. Similarly, interactions with models of implementation, such as scenarios (Leney et al., 2004) of VET reform and implementation over different time-scales, are also potentially useful tools. The third stage of policy-learning is adaptation of features of other VET models to the national setting. This stage brings the opportunity for consultation and developing of ownership of the emerging model and a first clear sight of major obstacles to implementation. Finally, policy-learning can use the opportunity to conduct evaluation of the preferred model by using international experience of VET design. In summary, policy-learning can play a useful role in VET reform by providing a network of external reference points for informing decision-making. Some writers have suggested that the most fertile ground for policy-learning between countries exists where there are strong similarities between systems. This is not necessarily the case. For example, Finland’s education and training systems have ‘borrowed’ effectively from similar systems (comprehensive schooling, learned substantially for the Swedish model in the 1980s) and from dissimilar systems (competence-based qualifications for adults in the workforce, adapted from a United Kingdom innovation in the 1990s). Rather, it is important to identify the kind of policy-learning that is appropriate to particular problems and challenges. Based on work developed in the Scottish Further Education Unit (McCann & Donald, 2005), which adapted ideas about technology transfer to the world of VET, we can distinguish at least three forms of collaborative innovation for VET. These are:
1. Knowledge transfer initiation. This refers to a situation in which activity creates new approaches, services or products that can create innovation. This could take place by way of collaborative research and development, resulting in new solutions to common problems. Long-term development. 2. Knowledge transfer adoption. This occurs when an agency engages with an existing knowledge base (perhaps a tool, policy or strategic approach being used in another country) in order to achieve some specific change. This approach may be close to the model envisaged in the European Commission’s peer learning pilot. An obvious danger to avoid is the simple trap: ‘policy borrowing’. While there are examples of success through policy borrowing, there are many examples of failure. The purpose remains ‘policy-learning’ in most cases. Medium- and perhaps short-term development. 3. Knowledge transfer capacity-building. This refers not to a specific product but to building the capacity for change. Activities in this area emphasize building
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the drivers for change, overcoming barriers and building capacity, rather than zooming in on particular initiatives. Medium to long term. Beyond these formal mechanisms, the reflective outcome of exploring different approaches to similar issues or problems may itself create an environment for innovation.
5 Facilitating and Managing Regional Learning Having set out the factors that are driving changes to VET (and by implication VET delivery systems), together with a description of the processes in place in Europe for facilitating co-operation, it is useful to examine some case studies of how such processes actually work. Five short case studies follow that are selected to cover the different levels of co-operation that are possible. The Maastricht study provides an opportunity to examine (from a European perspective) national policy goals, progress towards those goals and research evidence that might be useful in shaping future policy responses. The second case study examines the methods used to support national reforms with information and expertise on an on-going basis for countries in the process of VET reform. The third case study examines the ways the infrastructure of the proposed European Qualifications Framework (EQF) can support national reform. Moving to a level closer to the workplace, the fourth case study examines attempts to facilitate policy-learning across enterprises within a sector. Finally, a case study is included highlighting some issues at the level of the individual when mobility of labour across borders is encouraged.
5.1 The Maastricht Study and Communiqu´e The Maastricht study (Leney et al., 2005) was the first comprehensive overview of developments and trends in vocational education and training in the thirty-one European countries that agreed to the Copenhagen Declaration on enhanced European co-operation in VET in 2002. The study assessed the contribution of VET to achieving the Lisbon Goal from an economic and social perspective. The study concluded that initial VET is well developed in most countries and can be seen as contributing to the EU benchmark of young people completing upper secondary education. However, the study suggested that attention must be given to improving the quality and flexibility of initial vocational education and training if it is to continue to attract adequate numbers of young people in the future. Better links to general and higher education are also needed, as well as flexible pathways encouraging young people to improve their range of competences and progress to higher levels. Continuing vocational training is reported as an area of major concern. Too few Europeans participate and their existing levels of skills and educational attainment are lower than their counterparts in competing countries. Continuing vocational
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training should support the competitiveness of the European economy by upgrading the competences of the whole workforce, and especially the low skilled, who currently receive very little training. Continuing vocational training also needs to address the problem of the ageing European workforce, and the training of older workers so as to encourage them to remain longer in employment. Immigrants will also need training to take their places in communities. Facilitating learning at the workplace itself is essential in all of this. Finally, the report suggests that innovation in teaching and learning needs to become a major action. This important aspect has been omitted from European co-operation in VET thus far, and reinforced attention should be given to the training and competence development of VET teachers and trainers, and to their fragmented profession. In other respects, the blend of current priorities and actions resulting from the Copenhagen Declaration are found by Member States to be appropriate. Commenting on the study, EU Commissioner Jan Figel concluded that: The findings of this study influenced the Maastricht Communiqu´e and in particular inspired the priorities set at national level. [. . .] The study brings to our notice factors that will influence our VET systems profoundly in the coming years. [. . .] In the spirit of cultivating the Open Method of Co-ordination, this study is rich in examples of good practice, used to illustrate where countries are innovating and doing well (European Commission, 2004)
In 2006, the European Commission organized a follow-up to the Maastricht Study, to coincide with the VET priorities of Finland’s presidency of the European Union.
5.2 Institutions for Catalysing Knowledge-Sharing in VET Practices There are many organizations and networks that facilitate knowledge-sharing between countries. Universities, professional bodies and international businesses are good examples. Research organizations also facilitate exchange, such as the European Centre for Educational Research, the Vocational Education and Training Network and the International Vocational Education and Training Association. However, whilst all of these organizations serve to inform policy directions in one way or another, and offer the possibility of capacity-building, they do not offer direct, on-going practical advice that is relevant to policy-makers. This challenge is taken up in the main by two EU-funded bodies that engage in a co-ordinated way in supporting VET reform. The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP),1 established in 1975, is the reference centre for vocational education and training. It does this by providing information on and analyses of vocational education and training systems, policies, research and practice. CEDEFOP’s tasks are to:
r r r
compile selected documentation and analyses of data; contribute to developing and co-ordinating research; exploit and disseminate information;
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encourage joint approaches to vocational education and training problems; provide a forum for debate and exchanges of ideas.
The Education and Training Foundation (ETF)2 works with developing economies (candidate countries, South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and the Mediterranean region) in promoting knowledge-sharing and expertise development in the belief that education and training can make a fundamental contribution to increasing prosperity, creating sustainable growth and encouraging social inclusion. The ETF has a clear agenda for promoting integration through VET and in promoting integration by means of VET reform and policy-learning. For example, its priorities are to:
r r r r r
assess progress and future priorities for reform in partner countries in vocational education and training and its links to socio-economic development; design, monitor and assess projects at the request of the European Commission; build capacity so that policy-makers and practitioners in partner countries play a full role in modernizing their vocational education and training systems; contribute actively to international debate on reform in transition countries. In particular, it may draw on relevant experience in the EU to pilot innovative approaches to reform in partner countries; facilitate dialogue amongst stakeholders by developing international, national and local networks.
It is difficult to describe the impact of these two bodies because their span of activities is large and the networks associated with them are vast. The time-scales over which knowledge capital develops also vary enormously, making impact difficult to measure. However, the authors believe that these two bodies make a substantial impact on European and national policy development and implementation, research knowledge, skills capacity, workplace development and European co-ordination and integration. Both centres offer serious levels of support to VET professionals, the infrastructures of enterprises, and training and policy planners. Working in the field of VET over the last twenty years has created a knowledge base that can support policy-learning through making available resources (expertise) and helping with the management of projects and reforms. Thus, CEDEFOP has built up expertise in areas such as cross-country sectoral development and e-learning, while the ETF provides expert analytical and developmental support in forging links between VET and labour-market reform.
5.3 The European Qualifications Framework—EQF The interface between one VET system and another is most obvious when the qualifications of trained people are compared. If skilled people are to be able to move to new positions in different systems to fill vacancies, and if recruiters are to look outside their ‘home’ market, it is essential that qualifications systems can articulate one
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with another. The existence of a translation device, such as the proposed European Qualifications Framework (EQF), makes this articulation possible.3 The EQF also sets out a series of progressive steps in qualifications that cross the boundaries between schooling, higher education and work-based education and training. In this way the EQF is a framework for lifelong learning. The EQF is a meta framework—it works on the basis that each country, region or employment sector has its own qualifications framework or frameworks. These local frameworks are the means of recognizing qualifications that support local people and enterprises because they are built to play a part in a training infrastructure. It is possible for all VET systems to link qualifications frameworks to the EQF and, therefore, by using the EQF levels, it becomes possible to compare one framework with another. The market for skills and jobs is potentially larger as a result. Thus, the EQF is at the same time respectful of local qualifications systems and opens up frameworks for use outside countries, regions and sectors. The EQF proposals have been developed through close scrutiny of current practice in countries, regions and sectors. It draws on the strengths of different VET systems and, therefore, is a tool for the exchange of good practice in terms of qualification levels for VET. This is an important dimension for one system to influence another. The EQF proposals ask questions of countries and sectors. The proposals are constructed on the basis of learning outcomes.4 In order to compare a framework to the EQF level, it is helpful if the local framework levels are described as outcomes too. This is often not the case and therefore the EQF applies an integrating pressure for all qualifications frameworks to be clear in terms of learning outcomes from the qualification process, instead of simply defining the learning inputs and the infrastructure that makes these inputs possible. This pressure to use learning outcomes is a powerful tool for enabling examination of the qualification systems from the viewpoint of learners (What is it precisely that I will learn? How does this compare to what I have already learned?) and the enterprise (Is this qualification level from country X what I need? Do these learning outcomes equate with the work practice I intend to establish?). The content, supporting infrastructure and the efficiency become more transparent within the country and to outsiders. This brings with it the possibility of evaluation and reforms that will improve the quality of VET and the system that delivers it. The EQF proposals are based on eight levels (Coles & Oates, 2004). Countries with more or less than eight levels in their frameworks may find pressure to adapt to an eight-level approach so that articulation with the EQF and, consequently, the frameworks in other countries is more straightforward. In this way, the EQF is not likely to be an entirely neutral translation device. The EQF proposals make it clear that, in addition to all else, it is a means of fostering change. This change is in the direction of the Lisbon Goal of a better market for skills that will offer more and better jobs for European citizens. The EQF is potentially a powerful integrating influence, not just within Europe but also in its articulation with markets and qualifications systems around the world.
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5.4 Sectoral Development The sectoral dimension is a key focus for co-operation at the European level. Some sectors have been quick to take initiatives in this respect. European co-operation taking up the theme of ICT penetration and sectoral convergence serves as a good example. ICT penetration and sectoral convergence is an important driver for a European sectoral approach to skills and qualifications. In a sector like manufacturing, which is highly regulated with clear occupational profiles, technological changes—and especially ICTs as a driver of change—are eroding existing qualification profiles. In services, developments such as e-commerce also impact on jobs at all levels. In sectors such as ICTs a perceived slow response level in public education and training systems has spurred sectoral initiatives. In 2002/2003 CEDEFOP commissioned a series of studies on innovation of qualification profiles and curricula in Europe in ICT-user industries. The European Monitoring Centre on Change has also recently commissioned a number of studies in fields such as finance, fishing, media and graphics, textiles and the automobile industry, all of which show the same tendencies. Similarly, the Leonardo da Vinci programme has initiated a number of projects to develop sectoral training modules, assessment standards, and certificates and diplomas.
5.5 Mobility across Borders The 1990s saw immigration trends and patterns emerge with new flows coming from the countries of Eastern Europe and movements resulting from social instability in the Balkans. Migratory flows today are composed of various categories of persons: asylum seekers, displaced persons, persons requiring temporary protection, members of the family of an immigrant already established in the European Union, migrant workers and persons involved in business migration (of whom the numbers are growing) or tertiary/higher education. In 2004, the EU embarked upon a further round of enlargement, accepting ten new member states, predominantly from Central and Eastern Europe. Only the United Kingdom, Ireland and Sweden did not set up temporary arrangements for restricting labour market migration, thus allowing free movement of workers from the new EU Member States. Current research has broadly confirmed this movement as making a positive contribution to those labour markets open to workers from the wider EU, although there is a developing trend of failure to recognize the full value of qualification of migrant workers in many sectors (Anderson et al., 2006). However, sectoral co-operation and EU-funded programmes are likely to place emphasis upon improving recognition. Successful introduction (and further development) of measures such as the European Qualifications Framework, the European Credit System for VET (ECVET), the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) and EU mobility schemes have played an important role in the EU’s Integrated Programme for Lifelong Learning. Schemes
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such as Europass aim to increase transparency between the education systems of the EU countries by providing a single structure for the recognition of qualifications and competences across Europe. It seeks to aid mobility in education and will incorporate five already-existing recognition-based initiatives into one coherent framework. It demonstrates a commitment to lifelong learning and new technologies by placing Europass on the Internet where users can update it as and when they gain new qualifications. The five existing programmes that will be absorbed into Europass are: the European CV; the European Language Portfolio; the MobiliPass; the Certificate Supplement; and the Diploma Supplement. Other similar instruments may be added to Europass in future. Regionalization of VET structures also facilitates cross-border mobility by capitalizing on the trust that develops between all partners in education and training systems that are common and therefore more fully understood.
6 Towards Lifelong Learning Policies In 2005, the education and labour ministries of thirty-two European countries, including the twenty-five EU member states, submitted national reports to the European Commission on the state of development and implementation of their lifelong learning policies. The resulting Communication, ratified by the European Parliament and Council, and the accompanying report provide a careful stocktaking analysis of the state of development across six major aspects of lifelong learning, including the comprehensiveness of lifelong learning policies in the EU member states, funding, VET and higher education. The Communication makes clear recommendations for further progress at European and national levels. For VET, the following conclusions are reached: The implementation of the instruments and tools developed under the Copenhagen process is at too early a stage for countries to be able to present concrete results, but countries have established priorities for implementation at national level. In most countries, improving the attractiveness of VET is a key concern and a range of policies and measures are being actively implemented to improve the infrastructures and funding, to put in place or consolidate pathways and reduce obstacles to transfers from one type of provision to another, to modernise the curricula and create flexibility in its delivery and to adapt teacher training. A second crucial approach, which is receiving substantial attention, concerns strengthening links with the stakeholders, social partners and enterprises. Guidance and counseling systems are undergoing development in some countries, but this issue still needs more concerted attention. It is clear from the reports that a large majority of the countries express concerns with the needs of low-skilled citizens and disadvantaged groups and are implementing a range of policy approaches. However there is a lack of information on the non-formal and informal sectors, which makes it difficult to assess the full range of measures in all the countries. The European Inventory on validation of non-formal learning should help alleviate this problem. The participation of older workers in training is not showing marked improvements. However, an increasing number of countries are putting in place measures for the validation of prior learning and experience and for non-formal and informal learning. In order to achieve the Lisbon goals in this respect, more consideration and a higher priority level
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will be necessary. Increasing the relevance of VET by reforming and improving the links of VET with the labour market, the social partners and other stakeholders is of core concern for a large majority of countries. In most of the countries, there is an ongoing process of reviewing and adapting procedures and structures, which includes setting up tripartite or sectoral mechanisms to underpin the process of developing and updating qualifications. The early identification of skills and needs raises challenges for vocational education and training which are difficult, complex, costly and of longstanding. Overall the reports do not provide sufficient information to make it possible to determine the extent to which countries are developing mechanisms for anticipating skills shortages, gaps and deficiencies. In relation to the major challenge of increasing the access to training and professional development for VET professionals, measures which are being taken for VET teachers should be adapted and extended to trainers who currently seem to be the group most in need of attention (European Commission, 2005, p. 51).
As we have indicated, lifelong learning is accorded a key role in Europe’s agenda for competitiveness, employment growth and social inclusion/cohesion as part of the Lisbon Goals, and VET is a major component of lifelong learning in many European countries. Therefore, it is worth noting the key conclusions that the report and communication reach about the current state of development and implementation of lifelong learning policies at the national level across Europe. Progress has been made towards the agreed goal that lifelong learning strategies should be put in place in all Member States by 2006. Many—but by no means all—countries have now developed lifelong learning policy statements; for example, strategy documents or national action plans. Others have put in place framework legislation. It is still the case, however, that strategies remain imbalanced. There is a tendency either to focus on employability or on re-engaging those who have become alienated from education. It is encouraging that some countries, like Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway, are well on their way to achieving a national approach which is coherent and comprehensive, and are making strong progress on implementation. Even so, many countries still have much to do to achieve the agreed benchmarks for education and training.
7 Conclusion Vocational education and training has been traditionally viewed as most relevant to the micro setting—where workers engage with specific tasks in enterprises and services. The internationalization of markets has gradually transformed VET into a system with a much stronger dependence on interacting with markets outside local communities and beyond national boundaries. This has led to a greater level of regional co-operation in developing people with the skills needed in this wider market. Recruitment has also stretched across boundaries and has been another factor for regional co-operation. Within the European Union, political, financial and social structures have developed which are designed to optimize the value of VET from the regional perspective.
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Notes 1. 2. 3. 4.
<www.cedefop.eu.int> <www.etf.eu.int> <www.europa.eu.int/comm/education/policies/educ/eqf/> Learning outcomes are statements of what a learner is expected to know, understand and/or be able to demonstrate after completion of a process of learning
References Anderson, B. et al. 2006. Fair enough? Central and East European migrants in low-wage employment in the UK. York, UK: Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Coles, M.; Oates, T, 2004. European reference levels for education and training: an important parameter for promoting credit transfer and mutual trust. Thessaloniki, Greece: CEDEFOP. European Commission. 2004. The future priorities of enhanced European cooperation in vocational education and training (VET). Brussels: European Commision. (The Maastricht Communiqu´e.) <ec.europa.eu/education/news/ip/docs/maastricht com en.pdf> European Commission. 2005. Communication from the Commission: modernising education and training: a vital contribution to prosperity and social cohesion in Europe. Brussels: European Commission. (10.11.05.COM(2005) final.) Leney, T. et al. 2004. Scenarios toolkit. Thessaloniki, Greece: CEDEFOP. (Dossier series 8.) Leney, T. et al. 2005. Achieving the Lisbon Goal: the contribution of VET. Brussels: European Commission. McCann, J.; Donald, G. 2005. Initiating, adopting and building knowledge transfer in Scotland’s colleges. Stirling, UK: SFEU. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2006. Qualifications systems: bridges to lifelong learning. Paris: OECD.
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Chapter III.5
Vocational Education, Training Reform and Regional Integration in the Middle East Munther Wassef Masri
1 Introduction With the onset of globalization and escalating technological developments, combined with local, regional and international networks and interconnections, mainly in the economic and technical fields, pressure is increasing on VET systems in the Arab Region to better respond to or even to anticipate in some respects, new socioeconomic requirements and labour market needs (Lasonen, 1999). Increasing competitiveness on the local, regional and international levels has already resulted in growing demands for improving qualification standards in the workforce. But labour markets and vocational education and training systems are ill-prepared to respond to these challenges. On the labour market, we witness a relatively high rate of youth unemployment and low participation rates of women, side-by-side with increasing regional labour mobility. Prevailing VET systems still need to be transformed from predominantly supply-driven into balanced supplydemand-driven systems. VET systems are relatively expensive and overall funding and efficiency remain problematic. There are also still weak linkages and channels with higher education within the concept of lifelong learning. Finally, the role of the private sector in the planning and implementation of VET programmes, as well as human resources and development (HRD) programmes in general, is very weak (Wallenborn et al., 2003). A regional approach to VET in the Arab region has been going on for a long time, although at a modest level. Until recently, such regional efforts took place either on a bilateral basis or through regional organizations (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 1998). Organizations playing an active role in the field of HRD in general and VET in particular included the Arab Labour Organization (ALO), the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), the Arab Union for Technician Education, and the Arab Universities Union. More recently, international organizations became more active in their regional approach to VET issues and needs. Such organizations also included UNESCO-UNEVOC, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the European Training Foundation (ETF), the Deutsche Gesellschaft f¨ur technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) and other bilateral donor agencies. The overall impact, however, has been limited and very uneven in individual countries. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 III.5, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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More emphasis on regional co-operation and exchange therefore would undoubtedly help individual countries in the region to develop appropriate responses to the challenges they are facing. There are some lessons to be learned, however, from regional projects that have been implemented so far.
2 Regional Priorities It is worthwhile emphasizing here that many of the issues, fields and challenges of VET benefit well from a regional approach with the possibility of high potential returns—both technically and economically. The areas that can benefit most from such approaches, while maintaining the diversity and specificity of offerings, include practically all key areas of vocational education and training.
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Occupational classifications and standards: The regional feasibility of this area is further supported by the need for regional, as well as international, compatibility of such classifications and standards. Testing, certification and qualification frameworks and standards: This is becoming more and more important from a regional perspective due to increasing labour mobility, as well as the pressures of competitiveness and globalization. Curriculum development: Regional efforts in this area would deal mainly with methodologies, the exchange of experience, standards and labour-market relevance criteria. This does not exclude the utilization of common curricula and education/training material, as was the case for some efforts in the past. Teacher education and training: This area is concerned with pre-service systems for the preparation of VET instructors, as well as their in-service training. It can also be concerned with the in-service training of enterprise supervisors, who are expected to undertake some training functions for trainees, apprentices, new recruits, etc. The training of trainers is another relevant area of concern that warrants the availability of regional and excellence centres to offer services to the concerned countries (Grootings & Nielsen, 2005). Career guidance, counselling and employment services: The importance and general nature of such services would warrant a regional approach, especially with the introduction of on-line systems. System development: This area would deal with such topics as governance, funding sources, legislative tools, school-based versus co-operative (dual) systems, etc. The fact that there are great similarities among Arab VET systems renders credibility to any regional approaches to VET system development. Publications: the importance of this area stems from the fact that, apart from textbooks and formal training material, publication efforts in the field of VET in Arabic language are relatively modest. Needless to say, a pool of such publications for the use of learners, instructors and researchers would be beneficial in supporting the VET mission, locally and regionally.
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3 Principles and Criteria To ensure relevance and credibility to a regional approach to the development of VET, activities and programmes should be carefully designed and implemented. A number of principles and criteria should guide regional co-operation. First of all, there has to be real commitment in individual countries at the policy level by the relevant governmental and private agencies. There also has to be involvement of experts and/or agencies from the various member countries in the planning, implementation and utilization stages. This should secure sufficient levels of ownership by the relevant national agencies in the public and private sectors. Regional projects and programmes also need to be relevant to the countries’ needs and the latter should clearly see the benefit and added value of engaging in regional projects. Finally, an important dimension of any regional project has to be the sustainability of outcomes through the continuous availability of human and material resources to ensure impact and follow-up on developments. To be successful, VET projects should be designed using a regional approach. This means that the dimension of ‘regionality’ at the planning, implementation and utilization stages of the relevant activities should be defined and highlighted. This can be ensured by identifying issues that are of common interest to the member countries, and from which regionally relevant activities and specific projects can be derived. Experts and officials from the participating countries should be involved in this process in order to ensure commitment at the implementation stage later on. This should happen both at the operational and policy level with a view to securing sustainability and continuity. After all, the aim of regional projects is to assist in national-level changes. To be adequately utilized, regional VET projects should be owned and sustained by the relevant agency or agencies in each country. After a regional project has come to an end, focal institutions in each country should therefore follow-up on the utilization of the outputs of projects and submit assessment reports accordingly. They should also undertake studies to evaluate the degree of utilization and the impact of project outputs in individual countries. By establishing networking capacities among the national institutions, the sharing of experiences at the regional level could have an additional positive impact on developments in national systems. The nature and objectives of VET—essentially preparing learners for employment in private as well as public enterprises—make it of prime importance that public/private partnership be enhanced and adopted as one of the criteria for choosing projects. Such partnerships can be enhanced at the planning, implementation and utilization stages (Gill, Fluitman & Dar, 2000). At the planning stage, public/private partnership can be enhanced through the active participation of employers’ representatives in all planning activities at the policy and management levels. On the other hand, public/private partnership should have an impact in the objectives set for the chosen activities and projects. This is mainly ensured through the relevance of projects to labour-market needs. Furthermore, employers would be expected to participate in the funding, governance and sustainability of projects after implementation.
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At the implementation stage, public/private partnership can be enhanced through the same channels and activities referred to at the planning stage. In addition, employers’ representatives should participate extensively in expert groups involved in the implementation of activities and projects (e.g. designing curricula, setting standards, etc.). At the utilization stage, enterprises should display ownership as well as involvement in making use of the outputs of projects. Follow-up and evaluation efforts, including impact studies, help to assess the level of private-sector ownership and involvement.
3.1 Evaluation and Assessment Considerations The design of any activity or project should, at the planning stage, identify the evaluation and assessment processes and techniques to be carried out during and after implementation. For this purpose, a number of factors should be taken into consideration. Evaluation and assessment activities should, as far as possible, be undertaken by neutral experts or agencies to ensure credibility and accuracy. They should cover outputs, outcomes and, as much as possible, the impact of projects. External evaluation does not exclude the need for internal or self-evaluation, which should clearly be shown in the design of projects. Some activities and projects, by their nature, benefit more if external evaluation is not left to the final stages of implementation. Evaluation efforts during implementation help to introduce any necessary and useful amendments at the appropriate time.
3.2 The Economics of Activities and Projects The economics of implementation and operation is one of the important dimensions that should be taken into consideration when choosing and designing projects (Masri, 1994). All the relevant financial and funding aspects should thus be carefully assessed with the objective of maximizing outcomes and impact. There are also some other factors that should be taken into consideration. Funding should, of course, be appropriate to the aims of the project, but should also be available in a balanced way to all the countries involved, possibly and preferably matched with counterpart funding, either in cash or in kind. The contracting international experts and consultants should be kept to a minimum. This has the double advantage of economizing on expenditures and enhancing capacity-building efforts in the partner countries.
3.3 Securing Impact for System Development System development can, in general, be realized by catering for one or more of the three groups of components that characterize education systems. These are the inputs, the processes and the outputs.
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In the case of VET systems, as in other education systems, the inputs include such sub-components as curricula, instructors, administrators, learners, physical facilities, governance, legislative tools, evaluation, etc. The processes, on the other hand, comprise such sub-components as teaching/training methodologies, administrative styles, learners’ out-of-class activities, etc. The outputs and outcomes include such sub-components as the level of knowledge, skills and attitudes attained by the learners, as well as the relevance to national developmental needs and to life in general, including the labour market.
4 Regional and International Organizations: Roles and Efforts In what follows, a number of international organizations that are relevant to regional efforts and projects in the field of VET are briefly explored. These organizations all share similar aims that are of benefit to individual countries. They provide external assessment of VET systems and policies from the perspective of other regional and international experts and organizations. By doing so, they also improve mutual knowledge and understanding of VET systems, reforms and issues in other countries. All of them also establish channels and linkages that facilitate the exchange of experiences on the regional and international levels and promote co-operation and linkages at regional and international levels. We shall present the key regional and international organizations that are currently active in the region and follow this up with a brief case study of a bi-lateral co-operation project in vocational education and training.
4.1 Regional Organizations 4.1.1 Arab Labour Organization The Arab Labour Organization (ALO) has its headquarters in Cairo. It is concerned with labour issues, including skill and human resources development, mainly at the informal occupational levels that comprise skilled workers and craftsmen. Activities and projects in the field of skills and HRD development are undertaken through the ALO technical arm, the Arab Centre for Human Resources Development (ACHRD) which is located in Tripoli (Libya). To promote the TVET mission through a regional approach, the ACHRD undertakes such activities as:
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Regional conferences, workshops and seminars. Issuing publications on VET issues in the Arabic language, authored by writers from different Arab countries. About thirty such publications have been issued since 1990. Training workshops for teacher-trainers and officials involved in the implementation and governance of TVET systems.
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Networking among stakeholders in the Arab Region, through on-line and off-line material and contacts.
4.1.2 Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization ALECSO, which is the Arab counterpart of UNESCO, is an Arab League organization that is concerned with education, culture and science. It has its headquarters in Tunis, and although its mandate in VET is not markedly different from that of the ALO, the diversification of its mandate leaves limited room for VET, with emphasis on the formal systems that are usually school-based and institutionalized. 4.1.3 Arab Union for Technician Education AUTE is mainly concerned with technical and vocational education, with most of its activities directed towards intermediate university education that is usually offered by post-secondary institutes and community colleges. It has its headquarters at present in Tripoli (Libya). While the mandates of ALO and ACHRD are concerned with the basic occupational levels in VET, that of AUTE deals more with intermediate occupational levels for the preparation of technicians and subprofessionals. The scope and type of activities are, nevertheless, similar for both organizations. 4.1.4 Union of Arab Universities As its name implies, the Union of Arab Universities (UAU) is mainly concerned with university education. It has its headquarters in Amman (Jordan), and the UAU role in VET is manifested in three areas: (a) scientific research and studies that deal with the various VET issues, including post-graduate studies and theses; (b) preservice and in-service education and training for VET instructors; and (iii) design of university admission standards and criteria for graduates of VET institutions and programmes.
4.2 International Organizations 4.2.1 UNESCO-UNEVOC Network and International Centre for TVET The UNEVOC Network covers the world and comprises specialized institutions in technical and vocational education and training (TVET). These institutions are called UNEVOC centres. The general objective of the network is to support developments in national TVET systems through:
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Enhancing regional and international co-operation through the diffusion and sharing of information and best practices; Promoting experimentation and innovation; and
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Supporting a dialogue among researchers, policy-makers and practitioners who work in the field of technical and vocational education and training.
UNEVOC was established in 1992 by UNESCO to act as a platform for regional and international co-operation in the field of TVET. At present there are more than 220 UNEVOC centres in more than 155 UNESCO Member States. In 2002, the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training was inaugurated to strengthen the UNEVOC network. It is based in Bonn, Germany. Although the UNEVOC network is international in scope, the great majority of its activities are of a regional nature, implemented under the umbrella of UNESCO’s regional and field offices. In the Arab Region, such offices exist in Beirut (Lebanon), Cairo (Egypt), Amman (Jordan), the Gulf, etc. UNEVOC centres can be found in some Arab countries. More recently, a UNESCO-UNEVOC e-Forum was established, providing a freeof-charge e-mail list service to those joining the forum: (a) to help them to connect with experts in TVET from around the world; (b) to identify partners for regional and international co-operation in research and development that targets TVET issues and topics; (c) to pose questions on TVET and obtain authoritative answers from experts in the field; (d) to obtain essential information on TVET development in such fields as curriculum, instructor training, etc.; and (e) to share thoughts and gain access to useful information about TVET.
4.2.2 The European Training Foundation The ETF is an agency of the European Union that started its operations in Turin (Italy) in 1994 with a mission to assist partner countries in developing quality education and training systems and to enable them to reform their VET systems. The ETF partner countries include many in the Arab Region, mainly along the south and east coasts of the Mediterranean, through the MEDA programme. ETF shares expertise and advice on policies in education and training across regions and cultures. Each year, its work programme comprises a group of projects that are implemented in the partner countries to facilitate the reform of VET and employment systems. A regional approach is frequently utilized in such programmes and projects. Such an approach, when deemed feasible, helps to spread experience in the development of VET systems, in addition to maximizing outcomes and returns on the relevant projects. The areas of concern of ETF up until the present cover many themes that are relevant to VET, such as VET policies, teacher and trainer training, training for poverty alleviation, adult and lifelong learning, employment and the labour market, national qualifications frameworks, etc. In addition to its annual Yearbook, ETF publications cover a wide variety of topics that reflect national and regional developments and experiences in the field of VET. On the regional level, expert meetings, peer reviews, seminars, etc., help to exchange experiences and establish contacts and channels of
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communication that assist practitioners, decision-makers and policy-makers in their plans to develop the various aspects of VET systems (Grootings & Nielsen, 2004). In the Arab Region, ETF projects helped some countries to benefit from the experiences of other countries in such areas as human resources information systems, VET indicators, etc.
5 Case Study: Arab-German Co-operation in VET This project which was launched and funded by GTZ and was planned from the outset to support the development of VET systems in five Arab countries—Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria—through regional co-operative efforts and involvement. Thus, it was originally planned with a regional perspective at the policy, management and operational levels. This project is in many respects an interesting one from a regional perspective. First, the regional approach to VET development was comprehensively and institutionally adopted and incorporated at the planning stage with the explicit objective of developing national VET systems with major involvement from regional sources. This approach was formalized through agreements between GTZ and each of the concerned countries. Finally, the structure and governance of the project ensured relevance and provided the utilization of the resulting benefits to be maximized by national VET systems. Below we list some of the key characteristics of the project that have contributed to its positive impact on the development of TVET systems from a national and regional perspective.
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The relatively long duration of the project, spanning the period 2003–2011, helps to secure the sustainability, impact and credibility of monitoring and evaluation efforts. The project has been designed to facilitate the identification and choice of subprojects that are considered by policy-makers and practitioners as priority areas and are of common interest to member countries. Although the scope of the project covered five Arab countries, the outcomes of sub-projects are potentially relevant to all other Arab countries, especially taking into consideration the great similarities in their VET systems and the common language background. It is worthwhile noting here that some VET areas are language sensitive and socially influenced, such as classification systems, glossaries, etc. Networking among VET institutions and experts is a major feature of the project, thus facilitating the exchange of experiences to the benefit of national VET systems. The structure and governance of the project, as described below, shows how such networking is secured. At the operational level, a relevant focal point is chosen in each country to be responsible for the implementation or supervision of the relevant activities and sub-projects at the national level. Focal points varied in their nature from
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one country to another. Autonomous VET agencies or VET departments in the Ministries of Education or Labour are examples of such focal points. A regional office in one of the concerned countries (Jordan) with a project office manager, hosted by a national institution, provided the secretariat for the project, undertaking the co-ordinating and networking functions. The continuous contacts and communications among focal points in the implementation of sub-projects provided useful channels and frameworks whereby experts and decision-makers in the concerned countries benefited to develop their own VET systems. At the middle-management level, project governance is taken care of by a Regional Management Committee (RMC) composed of two senior officials, one from the public sector and one from the private sector from each country. The RMC holds its meetings in turn in one of the five countries twice annually to choose sub-projects from among a pool of project proposals submitted by the focal points in the concerned countries. The RMC submits its recommendations on the choice of projects to a Regional Higher Council, referred to below, in addition to undertaking the function of following up procedures for the implementation of decisions taken by the Council. At the policy (macro) level, project governance is taken care of by a Regional Higher Council (RHC) composed of three senior officials—two from the public sector and one from the private sector—from each country. The RHC holds its meetings in turn in one of the five countries as it is required to take decisions on the final choice of sub-projects, to assess their implementation and utilization, and to discuss policies and strategies for the regional project. As in the case of the Regional Management Committee, the Regional Higher Council, through its meetings and functions, provides a forum for policy-makers and senior officials to exchange views and experiences on national VET issues and developments on the one hand, and on identifying areas for further regional co-operation and common approaches in the field of VET on the other. The way in which sub-projects are implemented depends upon their nature and other practical considerations, such as the availability of expertise and technical resources. Two such models have already been utilized in this project and are described below.
Model 1 The project is implemented exclusively by an institution or group of experts in one country. In this case, regionality is ensured through one or more of the following procedures: (a) establishing a regional steering committee that meets periodically to follow-up and guide the stages of implementation; (b) choosing a counterpart institution or group of experts in each of the other countries not involved in implementation, to be consulted frequently at the various stages of implementation; and
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(c) holding periodical regional workshops to discuss and approve the work at the different stages of implementation.
Model 2 The activity or project is divided into parts, and each part is implemented by an institution or group of experts in one country, thus paving the way for more than one country to participate in the implementation. Although the regional dimension is thus assured, homogeneous outputs of the various parts are difficult to guarantee. To minimize such shortcomings, co-ordination efforts are needed through the following measures: (a) periodical meetings/workshops of the expert groups; and/or (b) establishing a regional steering committee that meets periodically to follow-up and guide the stages of implementation.
6 Conclusion One major conclusion of the review presented here is that efforts directed at regional co-operation and integration can promote and stimulate changes and developments in national TVET systems through channels and venues of co-ordination, peer-reviewing, policy-learning and exchange of experiences. Needless to say, cooperation in VET issues can facilitate similar co-operation in other areas. Furthermore, national developments in VET are expected to face the need for regional co-operation due to such factors as worker and student mobility, recognition of qualifications, lack of capacities, etc. In other words, national reforms in VET can pragmatically lead to regional co-operation and integration.
References–English Gill, I.; Fluitman, F.; Dar, A., eds. 2000. Vocational education and training and training reform: matching skills to markets and budgets. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Grootings, P.; Nielsen, S., eds. 2004. ETF Yearbook 2004: learning matters. Turin, Italy: ETF. Grootings P.; Nielsen, S., eds. 2005. ETF Yearbook 2005: teachers and trainers: professionals and stakeholders in the reform of vocational education and training. Luxembourg: European Communities. Lasonen, J., ed. 1999. Workforce preparation in a global context. Jyv¨askyl¨a, Finland: Institute for Educational Research-University of Jyv¨askyl¨a. Masri, M.W. 1994. Vocational education: the way ahead. London: Macmillan. UNESCO-UNEVOC. 1998. Vocational education and training in Europe on the threshold of the 21st century. Paris: UNESCO. Wallenborn, M. et al. 2003. Human resources development in school-based and company-based technical and vocational education and training (TVET)-Egypt and selected MEDA/MENA countries. Mannheim, Germany: Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung GmbH.
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Chapter III.6
The Influence of Qualifications Frameworks on the Infrastructure of VET Mike Coles and Patrick Werquin
1 Introduction It is likely that most vocational learning resulting from formal schooling is not officially recognized in qualifications. Informal and non-formal learning are probably the dominant forms of vocational education and training (VET). However, the recognition of learning through qualifications is probably dominant in shaping the formal VET system because qualifications are one of the most tangible outcomes of VET for people and enterprises. The financial and social returns to qualification levels are also widely appreciated. It is not surprising, therefore, that the ways in which qualifications are organized exert a powerful influence on the vocational learning system. In this chapter we examine the ways in which the existence of a qualifications framework influences several structural aspects of VET. These structural aspects include the management of the supply and demand for skills, the institutional arrangements, the financing of VET and the way the VET system interfaces with other learning systems and VET in other countries. Before this analysis begins, the diverse nature of qualifications frameworks is examined.
2 The Nature of Qualifications Frameworks The idea of a qualifications framework that shows how qualifications relate to one another is not new. For many centuries the trade organizations in many countries have exercised control over the right to practice a trade and control how progression in skills is defined and managed. Before this, universities had set down common patterns of recognizing progress within higher academic learning. What is new is the interest of governments in developing overarching frameworks that incorporate qualifications representing the learning outcomes from school, work and higher education. Importantly, the new frameworks are often linked to lifelong learning policy and are intended to capture learning from experience that the learner wishes to have recognized. A qualifications framework is a classification of qualifications according to a set of criteria reflecting the levels of learning achieved. This set of criteria may R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 III.6, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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be an implicit characteristic of the qualifications themselves or made explicit in the form of a set of level descriptors. In the simplest form of classification the qualifications themselves are arranged in a hierarchy of demand or standard, the lowest level of qualifications rises through a series of steps to the highest level. The qualifications in these hierarchies are sometimes further classified into qualification types (e.g. higher-education qualifications, school qualifications, workbased qualifications). The second kind of classification uses explicit levels that are each defined by criteria—these are often termed level descriptors or level indicators. The scope of frameworks may be comprehensive for all learning achievement and pathways or it may be confined to a particular sector, for example initial education, adult learning or an occupational area such as agriculture. Some frameworks may have more design elements and a tighter structure than others; some may have a legal basis, whereas others represent a consensus of views among social partners. However, all qualifications frameworks establish a basis for improving the linkages between qualifications and the quality, accessibility and public or labour-market recognition of qualifications within a country and internationally. Some countries established comparative levels for qualifications in the 1960s (e.g. France) and others more recently (e.g. New Zealand). In Scotland the qualification framework has evolved over the last twenty years or so. It was not until 1985 that the first significant attempt to develop an international framework appeared. CEDEFOP developed a five-level framework (CEDEFOP, 2001) for vocational qualifications to facilitate the comparability of qualifications in the context of an anticipated growth in the mobility of labour. These levels had little impact and European Union (EU) countries made little effort to align their vocational qualifications systems with these levels. More recently, the European Commission has proposed a European Qualifications Framework (EQF)1 that is intended to operate as a meta-framework.2 The EQF proposal suggests that the most effective way for nations to articulate with the European framework is through a national qualifications framework (NQF). Evidence suggests that this request is receiving a positive response from the majority of European countries (Bjørn˚avold & Coles, 2006). See Coles (2006) for a full review of national qualifications frameworks. NQFs have various forms and functions, but all have four generic aims:
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to establish national standards for learning outcomes (competences); to promote through regulation the quality of education and training provision; to act as a way of relating qualifications to each other; and to promote access to learning, transfer of learning and progression in learning.
It is often the case that NQFs have policy purposes that go beyond these four aims. The development of an NQF can be used to integrate parts of the qualifications system (for example, professional education delivered via further and higher education) or to modernize parts of the education and training system (for example, to change the regulation of the quality of qualification processes or to change the way public funds are used to support education and training). These wider effects
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of qualifications frameworks on the infrastructure of VET are the principal focus of this chapter and in the following sections some of these effects are discussed in more detail.
3 Managing the Supply of Skills Vocational education and training arrangements in a country are always complex because of: (a) the many forms of learning that are considered as VET; (b) the wide range of institutions that deliver VET; and (c) the interaction and overlap of sectors, occupations and enterprises. The complexity of the system can make it difficult to adjust programmes so that training leads to the competences that are required in the workplace, particularly when work practices and technology are leading to changes in competence requirements. It is generally the case that VET competences are defined, delivered and evaluated by means of collaboration between stakeholder groups (usually governments, providers, enterprises and employee organizations). It can be argued that the better the collaboration between stakeholders, the better the modernization process is likely to be. One way in which the collaboration process can be supported is to make sure that labour-market information and information about the qualification process (such as pedagogic methods) are freely available for analysis. Qualification frameworks can make this information easier to use, for example by:
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classifying the levels of qualifications in a commonly understood way; requiring the expression of qualification in terms of learning outcomes; showing how qualification structures relate to the needs of sectors by defining categories of the content of qualifications; quality assuring the qualification process through the use of regulation and accreditation criteria; and making transparent the way qualifications at one level can lead to the next level.
There are other ways in which a national set of benchmarks in terms of levels can be used to make statistical analysis of skills requirements easier to express and use across a wide range of sectors. Qualifications frameworks act as a classification device. This function is important, but it is increasingly common for a framework of levels to be considered as the basis for a classification of units of qualifications (partial qualification), as well as for whole qualifications. By breaking down whole qualifications into units it is possible to modernize a qualification relatively easily by developing a new unit to replace an out-of-date unit. Whilst this can be achieved without a framework, it is usually the case that a unitized system of qualification can become unwieldy and opaque without a classification system. Thus, through the location of units of different content at different levels, it is easy for collaborators defining skills needs to identify the required competences and to provide institutions to deliver them to learners.
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These unitized approaches also offer the advantage of easier transfer of credit from one sector to another, particularly in the case of transversal skills, such as communications, team management and health and safety. Thus, modernization of these transversal units of qualifications can improve the quality of training across many sectors. Qualifications frameworks generally classify qualifications that arise from dedicated training programmes. However, because levels and content are often defined more clearly for qualifications in a framework, usually through learning outcomes, it is easier for an individual to appreciate that they have competences that have developed non-formally (e.g. through work) or informally (e.g. through managing a family) that can meet the requirements of a formal qualification. Recognition of non-formal and informal learning can be facilitated and can go some way to meet skills needs in a region or an enterprise. All of these examples are specific ways a framework can lead to better articulation of knowledge, skill and wider competence requirements. In addition to improving this articulation, it is possible for frameworks to modernize the supply side of VET, for example by improving the efficiency of delivery.
4 Articulating the Demand for Skills If VET is ‘education and training that aims at equipping people with the knowledge, skills and competences that can be used in the labour market’3 then qualifications frameworks will impact on the infrastructure of VET whenever they impact on the skills and competences produced by VET that are or can be used in the labour market. There are many reasons to believe that this is going to be the case on the demand side of VET competences because qualifications frameworks:
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can bring transparency; can be durable and provide stability; can provide consistency; can bring confidence; can allow for a coherent statistical monitoring by qualification level; and are essentially based on learning outcomes.
All these arguments are linked to each other to a large extent. For example, confidence in qualifications may grow because there is transparency of the qualifications system and they therefore reflect a widely recognized system (backed up by main qualifications authorities, such as the ministry of education). Thus, users of qualifications, such as employers, know exactly which competence(s) they are about to hire. Confidence may also arise because there is stability over time making investment in the system—learning how to use it and for improving it—worthwhile in the medium and long term. As a consequence, employers may be more motivated to hire graduates from the VET system and to promote VET itself since they can be sure exactly what recruits know and can do. Greater transparency of VET systems
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will lead to a more effective use of VET by employers that will waste less time in recruiting due to a more effective search for appropriate skills. In some countries, such as Spain, Greece, the Czech Republic or Japan, qualifications frameworks are associated primarily with VET (OECD, 2007). As a classification device, a qualifications framework organizes all the qualifications that are delivered in a particular country. Thanks to the concepts of levels and descriptors, qualifications frameworks provide a planning tool for employers who are constantly demanding [new] skills. This additional transparency, brought about by qualifications frameworks, helps employers to identify the skills that they need for the good functioning of the enterprise leading to a better economic performance. What a framework does that did not exist so clearly before is to put a clear label on a qualification and to position this qualification in the big picture by relating qualifications to one another in terms of level. As a consequence, recruiters or people having a demand for skills are better informed about what they are looking for and what is available. They can better compare existing qualifications and therefore better organize their demand for skills. Beyond that, qualifications frameworks help to articulate the demand for skills with that of supply. This will happen because individuals (typically workers or applicants for a job) will eventually receive strong signals about the skills that are most in demand. This will happen whatever the recruiting scenario the employer decides to opt for: (a) they may look for the competences internally and organize the move/promotion of insiders if adequate competences are available internally; or (b) whether the competences are available internally or not, they may decide to recruit externally. In both cases, whether using internal mobility or external recruitment, employers may realise that the skills they demand are not available or not available at the expected level. As a consequence, they may organize their own training strategy to promote insiders or send a strong signal to the training authority for them to provide the appropriate training. Individuals themselves will receive all of these signals through more-or-less formal circulation of information within the enterprise or, for outsiders, through using the public employment service for example, or any other usual channel—including, probably, word of mouth. As a result, supply and demand of skills are likely to reach a better match if a framework exists providing transparent information regarding qualifications and qualification levels. In turn, this mechanism is likely to impact back on the infrastructure of VET, which will have to adjust to meet the needs of a better informed demand. A typical consequence one might anticipate is that VET will have to evolve at a faster pace than before since the labour market and the demand for skills are also evolving ever faster as a result of technological changes. Another possible consequence is that this impacts on curricula in the formal VET sector; so that they are formulated to describe what student should know or should be able to do at the end of their training to better match with the concept or learning outcomes widely associated with the concept of qualifications frameworks. In addition, to allow for the demand for skills to be appropriately planned, whether using external recruitment or internal mobility and/or promotion, qualifications frameworks will improve the confidence of the actors demanding skills toward the VET system.
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By the same token, since qualifications frameworks can be heavily based on learning outcomes rather than input (duration of the course, for example) and since, again, many VET competences are not produced in the formal system, qualifications frameworks will help recruiters to appreciate the skills available and to plan their future utilization of VET competences. Making obvious the demand for skills through the use of levels and qualification types is a clear added value of qualifications framework. Beyond, and thanks to, transparency, confidence will be built so that the main actors in the demand for skills will have greater trust in VET competences that appear clearly in the qualifications framework. The French qualifications levels represent an attempt to use qualifications levels for economic planning and for better organizing the supply and demand of skills. This system was created as part of French economic planning and went beyond forecasting skills needs by enabling the education and training system to meet business needs by supplying sufficient numbers of people skilled to appropriate levels in appropriate occupations. It was a tool for developing active educational policies directed at increasing and standardizing vocational training in order to guide and promote French economic development (Bouder, 2003). The classifications system led to the setting up a qualifications agency (Commission technique d’homologation) that is responsible for positioning all diplomas and maintaining an up-to date classification according to labour-market innovations. One aspect of the classification system is that it is deeply embedded in social hierarchies and goes beyond a simple classification of diplomas and training programmes. However, in the case of France, it did not really work because the form of manpower planning that it was based on did not take into account the practice of enterprises that may have promoted or retrained workers internally. In that sense, the French qualifications levels, despite being deeply embedded in social hierarchies and going beyond a simple classification of diplomas and training programmes, do not constitute a framework. This is probably because it was too heavily based on qualifications delivered by the formal system where a qualifications framework is closely linked to the concept of learning outcomes. The new classification system, introduced in 1994, attempts to classify any training programme regardless of its level, mode of learning, field of application or social use, including personal development activities and leisure programmes. Like other frameworks, this initiative aims to de-compartmentalize the education and training system and form links between formal education, vocational education, university education and professional education.
5 Frameworks and Institutions Education and training systems often evolve into complex networks with differences between institutions that include:
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licences to operate across a specified number of levels of qualification; the nature of enterprises in a catchment area; the geography and transportation in an area; the type of governance employed; and size and the capacity to offer programmes.
There are many more dimensions of difference, and from a consumer point of view both for individuals and enterprises. These differences can lead to confusion and wasted investment of time and money. For example, a qualification programme offered in one institution can differ markedly from that provided in another and yet they can lead the learner to the same state of readiness for employment. How can a choice me made? How can the most efficient use of prior learning be accommodated? Qualification frameworks have the capacity to reduce complexity. This happens not simply by means of the classification of qualifications but also by requiring that every qualification in a framework is described in terms of what a learner is expected to know and do at the end of a programme of learning. Thus, we see a common requirement of transparency for every qualification that is not dependent on any institutional factors. A consequence of this is that qualification programmes across different types of institution (e.g. initial VET and general education; professional education and higher education) become comparable and points of overlap are evident. This can have the effect of encouraging helpful differentiation between programmes and in facilitating co-operative arrangements to deliver certain programme content. For some time, policy-makers have been concerned with the potential overlap between higher education programmes and high-level VET. The concern stems from the belief that higher education programmes have the potential to deliver programmes that meet the needs of enterprises better than VET. Thus, institutions (schools, colleges and universities) can both define a qualification framework and be defined by one. By means of making the purposes, structure and content of qualifications explicit through associating them with learning outcomes, it is possible to see opportunities for one kind of institution being able to make contributions to the traditional territory of others. This is not to suggest that the traditional patterns of qualifications programmes are faulty in some way—it simply opens up the possibilities for making more dynamic links between parts of the system which could render decision-making by learners a little easier, thus increasing the efficiency of the system. With increasing use of information and communications technologies in educational development (e.g. distance learning, knowledge management) the potential for these kinds of inter-institutional links are likely to increase. The institutions that have mainly management roles in the qualifications system can also be affected by qualifications framework development. These institutions include government departments (education, labour and sectoral ministries, such as a ministry of agriculture), qualifications awarding bodies, quality assurance agencies and funding bodies. It is often the case that social partners have important roles. The manner in which the processes are agreed for setting up and managing a NQF
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can increase or decrease the influence of different types of stakeholder groups on the education and training system. Two rather obvious examples are worth consideration since they are commonly found in increasing numbers in countries where frameworks are being developed. The first example is the tightening of control by government of the qualifications system so that it can be more easily used in government-led reforms. Countries where centralized control is increasing might want to use the framework to introduce new qualifications routes that provide access to qualification for those social groups who are often excluded (or exclude themselves). The second example is where there is an intentional shift of the balance from the supply side of training to the demand side for competences. The role of employers, employees and their representative bodies could be given a stronger role in system management, while that of the providing institutions becomes weaker. Providing institutions can also be directly influenced by the introduction of a qualifications framework. It can have some associated operational characteristics. A good example is quality-assurance arrangements. Whilst not evident in any framework diagram, the framework may only allow qualifications to be registered on it if the qualifications—and the providers that deliver it—meet certain criteria. So the framework becomes a powerful regulatory tool and a benchmark for national standards. These criteria can require institutions providing programmes and qualifications to change their practices to conform to standard protocols. It is now clear how frameworks can influence institutions and therefore can be used to drive VET reforms. Frameworks can also be powerful co-ordinating tools capable of changing the VET landscape so that specific reforms can flourish.
6 Financing VET Provision The existence of qualifications frameworks is likely to have a strong impact on the way VET provision is financed. Framework developments can be expensive. Clearly the scope of the NQFs and their intended purposes directly affect the costs of implementation and on-going maintenance. This distinction between implementation costs and maintenance costs is important. Whilst it is common for NQFs to be established in order to bring co-ordination to existing structures and qualifications, the development of the basis for agreement on an NQF requires:
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policy analysis; consideration of experience elsewhere; development of options; modelling of the favoured option(s); engagement of leaders of stakeholder groups; specialist task groups; consultation; and communication with main institutions and the general public.
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The implementation phase could also involve piloting technical procedures and fullscale trials. As discussed above, a national body is often established to manage the implementation phase and the on-going maintenance. Making estimates of costs therefore requires anticipating large-scale systemic change that includes these elements and others. The central administration costs related to the NQF can be relatively small. Even in countries where large agencies are responsible for the NQF, the costs (mainly staff costs) associated only with the NQF can be low. However, where such things as quality assurance procedures, curriculum and assessment monitoring, reviews of employment standards and establishing benchmarks corresponding to other national or international qualification frameworks are involved the costs can rise steeply. NQFs take the place of informal structures and co-ordinate existing VET provision. It is likely, though difficult to quantify, that there will be some cost savings through this process. It is also likely that in a co-ordinated qualifications system there will be co-financing of some procedures such as the development of employment standards. Some NQFs are explicitly quality assurance mechanisms and the title national qualification is reserved for those qualifications accredited to the NQF. Quality controls on these qualifications can be extensive and therefore expensive. They are intended to develop maximum confidence in users of the qualifications. Where education and training is funded by governments, there is a good case for seeking a return on the investment in quality assurance of national qualifications and consequently public funding favours these qualifications above others. Another characteristic that has a direct impact on cost and therefore financing is the fact again that qualifications frameworks are essentially based on learning outcomes and also because most of vocational education and training competences are learned outside the formal system. As a consequence, the burden of the cost may move from learning to assessing the real competences of the individuals. The financing will need to be carefully reviewed. Given the international context, with the existence of meta-frameworks—such as the European Qualifications Framework—and international benchmarks, qualifications frameworks may also have an impact on the way governments and policy-makers communicate about the destination of public money, and therefore on all spending. All countries have national benchmarks and quality standards and policymakers need to show that their financing practice for qualifications and learning programmes is prudent. Therefore, they may use the international benchmarks as a way of showing that they met the international standards in their own countries or even that they have done better, justifying at once the use of public money. From the point of view of quality assurance, the international context also sets some forms of benchmark because all processes leading to a qualification usually receive scrutiny in a country and all the major international developments, especially at the European level, have quality assurance processes associated with them (higher education framework in the Bologna process; the Copenhagen process common principles for quality assurance).
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More generally, all the elements that the existence of qualifications frameworks has brought into the picture are important in terms of financing because they always intrinsically lead to cost-effectiveness analysis. In many countries, the world of qualifications is subject to debates about the over-supply, for instance, of very similar qualifications—which is inefficient. A qualifications framework is a very useful tool to eliminate duplication if it shows that several qualifications are at the same level. The possibility of removing redundancy has just been given to countries such as Poland, for instance, where the number of qualifications has been reduced from 1,000 to 400. A qualifications framework is therefore an important tool for effective financing practice and updating of the qualifications pool. Using qualifications frameworks can also be useful to bring private investments to the world of qualifications because they represent a mechanism for involving employers. The reason for that is because qualifications frameworks are based on learning outcomes in essence and learning outcomes bring visibility. Therefore, employers will be less keen on formulating their most frequently heard complaint about the lack of transparency and the confusion in the qualifications system. As a consequence, there must be a role for sponsors, but this role has to be clear or they will not embark on financing qualifications; especially if they feel this is the duty of the government in the first place. To that extent, it is useful to take an international perspective and look for good practice to spot the possible role of private investors in qualifications. Russia is an example of a country where pilot projects and experimentation with the basis of a qualifications framework is privately sponsored. This has arisen because employers in the hotels and catering sector in Russia believe the qualifications system is not delivering the skills entrepreneurs need. It does not necessarily mean that they want to be involved in the delivery processes themselves (teaching, etc.), but they want to be involved in setting standards beforehand. There is a cost to that and this why employers find it acceptable to put money into the system. Finally, it should not be forgotten that the major reforms likely to occur in the infrastructure of VET due to the implementation of qualifications frameworks will take time. Therefore, financing ought to be carefully planned in the medium or long term.
7 More Flexible Credit-Transfer System Overcoming compartmentalization of the education and training system has been a goal in many countries. In the late 1980s in New Zealand various independent reports signalled the need for a radical overhaul of the qualifications system that it was felt was hampering participation, achievement and New Zealand’s competitiveness. After a series of reforms to various parts of the education and training system, an NQF and a formal system of establishing recognition of qualifications based on unit standards (learning outcomes) were established. A national validating authority (the New Zealand Qualifications Authority) was also set up requiring the assessment of
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learning programmes to be drawn up against unit standards and to be subject to a series of quality-assurance procedures, including the accreditation of providers. The NQF was both a product of the need for widespread reform and a tool for maintaining a reformed system. The NQF regulatory requirements are a means for bringing increased commonality to different parts of the education and training system, whilst preserving the integrity of those separate systems and the roles of key agencies within them. So employment sector bodies, schools, community groups, private providers and higher education all have separate procedures for developing unit standards and maintaining the quality assurance requirements of the NQF. Universities are not part of this process and there are qualifications that are not sufficiently based on unit standards to be part of the NQF. A comprehensive register of qualifications has been set up to include all qualifications—the NQF qualifications are a subset in this listing. The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) also developed in a way that reduced barriers between parts of the education and training system. However, it also has taken on the task of sustaining systematic transfer of credit at the level of units of qualifications. The SCQF developed as a result of a series of innovations in the education and training systems covering school, vocational and higher education. Each innovation reinforced the SCQF as a means of securing greater coherence in the qualifications system. At the same time as these substantial changes were being implemented, knowledge of system-wide features was shared. Credit transfer was seen as a means of increasing the flexibility of qualifications and the SCQF was identified by its partners as having the potential to accommodate the common principles necessary for its implementation. One of the functions of the SCQF is the credit rating of units of qualifications. The rules for good practice can be agreed centrally, but a prerequisite for credit transfer is that the units of assessment in learning programmes have to be rated in terms of the volume of learning. Making judgements about learning volumes involves close scrutiny of the curriculum and some attention being paid to pedagogy and resource provision. Thus, the providers closest to the programmes are enabled to carry out this process and the influence of the SCQF is extended deep into the education and training process.
8 A Tool for Reform Policy-making for lifelong learning in the arena of qualifications systems is difficult, underdeveloped and possibly undervalued. Establishing a qualifications framework, in the same way as providing credit transfer, optimizing stakeholder involvement in the qualifications system, recognizing non-formal and informal learning and creating new routes to qualifications for example, seems to be a powerful mechanism to trigger more and better lifelong learning from within the qualifications system (OECD, 2007). This chapter suggests that it is useful to consider the role qualifications frameworks may have on the infrastructure of VET in particular.
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An example of a framework being used for purposes that lie outside the education and training system is given by the EQF, having as its principal aim a strong link to the Lisbon Goal of more and better jobs for all European citizens and the creation of Europe as a top-performing knowledge economy. The Maastricht Communiqu´e (European Commission, 2004) states that the EQF: will improve permeability within education and training, provide a reference for the validation of informally acquired competences and support the smooth and effective functioning of the European, national and sectoral labour markets [. . .] and should facilitate the voluntary development of competence-based solutions at the European level enabling sectors to address the new education and training challenges caused by the internationalisation of trade and technology.
The EQF design, which is essentially based on learning outcomes and a set of levels aimed at corresponding with the labour-market job structures, should facilitate this aim. The EQF also has an objective to support and promote change in national qualifications systems. This is a clear signal that the reforming power of national qualifications frameworks can be enabled by the existence of a high-status overarching framework that is respected by trading partners, even if the European Qualifications Framework is by no mean a template and remains a meta-framework. More generally, countries have made attempts to reform education and training systems in order to bring about more and better lifelong learning. Some of these policy responses bear directly on qualifications systems (cf. OECD, 2004). This is the case for the following points:
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to increase the flexibility and responsiveness of the qualifications system; to motivate young people to learn for qualifications; to link education and work through qualifications; to facilitate open access to qualifications; to make qualifications progressive; to make the qualifications system transparent; to review funding and increase efficiency of the qualifications system; and to better manage the qualifications system.
For VET in particular, it is possible to use qualifications frameworks as a policy tool and to review present and future policy on qualifications and qualifications systems, to test the robustness of the latter and see if the benefits they promised have been delivered. For instance, there seems to be reasons to believe that qualifications frameworks can change the landscape because they impact on:
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the provision of VET; curricula in the formal VET system; barriers to the development of VET; the link between VET and the labour market; and benefits for VET graduates and participation in, and access to, VET.
They impact on the provision of VET because a close look at all qualifications at their respective level within the qualifications framework provides a clear picture
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of the qualifications available in a country and therefore will help spot the gap in provision at a given level or for a given qualification. They impact on curricula through the simple fact that qualifications frameworks are often linked to the concept of learning outcomes and, therefore, the formal VET system will not be able to avoid the discussion about defining the curricula in terms of what learners can do and not about how long they have been studying a subject. This may well be one of the biggest challenges for reforming VET programmes in the years to come. VET has traditionally suffered from low esteem and, in some countries, is even regarded as the only solution for those students that cannot follow the academic tracks. The development of VET has therefore been hampered by issues not directly linked to the programmes it provided but to the way they are seen in the wider public and, sometimes, among employers. The creation of a qualifications framework may help lift some of the barriers by providing transparency, encouraging employers to hire individuals leaving the VET system and removing dead ends—therefore always offering the possibility for reaching a higher level qualification from within the VET system. Another typical example about how qualifications frameworks may help improve participation, self-esteem and remove some inequities is by breaking the ‘glass ceiling’ that seems to exist between the regular VET system and the higher VET system; meaning that individual learners often cannot continue to higher education when they graduate from the initial VET system. A good example is given by Romania where the scheme put in place with levels did not seem to work as transition between levels 3 and 4 was regarded as too great a jump for graduates of the VET system at level 3. Soon after the system was implemented, it was necessary to create a level 3+, in between levels 3 and 4, to accommodate VET graduates. For all the reasons given above, the existence of a qualifications framework may help more adequately—and therefore more effectively—in linking the VET system and the labour market. In addition, some feedback can be organized so that pieces of information about what employers need are brought into the organization of the VET system. For the same reasons, it will also bring more and better benefits to the VET graduates and may end up in more people choosing this path.
9 Concluding Remarks Research needs to be carried out into the impact of qualifications frameworks on the infrastructure of VET. More work remains to be done also to link the levels in the framework to the labour market issues or occupations (OECD, 2004). Qualifications frameworks make explicit the relationship between qualifications. They aim at increasing transparency and showing potential progression routes; they can become the basis of credit transfer systems. They are overarching tools that can be used to engage all stakeholders in developing and co-ordinating the qualifications system. Often they are used as tools for regulation, financing and quality assurance.
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At the same time, a qualifications framework can open up opportunities to potential learners, because it makes progression routes clear and can offer the opportunity to rationalize qualifications by reducing the overlap between them. In all of these ways, frameworks create an environment where the whole qualifications system can be reviewed. This means that the management of the qualifications framework can be used as a tool to enhance many policy responses that countries are adopting to react to the lifelong learning agenda, of which VET is a very important component— rather decisive when it comes to global economic performance and coping with emerging issues.
Notes 1. <ec.europa.eu/education/policies/educ/eqf/index en.html> 2. A meta-qualifications framework is a classification system for levels of qualification where the criteria for levels are written in a highly generalized form. This enables the meta-framework to relate to all more specific (national or sectoral) qualifications frameworks. The EQF is thus a meta-framework that will act as a translation device between different national qualifications systems. As a meta-framework the EQF does not take over any of the established roles of national systems. 3. <www.cedefop.europa.eu/>
References Bjørn˚avold, J.; Coles, M. 2006. The development of qualifications frameworks in European countries. (Paper presented to the European Commission Conference on the European Qualifications Framework, Budapest, 27–28 February 2006.) Bouder, A. 2003. Qualifications in France: towards a national framework? Journal of education and work, vol. 16, no. 3, September. Coles, M. 2006. A review of international and national developments in the use of qualifications frameworks. Turin, Italy: European Training Foundation. CEDEFOP. 2001. European structures of qualification levels, vols 1, 2 and 3. Thessaloniki, Greece: CEDEFOP. European Commission. 2004. The future priorities of enhanced European cooperation in vocational education and training (VET). Brussels: European Commission. (The Maastricht Communiqu´e.) Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2004. The development and use of ‘qualifications frameworks’ as a means of reforming and managing qualifications systems. In: Mernagh, E.; Murphy, A.; Simota, T., eds. Final report of the Thematic Group 1 of the OECD activity on The Role of National Qualifications Systems in Promoting Lifelong Learning. Paris: OECD. <www.oecd.org/edu/lifelonglearning/nqs> Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2007. Qualifications systems: bridges to lifelong learning. Paris: OECD.
Chapter III.7
Reforming Skills Development, Transforming the Nation: South African Vocational Education and Training Reforms, 1994–2005 Simon McGrath
1 Introduction In an era where vocational education and training (VET) reform is common, South Africa provides one of the most striking national case studies of the complex interplay between international discourses of both economic change and VET reform, and historical and contemporary forces at the national level. Moreover, the twin imperative of economic and social focus for VET is made particularly complex and challenging by the legacy of apartheid. In particular, the new, democratic South Africa has been faced with abnormally high levels of inequality and unemployment, and the pressing need to break down racial inequities in education, skills and work. In this chapter I will consider first some of the detail of the apartheid legacy in skills development before turning to a consideration of policy developments since 1994. I will finish with an analysis of key tensions that continue to play at the heart of South African VET policy.
2 South African VET before 19941 Internationally, skills development systems tend to reflect and reinforce broader domestic power dynamics. This is particularly apparent in terms of class and gender, which are powerful organizing principles for access to particular programmes and for the resourcing and status of such programmes. Since the beginnings of formal vocational education and training in South Africa in the second half of the nineteenth century, these forces have been powerfully overlaid with the effects of race, and, to a lesser extent, supporting dynamics of migration and ethnicity. In its early involvement with the Industrial Revolution, during the late nineteenth century, South Africa obtained skilled labour largely from the United Kingdom, as immigrant miners and other artisans came into the country. As a formal vocational education and training system began to emerge, it was largely English- rather R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 III.7, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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than Afrikaner-dominated, reflecting the continued industrial predominance of the English-speaking community. Whilst this reliance on imported skilled labour declined (though never disappeared) during the twentieth century, the South African system of skills formation became increasingly distorted by the political economy of race. For most of that century, there was a legally enshrined bifurcation of work and skill (and, of course, income, residency, enfranchisement, etc.) between white and black.2 White workers were skilled by the colour of their skin, whilst blacks remained largely incapable of skilled status until 1981, regardless of their levels of knowledge and experience. This bifurcation had massive implications for the system of skills development. White workers were socialized into a powerful vision of their right to be either a labour aristocracy or professionals. Over time, growing prosperity led to a strong upward shift of white employment into service and professional activities, but there was no mechanism to allow public VET institutions or trades to respond by inducting a new wave of black artisans prior to the 1980s. African workers were treated as eternally unskilled. Moreover, their official status as migrants, either from neighbouring countries or from the system of homelands within South Africa, encouraged the sense of them as interchangeable, homogenized labour. Thus, there was no real impetus towards VET for Africans as participants in a modern industrial economy. Instead, VET for Africans was seen as a blend of ‘appropriate’ education for those deemed incapable of benefiting from an academic schooling and equally low-level practical skills development for local needs in the homelands. By the 1970s, this model was beginning to fall apart. Even under a system of import substitution, many employers were becoming increasingly concerned that technological change at the international level required South Africa to upskill. The early 1970s also saw the beginning of a new and persistent wave of African tradeunion activism and a growing worker drive for skills upgrading as part of a move for higher wages and better conditions. To this mix was added a serious drain on white skill through the increasingly hot war South Africa was fighting with many of its neighbours, and the apparently urgent need for a new political approach after the bloody response to student protests in Soweto in 1976. All of this led the apartheid regime to attempt to reform VET as a key strand of its search for a workable strategy that could maintain and entrench white power. In 1979, the Wiehahn Commission began developing a new approach to training that would lead to Africans being indentured as apprentices (Wiehahn, 1981). The following year, the de Lange Commission sought to propose a new education system that would go some distance towards de-racialization of education, but which saw the most appropriate route for African learners as lying in vocational education (Human Sciences Research Council, 1981). It quickly became apparent that a new bifurcation between the approaches to skills in the workplace and in schools and colleges was being enacted. Although with much contestation and taking more than a decade to come to real fruition, there was a fumbling towards a new consensus between elements of capital and
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labour about the needs for a de-racialized model of skill that would improve productivity, efficiency and competitiveness, on the one hand, and pay and conditions, on the other. This model would necessarily be largely built on the capabilities of black South Africans. Thus, both employers and unions began to focus strongly on the upskilling of the already employed, addressing the functional competencies necessary for performing existing jobs and beginning to develop a way of looking at career paths for these workers as they became more skilled. Reforms in education were harder to push forward, particularly where they appeared to threaten the segregation of facilities and undermine white privilege. Thus, what happened in practice was the growth of separate VET facilities for different racial groups, although whites-only facilities still remained in the majority and were far better resourced. Moreover, the quality and relevance of public VET was undermined by the growing delinking of colleges from employers. As in the United Kingdom, technical colleges had emerged as a means of providing part-time theoretical training for those who were already employed as apprentices. However, by the start of the 1990s, the apprenticeship system was in decline, whilst the new black colleges were often situated far from industrial centres and lacking in links to employers. Thus, by the early 1990s, there was a relatively powerful coalition for change in workplace skills development, but colleges lacked champions. Never linked to non-racialized trade unionism, they were increasingly seen as an irrelevance by employers. Moreover, the low status of colleges within the education system and their limited political significance meant that the State had little real passion for driving radical change in the sector. On assuming power in 1994, the incoming government was faced with a divided and divergent system that was in radical need of overhaul in order to respond to a triple challenge: (a) racial integration was a socio-political imperative; (b) the legacy of apartheid also meant that there was a pressing need to respond to poverty and inequality; and (c) the global environment into which the new South Africa was entering meant that VET also needed to provide part of an economic response to rapid liberalization and insertion into the global economy.
3 Policy Responses, 1994–2005 African National Congress (ANC) policy on education and training at the time of the 1994 elections called for an integrative response to the legacy of the past. The de-racialization of institutions and systems was an indisputable part of the ANC vision. However, the integrative notion was taken further to include a commitment to an Integrated Department of Education and Labour and a National Qualifications Framework (NQF). Both were seen as essential to ensuring that the progress that had been made by the trade-union movement in the field of training would be carried over into the education system and to expanding the training vision itself to make it more oriented towards developing citizens and not just workers.
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However, due to higher strategic considerations related to the composition of a new Government of National Unity, it was decided to keep the two departments separate. This was unanticipated by ANC education and training officials. However, the notion of the NQF still remained and would have to assume greater responsibility as the glue that would stick together the policies of the two departments (Badroodien & McGrath, 2005).
3.1 The National Qualifications Framework The importance of this role for the NQF was given further symbolic weight when the South African Qualifications Authority Act (Republic of South Africa, 1995) became the first new piece of legislation to emerge in the post-apartheid period. This set up a South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) to oversee the translation of all qualifications into awards according to a new NQF. SAQA was to report to both ministers, although it was seen as primarily under the authority of the Minister of Education, one of the first fault lines to emerge in the new system. SAQA was to have a relatively small staff that would work with and oversee a large number of (largely) new standard-setting and quality-assurance bodies. It was to be governed by a council representing a wide range of relevant stakeholders. Through this mechanism, and stakeholder membership of the range of new committees, it was intended that the system would become far more responsive to demand (McGrath, 1996; Kraak & Young, 2001; Allais, 2003). Table 1 shows what the NQF looked like. Table 1 The National Qualifications Framework NQF level
Sector
Qualification type
8 7 6 5
Higher education and training (HET)
Post-doctoral research degrees Doctorates Masters degrees Professional qualifications Honours degrees National first degrees Higher diplomas National diplomas National certificates
Further Education and Training Certificate (FETC) 4 3 2
Further education and training (FET)
National certificates (the level 4 certificates would be the terminal qualifications of both schools and colleges)
General Education and Training Certificate (GETC) 1
General education and training (GET) Grade 9/Adult Basic Education and Training Level 4 National certificates
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3.2 The Department of Education’s Policies3 3.2.1 The Further Education and Training Act, 1998 Beginning in 1996, the Department of Education embarked on a process leading to a new act governing public and private colleges, now designated as further education and training (FET) colleges, in line with the NQF structure. The Further Education and Training Act (Republic of South Africa, 1998a) sought to find a balance between an emphasis on the economic importance of FET and the social, cultural and humanistic elements. It sought to address boundary issues between FET colleges and universities by proposing a joint committee to examine these issues involving the Council for Higher Education and the National Board for Further Education and Training. Colleges had long been involved in programmes that were now defined as higher education by the NQF, which, typically, provided education below the university level. Nonetheless, the White Paper was very clear about its opposition to ‘mission drift’ and the need for FET institutions to focus primarily on their ‘core business’ of FET provision. The relationship with schools remained difficult for the White Paper to address. However, in its conceptualization of the implementation trajectory for the new policy, it went into far more detail about an integrated vision of the FET level than had previously been attempted. It suggested a phased approach spreading out from colleges eventually to encompass the whole FET sector. It was stated that, by the end of the third year after the adoption of the act, a framework for incorporating senior secondary schools into the FET system would have been developed. By the end of the fourth year, a decision on the future of senior secondary schooling would have been taken and, from the fifth year, incorporation, if agreed upon, would begin. Regarding linkages with the Department of Labour’s programmes, it was clearly stated that steps should be taken ‘to fast-track the introduction of learnerships in FET colleges’ (Republic of South Africa, 1998a, p. 26). The act also introduced procedures for the establishment of the new colleges, focusing particularly on the legislative process leading to mergers of existing institutions. It set out new governance and financial arrangements; and stressed the role of quality assurance. It also considered the place of private providers.
3.2.2 The National Strategy for Further Education and Training, 1999 Once the FET Act was passed, the FET Branch of the Department of Education turned its attention to a strategy for its implementation. This was completed in 1999 (Department of Education, 1999). Central to this process was a set of proposals about funding. It argued that a new funding system should be introduced over time. This should include a core of programme-based funding with additional specialpurpose funding. The programme-based element should itself be largely based on the notion of full-time equivalents (FTEs), but it was recommended that there should also be an outcomes-related component to encourage efficiency. It was envisaged that special-purpose funding should be directed at the development of management,
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staff and learner-support systems, and for the development of new learning support materials. It was recommended that fees would be progressive, but it was made clear that there would be no public funds for student financial aid, unlike higher education. It was strongly expected that FET institutions would have access to significant amounts of funding out of the new levy system established by the Department of Labour (see below).
3.2.3 The New Institutional Landscape, 2001 It was clear to the Department of Education throughout this process that the current number of colleges, and the disparities between them, were untenable. In 2001 the department published its strategy for responding to this challenge after a series of provincial analyses, overseen by a national task team. A new institutional landscape for public further education and training colleges (Department of Education, 2001) envisaged a series of fifty large institutions grounded on nine attributes:
r r r r r r r r r
large, multi-site institutions; increased autonomy; a mixture of specialization and multi-purpose institutions; a new quality-assurance framework; an increased focus on open and distance learning; a greater focus on access for learners with special needs; better articulation and collaboration with higher education; a commitment to improved student support services; and a stress on partnerships with government and the private sector (Department of Education, 2001, pp. 16–20)
The report reinforced the requirement for the staffing of colleges to be more representative. It reiterated the need for curricular reform and for a wider range of programme offerings, supported by a new funding mechanism. It envisaged a transition over time in the degree of autonomy as colleges developed sufficient capacity to manage themselves, and stressed the need for a capacity development effort to support such a growth in powers.
3.2.4 Overviewing FET Policy Development and Implementation Important elements of the FET policy recommendations of the last decade have been realized in a set of practices, including the transformation of the institutional landscape through the merger process. However, it is striking that a number of policy recommendations remain at best partially acted upon. These include the areas of finance, curriculum, articulation (with schools, higher education and skills development) and addressing both social and economic needs.
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3.3 The Department of Labour’s Skills Development Strategy4 Meanwhile, in 1997 the Department of Labour published the Green Paper on a skills development strategy (Department of Labour, 1997). This has formed the basis for subsequent skills policies. The Green Paper called for: (a) a levy-grant system aimed at increasing the investment and involvement of employers in the training of their workforce; (b) new sector education and training authorities; and (c) the introduction of learnerships (the model to succeed and extend the apprenticeship system). These recommendations led to the Skills Development Act (Republic of South Africa, 1998b) and the Skills Development Levies Act (Republic of South Africa, 1999a). 3.3.1 Skills Development Act, 1998 The act created a new institutional framework for skills development in which there is a high level of co-ordination at the national level (via the National Skills Authority—NSA) and at a sectoral level (via the twenty-five Sector Education and Training Authorities—SETAs).5 The new SETAs’ role includes the evaluation of workplace skills plans (WSPs) and the development of sector skills plans; developing and registering learnerships; quality assuring training provision; and managing and administering the grants received through the training levy (legislated by the Skills Development Levies Act). At the national level, the NSA is responsible for developing a macro-skills development policy for the Minister of Labour on a fouryearly cycle. At the programme core of the new system is the new notion of learnership. Learnerships are legislated by the Skills Development Act to include complex contractual agreements for a fixed period between the learner, the provider and the employer. The contractual agreement provides a framework for formalizing the relationship between these three parties in carrying out the qualification. Beyond the formality of the agreement, this relationship requires high levels of co-operation to ensure the smooth planning and operation of the learnership. Learnerships are located at the core of the Department of Labour’s macro-strategy for skills development. They are intended to move beyond the narrow confines of conventional apprenticeships and seek to build learners from disparate levels of prior learning to a situation of competence necessary for meaningful social and economic participation. This requires high levels of investment of resources to provide sufficient support to learners, both within the theory provider and within the workplace (Akoojee, Gewer & McGrath, 2005a). Learnerships are not just for those who are already employed. There is also a strong commitment to learnerships for the pre- or unemployed. In this model, the employer commits to a period of employment during the time-span of the learnership, but not to subsequent employment. In addition to establishing the legal framework for learnerships, the Skills Development Act also made provision for the development of skills programmes, which
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would comprise an occupationally-directed learning programme leading to a credit towards a qualification rather than a full qualification. The purpose of the skills programmes is to allow learners access to short programmes that could be combined towards a complete qualification, thus allowing more flexibility and mobility.
3.3.2 The Skills Development Levies Act, 1999 The funding regime for this radical new approach was legislated in the Skills Development Levies Act (Republic of South Africa, 1999a). Beyond a certain size, all enterprises were required to pay 1% of payroll (0.5% in the first year) as a skills development levy. Some 80% of these funds would flow through the South African Revenue Service to the relevant SETA. A range of criteria were developed governing how enterprises could claim back the majority of these funds through evidence of training activities linked to their WSPs. The remaining 20% of the total levy income was set aside for strategic and developmental interventions, including a specific focus on skills development for small, medium and micro-enterprises. These moneys are managed by the National Skills Fund, located within the Department of Labour. 3.3.3 The National Skills Development Strategy, 2001 and 2005 In the National Skills Development Strategy of 2001, the Department of Labour set twelve targets for the skills-development system, with three cross-cutting equity targets, to be met by March 2005 (Department of Labour, 2001). Most of the indicators have been reached, and it is clear that the department has achieved much in its attempted skills revolution (McGrath & Paterson, 2006). However, there are still concerns about the performance of the system in terms of equity and broader impact. A new National Skills Development Strategy was launched in March 2005, which largely seeks to continue along the path of the first strategy (Department of Labour, 2005).
3.4 The Human Resources Development Strategy, 2001 As a further way of building intra-departmental coherence between education and labour, in 2001 the two departments jointly produced a Human Resources Development Strategy—HRDS (Department of Education/Department of Labour, 2001) (Fig. 1). The first element of the Human Resources Development Strategy, ‘building the base’, is concerned with early-childhood development, which is the responsibility of various departments, most obviously those concerned with health and education. The second element, the ‘supply side’, is seen largely as the role of the Department
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4. GROWING THE FUTURE National capacity for Innovation, Research and Development
2. SUPPLY SIDE Improving the supply of high-quality skills
5. HRD STRATEGY Enhancing the linkages between the other four strategic objectives
3. DEMAND SIDE Increasing employer participation in lifelong learning
1. BUILDING THE BASE Improving the foundations for human development
Fig. 1 Visualizing the Human Resources Development Strategy Source: Department of Education/Department of Labour, 2001.
of Education, albeit with the involvement of other departments, most notably those concerned with labour and (at the higher education level) science and technology. The third element, ‘demand side’, is primarily the responsibility of the Department of Labour, although here the work of trade and industry in encouraging a high-skills approach is particularly relevant. The fourth element, ‘growing the future’, is an overlapping responsibility of the Departments of Education, Science and Technology and Trade and Industry in particular. The strategy itself and the continued enhancement of linkages between the other elements of the approach is driven by the Departments of Education and Labour, who jointly own the HRDS and who jointly convene the national Human Resources Development Co-ordinating Committee.
4 Analysing the Policy Transformation Process and the Remaining Tensions In the second half of this chapter I will consider the dynamics inherent in the policy process outlined above and the tensions that remain unresolved. I will do so under three headings. First, I will consider the ways in which the principles of coherence and integration have been interpreted in the development of a new South African approach to education and training. Second, I will explore how tensions in this regard relate to other unresolved issues regarding the nature of responsiveness. Third, I will deepen this discussion by shifting into an examination of the way that the institutional logics of departments and conflicting visions of responsiveness relate to differing and inconsistent models of the relative roles of the State, market and people in the decision-making process.
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4.1 Coherence Earlier in this chapter I recounted how the original ANC plan to have an integrated Department of Education and Labour had been abandoned. Of course, SAQA and the NQF were supposed to be the mechanisms for ensuring a common vision between education and training. However, it quickly became apparent that the two departments’ institutional logics, and the ways that these intersected with overall government policy, meant that there was a complex set of forces preventing integration. At times, the two departments appeared to have genuine common visions and interests and be pulling together. However, there were clear examples from early in the process that their different interests could also serve to pull the system apart (McGrath, 1996; Akoojee, Gewer & McGrath, 2005a; Badroodien & McGrath, 2005). As in many other national contexts, Department of Education officials tended to stress the educational and social aspects of VET’s role and to downplay the economic ones. Equally typically, Department of Labour officials, on the other hand, tended to focus on what could be agreed upon by employers and trade unions and showed a willingness to dilute educational considerations when these appeared to get in the way of agreement on training reforms. In spite of a range of working groups and public protestations about collaboration between the two departments, it remained clear that there was little real agreement between them beneath the most general level when it came to the rules of the new game. Thus, learnerships began to develop largely with private providers whilst college qualifications were still predominantly education/supply-led. Education has not yet managed to really access any of the funding ‘owned’ by labour; whilst labour lacks the set of provider institutions ‘owned’ by education. The limits of coherence were also made apparent by the process of reviewing the NQF and SAQA, which began in 2001. Responding to an independent review of the system (Department of Education/Department of Labour, 2002), the two departments spent eighteen months in arriving at a workable compromise (Department of Education/Department of Labour, 2003), which essentially allowed the two departments to strengthen control of ‘their’ segments of the system, whilst maintaining a weakened SAQA as a largely symbolic point of articulation between the different parts (Akoojee, Gewer & McGrath, 2005a). After a consultation period ending in October 2003, which resulted in widespread external criticism of the compromise, the two departments continued to seek a revised model that could satisfy everyone. However, this has still not been achieved at the time of writing—more than two years later. In the meantime, SAQA is left weakened by inadequate funding and uncertainty about its future, and is not in a position to drive integration without serious departmental and ministerial support.
4.2 Responsiveness All education is supposed to be responsive to broader individual, community and societal needs. Moreover, it is argued that this is particularly true for VET. Recent international work on VET systems has shown, however, that there are multiple
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versions of responsiveness to which these systems are supposed to react (Ashton & Green, 1996; Crouch, Finegold & Sako, 1999; Brown, Green & Lauder, 2001; King & McGrath, 2002; Wolf, 2002; Cosser et al., 2003; Akoojee, Gewer & McGrath, 2005b). The experience of South African VET since 1994 highlights a set of tensions regarding responsiveness. In the public FET college system, it is apparent that there are internal tensions within the Department of Education’s position regarding their responsiveness. The FET Act sought to make it clear that social responsiveness and a focus on equity and redress were more important than a focus on preparation for the economy. However, the HRDS, jointly developed with the Department of Labour, places emphasis on the need for colleges to respond to shortages in certain areas of skills. The latter argument is clearly the dominant one in the government’s most recent Programme of Action (Republic of South Africa, 2004). Moreover, the Department of Education’s own practices appear to go beyond the language of its policies in stressing the primacy of economic factors. Although the New institutional landscape (2001) reflected the department’s vision for the sector, its implementation came to be dominated by the funding and technical support given by the corporate sector through the National Business Initiative. Thus, the key support given to colleges in the vital period of mergers was from a highly market-oriented think tank, which stressed the need for colleges to become more efficient and focused on business partnerships. Moreover, this process was given significant support by a series of initiatives from the British Council, which resulted in a strong influence at the institutional level from a managerial reading of the reforms that the British college system had undergone since 1992. To use Argyris and Sch¨on’s (1978) useful concepts, it appeared in the early part of the current decade that the Department of Education’s theory-in-use of responsiveness was at some variance from its espoused theory. I have argued elsewhere (McGrath, 2000, 2005a, 2005b) that the Department of Education has a very weak view of what economic responsiveness really means. Whilst the HRDS stressed the importance of targeting older learners who were already employed and of focusing on scarce skills, FET policy appears to be more concerned in practice with the ‘problem’ of what to do with those 14–19-year-olds who are not deemed suitable for higher education. This has led the department to plan to expand the size of the system massively and, at the same time, to reduce the target-learner age-group. Moreover, the department has proved very reluctant to address the challenge of the informal economy. In spite of approximately one-third of the economicallyactive population being engaged in informal work (International Labour Office, 2002), it is difficult to find anything but the most passing mention of the need to support skills development for the informal economy in departmental policies. At the level of practice, there are examples of colleges that are trying to develop localized and nuanced readings of the challenge of responsiveness. However, there is also evidence that many colleges are developing strategies that threaten to undermine access and educational worth in the search for economic advantage. The Department of Labour too has faced problems in trying to develop its own account of responsiveness. Although emerging largely out of compromise between
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organized business and the trade unions, the department’s policy attempts to balance a focus on economic growth and competitiveness with a concern for social inclusion and redress. Some sense of the tensions that the department has been trying to manage can be seen in the subtitle of the first National Skills Development Strategy: ‘Productive citizenship for all’ (Department of Labour, 2001) and in the vision statement for the second strategy: ‘Skills for sustainable growth, development and equity’ (Department of Labour, 2005). In spite of its stated concern to balance these different considerations, the department has been criticized for its failure to do enough to support the skills development needs of the smallest and most informal enterprises (King, 1998; King & McGrath, 2002; McGrath, 2005a, 2005b) and for its performance on supporting equity (Badroodien, 2003; McGrath & Paterson, 2006). Although responsiveness has been seen as a vital part of the new system, it appears that the notion remains too vague and inconsistent to be of much practical use. In the FET sector, the vacuum created by State vagueness in this area has led to the major practical influence of the views of business and the alleged example of the British college sector. In skills development, some progress has been made in broadening access, but the system remains hugely shaped by the particular dynamics of various industrial sectors (McGrath & Paterson, 2006).
4.3 State, Markets and People Internationally, VET systems have been encouraged to move away from State control and towards responsiveness both to market forces and to the wishes of local people. In developing countries, both of these dynamics have been heavily driven by international development co-operation agencies. In response to and largely driven by the policies of international co-operation agencies, VET systems have adopted new modes of governance, including national training agencies and institutional governing bodies (Johanson & Adams, 2004; Akoojee, Gewer & McGrath, 2005b; McGrath, forthcoming). Examples of this can be seen in South Africa in new public FET college councils and in the establishment of SAQA and the National Skills Authority. However, it is important to ask whether a set of global policy certainties necessarily work in the ways intended in a context as unique as that of South Africa. The case of FET college reform in South Africa provides little support for the argument that decentralization of policy, governance and management necessarily brings about meaningful and sustainable benefits. Rather, the South African case may be one in which the ability of a legitimate State to effect necessary social change has been undermined by a diffusion of power and capacity across nine provinces and, increasingly, fifty institutions. The national department has taken the view that institutional autonomy can only be developed over time and cannot simply be granted on grounds of ideology. This is an important point to bear in mind in other national contexts. However, the South
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African case also emphasizes the need to be consistent both in public statements and in developmental activities in supporting the eventual development of institutional capacities if this is indeed a policy goal. The South African college sector also provides an important lesson in terms of the need to approach public-sector reform as a particular area of expertise distinct from private sector management. In spite of the Public Finance Management Act (Republic of South Africa, 1999b) and the attempts to adapt the King principles for corporate governance for the public sector (McGrath, forthcoming), there has been too little practical support to the college sector regarding what good governance means for a public institution. Instead, there has been too much advice given by large international management consultancy firms, lacking a real grounding in public sector issues. Work on school democracy in South Africa (e.g. Sayed, 1999; Karlsson, 2002; Bush & Heystek, 2003) has shown that local-level democracy does not simply come into existence because it is legislated for. Although there was a degree of genuine democratization of decisions about schooling, there have been three difficulties that are likely to affect colleges too. First, more equitable access to membership of governance structures does not mean that old and new power imbalances in society are overthrown. Second, it also does not mean that the new governors are receiving support to develop the necessary tools for good governance. Third, as Karlsson (2002) notes, school governance reform has ‘over-reached’ in terms of what was expected of governing bodies. There are also grounds for caution in judging the impact of stakeholderism at the national level. The National Board for Further Education and Training has been almost entirely ineffectual. The SAQA Council has not proved a sufficiently robust and influential body to ensure that the National Skills Authority itself has had the resources to do its job and sufficient autonomy from ministerial interference. Finally, the National Skills Authority has struggled to develop capacity, to get beyond the sectional interests of its stakeholders and to construct a working relationship with the department’s officials. The role of the market in the reformed system is also less than clear. Whilst there has been a language of responsiveness and the favouring of a demand-led approach, it is clear that the South African State takes a rather sceptical view of the primacy of the market, both in the skills field and more generally. As regards skills, the State takes a strong view of the need to overcome the market’s failure to produce the right quantity and quality of skills for the right people. Essentially, it has been attempting an institutional approach to transforming the market for skills in terms of both equity and effectiveness. This view is mirrored at the overall policy level by the increasing tendency of the State to espouse developmentalist positions that seek to intervene strategically in bringing about better outcomes than would happen if left to the market alone (Southall, 2005). There are grounds for questioning the consistency and detail of the State’s vision, but there is fairly widespread acceptance in South Africa that the market cannot be left to decide on skills or on policy areas more generally. However, the greatest
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concern about a more development approach concerns the State’s capacity to deliver on its aspirations (Southall, 2005; Paterson, 2005).
5 Conclusion It is easy to argue from today’s vantage point that the first decade of VET in democratic South Africa saw far too much change, delivered at a pace that outstripped the capacity of new officials and institutions to adapt to a hugely ambitious vision. However, such an argument fails to acknowledge the massive and multiple pressures that there were at the outset for a transformation that was both radical and rapid. What is clear is that the transformation has proved far more complex than was realized at the point of departure. Developing new institutions, creating a workable NQF, transforming funding and delivering new programmes have all been attempted at the same time as expanding the system and radically reforming access. Inevitably, too, South Africa has found itself faced with many of the tensions that affect VET systems globally, most particularly the difficulty of balancing social and economic imperatives and of ensuring that the Departments of Education and Labour work together effectively. There have been many successes along the way, but the greatest challenge in the second decade may be in managing a review process that: (a) allows the key successes to continue; (b) identifies the elements of the system that need radical overhaul or abandonment; and (c) which combines honest self-reflection with maintenance of public support for the system. If such a process can be successfully negotiated, then the South African skill revolution may reach a truly successful conclusion.
Notes 1. A more detailed discussion of this history can be found in McGrath et al., 2004. 2. I follow the official South African practice of using racial classifications as a means of understanding how the effects of race continue to shape people’s lives without subscribing to any view of the essential nature of racial classifications. In keeping with South African practice, I use ‘black’ as a collective term to refer to African, Indian and coloured people. 3. This sub-section on FET policy draws extensively on my previous writings, especially McGrath, 2000, 2004 and Forthcoming. 4. This section draws on King & McGrath, 2002; McGrath, 2005a and Forthcoming, as well as Kraak, 2004a and 2004b. 5. The list of SETAs is under revision at the time of writing, with some mergers identified and other changes under consideration.
References Akoojee, S.; Gewer, A.; McGrath, S. 2005a. South Africa: the unfinished revolution in intermediate skills development. In: Akoojee, S.; Gewer, A.; McGrath, S., eds. Vocational education and training in Southern Africa. Cape Town, South Africa: HSRC Press.
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Akoojee, S.; Gewer, A.; McGrath, S., eds. 2005b. Vocational education and training in Southern Africa. Cape Town, South Africa: HSRC Press. Allais, M. 2003. The National Qualifications Framework in South Africa: a democratic project trapped in a neo-liberal paradigm? Journal of education and work, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 309–23. Argyris, C.; Sch¨on, D. 1978. Organisational learning. London: Addison-Wesley. Ashton, D.; Green, F. 1996. Education, training and the global economy. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. Badroodien, A. 2003. Enterprise training. In: Human Sciences Research Council, ed. Human resources development review, 2003. Cape Town, South Africa: HSRC Press. Badroodien, A.; McGrath, S. 2005. International influences on the evolution of South Africa’s National Skills Development Strategy, 1989–2004. Eschborn, Germany: GTZ. Brown, P.; Green, A.; Lauder, H. 2001. High skills. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Bush, T.; Heystek, J. 2003. School governance in the new South Africa. Compare, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 127–38. Cosser, M. et al., eds. 2003. Technical college responsiveness. Cape Town, South Africa: HSRC Press. Crouch, C.; Finegold, D.; Sako, M. 1999. Are skills the answer? Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Department of Education. 1999. National Strategy for Further Education and Training. Pretoria: Government Printer. Department of Education. 2001. A new institutional landscape for public further education and training colleges. Pretoria: Government Printer. Department of Education/Department of Labour. 2001. Human Resources Development Strategy for South Africa. Pretoria: Government Printer. Department of Education/Department of Labour. 2002. The report of the Study Team on the Implementation of the National Qualifications Framework. Pretoria: Government Printer. Department of Education/Department of Labour. 2003. An interdependent qualification framework system. Pretoria: Government Printer. Department of Labour. 1997. Green Paper on a skills development strategy for economic and employment growth in South Africa. Pretoria: Government Printer. Department of Labour. 2001. National Skills Development Strategy, 2001-2005. Pretoria: Department of Labour. Department of Labour. 2005. National Skills Development Strategy, 2005–2010. Pretoria: Department of Labour. Human Sciences Research Council. 1981. Report of the main committee of the HSRC investigation into education. Pretoria: HSRC. (The de Lange Report.) International Labour Office. 2002. Women and men in the informal economy. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Johanson, R.; Adams, A.V. 2004. Skills development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank. Karlsson, J. 2002. The role of democratic governing bodies in South African schools. Comparative education, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 327–36. King, K. 1998. Policy coherence in education, training and enterprise development in South Africa. In: Morrow, W.; King, K., eds. Vision and reality. Cape Town, South Africa: University of Cape Town Press. King, K.; McGrath, S. 2002. Globalisation, enterprise and knowledge. Oxford, UK: Symposium. Kraak, A. 2004a. The National Skills Development Strategy: a new institutional regime for skills formation in post-apartheid South Africa. In: McGrath, S. et al., eds. Shifting understandings of skill: moving beyond low skills in post-apartheid South Africa. Cape Town, South Africa: HSRC Press. Kraak, A. 2004b. Rethinking the high skills thesis in South Africa. In: McGrath, S. et al., eds. Shifting understandings of skill: moving beyond low skills in post-apartheid South Africa. Cape Town, South Africa: HSRC Press. Kraak, A.; Young, M., eds. 2001. Education in transition. Pretoria: HSRC.
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McGrath, S. 1996. Learning to work: changing discourses on South African education and training, 1976–96. Edinburgh, UK: University of Edinburgh. [Unpublished Ph.D. thesis.] McGrath, S. 2000. Coming in from the cold: further education and training in South Africa. Compare, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 65–84. McGrath, S. 2004. Reviewing the development of the South African further education and training college sector ten years after the end of apartheid. Journal of vocational education and training, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 133–53. McGrath, S. 2005a. ‘Skills for productive citizenship for all’: the place of skills development for micro and small enterprises in South Africa. Journal of education and work, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 111–24. McGrath, S., ed. 2005b. Skills development in South African very small and micro enterprises. Pretoria: Department of Labour; Cape Town: HSRC Press. McGrath, S. Forthcoming. Transforming the governance of South African public further education and training colleges. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. McGrath, S.; Paterson, A. 2006. Enterprise training. In: Human Sciences Research Council, ed. Human resources development review, 2006. Cape Town, South Africa: HSRC Press. McGrath, S. et al., eds. 2004. Shifting understandings of skill: moving beyond low skills in postapartheid South Africa. Cape Town, South Africa: HSRC Press. Paterson, A. 2005. Public sector training: a ‘blind’ spot in the 1998 South African national levy-grant policy. Journal of vocational education and training, vol. 57, no. 4, pp. 519–36. Republic of South Africa. 1995. South African Qualifications Authority Act. Pretoria: Government Printer. Republic of South Africa. 1998a. Further Education and Training Act. Pretoria: Government Printer. Republic of South Africa. 1998b. Skills Development Act. Pretoria: Government Printer. Republic of South Africa. 1999a. Skills Development Levies Act. Pretoria: Government Printer. Republic of South Africa. 1999b. Public Finance Management Act. Pretoria: Government Printer. Republic of South Africa. 2004. Programme of Action. Pretoria: Government Printer. Sayed, Y. 1999. Discourses of the policy of educational decentralization in South Africa since 1994: an examination of the South African Schools Act. Compare, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 141–52. Southall, R. 2005. Introduction: can South Africa be a developmental state? In: Buhlungu, S. et al., eds. State of the nation, 2005-2006. Cape Town, South Africa: HSRC Press. Wiehahn, N. 1981. The complete Wiehahn Report. Johannesburg, South Africa: Lex Patria. Wolf, A. 2002. Does education matter? London: Penguin.
Chapter III.8
Reform of Vocational Education in the Russian Federation Olga Oleynikova and Anna Muravyeva
1 Background The reform processes for Russian vocational education and training (VET) started in the early 1990s when the former USSR split into independent states, and the Russian Federation became a nation consisting of eighty-nine regions, each with a considerable degree of autonomy. In the field of education this autonomy was reflected by the rapid adoption of regional legislation on education, even if based on the Federal Law on Education. The Federal Law on Education reflects the provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, laying down in Article 42 universal access to free-of-charge pre-school, general and vocational education. The same Article (paragraph 5) also stipulates that national education standards are set by the Federal State. In Section II, Article 9, vocational education and training is subdivided into two levels—initial and secondary VET.1 Access to both levels of VET is open for general secondary (nine-year compulsory education) and complete or full secondary school-leavers (eleven years). For school-leavers who do not possess a full general secondary education certificate, vocational curricula at both levels are supplemented by a curriculum of complete general secondary education. Thus, in principle both levels of VET provide open access to higher education (Russian Federation. Ministry of Education, 1996) VET, and especially initial VET, has always played a two-fold role, namely that of preparation for work and of providing some kind of a social security net for children from disadvantaged families (as of now, about 70% of initial VET students come from low-income and single-parent families) (Russian Federation. Ministry of Education and Science, 2005). The social support role of VET that goes back to the Soviet days has, obviously, been transformed by the new market economy conditions, although VET has tended to retain this important social function. However, it has clearly been weakened by insufficient financial support for education from the State. In Russia the share of GDP spent on education amounts to only 3.6% (as against France 5.8% and Germany 4.5%) (National Observatory for VET, 2003). Tensions between the qualifying role and the social protection role of vocational education and training institutions remain one of the big challenges yet to be overcome. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 III.8, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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2 Processes of VET Reform and Modernization 2.1 The Initial Years of Transition VET reform in Russia has passed through two stages: an initial one that can be broadly termed liberalization lasted until 2002, when it was followed up by attempts to introduce modernization. Modernization has been accompanied by a structural change in the organization of the VET system (National Observatory for VET, 2004). During the administrative reform of the federal and regional governing bodies in 2004, the Ministry of Education, responsible for vocational education, was transformed into the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. This ministry is in charge of both VET segments, as well as of the system of so-called supplementary education, which is in fact a prototype of what is usually referred to as continuing vocational education and training (CVET). Thus, vocational education and training delivered by VET schools, VET centres attached to enterprises and State providers of supplementary education is currently under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education and Science and its two affiliated agencies, namely of the Federal Education Agency and the Federal Inspection Service. Vocational training of the unemployed, however, is the responsibility of the Federal Employment Service. This agency either contracts training courses with VET schools or provides labour-market training at its own training centres. The latter issue their own certificates which are recognized by employers. In initial VET, worker training takes place either directly at enterprises or within the State-run initial VET schools or lyceums. Unfortunately, since 1993 there have been no official figures made available on the in-service training of workers. Secondary VET programmes are available at technicums and colleges (Russian Federation. Ministry of Education, 1999). Within each level of VET differences between types of schools depend on the type of programmes—either basic or advanced—and differ in the content and composition of curricula and qualifications. To fully perceive the scale, scope and problems of the reform and modernization effort in Russia, it is worthwhile bearing in mind that we are talking about a VET system embracing around 3,790 initial VET schools and lyceums (with about 1,649,300 students), 2,600 State-run and municipal secondary VET institutions (with about 2.5 million students), and over 200 private colleges (Russian Federation. Ministry of Education and Science, 2005). These VET institutions are scattered all over the country’s eighty-eight regions2 that differ not only geographically, but also in terms of the level of economic development. Regions are subdivided into ‘donor’ regions, considered to be doing relatively well economically, and ‘recipients’ who benefit from additional equalizing subsidies from the federal government. The overhaul of relations between education and production in the country in the early 1990s resulted in VET schools severing their former links with enterprises. Traditionally, these links included mandatory provision of work-experience placements for VET students, jobs for VET graduates and other forms of support. Given that the only form of ownership of enterprises in Soviet times was State ownership,
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and given the planned character of the national economy at that time, matching demand with supply used to be part of the overall VET administrative system. The introduction of labour markets has also changed this aspect of the system. In the early days of the transition period (accompanied by an economic crisis), the VET reform effort was—besides trying to preserve institutions—directed largely at overcoming the ‘rigidity’ of the system and at liberalizing content and regulations. Hence, the catchwords of those days were diversification of curricular content and increased autonomy of VET schools at all levels. The biggest achievement of this stage was the first generation of VET standards that, for the first time in Russian history, introduced a differentiation between a federal and a regional component. This was meant to provide the regional levels with a certain degree of autonomy that would allow them to address local specificities, including the structure of their labour markets. These VET standards still had to be approved by sector ministries and the Ministry of Labour before their final adoption by the government, but in itself this was a major step forward. During this period private colleges of secondary VET also emerged, and contractbased training was permitted. This opened up an opportunity for VET schools to raise money to supplement the meagre budgets provided by the State and to broaden their services to embrace different target groups of learners—in particular unemployed and employed adults. It is noteworthy that contract-based training has served as ‘litmus paper’ revealing the entrepreneurial spirit of some schools—and its absence in others. Proactive ‘entrepreneurial’ schools managed to re-establish links with enterprises and receive money that they have used for research and development, as well as to support teachers’ salaries. Unfortunately, at the federal level no notice has been taken of this development and of the crucial factors behind it. A proper analysis of the motives, actions and contexts of proactive schools could have resulted in models that would have been beneficial for the whole VET system.
2.2 Revision of Strategies and Priorities With the gradual development of the national economy and under the influence of globalization, the emerging goals of the knowledge-based economy and discussions about European integration, the constraints of the initial reform efforts became obvious and have led to the strategy and priorities being revised. This was reflected in a number of policy documents, including the ‘National Doctrine of Education’ (Russian Federation. Ministry of Education, 2000), the ‘Concept of Modernization of Education in the Russian Federation’ (Russian Federation. Ministry of Education, 2002), and the most recent document ‘Priorities for the Development of Education in the Russian Federation’ (Russian Federation. Ministry of Education, 2004). From then on, VET modernization has addressed the following new issues: (a) development of a new generation of VET standards; (b) establishment of an independent quality assessment and certification system; (c) development of a
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methodology and infrastructure for the identification of the current and future demand for labour; and (d) development of social partnerships in the sphere of VET. These objectives were further specified in 2004 in the ‘Priorities for the Development of Education in the Russian Federation’. This document sets down the strategic goals of the country’s educational development, which include: (a) improvement of the well-being of its citizens; (b) the promotion of social stability, security of the State and its citizens; (c) the development of civil society institutions; (d) the maintenance of the social and cultural integrity and civil identity of Russian society; (e) the provision of a qualified work force for the labour market; and (f) the development of a national innovation system enhancing the competitiveness of the Russian economy (Russian Federation. Ministry of Education, 2002, 2004). For VET the main goals are: (a) the development of an up-to-date system of continuing vocational and higher education; (b) enhancing the quality of VET and higher education; and (c) making the education system more attractive for investors. In order to develop an up-to-date system of continuing vocational education and training, it was deemed necessary to: increase the number of VET providers; to establish a system of external assessment and accreditation of programmes and competences; and to facilitate the academic mobility of students. To enhance the quality of VET it was necessary to restructure the system of initial and secondary VET, to create conditions for the innovation-based development of VET, and to better integrate education and training, research and practice. Finally, in order to make the education system more attractive for private investments it was suggested: to increase the financial autonomy of schools by promoting wider diversity in their organizational and legal status; to reduce investment risks for educational investors by promoting stakeholder involvement in the governance of educational establishments; and to introduce new principles for the financing of VET schools. As of the time of writing, tangible outputs can be observed along two axes of modernization. Firstly, the second generation of VET standards developed in 2002 has seen a broader participation on the part of social partners. And secondly, social dialogue has begun to develop, reflecting both the internal processes at work in the regions, as well as the impact of international projects implemented in Russia, such as those supported by the European Commission and the European Training Foundation. However, due to the absence of occupational standards in most of the economic sectors, VET standards have not taken full account of employers’ perspectives and remain largely based on educational inputs instead of the outcomes. Nevertheless, in the preparation for the third generation of VET standards now under way, employers’ needs are receiving more attention. There is also a growing interest on the part of employers in developing sector-wide occupational standards. Such intentions have been clearly voiced by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the biggest association of employers in the Russian Federation. To add weight to its intentions, this union has established a National Agency for Promotion of Qualifications bringing together all relevant stakeholders to create common ground for enhancing the quality of the workforce by expressing their viewpoints in order to reach a consensus. In 2006 the Government of the Russian Federation approved
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an action-plan addressed to the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Health and Social Development setting out concrete measures to develop a national qualifications framework, competence-based VET curricula, occupational standards and VET standards based on the latter. This action-plan is a breakthrough in terms of the conceptual perspective underlying the modernization effort. Since 2002, the rhetoric of VET policymakers has also visibly shifted towards quality—in terms of relevance to the labour market—regarded both as an objective and outcome of social partnership. Thus, since that time, the VET discourse has been enriched by such notions as social partnership in VET, multi-level multi-purpose VET schools, optimization of the network of VET schools, decentralization of VET governance, per capita financing of schools, lifelong learning and continuing education and training. Furthermore, the discussion about the Bologna and Copenhagen processes has put additional pressure on the system and, in a way, has acted as a catalyst for further modernization efforts (Oleynikova, 2005). While the preceding overview offers a somewhat static picture of VET modernization effort in Russia, below we take a look at active on-going processes involving various interest groups and stakeholders. Finally, we summarize the main achievements and list some of the remaining challenges.
2.3 Contract-Based Training The first event was the development of contract-based training. For example, in initial VET schools about half a million adults are trained under contracts with enterprises, employment agencies or under individual contracts. It is interesting to note that the largest number of contracts is signed with individual citizens (around 60% as against 40% in both of the other groups taken together) (Russian Federation. Ministry of Education and Science, 2005), which indicates a high level of interest in education and training among individuals and recognition that education is the key to a successful career and self-fulfilment. On the other hand, paid tuition is distorting the VET system, often tempting schools to launch programmes that may be attractive to individuals, but have little relevance to the labour market. The most typical examples are programmes in law, economics and accounting that can be found even at initial VET schools.
2.4 Competence-Based Curricula The second process that is currently coming to the fore is the introduction of the competence-based approach to VET curricula. This implies a further transition to new quality-assurance mechanisms and streamlined institutional mechanisms of social partnership in VET. The development of competence-based VET has been largely triggered by international projects, including the ‘VET reform in the North-West of Russia’ Project
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and the recent European Union-funded Delphi II project that ended in 2005 with the publication of a set of manuals on the development and delivery of competencebased modular curricula. These have been approved by the federal Ministry of Education and Science and are currently being piloted in a number of VET schools. In one region that is very development oriented (Sverdlovsk Oblast), the regional VET standard component has been developed based on learning outcomes (competences). It is therefore unfortunate that an independent system of quality assessment has not yet been put in place and assessment remains within the jurisdiction of VET schools. Clearly, until the outcome-based approach has fully taken root, an independent assessment and certification institution has little chance of succeeding.
2.5 Quality Assurance Nevertheless, certain processes towards improving quality assurance can be observed. Some VET schools have taken the initiative into their own hands. They have opted for ISO certificates in quality management and others have piloted the selfassessment model developed by the Copenhagen Technical Working Group. The second group of schools are working together with a view to submitting proposals to the federal Ministry of Education and Science on the relevance of this model for the Russian VET system. Some VET schools—though few in number—have adopted a modified total quality management model that serves as the basis for the National and Regional Competitions for the Quality Award, initiated by both the federal and regional governments.
2.6 Continuing Vocational Education and Training Another important process at work in the VET system is the spread of continuing vocational education and training (CVET), despite the fact that the CVET sector is not yet officially institutionalized. However, at the conceptual level, steps have been taken towards integrating all forms of post-initial VET and adult education, ensuring coherence of qualifications, and enhancing the diversity of pathways to extend access to education and training for all age-groups. Under the Delphi II project, a planning model for CVET at the regional level has been developed that has been recommended for use by all regional VET administrations (Muravyeva, 2005). VET schools are increasingly involved in CVET delivery and will be even more so in the near future, with young cohorts dramatically decreasing due to demographic ageing of the population. There is also a growing need for up-skilling and retraining of the workforce as a result of rapid technological change. It should be stressed that the demographic aging3 of the population creates new challenges for the VET system in terms of knowledge updating, as it is the young generation, namely recent graduates from the education system, who are familiar with and use up-to-date knowledge and
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technologies. With the ageing of the population, the inflow of young people into the work force is slowing down and the age structure of the population group that is most active economically and socially (aged 20 to 60) is undergoing dramatic changes.
2.7 Optimization of the School Network Another on-going process concerns the optimization of the network of VET schools. This reflects other processes, such as the decentralization of VET governance and the need to increase the cost-effectiveness of VET systems (Butko, 2004). Priorities established by the federal Ministry of Education and Science for the reform of the network of VET schools envisage a systemic integration of schools of different levels in establishing larger complexes, including those based on universities, as well as multi-level multi-purpose VET schools/centres. In addition, organizational and curricular continuity between levels of VET and professional education should be established, and qualification profiles and volumes of training should better match the requirements of the labour markets. The Concept of Optimization of VET Schools, adopted by the federal Ministry of Education and Science foresees (St. Petersburg Department of Education, 2005):
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Choosing a selected number of VET schools to form multi-level and multipurpose centres of excellence that will remain under federal jurisdiction and deliver training in occupations of importance for the national economy (high-tech sectors, defence industry). These schools will pilot innovations, both technological and methodological. Geographically, such federal centres of excellence will be located in smaller cities having few VET schools. By the end of 2008 about 300 schools of this type will have been established implementing initial (IVET), secondary (SVET) and continuing (CVET) curricula in occupational profiles relevant for each region; Modifying IVET and SVET schools into multi-profile and multi-level VET centres under the regional jurisdiction will concern about 40% of the total amount of these schools. Already most SVET colleges have introduced training for two or three new occupations on top of the traditional ones to address the changing needs of the labour market and are implementing IVET and CVET programmes; Establishing the so-called resource centres on the basis of the best regional VET schools. Many regions have opted for this model in order to restructure their school networks. The concept of a resource centre, which is quite complex and requires further development, has been thoroughly analysed and piloted in a number of regions in the World Bank financed Education Reform Project. There is a danger that a resource centre becomes just a better-equipped VET school or a methodological and research ‘repository’, but is not a training centre with advanced technology and equipment that can be used collectively by all regional and inter-regional customers for the practical training of students.
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The first outcomes of restructuring the VET schools network are witness to the reorganization of 130 VET schools of different levels into twenty-four university complexes and nineteen multi-profile colleges. This move has reduced the number of legal entities—recipients of public funding—and contributed to the elimination of redundancy in training profiles within a region, streamlining the governance and procedures and resulting in an improvement in cost-effectiveness. It is expected that the restructuring of school networks will require new organizational and legal formats for VET schools. The rationale behind these proposals is that a new legal status will promote employer involvement in VET school governance, and will thus improve financial support for VET schools.
2.8 Decentralization The federal policy on the decentralization of VET governance aims at better addressing the regional and local needs of the economy and the population. It also aims at involving regional administrations in VET development as well as activating the participation of employers and professional associations in VET governance. Decentralization means the transfer of VET schools into regional jurisdictions with a redistribution of decision-making powers between the federal and regional authorities. As of January 2005, the responsibilities of VET management and financing for most IVET schools were devolved from the federal to the regional level. The SVET schools are also being gradually transferred to regional jurisdictions. To date, about 92% of IVET schools and about 460 SVET schools have been transferred to the regional jurisdiction. In spite of the fact that decentralization, as such, is a very positive development, the financial situation of VET schools may deteriorate, primarily due to the constraints resulting from very different regional priorities. Plans to streamline regional disparities through targeted federal subsidies for VET schools are under discussion. The transfer of IVET and SVET schools to the regional jurisdiction would require the development of a legal framework empowering the federal ministry to maintain control over the quality of VET, while the infrastructure is devolved to the regional jurisdiction. Thus, a model of VET governance is to be created that would delineate powers and competences, functions and responsibilities of schools and local governments between the regional and the federal authorities. In preparation for such optimization, the regions of the Russian Federation are modernizing their VET infrastructure by setting up regional centres for labourmarket monitoring, for quality assurance and integrated systems for up-skilling (CVET). Some have also started to improve vocational guidance and counselling systems. In certain regions (e.g. in Samara Oblast), stipends and additional benefits have been introduced for students to stimulate training in occupations that are needed by the economy but are not popular. Some regions have started establishing regional centres for the certification of qualifications using international experience. Without the co-ordination and guidance of federal authorities, such issues as the transfer of certificates across regions and the lack of nationally agreed standards may undermine the viability of centres and thus affect their survival.
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Regional VET systems are also involved in maximizing the regional element in VET standards so as to improve the labour-market relevance of education and training. To this end, various forms of councils have been set up with the participation of social partners. In some regions VET schools’ licenses are reconfirmed only if their training profiles address the regional labour market needs. Employers, regional employment service agencies and students must also speak out positively about the school.
2.9 New Financing Mechanisms Alongside the decentralization and optimization processes, new financing mechanisms have been devised, including per capita financing of IVET and SVET schools differentiated according to the profile of training (in terms of its relevance for the economy) and the costs of the programme. The development of per capita financing (often referred to as norm-based financing) has been under way for quite a few years but no final model has yet been approved. The decentralization process has also engendered a model of co-financing of VET schools under medium-term target programmes from both federal and regional budgets. The development of decentralization and optimization mechanisms has revealed a number of bottlenecks in the VET system, including the lack of capacity to analyse demand and the need for a legal framework for CVET, including new organizational forms and their financing. Experience so far has also shown that there are problems motivating VET school principals to become actively engaged in the modernization process. Most principals are baffled or even scared by the on-going changes and fail to react. Only a very few of them are able to be pro-active and anticipate changes. Management and leadership skills of VET administrators and managers at all levels have to be further developed to cope with all the challenges of decentralization.
3 Main Reform Achievements and Remaining Challenges Summing up this short history of VET reform and modernization in Russia, it can be concluded that some progress has been made:
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The State has recognized the importance of vocational education and training as a prerequisite for the country’s economic growth and competitiveness, and is committed to its development and support. Measures have been devised and implemented to improve the network of VET institutions and set up multi-level and multi-purpose integrated VET schools and VET centres of excellence. VET schools are increasingly involved in training the adult population, including the unemployed. There is an increased awareness both among VET policy-makers and practitioners of the need to develop outcomes-based VET standards and programmes.
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VET schools are adopting a methodology of skill-needs analysis that is conducive to enhancing social partnership in VET, alongside other mechanisms of social partnership instituted on the regional and municipal level.
At the same time, the development of the VET system in general has been slowed down by a number of unresolved issues that have not received sufficient attention, even though they have been known about for many years by VET partners and stakeholders. What has been achieved has mainly been stimulated by international projects and has therefore been largely restricted to the community that has been involved in such projects. Social dialogue on VET remains underdeveloped. As such, social partnership is recognized and practised by pro-active schools, largely by those that have been exposed to international projects. On the system level, there are various councils set up to co-ordinate the efforts of the VET system and social partners, however it is too early to speak about their impact, given that they have primarily focused on intake figures and profiles of training. The major recent development is the setting up of sector skills councils initiated by the international Delphi II project that focuses on competence standards for VET graduates, effective work placements for students, as well as on updating the contents of programmes and the assessment of competences. On the whole, however, it should be stressed that, in spite of the modernization efforts, there is a pronounced lack of a culture of social partnership on both sides. There remains great reluctance on the side of employers to interact with vocational education (partially because of a lack of appropriate incentives for enterprises). There is also little recognition on the side of regional administrations of a possible role for vocational education as an agent in economic development. Skill mismatches continue to exist. According to employers—supported by unemployment figures—the competences of VET graduates are irrelevant for the labour market. About 20.7% of the unemployed population have a secondary VET diploma and about 16.4% have initial VET diplomas. Among the economically active population, 7.7% of SVET diploma holders and 6.2% IVET diploma holders remain unemployed (Federal Statistics Service, 2005). Unemployed VET graduates have to make contact with the employment services to receive re-training which, apart from negative social and psychological implications, entails extra costs for the State. Vocational education programmes also remain largely input-based. There is still an absence of updated occupational standards and the existing classification of labour-market occupations has not yet been revised. In practice, this means that outdated and obsolete occupational profiles are still used as a basis for many programmes provided by VET schools. At the same time, there is no generally accepted methodology and communication system for anticipating skills demand. VET institutions have no guidelines on which they could base new initiatives and often follow the most recent fashion. One of the outcomes of this process is the so-called ‘qualification loop’. New occupations on the labour market requiring different or higher qualifications in a new market segment (i.e. finance) remain vacant due to the lack of school graduates having the required knowledge and skills. The
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rigid dependence in awarding diplomas and qualifications on duration and type of programmes in formal education is paralleled by the absence of mechanisms and instruments to recognize prior learning from non-formal and informal settings. Drop-out from VET schools remains high as well. It is highest in agricultural and fishery occupations, reaching about 35%; in natural sciences occupations it amounts to 25% and in teaching occupations about 15%. There is a mix of factors that may explain high drop-out rates, including perceived lack of relevance of programmes for obtaining employment, traditional emphasis on general subjects at the cost of practical vocational education, overloaded curricula and old-fashioned teaching approaches. The quality of teaching is also deteriorating rapidly, amongst others things due to an increasing shortage of qualified teachers and practical training instructors. The shortage of instructors amounts to more than 40%, with about 14% of practical training instructors having qualifications that are lower than the qualifications awarded to VET school graduates. This development can be accounted for by the low social prestige of teaching and instruction jobs in vocational education and to the miserably low salaries. The prospective introduction of outcomes-based VET may in fact further aggravate the shortage of VET teachers and instructors, as those who are still working in schools may not be motivated enough to adjust to on-going changes. The situation is made even worse by the rapid ageing of the teaching force. Translating these weaknesses into practical steps that would be in line with the goals and objectives set down in the Priorities for the Development of Education in the Russian Federation, it would seem first of all necessary to clarify the division of power and responsibility between the federal and regional levels in the system of vocational education and training. Some of the measures currently being discussed will be presented below. In general terms, the improvement of VET governance should aim at transforming regional VET systems into a resource for social and economic development. Thus, the regional level should become responsible for:
r r r r
providing access to VET for all population groups, with special regard to the disadvantaged and individuals with special needs; the development and updating of VET standards; the organization of in-service training of teachers and practical training instructors; and the development of a legal framework for social partnership in VET.
The central government should be responsible for:
r r r r
creating the conditions for the free development of the market of VET providers; an overall quality assurance system; setting the financial mechanisms for the VET systems, including a legal framework for student loans and the participation of employers in co-financing of student loans; and initiating measures to encourage employers to participate in VET (e.g. tax benefits for enterprises investing in VET).
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Increasingly, there is an awareness of the need for structural changes in the overall VET system and in particular for better integrating the different levels, types and forms of vocational education and training, such as initial and secondary VET, and supplementary and adult training, including training of the unemployed. This would also make it necessary to develop an independent system of quality assessment, ensuring an integrated national education space and enhanced objectivity in the assessment of learning outcomes. Such a system could be based on autonomous notfor-profit organizations authorized to carry out examinations and the certification of learning. At the same time, they could also be responsible for the accreditation of programmes and the issuing of certificates. Finally, there is also an understanding of the need to change financing mechanisms and their principles. Schools should become more financially autonomous. This would imply a radical change of existing itemized funding principles. It would also require increased accountability for the results that schools achieve. Therefore, financing of VET schools should be based on outcomes that have been clearly identified, formulated and agreed. To enhance overall efficiency of financial schemes it is proposed to introduce new mechanisms that include target figures, educational credits and medium-term programmes. Under the latter programmes, priority financing will be provided for developing up-to-date teaching and learning infrastructures, such as computer networks, education databases, e-libraries, teaching and learning materials, systems of quality assessment and a system of certification and accreditation of curricula, as well as software packages in educational management and governance. In October 2006 the federal government expanded the National Priority Project on Education to support innovations in VET. In years to come tens of millions of dollars will be granted to VET schools to upgrade their equipment, facilities and to modernize training programmes. It is important to analyse and learn from the experience accumulated in international projects with a view to ensuring that these new investments will complement what the regions are already doing. The beneficiary institutions will receive incentives to work and share the results with other institutions. Past experience suggests that equipping and supporting individual schools does not represent a sustainable long-term solution to the problems of the VET system. Before moving ahead with this initiative, the government would need to develop a long-term vision for the development of the VET sector that takes into account the rapid changes taking place in the workplace as a result of the introduction of ever-more sophisticated technologies and the demand by entrepreneurs for graduates with flexible skills and the capacity to learn fast. As can be seen from our review, there is a long list of needs and suggestions. The key challenge is to implement some of them. Given the wealth of good practices existing in individual VET schools that could serve as a resource for developing modern and effective models of VET in the country, networking of VET schools should be encouraged to enhance information exchange and the sharing of good practices. This seems to be the only feasible way to envisage a continuation of ongoing reforms and modernization efforts.
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Notes 1. These titles may be confusing. The term ‘initial vocational education’ in the Russian tradition refers to education for basic, i.e. lower, levels of occupations. However, as workers used to be able to upgrade their qualifications through courses, ‘initial vocational education’ also provided a basis for continuing vocational education and training. The term ‘secondary vocational education’ should not be associated with the secondary level of the education system but refers to post-secondary education and is aimed at training medium-level specialists for all sectors of the economy. 2. In 2005, two regions of the Russian Federation were merged into one, thus bringing the overall number of regions down from eighty-nine to eighty-eight. 3. In some regions of the Russian Federation the average age of the working population is around 50. The current demographic development in Russia is a combination of low birth rates and low average life expectancies, resulting in the ageing of the population. According to the State Statistics Committee, the size of the population decreased from 148.3 million in 1992 to 144 in 2004. This trend is expected to continue in the coming years.
References Butko, E. 2004. Education and economic strategies of IVET schools in contemporary conditions. Moscow: Ministry of Education. Federal Statistics Service. 2005. Education in the Russian Federation: annual statistics. Moscow. Muravyeva, A. 2005. Competence-based VET. Journal ‘Specialist’, no. 5. National Observatory for VET. 2003. VET stocktaking report. Moscow. National Observatory for VET. 2004. VET update. Moscow. Oleynikova, O. 2005. Outcomes of the Delphi II project. Journal ‘Specialist’, no. 11. Russian Federation. Ministry of Education. 1996. Law of the Russian Federation on Education. Edition of January 13, no. 12. Russian Federation. Ministry of Education. 1999. Programme of Development of Secondary VET. Moscow. Russian Federation. Ministry of Education. 2000. National Doctrine of Education in the Russian Federation. (Papers from the conference of education workers.) Moscow. Russian Federation. Ministry of Education. 2002. Concept of Modernisation of Education in the Russian Federation. Moscow. Russian Federation. Ministry of Education. 2004. Priorities for the Development of Education in the Russian Federation. Moscow. Russian Federation. Ministry of Education and Science. 2005. Education in the Russian Federation: annual collection of statistics. Moscow: Federal Statistics Service, Federal Education Agency. St. Petersburg Department of Education. 2005. Papers from the Conference ‘Decentralization of VET Governance’.
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Chapter III.9
Vocational Education in the Netherlands: In Search of a New Identity Jan Geurts and Frans Meijers
1 Introduction Students’ motivational problems in combination with new occupational demands (which resulted from the transition from a primarily industrial to a more service- and knowledge-oriented economy) triggered an identity crisis in vocational education in the 1990s. The search for this new identity will be analysed in this chapter. First of all, we will evaluate the urgency of the problem. In the first section we will show that increasing amounts of criticism were directed at the functioning of the vocational education system during the 1990s. The national qualifications structure was the primary object of criticism, the response to which was the development of competence-based vocational education. In section 3, we will describe the main characteristics of this kind of education, and we will connect this to the concept of the vocational education school as a career development centre. Even though this concept was mainly developed outside the vocational education system (i.e. by academics, social partners and the government), a centrally directed national innovation policy has not really been the preferred option, for political as well as substantive reasons. Instead, it was agreed that competence-based vocational education should be realized through a variety of regional innovations, managed by the schools themselves. In other words, a ‘bottom-up’ approach to innovation has been chosen. In section 4, we will critically review this approach taking on the role of a ‘critical friend’. Recent research into the development of competence-based learning will receive special attention in section 5. In the sixth section, we will conclude our chapter with a look into the future. In our opinion, vocational education has to focus its search for a new identity through an increase of its own ‘professionalism’, as a basis for self-direction. The central government can support the growth of personal professionalism and the professionalization of vocational schools by stimulating opportunities for locally initiated experimentation. One way to do this could be by creating a national innovation fund with agreed key goals for innovation. However, proper support for the self-direction of schools requires adequate steering by the government.
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2 The Qualification’s Structure Under Fire The qualification’s structure that was developed during the late 1980s for nonuniversity vocational education had four levels. Every level is associated with a vocational education programme with two major variants: one school-based, whereby the amount of practical training is between 20% and 60%, and one work-based, where this percentage is greater than 60%. The lowest qualification level is one for simple operational tasks, with the associated assistant-level training. The highest level is for autonomous task implementation, with either broad areas of application or specialization, with an associated intermediate- or specialist-level training. The keys to the qualification structure are the so-called learning outcomes, or ‘end-results’, that are determined by ‘knowledge centres vocational education business’, that exist for each sector or branch. In a first step, the social partners (employers and union representatives) establish occupational profiles for key occupations in their industry or branch. They describe—per occupation—the core tasks and the necessary knowledge and skills, taking future developments into account. The social partners then formulate the qualifications and the corresponding ‘end results’, derived from one or more occupational profiles. They also determine which training variant can be offered, whether the training must be fee-based or free of charge, and to what extent qualifications need to be legitimized by an external, independent institution. At this point, the Advisory Commission on the Education-Labour Market (ACOA), established by the Minister of Education, will be asked to advise whether the qualifications and end results adhere to the legal requirements. After acceptance by ACOA, the Minister of Education ratifies the end-results and the approved education and training variant will be entered in the vocational education central register (the CREBO). From that moment on, educational institutions are allowed to develop—on the basis of the ratified end terms—curricula for the programmes that they are willing and able to offer. Educational publishers translate—sometimes in co-operation with educational institutions—the end results into practical training material. Finally, arrangements are made with enterprises concerning the scope and implementation of the practical training parts. The entire procedure (from endresults to training materials) is regulated by the Educational and Vocational Training Act (WEB). During the 1990s, there were increasing concerns about the effectiveness and efficiency of the WEB. In Table 1, derived from Geurts (2001), we present the conclusions of a number of studies concerning the functioning of the WEB. In terms of effectiveness, there now exists a plethora of strongly differentiated and narrow-function profiles. Efficiency also has room for improvement. A bureaucracy has been developed to maintain the qualification structure and—as a result—there is again limited responsiveness to the labour market. Moreover, the qualification structure insufficiently stimulates increases in knowledge production, because the WEB allows all parties (schools, knowledge centres and support institutions) to simply implement the WEB without reflecting on ways for improvement. Especially, little thought has been given on relating the agreed qualifications to pedagogic goals. The WEB does not stimulate schools and other parties to actively consider
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Table 1 Remarks concerning the effectiveness and efficiency of the qualifications structure Effective: doing the right things
Efficient: doing things well
r
r
r r r r r r r
too one-sided attention to the demand side; structure not up-to-date: obsolete occupational profiles; qualifications not broad and durable enough: too narrow function profiles; much overlapping in qualifications; too many, too differentiated qualifications (approx. 700): not transparent; blind spots: new occupations are not given enough attention; confusion in the demarcation between initial and post-initial education; deterioration of educational goals.
r r r r r r
bureaucratic procedures with (too) long durations; insufficient connection with initial- and tertiary levels of vocational education and training, leading to unnecessary delays; too little involvement and communication between interested parties; qualification structure is developed in relative isolation; too rigid role distribution between interested parties; lack of clarity in description of end-terms; actors use their own opportunities for improving interfaces insufficiently.
and apply the qualification structure, possibly offering modifications and improvements from their own perspective. Because they see little opportunity to utilize their own experience, educational institutions have generally not developed a positive relation with the qualification structure. They have, in fact, never viewed it as an instrument to improve the quality of their own work. As a result, the qualification structure is generally used in a defensive manner, namely as an instrument to legitimatize themselves towards government, the inspectorate, businesses and their own teachers. The quality of vocational education became a subject of increasing contention between employer organizations and the government, certainly after the European Council agreed in Lisbon in 2000 that the European economy needed to transform itself within ten years into the world’s most competitive and dynamic knowledge economy. The transition to a service/knowledge economy requires qualifications other than those currently provided and a more responsive system of vocational education. The rise of a service/knowledge economy is accompanied by three megatrends (Korbijn, 2003, p. 45 ff): 1. The market is becoming increasingly demand-driven: customers want (at the lowest possible price) custom-made products, i.e. products tailored to their own specific wishes and needs. Customers are increasingly demanding that producers take all aspects of the products’ life cycle into account. This implies that the importance of ‘absolute quality’ (i.e. quality according to industrial criteria) is decreasing, and the importance of the relative quality is increasing. Durability is becoming less important than functionality and usability. 2. The speed of globalization is increasing: customers, partners and competitors are spread over the entire globe. This trend also accentuates the importance of
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relative quality, while time-to-market is becoming decisive. For companies to remain competitive, the time between product development and the moment of actually placing it in the market place has to become shorter and shorter. 3. The world is also becoming increasingly dynamic: technology becomes obsolete more quickly and marketplace demands are changing just as rapidly. This increasing dynamism forces producers to place new products in the marketplace at an increasing tempo. The effect of these mega-trends is that the market is changing continuously in an unpredictable manner, the ability to innovate is becoming an increasingly important competitive factor and knowledge is becoming of key importance. To survive in this hectic environment, businesses have to innovate constantly and at the same time apply ‘concurrent engineering’. The organization of their production processes has to be structured in such a way that employees can work on various different product innovations and, at the same time, work in multidisciplinary teams, applying integrated design for specific innovations. This means that the organization of an enterprise has to become less hierarchical and to utilize all of the knowledge and skills available from its employees.
3 The School as a Career Development Centre Businesses are under pressure to become flexible ‘learning’ organizations, which means that they not only have to invest in knowledge management, but also that their employees must become entrepreneurial themselves: they have to be able to be ‘self-directing’, that is able to manage their own work, take initiatives and make appropriate decisions when needed. The solution for generating self-direction is primarily sought through continuing education and training for experienced employees, and by broadening the qualification structure for new employees. The key idea in current educational innovation is ‘competence-based education and training’. This, however, turns out to be an extremely vague concept and includes not only occupational skills but also attitudinal and behavioural characteristics (Thijssen & Lankhuijzen, 2000). In practice, this results in more attention being given to the development of occupational skills—mainly in the form of experiential learning by means of problem-driven training—often to the detriment of abstract and theoretical knowledge. In a certain sense, therefore, the generalization of vocational education during the 1950s is being reversed, without reverting to the narrow industrial-oriented training of that era. In modern competence-based education, as opposed to vocational education and training of the 1950s, attention is paid to selfdirection on the basis of reflection, thus to the formation of a reflective practitioner (Sch¨on, 1983). In the meantime, it has become clear that it is extraordinarily difficult within existing training and educational structures to motivate young people and employees to become self-directing. Existing structures force schools, as well as their support institutions, to define self-direction in terms of knowledge that can, in turn,
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be validated by means of the qualification structure and can be transmitted to students. For this reason, self-direction is usually defined in terms of meta-cognitive and information-processing skills, and in terms of emotion and affective regulation (Meijers & Wardekker, 2001). It is undeniably true that these competences are important for surviving in a turbulent environment. However, when these are used with an emphasis on technical-instrumental skills, the very essence of self-direction is missed, namely, the competence to identify oneself with (i.e. to voluntarily and durably commit to) society or at least parts if it, such as the work situation (Meijers & Geurts, 2002). Becoming self-directed in the area of work and employment means attaching meaning to one’s own work, thereby developing a work-identity (Meijers & Wardekker, 2002). From this perspective, in the scientific and policy discussion over (the future of) vocational education, as well as in concrete innovation projects, competencebased learning has recently been explicitly understood to be authentic as well as self-directed (Collins, Brown & Newman, 1989; Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989). By authentic we mean that an explicit and well-thought-out connection between theory and practice has to be made during training, in order for students to develop the competences to become a professional. In the traditional, subject-based education and training model, traineeships were intended for this purpose. Research has shown, however, that there is little connection between theory and practice in traineeships, and there is certainly no systematic development of a work-identity (Meijers, 2004). Therefore, modern competence-based education attempts to create a learning environment in as realistic a manner as possible. Students learn, during their training, to act as professionals and thereby experience the relationship between occupational practice and vocational theory. Learning must be self-directed as well as authentic if it hopes to produce competent practitioners in a service/knowledge-based economy, according to the constructivist school in educational psychology (e.g. Duffy & Cunningham, 1996; Simons, Van der Linden & Duffy, 2000). Constructivism assumes that individuals actively construct knowledge by interpreting new information on the basis of pre-existing knowledge and experience. Knowledge transfer—at least in the manner that people have always assumed—is therefore impossible. Students can only construct knowledge when the information presented to them can be transformed into something personal (Wardekker, Biesta & Miedema, 1998). This explains why ‘knowledge transfer’—as intended by the school system—often achieves only limited success. Constructivist learning approaches argue that students must be activated as much as possible to enable them to construct their own knowledge. Students do not always have to construct knowledge on their own; co-operation with other students can also play an important role because it forces students to be active. For example, students may have to explain something to others, or to compare their ideas with those of others (see e.g. Simons et al., 2000). Teaching then becomes the creation of an environment whereby learners are stimulated, helped and supported in their personal construction (possibly together with the help of others) of valuable knowledgecontent and skills. This is expressed in the well-known saying: the teacher shouldn’t transfer knowledge, but rather coach the learning process. Traditional educational
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innovations, such as those based on the theories of Montessori and Dalton, are also based on this idea. It is interesting, however, to note the zeal with which these ideas have been grasped by Dutch vocational education in recent years. Geurts (2001) has integrated the educational developments around authentic and self-directed learning in a model that attempts to illustrate the process of redesigning traditional, content-oriented education in the direction of a system more concerned with personal, competence-development, and based upon constructivist learning-theory (see Fig. 1). Re-designing of VET proceeds, according to Geurts, along two dimensions: the what and the how. The what-dimension primarily concerns the contents of VET programmes. Are we concerned with a standard programme or are we more interested in flexible, tailored-made programmes? Questions about narrow and/or broad training arise at the level of school organization. Schools may choose to develop programmes not as a funnel, but rather as a (hand-held) fan. With respect to the ‘fan’ metaphor, the student doesn’t have to explicitly choose a specific occupational specialization at the beginning. Rather, it is important that the student has the opportunity to become familiar with many aspects of the occupational reality, and during the course of their training—and depending upon their own interests and ambitions—they can ‘fan out’ over the various (work-relevant) specializations. Of course, this fan metaphor does not preclude participants from immediately choosing a narrow education if they wish to do so. In any case, multi-sectoral skill development—as opposed to monosectoral—is given priority. For the individual, it is important that, in organizing the curriculum, emphasis is placed upon offering students a training trajectory with Construction
School as career centre
New didactical practices
H o w ?
Development of personal competences
What?
Standard programme
Industrial educational factory
Personalized education
Instruction
Fig. 1 From training factory to career centre: two main dimensions for re-design Source: Guerts, 2001.
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optimal career guidance. The school becomes then more of an organization that offers individual learning trajectories, instead of standardized courses. Didactics are the primary concern of the how-dimension. The main thrust here is that vocational education has to make the transition from learning-from-instruction to learning-by-construction. The learning cycle has to be inverted: theory must not precede practice any longer, but practice must guide theory (which then has to be presented just-in-time and just-enough). This idea is being implemented on a larger scale at this moment via various forms of problem-driven education, whereby occupational work-related problems are presented by companies which then need to be solved by students. In this way, there is a guarantee that the occupational problems to be solved are relevant and realistic. Problem-driven learning (and certainly in its most developed form, also known as practice-driven learning) gives vocational education the possibility to develop its own pedagogical methods, with learning-bydoing and constructive learning as important didactical principles. It is clear that the division between learning and working, and between school and business, has to become less pronounced. In this new didactical vision of learning, there is more interaction between the three parties: student, school and business. Each party has a responsibility for their own, active contribution to occupational training seen as part of professionalization. It is assumed that this process will become more efficient, effective and pleasant when the three essential actors optimally co-operate. This requires, at the very least, committed (regional) co-operation with the purpose of optimizing individual careers. In the lower left of Fig. 1, traditional vocational education is characterized as an industrial training factory. We see a standardized programme with clear diploma requirements, with instruction as the primary learning method. Opposite to the school as factory, upper right, we see the school as a centre for optimal career development. The starting point for achieving a recognized qualification is the interests and capacities of the students. Students develop their own unique set of abilities via a flexible programme, with individual, customized training as the terminus. Construction as opposed to instruction is the primary form of learning. Upper left and lower right, we see intermediate forms of education. New didactical practices such as problem-driven education are to the upper left. At this moment, new practices are almost always placed within traditional, standardized programmes. Lower right refers to the modular organization of existing educational programmes. This a` la carte education is similar to custom-made education, but is not innovative in the didactical sense.
4 Bottom-up Innovation The transition from an industrial diploma factory to a career centre is something schools will have to navigate on their own. Since the end of the 1980s, the educational policy of the government—in reaction to the visible boundaries of the welfare state—has been deregulation and decentralization. As opposed to the industrial era, during which the national government (i.e. the Ministry of Education) almost
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completely determined daily affairs in the classroom, nowadays schools are granted more autonomy. The main reason for this radical shift is—at least with respect to educational policy—the recognition of the fact that the educational innovations for a service/knowledge economy cannot be developed on a drawing board and subsequently implemented—top-down. The ‘school as career centre’ can only be the result of inside-out innovation, if only for the reason that teachers and school managers need to develop their own new professional identity (Geijsel & Meijers, 2005). The central government limits itself to providing framework legislation directed toward quality requirements and enforcement. This process of deregulation and decentralization will, of course, take place over a number of years; there will naturally be a period of inconsistencies and confusion. In addition, decennia of ‘industrial educational policy’ have resulted in the disappearance of almost all innovative ability in the schools today. During the last few decades, innovation has rarely meant the development of new didactical practices on the part of teachers, but rather almost always the incorporation of new scientific knowledge into the teaching materials. School managers used to have primarily an administrative task, and not an innovative one. In short, schools have difficulties in making the transition from being an executor of government policy to that of a developer of their own policy. The result is that they tend to fall between the two roles. Schools experience the disadvantage of a larger distance to the government without being fully able to harvest the fruits of their own, new-found autonomy (Engberts & Geurts, 1994). Geurts (2001) believes that inspirational school leadership can strike the correct balance between external demand and internal ambitions and competences. It is, however, a problem that this leadership is often lacking; one has to make do with a bureaucratic leadership culture. Apparently, school managers are still mainly pre-occupied with implementing existing legislation and regulations. According to Van Emst (2002), there is a real possibility that schools will even express a growing need for new rules and regulations. Turbulence increases the craving of the school management for even more control. This results in a great deal of ‘paper’ and red tape: detailed descriptions of tasks, privileges, responsibilities, rights, rules, regulations and organizational schemes, so that everyone knows what his/her place is. In practice, however, hardly anyone pays much attention to such arrangements. In response, school management then enforces the rules even more rigorously. It is not uncommon that the desired control actually leads to stagnation. No one is any longer interested in investing energy in school innovation and renewal. In governmental policy aimed at increasing school autonomy, ‘lump sum’ financing plays a large role. A decreasing portion of resources are explicitly reserved for specific purposes. This means that schools have to develop their own policy-making ability so as to make good use of their increasing autonomy. In order to strengthen this ability, the government has decided to implement its innovation policies in the form of projects. For educational innovation that the government considers to be important, an amount of money is made available administered by a (often specially created) non-governmental organization (NGO). This NGO then invites interested parties to submit proposals for innovative projects, which are then evaluated by
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independent experts. The idea is that the most promising proposals (and thereby also the most innovative contexts) may be identified and rewarded. After funds are granted for an innovation project, a cycle of research and evaluation begins, conducted under the supervision of the NGO involved. In this cycle, ‘good practices’ assume an important role, in addition to traditional evaluation research. The idea behind this is that an evaluation procedure can only be viewed as truly meaningful when the assumptions—as well as the approach—are intended to promote the continuous improvement of the knowledge development process within the school itself. The innovation projects are therefore considered based on the principles of the ‘learning organization’: the projects are viewed as ‘learning projects’ that are inherently, continuously concerned with improving their own quality (Geurts & Pouwels, 2001). Learning organizations require that parties involved utilize the experience derived from quality-assurance systems, such as the International Standard Operating Procedures (ISOP) and the European Foundation of Quality Management (EFQM). Such quality-assurance systems attach great importance to a systematic approach to monitoring project progress and quality control. They also utilize principles of self-evaluation, such as internal auditing and selfdirection and correction. From the viewpoint of the philosophy of self-evaluation, a (continuous) process of quality improvement must be seen as a joint responsibility of all parties involved (the NGO, the school, and the external researcher/evaluator contracted by the NGO). Thus, the evaluation of an innovation project has to be a co-production of all parties involved, and be characterized by an open and communicative (and thereby a ‘learning’) policy style. This co-production can be realized by requiring schools to reflect on the project’s progress on the basis of a template developed by the involved NGO. In this manner, Axis, for example, an NGO that was founded in 1998 to stimulate students to enrol in technical and science studies, required schools to write so-called ‘good practices’ that were to be subsequently published on a website. Writing a ‘good practice’ forces the project to go into ‘slow motion’ and to clarify (mainly for themselves): (a) which ‘practical theory’ they adhere to; (b) what people have done (as inspired by this practical theory) in terms of product or process development; (c) whether they have achieved the results predicted by the practical theory; and (d) what can be learned from the project results up to that moment (Geurts & Oosthoek, 2004). The ‘good practice’ descriptions give the external researchers an opportunity to monitor the quality and progress of the projects in such a manner that the evaluation process also contributes to the development of knowledge. In other words, the evaluation is not based on abstract criteria from scientific discourse but rather on the ‘good practices’ written by the school itself. The reports from the Axis project evaluators (Geurts, 2004; Meijers, 2003a; Onstenk, 2004; Sanden, 2004) demonstrate that a ‘learning’ evaluation style could not easily be realized. A number of different reasons were found. First of all, there exists an educational culture in which evaluation has never been connected with learning. The consequence is that many project leaders began their projects with enthusiastic support of an active, learning evaluation but were rather hesitant about someone ‘looking over their shoulder’. In other words, people were hardly prepared
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to admit that mistakes may have been made. A second reason involves a culture of innovation in which people are accustomed to initiating short-term projects that usually are not integrated in a long-term innovation, but are carried out because external funding happened to be available. All too often, the fortuitous availability of funding determines innovations. Thirdly, most projects function in an environment with a poor history of reflection—something which is associated with the previous two points. People are not used to examining their own actions and have therefore not developed a tradition of doing so. Due to all this, it was very difficult to obtain hard evaluative data for any of the projects. The data were simply not available; all energy was expended in the development of new products and processes. However, during the course of monitoring and evaluation of these projects, due to active co-operation between researchers and project leaders, trust between the two groups developed. It became increasingly clear during this process that writing up good practices had a demonstrable positive added-value for the progress of these projects. Due to these developments, the willingness to invest in good practices increased and in a number of cases there has actually been an effort made to obtain hard data concerning the innovation.
5 Between Dream and Reality Bruijn, Leeman & Overmaat, (2006) recently published the results of eleven case studies of strong learning environments in vocational education. A strong learning environment is defined as having: (a) constructivist programme characteristics (career identity is the basic principle of the programme; it is oriented towards authentic learning; and there is an integrated thematic and subject-based approach); (b) students participate in cognitive processing activities (mainly construction and reflection), (c) teacher guidance activities (adaptive instruction, coaching and the promotion of self-regulating skills); and (d) evaluation (functional testing of knowledge, insight and skills, as well as assessment of broad competences in situated action). In Table 2 we present the results of this analysis. Table 2 includes averages of the eleven investigated training programmes for the ten characteristics of a powerful learning environment in decreasing order of implementation. In addition to the means, the number of programmes having a score greater than or equal to 2.5 (a neutral score) are also indicated. As can be seen, the characteristics ‘adaptive instruction’ and ‘professional identity’ were relatively strongly developed in a large number of programmes. This is probably due to the fact that those characteristics are easily combined with traditional educational concepts, yet are not at odds with competence-oriented education. More innovative characteristics, such as ‘authentic/functional learning’ and ‘assessment of broad competences’, are less prominently present. The level of a programme’s authenticity remains limited and seems to be dependent upon fortuitous events, such as the commitment of the instructor. Relatively few programmes demonstrate systematic reflection by the students upon their own results and learning processes and a coaching style by the instructors.
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Table 2 Implementation of strong learning environments Ten characteristics of strong learning environments in order of decreasing implementation N=11
mean 2.5 or more
Adaptive instruction Professional identity as basic principle Integrated thematic/subject-based education Constructive learning Functional tests Promotion of self-regulating skills Authentic/functional learning Assessment of broad competences Coaching by exploratory learning Reflective learning
2.48 2.32 2.30 2.18 2.07 2.05 1.98 1.93 1.84 1.81
Total score: strong learning environment
2.10 N=3
N=8 N=6 N=3 N=5 N=4 N=4 N=4 N=4 N=2 N=1
1 = weak; 2 = more weak than strong; 3 = more strong than weak; 4 = strong
Other research confirms the picture that, until now, schools have been mainly investing in structural change as opposed to cultural change (see e.g. Meijers, 2003b; Severiens & Joukes, 2001; Boer, Mittendorff & Sjenitzer, 2004). Specifically, there has been little change in the manner in which people communicate within a school (i.e. between students and teachers, between teachers themselves, and between teachers and management), as well as between the school and its environment. Within the school, there remains a situation in which students may contribute little or nothing to the content, the progress or the evaluation of their learning process. ‘Construction’, in other words, remains a foreign concept. The relation between schools and their environment (and especially local businesses) usually reflects a divided rather than a shared responsibility (Meijers, 2004). Even though the principles of competence-oriented education (i.e. involving an authentic learning environment and self-directed learning) have achieved broad support during recent years, the implementation of those principles seems to be more difficult. This resulted in extensive criticism of ‘new learning’ in the Dutch media in 2005. The criticism has focused on two arguments: the ideological character of the proposed educational renewal; and the idea that ‘new learning’ would threaten the quality of education, because self-directed learning would demand too little of students. Both criticisms are not without their faults (Volman, 2006). The main point is that the opponents of ‘new learning’ ignore the problems presently confronting vocational education, namely, too little motivation, high drop-out rates and the limited transfer of theory to actual practice. The criticism is perhaps better understood as an attempt of the middle class to retain the selective function of education in which their offspring optimally profit in terms of status, income and power (Bernstein, 1975). Geurts (2005) argues, therefore, in favour of filling up the present pedagogical vacuum surrounding the future of vocational education. If one wants the relevant parties to become interested in innovation, there will have to be more discussion and debate about pedagogical principles, about vocational education’s
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rich societal responsibility, and about how the parties involved can together ensure real improvements. This debate about the essence of this societal responsibility and how it may be best achieved is presently hardly taking place at all.
6 The Future The vitality and achievements of schools will, in the future, increasingly depend on the extent to which school management is able to develop and utilize the skills and ambitions of their staff in order to satisfy the wishes and needs of their students and local businesses (the demand side). Until now, all parties have assumed— probably as an automatic reaction to vocational education being supply-oriented— that achieving a more demand-driven education required that schools would retain a passive role. In recent years, therefore, there have been many discussions—in and outside educational circles—concerning how students and social partners could take an active role. More recently, there has been a swell of opinions arguing that schools should take a more pro-active stance (WRR, 2004; Van den Brinke et al., 2005). The proponents of this pro-active stance argue that allowing the content of education to be solely determined by the needs and wishes of students and regional employers would only lead to a qualitatively emaciated supply. First of all, most students and many employers are not able to articulate their intermediate-term wishes and needs. Secondly, some of the interests of employers and students may not coincide. And, thirdly, neither students nor employers are homogeneous with respect to their needs and wishes. The wishes and needs of students and social partners can therefore only partially determine what a good educational ‘supply’ would be. For a good balance between supply and demand, the professionalism of the school itself has assumed a central role. The school should not only react to external wishes and needs but also take a more pro-active attitude in the development of qualitatively good vocational education. This conclusion, according to Zee (1997), places the reflective competence of the school management and staff at centre stage. Whether schools for vocational education ever succeed in becoming career centres will primarily depend on the degree to which school managers and staff get the opportunity to develop a new professional identity, based on reflective competence. In the Netherlands, there exists no stimulating innovation structure or culture with respect to the renewal of vocational education. The main reason for this is that the withdrawal of the central government does not in itself create room for educational innovation. The opposite seems to be more likely the case. Whereas before, power used to be clearly concentrated at the Ministry of Education, those wanting to rejuvenate education are now confronted with various, rapidly changing power cliques, inside as well as outside their school (Geurts, 2004). Inside the schools, those desiring innovation are in the minority and they are confronted with a school management that displays little educational leadership. The projectbased innovation policy of the government in such a situation often results in ‘educational isolation’. Meijers and Reuling (1999) and Meijers (2001) demonstrated that innovation-oriented teachers were merely tolerated to implement innovative
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mentoring projects because they were subsidized by the Ministry of Education. The school management was, in those cases, not inspired by a clear vision of the future. That, however, was also not necessary because such a vision was not required in order to be eligible for project funding. Moreover, project subsidies were in addition to regular funding, so that the school was not required to make substantive choices. The consequence was that the innovations implemented by the projects slowly dried up after termination of the funding, because—in addition to the absence of a clear vision—there was hardly any attention devoted to letting those achievements ‘sink in’ to the rest of the regular educational organization. Geurts & Corstjens (2007) demonstrate that, in technical and vocational education, some lessons have been drawn from these experiences. In the context of the renewal of higher technical vocational education, an innovation programme has been developed in which a direct connection is made between innovatory activities and school policy. Innovation is seen as an institutional choice and the programme supports this when it contributes to goals determined at the national level. In this particular case, that would be an increase in the number of engineers in the country. Those interested in educational innovation are also confronted with a battleground outside the school walls on which the various interest groups articulate their wishes, without having to relate them to the wishes and desires of others. Because the central government has (partially) withdrawn from this arena, these interest groups have increased their relative influence, such that they cannot easily be ignored. In addition, school managers have never really learned to manifest themselves as a pressure group and to negotiate on that basis. One of the consequences is that school management (and the individual teacher) is confronted with contradictory imperatives. In such a situation, it is understandable that schools generally assume a passive role. In order to resolve this stalemate, two conditions need to be met: (a) more active support from the central government for the needed structural renewal of vocational education; and (b) the replacement of the incidental project-based policy by the establishment of structural innovation funds. Government support should not take the form of (compulsory) rules and regulations, but rather the (temporary) suspension of rules and regulations so that more opportunity is created for schools to attempt real experimentation. Schools must have the opportunity to generate creative solutions for the most important problems that vocational education is presently facing. The government must, in turn, exercise some patience and not immediately strive for standardization. The structural innovation funds, initially championed by Geurts & Van Oosterom (2000), must not only be financially supported by the government but also by employer organizations and unions. The purpose of this public/private co-operation is to force all interested parties to reach a common agenda with respect to the educational innovations deemed necessary and to subsequently invest in the choices made. The funds must be constructed in such a way that a virtuous cycle of knowledge development can be reinforced. Investments are not only needed for the development and implementation of educational innovations but also for their evaluation, so that all parties can contribute to improved designs in the following phases of innovation.
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References Bernstein, B. 1975. Class, codes and control, vol. 3: Towards a theory of educational transmissions. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Boer, P. den; Mittendorff, K.; Sjenitzer, T. 2004. Beter kiezen in het (v)mbo. Een onderzoek naar keuzeprocessen van leerlingen in herontwerpprojecten Techniek in VMBO en MBO. Wageningen, Netherlands: Stoas. Brinke, G. van den, et al. eds. 2005. Beroepszeer: Waarom Nederland niet goed werkt. Amsterdam: Boom. Brown, J.S.; Collins, A.; Duguid, P. 1989. Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational researcher, vol. 18, pp. 32–43. Bruijn, E. de; Leeman, Y.; Overmaat, M. 2006. Authentiek en zelfgestuurd leren in het mbo. Pedagogiek, vol. 26, no. 1. Collins, A.; Brown, J.S.; Newman, S.E. 1989. Cognitive apprenticeship: teaching the craft of reading, writing and mathematics. In: Resnick, L.B., ed. Knowing, learning and instruction, pp. 347–61. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Duffy, T.M.; Cunningham, D.J. 1996. Constructivism: implications for the design and delivery of instruction. In: Jonassen D., ed. Handbook of research for educational communications and technology, pp. 170–98. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Macmillan. Emst, A. van. 2002. Koop een auto op de sloop: paradigmashift in het onderwijs. Utrecht, Netherlands: APS. Engberts, J.; Geurts, J. 1994. Deregulering en kwaliteit in het BVE-veld. Mesomagazine, no. 72, pp. 70–78. Geijsel, F.; Meijers, F. 2005. Identity learning: the core process of educational change. Educational studies, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 419–30. Geurts, J. 2001. Herontwerp: een onmisbaar onderdeel van kwalificatiestructuur. In: Blokhuis, F.; Visser, K., eds. Jaarboek kwalificatiestructuur 2001. Den Bosch, Netherlands: Cinop. Geurts, J. 2004. Herontwerp beroepsonderwijs: een strijdtoneel. In: Breebaart, W.; Geurts, J.; Meijers, F., eds. Beroepsonderwijs: van opleidingenfabriek naar loopbaancentrum, pp. 77–121. ‘s-Gravenhage, Netherlands: Haagse Hogeschool. Geurts, J. 2005. Zonder engagement geen innovatie. Profiel, no. 14, pp. 18–20. Geurts, J.; Corstjens, H. 2007. Resultaatgericht innoveren: een beloftevol en krachtig vernieuwingsconcept. Tijdschrift voor hoger onderwijs en management, no. 4, September. Geurts, J.; Oosthoek, R. 2004. B`eta/Techniek verbeteren en vernieuwen: 250 good practices. Delft, Netherlands: Axis. Geurts, J.; Pouwels, J. 2001. Naar een gereedschapskist b`eta/techniek. In: Geurts J., ed. De menselijke kant van b`eta/techniek, pp. 39–58. Delft, Netherlands: Axis. Geurts, J.; Van Oosterom, W. 2000. Technisch beroepsonderwijs en unieke competenties: pleidooi voor een leer- en leerlinggerichte transformatie. Mesomagazine, no. 112. Korbijn, A. 2003. Vernieuwing in productontwikkeling. ’s-Gravenhage, Netherlands: Stichting Toekomstbeeld der Techniek. Meijers, F. 2001. Mentoring: van jenne naar jutte: mogelijkheden en onmogelijkheden van mentoring binnen onderwijsleerprocessen. ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands: Cinop. Meijers, F. 2003a. B`eta/Techniek in ontwikkeling: de Axisverbeterprojecten bekeken. Delft, Netherlands: Axis. Meijers, F. 2003b. Leren in de praktijk: een onderzoek naar de mogelijkheden tot beroepsvorming. Zoetermeer, Netherlands: Colo. Meijers, F. 2004. Het verantwoordelijkheidsdilemma in het beroepsonderwijs. In: Breebaart, W.; Geurts, J.; Meijers, F., eds. Beroepsonderwijs: van opleidingenfabriek naar loopbaancentrum, pp. 5–77. ’s-Gravenhage, Netherlands: Haagse Hogeschool. Meijers, F.; Geurts, J. 2002. Auf dem Weg zu einem neuen p¨adagogischen Schwung in der niederl¨andischen Berufsausbildung. Recht der Jugend und des Bildungswesens, vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 492–513.
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Meijers, F.; Reuling, M. 1999. Schoolloopbaanbegeleiding in een turbulente samenleving. In: Lacante, M.; De Boeck, P.; Vander Steene, G., eds. Meer kansen cre¨eren voor het hoger onderwijs, pp. 11–34. Diegem, Belgium: Kluwer Editorial. Meijers, F.; Wardekker, W. 2001. Ontwikkelen van een arbeidsidentiteit. In: Kessels J.; Poell, R., eds. Human resource development: organiseren van het leren, pp. 301–19. Alphen a/d Rijn, Netherlands: Samsom. Meijers, F.; Wardekker, W. 2002. Career learning in a changing world: the role of emotions. International journal for the advancement of counselling, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 149–67. Onstenk, J. 2004. Herontwerp techniek in het middelbaar beroepsonderwijs. Delft, Netherlands: Axis. Sanden, J. van der, et al. 2004. Naar aantrekkelijk technisch vmbo: resultaten van drie jaar herontwerp. Delft, Netherlands: Axis. Sch¨on, D.A. 1983. The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. Aldershot, UK: Arena. Severiens, S.; Joukes, G. 2001. Studenten in het HTO. Verschillen in leerstrategie¨en, motivatie en positie. Delft, Netherlands: Axis. Simons, R.J.; Linden, J. van der; Duffy, T., eds. 2000. New learning. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Thijssen, J.; Lankhuijzen, E. 2000. Competentiemanagement en employabilitystrategie: een kader voor beleidskeuzes. In: Glastra, F.; Meijers, F., eds. Een leven lang leren; competentieontwikkeling in de informatiesamenleving, pp. 125–52. ’s-Gravenhage, Netherlands: Elsevier. Volman, M. 2006. Het ‘nieuwe leren’: oplossing of nieuw probleem? Pedagogiek, vol. 26, no. 1. Wardekker, W.; Biesta, G.; Miedema, S. 1998. Heeft de school een pedagogische opdracht? In: Bekker-Ketelaars, N. de; Miedema, S.; Wardekker, W., eds. Vormende lerarenopleidingen, pp. 57–67. Utrecht, Netherlands: Uitgeverij SWP. WRR. 2004. Bewijzen van goede dienstverlening. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Zee, H. van der. 1997. Denken over dienstverlening. Deventer, Netherlands: Kluwer. [Ph.D. thesis.]
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Chapter III.10
Facilitating Policy-Learning: Active Learning and the Reform of Education Systems in Transition Countries Peter Grootings
1 Introduction Multilateral and bilateral donor agencies increasingly issue declarations that refer to the need to contextualize knowledge and secure ownership of development policies by involving local policy-makers and other stakeholders in policy development and implementation. Yet, policy transfer through imposing or copying (selective knowledge about) policies and models taken from other contexts still dominates the day-to-day operational practices of the donor community (King, 2005; King & McGrath, 2004; Grootings, 2004; Ellerman, 2005). Development agencies and their staff often act as classical school-teachers who have the right knowledge and know best what has to be done. True knowledge just needs to be transferred to (or made accessible for) partners who do not know the truth (yet) and partners should implement measures that are presented to them as best practice. Local policy-makers and local stakeholders are regarded as passive receivers of knowledge and instruction, who do not possess any relevant prior knowledge and experience. Development or reform is seen as a process of social engineering that will be successful, if properly managed technically. In reality, most reform projects are short-lived because they do not fit in context and there is no local ownership. Reforms are often not sustainable. On the contrary, they tend to come and go with the donors and their agencies. One reason for the gap between declaration and actual behaviour is a particular— some would say erroneous—understanding, often only implicit, of why and how people learn and develop new knowledge and expertise. There are many other reasons, of course, and some of them may be even more important—at least in the short term—such as the fact that policy assistance is usually part of a large financial aid package and accepting and implementing policy advice are part of the conditions for receiving these funds. But even when conditions disappear, the policy transfer approach is likely to remain dominant. The standard assumption underlying most traditional learning approaches is that someone (of course, the donor representative) possesses the right knowledge and learners who do not have this knowledge (of course, the local policy-makers and other stakeholders) should simply listen carefully and then do what they are told. Carrots and sticks are available in many variations to provide the incentives to make R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 III.10, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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learners listen and do what their teachers tell them to do. However, carrots and sticks often fail to motivate. The donor’s truth has not necessarily been heard (or not properly understood, as the donor would argue), nor has it led to the desired and foreseen action (due to lack of ‘political will’ or—more positively—insufficient capacities as donors would conclude). New learning theories, instead, argue that learners are more successful in acquiring, digesting, applying and retrieving new knowledge when they have been actively engaged in these processes. Facilitating active policy-learning rather than policy transfer may therefore have better chances to contribute to sustainable reformed systems.1 Section 2 below will summarize briefly what active or new learning is about. It will also indicate wider implications of active learning for formal education systems, informal learning and the roles and responsibilities of the main stakeholders, in particular teachers and learners. Section 3 will present the systemic nature of educational reforms in transition countries and the role that international donors play in assisting such reforms. Section 4 will introduce the concept of policy-learning as a translation of the principles of active learning to the field of reform policy assistance. Section 5 will present some practical implications and contradictions of the policy-learning concept. It will argue for a different role for donor agencies and consultants based on similarities between the roles of teachers and policy advisers in facilitating learning. Section 6 will suggest that knowledge-sharing should be an integral aspect of policy-learning.
2 Active Learning Engaging students in successful learning has always been a key problem for educationalists since the development of formal education systems providing standardized obligatory school-based educational programmes. Some teachers manage to survive the system and some students as well, but many do not. There has been talk about bad systems, bad schools, bad teachers, bad learning environments and bad students. Sometimes attention was simply focused on the good students, while the bad ones were left to their own devices or were given shelter in special lower-rated forms of education and training. In many countries vocational education and training has been the second—or last—choice for students who failed ‘la route royale’. Hence, there have always been debates about causes, consequences and possible solutions. In looking for solutions, countries have increasingly tried to borrow from more successful countries. The policy debates have been coloured by the dominant understanding of why, what, where and how people learn and how people can be motivated to learn at all. The traditional behaviourist and cognitive approaches on which much of standardized (formal and non-formal) education has been based have assumed that learning is basically a steady accumulation of discrete entities of knowledge and skills that can be presented to learners as if filling empty vessels.2 Hager (2004, p. 411) has pointed at five further assumptions that follow from this understanding of learning:
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There is one best way of learning; Learning is essentially an individual activity; Learning which is non-transparent is inferior; Learning centres on the stable and the enduring; Learning is replicable.
In contrast, by seeing learning as a continuous—and highly selective—process of exchange between individuals and their environment, constructivist approaches argue that people give their own meaning to information. They do so based on what they already know and framed by how they have become accustomed to see the world around them. They select and retain what is relevant for them. In so doing they construct their own understanding of reality as a basis to intervene and act. Different people therefore may give different interpretations to the same thing, may retain different aspects and may act differently on the basis of the same information. Constructivists also argue that: (a) there are many ways through which people can learn, apart from someone else passing on pieces of expert knowledge (Verloop & Lowyck, 2003); (b) learning is foremost a social activity (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998); (c) there is a lot of tacit learning taking place which is not easy to categorize and demonstrate, but which is there when needed (Sch¨on, 1983); (d) learning is dynamic and very much context-bound; and (e) good learning therefore depends on meaningful learning environments (Kolb, 1984; Simons, van der Linden & Duffy, 2000). In combination, these insights are now known as new learning or active learning. While there are currently many attempts to introduce—often on an ad-hoc basis—active learning techniques in traditional educational settings, a more holistic active learning approach has developed into something like a new paradigm. Based on the principles of active learning, several countries, including the Netherlands, are now reforming parts of their public education systems. Obviously, much of what is now receiving attention as new learning has been around for decennia in the writings of school innovators, such as Dewey, Montessori, Froebel, Steiner, Freinet and others, and has been practised in schools that follow their pedagogical approaches. Until recently, attempts that combined different learning outcomes and alternative ways of learning have remained marginal to mainstream education and training. Most public education became characterized by the single model of expert teachers and trainers passing on bit-by-bit their knowledge and skills to pupils and students who knew nothing or at least not enough. The emergence of an increased interest for the new learning paradigm during the 1990s is the combined result of fundamental changes occurring in the labour market, which have done away with employment security and created a need for lifelong learning (OECD, 1996). Moreover, declining public budgets have also contributed to attempts to make education more efficient and effective. Neo-liberal policy agendas on the left and the right have placed the responsible and autonomous citizen back on stage again. Changes in organization of work within companies also build on responsible workers able to foresee and prevent rather than to react ex-post or too late. The overall economic and political climate of the 1990s has been very receptive for active learning insights. Active learning is more than a scientific approach to learning.
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New insights and research results from a whole range of disciplines that are dealing with the question of how people learn and retain new information have provided scientific support for a different understanding of learning.3 These developments coincide on the importance given to specific criteria for learning outcomes, attention for alternative ways of achieving these learning outcomes and developing instructional models that teachers and trainers may apply when organizing learning processes. The new learning approaches give a more active role to learners in managing and shaping their own learning processes based on the understanding that good learning cannot be achieved when learners remain passive receivers of information and instructions. The active learning paradigm stresses the need for new criteria for and new kinds of learning outcomes. For reasons of employability in a world characterized by fast-changing job requirements and growing insecurity, learning outcomes should not just be more relevant at a given moment, but they should be durable, flexible, meaningful, generalizable and application-oriented (Simons et al., 2000, pp. 1-2). These criteria could also easily refer to traditional kinds of learning outcomes, in particular if one is concerned about propositional knowledge and technical skills and their transferability in time and context. New kinds of learning outcomes have become important as well. These include the ability to learn, think, collaborate and control. People should be able to adapt quickly to changing situations, be able to cope well with continuing uncertainty, and know where and how to find the information that they need to deal with the challenges of their work and life situation.4 Such regulative or meta-learning outcomes have also become important given the sheer amount of new information that is becoming available at ever-faster speeds with new generations of information and communication technologies. This makes it more relevant to consider what people can do with information instead of just having the information available as such (Simons et al., 2000). The need to cope with new (social or key) competences has been a major driving force behind curriculum and educational reform in many countries since the early 1990s. But while initially these reforms have concentrated on the new ‘what’ as additions to existing curricula and standard approaches, it is now increasingly understood that traditional ways of organizing learning are unable to deal with these new learning insights and requirements.5 Therefore, the key issues in current educational discussions are not so much about the ‘what’ but about the ‘how’ questions: how can new learning outcomes be achieved and how to secure that learning outcomes comply with the new criteria? From the point of view of the educational sciences, attention paid to new learning outcomes follows from a better understanding about how experience and information are represented in memory and about the kind of learning activities that learners apply. Three different ways of representation are normally distinguished:
r r
Episodic representations are based on personal, situated and affective experiences. Conceptual or semantic representations refer to concepts and principles and their definitions.
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Action representations refer to what can be done with episodic and semantic information.
People differ in terms of their preferred modes of representations. Because conceptual and semantic forms of representation have traditionally been regarded of a higher (intellectual) order, theoretical knowledge has been seen as more important than practical knowledge—learning with the head being superior to learning with the hands. The traditional curriculum therefore consisted of (unrelated) theoretical subjects plus—in vocational streams—practice periods to apply such theoretical knowledge. For modern educationalists, however, good learning outcomes mean rich and complex memory representations whereby there are strong interrelated connections between the different ways of representation. They also argue that these connections can start from any of the three different modes of representation. Some people master theory by starting with practical problems, while others may be more successful when learning the other way around (Simons et al., 2000, p. 3; Driscoll, 2000, ch. 8; Pieters & Verschaffel, 2003). As mentioned earlier, a reformulation of expected learning outcomes is only part of the story. For educational professionals, the key question is how they can promote new learning outcomes through organizing appropriate learning processes and developing instructional strategies. The new learning theories argue that learners are more successful in acquiring, digesting, applying and retrieving new knowledge, skills and attitudes when they have been actively engaged in these processes. Active involvement, co-operation with other learners and real-life contexts also help to increase the motivation to learn, which in turn makes it easier for people to take responsibility for their learning into their own hands. In combining all this, active learning therefore provides strong learning environments and produces good learning outcomes. The search is now to develop operational approaches to make active learning principles work in practice.6 Active learning also implies considerable changes in the roles that teachers and students play in education. With growing attention to active learning, there is a shift of responsibility from the teacher to the learner. The teacher becomes more of an organizer and facilitator of learning processes than the transmitter of expert knowledge or skills, whereas the learner is asked to actively participate in identifying learning needs and in managing the process of acquiring new knowledge. Teachers and trainers still need good knowledge and skills in technical domains, but the ways in which to make these accessible for learners change. Teachers have to be able to identify what learners already know and how they learn best and then to guide them to find the information that can increase their knowledge further. In terms of structure of the education system, active learning insights give strong arguments for creating open and flexible pathways in education, providing a rich variety of learning environments, and recognizing prior and informal learning outcomes (Kok, 2003; Simons et al., 2000; Driscoll, 2000; Verloop & Lowyck, 2003; Grootings & Nielsen, 2005; OECD, 2005). This new understanding of learning has considerable implications for the organization of formal education (structures and contents), for informal and non-formal
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learning (recognition and validation) and the role of policy-makers, teachers, students and other stakeholders in education. The active learning paradigm is of relevance for any learning situation where people seek to acquire new knowledge and understanding in order to be able to act competently in a changing context. In the following section I will explore what active learning means for policy-makers in transition countries when faced with reforming their education and training systems.
3 Educational Reforms in Transition Countries Transition countries are very diverse but all have in common that they are undergoing a fundamental change in their main societal institutions, including the education system. They are seeking to change from centralized authoritarian societies with some form of State-planned economy towards more democratic societies with a market-based economy. For that reason they can be called ‘transition’ countries. However, contrary to the way the term transition has often been used, nobody really knows where the transition will lead to. One might, for instance, be seeking the general characteristics of democratic market-based economies, but there are no blueprints that countries can simply apply. All modern market economies differ in important aspects from each other and none of them resembles the textbook case. What will come out of the reform process in each transition country will depend to a large extent on how local policy-makers and other stakeholders manage to use the resources that their countries have built up in the past, including the inherited physical and human infrastructures of their education systems (Grootings, 2004). Transition countries differ from developing countries in the sense that they used to have well-established and—in the recent past—effective and successful education systems. These have become impoverished as a result of continued underfunding and have increasingly lost relevance for a new labour market context: the issue here is reforming and transforming obsolete systems rather than building new ones from scratch. The reforms in transition countries are systemic, as they imply changes that are both system-wide and system-deep. Reforms are system-wide, in the sense that they require changes in all aspects of the institutional arrangements of the countries. For education and training this means that all the building blocks of the education system need to be reviewed and revised: from delivery, provision, assessment, funding, quality assurance, administration and governance up to research and development. But changes are also system-deep since they require the development of new relations between education and training on the one hand, and other evolving institutions in society on the other. In transition countries these are, in particular, the relations between schools, the labour market and private enterprises. This asks for fundamentally new definitions of the roles of the main stakeholders in education and training, as well as for changes in established working procedures for education and training organizations. These are complicated processes as all these other institutions are also undergoing systemic changes. Vocational schools, for example, have
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now to educate and train for open and uncertain labour markets and no longer for agreed numbers and assured jobs in hosting companies that were basically interested in hoarding labour. However, in most countries labour markets are still under development and private sectors are only gradually emerging. Teachers who have always been told how many students they would have and what they should teach them are suddenly in a situation where there is nobody anymore to tell them anything. Developing new roles and relationships is for individuals essentially a process of learning new knowledge, skills and attitudes in order to become competent in a changing context. Reforming a national education system is a collective learning process for all stakeholders (Grootings, 1993). A major challenge for transition countries facing systemic reforms of their vocational education and training systems is to build up and strengthen their own capacities to formulate reform policies, and not just the capacity to implement imposed or borrowed policies. Reforms of vocational education and training in transition countries (and indeed any kind of major reform in any country) will only be successful and sustainable if policy development, formulation and implementation are firmly based on broad ownership and fit within existing institutions. The concept of policy-learning reflects this understanding. Policy-learning emphasizes not just involvement but the active engagement of national stakeholders in developing their own policy solutions. It is based on the understanding that there are no universally valid models that can simply be transferred or copied from one context into another. At most there is a wealth of international but context-specific experience in dealing with similar policy issues that can be shared. The discussions about new learning are relevant for education and training reforms in transition countries. They provide key criteria for successful reform and reform assistance. Educational reform can only be sustainable if reform policies are owned by local stakeholders and are embedded in the context of the country. Educational reform is really about stakeholders being motivated to learn new ways of how to organize education and training systems—system wide and system deep. Learning is about developing new roles for all stakeholders at all levels in all the building blocks of the system. The challenge for donors and aid agencies, therefore, is not to sell prefabricated ‘what’ solutions but to find the appropriate answer to the question ‘how to help people help themselves?’ (Ellerman, 2004, 2005).7
4 Policy Reform is Policy-Learning8 Applying active learning insights to a review of vocational education and training (VET) reform experiences in transition countries further supports the need to think in terms of policy-learning. Such a review indicates first of all that VET reforms in transition countries have often depended heavily on the presence and contribution of international donors.
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There is a mix of positive and less-positive experiences. Especially in the initial phases of transition (but sometimes also long after), donors have played a key role in developing awareness of the need for VET reforms, influencing the reform policy agenda and providing resources for strategy development and implementation. Often, however, donors or their experts in the field have showed little familiarity with specific national transition contexts and no understanding for the knowledge, experience, views and expectations of people involved in education and training. Very often also, they have entered partner countries with standardized one-size-fitsall packages of assistance. Capacity-building was usually focused on developing appropriate capacities to implement what donors thought would be necessary. In turn, many national policy-makers, certainly in the initial stages of transition (but sometimes also long afterwards), were more interested in receiving funding than in policy-making. They were convinced that the key problem was the impoverished state of their educational infrastructures. Moreover, they have often been unable to assess the fitness of donors’ proposals for best practice for the institutional context of their own VET systems. This combination of donor and recipient expectations and behaviour has created problems of sustainability for many donor-supported reform initiatives. With the departure of the donor the reform usually came to a halt. With the limited resources that donors can make available, practically nowhere have system-wide changes been started. Much of the earlier assistance to VET reform in the partner countries was guided by principles of policy-copying. The guiding principle on the donor side seems to have often been: we know your future—and your past is irrelevant. Because international assistance has underestimated the relevance of institutional context, policy-copying has not contributed to system-deep VET reforms either. Stakeholders and policy-makers in transition countries have not been able to learn much about their new roles in a changing VET system—although they may sometimes have become experts on the systems of other countries. We may not know the details of future VET systems in partner countries, but from international experience some of the basic characteristics that modern VET systems should develop have become increasingly clear. They should be: (a) decentralized; (b) responsive to labour markets and learner needs; (c) transparent; (d) well-resourced (e) providing flexible and open pathways for young and adults; and (f) have a capacity to innovate and adapt to changing conditions. All modern VET systems around the world are trying to become like that! But there is no best practice of how to organize such systems, neither in developed market economies nor in transition countries. There are many good—and perhaps also a couple of bad—context-bound practical examples. Moreover, such examples not only refer to what countries wanted to achieve in their reforms but also to how they have tried to change their systems. How do you make good use of such knowledge and experience about policy objectives and strategies if policy-copying does not work? The following example may further illustrate the challenges. The policy-learning approach requires an intensified focus on how to organize policy-learning platforms and environments in the countries so that a critical mass of key actors and stakeholders gradually develop VET reform policy understanding and competence. So
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far, since policy transfer and policy-copying approaches have been dominant in the reform debates in most countries, the concept of stakeholders has been very much influenced by the model—and indeed the ideology—that was taken to be transferred or copied. In vocational education and training reform, a key issue is the involvement of employers, private industry, or—in EU language—social partners. The view is that in a market-based economy governments cannot continue to be the sole responsible authorities for vocational education and training. The essence of systemic reform—adaptation of vocational education and training to free educational choice, private enterprise and labour markets—requires involvement of the enterprises where the graduates will have to find employment. The reality of the reform process in many transition countries, however, has created a whole series of interesting contradictions. Whereas private sector or social partner involvement was presented as a conditio sine qua non for any market-based vocational education and training system, in practice governments have faced a huge problem of disinterest on the side of the private sector (employers and unions alike) to be involved at all. There are many reasons that can explain this situation, but one is the lack of representative organizations at the national level. Another is the absence of any professional capacity among social partners to deal with vocational education and training matters in a reform context. The result was, and often still is, that enlightened governments have to include the interests of the private sector into their own policy thinking. Thus, reform policy remains dependent on a few political reform champions. Another problem is the absence of a professional civil servant community inside or an educational support infrastructure outside the ministry apparatus. Public educational authorities in transition countries therefore remain the driving force behind vocational education and training reform—certainly at the national level. The involvement of stakeholders representing industry is not something that can be built on from the start, but has to be developed as part of the reform process itself. Interestingly enough, if trade unions have been involved at all in national education reform policy debates, these have often been the teachers unions and understandably—given the state of public budgets and mounting pressures to decrease public spending on education in many transition countries—they have been more interested in defending the social and material status of their membership than in discussing the contents of educational reform. As a result, teachers, also through their unions’ behaviour, have become generally regarded as major obstacles to reform. This, in turn, may sometimes even have led to the development of policies that sought to break the power of the teacher and trainer community instead of engaging them more positively.9 More recently, however, there is an increasing awareness that teachers and trainers must be included among the critical mass of stakeholders in the reform. This is, most of all, the result of a better understanding of why so many educational reforms all over the world have gone wrong in the past. Exclusion of teachers as stakeholders from the reform process has frequently led to national reform policies failing to trigger any changes at all inside educational institutions and classrooms. Teachers and trainers have now become recognized as crucial agents in making
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reforms work in their professional capacity of organizers of learning. It has also been understood that involving teachers is not just a matter of informing them so that they know what is expected of them. Nor is it only a matter of training so that they are taught how the new policies must be implemented. As professionals, teachers principally know best what will work in the specific context of their own school and classroom environment, including responding to the particular learning needs of the student population that they have to cater for. Their expertise therefore is an important source for translating general policy initiatives into very divergent real-life contexts. A better understanding of why many educational reforms have not worked has therefore not only implications for the implementation of reform policies, but impacts on the very process of policy development and formulation. This, in turn, reflects the fact that the current reforms in vocational education and training are very complex development processes that hardly compare to the traditional reform conceptions with their clear stages of preparation, formulation, implementation and evaluation. This is especially true of reforms in transition countries that seek to combine systemic reforms with structural changes and modernization of contents and approaches. Such reforms are not one-off social engineering events designed by external experts but on-going change processes set within a broadly agreed reform agenda. The reform agenda can be quite radical but requires further operational detailing, based on local innovation processes. Reform strategies have to build on the commitment of teachers and trainers working inside their school organizations. It is because of this that teachers who are actively engaged in local innovation and experimentation are an important source of expertise for national policy-makers. Such an understanding of reform puts policy-learning, capacitybuilding and policy advice at both national and school-levels in a new perspective and, at the same time, with considerable more urgency than before.10 Traditional top-down or bottom-up strategies have become too simplistic and are insufficient to make reforms work. Policy-learning as a process requires a continuous interaction and dialogue between national and local partners—vertically, as well as among the various local initiatives horizontally.
5 Facilitating Policy-Learning in Practice A policy-learning approach may be the appropriate response to some of the key challenges related to the VET reform processes in transition countries. Policy-makers and other key stakeholders should be enabled to learn to develop their own policies. But, in practice, there are considerable obstacles to facilitating policy-learning. These stem from the many tensions between ‘what’ and ‘how’ in the relationship between experts and novices. Several of these obstacles are known from the search for operational approaches to make active learning work in classical education settings. The key issue remains how a learning situation can be established where the expert acts as a learning process facilitator and the novice can be stimulated to engage actively in learning. However, others obstacles pertain to the field of reform policy development.
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Understanding the context limits or institutional fit is not easy and it is a challenge that both local policy-makers and international advisers share. While donors usually do not have a good understanding of the local context (and often do not even speak the language), it can also not simply be assumed that local policy-makers understand the characteristics of their own VET system. It is difficult to question what has always been normal and the rule. Moreover, international consultants do not always understand that the advice they provide is perhaps firmly rooted in the institutional context that they come from themselves; they are often not well informed about policies and systems in other countries. How can local policy-makers assess the fitness of what is sold to them as the latest international trend? How can international advisers properly assess prior knowledge and contextualization of new knowledge? Policy-makers are also under stress to come up with quick solutions. Their political mandate does not leave them much time. Advisers are bound by the financial and time resources that the donors have reserved for their projects. Also, the ownership issue raises some problems, especially when this is restricted to a few co-operative national policy-makers and—simply because of the design of the donor project—leaves out the vast majority of teachers and trainers in schools (Grootings & Nielsen, 2005). How can international advisers facilitate learning under such conditions? The basic assumption underlying the concept of policy-learning is not so much that policies can be learned but that actual policies are learned policies. Learning is not simply the transfer of expert knowledge or behaviour from one person to another, but rather the acquisition of understanding and competence through participation in learning processes. However, policy-makers are not only policy-learners. They also have to act, and acting on the political scene, especially in environments that are undergoing radical change such as in transition countries, does not always leave a lot of space and time for careful and gradual learning. They have to engage in daily political decision-making and, depending on their position in the system, may often have to give priority to active participation in political power struggles. On the other hand, policy-makers engaged in systemic reforms are in need of new knowledge which very often contradicts established knowledge and routines. For policy-makers, therefore, because they are under pressure to act, learning is more than merely a cognitive process: learning is practice. Their learning is situated learning as it is an integral and inseparable aspect of their social practice. Lave & Wenger (1991) argue that all learning is situated learning and, more particularly, ‘legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice’. Novice learners learn best when they are engaged in a community of more expert learners; during the learning process they become more competent themselves and move from the margin to the centre. Policy-makers in transition countries can be regarded as highly motivated novice learners and policy-learning can be facilitated by letting them participate in relevant communities of practice (Wenger, 1998). Such communities of practice could be created by bringing together policy-makers from different countries that have gone through or are undergoing reforms of their education systems. International and local policy analysts, researchers, advisers and other practitioners could be part of such communities as well.
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However, policy-makers in transition countries may be seen as ‘novices’ in terms of knowledge and expertise concerning the development of modern education systems in market economies, but they are also ‘experts’ as far as their own country context is concerned. Similarly, international policy advisers may perhaps be the ‘experts’ with respect to educational policy-making in developed economies, but they are often ‘novices’ in terms of knowledge about the particular context of the partner country. Neither local stakeholders nor international advisers really know what ‘fits’ with regard to modern education policy in a partner country’s context. The community of practice concept therefore needs to be further developed to take these differences properly into account in learning experience with high levels of uncertainty. Since old and new knowledge relate to different contexts, there are different peripheries and centres and even those who are closer to the centre remain learners themselves.
6 Policy-Learning through Knowledge Sharing Reforming education and training systems in transition countries implies combining old and new knowledge in changing contexts for both local stakeholders and international advisers. Policy-learning is not just about learning the policies that other countries have developed, but rather about learning which policies can be developed locally by reflecting on the relevance of other countries’ policies. Policy-learning in this sense can only happen when there is information and knowledge available and shared. The principal role of donors would be to facilitate a reform policy-learning process by providing access to such information and experience and by enabling a critical reflection on their relevance. However, donors and their staff cannot do their learning facilitation role well if they do not recognize that they themselves are also learners in the same policy-learning process. VET reform policy development, seen as VET policy-learning, would have to use knowledge-sharing to enable decision-makers from partner countries to learn from—and not simply about—VET reform experiences from elsewhere for the formulation and the implementation of their own reform objectives. Knowledgesharing would also enable donors and international advisers to better understand the institutional context and history of the partner country. For them, in becoming familiar with local knowledge, it will also be easier to appreciate and value the expertise that partners bring into the reform process. International donors and their policy advisers would have to play a role similar to the one a modern teacher is supposed to play: not that of the expert who knows it all and simply passes it on; rather the one who recognizes problems, does not know the solutions yet, but organizes and guides knowledge-sharing and in so doing develops new knowledge for all involved in the learning process. Policy-learning therefore can only happen in partnership. In policy-learning partnerships, the timing and sequencing of knowledge sharing is of major importance if donor assistance is to have a real impact on local
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ownership and contextual fit, and if it is to create the necessary motivation, commitment and capacities to sustain reforms. This would ask specific competences from policy advisers as they have to be able to judge where they themselves and their partners are in moving from the periphery to the centre of the community of practice. It would also require a rethinking of the classical development instruments, such as workshops, study visits, technical assistance, pilot projects and so on, with a view to developing strong learning environments for policy-learning to happen. Policy-learning is sharing experience from the past to develop knowledge for the future. It is also about sharing knowledge from abroad and knowledge that is locally produced. Therefore, it is about developing new knowledge as well. It contributes not only to creating more coherent system-wide reforms that fit, but also facilitates system-deep reforms of VET systems as it enables all stakeholders to learn new roles and develop new working routines. It will be a challenging task to develop concrete approaches that can make policy-learning, which is based on principles of active learning theory, work in practice.
Notes 1. Others would argue that good governance, the participation of civil society, the fight against corruption and sound legal frameworks are more important. This chapter will simply pay attention to the learning aspect that has been neglected so far. 2. See, for a critical presentation of these various learning theories, Driscoll, 2000. 3. These include, besides psychology and educational science (Driscoll, 2000), also brain research (OECD, 2002). 4. These are also called social or key competences. 5. In many English-speaking countries educational reform has in fact taken the form of establishing an assessment system that could measure learning outcomes, assuming that these could be the result of very different learning processes and arguing subsequently that the nature of these learning processes therefore would not be relevant at all. The ‘black box’ approach to learning has been a typical characteristic of economist approaches to education and training. 6. See the various contributions in Simons et al. (2000) for an account of experiences from different domains. 7. Ellerman, 2005, has summarized this challenge into three ‘dos’ (starting from present institutions; seeing the world through the eyes of the client; respect autonomy of the doers) and two ‘don’ts’ (don’t override self-help capacity with social engineering and don’t undercut self-help capacity with benevolent aid). 8. What follows is a summary of more detailed reviews in Grootings, 2004. 9. Such as through moving from so-called input control (based, amongst other things, on teacher qualifications) towards output control mechanisms based on occupational and educational standards with neglect of the educational and learning processes that would lead to achieving the standards. In such cases, the assessment of standard attainment has frequently replaced education and training as such. 10. Experience from some countries, such as the Netherlands, also points at the need to have additional co-ordinating and support institutions at the sector, regional or school-type level. Such is the role that associations of secondary and higher vocational schools, and sector-based expertise centres are playing. Specialized local, regional and national research and development institutions in turn support these. In other words, reform, innovation or development infrastructures require more than national stakeholders and teachers in schools.
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References Driscoll, M.P. 2000. Psychology of learning for instruction, 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Ellerman, D. 2004. Autonomy in education and development. Journal of international cooperation in education, vol. 7, no. 1, April. Ellerman, D. 2005. Helping people help themselves; from the World Bank to an alternative philosophy of development assistance. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press. Grootings, P. 1993. VET in transition: an overview of changes in three East European countries. European journal of education, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 229–40. Grootings, P., ed. 2004. Learning matters: ETF yearbook 2004. Turin, Italy: ETF. Grootings, P.; Nielsen, S., eds. 2005. The role of teachers in VET reforms: professionals and stakeholders—ETF Yearbook 2005. Turin, Italy: ETF. Hager, P. 2004. The competence affair, or why vocational education and training urgently needs a new understanding of learning. Journal of vocational education and training, vol. 56, no. 3, pp. 409–33. King, K. 2005. Development knowledge and the global policy agenda. Whose knowledge? Whose policy? Edinburgh, UK: University of Edinburgh, Centre of African Studies. King, K.; McGrath, S. 2004. Knowledge for development? Comparing British, Japanese, Swedish and World Bank aid. London: Zed Books. Kolb, D.A. 1984. Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Kok, J.J.M. 2003. Talenten transformeren: over het nieuwe leren en nieuwe leerarrangementen. Tilburg, Netherlands: Fontys Hogescholen. Lave, J.; Wenger, E. 1991. Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 1996. Lifelong learning for all. Paris: OECD. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2002. Understanding the brain: towards a new learning science. Paris: OECD. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2005. Teachers matter: attracting, developing and retaining effective teachers. Paris: OECD. Pieters, J.M.; Verschaffel, L. 2003. Beinvloeden van leerprocessen. In: Verloop, N.; Lowyck, J., eds. Onderwijskunde: een kennisbasis voor professionals, pp. 251–84. Groningen/Houten, Netherlands: Wolters-Noordhof. Sch¨on, D. 1983. The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. New York, NY: Basic Books. Simons, R.J.;, van der Linden, J.; Duffy, T., eds. 2000. New learning. Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Verloop, N.; Lowyck, J., eds. 2003. Onderwijskunde: een kennisbasis voor professionals. Groningen/Houten, Netherlands: Wolters-Noordhof. Wenger, E. 1998. Communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Section 4 National Initiatives for Reengineering Education for the New Economy
Joshua D. Hawley College of Education and Human Ecology, Ohio State University, Columbus, United States of America
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Chapter IV.1
Overview: Regional Reviews of TVET Joshua D. Hawley
1 Introduction Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is often a national or even a local issue, much more so than other sub-sectors of the education system. Unlike primary and secondary education, there are few large United Nations’ interventions that concentrate on technical and vocational education. Moreover, because TVET serves employers and the labour market, schools and teachers are often more concerned with student completion and placement in work than movement into higher education. The current United Nations’ efforts (the Millennium Development Goals— MDG) to support primary and secondary education are numerous, and are designed to dramatically improve enrolment, the completion rate and the quality of basic education. While the United Nations development goals have implications for schooling after lower secondary education, the degree to which they require government action for upper secondary in general and TVET in particular remains in debate. In the MDG report for 2006, for example, the authors reported that all countries, with the exception of Sub-Saharan Africa, were making substantial progress towards attaining basic education for all. However, the point remains that for countries to compete in the world economy their young people must be trained beyond basic education, and that technical and vocational schooling needs to play an important role in this process (Lewin, 2004; United Nations, 2006). The modest efforts that the United Nations have undertaken to support TVET, such as the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre, are less operational in focus, in comparison to the Millennium Development Goals. UNESCO’s recent work in chronicling the enrolment statistics for TVET are commendable, but there are no major international efforts to support improvements to TVET that I know of and that work on a global basis. There remain, however, significant regional efforts. The Asian Development Bank has maintained a substantial lending practice in Central and South-East Asia, in particular concerning TVET (Asian Development Bank, 2002). Europe’s CEDEFOP and ETF have consistently worked across countries to support their vocational education sectors. The Latin American emphasis on technical and vocational education R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 IV.1, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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continues to be an important part of the conversation about the school-to-work transition (Castro, Schaack & Tippelt, 2000; CINTERFOR/ILO, 2001). A number of agencies, most importantly the World Bank, have supported substantial analysis of the experience in Sub-Saharan Africa in recent years, leading to a renewed interest in investments in TVET in this region (Johanson & Adams, 2004; Ziderman, 2003). This section reviews the current work on TVET regionally, offering a discussion of a number of critical empirical issues that the sub-sector faces. We begin with a discussion of the role of the international organizations that often deal with TVET, continue with a discussion of regional political engagement with TVET, and end with a critical review of the findings from the chapters in this section.
2 The Status of TVET and the Role of International Organizations Over the years, the literature on international development and comparative education has shone a spotlight on the critical role that development institutions play. In a 1994 paper, McGinn (1994) pointed out the increasing importance of multinational organizations and companies in national development. Castro (2002) describes the particular role of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and the World Bank in terms of educational policies, focusing specifically on presenting the tradeoff between support for educational reform and the use of measures to target changes in education locally. Studies by Karen Mundy have refined both our understanding of the role of these institutions and the specific place they have in the policy-making process (Mundy, 1998; Mundy, 2002; Mundy & Murphy, 2001). The roles of other international institutions, such as UNESCO and the ILO, or even the European Union’s Leonardo da Vinci Programme, have received less attention in the academic literature. While we know that regional development banks, such as the African Development Bank and the Asian Development Bank, have critical roles in lending to vocational education and training, there are relatively few academic studies tracking their involvement and reflecting on their impact on national systems in developing countries. An exception is the study by Chabbott (2002), which describes the specific role of organizations such as UNESCO in establishing the World Conference on Education for All. Additionally, in a paper for the Asian Development Bank, Adams (2002) describes the evolving role of that agency in the international development field, focusing on the development of new policy directions in education. While those who study the evolution and functioning of the international agencies do not often deal specifically with vocational education and training, the international organizations themselves have frequently focused on this topic, and vocational education and training has long been a critical area for debate about the relative importance of education for employment in national development (Middleton, Ziderman & Adams, 1993). As mentioned earlier, four agencies (the IADB, the World Bank, the ILO and UNESCO) have recently developed documents outlining policy options for the
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future of vocational education and training. These papers vary in their stage of production and the formality of the policy directions they explore. The ILO/UNESCO document, ‘Revised Recommendation Concerning Technical and Vocational Education’, offers the most formal statement, providing recommendations about the structure and function of technical and vocational education (ILO/UNESCO, 2001). It was formally adopted by the governing councils of UNESCO and ILO in 2001. The IADB strategy paper, ‘Vocational and technical training: a strategy for the IDB’ was approved by the IADB Board of Governors in 2000. Finally, the World Bank has issued a number of studies on the future of vocational education and training in Africa. The summary document, ‘Vocational skills development in Sub-Saharan Africa’ was produced in 2002 and summarizes the results of a number of reports from consultants on various aspects of vocational education and training in Africa. This paper, unlike some others, is not a formal policy document issued by the World Bank (Johanson & Adams, 2004). The reports vary in their level of detail. All agencies review current research on vocational and technical education internationally and make recommendations for the larger community of policy-makers. All of the reports reflect current trends in public policy for international vocational education and training, although the IADB and the World Bank’s reports are primarily concerned with Latin America and Africa respectively. They each deal with the larger issues of secondary vocational education, privatization and the role of training within enterprises.
2.1 Secondary Vocational Education Research on the role of development banks has frequently become heated, particularly around policy questions that have special relevance to the vocational education and training sector. For example, in the aftermath of the 1995 and 1999 Education Sector papers from the World Bank, the International journal of educational development published special issues discussing the implications of the policy provisions emphasized. In the area of vocational and technical education, for instance, the 1995 Education Strategy reiterated the general distrust of secondary level vocational education as a strategy to support sustained development (World Bank, 1995). In the original 1991 study, the World Bank advocated moving away from secondary vocational schooling (World Bank, 1991). However, scholars like Jon Lauglo and Kenneth King have questioned this wholesale abandonment of secondary-level preparation. Based on studies of individual countries, they state that secondary vocational schooling has its place, provided it is adapted to the needs of the labour market (King & Martin, 2002; Lauglo, 1996). Indeed, secondary vocational education is still the predominant form of vocational skills training in most developing countries. Lauglo & Maclean’s (2005) recent book on the topic contains some important information on the continuing debate around which form of vocational schooling to invest in, focusing particularly on matching the level of economic development with the form of vocational schooling.
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International agencies are moving slowly away from a commitment to secondary vocational education and towards the broader goal of workforce or human capital development. Except for the UNESCO/ILO policy statement, the specific documents that the organizations produce stay away from vocational education as preparation within the classic French/American model of school-based vocational education (Castro, Schaack & Tippelt, 2000). The UNESCO/ILO statement reminds us that vocational education and training is intended for young people over 15 years of age and concerns ‘all forms and aspects of education that are technical and vocational in nature’. This broad statement includes occupational preparation in its vision, but is also linked explicitly to larger social and economic goals, such as poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Likewise, vocational education and training is supposed to facilitate lifelong learning. The ILO/UNESCO statement is probably most similar to the view of ‘career and technical education’ in the United States, stating that technical skills and vocational competencies should be taught within the context of general education. The policy statements by the World Bank and the IADB differ from those proposed by ILO/UNESCO. For instance, the IADB states that ‘well-focused training is investment in human capital’ and offers a ‘balance between general and vocational skills.’ Unlike those proposed by ILO/UNESCO, the IADB does not define at what age training should begin to be offered by governments, nor does it take a stand relative to the occupational orientation of the vocational and technical education. In fact, there seems to be a general pattern in the review of country-level experiences in IADB documents away from a form of secondary-level vocational education that is explicitly occupational in nature. The IADB, however, remains committed to supporting vocational education and training, as recent lending in Belize and other countries has shown. The World Bank statement is more formal, offering up definitions for technical education, vocational training and skills development. As the report states: technical education is training for technicians; vocational training is provision of crafts; and skills development is practical competencies, know-how and attitudes (Johanson & Adams, 2004). The emphasis on skills development echoes the larger push in the educational community to provide individuals with basic skills, particularly training in the ‘new basic skills’ (Murnane & Levy, 1996). The particular goals that the World Bank report outlines include a focus on using vocational education in the public sector, but only when the private sector is unable to provide these services or there are insufficient incentives to support training for disadvantaged groups. This fits into the broader emphasis in World Bank policy to promote private-sector involvement.
2.2 Privatization and the Relationship with Industry One of the core issues for development agencies is the emphasis on privatization of public services. As Klees (2002) has discussed, the Washington Consensus in the 1980s led to a general focus in World Bank lending on supporting the movement of public goods to the private sector. There is, as Klees discusses in detail, a belief that the private sector can and should take over any State services that they are able to run
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efficiently; the role of the government should be seen as the provider of services only as a last resort, and only in situations where such services cannot operate efficiently. Moreover, there is a general view that government needs to encourage cost-sharing through user fees. For example, even if services are provided through governmental institutions, they need to share the costs of service provision with the parents and students. The issue of privatization as applied to vocational education and training is particularly complex. Economic justification for supporting education draws a sharp line between general skills training and specific skills training (Becker, 1993; Johanson, 2002). Right from the start, scholars of human capital theory supported compulsory schooling with the view that students should master skills that are generalizable and that lead to higher education or potential employment in many fields. In contrast, training is often in specific technical areas, and therefore is not considered appropriate for government investment. This dichotomy is debated frequently by scholars in vocational education, as well as more broadly in the economics of education. In practice, it is exceedingly difficult to decide where to draw the line. Many governments do support training at the corporate level in significant ways and, indeed, scholars have shown that this commitment to training has led to sustained economic growth in developing Asian countries (Ashton et al., 1999). In a recent study, we see that, on average, the returns to education in Asia are higher than those in Latin America, although it is difficult to conclude that this is because of differences in the allocation of resources at the secondary education level (Sakellariou, 2005). One of the critical design issues for leaders in vocational education and training is how to relate to the other educational sectors. The classic dilemma for a large ministry of education in a developing country, for example, is whether vocational education and training needs to be governed through the secondary education system or can be established as a separate department. As Herschbach & Gasskov (2000) point out, these kinds of questions are located at the ‘macro-level’ of educational planning and raise issues that are social and political, as well as technical in nature. This is not simply an administrative issue, and the larger question of partnerships with other educational organizations, businesses and social partners receives a lot of attention from development agencies. For example, the most important distinguishing characteristic of high-profile systems in Europe is the relationships established by business and other social partners in education and training (Culpepper, 2003; Lasonen & Rauhala, 2000). The quality, as well as the social acceptance, of vocational education and training in Germany is largely due to the substantial relationships with business associations and industry. International agencies have long supported the German, or dual system, model of vocational education and training in principle, but support at the project level has varied. Many of the projects from the Asian Development Bank in recent years have emphasized supporting secondary-level vocational education and training systems, while the support in African nations has shifted more towards enterprise-based training (Asian Development Bank, 2002; Johanson, 2002). In general, international agencies are continuing to support the position that vocational education and training comes after basic or primary schooling. Only one report—ILO/UNESCO— supported keeping vocational education and training at the secondary level outright.
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It is offered as an option for secondary education students at the upper secondary level. The World Bank report by Johanson seems to favour keeping an option of secondary level vocational education and training, but restates the opinion that ‘regular vocational schools have to be redirected to areas that are in greater need of skilled labor’ (Johanson, 2002). One area of general agreement concerns the relationship with industry. All of the reports emphasize the importance of including vocational education and training as an option within employment. The agencies differ on the direction of the policy advice, however. For instance, UNESCO/ILO supports co-operative training through employers, while the World Bank and the IADB emphasize employers subsidizing training through training levies. One area of increasing importance is the use of vocational education and training aimed at adults working within the informal sector. This approach to training is particularly critical as labour markets evolve within developing countries. Many nations have established training programmes in entrepreneurship (Johanson, 2002; King & McGrath, 1999). A third policy issue raised by the development agencies with special relevance to vocational schooling is the continuing effort to encourage enterprise-level training through government policy. Recent studies from Gill, Fluitman & Dar (2000) and Johanson & Adams (2004) provide some basis for stating that governments have increasingly used incentives, such as tax levies, to promote training. As Ziderman (2001) describes, as firms (especially small and medium-sized firms) under-train, governments need to play an increasingly active role in promoting training. However, Ziderman goes on to show that national training funds need to be carefully monitored for sustainability of financing and proper controls should be in place to ensure that funds are spent on appropriate training activities. Ziderman also reports that training levies have become increasingly important in financing training within firms. While there are problems with the use of levies, they give the government a strong role in directing training among firms. These programmes are used in the United States as well, often combined with reductions in unemployment insurance taxes (United States of America. Government Accounting Office, 2004). Unlike the traditional German system of apprenticeships, current models rely on market mechanisms to increase the skills levels of out-of-work youth, informal sector workers or in-service workers needing re-tooling. Firms are given State funds through tax systems that collect a portion of payroll taxes. Firms can then carry out training interventions (Herschbach & Gasskov, 2000). This model could be problematic from a theoretical perspective. As Ziderman (2001) points out, for large firms the strategy often pays off, but does not necessarily benefit small or mediumsized companies. Moreover, if firms are simply using the funds to provide specific skills training, the State is then subsidizing activities that firms could undertake on their own. To address this concern, many countries (and states in the United States) carefully monitor spending under these levy systems (Moore et al., 2003). However, the tax levies are subject to intense political conflict over the allocation of resources (United States of America. Government Accounting Office, 2004).
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Many of the loans granted by agencies are focused on upgrading workers’ skills or improving training quality, rather than providing entry level vocational education and training. For example, Johanson (2002) points out that 93% of on-going World Bank projects included informal sector training—a major increase over projects carried out in the 1990s. Moreover, in 43% of the current World Bank projects, they have emphasized training funds. In general, international agencies are continuing to support the position that vocational education and training comes after basic or primary schooling. The IADB, similarly, stresses that model training must include enterprise-based schooling. These increasing connections with firms are seen as a way to remove rigidities in vocational education systems. Interestingly, the three organizations emphasize national vocational qualifications as a strategy to improve the curriculum and training within firms.
2.3 Curricular Focus of Vocational Education and Training The reports also describe the role of national government in certifying the curriculum according to international agencies. The agencies generally refocused vocational education and training from occupational training to a hybrid of academic and vocational instruction. As the ILO/UNESCO report described, the curriculum for vocational education should lead to interdisciplinary skills that can be used in several occupations. This focus on generalizable skills is largely in response to the evidence that employment and occupational training are often not strongly related (Hawley, 2003; Neuman & Ziderman, 1999). Moreover, the World Bank and IADB reports emphasize the importance of integrating basic skills training and vocational preparation. The emphasis on basic skills seems to be grounded in the perception that vocational education and training is best suited to individuals who have completed primary and secondary education. Certainly in the United States, vocational education reform has resulted in fewer occupational courses in high school and more focus on academic training (Silverberg et al., 2004). Furthermore, curricula must be integrated with business needs and offer competency-based instruction. There is similarly a restatement of the growing importance of competency-based training. While individuals are supposed to master technical skills, these skills are intended to be embedded within national vocational qualifications or other standards which are certified through industry. As the World Bank report describes, national vocational qualifications help to remove the rigidity of the skills training systems because they allow training to be connected more formally with employers’ skills demands (Johanson & Adams, 2004). National qualifications frameworks allow countries to integrate training within firms, leaving government to focus on certifying the competencies that individuals master. These systems are modularized, enabling more flexibility in the delivery of training, and can be designed to meet short-term as well as long-term skills needs (Johanson & Adams, 2004).
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3 Regional Strategic Efforts in TVET Despite the largely scattered scholarship on the role of vocational education internationally, there has been a continuing interest in using TVET to solve strategic economic and equity issues. While countries have undeniably moved students from vocational to general secondary schooling, TVET as a whole remains a critical part of the infrastructure that educational planners use to meet labour shortages. TVET is simultaneously seen as a tool to enable poorer and marginalized youth and young adults receive skills training that will allow them to pursue productive employment. Because of these dimensions, TVET has remained on the agenda of regional and national government agencies. The regional agencies have played a surprisingly important role in places like Europe, where funding from successive programmes has contributed to national investment in TVET within both member and non-member States of the European Union.
4 Overview of the Contributions The chapters in this section are quite varied in their emphases and the depth in which they deal with TVET issues globally. They represent an important catalogue of largely government-led interventions in this often neglected area. The chapters are summarized by three frames: the truly regional studies that compare TVET across a geographical area; the country level studies that attempt to connect with the regional approach to TVET; and finally a few global studies that were completed as part of this review of regional aspects of TVET. The more in-depth chapters in the first section deal with a review of the reaction by Baltic States to the dissolution of the Soviet system and an important piece on the changes in TVET policy from the European Union. The second group of studies in this review includes a range of chapters that really are single country-level studies, but have strong regional implications. These are interesting to a more limited audience of TVET scholars and practitioners with specific geographical interests. Lastly, there are several studies that take a decidedly global look at TVET policy. They include studies of the relationship between TVET and the agricultural sector, and a cross-national paper exploring the possibility of extending the International Baccalaureate Organization curriculum to TVET at the upper secondary level. Finally, there is a study of how the larger TVET systems have shifted in recent years. We start with the regional studies. The chapters in this sub-section deal with a range of TVET issues, from traditional studies of the evolution and current capacity of vocational education in Africa and Asia, to a look at how the regional policies from the EU government have changed from the da Vinci Programme to the current Lifelong Learning Programme.
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IV.2 To Vocationalize or Not to Vocationalize? Perspectives on Current Trends and Issues on TVET in Africa, by Moses O. Oketch The study by Oketch, which is based on document analysis and interviews/data collection in seven African nations, paints a broad-based view of TVET. The pattern that emerges is one of fractured TVET systems on this continent.
IV.3 TVET in the Asian Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects, by P.P.G. Lionel Siriwardene and Muhammad Ashraf Qureshi Similarly, Siriwardene and Qureshi provide a limited view of the state of TVET in Asian countries, reviewing basic problems with the economic transition to services and the burden that overcoming these challenges places upon the State.
IV.4 Transforming TVET Systems with the CPSC in the Asia and Pacific Region, by Man-Gon Park Park offers an analysis of regional TVET in the Asia and Pacific region. It provides some details about the changing context for TVET in Asia and the Pacific and the challenges facing governments.
IV.5 European Action Programmes for Lifelong Learning, by Johanna Lasonen Lasonen provides a welcome review of the state of TVET policy under European Union (EU) governance. Going back to the Leonardo da Vinci Programme, the author describes the goals of the programme, and the broad engagement with EU member states. The paper offers a glimpse also at the new TVET policy, the Lifelong Learning Programme, illustrating the integration of financial assistance for higher and vocational education into traditional TVET fields.
IV.6 VET in the Baltic States: Analysis of Commonalities and Differences of Reforms in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, ¨ by Frank Bunning and Berit Graubner B¨unning and Graubner provide a review of VET in the Baltic States after the collapse of the USSR. The most important discussion is of how the different nations
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responded in unique ways to the dissolution of the Soviet system, and put in place a similar array of youth, business and adult training services. It is particularly important to note that Lithuania was ahead of the trend on re-organizing its VET systems.
IV.7 Education and Training Needs of Rural Communities: A Situational Analysis of Selected Villages in Fourteen Provinces of Fiji, by Paula Cavu, Isimeli W. Tagicakiverata, Seveci Naisilisili and Viliame Rabici The first study in the country-level cases by Cavu et al. describes a survey they completed of the training needs for adults in rural areas of the Fiji Islands. Using a standardized protocol, they offer a descriptive analysis of the kinds of training that men and women are interested in following.
IV.8 Social Partnership in Vocational Education and Training in Lithuania: Challenges and Perspectives, by Lina Kaminskien˙e Moving from the Pacific Islands to Europe, Kaminskien˙e offers a study of the evolution of social partnerships in Lithuania, and more generally what steps the government has taken to strengthen TVET since 1990. The paper offers a clear statement of the differences between Soviet labour-driven relations with TVET institutions and the current push to create a structure of social partnerships to develop vocational and technical schools.
IV.9 Integrating Education and Work: The Status of Vocational Education in Brazil by Luc´ılia Regina Machado and Carlos Roberto Jamil Cury Interestingly, Machado and Cury provide a brief review of the legal and institutional framework for TVET in the largest nation in the Latin American region—Brazil. This study provides some orientation to the legal foundation for technical and vocational education and reviews the size and composition of the institutional structures that make up the TVET system. This is useful for readers who need a quick review of the structure of this important TVET system, but does not answer the larger question about how the legislative changes in the 1990s led to steep declines in TVET enrolments, nor what the evaluation evidence shows about the impact of these changes on Brazil.
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IV.10 China’s Higher Technical and Vocational Education: Development and Reform, by Jing Mi and Aihua Wu Jing Mi and Aihua Wu offer a summary of China’s TVET system, and an up-to-date review of the changes facing this large country with its rapidly growing economy. The review lacks an evaluative focus, and instead focuses fairly broadly on describing the institutional structure, legal framework and enrolments.
IV.11 The Adoption and Adaptation of the Work-Team Concept in Urban Thai Workplaces, by Chitrlada Burapharat Burapharat offers a theory-based view from the perspective of adult education on the use of work teams within Thai organizations. This is a strong study in that it places the use of work teams in the context of Thai culture. It is one of the few studies based on data collection from firms in this section.
IV.12 Globalization of the Labour Culture in the Republic of Korea: What ‘Tripartite Relations’ Mean for Workers, by Phoebe Moore Moore offers a theoretically rich discussion of the impact of globalization and the problems brought by the East Asian economic crisis on labour relations in the Republic of Korea, and to an extent on TVET in this country. Through textual and socio-cultural studies, she provides some analysis. The result is a rich study for TVET scholars, as it brings out a theoretical literature that is only infrequently related to vocational subjects.
IV.13 Involvement of Labour-Market Partners in TVET in the Russian Federation, by Olga Oleynikova Oleynikova offers a glimpse at the state of post-Soviet relations between employers and TVET. She uses illustrative cases from a range of locations around the Russian Federation to describe and analyse the current state of work on Russian employer involvement in TVET.
IV.14 Strengthening TVET to Achieve Lifelong Learning for All: Historical Snapshots and Recent Initiatives in Myanmar, by Naing Yee Mar Mar’s essay is an excellent example of a good country case study placed in a regional context. The chapter provides a history of Myanmar’s education sector, an update
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of the current TVET priorities and reforms, and places these in the larger regional context. The major issue with this study is the relatively superficial treatment of the issues that Myanmar is dealing with in trying to provide TVET in a country where the economy has stagnated since the late 1980s.
IV.15 Technical and Vocational Education and Training and Rural Development, by Lavinia Gasperini Gasperini makes a strong restatement of the traditional connections between TVET and the agricultural sector. The primary contribution of the paper is to raise the important point that TVET is often biased towards the service and manufacturing sectors. The primary problem with this perspective is that both adult education and vocational education have often developed targeted programmes. However, assuming that the rhetoric of TVET is geared away from rural development does not mean that all countries focus on this dimension.
IV.16 An International TVET Programme Development by the International Baccalaureate Organization, by Monique Conn Conn offers an extremely interesting study which expands the important IBO programmes into TVET. Using case studies of programmes in Finland and Canada, the author shows how students in upper secondary schooling can incorporate TVET and a regular college preparatory curriculum. This is one of the first efforts I have seen that favours fundamentally improving the academic outcomes of vocational students, rather than focusing more on the occupational outcomes.
IV.17 A Profile of TVET in the Asia and Pacific Region: A Survey of Progress, Innovations and Promising Practices, by Chris Chinien, Elspeth McOmish, Mohan Perera and Alex Chinien Finally, Chinien, McOmish, Perera and Chinien offer a review of a global survey of TVET systems. Using data from responses in a national basis, they are able to illustrate how the structure and focus of TVET has shifted under a globalized world.
5 Conclusion The topic of regionalism in TVET is an important one. In recent years, TVET overall has been facing a major shift as governments reinvest in many regions, and are faced with the broad need to restructure their education systems to meet the needs of new
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economic and social realities. The chapters in this section offer a somewhat scattered view of regionalism in TVET, but in several cases begin what might be seen as a trend towards cross-national research. In that light, I would offer several important research ideas for the future that come in part out of a reading of these chapters.
5.1 Regional Political Entities and TVET Regional political entities, such as ASEAN or the European Union, play markedly different roles in education policy overall, and in TVET specifically. The EU is a very active player and the scholarship in this section shows the marked evolution of EU-sponsored TVET activities. However, we know relatively little about other regional entities such as ASEAN. This is unfortunate as the regional political organizations play an increasingly important role in structuring intergovernmental policies and programmes.
5.2 TVET and Secondary Education In general, there is a bias toward using TVET in secondary schooling. This results from generations of technically skilled workers being trained in this manner. The traditional view that TVET should be focused at the level of secondary schooling needs to be rethought. There are some policies, such as those of the Millennium Development Goals, that require governments to expand secondary education and potentially offer new vocational options. However, as economies have changed, the importance of TVET at the post-secondary and enterprise levels has come to the fore. The role of secondary-level TVET should be the subject of more research.
5.3 Diversification and TVET One of the most productive areas of TVET scholarship are studies that explicitly raise the academic mission of TVET, offering to use vocational schooling as a way to build the capacity to teach both academic and vocational skills. I found some of the scholarship in this section avoided this important issue. Therefore, one of the pressing scholarly avenues should focus on the divide between vocational and academic instruction. How can they be integrated? What changes in the curriculum can be made to increase the quality of academic schooling in vocational education?
References Adams, D. 2002. Education and national development: priorities, policies, and planning. Manila: ADB. (Education in developing Asia, vol. 1.)
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Ashton, D. et al. 1999. Education and training for development in East Asia: the political economy of skill formation in newly industrialized economies. London: Routledge. Asian Development Bank. 2002. Policy on education. Manila: ADB. Becker, G.S. 1993. Human capital. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. Castro, C.d.M. 2002. The World Bank policies: damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Comparative education, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 387–99. Castro, C.d.M.; Schaack, K.; Tippelt, R., eds. 2000. Vocational training at the turn of the century. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Peter Lang. Chabbott, C. 2002. Constructing educational development: international development organizations and the World Conference on Education for All. New York, NY: Routledge Falmer. CINTERFOR/ILO. 2001. Modernization in vocational education and training in the Latin American and the Caribbean Region. Montevideo: CINTERFOR/ILO. Culpepper, P.D. 2003. Creating co-operation: how states develop human capital in Europe. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Gill, I.S.; Fluitman, F.; Dar, A. 2000. Vocational education and training reform: matching skills to markets and budgets. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Hawley, J.D. 2003. Vocational-technical schooling and occupational matching in Thailand: differences between men and women. In: Osman-Gani, A.; Akaraborworn, C.T., eds. Second International Conference on Human Resource Development in Asia: national policy perspectives. Bangkok: National Institute of Development Administration. Herschbach, D.R.; Gasskov, V. 2000. Financing workforce preparation programs. In: Herschbach, D.R.; Campbell, C.P., eds. Workforce preparation: an international perspective, pp. 74–88. Ann Arbor, MI: Prakken Publications. International Labour Organization; UNESCO. 2001. Revised Recommendation concerning technical and vocational education. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO; Paris: UNESCO. Johanson, R. 2002. Sub-Saharan Africa: regional response to Bank TVET policy in the 1990s. Washington, DC: World Bank. Johanson, R.K.; Adams, A.V. 2004. Skills development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank. King, K.; Martin, C. 2002. The vocational school fallacy revisited: education, aspiration and work in Ghana 1959-2000. International journal of educational development, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 5–26. King, K.; McGrath, S., eds. 1999. Enterprise in Africa: between poverty and growth. London: Intermediate Technology Publications. Klees, S.J. 2002. World Bank education policy: new rhetoric, old ideology. International journal of educational development, vol. 22, pp. 451–74. Lasonen, J.; Rauhala, P. 2000. Vocational education and training in the Nordic Countries. In: Herschbach, D.R.; Campbell, C.P., eds. Workforce preparation: an international perspective, pp. 96–102. Ann Arbor, MI: Prakken Publications. Lauglo, J. 1996. Banking on education and the uses of research: a critique of World Bank priorities and strategies for education. International journal of educational development, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 221–33. Lauglo, J.; Maclean, R., eds. 2005. Vocationalization of secondary education revisited. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Lewin, K.M. 2004. Beyond primary education for all: planning and financing secondary education in Africa. (Paper presented at the Donor Conference on Secondary Education in Africa, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Centre for International Co-operation.) McGinn, N.F. 1994. The impact of supranational organizations on public education. International journal of educational development, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 289–98. Middleton, J.; Ziderman, A.; Adams, A.V. 1993. Skills for productivity: vocational education and training in developing countries. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Moore, R.W. et al. 2003. Training that works: lessons from California’s Employment Training Panel Program. Kalamazoo, MI: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
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Mundy, K. 1998. Educational multilateralism and world (dis)order. Comparative education review, vol. 42, no. 4, pp. 448–78. Mundy, K. 2002. Retrospect and prospect: education in a reforming World Bank. International journal of educational development, vol. 22, no. 5, pp. 483–508. Mundy, K.; Murphy, L. 2001. Transnational advocacy, global civil society? Emerging evidence from the field of education. Comparative education review, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 85–126. Murnane, R.; Levy, F. 1996. Teaching the new basic skills. New York, NY: The Free Press. Neuman, S.; Ziderman, A. 1999. Vocational education in Israel: wage effects of the VOCEDoccupation match. Journal of human resources, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 907–32. Sakellariou, C. 2005. Heterogeneity in the returns to education: multi-country evidence from Latin America and East Asia. Washington, DC: World Bank. Silverberg, M. et al. 2004. National Assessment of Vocational Education: final report to Congress. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. United Nations. 2006. The Millennium Development Goals report, 2006. New York, NY: United Nations. United States of America. Government Accounting Office. 2004. Almost half of states fund employment placement and training through employer taxes and most coordinate with federally funded programs. Washington, DC: GAO. World Bank. 1991. Vocational and technical education and training. Washington, DC: World Bank. World Bank. 1995. Priorities and strategies for education: a World Bank review. Washington, DC: World Bank. Ziderman, A. 2001. Financing vocational training to meet policy objectives: Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank. (Africa Region Human Development Series.) Ziderman, A. 2003. Financing vocational training in Latin America. Washington, DC: World Bank.
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Chapter IV.2
To Vocationalize or Not to Vocationalize? Perspectives on Current Trends and Issues on TVET in Africa1 Moses O. Oketch
1 Introduction Forty years ago, Philip Foster exploded the vocational school myth in Africa. He argued that ‘it might be more fruitful to encourage small-scale vocational training schemes closely associated with the actual ongoing developments and quite divorced from the formal educational system’ (Foster, 1965, p. 154). He even recommended that ‘the burdens of vocational training should be shifted to those groups who are actually demanding skilled labour of various types’ (p. 158). Many writers have continued to address the issue of vocationalization in various contexts (see e.g. Heyneman, 1979, 1986, 1987, 1997; Neuman & Ziderman, 2003; Gill & Leigh, 2004; Hawley, 2003; Middleton, Ziderman & Adams, 1993; Blaug, 1973; Pscharopoulos, 1997; Green, 1998; Ngome, 1992; King & Martin, 2002; Wilson, 2001, 2005; Wolf, 2002) and many of the arguments in support of technical and vocational education and training continue to be based on the assumption that vocational training is more useful for job entry than general education. This assumption may correspond to the vocational education curriculum of twenty years ago, but it is wrong today. Nowadays, vocational education is seen as training for future training; not as a way to facilitate job entry, but as a way to facilitate vocational-specific skills over a lifetime. Essentially, the content and organization have changed. But has it in Africa? In this chapter, I reflect on this issue.
2 A Brief History of TVET Policy in Africa Psacharopoulos (1997) argued that TVET has been called upon to solve a multitude of problems, some of which he advises would have ‘better been dealt with by other types of policies, completely unrelated to education and training’ (p. 386). He identifies the following as the most common of these objectives that have driven TVET policies (and, it can be added here, not least in African countries): 1. Vocational education and training can overcome youth unemployment. 2. Instilling technological knowledge, based on what happened during the British industrial revolution, followed by Germany and Japan. It is a common belief that R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 IV.2, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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economic progress depends heavily on technological know-how. It therefore logically follows that the first step is to expand vocational and technical education. Vocational education and training offer some hope to the academically less-able students who are not able to progress through the general education system. As everyone cannot be trained for top-level jobs, vocational education and training can provide the much-needed middle-level technicians and artisans. In its role in equipping young people with skills needed in the labour market, vocational education and training can reduce unemployment leading to higher incomes and reduced poverty. Vocational education can provide the skills needed in an increasingly globalized world where manufacturers outsource production to countries with lower labour costs.
Middleton et al. (1993, p. 54) summed up these factors in a way much more relevant to contemporary African experience when they argued that general opinion still favours the idea that ‘vocational education and training improves attitudes toward skilled, manual work, and thus diverts at least some young people from seeking the white-collar jobs that are in increasingly short supply’. The problem, however, is that most of these objectives connected to TVET policy indicate that it is primarily aimed at occupational education and is terminal in nature. Initially, it was associated with colonial educational policy in colonized parts of the world, not least, in Africa (Wilson, 2005). It became undesirable in post-independence Africa once Africans were in charge of educational policy. What had been viewed as suitable for Africans by colonial education authorities on the basis of Africa’s economic production structure was not viewed the same way by Africans themselves. They (the Africans) considered it as a ‘second-class’ education (Wilson, 2005). Not surprisingly, the first conference of African States on education held in Addis Ababa in 1961 clearly set the tone in placing priority not on TVET but on expanding (academic) secondary and tertiary education (UNESCO, 1961), with a view to quickly developing the African manpower needed to replace colonial personnel and other expatriates in the civil service. However, less than a decade after gaining independence many governments reverted to supporting vocational education and training on the basis of the shrinking number of civil-service jobs and to encourage young people to remain in the rural areas where they could contribute to the economy by participating in agriculture. A sudden surge in the numbers of young people completing primary education and the unmet demand for secondary education left TVET as a viable response by governments to solving what was considered a mismatch between education and the labour market. Massive support from international assistance agencies, particularly the World Bank, was also directed towards establishing and expanding public vocational education and training systems, and to legitimize preemployment training as an important component of public education and manpower needs (Middleton et al., 1993, p. 4; Psacharopoulos, 2006, p. 330). Yet, despite its subsequent appeal to policy-makers, who in 1961 had had little en-
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thusiasm for it, and the momentum gained by arguments in support of TVET both nationally and internationally, Philip Foster raised a ‘warning flag’ as early as the 1960s over government involvement in massive expansion of TVET. The evidence from field research did not match the assumptions about the benefits anticipated of TVET. Young people did not want TVET and when they joined TVET, they expected it to be an avenue to higher levels of education. Moreover, using vocational and agricultural labour to punish students who did not perform well in (academic) class activities or for misbehaviour within African schools only worsened their perceptions about TVET (Wilson, 2005). Furthermore, those who had undergone TVET were not only less well paid, but often stayed unemployed much longer than their counterparts who had gone through general education. Foster’s work added international controversy to what was already a dilemma and a subject of political debate within the circles of African Ministers of Education. Mark Blaug followed later in 1973 with the argument that vocationalization cannot be a remedy for educated unemployment. It cannot prepare students for specific occupations and reduce the mismatch between education and the labour market. He went on to observe that, in general, individuals could tell that academic streams promised higher wages and a better livelihood than vocational education (Tilak, 2002). For those opposed to TVET, it was an opportunity to brand it as ‘useless’ education, associated with those with less aspiration for higher education and better paying jobs, clearly reflecting the misgivings expressed by Psacharopoulos (1997). In the villages of Africa, parents did not feel much pride—if any—when their children only managed to enter a TVET stream. Yet, such strong arguments against full acceptance of vocational education and training have to date not deterred African governments from pursuing vocational education and training programmes in public education systems. Some countries may have momentarily slowed down their emphasis on elaborate training systems following these debates but, going by the evidence of subsequent years, vocational education and training seem to have maintained their inherently powerful, but also paradoxical, appeal in Africa’s education systems.
3 Current Trends and Issues in TVET in Africa Research evidence and analysis coming from Africa show that TVET in Africa has failed if measured by the key objectives mentioned by Pscharopoulos (1997) and which have underpinned TVET policies in the continent. If anything, the demand for academic and higher levels of education has risen in spite of growing unemployment and under-employment among the educated in several African countries (see e.g. Atchoarena & Delluc, 2001; King & Martin, 2002; Oketch, 2000, 2004). Yet, governments still maintain faith in TVET, even when there is compelling evidence that it can be a wasteful public investment. Psacharopoulos (1997) has argued that
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TVET has failed because it is a simple solution to a complex set of problems, with too much weight placed on intuitive logic rather than empirical evidence. Here, I follow up this argument, but ask what has changed? The following questions guide the inquiry.
r r r r
How is TVET defined and what is the TVET framework today? At what level does TVET start in formal education? What is the purpose of TVET and has that purpose changed over the past twenty years? Who are the providers of TVET?
3.1 Procedure An opportunity to respond to some of these questions presented itself in the summer of 2004. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (hereafter UIS) commissioned a small study undertaken by myself and two colleagues at the Institute of Education, University of London, whose main aim was to assess the extent and limitations of the data and knowledge about global provision of TVET and, based on the findings, to identify steps that could be taken to improve international data (Green et al., 2004). Initial and background investigations were undertaken based primarily on the analysis of UIS data in the Global education digest, 2004 (GED) and other data sets supplied to the team in raw form by UIS, but a number of issues needed follow up with representatives in selected countries in order to obtain clarification. The UIS data, however, enabled the research team to purposefully identify countries for follow-up interviews (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2005).
3.2 Sample Thirty countries were selected for follow-up via telephone interviews. These countries represented a range of types: (a) of regions (eight countries in South and East Asia; three countries in Central Asia; nine countries in Africa; five countries in Latin America; three Arab States; and two Pacific States); (b) of levels of economic/industrial development; (c) of population size; and (d) of the degree of comprehensiveness identified by the team in the GED country data returns. Once the selection was agreed by UIS, relevant individuals within each of the selected countries were contacted through e-mail. The exchanges introduced the team, explained the nature of the investigation and requested telephone interviews. An interview guide questionnaire with forty-two items, some requiring short yes/no answers and others prompting discussion/explanation, was attached. Seventeen countries responded positively. The following seven African countries were among them: Botswana, Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, Seychelles, Tunisia and
IV.2 Perspectives on Current Trends and Issues on TVET in Africa
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Zimbabwe. The telephone interview sessions lasted roughly an hour and, while based on items on the questionnaire, generally addressed issues related to the four questions stated above. Where further clarity was needed, e-mail exchange was used.
3.3 How is TVET Defined and what is the TVET Framework Today? In the seven African countries, technical and vocational education and training included and referred to a range of learning experiences that were viewed as relevant to the world of work and which occurred in a variety of learning contexts, including educational institutions and the workplace. It includes learning designed to develop the skills for practising particular occupations, as well as learning designed to prepare for entry into the world of work in general (Green et al., 2004). There was no mention, however, of training designed for re-entry into the world of work. Much of the learning is occupational and terminal. TVET is not purposefully provided to act as a foundation for entry into further education either. TVET is mostly initial vocational training (IVT) undertaken by young people in diversified secondary schools and viewed as preparation for employment. Where there is any continuous vocational training (CVT) undertaken by adults, it only relates to specialized government ministries or departments needing such skills. Not surprisingly, there is a lack of schemes aimed at re-skilling and up-skilling as a prerequisite to engage in global manufacturing and/or respond to economic globalization.
3.4 Levels of Entry into TVET In general, the education systems in Africa are divided into four levels as follows (Atchoarena & Delluc, 2001): 1. 2. 3. 4.
Primary education, lasting six to eight years; Lower-secondary education, lasting three to four years; Upper-secondary education, lasting two to three years; Higher education lasting about four years.
The emphasis placed on TVET at each of these levels varies from country to country depending on the importance that each country assigns to it. In some cases, TVET forms a separate system that parallels the general education system with its own institutions, teachers, programmes and curriculum (Atchoarena & Delluc, 2001). In such cases, the issue is mostly on the proportion of academic content in the courses offered and the level of specificity in the vocational courses on offer, what Wilson (2005) refers to as ‘convergence between academic and vocational education’. In many cases, however, TVET is offered alongside general education in integrated schools forming a dual-tracked school system. Table 1 provides a summary
536
M.O. Oketch Table 1 The features of TVET in selected African countries
Country Botswana
TVET features
r r
Egypt
r r
Senegal
r
Seychelles
r
Tunisia
r
Zimbabwe
r
Eritrea, Ethiopia, Malawi, Namibia, Niger, South Africa Botswana, Cˆote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Morocco, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda Egypt, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Mali Algeria, Cˆote d’Ivoire, Mali, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia Botswana, Egypt, Ghana, South Africa, Zimbabwe
r r
TVET starts from senior secondary school but TVET proper is offered at post-secondary institutions for those who graduate from senior secondary; There is less clarity on the level of specificity or distinction between TVET and general education at the secondary level. TVET is offered from junior secondary level but TVET proper begins at senior secondary; TVET forms a separate system that parallels general education with its own teachers, programmes and curriculum. TVET begins at senior secondary level upwards, but there are problems deciding levels of specificity in the TVET and general curriculum. TVET courses are offered at post-secondary level only. Both junior and senior secondary provide general courses. TVET is offered at junior secondary, but there is also TVET at senior secondary and at tertiary levels. TVET is offered at post-secondary level for those who do not qualify for higher education admission. However, 12% of the content at the secondary level has vocational content TVET provision in secondary level is over 2% of the total enrolment.
TVET provision at secondary school level is between 5 and 9% of the total enrolment. In these countries, TVET now includes reasonable levels of general content (i.e. a balanced level of specificity).
r
TVET’s share of secondary total enrolment is over 10%.
r
TVET retains a fairly large amount of general content.
r
TVET retains a fairly large amount of specificity.
Source: Author’s interviews with representatives of selected countries, supplemented with information obtained from Atchoarena & Delluc, 2001.
IV.2 Perspectives on Current Trends and Issues on TVET in Africa
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of some of the key features of TVET in the countries studied, as well as in some other African countries.
3.5 Levels of Participation in TVET TVET generally occupies a small and marginal position in the school systems of most African countries. While in some cases specialized ministries have been created with the aim of strengthening and/or streamlining the development of TVET throughout the entire education system, for the most part, it does not receive the same emphasis that general education does. At the secondary level, where much of TVET specificity is meant to develop, only a tiny percentage of those enrolled can be classified as pursuing TVET streams. However, problems of data collection at national level and lack of consistency across countries make comparative analysis difficult (also see Atchoarena & Delluc, 2001). There are generally problems resulting both from data collection and classification that make it difficult to analyse the precise nature of TVET provision in different countries. However, broad differences between French-speaking and English-speaking systems are more easily observable than the finer distinctions in countries within each of these groupings. A further problem results from the fact that much of the private provision and, indeed, some of the public TVET provision are not captured by the national datagathering exercises. Overall, there seems to be a decline in the share of TVET as a percentage of enrolments in secondary education (Table 2). One explanation offered by Atchoarena & Delluc (2001, p. 39) for this is uncertainties about the effectiveness of TVET in matching the requirements of the labour market. An alternative explanation is an expanded secondary education that is offering general education. Still, it is unclear in those cases where secondary education has not expanded whether more young people are opting to join post-primary but non-secondary institutions, such as community polytechnics or family apprenticeships. Despite the problems with data collection, Atchoarena and Delluc have grouped countries into three categories. First are those countries where the provision of TVET in secondary enrolments is less than 2%. Among these countries are Eritrea, Ethiopia, Malawi, Namibia, Niger and South Africa. Second are those countries where the proportion of TVET enrolment in general secondary education over the past few years has been between 5 and 9%. Examples in this category include Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cˆote d’Ivoire, Morocco, Mozambique, Togo, Tunisia and Uganda. Third are countries where the share of TVET enrolment in secondary education is over 10%. Examples include Cameroon, Mali, Gabon, Congo and Egypt. In the English-speaking countries, TVET retains a high level of specificity, whereas in the French-speaking countries elements of modernization of their TVET programmes have led to a reasonable balance between general and vocational content. This makes it easier for those who opt for one reason or another to join TVET to progress to higher levels of education or come back to general programmes without much difficulty.
538
M.O. Oketch Table 2 Percentage of TVE enrolments in secondary technical and vocational education
Year
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2001
2002
2003
Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Cameroon Chad Congo Cˆote d’Ivoire Eritrea Ethiopia Gabon Guinea Lesotho Malawi Mali Mauritania Mozambique Namibia Niger Senegal South Africa Togo Uganda
2.7 20.5 15.2 23.7 10.1 9.9 7.5 – 4.5 16.3 3.3 9.3 1.8 10.2 n/a 3.6 1.0 2.9 9.3 n/a 9.6 14.6
2.7 12.3 16.9 25.4 4.5 7.0 13.3 – n/a 11.1 1.8 3.4 2.8 9.4 n/a n/a 1.2 1.73 10.5 n/a 8.0 12.1
6.7 8.9 14.2 27.0 n/a 9.1 9.7 – n/a 21.7
6.1 8.0 8.0 24.5 6.3 10.6 8.1 – 0.8 23.1 5.8 3.4 1.5 n/a 5.3 7.9 0.6 1.2 6.8 n/a 5.7 6.0
7.5 5.8 7.0 18.0 4.9 6.7 7.6 0.6 0.4 n/a 9.8 3.3 1.3 12.6 2.2 6.4 0.1 1.1 3.6 1.5 6.7 4.6
n/a 6.3 n/a n/a 2.3 11.7 n/a n/a 0.3 9.4 3.5 1.1 0.8 11.9 2.8 8.1 n/a 0.9 2.6 n/a 4.6 5.0
9.0 4.0 8.0 21.0 2.2 n/a n/a 1.0 1.0 7.0 n/a 2.0 n/a 11.0 3.0 9.0 n/a 6.0 n/a 4 7 13
9.0 3.0 9.0 19.0 2.0 10 – 1.0 1.0 7.0 n/a 2.0 n/a n/a 2.0 5.0 2.0 n/a n/a 5.0 n/a 7
8.0 3.0 9.0 18.0 2.0 10 – 1.0 2.0 7.0 n/a 2.0 n/a n/a 2.0 5.0 n/a 2.0 n/a 5.0 n/a 5.0
9.0 3.0 8.0 n/a 2.0 n/a n/a 1.0 4.0 n/a n/a 1.0 n/a 11.0 4.0 5.0 n/a 1.0 n/a 5.0 n/a 5.0
5.0 2.7 n/a 4.7 n/a 0.9 1.4 10.6 n/a 5.2 7.1
Source: Atchoarena & Delluc, 2001, p. 40.
Generally speaking, there is a low and declining proportion of TVET in secondary education, which can be partly attributed to the public’s attitude towards this type of education. For the most part, that attitude has been shaped or influenced by lack of progression to higher levels of education and the low skills that TVET offers those who pursue it. There is also a gender aspect to this as well. Where the picture seems improved in terms of female participation, TVET becomes an even less prestigious branch of education.
3.6 What is the Purpose of TVET and has that Purpose Changed over the Past Twenty Years? In these seven countries the purpose of TVET remains tied to solving the mismatch between educational expansion and the labour market. Not surprisingly, most of the provision is terminal and leads directly to entry into the labour market, where often many young people join the pool of the unemployed. Unfortunately, it is those from the lower socio-economic strata that still dominate in TVET because they cannot
IV.2 Perspectives on Current Trends and Issues on TVET in Africa
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afford the general and higher levels of education. This has contributed to the perceptions that people hold about TVET. In Egypt, however, it is reported that the attitudes of young people towards TVET are now becoming increasingly positive, although TVET is still dominated by socio-economic factors and those from working-class families are more likely to enrol compared to those from the middle class. In Ghana, people in general place low value on TVET. Their attitude to this type of education is that it is inferior to academic education, still reflecting what Philip Foster discovered there four decades ago. As a result of this attitude, it has been the less bright pupils who have often opted for TVET courses. Like all the other countries in the study, Ghana proclaims the idea that TVET leads to direct entry into the labour market and is therefore useful in responding to unemployment and poverty problems. Similar responses were obtained for Senegal, Seychelles, Tunisia and Zimbabwe. In general, the traditional objectives mentioned earlier have continued to guide national policy on TVET, while individuals prefer academic streams with the promise of higher wages. Going by the responses obtained through these interviews, it can be concluded that the purpose of TVET has not changed much over the decades.
3.7 Patterns of Delivery Aside from the differences discussed above, there is an obvious difference in the way TVET is organized in French-speaking and English-speaking countries. This, as noted earlier, is attributable to the colonial influences that have largely been retained to date with minimal modifications. In Algeria, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia, which are all Francophone, TVET retains a fairly large amount of general content as has been the case with TVET in France. However, lack of specificity towards vocational content has the disadvantage of delinking the TVET courses from the mostly informal labour-market skills. Atchoarena & Delluc (2001) found this to be the case in their study of TVET in Cˆote d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Mali and Senegal, where the informal sector, especially micro-enterprises, is totally ignored by the programmes and patterns of TVET delivery. Originally modelled on the French school system, TVET in these countries has often not fully taken into account the possibilities of traditional apprenticeship for meeting the needs of the artisanal sector, which provides jobs but often stands in need of improvement. In contrast, Anglophone countries display a much stronger experience, both in dual forms of public-sector training and in the provision of training for the artisanal sector (Atchoarena & Delluc, 2001). In the case of these English-speaking countries, the vocational content is generally high and the academic content is extremely limited. While this has the advantage of reflecting specificity in terms of the skills needed in the informal sector, where more jobs continue to be created, it has the disadvantage of limiting progression to higher levels of education or movement between vocational and general institutions. This high level of specificity leads to narrowness, an issue that often makes TVET less appealing, relegating it to a type of education only capable of leading to what many refer to as ‘dead-end’ jobs. But, there are some emerging trends in countries such
540
M.O. Oketch
as Botswana, Ghana and South Africa, where TVET has been ‘modernized’ from the traditional apprenticeship schemes to programmes that permit movement into the national training system. The aim of this approach is to include a balanced proportion of general and vocational content that would enable participants to move both laterally within the TVET programmes and vertically to general or advanced education institutions. This progression within and between TVET and general education, when fully implemented, can create a breathing space whereby the education system responds to the types of skills demanded for the labour force at different periods.
3.8 Who are the Providers? For many years, State provision dominated the field of education in many African countries. However, over the past twenty years, private provision has been steadily growing. This has happened as State provision has either found it increasingly difficult to expand and cope with increased demand for education or simply because the State’s capacity to monopolize provision of education has generally deteriorated and become unattainable. This can also be said of the TVET sector. Atchoarena and Esquieu (2002, pp. 21–22) conducted research on this phenomenon and documented patterns of provision and policy issues with reference to private technical and vocational education in sub-Saharan Africa. They conclude that: 1. Private provision of TVET is growing rapidly and even dominates in some countries, such as Mali. 2. There is heterogeneity in private provision with key aspects, such as legal status, ownership, objectives and financing, most difficult to establish clearly. 3. The majority of private TVET institutions enrol students from low socio-economic backgrounds. 4. A sizeable number of private institutions cannot be properly traced in government registrations records, implying that they operate illegally. 5. Many of the private providers offer courses with a high concentration in commercial trades, although there are also a few cases such as in Mali where 21% of the offerings are in technical areas (such as light industrial skills). 6. Given their private nature, tuition fees are the main source of operational resources for these institutions. 7. The private sector has the benefit of tailoring the courses to the labour-market demands and seems to be flexible in adapting to demand. 8. There is little evidence to indicate a close working relationship between enterprises and the private institutions. In most cases, it is up to the students to choose what they would like to specialize in by themselves. The degree to which they respond to the actual needs of the enterprises is thus less known. The good news, however, is that private providers tend to provide programmes which, on average, appear to be better prepared compared to State institutions, although there is also great variation in terms of quality within the private provision.
IV.2 Perspectives on Current Trends and Issues on TVET in Africa
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In all the seven countries in this study, data on private provision were reported as being difficult to obtain. Interviews with the respondents revealed similar concerns or features, as summed up above in the Atchoarena and Delluc (2001) study. Some key issues and contrasts are worth mentioning. In Botswana the provision is still predominantly offered by the State in six vocational institutions and forty-one brigades (vocational institutions training at craft level). There were some private providers, especially in Gaborone, but the Ministry of Education does not have full details of how many there are and the nature of their operations. Similar responses were obtained from the six other countries, although the State monopoly was noted as sometimes being in doubt. In Senegal, the respondent reported that data on private institutions were difficult to obtain but acknowledged that they exist and in visible numbers. Similarly, in Zimbabwe, there are several data collection problems to be faced when dealing with private institutions, but the respondent acknowledged that most of these institutions provided TVET to those who had completed secondary-level education. It was thought that there are over 350 such private institutions in the country, most of which are offering commercial-based programmes. In Ghana, there are 160 technical and vocational institutions run by government agencies and 250 registered private institutions. It is thought, however, that there could be approximately another 700 unregistered private providers. Private technical and vocational institutions run a variety of courses in Ghana which last an average of three years. Their students take either the City and Guilds of London Institute or the Ghana Education Service Craft examination or the National Vocational Training Institute (NVIT) Craftsman or Tradesman Grade examination.
4 Recent Concerns over TVET in Africa Aside from the early criticisms by Philip Foster (1965) and Mark Blaug (1973), numerous concerns have been voiced over the past decade. Atchoarena and Delluc (2001, p. 38) summarize them in Africa in terms of:
r r r r r
poor quality; very high cost; training not suited to actual socio-economic conditions; disregard of the informal sector’s needs; disregard of the labour market and of the high unemployment rate among graduates.
In view of the changes in the labour market, the objectives of technical and vocational education have become more diverse: they are no longer simply economic but also social, including the fight against poverty and the integration of young people into the working world, all in line with the articulations in the Millennium Development Goals (Atchoarena & Delluc, 2001), and the present day demands of globalization. Given the prevailing economic trend, two other major objectives have
542
M.O. Oketch
Percentage of employment
100 90 80 70 60 50
Series1
40 30 20 10
a
So
ut
h
Af
ric
ga
l
e
ne
Se
oz
am
bi
qu
co
ia
oc
M
or M
i
an
a
al M
au
rit
M
na
n
d
ny Ke
G ha
C ha
oo er
Fa a
C am
Bu
rk
in
Be
ni
n
so
0
Fig. 1 Informal sector employment as a share of non-agricultural employment, selected African countries (1990s) Source: Johanson & Adams, 2004, p. 52.
been identified and which must now be pursued: (a) to train the workforce for selfemployment; and (b) to raise the productivity of the informal sector (Caillods, 1994, in Atchoarena & Delluc, 2001). Figure 1 reveals the growing importance of the informal sector in terms of providing employment outside the agricultural sector, but lack of resources is seen as a hindrance to pursuing these new critical objectives. This is all the more so given that TVET is an expensive form of education and expanding it without necessary and adequate facilities and equipment does not lead to increasing productivity in the long run. Yet, at the same time, criticisms of TVET have led to cuts in the volume of training provided in public institutions and a call for the mostly family-run informal enterprises to take on more responsibility for providing TVET. A look at the funding of TVET can shed light on the contradiction between the emphasis for skills and the limited funding that governments are willing to commit to it. Moreover, the international pressure on countries to meet their Education for All goals by 2015 has meant that more resources have been shifted, both within national budgets and by international aid assistance, to realizing universal primary education—and yet the rhetoric over skills and the value of TVET continues.
4.1 Financing of TVET As is the case with provision, delivery patterns and levels of participation, the financing of TVET as a percentage of public education expenditures varies considerably from country to country. It ranges from as low as 0.9% a decade ago in Ethiopia
IV.2 Perspectives on Current Trends and Issues on TVET in Africa
543
to 12.7% in Gabon at the same period (ILO, 1998/1999, cited in Atchoarena & Delluc, 2001). In all the seven countries in the UIS study, it was noted that obtaining the financial breakdown for TVET is difficult because allocation is made for the entire education sector rather than by programme. It is therefore hard to provide accurate expenditure on TVET. Difficulties in specifying spending on TVET are compounded by the fact that provision in the private sector is hardly covered by the data. Interviews with respondents in all seven countries revealed that many of the private providers do not want to co-operate in providing their financial information and, in cases where they do, the figures are often inaccurate. Nevertheless, Table 3 can shed some light on the levels of financial allocation to TVET in selected countries in the 1990s. Table 3 Percentage of technical and vocational education expenditures in total education expenditures Country
%
Year
Country
%
Year
Benin Botswana Chad Congo Cˆote d’Ivoire Eritrea Ethiopia Gabon Ghana
3.3 5.5 2.0 4.9 4.8 1.6 0.9 12.7 4.9
1995 1991 1994 1980 1994 1994 1993 1992 1990
Guinea Lesotho Malawi Mali Mauritania Mozambique Namibia Senegal Togo
7.5 3.3 1.1 9.1 2.3 6.2 2.0 2.7 3.7
1993 1994 1992 1995 1995 1990 1995 1990 1994
Source: ILO, 1998/1999 cited in Atchoarena and Delluc, 2002, p. 45.
4.2 Conclusion Based on the information gleaned from other studies and interviews with representatives in the seven countries, it can be concluded that: 1. Business has been as usual over the past two decades—TVET is still driven by the traditional objectives identified earlier in all of these countries. 2. TVET mostly begins at lower secondary and/or junior secondary level in a majority of African countries. 3. Excellent institutions offering TVET at post-secondary level, such as national polytechnics, are under pressure to convert into degree-granting institutions allowing wider diversity of courses and a large mix of general education programmes in addition to their technical and vocational courses. 4. TVET is not attractive to families and is seen as a last resort by those who cannot access general education. 5. There are countries, such as Egypt, with a dual-track system, the problem with which is the danger of tracking students into ability groupings. 6. There is a tremendous growth in private providers, especially for business-related skills.
544
M.O. Oketch
5 The Way Forward and Some Perspectives There is no doubt that TVET is important in Africa’s development and, from the analysis of trends and issues in the region, the key point is to transform it so that what is offered can reflect the prevailing reality in the labour market and the global economy. This transformation must partly begin with TVET policy casting off its traditional mould, and taking as its objective the need to provide convergence with academic education (Wilson, 2005), in addition to establishing links to the informal sector. More importantly, private providers who are more flexible should be encouraged but carefully monitored to ensure that the courses they offer are of acceptable standards and quality. Where government provision has proven wasteful, inflexible and inefficient, alternative provision through employers should be sought and encouraged. In addition, more and accurate data should be collected to monitor patterns of provision in both government institutions and private provision in order to provide a basis for a new TVET framework in many African countries. Under present-day skills, TVET should reflect the development of ‘high-skills’ as well as ‘re-skilling’ rather than being a mere means of addressing ‘runaway’ unemployment in formal sectors. Specifically, the following are recommended: 1. Increased specificity within TVET programmes where general educational content has dominated with the result that these programmes are less useful to the informal sector. 2. Lateral and vertical movement should be allowed. 3. TVET should be de-linked from having to provide a solution to manpower and unemployment problems. 4. There should be increased proportions of TVET content in general programmes and increased general content in TVET programmes. 5. Encourage high skills rather than low skills in TVET programmes. 6. Promote re-skilling and up-skilling to cope with technological changes. 7. In some instances, it may be right for the public sector to withdraw from vocational schooling altogether, especially where waste has been so serious, the needs for general education so compelling and labour-market growth so sluggish.
Note 1. This chapter is a modification of the original version appearing as an article in the International journal of educational development, 2007, vol. 27, pp. 220–34.
References Atchoarena, D.; Delluc, A. 2001. Revisiting technical and vocational education in Sub-Saharan Africa: an update on trends, innovations and challenges. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. Atchoarena, D.; Esquieu, P. 2002. Private technical and vocational education in Sub-Saharan Africa: provision patterns and policy issues. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. Blaug, M. 1973. Education and the employment problem in developing countries. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO.
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Foster, P.J. 1965. The vocational school fallacy in development planning. In: Anderson, C.A.; Bowman, M.J., eds. Education and economic development. Chicago, IL: Aldine. Gill, A.M.; Leigh, D.E. 2004. Evaluating academic programs in California’s community colleges. San Francisco, CA: Public Policy Institute of California. Green, A. 1998. Core skills, key skills and general culture: in search of the common foundation in vocational education. Evaluation and research in education, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 23–43. Green, A.; Oketch, M.; Preston, J. 2004. Global report on technical and vocational education and training: report to UNESCO Institute for Statistics. London: University of London Institute of Education. Hawley, J.D. 2003. Comparing the pay-off to vocational and academic credentials in Thailand over time. International journal of educational development, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 607–25. Heyneman, S.P. 1979. The career education debate: where the difference lies. Teachers College record, vol. 80, no. 4, pp. 659–88. Heyneman, S.P. 1986. The nature of a ‘practical curriculum’. Education with production, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 91–103. Heyneman, S.P. 1987. Curriculum economics in secondary education: an emerging crisis in developing countries. Prospects, vol. 17, no. 1. pp. 63–74. Heyneman, S.P. 1997. Russian vocational and technical education in the transition: tradition, adaptation, unresolved problems. Institute for the Study of Russian Education newsletter, vol. 6. no. 1, pp. 22–34. Johanson, R.K.; Adams, A.V. 2004. Skills development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank. King, K.; Martin, C. 2002. The vocational school fallacy revisited: education aspiration and work in Ghana, 1959–2000. International journal of educational development, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 5–26. Middleton, J.; Ziderman, A.; Adams, V.A. 1993. Skills for productivity: vocational education and training in developing countries. Washington, DC: World Bank; New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Neuman, S.; Ziderman, A. 2003. Can vocational education improve the wages of minorities and disadvantaged groups? Economics of education review, vol. 22, pp. 421–32. Ngome, C. 1992. Vocationalisation of education in Kenya: factors that have influenced policies and practices in the colonial and post-colonial period. Nairobi: Kenyatta University, Department of Educational Foundations. [Mimeo.] Oketch, M.O. 2000. Costing and financing higher education for development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Kenya’s case. International education journal, vol. 3, pp. 1–10. Oketch, M.O. 2004. The emergence of private university education in Kenya: trends, prospects and challenges. International journal of educational development, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 119–36. Psacharopoulos, G. 1997. Vocational education and training today: challenges and responses. Journal of vocational education and training, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 385–94. Psacharopoulos, G. 2006. World Bank policy on education: a personal account. International journal of educational development, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 329–38. Tilak, J. 2002. Vocational education and training in Asia. In: Keeves, P.J.; Watanabe, R., eds. The handbook on educational research in the Asia-Pacific Region. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. UNESCO. 1961. Conference of African States on the development of education in Africa: final report. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 2005. Global education digest, 2005. Montreal: UNESCO-UIS. Wilson, D.N. 2001. Reform of TVET for the changing world of work. Prospects, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 21–37. Wilson, D.N. 2005. Promise and performance in vocationalised secondary education: has the baby been thrown out with the bath water? In: Lauglo, J.; Maclean, R., eds. Vocationalisation of secondary education revisited. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Wolf, A. 2002. Does education matter? Myths about education and economic growth. London: Penguin.
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Chapter IV.3
TVET in the Asian Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects P.P.G. Lionel Siriwardene and Muhammad Ashraf Qureshi
1 Introduction The twenty-first century is one of emerging challenges and an era of knowledge, information and communication. Globalization and unprecedented advancements in information and communication technologies (ICTs) have already signalled the need for a new human-centred development paradigm. Education, particularly technical and vocational education and training (TVET), has a crucial role to play in this new era for all regions of the world, including Asia and the Pacific. In view of the immense potential of TVET to generate growth, it is emerging as a vital empowering tool for improving living conditions by enhancing the capacities of individuals to be employed, obtain decent work and increase their earnings. Orienting TVET to the needs of the world of work is, therefore, indispensable not only for economic and social development, but also for sustainable development. This calls for a paradigm shift in TVET, such as the one taking place in the Asian Region—as everywhere else in the world. Its philosophy, vision and mission, goals and objectives, policies and practices, content and methodologies are all changing to keep pace with advances in science and technology, industry and business. In spite of the fact that the World Bank, once TVET’s staunchest supporter, introduced a radical shift in its policy in 1991, all countries still announce their interest in TVET, especially in the Asian Region where it has come to be regarded as the master key that can transform the economy, alleviate poverty, save the environment and improve the quality of life (Quisumbing, 2005).
2 A New Role for TVET Thanks to the unprecedented advances in science, technology and communications, the world today is a global village with far greater interdependence between countries. However, the global level of development continues to be distressing in the Asian and Pacific Region, where about two-thirds of the world’s population lives. Most of these people are still living in developing countries, if not some of the least developed. While worldwide, one out of five men and one out of three women R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 IV.3, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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are still illiterate, in Asia, particularly South Asia, one out of three men and one out of two women are illiterate (Mehta, 2003). Education for All is still far from a reality in this region. This situation calls for new patterns of education with a catalytic role for TVET in keeping with the changing role of work and its impact on national and international economies and competitiveness. For sixty years, the world has failed to achieve Education for All. It is now time to reconsider the basic options—including the option of TVET—to give to the world, and particularly developing countries, the chance of achieving Education for All (Hughes, 2005). For this to be possible, TVET will have to enable learners completing basic education to enter the labour market with some basic know-how and skills. With work becoming more knowledge- and technologically-based, TVET can play a key role as an entry point to the knowledge society. However, a radical policy reform would need to shift TVET away from heavy investments by the central government in equipment, workshops and instructor training to a pragmatic and meaningful partnership with its major stakeholders in industry, trade and agriculture. Some governments are already embarking on new approaches to providing TVET programmes through improvements in content, teaching methods, models of delivery and teaching/learning processes (Mar, 2005). Two successful examples are provided by the Republic of Korea and China. While the Republic of Korea successfully tailored its TVET system to forecast needs, China almost completely overhauled its antiquated system by encouraging the private sector to provide financing, materials, apprenticeship and guidance to align training with the needs of the market (UNESCOUNEVOC, 2005).
3 The Present Scenario and Regional Context In the recent past, there have been some impressive but uneven developments in education. TVET, which consists of a diverse range of courses, is usually offered at the upper secondary level and beyond, with the lower secondary stage being only for general vocational skills for all students (Maclean, 2005a). Globally, almost 50 million students were enrolled in TVET in 2002, 90% at the upper secondary level. At the moment, one in five upper secondary students is enrolled in TVET on a world scale. However, the enrolment rate varies widely: in East Asia, including China, TVET programmes account for 33% of enrolment, while in West Asia its share is less than even 4% (Ellis, 2005).
3.1 Vocational Gross Enrolment Rates In a global study of TVET by the University of London Institute of Education of the various combinations of students in a number of countries, especially the vocational gross enrolment rates (VGERs), major variations in the public provision of vocational education were noted (Green, Oketch & Preston, 2004). The study showed
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that the public provision of vocational programmes in East Asia seems to be low, with the highest rate being the Republic of Korea at 16%. In Oceania, Australia stands far above any other country with a VGER of 68%. Other Asian VGERs are generally low, varying from 0.4% for India, 0.5% for Bangladesh and Pakistan, 4.2% Malaysia and about 9% for Thailand. The study indicates that countries are increasingly including both general and vocational content in all secondary programmes as they fine-tune their curricula to meet particular requirements. Although this strategy has resulted in a rise in the status of vocational training in some countries by being included within a broader range of secondary and tertiary programmes, developing countries still regard it as a second-rate option (Ellis, 2005).
3.2 Globalization, Industry Restructuring and TVET As a result of globalization, the restructuring of industry is now also taking place across the world. As a result, TVET is also undergoing a major reorientation, particularly regarding curriculum revision which is becoming increasingly industryand market-driven, with an emphasis on new technology, the removal of obsolete subjects and the modernization of equipment and teaching/learning materials. However, TVET frequently exists in complete isolation from industry, which is a major problem requiring immediate attention. For TVET to assist and facilitate industry, strong school/industry linkages are essential. As the financial resources of countries in the Asia and the Pacific Region are limited, it is to be hoped that donor agencies would continue to assist them in their reform of TVET, as in the past. This would enable them to modernize their existing facilities to serve the growing requirements of regionalization and internationalization. The restructuring of TVET in the region is accordingly emerging as an urgent priority in view of the challenges posed by globalization and the ICT explosion. However, for this restructuring to be meaningful, it must take into account curricula, resources, teachers, assessment and examinations, school/industry links and certification, non-formal options and the involvement of the private sector (Maclean, 2005b).
4 Philosophy and Objectives At present, preparation of skilled personnel and increases in national productivity and competitiveness seem to be the urgent objectives of TVET in most countries of the region. Nevertheless, many countries are also pursuing objectives unique to their own contexts. While India stresses the need for reducing the aimless pursuit of higher education, there are others that highlight the formative and developmental role of TVET, particularly when it is imparted during the basic cycle of education. Awareness of career paths, career planning and vocational guidance also finds a place in the philosophy of many countries.
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In many countries’ philosophies of TVET there are concerns not precisely reflected under the statement of its objectives. TVET as an integral component of school education is reflected in the educational objectives of several countries. Some countries also have various kinds of vocational or vocationally-oriented schools (Mishra, 1995). A present policy shift in the region relates to TVET being demandor industry-cum-market driven, as opposed to supply-driven as in the past. However, the size, population and economies of countries are creating different situations with regard to TVET. Some countries are reconstructing TVET to meet the needs of their changing societies and the free-market economy.
5 Organizational Problems and the Constraints of TVET Countries in Asia and the Pacific are going through an intensive evolutionary process with regard to TVET. National models continue to emerge to cope with present and future needs, and structures are becoming increasingly relevant to national economic and social requirements. The number of TVET institutions is also increasing. As a result many structures are now providing different entry and exit points and horizontal and vertical mobility. There are countless ways in which TVET is organized in different countries of the region and even within the same country. Although each country, to some extent, has its own pattern, every country seeks the most cost-effective model that offers efficient instruction (Mishra, 1995).
5.1 Problems and Constraints The most industrialized countries in Asia are China, India and Japan. In recent decades, countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and the Republic of Korea have enjoyed rapid progress, earning the title of ‘newly industrialized countries’ (NICs). Thailand’s rapid economic growth needed skilled manpower requiring compulsory education to be extended to year 9. Malaysia’s economic profile changed from a mainly agricultural and mining nation to a more balanced economy with a growing manufacturing industry. The Republic of Korea’s rapid industrialization required skilled manpower in large numbers. These countries have accordingly reformed and developed their TVET systems. Other less-industrialized countries in the region are also improving their systems to meet industrial development needs and growing global competitiveness. A major problem with TVET is that it is generally three to four times more expensive than general education. As developing countries’ resources are limited, they are forced to seek assistance from international agencies, such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and elsewhere, which have often radically changed their policies and strategies (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2005).
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Unemployment is a serious problem in Asian countries and they are reforming their education systems to alleviate this. The Asian region has a big potential for job creation through TVET. Despite the diversity in populations, cultures and levels of development, countries are faced with weak linkages between education and national economic activity. This issue is being addressed by creating, as far as possible, linkages with employers and the job market. However, there is a general shortage of reliable mechanisms to assess job-market demands so as to avoid a mismatch between training and employment.
5.2 The Participation of Women The participation of women in TVET has been low but is increasing rapidly. As a result, large numbers of women are entering the job market in countries such as Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines and Thailand. In a number of countries, separate TVET institutions have been created for women, in addition to regular institutions. TVET courses in keeping with women’s preferences are also offered to encourage their participation.
5.3 TVET and Rural Uplift The Asian region is largely rural and agrarian. An increase in TVET in rural areas is planned so that these economies can benefit. However, there is concern that TVET in rural areas is insufficient and irrelevant, even though it has immense usefulness for farm technology, agro-based industry and bio-technologies. There is an urgent need to focus TVET on improving agricultural productivity in the region.
5.4 Image and Status of TVET A major problem for TVET has been its low status among students and parents. In many countries, it is still considered as ‘second-class education’ (Maclean, 2005b). This problem is gradually decreasing with the recognition of its usefulness and the key role it plays in national development and employment generation.
5.5 Access, Equity and Participation Access and equity are both essential for ensuring meaningful participation in TVET, but increasing enrolment is no guarantee of achieving them. Although there has been a three-fold increase in secondary enrolments in the region over the past forty years, there is still unequal access to this level affecting females, the
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handicapped, members of various social or racial groups and people from remote areas (Maclean, 2005b). There are indications that the proportion of females in secondary education, as well as in TVET, is increasing. However, this is happening more in the relatively industrialized countries of the region, such as Malaysia and the Republic of Korea where it reached about 50% as compared to only 27% in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Mongolia (Maclean, 2005b). Equity and access can be helped also by reducing drop-outs, which are quite appreciable in many systems. Equity can also be helped by removing the disparities between urban and rural institutions, which are still prevalent in several Asian countries. These disparities are due to poor planning and the shortage of funds. There is an urgent need to improve TVET for rural areas throughout Asia. Some countries are using new methods of student enrolment to ensure equity and better participation in TVET programmes. It has been observed that some students who qualify and enter TVET institutions have no interest in vocational courses and this constitutes a wastage of resources. Some countries have adopted aptitude and ability tests so as only to admit students who will benefit from these programmes. These measures are likely to help in reducing high drop-out rates.
6 Policy and Planning The importance placed on TVET is relatively recent. Frequent changes in policy and planning have been made in recent years to meet emergent industrial and economic development needs. There is a growing realization of issues related to the relationship between TVET and the economy, between ecology and social development and the role that TVET can play in improving national productivity and competitiveness. Many countries have also recognized the need for discussion with the labour market, chambers of commerce and other appropriate bodies when planning TVET. This is because labour market demands constantly vary. Planning is also largely dependent on population and demographic trends, literacy rates and the level of primary education, factors that place more pressure on secondary education and hence on TVET. Co-operation between TVET and industry (i.e. employers) is still weak in many countries. Close links should be maintained with industry to improve student job placement, periodic industrial experience for teachers, the provision of equipment and teachers and, more importantly, representatives of industry sitting on school boards.
6.1 Role of the Private Sector An important policy issue is the role of the private sector in TVET. With more private sector participation and with more public/private partnerships, not only would the quality of training improve but countries would greatly benefit from additional funds so as to reduce expenditure. In India, the Republic of Korea, Philippines and
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Thailand many large industries run their own training departments. In many other Asian countries, TVET is high on the development agenda, as well as collaboration between institutions and industry. A notable example in this regard is that of Japan which encourages practical training in agriculture, business, fisheries, home economics, nursing and society welfare in co-operation with industry (Okada, 1995). Even some less-industrialized countries, such as Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines, have recently made major shifts in TVET development strategy in co-operation with industry and trade sectors.
6.2 Institution/Industry Linkages The issue of linkage between industry and institutions has been a subject of immense interest throughout the world (Mishra, 1995). In many Asian countries, institution/industry linkages are still weak and are taking time to develop due to insufficient knowledge about each others’ capability and potential. Industry’s lack of interest or its critical attitude towards TVET institutions is also due to the fact that many institutions have been functioning in complete isolation from industry’s demands. Institutions can benefit greatly if industry were better informed about their programmes. Industry too needs to collaborate as it would be a major beneficiary if TVET institutions functioned more efficiently. TVET/industry co-operation could also facilitate ‘sandwich’-course training and ‘day-release’ or ‘block-release’ programmes to meet urgent occupational demands.
7 A National Co-ordinating Mechanism Several countries in Asia have set up national co-ordinating bodies to oversee the TVET system. As well as educators, these bodies include representatives of State authorities, industry, agriculture and the private sector and meet regularly to identify problems and resolve them. These mechanisms also help in minimizing mismatch between demand and supply of graduates, as well as providing programmes for disadvantaged population groups, such as women. Identification of organizational changes to improve the responsiveness of the systems to market demand is also supervised by these co-ordinating mechanisms. Co-ordination of TVET activities is helping to prevent duplication of efforts and wastage of resources. On the contrary, the pooling of resources is facilitating the task of making the system more cost-effective. Good working examples of these co-ordinating mechanisms exist in Australia with the Vocational Education, Employment and Training Board (VEET) (Wolfensberger, 1995), in the Philippines with the Technical and Skill Development Authority (TESDA) (Lacson & Justimbaste, 1995) and in Pakistan with its National Vocational and Technical Education Commission (NAVTEC) at the federal level and technical education and vocational training authorities (TEVTA) in the provinces.
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7.1 Decentralization A major policy change in some countries is the decentralization of TVET. Large countries with many provinces find these essential, but other countries may find the concept of decentralized planning and implementation a useful strategy. Countries such as Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia and Pakistan are beginning to benefit from decentralization. The organization and management of the TVET system in a large and diverse country such as India is a formidable task. The need for an effective relationship between education, working life and the community has long been recognized in India and this philosophy has helped the country in its policy of decentralizing to regions, with a National Council for Technical and Vocational Education at the federal level. In Pakistan, the TEVTAs in the provinces and NAVTEC at the central level also provide a workable example of national co-ordination and decentralized management.
7.2 Research on TVET Policy A significant drawback is that very little research is done on TVET at the national level. Research findings could be of great help to policy-makers and planners, and a big incentive to teachers. A research pool should be developed among national TVET institutions and research competencies urgently developed. Exchange and sharing of information and experiences through regional and international cooperation and networks, such as UNESCO-UNEVOC, could go a long way in assisting countries in this regard.
7.3 Multi-Skilling and Broad-Based Training In TVET planning, too often institutions do not meet national requirements both in respect of course content and the numbers of students trained. A decrease in manpower demands in some occupational areas due to saturation of job markets, or less manpower being needed due to new technologies and automation, is making the task of planning TVET systems more difficult. Recasting training programmes should enable those trained to fit into more than one job situation, which is becoming more desirable from industry’s point of view.
7.4 Selection of Sites for TVET Institutions Not enough attention is always given to the siting of institutions. In principle, sites should be in proximity of industries so as to facilitate student training and institution/industry linkages. Too often, sites are selected for political expediency.
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Feasibility studies can greatly help in this regard. Not enough attention has been given to the design of buildings to make them cost-effective. Quite often ‘standardtype plans’ made for general purposes are used which may not be suitable everywhere. Industry’s advice could go a long way to overcome this problem.
7.5 Articulation Articulation is a major reform in some Asian countries. ‘Bridging courses’ have helped in providing opportunities to TVET system graduates to enter tertiary education. The creation of post-secondary TVET institutions has also contributed towards the democratization of education and has helped in raising the status of this form of education. Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines are practising articulation in TVET as a major reform to provide alternative pathways in technical fields with higher technical institutes and junior colleges providing credit points and systems enabling entry into higher education institutions. Bangladesh, Pakistan and India have opened other pathways to higher technical education through the polytechnic system, where places are reserved on engineering degree courses for polytechnic graduates who are admitted on a competitive basis. Degree-level vocational courses are also available in India to better prepare graduates for the world of work. About 100 Indian universities and colleges are involved in degree programmes of this type. Another method in India is the use of open learning and flexible delivery to provide a pathway to those for whom further education might not otherwise be an option. An innovation in this regard is provided by Bangladesh which attempted to articulate TVET with general education (Rafique, 1995). Pakistan has also launched a Matric (ten years of schooling) technical programme which is similar in nature.
7.6 Structures TVET structures are being continuously revised and developed to meet the needs of the changing job market. During the 1960s and 1970s a simple three-tiered structure was common. The first tier, the ‘certificate’ level, was for trade or craft vocational training for skilled workers. The course duration was generally two years and entry was upon completion of Grade 8 in secondary education. The second tier was the three-year diploma course for technician training with entry after Grade 10 of secondary education. The third level was higher education for engineers. The three tiers still function in many TVET systems, while major reorganizations are taking place. Cross-national comparisons of TVET structures are not easy due to differences in programmes and course specifications, the involvement of different ministries, diversification within and across the former tiered structure and variations in nomenclature.
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7.7 Stage and Level The upper secondary stage is the most common level for TVET in many countries of Asia, such as China, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea and Thailand. It is organized in two- or three-year blocks over the final years of schooling and essentially aims to impart pre-employment skills. The programmes may be strongly to lightly vocational, depending on the countries needs and requirements.
7.8 Administration and Management The efficient management of TVET continues to be a weakness in many countries. This is often due to a lack of people with managerial training and expertise. It is also due to the appointment of people without clear recruitment procedures. The promotion of individuals on the basis of seniority from the education sector as a whole often leads to inefficient and incompetent managers. Poor planning and insufficient time being given to carry out managerial functions are common factors leading to poor management. Management training programmes hardly exist in TVET systems. Management information systems (MIS) are rare and so are the facilities available for inspection, monitoring and evaluation. A few countries, for example Australia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Philippines and the Republic of Korea, have set up MIS facilities. The availability of computer facilities has significantly helped to improve management functions. An efficient management system would help to justify expenditure and prevent wastage by reducing drop-out and repeater rates among students. It can also assist in rationalizing student enrolments, while maintaining teaching and training efficiency, i.e. quality and standards. It can also assist in maintaining information on students, teachers and resources, examinations and awards—as well as finances. Changing course contents driven by new technologies and new job-market requirements are making new demands on TVET managers, who now require competence in the management of change—a vital need today. Heads of TVET institutions generally lack leadership qualities and tend to follow routine practices. Leadership implies competence, vision, good communication and teamwork, besides being articulate and able to obtain the best from a team. TVET systems, especially in developing countries, are more prone to administrative delays. These delays adversely affect performance and the quality of training. In a few countries, ministries of education have set up separate units to handle TVET, such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Ministries of education are also responsible for the accreditation of non-formal private-sector TVET institutions and for monitoring their progress. Bangladesh, Pakistan and India have autonomous boards established by the Ministries/Departments of Education to accredit the vocational training institutions. These boards are also responsible for providing learning resources, conducting examinations and certification.
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8 Curriculum and Training Most of the problems facing Asian countries are curriculum related. The rising demand for TVET is expanding in both formal and non-formal systems. New programmes and delivery approaches are being developed. The cognitive content of training is increasing because a knowledgeable, broad-based and multi-skilled workforce is required. Countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and the Republic of Korea, where rapid industrial progress has taken place, are now requiring multiskilled employees with competency to undertake many functions. An innovation in the region is, therefore, the integration of training courses with combinations of specialized training for multi-skilling. TVET curricula, of necessity, need to be prepared, revised and developed continuously so that they continue to be relevant. Many countries lack competence in curriculum development and some of them have set up curriculum development units. The mismatch between what students learn and the needs of the job market is a major concern in most TVET systems. A major shortcoming is a mechanism for obtaining information about current job-market demands and future needs. Some countries carry out tracer studies to obtain the views of past graduates and employers on improving the curriculum and the employment of graduates. Practical courses in industry for students are a concern in many countries that are not sufficiently industrialized.
8.1 Monitoring and Evaluation The upgrading of the teaching/learning process is also a matter of growing concern as is the maintenance of quality and standards. Many developments are taking place in this regard. Monitoring and evaluation of TVET programmes are being developed using computer facilities. There have been serious shortcomings in monitoring and evaluating TVET and, indeed, there is insufficient assessment of teaching methods and student performance in education systems in general. Establishing TVET monitoring and evaluation units within departments of education is an urgently needed reform in many countries.
8.2 Competency-Based Training A major innovation in some countries is competency-based training where achievement of competency is the basis of measuring progress in training. Standards of performance for this purpose are specified by industry. Australia, Bangladesh and New Zealand have developed occupational competency standards in co-operation with industry. TESDA in the Philippines and TEVTA in Pakistan are in the process of developing competency-based training standards.
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8.3 The Dual Model The German Dual Model has influenced many countries, such as China, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Thailand and Viet Nam. This programme is provided according to the needs of industry, which establishes contracts with industry providing skills training and practical experience while the institution provides the theoretical component of the training (Timmermann, 1995).
8.4 Modular Training Modular training is proving useful for both initial training and continuing education. It is also useful for upgrading skills of the employed and for those changing jobs. It is also helpful in meeting lifelong learning of skills.
8.5 Flexible Delivery Countries are taking initiatives to introduce flexible delivery and learning approaches. Australia, China, India, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam are among countries that have developed open learning, distance education, self-paced and continuing education methods to reach school drop-outs, working people and populations in remote areas. Flexible delivery is also helping in making lifelong learning attainable in the future. The future of TVET greatly depends on flexible learning for more non-formal, more part-time, more private-sector, more industry-oriented and more market-driven programmes.
8.6 Entrepreneurial Skills TVET curricula in many Asian countries include entrepreneurial skills for business and industry imparting concepts such as self-employment and small-scale management. The poor interest in such activity by TVET graduates has been a major concern. Australia and New Zealand have been pioneers in this regard. Entrepreneurial skill development is now being actively pursued in many other countries, such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Philippines and Thailand. Other countries are also helping young entrepreneurs with small business loans, material incentives, financial support and tax exemptions.
8.7 Teacher Training The recruitment and retention of competent teachers, especially those with industrial experience, has been a major problem for TVET systems in many countries.
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Frequently, salaries are insufficient compared to those in industry. Teachers who join TVET systems often leave to take up jobs in industry. Sometimes the causes of leaving are lack of satisfactory career prospects and unsatisfactory working conditions. Some systems, however, do offer career building to teachers through teacher education and industrial experience programmes, as well as incentives through merit-based promotion schemes—and sometimes even by providing housing and assistance with children’s education. The shortage of teachers has necessitated the use of part-time teachers or trainers seconded from industry. The shortage of teachers in many countries is making it difficult for serving teachers to be released for further training. Teacher up-grading is an urgent priority for every country so that TVET can be continually improved.
8.8 Vocationalization of Curricula A major concern of countries is the extent to which general lower secondary education could be vocationalized. The consensus has been that it should create an awareness of the world of work and provide an appreciation of hands-on skills. Outcomes would be a healthy attitude towards practical work and mental preparation for taking up a career involving the use of practical skills. One dilemma is that vocational training at this level is not adequate for work purposes, so questions are asked as to whether the effort and expenditure are justified. However, some South Asian countries, including Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, are increasing the vocational content of education at the secondary level.
8.9 Assessment of Training Quality Maintaining the high quality of training is generally hampered by funding difficulties for the acquisition of physical resources and the recruitment of competent teachers. Many systems do not have the procedures and facilities in place for the systematic assessment of training quality and standards. For these systems to be effective and efficient, quality and standards are absolutely necessary. Australia and New Zealand provide good examples of industry/institution linkages that can assist and facilitate TVET systems in this regard.
8.10 Vocational Guidance and Counselling The social and financial background of most TVET students in the Asian Region makes vocational guidance and counselling absolutely necessary. Many TVET systems have set up the required facilities, including ‘vocational guidance centres’, in their institutions. Working teachers are generally associated with this work and they do advise students on a day-to-day basis. Some TVET institutions provide training
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for those appointed to conduct vocational guidance and have facilities for maintaining student records, as well as regularly updated employment and job-market information. Vocational guidance and counselling helps students with the selection of TVET courses that suit their interests and potential, and provides advice on career prospects and employment possibilities. Counselling work is also useful to help students who are having personal difficulties. It is important to mention that vocational guidance and counselling not only help students but also teachers—both directly and indirectly—in teaching their students.
9 Costs and Funding A major issue facing TVET is its comparatively high cost. Governmental budgets are generally inadequate and many Asian countries are forced to seek the assistance of international agencies, such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and bilateral donors. It should be noted that many of these agencies have gone through a radical shift in their policies after, in some cases, being the staunchest supporter of TVET for decades (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2005). The high unit cost of TVET is placing a limitation on the numbers that can be trained and the extent to which training can be provided. It is also affecting the quality of training. The physical and teaching resources, such as the recruitment of teachers, the modernization of equipment and the purchase of consumable and other training materials, are the hardest hit. The quality and employability of the TVET graduates is also suffering and inadequate training courses and trainee numbers in many cases do not justify the expenditure on institutions. For developing countries this really is a dilemma and they need urgently to reconsider the strategies of donor agencies so that they can reform their institutions—often established with the assistance of these donor agencies. A matter to be considered by donor agencies could be provision of seeding grants for technical support for particular purposes (Maclean, 2005a). The comparisons of cost per graduate rather than cost per enrolled student make the costs look even higher due to the high drop-out and repeater rates in many TVET institutions.
9.1 Cost-Effectiveness Cost-effectiveness is extremely important since it is a useful indicator of productivity within the institution. If an institution uses the resources efficiently then it can be cost-effective. Cost-effectiveness has not been given much consideration in TVET systems in many Asian countries. They are mostly engaged in quantitative expansion without any regard to the quality of the graduates. There is an imperative need to assess and demonstrate quality and cost-effectiveness so that these institutions can contribute to improving national production and competitiveness.
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9.2 Public/Private Partnership Public/private sector partnerships are increasing in many countries and have been instrumental in providing both training and funding. However, developing countries are still finding it difficult to exploit this potential due to the fact that their TVET institutions have been working in complete isolation from industry. Private-sector involvement can help governments to augment funding for TVET while making the optimum use of resources for national development.
9.3 Project Work Some TVET institutions use their workshops to produce saleable items, mainly for other schools, and thereby generate funding. Combining training with production is an innovation in many Asian countries that has been responsible for improving the quality of training and providing additional funding. There is a need to exploit this potential source of revenue for improving the quality of TVET. China provides a very good example in this regard, where technical schools are encouraged to run factories or enterprises to generate funding.
9.4 Industrial Funding A major funding agency available to TVET is industry itself. Industry can help institutions with the provision of equipment, setting up workshops, paying for teaching posts and helping with training. Levies and assistance from industry are only possible when TVET institutions function efficiently and produce the graduates that industry requires. Several countries in Asia have enforced levies on industries, usually those with a certain number of employees, on the basis that industry is the main beneficiary of TVET. The Republic of Korea’s in-plant training through the enterprise’s own facilities is a case in point. Many other countries could benefit from such examples.
9.5 Diversifying Funding Diversifying TVET funding sources is a major development in some countries in the region. Revolving funds with public and private-sector contributions have been established in some countries encouraging enterprises to provide training. Private institutions have also been established through this funding. Thailand placed a skillsdevelopment levy on industry, a major beneficiary of TVET, so as to establish a skills-development fund to support innovative schemes. Governments need to reassess their budgeting for TVET in the light of the growing need for the national economies to improve their productivity and competi-
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tiveness. There is also a need on the part of many governments in the region to encourage the private sector to invest in TVET and then to support these initiatives so that these efforts could eventually lead to more training places.
10 Regional Co-operation Regional co-operation has been encouraged over a long period, but shows little progress. It can help countries especially when problems are similar and resources are limited. It is mutually beneficial in areas such as the exchange of information and experiences, identifying common problems and seeking solutions, the use of teachers and equipment, curriculum development and improving the quality of training. Regional co-operation can assist the development of TVET structures, teacher upgrading, the maintenance of skill standards, the movement of students on a credit transfer basis, and even assist in providing employment possibilities. A regional information exchange system can be of much benefit. Regional co-operation can be made effective through the use of regional co-operation mechanisms, such as the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC), amongst others. While regional and international co-operation are useful, countries in Asia can benefit greatly through mutual collaborative efforts among their national TVET institutions. The UNESCO-UNEVOC Network has been assisting countries in the region in the exchange of information and experiences, the development of infrastructures and the establishment of regional and national databases. There is an urgent need, both on the part of the countries and of UNESCO-UNEVOC, to accelerate this co-operation through the establishment of regional centres and national nodal points so that this potential can be fully utilized.
11 Conclusion In spite of the fact that TVET is regarded as a priority for development in the region, there is still much to be done to achieve the vibrant, rich, high-quality education desired by all countries to restructure industry and enhance national production and competitiveness in this age of globalization and information. On the other hand, in the minds of most parents and students, TVET still remains a second-class education, suffering from a a lack of status. The present need is to reform TVET so as to equip its learners with skills of the future as opposed to the obsolete skills and know-how of the past. In this way, they can contribute to providing a competitive edge to national economies. This huge task is both urgent and imperative and calls for bold innovations in philosophy, objectives and practice. Nowhere is the need for economic, social and sustainable development greater than in the vast, diverse and still developing region of Asia and the Pacific. The biggest challenge in the region, which is mostly rural and agrarian, is to facilitate rural transformation and to alleviate poverty. For this purpose there is an urgent need to mobilize innovative
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and alternative approaches. Improvements are required in content, teaching practices, modes of delivery and teaching/learning processes with a bold shift from a supply-driven approach to the market-driven philosophy, objectives, practices and approaches of the future. There is also an urgent necessity to improve the delivery and outreach of TVET systems in the region using ICTs to optimize and maximize the results. Asia and Pacific as a region has a big resource in the form of an abundance of manpower. However, this resource is also the region’s greatest liability. For TVET, this challenge is the biggest opportunity in view of its huge potential to increase the region’s productivity and competitiveness through reform and modernization in this age of information and globalization. In view of its huge magnitude, this task is beyond the capacities of most of the developing countries in the region. This matter therefore requires the urgent assistance of donors to provide support to these countries in their new and bold reform initiatives. New donor orientation, support and strategies can enable countries to produce the needed technical manpower for economic and social uplift. These approaches can also assist in achieving a competitive edge in their bids to derive optimum benefits from global and regional trade and mobility in this age of unprecedented technological advancement. The urgent challenge for TVET is to bridge the gap between the demands for jobs and the actual needs of society for economic, social and sustainable development. There is also an urgent need on the part of countries and donors for substantial investments in the skills of the future, particularly future generations, which for many governments in the region could be bold initiatives.
References Ellis, S. 2005. Current international data for TVET and their limitations. Prospects, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 367–80. Green, A.; Oketch, M.; Preston, J. 2004. Global report on technical and vocational education and training: report to UNESCO Institute for Statistics. London: University of London Institute of Education. Hughes, P. 2005. Why access to TVET for All is essential if EFA is to be achieved? Prospects, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 253–67. Lacson, J.D.; Justimbaste, B.S. 1995. Philippine country paper. (Paper presented at the International Workshop on Organisational and Management Alternatives for Vocational Education within the Educational System, 1995, Bhopal, India.) Maclean, R. 2005a. Orientating TVET for sustainable development. Prospects, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 269–72. Maclean, R. 2005b. Setting the context: an overview of secondary education reform with particular reference to the Asia-Pacific Region. In: Lauglo, J.; Maclean, R., eds. Vocationalisation of secondary education revisited. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Mar, Naing Yee. 2005. Approaches and concerns in TVET in Myanmar. Prospects, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 331–42. Mehta, A.C. 2003. Progress of literacy in India: what the Census 2001 reveals. New Delhi: NIEPA. Mishra, A.K. 1995. Organizational alternatives in vocational education. In: Central Institute of Vocational Education of India, ed. Vocational education: organizational and management alternatives. Bhopal, India: Pundit Sunderlal Sharma Central Institute of Vocational Education.
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Okada, S. 1995. Country paper on Japan. (Paper presented at the International Workshop on Organisational and Management Alternatives for Vocational Education within the Educational System, 1995, Bhopal, India.) Quisumbing, L.R. 2005. Education for the world of work and citizenship: towards sustainable future societies. Prospects, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 289–301. Rafique, A. 1995. Country paper on Bangladesh. (Paper presented at the International Workshop on Organisational and Management Alternatives for Vocational Education within the Educational System, 1995, Bhopal, India.) Timmermann, D. 1995. Dual training in Germany: is it a model for other countries? In: Central Institute of Vocational Education of India, ed. Vocational education, organisational and management alternatives, pp. 68–87. Bhopal, India: Pundit Sunderlal Sharma Central Institute of Vocational Education. UNESCO-UNEVOC. 2005. Vocational education: the come-back? Education today, no. 13, April– June. Wolfensberger, J. 1995. Organizational structure of vocational education and training in Australia. (Paper presented at the International Workshop on Organisational and Management Alternatives for Vocational Education within the Educational System, 1995, Bhopal, India.)
Chapter IV.4
Transforming TVET Systems with the CPSC in the Asia and Pacific Region Man-Gon Park
1 Introduction The Asia and Pacific Region extends from Mongolia in the north to New Zealand in the south and from the Cook Islands in the east to Iran in the west. It embraces the world’s largest ocean, the Pacific (165 million square km.), as well as its third largest ocean, the Indian (73 million square km.) and a range of important seas. It contains three of the largest and most populous countries in the world (China, India and Indonesia), several mountainous and land-locked States (such as Bhutan and Nepal), and twenty-two small archipelagic States, territories and protectorates. With only 23% of the world’s total land area, the region is home to about 58% of its population. Twenty-four of the Colombo Plan Staff College (CPSC) member countries in the region are situated in the following geographical areas: North-East Asia (Japan, Mongolia and the Republic of Korea); South-East Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam); South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka); and the Pacific (Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Palau and Papua New Guinea). These countries are diverse in terms of socio-economic status and this has significant implications for the development of technical and vocational education systems. Sustainable human resource development (HRD) through technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is an ambition for every country in the world. But rapid population growth and intensification in the exploitation of natural resources is making the Earth more fragile environmentally—and we are now aware that its capacity is not unlimited. This sustainable HRD concept was realized during the 1992 Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in which heads of State and government adopted Agenda 21 and stressed the link between the sustainable use of natural resources and human development. The concept of sustainable development emphasized that economic development should enable present generations to meet the present needs without depriving the following and future generations of the same opportunities. In order to put Agenda 21 into practice, a special programme known as Capacity 21 was launched by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to aid countries in the development and implementation of capacity-building programmes. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 IV.4, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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The realization and importance of sustainable human resource development has been actively pursued since then. Investment in human resource development is the key to the development process of any country. It requires linkages and an integrated multidisciplinary framework to bridge the traditional gap between sectors, as well as new innovative approaches to ensure sustainability and the optimum use of scarce resources. The latest information and communication technologies (ICTs) are also playing a greater role in the enhancement of individuals’ capabilities to perform better in their work place and, at the same time, to ensure the sustainability of scarce resources. The CPSC, a specialized agency for human resource development in TVET for its member countries in the Asia-Pacific Region, has been undertaking programmes and courses of further professional development in technical and vocational education over the past thirty-two years. It has thus accumulated a wealth of resources on all major aspects of technical and vocational education and sustainable HRD that need to be disseminated across the globe. CPSC, directly and indirectly, has been contributing towards HRD in this region with an emphasis on sustainability. This chapter highlights some of the contemporary issues in TVET for HRD in the region, some programmes initiated by international and regional agencies to solve the pressing problems in sustainable HRD, the dilemmas and implications in sustainable HRD, the catalytic role of CPSC in the Asia-Pacific Region and the challenges for sustainable human resource development.
2 Regional Issues for Human Resource Development Human resource development through TVET is actually a cycle of investment in human resources to enhance productive capabilities, the utilization of those resources to produce higher output, and the consumption by those human resources of the benefits arising from the increased output, thereby leading to an enhanced quality of life (UNESCO, 1999). The Asia and Pacific Region contains countries of great diversity in terms of the size of their economies, demographic trends (population growth), ageing of the population, international migration, urbanization, the concentration of the population in rural areas, poverty, workforce mobility with the opening up of labour markets, the technology divide, etc. These diversities pose great challenges for international and regional organizations to successfully implement sustainable human resource development programmes. Several CPSC member countries have witnessed marked improvements in the areas of health, nutrition and education over the past five years. However, some of them continue to grapple with low per capita income, rapid urbanization, inadequate access to ICTs, brain drain, an ageing population, rapid population growth, etc. Some of the most urgent issues are presented here with statistics taken from the World Bank and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) data sources (World Bank, 2003).
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2.1 Demographic Trends The countries of the Asia and Pacific Region are heavily populated and are home to almost 3 billion people. The region includes some of the world’s most populous countries, like China with 1.28 billion people, followed by India with 1 billion, Indonesia with over 210 million, Bangladesh and Pakistan with around 140 million people each. Young people (under 25 years of age) constitute a sizeable and growing proportion of the population and their reproductive health concerns are a major issue, especially in view of the spreading HIV/AIDS pandemic. On the other hand, large ageing populations are emerging as an area of concern in countries all over the world. This is mainly connected with declining fertility and increased longevity. The proportion of older people is thus getting larger relative to the working population. It is interesting to note that the number of people aged 60 and above in lessdeveloped regions is more (393 million) than those in more-developed regions (235 million). The growth of the ageing population (by the year 2050), as estimated in World Bank documents, is five times more for the less-developed regions than for the developed regions (World Bank, 2003). Table 1 gives the total population, the older population, population density and population growth rate for CPSC member countries.
Table 1 Population, population density and population growth rate: selected Asian countries No. Country
Total population in millions
Population aged 60 years or older (in 000)
Population Population density (people growth rate per sq. km.) (% per annum)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
22 135 2 0.83 1,068 214 66 128 48
1,100 7,210 144 NA 81,089 17,169 3,922 31,027 5,532
33 912 48 45 325 113 40 342 481
1.8 1.3 3.2 0.7 1.5 1.4 1.4 0.5 0.6
25 0.29 53 24 148 6
1,561 16 3,389 1,438 8,611 NA
76 956 81 164 185 12
2.1 1.6 2.0 2.1 1.9 1.8
81 4 19 0.02
4,513 463 1,857 NA
270 6,134 307 46
2.0 0.5 1.3 1.5
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan Fiji India Indonesia Iran Japan Republic of Korea Malaysia Maldives Myanmar Nepal Pakistan Papua New Guinea Philippines Singapore Sri Lanka Palau
Source: World Bank, 2003.
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The percentage growth rate of the population in most of the CPSC member countries has not changed considerably over recent years. However, when comparing the countries of the ESCAP region, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Thailand are the CPSC member countries with the lowest population growth rate, while Bhutan and Fiji are the countries with the highest rate (Fig. 1). Put simply, the more developed countries have lower population growth rates while the lessdeveloped countries have higher population growth rates (Fig. 2). Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan Fiji India Indonesia Iran Japan Rep. of Korea Malaysia Maldives Myanmar Nepal Pakistan Papua New Guinea Philippines Singapore Sri Lanka Palau 0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
% per annum
Fig. 1 Population growth rates
1.6 1.4
1.46
1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2
0.25
0.0
More-developed countries
Less-developed countries
Fig. 2 Comparative population growth in more- and less-developed countries
Due to the limited geographical area, the population density is highest in Singapore and Maldives (Fig. 3). In the case of Bangladesh, the population is mostly concentrated in big cities. The number of ageing people is growing as a result of lower fertility rates and better health conditions (Table 2). This increase in the aged population is an area
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Population density (people/km2) Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan
Fiji India Indonesia
I.R. Iran Japan Rep.of Korea Malaysia Maldives Myanmar Nepal Pakistan Papua New Guinea Philippines Singapore Sri Lanka Palau 0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
Fig. 3 Population density in the Asia and Pacific Region Table 2 Percentage of the older population by region in 2000, 2015 and 2030 Region
Year
65 years or older
80 years or older
Asia
2000 2015 2030
5.9 7.8 12.0
0.9 1.4 2.3
Europe
2000 2015 2030
14.7 17.6 23.5
3.0 4.7 6.4
Latin America/Caribbean
2000 2015 2030
5.6 7.6 11.5
1.0 1.5 2.5
Middle East/North Africa
2000 2015 2030
4.4 5.5 8.4
0.6 0.9 1.4
North America
2000 2015 2030
12.4 14.7 20.0
3.3 3.9 5.4
Oceania
2000 2015 2030
10.1 12.4 16.3
2.3 3.1 4.4
Sub-Saharan Africa
2000 2015 2030
2.9 3.1 3.6
0.3 0.4 0.5
Source: <www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/>; <www. unescap.org>
for concern for less-developed countries (United Nations Population Fund, 2002; Hermalin et al., 2002). The publication Global aging: the challenge of success (Kinsella & Phillips, 2005) points out that people aged 65 or above already make up nearly one-fifth
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1400 Millions
1200 1000 0.25% per year
800 600
420
400 200 0
131 1950
2000
2050
Fig. 4 Growth of the ageing population (60 years and above)
of the population in many European countries—and this proportion is rising. And less-developed countries are also seeing their populations growing older, ushering in new social problems for societies that already have few public support systems. By 2050, nearly 1.5 billion people aged 65 or older will reside in less-developed countries increasing at the rate of 0.25% per year (Fig. 4).
2.2 The Brain Drain through International Migration Since the 1970s, Asia has been largely a region of out-migration, much of which is intra-regional. Today, out of the 179 million people who are outside their countries of birth, an estimated 50 million are in Asia. Of the many forms of international migration in the region, the movement of labour across borders has been most significant. Contrary to the intent of governments to regard migration as a temporary phenomenon, it has been sustained over the past thirty years. Asia, like other regions before it (North America, North-West Europe, the oil-rich Gulf countries), has not escaped the need to import labour to sustain the development processes. One report painted the following picture of Asian region migrants (Asis, 2005). In the 1980s, the high performing economies of Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and later on in the decade, Malaysia and Thailand, had to import migrant workers. The construction sector, plantations, fishing and rice mill industries and factories in these countries experienced labour shortage, as locals moved on to better job prospects. The demand for female migrant workers increased, but the demand was limited to domestic work (Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia) and entertainers (Japan). On the other hand, the Middle East continued to draw migrants, although not in the same scale as in the previous decade. A remarkable development was the opening of the labour market to women migrants to fill jobs in the service (mostly domestic workers), sales and professional (e.g. medical personnel) sectors. The Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka became the major source countries of domestic workers. Female migration from the latter two countries, in particular, is heavily directed to the Middle East countries. While domestic workers also dominate female migration from the Philippines to the Middle East, a sizable number are professionals (mostly nurses and other medical personnel). The concentration of women migrants in domestic work and entertainment (also in caring professions such as nurses) highlights the gendering of the labour market. In Asia, male labour migration has specialized in addressing the labour needs in the formal/productive sectors, while female labour migration is responding to the domestic work force.
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In view of some of the above trends and associated immediate problems and issues in labour force migration, we can summarize that:
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Mobilization of the workforce across national borders would continue with migration from less-developed countries to more-developed countries. The disparity of skills and competencies with regard to the optimum qualifications required remains a matter of concern both for employers and migrants. The demand to standardize and harmonize TVET systems through accreditation and certification would grow.
2.3 Massive and Rapid Urbanization Urbanization has taken on a new dimension and become a matter of concern in the Asia-Pacific Region. In an article published by the United Nations, it says that in 1999 47% of the world’s population (2.9 billion people) lived in urban areas. By 2030, it projects that this proportion will reach 60%, totalling 4.9 billion people. Roughly 95% of this massive urban growth will occur in less-developed countries. More than 60% of the increase in the world’s urban population over the next three decades will occur in Asia, particularly in China and India, but also in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines and Viet Nam. According to World Bank indicators, Asia will have a lower overall urbanization rate in 2030 (53%) than any other region. Africa will be slightly higher at 55%, while Latin America is projected to reach 83%. However, Asia’s total urban population will exceed 2.6 billion in 2030, compared with 604 million in Latin America and 766 million in Africa. Such huge flows of human resources to urban areas will put pressure on governments to take measures and allocate funds for better health, education and accommodation (World Bank, 2003; Mendes, 2005).
2.4 Poverty Alleviation Poverty is a serious issue all over the globe. The severity of the issue can be judged from the fact that the first goal under the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is related to the commitment to eradicate poverty and hunger: <www.un.org/milleniumgoals/>. The 2005 report on the MDGs has given an improved picture of poverty reduction in the Asian region. Even with an overall population growth of more than 800 million since 1990 in developing regions, the number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen by 130 million worldwide. The situation in some African countries where poverty persists is still not good; extreme poverty has risen in that region from 227 million in 1990 to 313 million in 2001, i.e. one in five people in the developing world still lives below the extreme poverty line of $1 per day income. The statistics are given in Fig. 5.
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1990
Sub-Saharan Africa
All other developing regions
936 (76.72%)
227
748 (68.19%)
1996
271
703 (64.50%)
2001
313
78
74
57
1,220 M
1,097 M
1,050 M
Fig. 5 The number of people living on less than $1 per day, 1990, 1996 and 2001 (millions)
2.5 The Technology Divide The digital divide is often described as the disparity that has emerged between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ in a society grounded on ICTs. Generally, the ‘haves’ are the well-educated with the financial means to invest time and effort to acquire skills that will enable them to flourish in an information society. The ‘have-nots’, mainly from the lower-income groups, are the ones who lack affordable access to ICTs, thus being disadvantaged in terms of employability and learning opportunities. This digital disparity can be seen in Table 3, which gives the number of Internet users in CPSC member countries: Table 3 Number of Internet users in CPSC member countries No.
Country
Literacy rate (%)
Number of Internet users per 100 people
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan Fiji India Indonesia Iran Japan Republic of Korea Malaysia Maldives Myanmar Nepal Pakistan Papua New Guinea Philippines Singapore Sri Lanka Palau
NA 50 56 94 68.36 92 83 99 98 92 97 89 59 60 65 93 97 95 92
NA 2.04 1.75 6.7 1.75 3.76 7.24 48.27 60.97 34.41 5.34 0.05 0.34 1.03 1.37 4.40 50.87 1.17 NA
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It can be seen that, although most countries have access to Internet technology, there is a considerable disparity between Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia and Singapore and the rest. This emerging divide is no longer between the traditional haves and have-nots, but between those nations that are wired and those that are not. Of course, the developed countries already have the edge. For example, in the Republic of Korea high-speed Internet access is available to the majority of the people, as compared to Afghanistan and Bhutan which have minimal Internet facilities in work places and homes.
3 Dilemmas and Implications for Sustainable Human Resource Development Nowhere in the world can we appreciate the enigma of social, economic, scientifictechnological, politico-cultural disparity than in the Asia-Pacific Region. In spite of the significant achievements made during past years, these imbalances are still conspicuous. Japan, the Republic of Korea and Singapore not only exceed world averages on many development indicators, but are also considered the precursors of technology. On the other hand, South Asia, which includes Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan, was described by Churton (2004) as ‘the poorest region, the most illiterate, the most malnourished, the region with the highest human deprivation and the most militarized region in the world’. Indeed, the widening inequality of opportunities, wealth and empowerment continues hounding the region resulting in a negative impact in the pursuit of sustainable human resource development. These dilemmas therefore need serious consideration.
3.1 Poverty A UNDP Human development report presented a comparative analysis among AsiaPacific countries: the poverty indices of Singapore and Brunei are negligible while those of Myanmar and Lao PDR (38.9 and 32.3, respectively) are quite high. The same report cited the poverty indices of Malaysia (14.2), Philippines (16.5) and Thailand (18.7), which are within the same range as Singapore, while those of Indonesia (27.7) and Viet Nam (28.7) are moderate (UNDP, 2003). The unequal distribution of wealth leads to unsustainability—both for the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. The ‘have-nots’, whose ratio still stands high at one in three Asians, are trapped in the vicious cycle of deprivation and vulnerability. Since they can hardly cope with survival, security and enabling needs, they inevitably become unsustainable. They are unable to participate in governance, which is necessary for peaceful development. On the other hand, the ‘haves’ can afford a higher level of sustainability since they can choose which actions to pursue. But more often than not, they are reluctant to adopt sustainable patterns of development and stubbornly adhere to malpractices of over-production and over-consumption.
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3.2 Disparity in Educational Access and Quality Education constitutes the core of strategies that promote values and could transform the well-being of the individual, society and the environment. Although the right to education is decreed in the constitution of most—if not all—countries, it remains disproportionately accessible. For a long time, the rare opportunity of attending schools has belonged to the ‘privileged few’, leaving the ‘insignificant many’ to the dark side of ignorance and illiteracy. The World Bank (2003) reported that over 1 billion children under the age of 15 require improved primary and secondary services, while 400 million young people between the ages of 17 and 24 require tertiary, vocational education and skills development. In rural areas, the number of children who do not go to school, the number of adult illiterates and gender inequality in education are high. The drop-out rate after primary level is also high because the impoverished farmer can no longer meet the cost of his children’s further education. And even if he can just afford the government’s school system, his children do not receive a good education. Families with a higher economic status benefit from higher potential and better opportunities in gaining access to education. The quality of education is also a factor to consider because it is the very instrument to create new relations for sustainable human resource development. Today, many institutions mushroom every year and there have been minimal checks on the quality of services that these offer. Most countries lack accreditation and certification systems to benchmark educational and training standards, to serve as a licenser by quantitatively and qualitatively evaluating them, to support workforce mobilization and to establish a clearinghouse of information and co-operation agencies (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2004).
3.3 Population and Migration from Rural to Urban Areas Although, remarkably, the population growth rate in the region is decelerating, the actual population continues to increase. Such a condition will intensify land use, thereby generating further pressure on natural resources. Mendes (2005) refers to a UN estimate that by 2015 fifteen conurbations in the region will become megacities with a population of at least 10 million each. In particular, South Asia already has mega-cities like Dhaka, Karachi, Kolkata and Mumbai that are expected to experience further sharp population increases due to migration as well as natural growth. Urbanization and rural/urban migration are some of the most pressing dilemmas thwarting a sustainable human resource development system. They have changed the economic structure leading to a remarkable decline in the agricultural sector and a shift to industrial and service sectors (Kaosa-ard & Rerkasem, 2000). This led to the intensification of the rural/urban gap and eventually the inequitable distribution of income and production assets. Moreover, it resulted in problems of uncontrolled growth, inappropriate waste disposal practices, lack of adequate drinking water
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supply and sanitation facilities, and flooding. The urban poor, who are most affected by these problems, contented themselves in the slums by constructing clusters of shanties wherever and however they could. In the Asia-Pacific Region, these slums are typically temporary structures made of cardboard or jute sacks lacking basic infrastructures and services such as water supply, sewage, drainage, roads, health care and education (WHO/UNICEF, 2001). Demolition of these shanties is common but not successful, since the slums either move to another place or come back again.
3.4 Lawlessness To live in an environment of peace and security is fundamental to human dignity. Countries in the Asia-Pacific Region are riddled with insecurities and armed conflicts, which have resulted in a significant number of human tragedies, displaced people, refugees and wars. Characteristically, corruption has debased fair and efficient economic transactions, undermined governmental legitimacy, threatened political stability and jeopardized socio-economic development in most AsiaPacific countries. According to the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (www.transparency.org), some countries in the region are high on this global list. Indeed, governance structures are highly militarized, devoid of transparency, and freedom of expression and debate do not exist. In another vein, there is an upsurge of crime and lawlessness related to juvenile delinquency as a result of drugs and alcoholism, unwanted pregnancies, etc.
3.5 Environmental, Health and Safety Hazards Health is wealth. A healthy population breeds a healthy nation. On the other hand, ill-health breeds a sick nation. It hampers economic and social development, triggering a vicious cycle that contributes to unsustainable resource use and environmental degradation. The tsunami-stricken developing countries of Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and Maldives have shown that they are vulnerable to natural hazards and disasters. Other countries of the region suffer from limited natural resources, heavy dependence on imports and limited commodities. Hunger, malnutrition, malaria, water-borne diseases, bird-flu, dengue fever, drug and alcohol abuse, violence and injury, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases are common scenarios. According to the 2003 UNDP Human development report (UNDP, 2003), inadequate water supply and poor sanitation cause more than 500,000 infant deaths a year, as well as bringing a huge burden of illness and disability in the region. Cholera is prevalent in many countries, particularly those where sanitation facilities are poor, such as Afghanistan, China and India. Only an estimated 48% of the Asian population has access to proper sanitation—less than in any other region of the world. The situation is worse in rural areas, where only 31% of the population have improved sanitation, compared to 78% in urban areas.
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3.6 Non-availability of a Labour-Market Information System Occupational forecasting is extremely important and is an essential tool for addressing the occupational imbalances in the labour market. Recognizing the uncertainty of projection about the growth in employment demand and the need to develop an appropriate supply-side framework stands at the core of priorities in the area of labour-market information management system (LMIS). This would make the TVET sector responsive to labour-market needs. Making such predictions requires expertise in the application of economic analysis, modelling and forecasting.
3.7 Widening of the Digital Gap The issue of the digital divide, the lack of sustainability in efforts and the technical knowledge gap reflect the present-day scenario in the Asia-Pacific Region. During the past two decades, the world has witnessed a technological revolution that has provided mankind with totally new communications media. Through the use of networks, information in all forms is disseminated throughout the world. E-applications have created the potential to bring benefits to society, the economy and the State. In particular, e-government, e-health, e-education and e-commerce have been identified as services enhancing not only economic growth, but also promoting democratic and social progress and bringing sustainability. The dilemma is that in most of the developing countries of the CPSC the availability of ICT services is still at a very low level. The issue of the digital divide persists between the urban and rural areas of any one country and as well as between countries of the region. For example, access to the Internet by households in Afghanistan is below 5%, while in the Republic of Korea high-speed Internet connections are available to almost 80% of the population.
4 The Important Role of the CPSC as a Catalyst 4.1 CPSC Emergence The Colombo Plan Staff College was born on 5 December 1973 after twenty-six member countries agreed to establish a regional centre for TVET, through a resolution signed and agreed by the Colombo Plan member countries. The college was created as a specialized agency of the Colombo Plan to address issues in TVET with the following main functions (Park, 2004):
r r r r r r
Providing courses of further professional education and training; Conducting conferences on various aspects of TVET; Assisting in the conduct of projects in TVET; Promoting and co-ordinating research; Advising and assisting member countries in developing TVET; and Collecting and disseminating information on TVET.
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The CPSC activities thus focus on human resource development through training, consultancy work on major projects in the member countries, research and development in major areas of TVET and processing and dissemination of information in technical education and training.
4.2 Major Thrust Areas of CPSC Over the past more than thirty years, CPSC has accumulated a wealth of resources in various fields of technical and vocational education. Table 4 gives a glimpse of programmes conducted by CPSC over recent years in eight major thrust areas known as the ‘CPSC-RING’. The table only includes the CPSC regular in-country and regional programmes. It does not include consultancy work and other research and development activities conducted in that particular area. The programmes are prepared taking in to consideration regional trends, while the in-country programmes are prepared according to the specific demands of each member country. It is evident from Table 4 that there has been an attempt on the part of CPSC to cover all major thrust areas over the past five years. The ICT component is the most popular area among all the member countries of the region. This popularity laid the foundation for the development of the CPSC’s web-based teaching and learning system and the integration of information and communication technology in all programmes of the Colombo Plan Staff College. The second most popular thrust area is the project, programmes and the institutional management focusing on total quality management, knowledge management, ISO and accreditation and certification systems, and project preparation Table 4 CPSC-RING for technology transfer, education and training services Major thrust area
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implementation and monitoring. The trainee group that this area focuses on is the top and middle-level management of TVET systems.
4.3 CPSC Strategies over the Recent Past Human resource development itself is a challenging task. In order to bridge the technological gap and make its programmes sustainable, while meeting the challenges of sustainable human resource development, the CPSC has launched several initiatives under its Corporate Strategic Plan over recent years. In 2003, the CPSC launched the ‘4Rs Strategy’:
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Refocusing programmes, projects and activities to provide demand-driven, sustainable and innovative services for HRD; Repositioning for a lead role in the advancement of HRD in the Asia-Pacific Region so as to obtain the full benefits of emerging global trends and using cutting-edge technologies; Restructuring the organizational system through a quality management system, effective delivery of services, networking, global partnership and expansion of membership; and Reengineering for production of creative, practical, pioneering and technology oriented outputs in TVET responding to national, regional and international demands.
In 2004, the CPSC decided on even more proactive services through the ‘3As Approach’:
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Accelerated services to clienteles to transform amidst environmental changes; Advanced systems and best practices in HRD; Aggressive mind-set with determined actions for continual improvement.
In 2005, the two previous approaches were combined for a more focused, improved and specialized service through the ‘STELAH Services’:
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Supporting national and regional HRD programmes, projects and activities; Technology transfers to member countries; Expanding a web-based teaching and learning system; Labour-market information services; Accreditation and certification services; and Higher education service in technology education.
4.4 CPSC Innovative Web-Based E-Teaching/Learning System The web-based and e-teaching/learning system (CPSC WB TLS) is an innovative, flexible and lifelong learning system that has been developed with all in-house capabilities and resources. The system not only introduces technological awareness
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VOD (video on demand) Introduction
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Fig. 6 Components of the CPSC web-based teaching/learning system (WB TLS)
and benefits to its participants as a by-product, but also exemplifies knowledgemanagement, economizing the cost of programmes and introducing the latest trends in teaching and learning. So far, CPSC has launched more than a dozen web-based teaching and learning programmes on different topics utilizing its in-house facilities and resources. The overall structure and design of the programme can be understood from Fig. 6. All CPSC programmes are becoming web-based to provide continuous learning, to make learning easy and interactive and accessible anywhere anytime. The interactivity of these programmes is one of its unique features that makes them an outstanding and unique form for common e-learning programmes.
5 Challenges for Sustainable Human Resource Development 5.1 Globalization One major challenge for sustainable HRD is globalization. This process is fostered not only by technological change and the continually falling costs of ICTs, but also by the decisions of developing countries in Asia and the Pacific and elsewhere to embrace market-oriented development strategies and to open up their countries increasingly to the world economy. The world is thus fast becoming one interdependent global market-place with rising competitiveness. A key contributor in the success of the competitive global market is the knowledge and skills of the workforce within national boundaries and within enterprises. Thus, compared to the past, nations and organizations will need to update much more regularly the skills mix of their workforce and employees to respond to the opportunities or threats created by globalization and rapid technological change.
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Indeed, intense global competition is reconfiguring the market-place and each enterprise must differentiate itself from its competitors by the quality of the human systems and processes behind their products and services.
5.2 Cross-Border Workforce Flow and Investment The Asia and Pacific Region has seen waves of investment by Japanese, American and European companies. It has also seen cross-border investments by the four Asian ‘dragon’ economies of Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan and Singapore pushed by labour shortages, rising wages and stronger exchange rates. The three ‘tiger’ economies of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are also investing overseas. As other Asian countries industrialize successfully, they will also undertake cross-border investments. There has also been an increase in regional co-operation zones in the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). With this scenario, synergies among the regional and international human resource development organizations like CPSC need to develop strategies and plans to cope with challenges of cross-border workforce mobility with standard skills (Park, 2005b).
5.3 Technological Environmental Changes The convergence of ICTs has ushered in a big revolution in every facet of human life. Given the magnitude of the environmental changes that these ICTs have the potential to induce, it is vitally important that we understand how this revolution has changed, is changing and will continue to change our primitive community to an e-community—and now the u-world. Technology leaders should be aware of the need to improve existing common and special infrastructures in support of pervasive computing, digital convergence and stronger bandwidth. The next generation of Internet communication services, infrastructures and growth engines will see wireless broadband service, radio frequency identification, system-on-chip, embedded SW, DMB and others. Moreover, faculty and staff need re-training and up-training so as to be responsive to the calls of the new technology in TVET institutions (Park, 2005a).
5.4 Enhancing International Networks The development of sustainable human resources requires concerted efforts and approaches from all national, regional and international training organizations. With the globalization of markets and economies, the challenges are not specific to any one country or institution. Hence, strong networks and partnerships among regional and international organizations and institutions are required for the development of sustainable human resources.
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5.5 Increasing Cross-Cultural Communication and Experiences The Colombo Plan Staff College, with its nineteen member countries, is a crosscultural organization with varied internalized values, attitudes and behaviours, communication media, etc. The joint programmes and ventures, integrated, flexible and interactive teaching/learning activities provide opportunities for increased crosscultural communication and sharing of experiences. The challenge is to meet the expectations of all stakeholders with varied levels of needs and demands (Mahmood, Kim & Park, 2004).
6 Concluding Remarks Human resource development is a concerted process. No single department at the national level and no single agency at the regional or international level can do the HRD job successfully alone. To make the HRD programmes and projects successful and sustainable, ICTs play a very important role and provide the potential to make them flexible. However, it needs to be ensured that the majority of people in developing countries obtain access to the Internet and the digital divide is minimized to the maximum possible extent. The idea of e-communities and e-textbooks is gathering momentum and their careful planning and implementation would bring promising results. The international agencies, like UNESCO-UNEVOC, ILO, ADB, CPSC and others, should jointly undertake collaborative programmes utilizing their resources. In sustainable development, the three key areas that need to be taken into consideration are: economic sustainability; environmental sustainability; and social sustainability. For economic sustainability, the TVET system, including all of its essential elements, should ensure that learners/participants develop a wider set of economically-related knowledge skills and attitudes. For environmental sustainability, the TVET system must raise the participants’ and the course developers’ awareness of the use of scarce resources and minimize wastage. It should thus include areas like environmental concepts, personal values and life-styles and skills for critical thinking and practical action in HRD programmes. Social sustainability means that the basic needs of all participants are satisfied, regardless of their gender, ethnicity or location (Peng Boo Tan, 1997). It provides an equal opportunity to all to develop and utilize their talents.
References Asis, M.M.B. 2005. When men and women migrate: comparing gendered migration in Asia. Quezon City, Philippines: Scalabrini Migration Center. Churton, M. 2004. ICT implications for culture and development for learning. Bangkok: SEAMEO-UNESCO. Hermalin, A.I. et al. 2002. The well-being of the elderly in Asia: a four-country comparative study. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
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Kaosa-ard, M.S.; Rerkasem, B. 2000. The growth and sustainability of agriculture in Asia. Manila: ADB. Kinsella, K.; Phillips, D.R. 2005. Global aging: the challenge of success. Population bulletin, vol. 60, no. 1. Mahmood, T.; Kim Myong Hee; Park, M.-G. 2004. A short method for building web-based teaching and learning systems: the CPSC experience. (Paper presented at the International Conference on ‘New Challenges in Technology Education for HRD in Asia and the Pacific Region’, 20–21 September 2004, Kolkata, India.) Mendes, M.R. 2005. Urban environmental management challenges in Asia. Kanagawa, Japan: Institute for Global Environmental Strategies. Park M.-G. 2004. CPSC as a catalyst for regional accreditation and certification of TVET institutions: prospects and challenges.(Paper presented at the International Conference on Accreditation and Certification for TVET Institutions, 2–3 December 2004, Seoul, Republic of Korea.) Park, M.-G. 2005a. Transforming TVET systems with CPSC in Asia and the Pacific Region. (Paper presented at the International Conference on ‘New Challenges in Technology Education for HRD in Asia and the Pacific Region’, 20–21 September 2004, Kolkata, India.) Park M.-G. 2005b. Environmental changes through ICT from e-Community to U-World. (Paper presented at the International Conference on ‘Developing e-Community Centers’, Agra, India, 2–6 May 2005.) Peng Boo Tan. 1997. Human resources development in Asia and the Pacific in the 21st Century: issues and challenges for employers and their organizations. (Paper presented at the ILO Workshop on Employers’ Organizations in Asia-Pacific in the Twenty-First Century, Turin, Italy, 1997.) UNESCO. 1999. Second International Conference on Technical and Vocational Education: final report. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO-UNEVOC. 2004. TVET for sustainable development. UNESCO-UNEVOC Bulletin, no. 8, April. United Nations Development Programme. 2003. Human development report, 2003. New York, NY: UNDP. United Nations Population Fund. 2002. World population ageing 1950-2050. New York, NY: UNFPA. World Bank. 2003. World development indicators, 2002. Washington, DC: World Bank. <www.worldbank.org/data/wdi2005/index.html> World Health Organization/United Nations Children’s Fund. 2001. Global water supply and sanitation assessment 2000 report. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO; New York, NY: UNICEF.
Chapter IV.5
European Action Programmes for Lifelong Learning Johanna Lasonen
1 Introduction Vocational education and training has been a part of the process of creating a European community since the 1950s. The European training programmes Erasmus and Comett were launched in the 1980s. After the Maastricht Treaty, agreed in 1992, such training programmes were expanded further at the same time as emphasizing their importance to the internationalization of education. With a view to promoting and intensifying educational co-operation, in 1995 the European Commission created two new educational programmes called Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci. Both are umbrella schemes that brought together previously separate action programmes in the field of education. Leonardo da Vinci has been a European Union (EU) action programme in the field of vocational education and training that replaced earlier schemes such as Comett, Eurotechnet, Petra, Force and a part of Lingua. Leonardo I ran from 1995 to 1999, while Leonardo II covered the years 2000 to 2006. Socrates has been the EU umbrella programme for co-operation in school and higher education. Socrates I (1995–1999) was followed by Socrates II (2000– 2006). Since 2007, the European education and training programmes were further merged under the title Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP), being a successor to the Socrates, Leornardo da Vinci and e-Learning programmes. The LLP covers the period 2007 to 2013 with a budget of about 7 billion Euros. The overarching LLP initiative consists of learning opportunities from childhood to old age. The purpose of these programmes has been to promote the international mobility of students, teachers and educational administrators, develop educational practices, and make European education systems more transparent through mutual learning. The target group of these programmes has been individuals in schools, colleges, universities and companies. The motives behind internationalization include sustainable economic growth, competitiveness, a need for an educated workforce and social cohesion. This chapter describes the development of European education and training programmes, especially in TVET, and assesses their effectiveness.
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2 The Socrates1 Programme The European Economic Community, after its foundation in the 1950s, initially addressed educational matters only in the areas of vocational training and the transition from education to employment. When higher education became part of the European agenda in the 1970s, one of the first activities was to promote student mobility. Joint Study Programmes were established in 1976 and remained in operation for about a decade. They provided financial support for networks of departments that exchanged students for a period of up to one year and also included some funds—though on a modest scale. Subsequently, in 1987, the Erasmus programme was inaugurated. Its name not only reminded one of the Dutch humanist and theologian Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (1466–1536), but also served as an acronym for the European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students. Erasmus was intended to increase the quantity of European higher education activities and to broaden their scope. It rapidly became the most visible of the various newly emerging European educational programmes. Though its financial resources did not reach the amount needed to pursue the ambitious aim initially set by the European Community of supporting a temporary study period in another European country for 10% of higher education students, Erasmus became the largest student mobility programme hitherto established. A new chapter in the history of European support for temporary student mobility and trans-border co-operation between higher education institutions was expected to begin when the Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci programmes were established in 1995. Socrates integrated more than a dozen educational programmes which had been set up in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They were revised or supplemented to form two new large European programmes: Socrates for the different sectors of general education and Leonardo da Vinci for vocational education. Socrates absorbed Erasmus and Lingua, which became two of a total of five sub-programmes. The adult education sub-programme was the result of the restructuring of an already existing programme. The amount of funds available for adult education was substantially increased. Comenius was introduced as a sub-programme for the school sector, while open and distance learning were the most noteworthy additions to already existing programmes. The Socrates Institutional Contracts have covered a broad range of possible cooperation activities: organization of student mobility; teaching staff mobility; introduction of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS); curriculum development, including curricula at initial or intermediate level; programmes at advanced level; and modules focusing on the history, society, culture, politics or economies of other European countries, as well as integrated language courses. Student and teacher visits to universities in Europe have been among the most popular of the activities funded under the Socrates programme. Between 1997 and 2000 European universities, acting within the framework of the Socrates programme, entered into a total of 4,823 co-operation agreements (Lanzendorf & Teichler, 2002, p. 34).
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The first phase of Socrates, the European education programme, lasted five years. The figures covering this time (1996–2000) indicate that 500,000 students undertook a period of study in another European university, 10,000 schools formed European partnerships and thousands of projects were developed to promote European languages (European Commission, 2005). When Erasmus became a sub-programme of Socrates, support for student mobility and co-operation in higher education was substantially increased. In addition, the mobility of teaching staff and curricular innovation were now also promoted in the context of a special emphasis on a broad development of the European dimension in higher education and efforts to make the non-mobile students also benefit from European exchange activities. The second phase of the Socrates programme started in January 2000 and ran for seven years until 2006 (European Commission, 2000). The programme budget for this seven-year period was 1,850 million Euros. The second phase has continued along the same path as the first one while also introducing some new features. Two key ideas were emphasized: the promotion of lifelong learning and the building of a Europe of knowledge. The aims of the programme have been:
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to strengthen the European dimension of education at all levels; to improve knowledge of European languages; to promote co-operation and mobility throughout education; to encourage innovation in education; and to promote equal opportunities in all sectors of education.
The Socrates programme has consisted of eight actions: (1) Comenius on general school education; (2) Erasmus on higher education; (3) Grundtvig on adult education and other educational pathways; (4) Lingua on the learning of European languages; (5) Minerva on information and communication technologies (ICTs) in education; (6) observation on and innovation in education systems and policies; (7) joint actions with other European programmes; and (8) accompanying measures that bring flexibility, synergies and horizontal priorities. The first three actions have corresponded to the three stages that constitute milestones of education throughout life: school, university and adult education. The other five actions have been horizontal. All eight have had common priorities. Socrates has taken account of all types of learning, whether formal or informal, and all levels of education from nursery school to university and adult education, which is becoming increasingly important. Socrates has been relevant to all those involved in education: teachers, educational staff, administrative and management staff, pupils and students, all playing an increasingly active part in European co-operation projects. Until 2006, there have been a total of thirty-one countries taking part:
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Three EFTA (European Free Trade Area) countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway; Two associated countries: Bulgaria and Romania—(in due course, Turkey).
Socrates encourages the broad dissemination of information, ideas and good practice, for example through the setting up of networks. Since 2007, Comenius, Erasmus, Leonardo da Vinci and Grundtvig are the sectoral sub-programmes of the Lifelong Learning Programme—Socrates has been removed as a sub-programme.
3 The Leonardo da Vinci2 Programme The Leonardo da Vinci programme has been the first integrated community programme in the field of vocational education. The European Council approved the programme under Article 127 of the Maastricht Treaty, where it was stated that the Community must pursue TVET policies without harming the national legislation and decrees of the member states. The first phase of the Leonardo da Vinci programme was planned under the influence of earlier special programmes:
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Comett I (1986–1989) and Comett II (1990–1994) promoting co-operation between higher education establishments and industry; Eurotecnet (1990–1994) promoting innovation in education; Force (1991–1994) developing further education, continuing vocational education (CVT); Petra I (1987–1991) and Petra II (1990–1994) on vocational training of young people, initial vocational education and training (IVET) and transition from school to work; Lingua (1990–1994) on developing language skills.
Among the challenges faced in designing the Leonardo programme was integrating all these previous programmes into a single unified whole with a view to achieving a sharper focus on developing educational policy. Leonardo da Vinci is a vocational education and training programme whose legal basis was laid down in Article 10, paragraph 4 of Council Decision 94/819/EC taken on 6 December 1994 (European Commission, 1994). It was resolved that the development of educational policy would also be promoted through co-operation across national boundaries and through innovation and exchange activities. This came to form the practical basis for the Leonardo da Vinci programme, whose first phase lasted five years (1995–1999) and which was adopted as the main tool of European educational policy. The programme was allocated a budget of 620 million Euros with nineteen objectives. They included fostering the quality of and innovatory activities in the education systems of EU member states and promoting lifelong learning, the education of disadvantaged target groups, educational access, language education, equal educational opportunities, transparency of qualifications,
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open education and distance education, vocational guidance, and co-operation between higher education establishments and industry. The budget of the second phase (2000–2006) of the Leonardo da Vinci Programme was raised to 1,150 million Euros. The objectives of the second phase of the programme were:
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to improve the skills and competencies of people, especially of young people, in vocational training at all levels with a view to facilitating their integration and reintegration into the labour market; to improve the quality of and access to continuing vocational training and promote the lifelong acquisition of skills and competencies; to promote and reinforce the contribution of vocational training to the process of innovation with a view to improving competitiveness and entrepreneurship, also as a means of creating new employment opportunities.
A central feature and advantage of the Leonardo da Vinci programme has been its cross-national character. Each project was required to have partners from not less than two or three different member states. This has enabled the programme to influence educational practices in Europe through cross-cultural exchanges of experiences. In 2003, the Directorate-General for Education and Culture of the European Commission ordered the external interim evaluation of the Leonardo da Vinci II Programme. Between 2000 and 2002, the programme brought together more than 77,000 partners to work on a shared project idea (European Commission, 2004). Such partnerships have made it possible to establish permanent networks for collaboration across national boundaries and for the exchange of good practices. The programme has become well-known through its promotion of trans-border mobility, which has allowed participants to gain work and study experience abroad. The programme has provided funding for staff and trainee exchanges benefiting nearly 127,000 people in vocational education. Effectiveness improved in 2000–2002 compared to the previous programme period (1995–1999). The number of beneficiaries increased and the quality of mobility projects improved. The number of pilot projects increased between 2000 and 2002 (180 pilot projects in 2000 and 204 in 2001). The experiences acquired through these exchanges have fostered young people’s personal development, helped them to improve their self-confidence and language skills, and to understand different cultures, working methods and organizations. Project outcomes indicate that residence abroad has also had a positive effect on the participants’ employability. Further, the Council’s decision on the Europass certificate was specifically based on the outcomes of Leonardo da Vinci projects. The Europass certificate lists work experience accumulated in other countries. Similarly, the Green Paper on mobility and other initiatives broadening the opportunities of European students’ vocational education emerged mainly as a result of exchanges that took place as a part of the Leonardo Programme. The programme functioned also as a development centre for innovation and experimentation. Pilot projects were a central tool of the programme, with partners from different countries working on a shared project idea and testing it in practice. More than 2,500 innovative
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trans-border pilot projects generated a great number of different products, such as new curricula, study modules, information materials, manuals, study materials and work tools (European Commission, 2005). Disseminating the innovations identified in these products is a major future challenge. However, the most profound impacts can be achieved when project partners learn from cross-national activities. Intercultural learning in vocational education is a major step towards a citizens’ Europe, where exchanging experiences and promoting common goals are a part of daily reality. The enlargements of the European Union in May 2005 with ten countries and in January 2007 with two more countries have also been a central concern in programme development. A decision in 1997 by the relevant association councils allowed EU candidate countries to take part in the programme. Towards the end of 1999 the programme benefited from the participation of fifteen EU member states, three EFTA countries from the European Economic Area and eleven candidate countries, amounting to a total of twenty-nine countries. In the twenty-first century, some thirty-one countries could participate. In the candidate countries the programme has attracted widespread interest, and it has clearly helped these countries to prepare their education systems for EU membership. The Leonardo da Vinci Programme has been able to make a substantial contribution to the development of cross-national initiatives in the field of TVET and the internationalization of best TVET practices related to teaching quality and teaching contents, innovations and expanding the European dimension. However, in planning the new Lifelong Learning Programme phase, account has been taken not only of the strengths but also of the weaknesses of the first and second phases of the programmes. The difficulties that arose during the implementation of the first phase were due to the complexity of the centralized administration of the programme. Another weakness was that inadequate attention was paid to designing the programme with a view to complementing other schemes in the fields of education and training. The Commission has ensured that the experiences gained during the first phase were put to use in the second phase by simplifying procedures and continuing with the decentralization of programme administration. The Leonardo da Vinci Programme has been a central tool in the work to evolve lifelong learning strategies generating synergies between the EU’s educational and employment policies. Additionally, among the aims of the second phase was that of involving certain agents—particularly labour-market organizations and small and medium enterprises (SMEs)—more closely in vocational education across national boundaries. The Leonardo da Vinci programme has been a central factor in efforts to promote active citizenship encompassing the EU as a whole, at the same time as it has also been used to illustrate what a citizens’ Europe should mean.
4 The Lifelong Learning Programme (2007–2013) Lifelong learning ‘refers to all general education, vocational education and training, non-formal education and informal learning undertaken throughout life, resulting in an improvement in knowledge, skills and competences within personal, civic, social
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and/or employment-related perspectives. It includes the provision of counselling and guidance services’ (European Commission, 2006b, p. 6). The Lifelong Learning Programme consists of four sub-programmes:
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the Comenius Programme (1,047 million Euros) for pre-school and formal education up to the level of upper secondary education (ISCED-3); the Erasmus Programme (3,114 million Euros) for higher vocational and academic education, including trans-national student placement in enterprises; the Leonardo da Vinci Programme (1,725 million Euros) for vocational education and training in schools or enterprises; and the Grundtvig Programme (358 million Euros) for adult education.
Additionally, the LLP includes the transversal programme (369 million Euros) linking the four sub-programmes. The four key transversal activities consist of: (a) policy co-operation and innovation in lifelong learning; (b) promotion of language learning; (c) development of innovative ICT-based content, services, pedagogies and practice for lifelong learning; and (d) dissemination and exploitation of the results and exchange of good practices. Finally, the new Jean Monnet Programme (170 million Euros) supports institutions, mainly higher education institutions, in European integration (European Commission 2006a, 2006b). During the Leonardo da Vinci Programme, some 50,000 funding receivers in 2006 will be increased to 80,000 receivers in 2013. Each European Member State has a chance to increase trans-national activities in vocational education and training, The funding and activities of the LLP Programme are available to twenty-seven European Union member states, to Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway—and to Turkey. The programme period is seven years. The share of the Leonardo da Vinci Programme in the LLP budget (some 7 billion Euros) is about 25%. The Leonardo da Vinci Programme addresses the teaching and learning needs of all persons in vocational education and training, other than at tertiary level, as well as institutions and organizations that provide TVET. The difference between the previous and new programme period is the exclusion of tertiary education. The actions of the Leonardo da Vinci Programme comprise mobility of individuals, multilateral projects in development and transfer of innovations, networks and accompanying measures, such as dissemination and valorization activities.
5 Impact of the Leonardo da Vinci Programme on Enhancement of TVET The Leonardo da Vinci and other European education programmes have focused on countering social exclusion and under-achievement at school through the provision of support targeting disadvantaged groups and the promotion of equal opportunities for women and men. Special attention has been paid to language learning, particularly to the learning of those languages that are less widely used and taught. There has also been an emphasis on the importance of studying in a multicultural environment as one of the cornerstones of European citizenship. The new information and communication technologies (ICTs) have permeated the whole programme.
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The status of vocational education rose considerably in the 1990s; it was seen as a central means of responding to the increasingly rapid changes in society and the economy and of promoting employment, social cohesion and competitiveness. There was also a broadening awareness of the importance of lifelong learning in terms of knowledge, skills and qualifications. Lifelong learning has gained a central role also in vocational education because it made it possible to improve employment and adaptability as a part of efforts to formulate a European employment strategy. The European educational policy was articulated in two White Papers (European Commission, 2001, 1995).
5.1 The Effect on the Internationalization of Education Systems According to an external evaluation report and national reports, as well as reports by labour-market parties, the Leonardo Programme exerted important and substantial influence on, in particular, the people and organizations who actually took part in it and their immediate environment (European Commission, 2005). The effects involved primarily the internationalization of education systems, which also improved the external image of vocational education systems. As many of the applicants saw it, the innovations sought in the programme referred to the integration into vocational education of a European dimension or co-operation across national boundaries. The trade unions that took part in the projects considered that the programme promoted learning from other countries in the area of innovation and quality. Many reports make a particular mention of the positive effects that the programme had had on learning processes, such as the evolution of cross-national collaboration into networks and collaboration groups. As regards the contents of vocational education, the programme affected the scheduling of study modules, language education and the introduction of new technology in education. According to the evaluations, it was the effects of the mobility-promoting aspects of the programme that were felt most strongly; moreover, they were highly positive from the perspective of individual beneficiaries. Nearly all reports state that mobility projects across national boundaries succeeded in equipping students with new social and intercultural skills, enhancing their self-confidence, improving their access to the labour market, and making them more familiar with new working methods. Those students who were given a Leonardo da Vinci grant for a stay abroad described innumerable positive work and learning experiences. Some of their accounts point out that, through the experience gained by the programme participants, mobility has a highly important long-term effect on the quality of education. Simultaneously, this increases demand for mobility. Taking part in pilot projects affected learning in collaboration processes across country boundaries, while participation in mobility projects generated intercultural education and provided European young people with work experience. The success stems from the efforts made in the programme to base supra-national activities on a uniform approach. The fields where the effects of the programme were felt indicate that it was able to foster the development of European citizenship (European Commission, 2004, 2005).
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5.2 The Effect on National Education Systems and Esteem for TVET In the EU candidate countries, the effect of the programme on education systems was quite clear. As described in the reports submitted by these countries, the areas affected most strongly by the programme were the modernization of their education systems and—possibly most importantly—their EU membership process. In Romania, for example, the programme was explicitly associated with a reform of initial vocational education and recently issued draft legislation on further and supplementary education. In this context, an external evaluation credited the programme with having initiated change in the economic systems of these countries. In 2001, the European Union could look back on twenty-five years of promoting student mobility and cooperation in higher education, including vocational higher education. Within this quarter of a century the activities supported had expanded from involving about 100 departments and about 1,000 students to almost 1,800 higher education institutions and about 100,000 students spending a period of study in another European country each year. Though certain core functions have remained the same since the beginning, the nature of the activities and the organizational context of the programme changed in many respects over the years (Teichler, Gordon & Maiworm, 2001). K¨am¨ar¨ainen and Fischer (2008), who have studied the impact of the European programmes through research on knowledge accumulation of TVET, indicated that a section of ‘Surveys and Analyses’ of the Leonardo da Vinci Programme has produced the research results dealing with the issue of parity of esteem between vocational and general education pathways in Europe (see also Lasonen, 1996; Lasonen & Young, 1998). The issues of attractiveness of TVET and parity of esteem are still the priorities of European education and training policies (European Commission, 2006a).
5.3 Transparency of Qualifications The internationalization and multiculturalization of work and learning environments have contributed to a conscious attention to cultural competence. The discussions about key qualifications launched in the early 1970s focused on the renewal of occupational competencies and on knowledge and competence structures of a new kind. No particular attention was yet paid to the transparency of competencies across national boundaries, nor was (multi)cultural competence seen as a relevant topic in the then debate. Since the 1990s, there has been a continued emphasis on the significance of transparent TVET practices and qualifications. The Copenhagen Declaration in 2002 meant the start of a process of intensifying co-operation in the field of TVET in Europe. It is thought to have been stimulated by the Bologna Process in higher
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education that had been launched in 1999. There has been an endeavour to clarify qualification and competence requirements so as to make qualifications and competencies more readily understandable and more valued on the labour markets of Europe. Every EU/ETA country has named a NPR (national reference point for vocational qualifications) contact point that provides information about the country’s vocational qualifications and its recognition of occupational competence acquired in another EU/ETA country. The ENIC3 /NARIC4 network is responsible for degrees and matters pertaining to their recognition. The activities of ENIC are co-ordinated by the Council of Europe and UNESCO (ENIC/NARIC Network, 2005). As a part of and as concrete measures stemming from the Copenhagen and Bologna processes, a supra-national credit transfer system is being developed, both in higher education and in TVET. A start has been made on setting up a supporting system—the European Qualifications Framework (EQF)—for initial vocational education and training. Efforts to find out how the transparency, comparability and mutual recognition of qualifications across different countries and different levels of education systems can be promoted by developing common principles and indicators for assuring the standard of qualifications and study credits. These date from 2002, when the EU appointed a working group for the purpose. The Europass certificate was created in 1999 for use in the EU/ETA countries. In 2000–2003 the eighteen participating countries issued some 50,000 Europasses. For example, about 2,000 Finnish students have earned a Europass. Upper secondary students are an overwhelming majority (93.3%) among those who have completed study modules meant to qualify them for a Europass. To its holder, a Europass is a document certifying their working and educational career in a form that is identical in all EU/ETA countries. To education providers, it is a tool for organizing international study modules (Opetushallitus, 2005).
5.4 Towards a Multicultural Society Internationalization and multicultural co-operation are no new phenomena in national education systems. What is new is that in the last few decades internationalization has increasingly become an option available to everyone, including those teaching and studying in vocational education establishments. The Leonardo da Vinci Programme is an excellent example of internationalization in this area. Traditionally, vocational education provision has been local and national. This is because the contents of vocational competence are more mutable than those of, for example, general education. The ways in which expert workers are trained tend to change in response to shifts in national occupational structures, technological development, changing natural resources and economic factors, and the current employment situation. The factors that have led to the internationalization of vocational education and training provision include both trends towards democracy and equality and globalization itself—the internationalization of the economy. There is an indirect link
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between globalization and how the structures of vocational training and qualification requirements have been developed at national level. Workforce preparation is shaped by an increasingly international labour market, the exchange of consumer goods and services, and multinational commerce. European and national educational and exchange programmes designed with a view to boosting international co-operation, mobility and transparency have led to a substantial expansion in student and teacher exchanges and in multinational joint projects between educational establishments. The aim of multicultural education is to foster students’ cultural identity and offer every student a high standard of education. A meeting between different cultures is a meeting also between different world pictures, life-styles and practices. Unconsciously or consciously, education involves beliefs about and explanations of how we should handle otherness and value diversity, how we should treat a stranger who thinks differently from ourselves, and what we should teach future workers about the creation of a more just society and world. At its best, the diversity surrounding us exerts a benign influence on individuals’ and groups’ experiences, consumption patterns, life-styles and identity. Interculturality is seen as an opportunity to reform education and pedagogical strategies. Cultural competence is an occupational core competence. The effectiveness of intercultural co-operation depends on professional expertise and adaptation and interaction skills. It may be assumed that cultural competence emerges when intercultural awareness develops into the understanding and the knowledge and skills needed to operate smoothly in diverse environments, together with different people. Multicultural competence refers to attitudes, knowledge and skills and the social and cultural awareness required if one is to cope in intercultural situations. As regards the nature of multicultural competence, we may ask whether it is a separate field of expertise or whether it should be seen as an essential component of practical competence. It might be argued that cultural competence should be considered an internal element of every type of domain-specific expertise. Understood in a broad sense, competence covers personal characteristics, core competence and domain-specific skills. Occupational competence includes basic domain-specific skills, specialized competencies, technical and social rationality, interaction skills, and the ability to live with diversity and understand it in the context of production systems. Interculturality is an essential constituent of every field of occupational competence. As regards the qualifications of an expert, the various constituent elements of competence are integrated into an aggregate of knowledge and skills rather than representing separate and distinct catalogues of features. Multicultural competence is an inbuilt element of the given occupational domain and its practices and functions, rather than an external addition. This entails also an awareness of one’s occupational domain and job as a part of the global economy. In short, multicultural competence is competence of a high standard to operate effectively in multicultural work environments and learn there. However, the European education and training programmes have potential to contribute more to the development of coherent multicultural societies.
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6 Conclusions The internationalization of education is a process shaped by political, economic and cultural relations. Its political motives are linked—directly or indirectly—with foreign and security policies, the promotion of peace and mutual understanding, and the strengthening of national and regional identities. The aim of the EU action programmes in education and training has been to create links between various areas of education and stimulate co-operation in European matters across different education systems. As large umbrella programmes, they symbolize the extension, since the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, of the responsibility of the European Union to all areas of education. Education, training and learning make it possible to promote interculturality and social pluralism. At the global level, education contributes to the success of individuals, nations and economies. European and national educational programmes designed with a view to boosting international co-operation and mobility have led to a substantial expansion in student and teacher exchanges and in multinational joint projects between educational establishments. New contexts require a better understanding of multiculturalism, more interaction skills and more conflict resolution and problem-solving skills. Multicultural competence is a natural component of expertise and professional identity. The internationalization of education should involve as its by-product the fostering of students’ and teachers’ intercultural competence. A problem facing these efforts is the circumstance that internationalization at the system level, the multiculturalization of societies and the curriculum-level implementation of intercultural learning do not necessarily support each other; instead, they are handled as separate issues. Education for intercultural understanding is intended to train people to work as intermediaries between, as interpreters of and as fully empowered members of different cultures. Multiculturalism, anti-racism, the fostering of ethnic equality, intercultural understanding, globalization education, new forms of communication and sustainable development pose new challenges to education and training and to their exchange programmes.
Notes 1. Socrates was a Greek philosopher who believed in a humanist vision of the world and rejected dogmatism. His maxim ‘Know thyself’ is a fundamental basis for self-knowledge and respect for self and other people. 2. The programme was named to commemorate an Italian genius, Leonardo da Vinci, born in 1452 in Vinci in the Republic of Florence, who epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. He was a painter, sculptor, architect and engineer. 3. ENIC—Network of National Information Centres. 4. NARIC—Network of National Academic Recognition Centres.
References ENIC-NARIC Network. 2005. The European gateway to recognition of academic and professional qualifications. <www.enic-naric.net>
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European Commission. 1994. Council Decision No 94/819/EC of 6 December 1994, Article 10, paragraph 4 on a European Union programme on vocational education and training. Official journal of the European Union L 340, 29.12.1994/8–24. <europa.eu.int/comm/education/doc/ official/index en.html> European Commission. 1995. Teaching and learning: towards a cognitive society. <europa.eu.int/ comm/education/doc/official/keydoc/lb-en.pdf> European Commission. 2000. Decision No 253/2000/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 January 2000 establishing the second phase of the Community action programme in the field of education ‘Socrates’. Official journal of the European Communities 3.2.2000 L28/1–15. <europa.eu.int/comm/education/doc/official/index en.html> European Commission. 2001. European Commission White Paper: a new impetus for European youth. <europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2001/com2001 0681en01.pdf> European Commission. 2004. Report from the Commission: interim report on the implementation of the second phase of the Leonardo da Vinci Programme. <europa.eu.int/comm/education/ programmes/evaluation/evaluation en.html> European Commission. 2005. Evaluation of programmes and initiatives in the field of education and training. <europa.eu.int/comm/education/programmes/evaluation/evaluation en.html> European Commission. 2006a. Decision No 1720/2006/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 November 2006 establishing an action programme in the field of lifelong learning. Official journal of the European Union, 24.11.2006 L327/45. <europa.eu.int/comm/education/doc/official/index en.html> European Commission. 2006b. The Lifelong Learning Programme, 2007–2013. <europa.eu.int/ comm/education/programmes/llp/index en.html> K¨am¨ar¨ainen, P.; Fischer, M. 2008. Research on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in the context of European co-operation. In: Rauner, F.; Maclean, R., eds. Handbook of technical and vocational education and training research. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Lanzendorf, U.; Teichler, U. 2002. The policies of higher education institutions. In: Teichler, U., ed. Erasmus in the Socrates Programme, pp. 13–28. Bonn, Germany: Lemmens. (ACA Papers on International Co-operation in Education.) Lasonen, J. 1996. Reforming upper secondary education in Europe: surveys of strategies for post16 education to improve parity of esteem for initial vocational education in eight European educational systems. Jyv¨askyl¨a, Finland: University of Jyv¨askyl¨a, Institute for Educational Research. (Publication Series B: Theory into Practice, no. 92). Lasonen, J.; Young, M. 1998. Strategies for achieving parity of esteem in European upper secondary education. Jyv¨askyl¨a, Finland: University of Jyv¨askyl¨a, Institute for Educational Research. Opetushallitus. 2005. Europass. <www.oph.fi> Teichler, U.; Gordon, J.; Maiworm, F. 2001. Socrates 2000 evaluation study. Brussels: European Commission. <europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/education culture/evalreports/education/2001/ soci-expost/soc1xpsum en.pdf>
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Chapter IV.6
VET in the Baltic States: Analysis of Commonalities and Differences of Reforms in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania ¨ Frank Bunning and Berit Graubner
1 Introduction The development of vocational education and training (VET) is a major concern of the Lisbon strategy for the prosperity of Europe in the twenty-first century. As the Baltic States have been one of the focuses of attention for European VET policy after their application for accession to the European Union, reforms in VET have enjoyed special attention there. The enlargement of the European Union and related challenges have been key drivers for European policy. Since the Lisbon Council met in 2000, the development of VET has been high on the European political agenda. The Copenhagen Declaration of 2002 endorsed the commitment to intensify European co-operation in this area. The newest member states of the EU—among them the Baltic States—are now involved in the implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration and can be seen as a source of enormous (human) potential which will contribute significantly to the objective of greater co-operation. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are three neighbouring countries that have shared a recent common history. It seems of particular interest to analyse the attempts to reform their (vocational) education systems, since the dynamic and speed of reform is a significant impetus for the development of a common European era. This chapter describes approaches to reform of VET in the Baltic States. The socio-economic background of the Baltic States, aspects of lifelong learning and their correlation with European education policy form the backdrop to the outline of essential steps for VET reform in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Despite the commonalities that the Baltic States share, it would be a sweeping generalization to speak about the ‘Baltic VET’ reform. The three countries have launched their very own reforms to develop VET systems that meet the demands of twenty-first-century Europe. This chapter describes the reforms of the individual states, noting the diversity and commonality of approaches to reform.
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2 VET in the Light of the Socio-Economic and Political Situation Despite their status as independent states, their individual historical development, language and traditions, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania share much in terms of political, economic and social life. Their development in the twentieth century was very much determined by independence after the First World War followed by Soviet (and for a short time German) occupation during and after the Second World War. As a result of the latter, the three Baltic neighbours share a significant history resulting in similar political, economic and social structures. Consequently, the education systems, including VET, have, in the past, shown a general congruence. After more than forty years of Soviet occupation, however, they regained sovereignty and independence in 1990 (Lithuania) and 1991 (Estonia and Latvia), which allowed them to rethink and reshape themselves into democratic republics. All three set themselves the goal of accession to the European Union (EU). After all preconditions had been fulfilled, the three states were formally declared full members of the EU on 1 May 2004, a crucial cornerstone in the Baltic States’ history. Being now equal partners, they have been enjoying special attention in European policy. During the process of application for accession to the EU, each of the Baltic countries harmonized its legislation according to EU norms and principles. After regaining their sovereignty, the three countries started their development independently of each other. In each of the Baltic States decentralization has been one of the most urgent items on the agendas throughout society. This also applied to the education system in general and the vocational educational and training sector in particular. However, as the goal of ensuring mobility among students and the workforce gained importance, co-operation in VET became indispensable. In 1998, the agreement on the creation of a common educational space in general upper secondary education and vocational (up to higher education level) education within the Baltic States was signed. Like the political system, similarities can also be found in the countries’ economic development. Transformational processes from centrally-planned to a marketdriven economy began to establish themselves after the political changes and, in general, economic activity has increased steadily since the end of the 1990s. Surveys state that: ‘the hitherto consequent reforms have solidified the foundation of a market economy, created a stable macro-economic environment and garnered the trust of investors’ (Ramina, Hodireva & Silina, 2002, p. 9). Nevertheless, large-scale problems had to be overcome: inflation, which temporarily increased to a dramatic peak (e.g. 1,021% in Lithuania in 1992 compared to the previous year), had largely been fostered by the internal and external price convergence that accompanied price liberalization (Hamburgisches WeltWirtschafts-Archiv, 2006). Large-scale privatization programmes and policy strategies to support small and medium-sized enterprises have helped to considerably increase gross domestic product (GDP) in recent years. The economy at the turn of the millennium was characterized by a considerable growth in exports and a favourable economic situation: the moderate domestic inflation and the strong US dollar, coupled with expanding industries due to co-operation
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with international neighbours, increased activities in the oil sector and therefore the use of Baltic Sea terminals (e.g. Riga, Ventspils, Klaipeda, etc.) and this rapid diversification and dynamism had encouraging impacts on Baltic economies. In recent years, the focus of economic growth has shifted slightly from the domestic market towards an increase in exports to Western European countries. Owing to small domestic markets, exports—and thus international economic co-operation—have become more dominating. After successfully reorienting its export flow towards Western European countries, Lithuania, for example, increased its GDP by as much as 5.9% in 2002 and Estonia 6% in the same year (Statistics Lithuania, 2002; Annus, J˜ogi & Tilmanis, 2006, p. 26). Preparations for the common EU market and efforts towards free-market competitiveness proved to be key drivers for positive economic development. In order to reach market economy competitiveness, companies and enterprises were challenged to restructure their business activities, to reorganize business processes and adapt them to market demands. Governmental programmes and foreign (especially EU) investment are still important sources of support for the Baltic economies, e.g. more than 50% of Latvia’s direct foreign investment comes from EU countries. Inflation still remains comparatively high today in Latvia, with 6.2% in 2004, whereas Estonia’s inflation rate has fallen steadily in recent years to 3.0% in 2004 and is expected to further converge towards the EU average of 2.1%. Lithuania’s inflation rate at 1.1% was even below the EU average (2004). Differences in GDP (data referring to GDP per head) are equally spread among the Baltic States: Estonia is ahead with 6,700 Euros, followed by Lithuania with 5,200 Euros and Latvia with 4,800 Euros, in comparison with the EU-25 average of 22,400 Euros (EDS-Europ¨aischer Datenservice, n.d.). One consequence of the developments outlined above is far-reaching changes in the employment situation. Some economic sectors have experienced enormous declines, among them agriculture, construction and processing industries, while others, most of all the service sector, transport and communications, have benefited. Thus, employment figures in the declining sectors have shrunk drastically, while the developing branches have faced and are still facing the growing need for qualified workers. Technological progress has also contributed to some extent to the rise in unemployment figures. Despite various attempts and a number of successfully implemented strategies and programmes to reform and optimize the VET and labour-market training structures, one of the greatest problems still to be solved is the imbalance between supply and demand. While there are high unemployment rates, with a considerable number of youth, women and long-term unemployed, enterprises report a lack of sufficiently qualified labour. Alarmingly, the highest number of unemployed, especially in Latvia, is among young secondary vocational education graduates (41.8% according to the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia, 2001). This clearly highlights the mismatch between skills, experience and qualifications gained within education and training and the actual demands of the labour market. To this should be added a large socio-economic discrepancy between economic centres and larger cities, on the one hand, and rural regions, smaller towns and
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peripheral areas, on the other, in terms of investment, economic development, demography and employment. While education already plays a significant role in the organization of a society, it becomes even more important in the fundamental changes affecting the Baltic States. VET, as the educational sector that prepares young people for their professional lives and that guides employees throughout their working lives, must be given special attention. It is influenced by political, social and economic factors, but has itself social and economic roles and responsibilities. The current employment situation, present labour-market demands and the growing social and regional anomalies have an extensive impact on the further development of the vocational education and training system in all three of the Baltic States, as is shown in the following section.
3 Educational Reform Movements 3.1 Estonia Estonia’s education system has experienced significant changes since the beginning of the 1990s. The current education policy reflects liberal economic and political developments. Much attention is being paid to such issues as privatization and community responsibility for schools and cost efficiency in education. A number of initiatives in recent years (Learning Estonia, Education Scenarios 2010, Tiger Leap Programme and Education Forum) foster the new approaches of the post-Soviet era. In 1999/2000, the education strategy Learning Estonia was set up, developed by the Estonian Ministry of Education and the Education Forum Task Force (involving social partners and non-governmental organizations—NGOs). The draft of Learning Estonia had been the subject of discussion for two years (2000–2001) before it was adopted by the government. In 2001, the development strategy Knowledge-based Estonia, the Action Plan for the Development of Vocational Education, the Higher Education Reform Strategy and the National Development Strategy on Youth Work were approved and put into practice (Annus et al., 2001). The Action Plan for the Development of Vocational Education, 2001–2004, summarizes wide-ranging measures to improve the quality of vocational education. Much attention is paid to labour-market relevance and the broadening of access for all age groups. The Action Plan puts special emphasis on the development of regional training centres providing primary training for students, retraining for adults, pre-training for students in general secondary education, and vocational education and training for people with special needs. Detailed targets for the reform of the VET system were set in the Action Plan for Developing the Estonian VET System, 2001–2004. It defined a total of twenty-three tasks linked to specific targets to be achieved in the period 2001–2004:
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to increase the number of VET students by 8% per year; to decrease the drop-out rate from 13% (in 2000) to 8% by 2004;
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to privatize approximately 30% of VET schools and providers by 2004; to change the student/teacher ratio from 12:1 in 2000 to 16:1; to increase the number of teachers with university degrees from 75% (2000) to 100% in 2004; to double the amount of foreign-language classes in all programmes; to increase the focus of VET programmes on vocational standards; to achieve more with public funding.
The implementation of this Action Plan and the extent to which the targets have been met is questionable (Annus, J˜ogi & Tilmanis, 2006, p. 33).
3.2 Latvia After the national independence of Latvia in 1991, major changes were initiated in the education system. As part of the changes and reforms, the weaknesses of VET were addressed and objectives were identified. In 1997, the report on Vocational education and training reform in Latvia (Bernan Associates, 1997) identified the main weaknesses of the current vocational education and training system. In summary, they were as follows:
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Unsatisfactory legal foundation. The Law on Education, adopted in 1991, regulates only the administration of initial VET and stipulates its structure. The legislation does not integrate the social partners in VET curriculum development. Insufficient structure for the provision of initial VET, continuing vocational training (CVT) and retraining. An inadequate network of institutions (VET providers, research centres, etc.).
This analysis of weaknesses served as an impetus for the reform process. In particular, the co-operation of VET providers and employers was sought. In doing so, the Tripartite Co-operation Sub-Council for Vocational Education and Training Reform and Employment was established in 2000. This is a subdivision of the National Tripartite Co-operation Council, an institution aiming to foster co-operation between governmental bodies, employers and unions, as well as institutions concerned by national VET policy. Despite far-reaching reforms to strengthen VET in Latvia, it would appear that further restructuring would be beneficial to a coherent strategy. In particular, the management of VET under the jurisdiction of different ministries results in fragmented provision, ‘since, of course, the ministries, first of all, take into consideration the interests of their branch and then solve the VET administrative issues independently from other ministries: plan the network of educational establishments, enrolment of students, financial resources and, in co-operation with the educational support institutions under their jurisdiction, they plan curriculum and provide education quality control’ (Lanka & M¯urnieks, 2006, p. 66). This approach does not encourage coherent provision and could arguably be reviewed.
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3.3 Lithuania The reform of vocational education in Lithuania was initiated very soon after independence in 1990. The first steps in the reform were the development of a vocational education policy and strategy. The endorsement of international co-operation was encouraged. However, the early years in the reform had very limited impact on political decisions concerning VET. In the middle of the 1990s, reforms focusing on the principle of decentralization were launched. Much attention was paid to the modernization of the teaching curriculum and social partnership development. Furthermore, in the mid-1990s, increased attention was given to involving the participation of educational institutions in the reform of vocational education policies, strategies and the development of curricula. The Law on Vocational Education and Training was adopted in 1997. It provided the legal foundation for the current structure and administration of the vocational education and training system of Lithuania. The law fosters the co-operation of governmental institutions and social partners. It defines the provision of initial VET (oriented towards the continuous education of young people) and labour-market vocational training (oriented towards adult continuous and, in some cases, initial vocational training). The 1999 White Paper on Vocational Education and Training in the Republic of Lithuania set out the direction for the development of vocational education and training. One of the White Paper’s objectives is to ensure compatibility of education and qualifications with relevant recommendations within the EU, while at the same time retaining national identity. One of the challenges in the reform of the Lithuanian VET system has been the involvement of social partners. The lack of employers’ interest in VET has been addressed elsewhere and is not the focus of this chapter. Additional weaknesses are vocational counselling and the low esteem of VET in Lithuania. Prior to the reform, a vocational orientation system had been in practice. One deficit of the prior system was that it tended to advise only the weaker students to follow a career pathway in VET. In doing so, VET in Lithuania suffered from the reputation of being a pathway for the less academically privileged. The current problems are under-developed vocational counselling systems in general education schools, the lack of qualified counsellors, the lack of a vocational counselling strategy and methodology (Lauˇzackas & Danileviˇcius, 2006, p. 76). Closely linked with the efforts to reform the VET systems are the approaches to strengthen lifelong learning processes in the Baltic States as part of the transition to a market economy, while continuing technological progress has changed employment and occupational structures fundamentally.
4 The Lifelong Learning Perspective of VET in the Baltic States Recent discussions on VET policy and strategies show that its definition has changed considerably from the original narrow concept of ‘preparing young people for a fixed profession, a specific working place’ to the broader understanding of VET
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as a process that is not finished when a person obtains his or her certificate on successful completion of initial training. As outlined above, economic development in the Baltic States, as in any other modern society, is subject to constant evolution. The challenges of a modern market economy and technological progress have had substantial impacts on employment and occupational structures. VET graduates starting their professional career cannot expect to fill the same workplace all their lives, i.e. to be trained for one particular field of occupation that is going to secure their job for a lifetime. Reality shows that the constant changes in market demands, technology and employment structures, even in professions, set the agenda for different demands on today’s working population. VET needs to be reorganized and restructured in order to meet changing labour-market demands on the current and future workforce. As economic trends tend to change rapidly, it is difficult at each stage to predict what kinds of professions are needed and how many employees will be required for what field. That is why employers need workers who show a high degree of flexibility and mobility, the capacity to work with modern equipment and who keep themselves up to date with new technologies. They should also have a good command of their first and at least one or two foreign languages and possess skills in various occupational fields and profiles. VET must no longer provide only basic professional knowledge and skills, but it is even more essential to impart the capacity to learn, to teach learning strategies and to be able quickly to learn how to use new technology. People should be aware that school and vocational education only set the foundations for each individual’s further development. Education that clearly evokes an awareness of the need and that provides the necessary preconditions for lifelong learning is high on European political agendas. Thus, implementing policies to develop lifelong learning strategies is also one of the major goals in the Baltic States.
4.1 Latvia Latvia has developed the Lifelong Learning Memorandum, where the most important basic skills needed are listed, e.g. the ability to work with information and communication technologies (ICTs), the capacity to acquire, analyse and share information, knowledge of foreign languages, etc. (Ramina, Hodireva & Silina, 2002, p. 17). Continuing vocational training (CVT) has been given special attention since the Law on Vocational Education, which came into force on 1 September 2001. This includes a broadened focus on further education and training. There is no secure statistical data on the number of people who participated in CVT courses, but as far as businesses are concerned, the motivation and capability to invest in personnel training appears to be slightly higher in large enterprises, where the potential increase in profit acts as a stimulus. The Latvian Government has established the State Employment Service, an institution that organizes training and retraining for the unemployed aiming at improvement of employability and fast reentry into the labour market. Responsibility for adult education has been transferred to the regional governments. Since investment in the adult education sector is within
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the remit of local government, large regional differences occur—at best there exist well-organized and functioning, local government-funded adult education centres.
4.2 Estonia Similar to Latvia, Estonia, too, embodied continuing vocational training (CVT) in its legislation and worked out an Action Plan for Developing the Estonian VET System, 2001–2004, in which the main principles for restructuring were defined. However, as some experts have stated, its implementation ‘has been less than optimal. A coherent strategic and policy framework on CVT is still not in place’ (Annus, J˜ogi & Tilmanis, 2006, p. 33). In order to foster adult education, several more programmes were adopted (e.g. Estonian National Development Plan, 2003–2006, or the National Employment Plans) all of which stressed the necessity for improving CVT and lifelong learning policies in order to improve qualification and employability of the country’s workforce. The necessary steps towards improved CVT demanded by these documents (e.g. favourable tax regulations, development of an adult education financing model according to those in other European countries, establishing a State-financed institution to co-ordinate adult education systems and co-operation among institutions and social partners, development of regulations for licensing and accrediting trainers, etc.) have either not been sufficiently implemented up to the present or have not yet had the anticipated effects—partly due to a lack of participation and motivation on the part of those concerned. Like Latvia, Estonia has also invested in the establishment of regional training centres that have already been mentioned before. CVT is one of these centres’ responsibilities.
4.3 Lithuania In Lithuania, the governmental body responsible for CVT and lifelong learning is the Ministry of Social Security and Labour (MSSL). The legal basis for its functions are the Law on Vocational Education and Training (1997) and the Law on the Support of the Unemployed (1990), both of which are implemented by the Lithuanian Labour Market Training Authority and the network of labour exchanges. This system’s main objective is support of the unemployed by means of training, counselling and guidance, as well as labour-market research. Although these institutions focus mainly on training and re-training programmes for unemployed adults and disabled people, a network of fourteen labour-market training centres and six labour-market training services also provides courses for CVT and lifelong learning for the employed, e.g. short courses for employees whose current qualification is in low demand or non-formal vocational training programmes. The criticism is often made that, instead of developing effective co-operation, these programmes are rather seen as direct competition for existing vocational educational institutes. An
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interesting innovation seems to be the labour exchange. This institution provides coordination between employers’ needs and potential employees. The main activities of the network of forty-six labour exchange offices throughout the country include the registration of unemployed citizens and job openings, labour-market forecasts, efficiency studies of training programmes and, not least, the disposal of finance from the State Employment Fund. However, since those involved complain about the low interest in their services, it is estimated that only about half of job seekers make use of it. Another weakness of the system appears to be the fact that the provision of appropriate training programmes is to a large extent subject to the availability of finance, and does not depend on urgent local needs. In order to overcome structural and content-related difficulties, foreign (mainly EU) expertise is used in all three Baltic countries, for example via the Leonardo da Vinci, PHARE, Comenius or Socrates programmes, as is illustrated in the following section.
5 The European Dimension Estonia’s VET development was backed up by several European programmes. PHARE offered substantial support for the reform of the (vocational) education system. The extent of the support for the significant PHARE initiatives can be illustrated as follows:
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PHARE 2000: Project enhancing human resource development in the Ida-Viru (North-East) region. This initiative offered financial support of approximately 1.3 million Euros, including Estonian co-financing of 300,000 Euros. PHARE 2000: Project enhancing human resource development in the southern Estonian region. The project involved a budget of some 2.4 million Euros, including Estonian co-financing of 650,000 Euros. PHARE 2001: Project enhancing human resource development in the islands region, with a budget of approximately 1.2 million Euros, including Estonian co-financing of 24,000 Euros, providing essential financial support for the educational reform.
Similarly to Estonia, Latvia’s reform process of its education system was supported by European initiatives. Recent examples of PHARE 2000 projects in Latvia are the Qualification Infrastructure and Development of College Study Programmes. In Lithuania, the European Union has supported VET reform through the PHARE programme since 1993. A recent example for a PHARE initiative is the programme Vocational Training for Economic and Social Cohesion. The overall objective of this programme is to support Lithuania’s economic and social cohesion. The programme focuses on employment growth. The budget of 4.23 million Euros, including 1.19 million Euros of national co-financing, illustrates the priority paid to VET, continuing vocational training and lifelong learning.
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Here, the influence of the European Union was exemplified by PHARE initiatives. However, other initiatives, such as the Comenius, Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci Programmes, have also to be mentioned in this context. Furthermore, the European Training Foundation (ETF) and other national European research institutions provided significant expertise for the reform processes. The European Training Foundation developed a network of national observatories (watch-dog committees) in the countries concerned. Its analytic work culminated in a set of publications identifying key indicators of labour-market developments and progress reports of the reform movements. In summary, the reform of VET systems in the Baltic States started in the early 1990s and took into consideration EU standards. The development of VET systems in accordance with European standards has resulted in a favourable position for these countries’ vocational qualifications, compared to other European VET systems, which evolved more traditionally and appear to be at a disadvantage. For example, German vocational qualifications are particularly disadvantaged. According to the European-Level System, Dual Vocational Education Qualifications awarded in Germany after three years of training are classified as Level 2. Despite these reforms, the three Baltic States still face a number of problems in the area of VET. In particular, the perception of VET as a lower-status career option is an impediment to further development. As vocational education and training do not generally enjoy high esteem, it is not surprising that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are lacking qualified VET teaching and management staff. In 1990, the acceding countries for EU membership (of the former Eastern European Soviet bloc) launched significant reforms to restructure their VET systems. The results of this reform movement have been impressive, particularly when one considers that the starting date was only 1989. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have enjoyed special attention because geographically they occupy an important strategic position. Since the enlargement of the EU (European Commission, 2004), they are now serving as ‘outposts’ towards the east. This shared experience provided the foundation for (re-)establishing co-operation on various levels among these countries’ vocational education systems. Soon after regaining their independence, it became clear that co-operation in the area of VET was absolutely necessary in order to ensure mobility of the workforce (Neudorf, Krusts & Vincentas, 1999, p. 2). One result of this awareness was the Agreement on the Creation of a Common Educational Space in General Upper Secondary Education and Vocational (up to the Higher Education Level) Education with the Baltic States, which was signed in 1998. In 1999, a further step was taken with the Cesis Agreement. Mutual recognition of school-leaving certificates was agreed upon, as well as co-operation in general education, including VET. A very solid result of this co-operation is a comparative analysis of the different VET systems in the Baltic States. This survey was designed to facilitate co-operation in the field of education. Despite enormous efforts, mobility between the three Baltic States appears to be rather limited. It can be suspected that the language barrier inhibits cross-Baltic mobility.
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The EU has set itself the ambitious goal—set in Lisbon in 2000—of becoming the world’s leading ‘knowledge society’ by 2010. Member states are working towards it by reorienting their VET systems. However, when the Lisbon Council set the goal, the number of EU countries was fifteen. By 2010 it can be expected that this number will grow to twenty-eight. The deadline of 2010 requires a special investment in VET by ‘old’ and ‘new’ member states, as well as candidate countries. For a period of time, reform in the new member states has aimed to develop their VET to a standard comparable to that of the ‘old’ member states. However, little effort was made to truly work together on a common European VET framework. The Lisbon Council has set new priorities. The demand to meet these targets for almost twice as many countries has raised the stakes for VET in current and future member states (de Rooij, 2004).
6 Drawing the Threads Together Since the reestablishment of their sovereignty, the Baltic States have made enormous efforts to develop their VET systems in line with European standards and to harmonize their (vocational) educational policy with EU requirements. At the same time, while following the guidelines of the European Union, they have been endeavouring to retain their national identity. Thus, they may well serve as an example for a pro-European national VET policy and their expertise can certainly be of service to other EU accession candidates—and especially to transitional (former Soviet) countries (Council of the European Union, 2002). Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have initiated their very own reforms to develop their national VET systems, with the result that each has its own varying structure. For example, Estonia and Lithuania have transferred the responsibility of agricultural VET, including the related training institutions, from the Ministries of Agriculture to the Ministries of Education and Science. Consequently, most VET institutions are now under the jurisdiction of one ministry. In Latvia, the VET schools fall under the jurisdiction of different governmental bodies (Cabinet of Ministers, Ministry of Education and Science, especially the Vocational Training and Continuing Education Department, as well as the Professional Education Centre, not to mention the Ministries of Agriculture, Welfare, Culture and the Interior). Education and training programmes, levels and qualifications show only minor differences due to their orientation towards EU standards. More substantial variability has to be detected in the quality assurance systems. In Lithuania, accreditation and licensing measures function under the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Science, while in Latvia and Estonia, effective quality assurance systems are yet to be established or will undergo significant improvement. Besides these differences, there are a number of similarities in the three states. It is significant that European education policy has supported and inspired the reform processes. Some difficulties appear to exist throughout the Baltic States: the very low esteem of VET; the difficulty of involving employers; and the need for qualified
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labour in the services and communications sectors. Despite far-reaching reforms, the negative image of VET is an impediment to its further development.
References Annus, T.; J˜ogi, K.; Tilmanis, L. 2006. Vocational education and training in Estonia: reform processes and tendencies. In: B¨unning, F., ed. The transformation of vocational education and training (VET) in the Baltic States: survey of reforms and developments. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Annus, T. et al. 2001. Modernization of vocational education and training in Estonia. Tallinn: National Observatory of Estonia. Bernan Associates. 1997. Vocational education and training reform in Latvia. Turin, Italy: ETF. Council of the European Union. 2002. Draft council resolution on the promotion of enhanced European cooperation in vocational education and training. Brussels: European Union. de Rooij, P. 2004. EU enlargement and education for the labour market. <www.etf.eu.int/ WebSite.nsf/0/CB6DB14948F21151C1256E6E00363870?OpenDocument> EDS-Europ¨aischer Datenservice. N.d. <www.eds-destatis.de/de/database> European Commission. 2004. Education & Training 2010: The success of the Lisbon strategy hinges on urgent reforms. Joint interim report on the implementation of the detailed work programme on the follow-up of the objectives of education and training systems in Europe. Official journal of the European Union C, 104/5, Hamburgisches Welt-Wirtschafts-Archiv. 2006. <www.hwwa.de/EU-Beitrittslaender/> Lanka, A.; M¯urnieks, E. 2006. Vocational education and training in Latvia: the problems and solutions. In: B¨unning, F., ed. The transformation of vocational education and training (VET) in the Baltic States: survey of reforms and developments. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Lauˇzackas, R.; Danileviˇcius, E. 2006. Vocational education and training in Lithuania: reform processes and tendencies. In: B¨unning, F., ed. The transformation of vocational education and training (VET) in the Baltic States: survey of reforms and developments. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Neudorf, R.; Krusts, G.; Vincentas, D. 1999. Comparative analysis of VET systems of Estonia. Turin, Italy: ETF. Ramina, B.; Hodireva, V.; Silina, S. 2002. The modernization of vocational education and training in Latvia. Riga: Latvian National Observatory. Statistics Lithuania. 2002. Statistical yearbook of Lithuania. Vilnius: Statistics Lithuania.
Chapter IV.7
Education and Training Needs of Rural Communities: A Situational Analysis of Selected Villages in Fourteen Provinces of Fiji Paula Cavu, Isimeli W. Tagicakiverata, Seveci Naisilisili and Viliame Rabici
1 Introduction The purpose of this research project was to conduct a survey of the training needs of people in rural communities of the fourteen provinces in Fiji. The rationale behind this exercise was to take the Fiji Institute of Technology (FIT), a training and education institution, to the homes of this target group, bearing in mind the advent of distance education and learning. However, it was also found that people in most rural communities did not fully understand the role of FIT, so the researchers had an opportunity to market the institute through awareness-raising in the villages. All the participants were grateful for the opportunity to meet and talk to professionals from FIT on various issues. Even very remote villages were among those visited. Questionnaires in the Fijian language were administered to 1,807 participants in sixty villages. The survey found that all participants wanted skills-training programmes to be conducted in their villages. It was also found that participants selected training programmes that were relevant and necessary to their immediate and future needs. The choice of training depended mainly on available resources, developmental needs, village and family needs and individual aspirations. This research gave all stakeholders—the government, non-governmental organizations, aid agencies, provincial offices and training institutions—an insight into the training needs in rural communities, as well as their developmental goals and aspirations. Training-needs assessment (TNA), the basis of this research initiative, is timely especially as communities in rural areas have often been disadvantaged in terms of educational opportunities and development. The most obvious cause for this disadvantage is the great distance from rural communities to educational centres, which in Fiji’s case are primarily clustered around towns and cities. Additional obstacles include the lack of transport, poor road conditions and the high cost of travel. Rural communities, especially Fijian villages, have visible differences in levels of development. However, there is no hard-and-fast rule about the degree of development in rural areas as some villages in outer islands appear to have better living conditions—with flush toilets, regular clean water supply and electricity—than some villages closer to urban centres.
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A significant similarity, however, is that both rural and peri-urban Fijian villages are beginning to experience an influx of school-leavers and dropouts, some with educational qualifications up to Form 7 and even tertiary levels. According to village elders, this influx is the result of examination failure and/or lack of employment opportunities. Some youths have, however, turned to farming and other schemes to earn a living, while some have become a burden to their communities through idleness and resorting to crime. The TNA conducted for this research was aimed at identifying the educational and developmental needs in rural areas, with special consideration for the culture and attitude of the dwellers. Results from this survey would provide stakeholders with significant data on much-needed training to be conducted and a solid base for its effective implementation.
2 Background Fiji has a population of over 868,000 (2003 estimate) and has a gross domestic product per capita of US$2,060 (2001 estimate). Life expectancy is around 69 years while the literacy rate is around 93.7% (2003 estimate). Major revenue earners are tourism, sugar and the garment industry, but in recent years remittances from Fijian people working abroad have become equally significant (Encarta encyclopaedia, 2004). According to the Fiji Islands Education Commission report (Fiji. Ministry of Education, 2000; Sharma, 2000; Tavola, 2000), education is well established in Fiji as it has existed for over 160 years. Some of the concerns, however, have been the uneven situation of educational provision between schools. This situation is the result of the diversity of authorities controlling schools, differences between rural or urban location and the resources available in each community. Ministry of Education records show that in 1999 47% of high schools were run by committees, 35% by religious groups and 8% by the government. In addition, relatively more diploma holders and new graduates were teaching in rural schools as compared to a higher number of degree holders with more experience in urban schools. It has become increasingly clear that rural dwellers are greatly disadvantaged, not only in terms of educational facilities and access to information but also in terms of physical infrastructure, such as housing, sanitation and transport. A result of these disparities reported in the Fiji Islands Education Commission report is that only 40% of students in rural schools passed the Fiji School Leaving Certificate in 1999, as compared to 62.3% in urban schools. At the national level, in terms of projected socio-economic development, stakeholders are concerned that of 17,000 school-leavers each year, only about 2,000 are able to find employment (Mausio, 2003). But school-leavers in urban centres still have an advantage in that they have easy access to various tertiary training institutions offering a wide range of programmes. School-leavers in urban areas
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have many options to choose from, whereas those in rural communities often have only their villages to return to. Institutions such as the University of the South Pacific and the Fiji Institute of Technology have established centres in major towns throughout Fiji, but the problem of access to training programmes by those in remote rural communities still exists. Part of the problem is that many school-leavers in rural areas continue to seek white-collar job opportunities, but fail to recognize the value of working in their local environments. It is for this reason that various organizations, including FIT, are taking time to visit rural communities to introduce local dwellers to ways they can maximize the return from their resources in a sustainable way. Non-formal education (NFE) or continuing education has been acknowledged as a remedy as it has the potential to empower people by widening and deepening their range of skills and assisting them to increase their marketability and contribution in their community (Schoeffel, 1986). This is supported by Veramu (1997, p. 53; 1992) who says that ‘people need to be empowered to control their own destiny and to have a say in the appropriate type of sustainable development that suits them.’ The strength of NFE is its inclusiveness and accessibility. People in rural communities do not have to travel as training and trainers are brought to them. NFE complements formal education very well providing an avenue for everyone, especially school-leavers and drop-outs, to acquire skills relevant for an effective contribution and survival in their community (Hamadache, 1991). The government has committed itself, through its ministries, NGOs and training institutions, to implement programmes ranging from agriculture and small business administration to community health awareness (Veramu, 1997). The Fiji Institute of Technology, through its Research and Development Unit, also shares the vision that NFE has a major role to play in Fiji’s national prosperity and development. The training-needs assessment initiated by FIT was intended to strengthen the decision-making base for the planned training of communities in rural areas.
3 Methodology The team consisted of eight researchers who all work under the auspices of the FIT Learning Centre. The initial intention of the team was to conduct a training-needs assessment in mixed communities, but this had to be abandoned due to lack of resources. Instead, it was realised that a TNA survey conducted in Fijian villages would be within the team’s budget. A pilot survey to test the questionnaire was carried out in three villages. The results were analysed and the questions were modified to ensure reliability and validity. The pilot was also intended for team members to obtain experience of the real-life situation in villages and to try out methods. Upon completion of the preparatory stages, members of the team went in groups of two, three and occasionally individually to conduct the survey in the provinces. Prior to and during each visit all important officials and dignitaries were informed,
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such as elders, village chiefs, school-teachers and church leaders, to facilitate the team members carrying out their survey. All village surveys were conducted in the evenings with most of them ending late at night. Proper protocol was followed with formal presentations, then an explanation by the team leader, followed by filling-in of questionnaire forms and concluding with a long discussion session. It was observed that during the discussion sessions the elders always spoke first while the other participants took their turn in descending order of age and status. An open discussion among the villagers would only involve the elders; young people were never expected to air their views publicly. Ocitti (1990) calls this ‘vertical communication’, which expresses the difficulty of direct dialogue between the old and the young in indigenous societies. He also noted a ‘horizontal human relationship’, which exists primarily among one’s peers, where there is freedom to think, talk and act. In Fijian society, it is a sign of respect for the young to remain quiet unless spoken to. However, during the visits, the researchers managed to get a response from all present by posing direct questions to the elders, then the women and then the youths. All responses were directed back at the researchers. Noticeably, all general comments and suggestions came only from the elders and the chiefs, but none from the youth. The discussion was always lively and interesting as it was an avenue for people to ask questions on various issues and not just education. There were problems encountered by the research team, such as inadequate time in each village, lack of funds and treacherous road conditions, but the team were not deterred and managed to complete all field work on time. The researchers were aware that dealing with descriptive data from this survey would involve two general limitations in the form of validity and reliability. Therefore, in the initial stages of research formulation and preparations, key control mechanisms were put in place to ensure a satisfactory degree of validity and reliability. One of the key mechanisms for controlling validity and reliability was an emphasis on procedures throughout the process. During the initial stages of formulating the theoretical framework, the principal researcher and team made a number of consultation visits to principal stakeholders, which included key officials in various government ministries, training institutions and provincial offices. The visits ensured that research parameters were clear, indicators were defined precisely and all data-collecting instruments would lead to reliable results. A series of briefings involving all team members ensured that field-work procedures were precisely adhered to by all so that consistency and reliability of results were achieved. This was absolutely necessary as the team members were sent to different parts of Fiji. Another mechanism used for controlling reliability was the series of checks and reviews of research tools and items. Important decisions had to be made, especially regarding the questionnaire and its suitability for rural indigenous Fijians. After the pilot test and a retest, the final questionnaire was presented in Fijian vernacular and the team were satisfied of its suitability. The team also took into serious consideration issues such as question types, question lengths and time to complete the questionnaire. The clarity of items in terms of font size was reviewed to ensure that
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all participants were able to read the words clearly. This was necessary as people of all ages were intended as participants in this research. The researchers were aware that the issue of validity would emerge regarding sampling and representation. The major obstacle and limitation in sampling was the lack of funding to cover a bigger percentage of provincial populations. For this reason, the team had to be content with a target sample of 100 participants per province. This included both genders and all ages. Other control measures that research assistants had to ensure in all locations were:
r r r r r r
The venue of the research survey must be a village hall or school classroom. The atmosphere should be relaxed and casual so that all participants could contribute fully. All participants had to be provided with pencils for filling out the questionnaires. At least thirty minutes was allowed to fill out the questionnaire. Additional time was allowed for open discussions (debriefing after collecting the questionnaires). The necessary social protocol was to be adhered to in all villages and provinces.
Despite all the measures taken, the researchers acknowledge that there were limitations, such as intentional and unintentional biases in this research. It was possible that some data may have been inadvertently emphasized more than others and some may have been used to highlight a particular point of view. Additionally, the researchers acknowledge that there is also the possibility that the sample of participants in each province may not be an accurate representation of the entire populace. It is quite possible that items used in the questionnaire may not be variables of primary interest and may have affected respondents’ interests in different ways. Sensitive issues such as educational level and status may have posed problems for some participants. While every possible measure was taken to ensure reliability and validity in this research, the team acknowledges that there are limitations that may have had a bearing on the results.
4 Findings Thus, sixty villages from fourteen provinces were visited and a total of 1,807 respondents surveyed: 54% of whom or 974 were male; and 46% or 833 were female. Tables 1 and 2 present the training needs identified by respondents, as well as supporting data from the questionnaire. Due to the magnitude of the participation, the priority focus of the analysis was on training needs, ethnography and educational levels, and the logic behind choices Results identify specific training needs indicated by participants of both genders from each village and province. The villages visited in each province were some distance from each other in order that provincial summaries reflected a reasonable sample of the training needs among the general provincial populations. Analysis
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Flower arrangement
Sewing/screen printing
Cooking
Tourism/small business administration
Family education/ child-rearing
Basic English
Rewa Kadavu Naitasiri Lomaiviti Nadroga Ra
Kadavu Naitasiri Lomaiviti Ba Namosi Ra Macuata Bua 8 (57%)
Naitasiri Lomaiviti Ba Tailevu Nadroga Bua Namosi
Rewa Kadavu Naitasiri Ba Serua Nadroga
Lau Kadavu Ba Serua Tailevu Ra Macuata
Cakau
7 (50%)
6 (43%)
7 (50%)
1 (7%)
6 (43%)
Table 2 Training needs choices by province (male) Basic machine repair
Basic carpentry/ plumbing
Basic electrical
Tourism/small Resource business admanagement ministration
Time management
Rewa Kadavu Naitasiri Lomaiviti Ba Namosi Serua Ra Macuata Bua Cakau 11 (79%)
Rewa Naitasiri Lomaiviti Tailevu Nadro Bua
Rewa Naitasiri Lomaiviti Namosi Ra Cakau
Kadavu Ba Serua Tailevu Nadro
Lau Macuata Bua
Macuata
6 (42%)
6 (42%)
5 (36%)
3 (21%)
1 (7%)
by gender, age-groups and educational levels provided significant information for decision-makers. In terms of the differences in training choices, the most significant one was between genders in all provinces. However, comparisons at village and provincial levels displayed an interesting trend—that communities or villages along the coast, including the outer islands, had a different set of choices from communities and villages in the interior regions or mountains. This finding suggests that geographical location and available natural resources are significant factors that determine training choices. Other factors that became evident from the study are income sources and development or lifestyle needs. There was no correlation between training choice and educational level, nor between training choice and age. This suggests that choices were not solely based on individual needs but also on community aspirations (Plowman, 1992). The most popular training choice for men was basic machine repair (Table 2), while women had five popular choices which were: flower arrangement, sewing, cooking, small business administration and family education (Table 1).
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Table 3 shows that 327 teenagers (18.1% of total sample) participated in this survey. Of this figure, an alarming 80% or 262 are school-leavers and drop-outs. In the total sample of 1,807, this percentage translates to 14.5%. Levels of education for both genders vary slightly but a larger percentage of female participants had reached higher secondary and tertiary levels. A significant finding is that 98% of participants are educated above Classes 6–8, which indicates a high level of literacy in rural Fiji (Table 4 and Fig. 1). This suggests that trainers tasked with conducting training in rural communities would have few problems in terms of communication and delivery. It can be concluded from this survey that basic machine repair (Table 2) came out strongly as the significant/popular choice for men, while women had five choices of comparable significance (Table 1). In terms of age, a clear majority of participants (82%) were above 20 years of age, 25.7% of whom were over 41. This wide range Table 3 The number of participants by gender and age groups Participants by gender and age-groups Age group
16 – 19
20 – 30
31 – 40
41 +
Total
Number male (%) Number female (%)
192 (20%) 135 (16%)
350 (36%) 273 (33%)
194 (20%) 198 (24%)
238 (24%) 227 (27%)
974 (54%) 833 (46%)
Total (%)
327 (18.1%)
623 (34.5%)
392 (21.7%)
465 (25.7%)
1807
Table 4 Total participants by educational level Classes 1–5 Male
Classes 6–8
Female
30 8 3% 1% 2% of sample
Male
Female
292 225 30% 27% 29% of sample
Forms 3–4 Male
Female
321 267 33% 32% 33% of sample
Forms 5–7 Male
Female
321 316 33% 38% 35% of sample
Tertiary Male
Female
10 17 1% 2% 1% of sample
45 40 % of SAMPLE
35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0
CLASSES 1-5
CLASSES 6-8
FORMS 3-4
FORMS 5-7
LEVELS OF EDUCATION MALE PARTICIPANTS FEMALE PARTICIPANTS
Fig. 1 Comparative levels of education (by gender)
TERTIARY
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in age groups is indicative of the inclusive nature of non-formal education, coupled with adult education.
5 The Logic Behind the Training Choices in the TNA The choice of training by participants did not differ with age or educational levels, but reflected and depended upon a combination of the following key factors: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Gender. Local natural resources—forest/sea/farming, etc. Current income sources. Geographical location—coast or interior, and distance from urban centres. Developmental/lifestyle and educational needs (Fig. 2).
The major advantages of TNA-based training from the local to the national level can be summed up as follows: 1. Individuals in the village (community) will have an opportunity to acquire new skills that would help them improve their own standard of living and empower them in managing their sources of income. 2. For the community as a whole, this would result in overall improvement in the quality of life in the village, improved productivity and better management of natural resources. 3. For the provinces, this would result in better utilization of development funds, as villagers are now more informed and aware of their potential to implement relevant village projects effectively.
GENDER
NATURAL RESOURCES
INCOME SOURCES TRAINING NEEDS
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
Fig. 2 Factors that determine training choices
DEVELOPMENT/ LIFESTYLE NEEDS
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4. For Fiji, this would result in skills training in rural communities, effective resource management, reduction in social evils, such as poverty and crime, and opening up further opportunities for growth.
6 Conclusion Results from this survey would provide useful information to key stakeholders, such as government departments, donor agencies and provincial councils, for decisionmaking on rural training and education. In addition, the training areas identified by participants have provided FIT, especially the Learning Centre, with specific areas for short courses that may receive accreditation. The most popular choices for courses include, amongst others, basic English, flower arrangement, basic plumbing, basic carpentry and tourism/business studies. Recommendations and projections discussed in this chapter would function as guidelines for the development and improvement of education and skills training for our rural communities over the next decade. Researchers from the Learning Centre have established a good working relationship with village elders, chiefs and provincial administrators throughout Fiji, and have inadvertently lifted their expectations of FIT. The onus is on key stakeholders to use the results of this survey as a basis for delivering effective relevant training to rural communities. The vision is that if our rural people were empowered with the necessary skills, they would become more independent and would play a leading role in developing and improving the economies of their own communities. For institutions, such as the Fiji Institute of Technology, the University of the South Pacific and the Training and Productivity Authority of Fiji, the results of this survey provide ideas for developing relevant courses targeted at school dropouts and rural dwellers. It is hoped that in the next decade more institutions and organizations would share this vision and pursue the delivery of skills training to our rural people.
References Encarta encyclopaedia. 2004. CD-ROM, Microsoft Corporation. Fiji. Ministry of Education. 2000. Learning together: directions for education in the Fiji Islands. Report of the Fiji Islands Education Commission. Suva: Government Printer. Hamadache, A. 1991 Non-formal education: a definition of the concept and some examples. Prospects, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 111–24. Mausio, A. 2003. Melanesia in review: issues and events: Fiji. The contemporary Pacific, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 440–47. Ocitti, J.P 1990. Is indigenous African pedagogy a real option? Adult education and development, vol. 90, no. 35. Plowman, K. 1992. Community groups and empowerment: adult education for a democratic culture. Canberra: Australian Association of Adult and Community Education. (Paper presented at the thirty-second AAACE National Conference, Canberra, 1992.) Schoeffel, P. 1986. Non-formal education in the Pacific Islands: an overview. Adult education and development, vol. 26.
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Sharma, A. 2000. Technical and vocational education and training. In: Fiji. Ministry of Education. Learning together: directions for education in the Fiji Islands. Suva: Government Printer. Tavola, H. 2000. Education in rural Fiji. In: Fiji. Ministry of Education. Learning together: directions for education in the Fiji Islands. Suva: Government Printer. Veramu, J. 1992. Let’s do it our way: a case study of participatory education in a rural Fijian school and community. Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific. Veramu, J. 1997. Adult education and community development in the South Pacific. Valelevu, Fiji: The Fiji Adult and Community Education Think-Tank Group.
Chapter IV.8
Social Partnership in Vocational Education and Training in Lithuania: Challenges and Perspectives Lina Kaminskien˙e
1 Introduction Social partnership in technical and vocational education and training (TVET)—that is to say co-operation and the interrelationship of functions and responsibilities among the State, employers and employees—has been set as one of the priorities of educational reform and is an important principle for the effective development of the vocational education and training system in Lithuania. Particularly in recent years, a change of roles has become apparent between the State and non-governmental sectors in the TVET system. According to the International Labour Office (ILO), there are three phases in the sharing of functions and responsibilities between the State and private sector in the vocational education and training system:
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The first phase: an unstructured and unregulated TVET system, where professional skills were acquired through the principle of apprenticeship. The second phase: a supply-driven TVET system (the State-dominated system). This phase describes the situation when the VET system does not adequately react to the needs of the vocational activity system,1 but decides alone what kind of training is needed for professions and qualifications. The third phase is characterized by a demand-driven system. This is a situation when a TVET system is directly influenced by the needs of the vocational activity required by the market economy, and thus tries to satisfy those needs by supplying the labour market with appropriate professions and qualifications.
However, today, a new tendency is clearly seen in Lithuania and other post-Soviet Eastern and Central European countries. This is an attempt to strengthen relationships between the TVET system and vocational activity system, while seeking new forms of co-operation.
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2 The Theoretical Background of Social Partnership in TVET 2.1 Social Partnerships as an Intermediary between Two Systems Social partnership in the Lithuanian TVET system is analysed from the perspective of different TVET models. Duties and responsibilities of social partners, as intermediaries between the vocational activity system and the education system are based on the theory of the duality of the vocation, which combines both its subjective and objective aspects. The subjective aspect of the vocation reflects the individual preferences of a person, i.e. his/her preference for a certain activity on the basis of a human being’s inner dispositions, often defining them as a human calling (Lauˇzackas, 1997). The objective aspect of a vocation focuses on work, its structure and the conditions under which it can be carried out. It is obvious that the interaction of the objective and the subjective aspects of vocation in the TVET system expresses itself on a different level than that of the vocation itself. At this level, the education system is likely to represent the subjective aspect, while the objective aspect is represented by the vocational activity.
2.2 Social Partnership in Supply, Demand or Co-ordination Models As a rule, the interaction of the educational and vocational activity systems defines the model of the vocational education and training system in a country, as well as the functions delegated to social partners. Three models of the interaction of the educational and vocational activity systems are distinguished: demand, supply and co-ordination (Fig. 1). The first model describes the situation when the vocational activity system plays a more active part in relation to the education system. The education system (or TVET system in this case) is directly influenced by the changes and needs of the vocational activity system and, thus, is adequately organized to react to these needs. This interaction model is called the ‘demand-driven model’ (sometimes the term ‘manpower-requirement approach’ is used) (Georg & Sattel, 1995).
2.2.1 The Supply-Driven Model The supply-driven model (or ‘social-demand approach’ according to Georg & Sattel, 1995) exists in a country when the education system is the dominating partner. Vocational education and training is organized and planned without any or without sufficient attention to the needs of the labour market. The supply-driven model characterizes the situation when educational establishments alone decide what kinds of qualification are needed. Such decisions are based not on an analysis of labour-market needs, but on the capacity of the existing TVET system (training classes, teachers, manuals, etc.).
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Qualification demand Education system Qualification demand satisfaction
2. Supply model Qualification supply Education system Qualification selection
Vocational activity system
3. Co-ordination model Qualification demand Surplus Vocational activity system
Education system
Qualification supply Qualification demand satisfaction
Fig. 1 Models of interaction of vocational activity with education systems
The first model seems to be the most attractive one; however, in reality it can only function in a stable economic and political environment. During the transitional period, which has been characteristic of Central and Eastern European countries (including Lithuania), this model could not resolve the existing problems in the vocational education and training system. The reason was that the labour market was not itself stable; companies had to survive in a very hard competitive market. For example, in 1997, the Vocational Education and Training Information Service noted that around 80% of employers were not sure of their future plans for two or three years ahead (VET Informational Service, 1997). For these reasons, neither employers nor their representive organizations participated in the early phases of the reform of the education system in Lithuania. The supply-driven model, which has been deeply rooted in Lithuania, did not help to solve the problem of unemployment. It gave employers wide possibilities to choose the necessary employees (labour force over-supply was extremely common until 2000–2002) and they provided workers with only minimal social guarantees (low wages, fixed-term contracts, etc.). The biggest drawback of the supply-driven model is that the school became isolated from the real working world and prepared workers and specialists who did not satisfy the new qualification requirements and could not adapt to the requirements, which were evolving rapidly due to changes and innovations following the impact of globalization on the economy, as well as IT development and other factors. The supply model thus isolated social partners from
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active participation in the vocational education and training system and their participation became fragmententary. Even in 1997, when the TVET Law was passed, it took a year or two for the first real co-ordination activities to start, under the initiative of the Ministry of Education and vocational schools—but not of the social partners themselves. Both the supply and the demand models have their advantages and disadvantages. Every State tries to balance and to regulate the relationship between its educational and vocational systems and the labour market. The third, ‘the co-ordination model’, expresses a certain compromise (coherence) between the demand and the supply models. According to Lauˇzackas (1997), this model seems to be the ideal one. However, achieving it requires a very flexible vocational education and training system in the country with the following features: (a) a mechanism to balance and co-ordinate the tasks and functions of the key players in the system; (b) a clear strategy for the TVET system; (c) a well-regulated legal basis; (d) a regular analysis of what is happening in economic sectors; (e) a well-established monitoring system of the labour market, etc. During the period 1991 to 2002, Lithuania tried to re-orient its supply model to align it with the demand one. Nevertheless, because of the changes taking place before and after 2004 (enlargement of the EU), during a period when the Lithuanian labour market lost about 200,000 of its active working-age population (there are no officially confirmed figures yet), discussions about the co-ordination model became more active.
3 Historical Background of Social Partnership in Lithuania 3.1 The Social Partnership Model in Lithuania before the 1990s During the Soviet era, social dialogue was of an artificial nature and based on the principle of ‘supervision’, which was organized in a centralized way. Industrial enterprises had a duty to supervise vocational schools, which were their suppliers of labour. Vocational education and training at that time was based on the Soviet labour theory, which said that a human’s activity is a link between the subject and the object—through activity a human being affects the surrounding world, as well as changing himself/herself. Actually, social partnership as it is understood today (cooperation and sharing responsibilities between the State, employers and employees) did not really exist in the Soviet period. During this period the TVET system was unified according to a Soviet model; consequently, very similar vocational education and training systems now exist in all post-Soviet countries. The typical features of the vocational education and training system in Lithuania before the 1990s were as follows:
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A planned economy; Centralized management; Close relations (based on supervision) with large enterprises; Monolithic teaching curriculum;
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Absence of unemployment; Low image of vocational education and training (Gurskiene, 2004).
In addition, the old system was associated with low productivity and an unsuccessful economy. ‘There was no competition in applying for a job. A person’s vocational career depended on both his/her competence and ideological criteria’ (Beresneviciene, 1999). Social dialogue in the Soviet vocational education and training system was artificial because there was no competition in the market; economic relations between enterprises and users were based on the principle of the planned economy—but not on competition. The labour force in Lithuania, as well as in the other Baltic countries, was not oriented to the needs of these countries but to satisfy the demands of the USSR or the other Soviet republics (within COMECOM—the trading bloc). It is also very important to say that the prestige of vocational education and training was very low, which consequently led to a rather superficial attitude at all levels of society towards the system.
3.2 Social Partnership in TVET from the 1990s until 1997 After regaining independence, most of the previous co-operation between educational establishments and enterprises collapsed because of ineffective organization and/or because many large enterprises went through a long restructuring process. New ways of co-operation had to be established. The collection of articles ‘National school’ was the first document, which tried to describe the principles of the educational reform in Lithuania starting from 1990. In 1992 the Lithuanian Educational Concept was prepared. This document was the first to introduce social partnership as part of the vocational education and training system in the country. This document stressed the following problematic and important areas, to which particular attention had to be paid:
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The foundation of private schools; The necessity of social dialogue; Development of a register of educational programmes; Independent evaluation of knowledge and competences (evaluation separate from the educational process) while transferring this function to social partners (employers); Ensuring continuity of education; Modular teaching (Dienys & Pusvaˇskis, 1998).
During the first years of independence (1990–1994), Lithuania failed to create and to develop a mechanism in order to ensure a harmonious relationship between the education system and the economy. Only after 1994, when employers’ organizations became stronger and started to appreciate their role in the TVET system, did social partnership acquire a more concrete form.
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In 1997 social partnership was formalized in the TVET system in Lithuania by the adoption of the law on vocational education and training. Almost in parallel, in 1998 ‘The White Paper on VET’—a manual for vocational training—was prepared. The idea of publishing such a document was inspired by the experience of the new economy, becoming acquainted with European systems of vocational training through the European Union’s PHARE programme, vocational training reform and other projects, as well as new experiments. ‘The White Paper’ described social partnership as an engine for the continuous renewal of the vocational education and training system. The principle of social partnership was described as co-operation and interrelation of the State, employers and employees, which would result in defining the boundaries of duties and responsibilities for each partner during the planning, organizing, implementing and evaluating of vocational education and training tools and programmes. The main condition for ensuring the quality of these tasks was based on co-ordination and negotiation of different vocational training interests (Lithuania, 1999, p. 19). Based on these strategic documents, social dialogue in Lithuania was organized at three levels: national-political; vocational-political; and vocational-practical. This model of social partnership still exists today.
3.2.1 The National-Political Level The Lithuanian Vocational Education and Training Council co-operates closely with the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Social Security and Labour. This council is organized on a tripartite basis: an equal number of representatives of State institutions, employers and employees participate on this board. The Lithuanian Vocational Education and Training Council is a co-ordinating body ensuring that the interests of all social partners are represented. Employers and employees are represented by their organizations (chambers of commerce, confederations of industrialists, trade unions, etc.). At the regional level, the district vocational education and training councils play an advisory role. They provide expertise and perform consulting and co-ordination functions in regions.
3.2.2 The Vocational-Political Level Industrial boards (otherwise called expert groups) are also organized on the tripartite principle (TVET institutions, employers and trade unions from different economic branches). The aim of these groups is to develop policy for vocational education and training. Industrial boards form a part of the system for development of vocational education and training standards. Following decisions by the Lithuanian Vocational Education and Training Council and the Central Industrial Institute, a new board is organized in order to analyse the needs, development perspectives and qualification needs for each specific sector/branch. Fourteen industrial boards are established at the methodological centre for VET.
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3.2.3 The Vocational-Practical Level Working groups develop concrete vocational training standards (VET Information Service, 1998). There are two types of working groups: (a) vocational standards groups; and (b) vocational training standards groups. Both groups work on the basis of a contract with the industrial board. The first type (vocational standards groups) makes concrete vocational studies, prepares sectoral analysis, defines developments and trends in vocations and makes forecasts of the future need for specialists (Lauˇzackas, 1997). Vocational training standards groups prepare projects of the necessary vocational and vocational training standards (Fig. 2). The principle of social partnership is applied not only for the development of vocational training standards but also in the organization of practical training (apprenticeship), curriculum updating and in the final qualifications examinations process. Nevertheless, in the first years of the educational reform, TVET schools were more active participants in the system than the social partners. The period 1990–1997 was very difficult for companies and business-related organizations. On the other hand, companies did not meet fierce competition, which came later; particularly after the economic crisis in Russia in 1997–1998 and after joining the EU in 2004. One could say that the system of vocational education and training in the first years of the reform was prepared exceptionally by joint efforts of State institutions and schools. Only in 1998 did social partners become more actively involved in the TVET system.
Lithuanian Vocational Education and Training Council
Central Board (Expert Group)
Board-1
Working group
Board-2
Board-3
Board-14
Working group
Fig. 2 Model of the social partnership for developing vocational and vocational training standards
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4 The Present-Day Social and Economic Developments in Lithuania 4.1 Trends and Developments Influencing TVET Social partnership in Lithuania, as in other post-Soviet countries, is a rather new phenomenon, compared to such countries as Germany or Austria with long traditions of social dialogue. Today, social partnership development issues are discussed following the bottom-up principle. It is of primary importance to identify the main barriers which prevent successful development of social partnerships in vocational education and training. Employers should be attracted to the TVET system through their representative structures: trade associations, chambers of commerce, confederations, etc. Increasing competition, more active trade and co-operation in the EU and foreign markets have become the key factors today making employers more interested in TVET. Investments into new technologies, innovations in management and/or production processes increased the need for broader competencies. In 1998–2000 many Lithuanian companies had to re-orient their export markets from Russia to the EU. It became clear that only high-quality products corresponding to EU standards and directives could be sold in this new market. Lithuanian companies have experienced the impact of global economic changes, which are manifested by new technologies, the development of a knowledge society, international trade and more active involvement of the labour force. Thus, as rightly noted by the authors of the White Paper: ‘qualifications as established by high world standards and continuous learning became an exceptional condition of self-realization for each individual’ (Lithuania, 1999). The first practical steps in trying to co-ordinate the educational and vocational activity systems were implemented in 1998, when the State attributed several concrete functions in TVET to its social partners: the Lithuanian Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Crafts and, a few years later, to the Chamber of Agriculture. As Pusvaˇskis (2003) puts it, previously it was the schools themselves that conducted assessment according to general regulations set by the Ministry of Education and Science. This system made it difficult to ensure the comparability of qualifications awarded. To ensure a more consistent approach, the Ministry of Education and Science decided to involve the employers’ organizations and, in 1998, a reform in this direction was launched. By 2003 the modified examination system had been implemented throughout the country. A decree by the Ministry of Education and Science regulates the organization of the final examinations for TVET students, stipulating the responsibilities of chambers of commerce in this process. The chambers of commerce are responsible for monitoring the preparatory phase of final qualifications examinations by involving specialists from enterprises with expertise in vocational programmes and in developing questions for a theory examination. This is carried out in co-operation with vocational schools. In addition, chambers of commerce are responsible for the supervision of practical training in companies in order to ensure that TVET students gain the necessary practical skills. The overall model of the roles and functions of
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social partners while preparing and organizing final qualification examinations can be illustrated as in Fig. 3. This new way of conducting assessment has obliged schools to become more committed to meeting the qualification requirements set by the State and to pay more attention to labour-market trends. The participation of all the interested parties— employers, employees and school representatives—in the process stimulates further development through social dialogue. Within the labour-market training system, the first steps to transfer responsibility for the final assessment to the chambers of commerce have also been taken. The separation of responsibilities for training and final assessment is designed to enhance the effectiveness and quality of vocational education and training. This should help develop a mechanism to recognize and validate informally acquired competencies.
4.2 Key Players in Social Dialogue In Lithuania vocational education and training schools, which represent State institutions, are the active partners and initiators of social dialogue. According to the
Curriculum: Learning/teaching tasks. School.
Expertise of new or updated curriculum. Social partners.
Organization of the learning/teaching process. School.
Learning/teaching process. School.
Final qualification examinations. Social partners.
Theory exam
Practical exam
Practical training in a company. Social partners. Developing a database.
Composition of examinations questions, tasks based on the learning/teaching tasks of a concrete curriculum. Cooperation with social partners.
Summing-up of results. Social partners and schools.
Fig. 3 The organizational model for final qualification examinations
Selection of representatives from companies.
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Law on VET (Lithuania, 1997), the following State and State-supervised institutions are responsible for vocational education and training:
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The Ministry of Education and Science; the Ministry of Social Security and Labour; The Lithuanian Vocational Education and Training Council, composed on a tripartite principle of the State, employers’ and employees’ organizations; Other ministries, departments, district administrations and municipalities; The Methodological Centre for Vocational Education and Training under the Ministry of Education and Science; Industrial institutes; Labour-market training centres; The Employment Service under the Ministry of Social Security and Labour; Tripartite committees under the Ministry of Social Security and Labour; The Experts Council, the Ministry of Social Security and Labour and labourmarket training centres.
The number of the institutions and offices listed (which does not include the TVET schools) is evidence that the State is playing an active role in the organization of the TVET system. While this is a positive approach, showing that the State is responsible for education, on the other hand this rather centralized approach may discourage social partners from assuming more functions and responsibilities in the education system. Moreover, the State has the role of co-ordinator or moderator, being responsible for maintaining the balance of the above-mentioned structures. While delegating specific functions and responsibilities to social partners (for example, the organization of final qualification examinations is delegated to chambers of commerce and the chamber of agriculture), the State also has to find the appropriate financial resources. Employers’ organizations in Lithuania are comparatively young, having only been established since the first years of Lithuanian independence. Today, the Lithuanian Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Crafts (1992), the Confederation of Industrialists (1993) and the Confederation of Employers (1999) are the biggest and the most active employers’ organizations.
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The Lithuanian Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Crafts is the only nongovernmental organization in Lithuania benefiting from an individual law. There are five regional chambers of commerce with headquarters in Vilnius. Today chambers of commerce bring together over 1,500 enterprises. In 1999 the Law on Chambers of Commerce was supplemented by several articles allowing TVET schools and other types of training organizations to become members of chambers of commerce. The Lithuanian Confederation of Employers is a public organization uniting over 500 enterprises and about 100 associated structures. The confederation represents the interests of employers in various governmental committees, commissions, councils, ministries and other State organizations.
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The Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists is a union of associations. The confederation unites about forty trade associations, nine regional associations and about sixty non-associated structures. The confederation plays an active part in the lobbying sphere, as well as delegating experts from different branches to industrial boards working on vocational standards.
Vocational education and training, unfortunately, has not yet become a priority area of activity for social partners. This attitude has been influenced by the transitional period in politics and the economy, as well as a strong preference on the part of business organizations for lobbying and representation. Employees in Lithuania today are represented by various trade unions, which are united in four associations: the Lithuanian Trade Union Association; the Lithuanian Trade Unions Centre; the Lithuanian Labour Federation; and the Lithuanian Workers’ Union. Similarly, like employers organizations, trade unions have not paid much attention to vocational education and training issues. They are not adequately trained and prepared to participate as equal partners in social dialogue. During the first years of independence their major concern was to represent and to defend TVET as supplied by the State. Nevertheless, such organizations still lack information about their potential, or approach their functions and responsibilities for TVET in a different way. Recent discussions, while developing a new Law on TVET, only confirm this fact. Furthermore, trade unions had no administrative structures that could undertake these roles and functions in the TVET system. Neither did they have any experience of negotiation and participation in social dialogue. Meanwhile, today, chambers of commerce, confederations of industrialists and the chamber of agriculture are quite experienced and capable of sharing responsibilities.
5 Social Partnership in the Context of the EU Enlargement Process 5.1 Development of the Legal Basis for Social Partnership in Lithuania Legal conditions have already been created for social partners to participate in initial and labour-market vocational education and training in Lithuania. The first legal document in Lithuania describing the principle of social partnership was the Law on Inhabitants Employment Law, enacted in 1990. This law legitimated the principles of social partnership and functions of tripartite committees in the field of labourmarket policy. Participation of social partners in the vocational education and training system was first defined in the White Paper (Lithuania, 1999) and the Law on VET in
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Lithuania (Lithuania, 1997). Social partners have been attributed the following functions:
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to supply proposals to the Lithuanian VET Council, while defining requirements for TVET programmes (modules) and final qualification examinations; to organize final qualification examinations; to register practical training agreements/contracts between schools, enterprises and individuals; to supervise practical training agreements and their implementation.
According to this law, the term ‘a competent institution’ was introduced into the TVET system. The Lithuanian Chambers of Commerce, the Confederation of Industrialists and the Chamber of Agriculture were granted this status. In 1999 the supplemented Law on Chambers of Commerce and Industry allowed TVET schools and other training organizations to become members of these business organizations. In 1998 the Law on Non-formal Adult Education also foresaw roles and functions of social partners in continuous vocational education and training.
5.2 The Impact of PHARE, Leonardo da Vinci and Other EU Programmes Starting from 1994 to 1998, Lithuania, as well as other candidate-countries for European Union membership, benefited from the PHARE programme (this originally meant: Poland and Hungary: Assistance for Restructuring their Economies). The first phase of the PHARE programme was focused on modernization of vocational education and training in post-Soviet countries. Particularly, this reform aimed at:
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Audit/revision of the current curriculum and development of a new curriculum; The development of teaching qualifications at all levels of vocational training, including teachers, employers and members of trade unions; The modernization of educational equipment; Initiation of partnerships with educational institutions in the EU countries; The development of TVET strategic documents (Lithuania, 1999; Zimina, 2002).
After the end of the first phase of the PHARE programme (1995) in the candidate countries (Estonia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovenia), new vocational education and training laws were adopted. The PHARE reform gave impetus to involving social partners in the development of the TVET system in Lithuania and other countries. In almost all of these countries social partners, particularly employers, were involved in the management of vocational education and training through tripartite social partnership agreements at national, regional and local levels. Furthermore, the relationships between vocational schools and local enterprises were determined. In Estonia and Lithuania leading bodies under the Methodological Centre for VET were established fostering
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the assessment of vocational education and training needs in certain sectors of the economy (Zimina, 2002). A further reform, which started with the second phase of PHARE and other EU programmes, was mostly oriented towards the national qualifications systems (in Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia and Hungary). The problem of more active involvement of social partners still remains a problem for such countries as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Lithuania—amongst others. From 1997 other EU programmes (mostly the Leonardo da Vinci Programme) allowed development of various sectors of the TVET system in Lithuania. These programmes contributed to the successful reform of TVET, as well as harmonizing the Lithuanian TVET system with other systems in EU countries. The Leonardo da Vinci Programme particularly contributed to the mobility of students and teachers, social partners in the EU countries, as well as considerably strengthening cooperation between schools and enterprises. These EU programmes allowed Lithuania to prepare for new challenges that appeared following the integration process resulting from economic and social developments.
6 Challenges for Social Partners in Lithuania 6.1 New Responsibilities for Social Partners Today, social partners meet with new challenges: increased competencies in TVET schools and enterprises; the appearance of new players in the TVET system; higher quality standards. All of these issues are outcomes of the reform in the TVET system, integration with the EU and more intensive regional and international cooperation. New tasks and responsibilities for social partners have opened up on three main levels: 1. Co-ordination of roles and functions on the decision-making level (political level); 2. Teaching/learning pathways at the structural level (standardization, qualifications framework); 3. Co-ordination of tasks and responsibilities to optimize the teaching/learning process (organization of practical training, final examinations, etc.). On the decision-making level it is very important to regulate and to balance supply and demand for the labour market, as well as creating a better mechanism to satisfy the needs of the vocational system. An effective co-ordination on the decisionmaking level requires fulfilling at least the following conditions: 1. A country should have a TVET regulating institution/board/council, where the interests of the social partners are represented.
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2. A country should develop a feedback mechanism in order to monitor quality issues in TVET. 3. Direct contacts and co-operation between enterprises and schools should be encouraged. At the level of structuring teaching/learning pathways, roles and responsibilities of social partners could cover the following aspects:
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contribution to the development of the National Qualifications Framework; contribution to the development of vocational training standards; contribution to the certification process (assessing formal, non-formal or informal learning).
On the level of optimizing the teaching/learning process, social partnerships could contribute to a better development of practical training, and new forms and places of teaching/learning. Having evaluated challenges on these three main levels, the following areas of activities for the development of social partnership can be identified: 1. Participation in the development of initial and continuing vocational education and training policy through direct relations: enterprise/educational institutions; through educational committees in chambers of commerce; and through TVET councils at national and regional levels. It is of primary importance to make the participation of employers more active in the regions. If on the national level the interests of social partners are more-or-less well-represented in the TVET councils, regional TVET monitoring structures lack the participation and contribution of social partners. 2. Participation in the work of expert groups (industrial institutes) for developing vocational standards. Because of the complicated mechanisms, long-term procedures and low financial compensation, employers are unwilling to participate in the development of occupational standards. Similarly, because of lowmotivation, employers are rather passive in providing expertise to vocational and labour-market programmes. These areas of activity require a new approach from all sides, both the State and employers. The input of social partners, while developing vocational standards, as well as while reviewing vocational programmes, allows new competences to be introduced in TVET schools and prepares the labour force for the necessary qualifications. 3. Participation in evaluation and making new vocational and labour-market training programmes coherent. 4. Participation in final qualification examinations. Though the function of organizing final qualification examinations has been delegated to chambers of commerce since 1998, many areas remain problematic. For instance, employers do not participate in preparing final examination questions and not all of them are acquainted with the educational content before the examination. The existing system for the organization of final examinations does not allow the acquired competences to be compared at the national level. This problem highlights the
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need to develop a unified system of final examinations. Projects of this type, supported by European structural funds, are taking place in Lithuania today. 5. Participation in the management of vocational education and training institutions. The involvement of employers on the boards of vocational education and training institutions is an exception rather than a rule. This is because of the Soviet stereotype of school ‘patronage’, which functioned before the 1990s. Employers must adopt a new attitude. 6. Better organization of practical training. There still exists a problem in ensuring the quality of practical training, as there is no guarantee that a student will gain the necessary skills and knowledge. In order to solve this problem, the Ministry of Education and Science, in co-operation with social partners, develops regulations for enterprises that are willing to accept apprentices. Only those enterprises that meet these regulations will receive students for practical training. A special database of such enterprises will be developed. The Lithuanian chambers of commerce and other business organizations should certify the appropriate enterprises. The above-mentioned areas of activity for social partners are the main ones—but not all. Changes to be introduced into the new Law on VET should allow a more active involvement of social partners at different levels of the TVET system.
6.2 Changes in the Legal Basis for Social Dialogue All the key players involved in the TVET system admit that the legal framework for TVET needs updating and improvement. At the end of 2002 the Ministry of Education and Science started preparatory work for amendments to the Law on VET. In 2004 a draft for the new law was confirmed (Lithuania, 2005). It is expected that the new law will eliminate the contradictions present in the old law. The main contradiction was that initial vocational training is completely separated from labour training, which makes the process of integration very complicated and heavy on the one hand, and, on the other, creates barriers for implementing the idea of lifelong learning. New changes also appeared because of the integration of Lithuania into the EU. The new law should focus on transparency of qualifications, mobility, the accreditation of qualifications, not only taking into account the Lithuanian education system, but other EU countries too.
7 Conclusions Although the Lithuanian vocational education and training system is still in a transitional phase from the supply-driven and demand-driven to the co-ordination model, social partners are involved in such activities as the development of vocational standards, the organization of final qualification examinations, supervision of practi-
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cal training, management of TVET schools, sharing costs in training and re-training, evaluating vocational training programmes, etc. During an eight-year period, the achievements of social partnership in vocational education and training system have been quite considerable. The following changes can be identified:
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change of the content of social partnership: relations between schools and companies became based not on supervision but on co-operation, which is typical of a market economy; changes to the curriculum, based on the needs of the economy, the new requirements; plus more active involvement of experts from companies in the development of vocational training standards; updated and expanded new TVET programmes; modernized TVET and practical skills formation processes; new and flexible teaching/learning methods implemented; practical training is organized in modernized schools or directly in companies; an independent system of assessment of knowledge and skills implemented; experts from companies are involved in this process.
Having evaluated the existing potential of employers and employees, while developing social partnership in vocational education and training system, the following steps should now be taken:
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training of employers and employee representatives in order to ensure their more active participation in the functions and responsibilities of social partners; developing local and regional co-operation between educational establishments, regional administrations and social partners; developing TVET departments within chambers of commerce, industry and crafts and chambers of agriculture in order to carry out the delegated functions fully; promoting social partnership, explaining its aims and tasks in a vocational education and training system; involving social partners in different committees, councils and other structures related to vocational education and training issues; regularly updating and improving the legal basis for the development of social partnership with the active participation of social partners in this process; ensuring financial support for sustaining social partnership; involving social partners in various national and EU projects; and developing research activities in the field of social partnership for TVET.
A new culture of social partnership has emerged in Lithuania and other Eastern and Central European countries. The involvement of social partners in the vocational education and training system is a logical outcome of the free-market system. Social partnership in Lithuania has already contributed to the overall quality of the vocational education and training system. This process is still going on so that social
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partners respond to new challenges by trying to co-ordinate the interests of TVET institutions, employees and employers’ organizations.
Note 1. The term was first used in Lithuania by R. Lauˇzackas (1997), while speaking about the labourmarket system.
References Beresneviciene, D. 1999. New possibilities for adult education and continuous development in Eastern and Central Europe. Vocational education: research and reality, no. 2. Dienys, V.; Pusvaˇskis, R. 1998. Changes in Lithuanian vocational training system during the first stage of educational reform. Vocational education: research and reality, no. 1. Georg, W.; Sattel, U. 1995. Arbeitsmarkt, Beschaftigungssystem und Berufsbildung. In: Arnold R.; Lipsmeier, A., eds. Hanndbuch der Berufsbildung, pp. 123–42. Opladen, Germany: Leske & Budrich. Gurskiene, O. 2004. Initial vocational education and training policy in Lithuania and the EU. Vocational education: research and reality, no. 8, pp. 38–51. Lauˇzackas, R. 1997. Reform of the vocational education and training curriculum: didactic features. Kaunas, Lithuania: Vytautas Magnus University. Lithuania. 1997. Law on Vocational Education and Training in Lithuania. Vilnius. Lithuania. 2005. Law on Vocational Education and Training in Lithuania. Draft. Vilnius. Lithuania. Ministry of Science and Education; Ministry of Labour and Social Security. 1999. White Paper: Vocational education and training. Vilnius: Ministry of Science and Education. Pusvaˇskis, R. 2003. The chambers are in charge of the final examinations for students at vocational schools. CEDEFOP info, no. 3. VET Informational Service 1997. Preliminary report: role of social partners developing VET in Lithuania. Vilnius: VET Information Service. VET Information Service. 1998. Report on VET in Lithuania in the social and economical context. Vilnius: VET Informational Service. Zimina, N. 2002. Features of VET development in countries-candidates to European Community. Vocational education: research and reality, no. 5, pp. 118–27.
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Chapter IV.9
Integrating Education and Work: The Status of Vocational Education in Brazil Luc´ılia Regina Machado and Carlos Roberto Jamil Cury
1 Introduction This chapter aims at providing an insight into the implementation of policies that take into account adapting technical and vocational education and training to the technological changes taking place in the Brazilian economy. Here, general statistical data, legal measures and concepts function together in order to tackle the present situation, and make a general statement that may start a dialogue with UNESCO’s Member States.
2 Rethinking Formal Education and Training for Work In the past, formal education and training for work have been linked to each other in order to confirm that both are necessary to enhance the quality of human life and to provide the right circumstances for maintaining the community. This association can also found in legal documents and in speeches by governmental authorities, sometimes to cement this close relationship and, at other times, to break it apart. Examination of actual historical situations will reveal the peculiarities of each particular situation. Formal education today has its place in the governmental agendas of all countries. At the same time, science and technology are affecting most productive processes, so it is necessary to re-examine the close relationship between formal education and training for work and, whenever applicable, to remove any divergence that may harm preparation for work. Brazil, an heir to this dualistic tradition, intends to take advantage of the close relationship between the two. It is believed that such an approach will overcome the traditional view of vocational education and make it an integral part of basic education—the right of every citizen.
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3 Legal Measures in Favour of Vocational Education According to the Federal Constitution of Brazil, education of any sort ‘aims at the full development of the individual, his training for the exercise of citizenship and his qualification for work’ (Federal Constitution, Article 205). This principle appears again in Article 2 of the Basic Directives Act, immediately after acknowledging the importance of the link between school and the world of work. Therefore, vocational education should be regarded as one element in the nation’s efforts to provide equal access by all citizens to the full range of social services. Because vocational education forms part of a world where technological innovations are taking place at an ever-increasing speed, affecting nations, institutions and individuals, there is an urgent need to invest in people’s qualifications to become builders of the economic and social wealth of the country. Vocational education cannot be seen as a parallel educational network within a dual system, set apart from basic education. Basic education is a right for all citizens, as is laid down by law. In Brazil, there are three stages of basic education: early childhood education; fundamental (or primary) education lasting eight years; and secondary education lasting three years. As a minimal requirement for the recognition of oneself as an equal member of society, the Federal Constitution in Article 7, para. 33, prohibits any type of work for young people under the age of 14—except as an apprentice. The combination of vocational education and primary education represents an achievement that has enjoyed a long history of parallelism, duality—and prejudice. In a society such as Brazil’s, still suffering from the residue of a slave culture and a hierarchical class division, vocational education has been viewed as second-class education. Existing social barriers consigned vocational education to the role of a ‘network’ training labour for menial jobs, subject to stereotypes and even prejudices. The ‘other network’, on the other hand, was a stronghold of the ruling classes and reserved for an elite. This perverse tradition of a ‘double network’ is now forbidden by law.1 However, we still have a long way to go before we reach a situation where vocational education would be chosen voluntarily by individuals who saw the advantage of its benefits, thus ‘enhancing’ the value of human work, according to Article 170 of the Federal Constitution. One of the steps to achieve this situation is the legal obligation to progressively introduce universal secondary education (Article 208, II of the Federal Constitution), as well as lengthening compulsory schooling. For that very reason, a 1996 act gives every citizen the ‘possibility of access to vocational education’ and further states that ‘candidates who have completed secondary education or equivalent’ are eligible to admission to higher education. This tends to confirm the present trend that expects vocational education to be a regular route to higher levels of education. Furthermore, a decree dating from 1997 states clearly that every citizen should receive a secondary education, also clarifying that vocational education courses should be parallel to or follow on from general secondary education.2 At that time,
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it was discovered that it was actually illegal to have regular secondary education and vocational education at the secondary level. Taking into account this irregularity, the government felt obliged to revoke this decree and replace it with another one allowing regular secondary education and TVET to exist at the secondary level, associating education for work with the education of young people and adults. This new decree clearly conforms to the National Curricular Guidelines for Vocational Education. It is eventually hoped to adopt an Organic Law on Vocational and Technological Education that will represent a ‘solid, permanent and coherent body of legislation’. Since 2003, several initiatives have been launched towards adopting such a law, especially a document on public policies for vocational and technical education. This document expressed the need for a policy that combines vocational and technological education with basic education. This integration should consist of an organic, universal and democratic sub-system of this same vocational and technological education in all its levels and forms. Whenever offered by the public sector, these courses should be free of charge. A similar statement contained in the Fundamentals of the Organic Bill reads as follows: Vocational and technological education attempts to present technology as a historical and social process; to provide the worker with knowledge so as to inform him about his role as an agent in the transformation of production and of work, providing information on scientific and technological discoveries. Based on such principles, vocational and technological education will contribute to the complete education of the individual, promote the transition from school education to actual work, and place emphasis on aspects regarding work, technology and innovation, so that the worker will be properly qualified for vocational practice.
Vocational education, as a measure to reduce social inequalities and to promote the economic development of the country, is seen as a responsibility that falls upon public schools under a policy for ensuring good quality. Due to its importance, these measures are the subject of constant debates between members of the government and other stakeholders through forums and public hearings. Still another project aims to promote educational networks that will transform the present Fundamental Education and Teacher Valorisation Development Fund (FUNDEF) into a Basic Education and Teacher Valorisation Development Fund (FUNDEB) through a constitutional amendment to be followed by proper legislation. The constitutional amendment proposes that vocational education will receive public resources intended to develop educational networks. Besides this broad fund, the bill provides for the creation of a Vocational and Technological Education Development Fund aiming, among other things, to promote the training and qualifications of teachers. One of the networks that forms a sub-system at the national level is the Federal Network of Technological Education, with its federal centres of technological education, the federal technical schools, the federal agro-technical schools and the decentralized educational institutes. It is also worth mentioning here that there are some vocational schools in the state and municipal networks, as well as
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schools and foundations maintained by the private sector and by non-governmental organizations. Concerning the organization of curricula, the Bill of Law states: The curricula of vocational education and of vocational technical education at the secondary level will be organized with a view to including scientific, technological, social and humanistic knowledge that will form the common core of general and universal knowledge, in addition to specific knowledge and skills reflecting actual work and production activities.
Since vocational education courses at the higher education level are already provided for, the Bill of Law goes on to say clearly: The curricula of vocational technological education at the higher education level involve, in addition to the training of technologists, other modalities of undergraduate and graduate studies linked to the technology area, the licensing of teachers in these subjects, as well as applied research and the extension education.
The teacher-training component is very important since, in order to attain the objectives of the different forms of education, both pre-service and in-service teacher training will be necessary. Pre-service training will always take place at the higher education level and the administrations of the respective systems will be responsible for providing in-service education aimed at teacher updating and improvement. The Bill of Law also mentions a specific evaluation system. This system foresees the conduct of surveys on vocational education, the compiling of updated information and data, as well as the establishment of quantitative and qualitative indicators for the courses. The evaluation of technological courses, on the other hand, will take place under the provisions of the National System of Higher Education Evaluation Act (SINAES). Vocational education is therefore called upon to become a full and qualitative element in the education system. According to the law, access to vocational education at the secondary level is an integral part of the process to achieve universal secondary education in all its forms. However, in spite of advances made on the legal aspects, there are still two major obstacles to be overcome: (a) the inadequate numbers of students who actually reach secondary education; and (b) the circumstances and competitive nature of the market place. It is incumbent on public policies at each level of government to acknowledge the importance of TVET as an instrument both for educating citizens to achieve vocational competence and as a strategic measure contributing to national scientific and technological development so that Brazil is on an equal footing with other countries.
4 Diversified Networks of TVET Institutions Technical and vocational education and training in Brazil are offered through a wide and diversified network of institutions. Approximately 3,948 institutions were registered in the Vocational Education Census (Brazil. Ministry of Education, 1999). Of
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these, 2,034 offered courses in initial and continuing training (formerly basic) with 2,045,234 students enrolled and 1,567,888 graduate students (Posthuma, 1999). The School Census of Technical Courses (Brazil. Ministry of Education, 2003) reported the existence of 2,789 educational institutions offering technical courses.3 The number of courses totalled 6,446 with an enrolment of approximately 600,000 students. In 2002, 248,000 students graduated from their respective courses.4 The Higher Education Census (Brazil. Ministry of Education, 2002) counted 636 courses training technicians. The total number of students enrolled in these courses totalled 81,348 with 12,673 successful graduates.5
4.1 The Federal Network Established in 1909 by the then President of the Republic Nilo Pec¸anha, the federal network has existed for nearly 100 years and is present in twenty-two Brazilian states comprising 139 schools classified as follows:
r r r r r
thirty-six agro-technical federal schools (EAF)—these independent bodies operate preferentially in agriculture and cattle-raising activities offering technical courses with initial and continuing training as well as secondary education; thirty-four federal centres of technological education (CEFETs)—these federal independent bodies offer higher education in technology at undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as training for teachers and specialists in technical and technological education; thirty technical schools linked to federal universities (schools without administrative, financial or budgetary autonomy offering technical courses, as well as regular secondary education); thirty-eight decentralized educational units (UNED). These are schools with their own sites but dependent, in administrative, pedagogical and financial terms, on the CEFET to which they belong; and one federal technical school.
As of October 2004, modifications were introduced in the structure of federal technological education, in order to insert the thirty-four CEFETs into the federal system of higher education that, from now on, comprises colleges (faculdades), technology colleges, integrated colleges, institutes and higher education schools, university centres and universities. Thus, the CEFETs now have access to the research and graduate sectoral funds, as well as to greater incentives for the qualification of teachers and for the expansion of higher education courses. This will enhance their role as reference centres for the diffusion of scientific and technological knowledge and encourage local and regional development. According to the Vocational Education Census (Brazil. Ministry of Education, 1999), 103 of the Brazilian institutions offering initial and continuing training courses (formerly basic) belonged to the federal sphere, corresponding to only 5.1%
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of the total number of institutions offering such courses, and to 3.6% (72,966) of the total enrolment with 59,757 graduates. According to the School Census of Technical Courses (Brazil. Ministry of Education, 2003), these institutions represented 5% of the provision of technical courses in the country. However, in terms of their student body, their participation was more significant representing 13.2% of the 600,000 students enrolled in technical courses in Brazil. Concerning the offer of higher education technology courses, however, participation of the federal institutions was quantitatively more significant with 143 courses representing 23% of the country’s total, according to the Higher Education Census (Brazil. Ministry of Education, 2002). The number of students enrolled in these courses reached 16,895 (20.8% of the country’s total). In that year, 1,228 students graduated from federal technician training courses (9.7% of the country’s total).
4.2 State Networks According to the 1999 Vocational Education Census (Brazil. Ministry of Education, 1999), 800 state institutions offered this form of education (20.3% of the total of such institutions in Brazil). Approximately 23.4% of these (187) taught initial and continuing training courses (formerly basic) representing 9.2% of the Brazilian institutions offering such courses. The number of courses reached 889 representing approximately 3.2% of the courses taught in the country. The number of students enrolled totalled 120,999, of which 62,578 completed the course (5.9% and 4.0% of the Brazilians respectively). The participation of state educational institutions is larger regarding the offer for technical courses. The School Census of Technical Courses (Brazil. Ministry of Education, 2003) showed that this percentage equals 19.8%. The number of students in state schools corresponded to 27.5% of the total of 600,000 enrolled in the country. As to the courses for training technologists, according to the Higher Education Census (Brazil. Ministry of Education, 2002), enrolment totalled 14,170 corresponding to 17.4% of the total number of students in such courses in the country. Among these students 2,394 graduated (18.9% of the total).
4.3 Municipal Networks According to the Vocational Education Census (Brazil. Ministry of Education, 1999), of the 3,948 institutions offering vocational education in Brazil only 342 were municipal, representing 8.7% of the total. Among these municipal institutions 199 (58.2%) offered initial and continuing training courses (formerly basic), which means that the municipal networks totalled 9.8% of all the Brazilian institutions offering this type of course. However, this proportion was less significant if examined from other angles: only 3.4% of the courses offered (930 in 27,555), 3.9%
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of the total enrolment (79,790 in 2,045,234) and 3.6% of the graduates (56,495 in 1,567,888). According to the School Census of Technical Courses (Brazil. Ministry of Education, 2003), the participation of the municipalities in the provision of technical courses in relation to the other networks is smaller than that concerning the offer of initial and continuing training courses. Only 4.1% of the educational institutions that offer technical courses in Brazil were municipal. In terms of the number of students, this participation represented only 3.3% of the 600,000 students enrolled in such courses in the whole country. Even smaller, however, was the participation of this network in the supply of higher education courses in technology. According to the Higher Education Census (Brazil. Ministry of Education, 2002), only eleven courses were available at municipal institutions—1.7% of the Brazilian offer. The enrolment reached 1,296, corresponding to 1.6% of the total and the graduates numbered 130 (1%).
4.4 The Private Network According to the Vocational Education Census (Brazil. Ministry of Education, 1999), this is the largest network of educational institutions offering vocational education in Brazil, consisting of 2,656 institutions and corresponding to 67.3% of the total. The greater part of them (56.2% or 1,545) offered initial and continuing training courses (formerly basic). This group represented 76.0% of the educational institutions offering these courses in Brazil. In 1999 the number of courses totalled 24,189, 87.8% of the offer available to the Brazilian population. Consequently, private institutions numbered 1,771,479 students enrolled, corresponding to 86.6% of the enrolments in courses of this type and the number of graduates totalled 1,389,058. The participation of the private network in the provision of technical courses is also very significant. According to the 2003 School Census of Technical Courses (Brazil. Ministry of Education, 2003), 71.1% of the Brazilian institutions offering this type of education were private, accounting for 55.1% of the 600,000 students enrolled in such courses. The private network also leads the offer of higher education courses in technology. Data from the Higher Education Census (Brazil. Ministry of Education, 2002) indicate that the number of students enrolled totalled 48,987 (60.2% in relation to the country as a whole), among which 8,921 reached completion.
4.5 The S System The SENAI network (Servic¸o Nacional de Aprendizagem Industrial) now comprises 765 operational units (SENAI, 2004). There are 230 vocational education centres,
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38 technology centres, 369 mobile units and 128 training centres/agencies. In 2003, SENAI received 1,918,363 enrolments, 69% of which were in vocational improvement courses (specialization and vocational initiation); 36.6% in initial and continuing training (formerly basic); 3% in industrial apprenticeship; 2.4% in technical courses; and 0.3% in higher education courses in technology. The SENAI courses that grew most in relation to previous years were apprenticeship courses (34%) and the higher education technology courses (44%) (www.senai.dn.br). SENAC (Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje Comercial) has a national network of 474 institutions, 59 of them mobile, and it received 1,783,294 enrolments in 2003 (SENAC, 2004) (www.senac.br). In order to ensure the evolution of micro and small enterprises, the SEBRAE (Servic¸o Brasileiro de Apoio ao Empreendedor e Pequeno Empres´ario) assigned priority to educational actions that are developed by the Education and Development Section of the Entrepreneurial Culture Unit (UEDCE). These courses are directed towards the development of competence in business management in a continuing education perspective and use diversified educational techniques and different media, including distance education. Other than courses, SEBRAE develops educational projects aiming at the dissemination of an entrepreneurial culture (www.sebrae.com.br). SENAR (Servicio Nacional de Aprendizagem Rural) develops vocational training in rural areas by means of non-formal approaches in occupational areas such as agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, mining, agro-industry and cattle–raising. The courses are directed exclusively to the rural producers who work in family businesses, to the rural workers and their families (www.senar.org.br).
5 Sources of Funding for TVET Funding for public vocational education stems from several sources, since the Basic Directives for National Education Act do not provide for the financing of this form of education. It has no exclusive or specific sources of financing, nor does it have a fund of its own. These sources are therefore: public budgets (federal, states and municipalities); financing from international agencies such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IABD); from private enterprises, workers’ unions, co-operatives, social movements and non-governmental organizations. However, the most significant sum comes from a para-fiscal system, a monthly and compulsory social contribution levied by the Department of Social Welfare on the total of the wages paid by the firms from each sector to employees exclusively for the management of the institutions of the so-called S System. These resources are subject to widely different systems and models of management due to the existence of parallel systems of training, as well as to the fragmentation of public policies resulting from the lack of a single financing policy and from the piecemeal application of resources in programmes and initiatives that in some cases duplicate each other.
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In the absence of a public policy for vocational education, several emergency programmes and funds6 sprang up in order to finance these activities. Among the funds specifically directed to that end are the following: the Expansion of Vocational Education Programme (PROEP)7 of the Ministry of Education; the National Qualification Plan (PNQ)8 of the Ministry of Labour and Employment; the Vocationalization of Nursing Workers Project (PROFAE);9 and FINEP’s PROEDUC—Education for Competitiveness Programme.10 Other programmes can also be mentioned, whose general scope is not primarily the financing of vocational training but which nevertheless reserve part of their resources to that end: the Tourism Project of the National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES); the Programme for the Support of Industrial Development (Prodesin); the Support to Economic Infrastructure Programme (Proinfra); the Encouragement to Research in the Area of Health Programme financed by the Sectoral Health Fund; and the Induction of Regional Development Programme of the Ministry of National Integration maintained by the Constitutional Fund for Financing the Northern Region (FNO) and the Bank of Amazonia (BASA). Another important source of resources for vocational capacity-building is the FUST—the Universalization of Telecommunications Services Fund—managed by the Ministry of Communications that receives 1% of the gross revenue of all telecommunications companies with the sum of R$3 billion available for its main task, which is fighting illiteracy and the digital divide. There is also FUNSET—Fundo Nacional para Seguranc¸a e Educac¸a˜ o no Trˆansito—having, among other sources of financing, 5% of the total of all traffic fines collected, which are used for the application of resources in the formulation and promotion of projects and programmes for training and improving the personnel in charge of the engineering, education, computerization, policing, supervising, operation and administration of traffic. With a view to the consolidation of a public policy of expansion, diversification and improvement in the quality of the supply of vocational, technical and technological education in the country, the federated units (the states and the Federal District) are monitored and oriented by the Ministry of Education. Each one of these units, based on updated analyses of social demand and managerial information, must define its own plan, implement it and revise it periodically. Due to the size and complexity of the work to be developed, it was deemed necessary to promote the institutional and technical strengthening of the state systems as well as the exchange of experiences, one of the reasons for the establishment of the Expansion of Vocational Education Programme (PROEP) of the Ministry of Education. Since 1998 the UNESCO Office in Brazil, by the means of technical co-operation agreements, has been monitoring and participating in these actions, offering advice to several of these federal units through their State Secretariats of Education and/or Science and Technology (UNESCO, 2003). To that end, the federal units have discussed and adopted diversified legal models of state management in an attempt to solve financial, administrative and educational
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difficulties that have caused a series of breakdowns and lack of dynamism in the implementation of the guidelines prescribed and in the application of the covenants. In most of the federal units, with the exception of the more successful ones, there is no solid tradition in the provision of this kind of education. Moreover, the states are not legally obliged to provide it either. For these reasons, the state administrations have no strong motivation to implement vocational education or to provide it with stable and continuous financing. The result is a weak dynamism and precarious administrative and educational structures in the state agencies responsible for the management of these policies and also in the schools created for this purpose. The functioning and maintenance of the vocational schools financed by PROEP must be ensured by the state administrations as a response to the investments in infrastructure, equipment, capacity-building, consultant activities and services made by this programme. Without budgetary provision and/or the creation of specific state funds for vocational education, the educational and administrative problems that affect these school centres cannot be avoided. A new policy for the financing of vocational, technical and technological education is being discussed by the Federal Administration, which sees it as a fundamental condition for a qualitative leap forward: the establishment in the Brazilian states’ legislation of constitutional or legal responsibility for the financing of this form of education, as well as the unification of the different resources financing it into a specific national fund. Co-ordinated by the Ministry of Education and oriented towards a pluralistic management that is open to negotiation, this fund would seek to ensure the democratic participation of all the representative parties (the various governmental sectors, employers, workers and educators), as well as transparency and the ethical commitment, with a view to the expansion, the fairness and the control of the distribution of resources.
6 Conclusion The government is faced with unemployment, with the fact that through lack of opportunities workers are being relegated to the informal economy, with finding work for a great number of vocational workers and with finding a solution to the vocational training of future generations. If it is truly concerned about this situation, it cannot reduce vocational education to a mere technical exercise that ignores the competences required by a labour market requiring higher levels of skill and, therefore, the conscious participation of all. Valuing vocational students is necessary for their self-esteem, their self-respect and their future responsibilities within the labour market. The vocational student is also a citizen who is concerned, as a social being, with the future of society. For this reason, vocational education, instead of being divorced from school education, should be integrated into it as a higher form of qualification.
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Notes 1. Article 29 of the 1937 Constitution explicitly mentions a double network with parts reserved for different social groups. 2. This decree provided for three levels of vocational education: basic, in the form of separate courses; technical, at secondary education level; and technological, at the higher education level. 3. According to that census, the two richest Brazilian regions, the Southeast and the South, have 84.2% of all these institutions, 67.6% and 16.6% respectively. The State of S˜ao Paulo itself has 41.7% of the schools offering technical courses in Brazil. The Northeast represents only 7.9% of the total and the Center-west and the North, 3.8% and 2.1% respectively. 4. According to that census, 95.3% of these courses were located in urban environments, whereas only 4.7% were in rural areas. Health courses are the ones with the largest enrolments, 25.5%, representing 27.3% of the total number of courses. Next come industry and management with 18.6% and 14.8% of the total number of students respectively. The distribution of enrolment according to sex is relatively proportional: 51% of the students are male and 48.9% are female. Women outnumber men in specific vocational areas: health (76.9%), management, arts, communications, social development, leisure and tourism. On the other hand, men outnumber women in the areas of industry (87.6%) and agriculture and cattle-raising (76.3%). This latter area concentrates younger students (68.4% are under 19 years of age). The area of health receives older students (28% were over 30). In the total enrolment, 31.1% of the students belonged to the 20–24 age bracket. 5. According to that census, the courses are distributed in the following areas: 269 courses (42.3%) in sciences, mathematics and computer science; 163 courses (25.6%) in engineering, production and building; 110 courses (17.3%) in social sciences, business and law; 46 courses (7.2%) in services; 20 courses (3.1%) in humanities and arts; 19 courses (3.0%) in health and social welfare; and 9 courses (1.4%) in agriculture and veterinary medicine. 6. The FAT, Assistance to Workers Fund, represents an important reference for the financing of vocational education in Brazil for two basic reasons: (a) the sum of money it collects; and (b) the democratic management model it establishes—the tripartite (government, employers and workers) and equal representation in its Governing Council (CODEFAT). 7. Launched in November 1997 with resources of approximately US$500 million, half of which coming from a loan by IABD, and the rest from the Brazilian counterpart—Ministry of Education and FAT, of the Ministry of Labour budgets. It aims at providing the vocational education centres with infrastructure, equipment and qualified personnel, and also at adapting and updating curricula. 8. Financed by the Assistance to Workers Fund (FAT) with counterpart contributions required from each project. Between 1995 and 2001, it involved 15.3 million workers. The resources invested in this programme grew from R$28 million in 1995 to R$493 million in 2001. In 2002 these resources totalled R$153 million and in 2003 R$186 million. 9. Established in 2000, with a total cost of US$370 million, of which US$185 million come from IABD financing. In 1999 Brazil had 460,000 workers in the nursing area, however, 74% of this total were assistants qualified for clerical tasks only. 10. FINEP—Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos—is a public company linked to the Ministry of Science and Technology. Through the PROEDUC—Promotoria de Justic¸a de Defesa da Educac¸a˜ o—it has financed nineteen projects benefiting over 21,000 student-workers through fundamental and secondary education programmes offered by the firms.
References Brazil. Ministry of Education. 1999. Censo da educac¸a˜ o professional. Bras´ılia: Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais An´ısio Teixeira.
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Brazil. Ministry of Education. 2002. Censo da educac¸a˜ o superior. Bras´ılia: Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais An´ısio Teixeira. Brazil. Ministry of Education. 2003. Censo escolar dos cursos t´ecnicos, 2003. Bras´ılia: Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais An´ısio Teixeira. Posthuma, A.C. 1999. Qual o rumo da formac¸a˜ o profissional no Brasil? An´alise do primeiro quadriˆenio do PLANFOR. (Paper presented at the twenty-third Annual Meeting of the Associac¸a˜ o Nacional de P´os-Graduac¸a˜ o e Pesquisa em Ciˆencias Sociais (ANPOCS), Caxamb´u, Brazil, 1999.) SENAC. 2004. Relat´orio geral do Senac, 2003. Bras´ılia: SENAC. SENAI. 2004. Relat´orio anual do Sistema SENAI, 2003. Bras´ılia: SENAI. UNESCO. 2003. Atuac¸a˜ o da UNESCO na a´ rea de educac¸a˜ o professional: relat´orio. Bras´ılia: UNESCO Office Brazil.
Chapter IV.10
China’s Higher Technical and Vocational Education: Development and Reform Jing Mi and Aihua Wu
1 The System of Chinese Vocational Education and Training China is a developing country with a population of 1.3 billion and 9.6 million square kilometres of land. In the last twenty years, under its policy of opening up to the outside world, carrying out reforms and developing a socialist market economy, China has made great advances in economic and social development, and in people’s standards of living. The economic development of China is constantly accelerating, and vocational education and training (VET) are developing rapidly too. Chinese children follow nine years of compulsory education starting at the age of 6. Elementary school lasts six years and junior secondary school three years. Senior secondary school (general high school or secondary vocational school) usually lasts three more years. Higher vocational education can continue for two or three years and a bachelor’s degree at university is obtained after four years. VET is an important part of the Chinese education system, since it plays a significant role in the continuing growth of the Chinese economy and society. In China, VET is divided into three streams which take place post-elementary school, post-junior secondary school and post-senior secondary school. The government pays particular attention to the post-junior secondary school level by emphasizing the establishment and spread of the vocational system that covers both vocational formal education and vocational training, and establishing linkages between VET and other educational streams (see Fig. 1). Formal vocational education leads to the award of academic credentials in junior secondary vocational schools, senior secondary vocational schools and higher vocational schools. Secondary vocational education is carried out in secondary technical schools, secondary vocational schools and skilled worker’s schools. Higher vocational education is carried out by higher professional training schools, vocational and technical colleges, professional and general universities.
r r
Junior secondary vocational education enrols elementary school graduates for three years of study. Senior secondary vocational education enrols junior secondary school graduates for three years of study (some schools for four years).
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Independent higher VE institute Adult higher college Ge ne erra all Gen H .E.
Hi gher VE
Other higher VE in University All kinds of vocational training General secondary VE school
Senior G. S..H HS S G.S
Adult secondary VE school
VE All kinds of vocational training Junior VE school
G. J..H HS S G.J
JJuunniioorr VE
VE in general junior school All kinds of vocational training
Fig. 1 A diagram of the Chinese vocational education system
r
Higher vocational education mainly enrols senior secondary school graduates or those with an equivalent educational level for two or three years of study. It also enrols junior secondary school graduates for five years of study.
The Chinese Government has decided to make senior secondary vocational education the core of its policy to expand higher vocational education, and to leave the management of junior secondary vocational education to the responsibility of local governments.
2 Structure and Scale of Tertiary Vocational Education in China To meet the need for the practical and skilled workers required by China’s modernization process, efforts have been made to develop tertiary vocational education over the past twenty years. At present, there are six streams for tertiary vocational education: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Independent, system-reformed adult colleges; The same course at universities; Tertiary vocational education conducted by colleges The same course at ordinary universities; The experimental units of tertiary vocational education in five-year technical colleges; and
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6. The new pattern of direct linkage between secondary and tertiary vocational education. One can note that these courses are mainly at college level at present (two or three years). The aim of tertiary vocational education in China is to serve social and economic development, particularly by guaranteeing students entry to immediate employment after graduation. It is hoped to achieve a satisfactory combination of production, teaching and research. The objective of tertiary vocational education in China is to train a highly-skilled workforce for jobs in the modern economy. Students graduating from high school should be trained to enter advanced practical employment with a wide-range of competency and aptitudes for occupations on the cutting edge of production, management and service. Tertiary vocational education is an important part of Chinese higher education policy. There are three kinds of admission to higher vocational education in China:
r r r
The national entrance examination for senior middle-school graduates (pursuing two or three years of college learning); The local entrance examination for secondary vocational school graduates (pursuing two or three years of college learning); The local entrance examination for junior middle-school graduates (pursuing five years of college learning).
There are five kinds of school systems: full-time, part-time, correspondence/selfstudy, e-learning and those conducted by regular higher education institutes. From 1998 to the end of 2005, new student enrolment in vocational and technical colleges increased by more than four times, from 0.54 million to 2.68 million (Fig. 2); total student enrolment increased from 1.17 million to 7.13 million (Fig. 3). By the end of 2005, there were 1,091 independent vocational and technical colleges throughout the country, 921 of these were at tertiary level (Fig. 4). In addition, there were more than 600 regular universities conducting vocational and technical education (Fig. 5). It has been planned that there should be at least one vocational and technical college in each city (prefecture). The number of colleges, new student enrolments and total student enrolments for regular vocational and technical colleges 3 2.68 2.5 2 1.5 Million
1 0.54 0.5 0
1998
2005
Fig. 2 New student enrolments in technical and vocational education in 1998 and 2005
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7.13
7 6 5 4
Million
3 2
1.17
1 0
1998
2005
Fig. 3 Total student enrolment in technical and vocational education in 1998 and 2005
1200 1000
962
1047 908
871 772
800 600
767 607
668 432
1091
446
415
558
411
505 402
400 200 0 1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
Adult higher education institutions Technical and vocational education colleges
Fig. 4 Numbers of technical and vocational education colleges from 1998 to 2005
402 Attached, 600
Attached, 921 600 270
Fig. 5 Structures of technical and vocational education providers in 2005 Source: <www.moe.edu.cn/>
TTV College College Adult HEIs
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throughout the country account for 60.8%, 43% and 53% of those of regular colleges and universities respectively. This represents nearly half of the higher education institutions in China.
3 Tertiary Vocational Education Policy in China The Vocational Education Law of the People’s Republic of China (China. Ministry of Education, 1996) was adopted in 1996. In recent years, the Chinese Government has paid much more attention to vocational education than before. In July 2002, the State Council National Conference on Vocational Education pointed out that China should organize a modern vocational education system and expressed some specific requirements. After the National Conference on Vocational Education held in June 2004, authorized by the State Council, the Ministry of Education and seven other ministries and committees printed and distributed the Several opinions on further strengthening of vocational education (Ministry of Education and Seven Other Ministries, 2004). After that, the State Council formally authorized the establishment of a Cross-sector Joint Conference on Vocational Education, responsibility for which will be undertaken by the Ministry of Education. These measures laid the foundations for the development of vocational education as a priority system. In November 2005, the State Council National Conference on Vocational Education was held once more. It emphasized that China should make developing vocational education a key factor in economic and social development and the foundation of its educational strategy. Thus, China will make further efforts to set up and improve ‘the modern vocational education system conforming to the Chinese approach’. The present policies on higher vocational education that are being carried out by Chinese government are listed below.
3.1 To Strengthen Collectivization, Market-Orientation and Growth The decision of the State Council to place strong emphasis on the development of VET means that China should: (a) positively promote the reform and innovation of this system; (b) promote the integration and re-structuring of existing public vocational schools; and (c) revise the structure of school management. Profitable co-operation should be encouraged between tertiary vocational institutions, as well as co-operation between colleges and enterprises. Private capital and foreign capital should be used positively to build groupings of vocational education institutions offering a range of training activities. Vocational education groupings should be encouraged to adopt the structure of non-profit organizations, such as the University Alliance, as well as integrating and re-structuring their educational resources in order to take advantage of each other’s strengths and to become more efficient through the sharing of resources. Furthermore, groupings of vocational education
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institutions are encouraged to adopt the methods of a business enterprise, such as a franchise, and to plan the educational provision as a whole, unifying the standards for running schools and employing the latest management methods (State Council of China, 2005). Such groupings of tertiary vocational education institutions will encourage the promotion of higher levels of college/industry collaboration in the interests of resource sharing and synergy. For colleges and enterprises it is a ‘winwin’ situation. It is also beneficial for the establishment of educational contracts for training in tertiary vocational institutions, for facilitating the employment of graduates, for promoting co-operation between colleges and universities in eastern and western China and the development of both.
3.2 To Develop the Dual Qualification System Other priorities that would create favourable conditions for employment are the search for an approach that combines national employment standards with professional teaching curricula, improves the training provided, innovates with new training methods, makes teaching correspond to the expectations of the workplace, and ensures the quality and diversity of human skills. This has to be accomplished without prolonging the period of schooling or increasing the teaching hours. At the same time, the supervisory and guidance services of the local education, labour and social security departments are called upon to implement ‘dual qualifications’ in local tertiary education institutes and ensure that this process is carried out smoothly. The Ministry of Labour and Social Security and the Ministry of Education will disseminate successful innovatory experiences from experimental projects, strengthen research into the classification of occupations and occupational standards, modify employment standards in keeping with developments in science and production techniques, and step-by-step introduce comprehensive vocational qualifications adapted to job-clusters.
3.3 To Strengthen the Combination Production/Teaching/Research Over several years and on three separate occasions, the Ministry of Education has held a Conference for Exchanging Experience on the Combination Production/ Teaching/Research in tertiary vocational education. These meetings defined the guiding principles for the development of tertiary vocational education as follows: ‘the aim of tertiary vocational education in China is to serve social and economic development. Its objective is the students’ immediate employment after graduation, and its development will be carried out through the combination production/teaching/research.’ Tertiary vocational institutions are expected to use their initiative to satisfy the demands of economic and social development. They are to train people to be highly-skilled in practical abilities and possessing professional ethics, who can meet the immediate demands of the production, construction, management and service industries. These people should also be reliable and functional.
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3.4 To Develop Exemplary Tertiary Vocational Institutions The objective of building exemplary tertiary vocational institutions is to benefit from the enthusiasm of local governments and vocational colleges in promoting policy directives. The plan is to select and build about 100 tertiary vocational institutions, each with distinctive characteristics, that should be well supported by society and correspond to the directions in which tertiary vocational education is expected to develop. They will be important centres providing human resources for local social and economic development and they will be the most important tertiary vocational institutions in China, also having an international impact. They should play a leading role in the building of Chinese tertiary vocational education systems and take the lead in introducing training models combining production/teaching/research. They are equally expected to take the lead in introducing teaching and educational reforms, educational resource sharing and international communications, so that tertiary vocational education in China can reap the benefit. At the same time, the Ministry of Education will reinforce the preparation of an exemplary curriculum. Over recent years, the Ministry of Education has licensed 415 professions as ministry-level educational reform experimental sites, 62 professions as national projects of excellence and 75 curricula as being of national interest for tertiary vocational institutions.
3.5 To Develop Practical Training for Vocational Education Economic and social developments in China have raised the urgent need for skilled personnel who have mastered advanced technologies. However, the practical conditions for vocational training in China are unable to satisfy the demand for highquality skilled workers. It is for this reason that the country has brought together the financial and physical resources to build a series of practical training institutes to accelerate vocational education. The intention is to improve the quality of vocational education, making a greater contribution to economic and social development. The objective of setting up this infrastructure is ultimately to have some 15,000 vocational institutions in the country (including secondary vocational schools) and to develop college/industry collaboration so as to foster employment. It is hoped that eventually some 200,000 professionals would be available to provide practical training for more than 20 million students. To give full scope to the available educational resources, the planning of local governments will be strengthened, and excellent material and resources made available. The central government will also provide help with the financial input. These national-level practical training institutes for vocational education will be distributed throughout different regions, and incorporate teaching, training, occupational skill tests and technology services under one roof. Building started in 2004 and is designed to be completed in five years. The guidelines for these practical training institutes are: the cost-benefit ratio, orientation, lifelong education and active development.
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3.6 To Improve Teaching Staff in Tertiary Vocational Institutions Each tertiary vocational institution should adopt effective measures to promote timely in-service teacher training so as to improve practical abilities. At the same time, the tertiary vocational institutions should recruit professionals or technicians with wide practical experience in a profession, enterprise or society as part-time teachers (this includes retired people). Local education departments should set up a system for the evaluation and recruitment system of ‘dual-mode teachers’ in accordance with the needs of tertiary vocational education. They should be able to confer academic titles and recruit teachers, and provide policy support for building teams of ‘dual-mode teachers’. The Ministry of Education has established six teacher-training institutes for tertiary vocational education in the country. The mission of these teacher-training institutes is principally: (a) to provide training that will improve the theoretical level, practical ability and professional skills of tertiary vocational education teachers; (b) to conduct training in modern educational technology; and (c) to award a second bachelor degree and provide graduate education.
4 The Long-range Development Objectives of Tertiary Vocational Education Now that China is well on the road to industrialization, it may soon be the largest manufacturing country in the world. Its economy is undergoing thorough modernization, and new industries and skills are being developed all the time. It can be seen from the development of higher education in China that the country has passed through the stage of universalizing higher education. Higher education is now changing from society-based, market-based development towards balanced development, from caring about the number of skills to achieving a balance between the supply of higher education graduates and the demands of the labour market. This also means a balance between training a highly skilled workforce and meeting the demands of the majority of young people for access to higher education, as well as the balance between academic education and vocational training. Up to the year 2020, there will be a major expansion in the scale of TVET, with enrolment eventually accounting for about half of the places in higher education. The TVET system will be optimized through diversification and alignment with the lifelong learning system. Thousands of skills will be inculcated so as to support the industrialization and the transformation of economic growth in China. Further efforts will be made to build an affluent society and to raise quality in the interests of the whole population of China.
References China. Ministry of Education. 1996. Vocational Education Law of the People’s Republic of China, 1996. Beijing. (Adopted at the nineteenth Meeting of the Standing Committee of the eighth National People’s Congress on 15 May 1996.)
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Ministry of Education and Seven Other Ministries. 2004. Several opinions on further strengthening vocational education. Educational newsletter of China, no. 1, 14 September. State Council of China. 2005. The decision of State Council on vigorously promoting the development of VET. People’s daily, 10 November.
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Chapter IV.11
The Adoption and Adaptation of the Work-Team Concept in Urban Thai Workplaces Chitrlada Burapharat
1 Introduction An organization always seeks the best possible mechanism to implement changes and to improve organizational performance. In this era, where knowledge and learning are the focus of attention, many organizations have begun to realize that their competitive edge depends very much on the knowledge and capacities of their staff. Through their abilities to learn, to apply their knowledge and their work experience, employees possess knowledge that can become organizational wisdom—as well as intellectual property. Nowadays, the trend towards learning organizations and knowledge-management becomes a very important strategy in business competition. Many Thai enterprises in various professions, such as computers, hospitals, banks, etc., are attempting to turn theory into practice by adopting such strategies in their management. The usual practice is for organizations to aim at creating web-based communication to help generate learning and information—a minor step in creating a learning organization. The question is how an organization in Thailand can create a working environment to stimulate and sustain sharing and learning abilities. The purpose is to achieve product or management innovation. Many companies are seeking ways in which they can improve their organizational operations. To create such an environment, Thai enterprises require teamwork from every employee. Teamwork is the focus. For instance, it is possible for adults to learn through other means than classroom-based lectures—it was once thought that this was the only way that learning can be delivered. Different strategies, such as informal learning, participation and brain-storming, are now incorporated into the design of group-dynamic training programmes. Individuals also have an opportunity to participate in workshops, to contribute and to share their knowledge in an environment of peer support and egalitarianism (Burapharat, 2003).
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2 Learning is Required at All Levels Generally, the main goal of education and learning is to reduce the educational gaps among people and to reinforce democracy by stimulating the individual’s participation in the larger society. Wilson (2003) and Hawley and Paek (2005) suggest that a learning workplace needs knowledge workers and this, in turn, demands the reform of secondary and post-secondary education, especially technical and vocational education and training (TVET). The most recent report from the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) shows that basic education in Asian countries did not usually prepare employees with entry-level skills, while the labour market demanded technically skilled workers (Hawley and Paek, 2005). This implies that a person recruited into a company still has knowledge and skills gaps—either managerial or technical—compared to the real needs of the organization. Unfortunately, to be able to compete in the global market place, an enterprise cannot wait for changes to take place in governmental policies on secondary and post-secondary education, but must ensure that the employee acquires technical and basic skills using various forms of training, either formal or informal. The promotion of learning in an organization highlights the theory of adult education—one of the most talked about theories in the world of business management today. Adult education concepts have long been one of the key areas for human resources development (HRD) in Western management studies. In Asia, especially in Thailand, applying this concept in the area of management has been very slow. It has been at Chulalongkorn University (CU), Srinakharintarawirot University (SWU) and Chiang Mai University (CMU) where most adult education theories have been developed, mainly for community development. Perhaps, it is time to become more familiar with the concepts of adult education in order to understand more about value differences between cultures. Adults require and obtain knowledge through different learning styles, such as experiential learning, self-directed learning, etc. While promoting learning, an organization has to keep in mind these differences, because it is the channel for an individual to take in information, as well as providing it. Knowles’ model of adult learning (1973) advocates that education must be learner-centred and constructed to accommodate the diverse needs and interests of learners. Thus, it is the job of managers and others involved to find ways of tapping into this hidden intellectual capital, to find the means to sustain lifelong learning and to create a positive environment for knowledge-sharing. The wisdom of an organization could be hidden anywhere. Sometimes, it is the quiet person, usually good at observing, who can suggest creative answers to problems. Thus, the promotion of learning and sharing at all levels may create learning opportunities in order to cultivate wisdom drawn from people’s knowledge and experience.
3 Learning as a Change Strategy Adult educators believe that education and learning are the means to bring about change because they raise awareness of the self, which empowers individuals to
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make change (Freire, 1969). Individual learning brings about change because people become aware of what needs to be changed as a result of the education and information they have received. Knowles (1973) stated that most of the time adult learners viewed themselves as non-learners, because they failed to consider themselves as possessing learning potential. On the contrary, an adult will achieve a higher level of intellectual performance because of the experience of life. This can be renewed, if not increased, and thus heighten his/her ability to learn and enquire. Mezirow’s (1978) theory of transformative learning stated that ‘individuals change their frame of reference by critically reflecting on their assumptions and beliefs. Based on this process of critical reflection, the adult learners then consciously change their behaviours to accommodate their newly defined world.’ That is how change begins. It is fair to say that, nowadays, everyone has the opportunity to access different forms of education and information, either e-learning, web-based learning or groupbased learning. In reality, employees at many levels in an organization may have been neglected or may have refused to share information, especially those who are considered as incompetent and different. For example, an individual who cannot comply with performance appraisal criteria may be viewed as incapable. The concepts of learning and development have also been misunderstood and misinterpreted. The printed form used in performance evaluation is often copied directly from foreign sources. In many cases, it results in bias in the design and implementation of the performance appraisal process. Such bias may cause rifts in labour management and unfairness in justifying an employee’s self-development opportunities. On the other hand, managers—in many cases the bosses—often forget about bureaucratic procedures when evaluating their favourite group. In such situations, standard rules of appraisal can be waived. Many people who are not complying with office politics may be excluded from new information and training or may not be invited to participate in brainstorming sessions. Many employees are ‘marginalized’ in this way. It is time to adopt this word in organizational studies, since this is what it means when people are ignored in a social organization. To sustain change, learning and sharing are the keys. ‘In the complex enterprises of the new millennium, learning has moved from the periphery—from something which prepared people for employment—to the lifeblood which sustains them’ (Boud & Garrick, 1997, p. 1). This, in turn, transforms the nature of work in which the employees are engaged to create new working practices and ways of production. The culture of learning is necessary to overcome development barriers. Thus, the construction of an environment supporting various learning styles and various forms of inquiry is very crucial to support lifelong learning in an organization. A team environment can create a culture of knowledge-sharing and synergy.
4 The Team as an Environment for Learning and Knowledge-Sharing Other than attempting to accomplish business goals and re-skilling their employees, today’s modern enterprises may also have higher responsibilities—to foster the
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development of an individual as a whole person. Regardless of their educational background, employees or adult learners come to work from diverse backgrounds, with different levels of education and literacy, as well as of work and worldly experience (Knowles, 1973). They also come with many strengths embedded in their language, upbringing and culture. It is the manager’s job to find ways to tap into their skills and tacit knowledge and to make the most of their learning abilities. One of the channels is through collective means. Learning alone, however, cannot stimulate change. It has to happen together with sharing to create dynamics of information flow for further knowledge creation. Modern management gives importance to working together (Senge, 1994; Wenger, 2002) as the grounds on which to create such opportunities. That immediately gives importance to the team setting. For example, group participation can enhance the attitudes of employees and their performance (Green, 1998). Participation is a way of encouraging worker involvement in decision-making, which has long been a topic of interest to theorists concerned with enhancing the attitudes of employees and their performance in the workplace. Participation has been associated with motivation and leadership. There are many successful workplaces that actively involve members in participation and decision-making processes throughout the organization. In a regular hierarchical organization, a team helps build bridges between an individual and organizational performance (Fig. 1). When we look at the transformation taking place in the nature of work, it is noticeable that the trend is increasingly in favour of creating teams. A team is seen as a crucial means to drive changes in larger organizations. Synergy can be achieved through teams when the members join together to create work or accomplished through results that individuals could not have carried out by themselves alone. To create human relationships and participation opportunities, an organization has to improvise because positive relationships are the mechanism for bringing about knowledge-sharing and learning environments. A team is not merely a group of people who are working together to achieve the group’s goals and objectives or produce high-quality work, but the ideal place to start the stimulation of learning for both individuals and organizations (Burapharat, 2003). Working as a team requires many skills since teams are not just the act of bringing individuals together and working on a certain project or task. Team skill is undeniably one of the crucial basic skills needed. It means a healthy
Organization Group(s)/team(s) Individual(s)
Fig. 1 The team as a bridge
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relationship and positive environment in which people can have confidence in each other and support each other. A team today also has the responsibility of creating a culture of knowledge-sharing and learning to build healthy community-of-practice networks. Not only is a trusting environment created and supported, but at the same time positive ground is formed for people to participate. Working together has always been part of human nature. The question often asked is ‘how can one create a better team?’. This is realised in creating and managing the relationship, encouraging cohesive co-operation and lessening communication barriers. To construct a team environment with positive energy, the building of good relationships is of the essence. Developed from group therapy theory, ‘group dynamics’ offers opportunities to focus on team members’ relationships. This adoption and adaptation of the concept includes small-group theory and team learning. They focus on the ability to hold dialogue and skilful discussion that can help enhance the learning and articulation capabilities of an individual. Due to different abilities to express themselves, some individuals in a team need support and encouragement from their colleagues to express their opinions.
5 Dialogue within a Team is Crucial A team needs an environment that stimulates the learning atmosphere. This has to be generated by the team members—only they can do it. The climate within a team should be such that individuals can express themselves freely and feel in a dynamic relationship with the other members of the group. The greatest emphasis in building a positive environment for learning within teams should be placed on achieving the right atmosphere through communication. Effective communication ‘is a prerequisite for every aspect of group functioning’ (Johnson & Johnson, 1997, p. 140). Alan Webber adds: ‘conversation is the means by which people share and often create what they know’ (cited in Isaacs, 1993, p. 1). Concerning the transfer of knowledge, Senge (1994) wrote that two primary media with which teams build their learning capabilities are ‘dialogue’ and ‘skilful discussion’. Reflecting the essence of Buddhism, many contemporary thinkers, such as Senge (1994) and Bohm (1996) amongst others, see dialogue as a tool to encourage people to pay more attention to others’ ideas that might normally be ignored, especially contradictory ideas. This is because people are usually preoccupied with defending their own ideas—a lack of awareness that encourages confusion and problems. In Metcalf’s opinion, our perception of the world comes from an accumulated pool of knowledge which gives us a sense of meaning and individuality passed from one person to another. By creating awareness, an individual can gather relevant information and organize it into a meaningful understanding through such processes as dialogue (Metcalf, 1999). By being more conscious of our own thoughts, we can learn from different opinions to create a setting for a collective learning environment. Dialogue as collective learning and inquiry is defined as: ‘A process for transforming
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the quality of conversation and the thinking that lies beneath it. Dialogue opens a new possibility for shared thinking or exchange thinking’ (Isaacs, 1993, p. 2) Dialogue plays a big part in creating positive relationships and interactions that are at the heart of effective group and team development. Isaacs (1993, p. 3) points out that dialogue requires creating a series of increasingly conscious environments. These environments can develop as a group of people become aware of the requirements and discipline needed to create them. Dialogue is seen as a means to explore the underlying irrationality of thought and action that causes conflict between team members. Dialogue has been claimed to be the primary aspect that a team should concentrate on improving, as the value of the individual will be recognized through the dialogue process. An environment can be created that is open and encourages individuals to offer opinions and take risks in putting forward ideas and to learn from each other through trust, respect and sharing goals. When communicating, people will normally defend their own ideas and assumptions against people who have different ideas and point of views (Bohm, 1996). Each individual has different opinions and assumptions—assumptions regarding basic ideas such as the meaning of life, self-interests, the national interest, religious interest, or whatever is deemed important. These assumptions are defended when they are challenged (Bohm, 1996, pp. 2–3), a behaviour that can create conflict between individuals in teams. According to Bohm (1996) and Isaacs (1993), people may over-react when defending their assumptions and opinions in the face of another team member’s opinion—even when they know that they are not right. People generally choose to defend their own points of view and do not judge the merit of other’s opinions. Such behaviour causes them to lose their grip of certainty about all views, including their own (Isaacs, 1993, p. 3). For example, if an individual hears somebody else who has an assumption that seems outrageous to them, the natural response might be to get angry or to react in some other way. This reaction was triggered only because the other person came up with an opposing opinion (Bohm, 1996, pp. 12–13). This may be due to the fact that ‘words can be interpreted in many different ways. And, of course, this is the basis for many misunderstandings’ (Johnson & Johnson, 1997, p. 52). Dialogue can be used to get at the root of different assumptions and provide a means for team members to deal with them openly. ‘Dialogue actually involves a willingness not only to suspend defensive exchange, but also to probe into the reasons for it. In this sense, dialogue is a strategy to resolve the problems that arise from the subtle and pervasive fragmentation of thought’ (Isaacs, 1993, p. 2). It is suggested that individuals should suspend their assumptions and concentrate on thinking together. What the team members need is to let ‘authenticity’ flow freely in the belief that, in order for teams to discover insight, free communication should be encouraged in the group. ‘Authenticity’ is defined as the ability to speak openly without concealing disagreement. Dialogue is more than just the way people talk, communicate and exchange ideas and information among team members. Isaacs (1993), Bohm (1996) and Senge (1994) emphasize ‘dialogue’ as an appropriate means of authentic communication among
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members of a group. By doing so, individuals can learn together, can interact with each other and discover how the team functions. This can accelerate the learning process and lead to the achievement of collective understanding (Senge, 1994). Most informal learning theory stresses the need for an ‘authentic’ setting to produce genuine communication, which plays a big part in creating the ‘basis for rich learning experiences that have the potential to be robust and highly transferable’ (Garrick, 1999, p. 19). The main element in team learning thus encompasses communication strategies as being ‘authentic’ among the team members. The concept of dialogue can be applied effectively in the workplace, especially in teams. Bohm (1996, p. 14) concludes that people should attempt to suspend their own opinions and to look at the opinions of others: listen to everybody’s opinions and try to see what they all mean. If different individuals can understand the scope of the varying opinions, then they are sharing a common content, even if they do not entirely agree. In reality, the opportunities for authentic dialogue mentioned by Bohm (1996), when applied in real situations, could be very difficult because of organizational hierarchy, bureaucracy, personal preferences, etc. At the conversational level, socialization, according to Takeuchi and Nonaka (2004), means sharing and acquiring tacit knowledge through direct experience from individual to individual. In the Thai setting, there are some socialization elements that can enhance the sharing atmosphere.
6 The Thai Setting Thai educational and vocational institutions produce graduates with skills that are inadequate for the needs of business. The ‘twenty-first century requires the education and training of knowledge workers—those who are able to use logicalabstract thinking to diagnose problems, research and apply knowledge, propose solutions, and design and implement those solutions, often as a team members’ (Wilson, 2003). It would be wise to find ways in which to support the collectivistic nature of Thai society using team techniques. Many collective mechanisms are already in place, for example, the roles of peer support in the form of the informal third person and pseudo-sibling relationships (Burapharat, 2001). Complementing Thai cultural behaviour will help people feel more able to express themselves. Many Thais admit that they cannot discuss things openly or speak directly to others, particularly Westerners. They also feel uncomfortable communicating in public or with certain people, such as those with a higher level of education than themselves or with a dominating character. The focus then should be on the patterns of dialogue typical of the Thai nature. The nature of Thai participation is obviously different from participation in other cultures. Hofstede (1994) observed that Thais have a collectivistic nature. He defined collectivism as ‘standing for a society in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, which throughout people’s lifetimes continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty’ (p. 225). Triandis, McCusker and Hui (1990) described collectivism as: ‘A social pattern consisting
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of closely linked individuals who see themselves as part of one or more collective (family, co-workers, tribe, nation); are primarily motivated by the norms of, and duties imposed by those collectives; are willing to give priority to the goals of these collectives over their own personal goals; and emphasize their connectedness to members of these collectives’ (p. 2). Many writers have described the collective characteristics and behaviour of people from East Asia as group or socially oriented, and as promoting the goals of others, with the emphasis on public roles and relations (Hofstede, 1994; Triandis et al., 1990). Generally, collectivism refers to emotional dependence on family, kinship, structure, organization and, finally, on the social system. A highly collectivist culture emphasizes social interdependence, connectedness and mutual deference or compromise as dominant values. In the workplace, the collective nature also applies. Burapharat (2003) concludes that, after examining many cultural and behavioural mechanisms, urban settings both support and obstruct collective procedures. Upon further investigation of Thai relationships in urban enterprises, it was found that the nature of collectivism and value functioned quite differently from Western individualistic behaviour. Knowledge exchange, Thai style, needs both supportive personal relationships and a supportive environment to create an informal atmosphere in which people feel comfortable enough to share their knowledge and experiences. In order to develop a learning atmosphere in a team, Thais need constructed patterns of mutual interdependency and emotional dependence. The special characteristic of kinship also plays a part. Burapharat (2001) found that one of the most interesting themes emanating from research is the brotherhood/sisterhood or pseudo-sibling relationship, which acts as the basic relationship among team members. This unique behaviour within the workplace demonstrated that an intimate and interdependent relationship affects the level of authenticity towards one another. By calling each other ‘big brother/sister’ (Pii) and ‘little brother/sister’ (Nong), employees feel very comfortable in assuming one of these two roles and feel part of an intimate, collective group. The words Pii and Nong are genderless language, and are usually attached to the pet name or nickname of the person, such as Pii Paul or Nong Ann rather than simply using the first name. Most Thai people have both a first name and a nickname or pet name. Referring to each other in such a manner creates a warm and friendly atmosphere with an immediate sense of being a family member. This is something that takes place immediately when people start talking. Beyond smiling, it works as an icebreaker strategy when people first meet. Both of these Thai terms, usually determined by ages and job ranks, are used at all levels in organizations. If somebody did not understand the relationship, perhaps mistakenly referring to an older person as Nong for instance, no harm is done. There can be some adjustment or it can be left like that. For example, a staff member may mistakenly call a younger person Pii, but does not change to Nong after learning that person’s age. In many cases, the word Pii is used to show respect for a person who has greater experience and knowledge.
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The brotherhood/sisterhood relationship creates an atmosphere allowing people to be open to each other and communicate the information in their mind. They can communicate when offered the opportunity and when they are close enough to one another. As one staff member mentioned, she felt free to communicate her mind within her department where she was familiar with her colleagues more than in other groups of which she did not form a regular part. The sense of authenticity depends on the level of closeness. Team members can trust one another; here is a secure place to be truthful where ideas are not dismissed. This relationship eases the tension related to losing face and reduces the problem of non-assertiveness. Such a relationship creates a warm and relaxed atmosphere for people to feel at ease with each other. For dialogue to take place, team members have to be open to the others’ opinions and hold back their assumptions, to listen and try to understand while being able to voice their own opinions. Within the brotherhood/sisterhood relationship, a sense of a family is generated in which members can overlook statements that seem to create conflict by looking on the other as their own siblings. Another noticeable aspect of the brotherhood/sisterhood relationship is that when the sibling relationship functions the organizational hierarchy recedes into the background. Managers and staff feel on equal terms and comfortable in assuming their social identity, rather than respecting hierarchical roles. While employing the sibling relationship, team members demonstrate some sensitivity in dealing with the other team members. Caring action is also part of building an authentic and intimate relationship. In a manager’s case, the evidence shows that even outside the office, his brother role continued, such as showing an interest in the welfare of his staff-members’ families. In conclusion, the fundamental nature of being a Thai supports working together and is worth taking advantage of to create a positive team environment at work. In practice management needs to be carefully designed to complement the best of the team members’ nature, while being aware of many national cultural traits that can obstruct the transfer of information. In the Thai setting, the pseudo-sibling relationship plays a vital part in building an authentic atmosphere. By so doing, learning through sharing and exchanging knowledge and information can be encouraged. Although the relationships are rather informal, they seem to encourage authentic dialogue among those involved. The particular Thai brotherhood/sisterhood interrelationships are a form of friendship with multiple layers of closeness and trust. Within a team, this enables the team members to communicate with each other through an authentic atmosphere. They feel comfortable to talk to each other. This relationship also concerns the barrier in an organizational hierarchy between the boss and employees, as well as among the employees themselves. In building an authentic setting to enhance learning, the academic literature has rather focused on building dialogue between individuals rather than the characteristics of the interrelationships between them. The prevailing theories need to expand their boundaries to acquire more information about other elements involved in building an authentic atmosphere and dialogue.
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7 Designing a Team-Learning Workshop Most teams have a fundamental problem with encouraging good co-operation among their members. Frequently, they experience bad communication, conflict, no pleasure in working together and prefer working alone, while communication skills have been neglected. Carrying out a short-term group dynamics workshop provides fundamental understanding about the importance of learning in an organization through the use of groups and teams, as well as having adult education applications. Most workshop and training sessions adopted from Western institutions have often been copied in their totality—imposed on a different cultural environment without modification. Such knowledge transfer has taken the form of teaching that did not help individual development because it merely communicated content. The adoption of Western concepts in different cultural environments is challenging due to the lack of correspondence to the social etiquette embedded in diverse behavioural protocols. For example, research findings show how Thai team members should be approached respecting their cultural style. Team members have built a layer of brotherhood/sisterhood relationships to enhance dialogue during their collective behaviour. They need an authentic atmosphere to exchange information and learn from one another. Western literature on dialogue does not explicitly discuss building informal or other kinds of relationships as a means to pursue an authentic atmosphere. However, the Thai sibling style stresses the importance of building informal relationships as the gateway to having trust in each other. Many management change programmes applied in Thai settings concentrate on working and operational processes, rather than preparing human resources for change. One of the reasons might be that a basic understanding about the theory and practice of adult education has been overlooked. Individual adult employees need workshops that help stimulate the use of their knowledge and experiences. They need common ground for getting to know each other and a positive environment for discussion. An intervention and change programme has to be designed, researched, planned and evaluated to complement Thai collectivistic characteristics. This workshop attempts to create an informal atmosphere with some humour and to encourage dynamic communication, while adding new skills such as presentation, teamwork, interpersonal relations, leadership, problem-solving, communication, creativity and innovation. However, what skills are to be emphasized depends on the needs of the group. Facilitation skill is also stressed in order to demonstrate different means of communication and knowledge-sharing. Activities are designed for participants to experience different means of learning and to reinforce their relationships with different people with whom they are not familiar.
8 Case Studies Many teams expressed their initial frustration over the problems of working together. Even though the groups were composed differently, similar problems were
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repeated: personal conflicts, lack of communication, divisions within the group and low cohesiveness. This was an indication that there was a need to improve relationships among the team members. To accommodate and facilitate interrelationships among individuals, group dynamic workshops were conducted with several different teams in a financial enterprise. The contents and activities were designed to match the special requirements of each group with different teamwork problems. The main purposes of these groupdynamic workshops were to expand participants’ knowledge about the learning organization and the roles of individuals and groups/teams in it. Another purpose was to create an opportunity for every member to get to know their colleagues so as to enhance cohesion. Frequently, there was limited communication between individuals whose work was not related, so many of them never talked or associated with one another at work. The workshops tried to facilitate communication by using different activities, such as group activities, games and brainstorming. These activities were designed to arrange different group combinations in order to mix individuals together as much as possible. The reasons for this strategy were to make group members work together with people with whom they were not familiar. Individuals learned to know each other better. With the help of ice-breaking and brainstorming sessions, each participant had a chance to talk to other team members he/she had never talked with before, and to share their knowledge. Valuing other people’s ideas was also a purpose of the workshop, since the workshop talked about the creation of a positive team environment—but did not create a sibling-like environment. In one case, a team faced many problems affecting their whole working relationship. Ninety-four members of this department had been transferred from other departments because they were viewed as problematic. Being treated in this manner, these individuals were full of anger and resentment; had low motivation; low morale; there was no communication; they were unhappy; had no pleasure in working; and lacked the will to work with one another. They displayed aggressiveness and procrastination. They felt valueless and failures with no career future, etc. The average age of the whole group was over 45. As a result, many of them kept to themselves and never talked to anybody at work—no smiles, no laughter and no fun. Their educational backgrounds ranged from Grade 4 to bachelor’s degree. Antagonism and grievances were omnipresent. The implementation of the one-day workshop was designed to provide different perspectives towards learning and knowledge-sharing, including team-building. The workshop was also designed to include many strategies to support different learning environments in a flexible timeframe, such as learning through humour, informal learning, learning by doing and learning from experience. It was focused on increasing the participants’ motivation and basic soft skills: especially articulation; and communication abilities such as self-expression, presentation, facilitation, public speaking, brainstorming, listening and speaking in combination with applause, compliments and rewards for those who participated in brainstorming sessions. In the brainstorming session, learners’ experiences were written on flipcharts. Participants learned the theory and practice of facilitation skills. These ninety-four
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people were divided into smaller groups of eight or nine—recommended numbers. The assigned facilitators had to write down the knowledge from the rest of the group on the flipcharts, with the idea of bringing out the best of each participant. Individuals have a psychological need for their ideas to be acknowledged and respected. Recording their ideas on the flipchart says that these ideas have been recognized. People had to patiently listen to those who had difficulties in reading and expressing themselves. They all felt more relaxed and involved in such an environment. Individuals were also more open to their colleagues’ opinions. Other soft skills, such as presentation skills, were another way to stimulate their self-motivation. The presenter becomes the ‘star’ and, for a moment, he/she feels proud. Through the workshop, individuals learned more about each other. For example, one group found out that one of their colleagues had a problem with near-sightedness and was so very shy about it that they always hid behind a newspaper and communicated to no one. The group adopted a more understanding attitude, as well as finding a solution to help this person. This fact was communicated to the departmental manager who changed his negative perspective about this individual. It also came to light during the training session that many of the team members were illiterate. Feedback after the workshop and follow-up upon return to the work settings seemed to indicate some improvements in their relationships. When they returned to their daily work, the participants became less aggressive, opened up to each other’s opinion, showed more co-operation and were open to each other’s requirements. Individuals were more relaxed around each other and most groups reported that their relationships were getting better. There was more communication, more smiling, motivation and enthusiasm to work with each other. After their adjustment to their new environment, they became more collaborative in working together and showed more confidence in work. They also created a community of practice to learn from each other, such as teaching each other new computer or report-writing skills. On top of these soft skills, this group was very lucky to have a departmental manager who supported their development by adding a variety of informal and formal training sessions. Formal training sessions were for core competencies such as negotiation skills, calculation, legal knowledge, etc. Many teaching and learning programmes arose from learning together. For example, employees who were experts in the Excel programme were asked to teach and to tutor peers who had no such skills. Individuals who knew more about accounting and mathematics were asked to help those who were weak in these skills. Peers were asked to assist each other in writing reports and proposals. Making use of individual expertise, even if that expertise is seen by others as insignificant, is very important to those who need basic knowledge and computer skills. Later on, this department, apparently composed of people stigmatized as ‘useless’, was able to develop and was rewarded for making a high profit for the enterprise. The objective to increase soft-skills had been met—socialization skills like speaking and listening to compliment and stimulate Thai collective nature. About 90% of the participants agreed on the usefulness of the programmes in terms of increased positive relationships. Individuals had better relationships and gained positive feelings from sharing learning. From the personal to the team level, positive
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relationship-building was very important to cement ties between individuals to foster the transfer and creation of knowledge. Individuals learned to be interdependent and to share knowledge with the rest of the team. Through hands-on experience, they received knowledge about facilitation skills. Moreover, the surprising finding about workplace illiteracy indicated a lack of very fundamental skills for work. This unexpected finding caused concern about the quality of the formal education system. Does it produce a workforce with skills to match current requirements and does it make employees keen to adjust themselves to the real work environment?
9 Conclusion The case study showed that Western theory, such as group dynamics based upon a background of adult education theory, can be applied to the Thai environment. The theories accommodate different learning requirements and encourage self-directed learning, rather than forcing people to learn and change. Different aspects of the theory complement the Thai collectivistic nature, perhaps because they were close to Buddhist philosophy, the key determining factor in Thai cultural development (Blanchard, 1958; Klausner, 1987; Mole, 1973). Programmes and activities designed to complement the collectivistic nature and self-expression in the Thai setting need to include group-dynamic concepts, together with adult education and team concepts. The workshop had to allow everyone to be themselves as much as possible while socializing. It focused on learning and sharing while adding soft skills and practising team working. An organization can create such a change by creating more positive opportunities for people to talk. While an organization can create plans and policies, this does not guarantee moving ahead as one big team to promote change. Many firms focus on profit-sharing, rather than their human resource development. An enterprise has to rethink its management directions and commitments to human resource training and development so as to support both the organization’s performance development and profit-making. An enterprise has to have some way to balance profit-sharing and development of its human resources. This is very important since, in practice, a training programme may reach the bottom-line workers whom the organization had neglected to ask about their development needs. It is time for a Thai enterprise to review its management strategies for tapping into the tacit pool of knowledge its workers possess, and support its employees to become the source of knowledge for the organization. The experience of the people working as front-line employees and the learning capabilities of an individual can guarantee change in an organization, if the management encourages the building of a learning culture. The workshop provided an example of an open learning environment where the team can be the grounds for positive and supportive mechanisms. It can be concluded that individuals need a positive opportunity for ideas to flow. This calls for good communication skills, such as speaking and listening to each other’s ideas. Skills, such as being aware of local social etiquette, help improve
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the interrelationships among the team members and that is the way to bring out tacit knowledge. At the same time, a team is the best place to start practising those skills. The concepts and practices discussed in this chapter might make it feasible for human resource developers in other cultural milieux to adopt—and adapt—the approach pioneered in Thailand. One caveat is that ‘Western’ and even Japanese notions of work teams will not work well unless tailored to local cultures.
References Blanchard, W. 1958. Thailand: its people, its society, its culture. New Haven, CT: Hraf Press. Bohm, D. 1996. David Bohm: on dialogue. London: Routledge. Boud, D.; Garrick, J. 1997. Understanding learning at work. London: Routledge. Burapharat, C. 2001. The importance of sibling relationships in developing an authentic setting in Thai workteam. (Paper presented at the fifth International Workshop on Teamworking (IWOT-5) organized by the Catholic University Leuven, Belgium, 10-11 September 2001.) Burapharat, C. 2003. Patterns of learning and knowledge exchange in Thai work teams: a study of team members communication and relationships etiquettes. (Unpublished Ph.D., Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada.) Freire, P. 1969. Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum. Garrick, J. 1999. Informal learning in the workplace. Asia-Pacific journal of human resources, vol. 37, pp. 118–20. Green, M. 1998. Organizational participation: myth and reality. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Hawley, J.D.; Paek, J. 2005. Developing human resources for the technical workforce: a comparative study of Korea and Thailand. International journal of training and development, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 79–94. Hofstede, G. 1994. Business cultures: every organization has its symbols, rituals and heroes. UNESCO courier, vol. 12, no. 5. Isaacs, W.N. 1993. Dialogue: the power of collective thinking. The systems thinker, vol. 4, no. 3. Johnson, D.W.; Johnson, F.P. 1997. Joining together: group theory and group skills. Toronto, Canada: Allyn & Bacon. Klausner, W.J. 1987. Reflections on Thai culture. Bangkok: Amarin. Knowles, M.S. 1973. The adult learner: a neglected species. Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing. Metcalf, G.S. 1999. A critique of social systems theory. Mezirow, J. 1978. Perspective transformation. Adult education, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 100–10. Mole, R.L. 1973. Thai values and behaviour patterns. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Company. Senge, P. 1994. The fifth discipline fieldbook: strategies and tools for building a learning organization. New York, NY: Bantan Doubleday Dell. Takeuchi, H.; Nonaka, I. 2004. Hitotsubashi on knowledge management. Weinheim, Germany: John Wiley. Triandis, H.C.; McCusker, C.; Hui, C.H. 1990. Multimethod probes of individualism and collectivism. Journal of personality and social psychology, vol. 59, no. 5, pp. 1006–20. Wenger, E. 2002. Communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Wilson, D. 2003. Knowledge workers and knowledge management in the workplace. (Paper presented at the Symposium on Adult Education: Learning Opportunities for the Future, Canadian Defence Academy, Kingston, Ontario.)
Chapter IV.12
Globalization of the Labour Culture in the Republic of Korea: What ‘Tripartite Relations’ Mean for Workers Phoebe Moore
1 Introduction The economic crisis of East and South-East Asia in 1997 had a rapid and significant impact on the security of the ‘culture’ of labour forces, which includes relations between management, government and workers; and the stability of workers’ employability and re-employability. This was particularly relevant for the Republic of Korea (hereafter ‘Korea’) where workers suffered a drastic rise in unemployment, which rose from 2.0% in 1996; to 7.7% in 1998; to 8.1% in the fourth quarter of 1998 (UNDP, 1999, p. 40). More than 3 million Korean people were unemployed in 1998 (Amnesty International, 1998), which is a significant number in a country with a population of 48 million (Deen, 2003). Whilst layoffs have not been scarce in the Korean labour force over time, the reason for the layoffs changed as a result of the economic crisis. Prior to the crisis, job loss was usually attributed to the situation of the national economy, but following the crisis, individual workers were blamed for not having the necessary skills and attitudes required in the new global economic landscape to either retain or regain employment in the ‘new labour culture’. The leaders’ passion to promote the globalization of this ‘tiger’ knowledge economy has begun to alter the idea of employability itself, as though it were an immutable requirement for the transformation of an entire culture. In fact, the culture of tripartite relations between management/government/worker has not actually been altered, but merely involves a worker-mandate shift that places the responsibility of ‘self-improvement’ into the hands of workers, thus saving the government from the need to pursue its welfare-state role. Instead, workers have been blamed for their lack of preparedness for the future of the labour culture. The crisis of 1997 across Asia inspired reform-driven restructuring of vocational education and training (VET) to become part of a Ministry of Labour (MOL) manufactured ‘labour culture’, which has come about in partnerships with international organizations that advocate Korea’s globalized stance. New requirements for training and workplace norms were expected to give workers the tools to adopt new forms of learning for renewed employability. In this way, VET to adapt to the new labour culture is conceptualized as a mechanism of the concept of trasformismo as defined within the neo-Gramscian literature.
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This chapter looks at a specific project designed by the Korean MOL just after the economic crisis, entitled the ‘new labour culture’, in which leaders have attempted to restructure knowledge through an imposed cultural shift. The third section focuses on transnational relations between VET specialists through looking at international educational strategies, and notes that employability has become based on workers’ ‘knowledge’ of specific and newly introduced skills, due to the transition from manufacturing to a knowledge- and information-based economy. The chapter goes on to investigate exactly which skills for learning and work attitudes have become employable in the culture of the changing job market, as employment has become increasing unstable. The crisis recovery period following 1997 thus marks Korea’s decision to unabashedly enter the global ‘knowledge economy’ as a competitive player but, unfortunately, the Korean culture of work has not been transformed, and continues to demonstrate a culture of continuous power struggles with little improvement in workers’ position on the political landscape.
2 The ‘New Labour Culture’ The following discussion of the ‘new labour culture’ (hereafter NLC), introduced by the MOL, includes information obtained during a semi-structured interview held by the present author in December 1999 with the then Vice-Director of the Korean Labour Management Co-operation Division. The reason for conducting the interview was to gain a greater understanding regarding this proposed new form of culture publicized in the Korean media after the crisis. An NLC can be seen as a project attempting to display unions’ and management’s needs for cultural restructuring and the internationalization of work norms. This process requires workers’ strict co-operation with the government, and despite the construction of a Tripartite Commission which still meets regularly in 2005,1 the project aims potentially to converge a multitude of voices, and to provide limited concessions within an age of uncertainty—but ultimately is designed to circumvent workers’ upheavals. The MOL introduced the idea of the NLC in July 1999, and companies were given two months to respond according to the ‘three phases’ printed in the Korea Herald (Kim, 1999, p. 18) (see Fig. 1).
Phase One:
Phase Two:
Phase Three:
Laying the foundations: developing and introducing principles (July-August 1999)
Education, publicity: changing old thoughts and practices (SeptemberDecember 1999)
Reinforcement: awarding model companies with administrative and financial incentives (2000+)
Fig. 1 Three phases for the creation of a new labour-management culture
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Companies were given a matter of months to educate workers and to ‘change old thoughts and practices’, and were expected to receive awards given to model companies after the millennium. A sudden adoption of a globalized labour culture, modelled after Japan and the United States (according to the Vice-Director), was the MOL’s prescription for business survival in what he called the ‘IMF age’: an age of reform that would prevent future upheavals. The Minister presented the three principles of the NLC:
r r r
Trust and esteem: the basic level to facilitate easy relations between labour, management and government. Co-operation and engagement: the action programme. Autonomy and respect: the goal to be achieved between management and labour to eliminate the need and/or possibility for the government to intervene into business affairs by establishing a worker/management relationship.
The principles of the labour culture require a shift in traditional power relations between the three agents: workers, management and the government. The Korea Herald article (Kim, 1999) quotes a Minister of Labour: ‘Korea must observe a new paradigm of labour relations in which employers and workers are partners in every sense of the word’. The Minister also stressed that ‘increased [. . . ] aggressive employee training’ is a prerequisite to healthy labour relations. As the MOL is a government body, the composition of this proposal is from its origins embedded in unequal relations but, ultimately, the ministry wants to encourage management and workers to find ways of negotiation and resolution between themselves. So, bi-partite relations are a distinct indication of how the ‘culture’ of labour would progress. The Vice-Director offered a more complete explanation of his use of the term ‘culture’ by first listing the basic activities of labour relations, including collective bargaining and strikes, and human resource management. He claimed that companies should invest in labour culture training with the intention of ‘making trade unions co-operate’. A 12.2% decrease in trade union membership in 1998 may have indicated a higher level of co-operation, or that union members are learning to co-operate with policy-makers. Alternatively, perhaps workers are choosing not to join unions, despite the notion that it is their only chance to enjoy legitimate representation. To achieve autonomy, as the third principle of the above list indicates, perhaps workers need labour unions as a tool to negotiate with the government if they feel that their autonomy is being challenged. The Vice-Director stated that the autonomy supposition is a goal, not reality. He mentioned that labour leaders do not respect union laws, and often use violence to pass their message, which is ‘intolerable’. As a solution, The Vice-Director said that union members would have to change their ‘minds’2 and become more flexible toward leaders’ decisions that were, admittedly, made in haste and with international consultancy. The most significant change, he stressed, would be union members’ co-operation with laws and government policy. Trade unions are learning; they have gradually started to conform to labour laws and to realise that violence will not help. The Minister referred to percentages
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of trade union membership, company investment and the models of modernization (Fig. 2) for the NLC. Because Korea’s labour history is considerably shorter than that of the United States and Japan, Korea would have to accelerate its development of ‘modern’ labour relations. The final outcome of the labour culture project was intended to cultivate ‘modern’ labour relations. The Vice-Director presented the model, ‘Composition of the future-oriented labour-management community’ which was also published in the Korea Herald in late 1999. The question now is whether workers can quickly adapt to new institutional requirements, and whether their way of thinking and culture can or will easily incorporate the new ‘education’ and ‘training’ of work habits—the relatively ambiguous terminology that represents the ‘new labour culture’. Companies must invest in new forms of VET if they wish to remain competitive and stable. There is ‘no choice’, and the minister claimed that Korea faced few choices as a result of the economic crisis and IMF restructuring. But the crisis was the main reason for the need for a transformation of labour relations.
Trust
Esteem
Responsibility Create 21
Autonomy
Engagement Co-operation
3 elements for modernization
Perspectives
Practices
Fig. 2 Composition of the future-oriented labour/management community Source: Kim, 1999, p. 18.
Systems
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What quality marks the beginning of co-operation? Trust, according to the model prepared by the MOL. As a result of on-going tensions over many years, there has been very little trust between workers, management and policy-makers in Korea. Since 1987, co-operation has been attempted but without trust there can be no success in labour relations. Trust will take time, but someone should make the first move and ‘management’ was the target. Management should learn to trust the government’s economic policy and implement policies within their companies. Labour flexibility became a core theme in the restructuring of labour and remains a priority for policy-makers. Lay-offs are usually justified as a temporary remedy for economic difficulties in Korea and on-going restructuring of labour is a crucial element for the continuation of capitalism. The possibility of being laid off, however, makes people work harder, and while they feel stress and fatigue now, the recognition of necessary changes within VET will stabilize their positions, the Vice-Director stated. One change within the post-crisis era is that workers must become more cognisant of the significance of their behaviour for company survival. In the past, workers and management alike were not as concerned about keeping their companies alive, partly because the government propped up lagging companies, and partly because there was less dependence on foreign investment. In the contemporary age, workers will have to take on increased responsibilities for their own employability, as well as the well-being of their companies. Unions must be government partners in the NLC. But would new laws implemented in the crisis-restructuring era reflect the needs and desires of workers? The Minister stated that institutions must change before laws can be made. The Tripartite Commission exists to facilitate policy changes; legal changes will be considered within the infrastructure of the Commission. It will take time for changes to truly affect relations. The interviewer reminded him of the lack of time that he had emphasized previously, of the urgency to change the labour culture to meet the standards of the United States and Japan. But with the same vision, he said, practices can be changed, since change depends on people’s minds. If workers do not follow the lead of management, and management neglects to follow the lead of the MOL’s NLC mandates, then businesses, especially those that are foreign-invested, will fail and workers will lose their jobs. That was the message from this prominent civil servant. Perhaps the reality is a reminder to workers and management of who is still in control: the Korean Government and the leading managerial class, and workers are excluded from development dialogue.
3 The Restructuring of Ideas In the mid-1990s, in order to accommodate the State’s objectives for globalization, the Korean MOL began accelerating relations with international organizations with a goal to model Korean VET programmes to those seen within the culture of the
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‘convergence club’3 (Magari˜nos, 2001). Korean President Kim Dae Jung (1997– 2003) reasoned that ‘the ideas and the modus operandi of the industrial society of the past will not prepare us for adaptation and adjustment [. . . ] the time has come for us to positively transform our consciousness to fit the coming century’ (Kim, 1997, p. 205). The knowledge society comes about through becoming a ‘learning society’. Everybody (researchers, managers, workers) contributes to that process through sharing their distinctive insights and know-how in building institutions and social systems capable of holding/memorizing, mediating and continuously constructing new knowledge (Nyhan, 2002, p. 20). The need for new forms of knowledge within the workforce arises with changes in production. During the age of Fordism, workers were trained to work on mass assembly-line production. Nyhan (2002) states that the crisis of European industry in the 1970s and 1980s was due to a lack of appropriate knowledge for the changes that technology began to have upon work expectations. Enhanced interest in ‘knowledge’ in education systems is a ‘timely reminder of some of the fundamentals that have been lost’ (p. 30), which involves out-of-date assumptions that adaptation will occur outside of clearly defined training. The World Bank and OECD’s (2001) review of Korean progress since the economic crisis shows that some amount of reform of education has been implemented, but more was needed to guarantee an appropriately skilled workforce for the growing knowledge economy. Recommendations include the integration of skills instruction such as ‘communication skills, capability to utilize ICTs, as well as increased possibilities for gaining field experience’ (World Bank/OECD, 2001, p. xv). These international organizations also advise partnerships between universities and industry, the enhancement of pedagogical training with an emphasis on new knowledge and information and communication technologies (ICTs), the development of performance-based pay systems, knowledge sharing systems, and the expansion of exchange programmes between Korean and foreign educational institutions. At this ideational level, these powerful institutions recommend several actions to improve Korea’s chances of composing the work force needed and to ‘provide better co-ordination between needs of the labour market and industry, and the supply of education’ (p. xv). With this in mind, the Korean Government sought to build on international partnerships. In partnership with UNESCO-UNEVOC and other international organizations, the MOL aimed to standardize and reform VET programmes to give them a more globally competitive edge (ROK, 2001, pp. 61–62). Korea’s greatest resource for development is manpower, according to experts at UNESCO, but it is unrefined in its potential. The Asia-Pacific coalition of UNESCO-UNEVOC emphasizes ‘innovativeness, creativity, adaptability, and self-learning’ as the most attractive performance indicators for workers in the knowledge economy, and holds meetings for educators to discuss implementation. The first principal strategy for training is ‘entrepreneurship skills development’— one of the primary components of neo-liberal economic growth, as entrepreneurs are often the strongest negotiators of capital and the ‘brains’ behind the system.
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OECD emphasizes that knowledge and information as ‘assets’ are becoming increasingly valuable for nations to position themselves as competitive players in the global knowledge economy (OECD, 2000, pp. 12–13). As the value of assets has shifted from tangible to intangible, workers’ supposed ‘lag’ in adjustment to expectations of what knowledge is, appears to require government-led strategies to provide training that can quickly train capability and efficiently (Leadbeater, 1999, p. iv). The implications of a knowledge-based economy or the ‘new capitalism’ (Leadbeater, 1998, p. 384) are that very specific types of worker knowledge and behaviour are expected for effective utilization of human capital for development, and will enhance national economies’ competitiveness. The new capitalism, that of the Knowledge Economy, will be driven by the discovery and distribution of rival intangible goods—information and knowledge—created by largely intangible assets—human and social capital. These knowledge-intensive goods are best produced through collaboration and competition, partnerships and networks, which bring together public and private (Leadbeater, 1998, p. 384).
In this context, the Korean government has adjusted investment strategies, and has restructured VET programmes, requesting that workers and civil society co-operate with its incentives (ROK, 2001, pp. 12–13). Industry in Korea has been changing, the ‘Republic of Korea’ states in one of its government booklets and, therefore, the government is changing investment strategies to prioritize research and development surrounding this issue. ‘Until now’, the booklet continues, Korea has ‘focused on research and development in mediumhigh tech industries, such as electronics, automobile, machinery and ship-building, in which it retains relatively high competitiveness’ (ROK, 2001, p. 7). ‘Recently,’ however, the government has changed its strategic investment into ‘fields of new technology, such as IT’. When the share percentage of ownership of the total market by ‘foreigners’, or non-Korean investors, rose from 2.24% in 1983 to 9.11% in 1997, jumping to 18.6% by late 1998 (the highest percentage since 1983),4 the ‘market’ required a critical overview of the workforce. This influx of foreign capital is located in the knowledge industry more predominantly than in any other sector and this has created an increase in demand for skilled ‘knowledge workers’ (ROK, 2001; Lee, 2001), thus changing the nature of what it means to be ‘employable’ in Korea. In response to these changes in industry-specific investment, new demands have been made of the labour market, and the very concept of employability and what constituted re-employability has been quickly thrown into disarray. If workers could not keep jobs in the insecure post-crisis situation, they were expected to join VET programmes that would make them ‘employable’. If workers were privileged to remain in positions of employment, they were expected to attend developmental VET that would aid in maintaining their ‘employability’. The government’s hegemonic project intended to involve the workers by providing the means for them ‘to help themselves’. A senior researcher at KRIVET focused on the workers’ situation with regard to training and how the researcher, in an ‘elite’ position conducting governmentsponsored research, understood employability. She stated that management had developed different expectations and needs for training than the workers in the
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post-crisis period. Workers were expected to seek qualifications and training for lifelong learning, which would increase their mobility. Management in the restructuring scenario sought workers who could prove that they had gained training in what were called ‘international skills’. This expert reflected on a July 2002 newspaper article about the end-of-the-contract system for labour, which stated that the average age to leave a job had become 38. Thus workers may want to gain new skills in order to keep up with changing expectations occurring in the increasingly flexible labour market with a high rate of worker turnover. The KRIVET researcher mentioned that people in the automobile and computer industries were more likely to keep their jobs. However, the reasons for layoffs had changed, she stressed. During the economic crisis, many educated people lost their jobs due to external forces. Unemployment subsequently became the result of actual unemployability of individuals. Unemployed workers after the economic crisis were forced to accept their own ‘unemployability’ in the face of new skill requirements, and had to enter VET programmes that taught internationally accepted knowledge and ideas for self-improvement and skills development. Post-economic crisis Korean VET programmes were designed to prepare workers to play an active role in integration into certain fields of technology that are seen to require flexible workers who commit to a lifelong plan of learning in order to remain employable. Knowledge itself thus has become a commodity in post-industrial society, and would be provided by the public sector to the private (Leadbeater, 1998, p. 379). State guidance for this process became increasingly important due to ‘its [the State’s] role in producing knowledge, through the education system’ (p. 379). Jessop (2001, p. 63) notes that knowledge becomes a commodity when it is artificially made scarce, as opposed to the commodification of labour power that occurs when it enters the labour market and becomes submerged in the labour process. The commodification of knowledge brings about an unprecedented role for the State, if it is to inspire a ‘profound social reorganization [. . . ] required to turn it [knowledge] into something valuable’ (Schiller, 1988, p. 32). In 1997, 13,888 firms were entitled to offer a ‘Vocational Competency Development Programme’ to employees (KOILAF, 1999a, p. 109). This programme involved training workers for new work styles of individual performance and ‘competence’ (p. 109). However, the increase in demand for knowledge workers drastically exceeds the demand for the ‘unskilled’ (ROK, 2001, p. 14). Furthermore, ‘the wage gap between production workers and managerial/white-collar employees has begun to widen since 1998, because production workers suffered more severe pay cuts’ (Katz, Lee & Lee, 2001, p. 232). Thus, restructuring of knowledge and skills in Korea involved the government establishing relations with international agencies whose intentions focus on the convergence of production relations, including employable skills.
4 Restructuring the Content of VET Programmes The promotions of new characteristics of labour performance include several elements that contrast with the Korean cultural expectations of workers. Rowley and
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Bae (2002) observe how core ideologies of human resource flows, work systems, evaluation and reward systems, and employee influence can be systematically contrasted to new characteristics. Traditional Korean work practices include: the prioritization of an affiliate organization over the individual him/herself; emphasis on collective equality; and community orientation over individual equity and market principal orientations. Kim and Briscoe (1997) note that traditional human resource management in South Korea is based on an emphasis of group harmony (in hwa). Incentives and bonuses were based not on individual performance but on that of the group. Team spirit was the formula for excellence in the traditional workplace— cultural norms that were bound to change with the MOL’s NLC. The major changes introduced by VET programmes are in the areas of performance appraisal and payments systems, lifelong learning and individualization of work. These cultural shifts are reflective of the post-Fordist age wherein modes of control over the process of work have been rewritten. In the post-Fordist production age, the stipulation for manual skills has become nearly completely replaced by the demand for individuals’ ‘knowledge’ (Aronowitz & DiFazio, 1994, p. 83). New work styles have changed promotion and compensation techniques to fit individual performance, which were to be appraised by managers who were equally inexperienced in the new standards (Kim and Briscoe, 1997).
4.1 Performance Appraisal and Payment Systems Perhaps the two most difficult requests made by the government for labour discussed by the first Tripartite Commission in negotiation for restructuring of culture were labour flexibility and changes to the traditional payment system toward a performance-based system. People with intelligence, skills, creativity and willingness—the knowledgeable— are critical for sharpening the competitive edge in the era of infinite competition. It is becoming increasingly important to lay a solid ground for economic recovery through remodelling corporate infrastructure and creating an atmosphere where workers of ability are valued (KOILAF, 1999b, p. 11). In November 1997, just as the economy began its dangerous slide toward a crisis, the MOL took a renewed interest in vocational programmes designed to achieve the above competences. The Vocational Training Promotion Act of 24 December 1997 began a trend by changing the titles of the VET facilities to vocational ability development training facilities, and the term ‘vocational training’ became vocational ability development training (ROK/MOL, 1999, 2005). ‘Ability’, a relatively ambiguous term used repeatedly in the emerging training institutions, refers to a particular work ethic included as part of training procedures. Workers were increasingly expected to assume new responsibilities and skills for the international work standard, regardless of their rupture with the past work culture in Korean corporations and businesses. A KOILAF publication recommends some ‘basic directions’ for the implementation of a performance-based wage system. Guidelines are:
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Ensure that the procedures for adopting a new wage system comply with the law and any counter-productive effect is averted. Induce a simplified wage system (KOILAF, 2002, p. 11).
Employers and workers were encouraged to introduce a profit-sharing system wherein profits exceeding targets could be shared equally. Management was requested to run business openly and with transparency, so that workers could easily identify what types of performance would be expected of them. These suggestions aimed to democratize the performance-based system, requiring an entirely new set of performance requirements that expect individuals to take responsibility in the restructured economy.
4.2 Individualism and Lifelong Learning After the crisis, individualism and lifelong learning became crucial worker qualities that are sought in the knowledge economy, and workers were expected to demonstrate those skills. Korean workers have historically not been judged according to individual performance evaluations, which are a new requirement in many restructured companies. Traditional Korean culture is said to be more community-oriented than individual-oriented. However, workers are struggling to adopt individualistic attitudes. Korea has no time to account for cultural work styles, or for its Korean ‘spirit’. Koreans will have no choice in the matter because of unlimited competition around the world. Nonetheless, individualism was to be emphasized in the workplace. A higher quality of education would be offered to the younger generation so as to distinguish the workforce of the future. Employees increasingly need to be ‘creative, and they will also need to be able to adapt to rapid changes in society [. . . ] employees should be given various opportunities to study continuously in order to adopt self-directed learning methods for absorbing new information’ (Lee, 2001, p. 4). Twenty experts and officials at the Korea Labour Institute (KLI) were brought together in 2003 to form a research team under the Qualification System Reforms Task Force (KLI, 2003). The research team intended to come up with visions and innovations for the qualification system and to review changes to VET since restructuring in 1997 and beyond. The study notes the shift towards learning for life and work, which is centred on the individual and states that ‘decent work underpins individuals’ independence, self-respect and well-being, and, therefore, is a key to their overall quality of life’. The study notes that every individual has a right to VET and compares Korea to several other nations, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Guatemala, Italy, Mexico and Spain, whose national constitutions accommodate this. This right is also acknowledged at the international level, for example in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the American Declaration of Human Rights and Obligations (1948). In the most recent phase of VET in Korea, researchers at the KLI have decided that education is the right of
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citizens and is a crucial way to find access to employment, reducing the likelihood of unemployment and with significant increases in life-cycle earnings. The study claims that economic, social and technological factors cumulatively account for the growing emphasis on the individual in Korean VET. The production of goods and services in any contemporary economy has begun to rely on human, rather than physical, capital, or ‘on its workers’ individual and collective endowment of knowledge and skills’. The ‘individual’ is the new citizen of society and has been granted a central place in statements of learning and training objectives. So the process of formal education and training in 2003 was no longer limited to the passing on of information, but envisions a society that prioritizes a scenario of ‘individuals learning to learn so that they can find out for themselves’. Factual knowledge itself is no longer enough, but individuals are encouraged to learn how to analyse, access and exploit information and in turn to devise and create new knowledge. Taking charge of one’s own learning and ability to learn is the only way to survive or to ‘live and work in the knowledge and information society’. VET makes individuals employable and productive and helps them escape poverty through mobility and choice. These statements, perhaps, do not sound controversial at first reading. But who decides what VET curricula should be provided and to whom? Who decided that ‘individuals’ were to become the primary producers in Korea? ‘Individuality’ was not only part of a new concept of the culture of employability, but was concretely associated with ‘citizenship’. According to the EU Memorandum on lifelong learning, active citizenship refers to how ‘people participate in all spheres of economic and social life, the chances and risks they face in trying to do so, and the extent to which they feel that they belong to, and have a fair say in, the society in which they live’. This incorporates ideas of participation as well as replacing ownership, similar to the ownership that is increasingly expected of nations’ development (see Cammack, 2001, 2002a, 2002b). So individuals are now expected to take responsibility for their own employability and the government has declared that VET is an important factor in this process. ‘Lifelong learning’ is the way in which workers can adapt to rapidly changing economies over time, and the government (ROK, 2001, p. 42) suggested a widespread series of facilities to support and incorporate lifelong learning into the very core of Korean culture. National and regional lifelong education centres and lifelong learning halls were to be developed. Libraries, self-governance centres, social welfare halls, women’s halls and citizens’ centres were to be strengthened. A pilot project entitled ‘learning clubs for turning local culture into lifelong learning’ was suggested. An information network was intended to result from this campaign, as well as a database to organize information on professors, lecturers and education programmes of lifelong learning institutions. One booklet, ‘Occupational World of the Future’, offered workers access to available VET and other forms of education so that they, as citizens, could prepare themselves for new employability requirements in the knowledge economy.
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4.3 Incentive Structure But in a nation with such a tumultuous history of unrest, how would workers react to drastic changes and reform in the employment structure and labour market? The government quickly homed in on aspects of employment that would prove to be the most volatile, and tried to create an incentive structure to circumvent uprisings. Through framing the government-required training programmes as positive incentives for personal development, and in the post-crisis era as a means to remain or to become ‘employable’ after the enormous amount of lay-offs, the government applied a ‘strategy on the part of the dominant power to gradually co-opt elements of the opposition forces—a strategy known in Italian politics as trasformismo’ (Cox, 1999, p. 25). ‘Trasformismo can serve as a strategy of assimilating and domesticating potentially dangerous ideas by adjusting them to the policies of the dominant coalition and can thereby obstruct the formation of class-based organized opposition’ (Cox, 1983, pp. 166–67). The Korean government sidelined potentially dissident groups by providing a social safety net taking the form of VET programmes to appease laid-off workers who were most likely to oppose elite-led accumulation strategies. About half of the employers surveyed (Park, Park & Yu, 2001, pp. 144–45) stated that the most difficult subject for firms undergoing employment adjustment was to convince workers of the necessity for employment adjustment. The following matters were ranked as the second, third, and fourth most difficult things in the implementation of employment adjustment: ‘consultation about the criteria to select who are to lose their jobs’; ‘consultation about the compensatory package for workers to be adjusted’; and ‘consultation about the number to be adjusted’. These were not favourable signs for the application, ease or effectiveness of ‘adjustment’. Management realized that sudden layoffs are not easily accepted by workers, and sought ways to appease and help prevent backlash and resistance to what they had been told was a market-driven inevitability. Employment adjustment includes attrition, ‘honourable’ retirement, dismissal and ‘others’—which refers to spin-offs or early retirement (Park et al., 2001, p. 128). Management created regulations that introduced the idea of voluntary participation with incentives for involvement in training schemes, which in some cases provided a rare option to secure employment in the midst of the crisis. New incentives were introduced under the Employment Insurance System (EIS), a system designed to reduce the risk of job loss after the lifetime employment laws had been revised (KOILAF, 1999c, p. 112). The EIS ‘purports to popularize vocational training and enhance firms’ competitiveness [. . . ] provides incentives such as subsidies and financial assistance to encourage individual firms to invest in the internal labour force, thereby improving labour productivity, employment stability and the firms’ competitive edge in international markets’ (p. 58). But the ‘hottest issue’ was how to encourage workers to participate voluntarily in the vocational competency development programme (KOILAF, 1999c, p. 110). To encourage voluntary participation, the government offered businesses two alternatives: (a) support for implementation of the subsidization for implementation
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costs to employers; and (b) paid leave for training (p. 110). One KRIVET report shows that workers who do not attend the training programmes stated that they did not do so simply out of lack of desire, and out of deliberate resistance to requirements for attendance. The study shows that 47.4% of attendees of training went due to mandate, whereas 14.9% attended training programmes voluntarily. The study ‘Educational and training program situation in Korea’ (KRIVET, 2000) also shows 15.9% of companies have taken part in internationalization strategies via vocational training programmes. There are 191 new types of programmes being implemented and the number of companies that now require participation in these is increasing every year. Laid-off workers were opposed to forced training programmes because of unwillingness or because of a suspicion of the limited short-term benefits— demonstrating the lack of consensus for these initiatives. This study has claimed that Korea’s VET reform has been managed by a government that was not immediately able to consolidate hegemonic consensus or commonsense, but led a programme of passive revolution. The government has shown that, once again, it is almost completely unswervingly taking unilateral charge of recovery at the guidance of the IMF. Its introduction of an NLC involves an explicit request for workers’ co-operation with management and the government, and for an adaptation to the knowledge economy VET-taught employable skills.
5 Conclusion ‘The twenty-first century’, the Korean MOL website reads, ‘is the era of knowledge and information! In this era, superior human resources are the basis of individual, corporate, and national competitiveness’ (ROK/MOL, 2005). Vocational ‘ability development’ is ‘preparation for productivity increase, employment stability and a prosperous future’. The NLC, a framework for tripartite relational changes, was intended to reverse a history of intense labour conflict and to ultimately achieve ‘superior human resources’. Simultaneously, it introduced globalization of expectations in the workplace, introduced through ‘voluntary’ training programmes that employees were required to attend, in order to maintain or to rediscover individual employability in the impending knowledge economy. Has this strategy been effective, ultimately? Has the government’s strategy resolved the issues of unemployment and labour struggles that it set out to address? In late December 2004, the Korea Employer’s Federation held a survey with eighty-eight human resources management officers. This survey predicted unstable labour-management relations by 2005 (KOILAF, 2004a). Some 60% of officials indicated that they expected industrial relations to be less stable by 2005, and only 11% predicted improvements. The survey also showed that the primary difficulty in resolving on-going labour-management strife was due to ‘the struggle-oriented tendency of unions’ (28%), ‘influence from higher-level labour organizations’ (25%) and ‘irrational laws and systems’ (19%). From these comments, it seems as though the intentions of the NLC have not been completely realized. In terms of unemployment, in October 2004, Korea suffered a three-year high as farms and non-service
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industry sectors continued to dismiss workers (KOILAF, 2004b). Is this because workers have failed to become employable? Or has the economic crisis reached new levels of magnitude? While the NLC was implemented to encourage tripartite communication between involved parties, it does not appear to have promoted harmony of social dialogue within the Tripartite Commission. In 2001 at the meetings of the third Tripartite Commission, which had been reformulated after a series of failed attempts to complete negotiations since its first meetings in 1998, leaders discussed the issue of vocational training. The ‘government’ promised to ‘look for ways of enhancing the efficiency of operation of systems, including efforts made for stabilization of insurance for projects of job-skill development, [and] rationalization of the system’ (ROK/Tripartite Commission, 2001). ‘Management’ promised to cultivate an environment that would encourage workers’ voluntary education and training, with the recognition that ‘such education and training will form the basis of the nation’s industrial competitiveness in the future’. These statements demonstrate the on-going impulse to expect workers to meet the challenge of maintaining individual employability for the sake of their nation’s sustained development. But while the government and management have been clearly represented at the commission’s meetings, unions have not demonstrated the same appearance. One of the two most prominent umbrella labour unions, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) has not rejoined the commission after withdrawal in 1999 due to members’ disapproval of its decisions at the first meetings. In 2005, the leader of the KCTU resigned after confrontations at a special meeting called to discuss whether this important organization should rejoin the Tripartite Commission—despite its history of disappointment and the paralysis of union representation. The leader sought ‘agreement or disagreement’ from union members, but in protest some members poured flammable liquid on the floor. These members perhaps feel that the KCTU’s membership of the commission will turn out to be a double-edged sword and will not promote worker representation, but will represent complacency toward the passive revolution of changes taking place in the Korean ‘labour culture’. The failure to include worker representation in restructuring and development plans, through the promotion of their employability but without inclusive and representative union involvement, demonstrates an on-going hegemonic crisis. Several pressures have contributed to ruining these relations, including the impulse to globalize and to become increasingly competitive within the knowledge economy. Nonetheless, without hegemonic resolution, attempts to locate an inclusive forum for negotiation of globalized development strategies will continue, and ideally may play a role in the formation of true democracy in this small but volatile nation.
Notes 1. The First Tripartite Commission was established on 15 January 1998. Management, government and union leaders met to negotiate the restructuring of the Korean economy at that time. Issues brought to the table included wage stabilization and the promotion of labour-management
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co-operation, enhancement of ‘basic labour rights’ and also the enhancement of ‘labour market flexibility’. 2. In ‘Kunglish’, or Korean inspired English, ‘mind’ means ‘way of thinking’. 3. The notion of convergence, or nations’ abilities to replicate industrialized countries’ development trajectories, was both implicitly and explicitly a part of IMF restructuring schemes such as that applied to the Republic of Korea in 1998 and onward. Members of the ‘convergence club’ are advanced industrial countries, and the benchmarking of best practices for the creation of wealth emanate from them. 4. Statistics provided during an interview the author conducted with a senior researcher at the KRIVET Asia-Pacific regional headquarters in Seoul, 9 August 2002.
References Amnesty International. 1998. Republic of Korea (South Korea) arrests of trade-union leaders. 21 July 1998. <web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA250241998?open&of=ENG-KOR> Aronowitz, S.; DiFazio, W. 1994. The new knowledge work. In: Ahier, J.; Esland, G., eds. Education, training and the future of work-1: social, political and economic contexts of policy development, pp. 76–96. London: Routledge. Cammack, P. 2001. Making the poor work for globalization? New political economy, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 397–408. Cammack, P. 2002a. The mother of all governments: The World Bank’s matrix for global governance. In: Wilkinson, R.; Hughes, S., eds. Global governance: critical perspectives, pp. 36–53. London: Routledge. Cammack, P. 2002b. Attacking the poor. New Left review, vol. 2, no. 13, pp. 125–34. Cox, R.W. 1983. Gramsci, hegemony and international relations: an essay in method. Millennium: journal of international studies, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 162–75. Cox, R.W. 1999. Civil society at the turn of the millennium: prospects for an alternative world order. Review of international studies, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 3–28. Deen, T. 2003. United Nations: Advocates ‘social safety net’ in Third World. Third World Network, 2003. <www.twnside.org.sg/title/safety-cn.htm> Jessop, B. 2001. The state and the contradictions of the knowledge-driven economy. In: Bryson, J.R. et al., eds. Knowledge, space, economy, pp. 63–78. London: Routledge. Katz, H.; Lee, W.; Lee, J., eds. 2001. The changing nature of labour-management interactions and tripartism: is co-ordinated decentralization the answer? Seoul: Korea Labour Institute. Kim, D.J. 1997. Address to the Nation, 19 December 1997, Article 6 #2. In: Sohn, C.-H.; Yang, J., eds. Korea’s economic reform measures under the IMF Program: government measures in the critical first six months of the Korean economic crisis, pp. 203-10. Seoul: Korea Institute for International Economic Policy. (Translated by the Blue House.) Kim, M.H. 1999. Employers and workers are partners: new labour culture seeks co-prosperity through coexistence. Korea Herald, Wednesday, 24 November, p. 18. Kim, S.S.; Briscoe, D. 1997. Globalization and a new human resource policy in Korea: transformation to a performance-based HRM. Employee relations, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 298–308. Korea International Labour Foundation. 1999a. Changes in the employment structure: recent developments, current labour situation in Korea. Seoul: KOILAF. <www.koilaf.org/ publication/link16.htm#4> Korea International Labour Foundation. 1999b. 1999 guidelines for collective bargaining: labor, management and the government. Seoul: KOILAF. Korea International Labour Foundation. 1999c. Labour relations in Korea. Seoul: KOILAF. Korea International Labour Foundation. 2002. 2002 collective guidelines for collective bargaining: labour, management and the government. Seoul: KOILAF.
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Korea International Labour Foundation. 2004a. 61% of personnel or HRM managers predict unstable labor-management relations for 2005. Labor today, no. 239, 31 December 2004. <www.koilaf.org/index2.htm> Korea International Labour Foundation. 2004b. Unemployment unchanged at 3.5%. <www.koilaf.org/index2.htm> Korea Labour Institute. 2003. Learning and training for work in the knowledge society. <www.logos-net.net/ilo/150 base/en/report/rep toc.htm> Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training. 2000. Educational and training program situation in Korea. Seoul: KRIVET. Leadbeater, C. 1998. Who will own the knowledge economy? Political quarterly, vol. 69, no. 4, pp. 375–85. Leadbeater, C. 1999. It’s not just the economy, stupid. New Statesman, 27 September, pp. iv–vi. Lee, K. 2001. New direction of Korea’s vocational education and training policy. (Paper presented at the International Conference on TVET, Adelaide, Australia, 2001.) Magari˜nos, C.A. 2001. Managing UN reform: UNIDO’s need-driven approach. (Paper presented by the Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization at the Royal Institute for International Affairs, Chatham House, London, 21 September 2001.) Nyhan, B., ed. 2002. Taking steps towards the knowledge society: reflections on the process of knowledge development. Luxembourg : Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2000. Knowledge management in the learning society: education and skills. Paris: OECD. Park, D.J.; Park, J.; Yu, G.-C. 2001. Assessment of labour market response to the labour law changes introduced in 1998. In: Park, F. et al., eds. Labour market reforms in Korea: policy options for the future, pp. 125–50. Seoul: World Bank and Korea Labour Institute. Republic of Korea. 2001. Human resources development strategies for Korea: human resources knowledge new take-off. Seoul: Republic of Korea. Republic of Korea. Ministry of Labour. 1999. Labour sector reforms gaining speed: MOL decides to operate the second-term Labour Reform Task Force. Seoul: International Co-operation Division. <www.molab.go.kr/English/English.html> Republic of Korea. Ministry of Labour. 2005. Vocational ability development overview. <www.molab.go.kr:8787/labor/labor 06 01 01.jsp> Republic of Korea. The Tripartite Commission. 2001. National initiatives concerning social dialogue on training. <www.logosnet.net/ilo/150 base/en/topic n/t23 kor.htm> Rowley, C.; Bae, J.S. 2002. Globalization and transformation of human resource management in South Korea. International journal of human resource management, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 522–49. Schiller, D. 1988. How to think about information. In: Mosco, V.; Wasko, J., eds. The political economy of information, pp. 27–44. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. United Nations Development Programme. 1999. Social safety net for the most vulnerable groups in the Republic of Korea. Seoul: UNDP. World Bank; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2001. Korea and the knowledge-based economy: making the transition. Washington, DC: World Bank/OECD.
Chapter IV.13
Involvement of Labour-Market Partners in TVET in the Russian Federation Olga Oleynikova
1 Introduction The present chapter is based on a number of independent surveys and reports of international projects implemented in the Russian Federation (henceforth Russia) in the field of VET, as well as the author’s personal experience. To date, no analysis of the problems mentioned in the title has been performed in Russia. The vocational education and training (VET) sector in Russia is made up of two major types of institutions, initial VET schools1 and lyceums (ISCED, level 4) and VET colleges and technicums (ISCED, level 5B). VET schools are all State schools that serve both to provide young people with basic technical skills making them employable on the labour market, and to accommodate the social-support needs of youngsters from disadvantaged families. Both levels provide access to higher education. To obtain a coherent picture of VET/enterprise interaction in contemporary Russia, it may prove worthwhile to take a retrospective look at the interaction between the VET sector and labour-market partners in the days of the planned economy within what used to be called the ‘command-administrative system’ characterized by tight control on the part of the State of all spheres of life and subsystems of society, including education and training. It was mandatory at that time for all State enterprises—and there were no other ones—to co-operate with and support schools at all levels of the education system (including kindergartens, general schools, initial VET schools and technicums), including universities. All enterprises were twinned with a number of local general and VET schools and offered schoolchildren vocational orientation and training in basic skills. VET students were provided with work experience during the course of study and jobs upon graduation. Enterprises were also obliged to have instructors on their staff who would supervise the practical training periods conducted in the enterprise. Apart from these arrangements, enterprises were supposed to support VET school workshops with machines, tools and other equipment, and provide materials and supplies. Almost all big enterprises had affiliated to them technical/vocational schools or institutes of higher education that provided pre-service and in-service training for their workers.
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This streamlined interaction worked practically without a hitch aimed at both training the workforce for the labour market, and at providing a social security net for children and youth from disadvantaged families, or those with learning problems or deviant behaviour. The above situation mirrored both the social and economic system in place in the country, and the needs of the industrial economy in which one would acquire one occupation that lasted a lifetime, with in-built trajectories of in-service training and promotion.
2 The Changing Context With the collapse of the socialist economy, the repercussions immediately ricocheted off onto education and training. On the one hand, the State relaxed its grip on the economy and new processes in the society and economy evolved—particularly chaos and instability. New forms of ownership emerged and enterprises changed hands and ownership. On the other hand, a large number of enterprises either had to close down or opt for conversion from producing one type of goods to another. Transition from total State ownership to multiple forms of ownership plunged the economy into uncertainty that reshaped the system of labour relations, entailing new roles for employers, employees and the State, as well as their interaction. The overarching uncertainty diverted enterprises, preoccupied largely with survival and staying afloat, from the priorities of education and training. Confusion was omnipresent and it took about ten years for the economy to settle down. During these ten years the culture of the VET/labour-market dialogue was very much diluted and new mechanisms were very slow to take shape. The situation was exacerbated in 1998 when a major financial crisis broke out that further distanced most enterprises from education and training. However, new private enterprises that managed to recover from the crisis more quickly than others were the first to give the lead in addressing education and training needs and began to include training in their development strategies, relying on their goodwill and common-sense, as well as learning from best international practices. However, there was no standard model of co-operation with the system of education in place (National Observatory for Professional Education, 2004). As of 2000 the economic situation began to stabilize and grow, with the result that employers were showing once again interest in the qualifications of the workforce. In this improving context enterprises began to be more selective in their hiring practices and developed an awareness of the added value of in-service training and upskilling. It should be pointed out, however, that the above refers to the ‘average’ tendency. There were enormous variations due to the size of the country and regional differences that are conditioned by geographic, social and economic factors. Also, due to the level of development and awareness of their social responsibility, marked differences were observed between different sectors in addressing education and training issues (Analytical Centre ‘Expert’, 2005a).
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More advanced and development-oriented companies from both traditional and new sectors that were well established on the market (about 5 to 8% of the total number of enterprises in the country) began to build close links with VET schools and colleges. These, as a rule, are large companies or corporations consisting of dozens of enterprises (Analytical Centre ‘Expert’, 2005b). Smaller companies simply cannot afford to spend time and effort on interacting with colleges and universities and they make do with the workforce available on the labour market. VET schools, for their part, try to keep up links with enterprises established in the ‘old’ days, often without due regard to the changed situation—and sometimes governed by the paternalistic thinking that enterprises ‘owe’ them something.
3 The Degree of Involvement of Labour-Market Partners Certain sectors and companies are more outspoken about their requirements regarding the workforce, and proactively interact with the external environment to change it for the better. Others are traditionally ‘introvert’ and remain focused on their internal processes. The first category is actively exploring the concept of a learning organization and considers education and training as an investment. It is common for the more advanced companies in this group to accuse the VET system of inability to produce adequately trained specialists and they rely on their own training schemes, including in-service staff training. Generally, the following types of employer/company/VET co-operation can be identified (Analytical Centre ‘Expert’, 2005b): 1. Close co-operation, resulting in graduates meeting most of the employer’s skill requirements. This concerns such sectors as finance and insurance, the production of high-tech equipment, the fuel industry and metallurgy, where there is new recruitment of personnel and a high demand for skills. This type of co-operation is observed in big companies that can afford to invest in education. 2. Weak co-operation: graduates often failing to meet the employers’ requirements. This affects rapidly developing sectors involving a wide range of employers. However, the latter are not in a position to invest in education (construction, media, parts of the IT sector, trade, marketing and consulting, tourism, hospitality, etc.). 3. Fairly close co-operation: graduates meeting company skills requirements up to 50%. This particularly concerns sectors with monopolies: telecommunications, railways, air transport, etc. This group differs from the first group in that the market is not developing as rapidly due to the monopoly of companies. 4. Very weak co-operation: skills of graduates failing to meet requirements of the world of work. The sectors concerned are often facing stagnation or uncertainty: most of industrial production requiring engineers, including the chemical sector, machine-making, forestry, etc. As a rule, these sectors are made up of numerous enterprises with only limited financial resources and lacking a culture of networking. VET schools and colleges training specialists for these sectors are not
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particularly aware of the work-market requirements but, as a rule, are confident that they know what the sector needs better than the people in the sector themselves. Employers can neither invest in education, nor offer competitive salaries, which is a demotivating factor for both schools and graduates. It should be pointed out that, apart from factors indicated earlier, the reluctance of enterprises—with a few exceptions—to become involved with education and training is also due to other reasons: (a) a lack of legal provisions for enterprises to participate in the distribution of funds allocated for VET at all levels; and (b) a lack of tax benefits for enterprises that invest in education and training, including support for VET schools and colleges. Another factor having a negative impact on VET/enterprise co-operation relates to the structure of the labour market in the country, and specifically to the high rate of unemployment among college and university graduates that allows employers to be able to pick and choose from this ‘surplus’. The result is that college and even university graduates often fill jobs requiring lower levels of education and training. It should be added that the graduate’s education and training qualifications are not taken into account in terms of the salary offered in such cases. According to the State Statistics Committee, in recent years about 30 to 40% of the total number of unemployed consists of university or college degree holders, while about 5% of the total unemployed population are young graduates from all levels of vocational education. As of end of 2005, of the 5.7 million unemployed, one-third represented higher education graduates (State Statistics Committee, 2005).
4 Communication or Discourse? The discussion that follows is aimed at showing that it is too early to speak about a discourse between the VET system and the world of work. At this point in time we can only speak of initial steps towards establishing communication channels between the two systems taken by the most proactive players on both sides. Both systems—that of employment and VET—have not developed a co-ordinated and informed interpretation of the concept of social partnership/social dialogue that would lay the foundation for articulated and coherent communication. For the most part, VET schools interpret social partnership narrowly as links with enterprises and, occasionally, with employment agencies. Links with enterprises are often limited to inviting employer representatives to sit as members of examining boards, and organizing work placement of students in companies. It is only very recently that VET schools have begun to ask enterprises about their requirements concerning the skills and competences of workers and specialists. However, these attempts have not yet been supported by VET standards, which remain largely shaped by the VET system itself. Furthermore, there are neither legislative nor institutional mechanisms to support VET/enterprise links, which has a negative impact on the situation.
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As such, both sides lack a culture of co-operation. The recovery and gradual growth of the socio-economic environment, with urban areas taking the lead, shows signs of the business community organizing itself. Umbrella or branch organizations have been formed covering self-employed, small, medium or large businesses. Practically all of them show interest in initiating co-operation with education and training. One positive example is the Russian Union of Entrepreneurs and Industrialists,2 embracing 328,000 physical and legal entities from all sectors of the economy and all regions of Russia. Spurred by its members, in 2005 the union instituted two committees, one for the development of occupational and VET standards, and the other for enhancing quality in VET. Both committees aim at fostering links between industry and the VET sector. It can be expected that the joint efforts of employers and VET in developing outcomes-based VET standards will contribute to dealing with the most acute problem, namely that of overcoming the skills mismatch in the labour market. The lead given by the Union of Entrepreneurs and Industrialists has been followed by the Union of VET Principals, representing about one-half of Russia’s 2,800 VET colleges, which is actively involved in both committees. Other major employers’ associations, such as the Co-ordinating Council of Associations of Employers of Russia (uniting thirty-two Russian companies, sectoral and inter-sectoral employer organizations and NGOs) and about eighty smaller associations of entrepreneurs and industrialists, do not have education and training issues on their agendas, nor does the Tripartite Commission—a traditional social partnership body representing the government, employers and employees (represented by the Federation of Independent Trade Unions). The Tripartite Agreement for 2005–2007 does not mention education and training issues (Komarovsky & Blasum, 2005). In two sectors, employer associations, being dissatisfied with the quality of training, have initiated a movement towards VET. One is the catering sector, where the Federation of Restaurant Owners and Hoteliers developed occupational standards as early as the end of the 1990s with the support of the Ministry of Labour. The other—the Association of Construction Workers initiated by the German construction company Knauf, an active player of the Russian market—undertook to develop occupational standards for a number of building trades. Unfortunately, both occupational standards have failed to have any impact on standards, but are widely used by VET schools that have accommodated the employment needs in their training programmes. The Federation of Restaurant Owners and Hoteliers is currently launching another project in conjunction with the NGO Centre for VET Studies to update the standards and pilot the catalogue of occupations and qualifications for this sector, to be further complemented by a catalogue of training modules. It is interesting to note that on the sector level employers are more aware of an urgent need of a shift towards market-oriented competence-based VET system than the VET system itself. However, at the grassroots level, the first steps towards social dialogue are often made by proactive VET schools and colleges.
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The above endeavours are well in line with the policy declarations of the federal government urging closer links between education and training and the labour market as a pre-requisite for making the Russian economy more competitive and the welfare of society more comprehensive. These declarations are contained in such policy documents as the National Doctrine of Education, the Strategy of Educational Modernization, the Strategy of Social and Economic Development of the Russian Federation for the medium-term period, and the Priorities for the Development of Education in the Russian Federation (Lomonosov Moscow State University, 2002). The first practical steps to bridge the gap between the world of work and VET have been taken only recently when the federal government adopted an Action Plan for VET Development that envisaged the setting of basic occupational standards. It has to be noted, with a degree of regret, that before the restructuring of the federal ministries in 2004, the former Ministries of Education and Labour had started a dialogue about the relevance of VET for the labour market. However, as a result of the restructuring that took place in 2004, the Ministry of Labour was abolished, leaving behind only a Federal Employment Service and a division within the Ministry of Health and Social Development to address labour-market issues. As it is, the Federal Employment Service is dealing mostly with unemployment, while the above-mentioned division has not yet shown visible signs of activity in areas relating to occupational standards. Apart from emerging attempts by employers to co-operate with education and training, and by the government to regulate this co-operation, a certain movement is observed on the VET side under the impact of international projects, especially those supported by the European Community (the Tacis Programme). Among major multi-national projects, some have in real terms contributed to fostering VET/labour-market links:
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the Tacis project ‘VET Reform in the North-West of Russia’ supported by donors from different European countries and co-ordinated by the European Training Foundation; the Tacis DELPHI-I and DELPHI-II projects; the Tacis Institution Building Partnership Programme (IBPP) Russian-Finnish project ‘Social dialogue in VET’; the Tacis IBPP Russian-Irish project ‘Adult education’ (European Commission, 2005a, 2005b, 2005c).
Due to these projects’ input:
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labour-market orientation of VET institutions has grown by means of piloting skills, needs analysis procedures and competence-based VET curricula; VET content has been reviewed in a number of occupations; employers’ motivation and involvement has grown for the logistical, information, personnel and social support of VET schools; employers began to be more actively involved in the governance of VET institutions and in accreditation procedures;
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skills councils have been established in a number of regions in such sectors as catering, construction, the clothes industry, the chemical industry and machinebuilding to address the issue of supply and demand of skills, assessment of competences and content of VET. At this stage the councils unite small and medium enterprises, employment services, trade unions and VET schools and, in a few cases, officials from the regional administrations (departments of labour). These councils have been made possible by the DELPHI-II project. The first year has proved a success and led to the assumption that, once employers see the benefits and returns of co-operating with VET, they will respond by investing their time and resources. It can be expected that, with time, these councils may lead to the establishment of sector councils on the federal level that would institutionalize the dialogue mechanism of enterprises/VET co-operation.3 More and more VET schools are involving employers in their governing bodies (boards of trustees, advisory boards).
As has been indicated earlier, there is no legal framework for the involvement of labour-market partners in VET, except for an internal regulation of the Ministry of Education, ‘On social partnership at secondary VET schools (colleges)’, stipulating that colleges develop social partner mechanisms and conclude agreements with enterprises to ensure the provision of work experience placements for students, as well as some other issues. On the regional level, some attempts have been made to institute joint bodies that would assist in bridging the gap between the supply of and demand for skills and promote education and training, including on-the-job training. As a rule they are affiliated to the office of the regional governor or to the regional administration. These bodies, bearing a variety of names (co-ordinating council, council for the framework policy, consultative councils, regional sector councils for employment policies, initial VET councils, etc.) in different regions, unite companies, local administrations and VET and higher education institutions. However, whatever organisms have been put in place locally or regionally, for the most part they do not address fundamental issues of VET—co-operation with enterprises (i.e. building a dialogue between the two systems)—limiting themselves to identifying the quantitative demand for occupations and jobs and translating them into target intake figures for VET schools. This is in most cases largely a ‘hit and miss’ undertaking as, first, there are no reliable methodologies to anticipate labourmarket developments and, second, enterprises themselves are, for the most part, unable either to articulate their vision of the future or to anticipate changes in the demand for skills. One of a few exceptions is the Co-ordinating Council in Kemerovskaya Oblast, which is involved in planning and organizing the training of workers and specialists for the coal-mining enterprises of the region (coal-mining being the key sector regionally). Other examples of communication between the labour market and VET players are the various agreements concluded regionally or at the municipal level between employment service agencies and VET administration bodies,4 or tripartite and
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sector agreements (e.g. in the Moscow region) to promote the training of unemployed youth in an occupation relevant for the local labour market. There are also direct agreements between individual VET schools and employer enterprises (on internships for students, staff (re)training, the supply of materials and shared use of equipment, etc.). About 60% of VET colleges have agreements with employment agencies and enterprises. These and other forms of effective enterprise/VET co-operation are explored in more detail below.
5 Samples of Best Practice As has been indicated above, one format of VET/enterprise co-operation is the socalled ‘training under contracts with enterprises’ that can take a number of forms: one is training of students in specific occupations established by the enterprise. The advantage of such training is that enterprises can in this case ‘dictate’ their requirements on the content of training (of course, within the limits of the present VET standard), or they can initiate training for a new occupation relevant for the enterprise or courses meeting specific company needs. Under agreements with VET schools, companies are known to have introduced courses into the curriculum aimed at familiarizing students with the functioning of the enterprise and its corporate culture, with a subsequent certification of students by the enterprise. Students studying under contracts with enterprises usually begin working for the company during their final years of training. Sometimes agreements for training target groups for the enterprise are concluded between local authorities on whose territory the company is situated and the VET school/college. In this case tuition as such is free of charge. However, the enterprise may offer some sort of financial support, both to students and to the school, especially if the enterprise wants a new course to be introduced. This form, attractive as it may look, has one major weakness: contracts signed between the enterprise, the VET school and the student are legally binding only for the enterprise and the VET school in the part relating to financial obligations, while having no legal obligations for the student whose tuition has been paid for by the enterprise. Hence, if upon completion graduates refuse to work for the enterprise, they cannot be made to repay the costs of training. This is the way the law currently functions and, naturally, attempts are being made to amend it, under pressure from major corporations who invest heavily in VET and higher education contracts. Contracts are also signed for in-service training of the staff of the enterprise at VET schools and for upskilling VET teachers at the enterprise. Unfortunately, the latter has not become common practice and is not mandatory. However schools practising this model have appreciated its added value. It should be stressed that such training contracts emerge only when a sustainable zone of trust between the school and the enterprise has been formed. It is common for VET schools and enterprises to jointly perform vocational orientation measures for schoolchildren and first-year students. However, these measures mostly envisage visits by representatives from the enterprise to general secondary
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schools and study visits by schoolchildren and young students to the enterprise. Only a few enterprises provide extensive information support for vocational orientation, except for large developing enterprises that are committed to a systemic approach in attracting candidates to VET schools that are part of the corporate infrastructure (such as the Norkickel Company, or RUSAL (Russian Aluminium) Company, for example) (Analytical Centre ‘Expert’, 2005a). Well-established developing companies are becoming increasingly aware of their social responsibility and initiate innovative actions to interact with regional administrations in support of VET and higher education. For example, in 2004 the government of St Petersburg adopted a regulation ‘On measures to develop the system of secondary VET in St Petersburg for the years 2004-2007’ aimed at enhancing the market orientation of VET schools and colleges. The regulation has resulted in co-operation agreements concluded by a number of leading companies with the regional government aimed at shared financial support of a number of VET schools and colleges (on a 50/50 basis). Proactive companies are also known to equip special workshops at their enterprises for the practical training of VET students or to modernize workshops in VET schools—as most VET schools cannot afford new equipment, materials or supplies themselves. On the whole, both proactive enterprises and VET schools are very serious about the work placement periods for students, as the companies take advantage of these periods to pick the best candidates for employment at the enterprise, and thus minimize the adaptation period that may take from one to three years, depending on the company. We may contrast this with companies that have failed to perceive the added value of co-operating with VET schools and who may even charge for accepting students for work experience. Some companies and VET schools agree to share the responsibility for training specialists: VET schools deliver theoretical training and all practical training is covered by the enterprise. During the first two years costs of practical training are met by the VET school as students do not yet have qualifications of use to the enterprise, while during years three and four the costs of practical training are covered by the company. A number of companies—though not many—pay VET schools for every graduate who has worked at the enterprise for over six months. Attempts are made, for example by the RUSAL Company, to establish their own corporate universities that would embrace programmes at five levels:
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level 1: vocational orientation; level 2: VET (to train workers and line managers, and upskill them); level 3: higher education; level 4: in-service education; level 5: individual training for top managers/executives (State Statistics Committee, 2005).
The company is currently devising standards for all levels of training. Such efforts can only be commended. However, they arouse certain concerns relating to the com-
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patibility of these standards with the State education and training standards and, hence, the future mobility of the workforce may be in jeopardy. It should be stressed that proactive companies often choose to set up training centres of their own affiliated to the company, having little trust in State VET schools. Such training centres would offer training in most occupations of initial VET and may also commission training from VET schools in those occupations that these schools are known to deliver to the standard acceptable by the company. Such training centres may be launched in locations where there are no State VET schools, providing training in occupations required by companies based there. Other types of communication between VET and labour-market players can be summed up as follows:
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to motivate students to stick with their occupation of training, big companies (such as, for example, RUSAL, Sibneft, Vneshtorgbank and others) establish scholarship schemes for students who commit themselves to working for the company upon graduation;5 competitions of student projects (grant competitions) initiated by companies to pick the best undergraduates as prospective job candidates; to ensure high standards of teaching, companies may offer grants to teachers, arrange study visits and training for the faculty at enterprises, or send their specialists to teach at educational establishments; joint projects carried out by students for the benefit of the company; companies may provide temporary summer jobs for students to replace workers/employees while the latter are on vacation, and organize visits to the company on a regular basis.
Summing up the emerging labour market/VET communication channels, it can be concluded with a certain amount of confidence that signals coming from both ends of the scale are numerous and diversified—and sometimes contradictory! It is obvious, though, that the zone of trust between VET and labour-market partners is not yet adequate. The key reasons for this are input-based standards and lack of awareness of its added value by both parties. The initiative of proactive companies taking the responsibility for training (complementary as it may be) carries a latent threat to the State VET system, undermining its credibility. Also, such companies can by no means meet the country’s education and training needs. Corporate education and training puts a huge number of small and medium enterprises at a disadvantage because they cannot afford to invest in VET and have to rely on the State system. In this situation, the VET system should pay more heed to the signals coming from proactive enterprises and respond to them flexibly.
6 Signals from Enterprises Independent surveys tell us that companies are more often dissatisfied, not so much with the occupational/technical competences of VET and higher education graduates, but with their soft skills/competences. Advanced and sustainable companies
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are more concerned with the candidate’s ‘potential’ and personal qualities, than with technical skills and knowledge, especially if the company has a training centre of its own where candidates can be brought up to company standards. Another ‘gap’ identified by employers is the graduates’ lack of knowledge and understanding of the way companies function. This is often a result of the fact that VET schools and colleges are either unaware of these issues, for lack of communication with the world of work, or do not bother to find out how companies operate in terms of major business processes and the roles of qualified specialists within the hierarchy. It is an open secret that teachers delivering theoretical subjects have often not worked at enterprises for more than a dozen years—if at all—and hence teaching and learning are organized in a way that is little related to the real world. Many VET schools would claim, however, that their graduates are doing well on the labour market as they do not receive any direct complaints from companies. Such VET schools overlook the fact that employers in most cases simply have no choice and have to make the best of the available graduates in a situation of fairly low labour mobility in the country. As it is, VET schools lack systemic tracer studies and hence have no data about how well their graduates fare on the labour market. Dissatisfied with educational modernization, leading Russian companies are implementing their own models of personnel development that may or may not involve VET schools. These models embrace company training centres, corporate universities, continuing training and adaptation schemes and aim at addressing training needs of companies that are often more dynamic than the supply provided by the State or private providers. Education and training schemes taken on board by companies and implemented through their training centres primarily focus on developing such skills as personal efficiency and management skills that VET schools have failed to equip their students with. Big companies that can afford it extensively resort to distance learning and multi-media courses that the individual can master at the work place, or at a university/college where he/she is doing a course of study. Contrary to the VET system, companies commonly opt for modular training schemes. Practically all companies complain about the VET standards, as does the VET sector itself. Most companies claim that businesses should dictate their requirements to the State system of education, and the latter should match these requirements. Companies that use their profits to invest in training complain about a lack of tax incentives and suggest that the State and business should share education and training costs, explaining that they have, apart from other things, to re-train VET graduates before the latter can be effectively employed in the company. Both the VET sector and companies are affected by:
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an outflow of young people from rural areas into bigger cities; a lack of labour-market forecasting tools.
In the context of the labour-market players’ growing concern about the quality of VET graduates, the VET sector has to be more proactive in proving its relevance for enterprises by:
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changing its approach to VET standards, making them market-oriented and flexible and introducing competence-based VET; institutionalizing and supporting best models of VET—enterprise co-operation building on the best practices already available across Russia and ‘products’ yielded by international projects;6 taking on board practical tools to engage and motivate employers and their associations; matching and updating VET content to the regional labour markets’ demand in terms of occupations for training and the quality of outcomes; initiating measures to support training specialists in occupations enjoying low popular demand (possibly by sharing costs between the State and companies).
It is also in the interests of the VET system to actively lobby for amendments to the Tax Code relating to tax benefits for enterprises involved and investing in VET. However, it may well be expected that companies and corporations are better-placed to do this themselves. Nevertheless, if the VET system fails to contribute to the process, the eventual amendments are likely to be of benefit only to large companies, leaving small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on the ‘outskirts’. Thus, the cleavage between large proactive and profitable companies and smaller ones that are supposed to constitute the bulk of the market economy would be widened, with ensuing negative consequences for the economy, society and citizens. Today is the right time for the VET system to consolidate and show its role, with the modernization processes well under way, including the optimization of the network of VET schools and the decentralization of governance.
7 Conclusions Despite objective economic and psychological problems that account for differences between sectors, regions, VET schools and companies, there is a fundamental problem that impedes adequate skills supply by the system of education, namely a lack of a national qualifications framework (NFQ) that would assign uniform requirements to every level of qualifications of the work force, and would be linked to awards at every level of education. The NFQ would assist in identifying generic requirements to skills and competences of VET and university graduates as needed by employers and could be used to formulate educational standards, thus bringing the two societal systems nearer together. It is also obvious that teaching and learning should be brought closer to the working environment, which can be achieved by intensifying and streamlining practical
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training periods/work assignments of students, as is already done by proactive companies and VET schools. Another issue is teacher qualifications that have to be enhanced. Incentives have to be devised to attract younger generations to work for VET. More company employees and executives should be involved in teaching. This is not feasible for SMEs that would not have enough staff to release for these purposes. However, SMEs should promote networking and closer links with big companies that have already demonstrated examples of best practices in addressing this issue. On the whole, business/educational co-operation is an issue directly related to the social responsibility of both parties, and the sooner they develop an awareness of it, the better it will be both for education and for companies. To this end, more information support should be provided highlighting this perspective on the co-operation and disseminating of best practices both from Russia and abroad.
Notes 1. VET school is the generic name for various types and levels of VET institutions in Russia that will be used in the chapter, unless otherwise specified. 2. The Union was set up in 1990 to unite companies and enterprises from most sectors of the economy, including industrial, financial, business, insurance and leasing ones. It includes about 100 branch offices and corporate associations. 3. It should be stressed though that chambers of commerce are practically uninvolved in the promotion of enterprise involvement with education and training. The only positive example can be attributed to the outputs of the Delphi-I project in Samarskaya Oblast (the Volga Region), where the local Chamber of Commerce and Industry initiated the regional law on ‘Participation of Enterprises of Different Types of Ownership in Training, Re-training and Upskilling Workers and Specialists in VET Schools’ (European Commission, 2005a). 4. Employment services purchase training from about 3,000 VET schools across Russia, selected through a tender (National Observatory for Professional Education, 2004). 5. The percentage of graduates taking jobs in occupations other than their occupation of training remains high and, in some periods (e.g. end of the 1990s), reached up to 80%. 6. The most effective instruments for ‘catching the eye’ of employers, as shown by the international VET projects, include the following: – skill-needs analysis (regular skill-needs analysis has proved to establish improved links between education and the business community); – involvement of enterprises in the development of the content of training; – participation of enterprise staff as part-time teachers at VET schools; – involvement of employers in assessing student competence; – internships of VET teachers and trainers at enterprises.
References Analytical Centre ‘Expert’. 2005a. Curricula and education and training technologies of Russian corporations. Moscow. Analytical Centre ‘Expert’. 2005b. Universities and employers on graduates and reform of education. Moscow.
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European Commission. 2005a. Final report of the TACIS IBPP project ‘Adult Education’. Brussels. European Commission. 2005b. Final report of the TACIS IBPP project ‘Social dialogue in VET’. Brussels. European Commission. 2005c. Recommendations of Delphi II project ‘Development of education links and initiatives in VET and higher education’. Brussels. Komarovsky, V.; Blasum, E. 2005. The role of Russian employers in promoting social dialogue. Moscow: Analytical Centre for Developing Social Partnership. Lomonosov Moscow State University. 2002. Modernisation of Russian education. Moscow: Lomonosov Moscow State University, Higher School of Economics. National Observatory for Professional Education. 2004. VET update: stocktaking report. Moscow. State Statistics Committee. 2005. Labour market data, 2000-2005. Moscow: Official Publications.
Chapter IV.14
Strengthening TVET to Achieve Lifelong Learning for All: Historical Snapshots and Recent Initiatives in Myanmar Naing Yee Mar
1 Introduction In order to keep pace with developments in the world, there are currently moves to make TVET a vehicle for meeting emerging needs in the livelihoods of young people and adults. To some extent, this will also benefit the national social and economic situation. Countries often hope that the potential of TVET and the impact of its contributions in achieving these aims can be fully realized not only by improving the quality of TVET programmes but also by promoting lifelong learning opportunities for every individual. This chapter therefore examines the importance of TVET in promoting vocational competencies as part of the lifelong learning process for all, and explores its dynamic in developing countries, with particular reference to the situation in Myanmar. The TVET system in Myanmar is based on shared responsibility by different ministries through a variety of forms of delivery, with the result that its curricula are highly diverse. Not many empirical studies have been conducted as yet to evaluate the effectiveness of TVET in Myanmar. As a result, there is very limited documentation on issues relevant to vocational policies and practices that focus on a competency-based lifelong-learning oriented approach. This implies that the availability of statistical information in the field of technical, agriculture and vocational education is a limiting factor. Therefore, the scope of this study focuses rather on secondary and post-secondary school-based vocational education and training programmes offered in the areas of technical, agricultural and vocational education by the different specialized ministries in Myanmar. These programmes aim to enable learners to cope with the emerging challenges relating to job opportunities in the various economic sectors. They also encourage lifelong learning for all through the creation of flexibility and accessibility to TVET.
2 Why TVET? Traditionally, technical and vocational education carries the principal responsibility of developing the labour force in a country. This, in turn, improves productivity. Notwithstanding, current changes in technological, socio-economic and cultural R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 IV.14, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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environments, including profound changes due to the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the computerization of society, have stimulated the role of TVET to go beyond traditional approaches and practices. This is particularly true in relation to policy formulation and implementation, and the relevant strategies and structures (UNESCO, 1999, p. 61). In reviewing the issues of TVET on aspects of lifelong learning, the Dakar Framework for Action on Education for All (EFA) consists of six goals stressing the importance of both accessibility to learning opportunity and continuous learning possibilities for all young people and adults beyond primary school. Along with the Dakar Framework for Action on EFA, the Millennium Goals (UNESCO, 2000) encapsulate eight main ways of assisting developing countries in achieving economic and social development. Those that are particularly important relate directly to the quality of education.
2.1 TVET in Relation to Environmental Variables What the concept of promoting TVET as part of the lifelong learning process actually means for a community or an individual differs from one country to another. Each country has its own unique set of environmental forces—socio-cultural, political-legal, technological, economic—which have a strong impact on the educational environment. These variables in the societal environments may not constitute national educational activities in the short term, but can, and often do, affect the long-term development of education. In addition to these societal considerations, governments, local communities, educational suppliers and learners, as well as trends in labour markets, directly influence the effectiveness of education and, in turn, are affected by it. In essence, countries apply different approaches to reform and promote TVET as an essential component of the total educational process. To give some examples: countries like Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, India and Myanmar provide more TVET opportunities at the secondary and post-secondary levels, compared to the importance placed on expanding compulsory education in countries such as Cambodia, Viet Nam and Laos (Cheng, 2005; Mar, 2004). Countries such as Ghana, Senegal and Swaziland have decided to incorporate a measure of vocational content into general education programmes at the primary or lower secondary level, in order to prepare young people for wage employment or self-employment, if they do not continue with their schooling (Atchoarena cited in Wilson, 2005, p. 76). In Ghana, Kenya and Botswana, the drive for vocationalization has been strongest at the junior secondary level (Lauglo, 2005). Since countries have expressed great concern about the future development of their TVET systems, it is important that these systems are able to meet the needs of both adults and young people, and secure the basis for future development. These concerns relate to: (a) how individuals can be encouraged (and assisted) to fully participate in the digital age; (b) what efforts can be made to reach individuals who are often ‘hidden away’ from view in different corners of their country, mainly in
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rural areas; and (c) to what extent they can retain young people in the education system for as long as possible and offer flexibility of learning. Overall, TVET needs to evolve through the educational process by initiating a future-oriented policy and strategic educational planning to foster the all-round development of nations. It should also provide a sound foundation with further opportunities in education for those individuals who may wish to profit from lifelong education. Whether ‘education and training’ are delivered through formal, non-formal or informal means, they aim to develop human resources in the interests of employability and better citizenship. They will also inculcate a continuum of improvements concerning initiatives for each individual’s livelihood and will encourage them to live and work harmoniously with others.
2.2 TVET in Relation to Vocational Competencies The broad concept of vocational competency is concerned with an individual’s ability to cope with, and capitalize on, the unique challenges and opportunities demanded by the working environment. Vocational competency is an important characteristic of human capacities that TVET can provide exceedingly well. It is a key strength that can be embedded in any individual and may be carefully built on and accumulated over time. It may also be called a core capability, because it includes a number of constituent skills (Wheelen & Hunger, 1998, p. 160) that can be a means of securing the necessities of life. What is classed as vocational competency is also, at least in part, context-specific, in that the competencies required by an individual to function effectively in his or her society depend upon the social and economic context of that society. In reviewing vocational competencies in the context of developing countries, trends in the economic sector of society can have an obvious impact on the vocational competencies of individuals, especially in a country like Myanmar. It is, therefore, important to develop both understandings, not only based on what is expected of individuals in their various working environments, but also the individuals’ capacity to extend their capabilities.
3 TVET and Its Implications for Lifelong Learning in Myanmar 3.1 Societal Considerations The size of Myanmar’s population1 was 40.76 million in 1990 and had increased to 53 million by 2004. Geographically, Myanmar, with an area of 676,553 square kilometres, is divided into fourteen administrative areas—seven states and seven divisions. Broadly speaking, the seven different states are each dominated by a major ethnic group, whereas the seven divisions are dominated by the largest group—the Barmar.
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Myanmar is a country with enormous indigenous ethnic diversity, consisting of over 135 ethnic groups. Some 73.4% of the population lives in remote and rural areas. Thus, one of the matters of increasing concern in the Myanmar education sector is to focus on how such a diverse population can be motivated to take increased responsibility for its own effective lifelong learning. This is particularly important in the perspective of developing sustainable economic livelihoods. Gender wise, women in Myanmar account for 51% of the total population and are taking more and more initiatives. They are playing an active role in society to better their own living conditions in parallel with the continual evolution of socio-economic conditions. It is estimated that 64.1% of the population is engaged in the agricultural sector, while Myanmar’s industrial workers account for just 8.4% of the population. The service sector involves 18% of the population. This structure has remained largely unchanged over the past two decades. Traditionally, the Myanmar economy relies on the primary sector: agriculture, livestock, fishing and forestry. The structural characteristics of the labour force, presenting the employed population by industrial groups as reported in the ‘1990 Labour Force Survey’, showed that almost 60% of the total labour force is engaged in the primary sector. This sector is the main contributor to gross domestic product (59.9%). With the population growing at about 2% per annum, this translates into a per capita income increase of about 4% per year. Public expenditure has been restricted by a low and declining rate of revenue collection, which, at 5.1% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 1999–2000, was among the lowest in the world. The structure of the economy has not evolved much since market reforms began and led to an average annual growth rate of 5.1%. As a consequence, public revenue has been insufficient to allocate public expenditure to important public services, in particular, education and health. In turn, the demand for specific levels of investment in skills, knowledge and education may directly affect the growth or decline of productivity in these different sectors. During the Four-Year Economic Development Plan Period (1992–1996), the productivity of the different sectors in GDP—namely, production, services and trade—was approximately 60%, 18% and 22% respectively (Myanmar. Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development, 1998). The agricultural sector has contributed approximately 38% of total GDP in that period, whilst the manufacturing sector generates only 9%. To accompany these figures, statistical information, such as members of the working population who have completed a vocational course to at least secondary vocational training level, or employment/unemployment by educational level, is still not available. In an agro-based country like Myanmar, the role of self-employed family workers is of particular importance. This is most critical where agricultural holdings are operated on a household basis and where self-employed labour in various agricultural activities is most common. Most of these self-employed family workers reside in rural areas. A new economic policy and development situation has been introduced since 1988 through a series of reforms. As a result, Myanmar has increasingly turned
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its attention to raising productivity, as well as modernizing and upgrading skills, especially in the primary sector. This is important not only because the country needs to improve its levels of productivity by making the best use of the available resources, but also because the problems of limited access to knowledge and skills are making it more difficult to respond appropriately to changes resulting from the information age.
3.2 Prospects and Concerns in Myanmar Education 3.2.1 Structure of the School and Reforms Following the 1998 educational reforms, by 2004 schooling in Myanmar had been changed from ten to eleven grades in basic education. This now consists of five years of primary and six years of secondary schooling (lower secondary consists of grades six to nine, and upper secondary of grades ten and eleven). These are followed by several types of higher education institutions. The Ministry of Education (MOE) is functionally the main sponsor of education and training, especially in the areas of basic education and teacher training. The major higher education institutions, which numbered sixty-four in 2004, also fall under the responsibility of the MOE. Ninety-nine other institutions are currently under eleven different ministries and the Public Services Selection and Training Board. Although the activities of these higher education institutions are decentralized and administered by thirteen different ministries, academic and administrative policy relating to higher education is centralized and managed by two councils: the Universities’ Central Council; and the Council of University Academic Bodies. Traditionally, the administrative process throughout the education sector has been centralized, but in recent times there have been moves to decentralize management and responsibility. This is also designed to promote active community participation. However, educational decisions and initiatives remain largely the province of central ministerial departments. In order to lay the foundation for an education system that is well co-ordinated and equitable, the Myanmar Naing-ngan Education Committee was established in 1991. This committee has overall responsibility for major policy matters, establishing budget priorities and general supervision of the whole educational process. The underlying goal of educational reform was to create an education system that would generate a learning society capable of facing the challenges of the ‘Knowledge Age’ (Myanmar. MOE, 2004). This was initiated by holding annual seminars in both basic and higher education sectors attended by administrators, teachers and educational specialists. Overall, the objectives of the various educational promotion programmes (EPP) stress not only bringing about quality education at all levels and for all, but also improving the accessibility of a range of educational options for all individuals. Within the framework of these EPP, the MOE has also developed the long-term plan for the education sector (2001–2031) with the aim of transforming the whole of Myanmar society into a lifelong learning society.
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3.2.2 Myanmar EFA Through innovative actions, such as various literacy campaigns and the Myanmar EFA National Action Plan, the literacy rate in Myanmar continues to increase steadily—from 89.7% in 1999 to 93.3% in 2004. Literacy partly contributes to increased output per worker. Thus, attempts to achieve improvements in literacy and EFA may be one of the best efforts a country can make to promote its future economic growth and sustainable development. For example, ‘farmers with four years of primary education produce about 13% more than those without such education’ (Financial Times, 1980, quoted in Stonier, 1983). The results and recommendations of the EFA Forum, EFA Task Forces and EFA Working Groups have all contributed to an upgrading of basic education. Primary school enrolments have increased from 91% of the cohort (1998–2000) to 96.56% (2004–2005). As all individuals are entitled to access to learning on a lifelong basis, it is notable that post-primary schools, over-aged-children-to-primary-education programmes, and the one-school-in-one-village objectives have been initiated since 2001–2002. These initiatives have addressed situations where access to public schools is difficult. The quality of basic education is being promoted through curriculum reforms. Since 1998, pre-vocational education and the MOE’s newly introduced life-skills curriculum have been redesigned and expanded, particularly in lower and upper secondary formal (general) education. To guarantee a broad view of competencies during the basic system, co-curricular activities are primarily focused on the three main areas—basic communication skills; expansion of knowledge and skill; and attitudinal development—in both the lower and upper secondary school systems. Monastic education in Myanmar, which follows the official curriculum under the supervision of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, traditionally plays a major role in primary education, as well as in civil society. It is a means of helping individuals to learn social competencies, underpinning Myanmar’s attempts to introduce social sustainability. Evidence shows that Myanmar’s EFA strategic activities and policies reflect preventive, reactive and remedial approaches to facilitate and promote lifelong learning. These are under the supervision of the MOE, in collaboration with nine related ministries. For example, the present retention and completion rates indicate that less than 60% of children complete the full five-year primary cycle (Myanmar. MOE, 2003a). As shown in Fig. 1, for many years drop-outs have been highest in the first grade (KG) and this number has declined from 23% in 1989/1990 to about 18% in 2000/2001. However, dropouts continue to be highest in the first grade. However, a positive sign is that the drop-out rate in lower secondary level (by the end of grade nine) is decreasing and the education sector review (Myanmar. MOE, 2003a) cited that between 97 and 98% of pupils graduate from lower secondary schools. In addition, 83–84% of those who pass examinations continue their studies at upper secondary level. It also stated that the remaining 15% who left the school should not be considered as drop-outs.
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30.0 25.0 20.0 15.0 10.0 5.0 0.0 89–90 90–91 91–92 92–93 93–94 94–95 95–96 96–97 97–98 98–99 99–00 00–01 KG
G1
G2
G3
G4
Fig. 1 Drop-out rates in primary schools Source: Myanmar. MOE, 2003b.
Questions have been raised about these school-leavers. Are they joining TVET schools or not? This underlines the importance of integrating the pre-vocational curriculum into general education, which could be seen as useful for all schoolleavers. Notwithstanding such considerations, and as is the case with other developing countries, unfortunately in Myanmar there are still pockets of out-of-school primary, secondary and post-secondary school-aged youths, who cannot be accommodated by the existing education system. This occurs for a variety of reasons, including poverty, language problems due to membership of different ethnic minority groups, and hardships associated with living in rural areas or in isolated locations with no ready access to education. These are fundamental issues that must be addressed if the overall quality of EFA activities is to be improved so that all primary education leavers are able to engage in income-generating livelihoods. As a result, non-formal education has become one of the four main EFA goals in Myanmar. 3.2.3 Efforts in Non-Formal Education One of the main challenges in strengthening TVET as part of the lifelong learning process is its relationship with non-formal education (NFE). NFE in Myanmar focuses on basic educational services for all children, youth and adults who, for various reasons, have not been reached by the formal school system. This includes those who could not afford schooling or have dropped out of school, as well as those who completed primary school but could not continue further. The Myanmar Educational Research Bureau (MERB), which is one of the departments within the MOE, is the focal point for NFE in Myanmar.
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In co-operation with the Myanmar Literary Resource Centre (MLRC), MERB is also responsible for training volunteer adult facilitators by conducting a series of national workshops, such as: the National Workshop on Preparation of Vocational Learning Materials; the National Workshop on Preparation of Literacy Learning Materials on Agriculture; and the National Workshop on Development of Strategies for Continuing Education in Myanmar. NFE programmes include: functional literacy; income generation and qualityof-life improvement programmes; skills-development programmes; individual interest improvement programmes; and future-oriented programmes through continuing education. Learning materials for these continuing education programmes have been developed by MERB through its own facilities. Alongside the traditional mode, since 2002, MERB has been experimenting with using distance education methods to provide NFE programmes for its facilitators using data broadcasting systems. These programmes are delivered not only through the 640 e-education learning centres, but also through the 750 community learning centres and multimedia classrooms situated in basic education schools in every township. There are 324 townships in the country. Emphasis still needs to be placed on the necessity of upgrading training opportunities to improve the quality of NFE facilitators. It is also important to enhance the flexibility and effectiveness of existing programmes with regard to the skill development programmes. Viewing NFE at grassroots level, it is one of the crucial factors in realising the goals of TVET for out-of-school youth and adults as part of EFA. Qualified training instructors and ICT learning-support materials are in great demand.
3.3 Approaches to Strengthening TVET in Myanmar 3.3.1 TVET Structure and Reforms TVET in Myanmar first dates from 1950, shortly after achieving independence from the British (1948). At that time, Myanmar was among the fastest-growing Asian economies since it was well-endowed with natural resources in the 1950s and had a highly literate population. The State was expected to play a leading role in industrializing the economy, while fulfilling the manpower needs of the country was a major concern. However, the current structure of TVET in Myanmar originates in the early period of Burmese Socialism (1972), when the government launched the Twenty-Year Plan. According to this plan, within the framework of Burmese Socialism (1962–88), various reform measures were adopted in a priority shift from heavy industry back to agriculture and the commercialization of State enterprises. In 1998, to intensify educational reforms, the sixty-five technical, agricultural and vocational institutes and schools (plus one technical teacher-training institute) under the Department of Technical, Agricultural and Vocational Education (DTAVE) were transferred to the other relevant ministries, such as: the Ministry of Science and Technology; the Ministry of Agriculture; the Ministry of Co-operative Affairs; the Ministry of Social Welfare; and the Ministry of Livestock Breeding
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and Fisheries. The original DTAVE remained, but was renamed the Department of Technical and Vocational Education (DTVE) under the Ministry of Science and Technology, which had been established in 1996. In order to accommodate changes occurring in the economy, currently fifty-six higher-level institutions exist under this ministry, including five technological universities, two computer universities, nine governmental technical institutes (GTIs), twenty-six governmental technical colleges (GTCs) and twenty-four computer colleges. The ministry also has responsibilities in vocational training. Like some other developing countries (for example, Singapore and Taiwan), Myanmar provides the majority of its vocational and technical training opportunities at the secondary and post-secondary level. If young people are unable or unwilling to continue onto higher education, there are opportunities for them to join various vocational schools and institutes after leaving the general school system, having completed primary and secondary levels. After the educational reform in Myanmar, the formal (general) school cycle has been changed so that students who pass the matriculation examination at the end of the secondary level can join different universities or TVET institutes providing various professional qualifications beyond basic competencies and skills.
3.3.2 TVET Initiatives in Myanmar Pre-Vocational Education Some key TVET initiatives in Myanmar are worthy of mention. At the secondary level, the school curriculum has been redesigned and expanded to include prevocational subjects (at least 13% of class time is allotted to these subjects per week). However, effective vocationalization in general education has yet to be fully implemented in most of the country’s middle and high schools. Even when practical subjects are offered, in some schools these are often constrained or are less effective than anticipated due to limited facilities or a lack of interest on the part of students. Nevertheless, creating opportunities for pre-vocational and vocational education at all levels of basic education is one of the focal points in the Myanmar Long-Term Thirty-Year Education Development Plan (2001–2031) for the basic education sector (Myanmar. MOE, 2004). Relating to curriculum reform, vocational subjects such as industrial arts, agriculture, home economics and fine arts (painting and music) were introduced at the lower secondary level, aimed at providing a foundation for the future. To ensure that a broad range of competencies are covered, co-curriculum subjects at the primary and secondary levels concentrate on three main areas: basic communication skills; expansion of knowledge; and skill and attitudinal development. The desirability of including ICT skills in the curriculum is also becoming increasingly accepted. Life-skills education at both the primary and secondary levels, as part of the core curriculum, has also been introduced to promote social skills. This includes problem-solving, creative thinking, critical thinking, decision-making, communications, self-awareness, interpersonal skills, empathy and the ability to cope with
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emotions and stress. Myanmar monastic education has traditionally played a major role in equipping individuals with desirable social competencies. Since 1998, national centres for human resource development (NCHRD) have been introduced under the MOE. The NCHRDs aim at facilitating the satisfaction of community needs by launching vocational, professional and technology-based courses that are in demand. These centres provide a number of courses in partnership with foreign and local private enterprises. The NCHRD are located at universities, educational institutes, degree colleges and colleges under the MOE. These centres offer a wide variety of options in the form of certificate, diploma or degree courses in the fields of foreign languages, computer science, computer engineering, accountancy, business management, environmental studies, multi-media arts, gemmology, cosmetic technology, law and teaching—all with a strong emphasis on promoting vocational skills. These are income-generating courses that enable the institutes involved to provide supplementary remuneration for their staff. These courses are undertaken by students in addition to their regular courses at these institutions. They develop more options and consequently more career choices for the young people of Myanmar. Technical Education Currently, nine governmental technical institutes (GTIs) under the Ministry of Science and Technology offer two-year courses to gain the GTI certificate, replacing the three-year courses that were offered before the reforms. The number of courses provided in these institutions has been expanded from eight in 1987/1988 to fifteen since 2003/2004. This represents a significant increase in enrolments compared to 1987/1988 (Table 2). After the reforms, all the technical high schools were upgraded into governmental technical colleges (GTCs) to meet the needs of those students who have graduated from lower secondary schools but who did not continue their education at upper secondary schools. Twenty-six GTCs have gradually been introduced in all states and divisions throughout Myanmar to provide technical education. In the decade following 1987, the rapid establishment of industrialized zones in many states and divisions has brought about a noticeable increase of enrolment in these institutes and colleges (Myanmar. MOE, 2001). The curricula of the GTIs and GTCs are designed with a theory/practical ratio of 40:60. The curriculum, syllabus and instructional materials have been updated, and students have been encouraged to carry out more practical exercises related to their chosen subjects. It is evident that existing courses do not adequately provide the knowledge and skills needed for employment and, therefore, re-training is often required once the individuals involved have found employment. The breakdown of the intake by type of courses offered in GTIs in 2003/2004 is shown in Table 1. Although trends cannot be readily discerned in the choice of each subject from a single year, nevertheless current statistics indicate a significant increase in the number of students studying technical subjects. The average numbers
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Table 1 Intake by type of course in the government technical institutes (GTIs) in 2003/2004 Type of course
Intake
Civil engineering Electrical engineering (power) Electrical engineering (electrical & communications) Mechanical engineering (power) Mining engineering Mechatronic Information technology Food and chemical Plastic and rubber Architect Textile Petroleum Metallurgy Bio Gas
Male
Female
Total
797 1,353 794 1,632 22 382 207 19 28 33 33 86 48 119
892 809 694 303 − 156 424 56 36 115 48 − 24 54 264
1,689 2,162 1,488 1935 22 538 631 75 64 148 81 86 72 173 1,316
Total (%) 16.1 20.6 14.7 18.5 0.2 5.1 6.0 0.7 0.6 1.4 0.8 0.8 0.7 1.7 12.6
Source: Prepared by the Myanmar UNEVOC Centre/MERB, 2004. Table 2 Teaching staff and students in the government technical institutes (GTIs) and government technical colleges (GTCs) Academic year
No. of GTIs & GTCs
Teaching staff
Enrolment
Average no. of students
No. of teachers
Teacher/ student ratio
1984/85 1985/86 1986/87 1987/88 2003/04
7 8 10 10 35
202 288 424 426 3,378
4,374 4,819 5,721 6,493 23,225
625 602 572 649 664
29 36 42 43 96
1:22 1:17 1:13 1:15 1:7
Source: Prepared by the Myanmar UNEVOC Centre/MERB, 2004.
of teaching/learning hours per week prescribed by DTAVE are thirty-two for a student and eighteen for a teacher in the GTIs. Table 2 also shows the average number of students and teachers per GTI/GTC and teacher/student ratios. These were favourable over the 1984–2004 period in comparison with the higher-education average of 1:20. Agricultural Education Since Myanmar is basically an agricultural country, there is a great demand for middle-range technicians in that sector. To fulfil this need, in 1954 the Myanmar Government, with assistance from the Ford Foundation, established a State Agricultural Institute offering a three-year diploma course in agricultural technology. There is also a great need for skilled workers in the agriculture sector. Consequently,
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the Myanmar Government has opened agricultural high schools (AHSs) and State agricultural institutes (SAIs). A series of interviews conducted by the author of this chapter with key stakeholders in the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as with students, revealed that the major reason for students not being interested in joining the SAIs was: ‘no opportunity to get a proper job after completion of the training period’. It is no doubt for this reason that between 1984 and 1988 enrolment levels decreased dramatically—though enrolment in 2003/2004 has improved (Table 3). The seven SAIs under the Ministry of Agriculture offer three-year courses in agriculture and animal husbandry, granting a diploma in agriculture after the successful completion of the course. The curriculum and instructional materials used in the SAIs are based mainly on traditional methods of cultivation and are highly theoretical, rather than reflecting advanced techniques in agriculture. Concerning the quality of skills development in the agricultural sector, the curriculum of the SAI programmes is designed with a theory/practical ratio of 40:60. Table 3 also shows the average number of students and teachers per SAI. Teacher/student ratios were favourable over the period 1984–1989 in comparison with an average ratio in higher education of 1:20. The average numbers of teaching/learning hours per week prescribed by DTAVE in the SAIs are forty-four for a student and twenty-two for a teacher. The subject ‘rural education’, which includes farm management and agricultural extension, accounts for only 9% of the total teaching time. Graduates receiving a diploma in agriculture are eligible for employment in the Myanmar Agriculture Service as extension agents at the level of the Deputy Township Manager. However, experience has shown that graduates lack many of the practical skills actually required to carry out the job. Recent statistical information on the AHSs is not readily available. Nevertheless, it is known that enrolments in these schools have been declining, from 1,216 in 1996/1997 to 648 in 1997/1998. A key assumption concerning decreasing enrolments in agricultural schools and institutes includes the massive introduction of ICTs elsewhere in the education system through the involvement of computer companies. As was pointed out earlier, the agricultural certificate awarded does not adequately qualify graduates to find reasonable jobs and, of course, most jobs are necessarily available in rural areas. Table 3 Teaching staff and student relationship in the State agricultural institutes (SAIs) Academic year
No. of SAIs
Teaching staff
Enrolment Avge. of students
No. of Teacher/student teachers/SAI ratio
1984/85 1985/86 1986/87 1987/88 2003/04
6 6 7 7 7
96 140 155 170 193
1,152 907 790 695 2,972
16 23 22 24 Not yet available
192 151 113 99 Not yet available
Source: Prepared by the Myanmar UNEVOC Centre/MERB, 2004.
1:12 1:6 1:5 1:4 Not yet available
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A persistent criticism of the agricultural education provided is that the facilities of the programmes and schools are not attractive to the younger generation, with particular reference to the lack of practical exercises provided by schools. An ICTbased learning environment might encourage learners and teachers to achieve better performance levels. However, computer-based teaching/learning is still very limited in the agricultural sector compared to technical education, and teaching methods are less advanced. Vocational Education Non-industrial training, including commercial training, is carried out either on-thejob or in vocational schools that follow a very practical non-academic type of course that does not correspond to the traditional academic years. For the last ten years the number of vocational schools has tripled, while total enrolment has increased by four times. Except for commercial schools, the semi-skilled training provided by DTAVE falls into two basic categories:
r r
Post-primary schools offering vocational training to those young people who have completed part or all of their primary education; and Post-middle schools for students who have obtained a middle-school certificate. These schools offer an artisan type of training.
In 1997, to intensify educational reforms, the vocational training schools formerly under the Ministry of Education were also transferred to the relevant ministries. Table 4 shows the number of graduates who have successfully completed these respective TVET institutions (diploma level) and schools existing during the reporting period under various government ministries. Table 4 Skills training in TVET institutions under various government ministries Institution Ministry of Co-operatives Commercial schools Myanmar Lacquer-ware Institute Weaving schools Co-operative colleges Co-operative training schools Ministry of Science and Technology Handicraft schools Machinery repair and maintenance schools Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement School of Home Science
1997/98
1998/99
1999/00
2000/01
2001/02
2002/03
749 39
1490 37
555 49
881 36
578 27
420 25
137 – 699
129 511 832
89 369 685
353 541 846
233 620 541
212 714 573
1244 180
556 85
984 80
707 102
566 72
519 62
1900
1424
1287
1619
1883
1367
Source: Myanmar. Ministry of Labour, 2005.
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4 Lessons Learnt from the Myanmar Experience During the educational reform process, the decentralization of responsibilities for technical, agriculture and vocational schools, training centres and institutes under different ministries represents an attempt to achieve a more cost-effective, practical and applied way of teaching and learning through TVET. The ministries have been steadily playing a greater role in the planning phase. This process is continuing and ministries are now more able to embrace a systematic alignment of overall management, education policies and processes, mindset and culture, organizational structure, technology and budgets. As a recent education sector review mission (Myanmar. MOE, 2003a) reported: ‘this—the 1998 education reform—is considered a turning point in Myanmar educational history’. With the implementation of plans for the promotion of education, TVET institutions have undertaken vast reforms in areas such as curricula, teaching methods, facilities, research and management. Teaching methodologies, like problem-based learning encouraging critical thinking, analytical, creative and research skills, are being promoted. The assessment system has also been reviewed and replaced with a credit system so as to be in line with international practice and to give students more flexibility. This also facilitates entry and re-entry into TVET institutions. Special attention has been given to meeting the needs of those who live in remote regions, in particular to improving literacy among the various ethnic groups (up to 93.3% in 2004). Myanmar acknowledges the need to lay a proper foundation for populations who are mainly involved in the primary sector of the economy. Under the supervision of the MOE and in collaboration with related ministries, Myanmar EFA strategic activities and policies have therefore been adjusted to reflect preventive, reactive and remedial approaches to education in order to facilitate and promote lifelong learning and skills development, especially for out-of-school youth and adults. Concerning the ICT infrastructure in education, since 2001 a Satellite Data Broadcasting System has been introduced in collaboration with the Ministry of Information, so that, by 2004, 619 e-education learning centres had been developed. The MOE is increasingly using e-learning and multi-media facilities to provide short-term training and education programmes for teachers working under the MOE. One of the main challenges in strengthening TVET in Myanmar is the importance of non-formal education which promotes a continuing education concept in the context of lifelong learning. This concept focuses on young people who have not participated in the regular school system, or who have dropped out of the regular school system before completion for various reasons. Those who could and should take advantage of the new opportunities for TVET are not only dependent on their own initiative, but are actively stimulated and directed by local communities. A number of lessons and best practices that emerge from the Myanmar experience may be of value to other developing countries at similar levels of development. Among the lessons learned, it is clear that evaluation and assessment practices related to competence-based education are critical to achieving successful TVET for all in the information age. A transformation to TVET is not implemented overnight, and there are many challenges and potential pitfalls which must be addressed to
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achieve successful lifelong learning. The study identified the following key lessons from the Myanmar experience: 1. TVET for all: TVET in support of lifelong learning in Myanmar is an important ongoing process (for all), whether through formal or non-formal means. The various TVET programmes can therefore improve the range of skills and knowledge of underprivileged groups, young people and adults who are not able to continue their general education opportunities, or who want to undertake an alternative learning possibility. Greater emphasis still needs to be placed on the necessity of upgrading training possibilities, the provision of qualified instructors and advanced teaching materials in order to strengthen the quality of TVET education in a geographically large country like Myanmar. 2. The selection of TVET programmes: Differences in the levels of enrolment in TVET schools and institutes in Myanmar suggest that the location and type of schools and the educational facilities offered by the programmes, the availability and competence of qualified teachers, the interest and social composition of students, current economic trends and the opportunities available for further education, either locally or abroad, are all important considerations for students when they select a TVET programme. 3. Continuing support for student-centred learning in TVET: The approaches adopted by Myanmar educational programmes are increasingly favouring studentcentred learning. However, the resources available for practical classes (within schools or those linked to the business environment), which are of special interest to learners, are still rather limited. Consequently, the system of final assessment gives more emphasis to theory than to practical activities. This relative lack of emphasis for on-the-job learning is said to have a negative impact on the livelihoods of youth and adults. Evidence from this study suggests that one of the best ways of creating on-the-job learning is to achieve effective partnerships between education and the business sector. 4. Learning interaction combining practical experiences from the field and theoretical studies: From a learner’s and a teacher’s point of view, in general one of the main reasons for choosing technical and vocational education is a wish to learn more about practical subjects and to acquire skills based on practical, hands-on experience through education. However, the dominant learning and teaching culture in Myanmar is still one where learners and teachers learn from books rather than from practical activities. 5. The digital divide needs to be bridged: It is important to take into account the accessibility of appropriate learning resources, in terms of both the available technology and sufficiently qualified trainers to support the lifelong learning process of an individual. On the other hand, Myanmar has learnt that familiarity with technology can also become a barrier to developing vocational skills effectively, and that the digital divide needs to be bridged in order to allow traditional learners to become involved with technology-supported learning environments. 6. Monitoring of the labour market: Evidence presented here suggests that an accurate monitoring of labour-market demand and opportunities should be one of
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the top priorities for all TVET providers. The TVET system should promote efficiency in supply for the labour market. 7. Financial implication for TVET: Myanmar’s experience shows that learning beyond the basic competencies should increasingly be the responsibility of learners and employers. Given the rising demand for lifelong learning processes and skill improvement, several principles should therefore guide future educational financing. 8. Absence of empirical studies: It is regrettable that few, if any, empirical studies have been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of TVET in Myanmar. As a result, there is an absence of reliable hard data to help improve the less effective elements in the training offered, or to help better focus the TVET offered to meet those training needs that are already particularly well served.
5 Conclusions Drawn It may be said that TVET initiatives in the educational process are not new to Myanmar, although, as a result of recent educational developments and reforms, it is new to some teachers and learners, both in terms of the curriculum and modes of delivery. The TVET system is firmly established in Myanmar in both the formal and non-formal modes of delivery. Nevertheless, the country has to cope with the fact that it has enormous indigenous ethnic diversity, with a high proportion of the population living in remote and rural areas. Therefore, one of the growing concerns in the Myanmar education sector concerns how these individuals can be provided with an opportunity to take an increased responsibility for their own learning throughout their lifetime, so that they are equipped to earn their living effectively. The concepts of continuing education, community involvement and technological assistance all play crucial roles in the Myanmar education system. Furthermore, there is the issue of adopting a more methodical approach throughout the implementation process, which includes basic financial planning and learner-based planning, both of which are essential if TVET is to be an important vehicle for achieving lifelong learning for all. However, more attention needs to be given to how technical and vocational education is perceived in relation to promoting continuous learning opportunities in a way that is appropriate and attractive to the individuals.
Note 1. The population statistics presented in this section are based on the 1973 and 1983 censuses.
References Cheng, Y.C. 2005. New paradigm for re-engineering education: globalization, location and individualization. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. (Education in the Asia-Pacific Region Series.)
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Lauglo, J. 2005. Vocationalised secondary education revisited. In: Lauglo, J.; Maclean, R., eds. Vocationalisation of secondary education revisited. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Myanmar. Ministry of Education. 2001. Thirty-Year Long-Term Education Development Plan, 2001-2030. Yangon. Myanmar. Ministry of Education. 2003a. Education Sector review. Yangon. Myanmar. Ministry of Education. 2003b. Education for All: national action plan. Yangon. Myanmar. Ministry of Education. 2004. Development of education in Myanmar. Yangon. Myanmar. Ministry of Labour. 2005. Handbook on human resources development indicators, 2004. Yangon: Department of Labour/UNFPA. Myanmar. Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development. 1998. Review of financial, economic, and social conditions for 1997–98. Yangon: Printing and Publications Distribution Enterprise. Mar, N.Y. 2004. Utilizing ICTs to achieve lifelong education for all: a case study of Myanmar. Educational research for policy and practice, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 141–66. Stonier, T. 1983. The wealth of information: a profile of the post-industry economy. London: Methuen. UNESCO. 1999. Final Report, Second International Conference on Technical and Vocational Education. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO. 2000. The Dakar Framework for Action. Paris: UNESCO. Wheelen, T.; Hunger, D.J. 1998. Entering 21st century global society: strategic management and business policy. Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. Wilson, D. 2005. Promise and performance. In: Lauglo, J.; Maclean, R., eds. Vocationalisation of secondary education revisited. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.
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Chapter IV.15
Technical and Vocational Education and Training and Rural Development Lavinia Gasperini
1 Introduction Poverty is mainly a rural phenomenon since 70% of the world’s poor are rural (IFAD, 2001). Rural/urban inequalities are also a major obstacle to sustainable development. Unless they are addressed as key development actors, requiring appropriate competencies and skills to play a role in national socio-economic and cultural development, rural people are most likely to be among those who are not reached by the drive towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Skills development for rural youth and adults is a lifelong learning process which plays an important role not only in increasing economic returns, but also in social outcomes, such as enhanced representativeness of rural livelihoods in the national arena, social cohesion, health or peace-building. Most of the labour force in least-developed countries (LDCs) is in the agricultural and rural sector. The dimension of rural poverty and the mutually reinforcing relationship among improved skills for rural people and food security and poverty reduction (Burchi & De Muro, 2007) are driving a change in technical and vocational agricultural education and training (TVAET) towards a clear focus on contributing to reaching the MDGs. Rethinking TVAET and rural development in a way that is consistent with the challenge of poverty reduction, as well as the magnitude of the challenge, will require new responses by governments and donors, since simply scaling up existing provision patterns would be neither affordable nor cost/effective.
2 Rural Stigma, Urban Bias The concern for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and rural development is not new. For decades many authors have pointed out the urban bias of education systems and the urgency to address the basic learning needs of rural people (Lˆe Thanh Khoi, 1974; Ahmed & Coombs, 1975; Dumont, 1976). At the same time, rural development specialists have been insisting on the need to address rural people, not as a marginal group but as a neglected majority, whose contribution to national and international food security and economic and social development is critical. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 IV.15, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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In former colonial countries, TVET had usually been offered by the government as the second-best opportunity of a two-track system, targeting mainly indigenous people. Such people were stigmatized as more apt to undertake manual work. Therefore, skills development in agriculture was mainly directed at them. After the independence processes during the 1960s and 1970s, TVET was considered by many countries as an important aspect of modernization, catalyzing a significant share of national education budgets and international aid. Many countries, however, displayed a contradiction between the declared education policy— emphasizing equity and the universalization of primary education—and a development paradigm that placed priority on investments in industrialization, industrial TVET and higher education, which were considered as more likely to speed up growth and modernization. Concurrently, the inadequate resource allocation for agricultural and rural development accentuated the decline in this sector. This coincided with an important reduction of investments for TVAET, which became more evident during the 1980s and 1990s. Several other interacting factors contributed to aggravate the crisis for TVEAT, the most important being the overall decline in public spending for TVET as a consequence of the structural adjustment policies of the World Bank sector policy paper (World Bank, 1991). In addition, a common misunderstanding of the aims and strategies of the 1990 World Conference on Education for All and its Declaration emphasized investments in primary education and overlooked basic non-formal education, including skill training for youth and adults. In the following years, the increasing educational gap between urban and rural people, for whom formal and non-formal agriculture courses were often the only education available, contributed to increasing rural poverty and to overall national food insecurity. Today agricultural education and training suffers a crisis that in many ways reflects the general crisis of TVET public providers. Similarly, the main interacting obstacles to efficiency and effectiveness have been: (a) unequal access to TVAET for urban and rural students; (b) a predominantly male student clientele; (c) poor infrastructures, poor training quality and low staff capacity; (d) lack of market-relevant courses; (e) weak linkages with employers and off-campus situations; (f) outmoded curricula; (g) weak experiential learning; (h) a supply-driven orientation; and (i) overall, inadequate funding. In addition to these aspects, TVAET is also affected by a low level of collaboration between education, research and extension institutions, farmers and rural communities in promoting mutual learning. This particularly concerns generating, sharing and utilizing agricultural and rural development-related technology, as well as knowledge and information in seeking solutions for rural poverty. This is reflected in the lack of interaction among different providers of TVEAT, such as Ministries of Education, Labour and Agriculture, as well as between technical schools, vocational training centres, post-secondary education, non-formal education, extension programmes, farmers’ associations and agricultural and rural development research institutions (FAO & World Bank, 2000).
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3 Poverty and the Rural Challenge Rural poverty is prevalent among small farmers and landless families. Much of the poverty found in urban areas is a consequence of rural deprivation and rural economic decline, which trigger migration to cities (United Nations, 2005, p. 34). In the poorest developing countries, the population will continue to be predominantly rural for decades to come. Agriculture is still the world’s largest employer, involving about half of its workforce (about 1.2 billion people). In developing countries the overall agricultural workforce is much higher in percentages: in Africa, for example, agriculture employs two-thirds of the total workforce. Women alone account for 20 to 30% of the global wage agricultural workforce. Considering that half of the people of the world are under 25 years of age and that the majority of the world’s youth is rural, making farming more productive, profitable and rewarding and life in rural areas more attractive for young people, and especially for women, is a crucial step towards reducing poverty. At the same time, it would curtail the large-scale migration of young people to urban areas. Policies that favour urban investment would need to be reviewed, given that most of the world’s poor will continue to be rural over several of the coming decades. The change that TVAET is undergoing can be better understood in relation to the role of rural people in agriculture, rural development and sustainable livelihoods. This reflects an important shift aiming to make a more effective contribution to poverty reduction and food security—and to the MDGs in general. Defining a few key terms helps to better understand the predominant TVAET reform processes, as well as their aims, target groups, main problems and strategies. By common definition, rural areas are dominated by farms, forests, water, mountains and/or desert. Typically, rural people have agriculture as their main occupation; they are farmers, nomads, pastoralists or fishermen; they deal with animal production, transformation and marketing of food and non-food products and services. Rural communities are diverse culturally, socially and economically. By and large, their labour is cheap because gainful employment options are limited, and many rural groups are marginalized. Rural people often lack access to adequate basic social services because rural areas have low national priority, because rural people do not have political voice, especially the poor, and because providing services to them is more expensive. This happens despite the fact that they are the majority of the population in developing countries and despite their critical role in determining food security and environmental sustainability, agriculture being the primary interface between people and the environment. Although rural people play a crucial role in national survival—food and raw materials for clothing and shelter— for themselves and for urban people, their social status and standard of living are lower and their self-identity is affected by discrimination. Disadvantage in rural communities is magnified by other characteristics of life in the countryside, such as geographic isolation affecting education and the provision of health services. High rates of poverty and scarcity of resources often result in a lack of appropriate services—including education and training—and
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qualified providers. These are some of the reasons explaining the fact that more than 80% of the world’s out-of-school children live in rural areas, as well as the vicious circle that exists between poverty and illiteracy. Some 70% of existing child-labour is to be found in agriculture with many children engaged in hazardous work. Among rural dwellers are millions of children and adolescents exploited as workers on cocoa, tobacco or banana plantations, sometimes forced to work more than twelve hours a day in conditions bordering on slavery. Skills training can prevent these children from joining the ever-growing ranks of illiterate adult farmers. Rural people’s disadvantage in access to, retention in and completion of basic education is one of the main reasons why they rarely proceed to agricultural and rural development-related post-primary and higher education courses, which are mainly attended by urban students. Ensuring that the needs of all rural young people and adults are met through appropriate learning and skills development programmes—not necessarily requesting a formal qualification to access them— would contribute to achieving the MDGs, as well as the Dakar Framework for Action goals. The sustainable agriculture and rural development approach, as developed from the Earth Summit to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, has four pillars: cultural, social, economic and environmental. Sustainable1 agriculture and rural development (SARD) is understood as a process of constant change and transformation of rural areas. It encompasses a wide range of long-term processes and programmes, expanding beyond agriculture and based on empowering the poor, such as:
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Enhancement of governance at the local, district and provincial levels, including linkages with the private sector, civil society and governmental agencies. Development of productive sectors: agriculture,2 non-agricultural industry, mining, tourism, natural resources, environmental management, etc. Development of institutions and their capacities in key areas, i.e. education and training, health, research and extension, marketing, savings and credit, environment, transportation, etc. Development of rural infrastructures for roads, electricity, telecommunications, housing, water, sanitation, etc. (Avila & Gasperini, 2005).
SARD, as opposed to other production-driven approaches, is centred on people and focuses on improving livelihoods in terms of satisfying the cultural, social, economic and environmental needs and aspirations of present generations without endangering the ability of future generations to do the same. Such definitions recognize the primary importance of local stakeholders in rural development and poverty alleviation strategies. As in all people-centred approaches, there is broad agreement about the need for fostering the knowledge and skills of the rural population—the key actors in development efforts. Improved access to education and skills development for rural people has a critical role also in the sustainable livelihood approach, as a critical step in placing people at the centre of their own development. Livelihoods are defined as comprising the capabilities, assets and activities required for a means of living. They
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are considered sustainable when they can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks and maintain or enhance their capabilities and assets (Chambers & Conway, 1991).
4 From TVAET to Skills for Rural Development While the impact of globalization on the rural labour market has led to a diversification of employment patterns, characterized by the decline of wage employment and the expansion of self- and non-farm employment, the sustainable livelihood approach has contributed to broadening the conventional TVAET approach. A change process is thus going on in several countries to broaden traditional TVAET (see Atchoarena et al., 2003), focused mainly on agricultural production, to include a wide range of skills needed to promote SARD, and to embrace all those living in rural areas and involved in farm and off-farm employment, such as extension personnel, the staff of rural institutions, farmers’ and women’s associations and civil society organizations. In spite of many setbacks in rural development, as well as in the TVET agendas, three international events shaped a policy environment that contributed to relate the TVAET change process to the global agenda of poverty reduction. These were the World Food Summits (Rome, 1996 and 2002) and the Earth Summit (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), which closely connected the food security challenge3 and the need to increase agricultural productivity with environmental, economic and social challenges. These events addressed the economic growth and international competitiveness of the agricultural sector, not in isolation, but to be addressed together with soils, forests, coastal areas and sustainable natural resources management, as well as with employment generation, poverty reduction and building social capital. Within such a framework, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, 2002) developed the SARD approach. The pro-poor Millennium Development Summit (2000) development framework, the MDGs and the Millennium Project (2005) reiterated and reinforced the main message of previous events. The Millennium Project explicitly addressed skills for rural development within the chapter ‘Launch a global human resource training effort for the Millennium Development Goals’, where the training of ‘village specialist in health, soil nutrients, irrigation, land reclamation, drinking water, sanitation, electricity, vehicle repair, road maintenance and forest management’ are addressed as a first priority (UNDP, 2005, p. 235). The awareness that the skills needed by rural people can only partially be addressed by traditional secondary and tertiary education and training has led several countries to consider that Goal 3 of the 2000 Dakar Framework for Action on EFA— focusing on ‘ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through appropriate learning and life-skills’—should give priority to basic education and skill-training needs for all those who live in rural areas through a multiplicity of delivery systems, formal and non-formal, including extension, literacy and post literacy.4
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Vocational education and training are often dealt with by urban education and training specialists, who frequently declare themselves unfamiliar with the agricultural and rural development context and prefer to work on TVET for industry and services, targeting mainly urban people. Conversely, agricultural trainers dealing with basic skills for rural development are often unaware of the latest debate on TVET reform and have limited pedagogical knowledge and skills. This dichotomy is mirrored by the lack of collaboration between formal and non-formal education courses run, for instance, by the Ministry of Education and those run by the Ministry of Agriculture, more often denominated as extension courses. This results in the duplication of cost and a lack of efficiency for countries. Agricultural extension is the ‘function of providing need- and demand-based knowledge and skills to rural men, women and youth in a non-formal, participatory manner, with the objective of improving their quality of life’ (Qamar, 2005). Considering that ‘extension’ is the expression adopted by agricultural institutions for denominating their non-formal delivery system of education and training for rural people, inter-sectoral collaboration with other providers, such as the Ministry of Education and civil society, would allow savings for the country and lead to overall greater efficiency and effectiveness of skills development for rural people. So as to contribute to address through inter-sectoral collaboration the complexity and the challenges of the rural environment and provide some promising experience, FAO and the International Institute for Educational Planning (UNESCO-IIEP) co-published the study ‘Education for rural development: towards new policy responses’ (Atchoarena & Gasperini, 2003). The study provides the research base for the Education for All flagship partnership on ‘Education for Rural People’ coordinated by FAO and implemented in collaboration with UNESCO5 and 270 other partners, which promotes collaboration among the education, agricultural and rural development sectors to ensure basic education and skills training to all rural people. The initiative focuses on research, capacity-building and the sharing of good practices. An on-line ‘tool kit’6 with teaching and learning materials for formal and non-formal TVAET for teachers and instructors, farmers, extension personnel and the vast public was made available. The issues addressed are at the core of the basic skills in demand among rural people, such as: plant biology and forestry; water; soil and land rights; animals and pastoralism; biodiversity; rural finance; agro-business and marketing; book-keeping; fishery; food and nutrition; as well as other aspect important for sustainable livelihoods, such as HIV/AIDS, gender and peace education and training for conflict management and communication.
5 Diversified Skills for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development Skills development needs and consequent policies differ substantially within a country, but also between industrialized and developing countries. The post-industrial human resources requirements are predominant in the countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, where the transition from the indus-
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trial age to the information age is now underway. The situation is quite different in developing countries where the boundaries between manual and mental work are not fading away so quickly, and where the information and knowledge society is still far from being a shared reality. In such countries, rural people are faced with the challenges imposed on their livelihoods by the ‘global village’, which marginalizes and neglects them and requires the adoption of new technologies to ensure competitiveness, efficiency and access to markets. To overcome the process of marginalization, however, rural livelihoods need to ensure that natural resources are managed in a sustainable way, and that their local, diverse, traditional, agro-industrial knowledge, competencies and skills are cross-fertilized by universal knowledge and modern science and technology. In a world that changes very rapidly and requires resilient citizens, a diversified and constantly updated curriculum is thus a response to the variety of knowledge and skills in demand among rural people from different agro-ecological systems and socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Participatory curriculum planning and updating exercises have been promoted in TVAET, based on a methodology involving the key actors living in the rural environment, and includes a range of skills and competencies far beyond the traditional ones (FAO, 1998). Acknowledgment of the importance of including diversified skills in TVAET and of the complexity of the challenge of rural development have also led to complementing the traditional core agriculture-related technical skills with a range of additional skills that are increasingly in demand, such as communication, facilitation, negotiation and leadership skills. These are critical for forging non-formal education practitioners (such as extension and literacy staff), rural youth and community leaders and, overall, for empowering rural people. Other essential skills are necessary for fostering innovation and change and developing effective participation citizenship and welfare, such as: entrepreneurship skills; income-generating, micro-finance and other business skills needed for self-employment; population education, gender issues; HIV/AIDS prevention; and mitigation or critical thinking and awareness about social, political and legal institutions and basic rights. The participatory curriculum development methodology, favoured by decentralization processes, allows a selection to be made among a range of these skills, as well as of a number of core basic competencies and skills for agriculture, food security and sustainable rural development on the basis of the demand and characteristics of the training needs required by rural livelihoods and the labour-market context.
6 Some Examples of TVAET Basic Competencies and Skills Since this chapter is intended mainly for educators, who are less familiar with agricultural and rural development issues, the following paragraphs provide some examples of issues addressed by TVAET core competencies and skills. These are related to crop and livestock production, forestry, fishery and aquaculture, water control, food quality, food processing and food storage, rural infrastructure and marketing information.
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Basic skills training and extension on crop production addresses a large spectrum of activities aimed at improving land productivity in a sustainable way, allowing the farmer to obtain the maximum profit by producing plants, feed and cereals which provide nutrients for humans and good forage for herbivores. Teachers and students are faced with issues that are politically sensitive and critical for health, the environment and food safety, such as ensuring adequate and balanced crop nutrition, applying fertilizers and replacing nutrients lost by extraction through harvesting and by soil erosion, by leaching below the root zone and emissions to the air. In addressing insect infestations, knowledge of traditional methods of plant protection and the use of pesticides is complemented by integrated pest-management (IPM) techniques. Farmer field schools (FFS) are communitybased, practically-oriented, field-study programmes providing an opportunity for farmers to learn IPM together, using practical, hands-on methods of discoverybased learning, initiated in the IPM domain and subsequently expanded to other agricultural practices. Started around the 1980s, they are rapidly expanding in Asia, Africa and Latin America.7 Irrigation can be addressed from an interdisciplinary perspective, cutting across crop production, livestock and water management. Irrigation is an opportunity to reduce the unit cost of growing crops by increasing yields and improving their quality. Students can also learn how to diversify crops and plant selection to improve pastures. Since large herbivores are mainly found in cropping areas where land for pasture is scarce or non-existent, crop residue straw remains a single major resource used for feeding herbivores. Maximizing profit from agriculture and environmental protection will need local adaptation of good agricultural practices, such as crop rotation and integration of crop and animal production. This includes livestock production and household activities such as bee-keeping and rabbit, geese, duck and chicken production, fed with locally available feed resources and by-products. Additional good agricultural practices may include agro-forestry, conservation agriculture and crop association practices. Livestock provides an appreciating asset, a source of income, food and insurance, as well as important inputs to farming, such as manure and draught power to many poor people in developing countries. Furthermore, it can provide employment and stimulate trade. Small livestock farming is a common practice in rural villages, where large numbers of sheep, ducks, pigs and, above all, chickens surround the houses. They provide their owners with meat, milk, eggs and money. But when animals are of small size, this often means that they are not of a good breed, are poorly fed or that the animals are ill. When an animal has a contagious disease, it will spread to all the others in the village. To address such problems, basic skill training and extension in livestock builds capacities that go from the breeding of animals (cattle and small livestock species, such as goats, etc.) to feeding and nutrition, reproduction, conservation and processing of their own products; to recognizing zoonotic and zoonoses diseases.8 Within the skills-development framework, artisan fishermen and the small-scale fisheries sector—producing over one-third of the entire food fish consumed world wide—are often overlooked. In developing countries, there are as many
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as 30 million artisan fishermen. This labour-intensive activity is frequently characterized by low individual productivity and high levels of wastage and spoilage, due to limitations on infrastructure, craft, gear and fishery techniques. Most small-scale fishermen lead a precarious existence at or below subsistence level. Often they live in remote areas and lack access to supplies and services for their daily needs—and markets for their products. They lack also access to basic skills training and technical advice and assistance from extension workers that could help them to improve their efficiency and to generate incomes, market their products, as well as feed themselves and their families. Basic skills training and extension in small-scale fishery include simple techniques such as hand-lining. This apparently simple procedure involves a lot of forethought in order to select the hook, line and sinker that are suitable in size and strength to the fish that one intends to catch. In addition, the fishing technique must be developed to ensure that fish attracted to the bait are actually caught. Trapping is another one of the oldest fishing techniques. Training allows both traditional and modern techniques to be used, since there are many different kinds of traps. Vessels and on-board equipment are essential to operate the traps and to transport the fish back to shore. Fish can also be farmed, and in this case it is necessary to know what is the best place for a pond, how to dig the pond, how to fill it with water, and how to take care, drain and fertilize it. In aquaculture students learn what kind of fish to raise, how to introduce the young fish into the pond, what and how to feed them, how to harvest the fish and how to raise one’s own young fish to start the process over again. Basic skills for aquaculture are in the curriculum of some rural primary schools—such as the Colombian Escuela Nueva. Forestry vocational education and training has a special long-standing tradition in formal and non-formal courses, but it is also experiencing the impact of change. Students of traditional forestry TVET—in many cases of urban origin—were taught to produce, grow, plant, manage and harvest trees and process timber. Graduates would fill positions in forestry research, management, plantation establishment, timber harvesting and industry. The forests were a public good entrusted to, managed and protected by the State. Traditional forestry education included degrees, diplomas, certificates and in-service training. Sub-degree or diploma-level education prepared students for work in forestry and the forestry industry—sawmills, plywood factories, furniture-making, nursery management and machinery operation and maintenance. Certificate training in developing countries prepared forest guards (rangers) hired by the public sector, which was a major employer of graduates. The changing role of the public sector, the demand of civil society and the decentralization and participation approach connected to the sustainable rural development approach has had implications also for forestry education. Its vision and clientele have broadened, ranging from basic to higher education students. Forestry education and training delivery systems have readjusted to better contribute to reducing rural poverty and promoting rural development. They also address basic skills development for all those who live in the rural environment. Rural people in many areas have long been involved
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in the conservation and cultivation of trees on agricultural land and in forested areas. In many countries, rural people traditionally plant trees for a multiplicity of household uses, above all for cooking and keeping warm. But planting trees means also the possibility to obtain a variety of commercial construction materials, charcoal and fuel wood production, and for many other activities such as pit-sawing, sawmills, woodworking, tree farming, and the gathering and selling of fruits, timber, resins, gums and other forest products for commerce. Environmental degradation and the depletion of tree cover are sometimes symptomatic of poverty and a lack of comprehensive traditional tree and environmental management systems, which can be strengthened by basic forestry education and skills training. The deterioration of forest land leads to the loss of fodder, shade, fruit and other benefits. An understanding and perception of the long-term consequences of deforestation and mastering practices to promote the natural process of re-growth and re-generation of forest and techniques in managing certain types of trees, such as coppicing and pollarding, as well as the ability to identify a large number of species of trees and the role they play in people’s lives, are some of the basic knowledge and skills required by people living in forested areas. TVAET addresses skill training in food quality, processing and storage as important issues for rural livelihoods, as well as for urban consumers. Food and water that urban and rural people consume need not only to be adequate in amount, but also safe and of good quality for the producer to sell as well as the consumer to use. Foods eaten at home or in public eating places may appear to be safe but may also show evidence of contamination. If food, beverages, dishes or utensils are unclean, if the food looks or smells bad, if a food that is meant to be eaten hot is served cold, or if the environment where the food is served has flies, cockroaches or evidence of rodents, or if food servers have dirty hands and clothes, then it is likely that the food being served is unfit. In every household, but especially in those with less than ideal sanitation, some knowledge about food-borne disease is very important. Through basic skills training, rural people can improve the storage techniques associated with different products and climates. For example, in temperate climates much of the production of fruits and vegetables is confined to a relatively short growing season and storage becomes essential for the provision of fresh produce outside of the harvest season. In tropical countries production is often extended, but storage may still be necessary. Products may be stored for a few days or weeks, but some temperate produce may also be stored for periods of up to twelve weeks. Not all fresh products are amenable to storage and some products may require specific post-harvest treatments, such as ‘curing’ or ‘waxing’ prior to successful storage. There are various different storage techniques, the choice of which will depend on cost and the produce to be stored. Skill training develops the capacity to master such techniques. Water control is another critical area where skills are needed to learn the various methods that can be used according to local circumstances to gain the maximum benefit. This requires knowledge on crop-water requirements and yield responses to water, as well as on the correct use of the appropriate equipment for different irrigation techniques. These include a range of options such as: (a) using
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a watering-can on very small plots of land, such as vegetable gardens that are near to a water source; (b) basin irrigation, commonly used for rice grown on flat lands or terraces on hillsides; (c) furrow irrigation, meaning small channels carrying water down the land slope between crop rows; or (d) sprinkler irrigation, similar to natural rainfall where water is pumped through a pipe system and then sprayed onto the crops. Skill training in water control allows farmers to improve the quality of their lives and their incomes by making informed decisions on the most appropriate use of the different techniques. Rural infrastructures (roads, telecommunications and reliable market facilities) are poor in rural areas. Improving rural infrastructures is critical for expanding the range of market opportunities available to producers, improving linkages between producers and traders, reducing both input and support services delivery costs. Basic skills training contributes to improving increased access to and use of appropriate low-cost technologies—such as animal power instead of hand power, a well and low-cost treadle pumps to maintain the water supply in villages and techniques of low-cost road maintenance. Basic skill training in the use of ITCs, such as radios, computers or cellular phones, which are very useful to obtain updated market information and other information important to improve rural livelihoods, are often included in skill-training activities for rural people. Marketing information for rural people is very important to negotiate products and prices with farmers and traders. Basic skill training in marketing enables small farmers to make the calculations necessary to decide whether or not they should plant different crops, or plant existing crops at different times, and how to grow new crops which may attract good market prices. Sometimes rural farmers find difficulties in finding out where to buy seeds for new varieties of crops and information about their profitability. Knowledge and market information on harvesting and post-harvesting costs, as well as out-of-season production of perishable horticultural crops, or farm storage for less-perishable staple crops, such as rice, maize or potatoes, are examples of basic skills training on marketing to help rural farmers to decide whether or not to store in any particular year. This same knowledge can also be used to help them decide whether or not to invest in building a storehouse if they do not already have one. Storing crops without the correct storage facilities is usually a bad idea, as quantity and quality losses may mean the farmer will not be able to benefit fully from higher seasonal prices. This information is essential for rural farmers before going into new, possibly risky, business ventures.
7 Critical Issues and Policy Options Today’s challenge is that of transforming traditional agricultural education and training into a skills development system responsive to rural people’s needs, which contributes to poverty reduction, food security and the achievement of the MDGs.
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Success depends on how countries will face a combination of critical issues and policy options, which can be synthesized as follows:
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Privileging the rural poor by broadening the EFA national plans to explicitly focus on skills for rural people, and specifically on rural youth and adults. Considering basic skills development for rural people as a public good, which allows communities to reduce their vulnerability and cope with man-made and natural disasters, as well as changing economic and social conditions. Developing synergies between formal and non-formal skills development run by educational and agricultural institutions, civil society and the private sector (encompassing literacy and basic skills training, extension, agriculture and rural development schools and colleges, polytechnics, universities, etc.) and expanding such collaboration also to health, infrastructure and finance ministries. Reducing the emphasis on academic pathways and credentials and increasing the recognition of non-formal and informal learning. Collaborating with agricultural research to promote knowledge, information, competencies, skills and values for better farming and improved livelihoods. Updating the curriculum to address multiple scenarios and diversified capacities in farm and off-farm skills and technologies, as well as a range of life-skills dealing with interpersonal and social issues. Addressing post-training support. Shaping new responses, such as improving the training capacity of non-governmental providers to address the magnitude of the challenge. Promoting positive discrimination measures to address rural/urban and gender inequalities. Developing a holistic approach to agriculture and rural development skills development. For example, the training of farmers has implications for higher agricultural education. Conversely, people with university education are needed for curriculum reform in primary, secondary, TVAET and teacher training. Their leadership can reinforce change at the other levels, including skills development. Addressing the vocational education and training needs of rural people within poverty reduction strategies and sector-wide approaches as the way to address the learning needs of the majority of the world’s people who play a key role in global sustainability and food security. Reviewing policies that favour urban investment, given that most of the world’s poor will continue to be rural over several of the coming decades.
However, skills training for rural people and reform processes for greater effectiveness depend also on a supportive surrounding macro-economic environment (remunerative prices to producers, fiscal and monetary policies) and sector polices (enterprise development support, credit, meritocratic access to jobs, infrastructure, etc.), which promote rural development and employment. Acquiring education and skills without the chance to use them can contribute to fostering civil strife and migration to cities. These take us far beyond the world of schools and classrooms, to a partnership between education and agriculture and rural development policy-
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makers and planners, managers and practitioners. In such an alliance, who can ensure that skills and knowledge acquisition are followed by skills and knowledge utilization? Acknowledgments Inputs and/or comments to this chapter were kindly provided by David Atchoarena, Caterina Batelo, Daniela Bruni, Riccardo del Castello, Malcolm Hazelman, Annalisa Planera, Maria Grazia Quieti and Marcela Villarreal.
Notes 1. From the Latin sustinere: sus means ‘from below’ and tenere ‘to hold’. 2. Agriculture is broadly defined to include the production, conservation, processing and marketing of crops, livestock, forestry and fish products. 3. National food security is achieved when a sufficiently stable and safe supply of food is available in the country to satisfy: (i) consumption requirements normally filled from on-farm production and home gardens; (ii) market demand; and (iii) relief distribution needs. Household food security is achieved when all household members have sufficient means to obtain all the food they need from some combination of their own production, traded or purchased supplies, and gifts or donations, and when they know about and put into practice the principles of good nutrition. Sustainable food security exists when domestic markets are performing well and households possess sufficient assets and income-earning opportunities to meet all their basic needs from their own resources. 4. See: <www.fao.org/sd/erp/ERPotheractivities en.htm> 5. See: <www.fao.org/sd/erp/> 6. See: <www.fao.org/sd/erp/ERPtktoolkit en.htm> 7. FAO introduced the FFS approach in Africa in 1995 and since then it has been taken up by a range of government and development programmes. The impacts range from increased knowledge and uptake of agricultural practices to various forms of demonstrated empowerment, including spontaneous growth of farmer networks and associations. 8. Zoonotic disease can be transmitted to any vertebrate and infection may be naturally transmitted also between animals and humans. Zoonoses are diseases that are transmitted to humans through food or water. All kind of diseases have an impact on human health and on national and household economy because of reduced production.
References Ahmed, M.; Coombs, P.H. 1975. Education for rural development: case studies for planners. New York, NY: Praeger. Atchoarena, D.; Gasperini, L., eds. 2003. Education for rural development. towards new policies. Rome: FAO; Paris: UNESCO/IIEP. Atchoarena, D. et al. 2003. Strategies and institutions for promoting skills for rural development. In: Atchoarena, D.; Gasperini, L., eds. Education for rural development: towards new policy responses. Rome: FAO; Paris: UNESCO/IIEP. Avila, M.; Gasperini, L. 2005. Skills development for rural people: a renewed challenge. (Background paper for the Working Group for International Co-operation in Skills Development. 10–11 November 2005, FAO. Rome.) Burchi, F.; De Muro, P. 2007. Education for rural people: a neglected key to food security. Rome: Universit`a degli Studi Tre. (Working paper, no. 78.)
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Chambers, R.; Conway, G. 1991. Sustainable rural livelihoods: practical concepts for the 21st century. Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies. (Discussion paper 296.) Dumont R. 1976. Training for agriculture and rural development. Rome: FAO/UNESCO/ILO. Food and Agriculture Organization; The World Bank. 2000. AKIS/RD strategic vision and guiding principles. Rome: FAO/World Bank. Food and Agriculture Organization. 1998. Participatory curriculum development in agricultural education. A training guide. Rome: FAO. International Fund for Agricultural Development. 2001. Rural poverty report 2001: the challenge of ending rural poverty. Rome: IFAD. Lˆe Thanh Khoi. 1974. Education in rural development. Paris: UNESCO. Qamar, K. 2005. Modernizing national agricultural extension systems: a practical guide for policy makers of developing countries. Rome: FAO. United Nations. 2005. World Youth Report 2005: young people today, and in 2015. New York, NY: United Nations. United Nations Development Programme. 2005. Investing in development: a practical plan to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. New York, NY: UNDP. World Bank. 1991. Vocational and technical education and training. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Chapter IV.16
An International TVET Programme Development by the International Baccalaureate Organization Monique Conn
1 Introduction The success of the curriculum models developed by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), addressing the academic needs of students in the 3 to 19 age range, is now well known. IBO programmes, and specifically the two-year pre-university Diploma Programme, grew out of international schools’ efforts to establish a common curriculum and university entry credential for geographically mobile students. International educators were also motivated by an idealistic vision: they hoped that a shared academic experience emphasizing critical thinking and exposure to a variety of points of view would encourage intercultural understanding and acceptance of others by young people. The IBO has grown rapidly and now provides, through the medium of three working languages (English, French and Spanish), three related programmes that represent an educational continuum for students from 3 to 19 years of age: the Primary Years Programme (PYP, for ages 3 to 11/12), the Middle Years Programme (MYP, for ages 11/12 to 16) and the Diploma Programme (for students aged 16 to 19). The last is designed as a two-year academic preparation for university. A great deal of interest has recently been raised by those reviewing curricular provision in some national systems, as well as in the private sector, in adapting the IBO’s educational models and principles for technical and vocational education, particularly at the upper secondary level. In collaboration with some authorized schools and partner institutions the IBO has now embarked on the development of a framework of international education that will incorporate the vision and educational principles of the IBO into local programmes that address the needs of students engaged in technical and vocational education.
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2 What Are the Aims of an IB Technical/Vocational Framework? 2.1 Providing a More Inclusive Provision for Students Aged 16 to 19 In its efforts to develop a coherent educational continuum for young people aged 3–19, the IBO recognizes that there is currently a hiatus between its two programme frameworks, the Primary Years Programme (for 3- to 11/12-year olds) and the Middle Years Programme (for 11/12- to 16-year olds), which are both inclusive, whole-school programmes, and the Diploma Programme which is clearly academic in nature and design and, in some schools, selective. Working in partnership with schools and local authorities to broaden access to the kinds of learning fostered in the Diploma Programme would potentially respond to the needs of many young people who are currently excluded from the experience of the Diploma Programme.
2.2 Responding to the IBO’s Mission Statement As an organization devoted to the development of international education worldwide, the IBO adopted an ambitious mission statement in 2002: The International Baccalaureate Organization aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people, who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. To this end the IBO works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment. These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right. <www.ibo.org/mission/>
This mission statement echoes the concerns expressed by UNESCO itself in its 1945 constitution, which states: ‘The wide diffusion of culture, and the education of humanity for justice and liberty and peace are indispensable to the dignity of man and constitute a sacred duty which all the nations must fulfil in a spirit of mutual assistance and concern’ (UNESCO, 1945). It is clear that these ambitious aims should inspire educational programmes for all students—not just those bound for academic university programmes. The strategic plan of the IBO includes the development of new pathways to help more students access an education that responds to these values. In its design and through its implementation in local contexts, the IBO’s technical and vocational framework will foster the attributes of the ‘IBO learner profile’ (Box 1), which defines learner outcomes for all IB programmes.
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Box 1. The attributes of the International Baccalaureate learner profile The aim of all IB programmes is to develop internationally minded people who, recognizing their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, help to create a better and more peaceful world. IB learners strive to be: Inquirers
They develop their natural curiosity. They acquire the skills necessary to conduct inquiry and research and show independence in learning. They actively enjoy learning and this love of learning will be sustained throughout their lives. Knowledgeable They explore concepts, ideas and issues that have local and global significance. In so doing, they acquire in-depth knowledge and develop understanding across a broad and balanced range of disciplines. Thinkers They exercise initiative in applying thinking skills critically and creatively to recognize and approach complex problems, and make reasoned, ethical decisions. Communicators They understand and express ideas and information confidently and creatively in more than one language and in a variety of modes of communication. They work effectively and willingly in collaboration with others. Principled They act with integrity and honesty, with a strong sense of fairness, justice and respect for the dignity of the individual, groups and communities. They take responsibility for their own actions and the consequences that accompany them. Open-minded They understand and appreciate their own cultures and personal histories, and are open to the perspectives, values and traditions of other individuals and communities. They are accustomed to seeking and evaluating a range of points of view, and are willing to grow from the experience. Caring They show empathy, compassion and respect towards the needs and feelings of others. They have a personal commitment to service, and act to make a positive difference to the lives of others and to the environment. Risk-takers They approach unfamiliar situations and uncertainty with courage and forethought, and have the independence of spirit to explore new roles, ideas and strategies. They are brave and articulate in defending their beliefs. Balanced They understand the importance of intellectual, physical and emotional balance to achieve personal well-being for themselves and others. Reflective They give thoughtful consideration to their own learning and experience. They are able to assess and understand their strengths and limitations in order to support their learning and personal development.
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2.3 Filling a Gap in International Education The OECD (quoted in Vidovich, 2004) defines the internationalization of education as ‘an international orientation in content, aimed at preparing students for performing (professionally and socially) in an international and multicultural context, and designed for domestic students as well as foreign students’. Schools also need to rethink the international and intercultural orientation of pedagogy, as well as content knowledge, ensuring an ‘open flow of people and ideas between the school and the international arena, using both educational and non-educational (especially business and industry) sources [. . . ] and extensive individualized networks across the globe’ (Vidovich, 2004). While the Primary Years Programme and the Middle Years Programme meet the needs of the whole 3 to 16 age group, the Diploma Programme is designed for the academically oriented students aged 16 to 19. However, even in developed countries, 30 to 70% of this age group opt for vocational studies, therefore being beyond the current reach of international education. In a changing global economy, it is essential that students preparing directly for active employment develop a good understanding of world issues and contexts and an understanding of their responsibilities as global citizens. Several groups (and particularly schools) engaged in international education have already stressed the need for internationally recognized qualifications in areas currently not addressed by an academic programme like the IB Diploma Programme. Several areas of study and activity, such as business and administration, information technology and tourism, are often subject to relatively similar guidelines globally. Consequently, there are numerous internationally recognized diplomas at the polytechnic and university levels that have helped to standardize such studies. There is, however, no international qualification in such areas at the secondary level. While the IBO is not ready at this stage to develop such a range of courses itself, it wishes to explore ways of working in partnership with agencies and schools in order to develop ways of internationalizing local technical and vocational studies at the upper secondary level. Through its experience in developing programmes, assessment and teacher professional development internationally, the IBO is well placed to create these contacts and connections to provide students with a truly international experience.
2.4 Reducing the Academic Versus Vocational Divide Banking on its experience and reputation in curriculum and assessment development through international collaboration, the IBO can contribute positively to technical and vocational education by challenging the perception (still prevalent in many parts of the world) that technical and vocational education is of lesser status than academic studies. By using and adapting chosen elements of the IBO’s Diploma Programme, a carefully designed educational framework will now engage students who have chosen technical and vocational education in challenging learning and rigorous assessment through a programme of international education.
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3 What Are the Characteristics of Learning in Such a Framework? 3.1 Preparing for Work in a Knowledge Society It is increasingly recognized that to prepare students to become effective participants in the rapidly changing twenty-first century society, schools must equip them with the tools and the learning dispositions to cope with, but also to manage and influence, change. An IB technical and vocational programme framework will need to: (a) develop a range of broad work-related competencies as well as deepen understanding in general areas of knowledge; (b) help students develop flexible strategies for knowledge acquisition and enhancement in varied contexts; (c) prepare students for effective participation in the changing world of work; (d) foster attitudes and habits of mind where students become true lifelong learners willing to consider new perspectives; and (e) involve students in learning that develops the capacity and will to make a positive difference.
3.2 Technical and Vocational Education The IBO is working with schools and local authorities to develop a pilot programme framework for generic, broad-based technical and vocational education, rather than a specific skills-based vocational training. On successful completion of the course, students will be able to enter employment directly or to progress to further studies in higher education. It is important that this programme framework prepares students for flexibility and mobility in a range of employment opportunities, as well as continuing lifelong learning. This means integrating broad, general learning areas, as well as specific vocational content in the programme, developing a challenging programme for high achievers, ensuring that participating schools work in close collaboration with higher education institutions and the working sector locally and internationally.
3.3 A Flexible Framework As technical and vocational education is subject to the pressures, priorities and requirements of diverse national and local economic contexts, it is important to achieve an appropriate balance between prescription of common programme elements, national or local requirements and school or student choice. Where there is a high degree of governmental control through examinations, such a balance is harder to achieve, but there is a growing trend to allow more local autonomy to schools. The IBO’s experience with government and university recognition of its Diploma Programme is a positive factor in the development of such locally accredited international programmes in technical and vocational education.
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The programme framework will be based on basic qualities of the Diploma Programme:
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a balance of breadth and depth of learning; a coherent mix of required elements and school or student options; explicit statements for values, aims, orientations and learning outcomes allowing the sustained development of concepts, skills, understandings and attitudes; a strong emphasis on learning fostering intercultural understanding; the development of critical thinking, inquiry and research skills; varied pedagogy, including collaborative learning; an exploration of human endeavour, through the school-based experience and work-based learning activities; strong student involvement in self-assessment and reflection; an encouragement of entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation; a sustained experience of community involvement and service; rigorous assessment through a blend of external as well as internal assessment methods; varied, dynamic pedagogy, supported by appropriate in-service teacher development; school/IBO collaboration in programme development and quality assurance supported and enhanced by an international network of like-minded schools and organizations.
4 Who Are the IBO’s Partners? 4.1 The Creation of a Programme in Finland Finland recognizes and promotes English-language education in general, as well as vocational upper-secondary education. In addition, there is in Finland a recognized need for upper secondary technical and vocational education programmes with a wider international focus. The Oulu Business College (OBC) and representatives from the municipality of Oulu (a city located in central Finland), as well as from the Finnish Ministry of Education, met with the IBO in December 2002 to discuss the development of a locally-based international programme in business education in co-operation with the International Baccalaureate Organization. This request was fully supported in principle by Oulun Lyseon lukio, a local IB world school which uses the IB Diploma Programme. Discussions and seminars were held over the next year, while teachers and administrators in the business school were becoming familiarized with the orientations of the Diploma Programme through attendance at IB teacher-training workshops and the study of curriculum materials in collaboration with the IB world school. A first invitational symposium on vocational education in an international context was held at the IBO’s curriculum and assessment office in Cardiff (United Kingdom) at the end of June 2003. This symposium brought together twenty-two participants
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from the IBO and the OBC, as well as individual educators and specialists in vocational education from Australia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. In the meetings in Cardiff and, subsequently, Oulu (December 2003) a steering committee was formed and a two-phase pilot project developed: 1. Preparation phase, July 2003–July 2004: The Oulu Business College, in cooperation with the IBO and the Finnish educational authorities, continued the design of an experimental three-year programme, the ‘Business and Administration International Programme’, which complies with the Finnish requirements for their vocational qualification and contains elements of the academic IB Diploma Programme. The IBO’s contribution to this development consisted in encouraging and supporting the local IB world school staff in their participation in planning groups; it also provided OBC staff with access to further IB Diploma teacher-training workshops; it organized curriculum development meetings and started planning the research and evaluation processes associated with this new initiative. 2. Implementation phase, August 2004–August 2007. The pilot programme ‘Business and Administration International Programme’ is now being taught at OBC in co-operation with Oulun Lyseon lukio, while curriculum development continues in key areas and research is put in place. The OBC offers a threeyear course focusing on issues such as customer service and marketing. Students taking this course also study the IB business and management course, English and economics (the latter being an elective for students). These IB courses start in the first year of study, except for economics which starts in the second year. Students also take a course focused on critical thinking in the world of work, a course being developed in collaboration with the IBO. Finally, they are engaged in community service activities, take part in a locally developed course about intercultural communication and complete a final project reflecting on their educational and work-based experience. It is planned that four cohorts of students will follow the pilot programme. A final evaluation of the pilot project will take place in August 2007, when a decision will be made on the continuation, amendments to, and potential expansion of, the agreed framework for this pilot. The first and second cohorts number about twenty students each. For the full duration of the pilot project, the IBO has authorized the local IB Diploma school to teach IB courses to the OBC students, who are registered as certificate candidates for the IB Diploma and undergo the regular assessment processes associated with their choice of courses. The IBO continues to provide OBC staff with access to teacher-training workshops. It participates in the biyearly steering committee meetings and organizes seminars, workshops and curriculum development meetings with teachers involved in the project and other experts.
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4.2 Development of a Similar Partnership in Quebec, Canada The seminars organized within the development described above and another invitational symposium held in 2004 included participants from other IB world schools. Among them, two IB Diploma schools in Quebec declared their interest in launching a similar scheme in collaboration with the IBO and, indeed, with the OBC in Finland, in order to extend the values and the benefits of an IB international education to students engaged in vocational education within their institutions. In the education system in Quebec (which is under the jurisdiction of the provincial ministry of education) students obtain a secondary school leaving certificate at the age of 16/17 and can then continue their studies in a Coll`ege d’enseignement g´en´eral et professionnel (C´egep), where they opt for a two-year pre-university academic programme or a three-year ‘technical’ programme that leads either to direct employment or to a range of programmes in tertiary education. The Coll`ege Franc¸ois-Xavier Garneau in Quebec City and Coll`ege Lafl`eche in Trois-Rivi`eres are two such C´egeps which, as authorized IB world schools, offer their pre-university academic students the option of taking the IB Diploma instead of the provincial programme. The two schools have developed a very close working relationship and drafted the pilot framework together, with the intention that this framework of studies would eventually become an option for students engaged in any of their many technical programmes. They have based these efforts on the explicit aim of helping their students who choose a technical and vocational programme (the majority of the student population of Quebec’s C´egeps) to develop an international and intercultural outlook as they prepare themselves to be citizens and professionals in an increasingly pluralist world. A steering group was formed with representation from the two C´egeps, the Quebec Ministry of Education, the IBO and also the local association of IB world schools in the province in order to shape the development of, and support for, the pilot programme framework. The project was facilitated by the fact that both institutions are already authorized IB world schools, very experienced in the teaching of the Diploma Programme, as well as in technical and vocational education, and very confident in the merits of blending elements of both. At the time of writing this text, the project has been approved by the IBO’s governing body, is fully supported by the Quebec Ministry of Education, and the two C´egeps will start recruiting about forty students each for the first year of implementation of the programme, which was due to begin in September 2006. For the first year, it is planned that the students will come from the following technical and vocational programmes:
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Police technology; Correctional and youth services intervention; Fashion design and marketing; Hotel management; and Tourism.
The students’ three-year programme will feature all the required elements of their respective technical and vocational options, as well as a common core developed
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in collaboration with the IBO within the principles of the international framework. They will study the IB’s French A1 (mother tongue and literature course) as well as an IB second-language course with the other IB students engaged in the Diploma Programme. They will also follow the critical-thinking course developed in collaboration between the participating schools and the IBO, as well as specially designed local courses on ethics and multiculturalism, sustainable development and physical health. An intercultural experience (living and/or working in a different cultural environment) will be required by the schools (within the programme’s community service activities, on-the-job training or as a special project) in order for the students to get a better understanding of the organizational differences, the customs, rules and codes for the practice of their profession in different cultural contexts. Like their Finnish counterparts, the students will also complete a final project at the end of their programme, reflecting on chosen elements of their experience.
5 The IBO’s Framework for a Programme of International Education 5.1 Extending the Pilot The two contexts described above present opportunities for the IBO to deepen its understanding of how an international dimension can be incorporated in technical and vocational studies, and of how the organization can contribute to this process through its experience in international curriculum and programme development, professional development and research. Indeed, the organization’s strategic plan states its intention to increase access to the values of the IBO to students who would not normally follow one of its mainstream programmes, particularly the Diploma Programme. As the two pilot projects progress and benefit from each other’s experience through a collaborative process of development, evaluation and research, it will be advantageous to gain insight into the applicability of this experience in other national and cultural contexts through controlled expansion of the pilot. The IBO has therefore developed a generic framework which could be proposed to other interested parties, either IB world schools themselves wishing to extend the benefits of international education to students in technical and vocational studies (as in Quebec), or institutions forming a close formal partnership with IB world schools (as in the Finnish project). These partnerships will involve a range of agencies, including schools, colleges, local or regional education authorities, national education ministries (providing organizations), to develop programmes which combine:
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locally or nationally validated technical and vocational qualifications; mainstream subjects from the IBO’s Diploma Programme; a range of other elements which reflect the values of the IBO.
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5.2 Components of a Career-Related Programme Following approval by the organization, all technical and vocational education programmes (normally spread over two or three years of full-time study) developed in collaboration with the IBO will include the components shown in Box 2.
Box 2. The components of all IBO technical and vocational programmes Required elements of the local or national qualification. Mainstream IB Diploma Programme subjects:
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a modern language from group 2 (foreign languages); one or more other subjects from any other hexagon group (individuals and societies, experimental sciences, mathematics, the arts).
The Diploma Programme subjects (except for mother tongue and group 2 languages) will be examined in English, French or Spanish. Other mandatory elements:
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the critical-thinking course developed by the IBO; community involvement and service; an extended piece of reflective writing or a presentation.
Where appropriate, as agreed with the IBO to fulfil the requirements of the programme framework, school-based elements:
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locally devised units or courses of study developed specially for this programme.
This framework will be developed through the IBO’s usual collaborative processes, where schools and teachers contribute to the development, share ideas and resources, participate in international professional development events and engage in regular discussion and debate through technology. It is interesting to note that the pilot project already crosses the language barriers and fosters dialogue and collaboration between Finnish and French-speaking schools and teachers. This is a powerful way to help schools develop and integrate an international dimension into their programmes.
5.3 Assessment and Certification Due to the combination of locally-determined and IB elements of the programme framework, there will be a blend of direct IB assessment of student learning (for IB mainstream Diploma courses) and of internal assessment performed by the schools themselves: for some elements of the programme (such as the critical-thinking course, community involvement or other locally-developed courses) student work
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will be authenticated by the school and endorsed by the IBO. The organization will develop common generic criteria for these aspects of the programme and will monitor this internal assessment through the organization of a process of guided peer review of school documentation, within a collaborative form of programme evaluation. The partnership between schools, local authorities and the IBO will be reflected in student certification upon completion of the programme. In addition to the local or national technical and vocational qualification, a student will receive:
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certificates for Diploma Programme subjects taken; a certificate of international education with the logo ‘In collaboration with the IBO’, provided specific conditions are satisfied; a record of achievement produced by the school or providing organization summarizing all the activities successfully undertaken by the student during the course of study on the international programme.
5.4 Conditions for School Participation A set of criteria will form the basis for an authorization process for all future schools or partners requesting authorization to offer this programme framework for their students. In so doing, the IBO aims to ensure that the proposed local programmes are well aligned with the organization’s mission statement, learner profile and the Diploma Programme’s general aims and objectives. The school or agency will be asked to demonstrate the added value that the programme would bring, and how the IBO’s core values would be embedded in student learning. In this process, the IBO is using its experience in developing collaborative processes of quality assurance through initial programme authorization and evaluation. The school or agency will need to provide evidence of the financial, human and technological resources that will be allocated to the programme, including on-going curriculum development, student support and teacher professional development.
6 What Are the Issues Related to the Development of Such a Framework? The IBO’s motivation in the development of this pilot programme framework is obviously to use the leverage of partnerships with like-minded organizations and experienced IB world schools to understand better how an international dimension can be incorporated in, and influence, technical and vocational studies. This experience will be essential to get an understanding of the ways in which the organization’s educational programmes can benefit a broader range of students at the upper end of secondary school.
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Several important issues have been identified for study and research, for example:
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How will the teaching and learning styles of the Diploma Programme courses compare with those used in local technical and vocational contexts? Will they form a coherent educational experience for the students? What elements of critical thinking will be most adapted to the needs of young people already involved in the world of work? What will be the role of problem-based learning in such a context? How can active inquiry and learner involvement be best fostered in both academic and work-related learning? Will adult learners in technical and vocational education find the programme meaningful and interesting? How should courses and approaches be adapted for a wide age range? How can metacognition and reflection related to work-related learning be fostered? How will students develop learning dispositions that will make them effective lifelong learners in their context? How can effective professional development and mechanisms for collaboration be developed for academic and technical and vocational studies teachers? How can we reach a balance of valid and reliable school-based and external assessment? How will different national and cultural contexts view this blend of local and international assessment and qualification? How can international mindedness be fostered in specific work-related environments, and what should be expected of students? More generally, are there specific areas where a truly international curriculum can be developed to help students participate in emerging forms of work in the global arena? How can the IBO contribute to this development?
6.1 Evaluation and Research At the same time as the development of the pilot project is taking place, the IBO is engaged in establishing the parameters for a thorough evaluation of the course, as well as defining areas of relevant research, in collaboration with the schools themselves and with local universities. There are six evaluative aims, outlined as follows:
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To determine the nature of student learning, together with formative and summative achievements, in the academic and core elements of the programme. To monitor the development of student perceptions of international mindedness throughout the period of the programme. To identify teacher pedagogy and perceptions of the programme, and their changes over time. To explore the administrative, management and organizational issues arising from the implementation of the programme within the institutions.
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To identify patterns and choices for employment/higher education both for students participating in the international programme and for other students. To explore employer/higher education expectations of skills, attitudes and knowledge of students recruited from the international programme and to evaluate their achievement in practice.
Research methods will include interviews of different constituent groups, questionnaires, teacher comments on student progress, formative and summative assessment results, and surveys on attitudes regarding elements contributing to international mindedness. The longitudinal research will involve constituent groups within the programme, as well as control groups in all institutions. In addition to English, both Finnish and French will be used in the research, through the collaboration of the schools themselves, as well as local universities.
7 Conclusion: Future Directions The pilot programme framework described above clearly constitutes an opportunity for the IBO to explore ways of developing new approaches for reaching a large number of young people (and potentially a number of adults as well) engaged in pre-tertiary programmes of study that had not been developed so far by the organization. The time may come when the IBO itself may develop an international technical and vocational qualification in a number of areas of study. However, the current approach of blending local and international elements might well be seen to serve the needs of students better, at least in a large number of areas: it may be the best solution to allow local economic, cultural and educational choices to be made according to the local context. At the same time, such a flexible framework will create a dynamic network of internationally-minded schools sharing a vocabulary and educational aims for lifelong learning and responsible citizenship, collaborating to develop a truly international educational experience for their students. There is little doubt that with time and experience, this new provision will influence the Diploma Programme itself. The IBO continues to review and develop its programmes to make them suitable for twenty-first century learners. Human endeavour and particularly the world of work are changing realities that students must explore in order to develop a ‘range of broad employment-related competencies which [. . . ] provide the basis for 1) effective participation in emerging forms of work and work organizations; 2) access to a range of education and training pathways, both initially and subsequent to commencing employment; 3) improved flexibility and mobility in employment; and 4) effective participation in adult life generally’ (Munro, 2003). The classic distinction between academic preparation for university and more work-orientated study will likely become increasingly blurred and irrelevant. The IBO’s current investigation in collaboration with its partner schools and agencies, therefore, may have wide-ranging implications for the future development of its programmes of international education for the upper secondary school.
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References Munro, J. 2003. Constructing a core curriculum for vocational education in an IBO Context. (Paper prepared for the Conference on Vocational Education for an International Context, Cardiff, United Kingdom, 26 June 2003.) (Unpublished.) UNESCO. 1945. Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Paris: UNESCO. Vidovich, L. 2004. Towards internationalizing the curriculum in a context of globalization: comparing policy processes in two settings. Compare, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 443–61.
Chapter IV.17
A Profile of TVET in the Asia and Pacific Region: A Survey of Progress, Innovations and Promising Practices Chris Chinien, Elspeth McOmish, Mohan Perera and Alex Chinien
1 Introduction Given the importance of human capital and skills development for economic growth and social cohesion and inclusion, in 1999 UNESCO convened a group of experts from around the world to the Seoul Congress for a collective reflection on critical reforms necessary for adapting changing labour market needs and growing public expectations. The recommendation which emerged from the Seoul Congress was used to update UNESCO’s standard-setting (normative) instrument for TVET (UNESCO, 1999). This instrument was further updated in 2002 through a collaborative effort between UNESCO and ILO (UNESCO/ILO, 2002). Various initiatives were undertaken to encourage Member States to implement this recommendation. In 2003–2004 UNESCO conducted a survey to assess the extent to which its Member States had implemented the recommendation as part of major reform initiatives to cope with the demands of the new economy. More specifically, the survey attempted to gather information on the extent of policy and programme reforms undertaken since the second International Congress on TVET held in Seoul in 1999. The survey was divided into four sections, each focused on a different set of issues, namely: (a) policy, planning and management of TVET systems; (b) access to TVET; (c) relevance and quality of TVET systems; and (d) monitoring progress with TVET. The survey questionnaire was sent to all Member States. Fifty per cent completed and returned the questionnaire. Results of the survey responses from nineteen countries (representing a response rate of 58%) were used to generate a profile of TVET for the Asia and Pacific Region. The countries included in the analysis were: Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Solomon Islands, Thailand, Tonga, Vanuatu and Viet Nam. All responses that could be summarized into frequency counts and percentages were used to make comparative analyses. The open-ended questions that yielded more qualitative information were analysed for recurrent themes, which contribute to the understanding of TVET reform initiatives in the region and numerous
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innovative and promising practices being implemented throughout the Asia and Pacific region to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of TVET.
2 An Overview of TVET in the Asia and Pacific Region Two-thirds of the countries have implemented a national strategy to oversee policy formulation and the planning and management of TVET in the Asia and Pacific Region (Fig. 1). Over half of the countries had established specific initiatives to ensure that TVET was relevant to the world of work and to monitor progress against some established benchmarks. Access to TVET has received the most attention among the four key issues under consideration. This is not surprising in the context of the MDGs and Education for All (EFA).
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Fig. 1 The planning and management of TVET in the Asia and Pacific Region
As shown in Fig. 2, the monitoring of TVET programmes was the area where there was most significant variation between the developing and least-developed countries. It is noteworthy that less was being done in the least-developed countries for monitoring programme outcomes. Also of significance is the fact that both the developing and least-developed countries were slightly more engaged in various initiatives to increase access to TVET.
IV.17 Profile of TVET in the Asia and Pacific Region 80%
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Fig. 2 The involvement of developed, developing and least-developed countries of the Asia and Pacific Region in TVET
3 Policy, Planning and Management of TVET Systems 3.1 Goals of National Strategy/Plan Human resources development was the theme for the development of a national strategy or master plan for TVET in all countries. In this context, TVET is positioned to contribute to the development of a highly skilled workforce to support a strong performance in the global economy.
3.2 National Strategy/Master Plan for TVET As shown in Fig. 3, a significant number of countries (78%) have also developed a national development plan for TVET, with the most developed countries of the region more likely to have already completed such a plan. In general, the developing countries were in the process of implementing their plans. All national framework documents for the region also bind TVET to the two major Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): the fight against poverty and discrimination against women. In some countries the development of the TVET master plan is carried out in collaboration with an economic planning unit under the responsibility of the Prime Minister’s office and the plan is based on a national development strategy. Increasingly, TVET is perceived as an enabling instrument on the road to becoming an
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Fig. 3 Countries in the Asia and Pacific Region with various national development plans for TVET
industrialized nation and for improving the living conditions of the poor, especially those from rural areas. TVET is also increasingly being seen as an instrument for promoting environmentally sustainable development. TVET institutions are being encouraged to use more formal and systematic planning that is in strategic alignment with each country’s national development plans. Below are listed some specific goals forming part of the national strategy/plan identified by Member States:
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To address labour turnover, skills shortages and mismatch, changing workplace due to technological innovations, changes in industrial structures, employment security and social valuation of workers; To align all agencies strategically to address skills shortages and mismatch; To ensure an adequate supply of human resources to support progress in IT and other growing fields; To establish a system to support workers’ career development and lifelong learning needs; To reconcile employers’ short- and long-term needs with that of employees’ career life-plans. To develop vocational awareness among young people
3.3 A National Body for TVET Some 67% of countries have established a national body for TVET. However, in some countries plans establishing such an entity are still pending government approval. The mandate of this body is to ascertain the availability of a skilled labour
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force to support economic growth and to ensure social cohesion and inclusion. Such an entity allows countries with decentralized jurisdictions to maintain a national focus on TVET. The establishment of a national body for TVET has resulted in a net increase in public and private skill-training institutions. The national body can also take the form of a national council chaired by the minister of education and involving many other ministries. When a national body is not in place, it is usually the ministry of education that has the overall responsibility for TVET. In some countries, TVET is administered by the ministry of labour. Countries with no national body were less likely to be engaged in the development of a national plan for TVET. Some international funding agencies are recommending the establishment a national body for TVET as part of strategic development plans. Under enabling legislation, some national bodies have the mandate to make decisions on strategic policy, establish national objectives and priorities for the training system, co-ordinate programmes, develop and expand TVET, and ensure programme quality on a national basis. Typical responsibilities of the national body include:
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To co-ordinate all TVET activities; To develop guidelines for the reform of TVET; To provide labour-market information; To contribute to policy development; The financing of TVET; To establish training funds; Curriculum development; The development of learning materials and other resources; To design teacher-training strategies; Training and staff development; Programme monitoring and evaluation; To be responsible for a management information system; To liaise with all key stakeholders.
With the support of the Commonwealth of Learning, senior vocational education officers from the Asia-Pacific Region have established the Pacific Association of Technical, Vocational Education and Training (PATVET) as a regional body to support the improvement and development of skills development in the region. A resolution has also been made that a national body should be established on each island State to strengthen TVET.
3.4 The Contribution of TVET to EFA EFA, with its strong focus on primary education and remedial education for adults, is not universally embraced in the TVET sector and was only included in the national strategy of two small island States (11%). However, all countries were involved in various initiatives to improve access and equity in TVET, which in effect is consistent with the goals of EFA.
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4 Facilitating Access: TVET for All 4.1 Funding Expansion Eighty per cent of the countries indicated that there has been some funding to increase education and training opportunities in general. While in some countries TVET funding has increased, it has generally remained stable in others. No decline in funding was reported. In some countries new facilities were under construction and others were being planned. Expansion of funding for TVET is clearly related to the health of the economy. The output of TVET is a key consideration which is often overlooked when considering the expansion of TVET. How many TVET graduate can be absorbed by the labour market in a given economic situation? In one instance, the TVET share of the total education system was established at 20% to address this issue. This much was necessary to match TVET output to corresponding growth in business and industry. Lack of adequate government support and funding for TVET is a major problem for small island States. In some developing countries, especially these small islands, although no substantial national government funding has been appropriated for TVET, financial support from the World Bank, the European Union, the Asian Development Bank and other foreign donors is helping the expansion of TVET. More wealthy countries in the region are also helping smaller States in building the capacity of their human resources in TVET. Many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) have also launched skill-development programmes, particularly at the community level. A topology of expansion drawn from the survey responses includes the introduction of new courses, renovation, expansion and modernization of existing facilities and establishment of new centres and institutions, Some TVET institutions are attempting to generate income to cover their basic operational costs. For example, some TVET institutions have introduced a timesector privatization concept, which allows the public and private sector to utilize TVET facilities to deliver staff training under an agreed payment scheme. Other cost-saving initiatives include: (a) merging institutions into multi-campus facilities to enable the sharing and mobilization of resources; and (b) the fusion of agencies to reduce overlapping in skills development activities.
4.2 Efforts to Change the Image of TVET Given the general belief that TVET can give a country’s economic and socioeconomic development a huge upturn, various initiatives are being undertaken to improve the image of TVET and to encourage young people to consider a skilled trade as a career of first choice. In some countries TVET policies are being modified to promote lifelong learning by developing pathways between different educational levels, or the articulation of TVET with higher education. Other initiatives include:
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Using the context learning approach in the teaching of mathematics, science and technology to encourage more students to take these subjects; Introducing pre-vocational education in general education to help inculcate a culture of skills development among young people, especially among girls; and Offering programmes supporting the school-to-work transition.
4.3 Improving Access and Equity for Designated Target Groups Although few countries indicated that the goals of EFA were integrated in the national strategy or master plan for TVET, results showed that there were a considerable number of initiatives that have been implemented to increase the participation of designated target groups in TVET, namely: women and girls; poor people from rural areas and remote communities; people with disabilities; people with nonEnglish speaking backgrounds; conflict-affected people; and ethnic minorities— when applicable. Lack of support for TVET from the public and from politicians has been an obstacle for increasing government assistance for improving access to TVET. Some programmes are being established by training institutions without government support. Fig. 4 shows that considerable efforts were being deployed by countries to increase the participation of disadvantaged target groups in TVET. The level of effort for people affected by war reflects the fact that fewer countries of the region were involved in war or armed conflict, rather than a lack of interest to meet the needs of this target group. Fig. 4 provides a brief overview of these accomplishments related to TVET for All. 100
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4.4 Women and Girls Eighty-nine per cent of the countries reported having implemented various initiatives to attract women and girls to TVET. The following measures are illustrative of these efforts:
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Committees were formed to promote the participation of women and girls in TVET. In some cases, the policy was built into the national strategy, or became an additional strategy that was added to the national plan; Women included in planning and decision-making at all levels; female instructors were encouraged; Develop special TVET programmes for girls who have dropped out of schools; Offer gender-sensitive training to TVET personnel; Implement a gender-friendly training environment in TVET; Establish polytechnics for women; Provide financial incentives to encourage employers to give women greater access to apprenticeship in non-traditional occupations; Introduce female-friendly trades, such as tailoring, hairdressing and weaving, to increase women’ participation in TVET; and Provide assistance to parents of school-aged children.
4.5 Poor People from Rural Areas and Remote Communities Almost all countries (94%) had implemented programmes to encourage the participation of poor people from rural and remote communities in TVET. A summary of specific initiatives that have been implemented is as follows:
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Integrating a national poverty eradication programme into the national strategy or master plan; Investments to strengthen communities and regions economically and socially disadvantaged through learning and employment; More formal programmes, such as apprenticeship training, are often concentrated in urban areas where most businesses and industries are located. Incentives are provided to encourage employers to hire apprentices from rural areas. Incentives are also provided to hire apprentices from rural areas to address skill shortages in these regions; Employment facilitation programmes introduced to train disadvantaged target groups, such as small farmers or fishermen, to augment self-support abilities and enhance employability; Flexible training delivery and establishment of community-based training centres; Taking training to people in rural areas with mobile training units; Imparting income-generating skills; Annexing skill-training programmes to secondary schools;
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Running campaigns to motivate youth and adults to participate in training programmes; Facilitating access to training for people with little or no education; Using mobile training teams to train trainers; and Agriculture-based programmes for poor people living in rural areas.
4.6 People with Disabilities In most countries, equity policy is mandated by law and TVET training for people with disabilities is enacted in specific legislations. Seventy-eight per cent of countries have implemented specific programmes to remove barriers that have excluded people with disabilities from involvement in TVET. Some programmes for people with disabilities are run by non-governmental/voluntary organizations. The range of activities implemented to improve access to people with disability to TVET in the region includes:
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Incentives to encourage employers to sponsor apprentices with disabilities; Purchasing training places in TVET that are dedicated to people with disabilities; Injecting more TVET funding targeted to people with disabilities; Established a co-ordinating system to facilitate the routing of people with disabilities from school to TVET and employment; and Establishing special skill-development programmes.
4.7 Conflict-Affected People Given that the great majority of the countries in the region have not been involved recently in war, armed conflict or civil unrest, only 33% reported programmes to address the skill-development needs of people affected by conflict. Only six countries in the region reported having to deal with war-affected individuals. Where applicable, the following provisions were made:
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Establishment of a quota system for admitting war-affected persons in TVET; and Establishment of skills-development programmes for people affected by ethnic tension.
4.8 Ethnic Minorities Eighty-three per cent of the countries were engaged in special initiatives to include ethnic minorities in TVET. However, it appears that in some countries ethnic minorities are more interested in general education rather than TVET. The following inclusion initiatives were reported:
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Making funds available for the provision of inclusion; Establishing mechanisms to give minorities a voice in decision-making; Establishing employment equity programmes that provide pre-vocational training to job-seekers encountering barriers; Incentives to encourage employers to sponsor apprentices from ethnic minority groups; Establishing training programmes to enable ethnic minority groups to overcome deficits in literacy, numeracy and language skills; and Programmes to integrate foreign workers.
4.9 Equity Policy for TVET The mandate to address socio-economic needs and labour-market requirements with relatively modest resources places considerable pressure on TVET. Eighty-nine per cent of countries have implemented equity policy to facilitate access to TVET. In many cases, equity policy was encapsulated in the national strategy for TVET. The goal of the equity policy is to combat exclusion and discrimination and to promote inclusion, which is one of the basic axiomatic principles of UNESCO. The equity policies reported aimed at the traditional designated target groups, namely: women and girls, poor people, people with disabilities, war-affected people and ethnic minorities. In addition, other important sources of discrimination were also addressed, such as: learning disability, over-age, cultural differences, language, literacy, numeracy, religion, unemployment, the incarcerated and people living in isolation. Below is a list of specific approaches implemented to address the issues and concerns related to equity:
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Establishment of specialized agencies to oversee the implementation of equity policy; Reporting outcomes on a regular basis to ensure accountability; and Providing scholarships and financial assistance to allow poor people to participate in TVET.
4.10 PLAR Only 56% of the countries in the region reported having implemented a system for assessing and recognizing prior learning (PLAR). Again, the health of the economy seems to be a key determinant for offering PLAR services in TVET. Some countries have enacted special legislation incorporating PLAR services in TVET, which is available to applicants upon enrolment. Countries that have successfully established PLAR services have in most cases also established some form of vocational qualifications framework, which has been used as a basis for setting national standards for occupational skills. These standards are used for assessing and recognizing prior learning. PATVET is attempting to introduce a regional qualifications framework for
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the Pacific islands. It is assumed that this framework will enable workers from small island States to migrate to wealthier countries. This can be an important source of income for countries which rely heavily on remittances. Two other initiatives closely associated with the PLAR system are: (a) career counselling; and (b) providing multiple-entry/exit to TVET programmes.
4.11 Other Initiatives to Increase Access Other initiatives to increase access to TVET include the following:
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Flexible delivery to accommodate the needs of disadvantaged groups; Adopting instructional methods to meet the special needs of designated target groups; Providing professional development to equip teachers with the knowledge and skills to work with and teach people with special needs; Offering dual-track high-school programmes, which prepare students for both academic and TVET options: school-based apprenticeship programmes; Incentives provided to employers in support of the training and hiring of older workers who are welfare recipients, redundant or re-entering the workforce.
5 Relevance In general, all countries were committed to forging strong links with the world of work so that TVET graduates would be equipped with the skills needed to enter wage employment and self-employment. Most countries (72%) have held some form of national consultation for capturing the input of key stakeholders in order to enhance the relevance of the TVET system and its programmes. Typical consultation formats include: (a) a national forum; (b) a national council; and (c) a ministerial commission. Some countries are establishing sector councils to identify and address current and anticipated challenges for skills and learning, and to implement longterm human resources planning and development strategies for their respective sectors. At least four countries—Australia, Japan, Malaysia and the Philippines—have developed occupational standards as part of their workforce development strategy. These occupational standards are used for developing: (a) a national qualifications framework; (b) training standards; (c) benchmarks for establishing prior learning assessment and recognition of skills acquired on a non-formal and informal basis; and (d) for training provision and certification. Below are listed some initiatives introduced to increase the relevance of TVET:
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Obtaining industry collaboration in training delivery, such as an advisory input. Curricula are reviewed every five years in collaboration with industry to ensure the authenticity of occupational requirements; Promoting cross-industry collaboration;
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Facilitating flexible mixes of skills; Predicting and addressing skill shortages; Developing skills to support innovation in industry; Use of competency-based approaches for learning and learning assessment; Paid professional leave enables TVET instructors to participate in industrial training to update their industrial knowledge and skills. They are expected to share the skills acquired with other instructors and students.
5.1 Flexibility in TVET Delivery In their efforts to increase the flexibility of TVET, at least 50% of countries were offering various scheduling options, such as day and block release and sandwich programming, which allows learners to combine on-the-job training with schoolbased training. In most of these countries (83%), TVET programmes were available either in the evening or on a part-time basis (Fig. 5). It is noteworthy that in most countries the majority of TVET students study on a part-time basis.
100 17 90 80 56
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Fig. 5 The availability of TVET courses
5.2 Use of ICTs in TVET Only one-third of countries were using radio, television, the Internet and other open and distance learning (ODL) modalities, in spite of the potential capacity of ICTs to increase the flexibility of TVET delivery (Fig. 6). Some public and private providers are delivering training content only by distance and others are using a blended strategy. In general, the major emphasis of policies for integrating ICTs in education is
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Fig. 6 Mode of TVET delivery using ICTs
very much at the university level. While some countries were planning to introduce ICTs for on-line learning in TVET, others had no provision for making a commitment to more flexible means of delivery.
5.3 Comments on Developing Countries Small island States were less likely to use ICTs in TVET, but there was a belief that ODL is extremely important for small island States, irrespective of their size.
5.4 New Competencies in TVET A significant number of countries have introduced specific initiatives to identify and incorporate generic broadly transferable skills in TVET (Fig. 7), such as communication (78%), teamwork (72%) and technology skills (78%). Other approaches being used to infuse new competencies through TVET include: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Collecting, analysing and organizing information; Communicating ideas; Planning and organizing activities; Solving problems; Learning to learn; Innovation skills; Entrepreneurship skills.
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78%
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78% 77% 76% 75% 74%
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73% 72% 72% 71% 70% 69%
Communication skills
Teamwork skills
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Fig. 7 New competencies acquired through TVET
UNESCO’s Asia and Pacific Regional Office in Bangkok has organized capacitybuilding workshops and professional development to train TVET teachers so as to infuse and facilitate the development of new competencies. Some TVET systems have introduced compulsory courses and extra-curricular activities allowing students to learn new competencies. Efforts are also being made to design and develop curricula for teaching new and emerging technical competencies, such as mechatronics (mechanics and electronics technology) and autotronics (automotive and electronics technology).
5.5 Micro-Business, Farming and Artisan Skills Approximately two-thirds of the countries have implemented micro-business (61%), as well as farming and artisan skills (67%). These initiatives include communitybased training for enterprise development, which aims to prepare TVET graduates for creating enterprises that may provide a livelihood immediately after completing their training programmes. Entrepreneurship, which is central to this approach, is fast becoming an integral part of TVET. Entrepreneurship training is sometimes included in compulsory general foundation courses, which also include rural development and environmental protection, as well as financing and setting up microbusiness and artisan trades.
6 Monitoring A substantial proportion of the countries (61%) have already established national goals or benchmarks against which to measure the provision of TVET. Some coun-
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90 83 80 67
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0 National statistical system Collection of distinct sets allowing data on TVET to of data on full- and partbe collected separately time learners
Collection of data on Collection of post-training programme completers data on programme outcomes and non-completers
Fig. 8 Measuring TVET
tries have also developed an action plan and key performance measures for assessing the national strategy or plan. Through PATVET, member countries are sharing knowledge, skills, experiences, resources and information on TVET. This will provide useful benchmarks for assessing TVET. Some TVET systems are using ISO 9001 management system certification to ensure quality and effective delivery of services. As shown in Fig. 8, it is noteworthy that 83% of the countries have a national statistical system that allows data on TVET to be collected separately. Not all countries (33%) were collecting statistical information distinguishing part-time from full-time learners. However, a substantial number of countries (67%) were tracking programme completers and non-completers. Surprisingly, only 44% of the countries were conducting tracer or follow-up studies to determine the rate of placement and graduates’ degree of satisfaction with TVET programme.
6.1 Impact of UNESCO’s Recommendation for TVET The purpose of UNESCO’s Revised Recommendations for TVET was to assist its Member States in adapting TVET to meet the needs and expectations of a rapidly changing global economic environment (UNESCO/ILO, 2002). There are many similarities between countries’ national development plans and UNESCO’s recommendations for TVET. The Seoul Congress on TVET (UNESCO, 1999) and UNESCO’s recommendations gave some impetus for TVET reform in many
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countries. Since the recommendations were adopted, all Member States of the AsiaPacific Region involved in this survey have undertaken major initiatives for policy and programme reforms in TVET. In some countries, especially the developing and least-developed ones, the recommendation had a direct impact on TVET reforms. In more developed countries, the labour-market demands had a stronger influence on TVET development. However, the thrust of UNESCO’s recommendations is generally consistent with the reform of TVET systems. Although the nature of the reforms was consistent with the UNESCO’s Education for All movement and the UN Millennium Development Goals, there were no indications that these two international benchmarks for development were used as a primary reference for developing national TVET plans. It should be said here that a few countries were unaware of the existence of UNESCO’s recommendations. Experience has demonstrated that a national seminar is an effective way of disseminating major recommendations for TVET reform, as it facilitates consensusbuilding between government/industry/labour/institutions/educators/administrators and service receivers on key priorities, from educational reform to the establishment of an action plan to address needs. All the countries that were aware of UNESCO’s recommendations for TVET unanimously embraced this standard-setting document. In the developing and leastdeveloped countries, lack of funding and shortage of trained staff are minimizing the impact of the recommendations and slowing the rate of progress in TVET reforms. In spite of these barriers, all countries of the Asia and Pacific Region are making vigorous efforts to strengthen TVET in strategic alignment with their national human-resources development plan and labour-market requirements. UNESCO’s recommendations provide a most valuable blueprint for the development and improvement of TVET in its Member States.
References UNESCO. 1999. Lifelong learning and training: a bridge to the future; final report of the International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education; Seoul, 1999. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO/ILO. 2002. Technical and vocational education and training for the twenty-first century. Paris: UNESCO; Geneva, Switzerland: ILO.
Section 5 Learning for Employment and Citizenship in Post-Conflict Countries
David Johnson and Lyle Kane Department of Education, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
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Chapter V.1
Overview: Vocational Education, Social Participation and Livelihoods in Post-Conflict Countries David Johnson and Lyle Kane
1 Introduction The collection of papers in this section is concerned with the well-being1 of youth in those developing countries that have suffered violent conflict. We know that violent conflict and poverty are inextricably linked (Buckland, 2005), that conflict retards economic and social development and is a key obstacle to achieving Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals (UNDP, 2003; World Bank, 2003). We know too that youth are at once the primary victims and primary actors in conflict2 and are therefore central to any approach to human development. In its recent World development report: development and the next generation (World Bank, 2007), the World Bank explores the importance of ‘investing’ in young people and argues that the decline in fertility rates in most developing countries means that many will see a larger share of people of working age with fewer children or elderly dependents to support. This raises new challenges, but also, it asserts, provides ‘an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate growth and reduce poverty’. We aim, in this overview, to outline the promises and pitfalls of vocational education aimed at young adults in conflict-affected countries. In so doing, we take the social sciences concept of ‘youth transitions’3 with the aim of examining three critical and overlapping aspects thereof—education, work and citizenship—in those countries with fragile economies and human relationships. The World Bank argues that these transitions are ‘critical for poverty reduction and growth because they relate to building, maintaining, using, and reproducing human capital’ (2007, p. 40). This notwithstanding, the paper argues that while we know that they are an important source of human capital and vital to economic growth and human development, we have not been able to answer with confidence or precision some crucial questions about the effects of conflict on the participation of youth in education, economics and civil society. Nor have we, as a research community, been able to articulate clear policy choices for governments, aimed at improving learning, work and life opportunities for youth in the developing world. This was confirmed in a conference on Education and Conflict: Theory, Policy and Practice, convened by Oxford University in collaboration with UNICEF in April 2006 (see Johnson & Van Kalmthout, 2006). The conference concluded that we have only rough measures of youth well-being at our disposal. As a consequence, policies and services aimed at R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 V.1, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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young people in conflict-affected countries are crudely targeted and operate on a ‘rule of thumb’ (Annan, Blattman & Horton, 2006). Those practitioners involved in post-conflict reconstruction were extremely conscious of the limitations of our current knowledge base and the lack of evidence-led approaches to development planning and programming.
2 Equality of Opportunity Thus, the first theme that we are concerned with in exploring the potential of vocational education is equality of opportunity and the well-being of youth in conflictaffected developing countries. In particular, we are concerned with the opportunities available for youth to continue to learn (in diverse ways) beyond primary school, and the extent to which such learning offers continuities to work and to productive citizenship. Simply put, equality, or rather ‘inequality of opportunity’, in access to education, to work and earnings, and to participation in civil society, defines the issue. For us, economic growth and human development is more than simply a reduction in absolute deprivation. A sound understanding of relative deprivation or inequity is of critical importance in building human capacity. When inequity becomes deeply entrenched in a society, this threatens stability and the opportunity for human development and economic growth. The fact of the matter is that inequalities between different groups in society, or ‘horizontal inequalities’ (Johnson & Stewart, 2007; Mancini, 2005; Østby, 2003; Stewart, 2000) have been shown to be a source of violent conflict (Marshall, 2005). Indeed, horizontal inequalities in educational access are a particularly important form of inequality since they lead to other horizontal inequalities—in income, employment, nutrition and health, as well as political position. Thus, the education sector plays a critical role in conflict-affected or conflict-prone societies: on the one hand, its values and structure can reflect inequalities in power;4 on the other hand, it is pivotal in affecting these values and inequalities, potentially offering a way of breaking from the past. Education is a powerful influence over identities, both through its content and its structure. Moreover, it is a source of power and of income in contemporary societies. Access to jobs depends on the kind and level of education attained and, similarly, political participation at higher levels, particularly in the civil service, depends on education.
3 Vocational Education The second theme explored here focuses more directly on vocational education in war-affected countries and the role it might play in bridging horizontal inequalities. It seems that the educational preparation of youth for work and life is at a very low level in developing countries, particularly among the poor. Many are not learning as much as they should and, specifically, they are not learning what might be
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relevant to the demands of a rapidly-changing global economy. The outcome is that many begin work too early in low-skills jobs and find that they are unable to make progress along the skills ladder to enhance their earnings. For many governments, development partners and international NGOs, the favoured response is more education and training, especially vocational and skills-based training. Yet, a survey of war-affected youth in Uganda—SWAY (Annan, Blattman & Horton, 2006)— questions the internal logic of this approach. It suggests that: While those with vocational training are doing relatively well economically, it is not necessarily the case that an expansion of these programs will lead to more meaningful livelihoods to youth. Rather, the association between economic success and vocational training may be spurious—trained youth may be doing well not because of their training, but because they were more talented and entrepreneurial in the first place. A more rigorous evaluation of programs will be required to assess whether vocational training has any positive impact at all.
This suggests that we would be wise to look beyond supply-side factors alone and consider instead such demand-side factors as human capability and agency, if we are to offer a more considered set of proposals for enhancing young people’s well-being in the developing world. Hence a number of questions arise. These are: 1. What are the continuities between vocational education, work and citizenship in post-conflict societies? 2. What policies have been adopted in a range of conflict-affected countries that might account for differences in the patterns of youth transitions (continuing to learn, engaging in work and exercising citizenship)? 3. What role does individual agency and human capability play for those youths who do and for those who do not participate in vocational education in postconflict societies? To understand better these questions, we propose a conceptual model of vocational education as a learning system in fragile, conflict-prone and post-conflict countries. Four main contexts in which vocational education as a holistic learning system might function are identified. We shall return to the questions themselves. The first context in which vocational education and training might occur is as an educational solution to the impact of on-going, low to high intensity conflict. The classic response here is ‘skills development’. An example of this approach is identified by Yarrow (in this section) in the provision of vocational education for refugees or internally displaced persons. The second context of vocational education and training in countries experiencing conflict can be seen as more future-oriented systems planning and policy work. Here, planning for the return of refugees for example, or ideological concerns about the nature of a future curriculum, the relevance to the world of work and economic growth are all important issues for VET (see Barakat, in this section).
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Second, the role of TVET in the study of educational reconstruction and transformation in post-conflict environments is interesting. In practical terms, the provision of vocational education comes as a result of fire-fighting or short-term policy solutions for education and training that are very often ill-defined or only tenuously linked to the search for longer-term economic forecasting (see Barakat, Kane and Inglis in this section) or the rebuilding of identity and the forging of a new democratic citizenship (see Paulson in this section). The third context in which VET might function is as a strategic driver of human development. In this case, the vocational education response is not an isolated response. Here it is necessary for more ‘joined-up thinking’ about VET as a learning system, and as a more integrated delivery system. This is not as yet fully appreciated between NGOs and frontline agencies (see Karpinska in this section). The fourth context in which VET might function is in the re-building of a nation in the aftermath of conflict. There is a growing body of theoretical work on education as a process in rebuilding civil society and TVET’s role in this has been identified by some as crucial (see Humphreys & Weinstein, 2004). Because access (or the lack thereof) to education and training gives rise to conflict in the first place, and because of its role in building peace and minimizing the horizontal inequalities discussed above, the role of TVET in securing peace and stability is an important focus of enquiry. We offer, in Fig. 1, a conceptual model of the field of education and conflict studies.
Fig. 1 A conceptual model of the field of TVET and conflict studies
4 Overview of the Contributions Framed by the conceptual model discussed above, we return to the three questions raised earlier and consider how they are variously addressed in this section.
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V.2 From Assessment to Planning: Hope for TVET in Uganda, by Bilal Barakat, Lyle Kane and Alex Inglis The first of the questions above is explored by Bilal Barakat, Lyle Kane and Alex Inglis. The authors stress the need for improved assessment tools to advise TVET planning in post-conflict situations. Using the case study of Uganda, where the most thorough study of war-affected populations to date has taken place (The Survey for War-Affected Youth or SWAY), this chapter discusses the importance of reliable data and ways in which it has the potential to shape TVET programming in northern Uganda so as to be contextually appropriate in terms of supporting social reintegration and matching opportunities in the economy.
V.3 Linking TVET to Economic Opportunities in Post-Conflict Liberia, by Lyle Kane The theme is further taken up by Lyle Kane in this chapter. He further explores the need to design TVET programming around the specific economic context of the target population. He explores the problems facing the TVET programmes associated with the United Nations’ Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) initiatives in Liberia, the mismatch between training and economic opportunities, and the way the aid system can bridge that mismatch through more contextually appropriate TVET programming and nurture and create economic opportunities.
V.4 Deepening the Divide: The Differential Impact of Protracted Conflict on TVET Versus Academic Education in Palestine, by Bilal Barakat Continuing this line of exploration, Bilal Barakat’s chapter aims at illustrating the varying impact of conflict on TVET compared to general education. The chapter makes the point that TVET is negatively perceived among Palestinians in terms of both national aspirations and personal emancipation as compared to academic education. In the case of the continuing ‘low intensity’ Palestinian–Israeli conflict, these issues are of great importance.
V.5 Co-ordinated Programming for Skills Development and Livelihoods in Post-Conflict Societies: What Promise Does TVET Hold for Southern Sudan? by Zuki Karpinska Karpinska’s chapter engages with the second theme. She examines the difficulties of government, external agency and NGO co-ordination in providing cohesive and effective TVET. The chapter uses the region of Southern Sudan as a case study, a context rife with complicated political, economic, physical and social challenges.
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While grim in her description of the current state of TVET implementation in the region, Karpinska is hopeful that recent co-ordination efforts have created a setting for improvements in service delivery.
V.6 Vocational Training in Post-War Sierra Leone and Liberia, by Andrew Benson Greene Jr. In his chapter, Andrew Benson Greene further mines this line of enquiry. He discusses the need for TVET programming to take advantage of new technologies, while nurturing and developing traditional craftsmen, such as blacksmiths, to support the agricultural sector. The chapter uses a set of existing programmes to paint a picture of TVET in post-conflict Sierra Leone, emphasizing existing programmatic solutions to the contextual obstacles facing war-affected populations, such as support for amputees in the form of prosthetics, and the need to design programming around local social and cultural structures.
V.7 TVET and Community Re-Integration: Exploring the Connections in Sierra Leone’s DDR Process, by Julia Paulson Julia Paulson furthers the discussion of the third theme outlined above. Her chapter discusses the ways in which TVET acts as a tool for reintegration of ex-combatants, using as a lens the DDR initiatives in Sierra Leone. Paulson goes on to pose the question of how TVET can be more effective in the reintegration process.
V.8 TVET, Women and Conflict: Palestinians in the Lebanese Civil War, by Rachel Yarrow The question of individual agency is further taken up in Rachel Yarrow’s chapter. This chapter describes and analyses the activities of two NGOs providing TVET to Palestinian women during the Lebanese Civil War. Yarrow discusses the extent to which these two case studies effectively capitalized on the opportunities offered by the post-conflict situation to reshape ‘traditional’ or ‘conservative’ gender roles and empower women. The concern is not an academic one. In an informal assessment of a tailoring programme offered to young women from the camps, one NGO came to the conclusion that the girls that passed through the programme were doing worse than those that did not. Those that passed through the programme found little demand for their skills in their home camps. Meanwhile, those that did not pass through the programme found ways to return to formal education. Thus, this section offers an overview of the challenges for educational reconstruction in a number of single-country cases. Normally, it would be useful to
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group countries in respect of the historical stage of conflict and reconstruction (e.g. Angola, Burundi, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka are examples of countries emerging from conflict, whilst Cambodia, Guatemala, Lebanon and Nicaragua have longer histories of post-conflict reconstruction) and effecting comparisons within the group. However, due to limited space in this section, we have decided to offer simply selected examples of writings on vocational education and the challenges of employment and citizenship.
Notes 1. Well-being is defined here as opportunities for educational, social and economic participation. 2. One of the initial causes of the ethnic conflict between Sinhalese and Tamils in Sri Lanka was the frustration felt by Tamil students, who had been shut out of places in universities and other avenues for civic involvement. 3. Five youth transitions are identified in the literature: learning, going to work, staying healthy, forming families, and exercising citizenship (see World Bank, 2007). 4. Ukiwo (2007) shows how the lack of education among Northerners in Nigeria in the early years of independence debarred Northerners not only from high-level federal civil-service positions, but even from running their own state.
References Annan, J.; Blattman, C.; Horton, R. 2006. The state of youth and youth protection in Uganda. Kampala: UNICEF Uganda. Buckland, P. 2005 Reshaping the future: education and post-conflict reconstruction. Washington, DC: World Bank. Humphreys, M.; Weinstein, J.M. 2004. What the fighters say: a survey of ex-combatants in Sierra Leone, June-August 2003. New York, NY: Columbia University. (Center on Globilization and Sustainable Development, working paper, no. 20.) <www.stanford.edu/∼jweinst/docs/ manuscripts/humphreys combatantsurvey.pdf> Johnson, D.; Stewart, F. 2007. Education, ethnicity and conflict. International journal of education and development, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 247–51 Johnson, D.; Van Kalmthout, E. 2006. Education and conflict: research, policy and practice. Forced migration review, supplement, July. <www.fmreview.org/FMRpdfs/EducationSupplement/ full.pdf> Mancini, L. 2005. Horizontal inequalities and communal violence: evidence from Indonesian districts. Oxford, UK: Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity. (CRISE working paper, 22.) <www.crise.ox.ac.uk> Marshall, M.G. 2005. Major episodes of political violence, 1946–2004. Severn, MD: Centre for Systemic Peace. <www.systemicpeace.org/> Østby, G. 2003. Horizontal inequalities and civil war. Oslo: Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Stewart, F. 2000. Crisis prevention: tackling horizontal inequalities. Oxford development studies, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 245–62. Ukiwo, U. 2007. The ‘reform’ agenda: liberalization, technocracy and democratization in Nigeria, 1999–2007. Berkeley, CA: University of California. United Nations Development Programme. 2003. Millennium Development Goals: a compact amongst nations to end poverty. New York, NY: UNDP.
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World Bank. 2003. Breaking the conflict trap: civil war and development policy. Washington, DC: Oxford University Press/World Bank. World Bank. 2007. World development report: development and the next generation. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Chapter V.2
From Assessment to Planning: Hope for TVET in Uganda Bilal Barakat, Lyle Kane and Alex Inglis
1 Introduction One of the major obstacles facing the implementation of TVET programming in post-conflict situations is a lack of data on the needs and skills of the target population. In terms of a strict concentration on the ability of TVET programming to improve the skill-set and employability of participants, this lack of data poses the problem of leading to a mismatch between TVET and the contextual economic opportunities. But, in the post-conflict context, where the implementation of a holistic approach to TVET is necessary, with an integrated set of programmes designed to address the challenges specific to a war-affected population, a lack of data poses a much more serious set of problems. Inappropriate programming can even exacerbate the challenges facing war-affected populations rather than support their recovery. Culturally insensitive psychological therapy exercises, unsuitable housing schemes for displaced persons, ignorance of the physical frailties of injured persons—it is not hard to imagine the ways in which these mistakes could have a negative impact on the experience of programme participants. The lack of reliable data is a complex problem to overcome. Post-conflict contexts are often defined by a collapsed or weak government and social-service infrastructure. As a result, what data can be collected are often unreliable or potentially manipulated. In addition, in order to be truly effective and avoid a time lag between the end of the conflict and delivery of services, data should be collected during the conflict, posing risks for the safety of data collectors. Access to the potential target population in the midst of war is often tenuous at best. One consequence of this state of affairs is that programming is often based on immediate and observable needs, rules of thumb, and possibly erroneous assumptions about what sort of help ought to be provided. With only rough measures of well-being at our disposal, a second consequence is unavoidably crude targeting of services (Annan, Blattman & Horton, 2006, p. iii).
One thing is clear: there is a marked lack of international standards in terms of data collection for war-affected populations. This has the potential to lead to programming that is poorly matched to the needs of the population. In the best-case scenario, R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 V.2, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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such mismatched programming has simply been a waste of time and money. In a worst-case scenario, it has created a new set of challenges for the target population to contend with. A current example of an attempt to address this problem is the UNICEF Uganda commissioned Survey for War-Affected Youth (SWAY). This project set out to assess the effects of the conflict in northern Uganda on the youth in the region. Utilizing quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews, SWAY seeks to answer the question ‘who is suffering, how much and in what ways?’ (Annan, Blattman & Horton, 2006, p. iii). While these questions about suffering are relevant, they seem incomplete. As a recent World Bank report points out: ‘for education reform and transformation, the post-conflict reconstruction environment is the best of times and the worst of times, an opportunity and a constraint’ (Buckland, 2005, p. 25). There are undoubtedly a set of skills and abilities that come out of being actively involved in a conflict that can aid in post-conflict reconstruction. This chapter aims to examine the relationship between needs/skills assessment and a holistic approach to TVET programming, using northern Uganda as a casestudy. The first section provides a brief overview of the key features of the conflict. The second section describes recent and existing TVET initiatives. The third section discusses the structure of SWAY as an outstanding and timely example of needs assessment during conflict, making some critiques of its limitations. The findings are discussed and the recommendations reviewed. The fourth section looks at the upcoming TVET initiatives in Uganda and the way that SWAY can improve the effectiveness of these initiatives. The concluding remarks include general recommendations for assessment and planning practices that can improve TVET programming in post-conflict situations.
2 A Brief Overview of the Conflict in (Northern) Uganda In 1962, Uganda gained its independence from British rule. Since that time the country’s development has been marked by deep social and political volatility and civil war. The instability seemed to have come to and end in 1986 with the conclusive military victory of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) led by the current president Yoweri Museveni. However, rebels opposed to the NRM reorganized themselves in southern Sudan and later became known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) under the leadership of Joseph Kony. Disappointed by the inability to present a credible military threat to the NRM regime, and particularly with the lack of popular support among the communities of northern Uganda, the LRA turned against the civilian population, brutally terrorizing it with acts of murder, torture and mutilation (WCRWC, 2005) A particular feature of the conflict in northern Uganda is the wide-scale abduction and recruitment by the LRA of male and female youth into forced labour, sexual slavery and combat roles. Recent evidence suggests that the number of young people
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abducted during the war is 60,000 or even higher (Blattman, 2006). The capacity of the LRA was strengthened through support from the government of Sudan beginning in 1994 to engage in a proxy war against southern Sudanese rebels who were, in turn, being supported by the Ugandan government (WCRWC, 2001). Since 1996, much of the population of northern Uganda has been forced by the government to resettle in ‘protected villages’, which are essentially IDP (internally displaced persons) camps. These camps are not only crowded and unsanitary, but they often fail to offer protection. Their population continues to suffer from attacks, to the extent that large numbers of young people prefer to commute to larger towns at night to avoid forced recruitment (WCRWC, 2005). Moreover, curfews and a prohibition on travel far from the camps have meant that most have lost access to their land. Conflict over land tenure upon return of the IDPs to their communities is a real risk in post-conflict northern Uganda. Facilitated by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement for southern Sudan, negotiations between the Ugandan government and the LRA have recently moved forward culminating in a cease-fire agreement in August 2006 and the retreat of LRA fighters to assembly zones on the Sudanese side of the border (United Nations, OCHA, 2006). For the first time in decades, an end to the conflict seems feasible— though by no means certain.
3 TVET in (Northern) Uganda In contrast to many other conflict and post-conflict settings, Uganda maintains an established and relatively stable government. Its managerial capacity and political will appear favourable to effective educational reconstruction (WCRWC, 2001, p. 61), subject to the availability of sufficient funds. Several schemes for complementary basic education of target populations, such as the urban poor, nomads and conflictaffected children, already exist. There is also a strong movement towards decentralization, allowing for some flexibility in addressing the needs created by a conflict that varied in its local intensity. Government investment in education has been high. In the financial year 2001/2002, around 20% of the government budget was spent on education and training (Farstad, 2002). In contrast, public financing for TVET in Uganda is limited and the main responsibility is placed on the private sector for both delivery and financing. The private training providers deliver programming in a variety of areas and at different levels, and issue their own certificates. Private institutions are not obliged to register with the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), but are encouraged to do so. In 2000 TVET was delivered by some twenty-nine government technical and agricultural training centres with a total intake of 3,340 (Farstad, 2002). There were 187 registered private TVET institutions and another 400 that have applied for registration. These private centres follow a national curriculum instituted by the government. Industrial training is delivered by four public vocational training institutes and some 400 private training providers. Both of these streams, in particular
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the former, have attracted criticism for being too academic. TVET also features prominently as Strategic Objective 2 in Uganda’s National Action Plan on Youth, which likewise emphasizes apprenticeship schemes over formal State provision of training (Uganda, MoGLSD, 2002) Vocational training is a fairly common experience among male youth in northern Uganda: ‘20 percent of youth over the age of 16 have had some sort of vocational training, primarily in trades like construction, carpentry and joinery, and driving. Such programmes were generally paid for by the youth themselves or their families’ (Annan, Blattman & Horton, 2006, p. 32). This is despite the fact that, as in many places, there is a cultural bias, with a stronger orientation towards formal education than towards TVET. Many enrol in TVET because of their poor test results and failure to gain entry into an academic institution. The economic context for TVET provision in Uganda is one of a dominantly rural and agrarian economy, especially in the north. In the Apaca district in the north, home to over 600,000 people, the largest employer, an engineering firm, has a mere thirty employees. While, in principle, it is possible for a large number of micro-enterprises to offer a substantial number of employed positions when all taken together, the reality in northern Uganda remains that the economy depends on small-scale agriculture according to customary land tenure. This is borne out by urbanization rates, which peak in the Gulu district at around 25%, but are below 5% in several other northern districts. (The national average is 13%.) (See the Uganda districts information handbook (Rwabwogo, 2005) for all of the above.)
4 The Survey for War-Affected Youth—SWAY Until recently, very little reliable information was available on the effects of war in northern Uganda. While psycho-social studies of individual victims existed, there was little hard evidence about community effects or the prevalence of exposure to violence. SWAY has attempted to address this gap. As mentioned above, it applied a mixed methodology of quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews. A detailed survey of 750 male youth from a specific war-affected region was followed by thirty in-depth interviews of randomly selected individuals from the survey group. One of the primary arguments that SWAY makes in terms of methodology and participant selection is that the Western methods for categorizing youth are poorly matched to local realities. The Western definition of ‘child’ as anyone under the age of 18 simply does not hold true for much of the world. In many cultures in Uganda, the transition from youth to adult is defined by marriage or ownership of land. SWAY decided upon a more contextually relevant and broad definition of youth as anyone between the ages of 14 and 30. In addition, SWAY argues that categories, such as ‘the formerly abducted’ or the ‘orphaned’, are circumstantial: Targeting based on these simple categories would appear to miss more than half of the most vulnerable youth: the severely injured, the illiterate, the unemployed, those estranged from their families, or those with severe symptoms of emotional distress. In fact, the proportion of acutely vulnerable youth inside these circumstantial categories only slightly exceeds the
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proportion outside of them; hence the predictive power of this method is exceedingly poor (Annan, Blattman & Horton, 2006, p. 80).
While the scope of the project is impressive, the gender dimension is problematic. Motivated by the desire to test and improve the methodology on the presumably easier to research group of male youth, the study of females has been deferred to a second, later, project phase. The problem of the exclusion of females from Phase I—whether the justification is sound or not—is exacerbated by the fact that it has not been sufficiently highlighted. The title of the preliminary report gives no indication of an exclusively male focus, thereby inviting the potentially misleading or inappropriate generalization of the findings—and programmes based on them— to both genders. But there is every reason to suspect that the conflict’s impact on its victims differs by gender. The prevalence of sexual and gender-based violence across modern conflicts has also played itself out in the Uganda. Amnesty International reports evidence of widespread sexual violence committed by both sides in the Ugandan conflict (Amnesty International, 2004). Obviously, the effects of this cannot be simply ignored in post-conflict recovery programming. One advantage that Uganda does have over much of the rest of Africa in terms of health issues related to sexual violence is that HIV awareness is relatively high and condom usage is common, although the conflict-affected north fares worse than the national average (Tumushabe, 2006). However, SWAY did produce some conclusions that run counter to popular perceptions and that are highly relevant to programming for skills development. The survey found that while 35% of males and between 15% and 20% of all females had been abducted for at least a day, all youth, whether abducted or not, have suffered and witnessed tremendous violence. The average survey participant had witnessed or partaken in nine of the thirty-one types of violent experiences that they were questioned about. Nevertheless, it also showed only modest levels of psycho-social trauma and low levels of aggression. Moreover, even traumatized individuals exhibited a high level of social functioning. Uganda is relatively unique in terms of conflict and post-conflict recovery in that social structures remained relatively intact throughout the war. As a result, many of the challenges associated with reintegration have been mitigated by the nature of the existing support structures in the larger community. The key elements to successful social reintegration were found to be family cohesion and peer support. The relative strength of these two support structures in the Ugandan case has led to the surprising lack of emotional distress in youth returning from conflict. The survey asserts that ‘family acceptance is remarkably high. Only 1% of youth report that their family was unhappy or unwelcoming upon their return. Over 94% of the youth report being accepted by their families without insult, blame or physical aggression’ (Annan, Blattman & Horton, 2006, p. 66) Reception from the community was ‘typically strong and welcoming’. Insults and fear were reported, but are not seen as particularly detrimental to reintegration. In fact, nearly all forced recruits who escaped from the LRA returned to their home communities. This is in spite of the fact that many were forced to commit atrocities against their neighbours, friends
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or even families. Acceptance of ex-combatants as regular members of the community, however, is coupled with resentment of programmes targeted specifically at them, essentially being perceived as a reward for violent activity. These findings undermine the logic behind the huge investment in reintegration support that has become standard in post-conflict recovery programming. SWAY calls for a shift from broad-based psycho-social programming to targeted support for the minority of returnees actually suffering from severe emotional stress. In addition to the relatively stable social structures within the communities that the abductees were returning to, reintegration is helped by a very strong local tradition of spiritual cleansing of returnees as a sufficient condition for community acceptance. The cultural interpretation of stress and trauma often plays itself out on a religious plane and is addressed through the structure of religion (Annan, Blattman & Horton, 2006, p. iv). Currently, few young people have safe access to land (Stites, Mazurana & Carlson, 2006) and therefore to traditional livelihoods. This might change as the ‘decongestion’ of IDP camps continues, especially if they are dismantled entirely in the near future. The lack of opportunity for agriculture has meant that most youth that are economically active perform casual labour such as collecting firewood, carrying loads, quarrying, hawking and vending, construction, riding a boda boda (bicycle taxi), or making bricks and charcoal. Formal employment is rare: ‘just fifteen percent of occupations represent more or less regular (and usually highskilled) employment—operating a repair shop or small business (such as a kiosk), a vocation (including carpentry, tailoring, and driving), or a profession (a teacher, public employee, or health worker)’ (Annan, Blattman & Horton, 2006, p. 37). As a result, the median monthly income of youth in the conflict affected areas is less than US$5 per month. Nevertheless, ‘few youth leave the region to look for work—primarily, it seems, because of few contacts, fewer resources, no language skills, and an emotional tie to their homes’ (p. 35).
5 Implications for Holistic TVET Programming As mentioned, SWAY’s results suggest that many are abducted for relatively short periods of time and their education is only moderately affected. Those abducted lost an average of one year’s schooling. It therefore seems particularly appropriate to aim educational interventions at all youth, because the experience of ‘episodic’ education ‘due to financial pressures arising from poverty, insecurity and lack of family support’ does not differentiate former child soldiers from those never abducted. The major finding of the SWAY study is the need for ‘age-appropriate education and income generating activities’ (Annan, Blattman & Horton, 2006, p. iii). The average youth surveyed only worked seven days each month earning US$3.85 (p. v). SWAY describes the economy as an ‘occupational ladder’ where you have increasing opportunities with increasing skills and training (p. v). Unfortunately, given these dire economic circumstances, the opportunity costs to enrolment in TVET and other educational programming often put them out of reach of many returnees.
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There are still a set of health-related issues that are interfering with returnees integrating into the labour force. Firstly, war related injuries are a formidable problem. Over 15% of the surveyed youth have been injured or are debilitated in some way that affects their ability to work. Some 2% are ‘extremely injured’ and in need of urgent treatment (p. vi). Secondly, poverty related nutrition problems are prevalent with 40% of the surveyed youth only eating one meal a day (p. vi). The devastating effects of HIV/AIDS, both direct and indirect in terms of creating children-headed households, add to the problem (Stites, Mazurana & Carlson, 2006). As the following quotations show, there is much room for improving the provision of TVET as part of the reconstruction process in northern Uganda: Current programming has focused primarily on humanitarian needs and psychosocial support (broadly-defined) but has tended to neglect interventions to support war injuries, education, and economic activities (Annan, Blattman & Horton, 2006, p. 72). The lack of education and the shortage of skilled individuals in most of the study sites constrain livelihood strategies. Many of the schools in and around the camps are barely functioning as educational institutions (Stites, Mazurana & Carlson, 2006, p. 9). Technical/vocational training exists, but is far too limited in its scope. Apprenticeships and the provision of tools upon graduation would go far to assist graduating students in finding and being able to work (WCRWC, 2005, p. 10).
There is, in fact, some experience in Uganda with TVET as part of the DDR and reconstruction effort following the consolidation of NRM’s power in the early 1990s. But the relevance of this for the current situation should not be overstated. The aim then was the formal disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of parts of a regularized guerrilla army. The challenge in northern Uganda, by contrast, involves building sustainable livelihoods for whole communities. Even with regard to ex-combatants, there is little similarity. Abductions and the trickling back of those escaping have been a continuous process over the course of a decade. Only half of those returning ever passed through any kind of reception centre. Some studies of past ‘Reintegration through Training’ programmes can, and should, provide an important foundation to be built upon. The Gulu Vocational and Community Centre, for example, gathered experience during the 1990s with the integration of vocational training for youth with community outreach, adult literacy and peace education (Muhumuza, 1997). It is important to note that the expansion of existing training programmes will not necessarily replicate the economic benefits currently evident, because the present self-selection has a bias towards those who are more entrepreneurial to begin with. Indeed NGO-funded youth appear to benefit less from training than self-funded ones. Unfortunately, ‘we don’t know whether, when and why vocational programs assist youth’ (Annan, Blattman & Horton, 2006, p. 34). Accordingly, the actual effect of training is one of the main areas where further research is needed. Without such research, training interventions might actually do harm as, indeed, such interventions have on previous occasions. Indeed, SWAY reports on a tailoring training programme whose participants fared worse than women left to their own devices (p. 34). Moreover, TVET interventions designed for reconstruction and reintegration need to respect what is an important best practice in non-conflict settings, namely that TVET should not be an academic dead-end. Otherwise what
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is intended as a remedial measure could in fact end up increasing the disadvantage of conflict-affected youth who might otherwise have found their way back into and succeeded in the formal education sector. SWAY’s findings suggests that ‘individuals themselves may be better judges of what skills and opportunities suit their own skill set, interests, and local demands’ (Annan, Blattman & Horton, 2006, p. 74) and that it might be more effective to provide vouchers that could be used towards NGO or private training programmes (see WCRWC, 2005, for a list of these). This, however, leaves open the question of what support NGOs should have when setting up programmes. A liberalized but regulated approach such as the one described above resonates well with government policy. Recent initiatives include the plan to create the Uganda Vocational Education and Training Authority (UVETA). The proposed UVETA is expected to stay away from basic training delivery, but rather focus on promoting financing of and co-ordinating all formal and non-formal training activities (Haan, 2001). Part of the reform process is a Universal Post-Primary Education and Training (UPPET) policy. It includes the provision of equipment to business, technical, vocational education and training (BTVET) institutions, as well as introducing community polytechnics to all districts, including the conflict-affected north, where grants and bursaries are paid for students in secondary and technical schools (Okecho, 2006). This appears to go some way to meeting SWAY’s concern that ‘there is an urgent and immediate need to support broad-based secondary and tertiary schooling’ (Annan, Blattman & Horton, 2006, p. 71) for the most needy. The training needs of youth who were actively involved in the conflict are not strikingly different from those of their peers. Their moderate loss of schooling does not present an insurmountable obstacle to entering regular BTVET, because BTVET programming offered is at the intermediate level and only requires primary education to enter. In the IDP camps in northern Uganda, schooling is effective in the basic sense of achieving relatively high primary enrolment and basic literacy. Enrolment is not far below the national average of 90% of the primary school agegroup enrolled and the literacy rate is around 70%. However, quality in the IDP camps is highly problematic. In Kitgum, 140 primary schools have been displaced into thirty-four learning centres associated with IDP camps. This has resulted in ludicrous congestion with—arithmetically—up to 300 children per teacher and up to 400 per classroom (WCRWC, 2005). Mainstreaming seems appropriate for all but the most heavily traumatized who spent many years in the LRA and lost most or all of their schooling opportunities, for whom, in any case, TVET is not the first concern. Notably, high trauma appears to be associated with community rejection more than with the severity of violence experienced or with lack of education or training opportunities. For these cases, educational and training components of rehabilitation interventions need to be part of a holistic approach. Their relatively small number makes it feasible in principle to offer intensive personal support to these hardship cases. A major source of concern for TVET and livelihood interventions, however, is those who have been disabled as a result of the conflict. Thirteen percent of youth in the SWAY sample were found to possess ‘an injury that impeded them from earning a living’ (Annan, Blattman & Horton, 2006, p. 46).
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Given the traditionally strong social cohesion, community-based rather than individualistic projects appear most promising. An example of a community programme supported effectively by international non-governmental organizations is GUSCO, the Gulu Support the Children Organization (Omona & Matheson, 1998). GUSCO runs reception centres for traumatized children, where they receive vocational training, trauma counselling and family reintegration support. While children only stay in the centres for up to six weeks, reintegration follow-up is conducted regularly until a year after release. On the one hand, GUSCO’s approach demonstrates the effectiveness of integrating TVET into a participatory approach based on local traditions; on the other hand, it also confirms that providing even medium-term follow-up requires the dedication of significant resources and is unlikely to be feasible on a mass scale. The low rate of urbanization means that training in institutional settings runs the risk mentioned in the introduction: it will often run counter to reintegration into home communities for the simple reason that training institutions are geographically located elsewhere and require the trainees’ absence from the very communities where they seek integration. Given the rural economy of northern Uganda, TVET cannot be expected to result in wage employment. If the livelihood options for the majority consist at best of entrepreneurial self-employment (but more realistically of small-scale agriculture or micro-enterprise self-employment), education and training for livelihoods has to reflect this fact (Stavrou & Stewart, 2000; Stites, Mazurana & Carlson, 2006). In northern Uganda it is argued that ‘a return to the land is the only realistic economic option, not just for the long term, but now’ (Annan, Blattman & Horton, 2006, p. 75). There are signs that this return is imminent. Despite the uncertainty over whether the conflict will truly end and warnings of the consequences of premature and forced return in particular, the IDP camps have since the end of 2006 been slated to be dismantled (Uganda-CAN, 2006a). While solving some problems, this promises to create new ones. The prolonged absence and the destruction of traditional boundary markers during the conflict mean that the traditional tenure will be difficult to reinstate. There is also fear of losing land in the face of large-scale commercialization of agriculture. Due to high population growth, there will also be many more people returning to the countryside than originally left it. Land insecurity, therefore, has serious implications both for local livelihoods and the sustainability of peace (Uganda-CAN, 2006b). The promotion of sustainable livelihoods must therefore ‘include innovative strategies for increasing access to land in addition to [...] attention on other income-generating activities’ (Annan, Blattman & Horton, 2006, p. 71).
6 Concluding Remarks The Survey for War-Affected Youth (SWAY) was not designed as a needs assessment for TVET. Yet it does carry important implications for TVET’s role in mitigating the effects of the conflict. This should not surprise us since skills development needs arise out of the reality of people’s lives.
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It is instructive to compare SWAY’s approach with other examples of the effects of the war in northern Uganda, particularly those conducted by the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children (WCRWC) in 2001 and a study by Tuft University’s Feinstein International Center in 2006 (Stites, Mazurana & Carlson, 2006). Both are decidedly neither longitudinal nor randomized, but follow a more qualitative approach. Like SWAY, WCRWC produced conclusions of significance to TVET programming, especially the more recent study with its focus on livelihoods. Together, they drive home the importance of multi-methodology, rigorous research to provide the basis for sound programme design. However, a number of critical questions remain. To begin with, how do environmental factors bear on the feasibility of a ‘larger-scale, randomly sampled, longitudinal survey’? Can we expect it to be possible to replicate SWAY’s success in tracing youth that had migrated in contexts where social networks have broken down to a much larger extent or where the conflict itself is more chaotic, involving a multitude of armed factions and shifting coalitions? Even if it is possible, it might well take a disproportionate effort. Time is another important factor. While a time span of less than a year between the start of the project and the presentation of its Phase I results is in itself impressive, the fact that at least two years will have passed until even both genders have been surveyed is an important constraint. While greater resources can no doubt go some way towards speeding up the physical data collection, this is not necessarily what takes the longest. It is a regrettable—but inescapable—fact that in other contexts where there is a welldefined ‘end’ to the conflict in the form of the signing of a peace treaty, or the collapse of a regime, funds may become available for TVET and other programming that have to be spent more quickly. This is, of course, another reason to conduct assessments while conflict is still on-going, but this in turn risks the situation changing drastically when hostilities cease, because returning refugees and/or demobilized soldiers change the local dynamic, and the labour market in particular. Either way, the profile of those whose livelihoods are to be supported represents only one kind of assessment that is necessary to determine the appropriate initiatives. Not only the demand for training, but also surveys of the availability of training and skills development, and of the demand for graduates and livelihood opportunities are necessary. Reliable quantitative and qualitative assessments are not only crucial to informed programming, but also to provide a baseline against which programme success can eventually be determined. Compared to general education, it would seem that effective planning of TVET programmes for reconstruction is, if anything, even more dependent on reliable data on all the dimensions of demand and supply mentioned above. Capital investments for many kinds of TVET are higher than for general education and, in many ways, TVET is inherently more difficult to build up incrementally. While the physical infrastructure for general education is relatively flexible and can be used for literacy classes and adult education outside school hours, specialized technical or agricultural training institutions lack this generic quality. This provides yet another reason for focusing on the participatory and communitybased promotion of generic skills for livelihoods as ‘life-skills’ in conflict and
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post-conflict contexts, over highly specialized and capital-intensive technical training, at least as an initial response. Such an approach also ties in with the inclusion of life-skills and the integration of health, civic, livelihood and academic content in general school curricula, blurring a potentially unhelpful distinction.
References Amnesty International. 2004. AI report 2004: Uganda. <web.amnesty.org/report2004/ugasummary-eng> Annan, J.; Blattman, C.; Horton, R. 2006. The state of youth and youth protection in northern Uganda: findings from the Survey for War Affected Youth. Kampala: UNICEF. Blattman, C. 2006. The consequences of child soldiering. Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies, Sussex University. <www.hicn.org/papers/wp22.pdf> Buckland, P. 2005. Reshaping the future: education and postconflict reconstruction. Washington, DC: World Bank. Farstad, H. 2002. Integrated entrepreneurship education in Botswana, Kenya and Uganda. Oslo: National Institute of Technology. Haan, H.C. 2001. Training for work in the informal sector: evidence from Eastern and Southern Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank and ILO. Muhumuza, R. 1997. Guns into ox-ploughs: a study on the situation of conflict-affected youth in Uganda and their reintegration into society through training, employment and life skills programmes. Geneva: ILO. Okecho, C.W. 2006. Education in the Northern Uganda. (Paper presented at the Education Sector Review, 25–27 October 2006, Kampala.) <www.education.go.ug/Northern.htm> Omona, G.; Matheson, K.E. 1998. Uganda: stolen children, stolen lives. Lancet, vol. 351, no. 9100, p. 442. Rwabwogo, M.O. 2005. Uganda districts information handbook: expanded edition 2005–2006. Kampala: Fountain Publishers. Stavrou, S.; Stewart, R. 2000. The reintegration of child soldiers and abducted children: a case study of Palaro and Pabbo Gulu District, northern Uganda. In: Bennett, E.; Gamba, V.; van der Merwe, D., eds. ACT against child soldiers in Africa. Pretoria: Institute of Security Studies. Stites, E.; Mazurana, D.; Carlson, K. 2006. Movement on the margins: livelihoods and security in Kitgum District, northern Uganda. Medford, MA: Feinstein International Center. Tumushabe, J. 2006. The politics of HIV/AIDS in Uganda. Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. (Social Policy and Development Programme paper, no. 28.) Uganda Conflict Action Network—Uganda-CAN. 2006a. Minister of relief: all northern Uganda IDP camps to be dismantled by Dec. 31. <www.ugandacan.org/index.php?catid=7&blogid=1> Uganda Conflict Action Network—Uganda-CAN. 2006b. Land in Uganda. <www.ugandacan. org/land.php> Uganda. Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development—MoGLSD. 2002. National Action Plan on Youth. Kampala: MoGLSD. United Nations. Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs—OCHA. 2006. Uganda: most rebels have left northern Uganda for Sudan. IRIN news, 26 September 2006. <www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55722> Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children—WCRWC. 2001. Against all odds: surviving the war on adolescents. Promoting the protection and capacity of Ugandan and Sudanese adolescents in northern Uganda. New York, NY: WCRWC. <www.womenscommission.org/pdf/ug.pdf> Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children—WCRWC. 2005. Learning in a war zone: education in northern Uganda. New York, NY: WCRWC.
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Chapter V.3
Linking TVET to Economic Opportunities in Post-Conflict Liberia Lyle Kane
1 Introduction Many would argue that the success of a technical and vocational educational and training (TVET) programme should be measured by how it improves the employability of its participants. Assuming that this is correct, it is a complex outcome to measure, as there are a number of factors, other than participation in vocational education programmes, that impact upon an individual’s ability to work (as is discussed throughout this section in our argument for a holistic approach to TVET.) Ultimately, however, the goal of TVET is to support participant inclusion into the labour force. Given this fact, the need to link TVET programming to economic opportunities within the local context cannot be over-emphasized. Post-conflict economies, almost without exception, are fragile and poorly functioning. The effects of extended conflict include the destruction of the physical infrastructure, struggling social services and stagnation across most economic sectors. The need for skilled labour in these circumstances is huge, in that the reconstruction process is labour-intensive and requires a skilled labour force. But, the demand for labour, in terms of paid employment opportunities, is usually small given the state of the economy. This chapter will be using the case of Liberia to explore the necessity to structure TVET programming around the labour needs of the target population, while working within the larger reconstruction strategy to negotiate the gap between the need and demand for labour.
2 Politics, Conflict and Education in Liberia On Christmas Day 1989, Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) entered Liberia, marking the beginning of the country’s civil war. In 1990, after a year of brutal and intense fighting, a splinter group of the NPFL captured, tortured and assassinated President Samuel Doe. The president’s death set up a scramble for power between several armed factions that would continue for the next fourteen years (Ellis, 2001).
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After a 1994 ceasefire failed to hold, a negotiated truce in 1997 was followed by elections. With a campaign slogan of ‘He killed my mother, he killed my father, but I will vote for him’, Charles Taylor was elected head of State. President Taylor was accused of widespread corruption, supporting the conflict in Sierra Leone and engaging in hostilities with Guinea. In 2002, the simmering tension between Taylor and his opposition parties within the country boiled over and the civil war resumed. Under increasing pressure from the most dominant opposition faction, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), Charles Taylor vacated the presidency and went into exile in Nigeria in August 2003. On 11 September 2003, the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) was established. UNMIL and the Economic Community of West-African States (ECOWAS) supported an interim government until the country was prepared to hold democratic elections. Much of the international community saw the interim government as incompetent or corrupt. A report to the Secretary-General of the United Nations stated: ‘The financial administration of the National Transitional Government of Liberia continues to be weak with an archaic internal control system and a virtually non-existent external oversight system’ (UN News Centre, 2005). As a result, very little was accomplished over the next two years. In November 2005, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was elected president of Liberia, the first female head of State on the African continent. A former World Bank economist, President Johnson-Sirleaf is well-respected by the international community, and her policies to date have been widely regarded as transparent and sound (see, for example, World Bank, 2006a). While strong in terms of policy, the current government has faced a huge obstacle in terms of access to reliable funding. Despite continuing economic problems, Liberia has come a long way in the last year: in 2006, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established; Charles Taylor was imprisoned by the Special Court for Sierra Leone and is in The Hague awaiting his trial for war crimes scheduled to begin in 2008; and Monrovia has electricity for the first time in over a decade.
3 What Is the Legacy of the Liberian Civil War? By the time it was over, the Liberian Civil War had claimed the lives of over 250,000 people (USAID, 2006), mostly civilians, and had led to the complete breakdown of social, legal and security services. The complete breakdown of the education system has left a ‘lost generation’ of youth (World Bank, 2006c). The destruction of infrastructures and the psychological trauma associated with living in a country so steeped in violence for such an extended period of time has had an impact on every Liberian. With over 850,000 externally displaced refugees and much of the remaining population internally displaced, the Liberian conflict was the primary humanitarian crisis in West Africa for much of the 1990s (UNMIL, 2006a). Displaced communities were either relocated to refugee camps, if they were fortunate, or fled to impromptu squatter camps, often in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia. The pre-war
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population in the capital was somewhere in the region of 300,000–350,000; during the conflict the population tripled to approximately 1 million (UNMIL, 2006a). In the vain hope of escaping the war, those who fled to the city ended up caught in the crossfire, as many of the later battles of the war were fought on the streets of Monrovia. Those fortunate enough to be taken out of Liberia to refugee camps in Nigeria and Ghana, aside from being in a more secure environment, often had access to educational programmes and other support structures. Many of them returned after the war in a much better position than their counterparts who were left behind and, for the most part, did not have access to such support. Still, these populations were often traumatized from the experience of resettlement, and in need of support in terms of recovering their livelihoods after the conflict. They also faced the resentment and stigmatization of being seen as having ‘abandoned’ their communities. Those who were displaced within Liberia were often afforded little support. During the final stages of the war, Monrovia had essentially become a large refugee camp. Caught between the various factions, these at-risk populations lived on a battlefield for much of the conflict. Many people were forced to join the fighting to avoid becoming victims themselves: And, the war hit in the night. So, everybody went, and nobody see who is who. We just go out in the darkness. I had to find my way to go that side, and I went along with a group. I didn’t know where my mother was or my father. So, I just walk alone with a group and when I went, these guys I was walking with, so they took me along. I used to help them, do some things for them. They send me, I go there. And, when . . . the NPFL came, they say, ‘you know you have to be a man too. You can’t just be with us.’ I went and got . . . I was forced to take up gun. Because, I didn’t know nobody to where I went. I was like . . . something like I didn’t know what I was doing. But, I didn’t see nobody that I know. Nobody. No family around. So, I was forced to fight for survival. At that time, if the people come, if you are frightened, you are forced to go and live in the bush. Yeah, because they come in the town, four hundred men with truck and gun and bullet, and they take us. So, this is how I become soldier (W., former NPFL child soldier in interview with author, 12 April 2006).
The number of active combatants who fought during the war is estimated to be well over 100,000. The estimates of children who were actively involved in combat over the course of the war are as high as 50,000–70,000 (Singer, 2001). These young people are now facing a myriad of problems: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), debilitating injuries, drug addiction, alienation from the community, a lack of education and skills, and no stable community to return to. Women were particularly brutalized during the war. Sexual violence was so prevalent that 60 to 80% of the women who remained in the country were victims of rape or sexual assault (Singer, 2001). This has added to the existence of extremely unhealthy gender dynamics in post-conflict Liberia, including widespread prostitution. The HIV rate is somewhere between 8 and 26%, birth-rates are high at 6.8, infant mortality is almost 16% of live births, the literacy rate for women is at 39% (as opposed to 72% for men) and there is a 32% gap between primary school enrolment rates for boys and girls (UNMIL, 2006a).
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4 Post-Conflict Recovery With the end of the conflict and the establishment of UNMIL in 2003, Liberia has been the recipient of vast amounts of aid over recent years. Virtually every major development agency in the world has an office in the country providing emergency relief, refugee relocation, education, food and nutrition, disarmament, small-scale psychological counselling, reconstruction, and political and economic support. This influx of aid has had positive and negative effects on the situation in the country. While some of the programmes have been successful and have benefited the population, an emerging micro-economy, due to the presence of a large aid-worker population, has raised the cost of living for Liberians. Also, a ‘hand-out’ culture has been created, with an over-reliance on the temporary scaffolding of aid. In addition, aid packages often come with an agreement that a certain amount of materials and labour will be imported from the donating country. This practice further limits the already scarce employment opportunities for the local population. Liberia’s most recent disarmament, demobilization, reintegration and rehabilitation (DDRR) process began rapidly in December of 2003 and proceeded in three phases, the third and final of which continues in remote areas at the time of writing (UNMIL, 2006b). According to UNMIL, which led the DDRR process, 100,000 former combatants have been disarmed, including 12,000 women and 11,780 children (UNMIL, 2006a). Of the demobilized ex-combatants, 94,000 were given access to rehabilitation and reintegration programmes funded by the UNDP DDRR Trust Fund and by USAID, the European Commission and UNICEF, which often included skills and/or vocational training components. This DDRR process was preceded by earlier attempts in 1994 and 1997, which collapsed when the conflict resumed. Many of the ex-combatants who were demobilized in these earlier processes were re-recruited into fighting forces (United Nations Office of the Special Advisor on Africa, 2005). In terms of the continuing refugee problem, as of June 2006 there were still 163,880 Liberian refugees in camps in neighbouring countries. About 100,000 refugees were expected to return by the end of 2006. In addition, there are currently over 10,000 refugees from other countries currently living in camps in Liberia. Most of these refugees are from Cˆote d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone, but others come from as far away as Sudan and Iraq (UNMIL, 2006a).
5 What Role Has TVET Played in the Recovery Process? Liberia has an incredibly young population with an average life span if 41.5 years and 43% of the population is under the age of 15 (World Bank, 2007). Of the 11,780 children demobilized through DDRR, 6,028 have benefited from educational programmes: 48% of these accessed formal education; 30% were involved in agricultural vocational training; 29% enrolled in other vocational training; 6% joined apprenticeship programmes; and 4% participated in public works (UNMIL, 2006a). That the majority of the ‘lost generation’ is choosing to access vocational-related
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training options rather than formal education demonstrates the need to develop sound and effective programming to meet this demand. Much of the TVET programming in Liberia has exclusively targeted ex-combatants, which has caused a certain amount of resentment among the civilian population. In May 2006, UNMIL reported that 65,893 ex-combatants had completed or were currently participating in training and education programmes; approximately 13,000 of these were women. Much of the vocational training provided by the DDRR has been sub-contracted to local and international non-governmental organizations, including Don Bosco, Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), Liberia Opportunities Industrialization Centres (LOIC) and United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). The training provided tends to focus on construction skills, including masonry, roof-tiling, general construction and plumbing, but also includes agriculture and business skills. TVET programming geared towards women included cooking, domestic skills and small business management— programming potentially reinforcing stereotypical gender roles. Much of the programming was implemented through an ‘Arms for Training’ campaign wherein a collection site was set up and vouchers for training programmes were exchanged for arms. Unfortunately, there seems to have been inadequate planning in most of the phases of this initiative. It was crazy, ten times as many people showed up at the collection site as were planned for, so they were sending people away. They were sending people with guns away! And then, they had not warned the training centres that people were coming, and had not set up all the funding for them. It was an absolute mess. Even the training programmes themselves were ridiculous. People simply can’t find work in the fields they were trained in (M., UNMIL employee, interview with author, 18 April 2006).
While the chaos related to the disarmament stage of the programme is disturbing, of particular concern here is the lack of positive outcomes to the TVET programmes. If participants are not able to employ their learned skills in the marketplace, earn a living and improve their livelihoods, then what is the point of the training? How do you bridge the gap between training and opportunity?
6 What Is Economic and Manpower Forecasting? There is a dialogical relationship between TVET and economic growth in that growth targets cannot be met without the necessary supply of skilled labour (Parnes, 1962), and the development of a labour force is pointless without existing or future employment opportunities. The question then becomes: how do you plan TVET programming around the expected labour needs within the given economic context? Mentioning the phrases ‘economic forecasting’ or ‘manpower forecasting’ naturally arouses feelings of dread in anyone familiar with the unfulfilled hopes and dreams affiliated with the forecasting projects of the 1960s. Despite this, both developments in the field and the curbed enthusiasm of the last several decades have created
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forecasting models that have the potential to play an integral role in TVET planning in post-conflict reconstruction. As a result of its early failures, economic forecasting has been relegated to the fringe of academia and practice for much of the last thirty years. A 1994 study showed that only 17% of academic economic programmes offered a course in economic forecasting (Hanke & Weigland, 1994), despite the claim three years earlier that ‘more and more companies are recognizing the importance of formal forecasting. At present, the demand for trained forecasters is far greater than the supply’ (Jain, 1991, p. 2). As in most economic fields, forecasting is separated into macro-economic forecasting and micro-economic forecasting. As would be expected, macro-economic forecasting is concerned with government and monetary policy, interest rates, and multipliers within the national context. Micro-economic forecasting focuses on competitive markets, profit maximization, and pricing and costs within a specific institution or sector (Loomis & Cox, 2000, p. 352). Much of the history of economic forecasting is led by structural models, based on the popular economic theory of the day. The problem with this is that when the structural theory becomes unpopular, so too does the corresponding model. Non-structural models put themselves forward as not being bound to any particular school of thought, but this is as much a weakness as it is a strength in that it fails to employ the positive aspects of grounded economic theory. Therefore, the norm has become a blending of structural and non-structural approaches to forecasting. The hallmark of macroeconomic forecasting over the next 20 years will be a marriage of the best of nonstructural and structural approaches, facilitated by advances in numerical and simulation techniques that will help macroeconomists to solve, estimate, simulate, and yes, forecast with rich models (Diebold, 1998, p. 189).
Looking past the theoretical issues, the practical obstacles to creating reliable forecasting models are intimidating, particularly within the confines of the unstable economies of the developing world, and even more so in post-conflict economies. Data collection is often weak in developing countries, and perhaps simply nonexistent in post-conflict contexts. It is necessary to factor in the potentialities for technological advances, political and policy changes, and price and market shifts (Ahamad & Scott, 1972); and it is often difficult to accurately estimate start dates of potential projects, and the specific manpower needs for planned projects (Kwak, Garrett & Barone, 1977). The solution to some of these obstacles has been to accept the fact that, at best, economic forecasting can act as a guide rather than an exact measure of the future of the economy. This can be seen in the popularity of stochastic forecasting models, which leaves room for a number of different potentialities. Economists have even suggested using an uncertainty interval of 50% rather than the standard 95% when applying forecasting models (Granger, 1996), on the understanding that forecasting cannot be an exact science. Data collection is another matter altogether. Making any kind of estimate about the future of an economy, and linking those estimates to a practical and contextually
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appropriate set of programmes, requires an enormous amount of data, both quantitative and qualitative. Unfortunately, particularly in post-conflict situations, this need is often not met due to a lack of availability, a lack of effort or to the practical and financial obstacles presented by gathering data. It must be noted that safety concerns for data collectors in times of war are significant. If data is collected once the conflict has come to an end then the implementation of much-needed programming is potentially delayed while the process of data collection, tabulation and analysis is carried out. For example, in 2005, 43,000 demobilized and disarmed ex-combatants were prevented from beginning the vocational education programming phases of the DDRR in Liberia due to poor planning and funding constraints. As a result, UNMIL had to make an international call for increased funding while these at-risk youth waited, creating a potentially volatile situation. The same issues could arise while assessments or data collection exercises are taking place. Data collection concerning the Liberian economy has been carried out, but in a relatively perfunctory manner. The World Bank and other agencies have collected data and made estimates on the ‘big picture’ of the Liberian economy: gross domestic product (GDP), international debt, per capita income, etc. But, in terms of assessing the potential of the Liberian marketplace and creating reliable forecasting models that can be used to determine prospective opportunities for Liberians, very little has been done.
7 What Is the State of Liberia’s Economy? According to the latest World Bank data (2007), agriculture makes up 66% of Liberia’s US$548.4 million national GDP, industry makes up 15.8%, and services make up the remaining 18.2%. The main products in the agricultural sector are coffee, cocoa, rice, cassava, palm oil, sugarcane, yams and okra. While rice is the main staple of the Liberian diet, it is still being imported in most cases. There are continuing efforts to establish rice farms within the country. Much of the industrial sector is based on the production of iron ore, rubber manufacturing and construction materials. Two of the major profitable exports, diamonds and timber, were sanctioned by the United Nations until they met international standards of transparency. The sanctions put on the diamond sector still remain in place, while reforms in the timber industry have allowed the lifting of sanctions in this sector. There is also a substantial shipping industry that takes advantage of Liberia’s sizeable port. Relaxed shipping regulations and low fees have made Liberia a popular destination for importers. Despite a fair amount of economic potential in a number of sectors, unemployment is pervasive at 85% (World Bank, 2006a). There are several factors that must be considered in any discussion of the economy in Liberia. Much of the physical infrastructure of the country was destroyed during the war, including manufacturing plants, agricultural sites, many of the rubber plantations and the road network. Secondly, the aid industry has deeply impacted the economy by driving up prices on housing and services. In a country where the per-capita income is less than US$2 a day (World Bank, 2006b), a one-bedroom
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apartment in Monrovia can rent for upwards of $1,500 a month. Thirdly, there is a sizeable immigrant community that has a strong influence across several sectors (including the lucrative rice trade), and at least some of these profits are being shipped abroad. Also, as nearly one-third of the national population has relocated into the capital and away from the agricultural lands, this will drastically affect the nature of the economy in the coming years. Lastly, there is an increasing population of Liberians who are returning home from Europe and the United States to set up businesses. Until very recently, Liberia was seen as a pariah in terms of international economic assistance. First there was conflict throughout much of the 1990s, then with a former warlord as president, and recently with an interim government that was widely seen as incompetent, Liberia remains in dire financial circumstances, with over US$2.7 billion in international debt. But, with the election of President Johnson-Sirleaf, and her experience working at the World Bank, the international financial institutions are becoming more supportive. During his visit to Liberia on 21 and 22 July, the President of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz, pledged the Bank’s commitment to the economic development of Liberia and agreed to provide assistance for labour-intensive public works schemes aimed at building key infrastructure and generating employment (United Nations. Security Council, 2006).
8 How Has TVET Been Linked to the Economy? Planned economies tend to have a much higher success rate in terms of economic forecasting, and linking needed-manpower estimates to employment opportunities than market economies (Youdi & Hinchliffe, 1985). This is intuitive given that planned economies are able to predict labour demands in each sector to a greater degree, and given that the size and investment in these sectors are often predetermined and dictated by the State. Post-conflict scenarios offer an opportunity to take advantage of this same concept, given that the post-conflict economy is often initially driven by planned projects funded by international aid. In 2006, the Liberian Government and the World Bank agreed upon a US$68 million grant focusing on emergency rehabilitation and repair of critical infrastructure, utilities maintenance (roads, water and sewage), and construction of new community facilities (schools and health clinics.) The secondary goal of the grant is to create employment opportunities for Liberians (World Bank, 2006c). This is not the first attempt by the Liberian government and the aid community to develop employment-generating projects. According to UNMIL, approximately 60,000 of the 65,893 ex-combatants who were trained in their TVET initiatives are said to have participated in short-term employment schemes (World Bank, 2006c). Much of the TVET training linked to employment initiatives is geared towards construction, derived from a vision that the newly trained ex-combatants would be able to rebuild the physical infrastructure of the country destroyed during the war. However, this vision resulted in limited, very short-term opportunities upon completion of vocational training, and many of the participants struggled to use
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the skills they learned during TVET in the market-place. The problem many face is an overabundance of trained labour in a given field. This becomes particularly problematic when considering the vulnerable state of the trainees who cannot find work upon completion of their training: See, many houses don’t have toilet, don’t have sink. So, it’s not easy to find work in plumbing, you know? . . . Because most of Liberia doesn’t have plumbing (K., former LURD child soldier, trained as a plumber during DDRR, interview with author, 12 April 2006).
UNMIL initiated some small-scale projects to address unemployment through its ‘quick-impact scheme’, which commissioned minor building and infrastructure projects that temporarily employed 900 ex-combatants and community members (UNMIL, 2006a). USAID also implemented a public works project, primarily geared towards building roads, which temporarily employed 10,000 ex-combatants and other unemployed Liberians producing 500,000 days of paid work (USAID, 2006). Reception of this project was mixed, due to the low rate of pay offered and, once again, they offered only short-term employment. Recent initiatives by the new government appear to be attempting to bridge the gap between training and employment through several job-creation strategies. In 2006 two major programmes were introduced with the support to the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the government of the Netherlands: the Liberia Emergency Employment Programme (LEEP), designed to offer temporary employment in infrastructure development, and the Liberia Employment Action Programme (LEAP), aimed at capacity-building with the goal of long-term employment
9 Conclusions There is no doubt that Liberia has been, and continues to be, in a fragile situation in terms of development. The economy remains in shambles, there are hosts of lingering social problems, and there is a marked under-supply of skilled labour. Properly managed, TVET has the potential to increase the capacity of Liberia to address some of its economic and social woes. But, TVET programming needs to be designed for, and organized around, the contextual economic opportunities. Estimating these prospective opportunities is no small task. Problems of data collection, assessing existing skills, and predicting the future capabilities of various sectors in terms of infrastructural capacity are just a few of the difficulties facing post-conflict societies in general and Liberia in particular. Nonetheless, the application of economic and manpower forecasting models has the potential of creating a framework for TVET programming to be designed in such a way as to maximize its contextual effectiveness. There has been very little diversity in the TVET programmes associated with the Liberian DDRR, with the greatest focus on construction-related industries. This emphasis in construction skills, while well-intentioned, struggled to improve the livelihoods of its participants and often flooded particular labour sectors while others
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remained under represented. How many plumbers and masons can an economy absorb? This problem is amplified by the fact that the aid system, which is responsible for much of the large-scale post-conflict construction projects, often imports specialized labour, leaving the recently trained workers with even fewer opportunities in an economy plagued by very high rates of unemployment. The first step in linking training to economic opportunities is a close examination of current and future market opportunities. Linking TVET to planned projects is one way to achieve at least short-term employment for recent trainees, but the long-term success of the economy depends on a skilled labour force that can take advantage of the different sectors within a market economy. As mentioned above, Liberia has a number of attractive resources. It is rich in minerals and timber; there is a large shipping port; the climate is ideal for rubber, coffee, rice and other agricultural products; and the recent advances in information technology open up the potential for new service-oriented markets. Diversifying the implementation of TVET has the potential of producing a much more productive private sector. In addition to diversifying TVET training, there are a number of support structures that have the potential to promote participant inclusion in the economy. One way to support improved livelihoods is entrepreneurship training and micro-credit schemes. Another avenue that should be explored is partnerships between TVET programmes and the local and international private sector. The potential for client generation, and access to expertise for training purposes, is appealing. On the downside, partnerships are often difficult to establish and businesses may be resistant to investing in a potentially unstable political and economic climate. Post-conflict scenarios offer both limitations and opportunities in terms of economic growth. The challenges that war-affected populations face should not be under-estimated, but the potential to reshape the social and economic structures are exciting. When properly contextualized, TVET has the potential to aid in this process of post-conflict recovery by building the capacity of the population to improve their livelihoods and take control of their own national development.
References Ahamad, B.; Scott, K.F.N. 1972. A note on sensitivity in manpower forecasting. The journal of the Royal Statistical Society, vol. 135, no. 3, pp. 385–92. Diebold, F.X. 1998. The past, present and future of macroeconomic forecasting. The journal of economic perspectives, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 175–92. Ellis, S. 2001. Mask of anarchy: the destruction of Liberia and the religious dimension of an African civil war. New York, NY: NYU Press. Granger, C.W.J. 1996. Can we improve the perceived quality of economic forecasts? Journal of applied econometrics, vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 455–73. Hanke, J.; Weigland, P. 1994. What are business schools doing to educate forecasters? Journal of economic education, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 175–92. Jain, C.L. 1991. Ivy League business schools far behind the time. Journal of business forecasting, vol. 13, no. 4, p. 2. Kwak, N.K.; Garrett, W.; Barone, S. 1977. A stochastic model of demand forecasting for technical manpower planning. Management science, vol. 23, no. 10.
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Loomis, D.G.; Cox, J.E. 2000. A course in economic forecasting: rationale and content. The journal of economic education, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 349–57. Parnes, H.S. 1962. Forecasting educational needs for economic and social development. Paris: OECD. Singer, P.W. 2001. Children at war. New York, NY: Pantheon Books. United Nations Mission in Liberia—UNMIL. 2006a. Accomplishments and challenges. <www.unmil.org/documents/insideunmil/presskit0806.pdf> United Nations Mission in Liberia—UNMIL. 2006b. Disarmament, demobilization, reintegration and rehabilitation. United Nations News Centre. 2005. Annan calls for urgent aid to Liberia’s security agenda; sanctions are not lifted. <www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=16878&Cr=liberia&Cr1=> United Nations Office of the Special Advisor on Africa. 2005. Disarmament, demobilization, reintegration (DDR) and stability in Africa. Conference Report. Freetown, June 21–23, 2005. <www.un.org/africa/osaa/reports/DDR%20Sierra%20Leone%20March%202006.pdf> United Nations. Security Council. 2006. Twelfth Progress Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Mission in Liberia. (Document S/2006/743.) USAID. 2006. Sub-Saharan Africa: Liberia. <www.usaid.gov/locations/sub-saharan africa/ countries/liberia> World Bank. 2006a. Liberia’s President affirms strong partnership with bank, urges women to strive for development. <web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK: 20867632∼menuPK:51062077∼pagePK:34370∼piPK:34424∼theSitePK:4607,00.html> World Bank. 2006b. Liberia: data and statistics. <web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/ COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/LIBERIAEXTN/0,,menuPK:356220∼pagePK:141132∼piPK: 141109∼theSitePK:356194,00.html> World Bank. 2006c. Address to the joint session of the Liberian legislature. Paul Wolfowitz, 21 July 2006. <web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTABOUTUS/ORGANIZATION/ EXTOFFICEPRESIDENT/0,,contentMDK:21001978∼menuPK:64343258∼pagePK: 51174171∼piPK:64258873∼theSitePK:1014541,00.html> World Bank. 2007. Liberia at a glance. <devdata.worldbank.org/AAG/lbr aag.pdf> Youdi, R.V.; Hinchliffe, K., eds. 1985. Forecasting skilled manpower needs: the experience of eleven countries. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP.
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Chapter V.4
Deepening the Divide: The Differential Impact of Protracted Conflict on TVET Versus Academic Education in Palestine Bilal Barakat
1 Introduction The effect a conflict has on local TVET need not be the same as its effect on other kinds of education. While this is almost tautological, it is worthwhile examining just how pronounced the difference can be and, by implication, how potentially misleading it would be in conflict and post-conflict settings to generalize from the state of the education sector as a whole to the state of TVET. In recent years, education generally in and after conflict has been the focus of greater attention than ever before. Given that TVET is often partly incorporated into general education, this means that TVET after conflict is increasingly considered from an educational point-of-view, in addition to the labour-market perspective on economic reconstruction that has dominated in the past. This attention brings with it the promise of best practices and lessons learned for reconstruction in other educational sub-sectors, but TVET’s distinct character has important implications. In some ways, TVET might be expected to be particularly vulnerable to the effects of conflict. It requires more specialized teachers who are difficult to replace if they flee, are killed or injured, or recruited into the armed forces. The classrooms or workshops often involve expensive equipment that is likely to be looted or damaged. In protracted conflicts it might be nearly impossible to obtain and maintain up-to-date equipment in the first place. While there is little hard data on the matter, we might expect a typical TVET student to be more likely to drop-out or participate in hostilities, especially in places where TVET has acquired a reputation for being a second-class option for those who failed for whatever reason to succeed in more academic streams. It also suffers indirect effects. Economic collapse caused by violent or lingering conflict undermines TVET’s ostensible rationale, namely the premise that the vocation being trained for will actually offer a livelihood. These notions require careful empirical investigation in a variety of cases in order to yield recommendations for educational reconstruction that are specific to TVET. The aim of this chapter is to illustrate this differential impact of conflict on TVET compared to general education using the example of Palestine. This is an apt example because the difference between the development under conflict of TVET and other parts of the Palestinian education sector has been particularly pronounced. This example also highlights another important point. Among Palestinians, TVET R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 V.4, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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has been popularly perceived to have a different standing in relation to both national aspirations and personal emancipation than academic education. Under protracted, ‘low intensity’ conflict, these issues are of great importance. In fact, in such a situation the amplification of this perceived qualitative difference between TVET and academic education can be more critical than the difference in degree in physical vulnerability. The first section of this chapter provides a brief overview of the interaction of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with Palestinian education as a whole. Far from merely being ‘interrupted’ by conflict, throughout the past century Palestinian education has been shaped structurally, ideologically and pedagogically by it. Against this backdrop, the second section highlights how the conflict’s impact on TVET contrasts with its effect on other kinds of education. While higher education, for instance, was boosted by its perceived and actual connection with the nationalist project, even in the absence of clear economic incentives, many forms of TVET have traditionally been neglected and have been particularly vulnerable faced with the effects of economic crises. The concluding remarks finally depart from the most important observations of the specific case of Palestine to propose questions of more general interest to the problem of TVET in conflict.
2 The Entanglement of Education and Conflict in Palestine The history of Palestinian education reflects the history of the conflict over Palestine itself (for an overview, see Pappe, 2006; Kimmerling & Migdal, 2003). Before the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, the Palestinians had never controlled their own education system. Within historic Palestine, this control rested first with the Ottomans, then the British and later Israel; Palestinian refugees beyond the borders are subject to the curricula of the respective host countries, even though in their case it is implemented by the United Nations. Under all these external powers, educational provision was closely linked with the struggle over control of the land. The Ottomans long neglected secondary education and insisted on the unpopular medium of Turkish for instruction (even for the teaching of Arabic!), only to promise reform of both issues during the First World War to shore up Arab support for their failing campaign. During the British Mandate that followed the Ottoman defeat, on the one hand, the increase in schooling helped spread Arab nationalism by bringing young educated men to the countryside as teachers; on the other hand, control over education served the British as both a carrot and a stick to extort local co-operation (Al-Haj, 1995). At the same time, the Arab population keenly felt competition with the education of the Jewish settlers, who were free to link the education of their children with their nationalist ambitions. The Arabs on the other hand felt that their own schools were prevented by the British from playing an equivalent role (Tibawi, 1956; Shepherd, 1999). In popular lore, the Arab defeat in 1948 was attributed in large part to the Zionists’ superior education and training (Abu-Lughod, 2000; Graham-Brown, 1984). To what extent
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the Palestinian refugees’ educational achievements in the following decades were spurred on by this conviction and the motivation to overcome this weakness, or were a result of the external circumstances, including a lack of alternative opportunities and favourable access to Arab universities, remains open to debate. Undisputed, however, is the fact that their educational achievements were remarkable. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from the start regarded education as a priority and the schools it operated in and near the refugee camps were instrumental in achieving near universal primary enrolment for both genders—at a time when the populations of host and other countries in the region were largely illiterate (Yusuf, 1979). Within a generation, participation in higher education reached levels that were among the highest in developing countries. As a result, educated Palestinians made up large parts of the teaching force and other professional sectors in the Arab Gulf region up until the 1960s (Mazawi, 1994; Badran, 1980). The reputation of Palestinians as the most educated Arabs was cemented; the explanation of their enthusiasm as the natural result of their experience of dispossession and the recognition of education as an asset that could not be taken away became part of Palestinian folklore. Below we will examine to what extent this was true of academic education alone. While for some the outcome of the 1948 War resulted in improved access to education and labour markets for the highly skilled, after the war of 1967, when Israel gained control over the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the consequences for education were uniformly harmful (Velloso, 2002). For over two decades, school development was neglected despite tremendous population growth. The curriculum was censored. For a long time, the education sector was controlled by military personnel in uniform and teacher appointments were under tight control of the security services and were abused for the recruitment of collaborators. In East Jerusalem, there was an attempt to incorporate schools into the Israeli ‘Arab Education’ sector to underline Israeli claims of sovereignty over the city (Masarweh & Salhout, 2002). This attempt failed due to popular non-co-operation; within a short time, most parents had moved their children out of the Israelicontrolled schools and into Islamic charity schools, forcing the Israeli authorities to reverse their policy and reintroduce the censored Jordanian curriculum. While school development was stifled, the decades following 1967 did see the rise of Palestinian universities. These were barely tolerated by the Israeli military authorities, partly because they had no administrative recourse to prevent their legal establishment as private institutions and partly because it was hoped that the universities would offer young Palestinians an alternative to membership in guerrilla forces or the PLO (Sullivan, 1994). Instead, the universities fermented and became symbols of Palestinian nationalism as the only ‘public’ institutions not under direct Israeli control (Kimmerling & Migdal, 2003; Sullivan, 1994). As a result, violent and bureaucratic harassment by the authorities increased, culminating in expulsions of students, lecturers and university officials, and complete forced closures for months on end (Baramki, 1987; Assaf, 1997). These closures reached their peak during the first popular uprising in the Occupied Territories—the Intifada—during the late 1980s and early 1990s (Usher, 1991;
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Barber, 1997). Education was effectively taken hostage as a punitive measure by the Israeli military authorities. At times, all educational institutions were closed, ostensibly for security reasons. The security rationale was, however, taken ad absurdum by extending closures to primary schools and kindergartens; even teaching activities in private homes were outlawed under the threat of a prison term. These constraints fermented the creative development of alternative and distance education materials and teaching methods by progressive Palestinian educationalists (Mahshi & Bush, 1989; Fasheh, 1990). Clandestine ‘neighbourhood schools’ allowed for experimentation with alternative teaching approaches that would have encountered resistance in the formal sector. Later, these experiences were to have an important influence on the development of the first Palestinian school curriculum. As a result of prolonged closures, the school system was close to collapse when the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) took control of the education sector after the Oslo Accords of 1993 (Assaf, 1997). For several reasons, the education sector continued to be one of the most important arenas for the struggle over political control. Reflecting the combination of an extremely youthful population with high enrolment, a majority of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were directly affected by the education sector as students, teachers and administrators or parents. The fact that universities represented one of the few areas of local independent capacity, they were reluctant to cede this independence to a Palestinian Authority governed principally by returning exiles (Hanafi & Tabar, 2005). And, finally, education was one of the sectors with the greatest international involvement and scrutiny, partly because it was considered ‘safe to invest in’ and because of the controversy generated by a disinformation campaign accusing Palestinian textbooks of incitement (Brown, 2001, 2002). Educational attainment remained relatively high and university enrolment continued to reach new records, despite the fact that it offered no substantial economic returns in the depressed economic environment of the Occupied Territories. The lack of employment opportunities also meant women’s participation in the labour force remained very low even by regional standards, which might partly explain the exceptional fact that women’s education continued to have only a moderate lowering effect on fertility (Goujon, 1997). Having maintained a leading role in terms of educational attainment in the Arab world throughout decades of conflict and occupation, since the beginning of the second Intifada in 2001, past gains are seriously at risk of being lost. A second generation is growing up with severely disrupted schooling and, when in school, is being taught by teachers who lost years of their own schooling during the first Intifada. Israeli military incursions into Palestinian population centres often result in physical damage to educational infrastructure, as well as the injury or death of students and teachers. Road blocks and other mobility restrictions (including the separation wall) represent a formidable obstacle to attendance (Moughrabi, 2004; Palestinian Authority. MoEHE, 2005; DSP, 2005). Since the international de facto embargo of the Palestinian government elected in early 2006, the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and Gaza in particular, has suffered further dramatic
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deterioration, not least long teacher strikes over unpaid salaries. The implications of these developments cannot yet be fully ascertained. Looking back over the past century, it is clear that the education of Palestinians has not merely been constrained by the unresolved conflict over Palestine, but defined by it. It is equally clear that its future is equally tied up with the fate of a political settlement.
3 ‘Cinderella’ in Times of Conflict Clearly, Palestinian education as a whole has affected and has been fundamentally affected by the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, the impact on different branches of the education system has varied. Simplistically speaking, higher education received a quantitative boost, both in terms of students and in terms of local university development (although quality was naturally negatively affected); primary enrolment leapt ahead of the regional competition, both because of UNRWA’s provision to refugees and because of popular demand for education as an asset that could not be appropriated. The effect on TVET development has, however, been unambiguously detrimental. Already during the British Mandate, TVET for the Arab Palestinians was neglected, a neglect that was interpreted by some as deliberate. The enthusiasm for ‘local arts and crafts’ on the part of some British officials made them ill-disposed towards the teaching of modern industrial skills (Shepherd, 1999). The provision of specialized agricultural education in the Arab sector was all but non-existent and local initiatives, such as maintaining a school garden, were often the result of individual committed head-teachers. As the conflict with the Zionist project was very much seen as a conflict over land, this neglect was interpreted by the Arab leadership as a deliberate attempt to limit their competitiveness vis-`a-vis the technologically advanced Zionist agricultural enterprises. After the 1948 War, UNRWA did from the start include TVET among the educational services it offered Palestinian refugees (Faherty, 1959), but it was never popular and to this day its TVET offerings remain inadequate in relation to the size and needs of the target population. In fact, critics in the past accused UNRWA of having biased its educational provision towards helping top achievers gain access to universities (Weighill, 1995). While the number of higher education students among Palestinian refugees was comparatively high, they were still a small minority overall and this ‘elitist’ approach left the large mass of refugees with an education but limited opportunities. This outcome is hardly surprising. The refugees’ demand for education was driven by the priorities of the bourgeoisie among them, who already had experience in the modern sector and who, keen to stay ahead, devoted ‘all their resources to making an economic recovery and to ensuring that their children obtained a university education’ (Badran, 1980, p. 52). Ironically, under the British Mandate, TVET in the form of agricultural education suffered because it was regarded as more relevant to effective Arab claims to the
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land than academic education which was easily ‘sanitized’ by the mandate authority (Tibawi, 1956). In stark contrast, in the post-1948 period the contribution of education to the nationalist project came to be seen instead in the sum of individual excellence, which was associated strictly with academic attainment. While many Palestinian students did tend to see their pursuit of education as part of the national project, it is debatable whether this was their main motivation. It could be argued that for the nationalists to politically endorse individual higher education as part of the ‘liberation through education’ slogan was to make a virtue of necessity and to lend patriotic respectability to educational choices motivated rather by individual considerations. By contrast, TVET was seen neither as a desirable option in terms of personal advancement nor as a valuable contribution to the national project. In fact, it even appeared to some as undermining collective aspirations. In a context where it is not highly regarded, TVET’s sole attraction is the prospect of improved employment prospects. In order to achieve these, it must correspond to the de facto economic context. But to adapt to a situation where economic development is deliberately stifled, as has been the case under Israeli occupation (Roy, 1995), can be understood as capitulating before the status quo: ‘to restrict the growth of higher education to suit the needs of an exploited and artificially depressed economy would be nothing less than social strangulation. The short-term effects might be defensible (i.e. to discourage emigration), but the long-range impact on society may be disastrous’ (Hallaj, 1980, p. 87) The class-based counter-argument was sure to follow: Understandable as such a viewpoint may be, we should not ignore the way it allows a hypothetical future disaster to eclipse current actual disaster, such as Israeli exploitation of low-skilled Palestinian workers [. . .] It is through such weighting of priorities that so much Palestinian money has been mobilized for student scholarships, research institutes and universities, and so little for training programs for the poor (Sayigh, 1985, p. 132).
The argument was never settled, and pride in the achievements in higher education continued to dominate the discourse on education and the national project. The question of to what extent this reflected a cultural bias is a difficult one. By any account, most other Arab countries share entrenched negative social attitudes to blue-collar labour (reflected by low demand for TVET (UIS, 2002)), and this raises the question of whether Palestinian TVET would have stagnated regardless of the conflict. The assumption of an intrinsic negative Arab attitude towards TVET is, however, undermined by the discussion regarding the Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel. Some have suggested the assumption of low demand for TVET in the Israeli-Arab education sector to be merely a convenient excuse for a lack of Israeli investment, and report a ‘positive shift in attitudes towards skilled labour and vocational-technological education’ (Mar’i, 1978, p. 165) and that ‘Arab parents and pupils alike have a positive attitude regarding vocational-technological education’ (Al-Haj, 1995, p. 92). In assessing this apparent contradiction between ‘cultural attitudes’ of the same people either side of an armistice line, it is important to take into account the fact
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that the Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel have had few alternatives. In the academic stream, the cards have traditionally been and still are heavily stacked against them in terms of funding and appropriate curricula, encouraging extremely high dropout and failure rates. For those that succeed, there are few employment options (Human Rights Watch, 2001). Likewise, their participation in higher education at Israeli universities remains marginal, even if it is increasing slowly. It should also be taken into account that TVET in Israel includes a number of high-tech branches far removed from the stigma of manual labour, even if in practice—if not in principle— they tend not to be available at Arab TVET institutions. In any case, because the middle classes were the first to flee, the Palestinian Arabs that stayed behind in 1948 and became Israeli citizens were on average less educated to begin with than the majority of the refugees. But it is not only the Palestinians’ own attitudes towards TVET and blue-collar jobs that enter the picture. The main drive in international support for Palestinian education during the Oslo era came at a time when TVET had recently fallen out of favour with the World Bank and other agencies following its lead. After decades of emphasizing TVET, based on projected manpower requirements for economic development, studies calling into question fundamental assumptions underlying TVET provision and, more decisively, suggesting it was not cost-effective and offered lower economic returns than an expansion of primary schooling, led to a radical change in lending policy (Middleton, Ziderman & van Adams, 1991). Only recently has this trend been reversed. Ostensibly, common criticisms of TVET apply even more forcefully in a refugee situation. It has been asserted that training for specific tasks is too specialized, and that general education provides a more flexible preparation for many jobs. Given the uncertainty in refugees’ lives, such flexibility is highly desirable. It is also often noted that TVET is more dependent on being regularly updated and made relevant to the shifting economic and technological context. Such updates are expensive in terms of the training of teachers and possibly equipment, making it even more difficult for TVET to remain relevant in the often austere conditions of refugee and conflict-affected education. However, there are also obstacles to the currency of curricula that affect academic subjects more seriously than TVET. Under military occupation after 1967, censorship of school textbooks meant that even though legally the Jordanian curriculum applied in the West Bank, its changes were not always applied if the new textbooks were banned. This resulted in the teaching and examination of hopelessly outdated material that was known to be false by teachers and students alike (Schiff, 1989). Since TVET curricula are typically considered to be less politically sensitive, this at least is one constraint more likely to affect academic subjects. In most respects however, it seems TVET remains at least as vulnerable as other branches of education, in particular regarding the effects of physical violence. During the second Intifada, the education sector had to engage in ingenious planning in order to respond to the challenge of ad-hoc road-blocks and other mobility restrictions imposed by the Israeli occupation forces. For example, in order to keep schools running teachers who could not reach their usual place of work
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were reassigned to a school they could access (World Bank, 2004; Lempinen & Repo, 2002). Again, structural differences between TVET and general education make this kind of attempt to mitigate the effects of conflict more difficult in the case of the former. Not only are there fewer sites that are also further apart, but there are many different providers who cannot easily exchange their staff. Similarly, the clandestine community schools set up during the first Intifada to circumvent school closures are a model that was already problematic with regard to general and academic education, but unfeasible with regard to TVET. The lack of past opportunity for TVET in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to develop into a viable educational option is reflected in the extremely low enrolment in the vocational secondary stream. The share of secondary students in one of the four vocational streams (industrial, commercial, agricultural, hotel—depending on classification, whether home economics or religious studies are also considered vocational streams) was less than 5% in the 2005/2006 school year overall, and even lower in the Gaza Strip, where there were only a few hundred vocational secondary students among the more than 50,000 secondary students in government schools (Palestinian Authority. MoEHE, 2005). There is also a marked gender differential, with many of the industrial options closed to females. While the overall secondary TVET enrolment represents a considerable increase over previous levels, it falls far short of the target share of 7.5% of all secondary students (Palestinian Authority. MoE, 2000), while the targets for increasing general secondary enrolment have been met even under the most adverse conditions. As we have seen, the historic development trajectories of TVET and academic education in Palestine have diverged substantially under the political and social pressures of the century-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict. However, it would be a mistake to attribute current gaps between the two purely to this differential. There are certain structural features of TVET provision in the West Bank and Gaza Strip retarding its development; the fact that overcoming them is made no easier by the conflict environment does not mean that they are a result of it. The problems needing to be overcome are well-known. The Ministry of Education and Higher Education’s Human Resource Development strategy for the TVET sector provides a succinct synthesis: Lack of participation in community development. Absence of entrepreneurship programs. Lack of business participation in the technical education process. Inadequate vocational guidance and counselling. Absence of information about graduate employability [. . .] Limited instructional skills & knowledge of trainers. Limited technical skills & knowledge of trainers. Inadequate curricula [. . .] Lack of public awareness regarding TVET strategy. Inadequate management information system. Unclear vision of TVET development. Limited management skills of TVET staff (Palestinian Authority. MoEHE, n.d.).
Observers of the current state of TVET in the West Bank and Gaza Strip agree that it is heavily fragmented and lacks relevance. In addition to technical and vocational post-secondary formal education at secondary schools and post-secondary community colleges, semi-formal training is available at the Ministry of Labour’s and UNRWA training centres. There are also non-formal providers whose exact
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number is unknown but goes into the hundreds (World Bank, 2006), most offering short courses and lacking economy of scale. Past lack of co-ordination means: One can become a carpenter in 9 months, 11 months or 24 months. A person may train for carpentry in vocational secondary schools, or in a training Centre, run by UNRWA, or the Ministry of Labor, or the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs, or quite a number of private institutions, and each time using different curricula (Palestinian Authority. MoEHE, 1998). The relationship between TVET and the labour market has been described as ‘almost non-functional’. [Existing TVET is] neither efficient nor relevant to the needs of its target group or the needs of the market [. . . and] incapable of serving its stated purpose (Abu Nahleh, 1996, p. 144, quoted in Mazawi, 2000, p. 374). This lack of relevance for employability is invariably confirmed by outside observers. UNRWA likewise admits that because of funding constraints, its TVET centres ‘cannot respond to the changing needs of the labour market’ (UNRWA, 2005, p. 19).
Unsurprisingly then, demand is very weak. The vocational secondary option is unpopular (see above) and attracts only the academically least able. Reinforcing TVET’s stigma, the Ministry of Social Affairs, as yet another provider, offers training specifically for school drop-outs, ex-detainees and other ‘social cases’ requiring rehabilitation. Those that do enrol in the vocational secondary stream demonstrate little vocational intent: in a tracer study of industrial school graduates in 2001, nearly half the sample subsequently enrolled in degree and diploma-level higher education courses instead of training-related employment (World Bank, 2006, p. 71). The popularity of TVET courses varies greatly between different options. In contrast to most courses, nursing stands out as having more applicants than places (World Bank, 2006). Such differences call into question the usefulness of making general statements about the state of TVET as such. The usual caveats apply about overstating the distinction between TVET and academic education. In particular, what is a highly skilled profession in one era might become a low- or mediumqualification skill later, as the relevant technology moves from being high-tech to being routine. Operating computers is a current case in point. What is the appropriate categorization of, for example, tertiary agricultural education leading to a B.Sc. as offered by the College of Agriculture at Hebron University (i.e. the borderline between ISCED 4B versus 5B (UIS, 2002)) depends very much on the question to be answered. Further calling the distinction into question is the fact that much of what was said about TVET also applies to some extent to science education, with its similar need for equipment and specialized teachers. In fact, the occupation authorities confiscated most chemicals from schools’ science laboratories, severely limiting their usefulness (UNESCO, 1991). The detrimental effect of the conflict on Palestinian science education in particular is well known. The disproportion of humanities versus science students carries over from secondary to university level (World Bank, 2006) and this weakness in science and mathematics reinforces the low takeup of TVET at higher levels and constrains the supply of trainers. This phenomenon is further strengthened by the fact that science education at all levels is more expensive to the student than humanities or social science subjects.
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The oversupply of cheap academic alternatives, regardless of their value, reduces the relative attractiveness of TVET, as fees at technical and community colleges are similar to those at traditional universities and actually exceed those at the local Open University (World Bank, 2006). In a vicious circle, the low demand for TVET further drives up unit costs. It is to their credit that Palestinian educationalists are not content with maintaining the status quo but are trying to advance the development of the education sector, even during times of crisis. These efforts notwithstanding, Palestinian TVET is in a state of arrested development, with reform efforts having been articulated, but stalling in implementation. Due to the lack of Palestinian statehood, Palestinian participation in some intergovernmental initiatives for co-operation in the field of TVET is difficult. There is no Palestinian presence in the Arab States UNESCO-UNEVOC Network. The question of to what extent Palestinian TVET can, without active participation, benefit from the outcomes of initiatives, such as the 2002 ‘Regional Expert Meeting on TVET Project Development in the Arab States’ (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2003), remains problematic. This constraint does not however apply to other regional fora, such as the GTZ-facilitated Regional Arab-German Network on TVET (<www.arabtvet.com>) for the development of shared occupational classification schemes and an Arabic glossary of TVET curricular terms. Already during the late 1990s, a national TVET development plan and reform scheme was developed (Lempinen & Repo, 2002; World Bank, 2006). It reflected the uncertainty caused be the unresolved conflict in its call for flexibility regarding training for neighbouring labour markets that might or might not be or become accessible to Palestinian labour. Its key themes, however, were: (a) the unification and harmonization of standards and qualifications; (b) the modularization of curricula; (c) responsiveness to demand with a limited role for the ambition to create a small excess supply of skilled labour as a catalyst; and (d) a tighter integration with academic trajectories by providing bridging courses between academic secondary and further education and TVET, between TVET and higher education. Remarkably, Palestinian educationalists do not lay the blame for the lack of progress in implementing this national TVET strategy directly on the intensification of the conflict. In the 2003/2004 Action Plan (Palestinian Authority. MoEHE, 2003), failure to achieve real change is instead pinned on a lack of management capacity at the systems level, the absence of follow-up, and the neglect of transitional objectives that could serve to connect the ambitious strategic objectives with the levels of funding actually available. Compared to times past, TVET is enjoying increased attention. The will for reform appears real and co-operation between the concerned ministries has been lauded as exceptional (Lempinen & Repo, 2002). A recent novelty has been publicawareness campaigns, including newspaper supplements, radio and TV advertisements to promote TVET as a valid and rewarding educational choice (the advertisements may be viewed at <www.tvet-pal.org/awareness/awareness.html> [validated 4 August 2008]). To what extent such measures influence public perceptions and behaviour remains, of course, to be seen but, given that students’ knowledge about
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TVET opportunities used to come mainly from informal sources (Abu Nahleh, 1996, in Mazawi, 2000), represents an important step in the right direction of trying to break TVET’s stigma.
4 Concluding Remarks It is regrettable that TVET is all too often the ‘Cinderella’ of national systems of education. Even if it is thus neglected in practice, we should not neglect it in our analyses of education sectors in and after conflict. Attention to the specific circumstances of TVET is crucial because, as we have seen, its destiny in and after conflict can diverge significantly from broader trends in the education sector. Reasons for this divergence include both structural effects of the typically greater geographic dispersion of TVET institutions compared to other schools for instance, as well as attitudinal effects. Pre-existing biases are unlikely to be overcome when the stakes are raised in conflict. In the Palestinian case, the conflict and its political effects provided a boost to primary and higher education enrolment, while constraining their quality. By contrast, the development of TVET was stunted. While a regional comparison suggests that its neglect due to cultural biases would have been likely regardless of the conflict, the fact remains that it neither shared in the mystique of the liberation struggle created around education generally, nor has been able to follow the pace of developments in neighbouring countries where TVET has traditionally been similarly neglected, but is now in the process of being modernized in the face of rising graduate unemployment. Examining the differences in impact of conflict on TVET and academic education should not obscure but rather sensitize us to the fact that there are large differences within either. The interesting question is how these relate and which patterns, if any, are stable across different contexts of conflict. Does prolonged conflict as a rule tend to affect science education more than literacy, and is that one of the factors constraining technology-oriented TVET? To what extent are certain vocations upgraded in status for ideological reasons or because of their practical contribution to the national struggle, say farming or para-medical occupations? And are such attitudes reflected in the enrolment distribution for formal TVET streams? An interesting question is in what way the relative importance attributed to different forms of education by national movements depends on the existence of a territorial base. A political movement engaged in a violent struggle will endeavour to strengthen its assets that are relevant to the kind of conflict it is fighting. It will be most interested in those kinds of education that contribute to these assets. For a movement with local control, the full range of education and training that contribute to a functioning pseudo-State are desirable and can be actively encouraged. A de-territorialized movement finds itself in a different situation. The need to develop or maintain a national identity through cultural activism and the creation of nationalist literature, the existential need to build political and diplomatic capacity, etc., imply a different set of educational priorities geared more towards the elite end.
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Moreover, with less control over the educational trajectories of its client population, it is forced to ideologically accommodate, rationalize or even appropriate the latter’s educational choices. It is important to note that such questions are not merely theoretical. Not only can TVET differ from the academic streams of the education sector in terms of how it is affected by conflict, it also has a specific role to play in reconstruction. General schooling is an important factor in creating confidence in the capacity of emerging authorities to deliver large-scale public services, in keeping children and youth occupied, and in attempting to plant the seeds for long-term societal changes and development. The coverage of TVET is necessarily more limited and does not reach large parts of the population. On the other hand, it offers opportunities for more immediate integration with economic recovery, reconstruction and, most importantly, livelihoods. Improving TVET’s contribution to the transition to peace ought to be the raison d’ˆetre for our attempts to understand its role in conflict.
References Abu-Lughod, I. 2000. Palestinian higher education: national identity, liberation and globalization. Boundary—2, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 75–95. Abu Nahleh, L. 1996. Gender planning, vocational education, and technical training (VETT) in Palestine. London: World University Service (UK); Birzeit: Birzeit University, Women’s Studies Department. Al-Haj, M. 1995. Education, empowerment, and control: the case of the Arabs in Israel. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Assaf, S. 1997. Educational disruption and recovery in Palestine. In: Tawil, S., ed. Final report and case studies of the Workshop on Educational Destruction and Reconstruction in Disrupted Societies. Geneva, Switzerland: UNESCO-IBE. Badran, N.A. 1980. The means of survival: education and the Palestinian community, 1948–1967. Journal of Palestine studies, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 44–74. Baramki, G. 1987. Building Palestinian universities under occupation. Journal of Palestine studies, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 12–20. Barber, B.K. 1997. Palestinian children and adolescents during and after the Intifada. PalestineIsrael journal, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 23–33. Brown, N.J. 2001. Democracy, history, and the contest over the Palestinian curriculum. <www.geocities.com/nathanbrown1/> Brown, N.J. 2002. The international controversy regarding Palestinian textbooks. (Lecture delivered at the Georg-Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research.) <www.geocities.com/nathanbrown1/> Development Studies Programme—DSP. 2005. Palestine human development report, 2004. Ramallah: DSP; Birzeit: Birzeit University. Faherty, R.C. 1959. In human terms: the 1959 story of the UNRWA-UNESCO Arab refugee schools. Paris: UNESCO. Fasheh, M. 1990. Community education: to reclaim and transform what has been made invisible. Harvard educational review, vol. 60, no. 1, pp. 19–35. Goujon, A. 1997. Population and education prospects in the western Mediterranean region (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip). Laxenburg, Austria: IIASA. (Interim Report IR-97-046.) Graham-Brown, S. 1984. Education, repression and liberation, Palestinians. London: World University Service (UK).
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Hallaj, M. 1980. The mission of Palestinian higher education. Journal of Palestine studies, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 75–95. Hanafi, S.; Tabar, L. 2005. The emergence of a Palestinian globalized elite: donors, international organizations and local NGOs. Jerusalem: Institute of Jerusalem Studies. Human Rights Watch—HRW. 2001. Second class: discrimination against Palestinian Arab children in Israel’s schools. New York, NY: HRW. Kimmerling, B.; Migdal, J.S. 2003. The Palestinian people: a history. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Lempinen, J.; Repo, J. 2002. Palestine (West Bank and Gaza) country report: education and training sector. Helsinki: Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Further Education Programme. Mahshi, K.; Bush, K. 1989. The Palestinian uprising and education for the future. Harvard educational review, vol. 59, no. 4, pp. 470–83. Mar’i, S.K. 1978. Arab education in Israel. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. Masarweh, I.; Salhout, J. 2002. The suffering of children under occupation: documentary study. Jerusalem: Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights. Mazawi, A.E. 1994. Teachers’ role patterns and the mediation of sociopolitical change: the case of the Palestinian school-teacher. British journal of sociology of education, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 497–514. Mazawi, A.E. 2000. The reconstruction of Palestinian education: between history, policy politics and policy making. Journal of education policy, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 371–75. Middleton, J.; Ziderman, A.; van Adams, A. 1991. Vocational and technical education and training. Washington, DC: World Bank. (A World Bank policy paper.) Moughrabi, F. 2004. Palestinian universities under siege. International higher education, vol. 36, pp. 9–10. Palestinian Authority. Ministry of Education. 2000. Five-year education development plan. Ramallah: Ministry of Education. Palestinian Authority. Ministry of Education and Higher Education. No date. Human resource development for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in Palestine. Ramallah: Ministry of Education and Higher Education. <www.tvet-pal.org/human/mehe.html> Palestinian Authority. Ministry of Education and Higher Education. 1998. Vocational and technical education and training in Palestine: national strategy. Ramallah: Ministry of Education and Higher Education. <www.tvet-pal.org/about/ strategy.html> Palestinian Authority. Ministry of Education and Higher Education. 2003. TVET national strategy: proposed implementation plan. Ramallah: Ministry of Education and Higher Education. <www.tvet-pal.org/about/plan.htm> Palestinian Authority. Ministry of Education and Higher Education. 2005. Statistics about general education in Palestine 2005-2006. Ramallah: Ministry of Education and Higher Education. Pappe, I. 2006. A history of modern Palestine: one land, two peoples, 2nd ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Roy, S. 1995. The Gaza Strip: the political economy of de-development. Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies. Sayigh, R. 1985. Palestinian education: escape route or strait-jacket? Journal of Palestine studies, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 127–34. Schiff, B.N. 1989. Between occupier and occupied: UNRWA in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Journal of Palestine studies, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 60–75. Shepherd, N. 1999. Ploughing sand: British rule in Palestine. London: John Murray. Sullivan, A. 1994. Palestinian universities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Muslim world, vol. 84, no. 1–2, pp. 168–88. Tibawi, A.L. 1956. Arab education in mandatory Palestine: a study of three decades of British administration. London: Luzac. UNESCO. 1991. Palestine: priority projects for educational development. Project report. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 2002. Arab States regional report. Montreal, Canada: UIS.
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UNESCO-UNEVOC. 2003. Regional Expert Meeting on TVET Project Development in the Arab States. Bonn, Germany: UNESCO-UNEVOC. <www.unevoc.unesco.org/arabstates> United Nations Relief and Works Agency. 2005. Medium-Term Plan 2005-2009: a better future for Palestine refugees. Gaza: UNRWA. Usher, G. 1991. Children of Palestine. Race & class, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 1–18. Velloso, A. 2002. Palestinian education: a national curriculum against all odds. International journal of educational development, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 145–54. Weighill, L. 1995. The future of assistance to Palestinian refugees. Asian affairs, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 259–69. World Bank. 2004. Four years: Intifada, closures and Palestinian economic crisis: an assessment. Washington, DC: World Bank. World Bank. 2006. West Bank and Gaza Education Sector Analysis. Washington, DC: World Bank. Yusuf, M.D. 1979. The potential impact of Palestinian education on a Palestinian State. Journal of Palestine studies, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 70–93.
Chapter V.5
Co-ordinated Programming for Skills Development and Livelihoods in Post-Conflict Societies: What Promise Does TVET Hold for Southern Sudan? Zuki Karpinska
Inconsistent development over the years [. . . ] means that the new Government of Southern Sudan is confronted by a wide diversity of needs. Nowhere is this more evident than in the education sector, where estimates during the war found that just one child in five attended school and less than 1 per cent of girls completed their primary education (Southern Sudan. MoEST/UNICEF, 2006, p. 2). Technical education is needed to train Southern Sudanese so the country is rebuilt by its citizens (Southern Sudan. MoEST, 2007b, p. 47).
1 Introduction In conflict and post-conflict contexts, international aid agencies often assume responsibility for the delivery of services, such as education. Co-ordination in the field of development and relief aid may be defined as ‘the systematic utilization of policy instruments to deliver humanitarian assistance in a cohesive and effective manner’ (Minear et al., 1992, p. 3). In other words, both international stakeholders—United Nations agencies, bi- and multi-lateral donors, and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs)—and local stakeholders—government authorities and local NGOs—should strive for cohesion and effectiveness in their approaches to the provision of aid and development programming. However, in their research on United Nations (UN) agency co-ordination in humanitarian response, Reindorp and Wiles (2001) cite from past studies of complex emergencies the following themes that contribute to ineffective interventions: ‘turf battles, empire-building, overlapping and conflicting mandates, and ad hoc arrangements’ (p. 8). It is this state of affairs that has led Sommers (2004) to ask: ‘Why is the act of co-ordinating humanitarian and post-conflict reconstruction activities so difficult?’ (p. 17). Sommers goes on, suggesting that: In principle, it should be simple and straightforward: the work by different actors in sectors such as education should fit together and complement each other. It does not make sense R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 V.5, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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for them to overlap or leave gaps in service. Working as a team to address the collective needs of people recovering from tragedy and disaster seems the appropriate, logical and humanitarian thing to do (Sommers, 2004, p. 17).
Why, indeed, does co-ordination for cohesive and effective programming seem so elusive? This chapter examines the difficulties of providing cohesive and effective technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in challenging contexts by looking at government, external agency and NGO co-ordination structures in southern Sudan.1 TVET in southern Sudan, rather than being ‘concerned with the acquisition of knowledge and skills for the world of work’ (UNESCO-UNEVOC, n.d.), is currently mainly concerned with the acquisition of skills that could lead to livelihoods—the means of making a living. The term ‘world of work’ does not currently apply to the context of southern Sudan because too few opportunities for gainful employment exist to make it meaningful; the market for semi-skilled labour of the type that emerges from existing TVET programmes is still too underdeveloped to absorb the few graduates. Thus, for the purposes of this chapter, TVET is defined as any educational opportunity providing training in livelihood skills.2 The chapter begins with a brief overview of the Sudanese conflict, as well as the current political and economic context in the region. The subsequent sections offer a description of TVET programmes in southern Sudan to date; an analysis of current steps that the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) is pursuing to better organize these TVET offerings; and a discussion of the mechanisms used to co-ordinate TVET and other programming. The chapter ends with an expression of optimism that these steps will improve co-ordination among TVET-funding donors, TVET-providing agencies and governmental authorities.
2 Overview of the Conflict and Its Aftermath Sudan is the largest country in Africa and is home to the longest-running conflict on the continent. The north and south of the country have been at war since even before the country gained independence from the British in 1956, due in part to differences in religion, ethnicity and resource availability. After a decade of relative peace between 1972 and 1982, a second civil war broke out in 1983, arguably instigated by the imposition of Shari’a law by the Khartoum-based Government of Sudan (GoS). The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and its splinter groups emerged as the main ‘rebel’ force in opposition to the GoS. The area known as southern Sudan had historically been severely underdeveloped, but—since the fighting took place almost exclusively in the south—what little infrastructure was in place has been completely destroyed. Over the twenty-two years of civil war post-1983, southern Sudan was ravaged in terms of loss of human life, destruction of schools and roads, disruption of agricultural and business activities, as well as massive population displacement. An estimated 2 million people died during the war and approximately 4.5 million Southern Sudanese were displaced.3
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The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) (GoS & SPLM/A, 2005) ending the second war was signed on 9 January 2005 by only two of the parties to the conflict: the GoS and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). This is significant because most Sudanese, from both the north and the south, did not participate in the peace process. Even other key military groups, such as the South Sudan Defence Force (SSDF) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), were not represented during the two-year negotiations led by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which enjoyed strong support from the international community, including the so-called ‘troika’ of the United States, Norway and the United Kingdom (Young, 2005). Under the CPA, southern Sudan— comprising ten of Sudan’s southernmost states with two additional states and one area administered jointly with the Khartoum government—became an autonomous region. For all intents and purposes, however, southern Sudan still suffers from insecurity due to continuing occasional skirmishes between the GoS forces and southern armies. The CPA’s power-sharing protocol called for an autonomous Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) and a Government of National Unity (GoNU), the latter comprising representatives from both the north and the south. The appointed ministers and other executives of the GoSS are almost exclusively former military officials, many of whom lack the administration skills required to lead a civilian nation, resulting in a fledgling government of generally low capacity (International Crisis Group, 2006). Under the CPA, the South will hold a referendum in 2011 to vote on the status of the region, leaving it to the Southern Sudanese to decide whether to continue power-sharing or to secede entirely and establish their own nation-State. According to National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) focus group data (Cook, 2005) and other sources, the Southern Sudanese will almost certainly vote for the latter option, but the GoS will be reluctant to give up the oil wealth that the south represents. The CPA’s wealth-sharing protocol had specified that half of Sudanese oil wealth would be allocated to the south. These funds were to comprise—for now—the sole source of non-donor GoSS revenue, as a tax system is currently unthinkable. As of the time of writing, only a fraction of the expected funds have been released by the GoS (Reeves, 2005, emphasis added), which—together with the low capacity of the southern government—has delayed full GoSS assumption of responsibility for delivery of services, such as education.
3 The Economic Context and Livelihoods Muchomba and Sharp (2006) report: ‘Livelihoods in southern Sudan are inextricably linked to both a relatively rich and abundant resource base and the terrible consequences of more than two decades of civil conflict’ (p. 18). The majority of Southern Sudanese seek livelihoods in animal husbandry, agriculture, fishing on the Nile River and its tributaries, wild food collection and/or trade. Livestock may
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represent the single greatest material asset of the Southern Sudanese; many of the ethnic groups in southern Sudan are pastoralist, owning vast herds of cattle and goats. The cattle herds, in particular, may sometimes number in the thousands, and are an integral part of both the region’s livelihoods and its culture. Both pastoralist and non-pastoralist ethnic groups practice small-scale agriculture, for subsistence and/or as a means of currency. However, crops are affected by the region’s periodic droughts (including a recent drought that lasted for three years) and the resultant low yields are often insufficient for even subsistence. Trading and selling of goods from nearby Uganda, Kenya or Ethiopia and even from Khartoum—due in part to improved transportation and demining of key access roads—is increasing rapidly during the time of fragile peace. The rudimentary markets are expanding, with more goods—e.g. plastic sandals, clothing, cigarettes—appearing in an increasing number of locations. The barter system is still widespread, with southern Sudan’s three currencies—in addition to those of the neighbouring countries—less commonly used than exchange for cattle, beer or grain (Muchomba & Sharp, 2006). Very few paid job opportunities exist in southern Sudan, outside of the aid community. NGOs and international organizations employ hundreds of Southern Sudanese as programme managers, project staff, driver/mechanics, security guards, cooks, cleaners, etc. Due to continued inability by the government to pay salaries, teachers are usually unpaid volunteers; a small number of schools receive small incentives for teachers from NGOs like Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), but these are usually in the form of non-cash items, such as soap. Temporary work is sometimes available in select areas for semi-skilled labourers, such as masons or carpenters on construction projects. As a result, many Southern Sudanese are still dependent on humanitarian aid (Marriage, 2006) from organizations such as the World Food Programme. All of these livelihoods are affected by the reality of the southern Sudanese environment. Lack of roads and periodic flooding mean no access to markets for the vast majority of the population. There are disparities within the region of southern Sudan, however: the southern-most Equatoria states are much less affected by the rains than the rest of the region. The Equatorias have better roads, are closer to the relatively-developed markets of Uganda and Kenya and do not have the swamps of Jonglei or other states. Security is also often an issue that affects access to markets, but in isolated cases rather than as a region-wide phenomenon. Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) attacks, for instance, are limited to the southernmost states and can close down markets for weeks. It is important to note that the most significant factor in the economy of southern Sudan is its sheer physical size. The region is massive and distances between points can be unmanageable. Transportation costs are thus staggeringly high, impacting both southern Sudanese livelihoods and international agency programming. Finally, a significant challenge to the development of livelihoods in post-conflict southern Sudan is lack of education and training. Southern Sudan’s ‘lost generation’ —those denied access to schooling during the war years due to insecurity, displacement and/or lack of resources—comprises the majority of the population. The latest figures show that only one out of every five children attended school
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during the war, with just 2% finishing the primary school cycle (Southern Sudan. MoEST/UNICEF, 2006). Education and development funding have only been available in the region for the past several years; prior to this, the vast majority of donor funds were solely available for humanitarian relief (Sommers, 2005). Although a few organizations,4 including UNICEF, offered school ‘materials and a little training’ prior to 1993, not until then was the need for support for education recognized (Joyner, 1996). And, not until 2000 did long-term development programming in education begin (Sommers, 2005). Any and all educational opportunities in southern Sudan are thus still rare, although the demand for basic education and skills training is high and expected to rise (Southern Sudan. MoEST, 2007a).
4 Definitions of TVET and the New TVET Policy Framework Until 2007, MoEST offered little guidance for TVET programming. The SPLM Secretariat of Education’s Education policy of the new Sudan and implementation guidelines (2002), which is still in effect, only notes that vocational training should/will exist in southern Sudan. No further information is provided in the existing education policy as to what TVET will comprise, by whom it will be carried out, or how it will be financed. Only weeks before this writing, however, MoEST published a new policy handbook that includes definitions for TVET and a firm commitment to developing both a TVET policy framework and a system of certification (Southern Sudan. MoEST, 2007a). MoEST differentiates in the following manner between informal, non-formal, and formal vocational training (Southern Sudan. MoEST, 2007a; 2007b): 1. Informal vocational education programmes consist of basic occupational skills training, with a duration of one week to three months. There are no prequalifications to entry and courses are usually taught by ‘community members with some years of practical experience in the vocation. The courses do not follow a structured linear progression’ (p. 2). 2. Non-formal vocational education programmes consist of basic occupational skills training, with a duration of three to six months. There are no prequalifications to entry and courses are usually taught by skilled practitioners. 3. Formal vocational education programmes consist of training with ‘curricula developed into modules/guides which allow students to build sequentially on their skills’, with a duration of nine months to two years. These programmes have ‘a written curriculum which contains both theoretical and practical components. The theoretical courses are usually taught by university graduates and practical courses by practitioners with extensive experience’ (pp. 2–3). In practice, however, few formal vocational education programmes, such as the ones described above, yet exist. Even the longer training programmes rarely require any secondary education and college-graduate instructors are scarce.
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Until 2005,5 skills training in southern Sudan was only available through NGOs, which—if offered in physical premises—generally only established and operated one centre. This is particularly true of centres operated by Sudanese NGOs. The most common training programming—which would be categorized as informal vocational education by MoEST—involves livelihoods skills training at the community level. V´et´erinaires sans fronti`eres-Belgium (VSF), for example, trains pastoralist groups in techniques that improve animal husbandry practices. Other NGOs work with farming communities to increase crop yields. These types of training are shorter, on average, than the non-formal and more formal vocational education described below, with instruction taking place over a period of weeks or several days per month during an entire year, as opposed to training that requires daily attendance for months. Such livelihoods skills-training programmes build on local knowledge or introduce innovation in a skill that is already practised. Among the NGOs involved in non-formal skills training, as described above, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) operated six livelihood skills-training centres,6 later turned over to the relevant ministries, and currently operates six vocational training centres.7 Of the approximately two dozen skills training centres that currently exist in southern Sudan, CRS has thus established about half. Due to the high cost of inputs such as electricity—which, since electricity in southern Sudan is produced solely by generators, requires gasoline transported into the region at great cost—these skills-training centres usually focus on skills that do not require heavy investment, such as carpentry or agriculture, rather than computer training or car mechanics. At the moment, in the absence of a southern Sudanese vocational curriculum, NGOs typically establish their own training curriculum at each centre or adapt Kenyan or Ugandan curricula. In 2004, Save the Children Sweden had developed a Sudan-specific curriculum for vocational training in two subjects, with the consent of the then-SPLM Secretariat of Education (currently MoEST). These materials, however, have not been accepted by MoEST as part of the national curriculum for vocational training. Many of these training centres are nominally managed by boards (boards of governors, management boards, etc.) composed of community-elected representatives. Some NGOs suggest a minimum quota for female representation to dissuade communities from appointing all-male boards, as would otherwise be the case. The boards receive training in educational management and administration in order to build community capacity to make decisions on behalf of the centres, organize assistance in the construction efforts and liaise with the NGOs. However, the boards effectively have little or no power, except over the modest project funding that is channelled to them through the NGOs. The centres managed by boards are frequently expected to assume responsibility for the training when projects end on behalf of the relevant ministry. Since 2006, ministries, such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Ministry of the Environment, Wildlife Conservation and Tourism and the Ministry of Animal Resources and Fisheries, have begun to offer skills training, after having assumed responsibility for several of the training centres formerly operated by NGOs. Due to the difficulties in accessing GoSS resources, as mentioned above, it is unlikely that many of these centres will continue to be
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operational without additional donor funding in the interim before the flow of GoSS resources becomes more consistent. Generally, there are no educational requirements for admittance to vocational training programmes, although there are exceptions. Life-skills training is rarely, if ever, incorporated into the curricula, but one-off trainings such as HIV/AIDS awareness may be given to students. Many centres do incorporate business management training or entrepreneurial training into the curriculum, in order to prepare graduates to earn a living from their newly-acquired skills. Apprenticeship programmes are very difficult to establish in southern Sudan because so few people earn a living using a vocational skill. Those who do are located in one of only a handful of ‘urban’ centres (which are essentially larger villages with some permanent structures). Due to the size of the region, linking graduates with apprenticeships is generally unfeasible. Assuming that the success of a programme is not measured by completion rates but rather by the number of graduates who use the skills learned in order to earn a living after the programme ends, it would seem that there are not many successful training programmes in southern Sudan. Training programmes that focus on traditional skills—e.g. agriculture or fishing—are more successful than those that focus on trades, such as carpentry or masonry. The truth is that there are few markets large enough in southern Sudan to absorb graduates with skills taught in the more-formal training centres. Logically, a community of 1,000 or even 10,000 people does not need 100 masons. Similarly, a centre that does not have free boarding facilities and daily food rations cannot admit students outside the local community. Available evidence suggests that, with time, the demand for skills will increase, and these training programmes will enjoy more success in terms of the number of graduates who use the skills acquired during trainings in their livelihoods. A key missing factor in the co-ordination of these TVET offerings in southern Sudan has been the ‘utilization of policy instruments’ (Minear et al., 1992, p. 3), for the simple reason that none had existed. At the same time as the abovementioned new policy handbook was published—i.e. only two months prior to this writing—MoEST developed a Draft Background/Policy Technical-Vocational Education Training Policy Framework with the aid of an external consultant. The draft framework provides a situational analysis of planned and existing TVET opportunities in southern Sudan, as well as offering policy briefs on the vision, structure, mandate and resource allocation of current and future TVET programmes. The document also addresses issues of inter-ministerial co-operation, certification and funding challenges. MoEST expects that the framework will ‘initiate a policy dialogue between and among education stakeholders at all levels’ (Southern Sudan. MoEST, 2007b, p. 1). Importantly, the draft policy framework proposes definitions of TVET that distinguish between vocational and technical education. According to MoEST, the ‘suggested’ definition for vocational education comprises ‘vocational programs [that] offer individuals, who typically have had little or no access to formal education programs, the opportunity to gain vital skills and be productive members of the community’ (Southern Sudan. MoEST, 2007b, p. 46). These are thus the vocational
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programmes discussed above: training opportunities that do not require prior education. The vision for vocational training in southern Sudan reads: ‘to produce a well integrated [sic] self-motivated, creative individual equipped with relevant knowledge, skills and attitude through appropriate technology and wise use of available resources while preserving the cultural legacy of the community’ (ibid.). The ‘suggested’ definition for technical education comprises formal training that ‘integrates academics with formal skills’ (ibid.). These training programmes fall under the MoEST Higher Education Directorate and thus would be akin to polytechniclevel education as practised in more developed countries, i.e. training opportunities that require a secondary-level education. The vision for technical educational is one that is ‘both practical and theoretical’, with ‘a strong academic track to provide a way for individuals with a secondary school degree to progress upward through the formal education ladder’ in order to ‘train Southern Sudanese so the country is rebuilt by its citizens’ (Southern Sudan. MoEST, 2007b, pp. 46–47). The Draft Background/Policy Technical-Vocational Education Training Policy Framework thus finally clarifies MoEST’s understanding of and vision for TVET.
5 Co-ordination Structures for Service Delivery in Southern Sudan NGOs and international agencies have been responsible for service provision in southern Sudan during the war years and beyond (e.g. drilling wells, operating health clinics). This is not to say that government authorities at all levels have been absent from service delivery planning, but—without financial resources of their own—the southern Sudanese authorities have not provided the services; the aid community has. Even today, however, the vast majority of southern Sudan remains underserved. The uneven and inadequate (Marriage, 2006) service delivery in southern Sudan is not only due to poor co-ordination. In order to operate in a given location, an organization requires a secure camp to house workers, store supplies and establish communications, which necessitates constructing and maintaining field offices in insecure and/or inaccessible locations at a great expense. Organizations thus have— quite rightly—been accused of ‘favouring’ particular locations due to the relative ease of travel to and/or relative security of a given site. It is also true that, once a field office is established, NGOs frequently continue to work in that location and do not move to another. Given the considerable transportation costs of operating in southern Sudan, these trends cannot be avoided, though greater co-ordination could help provide a more equitable distribution of resources (e.g. assignment of areas to specific NGOs by the GoSS based on comparative advantage of service delivery). Yet, the less accessible the location, the greater the costs of operation: building one TVET centre in Unity state may cost three times as much as building three in Western Equatoria state. Since the needs in southern Sudan are so great,
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building the three TVET centres would generally be considered more cost-effective than building the one. It would be imprudent to write a chapter on co-ordination in southern Sudan without mentioning Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), an unprecedented (Lautze et al., 2004) security and information-sharing consortium founded in 1989. Members of OLS were the many (although not all) international agencies and NGOs involved in the humanitarian efforts responding to civilian needs in southern Sudan. OLS co-ordinated with both the GoS and the SPLA/Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM)—the political wing of the SPLA—to gain access to the millions of Southern Sudanese whose livelihoods were in suspension because of the war. While member organizations of the OLS consortium claimed neutrality, it has since been argued that these and other international actors perpetuated the conflict, inadvertently or purposefully supplying the armies with food and non-food rations, along with the targeted civilian beneficiaries (see, for example, Sommers, 2005). The many critics of OLS (e.g. Marriage, 2006) assert that the co-ordination structure failed the Southern Sudanese. UNICEF, the lead UN agency for OLS, had also been the ‘lead agency’ for education8 until its handover to the then-SPLM Secretariat of Education in 2003. Arguably, no overview of the lack of success of co-ordination between international, national and local stakeholders in education could be more persuasive than that of Sommers (2005): Among the most staggering failures in the case of education for Southern Sudanese since 1983 has been the widespread and alarming deficiency in the co-ordination of education policies and practices. Across more than two decades of civil war, there has been poor co-ordination of education activities in just about every way imaginable. There has been virtually no co-ordination of education concerns for Southern Sudanese between [. . . ] refugee agencies and those working within southern Sudan, among those working within southern Sudan (for the most part and until recently), [and] within the same agencies working with the same Southern Sudanese population in northern and southern Sudan. [...] On issues as basic as teacher payments and the curriculum, co-ordination has, for nearly all of the past twenty-one years, ranged between flawed and nonexistent (pp. 255–56).
While apt, this assessment reflects a time when far fewer agencies worked in the education sector than exist today; and, the more agencies, the greater is the challenge of co-ordination for cohesive and effective programming. More development programming has become possible since the signing of the CPA and the number of NGOs in the region has multiplied. In southern Sudan, TVET falls under the purview of MoEST, which for the last few years has also been responsible for the co-ordination of TVET programming. The Education Rehabilitation and Development Forum (ERDF) is the co-ordination meeting for all local and international agencies implementing education, and thus TVET programming in southern Sudan. The ERDF is theoretically a quarterly meeting, but—in the twenty-six months that the author of this chapter worked in southern Sudan—the ERDF has only taken place five times. A joint MoEST-NGO co-ordination body for vocational education was established in 2005. Now called the GoSS-MoEST Vocational-Technical Thematic Group, the co-ordination body meets
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during the infrequent ERDF meetings. In southern Sudan, currently eleven NGOs, as well as twelve ministries,9 have reported implementing, or planning to implement, TVET programmes, and more NGOs than this actually operate skills-training programmes. Yet, as mentioned above, every actor involved in TVET appears to be working independently of the others. Importantly, not all of the actors involved in TVET attend ERDF meetings, much less the thematic group meetings. In such a context, TVET programmes differ in terms of duration, content, beneficiary number, quality, certification and approach. In addition, the ministries of southern Sudan have not co-ordinated well among themselves. Numerous GoSS ministries currently implement vocational programmes, which have not been vetted by MoEST, nor have these programmes ‘been integrated into the overarching’ education system (Southern Sudan. MoEST, 2007b, p. 54). The ministries also plan to organize additional trainings that are yet to be approved by MoEST, and it is unclear whether there is consensus on the part of the other ministries that their trainings should be subject to MoEST scrutiny. MoEST asserts that it should be responsible for certifying/recognizing vocational curricula of all the ministries, as well as responsible for leading the process of developing a curriculum framework linking all formal and non-formal programmes (Southern Sudan. MoEST, 2007b). A large part of the proposed co-ordination role of MoEST would comprise developing and standardizing a system of certification that is currently lacking in southern Sudan. Presumably, the promise of ensuring recognition for TVET graduates in all sectors could overcome the reluctance, if any, of other ministries to relinquish a degree of control over their training to a parallel ministry.
6 Concluding Remarks The Draft TVET Policy Framework may well solve the problem of poor coordination in TVET among MoEST, other ministries and NGOs. Its very existence has finally provided a structure to a disjointed TVET system. In addition to its clarification of the vision for and understanding of TVET, the document offers a detailed, though somewhat optimistic, account of existing TVET programming in southern Sudan. This stock-taking is an important first step in improving co-ordination among the NGO and ministry service providers. The MoEST Draft TVET Policy Framework, however, makes no mention of whether the stock-taking has been thorough in terms of assessing which of the many interventions described therein are actually operational, much less whether statistics, such as the number of beneficiaries, have been collected. While it is potentially a great opportunity for the southern Sudanese who have not had access to skills training that the number of ministries and NGOs suggested by the document are now involved/plan to be involved with TVET, the author of this chapter remains sceptical that many of these trainings are a matter of fact. Especially at the level of the ministries, the planned trainings may result in programmes that are very limited in terms of numbers of beneficiaries or these trainings may be akin to wish-lists, i.e. training that the ministries would undertake
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if the technical capacity and funding to implement such projects were available. In order to make these trainings a reality, the most immediate input required will be additional allocated funding for both training and capacity-building by the implementing ministries. Southern Sudan is certainly not the only region to suffer from co-ordination difficulties (see Reindorp & Wiles, 2001; INEE, 2004; Sommers, 2004), but the lack of a TVET policy or framework surely contributed to the disjointed manner in which TVET has been offered. Yet, it is simplistic to assume that, once the TVET Policy Framework is finalized and disseminated, co-ordination among government ministries and the aid community will suddenly improve. The document will in all likelihood serve as procedural guidelines for the southern Sudanese ministries, leading to cohesion within the GoSS—which is an improvement in and of itself—but may not improve GoSS co-ordination with external agencies. Smillie & Minear (2003), in a study of donor behaviour in emergency and reconstruction contexts, found that: The overall effectiveness of humanitarian assistance is compromised by donor earmarking, by short funding cycles, by unrequited pledges and late funding, by tying contributions to a donor’s own nationals, NGOs, and contractors, and by donors’ political interests (p. 5).
Sommers (2004) seconds this notion; he posits that, in not co-ordinating among themselves, donors may achieve ‘chaotic’ and ‘contradictory’ programming. The personal experience of working in southern Sudan by the author of this chapter, terminating seven months before this writing, is that conflicting donor practices were the factor most responsible for lack of overall co-ordination in TVET programming. She agrees with Sommers (2004) in that donors, more than any other stakeholder, have the greatest power to ensure co-ordination. In the current funding context in southern Sudan, each NGO receives funding from a different source— donors with their own priorities, own reporting requirements, own bureaucratic socalled red-tape and own funding calendars. The 2005 establishment of the South Sudan Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF), a co-operative funding mechanism for reconstruction and development funding administered by the World Bank, was to mitigate these issues, giving more power to the ministries to prioritize their funding needs and choose the implementing agencies for the projects identified to meet those needs. The MDTF was designed to recognize the ‘ownership and leadership’ of the GoSS of the reconstruction and development process, ‘with full transparency’, ensuring ‘effective donor co-ordination within the context of broader aid management structures in order to reduce transaction/duplication costs; provide consistent policy advice; [and] provide common fora for dialogue’ (IBRD, 2005, p. 7. Emphasis in the original). However, such an arrangement may only work—even in theory—if all donors transmit available resources through the fund; USAID, the single largest bi-lateral donor to education in southern Sudan, does not. Greater co-ordination on the part of donors, among themselves and especially with the GoSS, could lead to interconnected projects aligned with the priorities of the recipient stakeholders, such as those outlined in the Draft TVET Policy Framework.
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The importance of the framework cannot be overemphasized. The very definition of co-ordination used in this paper requires actors to systematically utilize policy instruments such as this in a coherent and effective manner (Minear et al., 1992). One of the quotations that opened this chapter comes from the framework itself: ‘Technical education is needed to train Southern Sudanese so the country is rebuilt by its citizens’ (Southern Sudan. MoEST, 2007b, p. 47). In the framework, MoEST has delineated its vision for southern Sudan, outlined the gaps in TVET offerings and identified the many unmet needs. If donors are willing to fund the interventions necessary and if they and the implementing agencies work together under the aegis of a revitalized ERDF, the co-ordination hitherto lacking in southern Sudan’s education sector may transform the course of the reconstruction process. TVET may yet provide southern Sudan with the technical workforce needed to rebuild, and the framework could be the first step in ensuring that TVET programming will educate such a workforce.
Notes 1. For the purposes of this chapter, ‘southern’, when referring to the area of Sudan, will be written in lowercase, while Southern Sudanese, when referring to the people, will be capitalized. For a full discussion, see Sommers, 2005. 2. As will be discussed later, this definition does not necessarily coincide with the current understanding of TVET of the Government of Southern Sudan’s (GoSS) Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST). 3. These figures are those cited in NSCSE (2004). However, these and other data available for southern Sudan are highly contested and generally considered unreliable. 4. The notable exceptions to ‘hit-and-run’ educational programming (Sommers, 2005) in the period prior to 2000 have been Christian organizations, such as the Diocese of Torit. 5. The author of this chapter was an educational practitioner in southern Sudan for over two years. Much of the information that follows on TVET and international aid is based on her experience. 6. These centres were financed through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded South Sudan Agriculture Revitalization Programme (SSARP). 7. These centres were financed through the European Community (EC)-funded Vocational and Adult Literacy Training Project (VOCAL). The author of this chapter helped design the VOCAL Project. 8. While the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has a presence in southern Sudan, its co-ordination activities are largely limited to the UN agencies in this context and do not extend to co-ordinating sector programmes, such as education or health. 9. These ministries are: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry; Ministry of Animal Resources and Fisheries; Ministry of Co-operatives and Rural Development; Ministry of Education, Science and Technology; Ministry of Environment, Wildlife Conservation and Tourism; Ministry of Gender, Social Welfare and Religious Affairs; Ministry of Health; Ministry of Industry and Mining; Ministry of Labour, Public Service and Human Resource Development; Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation; Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sports; and the Southern Sudan Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Commission. The NGOs are: Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team (AMURT); Catholic Relief Services (CRS); Dioceses of Rumbek (DOR); Diar Relief and Development Association (DRDA); Education Base; International Aid Sweden (IAS); Norwegian People Aid (NPA); Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC); Ockenden Plan International; Save the Children Sweden; and Women for Women International (Southern Sudan. MoEST, 2007a).
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References Cook, T.D. 2005. A foundation for peace: citizen thoughts on the southern Sudan Constitution— findings from focus groups with men and women across southern Sudan. Washington, DC: National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. <www.access democracy.org/library/1918 su southernsudan 060905.pdf> Government of Sudan; Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army. 2005. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Government of the Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Sudan People’s Liberation Army. Nairobi: Government of Sudan. Interagency Network for Education in Emergencies Interagency Network for Education in Emergencies. 2004. Minimum standards for education in emergencies, chronic crises and early reconstruction. New York, NY: INEE. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. 2005. Memorandum of the President of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development to the Executive Directors on a proposal for the World Bank to administer two multidonor trust funds for Sudan, 17 March 2005. <www.unsudanig.org/docs/Sudan MDTFs.pdf> International Crisis Group. 2006. Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement: the long road ahead. Brussels: Crisis Group. (Crisis Group Africa report, no. 106.) <www.crisisgroup.org/ library/documents/africa/horn of africa/106 sudan comprehensive peace agreement long road ahead.pdf> Joyner, A. 1996. Supporting education in emergencies: a case study from southern Sudan. Development in practice, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 70–76. Lautze, S. et al. 2004. Assistance, protection, and governance networks in complex emergencies. The Lancet, vol. 364, pp. 2134–41. Marriage, Z. 2006. The comfort of denial: external assistance in southern Sudan. Development and change, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 479–500. Minear, L. et al. 1992. United Nations coordination of the international humanitarian response to the Gulf Crisis 1990–1992. Providence, RI: Brown University, The Thomas A. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies. (Occasional paper, no. 13.) Muchomba, E.; Sharp, B. 2006. Southern Sudan livelihoods profiles: a guide for humanitarian and development planning. Nairobi: Southern Sudan Centre for Census, Statistics and Evaluation (SSCCSE)/Save the Children UK. New Sudan Centre for Statistics and Evaluation. 2004. Towards a baseline: best estimates of social indicators for southern Sudan. Rumbek, Sudan: UNICEF. (NSCSE series paper, no. 1/2004.) <www.reliefweb.int/library/documents/2004/splm-sud-31may.pdf> Reeves, E. 2005. The slow collapse of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement for South Sudan. <www.sudanreeves.org/ Article70.html> Reindorp, N.; Wiles, P. 2001. Humanitarian co-ordination: lessons from recent field experience. London: Overseas Development Institute. (A study commissioned by OCHA.) Smillie, I.; Minear, L. 2003. The quality of money: donor behavior in humanitarian financing. Somerville, MA: Tufts University, Humanitarianism and War Project, Feinstein Famine Center. Sommers, M. 2004. Co-ordinating education during emergencies and reconstruction: challenges and responsibilities. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. Sommers, M. 2005. Islands of education: schooling, civil war, and the southern Sudanese (1993– 2004). Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. Southern Sudan. Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. 2007a. Ministry of Education, Science and Technology policy handbook (Final draft). Juba, Sudan: MoEST. Southern Sudan. Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. 2007b. Draft background/policy technical-vocational education training policy framework. Juba, Sudan: MoEST. Southern Sudan. Ministry of Education, Science and Technology; UNICEF. 2006. Rapid assessment of learning spaces: Southern Sudan. Juba, Sudan: MoEST. <www.ungei.org/resources/files/RALS book ALL PAGES.pdf>
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Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. Secretariat of Education. 2002. Education policy of the New Sudan and implementation guidelines. Rumbek, Sudan: SPLM. UNESCO-UNEVOC. No date. What is TVET? Bonn, Germany: UNESCO-UNEVOC. <www.unevoc.unesco.org/> Young, J. 2005. Sudan: a flawed peace process leading to a flawed peace. Review of African political economy, vol. 103, pp. 99–113.
Chapter V.6
Vocational Training in Post-War Sierra Leone and Liberia Andrew Benson Greene Jr.
1 Introduction In this ever-changing fast-paced world, technology is becoming more and more important. Each of us will be using some sort of technology everyday of our lives, which means that the field of vocational training has never been as important as it is today. Current research into how and why we learn as individuals, how groups and organizations learn and the complex ways knowledge is created, shared, communicated and culturally mediated in contemporary society addresses fundamental issues of interest to educators and policy-makers. We need to enhance the breadth and depth of research on education in the context of the new economy. It is vital that we achieve a deeper understanding of new technology as both an opportunity and a challenge for learning and for the delivery of education. Today, more than ever, we expect educational institutions to fulfil major economic and social goals in educating citizens, to respond to the needs of a knowledge-intensive, technologybased labour market, and to prepare individuals for learning and acquiring new skills throughout their lifetimes. We need research to understand how our schools, educators and education systems should respond to these needs, how to assess our existing learning systems and how they might evolve. Let us therefore examine the extent to which vocational training has evolved and its present situation in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone suffered nearly ten years of war, which displaced a large proportion of the population and destroyed most of the country’s infrastructure. Terrible atrocities were committed against the civilian population by the rebel army. Many children suffered acts of frightening brutality, such as limb amputations. Disabled young people face particular hardships as their chances of employment are severely reduced, particularly those who have had upper limbs amputated. For many, the only option is to beg for food and money.1
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2 Making Amends The circumstances under which the education system in Sierra Leone has evolved in recent years were the result of skirmishes during a decade-long war. There is now an ever-growing response to skills training in both technology-enhancing learning and non-technological usage through formal and non-formal education. The proliferation of skills and vocational training thriving today are the result of the nationwide realization that, in order for there to be a sustained manpower base, the country must invest in a knowledge-based economy. Partly too, and perhaps the most persistent idea, is the belief that, to make amends for the lost years, the plethora of young people affected by war direly needs these skills. A bold attempt is being made by these young people to catch up with their counterparts in other countries and in the rest of the world, particularly with those skills that will enable them to survive in today’s competitive world driven by globalization. The rebel war in Sierra Leone displaced blacksmiths and farmers resulting in the loss of vital assets, such as their tools. With the signing of the peace accord, these blacksmiths and farmers will return to their homes with no tools to resume their livelihoods. Even though donor assistance is likely to make up for the loss of farm tools, this gesture may not be enough to satisfy all the affected population. Even so, these tools will need frequent repairs. To resettle such a deprived population, blacksmithing skills are going to be essential. It is estimated that there are 3,000 displaced blacksmiths in the affected areas— the southern and eastern provinces and Tonkolili district in the north. To resettle these blacksmiths, there is a need for basic working tools, such as hammers, locallymade anvils and bellows. It is also proposed to provide them with assistance in setting up their workshops and a seven-day refresher training course. For more than a decade the Sierra Leone Work Oxen Programme (SLWOP) of the Ministry of Agriculture has been involved in training blacksmiths for the country. The majority of the trainees were sent by the interested organizations, such as development projects and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The programme has the capacity to train twenty blacksmiths per session, including accommodation and food, at the Rolako Centre (Bombali District, Northern Province). Using local materials and know how, the programme has forged bellows and anvils that are gaining favour among many village blacksmiths. Blacksmiths will be selected from chiefdoms and trained to become trainers of other blacksmiths in their local area. The trained blacksmiths will be provided with the necessary equipment and assisted to develop tool production centres in the chiefdom. Resource people for this training will be drawn from the private sector, as well as from SLWOP. Training materials, such as tools and steel, will be purchased. The training will involve shaping, tempering techniques, cold and forge work, basic workshop management techniques, introduction to improved tools, group formation, sources of scrap and marketing skills and awareness about emergency repairs for tools. The blacksmiths will be made aware of the rationale and strategy behind setting up chiefdom blacksmith tool-production centres as the centres for training and production of basic tools for the resettling population.
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About 400 blacksmiths will be trained and equipped (they, in turn, will be able to train an estimated 2,600 blacksmiths that are required to satisfy the needs of resettlement), 400 tool production and training centres will be established, and four million units of assorted tools adapted to the very specific needs of the farmers in the targeted areas will be produced (each production centre will produce on average 10,000 units per year).2
3 The Nehemiah Project Margaret A. Novicki is the United Nations Information Centre Director for Ghana and Sierra Leone. In an article entitled ‘Sierra Leone camps try to rehabilitate child victims and soldiers’, she writes:3 Currently the Nehemiah Project accommodates 140 children, but there are thousands of children throughout the country who need rehabilitation. We expect to replicate the Nehemiah Project throughout Sierra Leone, as finance and resources are released and, as the locally recruited staff gain skills and knowledge in this field, that they will train others to staff the additional units.
Novicki describes the circumstances under which amputees live and attempt to acquire skills. Maimouna lives with her aunt at the Murraytown Amputee Camp, a squalid shantytown on the outskirts of Freetown, home to over 1,000 amputees, war-wounded and other victims of Sierra Leone’s civil war. The camp is managed by M´ed´ecins sans Frontiers with the help of Cause Canada and Handicap International. It provides social work services, vocational training, physical therapy, psycho-social counselling and prosthetic aids. Daniel, aged 15, now lives at St. Michael’s Lodge, an interim child-care centre 14 miles from Freetown. A former RUF fighter, he and the other 150 children at St. Michael’s are learning vocational skills and receiving psycho-social counselling. Most of the children seem quite small for their ages: years of malnourishment have stunted their growth. When asked what he plans for his future, Daniel says he simply wants to go to school. Even these war-hardened youth are still children at heart. It is estimated that the project for one training session of 20 blacksmiths will cost US$ 3,000, and hopefully, 20 sessions will be organised during the year.
The Nehemiah Project seeks to integrate general education and vocational training within a structure designed to encourage responsible, socially adjusted behaviour, whilst addressing the underlying problems of grief, fear, guilt and depression. Children impacted by war will be eligible for admission to the vocational training programme in carpentry, tailoring, weaving, soap-making and welding. These children will be referred to CAUSE Canada, a Christian-motivated international relief and development organization, by several agencies including Children Affected by War (CAW), the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health (MOH) and UNICEF. Training will consist of a six-week internship at vocational training facilities in Waterloo, Bo and Makeni. This project endeavours to promote an atmosphere in Sierra Leone conducive to sustainable peace. Children impacted by war need to receive psycho-social
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counselling so that they can adapt to peacetime society. Vocational training will help to ensure that they become contributing members of their communities. Amputees require counselling in order to come to terms peacefully with their disabilities. Occupational therapy will help foster in these victims a new hope for the future. This type of rehabilitation will help them to once again become contributing community members, and this will hopefully lay a foundation helping them to forgive their former adversaries.
4 The Scars of War Sierra Leone’s civil war, and the events following the coup d’´etat of 25 May 1997, brought unprecedented social and economic disaster to the country. The United Nations Development Programme estimates that 3.2 million people were directly affected by the war and the aftermath of the May coup. UNDP further states that about 700,000 people sought refuge in Guinea and Liberia. An estimated 12,000 people, the majority of them children, lost their lives to this conflict. UNICEF believes that, as a result of the war, more than 1,000 people had limbs forcibly amputated. About 80% of these have lost either one or both hands. It is also estimated that approximately 2,500 people have endured either severe machete lacerations or permanently debilitating gunshot wounds. Additionally, about 5,000 children between the ages of 7 and 14 years were enlisted into military groups to serve either as combatants, child labourers or sex slaves. The children impacted by war include those recently orphaned, former childsoldiers, and children who have been either physically or psychologically handicapped by this conflict. This project offers psychological counselling and vocational training for children impacted by war. These children will participate in the manufacturing of appropriate physiotherapy aids and farm tools. They will also take part in activities specifically designed to assist recent amputees. Handicap International and M´ed´ecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) plan to provide prostheses to war amputees. Both of these organizations, as well as government health authorities, have asked CAUSE Canada (CC) to provide occupational therapy and counselling services to complement their work. CC has been asked to provide Canadian occupational therapists and counsellors with expertise in post-traumatic stress disorder. These professionals will be engaged on a short-term basis to upgrade the training of national health practitioners and to assist in the rehabilitation of both war amputees and children affected by war. Throughout the project, the issue of the repatriation of children impacted by war and the reintegration of amputees will be addressed both in the vocational programmes and in the communities where repatriation will take place. While the acquisition of marketable skills will be the key to the repatriation process for children impacted by war, these students will also be instructed on how to meet and overcome common social obstacles they will face upon their return. Amputees will receive similar instruction appropriate to their unique situation.
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Communities will also be prepared to receive these victims of war. Through workshops and other types of consultations held with community leaders in the target regions of Greater Freetown/Waterloo, Bo and Makeni, villagers will be both practically and psychologically prepared to accept amputees and children impacted by war into their ranks. In order to assist with the reintegration programme, children will be provided with farm tools which can be presented as gifts to the community upon their return. The skills they have developed will assist in the economic recovery of their communities and will help smooth the reintegration process as they become contributing members of their villages. Amputees will benefit from the programme by receiving tools orthopedically designed for their own use as productive members of their community In Sierra Leone, the United Methodist Church has taken action to improve vocational training for students through Operation Classroom (OC). In the southern head district of Bo in Sierra Leone, the Bo Centenary School has been fortunate in that it is one of the few schools to have remained open and functioning during most of the war. The annual conference and OC have agreed to put together a major vocational training programme at Bo. The school’s student enrolment varies from 350 to 450 students in grades 7 to 12.
5 Bridging the Digital Divide Bridging the digital divide has been a major pre-occupation of the international education and resource network, iEARN Sierra Leone. It aims at promoting e-learning as a first step in speeding up the deployment of a high-quality infrastructure to step up training and overall digital literacy at a reasonable cost. For this purpose, the opening up of a community access centre is planned where young people who have been child-soldiers will be introduced to the necessary technology. It can be predicted that the youth community access centre will long remain the principle information window to the outside world for war-affected youths and underprivileged children. The participation of more young people in cyberspace and the development of access to the new technologies are desirable, as is access to the Internet, off-line resources, on-line networks and chat capabilities. The acquisition of such skills will be assets in the battle to overcome the digital gap between developed and developing countries—as is the case in Sierra Leone. The transfer of competence from the facilitator to the war-affected youths will allow these children to go on-line with the whole world so as to train them for job prospects in computer-related fields, thereby enhancing sustainable development and social justice for the community and the country. Friends of Africa are researching a project to set up a special computer-training laboratory for disabled young people. The courses will initially teach the students the basic programmes before moving on to packages for desk-top publishing, computer-aided design, book-keeping and other vocational subjects. The second
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phase will help these people into jobs using the skills and special equipment available through the centre. The centre itself will also employ several disabled young people on its own income-generating activities. Information technology offers disabled people in Sierra Leone a new opportunity to lead productive and fulfilled lives. Initial basic computer training for fifty students will cost US$8,000 per year.4 The expansion of a centre for the youths to obtain access to Internet on a regular basis is a vision that offers the possibility of turning the great challenge of closing the digital gap into reality and permitting every participating youth to be reintegrated not only into a society free from war, but a society full of knowledge. This will be the foundation that leads to the recruitment of additional young people in Sierra Leone to learn the relevant tele-communications and ICTs skills. It will further foster the promotion of peace education amongst secondary and post-secondary schools and inspire the inclusion of peace education in the school curriculum. This in itself enhances learning and will be a catalyst for social change. Whilst each generation is granted access to the new tools needed for human achievement and progress in their own times, the present young generation is living in the new wave of tele-communication technology that links communities together to make a difference. The child-soldiers, war-affected children and disadvantaged youths/students will also reveal to the world the awful situations they faced as childsoldiers or victims of war to colleagues across the vast cultural divide. In the telling of their stories, their peers will learn what happened to them; the child-soldiers and victims will in turn achieve catharsis through the telling of their stories. It is to be hoped that they will derive positive and encouraging feedback from their colleagues and feel that once again they are not alone. Through multi-media art forms, drawings, paintings, cartoons, creative writing, music and fine arts posted by regular mail or sent through the web as attachments, children will see for themselves the strength of their talents. The projected outcome will be estimated by the extension of the work to be used as a model in four additional countries—Colombia, Palestine, Rwanda and Uganda—having been piloted in a realistic setting. This technology will demonstrate how children of war write for an authentic audience to better communicate with peers about real issues that touched their very lives, families and communities. To sustain the Internet centre, grants or funds will be utilized to acquire the necessary tools needed for the achievement of the long-range goal of providing the relevant tele-communication kits to equip young people with the necessary skills. The funds will be used to sustain the centre even long after the one-year duration of the implementation time-line has passed. Finally, even though there are enormous challenges facing young people and all those who access the limited technology available today in Sierra Leone, there are also great hopes embedded in the use of technology in vocational training in the near future for the progress of a country whose economy was destroyed as a result of a decade-long war.
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6 Liberia Furthermore, in the sub-region, the neighbouring country of Liberia has also been confronted by years of violence and war. Here too, vocational skills training has been a major pre-occupation for improving the lives of its inhabitants. The John Tamba Tailoring Shop in Kakata in Margibi County (Liberia) is a cinderblock building just big enough to accommodate six sewing machines and the people who operate them. At one of the machines, Musu Yoryor is putting the finishing touches to a pair of drawstring trousers she learned how to make at the Don Bosco Centre for war-affected children. ‘I am practising here until I get my own sewing machine,’ she said, showing the trousers. ‘I feel good about it.’ Yoryor, 19, later completed the vocational training course at Don Bosco and graduated in an official ceremony. She and her 100 classmates are now budding entrepreneurs in the trades of agriculture, masonry, rattan furniture-making, pastry-making and tailoring. Don Bosco is an NGO affiliated with the Catholic Church. The Kakata centre was established in 1997 as a hostel for boys and girls who were separated from their families during the recent civil war in Liberia. Then, as now, the goal is for these children to be reintegrated into their communities. ‘These children carry the stigma of being someone different and we are trying to remove that stigma,’ said Alfred Tamba, Don Bosco’s project co-ordinator in Kakata. Liberia’s civil conflict (1989–1997) took a particularly brutal toll on children. Thousands were abandoned or otherwise separated from their families. Of the nearly 5,000 documented cases to date, more than 3,000 have yet to be reunited with their families. Many of these children live on their own in the streets, as in Kakata. Throughout Liberia, UNICEF supports twenty-two centres offering vocational and literacy training and counselling services for war-affected children. Most of the boys participating in the project fought as soldiers in the war and were demobilized with UNICEF assistance. Many of the girls were abducted and raped and are now mothers, some as young as 13 years old. Since 1997, when the project began, about 6,000 children have participated. The ten-month course at the Kakata centre covers basic vocational skills and small-business management. Another centre in Zwedru (Grand Gedeh County), also operated by Don Bosco, offers courses specifically for teenage mothers, including soap-making, pastry-making and tailoring. It houses a small day-care facility. Graduates receive tools of the trade—Yoryor will have her sewing machine when funding is secured—and a small cash grant. Under the supervision of a smallbusiness adviser, many of them form miniature co-operatives as a way to minimize start-up costs and maximize capacity. The business success of these young people hinges on an improvement in economic conditions, a fact that Alfred Tamba fully acknowledges. Liberia’s economy is in a shambles, poverty is pervasive and unemployment is the norm for most adults. Even in the most economically active region of the country, Montserrado County,
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residents live on less than US$2 per household per day. ‘We hope these young people will produce. We hope their products will be purchased,’ said Tamba. ‘It all depends on the economic purchasing power of the people who live here.’ Another focus of efforts to help war-affected young people in the sub-region gain vocational training skills can be noted in the work of the United Methodist Church in Liberia, The United Methodist Church located in the town of Ganta—GUMS—has an enrolment of over 750 students. The North Carolina conference recently built a new classroom block building for children from kindergarten to grade 9. Ganta has been selected to become one of the Operation Classroom (OC) schools to include a major vocational training programme. We believe that the best depositories of investment are the young people of our nations. Throughout history and across the world, youthful idealism has reawakened societies and urged them forward to new realizations and new awareness. We believe that these young people are the future leaders of tomorrow and, although they have faced unprecedented violence, skills for vocational training will be a first step towards transforming them into active and responsible citizens. Working with new technologies will enable them to acquire useful skills in critical thinking, crosscultural awareness and valuable experience. Collaborative educational projects will be favourable for all the youths concerned and will prepare them to face the challenges of globalization.
Notes 1. Sierra Leone News, 2002, vol. 38: <www.sierra-leone.org/slnews.html> 2. Friends of Africa: <www.friendsofafrica.net/main.html> 3. Margaret A. Novicki, Saving a war’s traumatized children: Sierra Leone camps try to rehabilitate child victims and soldiers. Africa recovery, vol. 14, no. 2, July 2000, p. 10. <www.un.org/ ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/subjindx/142child.htm> 4. <www.childsoldier.net>
Chapter V.7
TVET and Community Re-Integration: Exploring the Connections in Sierra Leone’s DDR Process Julia Paulson
1 Introduction Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programmes are fast becoming a norm in post-conflict contexts (United Nations, 2000). These programmes are designed to collect weapons from and to demobilize fighting factions and, subsequently, to assist ex-combatants in reintegrating into civilian life. Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) programmes, in the form of skills training and/or apprenticeship schemes, are often included as a central activity in the reintegration phase of DDR in order to equip ex-combatants with skills to help them generate new livelihoods essential for their transition into civilian communities. Humphreys and Weinstein (2005) state that: Reintegration packages and training programs enable leaders to deliver concrete benefits to combatants at the conclusion of the fighting, some of which can be designed to address underlying grievances that gave rise to the conflict [. . .] To the extent that DDR programs reintegrate combatants into non-military life and help them to find gainful employment, we can think of programs as a key element of successful peace-building (p. 6).
This chapter uses the DDR process of Sierra Leone—a nation where grievances about educational exclusion and lack of opportunity have been identified among causes of conflict (see, for instance, Keen, 2005; Richards, 1996)—to explore the reintegration component of DDR, with a particular focus on TVET programmes. It asks if and how TVET programmes contribute to the reintegration of ex-combatants into communities and whether they could be better designed to do so.
2 DDR, Reintegration and TVET For individuals who have been armed for a long time, their gun has become a means of livelihood (Pouligny, 2004, p. 4).
Ultimately, the DDR process is expected to be instrumental in transforming conflict livelihoods into post-conflict ones. Through disarmament and demobilization, the process is meant to remove weapons—and war itself—as a means of livelihood R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 V.7, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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and, through the reintegration process, to replace these livelihoods with ones that contribute to stability, peace and growth. It is the reintegration phase of DDR programmes that link them directly to the peace-building process. The extent to which these programmes succeed in integrating combatants into lives (and livelihoods) not embedded in conflict (and in the war economy) is indicative of DDR programmes’ success in building peace. Given the scope of this task, it is unsurprising that analysts understand the reintegration phase as ‘the toughest part of a DDR effort’ (Humphreys & Weinstein, 2005, p. 39) and the ‘most challenging component of the DDR program’ (Refugees International, 2002). Given the centrality of recreating livelihoods to the hugely challenging task of reintegration, TVET programming is clearly a very important component of ‘doing’ this part of DDR. ‘The approach,’ argue Richards et al. (2003), ‘should be to reduce the incentives to selling labour as a fighter by increasing incentives to “legitimate” labour’ (p. 6). The facilitation of this move from fighter to civilian is often attempted through the inclusion, in DDR programming, of training courses, apprenticeships and the provision of access to the formal education system. The UN defines the reintegration phase of DDR as: the process which allows ex-combatants and their families to adapt, economically and socially to productive civilian life. It generally entails the provision of a package of cash or in-kind compensation, training and job- and income-generating projects (United Nations, 2000).
For Pouligny (2004), reintegration programmes as a part of DDR ‘support the immediate and medium-term social and economic inclusion of former combatants into their communities of origin or into new communities’ (p. 7). Since TVET programming—often accompanied by counselling, reinsertion packages (short-term allowances to support ex-combatants) and community activities designed to foster reconciliation—is usually one of the central activities of a DDR process, it is important to ask how successful it has been at contributing to the reintegration of ex-combatants. This question can be broken down further to look at practical as well as theoretical questions surrounding TVET as a part of DDR. Theoretically, it is important to explore how meaningful the connection between learning skills and reintegrating into communities following periods of war really is? Does TVET training contribute to ‘social and economic inclusion’ of ex-combatants in the communities that they return to? Could it be that skills for employability are one among many barriers to reintegration facing ex-combatants and those affected by war? And could TVET programming designed with a more holistic focus address these further barriers? Practically, it is important to understand what type of skills training is provided as a part of DDR initiatives and to attempt to evaluate the success of this training in actually generating livelihoods for ex-combatants, particularly given the condition of the economies and labour markets into which ex-combatants are expected to (re)integrate. High unemployment and economic stagnation often characterize the post-conflict environment and certainly do in the case of Sierra Leone. What do ‘social and economic’ reintegration look like in such circumstances? Richards
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et al. (2003) found that in Sierra Leone ‘disarmament and demobilization have succeeded, but reintegration is far from complete’ (p. 4). What was and is the role of TVET in the (incomplete) reintegration process in Sierra Leone?
3 Youth, Education and Conflict in Sierra Leone For Richards (1996), Sierra Leone’s conflict must be understood as a crisis in modernity, central to which were the unfulfilled aspirations of youth. ‘In a country built up for two hundred years or more around systems of schooling where Western models have been held out as the ideal,’ writes Richards, ‘educational issues are one of the key aspects of the present [sic] crisis’ (p. 36). In the years prior to Sierra Leone’s decade-long conflict, which killed between 50,000 and 75,000 people, displaced nearly half the country and saw the rape and enforced sexual slavery of tens of thousands of women and girls (Dougherty, 2004; Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, 2004), the education system in the country suffered serious decline or, in many regions, outright collapse. The ‘forgotten aspirants’ (Wright, 1997) of this crumbling and exclusionary education system, found— instead of the promises of Western modernity inherent in the education system—a stifling patrimonialism (Richards, 1996) that offered few or no opportunities for Sierra Leonean youth. This sense of disenfranchisement amongst young people has been central to many analyses of the conflict (see, for instance, Keen, 2005; Wright, 1997; Richards, 1996), since joining in the fighting offered youth opportunities where otherwise there were none (for a detailed discussion of education, conflict and youth in Sierra Leone, see Paulson, 2006).
4 The DDR Process in Sierra Leone Sierra Leone’s DDR process, largely considered by the international community to be a successful model that has contributed to Sierra Leone’s peace process, has been used to inform similar processes in Liberia, Burundi and Haiti (Humphreys & Weinstein, 2005). The perceived success of Sierra Leone’s DDR and its replication as a model of international success offer another reason to explore the process in depth and to question its various dimensions. In addition to using some data from a Government of Sierra Leone sponsored ‘Tracer Study’ (Stavrou et al., 2003) of 250 ex-combatants, this chapter draws heavily on two studies that have done just this, with a focus on the reintegration phase of the DDR process. One, a largely quantitative study of 1,043 ex-combatants who went through the DDR process and of 200 non-combatants who did not, was undertaken in the summer of 2003 by Humphreys and Weinstein, (2004, 2005). The second, mentioned above, is a qualitative, interview-based investigation that also included those who did and did not participate in the DDR process, conducted by Richards et al. (2003). Both studies were conducted while DDR activities were on-going or shortly after they had been
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completed, meaning that the longer-term effects of DDR along with longer-term perceptions of reintegration could not be gathered in the studies. This fact is particularly relevant when considering how ‘successful’ reintegration could be evaluated—a very difficult question, made more difficult when the evaluation is being undertaken in the short term. Sierra Leone’s DDR process will be briefly detailed before turning to the findings of these studies—which converge and diverge in interesting ways that are, arguably, informative about their methodological choices. The DDR process in Sierra Leone, as in many other nations, began and was halted several times by renewed conflict before entering into a period stable enough for co-ordinated demobilization and disarmament to occur. In 1998 the first DDR camp was opened, but the process was suspended with the 1999 attacks on Freetown by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). DDR camps re-opened following the signing of the Lom´e Peace Accord in July 1999, but were again disrupted by fighting in May 2000 and by the national elections of 2002 (Ginifer, 2003; Refugees International, 2002). At its completion in July 2003 (Humphreys & Weinstein, 2004), Sierra Leone’s National Committee on Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (NCDDR) had disarmed and registered between 67,260 (Richards et al., 2003) and 76,000 (Humphreys & Weinstein, 2004) ex-combatants (the World Bank (2005) puts the figure at 69,000). The NCDDR established sixteen demobilization centres that covered all of Sierra Leone’s twelve districts, and seven interim care centres were also established (World Bank, 2005). The NCDDR was funded primarily through the World Bank’s Multi-Donor Trust Fund (Refugees International, 2002) with contributions from the Africa Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, UNICEF, the World Population Foundation, the United Nations Human Security Fund, the European Development Fund and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (World Bank, 2005). The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) was responsible for co-ordinating the demobilization and demilitarization component of the NCDDR, while the reintegration component was contracted out to various international and local NGOs (Refugees International, 2002). Funders of the DDR process in Sierra Leone have been criticized for focusing heavily on the two ‘Ds’, and leaving a meagre budget for the ‘reintegration’ phase—a fact that will be crucial in our consideration of the TVET provisions within Sierra Leone’s DDR process. Meek and Malan (2004) include, among their recent list of lessons learnt in DDR processes, the need to prioritize and link reintegration more fully to disarmament and demobilization, demonstrating that this has been a problem unique to Sierra Leone. In order to enter a DDR camp, ex-combatants had either to present a weapon or enter with their commander as a part of a unit to be demobilized. These requirements can exclude many combatants, along with individuals who were involved with the fighting forces in roles other than as weapon-carrying combatants (Humphreys & Weinstein, 2004; Richards et al., 2003; Refugees International, 2002). Child-soldiers, who often did not possess their own weapons, children who worked as cooks and porters, and women who were held as ‘bush wives’ (women in forced sexual relationships with fighters) were consequently often left out of the DDR process because they could not present a weapon in order to gain access to
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its programming. Richards et al. (2003) argue that bush wives, whose reintegration following the conflict has been particularly difficult given the stigma attached to their roles in the war and to the children that many had as a result, are the group in the greatest need of reintegration assistance—and are among the groups who have benefited least from the formal DDR. Another problem associated with the need to turn in a weapon or to demobilize with a commander was the power that this requirement gave to commanders. Richards et al. (2003) heard many reports of commanders and high-powered individuals removing weapons from their rank-and-file fighters and giving them to family members or influential community members close to the commander—thus entitling false ex-combatants to DDR benefits and excluding actual ex-combatants from the process. This problem was not identified in Humphreys and Weinstein’s (2004) more quantitative study and as Richards et al. (2003) note, their study cannot quantify the phenomenon. The NCDDR estimates that the number of false ex-combatants registered in the DDR process was low. However, Richards et al. (2003) report that several of their respondents estimated that approximately 50–60% of guncarrying ex-combatants were excluded from the DDR process in favour of false ex-combatants. ‘For every false ex-combatant there must be a real ex-combatant without benefits’ (p. 4), a situation that is potentially volatile, especially if numbers of ex-combatants excluded from the NCDDR are as high as Richards’ respondents report. The reintegration of this potentially large group of ex-combatants is thus proceeding without the official support and associated training of the DDR process. Once registered with the NCDDR, ex-combatants received basic necessities and orientation activities, including trauma healing, psycho-social counselling, information and sensitization seminars and short civic education programming (Ginifer, 2003). They were also often involved in destroying their own weapons to add a symbolic dimension to the demobilization. At the end of their time in DDR camps, ex-combatants were transported to the relocation area of their choice, and were highly encouraged to re-settle in their home communities. ‘Reinsertion packages’ (or allowances) were provided—often with ‘significant and unpredictable’ delays (Humphreys & Weinstein, 2004)—to support ex-combatants through the first three months in their chosen settlement locations. Humphreys and Weinstein (2004) found that the ex-combatants they surveyed either spent the bulk of their reinsertion packages on living expenses or gave it to family and dependents. Very little of the reinsertion package was kept as savings nor was it seen as a resource for initial livelihood-generating investments.
5 Skills Training and the DDR Process in Sierra Leone The former Secretary-General, in his 2000 speech on United Nations Peacekeeping and DDR, made the following recommendations for the educational and skills training component of DDR reintegration programmes: Provision should be made for education and, as appropriate, for relevant vocational training and opportunities for employment or self-employment, including for children with
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disabilities. Traditional apprenticeship models, where the trainee is taken in as part of the master craftsman’s family, may prove useful. Upon completion of vocational skills training, trainees should be provided with the relevant tools and, where possible, with start-up loans to promote self-reliance. Reintegration programmes must replace the economic incentives of war for child warriors; at the same time, training or educational programmes should be geared to the existing economy and avoid creating false expectations about the possibilities for economic reinsertion (United Nations, 2000).
Compliance with these—albeit vague—recommendations can be seen within Sierra Leone’s DDR process, though provisions for children (and others) with disabilities were minimal (Katie Dimmer, personal communication) and micro-credit loans were not provided following training. According to Humphreys and Weinstein (2004), three-quarters of the ex-combatants who entered the DDR process participated in some form of training programme; however, the World Bank (2005) states that 85% (48,246 ex-combatants) of those registered in the DDR process participated in training. NCDDR’s approach to skills training was to target the informal sector through the establishment of apprenticeships, to offer selected in-centre formal skills training courses, and to provide formal educational opportunities, particularly for children (Ginifer, 2003). UNICEF co-ordinated the provision of educational programmes for nearly 7,000 children who had been through the DDR process (Alexander, 2006). Children participated primarily in the Community Education Investment Programme (CEIP), which waived school fees for former child soldiers and provided them with a uniform and school material—notebooks, pencils and paper were also provided to all children at the CEIP schools to minimize the perceived advantage given to former child-soldiers (Alexander, 2006)—or in the Complimentary Rapid Education Primary School (CREPS) programme, which condensed six years of primary schooling into three and was directed towards older children (Alexander, 2006). The support for formal educational opportunities provided through the NCDDR was understood as one of its greatest successes and accomplishments (Ginifer, 2003). However, Humphreys and Weinstein (2004) quote the following excerpt from an interview with a participant in the DDR: I’m not happy with DDR because they lied to us. Promised to have us enrolled in schools, I have not seen any such. We need education and jobs. DDR has not registered a good number of us. They promised us educational materials but none have been delivered (p. 33).
In addition to programmes that provided ex-combatants with access into formal education, ex-combatants could access TVET programming, generally lasting for three months to a year and offering courses or apprenticeships in trades such as car repair, carpentry, computers, masonry, bicycle repair, building, plumbing, metalwork, road maintenance, tailoring, agriculture and, primarily for women, soap-making and tie-dying (see Yarrow in this section for a nuanced discussion of TVET programming, gender and the post-conflict context). Whether ex-combatants had a high degree of choice regarding entry into formal education programmes, apprenticeships or skills training is not well documented. However, this appears to be a critical question for ex-combatants’ potential reintegration, for their satisfaction with their experience of DDR, and for the livelihoods they may build in the future. Of the 250 ex-combatants surveyed in the tracer study (Stavrou et al., 2003), 76% entered
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vocational or skills-training courses, 12% undertook apprenticeships, 5% participated in public works schemes, 4% entered formal schooling and 3% engaged in agricultural training. Those who did enter TVET programmes received training of varying quality, as it was contracted out to local and international NGOs whose capacities, capabilities and commitment varied greatly. Richards et al. (2003) report finding a computer training centre open and receiving NCDDR funding to provide skills training that did not have a single computer. They also report ‘common consent’ among respondents that skills training was ‘too perfunctory and of too low a quality to offer much immediate chance of real employment’ (p. 13). The Commissioner of the NCDDR responded to criticism about the TVET component of DDR by positing it as a ‘useful first step’ (as quoted in Richards et al., 2003) and hoping that ex-combatants would pursue further training. Given the very limited resources of most ex-combatants, one must ask whether further training was among their options upon completing the reintegration phase of the NCDDR. Those entering apprenticeships and skills training received small stipends to cover their basic living expenses for the duration of their training periods; mentors participating in apprenticeships received tools and other benefits in return for their participation (Refugees International, 2002). The stipend received by trainees is, according to Refugees International (2002), ‘one of the very reasons why these programs are essential—they offer a small window that allows former combatants time to be supported while they readjust to civilian life.’ Ex-combatants were also to receive, as per the UN’s recommendation, a toolkit relevant to their developed skills upon the completion of their training programmes. However, many excombatants reported that their toolkits were delivered late or not at all (Humphreys & Weinstein, 2004; Richards et al., 2003). Other ex-combatants sold their toolkits after failing to find employment in their new fields, according to Richards et al. (2003): We found some masons, carpenters and tailors reported to be providing a useful service in more remote rural communities where skills shortages are severe. In other cases, however, ex-combatants sold tools packages and moved to the diamond fields, unconvinced they could make a living in their new craft (p. 5).
This situation begs Ginifer’s (2003) question of whether the skills included within Sierra Leone’s DDR process were in fact appropriate for generating employment, building livelihoods and contributing to reintegration in post-war Sierra Leone. A serious lack of data on the needs of the labour market in Sierra Leone (Ginifer, 2003) is but one challenging feature of what is a very constrained economy, with limited growth and unemployment rates as high as 80% (Refugees International, 2002), dominated largely by patrimonialism and, especially at high levels, corruption (Graybill, 2007). If reintegration is understood, in part, as (re)insertion into the labour market—which it appears to have been within Sierra Leone’s DDR process— then one of the largest challenges of reintegration is certainly the very real lack of jobs for ex-combatants, even those trained with what are perceived as marketable skills through TVET programmes.
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When Humphreys and Weinstein (2004) surveyed ex-combatants about their reintegration processes, most of their respondents had either just completed their skills training (40%) or were still participating in courses. These respondents, overall, were satisfied with their training, with 75% reporting that they felt prepared for work; a vast majority felt that the skills with which they had been trained were needed in the regions where they would resettle or had resettled. Some 87% of ex-combatants surveyed felt they were better off socially because of the training that they had received. This is an important finding with regards to our question about the links between TVET training and reintegration as it supports the idea that skills training can have meaningful benefits for ex-combatant’s social reintegration. This social aspect of TVET training is reassuring given the dismal prognosis by Refugees International (2002) that only approximately 10% of ex-combatants trained by the NCDDR would find employment upon the completion of their training. It is important to consider the optimism of the ex-combatants surveyed by Humphreys and Weinstein in 2003 about their prospects following skills training in this light, and to take very seriously, as a challenge for reintegration as well as for stability and peace in Sierra Leone, the disillusionment they are likely to now be experiencing. The NCDDR, rather belatedly, recognized the obstacles to employment for graduates of TVET programmes and ‘grappled with alternatives’ (Ginifer, 2003) that could provide or build livelihoods for ex-combatants. Thus, it encouraged ex-combatants to form co-operatives or seek avenues for self-employment or income generation (Ginifer, 2003). The NCDDR also provided some counselling on job-seeking and accessing employment opportunities, but both Humphreys and Weinstein (2004) and Richards et al. (2003) found that ex-combatants perceived this portion of the programmes to be unsatisfactory and under-prioritized. The most common response (54%) among ex-combatants surveyed by Humphreys and Weinstein (2004), when asked how they would improve the DDR process, was to provide more support for finding jobs once the training periods were completed. The NCDDR did attempt to liaise with UNAMSIL to create ‘stop-gap’ opportunities for ex-combatants that saw them employed for short-term public work projects, such as road construction (Ginifer, 2003). However, as other contributions to this section highlight (see, for instance, Kane and Karpinska in this section), tying TVET programming to realistic livelihood and employment opportunities available to participants upon completion is an essential priority in post-conflict TVET programmes and one that should have been in the forefront of the NCDDR’s programme planning, rather than addressed as the ramifications of its neglect became apparent. The complexities, as well as the need, to tie TVET programmes realistically to market needs and realities are also demonstrated within Sierra Leone’s DDR process. Many recognize (Humphreys & Weinstein, 2004; Richards et al., 2003; Ginifer, 2003) that agriculture is the sector in Sierra Leone most likely to be able to reabsorb large numbers of ex-combatants, because: (a) many of them would have left the agricultural sector to join in fighting; (b) agriculture was severely disrupted by conflict; and (c) agriculture was one of the principal livelihood options in Sierra Leone prior to the conflict. However, the agricultural training options provided by the NCDDR were the least attractive to ex-combatants, who mostly
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preferred options that led to formal education or to computer training, followed by vehicle driving and maintenance, carpentry and tailoring (Richards et al., 2003). Ginifer (2003) explains that ‘many ex-combatants had high expectations of acquiring skills and a job, and were disinclined to take up agriculture, the sector most likely to provide opportunities in Sierra Leone.’ Such trends point to the continued perceived benefits of formal education—as well as skills training—in Sierra Leone and, unfortunately, to the continuation of these expectations being unfulfilled— a situation that, in the past, has contributed to conflict. In fact, Humphreys and Weinstein (2004) found that those who had more than a primary school education were slightly less likely to find employment than those who had not completed primary schooling, a finding that is indicative of the continued disenfranchisement of youth in Sierra Leone. Educational reconstruction is given considerable priority in post-conflict Sierra Leone. However, policy and programmes initiatives should capture the real disillusionment that has been associated with educational aspirations in Sierra Leone and develop strategies to ensure that education—both academic and TVET —lead to opportunities.
6 Reintegration, Communities and Livelihoods The NCDDR is talking about how well it has addressed material need. The ex-combatants are talking about whether or not they have acquired their rights (Richards et al., 2003, p. 9). The all-encompassing issue of reintegration has much to do with collective self-images and the way local communities are involved in a process of social reconstruction of the memories of violence (Pouligny, 2004, p. 7). Evidence from Sierra Leone does not support the hypothesis that participation in a DDR program increases the level of reintegration success at the individual level (Humphreys & Weinstein, 2004, p. 39).
The reintegration of ex-combatants following a period of extended conflict is clearly a complicated process. It is also one for which programming is often devised in a rather ad-hoc way, given the urgency of getting DDR processes running quickly so as to consolidate the entry into a ‘post-conflict’ situation. While the task of those raising questions in retrospect is certainly easier than that of those involved in planning programming in the moment, it is nonetheless important to reflect critically on reintegration processes and to take into account the multitude of issues—several of which are raised in the above quotations—that responsive programming must try to capture. Thus, this section seeks to explore the processes and reported outcomes of reintegration programming in Sierra Leone—with a particular focus on TVET and on the role of building livelihoods for reintegration—while also reflecting on broader social processes—some of which find roots in or around the DDR process— that affect reintegration or its lack thereof. Some 90% of the respondents to Humphreys and Weinstein’s (2004) study reported having experienced no problems in gaining the acceptance of the communities where they re-settled. This is a striking figure, and contrasts sharply to Ginifer’s (2003) appraisal of ex-combatants’ community reintegration process as
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‘difficult’ and characterized by ‘latent hostility to ex-combatants among civilians in Sierra Leone’. Ginifer (2003) reports community members engaging in the reintegration process grudgingly, making comments such as ‘we are forgiving them [ex-combatants] because the government says so’. As mentioned above, the benefits provided to ex-combatants by the DDR process could, and did, breed community resentment, as demonstrated by the following comment: ‘those who have ruined us are being given the chance to become better persons financially, academically and skills-wise’ (as quoted in Ginifer, 2003). It is incredibly difficult to assess the degree of community animosity towards ex-combatants, and it certainly varies across communities and alters depending on the faction and personal role of individual ex-combatants. Both the Humphreys and Weinstein (2004) and the Richards et al. (2003) studies found that ex-Community Defence Force (CDF) fighters had an easier time reintegrating than did members of any other faction. This is probably due to the fact that CDF factions were formed largely by members of the same community united to defend that community against attack and were perceived as heroes in the minds of their communities. Both studies also found that fighters who returned to their home communities reintegrated more successfully than did those who did not return home. This finding must be taken cautiously, as it is likely that those who choose not to return to their home communities were associated with severe violations of human rights that their home communities would be aware of (or have experienced firsthand). Arguably, these combatants were therefore unlikely to return home and may well be among those most likely to experience the greatest challenges in terms of reintegration, regardless of where they settled. In addition to community animosity, Richards’ study points to other, potentially volatile, resentments hindering reintegration. Those ex-combatants excluded from the NCDDR process experience a ‘strong sense of disillusionment’ (Richards et al., 2003, p. 5) and are subject to the same stigmatization for their role in the conflict as those who did participate in the NCDDR, without the resulting benefits and assistance that comes from participation in DDR. In addition, Richards et al. (2003) argue that ‘the reintegration of ex-combatants after the war in Sierra Leone is hindered not so much by negative civilian attitudes, but by a strong sense of grievance among young people who believe that they have not been fairly treated in the DDRP (disarmament, demobilization and reintegration process)’ (p. 5). This includes those who were and were not participants in the NCDDR. Richards et al. (2003) highlight the vulnerability of ex-combatants, and especially of those associated with the fighting forces who were not able to access the DDR process (in particular women). They argue that forced rural marriages that virtually indenture women who were associated with fighting factions are common and that those ex-combatants who return to or take up work in the diamond fields often experience very exploitative labour conditions. Interestingly, Humphreys and Weinstein’s (2004) study found that non-participants in the DDR process reintegrated as successfully as did participants. This finding must be questioned given the depth of the qualitative evidence to the contrary presented by the study of Richards et al. (2003).
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The point that the DDR process itself creates divisions (both between ex-combatants themselves and between ex-combatants and civilians) that hamper the reintegration process (Richards et al., 2003) is an important one. The NCDDR adopted several strategies to address the injustice perceived by community members who watched ex-combatants receive assistance and benefits (Ginifer, 2003) and very few to address the grievances of ex-combatants and those associated with the fighting forces excluded from the NCDDR (Richards et al., 2003). The NCDDR attempted to minimize community animosity by stressing that the skills training and economic reinsertion benefits that ex-combatant received were not meant as compensation for their war activities and by attempting to show that the skills that ex-combatants were gaining would be beneficial for communities as a whole (Ginifer, 2003). Sensitization activities and radio campaigns were carried out to disseminate these messages. The NCDDR also organized some events using traditional reconciliatory practices to encourage the reintegration of ex-combatants and provided ex-combatants with ‘pre-discharge counselling’ that emphasized reintegration into the community and urged ex-combatants to develop a ‘special re-entry plan’ (Ginifer, 2003). Ex-combatants were encouraged to participate in tasks that would benefit the communities, such as construction and rehabilitation projects. The NCDDR sought to engage local, community-based social reintegration organizations, providing funding for adult education programmes, civic and peace education and music and sports groups—hoping to rebuild the ‘social capital’ of ex-combatants (Ginifer, 2003). The sensitization activities of the NCDDR, along with its community meetings and use of traditional reconciliatory rituals to foster reintegration, overlap in many ways with activities carried out by Sierra Leone’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), another post-conflict mechanism aimed at contributing in some way to reintegration by creating a forum for acknowledging the human rights abuses that occurred during the conflict and by making recommendations (enabled in the TRC’s founding legislation as mandatory) for post-conflict reforms to prevent conflict from reoccurring. Among the TRC’s recommendation was a recommendation to implement a package of reparations for victims of human rights violations (Graybill, 2007). Included in these recommendations were educational and skills training programmes, the existence of which—were they to be implemented by the government, that has to date been negligent of its responsibility to take up TRC recommendations (Graybill, 2007)—could address the inequities between survivors and ex-combatants created by the NCDDR process. Closer ties between the NCDDR and other post-conflict mechanisms, such as the TRC, could potentially have led to more holistic programming, capable of addressing the reintegration needs of more diverse communities from a variety of angles. Fithen and Richards (2005) argue for a more complex understanding of reintegration, pointing out that, in the post-conflict context, reintegrating does not simply mean readapting or ‘fitting into’ a community as a civilian, but rather being able to participate in reshaping the future and in creating new opportunities—a central task for communities in Sierra Leone given the current economic circumstances. The conflict, they argue, opened spaces for individualism and individual
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rights (see Archibald & Richards, 2002) in what was a largely patrimonial society. Skills training, along with formal education, could contribute to consolidating this potentially positive impact of Sierra Leone’s conflict were they to subsequently open real opportunities for youth. Fithen and Richards (2005) describe a group of ex-combatants who formed a bicycle taxi collective in Boas as an example of ex-combatants reintegrating positively (and profitably) into a community: ‘reintegration’ is not just a matter of ‘fitting in’ but of spotting and developing new opportunities for self-employment in a changing society. [. . .] Finding such opportunities strengthens social acceptability [. . .] as well as providing livelihood opportunities. Social acceptability, in turn, strengthens chances of winning political battles. [. . .] These ex-combatants are not just ‘fitting into’ such a society—they are helping to forge it (pp. 134–35).
Seen in this way, TVET programming is an integral part of a reintegration that creates and facilitates new opportunities and livelihoods for ex-combatants and for communities by enabling the possibility of building realities that differ considerably from pre-conflict ones. Seen more narrowly, however, TVET programming as a part of DDR has the real potential to raise expectations, create divisions and—in failing to lead to employment or livelihoods—create potentially dangerous disillusionment among youth. The challenge, therefore, of envisioning and programming for holistic, integrated TVET programming is a central one for DDR processes.
References Alexander, A. 2006. Community based reintegration: programme evaluation. Freetown: UNICEF. [Unpublished evaluation of UNICEF’s Community-Based Reintegration (CBR) Programme.] Archibald, S.; Richards, P. 2002. Converts to human rights? Popular debate about war and justice in rural central Sierra Leone. Africa, vol. 72, no. 3, pp. 339–67. Dougherty, B.K. 2004. Searching for answers: Sierra Leone’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. African studies quarterly, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 39–56. Fithen, C.; Richards, P. 2005. Making war, crafting peace: militia solidarities and demobilisation in Sierra Leone. In: Richards, P., ed. No war, no peace: an anthropology of contemporary armed conflict. Oxford, UK: James Currey. Ginifer, J. 2003. Reintegration of ex-combatants. In: Meek, S. et al., eds. Sierra Leone: building the road to recovery, pp. 39–52. Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies Africa. (ISS monograph no. 80.) Graybill, L. 2007. Debt relief: a panacea for Sierra Leone. In: Center for Strategic and International Studies, ed. Africa policy forum. Washington, DC: CSIS. Humphreys, M.; Weinstein, J.M. 2004. What the fighters say: a survey of ex-combatants in Sierra Leone. June–August 2003: Interim report: July 2004. New York, NY: Columbia University. <www.stanford.edu/∼jweinst/docs/manuscripts/humphreys combatantsurvey.pdf> Humphreys, M.; Weinstein J.M. 2005. Disentangling the determinants of successful disarmament, demobilization and reintegration. [Unpublished manuscript.] <www.stanford.edu/ ∼jweinst/docs/manuscripts/DDR%20IGCC.pdf> Keen, D. 2005. Conflict and collusion in Sierra Leone. Oxford, UK: James Currey. Meek, S.; Malan, M., eds. 2004. Identifying lessons from DDR experiences in Africa. Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies. (ISS monograph, no. 106.) Paulson, J. 2006. The educational recommendations of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions: potential and practice in Sierra Leone. Research in comparative and international education, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 335–50.
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Pouligny, B. 2004. The politics and anti-politics of contemporary ‘Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration’ Programs. Paris: Centre d’´etudes et de recherches internationales. <www.ceri-sciencespo.com/cherlist/pouligny/rapportpouligny.pdf> Refugees International. 2002. RI Focus: disarmament, demobilization and reintegration in Sierra Leone. Washington, DC: Refugees International. <www.refugeesinternational.org/ content/article/detail/884/?PHPSESSID=5cfliegen3C> Richards, P. 1996. Fighting for the rainforest: war, youth and resources in Sierra Leone. Oxford, UK: James Currey. Richards, P., et al. 2003. Where have all the young people gone? Transitioning ex-combatants towards community reconstruction after the war in Sierra Leone. London: School of Oriental and African Studies. [Consultancy paper, unpublished.] Stavrou, A. et al. 2003. Tracer study and follow-up assessment of the reintegration component of Sierra Leone’s Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration Program. Cork, Ireland: University of Ireland, Centre for Sustainable Livelihoods. United Nations. 2000. The Role of United Nations Peacekeeping in disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration: report of the Secretary-General. New York, NY: UN. (Report no. S/2000/101.) <www.smallarmssurvey.org/files/portal/issueareas/measures/ Measur pdf/i measur pdf/UN doc/s council/S 2000 101.pdf> Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children. 2004. Global survey of education in emergencies. New York, NY: WCRWC. World Bank. 2005. Sierra Leone: community reintegration and rehabilitation. Findings: Africa Region, May, no. 112. <www.worldbank.org/afr/findings/infobeng/infob112.pdf> Wright, C. 1997. Reflections on Sierra Leone: a case study. In: Tawil, S., ed. Final report and case studies on educational disruption and reconstruction in disrupted societies. Geneva, Switzerland: UNESCO-IBE.
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Chapter V.8
TVET, Women and Conflict: Palestinians in the Lebanese Civil War Rachel Yarrow
1 Introduction That the very different, yet very real, male and female experiences of conflict have frequently been misunderstood is increasingly agreed upon (see UNIFEM, 2004, for example). In particular, attention is being drawn to changes that conflict brings about in women’s need to earn a livelihood, changes in the types of livelihood that are acceptable for women, and changes in wider ideas about gender roles and stereotypes (Date-Bah, 2003). This chapter focuses first on the changes that the conflicts in Lebanon of the 1970s and 1980s brought about in ideas about Palestinian women’s economic activity; secondly, the effect that conflict had on the provision of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) for Palestinians in Lebanon; and lastly, the extent to which the new TVET provision took account of, and capitalized upon, the changes that had taken place. These changes will be analysed through Buckland’s idea of the post-conflict situation as the ‘best of times, worst of times’, ‘both an opportunity and a constraint’ (2005, p. 25). In particular, this chapter will focus on case studies of two NGOs that were involved in TVET provision for Palestinian women during the Lebanese Civil War, and the extent to which they effectively capitalized on the ‘opportunities’ offered by the post-conflict situation. In reality, the notions of conflict and post-conflict situations are to a large extent co-extensive in the context of Palestinians in Lebanon. At the meta-level, as refugees of a yet-unresolved conflict, their situation is still not truly post-conflict, especially as the threat of impending Lebanese and Palestinian civil war seems very real in the present day. However, armed hostilities are not a daily reality for Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon and, even during the Lebanese Civil War, there were long periods when large numbers of Palestinians were not directly involved in fighting. This chapter focuses primarily on TVET in the period 1976–1988, years which arguably all fall within the boundaries of the Lebanese Civil War and could be regarded as ‘conflict’ rather than ‘post-conflict’ times. However, from anecdotal evidence, those who experienced this period at first hand tend not to refer to it as such, but to focus on discrete episodes of conflict which particularly affected them, and which fell several years apart. The periods between these episodes do then become post-conflict. TVET programming that arose as a response to these episodes is, then, interpreted primarily as occurring in a post-conflict situation. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 V.8, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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TVET is a notoriously difficult concept to define. UNESCO-UNEVOC defines it as being ‘concerned with the acquisition of knowledge and skills for the world of work’ (UNESCO-UNEVOC, n.d.). TVET definitions usually do not cover such areas as legal, medical or teacher training, however, even though they are concerned with such. For the purposes of this chapter, TVET is defined pragmatically as that which happens in vocational training centres (VTCs), and what is therefore usually recognized as vocational training by most Palestinians. This excludes training for professions, such as law and engineering, but does include many ‘semi-professional’ courses (such as architectural drawing, computing, or business and office management), as well as the more practical and traditional courses (such as welding, sewing and hairdressing). Teacher training for Palestinians does take place in the VTC run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), but will not be included in the considerations of this chapter.
2 A History of Conflict Following the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, and the ensuing war, around 500,000 to 700,000 Arab Palestinians left their homes in what had become Israel, or Arab Palestinian land seized by Israel (Fisk, 1990, p. 17).1 Approximately 100,000 of these sought refuge in Lebanon (Ugland, 2003, p. 15). In 1949, UNRWA was established by the United Nations General Assembly in order to provide ‘direct relief and works programmes’ for the refugees (UNRWA, n.d.). The refugees in Lebanon initially gathered in the South, around the cities of Tyre and Sidon, but were later dispersed to the Beka’a valley and Tripoli, and organized into camps on land leased by UNRWA. Current estimates of the number of Palestinians in Lebanon range from 200,000 to 600,000 (see Ugland, 2003, p. 18 for a discussion of this). It is probably reasonable to assume that the Palestinians make up slightly under 10% of the population of Lebanon today (see Haddad, 2003, p. 4, for example). The violence and conflict that has had the most direct effects on the Palestinians still alive in Lebanon today is undoubtedly that which took place during the Lebanese Civil War. After the Cairo Agreement of 1969, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was permitted to have a legitimate armed presence in Lebanon and was effectively given autonomy over the Palestinian camps. What resulted is often referred to as the Palestinian ‘State within a State’, presided over by Chairman Yasser Arafat (Schultz & Hammer, 2003, p. 55), and viewed with much misgiving by the ruling Maronite Christians. The start of the Lebanese Civil War is often cited as the clash between a Palestinian organization and the Phalange, a Maronite militia, in 1975 (ibid.), although the PLO have strenuously denied that they were trying to destabilize the situation. The Palestinian camps had soon become targets, however, and in 1976 the Phalange embarked on a seven-month siege of the camp of Tal al-Zataar, during which 3,000 Palestinians were killed (Schultz & Hammer, 2003, p. 56).
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Following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, further damage was inflicted on the Palestinian refugees, most notoriously in the massacres in the Beirut camps of Sabra and Shatila, in which up to 2,000 Palestinian men, women and children died at the hands of the Phalange (Fisk, 1990, pp. 359–400). At this time, too, the PLO was driven out of Lebanon, and the relative autonomy that had been enjoyed by the Palestinians in the camps was over. Moreover, following the expulsion of the PLO, the Shi’ite Amal movement, with Syrian backing, became obsessed with driving out any remaining PLO loyalists suspected of remaining in the camps (Haddad, 2003, p. 34). The resulting ‘War of the Camps’ consisted of a series of sieges of the Palestinian camps in Beirut and Southern Lebanon, concentrated over the period 1985–87, and resulted in the deaths of many hundreds of Palestinians, the (re-)displacement of thousands more and the near-destruction of many camps.
3 Palestinian Women in the Economic Sphere Historically, the place of Palestinian women has been regarded as in the home, the ethos of sitt fil-bait (the lady in home) (Sayigh, 1993, p. 183). To be a working woman in the 1950s and 1960s was regarded as shameful in the context of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon; in particular, work outside the camp was to be avoided and work inside the home much preferred to that outside (Sayigh, 1994, pp. 45–47). A general fearfulness for women’s safety and honour when travelling outside the home, and particularly the camp, is still pervasive in Palestinian society, particularly for unmarried girls. Early marriage has traditionally been seen as the primary guarantee of economic security for women, and the expectation of marriage (for men and women) has been near universal (Ugland, 2003, p. 32). Involvement in domestic labour, seasonal agriculture and even factories was not unknown among poor families, though cottage industries centred on the home, such as sewing and embroidery, were more usual and acceptable for women (Peteet, 1991, p. 21, 33).
3.1 The Experience of Conflict: Changing Women’s Roles Changes in the economic and social place of women in Palestinian society were already beginning in the period leading up to the Lebanese Civil War. Of particular importance was the arrival of the PLO in Lebanon, after they were ejected from Jordan in 1970, together with the signing of the Cairo Agreement in 1969. Although Palestinian women in Lebanon never became actively involved as military fighters in the resistance movement, as they had done in Jordan (Sayigh, 1993, p. 177), the institution-building that accompanied the rise of the PLO in Lebanon provided ample opportunities for women to work towards the national struggle, taking up work in, for example, kindergartens, clinics, vocational training centres and sewing workshops (Sayigh, 1993, p. 183). The PLO also brought a heightened sense of the Palestinian cause as a unified struggle, and as the clouds of civil war began to
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gather in Lebanon, great value was placed on anything that men or women could do to support the national cause. Sayigh reports an interview in which she was told: ‘After the battle of Tell al-Zataar [1976], no mother would prevent her daughter from going out. On the contrary, she would tell her to go out and work to help her people’ (1993, p. 183). The PLO left Lebanon in 1983, following the Israeli invasion, and with them a whole range of employment opportunities disappeared, for men and women alike. By this time, however, the civil war had brought about new factors that were changing women’s position in the economic and social spheres. The increasing involvement of men in military and conflict-related activities was surely amongst the most significant factors pushing women into work. On the one hand, the number of casualties resulting from active male involvement in battles such as Tell al-Zataar and, later on, in the Camp Wars of 1985–87, led to an increase in female-headed households. Female-headed households in these circumstances are more likely to live in extreme poverty due to the loss of the husband’s financial support (Date-Bah, 2003, p. 117). In such circumstances, the social stigma attached to certain types of work for women is likely to have been subjugated to the physical survival needs of the family, particularly important given that remarriage amongst Palestinian women who have been widowed is not common (Sayigh, 1993, p. 189). On the other hand, the absence of male family members, due to, for example, out-migration, death, displacement or imprisonment, particularly of a patriarchal husband or father, may have engendered a lifting of family control over women’s activities, including those boundaries that keep women in the home and out of the world of work. Furthermore, although women were not involved in active military service en masse, there are many examples of women undertaking roles in relation to conflict that marked a departure from their normal sphere of activities. Peteet even cites examples of women university students who, although not encouraged by the PLO, underwent military training during the 1981 general mobilization campaign and who fought in Tal al-Zataar as an expression of their commitment to the national cause (1991, p. 149). More common during Tal al-Zataar and the camp wars was involvement in support activities, for example, smuggling ammunition into camps or working as scouts (Sayigh, 1993, p. 189). However, not all the effects of conflict resulted in women’s entry into the world of work. At the political level, the PLO’s focus on the ‘national struggle’ had left little room for arguments about women’s issues. Although some ‘leftist factions’ of the PLO acknowledged ‘the woman question’, the mainstream Fateh party ‘articulated [no] ideology concerning women’ (Gluck, 1995, p. 7); the issue was ‘left pending’ until after national liberation (Sayigh, 1993, p. 177). On a more practical level, conflict would have also increased the perceived risk to women when travelling outside the home. The displacement caused by the Lebanese Civil War would also have increased the domestic load, which would have impacted much more heavily on women than men, emphasizing their role and work inside the house (Sayigh, 1993, p. 189). Furthermore, post-crisis societies are often marked by periods of conservatism (see Phillips, 1995, p. 248, for example). Analyses of gender roles after the First and
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Second World Wars, for example, point to a re-affirmation of the traditional gender division in employment (Higonnet & Higonnet, 1987). Certainly, while many changes brought about by conflict were encouraging female participation in the workplace, there were strong conservative forces at work.
4 Conflict and TVET Provision It is difficult to regard TVET as having a purely neutral role with regard to gender, and TVET programmes are accused of perpetuating gender stereotypes in many situations. The World Bank policy paper of 1991 admits that ‘broader societal perceptions about the appropriate role of women’ often condition the types of training they are offered and notes that, in Israel, of all TVET students, 83% of men train in blue-collar professions, and 89% of women train in white-collar professions (Neuman & Ziderman in World Bank, 1991, p. 64). There is an inherent tension in the dual roles of adapting one’s self to what the market needs and wants, and of trying to encourage women and men to take up new types of economic activity, to which the market may well not be receptive. When it comes to post-conflict situations, this trend is, if anything, exacerbated; Date-Bah argues that many institutions in the post-conflict setting can be seen to ‘reintroduce the pre-war gender biased positions’ (2003, p. 111) and specifically that: ‘experiences show that many [vocational training and skills development programmes] tend to be gender stereotyped focusing on knitting or sewing’ (Date-Bah, 2003, p. 142). However, while many are prepared to criticize the gender divisions that emerge in much TVET programming (both within and without the post-conflict context), nearly all stress TVET’s potential for breaking down constrictive gender stereotypes in the sphere of economic activity, particularly for women. The 1991 World Bank policy paper mentions TVET as having an important place amongst a range of strategies designed to help women overcome barriers to entry into the workplace (World Bank, 1991, p. 7). Furthermore, Date-Bah sees in the post-conflict situation a ‘window of opportunity’ for overcoming ‘the gender stereotypes and traditional gender division of labour; if TVET can capitalize on this window of opportunity, then it has the potential to open new doors for women’ (Date-Bah, 2003, p. 111).
4.1 TVET for Palestinians Prior to the Civil War Due to financial constraints, an UNRWA vocational training centre (VTC) was not opened in Lebanon until 1963. The VTC at Siblin constituted virtually the only form of formal TVET provision available for Palestinians in Lebanon for the following two decades. As Graham-Brown pointed out, the numerous private vocational schools around Beirut were all fee-paying, rendering them inaccessible to most Palestinians (1984, p. 120). The alternative to formal vocational education was to
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undertake apprenticeships, but, according to one interviewee, these were not wellregarded and not undertaken by women. The VTC in Siblin offered mainly two-year courses and was heavily over-subscribed. As a result of this, however, the VTC could afford to be selective about admissions, thus gaining an excellent reputation for the standard and employment prospects of its graduates (UNRWA, 1986, p. 140). The period of PLO autonomy in Lebanon had several impacts on vocational education, as many political factions opened their own facilities for vocational training. In 1981, Weighill reports that as many as nine political organizations were running workshops in one or more of the camps (1996, p. 30). Anecdotal evidence suggests women were participating in some form of training during this period in fields such as nursing, administration and secretarial work. This period also impacted on the work of the Siblin VTC. It became a ‘fertile recruiting ground’ for various armed militia, as military training and a year of service in the PLO became required of all students and graduates, although the curriculum remained unchanged (Weighill, 1996, p. 31). This system of TVET provision could hardly have been designed to be less accessible to women. The Siblin VTC, in common with other UNRWA VTCs in the Middle East, initially oriented its curriculum towards the rapid economic development taking place in the oil-producing countries (UNRWA, 1986, p. 135). This meant that, aside from its teacher-training programmes, the focus was on manual trades such as welding, construction and electricity, which were culturally (if not actually) prohibited for women. Furthermore, as most of the employment opportunities for holders of such qualifications were in the Gulf States, it was even less likely that women would be tempted to undertake such training. The location of the Siblin VTC also lowered female participation in its courses. Whilst it is somewhat centrally located, in the mountains between Beirut and Sidon, travelling times to the centre from camps in the North, the South and the Beka’a valley were up to two hours by bus, which would far exceed what many parents would consider acceptable for their daughters. Dormitory accommodation, available for young men at the centre, was not made available to women—for cultural reasons. This meant that young women had to find lodgings with local families close to the centre. Fears about young women travelling outside the home would surely only have been exacerbated by the deteriorating security situation of the late 1970s and early 1980s. As a result of this, by 1982–1983, out of the 712 places available at Siblin for non-teacher-training vocational education, just 93 (or 13%) of them were taken up by females (Graham-Brown, 1984, p. 121). Access to TVET for Palestinian women in the pre-civil war period can, therefore, be said to have been limited by geographical location, types of courses offered and the places of employment that such qualifications would lead to.
4.2 The Effect of Conflict on TVET Provision for Women As will be seen in the following section, the Lebanese Civil War had the effect of both closing down opportunities for vocational training and also, paradoxically,
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opening up new opportunities, many of which are still in operation over twenty years later. This section will focus on the provision offered by UNRWA, together with two case studies of NGOs that started functioning during this period: the first, an NGO dedicated to the development and empowerment of women, and the second, an NGO dedicated to providing TVET for Palestinians. UNRWA’s VTC at Siblin remained open until the Israeli invasion in 1982, and then struggled to stay open for about another year. Most of its equipment was looted by the Israelis; the buildings were later occupied by a militia group, leading to further damage due to heavy shelling. Graham-Brown reported that, in 1983, staff felt a ‘growing sense of isolation from the new industrial and technical developments in Lebanon and elsewhere’, particularly as they became unable to offer any sort of on-the-job training (1984, p. 121). The centre ceased to function at this time and remained closed until the end of the 1980s. Any vocational training offered by political organizations, however haphazard, also disappeared as the PLO was forced out of Lebanon by the Israeli invasion. However, a new breed of overtly non-political, Palestinian-led non-governmental organizations (NGOs) started to emerge at this time, and vocational training was very much of a priority for them. 4.2.1 Case Study A: An NGO Focusing on Women’s Empowerment NGO A was started in 1977 by a group of Lebanese, Palestinian and Italian women, as a direct response to the Tal Al-Zataar massacre. As mainly women and children survived the massacre, and many were left without either husbands or homes, NGO A began with the intention of ‘assist[ing] the survivors, socially, psychosocially, and at the economic level’. The women survivors had mostly weak literacy, but were skilled at making traditional Palestinian embroidery. The NGO capitalized on this skill by bringing women together to produce embroidery that could be sold to provide them with immediate income, whilst creating a group dynamic through which they could be provided with psycho-social support. NGO A had a very strong belief that they did not wish to be carrying out ‘charity work’, but rather sustainable development: ‘We should provide tools for them so they can contribute to the development of their society’. In the wake of the massacre, they felt it was important not to make people feel or act like victims. With this in mind, moving into vocational training provision was the logical next step after facilitating income generation, and they ‘decided that some women needed to develop their skills, so they weren’t only dependent on the embroidery’. They began offering courses in sewing and typing. Their rationale for offering sewing was that, as women were often not allowed to access work outside the home, sewing would enable women to find a secure income whilst remaining inside the home. The typing course, on the other hand, enabled women to find jobs with the PLO: ‘most of the women who graduated from typing already had jobs waiting for them at the PLO offices, all the political and non-political institutions that the PLO opened’. Offering these two courses was a step towards ‘empower[ing] women with skills, and tools that are necessary for them to contribute to the well-being and the development
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of the whole community’, and were seen as part of a move from the traditional (embroidery) to the non-traditional (office work). NGO A has flourished since its establishment and, in 2000, was offering a range of courses from the very traditional (sewing and hairdressing) to the non-traditional, which were increasingly favoured from the early 1990s (office management, accounting, typing, interior decoration, carpentry, electricity and photography). NGO A has always focused on offering social support along with vocational training. Many trainees are admitted on the basis of their reduced circumstances, and may be assisted with the payment of course fees. Classes on subjects such as human rights, leadership and domestic violence are attached to all the vocational training programmes and form a core part of their vision.
4.2.2 Case Study B: An NGO Dedicated to Providing Vocational Education for Palestinians NGO B was established by two engineers who were working for UNRWA at the time of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, along with staff from UNESCO. They began to realize that TVET provision for Palestinians in the South was inadequate, particularly following the closure of the VTC at Siblin due to damage and looting. Even before the closure, however, the founder of NGO B pointed out that for all the tens of thousands of Palestinians from camps and gatherings in the Tyre area, only about four places would be available in a course such as electricity at Siblin. After the opening of a VTC in the Tyre area, sixteen extra places would be available, thus increasing provision four-fold. The founder felt that it was important for students who wanted to undertake vocational education, and also those who wanted to go to university but did not have the means, to have an opportunity to obtain a good qualification ‘based on proper methods, and proper ways, and a good syllabus, and good training’, in contrast to the informal and generally poorly respected apprenticeship training of the past. In 1983, therefore, NGO B opened a VTC in some former PLO offices in al-Bass camp. Of great significance was how, when the Siblin VTC was closed, UNRWA agreed to collaborate with NGO B, providing official certification (which they continue to do to this day), curriculum advice and supervision from their own (temporarily unemployed) staff at Siblin. The first courses offered were architectural drawing, and business and office practice, and in the initial year around twenty-two students graduated from each programme. The courses were chosen both on the basis of what students wanted (particularly business and office practice) and on the basis of market needs and possibilities for employment. Draughtsmen were required in engineering companies in Lebanon and across the Middle East, and business and office practice offered similarly transferable skills. The fact that both of these courses were open (culturally) to men and women increased their attractiveness to the founders of the centre, and they found that male and female enrolments were more or less equal. Each year, two or three courses were added and new centres were opened in Ein Helweh and Nahr el-Bared camps. Later, courses included tailoring, sewing
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and design, refrigeration and air conditioning, television and radio maintenance, secretarial and computer studies, and nursing. From the start, females and males could theoretically be admitted to all courses offered by NGO B. In practice, female enrolment in traditionally male fields (added later) such as industrial electricity, or refrigeration and air conditioning, has been non-existent, although the founder of NGO B remembered that ‘about ten years ago, a girl came to the electricity course. She stayed until the middle, and then, I don’t know, maybe she got engaged or travelled, but I was very pleased with her, because it was a new step, a new thing happening in the community’ (personal communication). The founder of NGO B admitted that he would not actively seek out girls and women to join the more traditionally male courses, but thought he would encourage a girl if she came and enquired about it, and would even provide extra facilities if necessary.
5 ‘Best of Times, Worst of Times’? Buckland’s phrase (coined in Buckland, 2005, p. 25 and borrowed from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities) touches on the idea that, whilst conflict may have a devastating effect on education, the post-conflict situation may also provide opportunity for change and to capitalize on shifts in previously fixed gender stereotypes affected by the conflict. Certainly, this paradigm can be applied to the situation of vocational training as the Lebanese Civil War unfolded. Although in some ways, vocational training was left in a dire situation by the Israeli invasion, in other ways, the space that opened up presented NGOs with the possibility of experimenting with a different model of TVET provision as the ‘inertia and resistance’ that usually characterize attempts to reform TVET and remake structural inequalities are overcome (Date-Bah, 2003, p. 212). Whether the structural inequalities relating to gender really were remade in the new system of TVET provision that emerged is, at first glance, somewhat questionable. NGO A, for example, for all its rhetoric of empowerment and development, focused on equipping women with the skills of sewing and typing; certainly, such skills may have led to employment, and typing was not as ‘traditional’ a form of employment for Palestinian women as embroidery, but women working in these areas could hardly be regarded as breaking gender stereotypes. Similarly, for NGO B, although the courses were theoretically offered to men and women, in reality, in the absence of explicit encouragement and guidance for women thinking about enrolling in traditionally male courses, enrolment patterns remained conventional. While NGO B, therefore, and to a lesser extent NGO A, were offering training that did not reinforce previously held gender stereotypes, neither did they take major steps towards breaking them down. The criticism levelled at training and employment programmes in post-conflict Lebanon seems applicable here: ‘the focus of the programme was on meeting immediate/practical needs without consideration of strategic interests or long-term empowerment of women’ (Date-Bah, 2003, p. 130).
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This seems particularly pertinent in the face of evidence, cited by the World Bank, that women can be encouraged into non-traditional courses even in a country as conservative as Morocco. In 1979, note was taken that, although women were theoretically entitled to enrol in ‘industrial training programmes’, very few had applied and none had been accepted. Advertisements specifically targeted at women were placed in the media, female instructors were recruited and career counselling services put in place, with the result that enrolment figures rose sharply and have been sustained (World Bank, 1991, p. 218). The cautious approach of the case study NGOs may therefore be thought of as a little disappointing. However, there are other important ways in which the situation of women’s access was very much altered by the newly emerging TVET system. Perhaps most importantly, the NGOs capitalized on the opportunity for change that was presented by the UNRWA Siblin VTC losing its stranglehold on the system. As described above, the Siblin VTC was geographically very difficult to reach; provision in the new, smaller NGOs took place within the camps. As the founder of NGO B explained to me: You know our customs here. A lot of families, maybe twenty years ago, don’t let their daughters travel away, or take vocational training, or go outside the camps. But inside the camp, it is as though they are still under the supervision of their families (personal communication).
Similarly, in NGO A, the training took place in all-female groups, so there was no risk of exposure to single young men. A particularly important innovation was that of NGO B, when it secured collaboration with and certification of UNRWA on their new courses. This gave their new style of provision a crucial legitimacy which it could carry forward into the post-conflict era, even when Siblin re-opened in 1988. Another remarkable innovation of both NGOs, particularly NGO B, was the focus on delivering ‘modern’ courses, rather than ‘traditional’ courses that brought with them a burden of gender stereotyping. By delivering courses, such as business and office practice and typing, men and women were able to access equal training and employment prospects without struggling against the weight of cultural expectations as they would have in careers such as hairdressing or welding. This was particularly important given the dire economic and employment situation of the time. The barriers to entry for a man or woman with an ‘unconventional’ qualification would have been even higher than normal, as employers became less inclined to take risks. Looking forward to the ‘modern’ job market was an inspired way of avoiding the trap of perpetuating and reinforcing gender stereotyping in the workplace. This also had the effect of lessening the notion that vocational training was somehow ‘backward’ or academically inferior to other forms of study, which increased its attractiveness to parents, sons and daughters alike. This is not to say, however, that these NGOs have not experimented with breaking down gender stereotypes in TVET, and the comparative flexibility of the new system was another great strength in this respect. With centres in many camps, and with courses lasting less than a year, both NGO A and B have been able to start new programmes for a trial period, in just one camp, before committing to
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full enrolment. This meant, eventually, that it was possible to experiment with, for example, carpentry courses for women. This course was discontinued, but one can regard the fact that it was at least tried for several years, and that many women passed through it, as something of an achievement in itself. Women are far more likely to enrol in an ‘experimental’ subject if it is not required that they also travel for several hours every day outside the camp, and commit to a course of two years, as the opportunity costs are lower. Perhaps most important, however, was that the number of training places rose, and not only in male-dominated areas, meaning that a larger number of women were able to take advantage of training. As a result of training, women are more likely to be able to contribute to household earnings and work outside their immediate home. This may have various empowering effects, such as improved self-confidence, influence in the home, and the possibility of meeting and interacting with a wider range of people, whilst not actively breaking down employment-related gender stereotypes. In this respect, the NGOs were also able to benefit from the increased demand for vocational training in the conflict and post-conflict situations. The founder of NGO B remarked that: The Israeli invasion didn’t prevent women from leaving their houses and coming to the centre to take vocational training. I think in some points it encouraged them, especially as a lot of men were in prisons. I think families changed their thoughts about continuing teaching their daughters and even they have no problem if they go to work after graduation (personal communication).
Perhaps even more important now is the continuing sense that, in an uncertain world, marriage no longer guarantees long-term economic security for a woman. One young woman explained to me: If you have children and your husband dies, you should have a job to work in. Here, you are independent, you must work to earn, the government will not help to support you. You must depend on yourself. Even if you have children, you should work. So I think I should get vocational training, in order that, if anything happens in my life, I have a certain job to work in (personal communication).
6 Conclusions Buckland’s ‘best of times, worst of times’ analogy works well in this context. The (post-)conflict situation for vocational training was extremely difficult, and there had been many ways in which the situation concerning stereotyped ideas about women in the economic sphere had been worsened by the conflict, as well as some interesting ways in which it had been broken down. Some of the features of the new TVET providers were perhaps disappointingly conservative, and did not do enough to move away from the status quo ante. However, to focus on these would be to ignore the ways in which the emerging NGO provision was innovative, both in terms of structure, courses on offer and willingness to take advantage of changes in expectations about women and work brought about by conflict.
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There were many real constraints on women which affected their participation in training and in the workforce. Certain conservative ideas about the woman’s role in the economic sphere were inscribed rather than loosened by the experience of conflict, which in effect pulled women out of certain types of employment, whilst the economic collapse and resulting lack of employment opportunities for both sexes simultaneously pushed them out of the workforce. Given that the onus on TVET must always be to improve the prospects of earning a livelihood, there are very real arguments in favour of TVET focusing on any skills that might provide or increase income, even if they are traditional skills such as sewing or embroidery. After all, it must be recognized that nothing is less empowering for women than extreme poverty. However, accepting that the post-conflict situation might not be the optimum moment to introduce radical reforms to TVET provision—for example, welding courses for women—does not mean that NGOs and other TVET providers cannot take advantage of the opportunity to innovate and capitalize on societal changes. Some problems with the antecedent TVET provision tackled with particular effect in this context were, as described above, the place and mode of delivery, the reputation of TVET and types of courses offered, all of which had a real and lasting effect on the possibility of Palestinian women to undertake training.
Note 1. This figure is contested; Sayigh, for example, estimates that 590,000 Arab Palestinians were displaced to the West Bank and Jordan, whilst a further 300,000 moved beyond the borders of Palestine altogether (1979, p. 99).
References Buckland, P. 2005. Reshaping the future: education and post-conflict reconstruction. Washington, DC: World Bank. Date-Bah, E., ed. 2003. Jobs after war: a critical challenge in the peace and reconstruction puzzle. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Fisk, R. 1990. Pity the nation: Lebanon at war. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Gluck, S.B. 1995. Palestinian women: gender politics and nationalism. Journal of Palestine studies, vol. 24, no. 3. Graham-Brown, S. 1984. Education, repression and liberation: Palestinians. London: World University Service. Haddad, S. 2003. The Palestinian impasse in Lebanon: the politics of refugee integration. Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic Press. Higonnet, M.R.; Higonnet, P. 1987. The double helix. In: Higonnet, M.R. et al., eds. Behind the lines: gender and the two world wars, pp. 31–47. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Peteet, J.M. 1991. Gender in crisis: women and the Palestinian resistance movement. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. Phillips, D., ed. 1995. Education in Germany: tradition and reform in historical context. London: Routledge. Sayigh, R. 1979. Palestinians: from peasants to revolutionaries. London: Zed Books.
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Sayigh, R. 1993. Palestinian women and politics in Lebanon. In: Tucker, J., ed. Arab women: old boundaries, new frontiers, pp. 175–95. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Sayigh, R. 1994. Too many enemies: the Palestinian experience in Lebanon. London: Zed Books. Schultz, H.; Hammer, J. 2003. The Palestinian diaspora: formation of identities and politics of homeland. London: Routledge. Ugland, O.F., ed. 2003. Difficult past, uncertain future: living conditions among Palestinian refugees in camps and gatherings in Lebanon. Tøyen, Norway: FAFO. UNESCO-UNEVOC. No date. What is TVET? <www.unesco.unevoc.org> United Nations Development Fund for Women—UNIFEM. 2004. Getting it right, doing it right: gender and disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration. New York, NY: UNIFEM. United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East. 1986. UNRWA: a brief history, 1950-1982. Vienna: UNRWA. United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East. No date. Establishment of UNRWA. <www.un.org/unrwa/overview/index.html> Weighill, M.-L. 1996. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon: the politics of assistance. (Paper presented at the Palestinians in Lebanon Conference, Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford, United Kingdom, 27–30 September 1996.) World Bank. 1991. Vocational education and training: a World Bank policy paper Washington, DC: World Bank.
International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: UNESCO-UNEVOC Handbooks and Book series Editor-in-Chief: Dr Rupert Maclean, UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany
Associate Editors: Professor Felix Rauner, TVET Research Group, University of Bremen, Germany Professor Karen Evans, Institute of Education, University of London, United Kingdom
Editorial Advisory Board: Dr David Atchoarena, UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning, Paris, France Dr Andr´as Benedek, Ministry of Employment and Labour, Budapest, Hungary Dr Paul Benteler, Stahlwerke Bremen, Germany Ms Diane Booker, TAFESA, Adelaide, Australia Mr John Budu-Smith, formerly Ministry of Education, Accra, Ghana Professor Michel Carton, NORRAG c/o Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland Dr Chris Chinien, Workforce Development Consulting, Montreal, Canada Dr Claudio De Moura Castro, Faculade Pit´agoras, Belo Horizonte, Brazil Dr Wendy Duncan, Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines Dr Michael Frearson, SQW Consulting, Cambridge, United Kingdom Dr Lavinia Gasperini, Natural Resources Management and Environment Department, Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy Dr Philipp Grollmann, Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BiBB), Bonn, Germany Dr Peter Grootings, European Training Foundation, Turin, Italy Professor W. Norton Grubb, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley, United States of America Dr Dennis R. Herschbach, Faculty of Education Policy and Leadership, University of Maryland, College Park, United States of America Dr Oriol Homs, Centre for European Investigation and Research in the Mediterranean Region, Barcelona, Spain Professor Phillip Hughes, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia Professor Moo-Sub Kang, Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Seoul, Republic of Korea Dr Bonaventure W. Kerre, School of Education, Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya Dr G¨unter Klein, German Aerospace Centre, Bonn, Germany Dr Wilfried Kruse, Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund, Dortmund Technical University, Germany Professor Jon Lauglo, Department of Educational Research, Faculty of Education, University of Oslo, Norway Dr Alexander Leibovich, Institute for Vocational Education and Training Development, Moscow, Russian Federation Professor Robert Lerman, Urban Institute, Washington, United States of America Mr Joshua Mallet, Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, Canada Ms Naing Yee Mar, UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany Professor Munther Wassef Masri, National Centre for Human Resources Development, Amman, Jordan Dr Phillip McKenzie, Australian Council for Educational Research, Melbourne, Australia Dr Theo Raubsaet, Centre for Work, Training and Social Policy, Nijmegen, Netherlands Mr Trevor Riordan, International Labour Organization, Bangkok, Thailand Professor Barry Sheehan, Melbourne University, Australia Dr Madhu Singh, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, Hamburg, Germany Dr Manfred Tessaring, European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, Thessaloniki, Greece Dr Jandhyala Tilak, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi, India Dr Pedro Daniel Weinberg, formerly Inter-American Centre for Knowledge Development in Vocational Training (ILO/CINTERFOR), Montevideo, Uruguay Professor Adrian Ziderman, Bar-llan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
UNESCO-UNEVOC Head of Publications: Alix Wurdak
Rupert Maclean · David Wilson Editors Chris Chinien Associate Editor
International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work Bridging Academic and Vocational Learning
123
Editors Dr Rupert Maclean UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Education Hermann-Ehlers-Str. 10 53113 Bonn Germany [email protected]
Professor David Wilson University of Toronto Canada
Associate Editor Dr Chris Chinien Workforce Development Consulting Montreal Canada
ISBN: 978-1-4020-5280-4
e-ISBN: 978-1-4020-5281-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008930131 c Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com
Contents
List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxix List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xlvii Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Foreword:
TVET for the Sustainability of Human Kind . . . . . . . . . . . . .
lv lxix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lxxiii Rupert Maclean and David N. Wilson Prologue: Skills Development in the Informal Sector of Sub-Saharan Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cxiii Arvil V. Adams VOLUME 1 Part I Overview 1 The Pedagogical Roots of Technical Learning and Thinking . . . . Ron Hansen
5
2 A Conceptual Framework for Technical and Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Jay W. Rojewski 3 Towards Achieving TVET for All: The Role of the UNESCOUNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Astrid Hollander and Naing Yee Mar 4 TVET Glossary: Some Key Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Jeanne MacKenzie and Rose-Anne Polvere v
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Part II The Changing Context of Work and Education Section 1 Changing Workplace Requirements: Implication for Education Margarita Pavlova and L. Efison Munjanganja I.1 Overview: Changing Economic Environment and Workplace Requirements: Implications for Re-Engineering TVET for Prosperity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 France Boutin, Chris Chinien, Lars Moratis and Peter van Baalen I.2 The Right to a New Utopia: Adult Learning and the Changing World of Work in an Era of Global Capitalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Budd L. Hall I.3 Decent Work for All: From ILO Initiative to a Global Goal . . . . 111 Peter Poschen I.4 Redefining Gender Roles in the Workforce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Karen F. Zuga I.5 Anticipation of Skill Requirements: European Activities and Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Manfred Tessaring I.6 Redefining the Status of Occupations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Walter R. Heinz I.7 Changing Work, Work Practice: Consequences for Vocational Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Stephen Billett I.8 Traditional and Transitional TVET Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Poonam Agrawal I.9 Partnering to Meet the Needs of a Changing Workplace . . . . . . . 203 LuAnn Hiniker and Robert A. Putnam I.10 Bridging the Learning Divide: A Study into Adult Learning and Peer Mediation in the Workplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 David Johnson Section 2 Education and Training in Informal Economies Madhu Singh
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II.1 Overview: Education and Training in the Informal Sector . . . . . 235 Madhu Singh II.2 Tinkering with the Tinker: Meeting Training Needs in the Informal Sector of Chad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 Joshua A. Muskin II.3 The Traditional Informal Apprenticeship System of West Africa as Preparation for Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 William Ahadzie II.4 Initiatives to Link TVET to Self-Employment in Ghana . . . . . . . 277 Robert Palmer II.5 Criteria for Training Policy in the Informal Sector: Demands and Challenges in Latin America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 Enrique Pieck II.6 Informal Learning at Work: The Case of Working Children in Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 Laila Iskandar II.7 Informal Learning and Work: From Genealogy and Definitions to Contemporary Methods and Findings . . . . . . . . . . 319 Peter H. Sawchuk II.8 New Learning Spaces in TVET: The Contribution of Social Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 Terri Seddon, Kathleen Fennessy and Kathleen Ferguson II.9 Social and Cultural Aspects of Informal Sector Learning: Meeting the Goals of EFA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349 Madhu Singh VOLUME 2
Part III
Education for the World of Work: National and Regional Perspectives
Section 3 Reforming National Systems of Vocational Education and Training David Atchoarena and Peter Grootings
viii
Contents
III.1 Overview: Changing National VET Systems through Reforms . 365 David Atchoarena and Peter Grootings III.2 Latin America’s Efforts in the Vocational Training of Young People from Poor Backgrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379 Claudia Jacinto III.3 Accountability and Career Technical Education (CTE) Policy: A Brief Review of Six States of the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 Joshua D. Hawley and Alexandra de Montrichard III.4 The Regional Perspective of Vocational Education and Training 411 Mike Coles and Tom Leney III.5 Vocational Education, Training Reform and Regional Integration in the Middle East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 Munther Wassef Masri III.6 The Influence of Qualifications Frameworks on the Infrastructure of VET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 Mike Coles and Patrick Werquin III.7 Reforming Skills Development, Transforming the Nation: South African Vocational Education and Training Reforms, 1994–2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453 Simon McGrath III.8 Reform of Vocational Education in the Russian Federation . . . . 469 Olga Oleynikova and Anna Muravyeva III.9 Vocational Education in the Netherlands: In Search of a New Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483 Jan Geurts and Frans Meijers III.10 Facilitating Policy-Learning: Active Learning and the Reform of Education Systems in Transition Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499 Peter Grootings
Section 4
National Initiatives for Reengineering Education for the New Economy Joshua D. Hawley
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IV.1 Overview: Regional Reviews of TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515 Joshua D. Hawley IV.2 To Vocationalize or Not to Vocationalize? Perspectives on Current Trends and Issues on TVET in Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531 Moses O. Oketch IV.3 TVET in the Asian Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects . . . 547 P.P.G. Lionel Siriwardene and Muhammad Ashraf Qureshi IV.4 Transforming TVET Systems with the CPSC in the Asia and Pacific Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565 Man-Gon Park IV.5 European Action Programmes for Lifelong Learning . . . . . . . . . 583 Johanna Lasonen IV.6 VET in the Baltic States: Analysis of Commonalities and Differences of Reforms in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania . . . . . . 597 Frank B¨unning and Berit Graubner IV.7 Education and Training Needs of Rural Communities: A Situational Analysis of Selected Villages in Fourteen Provinces of Fiji . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609 Paula Cavu, Isimeli W. Tagicakiverata, Seveci Naisilisili and Viliame Rabici IV.8 Social Partnership in Vocational Education and Training in Lithuania: Challenges and Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619 Lina Kaminskien˙e IV.9 Integrating Education and Work: The Status of Vocational Education in Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637 Luc´ılia Regina Machado and Carlos Roberto Jamil Cury IV.10 China’s Higher Technical and Vocational Education: Development and Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649 Jing Mi and Aihua Wu IV.11 The Adoption and Adaptation of the Work-Team Concept in Urban Thai Workplaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659 Chitrlada Burapharat
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IV.12 Globalization of the Labour Culture in the Republic of Korea: What ‘Tripartite Relations’ Mean for Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673 Phoebe Moore IV.13 Involvement of Labour-Market Partners in TVET in the Russian Federation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689 Olga Oleynikova IV.14 Strengthening TVET to Achieve Lifelong Learning for All: Historical Snapshots and Recent Initiatives in Myanmar . . . . . . 703 Naing Yee Mar IV.15 Technical and Vocational Education and Training and Rural Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721 Lavinia Gasperini IV.16 An International TVET Programme Development by the International Baccalaureate Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735 Monique Conn IV.17 A Profile of TVET in the Asia and Pacific Region: A Survey of Progress, Innovations and Promising Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749 Chris Chinien, Elspeth McOmish, Mohan Perera and Alex Chinien
Section 5
Learning for Employment and Citizenship in Post-conflict Countries David Johnson and Lyle Kane
V.1 Overview: Vocational Education, Social Participation and Livelihoods in Post-Conflict Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767 David Johnson and Lyle Kane V.2 From Assessment to Planning: Hope for TVET in Uganda . . . . . 775 Bilal Barakat, Lyle Kane and Alex Inglis V.3 Linking TVET to Economic Opportunities in Post-Conflict Liberia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787 Lyle Kane V.4 Deepening the Divide: The Differential Impact of Protracted Conflict on TVET Versus Academic Education in Palestine . . . . 799 Bilal Barakat
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V.5 Co-ordinated Programming for Skills Development and Livelihoods in Post-Conflict Societies: What Promise Does TVET Hold for Southern Sudan? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813 Zuki Karpinska V.6 Vocational Training in Post-War Sierra Leone and Liberia . . . . 827 Andrew Benson Greene Jr. V.7 TVET and Community Re-Integration: Exploring the Connections in Sierra Leone’s DDR Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835 Julia Paulson V.8 TVET, Women and Conflict: Palestinians in the Lebanese Civil War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 849 Rachel Yarrow VOLUME 3 Part IV The Management of TVET Systems
Section 6 Policy and Management of TVET Systems Rupert Maclean and Chris Chinien VI.1 Overview: Navigating the Policy Landscape: Education, Training and Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869 Dennis R. Herschbach VI.2 Research for TVET Policy Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 891 Jon Lauglo VI.3 The Reform and Governance of Public TVET Institutions: Comparative Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905 Keith Holmes VI.4 National Versus Regional Policy Dimensions of TVET . . . . . . . . 921 Peter Noonan VI.5 Planning for Education and Work: Alternatives and Issues . . . . 939 Dennis R. Herschbach VI.6 South African Technikons and Policy Contestation over Academic Drift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 961 Andre Kraak
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VI.7 New Policy Actions and Government Roles: China’s Reconstruction of TVET Systems Since the 1980s . . . . . . . . . . . . 977 Deyu Sun, Jingwen Lu and Jun Li VI.8 Some Generic Issues in TVET Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989 George Preddey VI.9 An Overview of Contemporary TVET Management Practice . 1003 George Preddey Section 7 The Economics and Financing of TVET David Atchoarena VII.1 Overview: Issues and Options in Financing Technical and Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1029 David Atchoarena VII.2 Education, Skills, Sustainability and Growth: Complex Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1037 Kenneth King VII.3 Financing Mechanisms and Instruments: A Conceptual and Operational Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1051 Richard Walther VII.4 Financing Training Through Payroll Levies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1075 Adrian Ziderman VII.5 Financing Vocational Education and Training in South Africa 1091 Martin Gustafsson and Pundy Pillay VII.6 Voucher-Financed Training for Small Businesses . . . . . . . . . . . . 1107 F´elix Mitnik VII.7 Employers’ Participation in Training Finance: An Example from Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1123 Candido Alberto Gomes VII.8 Funding Lifelong Learning from a Life-Course Perspective . . . 1137 Barry J. Hake VII.9 Economic Perspectives on Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1155 Gerald Burke and Christopher Selby Smith
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Part V Teacher Education for Vocational Education and Training
Section 8 The TVET Profession Stephen Billett VIII.1 Overview: The Technical and Vocational Education and Training Profession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1175 Stephen Billett VIII.2 Professionalization of VET Teachers and Lecturers and Practices in TVET Institutions in an International Perspective 1185 Philip Grollmann VIII.3 Teachers, Instructors and Trainers: An Australian Focus . . . . . 1203 Erica Smith VIII.4 TVET Teacher-Training Requirements in the Russian Federation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1219 Vasiliy P. Kosyrev, Petr F. Kubrushko and Andrei N. Kouznetsov VIII.5 TVET Teachers and Their Professionalization in China: A Problem Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1229 Zhiqun Zhao and Lianwei Lu VIII.6 The Development of Training Modules for Instructors . . . . . . . 1243 Fred Beven VIII.7 Literacy and Learning: Are TVET Professionals Facilitators of Learning or Deliverers of Knowledge and Skills? . . . . . . . . . . 1259 Jean Searle VIII.8 Vocational Education in the Private Sector in Brazil . . . . . . . . . 1271 Elenice Monteiro Leite, Marinilzes Moradillo Mello and Nacim Walter Chieco VIII.9 TVET and Teacher-Training Curricula: A Developed National Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1285 Vasiliy P. Kosyrev, Petr F. Kubrushko and Andrei N. Kouznetsov
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VIII.10 Vocational Qualifications: The Role of Trade Unions as Negotiation Fora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1293 Antˆonio Almerico Biondi Lima and Fernando Augusto Moreira Lopes VIII.11 Vocational Education and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1307 Gaudˆencio Frigotto, Maria Ciavatta and Marise N. Ramos VIII.12 A Technical and Vocational Teacher-Training Curriculum . . . . 1319 Bonaventure W. Kerre VIII.13 Transforming Teachers’ Practice Through Action Learning . . 1333 Stephen Billett VIII.14 Professional Learning and TVET: Challenges and Perspectives for Teachers and Instructors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1351 Christian Harteis VIII.15 Industrial Attachments for Instructors in TVET Delivery . . . . 1367 Sarojni Choy and Sandra Haukka VIII.16 I Hate Left-Handers or Occupational Health and Safety Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1383 Richard Gagnon VIII.17 The Bologna Declaration and Emerging Models of TVET Teacher Training in Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1393 Frank B¨unning and Alison Shilela VIII.18 Standards for Occupation-Directed Professional Development of TVET Personnel in Developing Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1407 Peter Gerds VIII.19 Curriculum Research and Design as a Subject of TVET Teacher Training: Practice and Experiences from Two International Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1423 Joachim Dittrich VOLUME 4
Part VI
Education for Work: Research, Curriculum Development and Delivery
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Section 9 Research and Innovation Felix Rauner IX.1 Overview: TVET Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1443 Felix Rauner IX.2 Methods of TVET Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1461 Felix Rauner IX.3 TVET Research as an Aid to Improved Policy and Performance in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1469 Christopher Selby Smith IX.4 Repositioning the Role of Research in the Innovation of TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1483 Anneke Westerhuis IX.5 TVET Research as a Dimension of Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1495 Klaus Ruth IX.6 Modellversuchsforschung: Pilot Project Research in Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1505 Peter Dehnbostel IX.7 TVET and R&D Evaluation: The Potential for Optimizing TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1521 Ludger Deitmer and Lars Heinemann IX.8 TVET Research Organizations and Scientific Communities: Challenges to the Institutionalization of TVET Research . . . . . 1535 Wolfgang Wittig, Uwe Lauterbach and Philip Grollmann IX.9 Qualifications Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1553 Felix Rauner IX.10 Measuring Educational Quality in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1563 Robert D. Renaud Section 10 Curriculum Development and Delivery Felix Rauner X.1 Overview: TVET Curriculum Development and Delivery . . . . 1579 Felix Rauner
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X.2 The Mutual Shaping of Work, Vocational Competence and Work-Process Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1593 Nicholas Boreham and Martin Fischer X.3 Situated Learning and Cognitive Apprenticeship . . . . . . . . . . . . 1611 Michael Gessler X.4 Curriculum Approaches and Participative Curriculum Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1627 Georg Sp¨ottl X.5 The Deskilling and Upskilling Debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1639 Ulrich Heisig X.6 The Pedagogy of Apprenticeship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1653 Uwe Lauterbach X.7 Approaches to Designing TVET Curricula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1669 Richard Huisinga X.8 Collaborative Work-Related Learning and TechnologyEnhanced Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1687 Alan Brown, Jenny Bimrose and Sally-Anne Barnes X.9 Action-Based TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1699 Hans-Dieter H¨opfner X.10 Vocational Learning: Contributions of Workplaces and Educational Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1711 Stephen Billett X.11 Work-Based Learning: An English Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1725 James Avis X.12 Language Mastery Development within TVET for Professional Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1739 Andrei N. Kouznetsov X.13 Why do German Companies Invest in Apprenticeship? . . . . . . 1747 Klaus Schaack X.14 Workplace Learning: Metacognitive Strategies for Learning in the Knowledge Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1763 Hugh Munby, Nancy L. Hutchinson and Peter Chin
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X.15 Literacy, Design and Technology: New Contexts for Learning and Skills Development in South Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1777 David Johnson X.16 The Education Gospel and Vocationalism in an International Perspective: The Promises and the Limits of Formal Schooling 1791 W. Norton Grubb and Marvin Lazerson X.17 The Vocationalization of Secondary Education: The Relationships between Vocational and Technology Education . 1805 Margarita Pavlova X.18 Valuing Experience as well as Knowledge in Schools . . . . . . . . . 1823 Ron Hansen Section 11 Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Vocational Education and Training Maja Zarini, Tapio Varis and Naing Yee Mar XI.1 Overview: The Growing Role of ICTs in Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1835 Maja Zarini, David N. Wilson, Naing Yee Mar and Tapio Varis XI.2 The Pedagogical Framework for On-Line Learning . . . . . . . . . . 1847 Shyamal Majumdar XI.3 A Short Method for Building Web-Based Teaching and Learning Systems: the CPSC Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1863 Myong Hee Kim and Man-Gon Park XI.4 ICT Application in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1879 Boris Kotsik, Natalia Tokareva, France Boutin and Chris Chinien XI.5 Technology and Leadership in the Fourth Wave of Environmental Changes with Ubiquitous Technology . . . . . . . . 1895 Man-Gon Park XI.6 Knowledge Workforce Development for ComputerSupported Collaborative Work Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1911 Man-Gon Park and Myong Hee Kim XI.7 The Role of ICTs and TVET in Rural Development and Poverty Alleviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1923 Chiranjib Kumar Basu and Shyamal Majumdar
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XI.8 Switched on: International Approaches to Skills Development through ICTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1935 Maja Zarini XI.9 VOCED: The International Research Database on Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1947 Miriam Saunders and Radhika Naidu XI.10 What are the Limits of ICTs and Media in the Delivery of TVET? An Australian Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1959 Peter Kearns XI.11 Education System Profile: South Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1971 Tracey Wallace XI.12 Integrating TVET with Open and Distance Learning: Taking Skills Training to the Doorstep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1989 Vinay Swarup Mehrotra and Avant Kumar Sacheti XI.13 Distance Education: The State of the Art in Career and Technical Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2003 Christopher J. Zirkle VOLUME 5
Part VII
Learning for Life and Work: Bridging Academic and Vocational Education
Section 12 Participation in Formal Programmes of Learning and Skills Development Rupert Maclean and Hendrik van der Pol XII.1 Overview: Participation in Formal Programmes of Learning and Skills Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2025 Natalia Matveeva and Joachim Lapp XII.2 Access to TVET for All: An Essential Basis for Education for All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2039 Phillip Hughes XII.3 The Challenges of TVET Global Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2053 Manuel Cardoso
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XII.4 Making Global Classifications of Types and Levels of TVET . . 2067 Andy Green, Moses O. Oketch and John Preston XII.5 Trends and Issues in TVET across the Globe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2081 Moses O. Oketch, Andy Green and John Preston XII.6 Statistical Overview of TVET across Educational Levels . . . . . 2095 Manuel Cardoso XII.7 The Ethics of TVET Policy and Practice: Issues of Access and Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2163 Richard G. Bagnall XII.8 Special Needs Education and TVET: The Perspective from the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2177 Michael W. Harvey Section 13 Education for the Changing Demands of Youth Employment Karen Plane XIII.1 Overview: TVET for Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2197 Karen Plane XIII.2 Skills Shortages, Over-Education and Unemployed Youth: An International Dilemma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2211 Kenneth Gray and Sang Hoon Bae XIII.3 New Directions for High-School Career and Technical Education in the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2229 Richard L. Lynch XIII.4 Occupations in Demand/Youth Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2247 Antoaneta Voikova XIII.5 Pathways and Transitions from School to Work: Australian Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2263 Annette Gough XIII.6 School/Workplace Partnerships: A Case Study of Four Vocational Studies Programmes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2279 Marcelle Hardy and Louise M´enard XIII.7 Vocationalized Secondary Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2295 Jon Lauglo
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XIII.8 Vocational Guidance and Career Counselling in the European Union: Origins and Recent Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2313 Frederic J. Company XIII.9 ‘White-Collar’ Work or a ‘Technical’ Career? The Ambitions of Fiji Final-Year School Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2329 Pam Nilan, Paula Cavu, Isimeli W. Tagicakiverata and Emily Hazelman XIII.10 14–16 Year Olds Taking Vocational Courses in English Colleges: A Dumping Ground for the Disengaged or a Real Alternative? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2343 Norman Lucas XIII.11 Reconciling the Competing Policy Platforms in TVET? Promulgating ‘the 6Es Plus Education’ for Youth through Social Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2357 Karen Plane Section 14 The Skills Debate in an Ageing Society Tom Karmel and Rupert Maclean XIV.1 Overview: TVET in an Ageing Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2375 Tom Karmel and Rupert Maclean XIV.2 Policy Framework on the Retraining for Reskilling of Older Workers through Specialized TVET Programmes . . . . . . . . . . . 2385 Theodora Josue Tesoro Gayondato and Myong Hee Kim XIV.3 Reskilling for All? The Changing Role of TVET in the Ageing Societies of Developing Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2401 Margarita Pavlova and Rupert Maclean XIV.4 The Changing Context of TVET for the Workforce in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2417 Jagmohan Singh Rajput XIV.5 The Reform of the TVET System in the Republic of Korea for an Ageing Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2431 Hong-Geun Chang XIV.6 Will We Run Out of Young Men? Implications of the Ageing of the Population for the Trades in Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2445 Tom Karmel and Koon Ong
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XIV.7 The Ageing Labour Force and the Retraining of Workers in the Republic of Korea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2457 Jihee Choi XIV.8 Technical Entrepreneurship Development for the Aged . . . . . . 2469 Man-Gon Park and Suresh Kumar Dhameja XIV.9 The Ageing TVET Workforce in Australia: Issues and Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2487 Hugh Guthrie and Phil Loveder XIV.10 Working and Lifelong Learning among Older Workers (45+) in Japan: Implications for TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2499 Toshio Ohsako VOLUME 6
Part VIII Lifelong Learning for Livelihoods and Citizenship
Section 15 Adult, Continuing and Lifelong Learning Chris Chinien and Madhu Singh XV.1 Overview: Adult Education for the Sustainability of Human Kind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2521 Chris Chinien and Madhu Singh XV.2 The Emergence of ‘Workforce Development’: Definition, Conceptual Boundaries and Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2537 Ronald L. Jacobs and Joshua D. Hawley XV.3 The Challenge for ESD in TVET: Developing Core Sustainable Development Competencies and Collaborative Social Partnerships for Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2553 Chris Chinien, France Boutin and Karen Plane XV.4 Key Competencies: Overall Goals for Competence Development: An International and Interdisciplinary Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2571 Dominique Simone Rychen XV.5 Education and Training in the Context of Poverty Reduction . 2585 Bernd Overwien
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XV.6 Recognition, Validation and Accreditation of Non-Formal and Informal Learning and Experience: Results of an International Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2597 Madhu Singh XV.7 Self-Directed Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2615 Stephen D. Brookfield XV.8 New Learning Strategies and Learning Cultures in Companies 2629 Peter Dehnbostel XV.9 PLAR, Training and Efficient Labour Markets: The Canadian Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2647 Bill Empey and Christine Newton XV.10 Transformative Learning Theory and TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2661 Karen Magro XV.11 The Implications of Cognitive Style to Adult Distance Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2679 Cindy Marie Isaak-Ploegman and Chris Chinien XV.12 Competency, Meaningful Learning and Learning Styles in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2697 Richard Gagnon XV.13 Workplace Essential Skills in Policy and Practice: A Canadian Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2713 Erik de Vries XV.14 Adult Numeracy for Work and Life: Curriculum and Teaching Implications of Recent Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2731 Gail FitzSimons and Diana Coben XV.15 An Innovative System of Vocational Training in the German IT Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2747 Rita Meyer Part IX Assessment of Skills and Competencies Section 16 Recognition, Certification, Accreditation and Quality Assurance in TVET Karina Veal XVI.1 Overview: Competencies, Qualifications and Recognition . . . . 2763 Karina Veal
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XVI.2 The Certification of Competencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2777 Danielle Colardyn XVI.3 Modularization and Modular Delivery of TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . 2793 John Stanwick XVI.4 Diverse Approaches to the Recognition of Competencies . . . . . 2811 Danielle Colardyn XVI.5 How Do We Measure Up? Benchmarking the WorldSkills Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2827 David Hoey XVI.6 Validation of Educational Programmes: Comparing Models and Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2841 Grazia Scoppio XVI.7 Regional Accreditation and Certification of TVET Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2853 Ligaya Valmonte and Man-Gon Park XVI.8 National Qualifications Frameworks: An Analytical Overview 2867 Michael F.D. Young XVI. 9 Developing a National System of Vocational Qualifications . . . 2881 John Hart XVI.10 National Qualifications Frameworks in Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2899 Bonaventure W. Kerre and Astrid Hollander XVI.11 Implementing National Qualifications Frameworks: Problems and Possibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2917 Michael F.D. Young XVI.12 Labour Mobility and Mutual Recognition of Skills and Qualifications: The European Union and Australia/ New Zealand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2935 Chandra Shah and Michael Long XVI.13 Quality Assurance in TVET in Romania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2953 Magdalena Balica Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2971 Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3003
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VOLUME 3
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Part IV
The Management of TVET Systems
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Section 6 Policy and Management of TVET Systems
Rupert Maclean UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany Chris Chinien Workforce Development Consulting, Montreal, Canada
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Chapter VI.1
Overview: Navigating the Policy Landscape: Education, Training and Work Dennis R. Herschbach
1 Introduction The purpose of this chapter is to present a brief overview of the process of policy formulation applied to technical and vocational education and training (TVET). It draws from policy research in the social sciences, international development and workforce preparation. In any policy field, there are as many different policy options as there are ways of structuring education and training programmes. There is no grand theory or cleanly cut methodology about the formulation of policy that is widely agreed upon and that can be used for all purposes. Very different policy recommendations result from the way that the policy formulation process itself is defined. It is anything but a formal, cut-and-dried, step-by-step process. Navigating the education, training and work policy landscape is complex with unexpected twists and turns, but it is essential that sound judgements are made. Many countries are struggling to renew their education and training systems as they face issues of poverty, stagnant economic growth, social dislocation, disintegrating political consensus, population expansion and limited resources. The cost of making poor education and training decisions is too high to ignore the reasoned study of policy options.
2 Contrasting Policy Perspectives Formulating education and training policy is more of a craft than a science. Policy formulation relies on the experience of the analyst to fashion reasonably consistent and realistic alternatives based on a deep understanding of the education and training context. Sound policy is crafted on a foundation of plausible, common-sense judgements, and focuses on what ends are worth pursuing, why and how. Sound policy helps to generate an understanding of education and training problems, the range of possible alternatives and the attendant values, interests, consequences, costs, uncertainties and outcomes of whatever actions that are taken (Bobrow & Dryzek, 1987; Heck, 2004; Malen & Knapp, 1997; Schneider & Ingram, 1997). The policy analyst, nevertheless, relies on a number of analytical tools to inform judgements. For the purposes of discussion in this chapter, we combine a variety R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VI.1, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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of technical approaches into two fundamental categories: the rational and the more intuitive incremental, interactive perspective.
2.1 The Rationalist Policy Perspective The rational perspective is favoured by policy-makers, economists, analysts and planners because it appears to lead to ‘optimal’ decisions derived from databased comparisons of one policy option over another (Bobrow & Dryzek, 1987; Malen & Knapp, 1997; Mingat, Tan & Sosak, 2003). The rationalist perspective is widely used in the field of TVET because it addresses the objective of economic efficiency—it makes the best use of material and human resources in achieving similar programme output. It is assumed that, within limits, a less costly TVET modality can be substituted for other more costly ones. Budget pressures make containing and reducing cost appealing to decision-makers. The policy focus tends to fall along three main lines: (a) the structure, management and organization of TVET institutions; (b) teacher/student ratios, instructional inputs and outputs, resource use and teacher training, as well as other factors that relate to instructional and programme efficiency; and (c) the relative efficiency (figured in terms of relative cost) of one TVET alternative over another in meeting labour-market skill requirements. Decision-making is structured around a set of agreed-upon policy ends, such as increasing the number of labour force entrants in a specific occupational category, implementing the lowest cost training alternative, improving achievement levels, or addressing global market competition. Standards and outcome measures are formulated in a linear, ends-means decision-making framework with a number of sequential stages. Common practice is to rely heavily on data derived from cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness calculations to guide decision-making (Woodhall, 2004). The policy option with the highest comparative monitory return is assumed to be the best. Typical stages in the rationalist policy process are as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Assess, clarify and diagnose the problem; Identify, organize and analyse relevant data; Formulate and examine alternative policy options; Formulate evaluative criteria and assess options; Make tentative choices and implement; Evaluate; Adjust, modify and make recommendations.
The rationalist perspective assumes a stable policy environment, clearly agreed upon goals, continuing support from the various stakeholder groups, and sufficient resources and local capacity to implement policy (Bobrow & Dryzek, 1987). These conditions often are not met, but policy recommendations, nevertheless, are forthcoming. The rational perspective is used most widely by donor agencies and national governments to guide decision-making for more structured, organized TVET
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interventions, such as formal education and training institutions. It is less useful in uncertain, unpredictable and resource-poor education and training environments, such as are found in low-income markets in the informal economic sector. The rationalist perspective tends to suffer from the practical limitation of being captive to its methodology and data collection, which is usually a one-time event. Rarely, if ever, are data collected over an extended period and used to guide the reformulation of policy during the long maturation time that primary TVET policy interventions take. Furthermore, by elevating economic criteria to such a central place in decision-making, there is a built-in bias that largely excludes, downplays or only partly considers other factors that cannot be easily reduced to monitory terms, but yet are critical to decision-making. In particular, there may be a tendency not to consider fully the political, economic, social and institutional variables within the policy environment that are external to the immediate policy picture, but yet are crucial to long-term successful implementation (Herschbach, 1994; 2000; Lauglo & Maclean, 2005; Wilson, 1996). Moreover, the assumption that policy formulation is a ‘rational’, data-driven process causes the analyst to treat normative value questions as discrete, static bits of information and to ignore the on-going, hard-to-measure dynamic, and sometimes contentious human interaction, within policy environments. The core values, belief systems, interests and motivations of policy participants have to be constantly examined over time and clarified enough so that reasonably clear policy alternatives can be formulated and reformulated (Malen & Knapp, 1997). TVET policy succeeds or fails because of human agency.
2.2 Incremental, Interactive Perspectives A second category of analytical tools can be grouped under incremental, interactive policy perspectives. It is thought that judgements about policy issues depend in large part on the value positions held by stakeholders and the contextual conditions that support a given decision. Incremental, interactive policy perspectives take into consideration the complex and dynamic character of policy environments, recognize the importance of stakeholders and their core values and beliefs, and carefully gauge the country capacity to implement and sustain TVET programming (Heck, 2004; Sabatier, 1999; Schneider & Ingram, 1997). What is termed ‘incremental’ or ‘piecemeal social engineering’ is a policy perspective that addresses the normative and human dimensions of policy formulation. Lindblom (1959, 1979; Lindblom & Woodhouse, 1993), for example, argues that sound policy outcomes are best reached through a process of ‘partisan mutual adjustment’ incorporating the interests and beliefs of the people in the policy environment. Policy decisions are not made from scratch; they are grounded in an existing institutional framework with all of the attending power relationships, self-interests and barriers to change that have developed over time. For this reason, according to Lindblom, policy initiatives are thwarted unless they are an outcome
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of ‘the interplay of self-interests’ and the decision-makers are part of the action, with acceptable policy emerging from a succession of small, agreed-upon changes over time. Lindblom’s work helped to set the stage for the elaboration of alternatives to ‘rational’ planning that recognize the complex, ever-changing character of policy environments in which precedent conditions and human actors play a decisive role. Policy formulation is conceived as a process of brokering competing interests and values, while all the time casting a discriminating eye on potential resource levels, institutional capacity and political, economic and social determinants that influence policy implementation. Long-term goals are eschewed for short-term objectives focused on immediate problems. The primary policy emphasis is on small increments of change that have a reasonable chance of being supported and achieved. Initial TVET investments are modest and expand only when successful implementation is demonstrated (Bobrow & Dryzek, 1987; Colebatch, 1998; Heck, 2004; Rondinelli, Middleton & Verspoor, 1990). Based on ideas similar to those of Lindblom, what is termed the ‘advocacy coalition framework’ (ACF) is another policy formulation approach that contrasts sharply with rational perspectives and recognizes the importance of local policy actors. Grounded in the work of Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith (1999), the basic idea is that for a given issue effective policy formulation evolves out of coalition-building within and across participating groups. Individuals within different significant groups are open to shared policy positions surrounding core values, common interests, similar perceptions of policy issues and mutual goals. Policy coalitions are formed among individuals with shared positions in order to generate the consensus required to effect change. Advocacy coalitions not only work as a sounding board for determining what is possible, but also function to build support and change the behaviour of individuals within the different organizations (Heck, 2004; Sabatier & Jenkins-Smith, 1999). Technical information concerning the character of the problem, dimensions of the proposed TVET programming, relative cost and benefits, and probable impact of alternatives, and so on, are critically important not only to coalition members but also to those in positions of power needing persuasion. The analyst compiles solid, persuasive information to build an objective case for change. A policy-learning process is emphasized through which, over time, understanding and support are generated. According to incremental, interactive advocates, the process of policy change is thought to take time, often a decade or more for primary change. The policy environment is viewed as comprised of ‘stable factors’ (constitutional mandates, religious beliefs, natural resources) not likely to be subject to change, as well as ‘changeable factors,’ both affecting the probability of achieving results. Initial policy initiatives are structured around changeable factors (budget levels, administrative rules, teacher supply and government policy) that are more likely amenable to alteration. Change in stable factors is only approached when sufficient broadly-based coalition support is generated. While the rational policy approach assumes that predetermined, optimal policy choices can be clearly defined and implemented, incremental and interactive per-
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spectives stand in stark contrast. Policy formulation is considered a recursive, rather than a step-by-step linear process. Initial decisions are revisited, with latter decisions reopened in the process of formulating new decisions. The belief is that a full, prior understanding of the consequences of a given policy option cannot be achieved, and that it is only through repeated and systematic trial and test over time that applicable policy choices can be determined. Policy formulation proceeds incrementally as a number of options are experimented with until certain policy interventions demonstrate their usefulness. Policy application is the important focus since any policy option is considered only as good as its demonstrated usefulness in a specific education and training context (Bobrow & Dryzek, 1987; Colebatch, 1998). Incremental, interactive policy perspectives are not widely used by international development agencies, donor groups and national policy and planning units because they do not lend themselves to the formulation of global, strategic policy plans. Goals are modest, intermediate and changeable. The primary focus is on the local implementing environment: the human and material resources, the political dynamics, and the belief systems, self-interest and core values that stakeholders bring to the policy formulation and implementation process. For this reason, they are most widely used by those directly involved in policy implementation.
3 The Policy Environment In this section we shift our discussion to what can be termed the ‘policy environment’, also known as the ‘implementing context’. Policy formulation does not start out as a blank slate. Effective TVET policy is highly context-specific and crafted in response to existing institutional histories; it is built upon political, economic and social conditions, and existing institutional capacities; and it is conditioned by the perceptions, interests and beliefs of stakeholders (Bobrow & Dryzek, 1987; Schneider & Ingram, 1997). Implementing capacity is a key policy variable. As incremental, interactive perspectives stress, ultimately policy initiatives are influenced by and influence the ‘local’ implementing context. There are many intertwining contextual elements, and policy decisions have to be teased out of a complex matrix of societal, human and institutional conditions within a given policy context. The ambiguities, the opportunities and constraints, the levels of resources and institutional capacity, and the dynamic and distinctive aspects of the implementing environment make it essential to craft policy designs that are specific to the particular country context. Moreover, considerable leeway needs to be provided for altering policy plans once it is determined that the specific contextual circumstances will not support sustained implementation (Herschbach, 2000). Let us briefly turn our attention to what is termed the ‘remote’ and the ‘proximate’ policy environments.
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3.1 The Remote Policy Environment There are various contextual elements that make up what can be termed the ‘remote policy environment’. These are conditions largely external to the immediate policy focus, but nevertheless, they have an effect—even if distant and not always direct— on the ability to frame and carry out TVET policy initiatives (Bobrow & Dryzek, 1987; Heck, 2004; Rondinelli, Middleton & Verspoor, 1990; Sabatier & JenkinsSmith, 1999; Warwick, 1980; Williams & Cummings, 2005). These include, among others, the following points: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Formative historical experiences; The political climate; Macro-economic conditions; Legal and bureaucratic structures; Social norms, values and beliefs; Class, clan, tribal and ethnic composition; Internal political and social conflict; Climate and geography; Demographic shifts; Institutional structures.
In addition, there may be recurring and substantial political, economic and social problems, such as civic violence, ethnic and religious conflict, corruption, shrinking public budgets, inflation, recession, terrorism, war, poverty and pollution among others, which may cause considerable uncertainty and contribute to an unstable policy environment. The impact of remote conditions on policy implementation is considerable, often indirect and sometimes hard to determine. Strong political support, for example, may be combined with weak organizational capacity and, over time, what were adequate financial resources may be severely reduced, while political support may disappear completely (Herschbach, 2000). Remote policy conditions tend not be fully considered when applying a rational analytical perspective. Conditions may be highly complex and changing so that their significance is not fully captured through data collection. Policy intent, however, is blunted by the failure to understand and fully consider conditioning elements in the remote policy environment. A supportive political environment is a crucial variable (Rondinelli, Middleton & Verspoor, 1990; Williams & Cummings, 2005). There is a strong commitment to building a healthy economic climate and furthering goals of development, equity and opportunity through a strengthened basic education and skills formation system (Ashton & Green, 1996). Political environments tend to be fragmented, so it is often difficult to determine the source and magnitude of support. Political support needs to be generated early in the policy formulation process, however. Macro-level economic conditions are among the most important external contextual factors that frame TVET policy. The effectiveness of institutional forms of TVET is linked to economic growth and an increasing demand for labour in the
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formal sector (Johanson & Adams, 2004; Levin & Lockheed, 1993; Middleton & Ziderman, 1997). Unless demand is rising, individuals completing programmes encounter limited employment possibilities, employers are reluctant to support training, and fewer programme resources are available. Collaborative forms of training with employers are also difficult to establish and maintain under conditions of economic uncertainty. The macro-economic context influences TVET policy in three major ways. First, economic conditions largely determine the potential amount and stability of future financial support and hence the kinds of policy options that reasonably can be considered. Without a threshold level of national income, it is difficult to support TVET interventions over the long-term (Middleton & Demsky, 1988). Second, economic conditions create the market demand for education and training. Placement opportunities are opened. Third, economic conditions greatly influence public support for TVET. In conditions of economic stress, there often tends to be little support for TVET initiatives that can be perceived as consuming large amounts of resources and enhancing the employment prospects of some individuals to the exclusion of others. The extension of education and training opportunity to the more disadvantaged segments of the population in particular usually depends upon good economic conditions (Birdsall & Sabot, 1996). Even though what may be considered as a ‘rational’ policy formulation process is followed, along each step of the way value judgements are made concerning what is to be taught, to whom, why, which interests should dominate decision-making, who is going to benefit most and who is going to carry the cost (Bobrow & Dryzek, 1987; Malen & Knapp, 1997; Schneider & Ingram, 1997). No policy is ‘value free’. Incremental and interactive policy perspectives attempt to more fully consider the values, preferences, motivations, interests and sometime unclear or conflicting perceptions of the people within the policy environment.
3.2 The Proximate Policy Environment What is termed the ‘proximate policy environment’ may be more familiar to TVET policy-makers because it is comprised of the issues, conditions, institutions and stakeholders within the immediate policy arena. Warwick (1980) suggests that it is useful to think in terms of: (a) the power setting; (b) the issue context; and (c) the operating environment. The power setting is made up of individuals, groups and organizations that can potentially aid, hold in abeyance, distort or kill policy initiatives. These range from ministries of education, finance or labour to teacher organizations, employer groups, worker organizations, private schools, parents, students and political organizations—to mention some of the more important private, civic, social and government actors. It is critically important for the policy analyst to be at least aware of patterns of political influence and power and how they cut across ethnic, class, social and economic boundaries (Cohen, Grindle & Walker, 1985; Heck, 2004; Korten, 1980). The building of advocacy coalition frameworks is an attempt to address the power setting.
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Education and training institutions are surrounded with issues relating to opportunity, equity, ethnicity, gender, social sorting, empowerment, resource use, cost, class, culture, and effectiveness and efficiency, among others, that comprise the issue context. Singly and combined, the various issues contribute to shaping the form of policy initiatives. The political and social construction of issues influences how policy recommendations are framed, interpreted and received by interest groups and power brokers. Policy initiatives are likely to become distorted, narrowed or rejected if they do not speak directly to the expectations, interests and problems framed within the issue context (Schneider & Ingram, 1997). The operational environment includes familiar units, such as schools, training institutions, extension programmes and various support agencies and administrative organizations. Included also is physical infrastructure in the form of roads and transportation, water, electricity, Internet access and construction, purchase, repair and replacement capacity. Administrative, management, staff and instructional capacity also are important variables. Institutional and infrastructure capacity influence policy design in direct and obvious ways. The ability to frame and implement policy depends not only on material, organizational and human resources, but also on the more subtle human, political and social dynamics within the operational environment that evoke acceptance or resistance. A perceived threat to the status quo, privilege loss or gain, shifts in status, competition for resources, the degree of uncertainty generated and others are examples of indirect, perhaps unanticipated and often difficult-to-measure policy effects that cause individuals and groups to think and act both positively and negatively about policy objectives and implementation (Bobrow & Dryzek, 1987; Heck, 2004; Sabatier, 1999). Often overlooked, however, in policy deliberation is the value orientation held by the various direct and indirect actors. Financial resources are one of the most crucial determinants of policy space. Without sufficient resources, policy options are severely reduced. International donor agencies tend to support expenditures for capital improvement, technical assistance and the purchase of commodities. Rarely, if ever, is money allocated for recurrent support of any kind, yet this is the decisive factor for achieving sustainable programme implementation (Herschbach, 1993; Herschbach & Gasskov, 2000; Ziderman, 2003). It is left to the host country to carry the burden of recurrent support. What usually happens is that, during the life of donor support, scarce revenue is reallocated from other national sources to cover recurrent project costs. Once donor support ceases, national revenue is reallocated among the new project and the other sources, creating under-funded programme activities all-around. Without new sources of recurrent support, capital expansion can have detrimental consequences because new resource requirements are created without additional sources of revenue. A low level of funding is spread even thinner. Without an adequate foundation level of resources, workforce preparation programmes cannot operate with sufficient quality to justify even limited investments. Poor quality programmes are a poor investment. Throughout both developed and newly developing countries alike, however, social demand is driving programme expansion and generating great financial stress. In order to establish and maintain
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quality, it is prudent policy to keep programme expansion within the boundaries of available recurrent financial support. An increasing demand for educational opportunity, however, will continue to mount public pressure for more educational services of all kinds, regardless of how well they can be financially supported. The policy time-frame is important. A great deal of policy change is what Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith (1999) refer to as ‘secondary’, a fine-tuning of the basic elements of an education and training system without significantly influencing its fundamental core aspects. There is little alteration in the underlying belief structure supporting implementation and operation, in organizational structures or in the character of programming. Secondary policy changes are relatively straightforward and while they may encroach on vested interests, they can usually be addressed over a relatively short time. Incremental and interactive policy perspectives tend to focus primarily on secondary change. Major or primary policy change, in contrast, causes people to think differently about what they are doing, to change their beliefs and to change their ways of working. Organizational structure and power relationships change. However, to incorporate primary policy change requires considerable time: decades, not years (Sabatier, 1999). In the case of TVET, the tendency is to think in time-frames that are far too short to implement primary change. This is especially true in the case of donor agencies. Project completion dates of four, six or eight years are established with relatively large amounts of money infused at the beginning of the project cycle—when it cannot be effectively used. Successful primary policy initiatives tend to follow a pattern of incremental development with an extended diffusion time. Investments initially are small; considerable experimentation takes place; adequate organizational, management and staff capability are built; expansion occurs after significant experience and success (Herschbach, Hayes & Evans, 1992; Middleton & Demsky, 1988; Sabatier & JenkinsSmith, 1999; Weimer & Vining, 1989). Time is needed for institutional and management capabilities to mature, and for policy initiatives to become operationally embedded within contexts that may not be highly supportive. Development cycles of a decade or more are reasonable, and cycles of twenty to thirty years may be required. Promoting lasting TVET change is difficult. We have very briefly focused on the policy environment, or context, and examined some of the attending conditions that influence policy direction and the capacity to sustain programming. The most successful policy initiatives are formulated by focusing on the most accomplished TVET initiatives within the system, with policy activity incrementally extended outward as more is learned about elements critical to success. Long-term goals are held in abeyance for the achievement of more short-term, incremental objectives that realistically can be achieved. The analyst wants to know why a particularly TVET initiative is successful; what are the important programming elements; what are the important constraints and factors operating in both the remote and proximate environments; what is needed to expand policy initiatives; and what are the competing value-driven, interest-based relationships among the diverse actors that can make or
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unmake policy decisions (Korten, 1980). Sometimes, past events can be traced over time with policy implications projected into the future.
4 The Policy Landscape Nations vary greatly in the extent and diversity of their economies, in the character of their political, social and institutional systems, as well as in their capacity to support education and training interventions. The primary question policy-makers within a country face is how best to use education and training resources to shape the labour force along lines consonant with economic and social development policy. Some countries have considerable policy latitude and can build and sustain extensive education and training systems; others have to husband limited resources and have few policy options. The skills-formation system functions as a means through which to enrich the quality and capacity of labour, to ameliorate social problems, and to open opportunity and promote greater equity. A variety of TVET policy options serving specific purposes are available to decision-makers (Atchoarena & Delluc, 2002; Herschbach & Campbell, 2000; Gill, Fluitman & Dar, 2000; Lauglo & Maclean, 2005). In this section, we briefly turn our attention to examining how education and training systems contribute in diverse ways to labour-force development and help improve lives by extending opportunity and enhancing social and economic growth.
4.1 Higher Income, High-Skill Economies Individual countries take very different economic and social development paths. There are, nevertheless, common characteristics underlying the development and use of the skills formation systems that are evident in higher income, high-skill economies and that inform policy. An obvious policy variable is the fact that high- and middle-income countries have considerably greater potential than do lowincome countries for implementing and sustaining TVET programmes of all types. Conditions make it possible for high- and middle-income countries to craft a fuller range of TVET policy options to support expanding economic growth (Ashton & Green, 1996; Billett, 2004; Herschbach, 2000; Middleton & Demsky, 1988). Training systems address different skill levels. TVET systems in low-income countries tend to get trapped in craft-based and low-wage skills preparation with skill demand largely shaped by local markets. Political and institutional histories, resource constraints, market characteristics and low literacy and high poverty rates make it difficult to bring about the transition to higher-value training options that support increased economic growth levels. In many cases, good academic preparation is good technical and vocational education (Ashton & Green, 1996; Prais, 1987; Pring, 2004). A solid foundation of
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basic skills is required for the subsequent development of fundamental competence in language, math, science, information technology, electronics and other abstract technical subjects that, in turn, provide the structure for building more specialized, advanced learning, either on or off the job. Skills formation, in whatever form that it takes, builds a solid foundation of basic skills. The role of the State is important. There is a strong commitment among the political elite to build and expand upon a quality skills-development system; and there is the political will to reorient government taxing and spending priorities. The State plays a major role in building broadly-based political support because of the conflicts that inevitably surround education and training. Policies for highskill formation require the building of strong supporting coalitions. Employers are among the most important groups because there must be a corresponding commitment to build a high-skills production system (Ashton & Green, 1996; Billett, 2004). Investments in building quality primary education are particularly important. Elementary education is primarily a responsibility of the State and this is where sufficient public funding has to be directed. Quantity—that is, simply expanding enrolments—however, is not enough without quality (Birdsall, Burns & Sabot, 1996). There is considerable international evidence to suggest that a ‘reservoir’ of individuals with sound basic literacy and numerical skills is required for initiating and sustaining economic growth (Ashton & Green, 1996; Birdsall & Sabot, 1996; Kaneko, 1984; Stern, 1995; Westphal, Rhee & Pursell, 1981). The extension of opportunity to the less privileged is particularly important and a primary condition for creating a high-income economy (Ashton & Green, 1996; Birdsall & Sabot, 1996). The under-educated are a drag on the economy. Both income levels and economic growth increase in relation to the extension of education and training (Lau et al., 1996). As the stock of educated individuals increases, there is a ‘threshold’ level above which greater overall economic returns are realized ‘because the productivity of one educated worker is greater when working with other educated workers’ (Birdsall, Burns & Sabot, 1996, p. 33). Moreover, employers have greater incentives to opt for high-wage and high-skill forms of production when there is an adequate supply of educated individuals to choose from: ‘The legacy of a poorly educated workforce is a limitation on the trainability of workers,’ Ashton and Green (1996, p. 111) observe.
5 The Employer Link The skills formation system relies on the support of employers, but this may vary considerably within and between countries. Employers support training if it is relevant to their immediate requirements. They are less interested in long-term results. Incentives from the State in the form of tax breaks, subsidies and regulations may be required in order to get employers to take a long-term view of training. Stability in the macro-economic and financial environment also helps to encour-
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age reinvestments in technology and people. The transition to a high-skilled work force requires clusters of innovative, high-skill work organizations with the confidence to formulate appropriate product market strategies (Ashton & Green, 1996; Freeman, 1987; Gleeson & Keep, 2004). Rational policy tools are useful to help formulate recommendations if they are sharp enough to penetrate the complexities of employer-based training environments. Cost data resonate with employers. Employers rely on the education and training system for three kinds of individuals: (a) those who are adaptable and able to absorb training within the firm; (b) those who bring the required skills with them; or (c) those who bring new skills into the firm. In the case of the first category, public-supported TVET programmes need to place enough emphasis on building a strong basic academic and broadly-based technical skill foundation to ensure that individuals can start down the road of more specific skill development within the firm (Ashton & Green, 1996; Herschbach, 1997; Herschbach & Kamibeppu, 2000; Prais, 1987). In the case of the second category, strong links with employing establishments are essential in order to determine the right ‘skill mix’, while at the same time considerable programme flexibility is required to accommodate shifting skill requirements. It may be difficult to maintain economies of scale and combat training obsolescence with only public institutional forms of training. Costs tend to be high and there is little programming flexibility. The greatest need is for individuals in the third category, however, even though their numbers may be relatively small. Employers in developing countries in general rely heavily on outside sources for skills acquisition and technological upgrading. This includes individuals who have received training abroad and from foreign parent companies; equipment vendors; in addition to graduates of local institutes and universities. In the case of virtually all employers, training and the search for new employees forms a continuous process because of turnover rates, altered technology, or the need to realize greater cost savings and improve productivity (Ashton & Green, 1996; Dahlman, Ross-Larson & Westphal, 1985; Herschbach, 1997). It is understandable that employers place high value on basic education skills: they are used by individuals in all three of the above categories. Probably the greatest contribution to human resource development that can be made by formal TVET institutions is the assurance of a sound grounding in academic skills and special technical uses of academic skills. These are more appropriately learned in formal TVET settings. Cognitive skills are especially important in the use of information and computer-processing technology. As previously mentioned, at all skill levels, there is a demand for individuals competent in organization, control, maintenance, programming and technical service skills (Herschbach, 1997; Watanabe, 1996). Large firms encounter fewer training-related problems. As suggested earlier, large firms may want recruits from TVET institutions to have more generic technical training and basic education skills, with the firm taking responsibility for specific skill training once the individual is employed. This is particularly true of firms with internal labour markets through which the individual gains promotion based on experience and training within the firm (Ashton & Green, 1996; Dore & Sako, 1998; Herschbach & Kamibeppu, 2000; Prais, 1987; Stern, 1995).
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Small and medium-sized firms encounter the most difficult training-related problems. There are few resources to plough back into training and benefits are uncertain or are only visible in the long-term. If employees become too proficient, they may desert the firm to seek higher paying jobs elsewhere, or even open competitive enterprises. There is considerable ‘poaching’ among firms. Many employers are reluctant to train simply because they will face the choice of paying higher wages or losing employees. The cost of training is also high because small firms cannot benefit from economies of scale. Small firms tend also to be outside the mainstream of technological innovation and change, and this may be one way formal TVET programmes can be the most helpful. Infusions of technology can be diffused throughout the labour force. Medium-sized and small firms rely on formal TVET programmes for employees with specific skills. They want individuals who can immediately go to work with little or no in-firm training. To be responsive, however, certain conditions must be met. First, costs have to be low. Second, training often has to be tailored-made, case-by-case because it has to be directly applicable to specific firms. Considerable flexibility in terms of the delivery of services is required. Third, training has to be accessible and perhaps on-site. Fourth, the burden rests with the formal institution to initiate contacts and reach out and offer services to employers and employees who may have little knowledge of what assistance they need or can obtain. And fifth, often an integrated package of services is required with training conceived as part of a range of services offered to address other problems, such as product design, marketing and product quality. Training cannot be used effectively without these other services (Herschbach, 1997; Marsden, 1984; Singh, 2005) There is considerable interest among international donor organizations in policy initiatives that shift TVET activities, and thus cost, to trainees and private sector employers (Gill, Fluitman & Dar, 2000; Johanson & Adams, 2004; Middleton, Ziderman & Adams, 1993; Ziderman, 2003). Such initiatives have to be approached with caution. Private firms are engaged in business to make a profit and not for social ameliorative purposes. There may be little interest or few incentives to train for others, especially in highly competitive local and global markets (Billett, 2004). Even the most successful training partnership, the German dual apprenticeship system, took decades to develop and only worked after the government forced participants to collaborate (Johnson, 1991). This system, like others, is built on a combination of school-based and in-firm training. The system is expensive to maintain and, although costs are spread among government, trainees and participating employers, in many countries they may be too high to sustain. In low-income countries with the least capacity to support public TVET initiatives, rarely is there a sufficient number and range of firms that can provide the quantity and level of quality skills preparation to have an appreciable impact on labour-force development. Firms that use low-wage, outmoded forms of production are not good sites for training and labour-force upgrading. Both public and private TVET capacity is weak. Finally, collaborative policy environments are extremely
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complex to work within and require extensive effort (Coursey, 2000; Finlay, Niven & Young, 1998).
6 Addressing Low-Income, Informal Work The single most important world-wide education and training policy challenge is to help extend employment opportunities to the large numbers of individuals on the social, political and economic fringes. Good answers are lacking. Many individuals in developed and developing countries alike are employed at jobs below their aspirations or qualifications, cannot find meaningful work, or earn so little that it is difficult to support basic requirements. Informal sector employment within different countries ranges from a relatively small number of part-time and casual workers on the fringes of formal economic activity to massive numbers of individuals constituting up to 80% or 90% of the workforce. Some individuals are able to realise relatively secure and decent livelihoods from their work activity and some informal workers acquire job skills that enable them to make the transition into better-paid wage-employment. The large mass of informal workers, however, lacks skills, opportunity, social mobility, political leverage, legal protection and even the most meagre resources. Workforce skill building, combined with initiatives to build support networks, eliminate socio-political barriers, create legal protection, generate resources and enhance opportunity, has the potential to alleviate poverty. In most countries, the focus of education and training policy is on preparation for employment in the formal economy. This is where work preparation policy initiatives are considered to yield the greatest return on public and private investments. There is, however, an increasing awareness within the international education and training community of the importance of the informal economy (Fluitman, 1989; Garrick, 1998; Singh, 2005). In many countries, the informal sector carries the burden of absorbing large numbers of labour-force entrants. In some countries not only are the numbers staggering (in the hundreds of thousands), but it is difficult to integrate economies into the global workplace without attention given to enhancing the work competencies of that segment of the population living and working on the edge of poverty. TVET interventions cannot be judged by the same cost-benefit standards typically applied in rational policy studies. Good data are difficult to compile, but also standards of economic efficiency give way to objectives of promoting opportunity and equity. A motivating force in much of the drive to provide services is the belief that TVET policy can be used as an instrument for the creation of a better society through alleviating poverty, empowering individuals, promoting social justice and extending human potential. The overriding purpose of TVET is to serve the interests of the least-advantaged members of society through programming that helps individuals to secure decent work and live decent lives (Birdsall & Sabot, 1996; Bosch, 1998; Silvey & Elmhirst, 2003; Singh, 2005). It may be difficult to build public policy support, however, for informal sector education and training initiatives. If they are effective, they threaten the economic and social positions of others. The political dimensions within the power setting
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are challenging. Often there is considerable social tension generated over the use of limited public resources (Birdsall & Sabot, 1996; Gill & Heyneman, 2000). Upper income, elite households tend to dominate the use of public education and training funds, with a disproportionately high amount directed to higher education. There may be little political will to redirect public funding to programmes for the more disadvantaged segments of the population. This is especially true in countries characterized by a weak tradition of social justice, deeply ingrained class or cast lines, substantial control by a political elite, or a high level of poverty with great disparity in the distribution of wealth and power (Ashton & Green, 1996; Birdsall & Sabot, 1996; Garrick, 1998; Korten, 1980). The building of advocacy coalition frameworks is a policy tool that merits consideration. TVET policy formulation starts with an assessment of the potential of the learner and the work environment (Overwien, 2005). This is the starting point because, without a clear understanding of the constraints individuals are faced with, functional programming cannot be developed. The high level of individual programme tailoring that is required means that it is difficult to form large groups with needs similar enough to require the same specific services. Economies of scale are difficult to achieve with ‘conventional’ institutional forms of TVET. Participant groups typically are small, lack free time for extensive training, lack money and lack basic literacy and numerical skills. In most cases, it is necessary to provide financial support to compensate for foregone wages. Training needs to be provided at convenient times, near work, over short periods of time and focused on skills directly used. Education and training initiatives require a considerable amount of commitment and work to build local capacity and are often best carried out by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), private voluntary organizations (PVOs) and community groups. The administration and funding of programming through governmental agencies involves organizational structures that are often incompatible with the informal work environment: (a) qualification and reporting demands cannot be met; (b) advice and services are difficult to obtain; (c) there is fear or lack of trust in the government; (d) local centres of power are ignored; and (e) potential counterparts are excluded from decision-making—among a number of conditions that impede the functional usefulness of the government. Even when assistance is channelled through NGOs and PVOs, the brokering organization still has primary responsibility to the funding source. Procedures may over-ride purpose (Korten, 1980; Singh, 2005). Informal workers tend to be members of extensive informal kin and peer networks formed within cities and often extending beyond into rural regions. A useful policy strategy is to build local political, social and technical capacity by working through such networks. There is a considerable difference between providing assistance, however, and building capacity. In the former, pressures generated through government or donor funding for immediate, measurable results, the number of project cycles completed by a predetermined time and detailed programme specifications stifle capacity-building in what are ill-defined, complex, changing policy environments rife with conflict. Capacity-building requires a high level of flexibility, experimentation and risk-taking; a willingness to face uncertainty and learning from errors; and building a climate of mutual acceptance, understanding and co-operation
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(Bosch, 1998; Korten, 1980; Singh, 2005). Incremental and interactive consensual policy models are the most effective.
7 Low-Growth Economies In low-growth economies there generally is a lack of the financial, material, institutional and human resources to develop strong TVET capacity. Administrative and management support for education and training programmes are generally weak. The lack of money and professional preparation opportunity make it difficult to recruit, train and retrain enough proficient programme administrators. Investments in strengthening management capacity generally produce good results because, without this building of capacity, effective policy cannot be formulated and implemented (Herschbach, 1997). At the institutional level, programme implementation is also weak. It is difficult to recruit and retain qualified instructors because of low salaries; instructional resources are in short supply; curriculum development activities are restricted; and certification and evaluation systems are lacking. There is not the capacity to experiment with and adapt programmes. The unit cost of instruction tends to be higher than in more affluent countries because of inefficiencies and low use levels. Finally, enterprise capacity is under-developed and employment demand is usually weak. Opportunities for collaboration with industry and business are limited, and virtually no possibility exists for financial support from employers. For these all of these reasons, TVET policy options are limited (Atchoarena & Delluc, 2002; Herschbach, 1997, 2000; Johanson & Adams, 2004; Middleton & Demsky, 1988). It is not unusual in countries with low-growth economies also to have high labour-force growth rates that outstrip the capacity to absorb new entrants, resulting in very high unemployment and under-employment rates and low wages (Gill, Fluitman & Dar, 2000). High birth rates are often associated with high poverty levels and this portends protracted social and political problems. The percentage of the age cohort under 25 in some countries may range as high as 50% or more of the total population. A severe job creation crisis exists now that may continue indefinitely. As is the case in most countries, in low-growth economies there is a mix of education and training providers, and programmes range greatly in quality and effectiveness. Strengthening elementary education is a priority. As suggested earlier, establishing and maintaining high quality basic education through adequate investment is a necessary condition for embarking on an economic development path towards higher growth (Ashton & Green, 1996; Birdsall & Sabot, 1996; Westphal, Rhee & Pursell, 1981). Investment in basic skills development enhances development in general. If resources are restricted and a choice is necessary between providing quality public primary education or expanding technical and vocational education, then the investment clearly should be made in primary education. Many low economic growth countries face eroding programme quality and limited financial resources (Gill, Fluitman & Dar, 2000; Johanson & Adams, 2004). All forms and levels of TVET are difficult to establish and sustain without outside help. Donor assistance, however, often tends to be too expansive and directed to
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capital investments that cannot be sustained without a commitment for long-term recurrent funding by the country in question over an extended period of years. Government budgets are not only inadequate but unstable, with little or no expectation of a reliable source of sufficient funding from year to year. Low-income countries have a great need for quality TVET programmes but, under such conditions, need considerably exceeds capacity for sustained implementation. The establishment of an overly expanded TVET system that cannot be adequately supported should be avoided (Chapman & Windham, 1985; Herschbach, 2000; Middleton & Demsky, 1988). The best policy option may be to consolidate the formal TVET system by closing poorly functioning programmes and redirecting resources to maintaining a limited number of quality programmes with high potential to contribute to economic expansion. Programme growth only follows the demonstrated capacity to support greater quality programming. Comprehensive support to a smaller, stronger, high-quality TVET system may be the preferred policy option (Herschbach, 1997; Herschbach, Hayes & Evans, 1993). The concentration of limited resources to achieve greater quality has higher labour-market productivity returns than can be realised through expansion in the quantity of schooling alone (Behrman, Birdsall & Kaplan, 1996). However, this sets up a policy conflict between the objective of greater equity through expanded opportunity (quantity) and the outcome of greater efficiency (quality), although expanded low-quality programming in the long-run may result in little equity. In some countries, the performance and coverage of the education system is so restricted (in quality and quantity) that large segments of the population do not acquire even the most basic, rudimentary skills needed for job preparation and wage employment, not to mention more specialized preparation, if even only on a limited scale. Widespread poverty and the unequal distribution of wealth inhibit the ability to shape a high-skills workforce and constrain educational expansion and social development. Without the political commitment to address the problems of the less fortunate, it is difficult to establish the growth patterns necessary for social and economic improvement (Ashton & Green, 1996; Birdsall & Sabot, 1996).
8 Overview of the Contributions VI.2 Research for TVET Policy Development, by Jon Lauglo Lauglo points to questions that research could address in order to provide guidance on the formulation of national development policy for TVET. The questions are derived from what he sees as frequently ‘talked about’ issues in international policy debate on TVET. Research is used in a wide sense—not merely ‘academic’ research—and covers a wide range of issues. Especially in the early stages of policy formulation, research on such matters can provide relevant knowledge when major reorganization of TVET is considered by a country.
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VI.3 The Reform of Governance of Public TVET Institutions: Comparative Experiences, by Keith Holmes Holmes presents the main findings of an international review of the reform of public formal TVET at national and institutional levels. In the context of globalization and the quest for economic competitiveness, many countries have ambitious plans for the renewal and reform of public TVET institutions. Yet, policy-makers and managers of public TVET institutions are operating in increasingly complex environments. Holmes surveys examples of policies that aim to create a supportive environment for decentralization and increased institutional autonomy.
VI.4 National Versus Regional Policy Dimensions of TVET, by Peter Noonan This chapter examines national and regional dimensions of policy for TVET, with a primary focus on formally defined regions represented by sub-national governmental structures and their relationship with national government. A secondary focus of Noonan’s chapter is concerned with the concept of learning regions and the role of TVET in building human and social capital, including the relationship between formal TVET systems and other forms of knowledge and skill acquisition, such as community and work-based learning. A case study of Australia, which has developed a national TVET system within a federal system of government, is used to identify how national and regional responsibilities and perspectives can be coordinated and balanced.
VI.5 Planning for Education and Work: Alternatives and Issues, by Dennis R. Herschbach In his article, Herschbach analyses different TVET planning alternatives and highlights the fundamental assumptions, limitations and issues underlying their application. He also examines measures planners are taking to address the conceptual, methodological and technical constraints that they face in the economic, social and political space affecting them. He also explores alternative planning approaches that offer promising options to TVET decision-makers. These alternatives attempt to go beyond some of the common assumptions that have traditionally driven much of TVET planning and project a more application-guided, inclusive approach to planning.
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VI.6 South African Technikons and Policy Contestation over Academic Drift, by Andre Kraak The issue of academic drift, with reference to South Africa’s technikon (polytechnic) sector, is the focus of Kraak’s chapter. He provides a detailed account of how post-apartheid policy development has dealt with the issue of academic drift. A key issue in this regard has been the intense stakeholder contestation over policy, particularly from the technikon leadership. However, the outcomes of policy implementation a decade later have been contradictory. Although the technikon sector fought hard to retain the binary divide between technikons and universities and their distinctive career-oriented educational provision, once faced by the threat of merger and transformation, technikons ultimately chose to become universities of technology rather than remain as technikons.
VI.7 New Policy Actions and Government Roles: China’s Reconstruction of TVET Systems since the 1980s, by Deyu Sun, Jingwen Lu and Jun Li To give an insight into China’s ultra-large TVET system, the authors present an overview of the development of China’s TVET system since the 1980s. It then focuses on the roles the Chinese Government played in the reform and development of the TVET system, and highlights the future policy actions the Chinese Government is taking for TVET reconstruction. The chapter ends up with discussions on some TVET problems unique in the Chinese context, as well as policy implications for TVET policy actions.
VI.8 Some Generic Issues in TVET Management, by George Preddey Preddey, in the first of his two chapters, identifies and analyses nine generic issues that are significant for the management of TVET. Six of these issues are presented as contrasting dichotomies – for example, the implications of centralization versus devolution for the management of TVET systems.
VI.9 An Overview of Contemporary TVET Management Practice, by George Preddey Expanding on these generic issues, Preddey sets out an overview of contemporary TVET management practice with particular reference to eleven specific TVET management functions.
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References Ashton, D.; Green, F. 1996. Education, training and the global economy. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. Atchoarena, D.; Delluc, A. 2002. Revisiting technical and vocational education in sub-Saharan Africa. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. Behrman, J.R.; Birdsall, N.; Kaplan, R. 1996. The quality of schooling. In: Birdsall, N.; Sabot, R.N., eds. Opportunity foregone education in Brazil, pp. 245–66. Washington, DC: InterAmerican Development Bank. Billett, S. 2004. From your business to our business: industry and vocational education in Australia. Oxford review of education, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 13–35. Birdsall, N.; Burns, B.; Sabot, R. 1996. Education in Brazil: playing a bad hand badly. In: Birdsall, N.; Sabot, R.N., eds. Opportunity foregone education in Brazil, pp. 7–48. Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank. Birdsall, N.; Sabot, R.N. 1996. Opportunity foregone education in Brazil. Washington, DC: InterAmerican Development Bank. Bobrow, D.B.; Dryzek, J.S. 1987. Policy analysis by design. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press. Bosch, A.E. 1998. Popular education work training, and the path to women’s empowerment in Chile. Comparative education review, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 163–82. Chapman, D.W.; Windham, D.M. 1985. Academic program failures and the vocational school ‘fallacy’: policy issues in secondary education in Somalia. International education development, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 149–71. Cohen, E.; Grindle, M.S.; Walker, S.T. 1985. Foreign aid and conditions precedent: political and bureaucratic dimensions. World development, vol. 13, no. 12, pp. 1211–30. Colebatch, H.K. 1998. Policy. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Coursey, S. 2000. Education and training partnerships: an enabling framework. In: Herschbach, D.R.; Campbell, C.P., eds. Workforce preparation: an international perspective, pp. 34–42. Ann Arbor, MI: Prakken Publications. Dahlman, C.J.; Ross-Larson, B.; Westphal, L.E. 1985. Managing technological development lessons from the newly industrializing countries. Washington, DC: World Bank. (World Bank staff working papers, no. 717.) Dore, R.; Sako, M. 1998. How the Japanese learn to work. London: Routledge. Finlay, I.; Niven, S.; Young, S. 1998. Changing vocational education and training. London: Routledge. Fluitman, F. 1989. Training for work in the informal sector. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Freeman, C. 1987. Technology, policy and economic performance: lessons from Japan. London: Pinter. Garrick, J. 1998. Informal learning in the workplace. London: Routledge. Gill, S.; Fluitman, F.; Dar, A. 2000. Vocational education and training reform. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Gill, S.; Heyneman, S. 2000. Arab Republic of Egypt. In: Gill, S.; Fluitman, F.; Dar, A., eds. Vocational education and training reform, pp. 401–29. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Gleeson, D.; Keep, E. 2004. Voice without accountability: the changing relationship between employers, the State and education in England. Oxford review of education, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 37–63. Heck, R.H. 2004. Studying education and social policy. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Herschbach, D.R. 1993. Financing vocational training in developing countries. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Herschbach, D.R. 1994. Quality assurance in vocational education and training. In: Husen, T.; Postlethwaite, T.N., eds. The international encyclopedia of education, 2nd ed., pp. 4858–65. Oxford, UK: Pergamon.
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Herschbach, D.R. 1997. Improving training quality in developing countries: towards greater instructional efficiency. International journal of manpower, vol. 18, nos. 1/2, pp. 90–118. Herschbach, D.R. 2000. Vocational education and training projects in developing countries: issues of quality and sustainability. In: Lasonen, J., ed. Workforce preparation in a global context. Jyv¨askyl¨a, Finland: University of Jyv¨askyl¨a, Institute for Educational Research. Herschbach, D.R.; Campbell, C.P. 2000. Workforce preparation: an international perspective. Ann Arbor, MI: Prakken Publications. Herschbach, D.R.; Gasskov, V. 2000. Financing workforce programs. In: Herschbach, D.R.; Campbell, C.P., eds. Workforce preparation: an international perspective, pp. 74–88. Ann Arbor, MI: Prakken Publicatons. Herschbach, D.R.; Hayes, F.B.; Evans, D.R. 1992. Vocational education and training review of experience. Washington, DC: USAID. Herschbach, D.R.; Kamibeppu, T. 2000. How the Japanese prepare for work. In: Herschbach, D.R.; Campbell, C.P., eds. Workforce preparation: an international perspective, pp. 180–195. Ann Arbor, MI: Prakken Publications. Johanson, R.K.; Adams, A.V. 2004. Skills development in sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank. Johnson, P. 1991. Modern times the world from the twenties to the nineties. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers. Kaneko, M. 1984. Education and labor force composition in Southeast and East Asia development. Development economics, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 47–68. Korten, D.C. 1980. Community organization and rural development: a learning process approach. Public administration review, vol. 40, pp. 480–511. Lau, L.J. et al. 1996. Education and economic growth: some cross-sectional evidence. In: Birdsall, N.; Sabot, R.N., eds. Opportunity foregone education in Brazil, pp. 83–116. Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank. Lauglo, J.; Maclean, R. 2005. Vocationalization of secondary education revisited. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Levin, H.; Lockheed, M., eds. 1993. Effective schools in developing countries. London: The Falmer Press. Lindblom, C.E. 1959. The science of muddling through. Public administration review, vol. 19, p. 788. Lindblom, C.E. 1979. Still muddling, not yet through. Public administration review, vol. 39, pp. 517–26. Lindblom, C.E.; Woodhouse, E.J. 1993. The policy-making process. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Malen, B; Knapp, M. 1997. Rethinking the multiple perspectives approach to education policy analysis: implications for policy/practice connections. Journal of education policy, vol. 12, no. 5, pp. 419–45. Marsden, K. 1984. Services for small firms: the roles of government programmes and market networks in Thailand. International labour review, vol. 123, no. 2, pp. 211–35. Middleton, J.; Demsky, T. 1988. Vocational education and training: a review of World Bank investments. Washington, DC: World Bank. Middleton, J.; Ziderman, A. 1997. Overview: World Bank policy research on vocational education and training. International journal of manpower, vol. 18, nos. 1/2, pp. 6–26. Middleton, J.; Ziderman, A.; Adams, A.V. 1993. Skills for productivity: vocational education and training in developing countries. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Mingat, A.; Tan, J.P.; Sosak, S. 2003. Tools for education policy analysis. Washington, DC: World Bank. Overwien, B. 2005. Informal learning and the role of social movements. In: Singh, M., ed. Meeting basic learning needs in the informal sector. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Prais, S.J. 1987. Educating for productivity: comparisons of Japanese and English schooling and vocational preparation. National Institute economic review, vol. 119, pp. 40–56. Pring, R. 2004. The skills revolution. Oxford review of education, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 105–15.
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Chapter VI.2
Research for TVET Policy Development1 Jon Lauglo
1 Research on TVET Policy-Making What questions could be addressed by research (in the wide sense) in order to assist the development of national policies on technical and vocational education and training (TVET)? The specifics will depend a great deal on the national context. However, I shall attempt to outline research questions that may have some general relevance for what I see as current trends and issues in international policy discussion on TVET. Policy studies are a wide field that also is much concerned with the sources of policy and the process of policy formulation. It asks in particular: ‘Who exerts influence?’ and ‘Who benefits?’ The field also includes empirical studies on the role that research could play and actually does play in decisions on complex social issues.2 I shall here address a narrower set of questions with regard to TVET: What knowledge might be useful for decisions when policy-makers weigh options and choose among them? I do not start from a social-engineering perspective that would reduce complex policy choices to matters of technocratic expertise guided by ‘science’. Research has a more limited part to play and cannot replace the need for ‘judgement’ in the face of much uncertainty. Nor can it replace constraints on what options are politically acceptable. Nor can it tell us what values are most important as lodestars for policy. But research can play a role in reducing the range of uncertainty and in building stronger support for some options while weakening the arguments for others. Once decisions are taken and policy is being implemented, research can also play a role in adjusting the course by evaluating implementation and assessing the impact. I shall inevitably point to ‘questions for research’ for which answers are often wanting. As with much else in social science, the answers which exist in some studies are not definitive, but evolving, and there are areas of research in which controversies are common, with research used in support of arguments on ‘both sides’. A prime example is policies that give more play to the market mechanism in education. But in any country where policy-makers are considering the need for radical restructuring of TVET, there is a clear need for policy-making to be informed
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by research on these matters, and such research should also show cognizance of the controversies which exist. It is recognized that, if an updated ‘state-of-the-art’ assessment is requested for policy formulation on TVET, it may be beyond the capacity of the researchers in any one country quickly to address the wide range of issues presented below. But the agenda of issues and questions is not beyond the capacity of what international agencies can address, especially with select regard to countries that are trying out new institutional models. These agencies should do more to review research on what are items of interest for the global agenda, to commission studies in countries trying out innovations in TVET and support international networks of research. In addition to the questions that will be raised below, which mostly concern addressing relationships between TVET, resource requirements and results, policy development in any country will need basic descriptive statistics about the location and capacity of different types of TVET provision. These are usually available for public provisions of training (but often not for private provisions and industry-based training).
2 Terms I use research in a broad sense to include enquiry that is empirical and systematic. Empirical research means to me a deliberately staged confrontation with sources of information. Systematic research refers to procedures that seek information in a planned way and which use techniques to guard against error. Enquiry simply means that one seeks to find out what is unknown. Research needs a rationale to give it a clear focus and to provide reasons why this focus is important. If research is to be policy relevant, its focus and rationale must address matters which are relevant for policy decisions. TVET refers to deliberate interventions to bring about learning which would make people more productive (or simply adequately productive) in designated areas of economic activity (e.g. economic sectors, occupations, specific work tasks). This is the distinctive purpose of TVET. However, TVET will also have other purposes which are not unique and also apply to other forms of education, e.g. knowledge, skills, insights and mindsets which are deemed to be generally valuable for the learners, not only in designated areas of economic activity. Such ‘other’ aims will be especially pertinent for longer and full-time courses for youth—in contrast to short and episodic training events (e.g. for persons already at work in the occupations concerned). TVET also needs to be conducted according to general social norms about how learners and people in general are to be treated by institutions, e.g. they shall be treated with respect. Thus ‘work productivity’ is not the only aim and concern of TVET, but it is its distinctive objective which sets it apart from other forms of education and training.3
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There are also learning outcomes that may not be stressed in TVET any more than in programmes of general education but which, nonetheless, are of great economic importance (e.g. a literate and numerate workforce, readiness to take responsibility and initiative, and to learn new tasks). Thus, there is no need to assume that TVET is the only form of education which matters for performance in the workplace. In fact, in a rapidly changing society and economy, general education will, of course, be very important across economic sectors and for other important purposes than economic production; and there may be mindsets and norms of great importance for productivity, which are usually acquired in other socialization arenas than schools and training centres (e.g. entrepreneurship, drive, reliability, honesty, endurance, etc.). Policy refers to a set of relatively stable goals and choices of strategy to reach these goals over a considerable period of time. For national policies for TVET, the key goal will be improved productivity of the workforce. Holistic TVET policies will necessarily be concerned with a wide range of target groups: not only youth still in school (who typically lack much work experience outside their homes), but also people who are already employed and who need training on the job (or for other jobs), and those who are trying to become self-employed. In addition, certain groups are typically identified for special policy attention on equity grounds, e.g. the unemployed, the poorest, the disabled, as well as women and girls, and under-served ethnic groups. In particular, ‘regional equity’ is generally a driving force in politics. In addition, equity concerns focused on especially vulnerable groups often have a geographical focus, e.g. localities suffering a sharp drop in employment due to the restructuring of industry. However, equity-driven aspects of TVET policies also need to be directed at labour-market demand, for unless TVET leads to improved earnings for the learners there is no equity gain either. The wide range of target groups for TVET in any society means that national policies cannot be confined to TVET for youth who are still in school. Policy has stages: diagnosis of problems and needs for intervention at an early stage of policy preparation; formulation of policy; and follow-up in order to carry out the necessary adjustments once policy is in place. The type of questions suggested below are thought to be appropriate at the early stage in preparing and formulating TVET policy, and when radical overhaul of policy is being considered. It is recognized that, even if radical restructuring of TVET is planned, only some of these questions may relate to alternatives that are considered in any one country. In some countries there has been experimentation with trying out models in some regions or localities that radically depart from the mainstream system. In such cases, policy formulation for the entire country can obviously benefit from evaluations of such experimentation. But, generally, there will be a need to look at international experience. Some of the questions suggested have been addressed in comparative analysis carried out under the aegis of international agencies involved with TVET (e.g. the ILO and some international development banks). But for many issues, there is still much basic evaluative research to be done before there is much ‘experience’ to tap into.4
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3 Labour-Market Monitoring and Forecasting A key element in TVET development is to receive feedback from the labour market in order to respond to market demand for skilled work. This is especially important for publicly provided pre-employment training; it is probably less crucial for private provisions that are obliged to respond to demand directly in order to attract trainees;5 and still less crucial for on-the-job training which already takes place in close conjunction with employment.
3.1 What Will Be the Future Requirements? Especially in market economies where labour is not assigned to public employment, and where firms need to adjust their own demand for labour in order to break even financially in changing market circumstances, conventional forecasting of labour-market demand is notoriously inaccurate (certainly long term, but even in the medium term). Countries have for some time been abandoning ‘old style’ manpower planning and are instead concentrating on mechanisms that give signals about current trends. However, under conditions of rapid globalization and technological change, ‘recent trends’ will not suffice as signals for designing TVET for the future. Especially in countries that are not on the receiving end of the international diffusion of technology and globalized trade, policy-making for TVET needs to be informed about how technology, which currently is ‘mainstream’ in a given economic sector in the country, may be transformed by innovation already being diffused from technological nodes in other countries. Research has a role to play in attempting to forecast implications for TVET—and for general education—based on changes in technology and in international patterns of trade that are in ‘the pipeline’. Since such forecasting will be fraught with uncertainty, it is better thought of as involving scenarios rather than clear predictions.
3.2 Labour-Market Observatories Some countries have experimented with ‘labour-market observatories’ (there are several African examples). Common features of the intended function of such observatories are that: (a) they are supposed to collate statistics on changes in the labour market; (b) they conduct their own special surveys to supplement such statistics with the aim of providing on-going feedback to TVET at national, regional and local levels so that TVET can be adjusted as to quantity and content; and (c) they produce an ‘output’ that takes account of change in the labour market. What are the lessons learned, internationally, from such attempts? Do they succeed in producing sufficiently updated and sufficiently local information about labour-market absorption of trainees from different training backgrounds? Do they provide information about trends in vacancies in different specialities? Can they, from the surveys they
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carry out, also be made to provide feedback as to the actual uses of skills learned? Does the information reach decision-makers on curriculum and expansion of training specialties? Is the information of any use to them? Do they actually use the information to adjust the supply of trainees?
3.3 Panels of Employers Some countries (e.g. Denmark) have abandoned reliance on statistics and surveys as a main source of guidance about labour-market demand, and set up local panels of employers from the concerned industry sectors to give guidance. What are the lessons learned from experience with the use of local or regional panels?
4 Indicators of Performance Performance indicators of the kind set out below are important in several regards: (a) taking stock of one’s existing TVET provisions that new policy will seek to improve upon; (b) assessment of strengths and weaknesses of institutional models that exist in other countries and which may be of interest in a new policy in one’s own country; and (c) monitoring the performance of models brought in by new TVET policy.
4.1 ‘External’ and ‘Internal’ Effectiveness What indicators are there of the external effectiveness of TVET? For example, does it improve the chances of finding work? Does it lead to ‘relevant work’? Does it lead to added income for trainees? Apart from collating existing information from within the country in order to assess such questions, research can address international experience with attempts to institutionalize indicators that address such questions. Are there gains from seeking to institutionalize tracer studies (as in Mauritius)? Is the information actually used? A similar set of questions can be asked about internal effectiveness. Statistics on pass-rates or marks achieved in exams are typically available. But these do not really say much about what is learned—which may be termed the internal effectiveness of TVET. Since the 1960s a network of collaborating countries has emerged (e.g. IEA, PISA) to test children and youth in certain general education skill areas. Though international standards of TVET do exist (e.g. ISCO—there are even international TVET Olympics!), so far there is no similar network of collaborating countries with regard to TVET. Meanwhile, there are grounds in any country for research to address the question: What is actually learned in TVET? With the increased use of criterionreferenced assessment (to ‘pass’ it takes demonstrated mastery of specified tasks), it should be possible to check actual mastery of tasks.
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4.2 Equity Equity is especially problematic for TVET. How equitable is recruitment to TVET from under-served groups? Do new policies achieve an improvement in this regard? (For example, do they reach the poor, underserved minorities, women and girls?) The geographical inequality of economic dynamism presents special problems for TVET in locations that are remote from the nodes of that dynamism. The more TVET policy stresses the need to reach out and involve ‘local industry’, the more TVET provisions become embedded in geographical economic inequality. Private provisions will typically add to that inequality, for they will be strongly concentrated in locations with high local demand for skilled labour. So, there is a case for the government to act in offsetting the imbalances that are created by the earmarking of special resources for TVET catering to ‘underserved’ locations and groups. However, such provision will often lack good and direct local connections with industry. Do their trainees suffer problems finding jobs? Are there examples of initiatives taken to ease such problems? What do such initiatives achieve?
4.3 Cost Part of policy preparation is cost analysis. Annual costs of established TVET institutions are usually available, but surprisingly cost analysis of different training specialties within the same institution are often lacking and, even more surprisingly, cost estimates often do not seek to produce combined costs of recurrent expenses and annual capital expenses. How can we improve the accuracy of cost information? How can we ensure that cost information is used?
4.4 Efficiency A series of ‘internal efficiency’ questions relates to the flow of students or trainees involved in courses. Concerning TVET, this would especially apply to longer courses that are ‘pre-employment’ rather than to short ‘training events’ and training within industry itself. Questions include: What are course completion rates, and drop-out rates in different types of courses? Other indicators (regrettably rarely available) are capacity utilization of facilities and of available human resources. Cost/benefit analysis is sometimes attempted for TVET (usually internal rate-ofreturn estimates) in order to estimate what may be termed external efficiency. It is a method that has been both widely espoused and—especially as a means of estimating cost/benefit to society rather than merely to private persons—widely criticized. Research has a role in both critically assessing its potential and limitations, and in applying such analysis.
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5 ‘New Models’ for TVET Systems In any country open to radical reform of TVET, policy can be usefully informed by comparative research on experience with new models that have been tried out in other countries. Some such new models include national training authorities, national training funds and national qualifications frameworks. For all these models, which have been in vogue internationally in recent years, there is a need to systematize existing findings and generate new ones on such questions as: How do such policies work in practice? What works well? What are the shortcomings? What corrective action has been tried? Across all these questions are further dimensions of implementation, cost, outcomes and impact.
5.1 National Training Authorities Some countries have established national training authorities apart from regular government ministries. Typically, they have control of resources that different providers (including government ministries) can apply to for funding, at the same time as they are supposed to exercise strategic planning and quality assurance purposes of TVET. They also typically have governing boards with strong representation directly from industry. What is the international experience with such structures (in countries like Chile, South Africa, Tanzania and the United Kingdom)? What are lessons learned from training authorities?
5.2 Training Funds A number of countries have set up training funds with diverse sources of financing. Typically, there are contributions directly from industry (from earmarked payroll levies), from the government and in poorer countries also from external financing agencies. These funds are typically controlled by national training boards in which there is strong industrial representation. Often they are managed in close conjunction with national training authorities. Often industry itself can apply to such funds for finance for some of its internal training activity. What has the international experience been with training funds?
5.3 National Qualifications Frameworks A number of countries have developed national qualifications frameworks, which typically seek to define the concrete skill requirements (standards) for specified occupations, to certify the level of skills taught in TVET courses in relation to such requirements, to define paths of progression in such courses so that all forms of TVET fit into a single unified framework, and to administer ways of certifying skill
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levels of individual persons when skills are informally acquired. Examples include Australia, Scotland, South Africa and many others. What are the lessons learned from national qualifications frameworks?
6 Decentralization There has been an international trend to promote decentralization of decisionmaking in education. It is, of course, not ideologically ‘neutral’. Different variants connect differently to influential ideas about how power and authority should be distributed in a ‘good’ society. There are also rationales connected with concerns about efficiency—that decentralization is a means of making better use of scarce resources, of motivating people and of generally enabling institutions to better achieve their objectives (see, for example, Watson, 1996; Chapman et al., 1996). There is the ‘efficiency’ argument that, giving more power to each institution and involving local industry more in its governance, is a means of making TVET more locally responsive to industry and thus ensuring an improved match between what is taught and what is demanded by the labour market. There is also the argument that public institutions can diversify their sources of financing and raise more funds by being given permission to raise local finance directly (e.g. ‘selling’ short courses to local industry) and to decide how such extra income should be used. Such an emphasis on ‘more local decisions’ and more local involvement of external ‘stakeholders’ in decisions at the local level typically go with recommendations for change in the way that TVET is financed. One approach is to develop indicators of institutional performance and to tie public finance to such indicators to a greater extent than in the past. Another approach is to give more influence to market forces over public institutions (for example, leaving institutions to recruit trainees in competition with others, without regard to fixed catchment areas). In countries with TVET tightly regulated by public bureaucracies and which are considering moves towards some form of decentralization, the following questions can be usefully addressed by research: What are some of the institutional models of more decentralized operations that exist today? What are the lessons learned from these operations?
7 Alternative Models of Financing There is currently discussion about the need for more diversified sources of financing in order to cope with high unit costs and limitations on public finance. In public institutions, this typically would mean moving from full (or nearly full) reliance on ministerial budgets to: (a) charging fees (or higher fees) to the trainees; (b) ‘selling short courses’ to industry; (c) selling products produced within TVET institutions (e.g. ‘training with production’); and (d) setting up alternative channels of external funding by earmarked fiscal measures on the sector concerned (e.g. payroll tax).
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What is the experience from the use of such alternative or supplementary sources of financing?
8 Encouraging Private Provisions In the international policy debate on TVET, there are always arguments that national governments should take increased ‘interest’ in the role played by private providers of TVET. The extent of private provision varies greatly from one country to another, but in some countries private institutions are a major supplier of TVET, especially in business/commerce related skills and in information and communications technologies (ICTs). An issue for policy is how the government should relate to the private sector. The alternatives typically range from: (a) ‘regulate in order to ensure minimum standards’; to (b) encourage them as a supplement to public provisions; to (c) viewing public provisions as a supplement to private provisions and plan public provisions accordingly to fit around private provisions; to (d) set up accreditation, quality assurance and funding provisions that put private provisions on a ‘level playing field’ in competition with those that are publicly owned. Frequently, statistical information about privately provided TVET is weak. Even if the minimalist option of (a) above is chosen as government policy, there is usually a need to design mechanisms for improved information on private provisions. Are there any lessons learned from other countries on how best to achieve such improvement? With more ‘favourable’ policy options, especially if the government considers using public funds in support of private provisions, the need for information will be further increased. The private/public policy issue is ideologically fraught and therefore typically subject to much controversy. What are the controversies? Are there lessons to be learned from countries that have introduced various financing schemes? For example, what is the experience with ‘vouchers’ that a target group of trainees can ‘cash in’ at any accredited TVET provider (private or public)? How do they handle quality assurance and monitoring of private providers? What are the equity consequences of support to private provisions? Are private institutions any more efficient than public ones?
9 Schemes to Make Industry Carry Out More Training A variety of interventions have been tried to make industry carry out more training than it does when left to its own devices (legislation ‘requiring’ them to train— Republic of Korea; tax credits for training—Chile; funding by competitive application from national training funds or from industry specific funds). What are the lessons learned from different interventions? One common experience is that it tends to be large firms that make most use of available incentives, and that more is used on training staff at high levels than the schemes intended. Some countries have introduced changes to induce more small firms to make use of such incentives, and some
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(at least one—Chile) have adjusted funding to stimulate more training of production workers with less focus on management training. What is the experience with such schemes?
10 Modularization of the Curriculum In some countries, there has been a switch in TVET curriculum design away from ‘long courses’ with assessment of learners at the end, to programmes consisting of sequences of short courses (modules) with assessment at the end of each module (typically ‘criterion based’) and with more flexibility for trainees to follow sequences tailored to their particular requirements (and pace of progress). This approach is also advocated as a means allowing trainees to more easily ‘interrupt’ and later ‘return to’ training. What has been the experience of such modular models? Some of the issues are: Is there improved learning? Is ‘flexibility’ made use of? Does it lead to excessive fragmentation? Or ‘assessment overload’?
11 Human Resource Development Qualified TVET human resources are in chronic short supply in many countries. At the most basic level, there is the problem of how best to institutionalize initial instructor training and how best to recruit instructor-trainees to conduct such training. Small countries frequently have problems designing provisions for instructor training in the many vocational specialities in such a way as to avoid under-utilization of training capacity. Large and small systems have problems ensuring that the pedagogy part of such training will be sufficiently relevant for the practicalities of skills teaching in the concerned vocational specialty. There is also the problem of ensuring recruitment of prospective instructors who have sufficient work experience from relevant industries and, if such applicants are available, how to screen out those who are the rejects from industry. If industry is booming, there is the problem of retaining good TVET staff who may be tempted by frequently higher pay in the occupations they are preparing others for. Throughout the world there is a shortage of in-service staff development opportunity for instructors so as to keep abreast of technological changes. How do ‘other’ countries cope with human resource problems for TVET? Are there schemes which seem to improve the training part of these problems? What are workable and affordable incentive schemes to prevent loss of the best staff to industry?
12 Coping with Management Complexity A number of the changes mentioned earlier (e.g. decentralization of decisions on what to teach and use of resources, competing with other training providers, di-
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versifying sources of finance, involving local industry in boards of management) would add complexity to the management task of TVET at local institutional level. Does management of TVET institutions rise to the task of coping with the increased complexity of their management task? How do they cope with ‘complexity overload’?
13 Dual Systems of Basic TVET There is internationally much admiration for systems of basic TVET that are ‘dual’ in the sense of being partly based in training institutions external to industry (often public institutions, but they could also be private) and partly in industry itself. Some systems are dual only in an ‘embryonic sense’ in that the industry-based part is but a minor part typically aiming at ‘work experience’ in the occupation concerned without much specification of a schedule of skills to be learned (e.g. an ‘attachment’). Fully-fledged dual systems (e.g. Germany, Switzerland, Austria) typically make industry the main arena for training, with external institutional education and training as a concurrent supplement—or in some countries (Denmark, Norway) a foundation period before the apprenticeship in industry commences. Research has a clear role to play in contributing to that assessment. What has worked well and what has not worked so well? Research can also summarize the international experience with attempts to develop and expand dual systems under different socio-economic circumstances.
14 Low Dosage TVET in Mainstream Secondary Schools In the mainstream of secondary education, some countries have introduced vocational or practical subjects as a minor portion of the total curriculum load undertaken by students. Sometimes such curricula are justified by the hope that such ‘lowdosage TVET’ will ease the transition of youth into those occupations or sectors for which practical subjects are ‘relevant’ and contribute to productivity there. Is that a realistic goal for such mildly ‘vocationalized’ secondary education? What are the cost implications?6
15 TVET for Illiterate and Semi-Literate Learners Many countries have sections of the adult population who are illiterate or whose literacy (and numeracy) skills are too rudimentary for any fluent reading or written expression. Programmes responding to demand for TVET from such groups will usually be self-targeted upon people living in great poverty. In most countries, such people are disproportionately women. Often they are minorities who are generally under-served with education and other social services. Therefore, TVET pro-
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grammes of this kind will usually have to serve strong equity goals as well. There is a case for combining such TVET with the teaching of basic literacy and numeracy skills. Similarly, in adult literacy programmes, there is invariably a demand for skills that are directly useful for ‘income generation’. With a focus on Sub-Saharan African experience, attempts have begun to summarize the international record of the cost, implementation and impact of such combined ‘TVET and literacy’ programmes (Oxenham et al., 2002). Two recent books in the UNESCO-UNEVOC series of publications on TVET (Haan, 2006; Singh, 2005) address the related issue of TVET in the informal economy. More evaluative work is needed to provide more strongly founded ‘lessons’ on what can be drawn from current documentation—both within countries and internationally.
16 Keeping Abreast of Technology In many countries, there is a strong concern to ensure that TVET keeps abreast of technological change in industry. One would expect there to be much learning within industry itself, both informal learning and organized interventions around the introduction of new technology. One would also expect that training is often part of the package provided by the supplier when new technology is purchased by a firm. One would also expect firms to ‘buy in’ such TVET from private trainers or consulting firms. The question is whether the government, or sectoral industry associations, can usefully intervene more in order to support these processes. Research can have a role to play in assessing the experience of countries that are known for conducting a great deal of training within industry (e.g. quality circles and certification of skill levels in Japanese industry). For institutionalized training providers outside of firms, the problems of keeping abreast of technology are especially severe. One would think that a good foundation in science and mathematics is helpful for learning new technology. How adequate is the present educational foundation which youth bring when they enter TVET, and does TVET pay enough attention to such knowledge and skills? The more capital intensive training is, the more expensive it is to ‘retool’ in order to keep abreast. Placements in ‘cutting edge’ industry (not only for trainees but also for their teachers) are a long recommended recipe. But locally available industry is not always ‘cutting edge’. There is a role for research to take stock of experience with new approaches within a large country like China, and also to look abroad at what others have achieved. For example, how far can ICTs be a useful means of communication about new technology for TVET? What incentives can public TVET be given for keeping up with technology?
17 Following Up Policy The range of questions for research will naturally be much narrower when the focus is on follow-up to new TVET policy. Looking to ‘alternative models’ in order to
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widen the range of options for decision-makers will be much less important. But evaluations of different organizational models can still be on the agenda when the decision has been to pursue more than one strategy concurrently, or simply to pilot a new form of TVET alongside the continued existence of previously dominant forms. Wise policies allow for a period when it is expected that new models will need to be adjusted (institutionally complex new forms of TVET are very rarely abandoned). Evaluations (in this chapter a part of ‘research’) are important for giving feedback that helps inform such decisions to ‘adjust’ implementation. There will also be a clear need to monitor resource requirements, since in any complex reforms of TVET structures these are among the ‘loosest’ parts of the information base (usually the cost is underestimated but since implementation tends to be slower than expected, the ‘higher’ total costs may well be spread over a longer period than initially assumed, if the intended full-scale of implementation is achieved in the end). A badly neglected question for evaluative research on TVET policies involving complex reforms is impact. For example, does a ‘new style’ TVET in fact improve the extent to which the skills acquired are put productively to use in ‘relevant’ work? How are equity concerns accommodated? One does not need to be a cynic to note that there is often some risk in putting that question to empirical tests. Governments in any event seem uninterested in commissioning research on that question.
18 A Stronger Research Base is Needed Research on TVET is quite limited in most countries. Few countries have specialist professional networks and few have journals, ICT-based meeting places or other means of supporting the development of professional ‘nodes’ on TVET. Such research as exists is typically concerned with pedagogy and curricula, because it tends to be an outgrowth of TVET teacher education. To the extent that there is research and review work carried out on the kind of policy issues touched upon here, it tends to be commissioned by international agencies (ILO, UNESCO-UNEVOC, international development banks, a few bilateral development agencies). What is characteristic of that work is that it is performed under great time pressure. If national case studies feed into it, they have to rely on existing documentation, which is typically meagre. Thus, it is review work rather than research on primary data. Primary data collection is confined to visits to a few institutions and interviews carried out with persons in positions of responsibility. A major present deficiency is the sparseness of research carried out with sufficient resources and time in order to collect good primary data.
Notes 1. This paper is a revised version of a manuscript first prepared by invitation from the Government of the People’s Republic of China through Tianjin University, and with sponsorship by the
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German agency InWent (the Magdeburg Office). It was presented at an international conference at Tianjin, China, held on 9–10 December 2005, which was organized in partnership between Tianjin University, InWent, and UNESCO-UNEVOC. There is literature on this point. I would recommend Lindblom (2000) as an introduction to that literature. I see ‘education’ as all forms of deliberate interventions designed to bring about learning; and ‘training’ as interventions specifically aimed to achieve mastery of performance in specified roles or tasks. There is, however, also in the Western tradition of educational philosophy an original concept of ‘education’ that refers to enabling persons to ‘realize their potential’ across a wide range of valued ‘human development’ issues (e.g. ideas of a ‘well-rounded education’). It is beyond the scope of this paper to attempt a review of research that exists on all these issues. A recent attempt with regard to Sub-Saharan Africa covered a number of these questions but found a lamentably weak knowledge base on such key issues as cost analysis, external effectiveness of TVET, and comparison of performance of private and public providers (Johanson & Adams, 2004). Background studies for that report can be found on: <web.worldbank.org/WBS ITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTSOCIALPROTECTION/EXTLM/0,contentMDK:20223878∼ pagePK:148956∼piPK:216618∼theSitePK:390615,00.html> For private provision, this too can be problematic. Those who are willing to pay the fees that private providers pay are not always very realistic about the labour-market opportunities that training will actually lead to. A recent book by Lauglo and Maclean (2005) addresses this long-standing controversy in development planning.
References Chapman, J. et al., eds. 1996. The reconstruction of education: quality, equality and control in education. London: Cassell. Haan, H.C. 2006. Training for work in the informal micro-enterprise sector: fresh evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. (UNESCO-UNEVOC series on TVET, vol. 3.) Johanson, R.K.; Adams, A.V. 2004. Skills development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank. Lauglo, J.; Maclean, R., eds. 2005. Vocationalisation of secondary education revisited. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. (UNESCO-UNEVOC series on TVET, vol. 1.) Lindblom, C.E. 2000. Inquiry and change: the troubled attempt to understand and change society. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Oxenham, J. et al. 2002. Skills and literacy training for better livelihoods. Washington, DC: World Bank. (Africa human development working paper series.) Singh, M., ed. 2005. Meeting basic learning needs in the informal sector: integrating education and training for decent work, empowerment and citizenship. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. (UNESCO-UNEVOC series on TVET, vol. 2.). Watson, K., ed. 1996. Power and responsibility. Vol. 3: Educational dilemmas: debate and diversity. London: Cassell.
Chapter VI.3
The Reform and Governance of Public TVET Institutions: Comparative Experiences1 Keith Holmes
1 Introduction Wide-ranging reforms of the public sector, including education, are currently underway in many States. In education, the primary goals of reform are generally to increase the efficiency, effectiveness, relevance and responsiveness of systems and institutions. Governments are pursuing various strategies in pursuit of these goals and in many countries trends towards decentralization, school-based management and greater institutional autonomy can be observed. With rapid technological advances, especially in information and communication, many countries are seeking to access the supposed benefits of the ‘knowledge economy’. Consequently, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) has an increasingly important role to play. Countries know that to be economically competitive and to retain and attract investment, they must acquire and develop appropriate knowledge, skills and values. Furthermore, they are aware that policies for skills development must meet the needs and expectations of learners, local employers and wider society. This means reforming TVET, re-orientating institutions towards their clients and promoting lifelong learning. Many governments have identified the need to increase efficiency in a sub-sector where unit costs are by nature relatively high. Close attention to the delivery of public training and transformations at the institutional level are justified because of the need for governments to better manage public funds and because of the strategic potential of these institutions. In this policy context, three broad questions emerge: 1. How can governments create a supportive environment for the reform of public TVET institutions? 2. To what extent are public TVET institutions diversifying their activities, successfully merging and forming clusters? 3. What are the implications of these transformations for the governance of public TVET institutions and the policy process? Trends towards decentralization generate multiple issues for governments and institutions alike. Some of these are similar to the issues arising from the decentralization R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VI.3, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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of general education systems. Others, such as the relationships between institutions, local employers, educational institutions and the wider community are more specific to TVET. There are three important differences between the challenges facing general education and TVET. Firstly, it is worth noting that conceptually, administratively and politically, TVET is more complex than general education. TVET systems and institutions are often expected to pursue competing educational purposes and serve competing interests. As well as training for work, they are also expected to equip learners with basic literacy and numeracy skills, support personal and social development and offer routes into higher education. In many countries TVET overlaps rather awkwardly with the school systems and higher education systems. Articulation with other parts of the education system and the labour market is often hampered by the fact that ministries of education often share responsibility for TVET policy with ministries of labour and/or employment. Secondly, partly arising from the complexities described above, TVET systems and institutions have, arguably, been in crisis for many years. For political and administrative reasons, TVET policy and public institutions have experienced relative neglect. In low-income countries, TVET has been relatively neglected by funding agencies that have preferred to focus on general education. Many public TVET institutions do not yet have the leadership, management and planning capacities needed to govern themselves effectively. In addition, public TVET institutions are increasingly in competition for students and resources with private providers. Thirdly, as countries seek to adjust to changes in the global economy, and to improve their economic competitiveness, there has been a rapid growth of international interest in the potential of TVET to help countries realise their development goals. Many countries are working towards a more integrated approach to education, training and employment. TVET institutions are located at the dynamic interface of labour-market restructuring and educational reform and in many places their roles, missions and activities are undergoing profound transformations. Whilst all countries are striving for economic competitiveness, there are, nevertheless, significant differences in the issues they encounter in relation to TVET reform. Employers in advanced industrialized societies are generally demanding skills for the rapidly changing ‘high-skills’ workplace, whereas many low-income countries remain largely dependent upon agriculture and the export of raw materials. There are also profound contextual social and cultural differences between countries. Indeed, the concept of skills formation depends significantly upon the social and cultural context in question (Tikly et al., 2003, p. 5). Whilst agricultural skills are essential, most countries are experiencing an increase in service sector employment and a growing demand for information and knowledge skills in urban areas. High-income and low-income countries have therefore seen a measure of convergence in TVET policy in recent years. Although the scope of this chapter is limited to public formal TVET, it is recognized that apprenticeships and employer training may be more appropriate for many low-income countries than public formal TVET.
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2 Governmental Reforms Governmental reforms include, for example, national policies, legislation, regulations and mechanisms designed to support decentralization and institutional autonomy and the rationalization of resources. These also include central initiatives to steer institutional-level reforms through changing patterns of governance.
2.1 Macro-Policy Visions for the Institutional Environment Macro-policy ‘visions’ for the institutional environment significantly affect how local TVET institutions operate and the way in which they are managed. Many governments advocate partnerships between stakeholders as a preferred modality for policy-making. This is expressed through extensive public consultations and, in some cases, the creation of national training authorities. In Australia, for example, TVET reform is taking place within the macro-policy objective of workforce improvement and developing a culture of lifelong learning. The consultative process of producing national policy statements led to widespread consensus about the objectives for technical and further education (TAFE). The Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) Ministerial Council developed the following mission statement: To ensure that the skills of the Australian labour force are sufficient to support internationally competitive commerce and industry and to provide individuals with opportunities to optimise their potential (ANTA, 1998, p. 1).
Policy-makers, civil servants, managers, lecturers, students, employers and other stakeholders invariably hold different views about the direction and purposes of TVET reform, which makes it, unavoidably, a political process. These stakeholders may make different assessments of the extent to which governments are creating a supportive environment for TVET reform. There are even situations where governments pursue seemingly opposite reform strategies. For some governments, a supportive environment might mean more State regulation and monitoring. Other governments have greater faith in market mechanisms. This point is illustrated by England’s Common Inspection Framework for inspecting post-16 education and training institutions, which could be regarded as either a form of support for raising standards and reform, or as a restraining factor on local responsiveness and innovation in the sector. Inspectors themselves are often faced with the difficult task of both criticizing and supporting institutions. Performance monitoring and evaluation may foster innovation in some institutional settings and stifle it in others. After the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act, TVET institutional development was to a considerable extent left to market forces.2 However, the mid1990s saw a shift from the highly competitive institutional environment created by the Conservative Thatcher governments to the seemingly more collaborative,
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consultative approach of Blair’s Labour government. The discussion document Success for all is critical of a: culture of decision-making within many colleges and other providers, which has—understandably—been reactive to funding opportunities rather than based on a clear analysis of the organization’s distinctive mission and strengths (United Kingdom. DfES, 2002, p. 5).
Over time, a more centrally co-ordinated approach to TVET policy has developed. The 2006 White Paper, Further education: raising skills, improving life changes describes a strong central vision that ‘puts learners and employers in the driving seat in determining what is funded and how services are delivered’ (United Kingdom. DfES, 2006, p. 7). England’s Learning and Skills Council states that it is: committed to the transformation of our relationship with colleges and training providers from one based on contracting, monitoring and reconciliation, to one based on principles of planning, dialogue, partnership and trust (Learning and Skills Council, 2005, p. 1).
More dialogue, especially with employers, is intended to ensure greater local relevance and responsiveness to changing skill requirements. Similarly, Australia, the Netherlands and South Africa, among other countries, are developing strong central visions for locally responsive institutions. A key policy objective in many countries is that of lowering barriers between education and work. In the Netherlands, central umbrella bodies for employers and unions were given a greater role in policy development at sector level and, at the same time, local level actors such as colleges and enterprises were given greater room for manoeuvre (OECD, 1994, p. 43). Governments have various options regarding the roles and mandates of TVET institutions, their purposes and their design. Some countries, such as South Africa and Australia, appear to favour diverse institutions over specialized institutions. Research by the Australian National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) suggests that ‘learners have a very diverse set of needs. Diversity, choice and VET tailored to meeting vastly different individual needs will be the key to engaging and re-engaging people in continuous skilling and lifelong learning’ (Robinson, 2000, p. 39). Other countries, including England and France, are developing specialized institutions tailored to the needs of particular skill sectors and localities. The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) prefers institutions in England to focus on their core functions and particular strengths.3 A clear mission for FE [further education], focused on the employability and progression of learners, is central to delivering the skills and qualifications which individuals, employers and the economy need. The delivery of this new mission will involve the creation of a new specialist system. We will expect every FE provider to develop one or more areas of specialist excellence, which will become central to the mission and ethos of the institution and will drive improvement throughout it (United Kingdom. DfES, 2006, p. 20).
In France, specialist institutions, lyc´ee de m´etiers, are becoming national centres of excellence, offering all existing qualifications related to a sector, such as tourism. Whereas in France vocational education is located in the school system, it is worth noting that in Germany there has been a strong tradition of
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workplace-led training and vocationalism, and vocational academies exist alongside polytechnics and universities within the tertiary education system (Deissinger, 2000, p. 608). These governmental visions for TVET systems and TVET institutions are generally pursued through a combination of the following strategies: legislation; rationalization and restructuring; and policy mechanisms for steering and governance.
2.2 Legislation In education, perhaps more than in some areas of policy, legislation has a major role to play. To some extent at least, legislators can force the pace and nature of reform. Legislation often makes provision for central or regional quality assurance systems and inspectorates to monitor progress and to hold institutions accountable for their spending and activities. However, in the rapidly changing and complex field of TVET, legislators must also attempt to keep pace with changing practices at national and local level. As countries such as Australia attempt to develop a responsive, more industry-led training sector, this becomes an increasingly challenging task, especially where significant variations exist within countries. Thailand is currently seeking to create a supportive legal environment for the reform of TVET. In 2003 the Office for the Vocational Education Commission was established and a Vocational Education Act is being drafted which proposes to decentralize some authority to institutional level. The emerging legal framework would give employers of TVET graduates more opportunity to participate in policylevel decision-making and in the actual delivery of TVET.
2.3 Rationalization and Restructuring Given constraints on public spending worldwide and given that the public TVET sector has long suffered from a lack of investment, many governments are keen to rationalize existing resources and access additional ones. 2.3.1 Mergers Over the last twenty years, mergers have been promoted as a way to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of TVET institutions. A strong rationale for mergers is that individual institutions may not have the capacity to cope with the new responsibilities resulting from decentralization and increased institutional autonomy. The Netherlands, for example, pursued a policy of promoting mergers in its higher vocational education (HBO) sector in the 1980s. Its aim was to strengthen vocational education and increase its status so that it could assume an equal place alongside university education. The intention was to create a limited number of
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large, multi-purpose institutions with substantial autonomy for their own financial affairs and in their external relations with other institutions, organizations and the government (Goedegebuure, 1992, p. 145). Government incentives for mergers include both formal and informal mechanisms. In the case of the Netherlands, with a few exceptions, an institution had to have a minimum of 600 students to receive central funding (Goedegebuure, 1992, p. 146). Although the government’s overall vision for TVET reform was clear, no specific institutions were designated to be merged and the co-ordination of mergers was left to the HBO Council. Delegating responsibility away from the Ministry of Education and Science meant that the merging process was more open and transparent and that the outcomes were more likely to be owned by the sector itself. The ministry was nevertheless able to keep in touch with the process through a policy unit and reports from the inspectorate for higher vocational education. Since the end of apartheid in South Africa, 152 disparate TVET institutions previously serving different racial groups have been transformed into an integrated college sector with fifty multi-site, multi-purpose further education and training (FET) colleges. This reform process envisages a number of positive changes along the multiple dimensions (see Table 1). 2.3.2 Clusters Clustering is another way for institutions to share resources, knowledge and expertise. Community colleges in the United States have had relative freedom to form themselves into geographical clusters. Typically, local and regional networks of institutions are associated with certain industries. Formal links developed between institutions are intended to create enhanced critical mass, synergy and complimentarity. To take another example, in Thailand there are 412 colleges under the central Office of the Vocational Education Commission and more than 400 private vocational schools comprising technical colleges, agricultural colleges and commercial colleges.4 Instead of operating alone, they are forming clusters or networks in several provinces. This enables them to work more closely with local industries and local people, which can help to improve the responsiveness of the curriculum to changes in local labour markets. Colleges are also collaborating in resource mapping, developing areas of excellence, quality-control systems and standardization (Choomnoon, personal communication). 2.3.3 Networks Regional networks of institutions have also developed in recent years beyond national boundaries. For example, the Association of Caribbean Tertiary Institutions (ACTI) brings together seventy institutions spanning the Caribbean region. Formed in 1990, ACTI provides a forum for interaction between institutions. ACTI aims ‘to improve the quality, quantity and organisation of tertiary education in the region
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Table 1 FET transformations in South Africa From. . .
To
Small institutions Limited opportunities to attract external funding Inequities between State and State-aided colleges Duplication—of programmes and facilities Isolation from both wider contexts and local communities Racial and gender imbalances Limited managerial capacity Limited staff development and career opportunities Very limited programme offerings
Larger, more viable institutions Increased bargaining power and opportunities for capital investment Eliminate effects of previous discrimination
Small-scale innovation Low efficiency rates Limited facilities Internal focus Smaller pool of contacts and labour-market intelligence Low quality and throughput Poor learner support
Streamlining, better utilization of resources Alignment with rural and urban development imperatives Enhanced equity policies Better utilization of scarce management skills Increased opportunities for staff development and career paths Opportunities to present diverse and relevant programmes Increased staff and opportunities to become responsive Enhanced efficiency through sharing of expertise and resources Joint utilization of workshops, hostels, resources centres Collaboration and the development of a responsive ‘competitive’ sector Combined networks, linkages and labour-market knowledge Enhancement through quality assurance and capacity building Potential to support learners
Source: South Africa. Department of Education, 2002, p. 4.
through co-operation and collaboration between member institutions’ (ACTI, 2007). ACTI’s activities include both academic and administrative concerns, such as enhanced access, mobility, quality assurance, effective utilization of scarce resources, articulation among institutions and the co-operative development and delivery of tertiary-level programmes.
2.4 Policy Mechanisms for Steering and Governance 2.4.1 Quality Improvement, Monitoring and Evaluation Whilst ideally governments would hope to support quality improvement in all TVET institutions, in practice they have tended to focus their attention on supporting failing institutions and rewarding successful ones. A consequence of this is that average, adequately performing institutions can end up feeling unsupported. A key challenge for central governments is to identify and address weaknesses in their
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TVET networks, whilst also developing policy mechanisms that support innovation, flexibility and responsiveness. 2.4.2 Incentives Incentives, such as tax rebates, play their part in the reform process, as do financial incentives and the competitive tendering of contracts (to public and private providers) in the TVET sector. Well-designed funding mechanisms achieve a balance between the needs of students and employers and the wider community. In addition to rewards for meeting targets, the award of Learning and Skills Beacon Status in England is intended to recognize high-quality teaching and training, and effective, well-managed institutions. The label of ‘beacon status’ is awarded to institutions with specialist expertise and good practice that can attract the attention of other institutions and to which they may aspire and learn from. England has created additional incentives for TVET institutions to become more responsive to the needs of local employers by encouraging and rewarding the development of vocational specialization. Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs) are designated areas of specialist vocational provision characterized by close links between colleges and other providers, business partners, other employment interests and communities. To achieve CoVE status, providers must demonstrate, through audited and development plans, how they are addressing the priority skills needs of local areas, regions and England as a whole (United Kingdom. DfES, 2002). Recognizing that there are gaps in public training provision, the United Kingdom Government’s strategy is to involve, through market mechanisms, providers from the voluntary and community sector, including small, specialist organizations and the training arms of large companies, in training activities (United Kingdom. DfES, 2006, p. 9). However, in turn, the involvement of new providers, over which there is less direct supervision, has implications for central government including, for example, registration and certification. 2.4.3 Competition Policy For several decades many countries had a national network of publicly-funded TVET institutions that provided a virtual monopoly on formal training. The increased use of private training providers has proved controversial because of what is seen as their competitive threat to public institutions. However, the deliberate introduction of some competition for funds may help public institutions to focus more attention on the needs of their clients. In Australia’s case, significant reform in technical and further education was leveraged by opening up relatively small amounts of funding to the competitive process (Robinson, 2000, p. 34). 2.4.4 Strategic Alliances and Partnerships According to Veenker (2000, p. 3), the future of TVET is likely to involve heavily networked institutions and ‘the ongoing creation of new alliances with entities com-
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mitted to lifelong education’. Redefining the legal framework for TVET has often been a necessary but not sufficient condition for setting up partnerships and for making them work. In the Netherlands, the ROCs (regionale opleidingen centra— regional training centres) are expected to work with a complex set of partners (including national industry training bodies, municipal government and national government), providing vocational education, training, basic education, retraining and job-seeking support (Drodge, 2002, p. 6). Governments have also created partnerships between the private sector and TVET through a mandatory levy on employers. In some countries, a payroll tax provided the necessary stimulus for shared management between the State and its social partners. In Jamaica, the national training agency, HEART Trust/NTA, is primarily financed through a 3% payroll levy on qualified private sector firms. This ensures some degree of company involvement and interest in the on-going development and implementation of TVET policies. This overview of governmental reforms has described a range of policy mechanisms used to support and regulate the development of TVET institutions. In some countries, increased autonomy means that TVET institutions have developed with minimal co-ordination or State involvement. In others, although management and budgetary functions may be carried out locally, there is sometimes a more rigorous regime of inspections for monitoring and evaluation than existed when the overall network of institutions was under direct central government control.
3 Institutional Transformations Having reviewed governmental reforms, this section explores transformations within TVET institutions and between institutions, employers and the wider community. Of particular interest are changes in the roles, missions and activities of institutions, which, in turn, require changes in governance arrangements, local organization and management.
3.1 Changing Institutional Missions and Activities As described above, some countries have a clearly defined and sometimes statutory vision for public TVET institutions. In other countries, institutions have more scope to develop their own missions and priorities. As one component of the American TVET system, community colleges serve multiple stakeholders and are well-orientated towards community needs. Many community colleges in the United States are closely orientated towards entrepreneurial, multi-purpose institutions, with multiple roles and diverse activities. Bailey and Averianova (1998, p. 7) identify several roles being taken by community colleges. There is the traditional, collegiate or academic function, the vocational
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function of skills development and the remedial function of instruction in basic skills. In addition, some community colleges are offering customized training and adopting broad community service and socio-economic development roles. The development of multiple missions and diverse activities by TVET institutions has created some degree of controversy at the local level about the merits of institutional diversification or specialization. Some commentators take the view that comprehensive TVET institutions are trying to be ‘all things to all people’ and that for the sake of efficiency and effectiveness they should re-focus on their core functions. Others agree that TVET institutions are well-placed to offer a range of services and that diversification of their missions and activities demonstrates their responsiveness and relevance to the needs of their local communities (Bailey & Averianova, 1998, p. 2). A combination of factors has led community colleges in the United States to diversify their activities beyond their original mandate for teaching and learning. Community colleges often regard diversification as a means to generate revenue and to improve their relationships with local employers and the wider community. Rather than being a drain on resources, the new roles can help to enhance and update their core activities through expanded networks and information flows (Dougherty & Bakia, 2000, p. 3). In the long run, according to Bailey and Averianova (1998, p. 23), such additional missions and activities will be carried out successfully by community colleges ‘not necessarily because they can generate surpluses, but because they are functionally associated with the core activities of the college, and can therefore be carried out by the colleges more efficiently than by other organizations’. 3.1.1 Contract Training Entrepreneurial TVET institutions are increasingly awarded training contracts by public and private sector employers. Although managed by the institutions, these courses may be conducted on the employer’s premises, using employees as instructors, or within the college environment—the courses are closely tailored to the employer’s needs. Although these training courses are often firm or sector specific, they may also contribute to the wider local economy by developing transferable skills. 3.1.2 Small-Business Development Small-business development activities include providing advice and training for small enterprises in, for example, management, personnel, marketing and finance, and helping businesses to meet government regulations. Many community colleges in the United States also offer a business incubation service, including low-cost accommodation and support and advice for newly-established enterprises. 3.1.3 Local Economic Development Planning An effective TVET system adopting an integrated approach to workforce development is that of Oklahoma VoTech in the United States. Its success, controversially,
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springs from offering publicly subsidized training to multinational corporations. The Oklahoma system appears to enjoy well-functioning relationships with local industries, stemming from a willingness by the public authorities—and taxpayers—to orientate training towards the needs of employers (de Moura Castro, 1995, p. 203). Some TVET institutions are establishing research and development functions to monitor economic trends, new work practices and regulations. This information is invaluable for assessing training needs and is also re-positioning colleges as policymaking bodies capable of influencing their locality’s response to changes in the labour market. According to Dougherty and Bakia (2000, p. 2), some community colleges have even convened meetings of local political and economic leaders and played an active lobbying role, using their relationships with local government and business to influence development policies. Another innovation of wider interest is to be found in rural community colleges in the United States of America, through the Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI). Many of these institutions are situated in economically disadvantaged rural areas. Due to historical and economic factors, these communities often experience varying degrees of cultural and social conflict. In this context, according to Rubin (2001, p. 12), community colleges are among the few institutions that offer ‘common ground’ and are respected by the public, private and non-profit sectors: community colleges can be a safe, neutral meeting place for forging collaborative approaches to community development. [. . .] Community colleges have a broad mission, and they have the stature, stability and flexibility to provide leadership for regional development. In many rural communities, they are the only institutions with a broad community-service mission and a stable stream of public funding (Rubin, 2001, p. 13).
3.2 The Governance of Public TVET Institutions The governance of public TVET institutions includes a combination of central and institutional systems and policy mechanisms including legislation, accountability structures, monitoring and evaluation instruments, and planning functions. Greater autonomy creates distinctive pressures on institutions, which may require significant adaptation. For example, the governance structures within institutions, which historically supported the implementation of central policies, need reforming if institutions are to take a more proactive role in consulting stakeholders, and in developing locally relevant provision. A strengthened capacity for research and evaluation, reporting, external relations and strategic planning is also required. Local planning must correspond appropriately to national and international labour-market trends, so TVET institutions increasingly need to be able to generate, analyse, interpret and share knowledge about local, national and global economic transformations. Macro-level reforms have thus often created the impetus for organizational restructuring.
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3.2.1 Institutional Leadership The role of heads of TVET institutions has become increasingly complex as missions have expanded and responsibilities increased. Decentralization raises questions about precisely which decisions can and should be taken at the institutional level. Heads of institutions have often found themselves in an increasingly marketdriven environment. These managers are gradually more responsible for the development of educational services and developing partnerships and other links with local communities. As in other sectors, conventional notions of ‘professionalism’ in TVET have been challenged by deregulation and market-oriented reforms. Managerialist behaviours, such as flexibility, reliability and competence, are often rewarded more than the long-established ideals of public service through education. Contradictions can be observed as heads of institutions are equally expected to respond to market opportunities and the social policy principles of access, equity and inclusion. They are often simultaneously experiencing greater autonomy in the management of TVET institutions than before, whilst also being held more accountable by central and provincial authorities. The institutional transformations described above are closely inter-related and have wider implications. New missions and activities impact upon relationships between institutions, employers and communities, and these new relationships have implications for the financing and governance of institutions, and their organization and management. While some of the issues at the institutional-level are similar to the issues located at the national level, taking an institutional-level perspective can provide helpful insights for central policy makers. As in other areas of public sector reform, apparently contradictory and unintended trends can sometimes be observed. Local-level transformations have implications for how institutions are rewarded and the incentives that can be offered to increase effectiveness and efficiency, responsiveness and relevance. Indeed, these concepts in themselves are in a constant state of flux.
4 Macro/Micro Analysis The above accounts of governmental-level and institutional-level reform reveal diverse policies and practices. Multiple social, economic, political and cultural factors influence these policies and behaviours. Together these accounts suggest that the TVET landscape is becoming more and more complex, and that conventional concepts, definitions and categories are increasingly problematic. Changes in the roles, missions and activities of institutions have important implications for the concepts for efficiency, effectiveness, relevance and responsiveness. Even the assumption that it is possible to identify decisions located at the centre and decisions located at the institutional level is challenged. What actually happens in reality reflects com-
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plex interactions between central and institutional players and other stakeholders. Furthermore, in many cases, provincial or regional structures play an influential mediating role. As well as policy incentives and steering mechanisms for institutions, governments can stimulate demand for self-improvement and lifelong learning through direct incentives to individual learners and guidance counselling programmes. Despite the inherent contradictions, a common thread may be identified from this comparative review of country experiences and institutional transformations. By and large, the reform of public TVET is shifting the focus and orientation of TVET from the interests of the providers towards serving the needs of students, enterprises and local communities.
5 Conclusions As this chapter has shown, the reform and governance of public TVET institutions is a multi-faceted and sometimes perplexing domain. In the present context, understanding how TVET institutions are changing becomes even more important for central policy-makers. Yet, in a more decentralized environment this also becomes more difficult. For institutions, interpreting changes in the external environment, including the policy landscape and labour-market trends, becomes essential for their success. The expectations of what TVET reforms can contribute to social and economic development are often high. Yet, there is a paucity of theoretical or empirical knowledge in this under-researched and rapidly evolving field. As shown above, what happens ‘on the ground’ is the outcome of complex interactions between central and local levels. It is often as much a matter of circumstances and events as by design. One response is to devote more resources, at international, regional, national and local levels, to strengthening analytical research, monitoring and evaluation capacity in this relatively neglected field. More attention should also be given to the processes through which actual transformations take place. Ambitious ‘visions’ for TVET often prove more difficult to implement than expected, not least because of the many competing interests in the sub-sector. Collaboration, in various forms, has been a recurring theme of this chapter. Where partnership is based on mutual trust, it can be regarded as an invaluable form of social dialogue, a value system and a kind of governance (see Atchoarena, 1998). Fortunately, given the complexities of working in this arena, policy-makers and heads of institutions do not have to act alone. There are many stakeholders who recognize the potential of public TVET institutions to contribute to the development of individuals, enterprises, local communities and society at large. Labour markets are undergoing significant transformations and the role of the State in relation to public services is itself in transition. Given the location of TVET at the complex interface between education and labour-market reforms, new part-
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nerships between education and employers are often a matter of necessity. What at first may appear a voyage into uncharted waters may prove to be of much wider significance for the future development of education and other public services. As this review has shown, patterns of governance are emerging that recognize the limits of, and seek to move beyond, a choice between either market or State approaches to public policy.
Notes 1. This chapter is based on a background review conducted as part of a research programme on ‘The Reform and Governance of Public TVET Institutions’, of UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP). The author would like to acknowledge David Atchoarena, IIEP Senior Programme Specialist, for his perceptive guidance and comments on earlier drafts. 2. The Government of the United Kingdom has devolved much of the responsibility for education and training policy and the power to make legislation to its administrations in its four countries, namely England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. However, some areas in education and training are reserved matters for the UK Government which varies with each country; the reader should check first with the relevant websites. 3. The DfES has now been superseded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS). 4. For more information about vocational education in Thailand, see: <www.vec.go.th>
References Australian National Training Authority. 1998. A bridge to the future: Australia’s national strategy for vocational education and training. Brisbane, Australia: ANTA. Assocation of Caribbean Tertiary Institutions. 2007. What is ACTI? <www.acticarib.org.> Atchoarena, D. 1998. Le partenariat dans l’enseignement technique et la formation professionnelle: le concept et son application. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. Bailey, T.R.; Averianova, I. 1998. Multiple missions of community colleges: conflicting or complementary. New York, NY: Teachers College Community College Research Centre. Deissinger, T. 2000. The German ‘philosophy’ of linking academic and work-based learning in higher education: the case of the ‘vocational academies’. Journal of vocational education and training, vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 605–26. de Moura Castro, C. 1995. Oklahoma training: they seem to be doing it right. In: de Moura Castro, C.; Schaack, K.; Tippelt, R., eds. Vocational training at the turn of the century, pp. 203–37. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Peter Lang. Dougherty, K.; Bakia, M. 2000. The new economic development role of the community college. CCRC brief, no. 6, January. Drodge, S. 2002. Managing under pressure: the management of vocational education in the British, Dutch and French systems. Research in post-compulsory education, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 27–43. Goedegebuure, L.C.J. 1992. Mergers in higher education: a comparative perspective. Utrecht, Netherlands: Center for Higher Education Policy Studies. Learning and Skills Council. 2005. Planning for success: framework for planning and quality. Coventry, United Kingdom: Learning and Skills Council. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 1994. Vocational training in the Netherlands: reform and innovation. Paris: OECD.
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Robinson, C. 2000. Developments in Australia’s vocational education and training system. Adelaide, Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. (Paper presented to the Central Institute of Vocational and Technical Education, Beijing, China, August 2000.) Rubin, S. 2001. Rural colleges as catalysts for community change. Rural America, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 12–19. South Africa. Department of Education. 2002. Merging manual: the workbook. Pretoria: Department of Education. Tikly, L. et al. 2003. Globalisation and skills for development in Rwanda and Tanzania. London: DfID. United Kingdom. Department for Education and Skills. 2002. Success for all: reforming further education and training. London: DfES. (Discussion document, June 2002.) United Kingdom. Department for Education and Skills. 2006. White Paper. Further education: raising skills, improving life chances. London: DfES. Veenker, P. 2000. Future directions for TAFE in Australia. (Speech at the Australian TAFE Marketing Association (ATMA) Conference, November 2000, Adelaide, Australia.)
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Chapter VI.4
National Versus Regional Policy Dimensions of TVET Peter Noonan
1 Introduction In recent years, there has been increasing interest on the importance of regions as a focus for planning and delivery of technical and vocational education and training (TVET), and in the processes and formation of national policy to encompass regional needs. More broadly, there has also been growing interest in regions as the focus for learning and skills development and innovation. Regions can be defined in different ways. Regions may be defined by formal boundaries and their populations represented by governmental structures. These are usually defined as federal states,1 provinces or local government areas. Regions may also be geographic areas within states, provinces or local government areas with special ethnic, cultural, economic or geographic characteristics. Regions may transcend borders within countries and between countries, particularly where national borders cut across traditional cultural and ethnic groupings. Regions may also be defined as major geographic zones or sub-zones on a continental scale, such as Asia, Latin America and the South Pacific. This chapter examines national and regional dimensions of policy for TVET, with a primary focus on formally defined regions represented by sub-national governmental structures and their relationship with national government. Major areas of policy are identified and the respective roles of national and regional government analysed, focusing in particular on mechanisms and processes to co-ordinate policy, planning, delivery, certification and quality assurance effectively. A secondary focus of the chapter is concerned with the concept of learning regions and the role of TVET in building human and social capital, including the relationship between formal TVET systems and other forms of knowledge and skill acquisition, such as community and work-based learning. A case study of Australia, which has developed a national TVET system within a federal system of government, is used to identify how national and regional responsibilities and perspectives can be co-ordinated and balanced.
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2 The Knowledge Economy: National and Regional Dimensions Skills and knowledge are now recognized as primary drivers of economic growth at both national and regional levels. Equitable access by citizens to skills and knowledge is essential for an effective labour-market and social participation, as well as building social capital. In most countries, economic development is the primary responsibility of national governments. As skills and knowledge have become central to economic development, education and training policy generally, and TVET policy specifically, have become important elements in national economic development. Some countries, for example, have elevated TVET policies to the national level and have established national mechanisms for policy development, planning, accreditation and quality assurance. However, as the OECD in its publication Cities and regions in the new learning economy observed, there are wide variations between countries in what is and what can be done at the national and sub-national level. The OECD contrasts education policy in areas such as national curriculum and national assessment in the United Kingdom since 1988 with more decentralized approaches in Germany and the United States (OECD, 2001). The OECD highlights the growing interest in regions as sources of innovation and skills development, citing commentators who argue that regions (or sub-national levels of government) are highly effective in generating the conditions for innovation (and, by extension, skills development). TVET policy planning and delivery may also be influenced by the growing interest in regions and local communities as the focus for cross-government agency service delivery, creating the opportunity for local and regional communities to use government funding flexibly to meet local needs, for example, through the integration of TVET and employment services. These approaches are based on principles of devolved and collaborative decision-making so that service delivery meets local and regional needs.
3 National and Regional Government Roles in TVET The concurrent focus on both national and regional dimensions of TVET policy creates inevitable tensions, particularly where more than one level of government is involved. Government roles in TVET encompass:2
r r r r r r r
Legal and legislative responsibilities; Policy formation and implementation; Funding; Planning; Delivery; Certification; and Regulation, including accreditation and quality assurance.
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3.1 The Legislative Responsibilities of National and Regional Government The formal powers and responsibilities of national and sub-national government have a dominant influence over the respective roles of national and regional government with respect to TVET. These powers and responsibilities extend beyond formal, legislative responsibility for TVET. For example, in New Zealand with a unitary system of government, TVET is a national government responsibility. In Australia, education is formally a responsibility of the individual states; however, the limited revenue-raising powers of the states and the recognition of the importance of education as a national policy issue have seen a significant escalation in the role of the Commonwealth (national/federal) government since the 1960s, with a concurrent rise in policy influence even though the Commonwealth has no formal powers with respect to education. In Canada and the United States, also federal systems, national government financial and policy intervention has been far more limited, and more directly related to the role of the federal government in relation to labour-market and employment policies and programmes. Similar variations are also evident in Europe between, for example, France and Germany. In some countries, local government may also be an important player. In many countries, Germany for instance, access to and regulation of TVET may also be influenced by employment or labour laws through occupational and apprenticeship regulation, although the control of TVET is effectively exercised at the regional level. National governments may also enter into international agreements in areas such as trade, mutual recognition of standards and qualifications, migration or international co-operation, which may be binding on regions and strongly influence regional policies and practices. Co-operation and agreement around TVET through the European Union, including initiatives such as the European Qualifications Meta Framework, is the strongest example of commitments by national governments affecting regional policies and practices.
3.2 Policy Formation and Implementation The first and most important consideration is the responsibility for setting national and regional TVET policy. In countries with unitary systems of government, or where TVET is clearly assigned as a function of national government, this issue is reasonably clear. However, in federal systems, particularly where TVET is formally the responsibility of state or provincial government, the issue becomes more complex. Do national and state governments seek to develop agreed national policies through inter-governmental decision-making processes or do national governments develop their own policies and then implement them, either through bilateral funding agreements with state agencies or by funding through their own agencies?
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It is to be hoped that, where more than one level of government has responsibility for TVET, mechanisms will be established to reach agreement between governments on overarching strategy or policy so that there is consistency and certainty in policy settings. However, given the likely political differences between governments and the tensions inherent in federal systems between national and sub-national government and between states or provinces, such agreement can be difficult to achieve and even more difficult to implement.
3.3 Funding Closely related to responsibility for policy setting are the responsibility for funding and the processes for allocating funding to TVET providers. Again, in countries with unitary systems of government, responsibility for government funding is clear compared to that in federal systems. Issues related to cost adjustment between different levels of government (where one level of government withdraws funding as the other level of government intervenes) and the potential for duplication and wastage are key issues that must be resolved in federal systems. Shifts to more market-based mechanisms for the distribution of public funding and to ‘user pays’ principles have also been introduced in a number of countries to create competition for public funding and to make TVET providers more responsive to the needs of individuals and enterprises. While, in theory, competitive processes should make TVET providers more responsive to regional needs, in practice regional intermediary bodies are likely to be by-passed in the transaction between TVET providers and their clients unless regional bodies themselves are involved in the competitive allocation of funds.
3.4 Planning For the purposes of this chapter, planning for TVET refers to planning for delivery of TVET programmes and for the development of TVET institutions. Planning may occur at several levels:
r r
r r
At the national level where the national government has some responsibility for TVET; At the regional level where: — Sub-national government has all or some responsibility for TVET; — Where regional intermediary bodies are established by national or regional government to provide advice on regional needs and priorities or where these bodies have a funding role to inform their own planning; At the TVET institutional level, depending on the extent to which the institution has the power to plan for its own delivery; and Through industrial bodies with advisory roles to national and regional government.
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It is in the planning and priority-setting process that the greatest tension between national and regional government agencies and between government agencies and TVET providers exists in the complex process of balancing national, regional and local priorities and perspectives. Planning for TVET is usually based on assessments of current and projected labour-market need, together with demographic trends, including issues such as population and workforce aging, and areas of population growth and decline across regions. However, experience over many years has demonstrated the difficulty of accurate and effective labour-market forecasting, particularly given the time lag between the development and delivery of new TVET programmes and changes in the labour market. An added complexity are the wide variations that may exist in industry and labour-market conditions between regions, and even within regions, and differences that may emerge through different data sets and interpretation of data. An additional dynamic is the increasing recognition of the differences between regions in the composition of industry, employment patterns and socio-economic disadvantage, together with the establishment of specific programmes and funds aimed at redressing disadvantage, helping to support patterns of regional economic development or to promote the development of learning regions and learning communities.
3.5 Provision An increasingly diverse range of providers is involved in the delivery of TVET in most countries. TVET providers may include schools, technical colleges, tertiary establishments, adult education institutes, community organizations and enterprises. National, regional or local government may have responsibility for the governance of public TVET providers. Governance models for public TVET providers vary widely within and between countries from highly centralized to highly devolved approaches. Governance models also vary according to types of TVET institutions; for example, primary and secondary schools may operate on a more centralized or systemic basis than post-school institutions. In many countries, there has been a trend towards devolution of decision-making to either regionally-based intermediary bodies that co-ordinate delivery across a range of providers or to the providers themselves. This trend has been driven by a desire to ensure that TVET providers are responsive to local and regional needs by ensuring that decisions are taken as close as possible to the point of delivery, and that major stakeholders, at the local and regional level, are involved in decisionmaking processes. Accountability to government is maintained through transparent performance and funding agreements and the establishment of clear policies and guidelines within which TVET providers must operate. In some countries, there has also been a trend towards competitive funding of public, private and community-based providers to promote efficiency and responsiveness or to ensure delivery in areas of specialized need. Funding may be on the basis of tendered requirements including, in some instances, identified regional or local needs.
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3.6 Certification As the importance of knowledge and skills grows for both individuals and the economy, and the labour market more generally, the effect of certification of skill outcomes becomes increasingly important. A number of countries, particularly those influenced by developments in the United Kingdom, have adopted a framework of national skill or competency standards aligned with the national qualifications as the basis of TVET certification. Apart from the United Kingdom, these countries include Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. They have national qualifications frameworks encompassing TVET, schools and, in most instances, higher education. The rationale for national standards and qualifications frameworks is that, regardless of the level of responsibility for the governance and funding of TVET, students and employers can be confident that outcomes are based on achievement against consistent standards, assessment and certification practices, even in highly devolved systems. Other countries use systems where certification is by the TVET provider itself and/or where certification has to satisfy the requirements of industry or professional associations. In these frameworks, the standing of the qualification reflects the standing of the organization issuing the qualification. Whatever models are used, the major imperative is to ensure that qualifications are recognized nationally, and not only within particular regions, and that TVET qualifications are able to articulate to and from qualifications issued in other education sectors and across industries. This is particularly important in the context of the mobility of labour; it is likely that people will have to change jobs more frequently than in the past. As such, regardless of the responsibilities for other aspects of the governance of TVET between national and sub-national levels of government, certification is the one area where national governments appear to have the most important role to play in either supporting or facilitating effective certification of TVET.
3.7 Accreditation and Quality Assurance Closely associated with certification are arrangements for accreditation and quality assurance, particularly where a diverse range of providers are providing nationallyrecognized TVET qualifications in the frameworks outlined above. A distinction must also be made between accreditation—which is usually the process a TVET provider must comply with to be recognized as a formal provider— and quality assurance which may encompass, but extends beyond, accreditation to include continuous improvement and which may involve third-party validation by organizations such as ISO. Again, the case for national governments to exercise an administrative or facilitative role in ensuring the consistency and quality of accreditation of TVET
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providers is very strong. Inconsistent and unreliable accreditation processes undermine employer and community confidence in TVET certification and, where TVET providers operate across regional boundaries, multiple and conflicting accreditation requirements are costly both to the providers and to the government.
4 TVET and Regional Policy: Other Dimensions As outlined in the introduction to this chapter, there are other dimensions relevant to the role of regions in TVET policy. These dimensions include:
r r r r
Policy focus on regions as centres for learning and innovation and on regional policy in building human and social capital (see OECD, 2001); Related to this, a focus on regions in terms of disparities in employment, income levels, educational attainment and other social indicators and how this relates to skills and workforce development; Regional planning by TVET providers and government agencies in terms of the catchment area for TVET providers and in terms of co-ordination or funding and delivery across different providers; and Regions as a focus for co-ordination of government service provision across different agencies.
These regional dimensions stretch the boundaries of traditional TVET governance and provision in several ways:
r
r r r r
They focus on whole populations and industries within a region in terms of their skills and workforce development needs, not just on the immediate needs of firms in terms of their requirements for training of new entrants and the existing workforce. They focus in particular on those not in the workforce or with marginal attachments to the workforce, on gaps and weaknesses in delivery and service provision, as well as on skills shortages.3 They require a more holistic approach, focusing on the interaction between organizations (including enterprises and social institutions) and the way in which skills and knowledge may be built through these interactions, including formal and informal networks. They create the potential to draw on the full range of learning resources in a region or a community including, but extending beyond, formal education and training providers. They highlight the need for effective regional planning to complement national and state or provincial planning; in particular recognizing that system-wide needs and priorities may not translate to specific regions and localities. They highlight the need for effective co-ordination between government agencies at the local and regional level, create space for the involvement of local government and non-governmental agencies in service delivery and highlight the need for flexibility in funding guidelines and programme design so that programmes can be tailored for individual needs.
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These new and innovative regional policy approaches create challenges for traditional approaches to TVET policy, planning and funding, be it at the national or sub-national government level. The extent to which these approaches have or are being adopted varies significantly between and within countries.
5 Australia: A Case Study Australia represents an interesting case study in the evolution and management of national and regional (state) government involvement in TVET. Australia has a federal system of government in which constitutional responsibility for education and training is vested in the individual states. However, since the 1960s, the Commonwealth (national/federal) government has played an increasingly important role in education and training in all sectors, assuming full financial funding for higher education in 1973 and playing an increasingly important financial and policy role in relation to the provision of schools and TVET.
5.1 Background Over the past two decades, through a range of Commonwealth interventions and initiatives, but with the support of the states, Australia has adopted an increasingly national approach to TVET.4 The Commonwealth initiated an inquiry into technical and further education (TAFE) in 1974 and, based on the inquiry’s findings of substantial deficiencies in the funding of TAFE, the Commonwealth began a programme of recurrent funding grants to the states, a significant programme of capital works to address serious deficiencies in buildings and equipment and to build new TAFE institutions. From the mid-1980s, the Commonwealth initiated and drove a progressive series of reforms affecting TVET in Australia, including:
r r r r r r r
The development of a traineeship system to provide structured entry-level training in occupations not covered by the traditional apprenticeship system; The merger of the labour and education portfolios to reduce barriers between portfolios and to ensure a consistent approach to TVET across government agencies; An emphasis on the role of industry in providing leadership in TVET; The development of national industry competency standards, jointly recognized by the Commonwealth and state governments, to underpin recognition and certification of skills; Linking these standards to skill-based occupational career structures through the then industrial award system; The establishment of a training market in which public and private providers registered under accreditation standards would be able to compete for public and private funding; and Mutual recognition of TVET qualifications and providers between states.
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These initiatives were driven by the Commonwealth government’s overall programme of economic and labour-market reform to transform Australia from a country largely dependent on the non-value-added export of raw materials and with high levels of protection for domestic industry, to an economy which was globally competitive and able to add greater value to its exports through higher levels of workforce skills. The states, sharing similar concerns about the need to transform Australia’s economic base and to increase its level of workforce skills, were in the main active supporters of, and participants in, this reform process. These reforms brought with them a series of changes to the governance of TVET in Australia to underpin the growing range of initiatives that were being implemented between the Commonwealth and state governments. A Ministerial Council on Vocational Education and Training was established, combining the responsibilities of the Ministers for Labour and TVET. This council determined all national TVET policy issues requiring agreement between the Commonwealth and state governments. However, an underlying issue, that of funding for TVET, and the respective roles of the Commonwealth and states, remained unresolved. Demand for TVET was growing as a consequence of the economic and labour-market restructuring process and, while the Commonwealth recognized the need to increase national investment in TVET, it was concerned that additional investment by the Commonwealth would either not be matched by the states, or that some states might even reduce their investment as Commonwealth investment increased. In 1991, the Commonwealth offered to assume full financial responsibility for TAFE, with the states retaining responsibility for the operational management of the TAFE systems. The Commonwealth offered to substantially increase its funding contribution to TAFE, but with the states receiving reduced general recurrent grants from the Commonwealth to reflect the change in responsibilities. However, only one state—Victoria—was formally prepared to accept this offer. The other states proposed an agreement whereby they would maintain their outputs in exchange for increased Commonwealth funding. The Commonwealth was also concerned to establish more effective national arrangements to oversee the development of the emerging national training system, in particular, by giving industry a stronger leadership role in the reform process.
5.2 The Australian National Training Authority Accepting that its proposal to assume full responsibility for TAFE funding would not be agreed, the Commonwealth instead accepted the states’ proposal for a shared funding agreement for TVET, but proposed the establishment of a National Training Authority as a statutory agency with an independent industry-based board reporting to the Ministerial Council to drive and co-ordinate development of the national training system.
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The Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) was established in 1992 by Commonwealth legislation under a Heads of Government Agreement. ANTA assumed the TVET funding and programme responsibilities of the Commonwealth government department. It developed national strategies for TVET, negotiated bilateral funding agreements for the distribution of Commonwealth funding to the states and administered a range of national programmes. ANTA also assumed responsibility for the functions of a national training board in developing national competency standards. As an independent industry-based board, ANTA also initiated and drove a range of far-reaching reforms, including competitive funding and the development of Australia’s National Training Framework. Although these reforms were agreed by the Ministerial Council, the pace and range of reforms did not always meet with the approval of the states, which, it is fair to say, saw ANTA primarily as an instrument of the Commonwealth, rather than as a truly federalist body. As a consequence, some agreed reforms and policies were only partially and inconsistently implemented at the state level. Each renewal of the ANTA agreement also produced protracted disagreements and negotiation around the respective funding contributions of the Commonwealth and state governments. Nonetheless, TVET in Australia was transformed in little more than a decade as a result of the initial process of reform and the subsequent wave of reforms driven by ANTA, which gave full effect to the principles and objectives of what became known as the National Training Reform Agenda.
5.3 New National Training System In 2005, the Commonwealth Government, as part of an overall review of the roles of independent statutory bodies, decided to reintegrate the functions of ANTA within the federal Department of Education Science and Training.5 However, the key elements of the national system which had evolved prior to and in the ANTA agreement have been maintained, but through government-togovernment agreements rather than through co-ordination by an independent body (see Australia. DEST, 2005). The new national system is based on multilateral agreements between the Commonwealth and the states, and bilateral agreements between the Commonwealth and each state as follows:
r r
A National Governance and Accountability Framework, which establishes the decision-making processes and bodies responsible for training, as well as planning and performance monitoring arrangements to guide the operation and growth of the training system; and A National Skills Framework, which sets out the system’s requirements for quality and national consistency in terms of qualifications and the delivery of training.
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The system is based on a multilateral agreement which recognizes that co-operation and collaboration between the Commonwealth and state governments are essential to maintain an effective national training system. The multilateral agreement establishes:
r r r r r r r r r r r
A shared commitment to support national goals and objectives for vocational education and training; Guiding principles for the national training system; The responsibilities of each party to the agreement; National priorities that are to be achieved in the medium term; National policies to support the effective operation of the training system; National planning arrangements to support improved training outcomes; National targets that reflect Australian and state government policy objectives; National outcomes-focused performance measures that are focused on reducing skill shortages and improving outcomes for key clients; National initiatives to advance the training system; Mechanisms for the release of funds (i.e. by the Commonwealth) to the states; and Agreed sanctions for non-achievement of performance measures or other requirements in the training funding agreement.
The bilateral agreements provide an avenue for addressing local diversity within the framework of national consistency. They provide flexibility to implement national priorities and establish performance levels that are relevant to each jurisdiction. The bilateral agreements involve:
r r r
State planning requirements and funding priorities; Performance reporting; and State-specific initiatives, particularly those supported by Commonwealth Government funding.
The Australian states retain the legislative responsibility for TVET, including regulation of the apprenticeship system, TVET providers, certification and ownership and management of the public TAFE providers. However, the states have adopted ‘model clauses’ for the regulation of TVET providers and the operation of their certification systems to ensure national consistency. The Commonwealth has also enacted legislation to give effect to its role in the national system, and as the basis of Commonwealth funding to the states and for its own programmes.
5.4 Policy Formation and Implementation A Ministerial Council of Vocational and Technical Education will continue to set national strategy and policy for the national system. The Commonwealth chairs the Ministerial Council and has two votes, while the states have one vote each. The council is supported by an independent secretariat. The Ministerial Council is advised by two committees: a National Industry Skills Committee and a Senior Officials Committee.
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5.5 Funding The Commonwealth and the states will continue to fund TVET on a joint basis. The Commonwealth now provides approximately one-third of funding allocated by the states to TVET; however, that proportion rises to almost 50% of funding if expenditure on its own TVET programmes (which has been rising) is taken into account. Commonwealth funds flow through bilateral agreements with the states to TVET providers. State authorities then allocate funds to providers in their states; principally to public TAFE providers through performance and funding agreements, but also to a diverse range of private and other non-government providers on a competitive basis through commercial contracts. TVET providers also access significant funding from non-governmental sources through fee-for-service programmes for individuals and through commercial contracts with enterprises.
5.6 Planning The Ministerial Council for Vocational and Technical Education will continue to agree on a National Strategy for Technical and Vocational Education using the same strategy for 2004–2010 that had been adopted by ANTA for that period. The strategy sets long-term strategic goals, priority areas for action and performance measures. Each state develops it own TVET plan, which corresponds to the national strategy and priorities, state priorities and, broadly, areas of planned delivery. This plan underpins the bilateral agreement with the Commonwealth and must be approved by the Commonwealth Minister prior to the release of Commonwealth funding to the state. Each state undertakes a more detailed planning process to assess industry and labour-market needs, skills shortages and social and equity needs as the basis of its funding allocations to TVET providers. This recognizes that the states are better placed to judge the specific needs of local and regional communities, although the Commonwealth strongly emphasizes the role of market mechanisms rather than central planning. TVET providers, particularly the large public TAFE institutions, also undertake a detailed planning process to develop a planned profile for delivery through negotiation with state training authorities. Again, the trend has been to devolve the planning process to the local level, but to providers themselves rather than through intermediary bodies.
5.7 Delivery and Certification Over 4,000 registered training organizations (TVET providers) deliver nationally recognized courses, principally through government-funded programmes but also, and increasingly, on a fee-for-service basis. TVET providers assess and certify their
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own students and issue nationally recognized qualifications carrying a ‘nationally recognized training’ logo. TVET qualifications are derived from the Australian Qualifications Framework and cover certificates I to IV and diplomas and advanced diplomas. Some TVET providers also offer associate degrees and regular degrees, and many higher-level TVET qualifications carry credit or articulate to higher education qualifications.
5.8 Regulation, Including Accreditation and Quality Assurance As outlined above, regulation of TVET providers remains a state responsibility, but is undertaken on a nationally consistent basis through the Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF). Under this framework, TVET providers are registered (accredited) in one state, but are able to operate in all states based on the AQTF standards. Providers are given a ‘scope of registration’, which means that they are able to offer national TVET qualifications within their scope of that registration. These national qualifications have largely supplanted the old system of courses which were accredited at the state level, although state-accredited courses still exist or may be developed, but are not equivalent to national qualifications. TVET providers are also audited on a regular basis, both in their state of initial registration and on their inter-state operations. State registration bodies also operate under nationally agreed standards. To oversee the operation of this framework, a National Quality Council has been established, initially within the ANTA structure, but now as a committee of the Ministerial Council. This National Quality Council is comprised of government, industry and provider representatives.
5.9 Accountability Under the agreements for the national training system, states will report annually on outcomes through an annual national report, which will also provide an aggregate national picture of outcomes for the TVET system. TVET data are now collected and reported on a consistent basis using national statistical standards through the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), which also publishes data on enrolments, hours of delivery, student outcomes and TVET financing. NCVER also maintains a specific database on apprenticeship and traineeship statistics. Both the Commonwealth and state ministers and departments are also accountable to their respective governments and parliaments.
5.10 Achievements Compared to any other country operating under a federal system of government, Australia has done more to co-ordinate and harmonize the roles of national and
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sub-national levels of government in relation to TVET. Despite the many twists and turns in the development of the national training system in Australia, slowness in the implementation of some key aspects of the system and tensions between national and state bodies, its key features have been consolidated both in terms of the framework for skills and qualifications and the governance and co-ordination arrangements between the Commonwealth and the states. Some key outcomes include significant growth in TVET enrolments and outputs, with substantial growth reported between 1995 and 2003 (but with a decline between 2003 and 2004) as shown in Table 1.6 Another measure of output is the annual hours delivered by TVET providers which also show a significant increase between 1995 and 2003, with a slight decline evident in 2004 (Table 2). Growth in apprenticeships and traineeships and the provision of formal TVET in general secondary schools account for some of this growth. There is now a diverse and competitive training market in Australia with training providers able to operate and compete across state borders, although concerns about the quality of some providers continue to be expressed. Expenditure on TVET in Australia increased significantly in the initial years of the ANTA agreement, but has only increased slightly since then in nominal terms and has decreased in real terms. This reflects on-going debates between the Commonwealth and the states about the respective contributions to TVET funding. Much of the growth in TVET in Australia in recent years is due to substantial increases in efficiency. In terms of national and regional dimensions of TVET policy in Australia, the issue of funding is its greatest challenge and the greatest source of tension. It is also the only issue that cannot be resolved by ministers responsible for TVET and their agencies and reflects wider debates about fiscal roles and the contributions of the Commonwealth and state governments. The positive outcomes outlined above in terms of growth in participation and outputs may or may not have been achieved without the full range of complex governance arrangements which have been put in place to manage the roles of, and relationships between, the national and state governments. Table 1 TVET students 1995 to 2004, Australia
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Male (’000)
Female (’000)
Total (’000)
657.9 689.8 729.5 761.6 819.2 865.2 857.3 868.4 875.9 828.9
585.9 623.8 671.5 713.5 787.1 836.2 814.6 809.5 834.4 760.7
1,268.9 1,341.2 1,449.1 1,509.8 1,614.6 1,707.9 1,679.1 1,682.9 1,717.8 1,595.2
Source: NCVER, 2005.
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Table 2 Annual hours by sex, 1995 to 2004, Australia Year
Male (’000)
Female (’000)
Total (’000)
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
136,115.8 141,599.2 147,287.8 147,700.9 155,500.5 161,791.4 176,902.1 177,950.5 178,849.1 173,268.3
117,467.3 123,590.5 132,671.9 133,753.0 142,486.9 148,756.6 162,916.8 166,725.7 172,229.0 168,659.6
254,431.6 268,036.4 283,754.7 283,447.6 298,919.8 311,340.8 340,406.3 345,065.9 351,714.7 342,396.7
Source: NCVER, 2005.
From the point of view of employers, students and TVET providers, the most important outcome has been the development of a national system of standards, qualifications and accreditation of providers to ensure portability of certification across state borders and an increasingly consistent process of provider registration to underpin employer, student and community confidence in outcomes.
5.11 Other Regional Dimensions The ANTA National Strategy for 2004–2010 contained a far more explicit recognition of the role of TVET for communities and regions through one of four key priorities: Communities and regions will be strengthened economically and socially through learning and employment. [. . .] Integrated learning and employment solutions will support regional economic, social, cultural and environmental development and sustainability. Vocational education and training will stimulate interest in learning. It will strengthen the capacity of TAFE and other providers and brokers to partner with local government and nongovernment agencies, businesses and industry clusters. It will encourage local planning and innovation and help communities deal with change and take advantage of opportunities for growth (ANTA, 2003).
A range of small initiatives have been undertaken both nationally and in individual states to support this objective. However, at present, it is fair to say that these initiatives are not significant or mainstream. TAFE institutions, particularly in rural and outer metropolitan areas, have always played important regional and community development roles, but they argue that these roles are not sufficiently recognized in their performance and funding agreements with the government. Some support is provided for community-based providers particularly offering programmes to adults returning to study, but this support is mostly evident in Victoria and, to a lesser extent, in New South Wales. A promising national initiative has been undertaken through a national project around the concept of ‘skills eco-systems’, which are defined as:
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concentrations of workforce skills and knowledge in an industry or a region. They are shaped by:
r r r r r r
the business environment/competitive pressures, inter-firm relationships, access to finance and product markets; the technology in use; the role of government and industry regulators; modes of engaging labour and the operation of labour markets; production processes and the way work is organized; the quality of education and training and its ability to meet industry’s and workers’ developmental needs (Australia. DEST, 2005).
Under this initiative, eight demonstration projects linking TVET providers to enterprises and community organizations to identify and address skills needs have been funded together with research and evaluation into outcomes, dissemination of outcomes and the establishment of an on-line network and forum. However, it is far from clear whether these innovative approaches to skills and workforce development, which are also emerging in other countries, will be become an accepted and growing feature of the TVET system in Australia. It has been argued that the complex nature of the intergovernmental arrangements now affecting the TVET system in Australia, and in particular accountability and reporting arrangements (using conventional measures such as enrolments and student contact hours), inhibit rather than support these innovative practices and the broader social and regional development role of TVET. Noonan posed the matter as follows: The key question is whether or not Australia is poised to make the transition from a largely standards- and qualification-based system, to a broader construct of workforce preparation, which subsumes, but goes much further than, current approaches to knowledge and skills and the means by which they are acquired? [. . .] The need to make that transition is implied in some of the state and national policy and strategy rhetoric and in research findings, but has not been explicitly acknowledged to date (Noonan, 2003).
Many other countries operating under both unitary and devolved TVET systems are facing the same question. The challenge for Australia is now to make sure that the benefits of building an integrated, national TVET system supports, rather than limits, real innovation at the regional level.
Notes 1. In this chapter the word ‘state’ refers to a sub-national area within a federal nation. 2. Governance for this purpose has a broad meaning covering all aspects of the management, funding, delivery and regulation of TVET. 3. The article by Huggins & Harries (2004) uses the concept of a skills economy and outlines a case study of a programme in Wales aimed at shifting the costs of skills development from employees and employers to assist in overcoming market failure. 4. Vocational education and training (VET) has, until recently, been the term used to describe TVET in Australia, but the Commonwealth Government has now adopted the term technical and vocational education and training (TVET).
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5. For an analysis of this decision see Noonan, 2004. 6. Growth since 1992 has been even stronger than is shown here, but cannot be accurately reported due to changes and improvements in statistical collection.
References Australia. Department of Education, Science and Training. 2005. Framework for the New National Training System. Canberra: DEST. Australian National Training Authority. 2003 Australia’s National Strategy for Vocational Education and Training, 2004–2010. This information can now be found on the website of DEST: Huggins, S.; Harries, S. 2004. The skills economy and workforce development: a regional approach to policy intervention. European journal of education, vol. 39, no. 1. National Centre for Vocational Education Research. 2005. Australian vocational education and training statistics: students and courses 2004. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. <www.ncver.edu. au/statistic/publications/1602.html> Noonan, P. 2003. Rethinking VET: some major policy implications. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University, Centre for Economics of Education and Training. <www.education.monash.edu. au/centres/ceet/docs/conferencepapers/2003confpapernoonan.pdf> Noonan, P. 2004. The post-election policy context for VET. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University, Centre for Economics of Education and Training. <www.education.monash.edu.au/ centres/ceet/docs/conferencepapers/2004confpapernoonan.pdf> Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2001. Cities regions and the new learning economy. Paris: OECD.
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Chapter VI.5
Planning for Education and Work: Alternatives and Issues Dennis R. Herschbach
1 Introduction Planning is vitally important in the world of education and training. There are immense and ever-increasing pressures to provide more and better services. Policymakers in many countries are attempting to fundamentally restructure the ways that youth and adults prepare for employment in order to make more effective use of limited resources, expand opportunity, help alleviate poverty and address the skill demands generated by an ever-pervasive global economy. Policy-makers look to planning as a means of bringing programme development and resource allocation and use into line with labour-market and social development objectives. However, there is considerably more awareness today than in the past of the complexities of planning for technical and vocational education and training (TVET). The outcomes of many national planning efforts undertaken in the past can best be described as highly mixed. Overall, there has been a general failure to take fully into account the critical importance of implementation. Many planning efforts have gone astray because decision-making was too remote from the practical issues of programme implementation. Today planning is approached with a greater awareness of the methodological limitations and complexity of the issues confronted. Planning activities continue to be central to TVET. Despite inherent constraints and limitations, policy-makers within TVET have long-relied on various planning models to supply useful information for making decisions about the implementation of programmes. Typically, TVET planners are involved with formulating policy, exploring the application of various education and training options, determining the level and use of financial and human resources, addressing the concerns of different constituency groups, developing and implementing programme plans and identifying and assessing education and training outcomes. The purpose of this chapter is to examine basic TVET planning alternatives and highlight the fundamental assumptions, limitations and issues underlying their application. We will also examine measures planners are taking to address the conceptual, methodological and technical constraints that they face in the economic, social and political space within which they work. We will also explore alternative planning approaches that offer promising options to TVET decision-makers. These alternatives attempt to go beyond some of the common assumptions that have traditionally driven much of TVET planning and project a more application-guided, inclusive approach to planning. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VI.5, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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2 Levels of Planning Planning is applied at three basic levels (Herschbach & Davis, 2000). Macroplanning is conducted at the national level usually through ministries of planning or labour and is used to establish nationwide priorities for the use of education and training resources. In the decades following the Second World War, macro-level planning also came into prominence among international development agencies, such as the World Bank, the Organization of American States (OAS), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNESCO, among others. Development economists were enamoured with the prospect of linking ‘objective’ data with education and training investment decisions. Macro-planning continues to be widely applied today, but with greater realization of its inherent limitations (Bertrand, 2004; Woodhall, 2004). Macro-level planning is used to make decisions, for example, about the relative investment in elementary in relation to investments in secondary, vocational or tertiary education; or planners examine the comparative advantages of investment in one type of TVET over another. Planning projections tend to be long term and economic criteria figure large in decision-making. Manpower forecasting, cost/benefit and cost-effectiveness studies are the methodologies most commonly applied. Social demand data also are commonly used for macro-level planning, especially in countries with less centralized economies. In this case, planning decisions are primarily political rather than economic in order to support the demands of specific groups or to address national priorities. Increasingly, combinations of data are used by planners, and there is less overall reliance on a single data source or planning methodology in the search for better results. After over five decades and more of international experience with national-level macro-planning, however, considerable scepticism continues to prevail over the usefulness and reliability of planning projections (Bertrand, 2004; Farrell, 1997; Woodhall, 2004). The acceleration of economic globalization accompanied by technological change, moreover, makes it increasingly difficult to engage in meaningful macro-level planning regardless of the methodology employed. Established national plans projected into the future become increasingly irrelevant. Today, there is considerably more focus on micro-level planning applied at the local or regional level, incorporating the use of qualitative methodologies and participatory approaches to planning. In contrast to macro-level planning, there is a shift in emphasis from examining the optimal potential use of educational resources across the total national educational and training sector to making regional or local implementation decisions. One focus is on the relative value of one kind of TVET investment over another given local capacity to implement programmes. Planners want to gauge the probability of successfully implementing programmes given available local resources, specific labour-market needs, potential student groups to be served, the capacity of facilities, local employer relations and placement opportunities, among a number of factors conditioning the capacity to develop and maintain
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local TVET programmes. There is less emphasis on the regulation and control of TVET and more on exploring the multiple ways to potentially enhance workforce preparation. Micro-level planning makes use of cost-effectiveness and cost/benefit studies to assess the relative value of one decision over another. Micro-level planning also makes use of elements of consensual and strategic planning to assess environmental factors, involve stakeholders, clarify objectives, analyse critical problems and identify possible courses of action. Interactive and contingency planning models tend to be used. A limiting factor concerning macro-level planning is the inability to effectively transfer policy decisions into action at the implementation level, even if longterm projections are valid. Macro-level planning tends to overlook critically important organizational characteristics and local conditions that impact decisively on implementation. It does little good, for example, to know that a particular TVET programme intervention theoretically yields greater rates of return based on limited sampling if it is difficult to implement the programme given local conditions. TVET is conducted within a larger organizational structure that establishes the context for implementation, including, for example, policy and planning units, support agencies and line agencies, as well as individual institutions delivering services. Often employer or community groups play a decisive programmedevelopment role. Micro-level planning focuses on bringing together organizational components and developing communication networks and problem-solving structures. Programme and curricular planning is yet a third level and occurs primarily at the local or institutional level. The focus is on operational and programming elements, such as management structures, staffing patterns, student selection, course construction, instructional methods, class size and resource allocation, among others. Planners want to optimize the internal efficiency of TVET programming by determining what combination of operational and programming elements will produce the best results for a given resource. A great deal of interactive planning is used to continually assess programme implementation. To be sure, local educators may work from a planning document prepared at a higher organizational level, but this level of planning requires analysis and action at the local level in order to avoid static and faulty implementation.
3 Rational Planning Perspectives Planning helps to develop an education and training map, a picture of where we are now and plausible programming avenues to follow. It indicates how to get to where we want to go, as well as the roadblocks to be overcome and the means that we need. There are multiple planning models to consider, each better for one purpose more than another, and each with its strengths and limitations. The literature in the field generally supports three broad categories of planning models: rational; interactive or consensual; and the political (Adams, 1991, 1994; Farrell, 1997).
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What are termed ‘rational’ or ‘technicist’ planning models, including manpower planning and variations of cost/benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis, are the most widely used at the macro- and to a lesser extent the micro-level. Rational models are characterized by strong agreement on a set of externally defined policy objectives, or goals that are taken as givens and constitute the starting point of the planning process that itself is assumed to be linear. It is also assumed that the planning environment is stable and that sound educational and training projections can be made into the future—both highly questionable assumptions. Various methods are used to collect and analyse labour-force data, which are used to formulate decisions about the kind, scope and character of projected education and training. Since the models themselves are thought to be scientifically and objectively defined, they are considered to be universally applied with little modification, regardless of the economic, social or political context of the individual country or locality. Data collection and analysis tend to be limited to quantifiable indicators. Little attention tends to be given to cultural and human factors in planning calculations and, when such factors are considered, they tend to be factored in as relatively stable, invariant variables with a set, assigned value. Decision-making tends to be centralized, top-down and expert driven (Adams, 1994; Bertrand, 2004; Farrell, 1997; Herschbach & Davis, 2000; Woodhall, 2004). Rational planning models are still widely used today, particularly among economists attracted by the prospect of making decisions for optimizing resourceuse based on ‘hard’ data, but overall within the planning community there tends to be less acceptance at face value of the results. There is greater emphasis on the use of a combination of information from different sources, including the application of interactive and political planning models. Some, as Bertrand (2004) and Godfrey (1997) observe, question whether more traditional concepts of rational planning have any valid current use.
3.1 Manpower Planning Among rational planning models, manpower planning or assessment in various forms is widely used by TVET planners and policy-makers. Its primary use in the past was by planning agencies at the national or regional level to establish both short- and long-term macro-level education and training priorities. Education and training targets, along with resource allocations, are accordingly assigned to the various service providers with responsibility for labour-force development. As was previously mentioned, today as an approach to macro-level forecasting manpower planning on a national scale has fallen somewhat out of favour because results are often highly inaccurate. Long-term forecasts tend to be off the mark, and there is greater awareness of labour-market issues that go significantly beyond forecasts and that require additional planning insights: coping with rapidly changing labour requirements; issues of unemployment; lack of opportunity; poverty; and the efficient operation of institutions, for example. Applications of manpower
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planning, nevertheless, continue to be used to examine areas of critical need, and for micro-level planning at the institutional or industry level as a training management and guidance tool. Manpower planning also continues to be widely used in developing countries because of the pressure to make optimal use of very scarce human and financial resources, even when forecasts are inaccurate. The emphasis today, however, is on making available timely and relevant information that can be used for immediate programming decisions; there is considerably less emphasis on long-term forecasting (Bertrand, 2004). 3.1.1 Supply and Demand Match Planning procedures are straightforward (Bertrand, 2004). Manpower assessment is based on the idea of matching the supply of educated and trained individuals with current and projected labour-market demand. A good match results in the efficient use of resources and contributes to maintaining the economy. Workers are classified in different economic sectors and occupations according to the type of work that they perform. Estimates of education and training requirements are linked with the classification. Through survey methods, labour requirements are identified and projected into the future based on assumed economic growth trends. Birth rates, immigration and migration rates, and death and replacement rates provide an indication of the future supply of workers. The supply of potential workforce entrants when compared with projections of future labour requirements gives an indication of education and training requirements. These requirements can be broken down by region, sector, occupation, job or any other meaningful unit of analysis. The projected requirements are compared with current and projected supply, giving an indication of future deficits or surpluses in the supply, and thus the magnitude and kind of TVET required. TVET training targets are accordingly set. 3.1.2 Issues and Constraints The planner is confronted with a number of issues in the collection and use of manpower data. Among the most intractable are the quality and appropriateness of data. In many countries, reasonably complete data that are reliable over time are difficult—if not impossible—to obtain. Projected economic growth patterns and labour-force forecasts are often little more than informed guesswork. Moreover, labour-market forecasts, regardless of their immediate validity, tend not to be reliable over time, even when there are relatively sound initial data. As forecasts are projected into the future, projections become less reliable. Training demand is a product of economic activity that is continually subject to change. Technological innovation, government policy positions, the availability of investment capital, recession or economic expansion, and international competition are among other changing factors that impact on both immediate and long-term education and training requirements. The potent influence of globalization is challenging all planning models based on data confined to national boundaries.
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In dynamic, rapidly-changing economies in particular, projections tend to be too static to capture labour-force demand spurred on by change. Projections at one point in time tend not to stand up as time goes on and often are too erratic for decisionmaking (Dougherty, 1989; Herschbach & Davis, 2000). Even if reliable data are available, it is often difficult to tie findings directly to programme design. One reason is that most data collected through government agencies are simply aggregated at too high a level for programme development uses. A second reason is that even if data were sufficiently disaggregated, rarely is there sufficient information about either the quality of the labour force or of the education and training supply to make good decisions. It is not enough to know quantitative requirements without also being able to assess the quality of both the system that prepares workers and the relative competencies of the existing workforce. Without this knowledge, the potential to structure TVET programmes so as to contribute to improvement of labour-force performance is limited (Godfrey, 1997). Similarly, gross data masks important ways that individual employers mould their workforce. There are over-simplified assumptions about education and training and the dynamics of job structuring (Bertrand, 2004). Data collection and analysis is based on the assumption that there is a highly segmented or multiple-tiered labour market with strictly defined, stable work categories. The categories that define how data are collected, however, may not represent the ways that tasks are actually functionally configured in the workplace by individual employers. The products and production practices of individual firms define work skills in ways that spill across formal categories used to collect data. In actual practice, there may be considerable substitution and on-going change in the workforce. Unless there is sensitivity to this fact, the tendency is to view programme and course design in very narrow terms. There also are many intervening factors beyond the scope of the planner that complicate the use of labour-market data, even if they are reliable, sufficiently detailed and stable over time. Risk aversion, government tax incentives, protectionist import policies, minimum wage legislation, wage differentials, guaranteed employment schemes, occupational mobility, the off-shoring of job functions—these and others are examples of intervening factors that influence the market place, often in unanticipated ways. Not only do these factors condition training demand at a given time, but they also make it difficult to obtain, interpret and use reliable labour-market information that is reasonably valid over time (Godfrey, 1997). There remain significant gaps in our knowledge of how to link outside intervening factors with planning models. Manpower planning tends not to be sensitive enough to capture the full impact of such factors in ways that inform decision-making. The relationship of such intervening factors one to another and to other planning variables changes over time.
3.2 Toward Better Manpower Planning Given these limitations, manpower planning needs to be approached with caution. Many of the applications today try to account for the limitations (Bertrand, 2004).
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One option is to limit planning to a few, crucial occupational sectors and to collect more data in greater scope and depth. This will yield more information about structuring specific TVET programmes. Another option is to limit forecasting to short-term, micro-level planning in key industries, specific localities or regions. Councils of local employers and service providers work together to adjust TVET to what are perceived to be immediate, real-employment needs in a given catchment area (Farrell, 1997). Focused, disaggregated data over short-term projections applied to a limited number of occupational categories are reasonably reliable. Perhaps the most promising approach today is to shift emphasis from forecasting potential labour demand and setting targets, to improving and speeding up access to data so that service providers and employers alike have information readily available for making decisions. The emphasis has shifted from centralized training decisions, to facilitating the supply and use of data in the local training market. Market signals in the form of job vacancies and surpluses are used to determine market changes in anticipation of adjustments in the supply of labour (Herschbach & Davis, 2000). Godfrey (1997) argues that: ‘Detailed forecasts are not needed. What is needed is reliable and timely information about the state of the various labour markets for qualified people and a structure of incentives that will reward both those who acquire and those who impart skills’ (p. 208). Mechanisms for tracking programme results are helpful. Data about the qualitative improvement of the labour market are fed back into the planning process. Certification systems linked with planning, for example, are used to gauge competence but also to incorporate changing skill requirements through re-certification. Effective certification programmes link closely with the work environment and are a primary check on education and training relevance and quality. The link of certification with planning provides a powerful tool for decision-makers (Herschbach & Campbell, 2000). Yet another response to incomplete or limited data is to shift micro-level planning from highly specialized training to more generic technical categories that help build the foundation for future, specialized training near or at the time of employment. The major focus of pre-employment preparation is on the acquisition of requisite academic and technical skills that enable individuals to pursue further preparation. Short-term, specialized work preparation is carried out in conjunction with employing establishments, often at the work site.
3.3 Cost/Benefit Analysis Largely promoted by economists in international development organizations, cost/ benefit analysis is a way to link decisions about TVET supply with economic criteria (Share, 1999; Woodhall, 2004). Choices about potential TVET interventions are based on the assumed monetary return of a particular TVET programme over its projected life-span. TVET is treated as an investment, and programmes yielding
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an apparent higher return in relation to cost are considered the best investments to make. Both private or social benefits and costs can be calculated. Social benefits include increased productivity, better health, greater tax revenue, increased opportunity for marginalized populations, among others. Private rates-of-return give an indication of the incentive for individuals to invest in TVET, and include such benefits as higher wages, promotion opportunities, employment stability and occupational mobility. Typically, benefits and costs are figured by comparing the projected lifetime earnings that individuals can expect from different types and levels of TVET investments with the associated private and social costs. Factors that are typically used include direct and indirect instructional costs, teachers’ salaries, tuition fees, material, equipment and facilities maintenance and upkeep. Both benefits and costs are converted into monetary terms discounted to present value. Interest and inflation rates also are calculated (Woodhall, 2004). Cost/benefit, also commonly referred to as rate-of-return, analysis tends to be primarily conducted at the national planning level because of the considerable resources and time required. The results are used for making national or regional resource allocation decisions. Comparisons, for example, may be made between primary, secondary, vocational and tertiary education nationwide. Or comparisons may be made between different kinds of TVET offerings, but this is less common. The attempt is to determine the effectiveness of past resource use measured by wage differentials, with those education and training interventions yielding placements at higher wages considered as more favourable investments. 3.3.1 Questionable Assumptions There are several basic assumptions fundamental to cost/benefit analysis that are highly questionable (Bennell, 1998; Herschbach & Davis, 2000). First, although segmented labour-market theory is largely rejected, the extent of assumed potential substitution in the workforce is often carried to extremes. One kind or level of education is assumed to be capable of preparing individuals for multiple work roles, with the question of specific skill acquisition largely ignored. Even though studies often show high rates of return for elementary education, for example, the act of simply attending elementary education does not always result in the acquisition of relevant job skills. Investments must be made in other types of workforce preparation, even if the rates of return are not so high. Electronic technicians, fitter-machinists, doctors, accountants, warehouse workmen and engineers, among many others, require specific skill training, but to know that one kind of education yields relatively high investments gives few clues to planners about the amount of investment, if any, that should be made in other kinds of education and training interventions with lower returns. Second, wage rates are not always the best indicator of social or economic need and thus education and training investment. Social status, prejudice and tradition, government wage and employment policies, strong employer or worker groups, significant shifts in labour-market dynamics—these and other factors contribute to
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policy distortions based on an analysis of wage rates alone. Market imperfections make rate-of-return studies often a poor measure of productivity and the basis of decision-making. Then again, such studies also assume that present rates of return will continue into the future, but this is unlikely to happen because the ‘normal’ changing balance between supply and demand modifies returns. Another major problem with rate-of-return studies is that the methodology and data are often so flawed that the results lack validity. Widely varying time frames are often used for sampling. It also is hard to obtain complete data free of sampling bias. Indirect social variables are often overlooked (Bennell, 1996, 1998). 3.3.2 Results and Uses of Studies Early rate-of-return studies consistently show that elementary education yields the highest return on educational investments, followed by secondary education, followed in turn by vocational and higher education. Recent studies, however, question these findings and show higher gains for both secondary and higher education. Studies of higher education point to the fact that the impact of indirect social benefits is largely ignored in much of the earlier work (Task Force on Higher Education and Society, 2000). This is a problem that appears to characterize much of the rate-of-return work in general. In the case of TVET, early studies (Psacharopoulos & Loxley, 1985; Psacharopoulos & Woodhall, 1985) generally cast doubt on its relative value when compared with investments in secondary-level general education. Technical training is more costly to implement, but studies generally do not examine all of the benefits, such as wage differentials over a long period of time. And importantly, crucial social and political factors that distort results are often overlooked. Consideration is not given to the benefit of social and occupational mobility, for example, or to the fact that wages are depressed in some occupational categories by politically enforced social norms, labour policy and practice. In more recent studies over the past two decades comparing returns of TVET with ‘general’ academic programmes and schools, the findings are mixed. A number of studies show that TVET yields equal or greater returns than higher education (Bishop & Mane, 2004; Gray & Neng-Tang, 1992). In the most comprehensive study of TVET, Metcalf (1985) found that TVET investments consistently yield between 10% to 20% return, equalling or surpassing investments in capital equipment and plant and in other forms of education and training. In a comparative study of TVET in OECD countries, Cohn and Addison (1998) found that returns on TVET appeared highest in the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, with the lowest returns in the Nordic countries due primarily to flatter lifetime earning profiles. In a recent work, Bishop and Mane (2005) found that in the United States throughout the 1990s there were very high rates of return on advanced secondary-level TVET courses. There were negative effects or no significant benefits for academic, personal interests and introductory vocational courses. However, as suggested earlier, many of the studies comparing different types of schooling do not sufficiently take into account ability levels, family background and social status—factors among others that significantly impact on earnings.
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TVET tends to yield higher social than private returns (Ashton & Sung, 2000). Rates of return are generally higher in developing than developed countries because of the overall scarcity of human capital. Both the private and social rates of return for women appear higher than for men when indirect benefits and externalities are fully taken into account (Woodhall, 2004). One of the most useful functions of rate-of-return analysis is to point planners to crucial questions that should be examined. It makes planners, for example, think about the relative value of one kind of TVET investment over another, the relative cost of different staff training alternatives, the benefits of the use of one instructional modality over another or of ways to reduce training costs and increases benefits. Rate-of-return analysis is also useful for examining fee levels, the relative value of public and private TVET investments, the effects on employment opportunity, potential wastage and inefficiencies, and alternative financing practices. Perhaps most important, rate-of-return analysis helps to bolster claims for an appropriate share of education budgets with ‘hard’ analytical data (Herschbach & Davis, 2000; Woodhall, 2004). Rate-of-return analysis, however, provides data that have to be used with caution and restraint. As suggested, cost/benefit analysis tells little about the optimal level of investment; it does not provide numerical targets for planners. Planners also are not given enough information to determine whether low returns are because a particular TVET programme is inappropriate to labour-market requirements (external efficiency), or because of poor programme quality (internal efficiency). Then too, estimates along with the data that they are based on can change rapidly, and labourmarket distortions and externalities are difficult to deal with. Judgements should be taken as approximations that can best be used along with other forms of information. Perhaps the best that can be expected is that indicators are provided that are useful to consider (Woodhall, 2004).
3.4 Cost-Effectiveness Studies Because potential earnings are not always the only, or best, indicator for making policy decisions, cost-effectiveness studies are used to broaden the scope of analysis. Included are potential, indirect ‘non-economic’ benefits, such as programme completion and placement rates, achievement levels, employment stability, improvement in the quality of life, job satisfaction and occupational and social mobility, among other factors. These are referred to by economists as ‘spill-over’ benefits or ‘externalities’. It is usually easier to identify relevant externalities than to determine how best to measure the benefits, however. The assignment of a monetary value, if any, is largely informed guesswork. Non-monetary factors, such as comparisons in differences in achievement, completion rates or labour-force participation rates, are often used. Sometimes, the theoretical cost of alternative means of achieving the results is calculated. Considerable work remains to be done to identify relevant variables and to determine how best to measure the associated direct and indirect, individual and social
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benefits. Nevertheless, there is growing agreement among planners that cost/benefit studies consistently underestimate the value of educational investments, and that cost-effectiveness studies provide a more comprehensive analysis. This is especially true in the case of TVET because, overall, the population served includes a greater proportion in some countries of dispossessed and marginalized citizens who can especially benefit by the opportunities presented. The lifetime value of the spill-over benefits may be considerable. Both private and social returns may be considerable. There is increased renewed interest in cost-effectiveness studies and in issues of how best to measure the associated externalities (Woodhall, 2004). In cases where significant non-economic benefits come into play, cost-effectiveness analysis is the preferred option. Cost-effectiveness studies are useful at the local or system level to make comparisons between different teaching methods, varying lengths of class periods, or different combinations of instructional inputs, such as textbooks, direct teacher instruction, workbooks and educational technology—human and material inputs that impact on the quality and effectiveness of instruction. There is growing support among planners that the best way to use the results of cost/benefit and cost-effectiveness studies may be in conjunction with manpower planning and other data (Woodhall, 2004). Short-term forecasts indicate ways that the labour force can be modified to address alternative patterns of labour supply; an analysis of returns in turn yields information on the wage differentials and cost implications and benefits of new labour-force supply patterns. Combined, the planner has available information about the potential real cost of labour-market supply and demand decisions.
4 Interactive Planning Models The limitations of top-down, rational planning models have caused planners to turn to more qualitative, participatory approaches that take into consideration human, institutional and contextual factors impinging on programme implementation. Planning activity is primarily focused at the micro, programme and curricular levels. What are called interactive or consensual planning models start with the assumption that labour-market environments are inherently unstable, that generalizations are difficult to make, and that meaningful action, and thus planning, is derived from understanding. There is no one set planning model to follow. Plans evolve through social interaction, experience, consensus and agreement. Labour-market and placement data may be used, but they are used primarily for the purpose of generating understanding rather than specifying training targets. The relevance of planning rests on agreed choices made by the individuals directly involved and affected by the decisions (Herschbach & Davis, 2000). Interactive planning places emphasis on stakeholder involvement in shared decision-making through all phases of planning. There is considerable concern for unintended effects of decisions, and this can be checked, in part, by broad participation in planning decisions. While goals serve as the starting point of planning to
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suggest direction, they are modified through an on-going, formative process of dialogue to build understanding and explore alternatives (Adams, 1994; Farrell, 1997; Herschbach & Davis, 2000; Warwick, 1980).
4.1 Planning Elements Plans are considered tentative and are expected to evolve as implementation proceeds. Planning is conceived as an adaptive process sensitive to diverse interests, shifting power relationships and compromise and trade-offs. Successful programme implementation is gauged by the extent to which change is introduced and accommodated, stakeholder representation is achieved, and programming is sustained over time. Interactive planning incorporates a process for formulating the plan as well as strategies for implementation. While there are multiple variations of interactive planning, typical elements include the following (Finlay, 1998; Rondinelli, Middleton & Verspoor, 1990):
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Identify the relevant stakeholders; identify the planning problem and explore all aspects through the eyes of the different stakeholders. Develop recognition of the need to address the planning problem. Based on dialogue, reformulate and re-conceptualize the planning problem in terms that reflect consensus and incorporate the viewpoints of all stakeholders. Analyse the background and critical antecedent conditions of the problem. Clarify the historical sources of conflict and problems that are barriers to change and that are integral to finding solutions. Through dialogue, uncover the inter-subjective meaning, values and motives that are held by participants. Identify and clarify inconsistencies, contradictions and value conflicts; clarify ambiguities. Formulate a plan that addresses the planning problem while at the same time accommodates the views and agendas of stakeholders; reach consensus on the plan. Analyse the potential for implementation. Assess the potential to sustain programming in relation to financial, institutional and human resources. Develop strategies for implementation. Develop strategies for formative, on-going evaluation, modification and plan reformulation. Develop strategies for feedback to stakeholders and modification of original goals. Maintain close working relationships with stakeholder groups. Continually monitor the implementation context to make sure that programming does not overwhelm the resources base.
Since the focus of planning tends to be at the micro and programme and curricular levels, considerable effort is directed to identifying and addressing conditions that influence implementation. Within a given planning context there is an interrelated
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set of factors largely outside the technical dimensions of TVET programming that impact directly or indirectly on implementation, such as political influence, cultural and social norms, infrastructure support and government policy positions—to name a few. The presence of these factors, often in subtle form, contributes to determining whether or not a particular TVET intervention can be implemented and successfully sustained (Atchoarena & Delluc, 2002; Warwick, 1980). There are also more directly related technical constraints, such as available financing, organizational capability, and technical and human resources, for example, that must be carefully balanced with anticipated programme design. Plans may make provision for strengthening management capacity, training staff, building support units, overcoming political resistance, constructing new facilities or forming community support groups, among other interventions necessary to bolster successful implementation. There is a marked broadening of the planning focus from primarily determining the kinds and amount of TVET to provide to making programmes work given the characteristics and constraints of the local implementing environment.
4.2 Applications Variations of consensual planning, even if in abbreviated form, are used widely in TVET. The most common example is the use of technical advisory committees to plan and monitor local programmes. In some cases, local ‘craft’ committees composed of potential employers, instructors and other concerned individuals are set up for different technical areas. In other cases, more general advisory committees are formed. The German ‘dual training system’, for example, makes use of four stakeholder groups: federal government, state government, employers and trade organizations. Policies, requirements and regulations for the state are established through consensus, and TVET is linked closely with the labour market through employer-based training. But the formalism of the system tends to stifle change (Brand, 1998). The Nordic countries, in particular, place reliance on consensual policy formation and planning (Lasonen & Rauhala, 2000). Elsewhere, in a number of countries there is a movement from centralized planning and programming to decentralized, consensual planning and programme implementation (Finlay, Niven & Young, 1998; Herschbach & Campbell, 2000). This enables local communities to more readily adapt to the transformation of occupations in the context of globalization and technological change. Interactive, consensual planning is widely used by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). This has resulted in a broad concept of work preparation that includes concern for addressing non-technical, but nevertheless important, considerations that help to empower individuals and increase their probability of successfully navigating the labour market. In the case of marginalized and disadvantaged segments of the population in particular, TVET is most effective when it is combined with other interventions, such as income maintenance, child-care, literacy training, health
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services and micro-loans that enable individuals to participate fully in TVET and to make full use of their education and training. Bosch (1998), for example, reports on the Education and Work programme in Chile that concurrently provides vocational training while promoting personal development for 15- to 30-year-old, poverty-level individuals. The technical training component of the programme is implemented along with consideration through interactive planning issues of support networks, food and shelter, physical abuse and awareness-raising, among others.
4.3 Influence and Constraints Consensual planning has been helpful in broadening the base of planning and in generating greater appreciation of the complexities of the human, institutional and cultural context within which TVET programmes are planned and implemented. One of the most important influences of interactive planning has been to sensitize rational planners to the importance of communication, participation and the use of non-quantifiable data outside the realm of conventional labour-market information. Consensual planning has helped to temper what are otherwise abstract decisions based on limited data with a greater appreciation of the broader range of planning concerns. The concept of what constitutes preparation for work also has been extended to encompass concern for personal development, support networks, long-term interventions and services and initiatives designed to break down barriers to full workforce participation. There is greater awareness of the need to extend planning participation to groups typically left out of the process because of class, ethnicity, gender or other barriers that relegate them to the social and economic fringes. In this regard, consensual planning shares territory with political planning. Consensual planning also goes beyond the technical concerns of programme planning and implementation to probe the ethical and value questions that surround the choices and opportunities work preparation presents. It makes planners and educators think about the personal and social consequences of TVET. It introduces more than just economic concerns into the planning equation. Consensual planning, however, invites conflict. Different stakeholders bring their own agenda to the planning table. Planning may be messy, inclusive and riddled with ambiguity. The competing claims of participants may prevent the consensus necessary to move forward. A major challenge is to accommodate the inherent value conflicts and competing agendas. It also is difficult to achieve truly representative membership in the planning process. Political positioning tends to be achieved most effectively by those who already have power. Long-term, more inclusive goals may be subverted in the interest of more immediate short-term benefits of interest groups with the most influence. Representatives of the status quo will work to maintain their position. ‘Changes brought about as a result of stakeholder involvement, though a participative democratic process, are likely to be gradualist and evolutionary rather than revolutionary,’
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Finlay (1998, p. 9) observes. But an evolutionary process based on consensus in the long-run holds open the door to more deeply-rooted and permanent change.
5 The Political Model A third category of planning is the political, also known as transactional or incremental, planning (Adams, 1991, 1994; Warwick, 1980). Political planning draws from both rational and consensual planning traditions. The political model starts with the assumption that planning cannot be separated easily from the influence of politics and power. Planning decisions result from negotiation among what may be highly competitive groups. Decisions are arrived at through bargaining, negotiation and compromise. The quantifiable data of rational planning lend legitimacy to planning decisions, but at the same time conflicting interests, political leverage and the exercise of power figure large in the final planning outcomes, which themselves may change in response to shifting power relationships. As Adams (1994) observes: ‘Even if alternative educational futures are quantifiable and optimum educational investments are specifiable, such quantification takes on meaning only within the context of political competition, conflict and the exercise of power’ (p. 1809). The planner works in an environment that is recognized as dynamic, uncertain and subject to influences that may not always be initially recognized or constant. Decision-making proceeds incrementally as planners learn from experience and gain support. The planner is alert to the historical, political and organizational context. Coalition building and informal goal setting may be initially more important than the specific content of the plan. The degree that ‘rational’ decisions are made is conditioned by political involvement. Implementing and sustaining change relies on mobilizing and maintaining political support.
5.1 The Dynamics of Political Planning When planning is primarily perceived as a set of technical exercises designed to allocate resources, it may fall seriously short because of the failure to recognize and accommodate existing political dynamics. Classrooms and schools are political and cultural constructs, and unless power and political influence are taken into account, it is often not possible to effectively transmit the intention of plans into practical programming. Technically sound and coherent plans, in fact, may be more difficult to implement than less well-designed interventions that have considerably more stakeholder support. While rational planning is framed by issues of efficiency and effectiveness, political planning is highly responsive to the social and political context within which decision-making is carried out. Planners are receptive to the influence of power and politics that can take a number of obvious, as well as indirect, forms. These include, for example:
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the control of educational policy and resources by certain ethnic, clan, religious or political groups; a policy environment hostile to TVET; social rules operating in society that exclude certain individuals and groups from participation; discriminatory practices that discourage gender, religious or ethnic groups from participating in education and training programmes; bureaucratic rivalries that impede implementation of a programme that covers major jurisdictions; gatekeepers that block informal clearance from interest groups; the subversion of programme objectives to the narrow interest of individuals and groups for their own gain.
The political planning model basically rejects the neo-classical economic assumption that societal imbalances work themselves out over time through consensual negotiation. Rather, planning is viewed as entwined in networks of power that overtly or covertly work to maintain power, influence and advantage. Change is resisted unless it is perceived as beneficial to and under the control of those holding power. Efforts to redirect labour-force development, to ameliorate the condition of the poor, or to expand opportunity by addressing the interests of socio-economic classes and ethnic and gender groups, for example, may be countered through the explicit and implicit levers of power built into social structures that reproduce inequalities. These structures, with all of their embedded power relationships, are maintained by those already in power (Birdsall, Burns & Sabot, 1996; Cornwall, 2003; Easton & Klees, 1992; Farrell, 1997). In countries characterized by high levels of political, religious or ethnic strife, it may be extremely difficult to implement any kind of TVET intervention unless there is a good way to negotiate conflict. Plans that are not perceived as palatable or credible may result in conflict or resentment among the very populations intended to implement the plan, as well as those intended to be beneficiaries. This is particularly true in the case of development projects that aim to promote change, but at the same time rely on individuals within the existing power structure to implement interventions that can potentially challenge their own positions of power. Power dynamics can be thought of as existing within the TVET system and also without, and planners must take into consideration both (Rondinelli, Middleton & Verspoor, 1990; Verspoor, 1992).
5.2 Addressing Political Planning Social demand planning attempts to take into account the interests of individuals and social groups. It is the most basic, widespread and benign form of political planning. Simply put, decisions to allocate resources are based on the demand of various constituency groups for education and training services. Decisions are political, since the allocation of resources has to be made between competing demands. Shifts in
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the political climate, the relative success of constituency groups to mobilize support or the influence of external events result in corresponding changes in the way that education and training resources are used. In many countries, a considerable amount of planning is based on social demand, even though it is not recognized or acknowledged. Social demand is usually expressed through a political process involving different constituency groups at local, regional or national levels. The demand for services is conveyed to decision-makers. Social or political objectives, such as enhancing international economic competition, increasing enrolment levels in information technology or addressing national literacy requirements are formulated to serve as a rationale for decision-making. Since there are limits on resources, trade-offs are determined and education and training targets set. The capability to provide education and training services is assessed. Labour-market information is used by planners in order to help moderate extreme political pressure and to strike a balance between social demand and the functional requirements of the economy. Planners are attentive to the potential of abrupt, destabilizing changes that can throw the existing education and training system into disarray. Incremental rather than abrupt change is advocated as prudent TVET policy (Finlay, Niven & Young, 1998). Strategic planning was formulated as a method to help institutions react to internal and external pressures. It overlaps considerably with consensual planning and is more structured than planning based on social demand. Strategic planning involves assessing the present implementing environment and plotting appropriate courses of action. While there are different models of strategic planning, common elements include the following (Carlson & Awkerman, 1991):
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Environmental scanning is used to obtain information about the internal organization of the institution and external influences. Planners identify the organization’s internal structure, staffing patterns, common values and interests, competitive groups, levels of support for change and barriers; planners identify external interest groups, supporters and competitors. Social, political and economic trends are monitored and the impact on planning assessed. Stakeholder analysis focuses on the individuals, groups and organizations that create demands and pressure on the institution. Planners assess the interests, influence, agendas and values of stakeholders; planners determine the level of support among stakeholders, develop strategies to elicit support, and determine programme elements required to accommodate the interests of stakeholders. Planners reformulate and clarify the planning mission. The mission statement incorporates values, beliefs and goals that reflect the interests and views of stakeholders. The mission statement focuses on planning. Planners identify and analyse critical issues relating to the mission, performance of the institution, cost and financing, management structure, staffing, students and relationships with stakeholders, among others. Planners determine how important each issue is and how it best can be addressed, while paying attention to stakeholder values and characteristics of the internal and external environments.
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Planners identify specific strategies for resolving issues. This begins with practical ways of addressing the issue, including the formulation of policies, objectives and actions. Resources are allocated and careful attention is given to the ‘fit’ between the strategies and the organizational environment. Strategic implementation involves working with institution personnel to address resource allocation, organizational capacity and strategy evaluation. Detailed budgets are formulated and organizational changes are put into place to better match people and structure with tasks. Built-in feedback mechanisms with review processes are developed to provide information on implementation.
Political planning in its various forms is highly sensitive to the implementing environment. This includes the proximate environment, comprised of individuals, groups, organizations, issues and conditions that occupy the immediate space close to the planning activity. This also includes the more remote planning environment comprised of the set of actors and circumstances that make up the larger policy and political arena and that condition the support and acceptance of the plan. Considerable bargaining is involved in response to diversity, different interests, conflict and shifting power relations. Political planning has the potential to support significant change. Claims of being more inclusive and participatory, however, have to be tempered with the realisation that efforts must be made to accommodate the voices of the marginalized (Birdsall, Burns & Sabot, 1996; Cornwall. 2003; Silvey & Elmhirst, 2003).
6 Looking Ahead TVET planners face the daunting task of making critical decisions with considerable intellectual disorder surrounding the concepts and methodologies that they rely on to guide judgements. There is no single good way to go about planning at any education and training level. But to ignore the importance of planning is to err. Planning is more, not less, important today, given the broad range of issues confronting workforce preparation in developed and newly developing countries alike. Reasonably good results can be realized when planners fully recognize that decision-making should not be pushed beyond the limits and constraints of the methodologies used; when multiple perspectives are employed to generate insights; when the participant base is broadened enough to elicit counter views; and when a strong dose of ‘common sense’ is applied to offset what may otherwise be shown in time to be narrowly defined and dogmatic decisions. Planning also is best conceived as an on-going process open to dialogue, review and change. Past experience shows that macro-level planning based on the use of rational models yields mixed results. The use of manpower planning models, in particular, is associated with questionable validity. Rapid technological change linked with a pervasive globalized market place is making national education and training projections increasingly irrelevant. Macro-level planning needs to be tempered with considerable caution.
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There is considerably more emphasis today on the timely provision of disaggregated data useful at the regional or local level for redirecting programming. The locus of decision-making is in regional or local co-ordinated groups of social partners, including employers. Combinations of programming are used to promote employment flexibility as youth and young adults navigate a sometimes uncertain and changing labour market. Avenues to enable students to pursue additional education and training are kept open. Macro-level planning is conceived primarily as contributing to the moulding of the labour force in certain directions rather than making specific skill-training allocations. There is greater appreciation today of the importance of interactive and consensual planning models. In the name of greater equity, participation is extended to individuals and groups formerly not represented. In this way, greater support is generated, programming is enriched and constructive relationships developed. Overall, greater participation has the potential to contribute to sustained institutional development. There is also greater awareness today of the political dimensions of planning. Planning is conceived as more than a set of technocratic exercises that mask relationships of power and privilege contributing to the reproduction of structural inequities. Political planning is concerned with power relationships within the implementing environment. Consensus and network building, empowering individuals and brokering change are perceived as important parts of planning. Both consensual and political planning models have helped to sensitize TVET educators to the fact that planning decisions are not neutral. Major value questions surround the provision of TVET services. The present focus on micro-level and programme and curricular planning indicates a trend that will no doubt continue well into the future. Failures within TVET have been primarily failures of implementation. There appears to be a growing consensus within the field that interactive and political planning models provide insights that help to recast planning in ways that will enhance the future implementation of TVET.
References Adams, D. 1991. Planning models and paradigms. In: Carlson, R.V.; Awkerman, G., eds. Educational planning, pp. 1–20. New York, NY: Longman. Adams, D. 1994. Educational planning: differing models. In: Husen, T.; Postlethwaite, T.N., eds. International encyclopedia of education, 2nd ed., pp. 1804–10. Oxford, UK: Pergamon. Ashton, D.; Sung, J. 2000. Maximizing human potential and the process of economic growth in Singapore. In: Herschbach, D.R.; Campbell, C.P., eds. 2000. Workforce preparation: an international perspective. Ann Arbor, MI: Prakken Publishers. Atchoarena, D.; Delluc, A. 2002. Revisiting technical and vocational education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. Bennell, P. 1996. Rates of return to education: does the conventional pattern prevail in Sub-Saharan Africa. World development, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 183–99. Bennell, P. 1998. Rates of return to education in Asia: a review of the evidence. Education economics, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 107–20. Bertrand, O. 2004. Planning human resources: methods, experiences and practices. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP.
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Birdsall, N.; Burns, B.; Sabot, R.H. 1996. Education in Brazil: playing a bad hand badly. In: Birdsall, N.; Sabot, R.H., eds. Opportunity foregone education in Brazil, pp. 7–47. Washington, DC: Johns Hopkins Press. Bishop, J.H.; Mane, F. 2004. The impacts of career-technical education on high school completion and labour market success eight years after high school. Economics of education, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 381–402. Bishop, J.H.; Mane, F. 2005. Economic returns to vocational courses in U.S. high schools. In: Lauglo, J.; Maclean, R., eds. Vocationalization of secondary education revisited, pp. 329–62. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Bosch, A.E. 1998. Popular education, work training, and the path to women’s empowerment in Chile. Comparative education review, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 163–82. Brand, W. 1998. Change and consensus in vocational education and training: the case of the German ‘dual system’. In: Finlay, I.; Niven, S.; Young, S. 1998. Changing vocational education and training, pp. 103–22. London: Routledge. Carlson, R.V.; Awkerman, G., eds. 1991. Educational planning. New York, NY: Longman. Cohn, E.; Addison, J. 1998. The economic returns to lifelong learning in OECD countries. Education economics, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 253–307. Cornwall, A. 2003. Whose voices? Whose choices? Reflections on gender and participatory development. World development, vol. 31, no. 8, pp. 1325–42. Dougherty, C. 1989. The cost-effectiveness of national training delivery modes: issues and experiences. Washington, DC: World Bank. (Population and Human Resources Department working paper series.) Easton, P.; Klees, S. 1992. Conceptualizing the role of education in the economy. In: Arnove, R., ed. Emergent issues in education: comparative perspectives, pp. 123–42. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Farrell, J.P. 1997. A retrospective on educational planning in comparative education. Comparative education review, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 277–313. Finlay, I. 1998. Stakeholders, consensus, participation and democracy. In: Finlay, I.; Niven, S.; Young, S., eds. Changing vocational education and training, pp. 3–19. London: Routledge. Finlay, I.; Niven, S.; Young, S., eds. 1998. Changing vocational education and training. London: Routledge. Godfrey, M. 1997. Planning for vocational education, training and employment: a minimalist approach. International journal of manpower, vol. 18, nos. 1/2, pp. 206–27. Gray, K.; Neng-Tang, H. 1992. An analysis of the long-term effects of educational attainment on yearly earnings. Journal of industrial teacher education, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 9–20. Herschbach, D.R.; Campbell, C.P., eds. 2000. Workforce preparation: an international perspective. Ann Arbor, MI: Prakken Publishers. Herschbach, D.R.; Davis, C. 2000. Planning, efficiency, and equity: a conceptual framework. In: Herschbach, D.R.; Campbell, C.P., eds. Workforce preparation: an international perspective, pp. 5–21. Ann Arbor, MI: Prakken Publishers. Lasonen, J.; Rauhala, P. 2000. Vocational education and training in the Nordic countries. In: Herschbach, D.R.; Campbell, C.P., eds. 2000. Workforce preparation: an international perspective, pp. 96–106. Ann Arbor, MI: Prakken Publishers. Metcalf, D.H. 1985. The economics of vocational training: past evidence and future considerations. Washington, DC: World Bank. Psacharopoulos, G.; Loxley, W. 1985. Diversified secondary education and development: evidence from Colombia and Tanzania. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Psacharopoulos, G.; Woodhall, M. 1985. Education for development: an analysis of investment choices. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Rondinelli, D.A.; Middleton, J.; Verspoor, A.M. 1990. Planning educational reforms in developing countries: the contingency approach. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Share, M. 1999. Investment in human capital: a cost-benefit approach. In: Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research, ed. Education and the Arab World, pp. 89–104. Abu Dhabi: Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research.
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Silvey, R.; Elmhirst, R. 2003. Engineering social capital: women workers and rural-urban networks in Indonesia’s crisis. World development, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 865–79. Task Force on Higher Education and Society. 2000. Higher education in developing countries: peril and promise. Washington, DC: Word Bank. Verspoor, A.M. 1992. Planning of education: where do we go? International journal of educational development, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 233–44. Warwick, D. 1980. Integrating planning and implementation: a transactional approach. In: Davis, R.G., ed. Planning education for development: Vol 1: Issues and problems in the planning of education in developing countries, pp. 379–411. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Woodhall, M. 2004. Cost-benefit analysis in educational planning. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP.
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Chapter VI.6
South African Technikons and Policy Contestation over Academic Drift Andre Kraak
1 Introduction This chapter examines the issue of academic drift with reference to South Africa’s technikon (polytechnic) sector. The discussion provides a detailed account of how post-apartheid policy development has dealt with the issue of academic drift. The issue is located within the wider post-apartheid imperative of institutional transformation and mergers among higher education institutions previously segregated on the basis of race. A key issue that receives attention is the intense stakeholder contestation over policy, particularly from the technikon leadership. However, the outcomes of policy implementation a decade later have been contradictory. Although the technikon sector fought hard to retain the divide between technikons and universities and their distinctive career-oriented educational provision, once faced by the threat of merger and transformation, technikons ultimately chose to become universities of technology rather than remain as technikons, thereby narrowing the fundamental differences in institutional type. The chapter concludes by suggesting several new challenges facing these institutions as they attempt to become universities with a distinctive ‘technology’ mandate.
2 South Africa’s Technikon Sector One of the defining features of the technikon sector in South Africa has been its production of skilled personnel to meet the intermediate skill needs of the national economy. This has occurred primarily through the provision of national diploma and certificate programmes at Level Five of the National Qualifications Framework. Some 70% of technikon provision has been at the National Diploma and National Certificate levels. A further 29% of technikon enrolment occurs at the bachelors’ degree level, and only 1% of enrolment is in post-graduate study (Subotzky, 2003). Given the national economy’s high reliance on intermediate skills at the post-school, pre-degree level (see Kraak, 2004), this array of provisioning has been seen as a major national asset. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VI.6, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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Another asset of the sector has been its easier access criteria, particularly for learners with weak Grade 12 matriculation results. In South Africa, because of the ravages of apartheid education and economic under-development, those with weak school results are largely black and African. It is these students who have enrolled in the technikon sector in large numbers since the early 1990s when these institutions were effectively de-racialized. Technikons have provided an alternative entry point into higher education for students who would have been excluded on academic grounds from the university sector. Technikons only require a pass mark in the Senior Certificate Examination at the end of Grade 12, whereas universities require matriculation (a much higher achievement level) and, in the case of particular subject fields, universities require other pre-requisites, such as good mathematics and science grades. Table 1 reflects the differentiated enrolments between technikons and universities in South Africa between 1993 and 2003. The table also highlights the rapid growth rate of technikons in this period—73% for technikons as opposed to 44% for universities. This growth was largely due to increased African intake. However, even with this rapid growth, universities continue to dominate the higher education landscape.
Table 1 Enrolments in higher education, 1993–2003 1993 University enrolments Technikon enrolments Total enrolments
1995
1997
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
340,000 385,000 380,000 384,000 388,369 428,648 460,438 488,000 133,000 184,000 200,000 208,000 202,792 224,327 214,690 230,000 473,000 569,000 580,000 586,000 591,161 652,975 675,128 718,000
Source: CHE, 2004.
3 A Clash over ‘Academic Drift’ The technikon sector has not been able to rest on its laurels for too long. The advent of democracy in April 1994 triggered an era of intense policy formulation and contestation—an environment within which the technikon sector saw both itself and its distinct mission under severe threat. In the international literature, this problem has been referred to as ‘academic drift’—the sometimes unintended and often opportunistic movement of technikon-type institutions up the qualification hierarchy and across the academic/vocational divide in search of new learner markets, programme fields and income sources. In moving upwards in this way, institutions such as technikons begin to mimic key attributes of university-based institutions.
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3.1 The Historical Genesis of South Africa’s Trinary Divide The evolution of South Africa’s distinctive trinary divide in higher education began with the Van Wyk de Vries Commission of Inquiry into Universities in 1974 (RSA, 1974). The commission maintained that universities should concentrate on teaching and research on the basic fundamental principles of science, with a view to the provision of high-level person-power. In short, Van Wyk de Vries was arguing that the business of universities was to induct students into the canonical principles of disciplinary-based sciences via bachelor, master and doctoral degree programmes. Technikons should concentrate on technology, the application of scientific principles to practical problems, and the preparation of persons for the practice, promotion and transfer of technology within a particular occupation or industry. The greater part of all technikon instructional programmes involves putting into practice existing knowledge, technology, results and formulas. The programmes technikons offer to accomplish these goals are in the main national certificates and national diplomas, although since 1993 they have offered a limited range of bachelor, master and doctoral degrees. Tertiary colleges provide vocational training in the higher education domain, specifically to semi-professional occupations, such as teachers, nurses, policemen and farmers (RSA, 1974). This trinary education structure maintained a fairly rigid differentiation of function between institutions until the dramatic government policy changes after 1994. However, even prior to 1994, the State acknowledged that the ‘present system was to a large extent characterized by rigidity and inflexibility, with each subsector and institution largely working in isolation of each other. This situation is not only inhibiting as regards the articulation of learners, but at the same time it hampers the essential exchange of expertise’ (RSA. DoNE, 1995). The government argued that the trinary divide was problematic because universities were also involved in professional or career training, that technology was increasingly more dependent on links with disciplinary and inter-disciplinary knowledge, and that the technikons had in any event moved well beyond their ‘application of technology’ mandate by offering courses in business, commerce and the social sciences (RSA. DoNE, 1995, pp. 12, 19). In short, the dying apartheid regime itself was indicating that the rigid trinary divide of higher education was beginning to dissolve.
4 South Africa’s Post-Apartheid Higher Education Policies The democratic dispensation that came to power after April 1994 proposed dramatic changes to the institutional landscape in higher education. The new policy framework, which sought the development of a ‘single, nationally co-ordinated system’ of higher education, triggered an intense period of policy contestation, largely around
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the role of technikons and the continuation of the binary divide between technikons and universities within a new ‘unified’ framework.
4.1 The Lack of a Sense of ‘System’ The first problem identified by the new government and the National Commission on Higher Education (NCHE), which sat in 1996, was the absence of any sense of ‘system’. Two major systemic deficiencies were noted: 1. There was a chronic mismatch between higher education’s output and the needs of a modernizing economy. 2. There was a lack of regulatory frameworks, due to a long history of organizational and administrative fragmentation and weak accountability. This inhibited planning and co-ordination, the elimination of duplication and waste, the promotion of better articulation and mobility, and the effective evaluation of quality and efficiency (NCHE, 1996b, p. 2). This led the NCHE to propose a new regulatory framework that would co-ordinate higher education provision as a single coherent whole, applying uniform norms and procedures with sufficient flexibility to allow for diversity in addressing the multiple needs of highly differentiated learner constituencies. The new higher education policy framework called for a more open and unified system based on centrally driven planning and co-ordination. At the heart of the notion of a single nationally co-ordinated system was a strong emphasis on State co-ordination that would strategically ‘steer’ the higher education system via a regulatory framework based on financial incentives, reporting and monitoring requirements (particularly with regard to key performance indicators) and a system of programme approval. The shift in policy framework was dramatic, from the established trinary model to a single system with differentiation derived not from some historically acquired institutional role, but via programmes that would be identified through systematic planning and co-ordination so as to steer the entire national system in directions consonant with national socio-economic priorities.
4.2 Open Systems and Permeable Boundaries This emphasis on a single nationally co-ordinated system of higher education was strongly influenced by the global trend toward more open, massified and inclusive systems of higher education (see Scott, 1995). The determinants for mass higher education worldwide have been the widening of access to formerly excluded learner constituencies, particularly women, blacks and working-class students. These developments globally over the past decades have led to an impressive growth in programme offerings particularly in higher education institutions, going way beyond the provision of discipline-based degree qualifications. Much of this expansion
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has occurred in the fields of recurrent, continuing and professional education and training—the key access points to higher education for the working class and other previously marginalized constituencies. These developments have had the effect of moving national systems of higher education away from binary or divided systems towards a more unified single system with common features and a homogenizing mission. Indeed, convergence of this kind is a reality in many national systems as rigid functional distinctions between universities and polytechnics (technikons in South Africa) are diluted in response to the multiple impacts of massification, globalization and institutional creep. However, the erosion of functional differences between previously distinct types at each end of the binary divide does not suggest the rise of uniform missions for all institutions in unified systems of higher education. Indeed, system-wide dichotomy has given way to institutional-level pluralism and diversity (Scott, 1995, p. 169). The influence of these global trends—as characterized by Scott—are very evident in the NCHE report, for example, when it proposes a new unified model of higher education in South Africa which would represent a ‘radical departure from previously divisive and fractured social structures and a move towards new and more integrative forms of social organization’ (NCHE, 1996b, p. 76). The NCHE’s emphasis on increased participation signifies a shift away from a higher education system that ‘enrols primarily middle-class students into elite professional and scholarly pursuits, to a system characterized by a wider diversity of feeder constituencies and programmes’ (NCHE, 1996b, p. 76; RSA. DoE, 1996, pp. 18–19). Unfortunately, the formal adoption of this new approach—the emphasis on a single, nationally co-ordinated system of higher education—did not bring with it policy certainty and consensus in the wider South African educational community. Even though the idea of a single system became official policy with the passing of the Higher Education Act in 1997, the government itself wavered in its resolve to support such a policy position. External stakeholder dissent became more vocal in the years that followed the passing of the 1997 Act. One of the factors behind all this disquiet has been the unresolved question of institutional differentiation and the continuance of the binary divide in South Africa. Another factor was clearly the threat of institutional mergers. These two factors were inextricably intertwined during the policy process, because the institutional form that any merger would take was premised on the question of the continuation of the binary divide or its dilution in some new institutional arrangement. The next section will critically examine the depth and breadth of these policy disagreements through their various phases since the passing of the Higher Education Act in 1997.
4.3 Early Opposition to the NCHE There was considerable opposition to the idea of a unified system during the deliberations of the NCHE. This opposition arose from two sources: from the technikons themselves; and from the leadership of the historically disadvantaged institutions
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(HDIs), who believed the new approach would put them yet again at a disadvantage because of their lack of capacity to respond creatively to new programme offerings. A compromise position was to emerge on differentiation in the NCHE. The compromise was premised on a middle-ground formulation that supported ‘functional differentiation’ (a continuation of the binary divide) in the short to medium term, a position that was not principally opposed to a transition to ‘flexible differentiation’ (meaning a unified system) in the longer term. The interim ‘Discussion document’ of the NCHE reported that elements within the technikon sector had made submissions that argued strongly for the retention and reinforcement of the technikons as a distinct sector with a unique mission within higher education. The case of the technikons’ support for functional differentiation rested heavily on: the need to ensure an appropriate mix of graduates and diplomates to meet South Africa’s broad human resource needs. The view that the current mix is skewed in favour of university graduates, and the proposition that ‘career education’ is best ensured and protected within a higher education sector dedicated to this purpose, have been put forward. The argument is for the retention of functional differentiation with an altered balance to enhance the technikon’s role. [. . .] Technikons would have a delineated function in the offering of career and vocational education (incorporating experiential learning, and via programmes designed in conjunction with the relevant ‘employers’ grouping) and in development and product-related research. Universities, in contrast, would focus on general formative education, intellectual preparation for professions, and basic and applied research (NCHE, 1996a, p. 55).
Under a flexible approach, in contrast, differentiation would occur in terms of institutional missions and programme mixes. It would evolve in terms of a planned process based on emerging national and regional needs and not the inherited sectoral location of the institution (NCHE, 1996a, pp. 56–57). The final report of the NCHE, released in mid-1996, fudged these differences by adopting a middle-ground position. The NCHE resolution reads: The Commission’s task is not to propose a unified, binary or stratified institutional structure for the single co-ordinated system, but to recommend a set of transitional arrangements that will hold while national and regional needs are clarified, planning capacities are developed and institutional development proceeds. The Commission believes that the system should recognize, in name and in broad function and mission, the existence of universities, technikons and colleges as types of institutions offering higher education programmes. But these institutional types should not be regarded as discrete sectors with mutually exclusive missions and programme offerings. The new system will evolve through a planned process that recognizes current institutional missions and capacities, addresses the distortions created by apartheid, and responds to emerging regional and national needs (NCHE, 1996b, pp. 15–16).
The commission saw their proposal for a single, nationally co-ordinated system of higher education as occupying the middle ground in an often-heated squabble over differentiation. In this formulation, the concerns of those supporting functional differentiation could be reconciled with the arguments for greater flexibility. The NCHE conceived its proposal as pragmatic, providing a continuum along which
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the system could gradually move, from ‘functional differentiation’ towards a truly single system with softened boundaries (NCHE, 1996b, p. 283). Nonetheless, the dissenting voices remained. In the final 1996 report of the NCHE, Brian Figaji, former Rector of Peninsula Technikon, published a minority report that expressed opposition to further education and training colleges encroaching onto higher education turf by offering career and vocational education at higher education level. More significantly, Figaji also opposed the notion of differentiation being based on programme rather than institution. His view was that if any institution could offer any programme, it would ‘negate the current institutional missions and educational cultures’ of existing institutions such as technikons: ‘The result of this scheme is going to be “academic creep” at an unprecedented scale with vocational and career education once again sidelined in favour of the higher status “academic” programmes’ (NCHE, 1996b, p. 318). Figaji has been the most vocal in his opposition to the notion of programme differentiation. In a 1999 lecture, he warned against the dangers of a policy framework that inevitably would push institutions towards convergence and homogeneity— exactly the opposite of the differentiation desired by policy. In his speech, Figaji repeated the case for a ‘higher education system with different institutional types such as colleges, universities and technikons, each with its own distinct mission and programme’ (Figaji, 1999, p. 15).
4.4 The Contribution of the Council on Higher Education The tensions around differentiation were not to go away after the NCHE and the passing of the 1997 Act. In fact, several unforeseen difficulties began to emerge which fuelled the on-going debate. Chief amongst these were: (a) the highly competitive and imitative behaviour of institutions as witnessed during the mid- to late-1990s that overshadowed co-operation and led towards homogeneity and sameness; (b) the absence of planning capacity at institutional level to identify unique niche areas; (c) weaknesses and capacity problems in national and institutional planning processes that, in the short term, compromised the efficacy of these instruments to steer and regulate higher education; and (d) inadequate senior and middle-level management capacities within the system (RSA. DoE, 2001a, p. 51; CHE, 2000, pp. 33–34). All of these unforeseen difficulties led the then Minister of Education, Professor Kadar Asmal, to set up a ‘Size and Shape’ Task Team in July 1999 to review and reform the institutional landscape of higher education. The Task Team was set up in January 2000 under the auspices of the Council on Higher Education (CHE) which published its report in July 2000. The recommendations made by the CHE Task Team were controversial and to a large extent in conflict with the essence of the new higher education policy framework. At the heart of the Task Team proposal was the promotion of a highly diversified higher education system premised on institutional differentiation rather than programme differentiation, as advocated in all of the previous policy texts.
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The Size and Shape report proposed a new three-tiered institutional landscape. The three institutional types were defined primarily by prescriptions imposed on their core teaching and research functions. A bedrock higher education institution was defined as a dedicated undergraduate teaching institution with limitations imposed on the extent and spread of its postgraduate and research programmes. Its key function was to provide high-quality undergraduate teaching to a wide constituency of learners. A comprehensive institution has significant post-graduate and research capabilities, with its primary function being the production of new scientific knowledge and the training of the country’s future cadre of high-skill graduates. An extensive masters and limited doctoral institution was defined as an inbetween institutional structure with greater resources available than the bedrock campuses, that could offer masters programmes, but with similar limitations to those applicable to the ‘bedrocks’ in relation to doctoral programmes and knowledgeproduction functions (i.e. research) (CHE, 2000). Support for the CHE’s three-tiered model did emerge, unsurprisingly, from the technikon sector. This sector, particularly through its mouthpiece organization, the Committee of Technikon Principals (CTP), was notably enthusiastic about the key components of the CHE proposals. On differentiation, the CTP noted, ‘there is a strong argument for differentiation and diversity in the Report which the CTP fully supports, because it would facilitate more effective responses from institutions to the various social needs of the country’ (CTP, 2000, p. 2). The CTP was particularly encouraged by the Task Team support for the idea of a ‘university of technology’. It saw this recommendation as a way of putting technikons in South Africa in ‘line with the rest of the world where such institutions are called Technical Universities, Institutes of Technology or Universities of Technology’ (CTP, 2000, p. 3). The CHE recommendations—as could be expected—also triggered strong opposition from other stakeholders in higher education, particularly from the South African Universities Vice-Chancellors Association (SAUVCA). SAUVCA’s opposition to the proposals was essentially two-fold. First, there was concern that the three-tiered system would simply replicate the racial differentiation imposed by apartheid education. Secondly, the proposals were seen as a reversal in policy orientation, away from the single co-ordinated system emphasized in earlier policy texts towards a classical social stratification model of provision (SAUVCA, 2000, pp. 1, 5).
4.5 The National Plan of the Department of Education The government’s formal response to the ‘Size and Shape’ Task Team report was contained in the Ministry of Education’s National Plan for Higher Education released in March 2001. At the heart of the National Plan was a reaffirmation of a single co-ordinated national system that was simultaneously diverse. The National Plan also firmly rejected the rigid structural differentiation of the CHE report. The
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document added a further rider to the process of institutional restructuring: it aimed to formulate a plan for a new institutional landscape through mergers and regional collaboration by December 2001 (RSA. DoE, 2001a, pp. 1, 14–15). The most significant element in the National Plan with regard to institutional differentiation was its concern that the programme distinctions between technikons and universities—career-oriented versus general formative and professional degree programmes—had been dramatically eroded. Technikons had gradually increased their degree offerings, both at undergraduate and post-graduate levels. This led in turn to a number of technikons requesting a change in status to become ‘universities of technology’ (RSA. DoE, 2001a, p. 57). The tendency towards uniformity of provision, according to the plan, ‘is worrying’. There has been little evidence of attempts by institutions, it argues, to identify unique institutional strengths and niche areas, either existing or potential, that would differentiate between institutions. The Ministry’s response to these developments was to attempt to halt this erosion by retaining the binary divide between technikons and universities for at least the subsequent five years as ‘two types of institutions offering different kinds of highereducation programmes’ (RSA. DoE, 2001a, p. 57). Retaining the binary divide for a further five years was always a part of the NCHE proposals and so the National Plan was not suggesting anything new. However, it was also a response to the demands by technikons for their distinctive contribution— career-oriented tertiary provision—to be retained. The rejection of the rigid structural differentiation proposals of the CHE was clearly a response to the widespread opposition to those proposals from the university sector. The ministry’s National Plan, therefore, attempted to straddle the middle ground. The department, however, remained silent (as did the NCHE) on the strategic desirability of a strong binary divide in South Africa. What this defensive position failed to take into account were the new education and training demands of globalization, as was so clearly outlined by Scott earlier—demands that act to differentiate less between the institutional typologies of university and technikon and emphasize a higher level of education and training competencies across the entire workforce. A key signal from the National Plan was that institutional voluntarism had failed to promote the goals of the NCHE and 1997 Act. What was now required was ‘direct State intervention and stronger signals from government’ (RSA. DoE, 2001a, p. 81). Key areas requiring State intervention included: (a) a reduction in the total number of institutions in the country through mergers; (b) instituting stronger and more cost-effective forms of regional collaboration; and (c) attaining greater efficiencies across the entire system.
4.6 The National Working Group The National Working Group (NWG) was appointed by the Minister of Education in April 2001 to finalize the proposals for institutional mergers as suggested by the
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National Plan for Higher Education. The terms of reference for the NWG were very specific and rather narrow, instructing the NWG to focus on the establishment of a more consolidated system of higher education provision attained primarily through a reduction in the number of institutions. The NWG proposed an entirely new institutional landscape comprising four differing types: universities, technikons, comprehensives and provincially-based national institutes of higher education. The NWG report repeated some of the concerns raised by the National Plan regarding unplanned growth in the higher education sector, particularly with regard to ‘academic drift’ of technikon provisioning. Such growth threatened the continuation of the binary divide which was viewed as a crucial mechanism for the production of diverse skills needed in the national economy. Secondly, the NWG viewed the proliferation of distance education courses and the growth of satellite campuses as threatening the provision of other already existing residential universities offering similar programmes (RSA. DoE, 2001b, pp. 62–63). The NWG also privileged the more effective distribution of both university and technikon programmes across all regions in the country. Regional provision became a decisive factor in the determination of institutional restructuring and merger in each region. Indeed, the creation of an entirely new institutional type—the comprehensive university—was a direct consequence of the importance attached to this factor (RSA. DoE, 2001b, p. 61). The NWG also argued for the continuance of the binary divide, both in terms of the differences between universities and technikons, but also within the new institutional type—comprehensives—between their academic and career-oriented pathways. The NWG provides an extremely thin definition of ‘comprehensives relying largely on two characteristics: they will become institutions that offer a wider regional distribution of programmes than is the case currently, and secondly, they provide students with a wider (more comprehensive) choice of programmes, ranging from the purely academic through to the career and vocational’ (RSA. DoE, 2001b, p. 27). The Department of Education commissioned educational researcher Trish Gibbon to produce a concept document on the meaning of ‘comprehensives’ in the South African context. In her report, Gibbon warns that the use of the term in the international context varies widely along both the horizontal and vertical axes of higher-education provision. Horizontally, comprehensives offer ‘breadth’ of provision from career-oriented programmes all the way through to the more traditional academically-oriented baccalaureate degrees. Vertically, comprehensives can offer ‘depth’ of education and training, ranging from certificate and diplomas through to bachelor, master and doctoral degree programmes (RSA. DoE, 2004). Several South African higher education institutions operate to differing degrees along these two axes of provision, and hence concepts of ‘breadth’ and ‘depth’ as categories did not, on their own, provide a distinctive mission for South African comprehensives. Gibbon suggests the following four characteristics as key components of the institutional mission of comprehensives in the South African context:
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Diversity: through the offering of a wide range of programmes (vocational, career-focused, professional and general formative) of both the university and technikon type. Accessibility: through the opportunities created by the different entry and exit points of technikon and university programmes. Student mobility: through developing strong vertical and horizontal articulation pathways between technikon and university programmes. Responsiveness: through the development of a suite of educational programmes and research foci appropriate to local, regional and national needs. Flexibility: through the strengthening of relationships with community, civic, government, business and industry partners for local and regional development (RSA. DoE, 2004).
4.7 The Education Ministry’s Response The June 2002 response of the Department of Education to the NWG proposals was positive, with only a few alterations and concessions to protest and pressure by higher-education stakeholders. Most significantly, the ministry supported the continuance of the binary divide and, in doing so, it committed to maintain: in a flexible manner, the existing mission and programme differentiation between technikons and universities for at least the next five years. This is necessary to avoid academic drift, especially as there is a tendency for technikons to want to shift their focus from primarily offering career-oriented programmes at a diploma level to degree-level programmes at both the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Academic drift would impact adversely on the ability of the higher education system to meet the government’s access goals and human resource development priorities, especially the goal of expanding career-oriented programmes at all levels, in particular, shorter-cycle certificate and diploma programmes in science, engineering and technology (RSA. DoE, 2002b, paragraph 4.2).
The ministerial response also reinforced the idea that comprehensives would assist in solidifying the binary divide by making technikon programmes more ‘readily available throughout the country, and in particular, in rural areas which currently were inadequately serviced by such provision’ (RSA. DoE, 2002a, p. 27).
4.8 Technikon Lobbying At this stage in the evolution of higher education policy (June 2002) there had been little mention or debate in the policy environment about universities of technology, nor of converting technikons into such institutions. This shift came about through political lobbying rather than through a planned process of policy evolution on the part of the State. The CTP, as has been seen in this chapter, was very influential in the policy debates right from the inception of the NCHE in 1995, particularly in demanding the continuance of the binary divide and defending the distinctive role technikons
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played in the South African economy. With the approval of the NWG proposals by both the education ministry and cabinet in 2000, the CTP continued to be disgruntled. They argued that even though the status of the technikons was protected in the NWG recommendations, their absolute numbers had declined from fifteen to five institutions. This was because of the formation of comprehensives which merged technikons with traditional universities and the merger of several technikons into fewer universities of technology. In their view, comprehensives blurred the distinction between technikons and universities even further: The ‘comprehensive’ hybrid organizations that will result from the merging of some technikons and some universities will aggravate the indistinguishability between institutions and could contribute to the further promotion of academic drift if not effectively addressed and managed (CTP, 2003).
The CTP began arguing that the ‘the name technikon had become a stumbling block’ (CTP, 2004, p. 7). Amongst the problems listed were that technikons were seen as inferior to universities, technikon graduates were not recognized by professional associations, and that technikons were seen as a second or third choice after universities. Membership of international university associations was denied to technikons as they were not accepted as degree-awarding institutions of higher education (CTP, 2004, p. 7). The CTP worked relentlessly at persuading the Minister of Education to reinstate the former pre-eminence of the five remaining technikons through a name change to that of ‘university of technology’. Even though the NWG was opposed to the name change, arguing that technikons should address their problems by ‘enhancing the quality of their programmes and the capacity of technikons to undertake research and to offer post-graduate programmes’ (RSA. DoE, 2001b, p. 17), the minister finally relented and gave his approval to the name change in October 2003. The process that gave rise to the category ‘university of technology’ again was not informed by a rational process of policy development but, rather, arose from political lobbying with minimal policy documentation to explain the new category and its institutional functions. The CTP, however, did produce a small policy literature on universities of technology in 2003 and 2004. In the most important of these documents, published in 2004 and entitled Position, role and function of universities of technology in South Africa, the CTP adopts UNESCO’s definition of technology as its anchor concept. Technology is ‘the know-how and creative process that may assist people to utilize tools, resources and systems to solve problems and enhance control over the natural and made environment in an endeavour to improve the human condition’ (CTP, 2004, p. 10). At a university of technology, the CTP maintains, all learning programmes and research projects are related to technology. In practice, this means that at universities of technology, science, engineering and management fields of study are the priority foci of the institution. The CTP then defines a university of technology as: Learner-centred education: defining quality and effectiveness in higher education in terms of outputs such as ‘what students need to learn’ and maximizing student performance.
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Employer-centred: defining the curriculum in terms of what students require to make them more skilled, more competent and more employable; providing constant upgrading through short courses; taking learning into the work-place; and liaising regularly with employers to ensure that prospective employees receive a relevant education. Experiential learning: A university of technology should find creative ways of drawing in employers to provide practical problems which students can solve during their work placements. Adult and continuing education: universities of technology should become specialists in ‘just-in-time’ education—experts in providing a continuous upgrading of knowledge and skills. This practical knowledge will be provided in a variety of modules and variations in contact and distance-learning programmes to graduates when and where they need it. Social engagement: universities of technology should be seen as institutions with a greater commitment of service to, and upliftment of the community than has previously been the case with higher education institutions in South Africa. In the teaching, research and development undertaken, the upliftment and transfer of skills to the community are of paramount importance (CTP, 2004, pp. 5–7).
The CTP document also proposes a distinctive research role for universities of technology around the related concepts of ‘technological innovation’ and ‘technology transfer’. It defines technological innovation as the ‘process that transforms new knowledge into wealth. It covers the different steps of the innovation chain, from the creation of new ideas, the development of technology in the form of products, processes and services, up to the ultimate successful commercialization and/or implementation’ (CTP, 2004, p. 21). Technology transfer, on the other hand, is the ‘formal transfer of new discoveries, innovations and technology, usually resulting from R&D [research and development] activities at universities, to the commercial and industrial sectors in the economy’ (CTP, 2004, p. 21). Such a research role would have the following characteristics:
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Enhancing R&D ‘downstream’ related activities, such as the patenting, licensing, commercialization and marketing of intellectual property and R&D results in the form of products, processes or services; Promoting and marketing a corporate culture for technological innovation, entrepreneurship and technology transfer; Developing appropriate policies, strategies and models for technological innovation and technology transfer; Promoting and developing knowledge and technology-intensive enterprises; and Participation in the establishment of technology and business incubators and related support structures.
5 Conclusion The new South African landscape is indeed dramatically different from that which existed prior to 2004. All in all, South Africa now has eleven traditional universities, five universities of technology, five comprehensives and two national institutes of higher education—in total, twenty-three institutions of higher education. This is a dramatic reduction from the previous thirty-six.
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The position of technikons in the institutional landscape has undergone a fundamental—although rather contradictory—transition. On the one hand, technikon leadership has fought strongly to retain the binary divide between universities and technikons so as to ensure their distinctive intermediate skills contribution of career-oriented education and training at the diploma and certificate levels. This has been a successful strategy, at least in policy terms, as all the policy documents refer to retention of the binary divide, at least in the short to medium term. On the other hand, technikon leadership itself has contributed over time to the dilution of the binary divide through, firstly, institutional creep into greater levels of degree and post-graduate provision but, more recently, through advocating a name change of technikons to that of universities of technology. That such a campaign has now succeeded imposes new conditions upon the universities of technology to indeed become more like universities, albeit with a more technological mandate. A number of constraints will stand in the way of the technikons achieving this equivalence. For example, there is the near absence of a research culture at the former technikons and low levels of staff with Ph.Ds who would be able to lead postgraduate programmes and R&D activities. In short, without a dramatic upgrading of teaching, learning and research practices at the universities of technology, it will be difficult to see how they will be able to establish an equivalent but (technologically) differentiated status to that of universities. In addition, articulation mechanisms within the post-school education and training system in South Africa have always been restrictive and, as a consequence, very few learners have progressed from one sub-sector to the next; for example, from the further education colleges into technikon education, or from the technikons into universities (see Kraak, 1994). These constraints on progression have not been adequately dealt with over the past decade and the restrictions remain even with the new policy emphasis of a single national system of higher education. The lack of learner progression across the system becomes an even more problematic issue with the launch of universities of technology and comprehensive institutions. For example, the policy motivation for comprehensive institutions is that learners in remote areas previously neglected by the education system will now be able to access higher education, exercise greater choice and, in so doing, move more freely from one type of provision (technikon) to another (university) within the same institution. However, the credit accumulation and transfer rules for such progression, as well as the determination of curriculum equivalence between the two types of provision, have not been established on a wide scale as yet, so this policy ideal is unlikely to benefit large numbers of learners in the medium term. Similar problems face learners enrolled on higher-education programmes in further-education colleges and who seek entry to higher education. The benchmarks for good practice in this regard have not yet been established, and franchise arrangements as well as other forms of partnership agreements between FET colleges, comprehensives and universities of technology have not been developed as yet. All of these factors limit the extent to which the new institutional forms will be able to widen access. These are the new challenges that face higher education in South Africa in the future.
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References Committee of Technikon Principals. 2000. Response to the Report of the Council on Higher Education Task Team: ‘Towards a new higher education landscape’. Pretoria: CTP. Committee of Technikon Principals. 2003. Reflections on the restructuring of higher education and the renaming of technikons—media briefing. Pretoria: CTP. Committee of Technikon Principals. 2004. Position, role and function of universities of technology in South Africa. Pretoria: CTP. Council on Higher Education. 2000. Towards a new higher education landscape: meeting the equity, quality and social development imperatives of South Africa in the 21st century. Pretoria: CHE. Council on Higher Education. 2004. South African higher education in the first decade of democracy. Pretoria: CHE. Figaji, B. 1999. Higher education in South Africa: differentiation or convergence? (Inaugural professorial lecture, Peninsula Technikon, Bellville, Cape, South Africa.) Kraak, A. 1994. Free or co-ordinated markets? Education and training policy options for a future South Africa. [Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Faculty of Education, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa.] Kraak, A. 2004. An overview of South African human resources development. Cape Town, South Africa: HSRC Press. National Commission on Higher Education. 1996a. Discussion document: a framework for transformation. Pretoria: NCHE. National Commission on Higher Education. 1996b. A framework for transformation. Pretoria: NCHE. Republic of South Africa. 1974. Main report of the inquiry into universities. Pretoria: Government Printer. (Van Wyk de Vries Commission.) Republic of South Africa. Department of National Education. 1995. A qualification structure for universities in South Africa, NATED 02–116, Pretoria: DoNE. (March 1995 revision.) Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. 1996. Green Paper on higher education transformation. Pretoria: DoE. Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. 2001a. National plan for higher education. Pretoria: DoE. Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. 2001b. The restructuring of the higher education system in South Africa: report of the National Working Group to the Minister of Education. Pretoria: DoE. Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. 2002a. Transformation and restructuring: a new institutional landscape for higher education. Pretoria: DoE. Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. 2002b. The transformation and reconstruction of the higher education system. Pretoria: DoE. Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. 2004. Creating comprehensive universities in South Africa: a concept document. Pretoria: DoE. (A commissioned report by Trish Gibbons.) Scott, P. 1995. The meanings of mass higher education. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. South African Universities Vice-Chancellors Association. 2000. SAUVCA’s response to the CHE’s report. Pretoria: UNISA Sunnyside Campus. [Mimeo issued by SAUVCA and authored by Piyushi Kotecha.] Subotzky, G. 2003. Public higher education. In: Human Sciences Research Council, ed. Human resources development review 2003: education, employment and skills in South Africa. Cape Town, South Africa: HSRC Press; East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press.
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Chapter VI.7
New Policy Actions and Government Roles: China’s Reconstruction of TVET Systems Since the 1980s Deyu Sun, Jingwen Lu and Jun Li
1 Introduction The history of the development of formal technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in China can be traced back to the late Qing Dynasty (1840–1911), but it was not until the early twentieth century that the framework of the modern school system began to emerge. It has only been in the last three decades that reform measures accelerated—the achievements have been remarkable. By 2004, China had 14.1 million students enrolled in 14,454 secondary vocational schools (China. Ministry of Education [MoE], 2005). To understand China’s ultra-large TVET system, this chapter first introduces an overview of developments since the 1980s. It then focuses on the role that the Chinese Government played in the reform and development of the TVET system, and highlights future policy actions for reform. The chapter ends with a discussion of some TVET problems unique to the Chinese context, as well as the implications for TVET policy actions.
2 China’s TVET System since the 1980s The TVET system in China was adapted from the USSR’s model after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in l949. With the adoption in March 1952 of the Instruction on Reorganizing and Developing Secondary Technical Education, the basic framework of the secondary TVET system was established. By 1958, the TVET system was fully co-ordinated with the economic development plans through four institutions: agricultural high schools; industrial high schools; handicraft high schools; and part-time vocational high schools. Further development of the TVET system, however, was seriously hampered by the ten tumultuous years of the Cultural Revolution starting in 1966. After China opened its doors to the outside world in 1978, its TVET system gradually revived. The central government adopted new policies to speed up the reform of the TVET system, including transforming some general secondary schools into vocational schools, establishing educational networks for vocational education and training, and increasing the annual budget for TVET system, among other changes designed to augment enrolment and infrastructure (China. MoE/State R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VI.7, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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Administration of Labour, 1980). More importantly, much attention was directed to the quality of TVET schools, as well as to their efficiency. As a result, the size of TVET provision was greatly expanded. In 1980, a total of 3,314 agricultural schools were restored or opened with an enrolment of 450,000 students. Students recruited and admitted to regular technical schools also increased to 330,000 and 700,000 respectively (MoE, 1983, pp. 182, 188, 190). On 4 December 1982, the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China was enacted by the fifth session of the fifth National People’s Congress. The Constitution officially supports vocational education and explicitly requires that: ‘The State establishes and administers schools of various types, universalizes compulsory primary education and promotes secondary and vocational education, as well as higher education.’ Meanwhile, it requires that ‘the State provides the necessary vocational training for citizens before they are employed.’ This requirement provides legitimacy for the ‘trained-before-employed’ system and for expanding the TVET system. China’s TVET system has been back on track for rapid and appropriate development ever since. On 9 May 1983, the Opinion on the Structural Reform of Urban Secondary Education and the Development of TVET was signed jointly by four State departments (MoE, Department of Labour Resources, Ministry of Finance and State Planning Commission, 1985). This policy presented the new tasks, goals and strategies for the development of the TVET system in the 1980s. Up to 1984, 1.47 million students were enrolled in 7,002 secondary vocational schools. Additionally, the total number of enrolled students in regular secondary vocational and technical schools reached 3.7 million. This number accounts for 34.9% of the whole body of enrolled high-school students (Guo & Wu, 1996, p. 133). On 15 May 1996, the Law of Vocational Education, the first law on vocational education in China since 1949, was formally promulgated and implemented. This law is considered as a milestone in a new round of TVET reform in China and serves as a legal basis for redefining the role, school system, responsibilities, managerial system and financial resources of TVET. Ever since then, the social status of TVET has been strongly promoted to meet the needs of the socialist market economy and China’s rapid social changes. From the early 1980s to the late 1990s, the secondary vocational school system continued its rapid growth. It is reported that from 1980 to 2001, the proportion of regular upper high-school students among all the students in upper secondary education decreased from 81% to 54.7%, while the proportion of secondary vocational school students increased from 19% to 45.3%. During the same period, 50 million students graduated from secondary vocational education institutions (MoE, n.d.). By the turn of the new century, however, growth was slowing. In recent years secondary vocational schools have been reenergized and, once again, have achieved rapid development (Fig. 1). Since 2003, the vocational education system has expanded considerably (see Table 1). From 2001 to 2003, the total number of newly enrolled students in secondary vocational schools surged from 3.98 million to 5.15 million, representing an increase of 29%. In 2004, the number of newly enrolled and total students leapt to 5.5 million and 13.7 million respectively (Zhou, 2004). In addition, the higher
VI.7 New Policy Actions and Government Roles in China Total enrolments (tens of thousands) 541.6
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Fig. 1 Trend of enrolments and entrants in vocational secondary schools (1995–2004) Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2005, p. 692.
TVET system has also expanded considerably. The newly enrolled students in vocational colleges increased 3.7 times from 0.43 million in 1998 to 2 million in 2003, accounting for 58.5% of the total enrolment of students in regular colleges (Wang, J.P., 2005, p. 6). This rate of expansion will soon make it possible to have at least one vocational college in each metropolitan area. Meanwhile, the TVET system has also been diversified in terms of the subjects and training programmes provided. Based on a retrospective examination of TVET development in China since the 1990s, the following observations can be made. Firstly, TVET in China has been advancing gradually since the 1980s, having benefited from the enactment of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China in 1982 and the Law of Vocational Education in 1996 (Shi, 2001, p. 234). Until the late 1980s, TVET had not received sufficient attention from the field of educational research. Since then, more and more research centres or institutes for TVET have been established nationwide by universities or local governments. For example, the East China Normal University has offered master degrees and doctoral degrees for TVET studies since 1988 and 2001, respectively. In addition, its Institute for TVET Studies was upgraded in 2000.
Table 1 China’s vocational education system, 2004 Junior secondary
Senior secondary
Colleges
Total/average
Number of schools 697 14,454 872 16,023 20,574,101 Enrolment 525,134 14,092,467 5,956,500∗ Number of teachers 23,680 736,037 193,432 953,149 1:19.1∗∗ 1:30.8∗∗ 1:24.0∗∗ Teacher/student ratio 1:22.2∗∗ Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2005, pp. 689–90. ∗ = MoE, 2005. ∗∗ = authors’ calculations based on China statistical yearbook, 2005 and The national statistical communiqu´e of educational development, 2004.
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Secondly, TVET development is tightly constrained by technological innovation and social development. For thousands of years China was an agricultural society with low productivity and limited requirements for craftsmanship. Traditionally, artisan jobs have not always been viewed as decent occupations. Artisans were generally trained by Shi Tu Zhi, a traditional master/apprentice training system based on one-to-one individual partnership. Historically, TVET has not received the same social status as general education. This low social status underwent a remarkable change with the industrialization of traditional society and the professionalization of the labour force in modern China. The increasing demands for skilled workers emerged as a powerful driving force for the expansion of the TVET system. As a result, studying in TVET institutions has now become a valuable option for many young people in China, as well as for adults who want to pursue professional careers. Thirdly, China’s TVET development is not evenly spread across the nation due to the large size of the country and variations in social development. In China, there is a huge imbalance between different areas, such as the rural and the urban, the eastern and the western, the underdeveloped and the developed. This is particularly true when local economies and technology are compared closely. It is widely agreed that the development of TVET relies heavily on the development of the local economy and technology. This argument is confirmed in the case of China’s TVET development. Finally, the development of TVET in China has a promising future while the country continues its booming economic development. In the age of information technology, the rapid demand for large amounts of qualified workers with advanced technology or service skills is placing great pressure on the job market. China is fulfilling its dream of an affluent society and is catching up with the economies of developed countries. While the pace of China’s industrialization and urbanization continues to accelerate, its TVET system will have greater opportunities and better conditions for expansion and improvement in the near future.
3 Governmental Roles in TVET Reform and Development The Chinese Government, at both the central and local levels, has played a key role in the reform and development of the TVET system. Early in 1980, the State Council adopted the Report on Secondary Education Structural Reform submitted by the Ministry of Education and the State Administration of Labour. This policy document concluded that the reform of secondary education mainly affects the reform of high schools. It provided five detailed strategies for secondary education reform: (a) gradually increase the provision of TVET curricula for regular high-school students; (b) transform some regular high schools into TVET schools, such as vocational schools, agricultural schools, etc.; (c) encourage the opening of TVET schools by third parties, i.e. non-governmental or non-educational institutions or organizations—some TVET centres will be opened in metropolitan areas; (d) greatly expand technical schools and maintain the existing ones; and (c) make every effort to manage
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specialized middle schools efficiently. This report officially launched the nationwide reform of secondary education and began the rapid expansion of the TVET system. This policy action became the harbinger of a comprehensive reform of China’s education system. Later on in 1985, the Decision on Education System Reform was promulgated. This document clearly states that TVET is one of the key fields for educational reform. It required that the secondary education structure must be adjusted and the TVET system dramatically expanded. Meanwhile, the policy set the primary goal of the TVET system as the training of millions of knowledgeable, skilled workers for industry, agriculture, commerce, etc. In 1991 the State Council publicized the Decision on Energetically Developing Vocational and Technical Education. In this document, the State Council confirmed that one of the important tasks for TVET development in the 1990s is to ‘enhance the regular construction of the existing various vocational/technical schools with planning, and to concentrate on building up model and key schools’ (State Council, 1991). This document also proposed that student enrolments in TVET secondary vocational/technical schools must be expanded until they exceed those in regular high schools. In 1993, the Outline on Reform and Development of Education was promulgated by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. The new document explicitly laid out the goals, guidelines and strategies for educational development in China. It aimed at mobilizing the contribution of all departments, enterprises, institutions and stakeholders, as well providing a better environment for the development of TVET. The outline required the government at various levels to play a stronger role in the reform and development of the TVET system. It further stated that ‘school-leavers who have finished junior secondary education but are not continuing their education further must receive some form of vocational training’. This requirement ensured that the new labour force in both rural and urban areas should receive technical and vocational training before being employed. In addition, the outline also required that ‘TVET schools at all levels must actively meet the needs of local development and the socialist market economy’. One point worthy of mention here is that this document urged a stronger governmental role in the new round of TVET development. For example, it required TVET schools to work closely with industrial partners under governmental supervision. In 1994, the National Working Conference on Education supported the expansion of experimental TVET schools based on the German ‘dual system’. The German system was approved by the National Conference as an effective education system and a successful method of human resource development for universalizing junior and senior vocational education and promoting the quality of the labour force. The National Working Conference reiterated that one of the educational priorities of the 1990s was to increase the quality of the labour workforce and to place priority on the development of TVET. By 1995, the newly enrolled and already registered students in primary vocational schools climbed to 290,000 and 700,000, increasing by 49% and 46% since 1990, respectively (China. MoE, 1996). The newly enrolled and registered students in secondary vocational schools surged to 1.90 million and 4.48 million respectively, increasing by 54.2% and 52% since 1990 (Editorial Board, 1991, p. 247; State Commission of Education, 1996, pp. 36–39).
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One year after the Law of Vocational Education entered into force in 1996, the former President Jiang Zeming, in his Report to the fifteenth National Congress, stressed that the strategy of renewing the Chinese economy through science, technology and education and achieving sustainable development should be implemented and that various forms of vocational education should be actively promoted. Later, in 1999, the State Council published the Decision on Deepening Educational Reform and Promoting Quality Education. Again, this document emphasized adapting the education system to the socialist market economy through the cohesive development of different types of education. It also stated that vocational education programmes should be energetically developed, particularly senior secondary vocational education. Since 2001, China’s TVET system has gone through an unprecedented period of development. The State Council, in July, 2002, hosted the Working Conference of National Vocational Education in Beijing. One month later, the Decision on Vigorously Advancing Vocational Education Reform and Development was officially promulgated (State Council, 2002). The new policy urged that local governments must allocate an increasing amount of the annual budget to TVET schools or institutions, and that the amount budgeted for TVET must not be less than 15% of total educational expenditure in urban areas and not less than 20% in areas where nineyear compulsory education is universal. In March 2004, the State Council approved the Rejuvenation Action Plan for Education in 2003–2007 submitted by the Department of Education, and agreed to launch the TVET Innovation Project as one of six priority projects. In June of the same year, the Joint Seven Departments of the State Council held the new Working Conference on National Vocational Education in Nanjing, and in September publicized the Opinions on Further Strengthening TVET. All of the above laws and policies demonstrate that in recent years the Chinese Government has made concrete and persistent efforts to reform and develop TVET.
4 Policy Actions for the Renewal of TVET The Chinese Government has recently made the development of TVET once again a national policy priority and expects that by 2010 the enrolment in upper TVET systems will reach 8 million, which will be equivalent to that in regular senior high schools (State Council, 2005). The working guidelines of TVET reform in recent years reflect the guidelines of the Training Plan for Rural Labour-Force Transformation and the Plan for TVET Schools to Train Scarce Skilled Workers of Manufacture and Modern Services (China. MoE, 2004). The guidelines include the following points.
4.1 A ‘Scientific Approach to Development’ Should be Followed The guidelines include: (a) encouraging innovation and reform, as well as an awareness of services and adhering to a system of innovation and teaching reform that
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fosters socio-economic development; (b) paying more attention to social demand and improving the quality of TVET, in accordance with China’s socio-economic development and the labour-market demands, enhancing TVET’s self-developing capacity and generally improving teaching quality; (c) meeting the demand of comprehensive development to reach an optimized structure, centring on the creation of a secondary TVET system that has equal enrolment in secondary TVET and in regular upper secondary education; (d) paying special attention to the role of vocational training and placing equal emphasis on regular education and vocational training; and (e) drawing attention to the TVET reform and its development, particularly in rural and western areas where it is most necessary. The Chinese Government anticipates that by 2007 the relative distribution of high schools across the country can be evened out, with the exception of some developed areas where a higher proportion of TVET institutions is required to meet present labour-market demand. Meanwhile, TVET institutions are expected to have more than half of their enrolment at the higher-education level. Generally speaking, higher TVET colleges will no longer be upgraded to university level in the future, nor will secondary vocational schools be upgraded into higher TVET colleges, be merged into universities or be downgraded into regular secondary schools. An adequate and stable level of TVET provision will be maintained in order to gradually build up a comprehensive educational structure.
4.2 Appropriate Planning for TVET Development In the near future, the goals for TVET development can be summarized as setting up a unique system, completing three tasks and ensuring two emphases (Wang, H.B., 2005, p. 8). Setting up one system means establishing an appropriate TVET system suitable for the socialist market economy and reflects the demands of the market and employment. This new TVET system will be characterized by an optimal structure, adaptability, unique characteristics and independent development. Three tasks, to be measured by statistical indicators, are set for TVET development between 2003 and 2007. The first task is to train 30 million graduates from secondary TVET schools and 10 million graduates from TVET colleges. The second task is to train 50 million employees in urban areas, more than 100 million farm workers in rural areas, and over 20 million rural farm workers for transformation. The final task is that, by the year 2007, more than 3.5 million students will be enrolled annually in secondary TVET schools; more than 1.2 million of them in western China. Ensuring two emphases means that two working foci must be kept in mind in the reform and development of TVET system. First, the reform and development of the TVET system must emphasize the secondary level, and an even proportion of TVET schools and regular high schools must be maintained. Second, since rural and western areas have been historically disadvantaged in socio-economic and educational development, TVET reform and development must pay particular attention to these areas.
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4.3 Providing Services and Reflecting Job-Market Trends The Chinese Government has repeatedly called for the reform and development of TVET to enhance the provision of services. In the government’s view, these services consist of four main types: (a) adapting to the economic structure and technological advancement; (b) promoting employment and re-employment; (c) serving rural areas and farm workers; and (d) speeding up development in western areas, as well as the rejuvenation of old industrial bases in the north-east. Meanwhile, the Chinese Government also called for the reform and development of the TVET system to reflect job-market trends. Graduates from TVET schools, especially secondary TVET schools, will find employment mostly in the fields of manufacturing, technology, management or services. Based on the belief that ‘to find a job is a basis for life,’ the Chinese Government views TVET as an ideal opportunity for individuals who will not go on to higher education, and intends to enhance this option by expanding the TVET system. In addition, the Chinese government realizes that the reform and development of the TVET system must begin with ‘three transformations’ which are particularly related to the decentralization of local governmental roles (Zhou, 2005). First, the central guidelines for the administration of TVET schools must be updated so as to reflect trends in the job market. The TVET system must be actively shifted from a supply-driven training system to a market-driven system, from direct governmental control to macro-governmental guidance, and from disciplinebased learning to employment-based training. Second, the way TVET schools are administered must be upgraded. Flexible, diverse and open modes are encouraged to meet the needs of the job market. For example, TVET schools must upgrade their programmes to satisfy the needs of ‘special requests’ from enterprises. Moreover, the TVET schools’ functions must also be decentralized concerning interschool co-operation, student and teacher recruitment, the administration of student registration, curriculum development, course arrangement and textbook selection. Finally, the TVET system must be open to market pressures. Minban TVET schools, with financial resources from the private sector, are warmly welcomed by the government. The Chinese government adopts the cardinal principle of ‘active expansion with official administration’. Meanwhile, a competitive system has been introduced into TVET schools, which includes public and private schools. The TVET system is required to establish close co-operation with third parties, including enterprises.
4.4 Building Up a Modern TVET System Since the 1990s, the market-oriented, privatization and decentralization processes have been accelerating in China. The education sector, and especially the TVET sector, is no exception. For example, Minban TVET schools have grown and expanded at a surprising speed. Various pressures on the existing TVET system
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are arising from the market place. In response to these new challenges, the Chinese Government has adopted the following four strategies for encouraging TVET reform. 1. Setting up and gradually optimizing a hierarchical administrative system under the control of the local government and involving the public. Local governments are urged to take more responsibility for the comprehensive planning of local TVET development (State Council, 2002). 2. Extending teaching and curriculum reform by implementing the educational guidelines set out by the Communist Party of China, generally satisfying the requirements of quality education and enhancing the professional training of students. TVET resources will be gradually optimized, and the contents and teaching strategies of curriculum and programmes will be adjusted to satisfy market needs. In addition, a new credit system, part-time learning programmes, in-service training programmes and internship programmes have already been introduced to increase the flexibility and availability of TVET. 3. Extending the reform of the TVET personnel management system by improving the quality of teachers. The Chinese Government advocates the reform of personnel management systems as a priority for TVET reform. Public recruitment, a competition system when applying for teaching posts and the contract system for teaching positions have to form part of the personnel management system of TVET (State Council, 2002). Furthermore, teachers, especially heads of departments, will receive regular in-service training. Principals and deans of TVET schools or colleges must receive certification in order to take up their positions. Additionally, a network of teacher education institutes has been set up for the TVET system to improve the quality of the teaching corps. 4. Finally, further reform of the employment system aims to introduce a stricter certification or licensing system for new employees. The employment admittance system, known as ‘trained before employed’, must be more strictly observed in conformity with occupational qualifications (State Council, 2002). The TVET that is provided shall correspond to the actual needs of the job market and occupational standards will be established by the State for classified job positions. On the other hand, TVET schools must provide appropriate and updated job-market information for students.
5 Discussion The Chinese government has tried hard since the 1980s to rebuild a TVET system corresponding to the socialist market economy in conformity with the Chinese context. Numerous policy actions have been undertaken to transform the traditional TVET system, and the outcomes are quite encouraging: (a) the volume of the higher TVET system is growing rapidly and that of the secondary TVET system is recovering; (b) the administration of TVET schools is changing through the
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involvement of multiple players; and (c) the employment rate of graduates from TVET schools/colleges is steadily increasing. The obstacles and problems with TVET reform and development, however, remain perplexing. For example: (a) the recent development of secondary TVET schools is slowing down, compared with that of higher TVET colleges; (b) the TVET structure is distorted in terms of school types and levels; (c) the TVET administrative system does not yet meet the evolving needs of the market; (d) the teacher workforce is not competent in terms of quantity and quality; (e) applicants for admission to TVET schools have much lower academic achievement than those to regular schools (Ma, Guo & Chen, 2005a, 2005b; Wang, 2005). A major obstacle to TVET reform and development is ‘the capital cost of improving the quality of training facilities and of implementing programmes for upgrading staff and revising courses’, as Fallon and Hunting pointed out (2000, p. 180). In fact, the annual State budget for TVET expenditure is not sufficient and, as a result, the campus facilities for TVET schools remain unsatisfactory. In addition, there are persistent nationwide contrasts among the TVET systems (privileged and disadvantaged schools), areas (the west and the east), or educational resources (the urban and the rural), etc. These problems pose serious challenges to Chinese policy-makers. The Chinese experiences of TVET reform and development provide a good example of how a centralized administration has employed multiple policy actions to rebuild the TVET system. The advantages of such experiences include the ability to upgrade an existing system by collective policy players and behaviours, compulsory participation and involvement, and optimized use of system resources. On the other hand, the disadvantages are also obvious: a rigid administrative structure and hierarchical mechanism, very limited flexibility, little school autonomy, asymmetrical communication between policy-makers and school implementers, and so on. In addition, it is extremely difficult for the Chinese Government to find a balance in the relationship between central control and decentralization. These dilemmas facing China’s TVET system represent a challenge for policy-makers and policy-analysts as they contemplate further actions in the future.
References China. Ministry of Education. 1983. Zhongguo jiaoyu chengjiu tongji ziliao, 1949–1981 [Statistics of China’s educational achievement, 1949–1981]. Beijing: People’s Education Press. China. Ministry of Education. 1996. 1995 quanguo jiaoyu shiye fazhan tongji gongbao [The national statistical communiqu´e of educational development 1995]. <www.edu.cn/ 20010823/207274.shtml> China. Ministry of Education. 2004. Nongcun laodongli zhuanyi peixun jihua [Training plan for rural labour force transformation]. Beijing: MoE. (Document Jiaozhicheng 2004, 1.) China. Ministry of Education. 2005. 2004 quanguo jiaoyu shiye fazhan tongji gongbao [The national statistical communiqu´e of educational development, 2004]. <www.moe.edu.cn/ edoas/website18/info14794.htm>
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China. Ministry of Education. No date. Vocational education in China. <www.moe.edu.cn/ english/vocational v.htm> China. Ministry of Education; Department of Labour Resources; Ministry of Finance, State Planning Commission. 1985. Guanyu gaige chengshi zhongdeng jiaoyu jiegou, fazhan zhiye jishu jiaoyu de yijian [Opinion on the structural reform of urban secondary education and the development of TVET]. China education daily, 1 December. China. Ministry of Education; State Administration of Labour. 1980. Guanyu zhongdeng jiaoyu jiegou gaige de baogao [The report on the structural reform of secondary education]. Beijing: MoE. Editorial Board. 1991. Zhongguo jiaoyu tongji nianjian, 1991 [Education statistics yearbook of China, 1991]. Beijing: People’s Education Press. Fallon, P.R.; Hunting, G. 2000. China. In: Gill, I.S.; Fluitman, F.; Dar A., eds. Vocational education and training reform: matching skills to markets and budgets, pp. 161–81. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Guo, F.C.; Wu, D.G. 1996. Jiaoyu gaige fazhan lun [On educational reform and development]. Shijiazhuang, China: Hebei Education Press. Ma, S.C.; Guo, Y.; Chen, S. 2005a. Shiyiwu qijian woguo zhiye jiaoyu gaige yu fazhan de zhuyao wenti I [The major problems of the reform and development of China’s TVET in the period of the 11th five-year plan I]. Communication of vocational education, vol. 4, pp. 11–14. Ma, S.C.; Guo, Y.; Chen, S. 2005b. Shiyiwu qijian woguo zhiye jiaoyu gaige yu fazhan de zhuyao wenti II [The major problems of the reform and development of China’s TVET in the period of the 11th five-year plan II]. Communication of vocational education, vol. 5, pp. 12–15. National Bureau of Statistics of China. 2005. China statistical yearbook, 2005. Beijing: China Statistics Press. Shi, W.P. 2001. Bijiao zhiye jishu jiaoyu [Comparative study on vocational and technical education]. Shanghai, China: East China Normal University Press. State Commission of Education. 1996. Zhongguo jiaoyu zonghe tongji nianjian 1996 [Comprehensive statistics yearbook of China’s education, 1996]. Beijing: Higher Education Press. State Council. 1991. Guanyu dali fazhan zhiye jiaoyu de jueding [The decision on energetically developing vocational and technical education]. <www.tgzhx.com/tushu/jygl1/ ZYJYYCRJYGLFLFG/1082.htm> State Council. 2002. Guanyu dali tuijin zhiye jiaoyu gaige yu fazhan de jueding [The decision on vigorously advancing vocational education reform and development]. Beijing. (Document no. 26.) State Council. 2005. Guowuyuan guanyu dali fazhan zhiye jiaoyu de jueding [The decision on vigorously advancing vocational education]. Beijing. (Document no. 35.) <www.gov.cn/ zwgk/2005-11/09/content 94296.htm> Wang, H.B. 2005. Qianxi woguo zhongdeng zhiye jiaoyu zhi fazhan [On the development of China’s secondary TVET]. China science and technology information, vol. 12, pp. 225–26. Wang, J.P. 2005. Woguo zhiye jiaoyu de xingshi he fazhan silu [The situation and development plan of Chinese vocational education]. Journal of Henan Vocational-Technical Teachers College, vol. 1, pp. 5–9. Zhou, J. 2004. Yong kexue fazhanguan tongling jiaoyu gongzuo quanju [Leading the whole operation of education by ‘a scientific concept of development’]. Speech at MOE’s Annual Working Meeting, 2005. <www.moe.edu.cn/edoas/website18/ info16025.htm> Zhou, J. 2005. Yi kexue fazhanguan wei zhidao shixian zhongdeng zhiye jiaoyu kuaisu jiankang fazhan [Speeding up the healthy development of secondary vocational education guided by ‘scientific concept of development’]. <www.moe.edu.cn/ edoas/website18/info10855.htm>
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Chapter VI.8
Some Generic Issues in TVET Management George Preddey
1 Introduction This chapter of the UNESCO-UNEVOC International handbook identifies and analyses nine generic issues that are significant for TVET management. Six of these issues are presented as contrasting dichotomies—for example, the implications of centralization versus devolution for the management of TVET systems. The nine generic issues for TVET management that are considered in the following sections are:
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centralization versus devolution; autonomy versus accountability; inputs versus outputs and outcomes; governance versus management; public versus private funding and tuition fees; public versus private provision; TVET policy and legal frameworks; TVET system configurations; TVET institutional management systems.
Expanding on these generic issues, an overview of TVET management practice is set out in the next chapter, with particular reference to eleven specific TVET management functions. All governments will want their TVET systems to be responsive, effective and cost-efficient. Chapters VI.8 and VI.9 draw extensively on the collective experiences of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom—three countries that have reformed their public TVET institutions. The management and operational practices in these three countries and the associated legal, policy and organizational environments are benchmarks against which the TVET systems of other countries may be assessed. Contemporary TVET management in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom is focused on managing the operational efficiency, quality and accountability of TVET institutions to stakeholders—some of the principal areas of TVET management functions that are outlined in the next chapter. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VI.8, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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The collective experiences of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom are documented in a management handbook: Vocational education and training institutions: a management handbook and CD-ROM, a management resource produced under the aegis of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Asia and Pacific Skills Development Programme (APSDEP). It contains eleven modules and forty-three self-contained learning units, and is accompanied by a CD-ROM containing more than 400 resource documents on national training policies, legislation, operational documents and management instruments etc. These two handbooks i.e. UNESCO-UNEVOC International handbook of education for the changing world of work (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2009) and Vocational education and training institution: a management handbook and CD-ROM (Gasskov, 2006) are complementary. Whereas the UNESCO-UNEVOC International handbook is encyclopaedic in its scope, the ILO Management handbook is focused on contemporary management practice in TVET institutions and systems. Chapters VI.8 (generic issues) and VI.9 (management practice) in the UNESCOUNEVOC International handbook (2009) are cross-referenced to the relevant learning units in the ILO Management handbook (2006). These forty-three units contain substantial detail on contemporary TVET management practices and extensive links to original resource documents and reference material included on the associated CD-ROM.
2 Centralization Versus Devolution 2.1 Centralized TVET Systems Effective governance and management are key issues for the TVET sector. Many countries support large numbers of public TVET institutions that absorb substantial but static or even declining government budgets, yet are facing an increasing demand for skills development (Gasskov, 2006, p. xi—hereafter, only the page number will be given). Although national TVET systems and institutions differ significantly among countries and their management practices reflect national conditions, all governments will want their public TVET institutions to be responsive, effective and cost-efficient. In many countries, publicly-funded TVET institutions are part of the structure of central government. Their budgets are part of the central government budgets and institutional management and teaching staff are civil servants. International experience indicates that the responsiveness, effectiveness and costefficiency of TVET institutions are enhanced by the devolution of management, financial and teaching responsibilities to the institutions themselves. Centralization of TVET management and delivery commonly translates into a lack of incentives for staff to show initiative and for TVET institutions to improve their performance. Centralization may also fetter the contributions of private institutions to TVET delivery.
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2.2 The Case for Devolution In some countries, a different approach to TVET has been implemented through processes of public-sector management reform. The governments of these countries have restricted their roles in TVET to those of principal funders, regulators and assessors. Under this different approach, public TVET institutions have their own governing councils that represent their stakeholders, may employ their own staff and are responsible for their strategic management. TVET institutions in these countries are given the means to achieve agreed outputs and to benefit from their improved efficiency. International experience is indicating that the responsiveness, cost-efficiency and effectiveness of public TVET institutions are enhanced if they have greater autonomy in their management (pp. 8, 20 et seq.)
3 Autonomy Versus Accountability 3.1 Institutional Autonomy In countries where public TVET institutions are given significant autonomy, their governing councils assume the governance roles previously exercised by government officials. Institutional autonomy is strengthened through the appointment of chief executives responsible to the governing councils for their operational management. Enhanced institutional autonomy requires that governance and management arrangements are capable of achieving agreed objectives and maintaining the longterm viability of TVET institutions. A sense of institutional ownership develops that differs from traditional government ownership. Enhanced institutional autonomy provides stronger incentives for institutional managers and teaching staff to achieve better results. The actual level of autonomy of a TVET institution is determined by the activities that can be undertaken without the control or direction of government agencies. These include the abilities to:
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determine, appoint, employ and dismiss institutional staff; introduce organizational and management structures; determine staff conditions of service; develop courses and curricula and issue awards; enrol students and assess their progress; operate institutional bank accounts; generate, retain and manage revenue and surpluses; borrow, rent or lease; purchase, maintain, expand and dispose of institutional assets, including buildings and equipment (pp. 8 et seq.).
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However, governments as principal shareholders in autonomous TVET institutions are still able to influence their operations by the appointment and dismissal of governing councils, by specified powers to issue directives, and through external funding, performance assessment and accountability frameworks (pp. 31 et seq.)
3.2 Accountability Frameworks Autonomy, while increasing the opportunities for efficiency and productivity gains, also increases the operational and financial risks for governments. These risks, however, can be managed by the introduction of enhanced accountability arrangements operated by central governments or their agencies. These arrangements may include restrictions on autonomy (e.g. specified limits on borrowing, leasing and asset disposal) and prescribed monitoring and reporting processes—e.g. specified arrangements for financial reporting and audit (pp. 76, 153 et seq.). Enhanced accountability should be seen as a consequence of enhanced autonomy rather than as an instrument to fetter autonomy, but has important implications for institutional management.
4 Inputs Versus Outputs and Outcomes Governments invest in TVET to achieve desired economic and social outcomes, such as well-educated workforces for a competitive global market (pp. 121 et seq.). The inputs to TVET systems are the financial resources committed, often predominantly by governments, to TVET institutions. The outputs of TVET institutions contribute to desired outcomes and include the (intangible) knowledge, skills and competencies acquired by students. Various (tangible) proxies for the (intangible) knowledge, skills and competencies acquired by students are used as measures of outputs. These proxies may include enrolments, equivalent full-time students (EFTS), course completions and graduations. Proxies may have limitations when used as parameters in funding systems. For example, funding TVET institutions on the basis of graduation numbers would create perverse incentives for institutions to pass all of their students irrespective of performance. In centralized TVET systems, institutions are customarily resourced on the basis of what they cost (input funding) rather than on the TVET services that they deliver (output funding). This may result in weak linkages between budget allocations for TVET and desired TVET outcomes. Devolved systems of autonomous TVET institutions are more amenable to funding based on outputs or outcomes. For the reasons outlined above, outputfunding systems are customarily based on proxies for outputs (e.g. EFTS enrolments), but may include additional performance elements (e.g. course completions or graduations). Although EFTS enrolments could be perceived as inputs to TVET
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systems, they are customarily used as proxy measures of the knowledge, skills and competencies acquired by students—i.e. TVET outputs (pp. 125 et seq.).
5 Governance Versus Management 5.1 Governance Governance and management can operate at three levels: government; governing councils; chief executives and senior management. The roles of governing councils and chief executives and the distinction between governance and management become more significant as TVET institutions gain enhanced autonomy. In centralized TVET systems, the government agencies assume governance roles and chief executives are relegated to the role of line managers. In devolved TVET systems, governments relinquish their governance roles in favour of governing councils. Chief executives have responsibilities similar to those of the chief executives of private-sector companies and the members of governing councils have responsibilities similar to those of boards of directors. Table 1 outlines some distinctions between the governance and management roles for autonomous TVET institutions (p. 53). A key responsibility of governing councils is the determination of institutional policies—i.e. statements of intent or direction that provide guidance to chief executives and managers about how to carry out their delegated functions. Once governing councils have made policy decisions, implementation becomes the responsibility of chief executives. Effective councils monitor the implementation of their policies. If problems become evident or accountability mechanisms are not working, the governing councils may revoke their delegations. Some important aspects of management for governing councils to monitor include finance, academic matters, staffing, site and facilities, advocacy and public relations (pp. 54 et seq.).
Table 1 Differences between governance and management roles for autonomous TVET institutions TVET institution’s governance
TVET institution’s management
Governance sets overall direction by strategic planning and determining goals, strategies and policies (What to do). Governance ensures management accountability through reporting mechanisms. Governance determines institutional objectives (outputs and outcomes).
Management is concerned with achieving goals in accordance with strategies and policies (How to do). Management provides information for effective governance and management accountability. Management is concerned with the means for achieving objectives (outputs and outcomes). Effective management is hands-on.
Effective governance is hands-off.
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5.2 Delegations to Management TVET legal frameworks generally provide governing councils with the powers to delegate, normally to chief executives. These delegations recognize that council members cannot deal with excessive detail. Under this configuration, the chief executives manage the academic and administrative affairs of the TVET institutions and employ their staff. The governing councils ensure that the chief executives are managing the TVET institutions in accordance with their missions, objectives and required outputs. They ensure that the chief executives have the authority to manage the institutions through appropriate delegations. A key aspect of delegation is that, although governing councils may delegate authority to institutional management for specified actions, the responsibility for those actions remains with the governing councils. The chief executives of autonomous TVET institutions are customarily expected to:
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prepare management documents (corporate plans) for meeting objectives and delivering outputs; develop operating and capital budgets; establish internal controls to oversee expenditure and finance; manage staff employment and industrial relations; manage internal reporting on the implementation of corporate plans; prepare annual reports that compared actual institutional performances with objectives; prepare reports required by external funding and regulatory agencies.
6 Public Versus Private Funding and Tuition Fees 6.1 The Case for Tuition Fees Tuition fees recognize the private benefits of TVET that accrue to graduates: enhanced lifetime incomes, employment prospects and job satisfaction. Tuition fees encourage students to choose their TVET courses carefully and to be diligent, because they are meeting part or all of the costs of their training, even though the major costs may in reality be income foregone. Tuition fees also provide incentives for TVET institutions to be responsive to their students’ expectations since they are dependent, at least in part, on tuition fees for their financial resources. The additional revenue from tuition fees can be used to finance additional places, in principle enhancing equitable access (pp. 124, 143 et seq.) However, tuition fees may also discourage participation in TVET by students from poorer families. The disincentive effects can be mitigated by student support policies that include scholarships, targeted fee rebates and non-discriminatory loan schemes.
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6.2 Setting Tuition Fees In some jurisdictions, public TVET institutions are constrained from charging tuition fees and are expected to deliver TVET within the limits of revenue derived solely from their public funding. In some jurisdictions, governments or their agencies determine standard tuition fees, and in others, public TVET institutions either set their own unfettered fees or set fees subject to regulation. Various principles underpin tuition-fee-setting policies and involve balancing the benefits of TVET for individual students, for their employers and for the wider community while maintaining equitable access and also institutional viability. When governments set tuition fees and also allocate public funding, they are effectively determining the total cost of TVET delivery. When TVET institutions are able to set their own tuition fees to supplement their public funding, their enhanced autonomy in principle enables competition on the basis of price (fees) and on course quality. In principle, this may encourage greater efficiency and cost-effectiveness (pp. 140 et seq.).
7 Public Versus Private Provision 7.1 Government Ownership and Purchase Interests TVET systems often comprise a mix of public and private institutions. Private TVET institutions may occupy minor niche markets; they may complement the public provision of TVET; or they may actively compete with public TVET institutions. Governments have two distinct sets of interests in public TVET institutions (p. 122):
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as owners and regulators of institutional assets (ownership interest); as funders (purchasers) of TVET services (outputs) that the institutions deliver (purchase interest).
There is no compelling public policy reason why students enrolled at public and private TVET institutions should be treated differently by governments. From the students’ perspective, the ownership of TVET institutions should not be material to the delivery of TVET services to them. Governments do not own private TVET institutions. However, the TVET services that they deliver, in principle, are indistinguishable from the services delivered by public TVET institutions. There is no compelling public policy reason why governments’ purchase (funding) interests in TVET delivery should be different for public and private TVET institutions. The funding of TVET delivery should, in principle, be ownership-neutral. This arrangement does not preclude additional public funding for public TVET institutions that recognizes and protects public-ownership interests.
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7.2 Public Funding of Public and Private TVET Institutions In many countries, publicly-funded TVET is delivered principally or exclusively by public TVET institutions, often subject to stringent entry conditions. As a consequence, students from poorer families may be entirely denied access to TVET or required to pay cost-recovery fees to (lower quality) private institutions. On the other hand, students from affluent families—including those who failed the stringent entry conditions to public institutions—may be able to enrol at (higher quality) private TVET institutions. In principle, these inherently inequitable outcomes may be addressed by ownership-neutral funding systems. In some countries, students at public and private TVET institutions are treated more-or-less equally under various TVET funding policies that include:
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allocating TVET vouchers to secondary school-leavers that may be redeemable at any public or private TVET institution and that replace the public funding allocations to TVET institutions; allocating similar ownership-neutral funding to public and private TVET institutions for similar TVET outputs (without precluding additional funding to protect public ownership interests) (CD-ROM Unit 5.1).
Voucher systems remain controversial and have been implemented with mixed success by a number of countries. Although they appear sound in principle by maximizing student choice, they have experienced practical difficulties. Students make imperfect choices, as some countries have experienced but, on the other hand, TVET systems largely driven by centralized labour-market planning are also problematic. A compromise approach involves a mix of public and private TVET institutions in which students, institutions, industry, professions and (light-handed) government funding agencies determine collectively what TVET courses are offered where and to whom. Output-funding systems strengthen the linkages between budget allocations and desired TVET outcomes, while ownership-neutral funding systems, in principle, offer more equitable access to TVET and encourage private sector contributions to TVET delivery (CD-ROM Unit 5.1).
8 TVET Policy and Legal Frameworks 8.1 National TVET Policies National TVET policies are rarely determined in unique policy documents and may be changed by new governments. The policies generally make certain assumptions about the roles of TVET in economic and social development: for example, that a minimum level of education is necessary for individuals to function in society, as well as for social cohesion, or that equitable access to TVET promotes equal opportunities for employment and income.
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Comprehensive national TVET policies may acknowledge the respective roles of public and private TVET institutions and whether private TVET institutions are able to access public funding and, if so, under what conditions (pp. 15 et seq.).
8.2 TVET Legislative and Regulatory Frameworks Legislation is required in devolved TVET systems to provide appropriate legal environments for public VET institutions. It generally includes provisions for:
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institutional status and autonomy; the role, appointment and composition of governing councils; employment of staff; funding, performance and accountability frameworks; controls on institutional assets and financial operations.
In those countries that have both federal and state or provincial governmental structures, TVET institutions operate under the legislation enacted by the level of government that is constitutionally responsibility for TVET provision. The legislation may incorporate inter-governmental agreements over shared responsibilities for TVET delivery (pp. 3 et seq., pp. 31 et seq.).
8.3 Legal Status and Ownership of Public TVET Institutions Public TVET institutions may have the organizational forms of State companies, statutory corporations or trusts. Institutions operating as State companies may do so under conditions of competitive neutrality with the private sector, but are accountable to governments as shareholders. Those operating as statutory corporations are more centrally controlled by governments, but may have some of the freedoms of State companies, including property rights. Public TVET institutions registered as trusts are controlled by trust boards that act in place of governments as owners. Ownership is critical for asset management. Institutional autonomy presumes an ability to acquire or dispose of institutional assets that is predetermined by ownership. A clear test of ownership is whether governments carry the risks of ownership, including residual liability. The net equity of public TVET institutions may be included in governments’ budget statements of financial position. The trend in devolved TVET systems is for assets to be owned by the TVET institutions themselves (pp. 5 et seq.).
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8.4 Establishment, Disestablishment and Merger of Public TVET Institutions Legislative provisions for the establishment, disestablishment and merger of public TVET institutions are required to protect the operations, viability and reputations of other public and private TVET institutions and for the allocation of public resources. An important issue is whether the numbers and types of public TVET institutions should be regulated. The regulation of establishments, disestablishments and mergers may ensure that an adequate range of TVET services is available, but may also constrain other potential TVET providers from entry, potentially resulting in insufficient provision of TVET to meet particular areas of industry or student demand (p. 8).
9 TVET System Configurations 9.1 TVET Governmental Administrative Structures Devolved systems of TVET institutions require relationships with the machinery of government to ensure their accountability and to protect governments’ ownership interests. Various configurations of departments, ministries and government agencies may undertake regulatory and advisory roles on behalf of governments. Single entities should have overall responsibilities as links between the executive arms of governments and the TVET institutions. Their roles will depend on the levels of institutional autonomy. Organizational structures within the machinery of government include departments (operational focus) and ministries (policy focus). In some countries, groups of TVET institutions are split between the ministries of education and labour. Line ministries may supervise training in certain specialist areas, such as health and agriculture, although the international trend has been to merge all TVET activities within designated single ministries, departments or agencies (pp. 25 et seq.).
9.2 Agencies Providing Services to TVET Institutions The roles and functions carried out by departments and ministries are often devolved to government agencies established under enabling legislation. The essential distinction is that departments and ministries are accountable to responsible ministers, whereas agencies are governed by boards that have a degree of independence from ministerial direction and represent a broader range of stakeholders. Under these arrangements, ministries and departments are customarily responsible for policy development and advice to governments, whereas TVET agencies have operational responsibilities that include funding, accountability and qualityassurance systems operating within policy environments determined by governments. Some specialist agencies may have particular functions, including skills
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assessment and certification, curriculum development services, quality assurance, teaching-staff development and the provision of labour-market information. Support services customarily include best-practice dissemination and sector advocacy undertaken by national associations of TVET institutions. For services that are regulatory rather than supportive in nature (e.g. course accreditations), charge-for-service arrangements may avoid any potential conflicts of interest (pp. 27 et seq.).
10 TVET Institutional Management Systems 10.1 Governing Councils The size, composition and procedures for appointing governing councils of autonomous TVET institutions are generally prescribed in legislation and may reflect two distinct approaches to institutional governance:
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representational approach: council members represent the interests of stakeholders, including governments, employers, unions, staff, students, professional bodies and alumni; managerial approach: council members are individuals chosen for their particular relevant skills.
The representational approach generally results in larger representative councils, whereas the managerial approach results in smaller more business-orientated councils. There are arguments for and against both approaches, and examples of both can be found in various jurisdictions (pp. 51 et seq.). Even though their composition may reflect a range of stakeholders, governing councils must act in the best interests of TVET institutions rather than those of individual stakeholders. The roles and responsibilities of governing councils customarily include most or all of the following activities:
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strategic planning: i.e. mission statements or charters setting out institutional roles, functions and characteristics; development (councils/management); approval (councils); operational planning: i.e. formulation of objectives and corporate plans; development (management); approval (councils/funding agencies); delivery (management and staff); monitoring (councils/audit agencies); financial planning and management: preparation of budgets (management); budget approval (councils); budget monitoring (councils); preparation of annual accounts (management); approval (councils); academic planning and management: planning of TVET courses (management); monitoring delivery (councils); student management (management);
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determination of institutional policies: development (management); approval (councils); monitoring of adherence by management to agreed policies (councils); human resource management: appointment of chief executives and performance monitoring (councils); appointment and monitoring of subordinate staff (chief executives and/or senior management); site development, capital development, buildings, equipment, maintenance (delegated to management for approval by councils); accountability: preparation of annual reports (management); approval (councils); audit (external audit agencies); representation and communication: managing public relations and the media (council chairs, chief executives) (pp. 54 et seq.).
10.2 Alternative Organizational Structures of TVET Institutions The organizational structures of TVET institutions reflect external policy and organizational environments and the levels of institutional autonomy. Organizational structures may include the following elements:
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governing council; chief executive; senior management team of chief executive and senior managers; academic board (see below); a number of teaching departments; a number of academic, administrative and support departments (pp. 65 et seq.).
In some jurisdictions, the organizational structures include academic boards that are established to advise the governing councils on matters relating to training courses, curricula, awards and other academic matters. The relationships between governing councils, academic boards and chief executives vary among TVET institutions. Internationally, academic boards are increasingly involved in academic selfevaluations and internal audits, conducted through internal academic quality management systems approved by external agencies (p. 62). TVET delivery structures customarily involve breakdowns into departments based on broad vocational areas. Designated heads of department are responsible to chief executives for the activities and performance of their departments. Some TVET institutions are small and serve only single industries or sectors, whereas others, including polytechnics, are large enough to serve a wider range of industries and occupations. In the larger TVET institutions, training departments may be aggregated into larger faculties or schools. Technical, workshop and laboratory support staff in larger TVET institutions are commonly allocated at departmental level. In some TVET institutions, separate administrative sections under directors of administration provide administrative
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support services. The technical and administrative support services in larger TVET institutions customarily include separate departments or sections responsible for:
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human resources: staffing, payroll, recruitment, performance assessment, staff development; student management: courses, timetables, enrolments, academic records, student support; finance: accounting systems, purchasing, financial planning and control, internal audit; asset management: campus, buildings, equipment, maintenance, security; information management: library, computer systems, communications; marketing and development: student recruitment, industry liaison, market research; curriculum: curriculum development, relationships with external awarding/ assessing bodies; staff training and development (pp. 69 et seq.).
10.3 Internal Management Procedures The complexity of operating large TVET institutions makes it appropriate for governing councils to delegate management responsibilities to chief executives. Chief executives may further delegate operational decisions to heads of department or operational unit managers, as appropriate. A key aspect of delegation is that, although authority for action can be delegated, the responsibility for action is not (pp. 73 et seq.). The key responsibility of governing councils is to determine institutional policies that provide guidance for chief executives and managers in their application of delegated authority. The implementation of approved policies becomes the responsibility of chief executives and management. Governing councils can monitor institutional financial performance against institutional budgets provided that there is effective reporting by management. By agreeing to institutional budgets, governing councils have effectively endorsed management plans for each financial year. Management is required to perform in accordance with agreed budgets, and to be accountable to governing councils for any variation from them. Chief executives are responsible for establishing internal financial control systems, generally through delegation to designated staff (pp. 76 et seq.).
11 Conclusions and Implications Many countries support large numbers of public TVET institutions that absorb substantial but static or even declining government budgets, yet are facing an increasing demand for skills development. All governments will want their public TVET
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institutions to be responsive to labour markets, to operate effectively and to be costefficient. This analysis of nine generic TVET management issues draws extensively on the collective experiences of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom— three countries that have recently undertaken significant management reform of their public TVET institutions. Drawing on these international precedents, some future trends for TVET systems and institutional management can be identified. The most significant trend is the devolution of governance and management responsibilities by governments to the TVET institutions themselves (pp. xi et seq.). International experience indicates that the responsiveness, operational efficiency and effectiveness of public TVET institutions are enhanced by the devolution of governance, management, financial and teaching responsibilities to the institutional level. Legislation is required in devolved TVET systems to provide appropriate legal environments for autonomous public institutions. Enhanced autonomy, while opening up new opportunities for efficiency gains and service productivity, also creates greater operational and financial risks for governments. These risks can be managed by enhanced accountability regimes for TVET institutions that are operated by government agencies. Enhanced accountability regimes are natural consequences of enhanced institutional autonomy. Ownership is an important aspect of governance that is central to asset management. The trend in devolved TVET systems is for most assets of institutions to be owned by the institutions themselves (pp. 5 et seq.). A feature of many centralized TVET systems is that the institutions are resourced on the basis of what they cost (input funding) rather than the TVET services that they actually deliver (outputs). A consequence is a lack of clear linkages between governmental budget allocations and desired TVET outcomes. This matter is being addressed internationally by trends to funding systems based on outputs and outcomes (pp. 125 et seq.). Ownership-neutral funding systems may in principle offer more equitable access and encourage private sector contributions to TVET delivery. Tuition fees may encourage greater institutional responsiveness, efficiency and cost-effectiveness and, in principle, may enhance equity (pp. 40 et seq.). Expanding upon the generic issues in TVET management outlined above, an overview of contemporary TVET management practice is set out in the following Chapter VI.9, with particular reference to specific TVET management functions.
Reference Gasskov, V., ed. 2006. Vocational education and training institutions: a management handbook and CD-ROM. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO.
Chapter VI.9
An Overview of Contemporary TVET Management Practice George Preddey
1 Introduction In the previous Chapter VI.8 of this UNESCO-UNEVOC International handbook, nine generic issues relevant for TVET management were identified. Expanding on these generic issues, an overview of contemporary TVET management practice is set out below with particular reference to eleven specific TVET management functions. These functions include:
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strategic and operational planning; financial management; information management; student management; staff management; course and curriculum management; managing TVET delivery; managing assessment; managing physical assets; quality management; performance and accountability management.
The TVET management practices of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom have been systematically documented and recorded in an International Labour Organization Management handbook (Gasskov, 2006) of eleven modules and fortythree learning units. The handbook is accompanied by a CD-ROM that contains more than 400 resource documents. These two handbooks, the present UNESCOUNEVOC International handbook of education for the changing world of work (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2009) and Vocational education and training institutions: a management handbook and CD-ROM (Gasskov, 2006) are complementary—as was explained in the Introduction to Chapter VI.8. The eleven specific TVET management functions discussed below in this UNESCO-UNEVOC International handbook are cross-referenced to appropriate learning units in the ILO Management handbook. These learning units cover contemporary TVET management functions and practice in greater detail, and also inR. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VI.9, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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clude actual operational documents, management instruments and comprehensive references. (All references are to Gasskov, 2006—hereafter, only the page number will be given.)
2 Strategic and Operational Planning 2.1 Supply and Demand Factors for TVET Students make time commitments and forego income to undertake TVET and have vested interests in making sound decisions, particularly if they are also paying tuition fees. Nevertheless, they do not always make sound decisions and may be unduly influenced by peer group pressure or inadequate information. They can enrol only in unallocated places in TVET courses that institutions choose to offer them (p. 92). Industries and professions have a vested interest in supplies of trained graduates to meet their current and future requirements for skills. Under-supply may result in skills shortages and reduced productivity, whereas over-supply may distort labour markets. Industries and professions are better placed than students and TVET institutions to assess their own skill needs (p. 93). Governments have vested interests in TVET delivery in the context of their broader economic and social-policy objectives. They are least well placed to make delivery decisions because they lack first-hand knowledge of student demand and the skill needs of industries and professions. They are better placed to take a broader view by synthesizing information about TVET provision and labour markets. Governments are also uniquely placed to intervene in TVET delivery. Interventions are more likely to succeed by providing suitable policy environments that enable other stakeholders to make sound decisions, rather than by resorting to micromanagement of TVET delivery (p. 93). Institutions are well placed to make TVET delivery decisions if they are also aware of student demand and the skill needs of industries and professions. Jurisdictions with devolved systems of TVET institutions have generally opted for a combination of student and industry/professional demands as the predominant drivers of TVET delivery. Governments have various options for interventions in TVET delivery. They may provide support through targeted funding to national target groups or to identified priority industry sectors and associated TVET courses. National target groups may be identified to meet governments’ social policy objectives (e.g. to address particular examples of under-achievement or underrepresentation in TVET). Targeting may be on the basis of ethnicity, income, locality or other perceived indicators of disadvantage. Support for priority industry sectors (e.g. bio-technology) may be provided through additional publicly-funded places that encourage institutions to offer relevant TVET courses and/or encourage students to enrol in those courses (pp. 97 et seq.).
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2.2 Assessing Industrial and Student Demand for TVET The assessment of industrial demand for TVET courses is undertaken by key stakeholders. These include:
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government agencies undertake assessments to inform labour-market interventions and decision-making by industry, TVET institutions and their prospective students; industry training organizations (ITOs) set up by industries undertake assessments to ensure that their training needs are met; TVET institutions gather information individually or through their national associations (pp. 102 et seq.).
The information-gathering processes may include surveys, questionnaires and collation of statistical data on:
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occupational and qualification structures; industry-based training practices and opportunities for off-job TVET; graduate destinations (tracer studies); current workforces to establish principal entry points (reverse tracer studies); current job vacancies; unemployment and under-employment; future industrial and developmental projects (pp. 109 et seq.).
Demographic information on school-leaver cohorts is customarily gathered, collated and disseminated by government agencies that have responsibilities for compulsory education. Statistical information on enrolments, retention and graduation rates is generally available from government agencies responsible for TVET institutional funding. In some jurisdictions, the TVET institutions are required to furnish information to agencies as a prerequisite for public funding.
2.3 Strategic and Operational Planning for TVET Delivery Effective planning in autonomous TVET institutions takes place over different time scales:
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long-term strategic planning gives effect to the governing councils’ visions for their institutions, their agreed missions and their long-term strategic development; short-term (annual) business planning determines institutions’ TVET delivery for the forthcoming academic and financial years (p. 112).
Strategic plans are customarily developed by small groups with requisite skills that may be sub-committees of governing councils strengthened by secondees from management. Various planning techniques may be used:
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analyses of institutions’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis); development of alternative scenarios for future development; structured consultation with stakeholders; development of performance indicators and milestones.
Strategic planning groups need to take into account the external inputs to planning. These include government training policies, labour-market forecasts, economic and demographic factors, and assessments of institutional capacities to implement strategic plans (pp. 114 et seq.). Autonomous TVET institutions customarily operate within annual TVET delivery and budget cycles that are covered by short-term business plans. Institutions’ annual budgets are important components of business plans. Performance indicators and milestones defined within business plans are often used in accountability regimes that determine whether the TVET institutions have delivered their expected TVET outputs and are operating within their approved budgets (p. 115).
3 Financial Management 3.1 Funding Sources and Mechanisms for TVET Public funding is allocated to TVET institutions by governments for two main reasons: to achieve desired national outcomes; and to enable societies in general to benefit from the recognized public benefits (externalities) of TVET (pp. 121 et seq.). In many countries, publicly-subsidized TVET is available principally through public TVET institutions and subject to restrictive entry conditions. In a number of countries, students at public and private TVET institutions are treated more-or-less equally in accordance with various TVET funding policies. These include TVET vouchers delivered to school-leavers and ownership-neutral funding delivered to institutions (CD-ROM Unit 5.1). When TVET institutions are permitted to set their own tuition fees to supplement their public funding, their enhanced autonomy allows competition on the basis of price (i.e. fees) and course quality. In principle, this may encourage greater costefficiency and effectiveness (see also Chapter VI.8, Public versus private funding and tuition fees). An optimal approach may be a mixed system of public and private TVET institutions in which students, institutions, industry, professions and (light-handed) government-funding agencies determine collectively what TVET courses are offered, where and to whom. Governments have options in how they fund public TVET institutions. The alternative funding methodologies can be variously categorized as:
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input- or output-based funding; negotiated or normative funding; absolute or relative funding (pp. 125 et seq.).
Under input-funding systems, governments fund the input costs of TVET institutions directly (e.g. by funding teachers’ salaries, costs of materials, utilities, etc.). Institutions are funded for what they cost and, consequently, governments have little appreciation of what value they are receiving for their investments. Under output-funding systems, governments directly purchase TVET institutions’ outputs, i.e. the skills and expertise of graduates—or, as proxies for outputs, the numbers of enrolments or equivalent full-time students (EFTS), etc. (see also Chapter VI.8, Inputs versus outputs and outcomes). Under this approach, governments have a better appreciation of what their investments are producing. International experience indicates that the cost-efficiency, effectiveness and accountability of public TVET institutions are enhanced under output-funding systems. Negotiated funding systems involve negotiations between TVET institutions and central funding agencies. Under normative funding, funding norms/standards/ averages, funding formulae and other quantitative factors are used, i.e. funding allocations are calculated rather than negotiated. Funding formula customarily include defining parameters for TVET institutions (e.g. approved numbers of funded EFTS) and funding parameters (e.g. prescribed funding levels per approved EFTS differentiated by field and level of study). In absolute (bottom-up) funding, TVET institutions submit their own funding requirements and overall budgets are the sum of institutional bids. In relative (topdown) funding, finite resources are allocated centrally to TVET institutions in proportion to their assessed needs. For practical fiscal considerations, normative funding systems generally adopt relative (top-down) approaches. The starting points are the politically determined budget appropriations for TVET at national levels. The appropriations are allocated among the TVET institutions by normative funding methodologies according to their relative needs. There has been a gradual international trend in the resourcing of TVET from input to output funding (pp. 127 et seq.). Under output-funding systems, governments have better information on and control of the TVET services that they fund. Outputfunding systems in principle increase cost-efficiency, effectiveness, responsiveness and accountability, but require that TVET institutions have adequate autonomy to operate under this funding model. In particular, they require sufficient autonomy to be able to match their input costs to their output-funding entitlements.
3.2 Institutional Budgeting Processes Under input-funding systems, managers are usually constrained from diverting funding allocated for a particular input cost (e.g. salaries) to meet a different input
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cost (e.g. new equipment). Decisions on the most effective use of public resources are essentially made by funding agencies. Institutional managers have restricted financial autonomy, while financial planning is centrally driven. Under output funding systems, TVET institution managers are free (within prescribed limits) to determine institutional outputs and to allocate funding resources among their competing input costs. Decisions on the most effective use of public resources are essentially made by institutional managers rather than by central funding agencies (p. 129). Annual budgets are important components of institutional business plans. They forecast future revenues and expenditures and generally incorporate financial performance indicators including:
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projected operating surpluses; returns on income and assets; operating cash flows; measures of liquid assets, working capital and debt ratios (p. 131).
Internal budgets are derived from institutional business plans and support their operations. Output funding is generally undifferentiated: i.e. institutional managers are free to decide how to allocate revenue from public funding, student tuition fees and fee-for-service income to meet their internal institutional operating costs (salaries, overheads, capital expenditure, etc.) (p. 133). Major cost items, such as capital expenditure on new buildings or equipment that serves the whole institution, are customarily dealt with at the level of chief executives, subject to approval by governing councils. Costs may be either regarded as overheads shared by whole institutions or met through debt financing (borrowing). Buildings and equipment will inevitably require replacement, and replacement costs are customarily incorporated into the costing of service delivery as allowances for depreciation (pp. 135 et seq.). Generally, there will be some degree of cross-subsidization among the various departments to ensure that TVET institutions offer acceptable ranges of courses, including uneconomic courses that attract low enrolments. New courses often have developmental and start-up costs that are met through cross-subsidization.
3.3 Financial Management From time to time, the management of autonomous TVET institutions may determine that their institutions lack the financial or physical resources necessary for effective operation. Where deficiencies are financial (e.g. insufficient accumulated cash surpluses to cover the costs of new buildings or equipment), prudent borrowing may be appropriate. Where deficiencies are physical (e.g. insufficient buildings to accommodate staff and students), prudent leasing may be appropriate (pp. 147 et seq.).
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Governments have legitimate interests in proposals by TVET institutions to borrow and generally regulate to protect their ownership interests. The degree of regulation is determined by the level of institutional autonomy and may vary from outright bans on borrowing to light-handed regulation that requires TVET institutions to produce business plans demonstrating that proposed loans are prudent (pp. 137 et seq.). Leases, like loans, are risks for both the TVET institutions and for governments (as owners), but may have advantages over substantial building programmes by offering enhanced flexibility. For similar reasons, leases are also often regulated. In jurisdictions where public TVET institutions are resourced by output-funding systems, the decisions on capital expenditure are delegated to the institutions themselves. Arguably, more than borrowing and leasing, capital expenditure exposes both TVET institutions and governments (as owners) to financial risks. Consequently, governments customarily regulate capital expenditure to protect their ownership interests, taking into account the levels of institutional autonomy. Regulation may range from centrally-managed capital work programmes operated by government agencies to requirements on TVET institutions to produce business plans demonstrating that proposed capital expenditures are prudent investments (pp. 137 et seq.).
3.4 Financial Statements and Audit For public TVET institutions to be granted a level of financial autonomy, their governance and management must be accountable for their use of public resources. Financial accountability is customarily achieved by requiring public TVET institutions to prepare standard sets of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting practices. Standard sets of financial statements customarily include statements of financial performance, financial position, movements in equity, cash flows, commitments and contingent liabilities, and revenues and expenditure (p. 154). These statements are essential components of TVET institutions’ annual reports (see also ‘Quality Management’ below). Accountability raises the issue of who is to be held accountable. In some jurisdictions, required sets of standard financial statements must also include statements of responsibility under which governing councils and chief executives jointly accept responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of financial reporting. To give substance to statements of responsibility and to strengthen systems of internal financial control, autonomous TVET institutions require systems for the (internal) audit of all their financial transactions. In larger institutions, chief internal auditors carry out these functions. To enhance credibility, annual financial statements are customarily accompanied by independent audit reports from qualified external auditors. In some jurisdictions, financial statements are subject to external audit by State agencies established for this function. In other jurisdictions, TVET institutions are permitted to use qualified independent private sector auditors (pp. 155 et seq.).
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4 Information Management 4.1 MIS Design and Subsystems Modern TVET institutions require comprehensive management information systems (MIS) to support effective governance and their external reporting and accountability requirements. Governments and funding agencies require information on institutional performance, enrolments and quality-assured courses to enable them to support institutions and students effectively. TVET institutions need information about students to plan effectively, and financial information to support their internal financial and quality-management systems. Efficient and effective TVET systems generally have national data collection systems through which TVET institutions furnish information on their courses and students. National databases maintained by central agencies collect, store, analyse and disseminate information that informs public funding allocations to TVET institutions and the decisions of prospective students (pp. 79 et seq.). The standard components of MIS operating in autonomous TVET institutions will generally include systems for:
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financial management; human resource management; timetabling; student records and tracking; student activity monitoring; quality assurance; assets and facilities management; internal and external information and communication (pp. 83 et seq.).
4.2 MIS Development and Maintenance TVET institutions commonly develop MIS that suit their own particular requirements and purposes. These systems are often based on commercially available software packages or are developed for particular objectives by consortia or associations of TVET institutions that work collaboratively with private sector ICT companies (p. 87). When governments decide to introduce new student data collection systems, implementation can be a major challenge for current institutional MIS, particularly in respect of data compatibility. Prior consensus on data compatibility is facilitated by consultation between government officials and representatives of institutions or their national associations. National student identifier systems are key components of comprehensive national student data systems. Contingent on their introduction, TVET institutions are able to access and support student data systems (often as a precondition for public funding) through interface options that suit their own particular circumstances
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(p. 87). The operation of national student identifier systems is customarily an ongoing responsibility of central agencies and involves the maintenance of access protocols for TVET institutions and the provision of technical and operational guidance (p. 88).
5 Student Management 5.1 Student Selection and Enrolment Under open-entry policies, prospective students who wish to enrol in TVET courses may do so without restriction provided that they meet any prescribed minimum entry standards. If institutions charge tuition fees, access may be rationed by price (i.e. the students’ ability to pay tuition fees). Although restricted-entry policies minimize fiscal risks for governments, they also have consequences for equity. Competitive entry is equitable to the extent that competition for places is based on merit, but meritorious students may fail because they are from disadvantaged families (pp. 159 et seq.). Equity in competitive (merit-based) enrolment systems may be enhanced by arrangements intended to improve access for target groups. Targeting may be on the basis of student or family income or on gender or ethnicity, etc. Possible targeting mechanisms include:
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pre-entry or bridging courses that allow disadvantaged students to meet entry standards; means-tested scholarships or grants; non-discriminatory student loans; entry quotas guaranteeing minimum numbers of places for students from target groups (pp. 161 et seq.).
TVET institutions customarily attract enrolments by using the media (e.g. community and national newspapers, radio, etc.), by organizing special events (e.g. careers forums), and by liaising with secondary schools and industrial bodies. Promotional materials may include brochures, institutional web-sites and free-phone services. In some jurisdictions, government agencies maintain comprehensive web-sites that offer generic information to school-leavers on employment options, prerequisite skills and competencies, and options for TVET. Careers counsellors are well-placed to advise students in their final year(s) of schooling on options for TVET and employment (pp. 162 et seq.). Enrolment procedures customarily involve students providing information for TVET institutions. Prospective students may be required to demonstrate that they meet prescribed minimum entry standards. Some jurisdictions operate elaborate pre-enrolment systems that optimally match student preferences with the available TVET places, taking into account previous educational attainment. In other jurisdictions, TVET institutions individually select their own students (p. 163).
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5.2 Student Monitoring, Guidance and Welfare Monitoring and guidance processes for students may include procedures related to induction, recognition of prior learning, progress assessment, course evaluation, record-keeping and the management of students at risk of non-completion. Teaching staff are responsible for monitoring students’ progress against expected course outcomes (pp. 166 et seq.). Information provided at the commencement of TVET courses customarily covers:
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timetables, etc.; procedures used to monitor students’ progress and to determine course outcomes; student access to counselling, welfare and other ex-curricular services.
Processes for the evaluation of student performance generally fall into two categories: norm-referenced assessment; and standards-based assessment (see also ‘Managing assessment’ below). The welfare services provided for students while they are in training customarily include:
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financial support, e.g. hardship funds, financial advice; health and accident insurance services; student accommodation services, e.g. on- and off-campus hostels, accommodation placement services; social, recreational and cultural facilities; health and fitness centres; career, vocational guidance and job-placement assistance (pp. 174 et seq.).
TVET institutions may either provide welfare services from their own resources, contract external organizations to deliver them on a fee-for-service basis, or develop partnership arrangements with external agencies to deliver welfare services by referral.
6 Staff Management 6.1 Staff Selection, Recruitment and Appointment TVET teaching staff are often recruited from particular trades or professions to ensure that they have the requisite knowledge and skills. Teaching staff will also need adequate teaching skills to be effective. Non-teaching specialist staff (e.g. information technology, library, public relations, technical support, etc.) may be appointed for particular skills that are not necessarily specific to TVET (pp. 185 et seq.). In some jurisdictions, staff recruitment and selection for positions in public TVET institutions involves matching the attributes of aspiring appointees with job descriptions of vacant positions. Job descriptions customarily include:
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position/job titles; lists of superior staff positions (who appointees report to); lists of subordinate staff positions (who report to appointees); purposes of positions; key accountabilities (what is expected from appointees, sometimes called key deliverables, defined in terms of performance indicators); personal knowledge and experience specifications (expected prior experiences, formal qualifications, personal attributes and competencies, etc.) (p. 187).
In some jurisdictions, recruitment policies and processes remain the responsibility of central agencies, whereas in others, TVET institutions have the autonomy to recruit and select their own managerial, teaching and non-teaching staff (p. 188). In some jurisdictions, managerial staff are recruited for their demonstrated level of managerial skills (managerial approach). In others, teachers are customarily promoted from teaching positions to take on managerial responsibilities (collegial approach). There are arguments in support of both practices (CD-ROM Unit 7.1).
6.2 Staff Training and Career Guidance Effective TVET institutions require staff training systems that ensure that teachers have the necessary skills and competencies. Staff training systems customarily include arrangements for:
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inducting new staff; conducting training needs analyses to identify skills shortcomings and competencies; delivering staff training to address identified skill gaps; developing individual training plans; certification that provides portable, tangible evidence of skills and competencies; career guidance and development (pp. 190 et seq.).
6.3 Staff Performance Appraisal and Remuneration In autonomous TVET institutions, staff may be appointed by governing councils or by senior management under delegated authority. Levels of remuneration may be negotiated by management with prospective appointees. In some countries, remuneration and other conditions of employment are negotiated collectively between unions representing institutional staff and agents representing associations of TVET institutions. Although under these arrangements, institutional staff may no longer have job certainty, they are more likely to be compensated at true labour-market rates for their skills and competencies. Institutions also benefit by having greater freedom to
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match their input costs (mainly salaries) to their TVET delivery (outputs and output funding) (pp. 194 et seq.). Managers customarily undertake periodic staff performance appraisals that assess the performance of staff against their expected outputs (i.e. service delivery specified in job descriptions). Appraisals provide staff with feedback on their strengths and weaknesses and on their further career development. They also inform decisions on salary adjustments and promotions. Formal arbitration processes may need to be invoked to resolve disputed assessments (pp. 199 et seq.).
7 Course and Curriculum Management 7.1 Developing National and Institutional Courses and Qualifications Two broad categories of courses delivered by TVET institutions can be identified:
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national courses leading to national qualifications that are developed centrally, have automatic credit-transfer arrangements and can be delivered by any accredited TVET institution; institutional (provider) courses meeting local needs that are developed by individual TVET institutions, lead to institutional qualifications, often have no (or limited) credit transfer arrangements and remain the intellectual property of initiating institutions (p. 216).
High-level forums enable governments, employers, unions and TVET institutions to agree on occupational categories used in national courses and qualifications, and the levels of qualifications that will be provided within each occupational category. National TVET courses and qualifications are generally developed, maintained and approved by designated central agencies charged with these roles. They operate through appointed expert/industry committees assigned with the tasks of setting skills standards and developing and maintaining national TVET qualifications (pp. 205 et seq.). In TVET institutions that develop their own courses, academic boards may approve proposals for new courses on the basis of information that justifies the need for them. Representatives of institutional staff and industry stakeholders may decide course objectives and the means by which they are to be achieved (pp. 216 et seq.). Modular course structures offer significant advantages for credit transfer and articulation, e.g. enhanced opportunities for credit transfer between courses that include equivalent modules (see also ‘Managing assessment’ below). Course developers will need to decide whether all modules are compulsory, whether some are optional, and how all modules contribute to overall course objectives (p. 219). Course development begins with course outlines or structures. Decisions are required on important course parameters, such as entry levels, exit levels and course durations. Course outlines describe how courses are to be taught and are further
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expanded into course curricula that specify in detail what is to be taught. Curricula specify the topics to be covered and level of detail. They should include sufficient information for teaching staff to be able to develop their teaching plans for course delivery (pp. 217 et seq.). Knowledge, skills and competencies embodied in curricula may be generic (i.e. relate to a broad range of vocational fields) or specialist (i.e. relate to a narrow vocational field). They may also be theoretical (i.e. abstract or conceptual knowledge) or practical (i.e. manual skills, knowledge and competencies relating to particular utilitarian tasks). In general, theoretical knowledge, skills and competencies tend to be generic, whereas practical knowledge, skills and competencies tend to be specialist (pp. 228 et seq.).
7.2 Course Evaluation TVET qualifications, courses and curricula and their delivery require periodic evaluation. Curricula, in particular, are sensitive to changing job requirements. Evaluations are often focused on graduate outcomes or on employers’ views of the relevance of courses in the workplace. Course evaluations vary in scope, but generally give consideration to course relevance, design, delivery, assessment and cost-efficiency. Feedback from stakeholders (students, graduates and employers) is essential for robust course evaluations and may be obtained through:
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employer satisfaction surveys; graduate satisfaction surveys; graduate destination surveys (tracer studies); student satisfaction surveys; data on student enrolments and performance; teaching staff surveys (pp. 233 et seq.; pp. 276 et seq.).
The appropriate responses by academic boards to unsatisfactory course evaluations include changes to course curricula to improve course relevance, improvements to delivery (e.g. enhanced teaching resources, replacement of non-performing staff) and, when necessary, course termination (p. 234).
8 Managing TVET Delivery 8.1 Managing Teaching Autonomous TVET institutions are responsible for the organizational and staffing structures that determine the management of TVET delivery. Senior management is generally concerned with strategic planning frameworks and performance indicators. Departmental heads are responsible for organizing their staff, financial resources and TVET courses to meet expected outputs and the skill needs of
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industries, professions and the wider community. Institutional teaching staff are responsible for organizing the delivery of TVET to individuals and groups of students. These structures indicate three layers of management. Some responsibilities are shared: for instance, quality assurance and good health and safety practice. Generally, the structures include breakdowns into departments based on specific TVET fields. Faculty heads, heads of departments and course leaders are TVET (line) managers. They manage teaching staff grouped into delivery teams and are responsible to the senior management teams for efficient course delivery within their own areas (pp. 241 et seq.). In recent years, there has been a rapid expansion of off-campus learning (distance and e-learning). Often these modes are supported by on-campus study centres and e-mail communication systems. Distance and e-learning require specific course materials and their developmental costs can be substantial, particularly for specialist courses that involve small student numbers (pp. 246 et seq.). Post-school TVET is generally more student-centred than school education, which is strongly teacher-centred. Recent experience suggests that distance and elearning is more suited for mature-age students and students who are undertaking second or advanced qualifications. Virtual learning environments bring together in one piece of software and one integrated environment many features of TVET delivery. They require careful technical decisions about equipment location and networking, software, systems management and trouble-shooting. The teaching staff involved generally perform different roles in materials design and student supervision, and require different management skills (p. 248).
8.2 Managing Staff Resources The allocation of institutional teaching staff resources to the actual delivery of TVET involves decisions on appropriate teaching loads. These decisions must make reasonable provisions for:
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class contact time, i.e. time spent in the actual teaching and supervision of student learning; non-teaching time, i.e. time required for essential non-teaching duties; appropriate modes of delivery; appropriate class sizes; staff leave and sickness (pp. 251 et seq.).
Class contact times for teaching staff may be prescribed as maxima in employment contracts that take into account annual leave and other employment provisions. They generally decrease as the levels or complexities of TVET courses increase, and are further reduced by the demands of non-teaching time, such as involvement in curriculum development, applied research and industrial liaison.
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Customary deployments of TVET staff include lectures, tutorials, practical work in workshops and laboratories, clinical training in health centres, self-directed study and supervision of undergraduate research. Timetabling is a critical factor in the effective allocation of teaching and support staff resources to TVET delivery (pp. 255 et seq.). Timetabling packages are critical components of TVET institutions’ management information systems (see also ‘Information management’ above).
8.3 Monitoring Course Delivery Teachers are being effective only if students are learning. The monitoring of teaching staff provides information on their teaching skills. Its purpose should be made clear to staff at the outset and may include:
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providing evidence for performance appraisals; assessing the effectiveness of new courses; informing quality management systems (see also ‘Quality management’ below) (pp. 271 et seq.).
TVET institutions customarily have procedures for monitoring student progress through their courses, allowing the identification of students who are not coping (pp. 273 et seq.). The procedures include group discussions at the end of course components, structured questionnaires and regular assessments (see also ‘Student management’ above). Course outcomes may be assessed through graduate satisfaction surveys, graduate destination surveys (tracer studies) and surveys of employer satisfaction (p. 276).
9 Managing Assessment 9.1 National Qualifications Frameworks National qualifications frameworks are agreed system of qualifications that operate in particular countries. National qualifications are awarded by approved bodies and recognize that students have achieved prescribed levels of learning outcomes, standards or competencies. National qualifications frameworks support the coherent integration of qualifications and are intended to provide national consistency in the recognition of TVET outcomes. Credentials (certificates, diplomas, degrees, etc.) provide tangible and portable evidence of student achievement (pp. 206 et seq.). National qualifications frameworks generally provide direction on:
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principles that underpin framework designs: how and where qualifications can be achieved, operating principles, etc.; qualification structures: coverage, scope, sectors, levels, modules, units, etc.; qualification descriptors: required skills, knowledge and competencies;
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legal status of frameworks: i.e. voluntary, regulatory or statutory; determination of learning outcomes: i.e. competency-based (standards) or curriculum-based; recognition and credit mechanisms: automatic credit transfer, recognition of prior learning, etc.; awards/credentials: e.g. certificates, diplomas, degrees; protocols that ensure national consistency: protected titles, etc.
National TVET courses and qualifications are generally developed, maintained and approved by designated central agencies charged with these roles. The agencies operate through appointed expert/industry committees assigned the tasks of setting skills standards and of developing and maintaining national TVET qualifications (p. 208).
9.2 Assessment and Certification Once skill standards are agreed, standard-setting bodies may organize tests of attainment or agree to delegate this assessment function. Professional assessors are generally experienced teachers and may include the staff of TVET institutions. External assessments provide assurance against fraudulent standards and testing practices. In devolved TVET systems, skills assessment may be carried out by accredited TVET institutions or by registered assessors. Moderation processes may be required to ensure that accredited TVET institutions and assessors make consistent and reliable judgements about the work of students seeking qualifications (p. 209). Effective TVET institutions have procedures for monitoring the progress of students through their TVET courses that allow the identification of students who are not coping. Student performance is measured against planned sequences of learning and achievement. Assessment arrangements need to be explicit to guide students to clear understandings of what is expected of them (pp. 273 et seq.). Processes for the evaluation of student performance in general fall into two broad categories:
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norm-referenced assessment: ranks students against their peers according to their performance in class tests and assignments and offers an indirect measure of skills and competencies achieved; standards-based assessment: confirms that students have (or have not) achieved specified standards in defined skills and competencies, but does not rank their performances against their peers.
An advantage of standards-based over norm-referenced assessment is its ability to confirm that students meet prescribed standards of skill or competency. A disadvantage of standards-based assessment is that it does not allow students to be ranked. Under standards-based assessment, students are assessed as able (or unable) to carry out particular tasks according to prescribed standards. Abilities cannot be combined meaningfully as a measure of overall skill that would allow ranking (norm refer-
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encing). Standards-based assessment also requires that training courses be broken down into discrete modules for particular tasks pp. 171 et seq.).
9.3 Credit Transfer and Articulation National qualifications frameworks may facilitate linkages between qualifications by enabling individual learners to move from one qualification to another in more efficient and effective learning pathways. Qualification linkages are essential tools for the operation of effective national qualifications frameworks. They promote more open, accessible and relevant post-compulsory education systems and, inter alia, lifelong learning. National qualifications frameworks may facilitate linkages between qualifications through credit transfer and articulation arrangements. Credit transfer provides a means of linking individual components of existing awards, whereas articulation provides sequential pathways between qualifications. National qualifications frameworks facilitate credit transfer by providing direction on the determination of learning outcomes and on recognition and credit mechanisms. This direction enables arrangements to be developed for automatic credit transfer and for the recognition of prior learning (p. 207). Articulation—the development of flexible pathways that allow students to move easily between courses, qualifications, industries and professions—enables closer connections between secondary education, TVET and higher education. Articulation is a key process in building closer inter-sectoral relationships. Articulation may be enhanced by modular course structures that provide for credit transfer between courses including the same or equivalent modules. Modular course structures are also a prerequisite for standards-based assessment. For these reasons, national qualifications frameworks offering national consistency in the recognition of TVET outcomes and enhanced articulation are generally based on modular course structures and standards-based assessment of modules (p. 219). Credit transfer and articulation arrangements increase the opportunities for students with prior TVET experience and qualifications to access higher education, or increasingly vice versa by facilitating student mobility between institutions and sectors. Such arrangements should, however, not impinge upon the integrity of courses, nor on the autonomy of TVET institutions in taking decisions on admissions, prerequisites for on-going study, and the levels and amounts of credit or articulation conferred in these courses. On the other hand, students and intending students need reasonable assurance that they will be able to follow education pathways that recognize previous work and study outcomes and that give appropriate credit where these relate to further studies. Effective credit transfer and articulation are key components in making lifelong learning a reality and can deliver significant efficiencies in both time and money for students, TVET institutions and governments.
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10 Managing Physical Assets 10.1 The Management of Sites and Buildings In developing TVET systems, the management of the physical assets of public TVET institutions is normally undertaken by agencies acting on behalf of governments. Central intervention and direction are necessary until adequate capacities and systems are in place at the institutional level. In more developed TVET systems, capital funding may be included in the undifferentiated bulk funding allocated to autonomous TVET institutions to meet their input costs. In some jurisdictions, central funding agencies retain control over capital works programmes, whereas the TVET institutions have autonomy in the use of their operational (recurrent) funding (pp. 258 et seq.). Capital development needs to take account of TVET institutional sizes and delivery profiles. The experience of a number of countries is that efficiencies are achieved in TVET systems that comprise smaller numbers of larger institutions. Economies of scale are hard to achieve with larger numbers of smaller institutions. Large TVET institutions also have pedagogical advantages inherent in more comprehensive provision of TVET, and can adapt more flexibly to changing labour-market needs (p. 259). Adapting existing facilities to allow them to more effectively meet changing demands may be a better strategy than embarking on the construction of new facilities. Where new TVET facilities are necessary, their design should allow maximum flexibility. In some jurisdictions, there are national guidelines and norms for the space requirements of general teaching, practical workshops and library/private study at TVET institutions (pp. 261 et seq.). The efficient use of physical facilities is essential to achieve efficient TVET institutions. It is facilitated by a culture of institutional rather than school or faculty ownership (pp. 264 et seq.). Lecture theatres, classrooms, workshops, laboratories and other common teaching areas should be pooled and allocated as common resources. Central computerized timetabling systems increase the efficient use of accommodation (see also ‘Information management’ above).
10.2 The Management of Equipment and Learning Technologies The effective delivery of TVET requires that institutions not only have adequate teaching spaces, but that they also have adequate teaching aids and equipment. Traditional and newer aids that enhance teacher-centred learning include:
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simple photocopied handouts; wall-charts, blackboards, whiteboards, laser pointers, etc.; overhead projectors for slides and transparencies; video-projectors linked to VCRs/DVD players for videotape/DVD presentations, etc.;
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video-projectors linked to PCs for computer-based learning materials, etc.; databases and computer-based self-learning materials.
Teaching equipment, particularly desk-top computers, have short lives due to heavy use and rapid obsolescence. Their rapid depreciation should be taken into account in financial planning (p. 267). The efficient use of specialist teaching areas is affected by the mix and duplication of training equipment. A proliferation of large items of equipment (e.g. turning and milling lathes) consumes workshop space and may limit the capacity to diversify TVET courses and to respond flexibility to changing demands. An alternative approach is one in which workshops accommodate multi-functional equipment. Common items are available for different TVET courses and savings accrue in workshop space requirements and in the purchase, maintenance and replacement of specialist equipment. The use of adjacent equipment bays and mobile cabinets can facilitate multi-functional spaces in workshops (p. 267). A trend away from teacher-centred learning towards student-centred learning has resulted in the emergence of new forms of learning environments. Learning-centre approaches combine classrooms, seminar rooms and computer resource rooms with information services. Information service centres—formerly called libraries—may serve as communication and data hubs for whole campuses (pp. 269 et seq.). Like buildings, learning technologies should efficiently support well-planned curricula. In particular, students should not undertake study on outdated equipment and TVET environments should compare favourably with the students’ present and future workplaces.
11 Quality Management 11.1 Quality-Management Systems Autonomous TVET institutions accept responsibility for the quality of their own courses. Quality is generally assured through internal quality management systems subject to periodic audit by external quality agencies. Quality itself can be defined from three different perspectives:
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quality as excellence: makes comparisons between similar qualifications, courses and institutions; those that score highly on a predetermined scale are judged as excellent and therefore of high quality; quality as value-for-investment: based on stakeholders’ perceptions of whether qualifications, courses and institutions meet or exceed expectations, taking into account the time and money invested in them; quality as fitness-for-purpose: assesses the performance of qualifications, courses and institutions against stated outcomes or intentions (p. 282).
In practice, quality assurance of qualifications, courses and institutions usually involves consideration of both inputs and outputs. For example, TVET quality defined
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as value for investment by definition takes into account both value (outputs) and investment (inputs). Traditionally, the quality of TVET institutions is assured through certification processes and the quality of courses is assured through course approval and institutional accreditation processes. Certification confirms that independent, external bodies have audited the internal management systems of TVET institutions and have verified that they conform to prescribed standards (pp. 286 et seq.). TVET institutions generally require certification and accreditation to be permitted to deliver and assess courses leading to national qualifications. Accreditation processes verify that TVET institutions have quality management systems and meet their obligations to external quality-assurance agencies. TVET institutions may also apply for accreditation and course approvals to offer their own institutional courses. These are generally not recognized on national qualifications frameworks. Course approvals require TVET institutions to demonstrate that proposed courses conform to their quality management systems.
11.2 Quality Monitoring and Assessment Quality, defined as fitness-for-purpose, is applied in many jurisdictions as the most workable approach, without precluding quality defined as excellence and as value for investment in appropriate circumstances. Quality assurance may be either external, i.e. undertaken by external quality agencies, or internal, i.e. undertaken by institutional quality-management systems. A balance is required between quality assessments made prior to TVET delivery (certification, approval, accreditation) and post-delivery quality assessments (quality audit). Prior assessment has been criticized as over-emphasizing proposed TVET delivery and under-emphasizing actual TVET delivery. Quality audits address this criticism, but on their own would pose risks for students in poor-quality courses prior to audit and consequential remedial action. A balance is also required between quality assessments of inputs to TVET and outputs and outcomes of TVET. Quality assurance of qualifications, courses and institutions usually involves consideration of both inputs and outputs/outcomes irrespective of how quality is defined (pp. 303 et seq.). External quality assurance includes assessments of the quality of:
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inputs to learning, such as the quality of courses, student selection/monitoring/ guidance processes, staff quality and the quality of teaching delivery; outputs and outcomes from learning, such as knowledge and skills acquired, employability of students and their capacity for further learning.
External quality assurance agencies customarily carry out quality audits of TVET institutions against benchmarks or standards. These are developed by the agencies themselves in consultation with stakeholders and define the expected performance of quality-assured TVET institutions.
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In addition to quality benchmarks and standards that are specific to a particular jurisdiction, external quality assurance agencies may also use quality benchmarks and standards developed by international standards organizations. The most commonly used standard is ISO 9000, a generic management standard developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) (pp. 308 et seq.). External quality audits for TVET institutions are generally requirements for continuing certification and are undertaken by quality agencies. Audits are systematic, independent and documented processes that determine whether the structures, processes and outcomes of TVET institutions comply with the standards set by the certifying agencies. In jurisdictions that have devolved autonomy to TVET institutions, most quality assurance processes—including course approvals and institutional accreditations— are delegated by the external quality assurance agencies to the institutions. The institutions’ academic boards are customarily responsible for internal quality management systems and are subject to periodic external quality audits. Where responsibilities for quality assurance—including approvals and accreditations—are delegated to academic boards, the roles of external quality agencies are reduced to regular audits of institutional internal quality-management systems and to relatively infrequent quality audits of TVET institutions (pp. 306 et seq.).
12 Performance and Accountability Management 12.1 Accountability Enhanced accountability is a prerequisite for enhanced autonomy. Public TVET institutions are accountable to governments and to other stakeholders, including their students and the end users of acquired knowledge and skills, i.e. industries, enterprises and professions. The accountability of TVET institutions to governments as their principal funder includes financial accountability for public funding. Public TVET institutions are also accountable to governments as owners for their financial viability and for their stewardship of institutional assets. They are also accountable for their performance, i.e. their outputs and outcomes and for the quality of their service delivery. However, accountability systems serve no purpose unless they also provide for incentives, sanctions and other interventions by governments. Financial incentives and sanctions may be applied through funding systems. Other interventions available to governments include course closures, dismissals of failing councils and (worst case) institutional closures (pp. 313 et seq.).
12.2 Monitoring Monitoring systems are necessary to ensure that autonomous TVET institutions are accountable to stakeholders for their inputs, outputs and outcomes. Being monitored
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for accountability is a concession that autonomous TVET providers make for their enhanced autonomy. Accountability systems involve the quality and performance monitoring of inputs, outputs and outcomes. Monitoring tracks changes, analyses developments and evaluates progress achieved against benchmarks. Quality monitoring considers the quality of inputs to courses delivered by TVET institutions and the quality of the outputs and outcomes that result. Performance monitoring customarily focuses on quantitative measures of inputs, outputs and outcomes. Quality monitoring is used for the quality assurance of TVET courses through pre-delivery course approval, institutional accreditation processes and through postdelivery quality audits (pp. 318 et seq.). Quality monitoring processes may be devolved by external quality agencies to institutional academic boards (see also ‘Quality management’ above). Financial monitoring is a crucial aspect of performance monitoring and reporting. A necessary condition for public TVET institutions to be granted a level of financial autonomy is that their governance and management are accountable for their use of public resources. Where governments bear significant ownership risks, financial performance indicators may also be used for monitoring the financial viability of TVET institutions and for government interventions if necessary. Useful indicators include projected operating surpluses, returns on income and assets, operating cash flows, liquid assets, working capital and debt ratios (pp. 329 et seq.). Outcome monitoring of TVET courses is commonly implemented through graduate and employer satisfaction surveys and graduate destination (tracer) studies. These surveys may be undertaken by TVET institutions, by their service organizations or by government departments or agencies with monitoring and funding responsibilities (pp. 327 et seq.).
12.3 Reporting In a number of jurisdictions, the chief instruments for monitoring the accountability of autonomous TVET institutions for their inputs, outputs and outcomes are their annual reports. The content of annual reports customarily includes:
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vision and strategy statements from chief executives; institutional profiles including governance and management structures; performance indicators and assessments; financial statements; staffing reports.
Annual reports can be used as marketing tools by TVET institutions, since they often review progress achieved, significant institutional achievements, staff changes, accommodation developments, and qualifications and awards gained by their students. Public finance legislation may prescribe how financial statements in annual reports are to comply with generally accepted accounting practices and to fairly represent institutional financial positions (see also ‘Financial management’ above).
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Annual reports generally include statements of service performance that compare achieved performance with required performance according to measurable outputs and outcomes. Financial statements customarily include statements of financial performance, financial position, movements in equity, cash flows, commitments and contingent liabilities, and revenues and expenditures (pp. 334 et seq.). Annual reports may also include statements of responsibility in which governing councils and chief executives accept responsibility for accuracy. The reports of independent auditors may also attest that financial statements fairly reflect financial positions.
13 Conclusions and Implications Some future trends in TVET management practice that are leading to enhanced institutional responsiveness, cost-efficiency and effectiveness can be identified, drawing on the collective experiences of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The devolution of governance, management, financial and teaching responsibilities by governments to the institutional level is a key trend (pp. xi et seq.). Devolution requires effective governance and management at institutional level and effective accountabilities of governing councils to government agencies and of institutional management to governing councils. A clear separation is required between institutional governance and management. There has been an international trend from input to output funding of TVET institutions (pp. 125 et seq.). Under output-funding systems, governments have better information on and control of TVET delivery. Ownership-neutral output-funding systems in association with tuition fees may enhance institutional cost-efficiency, effectiveness, responsiveness, equity and accountability. Output-funding systems require adequate levels of institutional autonomy to be workable. The governance and management of autonomous TVET institutions are responsible for the quality of TVET delivery, customarily assured through pre-delivery certification, accreditation, course approval processes and post-delivery audit processes (pp. 303 et seq.). Quality assurance may be delegated to academic boards. National qualification frameworks offer national consistency in the recognition of TVET outcomes and enhanced articulation. They are generally based on modular course structures and standards-based assessment (pp. 206 et seq.). Autonomous TVET institutions are accountable to their stakeholders for public funding, institutional viability and stewardship of institutional assets, ensured through monitoring and reporting processes. Ultimately, they are accountable for their TVET outputs and outcomes.
Reference Gasskov, V., ed. 2006. Vocational education and training institutions: a management handbook and CD-ROM. Geneva: ILO.
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Section 7 The Economics and Financing of TVET
David Atchoarena UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning, Paris, France
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Chapter VII.1
Overview: Issues and Options in Financing Technical and Vocational Education and Training David Atchoarena
1 Introduction Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is increasingly considered to be an important instrument for public policy, not only for education but also for social and employment policies. While TVET’s objectives used to focus on preparing young people for work, it is now also expected to prevent and reduce unemployment, contribute to lifelong learning and act as a catalyst for social cohesion. The diversity of roles assigned to TVET goes beyond the boundaries of the education sector. As a result, TVET issues and policies involve a wide variety of stakeholders, including both educational decision-makers and labour-market representatives. This trend towards increasing partnership leads to a reconsideration of the responsibilities of the various actors, notably, the State, employers and learners. It is in this context that financing models are being reshaped. Based on the concept of human capital, an analysis of the economic effects of education has documented the increase in income that individuals gain from additional training. In addition to the private and social returns of investments in education, the distinction between core and specific competencies provides the rationale for sharing the cost of training. Typically, the instruction of general knowledge is primarily the responsibility of the State, while the acquisition of specialized skills is largely left to enterprises. However, beyond this search for rationality and efficiency, the allocation of roles between the various stakeholders is not free from considerations of a more general nature about the respective roles of the State, employers and individuals in financing social sectors. In fact, this perception about the nature of the partnership is often a key factor in explaining the differences between national TVET systems. It is within this framework that the debate about financing options and models for TVET takes place. The analysis of financing patterns used to focus on collection and allocation mechanisms. Increasingly, these concerns are being linked to the wider question of organizing training systems and particularly with the sharing of responsibilities between the key stakeholders. The approach that opposes supply-driven and demand-driven systems is clearly too simplistic. The performance of a training R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VII.1, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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system and its capacity to meet the needs of both companies and individuals require that interfaces be set up between the supply side and the demand side. In this respect, intermediary bodies, such as groups of employers, workers and communities, have an important role to play in achieving a balance between needs and provision through constant consultation and dialogue. Hence, financing strategies for TVET are part of a broader effort to engage all concerned parties, particularly companies and learners, in a dynamic process of skill acquisition. Achieving such a goal requires maintaining a careful balance between incentives and constraints according to national circumstances.
2 What are the Issues? The debate on TVET financing typically turns around two key questions: 1. Who pays for skills development? 2. What mechanisms can be put in place to finance skills development? What works best, in particular as far as spending public money is concerned? The discussion on funding skills development and financing principles is not a new debate. A large body of literature depicts both the rationale of funding and specific financing mechanisms. The impressive growth record experienced by East Asian countries generated a large debate on the factors that explain such success. Besides the macro-economic environment and the role of the State, a lot of attention was paid to skills formation. Relatively high levels of school enrolment contributed to an increase in the stock of human capital. The growth in secondary enrolment followed the expansion of primary schooling. In most cases, investment in technical and vocational education has also been significant. This human capital formation process is usually considered to have been instrumental in economic growth. Today, there are three new issues that influence the debate. The economic context has changed everywhere, and globalization has even had an impact on the informal sector and traditional agriculture. Globalization affects all countries; it deeply transforms the labour market and the related skills requirements. The importance of knowledge as a key contributing factor to economic growth is more readily recognized. TVET has an important role to play in coping with the emerging economic challenges. Policy responses to globalization now emphasize to a greater extent the importance of skills development. The fast-growing industries are knowledge-based. Economic returns tend to be ever more attributed to intangible factors, including skills. Financing training is crucial to expanding access and participation in skills development on a lifelong basis. Besides the changing economic climate, the emerging fiscal conditions constitute a second important influence for TVET funding policies. The financial context is tight in most countries, even among the most developed economies. Government
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spending capacity is limited, and public funds are often less available for skills development initiatives. While economic and financial issues present severe constraints for financing policies, a third element opens new opportunities. The wide body of knowledge on different funding mechanisms that have been developed internationally is indeed a valuable asset to policy decisions.
3 Who Should Pay for Skills Development? According to the economic rationale, those who benefit from training should pay for it. In many countries, pre-employment training, initial training and institution-based training are still considered to be a responsibility of the government, while financing continuing training and education is left to social partners. In reality, policies are trapped in a situation where extra resources are needed but public expenditure is restricted. In spite of their abundant resources, post-industrial economies are often obsessed by their commitment to reduce the government’s budget deficit. In developing countries and countries in transition, most resources available for social services are still absorbed by the financing of basic needs. A side effect of the Education for All commitments made in Dakar in 2000 has been to concentrate funding and policy attention on basic education, particularly at the primary level, to the detriment of other areas, such as TVET. Hence, for different reasons, the financial resources available for skills development are limited. Furthermore, the TVET system is often held in disdain. Funding for education and training are frequently based on tripartite mechanisms which include the government, individuals and employers. In countries where decentralization processes are progressing, more and more frequently local governments provide resources for training and skills development. Yet, little data is available on the sharing pattern in individual countries, even as regards initial training. In the above context, it has become more common for governments to promote co-financed mechanisms for TVET. This frequently includes creating incentives for employers and individuals to invest more in skills development. The current trend emphasizes the role of enterprises and learners in contributing to the costs of skills development. The concept of funding partnerships illustrates this approach. As already mentioned, it is important to stress that this trend towards increasing the employers’ contribution does not simply reflect a financial motivation. The aim is not only to mobilize additional resources, but also to increase the overall involvement of employers in steering and delivering mechanisms for training. Such an increased involvement is expected to improve the quality of training delivery and to align training supply with the requirements of the labour market. Hence, financing skills development is very much linked to the issues of responsiveness to market needs, and to the adaptation and relevance of training.
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4 Financing Mechanisms and Instruments Table 1 summarizes some of the benefits and limits of the use of payroll taxes to finance TVET. Table 1 Advantages and limitations of using payroll taxes to finance TVET Advantages
• Training funds are a powerful tool to expand training provision. • Training funds can stimulate employers’ investments in training and skills development. • Training funds contribute to the establishment of a market for training when resources can also be allocated to private providers, which lead to a competition between public and private providers.
Limitations
• Fund management, including the accumulation of surpluses and the diversion of funds, sometimes causes problems. • The system cannot operate on a sustained basis without sufficient support from the business community. • Formal sector employers are often resistant to supporting skills development in the informal sector, i.e. to cross-subsidize skills development in the informal sector. • The long-term sustainability of training funds in low-income countries remains an open question.
Traditionally, governments directly financed training providers and training delivery. In order to improve the effectiveness of public spending, new forms of management are being developed.
5 Towards an Expanded Agenda: From TVET to Lifelong Learning Throughout the 1990s, lifelong learning emerged as a key concept and a matter of growing concern in educational policies. It is now considered to be a central topic in the debate on the organization of education and training for the twenty-first century. In the context of globalization and modernization, it is often felt that individuals, organizations and societies need to learn on a continuing basis in order to adapt to and develop in the so-called emerging lifelong learning society. Several studies conducted during the last decade have clearly emphasized the issues and challenges involved in promoting lifelong learning. While the concept of lifelong learning is by definition holistic, covering all levels of the education system and embracing all age groups, one of its more crucial dimensions concerns youth and adults. Indeed, most policy attention was previously focused on pre-employment, school-based forms of education. Today, the impact of globalization and technological change, the concern for flexibility in the labour market and for employability, the ageing of the population and the search for more
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active forms of citizenship are contributing to a growing demand for youth and adult education and for a new functioning of education systems. In recent years, the debate on lifelong learning policies has been particularly vigorous within the European Union. In fact, since the mid 1990s, the European Union has emerged as a key player in the promotion of lifelong learning. This trend took place in a context of policy and system convergence among European countries. The retreat of the State, the deregulation of the economy and of labour markets, a growing shift towards market principles in the delivery of continuing education, and an increasing emphasis on individuals’ responsibility for training are some of the common elements of the transformation of education systems in Europe. In this context, lifelong learning is often considered as the new target for education policies, in order to meet the challenges of globalization. This growing attention to lifelong learning and the impact it produces on educational policies and systems is also felt in other regions of the world, notably in Asia, in Latin America and, to a lesser extent, in Africa.
6 Overview of the Contributions The chapters included in this section are a sample of today’s knowledge on TVET funding.
VII.2 Education, Skills, Sustainability and Growth: Complex Relations, by Kenneth King Kenneth King assumes that, with the vast amounts of money provided by international donors, universal primary education and perhaps also lower secondary education will one day be achieved in developing countries. But will their economies be able to sustain these education systems if these donations fluctuate or stop? And what will happen when massive numbers of school-leavers start looking for work in economies that are unable to absorb them? He reproaches international donors for not having paid sufficient attention to sustainable economies and infrastructures. He also fears that parents might lose confidence in education if the aspirations of school-leavers to find appropriate work in a modern economy are frustrated.
VII.3 Financing Mechanisms and Instruments: A Conceptual and Operational Approach, by Richard Walther Richard Walther provides a comprehensive review of financing criteria and models, illustrated by examples from eight countries in Europe and Africa.
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VII.4 Financing Training Through Payroll Levies, by Adrian Ziderman Financing mechanisms and instruments are generally seen as a way to mobilize additional resources. Payroll taxes and training funds constitute the most significant attempt to involve industry in the financing and regulation of a training market. Financial arrangements can also contribute to improving the efficiency of public spending. They are often part of a broader body of reform inspired by the new public management principles. An extended analysis of this topic is offered by Adrian Ziderman.
VII.5 Financing Vocational Education and Training in South Africa, by Martin Gustafsson and Pundy Pillay In many countries, increasing attention is paid to financing outputs instead of inputs. South Africa is currently formulating a reform of its technical and vocational education and training financing system along these lines. The chapter by Martin Gustafsson and Pundy Pillay provides an analysis of the on-going transformation of the complex South African TVET financing landscape, including both sectoral schemes and institution-based delivery.
VII.6 Voucher-Financed Training for Small Businesses, by F´elix Mitnik Various countries have also been tempted to introduce demand-based funding through voucher systems. F´elix Mitnik analyses in detail the use of vouchers to finance training for small and medium-sized enterprises in Argentina.
VII.7 Employers’ Participation in Training Finance: An Example from Brazil, by Candido Alberto Gomes In almost every country, decentralization and the increasing autonomy granted to schools deeply transform the way the education and training system operates. Consequently, public training providers are given increased autonomy. They are allowed to raise fees from participants and to manage their own resources. Nongovernmental institutions are, of course, in a better position to expand self-financing by establishing close links with the local labour market. Employers’ participation in a state of Brazil, described by Candido Gomes, illustrates how financial constraints can become catalysts for changing a training institution into both a resource centre for the local community and a territorial development agent.
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VII.8 Funding Lifelong Learning from a Life-Course Perspective, by Barry J. Hake In spite of the existence of abundant literature on lifelong learning and an impressive body of policy documents and legislation in many countries, the impact of major policy initiatives remains to be fully felt—most citizens still being far from enjoying a genuine lifelong learning experience. Changing the reality of public policies and investments to make lifelong learning a reality still requires major shifts in policy priorities and further innovations, particularly in the field of financing, to achieve a much more open and flexible provision of education and training throughout life. This perspective is analysed in detail by Barry Hake.
VII.9 Economic Perspectives on Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Australia, by Gerald Burke and Christopher Selby Smith The theory of collective action suggests new forms of State intervention focusing on co-ordination, dialogue and incentives. In this context, the financing of TVET constitutes a central policy instrument for regulating the provision of skills. Gerald Burke and Chris Selby Smith use Australia as an example, which illustrates how the role of the State is shifting towards more regulation and less direct provision. Furthermore, issues regarding the allocation of resources are as important as fund-raising methods.
7 Concluding Remarks The financing of TVET cannot rest solely on the government budget. Businesses, local governments, non-governmental organizations and individuals are therefore all called upon to contribute to this investment. Yet the temptation to rely increasingly on private-sector funding may face structural limits due to the already high, and sometimes increasing, cost of training in many fields. The new skills requirements linked to globalization, the constant search for competitiveness and the preservation of social cohesion clearly require new funding formulae. The policy debate on the financing of TVET has long revolved around two central questions: what are the available sources and how can they be mobilized? The human capital theory and the economic regime in place in a particular country served as the basis to answer these questions and to delimit the respective roles played by the market and the State. The transformation of the international scene, combined with recent developments in economic theory, has changed this perspective by stressing that the market, including the training market, does not exist ex nihilo and requires adequate government policy. This perspective is of particular importance
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for developing countries and countries in transition where the training market often does not yet exist as such. Accumulated experience from both developed and developing countries suggest that funding mechanisms and institutions can contribute to a better match between the demand and supply of skills. Yet, in many developing countries and countries in transition, the lack of employer interest in training issues and the absence of structured social partnerships still present significant challenges. Finally, the financing of TVET for disadvantaged groups remains an unresolved issue. This may continue to be the case until poverty reduction and social cohesion are given as much priority as profitability and competitiveness.
Chapter VII.2
Education, Skills, Sustainability and Growth: Complex Relations1 Kenneth King
1 Introduction For many developing countries since the World Conference on Education for All in Jomtien in 1990, and more especially since the Dakar World Forum on Education in 2000, and the elaboration of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) later that same year, there has been an international concern to assist their reaching the six Dakar Goals. While there has been some very thorough work on analysing progress towards these Dakar Goals (e.g. the Education for All Global Monitoring Reports—EFA-GMR), there has been much less attention to the sustainability of these externally-assisted achievements. Will countries that have been assisted to reach universal primary education (UPE) be able to sustain this when development assistance is terminated? It is not therefore just a question of whether the world is on track to reach the Dakar Goals, but whether individual countries have an economic and political environment that will continue to secure them. Intimately connected to that challenge is an assessment of what is available after school to the millions of young people who have been persuaded to enter and complete basic education. What has happened to the labour-market environment, and especially to the nature of skills and of work in the widespread urban and rural informal economy, during the years that countries have been encouraged to focus on the achievement of the Dakar Goals? As a consequence, in the sphere of technical and vocational skills development (TVSD),2 there has been a recognition that this sector has come back on to the agenda of development partners, as well as of many national governments, especially in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa (NORRAG, 2007; King & Palmer, 2007). Arguably, however, there is a direct connection between the emphasis on EFA over the last fifteen years, and the re-emergence of TVSD. Policy-makers in aid agencies and in national governments have been aware that the very ‘success’ of EFA has been producing some of the largest cohorts of young school-leavers ever recorded in some countries, and this has generated an intense debate about ‘Education for what?’, as well as on the role of skills provision as one response to the challenge. But, valuable though TVSD may be for school-leavers, it too is not a guarantee of work or of a job, whether in the formal or informal sectors. There is no automatic connection amongst school, skill and work. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VII.2, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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Policy attention has begun to shift, therefore, to an examination of what are the enabling environments in which EFA and TVSD can lead sustainably to poverty reduction and growth (Mayoux & Palmer, forthcoming). If there is no change in the productivity of work in the informal sector, and if foreign direct investment remains miniscule for many developing countries, what will be the impact on families who have invested in the basic education and training of their children over this last decade and more? Will they sustain these investments for their younger children if school and skill do not lead to improved economic outcomes for the older ones? The chapter addresses this question of whether the last eighteen years since Jomtien have witnessed an element of unsustainable financing of education and training. Has there been insufficient attention, in the focus on the six Dakar Goals, on the wider investments in agriculture, industry and infrastructures that the Commission for Africa (2005) and the UN Millennium Project (2005) have argued are necessary accompaniments to the securing of the MDGs? Evidence will be reviewed from a series of Asian countries, as well as from Africa. Some attention will be paid to China for the lessons that can perhaps be learnt for other countries from the ‘development-oriented poverty reduction’ in China’s own poorer western provinces (LGOP, 2003). It may be useful initially, however, to explore and clarify whether the current UN discourse about education for sustainable development—or about TVET, or literacy for sustainable development—has any connection with our concerns here about sustainable financing for education and training. That discourse then needs to be related conceptually to the discourse on aid dependency, with its intimate connection to sustainable national financing of education, skills training and other social goals. And that in turn leads straight back to the issue of continued economic growth at the country level—which tends not to look at the character of this economic growth in terms of environmental sustainability. Thus, it is suggested here that there is a set of key discourses that need to be connected (and interrogated) if any sense is to be made of the pursuit, simultaneously of the MDGs on the one hand, raising the levels of aid for developing countries, on the other, but also reducing aid dependency, through maintaining or increasing national levels of economic growth. It appears that the general term, ‘sustainable development’, is often a convenient envelope which actually can contain a series of frequently conflicting goals—not least the pursuit of financial sustainability and environmental sustainability along with the EFA and MDG targets.
2 Sustainable Development Versus Sustainable Levels of Development As a result of the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, a Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) was declared from 2005 to 2014. UNESCO was requested to take leadership over this decade and to put forward an implementation plan for it. There are four major thrusts to this discourse of education for sustainable development (ESD). These are:
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Improving access to quality basic education; Reorienting existing education programmes; Developing public understanding and awareness; Providing training (UNESCO, 2005, p. 7).
Since accepting this leadership obligation, UNESCO has indeed developed an international implementation plan (UNESCO, 2005) and this document analyses the evolving notion of sustainable development. There are three core dimensions: environment, society and economy. In terms of our concern with sustainable economic growth in this present paper, it might be expected that the implementation plan would address the nature of economic growth. Surprisingly, however, there is almost no mention of economic growth at all in the entire plan.3 In fact, the discussion of economic issues is only in relation to poverty reduction and to corporate social responsibility and accountability. There is no attempt to discuss either the need for national economic growth to make EFA (and TVSD) sustainable, and to avoid long-term aid dependency, nor the trade-offs between such economic growth and environmental sustainability. Intriguingly, one of the peculiar characteristics of the ESD or DESD discourses is that they have a strong ethical tone to them. Thus, the implementation plan talks much more of values than of economic issues or of growth,4 while in the Prospects Open file on ‘Education for sustainable development’, the guest editor, Lopez-Ospina, talks of ‘sustainable development’ being ‘more a moral precept than a scientific concept, linked as much with notions of fairness as with theories of global warming’. He goes on to argue that sustainable development is ‘primarily a matter of culture. It is connected with values people cherish and with the ways in which they perceive their relationships with others’ (Lopez-Ospina, 2000, pp. 32–33). Similarly, in a thoughtful discussion paper on ‘Orienting technical and vocational education and training for sustainable development’, by the UNESCO-UNEVOC Centre in Bonn, it is argued that ‘sustainable development [. . .] is primarily a matter of culture: it is concerned with the values people cherish and with the ways in which we perceive our relationships with others and with the natural world’ (UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, 2006, p. 5). The UNEVOC paper does, however, also admit that technical and vocational education and training (TVET) are too often linked into ‘productivism’, providing skilled workers for industry, on the assumption of continued economic growth. The discussion paper argues, by contrast, that TVET can also be linked to economic literacy, sustainable production and sustainable consumption, but only with massive gains in technological efficiency and with the ‘dematerialization of production and consumption’ (ibid, p. 16). However, the paper is more concerned with how TVET courses can build an awareness of sustainable development than with the financial sustainability of providing education and skills for all, as part of the developing world’s bid for modernization.5
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3 Education for All Versus Financial Sustainability? It is surprising that neither in this literature of ESD and DESD, nor in other commentaries on sustainable development, does the obvious tension between the sheer cost of reaching and maintaining Education for All get much discussed in the same breath as sustainable development. For example, in the EFA-GMR for 2007, the following claim is made without any acknowledgement that there may be a tension between achieving universal education and sustainable development: Building on two United Nations instruments, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the international community adopted the Declaration on Education for All at Jomtien, Thailand, in 1990. At its heart is the recognition that universal education is the key to sustainable development, social justice and a brighter future (UNESCO, 2006, p. 13).6
Elsewhere in the EFA-GMR for 2007, it is acknowledged, in a single, brief paragraph, that there may indeed be a problem where aid contributes a substantial share of the education (or basic education) budget. For example, for the twenty country plans thus far endorsed by the Fast Track Initiative (FTI), on average onequarter of the costs will need to be covered by external aid. More worryingly, it was estimated in 2002 by the World Bank that to cover the financing gap for reaching universal primary education by 2015, ‘aid would need to reach an average of 42% of total expenditure on primary education and much more in some countries’ (UNESCO, 2006, p. 98). In other words, very substantial amounts of external funding would be needed in such countries if the education MDGs were to be reached. What is also acknowledged, however, is the volatility and unpredictability of this external aid. In other words, the likely unsustainability of aid flows is admitted. So, we have an interesting anomaly, apparently; the literature on education for sustainable development pays little attention to the sustainability of educational achievements which have, in some cases, been made possible by large amounts of rather unpredictable educational aid. This ESD literature seems more interested in how education and training at different levels can assist in transmitting messages about sustainable development than in the sustainability of national educational ambitions. On the other hand, the EFA literature on reaching the education MDGs seems much more preoccupied with raising the aid volumes to facilitate this process than with looking at the sustainability issues involved in reaching the MDGs on the back of external resources. It might have been thought that what we might call a sustainable development approach to the MDGs would have been highly appropriate, since it is clear that reaching the MDGs is not a one-year Olympiad in 2015, but a process that needs eventually to be sustained on local resources. However, the actual MDG (no. 7) which is directly concerned with ensuring environmental sustainability does not itself raise any of the complexity linked to the financial sustainability of the MDG process itself; it merely promotes the idea ‘to integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources’ along with reducing by half the numbers without
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access to safe drinking water, and improving the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.7 We should not underestimate the complex mix of factors that need to be borne in mind if education, skills and sustainable development are to be satisfactorily discussed. Thus, we shall first analyse the situation by focusing on education, and then include discussion on training and skills development. We shall find that it is not sufficient to talk about financing gaps, but rather about a series of other factors, including country-level commitment, economic growth, the enabling environment and aid dependency—to mention just a few.
4 The Dakar Goals and the MDGs In the most recent EFA Global Monitoring Report of 2007, we have already noted the claim that universal primary education is the key to sustainable development. But a closer examination of the argument suggests there was awareness in the GMR team of just how many factors needed to be considered in arguing for priority to the Dakar Goals. For one thing, if the price tag for the achievement of the EFA agenda is really as high as US$11 billion a year, as argued by the GMR 2007 (UNESCO, 2006, p. 102), then the share of basic education in total EFA in low-income countries would need to more than double if there is to be sustained progress towards the goals. But it is not just a question of making the case to donors, many of whom have been relatively well disposed, at least in principle, towards higher aid budgets since Gleneagles in 2005. As the EFA-GMR 2007 admits, there is also more competition for new aid money. Increasingly, aid donors and national governments are aware that the predominantly social expenditures associated with the Dakar and MDG targets need to be accompanied by more attention to infrastructure investments, if the expenditure on social spending is to be sustainable. Partly, this thinking has come from the Commission for Africa and from the Millennium Project Report, but certain donors—and notably Japan, now joined by China, and once again the World Bank—have been urging more attention to infrastructure development. We shall look briefly at some of these accounts of the needs for massive growth in investment in infrastructure if social goals and achievements are to be sustained. Both the Millennium Project Report and the Commission for Africa broke new ground by insisting that increased growth rates and investment would be required if the MDGs were to be made secure. Indeed, the Commission for Africa has argued strongly (in its chapter on ‘Going for Growth and Poverty Reduction’) that Africa needed to reach an average growth rate of 7% and sustain it, if all the closely linked other investments (including social) are to be secured and sustained. But the Commission for Africa is also clear that this economic growth target needs to be associated with a strong attachment to the three goals of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental (Commission for Africa, 2005, pp. 219, 248). In particular, there was an emphasis on the requirement that ‘sustainable economic
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growth’ involves ‘prudent use of natural resources and effective protection of the environment’ (ibid). It was also sure that substantially increased aid would be required initially to help achieve this crucial level of economic growth. Recent World Bank thinking on the complex connections amongst educational investment, sustainable growth and other enabling factors supports the stance taken by the Millennium Project Report and also the Commission for Africa. UPE is just the ‘beginning step for survival in today’s complex, fast-globalizing world’ (World Bank, 2005, p. 47). What it terms ‘education for dynamic economies’ is equally a requirement to increase productivity and sustain growth. This enlarged vision is a very welcome addition to the Bank’s education agenda, and it should be noted that ‘financial sustainability’ is included as one of the intersectoral issues that cannot be secured by focusing on development through a single lens, such as educational investment: Rather than concentrate on a particular level of education, it emphasizes a holistic approach that not only addresses needs at all levels, but, indeed, recognizes that the challenges of access, equity, education quality, efficiency, financial sustainability, and governance and management are intra-sectoral issues that will never be adequately understood and addressed if they are considered from the perspective of education levels (World Bank, 2005, p. 48).
It should be noted that the language of ‘financial sustainability’ is much more acceptable than ‘aid dependency’.8 The ambition in the Commission for Africa and in the Millennium Project Report to increase aid dramatically, especially to Africa, has naturally raised concerns about what it actually means for a country to reach the MDGs on the back of external aid (see King, 2004a, 2004b). Aid dependency is not a popular topic in a world that is expected to assist poorer countries in reaching the MDGs; and hence the term ‘aid dependency’ does not get much attention in any of these three reports. The Commission for Africa, under the heading of ‘Is extra aid forever?’, does briefly address the challenge of aid recipients becoming permanently reliant on aid. But the Commission’s firm position is that, from the Republic of Korea to Botswana, aid has been shown to be able actively to assist the transformation from being a recipient to a successful middle-income country. Their view, not dissimilar from the Millennium Project Report, is that there needs to be a sufficiently large ‘big-push’ from external assistance to help kick-start the growth process. ‘Where the growth process succeeds, aid tapers out’. It is only when national reform efforts, supported externally, are too small that they fear that the ‘world will be faced with a permanent aid programme to Africa’ (Commission for Africa, 2005, p. 327). The World Bank, in a somewhat parallel perspective, conceives that in the poorest countries of Africa, performance-based aid can play a role in giving the political space for reforms, but this may imply ‘high aid dependency for a sustained period of time’ (World Bank, 2005, p. 56). This open-ended commitment over many years must be a concern to many donors, even if the MDGs are seen as a minimum standard that needs to be reached, regardless of dependency. Some analysts worry that for external bodies, in effect, to be paying the teachers’ salaries of poorer countries is essentially unsustainable, not just because of the unpredictability of aid and the
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frequent political role of teacher lobbies, but because these investments do not alter the wider macro-economic environment that will ultimately be needed to sustain such payments.
5 Reaching and Securing the MDGs: A Sustainability Challenge Compared to the enormous international effort put into calculating progress towards the MDGs and their specific indicators (e.g. United Nations, 2007), and the estimate of what nations are ‘on track’ to reach the six Dakar Goals in education and which ones are not (through the EFA Global Monitoring Report), it could be argued that a good deal more attention than at present might have gone into analysing the sustainability of national education and skills development systems more generally.9 These systems, at secondary, vocational and tertiary levels, have in fact been directly affected, especially in economically weaker and more dependent countries, by the international preoccupation with the MDGs and the Dakar Goals (see King, 2007). This is a little-recognized additional impact of aid dependency. But the impact of the international agenda-setting around EFA since Jomtien and Dakar is not only to be measured in terms of agency shifts in aid priorities;10 the focus on the Dakar Goals and on the MDGs has also affected in some measure even those countries that were much less aid-dependent. The result, arguably, has been very much larger cohorts coming through primary than ever before. This, in turn, has created massive political pressure to expand both lower secondary (often said to be part of the basic cycle of education) and upper secondary education.11 This expansion has often been carried out with inadequate national financing, whether at secondary, vocational or tertiary levels. But the results of the entitlement agenda around basic education are the creation of a very large group of young people whose aspirations for work at a certain level have been lifted by completing full primary education, but for whom opportunities in the national economy have changed very little. Compared to the huge international preoccupation with the MDGs and the Dakar Goals, with their focus on the supply side of the future workforce, there has been much less attention given to the creation of new productive capacities in the developing world, with the exception of the ILO’s ‘Decent Work for All’ agenda, UNCTAD’s least-developed countries report (UNCTAD, 2006), and the Commission for Africa’s emphasis on ‘Going for Growth’ and ‘More Trade’ (Commission for Africa, chs. 7 & 8). In fact, it could be said that the EFA and MDG agendas are predominantly supply-side; whereas in the last ten years vocational educators and planners have become used to thinking seriously about the demand-side. There is, of course, an inherent tension in the rights-based supply-side thinking associated with meeting the goals or the targets for basic education, and the demand-led thinking now so widely associated with the planning of TVSD. The only parallel in the last forty or fifty years to the massive supply-side initiatives since Jomtien was the expansion, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, of
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education systems (at all levels) in the immediate pre- and post-independence period. Then, at least, there were a significant number of new jobs created in the burgeoning ministries and through Africanization of former European positions. But in this most recent expansion, there has been little corresponding job creation. In many countries, EFA expansion has been accompanied by jobless growth. Whatever the virtues of the universal access to basic education—and few would dispute this entitlement agenda—there is something inherently unsustainable about expecting poor countries (and poor families) to continue to invest in basic education when there is no corresponding work available, beyond what can be found in the informal economy (King, 2005). The dilemma of Sub-Saharan Africa’s abundant labour supply (fuelled in part by external aid for achieving EFA) and minimal labour-market demand has been set out very sharply by Fredriksen, former senior education advisor for Sub-Saharan Africa in the World Bank: As regards post-basic education, I see a real problem in most African countries where:
i
On the (labour) supply side there is a very rapid increase in the supply of youth with some primary and/or secondary education, driven by a combination of continued rapid population growth and rapid increase in intake and survival in primary education; and
ii
On the (labour market) demand side, a tiny modern sector (an almost non-existent manufacturing sector in most African countries) and limited possibility for creation of modern sector jobs (outside extractive industries) due, inter alia, to lack of competitiveness of these countries vis-`a-vis China, Vietnam and other countries on export markets due to factors such as comparatively high labour costs, and a very poor business environment that does not attract direct foreign investment.
In fact, I would argue that there probably has never existed a region in the world where the gap between, respectively, supply and demand for ‘educated’ labour is larger than in Sub-Saharan Africa today (with the exception of a few countries). How they can reach the high level of growth needed to address this growing youth unemployment problem over the next two-three decades is for me a difficult problem (Personal communication from Birger Fredriksen, 27 August 2007).
Fredriksen points to the growth challenge presented by these uniquely great numbers of young people exiting basic education. From one international perspective, these numbers are part of a success story, as they constitute success on the EFA Development Index (see UNESCO, 2007, p. 196); but from another, they present a huge political problem. Aid has helped to create this EFA success in countries such as Ghana and many others. But what of the famous connection between aid and high growth rates that we were discussing above in relation to the Commission for Africa? Has Africa’s economic growth over the last decade and more begun to change the economic and labour-market environment which these young people will confront?
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6 The Paradox of Successful Growth: Little Poverty Reduction and Few Jobs One of the apparent success stories in Africa has been the persistently high levels of economic growth in recent years. For instance, Ghana has experienced growth in the 4 to 5% range over more than twenty years, and it was forecast to reach 6.5% in 2007 (Palmer, 2007, p. 1). And the IMF reported in 2005 that the number of African countries reaching 5% growth had hit a record high of twenty nations with inflation of less than 10%. However, the IMF has also warned that these economies are still not growing fast enough to reduce poverty levels, and that their business environments are still not friendly enough.12 Similarly, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has acknowledged that ‘Africa’s real GDP grew by 4.6 per cent in 2004, the highest in almost a decade, up from 4.3 per cent in 2003. [This] reflects a continued upward trend since 1998. Unfortunately, the growth has so far not been translated to employment creation or poverty reduction’.13 But are bodies like the Commission for Africa really saying that if only the growth rate were 7% instead of 5%, then all the positive effects would be gained? No, they are claiming that growth must indeed rise to 7% by 2010, but that it must be growth in which poor people can participate. In other words, a growth rate that is driven merely by higher oil and commodity prices is very different from growth that derives from a series of strategic investments in infrastructure, agriculture and the creation of a climate that fosters development (Commission for Africa, 2005, p. 251). It could, in fact, be argued that these new, higher growth rates for much of Africa have been positively assisted by India’s and particularly China’s search for oil and other commodities on the continent. But what Western analysts and agencies seem to be saying is that the growth rates not only need to be maintained and increased, but that parallel reforms need to be undertaken to make the investment and business environment more attractive, as well as ensuring the participation of poor people in the benefits of growth. For example, in Ghana, these are precisely the reforms that the government has been undertaking: The government is in the process of implementing other strategies aimed at stimulating growth and development, for example in: infrastructure, ICT, science/technology and health. Indeed, these kind of parallel strategies appear to be in line with much of the international literature regarding the need for large multi-sectoral investments to kick-start sustainable development (e.g. Commission for Africa, UN Millennium Project) (Palmer, 2007, p. 15).
But there is, in fact, a kind of ‘Catch 22’ in Africa’s pursuit of development via the MDGs and the Dakar targets. The continent has been urged to reach these targets, but it has been acknowledged that these goals and targets are pre-eminently social investments with little specified in the way of strengthening Africa’s productive capacities. Hence, if countries are to develop a sustainable infrastructure and economic base to maintain their achievement of these social goals, they not only need a solid revenue base, but they need to demonstrate to their peoples that investment in six or seven years of basic education for all their children does have a clear economic and
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labour-market pay-off—which may already not be the case today. What may well happen is that the pressure to provide some form of post-basic education to the most vocal (i.e. middle-class and urban populations) will mean that a substantial proportion of the primary age cohort, especially rural girls, handicapped and orphans, will not be covered by basic education, or will eventually withdraw—if they ever entered this level. For there are two dimensions of sustainability related to the achievement of these goals and targets. One is economic and relates to the national capacity to continue to fund the provision of EFA. But the second is equally vital and could be termed attitudinal sustainability. It relates to the sustained commitment of the people to send all their children to school. This will not happen without it being evident that basic education is of a quality standard, and that it can lead somewhere, either to higher levels of work or to post-basic schooling and skills training.
7 EFA, PBET and Economic Environments Our criticism, therefore, of the role of international agencies in the construction of the global education agenda which has held sway for fifteen years and more, since Jomtien in 1990, is not of course that it has diverted attention to basic education from other levels of education and training (see King, 2007). A focus on the right of all children to basic education, even in the poorest countries in the developing world, was long overdue. Rather, it has been with the lack of attention to the conditions needed to sustain EFA in these poorer countries. One aspect of this crucial, enabling environment is within the education and training system itself, and involves seeing basic education as one part of a necessarily holistic system of post-basic education and training. A second dimension is the role of the macro-economic environment in supporting the education and training system (but also in part being driven by the quality of the education and training system) (see Palmer, 2007). Currently, we lack adequate accounts of how EFA and post-basic education and training (PBET) are crucially affected by the wider macro-economic environment, and how they in turn can have a direct impact on that environment. China could provide one set of insights into this two-way process. One part of this account would be how China, through its nationwide campaign for nine-year schooling, moved from a situation where the per capita coverage of education in the workforce was just 4.3 years of schooling on average prior to 1985 to a situation in 2001 where the average per capita years of schooling was 8.1. This, of course, had a major impact on the capacities of China’s workforce, but this extraordinary achievement was also motivated by the opening up of China to the world, and the creation of a climate of new opportunities in work and in enterprises. Nor should it be forgotten that China has for twenty years sought to ensure that almost 50% of its upper secondary cohort should enter vocational secondary schools. China’s approach to poverty reduction affords a fascinating insight into this twoway interaction between educational and scientific provision on the one hand, and
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investment in productive capacity on the other. Its ‘Development-Oriented Poverty Reduction Programme’ gives a flavour of China’s national development strategy. It is interesting to note their use of the words, ‘holistic’ and ‘comprehensive’. First, stick to the comprehensive exploitation and all-round development. As cause for poverty is complicated [sic], so are the holistic measures for alleviating poverty. We must include the development-oriented poverty alleviation in the national economic and social plan so that we can have a favourable external condition for the task. We must intensify our effort to build water conservancy, transportation, electricity, and communication infrastructures in order to contribute to the development of the poor areas and the poverty alleviation and a better life. It is necessary for the poor areas not only to develop production, increase farmers’ incomes, but also pay attention to the development of science and technology, education, health care and culture, improve the community environment, raise the quality of life and propel a harmonious development and all-round progress. Only in doing so, can we eradicate the poverty at its root (LGOP, 2003, pp. 98–99).
Two years later, similar assumptions were made by the Commission for Africa. Currently, a series of other countries14 are being looked at in ways that would allow some consideration of how the provision and impact of skills training programmes also need to take account of the wider economic, social and political environment. Instead of a solely education-centric or training-centric approach, these two-way research approaches hope to show that the impact of education and training systems is inseparable from the environments in which they are embedded. This is not a deterministic position, because, as has been argued above, the character, quality and extent of education and training systems also have an influence on these surrounding environments. It may be useful to close with a listing of just a few areas where ‘going for growth’ needs to be rethought much more carefully in relation to sustainable education and training systems.
8 Provisional Propositions on Education, Skill and Sustainability
r r
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The UN and UNESCO discourses around ‘Education and Training for Sustainable Development’ are highly edu-centric; they expect education and training to raise awareness of sustainable development. But they have thus far paid little attention to the sustainability of the systems of education and training themselves. The EFA and MDG discourses also seem to pay relatively little attention to the differential national capacity to sustain the achievement of the Dakar Goals or the MDGs, even when securing these is heavily dependent on external aid. Aid dependency is little discussed in these discourses, since the emphasis has often been on the dramatic need to increase external aid rather than review the dangers of its volatility and unpredictability. The Commission for Africa and the UN Millennium Project discourses assume a virtuous relationship between substantial, long-term aid flows and a certain rather high level of GDP growth (by OECD standards)—7%. In this thinking, aid
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is assumed to be able to play a key role in kick-starting a pattern of sustainable growth. Inadequate attention has been given to several sustainability dimensions of the relationship between education and skills development, on the one hand, and their surrounding environments, on the other. Such evidence as we have of the crucial two-way relationships between education and training and their enabling (or indeed disabling) environments would suggest that further research would throw valuable light on how the aspirations of young people and their families to stick with basic and post-basic education and training are connected to this wider economic context.
These few propositions suggest that theoretically we have a long way to go in understanding the complex interactions amongst education, skills and sustainable growth.
Notes 1. An earlier version of this article was presented at the ninth United Kingdom Forum for International Education and Training (UKFIET) International Conference on Education and Development ‘Going for Growth? School, Community, Economy, Nation’, Oxford, United Kingdom, 11–13 September 2007. 2. TVSD is an alternative to the more usual technical and vocational education and training (TVET). TVSD captures both the older sense of technical and vocational expertise, as well the newer and more general term, skills development. 3. On the DESD website, there is just one sentence: ‘Economy: a sensitivity to the limits and potential of economic growth and their impact on society and on the environment, with a commitment to assess personal and societal levels of consumption out of concern for the environment and for social justice.’ <portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL ID=23280& URL DO=DO TOPIC& URL SECTION=201.html> 4. ‘Understanding your own values, the values of the society you live in, and the values of others around the world is a central part of education for a sustainable future’, UNESCO, 2006, p. 7. 5. It suggests, for instance, including ‘sustainable development concepts in all courses for everyone (“TVET for all”)’, without commenting on its sustainability (UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, 2006, p. 23). Intriguingly, ‘economic growth’ occurs just once in 31 pages, while ‘sustainable’ occurs 116 times! 6. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Jomtien World Conference on EFA, coming one year before the Rio Summit, did not actually talk of sustainable development, but it did mention as part of its Framework for Action that ‘development agencies should establish policies and plans for the 1990s, in line with their commitments to sustained, long-term support for national and regional actions’ (UNESCO, 1990, p. 20). By the time of OECD/DAC articulation of the International Development Targets in 1996, however, there was not only a target specifically concerned with the securing of national strategies for sustainable development, but an acknowledgement that there was a ‘broad range of less quantifiable factors of importance to sustainable development. These range from improved capacity for managing economic and social policies to heightened attention to issues of accountability, the rule of law and human rights, expanded participation and the accumulation of social capital and appreciation for environmental sustainability’ (OECD/DAC, 1996, p. 8). What is valuable about this comment is that ‘sustainable development’ is distinguished from ‘environmental sustainability’.
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7. For a statement of the MDG (Goal 7) on environmental sustainability, its three associated targets and the seven associated indicators, see the United Nations’ MDG website, <mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Host.aspx?Content=Indicators/OfficialList.htm>. The indicators do not tackle at all the nature of the growth needed at the country level. 8. In certain agencies, it is known that employees have been actively discouraged from talking openly about ‘aid dependency’ as it might discourage donors from increasing their aid. For a valuable discussion of aid dependency, see Sida, 1996. 9. For a very early, critical discussion of the ‘expansionary approaches such as those of the Jomtien Conference which commit countries to build their education systems up further on weak foundations’ see Penrose, 1993, p. 26. 10. By no means all agencies have switched their priorities to the MDGs and the Dakar Goals in the sphere of education, but a significant number have. And the money available for higher education programmes and projects, such as university links schemes, is a fraction of what is now allocated, in some agencies, for basic education projects. 11. An interesting case in point would be Kenya which has for much of the last seventeen years not been heavily dependent on aid, but has nevertheless dramatically expanded its commitment to free primary education, as well as to the expansion of secondary education and TVSD in the four years since the new government took office. 12. See report posted on . 13. Reported in Africa Focus: ‘Africa: economic growth improving’ posted on <www.africafocus. org/docs05/eca0505.php>. 14. India, Pakistan and Ghana, which are part of the DfID consortium on analysing the outcomes of education (RECOUP), are hoping to do work on skills training that would seek to map this against changes in the surrounding, enabling (or disabling) environment.
References Commission for Africa. 2005. Our common interest: report of the Commission for Africa. London: DfID. King, K. 2004a. Development knowledge and the global policy agenda. Whose knowledge? Whose policy? (Paper presented at the Conference on ‘Social Knowledge and International PolicyMaking: Can Research Make a Difference?’, 20–21 April 2004, UNRISD, Geneva, Switzerland.) King, K. 2004b. The external agenda of educational reform: a challenge to educational self-reliance and dependency in sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of international cooperation in education, vol. 7, no. 1, April, pp. 83–96. King, K. 2005. Re-targeting schools, skills and jobs in Kenya: quantity, quality and outcomes. International journal of educational development, vol. 25, no. 1. King, K. 2007. Multilateral agencies in the construction of the global agenda on education. Comparative education, vol. 43, no. 3, August. King, K.; Palmer, R. 2007. Technical and vocational skills development: a DfID briefing paper. London: DfID. Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development—LGOP. 2003. An overview of the development-oriented poverty reduction programme for rural China. Beijing: China Financial and Economic Publishing House. Lopez-Ospina, G. 2000. Education for sustainable development: a local and international challenge. Prospects, vol. 30, no. 1, March, pp. 31–40. Mayoux, L.; Palmer, R. Forthcoming. The role of skills development in creating a new cycle of opportunity for the poor: impact and lessons from developing countries. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO.
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NORRAG. 2007. NORRAG News, no 38: special issue on technical and vocational skills development. <www.norrag.org> Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development/Development Assistance Committee. 1996. Shaping the 21st century: the contribution of development cooperation. Paris: OECD/DAC. Palmer, R. 2007 Technical and vocational skills development and impressive economic growth: policy and research challenges for Ghana. (Paper presented at the ninth UKFIET International Conference on ‘Education and Development: Going for Growth? School, Community, Economy, Nation’, Oxford, UK, 11–13 September 2007.) Penrose, P. 1993. Planning and financing sustainable education systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. London: Overseas Development Administration. (Education research serial no. 7.) Sida. 1996. Aid dependency: causes, symptoms and remedies. Stockholm: Sida. (Project 2015.) UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training. 2006. Orienting technical and vocational education and training for sustainable development. Bonn, Germany: UNESCO-UNEVOC. (Discussion paper, no. 1.) United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. 2006. Developing productive capacities: the least-developed countries report 2006. Geneva, Switzerland: UNCTAD. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 1990. Framework for action: meeting basic learning needs. Paris: UNESCO. Retrieved on 5 November 2007 from: <www.unesco.org/education/efa/ed for all/background/07Bpubl.shtml> United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2005. International implementation plan: United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, 2005–2014. Paris: UNESCO. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2006. Strong foundations: early childhood care and education. In: EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007. Paris: UNESCO. United Nations. 2007. The Millennium Development Goals Report 2007. New York, NY: United Nations. World Bank. 2005. Education Sector Strategy Update: achieving education for all, broadening our perspective, maximizing our effectiveness. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Chapter VII.3
Financing Mechanisms and Instruments: A Conceptual and Operational Approach Richard Walther
1 Introduction The financing of vocational training, in contrast to that of general education which is almost exclusively the responsibility of public authorities, is a complex field. It relies on multiple arrangements that can be described from different angles: (a) the areas of training financed; (b) the types of players providing financing and/or regulating it; (c) the modes of direct or indirect financing used; and (d) the major financing mechanisms and instruments. This chapter is derived from the study ‘Financing vocational training: a EuropeAfrica comparison’, written for the Agence franc¸aise de d´eveloppement (AFD) (Walther, 2005). It will describe, in as precise a manner as possible, some of the financing practices and models which exist in the eight countries studied: France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom for Europe; and Algeria, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia for Africa. To this end, it will use financing criteria and models explained and analysed at the international level in various studies and reports published by organizations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Bank, UNESCO and the European Union. It will first clarify the criteria used for measuring countries’ overall training efforts and will outline a tentative typology of the countries according to their financing systems.
2 Financial Criteria for Measuring the Training Effort The concept of training effort was first used in the area of continuing training. It is quantified using data on training carried out (access rates, length, etc.). In this study, it is deliberately used as a means of aggregating all the financial expenditure devoted to the range of training measures that provide various categories of people with constant access to training throughout their working lives.
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2.1 The Usual Ways of Measuring the Training Effort It is very difficult to establish criteria for appreciating this effort, insofar as initial or post-initial vocational training, with the exception of specific training for adults in companies, is generally measured using three commonly used indicators (OECD 2003):
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public expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP; the share of total expenditure on education within overall public expenditure; annual expenditure per student in educational establishments.
This difficulty is due to the fact that financial data on education and training often concern establishments and measures where no distinction is actually made between education and training. It is also stems from the fact that continued lack of esteem for vocational training in relation to general education has hindered the development of a documented information system. This means that there is little published data focusing on vocational training alone, and it is therefore very difficult to monitor and analyse relevant developments. As well as using data on the rate of access to training and the average length of training activities, measurement of the training effort for employees in companies can be based on expenditure levels calculated as a percentage of the total wage bill. It can also be calculated using the percentage of the total cost of continuing training activities in relation to total labour costs and total costs of continuing training activities per employee. This is notably the case in the European countries. The training effort for job-seekers is primarily determined by calculating the amount of public expenditure devoted to it, although such data are difficult to obtain for the African countries. With the Luxembourg process, Europe has introduced co-ordination of employment policies, and the annual publication of national employment plans makes it possible to access data on countries’ expenditure in this area. The regular availability of reliable data is a prerequisite for understanding a country’s overall training effort and for retrospective analysis of how effective the various financial instruments are in terms of their economic and social impact.
2.2 Overall Financial Data for the Countries Analysed Data are brought together in comparative tables providing basic information for each country. This makes it possible to consider the various data on training expenditure in relation to the country’s economic and social indicators on the one hand, and facilitates comparative analysis of the degree of priority accorded to the training effort on the other. Given that, as mentioned above, there are no comprehensive and regularly updated information systems on vocational training data, some of the figures used are estimates, some are lacking and some figures do not refer to the
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same year as the other data. It becomes clear that there are no identical statistical arrangements concerning vocational training at the international level, as is the case for general education. This comparative analysis cannot therefore be comprehensive. It can only be used to help identify some trends and highlight a number of major similarities or differences. The data on the four European countries (Table 1) come from the national reports, and are complemented with information published by the OECD (2003) and, as far as continuing training in companies is concerned, from the Continuing Vocational Training Survey (CVST-2—European Commission, 2000a), which was carried out in 1999 using a standard questionnaire for the whole of the European Union. Data on the relationship between public expenditure on education and training are not directly accessible and it has therefore been necessary to consult each country’s finance bills directly. Data on the African countries (Table 2) are partly drawn from statistics published by the World Bank (World Bank, 2004) and partly from reports published by the countries’ statistical institutes. Data on public expenditure on education and vocational training have been calculated on the basis of information contained in finance bills or gathered from public authority representatives met with during fact-finding missions.
Table 1 Overall data for the four European countries Indicators/country
Germany
Spain
France
United Kingdom
GDP growth rate (2002) Per capita income (2002) Unemployment rate (2002) Youth unemployment rate (2002) Education expenditure/GDP (2000) Public expenditure on education (2000) (as a % of total public expenditure) Public expenditure on training (as a % of education expenditure) (2002) People having at least completed upper secondary school education Expenditure by companies (as a % of the total wage bill) (1999) % of company employees with access to continuing training (1999) Average length of training in companies (1999)
0.2% $25,453 8.5% 9.3%
2.0% $21,347 11.1% 21.5%
1.1% $26,618 8.7% 18.9%
1.7% $26,715 5.0% 10.9%
5.3%
4.9%
6.1%
5.3%
9.9%
11.2%
11.4%
11.8%
–
–
16.6%
–
83%
40%
64%
63%
1.5%
1.5%
3.1%
2.7%
32%
25%
46%
49%
27 hours
42 hours
36 hours
26 hours
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R. Walther Table 2 Overall data for the four African countries
Indicators
Algeria
Morocco
Senegal
Tunisia
GDP growth rate (2002)
4.1%
3.2%
2.3%
1.7%
Per capita income (2001)
$1,784
$1,170
$470
$2,149
Unemployment rate (2002)
38%
11.2%
Youth unemployment rate (2002) Education expenditure/GDP (2001) Public expenditure on education (2000) (as a % of total public expenditure) Public expenditure on training (as a % of education expenditure) (2002) People having at least completed upper secondary school education Expenditure by companies
54%
N/A
N/A
N/A
5.4% (1995)
5%
6.5%
6.8%
18.2% (2004)
13.5% (2003)
–
20.8% (2004)
7.6% (2004)
1.6% (2003)
4.5%
–
62%
31.2%
N/A
67.8%
% of company employees with access to continuing training Average length of training in companies (1999)
r
r
14.9%
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Two major observations can be made in light of the data in these tables: It is difficult to obtain a precise idea about the overall initial vocational training effort in various countries, because it is not singled out in public expenditure statistics on education. It is difficult to access national documents (finance bills, among others) which would make it possible to set it clearly apart. Furthermore, data on continuing training in the African countries are not compiled because there is no standardized statistical system on this continent. The African Development Bank also stresses the urgent need to introduce a standardized statistical system for all countries to facilitate comparisons of situations and trends. While Europe and Africa’s economic and social situations vary considerably, their overall education and training effort, calculated as a percentage of GDP, tends to be of a comparable level. There is therefore a similar effort regarding investment in education and training in the different countries. However, every country’s particular situation should be borne in mind, as also should the fact that the African countries have an initial handicap in that they have much lower levels of schooling, and have poorly structured and little-used training systems.
3 The Main Modes of Financing Vocational Training Analysis of training practices in the different countries allows distinctions to be made between modes of financing according to whether they concern public or
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private education, apprenticeship or post-school training and continuing training for employees or job-seekers. These modes of financing have been defined pragmatically and can be refined or modified according to the particular circumstances of the training system of the country analysed. Above all, they serve as a tool to facilitate understanding and comparison of financial practices in the eight countries covered by the study.
3.1 The Fundamental Role of Public Authorities According to standard classifications, this category of training concerns establishments which come under the heading of upper secondary schools, and which this study’s national reports identified as providing upper secondary school vocational diplomas or secondary school final certificates. There are three modes of financing secondary school vocational education, excluding apprenticeship (OECD, 2000). 3.1.1 Direct Financing by the State The State covers expenditure on investment in establishments and their running costs, financing them directly on a cost-allocation basis. This is the case with public establishments in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Senegal. It should be emphasized that these countries’ public resources are often topped up by international funding providers (the World Bank, the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (MEDA) and the AFD). Morocco and Tunisia are introducing a variation of this approach by adding part of the funds raised by the levy on companies’ total wage bills to the public resources devoted to training establishments. The levy thus appears as a form of additional tax to make up for the lack of public resources in the field of training. Training establishments in the four countries can top up public funds with receipts from related activities, such as advisory and training services for companies, production of goods or services while providing training, or adult evening classes. Decentralization is in fact almost non-existent in the four African countries. The State covers all financial expenditure directly. 3.1.2 Co-financing by National, Regional and Local Public Authorities In the four European countries studied the various tiers of regional and local government share expenditure on investment and running costs, according to the regulations in place. Since the introduction of legislation on decentralization, France has moved investment expenditure on general and vocational secondary schools to regional budgets. The regions are currently acquiring decentralized administrative and financial responsibility for auxiliary staff in education and training establishments. Spanish initial vocational training centres are financed by the central government for all of the autonomous regions with no transferred powers in the field of education. In contrast, those autonomous regions which do have transferred
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powers provide funding directly. The European Structural Funds provide top-up funding for educational infrastructure and for developing technical and vocational education. Depending on their resources, families and pupils can also receive aid in the four countries. This is generally provided by the State. Decentralization of financing measures and arrangements is indeed one way of bringing the direct funding-provider closer to users, thereby making it more likely that people will be able to appreciate how the funds are used. This does not, however, detract from the fact that funding remains public and is topped up through transfers of funds from the State to local and regional authorities or through local taxes and levies.
3.1.3 Co-financing of Public Establishments by Private Funds In France, co-financing is not allowed, because free education is one of the republic’s fundamental values. It therefore only occurs in minor ways, with families covering certain educational supplies. In some d´epartements, such costs are covered by the regional council. Co-financing is also minimal in Germany, coming from enrolment fees paid by pupils. In Spain, co-financing is generally used in certified centres which are not totally subsidized. They top up their receipts with their own contributions or those of companies or families. Co-financing is sometimes used by public centres for the purchase of educational supplies, transport and catering provisions. In the United Kingdom, funding of the colleges of further education by the public authorities (70% of costs) is topped up by students’ enrolment fees (10%), other external income (such as contributions of the European Social Fund) and the sale of goods and services (20%) (Atchoarena, 1998). Co-financing also occurs in Algeria, where external clients pay for services provided by establishments when they produce goods or services while providing training, and for continuing training in companies.
3.1.4 Co-financing of Private Education by Public Authorities Co-financing is used for private establishments, such as those under contract (i.e. grant-maintained) in France and the United Kingdom. In France, the State finances overall training expenditure and running costs, leaving investment costs and some related expenditure to the owners. This also occurs in Morocco, where private education qualifies for tax breaks on the purchase of consumer goods and tax exemptions on profits invested in training. In some rare cases, it can qualify for funds raised by the vocational training levy. In Tunisia, private establishments can access an investment support fund, which can cover up to 25% of material costs and 25% of intangible costs. In Senegal, a small part of compulsory contributions made by
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employers is transferred to the vocational training budget (the ‘CFCE tax’), but there is currently a debate on whether this contribution should be transferred in its entirety.
3.1.5 Exclusively Private Funding There are some private establishments whose only source of funding comes from enrolment fees paid by their students. This is the case in Algeria, where private education is in constant progression but, due to the limited resources of its users, does not manage to attract enough trainees to fill capacity. This is also the case in Germany, where such establishments must have received the public authorities’ approval (Article 7 of the Fundamental Law), but are run with their own resources. Funding support from the public authorities is possible, but only for students. Organizations exclusively financed by private funds also exist in the three other European countries, and in Senegal, where some private establishments are exclusively financed by families. This brief review of school-based initial vocational training financing models demonstrates that public authorities play a fundamental role as the main source of finance and principal provider of training, although such tasks are increasingly being passed to local authorities, which are in closer contact with the establishments where training is delivered. This role does not conflict with the development of private vocational education, because the State not only recognizes it but even subsidizes it. However, in all of the countries studied, it seems that public authorities consider that one of their core missions is to bring young people up to the levels of qualification needed by both the economy and the labour market.
3.2 Financing of Apprenticeship Training and Alternance Training Schemes The analysis of the structure and evolution of the various training systems clearly demonstrates that, although apprenticeship and alternance training have an educational status, they come under the shared responsibility of public authorities, companies and, in many cases, the social partners. The transition from primarily public management to a broad partnership approach is clearly reflected in the means of financing used. 3.2.1 Public/Private Partnership in the Various Modes of Financing Apprenticeship In all of the countries studied, a sort of general rule applies to the financing of apprenticeship. It can be described as follows: training in schools or training centres is paid for by public funds, and workplace training and apprentices’ wages are paid for
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by companies. Furthermore, apprentices participate in financing their apprenticeship by producing goods or services while training and by agreeing to accept a reduction in what they might otherwise be paid (OECD, 2000). There are some variations on this common rule, depending on each country’s specific circumstances. This review of the different apprenticeship financing systems reveals that they have one very strong element in common, namely that co-financing by companies and the State exists in all countries. The other factor they have in common concerns the wages or allowances paid to apprentices. Companies’ contribution to apprenticeship in the form of a tax on wages exists in the great majority of the countries, but it is managed in varying and frequently complex ways. Lastly, it seems likely that more will be invested in apprenticeship in the future. This is reflected in recent governmental decisions in France and the United Kingdom, and is part of the new social consensus reached in Germany in 2004. There seem to be similar policy intentions in Tunisia (2002), in Algeria (the outlook for 2009) and Morocco (the governmental department for vocational training set it as a priority for 2003).
3.2.2 The Specific Characteristics of Financing Alternance Training Alternance training, or schemes entailing periods of on-the-job work experience co-ordinated with institution-based training, is distinct from apprenticeship for historical reasons (it primarily emerged as a response to youth unemployment and the need to train young people in order to get them into work) and institutional ones (apprentices do not always have a contractual status as workers; their supervisors have a defined role to play in the training plan). In terms of financing, there are some specific characteristics that are particularly notable in France. With the exception of the French and British systems, post-initial alternance training is a developing area in which public authorities are primarily responsible for financial management.
3.3 Financing Continuing Training for People in the Workforce Evidently, continuing training for employees in companies comes under the responsibility of employers, because it generally concerns people in the workforce who either undergo training related to their work or do so during their working hours. Such training has a direct or at least indirect effect on the way they exercise their profession. However, the on-going trend towards lifelong learning, especially in France and the United Kingdom, has recently had repercussions on the way continuing training is financed.
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3.3.1 Financing of Training via a Compulsory Contribution Such an obligation exists in six of the eight countries studied. It is generally defined as being the introduction, further to an agreement between the social partners (in the case of France and Spain) of legislation or a decree determining the amount of contributions to be paid, or honoured in order to qualify for a rebate (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal). Depending on the country, there are differences in terms of the collection or refinancing methods and the established purposes for which the dedicated funds can be used. To fill in the whole picture, it should be remembered that Germany and the United Kingdom each have one or two sectoral arrangements based on the collection of contributions that have become compulsory further to a contractual agreement between social partners in the sector but, in both countries, such arrangements are not sufficiently widespread to be considered as being representative of a national approach. These different practices can be summed up as follows: the financing of continuing training for employees is based on the principle of companies making a minimum contribution to training. This contribution gives rise to direct or mutual financing of training activities that are of specific interest to the company (activities to adapt to change), of shared interest to the company or the employee (job or competence development activities), or of specific interest to the employee (activities linked to the various forms of training leave or those linked to the right to training, insofar as the employee keeps his or her rights when changing jobs). Employees mainly co-invest in training of shared or individual interest by contributing their time or foregoing part of their wages. It can be concluded that, whatever their contractual or legislative origins, all of the compulsory systems for financing continuing training have evolved towards financing models managed in partnership and according to priorities established by bipartite or tripartite agreements (France and Spain) or by the public authorities further to consultation with the social partners. For France and Spain, the level of contributions seems to be the minimum companies need to spend in order to keep their employees’ skills sufficiently up to date with regard to ongoing changes. The French contribution of 1.6% is largely exceeded by the real level of expenditure, which is nearly 3% of the total wage bill. Similarly, the 0.35% level of Spanish contributions is largely exceeded, with employers devoting 1.5% of their total wage bill to continuing training for employees (European Commission, 2000a). In the African countries, the various compulsory contributions are collected by dedicated funds, which have either been set up with difficulty (FNAC in Algeria, FONDEF in Senegal), or channel the money back into public finances (Morocco), or have established eligibility conditions that are potentially dissuasive to companies (Tunisia). The distribution and effectiveness of these funds is therefore affected by a governance problem. Lastly, it should be added that most of the systems and funds are topped up by public finance in accordance with strategic policies or priority target groups, and
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there is no watertight separation between private and public sources of finance in this area. 3.3.2 Financing that Gives Companies and Individuals the Freedom to Choose Germany and the United Kingdom come into this category. In the absence of explicit rules, other than those that companies have introduced themselves, it is difficult to give a precise idea about companies’ internal financing methods. They come under the exclusive responsibility of management. However, bearing in mind existing data on continuing training in the two countries and the importance they attach to training their employees, some useful remarks may be made:
r r r
r r
While they do not establish financing objectives which must be achieved, the two countries both have national targets to encourage companies to invest in training. Germany is less proactive than the United Kingdom in this area. However, it has also defined priorities for raising overall qualification levels, notably by adopting ‘guidelines for the promotion of lifelong learning in the Federal Republic of Germany’ in July 2004, which directly apply to companies. The two countries also have incentive measures to ensure that training for employees becomes subject to public/private co-financing in certain priority areas. This is notably the case regarding training for poorly qualified employees in companies, which, as in France and Spain, can qualify for national and European co-funding. It is the case in Germany for training activities in the former eastern L¨ander and for some types of training that are considered as being vital to the general interest, such as training to raise qualification levels. It is also the case in the United Kingdom for training of employees when it leads to recognized qualification levels. Tax reductions for companies that train are among other incentive measures provided by the two countries. Germany’s tax system enables companies to count education and training expenditure as a running cost, and these can be deducted against profits in order to reduce taxable revenue. At the same time, it seems that the absence of compulsory financing by companies goes hand-in-hand with greater investment on the part of individuals.
This analysis of the different ways of financing continuing training in the eight countries allows a clear distinction to be drawn between two different groups of countries: those which define training objectives in terms of financing obligations; and those which pursue such objectives in terms of performance targets. A similar distinction could also be made regarding the different type of investment individuals make, although at the same time it should be stressed that the countries in the first group arrange for companies to pay for the training of individuals, while the second group prefer pre-financing or co-financing by individuals, even though it is then largely paid for out of public funds. It seems that these institutional differences have no direct impact on a country’s real level of investment in continuing training. The CVTS-2 survey provided widely varying results which do not suggest whether one type of system is better than
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another (European Commission, 2002a). The real reasons for the effectiveness of training systems still have to be identified.
3.4 The Financing of Continuing Training for Job-Seekers Previous analysis of how job-entry training schemes have evolved clearly shows that the study of different means of financing should be carried out in light of three major observations:
r
r
r
Financing of the different national employment systems, which increasingly focuses on efforts to help people into jobs, is largely the responsibility of public authorities, even though resources are made available by different ministries or channelled through local authorities and, in any case, largely drawn from companies’ and employees compulsory contributions. At the same time, expenditure on training is often topped up by social security contributions made by companies and employees. Closer scrutiny of preferred measures in the European countries, as seen in the national employment plans, shows that the financing of job-entry schemes is primarily used to support measures providing job seekers with real on-the-job work experience and additional training linked to their return to employment, even if aided. Different types of financing are furthermore targeted at three categories of worker: young disadvantaged people (who can benefit from post-school alternance-type training schemes), people who are returning to the labour market (notably women, bearing in mind that each country has identified that its workforce is too small) and older employees, who are being targeted by new heavily-supported measures in all of the countries.
This last observation indicates that a new trend is emerging in that companies are increasingly committed to measures to help people get jobs or keep them, and they participate in financing such measures in various ways. It can be concluded that training for job-seekers is starting to be considered as something other than an antidote to exclusion, and it is becoming more similar to company-based training. It is consequently also becoming part of a system that is increasingly oriented to lifelong learning. Its financing, which until recently was the responsibility of public authorities, is therefore starting to be shared by other players, including companies. There is a trend towards public/private co-financing, although the State’s ultimate responsibility for the matter is not in question.
3.5 In Conclusion This analysis of the different practices used for financing training for people of working age in their institutional context demonstrates that, with the exception
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of training for job-seekers, there are two major types of financing: that which is contractually or legally compulsory, with public/private mutualization and joint management of funds; and that which is directly financed by companies and, while dependent on their internal decisions, is an integral part of national moral obligations. These two types of financing are part of long traditions, but they are also dependent on the specific way society is organized in each country. However, such distinctions aside, some similarities between all of the countries studied are starting to emerge, which can be summed up as follows: (a) the co-financing approach is becoming increasingly common; and (b) management methods are becoming increasingly partnership-based, even in seemingly very liberal countries. It would nevertheless be appropriate to verify whether these observations are not merely the manifestation of other changes that have yet to be identified.
4 Financing Mechanisms in Their Institutional Context The description of the mechanisms and methods used for financing the various types of training made it possible to observe that different practices and instruments in the countries concerned are structured according to a number of major fields of data: training systems (school-based, post-school, training for employees and training for the unemployed); the main types of financing (public financing, private financing and co-financing); types of funding providers (central and regional government authorities, companies and individuals); and financing instruments (subsidies, levies or compulsory contributions, tax credits or training accounts). Taken together, these data establish the parameters within which an initial overall typology of the training systems’ financing mechanisms can be drawn up.
4.1 A Typology of Systems Rooted in a Common or Similar Tradition By putting the development of training systems and associated financing mechanisms into their historical perspective, it is possible to observe that the European and African countries have, in different ways, undergone major changes which have had, or continue to have, a structuring effect on the organization of their training systems and the ways in which they are financed. 4.1.1 The Situation in Europe European systems range from co-financing of schemes to tackle youth unemployment to a wide range of measures for financing lifelong learning. All of the European systems have been characterized, in a fairly identical manner, by the triple phenomenon underlying their respective situations and likely future development.
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This provides an explanation for the different types of approach, and can be resumed as follows.
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Helping young people find jobs, or the development of post-school training financed by public authorities and companies. The massive growth in unemployment, which started in the late 1970s, caused Spain, France and the United Kingdom to introduce a post-initial training system heralding the move towards alternance training. This, in turn, led to the introduction of forms of co-financing, which were primarily funded and managed by the public authorities in Spain and the United Kingdom, and by the economic and social partners in France. Because of the dominance of the dual training system, Germany managed to preserve a stable system and a very low youth unemployment rate for a long time. However, for the last ten years, there has been a crisis due to the lack of training places. This led to a bigger role for the public authorities in financing the creation of training places and introducing them into public administration. Even though this situation goes back to before the creation of post-school initial training, it is in line with what the three other countries are doing in that it relies on specific job-entry measures and strengthened co-financing by public and private partners. Industrial and technological change or the development of a culture of company investment in training. Continuing training for European employees did not really start to develop until the economic recession at the end of the 1970s and the acceleration of industrial and technological change in the 1980s, which forced companies to acquire a more adaptable and competitive labour force. However, such training was not really very significant until the introduction of financing instruments and evaluation processes making it quantifiable.
All of these stages show that European co-operation has had a direct influence on the way that countries have structured their continuing training systems. While they have not led to the development of common financial instruments, they have at least given rise to comparable methods and amounts of financing.
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Common realization about the importance of developing lifelong learning. Above and beyond the common European training culture, which has been forged by linking up national traditions, the culture of lifelong learning emerged from an initial joint observation (in the Amsterdam Treaty) that the knowledge society requires the constant development of everybody’s knowledge and competences, via regular and equal access to lifelong learning for individuals (European Commission, 2000b).
It is evident that the whole EU debate on this issue, as well as the Lisbon European Council objectives establishing joint qualifications and access targets for all European countries, stress the need to finance individual access to training, whatever the national mechanisms in place (European Council, 2000). Various attempts to respond to this need include the French system of co-investment by companies and individuals, and the use of training accounts developed in the United Kingdom.
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In terms of stakeholders
The European systems are focused on alternance-based jobentry training and shared public/private responsibility for management and financing.
Companies are considered as being responsible for providing and financing training for employees.
In terms of schemes and instruments Financial measures and instruments are used to mobilize all stakeholders and guarantee regular and open access to training and qualifications for everybody.
Fig. 1 Common characteristics of the European vocational training systems Source: Walther, 2005.
In conclusion to this rapid overview of recent history, it can be said that European systems, and notably the French, Spanish, British and German ones, have evolved in a convergent manner, according to three common features which characterize them (Fig. 1). 4.1.2 The Situation in Africa A transversal analysis of the situation in the three North African countries makes it possible to note that each has suitable financing instruments, but they are still waiting to be able to use them. Their use is hindered by burdensome administrative procedures which often seem insurmountable.
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The difficult relationship companies have with initial and continuing training. Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia are currently developing alternance training because it helps people to enter jobs and provides qualifications of immediate use to companies. In this respect, these countries mirror European trends towards co-operation between the education system and companies. They all have suitable financing tools for developing alternance training (an apprenticeship levy and funds for collecting and redistributing finance to companies), but their use is hindered by specific difficulties:
The situation is almost identical as far as continuing training is concerned. Financing obligations exist, but the conditions of access to finance are often complex (Tunisia), financing criteria and means remain to be defined (Algeria), or funds are mostly channelled back into the State budget (Morocco).
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A budgetary rationale which is ill-adapted to current developments. All three countries have introduced budgetary policies based on rolling forecasts of future expenditure on investment and running costs, and are therefore struggling to respond to real qualification needs. Algeria is setting up an employment and qualifications observatory, which should help improve how it calculates the country’s investment needs and then responds to them. This task is all the more important
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because 90% of the vocational training ministry’s current budget is spent on running costs and, if things continue this way, it will be unable to re-deploy its efforts and resources. Tunisia has opted for a sectoral partnership approach to respond to its qualification needs and financing requirements, but it still needs to define the preconditions for financing investment and running costs in order to establish realistic and efficient budgets. Morocco has introduced a financing approach which is designed to optimize public training supply, but there is a risk that quantity will be preferred over quality because of budgetary constraints. The challenges that the training systems are facing as a result of their countries’ opening up to European and world markets. The three countries are obliged to put their training systems’ funds at the service of a qualifications policy designed to deliver the skills and competitiveness levels required as a result of their recent (Tunisia) or future (Algeria and Morocco) entry into European free-trade agreements and the World Trade Organization.
International funding providers, who provide considerable amounts of support in the three countries, evidently accompany and speed up reforms the countries have started by setting the objectives to be achieved if funding is to be granted. At the same time, and especially as far as MEDA and AFD funds are concerned, they are helping to bring North African and European countries’ systems closer together. To conclude this analysis, the three countries’ training systems are characterized in three major ways, as shown in Fig. 2. In terms of measures The systems are focused on the development of alternance and apprenticeship training. However, there are not enough organized education-industry links to make training really effective.
In terms of stakeholders
The stakeholders have a budget rationale based on running costs and rolling forecasts. They do not have the means to cater for qualification needs through training.
In terms of schemes and instruments Financial instruments (levies and training funds) exist for developing continuing training. However, these instruments are neither efficiently managed nor adapted to the countries’ circumstances and needs.
Fig. 2 Common characteristics of the African vocational training systems Source: Walther, 2005.
4.1.3 The Situation in Senegal Although financing instruments exist, they are ill-adapted to the realities of vocational training. Senegal is in a particular situation because it has financial instruments similar to the levies and funds used in the North African countries, but it has a highly specific overall institutional framework in comparison to the other systems.
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Vocational training comes entirely under the responsibility of the national education ministry and, as such, it is not specifically distinguished from technical education. There is therefore no clear understanding about training content and the qualifications which students should achieve by the end. This is confirmed by the fact that there is no national reference framework for employment and qualifications. Vocational training is not only integrated into the education system in an indistinct manner, but there is an absence of mechanisms for planning budgets to anticipate specific needs in terms of running costs and infrastructure expenditure. Apprenticeship training is currently too closely associated with preserving existing informal working techniques and situations, and there is insufficient real apprenticeship focusing on anything other than the replication of knowledge and skills.
It will be difficult to give the existing financial instruments a proper purpose without first of all clearly identifying the aims of the system and the solutions it can develop to respond both to the qualification requirements of modern companies and to the development needs of the informal economy.
5 A Broad Typology in Which the Key Word is ‘Co-financing’ Having analysed the distinct characteristics of the various systems in each major geographical area, it would now be useful to summarize the information as a whole, by listing the type of financing used in each system for each different type of training—Table 3. The major categories of activity financed are shown for each type of financing source. This way of summarizing the information has the advantage of making it possible to identify the major characteristics of the systems analysed and thus to define a typology common to all of them. This table demonstrates several points:
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Contrary to some lines of thought, it clearly demonstrates that measures are no longer financed by one source. Co-financing has become current practice in the area of vocational training. Individual financing is particularly used in the area of continuing vocational training, especially in the European countries. The main reason for this is that continuing training is useful for both the individual and the company, especially when it focuses on competence development. This type of training is furthermore close to the concept of lifelong learning, which the European countries believe to be a shared responsibility of the different stakeholders. Public authorities are increasingly intervening in the area of continuing training when it leads to recognized or vital qualifications. This practice says much about policy changes in countries which consider higher skills levels among the whole population to be a national priority and therefore in the general public interest. It is furthermore totally in line with the Lisbon objectives, which have set similar
Public finance
Company finance
Individual finance
Public/private co-financing
Co-financing by several stakeholders
Initial school-based training
Running costs and investment
Traineeships
Yes
Yes
Initial training via apprenticeship
Financing of training in a centre
Yes
Yes
Post-school training
Financing of the centres Financing of individuals (including training accounts) Financing of strategic training
Costs of training in companies Wages of apprentices Costs of training in companies
Possible when training is carried out in a private centre Frequent, even though minimal
Possible in certain countries
Yes
Yes
Direct financing or co-financing of costs Indirect financing by training during their own time Loss of wages while on training leave
Yes
Yes
Continuing training of employees
Financing of training leading to a qualification Financing to provide incentives (including training accounts)
Costs of training in or outside companies Wages
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Table 3 Major categories of activity financed by particular financing sources Financial measures/instruments
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objectives and priorities for all European countries, with a view to making the European Union the most competitive economy in the world by 2010. More generally, co-financing practices reflect the declared intention, notably in Spain and France, to integrate previously separate measures within single establishments. This trend can already be seen in the way financing partnerships have evolved in recent years.
5.1 A Typology Based on Financing, Refinancing and the Ultimate Payer Rather than describing the situation in each country, Table 4 aims to provide details about the modes of intervention of the three big funding sources (public authorities, companies and individuals). Their nature depends upon whether or not they correspond to the different measures identified and whether they take the form of direct financing, indirect financing or refinancing. By setting things out in this way, it is possible to go further than the superficial level of pre-financing, and to expand upon the observation that co-financing is now the rule by specifying which sources of co-financing are the ultimate payers of the various measures. The study intentionally avoids using the notion of refinancing in terms of income tax, in which case the ultimate payers would be companies and households (Germany. Federal Ministry of Education and Research, 2003). It uses the notion to permit analysis of the way the direct financing source for each of the different measures is ultimately refinanced by other stakeholders who do not appear as visible contributors per se. This table allows us to make a certain number of observations clarifying the exact role of each financing source for each measure:
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It clearly emerges that public authorities are the financing source and ultimate payers of the main training measures (school-based initial training and training of job seekers). Private centres exist, notably in the African countries, of which some receive public subsidies and others function exclusively with their own resources. However, the data on this subject is too vague or inconsistent for it to be possible to reach conclusions invalidating the overall observation about the role of the public authorities. Apprenticeship training has two main financing sources in all of the countries: (a) companies for what is spent on training apprentices and paying their wages; and (b) public authorities for what is spent on training them in a training centre or vocational college. However, the country reports, especially those on France and Germany, emphasize that there are two indirect forms of financing by companies and public authorities: (a) tax reductions or exemptions and the recently introduced scheme for taking apprentices on in public administration in Germany; and (b) the recruitment grant and social security exemptions in France. The result is that financing by companies is in reality considerably refinanced by
Direct public subsidies (State or regions)
Initial school-based training
In all cases, for public measures and private centres under contract
Initial training via apprenticeship
For the ‘training centre’ share in most countries
For the ‘in-company training’ share in some countries
Possible for the ‘in-company training’ share
Individual grants
Public refinancing through tax credits or tax exemptions
Direct financing by companies
Indirect financing by mutual funds
Direct financing by individuals
For traineeships
Is the case for part of the ‘mutual’ apprenticeship levy and for funds which contribute to State budgets
Costs of training, of apprentices’ supervisors, wages and trainee grants
Depending on the country, the funds cover companies’ costs or provide extra financing
In exceptional cases, in certain private centres which are neither under contract nor subsidized, and in certain certified centres Possible for financing costs not covered by other financing sources
Non-financial participation by individuals
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Table 4 The modes of intervention by public authorities, companies and individuals Financial measures/instruments
By apprentices agreeing to earn less than they otherwise might do
Recruitment grants 1069
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Table 4 (continued) Financial measures/instruments
Post-school training
Continuing training of employees
Direct public subsidies (State or regions)
Public refinancing through tax credits or tax exemptions
Possible for trainee grants For the ‘centre-based training’ share in most of the countries concerned
Social security exemptions For the ‘in-company training’ share in some countries
Possible for the ‘in-company training’ share
Social security exemptions
As incentive measures
Individual training account top-ups In the form of tax deductions in some countries
Direct financing by companies
Indirect financing by mutual funds
Direct financing by individuals
Non-financial participation by individuals
Costs of training, of tutors and trainees’ grants
Only if the collection of levies covers the financing of alternance training
Possible for financing costs not covered by other financing sources
By young people on alternance training agreeing to earn less than they otherwise might do
Opening of individual training accounts
For companies subject to the levy or making contributions
For training that employees have decided to do themselves
For training done outside working hours R. Walther
For training to adapt to change and training in the interest of the company
Table 4 (continued)
Training of job seekers
Direct public subsidies (State or regions)
Public refinancing through tax credits or tax exemptions
As additional financing for training leading to qualifications
In the form of interest payments on training savings accounts
For all of the measures in all of the countries as far as the financing of training is concerned, and in the form of a contribution to companies participating in job creation schemes
Direct financing by companies
Indirect financing by mutual funds
Direct financing by individuals
In addition to the company for training agreed on jointly
For the company work placement, which is being developed in the framework of active measures
Possible in the form of top-ups, which are often refinanced by employment agencies
In the form of a contribution to unemployment insurance, part of which is often used for job-entry training
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In the form of a contribution to unemployment insurance, part of which is often used for job-entry training
Some social security contribution schemes are managed by funds and then used for training the unemployed
Non-financial participation by individuals
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Financial measures/instruments
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the public authorities. Furthermore, bearing in mind that part of the apprentices’ work is beneficial to the company (something which is quantified in terms of financial value in Germany), it can be said that the apprentices refinance part of companies’ financing through their output. Post-school alternance training, which in the strict sense is a specifically European phenomenon, benefits from direct public and private financing in Spain and the United Kingdom and direct financing by companies and/or mutual funds topped up by indirect financing from the State in France. By examining the range of forms of financing in the various countries, it is possible to identify who is ultimately responsible for two main types of measure: one is primarily managed by public authorities; and the other is primarily managed by the social partners. Companies are the main source of continuing vocational training financing in all countries. Employees’ contributions are made either in the form of a financial contribution or in kind (training outside working hours), depending on the objectives of the training (future return in the interest of the company or the individual) and the decision-making process (training chosen by the employee, the company, or in the framework of a collective bargaining agreement). The State can in reality play a role in refinancing individual contributions when expenditure by employees qualifies for tax deductions. As with apprenticeship, the State also refinances companies insofar as they can deduct expenditure on training from their profits or social security contributions. Public authorities are in all cases the main financing source for continuing vocational training for job seekers. However, companies and employees are increasingly contributing to unemployment insurance funds and special funds for training job seekers, which finance job schemes entailing a significant amount of training. The cost of job-entry training is therefore refinanced to a considerable degree by contributions from employers and employees.
6 To Sum Up By identifying financing practices that are present in all of the training systems, it is possible to establish some typological criteria which can be used to shed light on both the specific characteristics setting them apart and the structures and trends they have in common. These practices in reality provide parameters for understanding and analysing the systems, and they make it possible to go beyond the superficial level of who apparently does what, by providing an insight into the effective responsibilities and real commitments of those who implement the various measures. This can be summarized as follows:
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Vocational training financing processes in the various countries cannot be analysed solely on the basis of direct financing. There are also indirect forms of financing and refinancing which make the established relationship between
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sources and beneficiaries more complex. They can have a somewhat radical impact on the way the organization of measures is usually considered. The practice of co-financing characterizes practically all of the measures in all countries. This method seems to be in progression and tends to reflect the increasingly shared perception that training is everybody’s affair. This perception is at the heart of all studies and research on lifelong learning. Contrary to some preconceptions, the differences between private and public measures do not seem to be exclusive. Some training courses in public centres are co-financed by private funds, and there are private establishments co-financed by public funds. The real dividing line between the two types of measure and establishment can be seen more in terms of the types of training and qualifications offered than in the origin of funding. It is more likely that financing will be private if the training provided by an establishment is outside the national qualifications and certification framework.
The most frequent forms of financing are direct financing, refinancing through tax exemptions and rebates, refinancing through the collection and mutualization of funds and co-financing of individual initiative. Grants, training allowances and individual training accounts are notably used for the latter. It should be stressed that training accounts were used in the United Kingdom until 2001 and continue to be used in Sweden. There is currently a debate in the United Kingdom on how they can be given a new start.
COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SYSTEMS The practice of co-financing is used for all measures. ⇓ It is organized according to complex financing and refinancing processes. ⇓ The direct source of financing is not always the ultimate payer. ⇓ The identity of the ultimate payer determines the exact nature of the system.
SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SYSTEMS The way financial instruments are used depends on the country’s particular culture. ⇓ They range from direct and/or indirect aid to incentive measures. ⇓ While the target groups financed are the same, the means of financing them differ. ⇓ The means differ according to whether the training initiative is a responsibility of the State, the social partners or individuals.
Fig. 3 Common and specific characteristics of the systems
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In reality, the differences between such instruments depend on whether they are used to implement a vision developed at the initiative of the State, the social partners or individuals. This is something to be dealt with when it comes to developing models for the types of system. These conclusions can be summarized as in Fig. 3.
References Atchoarena, D. 1998. The alternatives for the financing of vocational training: the example of emerging countries in Latin America. Thessaloniki, Greece: CEDEFOP. (Vocational training, no. 13.) European Commission, ed. 2000a. Continuing Vocational Training Survey (CVTS-2): Population and social conditions. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. (Eurostat Working Papers 3/2000/E/N◦ 17.) European Commission. 2000b. A memorandum on lifelong learning. Brussels: Commission of the European Communities. (SEC (2000) 1832.) European Council. 2000. Lisbon summit presidency conclusions. <www.consilium.europa.eu/ ueDocs/cms Data/docs/pressData/en/ec/00100-r1.en0.htm> Germany. Federal Ministry of Education and Research. 2003. Lifelong learning in Germany: financing and innovation. Berlin: BMBF. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2000. Where are the resources for lifelong learning? Paris: OECD. (Education and skills, 2000.) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2003. Education at a glance: education statistics and indicators, 2003. Paris: OECD. Walther, R. 2005. Financing vocational training: a Europe-Africa comparison. Paris: AFD. (Notes and documents, no. 13). World Bank. 2004. World development indicators, 2004. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Chapter VII.4
Financing Training Through Payroll Levies1 Adrian Ziderman
1 Introduction Earmarked levies on enterprise payrolls have emerged as the most widely adopted funding mechanism for financing training, both in public training institutions (usually under the aegis of a national training authority) and in commercial enterprises. Usually set at around 1% of total wages disbursements, training levies are central to policies on the financing of training in many countries around the world, both developing counties and industrialized economies. There are two major types of training levy, reflecting the rather different objectives served. The more traditional, revenue-generating schemes (often referred to as the Latin-American model, after its origin in that region) are concerned with generating revenues to finance training provided by the public sector. The newer, levy-grant schemes aim at encouraging in-plant provision of training by firms themselves, through financial incentives that are funded through the training levy. Given the centrality of payroll levies in training finance, this chapter provides a presentation of the types, purposes, pros and cons and efficacy of payroll levies and concludes with a discussion of practical issues of implementation. Illustrations are provided from the working of payroll levy schemes around the world, with particular attention to the lesser-known cases in African countries.
2 Alternative Training Levy Schemes We have noted the usual division of national payroll tax schemes into two distinct groups, reflecting very different underlying objectives: revenue generation schemes (where levy proceeds are used to finance training provided by public sector institutions) and levy-grant schemes (aimed at encouraging training investment by firms themselves). However, this traditional dichotomy is becoming somewhat outdated as evolving levy schemes begin to take on a broader range of tasks, particularly in the context of the development of national training funds and training authorities. While many schemes, as we shall show, both finance public sector institutions and offer incentives for enterprise training, this distinction, nevertheless, remains a R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VII.4, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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useful analytical device. There are some cases of dual-objective, mixed schemes; but for most schemes the main thrust remains in one of these two directions.
2.1 Payroll Levies: Revenue Generation In levy schemes within this grouping, levy proceeds are used mainly to support public sector training provision, provided either by the State or a national training authority; the emphasis is on initial training at formal public training institutions. Such schemes are found typically in Latin America and Caribbean countries. Payroll levy schemes of this type may be seen as a mechanism for greater funding diversification, lightening the burden of training funding falling on the State. In addition to generating more funding for training, levies of this type may offer a more stable form of funding than is forthcoming from government allocations. First introduced in Brazil in the early 1940s, payroll levies of this type are in place in over a dozen countries in that region (Galhardi, 2002). This arrangement has spread to other continents. For example, the payroll levy scheme supporting the Vocational Education and Training Authority (VETA) in Tanzania is of this type. The bulk of funding goes towards the finance of VETA’s public training centres; financial support is also provided for the national trades testing system. Revenues from these levies have been employed to build up national training systems, usually run by a quasi-autonomous national training authority which, at its own training centres, provides a wide range of pre-employment and in-service training courses for manual workers, office workers and managers.
2.2 Levy-Grant Schemes Unlike revenue generation schemes aimed at financing training institutions mainly in the public sector, levy-grant schemes focus on company in-service training. They create incentives for a firm to invest more in the skills development of its workforce, be it in the sphere of training on-the-job (setting up or extending and improving existing company training) or by sending workers to train externally. The need for government intervention, via the introduction of levy-grant arrangements, arises because of shortcomings in the amount and/or quality of enterprise training. Such schemes are in place worldwide. They are to be found in industrial countries (such as France and New Zealand), transitional economies (Hungary) and in developing countries in Africa (Zimbabwe and South Africa) and Asia (Malaysia and Singapore). While there are numerous variants, Gasskov’s three-fold classification of various types of levy-grant schemes has been widely adopted and is presented here (Gasskov, 1994). He distinguishes between schemes concerned with cost reimbursement, cost redistribution (for which he employs the more general term ‘levy-grant’) and levy-exemption.
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2.2.1 Cost Reimbursement Under this type of levy-grant scheme, grants are made to firms who undertake certain designated forms of training (both on- and off-the-job) on a cost-incurred basis. These training grants are financed by the revenues generated by the payroll levy. The purpose of these levy schemes is often misunderstood, particularly among employers. The scheme aims not at reimbursement of the levy as such, but rather reimbursement of training expenditures incurred (to encourage firms to train more or better). Thus, a training expenditure reimbursement ceiling is usually set, up to a given percentage of the levy paid. Firms that train to acceptable standards will receive back part of the levy paid as grants; non-training firms are penalized by loss of the levy. The scheme could, in theory, provide for full reimbursement of the levy contribution (particularly where a large number of firms do not train and claim). In practice, reimbursement is set below the value of the levy paid, because of central administration costs and, particularly when run by a national training authority, where there are central expenditures, financed by the levy, on other training services. The payroll levy serving the Nigerian Industrial Training Fund provides a veteran example of a cost reimbursement scheme. In addition to running the reimbursement scheme, the fund finances and operates a number of its own training centres and its staff provides regular assistance to firms in identifying training needs and developing training plans (Gasskov, 1994). Because of these other calls on levy income, plus the cost of supporting the fund’s large bureaucracy, firms generally can qualify for cost reimbursements of not more than 60% of the levy paid; in practice, less than 15% of firms request training cost reimbursement.
2.2.2 Cost Redistribution This variant differs from cost reimbursement in that it aims at redistributing the burden of training expenditures amongst enterprises. Designed in particular to deal with the ill-effects on training supply of the poaching of skilled workers by nontraining firms, the mechanism provides for a sharper redistribution of levy funds, away from companies who do not train and towards those who do. Since the emphasis is on the redistribution of cost burdens, training companies may receive grants far in excess of the amount of levy paid and thus providing strong incentives for them to train. Such cost redistribution schemes act most strongly where the bulk of levy proceeds is redistributed back to firms as grants and not used for other (albeit training) purposes by the collection organization, be it the State or a national training agency. The classic example of this redistribution mechanism is the faulted system of industrial training board levies in the United Kingdom (UK). This levy-grant scheme, introduced under the 1964 Industrial Training Act, was the most comprehensive levy-grant scheme ever to be implemented. Some thirty industrial training boards were established, each with statutory powers to exact a levy from firms within its jurisdiction. In the largest of the boards, in the engineering industry, the training levy was set at a rate (2.5% of payroll)—sufficiently high to result in total levy proceeds
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approximating total annual training investments by all firms in the industry. This sum was then distributed back only to training firms according to particular formulae designed to measure company training efforts. In this way, firms that did little or no training would contribute towards the training costs of firms that trained substantial numbers of workers. While adopted successfully in other countries (New Zealand and Ireland), the UK scheme proved to be over-ambitious and unwieldy and was dismantled within two decades. Ziderman (1978) provides a critical review of the workings of the act. 2.2.3 Levy-Exemption Arrangements for levy-exemption are usually part of broader cost reimbursement schemes, whereby firms adequately meeting their training needs are allowed to withdraw from the levy-grant system or at least to benefit from reduced levy assessments in proportion to their recognized training investments. A major advantage is that firms are freed from the bureaucratic fatigues of levy payment and grant claims, and potential cash flow problems are avoided. This mechanism is found more typically in certain industrialized economies rather than in developing countries. Levy-exemption is present in the two payroll levies that fall on companies in France (the training tax and the apprenticeship tax). The Cˆote d’Ivoire scheme constitutes an example of levy exemption arrangements in a developing country. The Continuing Vocational Training (CVT) tax in Cote d’Ivoire is the main revenue source for the national training fund (Fonds de d´eveloppement de la formation professionnelle). Under the CVT tax, firms are required to pay 1.2% of payroll (in addition, there is an apprenticeship tax of 0.4% of payroll). Firms may receive tax exemption of half their CVT tax obligations (0.6%) on submission, and fund pre-approval, of a company training plan (including training within and outside the firm), utilizing retained payroll tax obligations. There is an additional incentive element built into the CVT system. Firms have the possibility of retaining up to an additional 50% of exempted payroll tax payments (0.9% of payroll instead of 0.6%). To do so, they must submit and implement training plans for three years and justify training expenditures beyond 1.6% of payroll; only a few firms avail themselves of this possibility.
2.3 Mixed Schemes The division between countries with revenue-raising schemes and those operating disbursement schemes is analytically useful; yet, as with many institutional generalizations, the distinction should not be pressed too far. Countries may seek dual objectives from payroll levy schemes which, in practice, may incorporate elements of both approaches. The Mauritius scheme is an example of a dual-objective scheme. While about half of levy proceeds traditionally have been assigned to support public training
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institutions, some 25% has been reimbursed back to firms, a proportion that has been rising more recently to about 40%. In a number of Latin American countries, national training authorities (funded by payroll levies) have broadened their traditional role as training providers to become outward-oriented, encompassing the promotion and guidance of training activities in outside enterprises. Colombia, Peru and Paraguay provide examples of this complementary approach (Ducci, 1997). Many levy-grant schemes contain elements of revenue generation. Nigeria presents a clear case of dual objectives. The National Training Fund, established in 1971, is funded mainly by a 1% payroll levy, with additional financial support from federal government budgets. While the central activity of the fund is the encouragement of companies to invest in the skills development of their employees through the offer of training grants, in 1979 it opened its own first vocational training centre. Though operated on a very much smaller scale than its levy-grant activities, the fund has continued to expand its direct training activities. The levy-grant schemes in Kenya, the Cˆote d’Ivoire and South Africa all display elements of revenue generation activities. In both the Cote d’Ivoire and South African levy-grant schemes, part of levy income is designated for the financing of national training activities that are usually regarded as the concern of the government. In Cˆote d’Ivoire, some 30% of CVT tax proceeds (net of tax obligations retained by firms) have been assigned for financing training proposals submitted by NGOs, local communities and informal sector groups. Levy funds assigned to training for the informal sector have risen to some 20% of allocations. The crosssubsidization of informal sector training by levy funds raised from formal sector enterprises is unusual, but is matched by provisions in the levy-grant arrangements in South Africa. In South Africa, 20% of the revenues from the skills development levies on company payrolls are credited to the National Skills Fund for across-sector strategic training initiatives and for the training of disadvantaged groups, activities which are usually funded from central government budgets.
3 Rationale: The ‘Benefit Principle’ Neither public finance experts nor government treasury officials are enamoured of earmarked taxes (for training or otherwise); it is argued that they constrain the freedom of public officials to re-allocate public revenues on an annual, ad hoc basis according to current priorities. And many companies, claiming to see little benefit coming their way from a payroll levy scheme, point to the levy as constituting ‘just another tax’. There is now a sizeable literature (beyond the scope of this chapter) that attempts to identify the essential nature of payroll levies and to seek a theoretical justification for their imposition. One rationale for payroll levies, which has been fairly widely quoted—though not necessarily accepted—sees payroll taxation as a form of ‘reverse social security’ (Whalley & Ziderman, 1990). Based mainly on empirical literature from industrialized countries, it is argued that at least part of the incidence
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of a payroll levy is shifted onto workers in the form of lower wages. It is in this sense that a payroll levy scheme, earmarked for training, may be regarded as equivalent to a reverse social security scheme: the worker receives benefits in the form of training on entry into the labour market (or during the early years) and contributions are made subsequently over the working life. The relevance of this approach, even if broadly accepted, will depend on how far individual tax ‘payments’ match the training benefits received. This, in turn, will depend on how equitably training opportunities are spread amongst workers, which, of course, will differ from country case to case. At a more pragmatic level, there probably would be wide agreement on the following proposition. Most payroll levy schemes, whether revenue generating or levy-grant, are largely used to finance training that is relevant (directly or indirectly) to the needs of the companies that pay the levy. In levy-grant schemes, enterprises may claim back part of training costs incurred, while in countries where enterprise training is weak or undeveloped, levies are used to finance public training institutions that provide skills for the formal sector. In this sense, training levy schemes may be regarded loosely as examples of benefit taxation, where tax-paying individuals or institutions are major beneficiaries of the uses to which the taxes are put. Perhaps the most quoted, non-training-related, argument against the imposition of payroll levies is that, in raising the price of labour, they lead to a substitution encouraging more capital-using production methods and to lower employment. It is unlikely that this argument bears any weight in practice. Even where there is no tax shifting onto workers in terms of lower relative wages, a small addition to labour costs (usually only of 1%) is highly unlikely to affect wage employment significantly, except on the margins.
4 Coverage Coverage of payroll levy schemes varies considerable from country to country, both in terms of the size of firm included in the scheme and of sectoral coverage. Most schemes define eligibility in terms of firm size, usually exempting small firms. While the Nigerian scheme includes enterprises with twenty-five workers or more, and those with ten or more workers in Colombia, most schemes are more comprehensive in coverage. Those in Kenya and Tanzania exclude all employers with three or less workers, and firms with less than five workers are exempted in Honduras, Peru and Venezuela. All enterprises are covered in the Mauritius and South African schemes. In Costa Rica and Honduras, exemption may be claimed on the basis of capital assets. The efficacy of such broad coverage in many developing country schemes is questionable. In practice, the bulk of revenue is collected from the minority of large and medium-sized firms. The relatively large number of micro-enterprises, the blurred definition of the informal sector and the difficulties of small-firm identification, registration and levy collection, all combine to result in considerable
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non-compliance in many countries. Legislation provides for fines and/or imprisonment for non-payment in most countries; but these measures are either generally not employed (as was the case in Tanzania until the reversal in policy in this regard, introduced in 2001) or not applied to very small firms. The reason is clear: in very many cases it is simply not cost-effective to follow up on small firms through litigation or even through dispatching inspector/collectors. But considerable noncompliance brings the law (and the levy scheme) into disrepute and beams negative signals to complying firms regarding continuing levy payment. A strong case can be made out for raising the minimum firm size for inclusion in payroll levy schemes in developing countries with large informal sectors. In many schemes small firms are excluded both because inclusion would not be practical (in terms of levy collection), but also because it may not be justified, particularly in the case of levy-grant schemes. The administrative costs of applying for grants may be disproportionally high for small firms. Moreover, the training needs of very small firms differ from those of larger firms, in terms both of expenditures (in relation to operating costs) and type of training; much of the training for which rebates may be obtained in many schemes is not very relevant to very small firms. Increasingly, financing schemes are being put in place in various developing countries (Kenya and Ghana, for example) to deal with the needs of micro-enterprises and informal sector firms; but these tend to be based on subsidy (usually from government and donors) rather than on levy-grant approaches. Countries differ in the sectors covered by the levy. Agriculture is usually excluded and most schemes exempt the public sector (Mauritius and Tanzania, for example), which results in a cross-subsidization of training for public sector employees by the private sector, to the extent that levies finance public training institutions. In some countries (such as in Colombia and Honduras), the government sector is included but levied at a lower rate. In South Africa, central and provincial government remains outside the purview of the training levy legislation, but government departments are required to budget 1% of personnel costs for skills development. Given the extent of sectoral coverage, some countries operate a number of sectoral-based schemes, rather than a unified national scheme. The leading example was the former industrial training board system operating in the UK. Sector-based schemes have met with varying levels of success and, clearly, their main advantage is that they offer a means of tailoring the levy format to the specific characteristics and needs of the sector in question. The disadvantage of sectoral levies is their narrow focus obviating an integrated, national approach to the finance and planning of skills development. Most countries have opted for standard, national-level levy schemes.
5 Avoiding the Misuse of Payroll Levy Revenues Payroll levies have been a stable form of funding for training in many countries and have brought additional funding to the public sector. However, there are a small
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number of notable cases where the payroll levy system has not resulted in more training because levy proceeds have been dissipated into general government revenues. This is the case in Gabon, Togo and, for a period, in Cˆote d’Ivoire, leading to a collapse of the respective training funds that they financed. Payroll levies may constitute an over-sheltered source of funding leading to unspent surpluses (Dougherty & Tan, 1991). The Zimbabwe scheme has resulted in income generation far in excess of cost reimbursement demands, leading to questionable forays into fields very loosely related to the objectives of the scheme. Surpluses generated by the scheme in Mauritius have led to a drastic cutting of complementary government funding for the training fund. The initial levy rate may be set too high, especially in the case of cost reimbursement schemes or a rate that may have been appropriate at one time is not revised downwards as financing needs modification. In Nigeria the levy rate, initially set at 3% in 1971, was reduced subsequently to the current rate of 1% four years later. Surpluses may lead to inefficiencies and top-heavy bureaucracies; alternatively they may lead to the use of payroll tax revenues for purposes other than training. Herein lies the role of strong controlling boards, representing the major stakeholder interests, to monitor the system and to ensure that abuse does not ensue. The root of the problem, however, arises from the arbitrary way in which levy rates are fixed and in the inflexibilities of the system (with the tax rate often enshrined in the legislation setting up the scheme). In the initial stages of setting up a scheme, only too frequently the levy rate is fixed arbitrarily. Often, the pragmatic approach adopted is to ask how much the system (i.e. employers) will bear and to emulate current rates in other countries, rather than to estimate revenue needs (which may change in the future), from which an initial tax rate is derived. This highlights the basic dilemma: how may a payroll tax system be fashioned to be flexible enough to respond to changing expenditure needs (and avoid surpluses), without foregoing the benefit of stable funding? It would be advisable to include within the enabling legislation a requirement to review the levy rate periodically (say every four to five years), but to guarantee a stable levy rate between revision dates.
6 Enhancing Enterprise Training Payroll levies have been a useful device in offering incentives for the development and strengthening of enterprise training. Training grants (financed from payroll levies) are employed in many countries to counter a tendency for firms to under-train. In these cases, direct training subsidies are provided as part of a levy-grant system. Two alternatives are available in the form of the direct subsidy to enterprise training by the government or of indirect subsidies offered through concessions on company tax obligations for firms that train. In this section we compare these three forms of incentives for enhancing company training and consider how far they may be successful in improving the training outcomes of enterprises.
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6.1 Direct Subsidies: Government Grants Versus Levy-Grants Some countries offer direct subsidies (out of public funds) to encourage company training; in what ways does this differ from cost reimbursement, as part of a levygrant scheme? With a government subsidy scheme, incentives may be indirect and insufficiently focused, failing to catch the attention of senior management. Perhaps too much reliance is placed on the initiative of the individual firms involved—in knowing that the subsidy scheme exists and that the firm is eligible for subsidy and in overcoming company lethargy in committing themselves to the burdensome process of involvement in the scheme. But in the case of levy-grant schemes, ‘involvement’ is assured automatically by the compulsory payment of the levy; anecdotal evidence suggests that senior company finance officers may tend to exert pressure on the training function to ensure that ‘we get back the levy’, through appropriate training provision. Moreover, there are likely to be positive longer-term effects from a regime of levy-grants. The experience of the former UK industrial training levy-grant system was that, in time, the process did exert the beneficial effect of increasing training consciousness in the firm; the training function, as a generator of income, moves more towards centre stage in the firm’s operations. Finally, we shall argue that one advantage of a well-developed levy-grant scheme over direct government subsidies is that the former is better positioned to adopt a structured, comprehensive approach to training, rather than a more ad hoc one. The central lacuna in training underprovision is not only that the amount of training provided is too low, but also that it is often piecemeal and not sufficiently well integrated.
6.2 Indirect Subsidies: Company Tax Concessions In most countries, training expenses incurred by companies are tax deductible. The tax treatment of training expenditures (a form of human capital investment) is typically more favourable than that of machinery and equipment (Dougherty & Tan, 1991). Training expenses are tax deductible immediately, whereas physical assets are tax deductible only in instalments, over a number of years, through depreciation allowances. However, a training incentive may be given in the form of further tax concessions for company training expenditures, in addition to the usual deduction of training expenses for tax purposes: we refer to these as ‘company tax concessions’. The generally successful and extant scheme in Chile is often quoted as an example of the use of company tax credits as an incentive device for enterprise training. However, there are a number of (lesser-known) examples; generally, they have proved to be unsuccessful. Brazil and South Africa constitute two notable instances of failed and phased-out tax concession schemes. The South African scheme, established under legislation in the 1970s, allowed for the deduction of 200% of training expenditures (reduced to
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150% in 1984), thus effectively reducing training costs of profitable firms by half (at a corporation tax rate of 50%). The scheme was faulted by ‘gross abuse’ of the concession by employers and difficulties in policing claims. Moreover, employer uptake was very low; well under 1% of firms in the country claimed these tax concessions for in-service training. The Mauritius scheme is unusual in that it operates in tandem with a levy-grant scheme. The presence of two schemes together is not unique—Brazil, for example, also operated both schemes in parallel. What is unusual is the close integration of the two schemes. Overall, the administrative and supervisory costs of the scheme are unnecessarily high. There has been conflict over the interpretation of the rules governing the interrelationship of the two schemes and, as a consequence, the reimbursement element of the levy-grant scheme has remained small. The major problems with tax concession schemes are simply stated. A prerequisite for the introduction of the scheme is a well-developed and broadly-based system of corporate taxation—something not usually present in many developing countries. Firms with low profits and perhaps poor training capacity do not benefit and are not encouraged to train. Tax concession schemes only offer benefits to stronger, profitable firms. And unlike levy-grant schemes, it is the government that bears the cost of these schemes in the form of lost tax revenues. In this sense, these arrangements are akin to direct training subsidies by the government and may be regarded as representing ‘subsidies in disguise’.
6.3 Encouraging Enterprise Training: Strengths and Weaknesses While sharing some common weaknesses, the three mechanisms are not equally efficacious. Table 1 lists some of the major weaknesses and—if any—notable advantages of each approach. A major advantage of levy-grant systems is that they do not draw on public funds, a point of some importance in times of parsimonious government budgets. In addition (as discussed above), they can lead to more systematic, structured enterprise training (although they are often not designed to do so). The disadvantages of tax concession schemes militate against their adoption in other than a very few countries.
7 What Forms of Training Should a Levy-Grant Scheme Support? 7.1 Training Off- or On-the-Job? Enterprise training can take on many forms. Training may be provided in the form of apprenticeship (often divided between training on-the-job and attendance at courses
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Table 1 Mechanisms for encouraging enterprise training: strengths and weaknesses Mechanism
Notable strengths
Levy-grant systems
Costs do not fall on public budgets—they are met by enterprises (or, with incidence shifting, by workers). Can facilitate a more systematic, structured approach to enterprise training.
Weaknesses
General training subsidies
Cost burden falls on public budgets (increased expenditures).
Company tax concessions
Requires a well-developed and broadly-based system of corporate taxation. Cost burden of the scheme falls largely on public budgets (reduced tax revenues). Responsiveness of firms is low in those economies where few firms earn sufficient profits to benefit from the tax exemptions.
Source: Ziderman, 2003.
provided at an outside training institution). It may take place wholly on-the-job as initial or continuing formal training, or training may be less formal and ad hoc, though not necessarily less important to the skills development of the firm. It may be provided off-the-job, in the form of formal courses, for workers, management or professionals at specialized training institutions. There is a dilemma here. It may be important to encourage certain forms of on-the-job training, but these may be expensive to monitor for quality and abuse may be difficult to detect. Other forms of training, such as those for professional qualification at recognized external institutions, may more readily be subject to surveillance but are not always of highest priority for the firm. This may explain the focus of a number of levy-grant schemes. Apart from apprenticeship training, which is largely in decline, most training that is recognized for cost reimbursement in the Zimbabwe scheme is training for upgrading or professional qualifications at external institutions. More hands-on, practical training does not receive sizeable support. Similar considerations seem to apply to the Kenyan scheme.
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7.2 Systems Approach Versus Piecemeal Reimbursement A related issue is the breadth of the overall programme of training supported by a levy-grant scheme within a firm and its sustainability over the longer term. We may recognize two contrasting approaches here. One—we may label this as the ‘external approach’—is typified in the Zimbabwe scheme. Here, a detailed list is produced of approved forms of training and courses that are eligible for rebates; firms are then invited to apply for cost reimbursement for those forms of (mainly external) training they have sponsored and which match items on the approved list. But this approach, while offering rebates to firms for certain forms of training and probably encouraging firms to train more (in designated eligible areas) is unlikely to have more than a limited, short-term impact on skills development in the firm and may indeed distort the balance of forms of training provision within the enterprise. This is because it gives recognition, and financial support, to more standard forms of training—usually provided externally to the firm—that are more readily recognized and easily monitored (and thus countering potential financial abuse) rather than supporting more needed forms of training, varying across firms and often less formal or standardized, which is lacking in individual enterprises. An alternative, ‘systems’ approach takes a broader view. In Cˆote d’Ivoire, levy exemption and cost reimbursement are contingent on the preparation, and approval by the fund, of a company training plan. In the Nigerian case, grant payment is conditional on the firm adopting a systematic approach to training based on given criteria. Thus, firms are encouraged to begin to think systematically through preparing a training programme, defined in terms of their real skill needs, rather than applying for rebates on a purely ad hoc, short-term basis. This more progressive approach has also been adopted within the framework of new funding arrangements put in place in recent years in South Africa.
8 Payroll Levies: A Balance Sheet of Advantages and Limitations Payroll taxes, usually levied as a percentage of company payrolls, are now established throughout the world as the most pervasive mechanism employed for funding training systems. In this policy-oriented section, we draw up a balance sheet, setting out the strengths and advantages of training levies against their possible dangers and limitations (Table 2). This listing is then followed by a discussion of key issues in training levy design and implementation that may be crucial factors in augmenting the benefits to be secured from training levies, while limiting—if not eliminating— some of their weaknesses.
9 Issues in Levy Scheme Design Table 3 summarizes a number of crucial issues in payroll levy scheme design and implementation that have been raised in this chapter. They are discussed more fully
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Table 2 Payroll levies: advantages and limitations Advantages
Limitations
Diversifies the revenue base for financing training by mobilizing additional revenues.
Given their particular training needs, many firms, particularly small ones, do not benefit from the scheme; this breeds resentment, opposition and compromises the status of training levies as ‘benefit taxation’.
Can provide a stable and protected source of funding for national training provision; this is particularly important in the context of national budgetary instability.
Earmarked taxation does not conform well with the principles of sound public finance and weakens attempts to unify the national tax system.
Where forming part of a levy-grant system, can encourage firms to intensify their training efforts, increase training capacity and raise training quality.
Under fiscal pressure, the government may incorporate training levy proceeds into general public tax revenues.
A strong case can be made for viewing earmarked payroll levies as ‘benefit taxation’.
Levy proceeds may be diverted to non-training uses.
Training levies collected from formal sector employers can serve as a vehicle for cross-subsidization of training, especially from the formal to the informal sector.
Payroll levies may constitute an over-sheltered source of funding, leading to unspent surpluses, inefficiencies and top-heavy bureaucracies. Payroll levies raise the cost of labour to the employer, possibly discouraging employment. Employers may shift the incidence of the levy on to workers in the form of lowered wages; in this case, workers and not the employers bear the burden of the tax.
Source: Ziderman, 2003.
in Ziderman (2003). Failure to pay due attention to these issues is likely to compromise the prospects for successful operation of a payroll levy scheme.
10 Concluding Remarks In over forty countries worldwide, levies on the payrolls of companies have become a principle source for financing skills training in specialized training institutions (often under the aegis of a national training authority) and for encouraging enterprise training without calling upon public funds. An attraction of these levies is that they form a sheltered source of funding for training, as well as more generally
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A. Ziderman Table 3 Issues in levy scheme design and implementation
Issue
Commentary
Levy rate
Levy rates to be subject by law to periodic review to avoid accumulation of surpluses. Levies, where feasible, should vary across sector and industry to reflect the differing skill composition of the labour force and training needs. Levy coverage should be as wide as possible across economic sectors and to include public enterprises, NGOs, etc. Very small firms should be exempt from levy payment, on both efficiency and equity grounds. Levy collection should be placed in the hands of effective agents; self-collection by funding organization to be avoided. Special attention should be given to guarding levy revenues from raiding by the government (especially where tax authorities act as the collection agent), by placing in special, closed accounts. Employers should be involved in payroll levy policy formation and execution. Payroll levies may be inappropriate where levy-income generating capacity is weak - either because of the limited size of the formal sector or administrative/organizational difficulties of levy collection.
National or sectoral levy rates Sectoral coverage Company size Levy collection Security of levy proceeds
Employers buy-in Avoidance of premature introduction of payroll levies Source: Ziderman, 2003.
offering a means of mobilizing funds otherwise inaccessible to the public sector. While there is a general predisposition to regard earmarked taxes as unnecessarily constraining on governments, payroll levies can act as an insulator against economic uncertainty and budgetary parsimony in situations where it is societally desirable to take a longer-term view. The provision of skills to meet the needs of economic growth and technological change may constitute a case in point. Be that as it may, this method of training finance has emerged as the most widely adopted alternative to government budgetary allocations.
Note 1. This chapter draws heavily on earlier papers written by the author, particularly: Whalley & Ziderman, 1990; Ziderman, 1994; and Ziderman, 2003.
References Dougherty, C.; Tan, J.P. 1991. Financing training: issues and options. Washington, DC: World Bank. (Population and Human Resources Department working paper series, no. 716.) Ducci, M.A. 1997. New challenges to vocational training authorities: lessons from the Latin American experience. International journal of manpower, vol. 18, nos. 1–2.
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Galhardi, R.M.A.A. 2002. Financing training: innovative approaches in Latin America. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. (Skills working paper, no. 12.) Gasskov, V., ed. 1994. Alternative schemes of financing training. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Whalley, J.; Ziderman, A. 1990. Financing training in developing countries: the role of payroll taxes. Economics of education review, vol. 9, no. 4. Ziderman, A. 1978. Manpower training: theory and policy. London: Macmillan. Ziderman, A. 1994. Payroll levies for training. In: Husen, T.; Postlethwaite, T.N., eds. The international encyclopedia of education, 2nd ed., vol. 8. Oxford, UK: Pergamon. Ziderman, A. 2003. Financing vocational training in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank.
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Chapter VII.5
Financing Vocational Education and Training in South Africa Martin Gustafsson and Pundy Pillay
1 Introduction Participation in education in South Africa is high. In 2004, around one-third of all South Africans were enrolled in some form of educational institution on a full-time basis. However, only around 2% of those enrolled were enrolled in an institution other than a school or a tertiary institution (Statistics South Africa, 2005). This is to some extent the concern of this chapter. Poor quality in education and training is perceived as a problem. The starkest manifestation of this in recent years is probably the very poor performance of South Africa in the international Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) tests in 2003. Skills shortages exist in a variety of fields, but are particularly acute in the engineering, computer-related, education and nursing fields. At the same time, the unemployment rate amongst the unskilled is particularly high. The official unemployment rate for 2005 was 27%. High unemployment rates have been a feature of the South African economy since at least the 1970s. Since the advent of democracy in 1994, various indicators have improved. Certain improvements can only be expected to have a wider impact in the medium to long term. On the education supply side, total public spending on education and training has risen in real terms, though as a proportion of GDP it has dropped. Public expenditure on each African school pupil doubled in real terms between 1994 and 2005. The post-apartheid period has seen the emergence of an entirely new set of institutions, policies and quality interventions, all explicitly geared towards undoing the apartheid human resources legacy. Those relating to pre-tertiary vocational education and training are discussed below. On the labour demand side, a set of employment equity rules has been established to counteract the racial and gender discrimination entrenched over many years in the South African workplace. Economic growth, 4.5% in 2004, is higher than it has been for twenty years. Whilst the growth experienced is arguably not of the jobless growth variety, a parallel growth in the demand for jobs means that a decisive and satisfactory decline in the unemployment rate has not been realised yet. The spending breakdown for education and training is shown in Table 1 for 2005. This chapter deals with South Africa’s spending policies in relation to the two lines in Table 1 that deal with vocational education and training at (mainly) the R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VII.5, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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M. Gustafsson, P. Pillay Table 1 Public spending on education and training, 2005
Education and training sub-sector National education expenditure Administration and governance Tertiary education Provincial educational expenditure Administration and governance Early childhood development + Grade R Schools (Grades 1 to 12) FET colleges Adult basic education and training National Skills Fund and SETA expenditure Skills development Grand total
Millions of rand
% of GDP
539 10,810
0.04% 0.71%
4,841 511 60,984 1,572 620
0.32% 0.03% 3.99% 0.10% 0.04%
5,000 84,875
0.33% 5.55%
Sources: Government budget documents.
pre-tertiary level: ‘Skills development’ and ‘FET colleges’. A first section deals with skills development, and a second one with further education and training (FET) colleges. Within the two parts, and in the conclusion, actual and potential links between the two sectors are described.
2 Financing the National Skills Development Strategy 2.1 Rationale and Legislation The National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) introduced by the Government of South Africa in 2001 is funded through an employee payroll tax. The rationale for the introduction of such a levy to fund training of the employed and unemployed was two-fold. First, the new democratic government of 1994 inherited an education and training system characterized, inter alia, by a chronic shortage of the skills necessary for stimulating economic growth and reducing unemployment. Second, and related to the above, the private business sector of the apartheid era seriously under-invested in work-place training initiatives, mainly because of an undue emphasis on short-term profits and a tendency to see training as a cost rather than as an investment. For these reasons the post-apartheid government was compelled to develop and implement a tax-funded skills development strategy which was met at its commencement by a high level of hostility by the private business sector. The NSDS was intended to ‘radically transform education and training in South Africa by improving both the quality and quantity of training to support increased competitiveness of industry and improved quality of life for all South Africans’ (RSA. DoL, 2004). The first NSDS (NSDS-I) was launched in February 2001 with targets to be achieved by March 2005. The strategy was underpinned by the Skills Development Act (SDA) of 1998 and the Skills Development Levies Act (SDLA) of 1999 (RSA.
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DoL, 1998; RSA. DoL, 1999). This legislation provided the basis for the skills development system, which was aimed at addressing the structural problems of the labour market inherited from the past, and at transforming the South African labour market ‘from one with a low skills base to one characterized by rising skills and a commitment to lifelong learning’ (RSA. DoL, 2001). The five objectives of the NSDS were:
r r r r r
Developing a culture of high-quality lifelong learning; Fostering skills development in the formal economy for productivity and employment growth; Stimulating and supporting skills development in small businesses; Promoting skills development for employability and sustainable livelihoods through social development initiatives; and Assisting new entrants into employment (RSA. DoL, 2001).
Twelve success indicators and three equity targets were associated with these objectives.
2.2 Institutional Mechanisms: The National Skills Fund and the SETAs The implementation of the NSDS is the responsibility of the National Skills Fund (NSF) and the sector education and training authorities (SETAs). The NSF is managed by the Department of Labour (DoL). It is funded through receiving a portion of the levies paid by employers. All employers are required by the SDLA to pay 1% of their payroll to the South African Revenue Service. From this levy, 80% is transferred directly to the SETA in which the employer is registered. The remaining 20% is transferred to the NSF. The NSF was created to provide funding to address issues of national importance including job creation, small business development and special assistance to women, youth and rural people and people with disabilities. The DoL’s provincial offices, labour centres and SETAs, as well as other disbursing agencies, are allocated funding from the NSF for specific projects that meet the objectives of the NSF. Twenty-five SETAs were established under the SDLA in March 2000. They are responsible for developing sector skills plans, approving, registering and promoting learnerships, quality assuring training and administering levies and grants. As stated above, they are funded through the 1% levy paid by employers, of which they receive 80% (10% of which is spent on administration). SETAs disburse mandatory grants on the receipt of workplace skills plans (WSPs) and implementation reports from employers. In addition, they disburse ‘discretionary grants’ for projects that address specific sectoral needs identified in their sector skills plans.
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2.3 NSDS-I: Achievements and Challenges In its assessment in 2004, the DoL claimed to have met or exceeded the following targets:
r r r
15% of workers should have embarked on a structured learning programme, of whom at least 50% have completed their programme satisfactorily—this target had been exceeded by over 100%; 40% of enterprises employing between 50 and 150 workers should be receiving skills development grants and the contributions towards productivity and employer and worker benefits should be measured. In 2004, 53% of these enterprises were receiving skills development grants; 20% of small businesses should have been supported in skills development initiatives—in 2004, this figure had reached 37%.
Substantial progress had also been made in meeting the following targets and they were likely to be met in the next financial year (2005/2006):
r r
70% of workers achieving a level 1 qualification; and A minimum of 80,000 people under the age of 30 in learnerships (2004 achievement—69,306).
However, while there had been some improvements in the equity targets, the DoL acknowledged that it was still short of meeting some of them, especially the disability targets. The following findings were reached by a study commissioned by the DoL to investigate the impact of the NSDS on skills training (Peterson, McGrath & Badroonian, 2003):
r r r
r r r
There is general satisfaction about the number of firms that are claiming their grants. A larger percentage of firms with low training rates did not claim grants; the implication being that firms which claimed grants were more likely to have higher training rates. The pattern of grants claims among SETAs was extremely variable, ranging from 78% in the financial services sector and 72% in the banking sector, to 27% in the health and welfare, 23% in the chemicals and 20% in the education sectors. These differences could be ascribed, inter alia, to a number of factors, such as the size of the sector, the number of small firms in the sector, the level of organization of the sector and the past history of training in the sector. This large variance may also be ascribed to differences in the capacity of the SETAs themselves to administer and support the levy-grant system. Statistical analysis showed that a significantly larger proportion of firms that had WSPs also claimed grants. Firms that claimed to have developed WSPs exceeded the number of firms that reported claims grants. The proportion of firms that claimed to have a WSP was 10% higher than the proportion of firms that actually claimed grants.
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63% of firms reported being registered with a SETA: 95% of large firms; 56% of small firms; 9% of firms were not sure of their registration status.
A study commissioned by the DoL to investigate skills development in the public sector identified the following challenges:
r r r r r r
Critical skills needs are not being adequately addressed in the areas of financial management, computer skills, project management, human resources management, customer care, communication skills and adult basic education and training. Low exposure of management to key skills, such as financial management and computer skills. Slow progress on the implementation of learnerships. Insufficient expertise in the collection of skills development information and reporting on training. Low attention paid to quality assurance of training. Low proportion of training staff to government workers.
2.4 NSDS-II In response to the challenges arising from the implementation of NSDS-I, the government introduced NSDS-II in March 2005. According to the DoL: [The] NSDS 2005–2010 spells out the national priority areas to which the projected over R21.9 billion income from the skills development levy will be allocated over the next five years. It provides the aggregate performance indicators of the skills development system that will be used as a basis to formulate performance indicators through legally binding Service Level Agreements with the SETAs and projects funded under the NSF (RSA. DoL, 2005).
The five objectives of NSDS-II are:
r r r r r
Objective 1: Prioritizing and communicating critical skills for sustainable growth, development and equity. Objective 2: Promoting and accelerating quality training for all in the workplace. Objective 3: Promoting employability and sustainable livelihoods through skills development. Objective 4: Assisting designated groups, including new entrants, to participate in accredited work, integrating learning and work-based programmes to acquire critical skills to enter the labour market and self-employment. Objective 5: Improving the quality and relevance of provision.
NSDS-II sets out ambitious targets to be achieved by March 2010, including the following:
r
At least 80% of large firms and at least 60% of medium-sized firms’ employment equity targets to be supported by skills development.
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At least 40% of small levy-paying firms must be supported by skills development, and the impact measured. At least 80% of government departments must spend at least 1% of their personnel budget on training, with the impact of training on service delivery measured and reported. At least 500 enterprises must achieve a national standard of good practice in skills development approved by the Minister of Labour. The number of small Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) firms and cooperatives supported by skills development is to increase each year. Progress is to be measured through an annual survey of BEE firms and BEE co-operatives within the sector from the second year onwards. There must be an annually increasing number of people who benefit from incentivized training for employment or re-employment in new investments and expansion initiatives. Training equity targets are to be achieved. Of the number trained, 100% are to be South African citizens. At least 700,000 workers must have achieved at least Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) Level 4. At least 450,000 unemployed people should be trained. Of those trained, at least 70% should be placed in employment, self-employment or social development programmes or engaged in further studies. At least 2,000 non-levying enterprises, non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations or co-operatives are to be supported by skills development, with a targeted success rate. At least 100,000 unemployed people are to have participated in ABET programmes, of which at least 70% are to have achieved ABET Level 4. At least 125,000 unemployed people should have been assisted to enter programmes, and at least 50% should have been successfully completed, including learnerships and apprenticeships, leading to basic entry, intermediate and highlevel skills. 100% of learners in critical skills programmes must be covered by sector agreements with further and higher-education institutions and gain experience locally or abroad, of whom at least 70% are to find placement in employment or selfemployment. At least 10,000 young people must be trained and mentored to form sustainable new ventures, with a minimum of at least 70% of new ventures still in operation twelve months later. Each SETA is to recognize and support at least five institutes of sectoral or occupational excellence within public or private institutions and through public/private partnerships where appropriate, spread as widely as possible geographically, for the development of people to attain identified critical skills, whose excellence is measured in the number of learners successfully placed in the sector and in employers’ satisfaction ratings of their training.
NSDS-II introduced radical changes to the way that the nearly R22 billion income from the skills development levy would be allocated. The biggest single change is
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in the way grants are paid out. In the past, companies were repaid 15% of their skills levy for submitting their workplace skills plan and 45% for submitting an implementation report, and 10% was available in discretionary grants for learnerships and research projects. Under the new skills strategy, 50% will be repaid in mandatory grants—based on new, tougher criteria—while 20% is available in discretionary grants. The mandatory grant mechanism is now more closely linked to companies’ compliance with employment equity and broad-based Black economic empowerment targets, as opposed to merely lodging their reports. The emphasis is now on rewarding implementation of plans. The strategy makes it clear that SETAs are required to ensure through the mandatory grant mechanism that companies have effectively implemented employment equity. Companies will not get back the 50% of their skills levy if they have not implemented employment equity. To receive their mandatory grant, companies are expected to satisfy three criteria: 85% of people who benefited from their workplace skills plan must be Black; 54% must be women; and 4% must be disabled. Because the DoL does not have the capacity or business network to implement employment equity, it has made the SETAs its tool for compliance. Another shift in the strategy is a greater emphasis on scarce and critical skills in learnerships, and hence the greater proportion of the levy devoted to discretionary grants. The new strategy now also prescribes who SETAs can accredit to offer training and development. The change proposes greater co-operation between private service providers and public training institutions—for instance the public FET colleges.
2.5 Conclusion: Assessing the Pay-Roll Tax-Funded NSDS Much attention over the past five years has focused on the problems faced by SETAs and their inability to disburse funds, cumbersome bureaucracies, failure to reach targets, the slow pace of progress and failure to reach the poor and unemployed. Much of this is true. However, it should be remembered also that SETAs have been in existence for only five years—a relatively short time in which to establish structures that are charged with delivering training on a scale never before seen in South Africa. While some have disappointed, many other SETAs have exceeded their targets set in the first NSDS, and they should be applauded. Some, such as the chemical industries SETA, the financial and accounting SETA, the banking SETA, the insurance SETA and the services SETA, have overachieved with respect to set targets. SETAs have also highlighted the critical need to address the needs of adult South Africans who are either totally or functionally illiterate. SETAs fund ABET programmes that reach the most educationally disadvantaged, who cannot access learnerships because of a lack of working knowledge of English and maths. SETAs have also injected life into the monolithic National Qualifications Framework (NQF),
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turning it into a functional concept where credits earned on courses count towards further training and, therefore, upward mobility. A challenge that all SETAs now face following the launch of NSDS-II is to expand their delivery to the poor, the unemployed and to the rural areas. It is evident also that the management of the skills levy grant system needs to be reviewed. Key areas in need of improvement include: (a) ensuring grants are used for high-quality training instead of maximizing rebates; (b) directing firms to invest in accredited training; (c) eliminating burdensome bureaucracy; (d) ensuring flexibility in the levy grant system based on the differing needs of specific industries; (e) preventing accumulation of huge surpluses by SETAs; (f) stringently monitoring training plans and reports; and (g) discouraging SETAs from venturing into extraneous activities beyond their statutory obligations (Rasool, 2005). Moreover, the NSDS should be aligned to supporting the government’s accelerated shared growth initiative. In essence, what is required is an adaptable strategy that is responsive to significant structural changes in the economy and labour market. Equally important, this strategy should be flexible enough to accommodate the skills development priorities of specific industries.
3 Financing the Public FET College Sector This section deals with the financing of the pre-tertiary VET component governed (indirectly) by the national Department of Education (DoE) and (directly) by the nine provincial departments of education. This component is referred to as the public further education and training college sector, or simply the ‘FET college sector’. A few basic facts relating to the size and cost of this sector will be outlined, after which the strategic thrust of the 1998 White Paper on FET will be explained. Most of the section will be taken up by a discussion of five key policy questions. It is instructive to compare the public FET college sector to Grades 10, 11 and 12 in public schools (Table 2). These three school grades are essentially the non-vocational side of FET. Several aspects of the five policy challenges that will be discussed are reflected in these figures. The fact that per capita spending in colleges should be 40% higher than that in schools, underlines the importance of efficient use of the available resources in colleges. Arguably, however, there is an efficiency inherent in the great difference between raw headcounts and full-time equivalent students in colleges—there are 2.8 headcounts per full-time equivalent. Each US$1,043 in the college sector thus delivers a service to 2.8 part-time students on average, whilst each US$743 in the schooling system covers just one (full-time) student. The differential between the provinces with the highest and lowest per capita expenditure in the college system is US$633, against the US$216 differential in the schooling system. These high differentials in the college system are partly a result of differences in college size, but mostly they seem to result from a variety of other historical factors. Specifically, there is little to suggest that provinces spending more per full-time equivalent student offer a better quality training service. In fact, the opposite seems to be true,
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Table 2 Public FET in colleges and in schools Number of institutions
Enrolments 2004
Average enrolment per institution Proportion of enrolment that is Black African Proportion of enrolment that is female Gross enrolment ratio (using 15 to 17 year olds as the denominator) Highest and lowest province for the above Public spending as a proportion of total public education spending Average recurrent spending per learner (US$) Highest and lowest province for the above Ratio of learners to educators
FET in colleges
FET in schools
50 (152 colleges became 50 multi-campus colleges in 2003) 394,027 (equals approx. 139,619 ‘full-time equivalents’) 7,881
6,253
73%
83%
40%
54%
5%
79%
Gauteng: 12% Eastern Cape: 3% 2%
Limpopo: 93% Eastern Cape: 62% 17%
1,043
743
Free State: 1,442 Limpopo: 808 24
Northern Cape: 882 KwaZulu-Natal: 667 32
2,321,345
371
Sources: RSA. DoE 2004/2005a/2005b; RSA. National Treasury 2005a/2005b. The most recent figure available in the period 2002–2004 was used (population estimates were for 2005, however). Note that wherever ‘students’ are the denominator in the first column, full-time equivalent students is used (and not raw headcounts).
with the more industrially developed province of Gauteng offering a better quality service below the national average cost. Understanding what it should cost to offer particular training programmes in different contexts is clearly a key challenge. In terms of equity of coverage, the college sector lags somewhat behind the school sector in terms of race and gender—the latter sector is almost fully representative of the population. One striking difference is how small the college system is relative to FET in schools. There is considerable political pressure to expand the FET system— a target of 1 million students by 2010 was set by the Minister of Education in 2003 (RSA. DoE, 2003). Recapitalization funds, amounting to US$160 million, or twothirds of annual recurrent spending in the sector, have been allocated for spending in 2005 to 2008. Any new system governing the regular funding of colleges would need to be designed with a view to both expanding the college sector and sustaining it at a level well above the current one. The Proposed new funding norms for FET colleges, released in 2005 by the national Department of Education, are the outcome of several years of debate and
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strategizing regarding the future of the public FET colleges. A milestone policy document was the White Paper on Further Education and Training published in 1998. The section of the White Paper dealing with funding of colleges states: Funding will be a key instrument for influencing the responsiveness of FET institutions to the achievement of national goals, the enhancement of the performance of the system, the widening of participation and the promotion of equity and redress (RSA. DoE, 1998).
The White Paper emphasizes strongly ‘formula funding of programmes’, also referred to as ‘programme-based funding’. Though a formal definition is not put forward, it is implied that a more transparent and efficient public funding system is required, where the level of funding is more explicitly linked to the type of training service being offered, and the number of full-time equivalent students. Such a system should partially focus on training outcomes, such as graduation rates or even labour-market readiness of graduates. Participation of historically disadvantaged students would be promoted mainly through fee exemptions for the poor. The apartheid backlogs would furthermore be tackled through targeted investments in institutional infrastructure and capacity. Integration with the NSDS system described in the previous section is envisaged, specifically through the participation of FET colleges as training providers in this market. The White Paper moreover promotes a gradual approach to the implementation of the new funding system, with colleges implementing ‘dry runs’ of the new system whilst the old system is being phased out. The development of new information systems to support the funding regime is required. Finally, the new funding system would take effect in the wake of the implementation of a new training curriculum in colleges.
3.1 Key Policy Question–1 Should public and private, or only public institutions, qualify for public VET funding? It is widely recognized that public funding of a service does not necessarily require public provisioning of the service. Public funding of private providers, to deliver training that is needed in the public interest, may result in better value for money, and can stimulate valuable competition between public and private institutions. The optimal mix of public and private providers of publicly-funded services is a question often not given the attention warranted, frequently because not enough is known amongst planners about existing private providers. This is arguably the case in South Africa. The White Paper essentially steers away from the question and focuses on how public FET colleges can offer the training needed. The little analysis that has occurred of privately provided pre-tertiary VET in South Africa indicates that: (a) the private sector may be almost twice the size of the public FET college sector in terms of enrolments; (b) the training offered is highly demand-driven; (c) capital-intensive training programmes tend to be avoided; and (d) the quality of training is largely unknown (Akoojee, 2003). Apart from the inadequacy of the knowledge base about the private VET sector, other reasons that may have contributed towards the strong focus on using only public providers could be,
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firstly, that private providers have not been funded in any systemic way in the past (this is unlike FET in schools, where a small but vocal ‘independent school’ sector has been funded publicly since before 1994) and, secondly, that private providers do have access to the quasi-public funding of the NSDS system. The latter factor implies direct competition between public FET colleges and private providers for the same training contracts. The fact that the public funds earmarked for the public FET colleges should be around US$200 million per annum, whilst NSDS funding should amount to around US$700 million, underlines how, in the broader picture, there is ample opportunity for dynamic competition between public and private providers, even if some 23% of the overall amount, and 100% of what we can regard as ‘public funding’ in the strict sense, is still considered the exclusive preserve of the public institutions. Currently however, participation by public FET colleges in the NSDS market is more hypothetical than real. Financial reports indicate that no more than 3% of college income derives from the skills levy—in other words, participation in this market is still extremely low.
3.2 Key Policy Question–2 How is the targeting of more relevant training programmes promoted? The ‘manpower planning’ approach to training, whereby future demand for various specializations is projected and the current funding of various training programmes is adjusted accordingly, has been tried and found not to work. However, it does not follow that government planning of what training to fund, based on projections of future skills demand, is a fruitless exercise. Such work must be carried out, but it should balance central planning and local responsiveness, and above all effective information and research systems that can yield a more rigorous demand picture need to be built and sustained. South Africa’s HRD review (Human Sciences Research Council, 2003) is illustrative both of the value of periodic and publiclyfunded research into labour-market demand and training trends, and the difficulty of compiling information that is sufficiently reliable to be usable for hard policy decisions. During the last decade, FET colleges have largely continued with the pre-1994 mix of training programmes and, where changes have occurred, this has mainly been driven by decisions by college management as to what programmes to offer in the new academic year. Changes could modify a college’s share of the relatively fixed provincial pool of teaching and non-teaching posts, and non-personnel funding. For example, the 1998 post-provisioning norms weight engineering students (full-time equivalents) 1.1 times as much as business studies students when the distribution of the pool of teaching posts is determined—engineering and business studies each account for around 45% of all public FET college enrolments. The 2005 proposed funding norms for colleges put forward a formula funding of programmes approach that not only brings about a more integrated resourcing package—all recurrent and capital replacement funding is dealt with in one formula—but also implies a major transfer of power from the college to the
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provincial government with regard to the determination of the programme mix within each college. Essentially, provincial departments of education would ‘buy’ training of a particular type and for a particular number of students from each college at ‘prices’ set largely at the national level. How much of each training programme to ‘buy’ would be determined through an annual province/college planning process, which would involve at least one province-wide consultation per province and one college-specific consultation per college in each year. Though the final determination would be the prerogative of the provincial government, the importance of college and industry inputs in the planning process, and of on-going research at the national level into the skills requirements of the economy, are emphasized. For the first time, programme delivery would be planned within a three-year rolling plan, more or less in line with the government’s Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) (one slight but unavoidable misalignment would be that the former would use the academic or calendar year, whilst the latter uses a different ‘financial’ year). There are two risks, both linked to the planning capacity of provincial departments of education. One risk is that the current low levels of provincial or national planning with regard to college enrolments will continue indefinitely, and that provinces will simply approve whatever training plans colleges come up with, without engaging with these plans, or aligning them to provincial or national development plans. There would be one inevitable difference in this scenario, however. Because the new funding system would attach actual monetary amounts to each student per programme, as opposed to weights (as is currently the case), there would need to be explicit trimming down of college plans where the implied cost exceeded the available provincial budget. The second risk is that provinces will use their new powers to enforce directives not adequately underpinned by the necessary training and labour-market analysis. Given serious limitations currently in the planning capacity of the FET college offices in the provincial departments, the solution seems to lie in a gradual stepping up of provincial (and national) engagement in the formulation of college plans (which colleges have been producing for some years, though now they would need to comply with the new funding norms in terms of formats) as planning capacity in the provincial departments improves.
3.3 Key Policy Question–3 How is efficiency and quality in service delivery promoted through the policy? Given that analysing and planning the mix of training programmes is inherently easier than analysing and planning the quality of the training being offered, it is perhaps understandable that the latter should receive insufficient attention. Yet the quality of the training and, linked to this, the amount of quality training that is obtained with the finite budget available, is in many ways the central policy challenge in VET, especially in a country such as South Africa with a rapidly evolving but ‘dual’ economy, where large segments of society have suffered systematic exclusion from education and training opportunities in the past. The White Paper highlights the value-for-money problem inherent in the high failure and repetition rates of the FET
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college sector. The pass rate, or proportion of students passing their examinations, was 57% in 2002, with college-specific pass rates ranging from 39% to 84%. The ‘throughput rate’, or proportion of students enrolling for a programme who successfully pass the examinations, was 51% in 2002 (RSA. DoE, 2004). Currently, the funding system does not create any incentives for efficiency or quality. Colleges are resourced according to enrolments alone. Output measures play no role. The 2005 proposed norms intend to promote quality outputs in two ways. Firstly, in the process of replacing a system where colleges essentially attract more funds from a finite pool through increasing enrolments, with a system where the province ‘buys’ training from each college, colleges will be forced to compete with each other in offering solutions to the provincial government’s (and industry’s) training demands. Of course, this assumes that provincial planners have adequate information about industry’s demands and the quality of the training being offered in each college, and allow this to inform the distribution of funding across colleges. The proposed funding norms mention the importance of using tracer studies that track the labour-market performance of graduates. A valuable example of such research is that of Cosser (2003). This research revealed, for example that, of a sample of 3,500 former college students graduating in 1999, 31% were neither employed nor studying further in 2001, and that only 1% were self-employed. This seems to confirm the quality problem in much of the training being offered. In a related study of employer responses, Maja and McGrath (2003) found that 78% of employers of the surveyed graduates were satisfied or very satisfied with the training offered by colleges, suggesting perhaps an unevenness in the quality of training offered by the sector. Importantly, more detailed data is required if provincial planners are to distribute funds based on the relative efficiency of individual colleges in offering particular training programmes. The existing research is a valuable start, nonetheless. The second way in which the proposed funding norms promote quality is through an ‘output bonus’. This is an incentive bonus that colleges would receive for outstanding throughput rates, achievement of goals laid out in their development plans and examination results. The output bonus is an allocation over and above the cost of offering the training (the implication is that the funds would be used for institutional development). The amount and methodology is a provincial prerogative, though guidelines regarding transparency are laid down. A national formula for the calculation of the output bonus is explicitly rejected on the basis of the argument that provincial circumstances differ, and that the consultation process to arrive at the output bonus formula is in itself of value in promoting a focus on efficiency and quality.
3.4 Key Policy Question–4 How is a pro-poor funding system realised, and how are some of the specific apartheid legacies of inequality and disadvantage tackled? The incentives for
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private funding of vocational training are high, both for employers and individuals, given the very obvious returns to this training. Government should focus on funding the VET of those who cannot afford it, and on specific niche training (for the rich or the poor) where the developmental value of this training may not be obvious to private individuals. The data suggest that, currently, public FET colleges are less accessible to the poor than FET in schools. This is due in part to the geographical concentration of colleges, which implies a need for student accommodation, and in part to tuition fees being somewhat higher in colleges than in schools—the average annual fee for full-time students is around US$450 in colleges and US$130 in schools. The proposed funding norms deal with the tuition fee barrier, but provide no concrete solution to the accommodation barrier. With regard to the latter, the government is required to explore loan schemes with private lending institutions. The norms propose setting a reasonable level of tuition fees for specific training programmes as part of the national programme costing process. This level would be reasonable for non-poor students. The norms moreover propose the implementation of a system of means tests in all colleges. The data collected from this system would be used to gauge inability to pay the prescribed fees across colleges, and to calculate an amount per college representing expected exempted fees. This amount would be paid to colleges as compensation for exemptions to be granted. The means test would be a national one, and the national department would furthermore maintain rules and guidelines for the management of fee exemptions at the college level. The system challenges implied by the pro-poor fee exemptions are considerable. The existing means test used in the tertiary education system, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), can be expected to serve as an important model (information on NSFAS is available at: <www.nsfas.org.za>).
3.5 Key Policy Question–5 How is the cost of training programmes determined? The current disparities in spending per student in FET colleges, discussed above, are partly the result of the absence of a link in the existing system between the number of students and the size of the budget. The unintended consequence of a rise in enrolments would be a decline in per student expenditure, if budgetary increases lagged behind the enrolment increases. This can obviously be detrimental to the quality of the training service. The proposed funding norms require the national department to determine a ‘national funding base rate’ in monetary terms. This rate would describe the per capita cost of a full-time programme that can be delivered in a relatively large class, and that requires the minimum in terms of learning and teaching materials. This programme could be hypothetical, as opposed to actual. The cost of each actual training programme in the curriculum would be represented by a ratio indicating the programme cost relative to the national funding base rate. For example, a programme with a ratio of 1.5 would cost 1.5 times as much to deliver as the (possibly hypothetical) basic programme. Provinces would be able to deviate from the nationally determined cost structure, within limits. At the college level, whilst funding received
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from the province would be linked to a specific number of student places, colleges would have the flexibility to organize spending within the college in whatever way that best served the desired outcomes. Where the norms do place a limitation is in terms of the cross-subsidization of completely private programmes using public funds. Specifically, colleges are prohibited from charging a private client a price for a training programme that is less than the prescribed cost of the equivalent public programme. The effectiveness of this control obviously rests on the prescribed cost representing the actual cost. In fact, it is envisaged that the national cost schedule of publicly funded programmes will serve as an important signal to the private market, in particular the NSDS market, providing a benchmark for private clients with regard to reasonable prices to pay for quality training.
4 Conclusion During the last ten years, South Africa has developed a funding system that has pushed the financing and incentivizing of vocational education up to around 0.43% of GDP. The NSDS system accounts for 0.33% of GDP, and of this around 20% is earmarked for training identified by the State as being in the national interest. The remaining 80% is paid to firms in the form of an incentive to carry out workplace training in accordance with equity guidelines that are in the line with the country’s post-apartheid values. Whilst the NSDS system has already undergone a process of revision, the FET college system, which accounts for 0.10% of GDP, has only recently begun to embark on a major post-apartheid reform in terms of its funding systems. The link between the two systems seems to lie in the opportunity to raise the quality, and not just the quantity, of vocational training. Currently, only a small portion of the training offered by FET colleges is aimed at the NSDS market. However, a more output-focused funding system, in combination with a major recapitalization programme, places colleges in a better position to set the standard for quality vocational training in the country, and to compete with each other, and with private providers in the NSDS market, whilst they continue in their role as providers of pre-employment training funded by the provincial authorities.
References Akoojee, S. 2003. Private further education and training. In: Kraak, A., ed. Human resources development review, 2003: education, employment and skills in South Africa, pp. 396–415. Pretoria: HSRC. <www.hsrcpublishers.ac.za/index.html?HRD.html∼content> Cosser, M. 2003. Graduate tracer study. In: Cosser, M. et al., eds. Technical college responsiveness: learner destinations and labour market environments in South Africa, pp. 27–55. Pretoria: HSRC. <www.hsrcpublishers.ac.za> Human Sciences Research Council. 2003. Human resources development review, 2003: Education, employment and skills in South Africa. Pretoria: HSRC. <www.hsrcpublishers. ac.za/index.html?HRD.html∼content>
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Maja, B.; McGrath, S. 2003. Employer satisfaction. In: Cosser, M. et al., eds. Technical college responsiveness: learner destinations and labour market environments in South Africa, pp. 57–64. Pretoria: HSRC. <www.hsrcpublishers.ac.za> Peterson, A.; McGrath S.; Badroodien A. 2003. A national skills survey, 2003. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council. Rasool, H., 2005. South Africa needs a highly skilled workforce to grow economy. The star: Business report, 23 November. Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. 1998. Education White Paper 4: a programme for the transformation of further education and training. Pretoria: DoE. (Government notice, no. 399.) Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. 2003. Report on the proceedings of the 3rd Further Education and Training Convention. Pretoria: DoE. <www.ccf.org.za> Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. 2004. Quantitative overview of the further education and training college sector. Pretoria: DoE. <www.ccf.org.za> Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. 2005a. Education statistics in South Africa at a glance in 2003. Pretoria: DoE. Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. 2005b. Education statistics in South Africa at a glance in 2004. Pretoria: DoE. Republic of South Africa. Department of Labour. 1998. Skills Development Act No. 97 of 1998. Pretoria: DoL. Republic of South Africa. Department of Labour. 1999. Skills Development Levies Act, 1999. Pretoria: DoL. Republic of South Africa. Department of Labour. 2001. The National Skills Development Strategy. Pretoria: DoL. Republic of South Africa. Department of Labour. 2004. NSDS Implementation Report. Pretoria: DoL. Republic of South Africa. Department of Labour. 2005. National Skills Development Strategy, 2005–2010. Pretoria: DoL. Republic of South Africa. National Treasury. 2005a. Budget review 2005. Pretoria. <www.treasury.gov.za> Republic of South Africa. National Treasury. 2005b. Provincial budgets and expenditure review: 2001/02–2007/08. Pretoria. <www.treasury.gov.za> Statistics South Africa. 2005. General household survey: July 2004. Pretoria. <www.statssa.gov.za>
Chapter VII.6
Voucher-Financed Training for Small Businesses1 F´elix Mitnik
1 Introduction Is it possible to persuade small businesses to invest on a regular basis in staff training through a policy of providing information and special subsidies? Are vouchers the best way to create the necessary incentives? How do economics, sociology, pedagogy and organizational psychology contribute to answer these questions? This chapter explores these issues. Employing a multidisciplinary approach, it examines an experience with a pilot programme carried out in the province of C´ordoba, Argentina, and draws some lessons that are likely to be useful for those designing or implementing similar programmes.
2 Background Information The Agency for Economic Development of the City of C´ordoba (ADEC), a public/private partnership of sixteen trade associations, the city council and other entities, operated a training programme for small companies (called Programa de Capacitaci´on de Trabajadores en Empresas) from 1999 to 2003. This programme was developed in a province with a population of 3 million people, whose economy depends on farming and cattle raising (10%), industrial production (27%) and services (63%). Its formal economy comprises almost 100,000 enterprises, including some multinational companies, some large local companies, 150 small and medium-sized hardware and software companies, some large flour mills and many dairy plants of various sizes. However, 90% of these 100,000 companies have five or less employees. The main goal of the programme was to make micro- and small enterprises (MSEs), of up to twenty employees, more competitive. The policy selected was, through information and subsidies, to use vouchers to develop a job-training market geared towards the needs of these firms. The funds to implement the programme— US$3 million—were provided in equal parts by the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), managed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), by the beneficiaries and by the ADEC. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VII.6, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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Similar programmes have been implemented in other Latin American countries— Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru and the Dominican Republic—and in other parts of the world, for instance Australia, Belgium, Indonesia, Kenya, France, South Africa and Ukraine.
3 Why was a Programme Needed? The need to develop a market for job training in C´ordoba emerged from consultations with experts in the field. They pointed out that MSEs in Latin America lacked competitiveness. They identified low investment in training as one of the reasons and claimed that an ‘increasing demand for qualified workers in the labour market’ had to be addressed by providing flexible and effective training (Grupo de Asesor´ıa Multidisciplinaria, 1996). Based on standard economic theory, they advanced the hypothesis that the problem was a discrepancy between the actual functioning of the training market and the theoretical assumptions of the ‘perfect competition’ model.2 Among these ‘market failures’, or discrepancies between reality and the model, they argued that the most important was imperfect or incomplete information regarding the skills needed, the costs and benefits of investing in them, the quality of the providers of training services, and the available training methods. According to their argument, because agents were ‘risk-averse’, this generated uncertainty that led to insufficient investment (that is, investment below the ‘rational optimum’). The experts concluded that it was necessary to provide information to the demand side of the training market, and to encourage the supply side ‘to answer in a more flexible, practical and concrete way to the manpower training needs’ of small businesses, with the objective of ‘increasing their productivity and competitiveness’ (Grupo de Asesor´ıa Multidisciplinaria, 1996).
4 The Design of the Programme 4.1 The Assumptions The designers of the programme adopted the following premises, drawn in good part from neo-classical economics:
r r r r r
The ‘competitiveness’ of small businesses can be increased by providing business development services (BDS); Training can be provided as a stand-alone BDS; Firms should pay for specific human capital investments; Training markets are the most efficient institutional arrangement for allocating resources to human capital investment; The training supplied will respond to the demands of firms if there is an information system set up for those supplying and demanding training, and a system of demand subsidies that mitigates uncertainty;
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The positive impact of training on profits will motivate firms to buy training again; The programme’s target population may be a small share of the total number of companies, since a ‘demonstration effect’ will induce the other firms to follow suit; Fixed-period and standardized in-class training results in the acquisition of skills that are then automatically transferable to and used in the workplace; Training suppliers know the state of the art in their fields, and automatically adjust their training services to meet the demand of companies.
4.2 Why Vouchers? The designers of the programme considered that vouchers were the best mechanism to transfer subsidies to firms, because vouchers:
r r r r r r
Give firms freedom of choice, and thus lead the training market to function according to the logic of demand instead of the logic of supply; Set an upper limit to the subsidy; Involve procedures that are simpler and more flexible than those normally used by the State, and thus have lower administrative costs; Increase competition among suppliers, which it is assumed will automatically improve quality or price; Can be implemented together with a system of information provision; Reduce risk on both sides of the training market, due to: (a) cost reductions for demanders; and (b) lower collection risks for suppliers.
4.3 The Operation The initial design included two components: a system of training vouchers (STV) and a system of reference information (SRI). It also included a training needs diagnostic system, operated by a private organization. The goal of the STV was to stimulate the demand for training by firms and to match the supply of training to that of demand by means of a partial subsidy of $50 (enough to cover 50% of the average cost of a twenty-hour course). The STV had a three-level organizational structure. The financing donors were located at the upper or third level. The managing agency, which received the funds to be distributed among the training institutions (TIs), was located at the second level. TIs operated at the first level. The success indicators for the STV were the number of vouchers redeemed, the number of companies that took advantage of the vouchers and the number of companies that used them repeatedly. The goal of the SRI was to provide companies with information about training courses available and to inform the TIs about firms’ needs. The SRI had to identify any unmet training demands and inform the training suppliers about these business
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opportunities. The success indicators for this component were the number of TIs registered and the number of courses offered. In order for a company to send an employee for training, it first had to obtain information about available courses, select those ones that best met the company’s needs and receive the respective voucher. At the end of the course, the company had to pay the difference between the total value of the course and the voucher. The voucher, signed by a company representative as proof of successful training, had to be returned to the managing agency’s offices via the TI to receive its value in cash. Each course had to be at least twenty hours long. All of this assumed that the managing agency would play a ‘neutral’ role, limited to facilitating transactions between the participating economic agents (companies and TIs) but without intervening in their decisions. In other words, the agency had to limit its activities to disseminating information and managing the subsidies, while keeping ‘transaction costs’ as low as possible.
5 The First Phase: According to Theory During the first stage of implementation, the programme attempted to disturb the functioning of the market as little as possible. It used a strategy of uniform dissemination of information, based on widespread advertising, on the assumption that the targeted businesses were homogeneous. During this phase, a study commissioned by the programme uncovered significant differences in the attitudes of firms towards training (Parisi et al., 1999). The study showed that there was a small number of companies with the ‘habitus’ of investing in training.3 These companies had more than seven employees, had been founded recently, were part of the formal economy and belonged to the service sector. The study also indicated that smaller and older companies did not perceive any ‘unmet training need’ and did not conduct training because they considered it irrelevant. Finally, the study found that there was a direct relationship between investments in human capital and the perceptions company owners had of their own responsibility in their companies’ fortunes: the small number of firms with a greater level of ‘self-responsibility’ (as opposed to those that attributed most responsibility to external circumstances) were also those most likely to train. The research also found that the problems faced by micro-enterprises were significantly different from those of small companies, and that informal companies behaved differently than formal ones with regard to training and public policies. The programme, which had been designed before the aforementioned research was conducted, did not take into account demand heterogeneity and offered exactly the same to all firms: six $50 vouchers per year to each company (regardless of size), and information on formal training services available from third parties (Matta, 2006a). By design, the training was to be supplied by private companies, State institutions and non-governmental organizations, which were expected to adjust their services to the demand in an ‘immediate and automatic manner as a result of the provision of information and subsidies’ (Matta, 2006a). During the execution
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of the first phase it was observed, however, that the responses of training suppliers were very heterogeneous. Moreover, as in other Latin American countries (Abdala, 2000), suppliers exhibited serious weaknesses in terms of the quality of the services they offered, their institutional structure and, as a survey-based study showed, their marketing capacity and strategies (Halac, 2000). In addition to this, training suppliers had limited competitiveness, as is often the case with small firms. Unaware of their weaknesses, the training institutions had a positive selfperception of their services and business capacities. They believed—like most small companies—that their problems were beyond their control. Few of them followed a ‘differentiation strategy’ (the few that did focused on a niche with high purchasing power), while nearly 80% followed a ‘strategy of reduced costs’. The latter group tended to engage in ‘price wars’ at the expense of quality. This strongly suggests that the market for training suffers from ‘adverse selection’ (worse quality is supplied to companies less capable of identifying the true quality of training).4 This market failure leads to a reduction in the average quality of the training actually offered in the market, therefore reinforcing the attitude of small firms who do not see the point of investing in human capital.
6 The Second Phase: From Passive to Active Strategies Albert Einstein, the most famous physicist of the twentieth century, once stated that theory is killed, sooner or later, by experience. This is precisely what happened to this programme after its first stage, when it was found that design assumptions like ‘demand-driven training’ did not actually exist in practice (the majority of courses emerged on the initiative of suppliers). Among other things, this can be attributed to the fact that selection of the training supplier by companies was based largely on the firms’ trust in the training institutions (i.e. on social capital) and on the latter’s prestige (i.e. on symbolic capital). As a result, the programme had to modify its ‘action paradigm’ from ‘passive strategies’ to ‘active strategies’. On the demand side the programme introduced four operational changes affecting the rules for using the vouchers and the amount of the subsidy. First, in order to strike some balance between the size of a company and the number of vouchers it received, while still favouring the smallest companies, the absolute limit of six vouchers per company per year was replaced by a new policy of one voucher per employee per year, with a minimum of six per company and a maximum of twenty. Second, to induce companies to perform training needs analyses, the programme doubled the number of annual vouchers for companies that conducted them. Third, as customized training can only be profitable for a TI if the same training is provided to a group of similar companies, the programme doubled the number of vouchers for companies that associated together to buy training. Lastly, as the TIs serving informal businesses—mostly non-profit organizations—could charge less since they usually received subsidies from other sources, employed trainers
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with lower opportunity costs and had lower overheads, a voucher of lesser value for micro-enterprises ($35) was created. On the supply side, the programme also introduced four operational changes. First, the distant relationship between the programme and the TIs was transformed into a co-operative relationship aimed at identifying unmet training demands. Second, the programme offered marketing support and ‘training the trainer’ courses to the TIs in order to improve their performance. Third, the programme promoted the formation of business alliances between TIs. Lastly, TIs were required to submit the design of their training courses for approval by the programme. In brief, the programme moved from an approach premised on the idea that its intervention had to disturb market mechanisms as little as possible, to an approach based on the idea that a much more active role was needed for the training market to develop and work efficiently. On the supply side, the programme decided to play a co-ordinating, regulatory and supporting role. On the demand side, it decided to play a steering role, aimed at promoting associational structures and at shaping the demand for training in the direction most likely to improve the performance of firms. After this change of strategy, it seemed that the programme was working fairly well. As shown in Table 1, the average number of vouchers granted per year in the second phase was almost five times higher than in the first phase. The actual course supply—comprised in nearly equal parts of training courses geared towards technical skills and towards clerical and managerial skills—was, at this point, well established. (It was difficult to determine if the training beneficiaries were primarily employees or owners, because of the prevalence of family-owned micro-enterprises.) The technical courses covered a wide range of topics, from hair dyeing for hairdressers to the handling of computer-controlled machine tools, to the repair of electronic starting systems, to computer-aided design, to food technology, to basic accounting. Moreover, it is clear that the demand for subsidized training grew markedly between 2000 and 2001, which suggests that, ceteris paribus, the demand for subsidized trainings could be expected to experience further growth in the future. The main problem in this second phase was that TIs and people who were not part of the target population (newcomers to the labour market and unemployed workers) colluded to deceive the programme by using training vouchers for which the latter were not eligible. These fraudulent practices led the programme to introduce new
Table 1 Number of vouchers placed by the programme Phase 1
Phase 2
1999
2000
2001
2002
Phase 3 2003
Number of vouchers
1358
4583
7871
2741
4769
Cumulative number of vouchers
1358
5941
13812
16553
21322
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control norms and procedures. Although successful, they increased the overheads of the programme to 41% (higher than expected).
7 The Third Phase: Surviving Amongst Chaos The third stage of the programme was initially implemented under political, social and economic circumstances that put Argentina in the world’s spotlight (from December 2001 to February 2002). ‘During this period, the government confiscated bank deposits and defaulted on its foreign debt, five different presidents were named in thirty days, the national currency was devaluated by 200%, and the quality of life deteriorated’ (Matta, 2006a). One immediate consequence of the devaluation was a large reduction in the price expressed in dollars of training courses; thus, the subsidy came to represent a substantial part of their cost (often more than 50%). To eliminate this distortion, the programme implemented a matching-grant mechanism by which each voucher covered 50% of the value of any course (up to $50 for formal companies and up to $35 for informal ones). Fixed-value vouchers simplify administrative procedures. However, they can create distortions when used to finance courses requiring capital goods or trainers with high opportunity costs, or to finance very inexpensive courses. In the former case, the contribution of the subsidy can be marginal. In the latter, it can amount to much more than 50%. More crucially, as shown in Table 1, the economic crisis led to a marked reduction in the use of vouchers during 2002. However, the demand for vouchers recovered in less than a year, suggesting that the new strategies adopted in the second phase had helped constitute a robust training market for small firms. This impression was further supported by the fact that, at the end of the third phase, all the performance indicators showed that the immediate goals of the programme had been achieved or surpassed. The programme exceeded 287% of its target in terms of businesses serviced (7,752 instead of the 2,000 projected) and 115% in terms of vouchers placed (23,000 instead of 20,000). In terms of ‘access’ or ‘targeting’, the programme met its objectives. It focused on the smallest companies (about 80% of the companies served were micro-enterprises of up to six employees, as shown in Table 2); participation by firms in different economic sectors reflected their relative weights in the economy; and female participation was slightly higher than the share of women in the economically-active population. Also, participants manifested a high degree of satisfaction with the training they received: 84% of the courses were rated by them as either ‘good’ or ‘very good’ (Matta, 2006b). Lastly, an evaluation by independent consultants concluded that the operational efficiency of the programme was as good as or better than those of similar programmes. The resilience of the programme, and the fact that it performed very well in terms of all pre-established indicators of success, could lead to the conclusion that it was also successful in terms of its ultimate policy goals. As we will see in the following
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Number of companies receiving vouchers
Phase 1 1999 690
Phase 2 2000 1,624
Phase 3 2001 2,755
2002–2003 2,683
TOTAL 7,752
Companies by number of employees 1 employee 2 to 6 employees 7 to 10 employees 11 to 15 employees 16 to 20 employees
49% 28% 14% 6% 3%
37% 42% 8% 8% 5%
42% 41% 8% 5% 4%
45% 38% 8% 5% 4%
45% 38% 8% 5% 4%
sections, success in placing training vouchers and good evaluations from voucher users should not be interpreted as proof of the overall success of the programme.
8 Don’t You Want More Vouchers? One of the central problems the programme confronted was the lack of interest among served companies in repeating the use of the subsidy, in spite of the fact that participants were highly satisfied with the training services they received. Four quantitative indicators are useful to assess the magnitude of this problem. The first such indicator is the number of subsidies used per employer over the life of the programme (total number of vouchers/total number of companies). The average value of this indicator was 2.3 vouchers per company. This indicates that the companies served by the programme seldom repeated their use of vouchers more than once. The expectation was an average of ten vouchers per company. Nevertheless, the programme achieved better results than similar programmes in Paraguay (1.6), Ecuador (1.8) and Peru (2). The second indicator is the number of subsidies used per employee over the life of the programme (number of vouchers used/number of employees per company). This turned out to be about 0.5 on average, regardless of company size, with the exception of companies with one employee (= 2), and those with two employees (= 1). This means that the larger companies served by the programme did not use more vouchers, after adjusting to their size, than the smaller ones. This and the next two indicators were measured over the first three years, and the results used to extrapolate for the life of the programme. Two other indicators, which give information on whether the vouchers were used to fund the same or different courses, are the ‘coefficient of diversification’ and the ‘utilization of opportunities for diversification’. The ‘coefficient of diversification’ is the number of different courses taken per company over the life of the programme, and measures the use of vouchers in different training courses. A company that took a single course has a coefficient of 0, one that took two different courses a coefficient of 1, and so forth. Figure 1 shows that the average coefficient of diversification is very low, regardless of the size of the company (it varies between 0.7 and 1.7). The average for companies of any size is
Coefficient of diversification
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1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Number of employees
Fig. 1 Coefficient of diversification
in all cases smaller than 3 (remember that 1 corresponds to one additional course). The ‘coefficient of diversification’ does not express well enough the opportunities the programme offered to companies. A micro-enterprise, for example, could have taken advantage of a maximum of eighteen courses (since it received six vouchers per year regardless of the number of employees) and a company with twenty employees could have taken up to sixty courses (one voucher per employee per year). The last indicator is the ‘utilization of opportunities for diversification’, that is, the number of different courses taken by each company compared to the number of vouchers available to that same company. Figure 2 indicates that, on average, this indicator was between 2 and 6% of the possible maximum for each company size—well below expectations. One possible explanation for the low repetition and diversity in voucher use could be that the training services used by firms had little impact on their performance. The evaluation of this impact depends on firms’ perceptions. However, agents construct these perceptions, and the way they do it reflects many other things beyond the impact of training (or lack thereof). Moreover, the baseline that those interviewed use as a yardstick for comparison is unknown. It is also difficult to correct for ‘cognitive compensation bias’ (i.e. any effort to obtain a result is judged positively), while ‘gratefulness bias’ is unavoidable when inquiring about ‘free-of-charge’ training. These problems make it difficult to reach a clear conclusion about the impact of training on performance. Nevertheless, some qualitative evidence suggests that the impact of training on firm performance and, therefore, firms’ inclination to invest, were probably larger in five cases: (a) when groups of companies associated to invest together; (b) when the training strategies employed were state-of-the-art; (c) when the training in question overcame a constraint that prevented the development of a micro-enterprise; (d) when the diagnostic tool was properly applied; (e) when the training took
Utilization of opportunities for diversification
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0.07
0.06
0.05
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Number of employees
Fig. 2 Utilization of opportunities for diversification
place at the job site. In the remaining cases—the majority—firms seldom repeated voucher use. In contrast to these adverse results, in the final impact measurement study— involving countless technical issues well beyond the scope of this chapter— companies stated that they were willing to continue training after the end of the programme, thus suggesting that the ultimate policy goal of the programme had been achieved (Bologna & Fraire, 2006). This conclusion, however, is not warranted. On the one hand, participating companies were those most motivated to invest in training, with or without the programme. On the other hand, the low values of the indices of subsidy-use repetition and diversification indicate that the purchase of training was lower and narrower than firms claimed. ‘To continue investing in training’ is likely to be the answer company owners felt they were expected to give. Indeed, given that in Argentina education is highly valued as a means of social progress, we can assume that company owners hold all types of education, including job training, in high esteem. And this is likely to be the reason why they tended to select the ‘politically correct’ answer in the final impact measurement study (Bologna & Fraire, 2006). All in all, the evidence examined in this section leads to the conclusion that it is unlikely that the programme had been able to increase significantly the number of companies that trained on a regular basis.
9 Why Don’t You Want More Vouchers? Different social sciences suggest different hypotheses regarding the factors that led to the low investment in subsidized training by the micro- and small companies served by the programme.
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From the perspective of neo-classical economics, one possible explanation is that the training market for small companies was in an efficient equilibrium with low consumption (Storey & Westhead, 1997), and for this reason firms did not use vouchers repeatedly. According to this hypothesis, this equilibrium would be the joint result of several structural factors: (a) the short life expectancy of small companies, which makes it less likely that they would be able to recover any investment in training; (b) the low wages paid by, and reduced or inexistent opportunities for promotion at, small companies, which means that trained staff would be easily lured away by larger companies; (c) the high opportunity cost of formal training for small firms (the absence of even one person in a small company may greatly disturb its operation); (d) the greater negative impact that ‘adverse selection’ in the training market has on small firms; (e) lack of evidence that, on average, training has a positive effect on firm performance; (f) the high riskaversion of firm owners, who often see their micro-enterprises as temporary solutions vis-`a-vis their own difficulties in finding adequate employment; (g) the elevated cost of offering customized quality training to individual small firms; (h) the lower returns that small firms obtain from their training investments, due to several of the factors previously identified; (i) small firms’ lack of funds to finance their share of training costs, particularly in family-owned micro-enterprises; (j) the higher transaction costs of TIs when dealing with small firms (contacting every client is more expensive in this case); and (k) the fact that subsidies and information were not enough to improve training quality among training suppliers (Mitnik & Descalzi, 2006). From the point of view of critical sociology, the reduced rate of repetition in voucher use could originate in the following factors:5
r r r
r
the universe of firms was very heterogeneous in terms of technology—both hard and soft—and in the work experience and educational histories of company owners and employees; a large number of these firms operated according to methods for which further training was unnecessary; the acquisition of job skills involves complex social practices, engendered by agents’ ‘habitus’, which means that these social practices cannot easily be understood as rationality-driven transactions, and hence cannot be easily altered by economic incentives and information about prices and qualities; the market development paradigm used in the programme did not fit well with the practices of private and public agents; private agents, in particular, re-interpreted the programme according to their own ‘habitus’, and did not behave as rational investors because of ingrained dispositions that lead them to conceive of training as an extra expense for themselves and of its provision by the State as an obligation; in spite of the programme’s efforts to explain the voucher mechanism to firms, the latter often re-interpreted it according to their own cultural codes, which often meant that vouchers were not perceived as having purchasing power that firms could freely use to buy training services;
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the suppliers of training did not behave like commercial companies; the training supplied was of low quality, because most companies providing training services were small and did not invest in the training of their own personnel (see Matta, 2006b).
Additionally, organizational psychology makes it possible to posit an explanatory hypothesis based on the analysis of the way in which knowledge is generated and transferred within small companies. The few available studies suggest that knowledge in these companies is mainly acquired through ‘implicit training’ (the individual learns a number of skills and unwritten rules that allow him or her to act appropriately, without this requiring him or her to be able to describe or express them in words or using numbers and formulae). This informal learning is very likely to generate the greatest benefits to organizations, since it produces competitive advantages that are difficult for the competition to replicate (this is not the case with formal education or explicit training, which is equally available to all companies). On the other hand, in this type of firm there is a very close relationship between the personality of the business owner and his or her company. As a result, the global performance of the company and its competitive advantage depend, to a large extent, on the owner’s attitudes, decisions and actions, which lead to the intensive use of on-the-job training. The owner acts as a trainer, transferring specific human capital closely associated with his or her particular management style, with the mission and goals the owner has implicitly set for his or her company, with the characteristics of the firm’s economic sector, and with the company’s scale of operation. According to this hypothesis, the demands for explicit personnel training in small firms would be minor and very specific, and this would account for the programme’s reduced rate of voucher use repetition (see Mitnik, Coria & Torres, 2006). The psychology of learning, for its part, shows that a careful consideration of the factors affecting the transference of learning to the workplace is a necessary condition for training to be productivity-enhancing. As the training offered by the TIs mostly ignored transference problems, the most likely result is that it would have no effect on firms’ performance. This could also contribute to explain firms’ limited interest in buying subsidized training (see Mitnik, Coria & Garc´ıa Goette, 2006).
10 Conclusions The main goal of this chapter has been to analyse the experience of a voucherfinanced training programme in order to shed some light on the more general issue of whether the provision of information and partial subsidies constitute a policy likely to induce small businesses to invest regularly in the training of their staff. The programme’s modest results suggest that boosting the productivity of small firms by inducing them to train their employees is likely to require much more than providing information and subsidies.
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1119
We have argued that: the claim that imperfect information is the main cause of small firms’ low investment in human capital is likely to be incorrect; given how heterogeneous small firms are, homogenous intervention strategies are likely to perform poorly; the suppliers of training services for small firms find it difficult to upgrade the quality of the training they offer; and the ‘habitus’ of company owners is likely to lead them to expect lower returns from investments in the human capital of their employees than from other investments.
The analyses of the programme’s experience from the point of view of different social-science disciplines allow us to draw three main conclusions. First, there are structural factors that tend to keep the training market for small companies in a low-consumption equilibrium. Second, in small companies knowledge is generated and transferred through implicit training. This generates competitive advantages that other firms cannot easily replicate. Lastly, the ‘habitus’ shaping companies’ investment in training is hardly resistant to policies based on the provision of information and economic incentives alone. Everything seems to indicate that the subsidies offered by the programme were acquired by training suppliers without this increasing the share of companies training their staff on a regular basis. This suggests that to boost the competitiveness of small firms a systemic intervention is necessary. Such intervention would involve putting in place an encompassing business development system that not only produces high-quality customized training but also deals with many other factors affecting the competitiveness of small firms. The experience of the programme also indicates that market-based policies need to be backed by an efficient State (or by efficient quasi-public agencies) able to guarantee the quality of training services (in particular by verifying the qualifications of trainers and the institutional infrastructure of training suppliers). The State must also promote innovation, methodological development and research in all fields of training. Focusing on the instrument itself, vouchers do not seem to be a particularly adequate tool for implementing an incentive-based training policy for small companies. Vouchers, however, possess symbolic value in the eyes of those who believe that public programmes will necessarily work more efficiently when they use mechanisms that imitate the operation of markets. This symbolic value has been reinforced by the success of some large voucher-based programmes, in particular those that use food vouchers to assist the poor, the most important of which concerns food stamps in the United States.The reasons why vouchers work well in this case have been carefully studied: ‘The market for food is well established and well organized, there are a large number of buyers and sellers, the transaction costs are small, competition is strong and prices are kept in line by that competition and the characteristics of the products are easily identified (there is relatively little scope for private information on the quality of the good and for asymmetric information leading to suboptimal
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provision)’ (Moffitt 2000). The voucher-mechanism is less likely to work well in the training market for small firms in which products might be highly customized and very heterogeneous, and which is plagued by very-hard-to-reduce information asymmetries. In this context, vouchers should be simply considered as one of the many instruments in the toolbox of the designer of public policies.
Notes 1. This chapter is based on work by a team directed by the author (see Mitnik, 2006). The team included Ricardo Descalzi, Guillermo Ord´on˜ ez, Andr´es Matta, Eduardo Bologna, Adela Coria, Juan Torres, Corina Garcia Goette and Vanina Fraire. The author is grateful to Pablo Mitnik for his invaluable help. The usual disclaimer applies. 2. In a simplified version, the perfect competition is a model assuming that: (i) economic agents possess complete, perfect and equally distributed information; (ii) transaction costs are zero; (iii) transactions do not generate gains or costs to third parties; (iv) no market agent holds enough power to influence prices; and (v) there aren’t any ‘public goods’. 3. The concept of ‘habitus’, introduced by Bourdieu (1988), describes an agent whose acts are based on ‘reasonable dispositions’. ‘Habitus are schemes of perception, appreciation and action internalised during the entire life of an individual, which form a true system of stable dispositions to act, think, and perceive. Agents incorporate these preferences throughout their social life, often unconsciously and based on their objective conditions of existence. They are lasting [. . .] and tend to resist change, therefore generating continuity in the life of a person’ (Matta & Bologna, 2006). 4. Assume, for analytic purposes, a market offering two qualities of training—good and inferior— where those offering the better quality charge a higher price. Also assume that companies cannot distinguish between training qualities. ‘Since the company owners cannot distinguish between qualities, they perceive an “average price” of a “hypothetical” training hour of an “average quality”. The share of both types of training determines the “average price”. If the supply of the inferior product increases, this will influence the perception of companies regarding the “average quality” of the training offered in the market, generating a decrease in the price demanders are willing to pay, given that training quality cannot be determined with certainty. In turn, this decrease in price generates a reduction in the supply of better quality training. The companies make a biased selection in favour of inferior training due to their lack of information about quality. In equilibrium, only low-quality training remains available’ (Mitnik, Descalzi & Ord´on˜ ez, 2006). 5. To adopt the perspective of critical sociology, in a discipline in which there are several traditions that differ in the way they construct their theoretical objects, in the methods they use, and in how they interpret reality, entails adopting a perspective that approaches economic practices as ‘total social facts’, that is, that takes into account the conditions in which the agents of economic, cultural and social production and reproduction operate (Bourdieu, 2001).
References Abdala, E. 2000. Experiencias de capacitaci´on laboral de j´ovenes en Am´erica Latina. Montevideo: CINTERFOR-ILO. Bologna, E.; Fraire, V. 2006. Evaluaci´on de impacto: la medici´on ex post. In: Mitnik, F., ed. Pol´ıticas y programas de capacitaci´on para peque˜nas empresas: un an´alisis multidisciplinar desde la teor´ıa y la experiencia. Montevideo: CINTERFOR-ILO.
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Bourdieu, P. 1988. Cosas dichas. Buenos Aires: Gedisa. Bourdieu, P. 2001. Las estructuras sociales de la econom´ıa. Buenos Aires: Manantial. Grupo de Asesor´ıa Multidisciplinaria. 1996. Estudio del mercado de capacitaci´on microempresarial y descripci´on del programa de bonos de capacitaci´on. Montevideo: GAMA. Halac, A. 2000. Programa de capacitaci´on para trabajadores en empresas: informe final de consultor´ıa en marketing. [Mimeo.] (Report prepared for the Programma de Capacitaci´on de Trabajadores en Empresas.) Matta, A. 2006a. El sistema de bonos: ejecuci´on y aprendizajes. In: Mitnik, F., ed. Pol´ıticas y programas de capacitaci´on para peque˜nas empresas: un an´alisis multidisciplinar desde la teor´ıa y la experiencia. Montevideo: CINTERFOR-ILO. Matta, A. 2006b. El sistema de bonos: problemas y aprendizajes. In: Mitnik, F., ed. Pol´ıticas y programas de capacitaci´on para peque˜nas empresas: un an´alisis multidisciplinar desde la teor´ıa y la experiencia. Montevideo: CINTERFOR-ILO. Matta, A.; Bologna, E. 2006. Una perspectiva sociol´ogica de las pr´acticas econ´omicas. In: Mitnik, F., ed. Pol´ıticas y programas de capacitaci´on para peque˜nas empresas: un an´alisis multidisciplinar desde la teor´ıa y la experiencia. Montevideo: CINTERFOR-ILO. Mitnik, F., ed. 2006. Pol´ıticas y programas de capacitaci´on para peque˜nas empresas: un an´alisis multidisciplinar desde la teor´ıa y la experiencia. Montevideo: CINTERFOR-ILO. Mitnik, F.; Coria, A.; Garc´ıa Goette, C. 2006. Reconstruyendo las esperanzas: la calidad de la capacitaci´on. In: Mitnik, F., ed. Pol´ıticas y programas de capacitaci´on para peque˜nas empresas: un an´alisis multidisciplinar desde la teor´ıa y la experiencia. Montevideo: CINTERFOR-ILO. Mitnik, F.; Coria, A.; Torres, J. 2006. Esperanzas y fracasos en la capacitaci´on para empresas. In: Mitnik, F., ed. Pol´ıticas y programas de capacitaci´on para peque˜nas empresas. un an´alisis multidisciplinar desde la teor´ıa y la experiencia. Montevideo: CINTERFOR-ILO. Mitnik, F.; Descalzi, R. 2006. Subsidios para peque˜nas empresas: de la econom´ıa a la pol´ıtica. In: Mitnik, F., ed. Pol´ıticas y programas de capacitaci´on para peque˜nas empresas: un an´alisis multidisciplinar desde la teor´ıa y la experiencia. Montevideo: CINTERFOR-ILO. Mitnik, F.; Descalzi, R.; Ord´on˜ ez, G. 2006. La perspectiva econ´omica de la capacitaci´on. In: Mitnik, F., ed. Pol´ıticas y programas de capacitaci´on para peque˜nas empresas. un an´alisis multidisciplinar desde la teor´ıa y la experiencia. Montevideo: CINTERFOR-ILO. Moffitt, R. 2000. Lessons from the Food Stamp Program. In: Steuerle, E. et al., eds. Vouchers and the provision of public services. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution. Parisi, A. et al. 1999. Encuesta a peque˜nas empresas de la ciudad de C´ordoba. C´ordoba, Argentina: Universidad Empresarial Siglo 21, Instituto de Investigaciones de la Opini´on P´ublica. Storey, D.J.; Westhead, P. 1997. Management training in small firms: a case of market failure? Human resource management journal, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 61–71.
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Chapter VII.7
Employers’ Participation in Training Finance: An Example from Brazil Candido Alberto Gomes
1 Introduction How are small farmers and herdsmen to be turned into skilled industrial workers after tax incentives have attracted industry to a previously agricultural region? How can the high wages and settlement costs associated with recruiting workers from other regions or other countries be avoided? One possibility is to provide training within the region, to prepare the local workforce for participation in the modern economy. But what is to be done when the government and the public agency responsible for training fail to develop an appropriate programme? Local industries must then take it upon themselves to train their own workforce. This was the strategy adopted by a group of businessmen in Montes Claros, in the state of Minas Gerais, who in 1976 decided to establish a vocational school. Because of its unusual nature, the International Labour Organization requested a case study of the institution in 1990 (Gomes, 1991). Fifteen years later, at the request of UNESCO-UNEVOC, the Montes Claros Educational Foundation was revisited. Formerly obliged to struggle for financial survival and without any foreseeable sources of funding, it was now found to be larger and more stable, generating the greater part of its resources itself, less dependant on local industries and carrying out a kind of ‘Robin Hood’ action in sustaining a number of its low-income students in its technical school. This is a formidable challenge insofar as industrial technologies are becoming more and more sophisticated and now require a foundation of complete general education. Vocational education itself is increasingly expensive—all this to be achieved in an environment of social exclusion. How can equity and high-quality vocational education be reconciled?
2 Background Montes Claros is a regional centre in the State of Minas Gerais, located in a semiarid area between the valleys of the S˜ao Francisco and Jequitinhonha rivers. The city is an island of relative wealth surrounded by rural poverty, and it attracts large numbers of rural migrants to its many slums. In 1985, its population was 214,472 R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VII.7, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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and had reached 336,132 in 2004, according to official estimates. In 2002, 4.1% of its GDP came from farming and cattle-raising, 43.9% from industry and 52.0% from trading and services. The industrialization process started with tax incentives conceded to the impoverished north-eastern region, and the city was therefore eligible for fiscal incentives provided by the regional development agency—SUDENE. In an effort to reduce regional inequalities in Brazil and more specifically to reverse the chronic poverty and backwardness of the north-east region, this industrialization programme was implemented in 1961. The available evidence suggests that the programme was successful in promoting significant industrial development. However, it is widely acknowledged that the programme was not so successful in creating jobs. Urban unemployment and underemployment did not decrease but actually increased while the programme functioned (Magalh˜aes, 1983; Jatob´a et al., 1985). Problems with the local labour force then encouraged the adoption of capitalintensive technologies. Labour is abundant in the north-east, but productivity is low because of generally poor levels of health and education. Unit labour costs are therefore high, even though wages are, on average, lower than in other regions. It was in this context that the industrial park of Montes Claros was established at the end of the 1960s.
3 Official Inaction and Corporate Action The main obstacle to early industrialization in Montes Claros, according to those in charge of the first enterprises that moved to the city, was the lack of a qualified local labour force. Even for the basic construction projects, about 40% of the workers were brought in from elsewhere, including carpenters and labourers. There were two main labour problems. On the one hand, local workers were in need of training and had difficulty adapting to an urban-industrial environment. The re-socialization that was needed even included teaching recent arrivals (used to going barefoot) not to cut holes in their protective shoes when they developed blisters. On the other hand, the cost of bringing workers to Montes Claros from other countries and regions was very high, and such workers had difficulty adapting to life in a small provincial city. Turnover was very high and bidding for qualified workers was intense. According to various informants, the regional development agency was not very concerned with the social conditions encountered by workers. In the words of one informant, with regard to the needs of local industries, this agency thought ‘like the average Brazilian businessman: get them started, and then let the fittest survive’. Trapped between the costs associated with workers recruited elsewhere and the deficiencies of workers recruited locally, firms in Montes Claros sought a number of solutions. One attempt was to bring an agency of the para-state National Industrial Apprenticeship Service (SENAI) to the city. Though SENAI is ordinarily responsive to the needs of local industries and is mostly funded by a pseudo-tax levied on the
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payroll, in this case there was disagreement about where the training centre should be located. These efforts were abandoned and only taken up again many years later. With the traditional training alternatives eliminated and absolutely no possibility that the State or local governments would take on the responsibility, a group of local businessmen called a meeting of the Commercial and Industrial Association in order to devise a plan for occupational training. Experiences with on-the-job training provided by skilled workers from other regions had produced encouraging results. These efforts had demonstrated that, in spite of their initial deficiencies, local workers were quite capable of mastering new skills. Some members of the association had visited a technical school in a neighbouring city and had determined that it was cheaper to train locally than to import skilled workers. About thirty members of the association attended these early meetings. However, when asked to make an initial capital donation and a monthly pledge to establish the Educational Foundation of Montes Claros (FEMC), many firms declined to participate, not wishing to commit themselves to pay for a service which was, in their view, a governmental responsibility. The president of the association argued that what was in question was an investment, and not a charitable donation, and fifteen firms finally agreed to participate in the establishment of the foundation in 1976. A local university professor was recruited to establish the school. Relying on a blend of bureaucratic and predominantly charismatic leadership (Weber, 1968), he put together a faculty and defined an institutional philosophy in collaboration with the businessmen backing the school. Using rented classrooms and discarded equipment, a series of short courses started in areas of urgent need, including welding and pipefitting. In 1989, there were 2,029 students enrolled, 47.1% of whom attended lower-secondary and high school (in partnership with State and municipal governments) during the day shift, 33.6% went to technical courses during the evening shift and the remaining 19.3% were divided among vocational courses offered in the main buildings and in other places, including neighbouring municipalities. It is evident that the FEMC, like any formal organization, formed part of a variety of power relationships and interacted with a variety of other actors. According to Downs (1967), to survive and grow, organizations must continually demonstrate the utility of their services to one or more constituencies with sufficient influence to ensure the continued flow of resources. Moreover, the growth of organizations takes place only with the adoption of new functions or the incorporation of functions previously fulfilled by less dynamic organizations. In the case of the FEMC, the adoption of new functions occurred in a vacuum in which there were no competitors. For this reason, the expansion of its activities was encouraged by those who benefited from its services, including local firms (among them the patrons of the foundation) and former and potential students. The value of the foundation’s work was more widely recognized however, both in the community and beyond. The firms behind the foundation were adept at building support in the community, allowing firms that did not contribute to the foundation to participate in training programmes and winning the political backing of both state and municipal
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governments. With the advantage of having a reputation based on the quality of its programmes and with the support of important local constituencies, the FEMC was not threatened by competitors offering similar services. Nevertheless, its expansion was limited by competing claims on resources among local firms, students and public agencies.
4 Expansion for Survival At the end of 1989, the students in FEMC programmes were mostly poor, even by the standards of a municipality where average incomes do not normally exceed the statutory minimum. An analysis of the subjects taught by the school was based on the subjective criterion of neighbourhood socio-economic status. The results revealed that about 80% of the students were from low-income families, 17% lowermiddle income and 3% middle income. In confirmation of this finding, nearly all of the students had previously attended public schools. In general, therefore, the students were more interested in acquiring a profession than in continuing their academic studies, as the likelihood of continuing their education in a higher education institution was small. Here, a traditional division can be seen between the two branches of secondary education: academic and vocational. In spite of successive reforms to overcome this dualism, the continuation or termination of secondary school studies continues to be linked to students’ social origins. That is why if the technical school were not recruiting its students from among the less-privileged social strata, graduates would turn away from vocational studies and future technical jobs. Prejudice against manual labour has systematically impelled students away from manual occupations and towards preparatory education for a higher education course (Souza & Castro, 1974). If young people were succeeding at the secondary level, why would they want to enter a technical course? When a panel of educators examined the 1989 data sixteen years later, they agreed that the socio-economic composition of the student body had not changed much during the intervening period. However, an on-the-spot observation makes it apparent that the level of social origin has indeed risen. Even as far as subjective differences are concerned, times have changed. Technical occupations now demand more refined technologies and depend on information technology. Thus, the technician of today is not exactly the equivalent of the blue-collar worker of yesterday. Not only has the presence of women increased considerably in some courses (28%, on average, in the technical school), but at least part of the middle class has become attracted by the complexity of the curricula and the laboratories and by the professional prospects that are not to be scorned in a country where juvenile unemployment is widespread. There is thus a tug-of-war going on between technological sophistication and social inclusion. In this sense, there are two important access channels for socially less-privileged youngsters and adults: scholarships (almost always limited to partial grants) offered by companies or even by the FEMC itself and the monitoring system.
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In the case of the former, one of the bigger companies holds admission exams for ex-students of government-run schools. The latter accepts students based on the combined criteria of need and merit, and assists them with their academic tasks. Things have changed over the course of the last fifteen years. There was a reduction in industrial activity in Montes Claros during the 1990s, especially after the closure of the SUDENE programme. The economy veered largely towards the tertiary sector and the region even became an important centre for higher education, although in state planning it is classified among clusters of biotechnology, fruit growing and semi-precious stones. However, the struggle for competitiveness has led to the use of ever-more complex, labour-saving technologies that were less demanding than the occupations offered by the technical school. In other words, the school became less useful and imperative for companies and more useful for the community. How could this challenge be met? The response was to widen the activities so that some activities could finance others. To this end, a junior and senior high school and an engineering faculty were set up. With the higher status accorded to technical occupations, senior high-school students are able to take not only the general education course but a technical course at the same time. They have several extra hours of lessons each week, which almost results in full-time schooling, in contrast with the Brazilian tradition of half-day schooling. Furthermore, students in the technical school must study at night for one extra year. (Senior high school consists of three years of general education.) As a sign of the new times, 85% of students choose to participate in the technical courses whilst the rest continue with general education alone. Thus, this establishment is structured to qualify candidates already involved by the mould of the technology culture, not only for the technical school but also for the recently established higher education institution. It was in this way that the field of engineering courses opened up in response to the increasing complexity of industrial technologies and occupations. A Higher Education Institution was set up and offers courses in chemical engineering, automation and control, telecommunications and computing. These make use of common libraries and laboratories and rely on of the relationship between industrial companies, the school and the technological culture that has been constructed over the years. As will be seen later, this relationship is the most precious resource of all insofar as its financial surplus meets the costs of financing the technical school, which has experienced a noticeable fall in demand in comparison with former periods when the ratio of candidates to places available reached 20:1. Nevertheless, this school continues to be the dream of many low-income youngsters whose eyes shine when they see in it the path to social mobility. Furthermore, the total enrolment in regular courses (not including lifelong education courses in the school itself and in other municipalities) went up from 1,639 in 1989 to 2,037 in August of 2005. The premises of the technical school have been doubled thanks to a federal grant and another building has been rented for the engineering school. Today, the total constructed area is 8,123 square metres and exhibits a growing sophistication, with a greater number of laboratories and more equipment.
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Another response to the challenge was the change in focus from educating for a specific occupation to educating for a wider field of work. Industrial technologies that dispense with labour, sub-contracting to third parties and the shrinking of the formal labour market have brought about a change in the FEMC’s purpose. In this sense, an entrepreneurial spirit now inspires the curricula and seeks to prepare the students for a wider range of work opportunities. On the other hand, an ‘enterprise incubator’ was created encompassing fifteen companies and projects. In spite of its small size, it is expected to become part of a large-scale initiative—the technological park—containing an estimated 220 establishments. Some signs of new times can be mentioned. One of these is the concern for social inclusion. Students in the technical and higher education courses participate in a social training period dedicated to diversified citizenship activities that may range from distributing food to offering professional training courses, creating projects for digital inclusion and providing support for public schools whose students are socially less privileged. Although the sale of services is one of the sources of financing for the FEMC, a group of students developed software for the use of cemetery administrators and donated it to the municipality, thus contributing to the solution of long-standing problems. As the social training period became obligatory, an ethicsrelated subject was included in the curriculum to make students aware of their social responsibilities. In this field, the neighbouring presence of the city’s most violent slum led to the creation of a project for sixty children all enrolled in public schools. As these children study part-time, the FEMC carries out activities in arts, culture, citizenship and leisure, both in the morning and in the afternoon. In other words, the school is available to them full-time. This sub-project also includes work carried out with parents so that they too become involved in the education of their children and the activities of social promotion to improve their living conditions. Participating children and adolescents have guaranteed access to the technical school when they finish junior high school. The atmosphere in the school continues to be energetic and committed. The school and its students are even more visible in the community and are subject to continual evaluation by local businesses. As a result, teachers in the school appear to enjoy considerable social status and maintain a significant esprit de corps. In fact, they seem very proud of what they do. Teachers who work after hours, projects undertaken by groups and efforts to ensure the excellence of each course continue to be hallmarks of the school. Local businesses are actively involved in all activities. Even short courses are offered only after assessment of local training needs. Follow-up contacts are made with the supervisors of students and former students. The board of directors plays a strategic role as a bridge between businesses and the school. One consequence of this participation is the continual modification of curricula, training methods and enrolments in response to changing needs. In addition to these regular academic programmes, the FEMC offers a wide variety of courses, including some at a distance. These are offered in municipalities throughout the region under agreements with local businesses or public agencies,
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and/or financed through student fees. Lifelong technical and vocational education has been a new horizon explored in the face of accelerating technological and economic change. The marketing division is in charge of detecting and proposing new business, as well as taking care of the institutional image. The most remarkable initiative in this field is perhaps the annual science and technology fair. The last one took place in the city mall, attracting numerous visitors until the facilities had to be closed. The programme included the presentation of interesting projects by groups of students from the secondary, technical and engineering schools. They are very often interdisciplinary, making difficult technical concepts easier to understand by practical demonstration. The Ministry of Science and Technology has also financed a series of lectures given by State scientists. In general, local businessmen regard FEMC students and former students very favourably. Moreover, the need to generate its own revenue keeps the FEMC alert to changes in the needs and expectations of its clients, in contrast to schools with more predictable sources of revenue, which only rarely alter their programme. It is important, however, that financial uncertainty does not reach excessive levels if the organization is to remain innovative and responsive to its environment.
5 Walking the Financial Tightrope In 1989 the income of the FEMC came from the fees paid by students and their families (58.3%), from scholarships and other contributions provided by local firms (27.1%) and from the sale of services (14.6%). It was a part of the operating philosophy of the school, maintained until today, that students should pay at least a part of the cost of the education/training provided. Individual fees varied with family income, with most students paying between 30 and 70% of the total cost. In March 1990, the maximum annual payment for the secondary evening class programme was US$643, which was the equivalent of 53% of the fees charged by the most expensive private secondary school in the city, where the course was academic rather than technical. As a rule, fees ranged from US$200 to US$439. These amounts were far from insignificant for the local income levels, so the fees paid by each student were supplemented by a scholarship provided by a local firm, even if the student was not employed by that enterprise. The share of the costs of FEMC programmes paid by students and local businesses has varied over time. On average, student fees have covered 48.7% of the costs, while business contributions have covered 23%. However, the share of annual costs covered by student fees has varied from a low of 32% to a high of 76%, whilst the share covered by business contributions has varied between 12% and 57%. A critical point was reached in 1989, when the share of costs paid by students exceeded the previous maximum at the same time as the share paid by local firms fell below the previous minimum. In order to make up for this decrease in business support, the possibility of increasing school fees was discussed. However, this would probably have shifted the composition of enrolments in favour of better-off students more
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interested in preparation for higher education than in a terminal vocational programme. As this change would have subverted the basic objectives of the FEMC, however, the board of directors recommended that firms should not only increase the value of their scholarships but also join together to contribute to the reduction of the foundation’s operating deficit. The FEMC could not cover its costs by relying on student fees and business contributions alone. The gap in funding was then covered through the sale of services and the provision of short courses, which were obliged to generate profits. Compared to other similar institutions, FEMC Technical School has generally had lower costs. Its annual cost per student, calculated in 1989, was US$1,166 per year, whereas in the SENAI technical schools this figure reached US$1,880 and the federal technical industrial schools attained US$1,516 (the latter figure refers to 1985). If relatively low per-pupil costs are an indicator of good management on the one hand, they are also, on the other hand, a reflection of the difficulties that the school faced in keeping its equipment and training programmes up-to-date. According to local informants, the FEMC has been able to cover its recurrent costs—with difficulty—but necessary capital expenditure was a major stumbling block. At this point, the talents of the FEMC in acquiring equipment at a minimum cost came into play. Help was solicited from firms in the region and elsewhere, with the argument that the school provided a showcase for their products. One informant pointed out the school’s first micro-computer (kept today as a relic), comparing it to ‘a miser’s first dollar bill’. The computer was provided in return for a course offered by the FEMC. Since it arrived, the school had been offering courses in data-processing, with all income from these courses reserved for the purchase of additional microcomputers so as to increase its training capacity in that area. However, this creative and partially-improvised organization with a predominantly charismatic leadership reached the limit of its possibilities by the mid-1990s as the economic panorama of Montes Claros underwent changes. Financial difficulties increased and a debt to the social welfare system accumulated (now renegotiated). The FEMC was on the verge of insolvency, whilst at the same time bitter pedagogical disputes divided the teaching body. As a divided house cannot rule, so the board of directors decided to reformulate the entire administrative and financial system. According to statements, the FEMC moved from a predominantly academic culture to an entrepreneurial culture, but one that paid respect to social and educational objectives. Its degree of bureaucracy also increased (Weber, 1968), even affecting the school’s leadership. An administrative system typical of a business was implanted; that is to say, the board decided to administer its own daily medicine. An administrative and financial director, whose training was completed in half-day sessions in various local industries, was contracted. Budget, cost and management accounting was implanted, as was a system of information management for the decision-making process. (Financial data were made available to the author in a quarter of an hour!) A five-year budget is under discussion. In spite of all these alterations, no diminution of enthusiasm, esprit de corps or pride of belonging was detected among the persons who are part of the institution.
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In addition to these changes, the improvization in capital expenditure of former days has been overcome, thanks to participation in a Ministry of Education programme favouring vocational and technical education and partially financed by the Inter-American Development Bank. The Federal Government attributed high value to community or so-called third-sector participation, and opened up opportunities for organizations like the FEMC to compete for resources. In practice, the Foundation signed a loan agreement in 2001 with the Ministry of Education for US$985,076, 31.9% of which is for infrastructure, 56.8% for equipment, 4.8% for capacity-building and training, 3.8% for teaching material, 2.3% for consultancies and 0.4% for services. In this way, the constructed premises of the technical school have doubled, the number of laboratories was more than doubled and equipment was updated. However, this federal programme has fallen victim to discontinuity. It must be asked how the question of financing future investments as a response to advances in new technology will be dealt with. The data presently available (Table 1) refer to the current expenditure per student plus capital expenditure for the year. The value of the equipment and installations has not been attributed and thus the figures cannot strictly be compared with those from 1989. The composition of the income per unit of the foundation shows that the technical school has effectively become less dependent on the companies, which once again raises the question of the socio-economic selectivity of the student body. In turn, according to Table 2, current expenses per student vary from 91.7% to 89.2% of the total whilst capital expenditures planned for the year oscillate between 4.9% and 10.8%. The proportion of expenditure on staff is high, especially in the technical school, which has recently had its installations and laboratories expanded and considerably improved. The engineering school has the greatest share of the total current expenditure and the technical school the lowest. Although data for comparison are scarce, it is sure that the FEMC Technical School average expenditure per student is lower than that of the Federal Centre for Technological Education (CEFET), which is more sophisticated and includes higher education programmes. In contrast, the Paula Souza Centre, a State technical/vocational education network successful in increasing equity, has an average expenditure per student of US$847 in 2005. On the income side, the cost of monthly tuition is lower for the technical school, but even so it represents half of a minimum salary, i.e. around US$127. According Table 1 FEMC sources of funding by unit, 2005 Sources
High school (%) Technical school (%) Engineering school (%)
Tuition paid by students Company contributions Government loans to students School loans to students Total
90.7 9.3 – – 100.0
63.3 36.7 – – 100.0
84.8 0.8 9.4 5.0 100.0
Note: Other sources of funding in 2004: Ministry of Education, 5%; SEBRAE (support for ‘enterprise incubators’), 2%. Source: FEMC, January/August 2005.
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Kind of expenditure
High school US$ %
Technical school US$ %
Engineering school US$ %
Current Salaries Other current Capital Total Tuition per month (US$) Tuition as % of the minimum salary Average no. of students/class
1,245 1,089 156 111 1,356 94 74 38.9
1.078 972 106 57 1,035 64 50 33.5
2,018 1,085 933 244 2,262 254 200 28.7
91.7 80.3 11.4 8.3 100.0 –
95.1 93.9 1.2 4.9 100.0 –
89.2 53.8 35.4 10.8 100.0 –
Source: FEMC. The values for the whole year were projected on the basis of those for January to August.
to the 2000 Census, the monthly median income in the municipality was US$117. In the same year, 37.6% of the wage-paid population earned up to twice the minimum salary. Even so, the technical school expenditure up until the month of August 2005 was 4.3% higher than its income. Tuition fees for the high school are 15% lower than those for the best renowned high schools in the city. Nevertheless, it is deficient insofar as, by Brazilian standards, some classes are under-populated. In turn, the unit with a balance sheet surplus par excellence is the engineering school, where the monthly tuition fee is 200% of the statutory minimum salary. It should be noted that, in spite of its being relatively inexpensive when compared to countrywide levels of tuition rates, it is still difficult for the students to pay these fees and a group of them has sought support in government financing, as well as through a fund created by the school itself.
6 Finance and the Way Forward Fifteen years ago, the published case study (Gomes, 1991) expected that the recognition accorded to the accomplishments of the school, in combination with the chronic insufficiency of income in relation to expenses, might lead to changes in the FEMC programme. In 1989, a financial crisis was averted only when the board of directors called for increased contributions from local businesses. What would have happened if this policy had not been approved? The answer was speculative, but since organizations seek survival before all else, it would be likely that the FEMC would have shifted its programme focus so as to respond to financial exigency. Compensating for the loss of business support by collecting higher fees from students would have meant the enrolment of fewer poor students. Lacking competitors in the region, the FEMC would have had no difficulty in recruiting students able to pay the higher fees, but in this case, enrolments in the school would have become more like those in other technical schools throughout Brazil, where equity has declined and most students are more interested in continuing their education. In other words, students would increasingly have attempted to use the school as a springboard to higher
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education rather than committing themselves to jobs in the industrial and commercial sectors within the region (Gomes, 1999). The FEMC used other strategies to avoid a decline of equity at the technical school. To the extent that Brazil’s economic/financial situation required firms to cut costs and technologies economized on labour, business support did, in fact, decrease. However, the ‘Robin Hood’ effect produced by the school of engineering made it possible for the technical school to avoid becoming an elitist school. Furthermore, the aforementioned federal grant programme assured modernization and covered the urgently needed capital costs. Therefore, the organization changed recruitment patterns as a whole to preserve a certain level of democracy in technical courses. Indeed, in the 1990s and the early years of the twenty-first century the great challenge in preparing professionals for industry has been the ever-increasing complexity of technologies and the consequent increase in the costs of professional and vocational education. The para-statal ‘S’-system1 has gone through a serious crisis. Because of the foreign debt crisis, recession and unemployment have had a direct effect on the income of traditional bodies like SENAI and SENAC, both financed by a pseudo-tax levied on the payrolls of their respective sectors. SENAI found its way out of this difficult situation by improving and selling services. As a result, it is no longer as wide a channel for the social ascension of blue-collar workers as it was in the 1970s. For their part, federal technical education institutions have been successful in increasing their participation in public funds in part through competing with other public and community organizations for the funds of the federal programme already mentioned. This has meant that almost all of them have become higher education institutions that offer technological courses in addition to regular technical courses, somewhat like American community colleges. One of them has, in fact, become a technological university. In view of all these changes, several reactions have been noticeable. In the ‘S’system, SENAR, dedicated to the rural sector and created in 1991, went the road of sub-contracting services, decentralizing and operating according to the mechanisms of the market (Gomes & Cˆamara, 2004). This contrasts with those pioneer institutions that formed the first generation of the ‘S’-system. With SENAR, although a highly flexible network has been created with low overheads, it lacks the accumulation of experience and other factors that led to the success of the first generation. On the other hand, several states, especially Sao Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul, have opted to create and/or expand their technical education networks. In the case of the former, the Paula Souza Centre managed to increase the percentage of working students from 33% to 48% between 1995 and 2002 (Sao Paulo, n.d.). At the same time, faced with unemployment and under-employment, especially among people in the low-income bracket, the federal government established the National Plan for the Further Training of Workers (PLANFOR) in 1995, which was succeeded by a similar plan in 2003. Resources have been allocated to a large array of partners, such as trade unions, non-governmental organizations and state and municipal governments in order to offer mostly short courses.
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In the specific case of Montes Claros, the technical school has managed to maintain a certain degree of democratization, but companies are tending to become increasingly sophisticated so that, in addition to their requirements for general education, the tendency is to contract specialized staff for relatively few work posts. How long will it be possible to maintain the present levels of equity? One alternative is the FEMC’s proposal to set up partnerships with the municipal school system, which would enable around another 500 students to have access to the technical courses. Although the FEMC is the largest organization preparing people for industry in the region, it must be stated that the SENAI resolved its differences with the municipal government some time ago. In 1988, it opened a site donated by an industrialist where it offers basic professional training courses and one technical course in electro-mechanics. However, it is estimated that it only reaches 15% of the market.
7 In Conclusion Some lessons can be learned through revisiting the FEMC. Firstly, thanks to the expansion and vertical extension of its activities, it has become possible to make better use of and enrich the culture of technology. Secondly, it has also been possible to compensate for the reduction in the contributions made by companies and apparently to maintain a similar degree of equity for lower socio-economic levels in the technical school. Thirdly, in spite of being an experience illustrative of neo-liberal principles, like de-regulation and the reduced role of the State, the FEMC’s leap forward took place through management reform, but above all through the partnerships with the Federal Government for those investments which its own income could not satisfy. Thus, it remains a fruitful example of partnership. The financial uncertainties of the FEMC favoured its dynamism and adaptation to new circumstances. However, walking the financial tightrope introduced new critical factors that came to threaten the survival of the organization and could have lowered the levels of equity. Finally, the achievements of the FEMC could be repeated elsewhere, depending on the commitment of businesses. Even after the initial challenge of replacing workers from other regions with local manpower had been surmounted, local firms have continued their support. There were advantages in their continued participation; besides tax deductions, they have been able to design training programmes in accordance with their own needs, to keep wages and turnover down and to employ trainees at relatively low wages. Furthermore, the increased complexity of the FEMC structure corresponds to new stages of technological refinement. However, some of the challenges that still exist and go beyond the limits of the industrial district can be found right alongside the technical school in the slums, where organized crime recruits children threatened with a life of underemployment. In Montes Claros, as in the greater part of Brazil and Latin America, complex industries exist side-by-side with masses of people without any prospects in life. Many of them are second- or third-generation rural migrants, with low levels of
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education and no vocational skills who are marginalized by the lack of job opportunities. The informal sector in all its facets has been the escape hatch for survival. This segmentation of the labour market contributes to huge income disparities It is possible that businesses in similar circumstances elsewhere might adopt the same strategy if certain conditions were met. Business leaders must recognize that education and training are investments and accept that businesses must pay a share of the costs if public support is not forthcoming. It is unlikely that the full cost of training can be borne by students in Montes Claros in anything but exceptional circumstances. It was the recognition of these realities that made the success of the FEMC possible.
Note 1. The ‘S’-system refers to the network of training agencies set up to address the skill needs of particular sectors: SENAI for industry; SENAC for commerce; and SENAR for the rural sector.
References Downs, A. 1967. Inside bureaucracy. Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co. Gomes, C.A. 1991. Vocational education financing: an example of participation by employers in Brazil. Prospects, vol. 21, no. 3. Gomes, C.A. 1999. New perspectives for secondary school: the case of Brazil. International review of education, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 45–63. Gomes, C.A.; Cˆamara, J. 2004. Training for rural development in Brazil: SENAR. Paris: UNESCOIIEP; Rome: FAO. Jatob´a, J. et al. 1985. Pol´ıtica de emprego para o Nordeste. Brasilia/Recife: Minist´erio do Trabalho/Massangana. Magalh˜aes, A.R. 1983. Industrializac¸a˜ o e desenvolvimento regional: a nova ind´ustria no Nordeste. Brasilia: IPEA/IPLAN. Sao Paulo. Secretaria da Ciˆencia, Tecnologia, Desenvolvimento Econˆomico e Turismo. No date. Centro Paula Souza: competˆencia em educac¸a˜ o p´ublica profissional. Sao Paulo, Brazil: Centro Paula Souza. Souza, A.M.; Castro, C.M. 1974. M˜ao-de-obra industrial no Brasil: mobilidade, treinamento e produtividade. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: IPEA/INPES. Weber, M. 1968. Economy and society: an outline of interpretive sociology. New York, NY: Bedminster.
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Chapter VII.8
Funding Lifelong Learning from a Life-Course Perspective Barry J. Hake
1 Towards a Political Economy of Investments in Lifelong Learning It is exceedingly difficult to find a policy document on education and training that does not make use of the ‘lifelong learning agenda’ in order to: (a) legitimate policy strategies; (b) identify specific policy measures; and (c) argue the choice for specific policy instruments. This reflects the worldwide consensus concerning lifelong learning from the mid-1990s onwards that has informed policy documents from the World Bank, UNESCO, OECD, the G8, the European Commission, national governments, non-governmental organizations in the field of education and training, and education and training institutions themselves. The realization of lifelong learning is seen as a key factor in meeting the challenges of globalization and the emergence of knowledge economies, the competitiveness of national economies, creating jobs and reducing unemployment, generating individual employability, and securing the social inclusion of groups at risk of exclusion from the learning society. Globalization is regarded as the driving force behind the knowledge economy. The knowledge economy in turn is widely viewed as demanding the development of lifelong learning and a learning society. There is now a hegemonic ‘grand coalition’ of international economic organizations, transnational polities such as the European Union, national governments, employers and trade unions that has warmly embraced lifelong learning as the motor of the knowledge society—necessarily a lifelong ‘learning society’. Despite this all-too-apparent consensual policy rhetoric about the need for lifelong learning in order to create knowledge economies and learning societies, the most fundamental problem remains the lack of any agreement with regard to how societies, organizations and individuals would benefit, or not, from investments in lifelong learning (Hake, 1999). Given the dominance of the needs of the economy and the emphasis upon individual employability in current policy narratives, it is also necessary to pay attention to the ‘wider benefits of learning’ generated in the life-worlds of individuals beyond the sphere of work.
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2 The Political Economy of the Knowledge Society as a Risk Society Since the mid-1990s, dominant policy narratives have focused upon the importance of lifelong learning as the crucial policy initiative that informs worldwide policy responses to the challenges posed by globalization, the transformation of industrial societies into post-industrial knowledge societies, the need to ensure the competitiveness of national economies, the maintenance of employment through economic growth, and the need to promote the social inclusion of potentially marginal groups. The common argument is that all such problems can be addressed by lifelong learning policies that are geared to the promotion of employability. This leads almost inevitably to the development of policy instruments and the implementation of policy measures that are intended to lead to the promised land of ‘employability for all’ in the knowledge economy. The globalization that dominates current policy narratives needs to be understood first and foremost in terms of the world-wide reorganization of economic activity that is dominated by the boundary-less and deregulated accumulation of economic capital on a global scale. This is a process that is also characterized by the almost instantaneous communication of knowledge and information without respect to national borders, and virtual access to this information and knowledge without regard to space and time. The routine availability and application of knowledge and information in all spheres of social life has become the most dynamic feature in the transformation and reorganization of post-industrial societies. This in turn produces the transformation to the learning society where learning throughout life becomes the key competency if individuals are ‘to learn to survive’ (Giddens, 1992). In policy narratives that proclaim the necessity of the learning society, the individual is reconstituted as a ‘permanently learning subject’ (Dumazedier, 1995), while there is now no question of opting out from learning if one is to become an ‘active citizen’ in the learning society. Globalization confronts societies, organizations—including education and training organizations—and individuals with learning challenges as they struggle to cope with new risks, and seek to survive in rapidly changing and unstable environments at the global, national, regional and local levels. The learning society is characterized by these structural challenges and the necessity to learn in order to survive on many fronts. The ‘individualization of risk’ refers here to the learning society as a ‘risk society’ in which individuals are ‘at risk’ with regard to their chances of survival in the face of change and uncertainty (Beck, 1992). To become ‘a learner’ is now the determining criterion for acquiring the competencies of ‘active citizenship’ in the learning society. Not to be a learner is to run a serious individual risk in the learning society. This is a salient description of the learning society as a risk society. This directs attention to the potentially negative consequences for individuals of the all-pervasive requirement to learn throughout life or ‘a life long of learning’. Management of individual risk in post-industrial knowledge societies now seems to lead inevitably away from the collective interventions of the welfare State towards
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the retreat of the State, with deregulation, flexibility, individual employability and consumer choice in the learning market-place as the keys to successful survival strategies. This is now the chorus of almost every policy paper. Despite this neoliberal rhetoric of individual opportunity and choice often associated with lifelong learning narratives, individuals are confronted with the risk of exclusion given the uncompromising demands of the learning society. The fundamental question is whether the traditional educational strategies of communities, families and individuals in industrial society are still adequate in the learning society? (van Damme, 2000). Is access to learning opportunities and the acquisition of survival skills equally available to all? If not, this has important consequences for an increasing number of ‘at risk categories’, and carries with it the potential of social exclusion and a threat to social cohesion. Globalization processes and the rise of the learning society would seem to produce both winners and losers in the form of the ‘knowledge rich’ and the ‘knowledge poor’ (du Bois-Reymond & Walther, 1999). On the one hand, processes of structural modernization in the knowledge society lead to increasing differentiation of learning environments in diverse social arenas beyond formal educational institutions. This includes the rise of the workplace as a non-formal learning environment and the more informal learning environments concerned with active citizenship and social cohesion in civil society. On the other hand, there is greater diversity in the learning trajectories pursued by individuals as they redistribute their own learning efforts across increasingly diverse life courses, and as they seek to combine their learning efforts with work, caring tasks, leisure-time and social participation (Glastra et al., 2001). These processes impact in particular upon young people in their often difficult transition from an extended period of education to finding work, but they also impact upon lowqualified women, older workers and the minorities, and those no longer employed for life. Such developments are even more significant for groups and individuals caught-up in global and regional migration processes and who have to struggle with the risks involved in their potential exclusion as ethnic, cultural and linguistic minorities. There are significant contradictions, furthermore, between the emphasis upon neo-liberal market principles as the determinant of provision and consumption of education and training and the persistence of unequal distribution of the opportunity structures enabling individuals to utilize both the traditional and new learning environments for the purposes of education, training and lifelong learning. On the one hand, specific social groups continue to be at a disadvantage in ‘front-ended models’ of education and training as a preparation for ‘a life long of learning’. On the other hand, there are also significant social groups who are also unable to establish themselves in the new diversity of non-formal and informal learning environments and the market-place for learning. There are indications here of a significant degree of potential market failure in the delivery of education and training and a skewed distribution of opportunity structures that can lead to the non-delivery of education and training to specific social groups (van Lieshout, 1999).
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3 Integrated Funding Models for Investments in Lifelong Learning The redistribution of opportunity structures throughout the individual life course in the context of lifelong learning demands an exploration of policy discussions during the last two decades about the so-called ‘integrated approach’ to investments in lifelong learning. Given the intimate relationship between lifelong learning and the employability agenda in recent policy debates, priority has been given to socalled ‘integrated funding models’ for lifelong learning. This discussion has directed attention in particular to the discussion of the respective responsibilities of governments, social partners and individuals for investments in lifelong learning. In particular, recent policy developments have involved a new balance between direct public investments, para-fiscal investments agreed by the social partners and fiscal measures to encourage individuals to invest in their own employability. This priority has focused upon the integration of lifelong learning and labour-market policies with an emphasis upon both reformed and new funding instruments in order to finance education and training during working life (Levin & Sch¨utze, 1983). In different national economic and labour-market contexts, this debate has been dominated by the need to close the so-called ‘skills gap’. This ‘skills gap’ has been commonly formulated in terms of the ‘learning gap’ between the needs of the knowledge economy for highly qualified employees and the inadequate educational levels available among the current workforce. A core element in this discussion has been the respective financial responsibilities of governments, social partners and individuals for investments in integrated strategies for vocational education and training which are intended to make a contribution to bridging the ‘learning gap’. The closing of the learning gap thus involves the mobilization of public, semi-public and private resources for funding the employability of the workforce and the unemployed. This ‘learning gap’ can be illustrated as in Figure 1. This approach has led to the exploration of funding instruments that are based upon combinations of public, para-fiscal and individual investments in order to promote higher levels of participation in education and training as a public, mixed or individual good.
3.1 Investment in Education and Training as a Public Good
r
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The traditional responsibility of governments for public funding of front-ended systems of initial education and training with the guarantee of universal entitlements up to the age of compulsory schooling, while post-initial vocational education and training is regarded as the responsibility of the social partners and individuals. Government responsibility for the investment of public funds in post-compulsory education and training to ensure the acquisition of so-called ‘start qualifications’
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Employment line Lifelong learning Unemployed
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Fig. 1 A model of lifelong learning with a ‘learning gap’ Source:
as a guarantee of access to the labour market for unqualified young people and for low-skilled adults among the unemployed and job-seekers.
3.2 Investment in Post-Compulsory Education and Training as a Mixed Good
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Establishment of para-fiscal systems of compulsory funding levies by employers to finance recurrent education for employees. These arrangements for employers’ contributions towards the costs of education and training are financed by a flatrate percentage of their wage-bills; Collective bargaining agreements between the social partners to establish voluntary para-fiscal arrangements for development and training funds for those employed in specific branches. These are also based upon agreed levies upon all employers. Agreements between the social partners to facilitate arrangements for paid educational leave. These vary from income-guaranteed non-work periods of study on full pay to time-guarantees to take a period of non-work financed by loan/grant systems. Collective bargaining with regard to the duties of all employers to draw-up a training and development plan for their employees. These plans may be associated with targets agreed with or laid down by governments. Collective agreements about the rights of all individual employees to a ‘personal development plan’. Such agreements may be national or agreed per sector. Collective bargaining agreements to finance ‘personal development budgets’ for individual workers within existing sectoral development and training funds.
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Individual learning accounts (ILA) that are regarded as a form of ‘education and training account’ or ‘voucher system’ based upon contributions by government, employers and employees. Fiscal facilities for both employers and individual workers enabling them to claw back the costs of their investments in education and training from corporate or income taxes. Fiscal facilities for employers to stimulate their investments in specific target groups, such as the low-qualified, older workers and the long-term unemployed.
3.3 Investments in Education and Training as a Personal Good
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‘Career-break programmes’ that enable individuals to take time-off from paid work for the purposes of undertaking unpaid caring work in the direct or extended family, a period of education and training, or other purposes. Individual learning accounts based upon voluntary ‘income savings’ arrangements for individual employees that enable them to save a percentage of annual earnings on a tax-free basis for the purposes of education and training. Life-course savings accounts based on voluntary ‘income savings’ free of tax which enable individuals to save for a period of leave for caring tasks, a period of education or training, or to finance early retirement.
It has to be recognized, moreover, that the integrated funding instruments developed in the specific context of lifelong learning policies focus upon the opportunity structures that are available to the employed and to those seeking employment. They are dominated by labour-market issues. Policy instruments within integrated funding models have largely concentrated upon the funding of education and training in relation to access to the labour market, reintegration of the unemployed and the disabled, and the promotion of individual employability. Of no little importance in this context is that para-fiscal funding models are related to the significant changes currently taking place in the workplace as a new arena for the creation of opportunity structures and the social allocation of individuals. It is here that decisions are increasingly taken about the learning opportunities made available to different categories of employees. This is particularly important given that decisions about access to education and training in the workplace take place with little if any public scrutiny of the resulting redistributive effects. It is open to question, therefore, as to whether this diverse mixture of public, para-fiscal and private investments in education and training actually contributes to the social inclusion of at-risk categories and the promotion of social cohesion. Integrated funding models have little relevance for either the structurally long-term unemployed and, in particular, for those not in paid work let alone the ‘no-longer employed’ sections of the population. In this regard, it is necessary to examine more critically the consequences of the introduction of free market forces and individual choice in the funding of education and training. Attention needs to be devoted to
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the possibility of market failures in the delivery of learning opportunities to specific categories at risk of exclusion. This demands that funding models for lifelong learning need to be examined in terms of their ability to deal with the sometimes conflicting demands of market forces and the need for regulatory mechanisms to assure social solidarity and cohesion between those included in and those excluded from the workforce. There is also the issue as to whether such integrated funding models adequately address the changing relationships in the architecture of initial and post-initial education within the perspective of a political economy of lifelong learning. A key problem here is whether such models assume that the priority should given to frontended models of initial education as a preparation for ‘a life long of learning’, while post-initial education and training is regarded as no more than a periodic ‘toppingup’ investment for the purposes of maintaining and refreshing knowledge and skills. Current funding models tend to assume that the source of the problem of risk and social exclusion is based upon low levels of initial education among the ‘knowledge poor’. As yet, they devote little attention to the specific needs of the low-qualified. Labour-market dynamics, together with the emphasis on high knowledge and skill levels, combined with the ageing of the population in most post-industrial societies, now provides the basis for the need to encourage older workers to continue working for longer periods and to reverse the trend of the last two decades towards early retirement. In the context of lifelong and life-wide approaches to investments in education and training, the above critique suggests that most current proposals for integrated funding models are primarily focused upon one specific dimension of the life-world of adults: namely the world of paid work. They also concentrate, furthermore, upon one specific phase in the life courses of adults—again the phase of active engagement in paid work. In this manner, they tend to replicate the traditional model of the (male) life course which is based upon three phases of preparation for paid work, participation in paid work, and withdrawal from paid work into retirement. They are not informed by emerging understandings of the need for a life-course approach to the redistribution of lifelong learning (Tuijnman & van der Kamp, 1992), let alone a life-wide approach to lifelong learning in the diverse areas of the life-world. They do not address questions concerning inequalities in opportunities to participate in lifelong learning throughout the more flexible life courses of individuals and between the generations. In this respect, they comprise instruments more appropriate to the organization of risk-bearing in industrial society rather the new demands of the knowledge society.
4 Flexible Life Courses and Risk in the Knowledge Society In industrial societies, the social protection of individuals in the face of risks was organized in the form of collective insurance and the individual rights of citizens to universal social—including educational—entitlements to benefits. Systems for
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collective investments in education, social protection in work and retirement benefits in industrial societies were in large measure closely related to the organization of the standard (male) life course. This standard life course was defined in terms of three periods comprising: (a) education and training in the youth period; (b) paid work in adulthood for men and unpaid work for women; and (c) the withdrawal from paid employment and retirement. There was a very strong link in industrial societies between social policies and the institutionalization of this standard (male) life course. Entitlements to universal rights with regard to education, work, unemployment and retirement supported this age-related—indeed generation-differentiated— life course to the degree to which age norms were legally defined in educational and social legislation. In other words, industrial societies were based upon a standard chronological system of ‘social ages’ for investments in and the distribution of social rights and benefits. State interventions in industrial society determined and indeed policed the appropriate ages for participation in compulsory education, the length of the period of active employment and in establishing the fixed age for compulsory retirement and pension rights (Guillemard, 1986). This ‘policing’ of the life course through legislative and administrative arrangements also endowed each period with a sense of individual meaning and identity within a sequence of clearly recognized transitions between education, paid work and retirement. Current patterns of investment in education and training for young people, vocational training for the working population and the pension schemes for the retired are still largely based upon the standard male life-course of preparation for work, involvement in work and the withdrawal from active employment. Indeed, the current system of social insurance may be regarded as an ‘age-differentiated’, or preferably a ‘generation-differentiated’, system for the distribution of opportunity structures. Recent innovations with regard to funding arrangements for lifelong learning, for example individual learning accounts, are significant in the degree to which they are frequently built into collective social security and collective bargaining agreements. In this regard, they form part of the larger structures of provision for social insurance and risk sharing for those engaged in paid work. This also means that they are closely related to the period of paid work and are embedded in the standard life course of industrial society. This system is not able to manage the redistribution of learning opportunities across the increasingly flexible and diverse life courses of individuals in a greying society. In the knowledge economy, the traditional assumption about these periods of education, involvement in paid work and retirement is gradually undermined and, indeed, turned upon its head. Significant shifts towards the more flexible organization of work and diverse patterns of participation in paid employment are key characteristics of the knowledge economy, while at the same time changes in the organization of households are taking place. These structural changes are increasingly reflected in the more flexible and precarious life courses of individuals (Marsden, 1999). The breakdown of the standard life course of the (male) breadwinner has to be extrapolated to include an analysis of the increasingly flexible life courses of the younger and the older generations in the knowledge society. This can be witnessed in the problematic transition of low-qualified youngsters from initial education and
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training to the labour market, the risks of failing to adapt to flexible labour markets, the threat of losing work, the decline of jobs-for-life, and the widening diversity in uncertain patterns of exit from the labour force and permanent retirement. Time spent in work is also now less uniform with major variations in involvement in particular for the younger generation entering the labour market, schemes for helping the unemployed to return to work, periods of temporary withdrawal and re-entry programmes for women, the preferences of many women for part-time work and the development of schemes for flexible retirement. Furthermore, the determining factor of retirement is no longer a fixed ‘life event’ at a ‘legislated age’. It is now being replaced with a longer period of transition as individuals leave active employment and enter more or less permanent retirement over a much longer period of time. These increasingly complex patterns of entries to the labour market, transitions through and temporary points of exit from and re-entry to employment, together with more variable patterns of exits from the labour market, result in new categories of risk that undermine traditional systems designed to provide social insurance of risks in industrial societies. The emergence of new forms of risk is intimately related to demographic trends in post-industrial knowledge societies. This relates to the so-called ‘greying of society’ in post-industrial knowledge societies, the ageing of the workforce, and the larger numbers of people who are no longer engaged in paid work but who have entered a longer phase of retirement. Such societies are characterized by low birth rates, comparatively fewer absolute numbers of young people in initial education and entering the labour market than in previous generations, higher levels of participation in education among the young, and low educational levels among older workers. The emergence of the knowledge society is in effect responsible for the disorganization of the traditional phases of involvement in education, work and retirement together with the orderly arrangement of the generations in the standard (male) life course. Given the new times of the knowledge economy and the learning society, the orderly arrangement of generations with the appropriate forms of funding participation in education and training, work and retirement is breaking down as the life courses of individuals become less unforeseeable and new—and unexpected—risks become manifest (Riley, Kahn & Foner, 1994). Changing patterns of individual life courses pose a major challenge to traditional understandings of collective educational and social entitlements. The advent of post-industrial economies and knowledge societies is rapidly undermining traditional arrangements for the organization of public and private investments in terms of the standard chronology of the life course. Variability in life courses involves new forms of risk that challenge the traditional funding mechanisms intended to provide social insurance in order to cope with the linear succession of risks at the traditional transition points in the standard (male) life course. It can be argued that the ‘de-institutionalization’ of the standard life course poses major challenges to the funding mechanisms appropriate to investment in the ‘front-ended’ model of initial education and training as a preparation for working life, the organization of working-life itself, and the period of withdrawal or disengagement from work (Best, 1981).
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In particular, this demands an intergenerational approach to the redistribution of opportunity structures between generations in the form of new models for the relationships between investments in initial and post-initial education and training, training in the workplace and flexible retirement. The financing of lifelong learning within the perspective of life-wide learning and the wider benefits of learning cannot be negotiated in terms of front-ended models of initial education, the current forms of integrated funding of the post-initial needs of workers, and the period of withdrawal from paid employment. This demands a far more comprehensive model of integrated funding that will call upon the resources presently made available through public and private investments in education and training, social insurance and retirement pension schemes. The question is whether it is possible to bring policy instruments together in a system of funding measures that will make it possible to fund an ‘age-integrated’, or preferably ‘generation-integrated’, structure of learning opportunities that recognizes the flexibility of life courses and supports solidarity between the generations.
5 Reconfiguring Investments in ‘Flexible Learning Lives’ Collective and individual insurance of risks is complicated by the reality of new and unknown risks given the new uncertainties associated with flexible life courses and the demise of the traditional transitions between recognized phases in the life courses of individuals. Innovative funding models for investments in lifelong learning will have to be based upon the understanding that a life-course approach to both lifelong and life-wide learning has to take account of the increasingly flexible ways in which people need to organize their personal lives in contemporary knowledge societies. Such understandings of issues concerning the organization of lifelong learning in a knowledge society are based upon: (a) the individualization and flexibility of life courses; and (b) the fundamental dynamics of demographic change that call for an inter-generational approach to the funding of both lifelong and life-wide learning. It is also clear that policies for funding policies and specific policy instruments for lifelong learning in post-industrial societies will have to be based upon the dynamics of demographic change in conjunction with the implications of such dynamics for inter-generational relationships. In other words, there are significant problems involved in the reconfiguration of funding lifelong learning in a knowledge society that is also a ‘greying society’. This poses a fundamental challenge to collective and individual forms of funding insurance against risk in post-industrial societies. It is necessary, therefore, to reflect upon how investments in education, social security and pensions can be reconfigured given the tendencies towards the diversity characteristic of modern life courses (Guillemard, 2000). Public and private investments in education and training, the functioning of labour markets and retirement pensions have to be reconsidered in response to the breakdown of the standard
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ordering of the chronology of the life course and the blurring of the thresholds between points of entry and exit to education and training, paid work and retirement. The redistribution of lifelong learning across the life course of individuals will involve major reconfigurations of opportunity structures that are more in accord with the increasing differentiation and the flexibility in the life courses adopted by increasing numbers of individuals in post-industrial societies. Redistributing rights to education and training throughout life at the discretion of the individual give rise, however, to a number of fundamental questions that are relevant to the search for integrated funding models within a life-wide perspective on investments in lifelong learning. How can lifelong learning be financed in terms of the share of the respective contributions from public funds, the social partners and individual learners? What would be the features of a system for financing the redistribution of learning throughout the individual life course in terms of different collective and individual responsibilities in the face of flexible life courses and uncertain risks? Is there an inevitable shift from collective forms of social insurance towards the responsibility of individuals for insuring themselves in the face of uncertain risks? The issue now at stake is the reconfiguration of investments in opportunity structures in such a manner that individuals can more effectively cope with the new risks that arise as a consequence of the more flexible and risk-prone life courses of individuals. We now appear to be entering a period when investments in education and training need to address these new patterns of flexibility, the uncertainties of individual life courses and unforeseeable risks (Guillemard, 1997). In the terms of the emphasis on individualism in formulations of neo-liberal policies, this is no longer simply a question of the unquestioned transition from predominantly collective towards more individual investments in learning. There have been increasing calls in policy narratives associated with ‘learning for earning’ for a revision of systems of investment that will enable individuals to become responsible for their own investments in the face of growing flexibility, uncertainties and unknown risks in their life courses. This means that collective investments to meet the risks associated with the traditional chronological phases of the life course are being actively reconfigured and refinanced in a plethora of individual funding and insurance schemes. These are intended to facilitate the management by individuals of the uncertainties of their life courses. The ad hoc nature of such arrangements does not auger well for the financing of lifelong learning and new ways of creating forms of both collective and individual insurance in the face of the new risks in the learning society. One of the most innovative contributions to funding of the collective social insurance of risk and individual entitlements has been formulated in the ‘Supiot Report’ commissioned by the European Commission (Supiot, 1999, 2001). Supiot and his team produced proposals for a fundamental reconfiguration of collective insurance and individual entitlements in a system of social protection and risk-sharing based upon ‘social drawing rights’. Their report is based upon the recognition, on the one hand, of changes in the conditions of employment towards greater flexibility and short-term contracts and, on the other hand, of changes in the structure of households with more women participating in paid work. The authors also recognize recurrent periods of involvement in education and training as an integral part of
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working life, together with the growing trend towards more and irregular transitions between paid work and other unpaid social activities. At the heart of their report is the need to recognize the entitlements of individuals to income-support in the complex transitions between different kinds of social engagement, such as paid and unpaid caring work, and above all engagement in education and training whether within or outside the workplace. Basic to their report is the recognition of collectively-funded individual entitlements that extend beyond income support as protection for those in paid work or the unemployed to include the entitlements of those in unpaid work, those engaged in education and training, and the no-longer employed. Such entitlements would take the form of ‘social drawing rights’ for all individuals to enable them to finance periods of unpaid participation in non-work activities, such as caring tasks in the family or a period of recurrent education and training. This constitutes a development of the notion of ‘individual drawing rights’ which was originally formulated during the 1980s with regard to the funding of recurrent education (Rein, 1983). As such, the Supiot report formulates collectivelyfunded individual entitlements to a ‘social income’, irrespective of whether one is or is not employed in paid work. The basic argument is that individuals should no longer be locked into paid or unpaid work, but that they would be able to move between these two modes without the social risks of loss of income currently associated with such transitions. The availability of social drawing rights introduces a greater degree of individual choice and responsibility for decision-making, which the Supiot report refers to as the ‘right to exercise a freedom’. By making social entitlements—for example to a period of education and training—less dependent upon paid work and the current job, the Supiot report argues that this would spread the risks associated with short-term and uncertain employment more widely. This would increase both the possibilities and willingness by individuals to engage in paid work, non-paid work and periods of education and training on a more flexible basis than is now the case. At the heart of the Supiot report is the idea that individuals should have access to income maintenance for whatever kind of paid or unpaid work they wish to do at any one point in time. This is based on the assumption that most, if not all individuals, will be involved in the labour market and in periods of further education and training at some point in their lives. In the context of rights to lifelong learning, this means that access to education and training is a guaranteed entitlement and is not something that is limited to those with a permanent contract of employment. The preference expressed in the Supiot Report for the collective funding of individual drawing rights from social funds is clearly different from other recent proposals that place greater emphasis upon the self-responsibility of the individual to save money from current income in order to establish a personal savings fund or individual insurance that will enable them to finance a period in non-work activities. These social funding mechanisms are primarily based upon mixtures of para-fiscal funds and individual insurance to meet the demands of non-work periods at some point in flexible and unpredictable life courses. Such measures effectively favour individual rather than collective insurance against risk. Individualized schemes convert the risks of flexibility into new patterns of choice for individuals, but they do not
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operate on the principle of solidarity which is at the core of Supiot’s proposals for flexible transitions between paid and unpaid work. The shift towards individualized personal savings arrangements for insurance against risk means that it is the responsibility of individuals to take decisions to make use of—often fiscal—facilities that enable them to save for periods of non-work. While they provide a degree of security for individually chosen trajectories in the face of the risks associated with flexible life courses, they effectively depend upon the willingness or not of individuals to anticipate and invest in risks. Seen in the broader perspective of the Supiot Report, the question is whether such individualized funding mechanisms actually possess the potential to increase the flexible integration of activities such as paid work, unpaid caring tasks, leisure time, voluntary activities and engagement in lifelong learning activities. The funding of social or individual drawing rights comprises a policy to support diversification and flexibility in the life courses of individuals and the self-regulation by individuals of their allocation of time for the purposes of paid work, caring tasks, leisure and education and training. It is a collectively-funded system that enables individuals to utilise their lifelong entitlements to social benefits as part of a comprehensive social insurance system which provides individuals with the right to income maintenance in non-work periods. This is a risk-sharing social insurance rather than a system of opting to take part in risk-bearing insurance by individuals. What is proposed is a singe comprehensive system for the funding of all periods of voluntary or age-determined unpaid work. It would replace the present differentiated systems for financing initial education, post-initial education and training, vacations and leisure, and retirement that require income maintenance in the absence of paid employment. Each individual would have access to ‘an individual lifelong account’ that would comprise an account of the individual’s right to claim benefits upon public funds in terms of the contribution by the individual to public funds via personal taxation, social security and pension contributions. As argued above, such benefits are now subjected to strict age-determined criteria with regard to compulsory education, unemployment protection and retirement offering little choice to individuals. In the system of individual drawing rights from a collectively financed system, individuals would be able to self-regulate the use of an agreed part of the rights accrued for specific purposes, including education and training. It would also be possible to introduce financial incentives that would encourage individuals to invest in their education and training, while it would also be possible to introduce redistributive measures between different income groups and generations. Highly specific forms of social insurance—for example, disability, sickness and accident insurance—would still function as before. In the case of becoming unemployed, individuals would not be required to use their individual drawing rights for education and training. They would be able to make use of the standard unemployment insurance with the risk that they will have fewer opportunities of gaining access to the labour market if they do not make use of their individual drawing rights to raise the level of their competencies. Individuals would, of course, be subjected to certain limitations on their rights to draw upon their individual life accounts. It will be of vital importance that a reserve is available in individual accounts for the increasingly
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extended period of retirement from paid work. However, the system of individual drawing rights could contribute to the effective division of life into the three distinct periods of education, work and retirement.
6 Alternatives for Investments in the Funding of Lifelong Learning Throughout post-industrial knowledge societies, demographic change and the greying of the population now dominate policy agendas. The solvency of public and private pension schemes would seem to be the priority at the moment. Radical changes are required if we are to reconfigure funding models for education and training throughout life in pursuit of the implementation of a life-course approach to lifelong learning. A life-course approach to lifelong learning demands an ‘intergenerational approach’ to the redistribution of structures of opportunity between different generations in the form of new models for funding investments in lifelong learning. In addressing the problems of providing collective security in the face of risks, together with the preference for individual choice in the self-regulation of flexible life courses, this final section will explore the funding of a more flexible ‘life long of learning’ for the younger generation after the compulsory period of initial education. As such, the proposals put forward are variations upon the theme of establishing individual drawing rights on the basis of collective funding rather than individual funding.
6.1 More Flexible Learning Lives for the Young? The financing of lifelong learning can no longer be negotiated in terms of frontended models of initial education, the current forms of funding of post-initial education and training workers, and the period of withdrawal from paid employment. One of the major problems related to the restructuring or reform of education and training throughout the life course is the continuing dominant emphasis upon a short-term, front-ended approach to lifelong learning with an emphasis upon high levels of participation of young people in initial education. Current educational policies are dominated by securing high levels of participation by the young in primary and secondary initial education, reducing drop-out rates, and with the participation of at least 50% of the younger generation in some form of higher education. The funding of participation in front-ended models of initial education, including higher education, has to be radically restructured. Despite high levels of participation in initial education and training, there are still significant numbers who drop out of compulsory education without qualifications and have difficulty in gaining access to the labour market. Others leave initial education after the completion of compulsory secondary education and do not participate in higher education. Participation in higher education determines
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the degree to which the young benefit from public investments in post-compulsory initial education. In most post-industrial societies, access to publicly funded higher education is subject to a cut-off point at a certain age (for example the age of 30 in the Netherlands). Those who do not participate are subsequently unable to make any claim upon or benefit from these public investments in post-compulsory initial education—even if they wish to return. This suggests that the distribution of public funding for post-compulsory initial education should be radically restructured to deal with these unequal opportunity structures with an age limit. This would result in more flexible learning trajectories for individuals than at present in the tight corset of mass initial higher education. One proposal to achieve this is that all young people leaving compulsory initial education should be able to draw upon a publicly financed ‘individual lifelong education account’ up to a certain agreed cut-off age—let us say 35. This would take the form of funding that individuals can draw upon to finance various forms of post-compulsory initial education when they wish to do so. Postponement of using these rights would be an individual choice, but the entitlements would remain valid up to the agreed cut-off age. Use of some of these rights to support income for any period of education and training would be rewarded by a premium paid into the individual lifelong learning account. Account-holders would be able to use their rights when they wish to do so, at their own speed, and purchase learning from both public and private providers of education and training. Non-use of the available entitlements would not be penalized, but any unused funds would have to be repaid at the agreed cut-off point. The major advantage of this system is that it would equalize the distribution of public investments to a larger number of young people than those now entering higher education. Although the funds available to each individual might be lower than is currently the case, this could be supplemented by a system of loans or income from part-time work. In the case of account-holders engaged in paid employment, both the employer and the account-holder would be able to make additional contributions to the individual lifelong learning account. This would make it possible to save for an additional period of participation in post-compulsory initial education that would have to commence before the cut-off age of 35. An important feature of such a proposal is that the public funds invested in postcompulsory education and training would no longer comprise direct transfers by the government to post-compulsory education and training institutions. An agreed sum would be transferred into individual lifelong learning accounts and the accountholders would be free to purchase post-initial education and training from any accredited public or private institution. The amount of funds invested in an individual’s lifelong learning would be determined by the average costs of a specified period of participation in public post-compulsory education and training. Those who choose to purchase courses from private institutions would have to contribute themselves to any difference in fees involved. A number of proposals have been made with regard to the level of funds invested in individual lifelong learning accounts. This could be the equivalent a period of seven years from the age of 16 or three years from the age of 18 according to the school-leaving age. This is the equivalent of the
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completion of the first cycle of higher education according to the Bologna process. A more radical proposal would extend the period during which the individual lifelong learning account can be used up to the age of 55. This would certainly change the age of students attending higher education and allow very flexible learning careers.
7 In Conclusion The key question is whether governments, political parties and the social partners, and more importantly workers themselves, adequately understand the full implications of demographic change towards the ‘greying of society’, the demands of the knowledge society upon all generations, and the necessity in the longer term of a life course perspective on investments in education and training throughout life. The provisional answer must be negative. Lifelong learning policies need to pay more attention to the redistribution of learning opportunities throughout individual life courses but also between the generations. This leads in turn to the argument that the funding of lifelong learning has to be radically redesigned and that the ‘front-ended’ investment in initial education as a preparation for ‘a life long of learning’ demands fundamental revision. As such, this requires much more than greater flexibility in the application of the highly segmented systems for financing initial education, training schemes for the unemployed, education and training funds for the employed, occupational disability benefits, and new combinations of education and training with the maintenance of social benefits. It is necessary to redesign the entire architecture of initial and post-initial education and training, general education and vocational education and training, and formal and non-formal learning. Rather than the age-defined breaks in generational entitlements to publicly financed education and training that are characteristic of front-ended models of educational and training investments for life, lifelong learning policies demand a lifelong recurrent redistribution of individual entitlements to education and training in diverse learning environments throughout the life course. One conclusion could be that the division of responsibilities between government, employers and individuals for investments in lifelong learning must necessarily include the responsibility of governments for publicly-funded entitlements to the acquisition of core competencies throughout life and, indeed, into retirement for all. Such responsibilities can no longer be delegated to para-fiscal arrangements for those in paid work or privatized as the responsibility of individuals in income-savings arrangements. Lifelong learning policies need to be deeply engaged in the social construction of human subjectivity both in paid work and beyond throughout the lives of individuals. This involves active engagement with the complex processes of disruption in everyday life, the risks arising from flexibility in individual life courses, together with the development of the competencies that are required by all generations to survive in the learning society. Globalization posits threats to traditional patterns of social life but it also presents new opportunities for the development of the
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self-regulation by individuals of their own flexible lives. Policies for lifelong learning need to address the continuous and often difficult transitions between the spheres of paid and unpaid work, the private spheres of families and relationships, and the public sphere of civil society. This can only be achieved by the recognition of the diverse learning environments that facilitate reflection upon acquired knowledge, skills and attitudes, together with their translation into competencies that can be put to use in diverse social arenas. Lifelong learning policies are now required that are able to ensure the broadest possible provision of opportunity structures, the recognition of competencies acquired in diverse learning environments, together with the social acceptance of the diversity of rich patterns of learning in paid and unpaid work, civic and private lives throughout the life courses of individuals. The economic viability of such structures throughout the individual life courses will demand the radical reconfiguration of the entire social architecture of education and training in the context of an increasingly older society and intergenerational solidarity. How lifelong learning is to be financed throughout the life course and how the intergenerational redistribution of learning opportunities can be achieved comprise the key questions to which we seem at the moment to have few firm answers—let alone good questions. The core issue is whether we fully understand the challenges that arise from the commonly held assumptions about the ongoing transformation towards the knowledge society. It might be most appropriate to explore the implications of the development of ‘learning societies’ and to explore how learning can be best managed by ‘permanently learning subjects’. This would enable individuals to more effectively organize their own learning lives, to self-regulate their investments in education and training, and manage their own life courses. The knowledge society is a reality today and is not a future state of affairs that will be a problem for the young to cope with on the basis of the front-ended provision of initial education and training.
References Beck, U. 1992. Risk society. London: Sage. Best, F. 1981. Flexible life-scheduling: breaking the education, work, retirement lockstep. New York, NY: Praeger. du Bois-Reymond, M.; Walther, A. 1999. Learning between want and must: contradictions of the learning society. In: Walther, A.; Stauber, B., eds. Lifelong learning in Europe: differences and divisions. Vol. 2: Strategies of social integration and individual learning biographies, pp. 21– 45. T¨ubingen, Germany: Neuling Verlag. van Damme, D. 2000. Adult learning as strategic behaviour and strategic learning as competence. In: Alheit, P. et al., eds. Lifelong learning inside and outside of schools, vol. 2, pp. 444–72. Roskilde, Denmark: Roskilde University; Universit¨at Bremen; Leeds University. Dumazedier, J. 1995. Aides a` l’autoformation: un fait social d’aujourd’hui. Education permanente, vol. 122, pp. 189–206. Giddens, A. 1992. Modernity and self-identity: self and society in the late modern age. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Glastra, F. et al. 2001. Work, personal life, and public sphere: lifelong learning an arena of struggle. LLinE: lifelong learning in Europe, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 222–29.
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Guillemard, A.M. 1986. Le d´eclin du social: formation et crises des politiques de la vieillesse. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. Guillemard, A.M. 1997. Rewriting social policy and changes in the life course organization: a European perspective. Canadian journal of ageing, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 441–64. Guillemard, A.M. 2000. Ageing and the welfare state crisis. Newark, NJ: Delaware University Press. Hake, B.J. 1999. Lifelong learning in late modernity: the challenges to society, organizations and individuals. Adult education quarterly, vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 79–90. van Lieshout, H. 1999. Enhancing the operation of markets for vocational education and training. In: Wieringen, F. van; Attwell, G., eds. Vocational and adult education in Europe, pp. 49–86. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer. Levin, H.M.; Sch¨utze, H., eds. 1983. Financing recurrent education: strategies for increasing employment, job opportunities, and productivity. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Marsden, D.W. 1999. A theory of employment systems: micro-foundations of societal diversity. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Rein, G. 1983. Individual drawing rights. In: Levin, H.M.; Sch¨utze, H.G., eds. Financing recurrent education: strategies for increasing employment, job opportunities, and productivity, pp. 67–80. Beverley Hills, CA: Sage. Riley, M.W.; Kahn, R.L.; Foner, A. 1994. Age and structural lag: society’s failure to provide meaningful opportunities in work, family and leisure. New York, NY: Wiley. Supiot, A. 1999. Au-del`a de l’emploi: transformations du travail et devenir du droit du travail en Europe. Paris: Flammarion. Supiot, A. 2001. Beyond employment: changes in work and the future of labour law in Europe. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Tuijnman, A.; van der Kamp, M. eds. 1992. Learning across the lifespan: theories, research, policies. Oxford, UK: Pergamon.
Chapter VII.9
Economic Perspectives on Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Australia Gerald Burke and Christopher Selby Smith1
1 Introduction The economics of education and training are concerned with the efficient use of resources to achieve individual and societal objectives. This chapter takes Australia as an example in reviewing recent approaches to improving the use of resources and discusses some lessons learned. In education and training, the objectives pursued are improved educational achievement and skills for members of society, for their personal fulfilment— including access to work—for greater participation in civic society and for the broader benefit of the whole community. In Australia, the objectives for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) that have received most emphasis in recent years have been:
r r
to meet the skill needs of industry where employment patterns and technology are rapidly changing due to the impact of the globalized economy; to improve equity in access to education and training and to employment.
More recently, the relative needs of individuals have received more attention in the objectives compared to those of industry, while the needs of regional communities and indigenous people have also received emphasis. In many countries increased private funding has been sought to raise the resource level or as a substitute for public funding. Along with this, governments have sought an increase in the pressure of market forces on education and training in the belief that market competition will lead to more efficient delivery of the type of education and training that employers and individuals want. This has led to a partial shift in the role for the government: as the regulator and part financier or purchaser of training rather than the sole provider of education and training. An OECD review team presented the Australian goals for reform of the TVET system based on five underlying principles (Schwatz et al., 1997): (a) the need for a national training system; (b) a competency-based system; (c) a client-focused and user-driven system; (d) multiple pathways and flexible delivery; and (e) continuing commitment to access and equity principles. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VII.9, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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As this chapter will illustrate a range of issues in the economics of education and training with reference to Australia, it is useful at first to list some basic features of the Australian economy and its education and training system.
2 Australian Economy, Society, Education and Training 2.1 The Economic and Social Context Australia is among the fastest growing high-income economies in which the only negative issue is the high level of the balance-of-payments deficit and the accompanying high levels of international private indebtedness. Key aspects to note are:
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Public-sector activities have been restructured or privatized from the mid-1980s, and the private sector exposed to greater international competition through globalization. Australia is a less equal society in income and educational achievement than most European countries; it is more comparable to the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Australian has a population of 20 million people, most living in the major cities on the coast, with a high rate of immigration—and a very high proportionate level of international students. The Australian population is ageing, but much more slowly than other developed countries.
2.2 The Education and Training Context Table 1 provides summary information about spending on and enrolments in education and training.
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r
Over a quarter of expenditure on all education and training is privately financed and the private share is growing, especially in public universities, but more slowly in the publicly supported TVET system. TVET provides for about a quarter of all enrolments in the education system, most of them part-time, many of them adults and proportionately more from lower socio-economic backgrounds than those attending universities. Australia has a large system of apprenticeships and traineeship: — apprenticeships for traditional trade training, usually over three or four years, involving paid employment and often with one day per week spent off-thejob attending a public or private TVET provider; — traineeships for a wide range of occupations, usually of shorter duration than apprenticeships and some undertaken almost wholly on the job without time release for attendance at a TVET provider. Training delivered to apprentices and trainees makes up about 20% of all training undertaken by TVET providers.
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Table 1 Overview of expenditure and participation in education and training, Australia, 2003 (approximate figures) Total expenditure Government primary and secondary schools Non-government primary and secondary schools Vocational education and training (TVET) Universities Total formal education system Enterprises: direct spending on structured training
A$ billion
% govt.
Enrolments (millions)
18
100
2.3
10
57
1.1
5
80
1.7
12 45
44 73
5
12
0.9 6.0 Employees trained (million) 5
Source: Compiled using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Department of Education, Science and Training and Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs. Based on Burke (2003).
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Employer expenditure on structured training for employees is about as large as government expenditure on persons enrolled in the formal TVET system. The average quality of formal education is good, as is indicated by Australia’s high ranking in PISA and other international tests (OECD, 2004b). The overall rate of participation in education and training is high—Australia has the highest rates of participation of persons aged 30 and over (OECD, 2004a, Table C1.2). There are good lifelong education and training pathways for most people, but not for those with poor initial levels of education and training. There has been little change in equity in education in recent years. Australia has a federal system of government consisting of a national government and eight state and territory governments, with shared and contested responsibilities for funding and regulating education and training.
In the range of system types in OECD countries, Australia is closer to having a ‘loosely coupled’ system than it is to having the tight connection between education and the labour market. The United States of America, which has no national system of qualifications or apprenticeships, typifies the loose connection. German-speaking countries and parts of Scandinavia represent tight coupling (McKenzie, 1998; Soskice, 2002).
3 The Structure of this Chapter Against this background, we consider some of the main strategies to improve the match of education and training with the needs of industry, individuals and society— including improved equity—and the incentives to do this efficiently. Below we give attention to five sets of policies.
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3.1 User Choice To help employers to obtain the type of training they want for apprentices and trainees, a system called ‘user choice’ was implemented in 1998. The intention was that employers and apprentices/trainees could jointly choose the provider and assessor of training. Government funds for training would then flow to that provider, whether a public or a private one. This scheme has not been fully implemented and its functioning differs across states and territories.
3.2 National Qualifications Based on Standards of Competency A nationally consistent qualifications system for TVET based on industrydetermined competency standards has been developed. A vocational competency comprises specification of the knowledge and skills and their application within an occupation or industry to the standard of performance required by employment. Industrial training boards determined the units of competency that from 1997 have been organized into ‘training packages’. These training packages also contain the assessment procedures and the qualification levels associated with groups or units of competency.
3.3 Government Incentives to Employers The Australian federal government and the state and territory governments provide financial assistance to employers to encourage them to engage apprentices and trainees. The size of these incentives and the restrictions on eligibility influence the level and distribution of apprenticeships and traineeships.
3.4 Tuition Fees and Income-Contingent Loans In general, the fees charged in publicly-funded TVET are low in Australia and many exemptions are provided for low-income students. However, not all students can obtain such places. This means that full-cost places offered by public and private providers are available to those who did not gain exempted places. There is pressure too to increase fee levels overall and particularly for those courses seen to lead to higher education—where higher fees are charged and where income contingent loans are provided by the Australian government. Australia has a system of national grants for support to full-time students aged 16 and over based on their personal and parents’ income and assets. There are on-going issues about the adequacy of financial assistance and the need to extend it to persons in part-time education and training.
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3.5 TVET and Regional Development While economic growth for Australia is high, the non-metropolitan areas have tended to lag behind. TVET is seen to be part of the whole government approach to lessening the unevenness of development. Attention to regional development is important for equity, for maintaining social inclusion and for the contributions of regions to the overall growth of society.
4 User Choice in the Development of a Training Market From the beginning of the 1990s, and with the establishment of co-operative national arrangements for vocational education and training, priority was given to the development of a more client-responsive system. An emphasis on competition in TVET reflected the 1995 decision of the federal and state governments to implement a national competition policy based on the principles of the 1993 Hilmer Report, which advocated, with some exemptions, that all private and public activities be part of an open national market through: (a) removal of regulations restricting competition; (b) restructuring of public monopolies; (c) third-party access to public facilities; and (d) competitive neutrality between government and private businesses (Hilmer et al., 1993). Until the mid-1990s, moves to open up the training market concentrated on the supply side. In some states and territories, management responsibility and accountability had been devolved to individual TAFE institutions, while barriers to market entry for private and industry providers were removed. There had also been some measures affecting the demand side, including separation of the purchaser and provider roles of training authorities, and the opening of some publicly-funded TVET funds to competitive tendering. The Australian National Training Authority (ANTA), established in 1992, commissioned a report (Allen Consulting Group, 1994) to consider the move towards more market-based arrangements. The report noted that the lack of responsiveness, flexibility and relevance of many public providers was a recurring theme in their discussions with industry. It recommended a move towards a market-based system under which government funds would be allocated directly to enterprises to purchase accredited training from any registered provider able to meet their needs— including the enterprise itself if it obtained registration. ANTA accepted much of the proposal, but recommended that, rather than being paid to employers, the funds would pass directly from the training authority to the provider. The scheme called ‘user choice’ was agreed to by national, state and territory ministers in 1996 for progressive introduction with full implementation for apprentices and trainees from January 1998. Nevertheless, most training authorities in the states and territories were at best lukewarm about ‘user choice’ and implementation varied considerably. The contested nature of TVET in Australia became more apparent between levels of
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government, between the industrial partners, and between the public and private sectors. Various evaluations have been undertaken of the ‘user choice’ initiatives of the pilot projects; by individual States and at the national level (Selby Smith et al., 2001; Ferrier & Selby Smith, 2003a, 2003b). In general, the evaluations have been supportive of ‘user choice’, but each one identified areas for improvement. State and territory jurisdictions are understandably concerned to retain control of public expenditures, to maintain educational quality and to manage potential risks. Mechanisms are available to manage TVET within a given financial allocation, including limiting the number of eligible training providers, the funding provided per qualification, and the range of qualifications available to clients. Employer organizations generally wished to see the ‘user choice’ arrangements expanded. Common resourcing priorities in TVET, including those for ‘user choice’, are unlikely to be achieved if there is a significant difference in the objectives being pursued by different states and territories. ‘User choice’ was introduced at the urging of industry and its expansion has been supported by industry, while the enthusiasm among educational authorities has been much less evident. Resource allocation limitations have reflected the attitudes and practices of educational authorities rather than those of industry. The latter also give higher priority than the educational authorities to the training needs of existing workers compared to entry-level workers. Interestingly, pilot projects in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, in regional and remote locations, in prisons and sheltered workshops, have demonstrated how ‘user choice’ can empower previously disadvantaged clients of the TVET system.
5 National Qualifications Based on Industrial Competency Standards A major thrust of reforms in Australia in the 1990s was the desire to make education and training programmes more relevant to the needs of clients—particularly to employers. In part, this thrust was supported by reforms to funding, encouragement of a training market and ‘user choice’, as discussed above. It was also strongly supported by the move towards a national system of training and qualifications underpinned by what are called training packages. Oversight of the national system is undertaken by state and territory authorities. These have agreed to abide by what is called the Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF). Any organization wishing to deliver nationally recognized training has to become a registered training organization (RTO) under the rules of the AQTF. The RTOs registered in any state and territory can deliver training in any part of the country and the qualifications awarded will be similarly recognized on a national level. A major part of the reform in the TVET sector was to base certification on industry-determined competency standards. As mentioned earlier, a vocational
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competency comprises the specification of the knowledge and skill and its application within an occupation or industry to the standard of performance required in employment. A system of national industry training boards, now being replaced by a small number of national skills councils, with employer and union membership, advised on industry standards across occupations covered by TVET sector training. It should be noted that the providers of training, of which the major ones are the government-funded technical and further education colleges, were not directly represented in this process. Industry boards were given control of the content of training. From 1996 the competency standards have progressively been assembled in what are called ‘training packages’. Training packages contain (at least) the details of units of competency, assessment procedures, and the qualifications that can be awarded upon successful completion of particular units of competency. The development of training packages stressed the need for assessment of competency to be undertaken in the workplace or in a simulated workplace. The development of training packages facilitated the development of, and recognition of, training accomplished in the workplace, including training entirely on the-job with no release for off-the-job training. By 2004 there were over eighty training packages, nine of which were enterprise training packages (developed privately by enterprises). These can lead to some 1,000 qualifications ranging in the categories Certificate 1 to 4, Diploma and Advanced Diploma (Schofield & McDonald, 2004). Nearly 60% of the training delivered in the TVET sector, perhaps 70% of publicly-funded TVET and nearly all the training delivered to apprentices and trainees, is based on training packages. There has recently been a major review of training packages and a range of shortcomings have been identified—though the training authorities remain committed to the concept of training packages. The criticism centres on the neglect of more generic or employability skills and of broader educational outcomes, the flexibility of training packages to be adapted to emerging skills and their appropriateness for all clients of the TVET sector, such as those who wish to progress to higher education. There is the on-going concern that the providers of training who have the most understanding of the processes of teaching and learning have not been directly involved in the process of development and revision of the training packages. Reform to address several of these issues is underway In general, this reform is limited to the TVET sector. The education provided in secondary schools is not based on competency standards, except for vocational subjects in the final two years of schooling. An on-going issue is the credit given to TVET graduates when they seek entry to higher education institutions. Successful completion of units of competency under training packages leads to a grading as ‘competent’ and not a ranking that is commonly understood by schools and universities. This has led many providers to also provide their students with graded results, but there is no common system and the issue is unresolved—if beginning to receive attention.
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6 Employer Training Incentives Employers considering employing a person as an apprentice or a trainee under ‘user choice’ have to consider the costs of labour and any workplace training costs. The Australian national government and the state and territory governments have long provided financial support to employers who engage an apprentice or a trainee. This support is reasonably substantial, although its value in relation to wage costs varies with the length of course and the level of qualification. There are several elements:
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a cash payment to an employer by the Australian government when an apprentice or trainee is engaged and a cash payment on completion of Certificate III or IV programmes; state and territory support, such as exemptions from state and territory payroll taxes, or some cash payments; a traineeship wage system involving a lower rate of payment in recognition of the time the trainee spends in training; and rates of pay for apprentices recognizing their lower initial productivity, with pay rising over the years of apprenticeship.
Where a course is taken successfully, e.g. for a Certificate III in eighteen months, the various incentives form a substantial proportion of employee labour costs, possibly more than 30%. The development of training packages for occupations previously not covered in the national training system and the emphasis on these in workplace assessment led to programmes for trainees consisting entirely of on-the-job training—with no time release to attend classes at a training provider. Employer subsidies encouraged expansion in the number of such traineeships. Together with user choice, this led to the state and territory governments meeting the costs of the provision of training and assessment for workers whose training took place almost entirely on the job. There was an explosion in the numbers participating in traineeships in the late 1990s. The numbers of trainees grew four-fold and they made up 70% of the total of apprentices and trainees in 2004, compared with less than 40% in 1997. The growth has largely taken place in traineeships for areas where the traditional form of apprenticeship was not available, such as retail, business, transport and hospitality. The growth in traineeships in the last few years has been largely among ‘older’ persons. People aged 25 and over made up 20% of the total of apprentices and trainees in 1998, but over 40% in 2004. Many of these older persons are existing workers rather than those commencing a job. Apprenticeships tend to last for three or four years. The majority of traineeships were expected to last for one year or less in 1997, but the length of the courses taken by trainees has increased, with most trainees taking Certificate III courses which take longer than a year—and attract the Australian government completion subsidy for employers.
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There has been concern about the balance of training by level and by occupational group and with the quality of training being achieved under traineeships. A number of state and territory reviews have been undertaken and eligibility for various types of funding has been reviewed. There are quite large differences among the states and territories in the programmes that can be funded. An on-going concern is that, while the rapid expansion in traineeships was occurring, stagnation took place in training for traditional trades in the construction, metallurgy and automotive industries where there have been complaints about shortages for many years. Though there is a need for closer analysis of extent and causes of such shortages (Shah & Burke, 2003), the complaints are symptomatic of some on-going dissatisfaction by employer groups about the training system, despite extensive reforms to satisfy their interests.
7 Tuition Fees, Loans and Support for Living Costs 7.1 Tuition Fees In Australia, in the publicly-funded TVET sector, tuition fees for students are low, representing less than 10% of course costs. There have been recent increases in fees in some states, but they still remain relatively quite low compared with university fees. In addition, students from low-income backgrounds or suffering some other type of disadvantage are exempt from most of these tuition fees. Even so, there is a limitation on the amount of public funds made available for TVET and therefore on subsidies to students’ fees. Unlike secondary schools where enrolment is almost universal, not all students who wish to enrol in TVET are able to do so. In addition to those courses supported by public funds, public TVET institutions and private TVET providers provide programmes at full cost to students or to employers. Public TVET funding has been constrained in recent years, which has had the effect of reducing the real resources available per student trained. There is on-going pressure to raise fees in TVET. If fee increases continue, there will be a strong case to provide income-contingent loans, which are already available for university students in Australia but not for TVET students.
7.2 Income-Contingent Loans University fees were abolished in 1974 but were reintroduced again in late 1989. A substantial fee was introduced accompanied by an income-contingent loan. There have been several changes to the scheme since then, with the fees tending to increase and they are now generally in excess of 30% of the costs of the education. All undergraduate Australian students in publicly-funded courses are liable for the fee and no exemptions are made for low-income background. However, the undergraduate Australian university student does not have to pay the tuition fee while he or
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she is studying. Some students and their families do chose to pay up-front, as there is a discount for an up-front payment set at 20% in 2005. Repayment is not required until annual income reaches a specified level. This level is set at A$35,000 in 2005 (approximately US$26,000). This is about the level of the beginning salary of new graduates. It means that persons who do not get full-time work or only low-paid work do not have to repay their loans. The loans are repaid through the income-tax system. Reviews of the scheme operating over the last fifteen years suggest that very few young persons have been deterred from entering higher education. Some older persons who are already earning above the income threshold for repayment have been deterred from enrolling. The main purpose of the re-introduction of fees in higher education was to reduce government outlays on persons who would go on to earn good salaries. The money saved could be used to expand the overall level of enrolments in higher education and to support other areas of education. Chapman (2002) argues that income-contingent loans should be available for TVET students. The exemptions given for low-income students do, however, suggest that very few students would be deterred by the current fee structure for publicly-funded TVET. The case for income-contingent loans in TVET would be much stronger if fees were increased substantially. The case for higher fee levels is not as strong as it is in higher education. Students in higher education tend, on average, to be from a higher socio-economic background and go on to earn aboveaverage incomes. In TVET, a large number of the students come from low-income homes and tend not to earn above-average incomes after their courses—though clearly some do. The case for higher fees for particular advanced courses may be stronger than for fee increases in general in TVET
7.3 Student Assistance Students have to meet living costs. The national government gives grants for living allowance to full-time students aged 16 and over, subject to an assessment of the student’s and the parents’ income and assets. Over a quarter of all fulltime students receive a grant. Only about 10% of TVET students attend full time, but they tend to come from low-income backgrounds. There is a special scheme for Indigenous Australians, many of whom in any case are from low-income backgrounds. The rate of assistance is higher for persons aged 21 and over than for younger persons; it is also higher for those with a dependent spouse and children. For adult single persons living at home with their parents, the maximum rate is less than a quarter of the full-time minimum wage, although the student is permitted to earn some income from employment. There are on-going issues about the adequacy of the assistance and the need to extend it to persons in part-time education and training.
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8 Regional Issues Australian regions have shown uneven economic and social development, with consequences for the social exclusion of persons in poorer areas and for the overall development of the country. TVET is seen to have an important role in conjunction with a range of other institutions in the economy. The need for TVET policies to be co-ordinated with industry and social policy is gradually becoming acknowledged in relation to regional development. Some non-metropolitan regions in Australia continue to thrive, but Howard and Buultjens (1999) found that rural and regional Australia have generally underperformed relative to metropolitan Australia in terms of unemployment and job growth. Typically, with the contraction of agricultural or mining that had previously attracted other businesses to their region, the economic base declines. The young leave to seek opportunities elsewhere, withdrawing the potential human capital essential to long-term recovery. The elderly, unable to make the transition elsewhere, find themselves increasingly deprived of basic services, such as government offices, post-offices, banks and hospitals. It is to be noted that TVET institutions employ staff, purchase goods and services, and construct facilities. In certain cases they are one of the larger enterprises in terms of their economic contribution to the local economy (Selby Smith, 1975). Education and training resources are a vital ingredient for regional growth. Bradley and Gans (1998) examined 104 Australian urban centres and concluded that growth was positively associated with the share of the population holding postsecondary educational qualifications. Post-secondary education and skills are seen as critical for the capacity of enterprises to innovate, both to conduct technological change to improve productivity and competitiveness and to capture new markets or retain existing ones. The capacity to innovate depends on being able to learn from the experience of others, as well as to create new knowledge. TVET has an important complementary role alongside higher education in providing and maintaining a strong learning culture in regional communities; and TVET providers are well placed to be learning network partners with local industry. Provision of different TVET courses, at different academic levels, in different locations and for different skills and occupations can potentially have effects on other economic activities in the region and on the particular skill mix chosen by local enterprises (Maglen & Selby Smith, 1995). There are, however, the difficulties of making wide-ranging TVET provision when the number of students for any course is low and the prospects of local employment fairly limited. Considerations include how much to rely on distance delivery strategies or to invest in more substantial infrastructure and the chances of recruiting adequate, critically aware and innovative teaching staff (including parttime staff from industry). A further question is how much should regional provision be related to the local economy versus broader vocational opportunities to which young people might migrate after training. Some of these issues were explored in a study in Gannawarra, a non-metropolitan region in Victoria (Selby Smith & Ferrier, 2004). It found somewhat surprisingly
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high levels of innovation are occurring in the industries and enterprises of the region. This is contributing to changes in the types of training being sought. A range of possible ways of enhancing the relationships among TVET providers and industry were explored. The establishment of local learning and employment networks by the Victorian Government has been successful in strengthening relationships between educational providers, communities and industry. This suggests that similar networks might also be successful in other parts of Australia in improving planning for and provision of education and training to meet local needs. As an example of recent policy, the state of Queensland has recognized that regions often form natural labour markets as people live, work and undertake training in the same area. Within these markets, specific training and employment needs and opportunities emerge. Queensland is developing TVET plans for six departmental regions in the state to ensure that government-funded VET is aligned with regional economic and social development priorities (Queensland Government, 2003). There is a Central Queensland employment and training strategy, which has been implemented in response to the A$8 billion projects planned for the region (mainly in mining and construction); and there are special employment and training interventions for areas experiencing drought. The Cape York employment and training strategy is another example. It is a co-ordinated whole-state government response to the need for more flexible and responsive training in Cape York—which has a high proportion of indigenous people. The Cape York partnership provides for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to have maximum involvement in decision-making at all stages. The principles of the partnership are used to guide TVET developments to meet their needs.
9 Conclusion Australia has made major changes in the ways it regulates and funds vocational education and training, with an increased emphasis on competition to promote the efficient delivery of the types of programmes that students—but especially employers— want. Australian national and state and territory governments have increased the role played by employers in several ways:
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by basing nationally-recognized training on industry-determined competencies; by giving employers and apprentice/trainees some choice about the TVET providers that the governments fund; and by enhancing the subsidies to employers of apprentices and trainees.
Equity in access to TVET has been supported by a system of low tuition fees and exemptions for low-income students—in the face of a very different system of higher fees and income contingent loans for higher education. However, a limitation on the number of publicly-supported places means that some students cannot obtain entry. A national system of student income assistance means that low-income students aged 16 and over in full-time schooling, TVET and higher education students are provided with an important—if minimal—level of assistance. And a range of
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policy initiatives based on various forms of partnerships is underway to address the problems of uneven regional development.
9.1 Results Competition and employer demand affects the balance of provision of TVET across occupational skill areas, but this is still partly determined by direction from state and territory training authorities, which conduct assessment of industry and community needs before allocating public funds. These authorities also take account of individual student demand based on their reaction to job prospects and personal career aspirations—if students do not wish to take particular courses, it is wasteful of public resources to fund places that are not filled. The distribution of training amongst public and private providers is to some degree based on market competition. But Australia still has a large majority of its TVET students in government-owned public institutions. ‘User choice’ extended the degree of market competition for the provision of apprentice and trainee programmes, but there are boundaries on the extent to which public funds flow to the private sector or even among public providers under ‘user choice’. Market competition has made both public and private providers of training more responsive to employer needs, but it has also increased the marketing and management costs at the expense of resources for delivery (Anderson, 2005). Most of the programmes now taught by public and private providers of TVET are based on nationally-agreed industry-determined competencies. Providers who seek to be registered as deliverers of nationally-recognized training must meet nationallyagreed standards and are monitored to see that they correspond to them. There is still uneasiness about the quality of some of the traineeship provision, especially for wholly on-the-job training. Quality assurance has been based on regulations and there has been increasing recognition of the need for incentives to stimulate and develop staff and providers for continuous improvement. Despite the range of policy aimed at making training more aligned with the needs of the economy, some employer groups remain dissatisfied—they draw attention to the continuation of shortages in some skilled trades. In 2004, this led the Australian government to introduce policy to fund some specific-purpose technical colleges and to set up a national centre for trade-skills excellence. Closer analysis of the issues of skills shortages suggests that their extent is not well measured and that the causes of shortages are complex—they may reflect less-than-attractive employment conditions rather than lack of availability of training places. Nevertheless, there may be a case for closer scrutiny of the operation of employer subsidies and of ‘user choice’ policies, so that incentives can be targeted more closely with emerging job opportunities. Since most places in TVET are still provided by public institutions, there is a case for developing better information on the labour market as a basis for advice by authorities to providers of TVET and to students. Another line of criticism of the current system is not its failure to meet all employer expectations, but that it has gone too far with the result that individual student
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needs have been somewhat neglected in the reforms. Some training packages are seen to have too much emphasis on current skill needs, rather than on underpinning knowledge that will allow for future learning. Some remedies for this are considered in the reviews of training packages, but the development of broader programmes, apart from training packages, is also advocated. The broad policies on fees and of student support have not changed, though pressures remain as public funding per student has been restrained. There is little indication that educational equity among socio-economic groups has improved in Australia in the past decade. One continuing issue is that, whereas secondary schools admit all students who apply, there are some thousands of students each year who cannot obtain a place in publicly-supported TVET. Additional places are available at full cost, but this is clearly not an option for low-income students. There are plans for improved and co-ordinated policies for regions and communities seen to be in particular need. Indigenous persons are given increased priority in recent policy statements, but the realization of these actions is yet to be seen.
Note 1. The authors express their gratitude to Fran Ferrier with whom they have worked jointly on related projects over many years.
References Allen Consulting Group. 1994. Successful reform, competitive skills for Australians and Australian enterprises. Brisbane, Australia: Australian National Training Authority. Anderson, D. 2005. Trading places: the impact and outcomes of market reform in VET. Adelaide, Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Bradley, R.; Gans, J. 1998. Growth in Australian cities. The economic record, vol. 74, pp. 266–78. Burke, G. 2003. Australia’s educational expenditures. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University, Centre for the Economics of Education and Training. (CEET working paper, no. 50.) Chapman, B. 2002. A submission on financing issues to the Department of Education, Science and Training Inquiry into Higher Education Reform. Canberra: DEST. (Submission 317.) Ferrier, F.; Selby Smith, C. 2003a. An investigation of ACCI’s user choice proposals. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University, Centre for the Economics of Education and Training. (CEET working paper, no. 47.) Ferrier, F.; Selby Smith, C. 2003b. The user choice experience of Australian firms: a further investigation. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University, Centre for the Economics of Education and Training. (CEET working paper, no. 49.) Hilmer, F. et al. 1993. National competition policy: report of the independent committee of inquiry. Canberra, Australia: Australian Government Printing Service. Howard, D.; Buultjens, J. 1999. Labour market performance of Australia’s non-metropolitan regions. Australian bulletin of labour, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 105–16. McKenzie, P. 1998. The transition from education to work in Australia compared to selected OECD countries. (Paper presented at the sixth International Conference on Post-compulsory Education and Training, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia, December 1998.) Maglen, L.; Selby Smith, C. 1995. Pricing options: a report for the New South Wales TAFE Commission. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University, Centre for the Economics of Education and Training. (CEET working paper, no. 1.)
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Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2004a. Education at a glance, 2004. Paris: OECD. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2004b. Learning for tomorrow’s world: first results from PISA 2003. Paris: OECD. Queensland Government. 2003. The smart investment: Queensland training and employment priorities. Brisbane, Australia: Department of Employment and Training. Schofield, K.; McDonald, R. 2004. Training packages today. Brisbane, Australia: Australian National Training Authority. (High level review of training packages.) Schwatz, R. et al. 1997. Country note on Australia for the OECD transition review. Paris: OECD. Selby Smith, C. 1975. The costs of post-secondary education: an Australian study. Melbourne, Australia: Macmillan. Selby Smith, C.; Ferrier, F. 2004. Regional development, innovation, skill needs and training: a pilot study in the Shire of Gannawarra, Victoria. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University, Centre for the Economics of Education and Training. (CEET working paper, no. 55.) Selby Smith, C. et al. 2001. The economics of vocational education and training in Australia: CEET’s stocktake. Adelaide, Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Shah, C.; Burke, G. 2003. Skills shortages: concepts, measurement and implications. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University, Centre for the Economics of Education and Training. (CEET working paper, no. 52.) Soskice, D. 2002. The role of industry and economic institutions in shaping vocational training. In: Burke, G.; Reuling, J., eds. Vocational training and lifelong learning in Australia and Germany. Adelaide, Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research.
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Part V
Teacher Education for Vocational Education and Training
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Section 8 The TVET Profession
Stephen Billett School of Education and Professional Studies, Faculty of Education, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
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Chapter VIII.1
Overview: The Technical and Vocational Education and Training Profession Stephen Billett
1 Introduction The teaching profession within the broader sector of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is differentiated by the way in which this educational provision is manifested in a particular country, the institutions within that country, and what purposes it seeks to serve at a particular moment in that country’s social and economic development. As a sector of education that is often seen as needing to be highly responsive to changes in the kinds of skills and knowledge that countries require to be developed, it has particular cultural impetuses and forms. Not the least of these is the degree to which its purposes are aligned with directly training the skills required for work by the community, or some other educational goal, such as more general competencies associated with the quality of working life. For instance, a long-standing debate within Western countries—but also evident in practice elsewhere (e.g. Brazil, China and Russia)—is the degree to which this form of education should be focused on developing specific vocational knowledge and skills, or comprises a form of education that generally serves as a foundation for paid vocations. That is, whether workplace competence or general education is its primary goal. In other countries, this division of purposes takes particular forms. For instance, as contributors in this collection propose, particular values or ideologies or moral education are to be developed alongside workplace competence in China and Russia, whereas there are requests from Brazilian contributors for a reinstatement of values associated with community and individual needs. However, the emphases on specific occupational outcomes will probably fluctuate over time as economic circumstances change. As global economic competition has increased, many Western-style countries have intensified the focus on workplace competence within vocational education provisions rather than on more general educational outcomes. Where they exist, these more general purposes are sometimes manifested as more generic workplace competencies suitable for several occupations. Similarly, such emphases are also being realized in countries such as Russia and China as they compete within a globalized and expanded economic system, yet from a different developmental basis and societal and institutional foundation that is distinct from that of Germany and Australia, for instance. Yet, trends associated with meeting the requirements of a globalized economic system should not R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VIII.1, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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be seen as leading towards a set of common educational goals and provisions. This is because across these countries the manifestations of TVET and its professional practice remain quite distinct in reflecting the current imperative—societal needs and institutional structures. For instance, in many northern European countries and in Australia there is a vocational educational sector whose main purpose is focused on developing the skills required for specific occupational roles. It is in these countries that there are strong traditions and provisions of apprenticeship learning, and the vocational education institutions often reflect the key trade callings. Often, these apprenticeship type provisions have mandated or legislated arrangements combining experience in workplaces with periods in educational institutions. These arrangements tend to see the institutional base include the interests of both employers and employees in particular occupational sectors. However, in the United Kingdom, and more so in the United States, the provision of vocational education might be intermingled with adult, general and preparatory educational provisions, and the institutional arrangements are less regulated. Then, in many Asian countries, the provision of vocational education is that of technology education undertaken within schools by school-teachers with limited contact with experiences outside the school. Here, the educational processes and goals are developed through and enacted within the educational sector that is primarily concerned with general education. Yet, in a different way, in Russia and China there are levels of vocational education that are masked by activities across educational sectors more institutionally distinct than in other countries (e.g. colleges, polytechnics, universities). All this leads to provisions of TVET and professional practices that are in some ways distinct and hybrid in each country. The important point here is that the kinds of roles that TVET professionals will undertake are likely to be quite varied given the different educational purposes, institutions and sectors in which they practise. Moreover, the particular trajectories of the education systems in which they practise are likely to shape the way in which their professional roles and activities will be transformed. These shape not only the conduct of professional practice, but also the training programmes that prepare individuals for the profession and in-service professional development. Yet, within all of this difference and across these distinct provisions there are likely to be at least two elements of commonality: constant change and relatively modest prestige. These also affect the professional preparation and career development of teaching staff. Firstly, the roles that TVET professionals assume will be subject to particular requirements during their initial preparation, which may well reflect current imperatives (e.g. government policy or professional requirements) and are then subject to constant change throughout their subsequent professional lives. The degree and focus of this change will vary, but it is certain that the activities of most educational professionals will be subject to change. Given the particular economic imperatives that must be reflected in technical and vocational education, these changes are likely to be on-going, frequent and often initiated and influenced by agents outside the TVET teaching profession. Therefore, it is important to understand the bases for initial preparation for professional practice and the processes by which TVET
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professionals are able to maintain the currency of their practice through a career characterized by changing demands and goals. Hence, in this section attention is given to both the approaches to initial teacher education and also in-service development throughout professional life. However—and the second common element mentioned above—the teaching profession per se, but particularly the field of technical and vocational education, often suffers from low standing. Contributors within this section frequently refer to the poor prestige of vocational education and the implications this has for both preservice and in-service teacher training throughout their professional life. It is as though we are dealing with a sector whose contributions are not fully appreciated or understood, and whose status is shaped by societal views and sentiments about the learning of vocational knowledge. To those who are working in the sector, its importance influences issues associated with securing community, government and institutional support for the initial preparation of teachers and their in-service development. It also comprises a contradictory discourse for the TVET sector: on the one hand, it is highly valued in achieving national social and economic goals and, on the other, it is considered not mature enough to organize its own practices and futures.
2 Overview of the Contributions This section is divided into two sets of contributions that examine the preparation and on-going development of those who practise as teachers within TVET. These contributions can be divided into chapters 2 to 12 dealing with the profession and its preparation; and chapters 13 to 19 focusing on professional development, particularly changing roles and further development for TVET professionals. In different ways, the first set of contributions largely discusses the current and emerging societal requirements for TVET teachers and their pre-service preparation from a range of perspectives in different countries. These requirements are often premised on particular imperatives that the contributors clearly identify. For instance, both the Russian and Chinese contributions discuss the crises being faced in each of these countries in securing suitably qualified teachers who have both technical capacities and those required to teach young people effectively. But elsewhere, there are also concerns about the level of both pertinent and current vocational/technical knowledge, as well as teaching competence. Moreover, these imperatives are shaped by evolving societal requirements.
VIII.2 Professionalization of VET Teachers and Lecturers and Practices in TVET Institutions in an International Perspective, by Philip Grollmann Grollmann argues in his chapter that, globally, the TVET teaching profession faces both the challenge of its low status and the emphasis on factors that serve to maintain
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it at this low level. He proposes that the key to enhancing the status of the profession is through a process of professionalization that needs to be enacted by individuals themselves and supported by TVET institutions which provide the provisions, as well as those partners in the community whose interests are served well by it. In other words, the very institutions that utilize and benefit from the activities of TVET teachers’ work need to afford them opportunities to exercise the professional practice and enjoy the benefits of professional autonomy. These institutions need to support the TVET profession and grant an appropriate level of status and freedom for those in the profession.
VIII.3 Teachers, Instructors and Trainers: An Australian Focus, by Erica Smith Smith also takes up the theme of professionalism in her chapter when reporting on the Australian vocational education and training context, including the preparation of teachers and trainers. In this contribution, however, the emphasis is less on institutions than on the individuals themselves. She suggests that, ultimately, the responsibility for maintaining instructional and technical capacities resides with the individual TVET professional. In this way, she embraces the notion of the professional as an autonomous and self-directed worker and includes within this idea the central role for the vocational education professionals to maintain their teaching competence through the inevitable periods of change that will affect their working lives.
VIII.4 TVET Teacher-Training Requirements in the Russian Federation, by Vasiliy P. Kosyrev, Petr F. Kubrushko and Andrei N. Kouznetsov Kosyrev, Kubrushko and Kouznetsov suggest that, in Russia, there are different requirements for professional practice according to the level at which the TVET provision is practised. Yet, across these levels there is a concern to improve the educational component of TVET professionals’ work. This is central to the modernization of the Russian provision of TVET.
VIII.5 TVET Teachers and Their Professionalization in China: A Problem Analysis, by Zhiqun Zhao and Lianwei Lu Zhao and Lu also note that, in China, while there has been a long tradition of craft, it is only in relatively recent times that vocational education has become a key
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educational sector. There is a growing demand for vocational education and yet, even in command economies such as in China, there are difficulties in securing sufficient numbers of suitable teachers. Moreover, there are imperatives to develop vocational specialisms, but from a very different skill base from that of Germany, for instance. Teacher education programmes in China are shaped to address this dynamic complex of societal factors. Nevertheless, there are barriers that inhibit elevating the prestige of vocational education and educators, including the sector’s traditional modest standing, a lack of stability in policy-making and the failure of vocational educators to organize themselves politically.
VIII.6 The Development of Training Modules for Instructors, by Fred Beven One contentious issue is certainly who are the curriculum-makers and to what degree are TVET professionals empowered not only to enact what others have decided should be taught, but also to design and develop further the goals of students’ learning and the means by which that learning is supported? Beven, in his chapter, argues for an expansive role to be assumed by TVET educators. Their role, he proposes, cannot be restricted to that of being the implementers of a curriculum designed elsewhere. Rather, TVET professionals have a key role in applying their pedagogic and curriculum knowledge in designing learning experiences for students that are based not only on government and industry directives, but also upon the situational factors that shape the enactment of any curriculum. Therefore, he proposes that the curriculum process needs to take into account the importance of the student, who ultimately experiences the curriculum.
VIII.7 Literacy and Learning: Are TVET Professionals Facilitators of Learning or Deliverers of Knowledge and Skills? by Jean Searle In her chapter, and using the example of assisting literacy and learning, Searle argues that there is a complex pedagogical role to be carried out by TVET professionals that includes understanding not only the nature of literacy knowledge as a general attribute, but also its situational qualities and pluralities of meaning and impact for learners. This includes assisting students to understand the ways in which power and control are enacted through knowledge of this kind. Hence, she argues for a broad and expansive professional role for TVET teachers, which includes making judgements about how and when to intervene in the teaching process. For example, when is it appropriate to be a facilitator of students’ learning and when is an instructional approach most appropriate? Her point of view suggests a need for a thorough and critical approach to TVET teacher education.
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VIII.8 Vocational Education in the Private Sector in Brazil, by Elenice Monteiro Leite, Marinilzes Moradillo Mello and Nacim Walter Chieco In their chapter Leite, Mello and Chieco also propose that the role of the TVET professional needs to go beyond that of just being a teacher of vocational practice. Instead, a broader role of engaging in social as well as economic development is required to be enacted within the TVET sector. They refer to the extent to which particular groups of neediest individuals should be able to benefit from a TVET provision enacted through private institutions and enterprises. The authors refer to the accumulation of disadvantage and economic backwardness for some under such a scheme. In this way, they identify structural factors that are often beyond the scope of TVET professionals to significantly influence the outcome.
VIII.9 TVET and Teacher-Training Curricula: A Developed National Perspective, by Vasiliy P. Kosyrev, Petr F. Kubrushko and Andrei N. Kouznetsov Kosyrev, Kubrushko and Kouznetsov give an account of the Russian university TVET teacher-training system. They describe the State educational standard, which provides an obligatory framework and contents of training and is worded and issued by the Ministry of Education. To provide a better understanding, a comparative analysis is conducted of the Russian and the American systems of higher education teacher training for TVET.
VIII.10 Vocational Qualifications: The Role of Trade Unions as Negotiation Fora, by Antˆonio Almerico Biondi Lima and Fernando Augusto Moreira Lopes Lima and Lopez also argue that, given the failure of TVET to overcome social disadvantage in developing countries, there has to be a central role for trade unions as negotiating fora to ensure that the interests and perspectives of those who undergo TVET are able to be represented and reflected in these provisions. They claim that both government policies and private enterprise interests, as articulated through the organization of TVET, work against the interests of workers and those who are socially disadvantaged. Consequently, the authors argue that TVET will never achieve its legitimate role and important educational purposes unless it addresses the needs of those who are most disadvantaged, who may be potentially further marginalized through existing provisions.
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VIII.11 Vocational Education and Development, by Gaudˆencio Frigotto, Maria Ciavatta and Marise N. Ramos Frigotto, Ciavatta and Ramos similarly propose that in Brazil TVET provisions focused on occupational training and development often fail to educate students in the kind of relations that lie behind the occupations and practices they learn. Consequently, they argue for an expansive concept of TVET which explicitly focuses on the socially excluded in order to transform their prospects for participation in society. Consequently, they propose that TVET needs to expose the structural factors that provide asymmetrical outcomes among social groups, particularly as found in developing countries. So, in this chapter, a range of perspectives about TVET provisions in different countries, settings and their implications for the role of the TVET professional is advanced.
VIII.12 A Technical and Vocational Teacher-Training Curriculum, by Bonaventure W. Kerre Finally in Part I, Kerre offers an approach to the preparation of TVET educators that is suited to African countries. The author holds that the educational provision of TVET is most likely to be effectively delivered through the schooling system, given the strengths of the existing educational institutions. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare specialist teachers to deliver quality TVET through the schooling system. The in-service development of the TVET professional becomes an imperative following the kinds of demands described above. Clearly, pre-service teacher education will not be sufficient to meet the evolving demands placed upon TVET professionals throughout their teaching careers. Moreover, there are clear limits and particular emphases within initial teacher preparation that are not able to extend to particular kinds of TVET practice.
VIII.13 Transforming Teachers’ Practice Through Action Learning, by Stephen Billett For instance, Billett describes how vocational educators in Australia are prepared to become industry training consultants through an action learning-based process that aims at building the range of capacities required for independent consultancy work. Here, it seems that institutional support, the development processes themselves and also individual teachers’ capacities are essential in developing these particular kinds of professional capacities. As is often referred to in the professional development literature, unless individuals take the time to develop their capacities to perform professional tasks effectively (i.e. with success), it is unlikely that they will adopt these
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tasks as part of their on-going practice. Hence, the provision of support, practice and guidance that comprises professional development seems essential for developing TVET teachers’ professional capacities as new demands arise and the professional’s role changes.
VIII.14 Professional Learning and TVET: Challenges and Perspectives for Teachers and Instructors, by Christian Harteis Harteis makes a similar point in his chapter where he argues that a combination of practice-based and academic-institution-based experiences are the ones most required to develop expert capacities in TVET teachers. It is through these two contributions that the integration of both of these kinds of experiences can provide the kinds of teacher-training processes that Harteis promotes as being essential for effective professional development.
VIII.15 Industrial Attachments for Instructors in TVET Delivery, by Sarojni Choy and Sandra Haukka Choy and Haukka propose a similar set of concerns about the opportunities for professional development that can be provided through the use of industry placements for TVET professionals. These placements can have particular value in terms of updating, further developing or even assisting the content development of TVET professionals. However, these opportunities have not always been effectively taken advantage of. Therefore, in their chapter they describe a number of schemes for utilizing industry placements and propose how these might best be organized to secure effective professional development outcomes for TVET teachers.
VIII.16 I Hate Left-Handers or Occupational Health and Safety Training, by Richard Gagnon Similarly, Gagnon uses the example of occupational health and safety to argue that it is important for TVET provisions generally, whether those associated with preservice training or on-going professional development, to be organized in ways that seek to secure a balance among the interests of sponsors, institutions and participants. At the heart of this process is securing agreement through negotiation. Without such processes and attempts at consensus, Gagnon suggests that everybody’s interests may well be frustrated. In other words, the needs of all individuals who participate in TVET may not be fulfilled. Yet in failing to engage in understanding the needs of participants, other goals, such as those of sponsoring institutions and agencies, are also unlikely to be realized.
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VIII.17 The Bologna Declaration and Emerging Models of TVET Teacher Training in Germany, by Frank ¨ Bunning and Alison Shilela In their chapter, B¨unning and Shilela analyse the major changes to degree structures in Germany following the implementation of the Bologna Declaration. According to the authors, the recommendation to adopt a two-cycle system of degree awards (bachelor’s and master’s) within a given timeframe represents a radical conceptual shift for curriculum designers and policy-makers in German universities, where the traditional degree system consists of one block of study leading to a master’s award. The introduction of this reform has remained a current issue in the university sector and can be observed as the theme of conference proceedings over the last six years. As the dust begins to settle on the landscape, a clearer picture of the newly established models for bachelor’s and master’s degrees can be observed. The paper considers the extent to which such developments have remained in keeping with the original intentions of the Bologna Declaration and whether the new degree models will achieve their originally intended aims.
VIII.18 Standards for Occupation-Directed Professional Development of TVET Personnel in Developing Countries, by Peter Gerds In his chapter Peter Gerds talks about the implementation of technical and vocational teacher qualification standards in developing countries. In a first step, he analyses the possibilities and challenges of national teacher qualification standards in general. He then sets up criteria for the development and evaluation of technical and vocational teacher qualification standards in the case of developing countries. The chapter closes with an account of the establishment of a national teacher qualifications standard in Ethiopia within the framework of the Ethiopian-German Technical and Vocational Education and Training Programme.
VIII.19 Curriculum Research and Design as a Subject of TVET Teacher Training: Practice and Experiences from Two International Projects, by Joachim Dittrich The chapter by Dittrich deals with work and experiences, concepts and backgrounds of selected international co-operation projects in the field of TVET. More specifically, these are two projects funded under the EU-Asia-Link Programme of the European Commission, the current activities of the ‘United TVET Network on Innovation and Professional Development’ (UNIP) and a German-Malaysian cooperative Ph.D. programme.
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So, collectively, the contributions to this section provide helpful and diverse perspectives on the role of the TVET professional, programmes associated with their initial development and processes and secure on-going development throughout professional life.
Chapter VIII.2
Professionalization of VET Teachers and Lecturers and Practices in TVET Institutions in an International Perspective Philip Grollmann1
1 Introduction This chapter analyses the different factors exerting an influence on the professional knowledge, practices and the performance of teaching staff involved in technical and vocational education and training (TVET). In addition to teacher education, which is a crucial lever for increasing the quality of teachers and their professional performance, the institutions in which teachers work constitute another crucial factor shaping the quality of their provision. Therefore, the institutional environments are held not just as independent variables, but are also closely interconnected with teachers’ professional practice. This means that any reform trying to professionalize TVET—whether on the global or the local level—needs to take into account both levers.
2 Two Major Obstacles There are two major obstacles to the professionalization of teachers in TVET on the global level: the low status of TVET; and the general problem of increasing the status of the teaching profession. Firstly, one of the core problems of vocational educators’ search for professional recognition is based on a paradox. While vocational teachers and trainers are essential to supporting skill development in the workforce, they are not granted high status in performing this role. In industrialized countries, some two-thirds of the workforces that constitute the backbone of each economy are intermediate-level workers and employees, who have learned a substantial part of their occupational skills and knowledge through the support of teachers, trainers and instructors from the domains of non-academic technical vocational education and human resources development (cf. CEDEFOP, 1998). Given the basic importance of vocational training for economic advancement, it is remarkable that in many countries TVET has failed to achieve the level of social recognition that is needed to establish it as a wellregarded profession attracting societal support, including appropriate individuals to perform as vocational educators. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VIII.2, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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This is reinforced by the second fact: that teaching generally has always had problems gaining professional recognition, and has even been referred to as a ‘semiprofession’ (Etzioni, 1969). However, given the increasing emphasis on lifelong learning, teachers and trainers as learning facilitators could now be regarded as a core profession in the knowledge society. Improving the standing of teachers is, therefore, a significant lever for increasing the quality of vocational education, as acknowledged by many international and national organizations. These include the recent monitoring activities of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) with regard to attracting, developing and retaining teachers, the working group of the European Union on the qualifications of teachers, activities in the Asian context or the work of UNESCO-UNEVOC (Battezzati et al., 2004; Carnoy & DeAngelis, 2002; Central Institute for Vocational Technical Education of the People’s Republic of China, 2000; European Commission, Directorate-General for Education and Culture, & Working Group ‘Improving Education of Teachers and Trainers’, 2003; Hopkins & Stern, 1996; Leney & The Lisbon-to-Copenhagento-Maastricht Consortium Partners, 2005). However, the empirical significance of vocational learning is often overshadowed by the greater emphasis societies place on academic education and credentials. As regards teachers, this is embodied in the fact that many of these international studies do not make particular reference to the peculiar problems of teachers in vocational education. The last comprehensive international studies on vocational teachers occurred more than thirty years ago (International Labour Organization, 1964; UNESCO. Section for Technical and Vocational Education, 1997; UNESCO, 1973). However, a more recent study has been published (Grollmann & Rauner, 2006). In summary, the low professional status of teachers in TVET as described in the preceding paragraphs is accompanied by a fragmentation of the profession through the variety of existing profiles and multiple ways of teacher training and recruitment.
3 Basic Profiles of TVET Teachers Therefore, and in order to understand the needs and requirements of vocational educators, it is necessary to describe the diversity of ways in which they practise. Based on the scarce information available through the studies referred to above, it is possible to distinguish among the following basic professional profiles of teachers, trainers and instructors in vocational education and training:
r r
Teachers or lecturers working in formal school or college settings and providing instruction in vocational courses; Instructors and laboratory assistants working in school or college settings in vocational laboratories: — who teach with a high degree of autonomy; or — sometimes act as assistants to other vocational teachers;
r
Trainers, tutors and others in enterprises who undertake training and educational functions within their jobs to varying degrees (e.g. from incidental to full-time
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teaching of trainees and apprentices). In dual systems of trade preparation, for instance, this function is often separated from human resource development functions within some companies, while in others this distinction is not strongly delineated; Instructors and trainers working in labour-market training institutions supported by governments and public authorities, often with a strong focus on social inclusion and basic occupational competences; Instructors and trainers working in employers’ organizations, such as chambers of commerce, sectoral training institutions or privately-owned training companies and providers that focus on upgrading technical competences, training in communication skills and so on.
In this chapter, the convention is adopted of referring to all these categories of teaching staff as TVET teachers who are working in institutions mainly devoted to the purpose of vocational learning and education, but not those in enterprises or directly within the work process. However, some of the major professional challenges remain the same for all of the different listed categories. In addition to these broad categories, other professionals may be involved in TVET learning processes, such as human-resource professionals who play an important role, particularly in France and Japan, and guidance counsellors, general subject teachers, or social and youth workers, who provide specialized services. Sometimes, these additional services are integrated with teaching, thus expanding the teaching or training role; sometimes, they are purposely excluded, such as in the case of France where teachers are only responsible for the actual instruction and the remaining educational tasks are delegated to other types of staff in the schools in order to allow teachers to concentrate on their ‘core-business’ (Troger & H¨orner, 2006). In the same order as specified above, the clusters correspond to different age groups that must be served. Vocational teachers can be found within the spectrum of early pre-vocational education within lower secondary education, but increasingly also in adult education settings, where they deal with adults of different age groups. Given only four basic models of school-to-work transition (Rauner, 1999) and the six different teaching profiles described above, we already have twenty-four different profiles of TVET teachers, lecturers and instructors. Global reality will be much more complex than that! What can be seen is that, in addition to the low status of TVET and its teachers, the situation on the global level is heavily fragmented given the vast number of different profiles and functions of TVET teachers. Even as manifold as those profiles are, so are the ways TVET teachers are recruited and prepared for their jobs. This will be described in the following paragraphs.
4 To Increase the Professional Performance of TVET Teachers The professional skills of the teachers and trainers engaged in vocational education constitute a crucial factor in determining the success of the teaching processes that they conduct. One of the levers for improving the quality of TVET teachers is
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the qualifications needed and the education received leading to those qualifications. Figure 1 illustrates the relative position of the different dominant TVET teacher education pathways in the countries covered by the study of Grollmann and Rauner (2006). In Figure 1, the vertical axis describes the dominant formal level of TVET teacher education—from a certificate level training to a master’s degree. The horizontal axis describes the content of the programmes. Four types can be identified:
r
r
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A purely methodological training on teaching methods. Examples are the teaching certificate in the United Kingdom (UK) as a preparatory measure or the in-service courses at the Danish institute for vocational teacher education (DK). This is often connected to an exiting-model mainly based on the recruitment of practitioners of a certain field of occupational work. An additive concept, which is based on a sequence of studying the subject matter (e.g. at the B.A. level) and then obtaining an appropriate entry qualification to the education sector through acquiring general teaching skills in a designated course programme (typical in the United States—USA). This concept can also be found in Turkey (T), with a share of almost 65% of the programme covering the subject matter, leading to a four-year B.A. degree for the prospective vocational teacher. A model based on the concurrent study of a subject matter and educational sciences leading to a bachelor’s or master’s degree. Often the subject-matter study takes the form of a part of the ordinary business or engineering degree. Sometimes special vocational didactics are added. A model based on an integrated conception of vocational disciplines, which entails the subject matter as it is derived from the world of work (i.e. not from the respective engineering discipline) and a model of competence development within this domain. This is called ‘integrated’ here because it is based on an inclusive concept of learning and working in a ‘trade’. This paradigm of vocational learning leading to teacher education can be found in northern German teachereducation institutions and to a certain extent also in the reform of Norwegian (N)
Formal level of teacher-education M.A.
B.S./B.A.
Teaching certificate diploma
DK J Brazil UK
F USA
Germany China R,T, N
Additive concept Methodological
Fig. 1 Dominant TVET teachers’ formal qualifications
Integrated concept
Vocational didactics
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and some Chinese TVET teacher-education programmes—but nowhere is it the dominant national orientation. Another difference can be noted in the sequencing of the training and recruitment. A very common model is the in-service model, in which a teacher’s qualification is first acquired within a usually probationary phase of employment. The length of this qualification varies from forty hours to that of bachelor-of-art (B.A.) equivalent degrees. Typically, the in-service model does not take into account the actual subject matter. Instead, it is mainly focused on psychological and basic educational knowledge and on teaching methods and techniques with some variations. In most cases, the precondition to employment as a vocational teacher is securing a B.A. degree, plus having relevant work experience. Sometimes, these in-service courses are offered at the university level and sometimes in specialized public institutions tailored to teacher training, such as in the case of France’s Instituts universitaires de formation des maˆıtres (IUFM). The in-service model of teacher preparation can be found in different variations, sometimes with a short pre-service training period as the dominant model, as is the case in Denmark, the United Kingdom, the United States, or more extended preparatory training, as in France. Work experience is often required in TVET as a pre-condition for employment as a vocational teacher. However, this is often seen as an alternative and less preferable route compared with general teacher recruitment and is associated with lower formal expectations of teachers. When looking at individual careers in countries with high demands on the formal side of recruitment, occupational experiences are very common. Even in Germany, which maintains the highest formal level in terms of academic requirements for entering the vocational teaching field, there is usually an amount of real-work experience prescribed through university curricula. The majority of student-teachers in Germany hold an occupational qualification in their field and if they lack this qualification they have to undergo an internship in an enterprise. For many countries with a consecutive sequence of teacher training (subject matter first, then educational qualification), the B.A. is the typical entry requirement for enrolling into teacher-preparation courses. Some of the former specialized teacher-training institutions have been or will be transformed into institutions with university status in Europe consistent with European-wide prescriptions provided through the Bologna process (European Ministers of Education, 1999), which opens up new possibilities for those who have obtained teaching qualifications to deepen their studies at the master-of-arts (M.A.) level. Even though the integrated model was held as the most promising model of teacher education in early publications (International Labour Organization, 1964), only limited progress has been made in establishing such programmes. The most significant challenge is the integration of subject matter and pedagogical training. Attempts are being made in some European countries to build coherent research and training programmes that reflect the integration of subject matter and pedagogy in TVET. One example of this kind of integration is the idea of research on occupational clusters (Berufsfeldwissenschaften) as developed within the Working Group on ‘Gewerblich-Technische Wissenschaften’ in the Gesellschaft f¨ur
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Arbeitswissenschaften network of German university institutes for the training of vocational teachers and trainers. In this process, all research activities are focused on ‘core-problems’ and ‘developmental tasks’ within specific occupational clusters, such as manufacturing, electronics, ICTs and so on. A similar approach occurs in the French discussion on ergonomics. This approach was taken up by the recent initiative of UNESCO-UNEVOC on a ‘United TVET Network on Innovation and Professional Development’ and its Hangzhou Declaration which delineates twelve vocational disciplines in an international framework curriculum for TVET teachers and lecturers (United TVET Network on Innovation and Professional Development, 2005). So, in these ways, besides the fragmentation of profiles and functions, there are variations in the approach to initial vocational teacher preparation that reflect the institutional arrangements and practices in different countries.
5 Changing Mission—Changing Institutions Apart from the programmes of initial preparation of vocational teachers, the concrete circumstances within schools and colleges—the working environment of vocational teachers—also constitute an important factor influencing their professional performance. Given the huge variety of vocational learning traditions, it is difficult to generalize about the factors that shape their practice. Nevertheless, the work teachers are confronted with everywhere can be clustered into the following tasks:
r r r r r
supporting students’ technical or professional learning processes, which demands that teachers convey knowledge about the content, as well as the appropriate methods and forms of learning; preparation of students for work through the support of learning processes leading to general work-related attitudes and competences, as well as their role within the society; assessment and evaluation of students’ learning processes; administrative tasks regarding the organization and the curriculum; counselling functions to students, but increasingly also to other target groups, such as employers, adult learners and so on (Bader, 1995).
These tasks are affected by a changing conception of the role and functions of education and learning in general and TVET in particular, as well as events on a global scale. Many of the contributions in this handbook illustrate what was coined as ‘megatrends’ by economists and social scientists, such as newly emerging technologies, a globalizing economy, and demographic and cultural changes. In a similar way, changes in labour markets and work organizations affect the practice of vocational education and learning on the very practical level of what is available and what can be enacted in VET institutions (Lipsmeier, 2001a, 2001b). Once again, regarding the question of the variety of repercussions of such megatrends for the everyday practices within TVET institutions, research is scarce.
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One general trend is that TVET institutions are increasingly ascribed new roles on the regional level, such as supporting sectoral innovation or managing regional learning provision, instead of being just an operative unit of higher-level educational administration (Rosenbaum, 2002; Rosenfeld, 1998a, 1998b). This also implies a change of the TVET teachers’ tasks, such as being responsible for making informed decisions about the relevance of certain curricular content (Santema, 1997). This freedom or responsibility for curricular decision-making also goes in line with increasing degrees of institutional autonomy. One of the main rationales behind the devolution of such competences to individual schools and teachers is the assumption that learning can be managed and administered best (effectively and efficiently) from levels that are as close to the practical needs as possible. For example, many, but not all, VET systems have given a considerable share of curricular decisionmaking to the level of individual schools to provide them with the possibility of adapting their programmes to specific local learning needs. This devolution has also led to new systems of quality assurance required to secure a common level of quality across different institutions. The need for quality assurance is, in addition, reinforced by an increasing awareness for public accountability. Lifelong learning builds another cluster of issues, which have to be reflected when discussing the new tasks of TVET institutions. An example is when TVET colleges provide continuing education to skilled workers in order to equip them for the competent use of new technologies. Schools and colleges are supposed to take on new tasks with regard to the new boundary spanning concepts of learning across time and space. Quality cannot be assessed unless there is a clear mission for an institution. Therefore, the constant revision, further development of and the commitment to an institution’s mission is fundamental to quality development of VET. As was found in recent projects on the re-design of vocational schools and colleges, there is still a considerable gap between the strategic level and the aspirations of managers in VET institutions and their real performance. Innovation in this regard is impeded mainly by structural barriers, closely associated with traditional conceptions of teaching and schools and, very importantly, by a lack of tools and instruments for achieving certain changes (Nieuwenhuis, 2003; Rosenfeld, 1998a, 1998b). In one of the few international comparative assessments of different types of TVET institutions and their evolution towards ‘regional centres of competence’, Kurz (2002) has described the different types on two axes—institutional autonomy and participation in regional processes of lifelong learning—through the integration of initial and continuing vocational education into the programmes of the colleges (see Figure 2). As the figure shows, it is Scotland and England (UK Flag) that rank relatively high on both dimensions. In fact, the college structure as a heritage of the specific United Kingdom VET innovation culture, with a high degree of institutional autonomy and a high degree of continuing and initial VET, can unfold as a particular strength within future development, given the trends described above. Similar institutional environments can be found in other countries, such as Canada or the United States, with their community colleges. In contrast, the ‘Germanic’ structure of schools as public institutions turns out to be a barrier to innovation (Gerds, 1995).
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Fig. 2 Mapping development perspectives for vocational schools and colleges for some European countries and regions Source: Figure adapted from Kurz, 2002
This weakness has, however, been addressed by some of the German L¨ander and also the Austrian vocational schools system, which have moved to grant greater autonomy for vocational teachers. Another type is the Italian configurations, where very innovative regional VET providers exist that are not integrated into initial education and, therefore, might be excluded from very important functions within VET (Rosenfeld, 1998a). The preceding sections have shown that there are huge variations as regards certain framework conditions of the practice of TVET teachers. Given classical criteria of professionalization, such as teacher preparation and education, vocational teachers in some European States have reached a relatively high degree of professionalization comparable to their colleagues in general education. However, when looking at some of the future challenges to the TVET profession, for example new functions that schools and colleges take on at the regional level or increasing autonomy, then institutions from Anglo-Saxon traditions but also in some Latin countries rank higher.
6 Professional Reality in an International Comparison As often happens within comparative research, there is a lack of data—in its wider sense—and of easily comparable bases to provide a comparative impression about the actual practices of TVET teachers in different contexts. However, such information could be very useful for decisions and policies on teacher recruitment, education, development and so on. It would allow for the comparison of the interrelationships between different structures and processes on the social level and concepts and practices on the individual level of professional practice in TVET (for this paradigm of comparative research, see Schriewer, 1986). The preceding section has
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identified some global tendencies and local practices that represent important factors shaping the professional practice of vocational teachers. However, this gives only a very superficial impression of the complex professional reality in which teachers are working. It was shown that the institutional dimension is at least as important as the question of teacher education when striving for professional quality and high professional performance. Often this institutional dimension has been overlooked and professionalization was mainly seen only as a function of the formal level of teacher education. In only a few cases has the everyday practice of vocational teachers been made the object of research (Camp, 2001; Camp & Heath-Camp, 1990; Holling & Bamm´e, 1982; Lempert, 1962). This is rooted in two different conceptualizations of professions in social sciences. At the commencement of research on the professions, research was mainly focusing on and developing indicators when a specific occupational group was to be called a ‘profession’ as opposed to an ordinary ‘occupation’. Subsequently, the focus of research has increasingly looked at the particularities of work in the professions (e.g. the interaction between the professional and the client) and the specific knowledge needed to perform in a professional situation (Oevermann, 1996, 2003). A promising strand of research now tries to combine methods from expertise and professionalization research in order to explore the professional knowledge that comes into play in the interaction between the professional and the client or more specifically between the teacher and the learner (Bromme, 1992; Gardner, 1984; Gardner, Csikszentmihaly & Damon, 2001; Gardner et al., 2001; Mieg, 2003; Shulman, 1986). Up to now, this approach has not been applied to vocational teachers, nor to the question of their professionalization in a comparative perspective. In a research project on the ‘professional reality’ of vocational teachers in three different countries (Grollmann, 2005), special attention was paid to the interplay of the knowledge of vocational teachers and the particular form of vocational education institutions. Interviews were conducted with teachers in German vocational schools, American high schools and community colleges, as well as in Danish vocational education colleges. These interviews dealt with teachers’ understanding of vocational education tasks, their biographical background and their conditions of work. Before discussing the empirical results of this research, it is necessary to make a few conceptual remarks.
7 Process Knowledge of Vocational Education and Professional Culture In order to provide a more ‘grounded’ perspective on the professional challenges and reality of TVET teachers’ work, it was conceptualized as a phenomenon consisting of subjective and objective elements (in accordance with the ‘Good work’ approach (Gardner et al., 2001)). It was reconstructed through the analysis of teachers’ process knowledge of vocational education and their professional cultures. The term ‘process knowledge’ of vocational education was introduced by Gerds (2001) in accordance with the term ‘work process knowledge’ (Fischer, Boreham & Samur-
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cay, 2002). It describes the domains of knowledge that must be taken into consideration in the fulfilment of the professional tasks of vocational teachers. Besides explicit knowledge (e.g. knowledge of educational methods, knowledge of and teaching about subjects) and the formal knowledge of the education system and the educational establishment, Gerds emphasizes the implicit knowledge of vocational teachers (practical experience in work and teaching, vocational pedagogical skills, etc.) and their ‘informal’ knowledge of the life world of the educational establishment. Therefore, alongside teacher training and the teachers’ vocational biographies, the form of institutionalization of vocational education takes on a particular significance in the explanation and description of the knowledge of vocational teachers. Meaningful aspects of investigation and indicators for the knowledge of vocational education processes were the teachers’ understanding of their tasks and their subjects, their learning experience and their attitude and motivation with regard to taking up the teaching profession. The term ‘professional culture’ refers to the social embeddedness of teachers’ knowledge and actions (Hargreaves, 1997; McLaughlin & Talbert, 2001; Terhart, 1990), that is, on the one hand, to the social context of professional action and, on the other, to the fact that this context is determined by its members. It follows that the empirical investigation of different professional cultures in vocational education requires a focus on the following aspects: (a) the vocational biographies of the teachers; (b) the forms of co-operation among the teaching staff of an institution; (c) their participation in processes of school development and innovation; (d) quality assurance within vocational education, as well as the tasks assumed by vocational teachers; and (e) their co-operation with the world of work outside the educational establishment. Together, these represent a comprehensive way of accounting for the process knowledge required to understand teachers’ practice. The next section uses two instances to illustrate the different forms of process knowledge of vocational education and professional cultures which occur in practice.
8 Findings Regarding the Knowledge of Vocational Education Processes With regard to the teachers’ representation of teaching and learning processes, for instance, two lines of reasoning emerged from the interviews with teachers. One of these, referred to as the diagnostic perspective, places the pupils, students or trainees in the foreground. At the root of this argument are the specific problems that occur as result of the often heterogeneous background and abilities of the learners. The other perspective, which is referred to as the learning process perspective, is based more on a prospective perception and general statements on the organization of teaching and learning and its conditions. This perspective detaches itself from the concrete teaching and learning conditions and reasons with general statements and assumptions about methods, teaching and learning goals and the course of the learning processes. With regard to the contents of vocational education, two clearly different perspectives can be identified which, in analogy with the classical theories of education (Klafki, 1964, 1985, 1996), I shall describe as formal and
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material. The formal perspective reasons mainly with abstract, non-subject-related or methodical contents. Examples of this are lines of reasoning that place so-called meta-competences or key-qualifications in the foreground, as well as fundamental behavioural norms, that is, multidisciplinary or independent, more socializing learning contents. The material perspective is oriented towards the use context and the contents that are to be learned. Typical lines of reasoning are preparation for the tasks that have to be fulfilled later in employment, or ‘the requisites of technology’. As a rule, the material perspective perceives the subject and the pedagogical competence of the teacher as being directly connected with each other. To begin with, the results can be listed in the following matrix that has individual ideal-typical combinations (Table 1):
r r r r
Instructional design: concentration on the teaching ability of the teacher— contents are apparently interchangeable; Training: contents and ‘pedagogical relationships’ are defined in reciprocity— learning goals and processes outweigh observance of the students’ characteristics; Learning accompaniment: focuses strongly on the background conditions and characteristics of the learners and the content is not context-based; Mastership: capability linked to the subject-matter forms a whole with the pedagogical task and is authentic in terms of the respect that it is granted.
Using this matrix, it is possible to place the encountered real types of the conceptions which are inherent in the teachers’ statements in relation to the ideal types in the matrix.2 Examples for a pronounced formal perception are to be found especially among Danish and German teachers, who occupy a relatively high ranking in the school hierarchy. The conception of instructional design is most commonplace within the context of the German and Danish schools. The perspective of learning accompaniment is shared by German teachers who have to deal with difficult learner populations. Teaching as training is a conception which is encountered especially among American college instructors, and the mastership model is typical for highschool teachers—and sometimes for German teachers mainly involved in teaching practical applications. This shows that some of the universal trends identified above are carried out through a vast variety of local practices enacted by vocational teachers who have certain conceptions about their different pedagogical tasks and the means to achieve them. It clearly underlines the recursive relationship between the knowledge and Table 1 Ideal types of the conceptualization of vocational education core tasks Process oriented (attribute of learning) Diagnosis oriented (attribute of the learner)
Formal
Material
Instructional design
Training
Learning accompaniment
Mastership/mentor model
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attitudes (the process knowledge of vocational education) of vocational teachers and their professional cultures. Both are embedded into certain institutional arrangements of teacher education on the one hand and TVET practice on the other. In the preceding paragraphs this interdependency was analysed with a special look at the knowledge and attitudes of teachers. In the next section, it will be examined from the angle of the professional culture, and the institutional arrangement in which the practice of vocational teachers is enacted and constantly transforms it.
9 Transformation of Professional Cultures via Individual Strategies Statements were examined in which the interviewees reported on their own strategies for resolving particular tasks or problems encountered in the course of their everyday school activities. The ‘own’ is stressed because, throughout this analysis, I have paid particular attention to strategies that have their origin in individual teacher’s initiatives or ideas, rather than formalized descriptions of tasks. I have subsequently categorized these strategies into similar groups according to their content. With regard to individual strategies for creating connections to the world of work, the American high school vocational teachers are ahead from a quantitative viewpoint (see Figure 3 ‘link to work’). This can be explained due to their background, being recruited directly from the vocational field and their ‘task of mediation’ on the labour market—for example, finding ‘placements’ being part of their task. Nevertheless, it also has to do with the statutes of institutions and their strict reporting duties to the regional ‘community’ (in this case high-school or community college). It was found that, whereas the American vocational teachers interviewed in this study frequently report on their initiatives with regard to establishing and maintaining co-operation with enterprises located in their region, this is far less common in the case of the Danish and German teachers who were interviewed. Even though the two other systems of vocational education are so-called ‘dual systems’, it is usual in these contexts to differentiate the individual teacher’s role from that of the trainer/instructor in an enterprise. In the case of German teachers, they think especially of initiatives aimed at improving co-operation between the teaching staff and organizational strategies. To put it another way, the form of the organization and the culture of co-operation are seen to be the principal fields of need for school innovation. In contrast to this, many Danish teachers conceptualize learning processes much more strongly as a collective task belonging to the respective team. The main field of improvement is reorganization of the educational process with regard to the subjective learning paths of individual learners. At the time this analysis was being compiled, a large part of the pedagogical energy expended by Danish teachers was being spent on the attempt to adapt the learning paths to the needs of the learners.
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Fig. 3 Direction of individual strategies of vocational teachers
So, it is concluded from this study that the imperatives and arrangements on the level of the institution of each VET system had particular consequences for teachers’ practices, in terms of how they practice and the kinds of goals and purposes they engaged with in their practice.
10 Conclusion Globally, there is a diversity of models of teacher education, teaching profiles and TVET institutions. More than teaching in general education, TVET teaching has often failed to be sufficiently acknowledged in terms of its contribution to the welfare, maintenance and progress of society. In terms of the formal education necessary to teach in TVET, a tendency towards professionalization can now be observed in some countries. At the same time, the mission of TVET has changed fundamentally over the last decades. This has led to new ways of organizing learning and instruction, new types of institutional roles and governance within VET schools and colleges and new paradigms of co-operation of staff involved in TVET. Based on TVET teachers’ perspectives, the changes can be described as an intensification of
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the knowledge necessary to cope with those challenges, as well as extending the roles TVET professionals have to assume in their daily work. Based on this analysis, two different forms of professionalization are proposed: (a) an indicator-based professionalization, which leans primarily on the classical theories of professions and inherent criteria for their description; and (b) a grounded term of professionalization that orients itself to the current and future practical challenges faced by teachers. On the basis of this distinction, it is evident that vocational teachers in environments of high formal professionalization of TVET teaching can learn from the work of their colleagues in those countries whose level of professionalization, as regards the grounded perspective, is in many respects higher. Table 2 shows the relative position of TVET teaching profiles of some teachers in the United States, Germany and Denmark, based on the results of the study referred to with regard to this twofold meaning of professionalization. Much more than is usually apparent in vocational education programmes, it is the concrete conditions of work that primarily influence the understanding of vocational pedagogical tasks, the professional self-image, co-operation and so forth—that is, essential dimensions of the process knowledge of vocational education and the professional culture of vocational teachers. Therefore, formally highly professionalized models of teacher training (such as in Germany) come under considerable pressure to justify themselves. Many of the competences trained in the course of teacher training cannot be turned into practice in the reality of vocational colleges as long as they remain largely rigid and bureaucratized institutions. On the other hand, very flexible recruitment patterns in dynamic institutions might lead to innovative professional cultures. However, they might also fail to produce the knowledge base needed for a sustainable professionalization of teachers in TVET. Summarizing the situation, the professionalization strategy for TVET teachers has to balance policies that improve the individual learning of teachers, their education and preparation for their job, but needs to take into account at the same time the continuous reform of their institutions. The institutions are the environment that needs to allow for the teachers’ knowledge and skills to be enacted quite autonomously in the reality of everyday practice. Different paradigms of conceptualizing professions have often stressed the importance of formal indicators, such as the level of teacher education, and overlooked the importance of the concrete working conditions of teachers in TVET institutions. The comparative study of those concrete working conditions and the practices within TVET institutions could be of great interest for reflective practitioners in TVET. This could feed into a more grounded theory of professionalization of TVET teaching. However, formal pro-
Table 2 A comparison of professionalization levels of vocational teaching profiles Indicator-based approach for the description of professions Grounded professionalization
High Low
Low DK USA HS
High ‘TVET utopia?’ Germany USA CC
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fessionalization is a pre-condition for that, since it provides the disciplinary and infrastructural framework.
Notes 1. The author expresses his thanks to Stephen Billett, who provided some useful comments on this chapter. 2. Due to space restrictions, I have left out sample interview transcripts. The interested reader is referred to Grollmann, 2005.
References Bader, R. 1995. Lehrer an beruflichen Schulen. In: Arnold, R.; Lipsmeier, A., eds. Handbuch der Berufsbildung, pp. 319–33. Opladen, Germany: Leske & Budrich. Battezzati, L. et al. 2004. E-learning for teachers and trainers. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. (Innovative practices, skills and competences, vol. 49.) Bromme, R. 1992. Der Lehrer als Experte: zur Psychologie des professionellen Wissens, 1. Aufl. ed. Bern: Huber. Camp, W.G. 2001. Formulating and evaluating theoretical frameworks for career and technical education research. Journal of vocational education research, vol. 26, no. 1. Camp, W.G.; Heath-Camp, B. 1990. The teacher proximity continuum: a conceptual framework for the analysis of teacher-related phenomena. Washington, DC: United States Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education. Carnoy, M; DeAngelis, K. 2002. The teaching workforce: concerns and policy challenges. In: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ed. Education policy analysis, Ch. 3. Paris: OECD. CEDEFOP. 1998. Vocational education and training: the European research field. Background report, 1998, Vols. 1 and 2. Thessaloniki, Greece: CEDEFOP. Central Institute for Vocational Technical Education of the People’s Republic of China. 2000. Vocational teacher standards and the formulating method. Beijing: CIVTE. (APEC Central Funding Project.) Etzioni, A., ed. 1969. The semi-professions and their organisation. Glencoe, IL: Free Press. European Commission. Directorate-General for Education and Culture; Working Group ‘Improving Education of Teachers and Trainers’. 2003. Implementation of ‘Education & Training, 2010’. Work Programme. Brussels: European Commission. European Ministers of Education. 1999. The Bologna Declaration: joint declaration of the European Ministers of Education. Geneva, Switzerland: CRE. Fischer, M.; Boreham, N.; Samurcay, R. 2002. Work process knowledge. London/New York: Routledge. Gardner, H. 1984. Frames of mind. London: Heinemann. Gardner, H.; Csikszentmihaly, M.; Damon, W. 2001. Good work: when excellence and ethics meet. New York, NY: Basic Books. Gardner, H. et al. 2001. The empirical basis of good work: methodological considerations, Vol. 3. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Project Zero. Gerds, P. 1995. Berufsschullehrerausbildung in den Bahnen des o¨ ffentlichen Dienstrechts— Hemmnisse f¨ur schulische Innovationen. In: Dybowski, G.; P¨utz, H.; Rauner, F., eds. Berufsbildung und Organisationsentwicklung, pp. 373–86. Bremen, Germany: Donat. Gerds, P. 2001. Arbeitsprozesswissen f¨ur Berufsp¨adagogen. Bremen. [Unpublished manuscript prepared for the EU Project ‘Euroframe’.]
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Grollmann, P. 2005. Berufsp¨adagogen im internationalen Vergleich: eine empirische Studie anhand ausgew¨ahlter F¨alle aus den USA, D¨anemark und Deutschland. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Grollmann, P.; Rauner, F. 2006. International perspectives on teachers and trainers in technical and vocational education. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Hargreaves, A. 1997. Cultures of teaching and educational change. In: Biddle, B.J.; Good, T.L.; Goodson, I., eds. International handbook of teachers and teaching, Vol. 2, pp. 1297–319. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Holling, E.; Bamm´e, A. 1982. Die Alltagswirklichkeit des Berufsschullehrers. Frankfurt am Main, Germany/New York, NY: Campus. Hopkins, D.; Stern, D. 1996. Quality teachers, quality schools: international perspectives and policy implications. Teaching and teacher education, vol. 12, no. 5, pp. 501–17. International Labour Organization. 1964. Training vocational teachers. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Klafki, W. 1964. Das p¨adagogische Problem des Elementaren und die Theorie der kategorialen Bildung, 4. durchges. Aufl. ed. Weinheim, Germany: Beltz. Klafki, W. 1985. Neue Studien zur Bildungstheorie und Didaktik: Beitr¨age zur kritischkonstruktiven Didaktik. Weinheim, Germany: Beltz. Klafki, W. 1996. Neue Studien zur Bildungstheorie und Didaktik: zeitgem¨aße Allgemeinbildung und kritisch-konstruktive Didaktik, 5. unver¨and. Aufl. ed. Weinheim, Germany: Beltz. Kurz, S. 2002. Die Entwicklung berufsbildender Schulen zu beruflichen Kompetenzzentren, Vol. 41. Bremen, Germany: ITB. Lempert, W. 1962. Der Gewerbelehrer: eine soziologische Leitstudie. Stuttgart, Germany: Ferdinand Enke Verlag. Leney, T.; The Lisbon-to-Copenhagen-to-Maastricht Consortium Partners. 2005. Achieving the Lisbon goal: the contribution of VET. London: QCA [and elsewhere]. Lipsmeier, A. 2001a. Internationale Aspekte der Lehrerbildung f¨ur berufliche Schulen. Zeitschrift f¨ur Berufs- und Wirtschaftsp¨adagogik, vol. 97, no. 2, pp. 186–95. Lipsmeier, A. 2001b. Internationale Trends in der Curriculumentwicklung f¨ur die Berufsausbildung und in der Lehrerausbildung f¨ur diesen Bereich. In: Fischer, M. et al., eds. Gestalten statt Anpassen in Arbeit, Technik und Beruf: Festschrift zum 60. Geburtstag von Felix Rauner. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. McLaughlin, M.W.; Talbert, J.E. 2001. Professional communities and the work of high-school teaching. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Mieg, H. 2003. Professionelle Leistung—professional performance: Positionen der Professionssoziologie. Konstanz, Germany: UVK-Verl.-Ges. Nieuwenhuis, L.F.M. 2003. Prepared? New demands for preparing VET-colleges for lifelong learning. Lifelong learning in Europe, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 62–69. Oevermann, U. 1996. Skizze einer revidierten Theorie professionalisierten Handelns. In: Combe, A.; Helsper, W., eds. P¨adagogische Professionalit¨at: Untersuchungen zum Typus p¨adagogischen Handelns, pp. 70–182. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Suhrkamp. Oevermann, U. 2003. Brauchen wir heute noch eine gesetzliche Schulpflicht und welches w¨aren die Vorz¨uge ihrer Abschaffung? P¨adagogische Korrespondenz, vol. 30, pp. 54–70. Rauner, F. 1999. School-to-work transition: the example of Germany. In: Stern, D.; Wagner, D.A., eds. International perspectives on the school-to-work transition, pp. 237–72. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press Inc. Rosenbaum, J.E. 2002. Beyond empty promises: policies to improve transitions into college and jobs. Washington, DC: United States Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education. Rosenfeld, S.A. 1998a. Community college/cluster connections: specialization and competitiveness in the U.S. and Europe. New York, NY: Columbia University, Community College Research Centre. Rosenfeld, S.A. 1998b. Technical colleges, technology deployment, and regional development. (Paper presented at the International Conference ‘Building Competitive Regional Economies:
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Up-Grading Knowledge and Diffusing Technology to Small Firms’, Modena, Italy, May 1998.) Santema, M. 1997. Regional development and the tasks of vocational education and training professionals. Journal of European industrial training, vol. 21, nos. 6/7, pp. 229–37. Schriewer, J. 1986. Intermediale Instanzen, Selbstverwaltung und berufliche Ausbildungsstrukturen im historischen Vergleich. Zeitschrift f¨ur P¨adagogik, vol. 32, pp. 69–89. Shulman, L.S. 1986. Those who understand: knowledge growth in teaching. Educational researcher, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 3–13. Terhart, E. 1990. Professionen in Organisationen: Institutionelle Bedingungsfaktoren der Entwicklung von Professionswissen. In: Alisch, L.-M.; Baumert, J.; Beck, K., eds. Professionswissen und Professionalisierung, pp. 151–70. Braunschweig, Germany: Colmsee. Troger, V.; H¨orner, W. 2006. Teachers of technical and vocational education in France. In: Grollmann, P.; Rauner, F., eds. International perspectives on teachers and trainers in technical and vocational education. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. UNESCO. 1973. Technical and vocational teacher education and training. Bristol, UK: John Wright & Son Ltd. UNESCO. Section for Technical and Vocational Education. 1997. Training of teachers/trainers in technical and vocational education. Paris: UNESCO. United TVET Network on Innovation and Professional Development. 2005. Welcome to UNIP. <www.unip-net.org>
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Chapter VIII.3
Teachers, Instructors and Trainers: An Australian Focus Erica Smith
1 Introduction In Australia, the workforce in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) as compared to that in other sectors of education is not easy to describe or analyse. TVET practitioners work in a variety of institutions, locations and roles, and do not necessarily see themselves as a coherent body of professionals. This diversity makes it difficult to generalize about practitioners and, more importantly, for governments and practitioners’ employers to devise policies and practices that address their required qualifications and professional development. Arrangements among countries vary depending upon the way in which the TVET system is organized, but in general there is some commonality in the ways in which teachers, instructors and trainers can be classified. One way is by their working context (which we may call ‘site of training practice’) and another is by the extent to which the training they deliver is involved in some way with government-accredited qualifications (which we may call ‘formality of training’). A third way is by the extent to which training is a full part of the individual’s career (which we may call ‘role focus of trainer’). This chapter uses Australia as a case study to examine TVET teachers, trainers and instructors and the ways in which their skills are developed and certified, using these classifications as an organizing framework.
2 The Australian Context for Formal TVET The past fifteen years have seen significant changes to the nature and operation of the TVET sector or, as it is more usually known in Australia, the vocational education and training (VET) sector. The Australian VET sector has grown considerably over the past decade, from 1.2 million participants in 1995 to 1.7 million in 2003 (NCVER, 2004) with a slight decline to 1.6 million in 2004 (NCVER, 2005). Substantial changes in the system, known as training reforms, over the past fifteen years (Smith & Keating, 2003) have improved national consistency of qualifications and made competency-based training the norm. These changes have been accompanied R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VIII.3, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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by intensive marketing of VET qualifications to industry and considerable government investment in the system, including funding for some work-based delivery by enterprises (Smith et al., 2005). To a certain extent, there has also been a movement away from a strong focus on up-front and entry-level training to an increased emphasis on in-service training for existing workers. Central to the reforms has been a consolidation of thousands of existing state-based qualifications into a national system of around eighty competency-based ‘training packages’, each package containing a number of qualifications at different levels. Such qualifications, and the competency standards of which they are composed, are known as ‘nationally recognized training’. A strict quality control system, the Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF), was introduced in 2002 to monitor all organizations delivering nationally-recognized training. From 1994 until 2005, the VET system was overseen by the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA), although state and territory systems actually managed training delivery processes. In mid-2005 ANTA was disbanded and its functions subsumed under the federal Department of Education, Science and Training. In terms of provision of VET, there has been a movement away from a near monopoly by the Technical and Further Education System (TAFE), the public provider, to one in which over 4,000 registered training organizations (RTOs) exist (Smith & Keating, 2003).1 Private RTOs can access government funding for certain programmes, particularly, but not only, for training of apprentices and trainees. There is therefore a shift in the balance of public funding from public to private training providers. Some private RTOs are not-for-profit; they may, for example, be local adult and community education (ACE) colleges which offer formal VET qualifications alongside hobby courses or access courses for people returning to study, or from disadvantaged backgrounds. Firms can become RTOs and award qualifications to their workers themselves, or they may work in partnership with TAFE or another RTO. Around 200 companies have become what is known as ‘enterprise RTOs’, able to deliver and award national qualifications; these include some of the largest employers in Australia such as Coles-Myer, the largest retail chain, and McDonalds Australia, the fast-food chain. Much government funding for VET relates to the apprenticeship system. There are almost 400,000 apprentices and trainees in training in Australia (Walters, 2003), of whom a proportion are newly-recruited workers including school-leavers, but of whom a large number are existing workers who have been offered the opportunity to gain an employment-based qualification through in-service training, often on-thejob with no day release to college.
3 VET Practitioners The previous section outlined the range and diversity of VET practice, together with substantial changes that have taken place in the sector over the past fifteen years. It is not surprising that these factors have influenced both the nature of VET practitioners and their qualifications and training.
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It is difficult to establish the size of the teaching workforce in formal VET, but it is thought that there are around 40,000 full-time TAFE teachers and perhaps 300,000 other people involved in VET teaching and training (Guthrie, 2003). The larger figure involves assessors and others involved in workplace delivery of VET, for whom training might only be a small part of their job, as well as part-time TAFE teachers. TAFE systems are administered by each of Australia’s eight state and territory governments, so the nature and conditions of teachers’ work vary quite widely.
3.1 Site of Training Practice In Australia, VET practitioners may work in a range of contexts, which include the following (arranged in what might be considered the order of ‘closeness to industry’):
r r r r r
trainers in firms or non-profit/government enterprises; trainers in industry skill centres; trainers working for private consultancy firms or employer associations; trainers in public or private technical or further education colleges; VET teachers in secondary schools.
In firms or other enterprises, people work in a variety of training roles. These may range from those who coach people on-the-job (Harris, Simons & Bone, 2000) to those who are responsible for human-resource development (HRD) functions for large organizations. This type of VET practitioner may have one of a variety of job titles, such as training officer, HRD officer or learning and development manager. Industry skill-centres offer off-the-job training to a range of firms in an industry area, as do private consultancy firms or employer associations. Sometimes, skill centres are managed by employer associations. Trainers in these types of companies may spend much of their time delivering face-to-face training or may undertake other roles as well. The largest number of VET practitioners is employed by TAFE—the public further education system—and comprises a core of full-time teachers augmented by a considerable number of part-time staff who generally teach as an addition to their ‘day’ jobs in trades and professions. For example, the teachers may be plumbers or accountants who teach plumbing or accounting in the evening. Students who are studying as apprentices attend in the daytime, so are generally taught by full-time teachers. There are also some part-timers whose only work is in TAFE. This traditional pattern of TAFE teaching persists, although there has been an extension of casual and temporary contract staff (Forward, 2004). The TAFE workforce is relatively old, with many teachers in their 40s and 50s. TAFE is becoming increasingly feminized, with many female teachers being appointed to teach relatively new teaching areas such as hospitality, retail and community services, while the more traditional TAFE areas such as engineering and construction, where most of the teachers are male, are in relative—although not absolute—decline (Guthrie, 2003).
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Part-time and casual VET teachers are more likely to be female than male, as in the workforce as a whole (Harris et al., 2001). In the private sector, with over 4,000 RTOs now registered—of whom only a few hundred are in the public sector—the non-TAFE VET workforce is much larger than it used to be. Non-TAFE practitioners have some different characteristics from TAFE teachers: for example, private RTOs often recruit younger staff early in their careers who are willing to accept a relatively low rate of pay (Guthrie, 2003). These practitioners are more likely to be involved in selling training to companies, in assessment and in administrative work rather than in teaching. This is because the most typical client group for non-TAFE RTOs is on-the-job or work-based trainees. With these students, teachers travel to the trainee organization’s premises to plan training and assess the trainee’s performance rather than the student attending the RTO for face-to-face teaching. This makes the job quite different from that of the traditional TAFE teacher, who is more likely to deliver training to a group of students in a classroom or workshop, although TAFE teachers are increasingly involved in such ‘non-standard’ work. Moreover, non-TAFE RTOs are heavy users of nationally developed learning materials in their teaching and assessment; so their staff are less likely than TAFE teachers to be involved in programming or writing learning materials. The rapid growth of VET in schools (Polesol et al., 2004) has led to many schoolteachers becoming qualified to deliver accredited VET qualifications through the curriculum based on ‘training packages’. Teachers of VET in secondary schools are, however, outside the scope of this chapter, which focuses only on the VET sector. The qualifications of VET teachers in schools fall in a complex arena (Green, 2004), which incorporates an added level of regulatory requirements to do with state and territory school-teacher accreditation bodies. Many teachers of VET in schools teach traditional school subjects as well as VET subjects, and teachers of VET in schools generally identify themselves as school-teachers rather than as VET teachers. Thus, these teachers are quite different from VET teachers and are best discussed separately.
3.2 Formality of Training Another way of looking at VET practitioners is to consider the extent to which they are involved in delivering formal qualifications. In Australia, this normally means whether they are delivering qualifications from ‘training packages’ or, to a lesser extent, some other nationally recognized qualifications that are outside the training-package system. Practitioners who work for an RTO, whether TAFE or a private RTO, are likely to spend most of their time delivering and/or assessing formal qualifications, or sometimes short courses that are called ‘statements of attainment’ and consist of single or multiple units of competency. Such practitioners need a particular skill set that relates to competency-based training and assessment, and requires compliance with the Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF). Teachers may also be involved with other formal accredited courses, such as those
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relating to proprietary training for computer software, for example, and this may require additional qualifications or certification for the teachers. However, particularly in ACE providers, there are many teachers who are involved in the delivery of courses that do not have a qualification outcome. Traditionally, training in enterprises, skill centres and the like has not involved formality; while companies have offered off-the-job training courses or sent employees to courses offered externally, courses did not normally attract qualifications and the performance of trainees was not formally assessed. With the increasing adoption of nationally recognized training in enterprises, however, this has changed. Sometimes trainers in enterprises deliver such training, or sometimes they work closely with other RTOs who deliver the training, with staff in the enterprise perhaps assisting with assessment (Smith et al., 2005). These developments have led to a new breed of enterprise training staff, very familiar with the VET system, and who know how to use it to the benefit of their organizations (Chappell & Johnston, 2003). As enterprises have increased their use of nationally-recognized training and their involvement with the VET system, they have also learned how this form of training can be integrated more effectively with recruitment, selection, career progression and organization change processes (Smith et al., 2005). It is the administration of the integration of enterprise-level training with the national training system that is becoming the unique feature of enterprise-based training staff in Australia. However there are still companies and therefore training staff who are not closely engaged with the national training system, and these practitioners would identify more closely with ‘traditional HRD’ as a field of practice (Koornheef, Oostvogel & Poell, 2005).
3.3 Role Focus of Trainer In many cases TVET practitioners have roles apart from their training roles. In firms they may have roles in other fields of activity within the human resourcemanagement function, working as a manager or supervisor, or simply performing some training activities while contributing mainly as an operational or shop-floor worker. Even staff who identify primarily as trainers may spend much of their time planning or brokering training rather than delivering training. In some RTO contexts, the RTO is part of a fuller range of services within which the practitioner works. For example, many not-for-profit RTOs (as well as some for-profit RTOs) offer employment services or counselling services to clients, particularly disadvantaged clients, as well as providing training. This has happened since the Australian federal government has progressively over the past two decades put out many such services to tender. A prime example of this type of RTO is Mission Australia,2 which delivers over 100 national qualifications in every state and territory, as well as non-accredited training. Its staff may move between employment services and training activities.
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Even in those RTOs that are primarily training providers, there are large numbers of VET practitioners who have a number of roles as individuals. Trainers in public and private RTOs may only be part-time. They may spend much of their working week in industry, or may work across a range of RTOs. Their commitment to each RTO and their understanding of organizational culture and norms may be quite low, and they may be disadvantaged in terms of access to staff development activities.
4 Common Challenges in Australian VET Practice While the VET workforce is diverse, there are some common challenges that all practitioners are facing; as well as groups of challenges particular to certain types of practitioners. A challenge related to all training is the increasing use of flexible delivery in both institutional and enterprise settings. E-learning is the most obvious example, although delivery may be flexible in time or place as well as mode (Smith & Keating, 2003, p. 129). Research has shown (e.g. Brennan, 2003) that e-learning does not suit all learners, and many providers, both in enterprises and in RTOs, are reasonably cautious about the extent to which they use it; however, in such a large country like Australia with a small population, there are obvious advantages to learning methods that do not rely on teacher and student being at the same location at the same time. An example of an enterprise that uses e-learning extensively, but not at a sophisticated level is Coles-Myer.3 This company uses on-line recruitment and selection processes which have recently extended to on-line induction modules, as well as, for example, some skills training which can be delivered to check-out operators at their check-outs. Coles-Myer’s uptake of such systems was preceded by a study into attitudes of managers and employees (Elkner, 2001). In the public domain, TAFE in New South Wales has a delivery unit—the Open Education and Training Network (OTEN)4 —which, over the past decade, has been increasingly moving from traditional distance learning materials to e-learning. VET practitioners involved with such developments have needed to develop new skills, both in the technological and pedagogical field. A national professional development programme, Learnscope,5 has been running for nearly ten years to assist with this process. The remainder of the challenges discussed in this section relate primarily to nationally-recognized training and may be faced by practitioners involved with the national VET system working either in RTOs or in enterprise settings. Many practitioners have found it difficult moving to a competency-based system. VET has always been closely linked to industry, but before the adoption of competency-based training (CBT) in the late 1980s as the future direction of the VET system, VET training was not necessarily outcomes-focused. A shift to CBT meant that the emphasis moved from curriculum inputs to outcomes that are expressed in student competency. Assessment became as important as teaching or training. Many teachers, particularly in TAFE, resisted these changes (Smith &
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Keating, 2003). While CBT has now become accepted as the norm, many practitioners still experience difficulty in implementing CBT and working with ‘training packages’. The implementation of the AQTF, introduced in 2002 to ensure quality in the VET system, created challenges for both RTOs and for the teachers working in them. RTOs were required to document a number of procedures and practices, including the teaching and assessment strategies used in their courses (ANTA, 2005). This created much concern although the majority of reputable training providers seemed to welcome the need to examine and improve their processes; however, individual practitioners have sometimes experienced the change as burdensome (Brennan & Smith, 2002; Grace, 2005). The use of ‘training packages’ in enterprises has led to challenges both for the enterprises and for RTOs working in partnership with them. Enterprise practitioners have needed to consider the issue of AQTF compliance, discussed in the previous paragraph. Practitioners in RTOs working with enterprises have needed to negotiate with enterprise issues, such as the extent of customization that enterprises would like to see in national ‘training packages’ (Callan & Ashworth, 2004), and, where traineeships are delivered on the job, the learning opportunities that are available for trainees (Wood, 2004) so that trainees’ learning can be, as Unwin and Fuller (2003) describe it in the English context, expansive rather than restricted.
5 Qualifications and Professional Development for VET Practitioners The professional development of teachers and trainers in the VET sector is a complex matter. As discussed above, there are many different types of settings in which they work, and the educational qualifications required to work in those settings vary greatly. As well as their teaching or training qualifications, VET practitioners working within the formal system must have a qualification in the vocational area in which they teach. It cannot therefore be assumed—as it can, for example, for school-teachers—that all practitioners have the same base level of qualification. For this reason, there is less of a clear-cut division between ‘initial teacher education’ and ‘continuing development’ than there is for school-teachers: a VET practitioner undertaking an initial course in VET may already have many years’ experience as a VET teacher.
5.1 ‘Up-Front’ Teacher Training for VET Staff Traditionally, universities have offered initial teacher training for full-time TAFE teachers; initially this consisted of diplomas and later full degrees, or graduate diplomas for teachers who were already graduates in another discipline, such as
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management or social work. All new TAFE full-time teachers, unless they were already trained teachers, would undergo this teacher training. Commonly, similar courses were offered for instructors in the armed services or other public-sector training roles. This ‘front-end’ training was augmented by short staff-development courses in specific skills or issues. Generally, staff development was overseen by central staff-training units in TAFE systems. Prior to the early 1990s, part-time TAFE teachers were often offered a variety of short courses in instructional techniques. For example, New South Wales TAFE offered the Basic Methods of Instruction (BMI) course, and other providers offered similar short courses to their teachers. Industry trainers sometimes studied humanresource management or human-resource development at university, or were sent by their employers on short ‘train-the-trainer’-styled courses. Since the mid-1990s the scene has changed quite considerably. Few TAFE teachers are now sponsored by their employers to undertake full teacher-training courses—New South Wales TAFE being a notable exception. There have been three major reasons for this. The first is that budgetary constraints caused TAFE systems to consider whether they could actually afford to sponsor their teachers through teacher-training courses. The major cost of the sponsorship has been not the course fees but the fact that sponsored teachers have traditionally been released from teaching duties, and casual teachers have needed to be employed to replace them. The second reason is that, with increased autonomy being accorded to TAFE institutes in every state and territory, decisions about teacher training are now made at the institute level and sometimes at department level. Some institutes might be able to afford to send their teachers to teacher training, or might value such education more highly, while others might not. The third reason is that there is now an alternative, albeit lower-level, qualification, the Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training, which was introduced in 1998 and has recently been superseded by the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. The AQTF has cemented the place of this qualification as a requirement to teach in accredited VET courses, so that now more parity exists between part-time teachers, private RTO staff, workplace trainers and full-time TAFE teachers. For VET providers, then, it is easy and cheap to insist on a Certificate IV as a pre-entry qualification, and there is apparent legitimacy in so doing. The qualification has therefore become not only the minimum qualification required to teach in VET, but in some cases also the maximum required (Harris et al., 2001). However, the qualification is extremely problematic and some of the issues associated with the Certificate IV are discussed in the next section.
5.2 Certificate IV Qualifications for VET Practitioners During the early 1990s, competency standards were developed in Australia for workplace training and assessing. The original workplace-trainer standards divided workplace trainers into two categories: Category 1 trainers were considered to be those who occasionally undertook training tasks as part of their salaried work; Category 2 trainers had training as their main earning activity. The standards for
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Category 2 trainers were, therefore, more rigorous and detailed than those for Category 1. A Certificate IV in workplace training met the Category 2 standards (NAWT, 2001). In addition, workplace assessor standards were developed in 1993. Training for workplace assessors was aimed primarily at people who carried out assessment in the workplace, generally as part of formal training programmes, but was sometimes undertaken also by people who taught in VET institutions. In the second half of the 1990s, these standards were gathered together into the Training Package in Assessment and Workplace Training, endorsed in 1998. Although the title of the package suggests that it is designed for people who work in a workplace rather than an institutional setting, the Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training that was one of the qualifications in the new training package became widely adopted in TAFE colleges and other RTOs. There were some serious problems with the training package itself, its delivery and its application. The following list of problems is partly based upon the report of Stage 1 of the training package review (NAWT, 2001).
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Content of the Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training. The units of competence were written in words that reflected the work of workplace trainers and not teachers in an RTO setting. They contained no reference to learning theory or teaching approaches. It has been noted that teachers who only have a Certificate IV have a very different approach to teaching from those who have a degree-level qualification (Lowrie, Smith & Hill, 1999). Delivery of the qualification. The Certificate IV was notorious among training package qualifications for the poor quality of delivery. Many RTOs delivered this qualification in well below the nominal hours (one-weekend courses were not unknown) and full recognition of prior learning (RPL) was commonly granted in the qualification. RTOs often awarded the qualification to their own staff, to meet AQTF requirements, which could be interpreted as a potential conflict of interest. Application of the qualification. While the Certificate IV may have been suitable for those who perform a limited range of teaching and assessment tasks in a limited range of settings, a problem is that it has been viewed, or at least utilized, as though it was suitable for the full range of VET teaching activities.
Dissatisfaction with the Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training has been well documented (e.g. NAWT, 2001) and the subject of much discussion among VET personnel. State TAFE systems were worried about the drop in teaching standards which could ensue if their teaching workforce came to consist predominantly of people with only a Certificate IV-level teaching qualification. But states were also concerned about keeping costs of teacher development down. Most of them, therefore, looked at options where teacher training could be delivered at least partly in-house rather than at universities. Teachers’ unions, however, prefer teachers to obtain qualifications outside their own systems, partly to contain the power which employers have over teaching staff and partly to ensure that teachers gain a much broader view of VET and have transferable skills.
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5.3 The New Training and Assessment Training Package The review of the Training Package in Assessment and Workplace Training was a lengthy process, taking place between 1999 and 2004, and was managed by National Assessors and Workplace Trainers (NAWT), the national body overseeing trainer qualifications which is now part of the Business Services Skills Council, Innovation and Business Skills Australia.6 The review involved wide-ranging and successive consultation across Australia with various stakeholders. The revised training package was endorsed in late 2004, and has a new name—training and assessment—to reflect an increased emphasis upon teaching rather than assessment. There are a number of major changes embodied in the new Certificate IV qualification:
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It is a ‘bigger’ qualification with fourteen rather than eight units of competency; Greater emphasis upon pedagogical theory; Some provision for specialization and electives; and Tightening of regulation about assessment of the units of competency, ensuring higher-quality graduates.
The new Certificate IV has twelve core units and two electives. It is intended that it should take about 300 hours to deliver. The core units are:
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Work effectively in VET; Foster and promote an inclusive learning culture; Ensure a healthy and safe learning environment; Use training packages to meet client needs; Design and develop learning programmes; Plan and organize group-based delivery; Facilitate work-based learning; Facilitate individual learning; Plan and organize assessment; Assess competence; Develop assessment tools; and Participate in assessment validation.
The proposed revisions are likely to go some way to meeting various shortcomings of the package, but criticisms will remain. There is little mechanism within the training-package framework to address problems of low-quality delivery practices. A recent study of the old Certificate IV (Simons, Harris & Smith, 2006) indicated substantial knowledge gaps among those delivering the qualification, and in the theory base acquired by learners enrolled in the qualification, which indicated the need for careful scrutiny of the quality of delivery. Also, there remains the problem that the Certificate IV could be regarded as a sufficient (rather than base-level) qualification for VET teachers. A further difficulty has been transition arrangements, especially the desire of people with the old Certificate IV (of whom there are a great number) to upgrade to the new qualification. The practices that are emerging show that many people wish to gain the new qualification through recognition of
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prior learning rather than through new learning, despite the radically different nature of the new qualification—and unfortunately there are many RTOs willing to grant this wish! Universities offering VET teacher training, of which there are around twenty, have been working in a consultative way (Brennan-Kemmis & Smith, 2004) to manage articulation into university teacher-training qualifications, as well as embedding of the qualification within university awards, but this process has not been straightforward. For example, it is difficult (although not impossible) to reconcile VET-sector approaches to assessment with university expectations and regulations (Bush & Smith, 2004).
5.4 Continuing Education and Staff Development Beyond the acquisition of qualifications, further staff development for VET teachers and trainers can take place at one or more of the following levels: 1. National level: because of the importance of skill formation of the workforce to the nation, there is a strong impetus for a national perspective to VET teachers’ and trainers’ development. 2. State level: state training authorities have an interest in ensuring that VET practitioners deliver high-quality training. 3. Provider level: Most VET providers offer staff development of some sort. When we look at TAFE systems, this can be on a very large scale. 5.4.1 National-Level Staff Development During the past fifteen years there has been a succession of national programmes that have operated in a similar way; national funding is made available to groups of VET practitioners for specific types of staff development activities. The most important national initiative has been the ‘Framing the Future’ programme, now entitled ‘Reframing the Future’.7 This programme was given a large annual budget by the Australian National Training Authority and is now funded by the Department of Education, Science and Training. Framing the Future began by funding action-learning groups primarily to assist with the introduction of training packages, but the revised version post-2000 has been much broader and involves programmes for managers as well as practitioners. The 2005 programme has five areas of activity, which change each year. Programmes that are funded are required to submit summaries of their activities, which are published on the website. 5.4.2 State-Level Staff Development State training authorities (STAs) offer short staff-development programmes, which are open to staff from any type of RTO. States have been increasingly concerned with helping RTO staff, particularly those from non-TAFE providers, to deliver good-quality training and assessment and to cope with changes in the VET system.
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Such staff development programmes recognize STAs’ responsibilities in relation to quality, and the fact that private RTOs are much more likely than TAFE systems to expect teachers to join them with all their skills ready-made rather than having to offer training for them (Harris et al., 2001). Many STAs offered extensive training programmes around the time of the introduction of the AQTF; and some states, for example South Australia, offer regular briefing sessions which RTOs can attend to keep up with VET development. In addition, training may be offered in specific topics related to training and assessment. 5.4.3 Provider-Level Staff Development Staff development usually occurs as a result of the need for new skills or new approaches to teachers’ and trainers’ work. A study of staff development in VET found that most stakeholders believed that half of VET teachers did not have most of the skills and knowledge that they identified as being important in the near future (Harris et al., 2001). Part-time, older and casual staff were perceived to possess the necessary skills and knowledge to a lesser extent than were full-time and younger staff (Harris et al., 2001, p. vii). A special need for VET teachers, as compared, for instance, to school-teachers, is to keep up to date with trends in the industry for which they prepare students. Teachers need to find out what new technology is being used in their industry, what new skills are emerging and how the organization of work is changing. Maintaining technical currency is an important driver for staff development (Holland & Holland, 1998) and has become particularly important both with the implementation of the AQTF, which contains requirements about vocational competency, and with the introduction of new training-package qualifications which people have not taught before. Most VET providers have some type of ‘return-to-industry’ scheme, although available opportunities are not always well-utilized. The requirement for VET teachers to search for ‘business’ out in industry has not yet been systematically addressed by many TAFE providers: in some TAFE systems this activity is officially left to specialized consulting staff, although individual teachers may already be carrying out the activity, while private RTOs are generally more focused on this sort of activity. Some TAFE systems maintain central staff development units, whilst others have decentralized this function to institutes or colleges. There is normally, however, some sort of central unit which sets directions and policy. Private RTOs utilize a range of staff-development processes and all RTOs are required, through the AQTF, to document the ways in which they develop their teaching and training staff.
5.5 Industry Trainers With the major national focus upon formal training that is part of the VET system, industry trainers have become sidelined. While the new Certificate IV qualification has substantial applicability to industry-trainers delivering national qualifications,
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it is not of great relevance to trainers who are outside the VET system. Comparison of human-resource development competencies, such as that developed by the American Society for Training and Development (Rothwell, Sanders & Soper, 1999), reveals a large gap between the field of practice implied by these competencies and those available through the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. The process of review of the training package was dominated by VET-sector personnel and hence industry training as a field of practice was not really considered (Smith, 2005). While the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment is nevertheless likely to be a requirement for most industry training jobs, in looking for more highly-qualified staff, enterprises are likely to look at business or humanresource management qualifications than higher-level VET qualifications (Smith, 2005).
6 Final Commentary This chapter has examined the nature of VET teachers, trainers and instructors in Australia and shown that they are a very diverse collection of practitioners. They vary in the site of their training practice, the extent to which they are involved with the formal VET system, and the degree to which training is the focus of their working week. Because of the diversity of working practices, there has not been, and probably cannot be, universal agreement on the skills needed for such work nor the qualifications that are required for practitioners. The competency-based qualification, the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, while an improvement on its predecessor, is nevertheless flawed. Training providers and enterprises that recruit trainers may find that their employees are not as skilled as they would like. Hence many practitioners seek university-level qualifications. Despite new quality regulations in the VET system, it is ultimately the responsibility of the teachers, trainers and instructors themselves to maintain their instructional and technical capabilities and to seek further training, especially when changes in the VET system require extra skills from practitioners. The quality of the VET system depends upon the quality of teachers, trainers and instructors, and hence relies heavily on the professionalism of these individuals.
Notes 1. Altogether, 4,214 RTOs were recorded in January 2006 on the National Training Information Service at <www.ntis.gov.au> 2. Mission Australia is an organization which was originally, and remains, a charity, but which now provides many employment and training services, see: <www.missionaustralia.com.au> 3. In 2006, there were over 2,500 Coles-Meyer outlets in Australia for its various brand names, employing 170,000 people, see <www.colesmyer.com> 4. OTEN uses only flexible delivery for its 37,000 students: <www.oten.edu.au>
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5. <www.flexiblelearning.net.au> 6. <www.ibsa.org.au> 7. The Reframing the Future website provides information about all programmes, as well as descriptions and evaluations of them:
References Australian National Training Authority. 2005. Standards for registered training organisations, 2nd ed. Melbourne, Australia: ANTA. Brennan, R. 2003. One size doesn’t fit all: pedagogy in the online environment. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Brennan, R.; Smith, E. 2002. AQTF: impact of provisions relating to teaching and teacher qualifications. Australian vocational education review, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 8–23. Brennan-Kemmis, R.; Smith, E. 2004. Report of workshop: implementing the training and assessment training package across the sectors. Melbourne, Australia: AVTEC. <education.curtin.edu.au/avtec/meetings/workshop2004-rept.html> Bush, A.; Smith, E. 2004. Articulation and embedding. (Paper presented at the twelfth Annual International Conference on Post-Compulsory Education and Training, Griffith University Centre for Learning Research, Surfers Paradise, Australia, 6–9 December 2004.) Callan, V.; Ashworth, P. 2004. Working together: industry and VET provider training partnerships. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Chappell, C.; Johnston, R. 2003. Changing work: changing roles for vocational education and training teachers and trainers. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Elkner, B. 2001. Building flexAbility, getting connected: measuring e-readiness at Coles Supermarkets. TAFE frontiers and VISTA forum. Melbourne, Australia: TAFE Frontiers. Forward, P. 2004. Profession and identity. Australian TAFE teacher, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 16–17. Grace, L. 2005. Training packages and the AQTF: freedom to move or components of a compliance-driven straitjacket? (Paper presented at the eighth Australian VET Research Association (AVETRA) Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 13–15 April 2005.) Green, A. 2004. Bridging two worlds: an alternative pathway to teaching. (Paper presented at the Forum for the Advancement of Continuing Education Conference, University of Stirling, United Kingdom, 2–4 July 2004.) Guthrie, H. 2003. VET managers’ and practitioners’ work: how is it changing? (Kit compiled for AVETRA conference workshop, Sydney, Australia, 9–11 April 2003.) Harris, R.; Simons, M.; Bone, J. 2000. More than meets the eye? Rethinking the role of workplace trainer. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Harris, R. et al. 2001. The changing role of staff development for teachers and trainers in vocational education and training. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Holland, A.; Holland, L. 1998. Maintaining the technical currency of vocational educators. (Paper presented to the European Educational Research Association Conference, Ljubljana, Slovenia, September 1998.) Koornheef, M.; Oostvogel, K.; Poell, R. 2005. Between ideal and tradition: the roles of HRD practitioners in South Australian organisations. Journal of European industrial training, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 356–68. Lowrie, T.; Smith, E.; Hill, D. 1999. Competency-based training: a staff development perspective. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. National Assessors and Workplace Trainers—NAWT. 2001. Review of the Training Package for Assessment and Workplace Training, Final Report Stage 1. Melbourne, Australia: ANTA. National Centre for Vocational Education Research. 2004. Australian VET statistics: students and courses, 2003. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER.
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National Centre for Vocational Education Research. 2005. Pocket guide: Australian VET statistics 2004. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Polesol, J. et al. 2004. VET in schools: a post-compulsory perspective. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Rothwell, W.; Sanders, E.; Soper, J. 1999. ASTD models for workplace learning and performance: roles, competencies and outputs. Alexandria, VA: ASTD. Simons, M.; Harris, R.; Smith, E. 2006. The Certificate IV in assessment and workplace training: understanding learners and learning. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Smith, E. 2005. Getting down and dirty down under: battling over trainer qualifications in Australia. (Paper presented at the sixth International Conference on HRD Research and Practice across Europe, Leeds Metropolitan University, United Kingdom, 25–27 May 2005.) Smith, E.; Keating, J. 2003. From training reform to training packages. Tuggerah Lakes, Australia: Social Science Press. Smith, E. et al. 2005. Enterprises’ commitment to nationally recognised training for existing workers. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Unwin, L.; Fuller, A. 2003. Expanding learning in the workplace. Leicester, UK: National Institute of Adult Continuing Education. Wood, S. 2004. Fully on-the-job training: experiences and steps ahead. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Walters, C. 2003. Keynote address to the changing face of VET. (Paper presented to the sixth Annual Conference of the Australian VET Research Association, Sydney, Australia, 9–11 April 2003.)
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Chapter VIII.4
TVET Teacher-Training Requirements in the Russian Federation Vasiliy P. Kosyrev, Petr F. Kubrushko and Andrei N. Kouznetsov
1 Introduction The qualifications and educational level of teachers and trainers are reflected in their professional activity. The training of Russian teachers of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is carried out in accordance with the various levels of professional activities: instructors with post-secondary training; professionals with higher qualifications (e.g. bachelor’s and master’s degrees); and professionals with doctoral degrees. The TVET structure includes institutions of primary, secondary and tertiary education, post-graduate education, and in-service institutions for retraining and further qualification. These types of TVET institutions require teachers, instructors, trainers, supervisors and professors with specific kinds of professional expertise. According to the data available in January 2006 (Kubrushko, 2006), in the Russian Federation (hereafter Russia) there were 6,026 primary and secondary TVET institutions, 338 in-service training and qualification advancement establishments and 1,386 higher learning institutions. Some 3,890 primary vocational training centres make up the bulk of TVET institutions in Russia. There is currently a crisis in the number of suitably qualified teachers in these institutions, with a little over 78.7% of teaching and administrative positions currently occupied, which means that there is a shortage of some 50,000 TVET professionals, including 32,000 trade instructors. In the year 2000, the TVET system lost over 22,800 managers and trainers to industry. Taking into account the fact that some 13.9% of those employed are part-time teachers, the true shortage of TVET professionals probably exceeds 70,000. This shortage is aggravated by the inadequate qualifications of those employed. On average, only some 88.2% of school principals and superintendents and 82.5% of teaching staff hold university degrees, and of these less than 20% have TVET as their major subject. Only 26.4% of trade instructors hold degrees, while 16.2% of instructors were found to be formally less qualified than their graduates! Our research revealed that TVET school principals and trainers are mostly professionals with engineering or other non-teacher qualifications, and they have no relevant teaching skills or psychological preparation required to carry out teaching successfully. It
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is evident that the pedagogical component of teacher education has not received sufficient attention.
2 Professional and Pedagogical Education (PPE) In Russia, TVET staff are trained within a specialized system of professional and pedagogical education (PPE). PPE is aimed at the development of a professional capacity for efficient functioning in primary, secondary, higher and in-service training, and for carrying out all the necessary functions of a complex educational task. These characteristics make the PPE system different from conventional teacher training intended to supply general schools with teachers. PPE also differs from the engineering training system, which is aimed at training professionals for industry and services. Secondary PPE is carried out in accordance with eighteen minor subject fields within the TVET major, which is regulated by the State Educational Requirements issued in 1997 (Kubrushko, 2006). Graduates can serve as vocational trainers and junior college instructors. Higher (tertiary) PPE is carried out according to nineteen minor subject fields regulated by the State Educational Requirements issued in 2000 (Russian Federation. Ministry of Education, 2000). Graduates from higher PPE receive their university degree in TVET and can teach at all educational levels. The subjects taught at secondary and higher schools form part of the principle TVET majors corresponding to the List of Secondary TVET Fields for Russia (Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation, 8 December 1999, no. 1362) (Kubrushko, 2006). In 2002, Russian secondary and tertiary institutions issued some 1,700 TVET teachers with university degrees after five years of study and over 6,200 vocational education instructors with technical school diplomas. The latter are somewhat similar to bachelor degree graduates, but such graduates are not allowed to teach theoretical subjects and they mostly assist teachers in conducting laboratory classes and field training. Even if all of these nearly 8,000 graduates joined TVET schools, this would have covered only 19% of existing TVET vacancies and 30% of annual vacancies that became available due to the loss of TVET teachers. It is this shortage of trained TVET teachers that has obliged many vocational schools to employ unqualified professionals. At present, the Russian PPE system incorporates eighty-three tertiary and eightythree secondary schools. These include two specialized universities, eleven regular universities, eighteen technical universities, twenty agricultural universities and twenty-six teacher-training universities. In addition, vocational teachers are also trained in thirty-seven non-specialized colleges and training centres. The contents of PPE training are unique. PPE syllabi are based on an analysis of TVET teacher activity, which involves various professional fields. Three basic components make up the bulk of training: (a) specialized training (e.g. technical, biological, architectural, etc.); (b) vocational (trade) training; and (a) psychology and
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teaching methods. These three fields are so finely integrated and co-ordinated that the course can be compared neither to a specialized technical field (such as engineering, medicine, agriculture, etc.), nor pure teacher training. These requirements are laid down in the State Educational Requirements for Secondary and Tertiary Schools (Zhuchenko, Romantsev & Tkachenko, 1999). This feature of PPE provides a solid basis for competitive training, and to a great extent it promotes the future job-market placement and mobility of PPE graduates and, through them, their TVET students. According to the State Educational Requirements, a graduate from the TVET teacher-training course should be ready to undertake the following activities (Russian Federation. Ministry of Education, 2000):
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TVET training: the teaching of general and special vocational subjects in various TVET institutions. Production and technological work: TVET teachers should be qualified as professionals who possess the competences required for the performance of particular job-related operations forming the contents of teaching. Methodological work: teachers are required to develop their own teaching aids and materials to meet the specific requirements of TVET training at a particular type and level of educational institution. Managerial and administrative activities: TVET teachers are expected to possess the skills of school administration and efficient resource management, inasmuch as these skills are required for class organization, curriculum development, career advancement and the utilization of often limited school resources. Research: the search for, careful selection, interpretation and skilful introduction into actual teaching practice of TVET related data; Moral educational: teachers are also responsible for the upbringing of their students and the fostering of personal characteristics (accuracy, leadership, industriousness, diligence, etc.) that would be required for graduates to successfully perform job-related tasks.
Since 1988, PPE has been integrated into a unified education scheme that is based on the close co-ordination and sequence of secondary and tertiary schooling. This embodies the concept of continuous mastery of teaching skills and educational theories by future TVET teachers, thus reducing both the time and effort required for teaching the standard syllabi. These integrated experiments are supplemented with more complex research in the co-ordination of primary (pre-professional, trade-oriented), secondary, tertiary and post-graduate TVET teacher training. However, the absence of the relevant legislation is understood to be a considerable limiting factor. This is particularly true concerning schools of different types and under the auspices of different ministries (Kubrushko, 2006). As will be indicated further on, continuous PPE is now based on rather contradictory legislation, which is particularly true regarding the contents and requirements of subject training and their adaptability for secondary and tertiary TVET training, which results in rather eclectic TVET teacher training in Russia and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
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3 Eclectic TVET Teacher Training Today, there are further obligations on the professional competence of TVET teachers—their teaching ability being one of the most questioned areas. At the current advanced level of TVET, teachers and instructors are required to demonstrate adequate teaching competence. Those trainers who are considered to lack adequate mastery of educational theory and practice are deemed to be inefficient, leading to stress and discouragement among their students. As mentioned above, TVET psychological awareness and teacher training in most developed countries usually takes place at the university level. The required periods and fields of training are established according to the anticipated duties and responsibilities of graduates. However, there are other forms of TVET psychological and teacher training that are gaining in popularity today. These are mainly carried out through continuous education and professional re-training systems. This means that, apart from the PPE system, there are eclectic (non-specialized) TVET teachertraining schemes based on the primitive ‘additive principle’, i.e. subject (say, technical, biological, architectural, etc.) training supplemented by further teacher training, or vice versa. Another—and much more common—form of TVET teacher training is the so-called ‘on-the-job training’, where unskilled teachers are taught TVET educational procedures and start accumulating relevant experience through actual teaching practice. Among the advantages of this system is that senior and more experienced teachers can share their skills and methodological tools with young professionals. This form of training is very closely associated with the actual working situation in any given school. The disadvantages of this type of training include its eclectic and sporadic nature, its low level of educational and psychological theoretical background, and a certain level of uncertainty in terms of the professional teaching competence that most young teachers exhibit when in class. This form of training is also considered to be a barrier to the introduction of standardized TVET teacher-training requirements, as those teachers who are currently employed by the TVET system may actively resist the process of standardization. The introduction of up-to-date requirements leads to the inevitable questioning of professional competences already acquired by ‘experienced’ and locally ‘reputable’ teachers—and even teacher trainers. Thus, this on-the-job training may hardly be accepted as an efficient method. Part-time and/or short-term TVET teacher-training courses are increasingly offered by many universities. These courses are highly favoured by TVET professionals, as they mean that graduates have more flexible competences and still acquire the basic advantages of the regular (full-time) university professional training. Thousands of TVET teachers prefer taking summer or other seasonal training courses that build up and, in time, constitute the core of their professional—mainly educational and psychological—competence. The relevant experience of the European Union may be noted in this context. Member countries agreed on setting standards for psychological and teacher train-
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ing for TVET instructors. Engineering school teacher education and lifelong retraining and competence advancement are typical of this form of training. Particularly, it led to the establishment of a professional association, the International Society for Engineering Education (IGIP), which is now the most recognized institution in this field. Established in 1972 with UNESCO and UNIDO consultative status, IGIP brings together over sixty countries. Its activities are focused on the advancement of the educational competence of engineering school trainers, so as to meet the growing requirements of both the professional community and TVET students. IGIP monitors the performance of TVET teacher-training centres and, subsequently, accredits them; it co-ordinates and sponsors international research on TVET quality and curricular development, as well as inter-institutional professional consulting and the administration of TVET conferences (Kubrushko, 2006). IGIP-certified TVET teacher-training centres are being established in Russia too—typically based on well-established technical schools—and many TVET professionals are undertaking their in-service training courses there. The courses are typically flexible and TVET practice-relevant, and a module system and continuous education elements are employed. However, most of these schemes have proved to be rather ineffective compared to full-time PPE programmes, and they also require higher amounts of finance and time, apart from which the quality of such training courses is not always up to the required standards. Despite these disadvantages, some of the schemes are still running in full accordance with State requirements. These types of training are recommended under the current social and economic conditions where there is an evident shortage of qualified TVET trainers. This provides an opportunity to support the development of TVET systems in countries with transitional economies that are experiencing a shortage of teachers in vocational schools. It also facilitates the mobility of TVET professional, as well as their adaptability to job-market requirements.
4 Secondary PPE: Contradictions and Development Factors Modern PPE is heavily dependent on social and economic processes. The latter are understood to be those associated with the job market, chambers of commerce, private enterprise, a fragmentation of industries and loose administrative control over education, and so on. In other words, it consists of all of those phenomena that were not previously found under a centralized economy. This situation led to a certain confusion in the requirements that are to be met by TVET teachers and graduates, for example who to train, how to train, what to teach, who/what to refer to for requirements, syllabi, methodology and so on. Some TVET professionals argue that all of these parameters are the responsibility of local educational authorities, but this provokes a cluster of problems, including the following:
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1. The widespread insufficient qualifications for TVET teachers and local educational administrators results in a contrast between the current educational freedom and the poor skills of TVET professionals. 2. The rapid development of industries and services aggravates the shortcomings in graduate qualifications. Above all, there are serious discrepancies between the State, industrial and public requirements for TVET teacher training and the relatively poor professional levels of currently employed TVET teaching staff. Moreover, in direct contradiction with the present-day State requirements, teachers also face pressures from outside the domain of vocational training that might be encountered by any professional, for example, mobility, personal development, communicative skills, private enterprise and so on. 3. There is a widening gap between the number of TVET professionals required and the training capacity of PPE as the most reputable TVET teacher-training system. 4. There is also a gulf between the publicly-recognized importance of certain vocational fields and their lack of attractiveness to Russian youth. This affects the job market as a whole, as well as TVET teacher placement. A certain amount of State support is needed in this sphere in order to improve the image of these professions in the public’s mind. 5. The regional distribution of formerly national education has been poorly administered and has created major discrepancies between federal and local educational policies, which further hamper the application of State regulations in this field. 6. The rapid evolution of the job market stands in contrast to the predominantly conservative nature of the TVET system. 7. There is a clear need for the promotion of professional competence and qualifications among secondary TVET teachers. At the same time, most fields of training are so specific and diverse that secondary and tertiary programmes are hard to integrate, because they do not form a logical succession of educational stages. This is attributed to the lack of certain universal contents in training programmes—both in a specialty and in teaching skills—that could lead to the articulation of different stages. 8. It is still possible to observe a somewhat eclectic range of requirements for TVET teacher competence; the formally promulgated introduction of the competencebased approach to teaching contents selection has failed in practice, as even today the advantages of this approach are not always appreciated by educational officials and, thus, are slow in being accepted in schools. 9. There are other complex contradictions existing within the structure of TVET, such as its organizational forms, the methods used and the contents taught. The entire PPE paradigm has changed in recent years, and it now implies the orientation of TVET in accordance with humanitarian considerations and taking public requirements into account to a greater degree. This necessitates a thorough revision of teaching contents and technology (Kosyrev, 1998; Kubrushko, 2006; Zhuchenko, Romantsev & Tkachenko, 1999; Kosyrev, Kiva & Kuznetsov, 2005).
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5 TVET Teacher-Training Personnel: Key Competences TVET teacher-training personnel employed by secondary and tertiary schools should meet some basic requirements in terms of their professional and teaching competences. These should include:
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comprehension of and belief in fundamental PPE concepts; understanding PPE objectives and the strategies for their realization; competent and skilful choice of teaching contents; complete mastery in up-to-date teaching techniques and educational strategy design leading to an adequate realization of teachers’ personal and professional characteristics; educational managerial skills; mastery of the theory and practice of moral education and the career guidance of youth; mastery in pedagogical and psychological diagnostic techniques to improve TVET processes; and a grasp of recent developments in both the professional field and the educational sciences; this implies competence in continuous self-training strategies and the development of individual resourcefulness.
These requirements may only be met through thorough and well-planned TVET teacher training and the development of professional competence, as well as the continuous perfection of these competences in the actual exercise of professional dayto-day activity by teachers. As was identified through relevant research (Kosyrev, 1998; Kubrushko, 2006), regular professional testing and certification of TVET teacher-training personnel is the best way to guarantee the successful embodiment of these key requirements.
6 TVET Teacher-Training Requirements: Mapping The complete list of professional requirements for TVET teacher competence is presented in the State Educational Requirements for Tertiary PPE (Kosyrev, 1998; Kubrushko, 2006; Zhuchenko, Romantsev & Tkachenko, 1999; Kosyrev, Kiva & Kuznetsov, 2005), which are issued and circulated in Russia and some other former-Soviet countries. There are two major clusters of such requirements— general requirements and professional (subject field) requirements. The latter are then subdivided into general professional (including general teaching competence) and specialized professional requirements (Russian Federation. Ministry of Education, 2000).
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6.1 General Requirements A TVET teacher should:
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have overall mastery in major humanitarian, social and economic theories, the analysis of complex social and environmental processes, the mastery of key scientific research methods and self-training strategies (including resourcefulness) for research and the development of TVET; exercise ethical and legal norms in his/her professional activity, including the development of educational, research, social, engineering and environmental projects; possess an intellectual culture and presentation skills (both written and oral); have mastery of the application of computer skills to the educational, social and engineering fields; be flexible and adaptable to the ever-changing professional, technological, social, scientific and economic environment; possess self-assessment and self-regulation skills; realize and accept the social importance of TVET as his/her chosen profession; be creative and capable of anticipating activity in his/her professional field; be ready to conduct personal and professional co-operation and be open to professional (special field and educational) innovations, and to act as a team-player and a group-leader.
There are also certain fundamental requirements for the humanitarian and economic competence of TVET professionals (i.e. an interest in philosophy, history, arts, sociology, economics, general management, law, politics, linguistics and sports), as well as competence in mathematics and science. These fundamental requirements are typical of any secondary or tertiary teacher training, and they are present in the State requirements for any level of education.
6.2 Professional (Subject) Requirements Professional (subject) requirements are subdivided into general professional obligations (including general teaching competence) and specialized ones. Some of the key TVET teacher competences are listed below. 6.2.1 Competences in Physiology, Psycho-Physiology and Psychology
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basic knowledge of the functioning and development of the human body; adequate knowledge (according to the teaching specialization) of psychological processes (i.e. perception, cognition, imagination, attention, memory, speech, emotions, feelings and self-regulation) and the laws of their development and use in education, as well as that of psychological testing and educational research and diagnostics; essential knowledge about hygiene and healthy work practices;
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adequate first-aid skills, and mastery of terror- and trauma-prevention strategies; mastery of team-building and leadership-development skills.
6.2.2 Competences in the Educational Sciences
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mastery of efficient teaching methods and the ability to select teaching contents for primary, secondary, tertiary and further vocational education; basic knowledge of key philosophical, social and psychological theories that make up the foundation of educational practice; mastery of research methods applicable to educational practice; mastery of key components and rules of educational processes; comprehension of social functions and roles of a TVET teacher; basic mastery of analysis and forecasting TVET graduates’ professional activity; educational design skills, including objective and task setting, syllabi and curricular development and mapping, class planning and analysis; development and maintenance of efficient feedback and professional co-operation with students and alumni; development and efficient and safe use of teaching aids (including engineering and computer-based support).
6.2.3 Specialized Professional (Subject) Requirements Specialized professional (subject) requirements are established in accordance with the particular professional field that a given group of TVET teacher-training students are to major in at their undergraduate, graduate or further education level. In Russia, these fields may range from medicine and biology to agriculture and engineering, from chemical plating to architecture and costume design. These requirements are laid down by law with separate (for individual subject fields) State Educational Requirements that are issued by the Ministry of Education of Russia and some other CIS countries. However, local educational authorities and individual schools are authorized to amend and expand these national requirements with extra subjects to a maximum of 5 to 10% of the total timetable. These amendments are usually connected with specific regional requirements for TVET and TVET teacher training. Another sound reason for such alterations arises from the shortage of particular categories of teacher trainers, which makes it quite impossible to educate future teaching professionals in certain subjects. It is now quite common to substitute some subjects in order to overcome the absence of some temporarily less-required teacher trainers.
7 Conclusion Taking the situation in TVET teacher training in Russia and other CIS countries as a whole, it should be noted that there are still a number of concerns and problems. Principal among these, experts have indicated the apparent shortage of qualified
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TVET teacher trainers, the current low level of teachers’ professional status in the community and the reluctance of young people to obtain vocational qualifications in fields that are considered as low-paid and neglected. These are the problems that require immediate attention on the part of TVET professionals, experts, researchers and administrators. As was shown above, professional and pedagogical education (PPE) is a very powerful institution that provides integrated and finely balanced secondary, tertiary, post-graduate and further training for TVET teachers and instructors. The PPE system has been developed in detail to meet basic TVET requirements; further studies that would allow TVET teacher-training experts and practitioners to perfect this sphere of education are still being conducted in Russia and elsewhere internationally. This chapter has paid particular attention to the State and public requirements for the procedures, contents and quality of TVET teacher training. The existing educational standards are being amended and adjusted to conform to the modern demands and needs of national and international communities, including professional associations, trade unions and local administrations. And it is here that the somewhat challenged and considerably amended TVET teacher-training requirements are needed. As a carefully planned and sound way of advancing into the future, it is worth underlining that the system of TVET teacher training will soon be publicly recognized as something integral to—and vital for—the sustainable development of national education, as well as a key element in the advancement of any country’s economy.
References Kosyrev, V.P. 1998. [Methodical training of TVET teachers.] Moscow. [In Russian.] ISBN 5-20114389-x. Kosyrev, V.P.; Kiva, A.A.; Kuznetsov, A.N. 2005. [Didactic design based on the competence approach.] Moscow: TVET Academy. [In Russian.]. ISBN 5-9559-0120-5. Kubrushko, P.F. 2006. [Contents of professional and pedagogical education.] Moscow: Gardariky. [In Russian.] ISBN 5-8297-0286-x. Russian Federation. Ministry of Education. 2000. [State Educational Standard of Higher Professional Education: Major 030500 – Professional Training (TVET).] Moscow. [In Russian.] Zhuchenko, A.A.; Romantsev, G.M.; Tkachenko, E.V. 1999. [Professional and teacher education in Russia: contents and organization.] Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation: Urals State Professional and Pedagogical University. [In Russian.] ISBN 5-8050-0016-4.
Chapter VIII.5
TVET Teachers and Their Professionalization in China: A Problem Analysis Zhiqun Zhao and Lianwei Lu
1 The Development of the TVET Teachers’ Profession in China Handicrafts have a long history in China, but a proper apprenticeship training tradition has never been set up. China’s vocational education system came into being during the Westernization Movement (yang wu yun dong) in the 1860s, when the royal government of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) began to develop modern industries. In 1904, the Qing Government issued the Constitution of Imperial Schools (zou ding xue tang zhang cheng), which brought industrial education into line with formal education. This was a landmark in the establishment of the vocational education system in China. Concerning the professional development of TVET teachers, Huang Yanpei (1878–1961), an outstanding social activist and educator, and the National Association of Vocational Education of China established on Huang’s initiative,1 played an important role. He and the association advocated ‘widespread vocational education’ (da zhi ye jiao yu zhu yi), including a reform of the traditional education style, which was separated from practice and social activities. He demanded that TVET teachers should take part in the political reform movement and pay more attention to the needs and interests of working people. This went beyond the mere teaching of knowledge and skills and broadened the activity of the TVET teachers’ profession (Li, 1994). A higher expectation was placed upon TVET teachers, namely to engage themselves more in technological and social development. Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (henceforth China) in 1949, the development of TVET teaching as a profession has gone through a number of changes. In 1958 an educational reform was promulgated stating that education should be combined with production. This reform put forward the quality principle of simultaneous development of both State-run schools and those run by enterprises, which broke the unified pattern of formal education. As a result, TVET teachers were required to combine their professional practice with ‘socialized production’. Since China’s reform and open-door policy in the 1980s, the government has issued numerous policies and regulations with respect to increasing TVET teaching capacity in line with the development in the whole TVET field. ‘The Teacher Law of the P.R. of China’ (1993, Article 1) and ‘The Vocational Education Law of the P.R. of China’ (1996, Article 36) provide the legal guidelines on capacity-building R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VIII.5, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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and the qualifications of TVET teachers. It can be concluded that the government’s policy on teachers and the development of schools are vital elements in accelerating (or hindering) the process of promoting the profession of TVET teacher. The Teacher Law, Article 3, provides that: ‘Teachers are the professionals who undertake the duties to educate, teach and train their students in terms of knowledge, competence and morality to be the builders and successors of the socialist cause and to enhance the national qualities’. Thus, teachers are defined as teaching specialists. Furthermore, the Teacher Law provides that ‘The State [. . .] improves their working and living conditions and raises their social position’. The TVET teachers, as an important part of the whole teaching body, ‘are the professionals who are specially qualified and trained’. They are thus capable of teaching vocational knowledge, skills and moral behaviour in order to enable students to acquire ethics, vocational skills and good living habits (Zhang, Li & Kiel, 1998, p. 8). But there are some elements that have impeded the development of TVET teachers as a profession:
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The traditional lower status of TVET in society; Unreasonable and changeable policy-making affecting TVET; and The lack of any TVET teachers’ organizations with political influence.
In China, the Confucian ideal that ‘Those who do manual labour are ruled by those who do mental labour’ (i.e. the mental workers govern the physical workers) has had a profound influence on the knowledge-orientated educational tradition. Even today, practical occupations are generally looked down upon. TVET is considered merely as an educational provision for those who have failed university entrance examinations, and not as an effective way of studying or of fulfilling one’s role in society. Most high-school students—in keeping with the wishes of their parents—only want to study at university immediately upon completion of secondary education, rather than obtaining any vocational education or training. In the market-oriented Chinese society, TVET teachers and the profession do not receive much respect. At present, in terms of income and living standards, TVET teachers belong to the lower middle class in China. The employment and promotion of TVET teachers are regulated almost exactly in the same way as those of general education teachers, but TVET teachers are perceived to be legally inferior to their counterparts in general education. Some teachers have had to take on temporary jobs in their spare time each day or during their holidays to make ends meet. There is no doubt that, in the pursuit of societal progress and economic growth, not enough attention has been paid to the development of TVET teachers as a profession. Another consideration is that, due to the low social status and poor salaries, some young teachers are not ready to become involved in TVET, which is one of the features impeding the steady professional development of this sector. As a result, the visible and invisible flow of TVET teachers leaving the profession is becoming more and more serious. Furthermore, large numbers of senior teachers will be retiring in the coming years (Zheng, 1998). According to the Teacher Law, it is necessary to implement a teacher qualification system. Article 34 stipulates that: ‘the State conducts the employment system
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by signing a contract with a teacher according to his/her qualification. It also intends to upgrade their skills and to reinforce the capacity of the teaching force by means of the assessment of professional proficiency, rewarding higher qualifications and offering teacher-training provisions.’ Article 10 describes the specific categories of teacher qualification; the main components refer to nationality, ethnic background, educational requirements and instructional competence. The teachers’ qualification certificates must be recognized by the appropriate legal authorities entrusted by the government. While great importance is attached to the academic diploma that a teacher candidate holds, there are no definite regulations concerning teachers’ professional competencies. Those teachers who have not yet acquired teaching diplomas are expected to try hard to obtain them. Since the law failed to stipulate the coherence between the teacher’s major and what he/she is allowed to teach, some teachers have been given or are attempting to obtain a teaching diploma that does not require passing a difficult test—although it may have nothing to do with the current subject that they are teaching. In respect of career promotion, the law has adopted the same criteria for teachers of general and vocational education. Almost no attention has been paid to the fact that vocational education is different from general education, the former being focused on the development of practical competence, such as operational skills and experience in industry. TVET teachers, who normally have proficiency in practical subjects, have perceived these criteria as putting them in an unfavourable position. Therefore, the regulations on career promotion have had a negative impact on the professional development of TVET teachers. The Chinese Government has recognized the situation described above and is trying to remedy it by means of policies, regulations and favourable measures to improve TVET teachers’ social status and working and living conditions. These measures include offering a housing property subsidy and other social welfare advantages. In the more-developed areas, such measures are having a satisfactory impact, but in the less-developed regions many difficulties remain in adopting these policies.
2 TVET Teachers’ Qualifications Taking into consideration regional differences in economic development and educational attendance patterns, the Chinese Government is trying to establish a ‘dual’ TVET system that guarantees simultaneous training in an educational institution and in an enterprise. At present China has a three-level vocational education system:
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Elementary vocational education (where lower secondary schools enrol primary school graduates and aim to train skilled workers and farmers at the junior level; such schools only exist in the underdeveloped rural areas); Secondary vocational education—the main part—takes place at senior highschool level, including specialized secondary schools, vocational senior high
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schools and skilled-worker schools. (The existence of these three kinds of schools is due to historical reasons—overlapping between the Ministry of Education and Labour.) At present, there is not much difference among them. Therefore, a new school name—secondary technical vocational school—is gradually replacing these three former school names; Higher vocational education, which enrols graduates from general senior schools and secondary vocational schools. Schooling is generally for two to three years.
In China, full-time teachers in public vocational schools are considered as government employees. (There are only a small number of private vocational schools in China. Teachers in these schools account for only a tiny proportion of the total number of teachers; they are considered as employees in an enterprise.) Types of teachers differ according to the functions of vocational schools. In general, there are two main types in vocational schools: general-knowledge teachers and specialized teachers. The latter are usually divided into specialized theory teachers and practical instructors (see Figure 1). In reality, the structures of teachers in vocational schools are more complicated than this simplified description. To cope with the rapid development of vocational schools in China, teachers need to be produced at a greater rate. In 2003, there were nearly 560,000 full-time teachers engaged in secondary vocational schools, but only 66.5% of them had completed four years of study at the bachelor degree level or above and had received the teaching diploma required by law (China. Ministry of Education (MoE), 2003a). Particularly, a large proportion of specialized teachers had not yet gained the required diplomas. The lack of infrastructures is the main defect for TVET teachers, which is primarily manifested in the following ways:
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There are more than enough general-knowledge teachers, but inadequate numbers of specialized teachers and even fewer practical instructors in vocational schools. In 2004, the percentage of specialized teachers (including practical instructors) in secondary vocational schools was less than 50%. The shortage of specialized teachers is becoming more serious in the new specialties that have been introduced in accordance with economic restructuring and the development of new technologies (China. MoE, 2003b).
TVET teachers
Specialized teachers
Specialized theory teachers
Fig. 1 Types of TVET teachers
Practical instructors
General-knowledge teachers
Double-qualified teachers
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In the last two decades, there have been two structural re-organizations of the Chinese TVET system. Firstly, quite a number of general education secondary schools that had been unsuccessful in enabling graduates to enter university were re-organized into vocational schools; secondly, a number of good vocational schools were upgraded into vocational education colleges. During the organizational transformation, teachers in these schools may have found themselves unqualified for their new tasks. Many teachers who taught academic subjects— e.g. Chinese or physics—in the former general education schools were now compelled to teach specialized courses in vocational schools—e.g. secretarial studies or electronics. Even worse was the situation of those teachers who were not capable of teaching theoretical subjects; they were assigned to practical courses. In the case of institutional upgrading, vocational school-teachers became college lecturers and they too did not receive any corresponding preparation. The great shortage of qualified teachers has meant that many experienced skilled workers or technicians have accepted vacancies as teachers in vocational schools. Some vocational schools recruit their own ‘best graduates’ to act as instructors, which for many schools has become a permanent ‘temporary’ measure.
Based on these different situations, it can be concluded that TVET teachers’ needs for professional training are very different. These can be categorized as follows:
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The former general-knowledge teachers may have acquired experience in teaching but lack vocation-related knowledge and experience in industry. They need to acquire qualifications in different aspects, such as training in practical skills or upgrading of related specialized knowledge. The skilled workers and technicians from enterprises and public institutions who have now become teachers are often skilled in occupational tasks, but deficient in both the subject theory and in pedagogical qualifications. The ‘best’ graduates from vocational schools usually have neither practical experience nor vocation-related knowledge. They are not qualified in pedagogical skills either. A qualification in instructional aspects is the most urgent need for them. Due to the deficiency in experience, specialized knowledge and in teaching competence in practical subjects, many teachers are only capable of performing administrative and support tasks when they are assigned to practical internships in companies and enterprises.
In addition, there are a large number of part-time teachers engaged in vocational schools. As experienced workers, technicians or engineers, they are invited to teach specialized or practical courses, especially for the newly established subjects—this is the so-called short-term training provisions. Employing part-time specialists from industry has become quite common in many vocational schools that co-operate with enterprises to provide training programmes that are needed urgently. It has been reported that 10% of teaching posts in secondary vocational schools are filled by part-time teachers (China. MoE, 2003b).
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Specialists from industry who are engaged as part-time teachers in vocational schools pose a challenge to the development of the TVET teacher as a profession. It tends to suggest that full-time TVET teachers should only devote themselves to theoretical subjects, and that there is no need for schools to build up a full-time teaching staff for practical training, since this can be undertaken by external specialists employed part-time.
3 The Education and Training of TVET Teachers Before the first Opium War (1840–1842), the procedure for selecting teachers was an integral part of the imperial examination system, which was aimed at recruiting royal officers. In 1897, Nanyang Public Teachers’ Institute (gong xue shi fan yuan) was established, which is now recognized as the birthplace of modern teacher education in China. After the founding of modern China, teacher education was reformed according to the former Russian model, and a triple teacher education system was established, as shown in Figure 2. The following institutions are responsible for teacher education:
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Normal (teacher-training) universities/colleges with a four-year study period towards a bachelor’s degree, where teacher-candidates for schools at senior high level are qualified, including those for secondary vocational schools. The
Normal universities/colleges (four-year) Teachers’ universities or colleges
Teachersí education & training institutions
Secondary teachers’ schools
Other education and training institutions
Teachers’ colleges, TVET teacher colleges (three-year)
Secondary teachers’ schools
Teachers’/TVET teachers’ training institutes in universities/colleges
Correspondence education institutions and TVET universities
Fig. 2 Teacher education systems in China Source: China, MoE, 1998
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entrance requirements are completion of K–12 education and success in the national examination for higher education, which includes a general-knowledge test and an interview relating to personality assessment; Teachers’ colleges, with three-year study towards an academic diploma, responsible for qualifying junior high-school teachers (including those for elementary vocational schools). The entrance requirements are the same as those for normal universities; however, entrance is reserved for those who scored lower scores in the national higher education examination; Secondary teachers’ schools educate primary school-teachers. At present, such schools only continue to exist in the under-developed regions.
In 2005, China had 188 teachers’ colleges or universities, including those for TVET. Compared with teacher education for K–12 schools, TVET teacher education is confronted with fragile development, which is mainly demonstrated in the smaller number of specialized institutions for TVET teacher education and their limited capacity for student enrolment. There are only ten teacher-education institutions separately established for TVET and a further seventeen similar institutions attached to other universities (not all the graduates will go to work in vocational schools). The annual graduates from both kinds of institutions mentioned above, including those who did not major in teacher education, can meet only about half of the requirement for new teachers in TVET institutions (Huang, 2000). Thus, vocational schools have to seek other ways to satisfy their need for new teachers. Universities and colleges (and not teacher colleges) in fact have become the major suppliers of TVET teachers. Because TVET teacher education has not been included in the Category of Higher Education Specialties, issued by China’s Ministry of Education, TVET teacher colleges have had to set up study programmes according to their own understanding of teachers’ qualifications for TVET. There is a lack of scientific research and systemic arrangement in relation to study programmes for TVET teacher education, which can be illustrated in the following way:
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The study programme fails to cover all of the necessary specialties or vocational fields available in TVET schools; Most learning content of the study programme is derived from the corresponding arrangements of engineering faculties; however, such a transfer lacks empirical proof; Some specialties are more focused on practical skills, such as cooking, and neglect basic academic requirements.
According to the framework curricula recommended by the MoE, the course study programme for teacher education in China mainly consists of categories of learning modules on basic courses, specialized courses, psychology and pedagogy. The total study time in the four-year course amounts to about 2,600 hours, approximately twenty-five hours per week. It is clear that almost half of the courses are zweckfrei (i.e. without reference to a specific vocation) (Rauner, 1996). This indicates that the curriculum developers do not intend to connect teacher training with the practical
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requirements of a particular vocational speciality. To foster intellectual development and to transfer knowledge are the guiding principles in developing the curricula in terms of the structure and contents. It can be said that:
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There is no clear connection between the specialized courses and the requirements of the world of work; It is difficult for students to have a clear idea of their work in the future (Zhao, 2003).
The investigation shows that the majority of TVET teachers in China understand their role as ‘semi-engineering’. However, the requirement that TVET teacher education should be closely combined with the work process lays bare the great contradictions between the ideal and reality. The development of didactic theory combining work and learning, practice and knowledge, will demand the development of vocationally specialized programmes—‘vocational discipline’ (Gerds, Heidegger & Rauner, 1998). In recent years, great efforts have been made in TVET teacher colleges to set up specialized study programmes. Relevant research institutions have been established, such as the Higher TVET Teacher Education Committee within the purview of the China Vocational Education Association. It has also been decided to set up national centres of excellence for TVET teacher education and training. All of these measures have laid important institutional foundations for the development of TVET as a specialty in its own right and the ultimate realization of TVET teachers as an independent profession. In practice, in accordance with the principles of a focus on the vocational process, transferability and practicality, TVET teacher colleges have started reforming the curricula in order to set up high-quality and competitive specialties at the level of higher education, though the reform is still in its initial stage.
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The reform in curriculum development is limited to selecting, adjusting and reintegrating relevant content taught in the corresponding engineering specialties. Many colleges have realized the problems caused by following the engineering education system, because it has not gone far enough in developing teaching/learning concepts directed at the work process (Benner, 1997). The term ‘orientation to vocational process’ is often interpreted as a desire to reinforce practical skills training rather than making vocational work as a discipline in its own right, because no signs have been identified of a new educational concept based on a vocational discipline. Among the endeavours to reform study contents in accordance with the principle of ‘transferability’, a proposition has been made in an indirect way that a TVET teacher qualification should include work-process knowledge. But, in reality, the curriculum is still dominated by autonomous technology. It is too much focused on abstract abilities that are expected to be needed in specialized vocational work. However, little content related to work and work organization has been taken into consideration. There is almost no way to guarantee effectively the transferability of study contents.
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In terms of instructional process reform, quite a few institutions have attempted to reinforce practical qualifications by requiring students to be trained for an occupational certificate. Practical qualification is simplified as skills training. The TVET student-teachers have no way of obtaining essential experience to analyse and evaluate work and technology. All these reflect the current condition about how experiential learning and learning related to work processes are conducted within the traditional TVET education system (Dehnbostel, 2000).
In China, the experienced teachers without pedagogic and didactical qualifications are being trained in further training institutions affiliated to universities/colleges or run by private companies. These training institutions provide off-the-job and on-thejob programmes for practical instructors or double-qualified teachers. According to incomplete statistics, there are about 350 institutions engaged in the further education and training of TVET teachers, among which two-thirds are at the higher education level offering training provisions for specialized teachers, and one-third at the secondary education level or run by companies engaged in the training of practical instructors (China. MoE, 2003b). As stated in China’s Action Plan to vitalize education in the 21st century, the MoE supports the development of fifty-six national key bases for TVET teacher education.
4 TVET Teachers’ Work Activities In 1998, the Central Institute of Vocational and Technical Education (CIVTE) organized an international APEC research project on TVET teachers’ working (professional) activities in secondary vocational education.2 Based on teachers’ reports, the following statements can be made:
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The main activities of TVET teachers are preparing for and performing instruction. Over 70% of the teachers undertake demonstrations and experiments. Since the percentage of practical instructors is well below 70%, it is logical to assume that almost all the TVET teachers participate in practical teaching activities and, thus, there is not a real functional difference between specialized teachers and practical instructors. More and more TVET teachers have undertaken duties that were not previously foreseen for their professions before. For example, 47% of teachers take part in labour-market investigation in any year, and over 50% conduct work analysis. This shows that labour-market analysis has become one of their main duties.3 Nearly half of the TVET teachers state that they have rarely been involved in school management and administration. This is due to the greater number of school management personnel. However, according to the government’s requirement, management personnel will gradually be decreased. Thus, more teachers can be expected to engage in school management and administration in the
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future, while still conducting their routine teaching tasks. The transfer of teachers’ duties from pure instruction to management will be a challenge for them. Ethical, political and social education and instruction are considered as part of the main tasks of TVET teachers; however, they seldom take part in career guidance. Some 28% of the teachers help gather employment and further education information for their students, but few teachers analyse the information and use it in their work. In respect of social relations, teachers are more concerned about their relationship with colleagues and students’ parents than with enterprises or communities. Less than half of them took part in activities to promote co-operation between their schools and enterprises, communities and social organizations. What teachers really desire is to have more opportunities for further education and academic activities. Nearly 44% of the teachers reported lack of such opportunities. Therefore, the shortcomings of the teacher-training system are a major factor hindering vocational education development (Liu, Liu & Zhao, 2000).
Table 1 is a DACUM-chart of China’s TVET teachers’ profession and is one of the outcomes of the APEC project. Based on this table, CIVTE defined a profile of the TVET teachers’ profession in China. A TVET teacher should be qualified in the following aspects:
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Mastery of basic theoretical and specialized knowledge in the specialty, especially those aspects directly connected with vocational practice; Able to correctly analyse and evaluate vocational activities and work processes in order to develop new curricula; Mastery of practical vocational abilities related to the specialty and acquisition of related practical experience; Qualified in the basic theories of vocational education and able to analyse, evaluate, plan and implement the instructional process; Capable of involvement in school management and public relations; Able to educate and instruct students according to all the requirements so that they can fulfil their vocational choice; and Capable of managing one’s own career.
But, in practice, it is still difficult to realize the above aspects due to the existing conditions in policies and practices.
5 Summary and Prospects In a review of teachers’ professional development over the last ten years, we can draw the optimistic conclusion that the TVET teaching body is playing an increasingly important role in China’s education system and more attention is being paid to its influence on the whole of educational development. China’s MoE issued a document in 2000, which emphasized that building a high-quality teaching body is the guarantee of developing vocational education and speeding up the process of
TASKS
1
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
Curriculum development
Analysis of labour market
Analysis of work process
Analysis of teaching contents
Compiling textbooks
Instructional experimenting
Curriculum evaluation
2 Teaching design
2.1 Understanding students
2.2 Study teaching contents
2.3 Produce aims of teaching units
2.4 Produce delivery procedures
2.5 Select and produce teaching media
2.6 Design and select facilities
3
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
Implementation of teaching
Classroom delivery
Practical teaching in school
Organizing simultaneous teaching
Practice teaching in company
4
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.6
Management
Participate in producing school development plan
Teaching and teaching files management
Teacher management
Student management
Management of teaching courses and facilities
Management of practice workshops
VIII.5 TVET Teachers and Their Professionalization in China
Table 1 DACUM-chart on China’s TVET teachers UNITS
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Table 1 (continued) UNITS
TASKS
5
5.1
5.2
Student guidance
Help students to establish moral integrity
Provide career guidance
6 Teaching evaluation
6.1 Evaluation of students’ knowledge level
6.2 Evaluation of students’ skills level
6.3 Evaluation of one’s own teaching
7.1
7.2
7.3
7.4
7.5
Planning of public relation activities
Produce publicity materials
Implementation of public relation activities
Demonstrate teaching achievement to society
Promoting cooperation with relevant departments and personnel
8
8.1
8.2
Professional development
Enhancing one’s knowledge and skills
Guide and help peers’ professional activities
Z. Zhao, L. Lu
7 Public relations
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achieving quality education. Furthermore, by means of ‘the Teacher Law’ and ‘the Regulations on Teachers’ Duties’, better legal and social environments for TVET teachers’ professionalization are being created. On the other hand, TVET teachers’ professionalization is still influenced by different factors, which may accelerate or hinder the process of professionalization: To create a reasonable structure of the teaching body in order to promote quality education, the capacity-building of TVET teachers at present needs to combine the efforts of full-time and part-time teaching staffs. This means that TVET schools should employ a certain proportion of part-time teachers; nevertheless, this may be viewed by the full-time TVET teachers as a challenge to their professionalization. There are still problems to be solved with respect to practice-orientation and the qualification of double-qualified teachers. Furthermore, the poor teaching and academic capacity of TVET teacher education institutions has become an obstacle to the development of specialties, for example in terms of study programmes, curricula and teaching contents.
Notes 1. The National Association of Vocational Education of China (zhong hua zhi jiao she), founded in 1917, was the first vocational education organization in China consisting of people from education and economy. Nowadays, it has developed into twenty-six organizations located all over China, which are having some influence on China’s TVET policy. 2. This APEC Central Funding Project focused on TVET teachers’ standards and their development. The participants in this project came from Brunei Darussalam, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Republic of Korea, Chinese Taipei and the United States of America. 3. Though a centralized State, China allows its schools a certain amount of freedom to make their own decisions on teaching. The teaching plans and programmes made by the State Ministry of Education or local provincial commissions are generally instructive documents. The school can arrange its own subjects according to labour-market demand and develop its own specialized courses on a level that is no lower than the basic teaching requirements of the State and local governments.
References Benner, P. 1997. Stufen zur Pflegekompetenz. From novice to expert, 2nd edition. Berne: Huber. China. Ministry of Education. 2003a. China education statistics yearbook, 2003. Beijing: People’s Education Press. China. Ministry of Education. 2003b. China education yearbook, 2003. Beijing: People’s Education Press. China. Ministry of Education. Teacher Education Department. 1998. China’s teachers’ education. Shanghai, China: Shanghai Science and Technology Press. Dehnbostel, P. 2000. Lernkonzepte zur Verkn¨upfung von Arbeitserfahrung und beruflicher Bildung. In: Dehnbostel, P.; Novak, H., eds. Arbeits- und erfahrungsorientierte Lernkonzepte, pp. 115–27. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Gerds, P.; Heidegger, G.; Rauner, F. 1998. Berufsfelder von Auszubildenden und Bedarfe in den Fachrichtungen der Berufsschullehrinnen und –lehrer zu Beginn des n¨achsten Jahrtausends in Norddeutschland. Bremen, Germany: Institut Technik und Bildung.
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Huang, Y. 2000. Reinforcing the building of TVET teaching body and building a high-quality TVET teaching body. Journal of China’s TVET, vol. 10, pp. 11–14. Li, L. 1994. History of China’s TVET. Beijing: Higher Education Press. Liu, J.; Liu, Y.; Zhao, Z. 2000. The project to reinforce education and training of the secondary vocational school teachers. Beijing: CIVTE. Rauner, F. 1996. Zweckfreie Berufsbildung in der Berufsschule. In: Dedering, H., ed. Handbuch zur arbeitsorientierten Bildung, pp. 431–50. Munich and Vienna: Oldenbourg. Zhang, C.; Li, W.; Kiel, H., eds. 1998. Handbook of vocational education teacher. Shenyang, China: Liaohai Press. Zhao, Z. 2003. Berufsp¨adagogen auf dem Weg zur Professionalit¨at. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Zheng, X. 1998. On the teachers’ social and legal positions. Education research and practice, vol. 1, pp. 35–40.
Chapter VIII.6
The Development of Training Modules for Instructors Fred Beven
1 Introduction An increasingly common phenomenon within technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is the use of a modularized curriculum approach and the production of training modules that prescribe the learning objectives, content and assessment requirements. This phenomenon is often associated with top-down curriculum planning and a desire by central agencies to carefully manage the teaching, learning and assessment processes. Such management is motivated by the increasingly important role that skill formation and its further development play in modern economies. Yet, although the importance of vocational education to national interests is amplified through these arrangements, such approaches to the curriculum may not always effectively engage those who are supposed to implement them (i.e. vocational teachers), nor those who are subject to them (i.e. learners). This chapter seeks to elaborate the kinds of considerations and conditions required for the effective development of a modularized vocational educational curriculum. It proposes that it is necessary to consider curriculum documents and resources as intents only, and extend a consideration of curriculum as something that is enacted by vocational educators and grant them autonomy in doing so. However, ultimately, the curriculum is something experienced by those who are seeking to learn vocational knowledge— the students. Vocational educators usually bring particular sets of experiences and expertise to the teaching and learning process, which extends to how they teach and use units of modularized curriculum. Vocational learners also have their own needs and interests, which shape in what ways they engage with the curriculum as enacted by teachers. In this way, modularized approaches to curriculum and the production of training modules need to take into account not only the intents and interests of central agencies, but also the contributions and purposes of teachers and the needs and aspirations of vocational learners.
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2 Modularized Approaches to the Curriculum Across many advanced Western countries, and increasingly in developing economies such as those in Africa and Asia, there is a common and a growing phenomenon within vocational education associated with a modularized approach to the curriculum. That is, it is the use of a modularized approach to organizing the curriculum and the production of training modules that prescribe the objectives for learning, the content to be taught and the assessment requirements. These are often associated with ‘top-down’ curriculum planning in which the intents, content and approach to assessment are prescribed by central agencies and given to teachers to implement. These prescriptive measures are often associated with a desire by central agencies to carefully manage the teaching, learning and assessment processes. Such management is motivated by the increasingly important role that skill formation and further development plays in modern and emerging economies. It seems that in advanced economies, the concern is to direct and carefully manage the activities of vocational educators to assist them in faithfully enacting nationally consistent approaches to curriculum and assessment practices and standards. In Australia, for instance, there is often an attempt to make the curriculum ‘teacher proof’ through carefully specifying what is to be taught and learned and under what conditions. Certainly, there is a need to guide teachers who are enacting vocational education programmes in order that the content is based on concerns that are wider than the particular interests of teachers. But, beyond the need to provide close guidance for inexperienced educators, there is also a concern to direct the efforts of experienced vocational educators in ways intended to secure the national goals for vocational education favoured by governments and informed by industry representatives. Elsewhere, in Laos (Sisoutha, 1998) and Botswana (Ntshebe, 2004), for instance, economic development was seen to be premised on an effective and carefully managed vocational education system, with centrally-developed curriculum materials that can be used to mitigate against teachers who may lack competence in terms of content to be taught and teaching skills. A key device to secure fidelity to the intents of sponsors in both advanced and emerging economies has been the development and use of modularized curriculum documents. Such measures are seen as those required to meet the requirements of global agencies for effective and auditable human resource development and are sometimes required to secure further developmental funds. Yet, although the importance of vocational education to national interests is being demonstrated through these kinds of measures, they may not always effectively engage those who are supposed to implement them (i.e. the vocational teachers), nor those who are subject to them (i.e. the learners), because what is prescribed may not meet their needs. The prior concern with administering vocational education may come at a cost to the quality of its provision. For instance, vocational educators usually bring particular sets of experiences and expertise to the teaching and learning process that can enrich the curriculum process through contextualizing experiences and selecting appropriate content (Billett et al., 1999). Moreover, unless educators are committed to the educational content and processes that others wish them to teach, they are unlikely to implement them with any enthusiasm or careful
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consideration of their intents (Fullan, 1982). So, within the relatively private domain of vocational educators’ practice, they will give preference and energy to those practices and content that they believe meet students’ needs and that they believe should be taught (Hall & Loucks, 1978). Similarly, students participating in vocational education also have their own needs, priorities and interests, which may be distinct from those proposed by industry and government (Billett, 2000). These needs and aspirations are not knowable to curriculum development methods that are top-down and centralized. Nevertheless, it is these needs and interests that shape how these learners engage with what is enacted in vocational education. Consequently, modularized approaches to curriculum and the production of training modules need to take into account not only the intents of central agencies but also the contributions of teachers and the needs and aspirations of vocational learners. Therefore, this chapter seeks to elaborate the kinds of considerations and conditions that are required for the effective development of a modularized vocational educational curriculum. It proposes that it is necessary to consider not only modularized curriculum documents and resources as intents, but also what is enacted by vocational educators and experienced and engaged with by those who are seeking to learn vocational knowledge. This chapter is structured as follows. Firstly, some consideration is given to the totality of what constitutes the curriculum as a means to evaluate the modular approach. It is proposed that the curriculum can be considered in terms of its intents, enactment and experience. In the following sections, considerations for modularization are discussed in terms of each of these considerations. Following these sections, some guidelines for the development of modularized curriculum material are proposed.
3 Considerations Across the Curriculum As a starting point, it is necessary to emphasize that the provision of curriculum documents is helpful for guiding the kinds of experiences that are provided for students in technical and vocational education. It is not sufficient for the initiative and interest of teachers to be the sole determinant of selecting the kinds of experiences and content students need (Skilbeck, 1984). Instead, the input from others is required to guide the support for learning. A modularized approach to curriculum is that which seeks to identify clusters of skills and knowledge associated with particular areas of vocational practice and seeks to secure their development. Often, this approach is seen as being akin to building blocks of knowledge that come together as a whole. That is, students can secure the knowledge from different modules and build up a repertoire of knowledge, and then apply this knowledge as with tools from a toolkit (Dawkins, 1988). However, the impetus for a modularized curriculum often arises from a desire by the originators to secure particular educational goals that have been identified and prescribed centrally. Therefore, a modular approach to the curriculum is likely to have a detailed set of documents that state the educational intents to be achieved, the means by which
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these outcomes are secured, including the content, and how the outcomes will be assessed. These prescriptions are provided in the document called the syllabus, course outlines or some other title, such as ‘training packages’ in Australia. Accompanying and seeking to secure these intents are associated materials in the form of hardcopy or electronic resources for either students or instructors. In many instances, both the documents articulating the intended curriculum (e.g. the syllabus) and the accompanying material are developed centrally because of the concern to secure the outcomes desired by central agencies. In Australia, for instance, this is justified in terms of attempting to secure nationally consistent outcomes (Dawkins, 1988; National Training Board, 1992). Elsewhere, it might be argued that a centre of technical excellence has the capacity to advise other institutions with less expertise in how a vocational provision might be organized. Nevertheless, either way, such a centralized top-down process may not be able to account for the needs, competence and particular understanding of the individual vocational teachers who have to implement them, nor the circumstances of where implementation will occur. This includes the readiness, capacities and interests of the students who are supposed to engage with these intents and materials. As mentioned earlier, the case for the teacher-led curriculum development process may be flawed, perhaps no more so than in vocational education where there will be important perspectives about practice (e.g. enterprises, industry) that need to inform the curriculum. There are very few instances where teachers have come together principally to organize educational institutions or experiences. Instead, in the vast majority of instances, teachers and, in particular, vocational and technology educators practice their profession within the institutions that employ them (Skilbeck, 1984). This is not to suggest that teachers should not have a role in the formulation and enactment of the curriculum, including the purposes, form and construction of curriculum material as in modularization. However, the purposes of the enterprises in which students will work and the communities they serve also warrant legitimate inclusion. So, the process of curriculum development needs to include the interests and concerns of the community, including industry and enterprises, and often needs to be enacted through the government to secure a balance amongst various interests. But it is also necessary to engage with the interests and expertise of those who will ultimately implement it—teachers. Consequently, while there is a need for curriculum goals and content to be developed by people other than those who teach them, it is important to involve teachers in discussions about how best they might be implemented (Billett, 1995). Central here is to understand and realise the kind of outcomes that students need. So, the teachers’ role might include negotiating on behalf of the students. One of the key points for this negotiation is the degree to which vocational education should be more or less focused on the development of either specific skills or whether it should be a more general, but vocationally oriented, form of education. Certainly, Australian students seem to value vocational education in terms of how it can assist them to secure their vocational goals (Billett, 2000). Both current students and graduates made judgements about the quality of teaching and the worth of the educational provision in terms of how it assists them
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to secure the kind of paid employment that they seek. However, those purposes are not always aligned with the tight descriptions of industry competence requirements. Certainly, students participating in vocational education and seeking to enter the workforce look to vocational education to acquire the specific kinds of skills that will secure them employment and progress in paid employment. Yet, the same study found that older vocational education students also had concerns about personal development that were not wholly accommodated within industry-specific curriculum intents. So, from a teacher’s perspective there are two worlds of vocational curriculum. The first is the rhetorical world in which members of commissions, educational authorities, the government and others determine what should be taught and how. This world is driven by education and employment policy, the goals of industry, and national frameworks and mandates. The other world is the experiential world in which the teacher is required to enact such a curriculum and work with students in pursuing their goals of constructing knowledge and meanings to engage in both life and work. These multiple goals can be described in terms of: the intended curriculum; the enacted curriculum; and the experienced curriculum. In order to propose what should constitute a modular TVET curriculum, the following set of questions are posed and discussed within the framework of the three kinds of curriculum identified above. The intended curriculum:
r r
What degree of prescription is required in terms of educational intents (e.g. aims, goals and objectives)? What should be the focus of the educational intents and content of the modularized vocational curriculum?
The enacted curriculum:
r r
What level of detailing of content should occur at the centre and what should be left for those who enact the curriculum? To what degree should the methods of teaching and assessment be pre-specified and prescribed at the centre and what should be left for those enacting the curriculum?
The experienced curriculum:
r
To what degree should the enactment of the curriculum be considerate of the interests, needs and readiness of learners?
4 The Intended Curriculum This section examines the notion of the intended curriculum through addressing the two questions proposed above:
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What degree of prescription is required in terms of educational intents (e.g. aims, goals and objectives)? What should be the focus of the educational intents and content of a modularized vocational curriculum?
The intended curriculum refers to such policy tools as curriculum standards, frameworks, or guidelines that outline the curriculum teachers are expected to deliver and the outcomes that are intended to be achieved. These policy tools vary significantly across nations and to a lesser extent within nations. Over the last twenty-five years, the Western world has seen the vocational curriculum increasingly shaped by government policy aimed at achieving national uniformity of vocational education provision in countries such as Australia. This push for uniformity appears to underpin many policies that link vocational education to both economic development and global competitiveness. Such an approach to curriculum development is that which comprises the adoption and implementation of a competency-based approach to training (CBT) by governments in a number of countries. The CBT curriculum model has been described as ‘technicist’ in nature, meaning that it is externally prescribed, behavioural in format (Blachford, 1986) and ‘top down’ in its implementation (Billett et al, 1999). Being technicist in approach, it is responsive to powerful external interests (i.e. the government and industry). Being psychologically behaviourist in its approach means that the focus is on observable and specific (narrow) industry skill sets and often favours ‘doing’ over ‘knowing’, because the latter cannot be observed. Being ‘top down’ in its implementation means that it requires a regularity framework for its design and delivery.
4.1 What Degree of Prescription is Required? Therefore, the question of ‘what degree of prescription is required’ in a CBT curriculum model largely depends upon whose interests are served. The CBT model of curriculum in Australia and in other countries has been successful in meeting the economic and developmental needs of the government and the specific skills needs of industry. However, the current CBT models provide little or no provision for engaging with and understanding the needs of learners. That is, they render the vocational curriculum as sets of specific learning outcomes (i.e. describe assessment) that are both qualifiable and quantifiable in terms of their industry requirements. Any focus on the learner is restricted to the extent to which they already meet these requirements, and not on the development of the learner as either an individual or as a member of a vocational community of practice. This stands as a serious shortcoming that has only been partially addressed through the more recent introduction of the notion of employability skills. The shortcomings of the CBT approach in focusing only on the specific industrybased skill-set became apparent to governments during the 1990s and, in their attempts to rectify this, they have attempted to modify it rather than rejecting it. One approach has been the identification of more generic sets of employability skills that
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could be adopted across the CBT curriculum. These employability skills are seen as critical to a learner’s capacity to work more independently, to become more multiskilled and to work effectively with others. Table 1 outlines the various renditions of such a skill-set as adopted by a number of Western governments. In Australian curriculum documents these generic or key competencies, while focusing on the kind of attributes that employers want, sit uncomfortably in curriculum documents and processes that seek to tightly specify and highlight performance, because they lack substance and specificity. Yet, the interest in these kinds of outcomes continues. More recently, Australian employers also have identified the importance of what have been termed ‘personal attributes that contribute to employability’ (Table 2) and indicate that these are required as part of the set of employability skills. Therefore, as an intended curriculum, CBT curricula are outcome focused, psychologically behaviourist in design, place a great deal of emphasis on assessment and being assessable. They also focus on describing the specific skill sets that make up an occupation. So, in seeking to make the educational provision more responsive to workplace and learner needs, another set of prescriptions has been offered, rather making the approach more open to adaptation to such attributes. Moreover, within this approach to the curriculum there has been a preference to adopt a modularized design approach that enables these curricula to be used in a variety of both institutional and workplace settings, with the intent of managing the provision of the vocational curriculum. Within these modules is a focus on a rich description of the assessment tasks associated with an occupation skill-set, which tends to privilege the ‘doing’ of over the ‘knowing’ about these tasks.
4.2 What Should be the Focus? So, what should be the focus of the educational intents and content of a modularized vocational curriculum? In answering this question it is first important to acknowledge the strengths of the current CBT curriculum models. It is also important to seek to improve the current models by refining them by taking account of what recent research has told us about these models. As noted, the introduction of modular materials into the Australian vocational education system was initially motivated as a way of controlling the work of vocational educators, and to direct their efforts towards those objectives that the government thought were important. In addition, there were concerns that in the different states and territories of Australia quite different content was being taught, which meant that there was no coherent national approach or certification of vocational skills. Hence, the introduction of national approaches to vocational curricula have led to facility in the portability of qualifications and give greater certainty to employers about the skills individuals initially learned through vocational programmes. Moreover, as the provision of vocational education has extended far beyond the nation’s technical and further education colleges, and into schools, workplaces and private providers of vocational
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Table 1 Comparative table of generic employability skills by country Australian key competencies (Mayer Key Competencies)
United Kingdom (NCVQ) core skills
Canada employability skills profile
United States (SCANS) workplace know-how
Collecting, analysing and organizing information Communicating ideas and information
Communication
Thinking skills Communication skills
Information Foundation skills: basic skills Information
Planning and organizing activities Working with others and in teams
Personal skills: improving own performance and learning Personal skills: working with others
Responsibility skills Thinking skills Positive attitudes and behaviour
Foundation skills: basic skills Resources foundation skills: personal qualities Interpersonal skills
Using mathematical ideas and techniques Solving problems
Numeracy: application of numbers Problem-solving
Using technology
Information technology
Post-Mayer additions: cultural understandings
Modern foreign language
Work with others Adaptability Understand and solve problems using mathematics Problem-solving and decision-making skills Learning skills Use technology Communication skills Manage information Use numbers. Work safely Participate in projects and tasks
Foundation skills: basic skills Foundation skills: thinking
Technology systems
Source: Australia. DEST, 2002. F. Beven
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Table 2 Employability skills framework
Personal attributes that contribute to overall employability
Loyalty Commitment Honesty and integrity Reliability Enthusiasm Personal presentation Common-sense
Positive self-esteem Sense of humour Ability to deal with pressure Motivation Balanced attitude to work and home life Adaptability
Source: Australia. DEST, 2002.
education, this approach and its modularized materials have become central to managing a far more widely dispersed and national vocational education system. So, the current models seem to be overly prescriptive with respect to their occupational skill-sets, sometimes to the detriment of the skill-sets themselves. However, it has some virtues in terms of the administration of a vocational education system across the widely dispersed and different institutions that provide vocational education. Yet, the CBT curricula, while focusing essentially on occupational skills in this way and because of their prescriptive nature, take little account of the situation of the learning or of the range of needs of learner themselves. A focus only on those aspects of an occupational skill-set that are both observable and measurable is overly simplistic, because the thinking and acting required for such performance may not remain the focus of teaching or assessment. For example, it is one thing for a worker/learner in the metal trades to demonstrate their competence at undertaking a series of different welds. It is quite another for them to demonstrate a capacity to construct an object that requires them not only to undertake the same series of welds, but to do so in the context of the job. The context, among other things, might require them to:
r r r
Work in a safe manner (by undertaking the welds in an order that makes the job safe during construction); Minimizes material wastage (by undertaking the welds in a way that minimizes material usage or loss); and Take account of correct construction methods (by undertaking the welds in a way that makes the final assembly feasible).
That is, undertaking each kind of weld correctly in isolation (a feature of a modularized curriculum), while being critically important, is not enough because a number of distinct performance requirements need to be brought together in performing the work task. The point here is that successfully developing and undertaking sets of skills (the doing) in isolation, while important, will not by themselves develop the application skills (the knowing: how to apply those skill in a purposeful way in practice). A modular curriculum tends to be taught in modularized ways (Billett et al., 1999), particularly when being delivered in flexible learning settings. This renders both the teaching and assessment of vocational skills in an atomistic way. Teachers reported frustration with this approach as they sensed the gaps and overlaps
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in a modular curriculum and often had to intervene to assist students develop capacities that would permit them to use the specific skills in the context of work-related tasks. This shortcoming of the modular curriculum as a set of highly described curriculum intents needs to be addressed. The current practice of vocational curriculum development that relies on an industry-driven and centralized approach to specifying content and assessment specifications needs to be augmented by the inclusion of the contributions of educators whose expertise in learning can provide the basis for a more holistic CBT curriculum. That is, providing a situational perspective about how the particular sets of educational goals and content meet students’ needs and local requirements. Moreover, the educators’ input into the CBT curriculum may assist in addressing the imbalance of privileging ‘doing’ over ‘knowing’ and ensure that attention is paid to the needs of learners as individuals. In this way, there needs to be scope within a modularized approach to the curriculum that permits teachers to adapt and modify the descriptions and modules to suit the circumstances in which they are being taught.
5 The Enacted Curriculum The enacted curriculum refers to the actual curricular content that students engage in the classroom or practice setting. The enacted curriculum is what is implemented and what is shaped by the particular situation (e.g. facilities and resources in the learning setting); the capacities, experiences and other attributes of those who deliver the course (e.g. teachers); and by the specific demands of the situation (e.g. organizational requirements). Thus, the enacted curriculum is the operationalized interpretation of the intended curriculum. The intended and the experienced curriculum are important components of the educational delivery system, but most learning is expected to occur within the enacted curriculum. As such, the enacted curriculum is the single most important feature of any curriculum. The questions examined in this section about the enacted curriculum are:
r r
What level of detailing of content should occur at the centre and what should be left for those who enact the curriculum? To what degree should the methods of teaching and assessment be pre-specified and prescribed at the centre and what should be left for those enacting the curriculum?
Billett et al (1999) reported that, following the adoption of CBT in Australia, there were changes in teachers’ practice that shaped their enactment of it. Teachers reported that they felt that the changes had seen a reduction in the emphasis on pedagogy and much more emphasis on assessment and record keeping. They also claimed that a shift towards a more individualized focus for curriculum arrangements came from self-paced approaches to modularized curriculum delivery, which eroded opportunities for group activities and placed greater demands on
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teachers to manage the individual learning trajectories of students as they engaged individually with self-paced modules. So, the individual pathways of learning demanded by the modularized curriculum resources have seen teachers focusing on self-paced approaches to learning, the customizing of programmes and resourcebased approaches to instruction. Moreover, while assessment had always been an important part of their teaching practice, they reported that delivering a CBT curriculum had increased the amount of assessment. Further, the teachers reported that the CBT curriculum required them to keep assessment records at a greater level of specificity than previously. Yet, the focus on the learner, on meeting their individual needs, and on opportunities for them to learn in groups had all been diminished in this curriculum approach. Instead, what was emphasized was students’ engagement with sets of experiences organized through modularized materials that required extensive management and administrative effort on the part of teachers. It is clear that the intended CBT modularized curriculum in Australia has impacted on the enacted curriculum by bringing pressure towards greater uniformity concerning industry standards and a very substantial increase in testing, recordkeeping and auditing. Assessment has become more workplace orientated, but also more dominant and more focused on once-off performance of disaggregated skills (Billett et al., 1999). So, while this overly prescriptive approach to vocational curriculum in Australia has brought about greater uniformity in outcomes, it has also inhibited the capacity of teachers to deliver to students the kinds of opportunities, experiences and guidance they often need in their learning. Vocational teachers need to be more than just implementers of the curriculum developed; they need to be able to apply both their vocational and pedagogic expertise in order to best meet local needs, including those of their students. The value of their pedagogic expertise needs to be acknowledged and should not be wholly compromised by a centralized description. The intended curriculum has the critical role in identifying content. However, it should not be so prescriptive as to deny teachers some discretion. As noted, a national prescribed curriculum, such as that deployed in Australia, cannot account for local needs and these local needs are often central to the key purposes of vocational education: what individuals want to learn and what enterprises want learned. Therefore, within the enacted curriculum teachers need to be able to make judgements about the best integration of content so as to provide both routine and non-routine experiences for the learner. Further, teachers need to make judgements about the best combinations of independent, group and teacher-led experiences. This will allow teachers to better determine and to respond to individuals’ needs, as a way to guide their learning and skill development. Moreover, within the enacted curriculum, assessment practices need to focus on more than just the set of disaggregated skills generally found in the intended curriculum. Teachers need to develop assessment tasks that are more authentic and holistic and that relate to both the local conditions and to the level of development of learners. These needs are not and possibly cannot be prescribed centrally; rather, they ought to be developed locally and be both routine and non-routine in nature.
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In sum, within the enacted modularized approach to the vocational education curriculum, there is a need to acknowledge the role of the educational process that is enacted by teachers taking into account the needs, resources and capacities that are located centrally. The focus ought to be on the activities and roles of teachers and the kinds of activities and guidance that learners engage in. The evidence within Australia (Angus et al. in Billett et al., 1999) is that approaches to curriculum and assessment need to be transformed to recognize the critical role of teachers in achieving appropriate outcomes for both learners and industry.
6 The Experienced Curriculum The experienced curriculum is what students experience when they engage in a learning setting and programme. It comprises the actual learning that arises from their engagement in the activities provided by the enacted curriculum. What the learners experience and how they interpret that experience is central to how they make sense or meaning from the encounters. Constructivists argue that individuals are ‘meaning makers’ and when they engage with learning activities and others they attempt to ‘make sense’ of their world. So the focus is on the actual learning that arises from engagement in the activities provided for them. The question posed in this section about the experienced curriculum is: to what degree should the enactment of the curriculum be considerate of the interests, needs and readiness of learners? This question is an important one, as illustrated by Wertsch’s (1998) use of the terms ‘mastery’ and ‘appropriation’. Wertsch refers to ‘mastery’ as learning associated with the superficial compliance to what individuals are supposed to learn, because others are pressing them to learn this content. Whereas, ‘appropriation’ is what learners take ‘onto themselves’ in a more full-bodied way, because they believe it to be true and consistent with their beliefs and interests. Learning activities that are only curriculum-driven are much more likely to be ‘mastered’ and not ‘appropriated’ in Wertsch’s terms. Modularized learning, particularly that which is delivered in individual ways (e.g. self-paced, resources based and customized programmes), often lacks the fidelity and capacity to be ‘appropriated’ unless careful guidance is provided. This fidelity and capacity is more generally provided through the engagement with the expert other (i.e. the teacher). It is teachers that make the educational worth of the learning accessible to the learner and guide that learning. With competent teaching, this is often provided in ad-hoc and spontaneous ways, attributes rarely encountered in highly prescriptive or resource-based individualized learning that is more about administrative compliance than meeting individual learners’ needs. Again, drawing from the Australian study (Billett et al., 1999), it was found that adaptability and skilfulness in learners is more likely to be secured in the kinds of experiences that learners access in both learning settings and workplace. It was consistently reported that a combination of experiences (e.g. project work, group
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activities, teacher-guided activities and self-managed activities) centred on authentic activities secure ‘appropriated’ knowledge. Further, and importantly, however, it was the experiences provided by an expert teacher that permitted the bridging of the contributions of both kinds of learning settings. Even when students were engaged in college-based programmes only, it was found that the capacity of teachers to use instances from the workplace to make content applicable to the students assisted bridging their learning from the college to the workplace. From the learning literature, we know that learners construct new knowledge by anchoring it to and building upon existing knowledge. Therefore consideration of the learner’s current knowledge is central to constructing new knowledge. For instance, consider the differences in learning experiences between high-school students and apprentices on a vocational task. Apprentices have had periods in workplaces, in some cases undertaking the tasks they are learning about, observing and listening to more experienced workers. With respect to task performance, the apprentice may have developed clear goals for the performance of work tasks as a result of this experience, whereas the high-school learner may never have engaged in any kind of workplace practice. As a result, their bases for engaging with and responding to the content will be quite different. Clearly, the interests, needs and readiness of the learner are critical success factors in any learning they undertake, and in particular challenging demands associated with learning new knowledge. What teachers need to do is to ensure that, in the enacted curriculum, they employ learning strategies that enable learners to draw upon their existing resources. Further, they need also to provide the cognitive scaffolding necessary to enable them to do this.
7 Conclusions I conclude this chapter by responding to the following question: What ought to be the basis for developing a TVET modular curriculum (e.g. what kinds of outcomes, what kinds of processes to achieve these outcomes, what kinds of methods)? In short, the answer is to adopt a curriculum development model that accommodates the needs all of the participants involved. For nations wishing to compete in the global economy and who need to carefully manage the economic development necessary, there are clear imperatives to centrally manage their vocational education systems with a centrally developed modular curriculum (the intended curriculum). However, in an increasingly more diverse delivery system of both public and private providers, top-down management and nationally-endorsed modularized materials tend to become key management tools. That is, not only are these materials the curriculum, but they are also tools with which to manage, monitor and audit the vocational education system, as well as to guard against teachers who may lack content and pedagogical competence. These are not the most salient purposes for the development of the modular curriculum. The purpose needs to be more about managing the learning, rather than managing the learning system.
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The purpose of this chapter has been to argue that current approaches to developing a modular curriculum (the intended curriculum) can only be partially successful if account is not also taken of both the pedagogy (the enacted curriculum) and the needs of learners (the experienced curriculum). The research reviewed in this chapter indicates that, while the modular curriculum may appear to be serving the national interest, its success relies upon the fidelity with which it is implemented. Where the interests of both the teachers and learners are not served, it is unlikely that implementation will live up to intent. Such a top-down approach is unable to account for the needs, competence and particular understanding of vocational teachers, nor the readiness, capacities and interests of the learners. The process of modular curriculum development needs to include the interests of all legitimate participants. This means that it requires the legitimate inclusion of teachers to provide advice as to how modular curriculum content might best be implemented and enacted. Further, teachers can also negotiate on behalf of students. Vocational educators bring sets of experiences and expertise to the teaching and learning process that can enrich the curriculum process by contextualizing these experiences and selecting appropriate content. Unless vocational educators are committed to the educational content and processes that others decide they ought to teach, they are unlikely to give preference to them. Finally, the modular curriculum needs to be more than just prescriptions of content; it needs also to be pedagogically robust. From a learning context, a focus only on those aspects of an occupational skill-set that are both observable and measurable is overly simplistic. This is because an absence of the thinking and acting required to enable those skills as workplace performance will render them invisible to the teaching and assessment practices of vocational educators. It will be input from vocational educators that can address the imbalance of the current practice of privileging ‘doing’ over ‘knowing’.
References Australia. Department of Education, Science and Technology. 2002. Key findings: employability skills framework. In: Employability skills for the future, pp. 35–50. Canberra: DEST. <www.dest.gov.au/archive/ty/publications/employability skills/final report.pdf> Billett, S. 1995. Constructing the curricula: national curricula, teachers’ practice and change. New horizons in education, vol. 92, pp. 30–45. Billett, S. 2000. Defining the demand side of VET: industry, enterprises, individuals and regions. Journal of vocational education and training, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 5–30. Billett, S. et al. 1999. The CBT Decade: teaching for flexibility and adaptability. Adelaide, Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Blachford, K. 1986. Orientations to curriculum in TAFE. Melbourne, Australia: Hawthorn Institute of Education. Dawkins, J. 1988. Industry training in Australia: the need for change. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. Fullan, M. 1982. The meaning of educational change. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Hall, G.E.; Loucks, S. 1978. Teacher concern as a basis for facilitating and personalizing staff development. Teachers college record, vol. 80, no. 1, pp. 36–53.
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National Training Board. 1992. National competency standards: policy and guidelines. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Services. Ntshebe, F. 2004. Workplace skill acquisition challenges for Botswana engineering fields. [Unpublished master’s thesis, Faculty of Education, Griffith University, Australia.] Sisoutha, K. 1998. Developing vocational skills in the workplace. [Unpublished honour’s thesis, Faculty of Education, Griffith University, Australia.] Skilbeck, M. 1984. School-based curriculum development. London: Harper & Row. Wertsch, J.W. 1998. Mind as action. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
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Chapter VIII.7
Literacy and Learning: Are TVET Professionals Facilitators of Learning or Deliverers of Knowledge and Skills? Jean Searle
1 Introduction If you were to ask a range of people what they think literacy is, you are likely to find that they respond in a number of different ways. It may be that they equate literacy with being able to read and write—but read and write what? The answer will vary with the individual: it may be the ability to read a street map, read a book to a child, read the sports pages in a newspaper, or the label on a bottle of medicine. From this point of view, literacy is seen as a set of social practices. However, if you ask the same question of governments, the response will either be in terms of literacy levels of the population or in relation to employment and training. From this perspective, literacy is perceived to be a set of desirable skills or technologies required by individuals to gain employment or engage in training. In other words an ‘autonomous’ view of literacy is held (Street, 1984). It has been this aspect of literacy that, in the past, governments and agencies have been at pains to quantify, in order to explain and remedy the problem of ‘illiteracy’. For example, in the 1970s UNESCO and the World Bank focused on measuring the extent of adult illiteracy by gathering statistics on access to schooling, and implementing mass literacy campaigns in developing and underdeveloped countries (Arnove & Graff, 1987; Freebody, 1994). More recently, the concern, particularly in countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), has been to compare national literacy levels against international benchmarks (Statistics Canada; OECD, 2000; 2005). The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) used a five-point scale, level 3 of which is deemed to be the level which represents ‘the ability to cope with a varied range of materials found in daily life and work [though not always] with a high level of proficiency’ (Skinner, 1997, p. x). Thus, as will be shown later in this chapter, the ‘magical’ level 3 has become the benchmark for entry-level training. In recent years, adult literacy has come to be seen as crucial to the economic performance of industrialized nations. Literacy is no longer defined merely in terms of a basic threshold of reading ability, mastered by almost all those growing up in developed countries. Rather, literacy is now being seen as how adults use written information to function in society. Today, adults need a higher level of literacy to function well; society has become more complex and low-skill jobs are disappearing. Therefore, inadequate levels of literacy among R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VIII.7, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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a broad section of the population potentially threatens the strength of economies and the social cohesion of nations (OECD, 1995, p. 13) [Emphasis added].
2 What is Literacy: ‘Being Literate’? As we have seen, the concept of literacy is not value-free—it has social, cultural, political, economic and educational implications. Venezky (1990, p. 2) argues that ‘[it] is one of that class of auto-positive terms, like liberty, justice, and happiness, that we assume contain simple, primal qualities [. . .] but that under scrutiny become vastly more complex and often elusive, yielding no simple characterization or definition’. As a result, what is regarded as being literate depends on the definition of literacy that is adopted, at a particular time in history and in a particular context. Literacy is a socially contested term. We can choose to use this word in any of several different ways. Each such choice incorporates a tacit or overt ideological theory about the distribution of social goods and has important social and moral consequences (Gee, 1990, p. 27).
Further, there is no universally accepted definition of literacy. In fact, literacy may be viewed in relation to learning—as a cognitive or thinking skill, as a social practice, or in relation to power struggles as an emancipatory act. Moreover, as will be argued later, literacy is not a unitary construct, but there are rather multiple literacies.
2.1 Assumptions or Master Myths: What is Expected of Literacy? The autonomous model suggests that literacy is a cognitive skill that individuals may or may not possess. Associated with this view are a number of theories that depict literacy learning as being a set of basic skills that are generally learnt in primary school and prepare a person for the rest of their lives. These decontextualized skills are often constructed as being generic in nature and so are able to be standardized, assessed, reported and audited. Such theories give rise to a deficit model of literacy in which individuals who do not reach the given standard are expected to attend remedial classes. Not only does this simplistic definition ignore the fact that: ‘Read is a transitive verb, so literacy must have something to do with being able to read something’ (Gee, 1990, p. 42). It also unfairly blames the individual for the problems of society, as indicated in the earlier quotation from the OECD (1995). Hence, lack of literacy has been linked to poverty, poor health and criminal behaviour (Venezky, 1990). By being labelled illiterate, individuals are ‘taken to be incapable of logic, scientific thought, literary appreciation, democratic processes, informed judgement, and, in many cases, [as will be shown in the next section] incapable of being employed or of contributing to the maintenance and development of social well-being’ (Freebody, 1994, p. 2). As a result, data representing literacy or illiteracy rates have often been used to push certain social and political agendas and have given rise to
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what Graff (1986) referred to as the ‘literacy myth’—increased literacy results in increased social cohesion, wellness and productivity. In contrast, an ideological view of literacy takes as its central premise that ‘the social and political significance of literacy [. . .] derives largely from its role in creating and reproducing—or failing to reproduce—the social distribution of knowledge’ (Levine, 1986, p. 46). Reading, writing and enumerating are viewed as cultural practices, learnt in specific cultural contexts and ‘imbued with epistemological significance’ (Baker & Street, 1991, p. 2). That is, uses of literacy and numeracy are meaningful, cannot be generalized across cultures, cannot be isolated or treated either as neutral, generic or as technical and so have implications for power relations. In other words, how literacy is used depends on the context and the relationships among participants. Gee (1990, 1996) discusses such social practices or ‘discourses’ as ways of talking, interacting, thinking, valuing and believing, all of which are socially and historically constructed, so that people have to be socialized into the practice of reading text ‘A’ in way ‘B’. In this sense, Gee is building on Bourdieu’s (1977) notion of ‘expanded competence’ or language as praxis, which introduces concepts of language as being functional and strategic—it is not just knowing how to produce grammatically coherent sentences but knowing about ‘appropriateness’— ‘when to speak, keep silent, speak in this or that style’ (Bourdieu, 1977, p. 646). In fact, given that the meaning of literacy depends upon the social context in which it is embedded, and that the particular reading and writing practices involved depend upon social structures and the institutions of education or training, there cannot be a single, autonomous literacy. It would be more appropriate to refer to multiple literacies as will be discussed in the next section.
3 From Theory to Practice Internationally, literacy studies as an area of research came of age in 1990, given the prominence of literacy during the International Literacy Year. Prior to this time, empirical research came from the disciplines of cognitive psychology and linguistics, and focused on how people learn to read and write (Goodman, 1967; Smith, 1971; Sticht, 1975). Later studies (Scribner & Cole, 1981; Heath, 1983; Street, 1984; Gowen, 1994; Hull, 1997; Barton & Hamilton, 1998) used ethnographic methods to study individuals at work and in their communities, and highlighted the range of literacies used in the social practices in which people engage. A number of issues have emerged from these studies, which have implications for the TVET practitioner.
3.1 Literacy at Work One of the first issues was raised by Diehl and Mikulecky (1980) who found that the level of reading ability required for successful work performance varied according to the job and, moreover, that reading practices also varied with context.
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Mikulecky (1982) also demonstrated that the reading skills learnt in school were mainly ‘reading-to-learn’ and these did not neatly transfer to out-of-school and work contexts. In these situations reading is used as an aid to performance, ‘reading-todo’, ‘[which] is severely limited by differences in format, social support networks and required background information’ (Mikulecky, 1990, p. 25). Subsequently, other researchers (Gee, 1994; Gee & Lankshear, 1997; Luke, 1992) have argued that the emergence of ‘fast capitalist’ economies has seen an increase in the tertiary or service sectors and also in information technologies. Jobs that traditionally required minimal basic skills are becoming more complex, demanding higher-level reading and computational skills. At the same time that the jobs themselves have been restructured, the nature of work has also been changing, with the introduction of new work practices and new technologies (Cope & Kalantzis, 1995; Jackson, 2000; Searle & Kelly, 2001) all of which make new demands on the workforce. Many individuals who have inadequate control of the ‘institutional literacies’ (Barton & Hamilton, 1998; Castleton & McDonald, 2000) essential for work and living independent lives, become increasingly dispossessed—particularly in times of decreasing social and welfare provision by the State (Lankshear, 1993). In Australia, under the principle of ‘mutual obligation’, the long-term unemployed who are assessed as being below the magic level 3 in literacy and numeracy (mentioned earlier) are required to attend adult literacy or numeracy classes (as a pre-requisite for training or employment) or lose their welfare payments. This brings us to the second issue, regarding ‘whose literacy?’
3.2 Whose Literacy: Institutional or Local? It has been argued in an earlier section that governments generally promote an autonomous model of literacy. This is a narrow, culturally specific view of literacy that is premised on the assumption that the skills of reading and writing are contextfree, are universal in time and space and have consequences for social progress and individual achievement. In practice, this can lead to discrimination in terms of cultural domination and equity of access to training. It also negates the immense social capital that individuals can bring to learning and work. These issues are explored by Prinsloo and Breier (1996) in relation to literacy as part of national adult basic education and training (ABET) in South Africa. The literacy that is valued and imposed is a culturally-bound, school literacy in the dominant languages, which then marginalizes the local languages and literacies of factory or farm workers and can lead to oppression. Thus, literacy is tied up with values, which indicates a third issue—literacy as a right for social transformation.
3.3 Literacy as a Right for Social Transformation In 1975, the UNESCO-sponsored International Symposium for Literacy, held at Persepolis, Iran, stated that literacy is ‘not just the process of learning skills of
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reading, writing and arithmetic, but a contribution to the liberation of man and his [sic] full development. [. . .] Literacy is a fundamental human right’ (cited in Nelson, 1989, p. 18). The educational philosophy of this time revolved around a student-centred curriculum, goal setting, negotiation, individualized programmes, personal growth and the development of student self-confidence. Thus, the educator was seen as a facilitator and supporter of learning. Further, the philosophy also acknowledged the central role of language in learning which, translated into pedagogical terms, meant starting with the student’s own language. In some countries, Australia included, this has led to debates about two-way learning; starting literacy learning in the student’s first language and then learning the dominant language. However, concerns are often expressed about the ‘colonization’ of local languages and the disempowerment of individuals that often ensues. This issue was addressed by the emancipatory discourses of Paulo Freire. To Freire, education was the means to bring about radical social and political change. He gave recognition to techniques related to empowerment through dialogue and through problematizing, for which he coined the term ‘conscientization’. Through the process of literacy education, Freire and his followers redesigned experiential situations so that learners developed their own texts and reflected on their own understanding of themselves, as they exist with society. Freire referred to this combination of action and reflection as ‘praxis’ (Freire, 1972). Importance is placed on the role of the educator, not as a teacher but as a facilitator of learning, one who enables reflection and who transmits cultural knowledge. In this way, learning is participatory; it centres on student motivation and involves social action. Similar initiatives, in which literacy learning has been linked to social action, have been reported more recently in New Guinea in which a critical literacy approach is taken to facilitate community-controlled social transformation (Faracalas, 1997), in promoting critical awareness and education to assist female waste-rag pickers to transform their lives in India (Narayan & Chikarmane, 2000), and with Xhosa farm labourers, the ‘literate illiterates’, in South Africa (Williams, 2000). Other initiatives are the ‘multiliteracies’ projects, which focus on designing social futures and which are underway in a number of developing countries. Multiliteracies relate to the increasing multiplicity and integration of significant modes of meaning-making, where textual is also related to the visual, the audio, the spatial, the behavioural [. . .] ‘multimedia’ and in electronic ‘hypermedia’ [. . .] to focus on the realities of increasing local diversity and global connectedness (Cope & Kalantzis, 1995, p. 6)
In some respects, these have responded to the challenge of the OECD, presented earlier in the chapter, in terms of ‘productive diversity’, developing civic pluralism and designing pedagogies that address cultural and linguistic diversity, as well as the changing realities and ‘multilayered life-worlds’ of the future. But what does all this mean in practice? The next section will start by briefly addressing literacy and literacy learning. It will then lead into implications for TVET professionals.
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3.4 Literacy and Literacy Learning In relation to literacy, Gee makes a distinction between ‘acquisition’ and ‘learning’ (others refer to informal and formal learning). For Gee (1990, p. 146), acquisition is ‘the process of acquiring something (usually subconsciously) by exposure to models, a process of trial and error, and practice within social groups, without formal training’. This is the way that most people acquire language as a primary discourse. However, the secondary discourse associated with schooling involves learning, ‘conscious knowledge gained through teaching or through certain life experiences that trigger conscious reflection. This teaching involves explanation and analysis’ (ibid.). Of course, learning is not restricted to schooling, but the point here is that certain forms of knowledge are valued or privileged over others. For example, schooling which occurs in the dominant language(s) is given more status than knowledge acquired using local languages and literacies. Similarly, formal training in the workplace, often related to technical skills and competencies and linked to men’s work, is privileged over the acquired knowledge of the social practices of the workplace, the so-called ‘soft skills’ often associated with women’s work (Daune-Richard, 2000; Jackson, 1991), which may be gained through a period of socialization or informal learning. It is to a discussion of what this means for TVET professionals that we now turn.
4 The Implications for TVET Professionals 4.1 Facilitators of Learning or Deliverers of Knowledge and Skills When it comes to an appropriate pedagogy, it is not as simple as either being a facilitator of learning or a deliverer of knowledge and skills. Many practitioners, who espouse a student-centred curriculum that focuses on the individual and encourages self-directed learning, would also recognize that there are times when it is appropriate to step in and teach a particular skill or to show a way of approaching a task. Similarly, workers in many workplaces, who may be hired on the basis of formal technical qualifications, may find that to operate successfully requires the acquisition of context-specific ways of working through informal learning on-the-job. In fact, many workplaces, which are developing as learning organizations, expect their employees to mentor new workers. Further, the informal acquisition of local literacies in the community has been described by Prinsloo and Breier (1996) as ‘apprenticeship learning’, while they also report collaborative learning activities in terms of ‘mediated learning’. Malan (1996) in South Africa and Castleton and Macdonald (2000) in Australia have also reported on the role of the magistrates clerk, sales person, adult literacy practitioner or other trusted member of the community as a mediator or ‘literacy broker’; one who can ‘code-switch’ between local literacies and institutional literacies. What is apparent from this research is that there are many ways of gaining knowledge and learners may require a repertoire
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of approaches to assist with their learning. For example, in an attempt to cut across debates about the teaching of literacy, Freebody and Luke (1990) argue that readers take on four roles: text de-coder, text user, text participant and text analyst. In any one activity, the learner might have to literally de-code text, understand the purpose for reading the text, use a number of reading strategies, and consider issues such as efficiency, time, cost or politeness. So, what does this mean for the teacher or trainer?
4.2 Principles for Curriculum Design and Pedagogy The adoption of competency-based training in many countries has changed significantly the way that education and training is conceptualized, planned, delivered and assessed. More than ever before, teachers and trainers are being called upon to interpret sets of competencies and related performance criteria in ways that are, firstly, responsive to industry and workplace environments and, secondly, legislatively, financially and morally accountable. For TVET professionals this means teaching the technical skills related to units of competence. However, as we have seen, there is some debate over the transfer of these skills and how they relate to the specific social practices of the workplace. So, using literacy as an example, the following general principles are proposed. Firstly, it is imperative that curriculum designers and instructors have an understanding of the discourses that operate within the specific sites in which teachers and trainers are operating. As social practices, or ways of interacting, valuing and being in the world vary across domains (schooling, vocational institutions and individual workplaces), so instructors need to understand the site-specific organizational systems, work practices and underpinning values. This is partly for pragmatic reasons (training is organized to suit project needs, climatic or economic conditions) and partly in order to contextualize the learning and build a rapport or positive learning environment. Further, as learning in the workplace is highly contextualized, the teacher or trainer requires an in-depth knowledge of the site-specific texts and tasks. With the move towards developing learning cultures within the workplace, there is a necessity for all workers to engage in a range of communicative activities and learn new literacy practices. This requires training not only in relation to industry competencies but also the acquisition of those literacies required to participate in workplace activities. Secondly, the literacies that underpin competencies should be perceived by curriculum designers and instructors as embedded within those competencies and not as additions or pre-requisites to the competencies. There is a view that workers should possess generic literacy skills that are transferable, or, if they have inadequate skills, they should be ‘fixed up’ first, prior to training. However, evidence presented earlier suggests that literacies are highly situated and cannot be generalized in this way. Therefore, in developing a curriculum, attention should be given to those technical literacies that are required to achieve the stated competence, and these should be
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taught alongside the technical competence using the relevant workplace texts. In addition, we have seen how the changing nature of work has led to increased employee accountability and a consequent increase in the use of paperwork, as an audit trail, in the workplace. As a result, there is a need for appropriate training so that all workers have the skills and understandings to undertake different literacy roles. For example, a worker could be a text de-coder and text user when completing a form or checklist correctly, but could also become a text analyst in understanding the significance of compliance or non-compliance with continuous improvement systems or in becoming a critical participant in decision-making processes. In summary, educators and trainers should strive to provide integrated training programmes in which the technical and social literacies of the workplace are embedded with the training. The next section suggests some approaches that could be taken.
4.3 Instructional Practices The starting point for this section is to unpack the concept of an ‘integrated training programme’. Vocational education and training programmes that integrate language, literacy and numeracy within them have four key characteristics. Firstly, they identify the language, literacy and numeracy competencies (or learning outcomes) essential for work performance or for community programmes and address these competencies as part of the curriculum. They should also identify the social literacies of the workplace or the community, as often these are not made explicit. Secondly, they take into account the language, literacy and numeracy competence and needs of the learner and develop these as part of, not separate from, vocational competence. Thirdly, they ensure that the language of instruction and assessment used in the vocational programme is consistent with that required for work, or training or in the community and is appropriate for the learner. Finally, they assess language, literacy and numeracy outcomes in terms of successful performance of relevant and authentic tasks. Integrated training programmes should address the relevant literacies in all three phases of learning: orientating, enhancing and synthesizing. Orientation introduces the competence or learning outcome, the tasks involved and the criteria for assessment. This is the time when the learner’s prior knowledge of the literacies involved may be assessed or learners could self-assess their own facility with the relevant texts. Questions should be used to access the learner’s prior knowledge of the topic so the learning process is likely to be successful. Also, demonstrations may be necessary to show learners how to use workshop manuals, how to look up specific standards or how to use new technology. At the same time, any new language, such as specific technical terms, everyday words used in a technical way and colloquialisms, needs to be introduced. Also, the language of instruction and assessment should be presented. The enhancing phase of instruction is all about mastering new technical or vocational knowledge and the associated literacies. This may take place on-site in the workplace or community, or in a training room using authentic texts and tasks,
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simulations and role-play. It may require moving from the traditional classroom to a training room set up as a workplace with the requisite furniture and equipment. As far as possible, the environment should simulate actual work conditions in order that learners experience the need to develop skills in prioritizing work, coping with interruptions and developing the social literacies so essential for high performance workplaces. In addition, not all instruction should be teacher driven. Opportunities should be given for learners to work independently, with assistance (which could be computer-aided assistance) or in collaborative groups. If this training takes place on-the-job, new employees could observe and work with experienced workers in a mentoring situation. In this way they will learn the communication patterns of the workplace, including the use of insider terminology. They will also learn to use sitespecific documents and technologies, while at the same time becoming socialized into the workplace culture. Finally comes the synthesizing phase in which learners bring together the new knowledges and literacies to form part of their conceptual framework, as a basis for further thought and action. Activities associated with this phase include reflection on what has been learnt and/or summative assessment.
4.4 Principles of Assessment The previous discussion has mentioned two forms of assessment—initial assessment and summative assessment. Initial assessment, as part of the orientation phase of learning, is concerned with making a judgement about the current literacy skills of learners in relation to training and work or community texts and tasks. Summative assessment comes at the end of a programme of training and indicates if the learner is competent or has achieved the required standard of performance. The following principles apply in either situation. Firstly, assessment should be holistic. That is, rather than concentrating on the performance of discrete, often decontextualized skills or individual competencies, it should be possible to address a range of competencies or learning outcomes through a more holistic approach, through completion of an authentic task. This could be writing a letter of complaint, or baking a cake or erecting scaffolding, all of which require specific literacies. Secondly, assessment should be appropriate to the context. The validity of performance-based assessment depends on the extent to which the assessment measures what it is intended to measure. Therefore, standardized tests are usually inappropriate and should be discarded in favour of using relevant workplace texts and tasks for assessment purposes. Moreover, assessment should be reliable and fair. This means that the instructions for assessment tasks should be clear, explicit and ordered. The learner should know what is expected, including the time allowed and the criteria on which their performance will be measured. The language of assessment should reflect the language of instruction. If the learner does not have a good understanding of the official language or has inadequate literacy for the task, decisions need to be made about alternative assessment processes. These may include assessment in the first language and use of oral assessment.
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In summary, assessment tasks should be contextualized and reflect what learners/workers are required to do. Assessment should be reliable and fair.
5 Conclusion It has been argued that it is necessary to recognize the situatedness and pluralities of literacy, as well as the ideological nature of language and the uses of literacy for reasons of power and control. As a result, TVET practitioners need to acknowledge different ways of knowing and meaning making. This might be through collaborative learning in groups, assisted learning (with text, technology or mentor support) or independent learning. At the same time, educators must recognize that learners may operate in a range of domains—at work, in the community, at home or on-line—and increasingly there are no firm borders between them. In each of these domains the learner may be using texts and undertaking tasks related to themselves (as a worker, citizen or family member), which focus on interacting in groups (at work, in the community or family), or as part of systems communication within an organization, or communication with the broader community. Each of these forms of communication requires a different set of literacies: personal/local, co-operative, systems, procedural, institutional or technical. This is very different from the unitary, autonomous, often ethnocentric, view of literacy held by many governments. So, in conceptualizing a multi-literacies model of learning, there is recognition of the dominant influence of socio-cultural contexts and multiple sites of literacy activity, which cannot be ‘neutral’ as they are constituted by social and power relations. Thus, learning requires both the explicit teaching of specific skills, as well as opportunities for an informal acquisition of knowledge and social practices. The TVET professional needs the ability to use his or her professional judgement to identify key learning moments when they will actively intervene to deliver essential knowledge and skills. At other times, the teacher or trainer may take a back seat to allow the learners to become more self-directed or engage in collaborative learning with their peers. Further, there may be times when the teacher, trainer or work colleague acts as a mentor, facilitating informal learning, usually on-the-job. It is the professionalism of the teacher or trainer that allows judgements to be made about the type of pedagogical practices and the timing of learning activities and events, which is crucial to the success of the learner. To be a professional requires a sense of ‘vocation’, as well as a depth of knowledge of a particular field of learning from which to ‘profess’ (Beare, 1992). ‘Practice’ then becomes the application of that knowledge and learning to the benefit of others.
References Arnove, R.F.; Graff, H.J., eds. 1987. National literacy campaigns: historical and comparative perspectives. New York, NY: Plenum Press.
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Baker, D.A.; Street, B. 1991. Literacy and numeracy: concepts and definitions. In: Husen, T.; Postlethwaite, T.N., eds. The international encyclopaedia of education, vol. 6, 2nd ed., pp. 3453–59. Oxford, UK: Pergamon Press. Barton, D.; Hamilton, M. 1998. Local literacies: reading and writing in one community. London: Routledge. Beare, H. 1992. What does it mean to be professional? A commentary about teacher professionalism. Unicorn, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 65–72. Bourdieu, P. 1977. The economies of linguistic exchange. Social science information, vol. 6, pp. 645–68. Castleton, G.; McDonald, M. 2000. Multiple literacies and social transformation. Melbourne, Australia: Language Australia. Cope, B.; Kalantzis, M. 1995. Designing social futures. Education Australia, vol. 30, no. 6. Diehl, W.; Mikulecky, L. 1980. The nature of reading at work. Journal of reading, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 221–27. Daune-Richard, A-M. 2000. The social construction of skill. In: Jenson, J.; Laufer, J.; Maruani, M., eds. The gendering of inequalities: women, men and work, pp. 111–23. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing Ltd. Faracalas, N. 1997. Critical literacy and control in the new world order. In: Muspratt, S.; Luke, A.; Freebody, P., eds. Constructing critical literacies, pp. 141–72. St Leonards, Australia: Allen & Unwin. Freebody, P. 1994. Research in literacy education: the changing interfaces of research, policy and practice. (Inaugural lecture, 16 September 1994, Faculty of Education, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.) Freebody, P.; Luke, A. 1990. ‘Literacies’ programs: debates and demands in cultural context. Prospect, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 7–16. Freire, P. 1972. Pedagogy of the oppressed. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Education. Gee, J.P. 1990. Social linguistics and literacies: ideologies in discourses. London: The Falmer Press. Gee, J.P. 1994. New alignments and old literacies: critical literacy, post-modernism and fast capitalism. In: O’Connor, P., ed. Thinking work. Vol. 1: Theoretical perspectives on workers’ literacies, pp. 82–104. Sydney, Australia: ALBSAC. Gee, J.P. 1996. Social linguistics and literacies: ideologies in discourses, 2nd ed. London: Taylor & Francis. Gee, J.P.; Lankshear, C. 1997. Language, literacy and the new work order. In: Lankshear, C. et al., eds. Changing literacies, pp. 83–102. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. Goodman, K. 1967. Reading: a psycholinguistic guessing game. Journal of the reading specialist, vol. 6, pp. 126–35. Gowen, S. 1994. ‘I’m no fool’: reconsidering American workers and their literacies. In: O’Connor, P., ed. Thinking work. Vol. 1: Theoretical perspectives on workers’ literacies, pp. 123–35. Sydney, Australia: ALBSAC. Graff, H. 1986. The legacies of literacy: continuities and contradictions in western society and culture. In: Castell, S. de; Luke, A.; Egans, K., eds. Literacy, society, and schooling: a reader, pp. 82–91. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Heath, S.B. 1983. Ways with words. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Hull, G. 1997. Changing work, changing workers: critical perspectives on language, literacy and skills. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Jackson, N. 1991. Skills formation and gender relations: the politics of who knows what. Geelong, Australia: Deakin University Press. Jackson, N. 2000. Writing-up people at work: investigations of workplace literacy. Literacy and numeracy studies, vol. 10, nos. 1–2, pp. 5–22. (Proceedings of the Working Knowledge Conference, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia.) Lankshear, C. 1993. Curriculum as literacy: reading and writing in ‘New Times’. In: Green, B., ed. The insistence of the letter: literacy studies and curriculum theorizing, pp. 154–74. London: The Falmer Press.
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Levine, K. 1986. The social context of literacy. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Luke, A. 1992. Literacy and work in ‘New Times’. Open letter, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 3–15. Malan, L. 1996. Literacy mediation and social identity in Newtown, Eastern Cape. In: Prinsloo, M.; Breier M., eds. The social uses of literacy: theory and practice in contemporary South Africa, pp. 105–22. Cape Town, South Africa: Sached Books. Mikulecky, L. 1982. Job literacy: the relationship between school preparation and workplace actuality. Reading research quarterly, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 400–19. Mikulecky, L. 1990. Basic skills impediments to communication between management and hourly employees. Management communication quarterly, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 452–73. Narayan, L.; Chikarmane, P. 2000. Beyond literacy: education for empowerment. Literacy and numeracy studies, vol. 10, nos. 1–2, pp. 99–116. (Proceedings of the Australian Council for Adult Literacy Conference, 21–23 September 2000, Perth, Western Australia.) Nelson, A.J.A. 1989. My dear ministers. Armidale, Australia: Department of Continuing Education, University of New England. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 1995. Literacy, economy and society. Paris: OECD/Canadian Ministry of Industry. Prinsloo, M.; Breier, M., eds. 1996. The social uses of literacy: theory and practice in contemporary South Africa. Cape Town, South Africa: Sached Books. Scribner, S.; Cole, M. 1981. The psychology of literacy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Searle, J.; Kelly, A. 2001. Acting smart: an investigation of assumptions and principles which underpin training and assessment within one civil construction company. Melbourne, Australia: Language Australia. Skinner, T.J. 1997. Aspects of literacy: assessed skill levels, Australia 1996. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics. Smith, F. 1971. Understanding reading. Toronto, Canada: Holt. Statistics Canada; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2000. Literacy in the information age: final report of the International Adult Literacy Survey. Ottawa: Statistics Canada/OECD. Statistics Canada; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2005. Learning a living: first results of the adult literacy and life-skills survey. Ottawa: Statistics Canada; Paris: OECD. Sticht, T. 1975. Reading for working: a functional literacy anthology. Alexandria, VA: Human Resources Research Organisation. Street, B.V. 1984. Literacy in theory and practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Venezky, R.L. 1990. Definitions of literacy. In: Venezky, R.L.; Wagner, D.A.; Ciliberti, B.S., eds. Toward defining literacy, pp. 2–16. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Williams, H. 2000. The literate ‘illiterates’ of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa: an empirical account. Literacy and numeracy studies, vol. 10, nos. 1–2, pp. 85–97. (Proceedings of the Australian Council for Adult Literacy Conference, 21–23 September 2000, Perth, Western Australia.)
Chapter VIII.8
Vocational Education in the Private Sector in Brazil Elenice Monteiro Leite, Marinilzes Moradillo Mello and Nacim Walter Chieco
1 Introduction This chapter has the objective of presenting a panorama of the range, management and financing of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in Brazil, highlighting the participation of the private sector. It starts from an analysis of TVET adapted to the socio-economic context of the country and called, for the purposes of this study, the ‘non-invisible system’. To give an idea of its size, data obtained from several sources, official and non-official, are considered. The main agencies described and summarized are: the S-System; technical schools; independent education schools; public and private universities and colleges; government schools for civil and military employees; workers’ trade unions and professional associations; non-governmental organizations (NGOs); universities, schools and training centres in private companies; suppliers; and consultants.
2 Concepts and Context In the traditional approach, based on European models, TVET is concerned with educational, technical and technological courses offered by traditional institutions of vocational training, and can be clearly distinguished from programmes of initial training and in-service training. In Brazil, however, the universe of TVET includes not only these programmes (educational, technical and technological courses), but also any training action of short, average or long duration, and also seminars, meetings, lectures, consultancies, capable of contributing to the development and the improvement of abilities, attitudes, knowledge or other requisites, desired or even indispensable for work and for life in modern societies. This broad concept of TVET is based on three characteristics of the Brazilian economically active population (EAP) that affect the demand for education and capacity-building: (a) the informal sector: around 55% of the EAP’s work is not legally registered and does not benefit from any kind of social protection; (b) the low level of education: 60% of the EAP do not complete eight years of study, equivalent R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VIII.8, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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to primary education; and (c) there are delays or interruptions in the trajectory for the acquisition of secondary and higher education. Under these circumstances, traditional differences between the initial and continuous skills training tend to be less important, because many people are always ‘launching’ careers in the work market in different sectors or jobs. For many Brazilian students, the only way of reaching or going beyond secondary education is to study while working. This means that many of those who enter higher education are, in general, more than 25 years old. At this age in many countries most people are already engaged in in-service education programmes. For the majority of Brazilian worker-students, a higher education degree can be a means of achieving stability and progress in their career, but it can also be the pathway to a diploma and better jobs, for example in the public service. The fact is that TVET in Brazil is provided by a great variety of agencies that cater to the formal and informal sectors of the economy, to employed or unemployed workers, in big and small companies in various activities and occupations. This vocational education market, constituted by public and private institutions, is frequently informal in terms of certification or educational requisites, does not form part of formal education and can be disseminated by television, videos, magazines, newspapers and now also the Internet. This major market for TVET functions as a ‘non-invisible system’ (de Moura Castro, 2002b, 2002c): ‘invisible’ in official statistics and public policies; and ‘non-invisible’ since, while it does not have a central co-ordinating body, specific co-ordination exists among its main parts. Serving a total population close to 200 million and an EAP of more than 80 million people, the Brazilian TVET market is similar to that of many other countries in the Latin American and Caribbean Region. But it has its particularities, which has a significant impact on public and private provision: (a) the federal government has played a decisive role in the creation of funds and mechanisms to stimulate the development of vocational education since the 1940s; and (b) there are a combination of public sector initiatives in its management and financing. Among the incentives and mechanisms, at least two are particularly important for the development of TVET: (a) since the 1940s, compulsory contributions (CC) have been the main source of financing of the S-System—the expression used for the national education apprenticeship services; and (b) the Worker Support Fund (FAT), functioning since the 1990s, with an estimated worth of US$14 billion and an annual budget of US$4 billion, managed by the tripartite equal representation council. In the period 1995–2002, FAT financed the capacity-building of some 15 million people with funds in the order of US$1.1 billion by means of the Worker Qualification National Plan (PLANFOR) of the Ministry of Labour. For a long period of time, such public interventions led to important advances in terms of financing and incentives for TVET in the different sectors of the economy, including the constitution of an ample infrastructure (schools, workshops, equipment), the development of human resources, technology and methodologies, and the creation of a ‘TVET culture’ within public and private corporations, which spread to society as a whole.
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3 The Offer of TVET in Brazil: Public Versus Private The major part of the TVET segment in Brazil works through a ‘non-invisible’ system, not covered by official statistics, which only reflect the formal courses of schooling in secondary and higher education, in other words, only technical TVET at technological and secondary education level. Therefore, in order to estimate and describe the provision of this market, it is necessary to work with estimates, combining information from different studies and databases. In this chapter, the following sources were mainly used:
r r r r r r r
TVET census of the Ministry of Education, 1999–2000; Vocational Education Unit Catalogue of the Ministry of Labour, 1998–2000; SIGAE: the Labour and Management Information System of the Ministry of Labour, 1998–2000; RAIS: Social Information Annual Record, 2000; Educational Census, Ministry of Education, 2000; Non-formal initiatives of education and work with adolescents, as prepared by GIFE (1998); and The annual S-System report.
3.1 Dimensioning of the TVET Offer Based on these sources, it is estimated that the TVET market in Brazil comprises around 35,000 schools and training centres, with 32 million students enrolled covered by an annual budget of approximately US$13 billion. For analytical purposes, and including the participation of the private sector, the profile of the TVET market in Brazil can be classified into three groups as set out in Table 1 below, combining different forms of management and sources of financing: (a) public financing and management; (b) public financing with private management; and (c) private financing and management. In this field, it is possible to identify at least ten groups of agencies with different modes of financing and management: (a) public and (b) private universities and colleges; (c) public and (d) private technical schools; (e) government schools; (f) the S-System; (g) NGOs; (h) trade unions; (i) independent vocational education; and (j) autonomous consultants. By means of this network, programmes of short, average and long duration are offered with or without certification for all economic sectors covering all commercial and industrial activities in urban areas. Global expenditure for TVET is equally divided among the public sector—taxes, compulsory contributions, public funds—and the private sector—fees, other contributions, donations, services and product sales. Historically, however, public finance has massively subsidized private investments in the TVET market. It may be concluded that around half of this market has private management and financing. However, if all forms of private management are taken into consideration, then more than two-thirds of this market is under private control. This is a peculiarity
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Table 1 The TVET market in Brazil: 1999–2000: estimate of schools, students and budget of the main agencies∗ Agencies or ‘System’
Enrolments (millions)
Annual budget∗∗ US$ millions
190
0.8
2,400
480
0.2
65
1,000 15,050
0.4 2.7
480 945
15,240 (43%)
4.1 (13%)
3,890 (30%)
Schools/centres
A – PUBLIC FINANCING AND MANAGEMENT Universities and colleges: federal, state and city Technical schools/secondary education schools: federal and state∗∗∗ • Initial training and continued courses; • Technical courses; • Adults and juvenile education courses (EJA). SUB-TOTAL A
B – PUBLIC FINANCING, PRIVATE MANAGEMENT S-System and participative federations Unions and professional associations
2,700
6.0
2,500
500
1.6
130
SUB-TOTAL B
3,200 (9%)
7.6 (24%)
2,630 (20%)
905
1.6
3,600
1,120
1.0
320
1,000 2,250
0.3 0.3
360 105
4,200 3,000 5,000
5.0 3.0 5.0
800 240 800
1,500 —
2.6 1.3
210 104
SUB-TOTAL C
16,855 (48%)
20.1 (63%)
6,540 (50%)
TOTAL (A + B + C) = 100%
35,295
31.8
13,060
C – PRIVATE FINANCING AND MANAGEMENT Universities and colleges Technical schools/secondary education schools: federal and state∗∗∗ • Initial formation and continued courses; • Technical courses; • Adults and juvenile education courses (EJA). Schools in private companies NGOs Schools and independent education Suppliers Consultants
∗
= Names of courses and programmes according to Decree no. 5154/04. = The estimates do not include investment in infrastructures. ∗∗∗ = The sub-total of technical schools/secondary education schools is inferior to the sum of the parts, because the same school can offer different types of courses; in other words, capacitybuilding, technical and EJA. According to statistics of Brazil, MEC/INEP (2000a, 2000b), the total number of units offering EJA beyond the modalities of TVET is 15,050 public schools and 2,250 private schools. Sources: see the list in the text (plus estimates according to World Bank, 2003, and Leite, 2003b). ∗∗
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of the Brazilian context, because it reflects the S-System’s overall power—the main and most important provider of TVET in the country’s private sector—financed by public funds but with private management.
4 The Main Agencies The non-S-System part of TVET in Brazil is composed in great part of institutions with long histories of action in the country. For a long time, however, several of these agencies only managed to survive by not functioning or by functioning in another area of TVET, by occupying a secondary position behind the quasi-monopoly provided by the traditional TVET institutions. Only recent research can measure the coverage, diversity and importance in the Brazilian TVET market.
4.1 The S-System Private in management, public in financing, the S-System is not, in fact, organized into a system at all. The expression is used only for convenience, being frequently used by the media because of the similar abbreviations, all beginning with the letter S for ‘service’. This includes different national social services for apprenticeship: SENAI/SESI for industry; SENAC/SESC for commerce and services; SENAT/SEST for transportation; SENAR for agriculture; SEBRAE for technical assistance to micro and small companies; and SESCOOP for urban co-operatives. Excluding SENAR, SEBRAE and SESCOOP, there is a trio concerned with apprenticeship for TVET—SENAI, SENAC and SENAT, and another for the socio-cultural activities—SESI, SESC and SEST. The older S are SENAI/SESI and SESC/SENAC, created in the 1940s. SEBRAE and SENAR were created in the 1980s, SEST/SEAT in the 1990s, and SESCOOP, the youngest branch, in 1999.1 Business people organized into state and national federations, as well as local chambers of commerce, are responsible for the S-System and offer capacitybuilding programmes—not necessarily in the system’s schools. Although they are ‘apprenticeship services’, the S-System offers mainly shortterm courses of capacity-building (usually twenty to eighty hours), representing around 80% of the total enrolments in the system. They also offer technical secondary TVET, and SENAC and SENAI have started offering higher education. The traditional apprenticeship courses have been in decline since the 1980s, surviving mainly in the states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. From 1999, SENAI has been revitalizing its training strategy. Recently, the Federal Law n◦ 10097/00 authorized the provision of apprenticeship courses for institutions that are not part of the S-System. Since then, the reintroduction of apprenticeship courses by the S has been occurring. The S-System is financed by the collection of compulsory contributions (CC) and taxes paid by students in certain programmes and courses. The CC were instituted in 1942 by the creation of SENAI in the period known as the ‘New State’, a euphemism used to designate the dictatorship of President Get´ulio Vargas.
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Contributions to the S-System vary between 0.3% and 2.5% of the payroll of private companies. The collection is carried out by the National Social Security Institute (INSS), which passes on the funds collected, keeping 3.5% for administrative purposes. There are particular features for each S:
r r r
r r
SENAR offers TVET as well as social services and its levy, according to the Law n◦ 10,256/01, is 0.25% of the gross earnings of the agro-industry and 0.20% of the earnings of rural producers; The levy of SEBRAE is 0.3% collected in all sectors of the economy; SENAI benefits from two types of contributions paid by the industrial sector: the ‘general’ (1%) and the ‘additional’ (+0.5%, paid by companies with more than 500 employees). This additional contribution is destined to finance research and scholarships in Brazil and abroad for management positions in companies and of SENAI personnel. SESI is financed by 1.5% from industrial salaries; The levy from SEST/SENAT is 1.5% collected from transport companies and 1% from the autonomous workers (drivers), which constitute the majority of the sector; SENAI has another particularity compared to the other institutions of the S-System: co-operation agreements with big industrial companies—which can be totally or partially exempt from the ‘general’ contribution—permit the CC to be used for the maintenance of courses or TVET schools, promoting and sustaining the creation of schools inside companies.
The CC scheme exists in other Latin American and the Caribbean countries, many of which were inspired by the Brazilian model (CINTERFOR/OIT, 1990, 2002a, 2002b). However, the Brazilian scheme must be considered unique for the following reasons:
r r r
it is the oldest in the region, with more than seventy years of service, and has resisted several attempts for its cutback or suppression; it is the only model of public financing with private management in the region; almost exclusively, it is administered by representatives of the private business sector.
Although their usefulness has been questioned, the CC have been maintained thanks largely to the results and the image of quality and efficiency associated with the S-System, which receives considerable approval from various segments of the concerned population: politicians, trade unionists, business people and, above all, the workers who benefit from the courses. In effect, the S-System has developed the biggest and most modern infrastructure of TVET in the country and even in the Latin American and Caribbean Region. There are 2,700 schools and high-quality centres, with 6 million students enrolled and an annual budget of US$2 billion in vocational capacity-building alone, apart from investments in other teaching, culture, health and sports. It has also been responsible for innovations in technology, methodologies and didactic material in the field of TVET.
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The future of the payment of the CC and of the whole S-System is the object of present discussions and analysis. It is expected that these will result in the upgrading of the financing, management and functioning mechanisms, in view of the contribution of the system to the economy and to Brazilian society.
4.2 Technical Schools/Secondary Education Schools This group includes not only the regular technical courses, but also all types of initial and continuing training and adult and juvenile education courses (EJA) offered by the technical schools network and of primary education in the country. The schools and their enrolments are predominantly private, but the most typical and complete element within this group is the network of federal technical schools, managed and financed by the Ministry of Education, with around 100 highquality schools spread across twenty-seven Brazilian states, the majority created in the 1930s and 1940s. By the end of the 1970s, some federal technical schools changed themselves into federal centres of technological education (CEFETs) providing technological graduate courses, as well as technical courses. Other well-known networks are the state technical schools found in the more developed states, such as Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, Paran´a, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul. Sao Paulo, for example, has around 100 technical schools like the State Technological Education Centre Paula Souza, linked to the State University ‘Julio de Mesquita Filho’ (UNESP). These schools were introduced in the 1930s and 1940s, and expanded during the 1970s and 1980s following Law 5,692/72, which required secondary education schools (high schools) to offer vocational capacitybuilding courses. This law did not have a great impact on the existing public and private technical schools, but ended up setting in motion an increase in the registration of ‘technical courses’ in the secondary education schools, in order to respond to the administrative imperatives of the law. This strongly contributed to a reduction in the quality of the education system since that time (Cunha, 2000b). By means of the 1997 decree, following the new general law on national education of 1996, the curricular independence of secondary education in relation to technical education was permitted. In 2004, a new decree re-established the possibility of the combination of technical and secondary education. Today, to obtain the technical diploma, students can attend the integrated technical course, at the same time as or after secondary education. Since secondary education has almost become a requisite in order to find employment, young people and adults are returning even more to the EJA (old ‘night studies’), including the patronage of public and private workers. The raising of the basic level of schooling for workers by means of the EJA can be considered a function of TVET in the Brazilian context.
4.3 Independent Education Schools Exclusively a private group in management and financing, independent education schools provide a varied range of short-term courses—without official curricular
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regulation—in, for example: information technology, foreign languages, mechanics, electronics, dressmaking, cookery, hairdressing and technical design. For more than sixty years, some of these schools have been pioneers in distance-education courses, initially by post and now via the Internet. The Monitor Institute and the Universal Brazilian Institute were created respectively in 1939 and 1940 and continue to function to this day offering courses in electronics, information technology, telecommunications, business administration and secretarial skills—by post and via the Internet. This sector is practically unknown in official documentation, even though the schools have been registered in the national list of legal entities. There is evidence of expansion in the last ten years, mainly due to the franchising system and also thanks to the public opportunities of credit for micro and small businesses. It is estimated that the franchised English schools, for example, are worth around US$800 million (de Moura Castro, 2002b). Many schools today offer non-formal courses and also the EJA and technical secondary education.
4.4 Public and Private Universities and Colleges Similar to technical education, enrolments in these courses are also predominantly private, but the focuses are the public, federal and state universities. It is considered, as mentioned earlier, that higher TVET education in Brazil, after the foundation courses in technology, lasts two to three years. At the same time, the majority of universities and colleges today offer a wide range of specializations and extension services in TVET. The public agencies are mainly federal or state universities. There is at least one in most Brazilian states. Besides this, there is usually a considerable network of colleges in the large and medium-sized cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. Some of the federal institutions have existed since the imperial period during the nineteenth century, but the last two education laws introduced in 1971 and 1996 promoted the expansion of higher education, mainly private education institutions. From 2001 to 2003, the number of private colleges grew some 45% in Brazil, with 544 new higher education institutions (Folha de S˜ao Paulo, 2003).
4.5 Government Schools for Civil and Military Employees The public sector schools do not provide as much TVET, although they represent some of the oldest institutions in the country financed and managed by federal organizations, such as the Ministry of Administration, which maintains the National Public Administration School (ENAP), and the Ministry of Economy, responsible for the Higher School of Financial Management (ESAF). The most developed states and cities also subsidize schools and foundations, with the objective of building capacity and enhancing the capacities of public employees.
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These government schools have started to be more proactive in the field of TVET, thanks to the modernization of the public services and the emergence of the equality and human rights policies. In this new context, demand has grown for the capacity-building of public employees in more fields, such as information technology, foreign languages, entrepreneurship, leadership and client servicing—besides the EJA. There was a time when the greater part of public employees had low levels of education. It should be noted that the Armed Forces—Navy, Army and Air Force—also benefited from the CC instituted in the 1940s in ways similar to the S-System. This CC is directed to the financing of military academies and training centres. Little is known about these contributions, however, because it is very difficult to find reports or data about these activities.
4.6 Workers’ Trade Unions and Professional Associations The offer of TVET and other services by trade unions in Brazil is maintained thanks to a special tax corresponding to one-day’s salary per year of each worker, which is collected by the Federal Government and distributed to the unions, who manage it. The unions maintain schools and capacity-building centres offering courses to their members and associates. Today, the most important agencies are linked to the great trade unions: Unique Worker Centre (CUT); Agricultural Workers Confederation (CONTAG); and the Social Union Democracy (SDS). The Without Land Movement (MST) also provides some TVET, particularly in the mainly rural areas in the south of the country. This is possibly a Brazilian peculiarity in the Latin-American context. Here, contrary to what has happened in the majority of the countries in the region, the trade unions have expanded and gained strength since the 1970s, despite the military dictatorship. They created large and powerful national federations, which became proactive in political and social arenas. Recently, in the 1990s, they faced a crisis of reduced employment levels which affected the union taxes that financed their activities. Despite this, they became more proactive in the field of vocational formation using public funds (FAT).
4.7 Non-Governmental Organizations Formed almost totally by non-profit-making institutions, but with private management, this group includes a vast range of religious, political and social institutions with a long history of offering initial and in-service training to poor and vulnerable groups (Cunha, 2000a). Many of them have existed for more than a century and receive considerable finance from foreign sources, such as the European Union, and from religious, ecological and human rights organizations. These institutions compose what is called the ‘third sector’, whose dynamism is another particularity
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in Brazil in the Latin American context. It is estimated that NGOs invest around US $1.7 billion in the country, involving 30 million volunteers. Half of this money is devoted to projects in the area of education (de Moura Castro, 2002a). This sector has become increasingly visible and proactive in the TVET market since the 1990s due to the new opportunities provided by the Adolescent and Child Statute (ECA), by the National Education Bases and Guidelines Law and by the new Apprenticeship Statute, which permitted NGOs to carry out TVET, including apprenticeships. Public programmes financed by the FAT, such as the PLANFOR (1995–2002), and also social initiatives by private companies, have contributed to making the NGOs more visible and active in the TVET market. Today, practically every church, neighbourhood association and social club offers some kind of training—literacy classes for the young and adults; EJA courses and capacity building courses—mainly for the poorer populations living in the suburbs of the big Brazilian cities.
4.8 Schools and Training Centres in Private Companies Big companies and technological innovation companies maintain schools, training centres, cultural foundations and corporate universities for their employees and their families. Before the Second World War, many schools were set up in the industrial sector, followed by a great expansion in the 1970s and 1980s stimulated by new demands and sources of financing, as well as the fiscal incentives and international co-operation agreements, such as those of SENAI. Today, a good number of the companies do not manage the schools directly, but subcontract capacitybuilding courses or delegate the task to foundations. Since the 1990s, this activity has been expanding due to the ‘social responsibility’ role assumed by the private sector. In 1995, these foundations formed an association called GIFE—Grupo de Institutos Fundac¸o˜ es e Empresas—consisting of more than sixty of the biggest and the richest private companies in the country and investing about US$250 million per year in social projects. GIFE declares itself to be the first Latin American association that draws together representatives of private organizations to invest in or run social, cultural and environmental projects in the public interest (GIFE, 1998).
4.9 Suppliers Large and average-sized companies that produce or sell equipment, systems, machines and raw material offer training to their clients, whether workers or managers (Leite, 1996). For security reasons, as in the case of selling oil or gas, this type of training is compulsory by law, but for the majority of the companies, even for the small ones, such a strategy may be designed to increase competitiveness.
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4.10 Consultants Individuals and small companies that offer specialized consultancy services in diverse areas have also been expanding since the 1980s, in response to the demand for quality programmes, ISO certificates, human resources development and new management techniques. Beyond this, downsizing processes have led to the withdrawal from the market of specialized professionals—engineers, economists, and administrators—who become consultants, providing services to their former employees and clients.
5 Conclusion The non-invisible system of TVET in Brazil represents an indispensable support for the economic and social development of the country. It consists of a diverse network of institutions that make it difficult to quantify—except by estimates—and control although it has operated in the country for decades. It can be said that the ‘non-invisible system’ constitutes a solid base for the training of human resources, with sufficient flexibility to respond to labour-market demands. The provision of public and private TVET in the country would probably be sufficient to train 40% of the total EAP annually, in other words, about 32 million enrolments for a total EAP of 80 million people. Considering the number and diversity of institutions, this provision could be considered as a ‘first world’ service in a ‘third world’ society. Its weakness, however, is the low level of initial schooling of the Brazilian EAP, the shortcomings of which— in reading, writing, maths and even socialization—frequently end up having to be compensated by TVET. The TVET market in Brazil is maintained by an annual investment in the order of US$3 billion, representing 2% of the total gross national product (GNP) and 40% of the total expenses on education (5% of GNP). Of this total, 50% comes from private sources, among which the participation of universities and colleges, technical schools and companies—including consultants and suppliers, and independent education—should be pointed out. Individual expenditure on TVET reached around US$5.2 billion—invested mainly in secondary, higher and independent education courses—which represents 75% of the total private funds spent on the TVET market—in other words for a total of US$6.5 billion, and 40% of the total investment in TVET. This converts to a considerable investment for a country whose per capita income is around US$2,500 and with an average wage in the formal urban sector—which pays the highest salaries by Brazilian standards—of approximately US$250 per month, or three minimum salaries. There is evidence that individual investment is supplemented by scholarships funded by public organizations. These are education credits coming from public banks, professional education agencies and large companies that motivate their employees to enrol in colleges or to take continuing education courses (Leite, 1996;
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World Bank, 2003; Revista da Folha, 2003). In any case, these numbers demonstrate the importance of TVET for Brazilian society, whose poor families cannot afford to pay capacity-building courses for their children (Leite, 2003a). The high volume of company investment in schools and courses maintained by themselves (including suppliers) has been pointed out, beyond their contribution to the S-System: around US$1.1 billion, representing 27% of the private investment in TVET in the country. This investment would correspond to around twenty annual hours of capacity-building per worker from the formal urban sector, or close to 1% of the annual hours worked. This is a standard above European indexes. As is the case of many other services in Brazil, TVET is not well distributed across the population. Most of the time, it caters to workers with higher levels of education. These people may be identified as young, white males who are already well placed in the formal urban labour market. Those older than 40 years, female, of Afro-Brazilian origin and already with a low level of education are frequently left aside, except in programmes explicitly oriented to equity opportunities. What stands out is that the TVET market reflects the inequality existing in Brazilian society, and tends to be intensified by being managed predominantly by private initiative, despite being financed equally with public and private funds. For this reason, although it works and is able to respond to the demand, the TVET market in the country deserves to be better known and articulated to public policies of education, work and development. Quality evaluation mechanisms of equality and access promotion are fundamental, as it is in any other market, to guide and preserve the interest of consumers, as well as to guide public investments.
Note 1. SENAI is the Servic¸o Nacional de Aprendizagem Industrial—National Service for Industrial Apprenticeship (<www.senai.dn.br>); SESI is the Servic¸o Social da Industria—Social Service for Industry (www.sesi.org.br); SENAC is the Servic¸o Nacional de Aprendizaje Comercial— National Service for Commercial Apprenticeship (<www.senac.br>); SESC is the Servic¸o Social do Com´ercio—Social Service for Commerce and Services; SENAT is the Confederaci´on Nacional de Transporte—National Confederation of Transport (<www.cnt.org.br); SEST is the Servic¸o Social do Transporte—Social Service for Transport; SENAR is the Servic¸o Nacional de Aprendizagem Rural—National Service for Agricultural Apprenticeship (<www.senar.org.br>); SEBRAE is the Servic¸o Brasileiro de Apoio ao Empreendedor e Pequeno Empres´ario— Brazilian Service of Technical Support to Micro and Small Companies(<www.sebrae.com.br>); and SESCOOP is the Servic¸o Nacional de Aprendizagem do Cooperativismo—National Service for Urban Co-operatives (<www.brasilcooperativo. com.br>).
References Brazil. Ministry of Education. Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais An´ısio Teixeira. 2000a. Censo da educac¸a˜ o no Brasil. Brasilia: MEC/INEP. Brazil. Ministry of Education. Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais An´ısio Teixeira. 2000b. N´umeros da educac¸a˜ o no Brasil. Brasilia: MEC/INEP.
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CINTERFOR/OIT. 1990. La formaci´on profesional en el umbral de los 90; un estudio de los cambios e innovaciones en las instituciones especializadas de Am´erica Latina. Montevideo: IRDB/IRDC/GTZ/BID. CINTERFOR/OIT. 2002a. Pol´ıticas innovadoras y reformas de gesti´on para la promoci´on del desarrollo de conocimientos y habilidades de los trabajadores. Montevideo: CINTERFOR. (Documentos de referencia, 1, Seminario Interamericano Tripartito sobre Formaci´on Profesional, Productividad y Trabajo Decente, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 15–17 May 2002.) CINTERFOR/OIT. 2002b. Financiamento de la formaci´on; el papel de los actores sociales. Montevideo: CINTERFOR. (Documentos de referencia, 2, Seminario Interamericano Tripartito sobre Formaci´on Profesional, Productividad y Trabajo Decente, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 15–17 May 2002.) Cunha, L.A. 2000a. O ensino de of´ıcios artesanais e manufatureiros no Brazil escravocrata. Sao Paulo/Brasilia: UNESP/MTE/FAT. Cunha, L.A. 2000b. O ensino profissional na irradiac¸a˜ o do industrialismo. Sao Paulo/Brasilia: UNESP/MTE/FAT. de Moura Castro, C. 2002a. Formaci´on profesional en el cambio del siglo. Montevideo: CINTERFOR. de Moura Castro, C. 2002b. Comments on the Brazilian case study: mapping the invisible lifelong learning (LLL) non-system. Washington, DC: World Bank. de Moura Castro, C. 2002c. A educac¸a˜ o invis´ıvel. Veja, no. 1,756, p. 20. Folha de S˜ao Paulo. 2003. N´umero de faculdades privadas cresce 45%. 3 August 2003, p. C1–3. Grupo de Institutos Fundac¸o˜ es e Empresas. 1998. Iniciativas n˜ao formais de educac¸a˜ o e trabalho com adolescentes. Sao Paulo, Brazil: GIFE. <www.odb.org.br> <www.gife.org.br> Leite, E.M. 1996. El rescate de la calificaci´on. Montevideo: CINTERFOR. Leite, E.M. 2003a. Mudanc¸as de vida e trabalho de jovens metropolitanos. In: Desemprego: abordagem institucional e biogr´afica: uma comparac¸a˜ o Brasil, Franc¸a e Jap˜ao. Sao Paulo, Brazil: USP/CEM/SEADE/CEBRAP. <www.fflch.usp.br/sociologia/nadya> Leite, E.M. 2003b. Brazilian VET market: public financing and private management—peculiarities and perspectives. Montevideo: OIT/CINTERFOR. Revista da Folha. 2003. Cac¸a ao canudo. 26 October 2003, pp. 8–22. World Bank. 2003. The Brazilian case study: mapping the ‘invisible lifelong learning (LLL) non-system’. Washington, DC: World Bank. <siteresources. worldbank.org/EDUCATION/Resources/278200-1126210664195/1636971-1126210694253/ LLL Brazil Final Synthesis.pdf>
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Chapter VIII.9
TVET and Teacher-Training Curricula: A Developed National Perspective Vasiliy P. Kosyrev, Petr F. Kubrushko and Andrei N. Kouznetsov
1 Introduction The theory of teacher training for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) cannot provide practising educationalists with a water-tight answer to one of the most vital and crucial questions: how much time is required to educate a TVET professional? Unlike most other training fields, TVET teacher training is double-targeted, as two majors (teacher training and a specific vocational training) are to be mastered equally. It could be concluded that this type of training would require twice the time and twice the effort compared to singlefield training. However, this is not commonly observed in TVET teacher training, which can be attributed to the limited training periods followed by most students who are in search of full-time employment—and preferably as soon as possible. Russian university TVET teacher training is carried out according to the State Educational Standard, which provides an obligatory framework and content for training and is worded and issued by the Ministry of Education (Russian Federation. Ministry of Education, 2000). The standard training periods are four and five years, and graduates obtain their bachelor’s or advanced professional TVET teaching degrees respectively. In order to understand the Russian TVET teacher training system better, it is thought appropriate to resort to a comparative analysis here. Therefore, to provide the maximum coverage, it is reasonable to compare Russian and American systems in this chapter. The basic principles of academic subject clustering and sequencing are relatively similar in the Russian Federation (hereafter Russia/Russian) and the United States of America (hereafter USA/American). General science and mathematics are studied during the first and second years of training, and general and specialized vocational subjects are studied during the third and fourth years; the fifth year is for achieving a degree of mastery of the chosen major. A noteworthy difference in schooling is the fact that Russian universities start humanities, psychological and teacher training during the first stage (from the first university year), whereas in American universities these subject clusters are typically postponed to the senior (graduate) stage.
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2 Research Methodology Until very recently the ‘trial-and-error’ method was employed for the selection of criteria for TVET teacher-training curriculum design and further development (Zhuchenko, Romantsev & Tkachenko, 1999). Research methodologies of this type are still found in many educational systems throughout the world. According to this method, TVET professionals conduct field research in several stages: (a) direct observation of actual activities carried out by a number of more or less typical TVET teachers; (b) there is an analysis on points of quality; (c) a preliminary trial of a working model is arranged; and (d) lastly comes the analysis of test results and inference of place-and-time appropriate recommendations for TVET teacher-training curriculum design. Among the key disadvantages of this trial-and-error method are the chaotic and limited nature of the research results and specific limitations attributable to subjective differences in the interpretation of research data by different experts (see Zhuchenko, Romantsev & Tkachenko, 1999). Comparative analysis is another efficient method for carrying out research on TVET teacher-training curricula. As opposed to the trial-and-error method, this method is recognized as more relevant to the issue considered in this chapter as it does not have the disadvantages of the former. Thus, comparative analysis of Russian and American curricula was carried out on the principle of academic subject clustering (Curriculum Development at Agricultural Universities, 1997). Subjects were grouped in the way typically used in Russian State educational standards; that is to say, there are clusters grouping humanities, social and economic studies, general mathematical and science studies, general and specialized vocational studies, and educational and psychological studies. American university curricula were analysed in accordance with Russian subject names and contents, and then regrouped into these same clusters. For research purposes, the total number of hours for each subject was measured in credit hours (Table 1). This is not typical of Russia, but is common in American education. Table 1 Comparison of Russian and American credit hours in TVET teacher training Academic subject clusters Humanities, social and economic studies General mathematical and science studies General vocational studies Educational and psychological studies (including practical field training, probationary periods, etc.) Specialized vocational studies (including practical field training, probationary periods, etc.) Total: ∗
Russia∗
Texas
Indiana
Pennsylvania
34 31 38 41
40 20 23 31
30 28 32 33
25 26 24 41
54
32
16
34
197
146
139
150
= The Russian standard considered here is for the five-year TVET teacher training with minor in agricultural mechanical engineering; it is compared to similar American curricular characteristics.
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3 General Mathematical and Science Studies For some minors within TVET teacher training, the general mathematical and science cluster is the same as that used for general engineering training. In this case, specific features of this cluster are understood to pre-determine the structure, contents and objectives of the entire training-course curriculum. To a considerable degree this corresponds to professional engineering training, which may be described as ‘human/machine’ interaction. Machinery has traditionally been understood as the central element in this interaction: humans—with all their personal and professional traits—come second. American university TVET teacher-training curricula feature a radically different approach. Here, human beings are the primary concern, with particular consideration for their efficient interaction with the production environment (i.e. industrial, agricultural, teaching, etc.). Machinery and its characteristics and environmental links come second in this approach. Thus, the American curricula format and contents are radically different from those in Russia. Universities in the USA offer much more extensive courses in biology, chemistry, natural science and general mathematics. This prevailing characteristic of general mathematical and science studies in American curricula may be attributed to both the minor of vocational training and to general philosophical concepts, particularly the predominant importance of human interaction with the environment.
4 Humanities, Social and Economic Studies The current social, economic and political processes taking place in Russia and in other transition economies determine the modifications and amendments affecting the format and content of university training for the humanities, social sciences and economics. The strong positive influence of the Russian educational standard (Russian Federation. Ministry of Education, 2000) for TVET teacher training means that the requirements for such training are firmly established, especially in terms of the content and time allocation. This standard lays down the contents, structure and time allocation for each academic subject forming part of the curriculum structure. Modern humanities and humanist-orientated education tends to influence the key requirements for this aspect of professional training. In our opinion, however, the subjects presented—and their characteristics, that is, the framework, contents and time-budget—are rather inadequate to the needs for professional personality development. If compared to American curricula, mother tongue and arts studies receive less emphasis. An advantage of Russian TVET teacher-training curricula is the inclusion of such fundamental humanities and economic subjects as philosophy, law, economics, foreign languages and physical training. However, humanities and economic subjects are considerably more practical and profession-oriented in American curricula, where a large number of these subjects are marked as electives. Such diverse courses
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as university history, efficient project writing, national politics, debating, environmental ethics, presentation of strategy design, international professional communication, youth leadership development and team building and so on are also included on the list in the USA. The humanities and economic subject clusters are much more diverse, practical, flexible, electives-rich and study-motivating in American curricula. These characteristics stimulate students to achieve professional mastery and contribute in a greater degree to graduate mobility.
5 General Vocational Studies TVET teacher training at the higher-education level differs from the secondary level in a rather marked way in terms of general vocational studies. The in-depth study of TVET-relevant subjects that is characteristic of university training is not found in TVET teacher-training colleges, as secondary vocational training is somewhat limited in terms of the amount of information passed on to the students and the depth of this information. General vocational studies in the framework of American curricula feature the structure and contents that allow the training of a broadly qualified TVET professional. These studies provide a solid background for further specialized studies and, at the same time, motivate students for in-depth studies of issues associated with their major. Having mastered these academic subjects, students advance their competences and obtain more intellectual power for the accumulation of information related to TVET teaching. This subject cluster in American curricula incorporates a large economics component. Among these subjects are ‘introduction to agricultural activity and economics’ (Purdue, Indiana) and ‘introduction to agricultural economics’ (Texas A&M and Penn State, Pennsylvania). This inclusion of extensive economics subjects is grounded on the educational philosophy and the special features of economic life typical of the USA, as well as publicly shared pragmatism and the prevailing spirit of private enterprise that is not common in Russia or any other transitional country. Modern communication technologies applied in the USA are based on the extensive use of computers. Profound mastery of computer skills for professional purposes is integrated into the cluster of general vocational studies. The relevant subjects here are ‘computer systems in agriculture’ (Penn State), ‘agricultural planning and business programs’ (Purdue), and ‘computer literacy in agriculture’ (Texas). The general vocational studies cluster in Russian curricula predominantly contains general engineering subjects, which make up the basis for the students’ mastery of engineering during subsequent training stages. We consider this curricular parameter to be the key advantage of TVET teacher training in Russia—both in terms of content and the logic of a vocation-oriented curricular design. A key disadvantage of such engineering-oriented general professional studies clusters in the Russian curricula is the heavily practical design component of these studies.
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That is, an excessive amount of time is devoted to in-depth engineering training, including technical drawing and monotonous and repetitive calculations. The mission of the general vocational studies cluster is to provide students with a fundamental background in the philosophy of machinery use, technical service management and design theory. From the point of view of TVET teacher training, Russian curricula should incorporate the general vocational studies cluster that contains not only pure engineering, but general pedagogical and scientific components as well. This is needed because its inclusion will probably help teacher trainers to mould the kind of TVET professionals who would possess the competencies required by the challenges of the present-day job market—both in terms of TVET student training and more successful teacher placement. Among such additional courses, there may be some of those found in American curricula, for example, ‘introduction to agricultural activity and economics’, ‘computer application to agriculture and TVET’, and so on. The need for such courses is attributed to the expanding professional field and requirements for the professional mobility of TVET teacher-training graduates.
6 Educational and Psychological Studies The educational and psychological studies cluster within TVET teacher-training curricula incorporates the following components: 1. The psychological component, including physiology, general and TVET psychology, and practical psychology; the key purpose of these courses is to provide students with the background competence in human behaviour, physiology and psychological characteristics. 2. Teacher-training courses, including ‘introduction to TVET’, ‘theory and practice of teaching’ and ‘field TVET teacher training’. The key mission of these courses is to provide students with background competence in TVET elements; 3. TVET practice applicable to general engineering courses and relevant teaching methodology; the key mission of these courses is to provide students with the background competence in teaching TVET courses. To illustrate the specific contents and curriculum design of the educational and psychological studies that are current for the Russian system of TVET teacher education, it is thought appropriate to quote an extract from the Russian State Educational Standard (Russian Federation. Ministry of Education, 2000) for students majoring in TVET issues.
r
Introduction to TVET (70 hours). General characteristic of TVET; variety of TVET institutions, majors and minors; TVET perspectives; mission, contents, methods and structure of TVET teaching; the professional requirements of TVET teachers (competences, personal traits, abilities, etc.); TVET teacher personal development; competence-oriented and personality-oriented approaches; TVET teacher career prospects.
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Human physiology and psycho-physiology (100 hours). The human being as an integral biological system; ontogenesis; key stages concerning the development of the human organism; age characteristics of physiological processes; psycho-physiological functions and their development in ontogenesis; psychophysiological characteristics of perception, attention, memory, speech, consciousness; physical and mental activities at different levels of ontogenesis; professional adaptation; physical and psychological load tolerance; biological rhythms; hygiene; physiological practicum. General psychology (120 hours). Psychology as a science and practice; objects of psychology; the history of psychology; Russian and international psychological schools; psychological methods (research, diagnosis, correction, therapy); ontology and psychology of human life; psychology of an individual; personality and its development; interpersonal interaction; psychology of human activity; verbal and non-verbal communication; emotions and will; individual traits; motivation development; practicum on general psychology. The psychology of vocational education (100 hours). Subjects of psychology of vocational education; Russian and international schools of psychology for vocational education; age features of personality development; role of the social situation and professional and learning activities in personality development; TVET student psychological activities; special characteristics of TVET; professional development of a TVET student; the psychological features of a TVET teacher; practicum on the psychology of vocational education. History of teaching and philosophy of education (90 hours). Fundamentals of pedagogical genealogy; role of folk teaching and religions in the development of the educational sciences; organizational forms of moral education and pedagogical skills in primitive societies; early educational research and the development of education systems; education as a science; mediaeval European education (theories and practice); the development of the educational sciences and philosophy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; Russian education (pre-history: seventeenth century, eighteenth to early twentieth centuries, the Soviet period, the democratic development period); education in the present-day world (role, driving forces, tendencies); the complex global educational crisis; comparative international education as a means of resolving the global educational crisis; human development—factors and concepts; mission and targets of the present-day educational sciences; national and international educational sciences; liberty and social requirements as pedagogical phenomena. General and TVET educational sciences (150 hours). The essence, elements, institutions, driving forces, general tendencies, mission, principles, contents, methods and means of the TVET teaching process; TVET teaching design; current vital issues of TVET; the individual style of the TVET teacher; the TVET teacher’s professional development. Moral education methods (80 hours). The technology of moral education within TVET; strategies and techniques for solving situations of educational conflict; functions and strategies of educational influence; moral education design and
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management; general characteristics of innovative moral education systems within TVET. Educational technologies (80 hours). Educational models; general characteristics of present-day innovative educational technologies; TVET system design; educational situations modelling; efficient educational management. TVET methodology (280 hours). General characteristics of the key components and stages of TVET processes; mission and strategies of TVET; taxonomy of didactic objectives; TVET contents (national, regional and institutional components of the State educational standards; principles for the selection of contents, curriculum design factors); essence, objectives and key characteristics of general, polytechnic and special field education; scientific and methodological fundamentals of TVET contents analysis and selection; methods, means and forms of theoretical education and practical training (notions, essence and characteristics); didactic activities of the TVET teacher (essence, functions, structure and contents); didactic design of objectives, contents and technology; general characteristics of TVET teacher technological activities; vocational orientation, motivation and educational stimulation of TVET students; formation of vocational knowledge and skills within TVET; technological optimization of efficient TVET; control and activity and competence correction within TVET (structure, methods, requirements, efficient forms, means, tools); research on professional competence; practicum on TVET methodology.
The particular features of the pedagogical and psychological studies cluster within American curricula are as follows: 1. The contents of psychological courses within the structure of the cluster are based on the behaviourist theory, that is, the strict application of the ‘stimulusreaction’ scheme; 2. This cluster emphasizes social and philosophical aspects of TVET in the USA, that is, American TVET teacher trainers do not consider in depth the general trends and tendencies of world educational theories, which are thought to be fundamental in Russian universities (Curriculum Development at Agricultural Universities, 1997).
7 Specialized Vocational Studies In Russian TVET teacher-training curricula this cluster is made up of a long and rather diverse list of courses that are selected according to a student’s major. These courses are comparatively extensive, having generous time-budgets, amounting to as much as 1,280 contact hours. The chief disadvantage of this cluster in Russia— compared to similar American curricula—is in the lack of elective courses, which are demanded by students who would like to make their own choice of a minor. Such choice opportunities are recognized as vital for the future professional mobility of TVET teacher-training graduates.
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Curricula in the USA feature this cluster as being made up mostly of elective courses (except for Texas A&M). This is certainly the result of the unique opportunity offered to university alumni: they can take additional vocational courses even after their formal graduation from the university.
8 Conclusion Russian universities provide four-year (bachelor’s degree) and five-year (advanced vocational degree) TVET teacher training. This training is rather specialized, providing Russian students with narrow minors. Graduates with the TVET advanced vocational degree may be employed in any teaching position, including those of junior professors at university. In comparison, American universities provide TVET teacher training that entitles course graduates to be employed in high schools. In this way, American studies are designed to prepare students for teaching in a wider range of school subjects. The main emphasis here is placed on the training of a wellrounded teaching professional who would be capable of resourceful data selection and accumulation, and further efficient self-education. On the whole, TVET teacher-training curricula are considerably different in Russian and American universities. This basic difference concerns certain course contents, course cluster design and a general discrepancy in qualification levels between the two countries. At the same time, the course objectives and the educational technologies utilized are relatively similar. This factor provides a solid background for further co-operation in mutually beneficial TVET teacher training and other aspects of Russian-American vocational education. In order to advance the quality of the TVET teacher-training curricula to meet the ever-growing domestic and international requirements in this field of training, we have established a specialized Department of Education Systems and Technologies, which operates under the auspices of the International Centre of Education Systems. This department is currently working as a link between the Russian Association of Professional and Pedagogical Education (Ekaterinburg, Urals Region) and both the Russian National UNEVOC Centre, Moscow, and the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre, Bonn. Although this institution is relatively young (established in mid-2005), the practical outcomes of international co-operation in the field of TVET teacher training are underway and the perspectives are extremely promising.
References Curriculum development at agricultural universities. 1997. (Proceedings of the Russian-American Workshop. Moscow State University of Agricultural Engineering.) Russian Federation. Ministry of Education. 2000. State Educational Standard of Higher Professional Education: Major 030500 - Professional Training (TVET). Moscow. [In Russian.] Zhuchenko, A.A.; Romantsev, G.M.; Tkachenko, E.V. 1999. Professional and pedagogical education in Russia: contents and organization. Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation: Urals State Professional and Pedagogical University. [In Russian.] ISBN 5-8050-0016-4.
Chapter VIII.10
Vocational Qualifications: The Role of Trade Unions as Negotiation Fora Antˆonio Almerico Biondi Lima and Fernando Augusto Moreira Lopes
1 The Participants in Vocational Qualification want to be Heard The purpose of this chapter is to discuss, in the light of historical experience and of recent actions taken by trade unions in the field of vocational qualification, the advantages of social dialogue and collective negotiations (both bipartite and tripartite) aimed at the universalization and social effectiveness of public policies on vocational qualifications and education in developing countries, especially in Latin America. Our starting point is the relative failure of vocational education policies in several developing countries, and even in some developed countries, following from the fact that these policies were not connected with those on employment, development and education. The incapacity of crossing the gap between the market perspective (in which the market is the only important variable) and the compensatory perspective (in which the market is a variable of secondary importance) has led, among other consequences, to problems not being addressed, and to contents and methods being divorced from reality, as well as to slow progress in the average qualification level of workers in the countries under study. These policies on vocational qualification and education, within both the private sector and in the sphere of government action, tend to ignore or to treat as objects, those who are the true subjects of such policies—the workers themselves. Therefore, a hypothesis can be formulated: could it be that the non-participation of workers in the formulation of policies (guidelines, contents, methods, etc.) and in assessment is one of the important causes of such failure? If the answer is ‘yes’, would the traditional trade unions be the most efficient participation mechanisms? Would it not be the case that a new type of labour representation is necessary, one that goes beyond the limits of being tied to a particular industry and towards a ‘citizen’s trade union’ (Lima, 1999)? In order to answer these questions, starting with the definition of qualifications and vocational education, we will resort to an analysis of labour relations and of concrete practices in vocational qualifications carried out by the workers, so as to subsequently discuss the possibility of trade unions acting as negotiation fora for the said qualifications.
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2 Qualifications and Vocational Education Nowadays, the terms vocational qualification, vocational education, vocational capacity-building and vocational training are often used as synonyms. In the present chapter, however, we distinguish qualification (a social relation built upon the interaction of the social agents of work around the ownership, meaning and use of the knowledge built within and through the work process) from education (a systemized process of acquiring both general and specific knowledge, that presupposes the existence of a set of relations among the social agents of education, particularly between the educator and the student, concerning the appropriation, the meaning and the use of the knowledge built up by mankind). The notion of qualification is not new—and neither is the controversy that surrounds it. For decades, it has been viewed as a key concept, and also as the meeting point between work economy, work sociology and educational sociology. More recently, pedagogy, as the science of education, has also been incorporated in the concept, based on debates on the relations between work and education (see G´omez et al., 1989). Therefore, in a spatially and temporally discontinuous manner, work and educational economy have generated the ‘human capital theory’; work sociology has reformulated itself based on the three-phased ‘qualification-disqualificationrequalification’ scheme, and on ‘qualification as a social construct’, and a certain type of educational sociology and work pedagogy have developed upon the paradigm of ‘work as an educational principle’. These different traditions, each seeking some degree of confluence, have generated, besides the polysemy observed by Manfredi (1996), a false identity between education and qualification, as if the latter were nothing but a modality of the former. This usage, in addition to its connection with the different theoretical conceptions of work and education, reveals the intentional demarcation of territory by social agents using concepts for their own ends. Within the scope of work sociology, Littler (in Castro, 1993), discerns three main concepts of qualification: 1. One that understands qualification as a set of characteristics of working routines, empirically expressed as in-job apprenticeship time, or as skills acquirable through training. Therefore, the qualification for the job position and that of the worker are equivalent. 2. One that relates qualification to the worker’s degree of autonomy, and is therefore opposed to management control, which would imply skills acquirable through ‘training’ in and for work. 3. One that perceives qualification as a complex, contradictory and multi-determined social construct. The authors of this chapter choose to assume this third perspective, following in the footsteps of Castro (1992, 1993) who, in keeping with his conception of the work process, states that qualification includes: 1. Conflicts of interests and motivation of three types: inter- (capital and workers), intra- (different segments of the working class, such as engineers, technicians
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and labourers), and extra- (transversal interactions according to gender, ethnicity, generation, etc.) social classes; 2. The relation between power and different types of knowledge in the workplace, where it becomes important: (a) to verify the construction of classifications and categorizations of qualification; (b) to consider to what extent the definition of qualification is dependent on tradition and mores; (c) to observe the pertinence of the characteristics of the acquired type (length of schooling, for instance) and of the qualities of the inherent type (sex, colour, age) in the construction of the classification of workers and of the tasks performed by them; 3. Skills acquirable through training, transmissible through language, duly distinguishing between the qualification demanded by the job position and the qualification of the worker himself/herself; 4. Tacit qualifications, built in the daily life of the workplace, and not transmissible through language. As to education, the authors start from a broad concept that perceives it: 1. As a modality of non-material work, linked to the production and reproduction of knowledge on the whole of human production (Saviani, 1991). 2. Under the form of several processes, that may be grouped (Torres, 1993) as: (a) formal, characterized by structured curricula and well-defined intentions, being linked to the chronological age of the students, and issuing certificates recognized by society de facto and de jure, being, therefore, ‘official’; (b) nonformal (for example, continuous and lifelong education, liberating education, popular education and adult education), not characterized by a particular period of time, and that can happen at any moment in the life of the student and leading to special certification processes; and (c) informal, those that are casual, and occur anywhere and at any moment of time, having no structured curricula or any clearly discernible purposes. 3. Beyond school and/or official (formal) institutions and experiences, also taking into account: (a) the teaching/learning processes occurring throughout people’s lifetimes; (b) reading, interpretation and assimilation of facts and events experienced either individually or collectively; (c) the absorption, modification and internalization of the existing culture; (d) the appropriation of social knowledge, a heritage of mankind, in the quest for its own emancipation (Adorno, 1995). 4. As a possibility to be organized around: (a) the combination of education with material production, adopting work as an educational principle that would allow not only the transmission of a new ethics, but, more importantly, whose objective would be the elimination of the historical split between manual and intellectual work; (b) a school organization that is public, free of charge, mandatory and unique, and that would actually unite general, technical and cultural learning, abolishing the cultural and knowledge monopolies now existing in society; (c) the integral development of a person, imagined as an individual capable of participating in all spheres of social life; and (d) a transformation regarding the separation between school and community and the competition that occurs within the school.
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5. The possibilities described above can be observed in the educational practices developed by the disadvantaged segments of the population, with a view to their cultural and political emancipation, consisting in what we call popular education (non-formal educational practices, of an autonomous nature, carried out under the control or influence of popular organizations) (cf. Brand˜ao, 1980; Guerrieri, 1994). Therefore, educational experiences organized by trade-union movements, of a unionist and/or vocational nature, would fall under this category. An analysis of the work/education relationship, starting from the assumptions listed above, leads us to discuss the way in which educational processes are influenced by the needs of production, particularly when significant changes are under way in the work process. Therefore, qualification, as a complex social construct, and closely linked to the production and reproduction of the workforce, would play an important role in the individual’s capacity to enter, remain in or be excluded from the productive process (although these relations can extrapolate the sphere of production proper). This means that qualifications cannot be viewed as belonging exclusively to the world of work or to the world of education. It is necessary to perceive them as an intersecting points, where several approaches and contributions must meet—one of them being that of the worker-subjects.
3 From the Corporation Trade Union to the Citizen’s Trade Union Immediately after the end of the Second World War, the reconstruction and redemocratization processes launched a new cycle of worldwide growth in the European countries and in Japan, in which the workers and their organizations exerted considerable influence. It was at this time that the major recommendations and conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO) sprang up, based on the principles of social dialogue, and of tripartite and collective negotiations. In the national sphere, the adoption of these instruments, particularly those referring to the freedom and autonomy of trade unions (ILO, Convention 87, 1948) and the right to join unions and participate in collective bargaining (ILO, Convention 98, 1949), permitted and consolidated the involvement of trade unions in the formulation and enforcement of public policies dealing with qualification (Barbagelata, 2000). In Latin American countries, however, the maintenance of authoritarian regimes, interspersed with brief democratic intervals, prevented the very existence of autonomous trade unions, creating to some extent a participation void. In Brazil, for instance, the Vargas regime (in the 1930s and 1940s) established a model of corporation trade unions based on the ‘Carta del Lavoro’ of Italian Fascism. Although strongly opposed by the workers for decades, particularly during the 1960s and 1980s, this model has survived until the present. At this moment, new perspectives are opening up in terms of the democratization of labour relations in the country. The administration that took office in 2003 immediately established the National Labour Forum, a tripartite meeting place based on equal representation, with the task of formulating proposals for reforms that, later on, would be transformed by
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the government into proposed amendments to the Constitution, and subsequently forwarded to the National Congress for debate and approval. Consequently, lacking the right to organize free trade unions, and with collective bargaining controlled by the State, the majority of the countries in the region did not develop a culture of full social dialogue. The workers, both men and women, were major players in the struggle for democracy that cannot be dissociated from the demand for the freedom and autonomy of trade unions and the building of a democratic system of labour relations. The advances attained were curtailed by new periods of dictatorship, although it could be expected that the region’s present democratic stability will speed up and lead to some progress. Nevertheless, since economic crisis and unemployment weakened the trade unions, an opportunity then opened up for the winds of deregulation to come from the developed countries, as well as for the hegemony of the ideology of the end of history and the single thought. One of the axes in this process was—and still is—the questioning of the role to be played in social dialogue by tripartite and collective negotiations, as well as the role of trade unions. However, the old institutionality remains, and also the old culture, disguised as what could be called neo-corporativism, that is, trade-union action based on a narrow vision of gains for a specific group, to the detriment of the working class as a whole and of society in general (Lima, 2000). At the other extreme, both the workers’ reflection and practice indicate a new type of organization, the ‘citizen’s trade union’ that seeks to build a collective contract that takes into account the interests of segments of the population and of the workers who have previously been ‘excluded’ from several aspects of social life: housing, social security, minimum income, education, health, transport, etc. The citizen’s trade union may imply (Nascimento, 1998): (a) trade-union action that goes beyond the limits of corporations; (b) a new form of trade-union organization based on diversity and on territory; (c) changes in the concept of representativeness and in the construction of alliances; (d) new strategies for the creation of jobs and a new agenda of demands; (e) a new political culture, including the politicization of daily life; and (f) a new plan for education. In this case, the discussions concerning vocational education and the new rights that will allow work qualification, control over the training processes within companies and the questioning of the present education system acquire strategic value.
4 Recent Experiences in Brazil 4.1 The Integrar Programme Established in 1992, the National Confederation of Metallurgy Workers of the Cen´ tral Union of Workers (Central Unica dos Trabalhadores—CUT) started to concern itself with the issue of vocational training in 1994. The motivating factors were the profound transformations that had been taking place within the industry. These modifications, resulting from technological and organizational modernization, required
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new skills and capacities from the workers, which were reflected on the job market by the new profiles required by entrepreneurs. During the fourth Congress of the CUT Metallurgy Workers, held in 1995, a resolution was passed establishing the qualification issue as a priority, requesting that the National Confederation of Metallurgy (CNM) should ‘include the vocational training issue on its agenda’, and ‘develop a pilot experiment to serve as a guide for its actions’. The project, based on guidance from CUT and supported by universities, had the explicit aim of ‘developing and planning vocational training and establishing relations between trade unions and unemployed workers’ (CNM, 1998a). This resolution was the starting point of the Integrar Project, which was developed along three lines: (a) vocational qualification for unemployed workers (PID); (b) vocational qualification for employed workers (PIE); and (c) qualifications for trade-union leaders (PIFD). From the very start, the Integrar Programme was conceived (see Box 1) as a qualification and integral education programme, in response to the reality of the low-level of schooling among Brazilian workers. Therefore, besides vocational and social qualification, educational actions aimed at improving the workers’ schooling (basic and secondary education), following an interdisciplinary approach, and bringing regular and vocational education closer together, as well as technical knowledge and general culture. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the CNM only developed the Integrar Programme as an educational experiment, since ‘it would be the task of CUT to develop a complete project for the training and requalification of workers in Brazil, in as much as the solution to the unemployment problem does not lie in vocational training’ (CNM, 1998b). The process of the formulation of the programme itself has strengthened this premise: During two months, the co-ordinators of the Programme held an informal survey among unemployed workers who were concentrated in several locations in the city of S˜ao Paulo, in order to verify the expectations of this segment as to vocational training courses. The issues raised by the workers led to three basic premises that served as guidance for the Integrar Programme: the value of the knowledge already amassed by the workers during the course of their lives; technical training should be associated with basic education; and a debate on the issue of employment and income generation—since one of the issues raised was: why qualify, if there are no jobs? (CNM, 1998b) [Emphasis added.]
The Integrar Programme appeared as an innovative move not only because it introduced new themes, methods and strategies, but also because it placed back on the agenda former educational experiences acquired by the working class that had slipped from the collective, unionist and academic memory (or rather, had been completely forgotten), or that were not thought of as being relevant to the vocational education processes. Moreover, the Integrar Programme became, within the post-1964 trade-union movement, ‘the first experience of autonomous vocational education to be conducted in a systematic manner, with unemployed workers, within a trade-union strategy directed towards this public’ (CNM, 2001). Since 1996, the various activities conducted by the Integrar Programme have reached out to 21,000 people in nine Brazilian states. At present, the possibility of the programme being introduced in Mozambique is being discussed with local unions.
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Box 1. The Integrar Programme: main characteristics 1.
2. 3.
4.
5.
6.
Concepts: (i) the concept of vocational training – integrate technical knowledge and basic education, ‘with the aim of developing the skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary to reinsert the unemployed worker within the work market and/or qualify him to join projects for employment and income generation’ (CNM, 1997) as a fundamental part of the education of the worker citizen; (ii) the concept of active citizenship (the action of the unemployed themselves creates tension within the institutions); (iii) the concept of a citizen’s trade union, one that participates and acts in the multiple social dimensions, moving about social space and time (cf. Nascimento, 1998). Target public: (i) unemployed workers; (ii) employed workers at risk of being dismissed (downsizing); (iii) union leaders; and (iv) educators. Contents: (i) starting from a central theme (‘core curriculum’), in the present case, the productive restructuring, within which several fields of general and technical knowledge are integrated; (ii) the integration of this knowledge with that brought by the students is also viewed as content; (iii) emphasis on the development of cognitive, affective and social skills, with the technical knowledge placed in perspective; and (iv) incorporation of contents linked to social practices (citizenship, development, employment and income generation, co-operativism, the struggle against unemployment, etc.), through concrete extracurricular activities. Method: (i) application of the principles of popular education to regular education; (ii) collective construction of knowledge; (iii) dynamic integration of the workers’ knowledge with academic knowledge (that of the educators); (iv) the same type of integration between the educators of the ‘pedagogic pair’ (teacher and ‘instructor’); (v) psycho-social diagnosis (recovery of self-esteem, assistance in cases of alcoholism and drug-use, support in becoming a permanent member of the course, family involvement). Institutional integration and democratic management, preserving autonomy. (i) relations with the university; (ii) relations with the public authorities (municipal administrations, secretariats of labour); (iii) relations with the trade unions and popular movements. Relation among qualification, workers’ organization and tradeunion action: (i) the possibility of establishing organizations of students and former students, expanding trade-union action to reach the whole city, rendering the ‘trade union/society relation’ real and concrete; (ii) expansion of the actual capacity for intervention in the productive restructuring, through negotiation and collective contracts.
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Although initially directed at the productive sector, the general principles developed by the Integrar Programme were the starting point for other nationwide projects within CUT’s scope of action. These programmes were of a general scope (Programa Formac¸a˜ o Integral—Integral Training Programme; and Programa Integrac¸a˜ o—Integration Programme), of regional scope (Programa Vento Norte— North-Wind Programme; Programa Brasil Central—Central Brazil Programme, and Programa Flor de Mandacaru—Mandacaru Flower Programme, etc.), and also related to specific productive sectors (such as the Programa Terra Solid´aria— Solidarity Land Programme, the Programa Ra´ızes—Roots Programme, and the Programa Semear—Sowing Programme, directed to rural workers). Within the Integrar Programme, we intend to analyse specifically the sub-programme aimed at employed workers, both men and women (PIE), which has, at its core, the collective bipartite negotiation (employer company/trade union). The methodology of vocational training negotiated was developed by the CNM, in partnership with a public university, the Co-ordination of Graduate Programmes in Engineering at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (COPPE/UFRJ). The method necessarily includes a participative survey to be held in each company of the metal-mechanical sector participating in the programme (Zamberlan, Thiollent & Perrotta, 2002), which is organized according to the following stages: 1. Negotiation and contracting of the PIE between trade union and company consisting of the presentation of the project to the company management by the CNM/local trade union and COPPE/UFRJ, starting the formal negotiation process with a view to conducting the survey. 2. Carrying out the field survey: A survey team formed by two union leaders (employed in the company) and a trade-union assistant, all qualified for the job and assisted by the COPPE/UFRJ, developed the survey of primary and secondary data on the company (technology, organization of production and of work, products and market development, major competitors and suppliers, vocational profiles existing within the company, human resources and vocational training policies, etc.). 3. Preparation of a diagnostic report on the company. The trade-union teams, jointly with the COPPE/UFRJ team, prepared a specific report for each participating company. This report will be discussed with the representatives of each one of them, and also with the specific trade union, so as to come to an agreement regarding the information/interpretations and to prepare a final report. 4. Preparation of the proposal for vocational training. Based on the consolidated report, the proposal for vocational education will be prepared, with the aim of: (a) raising the level of quality of the personal and vocational life of the workers; (b) improving the existing labour relations; and (c) expanding the effectiveness and efficiency of the company’s productive process; 5. Negotiation of the vocational training proposal between trade union and company. At this stage, the training course to be introduced in the company is negotiated with the management, and the process of implementing the necessary actions is formalized through the signing of a legal agreement by both parties.
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6. Implementation of the vocational training project within the company. Based on the results of the diagnostic survey as presented in the report, the project is formatted, including the following aspects: (a) basic training, bringing together basic and secondary education; (b) general technical training, dealing with changes in the technological actions employed in the company’s productive sector; and (c) focused technical training, directed at the needs of specific sectors or positions in the company. The authoritarian and anti-consensus culture has hindered the contracting of vocational qualification in Brazil. In the case of the PIE, despite the initial receptiveness shown by the entrepreneurs, most of the experiences have not gone beyond Stage 5. However, the results were rather significant, whether or not the cycle was completed.
4.2 The National Qualifications Plan Since its establishment in 1937, the Brazilian Ministry of Labour and Employment has been either directly or indirectly active in vocational qualifications. The present administration (inaugurated in 2003), starting from the diagnosis that the National Plan for Workers Qualification (PLANFOR, in force from 1994 to 2003) was on the point of collapse, drew up the Social and Vocational Qualification Programme (PQSP) to be in force from 2004 to 2007. The Ministry adopted the concept of qualification as a central notion in public policies. The most relevant aspects of this concept are defined in Box 2. Box 2. The definition of qualification adopted by the Ministry of Labour and Employment Qualification is: a) an indissoluble part of Labour, Employment and Income Policies, both urban and rural; public or private, and regardless of whether they result in wageearning employment, individual entrepreneurship or solidarity action; b) a form of vocational education (initial and continuing education) that should form part of the education of youth and adults, rural education and vocational education at the technical and technological level; c) a process for constructing affirmative policies regarding gender, ethnicity and generation, insofar as it acknowledges the diversity of work and demonstrates its multiple capacities, both individual and collective; d) a form of social recognition of the workers’ knowledge, namely, of vocational and occupational certification, that should be an integral part of the classifications of occupations, professions, careers and skills; a necessity for youth and adults, both men and women, in terms of vocational orientation concerning their insertion into the world of work; whenever there is a dispute over hegemony, the collective negotiation of vocational qualification and certification should be part of a democratic system of work relations.
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Concerning what is actually expected of public policies on vocational qualification, the ministry states that: (a) these policies, when integrated with other public policies, particularly those dealing with employment and income generation, increase the chances of inserting the more vulnerable populations into the working world; (b) when integrated into educational policy, it contributes to restoring the right to education of young people and adults, and also of meeting one of the most important requisites in society and in the world of work—schooling; (c) when integrated into development policies, especially at the local level, these more vulnerable populations should participate in and enjoy the results of the local industry, and the support and solidarity of local development; (d) in times of economic growth, if it has previously been associated with employment generating sectors of the economy, it affords a greater homogenization of the work market in terms of access and income, and also reduces the costs and the time spent in the contractual process with a more rapid impact upon unemployment; (e) it allows a greater level of survival for individual and collective enterprises, based on the principles of the solidarity economy; and (f) in order to integrate work, education and development, the PQSP must have social effectiveness (to serve those who need it the most—the unemployed workers and the more vulnerable groups—at the right moment) and educational quality (class hours and contents compatible to the requirements of the working world). The general objective of the PQSP is to plan, integrate and finance the implementation of qualification, certification and vocational guidance efforts, together with employment, educational and development policies, thus contributing to the progress and consolidation of the National Vocational Training System, the Public System of Employment and the National Education System (Brazil. Ministry of Labour and Employment, 2003). Based on these premises, the PQSP proposes to co-ordinate the development of actions focused on the social and vocational qualification of workers, with emphasis on social impact, educational quality, efficiency, territoriality and empowerment, jointly with actions aiming at employment and income generation, certification and vocational guidance. These proposals are consistent with the concept of quality adopted, insofar as the ministry views qualification as a set of policies situated on the intersection of work and education, and intrinsically linked to an inclusive and income-distributing development process that aims at reducing regional inequalities. The PQSP is subdivided into four types of action: the National Qualification Plan—PNQ (launched in July 2003); the sectoral qualification plans; the vocational certification; and vocational orientation. During 2003 and 2004, over 280,000 individuals were qualified by these programmes, representing an investment of approximately US$50 million. The notion of quality adopted by the Ministry of Labour and Employment necessarily implies mutual agreement, which has actually occurred in practice, at least concerning three areas: 1. The National Qualification Plan (PNQ). At the state and municipal levels, the implementation of qualification actions in specific areas, through territorial
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qualification plans (PLANTEQs), requires the discussion, approval and monitoring by the employment committees, standing tripartite organisms with equal representation. 2. The implementation of pilot experiments of vocational certification (metalmechanical and civil construction) led to the establishment of tripartite monitoring committees. 3. In the establishment of Sectoral Qualification Plans, where the possibilities of mutual agreement are more evident, since these plans are defined as: a participative space [. . .] a strategy complementary to the PLANTEQs, aimed at meeting emergency demands for qualification, both general and sectoral, identified through corporate, social or governmental initiatives [. . .] structured according to the principles of: (a) integration of the policies on development, employment (particularly work intermediation), qualification and vocational certification; (b) agreement among governmental, private and social agents, special attention being given to tripartite dialogue; and (c) co-financing according to the size and the economic capacity of each party [. . .] with participative debate on the project and organization of the public, private and social agents involved, in the form of an Agreement Committee, with equal representation, and tripartite at the least (Brazil. Ministry of Labour and Employment, 2004).
Emphasis should also be placed on the debate concerning vocational qualification and certification within the scope of MERCOSUR (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), since these debates occur in Sub-group 10, with the participation of governments, businessmen and workers. The political guidelines, however, are validated by the Socio-Labour Committee of MERCOSUR, a standing organism of a tripartite nature.
5 Possible Bipartite and Tripartite Negotiations Recent experiences linking vocational qualification and collective negotiations, originating in the European Union and in several individual European countries, such as Spain, Italy, Portugal and France, demonstrate the feasibility of an agreement in that area (Uriarte & R´ımolo, 1998). Likewise, experiments that took place in Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Panama, although limited, also demonstrate the concrete possibilities of this course of action in developing countries. The international recognition of social dialogue and collective negotiations aiming at vocational qualification is summarized in Recommendation 195 (Human Resources Development) of the ILO, adopted at the ninety-second International Labour Conference (2004). Within MERCOSUR, the Socio-Labour Declaration also points to the need for negotiated agreements in the field of vocational qualifications. In Brazil, the above-mentioned experiences (Integrar Program, PQSP/PNQ and MERCOSUR’s Socio-Labour Committee), although in the early stages, are auspicious in terms of overcoming models that exclude workers’ participation. Negotiated vocational qualifications open up new possibilities for the inclusion of interests, namely, a negotiation process capable of detecting elements in the intersection between the company’s and the trade union’s conceptions regarding the
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development of the vocational qualification of workers. This statement is based on the belief that modern industrialization with social justice and democratic work relations presupposes the active and negotiated participation of all social players. Vocational qualification is capable of becoming a link between the new demands brought about by the problems of a mutating production world and possible new solutions, constructed with the active participation of all stakeholders. In this context, vocational qualification assumes a strategic position, both for entrepreneurs and workers and for the countries that exert social and political regulation over the growing exchanges that take place within a globalized economy. Therefore, a negotiated vocational qualification presupposes (Nascimento, 1998) the acknowledgement of the fact that its locus is the intersection among at least three different fields: that of production (work), that of the State (public policies and citizenship), and that of education (educational action). Moreover, as a public concerted action, qualification must be part of a broader agenda, associated with social and economic development, with social inclusion and with the democratization of labour relations, insofar as it is not an isolated activity, and cannot be implemented only from an educational perspective. In that manner, we can view it as a social and vocational qualification, whose actions must be implemented along the following lines: (a) democratization of the labour relations, particularly concerning the strengthening of organization in the workplace and of collective negotiations and contracting; (b) democratization of the State, acknowledging the role of social movements in the formulation and management of public policies, and ensuring their participation in the framing of employment policies; and (c) the democratization of education, overcoming both the work/school duality and the notion of occupational or merely instrumental training. These changes presuppose a deep and joint reformulation of the labour relations systems, of the public systems of employment and of education systems, whose principles are expressed in Box 3 (CUT, 1995; Lima, 1999; Brazil. Ministry of Labour and Employment, 2003). The challenge of building national and regional systems of vocational training can only be faced through concerted action, where trade unions, as this chapter has tried to demonstrate, have much to say.
Box 3. Principles for a democratic system of vocational education 1. Unemployment is a political and economic issue that results from development models based on exclusion. It is not a personal problem derived from the worker’s lack of qualification/education. 2. It is the duty of the State to guarantee public, free-of-charge education of good quality for all, including vocational education. 3. Qualification is a field where different agencies and policies interact, such as labour, employment and income, and education and development. Therefore, social dialogue, tripartite agreement and collective negotiation and contracting should be guaranteed.
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4. The dynamic integration between training and citizenship-building contributes to the development of society, in its social and economic aspects, to the democratization of the State, to the increase of the productivity of private enterprises and to the strengthening of social movements and civil society. 5. Public resources, besides being used ethically, must give priority to actions that meet the needs of unemployed workers and vulnerable populations. 6. Social and vocational qualification actions must be carried out together with actions aiming at development, social inclusion and education, and must include vocational certification and guidance. 7. The integration between social and vocational qualification and the increase in schooling, insofar as it establishes complementarity among alternative and official modalities of education, contributes to the rescuing of a fundamental aspect of the social debt—the right to education. 8. Workers, both men and women, must be viewed as individuals, and their subjective, social and political dimensions must be respected and taken into account. 9. The process of knowledge-construction must systematically restore and confer value on the knowledge held by the workers, acquired from the experiences, work and struggles of their lives, and must also take into account socio-cultural diversity, implying the rescue of popular experiences of vocational qualification and education. 10. Vocational qualification must not be restricted to the technical sphere, and it must be combined with general knowledge, culture and education for citizenship, with a view to the complete education of the worker. 11. Educational processes must be developed within an interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary perspective, and oriented along a central axis associated with the socio-cultural context and the demands of the world of work and of society. 12. Insofar as the above-mentioned principles are observed, the plurality and creativity of all educational agents must be respected, whether they represent the State, private enterprises or trade unions and other social movements. 13. Vocational qualification and educational actions should, whenever financed with public money, be free of charge, broadly publicized and subjected to permanent planning and evaluation, through mechanisms of social control.
The recognition of the vocational qualifications and educational experiences amassed by trade unions and other social movements is the starting point for the democratization and reformulation of public policies on work and education. However, the major challenge is to abandon the authoritarian culture, the obsession and
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blindness of a certain intellectual elite who, mistrusting the wisdom of their own people, still opt to import or to adopt solutions when social movements have so much to offer.
References Adorno, T.W. 1995. Educac¸a˜ o e emancipac¸a˜ o. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Paz e Terra. Barbagelata, H.H., ed. 2000. El derecho a la formaci´on vocational y las normas internacionales. Montevideo: CINTERFOR. Brand˜ao, C.R. 1980. Da educac¸a˜ o fundamental ao fundamental da educac¸a˜ o. Caderno do CEDES, vol. 1, no. 1. Brazil. Ministry of Work and Employment. 2003. Plano Nacional de Qualificac¸a˜ o, 2003–2007. Brasilia: MTE. Brazil. Ministry of Work and Employment. 2004. Planos Setoriais de Qualificac¸a˜ o: PlanSeqs. Brasilia: MTE. (Nota T´ecnica N◦ 04/04, CGCOP/DEQ/SPPE.) Castro, N.A. 1992. Organizac¸a˜ o do trabalho, qualificac¸a˜ o e controle na ind´ustria moderna. In: Machado, L. et al., eds. Trabalho e educac¸a˜ o. Campinas, Brazil: Papirus. (Coletˆanea CBE.) Castro, N.A. 1993. Qualificac¸a˜ o, qualidades e classificac¸o˜ es. Revista educac¸a˜ o e sociedade, vol. 14, no. 45. Confederac¸a˜ o Nacional dos Metal´urgicos. 1997. Formac¸a˜ o em reestruturac¸a˜ o produtiva e ac¸a˜ o sindical. Sao Paulo, Brazil: CNM. Confederac¸a˜ o Nacional dos Metal´urgicos. 1998a. Programa Integrar: formac¸a˜ o e qualificac¸a˜ o para o trabalho. Sao Paulo, Brazil: CNM. Confederac¸a˜ o Nacional dos Metal´urgicos. 1998b. Resoluc¸o˜ es do 4 o congresso dos metal´urgicos. Sao Paulo Brazil: CNM. Confederac¸a˜ o Nacional dos Metal´urgicos. 2001. Programa Integrar 1996–2001. Sao Paulo, Brazil: CNM. ´ Central Unica dos Trabalhadores. 1995. Resoluc¸o˜ es da 7a Plen´aria Nacional: zumbi dos palmares. InformaCUT, no. 257, setembro. G´omez, C.M. et al. 1989. Trabalho e conhecimento: dilemmas na educac¸a˜ o do trabalhador, 2nd ed. Sao Paulo, Brazil: Cortez. Guerrieri, M.A. 1994. A dial´etica como m´etodo e sua apropriac¸a˜ o pela educac¸a˜ o popular no Brasil. [Unpublished master’s dissertation, Espirito Santo University, Vit´oria, Brazil.] Lima, A.A.B. 1999. Rumo ao sindicato cidad˜ao? qualificac¸a˜ o profissional e pol´ıticas p´ublicas em tempos de reestruturac¸a˜ o produtiva. [Unpublished master’s degree dissertation, Salvador University, Brazil.] Lima, A.A.B. 2000. Qualificac¸a˜ o profissional e sindicalismo Brasileiro na virada do S´eculo XXI: momento de decis˜ao? In: N´ucleo Tem´atico Educac¸a˜ o do Trabalhador/Escola Sindical S˜ao Paulo, ed. Portugal, Holanda e Brasil: sindicatos, formac¸a˜ o profissional e formac¸a˜ o sindical. Sao Paulo, Brazil: ES-SP. (Formac¸a˜ o sindical em debate, no. 4.) Manfredi, S.M. 1996. Formac¸a˜ o sindical no Brasil: hist´oria de uma pr´atica cultural. Sao Paulo, Brazil: Escrituras. Nascimento, C. 1998. Sindicalismo cidad˜ao e formac¸a˜ o para cidadania. Programa Formac¸a˜ o ´ Integral: Caderno Educac¸a˜ o e Sindicalismo. Florianopolis, Brazil: Central Unica dos Trabalhadores/CUT. Saviani, D. 1991. Pedagogia hist´orico-cr´ıtica: primeiras aproximac¸o˜ es. Sao Paulo, Brazil: Cortez. Torres, C.A. 1993. Sociologia pol´ıtica da educac¸a˜ o. Sao Paulo, Brazil: Cortez. Uriarte, O.E.; R´ımolo, J.R. 1998. Formaci´on vocational en la negociaci´on colectiva. Montevideo: CINTERFOR. Zamberlan, F.L.; Thiollent, M.J.M.; Perrotta, C. 2002. El Programa INTEGRAR y la formaci´on vocational negociada en el sector metalmecˆanico brasile˜no In: Posthuma, A.C., ed. Di´alogo social, formaci´on vocational e institucionalidad. Montevideo: CINTERFOR.
Chapter VIII.11
Vocational Education and Development Gaudˆencio Frigotto, Maria Ciavatta and Marise N. Ramos
1 Introduction We start from the premise that unified basic education (primary and secondary) and vocational (occupational) education,1 both being a right for all citizens, are basic necessities for all aspects of life in societies where justice, citizenship and democracy function. Therefore, access to good-quality basic education and occupational training leads to people’s active and self-sufficient insertion into the working world, especially in view of recent advances in science and technology. (Since we believe that basic education and vocational education, in spite of their specific characteristics, are organically related, we will treat them as such throughout this chapter. We believe that, wherever basic education is of poor quality, vocational education will be of poor quality too.) In this chapter, we attempt to emphasize, first, that the mainstream approaches to the linear relationship between education, vocational training and development do not take into account the structures of power in a society that has created and neutralized the dualism existing in the educational field, nor the asymmetrical relations among developed countries and those developing countries that are ‘peripheral’ and ‘semi-peripheral’ (Arrighi, 1998) to capitalist societies. Secondly, we will try to draw attention to the single or reductionist vision of development, to the historical contexts in which the theory of human capital was formulated, as well as to the notions of the knowledge society, competence-based learning and employability. We will emphasize the fact that the thesis stating that the ‘developing’ and ‘under-developed’, peripheral or semi-peripheral countries and the socially excluded, poor and low-income groups find themselves in their present situation because they have been receiving poor schooling and precarious vocational education—which has been predominant and recurrent ever since the 1950s—is not only false, but the opposite of the truth. It is the opposite of the truth because it masks the asymmetrical power relations among nations and among social classes in the international division of labour. Although education and development are always viewed as correlated, basic and vocational education are not the fundamental determining factors that explain the backwardness and penury of poor countries and populations. On the contrary, their poverty is related to the historical inheritance of colonization and their constant R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VIII.11, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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subordination to the hegemonic centres of capitalism that still prevent these countries from developing autonomously and attaining universal basic education, as well as providing vocational education of good quality. To put it another way, the positive correlation between education, vocational education and development does not warrant the conclusion that the former are fundamental prerequisites for the latter—as the commonly accepted tenet of economics has claimed for the last fifty years. In the final considerations in this chapter, we will indicate some of the challenges, in terms of external and internal relations, that must be faced in order to produce effective changes in the scenario under analysis, regarding the possibilities of development and of redeeming the debt in terms of effective democratic basic and vocational education.
2 Structural Duality and Asymmetrical Relations We affirm, from the start, that occupational education of good quality is not possible without the support of basic education of good quality. A historical interpretation of these relationships, as well as their association with development, proves to be problematic (see Ramos, 1995, for an analysis of the contradictory relationship between development plans and programmes and policies for technical and technological education in Brazil from the 1950s to the 1990s). Indeed, the historical genesis of the school took place during the eighteenth century, during the same sequence of events that brought about the emergence of modern science and the bourgeoisie as the hegemonic social class. The school plays an important role in the consolidation of the hegemony of the ruling classes in relation to a feudal society and to the power of the Church and of the centralized State. The school arises as a lay public institution, free of charge and universal, having, simultaneously, the function of developing a new culture, of teaching new generations the body of ideas required in modern society, and of systematically socializing scientific knowledge. It is important to emphasize the fact that, in its classic form, the school is characterized as an environment for different systematic modalities of learning: the values, the attitudes, the symbols and the concepts are just as important acquisitions as the development of knowledge and cognitive skills. On the other hand, it is the lay school (i.e. not belonging to the Church, not belonging to the capitalist landlord, and not belonging to the business world), public, free of charge and universal that synthesizes the ideas of the French Revolution, the effective beginning of modernity, and of the ideas of an egalitarian, just and fraternal society. From the start, however, there was an obvious and insoluble contradiction among the economic and political structure, the social relations within the incipient society and the need for a dual education: a classic school teaching general education, with an ample scientific basis, aimed at the ruling classes, and another school, practical and instrumental, for the occupational training of workers. The school has the function of teaching, training, coaching or educating, according to the role to be played in the workforce according to a specific conception devised by the ruling classes. An
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education distributed in homeopathic doses, according to Adam Smith, that prepares only for ‘what is useful’ for the economy, since everything that is in excess, in the words of John Stuart Mill, is superfluous and expensive. With no dissimulation, Desttut de Tracy, in the early nineteenth century, clearly expressed that which history has subsequently proved to be correct: Men of the working class, from very early on, need the labour of their children. These children must soon acquire the skills and, most of all, the habits and the tradition of hard work for which they are destined. They cannot, therefore, waste time in schools. [. . .] The children of the learned classes, on the contrary, can dedicate a much longer time to studies. They have much to learn in order to attain what is expected of them in the future (Desttut de Tracy, 1801, in Frigotto, 1987).
This same approach gave rise to the development of specific systems of education, training or qualification, or, using our present designation, vocational (occupational) education, at the same time or subsequent to basic school education, but more directly linked to the world of work. Both this duality of the education system and the dynamic relation between basic education and vocational training assume different forms in different societies, depending on their historical origins and on the power relations among groups, classes and class segments, both internally and according to their position in international relations. It is by no means difficult to perceive the differences between the (approximately twenty) countries that developed, mainly during the twentieth century, as the hegemonic centres of the capitalist world, and the great majority of countries that were relegated to the periphery or semi-periphery of that same world. In the first case, one can observe the consolidation of the right to basic education as a universal right, leading to articulated systems of education or training, managed jointly by the public authorities, the private sector and the workers’ trade unions. In the case of the countries on the periphery, what is evident is a deep inequality in terms of access to and in the quality of basic education, with high illiteracy rates, and an economically active population often with less than five years of schooling. The occupational education policies, in this latter case, develop independently from the workers they intend to train, under the almost exclusive control of the owner classes. Ciavatta (2002) illustrates this situation in a comparative study of vocational training in Brazil, Italy and Mexico. In the case of Latin American societies, the recent history of several countries indicates that, in spite of specific characteristics, the education systems are all fragile, and the vocational training policies are prompted by crises or are focused on teaching specific skills for a specific industry. In Brazil, particularly, the historical legacy of the ‘coron´eis e bachar´eis’ (political powers and college-educated elites) culture, with its strong slave-owning heritage and its philanthropic view of vocational education, still has a strong influence upon the present situation. Concerning educational management, Brazil constitutes a singular case of an almost monopolistic control of vocational education by the patrons of the ‘S’-System.2 A synthesis of this historical process—which prevents linear analyses of the relation between education and development since the 1950s, as we will see in the next section—has been made by Arrighi (1998). After taking stock of the international
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scenario in this present century, the author concludes that there is a group of countries that forms the organic core of capitalist economies, where the research activities are performed that lead to innovations involving new productive methods, new sources of inputs and new forms of organization. The peripheral and semi-peripheral countries, on the other hand, perform predominantly physical activities, and are condemned to receiving very few innovations and inadequate investments in education, science and technology.
3 From Human Capital to the Knowledge Society Since the 1950s, the relationship established between basic education/vocational education and development has been based on an understanding of development as synonymous with economic growth, and within a linear perspective, where the power relations and the limits of the environment are not taken into account. Even the most contemporary debates on sustainable development, for the most part, are not free from being influenced by this perspective. The idea of a linear and limitless development is now fiercely contested by historical evidence to the contrary. As pointed out by Altvater (1995), the intense industrialization that took place under this model of social regulation was not universal—it could not possibly be. The distance between the countries that want to become fit and the societies that are already fat, that is, rich, has not diminished. Frederich List formulated the rule of cunningness, according to which ‘after getting to the top, destroy the ladder that took you there, so that nobody else can follow you there’. [. . .] The model of capitalist industrialization is clearly not capable of universalization. The successful exceptions to this rule are not enough to invalidate it. The affluent capitalist society has an orderly side in the North, and a disorderly or chaotic side in the South (Altvater, 1995, pp. 22 & 25).
Paradoxically, the notion of human capital, based on the research of Theodore Schultz (1973) on the inequality of economic development among countries in the 1950s, and the notions of the knowledge society, competence-based methods and employability formulated since the late 1980s, established an increasingly disguised common meaning regarding the linear vision mentioned above. This common meaning, widespread in international organizations, such as the World Bank, the World Trade Organization and the Inter-American Development Bank, eventually succeeded in inculcating in the governments and poor populations of peripheral and semi-peripheral countries the development illusion mentioned by Arrighi (1998). Analyses of the historical process, mainly in the twentieth century, such as those provided by Hobsbawm (1990, 1995) and Arrighi (1996), allow us to affirm that the notions of human capital and of the knowledge society explain, in a back-tofront way, two historical contexts of redefinition of capitalist relations and their consequences, especially in regard to the working classes (Frigotto, 1987). Indeed, the notion of human capital seeks to answer the disturbing question of why economic and social inequality among nations and groups of individuals within the same nation persisted or grew worse in the post-Second World War period. The assumption, turned into a statement, arrived at from the study of statistical
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correlations, was that this inequality was primarily due to differences in investment in human capital, consisting of investments in schooling, training and health for the working class. From the educational point of view, the question that must be asked is: what are the knowledge, attitudes and values that must be developed in school and in vocational education that are functional in the world of labour and production? Economists, managers, technocrats and planners tend to emphasize skills and cognitive dimensions, while sociologists and psychologists underscore attitudes, values, symbols and ideological dimensions (Finkel, 1977). This reverse understanding of the historical process is due to the fact that, as pointed out by Hobsbawm as early as the 1950s, the globalization of markets and the movement of capital annulled the power of national States, mainly in developing countries, over the planning of their economies and the control of their currencies. This scenario marked the beginning of a progressive and mounting ‘vengeance of capital’ against the external processes that, since the 1930s, were adopted as a remedy in an attempt to regulate the cyclical crises of capitalism. We are referring to Keynesian policies, to the Fordist system of social regulation and to welfare-state policies originating in the contradictions of the capitalist system, in the organized fights of workers of many countries, appearing as a strategy to confront the expansion of the Soviet bloc. These policies were concerned with eliminating the restrictions on the exploitation rates, leading to the maximization of profits. The breaking of the barriers to profit rates, especially in societies where the capital/labour relationship was more balanced, was conducted, at first, by means of strategies adopted by multinational enterprises and, later on, through transnational enterprises and the growing dominance of financial capital. In parallel, there were increasing signs that the ‘really existing socialism’, to quote Hobsbawm, was about to collapse. The polarization between rich and poor countries began to become evident and, consequently, the growing inequality among nations, and the increase in the numbers of poor and extremely poor population groups, especially in the Southern Hemisphere (see Fitousi & Rosavallon, 1997, regarding the increase of inequality in Latin American countries). In Latin America, the social movements demanding structural changes in order to include the great disadvantaged majorities were restricted by the dictatorship cycle. It was predominantly within the context of dictatorships that educational reforms based on the ideas of human capital were introduced in Latin America. In developing countries, therefore, the vicious circle of mounting internal and external debts and dependency, and the diminishing of investment capacity, especially in the social area, were reaffirmed. In spite of the dominant discourse to the contrary, health, education and occupational training, all of them components of the human capital formula, were receiving less and less of the available resources. It must be stressed that, given the situation at that time, policies in the fields of basic education, vocational training and health were being developed within a society that, although united, was unequal. It was a matter of producing and reproducing
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a labour force adequate to the demands of the development processes, and to assign to education and vocational training the role of rescuing the developing countries from their present situation and bringing them up to the level of the core countries. Likewise, this same model promised social mobility through better-paid jobs. In the context of labour relations, the idea of regulating social justice through collective bargaining mediated by public institutions, the private sector and workers’ trade unions, although weakened, still remained valid. From the mid-1980s onwards, several processes began to accelerate the process of globalization of markets and of capital. Emphasis was placed on the importance of financial capital, the consolidation of new and qualitatively different information and communication technologies, and new forms of business organization and management. These brought about major changes in the productive process. The economy could now increase productivity by decreasing (streamlining) the number of workers. The structural unemployment crisis that had been spreading for almost two decades showed no signs of resolving itself. At the same time, with the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the domination of a single economic model, capital’s vengeance against labour was complete. The growing unemployment of the last decades was not merely cyclic, but rather structural. The jobs lost in the bad times would not return when times grew better: they would never return [. . .] The historic tragedy of the crisis decades was that production could now clearly dispense with human beings at a faster rate than the market economy could generate new jobs for them. Moreover, this process was accelerated by global competition, by the financial squeeze affecting governments, which—either directly or indirectly—were the largest individual employers, and not the least, after the 80’s, by the then predominant free-market theology that pressed for the transfer of jobs to the entrepreneurial forms of profit maximization, primarily for private enterprises which, by definition, had no interests in mind other than their own pecuniary concerns. This meant, among other things, that governments and other public entities were no longer what was called last-resort employers (Hobsbawm, 1995, pp. 403–04).
It is in this context that the Washington Consensus was formulated, whose prescription for developing countries was that of fiscal adjustments, deregulation of markets, making labour legislation flexible and selling off public assets. The aim is to remove the legacy of centralized social policies and to liberate the mechanisms for the regulation of markets and of capital. The institutional bases that regulate both international law and the domestic sphere are shifted to genuine market organizations. The World Trade Organization becomes the forum where the free-market rules are decided upon, regardless of national interests. Monetarist and pro-fiscal adjustment neo-conservatism assumes the lead. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank prepare the conditions for economic and social policy adjustments, and negotiate these reforms with the elites that, either because they want to or because they have to, proceed with their implementation. In Brazil, in terms of basic, higher and vocational education, we have shifted from civil-military dictatorship to the dictatorship of the market. A new cycle of educational reform has begun, both in the educational and in the organizational
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spheres. A growing process of privatization of institutions has been established. It is not by chance that, in 2000, the WTO pointed out that one of the most prosperous markets for private investments is the ‘educational market’. The educational reforms in Chile, Argentina and Brazil that took place during the 1990s are emblematic of this new direction. The analyses conducted by C´ea (2003) and Grabowski (2004) demonstrate unequivocally how the reforms of vocational education took place in the move towards privatization. In this new materiality of social relations, under the exclusive discourse of the sovereignty of the market and the private rule of the great economic groups controlling wealth, science, technology and information networks, the human capital theory, in the terms it was formulated from the 1950s until the 1980s, was no longer relevant as a basis for educational ideas. That notion preserved traits of an integrative and contractual society. We are now in the era of the post-contractual society, to quote Boaventura Santos (1999). ‘Who is society? There is no such thing,’ as Margaret Thatcher proclaimed. ‘There are individual men and women and there are families.’ The central notion in this move towards capitalist social relations is that of the knowledge society, derived from technological determinism, meaning that science and technology are now seen as autonomous entities, independent of social relations—or from class relations and, consequently, from the power relations that order and direct them. According to this determinism, the notion of the knowledge society allows the single discourse to proclaim what Bourdieu and Wacquant (2000) have named the new planetary vulgate: post-industrial and post-classist society, a society no longer belonging to the proletariat, but rather to the cognitariat. At the same time, emphasis is placed on the notion that we find ourselves in a rapidly changing society, a society of discontinuity and, most of all, of uncertainty. In the field of basic and vocational education, the knowledge society—where there are no more classes, only individuals, constantly marked by rapid change, discontinuity and uncertainty—which conception, which organization and which educational practices can resolve economic problems? The answer given by the educational reforms of the 1990s is the competence-based approaches and flexible educational structures that no longer prepare the individual for employment, but rather for employability. It is not by chance that the notion of competence arises in the business milieu and is incorporated into education, with a view to linking it to the challenges posed by labour-market instability. Moraes (1998) provides us with an exemplary synthesis of the body of ideas about the knowledge society and of the role assigned to vocational education: (un)preparing for the society of uncertainty. Employability is a concept that goes beyond the search for employment or job security. It means a set of skills which you demonstrably have mastered or are able to develop—within or without the firm. It is the necessary condition for you to feel alive, capable and productive. It concerns you as an individual, and no longer the company’s situation, good or bad, or the situation of the country. It is the opposite of the old dream of a lifelong relation to the company. Nowadays, the only lifelong relation is with the content of what you know how
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to do and can do. The best a company can offer you is the following: let’s work together and let it benefit us both, while it lasts; the break-up may happen for reasons beyond our control. [. . . Employability] is the new name for security (Moraes, 1998).
The new body of educational ideas that now guides basic and vocational education expresses a more radical inversion, in a context of regression of the capitalist social relations. It is not a society of uncertainty, but rather a society of insecurity. The globalization of capital has increased both the concentration of wealth and structural unemployment, as well as the extreme poverty in developing countries, as shown in Chossudvsky’s analysis (1999). We are facing a situation in which, as demonstrated by Istv´an M´eszaros (2002), capitalist activities destroy, one by one, the rights attained during the twentieth century, including the right to work, besides degrading the environment and jeopardizing the bases of human life. The promise of employability, when confronted with this reality, not only reveals its own deceitful nature, but also a high degree of cynicism. a beautiful word that sounds new and seems to be destined to a great future: ‘employability’. It soon reveals itself as a close relative of flexibility, and even as one of its forms. For the wage-earner, it means to be available to all changes, all whims of fate, meaning of the employers. He should be ready to change jobs constantly (as one changes one’s shirt, Ama Beppa would say) (Forrester, 1997, p. 118).
These ideas of the knowledge society and competence-based learning for employability, as Beluzzo pointed out, were already presented to us in the 1960s and 1970s as the ‘human capital theory’. Recycled, it now returns to explain, or to try to explain, the worsening of inequalities in contemporary capitalism. In this manner, it is now easier to lay on the individual the blame for his disgrace and his failure: ‘I am poor because I am incompetent and without qualifications’ (Beluzzo, 2001, p. 1). In fact, the logic of competence incorporates relevant traits of the human capital theory, rephrased according to the ‘new’ capitalist sociability. It finds support in the competitive market capitalism. The increase in marginal productivity is considered as a function of the adequate development and use of the workers’ competence; individual investment in competence development is both a consequence and a presupposition of the capacity for adaptation to the instability of life. In the neo-liberal manner, it is believed that this would result in well-being for all, since everyone would have autonomy and freedom to make their own choices according to their skills (Ramos, 2001).
4 Final Considerations The overview we have presented leads us to stress the fact that one of the first tasks facing us is the deconstruction of the relationship—dominant up until now— between education, vocational education and development. It is a relationship that maintains the colonialist manifesto of subservience and alienation. It should be emphasized that the situation of inequality, either between regions (North/South), among central and developing/least-developed countries, or among social groups
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within each country cannot be explained first and foremost by their education or occupational training, but rather by power and strength relations that have been built up throughout history. ‘Contrary to the commandments and to the jabbering of the single thought, the majority of them are not poor because they have not received good education, but rather they have not received a good education because they are poor’ (Beluzzo, 2001, p. 2). It is therefore of fundamental importance to clearly grasp that the contributions of the human capital theory, and also of the concepts of the knowledge society, competence-based learning and employability, to the understanding of the relationship between education and development do not succeed in explaining the historical processes that generate inequality among and within nations. On the contrary, these approaches lead us astray and away from such understanding, misinforming us as to the role of basic and vocational education as social practices that mediate social economic and cultural relations. As indicated above, concerning the approach used by M´esz´arios and Beluzzo, poverty keeps people away from a quality education that would contribute to their development. And, without access to a quality education, they are unable to participate effectively in the necessary social, political, cultural and economic changes. The establishment of new and different bases for understanding the relationship between vocational education and development requires from developing countries a body of decisions and policies to be adopted concomitantly and jointly, in an attempt to meet both the criteria of social justice and those of the demands of the productive system. A first condition that will determine and guide all others would be to build social forces and movements capable of leading to a cultural change within the elites of developing countries. Such a change would necessarily break away from all existing forms of colonization and submission in relations with international organizations and with the core countries. Without substantial changes concerning the payment of external and internal debts, developing and least-developed countries will never break free from this vicious circle, and the quest for greater equality and development will remain an illusion. What would these structural changes be? In the Brazilian case, the following measures can no longer be postponed: (a) agrarian reform and the taxation of large fortunes, with a view to eliminating excessively large rural estates; (b) tax reform, with the aim of reversing the regressive logic of taxation, according to which wage earners and the poor populations pay more, in order to set right the enormous and unjustifiable income inequality; and (c) social and legal reforms, instituting a public sphere that guarantees social and individual rights. These conditions, along with the strengthening of an active democracy and a new conception of development—socially just, economically viable, solid and participative—will bring about the financial, political and cultural changes that are necessary to break away from the vicious circle of poverty and low investments in education and in science and technology, so as to give a chance to those who are doomed to perform nothing but ‘physical’ tasks within the international division of labour.
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For the future, there are crucial and dramatic problems to be resolved that imply urgently needed distributive policies. It is in this context that the minimum income policies are situated, such as family school-grants (bolsa-fam´ılia) and so on, that must be associated with the education of their beneficiaries. These policies must be under public social control, so as not to degenerate into favouritism (the undue favouring of political associates and prot´eg´es) and paternalism, both strong traits in Brazilian political culture and, likewise, must not be permanent. For that reason, efforts must target the adoption of emancipatory policies that guarantee employment or work, as well as income, in order to improve the schooling of populations who, due to the penury of their living conditions, tend to be satisfied with very little. Lastly, we must reaffirm that it is imperative to abandon the body of ideas that served as a basis for educational reforms adopted, at first, during the Latin American military dictatorships, and which consisted in the notion of human capital and, at present, under the dictatorship of the market, with the notions of the knowledge society, competence-based learning and employability. The aim of all these conceptions is the education of an ‘alienated productive citizen’ (Frigotto & Ciavatta, 2002), a marginalized citizen who will end up blaming his/her lack of schooling as the reason for unemployment or underemployment. The vocational education associated with a different perspective of development, therefore, needs to be combined with basic education and with income- and employment-generating policies. The broader social expectations consist of advancing towards a non-dualistic basic education that unites into a dynamic process of culture, knowledge, technology and work, which is seen as a right for all citizens and a prerequisite for any kind of citizenship and for an effective democracy; an education that produces subjects who are culturally, politically and scientifically prepared for the changes indicated here and who, most of all, possess the non-negotiable conviction that, as historian Hobsbawm (2000) explains, ‘people come first, and cannot be sacrificed’ in the name of mere ‘economic commitments’. The great challenge of the twenty-first century does not concern production, but the social capacity for democratic access to the outcomes of production. What is needed is the construction of an effectively democratic public sphere, capable of ensuring that all individuals have the right to work, health, education, dwelling, security, welfare, culture and leisure. This issue, in essence, is not of an economic, but rather of an ethical-political nature.
Notes 1. In Brazil, the semantic variations for designating educational processes aimed at the workers are not neutral. Act no. 5,692/71, in establishing mandatory vocationalization in secondary education, introduced the term educac¸a˜ o profissionalizante (vocationalizing education), in an attempt to overcome the negative cachet suggested by the term ensino profissional (vocational education), which connotes education directed to working-class youth. The terms formac¸a˜ o profissional or t´ecnico-profissional (vocational or techno-vocational training) defined training directly related to the labour market. Its contents and purposes, however, were the subject of disputes between the organized workers and the entrepreneurial class. Starting from 1995, the Ministry of Labour and Employment developed the National Plan for Vocational
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Education (PLANFOR), using the term educac¸a˜ o profissional, which was consolidated by Act no. 9,394/96. Beyond semantic variations, it is important to know to what extent the Brazilian model of vocational education or training is committed to reality and to the needs of the working classes. Under this principle, we will use, in this chapter, the term educac¸a˜ o profissional (vocational education), not in order to conform to the formal aspects of legislation, but rather because we understand that, nowadays, this term covers the multiple, contradictory and problematic processes of education for work. 2. For a systematic historical understanding of the conceptions and policies of vocational education in Brazil, from the times of slavery to the present, see Cunha (2000a, 2000b, 2000c). The ‘S’-System comprises institutions created since 1942 with a view to promoting the vocational training of workers from the different productive sectors: industry (SENAI), commerce (SENAC), agriculture (SENAR), transportation (SENAT) and entrepreneurship (SEBRAE). Concerning the educational approach adopted by the Industrial Apprenticeship Service (SENAI), the major institution of specific vocational training, see Frigotto (1983).
References Altvater, E. 1995. O prec¸o da riqueza: pilhagem ambiental e a nova (des)ordem mundial. Sao Paulo, Brazil: UNESP. Arrighi, G. 1996. O longo s´eculo XX. Sao Paulo, Brazil: UNESP. Arrighi, G. 1998. A ilus˜ao do desenvolvimento. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Vozes. Beluzzo, L. G. de M. 2001. Jornal Valor, 1◦ Caderno, 16/18 de fevereiro, A. 13 Bourdieu, P.; Wacquant, L. 2000. A nova b´ıblia do Tio Sam. Le Monde diplomatique (Brazilian edition), year 1, no. 4. C´ea, G.S. dos S. 2003. A qualificac¸a˜ o profissional entre fios invis´ıveis: uma an´alise cr´ıtica do Plano Nacional de Qualificac¸a˜ o do Trabalhador—PLANFOR. Sao Paulo, Brazil: PUC. [Doctoral thesis.] Chossudvsky, M. 1999. A globalizac¸a˜ o da pobreza: impacto das reformas do FMI e do Banco Mundial. Sao Paulo, Brazil: Moderna. Ciavatta, M. 2002. Formac¸a˜ o profissional para o trabalho incerto: um estudo comparativo Brasil, It´alia e M´exico. In: Frigotto, G., ed. Educac¸a˜ o e crise do trabalho: perspectivas de final de s´eculo, 6th ed., pp. 100–37. Petropolis, Brazil: Editora Vozes. Cunha, L.A. 2000a. O ensino de of´ıcios artesanais nos prim´ordios da industrializac¸a˜ o, vols 1, 2 & 3. Sao Paulo, Brazil: UNESP. Cunha, L.A. 2000b. O ensino de of´ıcios artesanais e manufatureiros no Brazil escravocrata. Sao Paulo/Brasilia: UNESP/MTE/FAT. Cunha, L.A. 2000c. O ensino profissional na irradiac¸a˜ o do industrialismo. Sao Paulo/Brasilia: UNESP/MTE/FAT. Finkel, S. 1977. Capital humano: concepto ideol´ogico. In: Labarca, G. et al., eds. La educaci´on burguesa. Mexico: Nueva Imagen. Fitousi, J.P.; Rosavallon, P. 1997. La nueva era de las desigualdades. Buenos Aires: Ed. Manantial. Forrester, V. 1997. O horror econˆomico. Sao Paulo, Brazil: UNESP. Frigotto, G. 1983. Del´ırios da raz˜ao: crise do capital e metamorfose conceitual no campo educacional. Cadernos de pesquisa, no. 47, pp. 38–45. (Special edition edited by G. Frigotto entitled: Fazendo a cabec¸a pelas m˜aos a cabec¸a do trabalhador: o trabalho como elemento pedag´ogico na formac¸a˜ o profissional.) Frigotto, G. 1987. Trabalho, conhecimento, consciˆencia e a educac¸a˜ o do trabalhador: impasses te´oricos e pr´aticos. In: Gomes, C.M., ed. Trabalho e conhecimento: dilemas na educac¸a˜ o do trabalhador, pp. 13–26. Sao Paulo, Brazil: Cortez. Frigotto, G.; Ciavatta, M. 2002. Educar o trabalhador cidad˜ao produtivo ou o ser humano emancipado. Revista trabalho, educac¸a˜ o e sa´ude, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 45–60.
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Grabowski, G. 2004. Outra educac¸a˜ o profissional e´ (im)poss´ıvel? Projetos e pol´ıticas em disputa. Porto Alegre, Brazil: UFRGS. [Master’s dissertation.] Hobsbawm, E. 1990. Nac¸o˜ es e nacionalismos desde 1760. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Paz e Terra. Hobsbawm, E. 1995. A era dos extremos: o breve s´eculo XX (1914–1991). Sao Paulo, Brazil: Companhia das Letras. (English version: Hobsbawm, E. 1994. The age of extremes, 1914–1991. London: Michael Joseph.) Hobsbawm, E. 2000. O novo s´eculo (Entrevista a Antˆonio Polito). Sao Paulo, Brazil: Companhia das Letras. M´esz´aros, I. 2002. Para al´em do capital. Campinas, Brazil: Boitempo. ´ Moraes, C. 1998. Emprego ou empregabilidade. Revista Icaro Brasil, no. 171, pp. 53–57. Ramos, M.N. 1995. Do ensino t´ecnico a` educac¸a˜ o tecnol´ogica: (a)-historicidade das pol´ıticas p´ublicas dos anos 90. Niter´oi, Brazil: UFF. [Master’s dissertation.] Ramos, M.N. 2001. A pedagogia das competˆencias: autonomia ou adaptac¸a˜ o? Sao Paulo, Brazil: Cortez. Santos, B. de S. 1999. Reinventar a democracia: entre o pr´e-contratualismo e o p´os-contratualismo. In: Heller, A. et al., eds. A crise dos paradigmas em ciˆencias sociais e os desafios para o s´eculo XXI. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Contraponto-CORECON. Schultz, T. 1973. Capital humano. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Zahar. (English version: Schultz, T. 1972. Human resources (human capital: policy issues and research opportunities). New York, NY: National Bureau of Economic Research.)
Chapter VIII.12
A Technical and Vocational Teacher-Training Curriculum Bonaventure W. Kerre
1 Introduction Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) are fundamental human rights, as articulated in Articles 23 and 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948) which relate to the right to work and education. The State is, thus, obligated to ensure that all learners have access to TVET, albeit in the formal school system, which is its most likely source in African countries. However, the introduction of technical and vocational education (TVE) in the school curriculum has a chequered past, which shapes current provisions of access and quality. In the developed world, it has been a long struggle along class lines to convince the wider society that vocational education could be both academically challenging and more so, rewarding, in an individual’s life. In these countries, for example the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, early forms of TVET were apprenticeship schemes aimed at producing artisans and craftsmen. Nowadays, in countries such as these, TVET has been transformed into educational support for disciplines that are taught alongside others from kindergarten to university level and that culminate in the award of various certificates, diplomas and degrees. The traditional views and approaches to TVE in Europe, America and other parts of the world have, to a great extent, changed and continue to evolve as TVE is brought into mainstream general education (AAAS, 1989; Kerre, 2006; Lasonen, 1996). In the United Kingdom, for example, ‘design and technology education’ is an innovation in which technical education has been reintroduced into the secondary school curriculum to ensure technological literacy for all (Kimbell et al., 1991). In the United States of America, what was previously called ‘industrial education’ has now been transformed into ‘technology education’ and is recommended for all learners from kindergarten to grade 12. This is undertaken with the aim of making all Americans technologically literate in the twenty-first century (AAAS, 1989). In both countries, technology is also a subject of study at university level, with particular emphasis on teacher education to build a strong foundation for learning. Indeed, most European countries are now offering or beginning to offer qualifications at the post-secondary education level with a dual orientation towards R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VIII.12, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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employment and higher education. A recent study across some thirteen European countries, as observed by Manning (2000), revealed that such a focus is seen as preparing learners for lifelong learning. On the other hand, in most developing countries there is not enough capacity to guarantee free access to these educational provisions. Therefore, it is still necessary to train individuals for occupations and trades that exist in the prevailing economy. Traditional trade subjects, such as agriculture, woodwork, metalwork, tailoring, motor-vehicle mechanics, home economics and so on are still taught in schools in an effort to vocationalize the curriculum. Quite often, the intent is to ensure that those who will not be able to proceed with further education will be meaningfully deployed in the labour market. Yet, in effect, this is an erroneous assumption, as will be discussed here. The purpose of vocationalization of the school curriculum is to provide exposure to all students to assist them in understanding the requirements for work and working life and not merely to train them as artisans and craftsmen. In an effort to accommodate TVET subjects in the formal school curriculum, the issue of teacher education has often been ignored or dismissed. Yet, it is now apparent that teachers are the determinants of the quality of the graduates of such programmes, and therefore it is necessary to pay particular attention to teacher education for the provision of TVET in schools. This chapter examines the type and nature of the curriculum that should be in place to prepare TVET teachers for countries where vocational education and vocational training may be necessary at the same time. The preparation of the TVET teacher presupposes, first and foremost, an understanding of the type and nature of knowledge and skills that will be demanded of these graduates in the workplace or at the next level of education and training. This will, in essence, shape the TVET curriculum at the student and student-teacher levels. A case study of a TVET teacher education programme at undergraduate and post-graduate levels, currently offered at Moi University, Kenya, is used here to suggest what might constitute such a preparatory programme for African countries. A renewed call is made for a balanced school curriculum in which the liberal arts, the sciences and technical and vocational subjects all form part of the core curriculum.
2 The Need for a Balanced School Curriculum There is an urgent need for Africa to build and nurture a school curriculum that integrates technical and vocational education into the mainstream general curriculum so that all have access to it. This need was well articulated in the early days of independence as follows: the African countries, in a century characterized by technological progress, should embark on a very broad expansion of technical and vocational education and specialized training in the interests of their own development and especially for their industrialization (ECAUNESCO, 1961, p. 37).
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Africa’s new vision, as articulated at the second International Congress on TVET in Seoul, Republic of Korea, in May 1999, is to have a policy dimension that sets ‘learning to do’ as parallel to the other pillars of learning and a curriculum dimension that systematically builds TVET in early forms of learning (see Figure 1). At primary level, TVET should aim at awareness-raising. This will introduce children to the world of work and the occupations that most adults engage in. At secondary level, children will have opportunities to explore these vocations. They will learn
SPECIALIZATION
Tertiary level
EXPLORATION
Secondary level
AWARENESSRAISING Primary level KEY: LAE: liberal arts ed. SCE: science ed. TVE: tech. & voc. ed.
Fig. 1 An integrated school curriculum for the twenty-first century Source: Kerre, 2006.
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POSTGRAD
HIGHER
TVT
WORLD
OF AG
(Post-secondary) University/ College/ Tech. Inst. Level SPECIALIZATION
WORK HE
TECH
BUS
POSTSECONDARY
HSC
TVT
WORLD
OF
WORK Secondary Level EXPLORATION
AG BUS TECH HSC
HE
POSTPRIMARY WORLD
TVT OF
WORK
Primary Level AWARENESS
AG TECH BUS
TVE TRACK
TVT TRACK
Legend: AG-Agriculture BUS-Business HE- Health HSC- Home science TECH-Technology
Fig. 2 The technical and vocational education and training cluster in Kenya
about the need for work and why it is important for national development and selffulfilment for individuals to engage in and develop competence in their preferred vocation. At the post-secondary level, they will have opportunities to specialize in areas of their own choice. Within the TVE cluster is found technology, the study that is fundamental to all other TVE domains (see Figure 2). Following this scheme, a TVET teacher at both primary and secondary level will prepare learners for two important pursuits: further education and entry into the
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world of work. It will be a dual approach in order to achieve the goals of orientation for lifelong learning, to cope with changes in technology and to adopt new lifestyles in the fast-paced twenty-first century. In the context of the above curricular goals, the TVET teacher curriculum will assist teacher-education students to secure the philosophical, sociological and psychological foundations of TVET. It will also assist them to acquire the necessary technological knowledge and practical skills in specific technology disciplines required to prepare their students for the world of work. What curriculum, then, should we consider for such students?
3 The TVET Teacher-Education Curriculum It follows from what has been proposed above, that a successful initial preparation programme for TVET teachers should be multi-faceted and offer opportunities for upgrading both subject area and pedagogical knowledge and skills. The aim of TVET teacher education is to equip the teacher with the necessary knowledge and skills to guide the learning process. This will entail pedagogy and discipline content. At present, there are no set guidelines for preparing such TVET teachers for elementary and secondary levels of learning.
3.1 Preparing Teachers of TVET Subjects 3.1.1 Aim The aim for initial TVET teacher preparation is as follows. The introduction of technical and vocational subjects in the school curriculum is aimed at providing an opportunity for all learners to acquire relevant knowledge and skills in technical and vocational occupations and to impart positive attitudes toward the world of work in school students. A TVET teacher must have both technical skills and pedagogical/teaching methodology to effectively prepare students for TVET. 3.1.2 Goals The goals of a TVET curriculum, which by UNESCO’s standards (Atchoarena & Delluc, 2002) ought to be an integral aspect of the general school curriculum, should include:
r r r
The introduction and initiation of learners to the world of work and the world of technology; The acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes desirable for career development and productive engagement in the world of work; and The preparation of learners for further studies at an advanced level in a chosen occupational field.
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Unlike the training of a technology teacher, which focuses on the broad technological domain to impart technological competence, the training of a TVET teacher will focus on the preparation of people who can impart knowledge about the world of work and also provide specific skills for occupational entry. 3.1.3 Content Traditionally, TVET subjects in Africa have been based on the following broad areas: agricultural education, business studies education, health education, home science education and technical education. Technical education has, over time, been augmented with specific subject areas, such as: building and construction technology, electrical/electronics technology, mechanical technology, power mechanics technology, and information and communications technology. These subjects can be introduced at the secondary level for exploratory purposes in the perspective of subsequent specialization at the post-secondary level. In this way, they build upon the exploratory study of the world of work begun in primary education. The demand for more practical experience by teachers is high at this level because it aims at providing the kinds of specific skills that prepare students for job entry. Consequently, an equal level of competence will be expected of the teacher trainer. Similarly, the TVET teacher curriculum content will include technical competence offered at a higher level, preferably at undergraduate level, if graduates are to teach at the secondary and post-secondary levels and develop appropriate pedagogical skills.
3.2 Preparing Teachers of Technology Education A more recent option prepares teachers of technology education—those who will teach technology as a subject in the school curriculum. Examples of those schemes already in practice include the United Kingdom’s model of ‘design and technology’ for primary and secondary levels and the American version of technology education for all from kindergarten to grade 12. 3.2.1 Aim The principal aim of introducing technology education as a subject of study in the school curriculum is ‘to impart technological literacy and capability’. Technological literacy means having the ability to use and manage, assess and understand technological products and systems. Technological capability means having the know-how to produce, use and manage technological products and systems. 3.2.2 Goals The main goals of a well-delineated technology education curriculum for all should thus include:
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1. Developing an understanding of the nature of technology and how it relates to modern society. The content should cover:
r r r r
The meaning, scope and characteristics of technology; The relationships among technologies and the connections with other fields; The influences of technology on society; The role of society in the development and utilization of technology.
2. Developing an understanding of and the ability to create a design. Such content would be:
r r
The role and attributes of design; The roles and attributes of trouble-shooting, research and development, invention and innovation and experimentation in problem-solving.
3. Developing an understanding of, and abilities for, a technological world. In this case, the content would cover:
r r r
Application of the design process; Selection, production, use and maintenance of technological products and systems; Assessment of the impacts of technological products and systems.
A proper grounding in these three foundational domains of technology education will develop the understanding and capabilities required for individuals who are technologically competent and capable of shaping and influencing the course of their life and that of others in the twenty-first century. The subject content for teachers of technology education will, besides teaching skills, include a wide coverage in the above content areas at the post-secondary or university levels.
4 TVET Teacher-Education Curriculum at Moi University The School of Education at Moi University in Eldoret, Kenya, established in 1994, offers a TVET teacher-education programme within the country and also for students coming from the Sub-Saharan region. The Department of Technology Education has been offering a four-year B.Ed. programme designed to produce competent teachers of TVET subjects in secondary schools and post-secondary TVET institutions in Kenya. Because of the practical nature of the subjects taught to the graduates of this programme, the courses have been designed with a practical ‘hands-on’ orientation. Therefore, considerable time is spent in workshops as part of the scheduled teaching. Project work, problem-solving techniques, industrial attachment and teaching practice in real-life environments form important components of the programme. The Department of Technology Education at Moi University, therefore, offers a model of technology teacher education that is particularly attractive to the developing countries of Africa because such teachers will, in turn, produce the
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required middle-level manpower for economies that is, today, a priority. Specific domains of learning in technology education lie in the following areas:
r r r r r
Building construction technology: encompassing the use of a variety of materials to produce buildings, furniture, dams, farm structures, roads and so on. Mechanical technology: entails machine-work, fabrication and other manufacturing processes. Electrical and electronics technology. Power mechanics technology (automotive and aviation technology). Information and communications technology (proposed).
The above courses constitute a rich combination of scientific and technological knowledge, skills and processes that will prepare young people for the scientific and technological millennium in which they will spend their future. Besides studying in the above areas, the students take common university-wide and school-based professional teacher-education courses. Graduates of this programme are also competent to teach mathematics, physics and technical drawing in secondary schools and higher-education TVET institutions. The courses offered in each option per year of study are shown in Table 1. Table 1 Course descriptions in each option at the Department of Technology Education at Moi University Course code
Course description
Course code
Course description
TED
Technology education (common to all tech-ed students)
IRD100
Communication skills I
MPT
IRD102 IRD103
Communication skills II Development concepts
IRD104
Quantitative skills
IRD200 IRD305
MET ELT COT MAT PHY
Metal & power technology (common to MET & PMT students) Building construction technology Teaching practice Power mechanics technology Mechanical technology Electrical technology Computer technology Engineering mathematics Basic physics
IRD400 EDU110 EDU111 COM205 MPT221
CHE EDF ECT
Basic chemistry Educational foundations Teaching methods
PAC210 PAC410 PAC411
State, society and development Entrepreneurship for small business Project development appraisal Introduction to education I Introduction to education II Computer programming Solid and structural mechanics I Curriculum development Environmental education Educational administration and management
PSY
Educational psychology
BCT TP PMT
PAC412 IA
Industrial attachment
Educational planning and economics
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The programme offers common courses taken by all teacher-education students in the School of Education. Each academic year has two semesters. Core and required courses are allocated as shown in the table, which also gives the codes and descriptions of the courses taken.
5 Post-Graduate Studies 5.1 M.Phil. in Technology Education The department also offers a master of philosophy degree in technology education following course work and a thesis option. The programme is designed to produce high-level personnel to meet the needs of industry, government departments, research and training institutions. It offers enough flexibility for students to specialize in field-related aspects of technology education. The programme takes four semesters for full-time students and eight semesters for part-time students (Table 2). Core, required and elective courses are selected from those shown in Table 3. Table 2 M.Phil. degree in technology education course design Semester 1
Units Semester 2
Units Semester 3
Units
TED 805C Statistics
3
TED 899C Thesis research
3
TED 898C Thesis research proposal
3
Total
3
3
3 Required technology courses
9
Semester 4
6
1 Elective educational course
3
TED 899C Thesis research 1 Elective educational course Total
TED 801C Foundations 3 of technology education TED 802C Research 3 methods TED 808C Curriculum design & development in tech. ed. 2 Required technology courses 1 Elective technology course Total
3 18
Total
18
6 3 9
5.2 D.Phil. in Technology Education Because of a growing demand for higher levels of understanding, the department has also proposed to offer a post-graduate programme leading to the degree of doctor of philosophy in technology education. The programme is designed to provide the highest level of scholarship and research in technology education and its graduates are expected to be competent researchers and trainers of trainers at high levels of learning and industry.
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Table 3 Core, required and elective courses for an M.Phil. degree in technology education Common courses
Construction technology option
Electrical and electronics technology option
Mechanical and automotive options
Computer technology option
TED 801C Foundations of technology education TED 802C Research methods TED 805C Statistics
TED 812R Advanced surveying TED 823R Estimating and costing in construction TED 824R Appropriate technology and construction of structures TED 831R Site investigation, exploration, sampling environment and terrain evaluation TED 825R Construction management & organization
TED 810R Numerical analysis TED 848R Systems analysis and design TED 849R Control systems
TED 863R Advanced thermodynamics TED 864R Advanced fluid mechanics TED 865R Advanced solid mechanics
TED 881R Computer education tools TED 882R Computer in education TED 883R Multimedia in technology applications
TED 850R Filter signals and digital processing
TED 866R Advanced mechanics of machines
TED 884R Computer graphics for mediated communications
TED 851R Solid-state devices and integrated circuits
TED 867R Advanced engineering design
TED 828E Building and maintenance technology
TED 852E Power systems protection
TED 861E Industrial processing engineering
TED 885R Computer applications for educational administration TED 886E Wireless communications
TED 808C Curriculum design & development in tech. ed.
TED 803E Entrepreneurship education TED 804E Seminar on trends and issues in technology education
B.W. Kerre
Common courses
Construction technology option
Electrical and electronics technology option
Mechanical and automotive options
Computer technology option
TED 806E Educational planning and management TED 807E Educational finance
TED 829E Advanced furniture technology
TED 854R Power system operation and control
TED 862E Engineering material
TED 834E Interior design, planning and decoration
TED 842E Television
TED 868E Welding technology
TED 887E Building Internet information services TED 888E Ethical, legal and professional issues in computing
TED 835E Advanced structural design
TED 847E Microprocessor techniques
TED 869E Automotive electrical systems
TED 836E Foundation and pavement engineering
TED 853E Neural networks applications engineering systems TED 855E AC DC Conversion and AC load control TED 856E Force communication and electrical control and machines
TED 870E Internal combustion engines
TED 809E Instructional methods and material for technology education TED 811E Evaluation in technology education TED 812E Computer application
TED 871E Industrial organizations and management TED 872E Industrial engineering and law
VIII.12 A Technical and Vocational Teacher-Training Curriculum
Table 3 (continued)
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B.W. Kerre Table 4 D. Phil. degree in technology education course design
Year 1
Year 2
Semester I
TED 900
Code
Title
TED 901
Advanced research methods
6
TED 902
Seminar: technology education
3
TED 903
Trends in science & technology
3
TED 904
Data analysis
3
Total
15
Semester II
15
Research/thesis writing
15
Year 3 TED 900
TED 905
Research proposal
3
TED 906
Seminars: technology & society 2 electives
3
Total
Research
Units
6 12
Grand total units
57
The D.Phil. degree in technology education takes three to five years for full-time students and four to seven years for part-time students, as shown in Table 4. Elective courses are taken in various areas of specialization, as shown in Table 5.
6 Conclusion Generally, the teacher-education curriculum is multi-faceted in nature because it offers the opportunity for upgrading both the subject area and pedagogical knowledge and skills, since the aims of TVET teacher education are to provide the knowledge and skills to guide the learning process and the ability to develop teaching, taking into account the graduate’s professional life and career. These aims are realized in a curriculum that deals with all issues of a teacher’s work, facilitating learning (learning procedure instead of teaching) and the development of the educational environment and methodology. In the case presented here, the TVET teacher-education curriculum skills have been woven into the curriculum in an integrated fashion, since they are important elements in helping people adapt to workplace changes and they provide them with a foundation to learn other skills. At Moi University, the TVET teacher-education programme has a uniquely structured curriculum with a strong dual approach. It has a strong technical and practical component in the technical subject area. It is equally complemented with a strong teacher-education component. The end result is a well-balanced, trained TVET teacher capable of imparting technical and vocational skills in a more professional way.
BCT
MPT
COT
TVET: Curriculum, planning and administration
TED 910 Digital communication systems
TED 920 Structural engineering
TED 930 Manufacturing technology
TED 911 Networking & web management
TED 921 Surveying & photogrammetry
TED 931 Computer-aided design
TED 991 Computer networks for educational environments TED 992 Telecommunication
TED 912 Renewable energy
TED 922 Building services engineering TED 923 Construction project management TED 924 Public health engineering
TED 932 Auto test and design TED 933 Design of modern automobiles TED 934 Modern mechanical design
TED 960 A review of TVET programmes in the country TED 961 Policy formulation and planning in TVET TED 962 Evaluation of TVET TED 963 Training and development TED 964 Supervision of instruction
TED 925 Fluid mechanics
TED 935 Flexible automatic machinery
TED 936 Dynamic of automobile
TED 997 Productivity tools
TED 998 Intelligent systems
TED 967 Effective management of TVET
TED 913 Technology enterprise TED 914 Advanced software programming TED 916 Microprocessor interface techniques
TED 993 Technology-based training systems TED 994 Philosophy of computing in education TED 995 Creating technology based learning environments TED 996 Analysis of research in educational computing TED 966 Advanced topics in management of change in curriculum
TED 965 Advanced topics in curriculum development
VIII.12 A Technical and Vocational Teacher-Training Curriculum
Table 5 Elective courses for the D.Phil. degree in technology education ELT
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References American Association for the Advancement of Science. 1989. Project 2001: science for all Americans. Washington, DC: AAAS. Atchoarena, D.; Delluc, A. 2002. Revisiting technical and vocational education in Sub-Saharan Africa: an update on trends, innovations and challenges. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. Economic Commission for Africa; United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 1961. Report of African Leaders Conference on Education in Africa. Addis Ababa: ECA-UNESCO. Kerre, B.W. 2006. The study of technology: an imperative in Africa’s school curriculum. The educator: a journal of the school of education, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 201–12. Kimbell, R.A., et al. 1991. The assessment of performance in design and technology. London: School Examination and Assessment Council, Evaluation and Monitoring Unit. Lasonen, J., ed. 1996. Reforming upper secondary education in Europe. Jyv¨askyl¨a, Finland: University of Jyv¨askyl¨a, Institute for Educational Research. Manning, S. 2000. Qualifications with a dual orientation towards employment and higher education: a summary of the results of the partnership projects INTEQUAL/DUOQUAL. In: Stenstrom, M-L.; Lasonen, J., eds. Strategies for reforming initial vocational education and training in Europe, pp. 283–89. Jyv¨askyl¨a, Finland: University of Jyv¨askyl¨a, Institute for Educational Research. United Nations. 1948. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. New York, NY: UN. <www.un.org/Overview/rights.html>
Chapter VIII.13
Transforming Teachers’ Practice Through Action Learning Stephen Billett
1 Introduction This chapter critically appraises the potential of action learning as a professional development strategy for teachers. Using the case of a professional development programme that prepared vocational teachers to become industry consultants, the chapter examines the potential and the impediments of this approach to managing change in technical and vocational education. The chapter commences with a brief commentary on individual change or learning from cognitive and social constructivist and change-theory perspectives. Next, the case study is described and findings from an evaluation of the programme are discussed. Finally, some conclusions are drawn about how the action learning-based approaches to educational change might be best enacted and evaluated.
2 Teachers and Change Technical and vocational educators are being asked to confront and adapt to change in order to find new ways of preparing their students for the world of work. That world it is characterized by change in the kinds of work to be undertaken, the requirements for the work, and those who are working (Billett, 2006). There are also changes brought about by governments who want vocational and technology education to achieve their policy goals, such as economic competitiveness and efficiencies, in particular ways. Consequently, the change that teachers are requested to undertake and implement often has its origins elsewhere. Yet, it is frequently expected that teachers will implement these changes with enthusiasm while being faithful to their sponsors’ intent. Moreover, there appears to be a belief among government and industry stakeholders that teachers will implement innovations as directed. Such a view denies how teachers, like other workers, think, act and decide how to deploy their energies in the effortful activity of learning and changing their practice (Billett, 1995). Individuals’ motivation and interest play a key role in their engagement in effortful activities, such as learning new practice (Billett & Pavlova, 2005). Unless they hold a belief about the potential accrual of benefits from such R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VIII.13, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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activity, their engagement in and learning of these new tasks is likely to be superficial at best. Furthermore, because technical and vocational educators often practise within the privacy of their own classroom or workshop, even superficial compliance to the requests of government and industry may well be restricted to the public aspects of practice (Logan, 1988). Therefore, and given the relative autonomy of teachers’ practice and their control over their learning, this raises important questions about how educational change can best be managed to engage teachers in effective learning and becoming committed to new practices, such as those required to assist students to make a successful transition to the world of work. This chapter discusses a case study in which an action learning-based programme was used to develop vocational educators’ skills to work as industry consultants. It is claimed that management of change in teachers is not just about getting them to adopt faithfully the changes in practice arising from imperatives derived elsewhere. Instead, the management change should be about developing teachers’ capacities and dispositions to implement these innovations successfully and, through success with that implementation, gain commitment to them. Therefore, processes that aim to foster change in teachers (i.e. professional development initiatives) should be primarily focused on teacher learning and development. The assumption within this chapter is that the innovations teachers are asked to adopt are worthwhile and justifiable. However, this may not always be the case. Teachers are sometimes asked to implement initiatives that they view as lacking credibility and utility, which makes it even more difficult to secure the kind of commitment required for the enthusiastic enactment of these initiatives that their sponsors desire. What is advanced here is that gaining teachers’ commitment to educational change is premised on their ability to implement the innovation successfully, thereby resulting in the adoption of the innovation as part of their practice and becoming committed to it. Commitment here is more than enthusiasm for a particular innovation. Instead, it includes a belief on the part of teachers that the innovation is worthwhile and can assist with the effectiveness of their practice (McLaughlin & Marsh, 1978) and that the individual has appropriated the worth of this innovation (Luria, 1976). Underpinning this commitment or appropriation is the development of the knowledge required for the successful implementation of the innovation. It is these attributes that provide the ability for teachers to function in the changed circumstances (Guskey, 1986). Hence, the management of change requires more than briefing sessions about the virtues of a new initiative: it requires the provision of opportunities for teachers to learn the knowledge required for successful performance with the innovation. So, approaches to managing change need to include the learning required to effectively implement that change. Moreover, as adopting changed practices is the product of individuals’ learning and development, even innovations aimed at transforming institutions need to view this form of change as an intimate and personal process involving individuals’ competence and well-being (Fullan, 1985). Change has been described as ‘little deaths’ (Kindler, 1979), with transformational change causing the greatest concerns to those affected by it. This is because it might take away or threaten to take away
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from individuals the very circumstances with which their confidence is embedded. Therefore, deliberations about the management of change at both educational innovation and institutional transformational level must view individuals’ learning and development as the primary source of change. The focus in this chapter is therefore on the management of individual change through learning and development.
3 Teachers’ Learning and Development As foreshadowed, the process of securing effective change in teachers is seen as a process of individual learning and development. In particular, the need for teachers to develop the capacities required to implement a new initiative or practice with success, thereby developing commitment to it, is seen as essential. These capacities are premised on securing the dispositions (i.e. values, attitudes and beliefs) appropriate for the change. Knowledge which comprises levels of propositional (knowledge that) and procedural knowledge (knowledge how) are also primary elements within this framework (Anderson, 1982). Propositional knowledge comprises information, facts, assertions and propositions, whereas procedural knowledge comprises techniques, skills and ability to secure goals (Evans, 1991). Procedural knowledge has a hierarchy from specific autonomous procedures to higher orders of procedural knowledge, which are postulated to have an executive role in organizing and transferring knowledge and understandings (Evans, 1991). The role of ‘non-cognitive’ dispositions, such as values and beliefs, is being increasingly acknowledged in understandings of individuals’ learning (Perkins, Jay & Tishman, 1993). Values determine the quality of individuals’ actions, for instance, shaping the degree and focus of their efforts when engaged in a goal-directed activity, such as learning a new task. As Goodnow (1990) reminds us, people learn not only to solve problems, but also what problems are worth solving. It is through their engagement in active conscious thinking and acting that both learning and the commitment to what has been learnt arise. It follows that learning is held to be a constructive process with individuals actively acquiring knowledge and understanding through interaction with the world they experience (von Glasersfeld, 1987). This constructive process is initially idiosyncratic, being founded on the unique personal history (ontogeny) of the individual (Rogoff, 1995). However, through social mediation knowledge becomes more commonly understood and communicable (Newman, Griffin & Cole, 1989). That is, there is a movement towards inter-subjectivity or shared meaning. Learning is therefore conceptualized as a process of constructing meaning and making knowledge viable through a process of engaging in activities within social practice. As Piaget (1968) would say, individuals make sense of what they experience by either assimilating it into their existing knowledge (i.e. refining and reinforcing what they already know) or by extending those structures to accommodate new stimuli and experiences (i.e. forming new learning). This suggests that to learn something new requires processes that extend individuals’ existing knowledge. If the learning
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process encourages only assimilation type of learning, the outcomes are likely to be weaker than if accommodation is achieved by pressing the individual into generating new knowledge and knowledge structures. Yet, generating new knowledge is far more effortful and demanding than reinforcing what we know, as in assimilation. Therefore, learning to adopt new practices is unlikely to occur if teachers remain unconvinced and lack the ability to successfully implement the initiative, and therefore will not exercise the effort required to secure that new knowledge. Views that suggest learning is a matter of construction, rather than instruction, propose the need to guide individuals’ learning rather than directly teach them. Innovations in approaches to instruction, such as reciprocal teaching of comprehension (Palinscar & Brown, 1984), cognitive apprenticeship (Collins, Brown & Newman, 1989), apprenticeship instruction for real-world tasks (Gott, 1989), apprenticeships in thinking (Rogoff, 1990), legitimate peripheral participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991) and guided participation (Rogoff, 1995), all emphasize the importance of close guidance, rather than direct teaching, in supporting learners’ construction of knowledge. They also emphasize the importance of placing learners in roles in which they are pressed to take responsibility for and expend effort in constructing the knowledge they need to learn, albeit guided by more expert others. Consequently, the instructional role becomes one of organizing and guiding the learners’ experiences to permit them to construct appropriate knowledge and understanding. Such a proposition extends the concept of good teaching practice of ‘making sure the learners are doing the thinking’, to making sure that their thinking is guided towards the effective organization of viable knowledge, through social mediation. This change in emphasis of the instructional role is underpinned by von Glasersfeld’s (1987) notion of reinforcement. Reinforcement is usually associated with external statements of endorsement or rewards by teachers or experts, as characterized within behaviourism. However, now it needs to be equated with learners achieving a satisfactory organization of knowledge—ontological security—a viable way of dealing with experiences that are novel and securing a fit with or extending the individual’s knowledge. This does not negate the value of extrinsic rewards, such as verbal reinforcement, but suggests that this is secondary to the inherent rewards that the learner enjoys from reinforcing and extending their viable knowledge base: the exercise of their personal agency and epistemology (Smith, 2005). Given these views about learning and cognitive development, a useful way to describe and evaluate instructional processes is to consider them in terms of engagement and support. Activities are what learners engage in, and support is that derived from either direct or indirect guidance provided to learners, and that they elect to engage with.
4 Action Learning: A Professional Development Method Action learning is commonly used as a professional development method for teachers. It is seen as an active learning process in which the learners engage in projects with peer-learning support arrangements—referred to as ‘sets’—and, in some cases,
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external facilitators or content experts. The aim of the process is for the individual to secure particular kinds of learning through engaging in project work. Importantly, the intent is for them also to reflect upon the learning process through which they extend their knowledge further. Action learning has been defined as ‘a means by which people learn with and from each other by attempting to identify and then implement solutions to their problems/issues/opportunities’ (Revans, 1982, p. 65). This model of learning was developed after the Second World War when British industries were short of experienced managers. Revans had recognized the ability of people to work and learn together productively and effectively in times of common concern. Consequently, he developed a method to support learning based on the development of ‘responsible risk-takers’, who asked themselves and their peers a series of questions about the problems they faced in their workplace. The questions were used to clarify problems and to determine likely solutions that were not bound by existing expertise or theory. In this way, the method is proposed as a practical strategy that values practice-based learning. It is primarily concerned with pragmatic and instrumental goals associated with improving practice by assisting learners to engage in, learn through and examine their practice through reflection on that practice. This reflection process seems important because it has the capacity to press learners into constructing new knowledge (i.e. accommodation rather than assimilation). Significantly, many earlier theories about adult learning (e.g. Knowles, 1984) emphasized the assimilatory aspects of adult learning with a primary concern to protect learners’ self-concept. This concern arose out of clinical-based approaches to development that sought to protect the learners’ self-esteem and minimize the impact of change by finding meaning within their existing knowledge. This approach guarded against transforming individual knowledge, which it saw as being a psychologically risky undertaking. However, contemporary approaches suggest that it is important to extend individuals’ knowledge through their own efforts and construction, albeit guided by more expert partners. Hence, both guidance and critical reflection are held to be important approaches that can extend and transform individuals’ knowledge when securing particular kinds of knowledge in response to a practical requirement (e.g. that required for successfully implementing a new practice). The process of reflection or questioning insight, as Revans (1982) called it, is central to action learning. It aims at assisting to convert a specific learning experience into one that extends understandings and efficacy of practice. In doing so, the action-learning approach places considerable responsibility on the learner to engage in the kinds of activities required to secure their goals, albeit with their activities as learners being mediated by peers, experts and the requirements of the project tasks. This mediation will likely also provide a form of indirect guidance which is often under-acknowledged. However, learning theories recognize that much of the knowledge that needs to be learnt has a social and cultural genesis, and does not arise from within individuals. It needs to be accessed through interaction with the social world. In relations between trades workers and apprentices, for instance, there is an acknowledgement that the more experienced counterpart provides access to knowledge that the individuals could not learn through discovery alone (Rogoff, 1990). However, action learning
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as a method does not have as a key element this access to expertise. Instead, it uses a facilitative approach and relies to a great extent on the agency and personal epistemology of the learner. Consequently, in seeking to evaluate action learning it is necessary to identify whether this lack of access to expertise represents an impediment to learning.
5 Managing Teacher Change: Activity and Mediation The interaction between individuals’ engagement in activities and the support they can access from social sources is a central consideration for developmental processes. Dewey (1916/1970) suggested that the most central significant events in learning and performance are mediated experiences and events related to their adaptive function. This suggests that internal mental processes interacting with tangible purposes or functions are central to effective learning. Or, put more succinctly, the activities individuals engage in organize their thinking (Rogoff & Lave, 1984). Learning arrangements which place the participants in the active role of initiating, planning and managing their learning are conducive of developing these attributes. It is proposed that when learners are pressed into taking responsibility for their learning they develop and organize knowledge effectively, and learn to manage the use of that knowledge. If activities structure cognition, then the quality of the activities becomes important. In developing competence in an area of vocational practice it is highly desirable for staff to access authentic activities, that is, those that are the same as those in which the targeted knowledge is deployed, not substituted or simulated activities. Consequently, projects that provide the participant with an authentic activity in which they can develop procedures that are authentic are likely to be purposeful for constructing knowledge associated with that activity (Billett, 2001). Moreover, the knowledge that individuals need to learn often has a social genesis. This is particularly true of knowledge arising from the social world, such as educational initiatives. It is becoming increasingly accepted that the activities are embedded in socio-cultural practice (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Rogoff & Lave, 1984). Indeed, one of the problems with learning arrangements that are substituted (e.g. training-room or school-based activities) is that they tend to generate knowledge and understandings based on the requirements of the trainingroom or school rather than practice, and as such may not transfer to practice (Billett, 2001; Raizen, 1991). That is, forms of knowledge are shaped by particular circumstances and do not readily transfer to circumstances and situations that are remote from those in which the knowledge was acquired. Access to authentic activities may reduce this transfer problem (Billett, 2001); however, activity alone is not sufficient. The mediation of the learners’ experiences by others, expert others and the context is an essential ingredient of learning arrangements (Collins et al., 1989). It is becoming widely accepted that there are social bases of cognition (Goodnow, 1990). This implies that guidance of a direct nature (others and expert others) and an
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indirect nature (the social and physical context) are important for the construction of knowledge. Recent research and theorizing has increasingly focused on the role of external factors and, particularly, the social and cultural contributions to learning (Brown et al., 1989; Collins et al., 1989; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Rogoff, 1995). Rather than being solely the product of internal mental activity, the development and organization of these cognitive processes and structures are influenced by external factors, such as social interaction and cultural practices. Within action learning, social mediation is evident in the contributions of others in the learning set, expert others external to the set and the facilitative actions of set advisers. So, in summary, constructivist views of learning which emphasize the importance and authenticity of activity, social mediation, engagement in social practice and reflection appear to be partially addressed by action learning, although it tends to emphasize the agency of the participant over securing access to experts required from whom the knowledge to be learned can be accessed and learned. Therefore, on its own terms, the action-learning approach to learning and development appears to offer an array of attributes by which teachers’ knowledge can be extended to accommodate and implement innovations. A case study of teachers’ participation in an action-learning programme is described and evaluated in the next section. The evaluation provides a basis for considering the efficacy of this approach to learning and how its potential might be fully realized.
6 Managing Change: Industry Consultant Training Programme The Industry Consultant Training Programme was used to prepare practising vocational teachers for a role as industry consultants working in a fee-for-service role, providing educational services to enterprises. The programme commenced with an induction phase, comprising a two-week workshop. This was designed to prepare participants by providing information about their role and the industrial environment and to introduce them to the action-learning methodology that was to support their change to become consultants. In addition, information about the procedures that the participants would have to acquire to become effective consultants was stated as goals for their self-development. These procedures included project management, costing a project, presentation of a project and business planning. The arrangements for teacher-consultant development, beyond the induction phase, were based on group action-learning processes, or sets, organized by regional locations. These groups, the project, support from mentors and senior consultants, and the support arrangements provided by the teacher-consultants’ host vocational colleges were the core components of the change management strategy. Beyond these was the agency of the participants. The participants’ roles included: (a) attending weekly meetings with their support group; (b) participation in activities determined by the group; (c) completing a learning contract; (d) working on a designated project for two days a week; and (e) liaising with the college mentor. When the programme commenced
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there were few experts available to mentor participants because consultancy was relatively new within the vocational education system. However, some later groups had access to colleagues or mentors who had enjoyed success in the programme, and had gone on to successfully manage industry-training projects. Participants were selected by their host college. During their participation, they were released from normal work duties for three days a week, over a period of twenty weeks. On one of these three days the participants met as an action-learning group to discuss issues and arrange access to expert advice; this advice was usually provided by a content specialist external to the group and each group was given a budget to secure these services. The other two days were taken up working within projects. During the later part of their release, the participants were intended to be working for the entire three days per week on a project. However, not all participants were able secure complete release and some reported having to balance a range of commitments, particularly teaching duties, with their participation in the programme. Some participants also reported that projects were not readily available or provided. These participants sometimes had to canvass for and locate their own projects within industry. Support was available at two levels during the twenty-week programme. Each participant was under the guidance of a senior consultant who had a ‘regional’ responsibility for a group of participants from a number of colleges. The senior consultants’ role included: (a) monitoring the total group and individuals within the group; (b) bringing in extra (specialist) assistance; (c) being a point of reference; and (d) meeting with the group one day per week. Access to these consultants and their attributes were frequently reported as being a key determinant for successful participation within the programme. Each participant also had a college-based mentor. The role of the mentor was designated as: (a) providing practical advice and assistance; (b) guidance and support; (c) monitoring participants’ progress and performance with projects; and (d) meeting with senior consultants and the project manager as required. It was recommended by the organizers of the programme that the college-based mentor have fee-for-service experience. However, as stated above, and particularly in the first programme, not all mentors possessed appropriate experience or expertise in consultancy activities. Other support processes were utilized when either the content or the process skills of the mentor were not viewed positively by the participants. Typical amongst these was a reliance on peer support within the learning sets and advisory processes. Although continuing to use an action-learning methodology, the developmental strategy of the programme was transformed over the three-year period of its offering. Both participants and mentors reported that, over this period, the developmental process moved from being less structured to becoming increasingly highly structured. This change was apparently in response to two different demands. Firstly, the administrative system’s demand for accountability and the need to provide formal recognition influenced the nature of the programme, with a growing emphasis on formalized written assessment items. Secondly, the design of the programme was, in part, dependent upon the preferences of the participants who, for a range of reasons, appeared increasingly to demand greater structure in the second and third years of the programme. Reasons advanced by observers for this change include
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a ‘less-ready’ group of participants, demands of formal assessment and also the increased homogeneity of the participants. Of particular interest here was the readiness of participants to engage in self-directed forms of learning and development. Participants in the later programmes were also asked to develop a learning contract in conjunction with their college-based mentor and senior consultant. A number of these participants reported that the learning contract was difficult to negotiate and achieve because of uncertainty with projects and the unknown qualities of the project work being undertaken. Some respondents noted that the contracts were ‘forgotten about’, because they were unrealistic or perceived as being inappropriate accountability measures.
7 Evaluation of the Action Learning Methodology The Industry Consultant Training Programme was evaluated to understand: (a) how best this methodology might be used; (b) what would inhibit its success; (c) why this methodology should be used in place of another approach; and (d) when it would not be useful. Respondents accessed in the evaluation were ex-programme participants and some mentors. Face-to-face and telephone interviews were conducted with individuals and groups of participants from vocational education colleges. In particular, telephone interviews were conducted with non-metropolitan participants in the programme to determine if their relative isolation influenced participation and success in the programme. Some diversity was evident in perceptions about the action-learning process. The differences included views about the levels of readiness of participants, the processes to select participants, the support given by sponsoring colleges, the quality of mentors and also individual perceptions of the usefulness of the methodology. These responses provided a basis for delineating strengths and weaknesses of the methodology for its use in educational settings, and furnished some overall propositions about the efficacy of action learning as a teacher development methodology. Summaries of the data pertaining to the outcomes, utility, conditions for success and those inhibiting success, and the qualities of action learning are provided in the next section. These categories were the focus of the questions in the evaluation.
8 Outcomes of Action Learning for the Participants Respondents stated that different types of knowledge had been generated through participation in the process. It was claimed that propositional knowledge (factual information or knowledge that, such as knowledge about industrial relations, current government initiatives, networks, contacts, college system concepts about consultancy, etc.) had been acquired through the action-learning process. Moreover, activities that assisted access to procedural knowledge (means of securing goals and completing tasks or knowledge how) had also been undertaken. Consequently, procedures, such as: writing skills and writing proposals; consultancy
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skills; transferability of existing skills; participating in group decision-making; project management; basic costing; ‘people skills’; and communicating with different groups of individuals, were acquired. When comparing the types of knowledge accessed, it seems that procedures were associated with more transferable or robust outcomes than was the propositional knowledge accessed. Moreover, dispositional attributes associated with consultancy were also claimed to be generated through participation. These attributes included: confidence to go and talk to clients; changed attitudes to responsibility for learning; and valuing group support. These responses indicate that a range of knowledge types was developed by participants. What the data indicate is that stateable propositional and some forms of procedural and dispositional knowledge appeared to be accessed by participants. This is perhaps not surprising for an activity-based approach to learning such as action learning. While development of the three knowledge types is positive, there remains the concern that without reflection on practice the development of the propositional base may be neglected.
9 Utility of the Action Learning Process The utility of the action learning process has been characterized as providing involvement, activities, reflection, group processes, self-evaluation and relevance in the data. The consequences of these factors are summarized in Table 1. The perceived utility of the action-learning approach adopted in this programme is depicted in this table. This table yields an account of the potential of this approach to engaging learners in authentic socially-mediated learning activities that press them into activities, share processes of knowledge generation and develop a capacity for self-evaluation.
10 Conditions to Make Action Learning Successful The respondents were asked about the conditions required to make action learning successful. Their responses were classified under the categories synthesized from the data. The conditions which contribute to the categories are summarized in Table 2; they emphasize participant qualities, skills of mentors and qualities of the learning experiences. The combination of conditions outlined in Table 2 emphasizes the qualities of the individual and the kinds of support that they received. Yet, even when there were highly directed individuals, without the adequate provision of appropriate support, it seems that their learning was less effective. For instance, it appears that a number of vocational colleges supported their participants effectively by placing them within specialized commercial or industry training units. However, it was reported that some participants were not able to practise the skills developed during the programme. So, just as not all mentors had the full complement of skills and experience, not all host institutions provided the opportunities for the participants to engage in the types of activities and enjoy the sort of support that enabled them to develop their knowledge of consultancy.
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Table 1 Perceptions of the utility of action learning Factor
Consequence
Factor
Consequence
Involvement
• Engaged learners into activities and pressed them into problem-solving; • Allowed the learners’ stage of development or readiness to be addressed, and allowed progress determined by learner; • Encouraged risk taking; • Made learner responsible for own decisions and actions. • Relevant, practical and challenging; • Authentic demands; • Achievement related to activities. • Provided a basis for reflection; • Required participants to look at themselves.
Group processes
• Support of group valued—learnt from others—discussions;
Activities
Reflection
• Everyone was equal in groups.
Self-evaluation
• Had to be self-monitoring— flowed from motivation and enthusiasm.
Relevance
• Allowed for continual checking of progress; • The learning activities were highly relevant.
11 Conditions that Inhibit Effectiveness of Action Learning The conditions likely to inhibit successful participation in action learning are summarized against each category in Table 3. Again, the responses to this item have been classified under categories synthesized from the responses. Here too there is an emphasis on a combination of individual and organizational factors. Although reflecting concerns similar to those depicted in Table 2, the data here provide a basis for considering the importance of selection, conditions for educational institutions offering such programmes and the demands of participants that may need to be addressed to secure effective learning.
12 Preference for Action Learning Against Other Approaches The respondents were able to identify why action learning was a preferable approach to teacher development. It was claimed in the data that this preference was attributed to:
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Categories
Conditions
Categories
Conditions
Participant qualities
• Self-directed; • Analytical ability; • Ability to make and use judgements; • Action orientated.
Process
• Support with project—provision, guidance and feedback; • Clear expectations and reporting mechanisms—specify outcomes—agreed objectives—agreed timelines; • Senior management support.
Skilled facilitators
• Experienced—available— willing—encouraging; • Knowledge of tasks to be learnt—able to present alternatives;
Learning ex- • Support with project—back-up periences when undertaking project;
• Non-directive in style; • Able to provide a range of support;
• Access to project—ideal project would have beginning and attainable end; • Foster responsibility.
• Empathetic with role. Management of • Selection of action participants—inform them learning of their role and expectations.
Table 3 Conditions that inhibit action learning Categories
Conditions
• May come from a culture which has not encouraged: risk taking, critical reflection, innovation, and being entrepreneurial; • Lack of critical skills; • Dependency on highly structured approach to learning; • Inappropriate selection; • Lack of readiness; • Lack of motivation. Organization • Lack of support; • Unavailability of project; • Lack of sponsorship— arrangements made so participation can occur; • Lack of strategic vision.
Participants
Categories
Conditions
Pressure from participants
• Requests for too much structure in learning process; • Overly specific framework may inhibit the sort of outcomes desired from action learning.
College culture
• Not conducive to change or support of change.
Mentors
• Quality of mentors—content knowledge and process skills.
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learning by doing—‘you cannot learn to be a consultant by just listening—it’s not the same as being involved’; the belief that the only way to develop the skills is to make it all interact; requiring you to think and become more actively engaged; the fact that it is a highly active process; and the fact that it turns theory into a practical exercise.
These statements of preference emphasize the acquisition of procedural knowledge through participation in goal-directed activities associated with the goals of the developmental programme. However, other data emphasized that, with a lack of support, participants might find themselves in situations that were beyond their existing competence and could result in negative outcomes for them, thereby inhibiting further development. Moreover, the development of some forms of propositional knowledge required didactictype approaches of instruction that were not accessible to all participants. This was the kind of knowledge that these individuals would not learn by discovery and collective problem-solving alone. The respondents suggested the following list of circumstances in which the use of action learning would be inappropriate. These circumstances are when:
r r r r
factual (conceptual) information is privileged; risks are too great to warrant experiential learning; other methods work better to provide information; and the environment is all wrong (i.e. not supportive).
So this set of outcomes from the evaluation of this programme has provided a basis for considering the potential and limitations of action learning to manage the effective development of teachers through assisting them in learning new practices. In the concluding section, some key issues are teased out and conclusions offered.
13 Managing Teacher Change From the above, with careful management and some change, the action-learning method has the potential to provide access to and assist with the development of the types of knowledge that are required for the continuing development of vocational and technical teachers. The reflective process, if used effectively, may provide a basis for strong conceptual growth in individuals and make the learning process transformational. To what degree it is possible to organize reflective activities as a structured component of the action-learning process remains unclear, because it is a process that is dependent largely upon the participant. However, as a learning process which features guidance from either peers or mentors while engaged in authentic tasks associated with work practice, action learning has a range of benefits to offer in the development of professional expertise. In order to realise its potential, there are certain activities and practices that need to be enacted. These include the
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readiness of the participants to engage in this kind of independent and collaborative learning, and the quality of guidance for participants. While it is not necessary for participants to be familiar with action learning, it would seem that selection and induction processes need to acknowledge the autonomous nature of the learning arrangements and prepare participants for this role. Ideally, participants should be asked to justify their inclusion in a developmental programme and being part of a socially-mediated process. This might assist with choosing participants who are most ready and prepared to learn in the self- and group-directed manner demanded by action learning. Ultimately, learning is a highly individualized process and the interests and motivations of the learner are key determinants. A strong focus in the induction phase about the nature of autonomous learning and its responsibilities may be helpful here. This might include the benefit of seeking and securing appropriate support and guidance. The support and sponsorship of the participants’ host vocational college was also a key determinant. Participants from colleges where supportive arrangements were available reported benefiting from access to projects, interest by senior staff, access to mentors and having clear and practical goals to achieve. These colleges had clear intentions for the use of the consultants and had planned the integration of the participants in their strategic directions. The converse of all the above was also true when colleges’ disinterest about their nominee’s engagement and support resulted in the outcomes for the participant being limited. As individuals’ readiness to participate in the action learning model of development is likely to be quite different, support is necessary to monitor their progress, provide support as required and then to fade when the support is no longer required. Participants will respond quite differently to the challenges of autonomous or grouplearning arrangements. The degree of support available is likely to be differentiated according to the readiness of participants, and depending upon how they progress. However, while differentiation is required, it is still necessary to maintain the principle of giving the participants a task within their overall capability, yet one that will push them to the limits of their capability and will require action, thereby extending the learner and providing a basis for reflection. So the key principles of action learning should not be compromised; rather, the management of learners’ readiness needs to be taken into account in induction procedures to build a level of guided support that, over time, extends the participant to achieve the programme’s goals. The support of mentors is, therefore, crucial. A development model to be considered by mentors is that provided through the use of modelling, coaching, scaffolding and fading (Billett, 2001; Collins et al., 1989). The degree to which group activity will play a major role will be determined by the preferences of participants and access to other forms of support. However, at its most modest level, group support for the learning sets will probably provide the most practical and realistic form of reflection on action. At its greatest potential, it will provide a forum for modelling, comparing development and clarifying sociallydetermined knowledge and making it congruent. It was these kinds of interactions that were identified as being useful for small business operators (Billett, Ehrich & Hernon-Tinning, 2003).
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It can be seen from the theoretical discussions advanced initially and the data from the evaluation that followed, that action learning provides a basis for extending the individual’s existing knowledge in order to adopt innovations, if managed in the ways indicated above. Yet some additional emphasis may be required within the action-learning approach. It seems that a weakness of action learning in pushing the learner into the process of accommodation is the access to more expert others and reflection. If the social mediation is only through the learning set, this may have limitations in terms of being able to access what is hidden and may remain unknown through experiential learning. Here, perhaps expertise might be required. Moreover, an expert can provide a sophistication of guidance beyond that which can be acquired through peers. This is particularly the case in making accessible that conceptual knowledge which would be otherwise inaccessible. It would seem that action learning may privilege the development of procedures over concepts. So, while the experiential and shared nature of ‘learning sets’ are important, they are likely to be enhanced by access to particular expertise. A purely experiential approach to teacher development may lead to assimilation rather than accommodation, as expert guidance and reflection are likely to be salient in the generation of new cognitive structures when kinds of knowledge to be learned are known about and have been proved through time and practice. This is perhaps more likely to be the case if reflection is also without social source and mediation. Therefore, it is held that close guidance by more expert others be considered to complement the social mediation of the learning set. In conclusion, from the constructivist perspective, action learning—although instrumental—provides an array of attributes (e.g. authenticity, social mediation, engagement) that are conducive to the development of the range of knowledge required for practice within a domain of activities, such as becoming a consultant. The major emphasis on guided learning also recommends this approach and posits it within current views about how individuals construct knowledge. This can include the use of the more expert partner. It has been advanced here that managing change is primarily concerned with the development of the capacities to be successful with the changed practice. Without the development of vocational and technical teachers’ ability to succeed with innovations, it would seem that many governmental innovations and changes to practice required to support students’ learning may remain only as intents. At the centre of even the most instrumental approach to the management of educational change is teacher learning and development, because ultimately it is the teachers who are the curriculum makers, and initiators and enactors of change.
References Anderson, J.R. 1982. Acquisition of cognitive skills. Psychological review, vol. 89, no. 4, pp. 369–406. Billett, S. 1995. Constructing the curricula: national curricula, teachers’ practice and change. New horizons in education, vol. 92, pp. 30–45.
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Billett, S. 2001. Learning in the workplace: strategies for effective practice. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin. Billett, S. 2006. Work, change and workers. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Billett, S.; Ehrich, L.; Hernon-Tinning, B. 2003. Small business pedagogic practices. Journal of vocational education and training, vol. 55, no. 2, pp. 149–67. Billett, S.; Pavlova, M. 2005. Learning through working life: self and individuals’ agentic action. International journal of lifelong education, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 195–211. Brown, J.S.; Collins, A.; Duguid P. 1989. Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational researcher, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 32–34. Collins, A.; Brown, J.S.; Newman, S.E. 1989. Cognitive apprenticeship: teaching the crafts of reading, writing and mathematics. In: Resnick, L.B., ed. Knowing, learning and instruction, essays in honour of Robert Glaser, pp. 453–94. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Dewey, J. 1916/1970. Democracy and education. New York, NY: MacMillan. (Reproduced in Cahn, S.M., ed. The philosophical foundations of education, pp. 201–61. New York, NY: Harper & Row.) [Extracts taken from pp. 179–92, 279–85, 410–17.] Evans, G. 1991. Lesson cognitive demands and student processing in upper secondary mathematics. In: Evans, G., ed. Learning and teaching cognitive skills. Melbourne, Australia: ACER. Fullan, M. 1985. Change process and strategies at the local level. Elementary school journal, vol. 85, no. 3, pp. 391–421. Goodnow, J.J. 1990. The socialisation of cognition: what’s involved? In: Stigler, J.W.; Shweder, R.A.; Herdt, G., eds. Cultural psychology, pp. 259–86. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Gott, S. 1989. Apprenticeship instruction for real-world tasks: the coordination of procedures, mental models, and strategies. In: Rothhopf, E.Z., ed. Review of research in education. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association. Guskey, T.R. 1986. Staff development and the process of teacher change. Educational researcher, vol. 15, no. 5, pp. 5–11. Kindler, H.S. 1979. Two planning strategies: incremental and transformational change. Group and organisational studies, vol. 8, pp. 476–78. Knowles, M. 1984. Andragogy in action. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Lave, J.; Wenger, E. 1991. Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Logan, L. 1988. A note on school-based INSET. British journal of in-service education, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 160–61. Luria, A.R. 1976. Cognitive development: its cultural and social foundations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. McLaughlin, M.W.; Marsh, D.D. 1978. Staff development and school change. Teachers College record, vol. 80, no. 1, pp. 69–94. Newman, D.; Griffin, P.; Cole, M. 1989. The construction zone: working for cognitive change in schools. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Palinscar, A.S.; Brown, A.L. 1984. Reciprocal teaching of comprehension: fostering and comprehension—monitoring activities. Cognition and instruction, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 117–75. Perkins, D.; Jay, E.; Tishman, S. 1993. Beyond abilities: a dispositional theory of thinking. MerrillPalmer quarterly, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 1–21. Piaget, J. 1968. Structuralism. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (Edited and translated by C. Maschler.) Raizen, S.A. 1991. Learning and work: the research base. Paris: OECD. Revans, R.W. 1982. What is action learning? Journal of management development, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 64–75. Rogoff, B. 1990. Apprenticeship in thinking: cognitive development in social context. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Rogoff, B. 1995. Observing socio-cultural activity on three planes: participatory appropriation, guided participation, apprenticeship. In: Wertsch, J.W.; Alvarez, A.; del Rio, P., eds. Sociocul-
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tural studies of mind, pp. 139–64. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Rogoff, B.; Lave, J., eds. 1984. Everyday cognition: its development in social context. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Smith, R. 2005. Epistemological agency and the new employee. Australian journal of adult learning, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 29–46. von Glasersfeld, E. 1987. Learning as a constructive activity. In: Janvier, C., ed. Problems of representation in the teaching and learning of mathematics. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
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Chapter VIII.14
Professional Learning and TVET: Challenges and Perspectives for Teachers and Instructors Christian Harteis
1 Introduction The time is past when training for vocational practice ended with apprenticeship. Now, almost every vocational job is likely to be subject to permanent change driven by developments in society and the economy. While much research on vocational education and training considers the necessity of workers’ lifelong learning, less emphasis is given to the effects of this change for teachers and instructors in the field of technical and vocational education and training (TVET). In contrast to schoolteachers, who are well regarded in research on professional practice, this lack of emphasis might be caused by a general shortage of research and the limitations of the research on teachers’ professionalism in the field of adult education. This chapter’s contribution considers ways to develop and maintain teachers’ and instructors’ professional competence by firstly developing a definition of professional competence and then discussing options for professional learning within vocational education. By proceeding in this way, similarities to common occupations will become obvious. In particular, the chapter proposes that a combination of practice-based experiences and those in educational institutions is required to secure the kinds of adaptable knowledge necessary for vocational educators. The chapter is structured as follows. Firstly, a conceptual framework for considering professional competence is advanced that relates to repertoires of individual knowledge. Then, on this basis, an analysis follows on the role of theoretical and practical knowledge for achieving a high level of professional performance and the consequences for teachers and instructors in TVET. The chapter ends with the conclusion that professional learning as interplay between experiences in institutional and practice settings is indispensable for the acquisition and maintenance of the professional competence of TVET teachers and instructors.
2 Professional Competence When discussing issues of professional learning or professionalism the core reference is professional competence. In the following sections a theoretical concept R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VIII.14, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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of professional competence and its development will be presented. This comprises a typology of professional competence and a consideration of the acquisition of competence.
2.1 Typology of Professional Competence Much educational research focuses on the teaching and learning of teachers, so that teaching certainly is among the best investigated domains in education. Ample findings exist about the ways of moving from being a teaching novice to becoming a teaching expert (Berliner, 2001). The most prominent approach is research on expertise, which usually compares cognitive features of persons who have different levels of expertise while problem-solving or dealing with professional tasks (Ericsson, 2003). Expertise, in this view, is defined by the capability to show excellent performance consistently and repeatedly. However, it is very difficult to operationalize excellence in teaching, in particular in the field of adult education. Referring only to the number of teaching days, participants, numbers of courses or turnover (if freelancers) would provide a quantitative measurement, but may miss differences in the quality of the teaching process. However, it is difficult to define qualitative features of high teaching performance explicitly or to find ways of measuring them. Most of the studies about expertise—not only in the domain of teaching—try to avoid such problems by operationalizing it through calculating the likely amount of experience required in the domain in order to develop it. Studies on teaching expertise assume a time span of ten years for its acquisition (Berliner, 2001). Theories developed on the basis of empirical findings from different domains have received much attention, for instance the theory of knowledge encapsulation (Boshuizen & Schmidt, 1992) or the theory of learning from experience (Strasser & Gruber, 2004). These theories explain the growth of expertise by changes in the individual’s repertoire and the structure of explicable or declarative knowledge. Regarding the path from novice to expert, these theories claim that theoretical declarative knowledge is enriched by practical problem-solving and through deliberate practice. With an increasing level of expertise, declarative knowledge loses its direct relevance for practical solutions, and case-based patterns of practice emerge instead that are more likely to be able to respond to non-routine or unfamiliar problems within the domain. At expert level, declarative knowledge is encapsulated in experience-based memory organization packets—the so-called encapsulation theory thus describes how expert knowledge changes its quality if rich experience with domain-specific cases is accessed. Experts, when asked about their ways of problem-solving, less frequently report the use of declarative knowledge than do novices, mainly using and relying on their extensive practical experience. The theory of learning from experience describes cognitive processes occurring when practical reality confirms or contradicts an individual’s knowledge about procedures and operations, that is, their procedural knowledge. If practice confirms procedural knowledge as being appropriate for reaching action goals, this procedural knowledge is strengthened by reflective confirmation. As a consequence, robust learning
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from experience occurs—as it does also when procedural knowledge fails, which leads to a modification of that knowledge. It is plausible to describe professional competence by using expertise research, because the demand on professional performance usually is set at a high level. Professional competence is mostly based on the domain-specific knowledge of the profession that can be distinguished in declarative knowledge—knowledge explaining facts and objects—and procedural knowledge—knowledge about how things work or how things interrelate. The importance of these two kinds of knowledge changes with increasing professional experience. Accordingly, Gruber and Rehrl (2003) proposed a model for professional competence consisting of the following four elements: 1. competence for the adequate accomplishment of recurring tasks (routines); 2. competence to deal with novel situations (i.e. mental models of anticipated situations); 3. competence to acquire and recall well-founded domain-specific declarative knowledge; and 4. competence to become part of a community of practice. In recent publications these elements are complemented by intuition as a component of professional competence (for the domain of adult education see Harteis & Gruber, 2006).
2.2 The Acquisition of Professional Competence The acquisition of professional competence is a twofold process. On the one hand, the development of domain-specific theoretical knowledge occurs in institutional forms of learning (e.g. apprenticeship, training). In those settings, mainly declarative and general procedural knowledge is taught in order to provide learners with a set of foundational knowledge for their occupation and general strategies for application to the occupation. On the other hand, professional activity embeds individuals’ learning in the social context of the workplace and gives access to a community of practice (Wenger, 2003). By doing so, procedural knowledge on the use of declarative and general knowledge develops in the context of the workplace, and in ways that reflect both the norms and practices of the workplace, and also individuals’ expanding repertoire of experiences (Billett, 2006). The acquisition of domain-specific knowledge and its embedding in the community of practice cannot be considered independently, but require to be understood as complementary processes (Mandl, Gruber & Renkl, 1996). During the occupational apprenticeship within the dual system in Germany, apprentices experience vocational school as an educational institution independent of the employing firm and parallel to within-firm instruction and training. Thus, they have to integrate knowledge and skills acquired in both contexts. The relationship between individual and sociocultural processes affects the development of professional competence over the entire
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occupational career. Employees bring their specific experiences into a formal training setting, they (hopefully) modify their knowledge and create new skills during and within the training setting, and finally they transfer training content into their daily working lives. When integrating experiences into training, as well as when transferring training lessons into practice, the application of knowledge in work activities is monitored by the learners in their respective workplace situations. Recent literature and research acknowledges the importance of the integration of formal and informal learning processes (Gruber et al., 2005) and the interrelationship between individual and social contributions to professional learning (Billett, 2006). The relationship between theoretical and practical knowledge is important, because the former is transformed into the latter through professional activities. To become a professional in any occupation requires extensive formal learning in order to receive a certificate that opens access to an occupational field. In this way, learning within educational institutions is a precondition to gaining the opportunity for transforming theoretical knowledge into practical knowledge through professional learning. However, these formal education experiences usually alternate with a more practical phase, which takes place in occupational institutions. In this phase, more practical skills are acquired that finally constitute professional competence and that help to grow into a community of effective practices (Boshuizen, Bromme & Gruber, 2004). Research on expertise, which investigates roots for excellent performance in professional domains, has generated fruitful insights on the development of professional competence. However, the way of thinking about professional expertise has dramatically changed in recent years. A few decades ago, it was considered that professional competence was based on the amount of specific knowledge a person had accumulated during their professional life. This view has been replaced by a perspective differentiating dimensions of knowledge and action competence. Certainly, there is a need to integrate both individual cognitive aspects and social and cultural dimensions of growing into a community of experts (Billett, 2001). Individual cognitive processes like acquisition, storage and retrieval of knowledge in memory systems are represented by research on expertise, whereas socio-cultural theories of professional development highlight processes that are increasingly becoming integrated in communities of experts and acquiring practical knowledge through directly participating in professional practice. Therefore, there is a need to understand the repertoire of performances that are required to secure that professional knowledge and competence.
3 The Role of Theoretical and Practical Knowledge 3.1 Theoretical Knowledge: Individual Cognitive Correlates of Expertise Traditional cognitive research on expertise defines experts as persons who, by objective standards and constantly over a long time, show excellent performance in
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typical activities of a domain (e.g. medicine, chess, music). Expert performance is often illuminated by comparison with individuals with limited performance—the novices. In contrast to giftedness, expertise is usually considered as acquired special skill in, or knowledge of, a particular subject through practical experience. De Groot’s (1965) seminal work on chess masters pioneered the scientific orientation of research on expertise, within the domain of chess playing. The most striking difference between grandmasters and weaker players was revealed in a memory task, in which subjects were presented with chess positions for a few seconds and asked to reconstruct them immediately. The experts’ superior recall was explained with specific perceptual patterns they held in their memory that were closely related to their domain-specific knowledge. De Groot’s (1965) interpretation of the findings directed the future research on expertise from the perspective of information-processing theory and cognitive psychology. The focus on the analysis of cognitive correlates of expert performance (perception, memory, knowledge, problem-solving) has since been maintained (Ericsson & Smith, 1991), and has only recently been supplemented by research on the contexts in which expert performance is situated (Ericsson et al., 2006). The main research effort was focused on the modelling of cognitive structures and mechanisms that characterize expert information processing, thus aimed at providing a rich description of expertise. The most prominent empirical research method is the quasi-experimental contrastive approach (Voss et al., 1986). Experts, novices and sometimes also subjects with an intermediate level of expertise (semi-experts) are compared. Results of contrastive comparisons show large differences between experts and novices in memory performance. These large effect sizes cannot be explained by general memory factors: no differences occur in control tasks like digit-span. Thus, it is obvious that domain-specific practice determines the differences. To a certain degree the crosssectional comparison can be interpreted as a developmental model of competence development ‘from novice to expert’ in specific domains. Generally, experts’ superior memory performance is closely related with their knowledge. Many studies demonstrated the importance of a substantial amount of theoretical or declarative knowledge for expert performance. At its beginning, research on expertise investigated the importance of previous knowledge in well-structured domains like chess. In particular, the chess studies identified the huge impact of knowledge on memory performance of briefly presented chess positions; even children with less elaborated memory abilities than adults presented better performance if they had more previous knowledge. Studies using think-aloud protocols in the domain of physics also showed positive correlations of previous knowledge and problem-solving skills (Simon & Simon, 1978). In more practical professional fields, many expert actions are highly automatized. Field studies demonstrated that, increasingly, theoretical knowledge was converted into procedural knowledge with growing expertise. In his ACT-R model, Anderson (1982) stated that the development of competence mainly consists of changing declarative knowledge through practice into proceduralized knowledge. This is achieved through knowledge compilation and rule tuning (i.e. the refining of what
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has been previously learned). The development of competence as a basic component of expertise can be described in three phases (declarative, compilation and tuning phase). Learners first acquire considerable declarative knowledge, which is later proceduralized and associated with practice. Then, the skill is automatized and tuned through repeated exercise, leading to its becoming proceduralized. According to this model, the development of domain-specific expertise is achieved through and demonstrable at several stages. For instance, in the field of medical diagnostics, Patel and Groen (1991) conceptualized four steps for expertise development: beginners have declarative knowledge available; intermediates have already compiled their knowledge into simple procedures; generic experts dispose of domain-specific schemata and scripts; and specific experts have enriched these with case experience. The relevance of knowledge for expert performance is so obvious that studies on expertise only rarely define the concept of knowledge that is being deployed. After the ‘discovery’ of the importance of knowledge and proclaiming the cognitive paradigm, the use of the term ‘knowledge’ apparently became quite open. Indeed, research showed that many different types and qualities of knowledge can be differentiated, each of them with a distinguished functionality. De Jong and Ferguson-Hessler (1996) proposed a 4 × 5 matrix, in which four different kinds of knowledge (i.e. situational, conceptual, procedural and strategic) and five different criteria of knowledge (i.e. superficial versus deep, isolated versus linked, explicit versus complied, visual or analytic, and general versus domain-specific) are differentiated. This differentiation shows that the connotation of the concept knowledge that is adopted in identifying expertise and identifying characteristics of expert performance is far from trivial. A number of the knowledge concepts described by De Jong and Ferguson-Hessler clearly indicate that acquisition, storage, retrieval and application of knowledge is not only an individual matter, but also includes socio-cultural components in the form of networking as negotiating meaning and best-practice-proofs as well. Therefore, the extensive body of research on individual cognitive components of expert performance provided much evidence about the impact of knowledge on experts’ perception, memory and problem-solving skills. However, findings about the domain specificity of expertise imply that the analysis of domain knowledge plays a major role in research on expertise. These domains are best understood through a consideration that includes the social and cultural factors that shape them.
3.2 Practical Knowledge: Socio-Cultural Correlates of Expertise In contrast to traditional cognitive concepts of expertise that focus on academic knowledge, the socio-cultural approach to expertise introduces a different epistemology of knowledge, which is exclusively related to social practice. The basic assumption of socio-cultural theories is that individuals and social context cannot be analysed as separate units (Vygotsky, 1978). Rather, humans and social context
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are mutually interrelated, because individuals are both actively constructing their cultural systems and are influenced through them. As people, from their early interactions on, develop a kind of social sense, they begin to construct their perception of the social world and selectively engage in social practices. By engaging in social practice they in turn construct new knowledge, subjective beliefs and experiences (Valsiner & van der Veer, 2000). Thus, socio-cultural theories define learning processes not as cognitive processes but rather as personal development becoming increasingly embedded in social interactions and increasingly shaping an identity within social systems. Similarly, the process of expertise development is described as an on-going integration in professional communities, in which new workers are guided by more competent members and increasingly become full participants in the field of work (Lave & Wenger, 1991). The basic idea of socio-cultural research on expertise, therefore, is to stress the context dependency of knowledge and competence development. Context is defined as the historically developed culture of practice, including particular cultural artefacts and ways of interactions. Accordingly, the knowledge base of competence development is bound to social activities and interactions within a particular kind of practice. Consequently, the epistemology of knowledge refuses to define essential knowledge as an objective entity located within people’s heads. Rather, Lave and Wenger (1991) use the concept of ‘knowledgeable skills’ instead of declarative or procedural knowledge. By this means, practical skills and knowledge are directly linked. In their ethnographic study of midwives, the process of knowledge and skill application was investigated through scientific observations of participation and guidance in a specific culture of professional practice. Research on social cognition generated many linkages between mental representations and socio-cultural background in certain professional fields (Resnick, Levine & Teasley, 1991). These theories emphasize that workplaces represent unique historically derived practices with unique sets of situational factors that shape the requirements for workplace performance. Expertise development is linked to the ability to learn the particular knowledgeable skills and to perform effectively in a particular instance of work practice. The most applicable research method to investigate relevant practical knowledge in different professional fields is the longitudinal ethnographic study using observations and interviews. Findings from Billett’s (2003) ethnographic study in the field of hairdressing demonstrate the differences of cultural factors of workplaces (for instance, division of labour, clients, location, layout). By investigating essential knowledge in hairdressers’ activity and problem-solving, conclusions of the interdependence of socio-cultural practice and individual life histories can be drawn about how it is manifested in particular hairdressing salons. Socio-cultural research on expertise points out the practical component of knowledge in particular cultural contexts. This approach denies investigating abstract theoretical knowledge as essential for skilful professional performance. As knowledge and the particular context cannot be separated, social engagement in practice is essential for expertise development. Through participating in social practice and experiencing guidance from competent workers, people learn essential knowledgeable skills. In
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sum, the socio-cultural approach suggests that consideration of abstract theoretical concepts makes no sense for analysing professional competence, because only social practice shapes the meaning for abstract theories. Thus, an integrated consideration of individual and socio-cultural components of expertise seems to be appropriate.
3.3 The Role of Experience Research on individual cognitive components of expertise generated evidence for the necessity of theoretical, declarative knowledge, whereas socio-cultural research focuses on practice-related knowledge, caring little about abstract, context-free knowledge. To carry both approaches to extremes, two misleading assumptions arise that are often discussed in instructional design debates of vocational trainings. These misconceptions reflect flawed assumptions about formal and informal learning, which claim that either theoretical knowledge alone or practical knowledge alone can lead to professional competence. 3.3.1 Misconception 1 The first misconception is that huge amounts of theoretical knowledge lead to the development of professional competence. Focusing on primarily theoretical curricula of vocational training, the idea might develop that a substantial amount of abstract knowledge leads to professional competence. However, recent educational studies have shown that providing learners with much declarative knowledge often leads to inert knowledge rather than to expert knowledge. Evidence exists in the fields of commercial vocational training or higher education that theoretical knowledge acquired during learning could not easily be transferred to daily-life problems (Mandl et al., 1996). Similar findings were found to be true in the domains of teaching, medicine and others. The impact of theoretical knowledge in the domain of counselling is supposed to be limited as well: after theoretical training in artificial environments, counsellors often fall back on their subjective theories and routines (Sowarka, 1991). Thus, despite considerable evidence of the huge impact of declarative knowledge on expertise development, theoretical knowledge seems to be a necessary component of expertise, but not a sufficient one. It is a fallacy to equate ‘expert knowledge’ with ‘declarative, theoretical domain knowledge’. As was mentioned above, expertise comprises more than just acquisition of declarative knowledge and automatization of routine actions. Experts, in addition, excel by flexibility of actions (‘adaptive expertise’—Hatano & Inagaki, 1986) and these are most likely accessed and premised in practice-based experiences. 3.3.2 Misconception 2 The second misconception is that huge amounts of practical knowledge lead to the development of professional competence. The gap between theory and practice is
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frequently found in complex domains. Practitioners claim that workaday knowledge, common sense and social competences are sufficient for skilful performance (Zarifian, 1995). It is argued that concepts of theoretical instruction show deficiencies. Current German discussions about redirecting teacher education back from university to practical vocational training institutions indicate the trend to dramatically reduce theoretical and academic parts of vocational training (Keuffer, 2005). However, practice without theoretical reflection does not lead to deep learning processes. Declarative knowledge is essential: to evaluate the quality of practice; to review problems and solutions; and to implement innovations (Heid, 2005). If it is true that practice shows unique characteristics in particular respective socio-cultural contexts, then abstract knowledge is even more essential for flexibly applying various concepts for different categories of practical problems and diverse practice situations. Like theoretical knowledge, practical knowledge seems to be a necessary but not a sufficient component of expertise. In recent theories of expertise development (Ericsson et al., 2006), it is held necessary to combine both aspects by introducing experience as essential knowledge. Experience is defined as episodic knowledge about how, when and in which situation to apply knowledge successfully. In other words, such theories argue that the combination of both ‘formal’ and practice-based learning is crucial. Expertise development includes not only the accumulation of declarative and procedural knowledge, but also processes of reorganizing existing knowledge according to specific situations and to constraints set by the social community of experts in the domain. The main educational issue then is to generate experience-based knowledge structures, which show high subjective relevance and personal importance related to experienced practice within relevant social contexts. In sum, the ‘right’ kinds of experience provide a basis to combine academic and practical knowledge for the development of expertise and professional competence. It requires the development of learning environments that foster both individual cognitive components of expertise—formal learning processes might be appropriate to foster such processes—and socio-cultural assimilation and accommodation processes—preferably fostered through ideas on how to initiate practice-based learning during professional activities. Professional experience in the above-mentioned sense increases episodic knowledge and, thus, contributes to the successful, flexible and innovative use of declarative knowledge, as well as to the mastery of specific practical situations.
4 Consequences for Teachers and Instructors in TVET The section above argued in detail for the necessity of interplay between learning experiences in educational and professional settings. Such a successful interplay is what we call ‘professional learning’. Two consequences result from the demand for professional learning for teachers and instructors in TVET. First, some conclusions can be drawn for the development of their own professional competence. Second, consequences for their professional tasks also arise.
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4.1 TVET Teachers’ Professional Learning Teaching in the field of TVET with a high claim of professionalism means that teaching is based on the state of educational research and follows evidence on how to deliver conditions for effective learning. Professional teachers have to update their professional knowledge and competence (Craig, 2003). The quality of teachers’ professionalism in that understanding is usually—amongst other things—indicated by the amount of formal training passed and the level of academic achievement (Eraut, 2000), which all refer to theoretical knowledge stocks. As noted, theoretical knowledge on learning processes can easily remain inert and teachers may return to familiar routines and behaviour based on familiar beliefs, even if they have theoretical knowledge on learning that contradicts their routines (e.g. Leung & Park, 2002; Sahin, Bullock & Stables, 2002). For instance, interviews with university teachers revealed that their epistemic beliefs shape their perception of how they practice, including their actions, options or restrictions for improving teaching quality, although they all emphasize didactic knowledge that suggests certain actions (Harteis, Gruber & Lehner, 2006). In view of the high value of formal education and the fact that formal education might also be indispensable for becoming familiar with the latest research, it is important that training and further education courses should be designed in a way so as to avoid the creation of inert knowledge. Empirical studies deliver evidence that features of instruction can be identified which foster the applicability of knowledge. Those instructional principles refer to the paradigms of situated learning (Gee, 2004) and constructivism (Kivinen & Ristel¨a, 2003), and proclaim the following:
r r r r
Articulation: teachers, as well as learners, should vocalize their thoughts and their interpretation of the content presented; Reflection: learners should develop mental models and then test them against alternative approaches in discussions with others (e.g. learners and teachers); Activity: the process of learning and instruction should not be considered simply as one-way interaction with an active teacher and reactive learners, but learners should be actively involved in work on authentic problems; Equality: teaching is traditionally connected with a hierarchical relationship between the teacher and the learners. The new perspective regards every person in the learning setting as having the same importance. Teachers should act rather as coaches and tutors than as demanding a privileged position.
As is apparent, those principles might best be realized through experiences in educational institutions. They represent quite appropriate approaches for teaching adults in technical and vocational education and training. Probably the most popular design for integrating these principles is ‘cognitive apprenticeship’ (Collins, Brown & Newman, 1989). That approach leans on the principles of the classical handicraft apprenticeship, which is conceptualized as a process of gradually growing towards the level of a master of trade. At the beginning, the apprentices just observe the expert and then start with their own activities that gradually reach expert level. Cognitive apprenticeship adopts all of these moments on cognitive learning processes.
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The teacher as expert starts the process by explaining a problem from their perspective and then articulating their thoughts when solving the problem. The learners are required to verbalize and discuss their views. During the process of cognitive apprenticeship, the teacher gradually steps out of the problem-solving processes, which finally are achieved by the learners themselves. Ultimately, the teachers intervene only on the demand of the learners. During the entire process the learners have to reflect on the tasks and articulate and discuss their perspectives. Finally, the learners explore for themselves and create their own strategies for dealing with a problem. Such a didactic design not only enhances the development of applicable knowledge, but also facilitates growth into a community of experts and developing a common learning culture within that community. A model that focuses on learners with considerable previous knowledge is called ‘cognitive flexibility’ (Vosniadu & Ioannides, 1998). Assuming that people who are already quite competent in a domain tend to be fixed in their position, this approach proclaims to analyse complex problems from different theoretical perspectives in order to increase learners’ cognitive flexibility. In this way, existing, perhaps simplified mental models and beliefs about the domain should be weakened and modified. By representing different perspectives, side effects and collateral consequences can be explored. This process results in action competence in complex domains, such as in professional teaching. Consideration of the didactical principles mentioned above does not constitute a pedagogical revolution. Ideas of learners’ activity, action and participant orientation, and reflection of thoughts and experiences have a long tradition in the field of adult and vocational education (Terhart, 2003). However, verified and systematically gained information on the extent to which those ideas are applied in the field of vocational education in general, and teacher education in particular, is not available. When shifting the perspective away from learning in educational institutions and towards practice-based learning, it quickly becomes evident that the didactic principles represent modes of working life. Working on problems, discussing positions with others and reflecting on solutions are components of challenging workplaces. However, learning during work does not occur automatically, but depends on the extent to which people perceive their work as a source for learning (Bauer et al., 2004) or to which people perceive space for learning activities. The subjective construal of meaning of working life influences thinking and reflection of practice (Billett, Somerville & Fenwick, 2006) and this shapes what counts as competence for the individual through their professional learning. As enterprises increasingly use educational ideas (e.g. when proclaiming learning enterprises), much research on workplace and professional learning focuses on employees in the system of the private economy. Recently, some publications have also focused on public administration as places where learning processes occur (Ni Cheallaigh, 2001). However, less attention is paid to teachers’ opportunities for learning during their professional activities. Of course, there is a great deal of research on teacher education, but this mainly focuses on learning experiences
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within educational institutions. And if this is true for teachers in general, it is more so for the field of adult and vocational education. Whereas there is no doubt that teachers and instructors in technical and vocational education and training reflect on their practice and are actively engaged, it is questionable whether they find partners for articulating and discussing perspectives on learning and instruction. Adult educators normally act (as many school and university teachers also do) as solitary persons, if they do not actively search for supervision and coaching. It seems to be a common shared belief that teaching is a kind of private sphere where only learners and the teacher are involved. Under those conditions, it is difficult to find practice-based learning opportunities with peers. Therefore, it is necessary to engage teachers in these processes.
4.2 TVET Teachers’ Tasks As vocational education aims to secure applicable knowledge that should not remain inert, the expectations concerning teachers’ and instructors’ methods and performance may reach a high level. In educational settings, research on learning and instruction defines criteria for standards of professional teaching. In the explanations of the situated learning approaches of cognitive apprenticeship and cognitive flexibility, some of those standards have been formulated through research. Even if they do not embody a pedagogical revolution, as the ideas have already existed for a long period of time, they still might be challenging for a wide area within vocational education. Two examples should elaborate this assumption.
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In Germany, for instance, compensatory vocational education for the disadvantaged or unemployed often takes place as regular courses following a traditional way of teaching: the instructors entertain the learners who at best play a reactive role—if showing any action at all. The teachers are satisfied if the courses run without interruption, the learners are satisfied if they can spend an undemanding time in the classroom, and the employment administration is satisfied if the courses are full, because their participants do not appear in unemployment statistics. It is very difficult to assess the direct effects of formal vocational education. In many cases, it is difficult to measure learning success at the end of a course, because it may demand a certain period of reflection and testing outside the learning environment. At least, without an experimental design (which usually is not available in enterprises) it is impossible to assess the effect of formal education on work performance. Under such circumstances, the culture of evaluating vocational education courses often follows just formal purposes. In most cases, summative evaluation assesses learners’ satisfaction at the end of a course, which can be related to factors other than teaching quality from a viewpoint of educational expertise. Thus, a rational way of teaching is to follow well-known ways and not to risk a change of working settings.
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If these two examples describe a considerable part of vocational education, the findings already mentioned above suggest that teachers follow proven patterns of teaching, even if they contradict some of the available educational theoretical knowledge. If practice promotes conservative tendencies, the motivation for change is low. However, in times of increasing competition affecting the field of vocational education, there is a greater probability that circumstances will change. Probably a much more important development than rising competition might be the tendency that enterprises increasingly acknowledge the value of practice-based learning processes that do not interrupt working processes. The stock of knowledge and experience existing in the staff of an enterprise is normally great. If enterprises would succeed in organizing an effective exchange of experience, expertise and implicit knowledge within the staff, the effect probably would be much better than that resulting from the efforts of formal education. Therefore, enterprises have intensified efforts of knowledge management as organizational development. Knowledge management means the organized exchange of information within an organization, such as a vocational education institution, which aims at tapping a range of explicit and implicit knowledge as far as possible. It can be seen as an (technical) instrument for enabling informal learning at workplaces. Organizational development means preparing the structures of an enterprise for future demands. Contemporary approaches focus on the creation of conditions that support the development of competences (Harteis & Gruber, 2004). The field of informal education opens new professional tasks for teachers in the field of vocational education. The practice-based experiences provide increased attention and esteem, but stand to render the traditional teaching roles of instructor and trainer superfluous. Therefore, a changed role is needed: teachers in vocational education as tutors, arrangers and supporters of professional learning. The tasks then are less the teaching of learners, than counselling managers and learners in order to facilitate learning processes that are close to work processes. However, by emphasizing practice-based learning, it should not be assumed that formal learning is not required. Workplace experiences do not deliver enough opportunities for learning or the knowledge needed is simply not available in an enterprise. Moreover, it is also imaginable that employees and managers have to be prepared and trained for realizing a learning enterprise and exchanging their experiences in a knowledge-management system. Thus, organizing the interplay between formal and informal education as a way of managing professional learning is the most promising perspective for teachers in vocational education.
5 Professional Learning Little work has been done to integrate the ideas of formal and informal learning. This concerns both the necessity of seriously integrating ‘situated aspects’ in formal learning environments, for example through the adaptation of examination systems, and the necessity to integrate formal aspects in situated learning environments,
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because learning is arduous if the context is weak. For example, workplace learning does not always proceed smoothly, but requires intensive instructional support, particularly if little expertise exists in the working team. Learning activities at workplaces, however, require time and space, and they depend on explicit rules allowing employees to follow learning activities instead of productive ones. In the respective educational and organizational research, this topic is discussed within the concept of ‘learning culture’. Attempts to construct a learning culture in an organization require both some formal regulations and opportunities to make use of context-dependent learning processes. If both requirements are fulfilled, learning can happen even in individuals who are disadvantaged for one reason or another, and who cannot easily enter traditional formal learning environments. Teachers in vocational education work will change, if the ideas of integrating learning experiences in the workplace and educational institution advance far enough that they become popular. Teachers in vocational education have to develop their competence over time as circumstances change. This leads back to the point made at the beginning of this chapter: learning demands stretch over the entire span of occupational life, and this applies to teachers as well as to other occupations. Of course, everything that has been advanced above is as relevant for teachers as for others. And it would be equally appropriate for teachers to succeed in professional learning—enrolling for formal education and turning them into informal learning processes during professional activities. Due to the absence of empirical data, it is just possible to add some assumptions about difficulties in opportunities of workplace learning for the teaching domain—especially in vocational education and training. The biggest challenge, but also the most promising one for teachers in vocational education and training, is to succeed in both, realizing professional learning for the development of their own professional competence and counseling and tutoring learners and being enterprising in creating occupational environments that support employees’ professional learning.
References Anderson, J.R. 1982. Acquisition of cognitive skill. Psychological review, vol. 89, pp. 369–406. Bauer, J. et al. 2004. Do epistemic beliefs affect workplace learning? Journal for workplace learning, vol. 16, pp. 284–92. Berliner, D.C. 2001. Learning about and learning from expert teachers. International journal of educational research, vol. 35, pp. 463–82. Billett, S. 2001. Learning in the workplace: strategies for effective practice. Crow’s Nest, Australia: Allen & Unwin. Billett, S. 2003. Sociogeneses, activity and ontogeny. Culture and psychology, vol. 9, pp. 133–69. Billett, S. 2006. Work, workers, and change: learning and identity. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Billett, S.; Somerville, M.; Fenwick, T., eds. 2006. Work, subjectivity and learning. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Boshuizen, H.P.A.; Bromme, R.; Gruber, H. 2004. On the long way from novice to expert and how travelling changes the traveller. In: Boshuizen, H.P.A.; Bromme, R.; Gruber, H., eds. Professional learning: gaps and transitions on the way from novice to expert, pp. 3–8. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer.
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Boshuizen, H.P.A.; Schmidt, H.G. 1992. On the role of biomedical knowledge in clinical reasoning by experts, intermediates and novices. Cognitive science, vol. 16, pp. 153–84. Collins, A.; Brown, J.S.; Newman, S.E. 1989. Cognitive apprenticeship: teaching the craft of reading, writing and mathematics. In: Resnick, L.B., ed. Knowing, learning, and instruction: essays in the honour of Robert Glaser, pp. 453–94. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Craig, C.J. 2003. School portfolio development: a teacher knowledge approach. Journal of teacher education, vol. 54, pp. 122–34. De Groot, A.D. 1965. Thought and choice and chess. The Hague: Mouton. De Jong, T.; Ferguson-Hessler, M.G.M. 1996. Types and qualities of knowledge. Educational psychologist, vol. 31, pp. 105–13. Eraut, M. 2000. Teacher education designed or framed. International journal for educational research, vol. 33, pp. 557–74. Ericsson, K.A. 2003. The acquisition of expert performance as problem solving: construction and modification of mediating mechanisms through deliberate practice. In: Davidson, J.E.; Sternberg, R.J., eds. The psychology of problem solving, pp. 31–82. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Ericsson, K.A.; Smith, J., eds. 1991. Toward a general theory of expertise: prospects and limits. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Ericsson, K.A. et al., eds. 2006. The Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Gee, J.P. 2004. Situated language and learning: a critique of traditional schooling. New York, NY: Routledge. Gruber, H. et al., eds. 2005. Bridging individual, organisational, and cultural perspectives on professional learning. Regensburg, Germany: Roderer. Gruber, H.; Rehrl, M. 2003. Wege zum K¨onnen: Ans¨atze zur Erforschung und F¨orderung der Expertise von Sozialarbeitern im Umgang mit F¨allen von Kindeswohlgef¨ahrdung. Munich, Germany: Deutsches Jugendinstitut. Harteis, C.; Gruber, H. 2004. Competence supporting working conditions. In: Boshuizen, E.; Bromme, R.; Gruber, H., eds. Professional learning: gaps and transitions on the way from novice to expert, pp. 251–69. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer. Harteis, C.; Gruber, H. 2006. How important is intuition for teaching expertise in the field of adult education? Regensburg, Germany: Universit¨at Regensburg. (Research report no. 22.) Harteis, C.; Gruber, H.; Lehner, F. 2006. Epistemological beliefs and their impact on work, subjectivity and learning. In: Billett, S.; Somerville, M.; Fenwick, T., eds. Work, subjectivity and learning. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Hatano, G.; Inagaki, K. 1986. Two courses of expertise. In: Stevenson, H.W.; Azuma, H.; Hakuta, K., eds. Child development and education in Japan: a series of books in psychology, pp. 262–72. New York, NY: Freeman. Heid, H. 2005. Ist die Verwertbarkeit des Gelernten ein Qualit¨atskriterium der Bildung? In: Heid, H.; Harteis, C., eds. Verwertbarkeit: ein Qualit¨atskriterium (erziehungs-)wissenschaftlichen Wissens?, pp. 95–116. Wiesbaden, Germany: VS-Verlag f¨ur Sozialwissenschaften. Keuffer, J. 2005. Erziehungswissenschaft und Berufsbezug in der Lehrerausbildung. In: Bastian, J., ed. Lehrerbildung in der Entwicklung, pp. 83–93. Weinheim, Germany: Beltz. Kivinen, O.; Ristel¨a, P. 2003. From constructivism to a pragmatist conception of learning. Oxford review of education, vol. 29, pp. 363–75. Lave, J.; Wenger, E. 1991. Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Leung, F.; Park, K. 2002. Competent students, competent teachers? International journal for educational research, vol. 35, pp. 113–29. Mandl, H.; Gruber, H.; Renkl, A. 1996. Communities of practice toward expertise: social foundation of university instruction. In: Baltes, P.B.; Staudinger, U., eds. Interactive minds: life-span perspectives on the social foundation of cognition, pp. 394–411. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
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Ni Cheallaigh, M. 2001. Lifelong learning: how the paradigm has changed in the 1990s. In: European Union, ed. Training in Europe, pp. 265–318. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Patel, V.L.; Groen, G.J. 1991. The general and specific nature of medical expertise: a critical look. In: Ericsson, K.A.; Smith, J., eds. Toward a general theory of expertise: prospects and limits, pp. 93–125. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Resnick, L.B.; Levine, J.M.; Teasley, S.D., eds. 1991. Perspectives on socially shared cognition. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Sahin, C.; Bullock, K.; Stables, A. 2002. Teachers’ beliefs and practices in relation to their beliefs about questioning at key stage 2. Educational studies, vol. 28, pp. 371–84. Simon, D.P.; Simon, H.A. 1978. Individual differences in solving physics problems. In: Siegler, R.S., ed. Children’s thinking: what develops?, pp. 325–48. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Sowarka, B. 1991. Strategien der Informationsverarbeitung im Beratungsdiskurs. Kognitions¨ wissenschaftliche Uberlegungen und empirische Analysen zur Wissensrepr¨asentation und subjektiven Theorie klinischer Beratungsexperten. Weinheim, Germany: Deutscher Studien Verlag. Strasser, J.; Gruber, H. 2004. The role of experience in professional training and development of psychological counselors. In: Boshuizen, H.P.A.; Bromme, R.; Gruber, H., eds. Professional learning: gaps and transitions on the way from novice to expert, pp. 11–27. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer. Terhart, E. 2003. Constructivism and teaching: a new paradigm in general didactics? Journal of curriculum studies, vol. 35, pp. 25–44. Valsiner, J.; van der Veer, R. 2000. The social mind. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Vosniadu, S.; Ioannides, C. 1998. From conceptual development to science education: a psychological point of view. International journal of science education, vol. 20, pp. 1213–30. Voss, J.F. et al. 1986. Individual differences in performance: the contrastive approach to knowledge. In: Sternberg, R.J., ed. Advances in the psychology of human intelligence, vol. 3, pp. 297–334. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Vygotsky, L.S. 1978. Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wenger, E. 2003. Communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity, 2nd ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Zarifian, P. 1995. Qualifying organizations and skill models: what is the reasoning behind them? Vocational training, vol. 5, pp. 5–9.
Chapter VIII.15
Industrial Attachments for Instructors in TVET Delivery Sarojni Choy and Sandra Haukka
1 Introduction Industrial attachments usually refer to the formal placement of trainees in the workplace to facilitate the achievement of specific learning outcomes that would potentially lead to their employability on completion of a training programme. Industrial attachments typically involve training providers and industries (through employers) forming partnerships to offer situated learning opportunities in the workplace so that learners and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) practitioners have access to authentic experiences that only the workplace can offer. Apprenticeships, traineeships and cadetships are at the core of industrial attachment within TVET. Within these schemes there are variances among paid, unpaid, full-time and part-time arrangements. These types of attachments were traditionally designed for young learners aspiring to become employable in their chosen fields. Nowadays, older and more experienced workers are also participating in re-training, lifelong learning and personal development. Industrial attachment is not only critical for trainees, it is equally important for teachers, trainers and instructors (who are referred to as TVET practitioners in this chapter). The term ‘industrial attachment’ is commonly used in Asian and African TVET systems to describe arrangements allowing practitioners to replenish and update their skills. In other countries, it may be called on-the-job learning for teachers and trainers (e.g. Finland), return or back-to-industry programmes (e.g. Australia) and industry placements or secondments (e.g. United Kingdom). TVET practitioners are ‘involved in a range of “direct” activities, such as delivery, development, and review and assessment of courses or modules’ (NCVER, 2004, p. 7). The delivery of courses or modules within TVET institutions remains the most common activity for TVET practitioners. However, among industry circles, subject specialists with trade competencies, rather than those with additional pedagogical skills, are still regarded as effective trainers. Gauld and Miller (2004) found that many employers continue to engage subject specialists for the provision of training in the workplace: ‘Many employers are sending the message that anyone can be a workplace trainer or training specialist once they have some knowledge in a particular content area’ (p. 18). However, there are important pedagogic
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competences as well as content that are required for effective learning in workplaces and elsewhere (e.g. in TVET colleges). Industry also values and prefers much of the training that takes place within the workplace. There is no doubt about the authenticity of the workplace as a learning environment. Scholars, learners, employers and TVET professionals across the globe agree that the workplace provides the most authentic learning environment to train a competent workforce (e.g. Billett, 1992; Deissinger & Hellwig, 2005; Hager, 2004; Harris & Simons, 1999; Harris, Simons & Clayton, 2005). The workplace also remains the main site for enculturation (Vygotsky, 1978) and the inculcation of trade values (Harris & Simons, 1999). In many instances, training and skilling for employment is conducted solely within educational institutions. This approach is described by Hager (2004) as the ‘front-end’ model. The failures and limitations of the front-end model generated debates and triggered an increase in the integration of on-the-job and off-the-job learning. The workplace is not only the most authentic learning environment, but a context for learners to transform and construct vocationally and socially meaningful knowledge and skills (Brown, 1998; Billett & Boud, 2001). This type of contextual learning is founded on the theory of constructivism because learners make meanings by anchoring the content with the context through interaction with the learning environment. Three types of cognitions are used to characterize learning in the workplace: situated cognition (Lave, 1988); social cognition; and distributed cognition (see Putnam & Borko, 2000). Benefits of workplace learning also extend to TVET practitioners who remain the key ‘connective specialists’ (Young & Guile, 1997), linking educational institutions and the workplace. Industrial attachment is seen as an effective professional development activity for TVET practitioners to maintain the currency of their vocational knowledge and expertise, including their knowledge of technologies and practices commonly used in contemporary workplaces (Loveder, 2005). This on-going development is necessary because the role of TVET practitioners is constantly changing.
2 Changing Role of TVET Practitioners The roles of TVET practitioners are constantly changing (e.g. Attwell, 1999; Clayton, Fisher & Hughes, 2005; Harris et al., 2001). A diversification of the work roles of TVET practitioners includes spending more time working in industry, particularly monitoring learner progress in workplaces. Some have become ‘consultants’, with marketing, project and other management skills, as well as skills in developing, managing and maintaining relationships within their organization and with their enterprises and other clients. Others are acting as ‘learning brokers’ to learners, enterprises and providers (Chappell & Johnson, 2003). To provide leadership and consultancies to industry, TVET practitioners need to be well informed and up to date with internal and external changes taking place, as well as with the changing needs of the labour market. This knowledge would assist practitioners in
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preparing trainees for contemporary workplaces, as well as for future employment or entrepreneurship. Three main sources of change have affected TVET practitioners: (a) reforms in TVET policy and practice; (b) developments in TVET pedagogy; and (c) changes in industry. Attwell (1999) provides a succinct summary of the types of changes in industry that have relevance for TVET practitioners. The increasing rate of change, driven by new technology, new forms of work organization, the shortening of the product life-cycle and new demands on quality have likewise led to increased attention on the need for a flexible workforce able and willing to adapt and shape new products and processes and to the role played by both initial and continuing VET in the development of skills and competence (p. 190).
These types of changes in industry are incessant—more rapid in some areas and slower in others. The significance and influence of ‘telematics’ (the combination of telecommunication networks and computer technology) (Young & Guile, 1997, p. 209) are occurring across most industries. Knowledge of recent changes and their incorporation into the formal curriculum for TVET practitioners take time. The quicker and less formal way to maintain the currency of industry changes is for TVET practitioners to participate in industrial attachment and directly access workplaces or learn through other agents, such as professional bodies, guilds and networks. Given all this, industrial attachment is particularly essential for maintaining the competencies of TVET practitioners. Attwell (1999) lists such competencies as follows: 1. Knowledge and understanding of changing working life and society; 2. Occupational subject-matter expertise and the ability to apply occupational knowledge in different contexts; 3. Pedagogical expertise and the ability to apply it in planning, implementing and evaluating different pedagogical and curriculum strategies; and 4. Self-reflection and research into the practioner’s activities, students’ activities, changing working life and society, occupational subject knowledge and new pedagogical and curricular strategies for self-development and the development of the management of learning (p. 196). In an ever-changing industrial environment, arrangements for industrial attachments must form part of an overall professional development strategy for TVET practitioners. This would help ensure that practitioners are equipped with the necessary workforce skills and capabilities for the near future. Dickie et al. (2004, p. 6) stress the need for a range of skills and capabilities. These include:
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an ability to adapt to change and cope with uncertainty; client-focus skills; management and leadership capabilities; coaching, mentoring and networking skills; information and communication technologies (ICTs);
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knowledge/work capabilities, i.e. the ability to access, create and use knowledge to add value to businesses; pedagogical expertise, learner focus and industry currency knowledge and skills; continually upgrading their skills and knowledge; self-managing their own careers and development as they move across registered training organizations (RTOs) and within industry; accommodating identity shifts as they move across roles and organizations; learning to work in teams, across organizations and within networks; and being prepared for more fragmented and specialized roles, such as assessment.
This list comprises an extensive set of requirements that will need a range of ongoing development strategies. Common to all of these is the kind of experiences in workplaces that will permit an understanding of these requirements, their potential development and the important exercise of individuals’ efforts to secure professional development. However, to fulfil their role in linking the training provided in the institutions to the needs of industry, TVET practitioners must maintain expertise in VET pedagogy, as well as industry competence and workforce developments. Gilleard (1996) proposes that educational practitioners assess the effectiveness of their own skills and competencies and improve self-development through direct and indirect activities in both learning places—the institution and the workplace. Self-development, together with self-empowerment for learning, will make individuals aware and consciously responsive to changes in their fields. Moreover, in terms of organizational change, Papadopoulos (1994, in Attwell, 1999, p. 192) sees teachers as the spearhead of change and progress and argues that ‘greater opening up to the world of work’ is a necessity. He recommends a change in the approach to teaching through empirical learning, ‘learning by doing—drawing on lessons learned from the workplace’ (p. 192). Papadopoulos goes on to argue that teachers cannot create situational learning experiences without an understanding of workplace contexts and changes. Such understanding can be gained through regular industrial attachment. No longer can TVET practitioners continue delivering quality training using the knowledge and skills acquired during their initial training, especially in the absence of regular industry updates. Despite the changing roles of TVET practitioners, demanding them to regularly update knowledge and skills in line with industrial changes, the training of TVET practitioners—and follow-up staff development for that matter—remains deficient.
3 Training of TVET Practitioners The literature on training for TVET practitioners relates mainly to initial teacher preparation to meet the minimum requirements for a TVET teacher or trainer employment. There is little attention to industrial attachment as part of this initial preparation or for maintaining the currency of industry knowledge and expertise
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once in the workforce. In most European countries for example, industrial knowledge, skills or competencies form a pre-requisite for TVET teacher training (e.g. Nielsen, 2002). Industry attachment is less co-ordinated and not regulated for inservice training. In Germany’s dual system, training in the workplace is facilitated by workplace trainers (Deissinger & Hellwig, 2005). The responsibility for regulating work-based training lies with the respective chambers of commerce. Teachers with a university degree and at least one year of practical experience provide the off-the-job component to apprentices. These teachers teach the more generic components and are not required to maintain industry skills. This situation may fail to appreciate the importance of knowing how to apply generic knowledge in workplace settings. Elsewhere, it appears that maintaining the currency of industrial knowledge and skills is less co-ordinated. Although widely assumed to be an imperative for lifelong learning, it is often left to individuals to organize such attachments by themselves. Training and skilling of practitioners has been principally the domain of TVET or university institutions. Harris et al. (2001) describe effective development programmes as a ‘three-fold’ activity: ‘It needs to ensure that teachers and trainers are well equipped in their technical areas of expertise, that they have a solid foundation in facilitating learning in a wide range of settings and that they have opportunities to develop personally and professionally’ (p. 81). Yet, Attwell’s (1999) research shows that there is no consistent approach to training TVET professionals. Pedagogical programmes are available for those with vocational qualifications and/or experience. These programmes are offered full time, part time or on the job. In Europe, Attwell (1999, p. 197) observed that ‘occupational or professional expertise’ (industry expertise) forms a requirement for all TVET practitioners and is measured as industry work experience. The length or breadth of such experience is rarely a serious consideration. Initial preparatory programmes for TVET practitioners have focused largely on the TVET pedagogy and less on industry skills. They consist of theoretical knowledge and practical competencies in the delivery of TVET using the theories and principles of andragogy. Most are customized versions of generic teacher-training courses (see Nielsen, 2002, for Western and Eastern European examples). In Europe, there is no standard established for TVET teacher training: each country has its own systems and standards. In most European countries, there is greater emphasis on improving the quality of vocational teachers rather than workplace instructors. In Germany, Austria and Denmark, which have a dual system, classroom teachers and workplace instructors engaged in TVET have comparable qualifications and requirements. In Scotland and England, the role of workplace trainers is limited to assessment. According to Nielsen’s (2002) review, most countries in Europe are working towards a standardized qualification for TVET practitioners. TVET in most regions of the world is founded on partnerships between the government, industry and TVET providers. There is much evidence of successful and supportive partnerships for the delivery of TVET for aspiring workers. Industries, through employers, are now more active in the development of the workforce and
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enhancing the social and economic capital. They contribute to the establishment of standards and industrial competencies and provide situated learning and training opportunities for trainees. While industry support and commitment to the development of employable workers is widely evident, similar arrangements and commitments for on-going training and skilling of TVET practitioners to maintain industry currency appear lower on the agenda of the key partners. Perhaps the value of maintaining currency and its impact on the quality of TVET is not fully appreciated at the policy level. The absence of any strategic policy or regulatory requirements for the currency of industrial knowledge and experience for TVET practitioners leaves no particular authorities or partners taking responsibility or leading the way. As connective specialists, and a conduit between RTOs and workplaces, TVET practitioners need more formalized arrangements to continue their learning and skilling to ensure that industry and competency standards are up to date. TVET employers (RTO), industries, the TVET or university providers and the practitioners themselves remain the key partners who can introduce change. Deeper understanding and appreciation of the significance of industrial attachment for TVET practitioners would invigorate debates and provide greater prominence, thereby gaining genuine support and commitment from all partners.
4 The Significance of Industrial Attachment for TVET Practitioners There is an abundance of literature that supports the stance that effectiveness as a trainer is related to the qualifications and experience of the trainer (Birkenholz, 1999; DiGeorgio, 1982; Hiemstra & Sisco, 1990; Leach, 1996; Olson, 1993; Thompson, 2001; Walter, 2002). A recent study by Gauld and Miller (2004) noted that effectiveness as workplace educators improved with increased subject (workplace/trade) knowledge. This was the view from 31% of a sample of trainers (n = 303) with over ten years of experience. From a consideration of the literature, it is possible to identify five key premises that underpin the significance of industrial attachments for TVET practitioners: Firstly, industry currency is regarded by Dickie et al. (2004) as one of seven clusters of capabilities and skills required by effective TVET practitioners in Australia. Such currency would ensure that they can ‘balance delivery of technical and industry-specific skills with generic employability skills’ (p. 103). Similarly, Cort, H¨ark¨onen and Volmari (2004) identified up-to-date vocational skills and knowledge as one of five in a set of competencies needed by TVET practitioners who then incorporate ‘what they learn into their own teaching programmes to ensure trainees leave the VET system with immediately useful skills’ (p. 22). Therefore, securing this currency is essential for TVET practitioners. Secondly, there is a need for an understanding of the specific manifestations of vocational knowledge. Off-the-job training for learners largely focuses on a whole-of-industry level, whereas on-the-job learning concentrates on the immediate
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practices and products to meet the business outcomes of the workplace (Harris & Simons, 1999). Workplace learning is procedural or instrumental in nature while theoretical and conceptual aspects that explain the ‘why’ form the content of learning in TVET institutions. It is often assumed that learners will be able to adequately contextualize, integrate and apply their knowledge and skills gained in educational institutions. TVET practitioners play a critical role as ‘connective specialists’ (Young & Guile, 1997) to contextualize the theory into practice. This is why it is fundamental for them to maintain the currency of industry changes and developments, thereby understanding its authentic application. Thirdly, as the world of work changes, it is necessary to understand how those changes are manifested in workplaces. According to Young and Guile (1997), workers in the new economy must also have higher levels of conceptual understanding and a combination of ‘occupational and organizational capability’ (p. 207) in order to operate across groups of occupations. For TVET practitioners this means regularly returning to industry not just to update their knowledge and skills, but also to learn how to apply occupational knowledge in different and changing work contexts. In this way, both TVET practitioners and their learners develop what Engestr¨om (1995) calls poly-contextual skills—the ability to move confidently between groups with different kinds of expertise. Young and Guile (1997) believe that developing these skills requires a shift in practitioners’ work to include more collaborative approaches to apprenticeship training, such as facilitating ‘learning conversations’ among trainees, apprentices and employees on different sites and with different experiences through, for example, communities of practice. In this way, the imperative to maintain the currency of skills in the face of transforming workplace requirements stands as an important rationale for industrial attachments. Fourth is the importance of maintaining the credibility of TVET practitioners. Maintaining technical currency is critical to TVET practitioners who are often criticized for lacking up-to-date and relevant experience and knowledge, particularly in relation to technological advances and ways of working in modern workplaces (Loveder, 2005). TVET practitioners must learn about new and emerging developments, changing work cultures and competency requirements in their industrial areas so that they are better equipped to train their learners. Cohen and Tichy (1998, in Gauld & Miller, 2004) assert that industry knowledge and experience alone are not enough. TVET practitioners must ‘draw appropriate lessons from their experience and be able to make their tacit knowledge explicit’ (p. 9). The ability to articulate how one completes a work task requires different skills. For example, one cannot assume that a good athlete is also a good coach. Many employers are sending the message that anyone can be a workplace trainer or training specialist once they have some knowledge in a particular content area. Gauld and Miller’s (2004) research showed that an excellent knowledge of the subject alone was not adequate for trainers. TVET practitioners are required to promote job competence (performing complete roles in the workplace), as well as task competence (practical tasks). Fifth is providing connections for students between educational institutions and workplaces. Cort et al. (2004) recommended that teachers maintain close contact with companies providing jobs for future trainees, through for example ‘twinning
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arrangements’ between teachers and workplace instructors. They also recognized work placements as an important way of providing teachers with invigorating and stimulating experiences. Practical training periods in companies allow teachers to update their skills and knowledge in the subject areas they teach, while encouraging them to experiment with new teaching methods and materials, ‘giving them a realistic and holistic impression of the professions, and bringing elements of realism into their teaching’ (pp. 38–39). In these five ways, current experiences of industry changes, knowledge and skills could have significant positive implications for the quality of TVET delivery. Industry attachment for practitioners to maintain currency needs to be an integral element of quality provision of TVET. In the next section, some examples of how different systems have approached the provision of experiences are reviewed.
5 Models of Industrial Attachment for TVET Practitioners While there is much literature on the initial training of TVET practitioners, little detail is available on industrial attachment arrangements to maintain the currency of changes, knowledge and skills taking place in industry. TVET practitioners in most countries are not considered as teaching professionals like school-teachers and university academics. Their training and development appears less coherent and is often fragmented, compared to teaching/training professions in other sectors. Cort et al. (2004) assert that professional development of TVET practitioners is too important to be left to the individual teachers’ motivation and personal incentives: ‘It is not only the individual teacher who has to become more ‘professional’, but the entire organization’ (p. 39). Organizational change and competence development have to go hand in hand. Cort et al. stress that change in teachers’ working cultures requires commitment and time. In a review of European case studies on how VET practitioners update their vocational skills, they found that on-the-job learning for teachers and trainers now forms a standard component of their training. On-the-job learning improves their skills and provides them with experience of work in industry.
5.1 Australia In Australia, VET practitioners are required to hold a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment as a minimum qualification and must be able to demonstrate vocational competencies at least to the level of those being delivered. This is stipulated in Standard 7.4 of the Australian Quality Training Framework for RTOs. Practitioners maintain currency by returning to industry, engaging in private practice, attending conferences, participating in in-house training activities, staff development workshops or undertaking self-directed learning (Holland & Holland, 1998). Although regular industry placement is regarded as critical for VET practitioners to keep upto-date with changes and technologies, there is no consistent approach or formal
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co-ordination of such activities. Most RTOs negotiate these activities with their network of industry partners to suit their contexts. Up to ten working days a year are allocated by some RTOs as paid professional development where the placements are arranged for VET practitioners. Other RTOs encourage VET practitioners to organize their own industry experience. Research by Harris et al. (2001) found that TVET practitioners who feel no need for an industry placement, particularly those from industry areas where change is slow and gradual, upgrade their knowledge and skills through meetings, seminars, conferences and through their networks in industry. Many part-time TVET practitioners who maintain their industry jobs are in a better position to update their knowledge and skills. Similarly, those who own businesses have easy access. Others learn from their trainees and when visiting or assessing trainee competencies in the workplace. Using student work-based learning experiences as a means of maintaining knowledge about changing industry structures, practices and technologies is not unusual. Mulcahy (1999) noted this in his research on vocational work experience in the hospitality industry. Clayton et al. (2005) found that ‘return to industry’ was one of the skillsmaintenance strategies used by some technical and further education (TAFE) institutions in Australia, designed to encourage industry connections. They noted that return to industry involves ‘teaching practitioners spend[ing] some time working in industry in their field of teaching specialization’ (p. 27). Approaches included industrial work or project placements to re-skill teaching staff, and ranged from mandated to self-initiated stages and from brief to extensive periods of time. Their study identified barriers to maintaining vocational competency that are particularly relevant to return to industry. These barriers related to resources, dispositions and practicalities, as summarized in Table 1. Provision of co-ordinated industry placements for practitioners is a matter of greater importance for RTOs with staff on on-going employment conditions. Staff with short-term contracts are often expected to take responsibility for up-dating and maintaining industry currency. It is also common to see private (non-governmental) RTOs playing a lesser role in industry placement, largely because they tend to recruit staff who already have the adequate industry experience for the delivery of TVET. In Australia, there is some evidence of industry playing a more active role in supporting practitioners to maintain currency of changes and skills. The case with Bakers Delight illustrates a successful example. Bakers Delight is Australia’s largest bakery franchise. It has formed unique partnerships with the Box Hill Institute of TAFE in Victoria and the Sydney Institute in New South Wales to train apprentices. The Bakery Skills Incorporation Programme (BSIP) is educating TVET practitioners about the company’s internal development programmes and offering them a holistic understanding of training and development initiatives (Davis, 2004). TAFE teachers formally assess core competencies of apprentices when they are at the TAFE campus. The franchisee and TAFE teachers work together to build trust and rapport as they develop the apprentice. The learning partnership results in mutual benefits for both partners and the apprentices.
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Table 1 Key barriers to maintaining vocational competence through ‘return to industry’ Key barriers
Aspects
Resource
• Lack of time and money; • Teaching workload; • Pace of change; • Teacher release and replacement for professional development.
Disposition
• Lack of confidence; • Fear of returning to an industry that may not be familiar to them anymore; • Resistance to change; • Lack of motivation; • Failure of teachers to recognize their own skills deficits.
Practical
• The difficulty of finding workplaces that were willing to allow teachers to use new technology and expensive machinery. • Accessing workplaces that were up to industry standard or that were engaged in training using training packages. • Lack of such businesses across the various industries in regional areas. • Organizational impediments, such as poor management and educational leadership, devaluing the importance of technical skills, and a lack of incentives, regulation or policy within institutions. • Environmental impediments, such as difficulty accessing training due to geographical isolation, rapid and frequent technological change, and a changing and ageing population.
Source: Adapted from Clayton et al., 2005, pp. 28–29.
5.2 Finland Finland is the only country in Europe that has a statutory in-service training requirement for TVET practitioners of five days a year. Continuing education centres offer courses to update or upgrade teaching competence as part of career advancement. A continuing education college specializes in educational administration and delivers courses in educational leadership and management. Finland’s Telkk¨a—the development of education and training evolving from working life—is regarded as an exemplary case of industrial attachment that aims to keep TVET practitioners abreast of the changes, technologies and business practices in the areas they teach. The structured programme includes activities before and after the TVET practitioners work in a company. The framework of the programme comprises:
r r r r r r r
distance work—pedagogical aspects of VET; a seminar to brief teachers for training workplace instructors; planning the on-the-job learning period; two months on-the-job—forming pairs of teacher-plus-‘worker’ and training one to two workplace instructors; feedback—reporting by teachers and by the workplace; synthesis and analysis; and training model, best practice and materials.
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This arrangement allows mutual benefits for industry and practitioners. TVET practitioners help to train workplace instructors during their on-the-job learning, enabling ‘instructors to develop their pedagogical skills by co-operating with teachers while teachers benefit from instructors’ up-to-date knowledge of recent technologies and work practices’ (Cort et al., 2004, p. 28).
5.3 United Kingdom Assessment reforms in General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs) and National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) and the introduction of competencebased courses in the United Kingdom have resulted in new standards in teacher/ trainer education. These standards are designed to equip VET practitioners with skills and competence in training and assessing in the competence-based model (Prescott, 1995). Industry placements typically involve VET practitioners being paid for up to four weeks and located in a site that they sourced and arranged themselves. VET practitioners in some industry areas (e.g. trades) are able to take on part-time employment or run their own business to gain currency in industry practice. Powell’s (2001) analysis of the Technician Engineer Career Path (TECP) in the United Kingdom demonstrates that tutors/trainers from institutions with successful education/industry relationships ‘continually upgrade their technical and soft skills, and at the same time are commercially orientated [. . .] and the contents of a department’s programme, as well as the mechanisms for their delivery, meet the needs of companies and learners’ (p. 436). In a survey of 891 members of staff from 108 further education colleges in the United Kingdom, Brookes and Hughes (2001) observed that placements (or secondment to industry) were perceived as the most enabling factor by 31% of the sample. However, this was the option least used by respondents (27%). The survey respondents explained barriers that included lack of opportunity, increased demands of the job and lack of ‘slack’ periods in timetables. Brookes and Hughes noted the success of bursary schemes in encouraging teachers to ‘use holiday periods or dedicated INSET time for updating’ (p. 5) and rewarding them financially for work placements. They found diversity in the nature and frequency of updating in different subject areas. For example, information and communication technology practitioners updated their skills and knowledge more frequently—it is evident that without such currency they would soon be redundant.
5.4 India Jain and Saxena (2002) identified two models of industrial training to update the skills of TVET teachers in the western region of India. One model involved graduate teachers (in engineering) spending three months in industry. The second model involved teachers spending one month in industry and, after a six-month interval,
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repeating their training in another industry. Institution and industry supervisors monitor the training in both models, and teachers receive a certificate of completion. Careful planning and negotiation with industry underpinned the success of these models in maintaining the currency of TVET practitioners’ industrial knowledge and skills.
5.5 Malaysia Industrial attachment and staff exchanges between vocational and technical institutions and industries in Malaysia were two of the professional development activities recommended by Mustapha (2001). Other activities included in-service education, networking, and knowledge and skills upgrading. An industrial attachment programme for polytechnic lecturers (on full pay) has since been introduced in Malaysia, with the purposes of enhancing industry/institution relationships and providing opportunities for these teachers to update their skills and knowledge (Bax & Hassan, 2003).
5.6 Southern Africa Okaka (2003) provided a brief review of industrial attachment arrangements in Southern Africa. In his report on the status and needs of TVET trainers in the sub-region of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), industrial attachment was practised in Mauritius (for technical skills), Malawi (for in-service trainers) and Botswana. The report highlighted several problems with arranging industry placements for TVET practitioners. The main barriers included time constraints for trainers, industry in Malawi seeking payment for placements, insurance/indemnity, and the lack of acceptance of industrial attachment as a formal mode of staff development. Weak industry links in Zambia widened the gap between the knowledge of trainers and the technology level in industry. To improve industrial attachment, Okaka recommended proper planning, cost-sharing between industry and the training system, continuous upgrading and ensuring that it is an acceptable mode of staff development. These programmes of organizing industrial attachments provide some instances of approaches and policies that are worthy of evaluation.
6 Industrial Attachment: Issues with Current Models The analysis of literature on industrial attachments for TVET practitioners provides limited details about the nature or processes. There is diversity across different regions of the world, within countries and even between industry areas.
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Whether industrial attachment is formally co-ordinated or initiated by individual TVET institutions or practitioners, there is little detail about the nature of what is learned when being placed in an industry to update knowledge and skills. How the newly-learned knowledge and skills inform the delivery of TVET or how these add to the capacity and capability of the TVET practitioner is not known. How the new knowledge and skills relate to the curriculum for the TVET practitioner is unclear. Who determines the minimum requirement of the new knowledge and skills that practitioners need is not discussed. These unknown matters raise further questions and have implications for the currency, standards and quality of TVET content and delivery. The Australian example of the relationship between two RTOs and Bakers Delight illustrates the importance of good relationships, the building of trust and rapport between the providers and their industry partners. Similarly, the Technician Engineer Career Path (TECP) model in the United Kingdom relies on strong education/industry relationships. Finland appears to have one of the most co-ordinated and structured programmes for TVET practitioners to keep them abreast of industry changes. Feedback from teachers and an agent in the workplace where they complete industry placement provide details of learning acquired during the placement. This is then used to discuss and design training models, identify best practice models and develop training materials for the delivery of TVET. The Indian model, where an initial one-month period is allowed for industry attachment and then repeated after six months in another industry, requires much planning and negotiations. This arrangement would be a challenge for most TVET institutions and industries should they have to organize and co-ordinate regular placements for TVET practitioners. Malaysia’s recommended approach to staff exchange between TVET institutions and industries is interesting. However, there is little information about how exactly this operates, and also about the value of such exchange to the participating agents. The issue of payment to industry for placement of TVET providers in Malawi questions the partnership roles and responsibilities. Clearly, the way that industrial attachment for TVET practitioners is valued and organized varies across different industry areas and countries. Generally speaking, it is evident that each TVET provider is left to manage industrial attachment within its organizational contexts. None of the above examples provides details of regulatory frameworks or strategic policy positions that could be used as a guide. However, the examples allude to a few considerations for those planning to integrate industrial attachment into the professional development of TVET practitioners.
7 Industrial Attachment for TVET Practitioners: Matters for Consideration The success of industrial attachment as a key component of training would be the result of a lengthy process with input from various partners and their agents. The level of commitment from governments and industry in developing competent
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workers is encouraging. Strategic and local policies have impacted on the nature, speed and level of change to achieve training goals. Countries that have ‘brokers’ to organize industrial attachments (e.g. the industry chambers in Germany, new apprenticeship centres in Australia and the Technician Engineer Career Path in the United Kingdom) show greater success with partnerships between industry and providers. Unless there is similar input into industrial attachment for TVET practitioners, updating and maintaining the currency of industry knowledge and skills will continue to be a less important agenda item. Industrial attachment under professional development should be linked more strategically to organizational needs and capability. Training and industrial attachment for TVET practitioners is not regulated or systematically co-ordinated in most countries. This requires dialogue, agreement and commitment from governments, industry and TVET providers and practitioners. New partnership arrangements need to be forged between key agents to organize industrial attachment for practitioners. Without doubt, there is no single model that would suffice for the contexts of all TVET practitioners. The dynamics of the partnerships between the various players and the contexts of each situation would be a crucial point for consideration. Each model also needs to be looked at in the context of the participating agents (government, industry, TVET institutions, practitioners, trainees and the community). Longer attachment periods would be required in larger workplaces for TVET practitioners to understand fully the complexity of the workplace, while in smaller workplaces learning about the workplace at a systems level would take considerably less time. Industrial attachment requires proper planning, cost sharing and commitment from all partners—TVET practitioners and their employers, industry, government and other professional bodies. Attending to the barriers identified by Clayton et al. (2005) is a start to planning and organizing industrial attachment for TVET practitioners to maintain the currency of changes taking place in industry, as well as knowledge and skills. Given the constantly changing nature of the workplaces to which TVET practitioners’ teaching and their students’ learning is directed, it is essential that practitioners engage in forms of industrial attachments in order to maintain their currency of knowledge and skills. Ultimately, it is industry that will benefit from trainees being suitably prepared for work and working life. Without suitable industrial attachments, practitioners may be compromising the quality, relevance and currency of industrial skill requirements.
References Attwell, G. 1999. New roles for vocational education and training teachers and trainers in Europe: a new framework for their education. Industrial and commercial training, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 190–200.
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Bax, M.; Hassan, M. 2003. Lifelong learning in Malaysia. (Paper presented at the International Policy Seminar organized by ILEP/UNESCO and KRIVET on Making Lifelong Learning a Reality, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 24–26 June 2003.) Billett, S. 1992. Towards a theory of workplace learning. Studies in continuing education, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 143–55. Billett, S.; Boud, D. 2001. Participation in and guided engagement at work: workplace pedagogic practices. (Paper presented at the second International Conference on Learning and Work, ‘Researching Work and Learning’, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 26–28 July 2001.) Birkenholz, R.J. 1999. Effective adult learning. Danville, IL: Interstate Publishers. Brookes, D.; Hughes, M. 2001. Developing leading edge staff in vocational education and training. London: Learning and Skills Development Agency. Brown, B.L. 1998. Applying constructivism in vocational and career education. Columbus, OH: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education, Ohio State University. (Information series no. 378.) (ED 428 298) Chappell, C.; Johnson, R. 2003. Changing work: changing roles for vocational teachers and trainers. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Clayton, B.; Fisher, T.; Hughes, E. 2005. Sustaining the skills base of technical and further education institutes: TAFE managers’ perspectives. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Cort, P.; H¨ark¨onen, A.; Volmari, K. 2004. PROFF: professionalisation of VET teachers for the future. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publication of the European Communities. (CEDEFOP Panorama series, no. 104.) Davis, P. 2004. Technical colleges and industry partnerships: advancing workplace learning and organisational effectiveness. Industrial and commercial training, vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 121–24. Deissinger, T.; Hellwig, S. 2005. Apprenticeships in Germany: modernising the dual system. Education and training, vol. 47, nos. 4/5, pp. 312–24. Dickie, M. et al. 2004. Enhancing the capability of VET professionals. Brisbane, Australia: ANTA. DiGeorgio, R.M. 1982. Training needs of people who do training. Training and development journal, vol. 36, no. 6, pp. 16–25. Engestr¨om, Y. 1995. Training for change: new approach to instruction and learning in working life. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Gauld, D.; Miller, P. 2004. The qualifications and competencies held by effective workplace trainers. Journal of European industrial training, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 8–12. Gilleard, J. 1996. Self-development of peripheral trainers: deciphering the dichotomies. Journal of European industrial training, vol. 20, no. 7, pp. 17–23. Hager, P. 2004. Conceptions of learning and understanding learning at work. Studies in continuing education, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 3–17. Harris, R.; Simons, M. 1999. Views through three windows: a study of the purposes and usefulness of on- and off-job training. Australian and New Zealand journal of vocational education research, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 55–80. Harris, R.; Simons, M.; Clayton, B. 2005. Shifting mindsets: the changing work roles of vocational education and training practitioners. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Harris, R. et al. 2001. The changing role of staff development for teachers and trainers in vocational education and training. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Hiemstra, R.; Sisco, B. 1990. Individualising instruction: making learning personal, empowering, and successful. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Holland, T.; Holland, L. 1998. Maintaining the currency of vocational knowledge: an institutional case study. In: Roebuck, R.; Billett, S., eds. Vocational knowledge and institutions, vol. 3, pp. 153–61. Brisbane, Australia: Griffith University, Centre for Learning and Work Research. Jain, P.; Saxena, S. 2002. Models of industrial training. Indian journal of training and development, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 24–29. Lave, J. 1988. Cognition in practice: mind, mathematics and culture in everyday life. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
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Leach, J.A. 1996. Distinguishing characteristics among exemplary trainers in business and industry. Journal of vocational and technical education, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 5–18. Loveder, P. 2005. World trends in staff development: implications on the performance of technical education institutions. (Paper presented to the National Seminar on the Development of Technology and Technical-Vocational Education and Training in an Era of Globalization, 23–24 August 2005, Pan Pacific KLIA, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.) Mulcahy, J.D. 1999. Vocational work experience in the hospitality industry: characteristics and strategies. Education + training, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 164–74. Mustapha, R. 2001. The best practices for professional development of vocational educators in teaching competencies among APEC economies: a case study of Malaysia. (Paper presented to the seminar on Best Practices in APEC Economies, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 20–22 June 2001.) National Centre for Vocational Education Research. 2004. Profiling the national vocational education and training workforce. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Nielsen, S.P. 2002. Teacher and trainer training systems and quality: the experience of the Nordic countries and Germany. (Paper presented at the Joint CEDEFOP-ETF Conference, European Training Foundation, Aalborg, Denmark, 21–22 November 2002.) Okaka, P. 2003. A report prepared for the UNEVOC Workshop, on the Status and Needs of Training of TVET Trainers in the SADC Sub-Region. Phoenix, Mauritius: Industrial and Vocational Training Board. Olson, S.J. 1993. A new source for teachers: can business and industry fill the gaps in tomorrow’s teacher pool? Vocational education journal, vol. 68, no. 6, pp. 36–37. Powell, M. 2001. Effective work experience: an exploratory study of strategies and lessons from United Kingdom’s engineering education sector. Journal of vocational education and training, vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 421–41. Prescott, L. 1995. NVQs and teacher training: a chance for co-operation? Education + training, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 16–21. Putnam, R.T.; Borko, H. 2000. What do new views of knowledge and thinking have to say about research on teacher learning? Education researcher, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 4–15. Thompson, K.D. 2001. Adult educator effectiveness with the training context: a study of trainee perception of effective trainer characteristics. Laramie, WY: University of Wyoming, Department of Adult Learning and Technology. [Doctoral dissertation.] Vygotsky, L. 1978. Mind in society: the development of high psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Walter, D. 2002. Training on the job. Alexandria, VA: ASTD. Young, M.; Guile, D. 1997. New possibilities for the professionalisation of UK VET professionals. Journal of European industrial training, vol. 27, no. 6/7, pp. 203–12.
Chapter VIII.16
I Hate Left-Handers or Occupational Health and Safety Training Richard Gagnon
1 Introduction I am not an ergonomist; I am left-handed. I finished the basement of our family home in 1981. Throughout the work, I was covered in sawdust from the wood I was cutting with my ‘standard’ circular saw. When I bent over to get a better view of the cutting line, my face was a receptacle for many of the flying particles. I was lucky that I was never hurt. I am not a negotiator; I am left-handed. In 1956, I went to school to learn how to write. On my mother’s advice, I used my right hand to do so. ‘They’ll force you’, she said. Since I was compliant, I was never punished. In the summer, I played baseball at the catcher position, which I liked. That was before the days of left-handed gloves, which were rare and no doubt too costly for the recreational group in my town—and before I even knew they existed. I would catch the ball like a right-hander, then whip the glove off my left hand and throw the ball. I didn’t really think about it; I just adapted. Other left-handers functioned differently: they would wear their glove backwards. Each to his own ungainliness! I did not make a career in baseball. I ultimately became a theoretical physicist. I am a dangerous team member, an impossible violinist, an end-of-table dinner guest, a rude person. To shake hands, I offer my left; I would be dead had I worked on a construction site. And I hate left-handers—those sinister (from the Latin sinister, meaning ‘on the left side’), maladroit (from the French maladroit, meaning mal + a` + droit, literally ‘trouble on the right’, or ‘awkward’, ‘clumsy’) characters who are in the minority— as much as I hate scissors, which dig into my skin when I use them, soup ladles, Turkish coffee makers, which pour burning liquid beside the cup or the bowl instead of in it, screwdrivers that numb and pain my muscles and tendons when I try to turn them to the right. It’s only at night that I like left-handers, when I find peace before going to bed, when I brush my hair and teeth in front of the mirror—when I am a virtual right-handed person (right and left being reversed in the image reflected in the mirror).
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2 Fitting a Square Peg into a Round Hole The example of the left-handed person illustrates the insurmountable tension that exists between society—with its enormous, virtually irrepressible power of normalization, standardization, regulation, legislation and imposition, with its collective, imperial, vital and irresistible needs and its inevitability that no one contradicts— and individuals, with what are the most important things in their eyes, often hidden, private, oblique (Denoyel, 1991) and adaptive, with their rights and needs that no one disputes, with ultimately everything that distinguishes and vitalizes them. Accepted, this tension—between the individual and society, private and public order, choice and the norm, organizations and men, women, you and me—promotes health and safety. Denied, this tension begets death. The risk of accidents increases when workers are forced to use tools, work methods or equipment that do not suit them because they are not skilled at using them, do not understand them, do not find them relevant, wish to work otherwise, prefer to work alone or do not like their co-workers—all of these reasons together and each one of them separately is enough to generate discomfort, stress, doubt and the risk of accidents. The risk of accidents increases when a company, work team or organization requires individuals to subscribe to a common task, share information, pool efforts, eliminate the useless, clear areas, respect absent people, welcome newcomers, but when these individuals—or perhaps only one of them—care only about themselves. The risk of accidents increases when the interests of one party take precedence over those of another party—be they one or many, unknown or renowned, large or small, emerging or multinational—when what is relevant for one party is brushed aside by another, when what is true, valid and proven for one party seems laughable and unfounded to another, when there is disagreement on the very value of learning, methods and behaviours in work situations. Figure 1 illustrates this dialectic between public and private order, in conjunction with the relevance and validity of the stakes. It can be seen how the predominance of any one of the characteristics inherent in organized work jeopardizes the other, thereby increasing the risk of compromising the health and safety of the individuals and groups involved. Private MOTIVATION
AUTONOMY
Relevance
Validity INTEGRATION
OBJECTIVITY
Public
Fig. 1 The characteristics inherent in organized work in democratic societies, showing the inevitable tensions that develop between them
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Fierce, fundamental opposition can be observed between the divergent poles, but also potent characteristics that must be preserved to ensure health and safety in work environments. Characteristics such as motivation and autonomy on the private, individual level stem from the feeling that what we do is relevant for us, appropriate to the task, meets our needs and desires for personal and professional development, physical integrity, financial security for ourselves and our families; they stem from a feeling that we do it well, as is appropriate to control the situation, in a way that gives us confidence, that is adapted to us and to our own environment, enough in any event to enable us to work alone when necessary and in a team when necessary, assuming our share of initiative and responsibility, comfortable, believing ourselves competent, with a competence that is meaningful, gratifying, evolving and our own. Then there are characteristics such as integration and objectivity on a public, social level, when quality, efficiency, recognition, public health and public safety require a depersonalization of competence, a definition and an application imposed on everyone of learning, methods and behaviours recognized by businesses, professional orders, occupational associations, public agencies and governments, science and society. It is only then that certificates, diplomas and competency cards are issued and that the person or organization is integrated into the group, if he, she or it has met the requirements and demonstrated operational mastery. In the event of disagreement between private and public orders, you can rebel, refrain from doing anything, and impose your own law if you are the strongest, or you can cheat. This is the eminently popular coercion system. You can also negotiate. But without agreement, without acceptance of one another’s projects, without mutual respect, and without a planned approach for achieving harmony and a common commitment, all forms of deviancy come to the fore, with the risks and perils of each. With such agreement, acceptance and respect, however, relevant and complementary efforts can be made that will generate better results in terms of creating healthier and safer working conditions for everyone and obtaining everyone’s active support in maintaining and improving them. Of course, you do not always have a choice: favourable conditions must be met to achieve such agreement; they must be prepared, because collaboration cannot be improvised, but is learned for the most part. How do you bring individuals and groups to accept such ambiguous rivalries, duality and ambivalence? How do you avoid systematic compartmentalization, which generates accidents and diseases, of opposed yet vital characteristics? How do you avoid divisions and prevent disasters? How, specifically, can technical and vocational education and training (TVET) environments contribute positively?
3 Health and Safety in TVET Environments TVET environments can contribute positively in three ways, namely those mentioned earlier: first, negotiation among all parties concerned, so that distinct and legitimate projects and objectives can co-exist as effectively as possible, so that individual and group motivations can be harmonized, not standardized, but made
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compatible, so that all those involved in these environments—students, instructors, administrators, support staff—can be integrated as effectively as possible, so that many ways of doing things, being and learning can be compared and accepted; second, ergonomy, that so specific and practical form of negotiation between body, mind and environment, through the concerted creation of a natural bridge between oneself and what is beyond oneself, as if one was the extension of the other, for exactly the same reasons as those mentioned above; and third, coercion, because it is often necessary in order to maintain a satisfactory work and study climate, although it less frequently generates benefits in the long term. Health and safety are fundamental needs; all the sick and crippled agree on this point. And when you no longer have health and safety, you become aware of them and regret their absence. Thus, prevention is a necessary evil, but an evil nonetheless, otherwise people would practise it as often and joyfully as possible, which is not the case. It involves instilling fear in people—but carefully-considered fear, known as caution—from the top of the educational organization to the bottom and vice versa; teaching students to overcome this fear, but not excessively, not to the point of recklessness; complicating everyone’s life, practically harming them, with belts, masks, disinfections, reports on projects and obligations; irritating instructors and administrators with more frequent and lengthier reports, greater accountability and growing ethical considerations; imposing deadlines on the company, training, preventive withdrawals, apprenticeship supervisors, additional costs, production delays, production delays, and—apprentices! Now let’s define ‘prevention’ in a TVET environment again, this time in an operational way: A series of activities of any nature, compatible with the full achievement of the educational mission, which are intended to reduce to an acceptable level risks to the health and safety of the individuals and groups in technical and vocational education and training environments. This specially requires the existence and maintenance of ambient and environmental conditions conducive to the achievement of the educational mission and to the preservation of the physical and mental integrity of the individuals and groups (adapted from Gagnon, Leclerc & Lacerda dos Santos, 1995; see also V´ezina et al., 1998).
Let us assume that a systemic approach to prevention is particularly appropriate to the application of this definition in these environments, given the complexity of the issue and the highly undefined nature of acceptable activities. From this point of view, we can establish three levels of intervention: 1. The macroscopic, which considers the entire technical and vocational education and training set-up as a whole, including schools, businesses and the other parties involved; let us call it the institutional level; 2. The mesoscopic, which includes the team of instructors and students, the class, the administrative service, and any group of persons, formal or informal, that it has been deemed appropriate to set up; let us call it the work or study-group level; and 3. The microscopic, which is the smallest relevant unit, regardless of what it includes; let us call it the individual level.
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Now, let us consider the action that can be taken on these three levels to apply the operational definition of prevention in a TVET environment. Each action should contribute to at least one of the following objectives:
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preserving the health and ensuring the safety of the people and groups in these environments, so that the environments as such are healthy and safe; developing the health and safety-related skills of the people regularly present in these environments, that is, most categories of personnel and students, so that they can play an active role in maintaining and developing a healthy and safe work and study environment; developing both the teaching skills of instructors and the components of the educational setup related to the teaching of health and safety (educational material, workshops, equipment, programmes and so on), because instructors and components of the educational set-up constitute the leading training agents for students in these topics; developing the occupational health and safety-related skills of students, including aptitudes for on-going training and continuing education, for when they work in occupational environments as employees.
Three types of action can be considered for each of the three levels; each offers advantages and inconveniences which should be carefully evaluated: 1. Open action encourages initiative and active participation from the individuals and groups of individuals that carry out the action. An example of open action would be to ask the relevant people, groups or departments to suggest new or improved preventive measures to increase everyone’s health and safety in their work or study environment. Such action would be very effective in adjusting working and study conditions to the needs and desires of the people, groups or departments concerned, because these parties would be the originators of it. It would thus very likely produce sustainable benefits. These parties would generally suggest only measures that they deem desirable and that would thus be motivating; their involvement in identifying and possibly implementing measures would be highly formative and skill-building. This would give rise to what can be called a ‘learning organization’. On a pedagogical level, open action is in line with modern educational paradigms that place the individual and group learners at the centre of their learning, prompting their reflection, refining their critical thinking, making them accountable. More process-oriented than content, open action encourages the emergence of new ideas and the harmonization of public and private poles. However, it requires effort, energy, perseverance and the ability to manage the unforeseen. It also requires an open and receptive attitude that is not found in everyone or in every context; 2. Closed action, unlike open action, involves asking individuals and groups of individuals to carry out projects, measures and behaviours that are predetermined by the people in charge; an example of closed action would be to make the wearing of adequate safety equipment in workshops mandatory. Such action would be very effective if it seemed directly necessary to the individuals and bodies
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concerned (such as students, instructors, management), because simply teaching how to wear equipment properly would be sufficient for the results to be immediate. It would also have the enormous advantage of requiring only minimal effort and energy from the people involved, because they would not need to find a solution to the problem. The action/solution would be given to them ‘freely’, so to speak. At that point, such solutions often become quite obvious, which makes them easier to adopt. On a pedagogical level, closed action is in line with the traditional educational paradigm, in which the instructors have the relevant and valid knowledge which they impart to students. Students can be receptive to the knowledge and assimilate it if they want it, if it makes sense to them, or if the instructor is a model that they wish to emulate. Such action can also generate a ripple effect among those who wish to contribute to the group effort without it costing them too much, or whose resistance to change is minimal. This comes very close to a behaviourist approach to training which rewards good behaviour, but punishes bad in a context where the domination of one pole can be more easily exercised over the other, generally the public pole over the private, often to the detriment of harmony, and where coercion finds fertile ground. More content-oriented than process, closed action, more easily than open, promotes rapid results when met with a consensus. Otherwise it generates tension, dissatisfaction and delinquency; 3. Hybrid action, which is somewhat open and closed, has certain characteristics, advantages and inconveniences of open and closed action, depending on the proportion. An example of hybrid action is giving individuals and groups of individuals choices among a certain number of closed proposals and asking them to establish an order of priority in carrying them out. All three types of action are intended to achieve the same goal: to generate an individual and group movement in favour of health and safety in the entire TVET environment, because this is the way in which healthy and safe conditions will be best embodied, will evolve and will be maintained: sheltered from individual, ad hoc or local initiatives that could jeopardize them; protected by the rest of the system like a living organ is protected by the rest of the body. This movement is a complex one that is difficult to generate but, once generated, is sustainable through its systemic inertia. That is why the action taken must be selected with careful attention to the context, organizations and people.
4 Examples Inescapable and acknowledged by virtually all experts on the subject, the commitment of an organization’s management to health and safety is the best example of action that is institutional in scope. In a TVET environment, this commitment signifies that management openly and tangibly supports any reasonable approach taken by the organization in favour of health and safety. It may be reflected in a number of specific measures: adopting and disseminating an institutional health
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and safety policy, negotiated insofar as possible with the personnel and students (open action), or imposed, if negotiation is not possible, by credible, recognized people in charge (closed action); creating a health and safety committee linked to the top hierarchical level of the organization but representing all levels of the organization; allocating sufficient budget resources for projects deemed relevant; setting up an organization-wide health and safety training and awareness-raising operation; publishing and circulating regular columns or news on health and safety. Beyond words, a true commitment on the part of the organization’s management is difficult to obtain. It nonetheless constitutes the essential key to a sustainable movement in the environment. In an educational organization, management administers the human and material resources; it directly influences the choice of instructors, technical and support staff, equipment, the programmes offered in the institutions and the conditions under which they are offered. Management is often in close contact with other educational environments, government departments and businesses. It can thus support and develop partnerships, influence decision-makers and innovate. When it comes to work and study groups, several examples of action can be given because there are several types of groups. Instructors at an institution can sit down together and systematically and regularly review and adjust, if need be, the general measures in respect of health and safety at the institution, and share them with newcomers; people can be put in charge of health and safety; a committee can be set up; activities can be organized to generate new ideas and projects. Instructors in the same sector can analyse their education or training programme in the light of health and safety considerations from an environmental perspective of sustainable development if possible—because the TVET programmes that take environmental considerations into account are still few and far between—and report on them to the parties concerned. Education and training programmes have a great influence on the development of sound skills in students, skills that include and integrate health and safety-related components when they are put to use. A number of these programmes compartmentalize health and safety and view it as separate from the rest of the content, as an independent module, sometimes taught by the same person in several loosely related programmes, relying on the students to automatically integrate the material with other more obviously technical topics, which only some of them manage to do. The teaching of health and safety must be systemic to be successful, must penetrate all training sites in the way that blood and plasma circulate throughout the body. From this point of view, on a pedagogical level, instructors must collaborate—something that is most difficult for all sorts of reasons, one being that our everyday lives are increasingly complex—in order to share and compare their approach and philosophy, complement one another, and negotiate common positions, priorities, modes and means of evaluation. This requires meeting, explaining practices that have been covert, entrusting others with pedagogical material instructors have developed for themselves, admitting weakness, continuing their own training, trusting others— failing which, health and safety as a system is at stake. Similar revisions may also be made to the educational material, the equipment, the work required of students in
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the school environment and during training periods in the work environment. Each instructor and his/her students also constitute a study group; why not create a health and safety committee in such a group, put people in charge of health and safety, visit classes, workshops and plants from a health and safety standpoint, create learning teams and have them talk, so that each becomes aware of what it is doing rather than simply doing it? This brings us right to the individual level. On this level, we are seeking to influence individuals so that they voluntarily uphold common health and safety values, harmonizing the private relevance and public integration mentioned earlier, and adopt healthy and safe behaviours when they work or study—mastered behaviours that are valid for them and for others, with variants. Now let us concentrate on students for a moment, or more specifically on one of the mysteries of students: their learning style. Some students rely on concrete experience and like to take action; they almost always learn by trial and error. Some are abstract and like to think; they learn by developing theoretical models at length. Others rely on concrete experience and prefer to think; they learn a tremendous amount through their feelings. Still others are abstract and prefer to act; they learn by rigorously testing theories in the field. All those students, regardless of their learning style, end up in TVET at the same time. What a nightmare! Obviously the instructor does not have all these learning styles. The instructor, like anyone else, has learning preferences and consequently, if they are not careful, preferred students. The instructor must deal with the students’ learning preferences to make sure that they learn as effectively as possible. We will not go any further on this topic. We have opened the door and will simply mention that there is some very interesting research and hypothetical solutions being developed, including the experiential approach to learning (Kolb, 1984), which is not well known to instructors. We have not yet finished training the trainer!
5 Conclusion We have combined two ideas. The first is that healthy and safe working and study conditions can be developed and maintained in a TVET environment when the interests and modes of operation of individuals and organizations are in harmony, and that such harmony is best achieved through negotiation rather than through coercion. Coercion, however, remains necessary when agreement between the parties is not possible. The second idea is that it is advisable to approach the development and maintenance of such conditions in a systemic way by targeting as effectively as possible all relevant aspects of the problem on a global, intermediate and local level, and striving for positive results on each of these levels. An individual and group movement can thus be created around a common goal, freely accepted by the majority. The goal may be based in the definition of prevention that we provided. Box 1 summarizes the main components of this programme.
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Box 1. Components chosen to improve occupational health and safety training Goal To generate an individual and group movement in favour of health and safety in technical and vocational education and training environments.
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Objectives Preserving the health and ensuring the safety of the people and groups in these environments; Developing the health and safety-related skills of the people regularly present in these environments, i.e. most categories of personnel and students; Developing both the teaching skills of instructors and the components of the educational setup related to the teaching of health and safety (educational material, workshops, equipment, programmes, etc.); Developing the occupational health and safety-related skills of students, including aptitudes for on-going training and continuing education. Systemic approach
Modes of action
Types of action
Levels of intervention
• Negotiation • Ergonomy • Coercion (if necessary)
• Open • Closed • Hybrid
• Institutional • Work or study group • Individual
Operational definition of prevention A series of activities of any nature, compatible with the full achievement of the educational mission, which are intended to reduce risks to the health and safety of the individuals and groups in TVET environments to an acceptable level. This specifically requires the existence and maintenance of ambient and environmental conditions conducive to the achievement of the educational mission and to the preservation of the physical and mental integrity of the individuals and groups. This process is a complex one that is difficult to implement and that must be planned and tested through pilot projects in order to avoid catastrophe and discouragement. We are not looking at the shortest or easiest route; those involved must take time and wait for results, which will be achieved slowly; they must also evaluate the results at all levels—an aspect we have not discussed. The evaluation provides information and allows for adjustments, but for many, it is also a powerful
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incentive, especially when positive results are achieved. Health and safety in the TVET environment is like a whale—enormous, magnificent and endangered!
References Denoyel, N. 1991. ‘Le biais du gars’, formation par l’exp´erience et culture de l’artisan. In: Courtois, B.; Pineau, G., eds. La formation exp´erientielle des adultes, pp. 155–74. Paris: La Documentation franc¸aise. Gagnon, R.; Leclerc, L.-P.; Lacerda dos Santos, G. 1995. Formation et sensibilisation en efficacit´e e´ nerg´etique en milieu sociosanitaire. Quebec, Canada: Universit´e Laval, Facult´e des sciences de l’´education. (Report of a pilot study carried out at the Ensemble de sant´e de l’Enfant-J´esus and the Centre Franc¸ois-Charon and presented to the Vice-pr´esidence Efficacit´e e´ nerg´etique of Hydro-Qu´ebec and the R´egie r´egionale de la sant´e et des services sociaux de Qu´ebec.) Kolb, D.A. 1984. Experiential learning. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. ´ V´ezina, M. et al. 1998. Evaluation des d´eterminants de l’efficacit´e d’une formation en mati`ere de s´ecurit´e du travail dans le secteur minier. Montreal, Canada: Institut de recherche en sant´e et en s´ecurit´e du travail du Qu´ebec. (Collection e´ tudes et recherch´e, R-207.)
Chapter VIII.17
The Bologna Declaration and Emerging Models of TVET Teacher Training in Germany ¨ Frank Bunning and Alison Shilela
1 The Bologna Declaration The Bologna Declaration (1999) represents the commitment by twenty-nine (now forty-five) European countries to reform the structures of their higher education systems with a view to establishing greater transparency and ease of mobility within the European Union, but equally, if not more importantly, the Bologna Declaration represents the intention to establish and develop a coherent system of higher education that would be recognized in the competitive international domain in terms of highquality educational provision (Bologna Process Committee, 1999). The timescale set for the implementation of the declaration was stringent, with a deadline set for 2010 for all signatory states. However, the Bologna Declaration is not legally binding, which is a key factor to be considered in the context of emerging structures and practices across Europe. The lack of a legal requirement to comply with the recommendations of the Bologna Process enables countries to implement reforms to a greater or lesser degree according to their individual commitment to the principles underpinning the Bologna Declaration. The Bologna Declaration notes that a ‘Europe of Knowledge’ is an important factor for social and human growth. The importance of education and educational co-operation for the development of stable, peaceful and democratic societies is acknowledged as being paramount. It was also made clear that the central aim of creating an improved convergent system of higher education should be that of becoming an attractive and therefore marketable educational ‘product’ in the global arena. The Bologna Declaration identifies key issues, which, if addressed, would contribute to improving compatibility and comparability among European higher education institutions. Six requirements were agreed and these have become the key measurable indicators for a common European Higher Education Area. The six requirements are as follows: 1. The adoption of a system of easily comprehensible and comparable degrees. This was to be achieved through the implementation of the ‘diploma supplement’, a measure designed to provide graduates with a clear transcript, including a description of the awarding institution, to aid employability and international competitiveness. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VIII.17, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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2. The adoption of a system essentially based on two main cycles, undergraduate and graduate. Access to the second cycle would require successful completion of first-cycle studies, which would last a minimum of three years. The degree awarded after the first cycle should also be an entrance qualification to the European labour market. The second cycle should lead to the master’s and/or a doctorate degree. 3. The establishment of a system of credits that would be transferable across Europe. This measure was suggested in order to promote student mobility. These credits—the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS)—should also be made available in further education contexts, provided they are recognized by a higher education institution. 4. The promotion of mobility. Particular emphasis was given to widening access to study and training opportunities for students. In addition, it was recommended that periods of time spent in a European context by teachers, researchers and administrators should be positively recognized. 5. The promotion of European co-operation in ‘quality assurance’ with a view to developing comparable criteria and methodologies. 6. The promotion of European dimensions in higher education, in particular with regard to curriculum development, inter-institutional co-operation, mobility schemes and integrated programmes of study, training and research. It was agreed that a follow-up meeting in Prague in 2001 would enable representatives of signatory states and ministers to assess achievements to date, to consider the next steps and future priorities.
2 The Prague Summit, 18–19 May 2001 The Prague Summit focused on the importance of higher education for democratic values and the values of cultural and linguistic diversity, as well as the diversity of higher education systems. In Prague the Ministers called upon existing organizations and networks, such as the Network of National Academic Recognition Information Centres (NARIC) and European Network of Information Centres (ENIC), to guarantee, at the institutional, national and European level, a fair and efficient process of recognition of awards. The ministers noted that in many signatory countries the bachelor’s, master’s and comparable degree systems were already established, together with a credit system guaranteeing the recognition of qualifications across Europe, thereby facilitating access to the European labour market. An additional consideration emerging from the Prague Communiqu´e was the development of the notion of ‘quality assurance’ in European higher education. The next meeting was to be held in September 2003 in Berlin.
3 The Berlin Conference, 19–21 September 2003 The focus of this meeting was to intensify the efforts to implement Bologna at the institutional, national and European levels. In the preamble to the resultant Berlin
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Communiqu´e (‘Realising the European Higher Education Area’), the essential decisions of previous years were reaffirmed and positively evaluated. The Berlin Communiqu´e contained the goals of Bologna and Prague, but sharpened the focus by defining priorities for the next two years. These priorities included:
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quality assurance, the two-cycle system; and recognition of degrees and periods of studies.
This chapter focuses on the second priority, considering firstly:
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the implications of the two-cycle system on the degree system in German universities in general; and, secondly the potential implications of the two-cycle degree system on TVET teacher training in Germany.
4 Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in German Universities The implementation of the bachelor’s and master’s degrees in German higher education institutions has had a groundswell of support from most German universities, but the restructuring of degree programmes has not been a straightforward reform, nor has it resulted in one transparent structure across the L¨ander. Those institutions showing commitment to the principles of Bologna have also adopted the ECTS system of credit transfer, while simultaneously rewriting their curriculum offer to comply with the requirements of Bologna with regard to the European dimension of the curriculum. Given the lack of legal status attached to the Bologna Process however, these structural reforms and curriculum changes have not been made mandatory and have developed according to the extent to which the different L¨ander have supported such reforms to date. In this respect, the governance of the reforms reflects a decentralization corresponding to the German federal structure. Figures derived from data from the winter semester 2005/2006 (Hochschulrektorenkonferenz, 2005, p. 11) reflect the approach taken by the different L¨ander to the Bologna Declaration. Berlin has decided that all degree programmes should move to the bachelor’s/master’s model; 64% of the degree programmes in Berlin are aligned to the bachelor’s and master’s degree structure while Saxony has not shown such commitment to the new structures, only 18.6% of the degrees in Saxony are currently organized in this way. Despite the fact that most academic institutions have adopted the concept of a two-cycle degree system, approaches to restructuring have been diverse. Although most institutions have opted for a model whereby the bachelor’s degree takes a standard period of study of six semesters and the master’s degree requires four semesters of study, there are variations to this model. This diversity of structures is mirrored by similar variations in the pace of change. According to recent statistics referring to the winter semester 2005/2006 (Hochschulrektorenkonferenz, 2005, p. 11), 52.9% of programmes offered at Fachhochschule are bachelor’s or master’s while only 29.5% of degree programmes of-
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fered at universities follow the new structures, thus indicating the increased readiness of Fachhochschule to engage with these significant changes, compared with the universities which have been seemingly slower to take up the challenge of change. Against the backdrop of such fragmented developments, the new degrees have been differently received by various stakeholders. In a recent study, Alesi et al. (2005, 4.4.4) identify significant levels of scepticism expressed by students, employers and teachers alike. The scepticism directed at the new degree structures can be assumed to be based on a lack of clarity about how the new degree structures compare with the former structures. Consequently there exists a lack of confidence in the quality of the resultant standard of the emerging graduates. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this is particularly evident in the technical sector, for example in engineering, where traditional German qualifications are still held in the highest esteem by employers (Schmoll, 2004). This potential conflict is heightened by the fact that the new structures are often perceived as an ‘import’ from the British education system, where degree programmes in technical areas have not enjoyed such a tradition of quality or prestige.
5 The Two-Cycle System in TVET Teacher Training The degree system at both national and international levels was supposed to follow comparable frameworks. The first-cycle degrees should offer access to second-cycle programmes and second-cycle degrees should give access to doctoral studies. The new two-cycle-system in TVET teacher training marks a radical change in the preparation of TVET teachers. The traditional system consisted of one-block degree programme at university lasting from four to five years with two Praktikum placements. The standard period of study finishes with the first State exam, which is followed by a probationary period (Referendariat) of one-and-a-half to two years and finishes with the second State exam. Since the two-cycle-system only applies to the period of study located in university, TVET teacher-training curriculum designers are faced with a particular challenge when considering how to map the traditional probationary period against the new structures. Providers of TVET teacher training envisaged that the introduction of a twocycle system would result in new career opportunities for future graduates. The possibility for graduates to exercise flexibility in career choices on completion of each degree cycle was an aspiration of German curriculum designers for TVET. It was hoped that the two-cycle structure would free graduates from a single career path (teaching) by enabling them to opt for alternatives at different stages of their study. This element was considered to be an important aspect in a rapidly changing job market (Thierack, 2004, p. 26). A second, seemingly obvious, advantage of the two-cycle system was the possibility of shorter periods of study, which would enable graduates to enter the job market more quickly (Schulz, 2004, p. 114). A third desired output of the new degree structures was an intensification of models of partnership to enhance practical training (Thierack, 2004, p. 25).
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The adaptation of the two-cycle degree was also intended to help ‘internationalize’ higher education. This term is interpreted by the Bologna Declaration to mean several things, each aspect of which would engender significant reconceptualizing of both curriculum design and the marketing of such programmes abroad (Ploghaus, 2004, p. 11). The integration of the European dimension in all curricular provision (including opportunities for additional language acquisition and bilingual teaching), although present in some universities, has not been a driving factor for change in TVET in Germany. The aim of strengthening the status and quality of European higher education in the international context (Bologna Process Committee, 1999) can be seen to be particularly ironic in the sphere of TVET in Germany, as Germany has enjoyed a long and distinguished tradition of TVET, both in Europe and in the wider global context (Green, Wolf & Leney, 1999). Furthermore, the priority for each academic teacher-training institution has been to recruit and train teachers for the home context, since there is a shortage of well-qualified TVET teachers all over Germany, particularly in technical areas. The prognosis for the next ten years is that the demand for TVET teachers will exceed the supply in Germany. According to Standing Conference of Education Ministers (KMK) statistics there is currently a shortage of 8,800 TVET teachers in Germany (Innovative Fortbildung der Lehrer an berufsbildenden Schulen, 2006). Despite this seemingly inward looking profile, German academic institutions have enjoyed successful relationships in TVET teacher training at local levels in a variety of forms: for example, joint programmes, Erasmus projects, etc. The introduction of an international element, as a strategic intention, both in terms of clientele and provider represents a new and challenging dimension for TVET teacher training in Germany. This can be seen as something of a double-edged sword, offering both opportunities and threats to academic institutions such as universities and Fachhochschulen. Opportunities for international expansion have been welcomed by most academic institutions with the result that a variety of collaborative programmes are now advertised in university publicity demonstrating engagement with the international dimension proposed by the Bologna Declaration. The adoption of ECTS has enabled institutions to use a common academic ‘currency’ for participation in a ‘borderless’ European higher education area (Karran, 2004). However, this also poses questions of credibility and allegiance for TVET teacher training in Germany. A firm commitment to the traditional system in TVET teacher training, including compulsory State exams, is borne out even in the newly evolving models of TVET teacher training. Few academic institutions have designed programmes which rely solely on the accumulation of credit points without the stringent application of a summative assessment at the end of the training period, whether this be during the university period of study or during the probationary period. It is hoped that the newly designed module examinations will soon be considered ‘equivalent’ to the traditional ‘State exam’ (Ploghaus, 2004).
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6 Emerging Models in TVET Teacher Training The influence of the Bologna Declaration on the development of new models in degree structures in TVET teacher training has resulted in a variety of approaches in German universities. An analysis of new structures implemented by German academic institutions reveals three emerging models. For the purposes of this chapter these models can be described as: (a) the consecutive model; (b) the top-up model; and (c) the blended model.
6.1 The Consecutive Model The most dominant model appears to be the consecutive model. This model is very similar to the former single-block programmes in that the three educational strands of major, minor, and vocational education/didactics are integral to both cycles of study (see Figure 1). An example of the consecutive model can be found at Berlin Technical University. Other universities are considering this model as part of their portfolio, e.g. Hannover University, Dresden University of Technology.
6.2 The Top-Up Model In contrast to the consecutive model, the top-up model introduces just one strand of teacher training at the bachelor’s level. This element is normally the technical or vocational strand. In this model other recognized aspects of teacher training, such as didactics and minor subjects, are only introduced at master’s level (see Figure 2). This model has been in operation at Hannover University since 2003/2004.
6.3 The Blended Model The blended model offers a two-cycle degree system introducing two strands of teacher training at bachelor level, together with one module of vocational education and didactics which is open to students from other faculties. The master’s degree offers opportunities to deepen understanding of all three strands, see Figure 3. This is an established model at Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg (the Magdeburg model).
6.4 Operational Aspects of the Blended Model The single module of vocational education and didactics is offered in all subject disciplines at bachelor’s level. This module provides the link to the master’s level study, where it is studied in greater depth (see Figure 4).
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Characteristics: Major, minor, and vocational education/didactics are already integrated in the bachelor’s programme; Major and minor are continued at the master’s level.
Fig. 1 The consecutive model
Characteristics: Master programme builds up on a bachelor’s degree (e.g. in a technical field); The major results from the field studied at bachelor’s level; Minor and vocational education/didactics are studied at master’s level exclusively; Major is continued at master’s level.
Fig. 2 The top-up model
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Fig. 3 The blended model
6.5 Advantages and Disadvantages of the New Models The three emerging models described above offer both advantages and disadvantages for TVET teacher training in Germany. Although they have been explained as discrete systems in this chapter, there is evidence to show that some universities are not limiting themselves exclusively to one model. Hannover University, for example, introduced the ‘top-up’ model in 2003/2004, but there are plans for the consecutive model to be offered from 2008/2009. As each model becomes part of the established fabric of TVET teacher training, so the advantages and disadvantages of each model can be identified and monitored in relation to the envisaged outcomes of restructuring. To recap, the intended outcomes of restructuring included:
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New opportunities for flexibility in considering career options; Shorter study periods; Enhancement of practical training; Internationalization of degree programmes.
The significance of the concept of ‘emergence’ with regard to the different models for TVET teacher-training structures cannot be overemphasized as the models will evolve according to the extent to which stakeholders are convinced or persuaded by their quality. Saarinen (2005) notes that: ‘international influences find their way into national policies persuasively rather than authoritatively’. The new degree models
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Fig. 4 The Magdeburg model
appear to be meeting the intended outcomes in a variety of ways, both positively and negatively, as is shown in the next section.
7 New Opportunities for Flexibility in Considering Career Options New opportunities for graduates to consider alternative career options were envisaged as one outcome of the newly structured programmes. Although, in theory, this applies to both the master’s and the bachelor’s level awards, in practice the broadening of career opportunities is more relevant to graduates at bachelor level than for master’s degree graduates, who will normally have a particular career orientation. It is worth noting that this was always to be a challenge, as evidenced by Alesi et al. (2005, 4.9), whose study conducted in France, the Netherlands, Austria, Hungary and the United Kingdom showed that employers demonstrated a lack of conviction about the feasibility of offering employment to bachelor graduates from universities. Both the bachelor’s graduates and employers from all analysed countries (apart from the United Kingdom) perceive the bachelor’s degree from a university as fulfilling only a part of the training necessary to enter a vocational profession with expertise and confidence. The same study revealed that bachelor’s graduates from universities in Germany could find employment in positions that were formerly filled by employees with a mid-level professional qualification (Fachwirt/Meister). Of those employers asked, 37.5% indicated that if they were to employ bachelor’s graduates from universities, they would be willing to offer them such positions. Only 29.9% expressed
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a willingness to offer them positions equal to their qualification. It is, however, also worth noting that over one-third of those employers surveyed (36.6%) said that each case would be considered on its individual merits. The survey revealed that the larger the company, the greater the acceptance of the bachelor’s degree from a university as an adequate level of qualification for entry into the profession. The authors of the survey concluded that the acceptability of the bachelor’s awards as an entry qualification into a profession cannot yet be confirmed in Germany, given the diversity of perspectives of employers. In this respect, the changed structures alone cannot yet lay claim to increased employment opportunities for bachelor’s graduates from universities. This scepticism about the possible employment benefits gained from bachelor’s award degrees from universities is also reflected in the TVET teacher-training sector in Germany Polyvalenz von Abschl¨ussen auf Kr¨ucken (Sp¨ottl, 2004, p. 76) [Employment opportunities for degrees on crutches]. This scepticism is grounded in the lack of confidence felt for new degree systems when compared with the success of the traditional German TVET teacher-training system. It is feared that the introduction of the new bachelor’s programmes could undermine the high status and quality of the academic TVET teacher training. Furthermore, it is feared that the possibility may exist to introduce positions at public VET colleges which could be filled with bachelor’s degree graduates from universities, thus undermining the current salary structures. Such issues of governance in TVET teacher training are identified by Kyvik (2004) as complicating factors to the process of reform. Indeed, analysis of the three emerging models for TVET teacher training in relation to employment opportunities reveals that each model could have a different impact on such opportunities. The consecutive model offers a programme which is closely focused on teacher training with the result that the graduates (at bachelor’s level) will already be experts in their (teacher-training) field; however, this could be a disadvantage if the graduates try to find employment with their bachelor’s degree alone, outside the teaching domain. Employers may not value the emphasis on teacher training in the first-degree portfolio. Moreover, employment opportunities in the public sector are currently limited. These factors alone mean that the graduates emerging from the consecutive model with a bachelor’s degree from a university could be faced with limited options for employment, which could be seen as a direct contradiction of one of the envisaged benefits of restructuring. The top-up model offers a first-degree programme which is predominantly focused on subject expertise in a given discipline. This being the case, the graduates emerging from the top-up model could be considered to have an advantage over their peers graduating from the consecutive model when seeking employment outside teaching. However, although they may be well qualified in their subject discipline, they will not have an equivalent depth of expertise in teacher training as those from the consecutive model, thus putting them at a disadvantage if they were to seek employment in education. The top-up model is commonly offered for areas in TVET where there is a great need for teachers, e.g. engineering, electrical engineering, etc. This may initially appear to be an obvious solution to an employment crisis. However, the limited pedagogical training offered at bachelor’s level in the top-up model might even exacerbate the dearth of good
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teachers in short-supply subjects if many bachelor’s graduates are employed from this route. The blended model can be considered as a compromise between the first two models. It aims to provide graduates with alternative career options by focusing on areas that are relevant for employment outside teaching, while simultaneously introducing pedagogy and didactics at the bachelor’s level, thus offering a compromise between the consecutive and the top-up models. The bachelor graduates from this model may not possess the equivalent subject expertise as their counterparts from the top-up model, but their command of subject knowledge would enable them to compete for jobs in a non-teaching environment. The majority of master’s level programmes in TVET teacher training in Germany are specifically career oriented, thus limiting choice in employment opportunities at this stage of training. Students at this level in TVET usually follow one career path. An exception to this is the ‘Magdeburg model’ where three different types of master’s degree programmes are offered and only one of these leads to a career in teaching in the State sector (see Figure 4).
8 Transfer Between Programmes When considering the flexibility offered by TVET teacher-training programmes, it is also worth noting the degree to which students are able to transfer between any given programme. Each model offers a different degree of flexibility. Transfer between programmes would be problematic in the consecutive model. This model can be seen to produce the most secure professionals, as the training includes subject expertise and didactics at each stage of the training. However, this model does not lend itself readily to transfer. Although students can transfer credits in terms of subject discipline, a seamless transfer would only be possible if students transferred to a programme following the consecutive model. The top-up model offers most flexibility in terms of transfer from one programme to another. As long as students achieve their bachelor’s award, they are entitled to register for a master’s programme leading to a career in TVET teaching. The blended model is open to graduates from different models, the prerequisite being that graduates should have followed a module covering vocational education and didactics as part of their bachelor studies. In this respect the blended model offers a solution that lies between the consecutive and the top-up models.
9 Shorter Study Periods Although the period of study can be seen to be reduced for a bachelor’s degree, the employment situation outlined above indicates that graduates emerging with a bachelor’s degree will probably still need to go on to study for a master’s degree if they are to gain employment. In this case, the new study period of five years (to
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obtain a master’s degree) may, in some cases, represent a longer period of study than the former system which may have required only four-and-a-half years. This outcome would be an indication that the opposite effect of the original objective of shorter study periods would have been achieved in Germany.
10 Enhancement of Practical Training The link between theory and praxis has often been identified as a possible weakness in the traditional system of TVET teacher training (Nielson, 2002; Hochschulrektorenkonferenz, 2006) and one of the aims of the Bologna Declaration was to strengthen the practical elements of TVET teacher training through the restructuring exercise. In this respect, the reforms were welcomed as an opportunity to plan programmes with a strengthened element of practical training. Although this was a hoped-for ‘by-product’, the three emerging models do not demonstrate evidence of a strategic approach to restructuring which would ensure the inclusion of more intensive periods or stronger links with practical training. Since all bachelor’s and master’s programmes have traditionally included a practical element, it has been difficult to envisage how this might be strengthened. One possible approach is to combine the university stage of TVET teacher training with the Referendariat (Schulz, 2004, p. 113). Schulz raises the question of the feasibility of a one-year probationary period. This approach would simultaneously achieve two goals of Bologna by shortening the study period and strengthening the practical elements of TVET teacher training.
11 Internationalization of Degree Programmes The promotion of European dimensions through curricular development, interinstitutional co-operation, mobility schemes and integrated programmes of study, training and research, as cited in the Bologna Declaration, pose particular challenges for TVET teacher training in Germany, although the expectation has been that in general terms degree programmes would be more attractive to international students (Alesi et al., 2005, 4.8.3). The traditional focus for the TVET teacher-training sector has been the German education system and employment market. Despite the apparently limited interest in an international dimension for TVET, the Magdeburg model includes two masters’ programmes specifically designed to encompass an international perspective. Although the Bologna Process provides an opportunity for universities to develop international programmes, very few universities have taken advantage of this. Dresden University of Technology and Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, are two universities that have done so. Although these programmes are proving to be popular with international students, the experience to date is that reciprocal arrangements can prove challenging where an exchange requires relative fluency in a language other than English; for example, a cohort of
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students from Otto-von-Guericke University were registered on a dual awards international master’s degree programme (see Figure 4) in the 2005/2006 programme and spent a semester in England, but there were no British students to reciprocate the exchange. Otto-von-Guericke University also received a number of Chinese and Vietnamese students during the same year, but no German students went to China or Viet Nam. The most cited reason given for this lack of take up was the potential for language difficulties.
12 Conclusion This study concludes that, although the demands of the Bologna Process are being met in Germany, there remains some inconsistency in the development of convergent programmes and the pace of change is sometimes hindered by the rate at which the new programmes are becoming recognized by employers. At the time of writing, many institutions are running both the traditional degree programme and the new two-cycle programmes. The TVET teacher-training sector faces particular challenges in this respect. The three emerging models, when considered together, offer a range of approaches to TVET teacher training, which in some respects represents broader thinking in terms of preparation for a vocational profession. However, the new diversity of programme structures is beginning to pose questions for the stability or coherence of the TVET teacher-training system within Germany with the result that although the requirements of the Bologna Declaration may be addressed, enabling mobility and flexibility within Europe, these two aims may be thwarted in the German context by the emergence of three models which do not always map neatly onto each other.
References Alesi, B. et al. 2005. Stand der Einf¨uhrung von Bachelor- und Masterstudieng¨angen im BolognaProzess sowie in ausgew¨ahlten L¨andern Europas im Vergleich zu Deutschland. Berlin: Bundesministerium f¨ur Bildung und Forschung. Bologna Process Committee 1999. Joint declaration of the European Ministers of Education convened in Bologna on 19 June 1999. (The Bologna Declaration). <ec.europa.eu/education/ policies/educ/bologna/bologna.pdf> Green, A.; Wolf, A.; Leney, T. 1999. Convergence and divergence in European education and training systems. London: G. Griffin. Hochschulrektorenkonferenz. 2005. Statistische Daten zur Einf¨uhrung von Bachelor- und Masterstudien¨angen/Wintersemester 2005/2006. Bonn, Germany: Hochschulrektorenkonferenz. Hochschulrektorenkonferenz. 2006. Von Bologna nach Quedlinburg—die Reform des Lehramtsstudiums in Deutschland. Bonn, Germany: Hochschulrektorenkonferenz. Innovative Fortbildung der Lehrer an berufsbildenden Schulen/Innovelle. Berufsbildungspolitik in Deutschland ist mehr als Pisa! Berlin: BMBF. Karran, T. 2004. Achieving Bologna convergence: is ECTS failing to make the grade? Higher education in Europe, vol. 29, no. 3.
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Kyvik, S. 2004. Structural changes in higher education systems in Western Europe. Higher education in Europe, vol. 29, no. 3. Nielson, S. 2002. The experience of the Nordic Countries and Germany. (Paper presented at the Joint CEDEFOP-ETF Conference, Workshop Theme 2: Teacher and Trainer Training Systems and Quality, Aalborg, Denmark, 21–22 November 2002.) Ploghaus, G. 2004. Der Bologna-Prozess und die Einf¨uhrung von Bachelor- und Masterabschl¨ussen: Stand und Bedeutung. In: Schulz, R.; Becker, M.; Dreher, R., eds. Bachelor und Master f¨ur das Lehramt an beruflichen Schulen. Kronshagen, Germany. (Innovelle-BsProgrammtr¨agerinfo Nr. 06.) Saarinen, T. 2005. Quality in the Bologna Process: from ‘competitive edge’ to ‘quality assurance techniques’. European journal of education, vol. 40, no. 2. Schmoll, H. 2004. Hochschulpolitische Fiktion. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 19 June 2004. Schulz, R. 2004. Szenarien f¨ur die BA/MA-Ausbildung aus Sicht der 2. und 3. Phase. In: Schulz, R.; Becker, M.; Dreher, R., eds. Bachelor und Master f¨ur das Lehramt an beruflichen Schulen. Kronshagen, Germany. (Innovelle-Bs-Programmtr¨agerinfo Nr. 06.) Sp¨ottl, G. 2004. Bachelor und Masterstudieng¨ange: Entwicklungen in Hochschulen und Konsequenzen f¨ur die 2. Phase der Lehrerbildung in den ,,Gewerblich-Technischen Fachrichtungen“. In: Schulz, R.; Becker, M.; Dreher, R., eds. Bachelor und Master f¨ur das Lehramt an beruflichen Schulen. Kronshagen, Germany. (Innovelle-Bs-Programmtr¨agerinfo Nr. 06.) Thierack, A. 2004. Bestandsaufnahme und Diskussion von BA-/MA-Konzepten f¨ur das Lehramt an Berufkollegs bzw. berufsbildenden Schulen. In: Schulz, R.; Becker, M.; Dreher, R., eds. Bachelor und Master f¨ur das Lehramt an beruflichen Schulen. Kronshagen, Germany. (InnovelleBs-Programmtr¨agerinfo Nr. 06.)
Chapter VIII.18
Standards for Occupation-Directed Professional Development of TVET Personnel in Developing Countries Peter Gerds
1 Possibilities and Challenges of National Teacher Qualification Standards 1.1 Possibilities and Consequences In the last two decades, a process of developing standards for occupation-directed education, training and development has come from the Anglo-American countries. It can now be seen in many countries all over the world, not only in developing, but also in transitional and developed economies. It seems to be not understated that the establishment and acceptance of national teacher qualification standards (NTQS), not only for the education and training of the workforce, but also for vocational and technical teaching staff, has set in motion radical changes and improvements. Nevertheless, some undesirable consequences are possible. In the United States of America and the United Kingdom—the countries having the longest and most extensive experience with national qualification standards—these consequences are becoming more and more visible and a topic for scientific and public discussion. Nevertheless, the process of establishing standards, including corresponding accreditation and certification procedures, seems to be imperative all over the world. But we are in the comfortable position of being able to learn from experience in order to avoid undesirable outcomes. Some authors suggest that the development of rigorous national teacher qualification standards and their certification may ‘increase the professional standing of the teaching profession; create a consistent, unified vision of accomplished teaching; and install in the general public a positive image of public education’ (Serafini, 2002, p. 318). Furthermore, ‘the extensive nature of the standards development process is seen as an innovative model for developing the codified knowledge of teaching excellence, designed to remove misconceptions of what constitutes good teaching’ (Serafini, 2002, p. 320). A great deal of scientific research gives evidence of much improvement resulting from standards: for example, in the United States teachers who have been certified against National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) have been shown to be more effective classroom teachers (Bond et al., 2000). NBPTS certification may provide the ability for teachers to create a ‘staged career’ with gradually R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VIII.18, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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increasing professional standing, responsibilities and status. A major precondition of these achievements is that standards are developed by teachers for teachers, as in any other of the more recognized professions. This has consequences on the development of cornerstones and concepts for pre- and in-service teacher training and on delivery—and not only for TVET teachers. These concepts correspond to general international trends of curriculum development, such as:
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Raising the degree of teacher’s freedom in decision-making and choices (e.g. more flexibility in terms of prescribing teaching objectives and content in a looser curriculum format instead of detailed regulations). Providing flexible and reversible relations between learning and working for teachers based on modular curricula for pre- and in-service teacher training, usually based on standards. Generalization of TVET teacher-training curricula by ‘regrouping vocational specializations’ (King, 1994, pp. 62–50) and by stressing cross-field qualifications (OECD/CERI, 1998, p. 42). Combining and linking different pathways of recruiting TVET personnel within a coherent system of teacher training, according to the different functions of teachers (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 1997): (a) practitioners from industries without formal technical and pedagogical qualifications; (b) teachers with or without vocational, technical but with pedagogical qualifications; and (c) practitioners from industries with formal technical/vocational qualifications.
1.2 Risks and Challenges Most of the challenges in the context of TVET teacher-qualification standards refer to the processes of certification and assessment of standards. 1.2.1 A Possible Tendency Towards Controlling Instead of Professionalizing Teachers One of the major reasons for introducing assessment in the United States was originally to support the teacher’s teaching performance and to create reflective and co-operative practitioners. But in recent times the function of assessment has shifted more and more towards sorting and ranking of teachers and not only to certify teachers but also to deny qualification (Delandshere & Petroski, 1998). 1.2.2 A Possible Shortfall of Useful Instruments for Assessing Teaching Performance Teaching is an extremely complex, partly open and partly hidden process. It cannot be assessed sufficiently only by the use of numerical psychometric data, but must also be considered through interpretative processes that remain open for responses and discourses with the candidates. If not, assessment tends to become a rather rigid
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instrument for ‘compartmentalizing’ and isolating the scoring process rather than developing teaching performance (Serafini, 2002, p. 323). 1.2.3 The Possible Creation of a New Universal Dogma of Teaching An established certification board with established sets of instruments, procedures and personnel may represent the only legitimate view of teaching and creating a new dogma. Specific local adaptation of curricula, teaching styles and control as desirable features of a modern system, not only for developed countries but also for developing countries, may be suggested. 1.2.4 Possible Neglect of Culturally Sensitive Teaching Pedagogies Exporting and importing teacher qualification standards, including procedures and measures of certification and assessment across different cultures and nations, overlook that teacher’s attitudes, biases and cultural identities must conform to their student’s expectations and experiences, which are embedded in their cultural and occupational traditions. TVET teacher-qualification standards should only be developed in specific contexts by those who are affected by them.
1.3 Some Recommendations for Cross-Cultural Standards As outlined above, the process of finding, defining, certifying and assessing national standards can only be carried out by referring to the particular cultural, economic and work-related environments in different countries and economies. But it is extremely interesting that, in spite of all the national differences, especially concerning different emphases on input- or output-oriented standards, many common principles have been applied when generating and implementing standards, especially in developing countries, as much for the TVET of the workforce as for the education of TVET personnel. The results, therefore, are comparable enough to allow the extraction of some general characteristics of standards and the process of their development. A comparative analysis of standards for the education of occupation-directed teachers and trainers from the Asia-Pacific Region and for Africa provides us with the following similarities: 1. Standards contain detailed descriptions of applied competencies in a particular vocational field, containing a defined number (usually between eight and thirteen) professional core areas (which are also designated in some countries as ‘professional standards’ or ‘professional roles’). Standards combined with performance criteria and outcomes-descriptions serve as criteria against which a person may be assessed for entering and exiting a learning programme, or for
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awarding certification for a special occupation or a profession, or accreditation of prior achievements. 2. Standards refer to a particular level of occupational or professional performance. This level of performance can only be defined in relation to the specific national economic and cultural criteria of expertise. They also have the function of equating graduates to a defined occupational or vocational level on the labour market. Usually four or five levels of increasing responsibilities and grades of professionalization can be distinguished in the particular fields belonging to an occupation or profession. This means: the identified vocational or professional core tasks belonging to a vocational or professional field can be performed to different degrees of complexity and difficulty, according to different functions, responsibilities and particular job descriptions. 3. Standards are gradually going to be more market, occupation and work-process oriented. Empirical research methods and procedures for defining vocational teacher qualification standards meeting these demands (like or deriving from DACUM) are spreading internationally. But to what extent these methods are really suitable for investigating the actual and future specific professional activities of vocational teachers, including the frequencies, degree of difficulty and importance and the scope of professional activities, is an open question (CIVOTE, 2000; National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, 1997; South African-German Development Co-operation, 2000; Gerds, 2004; Gerds & H¨opfner, 2004).
2 Criteria for Teacher Qualification Standards in Developing Countries A comparative analysis of the processes and results of the implementation of vocational teacher-qualification standards indicates that some remarkable improvements in teacher’s professional competencies have been achieved. But, due to constraints of time, finance and other obstacles, some shortcomings must also be named, especially:
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Research of job analyses of vocational teachers has been limited to only a few vocational fields or some small samples of teachers and vocational schools/training centres. Research and development capacities have been very limited. Many of the practitioners involved in the processes of developing standards were not ready to participate sufficiently due to lack of qualification, time or financing. Systematic evaluation, comprising empowerment of the staff involved, as well as assessing the results of introducing standards, has not been sufficiently installed.
We are convinced that the results of developing and implementing vocational teacher qualification standards can be enhanced by a stronger professional orientation, supported by professional evaluation teams, towards three sets of criteria.
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2.1 Systems Criteria Systems criteria indicate the extent to which standards and qualifications are based on real trends impacting on the future development of the vocational/professional fields and the embedded economy. When starting to define vocational teacher-qualification standards, analyses must be carried out, for example referring to:
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Current and future processes of transformation of work, workplaces and occupations in different sectors and in an international, national and regional scope. Conceptual framework for the vocational teacher’s profession and their process of professionalization.
2.2 Process Criteria Process criteria mark the extent to which the composition and political process of the standards-generating bodies meet the requirements for generating occupational/professional standards. Experiences from the work of different national standards-generating bodies demonstrate that the quality of standards is crucial depending on different parallel and interactive streams of activities. Meetings of the standards-generating bodies should be held in order to:
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agree on a general strategy and a master plan for research and development processes; agree on the proposed working-group members and mandates, including the teachers; agree on the format, methodology and content criteria on which working-group members should base their generation of standards; review the standards and agree on a consultative process; consider the feedback and changes required.
Meetings of professional fields-related working groups should be held in order to:
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draft the standards based on the results of occupational analyses and considering the formats and contents criteria; revise the standards in terms of the feedback and standards-generating body mandate.
Consultations with the sector should be held, including:
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workshops with training providers, helping them to understand the standards as well as how they could use them properly; workshops with training providers who had used the standards in some way or who discussed them with their organizations;
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consultations with stakeholders from companies, other training providers or with employers’/employees’ organizations.
There should be interaction with other standards-generating bodies in order to:
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ascertain the possibilities of co-operation; ensure the exchange of information.
2.3 Format Criteria of Standards Format criteria for standards should at least give information on:
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the general layout and formatting schemes, including headings, language, glossary and titles of the standards; the level appropriate to the learning pathway within which the learning modules/units are located; the credit values, reflecting the average length of time an average learner is expected to take to complete the learning module, programme or unit; a statement of purpose, attempting to summarize the contents of the standards and to describe the value added to the practitioner; performance criteria, describing unambiguously the key competences that should be acquired for successful completion of a given occupational/vocational task; specific outcomes, providing the basis on which the assessors will exercise professional judgement on learner’s professional performance and express the purpose of the standard in more detailed ways that are measurable and verifiable.
3 An Example: TVET Teacher-Qualification Standards in Ethiopia 3.1 Demands for Construction of the System In the context of the Ethiopian-German Technical and Vocational Education and Training Programme, the process of establishing a TVET teacher-training system based on national teacher-qualification standards started in 2004. The responsible bodies agreed that the system had to meet the following general demands:
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To provide high flexibility and differentiation of the TVET teacher-training system so as to allow different entries and pathways for TVET teacher-applicants with different learning preconditions, such as their formal level of education, and their formal certified and informal acquired vocational competence. To provide a coherent and open system without dead ends. To link pre- and in-service teacher training within a complete modular system.
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To implement a modular structure of teacher training based on cultural, economic and pedagogical standards embedded in national TVET teacher qualifications. To define teacher-qualification standards as detailed descriptions of components of applicable competences in order to perform the teacher’s core tasks on a defined level. To use teacher-qualification standards as criteria against which candidates will be assessed for entering or exiting a teacher-training programme, or to be employed as a teacher, as well as to enhance teaching expertise and performance.
3.2 Special Demands on TVET Teachers in Developing Countries There are different qualification strategies to cope with different regional, local and sectoral demands, such as:
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Planning TVET teacher training for developing countries has to consider a wide range of demands originating in regional, local and sectoral differences of economic development and labour-market characteristics. In particular, it is responsible for the training of a workforce for some existing industrialized cores mainly producing for the world market, as well as satisfying the regional and local supply of teachers and combating poverty in rural/remote areas. Each of these requires different TVET strategies and qualifications. Traditional forms and contents of work and production in wide areas, on the one hand, and highly sophisticated standards of production for international markets on the other, require TVET student-teachers and graduates with different levels of formal education, prior experiences/achievements and levels of qualification. Profound differences of quantity and quality of existing technical/vocational training facilities, especially in terms of equipment, media and staff qualifications, require a coherent national TVET teacher-training system consisting of modular pre-service and in-service training, Vocational training not only for the small formal but also for the dominant informal sector requires highly flexible, low regulated and locally adaptable training provision.
3.2.1 Demands for Highly Flexible TVET Teacher-Training Provision
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To provide a narrow linkage between their own pre-service (initial) and inservice (further) teacher training, and to use modern forms of distance education and e-learning. To have command both of the vocational (practical) skills and theoretical knowledge that are required to train their students. To establish and conduct strong relationships and networks between their schools and the local/regional business world in order to offer vocational training on needed and employable qualifications.
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To develop demand-driven contents and forms (courses, programmes, modules) of TVET provision. To recognize the large variety of student’s demands, interests and prerequisites of learning.
3.3 Ethiopian Teacher-Qualification Standards System Agreements were reached on two central elements of the Ethiopian TVET teacherqualification standards system: (a) there would be nine core fields of actual and future TVET teacher activities; and (b) four actual and future TVET teacher qualification levels could be identified and agreed upon (Figure 1).
Qualification levels for TVET-teachers/trainers
Level
Master Fourth qualification level
Bachelor Third qualification level
TEVT-Specialist Second qualification level
Qualified Trainer First qualification level
Studied units Hoepfner, BOBB/Gerds ITB 2003
Fig. 1 Qualification levels for TVET-teachers/trainers
3.3.1 Agreement on Nine Core Fields of TVET Teacher Activities The stakeholders involved in developing TVET teacher-qualification standards (ministry, universities/college, national and international experts) agreed on the nine core fields of TVET teacher activities set out below, based on the results of empirical research (teacher’s job analyses in Ethiopia) and analyses of international experiences. The core fields contain general descriptions of major activities as a component of TVET teacher-qualification standards.
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National TVET Teacher-Qualification Standards
FoST 1: Plan, conduct and evaluate teaching lessons and instruction FoST 2: Provide occupation-related learning environments, materials and media FoST 9: Professional development
FoST 2
FoST 1
St 1
St 1
St 2
FoST 9
St 1
St 2
St 3
St 2
St 3 St 4
St 4
St 3 St 4
Each field of standards (FoST) comprises four specific standards (St) in accordance with the qualification level
Each specific standard is going to be described by specific outcomes, critical cross-field outcomes, essential embedded knowledge and assessment criteria.
Hoepfner, BOBB/Gerds, ITB/2003
Fig. 2 The complete system: thirty-six national TVET teacher-qualification standards by combining nine core fields of activities and four TVET teacher-qualification levels
For the purposes of planning, conducting and assessing occupational training modules based on the standards, it is necessary to put them into concrete and occupation-specific groupings, especially by defining the particular occupational learning assignments, outcomes and performance criteria (Figure 2): 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Plan, conduct and evaluate teaching lessons and instruction; Provide occupation-related learning environments, materials and media; Provide and conduct assessment; Guidance and placement of learners; Curriculum development and evaluation; Develop and conduct school/TVET institutional management; Enhance public relations; Join research projects and processes; One’s own professional development.
3.3.2 Agreement on Four Qualification Levels Every core field contains a series of activities (duties) that require qualifications on different levels (Figures 3 and 4).
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TVET Teacher-Qualification Standards on Different Levels The Example “Assessment”
Level 4 “Manage quality assurance system”
Notice: Each subject acquired on a previous qualification level is the basis for acquiring subjects on a higher level
Level 3 “Design and moderate assessments for learning Programmes”
Level 2 “Design assessments for learning programmes”
Level 1 “Carry out assessments” Hoepfner, BOBB/Gerds, ITB/2003
Fig. 3 An example: the core field ‘assessment’ with its specific standards on the four TVET teacher-qualification levels
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First qualification level (National Certificate as a ‘qualified trainer’). Practitioners who have achieved the first level of qualification will have achieved a basic competence in planning, delivering and evaluating TVET units. They will be capable of making significant contributions to achieving targeted and structured skills development at course level. Achieving the qualification level will allow the practitioners to advance to the next level. Second qualification level (National Diploma as a TVET specialist/instructor). Practitioners who have achieved the second qualification level will advance their competence on a wider range of TVET roles. The qualification is thus more a formative than a specialist qualification. Practitioners will be capable of making significant contributions to structured and targeted skills development at the level of TVET learning programmes within vocational schools or other learning venues. Achieving this qualification level will allow the practitioners to advance to the next level. Third qualification level (bachelor). Practitioners who have achieved the third qualification level will have achieved a deep occupational base in support of TVET practice. This will further advance their competence in selected TVET roles and build a basis for specialized learning. They will be capable of making significant contributions to structured and targeted skills development within or across organizations and at sector or national level. Achieving this qualification level will allow the practitioners to advance to the next level.
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TVET teachers with different levels of qualification and with different functions in technical and vocational schools
Transition from teacher training to employment Transition from employment as teacher to TVETtraining Coherent successive pathway
National certificate
National diploma
Qualified skills trainer
2 semesters
TVETspecialist/ instructor
Bachelor degree
2 semesters
2 semesters
Master degree
Ph.D
2 semesters
Fig. 4 Flexible and coherent career pathways within the Ethiopian standard-based national TVET teacher-training system Source: Gerds/UniBremen/ITB
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Fourth qualification level (master). Practitioners who have achieved the fourth qualification level will have mastered education-oriented methods of research in a chosen field and will be capable of specialized practice within a TVET-based or TVET-related career. They will be in a position to conduct further studies at doctoral level. Practitioners with this qualification will contribute to building Ethiopia’s TVET community.
Figures 5, 6 and 7 show three different pathways for TVET teacher training.
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Direct employment as TVET teachers on A-Level after having achieved M.A. degree after eight semesters directly.
Transition from teacher training to employment Coherent successive pathway
A-Level National certificate B-Level Qualified skills trainer
National diploma C-Level
2 semesters
TVETspecialist
Bachelor degree
D-Level Master degree
2 semesters
2 semesters
2 semesters
Ph.D.
Fig. 5 Pathway I: coherent and full academic programme Source: Gerds/Uni-Bremen/ITB
4 The Ethiopian Draft National TVET Teacher-Qualification Standards Following the cornerstones of the edifice, next we present an example of fields of standards related to the qualification levels and the appropriate specific standards. First, the fields of standards have to be determined. In the DACUM chart (CIVOTE, 2000) we can find the following eight occupational core fields of TVET teaching activities:
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Employment as TVET teacher at different levels of qualification and with different functions in technical and vocational schools
Transition from teacher training to employment
Transition from employment as teacher to TVET training Coherent successive pathway Picking up special modules as inservicetraining
A-Level
National certificate B-Level Qualified skills trainer
National diploma C-Level
2 semesters
TVETSpecialist
Bachelor degree
2 semesters
2 semesters
D-Level
Ph.D.
Master degree 2 semesters
Fig. 6 Pathway II: coherent academic four semester programme, combined with in-serviceteacher-training Source: Gerds/Uni-Bremen/ITB
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Curriculum development; Teaching design; Implementation of teaching; Management; Student guidance; Teaching evaluation; Public relations; Professional development.
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Employment as TVET teacher at different levels of qualification and with different functions in technical and vocational schools
Transition from teacher training to employment
Picking up special modules as in-servicetraining
A-Level National certificate
Qualified skills trainer
B-Level National diploma
D-Level C-Level
2 semesters
Ph.D.
TVETspecialist
Bachelor degree
Master degree
2 semesters
2 semesters
2 semesters
Fig. 7 Pathway III: short-time-programme, combined with in-service teacher training
Based on the above DACUM-chart and comparable findings of job-analyses from South Africa and Ethiopia, the following list of core-fields of TVET teaching activities was agreed. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Planning, conducting and evaluating teaching lessons and instruction; Providing occupation-related learning environments, materials and media; Assessment; Guidance and placement of students; Curriculum development and evaluation; School/TVET-institution management;
Plan, conduct and evaluate teaching lessons and instruction Provide occupation-related learning environments, materials and media Provide and conduct assessment Guidance and placement of learners Curriculum development and evaluation
First qualification level (qualified trainer)
Second qualification level (TVET specialist)
Third qualification level (bachelor)
Fourth qualification level (master)
‘Plan, conduct and evaluate work process related teaching units’ ‘Prepare learning aids’
‘Plan, conduct and evaluate work process related teaching plans’ ‘Design and select training materials and facilities’
‘Plan, conduct and evaluate integrated teaching units and plans’ ‘Select and produce teaching media’
‘Carry out assessments’
‘Design assessments for learning programmes’
‘Design and moderate assessments for learning programmes’ ‘Guide and support learners’
‘Assess one’s planning, conducting and evaluating of teaching units and plans’ ‘Co-ordinate the design of a variety of training materials’ ‘Manage quality assurance system’
‘Participate in producing school development plan’
Public relations
‘Demonstrate teaching achievement to society’
‘Produce publicity materials’
‘Produce plans for public relations activities’
Research
‘Carry out elementary field research’ ‘Apply methods of self-reliant learning’
‘Conduct elementary field research’ ‘Guide and help peers’ professional activities’
‘Design and conduct research’ ‘Engage in professional development’
Professional development
‘Conduct labour marked and job analyses and set up modules for TVET’
‘Plan guidance and placement of learners’ ‘Conduct occupational analyses and corresponding curriculum design, experiments and evaluation’ ‘Conduct demand-driven school-programmeplanning and organization’ ‘Conduct communication and co-operation networks between school and local/regional industries and business’ ‘Design, conduct and co-ordinate research’ ‘Plan professional development in organizations’
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‘Provide vocational guidance to learners’ ‘Determine occupational ‘Carry out labour-market work assignments and analyses and give training design learning and work inputs for creating more assignments’ self-employment and business chances’ ‘Carry out teaching and ‘Conduct teacher and student teaching files management’ management’
School/TVET-institution management
‘Advise and refer learner’
VIII.18 Standards for Occupation-Directed Professional Development
Table 1 The nine core fields of TVET teaching activities assigned to the four levels of qualification
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7. Public relations; 8. Research; 9. Professional development. Table 1 shows each of the nine core fields of TVET teaching activities assigned a set of standards on the four levels of qualification.
References Bond, L. et al. 2000. The certification system of the National Board for Professional Teaching standards: a construct and consequential validity study. Greensboro, NC: University of North Carolina, Center for Educational Research and Evaluation. Central Institute for Vocational and Technical Education—CIVOTE. 2000. Vocational teacher standards and the formulating method: final report. Beijing: CIVOTE. (APEC Central Funding Project.) Delandshere, G.; Petroski, A. 1998. Assessment of complex performances: limitations of key measurement assumptions. Educational researcher, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 14–24. Gerds, P. 2004. Strategy for implementing a standard-based TVET teacher-training programme in Ethiopia. Addis Ababa/Bremen: Ethio-German Technical and Vocational Education and Training Programme. Gerds, P.; H¨opfner, H.-D. 2004. Cornerstones for the development of national TVET teacherqualification standards. Bremen/Berlin/Addis-Ababa: Ethio-German Technical and Vocational Education and Training Programme. King, K. 1994. Technical and vocational education and training. In: Hus´en, T.; Postlethwaite, T.N., eds. International encyclopaedia of education, 2nd ed., vol. 11, pp. 6245–51. Oxford, UK: Pergamon. National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. 1997. Vocational Education Standards for National Board Certification. Washington, DC: NBPTS. Organization for Economic Co-operationand Development. Centre for Educational Research and Innovation. 1998. Making the curriculum work. Paris: OECD. Serafini, F. 2002. Possibilities and challenges: the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Journal of teacher education, vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 316–27. South African-German Development Co-operation. 2000. Standards and qualifications for occupation-directed education, training and development practitioners. Pretoria: National Skills Authority. UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre. 1997. Training of teachers/trainers in technical and vocational education. Paris: UNESCO.
Chapter VIII.19
Curriculum Research and Design as a Subject of TVET Teacher Training: Practice and Experiences from Two International Projects Joachim Dittrich
1 Introduction The following text deals with work and experiences, concepts and backgrounds of selected international co-operation projects in the field of technical and vocational education and training (TVET). More specifically, there are two projects funded under the EU-Asia-Link Programme of the European Commission, namely ‘Design and Implementation of a Curriculum on Curriculum Development’ (DCCD)1 and ‘Development of Trans-national Standards for Teacher Training for Technical and Vocational Education and Training with a Multidisciplinary and Industrial Orientation’ (TT-TVET),2 the current activities of the ‘United TVET Network on Innovation and Professional Development’ (UNIP),3 which aim to support the development and implementation of masters’ study courses in TVET as a basis for sustainable implementation of international TVET research and development, and a GermanMalaysian co-operative Ph.D. programme.
2 Curriculum Research and Design In this chapter the term ‘curriculum research’ is used according to Rauner (forthcoming): ‘The core question of curriculum research is the legitimization of educational contents and objectives in vocational education, as well as the systematization of these contents and objectives in vocational curricula and training programmes.’ According to this definition, the term ‘curriculum’ does not explicitly refer to the organization and realization of teaching and learning processes at the micro-level of individual activities of learners and teachers—which in any case is seen as the task of the teacher—but concentrates on the content and objectives of vocational education, i.e. on the framework settings for vocational education and training at a metalevel. Consequently, ‘curriculum design’ means the process of defining contents and R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 VIII.19, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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objectives of vocational education for a specific occupational profile and arranging the contents in a way that best supports the learner’s competence development. Increasingly, TVET teachers have to be proficient in curriculum design. Sp¨ottl, in his chapter on participative curriculum development in this volume (see X.5), lists—following Huisinga (2005, p. 357)—five different curriculum development settings. Only one of these settings does not rely on teachers’ competences in curriculum development. This one, which he calls ‘central curriculum development’ can be found where TVET is strictly regulated, either because the respective regulative bodies want to be in command of the executive level, or because they feel that the executive level needs very close supervision. The other settings all rely on the competence of TVET teachers for curriculum development. Curriculum research plays a variable role in the different curriculum development approaches (Huisinga, 2005). However, if vocational curricula are to be targeted at the development of competences that will later be required in workplaces, the rapid changes taking place in technology, work and social organization, as well as their future developments, have to be taken into account, while the input of curriculum research to curriculum development is indispensable, as for example Sp¨ottl outlines in his work-process-oriented curriculum development. Since structures, regulations and practices are extremely diverse across the world (Grollmann & Rauner, 2007; Lauterbach, 1995–2006), we restrict ourselves to country settings with which we are familiar from project work.
3 The World of Change: Asking for Vocational Professionalism Both, the DCCD project with partners from China, Germany, Ireland and Malaysia, as well as the TT-TVET project with partners from Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia and Spain, are confronted with agendas of change in the participating countries. Without going too deep into detail, the situation in the partner countries can be sketched as follows:
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China is aiming at the development of high-quality TVET teaching and training staff in order to be able to educate and train a highly skilled workforce. This is evident from the initiative of developing higher vocational education on a large scale. On the other hand, individual vocational schools and other training institutions have to tailor their curricula for TVET to the needs of the local economy and industries. ‘In teaching, vocational schools and vocational training institutions should integrate education with industrial production, aim at serving the needs of local economic development, and maintain close ties with enterprises, thus helping trainees to acquire practical skills and become skilled workers’ (China. People’s Congress, 1996, Article 23). With the implementation of framework curricula for TVET based on so-called ‘learning areas’ (Lernfelder) in Germany, which started with the last modernization campaign in the late 1990s, there is a lot of freedom for education and training institutions, as well as for individual teachers, to tailor TVET provision
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in co-operation with companies, which are one of the partners in the German dual system of vocational education and training. Furthermore, it is intended to raise the quality of TVET provision, as well as the attractiveness of TVET institutions, by giving more freedom to institutions in terms of organizational and financial management, as well as of co-operation with companies and other stakeholders in order to give them the opportunity to develop into so-called ‘regional innovation centres’. For several years Indonesia has been following a strategy of decentralization, which also applies to the provision of TVET. The quality of TVET is regarded as one of the key issues in reducing poverty and unemployment. Recently, a law was issued that requires teachers (including TVET teachers) to have a qualification at least at the bachelor level and that their qualifications must be certified (Indonesia. Ministry of National Education, 2005). Institutions with connections to industry are very much favoured in order to provide TVET students with the required skills for employability. Here, Indonesia looks at the German or Swiss dual systems of vocational education and training and adopts parts of them according to its needs. TVET institutions are relatively free to adapt their programmes to local, regional and sectoral requirements. Hence, the competencies for such adaptations are required at least among parts of the staff. Ireland has a hardly regulated, highly demand-driven TVET provision. Institutions providing TVET have to tailor their offers to the demand of industries and students. So, curriculum development capabilities are needed at these institutions. At the same time, there is hardly any formalized TVET teacher education available, so that discussions on curriculum R&D as a subject of TVET teacher education are extremely difficult. Malaysia is further developing its system of National Occupational Skill Standards (NOSS), which was heavily influenced by Anglo-American NVQ-type philosophies. ‘The National Dual Training System (NDTS) was launched in July 2005 to strengthen the training delivery system and ensure that the training provided was in line with industry requirements’ (Malaysia. Prime Minister’s Department, 2006, p. 248). The curricula used in this new scheme are called National Occupational Core Curricula (NOCC) and show a similar structure to those recently used in Germany (see above). Beginning in 2006, only four NOCC had been developed and were available, so TVET experts in Malaysia are facing two challenges: first, quite a number of additional NOCCs will have to be issued in the near future; and, second, there will be the need for processing these core curricula on an individual basis for implementation of actual education and training by the individual TVET teacher and in the individual TVET institutions with their specific environment. Spain revised its VET system in 2002 (Spain. Ministerio de la Presidencia, 2002) in terms of reconfiguring and redistributing the responsibilities for TVET between national, regional and local authorities and stakeholders. Certification and accreditation of competencies and professional qualifications are integrated at the national level through the National Catalogue of Professional Qualifications, whereas the curricular elements of TVET provision are under regional and local
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responsibility. The consequences for TVET teachers are reflected in the Education Act (Spain. Ministerio de la Presidencia, 2006, Article 91), which defines curriculum development as the first in the list of tasks of teachers. TVET teacher training, which is currently based on a model from 1970, is being remodelled in accordance with recent developments. In the framework of the so-called ‘Copenhagen Process’, Europe as a whole set out a strategy4 for improving the overall performance, quality and attractiveness of VET in Europe. The promoters of this process argue that this will mean a fundamental transformation of education and training throughout Europe. One aspect is the implementation of a ‘European Qualification Framework’ (EQF), which is currently under discussion. EQF is not likely to lead to a unified European TVET system because of the principle of subsidiarity that governs education-related politics in the European Union. Thus, curriculum work in the EU will remain at the regional or local level.
Looking at the whole world, global economic competition increases the pressure to produce high-quality products. High-quality products and high-quality, high-valueadded work are seen as being at the core of economic success for twenty-first century economies all over the world (Veal, Dittrich & K¨am¨ar¨ainen, 2005). At the same time, global economic competition induces the need for regions to develop genuine profiles in terms of marketable products, but also in terms of quality living environments in order to retain high-quality workforces in the region (globalization and localization). To summarize, all mentioned countries and world regions aim to develop TVET and highlight the role of TVET teachers for the development of quality in provision. Wherever occupational curricula are defined with a national scope, they tend to provide only a framework for the content and procedure of TVET provision, which leaves the elaboration of the actual content to be learned and the learning sequences to local actors, i.e. regional authorities, TVET institutions or even to the individual TVET teacher. At the same time, to varying degrees national framework settings require that TVET provision be tailored to the needs of the (regional) labour market and companies in terms of knowledge and skills, of the individual learner in terms of professional competence development, and of community development in terms of, for example, citizenship and lifelong and self-directed learning. As a consequence of these complex tasks, TVET teachers in all the countries mentioned (except Ireland) are required to have an academic degree, even though the degree-level varies between bachelor and master, as do the regulations on the subject of the degree, e.g. whether it is in teaching or in the respective subject area.
4 TVET Philosophy, Teacher Training and Innovation These short descriptions of the individual situations in the various countries show that there is a high demand for curriculum development competences among TVET experts and especially TVET teachers and trainers.
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This demand is generated by TVET system concepts, which rely on the adaptation of TVET to the needs of industry, economy and society and which acknowledge the need of adaptation to regional and even local needs. At the same time, a certain standardization of occupational profiles is required for transparency of national (or trans-national) labour markets, as much for employers as for employees. Employers, on the one hand, want to be sure that the people they hire under the label of ‘skilled worker for a specific occupation’ have certain knowledge and competences in the respective occupational field. Employees, on the other hand, want to have the opportunity to change employer, the sector in which they are working or even the region where they live and, at the same time, be sure that the education and training they have received will be recognized under such changed conditions. To meet these requirements a curriculum for an occupational profile should be defined nationally or even trans-nationally and it should give room for adaptations to the particularities of economic sectors5 and geographical regions.6 At the same time, given the pace of technological development, some freedom has to be provided for development in time without putting at risk the function of sustainable occupational profiles and the individual development of professional identity. In this chapter it is not possible to review all existing concepts for the definition of occupational profiles in terms of the above-mentioned criteria.7 However, one example will be given that illustrates that under certain conditions TVET teachers need competences in vocational curriculum development: Heidegger and Rauner (1997, pp. 19 ff.), for example, suggested for ‘core occupational profiles’ that follow the concept of ‘open dynamic occupations’: (a) a nationally defined core of 50% to 60% made up of content specific to the respective occupation; (b) up to 20% to 30% of content specific to the company profile and the region which is defined by the regional agencies in charge; and (c) another 20% to 30% of content that is targeted towards work- and company-related integrative knowledge, as well as towards business-process-related organizational development. In our context, the percentages are not important. Essential is the fact that there is some freedom in the legal definition of an occupational curriculum, which finally has to be filled and defined at the regional, sectoral and/or local level, hence by those people we call our TVET experts. Nevertheless, a macro-view which was addressed at several conferences of the United TVET Network on Innovation and Professional Development (UNIP) deserves some attention. The need for sustainable national R&D systems in TVET was addressed. While two of three contributing forces to innovation, namely politics and industry, are everywhere in place, the third force—a developed infrastructure of research—is often far less developed, especially in developing and transition countries (Dittrich & Rauner, 2004). TVET, when installed as an academic subject at universities, including research and academic degrees, will have as one of its core topics vocational curriculum development, together with subjects such as vocational pedagogy, work processes and their organization in terms of the opportunity they provide for learning, or the tools and media specific to the vocational discipline and their tutorial quality. Hence, curriculum research and design is a central research topic in TVET at academic institutions, which provide both scientific knowledge generation and TVET teacher/trainer education at the same time.
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In order to facilitate international knowledge exchange and development, the TTTVET project aims to define trans-national standards for TVET teacher education. The objective of the project is not only to contribute to the quality of TVET teacher education, but also to contribute to the development of TVET research at universities and TVET teacher-education institutions in the participating countries. In view of diverse national TVET systems, it is usually difficult to generate a common job description as a basis for the further definition of required competences. All partners in both the TT-TVET and the DCCD project, however, stated that their countries currently are targeting work-process-oriented TVET, and that in modern concepts a teacher is required:
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to moderate learning processes instead of instructing students ex-cathedra; to discuss with students real work processes instead of theoretical laws; to set up learning environments in co-operation with companies, instead of simply preparing lectures; to carry out work-process studies in companies, instead of studying science textbooks; to identify relevant learning areas for students based on knowledge of work processes, instead of downgrading scientific knowledge to the level of skilled work.
It is therefore clear that teachers in such an environment will have to do a great part of the curriculum work themselves so as to plan the learning processes for their students. This is because their work is situated in the economic sector for which their students will be qualified and also in the local area where they work in close co-operation with companies.
5 Tools for Curriculum Research and Design Teachers as well as researchers are in need of tools if their task is curriculum research and design. This became evident with the great success of the DACUM approach to curriculum development. The DACUM tools, however, seem not to be of much use for accomplishing the above-mentioned tasks for modern TVET. This is not because they are not good; it is rather related to the shift from competency-based training to work-process-oriented education and training in TVET, which can be observed at least in the countries mentioned previously. In the framework of the project ‘design and implementation of a curriculum on curriculum development’ (DCCD), a consortium of universities from China, Germany, Ireland and Malaysia started to develop such tools for the development of vocational curricula, mainly based on developments and experiences from European and German pilot projects. These tools are individually tailored to the respective regional conditions and needs. The toolbox consists of a collection of methodologies in the form of recipes, backed by a sound theoretical foundation of work-process-oriented philosophy and based on a model of competence development, which was derived from a
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combination of the competence development model of Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986) and the situated-learning approach (Lave & Wenger, 1991).
5.1 Foundational Principles The underlying philosophy set down in a few words8 is the following (see Figure 1): learners acquire competences by successively proceeding from the outer borders of a community of practice towards its centre. While still outside the community of practice, learners-to-be already have some preliminary knowledge of the field of work from their social experience or as a consumer of the community’s products—for example, everybody has a rough idea of what a car mechanic, a carpenter or a nurse does. When entering the community of practice as a novice, the learner first has to acquire orientation and overview knowledge through guided solving of well-defined tasks while using sets of systematic rules. Advanced beginners will face systematic working tasks in a situated context that requires considering and valuing a higher number of sometimes conflicting rules, facts and features. When learners are able to handle such tasks, they are considered to be competent. To become proficient, learners have to acquire detailed and functional knowledge through solving complex problems without having pre-considered solutions available, which includes the corresponding theoretical and specialized knowledge. To become an expert in a profession is not usually possible in the framework of initial vocational education
Expert
Specialized and advanced knowledge acquired through responsible perception and solving non-deterministic tasks, which need a lot of (practical) work experience and specialized (theoretical) knowledge.
Proficient Detailed and functional knowledge acquired through solving a complex problem without having pre-considered solutions and corresponding specialized (theoretical) knowledge. Competent Coherent knowledge acquired in a situated context through considering and valuing several rules, facts and features. Advanced beginner Orientation and overview knowledge acquired through guided solving of well-defined problems using complex systematic rules. Novice Stages of competence development (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986)
Learning areas for competence development from novice to expert
Fig. 1 The four learning areas, from novice to expert
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and training because this requires a lot of practical work experience and specialized knowledge. Starting from this philosophy, learners best acquire the competences which they need for executing their profession by successively learning to manage more and more demanding work tasks. As several projects in the European and the German context have shown (see, for example, Sp¨ottl & Gerds, 2002; Bremer & Jagla, 2000), it is possible to describe an occupational profile for the purpose of education and training by a restricted number of about ten to sixteen core professional tasks. Such core professional tasks (hereafter ‘professional tasks’) have to meet certain conditions in order to be appropriate as the basis for a vocational curriculum:
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The professional tasks need to represent the broader, higher-level work process; they must be specific to the respective occupational profile; and together they must cover the whole occupational profile. A professional task needs to describe a complete work process that involves and connects planning, implementation and evaluation phases, making reference to the contents and methods of the respective area of skilled work. When a professional task is being performed, its purpose, function and meaning need to be recognizable in terms of the broader, higher-level work context. Professional tasks have to be paradigmatic in nature. This means that, in learning to handle these tasks, learners must be able to modify, deepen or expand their subjective understanding in situations with an unfamiliar type of problem. Paradigmatic working tasks are managed using existing knowledge and experience, while enabling the creation of new action plans and fostering competence development.
One task of curriculum development and research is to identify these core professional tasks for the occupational profile in question. Another task is to sequence them according to the logic of competence development, which was briefly described above and is illustrated in Figure 1. Finally, the tasks have to be analysed and described in a way that they can be used as a reference for education and training and, if need be, for assessment.
5.2 The Tools The methodologies developed in the DCCD project include the following: 5.2.1 Occupational Sector Analysis This is primarily a tool for identifying the structural data of the targeted sector in order to support the discussion on the layout of the occupational field in terms of what type of occupational profiles are needed in a specific economic or industrial sector and what the trajectory of development is. Topics to be analysed are, for example:
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structural change in terms of work organization, of business segments, or of qualification requirements; the development of the education and training sector in terms of the number of trained staff needed, of the level of qualification required by employees, and of the anticipated future development of the education and training landscape; the relevance for the labour market in terms of how important this sector is for overall employment in the region and how it will develop; the contribution to the innovation milieu in the region in terms of in which way the sector contributes to innovation, of what synergies can be expected when co-operating with other actors, and of what the innovation culture looks like; the contribution to social modernization in terms of whether the sector contributes to developing citizenship, sustainability or active participation of employees in shaping work and society, of whether the employees’ competences are made broad use of, and whether the sector contributes to enhancing ‘the quality of service’, which produces added value for clients; attractiveness in terms of whether an employment in the sector seems attractive for young people and their parents and whether there is an excess of demand for training places or there are unused training capacities.
At first sight, this tool seems to be more helpful for TVET planners than for TVET teachers. Then again, TVET schools, at least in China, have to choose and adapt occupational profiles to meet the local needs for which this tool can provide some support. It can also sensitize TVET teachers to tailor TVET provision to the needs of their students, as well as to the needs of the labour market and industries. 5.2.2 Expert Workers’ Workshops Expert workers’ workshops, as well as work-process analysis, are used to identify the above-mentioned core professional tasks. Expert workers’ workshops in addition are used to get input for the sequencing of the tasks in order to reflect the course of competence development. The critical point for the quality of output of the workshops is the selection of participants, who must be expert skilled workers in the operational area and occupational profile in question. The participants must have acquired significant work experience in the respective occupational field, their current work profile should involve technologically advanced work processes, their professional tasks should be complex and driven by innovation, and they should have some degree of autonomy in performing the work they are doing in order to be used to bringing in their own ideas. Some additional criteria have to be met, but are not listed here for reason of space. But also the competence of the (usually) two moderators is crucial. While one of the moderators will have the task to facilitate the course of the workshop, it is indispensable that another facilitator already has technical knowledge of the respective occupational field. Ideally, the facilitator has been trained in the field and has worked as a skilled worker in various related areas. Alternatively, the facilitator may have acquired some experience as a trainer or instructor in the respective occupational
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field. He/she must be able to act as a competent discussant and be able to understand the contributions of the participants. An expert workers’ workshop roughly has four sections:
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Participants present their own occupational history in terms of stages of professional development and the related working tasks. In small-group work participants identify and briefly describe professional tasks of the occupational profile. The groups present their results in a plenary session and the various group results are aggregated to a selection of core professional tasks. Participants group the professional tasks according to which tasks a novice, an advanced beginner, a competent and a proficient worker can perform.
Experiences with the international projects have shown that the success of these workshops also depends on the cultural background of participants. While in contexts where participants are used to a culture of criticism and open discussion the results are usually promising, lower quality output is achieved in cultures where social harmony is the higher value. This can partly be found in many Asian countries. If it is evident that such a problem will be encountered, this methodology can be used as a verification tool for core professional tasks that are identified in the course of work-process analysis. 5.2.3 Work-Process Analysis Work-process analysis is used as a tool for identifying the work-process knowledge,9 the learning potential and other characteristics associated with the professional tasks. The team to conduct the analysis is best set up as a group of three to four persons, including an expert worker, a vocational school-teacher and a training instructor, all of whom are experienced in the relevant occupational field. This ensures the availability of sufficient technical and educational competence. Work-process analysis can also be performed by an experienced TVET researcher alone, provided he/she has sufficient knowledge of the field in question and his or her competence covers the technical as well as the educational part. Work places are selected where core professional tasks—or part of them—are accomplished. Researchers accompany workers when working on their tasks, observe them and pose questions in order to understand the work process and to identify the work-process knowledge associated with the tasks. They also use additional material like technical documentation, procedures, work-plans and the like in order to analyse the tasks. The grid for analysis contains six major items:
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In what business or work process does the professional task form a part? What are the characteristics of the workplace where the task is carried out? What objects/items will be worked on for this specific task? What tools, methods and organizational forms will be employed? What demands on skilled work have to be met? What interfaces with other professional tasks exist?
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These items, which are all detailed in several sub-items, allow a holistic and detailed description of all aspects of the related occupational work. Due to the fact that it is difficult to comprehensively portray the whole spectrum of work content and demands that are related to a professional task from merely one position, other positions should be analysed that represent the professional task. As a matter of principle, it is advisable to use different teams of curriculum developers to analyse a professional task. The more comprehensive the mix of industrial sectors, ranges of products and sizes of companies in the analysis being undertaken, the more valid will be the results for designing the curriculum. If expert workers’ workshops do not seem to be viably producing the required quality of output, the method can be extended for the purpose of identifying the spectrum of core professional tasks. This extension is not described here due to space constraints. 5.2.4 Systematization Methodologies Using the data generated so far, so-called education and training plans are drawn up by competent TVET experts. Such a plan contains a short overall description of the occupational profile and didactically elaborated descriptions of the core professional tasks. The task descriptions are associated with the learning areas of Figure 1. The association is elaborated using the information from the expert workers’ workshops in conjunction with the outcomes of the work-process analyses. The individual professional tasks are documented according to a specific scheme containing a textual description of the task, a description of the objects, tools, methods and organization associated with this specific task and of the demands which are posed on the worker and the article produced, as well as a definition of education and training goals that should be achieved when learning to handle this task. Such descriptions of professional tasks are a useful definition of what students and apprentices should learn during a training programme. They point out a reference for education and training especially for the situation of a co-operative education and training scheme where companies and TVET institutions co-operate. Companies provide the space for practical experiences while TVET institutions provide the theoretical knowledge and critical reflection of all aspects of occupational work. Finally, for vocational teachers they provide a clear picture of what students and apprentices should really be learning and what the respective occupational profile is about. However, in order to meet national regulations, such education and training plans might have to be modified or even re-worked to meet the criteria for vocational curricula. Fortunately, in the DCCD-project there are no major modifications necessary to adapt these plans to German or Malaysian requirements. In China the possibility is emerging to use such vocational curricula, even though the majority of vocational curricula still exhibit structures according to the related academic discipline. The regional versions show minor but at the same time important characteristics, which make them suitable for the respective cultural and economic context. Major differences exist—naturally—when it comes to the procedure, how the results of
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the methods mentioned so far are transferred into the form of curricula required in national contexts.
6 Teaching Curriculum Research and Design in TVET Teacher Training Lecturers themselves have to be competent in applying such tools in their specific subject area and in the specific cultural context in order to be able to moderate learning processes for teacher trainees. In the DCCD project, local experts who are at the same time university lecturers qualify themselves by attending seminars and by practical application of the tools. These experts will teach the application of the tools in the framework of teacher-training courses at their universities. A handbook on the application of the tools, as well as teaching material, is prepared in each of the relevant languages. The project consortium develops additional seminars for other target groups, like in-service teachers and trainers/instructors in companies. Modules for TVET teacher training at universities, as well as seminars for inservice training, exhibit a common structure. The training course is made up of a seminar unit of about sixty hours providing theoretical and methodological knowledge, practical exercises of application and reflection and discussion. It is completed by a real-world application of the methodologies learned, which is organized by the learners themselves, possibly in co-operation with other participants. So the learning process is self-directed and has a co-operative nature. Participants carry out a project of curriculum development including preparation of the documentation. Counselling and supervision is provided by the lecturers, including group discussions of all participants of the course, where new experiences are exchanged and reflected. For the first part of the course, it is important to use methods like small-group work, role-plays and group discussions in order to assure that all participants become aware as far as possible of the central issues of the approach and of the underlying philosophy. For maximum learning success, the second part relies heavily on regular feedback/communication between participants and supervisors in order to identify, solve and reflect upon problems arising in the real-world application of the methodologies. This second part is meant to ensure that participants not only know how to apply but in the end are also able to apply the tools successfully.
7 Summary Curriculum research and design are an important topic of TVET teacher education for two reasons. Firstly, TVET teachers increasingly need these competences for their own day-to-day work, as well as in their role as participants in central curriculum development work. Secondly, curriculum research contributes to the development of TVET as such at the academic institutions where TVET teachers are educated. In an international project, financially supported by the EU-Asia-Link
VIII.19 Curriculum Research and Design as a Subject of TVET Teacher Training
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programme, a concept for teaching curriculum research and design is being developed and will be implemented in regular TVET teacher-education courses in the participating universities in Germany, China and Malaysia. It is very likely that other universities from Indonesia, Malaysia and China will follow in implementing similar research subjects in university-based TVET teacher education—not necessarily based on the same methodologies. For China and Malaysia this is happening at a time when the inception of national TVET research can be observed. Indonesia is still at the very beginning of such a process, and other developing and transition countries are observing these developments with interest. It looks like TVET research and development capacities are going to be built up in countries all over the world that have recognized the importance of vocational education and training for their economic and social development. Hopefully, this will contribute to fight the stigmatization of TVET and to develop it into a profession that is able to participate in national and regional innovation processes, as well as being involved in international knowledge exchange.
Notes 1. 2. 3. 4.
5.
6.
7. 8. 9.
See: <www.itb.uni-bremen.de/dccd> See: <www.itb.uni-bremen.de/tt-tvet> See: <www.unip-net.org> See the ‘Declaration of the European ministers of vocational education and training, and the European Commission, convened in Copenhagen on 29 and 30 November 2002, on enhanced European co-operation in vocational education and training’: <ec.europa.eu/education/ copenhagen/copenhagen declaration en.pdf> To give an example: wherever an electrician works, whether in a power station, in food processing industries or in electrical equipment for office buildings, he/she will have to deal with different appliances, different (legal) regulations and different requirements on the part of the customer. Certain principles will be the same in all sectors, but the electrician will be educated and trained in one of them. Nevertheless, he/she will be able to perform in all sectors. Another example: a construction worker will be faced with different styles of construction in different regions (e.g. concrete-built, brick-built, wood-built houses); a worker in agriculture will be faced with different agricultural products according to the region/climate. For an introduction to a number of approaches, see Huisinga (2005). For a more comprehensive description, see for example Kleiner et al. (2002), in German. For the quite complex meaning of the term ‘work-process knowledge’, see, for example, Boreham, Samurc¸ay & Fischer (2002).
References Boreham, N.; Samurc¸ay, R.; Fischer, M., eds. 2002. Work-process knowledge. London: Taylor & Francis. Bremer, R.; Jagla, H., eds. 2000. Berufsbildung in Gesch¨afts- und Arbeitsprozessen. Bremen, Germany: Donat. China. People’s Congress. 1996. Vocational Education Law of the People’s Republic of China. (Adopted at the nineteenth meeting of the Standing Committee of the eighth National People’s Congress on 15 May 1996.)
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Dittrich, J.; Rauner, F. 2004. Key challenges for TVET teacher professionalisation. (Keynote address at the UNESCO International Meeting on Innovation and Excellence in TVET Teacher/Trainer Education, Tianjin, China.) <www.unip-net.org/modules.php?op=modload& name=UpDownload& file=index& req=getit& lid=31> Dreyfus, H.L.; Dreyfus, S.E. 1986. Mind over machine: the power of human intuition and expertise in the era of the computer. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Grollmann, P.; Rauner, F. 2007. International perspectives on teachers and trainers in technical and vocational education. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. (Technical and vocational education and training: issues, concerns and prospects, vol. 7.) Heidegger, G.; Rauner, F. 1997. Vocational education in need of reforms. D¨usseldorf, Germany: Ministry of Economics, Technology and Transport, North Rhine-Westphalia. Huisinga, R. 2005. Curriculumforschung. In: Rauner, F., ed. Handbuch Berufsbildungsforschung, pp. 350–57. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Indonesia. Ministry of National Education. 2005. Law for the Republic of Indonesia No. 14/2005 on teachers and lecturers. Jakarta: MoNE. Kleiner, M. et al. 2002 Arbeitsaufgaben f¨ur eine moderne Beruflichkeit. Konstanz, Germany: Christiani. Lauterbach, U., ed. 1995–2006. Internationales Handbuch der Berufsbildung. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. [Loose-leaf-collection.] Lave, G.; Wenger, E. 1991. Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Malaysia. Prime Minister’s Department. 2006. Ninth Malaysian Plan 2006–2010. Putrajaya, Malaysia: Economic Planning Unit. Rauner, F. 2008. Vocational education and training research: an introduction. In: Rauner, F.; Maclean, R., eds. Handbook of technical and vocational education and training research. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Spain. Ministerio de la Presidencia. 2002. Ley Org´anica 5/2002, de 19 junio, de las Cualificaciones y de la Formaci´on Profesional. Madrid: Jefatura del Estado. <www.mec.es/educa/formacionprofesional/files/LeyCualifyFP.pdf> Spain. Ministerio de la Presidencia. 2006. Ley Org´anica de Educaci´on 2/2006, de 3 de mayo de las Cualificaciones y dela Formaci´on Profesional. Madrid: Jefatura del Estado. <www.boe.es/g/es/bases datos/doc. php?coleccion=iberlex&id=2006/07899> Sp¨ottl, G.; Gerds, P. 2002. The car mechatronic: a European occupational profile. Flensburg, Germany: Universit¨at Flensburg. Veal, K.; Dittrich, J.; K¨am¨ar¨ainen, P., eds. 2005. UNESCO International Meeting on Innovation and Excellence in TVET Teacher/Trainer Education: Report. Bonn, Germany: UNESCOUNEVOC.
International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: UNESCO-UNEVOC Handbooks and Book series Editor-in-Chief: Dr Rupert Maclean, UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany
Associate Editors: Professor Felix Rauner, TVET Research Group, University of Bremen, Germany Professor Karen Evans, Institute of Education, University of London, United Kingdom
Editorial Advisory Board: Dr David Atchoarena, UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning, Paris, France Dr Andr´as Benedek, Ministry of Employment and Labour, Budapest, Hungary Dr Paul Benteler, Stahlwerke Bremen, Germany Ms Diane Booker, TAFESA, Adelaide, Australia Mr John Budu-Smith, formerly Ministry of Education, Accra, Ghana Professor Michel Carton, NORRAG c/o Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland Dr Chris Chinien, Workforce Development Consulting, Montreal, Canada Dr Claudio De Moura Castro, Faculade Pit´agoras, Belo Horizonte, Brazil Dr Wendy Duncan, Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines Dr Michael Frearson, SQW Consulting, Cambridge, United Kingdom Dr Lavinia Gasperini, Natural Resources Management and Environment Department, Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy Dr Philipp Grollmann, Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BiBB), Bonn, Germany Dr Peter Grootings, European Training Foundation, Turin, Italy Professor W. Norton Grubb, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley, United States of America Dr Dennis R. Herschbach, Faculty of Education Policy and Leadership, University of Maryland, College Park, United States of America Dr Oriol Homs, Centre for European Investigation and Research in the Mediterranean Region, Barcelona, Spain Professor Phillip Hughes, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia Professor Moo-Sub Kang, Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Seoul, Republic of Korea Dr Bonaventure W. Kerre, School of Education, Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya Dr G¨unter Klein, German Aerospace Centre, Bonn, Germany Dr Wilfried Kruse, Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund, Dortmund Technical University, Germany Professor Jon Lauglo, Department of Educational Research, Faculty of Education, University of Oslo, Norway Dr Alexander Leibovich, Institute for Vocational Education and Training Development, Moscow, Russian Federation Professor Robert Lerman, Urban Institute, Washington, United States of America Mr Joshua Mallet, Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, Canada Ms Naing Yee Mar, UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany Professor Munther Wassef Masri, National Centre for Human Resources Development, Amman, Jordan Dr Phillip McKenzie, Australian Council for Educational Research, Melbourne, Australia Dr Theo Raubsaet, Centre for Work, Training and Social Policy, Nijmegen, Netherlands Mr Trevor Riordan, International Labour Organization, Bangkok, Thailand Professor Barry Sheehan, Melbourne University, Australia Dr Madhu Singh, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, Hamburg, Germany Dr Manfred Tessaring, European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, Thessaloniki, Greece Dr Jandhyala Tilak, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi, India Dr Pedro Daniel Weinberg, formerly Inter-American Centre for Knowledge Development in Vocational Training (ILO/CINTERFOR), Montevideo, Uruguay Professor Adrian Ziderman, Bar-llan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
UNESCO-UNEVOC Head of Publications: Alix Wurdak
Rupert Maclean · David Wilson Editors Chris Chinien Associate Editor
International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work Bridging Academic and Vocational Learning
123
Editors Dr Rupert Maclean UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Education Hermann-Ehlers-Str. 10 53113 Bonn Germany [email protected]
Professor David Wilson University of Toronto Canada
Associate Editor Dr Chris Chinien Workforce Development Consulting Montreal Canada
ISBN: 978-1-4020-5280-4
e-ISBN: 978-1-4020-5281-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008930131 c Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com
Contents
List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxix List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xlvii Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Foreword:
TVET for the Sustainability of Human Kind . . . . . . . . . . . . .
lv lxix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lxxiii Rupert Maclean and David N. Wilson Prologue: Skills Development in the Informal Sector of Sub-Saharan Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cxiii Arvil V. Adams VOLUME 1 Part I Overview 1 The Pedagogical Roots of Technical Learning and Thinking . . . . Ron Hansen
5
2 A Conceptual Framework for Technical and Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Jay W. Rojewski 3 Towards Achieving TVET for All: The Role of the UNESCOUNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Astrid Hollander and Naing Yee Mar 4 TVET Glossary: Some Key Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Jeanne MacKenzie and Rose-Anne Polvere v
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Part II The Changing Context of Work and Education Section 1 Changing Workplace Requirements: Implication for Education Margarita Pavlova and L. Efison Munjanganja I.1 Overview: Changing Economic Environment and Workplace Requirements: Implications for Re-Engineering TVET for Prosperity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 France Boutin, Chris Chinien, Lars Moratis and Peter van Baalen I.2 The Right to a New Utopia: Adult Learning and the Changing World of Work in an Era of Global Capitalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Budd L. Hall I.3 Decent Work for All: From ILO Initiative to a Global Goal . . . . 111 Peter Poschen I.4 Redefining Gender Roles in the Workforce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Karen F. Zuga I.5 Anticipation of Skill Requirements: European Activities and Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Manfred Tessaring I.6 Redefining the Status of Occupations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Walter R. Heinz I.7 Changing Work, Work Practice: Consequences for Vocational Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Stephen Billett I.8 Traditional and Transitional TVET Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Poonam Agrawal I.9 Partnering to Meet the Needs of a Changing Workplace . . . . . . . 203 LuAnn Hiniker and Robert A. Putnam I.10 Bridging the Learning Divide: A Study into Adult Learning and Peer Mediation in the Workplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 David Johnson Section 2 Education and Training in Informal Economies Madhu Singh
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II.1 Overview: Education and Training in the Informal Sector . . . . . 235 Madhu Singh II.2 Tinkering with the Tinker: Meeting Training Needs in the Informal Sector of Chad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 Joshua A. Muskin II.3 The Traditional Informal Apprenticeship System of West Africa as Preparation for Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 William Ahadzie II.4 Initiatives to Link TVET to Self-Employment in Ghana . . . . . . . 277 Robert Palmer II.5 Criteria for Training Policy in the Informal Sector: Demands and Challenges in Latin America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 Enrique Pieck II.6 Informal Learning at Work: The Case of Working Children in Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 Laila Iskandar II.7 Informal Learning and Work: From Genealogy and Definitions to Contemporary Methods and Findings . . . . . . . . . . 319 Peter H. Sawchuk II.8 New Learning Spaces in TVET: The Contribution of Social Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 Terri Seddon, Kathleen Fennessy and Kathleen Ferguson II.9 Social and Cultural Aspects of Informal Sector Learning: Meeting the Goals of EFA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349 Madhu Singh VOLUME 2
Part III
Education for the World of Work: National and Regional Perspectives
Section 3 Reforming National Systems of Vocational Education and Training David Atchoarena and Peter Grootings
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III.1 Overview: Changing National VET Systems through Reforms . 365 David Atchoarena and Peter Grootings III.2 Latin America’s Efforts in the Vocational Training of Young People from Poor Backgrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379 Claudia Jacinto III.3 Accountability and Career Technical Education (CTE) Policy: A Brief Review of Six States of the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 Joshua D. Hawley and Alexandra de Montrichard III.4 The Regional Perspective of Vocational Education and Training 411 Mike Coles and Tom Leney III.5 Vocational Education, Training Reform and Regional Integration in the Middle East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 Munther Wassef Masri III.6 The Influence of Qualifications Frameworks on the Infrastructure of VET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 Mike Coles and Patrick Werquin III.7 Reforming Skills Development, Transforming the Nation: South African Vocational Education and Training Reforms, 1994–2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453 Simon McGrath III.8 Reform of Vocational Education in the Russian Federation . . . . 469 Olga Oleynikova and Anna Muravyeva III.9 Vocational Education in the Netherlands: In Search of a New Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483 Jan Geurts and Frans Meijers III.10 Facilitating Policy-Learning: Active Learning and the Reform of Education Systems in Transition Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499 Peter Grootings
Section 4
National Initiatives for Reengineering Education for the New Economy Joshua D. Hawley
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IV.1 Overview: Regional Reviews of TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515 Joshua D. Hawley IV.2 To Vocationalize or Not to Vocationalize? Perspectives on Current Trends and Issues on TVET in Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531 Moses O. Oketch IV.3 TVET in the Asian Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects . . . 547 P.P.G. Lionel Siriwardene and Muhammad Ashraf Qureshi IV.4 Transforming TVET Systems with the CPSC in the Asia and Pacific Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565 Man-Gon Park IV.5 European Action Programmes for Lifelong Learning . . . . . . . . . 583 Johanna Lasonen IV.6 VET in the Baltic States: Analysis of Commonalities and Differences of Reforms in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania . . . . . . 597 Frank B¨unning and Berit Graubner IV.7 Education and Training Needs of Rural Communities: A Situational Analysis of Selected Villages in Fourteen Provinces of Fiji . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609 Paula Cavu, Isimeli W. Tagicakiverata, Seveci Naisilisili and Viliame Rabici IV.8 Social Partnership in Vocational Education and Training in Lithuania: Challenges and Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619 Lina Kaminskien˙e IV.9 Integrating Education and Work: The Status of Vocational Education in Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637 Luc´ılia Regina Machado and Carlos Roberto Jamil Cury IV.10 China’s Higher Technical and Vocational Education: Development and Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649 Jing Mi and Aihua Wu IV.11 The Adoption and Adaptation of the Work-Team Concept in Urban Thai Workplaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659 Chitrlada Burapharat
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IV.12 Globalization of the Labour Culture in the Republic of Korea: What ‘Tripartite Relations’ Mean for Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673 Phoebe Moore IV.13 Involvement of Labour-Market Partners in TVET in the Russian Federation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689 Olga Oleynikova IV.14 Strengthening TVET to Achieve Lifelong Learning for All: Historical Snapshots and Recent Initiatives in Myanmar . . . . . . 703 Naing Yee Mar IV.15 Technical and Vocational Education and Training and Rural Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721 Lavinia Gasperini IV.16 An International TVET Programme Development by the International Baccalaureate Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735 Monique Conn IV.17 A Profile of TVET in the Asia and Pacific Region: A Survey of Progress, Innovations and Promising Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749 Chris Chinien, Elspeth McOmish, Mohan Perera and Alex Chinien
Section 5
Learning for Employment and Citizenship in Post-conflict Countries David Johnson and Lyle Kane
V.1 Overview: Vocational Education, Social Participation and Livelihoods in Post-Conflict Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767 David Johnson and Lyle Kane V.2 From Assessment to Planning: Hope for TVET in Uganda . . . . . 775 Bilal Barakat, Lyle Kane and Alex Inglis V.3 Linking TVET to Economic Opportunities in Post-Conflict Liberia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787 Lyle Kane V.4 Deepening the Divide: The Differential Impact of Protracted Conflict on TVET Versus Academic Education in Palestine . . . . 799 Bilal Barakat
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V.5 Co-ordinated Programming for Skills Development and Livelihoods in Post-Conflict Societies: What Promise Does TVET Hold for Southern Sudan? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813 Zuki Karpinska V.6 Vocational Training in Post-War Sierra Leone and Liberia . . . . 827 Andrew Benson Greene Jr. V.7 TVET and Community Re-Integration: Exploring the Connections in Sierra Leone’s DDR Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835 Julia Paulson V.8 TVET, Women and Conflict: Palestinians in the Lebanese Civil War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 849 Rachel Yarrow VOLUME 3 Part IV The Management of TVET Systems
Section 6 Policy and Management of TVET Systems Rupert Maclean and Chris Chinien VI.1 Overview: Navigating the Policy Landscape: Education, Training and Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869 Dennis R. Herschbach VI.2 Research for TVET Policy Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 891 Jon Lauglo VI.3 The Reform and Governance of Public TVET Institutions: Comparative Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905 Keith Holmes VI.4 National Versus Regional Policy Dimensions of TVET . . . . . . . . 921 Peter Noonan VI.5 Planning for Education and Work: Alternatives and Issues . . . . 939 Dennis R. Herschbach VI.6 South African Technikons and Policy Contestation over Academic Drift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 961 Andre Kraak
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VI.7 New Policy Actions and Government Roles: China’s Reconstruction of TVET Systems Since the 1980s . . . . . . . . . . . . 977 Deyu Sun, Jingwen Lu and Jun Li VI.8 Some Generic Issues in TVET Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989 George Preddey VI.9 An Overview of Contemporary TVET Management Practice . 1003 George Preddey Section 7 The Economics and Financing of TVET David Atchoarena VII.1 Overview: Issues and Options in Financing Technical and Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1029 David Atchoarena VII.2 Education, Skills, Sustainability and Growth: Complex Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1037 Kenneth King VII.3 Financing Mechanisms and Instruments: A Conceptual and Operational Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1051 Richard Walther VII.4 Financing Training Through Payroll Levies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1075 Adrian Ziderman VII.5 Financing Vocational Education and Training in South Africa 1091 Martin Gustafsson and Pundy Pillay VII.6 Voucher-Financed Training for Small Businesses . . . . . . . . . . . . 1107 F´elix Mitnik VII.7 Employers’ Participation in Training Finance: An Example from Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1123 Candido Alberto Gomes VII.8 Funding Lifelong Learning from a Life-Course Perspective . . . 1137 Barry J. Hake VII.9 Economic Perspectives on Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1155 Gerald Burke and Christopher Selby Smith
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Part V Teacher Education for Vocational Education and Training
Section 8 The TVET Profession Stephen Billett VIII.1 Overview: The Technical and Vocational Education and Training Profession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1175 Stephen Billett VIII.2 Professionalization of VET Teachers and Lecturers and Practices in TVET Institutions in an International Perspective 1185 Philip Grollmann VIII.3 Teachers, Instructors and Trainers: An Australian Focus . . . . . 1203 Erica Smith VIII.4 TVET Teacher-Training Requirements in the Russian Federation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1219 Vasiliy P. Kosyrev, Petr F. Kubrushko and Andrei N. Kouznetsov VIII.5 TVET Teachers and Their Professionalization in China: A Problem Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1229 Zhiqun Zhao and Lianwei Lu VIII.6 The Development of Training Modules for Instructors . . . . . . . 1243 Fred Beven VIII.7 Literacy and Learning: Are TVET Professionals Facilitators of Learning or Deliverers of Knowledge and Skills? . . . . . . . . . . 1259 Jean Searle VIII.8 Vocational Education in the Private Sector in Brazil . . . . . . . . . 1271 Elenice Monteiro Leite, Marinilzes Moradillo Mello and Nacim Walter Chieco VIII.9 TVET and Teacher-Training Curricula: A Developed National Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1285 Vasiliy P. Kosyrev, Petr F. Kubrushko and Andrei N. Kouznetsov
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VIII.10 Vocational Qualifications: The Role of Trade Unions as Negotiation Fora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1293 Antˆonio Almerico Biondi Lima and Fernando Augusto Moreira Lopes VIII.11 Vocational Education and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1307 Gaudˆencio Frigotto, Maria Ciavatta and Marise N. Ramos VIII.12 A Technical and Vocational Teacher-Training Curriculum . . . . 1319 Bonaventure W. Kerre VIII.13 Transforming Teachers’ Practice Through Action Learning . . 1333 Stephen Billett VIII.14 Professional Learning and TVET: Challenges and Perspectives for Teachers and Instructors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1351 Christian Harteis VIII.15 Industrial Attachments for Instructors in TVET Delivery . . . . 1367 Sarojni Choy and Sandra Haukka VIII.16 I Hate Left-Handers or Occupational Health and Safety Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1383 Richard Gagnon VIII.17 The Bologna Declaration and Emerging Models of TVET Teacher Training in Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1393 Frank B¨unning and Alison Shilela VIII.18 Standards for Occupation-Directed Professional Development of TVET Personnel in Developing Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1407 Peter Gerds VIII.19 Curriculum Research and Design as a Subject of TVET Teacher Training: Practice and Experiences from Two International Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1423 Joachim Dittrich VOLUME 4
Part VI
Education for Work: Research, Curriculum Development and Delivery
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Section 9 Research and Innovation Felix Rauner IX.1 Overview: TVET Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1443 Felix Rauner IX.2 Methods of TVET Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1461 Felix Rauner IX.3 TVET Research as an Aid to Improved Policy and Performance in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1469 Christopher Selby Smith IX.4 Repositioning the Role of Research in the Innovation of TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1483 Anneke Westerhuis IX.5 TVET Research as a Dimension of Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1495 Klaus Ruth IX.6 Modellversuchsforschung: Pilot Project Research in Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1505 Peter Dehnbostel IX.7 TVET and R&D Evaluation: The Potential for Optimizing TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1521 Ludger Deitmer and Lars Heinemann IX.8 TVET Research Organizations and Scientific Communities: Challenges to the Institutionalization of TVET Research . . . . . 1535 Wolfgang Wittig, Uwe Lauterbach and Philip Grollmann IX.9 Qualifications Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1553 Felix Rauner IX.10 Measuring Educational Quality in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1563 Robert D. Renaud Section 10 Curriculum Development and Delivery Felix Rauner X.1 Overview: TVET Curriculum Development and Delivery . . . . 1579 Felix Rauner
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X.2 The Mutual Shaping of Work, Vocational Competence and Work-Process Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1593 Nicholas Boreham and Martin Fischer X.3 Situated Learning and Cognitive Apprenticeship . . . . . . . . . . . . 1611 Michael Gessler X.4 Curriculum Approaches and Participative Curriculum Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1627 Georg Sp¨ottl X.5 The Deskilling and Upskilling Debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1639 Ulrich Heisig X.6 The Pedagogy of Apprenticeship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1653 Uwe Lauterbach X.7 Approaches to Designing TVET Curricula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1669 Richard Huisinga X.8 Collaborative Work-Related Learning and TechnologyEnhanced Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1687 Alan Brown, Jenny Bimrose and Sally-Anne Barnes X.9 Action-Based TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1699 Hans-Dieter H¨opfner X.10 Vocational Learning: Contributions of Workplaces and Educational Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1711 Stephen Billett X.11 Work-Based Learning: An English Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1725 James Avis X.12 Language Mastery Development within TVET for Professional Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1739 Andrei N. Kouznetsov X.13 Why do German Companies Invest in Apprenticeship? . . . . . . 1747 Klaus Schaack X.14 Workplace Learning: Metacognitive Strategies for Learning in the Knowledge Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1763 Hugh Munby, Nancy L. Hutchinson and Peter Chin
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X.15 Literacy, Design and Technology: New Contexts for Learning and Skills Development in South Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1777 David Johnson X.16 The Education Gospel and Vocationalism in an International Perspective: The Promises and the Limits of Formal Schooling 1791 W. Norton Grubb and Marvin Lazerson X.17 The Vocationalization of Secondary Education: The Relationships between Vocational and Technology Education . 1805 Margarita Pavlova X.18 Valuing Experience as well as Knowledge in Schools . . . . . . . . . 1823 Ron Hansen Section 11 Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Vocational Education and Training Maja Zarini, Tapio Varis and Naing Yee Mar XI.1 Overview: The Growing Role of ICTs in Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1835 Maja Zarini, David N. Wilson, Naing Yee Mar and Tapio Varis XI.2 The Pedagogical Framework for On-Line Learning . . . . . . . . . . 1847 Shyamal Majumdar XI.3 A Short Method for Building Web-Based Teaching and Learning Systems: the CPSC Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1863 Myong Hee Kim and Man-Gon Park XI.4 ICT Application in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1879 Boris Kotsik, Natalia Tokareva, France Boutin and Chris Chinien XI.5 Technology and Leadership in the Fourth Wave of Environmental Changes with Ubiquitous Technology . . . . . . . . 1895 Man-Gon Park XI.6 Knowledge Workforce Development for ComputerSupported Collaborative Work Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1911 Man-Gon Park and Myong Hee Kim XI.7 The Role of ICTs and TVET in Rural Development and Poverty Alleviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1923 Chiranjib Kumar Basu and Shyamal Majumdar
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XI.8 Switched on: International Approaches to Skills Development through ICTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1935 Maja Zarini XI.9 VOCED: The International Research Database on Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1947 Miriam Saunders and Radhika Naidu XI.10 What are the Limits of ICTs and Media in the Delivery of TVET? An Australian Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1959 Peter Kearns XI.11 Education System Profile: South Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1971 Tracey Wallace XI.12 Integrating TVET with Open and Distance Learning: Taking Skills Training to the Doorstep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1989 Vinay Swarup Mehrotra and Avant Kumar Sacheti XI.13 Distance Education: The State of the Art in Career and Technical Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2003 Christopher J. Zirkle VOLUME 5
Part VII
Learning for Life and Work: Bridging Academic and Vocational Education
Section 12 Participation in Formal Programmes of Learning and Skills Development Rupert Maclean and Hendrik van der Pol XII.1 Overview: Participation in Formal Programmes of Learning and Skills Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2025 Natalia Matveeva and Joachim Lapp XII.2 Access to TVET for All: An Essential Basis for Education for All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2039 Phillip Hughes XII.3 The Challenges of TVET Global Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2053 Manuel Cardoso
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XII.4 Making Global Classifications of Types and Levels of TVET . . 2067 Andy Green, Moses O. Oketch and John Preston XII.5 Trends and Issues in TVET across the Globe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2081 Moses O. Oketch, Andy Green and John Preston XII.6 Statistical Overview of TVET across Educational Levels . . . . . 2095 Manuel Cardoso XII.7 The Ethics of TVET Policy and Practice: Issues of Access and Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2163 Richard G. Bagnall XII.8 Special Needs Education and TVET: The Perspective from the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2177 Michael W. Harvey Section 13 Education for the Changing Demands of Youth Employment Karen Plane XIII.1 Overview: TVET for Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2197 Karen Plane XIII.2 Skills Shortages, Over-Education and Unemployed Youth: An International Dilemma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2211 Kenneth Gray and Sang Hoon Bae XIII.3 New Directions for High-School Career and Technical Education in the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2229 Richard L. Lynch XIII.4 Occupations in Demand/Youth Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2247 Antoaneta Voikova XIII.5 Pathways and Transitions from School to Work: Australian Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2263 Annette Gough XIII.6 School/Workplace Partnerships: A Case Study of Four Vocational Studies Programmes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2279 Marcelle Hardy and Louise M´enard XIII.7 Vocationalized Secondary Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2295 Jon Lauglo
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XIII.8 Vocational Guidance and Career Counselling in the European Union: Origins and Recent Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2313 Frederic J. Company XIII.9 ‘White-Collar’ Work or a ‘Technical’ Career? The Ambitions of Fiji Final-Year School Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2329 Pam Nilan, Paula Cavu, Isimeli W. Tagicakiverata and Emily Hazelman XIII.10 14–16 Year Olds Taking Vocational Courses in English Colleges: A Dumping Ground for the Disengaged or a Real Alternative? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2343 Norman Lucas XIII.11 Reconciling the Competing Policy Platforms in TVET? Promulgating ‘the 6Es Plus Education’ for Youth through Social Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2357 Karen Plane Section 14 The Skills Debate in an Ageing Society Tom Karmel and Rupert Maclean XIV.1 Overview: TVET in an Ageing Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2375 Tom Karmel and Rupert Maclean XIV.2 Policy Framework on the Retraining for Reskilling of Older Workers through Specialized TVET Programmes . . . . . . . . . . . 2385 Theodora Josue Tesoro Gayondato and Myong Hee Kim XIV.3 Reskilling for All? The Changing Role of TVET in the Ageing Societies of Developing Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2401 Margarita Pavlova and Rupert Maclean XIV.4 The Changing Context of TVET for the Workforce in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2417 Jagmohan Singh Rajput XIV.5 The Reform of the TVET System in the Republic of Korea for an Ageing Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2431 Hong-Geun Chang XIV.6 Will We Run Out of Young Men? Implications of the Ageing of the Population for the Trades in Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2445 Tom Karmel and Koon Ong
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XIV.7 The Ageing Labour Force and the Retraining of Workers in the Republic of Korea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2457 Jihee Choi XIV.8 Technical Entrepreneurship Development for the Aged . . . . . . 2469 Man-Gon Park and Suresh Kumar Dhameja XIV.9 The Ageing TVET Workforce in Australia: Issues and Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2487 Hugh Guthrie and Phil Loveder XIV.10 Working and Lifelong Learning among Older Workers (45+) in Japan: Implications for TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2499 Toshio Ohsako VOLUME 6
Part VIII Lifelong Learning for Livelihoods and Citizenship
Section 15 Adult, Continuing and Lifelong Learning Chris Chinien and Madhu Singh XV.1 Overview: Adult Education for the Sustainability of Human Kind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2521 Chris Chinien and Madhu Singh XV.2 The Emergence of ‘Workforce Development’: Definition, Conceptual Boundaries and Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2537 Ronald L. Jacobs and Joshua D. Hawley XV.3 The Challenge for ESD in TVET: Developing Core Sustainable Development Competencies and Collaborative Social Partnerships for Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2553 Chris Chinien, France Boutin and Karen Plane XV.4 Key Competencies: Overall Goals for Competence Development: An International and Interdisciplinary Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2571 Dominique Simone Rychen XV.5 Education and Training in the Context of Poverty Reduction . 2585 Bernd Overwien
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XV.6 Recognition, Validation and Accreditation of Non-Formal and Informal Learning and Experience: Results of an International Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2597 Madhu Singh XV.7 Self-Directed Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2615 Stephen D. Brookfield XV.8 New Learning Strategies and Learning Cultures in Companies 2629 Peter Dehnbostel XV.9 PLAR, Training and Efficient Labour Markets: The Canadian Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2647 Bill Empey and Christine Newton XV.10 Transformative Learning Theory and TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2661 Karen Magro XV.11 The Implications of Cognitive Style to Adult Distance Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2679 Cindy Marie Isaak-Ploegman and Chris Chinien XV.12 Competency, Meaningful Learning and Learning Styles in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2697 Richard Gagnon XV.13 Workplace Essential Skills in Policy and Practice: A Canadian Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2713 Erik de Vries XV.14 Adult Numeracy for Work and Life: Curriculum and Teaching Implications of Recent Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2731 Gail FitzSimons and Diana Coben XV.15 An Innovative System of Vocational Training in the German IT Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2747 Rita Meyer Part IX Assessment of Skills and Competencies Section 16 Recognition, Certification, Accreditation and Quality Assurance in TVET Karina Veal XVI.1 Overview: Competencies, Qualifications and Recognition . . . . 2763 Karina Veal
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XVI.2 The Certification of Competencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2777 Danielle Colardyn XVI.3 Modularization and Modular Delivery of TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . 2793 John Stanwick XVI.4 Diverse Approaches to the Recognition of Competencies . . . . . 2811 Danielle Colardyn XVI.5 How Do We Measure Up? Benchmarking the WorldSkills Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2827 David Hoey XVI.6 Validation of Educational Programmes: Comparing Models and Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2841 Grazia Scoppio XVI.7 Regional Accreditation and Certification of TVET Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2853 Ligaya Valmonte and Man-Gon Park XVI.8 National Qualifications Frameworks: An Analytical Overview 2867 Michael F.D. Young XVI. 9 Developing a National System of Vocational Qualifications . . . 2881 John Hart XVI.10 National Qualifications Frameworks in Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2899 Bonaventure W. Kerre and Astrid Hollander XVI.11 Implementing National Qualifications Frameworks: Problems and Possibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2917 Michael F.D. Young XVI.12 Labour Mobility and Mutual Recognition of Skills and Qualifications: The European Union and Australia/ New Zealand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2935 Chandra Shah and Michael Long XVI.13 Quality Assurance in TVET in Romania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2953 Magdalena Balica Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2971 Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3003
VOLUME 4
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Part VI
Education for Work: Research, Curriculum Development and Delivery
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Section 9 Research and Innovation
Felix Rauner Institute Technology and Education, University of Bremen, Germany
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Chapter IX.1
Overview: TVET Research Felix Rauner
1 Introduction Research on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is a relatively young field within the domain of educational research. It was only in the second half of the twentieth century that State institutes for TVET research were founded to investigate the foundations for the development of national TVET systems and to support planning bodies in shaping and organizing vocational education and training. Among these were the All-Union Research Institute for Technical and Vocational Education in the USSR in Leningrad (1963), the Center for Research and Leadership in Vocational and Technical Education in the United States (1965), which was later (1977) extended to a national research institute, the French Centre d’´etudes et de recherches sur les qualifications (C´ereq) in 1970, the Federal Institute for TVET Research (Bundesinstitut f¨ur Berufsbildungsforschung—BBF), the future Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (Bundesinstitut f¨ur Berufsbildung—BIBB), in Germany in 1970. In China a central institute for vocational education and training and two regional institutes were established through a co-operation project with Germany. At the international level, the foundation of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP—1975) was a milestone for the internationalization of TVET research. Finally, the establishment of the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (UNESCO-UNEVOC—2000) testifies to the international interest in TVET research. Research on vocational education and training is concerned with all types and institutions of vocational education. It includes further education, the qualification of vocational teachers, as well as national structures and systems, and international comparative studies. On a systemic level, research on vocational education and training focuses not only on different programmes but also on the interface between general and vocational education, the transition between vocational education and higher education and the transition from vocational training to the labour market. The definition of vocational education is often diffuse, which renders any explanation of vocational education research quite difficult. In contrast to the traditional, continental European understanding of higher education, the English-speaking world understands higher education also as a qualification for a R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 IX.1, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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profession. Internationally, the dimension of vocational education research is still not very clear (Rauner & Maclean, 2008) due to the heterogeneity of the different national TVET systems. Until now, the international scientific communities of vocational educators and TVET researchers have been neglected. This is the major difference between TVET research and general education research. General—as well as higher—education research has been based on internationalism from the very beginning due to the development of universities and the system of scientific disciplines. This has facilitated the emergence of internationally-shaped research practices.
2 The Occupational Form of Work as a Point of Reference A characteristic of TVET research is that it focuses on occupational work in different professions. The development of technology and the increasing differentiation into technological clusters, as well as the increasing specialization of the organization of work processes are fundamental features of the interconnection between occupational work and technology. The necessary division of labour and co-operation in the organization of social work leads to the formation of the occupational form of work and accordingly to vocational qualifications. Research on occupations—a dimension of TVET research—pays attention to the historical genesis of occupational work and its development in the context of changing labour markets in the knowledge society. Two competing theories determine the research questions and methods of TVET research. From a socio-historical and sociological point of view, the occupational form of work seems to be exposed to an erosion process that follows the law of the progressive instrumental rationalization of processes touching every social sphere. From this perspective, empirical developments in the world of work can be interpreted as progressive de-qualification processes (Braverman, 1974), as well as a shift from the standard career path to the patchwork biography. The transition of labour markets and employment systems means that education targeted at a specific occupational form of work is no longer required and that markets for modularized qualifications emerge instead. Mackenzie and Wajcman (1985) criticize this view of the historical process and refer to the explicit and implicit economic and technological determinism that suggests a different view and research direction. The shaping-oriented perspective emphasizes the fact that the occupational form of work represents a constitutive societal relationship and that vocational identities contribute to the constitution of personal identities. Vocational research also shows that occupations forming part of industrialization are exposed to erosion processes. Occupations that are oriented towards a knowledge-based economy are more stable because they are grounded in an open and dynamic core professionality (Heidegger & Rauner, 1996). The realization of the concept of an open and dynamic core occupation should permit the establishment of contextually stable occupational profiles and the creation of public awareness of the latter. It should further achieve high flexibility, stability and
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transparency in specific work fields and considerably reduce the number of accredited vocational trainings. TVET research also demands that it should not just be concerned with sociological and historical analysis, but should also support the planning of vocational education and training and the strongly differentiated TVET dialogue. According to several positions in TVET research, the occupational form of work is likely to remain when the increasing dynamic of technological innovations leads to an erosion of traditional professions (Kurtz, 2005). The concept of an open, dynamic, technological core professionality is viewed as a characteristic of vocationally organized work, which meets the demands of a domain-specific qualification as well as the flexibility of operational organizational structures. Therefore, occupational and domain-specific qualifications comprise the analytical as well as the formative dimension. The development of the core occupation of ‘car mechatronic’ is an example of a development where TVET research contributed significantly to the development of a European architecture of vocational education and European vocational education research (Kruse, 2008).
3 Fields of TVET Research In TVET research one can distinguish five major research fields with a variety of links between each other and to other research traditions.
3.1 Occupational Development Work in a society is normally organized according to occupations. Even in those parts of the employment system where occupational research assumes an erosion of occupation-based work, the question of the effects of this development remains a topic of TVET research. Unlike sociological occupational research, educational occupational research has a stake, via its methods of sector analysis and qualification research, in the development of occupations and occupational domains. National structures of occupational development cause considerable problems for the establishment of international economic relations. The mobility of employees and the emergence of transnational labour markets necessitate the internationalization of occupational development. This poses a challenge for TVET research to concern itself beyond its comparative studies with the development of international occupations. Besides the traditional professions, like engineers, scientists, medical doctors, lawyers, etc., particular craft trades, like cook, bricklayer and hairdresser, are also international occupations. But other new occupations, such as the above-mentioned car mechatronic, receive the interest of internationally organized employers. In this research field, TVET research is also challenged to critically scrutinize the political approach of a modularization and unitization of occupations and occupational domains (Young, 2005), since effects on the development of international markets for skilled labour can be expected.
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3.2 Occupational Domains and Vocational Disciplines There is a worldwide distinction among ten or twelve occupational domains. Occupational domains include similar occupations and disciplines. National and international classification systems, like the ‘Standard Occupational Classification System’ (SOC) in the United States or the ‘International Standard Classification of Occupations’ (ISCO), on the other hand, have the objective of increasing the comparability of labour-market statistics. These classification systems are less appropriate for organizing vocational education in training centres, e.g. vocational colleges, according to disciplines and faculties or for organizing a common elementary training for related occupations. These occupational domains are also associated with the vocational disciplines for which TVET teachers are educated. So far, there is no international agreement on occupational domains. A first step towards an international system of vocational disciplines is the Hangzhou Declaration (Veal, Dittrich & K¨am¨ar¨ainen, 2005). An international expert conference organized by UNESCO institutes defined twelve vocational disciplines (Table 1). Research and teaching in the vocational disciplines can be structured into four fields. 1. Genesis and development of the contents and forms of occupation-based skilled labour, qualification requirements and the related occupations and occupational domains. 2. The contents of vocational education as a dimension of analysis, design and evaluation of domain-specific training, qualification and socialization processes. 3. Analysis and design of learning supportive skilled labour: its methods, tools and organization as well as the requirements imposed on the latter. 4. Finally, there is the question of the subjects of skilled labour. In the technical disciplines this concerns domain-specific technology, which has to be operated, maintained, repaired and, in the interaction between man and machine, designed in a way that is supportive of learning.
3.3 TVET Systems At the systemic level, research is concerned with national TVET systems under the aspects of:
r r r r r
the interaction between the TVET system and the employment system; the permeability between general and vocational education; the history of TVET systems; the development and evaluation of training programmes; and learning sites of vocational education and training and co-operation between learning sites.
Business and administration
Topics
r r r r
Production and manufacturing
r r r r
Civil engineering
r r r r r r
Vocational discipline
Production and distribution of goods; Services; Marketing, administration, finances, insurance; Transportation, logistics, tourism; Etc.
Education and culture
Manufacturing; Mechanical engineering design; Supply engineering/ environmental engineering; Automotive engineering; Etc.
Leisure, travel and tourism
Construction; Wood; Surface and coating technology; Etc.
Agriculture, food and nutrition
Topics
r r r r r r
Child and youth care; Nursing education; Adult education; Special needs target groups; Music and dance; Etc.
r r r r r
Travel; Sports; Tourist services; Catering and hospitality; Etc.
r r r r
Agriculture; Food production; Domestic economy; Etc.
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Table 1 Twelve vocational disciplines as defined in the international framework curriculum Vocational discipline
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Table 1 (continued) Vocational discipline Electrical and electronic engineering and information and communication technology
Process engineering and energy
Health care and social care
Topics
r r r r r r r r r r r r r
Vocational discipline
Production systems; Building equipment; Information and communication technology; Media technology; Etc.
Media and information
Applied sciences; Energy conversion; Etc.
Textile and design
Health care; Clinical care; Personal hygiene; Nursing; Etc.
Mining and natural resources
Topics
r r r r r r r r r r r r r
Printing; Electronic advertising; Electronic customer-service; Sales promotion; Etc.
Clothing production; Fashion; Interior design; Art and craft; Etc. Mining; Oil and natural gas; Etc.
Source: Veal, Dittrich & K¨am¨ar¨ainen, 2005. F. Rauner
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A relatively common typology of TVET systems emphasizes the thresholds in the transition from school to work. The school-to-work transition refers to:
r r r r
The period in one’s life between completion of general education and the beginning of gainful employment—the individual aspect; Training systems, institutions and programmes that prepare young people for employment after completion of general education—the institutional aspect; The transition from school to vocational training (first threshold)—the training market aspect; The transition from vocational training to work (second threshold)—the labour market aspect.
Four models of the school-to-work transition can be distinguished in an international comparison. Each one is characterized by great differences in the transitions from (general education) school to vocational training (first threshold) and from vocational training to work (second threshold), with regard to time, institution and content. In the first model, the first and second thresholds in the transition from school to work are reduced to one threshold—for two reasons: (a) in-company labour markets in which the occupational form of work plays a subordinate role or one that is not at all dominant; (b) vocational training on that basis can be dispensed with as an independent career step between school and employment systems. In this model, training is carried out as a dimension of company organizational development. The second model is characterized by a relatively long and little-regulated transition phase with extended search and orientation processes for young people, a simultaneous high rate of youth unemployment and other social risk situations, and an extremely demand-oriented flexible, continued training market with low-qualified, industrial jobs. This model is also characterized by a high first- and second-transition threshold. Participation in training programmes is closely linked to entry into the employment system and commencement of gainful employment and can be a temporary solution during one’s search for a job. To avoid qualification deficits, this model focuses on jobs with the fewest requirements at the level of operational tasks as well as on-the-job training. The United Kingdom and the United States have a definite affinity to this model (United Kingdom. Department for Education, 1994; Doeringer, 1991; M¨unch, 1989; Rauner, 1995). In the third model, the transition from school to work takes place via a regulated system of dual vocational training. In this model the young person is a trainee, a student (in a vocational school) and an employee in a training company at the same time. Both the first and second thresholds are of a relatively low level. The transition to the training system is smooth because the role of the adolescent as a pupil is gradually taken over by the role of the youth as skilled worker. As a trainee, he or she becomes an employee of the company and thus has the opportunity to establish an employment relationship beyond the training period. In this model, the education system and working world are linked to each other in a demand- as well as supply-oriented manner via the institution of the occupation. Dividing work into occupations is:
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A constitutive aspect for all industry-wide, open labour markets; A decisive factor for the organization of company work processes; The reference point for dual vocational training.
Vocational training thus becomes a bridge between the working world and the education system. Youth unemployment is correspondingly low in numbers. This model dominates in some European countries, such as Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark (Mertens, 1976). In the fourth model, the transition from school to work is set up as a system of school-based vocational training. Completion of general education is followed by a vocationally-related or vocationally-oriented form of school. On completion of the vocational school, the student usually acquires a State certificate for the school occupation attained. Whereas the first threshold in this model poses no problem for young people, the second threshold becomes the decisive transition to the employment system. The transition from school to work is postponed for the duration of school-based vocational training. School and work remain institutionally separate. Vocational training is definitely supply-oriented. A large number of countries with a well-developed, school-based (State) vocational training system can be classified under this model. The four school-to-work transition models essentially differ depending on the significance accorded to the occupation as the organizing principle for labour markets, the company work organization and vocational training. In the first model (e.g. in Japan), the occupational form of work and thus the related vocational training has limited significance, whereas occupations represent the central aspect of the third and fourth models. The first question to be discussed, therefore, is that of the importance attached to this polarity for the developing European labour markets, as well as the integrated skilled-labour markets. Comparative TVET research is attributed an increasing relevance given the progressive internationalization of labour markets. The descriptive style of comparative research is supplemented by evaluation studies, which make it possible to demonstrate the differences between more or less successful TVET systems by reference to quality criteria. An essential basis for this research field is the national and international TVET statistics and the national TVET reports. In a European comparative study, among other things, eleven European TVET systems were compared under the aspect of the transition from vocational training to the employment system (Descy & Tessaring, 2001). According to the findings, countries with a dual model of apprenticeship training are distinctly more successful in organizing the transition of young people with a completed vocational education into the employment system. In countries with a school-based TVET system, youth unemployment is at a much higher level.
3.4 TVET Planning and Co-ordination Major importance is assumed by the research field devoted to the foundations of TVET planning and TVET co-ordination. In this context, research is concerned with
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the identification of the qualification requirements and training contents following changes in the employment system. Qualification research presupposes the consideration of the normative prescriptions for vocational education. These are not only the training objectives, but also the normative criteria for task analysis and design. A particular approach to qualification research results from the methods of early diagnosis in qualification development. The methods of competence and expertise research, as well as of work and task analysis, are particularly relevant in this respect. Educational economics in this context analyses the cost-benefit structures of TVET programmes and TVET systems (Lerman, 2008). The methods for the estimation of the future quantitative and qualification needs, however, led to satisfactory results only at the level of labour-market development. Other means of predicting future developments turned out to be unreliable. This is above all due to the fact that the occupation-based organization of work and the design of vocational training programmes and processes have to be viewed as discursive design processes embedded in the social dialogue between the stakeholders in vocational education and training. Therefore, they evade prognostics to a large extent. In this respect, TVET research has the mission of justifying and testing design options and of contributing in this way to a discursive communication between TVET practice, TVET research and TVET policy (Grollmann, 2008).
3.5 Professional Competence Development Vocational education differs from all other types of institutionalized education at schools and universities in that learning about the work process is an indispensable part of professional competence development. However, this applies only if vocational proficiency (Berufsf¨ahigkeit) is presupposed as a defining criterion that is typical of vocational education and training. A broad range of topics, like the design and organization of learning-supportive work processes, organizational learning, learning through tutorial work systems, professional socialization and the development of vocational identity, are addressed in this research field. Basic research is clearly dominating. The European research network ‘Work Process Knowledge’ has produced important results in this regard (Boreham, Samurcay & Fischer, 2002). On the other hand, analysis of the development of vocational identity in the process of vocational education and socialization and the resulting occupational and organizational commitment is still little developed (cf. Kirpal, 2004). Applied research has developed methods and instruments of qualification research whose results have provided the basis for curriculum design. Two concepts of qualification research that were developed for the design of vocational curricula and that gained some relevance at the international level can be placed in occupational research.
r
The DACUM procedure for the identification and analysis of professional functions (as a first step towards the development of vocational curricula) was developed in the United States and Canada in the 1970s.1 In the meantime this procedure is applied particularly in development aid. In a first step, the
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characteristic functions (units) of an ‘occupation’ or a similar employment (job) are identified by ‘expert workers’ during a two-day workshop. Afterwards, these units are broken down into separate tasks. It is only at the stage of weighting the units that experts of TVET planning, TVET practice and TVET research are consulted. While the DACUM method, following the tradition of behaviourism, makes decontextualized tasks the basis of curriculum development, an alternative research and development approach pursues a fundamentally different strategy in identifying ‘paradigmatic work situations’. This approach is about the context-related identification of professional functions that ultimately leads to case descriptions. These case descriptions have to meet two conditions. Firstly, they have to prove typical of the occupation in question and, secondly, they have form a logical part of a curriculum that follows the concept of competence development from the novice to the expert level (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986). Professional functions or work situations, according to this concept, have a paradigmatic quality if they give rise to a decisive step in competence development in the sense that they engender a new and extended view of work contexts (Benner, 1984). Here, the investigation of professional functions and situations leads directly to the vocational curriculum: the case descriptions, structured according to developmental logic, are the curriculum. An advanced version of this research concept was developed at the University of Bremen, Institut Technik und Bildung—ITB (Rauner, 2004).
4 Teaching Methods for Vocational Education The topic of teaching methods for vocational education is first of all a topic of TVET practice. It includes the design, testing and evaluation of educational processes. The selection and justification of the appropriate teaching contents and training objectives, as well as the teaching and learning forms, are the core tasks of the didactics of vocational education. The superior goals of vocational education, such as the idea of enabling prospective executives to co-shape the world of work and to participate actively in processes of corporate organizational development, challenge TVET teaching methods to concern themselves with the identification of learningsupportive tasks that are open for design. The topic of TVET teaching methods has thus become a focus of activities for TVET research. A curriculum following developmental logic for design-oriented vocational training must meet two superior criteria. The contents and objectives must be ordered according to developmental logic. This requires that the professional tasks to which the curriculum refers are identified and formulated in such a way that the beginner (in the training process) has the chance to make the transition into training with his/her prior experiences and knowledge so that he/she can build on his/her present competences, expectations and orientations. A future car mechanic who starts his apprenticeship has, of course, wide-ranging experience and knowledge in handling cars acquired as a driver and user of cars,
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and presumably also through the performance of more-or-less simple repairs that are frequently carried out by technically interested non-professionals. Therefore, it seems quite natural also to refer, in the beginning, to the practical use of the car when it is made an object of professionalization during the necessary shift of perspective from the technically interested user to the automotive professional. The standard service, which consists of checking the safety and roadworthiness of the car according to professional standards, and the performance of standardized maintenance activities in the context of this service suggest themselves as appropriate work tasks. They make it possible to learn and experience at the first stage of training what the occupation is mainly about. Changing tyres, for instance, is a standard procedure in the case of normal wear and tear. If the tread on a tyre looks unusual, however, it is normally an indicator of quite complex problems, whose identification and repair requires considerable work experience. It is thus considered a difficult task that can only be mastered at an advanced stage in becoming a car professional. This example is intended to illustrate that the curriculum concept is presupposed in task analysis. So the issue is not about merely investigating in an empirical research process what the typical work tasks of a car mechanic are. For the area of maintenance this might well reveal functions and tasks that are indeed characteristic for the formulation of a qualification profile. For the purpose of formulating a developmental curriculum, however, such a task description would be of little use, for the identification of tasks for a developmental curriculum determines the criteria for the quality of the tasks to be investigated. The development and testing of types of computer and Internet-based learning are some of the topics of teaching research that deserve particular emphasis (Pabst & Zimmer, 2005). What remains largely unclear and scientifically disputed is the concept of key qualifications. This issue was introduced into the discussion via the findings of labour-market research. These suggested the idea that vocational education, facing ever shorter innovation cycles in technological development, has to abandon the concept of adapting the contents of vocational education and training. This leads supposedly to the teaching concept of a transfer of timeless and interdisciplinary qualifications that would retain their relevance for the world of work. These qualifications were—hypothetically—attributed a key function. However, TVET research to this day has not succeeded in providing evidence for the validity of this hypothesis. Nevertheless, it is undisputed that social competences (soft skills) become more important and that domain-specific competences continue to be the core of professional expertise (Chi, Glaser & Farr, 1988).
5 Evaluation and Quality Assurance In the context of educational economics, education and qualifications have also become an economic quantity that is attributed critical relevance in the competitiveness of national economies. This has led to a variety of research and development threads which have the common goal to develop scales, indicators and procedures
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to measure and improve the efficiency of vocational education. The procedures of summative and formative evaluation are available for monitoring innovation processes in the TVET system (Kurz, 2008). The procedures of quality assurance and educational controlling are methods derived from business administration and view training institutions, such as vocational colleges, as an institution for the ‘production of qualifications’. It has been critically remarked concerning the more pedagogically accentuated and participative type of quality development that this misses the point of TVET processes, namely, personality development in the sense of ‘education through the medium of professional work’. An attempt to mediate between the qualification of innovation programmes in the education system and the participative and formal evaluation is the method of programme evaluation that was developed at the ITB (Deitmer, 2008).
6 Towards an International Research Community In the course of the internationalization of TVET research and the need for TVET planning supported by research, further countries have established national institutes. The establishment of public institutions, however, must be considered as an initial step for TVET research, and not yet the decisive step on the way towards a developed research discipline. Normally, the research tasks of public institutes are defined to a large extent by the governmental departments responsible for vocational education and by those branches of industry participating in training. But the internationalization of TVET research depends, as in any research tradition, on the question of if and to what extent these research activities are university based and linked to teaching. The qualification of prospective scientists and researchers is an infallible indicator of the definitive establishment of a scientific discipline and the associated research activities. This means, in practice, that an advanced research infrastructure exists no sooner than when the professionalization of experts has reached the level of master and doctoral programmes at universities. Broadly established TVET research in Germany is based on study programmes for the education of TVET teachers in thirteen different vocational disciplines at more than forty universities (Rauner, 2008). From this perspective, the UNESCOUNEVOC initiative for the professionalization of TVET teachers through the development of proposals for the establishment of master programmes, differentiated according to twelve vocational disciplines, has a crucial importance for the further development of TVET research (Veal, Dittrich & K¨am¨ar¨ainen, 2005). In countries where the education of TVET teachers is not yet organized at the level of master programmes for vocational disciplines, TVET research has few opportunities to develop. In this case, its orientation depends on what disciplines address problems of vocational education. Economic and sociological topics, like human-resource management, lifelong learning, labour-market research, educational economics and sociology of education or biographical research then shape TVET research. The
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disciplines that are at the core of TVET research are missing—the educational sciences and vocational disciplines. It becomes apparent that the establishment of university programmes for the education of TVET teachers at the level of masters’ and doctoral programmes, especially in East Asian countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and China, as well as the extension of the European research network VETNET and the intensification of the international dialogue between the national and regional scientific communities, are important contributions to the establishment of TVET research. Its results will encounter increasing demand in many policy areas, such as labour-market policy, economic policy, innovation and education policy, as well as in TVET practice.
7 Development Perspectives The research fields discussed here are differentiated further and presented comprehensively with reference to the state of the art in the Handbook of technical and vocational education and training research (Rauner & Maclean, 2008). The scientific community thus has, for the first time, a relatively complete catalogue of research topics and missions at its disposal, which can be used as a system of indicators to identify the profiles of local and regional programmes of TVET research. What is of crucial importance for the future development of TVET research is the standing of vocational education in the context of national education systems. It is an open question whether the academic drift in education will continue and whether forms of vocational education will increasingly spread to universities. The establishment of study programmes below the level of baccalaureate studies in countries like the United States and China appears to confirm this trend. On the other hand, one can observe an international tendency to re-establish the tradition of apprenticeship training in the shape of ‘modern’ or ‘new apprenticeships’. Countries like Malaysia and Italy have enacted laws re-establishing dual forms of vocational education and training. These divergent development threads suggest that the different models and traditions of qualifying employees for the intermediate sector of the employment system will continue to compete worldwide—also in the next decade. This provides support for the idea that these processes should be accompanied by well-developed TVET research. With the inclusion of a section on vocational education research in this handbook, as well as with the publication of the Handbook of TVET research in the International Library of Technical and Vocational Education and Training the course is set for strengthening the international community for vocational education research. Researchers have the chance to improve the quality of their research through intensification of the scientific dialogue via electronic media or through strengthening research collaboration. The qualification of the new generation of scientists and the release of international journals and book series should be the centre of attention. National and international exchange programmes, as well as thenational research support policies, still do not offer enough opportunity for organizing work.
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The fact that research support is organized only at the national level is often a barrier for the development of science if the organization is not also open to international support structures. UNESCO-UNEVOC fulfils a moderating and coordinating function in the establishment of an international scientific community in TVET research which generates innovative impulses for the discipline.
8 Overview of the Contributions IX.2 Methods of TVET Research, by Felix Rauner Felix Rauner discusses the question of whether TVET research can simply draw on the existing methods of other scientific disciplines or whether it is (or should be) in possession of its own research methods particularly oriented towards the specific aspects of the topic. He does so by, first, presenting the problem of subjectrelated research methods in general; second, in addressing the analytical dimension of TVET research; and, finally, discussing the question of whether the four fundamental research methods—i.e. observation, experiment, interview and content analysis—need specific shaping in the course of their adaptation to TVET research.
IX.3 TVET Research as an Aid to Improved Policy and Performance in TVET, by Christopher Selby Smith Selby Smith discusses another key driver of reform: research. In an increasingly turbulent environment, an interest by decision-makers in evidence, an openness to new perspectives and a willingness to learn progressively and systematically from experience is central to improving policy, practice and performance in TVET. The chapter considers the relationships between research and decision-making at three levels in Australia: (a) national and state or territory policy-making (Australia being a federal country); (b) the level of institutions providing services, such as technical institutes or other providers; and (c) the level of practitioners. These Australian studies illustrate the diverse ways in which a beneficial relationship between R&D and TVET decision-making can function—or be frustrated—in relation to policy, planning, management and practice depending, amongst other things, on the roles that researchers play.
IX.4 Repositioning the Role of Research in the Innovation of TVET, by Anneke Westerhuis The chapter by Westerhuis gives an account of developments in the role of research in educational policy-making in the Netherlands; in particular for TVET. The Dutch case is presented as a typical illustration of developments taking place in other European countries. The article argues that the post-Second World War bond between
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national policy-making, educational innovation and research has fallen apart. Westerhuis argues that, by acknowledging the fact that this alliance cannot be restored, researchers will have to redefine their position on the innovation of education.
IX.5 TVET Research as a Dimension of Innovation, by Klaus Ruth Ruth’s chapter traces the interrelationship between TVET and innovation. The review examines whether TVET contributes to innovation or, more specifically, to the innovatory capacities of organizations. It considers the question: ‘Is there a preferred type of technical and vocational education that is advantageous to certain types of innovation?’ Since people are the mediating agents, the chapter focuses on the actual competences held by people who have participated in vocational education and training programmes and draws a line from their participation to innovation and into the building of innovatory capacity in organizations. The focus of observation is on identifiable differences in TVET systems that are embedded in particular industrial cultures.
IX.6 Modellversuchsforschung: Pilot Project Research in Germany, by Peter Dehnbostel Dehnbostel describes the fundamentals and developments of pilot projects and discusses core issues concerning function, design and quality criteria of the scientific monitoring of pilot projects. The focus is on the foundation and the positioning, from the perspective of the philosophy of science, of scientific monitoring as action and utilization research, and on the transfer of measures and findings into the system of norms and regulations. The article concludes with an outlook which pays attention to the danger for pilot projects that can be expected from the reform of the federal system in Germany.
IX.7 TVET and R&D Evaluation: The Potential for Optimizing TVET, by Ludger Deitmer and Lars Heinemann Deitmer and Heinemann analyse the role of evaluation and evaluation methods in the field of TVET. They argue that the adaptation of newer evaluation approaches could be helpful for optimizing the learning processes underlying successful TVET. They do so by, first, briefly discussing the role evaluation used to play (and still plays) concerning TVET; second, giving an overview on what evaluation methods are used under what circumstances for what purposes; third, they describe what aspects of TVET could be interesting subjects for evaluation; and, fourth, they present an example of a formative evaluation method to show the potentials of evaluation
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tools for TVET. Finally, the authors present suggestions about how these evaluation methods could be put to use.
IX.8 TVET Research Organizations and Scientific Communities: Challenges to the Institutionalization of TVET Research, by Wolfgang Wittig, Uwe Lauterbach and Philipp Grollmann Grollmann, Wittig and Lauterbach analyse different factors influencing the professional knowledge, practices and the performance of TVET teachers. In addition to teacher education, which is a crucial lever for increasing the quality of teachers and their professional performance, the institutions in which teachers work constitute another crucial factor shaping the quality of their work. Therefore, the institutional environments are held not just as independent variables, but also are closely associated with teachers’ professional performance. This implies that any reform trying to professionalize TVET—whether at the global or local level—needs to take into account both levers. The chapter begins by establishing the context—an overview is presented of the fragmented and fragile situation of the TVET profession globally. Next, a conceptualization on professionalization is proposed, supported by some empirical findings. Finally, some conclusions for policy and practice are drawn.
IX.9 Qualifications Research, by Felix Rauner Rauner in his second contribution to this section (not counting the Overview) shifts the focus to the issue of qualifications research. He argues that, due to the accelerating structural changes taking place in the world of work, massive changes in the occupational structures and in the qualifications requirements for employees have developed during the last decades. This development results in a growing need for new occupational profiles and the modernization of traditional occupations and new curriculum designs. Determining the content of these curriculum designs is the aim of qualifications research. Rauner presents different approaches to this field: first, qualifications research as a transformation of scientific knowledge; then, an introduction to the sociological and occupational-studies approach to qualifications research.
IX.10 Measuring Educational Quality in TVET, by Robert D. Renaud In Chapter 10, Robert Renaud asks: How do we know when an educational institution is doing well compared either with other institutions, or against external standards? He provides a clear survey of the topic of the use of performance indicators to measure the quality of institutional provision, both the pros and the cons, and provides details of indicators such as selectivity, expenditure and quality of teachers.
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He concludes, however, that these sorts of indicators, so often employed, do not get to the central question of learner outcomes. He argues that future research ought to focus less on institutional characteristics and more on learner outcomes.
Note 1. See Glendenning (1995) as well as the procedure developed further by Norton (1997) at the National Center for Research in Vocational Training (NCRVE) (before 1988 at Ohio State University): Design a Curriculum (DACUM), and also a critical assessment of curriculum development in the United States by Finch and Crunkilton (1979).
References Benner, P. 1984. From novice to expert: excellence and power in clinical nursing practice. Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley. Boreham. N.C.; Samurcay, R.; Fischer, M., eds. 2002. Work process knowledge. London/New York, NY: Routledge. Braverman, H. 1974. Labor and monopoly capital: the degradation of work in the twentieth century. New York, NY/London: Monthly Review Press. Chi, M.T.H.; Glaser, R.; Farr, M.J., eds. 1988. The nature of expertise. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Deitmer, L. 2008. Programme evaluation. In: Rauner, F.; Maclean, R., eds. Handbook of technical and vocational education and training research. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Descy, P.; Tessaring, M., eds. 2001. Training and learning for competence: second report on vocational training research in Europe—synthesis report. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Doeringer, P.B. 1991. Turbulence in the American workplace. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Dreyfus, H.L.; Dreyfus, S.E. 1986. Mind over machine: the power of human intuition and expertise in the era of the computer. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Finch, C.R.; Crunkilton, J.R. 1979. Review and critic of strategies for determining career education curriculum content. (Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Association. San Francisco, California, April 1979.) (ERIC ED 178 696.) Glendenning, D. 1995. DACUM roots. Ottawa: Canadian Vocational Association. (Occasional paper, no. 7.) Grollmann, P. 2008. Prognostic and prospective vocational training research. In: Rauner, F.; Maclean, R., eds. Handbook of technical and vocational education and training research. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Heidegger, G.; Rauner, F. 1996. Vocational education in need of reforms. D¨usseldorf, Germany: Government of North Rhine-Westphalia. Kirpal, S. 2004. Work identities in Europe: continuity and change. Bremen, Germany: University of Bremen, Institute Technology and Education. (Final report of the fifth European Union Framework Project ‘FAME’.) (ITB-Arbeitspapiere, 49.) Kruse, W. 2008. Sectoral analysis in the automotive service sector (FORCE, EU). In: Rauner, F.; Maclean, R., eds. Handbook of technical and vocational education and training research. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Kurtz, T. 2005. Die Berufsform der Gesellschaft. Weilerswist, Germany: Velbr¨uck Wissenschaft. Kurz, S. 2008. Output orientation as aspect of quality assurance. In: Rauner, F.; Maclean, R., eds. Handbook of technical and vocational education and training research. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.
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Lerman, R. 2008. Introduction: cost, benefit and financing of VET. In: Rauner, F.; Maclean, R., eds. Handbook of technical and vocational education and training research. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Mackenzie, D.; Wajcman, J., eds. 1985. The social shaping of technology: how the refrigerator got its hum. Milton Keynes, UK: Open University. Mertens, D. 1976. Beziehungen zwischen Qualifikation und Arbeitsmarkt: 2 × 4 Aspekte. In: Schlaffke, W., ed. Jugend, Arbeitslosigkeit: ungel¨oste Aufgaben f¨ur das Bildungs- und Besch¨aftigungssystem, pp. 68–111. Cologne, Germany. M¨unch, J. 1989. Berufsbildung und Bildung in den USA. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag. Norton, R.E. 1997. DACUM handbook, 2nd ed. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University. Pabst, A; Zimmer, G., 2005. Medienforschung und Medienentwicklung. In: Rauner, F., ed. Handbuch Berufsbildungsforschung. Bielefeld, Germany: W. Bertelsmann. Rauner, F. 1995. Gestaltung von Arbeit und Technik. In: Arnold, R.; Lipsmeier, A., eds. Handbuch der Berufsbildung. Opladen, Germany: Verlag f¨ur Sozialwissenschaften. Rauner, F. 2004. Qualifikationsforschung und Curriculum. Analysieren und Gestalten beruflicher Arbeit und Bildung. Reihe Berufsbildung, Arbeit und Innovation. Bd. 25. Bielefeld, Germany: W. Bertelsmann Verlag. Rauner, F. 2008. Introduction: research in the vocational disciplines. In: Rauner, F.; Maclean, R., eds. Handbook of technical and vocational education and training research. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Rauner, F.; Maclean, R., eds. 2008. Handbook of technical and vocational education and training research. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Veal, K.; Dittrich, J.; K¨am¨ar¨ainen, P. 2005. UNESCO International Meeting on Innovation and Excellence in TVET Teacher/Trainer Education. Bonn, Germany: UNESCO-UNEVOC. (Report of the meeting jointly organized by UNESCO-UNEVOC and UNESCO Office Beijing in partnership with the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO and the Chinese Ministry of Education. Hangzhou, China, 8–10 November 2004.) United Kingdom. Department for Education. 1994. Participations in education by 16-18 year olds in England 1983/84 to 1993/94. London: Government Statistical Service. (Statistical Bulletin.) Young, M. 2005. National qualifications frameworks: their feasibility and effective implementation in developing countries. London: University of London Institute of Education. (Report prepared for the International Labour Organization.)
Chapter IX.2
Methods of TVET Research Felix Rauner
1 Introduction Scientific disciplines and research traditions are characterized by specific topics, research questions and problems, corresponding findings and results, and not the least by specific research methods. Accordingly, one can talk of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) research as a scientific discipline only if it is possible to name the specific methods relevant for its general topic—TVET. Methodologically, this refers to the problem of subject-related research methods (Rauner, 2005). It is hardly surprising that research which aims at interdisciplinarity relies, via the agents involved in the scientific process, on the methodological instruments of those disciplines contributing to the multidisciplinary practice of TVET research. Scientists usually employ research methods according to their own disciplinary background, which entails the consequence that they tend to re-interpret and shape their research topic as belonging, respectively, to the social sciences, labour studies, engineering or natural sciences. The question is therefore whether TVET research can simply draw on the existing methods of other scientific disciplines or whether it is (or should be) in possession of its own research methods, which are particularly oriented towards the specific aspects of the topic.
2 On the Problem of Subject-Related Research Methods The differentiation, in the history of the humanities and social sciences, of the fundamental methods of observation and experiment developed in the natural sciences into a multitude of specific methods is discussed controversially. TVET research cannot escape this controversy since it is in many respects also sociological research. Gerhard Kleining holds the firm opinion that the connection of methods to the respective topics diminishes the epistemic potential of the social sciences, because this practice leaves no room for other data than those generated with the disciplinary methods. It is this subject-specific segmentation of empirical research methods that possibly explains the ‘harmlessness of humanities and social sciences’ (Kleining, 1995, p. 13 [original source in German]). With reference to the history R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 IX.2, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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of research methods in the natural sciences, Kleining advocated a recollection of everyday methods and the unity of methods through a reversal of their subjectspecific fragmentation. An opposite view is taken by Harold Garfinkel. This position is interesting for TVET research already because Garfinkel’s ‘Studies of Work’ concept (Garfinkel, 1986) touches a central topic of the discipline. The author postulates a ‘unique adequacy requirement’ for research methods. According to this concept, the primacy lies in the research topic. Even if one neglects the difficulty of accepting the adequacy of a methodological approach for a particular topic as a selection criterion—what method is there to prove in turn the adequacy of this choice?—the aim of a uniquely adequate selection and development of research methods in certain cases leads to a sacrifice of methods when the latter do not fit the particularity and uniqueness of the research topic (ibid., p. 57). Uwe Flick et al. point out in their methodological considerations on qualitative research that the criterion of adequacy applies in particular to qualitative methods: ‘For almost every procedure it is possible to detect for what specific research topic it was developed. Usually the starting point was the fact that the available methods were inappropriate for this particular topic’ (Flick et al., 1995, p. 22 [original source in German]). TVET research therefore faces the question of whether there are good or even coercive reasons for a differentiation of methods according to specific research topics or whether Kleining’s position in favour of a unity of methods should be adopted instead. TVET research is basically concerned with occupation-related work tasks and processes as constitutive elements of the organization and shaping of education and qualification processes, which take place in the context of more or less formalized TVET programmes and systems. Its epistemic interest is directed towards phenomena constituted by the situative practices of agents. The contexts of agency therefore are a central source of knowledge and not a source of distortion. John Heritage, in his analysis of Garfinkel’s approach, draws the conclusion that traditional studies of occupation lead to a dead end: ‘The studies [. . .] are largely silent about the matters which make these occupations significant in the first place’ (Heritage, 1984, p. 298). Garfinkel has attempted to establish the adequacy of methods for the ‘studies of work’ by a radical critique of the inadequacy of traditional analysis techniques, as well as by an interpretive foundation of analysis ‘from within’ the professional practice. He therefore also calls for a comprehensive domain-specific competence of researchers who conduct studies of occupations (Garfinkel, 1967, 1986). But the dilemma that characterizes sociological analyses of work and occupations is the fact that even though the right questions can be asked, the methods developed still define the subject of the investigation as a sociological one. The claim raised by Garfinkel to clarify what makes the content of professional work can be fulfilled only if the (limited) scope of this approach is taken into consideration and the occupational and work studies are conducted by the relevant vocational disciplines or with their participation (cf. Stratmann, 1975; M¨ullges, 1975; Rauner, 2002).
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3 TVET Research as Analytic and Developing Research The analytic dimension of TVET research is thoroughly connected with the development tasks at all levels of vocational education and professional work from working and learning individuals to the structures of the education and employment systems. From this emerge the analytic and formative examination of the contents of professional work and vocational education. The analytic dimension of TVET research, due to its proximity to the empirical sciences, has a sociological imprint as far as the research methods are concerned. This is expressed, for instance, by the distinctly sociological qualification research, which for some time was quite popular within TVET research (Gr¨unewald, 1979). The declining interest in this research field on the part of research and educational policy is attributed to the relatively little practical relevance of its results (Dybowski, Haase & Rauner, 1993). The majority of the results expected from TVET research immediately aim at the planning processes of modernizing and re-organizing occupations and occupational fields, as well as the corresponding education plans, developing and testing of new training instruments (media research and development), and developing and testing new learning and training methods. These developmental and design-oriented tasks can be handled only in co-operation with the relevant vocational disciplines and their pedagogy.
4 The Implementation of Fundamental Methods of TVET Research One can distinguish four fundamental methods in research: observation, experiment, interview and content analysis. Do these general methods require a specific shaping in the course of their adaptation to the research topics, and what would then be the characteristics of these methods assimilated by TVET research?
4.1 Observation Systematic observation has always been a part of the methodological repertoire of TVET research. Of course, it makes a difference whether the observation relates to the course of an experiment, the behaviour of learners in their natural environment, e.g. in the work process, or whether it is a case of participant observation in a social group. A general rule for all types of observation is the maxim that the researcher must not affect the object to be observed, i.e. the object of his research, through the observation. This would mean that, in the course of the observation, a different research object would be created, spoiling the validity of the results. Of course, this is especially true of participant observation since participation in a process, even if only by observation, influences and changes the process itself. Therefore, the method of participant observation has brought about numerous rules to minimize
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the distortion of the research process as far as possible. Does this maxim, which was developed in the context of empirical social studies, apply also to observation in the context of TVET research? The answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Whenever vocational training processes are viewed under the aspect of a social process, the observation rules apply as they do for social research in general. A specific implementation with regard to the particulars of vocational education is unnecessary in such a case. This is different when a professional work process—performed by, say, a skilled worker—is observed with the aim of identifying the professional knowledge realised in the process. In this case different rules apply. 1. The observing researcher must also have the professional skills to understand the observed work process in its professional aspects and to judge the activity of a skilled worker as an expression of professional knowledge. 2. A distanced participant observation would in this case impede the interpretation of the observed activities. On the other hand, intervening questions or even an intervening participation in the work process (‘What will you do if the measuring device X fails?’) give the skilled observer the opportunity to reach a much greater depth of investigation. This means that the researcher constitutes, by intervening, the situation he observes and analyses. A passive participant observation turns into active participation. In this case there is a gradual transition to situative experimental research activity.
4.2 Interview Professional interviews are different from expert interviews conducted in empirical social research in that they are applied in the context of qualification research, e.g. in task analysis (Niethammer, 2005). In a professional interview, the professional interest in the work contents and the corresponding qualification requirements and competences is emphasized. Once again, the researcher in this case needs an adequate level of professional competence. This allows him/her not only to superficially notice the interviewees’ statements, but only to interpret them with regard to their substantial meaning. Especially, the researcher can draw conclusions from right and wrong answers and from answers revealing more or less professional competence, and use these conclusions in the course of the interview to achieve deeper insights into the interviewee’s professional knowledge. The professional interview is applied in theory-based TVET research. The results are employed in the development of occupations, the development of curricula, the design and evaluation of training processes, as well as in biographical research. A particular form of professional interview is the action-oriented interview. This method is applied predominantly when the context of the real work action must take place during the interview. In this case, the interviewed person can answer questions by giving practical demonstrations of concrete work actions. At the same time, the
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researcher gains the opportunity to participate in problem-solving (cf. Becker, 2005; Hacker, 1996; Rauner, 1998).
4.3 Knowledge Diagnosis An instrument that is crucial for TVET research is knowledge diagnosis. Knowledge in the form of action-governing and action-explaining is a pedagogical category of fundamental importance. Knowledge diagnosis is about the study of the conditions under which learners acquire knowledge in the work-process and in vocational education, and about the interpretation of the work-process knowledge that finds its expression in professional actions. Hacker makes a distinction between governing, accompanying and justificatory knowledge (Hacker, 2005). Action-governing knowledge includes not only the ‘know that’, but also the ‘know how’, e.g. when in the course of error diagnosis complex analyses of cause and effect become necessary. This type of knowledge has an immediate affinity to professional skills and is therefore still the one most likely to be accessible for knowledge diagnosis. The diagnosis of explaining and justificatory knowledge refers to complex professional actions that must be assessed with regard to various evaluation criteria and the corresponding effects of the work step. For the purposes of knowledge diagnosis, Hacker differentiates between: (a) taskcentred approaches; and (b) agent-centred approaches. The following ‘dynamic approaches’ are classified as agent-centred and ordered according to the degree of precision:
r r r r r r r
the invitation to think aloud; narrative storytelling (Orr, 1986); questioning (oral or written) with different means of structuration (e.g. repertory grid technique, Scheer & Catina, 1993); invitation of verbal and non-verbal demonstrations of procedural and subject knowledge; invitation to supplement and organize knowledge parts presented to the participant; invitation to supplement and correct presented knowledge prototypes (as semistandardized interview); experimental interventions on single aspects (Hacker, 2005, p. 619).
4.4 Competence Assessment The assessment of professional competences typically becomes the focus of attention when the learning individuals are in need of advice, when learning achievements have to be checked, and when the quality of training has to be evaluated. Competence assessment in the field of vocational education and training faces the particular difficulty that the rich experience gained through PISA cannot be
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transferred to vocational education. This can be made most clear from the example of the methods with which scientific and mathematical literacy were measured. In both domains the design of assessment tasks can build upon the objective knowledge provided by the mathematical and natural sciences. What is required is an agreement on what actually is to be meant by literacy in the two domains. Vocational education and training, on the other hand, aim at competences that enable people in practice to solve, in their respective occupation, an unlimited scope of real professional tasks adequately. Theoretically, there is no limit to the number of possible solutions to a professional task close to reality. Therefore, the results of professional problem solutions can at best be partially subsumed under the categories of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. The solution to a real professional task is therefore evaluated according to the criterion of ‘viability’. This general criterion covers a number of different categories. Besides the criterion of functionality, the categories of social compatibility, environmental compatibility, profitability and sustainability are advisable. When professional competence development is to be assessed, so that evaluation tasks and their solutions have to give information about the quality of the training, then the development of instruments for competence assessment becomes more complicated. The particular difficulty of diagnostics in the domain of vocational education and training is a result of the variety of occupations. Each occupation requires the development of specific assessment tasks. Given the fact that occupations are often regulated only at the national level, international comparisons become extremely difficult. At the same time, there is a political interest in integrating vocational education and training into the international procedures of competence assessment and to compare the quality of VET both nationwide and internationally. This poses a challenge to TVET research to intensify its activities in the field of competence assessment (cf. Haasler & Beelmann, 2005; Erpenbeck, 2003; Bremer, 2004).
5 Conclusion The development of subject-related research methods is a genuine field for TVET research. Despite the distinct interdisciplinarity of TVET research, specific research methods were developed for its core, which fit the particularities of research questions and research tasks in TVET research. Besides pedagogical research as a sub-discipline of TVET research, it is especially the multitude of vocational disciplines which are indispensable whenever research questions and design problems regarding the contents of professional work and education are at stake. This applies to the majority of research and development tasks. The establishment of a large number of vocational disciplines fails in many countries because these disciplines are not established at the university level for the education of vocational school-teachers. As a consequence, the academic infrastructure for TVET research is missing too. If there is, on the other hand, a university-level education of vocational school-teachers in different vocational disciplines, then a practice of TVET
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research differentiated into several occupational fields also emerges. The Hangzhou Declaration (Veal, Dittrich & K¨am¨ar¨ainen, 2005) on the establishment of vocational disciplines as a prerequisite for the professionalization of TVET teachers and the introduction of an international master’s degree for TVET teachers is therefore a milestone in the development of TVET research and also for the development of its research methods.
References Becker, W. 2005. Handlungsorientierte Fachinterviews. In: Rauner, F., ed. Handbuch Berufsbildungsforschung, pp. 601–06. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Bremer, R. 2004. Zur Konzeption von Untersuchungen beruflicher Identit¨at und fachlicher Kompetenz: ein empirisch methodologischer Beitrag zu einer berufsp¨adagogischen Entwicklungstheorie. In: Jenewein, K., et al., eds. Kompetenzentwicklung in Arbeitsprozessen. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos. Dybowski, G.; Haase, P.; Rauner, F. 1993. Berufliche Bildung und betriebliche Organisationsentwicklung. Berufliche Bildung, vol. 15. Erpenbeck, J. 2003. KODE: Kompetenz-Diagnostik und Entwicklung. In: Erpenbeck, J.; von Rosenstiel, L., eds. Handbuch Kompetenzmessung. Stuttgart, Germany: Sch¨affer-Poeschel. Flick, U. et al., eds. 1995. Handbuch Qualitative Sozialforschung: Grundlagen, Konzepte, Methoden und Anwendungen, 2nd ed. Weinheim, Germany: Beltz Psychologie Verlagsunion. Garfinkel, H. 1967. Studies in ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Garfinkel, H. 1986. Ethnomethodological studies of work. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Gr¨unewald, U. 1979. Qualifikationsforschung und berufliche Bildung. Berlin: Bundesinstitut f¨ur Berufsbildung (BIBB). Haasler, B.; Beelmann, G. 2005. Kompetenzen erfassen: Berufliche Entwicklungsaufgaben. In: Rauner, F., ed. Handbuch Berufsbildungsforschung, pp. 622–23. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Hacker, W. 1996. Diagnose von Expertenwissen: von Abzapf-(Broaching-) zu Aufbau([Re]Construction) Konzepten. Sitzungsberichte der s¨achsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, vol. 134, no. 6. Hacker, W. 2005. Wissensdiagnose. In: Rauner F., ed. Handbuch Berufsbildungsforschung, pp. 616–22. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Heritage, J. 1984. Garfinkel and Ethnomethodology. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Kleining, G. 1995. Methodologie und Geschichte qualitativer Sozialforschung. In: Flick, U. et al., eds. Handbuch Qualitativer Sozialforschung, 2nd ed. Weinheim, Germany: Beltz. M¨ullges, U. 1975. Berufstatsachen und Erziehungsaufgabe: das Grundproblem einer Berufsp¨adagogik als Wissenschaft. Deutsche Berufs- und Fachschule, vol. 71. Niethammer, M. 2005. Fachinterview. In: Rauner F., ed. Handbuch Berufsbildungsforschung, pp. 595–601. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Orr, J.E. 1986. Narratives at work. (Paper presented at the Conference on Computer-Supported Co-operative Work, Austin, Texas, USA, 3–5 December 1986, pp. 62–72.) Rauner, F. 1998. Zur methodischen Einordnung berufswissenschaftlicher Arbeitsstudien. In: Pahl, J.-P.; Rauner, F., eds. Betrifft: Berufsfeldwissenschaften. Beitr¨age zur Forschung und Lehre in den gewerblich-technischen Fachrichtungen, pp. 13–30. Bremen, Germany: Donat. Rauner, F. 2002. Berufswissenschaftliche Forschung: Implikationen f¨ur die Entwicklung von Forschungsmethoden. In: Fischer, M.; Rauner, F., eds. Lernfeld: Arbeitsprozess. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos. Rauner, F. 2005. Der Gegenstandsbezug: Berufliche Arbeits- und Bildungsprozesse. In: Rauner, F., ed. Handbuch Berufsbildungsforschung, pp. 557–62. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann.
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Scheer, J.; Catina, A. 1993. Einf¨uhrung in die Repertory-Grid-Technik: Grundlagen und Methoden. Berne: Huber. Stratmann, K. 1975. Curriculum und Curriculumprojekte im Bereich der beruflichen Aus- und Fortbildung. In: Frey, K., ed. Curriculum Handbuch, vol. 2. Munich, Germany: Piper. Veal, K.; Dittrich, J.; K¨am¨ar¨ainen, P. 2005. UNESCO International Meeting on Innovation and Excellence in TVET Teacher/Trainer Education. Bonn, Germany: UNESCO-UNEVOC. (Report of the meeting jointly organized by UNESCO-UNEVOC and UNESCO Office Beijing in partnership with the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO and the Chinese Ministry of Education, Hangzhou, China, 8–10 November 2004.)
Chapter IX.3
TVET Research as an Aid to Improved Policy and Performance in TVET Christopher Selby Smith
1 Introduction Questions as to whether research and development (R&D) affects policy or practice—if so, through what pathways; and whether the relationships can be improved—have been of interest in Australia and overseas (to researchers and also to decision-makers) (Selby Smith et al., 1998, chapter 2). Previous studies have shown that the relationships between R&D and its decisionmaking outcomes are almost always complex and not easily discerned. The idea of a one-to-one relationship between R&D and decision-making generally has been discredited, although individual studies can have an impact. Nevertheless, there is an acceptance of differences between R&D and decision-making domains; and of the importance of linkages between them. Thus, reviewing the evidence for and, where possible, evaluating the extent of influence of R&D on decision-making necessitates consideration of three areas: decision-making; R&D; and the linkages between them. The relationships between R&D and decision-making can be considered primarily from the perspective of R&D; or primarily from the perspective of decisionmaking and action. The latter perspective is adopted here, since earlier studies have indicated that the perspective from R&D can narrow the investigator’s focus, overstating research’s impact (the ‘key-hole’ problem) and underestimating the complexity of decision-making. Also, the impact of R&D on decision-making is defined to incorporate two elements: ‘use’, i.e. whether the R&D served a particular decision-making purpose, such as to solve a problem, as a weapon in political or bureaucratic conflict, or to improve conceptual understanding; and ‘influence’, i.e. whether the R&D made a difference to the decision that was made. Thus, R&D can be used in decision-making even if it did not have an influence. Secondly, R&D can influence decisions not to act—as well as decisions to act. Thirdly, even when R&D is used by decision-makers, or has influence with them, they may not explicitly recognize it.
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2 The Framework for Analysis Analysis of the relationships between R&D and decision-making is undertaken using a three-fold framework, which considers decision-making (in section 2.1); the R&D domain (in section 2.2); and the linkages between them (section 2.3). Section 2.4 identifies three separate levels of decision-making in education.
2.1 Decision-Making Ham and Hill (1993) argue that the study of decision-making should analyse three areas: the process by which decisions are made; the distribution of power; and the assumptive worlds of key participants. Palmer and Short (1994) argued that the process of decision-making is characterized by a number of stages; and that R&D of different types can play a part at each stage (see also Rist, 1996). For example, R&D can be used at the problem identification and agenda-setting stage; in the subsequent phase of deciding on the course of action to be adopted; and at the monitoring and evaluation stage, which provides opportunities for programme fine-tuning and adjustment to changing circumstances. Robinson (1998) has argued that there are a variety of decision-making processes, which can incorporate R&D very differently. For example, pragmatic decision-making characterized by no systematic consultation or research (although R&D may be used in an ad hoc way to support one stance or denigrate another) is contrasted with other decision-making processes that incorporate the systematic investigation of existing R&D and even the commissioning of more. Many of the decision-makers on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) consulted during the empirical investigation identified the complex, changing and time-pressured nature of their operating environment as an important factor in not directly considering R&D evidence before taking decisions. The timeframes of research were seen to outlast those of policy-making, so that results were often ‘too late’. Similarly, there had been substantial staff turnover, reducing the impact of accumulated knowledge, skills and attitudes (Selby Smith et al., 1998, chapter 3). Secondly, the distribution of power among the key stakeholders who participate in decision-making can affect the likelihood of R&D influencing decisions, especially if the stakeholders vary in their attitudes to R&D and its potential use. In education, as in other sectors such as healthcare, decision-making can be mediated through complex structures and arrangements: for example, in technical institutes, universities or teaching hospitals. Often decision-making is contested: for example, between different levels of decision-makers, between public and private providers, when the distribution of power between key stakeholders changes—as it did in Australia following the election of the Howard Government in March 1996. In such a complex and dynamic environment there tend to be many openings for R&D to influence decision-making (although R&D competes for influence with other factors).
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Thirdly, there are the assumptive worlds of key individuals and organizations involved in the decision-making process. The studies suggest that there are significant differences in the assumptive worlds of key stakeholders. Meanwhile, in the education sector, public service downsizing has tended to reduce the role of research branches, which has acted to distance decision-makers further from R&D. There was evidence of differences in the assumptive worlds of key decision-makers, too, at the different levels of decision-making. For practitioners, where formal R&D-based evidence is often supplemented by local experience and knowledge, the extent of R&D’s impact is affected, perhaps substantially, by the knowledge, attitudes and experience of the decision-makers. Three other points are briefly noted. First, at the level of TVET providers there has been a considerable increase over recent years in competitive pressures accompanying regulatory reform in Australia. It might be anticipated that R&D, conceived as a non-core activity, especially that initiated by researchers rather than decisionmakers, would be adversely affected. On the other hand, it was found that, in at least some TVET provider organizations, high (perhaps increasing) value was placed on the contribution of R&D information, skills and attitudes to competitive advantage. The case studies of individual TVET providers, while reflecting specific factors in particular contexts, underlined the importance of a decision-making environment predisposed to listen to R&D findings, the contributions of key individuals rather than formal structures, and the cumulative contributions to organizational effectiveness from successfully applying R&D to decision-making. Secondly, in Australia, as in many other countries, globalization and increased international competition are leading to the closer integration of a range of policies to enhance efficiency and innovation, including in TVET. Some of the main drivers of educational policy and practice originate outside the sector; and in these other areas important developments are influenced by R&D activity and knowledge accumulation. It follows that R&D not specifically directed at TVET can significantly affect decision-making there. Examples include competition policies, developments in financing arrangements or human-resource management approaches, and changing perspectives on the appropriate balance between producer and consumer interests. Providers and practitioners with an R&D culture can act as mediators and advocates between overall policies, workplace practices and the R&D domain. TVET systems and institutions require a capacity to translate relevant R&D undertaken elsewhere—domestically and overseas—so that it can be applied effectively in local circumstances. Thirdly, there are indirect as well as direct links between R&D and decisionmaking at all levels, including decision-making by policy-makers, provider organizations and individual practitioners. Community groups use R&D for decisionmaking and can influence the research agenda. Some communities, such as employers, professional groups or industrial organizations, are significant stakeholders in TVET, and influence decision-making directly. Each stakeholder organization uses R&D to advance its own interests, deploying a wide range of information, including R&D-based information, in their engagement with current political and policy debates. They also use R&D for communicating with constituents and for other
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purposes, including industrial negotiations. It can, however, be the wider community’s call for change rather than direct R&D evidence that produces modifications in decision-making by provider organizations or individual practitioners. ‘Clamour’ (Postlethwaite, 1984) can both initiate research and be driven by it. Here, R&D has an impact on decision-making which is indirect, mediated through community activity, the media, public opinion and the political process. Researchers should have ‘suitably modest’ expectations about the contribution of R&D to decision-making. R&D is only one of a number of sources of information available to decision-makers; and information from all sources is only one of many inputs into the decision-making process. This conclusion applies to all levels of decision-making. For example, Brown (1991), considering healthcare decisionmaking in the United States, concluded that ‘on a good day, ideas (information) may gain a hearing amid the swirl of political considerations, but it must be a very good and rare day indeed when policy-makers take their cues mainly from scientific knowledge about the state of the world they hope to change or protect.’ In our Australian study, two-thirds of the senior TVET decision-makers who were surveyed considered that, in reaching decisions, political and strategic considerations played the greatest role, with research-based information being used in half the cases described to support a decision already taken (Selby Smith et al., 1998, chapter 5). Boud et al., (1997) have argued that, at the level of educational providers and individual practitioners, decisions tend to be made according to past practice, perceptions of industry needs and local constraints rather than based on research.
2.2 R&D Research in education is ‘so diverse and includes so many approaches that we are not communicating well if we just talk about ‘research’ with a capital “R” ’ (Anderson, 1998). The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, 1993) defines research with reference to the Frascati Manual of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), as comprising ‘creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this knowledge to devise new applications’. Thus, R&D studies are characterized by originality; R&D has investigation as a primary objective; and research shades into development and application. ‘R&D’ has three main outputs. First, it provides new knowledge and applies existing knowledge in new ways, including for new audiences and in new settings. A second output of research is research skills and attitudes: an approach, a way of doing things or of assessing alternative sources of information. R&D creates human capital as well as knowledge. A third output of research is appropriately educated people, who are critical for both the research system and improved decision-making. Most ‘impact’ studies concentrate on the knowledge creation aspects of research. Since
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R&D involves an aspiration to truth, it precludes conclusions being reached before the evidence is examined or despite it (Weiss, 1991). OECD and ABS classify R&D by type: basic research; strategic research; applied research; and experimental development (ABS, 1993). Research in any field, including TVET, can be distributed among the four types according to the motivation for undertaking the R&D. Three significant implications arise. First, one would expect different levels of impact for the different types of research. For example, R&D which specifically addresses a current problem clearly defined by users is likely to be thought ‘more relevant’, particularly in the short term, than research intended to expand decision-makers’ conceptual understanding. Secondly, one might expect different patterns of impact between the types of R&D in various decision-making situations. For example, national and regional decision-makers might be expected to attach higher priority to strategic research and less to developmental activities, with the reverse being expected for educational providers, because the former tend to be less concerned with detailed implementation and more with strategic questions (and conversely for TVET providers and practitioners). Also, different patterns of R&D impact would be expected at different stages of the policy cycle, e.g. agenda setting compared to policy formulation, implementation or evaluation. Thirdly, perceptions of use and influence tend to vary among types of R&D, because some types of research are more clearly visible than others. Even when the information from a research study is used or has an influence on decision-making, this may not be visible to a particular stakeholder. However, the skills and attitudes developed by the R&D system can be used in all decision-making settings (and in the research system itself). The accumulative nature of R&D means that, while an individual study can have an impact on decision-making, this tends to be the exception rather than the rule. R&D tends to contribute to a climate of opinion, providing a set of ideas and resources. At particular times, certain ideas are ‘in good currency’, while others are not or are no longer. Trace-back studies suggest greater research impact, particularly from basic R&D, than forward-looking studies. Viewing research ‘as a process of debate’ (Klein, 1990) or conceptualizing a ‘knowledge reservoir’ (Buxton & Hanney, 1997) highlights the value of an on-going research capacity from which decision-makers can draw ideas, information and advice. Educational researchers employ a wide range of approaches. Since different policy questions benefit from different techniques and methodologies, it is important to match the approach to the problem. Much research, especially in universities, is conducted from the standpoint of a particular academic discipline; and R&D in education can employ many disciplinary perspectives. When researchers adopt a particular disciplinary approach, it influences the problems identified, the questions posed, the techniques adopted to investigate them, the way in which results are reported and the audiences with whom researchers interact. It can also influence quality standards—a problem for some interdisciplinary studies. Fox (1990) has argued that, in the USA in the 1980s, research based on ‘economizing values’ was particularly influential—and Brown (1991) agrees. It has been suggested that, in Australia, much recent decision-making in education can be traced to
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the rise of economic theories of institutions and rational actor views in the academy (Seddon, 1998). To the extent that the issues concerning decision-makers warrant attention from more than one disciplinary perspective, researchers require not only competence in their discipline but other skills and personal characteristics to enable them to collaborate effectively. R&D is carried out in various locations: universities; other not-for-profit, specialist research organizations; within-government departments and agencies; by educational providers; in private consultancy firms; and by practitioners. Indeed, it can be argued that anyone with relevant skills can carry out R&D and they can do it anywhere. However, there are advantages in carrying out particular types of R&D in different locations. They have their own history and culture, their own incentive and reward structures, which may (or may not) encourage relevant research. Each location tends to specialize in particular types of research; and each produces different combinations of research outputs. Thus, a disproportionate amount of basic research is undertaken within universities, whereas the ‘Big 6’ consultancy firms in Australia tend to concentrate at the ‘D’ not the ‘R’ end of the R&D continuum, generally synthesize existing research and are less confined to one academic discipline than university researchers. The great majority of R&D by TVET practitioners appears to represent the actions of individuals seeking to improve the operation of an activity with which they are involved. These studies are often relatively brief in duration and produce either no report or one with only limited circulation. There is a balance to be struck, from the overall societal viewpoint, among the different types of research and, by implication, among the different locations. Recently, funding has been the major mechanism for (re)directing the national research effort in Australia, to increase the linkages between researchers and users, and thus capture a greater level of economic and social benefits from the public resources invested in R&D. Australian researchers are responding to these incentives, somewhat blurring the distinctions between the types of R&D undertaken in the different research locations. Different research settings also tend to attract researchers with different approaches, values and interests. These differences have implications for the research done and where it has an audience. For example, it appears that researchers in consulting firms have particular skills in ‘helping things happen’ and ‘in linking various resources together quickly’ (Thorn, 1998). R&D by practitioners tends to be related to immediate problems, to be known about by (some) potential users and hence more likely to be applied by them. Studies that are initiated by researchers may be less immediately visible to decision-makers, less easy for them to incorporate appropriately in decision-making processes, and perhaps more likely to challenge established ways of thinking or acting. Similarly, it may be that some research is judged accordingly to who did it rather that what was done. Of course, research is not solely to provide information for decision-making, especially if the relationship is conceived as narrowly instrumental and short term. Research has other important societal purposes: it is not just the servant of decisionmaking. In Australia, for example, West (1997) has argued that education, including research and research training, has special social and cultural dimensions that contribute to the transmission of knowledge, an informed citizenry and the quality of life.
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2.3 Linkages The impact of R&D on decision-making is affected by the linkages between research (and researchers) and decision-making (and decision-makers). Contact between the two domains, not only at the close of a study, but also before it starts and during its conduct, can strongly affect impact. The contacts can even establish ‘multiple areas of collaboration between the two parties which transcend the impact of a single study’ (Huberman, 1990). Linkages between the two domains can be facilitated through particular institutional arrangements, key stakeholder organizations, other interest groups and the media, and mechanisms such as funding arrangements, so that linkages are conceptualized better as a ‘web’ or ‘network’ (Selby Smith et al., 1992). To stress the concept of linkages is to be concerned with facilitating the establishment of multiple pathways through which research can influence policy and practice. The literature on the web of linkages is sparser than that on decision-making or research. Linkages have a two-fold task: to transmit information from potential users of research within the decision-making system to researchers about the R&D needed for decision-making; and to transmit to potential users information about relevant R&D which has been undertaken within the research system. One defining characteristic of linkages is information flows. There are many forms of information flows: formal or informal; direct or indirect; long term or immediate. Although linkages are established because one party, usually decision-makers, wants to gain access to information, this presupposes that decision-makers know what they want; that researchers understand what decision-makers want what research, and when; and that researchers wish to respond and are able to do so. These conditions are frequently not satisfied. In practice, there are often difficulties in creating and maintaining an effective web of linkages. Review of the literature reveals that, first, it has tended to focus on linkages involving information flows, with greater recognition only recently of tacit knowledge and the movement of people. Secondly, the impact of research on decision-making tends to be greater where the linkages occur throughout the research project rather than solely at the end. Such linkages facilitate on-going interaction and increase the likelihood of research being used. They also assist researchers to understand better the needs of decision-making. Thirdly, when research occurs in decision-making settings, whether at the level of policy or practice, the linkages between R&D and decision-making tend to be closer. There is also a greater likelihood of external research being taken into account (see Selby Smith et al., 1998, Chapter 2, Section 4). The funders of educational R&D have tended, at least in Australia, to focus on dissemination—‘a remote audience for research with whom communication must be established’ (McGaw, 1998)—rather than on linkages. Viewing dissemination as the final step of a project also has its political aspects, since it can be construed as the responsibility of researchers. Stressing the multiple pathways through which research can influence policy and practice in TVET identifies the importance of multiple areas of collaboration between researchers, policy-makers, practitioners and the wider community.
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Education systems include numerous communities, multiple pathways for use and influence, and a wide range of possible interactions and feedback. Translating ideas and concerns is not a task for researchers alone, but for all stakeholders. The stronger the linkages, the clearer the pathways of influence are likely to be and the greater the likelihood of uptake for new ideas. Linkages can also be a means of ensuring that researchers address the ‘right’ questions. The web of linkages includes both formal and informal arrangements. Huberman has stressed formal linkages, ‘sustained interactivity’, for achieving instrumental change. Informal arrangements can also facilitate the flow of information, research skills and attitudes, and educated people. Indeed, particular research processes can themselves act as a linkage with policy-makers, practitioners and other users (see Selby Smith, 1999). The linkages can be indirect as well as direct, for example, through the industry partners or professional associations, or more diffusely through public debate, the media and community organizations. The conduct of research projects can also act as a linkage among researchers. Three other matters are noted. First, since there are significant differences between the research and decision-making communities, there is a role for research ‘brokers’ to facilitate the exchange of information, skills and attitudes between R&D producers and potential users. A United Kingdom study of the payback from research projects identified ‘policy-maker involvement and brokerage, as key factors in enhancing utilization’ (Buxton & Hanney, 1994). Secondly, the increasing tendency by decision-making organizations to outsource R&D does not remove the need to retain an integrative, translating and co-ordinating function within agencies. TVET providers, like co-ordinating authorities, can only integrate new information from research effectively if they have the skilled personnel and other capacities in-house to ask the appropriate questions, assess the evidence, and know how and when to use it. Thirdly, there is an international dimension to the relationships between research and decision-making. Australian TVET is operating increasingly in a global environment and subject to international influences. Researchers, as well as policy-makers and practitioners, interact with colleagues overseas and those in Australia. The potential web of linkages, aided by technological change, is expanding substantially within and across groups.
2.4 Levels of Decision-Making Three levels of decision-making can be distinguished: national or regional level; the level of individual education and training providers; and practitioners (such as teachers). Policy decisions at the national or regional level are concerned with establishing the overall legislative and organizational framework in the functional area, determining major programmes and the resources to be made available. Planning decisions focus on establishing the parameters, including financial and human resources, and the organizational structures to support programme implementation, having
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regard to effectiveness and efficiency criteria, but also, often, political considerations. Many policy and planning decisions occur at the level of individual TVET providers, particularly where systems are devolved. Practitioners also make decisions, sometimes on the basis of R&D. The relationships between R&D and decision-making at this level can affect the efficiency and equity of education and training outcomes. Policy change is of little instrumental use if practice is unaffected. Decision-making by practitioners is concerned primarily with service delivery at the local level, involving, for example, relationships between teachers and those being taught. Numerous potential audiences exist for R&D at this level of decision-making; R&D can be used for a variety of purposes; and multiple direct and indirect pathways are possible between R&D and TVET practitioners.
3 Two Australian Studies Two Australian studies illustrate some major findings in relation to the relationships between TVET research and TVET planning, management and policy.
3.1 The Impact of Research on VET Decision-Making The research team was asked to review the evidence for and, where possible, evaluate the extent of influence of research in vocational education and training (VET). There were three main findings (Selby Smith et al., 1998, pp. 1–28). First, the evidence was that research had an impact (in terms of both use and influence) on VET decision-making, but not in the way that many people had anticipated.
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The research enterprise was accumulative. Much research does not stand on its own as a piece of work, but adds to that which existed before. This accumulating body of knowledge contributes in decision-making to the creation of a climate of opinion and the development of a set of ideas. Over time, research’s main contribution may be to the ‘big ideas’. A number of the ‘big ideas’ preoccupying senior TVET decision-makers over recent years in Australia were grounded in research. The outputs of the research system include research skill and attitudes and trained personnel (human capital). They contribute to the maintenance and development of the research system and can contribute in varying degrees to decision-making. These outputs were often overlooked by ‘users’. However, their contribution to improved decision-making in TVET was demonstrated in a number of the case studies. Individual research studies were used and had influence on TVET decisionmaking (in policy and planning; practice and performance within provider organizations; and community relations). However, the examples of individual
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studies might not be typical, so that the value of research could not necessarily be judged by them alone. Secondly, it was not possible to evaluate (quantitatively) the extent of the influence of research on TVET decision-making. Its influence was positive, but research was certainly not the only factor influencing decision-making (and, in many cases, it was not the most important).
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There were many different types of research and they could be used in a wide range of decision-making contexts. These different types of research had varying levels of visibility to the separate groups of users and other stakeholders, which affected these groups’ knowledge of the extent of the influence of research. It may be concluded that one could not decide which types of research were used and had influence more than others. Other factors were also important. The extent of the use or influence of research could not be determined by considering the research system alone. The use and influence of R&D depended critically on the circumstances of decision-making in a particular context and the linkages between research and decision-making in that context. The research study demonstrated that there were many contexts. There were many (potential) uses of research in TVET decision-making. Uses include: to resolve a particular problem; as a weapon in explicit political or bureaucratic conflict; and to justify a decision already made—as well as in problemsolving or assisting users to increase their conceptual understanding of an issue. TVET research in Australia has been used in these various ways at different times, although the different uses were not always made explicit.
Thirdly, the extent to which research can be used and have influence in TVET decision-making can be enhanced by the actions of the stakeholders. Enduring linkages appeared to be based on the sustained mutual esteem and understanding of the potential contribution of each party, and where those linkages emphasized collaboration for the good of the TVET system as a whole.
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Researchers had an obligation to be committed to the research enterprise, to keep up-to-date in their field, to maintain the quality of their work and to be willing to engage with their broader communities. The research system needs to have appropriate incentive structures to encourage such behaviour. Decision-makers have an obligation to be engaged with the world of ideas and to think, read and participate in intellectual debate. They cannot expect to make good decisions without thought: they have the responsibility as professionals to develop their own human capital. The incentive structures in their work settings should encourage such actions. Since a significant amount of research is now commissioned by users, their actions influence the quality of research. A strong preference for short-term and instrumental research can weaken the research base in the longer term. A weak network of effective linkages undermines the potential for research to be used in TVET decision-making and to have influence. It limits the potential for the two-way flow of information and people, and for feedback.
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3.2 A Range of Case Studies Seventeen case studies were undertaken on the relationships between R&D and decision-making in TVET (Selby Smith, 1999). A framework for considering the case studies on a consistent basis was developed to facilitate comparisons. Three main factors influenced the selection of the case studies. First, it was apparent that a large number of case studies would be required if the diverse range of factors that can affect the relationships between R&D and decisionmaking, and thus research’s impact on action, were to be properly represented in relation to policy and planning, practice and performance, and community relations. Taken together, the case studies illustrated the variety of ways in which R&D can have an impact on TVET decision-making. Secondly, the selection of case studies was affected by the funding body’s indication that it was particularly interested in the impact of VET research on three areas: policy and planning; practice and performance; and community relations. Of the seventeen case studies: seven related to the impact of R&D on decision-making at the level of national, state and territory policy; six related to decision-making at the level of individual training providers; and four to community relations aspects. Nevertheless, there remained wide differences between the case studies, even at a particular level of decision-making. Thirdly, many of the R&D projects examined in the case studies were initiated by users and, hence, may be thought more likely to have a subsequent impact on decision-making. As McGaw concluded, ‘serious consideration of recommendations is enhanced when education providers are seriously engaged as sponsors of the review’. Nevertheless, some projects were initiated by researchers; and it is of interest whether the mode of initiation affected the subsequent impact on decisionmaking. Researcher-initiated projects may be less visible to decision-makers; less easy to incorporate in decision-making processes; and perhaps more likely to challenge established ways of thinking or acting. Four main conclusions were drawn from the seventeen case studies (Selby Smith, 1999, pp. 196–207). First, taken together, they confirmed the validity of the broad framework adopted for analysing the relationships between R&D on the one hand and policy, practice and performance in TVET on the other. Typically, aspects of the decision-making arrangements, the relevant R&D system and the linkages between them were significant. Within the decision-making arrangements, the case studies illustrated the importance of the policy process, the relative power of the respective stakeholders and the assumptive worlds of key actors. Within the R&D system the three attributes of new and better information, research skills and attitudes, and educated people were all significant. Linkages between R&D and decisionmaking, and between researchers and decision-makers, were shown to be important. Linkages were both formal and informal. There were linkages before and during the research project, as well as at its completion. The linkages established through a single research project could have effects which transcended the impact of the single study. Linkages were important at each level of decision-making. The linkages could be indirect as well as direct—for example, through community organizations,
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the media, public opinion and the political process. The emphasis on linkages, rather than on more narrowly defined dissemination, increased the mutual responsibilities of both researchers and decision-makers. Secondly, the case studies emphasized the complexity of the situations which arise in the real world. The case studies revealed the individuality of the specific circumstances through which the broad relationships between R&D and decisionmaking operated; and the importance of considering dynamic aspects of the relevant situation as well as more static aspects. Administrators, policy-makers and TVET practitioners tended to seek clear conclusions and simple recommendations for action, whereas the case studies emphasized that R&D often reveals the complexity of real-life situations. The case studies also emphasized the considerable importance that can be attached to individual champions or sponsors, whether in initiating the R&D or making effective use of the results. One set of decision-makers who are often overlooked, but who were brought to centre stage by certain of the case studies, were trainees and students in TVET. Research can influence their participation, their decision-making and that of training providers through their active involvement in the research process and the consequent enhancement of their active voice. However, the precise contribution of R&D to decision-making was hedged with many uncertainties and qualifications. Sometimes no single analyst, observer or participant appeared to be in a position to know the full story. The estimates of R&D’s impact on decision-making were often subjective and incomplete. The case studies illustrated the multiple sources of R&D, its multiple destinations in TVET decision-making, and the multiple pathways through which impact can occur. Thirdly, in considering the relationships between R&D and decision-making in Australian TVET, the case studies complemented other approaches (such as literature reviews, symposia, quantitative studies and consultations with key stakeholders), by providing a richness of detail and an appreciation of the complex and varied channels through which broad relationships operate. For example, surveys enabled familiarity with a wide range of material, speedy appreciation of common elements and generalizations about the overall project; but the survey analysis tends to be shallow compared to case studies, which allow for a much greater depth of understanding. Illumination of the research question was enhanced by the use of purposeful maximum variation sampling, the wide range of different cases included in the study and their diverse circumstances. Fourthly, the case studies raised the difficult issue of the precise boundaries of R&D, especially in relation to research skills and attitudes, and at the practitioner level. Indeed, it has been argued that in organizations where the culture of R&D is strong, the distinctions between R&D, continuous improvement, action research, professional social inquiry, reflective practice, learning and work become blurred. An openness to evidence in making decisions, for example, can be characterized as a way of working, as well as a characteristic of R&D. Paradoxically, those who are already most knowledgeable are often those who are most open to new evidence. A number of the case studies could be seen as wrestling with how best to define the precise boundary of R&D activity in TVET.
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4 Final Comments During these Australian studies it was suggested that the research process is driven by the evidence, the search for improved understanding and an attitude of openness. It was argued that the researcher’s role involves engagement at two levels: the theoretical framework or discourse of discussion; and the practical or experiential evidence. Although this engagement at two levels involves tensions, they are an essential element of performing the researcher role. Of course, the R&D system is wider than the individuals who undertake research, since it involves the institutions of knowledge production, the mechanisms which support it and the processes by which established positions are challenged, tested and, where necessary, changed. The greater the stress laid on tacit and uncodified knowledge, the more attention is focused on research skill and attitudes, and the greater the concentration on action research, professional social inquiry and reflective practice by provider organizations and individual practitioners, the wider the definition of R&D tends to become (and its likely impact on decision-making in TVET). Indeed, in an increasingly turbulent environment, an interest by decision-makers in evidence, an openness to new perspectives and a willingness to learn progressively and systematically from the experience of oneself and others is central to improving policy, practice and performance in TVET. These Australian studies illustrate the diverse ways in which a beneficial relationship between R&D and TVET decision-making can operate, or be frustrated, in relation to policy, planning, management and practice.
References Australian Bureau of Statistics. 1993. Australian Standard Research Classification. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. (Catalogue no. 1297.0.) Anderson, D. 1998. Research, decision-making and action in other functional areas of government, and internationally. In: Selby Smith, C., ed. Research and VET decision making: February 1997 Symposium. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University, ACER Centre for the Economics of Education and Training. Boud, D. et al. 1997. More strategic, more critical, more evaluative. In: Boud, D., ed. Workplace learning: current research and new agendas. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Brown, L. 1991. Knowledge and power: health services research as a political resource. In: Ginzberg, E., ed. Health services research: key to health policy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Buxton, M.J.; Hanney, S. 1994. Assessing payback from Department of Health Research and Development, vol. 1. Uxbridge, UK: Brunel University, Health Economics Research Group. Buxton, M.J.; Hanney, S. 1997. Assessing payback from Department of Health Research and Development: Second Report. Uxbridge, UK: Brunel University, Health Economics Research Group. Fox, D. 1990. Health policy and the politics of research in the United States. Journal of health politics, policy and law, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 381–499. Ham, C.; Hill, M. 1993. The policy process in the modern capitalist State. Brighton, UK: Wheatsheaf Books. Huberman, M. 1990. Linkages between researchers and practitioners: a qualitative study. American educational research journal, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 363–91.
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Klein, R. 1990. Research policy and the national health service. Journal of health politics, policy and law, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 501–23. McGaw, B. 1998. Research and researchers’ perspectives: from the viewpoint of other sources of research. In: Selby Smith, C., ed. Research and VET decision making: February 1997 Symposium. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University, ACER Centre for the Economics of Education and Training. Palmer, G.; Short, S. 1994. Healthcare and public policy: an Australian analysis. Melbourne, Australia: Macmillan. Postlethwaite, T. 1984. Research and policy making in education: some possible links. In: Anderson, D.S.; Biddle, B.J., eds. 1991. Knowledge for policy: improving education through research, pp. 203–13. London: The Falmer Press. Rist, R. 1996. Information needs in the policy arena: linking educational research to the policy cycle. In: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, ed. Knowledge bases for education policies. Paris: OECD. Robinson, C. 1998. Research and researchers’ perspectives: from the viewpoint of VET research institutions. In: Selby Smith, C., ed. Research and VET decision-making: February 1997 Symposium. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University, ACER Centre for the Economics of Education and Training. Seddon, T. 1998. Research and researchers’ perspectives: from the viewpoint of other sources of research. In: Selby Smith, C., ed. Research and VET decision-making: February 1997 Symposium. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University, ACER Centre for the Economics of Education and Training. Selby Smith, C. et al. 1992. National Health Labour Force Research Program, 2 vols. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University, Graduate School of Management. Selby Smith, C. et al. 1998. The impact of R&D on VET decision-making. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Selby Smith, C., ed. 1999. The impact of R&D on VET decision-making: a range of case studies. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Thorn, F. 1998. Research and researchers’ perspectives: from the viewpoint of other sources of research. In: Selby Smith, C., ed. Research and VET decision-making: February 1997 Symposium. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University, ACER Centre for the Economics of Education and Training. Weiss, C.H., ed. 1991. Organizations for policy analysis. New York, NY: Sage Publications. West, R. 1997. Review of higher education financing and policy, learning for life: a policy discussion paper. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.
Chapter IX.4
Repositioning the Role of Research in the Innovation of TVET Anneke Westerhuis
1 Introduction The optimistic concept in the post-Second World War period of creating a better society via government policy also made its marks on education. In the Netherlands and in many other Western countries, the State took the initiative of modernizing society. Research and science were seen as major contributors: the application of knowledge by political means—and not the responsiveness of government to private wants—becomes a test of good government. In this respect, the problem of modernization becomes a constant struggle over two conflicting principles of rule, namely, the public interest as seen by the public and the public interest as seen by the scientific elite (Apter, 1967, p. 433, quoted by Idenburg, 1975).
Research—and researchers for that matter—have been an important source for new ideas and implementation strategies to reform education into a meritocratic system for the upward mobility of the population. This chapter is about fundamental developments in the role of research as an instrument for education policy in the Netherlands, in particular for technical and vocational education and training (TVET). However, as the situation in the Netherlands is now strongly influenced by European TVET policy, the Dutch case can be seen as an illustration of developments also to be found in other European countries. This chapter will argue that research is losing its position in the traditional triangle of policy-making, research and innovation of education, as this triangle is now falling apart (Onderwijsraad, 2003; Vandenberge, 2005; de Bruijn & Westerhuis, 2004). Acknowledging the fact that this triangle can never be restored, researchers in particular are obliged to redefine their position. This chapter will give some suggestions about where to find this new position.
2 The Changing Position of Research in Educational Innovation In 1968 Philip Coombs published The world educational crisis: a systems analysis (Coombs, 1968). The need to innovate in education was profound, if education wanted to give an adequate answer to the growing demand for education by the R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 IX.4, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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Innovation chain National policy
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Fig. 1 Interfaces between the traditional knowledge and innovation chains (after de Bruijn & Westerhuis, 2004, p. 7)
population and by industry (Idenburg, 1975). The research world should be one of the major contributors in overcoming this crisis by dedicating itself to educational reform. In this atmosphere of crises and with a sense of urgency, the research/development/diffusion (RDD) concept was adopted as an effective way to unite the forces of distinct fields of expertise: (a) national policy-making; (b) research and knowledge production; and (c) teaching and education. In this way, the innovation process in education was modelled after research and development in the industrial world. In this RDD concept, research had its position at the beginning of the process by conducting a research agenda of policy-inspired topics. The research results reached the schools (the third link) through the educational support system, responsible for converting them into real actions (Figure 1). Another feature of this RDD concept is its linear top-down character: ideas come first. Ideas reach the classroom in a ready-made way (instruments, curricula, teaching methods) via expert institutes, limiting the role of educational practitioners to that of adopting what the ‘experts’ had developed for them. In the 1960s it had already been concluded that large-scale innovations failed because the teachers did not adopt the materials developed for them by those experts. The chosen solution— inviting a limited number of teachers to participate in the development process—was not a fundamental improvement on this approach (Westerhuis, 1999). Nowadays, the ministries of education break away from the role of organizing education with distinct input from the research community at the national level. Schools are given much more freedom to organize innovation as a local school initiative (de Vijlder, 2005; Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap, 2005). This is particularly true for TVET. Compared to the other segments of the national education system, the TVET sub-system, together with higher professional education, is in the forefront of the move towards decentralization and school autonomy. With the evaporation of the traditional RDD system, TVET researchers in particular see their natural habitat gradually collapsing (de Bruijn & Westerhuis, 2004; Lagerweij & Lagerweij-Voogt, 2004):
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stakeholders. Schools, in particular VET schools, will organize their own network of opinion leaders and stakeholders (Bakker, de Vijlder & Westerhuis, 2004; Hooge, van der Sluis & de Vijlder, 2004). In school-based innovation, traditional forms of research do not find a place as they are replaced by trendy consultancy concepts like ‘knowledge management’, ‘appreciative inquiry’, the ‘learning organization’ and ‘total quality management’. At local level, innovation is not seen as the implementation of research outcomes, but as a—particular—form of organization development (Bruijns, Egberink & Gansewinkel, 2004). The process of policy-making transfers from a linear planning/action/evaluation cycle with distinct roles for ministries, schools and interest groups, for example, into a multi-focus on-going process without clear beginnings and ends (Abma, 2004; de Bruijn, ten Heuvelhof & in ‘t Veld, 2004). The number of academic posts/units specializing in TVET research is diminishing. The possibilities of organizing networks of policy-makers and educational practitioners around these posts are therefore limited (MGK, 2005). The gap between research questions and research methodologies validated in national research programmes and research questions and processes validated by practitioners is widening (Vandenberge, 2005). Researchers are no longer seen as the exclusive producers of knowledge. In today’s society, there is a growing acceptance of the idea that knowledge is a multifunctional concept. Knowledge comes from a variety of sources; from research, but also from educational practice. In stressing the importance of the practical value of knowledge, the value of knowledge is no longer defined in reference to methodological rules (Gibbons et al., 1994, Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995). The ultimate consequence of this approach is the blurring of distinctions between opinions, facts, beliefs and validated knowledge, as in Lyotard’s famous rhetorical question: ‘who decides what knowledge is?’ (Lyotard, 1979). New initiatives in educational policy-making are hardly accompanied by research programmes, either to feed the process of goal setting and design, or to assess results against goals, stakeholder roles or international examples of similar initiatives (MGK, 2005). A growing number of researchers are employed in private institutes, competing for commissions. This type of contracted policy evaluation research mostly has the limited objective of feeding policy-making with empirical data. This means that researchers are no longer in a position to raise fundamental questions with regard to policy assumptions (Nijhof & van Esch, 2004; Stuurgroep Evaluatie de Wet educatie en beroepsonderwijs, 2001). The professional identity of researchers is weakening. Researchers are still members of professional bodies, but this membership no longer entitles them to privileges and professional freedom. The professional identity is replaced by an employment identity; the researcher is first and foremost a loyal member of the institutes’ staff (de Wilde, 2001).
Not surprisingly, publications and workshops focusing on the relation between research and educational practice are initiated in particular by the research
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community (Wald & Leenders, 2001; AWT, 2003; OECD, 2003; ORD, 2003; de Bruijn & Westerhuis, 2003; de Bruijn & Westerhuis, 2004; van der Sluis, 2004; Manning, 2005). The leading question in many of these initiatives seems to be: ‘how to make research findings more accessible to practitioners?’ In phrasing the predicament as a language problem on the part of researchers and an attitude or competence problem on the part of educational practitioners, the point is missed that behind this question lies hidden a more fundamental problem.
3 What Way Forward? Indeed, from a wider perspective, the changing position of research in educational innovation and school development was inevitable. The strong position of the research community depended heavily on the traditional RDD cycle and the acknowledgement of the research community’s monopoly in the production of knowledge in this cycle. Perhaps researchers should be modest and acknowledge the fact that they were blind about the critical assessment of their research in schools/local governments while the national RDD system was in place. Perhaps they only paid lip-service to the claim that the intended research should be relevant for practice (Vandenberge, 2005). From this point of view, an obvious solution would have been to strengthen the links between research and school development by employing appropriate research methodologies and by allowing the direct involvement of practitioners in research activities: action research, design research, development research. A likely consequence of this strategy would be that research is regarded as a toolbox of working methods, employed by researchers when defining a new role, such as in acting as methodology experts, facilitating teachers to learn how to reflect, how to pose questions, how to redefine questions after rounds of consultations, etc. In this process, researchers are facing competition with (management) consultants. On the other hand, they have a head start in their profound knowledge of the education system and its characteristics. Nevertheless, after a more fundamental assessment of the role of research in what we routinely call the knowledge society, I would argue for a more fundamental approach and challenge by particular TVET researchers in defining a new role. We are familiar with the high esteem for knowledge shown in such familiar terms as ‘the knowledge society’, ‘the knowledge economy’ and ‘knowledge management’ and the proliferation of research activities. Some TVET schools are even calling themselves ‘regional knowledge centres’. De Wilde (2001) points to the fact that the rise of the knowledge economy is accompanied by a loss of status for people in traditional intellectual professions. For him, the explanation is the tendency to assess knowledge only in terms of its value for production purposes— for the addition of value. This knowledge is not the exclusive domain of intellectuals. Knowledge is primarily instrumental in the development of new technologies (Drucker, 1969). In the words of de Wilde: ‘the production of knowledge is now under an industrial regime’. For Drucker, the rise of the knowledge economy
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is not a chapter in intellectual history, but a chapter in the history of technology (de Wilde, 2001, p. 15). In this industrial regime, knowledge is subservient to innovation and therefore a critical asset in the on-going competition for improvement and efficiency. For educational researchers this view looks familiar, as the RDD concept of research was dedicated to educational reform. The idea of employing research methodologies that allow for the direct involvement of practitioners can be seen as an obvious step to be taken at the very moment when the innovation agenda is no longer established at the national level but by schools. In linking research activities exclusively to local innovation, research is an instrument for school-based innovation. This means innovation in the most instrumental interpretation of the production of new programmes, the definition of new roles, the involvement of more stakeholders, etc. The right to question policy priorities came as a bonus with the position of researchers in the RDD cycle. In being regarded as a scientific elite, research had some authority. As can be seen in Figure 1, the research community was a counterbalance in policy-making. Therefore, one of the striking features about the collapse of the RDD concept is the fact that the position of researchers as opinion leaders in national TVET policy agenda debates is no longer taken for granted. However, looking upon this development as inherent—and therefore inevitable—in the Drucker version of the knowledge economy is too deterministic. If we acknowledge that a wide range of stakeholders is defining the strategic aims of TVET, the most important consequence is the loss of a focus point for research in collecting, assessing and distributing research findings, for debates on the quality of research designs and methodologies, for the classification of local findings in wider, general concepts and for critical reflection of local findings against general concepts. In my opinion, an infrastructure for organizing these kinds of activities is needed, even more so when research activities are widely spread in VET. One of its aims should be to raise the quality of knowledge produced with the introduction of validated and reliable methods and competence development of people involved in research activities, but also to organize a knowledge base and a forum for critical assessment of, for instance, stakeholder perspectives included and excluded in research activities. Let me illustrate the working methods for competence development and establishing this knowledge base by two examples from my own research practice. The first example illustrates the role of research in the Dutch National Programme for the Innovation of TVET (2004–2007). In this programme, TVET schools could apply for a grant in order to conduct innovative projects adapting teaching and learning to local industrial needs. The programme had three research strands:
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(quantitative) research on the effects and outcomes at both project and programme level; monitoring local innovation processes in case studies;
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knowledge circles for members of project teams aiming at the explication and validation of good practices and innovation strategies.
In particular, the knowledge circles are dedicated to explaining local practices by confronting these practices with a conceptual framework. By doing this, practitioners are challenged to detect patterns in local practices in four—intellectual— assessments. The role of the researcher in the knowledge circle is to facilitate these intellectual assessments:
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evaluating a conceptual framework as an abstracted expression of project ambitions; framing local practices (situated knowledge) in this concept via study visits to local practices aiming at the assessment of their strong and weak points and, by doing this, challenging the visitors to assess their own practice as well; improving the development of local practices in this double confrontation with a conceptual framework and other local practices; fleshing out the framework with good practices, as defined by the members of the knowledge circle.
Another example is a programme organized by the Centrum Voor Innovatie Van Opleidingen (CINOP—Centre for the Innovation of Education and Training) in the Netherlands for TVET schools and local (school) networks that wanted to improve their relations with the local industry and other local stakeholders. This programme is also organized as a dual track in combining reflection and evaluation of local innovation processes. The schools volunteering to join this programme agreed to co-operate in assessing local initiatives against a conceptual framework of three linked questions:
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What role do we want to have in this region? Which educational facilities and programmes are appropriate to this role? What stakeholder relations fit this role?
The assumption is that the answer to the first question should lead the way to answering the other two. Another assumption is that it is inevitable for VET institutes to define their role in terms of a clear aim, validated by the school staff and the local stakeholders as a frame of reference for programme development and evaluation. In this programme, each of the five schools and networks has a residential researcher. The role of these researchers is to participate in local development processes by observing the formal and informal answers given to these questions. The observations are compared in research meetings, both to detect similarities and differences and to identify blind spots in local answers in terms of innovation processes and their outcomes. The observations are also shared with local practice. This programme has two aims. The first is to improve local practices in a confrontation with a conceptual framework supposing coherence in the three answers. The second is that the observations and answers will enable researchers to develop a practical theory in which conceptual, instrumental and strategic elements will constitute a system of accumulated knowledge (see also de Bruijn & Westerhuis, 2004).
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Both examples have in common that local innovations are confronted with a conceptual framework—local developments are assessed within a wider perspective than that of local aims and working methods. This confrontation is an interactive process in which the production of local knowledge and generic knowledge go together, but are identical. In this they also have in common the fact that this interactive process is not eternal; co-operation is temporary. From the point of view of the researcher, co-operation is limited to the moment the researcher wants to join other practices in order to enrich the practical theory. From the point of view of local practice, co-operation is relevant up to the moment a conceptual framework is no longer an inspiring source for local innovation processes (see also Doets, n.d.). In these examples, research is a focus point for collecting, assessing and distributing research findings and the classification of local findings in wider, general concepts and for critical reflection of local findings against general concepts. This infrastructure is definitely not a revival of the old tripartite national network, if only by acknowledging that ‘doing research’ is now widely practised and therefore also the claim of knowledge production.
4 The Research Agenda The confrontation of local findings with conceptual frameworks presupposes researchers and practice share a common agenda. In the Netherlands, there is strong support for the idea to launch an innovation agenda in TVET as a shared responsibility of national (ministries, social partners) and local policy-makers (school management and local stakeholders, i.e. local industry). The point is not so much to produce an agenda as a compromise after several negative attempts, but far more to facilitate an on-going process of discussions and opinion-sharing in a network; the innovation agenda as a process (de Vijlder, 2005; Ministerie van OCW, 2005). However, this proposal is dedicated to the organization of an action programme for innovation, which should be supported by national and local stakeholders. The role of research is to facilitate the execution of this agenda by monitoring the progress of local innovations and their contributions to the national agenda. In this, it is not a research agenda in terms of system analyses or a critical assessment of the imminent developments of TVET in the longer term. Tom Schuler claims that, because initially education policy is located in ministries of education and has an institutional basis, it is amenable to research and research policy and funding. He contrasts initial education to lifelong learning that ‘lacks an institutional base, a professional identity, an administrative location and a political profile. Moreover, there is no agreed framework around which knowledge can be cumulatively constructed’ (Schuler, 2005, p. 174). For him the challenge for research in lifelong learning is in sketching out possible scenarios, and linking them to empirical trends and issues—to aspire to generate such a framework. The point I would like to make is that the frameworks for knowledge accumulation
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should neither be dedicated exclusively to acute and manifest problems in the wellestablished education sectors, like the TVET sector, as these problems are transformed into this policy agenda. It is not an easy task to identify such a research agenda, or even to legitimize such an agenda. The temptation to mirror the acute policy agenda in a research agenda is strong (see, for instance, the Dutch VET 2002 research agenda: van der Sanden, de Bruijn & Mulder, 2002). In my opinion, this research agenda should dedicate itself to less visible aspects of education. An interesting topic is, for instance, the potential of the TVET sector to transform itself into a lifelong learning system. Research could, in co-operation with schools and other stakeholders, dedicate itself to an analysis of the sector from the conceptual framework of lifelong learning. Another topic could be the imminent features of innovation in VET; the nature and quality of the relations between local VET institutes and local industries and their impact on the short-term and long-term employment of students. Of course, both agendas should not be kept apart. It would be very inspiring and rewarding to ‘confront’ both agendas in their priorities and—hidden—assumptions. Moreover, it is feasible to integrate both agendas not only with the mutual recognition of priority settings in terms of the effectiveness of innovations and the efficiency of innovation processes, but also in terms of the evaluation of structures, institutional arrangements and political priorities. The point is, of course, that VET research has to organize itself in order to participate in this process of agenda setting. This is where the infrastructure for research will come in again. In collecting, assessing and distributing research findings, this infrastructure is also a platform to evaluate research findings and, by sharing them with the international (VETNET) research world, to transform them into accumulated knowledge. In this respect, it is also a network for reflecting the development of VET and its challenges as a preamble for agenda setting.
5 Conclusions De Wilde points to a paradox in the knowledge society: He claims that the ‘knowledge intensity’ of society will drop significantly when flexibility, change and innovation become its major aims. Innovation and change imply discontinuity, and consequently a permanent change in the rules of the game. In the long run, accumulation of knowledge will be jeopardized as standards and points of reference constantly evolve: ‘Consequently, one ends up knowing nothing at all’ (de Wilde, 2001, p. 29). This is a serious and recognizable point for researchers; as they are not innocent bystanders in this process. The moment research findings from monitoring activities are fed into a system (or programme), the object of research changes. In balancing the protection of the methodological design of monitoring and being supportive of local practice in facilitating learning processes, research is co-responsible for this change. Another paradox might be added in the fact that the higher production of information and the lower thresholds to disseminate information (Google!) discourage
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the practice, traditionally rooted in the academic world, of accumulating knowledge from a variety of sources. Working in an infrastructure of researchers and with a long-term research agenda can work as safeguards in the accumulation of knowledge from a variety of monitoring processes. This chapter has described the collapse of the previously takenfor-granted co-operation between policy-making, research and educational practice, each with a clear division of roles in the innovation of education. This collapse can be explained from two angles. The first is that research is no longer the exclusive source of knowledge acclaimed by practice as a prerequisite for change. And the second is that researchers have lost their position in the agenda-setting of education. As policy-making in education, particularly in TVET, is partly decentralized to schools, the agenda for the innovation of education is in fact a forum for negotiating national and local policy priorities, leaving research in the waiting room until it is invited to monitor the progress of innovations. This chapter has shown that the loss of the traditional position of research in educational innovation represents more than a loss of status for researchers. In its close links to educational policy and educational practice, the research world was also a framework for the evaluation of policy-making and for the innovation of school practice. With the collapse of the traditional infrastructure, research has lost this position. The consequence of this loss is that a focus-point for collecting, assessing and distributing research findings is also missing and, with that, an infrastructure for the accumulation of local experiences in a conceptual framework and practical theories. This chapter is a plea for an infrastructure in TVET research that organizes debates on interactive methodologies, combining educational innovations with the construction of practical theories, the classification of local findings in general concepts, and the critical reflection of local findings against the background of general concepts. With that, this infrastructure also accumulates knowledge for the evaluation of the policy-inspired innovation agenda in TVET in its practical outcomes and for system evaluations of institutional arrangements and policy priorities. In organizing debates on interactive methodologies and the confrontation of local findings with general concepts, this infrastructure is not the exclusive domain of researchers; i.e. researchers in the traditional definition of academic researchers. It is a home for everybody working in VET willing to reflect on his/her experiences and performances in confronting them with other experiences and performances.
References Abma, T. 2004. Dynamiek in de kliniek: responsieve beleidsevaluatie als gezamenlijk leertraject. In: van der Knaap, P. et al., eds. Trajectmanagement: beschouwing over beleidsdynamiek en organisatieverandering. Utrecht, Netherlands: Lemma. Apter, D. 1967. The politics of modernization. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Adviesraad voor het Wetenschaps- en Technologiebeleid—AWT. 2003. Onderzoek in het onderwijs: versterking van de brug tussen onderzoek en onderwijspraktijk. The Hague, Netherlands: AWT.
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Bakker, M.R; Vijlder, F.J. de; Westerhuis, A. 2004. Zin in de toekomst, loskomen van het verleden. Amsterdam: MGK. Bruijn, E. de; Westerhuis, A. 2003. Het verbinden van praktijkontwikkeling en conceptontwikkeling. In: Jochems, W., et al., eds. Grenzeloos leren: Onderwijs Research Dagen 2003. Proceedings, pp. 342–45. Heerlen, Netherlands: Open Universiteit Nijmegen. Bruijn, E. de; Westerhuis, A., eds. 2004. Research and innovation in vocational education and training. ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands: CINOP. Bruijn, H. de; Heuvelhof, E. ten; Veld, R. in ‘t. 2004. Procesmanagement; over procesontwerp en besluitvorming. The Hague, Netherlands: SDU Academic Service. Bruijns, V; Egberink, W.; Gansewinkel, H. van. 2004. Het kind en het badwater; sturingsdilemma’s in het onderwijs. Utrecht, Netherlands: Lemma. Coombs, P. 1968. The world educational crisis: a systems analysis. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Doets, C. No date. Praktijk & onderzoek: wetenschap in wisselwerking met praktisch handelen. Amersfoort, Netherlands: de Horstink. Drucker, P.F. 1969. The Age of Discontinuity: guidelines to our changing society. New York, NY: Harper & Row. Gibbons, M. et al. 1994. The new production of knowledge: the dynamics of science and research in contemporary societies. London: Sage Publications. Hooge, E.H.; Sluis, M.E. van der; Vijlder, F.J. de. 2004. Stakeholders in beeld: over instellingen voor beroepsonderwijs en hun stakeholders en over methoden om stakeholders te identificeren en te positioneren. Amsterdam: MGK. Idenburg, P.J. 1975. Theorie van het onderwijsbeleid. Groningen, Netherlands: H.D. Tjeenk Willink. Lagerweij, N.; Lagerweij-Voogt, J. 2004. Anders kijken, de dynamiek van een eeuw onderwijsverandering. Antwerp, Belgium/Apeldoorn, Netherlands: Garant. Lyotard, J.-F. 1979. The postmodern condition: a report on knowledge. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1984. Manning, S., ed. 2005. Current issues of European learning and work: ECER VETNET 2005 proceedings of selected sessions. Berlin: Research Forum WIFO. <www.wifo-gate.org> Max Goote Kenniscentrum—MGK. 2005. Drie hoogleraren op het terrein van het beroepsonderwijs. Max Goote Nieuwsbrief nr. 19, pp 4–5. Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap. 2005. Kabinetsreactie beroepswijs Beroepsonderwijs. The Hague, Netherlands: Ministerie van OCW. (BVE/IenI/2005/39026.) Nijhof, W.; Esch, W. van 2004. Power, policy, process and performance. ’s Hertogenbosch, Netherlands: CINOP. Nonaka, I.; Takeuchi, H. 1995. The knowledge creating company. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2003. New challenges for educational research. Paris: OECD. Onderwijsraad. 2003. Kennis van onderwijs: ontwikkeling en benutting. The Hague, Netherlands: Onderwijsraad. Onderwijs Research Dagen—ORD. 2003. Onderwijs Research Dagen 2003. Proceedings. Heerlen, Netherlands: Open Universiteit Nijmegen. Sanden, J.M.M. van der; Bruijn, E. de; Mulder, R.H. 2002. Het beroepsonderwijs: programmeringstudie. The Hague, Netherlands: NWO/PROO. Schuler, T. 2005. Constructing international policy research: the role of CERI/OECD. European educational research journal, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 170–80. Sluis, L.E.C. van der. 2004. Verslag rondetafel bijeenkomst ‘kennisinfrastructuur op het domein beroepsonderwijs in Nederland’ op 9 december 2004 te Utrecht. Amsterdam: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Stuurgroep Evaluatie de Wet educatie en beroepsonderwijs. 2001. De WEB: naar eenvoud en evenwicht: eindrapport. Wateringen, Netherlands: JB&A.
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Vandenberge, R. 2005. Samenwerking onderzoek en praktijk: mogelijkheden en grenzen. Pedagogische Studi¨en, vol. 82, no. 4, pp. 262–73. (Themanummer: Samen werken aan innovatieve leerpraktijken.) Vijlder, F.J. de. 2005. Zorg voor of zorg over kennisdelen in het gezondheidszorgonderwijs? Vakblad voor opleiders in het gezondheidszorgonderwijs, vol. 4, pp. 3–8. Wald, A.; Leenders, H., eds. 2001. Wat heeft onderwijsonderzoek het onderwijs te bieden? Conferentieverslag PROO. The Hague, Netherlands: PROO/NWO. Westerhuis, A. 1999. Op zoek naar een andere aanpak van onderwijsinnovaties. MESO: Tijdschrift voor schoolorganisatie en onderwijsmanagement, vol. 109, no. 13–19. Wilde, R. de. 2001. De kenniscultus: Over nieuwe vormen van vooruitgangsgeloof. Maastricht, Netherlands: Universiteit Maastricht. (Inaugural speech.)
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Chapter IX.5
TVET Research as a Dimension of Innovation Klaus Ruth
1 Introduction This chapter traces the interrelationship between technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and innovation. It examines whether TVET contributes to innovation or, more specifically, to the innovation capacities of organizations. It considers the question: is there a preferred type of technical and vocational education that is advantageous to certain types of innovation? Since people are the mediating unit, the chapter focuses on the actual competences held by people who have participated in TVET programmes and draws a line from their participation to innovation and into the building of innovatory capacity in organizations. The focus of observation is on identifiable differences in TVET systems that are embedded into distinct industrial cultures. The chapter has four main sections. First, we sketch the most recent developments that can be observed in innovation. The second part relates these trends to various paths of competence-building identifiable today. The third part analyses the capacity of different vocational education and training systems to generate ‘shapingoriented’ work. Finally, we look at some prospects of TVET for future innovation.
2 Innovation Being Re-invented Probably the most important single trend of recent decades in companies’ policy and business strategies is the acknowledgment of innovation and of innovativeness as a core competence for corporate success. Since Schumpeter’s seminal works on innovation and economic growth (Schumpeter, 1939), economists have been aware of the crucial role of innovation in affecting the economic performance of companies, but it still took some time before the lessons were incorporated into companies’ day-to-day operations. Innovation is perceived as a process that has many characteristics. The core concept of innovation is the introduction of new artefacts, products or processes into the spheres of production and service. Today, new ways of looking at innovation processes are emerging. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 IX.5, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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The classical understanding of innovation has been the process of developing and commercializing new products or launching new processes to improve product quality or lower production cost. This view was strictly limited to companies where experts for innovation (or more precisely, for new product development or the design of processes) were employed. It was the work of von Hippel (1988) on the sources of innovation that drew attention to hitherto unrecognized innovatory actors: users and suppliers. This new perspective transcended company boundaries and opened up the perspectives for innovatory processes by considering other companies (suppliers or customers) as important actors in the innovation arena. It also brought new, previously unrecognized innovation experts into the game. These new experts also introduced new knowledge domains into the innovation processes. In von Hippel’s case studies, key users of the machinery or aircraft industry had the opportunity to bring their mainly practice- and experience-based expertise into the development process. Similarly, supplier companies were given the chance to include manufacturing and material know-how into the overall innovation process (von Hippel, 1988). These tendencies have evolved towards innovation networks (Duschek, 2004), which today are a widespread form of organizing innovatory processes. Innovation networks can assume different forms: intra-organizational or inter-organizational; local and regional or global; their communication and co-operation can range between direct contacts (meetings) and virtual/electronic communication and collaboration, or mixtures of these forms. Finally, innovation networks bring together a wide range of people with different educational and professional backgrounds. These actors contribute different types of knowledge, skills and expertise, which add new dimensions to innovatory processes. Changes in innovatory processes, changing expectations on innovative products, as well as the changing competitive situation on the markets have influenced the perception of innovatory actors. Years ago, particularly during the phase of ‘learning from Japan’ (Dertouzos et al., 1989; Womack, Jones & Roos, 1990), Western companies learned that one crucial factor in Japanese success on world markets was (and is) the ‘design to cost’ approach. This method involves the internal departments of cost calculation in very early stages of innovatory processes (Imai, 1991). Another—for this chapter—even more important step in opening the innovation arena, was targeting design to manufacturability. This meant departing from the sequential track in which the manufacturability of a new product is the final problem to be solved (if at all targeted). Again, the Japanese taught the world that manufacturability is a primary goal of product innovation and that in order to ensure a high level of manufacturability, the production planning and shop-floor people need to be included in very early stages of the innovation cycle (Imai, 1991). Other participants must include specialists, like knowledge managers, who are sourcing knowledge bases (e.g. the patent database) and feeding knowledge into the innovation process. These changes widened the formerly closed ‘monastery of design monks’—i.e. the engineers as key innovatory actors—to a ‘lively bazaar’ of many actors with diverse backgrounds and a diversity of design and innovation goals. This tendency was amplified with the advent of inter-organizational innovation networks, which are made up of the company (or companies) that aim to introduce
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product innovation, supplying companies, customers (both industrial or end-users) and additional stakeholders. The problem of these inter-organizational innovation teams is much the same as the intra-organizational scenario that was sketched above. Both types of innovation teams must deal not only with knowledge creation, but knowledge sharing and knowledge retention (Aoshima, 1997). Since knowledge creation is widely accepted and studied as a core activity of innovation (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Nonaka & Nishiguchi, 2001), the focus of the following paragraphs will be on knowledge retention and particularly on knowledge sharing. Shared knowledge is one of the important resources for successful innovation. Therefore, those organizations or networks or teams that establish the best structures to achieve a common understanding among individuals representing different functions (organizations or disciplines) are the ones with the best innovatory performance and thus with competitive advantages (Hong et al., 2004). The synergy of shared knowledge cannot easily be achieved, because knowledge does not have a unique nature. There can be different ‘cognitive universes’ between organizations or departments; there can be incompatible knowledge domains between departments or teams; knowledge can be tacit in its nature and thus difficult to codify or to make explicit (Senker, 1993), and, ultimately, a lot of knowledge is ‘sticky’, i.e. held by individuals and cannot be separated from them or objectified. Thus, we observe plenty of obstacles that impede knowledge sharing as a planned process. But, nevertheless, some reports reveal good practice with regard to knowledge sharing (e.g. Nonaka & Teece, 2001; Harryson, 1998). Taking into account the above-mentioned circumstances, innovation has deeply changed its nature since the early works of Schumpeter—in at least two respects: 1. The idea of sequential steps in innovation—concept design, system design, detail design, prototype testing and refinement and manufacturing—has made room for the conception of concurrent innovation. 2. The hitherto well-accepted distinction between radical and incremental innovation is difficult to maintain. It is difficult to determine the role of practical knowledge and experience in innovatory processes. Many radical or breakthrough innovations in history have not been made by scientists or engineers, but rather through technicians or highly-skilled craftsmen. For example, technological progress before 1850, particularly in the case of the steam engine, was developed and produced by craftsmen, skilled workers or technicians who deployed a knowledge that originated from practice rather than from science (Mokyr, 2002; Rolt, 1986). Similarly, practitioners developed the transistor by advancing through trial-and-error methods, which eventually rendered a result (Braun & MacDonald, 1978; Rosenberg, 1982; Senker, 1993). Thus, the assumption that radical innovation is based on (theoretical and scientific) knowledge and incremental innovation thrives on skills/experiential knowledge is nowadays increasingly obsolete—not to mention the difficulty in distinguishing radical from incremental innovation. The aforementioned evolution from sequential to concurrent (or at least overlapping) innovation phases highlights the necessity to share knowledge. Knowledge
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and experiences that are available in functional areas at the end of the formerly sequential innovation process (e.g. manufacturing expertise, but also suppliers’ capacities) are now required at the early stages (concept design) and during the on-going innovation process. The particular case of knowledge sharing between manufacturing and early design stages is similar to the need to bring workers’ knowledge into the design process. Reports from the semiconductor industry (Brown, 1997; Buss & Wittke, 2000) reinforce the importance of sharing knowledge. During the last decades of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip production, every new generation of chips required completely new production facilities and organization. It turned out that a crucial problem was the transition from prototypical or test production into a volume production. In the 1990s the test production took place in laboratories (labs) run by engineers and technicians, while the volume production was located at manufacturing sites (fabs) operated by workers and technicians. On the one hand, the knowledge and experience flow from the labs to the volume processing was necessary; on the other hand, a stream of experiential knowledge from the volume production site to the laboratory was indispensable—particularly during the transitional (overlapping) phases, when defect density and line yield were insufficient. Besides the many lessons to be learned from this example, it turned out that knowledge and experience sharing is important for innovation to be put into practice. A significant means utilised during these processes was the exchange (in some cases massive) of personnel between laboratory and volume production. This allowed the constructing of similar mental models1 and eventually sharing knowledge and experiences to benefit product and process innovation. The next section picks up the findings of this special case and feeds them into a more general concept of experience as an innovation factor.
3 Experience as an Innovation Factor A very common observation that can be made about research on process innovation and also in some fields of product innovation is the ‘hidden’ or informal involvement of practitioners—preferably skilled and experienced workers. Looking closer at this phenomenon shows that traditionally there is a gap between the designing engineers’ models of machine systems and the actual operation mode of these systems. Workers who are operating these systems have, as a rule, a different view of the machine systems, because they have plenty of opportunities to become familiar with the peculiarities and ‘quirks’ of machines—a ‘universe’ that is usually closed to engineers. This accumulation of experience and knowledge is very often used to improve the machines or to make the operation more efficient. The direct machine workers, as well as the maintenance workers, are in that respect very important innovatory actors who might contribute to both process and product innovation. In the case of process innovation, there are production systems that are more tolerant of different operation modes and that are in every stage under the immediate
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control of workers (e.g. short assembly lines for simple products). Such easy-going systems are an ideal playground for influencing (or, in other words, improving) the processes by production line workers. Here, workers can apply their expertise, mainly experience-based expertise, gained through daily operation in the production line. This process operates somewhat differently in the case of large technological systems (like nuclear power plants or chemical processes), where controlling and maintaining the systems is a complex task and which is characterized by a separation of the real processes and the actual operators. In other words, the processes are impalpable and out of reach of the immediate senses, but nevertheless their basic source of building expertise (which contributes to the construction of innovation capability) is experience. Still, experience itself—though a potential wellspring of expertise—often comes with the risk of blinding people and narrowing their minds by lulling them into a false sense of security about their hypotheses (on the operation, their tasks), their skills, their expertise and mastery (e.g. the case of a nuclear power plant accident in Japan is analysed in Ruth, 2001, pp. 177 ff). In order to avoid incorrect or at least misleading hypotheses on the operation mode of complex production systems, it is essential that the operators do have a certain level of theoretical knowledge. Such knowledge can complement experience—or, rather, provide the foundation on which experience is embedded. Education and training systems and respective qualification frameworks at best need to cover and address both theoretical and practical knowledge. A closer look at different types of vocational education and training systems will provide insights into the relationships between favourable (or disadvantageous) combinations of theoretical and experience-based knowledge, and the level of innovativeness. Before approaching this issue, however, the field of product innovation will be touched upon briefly. As in the case of process innovation, production workers can play an important role in product innovation. If we consider the manufacturing of machinery as the arena, the actual production experts are workers in manufacturing and assembly, especially concerning improvements to the manufacturability or the ‘design-toassembly’ quality of products. In the very particular case of machine tool manufacturing, the products manufactured (and assembled) are at the same time the (technical) means of production. This bivalent situation enables workers to use their experience, knowledge and imagination for product improvements (Ruth, 1995; Ruth, 2003). Even if these improvements are somehow incremental steps in a continuous innovation process, their impact can be enormous in increasing a company’s competitiveness (Imai, 1991). The outlined relationships between work-process experience (knowledge) and innovation obviously depend on various factors, which are supporting the innovativeness of companies’ product and process improvements. Consider wafer development in the semiconductor industries, not simply as an example of a strongly science-driven high-tech innovation field, but rather as the product innovation in the more traditional mechanical and electrical machinery. We can then assume the qualification structure and qualification level on shop floors as crucial components
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of innovatory capabilities. The composition of qualification and skill is covered by the concept of competences, which can be defined as an ability that extends beyond the possession of knowledge and skills. It includes: i) cognitive competence involving the use of theory and concepts, as well as informal tacit knowledge gained experientially; ii) functional competence (skills or know-how), those things that a person should be able to do when they work in a given area; iii) personal competence involving knowing how to conduct oneself in a specific situation; and iv) ethical competence involving the possession of certain personal and professional values (Leney et al., 2004, p. 94).
If we add the sociality of competence, i.e. that certain components of competence are not entirely possessed by individuals, but rather are shared between them and that thriving on competence requires co-operation of the individuals, we will approach the question of how such a competence can be maintained? The answer is: by learning. This means all forms of learning, i.e. formal, informal and non-formal learning (Bjørn˚avold, 2001). The important point, besides the aspects of recognizing different forms of learning (theoretical and practical learning) originating in different learning spheres (shop floor, R&D laboratories, and also in everyday life outside workplaces), is the factor of providing learning opportunities at work while working. We can assume that the more learning opportunities workplaces (especially on the shop floor) do provide, the better are the opportunities to actively involve the people in innovatory processes. But, evidently this involvement depends to a large extent on the individual’s competence level, which we can assume as consisting of the general education level, the knowledge level of the subject field, and of experiences acquired during work at the workplace. A systematic and international comparative view on the relationship between qualification and innovation, thus requires consideration of the correlation between the systems of vocational education and training and the innovation systems—the latter not on highly aggregated levels (such as national or regional innovation systems), but rather on the company or network level.
4 Institutionalizing Innovation Capacities in VET Systems If the assumption of a relationship between skills, experience and knowledge on the shop floor and the level of companies’ innovativeness is right, then we can project that the underlying vocational learning and training system can exert an important impact on innovation. In an international comparative perspective, the differences between national VET systems must be delineated in trying to determine their possible relationships with innovation and innovativeness. It is especially necessary to consider possible differences in the structure, the processes and the outcomes of the vocational education and training systems. Table 1 gives a general overview of the structure of TVET systems (focusing on initial TVET). A structural analysis shows one cluster of countries with predominantly apprenticeship systems. They are labelled ‘dual system’, because
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Table 1 Structures of TVET in Europe Predominantly dual system/apprenticeship Mix of school-based and apprenticeship routes routes Examples: Austria, Germany Examples: UK, Netherlands School-based (mainly vocational) Example: Finland
School-based (mainly pre-vocational) Examples: Ireland, Italy, Japan
Source: Leney et al., 2004, p. 32.
they combine theoretical and practical learning at different learning sites (school and workplaces). Among others, Germany and Austria can be mentioned as examples. The second logical cluster of TVET schemes comprises school-based systems, which—according to the international classification system (ISCED)—can be differentiated into one sub-cluster that follows a vocational path leading to a qualification recognized by the labour market (e.g. Finland), and another sub-sector that follows a pre-vocational track ending with a general educational level with no recognition on the labour market (e.g. Italy, Japan). The fourth cluster is characterized by a mix of school-based and apprenticeship/dual systems (e.g. United Kingdom, Netherlands). This classification gives us a description of the pathways followed to achieve a certain goal: employability. It allows one to consider outcomes of the different pathways. In general, those individuals passing through a dual system/apprenticeship programme will most likely hold a competence that comprises theoretical and practical experiential knowledge. The former acquired during schooling, the latter earned at the workplace while participating in real production processes. Compared with this type of outcome, the school-based pathways often lead to somewhat deficient competence structures. The pre-vocational school track supplies individuals with almost no practical job-relevant experiences for the workplace. Evidently, when these workers enter work, they cannot be expected to hold significant practical, experiential knowledge that might contribute to innovative processes. Similarly, the school-based vocational path does not provide the learners with sufficient practical knowledge. The highest level of useful practical experience is acquired through dual systems with a systematic theory/practice relationship. Since apprenticeship programmes have a limited duration (usually around three years), practical experiences are limited, but they offer a much better starting point for augmenting experience than do school-based systems. Even if the schools include some temporary work placements, these practical experiences often do not offer sufficient learning opportunities, nor do they necessarily have a close relationship with the subjects taught in school. Still, even graduates from school-based systems have the chance to gain experiences, with the quality depending on the opportunities for learning offered in work, once they made the transition from school to work. Thus, a particular type of vocational education and training can offer an initial advantage (or disadvantage) regarding the acquisition and composition of theoretical and experiential knowledge. Depending on learning opportunities offered in and during work, this deficiency can be compensated after the school-to-work transition.
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If the relationship between the TVET systems and the innovatory capabilities of individuals are to be strengthened, we have to go beyond simply offering learning opportunities in work to demand the shaping orientation of working and learning (Rauner et al., 1988). The shaping orientation can be understood as setting a goal of enabling the workers to pro-actively shape their immediate working environment, form their processes, understand the relevant work processes and products, develop improvements and put them into action. The question is: how can a shaping orientation best be reached and institutionally embedded? First, the organizational backing must allow for shaping, that is, creating organizational structures that support non-deterministic task descriptions and implement flexibility and autonomy in task allocation. These pre-conditions, when complemented by a learning-supportive working environment, will sustain the transition from traditional production sites towards working and learning laboratories (Leonard, 1998). In such new contexts, innovative stimuli originating from the shop floor or skilled workers’ experiences and practical knowledge need to coalesce with the other (if not all) types of knowledge in order to generate an innovation competence (Ruth, 2000, p. 15).
5 Prospects: Can TVET Systems Become Pillars of Innovation? In trying to estimate the future role of experiential knowledge, we must consider the potential role of work-based practical knowledge as a huge and widely ignored store of knowledge. Utilizing this knowledge requires creating favourable conditions at work sites, such as: (a) production processes that simultaneously are learning environments; (b) a corporate culture that facilitates co-operation, communication (and thus knowledge sharing) among all relevant innovative actors—particularly including those ‘players’ that hold practical experience, i.e. shop-floor people; (c) a pronounced shaping orientation being expressed at all levels of vocational training and learning (in initial TVET, continuous TVET and all informal and non-formal learning). TVET systems that contribute most to a high level of innovativeness are those that target beyond such ‘simple’ goals as ‘employability’ in the meaning of creating functional skills and qualification. Even if these functional qualifications are acquired at a high level of proficiency, their graduates lack those core capacities that make up for shaping-orientation: expertise in the subject field; virtuosity of performance; (social) responsibility; transcendence; and reflexivity. Evidently, these goals are idealistic to some degree, but they are highly useful as role models. The more existing TVET systems approach these goals, the more likely they are to achieve shaping-oriented working and learning, which eventually would sustain innovation and innovativeness. How can we implement the shaping orientation in VET? As a general guide, theoretical and practical learning must mutually sustain each other. Every phase of vocational training and learning must balance theory and practice. For the
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school-based VET systems, this means providing access to work practice and relating practice systematically with theory learning. For dual systems, the ‘abundance of practice’ has to become seamlessly interlocked with theoretical knowledge. If this balance of theoretical and experiential/practical knowledge can be achieved, and other important organizational and socio-cultural factors are met, one can attain a culture of knowledge sharing, which is the ‘transmission belt’ on which innovatory competence will thrive.
Note 1. The adoption of the mental model approach must not be overdone, because there are serious obstacles to this concept, like the danger of closing mechanisms within a team sharing the same mental model and the general danger of self-referentiality (Davison & Blackman, 2005).
References Aoshima, Y. 1997. Knowledge retention: the impact on new product development performance. Working paper of Hitotsubashi University – IIR. Tokyo: Hitotsubashi University, Institute of Innovation Research. (IIR working paper, WP#97-08.) Bjørn˚avold, J. 2001. The changing institutional and political role of non-formal learning: European trends. In: Descey, P.; Tessaring, M., eds. Training in Europe: second report on vocational education and training research in Europe. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Braun, E.; MacDonald, S. 1978. Revolution in miniature. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Brown, C. 1997. Executive summary. In: Brown, C., ed. The Competitive Semiconductor Manufacturing Human Resources Project: final report. Berkeley, CA: Center for Work, Technology and Society. Buss, K.-P.; Wittke, V. 2000. Mikro-Chips f¨ur Massenm¨arkte: Innovationsstrategien der europ¨aischen und amerikanischen Halbleiterhersteller in den 90er Jahren. SOFI-Mitteilungen, vol. 28, pp. 7–31. Davison, G.; Blackman, D. 2005. The role of mental models in innovative teams. European journal of innovation management, vol. 8, pp. 409–23. Dertouzos, M.L., et al. 1989. Made in America: regaining the productive edge. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Duschek, S. 2004. Inter-firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Management revue: the international review of management studies, vol. 14, pp. 53–73. Harryson, S. 1998. Japanese technology and innovation management: from know-how to knowwho. Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar. Hong, P., et al. 2004. Knowledge sharing in integrated product development. European journal of innovation management, vol. 7, pp. 102–12. Imai, M. 1991. Kaizen: the key to Japan’s competitive success. Singapore: McGraw-Hill. Leney, T. et al. 2004. Achieving the Lisbon Goal: the contribution of VET. London: QCA. Leonard, D. 1998. Wellsprings of knowledge: building and sustaining the sources of innovation. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Schools. Mokyr, J. 2002. The Gifts of Athena: historical origins of the knowledge economy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
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Nonaka, I.; Nishiguchi, T. 2001. Knowledge emergence: social, technical, and evolutionary dimensions of knowledge creation. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Nonaka, I.; Takeuchi, H. 1995. The knowledge-creating company: how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Nonaka, I.; Teece, D. 2001. Managing industrial knowledge: creation, transfer and utilization. London: Sage Publications. Rauner, F. et al. 1988. The social shaping of technology and work: human centred computer integrated manufacturing systems. AI & society, vol. 2, pp. 47–61. Rolt, L.T.C. 1986. Tools for the job: a history of machine tools to 1950. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Rosenberg, N. 1982. Inside the black box: technology and economics. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Ruth, K. 1995. Industriekultur als Determinante des CNC-Werkzeugmaschinenbaus. Berlin: edition sigma. Ruth, K. 2000. Cooperative product innovation: how small and medium enterprises can improve their innovation competences. Tokyo/Bremen. Ruth, K. 2001. Innovation competence: intangibles in cooperative innovation processes. In: Banerjee, P.; Richter, F.-J., eds. Intangibles in competition and cooperation: Euro-Asian perspectives. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave. Ruth, K. 2003. Manufacturing culture: enginology or socioneering? In: Ito, Y.; Moritz, E.F.; Ruth, K., eds. Synergy of culture and production, vol. 2: Localized engineering for globalized manufacturing?, pp. 13–39. Sottrum, Germany: artefact Verlag. Schumpeter, J.A. 1939. Konjunkturzyklen I: Grundriss der Sozialwissenschaft. G¨ottingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Senker, J. 1993. The contribution of tacit knowledge to innovation. AI & Society, vol. 7, pp. 208–24. von Hippel, E. 1988. The sources of innovation. New York, NY/Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Womack, J.P.; Jones, D.T.; Roos, D. 1990. The machine that changed the world. New York, NY: Rawson Associates.
Chapter IX.6
Modellversuchsforschung: Pilot Project Research in Germany Peter Dehnbostel
1 Introduction Pilot projects in the education system have been in use in the Federal Republic of Germany as an important instrument of reform and innovation since the educational reform conducted around 1970. The 1971 ‘Agreement on Pilot Projects’ (Modellversuchsvereinbarung) between the federal government and the different German states forms the political framework for the nationwide conduct and recognition of pilot projects. The legal basis for the co-operation of the federal and state levels in educational planning was established by the new Article 91b of the German Constitution in 1969. Since that time, pilot projects have been supported through federal funding and complementary funds from the states and private companies, and carried out over the whole education system from pre-school to the university level. It was in the sectors of in-school and out-of-school technical and vocational education and training (TVET) that pilot projects were most intensively put into practice. This sector is the focus of the following discussion. In the following sections the fundamentals and developments of pilot projects are described and core issues concerning the function, design and quality criteria of scientific monitoring are discussed. Here, the focus is on the foundation and the positioning, from the perspective of the philosophy of science, of scientific monitoring as action and utilization research, and on the transfer of measures and findings into the system of norms and regulations. The theoretical and conceptual structure and orientation of pilot projects, the achievement of scientific outcomes and successful transfers are also the core of pilot project research. The chapter concludes with an outlook which pays attention to the danger for pilot projects to be anticipated from the reform of the federal system in Germany.
2 On the Origins and Development of Pilot Projects The origins of institutionalized pilot projects in the education sector have been described and discussed many times (see, among others, Dehnbostel, 1998, pp. 188 ff.; Schmidt & Kutt, 1990; Weishaupt, 1980, pp. 1298 ff.; Rauner, 2003, pp. 400 ff.). R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 IX.6, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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Two fundamental decisions that were taken during the initial phase must be recalled: (a) the character of pilot projects as a part of education policy; and (b) the dual (theory and practice) related mission attributable to scientific monitoring. Pilot projects were planned as essential vehicles for innovative educational policy and educational planning in schools and universities, and also for vocational education and training. As starting points, both measures and programmes of educational policy initiated on a national scale or short-term practice-oriented tasks and problems were foreseen. The outcomes of the latter were expected to contribute to the further development of the education system as a whole. The Federal and Interstate Commission (Bund-L¨ander-Kommission—BLK), following the 1971 Agreement on Pilot Projects, defined the objectives of pilot projects and their scientific monitoring as follows: Pilot projects have the aim to improve existing practices on the one hand and to test new ones on the other. They shall be oriented so as to give important decisions for the development of the education system. The scientific monitoring has the mission to support the operation of the pilot projects and to describe and analyse the effects of the reform measures (BLK, 1974, p. 4).
These objectives were integrated into policy, practice and science from the point of view of educational policy and educational planning. During the educational reforms of the 1970s, this took shape through the implementation and testing of a thorough reform of educational programmes designed to improve equal opportunities, emancipation and autonomy. At the upper secondary level, for instance, the nationwide pilot projects on the school-based and co-operative elementary vocational training year (Berufsgrundbildungsjahr) and the large-scale projects to combine general and vocational education, like the Kollegstufe NW (‘college level in North Rhine Westphalia’) and the berufsfeldbezogenen Oberstufenzentren (‘vocational upper secondary schools’) in Berlin, should be mentioned (see Dehnbostel, 1988, pp. 107 ff.). Scientific monitoring was organized quite differently in these and other pilot projects, both in organizational and epistemological terms. Given the objectives cited above, scientific monitoring was always discussed under the aspects of its double function: (a) practice-oriented and supportive tasks; and (b) analytic tasks. The function of ‘description’ and ‘analysis’ was initially linked to the point of view that pilot projects were equivalent to controlled experiments and had to be analysed with the exact methods of empirical social research. On the contrary, the ‘support’ function was often interpreted as an action-oriented approach in accompanying research. Carrying out this approach was and is connected with numerous conceptual and methodological problems. In vocational education and training, from the very beginning there used to be a clear separation between pilot projects conducted in vocational schools and those conducted in enterprises—the so-called business pilot projects. Pilot projects in vocational schools were under the supervision of the BLK, whereas in the case of business pilot projects since 1977 it has been the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (Bundesinstitut f¨ur Berufsbildung—BIBB) that has had responsibility for funding and guidance under the supervision of the Federal Ministry
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for Education and Research. The implementation and transferability of reforms were commonly acknowledged as the long-term goals of pilot projects, although political influence on pilot projects tended to decline after the end of the educational reform in 1970. Among the business pilot projects, the emphasis shifted from political reforms to projects that were mainly aimed at problems and innovation in TVET practice. Among the BLK pilot projects in vocational education and training schools, on the other hand, support for programmes has intensified since 1998 (see P¨atzold et al., 2002, pp. 9 ff.; Sloane, 2005, p. 658). In the selection or launching of pilot projects, five principles of eligibility were conceived by the Ministry and the BIBB (see Dehnbostel, Holz & Ploghaus, 1994, pp. 5 ff.):
r r r r r
evidence of a sufficient innovatory potential with regard to concepts, staff and equipment; the way the pilot project is to be carried out, which was largely expressed by clarity and flexibility in the basic methods; participation of an independent scientific monitoring agency; assurance that the processes, insights and results of the pilot project work were transferable; co-financing with the promoting organization of the pilot project.
The independence of scientific monitoring was regarded from the outset as a prerequisite for scientific objectivity, as well as for the general introduction and transferability of pilot project outcomes. Any obligation on the part of scientific monitoring towards the positions of the promoter of the pilot project was thus excluded, as was the exercise of scientific monitoring as commissioned research. With regard to research staff, this means among other things that staff members of the promoting organization cannot simultaneously be employed by the organization that conducts the scientific monitoring, and vice versa. From an epistemological and methodological point of view, it is possible up to the 1990s to distinguish five major research approaches, the sequence of which reflects to some extent the origins of and changes in scientific monitoring (see Dehnbostel, 1998, pp. 190 ff.; Lipsmeier, 1997):
r r r r r
traditional empirical social research; product and process evaluation; agency and action research; responsive evaluation; systemic evaluation.
As will be described in the following section, the agency and action research approach is of particular importance, due to the development of our understanding of science and evaluation and also to the particular nature of pilot-project research as practice-oriented research. The action-research approach and the orientation towards practice are also encouraged by the fact that the institutions responsible for this research field have undergone a distinct change: the role of university-based scientific monitoring, which used to be the largest group in the past, has been taken
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over by private institutions, which now share more than 50% of the market. The preference for action research and evaluation—which is not always supported by scientific argument—can surely be explained to a considerable degree by this evolution in the organization of scientific monitoring. Its ‘commercially determined professionalization’ (Sloane, 1996, pp. 82 ff.) is closely associated with the demands and interests of enterprises and project promoters. On the other hand, private research institutes and research groups are distinguished by their proximity to practice and also particularly by their high level of competence in the domains of counselling, qualification and organizational development—that is, in the very domains that are predestined for a modern, practice-oriented scientific monitoring. Scientific monitoring faces the fundamental question of whether it should be organized with reference to entire programmes or to single pilot projects. The increase in the number of individual pilot projects and relatively informal working groups has been accompanied by a growth in project-related monitoring activities in the case of business pilot projects. This entails the danger that deficits emerge with regard to the generation of findings and results relevant to a range of projects, and that the implementation and maintenance of scientific quality and research standards in monitoring are hardly guaranteed to a sufficient degree. Furthermore, in respect of the reduced or completely absent political and programmatic interest, there is the question of how the innovative measures for the further development of the TVET system will be put into practice. It has to be feared that pilot projects have the effect of only ‘incremental innovation’ (Kern, 2001, pp. 25 ff.), that is, of piecemeal reform measures that are largely limited to the target groups and institutions involved and whose findings and results are either hardly transferable due to their singular nature or even cancel each other out. Another important change that can be noted in the development of pilot project work is the growing importance of organizational and human-resource development for innovations in TVET. Organizational development is associated with viewing and changing structures, processes and individuals in a holistic way, whereas pilot projects concentrating on TVET typically only affect parts of the organizations involved in innovation processes. Taking into consideration the more holistic approach of organizational development could bring new perspectives and approaches into pilot projects and contribute to an increased participation of TVET in the shaping of work and technology. However, the fact that pilot projects deal with competence and training standards in the public system of education also contributes to a widening of organizational and human-resource development, which can expected to be useful for enterprise and management concepts, like ‘the learning enterprise’ and ‘knowledge management’.
3 Pilot Project Research as Action and Utilization Research In its initial phase, the scientific monitoring of pilot projects was strongly influenced by empirical social research. This became evident in particular in the extensive
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pilot projects carried out on the school-based and co-operative elementary vocational training year. The empirical analysis in scientific monitoring was dominated by quantitative procedures and methods, and in part the monitoring was conceived as research to test hypotheses that had been formulated in advance. Its claim to generate objective and accurate propositions and results followed the practice of the natural sciences and was based on the epistemology of positivism. When the pilot projects were completed, diverse judgements were made on the extent to which the tested measures had achieved their objectives. The decision-making support for education policy was thus based on the classic empirical foundation of a data set as objective, as reliable and as valid as possible. Although the model function of empirical and experimental basic research was no longer undisputed in this domain after the positivism debate, the systematic distinction of theory and practice, the abstraction from social contexts through standardization, the generation of nomological statements and the primacy of quantitative methods retained their position. However, it turned out that the data produced in this way led neither to the desired transferable theories nor to the aspired practice-oriented solutions to problems (see Zimmer, 1997). Already in the 1970s, action-oriented monitoring concepts had received increasing attention—in line with the overall debate on action research (see, inter alia, Moser, 1995, pp. 33 ff.). Qualitative methods were more frequently included and the contribution of research to an innovative change of practice was improved. Instead of the independent investigation of the circumstances and objects of analysis, scientific results should be closely connected with practical development activities and should refer back to the latter. The strict separation of science and practice, where scientists alone were supposed to possess expertise and predictive capacity, while practitioners were at best conceded some participation and were otherwise regarded as objects of study, appeared less and less tenable. As was observed in the context of a pilot project supervised by the BIBB, monitoring ‘in which researchers assumed the position of distanced, “neutral” observers and kept out of the project at the local level could not be taken into consideration. Instead, a research process directly included in the pilot project was necessary’ (Laur, 1978, p. 35). The idea of action-oriented scientific monitoring was perceived, as Gstettner and Seidl put it with regard to the evaluation design of the college level in North Rhine Westphalia, as ‘an attack on the primacy of classical empirical social research in the field of the evaluation of pedagogical innovations and as a plea for a large-scale shift of paradigms’ (1979, p. 450). This took place in the context of a general change in the understanding of science, which had presupposed until then ‘that scientific knowledge was distinguished from pre-scientific knowledge through a principally higher rationality’, that ‘it was taken to be “better justified”, “more rational” and generally superior to traditional patterns of interpretation’ (Beck & Bonß, 1991, p. 416). Following this logic, the ‘less rational or even irrational’ social practice needs to be amended in line with scientific knowledge. On this position concerning the relationship of science to practice there is agreement—despite the contrary positions they normally take—even between critical theory and critical rationalism. Accordingly, ‘practice [is perceived] following the model of a scientification of a
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non-scientific world, which must be adapted to the rationality standards of scientific reflection’ (ibid.). Action research was used in the form of many scientifically more-or-less sound approaches and variants as the basis for a large proportion of the pilot projects carried out since the 1970s. It currently appears to be the dominant type of scientific monitoring. However, a precise estimation of the proportion is made difficult by the fact that many researchers monitoring pilot projects do not give sufficient information on their research approach. Action research refers to the principles originating in Lewin’s approach, which constitutes an epistemologically independent approach in the social sciences distinct from traditional empirical social research. The principles of action research, following the original concept and its further development, are (see inter alia Flick, Kardoff & Steinke, 2000; Moser, 1995, pp. 33 ff.; Probst, Raub & Romhardt, 1999, pp. 49 ff.): 1. The connection between research and practice, with research being understood as interdisciplinary. 2. The reference of the research process to actions and related problems, developments and solutions. 3. The integration of theoretical knowledge and practical findings in the sense of a survey and the spiral development of the latter. 4. The selection and employment of methods and instruments with the principal objective of analysing on-going processes and enabling information and selfregulation, where particular attention must be paid to the fact that changing practice has effects on the research concept and theory so as to influence and further develop them. 5. The participation of practitioners in the research process and of researchers in the operative process; that is, suspension of the strict distinction between researchers and practitioners or ‘research objects’, as well as partial reciprocal responsibility for the further operation of research and practical processes. The suspension of the distinction between researchers and practitioners mentioned in the last paragraph has clear conceptual consequences on questions of co-operation and methods. Totally equal treatment, as it applies to the responsive evaluation approach (see Ehrlich, 1995; Ehrlich & Heier, 1994; Sloane, 2005, p. 662), is not reasonable given the different ‘systems of agency’ and ‘intentions of action’ in the two groups. For instance, Habermas, in his ‘Theory of Communicative Action’, emphasizes the distinction between the ‘agency system’ of the social scientist, which is ‘normally a part of the academic system’, and the ‘agency intentions’ of practitioners, whose ‘participation in the co-operative interpretation process [serves] the establishment of a consensus, on the basis of which they can co-ordinate their action plans and realise their relevant intentions’ (1981, p. 167). Despite all action orientation and connectivity between theory and practice, one has to recognize the different roles of researchers and practitioners and to take them into consideration in the methodological design of scientific monitoring. The steadily differentiating range of action orientation and the complementing— rather than alternative—approaches of scientific monitoring nowadays include above
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all the object-related research of Strauss (1994), the self-reflective research of Bourdieu (1997) and the approach of utilization research that will be discussed below. The pluralism of these various approaches promotes theoretical development and serves, not least, to ensure and further develop the pilot-project approach and scientific discourse. Utilization research is of particular relevance for scientific monitoring because, from a methodological point of view, it pays great attention to the application and practice-oriented aims and the theory/practice connection of pilot projects. However, this does not entitle it to put forward a general model of scientific monitoring, for it is surely correct that ‘an undoubtedly accurate model for scientific monitoring cannot be worked out’ (Schemme, 2003, p. 35). Utilization research discusses and investigates, under the catchword ‘utilization’, the reception and use of theoretical findings and scientific knowledge in practice and society (see Beck & Bonß, 1989; Kardoff, 2000). Its critical foundation is the assumption that scientific results are largely without consequences and hardly transferable into political and institutional action. Scientifically generated knowledge is accordingly not used in practice at all or, if it is, has a considerably modified or even misinterpreted form. With its connection to real practical processes, utilization research already takes into consideration the changed interpretation of science mentioned above, according to which science ‘does not generate “unconditioned truth” that could be adopted without question. What it can offer is limited interpretations which go further than common-sense theories, but which can be used in practice in a similarly flexible way’ (Beck & Bonß, 1989, p. 31). Utilization research belongs to the science/practice communication of pilot projects and extends beyond the principles of action research outlined above, insofar as the reference of the research process to actions takes place systematically under the aspect of utilization. The objectives and research interests of scientific monitoring are predominantly oriented towards practical innovations and their utilization, but, nevertheless, scientific backing and theory building play a part that must not be neglected. The point is not only generating practice-oriented results and solutions, but also achieving theoretical and basic findings. Theoretical work has to be connected to practice and it needs to be done in advance, as well as in an accompanying and an evaluative way. The tension between practical innovation and theory building is not overcome by utilization research, but should be perceived as constitutive and directing from a conceptual point of view. The levelling of this relationship via the adaptation of the researcher’s tasks to those of the promoter, which can be observed in some pilot projects, results in the renunciation of an independent role for science and its co-operation with practice. The difference between science and practice is maintained in action research and utilization research, but due to a changed relationship of theory and practice there is nevertheless a unity of the two. In utilization research the generation of knowledge takes place in the context of application, which means that knowledge is generated in another environment and under different conditions than usual (see Kremer, 2001, particularly pp. 50 ff.; Reinmann-Rothmeier & Mandl, 1998). The situative integration of research leads to a higher degree of social embeddedness and responsibility and to co-operative
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work schemes. In contrast to the traditional separation of basic research and applied research, there is a continuous exchange of theoretical foundations and practical applications and also a mutual reference of theory and practice.
4 The Cyclical Research Process Proven by Quality Criteria Action and utilization research are often reproached for a lack of general relevance or a lack of evidence for their research findings. This is, in fact, a danger that should not be ignored. The predominant orientation towards evaluative measures and measures of organizational development—which is to be found, above all, in business pilot projects—can lead to a negligence of research and theory and reduce scientific monitoring to the functions of advice and organizational development, even if the idea of action research is emphasized. These mistakes can be avoided by linking the research process to binding quality criteria. For action and utilization research, however, these must not or should not mainly be interpreted as the classical quality criteria of empirical social research, like objectivity, reliability and validity, but in criteria like inter-subjectivity, communicative validation, authenticity, triangulation and adequacy (see Moser, 1995, pp. 118 ff.; P¨atzold, 1995, pp. 62 ff.; Steinke, 1999, pp. 205 ff.). These criteria are under discussion in the relevant literature on qualitative social research with the consensus that their application depends on the selected research approach and needs to take place in a way that is adequate to the object in the relevant field of action. Before this requirement is discussed in detail, the process of action-oriented research will first be described as an ideal type (see Dybowski et al., 1999, p. 16). The process of scientific monitoring in a pilot project consists, in principle, of two successive conceptual stages that have to be repeated in a cyclical process up to the empirically ascertained conclusion. As Figure 1 shows, these are theoretical conceptions and empirical and practical conceptions. In the empirical and practical conceptions, research fields and fields of action are depicted systematically with regard to their development, design and analysis. A field of action can consist of a training programme, the development of material or the development of methods. The theoretical conception comprises the fundamental research design of the monitoring process, including a justification of the chosen research approach, the inventory and description of existing fields of action, as well as those yet to be developed, and the field-specific design of the study. The latter includes the state-of-the-art of the theory concerning the research object, the major research questions and hypotheses, as well as the research methods that are applicable in principle. The methodological design usually chosen in action and utilization research assumes that research questions and hypotheses are not constituted on the basis of a theory, but themselves must be viewed as a part of theory building in the research field in question. This inductive approach, typical of qualitative social research in general, makes it possible to capture the links between economic, corporate and educational contents, which are essential for the research interest. Another methodological assumption is the
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Empirical and practical conceptions
Theoretical conceptions Research design of scientific monitoring
Field of action Inventory and description of existing fields of action and those to be developed
• Planning and development • Design and implementation • Analysis and evaluation
Field-specific research design: • Theoretical references • Fundamental questions • Research hypotheses • Methodological instruments
Phase of reflection and revision, new cycle
Fig. 1 The cyclical process of scientific monitoring
idea that there is no practice without theory, that each practice includes immanent theories, which cannot be judged per se as right or wrong. The empirical and practical conception refers in most cases to a number of agency fields that are the topic of the pilot project. At the stages of planning and developing a field of action, as well as of exercise and design, the supportive role of scientific monitoring prevails, whereas at the stage of analysis and evaluation, genuine research work takes place, which is based on research methods like interviews, observations, group discussions and document analyses. Based on the idea of qualitative and developing, as well as utilization-oriented, research, the theoretical foundations are further developed during and after their application in the research field, especially according to the knowledge achieved in the analysis and evaluation phase. The fact that this phase of analysis and evaluation is not organized in a summative way, as could be inferred from Figure 1, but rather in a formative way, is a consequence of the qualitative research approach. The quality criteria for qualitative research have to be made explicit in the theoretical conception of scientific monitoring, so that they can be realised in the empirical and practical conception and further developed for a possible subsequent cycle. As P¨atzold argues: ‘in the current debate on quality criteria in qualitative research, the opinion prevails that they cannot simply be taken over from quantitative research. Criteria for qualitative research must be newly defined, filled with new contents and match the procedure and objectives of the analysis’ (P¨atzold, 1995, p. 62). For pilot-project research, P¨atzold takes the following criteria to be adequate:
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‘process documentation’, ‘proximity to the research object or relation to the agents directly involved’, ‘communicative validation’ and ‘triangulation’ (ibid., pp. 63 ff.). For the most part, this is in line with the statements in the relevant literature on qualitative social research. As regards the distinction between general objectives and quality criteria, variations in accentuating certain points are made especially by Moser (1995, pp. 118 ff.). In his detailed discussion of quality criteria, Steinke arrives at extensive ‘proposals for core criteria for the evaluation of qualitative research’ (1999, pp. 205 ff.), which consider in particular constructivist positions and thus the idea of a limiting reference framework. Here, the dependence of quality criteria on the selected research approach is clearly pointed out, which again emphasizes the necessity of a theoretical and methodological foundation for a particular approach in the context of agency- and utilization-oriented scientific monitoring. It also has to be taken into consideration that the criteria should be basically named and explained in the theoretical conception, but that their realization in concrete action or in research has to be carried out in an object- and development-related way. Without the consideration, reflection and development of quality criteria, the qualitatively oriented scientific monitoring of pilot projects remains arbitrary and without proof. Besides, the criteria of the research process and of the epistemic and innovation process make the development and the results of the pilot project transparent and communicable, so that they facilitate, if not make possible, the transfer of the latter.
5 Transfer and Structuration as Developmental Principles The question of transfer has to be regarded as essential for the outcome and the existence of pilot projects. For instance, Rauner concludes: ‘The answers of pilotproject research to the question of the transfer effects of pilot projects in vocational education and training will be decisive as to whether, to what extent and in what way this instrument of innovation will be a part of the established research and development programmes of the future’ (2004, p. 195). In the discussion on the opportunities, achievements and shortcomings of previous transfer activities, there emerged over recent years an increasingly critical view, which may be ‘based in part on an overly na¨ıve understanding of the nature of the sequence of transfer processes’ (Euler, 2005, p. 57). Without going further into this debate, it has to be observed that the dominant role of practice in action and utilization research outlined above is particularly in accordance with the transfer of processes, knowledge and results of pilot-project work. It is the mission of utilization research in co-operation with researchers and practitioners to continuously confront pilot-project developments and tests with the application and immediate use for the pilot project and the further development of TVET. This type of utilization research is analytical, discursive, supportive of action and prospective (see Beck & Bonß, 1991; Dewe, 1991, p. 3). Moreover, the
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real transfer has to be continuously included in the scope of utilization research as far as possible and it has to be regarded as a development principle in pilot-project work (see Dehnbostel & Demuth, 1995, pp. 48 ff.). In a course of action of this kind there is—as discussed above—an influence of practice on scientific monitoring that leads to a consideration of the transfer, and conversely the research process influences practice and contributes to the further development of the latter and the transfer process. The cyclical phase model that was depicted in the previous section promotes this transfer orientation. Transfer is used as a method and a development principle, both in the theoretical conception and in the empirical and practical conception. What takes place is a transmission of (intermediate) results, experiences and processes which have repercussive effects on the fields of action, the operation and the objectives of the pilot project. This transmission must be understood in the sense of an active use of developed, tested and theoretically secured innovations from the pilot project into the practice of the regulatory system of vocational education and training. In this regard, a distinction is necessary between transfer and continuation (see Kutt, 2001; P¨atzold et al., 2002, pp. 10 ff.). The continuation of pilot-project processes and results means their sustainable use through the agents involved in the pilot project, whereas the transfer aims at an application that goes beyond the persons and institutions participating in the pilot project and sets new standards in the TVET system via an active process of appropriation and dissemination. Methodically, the transfer takes place continuously and not immediately following the generation of results. This means, for example, that a qualification programme is not disseminated and transferred only after its successful operation, but already at the testing stage. The traditional conception of transfer as the transmission of a tested concept or a complete product is thus replaced with a process-oriented, formative understanding of transfer. Transfer thus becomes an instrument for continuous feedback and has effects on the course of the pilot project, as well as on developments on the part of the target person of the transfer, who actively uses the contents of the transfer, thereby giving information on the adequacy and transferability of the contents. The transfer can therefore be conceived as a development principle which is retroactive for the pilot project in question and which connects and changes processes and objectives. Traditional transfer instruments, like written material or workshops, still maintain their high relevance and can be supplemented by Internet presentations and network activities. Moreover, the process orientation and the character of the transfer as a development principle necessitate extensions that become manifest, as mentioned above, particularly in the systematic integration of the transfer in the pilot project work and in the cyclical monitoring process. In respect of vocational education and training, structuration must be regarded as another fundamental principle of pilot-project work. Pilot projects in vocational education and training are characterized either by focusing on the agents under the aspect of qualification, putting aside aspects of structure and organization, or—conversely—by setting out from the structural and organizational conditions and adapting the contents of learning and qualification. Both perspectives have
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meaningfulness and legitimacy and are often mixed in with real pilot-project work. In an educational pilot project, this is often assumed to entail the risk of a dominance of structure and organization for reasons of pedagogy and educational theory. On the whole, pilot projects display a dualism of agency or qualification on the one hand and structure and organization on the other, which becomes manifest in many sociologically monitored pilot projects and in theoretical studies. As Walgenbach explains, epistemic processes in science tend to ‘abstract from the institutional context in (and through) which members of organizations act (and can act)’ or they tend to ‘view the behaviour in and of organizations [. . . ] as determined by constraints’ (2001, p. 356). This is where the theory of structuration with another scientific understanding of structure and action, including practical and conceptual implementation, comes into play. The dualism of action and structure need not, according to this theory, show itself as a contradiction or opposition or be interpreted as such. It is assumed that behaviour, actions and development processes in organizations are neither predominantly determined by organizational constraints, nor unilaterally by the individual will and self-organization of the members. The clarification of the relationship or the overcoming of the dualism of agency and structure in an analytical, theoretical and application-oriented perspective, and thus the creation of duality, is the major commitment of structuration theory approaches in organizational theory (see, for example, Ortmann, Sydow & Windeler, 1997; Windeler & Sydow, 2005), which are based on the theory of structuration by the English sociologist Anthony Giddens. For pilot-project work and pilot-project research, this approach is fundamental as qualification and competence development have to be transferred through work environments and learning structures. Successful pilot projects generally show that organizational and structural conditions have to be put in a relation to agency and learning, even if this does not occur on a theoretically validated basis. In TVETrelated pilot projects, a connection or duality between individual competence development and objectively oriented structures is established, which shows at the same time that structures have to be regarded as ‘a product and a medium of the actions of social agents’ (Goltz, 1999, p. 75). Especially for pilot projects in company-based in-service vocational training, the rule applies that the existing dualism of agency and structure has to be transformed into a duality in which there is mediation between individual learning and action processes for competence acquisition on the one hand and corporate working conditions and organizational structures on the other. A duality is established when actions and structures mutually constitute each other in recursive processes and have useful effects on each other.
6 An Outlook As instruments of innovation and reform in technical and vocational education and training, pilot projects have undergone a considerable increase of relevance since the 1970s and have become an important instrument for the further development
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and quality improvement of TVET. Scientific monitoring, as a necessary part of pilot projects, has prevailed in the form of action and utilization research within a variety of different research approaches. Practice orientation, in the sense of utilization research, has to be understood as a theoretical and conceptual approach that accompanies the fundamental extension of the social sciences in past years and that is embedded into the context of action research. Particularly with regard to business pilot projects, one has to draw attention to the growing importance of organizational and human-resource development for innovations in TVET. The new business and work concepts associated with current social and economic changes require continuous organizational and competence development processes that are linked to concepts of lifelong learning and professional competence and which must be viewed in the context of the transition from the industrial to the knowledge- and service-based economy. In addition, pilot projects contribute, by their reference to standards of competence and education and to the public system of education, to a widening of human-resource and organizational development, which can be expected to be of high value for enterprises with regard to business and management concepts, such as ‘the learning enterprise’ and ‘knowledge management’. The criticisms directed against pilot projects for some time refer above all to the actual innovative effects of pilot projects and the transfer of knowledge and measures. The interpretation discussed above of transfer and structuration as development principles of pilot projects pays attention to this reproach. What is more important than this criticism is the change in education policy concerning the ‘reform of federalism’ that is currently taking place in Germany. In the context of this reform, joint funding by the states and the federal government, as well as the framework agreement on pilot projects, are being abolished, which removes the basis for the BLK pilot projects. In this way, pilot projects in general are called into question, even though the position of business pilot projects continues to be formally secured by their specification in the Vocational Education and Training Act of 2005. The realization of the changes in education policy announced during the discussion on the reform of federalism would not only impede and call into question innovation and reforms in the TVET system, but would also weaken the competitiveness of the economy, the labour-market prospects of trainees and the employability of those participating in in-service education—all of which are linked to continuous innovation of the education system. These arguments were not taken into consideration in the current discussion. There is the danger that the reform of federalism will inflict irreparable damage on pilot projects with regard to the necessary reforms and innovations. To the experimental and innovative development of measures and concepts, their scientific monitoring and their transfer in the sense described in this chapter, there is no alternative.
References Beck, U.; Bonß, W., eds. 1989. Weder Sozialtechnologie noch Aufkl¨arung? Analysen zur Verwendung sozialwissenschaftlichen Wissens. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: Campus.
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Moser, H. 1995. Grundlagen der Praxisforschung. Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany: Lambertus Verlag. Ortmann, G.; Sydow, J.; Windeler, A. 1997. Organisation als reflexive Strukturation. In: Ortmann, G. et al., eds. Theorien der Organisation: die R¨uckkehr der Gesellschaft, 2nd rev. ed., pp. 315–54. Opladen, Germany: Westdeutscher Verlag. P¨atzold, G. 1995. Anspr¨uche an die p¨adagogische Begleitforschung im Rahmen von Modellversuchen. In: Benteler, P. et al., eds. Modellversuchsforschung als Berufsbildungsforschung, pp. 45–70. Cologne, Germany: Botermann & Botermann. P¨atzold, G. et al. 2002. Strukturen schaffen: Erfahrungen erm¨oglichen. Adaption von Modellversuchsinnovationen in der beruflichen Bildung. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Probst, G.G.; Raub, S.; Romhardt, K. 1999. Wissen managen: wie Unternehmen ihre wertvollste Ressource optimal nutzen, 3rd Frankfurt/Main, Germany: FAZ, Gabler. Rauner, F. 2003. Modellversuche in der beruflichen Bildung. In: Bredow, A.; Dobischat, R.; Rottmann, J., eds. Berufs- und Wirtschaftsp¨adagogik von A-Z, pp. 399–414. Baltmannsweiler, Germany: Schneider-Verlag Hohengehren. Rauner, F. 2004. Modellversuche in der beruflichen Bildung: zum Transfer ihrer Ergebnisse— Teil 1. Zeitschrift f¨ur Berufs- und Wirtschaftsp¨adagogik, vol. 100, no. 2, pp. 194–214. Reinmann-Rothmeier, G.; Mandl, H. 1998. Wissensmanagement: eine Delphi-Studie. Munich, Germany: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit¨at, Lehrstuhl f¨ur Empirische P¨adagogik und P¨adagogische Psychologie. (Forschungsbericht Nr. 90.) Schemme, D. 2003. Wissenschaftliche Begleitung und Evaluation in Wirtschaftsmodellversuchen. Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis, vol. 32, no. 6, pp. 31–35. Schmidt, H.; Kutt, K. 1990. Innovationen im Lernort Betrieb: Modellversuche als Innovationsinstrument f¨ur Praxis, Forschung und Politik. In: Sommer, K.-H., ed. Betriebsp¨adagogik in Theorie und Praxis. Festschrift Wolfgang Fix zum 70. Geburtstag, pp. 221–35. Esslingen, Germany: Deugross. Sloane, P.F.E. 1996. Modellversuchsforschung als didaktisch-strukturierte Berufsbildungsforschung. In: Sommer, K.-H., ed. Bildungsforschung, Modellversuche und berufsp¨adagogische Projekte, pp. 62–121. Esslingen, Germany: Deugross. Sloane, P.F.E. 2005. Modellversuchsforschung. In: Rauner, F., ed. Handbuch Berufsbildungsforschung, pp. 658–64. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Steinke, I. 1999. Kriterien qualitativer Forschung: Ans¨atze zur Bewertung qualitativ-empirischer Sozialforschung. Munich, Germany: Juventa. Strauss, A.F. 1994. Grundlagen qualitativer Sozialforschung. Munich, Germany: Wilhelm Fink. Walgenbach, P. 2001. Giddens’ Theorie der Strukturierung. In: Kieser, A., ed. Organisationstheorien, 4th ed., pp. 355–75. Stuttgart, Germany: Kohlhammer. Weishaupt, H. 1980. Modellversuche im Bildungswesen und ihre wissenschaftliche Begleitung. In: Max-Planck-Institut f¨ur Bildungsforschung, ed. Bildung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Band 2, pp. 1287–342. Reinbeck, Germany: Rowohlt TB-V. Windeler, A.; Sydow, J. 2005. Strukturation von Kompetenzen in Netzwerken. Berlin: Technische Universit¨at. (Manuscript.) Zimmer, G. 1997. Wissenschaftliche Begleitung von Modellversuchen: auf der Suche nach der Theorie innovativer Handlungen. Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 27–33.
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Chapter IX.7
TVET and R&D Evaluation: The Potential for Optimizing TVET Ludger Deitmer and Lars Heinemann
1 Introduction In this chapter, we analyse the role evaluation and evaluation methods have typically played so far in the field of TVET and argue that the adaptation of newer evaluation approaches could be helpful for optimizing the learning processes underlying successful TVET. First, we will briefly discuss the role evaluation used to play (and still plays) concerning TVET. We argue that this role is not sufficient to evaluate TVET in a useful way as it neglects the ‘black box’ of innovation that is crucial for all learning processes at individual, project or organizational level. Other evaluation approaches that focus on innovation in the area of research and development could be used instead to light up this black box. Subsequently, we give an overview of what evaluation methods are used under what circumstances for what purposes (parts three to six). In the seventh part, we describe what aspects of TVET could be interesting subjects for evaluation. In the eighth part, we present an example of a formative evaluation method to show the potentials of evaluation tools for TVET. Finally, in part nine we develop suggestions on how these evaluation methods could be used.
2 Evaluating TVET: Historical Trends and Problems Evaluation is a systematic and objective process that assesses the relevance, efficiency and effectiveness of policies, programmes and projects in attaining their originally stated objectives. It is both a theory- and practice-driven approach, whose results feed back into the policy-making process and help in formulating and assessing policy rationales. However, there is still a lot of confusion on what evaluation can realistically and effectively achieve (Fahrenkrog et al., 2002).
This quotation can be found in the IPTS Technical Report ‘RTD evaluation toolbox: assessing the socio-economic impact of RTD policies’. This toolbox differentiates between eleven evaluation methodologies and concerns describing, for example, their applicability to policy instruments and interventions, examples of good practice, conditions for application, data requirements, scope and limits. Taking four R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 IX.7, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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classical fields of research and technological development (RTD) policy (financing R&D; provision of R&D infrastructure; technology transfer and innovation diffusion; legal framework), the report analyses different possible evaluation methodologies (Polt & Rojo, 2002). The report, however, does not make any reference to TVET—and this is not very surprising. Up until now, neither the part TVET may play in introducing innovations in a learning organization nor the role evaluation may play in this process have been thoroughly examined. Since the introduction of evaluation procedures at the beginning of the twentieth century, the main subject of evaluation has usually been the effects and impacts of policies, programmes and projects.1 So, evaluation has been carried out when TVET is organized in the form of a project or a programme and when some stakeholder(s) wanted to find out about the programme’s effectiveness. This obviously does not apply to many countries or many ways of organizing TVET. When some, mostly local or regional, TVET programme was evaluated, this evaluation frequently concentrated on directly measurable effects—a category such as ‘the number of participants entering the labour market in a given time span after the end of training’ being inevitably one of the most obvious measures.2 This has had the effect that evaluating TVET was viewed in the same way as evaluating any other policy programme (and thus not giving TVET a prominent place in discussions on evaluation methodologies and fields). Furthermore—and probably most importantly—this setting has restricted the use of evaluation methods in TVET, as programme evaluations mostly looked at the effectiveness of a given programme, but not at the underlying learning processes in TVET themselves. If, for example, labour-market entry is the single most important category to evaluate the quality of a TVET programme, some crucial aspects of TVET fall out of focus. Generally speaking, the aim of TVET is to educate people in such a way that they are suitably skilled to enter a future labour market, to adapt to further changes in technology and work organization, and even to play an active role in these changes (Manske, 1994; Manske, Mickler & Wolf, 1994). Two interlinked aspects in this definition do not allow the relevance, efficiency and effectiveness of TVET to be reduced to a simple category like labour market entry. First, TVET aims at future skill needs. The pace of technological and organizational development means that any TVET that is solely focused on today’s skill needs may already be out of date by the time the trainees enter the labour market. Thus, TVET has to aim at a thorough, broad understanding of a profession enabling graduates to incorporate new knowledge and developments. This leads to the second aspect—that TVET is education. Enabling people to adapt to (and even actively shape) future technologies and work organizations, to become experts in their professions who are able to reflect upon work processes and optimize them, requires a broad range of skills—domain-specific as well as general ones. Developing these skills, TVET has to restrain itself partially from the actual demands of the labour market in order to secure skills for the future.3 These indirect effects of TVET are hard to measure and thus normally left out of evaluations. Moreover, one can often analyse them only a considerable time after the end of a given TVET programme. But, if the aspects of TVET we briefly sketched
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above are crucial for the effectiveness and relevance of TVET, evaluation has to change its direction so as to be able to obtain satisfactory results. From analysing overall outcomes, we have to shift our aim to look at the underlying learning processes in TVET. Apart from evaluating the results of processes, evaluation has a long-standing tradition of trying to optimize processes themselves. Here, we see the advantage of applying these approaches to the evaluation of TVET. Especially for the evaluation of R&D processes, evaluation methods have been developed that aim at looking into change processes themselves and optimizing them. In the final chapter, we will discuss what preconditions have to be met for evaluating this role. Now, in order to shed light on the whole panorama, we first will give an overview of different evaluation methods that may be used for different purposes.
3 The Purposes of Evaluation In general, evaluation can be geared to the following purposes and grouped according to the following evaluation types (Will, Winteler & Krapp, 1986; Kromrey, 2001, p. 114; Stockmann, 2002, p. 221).
3.1 Evaluations Performed for Legitimation Purposes Evaluation focuses mainly on examining the efficiency and effectiveness of the measures, projects and planning goals. It often centres on output measurements based on figures. Input/output comparisons are used to examine the return on investment and the degree to which requirements have been met. Questions that can be at the heart of the examination are, for instance, whether the project was worth the financial outlay and whether the measures undertaken have proved to be cost-effective. Another variation is a target-hitting check, i.e. whether and to what extent the project’s defined targets have been achieved so far. The results of a programme are usually analysed after its completion and its success evaluated by external evaluators.
3.2 Evaluations to Broaden the Knowledge Base This kind of evaluation serves above all scientific interests by examining the effectiveness of social interventions in the form of research using scientific methods (e.g. by formulating and checking hypotheses). Here, designs are realized that allow effects to be allocated to project activities by controlling the relevant framework conditions, using methods that are uncontested. Methods of empirical social research dominate here and the evaluator must be seen as an external social researcher. A typical question to be examined here would be whether, for instance, the measures carried out during a project were the cause that led to the achievement of goals (see examples in: Simmie, 1997; Deitmer, 2004).
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3.3 Evaluations Geared to Development and Promoting Dialogue Evaluations of this type have, above all, a formative and supportive approach and are designed to strengthen the quality development and quality assurance within the innovation process. In the United States evaluation community, the range of participation-based evaluation approaches has expanded to include types with names such as ‘empowerment evaluation’, ‘fourth-generation evaluation’ or ‘participatory evaluation’ (Guba & Lincoln, 1989; Fetterman, Kaftarian & Wandersman, 1996; Patton, 1997). In contrast to scientifically distanced and/or external evaluation (see para. 3.2 above), this kind of evaluation is, above all, characterized by a broad participation of the ‘affected parties’ in the evaluation process. Accordingly, the evaluation is designed as a process of structured presentation and confrontation of (partly conflicting) perspectives of the various actors. The evaluator or the evaluation team acts, among other things, as a moderator and supports the discussion process between the actors within the framework of the changes supported by the programme (examples are: Ehrlich, 1995; Deitmer et al., 2003, p. 213).
4 General Perspectives on Evaluation A common and important differentiation is analysing under what circumstances suitable and relevant evaluation tools can be best used and what effect was made between ex-ante, intermediate and ex-post evaluation. Below, we explain the key issues and purposes of these approaches: 1. Ex-ante perspectives of evaluation. The key issues are to appraise the potential scientific, social and economic benefits of a programme or project, to ensure that benefits should cover the costs, to agree on research objectives and targets, work plans and to define the necessary monitoring processes (Boden & Stern, 2002, p. 6). This is also classified as pre-formative or prospective evaluation (Stockmann, 2002, p. 222). 2. Intermediate perspectives of evaluation (Boden & Stern, 2002, p. 6), which means formative evaluation. In this case, the evaluation is carried out during the life-cycle of an on-going programme and project. This can be also classified as implementation research evaluation. A formative evaluation refers to the regular feedback on achievements made while the project or programme is being carried out. The primary function of this kind of evaluation is to inform stakeholders about the achievements, but also about blockages or malfunctioning elements within the R&D process. Stakeholders like programme managers, practitioners and providers of R&D want to be informed on these achievements in order to steer R&D processes for good ends. This formative evaluation activity may require the active co-operation of the direct and indirect project actors in the process of evaluation. The purpose of this evaluation in the course of the process
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is to achieve optimal co-ordination of objectives and measures in the envisaged field of activity (Hughes & Nieuwenhuis, 2005, p. 18). 3. Ex-post perspective on evaluation. This is evaluation of the impact or results of a programme or a project usually comparing input and output. This is also known as summative evaluation, expressing the ‘drawing up of a balance sheet’. According to Kromrey, summative evaluation means a summarizing or final judgement on the effects brought about by, for instance, an R&D programme (Kromrey, 1995, p. 313)—or brought about by a single R&D project. Answers to the following questions are sought: What effects have been achieved by the project measures? Has the programme achieved its goals? What conclusions can be drawn for the organization of future processes both at the project and at the programme level? In practice, these three phases (and thus the three evaluation approaches) are interlinked; there is, for example, feedback between intermediate or ex-post evaluation and ex-ante evaluation or the design process of programmes. Also ex-post or summative evaluation is contributing or can contribute to the formation of new or prolonged programmes.
5 Evaluation Approaches: Utility Versus Scientific Quality In the course of an evaluation, the methods and approaches of empirical social research are applied. The focus here is not on ‘the logic of a science geared to gaining knowledge, generalization and transferability’, but ‘the logic of a practical project geared to the “success” of its activity, often as part of a state-administrative intervention programme or an intervention programme funded by social organizations’ (Kromrey, 1995, p. 315). Therefore, this type of evaluation cannot be equated with scientific basic research, but is application-oriented and places the applicability and utility of the evaluation results in the foreground. Evaluation is thus a form of practical research or action research. However, it demands professional work and the observance of scientific principles from the evaluators. The processes of change when carrying out a project, programme or other object of evaluation are seen as social processes, which favour an evaluation design that is qualitative, process-oriented and process-accompanying and therefore to a certain extent open. Increasingly, the dominant view is that evaluations must more strongly reflect the perspectives and needs of the stakeholders, and that qualitative and quantitative methods can usefully be combined (multi-method approaches). In the last two decades, this has led to a change in the theory and practice of evaluations of publicly-funded programmes. This demands above all that both the people directly affected by a project, as well as the people responsible for a project, must be able to use the evaluation results. Consequently, Stockmann states: ‘The quality of evaluations can therefore not be measured by one criterion alone. Not only the scientific quality of the result is important, but also the fact that evaluations are useful, because only then can they have an impact on political and social processes
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of change’ (Stockmann, 2002). So, the utility criterion has gained broad recognition alongside the scientific quality criterion. This has been a focus of evaluation discussions for many years. Or, as Chelminsky (1995, p. 6) describes the more recent development of evaluation research: ‘We think less about absolute merits of one method versus another, and more about whether and how using them in concert could result in more conclusive findings.’
6 Process-Oriented Methods of R&D Evaluation Most evaluation approaches focus on input (e.g. money) and/or on output data (e.g. new market products) because these factors are easy to quantify. Such evaluations are often done by external evaluators and usually take the form of final or summative evaluations. Despite the fact that such evaluations provide valuable insights into cost/benefit issues, the missing link is that they do not deal with the process as such. Also, they do not actively involve the actors and stakeholders. Especially in evaluating R&D processes, formative evaluation methods were developed and used that focus on innovation and learning processes. The three key questions for R&D project members are as follows:
r r r
What are the critical success criteria for assessing the performance of our R&D project? Does the evaluation approach allow us to clarify what has helped or hindered the co-operation and communication processes? What is the link between input criteria (e.g. resources) and the knowledge sharing and collective learning effects?
When selecting appropriate R&D evaluation criteria, one can consider four types of data (Smith & Blundel, 2001) relating to R&D measures: 1. Input data: for example, R&D financial inputs (number and quality of R&D experts employed and physical resources invested in an innovation project); 2. Output data: for example, patents emerging from an innovation project; 3. Bibliometric data: e.g. scientific publications (including co-publications by research bodies and industry and/or citation indexes). 4. Information about the innovation process as such. Evaluation of the fourth item assists R&D actors in accessing the quality of the co-operation, in order to find out what is going or not going well. In other words, evaluation methods of this type try to look into the ‘black box’ of the innovation process.
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7 Areas of TVET—Areas of Evaluation The whole range of evaluation methods and fields can be applied to TVET in various ways. In this part of our chapter, we will sketch what evaluation designs have proved useful or could be worthwhile to apply to what aspects of TVET. Obviously, this depends heavily on the way TVET is organized. For example, on-the-job training requires a different approach than school-based training in terms of roles, actors and settings to be analysed, as well as in terms of categories to evaluate against. When evaluating on-the-job training, one has to analyse for the learning process the relation between trainee and trainer (and possibly other co-workers), where learning often follows a novice/expert paradigm. Here, a central question is how the trainee acculturates into a community of practice with its specific values and social norms. Evaluation may be interested in how informal knowledge about work processes, subjects and organization is transmitted, to what degree work tasks work as learning tasks, to what extent the organization of work processes allows or holds back learning, what the core skills for a specific profession are, how they are transmitted, to what extent does assessment reflect these skills and so on. For school-based learning, relevant settings and actors would be the school and its teachers. Here, one focus of evaluation would be curricula (e.g. based on subjects or learning areas) and didactic approaches (e.g. action-oriented, problem-based learning, etc.), the relation of theoretical knowledge to real-work processes, the school’s means to simulate work processes, etc. Furthermore, for alternating organizations of TVET, like Germany’s, Austria’s and Switzerland’s dual system or the United Kingdom’s modern apprenticeship, the co-operation between the different learning places is another important focus of evaluation.4 Main categories here are: (a) co-operation and collaboration between school and enterprises and more directly between trainers and teachers; (b) how general theoretical knowledge taught at vocational school is ‘translated’ to make it applicable for practical problems; (c) how practical knowledge developed at the workplace in industries or in-service organizations is translated into school subjects; (d) how school-teachers keep up-to-date with technological and organizational change at the workplaces, etc. Additionally, there are important subjects for evaluation at the first and second ‘thresholds’ for young adults—entering training and leaving training into the labour market. At the first threshold, one may be interested on the individual level in how the skills and knowledge acquired in general education fit into the needs of the training system and form a sound base to master the profession in training. At the system level, one may ask about the efficiency and effectiveness of the mechanisms leading to TVET (career guidance, regional demand and supply, etc.). At the second threshold, evaluation can focus at the individual level on the fit between skills acquired during TVET and labour-market demands and the effectiveness of socialization into a community of practice; at the system level, into the efficiency of mechanisms leading people into the labour market, matching training and jobs, etc.
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Interestingly, most of these evaluation foci are related to processes themselves and not to their results. Thus, beyond the focus of many evaluation studies that concentrate on the outcomes of TVET or a TVET programme (as legitimate and important as they obviously are), there is another area where evaluation has not yet been this established but could nevertheless have an important impact. Interestingly, the examples we chose for evaluation of the TVET process have above all a clear affinity to formative evaluation methods looking at innovation and learning processes. Still, a broad mix of evaluation methods is important here too. In this area, one can use external evaluation as well as self-evaluation methods for the stakeholders involved in these processes, like trainers, teachers and the professional students themselves. For example, trainers, teachers and trainees can evaluate together the content and learning opportunities of a typical work and learning task in TVET, or external evaluators can analyse the processes in vocational schools when trying to adapt to new curricula. Obviously, there are a lot of other options for evaluating TVET processes, which we will not try to mention or even systematize here. The point we wanted to make in this part of the chapter is that the learning processes underlying TVET are an important field of evaluation that has not yet received the attention it deserves. Analysing these processes, it is worthwhile to supplement the evaluation methods that are well known in evaluating outcomes and impacts with methods that are used in R&D evaluation. This has the advantage that evaluation can focus directly on the learning processes and their effects on trainee, trainer and possibly whole organizations. We will discuss this point in our final section, after describing more in depth below one of these formative, process-oriented evaluation methods in order to illustrate their design and to clarify their potential to analyse learning processes.
8 An Example of a Process-Oriented Evaluation Method The evaluation design of the EE Tool (Deitmer & Ruth, 1999; Deitmer et al., 2003; Deitmer, 2008) represents a type of evaluation designed to promote innovation processes and to support their actors. This evaluation tool is intended to improve and/or support the self-control and self-determination of the actors concerned. This is done through a systemic process of reflection. The goal is to find out the extent to which innovations become effective—even beyond the support period. In this procedure an intermediate/concomitant and project-supporting form of evaluation (Kromrey also refers to the ‘helper and advisor model’ of the evaluation, 1995, p. 332) is selected whose purpose is to ensure that interim results of the evaluation can already be reflected back into the process during implementation of the project. The evaluation process (Figure 1) consists of a preliminary clarification of the evaluation criteria to be applied, an evaluation workshop with the weighting and evaluation of the criteria by the TVET project actors, an internal evaluation by the external evaluation team and a perspective meeting that provides feedback on the course and results of the evaluation for the people involved. During the evaluation
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A. Preparation of the criteria system • forming an external evaluation team; • elaborating performance criteria in relation to programme goals and effects; • preparing the project’s practitioners and promoters.
D. Feedback • mirroring back the results of the selfevaluation; • discussion, conclusion and further outlook; • final report.
B. Self-evaluation • gathering information on project achievements; • individual weighting and scoring of criteria; • min./max. discussion; • reflection and consensus discussion.
C. Analysis • documenting the discussion; • visualization of the results; • external views on strength & weaknesses.
Fig. 1 Evaluation cycle of an actor-oriented programme evaluation
process, the project actors are encouraged to undertake criteria-based self-evaluation in order to assess how well the project goals are achieved. The various viewpoints of the actors are made clear during these discussions. This can lead to conclusions for further action. Finally, the process is documented in a project management report which can detail newly agreed goals. The most important design element of the EE Tool is the criteria-based questionnaire. The criteria were selected on the basis of innovation theory research literature (Deitmer et al., 2003, pp. 137–70) and deal with the following five topics: goals; resources; project management; partnership development; and communication/learning. These criteria are briefly described below.
8.1 Safeguarding the Self-Evaluation Process The moderator team formed before the evaluation starts should display a degree of independence from the specific interests of the different network partners. During the first half-day workshop the stakeholders and actors of the network weigh and score the above-outlined criteria. The evaluation approach is based on an individual and collective self-assessment on the actors. Based on the criteria assessment, the reasons for lower or higher scores are expanded by the actors in the discussions. Through group discussions insights about the different aspects of the project improvement process emerge. It is important that group discussions are not just about reaching a ‘compromise’ between the different actors, but should enable everybody to have a deeper understanding of their position in the network.
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This kind of evaluation requires additional skills for the evaluator. He/She has to act as a moderator or facilitator of the discussion and needs to cover sufficient knowledge about evaluation methods in general (Heinemann, 2008). Existing evaluation models do not elicit this understanding. Boden and Stern state that: ‘We do not have sufficiently developed models that explain the relationships between RTD (research, technology and development policies), other socioeconomic processes and mediating factors and socio-economic impacts such as competitiveness, innovation, public health and quality of life’ (Boden & Stern, 2002, p. 13). Obviously, the main focus of this tool is on learning processes as they display themselves in the course of R&D projects. When applying it to TVET, one has to adapt (and even substantially change) it according to the different settings. Thus, main criteria would be those that refer to learning, e.g. in workplace-based TVET. But the approach itself—to help the actors by means of self-evaluation to get insights into the learning processes, their preconditions, the factors enabling and constraining them, etc.—still remains valid.
9 Conclusion: From Evaluating TVET to Evaluation in TVET? As a routine task accompanying processes, evaluation is still not widespread in the TVET sector. When evaluations are carried out, this is often done to evaluate effectiveness and efficiency of specific TVET programmes, often driven by reasons of accountability. The broad panorama of evaluation methods and their possible mix we described here aimed at showing that there are areas of TVET where evaluation can have a suitable impact too (see also: Dehnbostel, 1995; Lipsmeier, 1997; Ehrlich, 1995; Rauner, 2002). Focusing on the underlying learning processes and using also formative, processoriented methods is not a task that is easily integrated into TVET. Here, at the conclusion of our chapter, we will describe some of the most important preconditions and implications to expand the field of evaluation to TVET. When evaluating learning processes, we have to be sure to sufficiently involve the most relevant stakeholders—teachers/trainers and learners. Often, some aspects of self-evaluation can be used here, as the real experts for the learning process are the participants themselves. It is useful to carry through evaluations in a way that allows the participants to make use out of the results, i.e. that they can optimize their learning processes. Using methods of formative evaluation can help this. But this implies not only adapting evaluation methods that have not been widely used in TVET, but also changing the scope of evaluation. If we are to analyse learning processes, we have to focus on what is happening at the schools or the workplaces themselves. Instead of evaluating large-scale programmes, there is a
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point here to carry out evaluation practices on a small scale in order to optimize training and learning. By integrating evaluation into the everyday routines of TVET, there is a lot to gain: first of all, by focusing on actual learning processes, TVET can become a part of the evolution of the organizations that carry out TVET. In this way, TVET may be seen as part of an on-going process of quality development. Again, this requires embedding TVET evaluation into the processes of quality development that go on in an organization as a whole and implies a process of collaboration and co-operation between the persons in charge of TVET and the quality department—something that is not easy to organize. In an ongoing German project5 (Rauner, 2006) on quality in TVET, we found that exactly those companies that undertook this effort are the ones that usually meet the highest quality standards and achieve the greatest profit from TVET in terms of apprentices that already, during their apprenticeship phase, are highly productive workers. Obviously, there are some pitfalls in concentrating on formative forms of evaluation and self-evaluation in TVET. The main problem already demonstrates itself by having used the notion of quality development and not quality assurance in the paragraph above. These evaluation methods do not tend to deliver results that are easily comparable to others. This is already true on the enterprise or school level. Formative and process-oriented methods have been developed to optimize (on-going) processes—not to evaluate results. On the school or enterprise level, the application of such methods means being able to find out where problems are, and how to solve them during the process—something that may balance out the loss of comparability, e.g. between different classes at school or the problems of TVET in different vocations at one enterprise. If we move on now to a largerscale comparing performance of different schools and different enterprises, and different TVET projects and programmes (or even different TVET systems), the problems with these evaluation methods deepen. Up to now, we are not aware of any method that directly compares the results of such evaluation methods in TVET. What one is able to do, however, is to analyse results in terms of good practice and develop general recommendations that have to be adapted to the different cases. In general, this means that one should make use of the whole arsenal of evaluation methods in TVET. Evaluation methods that have been used for a long time in analysing outcomes and impacts of TVET (and other) programmes have their own right and may be ideal to compare results on a larger scale. This can be accompanied, too, by using evaluation as part of the quality management of TVET processes—an approach that is still in its infancy. Here, evaluation delivers results that may not be readily comparable but can help to optimize the ways TVET is actually carried out, including weak factors that influence the learning process and are often neglected. Thus, especially R&D evaluation, when carefully adapted, has the potential of uniting TVET and quality and shedding some more light into the ‘black box’ of innovation that underlies learning processes in companies.
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Notes 1. In recent decades, another focus of evaluation has emerged—formative approaches try to optimize on-going processes by, for example, raising communication levels between actors or empowering stakeholders. 2. Obviously, there have been other kinds of evaluation carried out in TVET. We simplify here in order to sketch a general trend. 3. A third reason not to restrict evaluation of TVET to its direct efficiency in terms of labourmarket entry would be that this is not a solid measure as it depends to a large extent on other influences that one cannot control—national, regional and local growth rates, international trade, etc. The most sophisticated TVET programme cannot create jobs during a general economic depression. Thus, this argument does not consider the general problem of evaluation and TVET we are discussing here. 4. As it is for the ideal types mentioned before, too. As on-the-job training normally cannot do without theoretical inputs on subjects of the profession, school-based training in TVET requires practical phases, too. 5. IBB 2010: The main goal of this regional programme is to support the quality of innovative apprenticeship. The programme covers all aspects of the dual apprenticeship system, the school-to-work transition, as well as the implementation of ‘real’ dual approaches integrating apprenticeship and technical school/university qualifications and certificates.
References Boden, M.; Stern, E. 2002. User perspectives. In: Fahrenkrog, G. et al., eds. RTD evaluation toolbox. Seville, Spain: Institute for Prospective Technological Studies; Vienna: Joanneum Research. (IPTS Technical Report Series.) Chelminsky, E. 1995. New dimensions in evaluation. In: Picciotto, R.; List, R.C., eds. Evaluation and development: proceedings of the 1994 World Bank conference. Washington, DC: World Bank, Operations Evaluation Department. Dehnbostel, P. 1995. Neuorientierungen wissenschaftlicher Begleitforschung: eine kritische Auseinandersetzung mit bestehenden Konzepten und f¨alligen Fortentwicklungen. In: Benteler, P. et al., eds. Modellversuchsforschung als Berufsbildungsforschung. Wirtschafts-, Berufs- und Sozialp¨adagogische Texte. Cologne, Germany: Botermann & Botermann. Deitmer, L. 2004. Management regionaler Innovationsnetzwerke: Evaluation als Ansatz zur Effizienzsteigerung regionaler Innovationsprozesse. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos. Deitmer, L. 2008. Programme evaluation. In: Rauner, F.; Maclean, R., eds. Handbook of technical and vocational education and training research. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Deitmer, L. et al. 2003. Improving the European knowledge base through formative and participative evaluation of science-industry liaisons and public-private partnerships (PPP) in R&D. Bremen, Germany: University of Bremen. (Final report of Covoseco thematic network project, EU STRATA 5th framework programme.) Deitmer, L.; Ruth, K. 1999. Establishing networks between R&D and SMEs for collaboration and regional innovation (Bremen, Germany). In: Gustavsen, B.; Ennals, R., eds. Work organization and Europe as a development coalition. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing. Ehrlich, K. 1995. Auf dem Weg zu einem neuen Konzept wissenschaftlicher Begleitung. Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 32–37. Fahrenkrog, G. et al., eds. 2002. RTD evaluation toolbox. Seville, Spain: Institute for Prospective Technological Studies; Vienna: Joanneum Research. (IPTS Technical Report Series.) Fetterman, D.M.; Kaftarian, S.J.; Wandersman, A., eds. 1996. Empowerment evaluation: knowledge and tools for self-assessment and accountability. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
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Guba, E.G.; Lincoln, Y.S. 1989. Fourth generation evaluation. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Heinemann, L. 2008. Distance and proximity in VET research. In: Rauner, F.; Maclean, R., eds. Handbook of technical and vocational education and training research. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Hughes, J.; Nieuwenhuis, L. 2005. A project manager’s guide to evaluation. Bremen, Germany: Universit¨at Bremen, ITB. (Evaluate Europe Handbook Series Vol. 1.) Kromrey, H. 1995. Evaluation: Empirische Konzepte zur Bewertung von Handlungsprogrammen und die Schwierigkeiten ihrer Realisierung. Zeitschrift f¨ur Sozialisationsforschung und Erziehungssoziologie, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 313–36. Kromrey, H. 2001. Evaluation: ein vielschichtiges Konzept. Begriff und Methodik von Evaluierung und Evaluationsforschung. Empfehlungen f¨ur die Praxis. Sozialwissenschaften und Berufspraxis, vol. 24, no. 2. Lipsmeier, A. 1997. Zur wissenschaftlichen Begleitung von CAL-Modellversuchen im allgemeinen und zur Evaluation von ,,Olli’ im besonderen. Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 22–26. Manske, F. 1994. Facharbeiter und Ingenieure im ,,deutschen Produktionsmodell”. WSIMitteilungen, vol. 7. Manske, F.; Mickler, O.; Wolf, H. 1994. Computerisierung technisch-geistiger Arbeit: ein Beitrag zur Debatte um Form und Folgen gegenw¨artiger Rationalisierung, In: Beckenbach, N.; van Treeck, W., eds. Umbr¨uche gesellschaftlicher Arbeit. G¨ottingen, Germany: Schwartz. (Special edition 9 of Soziale Welt.) Patton, M.Q. 1997. Utilization-focused evaluation: the new century text. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Polt, W.; Rojo, J. 2002. Evaluation methodologies: introduction. In: Fahrenkrog, G. et al., eds. RTD evaluation toolbox, pp. 65–70. Seville, Spain: Institute for Prospective Technological Studies; Vienna: Joanneum Research. (IPTS Technical Report Series.) Rauner, F. 2002. Modellversuche in der beruflichen Bildung: zum Transfer ihrer Ergebnisse. Bremen, Germany: Universit¨at Bremen, Institut Technik und Bildung. (ITB Forschungsberichte, 03.) Rauner, F. 2006. Kosten, Nutzen und Qualit¨at der betrieblichen Berufsausbildung. Bremen, Germany: Universit¨at Bremen, Institut Technik und Bildung. (Projekt IBB 2010.) Simmie, J. 1997. Innovation, networks and learning regions? London: Jessica Kingsley. (Regional Policy and Development Series 18.) Smith, D.J.; Blundel, R. 2001. Business networks: SMEs and inter-firm collaboration. A review of the research literature with implications for policy. Sheffield, UK: Small Business Service. (RR003/01.) Stockmann, R. 2002. Qualit¨atsmanagement und Evaluation: Konkurrierende oder sich erg¨anzende Konzepte? Zeitschrift f¨ur Evaluation, vol. 2, pp. 209–43. Will, H.; Winteler, A.; Krapp, A. 1986. Von der Erfolgskontrolle zur Evaluation. In: Will, H.; Winteler, A; Krapp, A., eds. Evaluation in der beruflichen Aus- und Weiterbildung: Konzepte und Strategien, pp. 11–42. Heidelberg, Germany: Sauer.
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Chapter IX.8
TVET Research Organizations and Scientific Communities:1 Challenges to the Institutionalization of TVET Research Wolfgang Wittig, Uwe Lauterbach and Philip Grollmann
1 Introduction This chapter provides an overview of the extent and the shape of the organization of TVET research on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and its variations across different countries and supra-national organizations. This will be carried out by describing some fundamental challenges regarding the institutionalization of TVET research, reporting about the form of TVET research in different national and supra-national contexts, and then summarizing and pointing out some future directions. As many contributions to this handbook will show, TVET is embedded into complex interplays of historically evolved societal functions. Patterns of technological and economic innovation, labour markets and industrial relations and education systems and traditions are the main determinants of the actual situation, policies and practices of TVET in different countries. With this variation, the research questions, methodologies and the location in disciplinary maps vary accordingly. These varying national and cultural traditions of TVET research are, however, based on the same historical roots, as well as confronted with concurrent challenges brought about by ‘megatrends’, such as increasing globalization and international competition and the accelerating speed of technological and economic innovation. As to the joint roots, one can refer to central European traditions of learning in practice and its institutionalization in the form of master/apprentice relations, which are found not only in the mediaeval crafts sector, but also in other cultures, as ethnological studies on learning have illustrated impressively (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Learning in practical environments as opposed to more formalized learning settings, such as in schools, colleges and universities, can claim to be an anthropological constant and is probably more widespread than the equally universal modern systems of schooling. As to the universal challenges, many problems regarding the reproduction and further development of technological and economic knowledge and its societal distribution are very similar across cultures, when one looks below the surface of international variations. To some extent the ‘knowledge society’ stands in the way of acknowledging the significant function of skills and more implicit forms of R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 IX.8, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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knowledge for economic and social processes (Neuweg, 2004; Sch¨on, 1983), than is usually associated with the term ‘knowledge society or economy’. Nevertheless, in all industrialized countries certain forms of researching aspects and structures of TVET have developed. Very broadly speaking, the degree of institutionalization of research on TVET as a domain or even a discipline of research varies with the degree to which vocational education is assigned a significant role within the overall educational and socio-economic environment. Since learning in and for practical work settings does not constitute an explicit part of the education system in every national tradition, any attempt to depict the global situation of the institutionalization of this research has to be rather open in nature. The roots on which the development of TVET research associations are based can be broadly clustered into the research strands and disciplinary frameworks shown in Table 1. Therefore, any scientific association that can be classified into one or more of these broad research strands will cover certain aspects of TVET research, partly implicitly and sometimes explicitly, for example through certain networks and special interest groups. Before turning to some scientific associations that might be to a certain extent ‘national’, but can be characterized as ‘international’ in their scope and impact, some examples will be given of the national institutionalization of TVET research. Table 1 Grouping of TVET research associations into research strands and disciplinary frameworks Research strand
Disciplinary framework
Socio-economic training and qualification research Life-course and school-to-work transition Educational and curriculum research Empirical psychological research on learning and the development of expertise Economic research on investments into education and learning Research on human resources development (HRD) Research production technologies and learning
Sociology and political sciences Sociology and social psychology Education, teacher training and educational research Psychology and empirical educational sciences
Economics and macro-economic research Business administration and HRD Scientific management, ergonomics, work sciences
2 TVET Research at the National Level 2.1 Australia Australia is a federal State in which powers are shared between the central government and the federal states or ‘territories’. According to the 1901 Constitution, general and vocational education both fall within the competence of the federal states. The role of the federal government in education and vocational education
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derives from its responsibility for Australia’s overall economic development. The Commonwealth Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DEETYA), which came into being in 1996, ensures the relative national uniformity and unity of the education and vocational training system, and provides a large amount of the necessary funding. The major providers of initial vocational courses are the publicly financed technical and further education (TAFE) colleges, which are included in the tertiary sector of education. Apart from initial training, they also provide further training as well as courses following on from initial vocational courses. Structured training in the workplace is provided through apprenticeships or traineeships. In the late 1980s, together with the federal states, territories, employers and social partners, the central government initiated a reform process to reorganize the vocational education system based on the training-reform agenda. The main elements in this reform are the implementation of the competence-oriented organization of training, a complete overhaul of the introductory stage and the introduction of structured training at the workplace. In the interests of unified, nationwide shaping and co-ordination of the TVET system during this revision, the central and federal authorities agreed on a new national system of vocational education which was approved in July 1992. The Australian National Training Authority (ANTA), which has been in operation since early 1994, is the most important body. ANTA supports TVET research activities in many respects. This means that TVET research in public research institutes and in universities can concentrate on a clearly definable area of initial and further vocational education for the whole of the Commonwealth of Australia, with all of its variations, and provide its research results as a contribution towards the reform of vocational education. In addition to the activities of the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) also carries out applied TVET research. It was founded in 1980 in Adelaide as a limited liability company, and is the most important institution in this field of research. The NCVER’s research activity essentially focuses on skill-oriented training, procedures for assessing the results of skill-oriented qualification methods and management methods for (workplace-related) training projects. The National Training Markets Research Centre (NTMRC) is also located within the NCVER. This is a cooperation project involving the NCVER and Flinders University’s National Institute of Labour Studies. Since 1992 a centre in Monash University—the Centre for the Economics of Education and Training (CEET)—has been dealing with specific questions related to the economics of education and vocational training. It is funded by ANTA through the Research Advisory Council. At the University of Technology in Sydney there is also a Research Centre for Vocational Education and Training—RCVET. This centre is also funded by the ANTA Research Advisory Council. It works on research, diffusing research results and supporting other research activities, and in so doing falls back on the widely recognized expertise of the University of Technology’s School of Adult Education. The research focus is learning at the workplace, and its assessment.
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2.2 China In the People’s Republic of China—as in other countries—TVET research goes hand-in-hand with economic, industrial and social development. Chinese vocational education experts date the start of TVET research at the same time as the creation of the industrial schools in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The expansion of industry sparked a need for qualified workers who had acquired some sort of organized vocational qualification. This need for vocational education led to a need for TVET research. From 1949 to the start of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, TVET research supported in particular the development of technical secondary schools and skilled workers schools. The reform of vocational education, which was carried out in the late 1970s, sparked a major increase in the demand for TVET research. Nowadays, there are independent research institutes at State level, in provinces, towns and autonomous areas, as well as in technical colleges and universities. Vocational education is becoming a discipline in its own right within the field of educational science. The sixth Five-year Plan only mentioned one vocational education project, but by the seventh this figure had already risen to eleven. The figure continued to rise, reaching fortytwo by the ninth Five-year Plan. Half of these projects are based in the education ministry. Some of the most important research institutions at State level are the Ministry of Education’s Central Institute for Vocational Training (CIVT), the Occupational Skill and Testing Authority (OSTA)—which comes under the Ministry for Labour—various vocational education societies and associations, as well as research bodies in branch ministries and commissions. The CIVT, which was set up in 1990, is a national research institute whose research focuses on services with a view to the reform and further development of vocational education. The centre of attention lies with applied research in vocational education policy, financing, job classification, teaching/learning research, media development and teacher training. The CIVT is also responsible for documentation, information and the transfer of knowledge. The most important research work of OSTA, which is also application oriented, is the development of occupational, qualification and testing standards and qualification of the specialized personnel required. At present, most of the branch ministries and commissions still have their own vocational education research bodies. Following the reorganization of the ministries and commissions and the principle of ‘one task, one responsibility’, it is likely that their structure will also change. Examples of these research bodies are the National Association for Research into Agricultural Vocational Education, the Research Association for Technical Secondary School Training in Transport, the Research Department for Technical Secondary School Training in Metal-working, or the Research Centre for Vocational Education in the Ministry for the Energy Industry. These bodies are supported and run by the branch ministries. They differ in terms of their type of organization and tend to deal with highly specific areas. Some of them are attached to technical secondary schools or specialized schools
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as research departments. They are largely responsible for supporting reforms and solving problems in practice. At the provincial level, vocational education research institutes have progressively been set up since 1985. The majority of these research bodies come directly under the education commissions of the provinces or cities. They are responsible for carrying out applied research, and providing advice and services to support regionally adapted reform. This includes research into vocational education development strategies, organization of the vocational education system, financing, legislation, curricular development, teaching/learning processes, organizational development and teacher training.
2.3 France The context of TVET research in France is a purportedly ‘meritocratic’ system in which general education is favoured over vocational education and training and where apprenticeship training in particular has traditionally had a relatively low reputation. In the nineteenth century, the traditional system of apprenticeship training was dismantled in the course of the dissolution of guilds and corporations. The partial reorganization of the vocational training system under the responsibility of the Ministry of Education in the mid-twentieth century did not lead to stability, and it was only in the 1990s that the figures of those young people with a vocational qualification outnumbered those with a qualification from the general education system. Given the emphasis on full-time schooling in initial vocational education, it is no surprise that the French system is also characterized by a clear institutional distinction between initial training and continuing education or lifelong learning. Whereas initial vocational education and training falls under the authority of the Ministry of Education and the regions, the responsibility for continuing vocational education and training is assigned to the Ministry of Labour. A consequence is that TVET research in France developed only relatively late and that it is characterized by segmentation, both into topics and into disciplines. This means that TVET research is either concerned with initial training, including the vocational programmes at university level, or with lifelong learning and adult education. In addition, there is a sub-segmentation into different disciplines with little or no co-operation between them. Accordingly, studies in TVET are conducted by economists, sociologists, psychologists, political scientists and others, while a coherent scientific community around the theme of vocational education and training has not developed. Nevertheless, there are some important institutions that focus exclusively on TVET research. Since the end of the 1960s the structuration of the research field was improved by the establishment of national research institutes and networks. The most important of these is the Centre d’´etudes et des recherches sur les qualifications (C´ereq—Centre for Studies and Research on Qualifications), which was founded in 1971 and has become the largest organization devoted to TVET research in France. C´ereq, which is operating under the authority of the ministries
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of education and labour, is organized as a network of eighteen research centres at universities. It is mostly concerned with prospective studies on employment, the professional integration of young people, and the development of the TVET system. Whereas the expertise of C´ereq ranges over the entire economic and social sciences, there is also an institution specializing in pedagogy, the Institut national de recherche p´edagogique (INRP—National Institute of Educational Research). As regards the thematic orientation of French TVET research, one can identify five areas that appear to be of particular importance. The first one is the issue of inequalities in the education system. This field includes studies on access to general and initial vocational education, processes of social reproduction and on access to lifelong learning. The second area is the socio-professional integration of young adults. Here the transition from school to work and the issue of youth unemployment are in focus. The third major research theme is the structure of the French education system and the role of the different stakeholders in TVET. The fourth research area focuses on the organization of work and its evolution, while the fifth one deals with vocational teaching methods, especially learning processes and conditions.
2.4 Germany Vocational education in Germany has a long-standing tradition as a discipline that is predominantly concerned with university education for TVET teachers (Lipsmeier, 1972, p. 24). Suffice it to mention Georg Kerschensteiner (1854–1932) and Alois Fischer (1880–1937) as the doyens of the discipline (Lauterbach, 2003, pp. 31 ff). German vocational education research traditionally focuses on teaching research and the system of vocational education and training. In the past the research methods were embedded in the German tradition of the humanities and had a predominantly hermeneutical orientation. In the last two decades a shift towards quantitative methods of social research has taken place. In order to capture the complex topic of vocational education adequately, the pedagogical approach was extended to research questions related to sociology, economics, political science, psychology and law. This interdisciplinary approach is termed Berufsbildungsforschung [TVET research]. It is concerned with the phenomena of general and vocational education that directly or indirectly refer to occupations and professions, to the acquisition of (vocational) qualifications and to (professional) activities. It studies the conditions, processes and outcomes of the acquisition of technical and general qualifications in the context of cultural, societal, political, historical and economic circumstances. An example would be the personal and social attitudes and orientations that are considered relevant for initial and continuing vocational education (including informal learning) and for the performance of (vocationally) organized work processes. The systems of vocational education need to be viewed in the context of the education system as a whole (cf. Lauterbach, 2003, p. 326; Schmidt, 1995, pp. 482 ff.; Teichler, 1995, pp. 501 ff.; Kell, 1996).
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In the report of the German Research Foundation on ‘TVET research at universities in the Federal Republic of Germany’, the field of interdisciplinary research approaches is documented in detail and the necessity of interdisciplinary studies is demonstrated (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, 1990, pp. 22 ff., 92 ff.). This variety of disciplinary research interests, theories and methods promotes theoretical discourse in vocational pedagogy, as well as in those disciplines that participate in TVET research. This interdisciplinary linkage with reality in research projects is an essential criterion for the relevance of research for educational practice, administration and education policy (cf. Achtenhagen, 1999, p. 100). How can informal, project-related, internal interdisciplinary communication be permanently transferred into the interested scientific community? At the national level the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Berufsbildungsforschungsnetz (AG BFN) [working group TVET research network] was established for this purpose in 1991. It includes the many university chairs in vocational pedagogy, the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), the Institute for Labour Market and Occupational Research (IAB) of the Federal Employment Services, independent institutes like the German Institute for International Pedagogical Research and the institutes for educational research of the L¨ander. AG BFN promotes the exchange of research findings and documentation. The project ‘VET Communication and Information System’ (KIBB), initiated by AG BFN, and the ‘VET Literature Database’ record the research findings.
2.5 United Kingdom2 The United Kingdom is another very good example of the close relationship between the organization of the TVET sector on the one hand and the structures, communities and institutions of TVET research on the other. In principle, strongly policy-driven research can be distinguished from more academic traditions in the UK. 2.5.1 Policy-Driven Research It is difficult to delineate a system of technical and vocational education in the UK. Vocational education is mainly provided as part of the large further education sector (FE colleges) but is also anchored in secondary schooling and other educational sectors and places of learning, such as adult education, human resources and ‘informal learning’ (Cullen et al., 2002). In addition, there are increasing variations with regard to TVET provision between the different countries—England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Much of the research that can be found on TVET, therefore, is strongly associated with immediate policy needs and is often commissioned by associations and actors within the structure described above. UK-wide, it is typical that there is a strict institutional separation between different elements of the learning cycle in vocational education. The responsibilities for learning provision, design of the curriculum and
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assessment and awarding of qualifications are separated. In TVET the former are under the auspices of the respective ministries and/or specific sectoral bodies, such as the learning and skills councils, whereas the latter are usually under the auspices of special awarding bodies and controlled by the so-called ‘quangos’ (quasi nongovernmental organizations), such as the Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA) and the Qualification and Curriculum Authority (QCA) in London for England. All of those organizations commission research according to their needs. Therefore, this can range from research on the development of occupational standards and curriculum (specific awarding bodies or sectoral actors sometime in conjunction with the quangos) to programme organization and evaluation (e.g. the association of FE colleges—the Association of Colleges, AOC) or larger-scale statistical accounts (e.g. through the QCA). Naturally, there are also research and development projects with a focus on cross-sectional issues in TVET, such as gender balance (Raffe, Croxford & Howieson, 1994), school-to-work-transitions (Bynner & Chisholm, 1998), or ‘competitiveness’, which are then initiated by the respective administrational bodies, e.g. the Department for Trade and Industry with specific sectoral support programmes (e.g. Brown, Rhodes & Carter, 2002) and often emphasize comparative aspects. 2.5.2 Academic Traditions This policy-driven research is complemented by more independent educational and social scientific research, which usually benefits either from research funding schemes like the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) or as part of ongoing research in universities. In principle, two strands can be distinguished: TVET as a source of innovation and as an economic factor. This example is best embodied through the ESRC Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE), which until 2006 was located in Oxford and Warwick as a network of academics (e.g. Grugulis, Warhurst & Keep, 2004; Keep & Mayhew, 1998; Mayhew, Keep & Coney, 2002). Then there is the more educational tradition, which looks at innovation in teaching and learning, such as the Teaching and Learning Research Programme3 of the ESRC, with the following programme themes directly related to TVET: professional learning; workplace learning; and further and post-16 education. An important publication in this field is Vocational education and training, formerly published under the title of The vocational aspect of education, which is based on a long-standing tradition in vocational education of institutions like Huddersfield, Bolton and Wolverhampton. These institutions are vocational institutes by origin and were always key-players within vocational teacher training. During the last decade they were upgraded to universities. This journal is also associated with a biannual conference on vocational education research and surrounded by a respectable scientific community. Interestingly, the British Educational Research Association (BERA) does not comprise a special interest group (SIG) on vocational education. Thematically, the closest SIG deals with the topic of professional learning—typical representatives are
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rooted in psychological approaches to vocational learning (Eraut, 1994; Fischer, Boreham & Samurcay, 2002). This might be symptomatic of the low level of organization of British researchers in TVET, corresponding to the low degree of organization of the field and the profession itself. All in all, research on TVET in the UK is more based on loose networks of specialists with research-based expertise on vocational education, its pre-conditions and effects, rather than that of a consolidated structure or tradition of TVET research (Elliot, 1996; Randle & Brady, 1997).
2.6 United States of America There are various reasons why it is difficult to identify where the emphasis lies in TVET research in the United States of America and to make general comments on this field. As in most countries, vocational education is a research subject for the whole range of social sciences. There is no specific institutionalized scientific discipline for labour, vocational and economic education. Besides these theoretical scientific reasons, the research subject itself further muddies the waters in that it distinguishes between vocational education, technical education, vocational training, etc.—terms which in German are lumped together under the heading berufliche Bildung. Apart from the Department of Education at the federal level, there are a further twenty ministries with competence in this field. Two ministries—the Department of Education and the Department of Labour—are in overall charge. Programmes such as career education, initial vocational education (occupational education, vocational education, co-operative education, adult education) and various promotional measures for disadvantaged groups in the population (e.g. the illiterate) are handled by the Department of Education. Company-oriented measures (on-the-job training, apprenticeship programmes), the promotional programmes, anti-unemployment measures through companies, trade unions and other institutions and programmes, such as the Job Training Partnership Act, come under the Department of Labour and the Employment and Training Administration. Actual vocational and technical education as such is provided in community colleges, technical institutes, etc., which come under the aegis of the states or school districts, though it must be said that vocational and technical education is not the preferred path in the education sector by any stretch of the imagination— that is to say that it is not very highly regarded when compared with ‘general’ education. The National Center for Research in Vocational Education (NCRVE) was the largest national establishment in the USA dealing with research, development and diffusion of subjects related to vocational education. The centre is financed by the Office of Vocational and Adult Education of the Department of Education. Since 1988 the centre’s headquarters have been at the University of California, Berkeley,
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and it has played a key role in working out new concepts in the field of qualifications for the workforce. The NCRVE closed its doors on 31 December 1999. Its mission is now being carried on by the National Research and Dissemination Centers for Career and Technical Education (NCCTE). The National Research Center is located at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul, and the National Dissemination Center has its headquarters at the Ohio State University, Columbus.
3 TVET Research at the National and Supra-National Level 3.1 Scientific Societies and Research Establishments From the second half of the nineteenth century, national and international institutes and organizations that systematically carried out educational documentation crystallized out of this activity. National institutes to be mentioned here are: The Office of Education (Washington, DC, 1868) from which emerged the Department of Education; the Mus´ee p´edagogique/Institut p´edagogique national (Paris, 1879); the Pestalozzianum (Zurich, 1874); the Office of Special Enquiries and Reports (London, 1895); and the Zentralinstitut f¨ur Erziehung und Unterricht (Berlin, 1914); international educational organizations and institutions include: the International Bureau of Education (Geneva, 1925), the International Institute for Intellectual Co-operation (Paris, 1925), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO, Paris, 1946), the bodies of the former Western European Union/European Community/European Union, such as EURYDICE (Brussels, 1981), and of the Council of Europe, such as EUDISED (Strasbourg, 1970). Even the World Bank in Washington, DC, has its own Education and Employment Division which backs up the Bank’s political work with scientifically based studies, etc. Since 1971 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has been running the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) in Paris, which has a prominent profile on account of its lively publication work, e.g. Education at a glance, OECD indicators. As a direct result of conferences on comparative education, scientific societies were founded, such as the Comparative Education Society in 1956, which is today’s Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), the Comparative Education Society of Europe (CESE) in 1961, and the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) in 1970. The CIES and CESE grew out of the scientific work of the university institutes for educational studies or comparative education. The WCCES brings together the national societies (comparative education societies), of which there are now more than twenty-five, whilst the membership of the CIES is made up of individual researchers. After the Second World War a series of independent research institutes were set up outside universities. They were mainly financed through national public funding or by international organizations. They are either very empirically organized and
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provide services for the educational administration (e.g. the Centre international d’etudes p´edagogique S`evres (CIEP) and the Deutsche Institut f¨ur Internationale P¨adagogische Forschung (DIPF)), or they are strongly rooted in theory and method (e.g. the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)). The picture is completed by regional or globally organized societies and organizations, which were not founded in response to executive or legislative requirements (non-governmental organizations) but rather as a result of the special interest of researchers, e.g. the International Reading Association (IRA) and the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA).
3.1.1 IEA The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) was founded in 1959 and is a non-governmental international association based in Brussels, to which research institutes, universities and governmental authorities from over forty-five countries belong. Its role consists of conducting international comparative school achievement studies and thereby developing indicators for learning processes and, in particular, for the outcome of learning. Through regular observation of the output of education systems a basis of knowledge can be built up for users in education policy, educational administration and educational research, in order to bring about improvements.
3.2 Other International Organizations and Scientific Associations 3.2.1 AHRD The Academy of Human Resource Development4 (AHRD) was formed in order to encourage research on human resource development (HRD), to disseminate information on HRD, to encourage the application of HRD research findings and to provide opportunities for interaction and information exchange between individuals concerned with HRD as researchers or practitioners. AHRD is an association of HRD professionals and is based at Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA. Its activities include the organization of regional and international research conferences and the publication of peer-reviewed journals, such as Human resource development international and Human resource development quarterly.
3.2.2 AERA—SIGs on Workplace Learning and Career and Technical Education Within the American Educational Research Association (AERA), there are two special interest groups (SIGs) concerned with subjects involving TVET research. The Workplace Learning SIG is a group of researchers dedicated to the study and
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the application of research concerning adult learning processes in the context of work. Their objectives include the identification and dissemination of trends and best-learning practices from workplaces, and the investigation of the roles of participants in the learning process, the design of adult learning activities, and the role of the organization in fostering learning activities. The mission of the Career and Technical Education SIG is to promote the interchange of ideas and methods between general and vocational educational researchers and to aid in the design and conduct of research.5
3.2.3 EERA and VETNET The European Educational Research Association6 was founded in 1994 with the aim of promoting educational research in Europe through fostering co-operation between European associations and institutes, as well as international organizations. EERA is an umbrella organization of national educational research associations and organizes the annual European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), the most important forum of this discipline in Europe. As a part of its organization, EERA features a number of networks on different research areas to provide a forum for the exchange of information. Among these, the Vocational Education and Training Network (VETNET)7 is the one concerned with research and development in the field of initial and continuing TVET. Its general meetings take place at the ECER conferences. The activities of VETNET include the organization of research seminars and of the annual ECER-VETNET conference programme, the development of international contacts and the publication of printed and electronic newsletters.
3.2.4 EARLI The mission of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) is the promotion and development within Europe of empirical and theoretical research into learning and instruction, as well as the exchange of information relating to these issues. EARLI is an association of European researchers based in Tilburg, Netherlands. Its major activities in the pursuit of the general objectives mentioned earlier are the organization of conferences, like the EARLI Biennial Conference, the first of which took place in 1985 in Leuven, Belgium, or the European Practice-based and Practitioner Research Conference, the publication of two scientific journals, Learning and instruction and Educational research review, the edition of a book series and the provision of services to facilitate co-operation and to exchange information between researchers (e.g. translation). As a part of its organization, EARLI includes a number of SIGs on topics like ‘evaluation and assessment’ or ‘learning and professional development’ that feature their own conference series.8
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3.2.5 ILO The International Labour Organization (ILO), which was founded in 1919, is the only UN Organization whose bodies are composed on a tri-partite basis of representatives of governments, employers and workers. The ILO lays down statutory requirements in conventions and recommendations in the field of labour law, contractual and organizational freedom, abolition of forced labour, etc. Training is one of the organization’s main priorities. This can be seen, for example, in ILO Convention no. 142 (1975) on Vocational Guidance and Training in the Development of Human Resources and in Convention no. 159 (1983) on Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons). But it also provides concrete support in the fields of vocational education, rehabilitation, labour-market policy, labour administration, working conditions, labour law, etc. Field programmes, technical programmes and action programmes are conducted. The field programmes are represented by continental/regional institutes. The South American region is one of the most active here with the CINTERFOR research and documentation centre and MERCOSUR.9 The action programmes are basisoriented and run transversally across the field and technical programmes. The technical programmes are thematically structured operational units. The units include the International Institute for Labour Studies and the Turin-based International Training Centre. The former deals with international labour market research, while the International Training Centre provides, amongst other things, (further) training for officials from educational administrations, trade unions, etc. Analogous to the ISCED classification, the ILO provides the following classifications:
r r r r
International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO); International Classification of Status in Employment (ICSE); International Standard Industrial Classification of all Economic Activities (ISIC); Classifications of occupational injuries (formerly industrial accidents).
3.2.6 IGIP The International Society for Engineering Education (IGIP—Internationale Gesellschaft f¨ur Ingenieurp¨adagogik) was founded in 1972 in Klagenfurt, Austria. IGIP is an association with members from seventy-two countries and enjoys consultative status with UNESCO and UNIDO. Its activities are related to all areas of vocational or professional education in engineering and technology, ranging from skilled workers to graduate engineers. The major objective of IGIP is the promotion of a scientific approach to engineering education, which includes the improvement of teaching methods and the development of practice-oriented curricula. IGIP confers the title of ‘International Engineering Educator’, accredits training centres for engineering educators and documents the qualification and competence of technology teachers. The activities of IGIP also include annual symposia on engineering education, the organization of seminars and the publication of conference proceedings and newsletters.10
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3.2.7 IVETA The International Vocational Education and Training Association (IVETA) is an organization and network of vocational educators, TVET organizations, businesses, and other groups and individuals involved in technical and vocational education and training worldwide. The organization strives to serve as a forum for professional linkages between educators, the further development of vocational education, the sharing and distribution of problem solutions in TVET practice and the worldwide dissemination of vocational education and training information. Its activities include the organization of international and regional conferences and the publication of the biannual International journal of vocational education and training. The focus of the organization’s activities is on socio-economic training and qualification research, as well as on educational and curriculum research in an international perspective.11 3.2.8 OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which is based in Paris, was founded in 1961. Its twenty-nine member states are amongst the richest countries in the world. Its role is to promote economic development, employment and living standards and to contribute to the development of the world economy and world trade. The organization sees its main task as being the planning, co-ordination and intensification of economic co-operation and development, encouraging economic development with full employment and monetary stability. UNESCO, EUROSTAT and the OECD co-operate under the aegis of the OECD to achieve the international comparability of educational statistics. Within the OECD, questions on general and vocational education are mainly handled in the Department for Statistics and Indicators in the OECD’s Directorate for Education, Employment, Labour and Social Questions. Promotion and support for the development of research activities and the introduction and testing of innovations in the education sector are carried out by the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI), which was set up in 1968. 3.2.9 UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is the only specialized agency of the UN to have a mandate in the education sector. UNESCO’s work in the field of vocational education is essentially of a statutory nature. The Recommendation on Vocational Education, which was adopted in 1962, was revised in 1974. In 1987 the first global congress on vocational education was held, at which the draft of a Convention on Vocational Education was tabled. In organizational terms, vocational education within UNESCO has been upgraded. In 1992 the UNESCO Technical and Vocational Education Project (UNEVOC) was set up. In parallel to this development, it would appear that the Division for the Renovation of Secondary and Vocational Education (ED/SVE) has
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become more sharply focused on general questions of vocational education. New subject areas have been introduced, and are organized on an interdisciplinary basis. Currently, an attempt is being made to involve NGOs more closely with projects. The Section for Science and Technology Education already did this in its 1996/1997 programme. With the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), UNESCO has tried to create a mechanism that serves ‘as an instrument for assembling, compiling and presenting statistics of education, both within individual countries and internationally’. The ISCED classification was revised in 1997. Initial vocational training in the secondary sector is classified as ISCED level 3, whilst vocational training in the tertiary sector comes under ISCED level 5. The aim of this is to ‘make existing international statistics on education more transparent’ (Statistisches Bundesamt, 1997, p. 8).
3.2.10 UNIP The United TVET Network on Innovation and Professional Development (UNIP) is the youngest of the international associations that play a role in TVET research and also the one with the least formalized structure. Its activities are predominantly concerned with the education of TVET teachers. The network was created as a partnership activity of UNESCO-UNEVOC and international TVET researchers on the occasion of the International Seminar on Innovation in TVET Teacher/Trainer Education held in Hangzhou, China, in November 2004. In addition, the network aims to set up a professional community for promoting innovation in teacher education. The network is co-ordinated by the Institute Technology and Education at the University of Bremen, Germany.12
3.2.11 The World Bank The role of vocational education in the World Bank has changed since the early 1990s. Whilst in the 1970s and 1980s it was particularly projects in this field that were promoted, nowadays the view is that: Vocational and technical skills are best imparted at the workplace, following general education. The private sector should be directly involved in the provision, financing and governance of vocational schooling (Watson, 1996, p. 47).
The World Bank Group acts first and foremost as a bank, i.e. research—if research there be—is always conducted from an economic point of view. The importance of the World Bank in terms of TVET research tends therefore to be related to its role as a publisher, or in the transfer of knowledge. The (major) World Bank projects are now widely documented on the Internet. Via topics (education and training), regions and countries or a server’s global search engine, researchers can call up primary information. Pdf documents about the vocational education systems in individual countries can also be called up.
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4 Future Perspectives The current development of research organizations and scientific communities in TVET research is characterized by a new emphasis on learning in the workplace and by the challenge of technological change, which is often associated with the notion of the knowledge society. Another difficulty is the formation of an international scientific community under the circumstances of quite different national traditions of vocational education and training. A major step towards common standards for the international community was the 2004 International Seminar on Innovation in TVET Teacher/Trainer Education in Hangzhou, which led to the definition of standards for master programmes based on commonly recognized vocational disciplines.
Notes 1. In particular, the reports of individual countries are based on an earlier publication on the topic (Lauterbach et al., 1999). 2. Thanks are due to Graham Attwell for his advice on these paragraphs. 3. <www.tlrp.org/> 4. <www.ahrd.org/> 5. <www.aera.net/> and <workplacelearningsig.org/> 6. <www.eera.ac.uk/> 7. <www.vet-research.net/> 8. <www.earli.org/> 9. SEAPAT is the Asiatic counterpart of CINTERFOR, although it has not yet achieved the level of professionalism and quality of the latter. See <www.ilo.org/public/english/mdtmanil /index.htm>. 10. <www.igip.info/> 11. <www.iveta.org> 12. <www.unip-net.org/>
References Achtenhagen, F. 1999. Berufsbildungsforschung. In: Kaiser, F.J.; P¨atzold, G., eds. W¨orterbuch der Berufs- und Wirtschaftsp¨adagogik. Bad Heilbrunn, Germany: Klinkhardt. Brown, A.; Rhodes, E.; Carter, R. 2002. Innovative attempts to support learning through continuing vocational education and training in advanced supply systems in the automotive and aerospace industries. (Paper presented at the FORUM workshop, University of Evora, Portugal, 7–9 February 2002.) Bynner, J.; Chisholm, L. 1998. Comparative youth transition research: methods, meanings and research relations. European journal of sociology, vol. 14, pp. 131–50. Cullen, J. et al. 2002. Review of current pedagogic research and practice in the fields of postcompulsory education and lifelong learning: final report. London: The Tavistock Institute. (Submitted to the Economic and Social Research Council.) Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. 1990. Berufsbildungsforschung an den Hochschulen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Situation/Hauptaufgabe/F¨orderungsbedarf. Senatskommission f¨ur Berufsbildungsforschung. Weinheim, Germany: VCH. Elliot, G. 1996. Why is research invisible in further education? British educational research journal, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 101–11.
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Eraut, M. 1994. Developing professional knowledge and competence. London: Falmer. Fischer, M.; Boreham, N.; Samurcay, R. 2002. Work process knowledge. London/New York, NY: Routledge. Grugulis, I.; Warhurst, C.; Keep, E. 2004. What’s happening to ‘skill’? In: Grugulis, I.; Warhurst, C.; Keep, E., eds. The skills that matter, pp. 1–18. New York, NY: Palgrave. Keep, E.; Mayhew, K. 1998. Vocational education and training and economic performance. In: Buxton, T.; Chapman, P.; Temple, P., eds. Britain’s economic performance, pp. 367–95. London: Routledge. Kell, A. 1996. Kooperation in der Berufsbildungsforschung: R¨uckblick, Zwischenbilanz und Ausblick. In: Diepold, P., ed. Berufliche Aus- und Weiterbildung: Konvergenzen/Divergenzen, neue Anforderungen/alte Strukturen, pp. 9–24. N¨urnberg, Germany: Bundesanstalt f¨ur Arbeit. Lauterbach, U. 2003. Vergleichende Berufsbildungsforschung: Theorien, Methodologien und Ertrag am Beispiel der Vergleichenden Berufs- und Wirtschaftsp¨adagogik mit Bezug auf die korrespondierende Disziplin Comparative Education/Vergleichende Erziehungswissenschaft. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos. Lauterbach, U. et al. 1999. VET research in other European and non-European countries. In: Descy, P.; Tessaring, M., eds. Training in Europe: second report on vocational training research in Europe 2000. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Lave, J.; Wenger, E. 1991. Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Lipsmeier, A. 1972. Vom Beruf des Berufsp¨adagogen: zur Wissenschaftstheorie der Berufsp¨adagogik. Deutsche Berufs- und Fachschule, vol. 68, no. 1, pp. 21–49. Mayhew, K.; Keep, E.; Coney, M. 2002. Review of the evidence on the rate of return to employers of investment in training and employer training measures. Oxford, UK: Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance. Neuweg, G.H. 2004. K¨onnerschaft und implizites Wissen: zur lehr-lerntheoretischen Bedeutung der Erkenntnis- und Wissenstheorie Michael Polanyis. M¨unster, Germany: Waxmann. Raffe, D.; Croxford, L.; Howieson, C. 1994. The third face of modules: gendered patterns of participation and progression in Scottish vocational education. British journal of education and work, vol. 3, pp. 87–105. Randle, K.; Brady, N. 1997. Managerialism and professionalism in the Cinderella service. Journal of vocational education and training, vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 121–39. Schmidt, H. 1995. Berufsbildungsforschung. In: Arnold, R.; Lipsmeier, A., eds. Handbuch der Berufsbildung, pp. 482–91. Opladen, Germany: Leske & Budrich. Sch¨on, D.A. 1983. The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. New York, NY: Basic Books.. Statistisches Bundesamt, ed. 1997. Internationale bildungsstatistische Grundlagen. Stuttgart, Germany: Metzler-Poeschel. Teichler, U. 1995. Qualifikationsforschung. In: Arnold, R.; Lipsmeier, A., eds. Handbuch der Berufsbildung, pp. 501–08. Opladen, Germany: Leske & Budrich. Watson, K. 1996. Banking on key reforms for educational development: a critique of the World Bank review. Mediterranean journal of educational studies, vol. 1, no. 1.
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Chapter IX.9
Qualifications Research Felix Rauner
1 Introduction The emergence of institutionalized vocational education for employees in the intermediate sector—skilled workers, technicians and other qualified employees below the level of university education—has given rise to a growing interest on the part of economic and educational policy in the investigation of the qualification requirements that employees are facing. It was especially the accelerating technological change and the corresponding rationalization processes in the world of work—first in the agricultural and afterwards in the industrial sector—that led to far-reaching and revolutionary changes in the occupational structures and in the qualification requirements for employees. Since then, vocational education has been facing the problem of developing new occupational profiles at ever greater speed, to modernize traditional occupations and to develop, in the shape of vocational curricula, the necessary contents and objectives of training programmes for practical training in companies and, above all, at vocational schools and vocational study programmes at universities.
2 Qualifications Research as Transformation of Scientific Knowledge A widespread method for determining the contents of vocational education is the transformation of the disciplinary knowledge generated by the sciences into teaching and learning contents for vocational education and training. Donald Sch¨on criticizes this concept of deriving practical knowledge from science: ‘This concept of “applications” leads to a view of professional knowledge as a hierarchy in which “general principles” occupy the highest level and “concrete problem solving” the lowest’ (Sch¨on, 1983, p. 24). As this method is very common, it will be discussed here although it does not, strictly speaking, belong to the methods of qualifications research (Schein, 1973). The basic assumption of this research approach is the thesis that social knowledge is generated by the sciences and that it is available via textbooks for any R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 IX.9, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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type of education and training. Practical knowledge, as it appears everywhere in professional work, is interpreted in this perspective as applied scientific knowledge. This widespread common-sense theory that has always shaped the attitude and conduct of TVET teachers and TVET planners has engendered manifold methods and rules to transform theoretical knowledge into the language of users in the domains of work, to exemplify it with reference to specific contexts, and, above all, to transfer this knowledge by means of inductive learning methods, such as action-oriented learning. ‘Pure mathematics’ thus becomes, in the world of vocational education and training, disciplinary and occupation-specific ‘applied’ or ‘professional’ mathematics. Technical matters in the vocational domains of construction, mechanical engineering, computer science and electrical engineering are interpreted and presented as applied sciences. The fact that technology springs from an inextricable relationship between what is socially desirable and what is technically possible—so that technology is essentially a reification of societal ends—escapes our attention in this perspective. Under the applied sciences approach technology therefore remains confined to technical guidance (Techniklehre) that neglects this connection.
Table 1 The six dimensions of practical knowledge Sensitivity
Contextuality
Situatedness
Paradigmatic quality
Communication
Perspective
Increasing professional experience advances with the developing ability to realise and evaluate ever finer distinctions in the typical situations of professional work. The increasing work experience of the members of a professional community of practice leads to the development of similar patterns of action and assessments, as well as to intuitive modes of communication that reach far beyond verbal communication. Work situations can only be adequately conceived if they are also understood in their genesis. Experience-based assumptions, attitudes and expectations shape perception and situative action and they constitute an extraordinarily subtle differentiation of action plans. Professional job tasks have a paradigmatic quality in the sense of ‘developmental tasks’ if they continuously pose new substantial problems in the development process that force actors to reconsider and restructure their traditional concepts of action and patterns of behaviour. In a community of practice, the subjective contents of the facts communicated are matching to a high degree. The degree of professional understanding is far above the level of extra-professional communication, and the full meaning of context-related language and communication is intelligible only to the members of the community of practice. The successful handling of unpredictable work tasks on the basis of basically incomplete knowledge (knowledge gap) is characteristic for practical work-process knowledge. From this emerges a meta-competence that enables people to deal with non-deterministic work situations.
Source: Rauner, 2004b (adapted from Benner, 1997).
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Against the concept of applied sciences as the fundamental method of deriving vocational training and learning contents the objection is raised that this method generally misses the point of vocational knowledge. Professional skills result from work-process knowledge, which exceeds the dimension of scientific knowledge by far (Rauner, 2002). Polanyi (1958) had pointed to the importance of the tacit knowledge that in many ways shapes human action and especially professional competence. Following the novice/expert paradigm (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986), Patricia Benner identified six dimensions of practical knowledge in her studies on the professional skills of nurses (Table 1). In his work ‘The reflective practitioner’, Donald Sch¨on argued for the original character of practical knowledge (Sch¨on, 1983). According to him, it is the basis in particular of practical skills. In the course of the foundation of ethnomethodology, Garfinkel emphasizes that the knowledge incorporated in practical work is crucial for the study of professional skills (Garfinkel, 1986). Finally, one can refer to the notion of practical concepts. Unlike scientific concepts, the aspects and scope of the meaning of practical concepts are developed on the basis of experience. Practical concepts, which are subjectively owned by humans, play a central part in professional work as they predominantly lay the grounds for action-governing knowledge (Holzkamp, 1985, pp. 226 ff.). In this respect, the European research network ‘Work Process Knowledge’ has established a research tradition that is important for the shaping of vocational training processes (Boreham, Fischer & Samurc¸ay, 2002). Even though knowledge research has emphasized the importance of practical and experience-based knowledge—besides scientific knowledge—for professional ability for decades, the concept of applied sciences is still dominant at vocational schools.
3 Sociological Qualifications Research Sociological qualifications research is represented predominantly in the sociology of industry and in labour studies. Qualifications research in the sociology of industry received a major impulse from Braverman’s ‘deskilling’ thesis. In his historical study on the change of the world of work, he came to the conclusion that there is an on-going process of a de-qualification of human work in an economy that follows the logic of capital utilization. Technological development provides the instruments and methods for the objectification and substitution of human skills (Braverman, 1974). Qualifications research in the sociology of industry was first oriented towards the objective of gaining deeper insights into the de-qualification processes determined by technological and economic development in order to provide information for policy advice with the aim of humanizing the world of work. From this perspective, professional qualification appears as an instrument of resistance against de-qualifying forms of work (Manske, 2005). It was only with the critical reflection of this deterministic research tradition (Rosenbrock, 1984) that the paradigm of shaping and design moved to the centre of qualifications research (Lutz, 1988; Rauner, 1988). Vocational education is thus also conceived as
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Fig. 1 The interaction of education and training, work and the object of work in analytic and design-oriented perspective as a topic of research and teaching
an independent variable in the interaction of work, technology and vocational education (Figure 1). In this context, qualification research has the function of studying alternative development paths in the organization of work and to provide grounds for them in the shape of scenarios (cf. Heidegger et al., 1989). The progress of the psychology of work and of ergological qualification research is largely shaped by the argument of the Taylorist division of labour. The political programme of ‘humanizing the world of work’ also leads to a change of perspective in labour studies oriented towards a design of work that supports personality development. Already in the 1960s renowned work psychologists defined the concept of complete work actions as models for design-oriented labour studies (Emery & Emery, 1974; Hackman & Oldham, 1976; Ulich, 1994, p. 161). The extension of room for manoeuvre and the enrichment of professional work are identified both in the horizontal dimension of the scope of agency and in the vertical dimension of individual decision and control. A particular affinity to qualifications research exists on the part of the overlapping and complementing concepts in the psychology of work:
r r r
the concept of socio-technical systems design; the concept of motivation-supportive work design; the concept of personality supportive work design.
Building upon extensive empirical and theoretical studies, organizational psychology and the psychology of work have made important contributions to the analysis, evaluation and design of work activities and qualification requirements. In order and conditions analysis, qualification requirements and degrees of freedom in the fulfilment of tasks are investigated according to different degrees of complexity (e.g. assumptions about possibilities for interaction). The intention of working out subject-related evaluation and design proposals is the basis for psychological analyses of activities for the identification of variables that improve performance, well-being and qualification. A number of differentiated procedures have been developed for this purpose: 1. For the analysis of work activities: job diagnostic survey (JDS), subjective work analyses and task analyses, the investigation of regulation requirements and obstacles, as well as stress-related work analyses and the task-analysis inventory, etc.
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2. For the evaluation of work activities: criteria of feasibility, tolerability, reasonableness and satisfaction; the task assessment system with the main categories of organizational and technical conditions, degrees of responsibility, performance requirements, as well as qualification and learning requirements; the contrastive task analysis for design recommendations for the supportive application of information and communication technology. 3. For the design of work activities: criteria of personality-supportive work design with extensible leeway for the flexible actions and autonomous decisions, promotion of prospective work organization, e.g. in the development of programmable software systems or decentralized manufacturing systems; concepts of task extension; alternative approaches to human-centred work and technology design. On the whole, work and organizational psychology has developed a number of criteria and instruments for the humane design of organizations. In this context, the primacy of participation orientation as the psychological core of qualification concepts and of a systems design that supports learning has a crucial relevance. On the other hand, the concentration of organizational psychology and the psychology of work on the shaping of tasks, activities and socialization processes entails the risk that necessary processes of individualization, education and socialization will fail to receive attention and that the progressive criteria of support for the personality are to a large extent unfolded in an abstract way, i.e. separated from their historical and social relations. Qualifications research in the social sciences always reaches its limits when the work-process knowledge incorporated into the work processes has to be decoded. With his ethnomethodological ‘studies of work’, Garfinkel (1986) attempts to overcome this barrier where sociological research with its traditional ‘occupational studies’ has failed to achieve results for vocational education. The gap in the social science literature on occupations consists of all the missing descriptions of what occupational activities consist of and all the missing analyses of how the practitioners manage the tasks which, for them, are matters of serious and pressing significance (Heritage, 1984, p. 299).
In this way, the major deficiency of qualifications research in the social sciences— the lack of methods for the identification of the contents that define professional work and training—is made explicit. Garfinkel’s method of the ‘studies of work’ therefore also aims at the solution of this methodological problem. The research interest of this approach is directed towards:
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a detailed description of how the work is performed; the identification of the specific knowledge and skills necessary for this work; and the identification of the fundamental gap between the model version of a work activity (theory) and the actual performance.
This research approach is based on the assumption that any work can be conceived of only as a practical activity and the practitioner acquires the ability ‘to become aware of contingencies and to manage somehow, in dealing with the situative
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imponderabilities and local constellations, the observable adequacy and efficiency of his activity’ (Bergmann, 1995, p. 270; translation by the author of this chapter). It is this ‘somehow’ that is brought into focus in the ‘studies of work’. The methodological problem for sociological research is to capture the investigated work processes so exactly (via tape-recordings, video, photos, observation protocols, the results of the work process, etc.) as to allow for the identification of work-process knowledge in the analysis. According to the method of thick description, there is a clear distinction between the documentation and representation of the work processes on the one hand and the subsequent analysis and interpretation of the data on the other. In this way, the researcher foregoes the chance to capture the work process interactively in its various dimensions. Understanding requires asking questions, experimenting and challenging. But this is only possible when the researcher interactively participates in the work situation instead of merely observing and documenting the situation, however detailed. Therefore, there is the critical objection that the ‘studies of work’ lead to nothing more than a descriptive duplication of practical work activities and are accordingly of little relevance for qualification research. What remains correct is Garfinkel’s intention to get access to the knowledge embodied in practical work. If he succeeded, this type of research would have a virtually revolutionary impact on curriculum research. The limited scope of the ‘studies of work’ as a method of qualification research is due to the fact that the contents of work and training processes are essentially inaccessible for sociological research. The understanding and investigation of professional work and vocational education with the aim of achieving knowledge that could be utilized for the design of vocational training processes requires disciplines that have access to the substantial contents. These are, above all, the vocational disciplines, that emerged in the course of the professionalization of TVET teachers.
4 Vocational Disciplines: Occupational Studies Unlike qualification research in the social sciences, qualifications research in occupation studies has an epistemic interest that is design-oriented. This interest is directed towards the substantial and methodological design of educational processes and learning in the work process. Occupation-oriented qualification research has its starting point in the attempt to achieve an interpretive access to reality, which generated interactively through expert conversations and, if necessary, through participation in work activities. In action-oriented expert conversations the researcher, via his/her questions, suggestions, intervention as well as possible work activities, is involved in the situation to be analysed. He/she thus represents a quasiexperimental reality whose scope reaches as far as the work situation. In this way, he/she can participate in the work reality and shape it in such a way as to achieve a high level of interpretation and understanding. Unlike the possibilities offered by the sociological method of thick description, the occupational researcher is familiar with the work situation and enters into the situation. The interview with the skilled
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worker thus becomes a ‘conversation among professionals’. The professional and emotional openness of the actors towards the researcher results from the experience of a dialogue ‘among colleagues’. The interviewees talk to a person they experience as professionally competent in a different way than they would to a researcher who is alien to the occupation concerned. The researcher not only knows what the dialogue partner is talking about (and what he/she does not talk about) and what he/she is doing in his/her work situation, but the researcher can also interpret the statements and the actions of the interviewee with regard to their manifold objective aspects and relations. It is self-evident that this is of crucial importance also for the performance of the conversation and the work activity. The researcher perceives a statement not only in a formal sense, but also in respect of its content as more or less sensible, efficient, etc., and can take this into consideration as the interaction proceeds. The participant observation, to which passive observation is necessarily confined, is transformed by the occupational researcher into the possibility to constitute the very object of research through his/her interaction when he/she participates in the work process. The intervening work activity generates a quasi-experimental work situation which allows a depth to be achieved in qualifications research that is otherwise unattainable. In this context, the authors point at two problems that can be mastered by qualifications research only with some experience and practice. Qualifications research in occupational studies is, however, at this point confronted with the problem of ‘self-evidence’. As all actors in the research process, including the researcher, experience themselves as members of one and the same community of practice, those facts that are considered self-evident ‘among experts’ tend not to be mentioned. The reality to be investigated becomes the reality of insiders. This can lead to a more-or-less restricted research perspective if, after adopting an internal perspective, the researcher loses the ability to maintain the distance necessary for understanding and reflecting on the study situation. With a view to this problem, Agar has introduced the metaphor of the researcher as ‘the professional stranger’ (Agar, 1980). The carrying out of action-oriented professional conversations therefore must aim at constituting and capturing two realities at the same time: the reality of the outsider and the reality of the insider. This also points to the different dimensions of the relationship between work and subject that have to be investigated here (Figure 2). This is best achieved in a supervisory arrangement. In a team of two members, the occupational researcher represents the realities of the insider, whereas a sociologist
Fig. 2 Action-oriented professional interviews carried out in teams
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or an ergologist represents those of the professional outsider. In this way, it can be ensured that the balance and the tension of proximity and distance, as well as consideration of the competences relevant for qualification research and the carrying out of work studies, are represented in the research process.
5 Conclusions The professionalization of TVET teachers and the associated establishment of university-level study programmes for vocational disciplines also give rise to domain-specific qualification research (Rauner, 2004a). It becomes apparent that, in this research field which is crucial for vocational education, the methods of empirical research in the social sciences reach their limits. A special chapter of the ‘International handbook of TVET research’ presents methods that are particularly relevant for domain-specific qualifications research (cf. Rauner & Maclean, 2008, chap. 3). These include the method of expert/worker workshops to identify the characteristic professional functions of an occupation (Sp¨ottl, 2008). Other relevant methods are interview and analysis techniques, like the ‘action-oriented professional interview’ (Becker, 2005; Niethammer, 2005) and the ‘occupation-related task analysis’ (R¨oben, 2005). The Institute Technology and Education of Bremen University, building on extensive experience in qualifications and curriculum research, has developed reference documents for curriculum development and for the design and evaluation of vocational training processes (Kleiner et al., 2002; Reinhold et al., 2003). This is how an important step in the transfer of scientific know-how from qualifications research into TVET practice has been taken. The quick dissemination of the results and the methods of qualification research is impeded by a TVET landscape that is shaped by very different systems. In this regard, vocational education differs fundamentally from university education, which is essentially characterized by international scientific communities. However, as vocational education has by now started to be involved in processes of internationalization, among other things in the course of the UNESCO-UNEVOC initiative towards a master’s degree for TVET teachers differentiated into twelve vocational disciplines, the chances for a dissemination of results and methods of qualification research have considerably improved.
References Agar, M.H. 1980. The professional stranger. New York, NY: Academic Press. Becker, M. 2005. Handlungsorientierte Fachinterviews. In: Rauner F., ed. Handbuch Berufsbildungsforschung, pp. 601–06. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Benner, P. 1997. Stufen zur Pflegekomptenz—From novice to expert, 2nd ed. Berne: Huber. Bergmann, J.R. 1995. Studies of work – Ethnomethodologie. In: Flick, U. et al., eds. Handbuch Qualitative Sozialforschung, 2nd ed., pp. 269–72. Weinheim, Germany: Beltz Psychologie Verlagsunion.
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Boreham, N.; Fischer, M.; Samurc¸ay, R. 2002. Work process knowledge. London: Routledge. (Research Studies in Human Resource Development.) Braverman, H. 1974. Labor and monopoly capital: the degradation of work in the twentieth century. New York, NY/London: Monthly Review Press. Dreyfus, H.L.; Dreyfus, S.E. 1986. Mind over machine: the power of human intuition and expertise in the era of the computer. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Emery, F.E.; Emery, M. 1974. Participative design: work and community life. Canberra: Australian National University, Centre for Continuing Education. Garfinkel, H. 1986. Ethnomethodological studies of work. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Hackman, J.R.; Oldham, G.R. 1976. Motivation through the design of work: test of a theory. Organizational behaviour of human performance, vol. 60, pp. 250–79. Heidegger, G. et al. 1989. Berufsbilder 2000. Bremen, Germany: Universit¨at Bremen, ITB. Heritage, J. 1984. Garfinkel and ethnomethodology. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Holzkamp, K. 1985. Grundlagen der Psychologie. Frankfurt/Main, Germany/New York, NY: Campus. Kleiner, M. et al. 2002. Curriculum-Design I. Arbeitsaufgaben f¨ur eine moderne Beruflichkeit. Identifizieren und Beschreiben von beruflichen Arbeitsaufgaben. Vorabdruck aus der Reihe: Berufsbildung und Innovation – Instrumente und Methoden zum Planen, Gestalten und Bewerten, vol. 2. Konstanz, Germany: Christiani. Lutz, B. 1988. Zum Verh¨altnis von Analyse und Gestaltung in der sozialwissenschaftlichen Technikforschung. In: Rauner F., ed., ‘Gestalten’: eine neue gesellschaftliche Praxis, pp. 15–23. Bonn: Verlagsuni Neue Gesellschaft. Manske, F. 2005. Produktion und Qualifikation. In: Rauner, F., ed. Handbuch Berufsbildungsforschung, pp. 519–24. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Niethammer, M. 2005. Fachinterview. In: Rauner, F., ed. Handbuch Berufsbildungsforschung, pp. 595–601. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Polanyi, M. 1958. Personal knowledge. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Rauner, F., ed. 1988. “Gestalten”: eine neue gesellschaftliche Praxis. Bonn, Germany: Verlagsuni Neue Gesellschaft. Rauner, F. 2002. Die Bedeutung des Arbeitsprozesswissens f¨ur eine gestaltungsorientierte Berufsbildung. In: Fischer, M.; Rauner, F., eds. Lernfeld: Arbeitsprozess. Ein Studienbuch zur Kompetenzentwicklung von Fachkr¨aften in gewerblich-technischen Aufgabenbereichen, pp. 25–52. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos. Rauner, F., ed. 2004a. Qualifikationsforschung und Curriculum. Analysieren und Gestalten beruflicher Arbeit und Bildung. Reihe: Berufsbildung, Arbeit und Innovation, Vol. 25. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Rauner, F. 2004b. Praktisches Wissen und berufliche Handlungskompetenz. Bremen, Germany: Universit¨at Bremen, ITB. (ITB-Forschungsbericht, vol. 14.) Rauner, F.; Maclean, R., eds. 2008. Handbook of technical and vocational education and training research. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Reinhold, M. et al. 2003. Curriculum-Design II—Entwickeln von Lernfeldern: von beruflichen Arbeitsaufgaben zum Berufsbildungsplan. Konstanz, Germany: Christiani. R¨oben, P. 2005. Berufswissenschaftliche Aufgabenanalyse. In: Rauner F., ed. Handbuch Berufsbildungsforschung, pp. 606–11. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Rosenbrock, H.H. 1984. Technikentwicklung: Gestaltung ist machbar. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: IG Metall. Schein, E. 1973. Professional education. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Sch¨on, D.A. 1983. The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. New York, NY: Basic Books. Sp¨ottl, G. 2008. Expert-worker-workshops. In: Rauner, F.; Maclean, R., eds. Handbook of technical and vocational education and training research. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Ulich, E. 1994. Arbeitspsychologie, 3rd ed. Z¨urich, Switzerland/Stuttgart, Germany: Sch¨afferPoeschl.
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Chapter IX.10
Measuring Educational Quality in TVET Robert D. Renaud
1 Overview How do we know when an educational institution is doing well compared either with other institutions or against external standards? In technical and vocational education and training (TVET) programmes, performance indicators have been used in the process of accreditation, evaluation and rankings. With institutions facing increased competition for diminishing resources and with stakeholders demanding greater accountability, the study and use of performance indicators has never been as crucial as it is now. This chapter begins with an outline of the more notable benefits and limitations of using performance indicators to evaluate the quality of TVET programmes, which is followed by a brief summary of the findings of empirical studies that assessed the relation between institutional characteristics and learner outcomes (i.e. criterion validity). Finally, specific recommendations are presented with respect to how future research can obtain a clearer understanding of how institutional characteristics contribute to the learning and development of learners. On the positive side, the use of performance indicators enables prospective learners, employers, researchers and other organizations to acquire information about schools. On the other hand, their value is uncertain as they seem to be used on the basis of little more than an assumed relationship with the quality of education (Johnes & Taylor, 1990; Nedwick & Neal, 1994; Tan, 1986). In general, once learner input variables and school experiences have been taken into account, the link between institutional characteristics and learner outcomes is weak. One of the main issues that future studies should address is what TVET programmes are doing to foster greater levels of learner involvement during their educational experience.
2 The Definition of Performance Indicators The term ‘performance indicators’ in the context of TVET refers to measurable characteristics of an institution that provide an indication of the level of educational quality it provides. Bogue and Sanders (1992) define quality in general as the ‘conformance to mission specification and goal achievement’ (p. 20). Comparable R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 IX.10, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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with ISO 9000 standards (International Organization for Standardization, 2005), this definition suggests that a quality institution is one that accomplishes what it has set out to do. Given that educational goals vary widely across schools, Tan (1986) notes that what constitutes quality in some institutions may not be as applicable to others. For example, Johnes and Taylor (1990) found that the proportion of graduates who found employment is highly influenced by subject area. Despite the potentially vague notion of educational quality, there are several people who define a highquality institution as one that fosters a desired level of learning and development. For example, Tan describes the main function of assessing quality as determining the degree to which institutions ‘affect significantly the intellectual and scholarly development of students’ (p. 260). This describes the value-added approach in defining quality in education in that quality is measured by the impact it has on its learners (Nordvall & Braxton, 1996). While some have linked measures of quality with an institution’s output, others have suggested that quality can be measured by focusing on the processes of an institution or, in other words, what the institution itself does to promote the learning and development of its learners. Braxton (1993), for example, outlines an approach to measuring educational quality by focusing on the demands placed on learners (i.e. processes), which implies a corresponding level of learner achievement (i.e. outputs). This emphasis on processes is congruent with common expectations (e.g. college rankings in the popular media) in that, assuming schools are using their resources efficiently, then intensiveness of investment (i.e. the more that a school can provide) can regarded as a measure of quality (Wachtel, 1976). A fairly common approach in evaluation research to assess the quality of a programme is likened to an input-process-output model by examining the relation between the processes and the outcomes when the inputs are held constant (Scheirer, 1994). In education, one might assess the relation between expenditures per learner (process) and retention (output) controlling for incoming ability (input). Schierer points out that if the processes have any influence on the outcomes (as intended), then these two factors should be associated. In other words, high levels of output should be preceded by high levels of the corresponding processes. Looking from the opposite perspective, finding little or no relation between a selected process and its intended outcome could reflect any of the following situations: (a) the programme was provided as intended (e.g. large libraries, small classes), but failed to have the desired impact; (b) the programme was not provided as intended (e.g. class sizes were much larger than expected); or (c) limitations in the analysis that misleadingly suggest that there is no relation (e.g. coding a continuous variable like high-school grade-point average as a dichotomy). On a practical level, assessing the relation between processes and outputs (among other reasons) can help to identify those operations most likely to maximize learner performance on desired outcomes (Astin & Panos, 1970). Moreover, Nichols (1964) points out that studying the relationship between institutional resources and learner outcomes is important to at least three groups of people: (a) the learner who is choosing which school to attend; (b) administrators and social planners who govern
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the resources; and (c) researchers who attempt to understand more fully how the educational environment contributes to learner outcomes. Thus, without showing an empirical relation between both the input and process variables and the outcomes, the degree to which one can conclude that the TVET programme is effective (i.e. schools are fostering learner development) is more difficult to confirm.
3 Benefits and Limitations of Performance Indicators in TVET The use of performance indicators in TVET can be beneficial in several ways. First, it can be argued that they attempt to fulfil an increasing accountability demand (Nedwick & Neal, 1994). Second, Bruneau and Savage (2002) note that the indicators can be helpful in establishing general standards for a particular type of school (e.g. vocational). Without accepted standards, it would be much easier to report continued success regardless of how well an institution has performed. Similarly, consistent use of performance indicators provides one the few standardized ways to report information, which may prompt lower ranking schools to improve their facilities (Webster, 1992). Finally, with the help of popular media, information about lesser known schools that may have gone unchecked by learners or employers is more widely accessible (Pike, 2004; Webster, 1992). It is important to note that each of these features hinges on two critical assumptions. First, it is expected that the information conveyed by these performance indicators is interpreted and used as intended. Second, and arguably most crucial, is that the institutional characteristics used to evaluate schools actually reflect the level of educational quality in terms of the learners’ learning and development that occurs in TVET programmes. Therefore, the degree to which the information in educational performance indicators benefits stakeholders (i.e. learners, administration, employers) is tempered by how well these assumptions are met. Not surprisingly, it seems that virtually every aspect of the commonly used performance indicators in education has been sharply criticized (see Bruneau & Savage, 2002). The most commonly recognized problem with most indicators is that they seem to be based largely on the assumption that they are related to learner outcomes and, thus, accurately reflect the level of educational quality of an institution (Astin & Panos, 1969; Ball & Halwachi, 1987; Cabrera, Colbeck & Terenzini, 2001; Conrad & Blackburn, 1985; Johnes & Taylor, 1990; Nedwick & Neal, 1994; Tan, 1986; Toutkoushian & Smart, 2001). Another related limitation regarding the selection of institutional characteristics is their redundancy. Many of these indicators are highly correlated with each another (Astin, 1971; Astin & Panos, 1969; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). For example, Astin (1971) reported that selectivity is highly correlated with an institution’s prestige, class size, library size, teachers’ salaries, endowment, academic competitiveness among students and political orientation. Therefore, it is hardly surprising to see that a highly selective school ranks high on most if not all other indicators. Third, although the institutional
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characteristics used as process indicators are indeed important (e.g. adequate libraries, qualified instructors), most of them are measured at such a general level that they obscure the fact that each institution does not pursue the same educational goals (Ball & Halwachi, 1987; Hu & Kuh, 2000; Nichols, 1964; Page, 1995). As such, many of these indicators are far too removed from the learners’ actual learning experiences (McGuire, 1995; Schmitz, 1993). For instance, these indicators do not look at classroom processes that have a direct impact on learner learning, such as frequency of higher-order questioning (Renaud & Murray, 2007). Finally, a reliability concern with most indicators used to evaluate or compare the schools (e.g. instructor/student ratio) is that they may not be based on consistent criteria (Conrad & Blackburn, 1985). For example, the definition of faculty in determining the faculty/learner ratio could be considered as only permanent full-time faculty by one institution, while another includes any course instructor (e.g. even parttime instructors). However, even if the criteria were consistent, several reports (e.g. Hossler, 2000; McGuire, 1995; Webster, 1992) indicate that the information provided by institutions is either incomplete, inaccurate or, in an effort to put forth the most positive image possible, deliberately false.
4 The Relation Between Institutional Characteristics and Learner Outcomes Much of the research that has examined the relation between institutional characteristics and learning outcomes applicable to TVET (see Beywl & Speer, 2004) has been recently reviewed in extensive detail by Pascarella and Terenzini (2005). Therefore, what follows is merely a brief summary of the main findings of empirical studies that examined the degree to which learner outcomes are associated with commonly used indicators of effectiveness representing either selectivity, expenditures or quality of teaching.
4.1 Selectivity Selectivity appears to be one of the most studied indicators (Chinien & Boutin, 2005) and is typically defined as the average entering grade of all the incoming learners in a particular institution, with higher average grades indicating more selective institutions. Overall, the link between selectivity and learner outcomes seems to be inconsistent. While several studies have found a significant relation between selectivity and various outcomes assessed using more objective, standardized measures, such as persistence (Astin, 1982; Ewell, 1989; Schmitz, 1993), educational attainment (Astin, 1982; Astin & Panos, 1969; Kim, Rhoades & Woodward, 2003) and future earnings (Kingston & Smart, 1990), other outcomes that tend to rely quite heavily on more subjective self-report measures, such as general learning
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(Hu & Kuh, 2000, 2003; Knox, Lindsay & Kolb, 1992) and personal development (Ewell, 1989; Hu & Kuh, 2003), appear to have little relation with selectivity.
4.2 Expenditures As with selectivity, the relation between the financial aspects of an institution and student outcomes remains unclear. While some studies have found little relation between various financial indicators and persistence (e.g. Marcus, 1989; Schmitz, 1993), analytical and problem-solving skills (Kim, 2002) and self-ratings of intellectual growth (Strauss & Volkwein, 2002), other studies report positive effects on outcomes, such as educational attainment (Ryan, 2004), persistence (Astin, 1982) and gains in interpersonal skills (Toutkoushian & Smart, 2001). As with many studies that compared institutional characteristics with learner outcomes, the effect of expenditures is often indirect (e.g. Smart et al., 2002) through learners’ perceptions of the school environment and their level of involvement. As such, some statistically significant regression coefficients obtained from analyses of very large samples, depending on the context, may seem less important in practical terms (e.g. Toutkoushian & Smart, 2001).
4.3 Quality of Teaching It appears that a widely held assumption is that teachers who are most highly educated or qualified (i.e. licensed) are better instructors compared to others who are less educated. As such, one of the more popular indicators of instructional quality is instructor qualifications, which has been found to have little relation with a learner’s amount of schooling completed and occupational status (Alwin, 1974), retention and graduation rate (Schmitz, 1993), and educational aspirations and prediction of career choice (Astin & Panos, 1969). As with selectivity and financial indicators, the few exceptions reporting positive associations tend to be those representing specific sub-groups, such as a cultural minority (Astin, 1982) or a particular area of study (Astin & Astin, 1993). A similar pattern of results has been found in studies that examined other indicators of instructional quality, such as teaching salary (e.g. Alwin, 1974; Ayres & Bennett, 1983; Astin, 1982; Foster & Rogers, 1980) and class size (e.g. Astin, 1982; Astin & Panos, 1969; Kim, 2002; Schmitz, 1993). Perhaps one explanation for the lack of significant findings is that these indicators may be too vague or inappropriate to measure teaching effectiveness more accurately (Torres, 2004).
4.4 Overall Conclusions Based on much of the published empirical research as reviewed by Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) and substantiated further by Chinien and Boutin (2005), the main
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conclusion is that after controlling for various measures of learner input, commonly measured institutional characteristics seem to have little to do with how well a learner does. However, a few main considerations are worth noting, such that the findings of research in this area are interpreted with appropriate caution. If much of the variation due to incoming characteristics has been considered, and with such a relatively small proportion of the remaining variance attributable to process indicators as measured in these studies, this indicates that a sizeable proportion of what determines learner learning and development does occur during the educational experience in TVET. However, this does not tell us the degree to which the remaining variance in predicting the outcomes is accounted for by institutional characteristics compared to other sources, such as learner effort or involvement. Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) offer three other relevant considerations. First, these studies were quite varied in terms of methodological rigour, which makes it difficult to draw consistent conclusions. Second, the link between institutional characteristics and learner outcomes is difficult to confirm because the level and effect of individual characteristics, such as ambitions, aspirations or motivation, can change substantially during the college experience. Finally, of the studies that did report a significant effect, the findings usually were found only with some specific sub-groups.
5 Recommendations for Future Research In addressing the general limitations in this field of research, there are several recommendations that future studies should consider to help clarify our understanding of the link between institutional characteristics and learner achievement in TVET programmes.
5.1 More Specific Indicators One general explanation for the weak relation between institutional characteristics and learning is that many of them are far too removed from both the actual practice of teaching in the classrooms and the learner interactions that have a much stronger connection with learning (McGuire, 1995; Schmitz, 1993). In other words, more valid measures of educational quality may be found by focusing on specific teaching practices applicable across a range of disciplines. For instance, one potentially useful process indicator that has received relatively little attention is the courselevel academic process described in several studies by Braxton and Nordvall (Braxton, 1990, 1993; Nordvall & Braxton, 1996) and by Bruneau and Savage (2002). Basically, the course-level academic process is intended to represent the cognitive demands placed on learners in terms of the level of questioning (i.e. application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation) on assignments and exams according to Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive objectives (Bloom, 1956). Two other related course-level
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processes are the amount of student feedback (Cabrera et al., 2001; Ewell, 1989) and narrative evaluations (Astin, 1999). As with higher-order questions, Ewell’s findings that selectivity was positively related with the amount of student feedback provide indirect support for its use as a process indicator. While it is useful to have a sense of how much learners progress toward the intended outcomes, it would be more helpful to know how much these gains were achieved in absolute terms. For example, the College Student Experiences Questionnaire (Pace, 1990), used in numerous studies (e.g. Hu & Kuh, 2003; Kaufman & Creamer, 1991; Martin, 2000; Pike, 1995), asks learners to rate their perceived gains in areas such as intellectual skills and personal development. As noted by Hu and Kuh (2003), one drawback of this approach is that the baseline may not be consistent across institutions. As such, it is more difficult to clarify how much progress has actually occurred (i.e. how much is ‘very much’?). A clearer measure could include items that ask learners to indicate (at each time the outcome data is collected) their perceived level of proficiency more specific to content and the types of intended learning (Anaya, 1999; Torres, 2004). Another common limitation occurs when a single item is used in self-ratings to assess a latent construct representing learner outcomes, such as math self-concept (Sax, 1994), perceived health (Ross & Mirowsky, 1999), and religious beliefs and convictions (Lee, 2002). Unlike some institutional characteristics that can be assessed reliably with a single observable indicator (e.g. library expenditures), the reliability of data representing a latent outcome variable is typically improved by having several items that assess the latent construct (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994).
5.2 Student Effort or Involvement There is accumulating evidence confirming the positive effect of the amount of learner effort on various outcomes (see Chinien & Boutin, 2005; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005), such as the number of non-assigned books read with critical thinking (Terenzini et al., 1995) and learner/instructor interactions with overall competence (Martin, 2000). Moreover, it appears that learner involvement explains a sizeable portion of the remaining variance in outcomes, once incoming ability has been controlled. Thus, the implication here is that educational quality in TVET programmes could also be assessed by looking at the impact of what an institution does to promote greater levels of learner involvement. While most studies that compared traditional measures of quality and learner outcomes found them to be weakly related, it appears that certain institutional features may actually have an indirect influence on learner outcomes mediated through their involvement, such as academic and social integration. For example, Ethington and Smart (1986) found that selectivity appears to show a positive, indirect link with future educational aspirations mediated through academic and social integration. Finally, knowing that any particular institutional characteristic (e.g. library size) is
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not likely to contribute, directly or indirectly, to every learner’s achievement in the same manner, the effects of these processes would be more validly measured by considering the learner’s level of involvement or exposure. As such, Astin (1978) suggests that exposure should be addressed in terms of both time or quantity and intensity.
5.3 Collect Data on Several Occasions One of the main recommendations concerning the measurement of learner outcomes would be to collect data on several occasions compared to the typical approach whereby outcomes are assessed either near the beginning and again near the end of a programme, or in many cases, only at the end of the programme (Torres, 2004). One reason why many previous studies may have found it difficult to determine the relation between institutional characteristics and outcomes is because adult learners are becoming more mobile (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). With an increasing number of learners moving from one school to another, it is difficult to know how much some learners have been exposed to an institution’s environment. Another factor is that the relation between institutional characteristics and outcomes may be non-linear (e.g. Kingston & Smart, 1990). Finally, collecting outcome data on several occasions would help to rule out other factors that may obscure the relation between the process indicators of interest and learner gains (Astin, 1978). For example, if the outcome is a normal part of maturation (e.g. critical thinking), then the outcome measure will not vary significantly with the amount of exposure to the programme (i.e. it could compare learners of the same age but at different levels of training).
5.4 Include Effect Sizes Among the many studies in this area that obtained their results from large samples, it is not uncommon to find statistically significant relationships with a coefficient or variance accounted for in the outcome that in practical terms is arguably quite small (e.g. Astin & Astin, 1993; Foster & Rogers, 1980; see also Pascarella and Terenzini, 2005). Including effect sizes will help to clarify the degree of practical significance of the findings and allow for a more valid comparison of results across different studies. Having results that are more directly comparable across studies would enable researchers and administrators to interpret the trends more clearly, which would lead to more informed choices concerning future studies and policy decisions. Finally, Vacha-Hasse and Thompson (2004) note that the inclusion of effect sizes is not only desirable, but its requirement has become more widespread. In addition, for the interested reader, their paper provides a concise explanation of the estimation and interpretation of effect sizes.
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5.5 Test for Interaction Effects On a more applied level, Astin (1970) points out that testing for interactions is useful when it may be too difficult to make substantial changes to the entire school environment. In this case, one could make changes to specific areas within the institution that will better accommodate the sub-group of students who are likely to benefit the most. Moreover, Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) note that, given the increasing diversity of the learner population, future research would do well to increase its focus on the conditional effects of institutional characteristics. One of the main questions that research has been exploring more frequently in recent years is how the effects of institutional characteristics on learner outcomes are a function of the learners’ level of effort and involvement (e.g. Hu & Kuh, 2000, 2003; Smart et al., 2002). For example, having better teachers (as indicated by higher mean salaries) may have positive effects on learner learning, but only for those learners who interact with their teachers more frequently.
5.6 Conduct Qualitative Research Finally, while much of the research in this area is based on quantitative methods, well-designed qualitative research would help provide additional insights regarding the specific ways of how institutional characteristics affect learner outcomes in a manner that more broadly focused quantitative research typically cannot (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). In addition, Lee (2002) suggests that, with a sizeable part of the variance in the outcomes left unexplained, exploratory qualitative research can help identify some of the other possible influences. For instance, using qualitative analysis to examine four institutional case studies, Tsui (2002) has found several specific classroom processes pertaining to writing and discussions that foster learners’ critical thinking skills. Moreover, in multi-method studies, qualitative approaches can provide additional validity evidence for the main conclusions. For example, Ayres and Bennett (1983) found that the results of interviews with learners, faculty and administrators agree with those from the corresponding quantitative analysis that faculty quality is the most important institutional characteristic contributing to learner achievement.
6 Conclusions While the information derived from performance indicators can provide useful descriptive information, perhaps the most notable limitation is that it is usually based on the misleading assumption that it accurately reflects the varying degrees of learner learning and development. The majority of the studies that compared institutional characteristics with learner outcomes clearly show that, after controlling for incoming ability, institutional characteristics appear to have little influence on learner outcomes. Given that the main criticisms of the use of process indicators
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are that they are far too removed from actual learning experiences and are assessed quite vaguely, future research should examine the effects of course-level processes that can be measured more reliably, such as the frequency of higher-order questions and instructor feedback and to assess more specific learning outcomes in greater detail. With the need for institutions to be increasingly accountable to learners, parents, industries, government and accreditation organizations, programme evaluation in TVET programmes is more important than ever. If the measured characteristics of an institution (i.e. what the school does or has) have little relation with the intended outcomes (i.e. educating learners), then either the indicators are not being assessed as they should, or they are inappropriate for evaluating educational programmes. The main purpose of researching the predictive validity of process indicators is to gain a clearer understanding of at least some of the specific things that TVET does to foster the intended learning and development among its learners. Perhaps the most telling implication of what this research suggests is summed up by Pascarella and Terenzini (2005): based on a flawed conception of educational quality that prompts misleading comparisons. As a result, decisions with high price tags for both individuals and public treasury are based on a demonstrably invalid set of variables for describing college’s impact on learning outcomes (p. 642).
If TVET programmes are truly committed to providing the best possible learning environment for their learners, then the financial and personal costs of making uninformed and inferior choices based on scant evidence is one that these schools simply cannot afford to continue paying.
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Terenzini, P.T. et al. 1995. Influences affecting the development of students’ critical thinking skills. Research in higher education, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 23–39. Torres, R.M. 2004. Lifelong learning in the South: critical issues and opportunities for adult education. Stockholm: Sida. (Sida Studies no. 11.) Toutkoushian, R.K.; Smart, J.C. 2001. Do institutional characteristics affect student gains from college? The review of higher education, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 39–61. Tsui, L. 2002. Fostering critical thinking through effective pedagogy. Journal of higher education, vol. 73, no. 6, pp. 740–63. Vacha-Hasse, T.; Thompson, B. 2004. How to estimate and interpret various effect sizes. Journal of counseling psychology, vol. 51, no. 4, pp. 473–81. Wachtel, P. 1976. The effect on earnings of school and college investment expenditures. Review of economics and statistics, vol. 58, no. 3, pp. 326–31. Webster, D. 1992. Are they any good? Rankings of undergraduate education in U.S. News & World Report and Money. Change, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 18–31.
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Section 10 Curriculum Development and Delivery
Felix Rauner Institute Technology and Education, University of Bremen, Germany
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Chapter X.1
Overview: TVET Curriculum Development and Delivery Felix Rauner
1 Introduction The development of curricula and their implementation is one of the key competences of teachers in the area of educational planning and practical training for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions and training companies. It also plays a central role in the preparation of vocational schoolteachers. The present section contains a total of eighteen chapters that address this topic. The chapters in the first part are concerned with the foundations and practice of curriculum development, including theoretical learning foundations and methods of research on curricula. The second part summarizes those contributions that concentrate on the implementation of vocational and occupational curricula. Organization, design and evaluation of vocational processes are the main points of interest. First, the major features of this complex theme will be explained in order to provide the reader with an introduction that will assist in studying individual chapters.
2 The Curriculum as a Foundation for Vocational Teaching and Learning For the development of each curriculum, three questions need to be answered:
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Which criteria and theories can be used to build a systematized structure of intentional learning—in this case vocational learning? What are the contexts and related goals for vocational learning? Which forms of learning will assist in achieving the goals of vocational learning?
The answers to these three questions differ depending on the author’s preference for normative or theoretical concepts. Particularly, educational goals originate in normative guidelines and models that were originally part of educational policies. In descriptions of occupational tasks and competences, the intended tasks that are typical for a specific occupation, the subject-oriented educational goals and contexts, as well as general competences, are manifested in occupational descriptions and vocational education curricula. The setting of occupational tasks, as well as the R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 X.1, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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differentiation of occupations, is a normative directive. Occupational specifications are the result of confrontational negotiations between social partners and State institutions. One of the intentions of research on qualifications and curricula is to increase the consistency of those negotiations and development processes. Occupational profiles are the result of resolving tensions between scientific criteria and political and practical interests. In a wider sense, curricula determine work processes and include the occupational form of job-related tasks. In addition, curricula define the level and extent of professionalization. An analysis of work and business processes from the point of view of the identification of relevant professional tasks and qualification requirements is sometimes viewed as a purely scientific task carried out on qualifications and curriculum research. Qualifications requirements and the evolution of professional work, according to widespread opinion, justify the viewpoint of scientific objectivity. This idea is right and wrong. It is right because the identification of occupational tasks and qualification requirements follows scientific criteria when the normative implications, which play a role during the definition of research questions and the development and selection of methods, have not been examined. If, on the other hand, external practicability rather than internal relevance of scientific results is intended, then research results have to be evaluated according to their practical relevance. In order to analyse occupational tasks it is necessary to consider the results of empirical research, as well as an analysis of the organization of the working process. Great scope usually exists for organizing work. The separation of one task into sub-tasks for the professional worker, as well as the setting of rules about the order of different tasks, is part of job design or occupational description. The criteria and concepts of job design and occupational description are considered while identifying occupational tasks, knowledge and skills (Hackman & Oldham, 1976; Ulich, 1994; Sch¨upbach, 1993). Figure 1 refers to an important idea which has gained programmatic weight in the discussion about occupations: the ability of apprentices (learners) to shape the world of work and society according to social and ecological responsibility (Sekretariat der St¨andigen Konferenz der Kultusminister der L¨ander in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland—KMK, 1991). This important idea has had a great impact on the context and form of curricula. Although practical experience shows that apprentices frequently have to adapt themselves to the changing conditions of the labour market, we argue that occupational training should be concerned with autonomy and self-development, as well as with solidarity and constitutive competence. We therefore oppose the still widespread normative conviction that work context and forms of work organization are predetermined and that the apprentices have to adapt themselves to them. In the basic theoretical discussion of psychology, there is a controversy between polarizing development theories, where education is either viewed as adaptation or as a creative capacity. One of the polarizing theories is drawn from Rubinstein and Leontjew and defines development as a process of reflexivity and acquisition of societal heritage— as a subjective socialization process (Leontjew, 1982). The question is: how can
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Design innovation Reflective design competence
Participative human resources
Understanding Explaining and interpretive knowledge (know- that)
Adaptive qualification Action -directing knowledge (know - how)
Education
Qualification
Adaptation reproduction
Fig. 1 Knowledge and know-how in the tense relationship between education and qualification Source: Rauner, 2004, p. 22.
something new be created? What is the engine of historical processes? If the development of subjective competence is understood as a reflexive and inquisitional process, then the answer is: development as adaptation. Piaget (1980) argued that subjects internalize the historical process and therefore must have creativity and constitutive competence as well as the foundational ability to create something new and to transcend societal reality. This theoretical grounding is important for qualifications because reflection theory has an affinity to the concepts of reproductive skills and adaptation as a qualification. The theory of the creative human being has an affinity with constitutive oriented occupational pedagogy, as well as the concepts of participative technical design and organizational development (Rauner, 1995).
3 The Curriculum as a Foundation for Situational Learning Occupational education and development processes take place as processes of becoming accustomed to a specific community of practice: occupational beginners become occupational experts through processes of vocational education and training. The novice paradigm and the theory of situated learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991) offer a theoretical justification for the developmental systematization of occupational learning. Therefore, curriculum development and curriculum research must identify characteristic work tasks typical for an occupation and the development of specific competencies. In curriculum research, therefore, the concept of developmental tasks (Havighurst, 1972) became popular (Gruschka, 1985). Developmental tasks are defined by Havighurst as tasks that pose new and complex problem situations for the worker and that significantly contribute to his/her further development and individualization over the life-cycle.
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A developmental task is a task that arises at or about a certain period in the life of the individual, successful achievement of which leads to his happiness and to success with later tasks, while failure leads to unhappiness in the individual, disapproval by the society, and difficulty with later tasks (Havighurst, quoted by Gruschka, 1985, p. 46).
A curriculum for a constitutive occupational education needs to fulfil two general criteria: context and educational goals need to be in a developmental logical order (see Table 1); and the differentiation of the context as well as working and learning need to be process oriented. This presupposes that occupational tasks are built on each other and follow logical steps so that the apprentice can construct new knowledge on existing experiences and competences. For the development of an occupational curriculum, three different phases have to be recognized: beginners; advanced learners; and experts. The methods of domainspecific qualification research help to identify occupational developmental tasks and the relevant knowledge (Fischer & Rauner, 2002). The transformation of characteristic occupational tasks and situations into occupational curricula can take place in different ways. Benner (1984) recommended the utilization of various case studies for the training of nurses. Another approach emphasizes the occupational working knowledge and resulting educational goals. Table 1 On the structuration of vocational curricula Learning fields Experience-based, systematic in-depth knowledge
Detailed and functional knowledge
Contextual knowledge
Orientation and overview
Knowledge on how to explain things systematically and to solve problems situatively Knowledge on what is essential for skilled work in detail and how things work Knowledge on how and why things are related to each other this way rather than another way Knowledge on what the occupation in question is mainly about
Tasks
Performance
Unpredictable work tasks
Experience-based (non-deterministic) fulfilment of tasks
Problematic, specialized work tasks
Theory-based (non-deterministic) fulfilment of tasks
Systematic work Systematic (rule-based) tasks fulfilment of tasks
Occupationally Guided (deterministic) orienting work fulfilment of tasks tasks
4 Occupational Versus Academic Curricula The leading question in this chapter is: can a criterion be used to determine between an occupational and an academic curricula? The institutional framework of occupational education determines the occupational curriculum. The occupational form of work becomes the point of reference for the development of curricula.
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The academic curriculum is traditionally created by criteria of science and the subject. Curricula at universities are not primarily oriented towards the academic profession but towards the systematic acquisition of the foundations of a scientific discipline. Students in a particular programme of study should be enabled to participate receptively and actively in the research process in order to acquire the foundations of their subject. Research questions, theories, methods and results are emphasized in the learning process. Contextual legitimation is a duty of scientists in each discipline. They define themselves as members of the scientific communities and not primarily as members of professional domains. Physics has a paradigmatic meaning in this context because one conducts science-oriented and not occupation-oriented studies. Under the influence of American pragmatism, the occupational orientation has gained ground among academics. With the internationalization of degrees in Europe, the principle of occupation-oriented education has entered higher education and is now considered to be on equal terms with scientific orientation. Unlike vocational education, higher education does not have highly developed curriculum and qualifications research. It is academic professions that have an orientation function in the development of university curricula. However, occupational qualification often does not take place before entering work after graduation and in a more-or-less formalized process of acquiring professional competence and identity. That is the main difference between a university curriculum and a vocational curriculum. While the vocational curriculum is targeted towards vocational proficiency, the university curriculum offers an occupational orientation. Based on this foundational difference, teaching concepts of modularization in vocational education and training are evaluated differently. In discussions among occupational pedagogues it is emphasized that the goal of achieving occupational ability prohibits a modularization of occupational degrees. The individual training steps are interpreted in a holistic way. The holistic curriculum designed for a specific occupation is the foundation for acquiring occupational ability. On the contrary, the modularization of higher education degrees is an established structural principle at universities. The difference indicates that education at universities is still mainly acquired through the procurement of subject-based scientific competences. These can be represented in a modularized curriculum. Occupational competence, on the other hand, is understood as a holistic concept for which the modularization of educational and training contents is not appropriate.
5 Concepts for the Development of Occupational Curricula A great variety of curriculum development theories compete with each other. The differences result from theories of occupational learning, which explicitly and implicitly underlie curriculum design. Curriculum designers need to modify and simplify scientific knowledge and transform it into contexts of occupational learning. This concept equals the ‘applied sciences’, which implies that societal knowledge is embedded in science. The application of this knowledge in practice is a process of didactical reduction and transformation through pedagogues: teachers, trainers, lecturers.
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Completely different is the curriculum design concept when work-process knowledge is understood as the key element for occupational curricula. Experts need to identify which knowledge about working processes should be taught. Research in occupational pedagogy is taking a different direction today because researchers have realized that teaching knowledge and just talking about actionoriented learning does not lead to the intended competences and skills. Therefore, instruction has shifted towards a process orientation (Boreham, Fischer & Samurc¸ay, 2002). Vocational pedagogy is challenged to develop a new competence concept and rethink the cohesion between experience, knowledge and skills according to the theories of multiple intelligences from Gardner (2002), the epistemology of practical competence (Sch¨on, 1983), the ethnomethodological concept of the studies of work from Garfinkel, as well as the category of practical terms (Holzkamp, 1985, pp. 226 ff.) and practical knowledge (Benner, 1984). In the investigation of occupation-based work, as well as in the development of occupational profiles and curricula, TVET research has to rely on occupational studies. The expertise research has so far been mainly concerned with theories, methods and findings about learning in context or in correspondence with occupational work. In labour studies there is a well-developed tradition of the analysis and formation of work processes. Therefore, there are some commonalities between research in occupational pedagogy and occupational science (Hacker, 1992). The difference is that occupational science focuses particularly on such aspects as workload and health, humanization of work, health protection, as well as the qualification of employees. Research on occupations and occupational field development, including occupational tasks, focuses on subject-oriented aspects of learning, education and competence development (learning in the process of work). TVET research and expertise research have in common that both are concerned with research about the emergence of know-how in work and learning processes (Franke, 2001). Occupational science tries to identify knowledge that emerges in different occupational domains. It attempts to answer questions, such as: Which skills and what explicit and implicit knowledge do industrial electricians need in their domain of maintenance of complex network-, computer- and media-integrated industrial processes? This level of differentiation in qualifications research constitutes its didactical-curricular relevance.
6 The Shaping of Vocational Learning Processes Educational scientists have requested that they should shape vocational curricula in an open way in order to meet the situational educational process. Learners should be treated as subjects of their own development and learning process, which implies that teachers need space and autonomy in shaping the curriculum. Particularly, vocational education is more than the implementation of a vocational curriculum. The domain- and company-specific implementation of a curriculum, as well as the dynamics of technological development, render the educational activities of teachers and trainers relatively autonomous with regard to the curriculum.
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Mainstream vocational pedagogy argues that vocational education is based on reflective work experiences. Lave and Wenger (1991) dedicated with their work on ‘situated learning’ the re-establishment of the original form of all vocational learning: the education of master craftsmen. The attractiveness of the apprenticeship model is rooted in the fact that an apprentice can grow into occupational practice almost automatically. A precondition is vocational education that recognizes the change of work and technology. It is thanks to Donald Sch¨on that more emphasis in research is put on the central meaning of reflection in work experience. This acknowledgement is important for systematizing knowledge through subject-based theoretical learning in vocational schools in addition to learning in the work process. Other theories about work share the belief that processes of cognition are based on active learning. In this context it seems to be problematic to lay most emphasis on the instrumentalist type of action as a model for the teaching of vocational learning. Michael Brater (1984) has introduced the idea of a creative and shaping dimension of action in vocational pedagogy.
7 Evaluation, Assessment and Diagnostics Evaluation, assessment and diagnostics are dimensions of curriculum implementation that became increasingly important under the pressure of the instrumental rationalization of educational and qualification processes, as well as human resource management. Alongside, there is a rich practice of competence diagnostics in all those cases where the qualification for particular professional tasks entails the acquisition of licenses. An example would be the certification of pilots who need a variety of security and relevant competences and the ability to work with an increasingly more complex technology. In such cases the evaluation of educational programmes as well as competence diagnostics and the introduction of assessment tools gain importance. One foundation for the assessment of occupational skills is the evaluation of skills and knowledge. It is hardly surprising that in recent years the attitude of assessing professional competences at the level of skills has prevailed instead of merely inquiring into the prerequisites of professional action in terms of knowledge. Only the examination of occupational skills offers guarantees for the success or failure of vocational education processes. Initiatives about the separation of competence measurement from the curriculum and the occupational education process are of great importance for educational policy. If the establishment of international education markets succeeds, modularized certification systems following the model of the British system of national vocational qualifications (NVQs) will remain the only way in which the occupational education markets can be regulated. In such systems, individuals decide about the qualifications and in what way they want to acquire them. The idea of local/geographical and time independence offers flexibility in regard to developments in the labour market. Nevertheless, experiences with this system indicate that a de-qualification of employees occurs as a consequence of the diffusion of vocational programmes and certification systems. Ultimately, it is rather obstructive for
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the flexibility of labour markets. Obviously, there is no acceptable alternative that would offer a higher permeability of vocational programmes. Therefore, curricula development and implementation will remain as key topics in vocational practice, planning and research.
8 Overview of the Contributions X.2 The Mutual Shaping of Work, Vocational Competence and Work-Process Knowledge, by Nicholas Boreham and Martin Fischer In their chapter Boreham and Fischer deal with the concept of work-process knowledge, and its mutual shaping with vocational training and work. They give a list of principles for the design of vocational curricula that are oriented to the acquisition of work-process knowledge.
X.3 Situated Learning and Cognitive Apprenticeship, by Michael Gessler The chapter by Gessler deals with the approach of ‘situated learning’ that had been developed during the 1980s and 1990s, particularly as a criticism of the cognitionfocused paradigm of psychology and of teaching at schools that is untrue to life. Learning under authentic conditions and in the context of social practice is the main feature of the teaching/learning arrangements of ‘cognitive apprenticeship’. This concept is illustrated by the example of training to be a master craftsman and in an extended way combines the idea of experience-guided learning (master craftsman/apprentice) and principles of cognitive learning. The dialogue makes it possible for beginners to actively contribute to problem-solving and with the help of experts to acquire the necessary relevant knowledge, despite their still restricted cognitive resources. Learners will slowly grow to be a part of an ‘experts’ culture’.
X.4 Curriculum Approaches and Participative Curriculum Development, by Georg Sp¨ottl Sp¨ottl addresses different approaches to curriculum development. He shifts the focus to the concept of participative curriculum development, which aims at involving the target group of curricular decisions directly into the process of curriculum development.
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X.5 The Deskilling and Upskilling Debate, by Ulrich Heisig In his chapter, Heisig provides an introduction to the deskilling and upskilling debate, i.e. the argument around the question of whether the capitalist method of production is characterized by a constant reduction or a constant increase of the skill level for jobs. Heisig points out the milestones in the debate’s history and gives an account of the contemporary state of affairs.
X.6 The Pedagogy of Apprenticeship, by Uwe Lauterbach After describing the advantages of apprenticeship schemes over technical and vocational schools in the transition to work, Lauterbach presents old and modern forms of apprenticeship, such as co-operation learning and alternance. He discusses the present situation in Europe where there is a convergence of apprenticeship-like schemes. He notes that apprenticeship schemes will have to learn to assert themselves faced with the competition of higher education.
X.7 Approaches to Designing TVET Curricula, by Richard Huisinga Huisinga draws our attention to the fact that, on an international scale, there are not many schemes for designing curricula in vocational education and training available and even fewer have been worked out in detail. After tracing back the reasons for this lack as far as to ancient Greek philosophy, he reviews the current state of approaches to designing TVET curricula.
X.8 Collaborative Work-Related Learning and Technology-Enhanced Learning, by Alan Brown, Jenny Bimrose and Sally-Ann Barnes Brown, Bimrose and Barnes shift the focus to collaborative learning and technologyenhanced learning. They provide examples of substantive, collaborative, workrelated learning and continuing professional development. The first is drawn from the experience of inter-organizational learning in manufacturing supply-chain networks. The second deals with a guidance network illustrating the use of social software to support the development of a ‘community of interest’ of careers guidance practitioners, policy-makers and researchers. The authors examine specific types of technology-enhanced learning, particularly in relation to the development and use of social software, that are further enriching collaborative work-related learning and development.
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X.9 Action-Based TVET, by Hans-Dieter H¨opfner H¨opfner first gives an introduction to action regulation theory as a blueprint for action-based TVET; second, he describes why training/teaching in TVET should be trainee-centred; third, he elaborates on work assignments as a core element of action-based TVET; and, fourth, discusses the role of this concept within new didactical approaches for TVET.
X.10 Vocational Learning: Contributions of Workplaces and Educational Institutions, by Stephen Billett Billett identifies contributions to the learning of vocational practice from experiences in both educational institutions and workplaces. The chapter proposes that each of these settings potentially provides particular contributions to learning vocational practice. When each set of contributions is usefully exercised and integrated, they stand to purposefully support rich and robust vocational learning. Yet, this integration is not possible in all circumstances. Therefore, it is important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the contributions from both kinds of settings, and how best their learning potential can be maximized and their weaknesses limited. This paper is structured to achieve these purposes.
X.11 Work-Based Learning: An English Experience, by James Avis The chapter by James Avis explores work-based learning in the context of changes taking place in vocational education and training in England, locating these within an understanding of the economy and the way in which work-based knowledge is construed. It draws upon literature that examines the work-based experiences of young people, illustrating the tension between understandings of work-based learning that stress knowledge creation and those orientated towards young people disaffected with schooling.
X.12 Language Mastery Development within TVET for Professional Mobility, by Andrei N. Kouznetsov Kouznetsov’s chapter discusses several topics linked with language mastery development. According to the author, second-language mastery for professional mobility is in general vital for citizens of transition countries whose job markets are developing rapidly. Another aspect of the language acquisition problem affects countries with a considerable immigrant population. This body is frequently in need of job adaptation to the host community, characterized by a language foreign to
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immigrant ethnic groups. Language training of native and mixed immigrant groups is associated with careful selection of relevant teaching contents and techniques. Emphasis is placed on the competence-centred approach to teaching contents selection, as it is considered as being a powerful and up-to-date instrument—though disputable in terms of terminology. Student diversity and the ways of tackling it in a language classroom are still another issue for analysis is this context—for mixed ethnic groups in particular.
X.13 Why do German Companies Invest in Apprenticeship? by Klaus Schaack Schaack elaborates on the question of why German companies invest in apprenticeship. His chapter explores outstanding features of German apprenticeships in order to understand how they interact with their political, cultural, social, educational and economic environment. Hence, the objective is to understand German training amidst its wider environment, instead of analysing isolated training models or comparing such constructs.
X.14 Workplace Learning: Metacognitive Strategies for Learning in the Knowledge Economy, by Hugh Munby, Nancy L. Hutchinson and Peter Chin Munby, Hutchinson and Chin draw on their empirical work in the area of secondary co-op education to advance strategies for workplace learning with three emphases. The first of these concerns instruction that focuses on the metacognitive functions of routines for novice workers; the second concerns instruction about science in the workplace; and the final section considers workplace instruction for students with exceptional problems. They conclude that in each of these three related emphases, participation in not enough. The strategies they recommend provide guidance at three levels: organizing learners’ experience; guiding the development of and understanding of routines; and facilitating the development of self-regulated learning and use of knowledge to respond to changing tasks and workplaces.
X.15 Literacy, Design and Technology: New Contexts for Learning and Skills Development in South Africa, by David Johnson Far too much attention has been paid to education systems that are qualifications driven rather than to systems of recognition that motivate people to become aware of their own potentialities and construct their own life-projects. There is very little research to show how the education system might exploit such latent capabilities for employability, technological advancement, citizenship and poverty reduction.
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Johnson argues that we should be thinking less about what education systems should teach and train, and instead recognize the dispositions that already exist. Johnson has certainly set off an important policy dialogue on achieving relevance in education that is oriented towards real-world social and economic challenges and one which harnesses pupils’ potential to the fullest.
X.16 The Education Gospel and Vocationalism in an International Perspective: The Promises and the Limits of Formal Schooling, by W. Norton Grubb and Marvin Lazerson Grubb and Lazerson provide us with critical reflections on what they call the ‘Education Gospel’: the idea that formal schooling prepares individuals for employment and has the capacity to resolve all problems in the public as well as in the private sphere. They propose that this idea is the reason why educational institutions have become focused on occupational preparation, as well as to many other changes in the way education is structured and funded. They suggest that it also has an impact on the connections between schooling and employment and the mechanisms of inquality. They argue that in the future it will be necessary to not just understand the strengths but also the limitations of both vocationalism and the ‘Education Gospel’.
X.17 The Vocationalization of Secondary Education: The Relationship between Vocational and Technology Education, by Margarita Pavlova Pavlova focuses on the analysis of the vocationalization of secondary education in developed countries (with some emphasis on Australia and Russia) via technology education and argues that it is an essential component in achieving the goals of vocationalization, although the rationale for technology education was developed within a philosophy strongly opposed to the aims and objectives of vocational education.
X.18 Valuing Experience as well as Knowledge in Schools, by Ron Hansen The chapter by Hansen explores an alternative conception of ‘knowledge’ and the relation between a knowledge-based economy and school technical programmes. How is knowledge—the commodity we value so highly in schools and in industry— depicted by both sectors? This question is answered by examining the sociology of knowledge literature. After examining how knowledge is portrayed and legitimized, Hansen looks at the importance and place of ‘experience’ in school and industry settings.
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References Benner, P. 1984. From novice to expert: excellence and power in clinical nursing practice. Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley. Boreham, N.; Fischer, M.; Samurc¸ay, R., eds. 2002. Work process knowledge. London/New York, NY: Routledge. ¨ Brater, M. 1984. K¨unstlerische Ubungen in der Berufsausbildung. In: Projektgruppe Handlungslernen, ed. Handlungslernen in der beruflichen Bildung, pp. 62–86. Wetzlar, Germany: W.-vonSiemens-Schule. (Projekt Druck.) Fischer, M.; Rauner, F., eds. 2002. Lernfeld Arbeitsprozess: ein Studienbuch zur Kompetenzentwicklung von Fachkr¨aften in gewerblich-technischen Aufgabenbereichen. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos. Franke, G., ed. 2001. Komplexit¨at und Kompetenz: Ausgew¨ahlte Fragen der Kompetenzforschung. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Gardner, H. 2002. Intelligenzen: die Vielfalt des menschlichen Geistes. Stuttgart, Germany: KlettCotta. Gruschka, A. 1985. Wie Sch¨uler Erzieher werden. Studien zur Kompetenzentwicklung und fachlichen Identit¨atsbildung in einem doppeltqualifizierenden Bildungsgang des Kollegschulversuchs NW. Wetzlar, Germany: B¨uchse der Pandora. Hacker, W. 1992. Expertenk¨onnen. Erkennen und Vermitteln. G¨ottingen/Stuttgart, Germany: Verlag f¨ur Angewandte Psychologie. Hackman, J.R.; Oldham, G.R. 1976. Motivation through the design of work: test of a theory. Organizational behaviour of human performance, vol. 60, pp. 250–79. Havighurst, R.J. 1972. Developmental tasks and education. New York, NY: Longmans Green. Holzkamp, K. 1985. Grundlegung der Psychologie. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: Campus. Sekretariat der St¨andigen Konferenz der Kultusminister der L¨ander in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland—KMK. 1991. Rahmenvereinbarung u¨ ber die Berufsschule. Beschluss der Kultusministerkonferenz vom 14./15.3.1991. Zeitschrift f¨ur Berufs- und Wirtschaftsp¨adagogik, vol. 7, pp. 590–93. Lave, J.; Wenger, E. 1991. Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Leontjew, A.N. 1982. T¨atigkeit, Bewußtsein, Pers¨onlichkeit: Studien zur Kritischen Psychologie. Cologne, Germany: Pahl-Rugenstein. Piaget, J. 1980. Les formes e´ l´ementaires de la dialectique. Paris: Gallimard. Rauner, F. 1995. Gestaltung von Arbeit und Technik. In: Lipsmeier, A., ed. Handbuch der Berufsbildung, pp. 50–64. Opladen, Germany: Leske & Budrich. Rauner, F. 2004. Qualifikationsforschung und Curriculum: ein aufzukl¨arender Zusammenhang. In: Rauner, F., ed. Qualifikationsforschung und Curriculum, pp. 9–44. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Sch¨on, D.A. 1983. The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. New York, NY: Basic Books. Sch¨upbach, H. 1993. Analyse und Bewertung von Arbeitst¨atigkeiten. In: Schuler, H., ed. Organisationspsychologie, pp. 167–187. Berne: Huber. Ulich, E. 1994. Arbeitspsychologie, 3rd ed. Z¨urich, Switzerland/Stuttgart, Germany: Sch¨afferPoeschel.
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Chapter X.2
The Mutual Shaping of Work, Vocational Competence and Work-Process Knowledge Nicholas Boreham and Martin Fischer
1 The Concept of Work-Process Knowledge The definition of work-process knowledge (Boreham, Samurc¸ay & Fischer, 2002; Fischer, Boreham & Nyhan, 2004) is based on empirical research into the competence requirements of modernized workplaces, especially those that have undergone a transition from Taylorism (strong hierarchy, top-down decisions, segmented work roles and fixed working procedures) to more organic structures (wider participation in decision-making, flexible labour processes and the involvement of all grades of employee in continuous improvement). The essential claim that underpins the theory of work-process knowledge is that, in the latter kind of working environment, employees need system-level understanding of the work process in the organization as a whole in order to fulfil their responsibilities for participating in decision-making, working across boundaries and contributing to continuous improvement. The reason is that their extended role requires them to understand how their own immediate tasks interconnect with operations carried out in other parts of the organization. This claim is based on empirical studies of the ways of knowing that underpin flexible work in modernized workplaces. Work-process knowledge was defined by the EU Framework IV project WHOLE (Work Process Knowledge in Technological and Organizational Development, see Boreham et al., 2002) in terms of four main attributes: 1. It is a systems-level understanding of the work process in the organization as a whole. Here, ‘work process’ is a portmanteau expression which includes the business process—the overall configuration of the commercial and/or productive capacity of the company that enables it to respond to market demands; the production process—the range of commercial and/or industrial tasks performed across the company, such as design, machining and quality inspection, and how these interrelate to each other; and the labour process—the ways in which the workforce is deployed in order to carry out these tasks; for example, who is responsible for which decisions, and the roles carried out by different members of the organization. This aspect of the definition of work-process knowledge focuses on its breadth of purview. However, the empirical research conducted by the WHOLE project R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 X.2, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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(Boreham et al., 2002) suggested that further terms need to be added to this definition. These are necessary to provide a more complete picture of this way of knowing. The second term in the definition is that work-process knowledge is ‘active’, in the sense of ‘active’ that distinguishes it from ‘inert’ knowledge (Perkins, 1992). Any knowledge can be judged active or inert in relation to a given activity. It is active if possessing it enhances performance in that activity: for example, knowledge of a musical score is active knowledge for the musician performing the music, because it enables him or her to produce the right notes. However, knowledge of the value of the shares of a company in which the musician has no interest is inert (at least, in relation to his or her musical performance), as it does not have an impact on the way the music is played. Thus: 2. Work process knowledge is actually used in the performance of the work in question—it is ‘active’ as opposed to ‘inert’ knowledge. This part of the definition is important for the design of vocational training. By identifying those aspects of an employee’s knowledge of the system that are actually used in the performance of his or her work, then the task of specifying the knowledge content of a training course is made much easier. However, the definition as it now stands is still not sufficient to account for the phenomena that researchers observed when they were investigating work-process knowledge in contexts such as electrical maintenance (Samurc¸ay & Vidal-Gomel, 2002) and medicine (Boreham, Foster & Mawer, 1992). These investigations of how work-process knowledge actually guides work resulted in the rejection of a simple representational epistemology in favour of an epistemology in which work and work-process knowledge stand in a relation of co-construction. By co-construction we mean that the worker’s knowledge is partially constructed out of the work, and that the work is partially constructed out of the worker’s knowledge. Research carried out by WHOLE participants suggested that the co-construction of work-process knowledge often occurred in response to a problem that required redesigning the work process. Responsibility for dealing with such problems often falls on ordinary workers in organizations which involve them in continuous improvement, especially when understanding and/or solving the problem requires stepping out of a narrow work role or fixed procedure and negotiating or collaborating with people in other parts of the organization. This emphasizes the constructivist aspect of work-process knowledge and rejects an epistemology that is merely representationalist. Mere representationalism depicts knowledge as a state inside people’s heads which mirrors, by means of internal images, what is occurring in the world outside. Thus ‘work’ might be assumed to exist independently of the worker (e.g. as a collection of objective entities, such as markets, product specifications, machines and job descriptions) and the worker’s knowledge might be assumed to represent these entities. (Cf. Ochanine’s 1978 theory of operative images, a representational view of work-related knowledge critiqued by Boreham, 1988.) Constructivist epistemologies reject a dualism of inner and outer worlds, arguing that knowledge is fashioned publicly through social interaction and that its content reflects the social structures within which that interaction occurs. The theory of work-process knowl-
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edge acknowledges that there is a dialectic between representing and constructing. When we are perceiving the world we are constructing or using terms for our perception, e.g. perceiving a tree means not only the perception of forms and colours (like photography). The process of perceiving is related to meaningful terms like ‘tree’, insofar it is a process of constructing reality. On the other hand, ‘tree’ is also a representation of reality (see Boreham et al., 2002, pp. 122, 127). This provides the next part of the definition: 3. Work process knowledge is constructed by employees while they are engaged in work, particularly when they are solving problems involving the reconfiguration of the work process. However, even these three terms were not enough to account for all aspects of the work-process knowledge we observed in modernized workplaces. Further aspects of the research carried out by the WHOLE project suggested that work-process knowledge is more than mere know-how accumulated by years of unreflective practice. Rather, it is the result of reflection on problems in the workplace that actually generates new knowledge out of diverse knowledge resources, including both practical experience and theoretical understanding (Boreham, 2004). On the basis of research in different sectors—industrial maintenance (Fischer, 1995; Samurc¸ay & Vidal-Gomel, 2002), production islands (Fischer, 1995), medicine (Boreham, 1989; Boreham et al., 1992) and chemical laboratories (Fischer & R¨oben, 2002)—it was found that employees’ knowledge of the work process was not a matter of accumulated practical experience nor a direct application of their scientific (academic) knowledge in practical situations, but a new understanding constructed out of a synthesis of theoretical and practical knowledge. Conceptual models of the organization of work in a company would be synthesized with the lived experience of working there, or a theoretical model of a machine found in an engineering specification would be synthesized with experiences of the peculiarities of that machine’s functioning when it was operated on the shop floor. This led to a deconstruction of a group of binary oppositions often encountered in accounts of work-related knowledge—theory versus practice, declarative knowledge versus procedural knowledge and ‘knowing that’ versus ‘knowing how’. Thus: 4. In place of the binary opposition between ‘knowing how’ and ‘knowing that’, work-process knowledge is typically constructed by synthesizing codified and experiential knowledge in a dialectical process of resolving problems in the workplace. To locate this abstract definition in a real-world case study, reference can be made to Mariani’s (2002) investigation of an Italian knowledge-creating chemical company, carried out as part of the WHOLE project. This example is particularly relevant to the current problems afflicting European industry as it shows the functionality of work-process knowledge in supporting the kind of organizational restructuring that companies often undertake in response to international competition. Challenged by increasing competition in the field of plastics manufacturing, the company studied by Mariani changed the emphasis in its business plan from
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manufacturing to research and development. Previously, research and development had constituted 20% of the business and manufacturing 80%, but these proportions were reversed and the core business became researching new types of plastic, developing the technology to produce them and licensing other companies to make the new products with the processes they had developed. The research and development activity was carried out in the company’s laboratories and pilot chemical plants. New types of plastic were developed in the former and then the pilot plants, small-sized production facilities, sought to develop new technological processes for manufacturing them. Thus, in place of chemical products, this company was discovering the chemical structure of new plastics and the technological knowledge needed to manufacture them (the formulae would have been of limited value without a proven manufacturing process for turning them into marketable products). In a very real sense, then, the firm became a knowledge-creating company—its main product was now knowledge—and an excellent example of the kind of enterprise that the European Commission hopes to develop as the backbone of its knowledge-based economy. However, the transformation of the company required a significant change in the work process. Profit depended on patenting as many new processes as possible, so the pilot plants had to be reconfigured for many new experimental production processes each month. This meant that the employees operating them had to work very much more flexibly than is usually the case in continuous process manufacturing, where the production process may remain unchanged for years on end. Not only were they stepping into new work roles several times each month as new production processes were tried out, but all grades of worker were involved in evaluating the new processes as part of their regular duties as pilot-plant operators—in effect, knowledge creation had become the ultimate purpose of their work. In order to cope with this new way of working, they needed to understand the work process as a whole: as one experienced employee commented: ‘It should never be allowed to happen that an individual cannot interpret a certain output because he or she does not know what happened at a previous stage in the process’ (Mariani, 2002, p. 24). The transformation of the company entailed a new approach to training and work-based learning. The induction of new workers now placed more emphasis on understanding the production process as a whole and less on training them for specific roles. Extensive use was made of meetings and other ways of structuring conversations to promote continuous dialogue among employees about production methods—it was largely through this dialogue that employees constructed the understanding of the work process that enabled them to run the pilot plants innovatively. Moreover, it was in these meetings that the workforce synthesized scientific knowledge and practical know-how as they grappled with the problems of creating, implementing and evaluating new plastics technologies. All aspects of the above definition of work-process knowledge are illustrated in this example: in order to do their work, the workers needed to understand the whole work process; their knowledge of the process was active and not inert; it was constructed in the context of experiments in reconfiguring the work processes, while the experiments themselves were constructed out of the new knowledge of the work process the
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workers were developing; and the knowledge-creation process involved synthesizing practical experience with theoretical understanding.
2 The Origins of the Concept of Work-Process Knowledge Although discussions of ‘process knowledge’ can be traced back to the 1920s, perhaps the earliest appearance of the term in its German form—Arbeitsprozesswissen—occurred in the context of a German debate about the need for reform of vocational education and training. The German word has two English translations: ‘labour-process knowledge’ and ‘work-process knowledge’. Whilst the latter is more widely used in contemporary debates (see Fischer, 2000), the former provides a better translation of the original meaning of the term. When Wilfried Kruse introduced the term Arbeitsprozesswissen in 1986, his notion included both the skills that are needed in more flexible work settings and the overall orientation to the object of work that facilitates employee participation. Even in Kruse’s early notion, the originality of the concept lay in the fact that theoretical knowledge had to be related to knowledge gained from experience (see Kruse, 1986). Many years later, the concept was applied in a series of projects carried out by the Fundacio Centre d’Iniciatives i Recerques Europ´ees a` la Mediterrania in Barcelona (CIREM), an organization funded by the European Commission to promote economic development in the Mediterranean Region. One CIREM project had the aim of improving the performance of a group of hotels on the island of Mallorca (Kruse, 2002). The hotel group wished to attract a more up-market clientele, but it realised that it could do so only by developing the ambience distinctive of high-class hotels, i.e. an ethos of personalized service. Consequently, the project was launched to develop a higher standard of service through ‘continuous quality improvement’. The philosophy that guided this project was a quality-circle methodology, in which staff were encouraged to identify and solve problems that stood in the way of high quality service. Following standard practice, staff met in cross-departmental groups to analyse the origins of the problems they had reported. This exercise led quickly to the realization that a problem that manifested itself in one department of the hotel (e.g. in reception) might have been caused in another department, and might well have repercussions in a third. It was also realised that employees working in one department could throw light on the problems that occurred in others. These insights highlighted the importance of the ‘internal customer’: in addition to providing a service to their guests, high-quality performance implied providing a service to colleagues in other departments. Conducted in this way, the quality circles increased the participants’ awareness of the interdependency of the different departments in which they worked, and the interconnectedness of the members’ work roles. This knowledge was identified by Kruse as Arbeitsprozesswissen with the English sense of ‘labour-process knowledge’. At approximately the time that Kruse pointed out the need for labour-process knowledge when companies are introducing new technology, alternatives to Tayloristic work organization were being developed in several European countries
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including Scandinavia (see Ehn, 1988), Germany (see Br¨odner, 1985) and the United Kingdom (see Rosenbrock, 1989; Cooley, 1988, 1989). The project ‘Human Centred CIM Systems’ funded by the Esprit Programme of the European Union was a milestone in the development of work and technology. Partners from Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom tried to establish an interdisciplinary way of developing computer-aided production systems better suited to human needs and abilities (Corbett, Rasmussen & Rauner, 1991; Rauner, Rasmussen & Corbett, 1988). This work reveals how work and work-process knowledge are mutually shaped in the context of work modernization. An important part of the development of these technical systems was the introduction of ‘island production’, which integrated previously separate stages in the processing of an order (design, machining, quality control, etc.) to create a single multifunctional work unit. This improved the efficiency of the production process. For example, in the traditional segmented work system, many delays to production originating on the shop floor are unpredictable because the circumstances that give rise to them are not known to the central planning department. However, under island production the lines of communication are shorter, more of these factors are known to the production planners and can be taken into account. Additionally, workers in production islands can deal with contingencies, such as sudden machine breakdowns, as they can immediately adjust production targets—in traditional work systems, these were fixed and difficult to modify quickly. The underlying principle was the same as in the Spanish hotels: the transformation of a fixed, bureaucratic work system into a more organic, flexible one capable of adapting speedily to shifting customer requirements and to its own internal problems. However, in extending the concept of work-process knowledge to embrace manufacturing, a new factor was brought into the picture: the nature of the production process itself. In recognition of this, the meaning of the original term Arbeitsprozesswissen was extended from ‘labour-process knowledge’ to ‘work-process knowledge’, the latter being defined as knowledge of the labour process and the production process.
3 The Mutual Shaping of Work and Work-Process Knowledge Work in a production island creates close links between indirect work, such as planning, and direct work, such as machining, as it assumes decentralized planning and the delegation of much decision-making to the workshop. One result is that the experiential knowledge that skilled workers accumulate about specific characteristics of the workshop—the roles of co-workers, the configuration of individual machines and the particular materials and tools in use—needs to be integrated with the more abstract knowledge required for planning production runs. This integration is one of the defining characteristics of how work-process knowledge is constructed. The relationship between the integration of direct and indirect work and the integration of experiential and abstract ways of knowing is not a simple cause-and-effect relationship, but one of mutual shaping. The modernization of work along the lines we have described both creates and is facilitated by the acquisition of work-process knowledge by the workforce.
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This mutual shaping is revealed in an important piece of research into how skilled workers and apprentices reacted when island production was introduced and confronted them with the need to work in new ways (Fischer, 1995). The research aimed to explore what skilled workers and apprentices knew about planning and organizing order processing and therefore, broadly speaking, what they knew about the operational set-up and workflow in the organization as a whole. The participants were asked to draw a diagram of their workplace depicting the operations and flow of materials on the basis of their previous work experience. In many cases, a very comprehensive overview of the processing of an order was depicted in the skilled workers’ sketches (see Figure 1, which describes how an order [Auftrag] goes to the sales department [kaufm. Abteilung] and the design department [Konstruktion]. Then, an engineering drawing [Zeichnung, St¨uckliste] is
Fig. 1 Work-process knowledge of a German skilled worker
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produced that goes to the head of the production department [Fertigungsleitung]. Process planning [Arbeitsvorbereitung] and production control [Fertigungsteuerung] are responsible for converting the engineering drawing and the parts list into the computer system [Umsetzen von Zeichnung und St¨uckliste auf EDV-Anlage] and for producing employee documentation [Arbeitspapiere, Materialscheine, Lohnscheine, Laufkarten]. And, in this way, the work flow planning [Terminabl¨aufe] is determined. In the factory buildings [Werkhallen], the product is produced with CNC machines [CNC-Fertigung] and manually [manuelle Fertigung]. After that, quality assurance and final inspection takes place [Qualit¨atssicherung, Endkontrolle]. A foreman [Meister] is responsible for the assembly of all parts before the product goes to the inspection department [Pr¨uffeld] and the distribution department [Versand]). An examination of these sketches clarified the essential content of the workprocess knowledge of these workers. One participant called it the ‘knowledge of how one organizes production’. He regarded it as the essence of his expertise and its development as the central purpose of vocational and further education. The study found that experienced skilled workers possessed a good understanding of the work process as a whole, not only in the sense that they could name the stages in the processing of an order in the factory accurately, but in the sense that they knew the contributions of the different departments and the order in which they contributed. On the basis of investigations of the participants’ backgrounds, it was clear that this knowledge had been acquired from their work experience. What is especially interesting is that in most cases the skilled workers who revealed that they possessed this knowledge had no formal responsibility whatsoever for the planning of order processing. Their knowledge about the planning and organization of production had been gained informally, typically in situations where short periods of close collaboration with other departments became necessary to deal with problems such as unforeseen events and the disruption of production. These collaborations were usually spur-of-the-moment activities that occurred outside the official lines of communication and the formal decision-making procedures of the factory. Fischer’s (1995) research thus shows that the construction of work-process knowledge depends on a variety of informal relationships in the factory. This culture of knowledge production can be overlooked if new production concepts are defined in an exclusively technical or system-theoretical perspective.
4 The Mutual Shaping of Work-Process Knowledge and Vocational Training Recent reforms have attempted to design curricula for encouraging the acquisition of work-process knowledge (Fischer & Rauner, 2002). Where work systems have been modernized in the way described, these developments have sometimes gone hand-in-hand with the development of curricula based on incorporating the acquisition of work-process knowledge into the performance of activities in the workplace.
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Vocational curriculum development of this kind begins by defining the purpose of the occupation in its broadest terms, analyses the overall work process within which it takes place, designs ways in which trainees can acquire knowledge of the context and the overall work process, then ends by imparting the theoretical and practical knowledge and skills required for each activity field. This is designed to replace the model of vocational curriculum development that has prevailed in many countries over the previous decades—essentially a set of bureaucratic procedures for enabling individuals to meet externally-imposed standards, such as lists of competencies and set texts and assessment by written examinations. As is widely acknowledged, the traditional curriculum is proving inadequate for meeting today’s need for flexible employees. The concept of work-process knowledge is a useful tool for designing alternative kinds of vocational curricula designed specifically for flexible, knowledge-creating work in contexts where a significant amount of the company’s knowledge assets are constructed in the workplace. To appreciate the contribution of these new approaches to the design of vocational curricula, we need an appropriate theory of work itself. This can be found in the cultural-historical theory of activity developed by Leont’ev (1978) and Vygotsky (1978). As Leont’ev’s (1978) classic statement makes clear, activity theory is not an all-encompassing theory so much as a set of principles for constructing local theories to account for specific types of activity. However, in all applications of activity theory, work is represented as a collective activity directed towards a common object, and the activity itself—the collective engagement with the object—is represented as a set of social practices based on a historically-determined division of labour. Activity theory claims that the human mind (or, more particularly, the higher functions such as problem-solving) come into existence only in the context of purposeful social interaction, and this theoretical perspective is consistent with our claim that work-process knowledge is constructed by co-workers within the process of work itself. Leont’ev (1978) and Vygotsky (1978) both maintain that collective learning in the context of activity is mediated by cultural artefacts and symbols, such as language and tools. The central problem of curriculum development then becomes to engage newcomers with this culture so that they become competent participants in the activity in question. It is important for our present purposes to appreciate the difference between activity theory and other theories of culturally embedded collective work-based learning, such as Lave & Wenger’s (1991) notion of situated learning. A significant difference between activity theory and the latter is that activity theory recognizes that the acquisition of vocational competence requires structured teaching and learning in classrooms, as well as acculturation in workplaces. This follows from Leont’ev’s (1978) postulation of a hierarchy of human behaviour: at the top of the hierarchy, collective activity is directed towards a common goal; on the next level, individual action is directed towards sub-goals of the overall activity; and at the lowest level, operations—basic behaviours such as perceptual discrimination, literacy and numeracy—develop naturally and are nurtured through education. While the higher psychological functions come into existence only within collective activity, the functions placed lower in the hierarchy may be developed through education and experience outside the workplace. In other
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words, people do not learn just by participating in communities of practice. There is a role for formal schooling too, and the task of the curriculum designer is to articulate it with work-based learning.
5 Vocational Curricula for Work-Process Knowledge Within the above framework, we propose four essential principles for the development of vocational curricula to prepare employees for flexible working environments in which work-process knowledge is needed to underpin working across boundaries and the integration of different functions, and in environments which regard the continuing acquisition of such knowledge by the workforce as an important factor of production. Principle 1. The curriculum must be planned within a conceptual framework derived from an analysis of the overall work process (rather than an analysis of the textbooks which contain the relevant disciplinary knowledge, or an analysis of the competencies required in individual job descriptions). The reason is that, according to activity theory, work is the context within which human abilities reach their highest level, and basic psychological operations are transformed into vocational competences only when they are mediated by the socio-cultural activity of the workplace and its business environment. Principle 2. Close collaboration must be achieved between the key personnel in the workplace and the external training provider, so that they can align theoretical study with practical experience. This co-ordination is mediated by a shared concept of the overall work process. Principle 2 is important as it constitutes at least a partial resolution of the historically determined tension between the different stakeholders in vocational education. Principle 3. When delivering the ‘theoretical’ part of the curriculum, classroom instruction must be integrated with the formative experiences that the trainees are concurrently obtaining in the workplace. This is to enable decontextualized theory to be transformed into higher psychological functions through the mediating role of the culture and artefacts of the workplace. Principle 4. The learning process must be encouraged by ensuring that trainees engage in teamwork in authentic work situations—because much of the competence required in flexible work systems is collective (Boreham, 2004). Such competence is acquired in pursuit of the common object of joint activity, and will depend on integrating conceptual understanding of the overall work system with practical activities.
6 An Example of the Design of a Vocational Curriculum These principles are illustrated by an experimental curriculum known as GAB, which was implemented in six Volkswagen factories in Germany as part of a
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pilot-project programme (Deitmer et al., 2004). The expansion of the German acronym GAB translates as ‘business process and work process oriented vocational training’ (Bremer, 2000), and the curriculum development process itself is known as the ‘work process co-production of curricula’ (Bernard, 2000). This experiment was one of several initiatives currently being made in Germany to reform the traditional dual system of apprenticeship. The dual system, which absorbs nearly a third of each cohort of 16-year-old school-leavers, usually involves serving an apprenticeship with a firm (Betrieb) for three days a week and attending a vocational school (Berufsschule) for the remaining two days. During the latter, conventional classroom teaching is provided in general subjects (such as mathematics, citizenship and languages) and in the vocational subjects (such as mechanical engineering) that are needed to pass the apprenticeship examination. Despite the esteem it enjoys in many other countries, in Germany the dual system is widely regarded as being in a state of crisis. One problem is that it trains apprentices for approximately 360 narrow and highly demarcated ‘occupational profiles’ (Berufe), a degree of segmentation now believed inappropriate for the requirements of modernized flexible work. A second problem is that many employers are now questioning the relevance of the theoretical content of the vocational subjects taught in the vocational schools (to be distinguished from the general education subjects). German training law requires apprentices to attend vocational schools to study the theoretical aspect of their trades, but hitherto there has not been any effective way of ensuring that the classroom element of the curriculum is relevant to the content of the work. The GAB curriculum addresses these problems directly. It is intended to support the transition currently under way in Volkswagen from a highly demarcated labour process to a more flexible one, involving (among other measures) the integration of twenty-seven narrowly specialized trades into six polyvalent ones. In addition, the curriculum aims to rationalize the college-based part of the apprenticeship which, as we have already remarked, is not co-ordinated with the practical experience gained in the workplace. Work-process knowledge plays two crucial roles in this curriculum. First, it is an intended outcome of the GAB curriculum (although it is by no means the only kind of knowledge students are expected to acquire, as the continuation of general education throughout the years of the apprenticeship is a valued part of the dual system). Second, the concept of work-process knowledge itself provides the framework for the curriculum development process. These contributions will be discussed with reference to the four principles of curriculum design introduced above.
6.1 Principle 1 Given the aim of preparing employees for flexible work systems, the new curriculum must break out of the classification and framing imposed by the dual system—the tramlines laid down by the narrow occupational profiles, by the demarcation between narrow trades and by the traditional gulf that separates the college instructor and the works manager. To achieve this, a radically new conceptual framework
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has been drawn up for the curriculum, one conceptualized in terms of the flexible work process in the whole factory (and indeed, its business environment). The work process is represented in terms of a four-level hierarchy of ‘activity fields’ and the kinds of knowledge each requires. At the top is the activity field constituted by the overall work and business process in the automotive sector—understanding that requires strategic or ‘orienting’ knowledge. Descending the hierarchy, the other levels of activity respectively are: the engineering of whole automotive systems; the engineering of system components (such as electronics and valves); and finally specific operations on the shop floor. Each descending level in this hierarchy requires more detailed and localized types of engineering knowledge. To develop a detailed curriculum using this framework, researchers decompose the work roles pertaining to each activity field into BAGs (Berufliche Arbeitsaufgaben—occupational work tasks, but not the narrow tasks of the behaviourist tradition or Taylor’s school of scientific management). An example of a BAG within the polyvalent occupational profile of Industriemechaniker (industrial mechanic) currently being introduced at Volkswagen is maintenance and inspection work. While such an item of curriculum content is not particularly novel in itself, the new principle is that each part of the curriculum is related to all the other parts by its position in the curriculum framework. This framework represents links between activities in one part of the process and activities elsewhere.
6.2 Principle 2 Since the German dual system was set up after the Second World War, the vocational schools and the companies that sponsor apprentices have tended to develop their respective contributions to apprentice schemes separately, resulting in a lack of co-ordination between the theory taught in the former and the practical experience gained in the latter. However, on our epistemological assumption—that work-related knowledge is fashioned out of events and phenomena through social interaction—then the development of work-process knowledge can occur only if the two organizations fashion the curriculum in close partnership. In other words, this can happen only if they become a single activity system with a common objective. In the example we are discussing, this is achieved by setting up small curriculum development teams, each consisting of a member of the teaching staff from the vocational school, an experienced worker (usually a supervisor) from Volkswagen AG (the company’s manufacturing division) and a full-time industrial trainer from Volkswagen CG (the company’s training division). These teams are the germ cells of the curriculum development process. As they contain representatives of both the vocational school and the company, they are well placed to integrate the theoretical and practical parts of the curriculum. Specifically, they are tasked to carry out a series of BAG-Erleben, investigations of the BAGs in an activity field. The aim in each case is to define a ‘learning arena’ corresponding to the activity field. The vocational curriculum will consist of learning arenas defined in this
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way, and the structure of the learning arenas will mirror the structure of the work process—very different from structuring the curriculum by academic disciplines disconnected from work experience. An important development that has resulted from this approach is the recognition that the kind of engineering theory traditionally taught to intermediate trainees (typically, a simplified version of the theory taught to degree-level engineers) might not be appropriate. Research has consequently sought new kinds of theory more appropriate for the role of a technician in a flexible firm.
6.3 Principle 3 Using the curriculum framework we have described, the BAG-Erleben teams select theoretical content for its relevance to the actual work role, taking account of the hierarchy of activity fields. In the curriculum documentation, each learning arena is set out in two parallel columns, one headed ‘vocational school’ and one ‘company’, and this layout makes it clear how the content of the classroom sessions must be related to the work experience—all within the context of the whole. An example for the industrial electronics mechanic is given in Table 1. However, it must be stated that this experimental integrated curriculum is not currently accommodated within the legal regulations of the German dual system. Vocational schools are regulated by the German L¨ander, whereas vocational training in companies is regulated by federal law.
6.4 Principle 4 Thus far, emphasis has been placed on how classroom teaching is adjusted to the work process. However, in the spirit of mutual shaping, the curriculum development process also involves modifying the workplace to create opportunities for combining theory with practical experience. This is essential so that apprentices can construct work-process knowledge in the context of authentic work. It is a truism that the workplace does not necessarily provide ideal conditions for learning. Consequently, the curriculum builders have selected key work tasks and redesigned them to facilitate learning and especially the alignment of theoretical teaching with practical experience. One example of innovations of this sort is the creation of special ‘learning bays’ in the factories, set up for standard production tasks such as axle assembly and after-sales service, but also intended as arenas for the construction of work-process knowledge. Typically, a group of four to six apprentices will spend six weeks in one of these learning bays, giving them the opportunity to acquire knowledge and skills in an authentic setting. The apprentices do the same work as the regular employees in surrounding work stations, but they have the support of a skilled worker who acts as a facilitator for their self-directed, problem-based activity.
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‘Lernfeld’ 8 Learning area 2
Repairing electrical drives
Time schedule Company: 12 w. VET school: 80 h.
This work task not only includes disconnecting and connecting a new (identical) electrical drive, but also the integration of a new similar electrical drive that respects the most important parameter (velocity, acceleration, moment of torque). This task requires profound knowledge of electrical drives and its control. This type of knowledge is even more important than the knowledge of the mode of operation of electrical machines. The core task of a specialist in the workshop is parameterizing the control of an electrical drive. Objectives of learning at both places of learning In-company training
VET school
The apprentices check and repair electrical machines and drives taking characteristic values and operating parameters into account. The manufacturers’ instructions have to be considered (e.g. characteristic values, power electronics, control system). The apprentices analyse the failure-free operation of electrical devices and document parameters professionally.
The students know the elements of electrical devices like electrical machines, power electronics and control systems. They are able to analyse and assess the electrical drive system and its components according to the application and the necessary connection. They analyse the flow of energy and information. They apply basic measurements for parameterizing the electrical drives. They are able to justify the use of special measuring instruments and have a good command of them.
Contents of work and learning Objects
r
r r
Inspecting and starting electrical drives taking the specific application into account; Replacing worn out components in electrical drives and machines; Work safety while operating electrical devices.
Tools
r r r r r r
Electrical drive system (electrical machines, controllers, power-electronics); Software for parameterizing; Special measuring instruments (e.g. true RMS); Installation diagram; Manuals and manufacturers’ instructions; Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC).
Methods
r r r
Estimating and accessing the actual state of an electrical device; Testing and using control systems and software; Replacing electrical machines, wires and components of power electronics and control systems;
Requirements
r r r r r r r
Analysing the characteristics of electrical drives; Parameterizing electrical drive professionally; Handling special measuring instruments securely and professionally; Applied handling of special tools/software for the parameterizing; Professional maintenance of electrical drives; Work safety while operating machines; Professional selection and replacement of damaged or worn out parts;
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Parameterizing the electrical drive with respect to guidelines and application (booting programmes for testing and inspecting); Selecting standardized components (e.g. electrical machines).
r r
Respecting EMC; Handle external processing of repair orders.
Organization
r r r
Work safety (voltage, rotating parts); Self-directed gathering of information (parameter of electric devices); External processing of repair orders.
Source: Fischer & Bauer, 2007.
Apprentices are also encouraged to construct work-process knowledge in the context of another modification of the standard production environment, known as ‘working and learning tasks’. These are genuine commercial orders that are allocated to the apprentices on the grounds of their instructional potential, including their suitability for encouraging the apprentices to develop along the pathway from school student to a fully integrated member of the workforce. The tasks are holistic, typically including order placement, preparatory work, manufacture, quality control and delivery to the customer. This completeness, of course, encourages apprentices to understand the whole work process and how individual operations within that process are interrelated. Procedure manuals are laid out in curriculum form to heighten the perceptions of both apprentices and trainers about how theory can be related to practice. In tackling the problems posed for them, the teams of apprentices are encouraged to construct innovative ways of dealing with production problems, thus encouraging the formation of work-process knowledge (Dehnbostel & Molzberger, 2004).
References Bernard, F. 2000. Forschungmetodische L¨oesungsansatze zur Differenzierung und Integration von technischem Wissen. In: Pahl, J.-P.; Rauner, F.; Sp¨ottl G., eds. Berufliches Arbeitsprozesswissen, pp. 149–58. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos. Boreham, N. 1988. Models of diagnosis and their implications for adult professional education. Studies in the education of adults, vol. 20, pp. 96–108. Boreham, N.C. 1989. Modeling medical decision making under uncertainty. British journal of educational psychology, vol. 59, pp. 187–99. Boreham, N.C. 2004. A theory of collective competence: challenging the neo-liberal individualization of performance at work. British journal of educational studies, vol. 52, pp. 5–17.
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Boreham, N.C.; Foster, R.W.; Mawer, G.E. 1992. Strategies and knowledge in the control of the symptoms of a chronic illness. Le travail humain, vol. 55, pp. 15–34. Boreham, N.C.; Samurc¸ay, R.; Fischer, M., eds. 2002. Work process knowledge. London: Routledge. Bremer, R. 2000. Prozessorientierte Berufsausbildung in Betrieb und Schule. Bremen: Universit¨at Bremen, Institut Technik und Bildung. Available online at: <www.wa.unihannover.de/gfa2000/> Br¨odner, P. 1985. Fabrik 2000. Alternative Entwicklungspfade in die Zukunft der Fabrik. Berlin: Edition Sigma. Cooley, M.J.E. 1988. Creativity, skill and human-centred systems. In: G¨oranzon, B.; Josefson, I., eds. Knowledge, skill and artificial intelligence, pp. 127–37. London/Berlin/etc.: Springer. Cooley, M.J.E. 1989. Architect or bee? The human price of technology. London: Hogarth Press. Corbett, J.M.; Rasmussen, L.B.; Rauner, F. 1991. Crossing the border: the social and engineering design of computer integrated manufacturing systems. London/Berlin/etc.: Springer. Dehnbostel, P.; Molzberger, G. 2004. Decentralized learning: integration of learning and working at the workplace. In: Fischer, M.; Boreham, N.; Nyhan B., eds. European perspectives on learning at work: the acquisition of work process knowledge, pp. 290–303. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications for the European Communities. (CEDEFOP Reference Series.) Deitmer, L. et al. 2004. Neue Lernkonzepte in der dualen Berufsausbildung. Bilanz eines Modellversuchsprogramms der Bund-L¨ander-Kommission (BLK). Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Ehn, P. 1988. Work oriented design of computer artifacts. Stockholm: Arbetslivscentrum. Fischer, M. 1995. Technikverst¨andnis von Facharbeitern im Spannungsfeld von beruflicher Bildung und Arbeitserfahrung. Bremen, Germany: Donat Verlag. Fischer, M. 2000. Von der Arbeitserfahrung zum Arbeitsprozeßwissen. Opladen, Germany: Leske & Budrich. Fischer, M.; Boreham, N.; Nyhan, B., eds. 2004. European perspectives on learning at work: the acquisition of work process knowledge. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Fischer, M.; R¨oben, P. 2002. The work process knowledge of chemical laboratory assistants. In: Boreham, N.C.; Samurc¸ay R.; Fischer, M., eds. Work process knowledge, pp. 40–54. London: Routledge. Fischer, M.; Rauner, F. 2002. The implications of work-process knowledge for vocational education and training. In: Boreham, N.; Samurc¸ay, R.; Fischer, M., eds. Work process knowledge, p. 160–70. London: Routledge. Fischer, M.; Bauer, W. 2007. Competing approaches towards work process orientation in German curriculum development. European journal of vocational training, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 140–57. Kruse, W. 2002. Moderne Produktions- und Dienstleistungskonzepte und Arbeitsprozesswissen. In: Fischer, M.; Rauner, F., eds. Lernfeld: Arbeitsprozess, pp. 87–109. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos. Kruse, W. 1986. On the necessity of labour process knowledge. In: Schweitzer, J., ed. Training for a human future, pp. 188–193. Weinheim, Germany/Basel, Switzerland: Juventa. Kruse, W. 1999. Labour process knowledge: a report from a Spanish view. (Paper presented at the WHOLE-conference in Siena, 1999, summarized in the WHOLE final report, 2000, 13, pp. 44–45.) <www.education.man.ac.uk/euwhole/final.htm> Lave, J.; Wenger, E. 1991. Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Leont’ev, A.N. 1978. Activity, consciousness and personality. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Mariani, M. 2002. Work process knowledge in a chemical company. In: Boreham, N.; Samurc¸ay, R.; Fischer M., eds. Work process knowledge, pp. 15–24. London: Routledge. Ochanine, D.A. 1978. Le rˆole des images op´eratives dans la r´egulation des activit´es de travail. Psychologie et e´ ducation, vol. 3, pp. 63–79. Perkins, D. 1992. Smart schools: better thinking and learning for every child. New York, NY: The Free Press.
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Rauner, F.; Rasmussen, L.B.; Corbett, J.M. 1988. The social shaping of technology and work: human centred CIM systems. AI & society, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 47–61. (Reprinted in M. Fischer et al., eds. Gestalten statt Anpassen in Arbeit, Technik und Beruf, pp. 25–44. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann, 2001.) Rosenbrock, H.H., ed. 1989. Designing human-centred technology: a cross-disciplinary project in computer-aided manufacturing. London/etc.: Springer. Samurc¸ay, R.; Vidal-Gomel, C. 2002. The contribution of work process knowledge to competence in electrical maintenance. In: Boreham, N.C.; Samurc¸ay, R.; Fischer, M., eds. Work process knowledge, pp. 148–59. London: Routledge. Vygotsky, L.S. 1978. Mind in society: the development of higher psychological functions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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Chapter X.3
Situated Learning and Cognitive Apprenticeship Michael Gessler
1 Behaviourism and Cognition In the article ‘Psychology as the behaviorist views it’ by John B. Watson, the demand of behaviourism is formulated as follows: Psychology, as the behaviorist views it, is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior. Introspection forms no essential part of its methods, nor is the scientific value of its data dependent upon the readiness with which they lend themselves to interpretation in terms of consciousness (Watson, 1913, p. 158).
As a ‘black box’, cognitive processes are excluded from research, as they are not open to objective observation. After the ‘cognitive turn’ in the 1960s and by the development of ‘cognitive psychology’ (Neisser, 1967), the ‘black box’ is replaced by the metaphor of the ‘glass box’. Mental processes and cognitive structures—for example, perception, attention, memory development, information processing (cognitive styles), intelligence and talent (cognitive skills), knowledge representation, meta-cognition and motivation—are now in the focus of the research interests of psychology. However, the demand for objective research is taken over from behaviourism and is ideally carried out by laboratory experiment. Here, situative influences are ‘disturbing variables’ in regard to the validity and reliability of results, due to which their influence must be controlled through the help of special methods (for example, by elimination, keeping constant, homogenization, parallelization, covariance analysis or randomization).
2 The Situated Cognition Movement The ‘Situated Cognition Movement’ criticizes this cognition-focused, natural scientific paradigm. The excluded situative conditions are included again by the protagonists of the Situated Cognition Movement. According to the assumptions of situated learning, the acquisition of knowledge is contextually tied to the learning situation, due to which the acquired knowledge can only with difficulty be transformed from R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 X.3, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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one context to another (Bredo, 1994). Brazilian street urchins, for example, were able to solve arithmetical problems in the context of their street business, while not being able to do this with tasks of equal value at school (Carraher, Carraher & Schliemann, 1985). For such knowledge, which is not useable or used, Whitehead (1929) coined the term ‘inert knowledge’.
2.1 Origins The concept of situated learning is based on insights by the Situated Cognition Movement. Its historic roots, however, can be traced further into the past. Table 1 provides an overview of the actors. To begin with, we will introduce the ‘classics’ (Dewey, Kerschensteiner, Piaget and Vygotsky), then the representatives of the Situated Cognition Movement (Lave, Resnick, Greeno and Rogoff), and finally the concept of ‘cognitive apprenticeship’. For John Dewey, experiences are both the precondition and goal of cognition. Thus, actions must necessarily be a component of learning. For the development of personality, solution-oriented learning in the context of real actions and problematic situations is decisive. In this context, participation and democracy are criteria for the quality of the design of learning processes, and at the same time learning must support the development of participation and democracy (Dewey, 1916). Georg Kerschensteiner was a representative of the ‘Activity School Movement’ in Germany at the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1910, Kerschensteiner went to the United States of America and met Dewey, whose ideas had deeply influenced him. Self-activity of learners, manual activity, character formation and education towards being a citizen are features of his approach. Wood and metal workshops, kitchens and school gardens were created to make learning by the ‘living’ object possible. Furthermore, Kerschensteiner founded the mandatory part-time continuation school for youths aged from 14 to 17. These youths were taught for eight to ten hours a week, as an accompaniment to their work. For Kerschensteiner, work
Table 1 Situated cognition and situated learning Historical origin
Situated cognition
Situated learning
Progressive education J. Dewey 1859–1952
Cognition in practice, J. Lave, 1988
Cognitive apprenticeship, A. Collins et al., 1989
Activity school (Arbeitsschule) G. Kerschensteiner, 1854–1932
Socially shared cognition, L. Resnick, 1987a,b
Anchored instruction CTGV, 1990
Genetic epistemology J. Piaget, 1896–1989
Perceiving affordances, J.G. Greeno et al., 1993
Cognitive flexibility, Spiro et al., 1988
Social development theory L. Vygotsky, 1896–1934
Guided participation, B. Rogoff, 1990
Situated learning, J. Lave & E. Wenger, 1991, Community of practice E. Wenger, 1998
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was an educational medium for forming man, the goal being the ‘useful citizen’ (Kerschensteiner, 1912). In contrast to John Dewey and Georg Kerschensteiner, Jean Piaget and Lew Vygotsky are representatives of psychology. Piaget coined the terms ‘assimilation’, ‘accommodation’, and ‘equilibration’: by assimilation, environmental impressions are interpreted on the basis of existing cognitive schemes; they are assimilated by cognitive structures. By accommodation, the cognitive schemes are changed to make environmental influence understandable and to make it possible to attribute a meaning to them. By equilibration, the organism strives for a balance of these two processes (Piaget, 1929). For Vygotsky, higher mental abilities develop at first inter-personally within a socio-cultural environment, and only then intrapersonally. By interaction, children’s psychic activity is stimulated. They process and change concepts and meanings. Higher cognitive development is the product of a construction by the child by way of an interaction with its socio-cultural and historic environment. The child, the other person, and the context can, so to speak, melt into each other by a single action. Due to this, for Vygotsky guided accompaniment of a child by an adult, just as a kind of teaching which is orientated at the ‘zone of the next development’, is important for learning and development (Vygotsky, 1987). The Situated Cognition Movement follows these basic theories. Prominent representatives are Barbara Rogoff, James Greeno, Luaren Resnick and Jean Lave. For Greeno, Smith and Moore (1993) knowledge is not a private cognitive structure. Knowledge develops and exists as a relation between an individual and his/her situation. The individual reaches back to experiences that again bear the reason for their existence, the situation, within themselves. On the situation’s side, the existing situative ‘affordances’ are decisive. The constant nature of action and the actors’ ability to act are determined by the similarity of the situation (reaching back to personal experience), as well as by the conditions of the situation (restrictions or offers). The authors do not assess learning by comparing inter-individual learning increases, but by the extent that individuals and groups are attuned to the stimulating conditions and restrictions of the material and social systems within which they interact (Greeno, Collins & Resnick, 1996). For Barbara Rogoff, cognitive development is also determined by the respective social milieu. Social milieux provide a kind of cultural curriculum for the development of cognitive processes, due to which the design of learning processes is a matter of how well learning is socially embedded in its environment. Learners acquire experts’ knowledge by being guided by accepted experts. The learner contributes actively to solving increasingly complex tasks and step-by-step acquires experts’ knowledge through ‘guided participation’. Lauren Resnick (1987a, b) understands cognition to be a socially divided activity. She compares learning processes at school to those outside school and investigates the students’ transfer abilities. Her assessment of learning at school does not produce a positive result. The transfer of knowledge to fields outside school is only seldom successful. One reason for this is single, individualized learning at school, while outside school learning is embedded in social contexts. At school, purist processes of thinking and remembering are supported and demanded for examinations,
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while outside school the use of aids is a matter of course. At school, she says, abstract knowledge is communicated, while outside school situation-specific competences are needed. The distance between learning situation and application situation prevents meaningful learning which again would be necessary for independent learning. Jean Lave (1988) criticizes the current way of understanding the learning transfer: the common understanding is that the keeping up of cognitive structures guarantees the transfer of knowledge across different contexts. Knowledge is separated from the context of development and use and is given the nature of a tool. This decontextualized concept of knowledge leads to a de-contextualized and untrue-to-life understanding of teaching/learning. For Lave, transfer means to carry out actions within similar contexts, and learning should be appropriately contextualized. Now, the social embedding of actions in a community of practice as well as the dialectic relationships of the people within this community become important for the design of learning processes (Lave, 1988). Lave combines her approach with existent transfer-theoretical approaches and also opens up a new category. Theories of learning transfer formulate conditions for the successful transfer of knowledge and skills from learning situations (source) to the application situation (target). According to the behaviourist ‘theory of identical elements’, a transfer is possible if situation A (source) and situation B (target) show identical elements or identical stimulus-response elements (Thorndike & Woodworth, 1901). With the cognitive turn of the 1960s, the significance of cognitive and particularly of meta-cognitive processes for transfer performance is emphasized (Flavell, 1976). By her approach of ‘cognition in practice’, Lave founds a fourth line of theory. While behaviourism emphasizes ‘external conditions’ and cognitivism emphasizes ‘interior conditions’, her position might be called an ‘intermediate condition’: man’s interaction with other humans within a community of practice. Thus, analogous to its own theoretical demand, the Situated Cognition Movement is embedded in a cultural-historic context: for Dewey (1916), experiences are both the precondition and goal of cognition, and for Lave (1988) communities of practice are important places of learning. Kerschensteiner (1912) designed his work school as a counter-model of the book school, and Resnick (1987b) criticizes the book school, as it is too little orientated to the reality of practical work. Assimilation and accommodation (Piaget, 1929) make attunement (Greeno et al., 1993) possible. Vygotsky (1987) and Rogoff (1990) start out from similar premises: cognition is influenced by the socio-cultural environment, and the development of learners should happen by being guided by an expert who accompanies and supports the learner, while at the same time demanding performance.
3 Cognitivism and Social Constructivism The concept of situatedness is to a large extent understood to be a new paradigm which is supposed to overcome and replace the predominant cognitivist school.
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Furthermore, ‘social constructivism’ is different from ‘radical constructivism’. Glasersfeld (1989, p. 162) formulates two demands of ‘radical constructivism’: ‘(a) knowledge is not passively received but actively built up by the cognizing subject; (b) the function of cognition is adaptive and serves the organization of the experiential world, not the discovery of ontological reality’. Representatives of ‘social constructivism’ would extend this definition as follows: (a.1) knowledge is not passively received but actively built up by the cognizing subject (a.2) by interaction with his/her (a.3) socio-cultural environment and the (a.4) situational conditions; (b) the function of cognition is adaptive and serves the organization of the experiential world, not the discovery of ontological reality (see Berger & Luckmann, 1966; Vygotsky, 1978). In the concept of perception, cognition, knowledge and action, prominent representatives of the situatedness approach (Greeno, 1997a; Suchman, 1987; Kirshner & Whitson, 1998) find fundamental differences between cognitivism and situated cognition. The core of their assumption is that the communication of knowledge cannot be understood to be a kind of passing on of objective knowledge from one individual to another. Much more, knowledge acquisition is the result of an active process of construction by the learner, which is embedded in the acquisition situation. The learning situation is considered to be decisive for activating knowledge later. Thus, the actual learning situation is of crucial significance for the concept of learning. Knowledge stocks cannot be considered to be separated from the learning process and the learning situation (Salomon, 1997). Furthermore, there is the assumption that it is difficult to transfer learning matter to situations which are seriously different from those during the learning process (Mandl, Gruber & Renkl, 2002). Thus, ‘each experience with an idea—and the environment of which that idea is a part—becomes part of the meaning of that idea. The experience in which an idea is embedded is critical to the individual’s understanding of and ability to use that idea’ (Duffy & Jonassen, 1992, p. 4). Furthermore, representatives of this approach emphasize that particularly the situative analysis of learning as an activity system, where individuals participate as members of social groups and as parts of greater systems, is most appropriate to the situatedness and the nature of social learning (Greeno, Collins & Resnick, 1996, p. 40). The controversy between the Situated Cognition Movement and cognitivism at first led to a hardening of the opposing positions (Greeno, Smith & Moore, 1993) and finally resulted in recognizing that the cognitive and the situated perspective are complementary positions and that both schools could contribute to the goal of improving learning performances and making educational institutions more effective (Anderson, Reder & Simon, 1996). Nevertheless, the epistemological assumptions are different (see Table 2). Despite the convergence achieved on the basic empirical results, by reaching back to the different reference frames different educational interpretations were deduced. This resulted in more elaborate approaches which picked up principles of situated learning without, however, leaving the results of cognitive psychology out of consideration. Through the more recent research on instruction, several approaches were developed, like Spiro’s et al. (1988) cognitive flexibility theory or the
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M. Gessler Table 2 Cognitivism and social constructivism
Dimension
Cognitivism
Social constructivism
Knowledge and reality
Knowledge is a cognitive representation (a mirror) of a given reality and can be translated into language.
Knowledge is a personal construction and inseparable from the situation of which it is the product.
Mind and body
Thinking is an independent process of manipulating cognitive representations.
Thinking is an interdependent social activity relating the individual and the situation.
Individual and society
Inside-outside-relation: thinking, learning and development are placed inside the individual by way of social influence.
Part-whole-relation: thinking, learning and development are culturally embedded and a part of the social environment.
anchored instruction approach by the Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (CTGV, 1990), which refer to the foundations of the situatedness principle. Most of these instruction models include the use of modern information and communication technology (Duffy & Jonassen, 1992) and try to make social interaction possible orientated towards actual applications (Mandl, Gruber & Renkl, 1997, 2002). The common grounds of these models can be summarized by the following fundamental demands for the design of learning environments: (a) knowledge and learning are always situated; (b) knowledge is individually constructed by the learner; (c) for this, knowledge shared by a society is crucial; (d) learning means increasingly taking part in an experts’ community; (e) situated learning particularly focuses on the application aspect of knowledge. Thus, learning situation and tasks are questioned regarding their authenticity.
4 Course of Development in Research At the beginning of developing the concept, it was field surveys and ethnomethodologically-oriented methods that were predominant (see Carraher, Carraher & Schliemann, 1985; Suchman, 1987; Lave, 1988), while at an advanced state of developing the theory experimental and evaluative proceedings were increasingly chosen. Among the studies during the early phase, there was the investigation by Carraher, Carraher & Schliemann (1985). They investigated the transfer of knowledge with Brazilian children as well as housewives in Orange County by at first giving them arithmetical tasks in everyday situations. Later, the test persons were not able to transfer their acquired knowledge to contexts and tasks similar to those at school. The authors drew two conclusions: (a) the test person’s knowledge was very much tied to the context; (b) the more knowledge is rooted in the activity context, the less possible it is to transfer it to another field of application. Some representatives, like Suchman (1987), went one step further with their assumptions. For Suchman, all knowledge and thinking is embodied by being tied to contexts. Action plans are not
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understood to be action-controlling cognitions but to be the results of actions, i.e. to be rationalizations. In his opinion, action plans develop only during or after action, they do not control action itself but emerge in the course of action in the form of context-bound knowledge. This assumption could not be supported by more recent studies (Law, 1997), which made Suchman revise her position. The second phase of empirical research on situated learning started out from a concept which became popular in the context of the instruction-psychological approach to cognitive apprenticeship (Collins, Brown & Newman, 1989): the mode of action of the community of practice, the collaborative group. Greeno, with his approach, focuses on the analysis of systematic interaction both among individuals and with those resources that exist in their environment or rather their activity systems (Greeno, 1998). He conceptualizes learning as the individual’s participation in socially organized activity systems. The more each single learner participates in the interactions in the centre of such learning systems, the bigger the learning progress (Greeno, 1997a, 1997b). His colleagues investigated this with the help of studies called ‘design experiments’ and which are carried out mostly in co-operation with teachers in mathematics lessons. Altogether, this second phase of empirical research on situated learning shows a certain degree of change: situated learning is no longer understood to be an alternative to cognitive learning but to be a theory on the construction of knowledge within learning environments that mostly work with computer-based tools (see, for example, Holoch, 2002; Mandl & Gerstenmaier, 2000; Mandl & Gr¨asel, 1997). The goal of these studies is most of all the construction of common knowledge in collaborative groups by exchanging distributed individual knowledge. Thus, the core of the theory of situated learning is addressed—the focus is on the activity systems or rather the interplay of learning subject, learning community, learning matter/subject/topics/artefacts, learning medium/tools, division of work and rules. With the help of appropriate models of these systems (Engestr¨om, 1990), it has meanwhile become possible to work out a clear understanding of the term ‘situated’, which is definitely different from the debate during the first phase. However, even the second phase shows theoretical and empirical deficits: motivational and emotional processes with the construction of knowledge within learning environments have not been made sufficiently explicit so far. This is considered an important perspective for empirical research on situated learning (Gerstenmaier & Mandl, 2001).
5 Cognitive Apprenticeship The learning arrangement of ‘cognitive apprenticeship’ is an approach at designing situated learning environments. The starting point of the development is criticism of untrue-to-life teaching at schools. Collins et al. (1989) with their model are orientated to the example of training to be a master craftsman, which aims at predominantly communicating practical knowledge.
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For the design of learning environments, the authors demand learning within social contexts, with realistic tasks and with the learner being guided by experts as partners. Among the focuses of this approach there is the communication of problem-solving skills within the context of realistic social situations. The strivedfor action competence and the appropriate cognitive skills are communicated by real problems of the application field. ‘Apprenticeship embeds the learning of skills and knowledge in their social and functional context’ (Collins, Brown & Newman, 1989, p. 454).
5.1 The Example of Classical Training It is typical of the learning situation in training for a skilled trade that at first there is co-operation between apprentice and master craftsman, while working with tools on real work-pieces. Learning matter is highly orientated towards real application situations and not at the structure of systematic knowledge. The degree of difficulty of the tasks—while being guided by the expert—gradually increases. In the event of difficulties, the master craftsman as an expert in his field supports the learner with advice, suggestions and responses (scaffolding) (Brown & Cole, 2000).
5.2 Implicit Knowledge as a Model Category Polanyi starts out from the fact that ‘we can know more than we can tell’ (Polanyi, 1966/1983, p. 4). Knowledge is never completely explicit: ‘it is also necessarily fraught with the roots that it embodies’ (Polanyi, 1966/1983, p. x). The way in which cognition is dependent on personal conditions cannot be formalized, as one is not able independently to express one’s own dependence (Polanyi, 1966/1983, p. 25). Due to this personal restriction to experience, implicit knowledge cannot be completely expressed. Also, implicit knowledge should not be completely expressed, as otherwise it loses its function—or rather its value. We are able to recognize faces, even though we do not look at the details of eyes, nose and skin; we are able to perform actions, even though we do not perceive and control every single sequence of these actions. We are capable of acting just because knowledge remains partly implicit. If we tried to express the implicit knowledge, both entity and meaning would be lost. From something we turn to something else and perceive the former under the impression of the latter (Polanyi, 1966/1983, p. 11). We are able to explicitly perceive matters or to perform actions (explicit), as we do not perceive the process of perception or rather the process of action control (implicit). The development of competences requires taking implicit knowledge into account and developing it. This is an aspect which is taken up by the cognitive apprenticeship model.
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5.3 From Apprenticeship to Cognitive Apprenticeship The goal of the approach, which is communicating flexible application knowledge and transferable problem-solving skills, shall be achieved by realizing learning processes that are close to real problems and contexts. The novice will then understand how experts cope with complex problems, tasks and demands, and which cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies are used by the experts to solve a problem. During a problematic learning situation, which is as close to reality as possible, partly internal processes and strategies are explained to learners through the expert’s practical activity. In the context of the problem and its solution, the meaning and the significance of the necessary fundamental data, facts and terms are communicated by the expert (explication). After this, the learners are supposed by themselves to cope with learning situations that are as close to reality and to practice as possible (practice). Proceeding with steps not yet known to the learners, the experts assist them through hints and advice. Progressively and according to the level of skill and knowledge, this assistance is gradually reduced in favour of the learner himself/herself controlling the learning process.
5.4 Learning How to Read, Write and to Solve Arithmetical Problems In the sense of cognitive apprenticeship, Palincsar and Brown developed the method of ‘reciprocal teaching’ for learning reading strategies as early as in 1984. At first, the teacher demonstrates four steps in the work (modeling): (a) the text is read aloud; (b) questions regarding the text are formulated; (c) the text is summarized; finally (d) assumptions regarding the following parts of the text are developed and difficulties with handling the text are identified. Then the learners take up the role of teacher. The teacher helps with individual steps (coaching), gives advice and responds to difficulties (scaffolding) and, with the increasing competence of the students, reduces his/her help (fading) (Palincsar & Brown, 1984). An approach at writing was developed by Scardamalia and Bereiter in 1985. They analysed cognitive strategies used by experts (‘procedural facilitations’) and developed work steps that they defined more clearly by way of additional help. These work steps are: (a) developing an idea; (b) improving it; (c) working it out; (d) defining goals; and (e) putting the ideas into a context. Help for the second step—‘improving’—is, for example, the following reflexive assumption: ‘I think this is not really necessary because . . .’; ‘This is not really convincing because . . .’; ‘Other readers will not agree with . . .’. As in the case of reciprocal training, the learners will then take over the productive role, and the teacher will change over to coaching, scaffolding and, finally, fading. The learners learn particularly that writing is an intentional, systematic and selfcritical process (Scardamlia & Bereiter, 1985). Schoenfeld’s approach at solving arithmetical problems also combines the goal of reflecting and further developing one’s own strategies of problem-solving and the methodical steps of modelling,
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coaching, scaffolding and fading. For example, the teacher asks in the course of coaching: what are you doing at the moment and why? In how far will this step—if successful—help you with finding a solution? (Schoenfeld, 1985).
5.5 The Framework Model For the design of learning environments, Collins et al. (1989) then developed a framework model. This framework model shows four dimensions: (a) content or subject; (b) teaching methods; (c) work sequence; and (d) social context of learning (sociology). Table 3 offers an overview of these dimensions and their details. Regarding content, the authors formulate four fields that should be covered. At first, (a) knowledge of facts and terms must be at hand as a necessary basis for each learning field (declarative knowledge). Also, (b) problem-solving strategies are necessary (heuristic strategies and techniques for the solving of problems; knowledge of how to solve problems). Another content field includes (c) control strategies or rather meta-cognitive strategies. Control strategies reflect current problem-solving processes through supervising and regulating components and help with deciding about how to proceed with the next step towards solving the problem. The dimension of teaching methods includes seven methods for the design of learning environments, according to the principles of cognitive apprenticeship. (a) Modelling of excellence: as a first step, an expert introduces the method to solve a concrete problem. For this purpose the expert externalizes and explains (verbalizes) invisible and implicit processes, like heuristic strategies and control strategies. The goal is to build up a mental model which includes the facts, processes and steps towards a solution that are necessary to solve the problem. (b) Coaching: during the following step the learners themselves try to solve the given problem. While doing this they are not only constantly observed by the expert but also ‘coached’: Table 3 Cognitive apprenticeship Dimension Content (4) Methods (7)
Sequence (3) Sociology (5)
Details
r r r r r r r r r r r
Knowledge of facts and terms Problem-solving strategies Modelling of excellence Coaching Scaffolding Fading Increasing complexitiy Global before local skills Situated learning Culture of expert practice Intrinsic motivation
r r r r r
Learning strategies Control strategies Articulation Reflection Exploration
r
Increasing diversity
r r
Exploiting co-operation Exploiting competition
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according to each learner’s knowledge, the expert offers assistance, hints, suggestions, responses. Furthermore, he/she draws the learner’s attention to aspects of the respective problem or the way of proceeding as introduced by the expert, which have not yet been perceived. (c) Scaffolding: with increasing knowledge, the relationship between learner and expert is characterized by a co-operative way of proceeding. Regarding the difficulties and the extent of their contribution, learners should take over just as much as is appropriate to their knowledge. In case of difficulties, the expert offers individual assistance. (d) Fading: the expert gradually reduces his/her assistance (fading) until the learner is able to solve the respective problem or a similar one completely by himself/herself. (e) Articulation: learners are supposed to grasp the contents acquired in the current knowledge field by structuring and articulating them. For this, every possible way of articulating knowledge is allowed, such as question-and-answer games or even the expert and learner swapping roles. This kind of articulation offers the possibility for the learners to speak about their acquired knowledge through co-operative activities. (f) Reflection: this method makes it possible for learners to compare their own problem-solving processes to those of colleagues or experts. Media are suitable for supporting the reflexion, as they make it possible to record problem-solving processes. (g) Exploration: the experts in charge of teaching are supposed to support the learners with discovering and exploring ways of proceeding by making them interested in a problem, defining the problem field, and proposing problems with different levels of difficulty. Just as in the case of ‘scaffolding’, assistance is also supposed to be reduced in the course of increasingly independent explorative behaviour, until the learners are able independently to define, determine and systematically solve the problems. According to Collins et al. (1989), the dimension of sequencing learning environments includes three principles. 1. Increasing complexity: the level of difficulty of the offered contents should be designed according to the principle of ‘from simple to complex’, so that more and more knowledge and skills are required in the respective fields. 2. Increasing diversity: parallel to increasing complexity, an increasing variety—or rather increasing diversity—of learning situations and exercises shall be given, to ensure the successful practice of skills and strategies. This principle is supposed to contribute to making the learners able to apply the acquired strategies and skills in other, unfamiliar contexts and to be able to transfer learned solutions to other contexts. This demand is particularly challenging: the more a way of proceeding is abstracted, verbalized and made more generally valid, the less it contributes to solving special, complex problems (Weinert & Helmke, 1993). 3. Global before local skills: the goal is to make the learners able at first to develop a mental model of the entire field and the entirety of activities necessary for a solution, the skills and strategies sought, before being confronted with particular contents. This is supposed to be achieved by making it possible for the learners to successfully work on those complex problems that are of interest for them, even before having acquired all the necessary skills and strategies. For this, the respective expert offers them special assistance (scaffolding). Sequencing
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exercises in this way is supposed to provide a scaffold or assistance on the way towards being able to solve problems independently. It is supposed to help with assessing one’s own progress and with building up effective control strategies. Under the dimension of social context Collins et al. (1989) subsume five principles. 1. Situated learning: according to the assumptions of situated learning, the concrete learning situation is considered to play a crucial role. According to the situatedlearning approach, the mental representation of a concept always happens in connection with the material as well as social environment of the learning situation and the socio-cultural components, e.g. interaction with other participants in the learning process. 2. Culture of expert practice: according to this principle, learning environments shall be designed in such a way as to make it possible for learners to actively work on skills and processes of expert practice. Expert practice or expert culture includes cultural and normative features of the expert’s way of thinking in the respective field. Working on the way of thinking of this culture is supposed to enable learners to take it over. 3. Intrinsic motivation: for the cognitive apprenticeship model, the intrinsic motivation of learners is considered to be very important. The methods of ‘modelling’, ‘coaching’, and ‘fading’ make intrinsic motivation possible. Furthermore, intrinsic motivation is supported by true-to-life tasks and problems. 4. Exploiting co-operation: according to this principle, learning environments shall be designed in such a way as to support co-operative problem-solving. On the one hand, this is supposed to have a motivating influence on the learners; on the other hand, it is supposed to be a method to make the learners extend their learning resources by gaining profit from the competences of the other members of their group. Frequently, co-learners are more able than experts to pass on their knowledge to colleagues. Furthermore, through such a way of proceeding, learners will acquire communicative and co-operative competences. 5. Exploiting competition: by solving the same problems, learners are supposed to have the possibility of comparing their solutions and particularly how they discovered them. Thus, developing competition is supposed to result in increased motivation and efforts. However, the emphasis is laid on the importance of the process which led to a solution—before the solution proper.
5.6 Points of Continuation and Resuming The ‘Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt’ developed the approach of ‘anchored instruction’, which is based on principles similar to those of cognitive apprenticeship (such as, life-practical contexts, situatedness and meaningful problems). In this context, two expectations are interesting: (a) the group developed its principles into audio-visual media which then accompany learning as a medium for teaching/learning (video series ‘Jasper’); and (b) the group investigates which
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conditions at school are necessary to implement its approach. The design and use of media and school development are then important extensions (CTGV, 1990, 1997). Another way of resuming is represented by the five steps of competence development from being a novice to being an expert, as described by Hubert Dreyfus and Stuart Dreyfus. Through this system it is possible conceptually to describe the step-by-step increase of competences that are acquired in situated communities (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1987). A refinement of this approach is the six dimensions of practical knowledge according to Patricia Benner (1997). This is the kind of knowledge that is typical for experts. Then, it must be assumed that the six dimensions (sensuality, contextuality, situatedness, paradigmness, communicativity and perspectivity) also develop step by step. Martin Fischer again introduced a system which, through work-process knowledge, combines practical knowledge and theoretical knowledge. Fischer distinguishes the pair of opposites of practical and theoretical knowledge or rather context-related, implicit knowledge (practical knowledge), as well as context-free, action-justifying, explicit knowledge (theoretical knowledge). By context-related, action-guiding and explicit knowledge both kinds of knowledge form a synthesis (Fischer, 2000). Whereas Fischer describes the form (implicit/explicit), Felix Rauner differentiates the concept of competence while following Gardner and thus develops the category of ‘multiple competences’ (Rauner, 2004). How much different competences require particular and different processes of competence development is an open question, particularly for the concept of multiple competences.
References Anderson, J.; Reder, I.M.; Simon, H.A. 1996. Situated learning and education. Educational researcher, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 5–11. Benner, P. 1997. Pflegekompetenz: from novice to expert. Berne: Huber. Berger, P.L.; Luckmann, T. 1966. The social construction of reality: a treatise in the sociology of knowledge. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books. Bredo, E. 1994. Reconstructing educational psychology: situated cognition and Deweyian pragmatism. Educational psychologist, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 23–35. Brown, K.; Cole, M. 2000. Socially shared cognition: system design and the organization of collaborative research. In: Jonassen, D.H.; Land, S.M., eds. Theoretical foundations of learning environments, pp. 197–214. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Carraher, T.N.; Carraher, D.W.; Schliemann, A.D. 1985. Mathematics in the street and in the school. British journal of developmental psychology, vol. 3, pp. 21–29. Collins, A.; Brown, S.J.; Newman, S.E. 1989. Cognitive apprenticeship: teaching the crafts of reading, writing and mathematics. In: Resnick, L.B., ed. Knowing, learning, and instruction: essays in honor of Robert Glaser, pp. 453–94. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt—CTGV. 1990. Anchored instruction and its relationship to situated cognition. Educational researcher, vol. 19, no. 6, pp. 2–10. Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt—CTGV. 1997. The Jasper Project: lessons in curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Dewey, J. 1916. Democracy and education. New York, NY: MacMillan. Dreyfus, H.L.; Dreyfus, S.E. 1987. K¨unstliche Intelligenz: von den Grenzen der Denkmaschine und dem Wert der Intuition. Reinbek, Germany: Rowohlt.
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Duffy, T.M.; Jonassen, D.H. 1992. Constructivism: new implications for instructional technology. In: Duffy, T.M.; Jonassen, D.H. eds. Constructivism and the technology of instruction: a conversation, pp. 1–16. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Engestr¨om, Y. 1990. Learning, working and imagining: twelve studies in activity theory. Helsinki: Orienta-Konsulit Oy. Flavell, J.H. 1976. Metacognitives aspects of problem solving. In: Resnick, L.B., ed. The nature of intelligence. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Fischer, M. 2000. Von der Arbeitserfahrung zum Arbeitsprozesswissen: Rechnergest¨utzte Facharbeit im Kontext beruflichen Lernens. Opladen, Germany: Leske & Budrich. Gerstenmaier, J.; Mandl, H. 2001. Methodologie und Empirie zum Situierten Lernen. Munich, Germany: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit¨at, Lehrstuhl f¨ur Empirische P¨adagogik und P¨adagogische Psychologie. (Forschungsbericht, Nr. 137.) Glasersfeld, E. v. 1989. Constructivism in education. In: Hus´en, T.; Postlethwaite, T.N., eds. The international encyclopedia of education: research and studies, pp. 162–63. Oxford, UK: Pergamon Press. (Supplementary Vol. 1.) Greeno, J.G. 1997a. On claims that answer the wrong questions. Educational researcher, vol. 26, pp. 5–17. Greeno, J.G. 1997b. Participation as fundamental in learning mathematics. Psychology of mathematics education, vol. 1, pp. 1–14. Greeno, J.G. 1998. The situativity of knowing, learning, and research. American psychologist, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 5–26. Greeno, J.G.; Smith, D.R.; Moore, J.L. 1993. Transfer of situated learning. In: Detterman, D.K.; Sternberg, R.J., eds. Transfer on trial: intelligence, cognition, and instruction, pp. 99–167. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Greeno, J.; Collins, A.; Resnick, L.B. 1996. Cognition and learning. In: Berliner, D.C.; Calfee, R.C., eds. Handbook of educational psychology, pp. 15–46. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Macmillan. Holoch, E. 2002. Situiertes Lernen und Pflegekompetenz: Entwicklung, Einf¨uhrung und Evaluation von Modellen situierten Lernens f¨ur die Pflegeausbildung. Berne: Huber. Kerschensteiner, G. 1912. Die Schule der Zukunft: eine Arbeitsschule. In: Kerschensteiner, G., ed. Grundfragen der Schulorganisation. Leipzig/Berlin: Teubner. Kirshner, D.; Whitson, J.A. 1998. Obstacles to understanding cognition as situated. Educational researcher, vol. 27, pp. 22–28. Lave, J. 1988. Cognition in practice: mind, mathematics and culture in everyday life. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Lave, J.; Wenger, E. 1991. Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Law, L.-C. 1997. The role of plans and planning in the development of computer programming expertise: a situated action view. Munich, Germany: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit¨at M¨unchen. Mandl, H.; Gerstenmaier, J. 2000. Die Kluft zwischen Wissen und Handeln: empirische und theoretische L¨osungsans¨atze. G¨ottingen, Germany: Hogrefe. Mandl, H.; Gr¨asel, C. 1997. Damit sie tun, was sie wissen: problemorientiertes computergest¨utztes Lernen in der Medizin. Psychomed, vol. 8, pp. 178–87. Mandl, H.; Gruber, H.; Renkl, A. 1997. Situiertes Lernen in Multimedialen Lernumgebungen. In: Issing, L.J.; Klimsa, P., eds. Information und Lernen mit Multimedia, pp. 139–48. Weinheim, Germany: Beltz Psychologie Verlags Union. Mandl, H.; Gruber, H.; Renkl, A. 2002. Situiertes Lernen in multimedialen Lernumgebungen. In: Issing L.J.; Klimsa, P., eds. Information und Lernen mit Multimedia und Internet, pp. 172–89. Weinheim, Germany: Beltz Psychologie Verlags Union. Neisser, U. 1967. Cognitive psychology. New York, NY: Appleton-Century-Crofts. Palincsar, A.S.; Brown, A.L. 1984. Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities. Cognition and instruction, vol. 1, pp. 117–75.
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Polanyi, M. 1966/1983. The implicit dimension. Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith. Piaget, J. 1929. The child’s conception of the world. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. Rauner, F. 2004. Praktisches Wissen und berufliche Handlungskompetenz. Bremen, Germany: ITB. (ITB-Forschungsbericht 14.) <www.itb.uni-bremen.de> Resnick, L. 1987a. Learning in school and out: presidential address. Educational researcher, vol. 16, no. 9, pp. 13–20, 54. Resnick, L. 1987b. Education and learning to think. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Rogoff, B. 1990. Apprenticeship in thinking: cognitive development in social context. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Salomon, G. 1997. New constructivist learning environments and novel technologies: some issues to be concerned with. (Invited keynote address presented at the seventh European Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI), Athens, Greece, 1997.) Schoenfeld, A.H. 1985. Mathematical problem solving. Orlando, FL: Academic Press. Scardamalia, M.; Bereiter, C. 1985. Fostering the development of self-regulation in children’s knowledge processing. In: Chipman, S.F.; Segal, J.W.; Glaser, R., eds. Thinking and learning skills: research and open questions, pp. 563–77. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Spiro, R.J. et al. 1988. Cognitive flexibility theory: advanced knowledge acquisition in illstructured domains. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (Technical report, no. 441.) Suchman, L. 1987. Plans and situated actions: the problem of human-machine communication. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Thorndike, E.L.; Woodworth, R.S. 1901. The influence of improvement in one mental function upon the efficiency of other functions. Psychological review, vol. 8, pp. 247–61. Vygotsky, L. 1978. Mind in society. London: Harvard University Press. Vygotsky, L.S. 1987. Thinking and speech. In: Rieber, R.W.; Carton, A.S., eds. The collected works of L.S. Vygotsky, Vol. 1: Problems of general psychology. New York, NY: Plenum. [Original work published in 1934.] Watson, J.B. 1913. Psychology as the behaviorist views it. Psychological review, vol. 20, pp. 158–77. <www.psychclassics.yorku.ca/Watson/views.htm> Weinert, F.; Helmke, A. 1993. Wie bereichsspezifisch verl¨auft kognitive Entwicklung? In: Duit, R.; Gr¨aber, W., eds. Kognitive Entwicklung und Lernen der Naturwissenschaften, pp. 27–45. Kiel, Germany: Institut f¨ur die P¨adagogik der Naturwissenschaften. Wenger, E. 1998. Communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Whitehead, A.N. 1929. The aims of education. New York, NY: Macmillan.
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Chapter X.4
Curriculum Approaches and Participative Curriculum Development Georg Sp¨ottl
1 Introduction The discussion on curricula can approach the subject from many different perspectives. Focus may be given to the discussion on the subject matter for different courses, concepts of articulation, contextualization of curricula or standard-based curricula, etc. Curriculum approaches can, however, also be closely linked to learning theories, such as constructivist learning principles (e.g. Kolb, 1984). An orientation along the established and rather formal classifications of curricula would also be legitimate, e.g. the learner-centred curriculum approach, the spiral curriculum approach, the SEA curriculum approach, an action research approach to curriculum development, etc. The following chapters do not concentrate on any of the above-mentioned categories, but on the shaping of curricula based on curriculum development research. Such an approach will eventually help students to become flexible experts ready to adapt to future technological and social innovations. In European scientific circles, discussion of curricula is currently playing an increasingly important role (Commission of the European Communities, 2001; European Training Foundation, 1999). This discussion is taking place in an interdisciplinary way and is gradually increasing links to the world of work and to the employment system. The merging economic systems of the European Union provide the background and impetus for this discussion. Education systems are thus challenged to safeguard the acquisition of competencies and to work according to standards known and acknowledged in all European countries. The further development of these systems is at the same time the political position of the European Commission, which has formulated five objectives:
1. 2. 3. 4.
The improvement of educational standards in Europe. An easier access to learning in all phases of life. The actualization of the definition of basic skills for the knowledge society. The opening of general and vocational training to the local environment, to Europe and to the world. 5. The best possible use of resources (Commission of the European Communities, 2001). R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 X.4, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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In order to implement these objectives—above all, no. 4—the quality of vocational education systems has to be improved so that they train students for widely accepted competency levels in the labour market. While the idea of a European educational policy has long been established, education and training in individual countries are carried out according to highly varied curricula structures with transfers only taking place with difficulty. There is a close interrelationship between employees’ competencies and curricula. Curricula determine the framework conditions and the prerequisites for competency development. They determine the extent to which the competencies to be developed will be broad, flexible and adequate for the labour market (Sp¨ottl, 2004). A closer look at the literature, however, quickly confirms that there is limited theoretical-political discussion on the contents and the structure of the curricula, as has been the case in North America and Central Europe in the past century.1 Moreover: 1. There are reflections on qualifications and curriculum research and the corresponding specific interrelationship; and 2. Attempts are being made to conceive approaches to curriculum development that consider the needs of the labour market but also the interests of learners. Above all, in German-speaking countries the empirical foundation of curriculum research is regarded as closely connected to qualifications research as a vocational/ educational/scientific state of research that has to be re-established (cf. Huisinga, 2005; P¨atzold & Rauner, 2006). Beyond the German-speaking countries, curriculum development plays a dominant role and the range of approaches is highly diversified. A very widespread approach is DACUM (Developing A CurriculUM) by Robert Norton (1997). DACUM encompasses the description and/or the listing of the necessary job-specific skills, as well as the required general skills, knowledge, behaviour, tools and machines necessary for the coping with tasks, including development perspectives, expected by the end of a teaching/learning process. DACUM mainly concentrates on current observable jobs and thus only covers part of the world of work. This runs the risk of a certain restrictive view with regard to current needs. Another internationally widespread approach is CBT (competency-based training). This approach—further developed in the USA, in Australia, England and Scotland (cf. Blanks, 1982)—has been transferred to many developing countries under a number of different names such as: (a) competency-based instruction; (b) competency based on education; (c) performance based on education; and (d) systems approach to education—amongst others (Adam et al., 1999). Additional approaches include modules of employable skills (MES) that aim at the formulation of employment-enhancing modules by the determination of ‘micro-training needs’ with the aid of a systematic analysis of given economic sectors and enterprises. In principle—and based on labour-market data and workplace requirements—those areas of the economy that should be supported by vocational training are determined. ‘Vocational trainers’ then organize the analyses of the required skills in the economic sectors and define new ‘modular units’ and
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corresponding ‘learning elements’. The result, oriented shaping of the teaching units that can be reduced to the imparting of knowledge and skills, neglects competencies such as method competency, social, learning and environmental competencies that go beyond basic skills. All kinds of process orientations also remain undiscovered (Chrosciel & Plumbridge, 1992). This approach has been subject to various modifications within the International Labour Office (ILO) and plays an important role to date. The examination of international approaches indicates that the focus is on pragmatic curriculum development. The closer interrelationship between qualifications research and curriculum research is discussed not so much explicitly as implicitly according to the motto: ‘qualifications research and curriculum development do not belong together but form a unity’.
2 Qualifications Research and Curriculum Development The relationship between these two terms is once again being intensively discussed in German-speaking countries. One position is that qualifications research bears the risk of promoting knowledge that cannot be acquired in a purely systematic way and which is opposed by an educational-theoretical clarification of the development of specialized competencies (Bremer, 2006, p. 73). This idea is based on the traditional argument saying that curricular reflections and decisions cannot be based only on qualifications research—albeit objective—but that didactical-methodical questions aimed at the respective subjective educational course must be answered at the same time. This view may be supported as soon as curriculum development is not simply an image of qualification structures identified by research. Another widespread position states that curriculum research is the basis for the development of vocational curricula. In Germany this approach has, however, hardly been practised. Instead, research on the educational ordinances was established based on the common result protocol of the social partners formulated in 1972. This common result protocol is based on the Ordinance of Vocational Education and Training and rules the co-ordination processes for the development of occupations and curricula of the involved social parties (Benner, 1996). As a consequence of this process, qualifications research in vocational education and training has not reached the importance necessary to influence fundamental decisions. The co-ordination processes degenerated into discussions on qualification gaps and thus became the central instrument for the shaping of training ordinances and curricula. Meanwhile emerging social-scientific qualification research2 resulted in highly important findings on a need for qualifications in the world of work. Its qualification structures and transfer to curriculum structures, however, only catered to the requirements for vocational education and training in a very limited way. Lisop (2003) draws the conclusion that the classical differentiation of the two groups of elements ‘qualification structure’ and ‘curriculum structure’ can hamper the construction of curricula. She therefore relied on two other development steps:
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On an interdisciplinary composition of curriculum working groups in order to guarantee the required interdisciplinary radius and discourse within the curriculum (Lisop, 2003, p. 88). On ‘overcoming the formal determination normativity and the non-empirical arbitrariness on the one hand [and] mechanized concepts of teaching and learning on the other hand’ (ibid., p. 89). She relies on frameworks of references of workoriented examples, which should help to model learning.
This position already clearly points towards a strengthening of qualifications research in favour of vocational education and training by making use of adequate methods which are—as a rule—interdisciplinary. Rauner (2002, 2004) also underlines the interrelationship between qualifications research and curriculum development and presumes that there is a need for an interdisciplinary dialogue. He thinks that this dialogue is being safeguarded by the identification of ‘paradigmatic work situations’ according to Benner (1997). Occupational work situations are identified in this process and eventually become the starting point for the development of vocational curricula (Sp¨ottl, 2000, 2002). This position of scientifically oriented curriculum development for vocational education places in perspective the classical differentiation between ‘qualification structures’ and ‘curriculum structures’ and establishes a close interdependency between the two. Scientifically oriented qualifications research for vocational education identifies the work tasks characteristic for a certain occupation and the embedded needs for qualification, and investigates the didactical ranking of these tasks for competency development. Vocational education science presumes that empirically oriented qualifications research forms the basis for a curriculum, and not the curriculum itself. The shaping of the curriculum is rather influenced by didactical, pedagogical and educational theoretical ideas, which must be reflected there. This means that curricula are marked by structural characteristics relevant for vocational education. This will be further discussed below.
3 Selected Approaches of Curriculum Development The term ‘curriculum’ used in this chapter mainly concentrates on the contents and objectives of vocational education and does not explicitly discuss aspects of the organization, planning, and realization and evaluation of teaching and learning processes. ‘The term of curricular structures in a curriculum theoretical sense is understood as construction, alignment and interior interrelationship of curriculum elements according to certain curricula shaping principles’ (Reetz & Seyd, 1995, p. 204). Further considerations with regard to the level of planning and guidance of the ordinances, including processes of vocational education and training, play only a marginal role. This is also due to the fact that few approaches for curriculum development can be discussed here. Huisinga (2005, p. 357) underlines that ‘contrary to curriculum research, curriculum development is realised in a more acting field-oriented way’. At the same
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time, he assigns curriculum development to both vocational education science and educational policy (ibid., pp. 350 ff.) and indicates the different models: 1. Central curriculum development: curricula are developed at universities and implemented by the supervisory school authorities. The concerned target groups are not involved in development. 2. Practice-oriented curriculum development: A model favoured by the Deutscher Bildungsrat (1973) concentrating on decentralized development work supported by teachers. This model is also called ‘open curriculum development’. 3. Medium-term curriculum development: It allows a stepwise development of curriculum design. The review of the curriculum can be realized in partial revisions. 4. Regional curriculum development: This model is based on the creation of regional pedagogical centres. It aims at an institutionally protected framework for a curriculum development process carried out by teachers. 5. School- and teacher-oriented curriculum development: The responsible persons for instruction—the teachers—are promoted to curriculum developers. All of these models have long been discussed, evaluated and further developed in the literature (cf. OECD/CERI/IPN, 1975; Adam et al., 1999). With the exception of the model of ‘open curriculum development’, none of these models offers concrete links for the participation of partners or target groups in curriculum development work. Only the model of teacher-centred curriculum development gives teachers the opportunity to be teachers and curriculum creators at the same time. Ultimately, the teacher influences the curriculum in all models 1 to 5: the ‘principal determinant of the curriculum is the pupil; the principal planner of the curriculum is the teacher’. A targeted extension of the persons involved is only realized as the situation arises. Mulder (1992) has designed a very different approach as an answer to technological change: the concept of a ‘curriculum conference’, which may be defined as follows: ‘A curriculum conference is a pre-structured working meeting of a jury of experts in which curriculum content that has been identified in a front-end analysis is justified’ (Mulder, 1992, pp. 249 ff). Another interesting—albeit not very extensive—approach in terms of the involvement of target groups is named in the dissertation by Kleiner (2004), who improved the instrument of expert/skilledworker/workshops and prepared it for qualification and curriculum development. The participation of skilled workers is the centre of interest—the target group for curriculum development for vocational schools. Participative curriculum development is, however, the basic idea which reaches beyond these approaches.
3.1 Participative Curriculum Development Participative curriculum development has so far been paid little attention, in spite of numerous curriculum approaches. Participative learning, however, was the general answer of the Club of Rome for the challenges of the industrial society, concretized by learning at the workplace, learning in teams, learning in projects and others. In
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order to safeguard the prerequisites of curricula for participative development, it should be above all clarified what participative development means and how it can be achieved. Therefore, it is necessary to take a closer look at selected approaches to curriculum development. It should be of interest how the transition from theory to practice is taken into consideration in the individual approaches, because curriculum development and, above all, participative curriculum development cannot develop from practice. We will not discuss technical questions and approaches but will try to clarify what defines participative curriculum development. For vocational education, we will base our discussion on the following basic and generalizable quality criteria for a vocational curriculum:
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Curriculum names those contents that are present and required in the future for coping with tasks in an occupation. Contents are to be understood as the contents of work rather than specialized contents derived from scientific systematics (cf. Rauner, 2004, pp. 9ff.). Thus, the subject is the professional subject and not the specialized science of a technology. Competency requirements within a curriculum are oriented to the contents. The structure and the design of a curriculum support the concept of teaching/learning arrangements for the educational goal to be reached. Curriculum is dynamic: changes in work, technology and education are included into relevant developments, which means that the curriculum is continuously revised (Sp¨ottl & Becker, 2006, p. 113).
These statements already underline that the definitions of curricula—e.g. by Frey— are not sufficient. Frey defines ‘the curriculum [as a] systematic description of planned instruction over a certain period of time as a consistent system with several areas for the optimal dissemination, realization and evaluation of instruction’ (Frey, 1971, p. 50). It is not sufficient to orient curricula above all towards instruction; the world of work should be taken into consideration as well. Today, the latter is a minimum requirement for the shaping of curricula for vocational education and training in order to safeguard work-oriented quality. This requires the involvement of different partners in the shaping of curricula. Current research (Adam et al., 1999, pp. 18 ff.) states with regard to participation in curriculum development that companies must be surveyed and representatives of authorities, source organizations, teachers and others must be involved in curriculum development. Adam does not, however, give further details on this statement. On the whole, curricular perception differs considerably in individual countries. In England and America, a curriculum means the arrangement between the mandatory study contents and the activities of the school. In France—as in Germany—the curriculum is only regarded as the recipient of (study) contents. Participative curriculum approaches have so far been hardly separately developed. Approaches published so far mainly concentrate on technically oriented proposals that differ from closed curriculum approaches. ‘The concept of participative curriculum development shows a way to solve the dilemma between self-determination and heteronomy: the participation, the co-shaping and the involvement of all actors via
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the profile, the tasks and the learning contents of the intended voluntary commitment and the learning process itself becomes the principle’ (Kircheldorff, 2006). This perception of a participative curriculum development aims at curricular approaches as a dynamic process in which all persons involved negotiate and agree upon learning objectives, learning steps and learning results. This approach to participation also includes comprehensive further training that qualifies the participating persons for the process—in this case for assistant nurses (Buboltz-Lutz & Steinfort, forthcoming). With regard to vocational education, it is nevertheless important to understand participative curriculum development with regard to the innovation of curricular structures (Reetz & Seyd, 1995, pp. 212 ff.). Apart from didactical inputs—e.g. the acting orientation—the shaping of curricular structures of in-firm and school qualification processes is most important. This is based on the framework curricula of schools and corporate training plans. Two approaches to participative curriculum development are sketched below. Both approaches are able to shape school and corporate curricula by involving all persons concerned and all target groups: 1. Curriculum as a meeting place (Sp¨ottl, 2005, pp. 107 ff.). This approach presumes that all persons involved in the shaping of learning and the school itself— i.e. managers, teachers, financial administrators, pupils, company owners, apprentices etc.—meet with the aim of determining common targets. The curriculum is thus perceived as a meeting place for the negotiation of basic curricular decisions. Through the participation of all persons involved, this meeting place takes on a central role, as all operative and strategic decisions necessary for the implementation of the curriculum are simultaneously negotiated. Resource issues and questions of educational policy are also dealt with during these meetings. As for science, it is necessary to provide instruments that support the development of the contents for the curricular structures. 2. Work-process analyses and expert/skilled-worker workshops (Kleiner, 2004). The expert/skilled-worker workshops aim at a very careful scientific analysis of skilled work in order to identify vocational work tasks. Direct involvement of the target group for curricular decisions—i.e. the skilled workers and key persons in companies—is mandatory. These persons are actively involved in the support of the analyses of skilled work and the incorporated practical know-how and skills during expert/skilled-worker workshops and thereby legitimize the results of the analyses for the curricula. At the same time, the ranking and the relevance of the findings are evaluated in expert/skilled-worker workshops by including skilled workers, representatives of companies, curriculum developers and teachers.
3.2 Work-Process-Oriented Curriculum Development Learning in and during vocational work processes and/or work-oriented change in vocational training is being discussed everywhere triggering the question of sources for the structuring and shaping of the respective curricula. The task is to find out
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which contents should find their way into vocational education and training and how they should be structured. Contents with a special relevance for curricula are ground-breaking work interrelationships that have to be identified with the help of qualifications research. Such contents are the basis for conceiving complex learning and work arrangements for the qualification of employees for occupational fields. Numerous curriculum approaches—above all, when developed by work scientists— reveal a work orientation. This is, however, not the only performance index for a good curriculum. A curriculum must not only perform better than simply answering to the needs of the labour market and to ensure that the imparted qualifications can be made use of. It must also react to the changes in the labour market and take into consideration the multi-dimensional requirements of employees/apprentices and the learning process. These are all normative determinations for the quality of a curriculum which are subject to different criteria depending on their purpose (Sp¨ottl & Becker, 2006, p. 112).
In order to ensure a work orientation for curricula, vocational education scientific work-process analyses concentrate on the identification of work interrelationships and the dimensions of skilled workers. Scientifically oriented work-process analyses for vocational education pursue the following three aims: 1. To identify the competencies for coping with and shaping occupational work tasks; 2. To access the most important coherences for competency development; 3. To determine the work-process knowledge for the shaping of business and work processes. With their three categories of objectives, i.e. competency, competency development and work-process knowledge, these objectives hint at competing principles for the determination of the contents of curricula. Reetz and Seyd presume three different curriculum structures and approaches (science principle, personality principle and situation principle—Reetz & Seyd, 1983, 1995) and predicted well in advance of the introduction of learning fields that there would be an increasing importance of the principle of personality (ibid, p. 204) in vocational education practice and a continuous dominance of the principle of science at the macro-level with its specialized scientific structures (ibid, p. 211). Work-process analyses take into consideration all three principles as conceived by vocational education science. The following sections will outline the example of application of work-process analyses for curriculum construction. The embedding of work-process analyses into a scientifically oriented set of research instruments for vocational educational and the basic methodological concept of work-process analyses are outlined. Work-process analyses are always applied in connection with other instruments of vocational education research and never stand alone. They serve to access occupational skilled work from inside and need to be embedded into a more comprehensive research concept (Becker, 2004, pp. 169 ff.). Four different research levels can be identified, each focusing on a different kind of analysis (Table 1). As a rule, these levels are traversed during the research process in the listed order. Sufficient findings on the individual levels must, however, be available in order to be able
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Table 1 Levels of vocational educational scientific research Level
Instrument
Methods
Occupational and sector structures, as well as comprehensive impact on all occupations.
Sector analyses
Organizational structures of occupational work processes. Competencies in business and work processes.
Case studies
Importance of identified competencies and work tasks for the occupation.
Expert/skilled-worker workshops
Vocational education analyses of documents (sector reports, occupational statistics, literature, technological developments), quantitative surveys on the domain and on qualification practice. Task inventories, order analyses, company visits, analysis of corporate processes and key data. Observation of work, acting oriented specialized interviews and expert talks. Brainstorming, meta-plan techniques and specialized discussions for a participative evaluation of the identified work tasks. Evaluation and weighting of the tasks for development-oriented arrangement in vocational educational plans.
Work-process analyses
to resort to existing material. This is especially true on the level of occupational and sector specific structures which are normally well developed and which make obsolete the use of (additional) sector analyses (Sp¨ottl, 2005). The latter, however, does not mean in any case that the already existing findings should not be taken into consideration. These research levels reveal considerably affinity to the ‘levels of occupational profiles’ (Lisop, 2003, p. 317) which are used for an empiric adaptation of the contents for curricula by Huisinga & Lisop (2002). Actually, more comprehensive analysis and reflection levels are applied whenever qualification and curriculum research are considered to be a drifting apart. Three predominant methods are used within the framework of work-process analyses: the observation of work (Becker, 2005b); the expert interview or action oriented specialized interview respectively (Becker, 2005a); and the situation-related interview, i.e. the direct interview during real and challenging work situations. Work observations aim at decoding those situative work practices that lead to successful occupational acting. This technique—closely linked to recent trends in studies of work—allows for delving deeply into the practice community of skilled work. There is no distant observation with the aid of pre-cast observation criteria, but an observation relying on the closest possible witnessing of occupational practice. The acting-oriented specialized interview is also closely linked with work observation. The researcher tries to clarify open questions and discusses and opens up intentions and applied knowledge. If explicable, this approach allows a high degree of objectification of implicit knowledge by trying to understand all moments within the acting context (context oriented objectification, Becker, 2003, p. 65).
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Curricula prepared with the help of work-process analyses rely on the determination of core-work processes, work-process-oriented core-work tasks and the respective competencies in representative companies. The implementation of core-work processes into a curriculum is done with the aid of facilitated work phases. The entire process of curriculum development encompasses three phases and involves a group of curriculum developers. Further to a research phase strongly oriented to the identification of requirements for the work processes, the participation of the persons concerned also plays an important role.
4 Summary and Prospects Curriculum development is a complex process that cannot be separated from the research performance of qualifications research and normative decisions on the ‘contents’ orientation of curricula. As soon as one aims at thoroughly capturing work-process related challenges with a view to competency development, the question arises of which methods of qualification research are best suited to achieve this task. The way described so far concentrates on the latest vocational education scientific approaches of work-process-oriented research accessing the theoretical and practical knowledge inherent in skilled work. Thus, it is ensured that work processes with all their relevant implications become the core of curriculum shaping. In order to situate the normative processes of the concrete shaping of curricula, we rely on participative procedures. The participative development of curricula signifies a new level of curriculum development that acts to prevent curricula from becoming static. The involvement of all persons concerned and a very close look at the challenges of the world of work safeguard a kind of participation that encompasses a development dynamic and ensures that the basis of the curricula will be widely accepted. The latter is very important for transnational discussions of vocational education and training, as this discussion always encompasses very different curricular positions that play a central role.
Notes 1. In German-speaking countries there is a long tradition of curriculum discussion. At the beginning of the last century, however, other terms, such as ‘teaching plan’ and ‘teaching plan theory’, were used instead. In a lot of cases the term ‘general didactics’ was defined as a general term encompassing the discussion on teaching plans and teaching plan theories. In Germany, the term ‘curriculum’ was introduced by Robinsohn (1967) adapted from the United States of America. This was the start of a scientific discussion on curriculum theory and curriculum research which, however, was not intensively pursued in the 1980s and 1990s. A didactically marked discussion on teaching and learning research was slowly emerging on the one hand, as well as another discussion focusing on curriculum development and curriculum research. Some important advocates of this curriculum discussion in the 1960s were Robinsohn, Flechsig, Frey, van Hentig, Blankertz, Menck, Achtenhaben et al.
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2. Apart from this development in vocational education and training, in the 1970s a socialscientifically guided qualifications research was emerging on a highly scientific level (Rauner, 2002).
References Adam, S. et al. 1999. CURRENT: a guide to curriculum revision and development. Bremen, Germany: GTZ-Projekt. Becker, M. 2003. Diagnosearbeit im Kfz-Handwerk als Mensch-Maschine-Problem. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Becker, M. 2004. Zur Ermittlung von Diagnosekompetenz von Kfz-Mechatronikern: Ein berufswissenschaftliches Forschungskonzept. In: Rauner, F., ed. Qualifikationsforschung und Curriculum, pp. 167–84. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Becker, M. 2005a. Handlungsorientierte Fachinterviews. In: Rauner, F., ed. Handbuch Berufsbildungsforschung, pp. 601–06. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Becker, M. 2005b. Beobachtungsverfahren. In: Rauner, F., ed. Handbuch Berufsbildungsforschung, pp. 628–33. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Benner, H. 1996. Ordnung der staatlich angelegten Ausbildungsberufe. Bonn, Germany: BIBB. Benner, P. 1997. Stufen zur Pflegekompetenz: from novice to expert. Berne: Huber. Blanks, W.E. 1982. Handbook for developing competency-based training programs. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Regents/Prentice Hall. Bremer, R. 2006. Was kann die Curriculumentwicklung den Ergebnissen einer Qualifikationsforschung entgegensetzen. In: P¨atzold, G.; Rauner, F., eds. Qualifikationsforschung und Curriculumentwicklung. Wiesbaden, Germany: Steiner. (ZBW, Beiheft 19.) Buboltz-Lutz, E.: Steinfort, J. Forthcoming. Partizipative Curriculumentwicklung: am Bespiel des Projektes “Pflegebegleiter”. <www.pflegebegleiter.de> Chrosciel, E.; Plumbridge, W. 1992. Modules of employable skills (MES) training: the concept. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Commission of the European Communities. 2001. Report from the Commission: the concrete future objectives of education systems. Brussels: European Commission. (COM(2001) 59 final.) Deutscher Bildungsrat. 1973. Zur F¨orderung praxisnaher Curriculum-Entwicklung. Stuttgart, Germany: Klett-Cotta. European Training Foundation. 1999. Development of standards in vocational education and training. Vol. 1–4. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Frey, K. 1971. Theorien des Curriculums. Weinheim, Germany/Basel, Switzerland: Beltz. Huisinga, R. 2005. Didaktik beruflicher Bildung. In: Rauner, F., ed. Handbuch Berufsbildungsforschung, pp. 351–57. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Huisinga, R.; Lisop, I. 2002. Qualifikationsbedarf, Personalentwicklung und Bildungsplanung: Studien. Anst¨osse, vol. 14. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: GAFB Verlag. Kircheldorff, C. 2006. Partizipative Curriculumentwicklung: ein neuer didaktischer Ansatz. Freiburg, Germany: Katholische Fachhochschule. Kleiner, M. 2004. Berufswissenschaftliche Qualifikationsforschung im Kontext der Curriculumentwicklung. Bremen, Germany: Universit¨at Bremen. [Dissertation: 10 May 2004.] Kolb, D. A. 1984. Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Lisop, I. 2003. Paradigmatische Fundierung von Qualifikationsforschung und CurriculumKonstruktion mittels “Arbeitsorientierte Exemplarik” (AOEX). In: Huisinga, R.; Buchmann, U., eds. Curriculum und Qualifikation: zur Reorganisation von Allgemeinbildung und Spezialbildung. Reihe Anst¨osse, vol. 15, pp. 295–328. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: GAFB Verlag. Mulder, M. 1992. The Curriculum Conference: evaluation of a tool for curriculum content justification. The Hague, Netherlands: Gegevens Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
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Norton, R.E. 1997. DACUM handbook, 2nd ed. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University, College of Education, Center on Education and Training for Employment. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Centre for Educational Research and Innovation; Institut f¨ur die P¨adagogik der Naturwissenschaften—IPN. 1975. Strategien der Curriculumentwicklung. Weinheim, Germany/Basel, Switzerland: Beltz. P¨atzold, G.; Rauner, F. 2006. Die europ¨aische Fundierung der Curriculumentwicklung: Ann¨aherung an einen vernachl¨assigten Forschungszusammenhang. Zeitschrift f¨ur Berufs- und Wirtschaftsp¨adagogik, no. 19, pp. 7–28. [Special edition: P¨atzold, G.; Rauner, F., ed. Qualifikationsforschung und Curriculumentwicklung.] Rauner, F. 2002. Berufswissenschaftliche Forschung: Implikationen f¨ur die Entwicklung von Forschungsmethoden. In: Fischer, M.; Rauner, F., eds. Lernfeld: Arbeitsprozess. Ein Studienbuch zur Kompetenzentwicklung von Fachkr¨aften in gewerblich-technischen Aufgabenbereichen, pp. 9–42. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos. Rauner, F. 2004. Qualifikationsforschung und Curriculum: ein aufzukl¨arender Zusammenhang. In: Rauner, F., ed. Qualifikationsforschung und Curriculum, pp. 9–43. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Reetz, L.; Seyd, W. 1983. Curriculumtheorien im Bereich der Berufsbildung. In: Hameyer, U.; Frey, K.; Haft, H., eds. Handbuch der Curriculumforschung, pp. 171–92. Weinheim, Germany/Basel, Switzerland: Beltz. Reetz, L.; Seyd, W. 1995. Curriculare Strukturen beruflicher Bildung. In: Arnold, R.; Lipsmeier, A., eds. Handbuch der Berufsbildung, pp. 203–219. Opladen, Germany: Leske & Budrich. Robinsohn, S.B. 1967. Bildungsreform als Revision des Curriculum. Neuwied/Berlin, Germany: Luchterhand. Sp¨ottl, G. 2000. Der Arbeitsprozess als Untersuchungsgegenstand berufswissenschaftlicher Qualifikationsforschung und die besondere Rolle von Experten(-Facharbeiter-) workshops. In: Pahl, J.-P.; Rauner, F.; Sp¨ottl, G., eds. Berufliches Arbeitsprozesswissen: ein Forschungsgegenstand der Berufsfeldwissenschaften, pp. 205–21. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos. Sp¨ottl, G. 2002. Work process orientation of the TVET system and consequences for occupational standards. Flensburg, Germany: Universit¨at Flensburg. [biat, Heft 11.] Sp¨ottl, G. 2004. Berufs(feld)wissenschaft in der Lehrerbildung im Lichte von BA und MA-Modellen. In: Herkner, V.; Vermehr, B., eds. Berufsfeldwissenschaft – Berufsfelddidaktik – Lehrerbildung. Beitr¨age zur Didaktik gewerblich-technischer Berufsbildung. Bremen, Germany: Donat. Sp¨ottl, G. 2005. Sektoranalysen. In: Rauner, F., ed. Handbuch Berufsbildungsforschung, pp. 112– 17. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Sp¨ottl, G.; Becker, M. 2006. Arbeitsprozessanalysen: ein unverzichtbares Instrument f¨ur die Qualifikations- und Curriculumforschung. In: Huisinga, R., ed. Bildungswissenschaftliche Qualifikationsforschung im Vergleich, pp. 111–38. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: GAFB-Verlag.
Chapter X.5
The Deskilling and Upskilling Debate Ulrich Heisig
1 Introduction There are two opposite perspectives on the future of capitalist societies: a positive one and a negative one. Both perspectives of the future are associated with a corresponding—but opposing—positive or negative picture of the past concerning skills. Whereas the proponents of a deskilled and degraded future of work start with the image of skilled handicraft work as typical for the early stages of capitalism, the advocates of the upskilling thesis see uneducated and unskilled rural workers as the starting point of skill development under the capitalist mode of production. Both perspectives are legitimate and can refer to supportive evidence. No matter what position one holds, it cannot be denied, however, that literacy and the general educational level of the population of industrialized countries have risen and that growing proportions of the population (including women) have become integrated into employment. This means that, by and large, the educational and skill levels that can be made use of within the labour process have risen; this does not mean, however, that the skills offered are adequately exploited.
2 A Period of Expansion The period that immediately followed the Second World War in most Western industrialized countries displayed positive developments generated by economic growth, growing mass consumption, increasing employment and positive future expectations. At that time, it was widely believed that pluralistic industrialism had replaced the old conflicting forms of capitalism. The overall positive view of the future was reinforced by a strong belief in the positive consequences of technical change. In the field of work, the old trades began in fact to disintegrate, but on the other side modern technologies emerged that led to a variety of new jobs that generally required rising skill levels and responsibility on the part of workers. It was expected that training for the newly created jobs would in general upskill and upgrade most of the workers. With the coming of post-industrial society (Daniel Bell) and the requirement that most jobs would require third-level education, the number of low-skilled production jobs was expected to diminish. Unskilled, repetitive work and restrictive R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 X.5, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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working conditions would eventually vanish and skilled work would become typical of the new emerging service society. The upskilling process was expected to be additionally accelerated by a strong increase of technological and managerial personnel. This would lead to the transformation of the old ‘antagonistic’ class relations within production to more co-operative production relations. The process of social change would become supported by a concurrent advancement of academically educated and well-trained experts into relevant positions within firms and an increasing professionalization of management. Together they would soften conflicts. Technological and social progress would irresistibly lead to an increasing demand for a skilled workforce and a chronic shortage of skilled labour (see, for example, Kerr et al., 1960).1 Contrary to these expectations, the 1950s and 1960s were evidently a period in which mass production techniques spread within firms and, additionally, were developed to perfection. This process was particularly relevant in Europe where Fordist mass production generally did not gain ground until the mid-1950s (Womack et al., 1990). Also contrary to the upskilling expectations, a strict division of labour and repetitive, unskilled work were still expanding for some time yet in industrialized countries of the West. In some cases the relative shortage of domestic skilled labour led, as in the former West Germany, to the recruitment of a lot of immigrants and unskilled foreign workers (Gastarbeiter) with low-level skills and poor linguistic abilities. The fast integration of these unskilled workers into the capitalist labour process in the 1960s and early 1970s obviously provoked a further increase in the internal division of labour and deskilling. The main reason for deskilling in this case was not an explicit management strategy but the shortage of domestic skilled labour. As the real development of skills largely contradicted the forecasts of the upskilling thesis, the positive prophecies of the upskilling protagonists were eventually called into question. The overall optimistic approach concerning skill development and antagonistic class relations was relieved in the 1970s when a deskilling perspective quite quickly displaced the upskilling approach. This change in perspective is strongly connected with the publication of Harry Braverman’s book Labour and monopoly capital in 1974. In this book Braverman used the concept of deskilling to analyse and describe the degradation of work under capitalist relations of production. Braverman started his analysis by establishing that the reality of work in the 1960s and early 1970s had contradicted the positive expectations of the upskilling prognosis and indicated that there were many signs documenting that workers were unsatisfied with their working conditions and their work—hence, absenteeism, sabotage, protests and strikes.
3 Deskilling Deskilling is conceived by Braverman as a process of reducing the skill level of jobs through a detailed division of labour and the application of new technology in order to enhance managerial control over the work process. Whereas the social
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division of labour had created skilled occupations, the subsequent internal division of work within the labour process destroyed just such occupations. Under the capitalist system of production, deskilling immediately aims at weakening the position of workers by: 1. Eliminating the need for skilled labour by simplifying individual tasks to make the workers interchangeable with other workers or replaceable by machines; 2. Making their work easier; and 3. Downgrading a job or occupation from a skilled to a semi-skilled or unskilled position in order to decrease the total wage cost associated with the employment of skilled labour. The central instruments of deskilling for Braverman were developed by Frederick W. Taylor (1856–1915), who stands for a change in early management strategies. He developed methods such as time-and-motion studies in order to observe workers’ working behaviour and find out the best way of organizing their work. His concept of scientific management was characterized by three distinct principles:
r r r
the dissociation of the labour process from the skills of the workers; the separation of conception from execution; and the concentration of knowledge in the hands of management.
The central idea of Taylorism, according to Braverman, is to extract the explicit and implicit knowledge of the workers and to use it in order to simplify work performance by increasing the division of labour. This strategy allows the amount of skill and training time to be reduced and facilitates the use of a variety of specific control mechanisms (incentive payment, monitoring systems, standard operating procedures, etc.). The basis of Taylorism is investigation and re-design of an already existing labour process which is modified and redesigned by separating manual from mental work and by concentrating all relevant knowledge and know-how in the planning and engineering departments. This has far-reaching consequences for the career perspectives of manual workers: whereas ‘[in] the early days of industrialization skill development was an important source of social integration and the most-skilled workers were often promoted to management ranks’ (Zuboff, 1988, p. 50), the transformation of the knowledge base through scientific management led to the abandonment of the upward mobility of skilled manual workers and imprisoned them in the lower ranks of the firm. Braverman’s conception of deskilling and degradation of work proves to be at least partly right for the early phases of capitalism and, moreover, provides evidence even for trends in the organization of industrial work until the 1970s or early 1980s. In the early phases of capitalism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries management strategies obviously proved to be inadequate to displace the skilled craft worker as the primary manager of production. It was the specialized knowledge that the craftsmen possessed that enabled them to preserve some discretion and control over their choice of methods, their efforts and their time. Skilled craft workers were able to—and did—resist attempts to alter the speed and nature of production through slowdowns, strikes, sabotage and the like quite successfully. In
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this respect, deskilling was a strategy of early modern management in the first place to overcome the resistance of workers
4 Objections to Braverman There are two widespread objections against Braverman’s view of the labour process. The first one is that low-skilled work in many cases is not the immediate result of the further division of already existing more comprehensive tasks. In many cases, work processes and jobs from the outset have been constructed on the basis of scientific or formal knowledge without reference to previous forms of work organization. With the growing complexity and size of factories, expanding markets that exerted strong demand for an increase in the volume of production and a rising engineering profession, there emerged a new and pressing concern to systematize the administration, control, co-ordination and planning of factory work. With these changes the basis of the organization of production processes and labour could no longer be based on handicraft production because its productivity as a matter of principle was limited. The second objection is that Braverman simply over-romanticized traditional craft work because he needed an erstwhile positive point of reference. Even today, idealized craftsmanship is still used as a preliminary baseline in a comparative way. Craft work has value primarily as the semiotic opposite of mass production and is often used as a counter image to unskilled labour. This idealized critique of contemporary work in reality, however, is inadequate because the modern labour process is constructed not on handicrafts but on a scientific basis according to an engineering logic which has never been grounded in direct work experience.2 We can sum up that Harry Braverman’s neo-Marxist view of deskilling is rather outdated simply because the proportion of manual workers in general is shrinking. At the same time, a great number of simple clerical jobs have been made redundant by computers and information technology. Management strategies have also changed in many industries. Modern management is no longer primarily occupied with destroying the skills of workers in order to control their work behaviour. It is rather interested in exploiting the productive capabilities that result from high qualifications and knowledge by offering participation and co-operation in order to strengthen competitiveness within the global economy.
5 McDonaldization There is, however, something like a modern form of deskilling which is called the McDonaldization of work (and society as a whole). McDonaldization is a term used by George Ritzer to describe a mode of work organization which has been developed in the fast-food industry by McDonalds. In Ritzert’s view, Taylorism and the
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rationalization of production work are no longer the reference points for the evaluation of trends in skill development. In McDonaldized work settings the job of the average male or female worker is unskilled from the beginning; skilled alternative forms of work organization never existed. McDonaldization is seen by Ritzer primarily as the continuation of Max Weber’s idea of bureaucracy and to a much lesser degree that of Taylorism. ‘Most workplaces are bureaucracies that can be seen as large-scale non-human technologies. Their innumerable rules, regulations, guidelines, positions, lines of command and hierarchies dictate what people do within the system and how they do it’ (Ritzer, 2004, p. 112). The goal of this bureaucratic arrangement of jobs is simply to employ human beings who need minimal skills and training with minimal intelligence and ability. In bureaucratically structured work organizations ‘employees are controlled by the division of labour, which allocates to each office a limited number of welldefined tasks. Incumbents must do those tasks, and no others, in the manner prescribed by the organization’ (Ritzer, 2004, p. 27). In such a context human judgement is replaced by rules, regulations and structures. Workers are assigned to the predesigned work process in order to work efficiently. They are expected to do a lot of work very quickly, for low pay. The McDonaldization of an organization enables managers to define and enforce rigid performance standards and allows work to be intensified. Workers are trained to do only a limited number of things in precisely the way they are told to do them and they are forced to behave in predictable ways. The ‘emphasis on quantification often leads to large amounts of poor-quality work’ (Ritzer, 2004, p. 27). ‘The result is a high level of resentment, job dissatisfaction, alienation, absenteeism and turnover’ (p. 148). Although the McDonaldization is primarily an organizational concept for the organization of low-skilled work in fast-food chains and service industries where comparable standardized products and services are provided, it is not limited to these areas. As a concept for streamlining and simplifying products, McDonaldization can be used as a means for the deskilling of high-quality service work in professional fields like education, science or medicine, if only the sheer quantity of such work is measured in the same way as, for instance, the number of citations in scientific work or counting the number of patients or the number of visits in medical work. In such cases, McDonaldization is like Taylorization primarily used as a means of deskilling and control. The main counter-argument to Braverman’s deskilling thesis and to the assumption of a complete McDonaldization of society and work is that scientific management as well as McDonaldization are limited approaches and that both concepts cannot be simply applied to all kinds of work. This is true especially for high-level service work that is carried out mostly by formally well-educated experts whose work processes do not lead to predictable definitive results that can be reached by following highly standardized routine tracks. The object of the high-quality work of experts or professionals is problem-solving and innovation, the discovery of new ways to cope with (old) problems and other creative activities.
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6 Responsible Autonomy To demonstrate the limits of Braverman’s concept of deskilling and the degradation of (manual) work and of McDonaldization, it is helpful to revert to one of the early contributions to the labour process debate by Andrew Friedman (1977). In his book Industry and labour, Friedman argues that two major types of strategies for exercising authority over labour power co-exist. The first management strategy is called responsible autonomy; the second one, which looks very much like Taylorism, is called direct control. Responsible autonomy means giving workers ‘leeway’ and encouraging ‘them to adapt to changing situations in a manner beneficial to the firm. To do so, top managers give workers status, authority and responsibility. Top managers try to win their loyalty, and co-opt their organization to the firm’s ideals (that is, the competitive struggle) ideologically’ (Friedman, 1977, p. 78). Direct control, on the contrary, is based on coercive threats, close supervision and limiting the scope of labour power by minimizing individual worker responsibility. Although he is very reluctant in his argument, Friedman expects a rise in the relative importance of responsible autonomy, because in the long run a huge rise in white-collar personnel, professionals and engineers, accountants, human resource specialists, middle managers and supervisors can be expected. (These groups were explicitly outside the scope of Braverman’s view because they did not belong to the traditional working class.) As these occupational groups contribute to the labour process with their specialized knowledge, there is a growing need for co-operative production relations and responsible autonomy strategies for work organization. Friedman’s distinction between responsible autonomy and direct control is based on the assumption that a difference exists in the nature of work between that which is based upon formal knowledge and theoretical expertise and that which is based upon practical knowledge and empirical know-how. Whereas the latter can quite easily be fragmented, deskilled and substituted by technology, the former on the contrary is becoming differentiated and specialized, if it is divided by a division of labour into smaller parts. The specialization of knowledge work does not lead to fragmentation and deskilling, because the knowledge basis of that work remains intact. Shrinking task ranges are usually compensated by an increase of discretion on the basis of more elaborated and refined specialized knowledge and know-how. The theoretical knowledge of the knowledge worker is not arbitrarily available in the labour market and cannot be easily substituted by superior knowledge, as in the case of manual production work. Therefore, the deskilling of handicraft work cannot simply be duplicated at the level of knowledge work. There is no point in deskilling knowledge work, because this kind of knowledge is generally needed for finding new ways of problem-solving, developing new products and (manufacturing) processes. Such knowledge is the precondition for flexibility and the continuous adaptation to changing market conditions. The argument of Andrew Friedman is supported more recently by Eliot Freidson (2001), who in his ‘sociology of professions’ develops the concept of professionalism as a third logic of work organization which is different from the control of work through markets or bureaucracy. In sectors of employment in which work is
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predominately based on theoretical knowledge professions, the respective occupations are able to control specific areas of uncertainty. As the theoretical knowledge and know-how of knowledge workers cannot be extracted from this specific kind of work as easily as the practical knowledge of craftsmen, professionals and knowledge workers have an opportunity to organize their work independently on the basis of their theoretical knowledge and their specific skills. In Freidson’s third logic, the contested subject is, as in Braverman’s case, again the control of work and working conditions. This time the skilled knowledge workers dispose of knowledge of a different kind, which cannot be siphoned off as easily as the practical knowledge of the manual handicraft workers. In sectors of employment where the organization of work is based on the formal knowledge of highly skilled professional workers, these groups are in general able to defend their jurisdictional claims (Abbott) against management control and externally initiated re-designs.
7 New Technologies Meanwhile, one can find another line of argument against the assumption of the unilinear deskilling and degradation of work. The argument of this approach is that working conditions have changed fundamentally since the 1980s because of the introduction of computers into the labour processes of both blue-collar and whitecollar workers. In her book In the age of the smart machine, Shoshana Zuboff (1988) describes the changes that were happening in the 1980s with the introduction of information technologies and the coherent reconfiguration of work processes as abstraction of work. With the introduction of computers into production and office work, physical and action-centred skills become displaced by intellective skills. ‘Immediate physical responses must be replaced by an abstract thought process in which options are considered, and choices are made and then translated into the terms of the information system’ (Zuboff, 1988, p. 71). Whereas in traditional work contexts action was the source of top-down processing, theoretical understanding becomes a principal source of top-down perception in the computerized environment. In the age of smart machines, work increasingly consists of thinking about, making sense of and responding to fast-changing situations. By this process the nature of relevant skills has changed dramatically. The intellective skill base becomes ‘the organization’s most precious resource’ (Zuboff, 1988, p. 396). Productivity and the innovative ability of firms and whole economies more and more depend on the quality of understanding and the ability to decide when and how to use a theoretical model in order to make sense and to explain situations. If in such a context technology is used in a traditional way to intensify work, skill levels can be reduced and the urge toward more participatory and decentralized forms of management can be dampened. Such a restricted approach, however, gives away chances for productivity and quality improvement: it ‘cannot exploit the unique power of an informating
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technology’ (Zuboff, 1988, p. 243). Therefore, Zuboff recommends a different approach to technology deployment. She pleads for a use of technology that emphasizes the computerizing capacity of new technologies in order to ‘increase the intellectual content of work at virtually every organizational level, as the ability to decipher explicit information and make decisions informed by that understanding becomes broadly distributed among organizational members’ (Zuboff, 1988, p. 243). In this visionary view, the computerizing power of the new information technology creates a strong pressure for a profound reskilling of the labour force. If we follow Zuboff’s diagnosis concerning the consequences of the introduction of computers into work, we can establish that during the past two decades a substantial proportion of jobs have become more technical and varied. As a result of the introduction of computers, many workers today perform ambitious tasks and solve problems which formerly were done by highly qualified specialists and experts. The introduction of computers allows many ordinary workers today to take on tasks like word-processing, work design or financial analysis that were once performed by experts and specialists. This is also made possible by a higher general educational level and higher skill levels among many workers. Because of this trend, employees today on average can pick up tasks with far less training. This becomes a relevant general ability today, if working conditions and skill demands change over ever shorter periods of time without permitting enough time for extensive training for reskilling. International comparisons of production concepts and strategies of firms have shown that the skills of the nationally available labour force play an important role in production strategies and organizational concepts that can be chosen by firms within existing national contexts. It has been demonstrated that the supply of skill plays an important role in the selection of production and organization concepts.
8 Varieties of Capitalism Whereas in former times it was assumed that capitalism in all different countries would follow the same model and would eventually select the one best way of work organization, empirical studies have shown that the social and internal division of labour is reconstructed on an international level. Different nations pursue different strategies of skill utilization and skill development in order to strengthen their own position in the international economic contest. In such a global competitive context a general deskilling of the workforce would be—as evidence shows—a disastrous strategy. In advanced economies rather the adequate use of the existing skills of the labour force and the development of these skills are the prerequisite for the selection of adequate production strategies by employers. Such a comparative view is chosen by the ‘varieties of capitalism’ approach (Hall & Soskice, 2001). According to this approach, each form of national capitalism is characterized by a very specific mix of institutional attributes. And one of the
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institutions that is central for the specific outlook of national capitalism is the sphere of vocational training and education. In liberal market economies, like the United States and the United Kingdom, firms as well as employees are both orientated toward general skills. This is connected with a short time perspective of employment. Here, the education and training systems are complementary to highly fluid labour markets. The overall emphasis is laid on formal education that focuses on general skills and certification. In liberal market economies, the acquisition of more specialized company-specific skills is too risky and will not pay. In co-ordinated market economies, like for example Germany, production strategies that rely on a highly skilled labour force that is given substantial work autonomy are employed. The main objective is to generate continuous improvement in product lines and production processes; the emphasis is on diversified quality production. The German strategy is characterized by a specific combination of highquality products, flexible automation, intelligent work organization and consensual regulation. The adaptability of the German model is ensured at the level of human resources by high qualifications that are bound to specialized occupational profiles and stable vertical and horizontal demarcation between occupationally defined activities. And there is a strong orientation of work organization to the occupational model. This is complemented by thinking in positions, jurisdiction and demarcation between occupational claims.3 It would seem worthwhile to take a more detailed look at the German system of skill development in recent decades, because the German case is very suitable for demonstrating changes in the valuation, use and treatment of skill (Littek & Heisig, 1991). On several occasions it has been demonstrated that in Germany the system of apprenticeship and occupational education has at least prevented deskilling to a certain extent. In order to make use of the skills of the highly qualified blue- and white-collar workers (Facharbeiter/Sachbearbeiter), management had to consider and at least meet some of their job-related aspirations and expectations. In their book entitled The end of the division of labour, Horst Kern and Michael Schumann (1984) came to the conclusion that the substitution of human labour by new technologies and the economization of the remaining work processes are entwined. In the new production concepts of the early 1980s, they discovered that the Taylorist combination of deskilling and degrading workers was suspended and substituted by a more holistic approach for the exploitation of labour power. Efficiency from now on was increased with the support of workers and not to their disadvantage. To reach this stage, a bargain was made which aimed at making the workers an active element of the restructuring process. Such participative management acts on the assumption of shared interest. The system of apprenticeship and vocational training in Germany has ensured that employees were equipped with a high degree of technical and social skills. For a long time this justified and guaranteed a certain level of discretion and work autonomy on the part of the workers. Employers who were interested in qualified, loyal and motivated personnel provided appropriate working conditions for skilled workers in order to recruit and bind skilled employees to the company. The German
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system of apprenticeship and vocational training thus proved to be at least partly resistant to dequalification (the German term for deskilling). It is one of the fundamental findings of Kern and Schumann (1984) that the new production concepts abandon the Taylorist concept of separation of conception and execution. Managers have begun with a re-integration of formerly widely separated simple manual and more ambitious conceptual tasks. Kern and Schumann in this context speak of a re-professionalization of the production worker as a new norm of job redesign. The task integration they discovered aims at reducing the overall number of workers by using flexible, multi-skilled workers. This also means that the least-skilled workers are sorted out and find themselves dismissed. The reorganization process thus finally leads to an automation of simple functions and tasks with the effect that poorly educated and low-skilled workers do not find jobs anymore. This trend in rationalization strategies seems to be a consequence of management’s target to reduce lower skilled personnel by upskilling the already better skilled workers in order to make them more flexible at work. Thus, the upskilling of the most efficient workers leads to the consequence that the lower-skilled workers are replaced. In this way, the process of upskilling workers results in an increase in the unemployment of unskilled workers. In Kern and Schumann’s words, the unskilled workers are the rationalization losers (Rationalisierungsverlierer). They are deskilled by unemployment or at least are permanently excluded from ambitious tasks, high income and status in attractive companies. They have to accept marginal ‘McJobs’ in McDonaldized work settings. By this reorientation of management strategies, deskilling within an existing labour process is substituted by exclusion of low-skilled workers from seminal developmental jobs. As a consequence we can find increasing labour market segmentation between members of the well-educated and highly skilled members of professional groups and knowledge occupations, and a majority of comparatively low skilled employees with ordinary everyday qualifications. Inasmuch as the average educational and skill level is rising, the average level of skill is devaluated. This explains the fact that in Germany young persons with low levels of formal education do not find training places in the system of apprenticeship training, let alone entry into the labour market for skilled jobs. The skill requirements for an average blue-collar or white-collar job obviously are too high for youngsters without the minimum level of general education. The level of minimal skill requirement is permanently rising if the supply of skilled persons is rising.
9 Flexibility and Adaptability Since the 1980s management seems to be more and more convinced that greater efficiency can only be achieved if the division of labour is reduced. There is a general trend in all advanced capitalist societies from Fordist mass production, to diversified mass production and moreover to diversified high-quality production (if the preconditions are met). Until then, rationalization of work in a pure Taylorist mode
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is outdated, because market conditions and production requirements have changed fundamentally. This has led to new ways of using labour power. The remodelling of management strategies was enabled or at least facilitated by changes in the beliefs and behaviour of production workers. Workers no longer called into question management’s prerogatives and demands of performance. Therefore, trust could be offered by management to production workers, inasmuch as it had formerly only been offered to white-collar employees. As workers largely accepted the conditions under which they were working, power and authority no longer had to be enforced by bribery or coercion. Therefore production concepts could conceptualize working conditions that allowed the competence, autonomy and responsibility of the workers to be exploited. These changes at the same time increased the motivation of the workers who enjoyed greater recognition and acceptance. This skill-based organization of work, which seems to be typical, especially of co-ordinated market economies, has come under pressure only recently as central institutional preconditions of the system of employment security and unemployment security rules are going to be suspended or have at least already been revised. As employment security is decreasing the employing firm is no longer the reference point for skill development and career (even in co-ordinated market economies). In order to secure their employability, workers have to develop more and more transferable skills. As a consequence, one can find a growing interest in ambitious work and challenging working conditions on the part of the workers: performing skilled work implies the possibility of developing new qualifications while working. To do ambitious work becomes a precondition for selling one’s own labour power. Thus, the acceptance of unskilled work and deskilling becomes limited because of a decrease in job security and the loss of long-time employment perspectives within a stable bureaucratic company environment. The present workplace and the immediate development of skill demands in the current workplace are no longer the most important point of reference for the evaluation of skill development by incumbents. They can no longer be sure that the employment contract with the current employer will last for a very long time. The formerly accepted compensation for unsatisfactory unskilled work by relatively high wages and job security is losing importance as a foundation of acceptance. Today, there is no commitment on the part of employers and employees and there are no long-term considerations. As a consequence, the concept of skill has changed meanwhile. With the spread of new production structures, demands for skilled labour are created while at the same time the stability of any particular job is undermined. Under such circumstances workers must acquire specific skills. The focus of skills are no longer the immediate skill demands at the present work place, but flexibility and adaptability to changing working conditions and job demands, including the ability to co-operate in particular work settings in order to be employable. Under such conditions, upskilling means to improve workers’ employability. Job security and long-time or even lifelong employment with one company are disappearing. Modern ‘skills’ are those necessary for job mobility and for coping with changing production processes.
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Different from craft labour markets based on traditional connections to particular materials and processes, and the internal labour market of mass-production industries, workers today have to operate versatile capital equipment or maintain complex systems. For this purpose traditional technical skills are no longer sufficient. Today’s work demands require more fundamental knowledge of a great variety of disciplines. In the modern context, skill can be best seen as ‘the ability to execute incomplete or indicative instructions’ (Sabel, 1995, p. 84). The essence of skilled work is the ability to make intelligent decisions on the basis of formal knowledge and practical know-how. Workers who are performing ‘discretionary work’ have to make autonomous decisions on the basis of their knowledge while working. Modern skills are those necessary for job mobility and for coping with changing production processes. The preconditions are a high and rising level of general education and the ability to deal with instability and uncertainty. Deskilling today, on the other hand, means complete exclusion from the labour market or to be dependent on the availability of marginal McJobs. Low-skilled workers are (if at all) employed in simple jobs in supermarkets, fast-food restaurants, etc., so-called McDonaldized service jobs, which from the beginning were conceptualized as simple, repetitive tasks without initiative. The fate of the unskilled is low paid, contingent and temporary work. The employment situation for the highly skilled, however, is not unproblematic either. They are forced to permanently develop their skills in order to remain employable. The situation of skilled workers is expressed by the German theoretical concept of the manpower entrepreneur (Arbeitskraftunternehmer). This concept assumes that the modern worker is forced to behave like an entrepreneur of his/her own working power. Workers have to act rationally and to develop strategies for skill development and lifelong learning in order to secure the selling of their specific labour power over a longer period of time. In a learning economy the substantial skill is the ability to acquire more and different skills. This leads to a further segmentation of the labour force. The competence to adjust one’s skills is in general unequally divided between the low or unskilled workers who cannot do so and the skilled employees who usually are highly educated, well-trained, flexible and adaptable to changing conditions and job demands. There is a new and increasing segmentation of the labour market and polarization of the job structure: good work with chances for professional advancement and career—bad work without occupational perspectives and without chances for upward mobility. The emergence of lean production in the 1990s has led to the end of mass production and at the same time has altered the trends in skill development. Firms increasingly automated and eliminated the routine tasks with the effect that in the twenty-first century the remaining staff mainly consists of highly qualified problemsolvers and ‘symbolic analysts’ (Robert Reich) whose task is to improve production systems and to find new and better solutions. Although even the employment security of the members of these qualified groups has dwindled in the past decades, capital nevertheless remains highly dependent on their active co-operation,
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involvement and participation. This means that strategies of responsible autonomy and skill development will become more relevant and widespread. In the context of reduced hierarchies, teamwork and the delegation of responsibilities, the work situation of the members of knowledge occupations and professional groups has been revalorized. They become enabled to acquire more and better skills and can advance their employability.
Notes 1. This view of the future of capitalist societies is characterized by John Bellamy Foster in his introduction to the 1999 new edition of Harry Braverman’s Labour and monopoly capital as the ‘orthodox view’ of work relations and skill development (Foster, 1994, 1999). 2. Peter Meiskins (1994) gives a well informed, short but comprehensive overview of the contemporary perception of Harry Braverman’s work and an adequate synopsis of the up-to-now relevant disputes between the participants of the early ‘labour process debate’. 3. This way of organizing and thinking becomes an obstacle if modern organizational concepts emerge which rely on technical co-operation over occupational and departmental boundaries, as Kern and Sabel (1974) have shown.
References Braverman, H. 1974. Labour and monopoly capital. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press. Foster, J.B. 1994. ‘Labour and monopoly capital’ twenty years after: an introduction. Monthly review, vol. 46, no. 6, pp.1–13. Foster, J.B. 1999. A classic of our time: ‘Labour and monopoly capital’ after a quarter-century. Monthly review, vol. 51, no. 1. Freidson, E. 2001. Professionalism: the third logic. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Friedman, A. 1977. Industry and labour. London/Basingstoke, UK: MacMillan. Hall, P.; Soskice, D. 2001. An introduction to varieties of capitalism. In: Hall, P.A.; Soskice, D., eds. Varieties of capitalism. Oxford, UK/New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Kern, H.; Schumann, M. 1984. Das Ende der Arbeitsteilung. Munich, Germany: Beck. Kern, H.; Sabel, C. 1974. Verblasste Tugenden: die Krise des deutschen Produktionsmodells. In: Beckenbach, N.; Treeck, W. van, eds. Umbr¨uche gesellschaftlicher Arbeit, pp. 605–24. G¨ottingen, Germany: Verlag Otto Schwarz. (Soziale Welt, Sonderheft 9.) Kerr, C. et al. 1960. Industrialism and industrial man. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Littek, W.; Heisig, U. 1991. Competence, control and work redesign: die Angestellten in the Federal Republic of Germany. Work and occupations, vol. 18, no. 1. Meiskins, P. 1994. ‘Labour and monopoly capital’ for the 1990s: a review and critique of the labour process debate. Monthly review, vol. 46, no. 6, pp. 45–59. Ritzer, G. 2004. The McDonaldization of society. Thousand Oaks, CA/London/New Delhi: Sage Publications. (Revised new century edition.) Sabel, C. 1995. Meta-corporations and open labour markets. In: Littek, W.; Charles, T., eds. The new division of labour. Berlin/New York, NY: Walter de Gruyter. Womack, J.P.; Jones, D.T.; Roos, D. 1990. The machine that changed the world. New York, NY: Rawson Associates. Zuboff, S. 1988. In the age of the smart machine. New York, NY: Basic Books.
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Chapter X.6
The Pedagogy of Apprenticeship Uwe Lauterbach
1 Introduction In vocational and technical education and training (TVET), apprenticeship and other concepts connect learning at the workplace with learning at school, and the curricula of these two locations of learning and training are aligned with each other. Apprenticeship schemes in particular have experienced a worldwide upswing in recent years because, in comparison with those trainees who attend full-time vocational and technical education in schools, the percentage of graduates who perform better in the transition from TVET to employment is higher, their ability to adapt to the situation at work is better, their satisfaction with work is higher, and/or they can show a higher level of productivity at work (these are only a few of the more important arguments in favour of apprenticeships). As far as policy-makers are concerned, financing plays a considerable role with regard to decisions on supporting apprenticeship schemes. The costs of apprenticeship schemes are, as a rule, borne by business enterprises; thus they need not be funded by governments, while vocational education at full-time schools is paid for by the public budget. Furthermore, the costs society has to pay in consequence of the ‘perilous transition from school to career’ (Hamilton, 1990, p. 19) must be considered. As we know, this figure is difficult to quantify. At this point it may suffice to hint at the problem of integrating the ‘failures’ and the subsequent burden to social welfare systems. Besides, personal ‘welfare’ is tied to material security, which constitutes a key aspect for the individual’s well-being. Models, such as co-operative education or alternance, pursue ideas similar to apprenticeship schemes with regard to their objectives and structure. Hence, they are often mistaken for one another in public discussion—despite distinct goals. The National Research Center for Career and Technical Education in the United States listed nine apprenticeship-like programmes for high schools and twoyear colleges (community colleges) alone, which are: job shadowing; internship; co-operative education; tech prep; youth apprenticeship; school-sponsored enterprise/business; career academy; community service; and service learning (Ruhland & Timms, 2002, p. 178). These models are often regarded as equivalent to apprenticeship schemes, because their formal structures are easily mistaken. Their fundamental ideas (philosophy and pedagogy), however, are distinct. Therefore, R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 X.6, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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three different paths to TVET can be delimited in a first step. Most of the TVET programmes that exist in many countries resemble these models, as far as they are directly related to the labour market and actual working life. They are further specified by national and regional characteristics. An organized alternance between learning in the school/training centre, and the workplace where practical training is performed, is a type of programme that has been in practice in the European Union for some time now. It can be distinguished from apprenticeship in many respects, but particularly for two crucial features: (a) there is no binding contract with an employer; and (b) the school or training centre is the principal location of learning. Alternance training: Education or training alternating periods in a school or training centre and in the workplace. The alternance scheme can take place on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis depending on the country. Participants are not contractually linked to the employer where they do their practice, nor do they generally receive remuneration (unlike apprentices) (Tissot, 1994, p. 23)
In particular, this concept constitutes a reaction to the difficulties graduates from full-time TVET repeatedly experience at the transition stage to the labour market, and when searching for adequate employment. The situation in France in the late 1970s was a crucial incentive to the concept of alternation (see Rothe, 2004). Here, criticism focuses on the educational careers at full-time vocational schools (lyc´ee professionnel) and CAP (Certificat d’aptitude professionnelle) for unskilled young people (Eurybase, 2007, France 6.18, 151). Meanwhile, the concept of alternation has become official policy in France: 13 November 2002: Luc Ferry, Minister of Youth, National Education and Research, delivered to the Council of Ministers a presentation on the recognition of professional education and occupational training. The focus was on developing ‘classes en alternance’ (classes alternating with work experience) starting in 4e in the traditional system, allowing pupils to take courses oriented more towards professional life, combining general and professional training with occupational discovery; creating a new balance in terms of methods of teaching, information and vocational orientation to prevent pupils from leaving school with no diploma, developing professional lyc´ees that include all levels of training from the CAP to the professional degree in a given branch, clarifying training programmes, improving the selection of training programmes, and better organising further studies at the upper education level (Eurybase, 2007, France 5.3, 73).
A comparison of this concept with the co-operative education (co-op) concept practised in the United States reveals that the objectives are nearly identical. Co-operative education: a method of instruction of education for individuals who, through written co-operative arrangements between a school and employers, receive instruction, including required academic courses and related vocational and technical education, by alternation of study in school with a job in any occupational field; the alternation shall be planned and supervised by the school and employer so that each contributes to the education and employability of the individual, and may include an arrangement in which work periods and school attendance may be on alternate half days, full days, weeks, or other periods of time in fulfilling the co-operative program (American Vocational Association, 1998, p. 88).
In both cases, in-plant practical periods (in an office or on the workshop floor) are integrated into the education and training courses taking place at the centres for initial and continuing TVET. At the upper secondary level (ISCED level 3),1
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these practical placements serve to advance vocational orientation and the search for a vocational career (career education) or they support the search for employment (in education systems where TVET is not highly organized). Furthermore, they sometimes are, or can be, parts of programmes at different levels of TVET as well as during higher education courses. Generally, no comprehensive system exists whereby the educational administration outlines the arrangement of school and in-plant vocational training structures, or provides for co-operative structures, so that in most cases a mutual curricular agreement between the school/training centre and the practical workplace is usually signed. Hence, the practical periods usually resemble job practice placements: they mostly focus on teaching experience in terms of on-the-job training. If no practice placements are available, or if for conceptual reasons no co-op education is conducted within the school territory, a school-based enterprise—an on-site work-related experience such as running the student store—is possible. Co-op education also includes off-site activities, such as building a house or producing goods or services for sale. A concluding summary of co-op programmes draws on interviews with high-school students. Here, the opportunity to conduct trial-and-error experiments is highlighted as a particular strength of co-op models in the territory of schools/colleges in comparison with co-op placements in work-related environments (Castellano, Stringfield & Stone, 2001, p. 19). A crucial difference, however, concerns distribution. Co-op is well-established in high schools as well as in community colleges. It is ‘the most prevalent form of school-supervised work experience in the United States, with 8% of high-school students participating’ (Stone & Mortimer, 1998). In Europe, however, alternance still constitutes a new idea and its implementation and distribution are still limited to experiments in those school-oriented TVET systems that can be found in Southern Europe. Moreover, the term ‘alternance’ subsumes different types of TVET. For instance, Italy conducted an educational reform in 2002 and the concept is now applied to those who terminate their school career after completing compulsory education and transferring to the labour market without further qualification (Bl¨ochle, 2007). Furthermore, statements (published in French) in the Europass—an official instrument introduced by the European Union for promoting trans-national mobility—subsume practice placements in other States under the term of ‘alternance’. These are accredited to the study time of a (higher education) student or apprentice.2 The teaching methods of co-op and alternance models are based on the practical placement character of the programmes. There is a focus on the analysis of particular work processes, i.e. the anticipated experience of the student or trainee. In principle, they have the opportunity of gaining an external view of the work situation. They need not become seriously involved in the working environment in terms of an orientation towards tasks and problems that must be solved by concrete measures, and correspond to real work. Contrary to school-based programmes where the curricula are based on educational objectives aimed at optimizing transition to the labour market or at least promoting students in this direction, apprenticeship schemes are already rooted in the work environment. The pedagogy of apprenticeship and its teaching methods relate to the curricular planning and implementation of a process that is initiated
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within an arrangement preparing the participants directly for a vocational career. The crucial differences with the numerous school-based programmes consist of: 1. The legal position of apprentices as opposed to pupils or students. Apprentices are integrated into the diverse staff structures through work contracts. The factory/business as a location of learning is the centre of vocational education. 2. The integration of the apprentices into the work processes at the factory/business is tied to a number of pedagogical and didactic measures, such as a comprehensive, norm-bound plan, courses of vocational education and training at training centres, the in-school reflection of the working processes, an independent examination, quality control, etc. These structures are associated with the intention of training apprentices in a way that allows them to make their qualification available on the labour market independent of their particular workplace. An apprenticeship scheme certifies vocational education according to a fixed norm, for a particular political sphere (e.g. a country, a particular trade). The following aspects are crucial to an apprenticeship scheme: Apprenticeship: Systematic, long-term training alternating periods in a school or training centre and at the workplace; the apprentice is contractually linked to the employer and receives remuneration (wage or allowance). The employer assumes responsibility for providing the trainee with training leading to a specific occupation. Comment: in French, the term apprentissage relates to both apprenticeship and the process of learning (Tissot, 1994, p. 25).
Hence, there is a fundamental difference between these work-based programmes and the school-based alternating co-op concepts (USA) and the alternance concept (Europe). In particular, this concerns the legal status of the apprentice and the recognized position of an apprenticeship scheme within a pertinent national education and economic system. These criteria taken by themselves refer particularly to integration into the work process. They do not follow a designed educational path, but refer to an experience within the working environment and, in a further step, adjustment to this new environment. Both are reactions to a given situation. These estimations also pertain to co-op education and the alternative programmes (alternance) in Europe. There is no underlying pedagogical concept to this orientation in the work environment that aims to promote inculcating the skills of the learner. For this reason, these (from the position of educational science) ‘off-site activities’ are often subject to criticism. In co-op programs, students receive training in the context of a paid job. Students may also be involved in a school-based enterprise, an on-site work-related experience such as running the student store. Alternatively, they might be involved in off-site activities, such as building a house or producing other goods or services for sale. Students enroll in related classes (such as business management or construction), and often decide how to use the income generated by the enterprise, but are usually not paid. Students have reported that working in school enterprises provided more opportunities for doing a range of tasks and for working in teams than was the case in their outside jobs [. . .] Students also reported having the space to make mistakes, whereas their outside jobs often did not have such opportunities. Combining school and work is usually beneficial in the lives of young people; most high-school students want or need to work, and the effects on students of part-time work of less than 20 hours per week can be positive (Castellano, Stringfield & Stone, 2001, p. 19).
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Hence, the situation is often viewed more as work, rather than designed vocational education. It is further observed that either no wage or only an allowance is paid and therefore there is the risk of ‘exploitation’. Criticism and remarks concerning the lack of equality between TVET—and apprenticeships in particular—and general upper secondary education and tertiary education finally led to admitting the fact that in many national education systems apprenticeships are little appreciated, and their competitive position is weak compared with alternative educational careers. It is necessary to assess to what extent these reservations are ‘impartial’ and if apprenticeship schemes with a teaching approach can compare with school-based teaching approaches. Their pedagogy is tied to the philosophy of the pertinent teaching systems, such as a State education system with a differentiated upper secondary level, following a continuous primary and lower secondary school path. The actual form of the pedagogy of school-based programmes, which, in this case particularly, refers to the curriculum and the design of the learning process, is subject to comparatively open governance mechanisms within a given societal and political system, particularly when considering that this concerns a State-governed aspect of the education system. Obviously, this also pertains to the school based co-op education and alternative programmes (alternance) outlined above. Societal pressures and their potential for shaping, which is drawn from world views and systems of values, and thus becomes normative, can be effective here. Work-based apprenticeship schemes may adopt yet another position. In many countries they are not linked to the public education system at all, or only loosely. They are closely tied to the sphere of work, the economy and the labour market. This arrangement also more or less defines the teaching methods of apprenticeship. Furthermore, we need to analyse the manner in which apprenticeship schemes are integrated into the relevant education systems. If, for instance, apprenticeship constitutes the ‘last resort’ in choosing an educational career within the upper secondary sector and is merely accepted when academic or technical branches are not available for various reasons (such as selection procedures), apprenticeship schemes will be little appreciated in society. Also, a shortage of training places makes it easier for employers to assert their own position as they are often faced with a conflict of interest having to balance the productivity of their enterprise while assuring the qualification of their apprentices. In both cases, the focus of the decisions made by the bodies in charge will focus on the positioning of apprentices rather than the pedagogy of apprenticeship.
2 Apprenticeship: A Mediaeval Form of Training? The apprenticeship system was developed by the mediaeval system of guilds. In towns, guilds constituted free associations of independent craftsmen within the hierarchical society, but such arrangements also pertained to nearly all other professions, such as merchants, lawyers and musicians. The compulsory guild system and guild orders led to the existence of cartel-like conditions. Many rules and
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obligations governed the co-existence of the guild members: apprentices, journeyman and master craftsman. Privileges rested one-sidedly with the master craftsmen. The earliest German, English and French documents about guilds originate from the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Inside these ‘closed shops’, young talents were governed and managed by apprenticeship agreements. Vocational education also comprehended a general education—the apprentice was educated according to his social class. To this end, the apprentice was integrated into the family of the master, and rather like the orders of knights and priests, the hierarchy of apprentice, journeyman and master was introduced. This concept of socialization in craftsmanship is marked by belonging to a guild (K¨uhne, 1920, p. 3). The guild (German: Zunft, from OHG zumft = ‘what is proper’) was both a living and working community and a political, peace-keeping, military, religious, trading and cultural and social institution that set standards for the domestic and family life of its members and rules for their work, craft and commercial activities (Greinert, 2005, p. 23).
This alignment with the hierarchical order of society also pertained to the acquisition of skills of craft or trade. The master craftsman set the standard and thus constituted a role model that was to be imitated, not only in terms of the societal order, but also with regard to professional vocational skills. Teaching the apprentice a technique other than what the master found right was regarded as ‘leading him astray’, away from the true path and enticing him into evil ways. Working in a manner different from the master was aberrant (Stratmann, 1993, p. 237)
Anyone who deviated from these social patterns and from the techniques that related to the master as a role model, and took into account impartial state-of-the-art technologies of the pertinent guild got into trouble, which could go as far as being ostracized. It is possible to further develop craft skills for a journeyman who had completed the apprenticeship and the journey years, and been declared a free man by the guild, and thus could become a master craftsman himself later on. At the end of the Middle Ages, economic conditions changed fundamentally as production was now directed towards the market instead of the individual customer, and the system of guilds consequently showed signs of disintegration. In England, economic liberalism resulted in the freedom of trade by the eighteenth century—the guilds lost their significance. In 1789 France followed this same course during the French Revolution. The other central European, Scandinavian and Romance countries followed during the nineteenth century. A system of guilds never existed in the United States. Gradually new bodies came into existence to represent the interests of craftsmen, i.e. chambers of commerce. In Europe and the United States, new forms of apprenticeship developed from these new associations. Adaptation and modification were most pronounced in central Europe. Following the birth of national States in the eighteenth century, initially a general education for all, and then to a certain degree TVET too, became a public task. Since that time, the national State has endorsed the promotion of individual skills by introducing compulsory education and a public school system. Particular attention was paid to general cultural techniques, such as mother-tongue, mathematics as well
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as natural and social sciences. Following the compulsory school system, a great number of upper secondary schools began to exist in various forms in the national States, which either prepared for higher education or for employment, or carried out TVET as such. Parallel to this, apprenticeship schemes that have been developed in order to adapt to contemporary social and economic contexts often constitute an alternative.
3 Old and New Concepts of a Pedagogy of Apprenticeship In what respect does the pedagogy of these ‘new’ apprenticeship schemes differ from mediaeval concepts? As far as it refers to a democratic society, as well as modern technological development and directed towards a market-oriented society, the pedagogy of apprenticeship needs to assign focal value to five aspects: 1. Contrary to the mediaeval orientation towards the technological competence of the master, the skills that are imparted should be grounded in a state of the art of the pertinent profession; thus they should be independent of the instructor and the training enterprise. 2. Apart from this requirement, individuals are expected to go beyond the state of the art by continuing to keep their skills abreast of technological changes and changes in work processes throughout their working lives. Thus, the demands of a dynamic, market-oriented labour market are met, where skilled professional workers/employees have to assert themselves when facing potential employers in an economic process. 3. This vocational education concept will retain its mediaeval roots if it holds on to the principle of professions, and 4. Continues to monitor and synchronize the observance of rules of an apprenticeship scheme by public institutions, and/or institutions controlled by employers and trade unions, and sanctions them. 5. The adaptation of apprenticeship refers to their extension to new technologies too, and to professional occupations that did not exist in the Middle Ages. The pedagogy of apprenticeship cannot only apply to mediaeval crafts and merchant professions. It must include the whole area of contemporary work, and thus be open to new professions. Apart from these basic principles, further factors affect a modern apprenticeship scheme:
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The costs of the work-related training are generally paid for by the enterprise. State promotion programmes and grant and levy systems supplement this financing. Public funding is provided to vocational schools. The labour market and its particularities, the market of apprenticeships, determine the demand and provision of placements (training place, apprenticeship place).
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The decision to choose a particular apprenticeship is subject to the free choice of young adults and is not regulated by professional associations, trade unions or any other limitations. The apprentices sign a contract and are paid an allowance. Time off work, holiday times, etc., are subject to regulations. The education and training of apprentices is conducted in accordance with legally binding, independent regulations. The locations of learning include at least the enterprise and a school institution. School attendance is compulsory. Exams and the graduating documents are subject to legally binding, independent regulations. The certificates constitute a vocational qualification and are generally recognized on the labour market Further vocational education and training and career promotion from a skilled worker to a master is possible. Furthermore, it is possible to enter tertiary education without additional schooling—entry to higher education constitutes a norm.
4 Apprenticeship in the Modern World As we pointed out above, the adaptation of mediaeval apprenticeship systems to national education systems led to very distinctive results. The following presentation relates to those kinds of apprenticeship schemes that largely comply with the aspects of a pedagogy of modern apprenticeship or that are still very close to mediaeval apprenticeship systems. This does not include programmes that aim at students or graduates from secondary schools (such as high schools) or tertiary institutions (such as community college) and are intended to help them become acquainted with working life, e.g. job shadowing, internship, co-operative education, tech prep, youth apprenticeship, school-sponsored enterprise/business, career academy, community service and service learning (Ruhland & Timms, 2002, p. 178). In most European countries, such as France, Belgium, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic or the United Kingdom, apprenticeship schemes compete with in-school TVET at this level—that is, solely work-related on-the-job training or training for labour-market programmes. In these cases traditionally structured apprenticeship schemes bearing characteristics of the Middle Ages, such as a limitation to conventional crafts and merchandising and certain branches (as in the USA),3 have maintained static curricula that are not very promising for the future, besides efforts to reanimate the mediaeval apprenticeship system that went extinct for various reasons (e.g. in the United Kingdom by means of young apprenticeships and modern apprenticeships). An adjustment to the world of guilds was crucial in the Middle Ages and, substituted by an introduction to the world of work in modern times, has not lost its popularity, as examples from France and the United Kingdom illustrate. The prospect of finding a workplace following an apprenticeship either in a craft (Poland) or in industry (the USA), may contribute to the fact that an apprenticeship
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scheme may assert itself even against the general tendency of attending a secondary school followed by a tertiary education institution. These apprenticeship schemes are also fairly autonomous (see Belgium and the United Kingdom) or they even constitute a system in their own right (see the registered apprenticeship that is administered by the Department of Labor in the United States). Their exclusive character in some cases assigns them the role of an exotic programme that is hardly known to its potential users. Few countries, such as Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Switzerland or the Czech Republic, have achieved a modernization of apprenticeship schemes according to the basic principles of a pedagogy of apprenticeship outlined above, or to introduce them accordingly and thus integrate them into the overall education system (Australia).4 Here, too, the status of apprenticeship within the TVET system varies. In Denmark, Germany, Norway and Switzerland, they constitute the prevailing path to TVET. In the Netherlands, Austria and the Czech Republic, they are rather a co-ordinated, systemic path in TVET; occasionally they are co-ordinated with full-time TVET schemes. Even though the differentiation of mediaeval apprenticeship systems has led to a diversification within the national contexts which is difficult to overlook, it is still possible to assign them to the following categories: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Restriction to traditional occupations or adaptation to modern demand; Integration into the national TVET and education system or independent system; Driven and controlled by the State, the employers or social partners; Mainstream of TVET or competition between different training pathways or exotic training scheme.
5 Traditional and Innovative Models For centuries the pedagogy of mediaeval apprenticeship systems was decisive. How can it be described? This was a ‘pedagogy of adjustment’ with regard to two aspects. For one, it served the adjustment to a mediaeval order of society and, furthermore, this also pertained to the skills that were acquired for a particular craft. The crafts of a master and the pertinent guild constituted a standard and thus the vocational and ethical curriculum. As far as the imparting of knowledge and skills is concerned, little differentiation took place within the ordered division of labour. In this sense, there was no reflection on the pedagogy either. The boys5 were trained by the crafts master or by a journeyman he had commissioned. Hence, the training was linked up to the daily business, both organically and in terms of a curriculum, and its methods were restricted to demonstrating, imitating and repeating. The implicit theory of learning underlying this process—that is that we can only learn what has been demonstrated or explained to us—is even now still celebrated in training apprentices by way of the four-step-method: preparation, demonstration, imitation, repetition. As a modification of the mediaeval pedagogy, this is still a widespread ‘recipe’ for teaching action. A historical review of this four-stage
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method reveals that it was originally introduced for a totally different purpose than training in apprenticeship schemes. It was originally applied to basic industrial training, by drawing on the formal stage theory outlined by J.F. Herbart,6 by Charles R. Allen in the United States in 1919. One condition that is still valid today concerns the lack of fundamentally trained skilled workers in the United States. The differences in the qualification of unskilled labourers, those that have received basic training and higher education graduates are great, and there is a large gap between them. The four-stage-method was developed to render basic training for limited qualified skills possible, particularly with regard to a division of labour in commercial and technical enterprises (Taylorism). It became widespread in 1941 by means of the TWI-programme (Training within Industry) which was developed in the war industry of the United States during the Second World War (Allen, 1944; Lauterbach & Ness, 2000). This tight and rigid pedagogical concept of a learning process is neither transparent with regard to its topics, nor does it prepare for an autonomous role in the work process. Meanwhile, further methods were developed, such as planning games, project and leading-text methods, researching and developing instruction, case and problemsolving methods (working-school method) and the project method with John Dewey and Georg Kerschensteiner as representatives. These are intended to overcome the single dimension of learning approaches that centre on the master or instructor as the teacher, which is little suited to promote efficiency and autonomy. Moves have repeatedly been made in this direction. In Germany, an important contribution to the further development of the apprenticeship schemes that still largely remained rooted in the Middle Ages, despite changes to society and technology, was contributed by the Frankfurter Methodik (see Lauterbach, 1995, p. 41). It originates from a trade school in the Frankfurt area in the first decade of the nineteenth century, and it became fundamental to the training of teachers at technical and vocational schools until the 1960s. Its underlying idea was to render the educational plans for the pertinent scientific disciplines (as a rule, engineering) that were oriented towards the relevant professional system— that is the curricular structure of vocational education (both on the shop floor and at the school level)—comprehensible, digestible and thus learnable to the apprentices. This was conducted in systematic lessons that adapted elements from reform pedagogy, as well as elements from formal stage theory, in a Berufsschule (vocational college), at classroom level and in laboratories. Many vocational and technical colleges (Berufsschulen) in Germany followed this concept of architecture. This also applied to the school curricula as the supplement to the hundreds of apprenticeship schemes that had been regulated by legislation since the 1930s. For this purpose a fundamental three-year educational plan was designed to surmount the division into subject-related sections (e.g. technology, mathematics and technical drawing for the area of machine engineering) and with an orientation towards tasks and projects instead. The objective of this pedagogy of apprenticeship is to produce a skilled worker who can act skilfully and autonomously in his profession.
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This holistic view of a pedagogy of apprenticeship simply does not exist in many contributions on the issue. This will be explained by two quite different examples. Many contributions concerned with a pedagogy of apprenticeship focus either on the learning process or on the curricular design of apprenticeship schemes, as the two following examples show: 1. DACUM (Developing A CurriculUM, Norton, 1997, 2000), published since 1966 mainly as a tool for developing curricula, by the Experimental Projects Branch, the Canada Department of Manpower and Immigration and General Learning Corporation of New York: ‘It is primarily used to create and update training and education programs’7 (Zanella 1999, p. 1). 2. Didaktische Vereinfachung or, respectively, Didaktische Reduktion (Hauptmeier, 1999, p. 177). They focus on a reduction of learning subjects for the learning processes of apprentices. Both continue to be highly up to date and are subject to further development, which is accompanied and promoted by a discourse between actors in the practice of TVET and scientific research. Furthermore, both are not limited to the apprenticeship schemes (DACUM) or have experienced an extension to the area of general education (Didaktische Reduktion).
6 Interdependence The pedagogy of apprenticeship does not constitute an abstract scientific discipline related to values that will always remain true, and bases its statements on them accordingly. As we have shown for the European mediaeval apprenticeship system, direct links exist between pedagogy, learning methods and systemic contexts, particularly economic and social factors. Until the 1980s, apprentices in the most important economic sector in the Federal Republic of Germany, that is the metal production branches, were trained according to legislation dating back to 1938. Technological change, which had become particularly apparent since the 1970s with its new production methods and work structures, led to a replacement of the old training regulations. While previously the imparting of knowledge and skills for routine actions in production had predominated, nowadays equal value is assigned to production, planning, control and maintenance. The trained worker is thus enabled to apply these competencies in a complex, transforming environment of technical and organizational structures. The metal and electricity professions were the first to reorganize their training regulations accordingly (1987). This framework of orientation means moving away from traditional, conventionally didactic/methodical concepts such as TWI and Taylorism, where manual labour was regarded as separate from intellectual work. New approaches, such as self-governed learning processes, active learning by experiment and team work, removal of conventional controls of learning and learners taking on responsibility, now move into focus. The term ‘action-oriented learning’ covers these approaches. This new pedagogical approach is rooted in the working school and reform school
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movement that developed in nearly all industrial nations at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (e.g. in Germany, Georg Kerschensteiner)—as well as in American project pedagogy, which has developed since the mid-1800s (e.g. John Dewey, 1976). A crucial result gained from action-oriented learning with regard to the pedagogy of apprenticeship concerns the guiding text method (Leittextmethode). The learning process is holistic and divided into stages, with certain patterns of action and specific forms of co-operation supplementing each other. Hence, the complete action is performed by taking all the stages together. The following stages can be identified (P¨atzold, 1996, p. 176): the apprentice ascertains information about the working processes, plans the work stage by examining alternative options, decides upon one of the alternatives, performs the planned steps by co-operating with colleagues, assesses the results and evaluates them according to given criteria. In order to process and solve the complex tasks, he or she needs to possess methodical competencies, social competencies, self-competence and an understanding of values regarding ethical and ecological standards (Czycholl, 1998, p. 217). This holistic pedagogy of apprenticeship provides a basis for a completely new organization of the curriculum and training regulations of apprenticeship schemes, but also for the learning methods applied to the training. The systemic framework that still pertains to apprenticeship schemes in Germany regarding discipline-related occupational fields and the division of subjects during training into, for instance, technology, drawing, mathematics or economy was replaced by learning fields in favour of this new approach in 1996. ‘Learning fields are thematic units described by formulated objects, contents and time lines that are oriented towards occupational tasks and work processes’ (St¨andige Konferenz der Kultusminister der L¨ander, 2000). According to the concept of learning fields, school learning situations must relate to occupational situations within a particular profession. Therefore, the orientation towards work processes currently plays a crucial role in the development of curricula. The scientific classification of a professional field is replaced by a reference to subjective professional action situations. Thus, curricular planning focuses on the occupational competence of a skilled worker whose actions are grounded in competence. This favouring of the acting subject reveals a certain theoretical affinity to the DACUM philosophy where ‘expert workers’ are interviewed to identify the crucial competencies required to perform defined tasks. The learning-field concept explicitly refers to DACUM in its use of this methodical instrument—experts from occupational practice are questioned in order to elicit crucial facts for ‘reconstructing the most important work tasks for the development of occupational competences’ of the apprentices (Rauner, 2007, p. 53). Even though the methodical concept and the subject-oriented development of vocational curricula are congruent to both approaches, fundamental differences can be made out. In the case of DACUM, the professional competencies described by a pool of experts drawn from industry remain the basis for the further development of the curriculum. By contrast, the concept of learning fields implemented in German apprenticeship schemes (dual system) calls
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for further regulation mechanisms. The conventions for individual apprenticeship schemes are centrally determined for the whole country according to a set of regulations, including contributions from social partners, experts from pertinent sciences, and experts from the area of practice. Furthermore, these professions are recognized nationwide, and the curricula are designed for a specific duration of vocational education and training—approximately three years.8 Moreover, the learning fields described as an innovation here are also tied into training regulations. This holistic pedagogy of apprenticeship does not merely concern the macrolevel of curriculum planning (as with DACUM) but also pays particular attention to a new organization at the micro-level of pedagogical implementation (that is, the in-plant training and school education). One of the focal topics here concerns the development of work tasks that enable the apprentices to acquire the needed professional competencies outlined above. In these cases occupational experts are interviewed. These interviews focus on the knowledge acquired by experience that is needed for designing tasks for a profession. These are the characteristic and meaningful work contexts and analyses of the subjects of a vocation, the tools, methods and organizational forms, as well as competing demands on professional work (Rauner, 2007, p. 53). This knowledge of work processes is processed, subjective and practical. It brings together theory and practice, the subjective knowledge that is grounded in the experience of skilled workers, and objective, scientifically grounded knowledge (Rauner, 2007, p. 56). Besides this approach that rather applies to the curricular dimension of TVET, research on methods of learning processes on the part of apprentices constitutes a necessary supplement at the micro-level. In mediaeval apprenticeship systems the pedagogy consisted of the master craftsman being the expert who demonstrated everything, both in terms of action and thinking, and the apprentice was the novice who imitated the occupational skills and was obliged to indiscriminately memorize the professional skills. This learning by imitation dominated vocational education and training for many centuries, and it is still widespread even today. By the time of the Renaissance, repeated efforts were made to unlock this paradigm. The concept of action-oriented learning renders crucial meaning to the question as to how the apprentice rises from being a novice to becoming an expert (in terms of a reflecting master) (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1987). Some time ago, Benjamin Bloom (1956) tried to classify the steps of complexity in his taxonomy of cognitive competencies, without answering the question of what learning processes would enable you to rise from the lowest step to the highest. According to a five-stage taxonomy (novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, expert) introduced by Dreyfus and Dreyfus, work tasks that become development tasks for the individual development of competencies may lead to reaching the status of an expert. This turn away from apprenticeship schemes that were oriented towards scientific disciplines, in favour of an orientation towards occupational competence is not yet complete. Current work is still being undertaken in the solution of problems involving work-related situations, transforming work-based knowledge to curricula and the evaluation of the competencies acquired by apprentices.
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7 Conclusion and New Challenges We have been able to illustrate that the pedagogy of apprenticeship depends upon societal, economic and technological contexts. The mediaeval apprenticeship schemes were adapted by different degrees to national general and vocational education systems. Different pedagogical approaches that can be antagonistic to one another are relevant now:
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(1) a holistic work process (professional occupation) or (2) division of labour (Taylorism)? (3) training and adaptation to the world of work (in apprenticeship schemes) or (4) ‘the school as a protective environment’ (school-based training and learning in systematic learning environments)? (5) work-process orientation (in apprenticeship schemes, vocational colleges) or (6) basic skills (general education and subsequent short on-the-job training)?
The pedagogy of apprenticeship schemes has always been work-process oriented and is oriented towards the zeitgeist [the spirit of the times]. While in the Middle Ages imitation and adjustment were required, nowadays an education for occupational competence is demanded, i.e. the pedagogical approaches outlined in (1), (3) and (5). These pedagogical approaches constitute features of apprenticeship schemes and their supporters produce them as arguments when systemic decisions are imminent. This can be contradicted by the argument that action-oriented learning in particular has received much of its impetus from general pedagogy and the theory of learning, and that an active mutual exchange takes place. A further subject of investigation concerns the question of whether the pedagogy of apprenticeship and the pedagogy of vocational schools have come so close to one another that they can hardly be distinguished as separate theories any longer. This process of convergence will be intensified by developments in the European Union, such as the European Qualifications Framework. The transnational debates will rather evolve around the issue of whether apprenticeship schemes and vocational schools can assert their positions in competition with higher education systems. It is possible that this can only be done by means of a differentiation of secondary and post-secondary apprenticeship schemes and technical and vocational schools with new questions about the pedagogy of (higher) technical and vocational education and training.
Notes 1. For further information on ISCED (International Standard Classification of Education), see: International Standard Classification of Education—ISCED, 1997, Classifying Educational Programmes Manual for ISCED-97 Implementation in OECD Countries - 1999 Edition, Paris: OECD-CERI. <www.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/display.asp?tag=XZLVK8XX4X1979762H8A Z7&sf1=identifiers&st1=961999041P1>; <www.statistik.at/verzeichnis/bildung/oecd1> 2. <europass.cedefop.europa.eu/> 3. <www.dol.gov/dol/topic/training/apprenticeship.htm><www.doleta.gov/OA/eta default.cfm> 4. http://www.australianapprenticeships.gov.au/about/default.asp
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5. Commercial and technical vocational education and training for girls (women) was actually only introduced in the twentieth century in the industrial States discussed here. 6. Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776–1843), a German pedagogue and philosopher. He demanded educational instruction and divided lessons into stages. His students introduced the ‘theory of formal stages’, which prevailed for a long time before being replaced by reform pedagogy (working-school method) and the project method (see John Dewey and Georg Kerschensteiner). 7. <www.ccsf.edu/Services/Vocational Education/crc/index.html> 8. Germany’s dual vocational training system: How are training regulations developed? <www. bibb.de/en/4963.htm>
References Allen, C.R. 1944. The instructor, the man and the job. Baltimore, MD: Lippingcott. American Vocational Association. 1998. The official guide to the Perkins Act of 1998. Alexandria, VA: AVA. Bl¨ochle, S.J. 2007. Italien, Aktualisierung der L¨anderstudie 2007. In: Lauterbach, U., ed. Internationales Handbuch der Berufsbildung. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Bloom, B.S. 1956. Taxonomy of educational objectives, Handbook I: The cognitive domain. New York, NY: David McKay. Castellano, M.; Stringfield, S.; Stone III, S.R. 2001. Career and technical education reforms and comprehensive school reforms in high schools and community colleges: their impact on educational outcomes for at-risk youth. St Paul, MN: University of Minnesota, National Research Center for Career and Technical Education. Cyzcholl, R. 1998. Handlungsorientierung. In: Kaiser, F.-J.; P¨atzold, G., eds. W¨orterbuch Berufsund Wirtschaftsp¨adagogik, pp. 216–19. Bad Heilbrunn/Hamburg, Germany: Klinkhardt. Dewey, J. 1976. The middle works (1899–1924), vol. 1. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. Dreyfus, H.; Dreyfus, L.S. 1987. K¨unstliche Intelligenz: von den Grenzen der Denkmaschine und dem Wert der Institution. Reinbeck, Germany: Rowohlt. Eurybase. 2007. General descriptions of the education system: France. <www.Eurydice.org> France, chapter 6.18, 151; France, chapter 5.3, 73 Greinert, W.-D. 2005. Mass vocational education and training in Europe: classical models of the 19th century and training in England, France and Germany during the first half of the 20th . Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. (CEDEFOP Panorama series, no. 118.) Hamilton, S.F. 1990. Apprenticeship for adulthood: preparing youth for the future. New York, NY: The Free Press; London: Collier Macmillan. Hauptmeier, G. 1999. Didaktische Reduktion bzw. P¨adagogische Transformation. In: Kaiser, F.-J.; P¨atzold, G., eds. W¨orterbuch Berufs- und Wirtschaftsp¨adagogik, pp. 175–78. Bad Heilbrunn/Hamburg, Germany: Klinkhardt. K¨uhne, A., ed. 1920. Handbuch f¨ur das Berufs- und Fachschulwesen: im Auftrag des Zentralinstituts f¨ur Erziehung und Unterricht in Berlin. Leipzig, Germany: Quelle & Meyer. Lauterbach, U. 1995. Erg¨anzende Bemerkungen zur Frankfurter Methodik. In: Lauterbach, U.; Br¨odel, A., eds. Bericht zur Fachtagung Handlungsorientierung und Ganzheitlichkeit, pp. 41–44. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: DIPF. Lauterbach, U.; Neß, H. 2000. Vier-Stufen-Methode oder Handlungsorientierte Unterweisung: Ergebnisse einer Erhebung zur Ausbildereignungsverordnung gewerbliche Wirtschaft (AEVO) im Rahmen eines Leonardo-Projekts. Die berufsbildende Schule, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 49–56. Norton, R.E. 1997. DACUM handbook, 2nd ed. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University, Center on Education and Training for Employment. (Leadership training series, no. 67.)
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Norton, R.E. 2000. DACUM: curriculum for the high performance workplace. In: Kohn, G. et al., eds. Compatibility of vocational qualification systems: background material and dialogue concerning international cooperation on vocational education and training, vol. 16, pp. 180–97. Berlin: Overall. P¨atzold, G. 1996. Lehrmethoden in der beruflichen Bildung. Heidelberg, Germany: Sauer. Rauner, F. 2007. Practical knowledge and occupational competence. European journal of vocational training, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 52–66. Rothe, G. 2004. Alternance: das EU-Konzept f¨ur die Berufsbildung. Die Berufsbildende Schule, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 17–27. Ruhland, S.K.; Timms, D.M. 2002. Measuring tech prep excellence: a practitioner’s guide to evaluation. St. Paul, MN: University of Minnesota, National Research Center for Career and Technical Education. St¨andige Konferenz der Kultusminister der L¨ander in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland— KMK. 2000. Handreichungen f¨ur die Erarbeitung von Rahmenlehrpl¨anen der Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK) f¨ur den berufsbezogenen Unterricht in der Berufsschule und ihre Abstimmung mit Ausbildungsordnungen des Bundes f¨ur anerkannte Ausbildungsberufe. <www.kmk.org/doc/publ/handreich.pdf> Stone III, J.R.; Mortimer, J.T. 1998. The effect of adolescent employment on vocational development: public and educational policy implications. Journal of vocational behavior, vol. 53, pp. 184–214. Stratmann, K. 1993. Die gewerbliche Lehrlingserziehung in Deutschland. Modernisierungsgeschichte der betrieblichen Berufsbildung. Vol. 1: Berufserziehung in der st¨andischen Gesellschaft (1648-1806). Frankfurt/Main, Germany: GAFB. Tissot, P. 1994. Terminology of vocational training policy: a multilingual glossary for an enlarged Europe. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Zanella, D. 1999. Analysis of the Industrial Technology Electrical Systems Specialization: using DACUM. Journal of industrial technology, vol. 15, no. 4. <www.nait.org>
Chapter X.7
Approaches to Designing TVET Curricula Richard Huisinga
1 The Key Problems On the scale of an international comparison, there are not many schemes available for designing curricula for technical and vocational education and training (TVET), and only in a few cases have these been worked out in detail. The reason for this lack of curricular design has to do with the following rather divergent developments:
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Since Greek antiquity, intellectual history has consistently given priority to the vita contemplativa, as a way of life engaged in theoretical observation, rather than to the practical, active life or the vita activa (cf. Arendt, 1981). This was because philosophers and thinkers considered their own way of life to be more important than a practical, active life. They assumed that some sense of eternity could only be developed with the kind of contemplation that was the aim of the vita contemplativa. In contrast, the vita activa is concerned with the life of mortal beings and with a world which, if at all, can only grant immortality on the basis of extraordinary works and deeds. German idealism certainly had its particular share in this state of affairs. To put it pointedly, excluding practical work as a medium relevant to education, that is, the disjunction between general and vocational education, was a result of the neo-humanist view popular in the latter part of the eighteenth and earlier part of the nineteenth centuries. Niethammer (1808) drew a sharp line separating Bildung [education] on the one hand and utility and practiced skills on the other, and emphasized the priority of personal development. Industrial societies are dependent on a certain amount of mass education. In 1967, this insight led Robinsohn to suggest a curriculum reform for the German education system oriented towards international requirements (Robinsohn, 1967). Yet, concrete projects on constructing or revising vocational curricula failed to materialize. One reason for this is the corporative structure of the German TVET system. Since the beginning of the 1980s, this disjunction between general and vocational education has been reinforced by a form of ‘post-modern discourse’ stemming from French philosophical studies on the current status of knowledge (cf., for example, Lyotard, 1994). With its application to the development of curricula,
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post-modern criticism focuses on the illusion of an objective pedagogy capable of analysing and structuring didactic problems adequately. The goal is to develop the self-organization and self-regulation of living systems that make use of didactic morphemes (educational subject matter that has been prepared didactically) without, however, clarifying who it is that produces these and according to what criteria. The related constructivist approaches of situated learning, with their concept of ‘inert knowledge’, hardly go beyond criticisms popularized by the educational reform movement, and any original design scheme seems to be imperceptible at the moment. Since at least the beginning of the 1990s, there have been marked developments in the international field of comparative didactics, with its diverging major concepts of ‘didactics’ and/or ‘curriculum’ (for example, Adick, 1992; Doyle & Westbury, 1992; Hopmann & Riquarts, 1995). This dialogue demonstrates the difficulties involved for our discipline to overcome cultural and national barriers. The positions here have developed from widely divergent points of view and can hardly be classified in terms of basic models. Yet, the increasing interdependence and harmonization of the European education systems with the concomitant expectations of academic achievement demand that research on classroom teaching and the curriculum become more strongly interconnected. This interplay, however, is confronted with a political constellation which favours an orientation toward output rather than one toward input, whereby the former orientation is based upon the implementation of a competence construct that avoids a consideration of content. Thus, this orientation to output is another factor that serves to make curriculum research seem unfounded. Indeed, orientations toward output and curriculum research appear to directly contradict each other. Finally, academia itself functions as a barrier. In this regard, it is apparent that the concept of ‘didactics’ has not managed to become widely accepted and hence does not have much of a tradition in the English-speaking countries. Compounds such as Bildungstheorie, Bildungsgehalt, Bildungssinn, even a conceptual pair such as Bildung und Erziehung—the meaning of all of these concepts cannot be represented by equivalent terms in the English language. Conversely, the use of the term ‘curriculum’ in Germany hardly demonstrates compatibility with the wide range of meaning associated with the English concept.
It can be maintained, then, that academic discourse in general provides no significant impetus for this overview. It is no surprise, as problems of vocational training related to concrete interests have had to be solved, that the vacuum in the development of curricular theory led to a certain form of pragmatism in the construction of vocational curricula. The criticism of this state of affairs articulated here is not original, but based on earlier positions (Rauner, 2003; Huisinga & Kell, 2005; Buchmann, 2006).
2 Pragmatic Approaches Generally, there are two features typical of pragmatic approaches to developing vocational curricula:
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Orientation to the immediate work processes. Pragmatic curricular designs are geared to the quick utilization of training in production processes. Whether the contents to be learned, which are derived from direct work situations, can help develop a formative orientation is a matter not subject to inquiry here. Such an orientation readily confirms the criticism that it is utilitarian. Partitioning jobs into tasks and individual steps. Partitioning jobs is primarily geared to a means/ends relationship, which differs significantly from a position concerned with fundamental education and training. In this respect, considerations of short-term adaptation to constantly changing needs are at the focus of any analysis of work tasks.
These two features can be demonstrated with the following two examples.
2.1 DACUM The first example deals with a curriculum design which is used in Germany by the Deutsche Gesellschaft f¨ur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ—German Society for Technical Co-operation), a former subsidiary organization of the Federal Ministry for Development. This approach was developed at the Center on Education and Training for Employment of Ohio State University by Robert E. Norton, the DACUM programme director. Norton (1997) describes an approach to developing ‘vocational’ curricula which became known under the acronym ‘DACUM’ (Developing A CurriculUM). As a model, DACUM is intended to facilitate the analysis and description of needs and skill profiles. According to its express self-image, the following three ‘logical premises’ form its point of departure: 1. Expert workers are more capable of describing and defining their job reliably than anyone else. Insofar as they do their job in the context of normal employment, they can be called ‘expert workers’. Foremen and managers know about the work their employees do, yet they lack the expertise urgently required for a more thorough-going analysis. 2. The most effective way to describe a job is to define areas of responsibility and the tasks and individual steps involved. But the worker behaviours accessible and the knowledge of such behaviours do not suffice. Expert workers are able to explain their knowledge and skills, i.e. to train others to be experts. 3. The knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes required for the work are now regarded as variables (‘enablers’) of work successfully carried out. They are so significant that considerable care is taken to appropriately identify them. The premises demonstrate why this approach is successful in total quality management (TQM), ISO 9000 and QS 9000 processes—it facilitates the analysis of various industrial applications and processes. For DACUM, a group of five to twelve occupational practitioners forms the decisive source of information for the analysis of work processes. In two- to threeday meetings under the guidance of a DACUM facilitator, this group develops a
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needs analysis or a DACUM chart listing tasks, general knowledge, abilities/skills, behaviours, tools, equipment, materials, as well as future developments. These lists represent the empirical basis for ‘competency-based education’ (CBE) and for the ‘instructional development’ based on CBE. The development of the profile is furthered by moderation techniques that resort to meta-planning techniques, such as brainstorming, clustering, comparing, evaluating, etc. An open experiential exchange between the occupational practitioners is ensured by the facilitators, who take care that the major categories of analysis are used precisely and unambiguously. What are the results of a DACUM workshop? It would seem reasonable to imagine the results of work in the course of such a workshop as follows:
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Identifying the job/activity/responsibility in its totality with a conceptual foundation. Here, the following rules apply: the responsibility is described in a functional way. The components used here are a verb, an object and some further specification. – Responsibilities are formulated as work with a generalizing intention. – Responsibilities can stand alone and are meaningful without any relation to the work steps.
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Dividing the activity into duties and tasks: As a rule, a duty should encompass six to twelve distinctive tasks. The components of the task description are composed as follows: the verb is formulated in the first person singular; the object describes the item to be worked on by an occupational practitioner (e.g. a report, an item of equipment, a customer); a further specification clarifies the task. The tasks are divided into steps. These represent units of activities. Here, the following aspects are to be considered: – steps are the smallest units of an activity that are of any mentionable significance; – they materialize as products, services or decisions; – they have a definite beginning and a definite end; – they can be observed and measured; tasks can contain two or more steps and can be designed in a relatively short time.
Knowledge and skills, etc., (the ‘enablers’) are then related to the ‘duties’ and ‘tasks’. This is done primarily by means of a table. Each work step is shown in one line of the table. It is obvious that the logic behind this scheme has to do with a Taylorist perspective. But carrying out DACUM workshops is only one important constituent, even for the initiators. Only with the instrument of analysis labelled ‘systematic curriculum and instructional development’ (SCID) does the complete scope of this construct become apparent (Norton, 1997). Within this overall design—and not within DACUM itself—preliminary conditions—such as: markets for labour, goods and services; institutional circumstances relevant to training; and the didactical and methodological treatment of imparting competences—are taken into consideration.
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2.2 The ILO Approach In the early 1970s, the International Labour Office (ILO) began to develop a flexible, employment-oriented approach to TVET and corresponding instructional materials. With recourse to developments and sources in Sweden, an approach to modularized vocational training evolved which became known as ‘modules of employable skills’ (MES) (cf., for example, Quednau, 1977; Maslankowski, 1985; BMBW, 1989; Chrosciel & Plumbridge, 1992). The MES approach is oriented to the immediate qualification requirements that are assumed to be necessary in order to carry out a specific activity. Bilateral and multilateral foreign aid provided the backdrop to this approach. For its own legitimacy, such aid was dependent on spin-off effects in order to demonstrate that its goal—the establishment of sustainable industrial and commercial development geared to the production of goods in the receiving countries—could be brought about. Vocational training was regarded as one factor that could secure this goal. In this respect, a preliminary assumption had to do with a positively tied functional connection between the education system and the social production of goods. However, the education systems in developing countries did not correspond to the ideas of the members of the ILO. The aim of the MES programme is to overcome the weaknesses of the particular education systems, but these weaknesses cannot be examined in detail here. The first drafts of the programme ‘Vocational Training Using Modules of Employable Skills’ (the original label to this approach) was based on Swedish models. This designation makes it unequivocally clear that in the training programme directly applicable work functions were to be learned. The practitioner model employed is oriented to the following points:
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methods, forms, diagrams and other documents needed for the analysis of the task—from these, the training programme in a stricter sense is developed, as are instructional materials; instructional materials in the form of lesson units or sections; materials for instructors.
The instructional materials are self-explanatory texts which deal with specific characteristics, an ability or knowledge of the specific activity. Every study unity contains the following:
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precisely formulated learning objectives; a list of the required facilities, tools, materials and aids, as well as references to further study units; work instructions and explanations, combined with exercises; a final test.
Study units of this type are applicable for both beginners and instructors. They have been designed with reference to the following six categories:
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required theory; information in diagrams; technical information, parts lists, materials, methods; technical equipment, tools, machines.
Maslankowski (1985) refers to the special significance of the corresponding documentation. Up to 1983, the ILO had listed some 750 partial qualifications and provided approximately 13,000 pages of instructional materials containing, in turn, 32,000 explanations. Nevertheless, in view of the debate on knowledge and of the paradigm shift in a number of technical domains already apparent in 1983, questions concerning the meaningfulness of such a venture arise. Bureaucratization impedes the desired increase in flexibility. It is precisely the close orientation to work routines that makes MES largely inappropriate as an instrument for developing vocational curricula. Furthermore, the question arises of whether and how a vocational logic in the sense of a professional identity could be developed from the inductively structured system of MES. To this day, this issue has remained unresolved. In addition to DACUM and MES, there are numerous other pragmatic approaches to developing vocational curricula that have been put forth. In this context, reference can be made to the approach ‘Training for Rural Gainful Activities’ (TRUGA), which is focused on income-related abilities in rural areas (ILO, n.d.), and an approach called ‘Dualized Core Curriculum and Training Plan’ (DCC), which resulted from co-operation between the German GTZ and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA, the Philippines) (GTZ/TESDA, n.d.). If the DACUM and MES approaches may be sufficient, above all, for businessrelated purposes or for transformation problems in countries receiving foreign aid, approaches based on the categories of a course or seminar seem to be more appropriate for conditions in industrial societies. Apparently, this applies to both the Anglo-American part of the world and to large parts of Central Europe.
3 Systematic Approaches Periods in which societal production is strongly influenced by scientism often provide evidence of a number of approaches to developing curricula that are centred on a guiding principle of the seminar, the course or, more recently, the learning field. This was the case: (a) during the 1890s; (b) with the rationalization processes of the 1920s; (c) in the period following the so-called Sputnik shock; (d) in the years of debate on the German educational ‘catastrophe’ during the 1960s; as well as (e) after 1990, in the debates on a uniform European education system with their use of the term ‘modularization’. Obviously, there is a need for clarifying and co-ordinating issues concerning, on the one hand, how to adequately organize the knowledge bases required in the future and the institutions involved in imparting such knowledge and, on the other hand, how to clarify the relationship between functional and intentional education. It is important to clarify this relationship because the rationalization of machine complexes both limits their direct implementation and, at the same time,
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leads to issues of the appropriateness of a polytechnic education for certain company functions. For this reason, the curricular designs discussed above are usually connected with the context of a ‘teaching workshop’, a learning environment separated from the production process, or of an ‘in-company school’ as a special school form, or of a ‘public school’. Behind such ways of contextualizing training are, above all, social differences regarding views of educational ‘property rights’. Kliebard (1999, p. 4) describes such a ‘curricular’ context for parts of the United States, his point of departure being the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876—the first world’s fair held on American soil. According to Kliebard, the main idea was systematic instruction in specific types of manual dexterity required in commercial work, such as cutting, forging, filtering, etc., in industrial production. The instruction was carried out in groups in a ‘teaching workshop’ or in a laboratory room. At the time, this way of dissociating training from the work process was regarded as an alternative to education at school and to the traditional (skilled-crafts) apprenticeship that took place in an individualized manner, alongside normal work activity. Such curricula were organized in terms of secondary schooling (school of mechanical arts) as preparation for a course of studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This reveals the nature of the courses as being preparatory to scientific study. Specifically, the main goal was to prepare for training as an engineer and, at a later date, to integrate such courses into the public school system. Initial projects eventually led to a development that became known as the ‘manual training movement’. This indicates that in periods of transformation in industrialized societies the need for systematic curricula increases. Evidence of this can be found in Taylor’s ‘The principles of scientific management’: ‘The necessity for systematically teaching workmen how to work to the best advantage has been several times referred to. It seems desirable, therefore, to explain in rather more detail how this teaching is done’ (Taylor, 1919, p. 131) Taylor then goes on to describe his system of ‘functional foremen’ in detail. It is evident that Kliebard’s socio-historical study contains precisely as little as does Taylor’s work concerning an explicit statement of curricular theory and does not clarify the actual reasoning behind a systematic curriculum. Moreover, Taylor’s emphasis on systematics corresponds to a rejection of apprenticeship in favour of a rational training process which can eventually lead to the pragmatic approach to developing the vocational curricula mentioned above. Around the same time, Salomon developed a similarly designed model in Sweden (Salomon, 1895). But this model, in contrast to those utilitarian programmes in the United States, was already oriented to a concept of educational reform. Salomon’s courses were, indeed, also concerned with breaking down activities into component parts. Yet, he transformed them into linear learning sequences and projects of his own specific design. Thus, his courses were artificial and symbolic systems of learning. Generally speaking, these courses already leaned toward a theoretical standpoint which emphasizes autonomy and is oriented to the human subject (Wiemann, 1992). With a totally different approach, Willmann proposed a relatively precise definition of the concept ‘seminar’ (Lehrgang) at the end of the nineteenth century.
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The organization of content does not fulfil its purpose if it is simply done in a didactic and technical way, but, instead, only if it exhibits an organic and genetic design. But this, in turn, is only possible if, as a whole, the variety of content demonstrates the force of that guiding principle engaged by the respective discipline or art which directs content development and thus is to provide for its transmission. Furthermore, organic and genetic design can only be achieved if, on an individual basis, content organization endorses those parts in which a whole predominates and is reflected, and those which demonstrate growth and development in structured surroundings, i.e. if it brings out the organic units and genetic sequences and makes them the focus of everything else (Willmann, 1909, p. 461). [My emphasis.]
Within this context, Willmann used the expression ‘seminar’ (Lehrgang) and assigned it the following constitutive and formative features: 1. Seminars are based on a certain, predetermined order, in which the individual contents of a subject are sequenced with respect to their interconnections and recognized characteristics. Seminars can be planned long in advance of their realization and can be repeatedly applied without any essential organizational or content-related changes. 2. They are arranged so that every new segment builds on the previous ones and serves as a prerequisite and as preparation for the following segment. 3. In general, seminars develop in accordance with so-called autonomous regularities of the respective issues (or with the structure of the discipline; Bruner, 1970; Ford & Pugno, 1972). The point of departure is formed by content-related logical elements which by means of combination and interconnection systematically lead to increasingly complex issues. Thus, the seminar structure results in essence from a disciplinary analysis of subject matter. 4. However, the starting point and organizing feature in forming the seminar structures of a curriculum can also be a consideration of the learners. In this case, the role of disciplinary structures is taken over by characteristics of learning that result from an analysis of the suspected learning abilities and of the appropriation and processing strategies dependent on age and levels of development (Havighurst, 1948; Bremer, 2002). In the area of TVET, there is evidence of seminars (Lehrg¨ange) having taken place in Germany from the 1920s onwards. With the drive towards rationalization and rapid technological developments in various industries at that time and related qualifications of certain, specialized skilled-worker activities, especially in the metalworking and electrical industries, the workplace lost its major significance as a place of learning in processes with a pronounced division of labour. This state of affairs is documented in detail in the polemical essay by Lang and Hellpach entitled Gruppenfabrikation [Group fabrication]—also formulated in explicit opposition to Taylor (Lang & Hellpach, 1922, pp. 83 ff.). The evidence indicates that as early as 1908 the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI—Society of German Engineers) and the Verband Deutscher Maschinenbauanstalten (VDMA—Association of German Institutions of Mechanical Engineering) strongly influenced the direction of curricula for training skilled workers with respect to national economic needs and in opposition to the system of apprenticeship in skilled crafts. On 29 May 1908 the Deutscher Ausschuß f¨ur
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Technisches Schulwesen (DATSCH—German Committee on a Polytechnical School System) was founded (DATSCH, 1912). This committee was exclusively concerned with issues related to training young technicians at all levels of qualification. The first training programmes in the form of seminars for machine fitters were available from 1919 onwards. During the mid-1920s, a German institute based on Taylor’s teachings was founded (Deutsches Institut f¨ur technische Arbeitsschulung—DINTA—German Institute of Technical Work Training) and soon became the focus and epitome of a type of participation politics directed against the labour unions. With a view to producing a submissive workforce that saw the labour unions as ‘unnecessary’, foremen and engineers were trained in DINTA schools with the aim of creating a ‘plant community’ (Seubert, 1977). This plan was intensely controversial before 1933, but led to a specific development in ordinances in Germany, to the introduction of seminars in training workshops and in-company schools as a way of rationally, reliably, efficiently, systematically and comprehensively imparting vocational knowledge, skills and abilities (Kipp & Miller-Kipp, 1995). Thus, seminars have ever since been oriented to comprehensive and thematically structured, content-centred sequences geared toward specific goals and final certification. Independently of its misuse at the political level, the seminar approach was often subject to criticism because the focus on knowledge and the orientation to the discipline and to a narrowly defined time budget made teaching-centred processes dominant. Building-block or modular systems have been designed in attempts to counteract the inflexibility of the seminar approach. They represent a curricular attempt to secure the repeatability and quality of education and training within the framework of a variety of educational institutions. Comparable results lead to authorized records of achievement which can be accumulated even if they have been obtained at various places and institutions. In a stricter sense, then, modules are standardized or even homogenized units of study. In a broader sense, they are modules with detailed descriptions of qualifications related to prerequisites and results. In contrast to the use of these concepts outside schools, the concepts ‘seminar’ (Lehrgang), ‘course’ (Kurs), and ‘module’ (Baustein) are not used synonymously in vocational schools themselves. Despite its terminological ambiguity, the concept ‘seminar’ is one of the main elements of instructional organization, and a variety of activities at school is intentionally or unintentionally oriented to seminar structures (on the various forms of seminars, see P¨atzold, 1995, pp. 160 ff.). In a historical perspective, in addition to the approach of processing and imparting structured knowledge in the form of seminars, a curricular approach developed which took explicit recourse to an educational theory: the project approach.
4 The Project Approach In contrast to what might be expected, the project approach, as Knoll conclusively shows, did not originate in the United States (Knoll, 1991a, 1991b, 1992). Originally, the concept ‘project’ emerged within the context of efforts to become more
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professional in the art academies and technical colleges in Italy and France in the mid-eighteenth century. In this respect, from a modern perspective the project approach was and is embedded in an international movement. However, this does not mean that the approach is automatically to be regarded as a universalized one. Indeed, there are certainly differences specific to various countries in the understanding and use of this approach. Its broad curricular effect emerged as a result of the beginning of the industrial and scientific revolution, especially where issues of a school subject canon and its systematization became prominent. Considered from a perspective of the history of ideas, Calvin M. Woodward was most likely the first person who further developed the manual training approach into a project approach from the early 1880s onward by connecting practical work requirements in the areas of carpentry, foundry work, and mechanical engineering with simple and applied mathematics, technology, calligraphy and drawing (Kliebard, 1999, p. 8). Woodward regarded his efforts in this area as a new educational approach which corresponded to contemporary social developments. Subsequently, practical applications of the project approach exhibited wideranging variety: from pragmatism in the United States to educational reform in Germany, to vocational technical schooling in Russia and, most recently, to orientation to action in German-speaking countries. Yet, the central idea remains that the curriculum is generated by a confrontation with life experience, by producing an open initial situation by means of a process involving perception, interpretation and decision. Only when the educational process itself has been carried out is it possible to determine what exactly the content has consisted of in detail (Lisop & Huisinga, 2004). Unlike the seminar approach, the project approach is dependent on a high level of professionalism, especially on the part of the instructors. But, as it became associateded with child-centred positions in both American and German educational reform movements at an early date, this curricular approach lost much of its close connection with vocational education. It was only in the pilot projects under the auspices of the Federal Institute of Vocational Education and Training (Bundesinstitut f¨ur Berufliche Bildung), which were undertaken with increasing frequency from 1980 onwards, that this approach became more visible again within the context of orientation to action. However, this time the approach emerged as a method, now stripped of its specific theoretical stimulus.
5 Technology-Centred Approaches For TVET research interested in educational issues, the knowledge-related structure of disciplines is a topic of substantial concern. More precisely, the particular systematic organization of each discipline is an explicit matter in the design of curricula. Such a systematic classification, however, is not available for the area of vocational education, since those disciplinary systems of relevance and codification significant for cognition (language systems, cognitive patterns, logical systems, laws, etc.)—
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all of the factors which, according to Kuhn, constitute a paradigm—are missing (Kuhn, 1978, 1989). In order to structure this knowledge in a way meaningful to curricular design, recourse can be taken of work done by Ropohl (1979), Wendt (1986) and Lohr (1981). In his analysis of technical skills, of functional and structural knowledge of rules, and of technological knowledge of laws, Ropohl notes specifications that are fundamental to technical (and technological) knowledge. He does not confine himself to classifying knowledge in its various manifest forms. At the same time, he aims at identifying meaningful cognitive specifications and differentiable functional conditions of the individual forms of knowledge. Wendt structures the components of technological knowledge as follows: 1. Empirical knowledge and theories of existing technology (systematic statements); 2. Empirical knowledge and theories of technological processes in the production and use of technology (systematic statements); 3. Outlines for new technical apparatuses and procedures (anticipatory statements); 4. Strategies for courses of action in the production and use of technology (regulations of action); 5. Methodologies of design, of forming strategies, etc. (meta-requirements). Lohr focuses on technological knowledge, which he structures as follows: 1. Knowledge of the fundamentals of science and about societal aims in the development of technological systems; 2. Knowledge of the processes involved in creating technological systems; 3. Knowledge of the processes involved in producing knowledge. The approaches of Ropohl, Wendt and Lohr structure and classify the specific forms and functions of technological and technical knowledge according to various criteria. Yet, their classifications are very similar. Since under the conditions of scientifically informed production there is a rather broad spectrum of relevant disciplines, it would be necessary to check to what degree discipline-related paradigms are determined or determinable by interconnections. In this context, Welsch distinguishes between inner-sectoral and trans-sectoral interconnections. He focuses on the inter-paradigmatic structure and on the complex architecture of the paradigms and demonstrates how the interconnections diverge. In this view, there is a broad range of effects stemming from the interconnections, so that the decline of a certain paradigm can in the long run bring about the deterioration of another paradigm that it had supported up to that point (Welsch 1996, p. 598). Both the knowledge bases of TVET curricular issues and the necessarily related issues of providing and/or attaining qualifications need to be structured with the help of these or similarly appropriate, more recent approaches and basic perspectives. Yet, up to this point, these problems have remained unresolved.
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6 Theoretically Mediated Approaches Theoretically mediated curricular approaches are fundamentally different from those curricular approaches that are generated from the immediacy of working practice or of developments in certain disciplines. Curricula do not exhibit a direct causal relationship to the world, nor can this relationship be deduced in a simple way. The mediated nature of curricula and their mediating function can be readily understood from two perspectives. The problem of mediation concerns first and foremost the issue of replacing functional with intentional education, i.e. the release of learning or training from their ties to immediate life circumstances. For the discussion of these issues here it is essential to note that training which materialized in immediate life circumstances required no curriculum, nor any specific educational institutions. All of the skills, knowledge and habitual dispositions required for vital reproduction were transmitted incidentally in the course of immediate collaboration. Everyday life itself provided all of the situations required for learning. At the moment when the release of functional learning is completed, the issue of achieving a unity encompassing both immediate learning and mediated learning emerges. At the same time, educational theory is constitutive of the idea of such a unity. This leads us to the second perspective on mediation, one whose starting point is a consideration of how human subjects relate to their world: mediation between the human subject and his or her world. To put it briefly, the relationship between the subject and the world is a double one. On the one hand, the human subject is an object of the world, insofar as the subject has been formed. But on the other hand, the subject is someone who forms the world. In educational theory, the mediation between subject and world is always a question of the degree of enlightenment, reflection and critique with respect to being an object and, thus, a matter of emancipation and autonomy with regard to forming the world. Holzkamp summarizes this internal relationship in terms of understanding the world, having the world at one’s disposal to a greater extent, and an increased quality of life (cf. Holzkamp 1995, p. 190). From a perspective of functional education, the triad of understanding the world, having it at one’s disposal, and actively forming it transpires in and of itself. But if learning leaves the immediate life circumstances, forming the world is only possible if recourse is taken to some formerly acquired ‘knowledge’ in the broadest sense. Since this knowledge, however, can no longer be generated from the immediate life circumstances, a meaningful mediation is necessary, a reference to the life situation or a representation of a world which allows for such a reference. If the world in question is not composed in a traditional and static way, which applies to modern industrial societies, these representations (in simple form, e.g. instructional syllabi) must be organized dynamically. Only in this way can the representations fulfil the function of mediating between the human subject and the world. This also demonstrates why there is much more controversy about the representations than about methods. For the nature of the representations can also be a hindrance to understanding the world, to having more of it at one’s disposal, and to increasing the quality of life. What is not allowed to appear on the syllabi, what is withheld, is expressed by the term that is as fluctuating as it is indispensable: Bildung. A good bit
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of evidence for this stipulation can be seen in the example of the major curriculum revision undertaken in the state of Hesse. It was with the slogan ‘Marx instead of spelling!’ in the conflict over the Hessian framework directives that the diffuse fear of being deprived of actually useful content was operationalized. In this sense, there are currently two approaches relevant to the field of vocational education that need to be differentiated.
6.1 The ITB Approach The general paradigm of the approach by the Institute Technology and Education (ITB) at the University of Bremen is one of ‘research in vocational studies’. The focus is on knowledge of work processes, which is researched from the perspective of an open-ended design for vocational education and training. Rauner and Sp¨ottl, in particular, have used the idea of work-process knowledge for the benefit of curriculum research by helping to empirically identify knowledge of work processes (cf. Rauner & Sp¨ottl, 1995; Rauner, 2000). This research became necessary because qualifications research, especially that conducted by the Federal Institute of Vocational Education, ‘had not led to a perceptible improvement in the quality of vocational development and of the development of vocational curricula’—despite an increase in the number of research projects (Rauner, 2002b, p. 444). Since Rauner also states that the development of vocational curricula tends to adhere primarily to currently predominant interests and opinions, and takes less recourse to procedures that are methodologically supported, it is not surprising that lengthy procedures for new ordinances are subject to critical re-examination soon after their introduction. According to Rauner, this underscores the need for qualifications research in vocational studies. The major areas of concern for vocational studies research are the following four interconnected spheres: 1. Formation and development of content and forms of vocational skilled work, of qualification requirements, and of the relevant vocations and vocational fields; 2. Content of vocational education and training as a dimension of the analysis, design, and evaluation of subject-specific processes of education, qualification and socialization; 3. Analysis and design of skilled work that promotes learning, its methods, tools and organization, as well as the requirements these must meet; 4. Subjects for skilled work. For the commercial and technical disciplines, this is the specific vocational technology which is to be operated, serviced, repaired and, in the interaction between man and machine, designed in a way that promotes learning (Rauner, 2002a, pp. 448–49). Curriculum research at the ITB in Bremen has developed a broad spectrum of useful instruments, including the following: studies of specific sectors, expert/skilled
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worker workshops, analysis of work tasks, and a developmental scheme for the structure of spheres of learning (Kleiner et al., 2002). The ITB has engaged in a substantial number of research activities. For the purposes of this chapter, only the guiding principles and major emphases of the institute’s work can be taken into consideration.
6.2 The Approach of Huisinga/Lisop Theorizing implications for education assumes that a curriculum does not originate as a uniform and integrated whole and especially not as something simply derived from work processes. On the contrary, the curriculum arises ultimately as a system composed of a complex of questions and of constructive steps, which, in each case, have to be gone through several times. A constant aid to decision-making here is the underlying methodological guiding question (Blankertz, 1975, pp. 99–100). Research work in this context deals with the following issues:
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the function and status of empirical spheres of work and activity within the framework of the societal division of labour; the organizational forms of this work; concrete, prototypical operations and the required qualifications; the types of knowledge (e.g. factual knowledge, knowledge of rules, theoretical knowledge, problem-solving knowledge) and the architecture of knowledge (regardless of examination standards) that are required; prototypical value systems, sets of attitudes and judgements, role patterns, development of habitus related to work activity and the corresponding mentalities (for further details, see Lisop & Huisinga, 1999, pp. 193 ff.).
Collecting these empirical data also involves an epistemological component. Since the available knowledge that has been acquired must be supplemented by orientation and problem-solving knowledge (with the intention of planning the future), the relevant field is also examined for rationalities, interests, contradictions, conflicts, or varying perspectives that permeate it, and scientific, practical and societal formulas for solutions are sought. Finally, a third step in this research involves assessing the circumstances of the human subject, i.e. life circumstances, fundamental needs and the use-value orientation of knowledge in the relevant field. This collection of data is followed by a differentiated process of correlations and compression in order to generate the structural units of a curriculum. The transformation of the material into curriculum complexes is methodologically ensured by an epistemological paradigm oriented to knowledge transfer in accordance with the exemplary principle. In this way, the axiom of implications for education, realized in educational theory in terms of the exemplary principle, serves as a guiding principle for designing subject matter or learning fields. (For further details, see Lisop & Huisinga, 1999; Huisinga, Lisop & Speier, 1999; Huisinga & Lisop, 2002; Lisop & Huisinga, 2004.)
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Theorizing implications for education entails fundamental assertions (axioms), theorems, and four models (Lisop & Huisinga, 2004; Huisinga, 1996a, 1996b; Huisinga, Lisop & Speier, 1999). Models such as ‘societal implications’ and ‘levels of curricular relevance for education and qualification’ are directly significant for curricula, whereas the models ‘psychodynamic life context’ and ‘didactic context of implications’ are indirectly significant. The axioms refer to developments in basic social processes to which the practical work relevant to qualification is linked. Such developments provide a frame of reference for describing and analysing the starting point of requirements for a curriculum. A current example of the research work carried out by these authors is the publication Qualifikationsbedarf, Personalentwicklung und Bildungsplanung [The Need for Qualifications, the Development of Personnel, and the Planning of Education] (Huisinga & Lisop, 2002). Part of the work on the texts and on the findings in this volume was undertaken within the framework of a project sponsored by the commercial trade associations. The goal of the project was to examine structural change within the professional associations in order to determine exactly how qualification requirements in higherlevel positions undergo change. The data acquired were to serve as a basis for new job outlines and new courses of training, including a new curriculum. The individual studies provided insight into the historical development of the unity of functions and processes in the publicly and institutionally conducted regulation of liabilities in industrial accidents and in the achievements of such regulation within the framework of welfare legislation. At the same time, new forms of self-concepts, of institutional structures, of work organization, and of spectrums of competencies related to the human subject all became apparent as a new agglomeration (as implications for education). For in the process of socialization, new elements result from social forms of consciousness, such as legal systems and ethics, from forms of communication and of corporate organization, and from vital needs and vital energies. It is necessary to find curricular representations for such elements.
7 Desiderata: Insights from the General International Debate At the outset, desiderata of a general (international) debate on curricula must refer to the idea that the history of education can hardly be understood without knowing the winners and losers involved. In the United States, ‘Thorndike’ is certainly one of the winners, while ‘Dewey’ is surely one of the losers. This view, which also applies to Germany, culminates in the observation of a disjunction between instructional research carried out at the psychological level (with pedagogical intentions) and a curriculum theory that sees itself within the framework of educational theory and is interested in the autonomous actions of human subjects. The on-going debate on educational standards confirms educational policymakers’ interest in research that is behaviour-centred, experimental and atomistic. Variables, such as instructional content, the students and the curriculum, are
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overlooked. But resistance is forming, insofar as pedagogical knowledge of content is gaining significance for what is considered adequate representation and teaching. Up to this point, studies along these lines have been primarily carried out as case studies on the work of beginning professionals and experienced teachers. A change can also be observed to the extent that the focus of research has shifted to content as representations, as detailed descriptions and as conceptions of the students instead of as simple subject matter. This shift also expresses a view of a curriculum as a transformation which traces content on its path of transmission and appropriation. Recently, there have also been attempts to analyse the structure of tasks in classroom instruction as a contribution to the curriculum. Such studies focus directly on curricular events and processes in classroom surroundings, i.e. on a dynamic curriculum. Thus, psychological constructs such as instruction or motivation are no longer the unchallenged focus of curricular considerations. Still, the issue of whether the unclear relationships between curriculum research and instructional research, of whether their respective traditions and claims are reconcilable, remain unresolved.
References Adick, C. 1992. Die Universalisierung der modernen Schule: eine theoretische Problemskizze zur Erkl¨arung der weltweiten Verbreitung der modernen Schule in den letzten 200 Jahren mit Fallstudien aus Westafrika. Munich, Germany/Vienna/Z¨urich, Switzerland: Sch¨oningh. Arendt, H. 1981. VITA ACTIVA oder Vom t¨atigen Leben. Munich, Germany: Piper-Verlag. Blankertz, H. 1975. Theorien und Modelle der Didaktik. Munich, Germany: Juventa. Bremer, R. 2002. Berufliche Kompetenz und Identit¨at als forschungslogischer Ausgangspunkt einer berufswissenschaftlichen Entwicklungshermeneutik. In: Fischer, M.; Rauner, F., eds. Lernfeld: Arbeitsprozeß. Ein Studienbuch zur Kompetenzentwicklung von Fachkr¨aften in gewerblich technischen Aufgabenbereichen, pp. 499–520. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos. Bruner, J.S. 1970. Der Prozeß der Erziehung. Berlin: Berlin-Verlag; D¨usseldorf, Germany: P¨adagogischer Verlag Schwann. Buchmann, U. 2006. Empirische Qualifikationsforschung und ihr Beitrag zur Curriculumkonstruktion: eine Kommentierung deutschsprachiger Literatur. In: P¨atzold, G.; Rauner, F., eds. Qualifikationsforschung und Curriculumentwicklung, pp. 235–55. Stuttgart, Germany: Steiner Verlag. Bundesminister f¨ur Bildung und Wissenschaft—BMBW. 1989. Innovative methods of technical and vocational education. Bonn: Bundesdruckerei. Chrosciel, E.; Plumbridge, W. 1992. Handbook on modules of employable skills training. Geneva, Switzerland: International Labour Office. Deutscher Ausschuß f¨ur technisches Schulwesen—DATSCH, ed. 1912. Abhandlungen und Berichte u¨ ber technisches Schulwesen. Band. III. Arbeiten auf dem Gebiete des Technischen niederen Schulwesens. Leipzig, Berlin. Doyle, W.; Westbury, I. 1992. Die R¨uckbesinnung auf den Unterrichtsinhalt in der Curriculumund Bildungsforschung in den USA. Bildung und Erziehung, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 137–57. Ford, G.W.; Pugno, L., eds. 1972. Wissensstruktur und Curriculum. D¨usseldorf, Germany: P¨adagogischer Verlag Schwann. GTZ/TESDA. No date. Handbook on the development of dualized core curriculum and training plan. Havighurst, R.J. 1948. Developmental tasks and education. New York, NY: Longman. Holzkamp, K. 1995. Lernen. Subjektwissenschaftliche Grundlegung. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: Campus.
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Hopmann, S.; Riquarts, K., eds. 1995. Didaktik und/oder Curriculum: Grundprobleme einer international vergleichenden Didaktik. Zeitschrift f¨ur P¨adagogik, no. 33. Huisinga, R. 1996a. Die Weltausstellungen des 19. Jahrhunderts als Instrument der Gewerbef¨orderung und ihre berufsp¨adagogische Bedeutung. In: Greiner, W.-D. et al., eds. Berufsausbildung und sozialer Wandel, pp. 169-194. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Huisinga, R. 1996b. Theorien und gesellschaftliche Praxis technischer Entwicklung: Soziale Verschr¨ankungen in modernen Technisierungsprozessen. Amsterdam/Berlin: Verlag Fakultas. Huisinga, R.; Kell, A. 2005. Wirtschaft und Verwaltung. In: Rauner, F., ed. Handbuch Berufsbildungsforschung, pp. 164–70. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Huisinga, R.; Lisop, I. 2002. Qualifikationsbedarf, Personalentwicklung und Bildungsplanung: Studien. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: G.A.F.B.-Verlag. Huisinga, R.; Lisop, I.; Speier, H.D., eds. 1999. Lernfeldorientierung: Konstruktion und Unterrichtspraxis. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: G.A.F.B.-Verlag. International Labour Office. No date. User’s guide to TRUGA manuals. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Kipp, M.; Miller-Kipp, G. 1995. Erkundungen im Halbdunkel: Einundzwanzig Studien zur Berufserziehung und P¨adagogik im Nationalsozialismus. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: G.A.F.B.Verlag. Kleiner, M. et al. 2002. Arbeitsaufgaben f¨ur eine moderne Beruflichkeit: Identifizieren und Beschreiben von beruflichen Arbeitsaufgaben. Konstanz, Germany: Christiani. Kliebard, H.M. 1999. Schooled to work: vocationalism and the American curriculum, 1876–1946. New York, NY/London: Teachers College Press. Knoll, M. 1991a. Lernen durch praktisches Probleml¨osen: die Projektmethode in den USA, 1860– 1915. Zeitschrift f¨ur Internationale Erziehungs- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung, vol. 8, pp. 103–27. Knoll, M. 1991b. “Niemand weiß heute, was ein Projekt ist”. Die Projektmethode in den Vereinigten Staaten, 1910–1920. Vierteljahreszeitschrift f¨ur Wissenschaftliche P¨adagogik, vol. 67, pp. 45–63. Knoll, M. 1992. Die Projektmethode. Ihre Entstehung und Rezeption. Zum 75. Jahrestag des Aufsatzes von William H. Kilpatrick. P¨adagogik und Schulalltag, vol. 48, pp. 338–51. Kuhn, T.S. 1978. Die Entstehung des Neuen. Studien zur Struktur der Wissenschaftsgeschichte. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: Suhrkamp. Kuhn, T.S. 1989. Die Struktur wissenschaftlicher Revolutionen. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: Suhrkamp. Lang, R.; Hellpach, W. 1922. Gruppenfabrikation. Berlin: Julius Springer-Verlag. Lisop, I.; Huisinga, R. 1999. Exemplarik: eine Forderung der KMK-Handreichungen: In: Huisinga, R.; Lisop, I.; Speier, H.D., eds. Lernfeldorientierung: Konstruktion und Unterrichtspraxis, pp. 163–216. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: G.A.F.B.-Verlag. Lisop, I.; Huisinga, R. 2004. Arbeitsorientierte Exemplarik: Subjektbildung – Kompetenz – Professionalit¨at. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: G.A.F.B.-Verlag. Lohr, E. 1981. Einige Bemerkungen zum Begriff des ‘technikwissenschaftlichen Wissens’ und seine Bestimmung. Zeitschrift der Technischen Hochschule Karl-Marx-Stadt, no. 5. Lyotard, J.-F. 1994. Das postmoderne Wissen – ein Bericht. Vienna: Passagen-Verlag. Maslankowski, W. 1985. Berufsbildung in Teilqualifikationen. Zeitschrift f¨ur Berufs- und Wirtschaftsp¨adagogik, vol. 81, pp. 323–31. Niethammer, F.I. 1808. Der Streit des Philanthropismus und Humanismus in der Theorie des Erziehungs-Unterrichts unserer Zeit. Jena, Germany: Friedrich Fromman. Norton, R.E. 1997. DACUM Handbook, 2nd ed. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University, College of Education, Center on Education and Training for Employment. P¨atzold, G. 1995. Vermittlung von Fachkompetenz in der Berufsbildung. In: Arnold, R.; Lipsmeier, A., eds. Handbuch der Berufsbildung, pp. 157–70. Opladen, Germany: Leske & Budrich. Quednau, H.W. 1977. Das Konzept der modularen Berufsausbildung. Die berufsbildende Schule, no. 7/8, pp. 421–27.
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Rauner, F. 2000. Der berufswissenschaftliche Beitrag zur Qualifikationsforschung und zur Curriculumentwicklung. In: Pahl, J.-P.; Rauner, F.; Sp¨ottl, G., eds. Berufliches Arbeitsprozesswissen: ein Forschungsgegenstand der Berufswissenschaften, pp. 329–52. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos. Rauner, F. 2002a. Berufliche Kompetenzentwicklung: vom Novizen zum Experten. In: Dehnbostel, P. et al., eds. Vernetzte Kompetenzentwicklung: Alternative Positionen zur Weiterbildung, pp. 111–32. Berlin: edition sigma. Rauner, F. 2002b. Berufswissenschaftliche Forschung: Implikationen f¨ur die Entwicklung von Forschungsmethoden. In: Fischer, M.; Rauner, F., eds. Lernfeld: Arbeitsprozeß, pp. 443–76. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos. Rauner, F. 2003. Zum Zusammenhang von Qualifikationsforschung und Curriculumentwicklung. In: Huisinga, R.; Buchmann, U., eds. Curriculum und Qualifikation: zur Reorganisation von Allgemeinbildung und Spezialbildung, pp. 247–65. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: G.A.F.B.Verlag. Rauner, F.; Sp¨ottl, G. 1995. Entwicklung eines europ¨aischen Berufsbildes ,KFZ-Mechatroniker’ f¨ur die berufliche Erstausbildung unter dem Aspekt der arbeitsorientierten Strukturierung der Lehrinhalte. Bremen, Germany: Universit¨at Bremen, ITB. (vol. 13.) Robinsohn, S.B. 1967. Bildungsreform als Revision des Curriculums. Neuwied, Germany: Luchterhand. Ropohl, G. 1979. Eine Systemtheorie der Technik: zur Grundlegung der Allgemeinen Technologie. Munich, Germany/Vienna: Hanser-Verlag. Salomon, O. 1895. The theory of educational Sl¨ojd. London: George Philip & Son. Seubert, R. 1977. Berufserziehung und Nationalsozialismus: das berufsp¨adagogische Erbe und seine Betreuer. Weinheim, Germany: Beltz. Taylor, F.W. 1919. Die Grunds¨atze wissenschaftlicher Betriebsf¨uhrung. Munich, Germany/Berlin: Oldenbourg-Verlag. Welsch, W. 1996. Vernunft: die zeitgen¨ossische Vernunftkritik und das Konzept der transversalen Vernunft. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: Suhrkamp. Wendt, H. 1986. Integration der Wissenschaften: Philosophische und historische Aspekte der Entwicklung der Technikwissenschaften. Zeitschrift der Technischen Hochschule Magdeburg, no. 4. Wiemann, G. 1992. Berufliche Handlungskompetenz und Lernplanung. In: P¨atzold, G., ed. Handlungsorientierung in der beruflichen Bildung, pp. 207–38. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: G.A.F.B.-Verlag. Willmann, O. 1909. Didaktik als Bildungslehre: nach ihren Beziehungen zur Sozialforschung und zur Geschichte der Bildung. Freiburg, Germany: Verlag Herder.
Chapter X.8
Collaborative Work-Related Learning and Technology-Enhanced Learning Alan Brown, Jenny Bimrose and Sally-Anne Barnes
1 Introduction One area of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) that has been increasing in importance has been work-related learning that is grounded in practice at the workplace. Within that area, two significant strands can be identified: collaborative learning and technology-enhanced learning. This chapter will provide examples of substantive collaborative work-related learning and continuing professional development and examine how some forms of technology-enhanced learning, particularly in relation to the development and use of social software, are further enriching collaborative work-related learning and development. The first example of collaborative work-related learning is drawn from the experience of inter-organizational learning in manufacturing supply-chain networks. The second example is of a guidance network that illustrates the use of social software to support the development of a ‘community of interest’ of careers guidance practitioners, policy-makers and researchers.
2 Collaborative Learning in Supply Chain Networks The first example of collaborative work-related learning focuses upon the experience of inter-organizational learning across supply chains in the automotive and aerospace industries. The introduction of modern working practices is always situated in particular cultural and historical contexts (Holman et al., 2005). The challenge facing some relatively small companies participating in supply-chain partnerships over the last two decades is that on their own they often had limited capabilities or resources to effect the type of changes being requested by large manufacturers or much larger (the top tier or tier-one) suppliers. These larger companies were promoting a range of new working practices and associated human resources practices, from lean manufacturing and total quality management to knowledge management, team-working and employee involvement, often in combination with the implementation of advanced manufacturing technology. Supply-chain learning networks were therefore seen as a means of extending learning and development to companies that otherwise would have had much more limited learning goals. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 X.8, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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Supply-chain partnerships draw attention to the importance of trust and highlight the value of perspective-taking as people learn to appreciate looking at issues from other viewpoints and viewing processes that have implications for others in new ways. This was often vital in order to meet the particular challenges of the transfer of knowledge and understanding across organizational boundaries. Trust and perspective-taking can be built up in a number of ways, but the development of both can be powerfully enhanced through engagement in joint problem-solving activities—and this was what the supply chain learning networks attempted. The networks were set up at a time when the main capabilities increasingly being sought in suppliers by the large companies included: (a) consistent output quality (often with zero defects); (b) increased manufacturing flexibility; (c) a commitment to continuous improvement; (d) regular reductions in component costs; (e) improved capabilities for inter-organizational working in relation to integration and co-ordination of production, product design and development and other functions across the supply chain; (f) team-working; (g) multi-skilling; and (h) the development of new management capabilities. The exemplar networks, based in the United Kingdom, sought to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through inter-company, computer-mediated, learning networks that had a strong focus on both immediate performance improvements and broader TVET objectives. The underlying pedagogical idea was that there is considerable value in attempting to link processes of knowledge creation with tackling the core problems of manufacturing practice as a means of engaging learners who have traditionally been difficult for TVET to reach. SMEs in many sectors face intense pressures resulting from the strategies, tactics and operational methods of the large companies that dominate their markets, particularly where these are linked to supply-chain restructuring. Stresses on SMEs also emanate from the extending roles of e-commerce. Yet, operational demands force them to deal continually with immediate tasks and problems, and they generally operate within extremely limited time horizons, leaving them with few opportunities to develop an overall strategic approach to their business. The learning networks sought to support the learning of individuals and organizations in advanced supply systems in the automotive and aerospace industries in ways that increased the prospects for productive collaboration between SMEs and TVET institutions. They also supported the development of new capabilities in SMEs, including the exploitation of opportunities for e-commerce, and fostered a shift from the immediate, short-term focus of SMEs to a more strategic perspective. Supply-chain networks in the aerospace and automobile sectors are often organized hierarchically, with the major manufacturers at the upper, controlling level. The characteristics of suppliers in the different tiers of supply chains vary greatly, with those in the top tier (tier one) being mostly large or very large companies in terms of employee numbers and capitalization. Many have a sophisticated technological base, often producing specialized systems, sub-assemblies or major components. The capacities of the leading tier-one suppliers often include significant research and development, product design and other advanced innovative capabilities. These companies are pressed to develop these capabilities further by
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manufacturers that are increasingly outsourcing elements of product development and manufacturing (Abreu, Beynon & Ramalho, 2000). By contrast, the numerous companies in tiers two to four are mostly SMEs, including many micro-enterprises. Some of these provide specialist functions, but many have very limited technological capabilities. The exemplary networks were primarily concerned with companies in these tiers, although manufacturers and tier-one companies usually played a central, motivating role in stimulating these smaller companies to participate in the learning networks. SMEs’ capacities for response to industrial restructuring and changes in patterns of supply relationships were also shaped by a fundamental divide in the emerging supplier hierarchies between the suppliers of more specialized components or services and suppliers of commodity parts and components. The former generally depend on high levels of skills that can be hard to replicate—as is reflected in product development capacities, relative product complexity and manufacturing capabilities. These capabilities yield relatively high returns and manufacturers or large tier-one customers were often keen to retain these companies as suppliers, because of their contribution to product distinctiveness and value added in the end product. However, commodity items were increasingly sourced by large companies primarily on the basis of price and this extended supply opportunities for suppliers in low labourcost locations, and put pressure on commodity suppliers elsewhere. However, some commodity suppliers in Europe have retained advantages through their proximity to major manufacturing sites and their established abilities to comply with the total quality and ‘kanban’ delivery requirements1 embedded in supply contracts. These networks were therefore formed as a response to the major challenges that the companies faced in improving competitiveness and they focused on learning and knowledge development to facilitate collaborative functioning and improved performance between companies. The networks included manufacturing and distribution companies, training organizations, colleges, universities, regional training and development organizations and representatives of national sectoral organizations. The networks were also supported by a development project the aims of which were to:
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clarify and meet organizational and inter-organizational learning needs where co-ordination and integration of design, production and other processes extends across multi-company, multi-stage product supply systems; identify and utilize the mix of distance-learning technologies that is best suited to the combination of individual learners, SMEs and the project learning networks; support SMEs in adapting to demands for increasing knowledge as a foundation for supply-chain relationships, and in extending their adaptive and innovative capabilities; investigate ways in which information and communication technologies can be used to support learning in team-focused inter-company contexts.
The project aimed to stimulate economic innovation in SMEs through innovative learning (Brown, Rhodes & Carter, 2003). The approach centred on the development of two types of learning networks.
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Type-1 networks were process oriented, comprising workplace teams of operators and managers, and linked up to eight suppliers of a main, tier-one customer. They functioned through learning about the core tools and skills needed to improve performance. Teams undertook ‘hands-on’ learning by doing, which involved problem identification, and the development and testing of solutions. Type-2 networks were aimed at senior managers in SMEs, in tiers two to four, which were linked as buyers or suppliers. The focus was on developing awareness of the scale of the threats they faced, on establishing the measurement and improvement tools required to meet the increasingly demanding quality, cost and delivery standards of customers (UK. DTI, 1999) and on fostering the cultural adaptations needed to thrive in a highly competitive environment. A web-centred learning approach also supported the development of e-commerce capabilities and network group learning undertaken between multiple, linked workplaces. Learning support was provided, face to face and via project web-based facilities, by a team of experienced professional engineers, trainers, learning support specialists and mentors. In the type-1 networks, tier-one companies persuaded their suppliers to identify key individuals with a central responsibility for shop-floor innovation in supply management. These people, nominated as ‘change agents’, became project participants and were invited to a series of one-week, intensive workshops at the tier-one company, led by an engineering tutor together with a learning-support tutor. In the four-week intervals between workshops, the change agents applied what they had learned in a practical context in their own companies. They kept in touch with other students via a computer conferencing system and undertook assignments designed to encourage them to reflect on their learning and the implications of applying it. The learningsupport tutors offered considerable educational support where necessary and marked the students’ assignments. As the project progressed, the focus shifted from work in individual companies to collaborative learning across the network of participating companies. There are obvious advantages of such a programme for the tier-one companies, who see rapid benefits in terms of improvements in the cost, quality and delivery performance of suppliers. There are also competitive advantages for all the companies in the network. Students also gain as individual learners. Overall, the expectation was that the future competitiveness of the companies would be enhanced, whether they were working intensively with a particular customer or not. Indeed, some small companies found that changes and process improvements greatly improved the profitability of their other products as the lessons learned could be applied across their businesses. In the type-2 networks, groups of senior managers from SMEs were brought together at the site of one of the project partners for a diagnostic workshop that aimed to help them identify the learning needs of their companies. They then participated in a series of half-day workshops that matched those needs and, again, used computer-based conferencing and activities to keep in touch and to facilitate
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the application of what they learned within their own environments. Several manufacturers and tier-one suppliers realised that the key to supply-chain performance rested with SMEs, and reorganized their suppliers into networks that, together, concentrated upon enhancing performance through focusing upon quality, cost and delivery. They used engineers to work on production improvements, and sometimes set up learning centres where employees, suppliers and customers could learn away from the immediate pressures of work. Staff employed in open-learning centres could offer training and development, but also became involved in adapting ‘best practice’ to different settings. One driver of change had been the quality of sharing of information, knowledge and experience among suppliers across the supply chain. Overall, this way of working in networks where much emphasis is given to the production of meaning within the networks is indicative of a shift towards a more decentralized view of the processes of knowledge creation. The focus upon SME skill needs in supply chains helped in this respect in that the networks involved a number of people in substantive learning and development who previously may have only reluctantly become involved in continuing professional development (CPD). The networks worked to accomplish organizational and inter-organizational learning and knowledge management across supply chains, as well as supporting individual learning. Looking to the future of TVET, such approaches imply the need for a reshaping of the boundary between higher education, continuing education and training and organizational development. The linking of link processes of knowledge creation with approaches to tackling the core problems of manufacturing practice could be more generally applied as a means of engaging learners (particularly in SMEs) that have traditionally been difficult for formal TVET institutions to reach. Increasingly, those working in complex supply chains are expected to perform effectively when they work in teams or task groups with colleagues with different backgrounds and different kinds of expertise. The approach outlined here was predicated upon the idea that those engaged in particular work practices and processes have a key role to play in how new knowledge is generated and applied in practice (Engestr¨om, 1994). An individual’s knowledge of practice can itself be regarded as a personal synthesis of received occupational knowledge and situational understandings, derived from experimental learning, which are capable of being further transformed through a process of critical reflection. As expertise develops, and new contexts are utilised in the performance of practice, so the processes of analysis, review and reflection can lead to the creation of new forms of knowledge (Engestr¨om, 1994). Additionally, Eraut (2000) points to how people have to deal with contextual variables, such as the time available and the volume of information to be processed, which means that they have to produce appropriate responses in situations where the conditions for ‘best practice’ are not present. Approaches such as those outlined here constitute an important way in which to develop contextualized knowledge of how to affect continuing practice and process improvements. A couple of other conclusions can be drawn. First, it is much easier for TVET practitioners to engage staff from SMEs where there is the support of large companies as lead organizations in supply systems. SMEs were much readier to take part in an initiative that had the explicit approbation of a major customer than if they were
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approached directly by providers of education and training. The participation of major manufacturers and tier-one suppliers in networks acted as powerful ‘hooks’ to engage staff from SMEs in learning activities. Second, the project gave people support to help them engage in patterns of thought conducive to learning, as it gave learners generally, but especially the change agents, the time and space to engage in critical thought, self-reflection and personal development. This included opportunities for both collaborative and self-directed learning. Overall then, the model of learning used in the exemplar networks with an emphasis upon networking, knowledge creation, linking an initial focus upon performance with a progressive broadening of ideas about learning and development was particularly well suited to supporting learning and development in advanced supply systems. TVET played an important role in facilitating substantive learning and the development of a commitment to continuous improvement in these particular supply chain networks. Thus, the approach of linking processes of knowledge creation with tackling the core problems of manufacturing practice can be considered a success. But what is the role of TVET more generally in supporting performance improvement activities? Interestingly, Wood (2005), in his review of organizational performance and manufacturing practices, argues that combining technical and human aspects, as with total quality management and employee involvement, could offer the most productive way forward: ‘If successful, the combined use of modern manufacturing and involvement methods should result in employees being flexible, expansive in their perceptions and willing to contribute proactively to innovation. Their main effect on performance is thus through work restructuring, innovation and learning, not through employee commitment’ (Wood, 2005, p. 199). In this vision, innovation and learning are the drivers of change and, as such, there is an important role for TVET to play, although it will require TVET institutions to engage in the broad type of collaborative activities outlined here, as partners in networks with a commitment to learning, development and performance improvement. All partners in such networks will also have to recognize that the development of work-process knowledge, changing vocational identities and new approaches to knowledge creation themselves raise further learning challenges.
3 Technology-Enhanced Collaborative Learning in a Guidance Network From the above it is clear that collaborative work-related learning and development that engages employers can in some contexts offer very rich learning experiences for those participating in networks focused upon learning, development and performance improvement. However, not all employees interested in work-related learning and development are part of formal employer-supported learning networks, and what prospects do they have to engage in collaborative learning? An alternative model is where individual practitioners participate in a network that is framed around improving professional practice and the second example in this chapter
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looks at the experience of the National Guidance Research Forum (NGRF) in the United Kingdom. The particular focus here will be upon how technology-enhanced learning, particularly in relation to the development and use of social software, can enrich collaborative professional learning and development. While the NGRF is an illustration of the application of social software to support learning in a professional learning network, the lessons learned could also be applied in contexts like those outlined above: employer-supported learning networks. Either way, the challenge is for TVET staff to engage with these technologies in order to enrich further collaborative learning. Technical and vocational education and training is engaging with a growing emphasis on the need to support learners in developing not only the appropriate skills, knowledge and understanding that underpin their chosen vocational area, but also in developing the skills, knowledge and understanding that will facilitate their ability to continue learning throughout the rest of their lives. In this respect, the ability of those working in a range of developing occupations to access information and engage with the resources available on the web is important, but vital too is the ability to engage with particular communities of work-related interest and participate in the development and use of resources to support occupational practice. Indeed, from this perspective what is important is that individuals are able to come together to learn, collaborate and build their work-related knowledge, and social software can play a role in facilitating these outcomes. The way knowledge is developed and how different forms of work-related knowledge are being combined poses particular challenges for those interested in supporting work-related learning. This is because in some fields changes in where knowledge is generated are leading to changes in the way knowledge itself is being organized. Owen et al. (2006) argue that patterns of engagement ‘with multiple and overlapping knowledge streams’, ‘communities of practice’ and communities of interest are evolving in ways whereby knowledge combination, reflection and feedback are becoming increasingly significant because of the development and potential of web-based collaborative learning processes. One response within TVET has been to consider how to support learners to create and utilize both personalized and collaborative knowledge spaces, where learners can access resources (including people, knowledge and tools) in ways that encourage active, collaborative and reflective learning and, importantly, extend their learning beyond the boundaries of formal TVET. The emerging use of social software to support technical and vocational learning and development is already starting to help some learners overcome a position where they would otherwise be rather isolated. Social software can be broadly characterized as ‘software that supports group interaction’ and this would include discussion forums, social networking, weblogs (personal web page with links to other pages), wikis (enabling participants to upload content which is then editable by others) and social bookmarking (tagging of resources in ways that can be shared by the community as a whole). Other web-based tools can also support learning in these contexts, such as syndication systems that can bring together information in an organized way from a number of sources, and other collaboration tools that facilitate people
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working together on documents, audio or video material that support collaborative learning. However, an explosion of the resources available brings with it new problems for prospective learners and mediated activity. Those with expertise in supporting learning seek to offer learners different ways through the mass of material available. The value of high-quality mediated content in order to enrich and extend the learning experience of technical and vocational learners should not be underestimated. In the past, emphasis had often been given to the technological affordances of social software and this led to the building of systems that demonstrated the potential of social software, but remained largely unused in practice when it came to trying to facilitate substantive vocational learning. On the other hand, in the context of continuing professional development, if you build compelling content in the first place then it is much easier to sustain the interest of practitioners and social software can play an important role in that process. There are, however, examples, such as the UK’s web-based NGRF, where great emphasis was placed on the collaborative development of resources. It used social software to support the collaboration required between policy, practitioner, researcher and developer communities in order to generate resources that have been widely used. From a technical perspective, such developments have drawn on the development of open systems that allow communication across different social software resources. One particular challenge with this type of development has been the integration of a range of small open-source social software tools into a learning environment that can facilitate a more personalized approach to learning for learners, even within a broadly collaborative learning environment. Social software has been used as a tool in the development and support of continuing learning for a ‘community of interest’ based around a concern for guidance practice, policy and research. The use of social software meant it was possible to involve practitioners in all stages of the development. One consequence has been that the site has retained sensitivity to the specific and localized needs of practitioners who considered that their skills were in danger of being under-valued and overlooked. The site that has material on ‘effective guidance’ and ‘future labour market trends’ helps novice and experienced practitioners alike to ‘learn how to learn’ to use resources (including access to other professionals) as a means of realising their own needs for continuing professional development. The key themes that emerged from this case were the importance of personalization, collaboration, reflection, review, mediation and continuing learning and development in order to support the learning of those participating in the community. It is clear from this case that, more generally, wikis and social bookmarking can be a significant resource for CPD and professional updating, while collective blogs (an easy way for participants to publish and share ideas) can be used to support particular constituencies within the broad community of interest: for example, students in initial training can discuss issues of common concern, offer peer critique of each other’s developing ideas and offer mutual support at a time when they are developing their own professional identities.
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This use of social software to support CPD can be expected to blossom in an increasingly knowledge-based economy. This means that TVET practices in initial training should give due attention to supporting collaboration and reflection on process, rather than simply concentrating upon the acquisition of content knowledge. However, in many cases, even for CPD, it will still often be necessary for those with specialist TVET knowledge and understanding to play a role in the generation of content—indeed for many over-worked practitioners it is simply unrealistic to expect that large numbers of them will become directly involved in content generation, hence the participation of practitioners may be representative rather than direct. The use of digital technologies and, in particular, social software, enables learners to collaborate, reflect, review, create, combine and use knowledge in ways that make sense for them individually and allows for the development of a community of interest with a strong practitioner ‘voice’, even if only relatively few practitioners contribute directly. The series of developments linked to the emergence of tools, resources and practices that are intended to facilitate collaboration and social interaction have become known as ‘Web 2.0’. Social software, as the name suggests, can also be used for a wide range of primarily social purposes, so it is important to emphasize that the concern here is with the use of such software to support substantive learning, rather than just encouraging the use of the features of the Web 2.0 facilities that allow you to organize your own content and gather information on content that may be of some general interest. In this respect, the mediation of resources by both ‘experts’ and practitioners can play an important role in representing resources in such a way as to increase the possibility that some form of transformative learning may take place. An example of this from the NGRF would be in how the latest labour-market information is not only presented in a form that is more usable by practitioners, but also the opportunity is taken to highlight how popular (mis)representations of the labour market need to be critiqued, not just for the benefit of the practitioners but for their clients too. Crucially, social software not only makes it easier to assemble resources of particular personal interest but it also facilitates access to other people in the broader community of interest. The software also means it is possible for members of the community to make connections between topics and people in ways that are meaningful to them. Indeed, once you have specified the parameters that are of interest to you, then appropriate content can be delivered to you, through the use of syndication facilities. The use of technology to enhance learning, including the use of Web 2.0 tools to facilitate co-operation, means that where compelling content has been built up, as was the case with the NGRF, there is real potential to facilitate collaborative learning based upon a particular ‘community of interest’. In such circumstances, social software can support both collaborative learning and the personalization of learning. While the goal may be the creation of learning communities, at the moment social software is more likely to be used to support communities of interest concerned with and supporting practice at the heart of the process rather than substantive learning— that is, most practitioners will still tend to use the site to find out things rather than engage in substantive learning per se.
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Social software supports interaction between people and, as with other forms of human interaction, learning can play a greater or lesser role in those interactions. The characteristics of social software most useful to support substantive learning are the opportunities for collaborative reflection, for example: (a) through the use of blogs to comment on and extend ideas; (b) the support offered by networks to facilitate communication and help relationships develop within and beyond the virtual community of interest; (c) the value of collaboration itself as users benefit from the active participation of others; (d) the collaborative organization of resources; and (e) the way resources can be aggregated and combined for individual and collaborative use. Additionally, the use of syndication facilities means that individuals can choose the information streams about which they want to be kept informed, and the use of trackback facilities means that individuals can keep track of where other people have been picking up their ideas and referencing their contributions. Tagging allows users to add tags (keywords or abbreviations) to web links to other resources, in a way that means users can search other people’s bookmarks through their tags and information can be presented in multiple categories. Owen et al. (2006) point to how the range of social software is growing and supports tools for multimedia publishing, research and resource collection that allow users to communicate, collaborate and publish in a number of ways, in a variety of media, and act together to build knowledge bases that fit their specific needs. The technological affordances of social software are amplifying both changes in how knowledge is created and organized and the trend to make increasing use of information and communication technologies to support learning. While such changes lead to an increasing emphasis within TVET on equipping people to learn in a digitally rich environment, it is important also to recognize the importance of trying to achieve a balance between learning content and focusing on process. There will still be the need within TVET for structure and a focus on content, not least in recognition of the facts that the ability to master a substantive knowledge base is itself an important skill that can transfer between contexts and that mastery of an existing body of knowledge may be important in gaining access to and progressing in employment and/or continuing education and training. However, the ubiquitous use of ICTs is leading to changing ways of learning. Brown (1999) argued that key skills now concern information navigation, relating to knowing how to navigate through confusing and complex information spaces, and the ability to find resources and use these in new ways or in new contexts. Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) similarly placed great emphasis upon the ability to combine different types of knowledge in ways that amounted to the creation of new forms of knowledge. While the NGRF did encourage the combination of different types of knowledge, in particular valuing knowledge generated in practice and how this might be combined with more traditional forms of knowledge, there was still a role for judgement concerning the quality of resources and information. The judgements could in part come from members of the community of interest, but participants also valued the mediation, pointers and structures of information and resources produced by researchers and trainers with specialist expertise in how to support the learning of others. If you are learning in a community, what you learn depends partly upon the quality of resources that have already been developed.
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A community of interest is affinity-based with participants sharing a particular set of interests. The NGRF was founded upon an interest in improving guidance practice and the provision of a multimedia community knowledge space, where ideas were developed and shared with the community in an iterative process of refinement, review, reflection and development, and where there was the possibility of seeing connections between contributions. It was a great success. However, although collaboration was important, both as a process and because of the contribution it made to improving the quality of the outputs, there was a sense that the formative material generated in the discussion was only of passing interest. For those not directly involved in the generation of new insights, the process was of little subsequent interest and, indeed, if the discussions were left unmediated, a newcomer could feel that they had to do quite a lot of work in following the discussion for comparatively little benefit. It was much more effective for those subsequently searching the site if the discussion outcomes were summarized and the discussion itself was archived. The role of those with specialist expertise in supporting the learning of others was also important in that how content was taken, adapted, mixed and represented in different ways was useful in making the content continue to appear fresh and attractive. Where you are trying to attract busy practitioners to engage in CPD, providing ontologies and taxonomies for the knowledge domain that are practitioner-based but expert-driven is actually very helpful in engaging their attention. The role of social software in supporting NGRF developments came through being able to support multiple representations of ideas, knowledge and resources, in allowing an overall site structure to respond to the concerns of practitioners and by using a number of small development tools, thereby contributing to the collaborative development of key resources for the community of interest focused upon improving guidance practice. The final product may look like a centralized resource, which may appear antithetical to the rationale of social software, but great efforts were made to ensure that practitioner concerns, interests and views are represented. However, there is also an acknowledgement that busy practitioners need compelling reasons to continue to visit the site. They come partly for access to expertise, on, for example, future labour-market trends, as well as to participate in discussion and view the contributions of their colleagues. Overall, the NGRF couples expert-mediated content (including summaries of practitioner-generated material) with lightweight services that link content, blogging, syndication, social bookmarking, links management, collaboration and community discussion facilities based on an open-source content management software platform (Plone). Overall, the NGRF supports collaborative learning in dynamic interaction with professional judgement—a combination that contributes to professional learning in an innovative approach to CPD.
4 Future Prospects for the Role of TVET The examples outlined in this chapter show that employees, managers and professionals are all playing increasingly active roles in their own continuing work-related learning and development, facilitated by ICT developments, including the use of
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social software. This allows them to participate in communities and networks that have an explicit continuing vocational learning dimension. However, what the exemplars also show is that those with particular expertise in how to support the learning of others (that is, TVET professionals or those who combine specialist technical or vocational expertise with a knowledge of how to support the learning of others) can play an important mediating role in terms of how the substantive technical content is represented, in facilitating collaboration and in enriching the learning experience of participants. Collaborative practitioner-focused work-related learning in networks and communities of interest are transforming approaches to continuing professional development, but those with TVET expertise still have an important role in supporting, widening and deepening the learning experience of participants.
Note 1. Kanban, meaning ‘visible record’ in Japanese, is one of the cornerstones of lean manufacturing. Kanban cards, which may be multicoloured, based on priority, are stored in a bin or container that holds the specific parts. When all the parts have been used, the same kanban card is sent back, at which point it becomes an order for more.
References Abreu, A.; Beynon, H.; Ramalho, J. 2000. The dream factory: VW’s modular production system in Resende, Brazil. Work, employment and society, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 265–82. Brown, A.; Rhodes, E.; Carter, R. 2003. Supporting learning in advanced supply systems in the automotive and aerospace industries. In: Rainbird, H.; Fuller, A.; Munro, A., eds. Workplace learning in context. London: Routledge. Brown, J.S. 1999. Learning, working and playing in the digital age. (Paper presented at the Conference on Higher Education of the American Association for Higher Education, Washington, DC, March 1999.) <serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci edu/seelybrown/seelybrown.html> Engestr¨om, Y. 1994. Training for change: new approach to instruction and learning on working life. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Eraut, M. 2000. Non-formal learning, implicit learning and tacit knowledge in professional work. In: Coffield, F., ed. The necessity of informal learning. Bristol, UK: Policy Press. Holman, D. et al. 2005. Introduction to the essentials of the new workplace. In: Holman, D.J., et al., eds. The essentials of the new workplace: a guide to the human impact of modern working practices. Chichester, UK: Wiley. Nonaka, I.; Takeuchi, H. 1995. The knowledge creating company: how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Owen, M. et al. 2006. Social software and learning: an opening education report. Bristol, UK: Futurelab. United Kingdom. Department of Trade and Industry. 1999. Quality, cost, delivery: seven measures for improved competitiveness in manufacturing industry. London: DTI. Wood, S.J. 2005. Organisational performance and manufacturing practices. In: Holman, D.J. et al., eds. The essentials of the new workplace. London: Wiley.
Chapter X.9
Action-Based TVET Hans-Dieter H¨opfner
1 Introduction Wherever experts on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) talk today about learning processes, you can hear the terms ‘action-based learning’, ‘action-oriented learning’ or ‘self-reliant learning’. It seems to be a very successful new way of learning to cope with all of the problems we presently have to face in TVET. But the pedagogical demand for this kind of learning has a long tradition. In Europe it reaches back at least to the seventeenth century and the famous educator Comenius. One will find in his book ‘The Great Didactic’ (Comenius, 1896) many statements such as the following: ‘Apprentices [. . .] learn to forge metal by forging’. He wrote about the importance of doing within the teaching and learning process. Learning by doing was his motto. (This educational motto has almost been forgotten during the intervening centuries.) Central European TVET has rediscovered action as a basis for learning processes within the last decades and has, of course, refined the method. The newly developed action-based TVET approaches have been adopted by various countries that have redesigned their TVET system or just established such a system (Malaysia, Singapore, Viet Nam, China, Uzbekistan amongst others—see, for example, Gao, 2002; H¨opfner & Koch, 2004).
2 Action Regulation Theory as a Blueprint for Action-Based TVET Psychologists have discovered that learning and doing, particularly the actions of human beings, form an integrated whole. Human action has been the focus of their research work in the last forty years and they have developed the so-called ‘action regulation theory’ (see Volpert, 2003, 1994; Hacker & Skell, 1993). Action regulation theory is a psychological theory of human action concerned with modelling the ways in which people set themselves goals, break them down into sub-goals and create a rough plan in their mind before starting to bring it about through coherent R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 X.9, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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action steps. In other words, the relation between thinking and doing is at the centre of this theory. This means that any practical action begins in the mind. Correct action means first correct thinking. Acting means, in this context, that a person has to set a goal for an activity. (This is not the case for all human activities, but it is the case for what TVET is for.) Activities without a goal are not called actions. Fig. 1 shows the connection between action, action structure and action competency and explains the correlation between acting and learning. As shown in Fig. 1, human action starts with setting a goal and breaking it down into a sequence of sub-goals—designing an action plan. This plan has a rough structure and there are different options for the sequence of sub-goals. People who intend taking action apply the plan in their mind—engaging in prospective thinking. They look for helpful knowledge, guidelines, experience in their action competence (‘Action–store’ see Fig. 1) and inform themselves from external information sources. Then they use appropriate competencies and information for making a decision: What could be the right plan? Within the planning and decision-making phase, a person learns to memorize information from external information sources. They learn which competencies are useful for planning in a specific situation. The plan is put into practice after a decision is made that the plan is appropriate. The acting person follows the plan and compares interim results with the planned sub-goals. Comparing results clarifies whether or not it is necessary to change individual activity steps or the whole plan.
Interdependence of competence for action, structure for action and execution of action Competence for action
Structures for action
Feedback
Having a command of - guidelines + criteria - operational patterns - planning strategies etc. (Action-store)
Design of an action structure to solve problems
Brain activities
Feedback
Execution of action
Execution of the designed action structure to solve problems
Area of execution
Fig. 1 Interdependence of competence for action, structures for action and execution of action
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Within the execution phase, a person learns to monitor his or her activities and memorizes successful activity steps (skills) and appropriate knowledge—this strengthens the desire to achieve the set goal. After the action, the actor compares the results with the original plan in a final assessment: has everything been considered? What should I change next time? Should I extend the search for information? What kinds of knowledge and skills have been especially helpful? A successful plan and the knowledge necessary for carrying it out will now be stored in the mind (action competence). The procedure explained above is called a ‘complete action’. A person learns self-reliance during this kind of action. Complete action and its results establish action competence in our mind in an optimal way. Table 1 gives an overview of the components of action competence. ‘Knowledge’ and ‘ability’ are other expressions for technical competence, the ability to learn or ‘learning competence’ and methodical competence, as well as human and social competence. Action competence comprises more than these— volition and feelings are as important as the other components. In complete action, actors learn to strengthen their volition; they become acquainted with acts of willpower. They are rewarded with the positive feelings associated with success and they learn to cope with negative feelings arising from failure. Table 1 Overview of the components of action competence Knowledge
r r r r
General knowledge; Special knowledge; Guidelines (how to communicate; how to plan etc.); Operation patterns (skills);
Volition
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To achieve aims; To be responsible; To act independently;
...
... Ability
r r r
...
Carrying out operations; Carrying out planning processes (individually or in a team); Applying knowledge;
Feeling
r r r
Feel progress; Feel responsibility; Feel independent;
...
3 Action-Based Learning and Trainee-Centred Teaching Training people to cope with assignments in the world of work—this is what TVET is mainly about. Work assignments have more-or-less defined goals, thus the preceding statements about action regulation theory are true for those who have to deal with
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them. They have to follow the sequence of steps leading to the complete action. A training/teaching process can be focused on these steps. But action regulation theory is not just about describing the steps, it is also about describing the most successful (for learning progress) way to proceed with these steps—self-reliance. Therefore, training/teaching in TVET should be trainee centred and focus on self-reliant learning as much as possible. The teacher/instructor in TVET is no longer a master who gives all the information, demonstrates everything that has to be done and explains every detail. He is no longer the great supervisor who monitors all trainees’ activities and assesses them all the time. He concentrates on trainees’ self-reliant learning while they perform the action. He is not the old-fashioned patriarch; he is an advisor and coach for trainees in the learning process. That’s what ‘trainee-centred teaching’ and, of course, ‘action-based learning’ are about. Fig. 2 shows the learning and working steps as a cycle with the following phases. Trainees have to reach a given goal (according to the assignment) on their own or they have even to come up with a goal by themselves. Coming up with their own goal in a learning and work assignment is related, for example, to: (a) the development of their own version of a product; (b) making changes to a given design in accordance with the material available; (c) the development of technology for assembling or improving given tools; (d) setting a time limit for assembling procedures, etc. The teacher/instructor sets a range of activities, material and time, gives hints to help
The process of self-reliant learning The Theprocess processofofself-reliant self-reliantlearning learningcan canbe bedescribed describedby bythe thesteps stepsofofaacomplete completeaction actionmodel. model.This This action actioncan canbe beportrayed portrayedasasaacycle cycleinvolving involvingthe thefollowing followingsuccessive successivesteps steps
Information collecting
5 Evaluation
1 Setting
Information collecting
2 Planning
goals
the pathway for the action
of action and its results
Information collecting
Information collecting
4 Executing
3 Decision-making regarding utilization of plan and resources
the action process and
monitoring
Information collecting
Fig. 2 The cycle of self-reliant/action-based learning and working
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trainees find their own goal. (If the goal is provided to them, the teacher/instructor has to motivate the trainees to make it their own.).
3.1 Planning Trainees plan the steps in a team or individually. They work on several variations of the plan. The teacher/instructor gives hints and makes them aware of information sources. Other teachers (e.g. for general studies) can give lectures on certain subjects and special assignments for the acquisition of appropriate knowledge.
3.2 Decision-Making Trainees decide to pursue one of their plans and present the decision to the teacher/ instructor and their colleagues. The teacher/instructor indicates mistakes and inaccuracies within the plan and gives advice regarding changes to be made.
3.3 Execution and Monitoring Trainees follow their work-plan and monitor their activities and outcomes. To do this, they fill in monitoring sheets provided by the teacher/instructor. Other teachers (e.g. general studies) provide trainees with information appropriate for the execution and monitoring process. Teachers/instructors should intervene only if a dangerous situation occurs when using machines, if trainees don’t follow health and safety regulations, if an appropriate outcome is jeopardized or if the trainee is going to fall seriously short of the set goal.
3.4 Evaluation Trainees initially evaluate their entire approach for completing the assignment by themselves. They use a standard assessment sheet designed by the teacher/instructor or by the trainees themselves in co-operation with the teacher/instructor. This evaluation is double-checked by the teacher/instructor. Trainees are also responsible for a presentation of their learning and working activity and its results. Teachers of general studies support this activity by preparing lectures and special assignments. Hence, it follows that action-based TVET demands a new role of the teacher as well. The new role of teachers and instructors in trainee-centred teaching was described above as that of a coach and advisor. This role has been explained in the literature, often by comparing it with the ‘old role’ of advising in a four-step method (see Box 1). The contrast between the new role and the ‘old one’ and action-based learning and the four-step method in TVET should not be exaggerated (Bader, 2002). The four-stage method is appropriate for acquiring simple skills,
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while the action-based learning process is designed for the acquisition of complex skills. Nevertheless, comparison of the four-stage method and action-based, self-reliant learning explains very clearly the new role of the trainer/teacher demanded in TVET teaching processes:
Box 1. The four-stage method STAGE 1 (EXPLAINING/LISTENING) The instructor sets the goal of a training unit. He/she outlines the skills and knowledge to be accomplished after finishing the unit. The importance of skills and knowledge that have to be acquired is emphasized, i.e. their importance for a future learning and work process by a skilled worker (motivation). They review with trainees the skills and knowledge that they have already acquired and point out how they are related to the targeted skills and knowledge and they give an introductory lecture on the new contents that have to be acquired. STAGE 2 (DEMONSTRATING/WATCHING) The instructor names individual steps of a task that have to be carried out and demonstrates each step while naming it. Trainees are asked to follow attentively. More information is given during the demonstration. In the case of complex skills, the trainees are requested to write down the named steps and the given information. STAGE 3 (CORRECTING/IMITATING) The trainees repeat what they have learned and the instructor carefully corrects the trainees. The trainees imitate the action of the instructor as closely as they can. They explain what they do and speak aloud the names of the steps. Monitoring is the main activity of the instructor at this stage. STAGE 4 (EVALUATION/PRACTICING) The trainees apply the acquired skills and knowledge to different work situations. The instructor evaluates the results: he/she describes the level of the skills, states the progress of the learning process and explains what is necessary to improve. The instructor assesses the performance level of the trainees.
Action-based TVET requires active learners. Learners who are given an assignment for self-reliant/action-based learning pass through all the activities presented in Table 2.
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Table 2 Comparison of teacher-centred teaching and trainee-centred teaching Teacher/instructor-centred teaching (‘old-role’-teacher/instructor) Teacher/instructor is Trainee is learning by teaching by Explaining Listening
Demonstrating how to do
Trainee-centred teaching (‘new-role’-teacher/instructor)
Teacher/instructor is teaching by Designing learning and work assignments and guiding with questions and hints Discussing information results Watching and imitating Designing learning and work assignments and guiding with questions and hints Discussing plans
Supervising and monitoring
Following instructions
Evaluating
Listening and accepting
Trainee is learning by Self-reliant informing
Presenting information results Self-reliant planning
Presenting planning results Self-reliant monitoring
Designing learning and work assignments and guiding with questions and hints Giving advice and hints Self-reliant implementing Designing learning and Self-reliant assessing work assignments and assessment sheets Discussing the results Presenting results of all and final assessment activities
4 Learning and Work Assignments as Core Elements Trainee-centred teaching is the basis for action-based learning. Efficient actionbased learning is only possible if the teaching process is trainee-centred—that means focused on self-reliant learning. ‘Learning and work assignments’ are core elements of this teaching process in TVET. These assignments require different levels of performance. Three kinds of assignment exist, as shown in Fig. 3.
4.1 ‘Closed’ Assignments These assignments require that a learner undertakes a complete action for a given goal (set by a teacher/instructor). Trainees learn particularly how to plan steps for accomplishing given goals acting entirely on their own or in teams, how to decide on an appropriate approach/method, how to monitor their activities and how to evaluate the course of action and its result. To accomplish this, they learn how to look for and obtain appropriate information independently, and how to gain information in a
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Various stages of self-reliant/action-based learning
“OPEN, INNOVATIVE” learning and work assignments (OILWAs) Organisation-based on-the-job training styled assignments
“OPEN” learning and work assignments (OLWAs) The TheTeacher teacher Acts acts
OLWA have some general guiding questions & hints
Increasingly increasingly as asModerator, moderator,
“CLOSED” learning and work assignments (CLWAs)
Coach, coach, Facilitator facilitator or or
CLWA contain detailed guiding questions and hints
Advisor advisor The Self Increases Self––Reliant reliant Learning learning increases
Fig. 3 Different learning and work assignments require different stages of self-reliant learning
finely tuned co-operative process. In addition to this, they can acquire the required knowledge, skills and attitudes for working in a specific field. The teacher or instructor can foster the acquisition of specific knowledge, skills and guidelines for communication and co-operation through well-formulated aids for self-reliant learning, such as guiding questions, orders, advice and assessment sheets.
4.2 ‘Open’ Assignments These tasks require that learners take complete action, including the finding and formulation of a goal in a given framework. The framework determines the scope for designing the goal (e.g. a number of alternatives, the size of a product, the timetable for manufacturing and the available materials). With this, the learners are more motivated and they act with more commitment and responsibility for ‘their’ product. Trainees also learn how to plan steps for accomplishing goals acting entirely on their own or in teams, how to monitor their activities and how to evaluate the course of action and its result. They learn how to look for and obtain appropriate information independently, and how to gain information in a finely tuned co-operative process. In addition, they can acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes for working in a specific field. The teacher or instructor fosters acquisition of specific knowledge, skills and guidelines for communication and co-operation at this stage of self-reliant learning with more general and less formulated aids. The latter depends on the performance level of the students and their progress in self-reliant learning.
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4.3 ‘Open, Innovative’ Assignments ‘Open, innovative’ assignments are exceptionally ‘open’ as assignments. Everything that has been written about ‘open’ assignments above is also true for ‘open, innovative’ assignments, other than the fact that the range of goals is wider and that the trainees have to establish decision-making and evaluation criteria by themselves. These assignments are related to the organization of work. They are supposed to enable learners to participate actively in the organization of work. ‘Open, innovative’ assignments must be designed in a manner that encourages trainees to ask themselves questions such as:
r r r
Why is the technique being applied structured like this and why does the whole enterprise or the department use it in this way? Why is work organized in precisely this way at this workplace? Could the job be done in a different way? What are the alternatives?
The principal characteristic of these assignments is that learners are asked to discover and use instruments associated with work organization to accomplish tasks, to seek alternatives and innovative solutions, often through a teamwork approach, to evaluate various proposals and, therefore, to become capable of making wellfounded choices. Teachers and instructors design the assignment and aids for the planning process. The use of independent problem-solving processes by the team of trainees for such complex tasks requires a teacher/instructor as coach. The coach has to prepare the trainee (team-leader) who moderates discussions on the challenges of the assignment following a discussion scheme and they have to show the traineemoderated workshop how to establish decision-making and evaluation criteria. Coaching means here that the main activities have to be carried out by the trainees and their team-leaders. The teacher or instructor intervenes only if the team-leader has serious problems in the moderation process, if it is necessary to provide trainees with little-known information or if trainees overlook important decisionmaking/evaluation criteria.
5 Action-Based Training within a New Didactic Approach The author of this chapter does not want to see the ‘action-based learning approach’ in conflict with other approaches for TVET designed in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands or Denmark (also recently in Malaysia) that have real work processes at the centre of their considerations. Action orientation is a well-fitting part of these approaches and refers mainly to learning and teaching methods. Within these new didactic approaches for TVET, action orientation and its learning and work assignments play an important role (see Fig. 4 below).
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Fig. 4 A new didactic approach for TVET
The notion of ‘didactic’ that we refer to here is much broader than that one usually used in English-speaking countries. This broader view—as used in Central Europe—is concerned with:
r r r r
the methods of teaching and learning and their mutual association; the objectives of teaching and learning and their relationship; the subjects being imparted and acquired; the learning environments and their design and organization.
Additionally, didactics is concerned with the interdependence of these four elements. The TVET components that didactics is concerned with are related to the work process. TVET for individuals who have to cope with the requirements of modern workplaces and lifelong learning must be mainly related to the work process rather than with a technical discipline. The logic of technical disciplines is the logic of engineers—not workers. It is the state-of-the-art work process that has to be the main resource for the formulation of learning and teaching objectives and subjects. It also is the most appropriate environment for training and it determines actionbased learning methods. The notion of the work process as the decisive factor in designing TVET is basic for the didactic approach shown in Fig. 4. We can find in this figure learning and work assignments as a core element surrounded by methods, objectives, subjects and reference to the learning environment. Objectives should be derived from the work process. As mentioned above, the modern work process can be described as a complete sequence of action: from
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the customer/foreman’s order through rough work planning and cost estimation; concrete work planning and ordering of materials; manufacturing/maintaining/ producing to final cost calculation and presentation to the customer. In addition to technical competencies, the work process requires the ability of working in teams, joint planning, decision-making, monitoring and evaluating (communication skills, mutual responsibility). Action is often triggered by problems and requires self-reliant gathering of information. Appropriate contents for TVET can be determined by the analysis of complex state-of-the-art work processes. Skilled workers and other work-process experts should be the main sources of this analysis. In other words, occupational workprocess-related curricula could be designed based on the results of workshops with skilled workers and experts from the field. In these workshops, workers from several state-of-the-art enterprises who have broad-based experience and are highly skilled should be asked for core tasks of their work processes, and experts from the field should contribute their insights regarding anticipated technological development. There are core tasks that provide an overview of the job/occupation and core tasks that give a deeper understanding of conditions and requirements for the job/occupation. The methods are clearly based on the action-based learning and teaching approach as described above. Thus, they are achieved through using the learning and working assignments as already stated. Learning and work assignments are also the core elements of the TVET didactic approach. They contain aspects from all (work-related) elements of the approach and express their interdependence. Learning and work assignments are assignments for trainees designed by their teachers and trainers. They are closely related to assignments for workers at the workplace or they can even be real assignments for a specific workplace. These assignments are adapted for the learning process with additional questions formulated to guide the problem-solving process, hints for possible sources of information, instructions for individual or team work, self-assessment sheets, guidelines for evaluation and presentation, etc. The process of completing learning and work assignments is a combination of physical action, thinking, decision-making, etc. The contents for designing learning and work assignments are determined by the work-process-related curricula. Learning and work assignments combine and integrate learning and working environments. The learning environment for work-process-related TVET has to be as close as possible to the real world of work—ideally it should be identical. The closer the training is related to the actual modern work process, the more opportunities exist for trainees to acquire up-to-date technical and social competence.
6 Final Commentary TVET is mainly related to actions within the world of work. Thus, there is no contradiction among experts that acting plays an important role in the education and training processes of TVET (see Fischer, 2003). But opinions on ‘what kind of acting it has to be?’ are different. This chapter refers to the action and, at the
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same time, work-process-based TVET. Action-based learning is embedded in an embracing pedagogic view of the work process. Under this view, actions of work processes and their acquisition are related to the context of a company’s overall activity and work organization, require continuing professional development (activities yield learning potential) and often they include the response to demands for designing one’s own world of work (work organization, tools, auxiliaries, etc.). Such kinds of action-based TVET have been more and more acknowledged as very efficient in the training of manpower that can cope with challenges of up-to-date technology and related work processes (Adolph, 2001). An example of the introduction of a new TVET system is supposed to emphasize its importance: On May 19, 2004, the Malaysian government decided to improve the existing TVET system by the implementation of the National Dual Training System (NDTS) to accomplish the training of 31,500 high skilled workers up to the year 2010. With the cabinet’s decision to implement the NDTS, it was decided to develop curricula for all occupations on the basis of work and business processes. With this new curriculum approach, learning and teaching concepts are needed to explore the potential of work processes for quality training. In this context, the cabinet decision refers to the implementation of self-reliant learning, action-oriented teaching and the application of learning and work assignments. Hence, the contents of learning and work assignments are closely related to actual work assignments in work processes at the place of work; they complement the newly designed curricula and are suitable to network training institutes and companies in the NDTS in their joint effort of training (H¨opfner, Koch & Raihan, 2006).
References Adolph, G. 2001. Wissensaneignung durch Handeln und Gestalten. In: Fischer, M. et al., eds. Gestalten statt Anpassen in Arbeit, Technik und Beruf, pp. 171–88. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Bader, R. 2002. Leitziel der Berufsbildung: Handlungskompetenz. Die berufsbildende Schule, no. 6, pp. 176–82. Comenius, J.A. 1896. The Great Didactic. London: Adam & Charles Black. Fischer, M. 2003. Grundprobleme didaktischen Handelns und die arbeitsorientierte Wende in der Berufsbildung. <www.bwpat.de> Gao, W. 2002. Zum neuen Lehr-Lern-Modell. Shanghai, China: Tongji. Hacker, W.; Skell, W. 1993. Lernen in der Arbeit. Berlin/Bonn, Germany: Bundesinstitut f¨ur Berufsbildung, der Generalsekret¨ar. H¨opfner, H.-D.; Koch, H. 2004. Self-reliant learning in technical education and vocational training. Kuala Lumpur. H¨opfner, H.-D.; Koch, H.; Raihan, A. 2006. K-worker training with learning and work assignments in NDTS. Kuala Lumpur. Volpert, W. 1994. Wider die Maschinenmodelle des Handelns: Aufs¨atze zur Handlungsregulationstheorie. Lengerich, Germany: Pabst. Volpert, W. 2003. Wie wir handeln – was wir k¨onnen. Ein Disput als Einf¨uhrung in die Handlungspsychologie. Sottrum, Germany: Weber.
Chapter X.10
Vocational Learning: Contributions of Workplaces and Educational Institutions Stephen Billett
1 Vocational Learning Through Work and College This chapter identifies contributions to the learning of vocational practice from experiences in both educational institutions and workplaces. It proposes that each of these settings potentially provides particular contributions to learning vocational practice. When each set of contributions is usefully exercised and integrated, together they stand to purposefully support rich and robust vocational learning. Yet, this integration is not possible in all circumstances. Therefore, it is important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the contributions from both kinds of settings, and how best their learning potential can be maximized and their weaknesses limited. This chapter is structured to achieve these purposes. Consideration is given first to the kinds of knowledge required to be learned for effective vocational practice. Next, the contributions to learning vocational practices from both workplace and educational settings are discussed through a consideration of the strengths and weaknesses of their respective contributions. Consideration is then given as to how best to integrate the contributions of both environments to provide optimum learning experiences.
2 Goals for Vocational Practice Three kinds of educational goals are often associated with the learning of vocational practice: (a) generic skills required for work; (b) the development of occupational specific knowledge; and (c) the development of the skills required for particular workplaces. Generically applicable work competencies (e.g. Mayer, 1992; The Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, 1992; EUROTECNET, 1994) are premised on a belief that, once secured, these competencies can be applied across all kinds of workplaces and work practices. Skills in ‘problem-solving’, ‘working in teams’ and ‘communication’, for instance, are claimed to be applicable in a range of workplace contexts. However, this ambitious claim is yet to be proved, because workplace requirements are often highly specific and shaped by local requirements. Thus, what constitutes generic or even occupational competence R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 X.10, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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is situational. In other words, the goals for learning are shaped by particular requirements, not just by general workplace competencies (core skills). Hence, common workplace requirements (e.g. teamwork, problem-solving) only find form and can be judged in particular workplaces (Beven, 1997; Stevenson, 2002). While they represent common requirements for performance at work, they need to be contextualized in particular work settings. The goal of developing occupational knowledge is the one most commonly sought by vocational education systems. The concepts, procedures and dispositions required to practice an occupation (e.g. carpentry, plumbing, hairdressing, cooking) are identified through consultations with industry representatives and sometimes with practitioners. These consultations lead to the development of national curriculum documents and standards aimed at guiding the teaching and assessment of occupational knowledge within national vocational education systems. These goals articulate the canonical requirements for practising a particular occupation: the development of procedures, concepts and dispositions required for carpentry, nursing, vehicle maintenance, hairdressing, etc. However, on their own, these national statements of occupational competence are not sufficient to elaborate how these requirements are manifested in particular workplace settings. For instance, the requirements for competent hairdressing practice are constructed quite differently across hairdressing salons (Billett, 2001a). Similarly, nurses’ work requirements differ across and within hospitals’ wards in metropolitan areas, country towns or in remote communities, as do motor vehicle mechanics’ work across different kinds of garages (Billett, 1999). A more situated view of workplace competence addresses both the specific requirements of the workplace and emphasizes the diversity of those requirements within an occupational field as salient educational goals. From this perspective, relying on securing skills and understanding at the occupational level alone is insufficient. The skills required to practise within and across workplace settings are important for understanding both situational performance and adaptability of practice. Rather than being able to adapt or transfer occupational knowledge per se, the capacity for adaptability or transfer is premised on understanding variations of practice (Billett, 2001a). These outcomes cannot be learned without engaging in workplace settings. So both general workplace competencies and occupational knowledge require contextualizing in particular workplace settings to be effective goals for robust vocational learning. How these goals might best be secured through the potential contributions of both experiences in workplaces and in educational institutions stands as an important goal for appraising the worth of these settings.
3 Learning through Work A series of studies into learning through work (Billett, 2001b) proposes that much of the vocational knowledge required for work performance is and can be learned through everyday work activities. This is hardly a novel claim as across most
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apprenticeship schemes, for instance, the majority of the apprentices’ indentures is taken up with workplace experiences. Also, it is likely that most learning obtained throughout working life arises through engagement in work activities. Moreover, for many workers the workplace is the only location where they can learn their vocational knowledge, as no college-based provision is available or accessible. The contributions of workplaces to vocational learning suggest that these contributions are threefold (Billett, 2001b): (a) everyday work activities; (b) direct guidance; and (c) indirect guidance. Firstly, learning occurs through engagement in work tasks in the workplace. Through engaging in goal-directed activities, such as work tasks, more than deploying their knowledge and capacities, individuals are also engaged in reinforcing, refining and transforming those capacities through their use. The kinds of learning individuals secure are person dependent and premised on the novelty of the activity for the individual and how they engage with those activities. Encountering a new task and engaging in it purposefully can lead to new learning, because it extends what individuals know. Yet learning in the form of reinforcement and refinement (i.e. improving) is secured through performing familiar tasks. Through opportunities to practice and improve, individuals are making increasingly mature approximations of the tasks in which they are engaging (Anderson, 1982). So, there are important legacies (i.e. learning) arising from the deployment of individual’s knowledge when engaging in and completing work activities. Indeed, a key contribution to learning through work is the opportunity to reinforce and refine new learning through repeated practice, which leads to the improvement and perfecting of these capacities. Opportunities for significant authentic practice are usually only available, albeit gratuitously, in workplaces. Anderson (1982) refers to the process of compilation and automation arising from repeating the same activities until the procedures can be conducted without recourse to conscious thought. This permits the individual to use their conscious thought in planning for and monitoring their activities. This is an important contribution of the rehearsal that arises from everyday work activities. Opportunities for this kind of rehearsal are rarely available in educational institutions. So, the first contributions of learning through work are those arising via everyday work activities engaging individuals in work-related goal-directed activities whose legacies include reinforcing, refining or extending work-related procedures and concepts. Because these activities are situated in particular workplaces, it is likely that these legacies will reflect particular instances of practice. Close guidance consisting of support provided by more expert or experienced coworkers constitutes the second key contribution. The sources of knowledge required for performance reside outside the individual. Hence, it has to be accessed and constructed from these social sources. More experienced co-workers possess vocational knowledge and know how it is applied in the particular workplace. This guidance can provide direct insights, understandings and access to procedures that may be difficult for individuals to learn on their own (Billett, 2001b). These co-workers can assist learning by making the requirements for performance explicit (i.e. ‘what we do here is. . .’) and making the learner understand how and why the practice is
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undertaken in a particular way. This close guidance can comprise direct assistance and advice about how to conduct procedures or to understand work-related concepts. This, the traditional role of the more expert worker, provides modelling, coaching and explanations to the novice (Collins, Brown & Newman, 1989). Through interactions and collaborations with more experienced co-workers, workplaces afford access to forms of vocational knowledge (i.e. concepts and procedures) that cannot be learned through everyday activities alone. The third contribution to learning vocational practice is through the more indirect guidance provided by workplaces. This includes the physicality of the workplace that provides clues and cues about how work has to be practised, the standards required and the means for conducting that work. These external sources of knowledge are equally important for workplace performance. The workplace provides these resources gratuitously. Yet, they are contributions that need to be accessed through the learners’ engagement. In some cultures, this is the only kind of guidance available and the learning of skills takes place through observation and trial and error based on observable models of practice (Pelissier, 1991). Typically, these instances of learning through observation and imitation feature little in the way of intentional teaching (Lave, 1990). The potency of these indirect forms of learning support are probably not fully understood and may be underestimated. The learning potential of workplaces, then, is constituted through the experiences they provide. Through practice, the kinds of skills required for work performance can be accessed, refined and reinforced. These kinds of opportunities to engage in practice are simply unavailable in educational institutions. These experiences provide contributions to learning through close and indirect guidance, support and the opportunity to develop the skills through practice over time as part of everyday activities.
4 The Weaknesses of Learning through Work However, there are limitations to learning through work activities and interactions. These include: (a) inappropriate learning; (b) access to appropriate experiences; (c) lack of understanding; (d) reluctance by workers to share knowledge; (e) the absence of expertise; and (f) lack of interest by workers (Billett, 2001b). These are now elaborated. Some of the knowledge learned through everyday work activity is inappropriate. It comprises bad habits, dangerous short cuts or uninformed practices. Also, there can be difficulties in accessing the kind of activities required to develop rich knowledge for workplace practices. Access to these activities and interactions may be inaccessible or unavailable. Therefore, weak, incomplete or uninformed learning can result. There can also be a lack of understanding about the goals required for workplace performance. The required outcomes of work activities may be difficult for workers to observe and understand. For instance, in studies of coalmining (Billett, 1993), it was described how coal extracted from the mine was washed in a coalwashing plant prior to being placed on trains and taken to a coal-loading terminal
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several hundred kilometres away where the coal was graded and loaded onto ships for export. However, the goals to which their work was directed, including reducing the amount of foreign matter in the coal being sent from the mine to the washing plant, were not understood by the miners. Yet, unless the coalminers understood what occurs in locations remote from theirs, their work could not be as effective. Indeed, a common comment from workers who have acquired their skills through everyday practice is that they learn how things are done, but not why they are done in a particular way (Billett & Rose, 1997). In other words, understanding about work activities might not be secured. Understanding of practice is crucial when change or variations to routine work activities are required. Without understanding the processes and practices, crucial errors might occur. Experienced co-workers may be un-co-operative or unavailable. Experts or more experienced co-workers might be reluctant to assist others in learning the knowledge required for workplace performance (Billett, 2001b). Particularly in contested or unstable workplaces, more experienced workers may fear losing their jobs to those whom they have assisted to learn. There might also be an absence of expertise, particularly with activities that are novel to the workplace. For instance, new software or technology might require particular expertise, but this is not available because nobody in the workplace has any understanding of these tasks. Therefore, unless processes are available to assist workers understand the processes and practices they are engaged in, there may be problems with performing work tasks that are novel in some way. This is of particular concern when the knowledge required for performance is difficult to access because it is remote from observation and tactile engagement, as when technology obscures the operation of workplace procedures (Zuboff, 1988). Finally, workers may be reluctant to devote time and effort to the processes of learning the requirements for effective practice. Individuals are selective in the activities in which they engage, perhaps because they cannot see the relevance of expending effort. Yet, unless workers engage in the activities with interest and effort, their learning may be weak. Therefore, the direction and intensity of workers’ engagement with the knowledge to be learned is essential for rich learning to arise. These sets of factors stand to limit the kinds and quality of learning arising through workplace experiences and to weaken the learning potential of workplace experiences.
5 Improving Workplace Learning Experiences It follows that improving the potential of workplace learning experiences can be achieved by maximizing the positive contributions identified earlier and enacting intentional workplace interventions to minimize or overcome the weaknesses just described. Overall, improving the learning potential of the workplace is seen to reside in three kinds of interventions: (a) developing and enacting a workplace ‘learning curriculum’; (b) enacting guided learning strategies in the
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workplace; and (c) engaging workers in critical reflection upon workplace experiences. A workplace ‘learning curriculum’ organized to assist learners engaging in a sequenced set of experiences can develop their workplace knowledge. The concept of a ‘learning curriculum’ is taken from Lave (1990) who identified a pathway of activities through which apprentices learned tailoring. The apprentices progressed along a pathway of activities moving from tasks with low risk factors and accountabilities (e.g. finishing and ironing) where mistakes can be tolerated, through to tasks requiring higher levels of competence, where mistakes came at a high cost. However, beyond considerations for the production of garments, this pathway of activities was inherently pedagogical. The apprentices first worked on finishing and ironing garments that were almost complete. These activities provided opportunities to observe the standard required for finished work, and to which their own efforts would need to be directed (i.e. the goals for their work performance). The sequencing of activities is also pedagogic insofar as it develops initial skills and understandings before elaborating more complex and high-risk skills. Similarly, within hairdressing salons (Billett, 2005), the apprentices first learned to engage with clients through negotiating with them about drinks, then later they further developed their negotiating and communication skills through interactions while washing hair, and rinsing out colours and chemicals. They then often worked alongside the more experienced hairdressers and observed how that hairdresser interacts with clients, and were able in this way to access close guidance in the development of procedures and understanding about hairdressing practice. Similarly, the hairdressing tasks the apprentices learned are structured in a way that develops capacities to perform tasks where a failure is not crucial (i.e. they learn how to cut men’s hair before women’s) in the first instance, and then advancing to more elaborate skills through guided and carefully monitored practice. So a pathway of pedagogically structured activities needs to be identified for each workplace that takes learners from engaging in activities of low accountability through to activities that are more crucial to the workplaces’ operation. Along the way, there will be identified tasks that are difficult to learn. These are the kind of activities that probably require direct guidance from more experienced workers. For instance, in a food processing plant, beyond identifying the most appropriate sequence of work activities, it was those workers who had most recently acquired skills who were able to identify work activities that were particularly difficult to learn (Billett & Boud, 2001). The second basis to improve workplace learning is to use guided-learning strategies for developing the procedural and conceptual knowledge required for workplace performance. These strategies focus directly on the development of procedures or concepts (e.g. understanding) that cannot be learned without guidance. Modelling, coaching and scaffolding are effective for the development of procedures, whereas questioning, diagrams, analogies and explanations seem to be more effective at developing understanding (Billett, 2001b). A key requirement for guided learning is that the more experienced worker actually possesses the knowledge that needs to be learned and is adept at guiding the
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learning experiences, including being competent in the use of specific workplace learning strategies, such as those referred to above. In this way, the workplace expert or more experienced co-workers can assist learning through close guidance and working collaboratively with novices or less experienced co-workers, as do craftsmen when assisting apprentices’ learning. Beyond knowing how and when to apply the specific guided-learning strategies, closely supporting the development of other workers’ skills includes organizing appropriately sequenced access to the knowledge (i.e. managing the learning curriculum), particularly those forms of knowledge that individuals would not learn alone (Billett, 2003a). Moreover, this guidance includes organizing and monitoring an individual worker’s progression along the pathway of activities comprising the workplace learning curriculum. A third level of guidance is to engage in reflection about workplace experiences in order to develop understanding that has application beyond the particular workplace and the particular point in time (Billett, 2001b). A workplace incident (e.g. accident, ruined product) might be used to help understand the cause of the incident and then could encourage these workers to think about where else such an incident might occur. That is, seeking to take learning from specific workplace incidents and using these incidents to project and extend this learning to other circumstances and situations. This kind of reflection can assist in the development of practice that is adaptable to other circumstances and situations. It is these kinds of processes that can be used to apprise learners of what constitutes canonical occupational knowledge and what are common workplace competencies. So, in order to improve the learning potential of everyday workplace experiences, it is proposed that this can be achieved through organizing, monitoring and assisting the progress of individuals along the workplace’s learning curriculum. Organizing the workplace curriculum comprises the following activities. First, organizing and sequencing pathways of experience that take the novices through different stages to those requiring expert performance. These pathways will be determined by the kinds of activities to be learned and by what constitutes expert performance in the particular workplace. It is also necessary to develop the capacities of individuals in the workplace to guide the learning of others and to engage in active learning. Moreover, enacting workplace learning arrangements includes identifying opportunities for optimal learning. Of course, such arrangements are not generated without effort and require a set of workplace values that are supportive of the workplace becoming a learning environment. Importantly, many of the components for making workplaces effective learning environments will probably already exist: the routine and new work activities and interactions in which workers engage; the expertise and experience of existing workers; the agency of all in the workplace to engage and learn through work; and the nuanced understanding about how best to learn and develop further understandings about the situated practice of the workplace. Added to these are opportunities for workers to practise and refine their capacities, and to come together to share their ideas and develop them further through workplace meetings and interactions. Workplace guidance has been shown to be effective when used in overcoming some of the limitations identified above (Billett, 2001b). Moreover, this guidance is used to
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organize and monitor the progress of individuals along a pathway of workplace experiences (i.e. the learning curriculum) that will assist them to become more competent. An expert or experienced co-worker who is open to sharing knowledge, developing the skills of co-workers and the potential contributions of those who are less specifically skilled provides this guidance. Yet, in times of change, experts’ knowledge is less certain and the gap between experts and novices may narrow. Fuller and Unwin (2003) note that relationships between the craftsman and the apprentice are being transformed by apprentices’ specific knowledge of new technology that is unavailable to or unknown to some craftsmen. So, the agency of the learner is active and needs also to play a leading role in guided-learning processes. In sum, the workplace offers a range of contributions for individuals’ learning of effective workplace practices and furnishes a set of bases to improve the learning potential of the workplace.
6 The Learning Potential of Educational Institutions The contributions to learning vocational knowledge from participation in educational institutions are subject to factors that both support and can potentially inhibit the learning of effective practices. In overview, educational institutions’ potential to assist this learning is premised on the sets of activities and interactions focused on the intentional learning of vocational knowledge. Like workplaces, it is through processes of affordance and engagement that learning proceeds. Yet, in some important ways, the experiences, activities and environment of educational institutions are a substitute or are inauthentic instances of the practices to which the knowledge learned is to be applied. Therefore, a key concern about their potential is that the learning may be weakly aligned to the requirements of workplace practices. The potential for learning vocational practice in educational institutions is premised on the quality of the curriculum experienced: what students construe and construct (i.e. learn) from their experiences (Marsh & Willis, 1995; Pinar, 1980). Perhaps central to these experiences are the activities of teachers and their interactions with students. As in workplaces, there is knowledge that is best acquired through direct teaching, including structured learning activities to develop crucial knowledge. Intentional instructional activities can be used to assist students to understand concepts. Instructional activities and devices that reveal the processes operating inside an electric motor, automobile engine or the structure of hair follicles do so in ways that are unlikely to be possible in workplace settings. Moreover, there are instructional strategies focused on developing procedures that may also be used in ways that could not be undertaken in workplaces. The structured activities and ordered practice associated with learning touch-typing, for instances, are unlikely to be available in many workplaces. Moreover, teachers’ experiences (e.g. stories and explanations) can provide important links between educational institutions and the workplaces where students will ultimately apply their college-learned knowledge
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(Billett et al., 1999). So the advantages of learning in educational institutions are: (a) the contributions of direct teaching to develop specific content and more general aspects of vocational practice; (b) the capacity to learn practices and concepts in ways that are unlikely to be available in workplaces; and (c) the capacity to make links between what happens within an educational institution and the workplace. These stand as key affordances supporting student learning. Yet, there are weaknesses or limitations to learning experiences within educational institutions, particularly in terms of their adaptation to other environments. Some of these are well known and understood, and some of the pedagogic practices reviewed above are directed towards overcoming those limitations. Firstly, and perhaps most pervasively, knowledge and individuals’ construction of it is often situationally embedded. But the embedding context of educational institutions is quite different from that of workplaces. Thus, there may be inherent difficulties in the abstraction of that learning from a particular context in which it has been learned (e.g. educational institutions) to another context (e.g. the workplace). This problem is not restricted to vocational learning. Indeed, many of the strongest criticisms of educational institutions are that supposedly highly generalizable forms of learning (e.g. numeracy) in fact do not transfer across settings (Raizen, 1991; Scribner, 1985). It seems that the differences in what constitutes literacy and numeracy in particular contexts are such that the application of school learned literacy and numeracy elsewhere (e.g. in workplaces) is often inhibited (Searle, 2002) because learners cannot make the connection between how numeracy is used in school contexts and how outside them. Then, there is the issue of the emphasis of the particular educational institutional context, with its practices and requirements that may render knowledge formation to be quite specific and not open to transfer. In many ways, perhaps far more so for vocational learning than general education, the environment of educational institutions provides experiences that are inauthentic in terms of the kind of settings and practices where what has been learned is to be applied. That is, the kind of activities and interactions that have such a powerful cognitive legacy are a substitute—disembodied from those that occur in workplace settings (Billett, 2003b). However, much knowledge does transfer across settings, such as those from educational institutions to other practices. The capacity to communicate using vocabulary and written forms that are developed in educational institutions attest to this, as does the application of school-learned procedures. Nevertheless, expectations about direct transfer of learning may be overstated and are best secured when intentional strategies and practices are deployed to generate learning that has links to practices beyond those in which they are learned. Moreover, the diversity of vocational practice, even within the same occupation, is such that the requirements for effective performance are highly situated within each workplace (Billett, 2001a). This represents a significant and possibly impossible educational goal: to develop vocational learning that is applicable to diverse instances of vocational practice which are unknowable to those who designed the curriculum and to those who teach students. Hence, there is a need to extend learning experiences beyond those available in workplace settings.
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In seeking to address the limitations of experiences within education institutions, a common imperative arises. That is, how best can the contributions of educational institutions and the experiences that students acquire within them be exposed to or integrated with those in workplaces and work practices. The important point for learning vocational practice here is that, whereas there are distinct contributions that arise from experiences within workplaces and educational institutions, the full potential for effective vocational learning is likely to be found in the integration of both kinds of experiences (i.e. those within the workplace and those within educational institutions). Bringing together the contributions of both of these settings and integrating them effectively in ways that promote robust vocational learning would bring about learning not restricted to the circumstances of its acquisition.
7 Integrating Workplace and Educational Institution Experiences As a starting point, it seems likely that it will be those within educational institutions and systems (i.e. teachers and curriculum planners) who will lead the process of integrating the contributions of workplace and educational institutions. This is because much of the awareness, interest and emphasis resides within educational institutions (Billett et al., 1999). Also, it is educational institutions that need to deploy their greater understanding of pedagogy and curriculum in order to richly integrate the two sets of experiences. On balance, given the key role for supporting learning and the concerns about the applicability of what is learned in educational institutions to workplace settings, it is also perhaps most in the interests of educational institutions to assume the leadership in supporting the integration of the two sets of contributions. However, a key issue here will be to overcome the narrow views of learning and legitimate environments for learning residing within educational institutions and the privileging of experiences within educational institutions. We present below combinations of pedagogic and curriculum practices that might be enacted to secure this integration. They are best placed to assist workplaces in the development of a learning curriculum, guided learning strategies and critical reflection on practice. It is the rich sets of workplace experiences that need to be engaged within the educational institution. In structured entry-level training programmes, such as apprenticeships, students engage in extensive periods of work experience. In many apprenticeship systems this comprises between 80 and 90% of the learning. So, apprentices participating in the educational institution component of their initial preparation are engaged in extensive and diverse instances of work practice. These experiences offer rich bases for developing robust vocational learning. An important component of promoting this goal is to understand about diverse vocational practice and the different techniques required securing particular learning outcomes and understanding distinctions among those outcomes. Engaging students in discussing, sharing and evaluating their own and each other’s experiences within the same occupation can
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generate different accounts of the application of their vocational learning. Further, it provides a platform for teachers to draw out canonical principles and practices that inform effective practice across the occupation. For instance, if groups of apprentices (e.g. builders, motor mechanics, hairdressers or electricians) were to discuss how particular tasks within building practices, automotive repair, hairdressing and electrical work are conducted in their workplaces and the reasons why those tasks are conducted in that particular way, students will be introduced to different approaches and different rationales for those approaches within the occupation. These experiences can then be utilized by the teacher to emphasize differences and or similarities across these practices and diverse rationales for their use. Once students have an understanding of foundational skills and concepts, they may be prompted to understand the diverse rationales for particular approaches to similar workplace tasks and problems. They will be prompted to explore not just the procedures learned in the educational institution, but consider a diversity of possible options and approaches, depending upon the goal that is to be secured. The key pedagogic requirement here is for the teacher to facilitate this process, so that students can appreciate and understand the importance of these variations in practices, and then draw out working principles and practices for these instances. Relating content and principles taught through classroom experiences to workplace instances may also help to build links between classroom-learned knowledge and that within workplaces. This does not mean that teaching has to be uncritical or reactive, but that the relevance and applicability of what is taught in classroom settings be projected to workplace practices in order to illustrate this content and test out its applicability to a range of workplace settings. However, seeking to engage students effectively in constructively reflecting on their practice may serve to assist the process of learning through their own engagement, rather than being positioned as passive recipients of the knowledge being taught. Such processes are aligned to those most likely to develop robust knowledge. For those students without extensive work experience in their vocational field, it may be necessary to organize particular kinds and sequences of workplace experiences. In order to secure the best outcomes from these experiences, their purposes and enactments need to be designed and organized effectively. These experiences also need to be organized to secure particular pedagogic or curriculum purposes. For instance, a first set of experiences might be focused on understanding the practice of the work undertaken within a particular vocational field. Hence, the work experience is organized to achieve those particular educational purposes. Students might engage in workplace experiences to understand the roles and scope of the occupation for which they are being prepared. Then, these experiences might be shared or elaborated in teacher-directed activities within the educational institution. Later, the intent of those experiences might be for the development of specific vocational knowledge. Here, the requirement for practice and support might be emphasized and these prioritized in the request to the workplace or activities back in the educational institutions. Curriculum processes here may need to be respectful of national frameworks and perceptions for vocational learning, but also sensitive to and tolerant of situational
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and local differences in the application of vocational knowledge: that is, acknowledging and enacting curriculum provisions that are not based upon uniform national descriptions. Instead, they actively seek to understand the variations and manifestations of vocational practice in the kinds of workplaces in which the apprentices or students are currently engaged or will do so in the future that can promote robust knowledge. As individuals’ engagement in the activities and interactions within both educational institutions and the workplace that are central to the quality of the learning they secure, a different form of integrating the two sets of experiences is to identify and reinforce the commonality of purpose across the two sets of experiences. In particular, processes associated with developing the learner’s identity as a vocational practitioner may well be helpful in engaging them as an agent and, potentially, in learning more about their vocational practice. However, having proposed these pedagogic and curriculum interventions, it is important to acknowledge that not all provisions of vocational learning include a component of experiences within educational institutions. Further, some have been restricted to the most minimal of encounters through text-based or web-based interactions. Moreover, both workplaces and educational institutions, although the latter are subject to most criticism, can only provide or afford experiences for integrating students’ learning experiences. There is still scope for and responsibility within the learning arrangements for individuals’ engagement with the integrated experiences that are being afforded them. However, wherever possible, those sets of experiences stand to be augmented and enriching by integration with each other.
8 Learning Vocational Practice It has been proposed here that experiences in both workplace and educational institutions, when effectively integrated, stand to develop generic, occupational and situational competence. Yet, even on their own, the distinct contributions of both kinds of learning environment need to be understood and exercised effectively in assisting individuals to learn vocational practice. It is through maximizing the affordances of each environment and engaging learners richly with what each affords that offers the surest pathways to effective vocational learning.
References Anderson, J.R. 1982. Acquisition of cognitive skill. Psychological review, vol. 89, no. 4, pp. 369–406. Beven, F. 1997. Learning in the workplace: airline customer service. Brisbane, Australia: Griffith University, Centre for Learning and Work Research. Billett, S. 1993. Authenticity and a culture of work practice. Australian and New Zealand journal of vocational education research, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1–29. Billett, S. 1999. Experts’ ways of knowing. Australian vocational education review, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 25–36.
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Billett, S. 2001a. Knowing in practice: re-conceptualising vocational expertise. Learning and instruction, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 431–52. Billett, S. 2001b. Learning in the workplace: strategies for effective practice. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin. Billett, S. 2003a. Guiding vocational learning. In: Stevenson, J., ed. Developing vocational expertise, pp. 226–46. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin. Billett, S. 2003b. Vocational curriculum and pedagogy: an activity theory perspective. European journal of educational research, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 6–21. Billett, S. 2005. Constituting the workplace curriculum. Journal of curriculum studies, vol. 38 no. 1, pp. 31–48. Billett, S.; Boud, D. 2001. Participation in and guided engagement at work: workplace pedagogic practices. (Paper presented at the second International Conference on Learning and Work, Calgary, Canada, 26–28 July 2001.) Billett, S.; Rose, J. 1997. Developing conceptual knowledge in the workplace. Australian journal of adult and community education, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 12–26. Billett, S. et al. 1999. The CBT Decade: teaching for flexibility and adaptability. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Collins, A.; Brown, J.S.; Newman, S.E. 1989. Cognitive apprenticeship: teaching the crafts of reading, writing and mathematics. In: Resnick, L.B., ed. Knowledge, learning and instruction, essays in honour of Robert Glaser, pp. 453–94. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. EUROTECNET. 1994. Key/core competencies: synthesis of related work undertaken within the Eurotecnet programme (1990–1994). Brussels: European Commission. Fuller, A.; Unwin, A. 2003. Fostering workplace learning: looking through the lens of apprenticeships. European educational research journal, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 41–55. Lave, J. 1990. The culture of acquisition and the practice of understanding. In: Stigler, J.W.; Shweder, R.A.; Herdt, G., eds. Cultural psychology, pp. 259–86. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Marsh, C.; Willis, G. 1995. Curriculum: alternative approaches, ongoing issues. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Mayer, E.C. 1992. Employment-related key competencies for post-compulsory education and training: a discussion paper. Canberra: Australian Government Printing Service. Pelissier, C. 1991. The anthropology of teaching and learning. Annual review of anthropology, vol. 20, pp. 75–95. Pinar, W.F. 1980. The voyage out: curriculum as the relationship between the knower and the known. Journal of curriculum theorizing, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 7–11. Raizen, S.A. 1991. Learning and work: the research base. Vocational education and training for youth: towards coherent policy and practice. Paris: OECD. Scribner, S. 1985. Knowledge at work. Anthropology and education quarterly, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 199–206. Searle, J. 2002. Situated literacies at work. International journal of educational research, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 17–28. Stevenson, J. 2002. Concepts of workplace knowledge. International journal of educational research, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 1–15. The Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills—SCANS. 1992. Learning a living: a blueprint for high performance. Washington, DC: United States Department of Labor. Zuboff, S. 1988. In the age of the smart machine: the future of work and power. New York, NY: Basic Books.
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Chapter X.11
Work-Based Learning: An English Experience1 James Avis
1 Introduction This chapter explores work-based learning in the context of changes taking place in vocational education and training in England, locating these within an understanding of the economy and the way in which work-based knowledge is construed. It draws upon literature that examines the work-based experiences of young people, illustrating the tension between understandings of work-based learning that stress knowledge creation and those orientated towards young people disaffected from schooling. Before exploring the main argument, a number of caveats are raised. Firstly, the chapter explores work-based learning (WBL) in a more general and cultural context, rather than considering work-based qualifications. This enables questions about identity and its cultural production to be addressed. Secondly, WBL derives from a particular understanding of the economy, which sits alongside an interpretation of the knowledge and skill required at work. These arguments suggest that waged labour is the most appropriate locale in which to develop such knowledge and skill. There is a strong instrumental and performative thrust in such arguments. These are critical of much education in schools, universities and colleges, which is seen as divorced from the real world of work. Although this has long been the basis of a critique of education, it has gained increasing salience because of the assumed move towards post-Fordist working relations and concomitant changes in the way work-based knowledge is construed.
2 Work-Based Learning In England there is a concern to address labour-market needs, particularly at level three of the National Qualifications Framework, where there are shortages of craft and technician labour. WBL is seen to address this shortfall by offering young people the opportunity to develop work-based skills, whilst simultaneously gaining credentials that provide the possibility for educational progression. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 X.11, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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We need vocational pathways from the age of 14 which maximise young people’s participation at 16, attainment by 19 and progression into higher education and skilled employment. This puts work-based learning at centre stage of Government priorities (UK. DfES, 2002a, p. 25).
Such a pathway seeks to attract young people who have become impatient with the academism of the school curriculum, and who wish to acquire practically orientated education/training. These concerns have deepened in the DfES’s ‘14-19 Opportunity and Excellence’, which aspires to increase the status of vocational education, placing it on an equal footing with academic education. This is to be achieved through the development of a unified qualifications framework in which the distinction between academic and vocational education is weakened.2 One of the groups addressed is young academically-able people, disengaged from the school curriculum. They are the type of respondents featured in Unwin and Wellington’s (2001) study of modern apprenticeship, who sought to combine practical workbased experience with the acquisition of qualifications. This sits alongside a concern with social justice and cohesion, as well as with the provision of equal educational opportunities, seeking not just to validate academic skills and knowledge but also those deriving from workplace practice. ‘The Learning Age’ notes: ‘learning contributes to social cohesion and fosters a sense of belonging, responsibility and identity’ (UK. DfEE, 1998, p. 11). These themes are reflected in three orientations to WBL: (a) those who are academically able but disengaged from the academic curriculum; (b) for those disaffected and underachieving within education, the work-based route provides an avenue towards inclusion by offering practical and relevant experiences that articulate with their interests by enabling the development of skills and understanding of work; (c) WBL is thought to address social justice issues by providing academic recognition of the skills and knowledge already acquired by those in work. What these orientations have in common is an interest in relevant and useful knowledge, underpinned by a critique of the exclusions embodied in academicism. Such orientations are legitimated by particular understandings of the economy and the knowledge required enabling successful performance at work. These ideas raise questions about identity and performativity, as well as their relation to education. The DfES’s ‘14-19: Opportunity and Excellence’ (UK. DfES, 2003) seeks to validate and recognize the importance of WBL for all pupils. This is significant as it not only rests with a particular understanding of the economy but also with an attempt to develop the dispositions and skills required by the economy—capitalist schooling. There is a tension between the ideational base of WBL and the low-waged, low-skilled characteristics of the English economy and, in addition, a contradiction between the rhetoric of upskilling and employer reluctance to provide adequate education/training (Coleman & Keep, 2001).
3 Competitiveness Pivotal to New Labour’s educational strategy is a construction of the global economy and the relation of schooling to this. Central to this, and embodied in the
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competitiveness settlement, is the suggestion that, if the English economy is to be successful, the education system must produce learners able to add value to production processes. The role of WBL within this context is considered, especially the way it is addressed in the development of 14–19 vocational pathways—the new vocationalism. Morris, the then Secretary of State, wrote: ‘In the 20th century the education system was too often a one-size-fits-all structure. It neither demanded nor provided excellent standards in education for everyone’ (UK. DfES, 2002b, p. 3). It is hoped that the development of a unified qualifications framework located within a highly differentiated education system will provide the flexibility needed by individual learners to develop their potential, as well as addressing the needs of local employers (UK. DfES, 2003). The development of a re-engineered 14 to 19 age-group sector containing flexible and responsive vocational pathways will, it is claimed, meet the needs of the economy, society and the individual. Such arguments are premised upon a particular and rhetorical understanding of the economy, its potential for development, as well as those factors that inhibit this understanding. It is also underpinned by particular understandings of how education should respond to these economic imperatives, as well as particular understandings of social justice, which see the needs of the economy, society and the individual as being in alignment. New Labour’s construction of social justice ties it to rights and responsibilities, making it incumbent upon the individual to avail themselves of education and training opportunities provided by the State. Giddens (2002) discusses the shift from the redistributive State to the social-investment State. In this case, social justice is not concerned with an egalitarian redistribution of income or wealth; rather the State seeks to interrupt the reproduction of disadvantage by providing opportunities for the individual. Giddens’ approach adopts a redistributive logic focusing upon opportunity rather than income and wealth. There is a trade-off between redistributive justice in relation to income and wealth and a meritocracy underpinning economic and social regeneration (Gewirtz, 2002). In policy documents there is a rhetorical move towards an economy characterized by high skills, high trust and high-waged work, in which the skill and knowledge of the worker becomes pivotal to economic success. In this scenario, the worker/learner is construed not only as the route to competitiveness, but is at the same time required to be infinitely flexible and adaptable, responding rapidly to economic caprice. Thus, workers/learners will be required to continuously reinvent themselves to sustain employability (Levitas, 1999). Within the competitiveness settlement, the worker is seen as a key factor in economic success through the application of value-added waged labour. This sits alongside a particular understanding of knowledge—one stripped of universal pretensions. Knowledge becomes tied to the enactment of skill in the workplace. It is at this juncture that WBL becomes important. By learning in the workplace, the worker can contribute to the organization’s knowledge base, thereby adding value. This type of knowledge will be localized in that it addresses the concerns of a particular organization seeking to enhance efficiency. The knowledge developed will be based upon organizational requirements and will tend to preclude critical insights.
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3.1 High Skill/Low Skill Central to the competitiveness settlement is the claim that if the economy is to compete globally it needs to ensure that the labour force is highly skilled and educated in order to generate value-added products. Failure to do so will lead to secular economic and social decline. These arguments are predicated on the need to break the low-skills equilibrium and replace it with one based upon high skills, high trust and high-waged work. This suggests that we are entering an epoch in which worker creativity is the key to economic success (Coleman & Keep, 2001). Such expectations have been furthered by analyses suggesting that we are moving into a qualitatively different economic and work context in which older forms of class antagonism have been superseded. It is here that we encounter discussions of reflexive modernization, as well as New Labour’s ‘Third Way’.3 These arguments suggest that failure of the economy to modernize in line with new conditions will lead to economic decline and a lowering of the standard of living, hence the need to break the low-skills equilibrium. Three interrelated areas need exploration: low-skilled work; routes to competitiveness; and the distribution of skill within the English economy.
3.2 Low Skill Rhetoric surrounding the competitiveness settlement plays down or ignores the presence of un- and semi-skilled jobs that nevertheless remain central to the economy and many people’s working lives. Alison Wolf writes: Low-skilled openings still exist in their millions for people to do things like cleaning streets and offices, packing and delivering boxes, staffing call centres, or operating supermarket checkouts (2002, p. 49).
Neglect of the significance of these jobs is compounded by the assumption that high-skilled work is the only route to competitiveness. Keep (1999) has frequently drawn attention to the various routes to competitive advantage—high skills being but one of these. There is no necessary economic or social imperative compelling employers to adopt the high-skill route. In addition, a number of factors impinge on the strategy developed by any firm against which different routes to competitive advantage will be evaluated.
3.3 Routes to Competitiveness A discussion allied to skill and competitive advantage examines core organizational competences. These refer to the characteristics of an organization that enable success, allowing it to do things better or differently from its competitors (Coleman & Keep, 2001). These core competences can be concentrated within a particular part of the organization or be more widely diffused. The distribution of skill will be partly
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dependent on the strategy adopted towards these competences. The complexity of work relations counters the claim that there is but one route to competitiveness— high skills. There are a range of factors and processes that bear upon the way in which firms address these issues. Amongst these will be the product market, the nature of competitive relations the firm encounters, whether focused on price or quality, the pattern of industrial relations, the global/regional strategy, its orientation towards investment, amongst many others.
3.4 Polarized Skill Formation Brown, Green & Lauder (2001) draw attention to the specific characteristics of the English route to competitiveness, with an economy split between a small highskilled segment and a much larger low-skilled one. This economy is characterized by a low-skills/high-skills model, polarized between a high-skilled segment, e.g. bio-technology, and a significant low-skilled sector. Such a large low-skilled/lowwaged sector encourages competition on the basis of price rather than quality (Hutton, 1995). Where competition is based on quality, high-skilled work relations will be encouraged, whereas if price is paramount, this will not be the case. Mass markets based on price competition undermine the development of a high-skills economy (Lauder, 2001). These arguments illustrate the misleading nature of the construction of the economy present within the dominant policy discourse in England, as well as the way in which these are drawn upon in education. Low-skilled/low-waged work remains a reality for large sections of the population, encouraging competition on price rather than quality. In addition, the policy rhetoric ignores—or at least plays down—the different routes pursued to gain competitive advantage. These processes are compounded by New Labour’s interest in sustaining flexible labour markets and seeing waged labour as the route to social inclusion. Such a strategy, despite minimum wage legislation, serves to sustain a low-waged economy. This raises questions about the generality of WBL and its relationship to an economy characterized by low-skilled/low-waged work. If WBL is to address issues of social inclusion and cohesion seriously, it would need to be placed within a framework that seeks to challenge the characteristic forms of work within the economy. To do otherwise would locate WBL within the re/production of existing social and cultural relations. To interrupt such processes requires rethinking WBL so that it could move beyond its alignment with employer interests. The task is not simply recognizing the potentiality of WBL for employees but of returning to older concerns which sought to use work educatively to examine the labour process and surrounding social relations. Such a project is in part challenged by the way workplace knowledge is construed within ‘reflexive modernity’. These constructions build upon the long-standing realization that variable labour creates surplus value and that the pursuit of continuous improvement rests within such an understanding. However, ‘post-modern’ conceptualizations of knowledge reflect a
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qualitative shift in the way in which knowledge is understood. The particular and localized nature of workplace knowledge is stressed as is its lack of universality. Such conceptualizations imply that not all work has the potential for knowledge creation and therefore WBL. These can be set against older concerns with using work educatively. If we were to return to those key groups for whom it is thought WBL is appropriate (professionals/craft workers, vocationally orientated young people, disaffected pupils) the first two have the potential for creative engagement, whereas for the final group—disaffected pupils—WBL is more concerned with compliance and the disciplines of the workplace.
4 Knowledge Work-based learning adopts a particular construction of the economy and knowledge that rests with the competitiveness settlement (Garrick & Rhodes, 2000). In other words, it seeks to develop the knowledge and skills that are thought will lead to success in the global economy. This view of knowledge draws on a number of the elements found in the critique of modernity and accompanies the suggestion that social formations have moved away from simple modernity towards reflexive modernization. Such a movement carries a shift from mode 1, disciplinary-based knowledge, to mode 2, knowledge characterized by interdisciplinarity. Chappell et al. (2000) suggest that these new epistemological discourses: appear to unsettle modern understandings of knowledge by reversing the traditional binaries that privilege one form of knowledge construction over its ‘other’. Today, epistemological discourses emphasize knowledge constructed as practical, interdisciplinary, informal, applied and contextual over knowledge constructed as theoretical, disciplinary, formal, foundational and generalisable (p. 137).
The movement towards mode 2 knowledge articulates with post-Fordist understandings of work relations, as well as with claims that valid knowledge can be gained at work and used to enhance organizational performance and effectiveness. These arguments have an affinity with the suggestion that value-added waged labour is the key to competitiveness and that high-skilled, high-trust, high-waged working relations will create the conditions in which continuous improvement can take place. Such a context requires that tacit and informal workplace knowledge becomes formalized and generalizable across a particular organization so as to enhance performance. Work-based learning can be seen as part of this process inasmuch as it leads to the formalization of knowledge that was hidden, transforming it into generalizable, though institutionally specific, knowledge. What discussions of reflexive modernity add to the debate is the claim that academic and disciplinary-based knowledge, rooted in the academy, is out of step with these new conditions. Disciplinary-based knowledge, with its hierarchical and hidebound structures, cannot respond quickly enough to changing organizational needs. This knowledge is seen as elitist when contrasted with work-based knowledge. The current attempt to validate vocational and practical knowledge in schools is part
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of this process. Work-based knowledge is thought of as being democratized and free of elitist pretensions (see Garrick & Rhodes, 2000). Knowledge derived in the workplace is thought to be more authentic and useful than that of the academy, having the potential to enhance individual and institutional performance. This creates a regime of truth and a system of governability in which the worker/learner must constantly reflect upon the labour process with a view to continual improvements (Edwards & Usher, 2000). This is the context of performativity in which there is an affinity between the way in which knowledge is construed and work processes. However, the reality of work relations is very far from these constructions, which nevertheless attempt to form preferred understandings of work. The preceding conceptualizations provide ideological supports for instrumental and pragmatic forms of knowledge which are concerned with ‘what works’ (Barnett, 2000). Similarly, they operate with an idealization of work relations wherein recognition of social antagonism or patterns of exploitation at the site of waged labour are marginalized. Paradoxically, such interpretation of knowledge and its relation to work seeks to construct the worker/learner both atomistically and collectively as capital. Beckett cites Handy’s comments on intellectual capital to illustrate this process. But, in the age of intellectual capital, who owns the capital? It is not the shareholders. It can’t be in any real sense. The people who own the capital are the core workers of the company. In other words it’s the assets who own the assets [Beckett’s emphasis] (Beckett, 2000, p. 75).
Interest in developing work-based knowledge to enhance efficiency reflects recognition of the way in which variable labour power produces surplus value. The interest in work-based knowledge is not new; however the increasing significance placed upon such knowledge in winning competitive advantage is recent. It should be noted that workplace knowledge has always been ‘owned’ by the worker—the trick has been for capital to appropriate this and use it for its own interests. Rikowski (1999) draws our attention to the equivocations of this process in which the workers become ‘human capital’, in that they embody the contradictions surrounding this process and are an embodiment of class struggle. However, these processes operate in a number of different ways. In some cases, as with routinized forms of labour, the worker may become aware of ways in which a particular task can be performed more efficiently. Calls for continuous improvement may encourage workers to share this knowledge so that it can be incorporated into the labour process (Garrahan & Stewart, 1992). In other instances, where work is less routine, the forms of knowledge generated will be akin to mode 2 and will have more to do with the creativity of those involved. But in both cases social relations ensure that the creativity of the worker is framed by an acceptance of capitalist relations. There is a tension between a new regime of truth orientated towards the appropriation of the creativity and knowledge-producing potential of the workforce and an older regime that construed work-based learning as a means of habituating disaffected young people into the disciplines of the workplace (Finn, 1987; Hollands, 1990). What is important in current conditions is the urgency with which capital seeks to appropriate all types of knowledge to contribute to the generation of surplus value.
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5 Vocational Pathways The development of vocational pathways at age 14+ addresses young people’s disaffection from schooling, yet seeks to encourage progression to higher levels (see UK. DfES, 2002a, 2002b). At the same time, as is the case with curriculum 2000, these pathways work within the academic/vocational division (UK. DfES, 2001, p. 31). Such differentiation within institutions will be matched by similar processes across schools and colleges. In addition, the development of foundation and advanced apprenticeships will introduce differentiation into the post-16 youth training system with consequences for progression. All of these interventions seek to enhance and incorporate work-based learning. This can be seen in New Labour’s development of Centres of Vocational Excellence in Further Education (CoVE). Centres of Vocational Excellence will develop new, and enhance existing, excellent vocational provision which is focused on meeting the skills needs of employers, nationally, sectorally, regionally and locally (LSC, 2001, p. 3).
CoVEs will also reach back into the compulsory sector with a view to enhancing the vocational education of 14 to 19 year olds—WBL is pivotal to this strategy. Learners will increasingly find themselves confronting a highly differentiated education system through which they will have to steer a path. At the time of writing, it seems likely that eventually a unified qualification framework will be developed that will attempt to break down the division between the academic and the vocational. However, these developments will take place within an education system that seeks to promote flexibility and differentiation. Such a system needs to be cognisant of local labour-market needs, the needs of learners and the varied institutional arrangements for educational provision. The ensuing complexity will be enormous, with learners confronting a plethora of institutional provision. Vocational pathways will be developed for those who have become disaffected with school and may also become an option for those who have an interest in the practical development of skills at the workplace, whilst at the same time seeking qualifications for higher education. Such pathways as are found in modern apprenticeships will sit alongside other provision, both academic and vocational. Such differentiation will be compounded by the development of specialist secondary schools. An increasingly differentiated education system marked by a plethora of pathways may find itself serving to reproduce the patterns of inequality and structural differentiation present in wider society (Jamieson, 1993). This may arise in a number of ways. The differential costs involved in participating in the education system serve to reproduce class inequalities—consider the current debate over top-up university fees in England (see the on-going debate in the Times Higher Education Supplement, 2002–2005). Neo-liberal policies that emphasize choice are likely to reproduce class inequalities as they draw upon familial, social and financial resources (Bowe, Ball & Gold, 1992). Similarly, findings from the sociology of education suggest that those who possess cultural capital will make best use of a differentiated education system to secure class advantage (Gewirtz, 2002; Wolf, 2002).
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Early studies addressing the transition to work and youth training illustrate the way in which these lead to the formation and production of identities that reproduce class relations (Avis, 1984; Bates, 1991; Hollands, 1990; Moos, 1979; and see Mizen, 1995). Moos (1979), for example, illustrated the way in which the early youth training schemes sought to prepare young people for casual and intermittent waged labour. Essential to these processes were particular orientations to mental and manual labour. Many of the early studies focused on underachieving youth and explored resistance to schooling which served to propel young people towards waged labour. These studies suggested schooling had marginal relevance to the lives or interests of these young people; mental labour was thought to be overly abstract and separate from real-world concerns. Willis’ (1977) work, for example, illustrated the way in which young people associated mental labour with effeminacy, and Stafford’s (1991) work on a youth training scheme illustrated the way in which trainees actively resisted practices that were reminiscent of the classroom. These studies showed the way in which mental/manual divisions were associated with the development of class and gendered identities that articulated with reproductive processes. Such processes are not necessarily all of a piece, being fractured in a variety of ways. Brown’s (1987) work on ‘ordinary kids’ explored another aspect of these processes whereby young people minimally accepted school relations as a necessary part of the route to respectable workingclass jobs. Whilst this work may appear dated, it does raise questions about formative processes and the reproduction of class-based identities—themes by-passed in current writing about WBL. Central to the formation of class-based identities is the orientation towards schooling, as well as to mental/manual divisions, the latter being associated with practical work-based knowledge and skills. Paradoxically, these orientations remain in place although they have been re-worked within current conditions. The majority of young people now remain in education and training post-16, with early school leaving a rarity (see Wolf, 2002). In the current conditions we can see the way in which mental/manual divisions have been re-worked to align with the new context in which young people find themselves. The concern with relevance remains, as does the dissatisfaction with abstract and overly academic forms of knowledge. Ecclestone’s (2002) work on general national vocational qualifications (GNVQ) students found that many were reluctant to engage with broader academic and political debate, being concerned with the more immediate and local context of practice. A similarly strong sense of the relevant was present in Unwin and Wellington’s (2001) study. The celebration of relevant practical work-based knowledge articulates with the mental/manual divide, serving to devalue and marginalize the academic against the immediacy of practice. The shift from simple to reflexive modernity serves to raise questions about the salience and validity of disciplinary and academic forms of knowledge. Concern with the immediacy of practice, with what works, with the relatively short term, serves to marginalize and write-off disciplinary knowledge. Not only is such knowledge of passing relevance to practice, its legitimacy has become questioned in conditions of reflexive modernity.
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The paradox is that the type of mode 2 knowledge that has gained legitimacy in current post-modern conditions is deeply conservative. Mode 2 knowledge articulates with a concern with what works. For those involved in workplace learning the hegemony of such an epistemological framework is that knowledge can easily go no further than practice, becoming tied to the immediacy of practice and with what works. It thereby connives not only in its own construction, as social technology, but also in the development of work-based identities that themselves are tied to a performative logic. Erased is an earlier concern with using work educatively for learners to explore the nature of society and the role of waged labour (Moore, 1983). Instead, WBL becomes tied to a performativity seeking to uncover tacit and informal knowledge to enhance efficiency (Garrick & Clegg, 2000).
6 Work-Based Learning: Questions and Difficulties The interest in work-based learning and the development of vocational pathways is underpinned by a number of discourses. In part, WBL seeks to re-integrate those disillusioned or disaffected from schooling by drawing on their interest in work— this is a significant element in proposed interventions for the education of 14 to 19 year olds in England (UK. DfES, 2002a, 2002b, 2003, 2005). It is intended that disaffected youth will be re-integrated into society, their talents and potential will not be wasted and they will not be excluded from progression in the education/training system. In this way, goals of social justice and inclusion will be met. However, as with foundation and advanced apprenticeships, there is a real question about whether employers will be able to deliver the quality of training required. This was consistently the case with earlier youth training schemes and has been a feature of modern apprenticeships, in which the quality of training has been extremely variable and sometimes exceptionally poor (Unwin & Wellington, 2001; Wolf, 2002). Additionally, work-based learning seeks to address the interests of those, who whilst academically able, feel out of step with schooling and are seeking practical experience alongside the acquisition of qualifications that still offer the possibility of progression to higher education. The unevenness of the education/training experiences of this group has already been noted. On another level, WBL is inclusive as it attempts to engage the disaffected. However, the context in which it takes place is contradictory, and whilst it may develop young people’s understanding of work, particularly with respect to knowledge and the development of located skills, this remains truncated. As can be seen in the discussion of communities of practice, much of this learning is individualized, with the young person being socialized into a specific community of practice. Although there may be elements concerned with collective problem-solving, as well as the development of collective intelligence (Brown & Lauder, 2001), this takes place on a very particular terrain—one that fails to address antagonism at the site of waged labour. This partly derives from the basis upon which work-based knowledge
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develops, but is also a consequence of arguments about reflexive modernization which suggest Marxist explanations of the labour process developed during simple modernity are no longer applicable. Within the 14–19 age-group context the development of WBL seeks to validate the vocational, as well as young people’s interest in the practical aspects of work. As such, it seeks to value and recognize these interests and potential skills that have traditionally been devalued when set against the academic. There is an implication for social justice in that these processes could be interpreted as the politics of recognition, an attempt to value the interests and concerns of young people who have been marginalized by the education system. Such an argument has increasing salience in the current period when academic and disciplinary-based knowledge is increasingly challenged for its lack of applicability and arbitrariness. However, work-based knowledge and interest in the vocational is tied to a performative logic that seeks to address the needs of capital. Young people’s interest in the vocational and practical, in the immediacy of experience, in the ‘real’ world of work should neither be discounted nor devalued. At the same time, they should have access to other forms of knowledge that offer a critique of the performative logic of WBL in order to avoid habituation to the disciplines of the workplace. It is here that insights derived from academic and disciplinary forms of knowledge have a part to play. Young (1998) reminds us that such a curriculum ‘is always partly designed to enable students to acquire concepts and forms of understanding and learn how to apply them in different contexts; it is also always organized to preserve vested interests and maintain the status quo’ (p. 5). Although WBL may be criticized for being set within a performative logic, it will always be more than just that. Learners at the workplace may experience some of the contradictions and tension surrounding waged labour. In the same way, learners could use work-based experiences to engage with and critique the academic and disciplinary-based curriculum. There is the potential for dialogue across these domains, with learners having a right to access these differing forms of knowledge. Such a stance would bring together the politics of recognition with that of distribution, in the sense that, whilst the practical and vocational is valued, learners are also provided with access to other forms of knowledge.
7 Conclusion If WBL is to move beyond forms of occupational socialization, there is a need to critique its underpinning notions and challenge the reproduction of communities of practice. It needs to recover Dewey’s concern with using young people’s interest in work as a vehicle through which they can explore the economic and social structures of society (see Moore, 1983). Such a practice would be dependent upon WBL being aligned to a pedagogy that was able to move beyond the workplace, connecting social relations of work to those of the wider society. The opening-up of this pedagogic space is not easy. However, those learners currently dissuaded
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from such questions, but who are concerned with the immediacy of practice, would have access to alternative understandings that problematize existing social relation. It is within this area that the critical potential of WBL resides. Without such an orientation WBL will be no more than ‘learning to labour’ and will fail to seriously address issues of social justice. A better starting point would be a curriculum for the 14–19 age-group that integrated the vocational with the academic (Young, 1998), rather than the development of pathways that serve to cement class differentiation. Current policy developments are at one remove from a unified curriculum, preferring instead to discuss a unified qualifications framework that appears to be infinitely flexible and reflects learner needs, labour-market conditions, as well as variations in educational provision. The very complexity of these developments is likely to lead to class reproduction. Nevertheless, current policies seek to open-up progression routes to higher education, as well as enabling movement between vocational and academic. These policy tensions create spaces in which it is possible to move beyond an instrumentalism committed to narrow work-based learning and training. Here lies the struggle for work-based educators committed to a critical education to wrest progressive practice from those seeking conformity in young people to capitalist needs.
Notes 1. This is an edited version of a paper that appeared in the Journal of education and work, vol. 17, no. 3, 2004, pp. 198–217. <www.tandf.co.uk> 2. The Tomlinson Committee (Tomlinson et al., 2004) was established to examine the developments necessary to transform 14–19 learning to meet the aspirations found within 14-19: opportunity and excellence, a report published in 2004. Whilst the concern to develop vocational pathways has stayed in place, as has the development of overarching diplomas, the radicalism of the report has been undermined as a result of the desire to retain A-level examinations (UK. DfES 2005). 3. The British Labour party re-branded itself as New Labour in the 1990s, seeking to promote a new political formation which attempted to reconcile the neo-liberalism of Thatcherism with social democracy, which became known as the ‘Third Way’.
References Avis, J. 1984. Strategies of survival. British journal of sociology of education, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 129–51. Barnett, R. 2000 Working knowledge In: Garrick, J.; Rhodes, C., eds. Research and knowledge at work. London: Routledge. Bates, I. 1991. Closely observed training. International studies in sociology of education, vol. 1, nos. 1–2, pp. 225–43 Beckett, D. 2000. Eros and the virtual: enframing working knowledge through technology. In: Symes, C.; McIntyre, J., eds. Working knowledge. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. Bowe, R.; Ball, S.J.; Gold, A. 1992. Reforming education and changing schools. London: Routledge. Brown, P. 1987. Schooling ordinary kids. London: Tavistock. Brown, P.; Green, A.; Lauder, H., eds. 2001. High skills. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Brown, P.; Lauder, H. 2001. Capitalism and social progress. London: Palgrave.
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Chappell, C. et al. 2000. The organisation of identity. In: Symes, C.; McIntyre, J., eds. Working knowledge. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. Coleman, S.; Keep, E. 2001. Background literature review of PIU project on workforce development. London: Cabinet Office, Strategy Unit. Ecclestone, K. 2002. Learning autonomy in post-16 education. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Edwards, R.; Usher, R. 2000. Research on work, research at work: postmodern perspectives. In: Garrick, J.; Rhodes, C., eds. Research and knowledge at work. London: Routledge. Finn, D. 1987. Training without jobs. London: MacMillan. Garrahan, P.; Stewart, P. 1992. The Nissan enigma. London: Mansell. Garrick, J.; Clegg, S. 2000. Organizational Gothic. In: Garrick, J.; Rhodes, C., eds. Research and knowledge at work. London: Routledge. Garrick, J.; Rhodes, C., eds. 2000. Research and knowledge at work. London: Routledge. Gewirtz, S. 2002. The managerial school. London: Routledge. Giddens, A. 2002. Where now for New Labour? Cambridge, UK: Polity. Hollands, R.G. 1990. The long transition. London: MacMillan. Hutton, W. 1995. The State we’re in. London: Jonathan Cape. Jamieson, I. 1993. The rise and fall of the work-related curriculum. In: Wellington, J., ed. The work-related curriculum. London: Kogan Page. Keep, E. 1999. UK’s VET policy and the ‘third way’. Journal of education and work, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 323–46. Lauder, H. 2001. Innovation, skill diffusion, and social exclusion. In: Brown, P.; Green, A.; Lauder, H. eds. High skills. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Learning and Skills Council. 2001. Centres of vocational excellence in further education: the way ahead. London: LSC. Levitas, R. 1999. The inclusive society? London: MacMillan. Mizen, P. 1995. The State, young people, youth training. London: Mansell. Moore, R. 1983. Further education, pedagogy and production. In: Gleeson, D., ed. Youth training and the search for work. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Moos, M. 1979. Government youth training policy and its impact on further education. Birmingham, UK: University of Birmingham, Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. (CCCS Occasional stencilled paper, no. 57.) Rikowski, G. 1999. Education, capital and the transhumant. In: Hill, D. et al., eds. Postmodernism in educational theory. London: Tufnell. Stafford, A. 1991. Trying work. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. Times Higher Education Supplement (2002–2005) various issues. London: TES. <www.thes. co.uk/> Tomlinson, M. et al. 2004. 14-19 curriculum and qualifications reform: final report of the working group on 14-19 reform. Annesley, UK: DfES publications. (The Tomlinson Report.) United Kingdom. Department for Education and Employment. 1998. The learning age. London: DfEE. United Kingdom. Department for Education and Skills. 2001. Schools achieving success. London: DfES. United Kingdom. Department for Education and Skills. 2002a. Success for all. London: DfES. United Kingdom. Department for Education and Skills. 2002b. 14–19: extending opportunities, raising standards. London: HMSO. (Cm5342.) United Kingdom. Department for Education and Skills. 2003. 14–19: opportunity and excellence. Nottingham, UK: DfES Publications. United Kingdom. Department for Education and Skills. 2005. 14–19 education and skills. London: DfES. (Cm6476.) Unwin, L.; Wellington, J. 2001. Young people’s perspectives on education, training and employment. London: Kogan Page. Willis, P. 1977. Learning to labour. Farnborough, UK: Saxon House. Wolf, A. 2002. Does education matter? London: Penguin. Young, M. 1998. The curriculum of the future. London: Falmer.
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Chapter X.12
Language Mastery Development within TVET for Professional Mobility Andrei N. Kouznetsov
1 Introduction For the Russian Federation (henceforth Russia) and other CIS countries, secondlanguage mastery for professional mobility is a sound investment for secondary, tertiary and continuing vocational education graduates. Similarly, we would also consider it to be useful for citizens of other countries who are experiencing the new phenomena of transitional economies and rapid development of the job market. Another aspect of the language-acquisition problem affects countries with a considerable immigrant population. These people are often in need of adaptation to the job market of the host community, usually made more difficult by a language foreign to the immigrant groups. Nowadays, language training for native and mixed immigrant groups is associated with careful selection of relevant teaching contents and techniques. The competence-centred approach is the method most frequently used as it is considered to be an effective and up-to-date instrument—although questionable in terms of terminology. Student diversity and ways of coming to terms with it in the language classroom are further issues for analysis in this context—particularly for mixed ethnic groups. All of these phenomena will be discussed in the following chapter.
2 Modern Market Requirements for Personnel and Language Teaching In Russia today there are certainly some quite new phenomena—the job market being one of them. We are no longer isolated from the rest of the world; neither are there guaranteed jobs for all. Thus, with the modern economic pressures facing our country, there is a need to improve the quality of knowledge for graduates of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) at various levels: secondary schools, vocational colleges, universities, re-training institutions and in-service education programmes. If the language level is inadequate, certain positions (mostly managerial ones) will be unable to accept graduates. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 X.12, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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There is a range of job-market opportunities for TVET graduates. However, when analysing the market, it soon becomes apparent that there is a lack of professionals who are able to meet two basic job-market requirements: computer mastery and adequate language skills. Because of these shortcomings, many applications for job positions are refused. Today, there is a need for professional communication with other countries in order to update national technology, to benefit from international know-how and to establish contact with new international markets. At the same time, professionals are flooding into the country from abroad in continuously growing numbers, and these immigrants are expected to have a sufficient mastery of Russian to function in the job market. These situations inevitably lead to the need for an improvement in foreignlanguage teaching within the TVET system. It has been suggested that the entire policy towards language mastery and the very approach to the problem must be reviewed, i.e. more attention should be paid to the development of students’ language skills, as well as to the introduction of recent improvements in language-teaching techniques. Educationalists have recently been facing the problem of intensification of the teaching process through the introduction of new technologies. One of the new methods is referred to as the ‘situational approach’. This approach gives the best results when none of the usual methods can guarantee rapid and efficient attainment of the targeted aims under the present conditions. The ‘situation’ role here is related to a particular job. Focusing on a situation in which a language is applied is often regarded as being outside the responsibility of language teaching; i.e. it is more appropriate to sociolinguistics than applied linguistics. Yet, finding the appropriate language approach that would ‘fit’ the work situation continues to represent a rather complex task, even for the advanced learner. Understanding the context of language—the social and interpersonal background, the setting in its broadest sense—is a vital component in a learner’s capacity to communicate effectively. The appropriateness of language to situation is a constant source of difficulty for language learners at all levels, but the problem becomes particularly acute for advanced learners. Once structural accuracy has been achieved, inappropriate style and formulation becomes a frustrating obstacle to effective communication. One method of tackling this situation is to present the student with a variety of oral and written work-oriented texts (formal letters, informal notes, summaries, reports, academic articles, etc.) that demonstrate to learners specific features of the targeted language. This gives them an opportunity to participate in wide-ranging practice in the production of similar texts. Another well-proven approach—streaming—implies voluntary division of student groups into ‘cultural streams’. The main reason for streaming is the fact that representatives of different ethnic groups will have acquired somewhat different cultural patterns. At the first stage of language mastery, this difference is believed to be an obstacle for students, as they may feel awkward about making mistakes and become tongue-tied in front of others from different cultures. After learners
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have acquired a workable mastery of the language, they are brought back into contact with learners from other ‘streams’ and native language speakers. It has been observed that this will pave the way for more advanced language proficiency, as students become accustomed to intercultural communication where the targeted language is the most useful tool for establishing a personal or a business contact. Another efficient method employed is job-oriented project work. It should be mentioned that students’ feedback—in addition to our own observations—confirms that it is a highly successful method bringing increased responsibility, participation, accuracy and sustained motivation among the effects observed. The database we have assembled indicates that TVET graduates who acquired improved second-language skills now hold senior positions with large national companies and public organizations, such as sales managers, sales representatives, project managers, office managers, programme co-ordinators and group supervisors (Kouznetsov et al., 2005). Finally, it should be noted that, although the above-mentioned approaches have resulted in considerable progress in students’ mastery of a second language, further research should be conducted to introduce other improved methods of advanced language teaching which may grant access to high-level job-market opportunities for our TVET graduates.
3 Language Mastery: International Perspectives In the present-day world, the whole concept of language mastery is undergoing major changes. The perfect mastery of (i.e. absolute fluency in) one or more languages is not set as the general objective, especially if these languages are studied outside any particular, highly applicable sphere of communication. Nowadays, all language skills are to take place within a structured cluster. In addition, if we take it for granted that language mastery is a continuing and lifelong process, a serious sub-objective of the process is to advance students’ linguistic self-confidence, as well as their motivation for language-skill development within TVET. This new paradigm in achieving language mastery leads to the evident necessity for radically different evaluation tools. The recent changes in the language programme developed and issued by the Council of Europe (1997a, 1997b) are targeted at the development of such efficient and reliable tools that would be useful to language trainers, students and employers. For instance, the European language portfolio is a set of standardized documents that provide the interested parties with information about student’s academic, professional, personal contact details and other relevant background in the field of foreign languages. The portfolio measures language mastery in terms of a set of competences and the adequacy of the language level for professional and personal situations. This system allows one to consider and evaluate individual attainment in different fields of language skill application, as well as individual requirements, and individual psychological and social characteristics of TVET language students (Douglas, 2000).
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According to Recommendations R(82)18 and R(98)6 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, member countries are to pursue the idea of efficient European integration through joint efforts in culture. European co-operation in this field is recommended to be carried out in line with three key principles:
r r
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education should prevent language diversity from becoming a factor in international and intercultural misunderstanding; language diversity should, on the contrary, enrich national cultures and facilitate communication between ethnic groups; progress in language mastery is a powerful instrument in the promotion of mutual understanding between different nations and ethnic groups, in advancing intercultural tolerance, satisfying personal needs for self-realization outside one’s own native culture, facilitating international co-operation and the transfer and adaptation of labour resources, including the adaptation of immigrants to new languages and cultural patterns; international co-operation in the advancement of language mastery may stimulate and promote relevant local and national programmes at different levels.
It seems reasonable that these points may be found highly valid, useful and practical on a global level too. Three major factors—intercontinental labour transfer; the growing gap between different national groups and the evident need for intercultural information exchange; and international co-operation—make urgent the introduction of an efficient language mastery concept, which would incorporate an instrumental model for the selection of language-teaching contents and specific situation-related teaching methods, applicable to the particular case of TVET that we are considering in this chapter.
4 A Model for the Selection of Language-Teaching Contents The practical importance of selecting TVET contents is no longer questioned, and the competence-based approach is the most promising approach here. However, the theory of this approach has not yet been adequately developed for the competences to be graded and included in TVET syllabi and training materials. The competence-based approach sets special requirements for TVET and the resulting evaluation. The competences are rather complex characteristics, and the valid evaluation criteria and tools have not yet been established. One of the basic difficulties here is that a given competence is not just a bare cluster of skills. On the contrary, it is rather a new personal quality that is associated with the acquisition of certain professional skills, the mastery of professional knowledge, the development of one’s level of motivation and the ability to apply the acquired skills in practice. Competence is recommended to be treated as an aspect of the ability for self-realization by a TVET graduate in a particular field of professional activity.
X.12 Language Mastery Development Within TVET for Professional Mobility Fig. 1 The seven-element model for the selection of language-teaching contents for TVET
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Aspect of professional activity
Aspect competence
Teaching contents
Teaching packages on individual subjects
Syllabi of individual subjects
Thus, professional language competence is understood as a complex of personal qualities that are required for intercultural interaction in a chosen career field at a certain level of professional qualification. In other words, competence may be required at different levels of qualification, with the capacity of that competence varying. At the same time, language competence depends on the type of professional activity. This phenomenon should be considered when language contents are selected for TVET. In this context, there is a sound need to establish workable complex parameters for competence scaling and evaluation for TVET. Thus, TVET requires the seven-element model for the selection of languageteaching contents shown in Fig. 1. As the figure shows, the model describes the key descriptors of TVET contents selection. According to this concept, the syllabi of language training and relevant teaching packages are formed on the basis of professional activity in a particular language field that is carried out at a particular professional level (according to a professional qualification) through certain characteristics of the person employed (his/her language competence).
5 Student Diversity: How We Tackle it in a Language Classroom We find it reasonable to consider the cultural and skill diversity of our TVET students. For the past six years we have been studying the influence of these two aspects on foreign-language teaching as one of the major factors in selecting the contents for TVET language teaching. It has been suggested by theory and proved through practice that different cultures and skill levels should in no way hamper the process of education, but should on the contrary be employed as psychological stimulants of the latter, especially in a TVET language classroom at the tertiary level. It is noteworthy that cultural diversity is classified as a form of external diversity, as its characteristics are more likely to be attributed as typical not of a particular
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individual, but of a wider national community. Adopting a scientific approach, it is typically opposed to internal diversity (and we can also discuss activity diversity within this notion). Cultural diversity is a vital issue for many Russian TVET schools. First, every year there are a growing number of international students that join our secondary and tertiary education institutions (predominantly from oriental countries). This phenomenon creates a double gap: that between Russian and, say, British identities (if English language is the subject being taught); and that dividing Russian from oriental identities. Second, the multi-language and multi-cultural world and the internationally expanding job market dictate the need for the development of language-teaching contents for TVET, and the latter are required to be reasonably tolerant of cultural diversity and foreign identities. Within this research and teaching practice field, language trainers should aim at promoting students’ awareness of diversity, the avoidance of stereotypes and respect for differences. This should be achieved by the development of a more objective view of one’s own customs and values, as well as those of the other cultures that these students may come into contact with through professional and/or personal contacts. Cultural diversity training is among the most efficient tools that could be employed in the context of raising awareness about cultural diversity. In addition to language mastery, such training would help TVET students realize their responsibility for the preservation and promotion of differences that are characteristic of other cultures and form the thesaurus of the latter. In the course of these trainings, students are invited to put forward and discuss with their classmates the most vital and burning issues that constitute the core of cultural diversity problems and to come up with recommendations about finding solutions to the essential problems of world cultural tolerance. (For more details, see APNIEVE, 2005.) The country-study component of TVET language syllabi deserves particular attention. Country study is understood to be the field of regional studies in special cultural features of a cluster of ethnic groups speaking the targeted language—and these cultural features are then shown to be reflected in the subtleties of foreign language too. In our opinion, carefully selected country-study elements can be recommended for introduction into TVET school syllabi. Through foreign-language education, it becomes possible to overcome cultural diversity and to bridge the gap of intercultural communication. Next, in studying the diversity of internal group activity, we should first analyse the psychological and psycholinguistic diversity of our learners. To activate these two aspects of diversity, it is recommended to diversify as far as possible the composition of the targeted student group—and this in two ways. The first way is to bring together TVET students who are active and passive communication-wise. In other words, we are speaking of the pairing of those with advanced foreign-language mastery, and those with a low aptitude and/or who are less trained in terms of general language awareness and foreign-language ability. This method is referred to as quality diversity, and is based on the internal contradiction principle. Leo Vygotsky originally introduced this principle into psychological
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theory in the 1920s; it was then introduced and developed into the present-day TVET lingua-didactic practice in the form of the heterogeneous foreign-language classroom structure. The second way implies bringing the students into intensive contact with foreignlanguage learners from other groups (preferably, from different ethnic backgrounds), while participating in various activities forming part of the foreign-language teaching curriculum designed for these particular learners. This contact allows quantitative diversity provision, giving an opportunity for vocational education students to imitate potential multiple-person interaction in a professional atmosphere within the limited boundaries of the group. Furthermore, there is a particular aspect of diversity that should be highlighted in the TVET language-teaching context. It implies the introduction into the TVET language-teaching contents and practice of a cluster of co-ordinated activities, which would be derived from a thorough analysis of the contents and the actual professional activity that our TVET students will encounter in their future career in the job market. And such an analysis should be preceded by careful planning and the introduction of learning tasks related to such a professional activity field in the framework of the foreign-language course. Content activity diversity of this type stimulates the process of acquiring language mastery on the part of TVET students and, as a result, advances their language competence and their job-market prospects. The assumption is that focusing on practical teaching techniques and strategies based on TVET student diversity will contribute to the development of professional language skills in the group in general, as well as in each individual student. This serves as the background principle behind this type of syllabus formation strategy. On the whole, these aspects of cultural, psychological, psycholinguistic and activity diversities—co-ordinated with other aspects of educational and methodological theory application—are known to furnish a solid foundation for productive group interaction among TVET foreign-language learners. In addition, these aspects lead to the achievement of satisfactory results—even with students with a limited language background—and allow the use of enriched contents for a TVET career. Finally, in the research undertaken in our university, a remarkably high level of learner motivation has been observed in the experimental groups of TVET students whose foreign-language syllabus was designed and realized with a considerable input of components reflecting cultural and skill diversity. In our opinion, this means that the strategy discussed here is a useful instrument that could be employed by foreign-language trainers and curriculum designers in other TVET schools as well.
6 Conclusion As has been illustrated above, the theoretical and applied aspects of the educational thesaurus determine considerably the special characteristics of language-teaching contents within TVET. It influences directly the selection of the key professional
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competences required by the job market from TVET graduates. This is a new social and economic phenomenon for countries in transition, especially those with a considerable body of a temporarily unemployed immigrant population. It is recommended that specialized language courses should be taught at secondary and tertiary TVET schools. Within these courses, certain well-established approaches and teaching techniques should be employed, which would help TVET students looking for opportunities on the job market. To sum up, it should be stated that development of professional language competence evaluation tools within TVET is a priority for Russian educationalists. There is a rich cluster of issues associated with carrying out this mission, and it is thought wise to discuss the solution of most of the relevant problems and key job market requirements to language mastery with experts at the international level.
References Asia-Pacific Network for International Education and Values Education—APNIEVE. 2005. Learning to do: values for learning and working together in a globalized world. Bonn, Germany: UNESCO-UNEVOC. (A UNESCO-APNIEVE source book, no. 3 for Trainers, Teachers and Students in the Area of Technical and Vocational Education and Training.) Council of Europe. 1997a. European language portfolio: proposals for development. Strasbourg, France: Council of Europe. Council of Europe. 1997b. Language learning for European citizenship: final report of the project. Strasbourg, France: Council of Europe. Douglas, D. 2000. Assessing languages for specific purposes. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. (Cambridge Language Assessment Series: J.C. Alderson and L.F. Bachman, eds.) Kouznetsov, A.N. et al. 2005. Didactic design based on the competence approach. Moscow: TVET Academy. [In Russian.] ISBN 5-9559-0120-5.
Chapter X.13
Why do German Companies Invest in Apprenticeship?1 Klaus Schaack
1 Introduction There is a widespread perception among international experts of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) that companies usually do not ‘invest’ in entry-level vocational training. However, some deviant cases of companies’ investment behaviour do exist. For example, German companies have been admired for their often lavish funding of training. The ‘dual system’—perceived as the cause of German economic dynamism—became a blueprint for many international efforts, mostly governmental in nature, designed to emulate the German training ‘system’. Unfortunately, due attention was not always paid to the conditions behind this ‘success’. Both inside and outside Germany, there have been difficulties in understanding why German companies’ ‘investment’ behaviour deviates so sharply from international patterns of financing training programmes. The majority of explanations have only cited ‘cultural reasons’. Although this perception may not be wrong, cultural reasons do not provide the complete explanation. Cultural reasons rarely beat hard-nosed cost calculations, unless benefits of some kind accrue, not necessarily always in an easily measurable ‘currency’. But, companies do not reject ‘cash value’ measures other than economic ones, especially if it is supposed to lead to an economic advantage. If we follow Polanyi’s advice and understand the economy as ‘embedded and enmeshed in institutions, economic and non-economic’ (Polanyi, 2001, p. 36), it is essential to understand how German (and other) training is embedded in contexts. This chapter explores outstanding features of German apprenticeships in order to understand how they interact with their political, cultural, social, educational and economic environment. Hence, the objective is to understand German training amidst its wider environment, instead of analysing isolated training models or comparing such constructs.
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2 The German Government’s Approach after the Second World War 2.1 Post-War Deliberations The atrocities and the war crimes of the ‘Third Reich’ during the Second World War led to a search for institutional arrangements in its aftermath designed to prevent their repetition. The Allied Powers and German politicians ascribed the atrocities and war crimes to the ‘absolute power’ of the nazi State. Making the re-emergence of ‘absolute power’ in German politics unlikely was a complex task, not easily achieved, as politicians had misgivings about the role of the German population. Therefore, the politicians’ drawing up of the ‘Basic Law’ became ‘constitutional fathers without constitutional people’. In democracies, people are regarded as ‘the source of the government’s authority and (under various substantial restrictions) even of its politics’ (Williams, 2002, p. 210). To perceive the people as politically unreliable necessarily imposes considerable obstacles upon the drafting of a constitution and requires precautionary measures to be taken. This is what happened in the German post-war situation. ‘People’s sovereignty’, as the underpinning principle of democracies, was recognized, but in a way that widely dispersed the electorate’s influence and rendered it as indirect as possible. In addition, democratic principles were combined with other principles, like ‘self-administration’ or ‘social (group) partnership’ and, perhaps even more important, influential legal experts understood ‘democracy’ as ‘party democracy’ (see Hennis, 1973, pp. 135–43; Hennis, 1998a, pp. 107–35; Hennis, 1998b, pp. 136–41; Ben¨ohr, 1999).
2.2 The Structure of the German Government Alongside features of a strong federalism exercising power in education, cultural affairs, radio, television, law enforcement, the organization of the bureaucracy and the regulation of local communities, another characteristic feature of the German political ‘landscape’ is the strong separation of legislative, executive and jurisdictional powers; stronger than in many other countries. The decentralization of governmental powers in different dimensions (separation of powers, federal structure) is complemented by a centralized society; centralized by organizations of social groups, some of which are not only very influential, but also take part in public affairs in a number of circumscribed fields, not least various employers’ organizations, like the Federal Association of German Industries (BDI), the Federal Association of German Employers (BDA), the German chambers of industry and commerce, chambers of crafts and other organizations, successors of those organizations that were originally endowed with certain legal rights at the end of the nineteenth or in the first half
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of the twentieth century. But not only did the employers form strong associations; employees and workers did as well. This can be seen from the trade unions and their umbrella organization, the Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB—Federation of German Trade Unions). A popular German textbook for students of political science holds the opinion: ‘Compared with the organized system of power of the corporations [Verb¨ande], the political weight of the parties seems to be secondary’ (Sontheimer & Bleek, 2002, p. 198). Corporations certainly have their share (or more) of political power in Germany. Though the government can be deemed superior to all of the other actors in the political arena, in Germany’s interlocking politics the government has to accept two sources of political sovereignty: its own, of course, based on the voters’ ballots; but also the political legitimacy of the ‘social partners’. The co-operation pattern of intermediate organizations, acting as ‘private interest governments’ and the government proper, consisting of patterns of collusion and conflict, constitutes a major part of German interlocking politics in which government and the upper echelons of employers’ organizations and trade unions and the self-administering bodies of the private sector are integrated in a neo-corporatist arrangement. This arrangement widens and strengthens the power base of government, on the one hand, and at the same time weakens and circumscribes democratic government as an independent political player. It goes without saying that there are repercussions on the influence of the electorate—which is diminished. The role of the ‘social partners’ as a second source of political legitimacy is not considered entirely democratic. In particular fields, neo-corporatist arrangements contribute to the power of the elected government. State administration is mediated by self-government in a couple of sectors and the official rationale for such a policy design is the hope that quasi-governmental intervention might respond more to social needs and can take the form of a ‘clearing-house’, which is assumed to have a functional advantage. Such designs should ‘act like political shock-absorbers. [. . .] They tend to limit political controversies [. . .] And they limit the scope of policy initiatives’ (Katzenstein, 1987, p. 58). They blur the distinction between State and society by causing intimate interaction between the peaks of social groups and government and they have a not-so-democratic side effect: they hold ‘a broader political constituency at bay’ (Katzenstein, 1987, p. 32). There is a built-in tension between such mechanisms producing ‘public’ decisions and parliaments, and it could be argued that neo-corporatist arrangements devalue the role of parliaments in the formulation of legitimate norms in a democratic State. Some schools of political thought view such quasi-public institutions and norms formulated by neocorporatist arrangements, despite their assumed functional efficiency, with suspicion or misgivings. The consequence of the political design based on four major structural phenomena—(a) federation; (b) separation of governmental powers between legislation, execution and jurisdiction; (c) a circumscribed inclusion of social groups in ‘governmental tasks’ in a couple of particular fields; and (d) quasi-public
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institutions—is not a complete rupture of the power of German federal government, but it tames federal power.
2.3 The ‘Governmental’ Role of Private Sector Organizations The four major structural phenomena described above are the causes of the close circumscription of the German federal government’s power. It has to obey more numerous and more severe constraints than most other governments. The ‘division of labour’ between government proper, ‘private interest government’ by the corporations and chambers of commerce and the processes operating in ‘para-public’ institutions are an obstacle for the comprehension of German politics by visitors from foreign countries, who have no experience of comparable arrangements in their own ‘political landscape’. The role of the corporations and chambers of commerce vacillates and shimmers and can be seen in different lights: on the one hand, they can act as pressure groups, pressurizing the government. On the other hand, private-sector organizations have a tendency to ‘attack’ the trade unions, while the trade unions ‘attack’ the employers’ associations. But it also sometimes happens that associations thought to be natural opponents are able to join forces. In addition, while colluding with the government, their leaderships must remain in contact with their membership. For instance, the employers’ associations cannot be sure that what they have agreed upon with the government will be supported by various types of enterprises—and the same is true for trade unions and their members. Mediation of different interests requires sensitivity and the mediators themselves can easily ‘fall between two stools’. Last, but not least, they (employers’ associations and trade unions) can act as ‘public entities’, designing ‘public regulations’, rubber-stamped by the government into law if they are capable of finding a common position concerning training standards. The corporations have—as far as training is concerned—a capacity to act de facto ‘in lieu’ of the government, like the government or as the government by aggregating their views after the completion of bargaining processes and then channelling them via ‘clearing-houses’ into the legal bulletin (Bundesgesetzblatt). The government merely rubber-stamps the results of the bargain, with its presence being required merely as an official notary. The eminence of the role of private-sector organizations in German political life, sometimes even in public roles, is no accident, but a remnant of corporatist concepts. The German State, thus, is less an actor, imposing the will of the people on society filtered by parliament, but rather ‘a set of institutional relations linking the public and the private sector which impinges on politics’ (Katzenstein, 1987, p. 372). This constitutes a rather interesting difference to Japan, the other nation that had its governmental system reframed after the Second World War by external designs: ‘the collective effect of government in Japan is toward a national cohesion and centralization rather than toward the dispersion of power and the institutionalization
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of conflict. The Japanese state is capable of making decisions and of enforcing them once made’ (Pempel, 1982, p. 16).
3 ‘Basic’ Training Models and German Apprenticeships 3.1 Historical Development and ‘Basic’ Models Recent theorizing about international training ‘systems’ has not always been consistent. On the one hand, ‘training systems’ are regarded as outcomes of history, while on the other hand the varieties of such ‘outcomes’ are not fully perceived, but pressed into the premeditated templates of ‘training systems’ regulated either by market laws or by legal stipulations and bureaucratic rules. Governmental or public models are juxtaposed to market or private models and translated into school-based or company-based modes of delivering training. Such ‘model-Platonistic’ designs, as Hans Albert once criticized neo-classical economics (see: Albert, 1998, pp. 114–26), are still phenomena met with in recent reasoning about training. Once the two models are identified as ‘basic’, an ‘optimization operation’ beyond space and time can take place: when the ‘regulation circuits’ of ‘the State’ and ‘the market’ are combined, ‘mixed’ or ‘dual systems’ emerge and they leave history and circumstances behind. Whatever the social, economic, political, cultural, etc., conditions are, ‘dual’ training can be defined as ‘optimal’: linking theory and practice, being relevant on a grand scale, inexpensive, contributing to innovative dynamics, raising productivity and product quality, reducing youth unemployment, being ‘very modern’— and other desirable outcomes. Major disadvantages do not seem to exist—if at all. Sometimes, both positions (‘training “systems” are outcomes of history’ and the ‘basic models’ view) are presented by the same author in the same text. By the conceptualization of the category ‘TVET system’ or ‘training system’ the world is perceived through pre-structured spectacles, as if everything would neatly fall into clear-cut categories. The phenomena to be investigated, consequently and inevitably, become varieties of ‘training systems’. But, it cannot be excluded before sufficient analyses have been carried out that some ‘training systems’ are a peculiar mixture of different components and do not simply belong to the ‘training’ category and nothing else. When, regardless of circumstances and in any case, blended areas or sectors and multi-functional ‘systems’ are a priori excluded by the theoretical design, investigations might not grasp a number of historical, functional and structural features relevant for the understanding of the ‘training system’ under scrutiny and its performance (perhaps even decisive ones). This chapter emphasizes the need to take history more seriously. Different geographical and political circumstances, different foreign influences, different religious beliefs, etc., have resulted in the different structural and institutional endowment of countries; hence, in different ways how they generate social order. The ‘basic models’ approach is often based on ‘pure economics’ of the Walras type or neo-classical theory following in the footsteps of Alfred Marshall, which
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do not sufficiently describe social contexts and structures and consequently do not offer a well-designed theory of social and institutional change. Sometimes, such approaches are further bolstered by popular reasoning about two ‘basic modes’ of delivery: a school-based and a company-based mode. But, different institutional and structural endowments of countries include other matters than markets and States, like organizations, families, clans, ethnic groups, gender segregation, castes, vocations, etc. (see: Pries, 1998, p. 163). These phenomena are differently structured in different countries and interact with markets and States in nation-specific ways that make them function unlike any other market or State. ‘Markets’ and ‘States’ are generalities and markets can be markets of ‘perfect competition’; they can be dominated by oligopolies or monopolies; they can be homogeneous, dualistic, or segmented into even more segments. Markets can be shaped by other institutions in various ways, and they can deal with different types of raw material, agricultural goods, industrial semi-products or products, symbols, labels, trade-marks, advice, services of an extremely heterogeneous nature, etc., for which market mechanisms differ considerably. Hence, ‘regulation by market laws’ includes a wide variety of ways and means by which regulation occurs and how ‘the market’ is shaped by human interaction—itself shaped by different ‘institutions’ in different ways in different countries and cultures. Hence, the formula ‘regulation by market laws’ begs many questions and does not explain much of the phenomenon to be scrutinized. On labour markets people offer educational qualifications (usually certified by educational documents), labour-market relevant competences (usually certified by training, testing and/or work documents) and such qualifications and competences are not the same across nations, neither are mentalities or values. They are based on different cultural and other underpinnings, follow different principles and inclinations and, thus, are differently ‘cut’. Analogous reasoning applies to ‘regulation by legal stipulations and bureaucratic control’. ‘States’ can be centralized or de-centralized; they can be ethnically homogeneous or ethnically heterogeneous; there can be a dominating ethnic minority ruling the State, or a dominating ethnic majority; States may impose a ‘State religion’ or ‘ideology’ on their citizens or may be religiously or ideologically tolerant. ‘Legal stipulations and bureaucratic rules’ can be promulgated by democratic as well as by despotic States. States may apply democratic rules comprehensively or may mix them with other principles and they may transfer certain rights to social groups or institutions (chambers for instance) and organizations representing such groups.
3.2 The Multiple Particularities of German Apprenticeships In the German case, taking history seriously means to move beyond the neo-classical binary (government/market) consideration and to use a multifaceted approach. Understanding German apprenticeships in terms of ‘learning places’ or ‘regulation circuits’ regularly fails to understand their particular features and their particular embedded nature.
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The following institutions can be regarded as relevant for the functioning and structuring of training in Germany: (a) companies; (b) markets; (c) the State (or government); (d) corporations with a public status and ‘self-administration’; (e) apprenticeships; (f) Beruf [vocation, calling or trade]; (g) and a specifically structured general education ‘system’. Their interactions shape the workings and the outcomes of the so-called ‘dual system’. Compared to these cultural, political and economic institutions and their interrelations, the vocational school is secondary in importance and will, therefore, remain outside the frame of this analysis. German apprenticeships are ‘guided’ by the Beruf concept and it makes them different from apprenticeships in many other training ‘systems’, especially in nonGermanic countries (see: Haxby, 1989). It is relevant to remember that German betriebliche Ausbildung [company-based training], before the passing of the Vocational Training Act of 1969, was usually called Lehre [apprenticeship] and that in Switzerland the term Berufslehre [vocational apprenticeship] is still in use. Beruf regularly transcends the company and requires an identification and standardization mechanism to be in place which guarantees the untrammelled participation of interested companies as training providers by leaving definition and standardization to private sector co-ordination (private interest government) while trade unions play the role of junior partners. Accepting such procedures, government assumes the humble role of an official notary and elevates social group agreements by awarding them the honorary denomination of ‘State-recognized training ordinances’. Such mechanisms allow the production of vocational qualifications as a ‘public good’ provided by private companies after agreements between the ‘social partners’ have been reached, which finally are rubber-stamped by government after formal and non-substantial controls. Without reflections of the role of the corporations in training according to the Beruf concept and the division of labour between government and ‘private-interest government’, the voluntary participation of companies in such training processes cannot be grasped. The ‘dual system’, consisting either of two ‘learning places’ or two ‘regulation circuits’, therefore, is a misnomer and can be grossly misleading. There are still good reasons to accept Ruediger Altmann’s statement from 1961 as basic (though trade unions have been included in the decision-making processes since then): Apprenticeships ‘became an elastic structure based on self-administration’ (Altmann, 1961, p. 230; my italics). German apprenticeships, guided by the Beruf concept, integrate aspects of the political system with aspects of the economic system and they are—as mass apprenticeships—based upon a three-track general education system (Hauptschule, Realschule, Gymnasium) from which the training tracks are clearly segregated. 3.2.1 The Beruf Beruf originally had religious-ethical underpinnings. Its meaning can be traced back to a ‘vocation’ or ‘calling’ by God into a certain position and role in life, which should never be deserted. Nowadays Beruf is void of religious meanings,
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but not completely void of ethical dimensions. It is a multifaceted phenomenon: an exchange pattern of a certain area/level of competence and wages/salaries, the core of personal identity, an element of social stability, a particular mode of socialization, a mechanism of social integration and stratification, a concept for the identification of social roles and positions, a bundle of specialized competences, a basis for an occupation of some duration and, as such, opposed to mere ‘jobs’ and a labour-market regulator. Beruf as a labour-market regulator actually functions as a self-regulation principle of the private sector. It turns the German labour and training market from a ‘free’ market into a ‘self-regulated market’. The self-regulatory function of the Beruf has to be emphasized here, as the most popular definitions do not mention it. Because Beruf (as a bundle of competences) is the guiding training principle of German apprenticeships, it includes a curriculum and a teaching dimension. Beruf is something serious—a no-nonsense concept, which includes a very sober orientation towards practice. Therefore, it is important ‘to acquire’ berufliche Handlungskompetenz [vocational action competence] ‘when it counts’, namely in the company or in the workplace. Learning in the vocational schools operated by the L¨ander (states of the German federation) can complement work-based learning, but a pure school-based approach is easily perceived in a Germanic context as ‘out of touch with reality’, ‘theoretically biased’ or ‘alien to daily life’. Beruf competence generated by a practical initiation and socialization period in a company, in turn, generates ‘social space’ hardly to be invaded by carriers of competence of a different type, while a Beruf qualification can penetrate other realms of competence without appropriate education only in exceptional cases. It is not surprising that Beruf, as a multifaceted phenomenon, has provoked a large number of definitions (see: Dostal, Stooss & Troll, 1998, pp. 438–60). The most widely used definition is still that of Max Weber (1864–1920) or variations or derivations of his definition: Beruf can be understood as ‘that specification, specialization and combination of performances of an individual, which for him/her are the basis of a continuous chance to earn a living’ (Weber, 1920, republished 1980, p. 80). Despite its popularity, Weber’s definition of the Beruf is not exhaustive as it does not include the aspect of the Beruf as being a particular mode of socialization, social integration and stratification.
4 How to Understand the ‘Dual System’? The German ‘dual system’ consists of an apprenticeship core and a part-time vocational school appendage. Like other apprenticeship ‘systems’, the German apprenticeship ‘system’ is mainly based on companies’ training capacities. A major particularity of modern German apprenticeships is to be seen in the application of the company-overarching, Janus-faced Beruf concept, defined in the bargaining processes between private-sector and trade-union representatives. It can be understood as a bundle of competences and a particular mass mode of socialization, social integration and stratification, unlike that prevailing in other Western countries.
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Thus, training is (mainly) company-based, but includes complex aims, tasks and processes, which cannot be described as being simply company-oriented—though this is the case to a considerable extent. The essential duality, hence, consists of the market mechanism and private-sector plus trade-union self-regulation, according to the Beruf concept, valid nationwide. The company/school duality is asymmetric and often more dualistic than dual, but rather fictitious as a description of the ‘system’s’ basic mechanism because the roles of the vocational school are not fundamental, but rather complementary. The Beruf offers a curriculum frame which moulds German training and is at the same time a labour-market regulator—not imposed, but accepted as a bargaining result between the ‘social partners’—and elevated to legal status by governmental seal. Each training Beruf (different from Beruf as an occupation) defines those bundles of vocational competencies regarded as essential in various fields of gainful employment for berufliche Handlungskompetenz [vocational action competence]. The didactic dominance of practice in companies is important for the generation of a highly particular type of competence, which has been historically effective in shielding skilled workers’ social space against differently qualified intruders, but also limiting skilled workers’ range of opportunities, thus generating strong borderlines between various social groups. The ‘dual system’ is a legally invigorated and fine-tuned, self-administered mass apprenticeship arrangement of the private sector with some trade union influence, supported by different government levels by different means. The ‘dual system’s’ integration into public responsibility and into the overall German education ‘system’ is peculiar and precarious because private-sector ownership and management of the apprenticeship core was not uplifted, but confirmed by the Vocational Training Act of 1969. Ownership, ‘philosophy’, design and supervisory mechanisms and ‘educational’ contents and aims do not fit smoothly into a public education ‘system’ controlled by parliaments and ministries, operating (or functioning) as the trustees of voters’ decisions. Apprenticeships are dependent upon the economic cycle, as in other countries, despite countervailing legislation. Apprenticeship standards are subject to formal, but non-substantial, ministerial supervision. The ‘dual system’ is a particular training track officially situated at the upper secondary level and prepared and fed by the differentiated education ‘system’, but not exclusively from the different lower secondary tracks. It is a separate, but not a stand-alone, phenomenon in a larger ‘system of communicating components’. The ‘dual system’ is one of the main reasons why the German higher education sector is much smaller than comparable sectors in other economically advanced countries.
5 On the Embeddedness of the ‘Dual System’ The embeddedness of the ‘dual system’ is more multifaceted than has been described in this chapter. Also, in the following sections, only the major aspects are introduced that contribute to the ‘system’s’ numerical size or have a capacity to maintain it.
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5.1 The Three-Track General Education ‘System’ The superior numerical intake of German apprenticeships, compared with those of most other economically advanced countries, is not simply produced by the apprenticeship ‘system’ itself or by cultural values (although they do play an important role), but to a large extent by a general education ‘system’, which was subject to conservation policies, preserving a traditional three-track educational structure. It includes strong social tracking processes and is different from the education ‘systems’ of other European nations, which have merged different tracks or have narrowed the gaps between such tracks during the last three to four decades. Usually, streaming into different tracks occurs later and common periods of education are longer even in other European multi-track ‘systems’ (e.g. in the Dutch ‘system’). In 1967, Robinsohn published a critical evaluation of the German educational reform inertia and its non-preparedness ‘to modify the tripartite organization’ of the school ‘system’ (Robinsohn, 1967, p. 87). For him, however, the essential question was how the separation between general and vocational tracks could be overcome (ibid., p. 91). The traditional educational underpinnings of apprenticeships, hardly in line with the liberal philosophy of ‘equality of opportunity’, deprive the majority of German youngsters de facto—not de jure—of access to higher levels of education and have generated over several generations a social and affective distance of Germans of humble social origins to education (Dahrendorf, 1965; Grimm, 1966; Oelkers, 2003). The two lower tracks (Hauptschule, Realschule) of the traditional three-track ‘system’ are the main tributaries of the ‘dual system’. Its ‘forward defence’ in lower secondary education is one of the major reasons for the ossification of the German education and training arrangement: a policy which rejects equality of opportunity and is based on the so-called principle of Chancengerechtigkeit (DIHK, 2001, p. 6), which can be understood as an updated version of the old Roman principle of suum cuique—to each his own. The traditional three-track ‘system’ in effect is a turbocharger of the ‘dual system’, as the impaired lower educational tracks provide the only access road to the labour market with some prospects of ‘decent’ work and salary levels for the majority of youngsters. Lower tracks and apprenticeships may allure them in a triple sense:
1. They seem to promise work opportunities, sometimes only with modest educational efforts. 2. Unlike other types of work preparation, apprenticeships offer monetary compensation independent from the parents’ purse: a fact that might be more tempting for candidates from humble social backgrounds than for their better-off peers. 3. Following different tracks in a multi-track ‘system’ to different social destinations considerably homogenizes the clientele and does not expose young people to ‘too much’ social and cultural challenges and pressures exerted by persons of distinctly different origins.
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Thus, the German education ‘system’ reduces the opportunities as well as the incentives for multi-dimensional learning, including learning from other social experiences: ‘group homogenization’ and ‘social differentiation’ have a potential to work hand in glove.
5.2 Self-Administration by the ‘Social Partners’ The fact that the German apprenticeship ‘system’ is numerically much larger in terms of the percentages of young age cohorts compared with apprenticeship ‘systems’ in other industrially advanced countries is—on the basis of historically shaped mentalities and a certain cultural tradition—related to the private sector’s selfadministration of apprenticeships complemented by some trade-union influence after the passing of the Vocational Training Act in 1969. When governments and parliaments become involved in the design of apprenticeship standards, such regulations tend to include educational interests other than those of the companies and trade unions. Decision-making mechanisms reflecting a wider circle of constituents than just companies and trade unions tend to render apprenticeship curricula non-attractive, too burdensome or too remote from what potential training companies deem useful for their purposes and are, therefore, willing to finance. Maintaining a mass apprenticeship ‘system’ and a democratic political system therefore are two goals not easily in harmony with each other and, consequently, one or the other must not be abolished, but reduced. In the German case, ‘people’s sovereignty’, or the electorate’s political will is ‘complemented’ by social (group) partnership as the legitimizing principle and, thus, reduced. Otherwise companies could easily stop training young people or reduce their training efforts. The German mass apprenticeship ‘system’, therefore, defies substantial designs and/or controls by parliaments or ministries. Temporary and easily-vanishing economic advantages (Kern & Sabel, 1994; Weidenfeld, 2004) might be accompanied by more durable political disadvantages, which have to either be accepted in defence of the (assumed) economic advantages or rejected because of inherent political risks and fundamental democratic values: (a) devaluation of parliaments in education and training matters; (b) a concomitant watering down of Abraham Lincoln’s famous principle ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people’ (Lincoln, 1989, p. 536); (c) ‘fraternization’ between ‘economic’ and ‘political classes’ against the general electorate; (d) alienation of the ‘political class’ from the electorate; (e) reduction of the electorate to the status of gullible voters, etc. It is a conspicuous fact that the complicated German democratic ‘machinery’ is still not sufficiently underpinned by a corresponding educative configuration, while many features of an education and training arrangement were preserved originating in pre-democratic times (Robinsohn, 1967, p. 83; Oelkers, 2003). There can be no doubt about the social and political relevance of the three-track general education ‘system’ and German apprenticeships since 55 to 70% of German youngsters have
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undergone this form of apprenticeship training in recent decades. The joint effects of federalism and neo-corporatism have successfully blocked the democratization of the German education and training arrangement. Apprenticeship curricula are not subject to parliamentary discussion and decision, neither are the vocational school curricula, which are merely complementary appendices of apprenticeships. The ‘dual system’ can only function (as a mass ‘system’) when this is assured and the spokespersons of parliamentary parties usually offer such assurances. At present, the normative roles of German parliaments seem to be rather constrained in educational matters (Kutscha, 1997, p. 672; Riegel, 2004).
5.3 The Emergency Supply-Side Booster of Apprenticeships The two permanent boosters are complemented by a third temporary one, which is switched on in times of economic downturns and/or in times of demographic peaks. The German private sector should offer training places according to social demand under all conditions and even when the free play of market forces does not suffice to do so: When the government [. . .] transfers the task of practice-oriented vocational training to the employers, it is to be expected that the social group of the employers fulfils this task according to their objective possibilities and in such a way that, in principle, all youngsters looking for training have a chance to obtain a training place. This is also valid, when the free play of forces is not sufficient for the fulfilling of the assumed task (Verdict of the Federal Supreme Court, 10 December 1980, quoted in Schmidt, 1996, p. 53).
5.4 The Maintenance System (Two Educational Cultures) ‘Philosophies’, contents, the different roles of scientific concepts versus economic practice-orientation, the ‘structured school system’, different locations of the ‘bridgeheads to the labour market’ (economic versus education system), the public/private dichotomy in ownership and the different design and supervisory bodies generate two sharply contrasting educational cultures which different parts of the German population have followed for decades. Their divisive and unfavourable effects were documented by TIMSS and PISA. An educational culture divided into ‘high’ and ‘low culture’ comes into perspective which generates problems for parents of both cultures to accept their children walking down another educational path than the one they deem ‘appropriate’ or ‘promising’ for their children’s future. Germans of humble social origins might be afraid of what their children have to cope with at the Gymnasium and university, while better-off Germans are afraid of their children suffering from social decline, which seems to threaten them if they fail to pass the Abitur and have to accept apprenticeships in the ‘dual system’ (Middendorp, 2002a, 2002b). Educational attitudes in Germany are changing, but there are some political and cultural factors that keep such change in slow motion.
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6 Financing Training in Germany: Companies’ Reasons On an international scale, companies are generally assumed not to ‘invest’ (lavishly) in training. Why do German companies deviate from established international patterns? This intriguing question asks for more research-based answers than have been available so far and this chapter tries to open up new avenues to more satisfying findings. Since the early 1970s, researchers tried to identify the causes of the strange investment behaviour of German companies in the training field in detail and a major breakthrough was achieved by Sadowski (1980) who showed that there are sound reasons for companies to offer training places, because—as he demonstrated— systematic training efforts can increase the companies’ reputation on the labour market. In addition, training can be understood as an important and efficient tool of recruitment policy. These findings were later taken into consideration by researchers of the BIBB and by various other scientists and practitioners. A well-known study in this field was the one presented by Cramer and M¨uller (1994). Their argument was: if one takes saved recruitment costs into consideration (saved because the company invested in training) then the cost/benefit ratio becomes even more favourable. In general, macro-economic analyses tend to treat training as an ‘investment’, while micro-economic ones are more divided, but partly opt for ‘costs’. Bardeleben, Beicht and Feher (1995, p. 12)—authors of the BIBB report—have argued that the ‘investment’ viewpoint is doubtful due to theoretical as well as practical reasons. German apprentices are free to leave their training company once the apprenticeship period is over. Since they actually leave their employers in numerous cases (in considerable numbers even before their apprenticeships are completed), a ‘pure’ investment perspective is questionable, though it is relevant in a number of cases. But, the strange training financing behaviour of German companies becomes less strange if cost/benefit considerations are not exclusively based on economic reasons, but include political elements as well. Because such assumptions seem to be justified, German companies’ ‘investment’ can be subsumed under three or four major headings, such as the following: 1. Short-term profit-making reasons: training costs do not exceed the direct economic benefits of training, hence they improve the short-term profitability of companies. 2. Long-term profit-making reasons: training costs exceed direct training benefits, but have some long-term economic advantages and desirable outcomes beyond the ‘narrow’ training perspective for training companies’ economic pursuits. The following effects/benefits may occur, especially in large companies. Because many apprentices want to stay with such employers (they usually offer the best salaries, the best employment prospects, and the best career opportunities), a creaming-off of well-suited, hardworking, disciplined and loyal apprentices might take place. Such training allows companies to shape their apprentices’ mentalities, to impregnate them with ‘the spirit of the house’ and to instil an
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elevated level of loyalty, besides offering nationally applicable competences. Such apprentices are important for the maintenance (or propagation) of the company’s reputation as a ‘socially responsible employer’, as an employer offering exciting possibilities, as an employer of considerable reliability and integrity, etc., but also for the dissemination of other images the company wants to project. 3. Risk minimization: apprenticeships might include an insurance fee to be paid against mis-recruitment of risky or not-so-well-suited candidates. 4. ‘Maintenance tax’ for a political privilege in a parliamentary democracy: the ‘maintenance tax’ might be exclusively paid by larger companies to convince politicians from different political strands and the general public about the usefulness of the apprenticeship configuration and its general education tributaries. Of course, the mix of considerations is rather varied and economic, political and other rationales underlying apprenticeships might not be the same in different-sized companies or companies operating in different economic branches. They also might not be the same in companies, chambers of commerce and other private-sector organizations. Concerning the mix of relevant considerations within the private sector as a whole, more empirical investigations would be required than those at present available. We still do not know too much about such reasons in a complex ‘system’ of de-centralized decision-making shielded against insights from the general public.
7 Concluding Remarks However, if we take the OECD’s PISA study as a yardstick, we do know with some measure of certainty that streaming children at the tender age of 10 into three different tracks is neither a good thing for the children, nor for Germany as a whole. These tracks do not simply represent curriculum diversification or performance (Leistung) levels, but include heavy social tracking. Politicians carry responsibility for not putting ‘the system question’ (Oelkers, 2003) on the agenda and for delaying structural educational reform, which contributes to mistrust in political parties and politics in general, to Germany’s fading economic dynamism, during the last twenty to thirty years, and also to growing social woes. Such effects are reminders of several debates and missed reform opportunities during the last century. It is a warning sign that the dismal German PISA results did not trigger any such debate again, at least not beyond the usual party strife and haggling.
Note 1. This is a condensed version of the Discussion Paper published in 2008 by Klaus Schwarz Verlag, Berlin in cooperation with UNESCO-UNEVOC, under the title ‘Why Do German Companies Invest in Apprenticeships? The “Dual System” Revisited’.
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References Albert, H. 1998. Marktsoziologie und Entscheidungslogik. T¨ubingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck. [First published 1963.] Altmann, R. 1961. Berufsausbildung und Selbstverwaltung: zur Struktur der betrieblichen Lehre. In: Deutscher Industrie- und Handelstag, ed. Die Verantwortung des Unternehmers in der Selbstverwaltung. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: DIHT. Bardeleben, R. von; Beicht, U.; Feher, K. 1995. Betriebliche Kosten und Nutzen der Ausbildung. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Ben¨ohr, S. 1999. Das faschistische Verfassungsrecht Italiens aus der Sicht von Gerhard Leibholz. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos. Cramer, G.; M¨uller, K. 1994. Nutzen der betrieblichen Berufsausbildung. Cologne, Germany: BMBF. Dahrendorf, R. 1965. Bildung ist B¨urgerrecht. Hamburg, Germany: Nannen. Deutscher Industrie- und Handelskammertag—DIHK, ed. 2001. Bildungsstandort Deutschland: Leistungspotentiale erschliessen. Berlin/Bonn: DIHK. Dostal, W.; Stooss, F.; Troll, L. 1998. Beruf: Aufl¨osungstendenzen und erneute Konsolidierung. Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 438–60. Grimm, S. 1966. Die Bildungsabstinenz der Arbeiter. Munich, Germany: Barth. Haxby, P. 1989. Apprenticeship in the United Kingdom: from ITBs to YTS. European journal of education, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 167–81. (Complemented by D. Parkes, Recent developments in the UK training scene.) Hennis, W. 1973. Aufgabe und Grenze der Parteien. In: Hennis, W., ed. Die missverstandene Demokratie, pp. 135–143. Freiburg i. Brsg., Germany: Herder. Hennis, W. 1998a. Der ‘Parteienstaat’ des Grundgesetzes: eine gelungene Erfindung. In: Hennis, W., ed. Auf dem Wege in den Parteienstaat, pp. 107–35. Stuttgart, Germany: Reclam. Hennis, W. 1998b. Ein einig Volk von Zuschauern: wozu ist das Wahlrecht da? In: Hennis, W., ed. Auf dem Wege in den Parteienstaat, pp. 136–41. Stuttgart, Germany: Reclam. Katzenstein, P.J. 1987. Policy and politics in West Germany: the growth of a semi-sovereign State. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Kern, H.; Sabel, C. 1994. Verblasste Tugenden: die Krise des deutschen Produktionsmodells. Soziale Welt, pp. 605–24. (Sonderband ‘Umbr¨uche gesellschaftlicher Arbeit’.) Kutscha, G. 1997. Berufsbildungspolitik. In: Kahsnitz, D.; Ropohl, G.; Schmid, A., eds. Handbuch zur Arbeitslehre, pp. 667–86. Munich, Germany/Vienna: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag. Lincoln, A. 1989. Address at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (19 November 1863). In: Lincoln, A. Speeches and writings 1859–1865. New York, NY: The Library of America/Viking Press. Middendorp, E. 2002a. Sozialgruppenspezifische Beteiligung an h¨oherer Bildung: ein Ph¨anomen mit Geschichte (Teil 1). Das Hochschulwesen, vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 140–44. Middendorp, E. 2002b. Sozialgruppenspezifische Beteiligung an h¨oherer Bildung: ein Ph¨anomen mit Geschichte (Teil 2). Das Hochschulwesen, vol. 50. no. 5, pp. 186–94. Oelkers, J. 2003. Der Matthaeus-Effekt. Sueddeutsche Zeitung, 4 June. Pempel, T.J. 1982. Policy and politics in Japan: creative conservatism. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Polanyi, K. 2001. The economy as instituted process. In: Pempel, T.J., ed. Policy and politics in Japan: creative conservatism, pp. 31–50. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. ¨ Pries, L., 1998. ‘Arbeitsmarkt’ oder ‘erwerbsbezogene Institutionen’? Theoretische Uberlegungen zu einer Erwerbssoziologie. K¨olner Zeitschrift f¨ur Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 159–75. Riegel, E. 2004. Ich wollte die Revolution. Der Spiegel, 13 July. <www.spiegel.de/schulspiegel/ 0,1518,308124,00.html> Robinsohn, S.B. (with C. Kuhlmann). 1967. Two decades of educational non-reform in West German education. Comparative education review, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 311–30. [Reprinted in: S.B. Robinsohn, Comparative education: a comparative approach, Jerusalem, 1992.]
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Sadowski, D. 1980. Berufliche Bildung und betriebliches Bildungsbudget. Stuttgart, Germany: Poeschel. Schmidt, H. 1996. Duales System der Berufsbildung in der Krise? In: Ostendorf, A.; Sehling H., eds. Berufsbildung im Umbruch?, pp. 53–58. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Sontheimer, K.; Bleek, W. 2002. Grundz¨uge des politischen Systems Deutschlands. Bonn, Germany: Piper. Weber, M. 1980. Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. T¨ubingen, Germany: Johannes Winckelmann. Weidenfeld, U. 2004. Die grosse Leere: das deutsche Ausbildungssystem galt als einzigartig, doch die Zeit hat es u¨ berholt. Der Tagesspiegel, 17 June. Williams, B. 2002. Truth and truthfulness: an essay on genealogy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Chapter X.14
Workplace Learning: Metacognitive Strategies for Learning in the Knowledge Economy1 Hugh Munby, Nancy L. Hutchinson and Peter Chin
1 Introduction The New Economy signals a significant growth in knowledge (Stiglitz, 1999) and economies are increasingly based on knowledge (OECD, 1996). The implications are that workplaces will become increasingly reliant upon workers who are learners and that schools will be expected to furnish students with appropriate preparation. The Canadian Advisory Council on Science and Technology (2000) argued: ‘experience with work programmes [must be] core elements of elementary and secondary curricula’ (p. 55). In this chapter, we propose general instructional approaches for workplace learning. Our approach derives from our research in co-operative (co-op) education, or work-based education as it is called in some jurisdictions. In our research, we have focused specifically on secondary co-op education programmes. The purposes of these programmes are quite different from the purposes of tertiary co-op programmes in which work experiences are intimately connected with the flow of the overall curriculum, so that the work experience complements the entire programme. Our studies of secondary co-op education reveal that students, parents, co-op teachers and workplace supervisors hold different views about the purposes of secondary co-op education; but, in general, the purposes centre around careers. Students, for example, might be trying out or exploring a career; workplace supervisors or employers might be interested in recruiting students to a career or even to a specific business (Chin et al., 2004a). In many respects, secondary co-op education students can be viewed as novice learners in the workplace. Certainly, as our research has shown, the kinds of teaching and learning that these students have been accustomed to in their twelve or more years of schooling are very different from what they will experience in the workplace. As we have argued (Munby, Chin & Hutchinson, 2003), the action knowledge used in the workplace is qualitatively different from the knowledge used in school: school knowledge tends to be propositional (declarative), while workplace knowledge tends to be action knowledge (procedural). Indeed, propositional knowledge in the workplace is always directed ultimately at action, but this is not necessarily the case in school. Also, the curriculum of the workplace is organized differently: unlike the sequential nature of the school curriculum, the R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 X.14, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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organization of workplace learning is centred on clusters of tasks that tend to be introduced early in the work placement. Further, the purpose of school is learning, but the purposes of the workplace are more about the production of goods and the delivery of services. We argue that these differences demand a different approach to workplace instruction, and one that is based on research on workplace learning. The instructional approaches in this chapter are drawn from the empirical work of the research group. The majority of our empirical work has consisted of case studies of co-op students in workplaces. The cases are ethnographic with detailed observations of students and interviews with students, workplace supervisors and co-op teachers. We have also conducted focus-group interviews with co-op students; and we conducted ‘multiple perspective studies’ in which a co-op student, his or her parent(s), the workplace supervisor, and the co-op teacher are separately interviewed. Lastly, we have conducted observations and interviews in selected workplaces in order to document routines. All the empirical work of the group has been in workplaces that tend to be ‘science-rich’. Prolonged observations have been made in a veterinary clinic, a dental office and on a hospital ward. And we have also spent time in automotive repair shops, in a biological research laboratory and in a medical testing laboratory. Our shorter observations on routines were conducted in a multinational optical lens and frame organization, a large retail multinational department store, a national chain grocery store and a garden centre. In all our studies, observational notes and interviews were transcribed and then coded using techniques of pattern and thematic analyses typical of qualitative research (McMillan & Schumacher, 2001). Audit trails were created and retained for all analytical work, and the entire research group of three academic staff and between four and six graduate students (M.Ed. and Ph.D.) critically appraised the theoretical development. The chapter draws upon this considerable body of empirical work to advance strategies for three emphases in workplace learning. The first of these concerns metacognitive instruction and its relationship to routines, and the second concerns science in the workplace. The final section considers learning for students with exceptionalities, and here the theme is ‘participation is not enough’.
2 Metacognition and Teaching About Routines Our argument in this section of the chapter is that workplace learning can be enhanced by introducing co-op students to ideas about routines and to the questions that learners can ask about the routines in which they are engaged (Munby et al., 2003). By focusing on the concept of routines, we develop an instructional theory that capitalizes upon the strength of metacognition in learning and in performance. We begin by noting two difficulties with current approaches to workplace knowledge. First, there are descriptive studies of communities of practice and the socialization of novice and inefficient workers (e.g. Wenger, 1998) that describe the
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role of interaction in workplace learning; but it is not clear how these interactions can be used to promote learning. Second, there are suggestions that there are generalizable workplace skills that can prepare high-school students for workplace entry (e.g. Conference Board of Canada, 1992). Yet, there is little evidence about how such skills directly foster workplace learning.
2.1 Workplace Learning and Metacognition Research on workplace learning suggests the need to recognize the contextual nature of work. Our approach to understanding workplace learning is cognitive and assumes that the efficacy of a learning arrangement can be determined by its ability to offer the learner access to knowledge that forms the basis for complex activity. Recent research on learning has emphasized metacognition. Metacognition refers to higher order thinking that involves knowledge of one’s cognitive functioning and active control over one’s cognitive processes while engaged in a learning task. Research over the past two decades has shown that metacognitive skills can be taught and are critical to the development and use of strategies by inefficient learners (e.g. novices, students with learning disabilities) (Borkowski & Muthukrishna, 1992; Clark & Wittrock, 2000). These learners benefit from having others make implicit processing explicit to them (Davidson & Sternberg, 1998). The immediate challenge is to apply ideas about metacognition to workplace learning. Part of this is achieved by the relatively simple step of conceptualizing the workplace as a learning environment. The greater part of the challenge is determining what might function as an appropriate domain or framework. Below, we explore the concept of routines to show that it presents an ideal conceptual framework for considering metacognition in workplace learning.
2.2 Routines in the Workplace Our approach is to ask what is common across varied contexts of work. When we do this, we cannot escape the idea that routines are central to workplaces. Although routines are manifested quite differently, they are nonetheless routines. Given the obvious success in schools of metacognitive strategy instruction (e.g. Swanson, 2001; Swanson & Sachse-Lee, 2000), it seems reasonable to explore the concept of routine to see if it has promise for offering a pedagogical framework for learning in the workplace. We pursue this argument first by reviewing some of the research on workplace routines. Our studies of students in the workplace suggest that workplace learning centres on clusters of tasks that can be understood as routines (Pentland, 1995). Studies show that routines are central to work. Gersick and Hackman (1990) claim ‘habitual routines exist when a group repeatedly exhibits a functionally similar pattern of behaviour in a given stimulus situation without explicitly selecting it over alternative
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ways of behaving’ (p. 69). Literature suggests that routines assist novice employees and, by association, co-op education students in a number of ways (Dosi, Nelson & Winter, 2000; Louis & Sutton, 1991). The frequent repetition of routines leads to mastery and acceptance as a legitimate peripheral participant in the community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Routines reduce uncertainty and improve confidence. Novice employees and co-op education students are frequently overwhelmed by the stimuli in a new environment and routines assist in reducing the cognitive engagement needed to complete tasks (Chin et al., 2004a).
2.3 A Metacognitive Theory of Routines for Workplace Instruction Three central ideas underpin our theory of the metacognitive functions of routines: (a) that work can be conceptualized as routines; (b) that the concept of routines can be taught; and (c) that the metacognitive functions of routines give structure to learning in the workplace. Our observational research shows that routines can be small or large, and that work tends to comprise routines set within routines. The term ‘routine’ invokes something dull and changeless, and this is not a productive way to think of the workplace because routines in work can be interrupted and can change in response to external or internal conditions. The first step in an instructional theory about routines is to recognize the power of teaching students that they can understand their activities in a workplace in terms of routines. Added power comes from understanding that routines have generalizable properties. For example, the following are characteristics or functions of routines:
r r r
something initiates them; they proceed until some definable point is reached; and then they repeat.
When we teach students to identify these functions, we engage in metacognitive instruction. This instruction invites students to identify the routine(s) for which they have responsibility. Importantly, instruction about these metacognitive functions is generalizable to all routines because it is about the concept of a routine and not about particular routines that students encounter in the workplace. So metacognitive instruction can enhance students’ understanding of the work that they are meant to perform, and students would be invited to answer questions like the following as they begin at a work site: 1. What is the routine? What initiates the routine? 2. How do I know when the routine is complete? This instructional theory accommodates students who need more contexts for understanding the routines they perform because it acknowledges that work consists of connected routines. Thus, students could be asked to identify the larger routine to which their routine contributes.
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Our conceptualization of routines in the workplace embraces the commonplace that routines can fail. Sometimes they do not work—they get off track, a component is omitted, or the initiation is incomplete. It is important that students learn to identify and then to respond appropriately when things go awry. The concept of routines, then, invites students to attend in general terms to what goes wrong, to identify specific failures within their own routines and then to learn within their workplaces how to respond. Basic metacognitive questions for students to learn to ask themselves might be: ‘If the routine does not work, is it because there is a problem in the initiation?’ and ‘If the routine does not work, is there a problem in my performance that allowed the routine to get off track?’ The theory of the metacognitive functions of routines also accommodates the changeable nature of routines. The kind of metacognitive instruction here takes the student to a different level because it invites attention on how routines can be improved. Students could be introduced to questions like: ‘Can the routine be made more efficient? Can the routine be combined with another routine into a single routine?’ Importantly, these and the above questions come from thinking about the concept of routine and not from particular routines. These questions, which together suggest instruction, are independent of particular workplaces. The general applicability of the questions is a clear strength of instruction that can be built on the metacognitive functions of routines.
2.4 Discussion and Implications Our theory of the metacognitive functions of routines for workplace instruction is consistent with our findings about the curriculum of the workplace: ‘working knowledge’ is the mastery of routines, and routines represent the organization of this knowledge. Our theory of routines suggests that what is general lies at the level of performance of routines rather than skills themselves, because routines have properties that are generally applicable. The theory shows why workplace knowledge is not just procedural but is at root tacit or opaque (Billett, 1995). Routines are similar to patterns in that they are not self-evident. One almost needs to be looking for regularity in order to observe it. Certainly, the behaviours of workers do not readily reveal the underlying routine that these behaviours are enacting. Billett’s (2001) work has shown that the use of guided strategies embedded in everyday work activities has enhanced the development of knowledge needed for successful workplace performance. Our theory also sits well with the idea of legitimate peripheral participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Novices can begin to learn a complex routine by participating in one small sub-routine, because participation provides a vantage point for observing and understanding the events that initiate, sustain and terminate the larger routine. This metacognitive theory of routines is relatively untested. We may make tentative suggestions about its implications for those involved in school-to-work programmes based on recent research (Munby et al., 2007b). For example, co-op education teachers could use the classroom portion of their courses to explain the
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nature of routines. Equally, workplace supervisors might find it helpful for students to have the overall routines and the sub-routines in a workplace identified for them early in their placement, and possibly before they begin to learn tasks. We believe that these approaches can contribute to making the tacit aspects of the routines in the workplace explicit.
3 Revealing the Science in the Workplace Some of our case study data showed the extent to which co-op education students recognized the science found in science-rich workplaces, such as a medical laboratory, a veterinary clinic and a dental office. Generally, the co-op students were able to assume successfully many of the duties associated with the role of a laboratory technician, veterinary technician and dental assistant, but they saw few relationships between workplace science and school science. As a result of this, we have developed a theoretical framework aimed at understanding the form and function of workplace science, and how it is different from school science. When this is combined with ideas about cognitive engagement in the workplace, we derive a theoretical framework that suggests the kinds of instructional interventions that can enhance students’ understandings of the form and function of workplace science, and its relationship to school science (Chin et al., 2004b).
3.1 Versions of Science and Cognitive Engagement To match our instructional interests, we find it useful to distinguish three versions of science on three dimensions: purpose, accountability and substance. The first version is bench science—-the theoretical and experimental work that generates the laws, theories and principles that constitute the substance of science. The purpose of bench science is to develop new scientific information, and the accountability of bench science lies in its attention to the validity of the information it generates. Our next version of science is school science, whose purpose is scientific literacy. The accountability of school science lies in assessment; and the substance of school science is constructions of scientific information, laws, theories and principles that meet its purpose. Our third version of science is workplace science. In an earlier discussion about the curriculum differences between classroom learning and workplace learning, we showed how the purposes were different because the settings were different. Even though a veterinary clinic is a co-op placement, its primary purpose is the health and well being of its patients and not the learning of the students—which is the primary purpose of the classroom. So the purpose of workplace science is to support the goals of the workplace, and the accountability lies in ensuring that the science invoked is current and is used appropriately. The substance of workplace science is constructions of scientific information, etc., that meet the workplace’s purpose.
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These distinctions help to show how science learning in the formal context of schools is different from the science found in the informal context of a science-rich workplace. Hughes, Moore and Bailey (1999) and Hennessy (1993) concluded that understanding the connection between the knowledge gained in an academic setting and the knowledge needed to solve real-world problems is critical. Our distinctions show why a student who is participating successfully in a science-rich workplace does not necessarily see a direct relationship between workplace science and school science: a direct relationship does not exist. In the case of the veterinary clinic, the form (i.e. breadth and depth) of the ‘substance’ is dictated primarily by the purpose of the workplace—namely, patient’s health and recovery. That is, the scope of the necessary ‘substance’ of science is exclusively limited by the purpose of the particular context. Our approach to workplace learning leans on the idea of situated cognitive engagement—-the components of a social theory of learning that Wenger (1998) called practice and meaning. The quality of cognitive engagement is initially dependent on the quality of access the co-op student has to opportunities for learning within the workplace setting. This improved access is more likely to occur when the student adopts a progression of self-regulated forms of activity, apprenticeship and appropriation (Hung, 1999). This access is also dependent upon the willingness of the workplace to create such opportunities for co-participation (Billett, 2001). Increased access to learning opportunities increases the potential breadth of cognitive engagement, but does little to enhance the depth of that cognitive engagement. Deeper learning occurs when the student utilizes a reflective stance to better understand his or her role within the community of practice, and to better understand the reasons behind his or her particular duties. In this way, the student is encouraged to synthesize the knowledge underlying the actions. Thus, in addition to access, we contend that cognitive engagement is comprised of two more parts: procedural knowledge (‘knowing how’) and declarative knowledge (‘knowing that’). These can be seen as similar to practice and meaning. Learning at the workplace is enhanced when students can carry out specific actions and when they also understand the knowledge underlying those actions. We believe that workplace science becomes apparent at the level of declarative knowledge, and the co-op student needs to understand the form and function of the workplace science before he or she can see its relationship to school science. Thus, we see the importance of creating instructional strategies so that co-op students can increase their access to learning, can perform proper practices and can understand the knowledge underlying those actions.
3.2 A Framework for Identifying Areas of Instruction The meshing of our understanding of the different versions of science with our understanding of cognitive engagement (with its access, procedural and declarative components) results in the creation of a theoretical framework that allows us to understand workplace learning from an instructional perspective. In this way, it provides researchers with possibilities for designing instruction that can enhance
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the quality of students’ co-op experiences, and of the students’ understanding of the relationships between school science and workplace science (Chin et al., 2007). Our in-depth case studies clearly revealed that as the semester progressed, the co-op students in the dental and veterinary clinics took on the roles of dental and veterinary technicians respectively. Even so, interviews with the co-op students suggested that they saw little relationship between the science-rich workplace and the science they learn at school. Our understanding of school science and workplace science led us to believe that we could identify instructional implications for bridging the science found in school and in the workplace within three specific areas of the framework. First, instructional strategies can be developed for co-op students, co-op teachers and workplace supervisors that overtly attend to the issue of co-participation so that they can maximize their access to opportunities for learning. For example, students can be taught about the importance of asking questions of the workplace personnel about what they need to learn in the workplace. Second, instructional strategies for co-op students and workplace supervisors can be developed to help students understand the metacognitive functions of routines (practices) and to identify and understand the declarative knowledge (meaning) that is imbedded within typical workplace routines and within the ‘machinery’ of the workplace. For example, workplace personnel can receive instruction on how to ‘think aloud’ when performing tasks or making decisions so that the co-op students can see the reasoning behind actions. This will enhance the co-op students’ access to the declarative knowledge in the workplace. Third, instructional strategies for co-op students, workplace supervisors and co-op teachers can be developed to help students recognize the differences in form and function between workplace science and school science. For example, students could receive instruction that emphasizes how they can see whether they are being successful within the accountability of the workplace. They need to be encouraged to understand the science behind their procedural knowledge, and to recognize that the scope of the workplace science underlying those procedures is limited solely to the purpose of the workplace in question. Our case studies of science-rich workplaces highlight the distinct form that science takes in the workplace, and the functions that science serves in meeting the central purposes of the workplace. If we want high-school co-op education students to understand better the relationship between school science and workplace science, science teachers and workplace supervisors need to help co-op students recognize and understand the situated form and function of workplace science, and this can only occur when the access, procedural and declarative components of cognitive engagement are present (Munby et al., 2007a).
4 Focusing on Equity in Co-op Education In this section, we focus on issues of equity in co-op education. Canadians with disabilities already face barriers to education and employment (Human Resources Development Canada, 1998). While, in theory, knowledge societies offer unprece-
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dented access to self-transformation, critics argue that in practice they appear to be ‘highly susceptible to recreating and reinforcing systemic social inequalities’ (Chisholm, 1999). Changes are needed in equity policies and educational programmes to ensure that those with special needs contribute to the knowledge economy (Peters, 2001). A recent policy document in Ontario states that co-op education should be available to all students, including students with special needs (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2000). ‘The employer and supervisor must be made aware of the student’s area of exceptionality and special learning needs. If at all possible, this should be done well before the placement begins’ (p. 34). Many of our studies have produced suggestions for enhancing the accessibility of co-op education (e.g. Hutchinson et al., 1999; Hutchinson et al., 2001). However, a study we completed recently focused on the experiences of two adolescents with special needs and sharpened our understanding of the growing challenges in a knowledge society (Versnel et al., 2002). Below, we provide a brief summary of two cases that highlight the role of factors like routines, which we have already discussed as important to the workplace learning of all co-op students, and factors like communication which are critical to informing workplace supervisors about special needs. We then make recommendations for co-op instruction and workplace supervision that meet the needs of exceptional youth.
4.1 The Cases of Jerry and Laurie Jerry and Laurie were placed in garages that employed advanced technologies for diagnosing and repairing automobiles. Two researchers met with them during the fourth week that they were in their workplaces. We then conducted observations of the students at work, talked with them when they were between tasks, and conducted formal interviews with the workplace supervisors. Jerry had a speech impairment and, according to his teacher, a history of difficulties with reading and writing. In the initial meeting with the two researchers, Jerry described how twelve technicians worked at the garage, but he had not been assigned to any one of them for supervision. He said he was ‘always circulating, helping everyone, all around’. Jerry was observed on six occasions. He was increasingly absent from the placement, and when questioned, he responded that no one had told him that he had to be at the workplace every day. Laurie’s teacher described her as experiencing difficulties with listening, reading and writing. She had completed two successful terms in co-op placements at a garage in a government agency before dropping out of school. Laurie said she had returned to school ‘because I need more credits. I want to go to college, and am applying to take a mechanic’s course’. She said she had been assigned responsibilities for ‘oil changes, brakes and tire changes,’ and Sam, one of three mechanics, was her guide. One of the researchers observed Laurie wandering aimlessly in the garage for more than thirty minutes and growing increasingly frustrated. She explained later that she could not find the necessary tools and was uncertain
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how to replace a rod in an axle. In these thirty minutes, Laurie quietly asked for help twice; finally two mechanics brought the tools and helped her to finish. Two weeks later, Laurie stopped attending her co-op placement following an altercation with Sam.
4.2 Four Problem Themes Using standard qualitative methods to analyse detailed observations and transcripts of interviews, we generated four themes that captured the problematic experiences of these young people in co-op education: expectations and mismatches, routines, communication, and preparing the stakeholders. In Laurie’s case, the teacher created expectations when she praised her mechanical abilities in previous co-op placements, while relating nothing about Laurie’s difficulties in school. The workplace supervisor formed unrealistic expectations that ‘Laurie was an entry-level position’. In Jerry’s case, the workplace supervisor expected initiative and independence, which Jerry did not deliver, while Jerry expected that behaviours he engaged in at school, like frequent absences, would be acceptable in the workplace. Jerry might have benefited from having routines demonstrated and explained. As it was, he understood little of what the mechanics were doing and of how he could help. Laurie had mastered simple routines, but observation showed that she was expected to and unable to execute complex and unfamiliar routines. The students demonstrated weak communication in the workplace—Jerry was absent from his co-op placement frequently without notifying the supervisor, and Laurie was unwilling to ask questions even when she could not perform her assigned tasks. The supervisors were rarely seen to communicate workplace knowledge to the co-op students and appeared reluctant to communicate their dissatisfaction to the school, while the school failed to communicate the students’ special needs to the workplace supervisors. Both workplace supervisors made suggestions for preparing co-op students. They especially wished to see students asking questions, showing initiative and acting independently. The supervisors had not been prepared with the information they needed to help Jerry and Laurie succeed. They said that with such information, they ‘would have done everything differently.’
5 Implications for Instruction for Exceptional Learners Workplace learning is different from school learning. It is informal, embedded in the routines of the workplace and implicit. The natural curriculum of the workplace is not designed around the needs of the novice. Our four related themes of expectations, routines, communication and preparation demonstrate that workplace learning can be particularly challenging for exceptional learners.
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We believe that workplaces that see themselves as communities of practice can do much to consciously initiate novices to their shared knowledge by making what is known explicit (Wenger, 1998). The most effective mentors are those who consciously guide their prot´eg´es (Darwin, 2000). Guidance is usually needed on three levels: (a) organization of learners’ experience; (b) close guidance in the development of routines and understanding associated with work practice; and (c) the development of self-regulated learning and the transfer of working knowledge to new tasks and workplaces (Billett, 1995, 2001). When aspects of work are not intrinsically interesting to youth, we can enhance their motivation by increasing their feelings of: relatedness to their co-workers; competence (by ensuring they experience some success); and autonomy (by giving them some choice) (Ryan & Deci, 2000). For these strategies to succeed, employers must be aware of the strengths and needs of exceptional co-op students (Hutchinson et al., 2008). The two workplaces reported here received no relevant information and made none of the accommodations that Canadian employers are expected to provide for people with disabilities (HRDC, 1998). It is urgent that we ‘move from the goal of access for as many students as possible to success for as many as possible’ (Gouvernement du Qu´ebec. Minist`ere de l’´education, 1999), as we embrace the challenges of a knowledge society.
6 Closing Comments: From Participation to Engagement In this chapter, we have drawn on our empirical work in the area of secondary co-op or work-based education to advance strategies for workplace learning with three emphases. The first of these concerns instruction that focuses on the metacognitive functions of routines for novice workers; the second concerns instruction about science in the workplace; and the final section considers workplace instruction for students with exceptionalities. In each of these three related emphases, participation in not enough. The strategies we recommend provide guidance at three levels: organizing learners’ experience; guiding the development of routines and the understanding of routines; and facilitating the development of self-regulated learning and use of knowledge to respond to changing tasks and workplaces. The knowledge economy demands that we recognize the differences between school learning and workplace learning and that we scaffold adolescents’ experiences so that they are cognitively engaged with the workplace.
Note 1. Prepared for the 2002 UNEVOC-Canada Conference ‘Developing Skills for the New Economy’. The chapter is drawn from the programme of research Co-operative Education and Workplace Learning (Hugh Munby, Nancy L. Hutchinson, Peter Chin) funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The authors acknowledge the significant help of
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the graduate-student members of the Co-operative Education and Workplace Learning research team: <educ.queensu.ca/∼cewl/>
References Advisory Council on Science and Technology. 2000. Stepping up: skills and opportunities in the knowledge economy Ottawa: Government of Canada. (Report of the expert panel on skill.) Billett, S. 1995. Workplace learning: its potential and limitations. Education & training, vol. 37, pp. 20–27. Billett, S. 2001. Learning in the workplace: strategies for effective practice. Crowsnest, Australia: Allen & Unwin. Borkowski, J.G.; Muthukrishna, N. 1992. Moving metacognition into the classroom: ‘working models’ and effective strategy teaching. In: Pressley, M.; Harris, K.R.; Guthrie, J.T., eds. Promoting academic competence and literacy in school, pp. 477–501. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Chin, P. et al. 2004a. Epistemological appropriation in one high-school student’s learning in cooperative education. American educational research journal, vol. 41, pp. 401–17. Chin, P. et al. 2004b. Where’s the science? Understanding the form and function of workplace science. In: Scanlon, E. et al., eds. Reconsidering science learning, pp. 118–34. London: Routledge. Chin, P. et al. 2007. Teaching science for the workplace? An analysis of Canadian science curriculum documents. Canadian journal of science, mathematics and technology education, vol. 7, no. 2. Chisholm, L. 1999. The transition to a knowledge society and its implications for the European social model. (Paper presented at the seventeenth European Symposium on Science and Culture, Bruges, Belgium, September 1999.) Clark, R.; Wittrock, M.C. 2000. Psychological principles in training. In: Tobias, S.; Fletcher, J.D., eds. Training and retraining: a handbook for business, industry, government, and the military, pp. 51–84. New York, NY: Macmillan. Conference Board of Canada. 1992. Employability skills profile. Ottawa: CBC. (Rep. No. 81-92-E.) Darwin, A. 2000. Critical reflection on meaning in work settings. Adult education quarterly, vol. 50, pp. 197–211. Davidson, J.E.; Sternberg, R.J. 1998. Smart problem-solving: how metacognition helps. In: Hacker, D.J.; Dunlosky, J.; Graesser, A.C., eds. Metacognition in educational theory and practice, pp. 47–68. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Dosi, G.; Nelson, R.R.; Winter, S.G. 2000. Introduction: the nature and dynamics of organizational capabilities. In: Dosi, G.; Nelson, R.R.; Winter, S.G., eds. The nature and dynamics of organizational capabilities, pp. 1–22. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Gersick, C.J.G.; Hackman, J.R. 1990. Habitual routines in task-performing groups. Organizational behavior and human decision processes, vol. 47, pp. 65–97. Gouvernement du Qu´ebec. Minist`ere de l’´education. 1999. Adapting our schools to the needs of all students: draft policy on special education. Qu´ebec, Canada: Legal d´epˆot, Biblioth`eque nationale du Qu´ebec. Hennessy, S. 1993. Situated cognition and cognitive apprenticeship: implications for classroom learning. Studies in science education, vol. 22, pp. 1–41. Hughes, K.L.; Moore, D.T.; Bailey, T.R. 1999. Work-based learning and academic skills. New York, NY: Columbia University. (IEE working paper, no. 15.) Human Resources Development Canada—HRDC. 1998. Ensuring opportunities: access to post-secondary education. Ottawa: HRDC. (Response to the first report of the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities.)
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Hung, D. 1999. Activity, apprenticeship, and epistemological appropriation: implications from the writings of Michael Polanyi. Educational psychologist, vol. 34, pp. 193–205. Hutchinson, N.L. et al. 1999. How inclusive is co-operative education in Canada? Getting the story and the numbers. Exceptionality education Canada, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 15–43. Hutchinson, N.L. et al. 2001. The intended curriculum in co-operative education in Ontario secondary schools: an analysis of school district documents. Journal of vocational education research, vol. 26, pp. 103–40. Hutchinson, N.L. et al. 2008. Negotiating accommodations so that work-based education facilitates career development for youth with disabilities. Work, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 123–36. Lave, J.; Wenger, E. 1991. Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Louis, M.R.; Sutton, R.I. 1991. Switching cognitive gears: from habits of mind to active thinking. Human relations, vol. 44, pp. 55–76. McMillan, J.H.; Schumacher, S. 2001. Research in education: a conceptual introduction, 5th ed. New York, NY: Addison Wesley Longman. Munby, H.; Chin, P.; Hutchinson, N.L. 2003. Co-operative education, the curriculum, and ‘working knowledge’. In: Pinar, W. et al., eds. The internationalization of curriculum, pp. 205–18. New York, NY: Peter Lang. Munby, H. et al. 2003. Workplace learning and the metacognitive functions of routines. Journal of workplace learning, vol. 15, pp. 94–104. Munby, H. et al. 2007a. Co-op students’ access to shared knowledge in science-rich workplaces. Science education, vol. 91, pp. 115–32. Munby, H. et al. 2007b. Enhancing workplace learning for adolescents: the use of metacognitive instruction. Education + training, vol. 49, pp. 8–24. Ontario Ministry of Education. 2000. Cooperative education and other forms of experiential learning: policies and procedures for Ontario secondary schools. Toronto, Canada: Queen’s Printer for Ontario. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 1996. The knowledge-based economy. Paris: OECD. <www.oecd.org/dataoecd/51/8/1913021.pdf> Pentland, B.T. 1995. Grammatical models of organizational processes. Organization science, no. 6, pp. 541–56. Peters, M. 2001. National education policy constructions of the ‘knowledge economy’: towards a critique. Journal of educational enquiry, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1–22. <www.literacy.unisa.edu.au/jee/Papers/JEEVol2No1/paper1.pdf> Ryan, R.M.; Deci, E.L. 2000. Self-determination theory and the facility of intrinsic motivation. American psychologist, vol. 55, pp. 68–78. Stiglitz, J. 1999. Public policy for a knowledge economy. Washington, DC: World Bank. <www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/extme/knowledge-economy.pdf> Swanson, H.L. 2001. Research on interventions for adolescents with learning disabilities: a meta-analysis of outcomes related to higher-order processing. Elementary school journal, vol. 101, pp. 331–48. Swanson, H.L.; Sachse-Lee, C. 2000. A meta-analysis of single-subject-design intervention research for students with LD. Journal of learning disabilities, vol. 33, pp. 114–36. Versnel, J. et al. 2002. Learning in garages: co-operative education experiences of two exceptional adolescents. (Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education, Toronto, Ontario, May 2002.) Wenger, E. 1998. Communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
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Chapter X.15
Literacy, Design and Technology: New Contexts for Learning and Skills Development in South Africa David Johnson
1 Introduction There are longstanding concerns about the relevance of education systems to the economic and skills needs of developing and post-industrial economies. Foremost amongst these is that skills for employment and those skills needed to navigate new complex social and political environments are weak outcomes of education systems. In the developing world, the tenuous relationship between educational outcomes and employment opportunities and demands has occupied policy-makers and the international donor community, both of whom have at varying times blown hot and cold on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) as the policy choice for promoting sustainable human development and economic growth. While there is little doubt that investing in education and training is a key part of the overall strategy for poverty reduction in the poorest economies of the world, evidence of gains that TVET might have made in this respect is weak. This is primarily so because of the lack of expansion and uptake of TVET in the developing world. Various reasons have been cited as to why TVET did not have the anticipated impact. First, on the supply side, was the question of cost—for the rapidly expanding education systems in Africa, it was cheaper to construct conventional facilities than vocational facilities. In addition, teaching and learning materials and the costs for maintenance of the premises were cheaper for academic schools than for TVET schools. Moreover, teachers capable of teaching TVET were in short supply and the costs of training academic teachers were considerably lower than for their TVET counterparts. Second, and perhaps more important, were demand-side factors. TVET, in the view of many parents, was stigmatized. It seems that it has been unable to shake off the image, created during the colonial period, of a second-class education preparing its beneficiaries for manual labour rather than mental work. Where TVET was taken up, various studies have revealed little evidence of a correlation between its outputs and sustainable economic development and growth. There appears to have been little increase in employment opportunities (Wilson, 1974; Lauglo & Lillis, 1988; Lauglo, 2005) or better returns to individual incomes (Bennell, 2000). These findings have led many donors to distance themselves from investing in secondary education in general and in TVET in particular. Indeed, a clutch of rate-of-return and cost/benefit studies throughout the 1980s and 1990s R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 X.15, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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prompted a general shift away from secondary education to investments in primary education as a key driver for poverty reduction. In the meantime, the mismatch between educational outputs and the skills needed to stimulate economic growth and sustainable development in the poorest countries continues to be a concern. A recent analysis of the status of education in Nigeria concluded that the quality and relevance of education as currently delivered needs to be improved. At the university level, a labour-market study conducted in 2000 revealed a major weakness in the quality of graduates being produced. A more recent review suggests that graduate employment remains a major challenge at both the secondary and tertiary levels. Only 14.9% of employers of technical/vocational-school graduates surveyed rated the job-performance of science and technology graduates as good, while for graduates of polytechnics, colleges of education and universities, only 25% of employers rated the graduates as good to very good (Nigeria. Federal Ministry of Education, 2005). Such reviews have prompted international donors and low-income countries to look again at the contribution of post-basic education to poverty reduction and economic growth and the World Bank has recently announced its support for TVET (World Bank, 2006). But what TVET should look like has also been the subject of a rethink, given the low demand and high costs of supply discussed above. Lauglo and Maclean (2005) argue in favour of a vocationalization of secondary education, but stress an important difference. Lauglo (2005) writes: vocationalised secondary education refers to a curriculum which remains overwhelmingly general or ‘academic’ in nature, but which includes vocational or practical subjects as a minor portion of the students timetable during the secondary school course (p. 3). [. . . ] vocationalisation differs from school-based vocational education and training (VET). Under VET, a students’ timetable is dominated by practical skills learning and by directly related theory. Under vocationalisation, the bulk of the students’ timetable consists of general education subjects, and the main purpose of their course is general education. Thus, a distinctive feature of vocationalised secondary education is that vocational subject matter takes only a minor proportion of total curriculum time (p. 4).
Wilson (2005) goes further and argues that a re-conceptualization of the vocationalization of secondary education has occurred following the convergence of academic and technical curricula in newly-industrializing nations. He asserts that the vocationalization of previously more academic curricula, such as in secondary education in Australia and some North American States, is an outcome of globalization and technological modernization and concludes, with reference to Draxler and Haddad (2002), that low-income developing countries cannot afford to ignore the need to re-conceptualize and restructure vocational secondary education. Drawing attention to the work of Hallak (1990), Wilson argues that the examples of prevocational studies, introduced by a number of Asian countries into both primary and secondary level curricula, show that the foundations for the education and training of participants in the new knowledge economy can be laid down early and ‘should include provision of a sound understanding of mathematics, science, technology and communications skills’ (Wilson, 2005).
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For Wilson, Hallak and others, the failure of TVET in low-income developing countries is partly because of its ambitiousness—too much, too early—and they conclude that perhaps it is now time to consider a more staged and incremental approach. Broadly speaking, this is sensible and would probably serve to allay persisting fears of a differentiated system. Yet, we need to be wary of moving too far in the direction of a systems-planning approach for all. All too often ‘fixing’ the system shifts the policy debate towards the view that the function of education is utilitarian, and moving it further away from the view that education serves humanity in a much deeper way. Policy research seems to be increasingly a-theoretical, clearly much better on deciding the mix of inputs and creating enabling conditions, but less clear about the philosophical bases that we are building on. The question ‘what kind of world are today’s young people going to inhabit and what skills and qualities will they need to thrive therein?’, it seems, would require us to reassess what we know about the human mind and its potentiality, or as Wells and Claxton (2002) put it: ‘to understand minds that are smart enough to engage with the uncertain demands of the future, whatever they may be’. We might be better served to learn from a chequered history of educational policy reform and renewal that the answers do not always lie in the structural redesign of education systems. Rather, it is perhaps timely to step back and re-evaluate what we know about education, the nature of knowledge, how it is made and the contexts wherein it is shaped. Most important, we need to know what learners know and what they can do, based on a much better understanding of the human mind than we currently have. This should not be taken to mean that we embark on a ‘blue-skies’ search for philosophical truths, but rather that we reassess what we know about human potentiality in order to find the best ways to maximize it. The argument is simple: we know, from what we can see outside the formal context of schooling, that human beings are enormously creative and resourceful. What we do not know much about is human potentiality as an outcome of formal education or indeed how formal schooling might enhance or maximize such potentiality. Thus, it might be argued that Wilson’s analysis that globalization and technological advances ‘necessitate the education and training of knowledge workers, who are able to use logical abstract thinking to diagnose problems, research and apply knowledge, propose solutions, and design and implement those solutions, often as a team member’ (2005, p. 84) misses the point. It is less about what education systems should be geared to teach and train, and more about recognizing that such dispositions already exist—but that the context of formal schooling, assessment and the need for certification hinder our abilities to recognize and harness these dispositions to create new contexts for learning.
2 Re-evaluating the Curriculum and the Nature of Learning The research reported below examines the relationship between the rapidly changing needs of the new knowledge economy and the post-basic education curriculum in South Africa. A recent survey reveals that companies are more likely to recruit
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for adaptability and fresh ideas, away from specific skills and competencies and towards employability skills, such as participation, communication, teamwork and problem-solving (Barlex, 2005). Sadly, it would seem that many of these skills remain dormant and untapped within the formal education curriculum in schools in the developing world. There appears to be little in the way of curriculum organization or pedagogy that draws out the underlying capabilities, meaning-making potential, creative capacities, resourcefulness and savvy that young people possess, and there is virtually no research that demonstrates how the education system might exploit such latent capabilities for employability, citizenship and poverty reduction. There is very little understanding of the latent meaning-making capabilities that students possess; their facilities with resources for meaning-making (for example, wire, milk cartons, etc.,); the role of indigenous knowledge systems and how these might be used to compliment the formal knowledge production systems used in schools and tertiary education. To illustrate the point, Serpell (1993) shows that, when asked to reproduce a simple model, Zambian children do well when the medium is wire, a familiar resource and activity in their community, but badly with pencil and paper. English children performed poorly with wire but better with pencil and paper. Both groups performed equally well when reproducing patterns using clay—a medium that was unfamiliar to both groups. What this study demonstrates is that children, when given different resources with which to make meaning, do rather better than when they are constrained to one mode of communication (linguistic) only. Yet, policy imperatives for strengthening educational quality in developing countries build off the premise that students are underachieving. Mathematics, science and literacy scores are generally very poor. The problem is that the only measures of competencies that are currently available are test and examination results. There is a growing suspicion that these measures do not tell the whole story. We are aware, for example, of the observations of cross-cultural psychologists that some people who perform poorly on tests of cognition show impressive thinking in everyday lives (Rogoff, 2003). We simply do not really understand or know enough about what people know or can do outside of assessment criteria governed largely by Piagetian understandings of reasoning, classification, logic and memory. Despite the criticisms of ‘systems fixing’, we must acknowledge that there is a real challenge to re-make schools (but with the caveat that we understand better what education is). Schools have always played an important role in shaping the private, public and working lives of people. But, globalization and technological advance has dramatically changed the realms of these major spheres of social activity and, consequently, it seems logical that what is taught, and how it is learned and assessed, must also change (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000). Where schools have customarily performed the role of providing skills for the traditional economy and laying foundations for homogenous national citizenship, the changing nature of work and individual lifestyles, as well as shifting patterns in social and civic relations, now require schools to respond differently. Currently, the post-basic education system is geared towards what Kalantzis, Cope and Harvey (2003) describe as the ‘old basics’. When we look, however,
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at the rapidly changing global context of work, and the changing architectures of people’s public and private lives, it would seem that the demands for skills are somewhat different from the formal aspects of the ‘old basics’. Kalantzis, Cope and Harvey (2003) make the case that knowledge required for the new global economy and the social and political demands of today are highly situated, rapidly changing and more diverse than ever. The successful learner who shall satisfy the demands of today’s economies and today’s societies needs to be an autonomous, self-directed designer of his/her own learning experiences, who uses multiple modes through which to represent meaning (New London Group, 2000). As pointed out above, the need for a more relevant and appropriate curriculum is keenly felt by many African governments. However, beyond surveys in which the relationship of what is learned in response to the needs of the new global economy are tested, there is very little systematic research into the nature of learning, especially studies that seek to understand what latent capabilities and orientations young people possess, and which, if revealed and valued in schooling and tertiary education, might point the way towards entrepreneurship and the design of new employment opportunities. Being able to draw upon those things that students know and can do is an important ingredient for raising the quality and relevance of education and making it more appropriate to the changing economic and public demands. This kind of thinking is clearly high on the research agendas of many countries and the research endeavour into the latent ‘funds of knowledge’ that people have—but are rarely exploited by formal curricula—is growing (Hughes et al., 2003; Moll & Greenberg, 1990.; Gregory, Long & Volk, 2004). An inadequate understanding of the latent capabilities and resourcefulness of African students leads to circular arguments about the nature of curriculum development and other inputs into education. By contrast, a better understanding of underlying dispositions towards learning might lead to more useful pedagogy and assessment and provide the material upon which more appropriate and relevant content is built.
3 Design and Technology for the Twenty-First Century In the last ten years we have seen the steady growth in some countries of curricula in design and technology. The potential of this curriculum learning area to develop more generic skills and capabilities more closely matched to the growing demand for ‘design and innovation’ in the new knowledge economy is widely claimed, but, as yet, this claim remains under-researched. The design and technology curriculum encourages the use of knowledge, skills and resources to meet human needs and wants, and to recognize and solve problems by investigating, designing, developing and evaluating products, processes and systems. The design and technology curriculum was introduced into the National Curriculum in the United Kingdom in 1990 with the following vision:
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Design and Technology prepares pupils to participate in tomorrow’s rapidly changing technologies. They learn to think and intervene creatively to improve the quality of life. The subject calls for pupils to become autonomous and creative problem-solvers, as individuals and members of a team. They must look for needs, wants and opportunities and respond to them by developing a range of ideas and making products and systems. They combine practical skills with an understanding of aesthetics, social and environmental issues, function and industrial practices. As they do so, they reflect on and evaluate present and past design and technology, its uses and effects. Through design and technology, all pupils can become discriminating and informed users of products and become innovators (United Kingdom. Department for Education and Employment, 1999.)
A newspaper article a few years later reported the enthusiasm for the new learning area. The article reads: The sky is the limit for children at a Lanchashire primary school for they are designing an airliner with the help of British Aerospace. The eight and nine year olds have used computers and other high tech equipment provided by the giant plane-maker to plan a supersonic jet capable of carrying 1,000 passengers (Times educational supplement, 3 March 1999).
The report quotes a spokesman for the project, who remarks: Their ideas can be very difficult, but joyfully difficult. They want to be able to fly 1,000 passengers to Australia in a few hours using solar power and we have let their fertile little minds run riot. I would love to find an airliner which does not pollute the atmosphere and it is interesting to us how they picked up on that. In designing the airliner, the children have come up with some spectacularly new ideas. They have learned about the principles of flight, lift and weight and thrust and drag, and have come up with a design which is 130 metres long and weighs twice as much as a Jumbo. They have also projected routes for the airliner and looked at details such as livery (ibid.).
The success of the curriculum innovation in the United Kingdom has sparked interest in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Russia and Canada, and also in the developing world—South Africa, China and Sri Lanka. The research into the design and technology learning area in South Africa, reported here, was funded by British Aerospace, which is keen to explore the global market for innovative and creative design potential. The aim of the research was to examine whether the design and technology learning area in South Africa offered a learning context that would draw out the human potentialities, innovative and creative abilities of young people and provide a research context in which we could profile their range of literacies (modes of communication) that were being used to make sense of a problem and contribute to a solution. The South African technology learning area (‘learning area’ is the term used for ‘curriculum’ in South Africa) aims ‘to develop the abilities of learners to solve technological problems by investigating, designing, developing, evaluating as well as communicating effectively in their own and other languages and by using different modes of communication’, to encourage learners to work together as ‘individuals and as group members, in a range of technological contexts’ and to develop ‘a critical understanding of the interrelationship between technology, society, the economy and the environment’ (Republic of South Africa. Department of Education, 2000).
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In the view of the South African Government, the aims of the design and technology learning area should: (a) contribute to the development of learners’ abilities to perform effectively in their changing environment; (b) stimulate them to contribute towards its improvement; (c) allow them to design and develop appropriate products, processes or systems to functional, aesthetic and other specifications set either by the learner or by others; and (d) evaluate technological products, processes and systems from functional, economic, ethical, social and aesthetic points of view (RSA. DoE, 2000). The overall goal of the technology learning area is the delivery of: quality education though relevance to the ever-changing modern world and integration of theory and practice; the development of citizens who are innovative, critical, responsive and effective; the demystification of technology; the recognition and respect for diverse technological solutions and biases that exist; and creating more positive attitudes, perceptions and aspirations towards technology-based careers (RSA. DoE, 2000).
As mentioned above, the purpose of the study was to review the South African experience with design and technology as a curriculum learning area and to test its potential for unlocking innovation and creativity. It was also intended to make visible the variety of modes in which learners provide meaning. The research argues that by inviting students to react to ‘real-world’ problems established through interviews with government officials, industry and commerce and the local community, we are able to identify and categorize a wide range of meaning-making modes and to evaluate these in relation to the skills demands of the new knowledge economy. In this way, we are able to elicit and illuminate the creative potential that young people have. The research was carried out in secondary schools in South Africa and the main objective was to improve our understanding of what young people in Africa know and can do. The research looked beyond traditional examination and test results. The main argument is that uncovering modes of meaning-making, resourcefulness and creativity amongst young people that traditional pedagogy and assessment fails to bring to the fore is vital for the reorientation of the education system in Africa, and for achieving the desired synergies between educational provision and the life-skills needed to navigate the rapidly changing demands of the twenty-first century. The following research questions were posed: 1. What latent skills, capabilities and human potentialities can be brought to the fore when students are exposed to real-world design problems? 2. What modes of communication (different literacies) do students use and how do these modes interact to create new understandings, new meanings and new designs? The research objectives were as follows: 1. To examine the relationship between the rapidly changing needs of the knowledge economy and current educational provision in South Africa. 2. To test whether the design and technology curriculum can unlock innovation and creativity and orient students towards real-world social and economic challenges.
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3. To categorize and analyse the range of meaning-making modes available to students with a view to a better understanding of learning potential. 4. To underpin policy dialogue on achieving relevance and appropriateness in education and to increase the flow of new policy-relevant information on education.
4 The Study: Theory, Method and Analytical Framework The research is located within the cultural historical and activity theory school (Vygotsky, 1978; Rogoff & Toma, 1997; Wertsch, 1991) and draws substantially on a growing field of research into multi-literacies and multi-modality (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000; Johnson & Kress, 2003; Johnson, 2003; Kalantzis, Cope & Harvey, 2003) and social semiotics (Kress, 1997; Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996; Kress et al., 2001). The design and technology learning area is taken to be an activity system and the study of the latent meaning-making potential that students possess as a study of action and activity. Action is therefore the unit of analysis (Wertsch, 1995, p. 60) and the focus of the research is on the collaboration of students in activity—in other words, how they go about jointly attempting to identify and solve problems; and how they use available resources—material and intellectual—and the variety of communication modes at their disposal (linguistic, visual, aural, spatial, gestural and multimodal) (see Cope & Kalantzis, 2000). The social participation of individuals and their social partners that takes place in an activity system is ‘a multi-voiced formation’ in which we hear the different viewpoints and approaches of various participants. There are, indeed, a number of studies of ‘activity systems’ showing that students have wide-ranging capabilities. This capacity is rarely allowed to surface in traditional science, mathematics or literacy curricula, but is visible when they are called upon to think and reason. Kress et al. (2001) studied science classrooms. They were able to show how a number of different meanings are realized through action. Their study provides us with a useful framework to study the use of different objects in action (what kinds of things are being manipulated and how), artefact mediated learning (how do the interactions of teachers and students transform objects and bring new meanings into existence), the relationships between different modes of meaning-making and the nature of the meanings that they generate. Johnson (2003) studied primary aged children in Bangladesh and found that, whilst their conventional reading and writing abilities were poor, their facilities with design and innovation were high. When children were given resources with which to make meaning (i.e. cardboard, crayons, sticky tape and a variety of moulded plastic animals), they were able to construct narrative story-boards indicating that their understandings of narrative were much better than might have been assumed from their performance in reading and writing.
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5 Findings and Discussion The technology learning area recommends the application of the technological process in respect of the following South African and global themes: housing, textiles, communication, water, transport, food, energy, health, tourism, agriculture, manufacturing, media, sport and recreation. During the period of study, the theme of transport was being covered by some of the schools under observation. Six secondary classrooms were each subjected to a three-month (one school term) period of observation. The observations followed the stages of the design and technology process which were: investigating (research), planning and designing, developing (constructing, making, modelling), and evaluating (measuring, testing, and deciding). Two video recorders were used in each observation to record the activity system—learners engaging with each other around a common activity. A taxonomy of multimodality (the complex interrelationship between different modes of meaning making—or ways in which to give expression to thoughts and ideas) was adapted from Cope and Kalantzis (2000). This taxonomy is as follows: Linguistic meanings: this includes various elements of linguistic meaning including vocabulary, metaphors, information structures, grammar and so on. Visual meanings: this includes images, page layouts, screen formats and so on. Audio meanings: this includes music and sound effects. Gestural meanings: this includes body language, posture, gestures, sensuality and so on. Spatial meanings: this includes the meanings of environmental spaces, architectural spaces and other spatial relations between objects. Multimodal meanings: this refers to a dynamic relationship between the different modes of meaning described above. For example, the mass media relates linguistic, visual, audio and gestural meanings in intricate ways (New London Group, 2000). In one of the groups observed, the task was to design a floating vessel that was capable of carrying cargo. The vessel needed to be powered (wind, fuel, etc., but no specific form of power was specified) and, finally, it should look aesthetically pleasing.
5.1 The Investigation Phase During the investigation phase which lasted for several days, learners worked as individuals, in pairs and in groups to research different kinds of ships. Learners appeared to have no difficulty finding examples of a variety of cargo ships from books, magazines, post-cards and photographs. There also appeared to be a vast personal knowledge of shipping and ship-building in the group. This is perhaps not surprising as the research took place in Durban, one of South Africa’s largest port cities. For many of the students, someone in their family was involved in the shipping industry—whether ship-building, stewarding or working in the docks. The
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‘investigation’ phase of the design and technology process provoked an enormous variety of debates and discussion amongst the group, including about local and regional needs (shipping is a central economic activity in Durban and Kwa-Zulu Natal—the province of South Africa of which Durban in the capital city). It proved an opportunity for sharing a number of personal biographies. One of the students recounted a story he had heard from his father about the Durban dock workers’ strike in the 1970s, which was a national turning point and the rebirth of the trade-union movement in South Africa after a period of political silence following the banning of various political organizations in the 1960s. The international significance of shipping and global transportation was not lost on the students either. South Africa had during that period just won a major international tender to supply high-tech guidance systems for submarines to Britain. This information was brought to the group by one of the students in the form of newspaper cuttings.
5.2 Planning and Design Phase In the planning and design phase that followed, students drew on the full spectrum of communication modes or multiliteracies at their disposal. Most groups created their plans on large sheets of paper and often began with drawing rough outlines of the product (cargo ship) that they were designing. Usually, in this phase of the design and technology process, students are expected to consider a range of possible and relevant designs and to generate a plan which includes an indication of the resources they have available (materials, tools and equipment) and how these will be used. This is a particularly challenging phase as students develop their own specifications for a design and have to deal with the fact that there are many different ways to solve a problem. Indeed, the groups observed became locked into discussion and debate over a number of days. Several design options were considered and their accuracy, innovativeness, creativeness and fitness to the tasks determined which options were taken further. Students not only showed that they were able to accept that other’s ways of seeing a design challenge was equally valid, but also that they could co-construct around a design option that had merit. Thus statements such as: ‘I think that it is a good idea to have the hold in the centre rather than at the back, but what about making it wider?’ (pointing to a sketch and then proceeding to alter it to show the effect of widening the hold). It became clear that students were applying, with skill, a wide range of graphic techniques including free-hand drawing and more accurate instrument drawings in both 2D and 3D. Students were also using the emerging ‘available’ designs to problem solve and to ‘design’ and ‘redesign’. According to the New London Group (2000), the concept of design involves a relationship between all received modes of meaning, e.g. visual, linguistic, spatial, etc. (available designs), the transformation of these modes of meaning into new forms (designing) and further transformation and application (redesigned). This stands in contrast to what Kress et al. (2001) refer to as ‘mere copying’, often seen in the reproduction of ideas demanded by the conventional school curriculum. This
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is very different to what was observed in the South African design and technology classrooms. Here, learners were drawing upon a wide range of experiences and communicating these through various modes (linguistic, visual, gestural and so on) to design creative solutions to the problem that they were working on.
5.3 The Developing Phase In the developing (constructing, making, modelling) phase of the design process, which took place about two weeks into the observation, students prepared themselves to apply technological knowledge and skills to the task at hand. In the group observed, students were able to draw upon (sometimes with reference books to hand) cross-curricula knowledge areas to bring to bear on the problem an understanding of simple mechanical systems, electrical concepts and basic laws, the use of electrical components as building blocks for controlling, and an input and output transistor as a switch. This group had incorporated into their design the use of a small electric motor to propel the vessel. Another group used the principles of a mechanical system to design a crude but effective propeller using low cost material. A pencil was used as a shaft and a strong rubber band, wound tightly served as the foundation of a thrust system. Propeller blades were fashioned out of empty plastic bottles. Yet another group discussed hydraulic and pneumatic systems. What was interesting was that this group was interested in a variation of the so-called ‘pop-pop’ boat from Bangladesh. Putt-putt or pop-pop boats were used widely in the 1920s and 1930s. Interestingly, these boats, fashioned out of simple low-cost materials (the Bangladesh boat was made out of a recycled milk tin and a small vegetable lamp) are powered by steam. Students in the group under observation were considering using a candle flame as a source of heat. In the developing (constructing, making and modelling) phase that followed, students were engaged in the construction of the vessels they had designed. Here students were able to demonstrate that they had an understanding that raw materials are processed in a variety of ways to enhance their value or produce new commodities. Some of the students elected to use a range of portable power tools that were available and showed that they were able to use them safely and effectively. It was also interesting to note that students had a good knowledge of the properties of some materials—those that were corrosive, combustible or toxic and which required special precautions in handling and manipulation. In all the groups observed, there was some conversation about the choices made in the selection of the material. Interestingly, there was no discussion on the impact of various materials on the environment or discussions involving ethical issues about the use of local or other materials. However, it was not difficult to see how such conversations might be facilitated, making a necessary link between the technical aspects of design and the broader aims of education in creating responsible and politically and environmentally aware citizens. Indeed, one of the learning outcomes proposed by the South African design
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and technology learning area is for learners to demonstrate an understanding of how different societies create and adapt technological solutions to particular problems. In this, learners are expected to consider various historical, cultural and economic factors that, for example, have influenced the use of transport. Students are also expected to consider and discuss a range of indigenous technologies and compare these to high-tech solutions. When the construction phase was concluded, there was a good sense that all the groups under observation were able to realize their solutions to the problem set through their designs. All the groups seemed to have managed their time effectively and efficiently. The next task was to determine if the design solved the problem.
5.4 The Evaluating Phase In the final phase—evaluating (measuring, testing and deciding)—students were invited to test their designs. The school had a swimming pool and all the groups brought their finished products there. Each group gave a short oral presentation of their piece and shared its design features with the other groups. Each group then had the opportunity to test their boat in the water. The group that had made a low-cost propeller demonstrated that their boat was able to travel a short distance on the water. It stayed upright and maintained its cargo (two un-boiled eggs). The group who had made the put-put boat had less success. Another group had designed sails for its boat, but not only was there not much of a breeze, the design was poor and the ship listed badly from the start. The group that had done perhaps the least work on thinking about an energy source for their boat won a big round of applause for their cheeky approach—pulling the boat across the water by attaching a long piece of string to the stern. Amidst claims that this was unrealistic, the group pointed out that many transport barges are still pulled across rivers in this way in countries like Gambia.
6 Conclusions The central argument offered here is that human potentiality in the developing world is plentiful. What lacks is, first of all, an understanding of what these potentialities are and, second, learning contexts in which they can be drawn out. Drawing upon the data from a study into literacy, design and technology in South African classrooms, this chapter demonstrates that young people are indeed innovative and creative and able to respond in a variety of ways to real-life problems. Two research questions were posed, namely, does the design and technology learning area offer a new context for learning and skills development and, if so, what are we able to learn about the nature of human creativity and the ways in which it is expressed?
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The chapter shows that the design and technology learning area did pose realworld challenges to which students were able to respond. What is important is that the learning context offered by design and technology is one that models the problem-solving approach demanded of the so-called new knowledge workers: they should work in teams, diagnose problems in logical and sometimes abstract ways, research questions, apply a range of knowledge, including indigenous knowledge, propose solutions, and design and implement their solutions. More interesting is that the learning context offered invited responses to problems that did not depend on one mode of communication. Using analytical frameworks offered by Cope and Kalantzis (2000), we showed that students drew upon a wide range of modes to express meaning. In addition to linguistic meanings, where students spoke to each other to express their ideas and sought clarification on the ideas of others, students often drew upon visual modes (images), audio modes (sound and sound effects), gestural modes (gestures and body postures) and spatial modes (spatial relations between objects) to design their solutions to the problems that they were working upon. This gives us insight into the dispositions that young people have and what they bring to learning. In addition, the fact that many of the students showed that they were able to take account of a wide range of perspectives (local, national or international) in problem-solving, to work as individuals, in pairs and in groups, and to draw upon a good range of research techniques and resources (texts, interviews, observations and experimentation) at different stages of the design and technology process, reinforces the argument that there is no lack of human potentiality. The challenge is to establish a learning context in which such potentiality is invited and exploited rather than ignored and erased.
References Barlex, D. 2005. The unique contribution of design and technology: report of the strategy group. London: DfES. (A report to Ministers from the Design and Technology Strategy Group.) Bennell, P. 2000. Human resource development and globalisation: what should low-income developing countries do? London: DfID. Cope, B.; Kalantzis, M., eds. 2000. Multiliteracies: literacy learning and the design of social futures. London: Routledge. Draxler, A.; Haddad, W., eds. 2002. Technologies for education: potentials, parameters, and prospects. Paris: UNESCO; Washington, DC: Academy for Educational Development. Gregory, E.; Long, S.; Volk, D. 2004. Syncretic literacy studies. In: Gregory, E.; Long, S.; Volk, D., eds. Many pathways to literacy. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Hallak, J. 1990. Investing in the future. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP/Pergamon Press. Hughes, M. et al. 2003. Exchanging knowledge between home and school to enhance children’s learning in literacy and numeracy. Gdansk, Poland: ERNAPE. Johnson, D. 2003. Activity theory, literacy and assessment: comparing children’s potential for representing meaning through different modes of communication. Assessment in education: principles, policy and practice, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 103–29. Johnson, D.; Kress, G. 2003. Globalisation, literacy and society: redesigning pedagogy and assessment. Assessment in education: principles, policy and practice, vol. 10, pp. 5–14.
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Kalantzis, M.; Cope, B.; Harvey, A. 2003. Assessing multiliteracies and the new basics. Assessment in education: principles, policy and practice, vol. 10, no. 1, p. 15–26. Kress, G. 1997. Before writing: rethinking the paths to literacy. London: Routledge. Kress, G.; Leeuwen, T. van. 1996. Reading images: the grammar of visual design. London: Routledge. Kress, G. et al. 2001. Multimodal teaching and learning: the rhetorics of the science classroom. London: Continuum. Lauglo, J. 2005. Vocationalised secondary education revisited. In: Lauglo J.; Maclean, R., eds. Vocationalisation of secondary education revisited. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Lauglo, J.; Lillis, K., eds. 1988. Vocationalizing education: an international perspective. London: Pergamon. Lauglo, J.; Maclean, R., eds. 2005. Vocationalisation of secondary education revisited. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Moll, L.; Greenberg, J. 1990. Creating zones of possibility: combining social contexts for instruction. In: Moll, L.C., ed. Vygotsky and education: instructional implications and applications for socio-historical psychology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. New London Group. 2000. A pedagogy of multiliteracies. In: Cope, B.; Kalantzis, M., eds. Multiliteracies: literacy learning and the design of social futures. London: Routledge. Nigeria. Federal Ministry of Education. 2005. Nigerian education sector diagnosis: a framework for re-engineering the education sector. Abuja: Federal Ministry of Education, Education Sector Analysis Unit. Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. 2000. Technology learning area: Gauteng. Pretoria: Department of Education. Rogoff, B. 2003. The cultural nature of human development. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Rogoff, B.; Toma, C. 1997. Shared thinking: community and institutional variations. Discourse processes, vol. 23, pp. 471–97. Serpell, R. 1993. The significance of schooling: life journeys in an African society. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Times educational supplement, 3 March 1999. London. United Kingdom. Department for Education and Employment. 1999. Design and technology: the National Curriculum for England. London: DfEE/QCA. Vygotsky, L. 1978. Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wells, G.; Claxton, G. 2002. Learning for life in the 21st century. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Wertsch, J. 1991. Voices of the mind: a socio-cultural approach to mediated action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wertsch, J.V. 1995. The need for action in socio-cultural research. In: Wertsch, J.V.; del Rio, P.; Alvarez, A., eds. Sociocultural studies of mind, pp. 56–74. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Wilson, D.N. 1974. Towards an anthropology of educational planning in developing nations. Educational planning, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 18–28. Wilson, D.N. 2005. Promise and performance in vocationalised secondary education: has the baby been thrown out with the bathwater? In: Lauglo, J.; Maclean, R., eds. Vocationalisation of secondary education revisited. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. World Bank. 2006. World Bank supports technical and vocational education.
Chapter X.16
The Education Gospel and Vocationalism in an International Perspective: The Promises and the Limits of Formal Schooling W. Norton Grubb and Marvin Lazerson
1 Introduction A new orthodoxy about the roles of formal schooling has emerged. We call this the Education Gospel because it has become an article of faith. Starting from a critique of current schooling, it brings glad tidings about the potential of educational expansion and reform, promising economic and individual salvation. Like a gospel, it has been accepted by an extraordinary range of policy-makers, reformers, many (but not all) educators, the business community, most students wanting to get ahead, and much of the public. In some countries, like the United States and the United Kingdom, it has a relatively long history, while in many others it has developed only in the past decade or two—but it now seems to be the dominant conception of education in most countries. Where it has emerged, the Education Gospel has been the subject of constant proselytizing, particularly through its celebratory texts—various national reports calling for educational renewal, like: A nation at risk in the United States blaming its education system for ‘a rising tide of mediocrity’; a series of reports in the United Kingdom calling for Skills for all and 21st century skills; Australia with reports like Sleepers, Wake! to dispel Australians’ complacency and to develop a ‘clever country’; the Republic of Korea calling for an Edutopia; China calling for ‘adapting [higher education] to the socialist market economy’; the activities of the European Union celebrating the Europe of Knowledge; and publications of the OECD (2001) emphasizing the implications of the Knowledge Revolution. Many countries have looked for ‘key’ or ‘core’ skills, or Schlusselqualificationem [key qualifications] in Germany and calificaciones claves in Spanish, or the ‘skills for the twenty-first century’—higher levels and new forms of human capital as ways of competing. Many countries are struggling to make their education systems more ‘relevant’ to trends in job requirements and global competition—that is, to make education more vocational, particularly at the tertiary level. While the Education Gospel has a number of variants, its essential vision goes like this: the Knowledge Revolution is changing the nature of work, shifting away from occupations rooted in industrial production to occupations associated with knowledge and information. This transformation has both increased the skills required for new occupations and updated the three Rs, enhancing ‘higher-order’ R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 X.16, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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skills including communications skills, problem-solving and reasoning. Obtaining these skills normally requires formal schooling past secondary school so that some tertiary education—though not necessarily a baccalaureate degree—will be necessary for the jobs of the future, a practice that OECD (1998) has labelled Tertiary Education for All. Individuals are more likely to find their skills becoming obsolete because of the pace of technological change, and therefore workers must engage in lifelong learning. New forms of work organization—especially contingent labour—have exacerbated job-changing, reinforcing the need for lifelong learning. Other forms of work reorganization—including lean production, the elimination of multiple layers of responsibility—require front-line workers to have a greater variety of skills, including personal skills (sometimes called ‘soft’ skills) like independence and initiative. International competition has also increased, reinforcing the defensive need for greater levels of education. But the good news is that an expanded and reformed education system can meet all of these challenges. The Education Gospel therefore includes both a conception of economic and social change, and a vision of how to respond to that change through education and training alone. While much of the Gospel’s rhetoric emphasizes national needs, it also incorporates the individual goal of ‘getting ahead’. Broad access to education, including Tertiary Education for All, is necessary so that each individual has the opportunity to compete for economic position. The Education Gospel thus balances the public purposes of an expansive education system with the private intentions of using education for personal ends. The two are best combined, and the public goal is noblest when more schooling is promoted to enhance equity or social inclusion, or to improve access to tertiary education among more students. There are, then, many strands to the Education Gospel, and many consequences as well. The most obvious effects have been to shift the purposes of schooling toward occupational preparation or vocationalism. Vocationalism is an awkward but useful term referring not primarily to traditional vocational education but to preparation for vocations—the only word in the English language denoting occupations as careers or callings rather than mere jobs, employment that provides personal meaning, economic benefits, continued development, social status and connections to the greater society. The shift to occupational goals in many countries, particularly developed countries, has taken place at virtually all levels of the education system, from secondary education to institutions like community colleges and technical institutes to universities. We therefore refer to a vocationalized education system, in preference to vocational education and training (VET) or technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems, because vocationalism has extended to many forms of schooling that are not usually considered part of VET—for example, to forms of academic or general secondary education that are necessary for access to the university, and to universities that call themselves ‘professional’ rather than vocational. In this chapter, we first review the many consequences of vocationalism, before we analyse the problems that it creates. Our analysis comes in the first place from the United States (Grubb & Lazerson, 2004), from the United Kingdom (Grubb, 2004a),
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and from work in progress in Germany, China, France and a number of other countries. Oddly enough, although the United States is a relatively young country, vocational developments started much earlier there than in most countries—in the middle of the nineteenth century, with further expansion around 1900—whereas many other countries have been changing only in the past several decades. While there are many variants of vocationalism—just as there are many varieties of capitalism (Hall & Soskice, 2001), and many forms of welfare states (Esping-Anderson, 1990)—there are many similarities as well, and so we use our analysis to clarify the issues and dilemmas that many countries face as they transform their educational institutions into more overtly vocationalized systems.
2 The Implications of the Education Gospel The most obvious consequence of the Education Gospel has been its role in transforming the purposes of schooling, from civic and moral purposes (in the United States—henceforth US) or intellectual purposes or the identification of an elite (in the United Kingdom—henceforth UK), or the political socialization of the masses (in China, for example), to occupational preparation. This process has happened in slightly different ways at different levels of education. In the US, for example, changes in secondary schools were most obviously responses to the decline of apprenticeships, and reveal a great deal about the advantages of school-based over work-based preparation. The transformation of universities has been stimulated partly by conceptions of professionalism, an idea that specifically promotes formal schooling as the basis of stature and privilege, justifying high-level occupational preparation even though it suffers from many of the same dilemmas as vocational education. The process of vocationalizing universities has also differentiated them; in particular, elite research universities with their emphasis on highstatus professions remain highly selective, but non-selective regional or second-tier universities—state universities in the US, the former polytechnics in the United Kingdom, aspiring universities like the Fachhochschulen in German-speaking countries and State universities in Norway—concentrate on overtly professional majors in business, health professions, engineering and information technology (IT), and the many smaller fields (leisure studies, fashion accessories marketing, beach management) that offend defenders of older academic traditions. In between, in community colleges and other institutions that rank below universities but above secondary schools (Grubb, 2004b), occupational preparation has also become increasingly overt, although it has adopted many flexible forms, including in-service training for incumbent workers, retraining for workers who want or need to shift their occupations, and remedial training for welfare recipients, the long-term unemployed and others left out of the mainstream (or subject to social exclusion). Many of these tertiary colleges and institutes thereby serve various occupational roles for different groups of students.
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Vocationalism has also affected other forms of education as well. In many countries, adult education has historically been provided by a large number of groups, providing an extraordinary array of religious education, cultural education, labour and political education, avocational courses, studies in music and the arts. However, under the pressures of vocationalism, public support for adult education has in some other countries been restricted to forms of preparation—especially basic academic education—necessary for work, thereby impoverishing the greater tradition of adult education (OECD, 2003). Many countries have also experimented with efforts to provide short-term job training in institutions independent of formal schooling, allied more with labour ministries. But these forms of short-term job training have been almost universally failures (Grubb & Ryan, 1999), partly because they have been confined to the lowest-quality jobs and partly because short-term job-specific training has had little benefit over the long run. In at least some countries, then, the efforts to find alternatives to formal schooling as ways of preparing the labour force have been failures. In some—but obviously not all—countries, a corollary of school-based preparation for work has been the weakening of apprenticeships, internships and other work-based forms of occupational preparation. In the US, apprenticeships mechanisms were weakening by the end of the eighteenth century, and by the end of the nineteenth century the collapse of apprenticeships was a widespread argument for vocational education. The United Kingdom did not lose its apprenticeships systems until the 1960s and, of course, the German-speaking countries, Denmark and a few other countries have strong dual systems of school-based education coupled with (though not necessarily integrated with) work-based apprenticeships. In countries that have lost their work-based systems, it has been extraordinarily difficult to re-create work-based learning: the failures in the US with the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 and in the United Kingdom with modern apprenticeships highlight how much government regulation and institutional collaboration is necessary to maintain work-based preparation that benefits students as well as employers, that provides a well-rounded preparation rather than overly-specific training, and that provides equitable access for women, minority individuals and other lessfavoured groups. And the most recent ‘crisis’ in the German dual system—with a diminishing number of employers providing training positions, and an increasing number of students opting for universities rather than apprenticeships—raises the question of whether school-based preparation might over longer periods of time weaken work-based preparation, even in countries with strong apprenticeship systems. Another obvious consequence of vocationalism has been the expansion of education. In the US, no level of schooling (except perhaps early childhood education) has ever expanded unless it has already been vocationalized, in the sense of having both vocational goals and some internal differentiation by vocations. Similarly, in European countries, the expansion of universities over the past thirty years, as well as technical institutes and tertiary colleges, has resulted from pressures among students for upward mobility, as well as of policy-makers following the Education Gospel. Those who have promoted education owe a debt to vocationalism.
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In many countries, several processes reinforce vocationalism, in the sense that more and more occupations come to require school- or university-based preparation. One pattern involves the shift away from the ‘school of hard knocks’ or experience into formal schooling. A particularly vivid example includes various artistic occupations, including visual artists, actors, dancers, musicians and filmmakers. Traditionally, artists made their way by living in garrets and learning from each other—the Impressionists working in the Paris region in the nineteenth century, or colour-field painters in New York during the 1950s. In the last two decades, however, most artists in the US have started by earning a bachelor’s or master’s degree in fine arts from a conventional university or art school, as have increasing numbers of actors, musicians and dancers. Occupations that once epitomized freedom from formal schooling have become credentialed. In another pattern, many middle-level occupations have striven to develop the status of professions, with required levels of education and certification by industry groups. In the US these include farmers and foresters, real-estate agents, auto mechanics, workers in the hotel and restaurant industries—even ski guides certified by the American Mountain Guides Association. These efforts extend the logic of professionalism and school-based preparation to many more occupations. New occupations have evolved in much the same way, proceeding through a cycle that ends up with formal schooling. The occupations of the ‘new economy’ based on computers and electronics began with computer programmers whose preparation in the 1960s and 1970s was informal: programmers learned by reading manuals and by doing. Gradually, however, programming moved into formal schooling, with baccalaureate programmes for programmers; sub-baccalaureate programmes for those working with applications (e.g. word-processing and spreadsheet programmes); and graduate programmes for those aiming to enter research and development. The cycle of informal preparation being superseded by formal schooling is now being replicated in web-related occupations; similarly, in biotechnology, new programmes are being developed in community colleges and universities to prepare individuals ranging from researchers to production workers. The reorganization of work also generates new specialties that become distinct occupations with their own educational requirements. Business has created suboccupations with specialized programmes, including those for purchasing agents, accounting real estate; in medicine school-based programmes have emerged for physicians’ assistants, certified nurse practitioners and radiological technicians. The law has spawned paralegals and legal secretaries; engineers have begotten engineering technicians; architects have sired architectural drafting; and accountants now rely on para-accountants, all with distinct educational programmes. Talented individuals can still find their way into computer programming or art or culinary occupations without formal credentials; formal schooling is not required, as it is for doctors and lawyers. But formal schooling is increasingly the dominant path of entry. Yet another mechanism of reinforcement comes from students seeking to amplify their professional qualifications. Once vocationalism is underway, more schooling
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becomes increasingly necessary for students as a form of self-defence, particularly if they want access to the best professions. And so we see places in high-status professional schools and four-year colleges over-subscribed, with battles ensuing over access, the validity of standardized entrance tests and affirmative action. Finally, educational institutions themselves contribute to the pressures for vocationalism, particularly by engaging in competition for additional students. The most typical form of competition is to open new programmes as demand develops: almost every suggestion for a new programme comes with an assessment of the anticipated job market, and public agencies typically ask for demand data before approving new programmes in public universities. In addition, educational institutions strive for higher status through ‘institutional drift’—by offering degrees for jobs higher in the occupational hierarchy. In the US, teachers’ colleges were transformed into comprehensive universities; regional vocational schools became technical institutes and then comprehensive community colleges, and now want to provide baccalaureate degrees. Similarly in the UK, former technical institutes became polytechnics and are now universities; further education colleges emerged from adult education and training. Many technical colleges and institutes, like the polytechnics in Finland and the State colleges in Norway, emerged from secondary vocational education, and many technical institutes are pressing to become universities, like some State colleges in Norway, the Fachhochschulen in German-speaking countries, and the Instituts universitaires de technologie in France. Institutional drift contributes to more and more institutions providing occupational credentials at higher levels. The process of vocationalizing various levels of education also creates a large group of political supporters—prospective students and parents seeking upward mobility, educators seeking expansion, the business community hoping to reduce their own training costs. As schooling comes to be the dominant route to higher earnings and status, advocates of equity and social inclusion also join the supporters— advocates for women, low-income and minority groups and immigrants. This group—the Education Coalition or (to take a metaphor too far) the Gospel Choir— increases the pressures for more education. In contrast, the opponents of vocationalism remain fragmented, disorganized and powerless. The result is that vocationalism, once underway, continues to expand, to dominate more educational institutions and more occupations.
3 The Conflicts of Vocationalism Even as vocationalism expands, it creates a number of problems. The result is that, while it has more than its share of political supporters, it remains embattled in various ways. Perhaps the most obvious is that when new occupational purposes emerge, the older purposes of formal education—civic, moral, intellectual or ideological in different countries—persist, and defenders of older traditions remain among the most articulate critics. In the US, where public education developed
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from civic and moral goals, many educators and conservatives have reasserted the value of education for citizenship and a broad range of subjects (like the humanities) disconnected with vocational goals. In other countries, this resistance has opposed trivial professional fields—leisure studies and beach management again—in favour of older academic fields. But, particularly where students have real choices and are predominantly motivated by occupational goals, there seems to be a relentless diminution of the older purposes of schooling. Part of the problem is that the meaning of vocational or professional education is itself ambiguous. One meaning involves occupational intentions, when students and others view the purpose of a school or university as occupational preparation. Parents, teachers, students and institutions may disagree about whether a particular school or university is vocational or not, leading to conflicts between instructors promoting intellectual engagement and students viewing schooling in purely instrumental terms. A second meaning depends on whether an institution’s subject matter is directed toward overtly vocational ends—the criterion of occupational curriculum. Here too, there has been substantial conflict over the appropriate skills to teach, the appropriate mix of academic (or theoretical) versus vocational (or applied) coursework, the balance between school-based learning and work-based learning in internships, and sometimes the best pedagogies for teaching vocational competencies. Indeed, in most occupational areas debates over the curriculum are among the most heated issues. A third conception of vocationalism, related employment, involves the connection between education and employment. A fully vocationalized education programme is one in which the majority of graduates find employment in related occupational areas. But when a programme’s completers enter diverse occupations, as do university students in the humanities, then we tend not to consider the programme vocational. In other cases a programme can be vocational in intent and curriculum, but its completers fail to find related employment. This problem is generally avoided with a fourth version of vocationalism, when a particular kind of schooling is an absolute requirement to enter an occupation: medical school for doctors; Ph.D. programmes for professors. When education or training programmes fail to satisfy all four of these criteria, conflict is almost inevitable. Some institutions are clearly vocational by all of these criteria, but others are vocational only through one or two of them. The alignment of all four conceptions of vocationalism is rare precisely because non-vocational components persist, because participants disagree about the purposes of education, and because aligning educational programmes and employment requirements is difficult. So, even as schools and universities have become increasingly vocational, conflicts emerge—not only with older, pre-vocational conceptions of schooling, but also among the different strands of a fully vocational form of education. Yet another problem of vocationalism is that it has effectively separated work preparation from work itself. This separation has caused many difficulties in the school-to-work transition, problems that necessarily arise once schooling is separated from employment (Ryan, 2001). Several mechanisms linking schooling and work have been created in most countries, ranging from the informal to the
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formal. The first encompasses various efforts—particularly through career information and guidance (CIG) and through internships—to prepare students to be rational choosers. If these mechanisms work well, then students become knowledgeable about occupational options and educational requirements, and capable of making rational (or self-interested) decisions among them. However, when these mechanisms work poorly—and the quality of CIG varies enormously among developed countries (OECD, 2003)—then students are left misinformed, make the wrong decisions and wind up in unsuitable occupations. A different linkage relies on connections between educational institutions and workplaces, including school/business partnerships, advisory committees, and the dual system or co-operative education where schools and employers jointly prepare workers. But, here too, the quality of these linkages varies greatly. In the US these are largely informal and ineffective; in the UK there has been a series of unstable linkages, effective only in sectors with longer histories of apprenticeship mechanisms. Conversely, in countries with the dual system and well-developed employer associations, like Germany and Austria, such mechanisms are formalized and widespread. Where such linkages are weak, the possibilities for education becoming disconnected from work requirements increase. A third linkage mechanism includes credentials, licenses and qualifications, again ranging from highly formalized to informal. When an educational credential works as intended, it provides uniform expectations among all participants. Employers specify the competencies they need; education and training programmes use credential requirements to shape their curriculum and motivate students; and students know what competencies they must master to become marketable. This is the positive sense of credentials, as market-making devices co-ordinating the activities of employers, educational providers and students. However, unlike prices, credentials are not set by the invisible hand of the market. They require considerable institutional effort: (a) competencies or standards must be established; (b) methods of assessing competencies must be created; and (c) mechanisms for policing the process must be developed. Each of these is complex and potentially controversial, and can be implemented in many different ways ranging from laissez-faire to highly bureaucratized. If any of these three are inconsistent with the others, then the value of a credential becomes uncertain, and ‘credentialism’ takes on the negative connotation of educational requirements not rationally related to employment requirements (Collins, 1979). If, for example, employers hire on the basis of experience and ignore educational credentials, then credentials may become superfluous. If the competencies taught are not those required on the job, then both students and employers are disappointed with the results. When jobs require skills (like highly specific skills) that schools cannot or should not teach, then the mismatch generates employer complaints that students lack the necessary skills. And, as always, the nature of credentials varies substantially among countries. Countries with dual systems generally have carefully-defined credentials, policed by requirements that all workers have the appropriate credentials. In some countries, like the UK, elaborate systems of credentials (or qualifications) have been developed but without any
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coherent conception of qualifications and without the effective participation of employers, resulting in credentials that are often useless. In the US, with its laissez-faire government, there is very little effort (except for licensed occupations and professions) to codify the content of credentials, and so their quality varies enormously. Overall, the mechanisms linking vocationalized education to employment have been both contentious and, in many countries, quite weak. But once preparation for work has been separated from work itself, such problems are inevitable. A third large arena of debate created by vocationalism involves the nature of inequality. Vocationalism did not, of course, create inequality, and certainly not in countries like the US and the UK with their high levels of inequality. However, vocationalism has changed the mechanisms underlying inequality, by shifting from parents directly fostering the success of their children—through apprenticeships or inheritance of a farm or family business—to indirect sponsorship of success through schooling. As schools and universities have developed clearer connections to occupations, struggles over access to and success in formal schooling have become more critical because the consequences for earnings, class standing and upward mobility have become so enormous. Vocationalism has had ambiguous effects on equity. The expansion of access, particularly to universities, has extended education to groups who had previously not had much chance for higher education, including more working class, minority and immigrant students. But greater access has not meant equitable access. In many countries, a large proportion of each cohort still fails to complete secondary education, even as there have been efforts to expand higher education—thereby increasing the variance of schooling attained. In addition, the ‘new students’ in tertiary education have gained access to institutions increasingly differentiated along occupational lines: elite universities preparing for the highest professions; regional or second-tier universities with lower levels of resources and lower rates of completion, aiming at lower-level semi-professions and managerial jobs; and technical institutes and colleges preparing for middle-skilled jobs—so greater access does not mean equal access to the same kind of institution, the same levels of resources or the same kinds of occupational outcomes. The differentiation of every educational institution along roughly occupational lines has been both horizontal—in differences among tracks and programmes, like the university-bound track in secondary schools distinct from tracks unlikely to lead to university or engineering majors distinct from education majors—and vertical in differences among institutions preparing for different levels of the occupation. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine a vocationalized system of education that is not differentiated in this way, as long as doctors and lawyers require different kinds of schooling than do accountants and teachers, clerks and auto mechanics. But then, the familiar differences of income and class, of race and ethnicity, of foreign birth and language status, and of gender show up in the outcomes, now through the mechanisms of vocationalism and educational attainment rather than the direct transmission of status from father to son. So the coming of vocationalism always brings with it a series of battles, innate in the sense that they are rooted in the very idea of preparing for work within educational institutions with other purposes, other histories and other institutional
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imperatives. There may be better and worse resolutions to these battles—and there’s a substantial history of countries looking enviously at other systems of education, particularly the Anglo-American countries wishing they could adopt some features of the German dual system, or the periodic efforts of the British to mimic American education, or the current efforts in the Bologna agreements to emulate US higher education. But, while the resolutions are specific to particular countries, the phenomenon of vocationalism and the conflicts it creates are much more general.
4 The Education Gospel and Vocationalism: What’s Right and What’s Wrong It’s easy to poke fun at the excesses of the Education Gospel, but we should understand how much of it is truly admirable. The Gospel places its faith in education— rather than, for example, geographic expansion, colonialism or hyper-active militarism. A vision that reinforces its value is surely to be valued. A second positive element is that the Education Gospel has consistently paid attention to the public dimensions of schooling, and has thereby justified the public expenditures necessary to expand schooling. Finally, the Education Gospel has enlarged the goals of educational institutions, making them richer enterprises where the vocational and the academic can be explored simultaneously. However, the Education Gospel also contains a number of failings. The most obvious is that it constantly exaggerates the pace of change. The enormous transformations in occupations, from agricultural labour to manufacturing occupations to service work to ‘knowledge’ work, have taken place in most countries over two centuries. In many countries—again the US and the UK are prime examples— occupational changes will continue to unfold gradually. In such countries the real problem is not the under-education bemoaned by the Education Gospel, but a newer problem of over-education—of levels of schooling that are too high for the occupations that individuals enter. Indeed, in several countries, including the US, the UK and Germany, the evidence suggests that perhaps 35 to 40% of workers are over-educated for the jobs they hold (Hartog, 2000). While there may be counter-examples among rapidly-developing countries—China, the Asian Tigers in the 1980s—in many places the Education Gospel badly exaggerates changes in jobs requiring more education. Similarly, the Education Gospel has generally exaggerated the contributions of education to economic growth (Grubb & Lazerson, 2004, Ch. 6; Wolf, 2002). Levels of education are easy to quantify, so they have often been incorporated into the statistical work of growth economists. But a much greater variety of factors has been responsible for growth, including: national governance; the socio-political climate including its stability; macro-economic policies (fiscal, monetary, trade and tax policies); institutional settings including financial, legal and corporate institutions; structural and supportive policies including education, labour relations, science and technology policy; and regulatory and environmental policies (Landau, Taylor &
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Wright, 1996). The remarkable growth of the Asian Tigers and now China, the decline of the US in the 1980s and its resurgence in the 1990s, the varied fortunes of the European Union and its apparent ascendance at the moment, and the stagnation of most African countries are all due to many different factors, not just education. Finally, the Education Gospel—as its name implies—has always been preoccupied only with education, emphasizing improvements in education rather than parallel changes in workplaces or other social and economic policies necessary to achieve equality of opportunity. Particularly in countries with relatively weak welfare states (Esping-Anderson, 1990), there has been a tendency to substitute educational policies for a broader array of policies related to health care, housing, nutrition, labour-market regulation, public employment and other social policies. In contrast, a worthy version of the Education Gospel would acknowledge the limitations of the current version. It would avoid the exaggerations of common rhetoric and try to be more careful about the pace of change. It would work harder to recognize which changes are compatible with historical developments, and which require sustained effort to be incorporated into existing institutions. It would avoid sloganeering, particularly by being concrete about the practices entailed in phrases like lifelong learning, or ‘developing the skills for the twenty-first century’, or smoothing the ‘school-to-work transition’. It would not treat education as the only solution to complex social and economic problems, as exaggerated versions of the Education Gospel often do, but would instead acknowledge that education is often part of the solution to growth, or social stability, or equity or unemployment, and other social and economic reforms are both necessary and complementary. Similarly, the practices associated with vocationalism have much to offer. In many ways, occupational preparation in formal schooling has been superior to traditional work-based learning, which suffers from endemic conflicts between production and learning, the tendency of employers to poach workers rather than train their own, the fragility of paternalistic relationships between masters and apprentices, and the inequities of family-based mobility. But, in some cases, educational inflation seems to be taking place with no benefit either to the individual or to society—for example, when individuals fail to obtain the vocations they have been prepared for, or when individuals continue their schooling because alternative forms of preparation have been eliminated. So educational expansion is often positive, but it has its dark side as well. In replacing apprenticeships, formal schooling has brought a different approach to the teaching of ‘skills’ or competencies. Rather than the unavoidable conflict between production and educational purposes, school-based preparation is devoted entirely to education. It has facilitated the incorporation of new knowledge and new skills, including those based on research and advances in technology, and brought new subjects into the curriculum, broadening conceptions of competence. But vocationalism constantly threatens to become unbalanced in the competencies it teaches. In some cases—particularly low-level vocational education and short-term job training—it has become too job-specific, particularly in a world of constant change; it often fails to educate individuals for work over the longer run, and for
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continued learning on their own (‘lifelong learning’ and ‘learning to learn’). In other cases, the academic slant of formal schooling has downgraded non-cognitive competencies, important though they may be in many walks of life, and converted vocational and professional programmes into academic exercises as arid as any academic discipline. The version of vocationalism that seems most admirable to us is one that incorporates a variety of competencies—cognitive and non-cognitive abilities, conceptual approaches and their application in different spheres, including production—but that leaves job-specific and firm-specific skills to be learned on the job. Vocationalism also transformed the potential for equity in crucial ways, particularly in replacing apprenticeship mechanisms, controlled entirely by parents, with public schooling and public universities, where equity of access and resources might be subject to general debate. But the shift to formal schooling has not really led to greater equity, as we argued in the previous section, since vocationalism has contributed its own forms of inequality through differentiation of education and through educational institutions mirroring the hierarchies of the labour market. Therefore, countries adopting vocationalist practices need to articulate more equitable forms of vocationalism, in turn requiring a greater range of policies traditionally associated with the welfare state—policies that we have articulated as part of a foundational State, creating the foundations for investments in human competencies in broad and equitable ways (Grubb & Lazerson, 2004, Ch. 9). Yet another admirable feature of vocationalism, at least in liberal societies where choice is important, is that it has expanded options in educational institutions. This has led to the incorporation of new subjects and competencies, to more dynamic and entrepreneurial institutions, and to an education system less inward-looking and more responsive to external demands—from students, employers and the public. On the other hand, the policies that would make all individuals able to take advantage of choice—particularly career information and guidance—have been under-developed in many countries. A new competency that is crucial in a vocationalized system— knowledge of the education system and the appropriate paths to different occupations, along with the ability to make appropriate choices at crucial junctures—itself becomes unequally distributed. So the expansion of choice, and more broadly the market-like mechanisms that vocationalism brings, have negative consequences as well as expansive possibilities. Overall, then, vocationalism has ushered in substantial advancements over prevocational practices, particularly in expanding the roles of schooling, promoting both public and private goals, changing the nature of skill acquisition, enhancing our collective ability to address equity, and expanding choices and the flexibility of educational institutions. But, in all these transformations, there are both positive and negative consequences, as well as everything in between. The version of vocationalism we favour is one with a greater role for work-based learning rather than one that relies on school-based learning only, with an equilibrium between public and private goals, a broad range of general competencies, professional standards and planning mechanisms, equity assured through a variety of school and non-school policies, and markets carefully regulated.
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On the other hand, it’s easy to outline a scenario in which the negative elements of vocationalism dominate the twenty-first century—a world we label ‘HyperVoc’. This is a world where narrow work skills are all that matter; a great deal of work has been routinized so that it can be carried out with limited skills, and non-utilitarian subjects like the arts and the humanities have been eliminated. Employers seek specific skills narrowly tailored to their production, and educational institutions are limited to providing preparation for employer-specific hiring. All the elements of HyperVoc can now be seen in the US; if they are not yet visible in other countries, it’s only because vocationalism has not yet run its course for long enough. The challenge for the twenty-first century, then, is to develop more moderate versions of the Education Gospel, and to strengthen the positive elements of vocationalism rather than descending into HyperVoc.
References Collins, R. 1979. The credential society: an historical sociology of education and stratification. New York, NY: Academic Press. Esping-Anderson, G. 1990. The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Grubb, W.N. 2004a. The Anglo-American approach to vocationalism: the economic roles of education in England. Oxford/Warwick, UK: ESRC Centre on Skills, Knowledge, and Organisational Performance (SKOPE). (Working paper, no. 53.) Grubb, W.N. 2004b. Trade-offs in restructuring post-secondary education: the roles of tertiary institutes and colleges. In: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, ed. Education policy analysis 2004. Paris: OECD-CERI. Grubb, W.N.; Lazerson, M. 2004. The Education Gospel: the economic power of schooling. Cambridge, MA/London: Harvard University Press. Grubb, W.N.; Ryan, P. 1999. The role of evaluation for vocational education and training: plain talk on the field of dreams. London: Kogan Page; Geneva, Switzerland: International Labour Office. Hall, P.; Soskice, D., eds. 2001. Varieties of capitalism: the institutional foundations of comparative advantage. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Hartog, J. 2000. Over-education and earnings: where are we, where should we go? Economics of education review, vol. 19, pp. 131–47. Landau, R.T.; Taylor, T.; Wright, G. 1996. The mosaic of economic growth. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 1998. Redefining tertiary education. Paris: OECD. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2001. Education policy analysis: education and skills. Paris: OECD. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2003. Beyond rhetoric: adult learning policies and practices. Paris: OECD. Ryan, P. 2001. The school-to-work transition: a cross-national perspective. Journal of economic literature, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 34–92. Wolf, A. 2002. Does education matter? Myths about education and economic growth. London: Penguin Books.
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Chapter X.17
The Vocationalization of Secondary Education: The Relationships between Vocational and Technology Education Margarita Pavlova
1 Introduction Traditionally, the vocationalization of secondary education has been seen as an effective measure for developing human resources. Although it is regarded as being applicable for both developed and developing countries, the politics of vocationalization of secondary education have determined that it has developed differently in two contexts. As argued by McLean and Kamau (1999), the policy shift in developing countries during the 1990s was consistent with the changing priorities, from pre-vocational courses to strengthening general education, formulated by the World Bank (1991). For developed countries, with well-functioning and well-resourced secondary school systems that enrol the great majority of young people, vocationalization is seen as an appropriate initiative (Lauglo, 2005). The main goal of vocationalization is to improve the vocational relevance of education, although the main purpose of education remains general education and qualifying students for higher academic studies (Lauglo, 2005). Usually, vocationalization means the introduction of practical and/or vocational subjects, visits to industry, vocational guidance and a more applied way of teaching general education subjects. Studies carried out in both developed (e.g. Coombe, 1988) and developing countries (e.g. Lauglo, 2005) have shown that economic goals were one of the main motives for introducing pre-vocational education, practical subjects and a curriculum more orientated to work. In African countries, for example, ‘the issue at the heart of policy debate on vocationalization has undoubtedly been “economic relevance”. By teaching vocational skills, it has been the hope that students would more easily find work when they leave school, and become more productive and trainable’ (Lauglo, 2005, p. 7). This chapter focuses on the analysis of the vocationalization of secondary education in developed countries (with some emphasis on Australia and the Russian Federation) via technology education and argues that it is an essential component in achieving the goals of vocationalization, although the rationale for technology education was developed within a philosophy strongly opposed to the aims and objectives of vocational education.
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2 Educational Reforms for the Vocationalization of Schooling In the modern world, the economy is closely associated with technologies that have changed the nature of industry. Since the 1960s it has become widely accepted that technological change has influenced the patterns of everyday life, restructuring work and leisure. Technology is playing an important role in the life of society. This changing context led governments to reconsider the relationship between liberal education and vocational preparation and to be ‘more responsive to the changing labour-market needs of nations’ (Taylor et al., 1997, p. 4). This demanded revision of educational policy and, in particular, a reconsideration of the goals of education. The wave of educational reform movements at the end of 1980s and beginning of the 1990s illustrated the attempts to re-configure the education systems of developed countries into a ‘late-modern model’ (Cowen, 1996). Analyses made by a number of authors (see, for example, Ball, 1994, 1997, 1998; Marginson, 1993; O’Neill, 1995; Taylor et al., 1997) identified an increasing colonization of educational policy by economic policy imperatives in Western countries. A shift from the ‘welfare State’ to the market-oriented or ‘competition State’ has occurred during this period. This has been accompanied by a shift in social expectations when the person, socialized into the national culture, is being replaced by a person able to live and work in the market-oriented State. The emphasis, however, in this competition State is on the development of the strongest ideological pairing between education and knowledge/competition within the international economy These late-modern models of education are very different to the modern models of education that emphasized equality of educational opportunity, had a strong ideological pairing with citizen formation, and the domination of political and civic imperatives over economic imperatives (Cowen,1996). Ball (1998) argues further that contemporary education policies ‘tie together individual consumer choice in education markets with rhetoric and policies aimed at furthering national economic interests’ (p. 122). O’Neill (1995) identifies ‘the new orthodoxy’ in the relationship between politics, government and education, where two of the five main elements identified by him are:
r r
‘Improving national economics by tightening a connection between schooling, employment, productivity and trade. Enhancing student outcomes in employment-related skills and competencies’ (p. 9).
Education is considered as playing a key role in stimulating growth and restoring economic competitiveness and a socially acceptable level of employment together with ‘promoting the development of the individual and the values of citizenship’ (Commission of the European Communities, 1993, p. 117). Thus, for the late-modern models of education, future employment and workrelated qualities become the main concern of secondary education, as well as of vocational education.
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3 Technology Education Versus Vocational Education Traditionally, direct preparation for work was the main goal of vocational education. It was perceived as providing specific training that was reproductive and based on teachers’ instruction. The intention was to develop understanding of a particular industry, comprising specific skills or ‘tricks of the trade’. Student motivation was seen to be engendered by the economic benefits accruing to them in the future. At the other end of the spectrum, technology education was perceived as a general, concept-based discipline or area of study, focusing on relationships between technology and society/nature/people. Further, it was seen to involve creativity, and reflective and self-directed learning and learning how to learn. The learning activities were guided by the students’ interests and were aimed at changing the world (making it better for people). The learning activities in technology education are practical and students design and make products, use different materials, undertake research, etc. To highlight conceptual differences between vocational and technology education, a number of authors who have studied technology education or carried out research to measure the changes that occur in teachers’ practices towards technology education, based their research on the assumption that concepts such as ‘using technology to solve problems and satisfy needs and wants’, and ‘using problemsolving skills’ are implicit conceptualizations of ‘technology education’, while implicit conceptualizations of vocational education are related to skill in using tools and machines (Sanders, 2001). Stevenson (2003) identified a number of dichotomies in the underlying assumptions. These include: general knowledge versus specific knowledge; theoretical knowledge versus practical/functional knowledge; conceptual understanding versus proficiency in skills; creative abilities versus reproductive abilities; intellectual skills versus physical skills; and preparation for life versus preparation for work. Stevenson argues that these dichotomies are used to set up technology education as opposed to vocational education. School practice demonstrates that these interpretations are applicable to a greater or lesser extent depending on the country. In Queensland, Australia, for example, the introduction of vocational courses in secondary school usually involves very practical courses that can lead to the lowest level of certification. Certificate 1 in construction, furnishing, engineering and drawing gives students practical skills and knowledge corresponding to a very detailed description of the required outcomes. Competency-based training was chosen by most governments in Western societies as a model for vocational education. Training packages introduced in Australia specified competency outcomes, assessment guidelines and national qualifications, which meet workplace skill requirements. The nature of these vocational courses is quite different to good practice in technology education. Explicit emphasis on observable outcomes has been criticized by a number of authors. Stevenson (2003) argued that competency-based approaches to vocational education are not in accord with industry’s demands, as the competencybased model of vocational education is in conflict with the realities of living and working in a rapidly changing world.
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Changes associated with innovations in science and technology and the requirement to prepare knowledge workers, together with the demands imposed by the changing nature of the working world posed challenges to vocational education. The flexibility and adaptability that is required by industry is not developed by current vocational education courses and, as radically requested by Stevenson (2003), vocational education should transform itself into technology education. Thus, the introduction of vocational courses in secondary schooling is not able to meet the needs of vocationalization. The aim of vocationalization is to provide students with a better preparation for their vocational life. And, it is argued in this chapter, to achieve this aim, vocational courses should be complemented by other approaches.
4 Vocational Education: Broader Approaches As the limited role of vocational courses in the vocationalization of secondary education has been recognized internationally, broader approaches to vocationalization have been trialled around the globe.
4.1 Pre-vocational Courses A number of initiatives in different countries attempted to establish pre-vocational courses in secondary school, which were aimed at blurring the distinction between education and training ‘as education becomes more vocationalized and as training requires the [sic] broader educational base’ (Pring, 1995, p. 23). Pre-vocational courses are referred to as contributing to the ‘life-preparation’ tradition, which is implicitly critical of both the academic and vocational traditions. The importance of pre-vocational courses was supported by the argument that it is crucial to develop general capacities, such as the processes of learning, of problem-solving, of co-operating and of enquiring. The emphasis in this new approach is neither on the content to be covered as in the academic tradition, nor on specific competences as in the vocational tradition. These general capacities or generic competencies are oriented towards increasing the employability of students.
4.2 Key Competencies Debates about competency-based training (CBT) started at the beginning of the 1990s and became ‘one of the most important changes in education for many years’ (Marginson, 1993, p. 143). The concept of key competencies was introduced in the debate as a move towards the growing ‘convergence’ between vocational education and general education, based on individual development. In a sense, the introduction of key competencies provided some response to the demands of industry. In Australia, for example the Finn Report (Finn et al., 1991)
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identified ‘key areas of competence’ essential to the ‘employability’ of all young people. The Mayer Report (Mayer et al., 1992) took up where Finn left off and developed a national ‘standards framework’ which described ‘the nature of each key competency at a range of levels of performance’ (p. 2) which are essential for effective participation in the emerging patterns of work. The definition of competence adopted by the Mayer Report recognized that performance is underpinned not only by skills, but also by knowledge and understanding, and that they involve ‘both the ability to perform in a given context and the capacity to transfer knowledge and skills to new tasks and situations’ (Mayer et al., 1992, p. 4). The competencies are applied in nature, and move beyond conventional discipline and subject boundaries. They include: collecting, analysing and organizing ideas and information; expressing ideas and information; planning and organizing activities; working with others and in teams; using mathematical ideas and techniques; solving problems; and using technology (Mayer et al., 1992, pp. 8– 10). It is claimed that these competencies are essential for effective participation in any area of work. They are general rather than specific to a particular occupation. Their inclusion in the mainstream curriculum would be beneficial for the education of any abstracted worker able to bring general competencies to any vocation. ‘If these capacities can be successfully taught, the chance of their being put to use are much greater than in the case of occupation-specific skills’ (Lauglo, 2005, p. 47). The technological strand, for example, ‘focuses on the capacity to use technological processes, systems, equipment and materials and the capacity to transfer knowledge and skills to new situations’ (Mayer et al., 1992, p. 8).
4.3 Work Education More systematic ways of introducing vocational learning into schools have begun to inform the curriculum development process in recent years. In Australia, there were a number of state and national initiatives related to vocational learning and work education. In the Coordinating Diversity Report (Cumming, 1996) the recommendation was made to investigate ways of including work education within the core curriculum from Years 1 to 10. The Partnership for Growth Report (MCEETYA, 1999) set up principles to guide the provision of vocational learning for students, particularly in Years 9 and 10, with the emphasis on explicit integration of vocational education across the curriculum. It is stated in the document that vocational education should be an essential element of the curriculum for these years and be accessible for all students, regardless of their current perceptions about their immediate post-school destination. A recent position paper on work education (QSCC, 2002) was designed to incorporate different recommendations specified in these reports and develop a vision of how work and education for work could be included in school curricula. It identified three inter-related components: learning for work (work-related knowledge, practices); learning about work (settings and conditions); and understanding the nature
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of work (socio-cultural, economic and political forces that influence work) that should be the focus of work education. It is stressed that work education should not be considered as a separate programme and it should be addressed through key learning areas. At the outcome, students should be able to demonstrate: workrelated key competencies in a range of settings (such as work with information, communications skills, planning and organizing skills, solving problems, using technology, using mathematical ideas and techniques, working with others); positive attitudes towards different types of work and personal characteristics (such as self-confidence, commitment, initiative, flexibility); and entrepreneurial skills
4.4 Profile Education In the Russian Federation (henceforth Russia), an initiative called profile education was introduced for the last two years of schooling (Year 10 and Year 11). The intention was that profile education would provide students with the opportunity to study in depth a chosen area, usually one that would be related to their further study and would lead to work in the future. The ‘Concept of profile education’ (Russian Federation. Ministry of Education/Russian Academy of Education, 2002) is currently at the stage of trial in several regions of Russia. Within the concept, the following profiles were suggested as examples only (schools can design their own profiles): science, socio-economics, humanities, technology, general (non-profile). As students need to make important decisions after Year 9 that relate to their further study, a new strategy was introduced to help them to do this. ‘Before profiling preparation’ was also introduced in 2002 (Ministry of Education Russian Federation, Russian Academy of Education, 2002). For the introduction of the ‘Before profiling preparation’ in Year 9, 100 study hours or three hours per week are allocated. Two hours per week should be used for two types of courses: subject courses (to deepen knowledge and understanding in a particular study area); and orientation courses (to help students choose an educational profile in Year 10 and Year 11). One hour per week should also be used for information courses. These covered information about local educational institutions, rules of enrolment and other practical details (Russian Federation. Ministry of Education, 2003). Thus, this ‘Before profiling preparation’ includes (in Australian terminology) learning for work (work-related knowledge, practices) and learning about work (settings and conditions) components. Currently, discussion about the value of starting ‘Before profiling preparation’ in Year 7 or Year 8 is taking place. The initiatives analysed above illustrate a number of attempts to soften the ‘strict’ nature of vocational courses at school. Although the role of technology education is not highlighted in these later initiatives, it is proposed here that this learning area provides an essential component in support of the vocationalization of secondary schooling by relating the curriculum to ‘real life’ in an effective manner.
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5 Technology Education The rationale for technology education and approaches to its teaching have been developed within the context of globalization. On the one hand, the international circulation of ideas through social and political networks brings common elements to approaches and curriculum documents of different countries and, on the other hand, there are also specific, conceptualized characteristics and emphases in realizing the policy in specific national settings. International discourse and two specific applications are analysed below.
5.1 The Introduction of Technology Education Changes in educational policy at the international level and the existence of different practical courses in school curricula provided the background for including technology education in the curriculum of comprehensive schools. This learning area opens up the opportunity to deal with some issues raised above in the framework of general education. ‘Technological change promotes demand for education, and education promoted technological change. Technological change leads to economic competitiveness and economic growth. Therefore, education is associated with these factors’ (Marginson, 1993, p. 47). This assumption was drawn from human capital theory in which ‘human beings are measured in terms of their monetary value’ (Marginson, 1993, p. 31). The close association between education and the economy raised the issue of technology education as an important area of discussion in many reports produced by educational authorities in different countries. Technology education as a field of study was widely recognized by the end of the 1980s, although the debate about including ‘technology’ in the school curriculum had already started in the 1960s. Since the mid-1960s several educational projects have looked at different ways of introducing technology as a school subject (for example, Project Technology, Design and Craft Project, and The Design Project in the United Kingdom (henceforth UK), and the Maryland Plan in the United States of America (henceforth USA)). In particular, certain assumptions were made about the goals of technology education; for example, it should be relevant to the economic needs of the nation and prepare students for work and life in society. Technology education was seen as a means for developing knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that allow students to maximize their flexibility and adaptability, mainly to their future employment but to other aspects of life as well. However, it is claimed that it is a part of general education. For example, in the UK the former Secretary of State for Education, Kenneth Baker, announced that ‘technology’ as a subject was considered to be ‘of great significance for the economic well-being of this country’ (cited in Barnett, 1992, p. 85). ‘A statement on technology for Australian schools’ explained: ‘Technology programs prepare students for living and working in an increasingly technological
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world and equip them for innovative and productive activity’ (Curriculum Corporation, 1994, p. 4). In the USA it was announced that technology education was ‘vital to human welfare and economic prosperity’ (ITEA, 1996, p. 1). Various government and industry reports have argued that Australia must strengthen its technological and manufacturing base to improve its technological competitiveness. For example, in the report ‘Technological change in Australia’, it is stated that the Committee recognized and accepted ‘the relations between technological change and economic growth’ (Committee of Enquiry into Technological Change in Australia, 1980, p. 168) and that there is a need ‘to exploit the economic benefits of technological change by fostering domestic innovation and by adapting imported technology to Australian needs’ (p. 169). In the same report, the concern is raised that only a small proportion of students took technologically oriented subjects in the last years of their secondary schooling. Thus, there is a need to prepare young people in a way that enables them ‘to benefit from the opportunities arising from the newly emerging technologies’ (p. 90). Internationally, the development of technology education has not occurred in a uniform way. This lack of uniformity is also reflected in the debates on technology at the theoretical level. Although theorizing about technology began much earlier than the mid-1960s, the intensive debates on the nature and social impact of technology really got going at that time. As argued by Laudan (1984), technological change, as the main characteristic of technology, involves cognitive, social, organizational, economic and other factors. Different disciplines, each of which had a different objective in analysing technological change, did not consider ‘technological change tout court, [but] divide the problem, and hope to conquer it by this means’ (Laudan, 1984, p. 2). Technology and technological change as an essential component of economic development became the primary interest of economists who analysed the economic impact of technological change. Scholars from different disciplines were examining other aspects of the phenomenon: Sociologists and anthropologists may be looking for changes in the social structures and cultural practices and mores due to this phenomenon. Historians may tend to concentrate on chronicling the cumulative nature of technological change in the making of industrial civilizations. Philosophers concentrate on the moral and ethical implications of technological change and progress, and develop methodological tools for technology assessment (Parayil, 1991, p. 293).
Another indicator of the growing importance of technology has been an increasing number of people involved in the discourse on technology, the appearance of published series and the establishment of organizations related to technology. There has been constant disagreement on what comprises the nature of technology, and what should be done. In the mid-1980s, new features of the discourse appeared, including a stronger emphasis on the growing uncertainties and environmental hazards and the request for sustainable development. Thus, for the development of technology education, this previously onedimensional discourse did not provide a firm, systematic basis for development.
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Presentations of technology in a multidimensional, holistic way were made by Mitcham (1978) and then further developed by a number of authors (see, for example, Custer, 1995; Frey, 1989; Vries, 1997). On the basis of the concept of functional distinction, Mitcham (1978) examined technology modally and generically. He provides the opportunity to look inside the phenomenon by analytical differentiation of its parts, and to study the interrelations between them. Four modes of technology identified by him are: technology-as-object (utilities, tools, machines, cybernetic devices); technology-as-knowledge (maxims, rules, theories and engineering knowledge); technology-as-process (making, designing, maintaining, using); and technology-as-volition (motive, need, intention). Through volition, technology is explicitly connected with culture. Mitcham’s approach is considered as a useful basis for establishing a dialogue between a philosophy of technology and theories of technology education in order to conceptualize new learning areas. Technology education develops both from practice and theory and is closely related to the context of a country. By 1996 the following main perspectives on implementing technology education in practice were identified on the basis of the results of the second Jerusalem International Conference on Science and Technology Education. In summary, they made the following points:
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a ‘technical skills’ approach, seeking emphasis on materials and control systems; a ‘craft’ approach, emphasizing cultural and aesthetic values; a ‘ technical production’ approach, seeking emphasis on modern mass production; an ‘engineering apprentice’ approach, focusing on the preparation of future engineers; a ‘modern technology’ approach, which looks to the nature of ‘work’ in the next century; a ‘science and technology’ approach in which these two subjects are closely associated; a ‘design’ approach, with a concentration on design, seen by some as central to the study and practice of technology; a ‘problem-solving’ approach, focusing on the need for cross-disciplinary approaches; a ‘practical capability’ approach which emphasizes personal and active involvement; a ‘technological innovation’ approach with a driving force for social change (The British Council, 1997).
These varieties of ways of thinking about technology education demonstrate that internationally there is no widely accepted framework for development of the field. Diversity of the socio-economic and cultural conditions in countries and the availability of resources play an important role in the orientation of the subject. Different aspects of technology are selected and considered as a basis for curriculum development, particularly the emphasis on either modern or traditional technology.
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Some courses in the field are based on ‘technical’ characteristics of the phenomenon, some on development of the child, others on cultural and aesthetic values. There are different theoretical classifications of such approaches. For example, Bail et al. (1986) recognized four major orientations to the curriculum: curriculum as technology; curriculum as a cognitive process; curriculum as humanism; and curriculum as social relevance or reconstruction. Another organizing principle of technology education has been identified in the USA: academic rationalist; utilitarian; intellectual processes; personal relevance; and social reconstruction (in Williams, 1993). Pavlova (2001) examined the development of technology education in four countries (USA, Australia, UK and Russia). In these four countries technology education was placed in the academic curriculum among the other subjects/learning areas in the framework of the essentialist tradition. The ‘theories’ or sets of assumptions concerning the purpose of technology education in school curricula emerge from the proposition that each child should be familiar with technology in order to be able to function adequately in society. Through the process of establishing technology education, its rationale, objectives and teaching methods were opposed to those in vocational education. Although the rationale of the subject was largely connected to the ideology of economic rationalism and changes in the employment/training paradigm, technology education had been included as ‘a new basics’ in school curriculum. Compared to the previous decades, industry was demanding multi-skilled workers with generic competencies and technology education had the capacity to play an important role in developing the required qualities in students.
5.2 Technology Education in Specific Contexts Two contexts—the Australian and Russian—are briefly analysed here to highlight commonalities and differences in approaches to technology education. In both cases they were developed in contrast to vocational education. 5.2.1 Technology Education in Australia In Australia, the rationale adopted in the national documents in 1994 (the national ‘Statement’ and ‘Profiles’) introduced the process-based approach for the development of technology education. It identified the role of technology education in terms of preparing students for living and working in a technological world. Social, cultural, environmental and economic aspects of technological development were identified as important knowledge. The development of critical and creative minds aimed at finding innovative solutions to personal and community needs were considered as important aims. These documents structure technology education on eight levels in four strands: designing; making and appraising; information; and materials and systems. Samples of students work for each level and description of activities at each level were also included in the documents. Although the development of
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these documents was a joint effort across the country, they had not been approved as compulsory for all states and territories. However, they became the common basis for curriculum development in each state and territory. Thus, technology education as a learning area in Australian schools emerged from practice, from global developments in the area (particularly in the UK and the USA) and from perceived economic needs. In most states, a design-based approach is the agreed basis for the development of the learning area. Although various titles have been used across the country (technology education, technology and enterprise, technological and applied science) there are similarities in the structure of curricula frameworks. Almost all states and territories use the strands of process (design, technology practice), and content (materials, information and systems). The majority of technological programmes involve students in generating ideas and their realisation through integration of theory and practice. Although a clear direction for the development of technology education has been established by the states and territories, its implementation has been slow and inconsistent. Technology education is compulsory at the lower secondary school level in most states and is an elective subject in the later years. Queensland is among the last of the Australian states to establish its technology education syllabus. After a period of pilots and trials, syllabus and support materials for teachers were published in 2003 (Queensland Studies Authority, 2003a, 2003b, 2003c). In a schematic way, a model of working technologically represents the interwoven nature of the technology education syllabus. The term ‘working technologically’ has replaced the term ‘design’, used in the national curriculum documents. Through the experiences of ‘working technologically’, students develop a range of knowledge, practices and attitudes. The technology education syllabus is considered to be an intersection between:
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Appropriateness (students should consider many perspectives before making judgements about the appropriateness of: design ideas; processes and products; and the possible impacts of these on users or environments); Contexts (personal and global, agriculture, business, communities, home and family, industry, leisure and recreation and school); Management (students manage people, resources, opportunities and constraints); and Strands (technology practice, information, materials, systems) (Fig. 1).
Technology practice specifies the requirements for the design element of the syllabus. It refers to investigation, ideation, production and evaluation in the process of designing and making products. Other strands state the learning outcomes that relate to working with a particular media or material. In the syllabus it is also stated that students should understand ‘that people must consider issues related to appropriateness, contexts and management if they are to develop products that not only meet people’s needs and wants but are also socially just and economically and environmentally sustainable’ (Queensland Studies Authority, 2003a, p. 2).
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Fig. 1 A model of ‘working technologically’
Overall, the ideology of technology education in Australia is well positioned in terms of international perspectives. It addresses challenges to the development of a learning area that would be based on a wider definition of technology, including its technical and non-technical aspects, with more focus on students’ development than the previous programmes that were focused on developing knowledge and practical skills. Furthermore, there is a more explicit notion that technology has links with other areas of the curriculum and it contributes towards a general education. However, at the level of practice it is still a long journey towards teaching that is in accord with the nature of the national statement and the state’s syllabuses.
5.2.2 Technology Education in Russia In Russia, it was in 1993 that ‘technology education’ replaced the subject of ‘labour training’, which had occupied a significant position in the Soviet curriculum. Technology education was introduced as a compulsory learning area in Russian State schools (which the vast majority of students attend). Several historical features influenced the nature of the new learning area. Firstly, it continues to be a part of general education. After the 1917 Revolution, technical and practical subjects were articulated as a part of general education. ‘Labour training’ remained a separate subject in the school curricula for most of the Soviet period and was compulsory for students of all grades. Secondly, besides the ideological underpinning (everyone had to be socialized into the proletarian culture), a strong engineering tradition in understanding technology influenced the establishment of the polytechnic principle, a teaching paradigm based on teaching the scientific principles that support manufacturing processes, and training students in practical skills with a variety of tools and equipment.
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Thirdly, highly structured knowledge was ‘transferred’ to students. It was a reflection of the pedagogical assumption that a person cannot be involved in an activity without the background knowledge that is related to it. So, the belief was that theoretical knowledge should be learned and then applied through practical activity. In a typical labour training lesson, 25% of time was allocated to theory at the beginning of the lesson and 75% of time to practical activities. Students made identical objects using the instructions given to them. Fourthly, the technology education curriculum was introduced in a very centralized way. The belief in the strong role of the State in the educational process goes back to the Revolution of 1917. There was a strong belief that the transmission of a universal curriculum was a route to liberty, equality and fraternity. Central control of the school curriculum had been the main managing principle for decades. Currently, although power is divided between federal, regional and school levels, and the development of a curriculum for primary and secondary schools is their shared responsibility, the federal component of the curriculum for technology education constitutes a major part of the curriculum. It is specified by the ‘standards’. The nature of the first standard for technology education (Lednev, Nikandrov & Lazutova, 1998) still provides the basis for school programmes in Russia. It remains largely unchanged compared to ‘labour training’ and incorporates all the features described above. A knowledge-based paradigm for education has shaped students’ understanding of technology. Technology is defined as ‘a science [body of knowledge] regarding the transforming and using of materials, energy and information for the purpose and interest of man’ (Lednev, Nikandrov & Lazutova, 1998, p. 247). The aims of ‘technology education’ are:
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to develop students in a polytechnic way, to acquaint them with modern and prospective technologies for processing materials, energy and information via the application of knowledge in the areas of economics, ecology and enterprise; to develop general working skills; to stimulate the creative and aesthetic development of students; to acquire life-skills and practices, including the culture of appropriate behaviour and non-aggressive communication in the work process; to provide students with the possibilities of self-learning and studying the world of professions, the acquisition of work experience which could be the basis for career orientation (Lednev, Nikandrov & Lazutova, 1998, p. 248).
The reference to the polytechnic principle indicates that the applied science paradigm is still in force: objective knowledge provided by science can be used for developing technological innovations. The educational approach to transfer relevant knowledge is still in place. There is no acknowledgement that students can construct their knowledge through practical activities. The role of content is extremely important and it is specified in detail in the standards. Compulsory minimum content for the
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learning area ‘technology’ is identified for both city and rural schools (with differing contents for boys and girls). The modernization of Russian education started in 2001. The ‘Strategy of modernization for general education’ (Russian Federation. Ministry of Education; National Fund for Personal Training, 2001) is aimed at overcoming the historical assumptions discussed above. School reform is being undertaken in a variety of areas, such as expanding general schooling to twelve years and reforming the assessment rationale by combining school graduation exams with university entrance exams. However, the major aspect of the reform is the modernization of the school curriculum. The goals for modernizing the Russian education system are ambitious: to achieve modernization of the whole country by means of content and structural renewal of education. The main emphasis in the modernization of school content is on the development of the ‘cultural’ person who would potentially be able to overcome problems in different fields. Thus, a potential ability to solve problems is considered as a major goal of education. A draft of the second standards for technology education was developed in accord with the ‘Strategy of modernization’ and published in 2003 with the aim of implementing the standards in two stages, starting in 2006. The aims of technology education, stated in a draft of the second set of standards (Federal Component of the State Standards for the General Education, 2003) are less oriented towards knowledge acquisition, and more towards the personal development of students: developing inquiring minds; technical thinking; spatial imagination; intellectual, creative, communicative and management skills; self-directed involvement in activities; and mastering a technological culture. At the same time, teaching is oriented towards diverse activities aimed at creating personally and socially useful products. Also the concept of design has been introduced. The standards are less directly related to a particular type of work upon leaving school and are aimed at preparing students for life and work in general. Another difference with the ‘old’ compulsory minimum content of technology education is that the new standards consist of two components: a general technology component and a specialized component. The first one is compulsory for all students, while the second one consists of several options from which the students are required to choose one. Thus, technology education in Russia is in the process of transition from one set of standards to another that presents a different educational paradigm—from the content-based approach to an activity-based approach in teaching and learning. Thus, the outcomes of the learning should be formulated through the patterns of activities, and fulfilment of the task by the student will demonstrate his/her achievements. In both cases—in Australia and in Russia—although there are differences in approaches, a number of similarities provide support for the argument that the nature of technology education provides an effective basis for the vocationalization of secondary schooling. The reason is that people in workplaces need to ‘understand technologies and be able to work alone and with others in solving complex problems. They also need highly developed social and personal skills in order to cope with
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their changing personal and workplace situations and to contribute effectively to workplace problem-solving, knowledge creation and even routine activity’ (Stevenson, 2003).
6 Conclusion The vocationalization of secondary schooling is a process that is advancing all around the globe. In developed countries a number of initiatives have been used to introduce the idea of making school education more relevant to the needs of the economy and the workplace. The introduction of vocational courses, pre-vocational courses, the use of key competencies and the development of systematic approaches towards work education are evidence of endeavours in this direction. However, as was argued in this chapter, technology education is also an important component in the vocationalization of secondary schooling. The nature of the discourse on technology and approaches towards technology education internationally demonstrate that changes associated with innovations in science and technology, the requirements to prepare knowledge workers, and the changing nature of the working world pose challenges to vocational education that could be successfully met by technology education. By the end of the 1980s technology education was introduced in many countries as a learning area/subject in general education. At the political level, the importance of technology education in schools has been justified by the concepts of ‘economic efficiency’ and ‘economic advantages’ accruing from national competence in high technologies. It became widely accepted that technology is playing an important role in the life of society. The assumption for introducing technology education in schools is based on the goals of education—relevance to the economic needs of the nation and preparing students for work and life in society. Technology education is seen as a means of developing knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that allow students to maximize their flexibility and adaptability mainly with a view to their future employment, but also to other aspects of life as well. This is what we mean by the vocationalization of secondary education.
References Bail, R.J. et al. 1986. Technology education: an investigation. Hawthorn, Australia: Hawthorn Institute of Education. Ball, S.J. 1994. Educational reform: a critical and post-structural approach. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. Ball, S.J. 1997. Policy sociology and critical social research: a personal review of recent education policy and policy research. British educational research journal, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 257–74. Ball, S.J. 1998. Big policies/small world: an introduction to international perspectives in education policy. Comparative education, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 119–30. Barnett, M. 1992. Technology, within the National Curriculum and elsewhere. In: Beynon, J.; Mackay, H., eds. Technological literacy and the curriculum, pp. 84–104. London: Falmer Press.
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The British Council. 1997. Technology education in core curriculum. (International seminars in the United Kingdom. Prospectus 9679.) Commission of the European Communities. 1993. Growth, competitiveness, employment: the challenges and ways forward into the 21st century. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Community. (Bulletin of European Communities. Supplement, no. 6.). Committee of Enquiry into Technological Change in Australia. 1980. Technological change in Australia, vol. 1. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. Coombe, C. 1988. Survey of vocationally-oriented education in the Commonwealth. London: Commonwealth Secretariat. Cowen, R. 1996. Editorial. Comparative education, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 149–50. Cumming, A. 1996. Coordinating diversity: directions for post-compulsory school education. Brisbane, Australia: The Task Group, State of Queensland. Curriculum Corporation. 1994. A statement on technology for Australian schools. Carlton, Australia: Curriculum Corporation. Custer, R.L. 1995. Examining the dimensions of technology. International journal of technology and design education, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 219–44. Federal Component of the State Standards for General Education (draft). 2003. <www.ndce.ru/ ndce/Min Edu/stand/index.htm> Finn, T.B., et al. 1991, Young people’s participation in post-compulsory education and training: report of the Australian Education Council Review Committee. Canberra: Government Publishing Service. (The Finn Report.) Frey, R.E. 1989. A philosophical framework for understanding technology. Journal of industrial teacher education, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 23–35. International Technology Education Association—ITEA. 1996. Technology for all Americans: a rational and structure for the study of technology. Reston, VA: ITEA. Laudan, R. 1984. Introduction. In: Laudan, R., ed. The nature of technological knowledge: are models of scientific change relevant?, pp. 1–26. Dordrecht, Netherlands: D. Reidel Publishing Company. Lauglo, J. 2005. Vocationalised secondary education revisited. In: Lauglo, J.; Maclean, R., eds. Vocationalisation of secondary education revisited, pp. 3–49. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Lednev, V.S.; Nikandrov, N.D.; Lazutova, M.N., eds. 1998. Uchebnue standartu shkol Rossii. Gosudarstvennue standartu nachalnogo obstchego, osnovnogo obstchego I srednego (olnogo) obstchego obrazovanija. Kniga 2. Matematika I estestvenno-nauchnue distsiplinu [Learning standards for Russian schools: State standards for primary, secondary education. Book 2: Mathematics and science]. Moscow: Sfera, Prometej. McLean, G.N.; Kamau, D.G. 1999. Human resource development and vocational and technical education in Kenyatta University, Kenya. (Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, Lahti, Finland, September 1999.) <www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00001203.htm> Marginson, S. 1993. Education and public policy in Australia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Mayer, E. et al. 1992. Putting education to work: the key competencies report. Canberra: NBEET. (The Meyer Report.) Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs—MCEETYA. 1999. The Adelaide declaration on national goals for schooling in the twenty-first century. Adelaide, Australia: MCEETYA. Mitcham, C. 1978. Types of technology. Research in philosophy and technology, vol. 1, pp. 229–94. O’Neill, M.H. 1995. Introduction. In: Carter, D.S.G.; O’Neill, M.H., eds. International perspectives on educational reform and policy implementation, pp. 1–11. London: Falmer Press. Parayil, G. 1991. Technological knowledge and technological change. Technology in society, vol. 13, pp. 289–304. Pavlova, M. 2001. Theorizing knowledge in technology education: policy analysis of four countries. [Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, La Trobe University, Australia.]
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Pring, R.A. 1995. Closing the gap: liberal education and vocational preparation. London: Hodder & Stoughton. Queensland School Curriculum Council—QSCC. 2002. Work education: position paper. <www.qsa.qld.edu.au/publications/1to10/files/worked.pdf> Queensland Studies Authority. 2003a. Technology years 1 to 10 syllabus. Spring Hill, Australia: QSA. Queensland Studies Authority. 2003b. Technology: initial in-service materials. Spring Hill, Australia: QSA. Queensland Studies Authority, 2003c. Technology: years 1 to 10 sourcebook. Spring Hill, Australia: QSA. Russian Federation. Ministry of Education. 2003. Rek [Recommendations for the organizing before profile preparation of students in the secondary school]. Attachment to the Ministry letter dated 20.08.2003 N 03-51-157/¡001¿/13-03. Russian Federation. Ministry of Education; Russian Academy of Education. 2002. Kontseptsija profilnogo obuchenija [Concept of profile education]. <www.profileedu.ru/content.php?cont=19> Russian Federation. Ministry of Education; National Fund for Personal Training. 2001. Strategija modernizatsii soderzhanija obschego obrazovanija [Strategy of modernization of general education]. Upravlenie shkoloj, no. 30, pp. 2–16. Sanders, M.E. 2001. New paradigm or old wine? The status of technology education practice in the United States. The journal of technology education, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 35–55. Stevenson, J. 2003. Examining cognitive bases for differentiating technology education and vocational education. In: Martin, G.; Middleton, H., eds. Initiatives in technology education: comparative perspectives. Proceedings of the American Forum, pp. 195–206. Gold Coast, Australia: TFA/CTER. Taylor, S. et al. 1997. Educational policy and the politics of change. London/New York, NY: Routledge. Vries, M.J. de. 1997. Science, technology and society: a methodological perspective. International journal of technology and design education, vol. 7, nos. 1/2, pp. 21–32. Williams, J. 1993. Technology education in Australia. International journal of technology and design education, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 43–54. World Bank. 1991. Vocational and technical education and training: a World Bank policy paper. Washington, DC: World Bank.
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Chapter X.18
Valuing Experience as well as Knowledge in Schools Ron Hansen
1 A Personal Reflection As a long-standing instructor of technical teachers, I am struck by two anomalies in the school system. My efforts to help these teachers make a successful transition into the profession are offset or countered, it occurs to me, by these anomalies. One anomaly is the rather obvious one that technical teachers learn by doing while most other subjects in schools involve learning through rote memorization of information or knowledge. The second anomaly revolves around the schools in which technical teachers practice and the degree to which the public seems to unabashedly embrace institutionalized learning. Schools, like many institutions, are a universal feature of twentieth and twenty-first century life in Western society. Seldom, however, are their programme priorities analysed with regard to how well they serve us. I am also compelled and inspired, in this chapter, to write as an individual and a professional teacher educator. Somehow, every time I try to write about the subject of institutional life with a professional set of skills and expectations (encumbrances?), I am unable to crystallize my thoughts. On the other hand, when I document my own experiences and personal feelings, a more complete and insightful picture emerges. Here is an example of what I mean. I was auditing a university course recently on the subject of ‘professional development in education’. During the first class, the instructor explained a number of concepts related to inner wisdom, letting go and opening up. He asked the class if they understood how it is that we become disconnected from ourselves and others. Several students cited personal preferences, such as meditation that seemed to help give them centredness. Other methods included outdoor adventures, e.g. canoeing, etc. After listening for some time to these testimonials I spoke up. I suggested that a large number of young people seem to have a fragile self-esteem and that this was explainable in part due to a heavy reliance on institutions for significant aspects of personal and professional development (I am sure the instructor saw the contradiction he was perpetrating and wondered if I was going to expose it). Perhaps there is an over-reliance on ‘institutional ways’, I suggested, citing a difference between social and natural order, in which development as a human being was/is largely a family, community or personal process rather than an institutional one. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 X.18, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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Upon reflection, it is possible to see how dependent we have become on our institutions and on our systems, especially in North American society. It is as if we defer our own knowledge and experience in life for that of someone else who has the ability to express it, usually in a book or a paper. We presume that knowledge derived from science is superior to the personal knowledge we accumulate as human beings. In this process we defer to the ‘expert’, as Burton Clark (1962) so aptly points out in his book ‘Educating the expert society’. Clark’s book documents how we have come to rely on the expert and how the age of specialization has become a legacy of the twentieth century. Examples of this abound, especially in capitalist economies.
2 Knowledge Versus Experience This personal reflection, ideological as it is, sets the stage for a critical analysis of our reliance on knowledge versus experience in our educational policy and planning. An analysis of the premises we take for granted in the formal education system becomes possible. The chapter starts with a critical stance on commodities, such as knowledge, and explores the attractions and detractions of institutionalized learning. It would be hard to imagine how formal learning could possibly take place without knowledge and information. Language is what makes communication and learning viable in all cultures. But words and concepts have evolved to such a level of sophistication that they both clarify and blur reality. It is often difficult to separate reality from abstraction. Carried to extremes, they (words and concepts) become tools of themselves, capable of representing but also misrepresenting ideas (the concept ‘knowledge-based economy’ articulated in the conference literature is a case in point). Professional people in most fields function with a set of concepts and language that is accepted and imaginatively used and abused at the same time. The fact that so many important aspects of institutional life depend on universally accepted norms regarding language use is a blessing and curse. Where does this penchant for reducing things to commodities and concepts come from? Is it from our institutional way of thinking? What of the systems of institutions that now characterize our culture and way of life? Our institutions, when analysed closely, have become instruments of government. Political economists argue that educational institutions are necessary/central to an efficient and progressive society and the commodities they generate—i.e. knowledge—are a part of our way of doing business. After a while, no one questions if the knowledge is real or practical. It enjoys high status, fuelled in part by the view that assimilation to one way of thinking is central to a progressive and democratic culture. The term ‘knowledgebased economy’ is one of many that gives credence to the high status associated with knowledge, both inside and outside education systems.
3 Socially Constructed Knowledge The keystone or central element of institutional learning is knowledge. This highly regarded commodity has been elevated to such a high degree over the last 100 years
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that it (knowledge) is taken as a universal standard for achievement and success. If you do not have certain knowledge and a command of accepted ways to convey it, you are deficient. The consistent cry by governments urging young people to achieve grade twelve or college education provides evidence of this widespread public acceptance of what schools, colleges and universities do. The irony is that most knowledge conveyed in formal education institutions is constructed knowledge. It is packaged, you might say, for delivery and consumption in the same way as a new product is packaged for the retail market. But, according the McLaren (1998), there is even more to it. Critical education theorists view knowledge as historically and socially rooted and interest bound. Knowledge acquired in school—or anywhere, for that matter—is never neutral or objective but is ordered and structured in particular ways; its emphases and exclusions partake of a silent logic. Knowledge is a social construction (p. 173).
McLaren believes that the world we live in (Western society) is constructed symbolically by the mind through social interaction with others. At the practical level, but also invisible in the public realm, is a call by an increasing number of students for more meaning in the curriculum. Initiatives related to learning that is project-based as opposed to text-based are gaining momentum. But, what is this polarity about? What is it about a singular reliance on knowledge that is problematic? The problem is articulated by critical pedagogy scholars. Critical pedagogy asks how and why knowledge gets constructed the way it does, and how and why some constructions of reality are legitimized and celebrated by the dominant culture while others clearly are not. Boud (1989) argues that we have overlooked experience and the experiencebased learning approach in schools. Although experiential or experience-based learning can be regarded as the earliest approach to learning for the human race, the significance and potential of it has not been fully recognized until relatively recently. In the formal education system it has tended to be developed and regarded as somehow fundamentally inferior to those organized forms of knowledge which have been constructed as subjects or disciplines. The practical and the applied do not tend to have the same status in educational institutions as the academic and the abstract (p. xi).
Boud would argue that, if experience and knowledge were recognized as equally important, a different set of premises and practices would govern what schools offer young people.
4 Technical Teachers’ Testimonials The professional development that technical teachers go through provides some evidence of what a different set of premises for school learning would look like. The following journal entries from Canadian technical teacher candidates help make the case for Boud’s experiential approach. The research method is based on life histories (Jones, 1983) and collaborated stories (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). In Ontario, technical teachers are required by provincial legislation to have five years of work experience in their technical field. As such, they are heavily socialized
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into a workplace culture—one which values experience. Making the transition to a knowledge-based school culture where learning through signs and symbols is dominant creates a tension for them. Many never make a successful adjustment (Hansen, 1996) into the profession. In this case, George (a pseudonym) wrote about how learning in school was alien to him but working as a machinist was natural. Years later, when I began to work as a machinist apprentice I came to rediscover my true nature of learning. I was able to excel as a machinist, in all areas including math and programming skills which many of my colleagues found difficult. I believe this was because a machinist uses many senses in order to be successful. This is a job that requires a hands-on learner, one who learns through the interaction of the senses. The tactile, aural, visual, and emotional stimuli which one receives generate a sense of pride and accomplishment in a job well done. This is truly my learning style and the skills and knowledge that I have acquired and will continue to build upon will be retained by me for longer than anything that I have long ago temporarily learned and forgotten in the discursive world of schools. Truly, this is the best learning environment for me (Technology teacher candidate, University of Western Ontario, 2000.)
This journal excerpt from a 30-year-old technology teacher candidate at the University of Western Ontario reveals a problem in our schools and in the way we prepare teachers for their chosen profession. Among the many contradictions associated with the pedagogy we perpetuate as teachers and teacher educators, one is particularly invisible. It is that we ask our young to defer their natural tendency for learning in favour of an artificial one. George’s testimony makes the contradiction more ‘explicit’ or visible. Eisner’s (1998) work on art education as a core subject in schools helps distinguish between knowledge and experience. Consciousness of the qualitative world as a source of potential experience and the human sensory system as a means through which those potentialities are explored require no sharp distinction between cognition and perception: On the contrary, I came to believe that perception is a cognitive event and that construal, not discovery, is critical. Put another way, I came to believe that humans do not simply have experience, they have a hand in its creation, and the quality of their creation depends upon the ways they employ their minds (p. 162).
Teacher education socialization research (Zeichner & Gore, 1990) suggests that most general studies teachers adopt some variation of a transmissive model for teaching. Such teachers believe, partly as a result of their training and partly out of conditioning from their own schooling, that learning in schools is about ‘knowing’ rather than ‘experiencing’. They perpetuate a system of teaching into which they were successfully indoctrinated when they were students in high school. These teachers seem to derive their professional self-esteem from ‘knowing’ in an epistemological way rather than from ‘doing’ (Kessels & Korthagen, 1996). By comparison, technology teachers, at least in Ontario, bring a different framework and set of premises to teaching. They have a perspective on learning that is practical rather than academic. Background experiences in an apprenticeship, in a co-operative education programme, or in a business and industry environment often nourish a learning ethic that is quite a contrast to the predominant one found in schools. In a teacher development and curriculum policy/change context, the learning preferences and tendencies of these technology teachers are particularly
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important to understand. The lives of technology teachers and the relation of their experiences as teachers to the culture of the secondary school is unveiled and identified by Layton (1993) as follows: ‘No subject challenges the historic role of schools as institutions which de-contextualize knowledge quite so strongly as does technology’ (p. 15). The problem is how to clarify the difference between an academic versus practical orientation to learning, and to explore how a practical or experiential framework for learning contributes to the well being of our young and an understanding of ‘how people learn’. My own experience suggests that teacher candidates who have either been socialized into a business and industrial culture or who have a tendency for learning through practical means learn through a ‘sense of physical location’. The following journal entries from George and Sean offer evidence of this tendency, as well as the need for change in school curriculum theory and practice. That need leads to further exploration of the assumptions we, as school-based educators, adopt when we teach in school environments.
4.1 Opposing Authority and Achieving Limited Success—George The most important insight which I learned about myself as a learner (in school) was that it did not matter to me what other people thought about my potential, I knew it was unlimited. Unfortunately, I also came to oppose authority constantly. Many years passed before I began to respect people in authority. I was not aware of it at the time, but I demonstrated my true nature of learning, and emphasized in myself a return to the initial method of learning that all of us employ. I reconstructed my experiential learning tendencies. Unfortunately, the experience was not a good or constructive one and I became someone who would not trust or respect teachers until they could prove themselves to be a person who treated all others with respect and trust. Still, to this day, if anyone suggests that I am not capable of a task, I catch myself working hard to prove them wrong. In some ways this is good, but I have to pay close attention to my actions so as not to overreact. From my perspective at the time (and I strongly believe this today) it became apparent to me that the most effective learning environment is one where the educator is able to set aside personal prejudice and focus on the needs of each individual. By doing so, you can more effectively provide the area of individual attention that each student requires. This applies to all aspects of any work environment in which I have been employed. I certainly did not fully understand my learning tendencies then, but I am beginning to now. I am, by nature, a hands-on experiential learner and my schooling did not allow me to develop my learning style to any significant level from which my full potential could be realized. During my time in school, my parents and teachers all emphasized how important it was to learn and do well in school. I did try to adapt my learning tendencies to suit their perceived views on how to study and learn, but I was only able to achieve limited success through these methods. This made school a difficult place for me to be because I did want to please my parents, but I was unable to explain or understand why I could not achieve the
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grade levels that we all knew I could. I was trying hard to adapt my learning style to what my parents and teachers thought it should be, and I did achieve limited success.
4.2 Cars Saved my Self-Esteem—Sean Grade eleven did not appeal too much to me, and neither did grade ten, or nine, perhaps even eight. Yet I had been ‘successful’ in school. Accelerated in elementary school, I passed through it in six instead of seven years. As a consequence, I was usually the youngest person in the class, and often the smallest in stature. So sports did not turn out to be my strong suit—and the older I got, the more that mattered. Achieving high scores on tests did not impress peers; scoring goals and home runs did. Attending school became a chore. In fact, performing poorly almost became something to be proud of; at least it made you more like ‘the other guys’. I may have deftly avoided physical sports, altercations and fights with larger classmates, but my self-esteem was ‘takin’-a-whoopin’! Soon I discovered cars. Cars saved my self-esteem. That is, buying cars, fixing them, driving them illegally (no license plates and too young to drive), selling them for a profit, getting dirty, the sound of them, the power of them, the sheer technological triumph of their existence—everything. I loved cars. (If there is one point of clarity I can draw from our technology rationales [a Faculty of Education assignment], it is the empowerment feature that tech knowledge fosters.) And, as much as I came to love cars, I came to love the industry that supports them: garages, mechanics, tools, gasoline and oil, Canadian tire stores, wrecking yards, car lots, and dealerships. And all of these things just happened to be the stuff of work, not of school. Back at school I walked the halls with a secret. I had two cars at home in the driveway—two! Everything else there seemed irrelevant. Math was ‘new’ and taking algebra and geometry—‘so what!’ I thought, ‘I’ve got two cars at home!’ In geography we were taking geology or maps, I think, but ‘so what! I’ve got two cars at home . . . Tonight, I’ll. . . ’. The big guys strutted around with their basketballs and leather jackets. ‘So what!’ I smirked to myself, ‘you probably can’t even get the hood open on your dad’s car! And I’ve got two cars at home!’ My mind rarely left the topic and there was no drink at school to quench my automotive thirst. What these journal vignettes reveal is that the values and beliefs that differentiate academic studies from practical learning are discernible, but repressed. They (the individual journal excerpts) help the reader to understand the dynamics of two distinct learning cultures, and their impact on teacher socialization. George, for example, is particularly strong and articulate in expressing his lessthan-stellar experience as a learner in schools. He had a number of demeaning experiences that, to this day, remain vivid in his memory. One could argue that he is ignoring the fact that many students experience problems or undergo some trauma in school life. In hindsight, many parents and students appreciate the discipline that school life imparts. On the other hand, some who think they are better off for schooling experiences may not have confronted their feelings fully or thought through what really happened. Sociologists are often quite blunt about the
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latent dysfunctions of the school. Bowles and Gintis (1976) argue, for example, that schools do not reduce or remove class inequities, they perpetuate them. At the individual student level, British sociologist Basil Bernstein (1970) argues that learning in schools serves middle-class children (with strong linguistic orientations) well and deprives working-class children (with strong non-discursive tendencies). ‘Thus the working class child may be placed at a considerable disadvantage in relation to the total culture of the school. It is not made for him [sic]: He [sic] may not answer to it’ (p. 346). This point is further reinforced by the writings of Margaret Donaldson (1987): ‘The better you are at tackling problems without having to be sustained by human sense the more likely you are to succeed in our educational system, the more you will be approved of and loaded with prizes’ (p. 78). In Sean’s case (a pseudonym), a wisdom is evident. His ability to reflect and to weave the two periods (then and now) into his writing, and his reverence for cars (rather than school), is particularly interesting. This 35-year-old teacher candidate could tackle the problems that Donaldson refers to, as a school-age boy, but he also had a strong sense of himself and his needs or wants (including the common sense to quit school when his self-esteem required it). How many adults today had thoughts of quitting school, but never did? Sean, in a way, was true to his beliefs. His tendency was to embrace the technology associated with cars. He could not get enough. Cars, not school, saved his self-esteem. What these excerpts reveal, beyond personal growth, is that preparing to teach technology is complicated. What these teachers are preparing for and practising to do in the profession is perplexing to them. They have, like many, a set of baggage relating to their own schooling that may or may not be resolved in their own minds. What are my tendencies as a learner? What are my beliefs about learning, studying, experiencing? Have I been honest with myself about why I want to become a technology teacher, or is it even possible to know? What does the profession hold for me? In a study at the University of Western Ontario (Hansen et al., 1992), it was discovered that technology teachers experience a dissonance between value systems. The evidence from that study suggests that the values and beliefs about learning held by technology teachers were/are not recognized as important by school leaders and officials. These teacher candidates felt displaced before even securing their first position in the profession. These young men and women had been socialized into the world of work. Their success and self-esteem had been measured not by book studies and normative grading, but by experience and everyday technical, economic, political and social reality. The transition to school life for these teachers, consequently, was/is characterized by a subtle and nagging stress, one which they did/do not fully understand, and one about which very little was/is spoken or written.
5 Implications and Discussion What makes the study of technology teachers with outside-of-school experience and their reverence for experiential learning pertinent/interesting is the timing—a period in which schools as institutions find themselves deeply entrenched in a constructed
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and abstracted academic curriculum for all students. The classic model of transmissive teaching, while receiving some scrutiny of late in the literature, has been a pedagogical staple in Canadian schools for years. So has the traditional school subject mix deemed to be important by school leaders—languages, mathematics, sciences, social studies. The technology curriculum is treated as an option, not as a core subject. Technology teachers, who are seldom recognized for their practical expertise and culture, continue to be stigmatized by this curriculum formula. The fact that technical specializations have been integrated into broad-based fields of technology, e.g. manufacturing, transportation, design, communications, has not yet changed the status of the subject or the plight of teachers. Technology teachers from these diverse and demanding curriculum worlds get little fulfilment from a limited range of status levels, satisfaction variables and career advancement opportunities. Only recently, thanks to Layton and others, are these unique teacher attributes/characteristics gaining a modest respectability and prominence in the schools and in the literature. School and teacher-education curricula seem to be designed on the premise that it is appropriate for our children to postpone or defer their natural tendencies for learning, i.e. to experience through a balance of all the senses, in order to develop their mental or intellectual faculties, in favour of a methodology through which the intellect is trained to separate matters of the mind from the body. The purpose of schooling may best be characterized as learning intellectual self-discipline. Donaldson is particularly blunt about this truth in her book ‘Children’s minds’. She uses the term ‘disembedded thought’ to describe what schools foster through the formal discursive curriculum. In short, schools portray learning as a lofty and irreplaceable exercise in intellectual development. ‘The paradoxical fact is,’ according to Donaldson, ‘that disembedded thinking, although by definition it calls for the ability to stand back from life, yields its greatest riches when it is conjoined with doing.’ The implications that arise from the absence of a non-discursive curriculum are equally interesting in a curriculum policy/theory context. The fundamental premises about learning, that drive curriculum policy and implementation in schools, are not often discussed in the educational sciences literature. Theories about how children learn, however, abound. One safe observation about the body of research on learning is that it is ‘undistinguished’. After forty years of research and hypotheses, there is no consensus on, or definitive understanding of, ‘how people learn’. What does exist is a growing and diverse body of evidence that suggests ‘the practical project’ may be an element in teaching methods courses that deserves more prominence. Sheridan (2000) argues that schooling legitimizes literacy (the discursive curriculum) at the expense of experience. Writing is about seeing and believing in symbols that are substitutions for sensual reality. The page, decorated with permutations of the alphabet, cannot represent smell, taste, touch and space. [. . . ] To read is in essence the entry point into an exclusively symbolic reality at the cost of the reality it represents (p. 24).
Eisner (1998) takes the relation between literacy and experience one step further.
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First among these [variety of beliefs] is the belief that experience is the bedrock upon which meaning is constructed and that experience in significant degree depends on our ability to get in touch with the qualitative world we inhabit. This qualitative world is immediate before it is mediated, presentational before it is representational, sensuous before it is symbolic (p. 161).
Recent literature (Kessels & Korthagen, 1996; Layton, 1993) points to a renaissance of sorts in the way educators think about how students become engaged in learning and how school systems interpret reality though the curriculum. Meaningful and authentic learning, in this new view, is thought to be based in experience, the same experience that technology teachers have long cherished as valuable and necessary to learning in the many diverse fields of specialization that make up the world of technology and technological education. Research by Harre and Gillett (1994) suggests that real learning requires a sense of physical location to contextualize, precipitate and reinforce it. They argue that such learning takes place when individuals are stimulated by a broader combination of senses than sight and sound. As Dewey suggests, classrooms should be places where more than ‘listening’ takes place. The position that learning of a nondiscursive nature, i.e. learning through a sense of physical location, stimulates a sense of self, a precursor for/to real learning, is intriguing. Such a position challenges the fundamental assumption that drives school learning. That assumption is that knowledge is the paramount goal and, more important, it can be acquired independent of practical action. The issue of institutional criticism is captured in Greenfield’s (1993) writing. He is particularly articulate in his observations about formal institutions/organizations. The basic problem in the study of organizations is understanding human intention and meaning. Part of the complexity in this problem is found in the observation that people can act purposefully and yet bring about consequences that are wholly unintended for themselves and for others (p. 92).
In the case of schools, this is particularly true. School goals statements consistently refer to the egalitarian purposes associated with schooling. The evidence suggests, however, that schools are middle-class institutions that serve middle-class kids well and fail to accommodate the needs of other groups. The one implication that transcends all others in this analysis centres on the contrived curriculum through which our school students are asked to learn and grow. It is prudent to ask: is the curriculum artificial? Does it perpetuate a theory in which children are seen and treated as commodities? Does our teacher-education curriculum misdirect teacher candidates by drilling them in the educational psychology discipline, a discipline that has, for five decades, provided misleading research on learning? The designer curriculum that many Westernized countries have adopted over recent years is also open to question. All such initiatives speak of engaging students more meaningfully in the learning process, but students become disengaged. In teacher education we use a narrow conceptualization of pedagogical options. The focus is on traditions of ‘how to teach’ with an educational science base. Writing behavioural objectives is one example that shows how curriculum is designed. Yet,
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the ‘objectivist’ approach to curriculum development represents, above all else, a search for certainty and technical control of knowledge and behaviour rather than personal growth and meaningful learning. The position I have taken in this chapter is that schools and universities perpetuate a mode of learning that is perceived as being important and best for young people. But, when scrutinized, it becomes possible to see a pattern in the design of schools and learning that has flaws. Assimilation into society via academic achievement may do as much harm as it does good for our youth. The critical pedagogy literature, the experiences of technology teachers, and the institutional change research all point to a need for reflection and action, or at the minimum, some lateral thinking. For example, one could ask about—make a case for—reversing or transcending our limited way of thinking about such things as knowledge. We could create a school curriculum that balances practical and academic pursuits for every child.
References Bernstein, B. 1970. Education cannot compensate for society. New society, no. 387, pp. 344–47. Boud, D. 1989. Foreword. In: Weil, S.W.; McGill, I., eds. Making sense of experiential learning: diversity in theory and practice. Milton Keynes, UK: Open University Press. Bowles, S.; Gintis, H. 1976. Schooling in capitalistic America: educational reform and the contradictions of economic life. New York, NY: Basic Books. Clark, B.R. 1962. Educating the expert society. San Francisco, CA: Chandler. Connelly, F.M.; Clandinin, D.J. 1990. Stories of experience and narrative inquiry. Educational researcher, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 2–14. Donaldson, M. 1987. Children’s minds. Glasgow, UK: Fontana Press. Eisner, W.E. 1998. Forms of understanding and the future of educational research. In: Sugrue, C., ed. Teaching, curriculum and educational research, pp. 161–69. Dublin: St. Patrick’s College. Greenfield, T.B. 1993. The man who comes back through the door in the wall: discovering truth, discovering self, discovering organizations. In: Greenfield, T.B.; Ribbing, P., eds. Greenfield on educational administration: towards a humane science, pp. 92–119. London: Routledge. Hansen, R. et al. 1992. Teacher development project: technological education. London, Canada: University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Education. Hansen, R. 1996. Program equity and the status of technological education: the apologetic nature of technology teachers. Journal of technology education, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 72–78. Harre, R.; Gillett, G. 1994. The discursive mind. London: Sage Publications. Jones, G.R. 1983. Life history methodology. In: Morgan, G., ed. Beyond method: strategies for social research, pp. 147–59. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications. Kessels, J.P.A.M.; Korthagen, F.A.J.K. 1996. The relationship between theory and practice: back to the classics. Educational researcher, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 17–22. Layton, D. 1993. Technology’s challenge to science education. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. McLaren, P. 1998. Life in schools: an introduction to critical pedagogy in the foundations of education, 3rd ed., pp. 171–98. New York, NY: Longmans. Sheridan, J. 2000. The silence before drowning in alphabet soup. Canadian journal of native studies, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 23–32. Zeichner, K.; Gore, J. 1990. Teacher socialization. In: Houston, R.W., ed. Handbook of research on teacher education, pp. 329–48. New York, NY: MacMillan.
Section 11 Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Vocational Education and Training
Maja Zarini UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany Tapio Varis Faculty of Education, University of Tampere, Finland Naing Yee Mar UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany
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Chapter XI.1
Overview: The Growing Role of ICTs in Education and Training Maja Zarini, David N. Wilson, Naing Yee Mar and Tapio Varis
1 Introduction The technological advances of the Information Age have been displacing manufacturing and service industries and workers, particularly in the developed world, for the past two decades. Machinery has been altered by the mechatronic control of processes that resulted from the convergence of information and mechanical functions. As Victor Keegan stated at the very beginning of the twenty-first century: ‘most of the new business opportunities in the next few decades will either be the creation of digital goods (such as music, audio and films) or the application of digital and internet techniques to old economy products (such as mapping and monitoring systems in cars or intelligent fridges)’ (Keegan, 2000). Rapid technological change and ever-increasing international competition require workers to be highly qualified and flexible. Education for the world of work should prepare workers to meet the new needs of industry. The increase of knowledge work heightens the global competition for skills and competencies. The combination of computers, consumer electronics and telecommunications has led to the creation of a worldwide information technology (IT) infrastructure, which makes many aspects of work independent of time and place. In some instances, workers can be located anywhere in the world, provided that there is a reliable infrastructure and people with information and communication technology (ICT) skills and competencies. Mobile work and distributed organizations promote short-term assignments for knowledge workers wherever their individual skills and expertise are needed. This trend can no longer only be observed in the developed world but is also permeating the developing world. A solid knowledge in the use of ICTs is crucial for today’s workers around the globe. Educational policy-makers, educators and practitioners have acknowledged the fact that the Information Age requires different knowledge and skills of people and creates shifts in the nature of employment. Therefore, the role of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is of paramount importance. One way of adapting TVET to better prepare people for the world of work is to invest in ICT infrastructures that facilitate new models of TVET, rather than investing in ICTs that only enhance the efficiency of the existing education and training process. The chapters in this section examine the impact of ICTs on TVET and explore R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XI.1, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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some applications of new technologies in established—but continually evolving— education and training systems. This overview chapter introduces and defines different concepts and indicates some general trends on the growing role of ICTs as a catalyst of change in TVET. It also provides a brief overview of the contents of the chapters in this section.
2 The Growing Role of ICTs in TVET Although there is no comprehensive, universally-accepted definition, ICTs can be described as the integration of a variety of electronic tools that deliver and exchange information to enhance the quality of life, unconstrained by location, time and distance. The delivery and/or information exchange mechanisms of ICTs include hardware: televisions, computers, cellular telephones (and related devices), radios, video-discs (both analogue and digital), the Internet, personal digital assistants (PDAs), CD-ROMs, etc.; and software: Internet browsers, word-processing, spreadsheets, desk-top publishing programmes, simulation and presentation packages, etc. The exponential pace of technological change and the rate at which ICTs have been adopted has been—and is—phenomenal. The Internet has enabled information exchange and communication on a global level and at a speed that was unthinkable only a decade ago. Mobile telephones have spread very rapidly around the world and, especially where access to computers and/or the Internet is still limited, have had a similar effect. In 2000, ‘sending text messages by mobile phone, unheard of 18 months ago, has reached 10 billion, overtaking e-mail in popularity’ (Keegan, 2000). Seven years later, Portio Research forecast that SMS volumes worldwide would to reach 1 trillion by the end of the year [2007], and 2.38 trillion in 2010, up from 761 billion SMS in 2004. Information and communication are becoming ubiquitous. By 2015, virtually all people living in industrial countries will have access to multimedia services based on mobile or other terminals. The same trend will take place in the developing world. Services based on ubiquitous computing, telecommunications and information retrieval are developing very rapidly. The key-words are real-time information, multilingualism, location awareness, targeting and personalization. Government functions and services are increasingly moving on-line. Internet shopping is also ever increasing. Furthermore, business companies and public administrations are working to develop and introduce more automated and self-service solutions. In addition to the need for knowledge and skills in these new areas, ICT developments, as well as the new forms of networking, knowledge sharing and interactive learning that ICTs facilitate (Heppell, 2000), have created opportunities for ‘virtual’ and portable education programmes and have begun to radically change the field of education and training. TVET is no longer exclusively confined to a four-walled educational facility. Rather, education and training can be situated anywhere where there is access to ICTs. This is crucial, given the above-mentioned rapid changes
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Table 1 The new schooling paradigm From
To
A school building
A knowledge infrastructure (schools, labs, radio, television, Internet, museums, etc.) Individual learners A teacher (as a tutor and facilitator) Multimedia materials (print, audio, video, digital, etc.)
Classrooms A teacher (as provider of knowledge) A set of textbooks and some audiovisual aids Source: Butcher, 2003.
in the Information Age. Haddad & Draxler (2002) note that change is required of schools (and education systems more broadly) which were originally developed in the context of the Industrial Age and which must now meet the educational needs of the current global knowledge environment. As Butcher notes: ‘the Information Age has brought with it a new context in which schools must function’ (Butcher, 2003). He quotes Haddad & Draxler (2002), who call for a new paradigm of schooling (see Table 1) that reflects the new developments and teaches the learner the pivotal skills needed in the Information Age. Recent Internet developments have accelerated this paradigm shift. New webbased social software has an increasingly important role also in competence development. The new buzz words are ‘Web 2.0’ and ‘social web’ (social media), which refer to ‘a perceived second-generation of web-based services—such as social networking sites, wikis and communication tools—that emphasize on-line collaboration and sharing among users’ (Wikipedia, n.d.). The social web ‘refers to an open global distributed data-sharing network similar to today’s World-Wide Web, except instead of linking documents, the social web (social media) links people, organizations, and concepts’ (Wikipedia, n.d.). Media and technology are rapidly converging, which means that telecommunications networks and computers will converge as well. Data, sound and images are transmitted over the same networks, and the same terminals can be used for the use of different types of content. These changes will increase digital contents and digital education, as well as the demand for this, which in turn will open up new kinds of global markets. The demand for digital literacy becomes a general societal goal of education and training and also, increasingly, a human right.
3 The Integration of ICTs in TVET: Prospects and Challenges TVET refers to education and training that prepares people for gainful employment (Finch & Crunkilton, 1999). TVET can take place either in formal schools— generally in secondary schools or in post-secondary community and/or technical colleges—or informally or non-formally by means of workplace training or through programmes that are outside the formal education system. In the Revised
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Recommendation concerning Technical and Vocational Education, UNESCO/ILO (2002) offer the following definition of TVET: technical and vocational education is used as a comprehensive term referring to those aspects of the educational process involving, in addition to general education, the study of technologies and related sciences, and the acquisition of practical skills, attitudes, understanding and knowledge relating to occupations in various sectors of economic and social life. Technical and vocational education is further understood to be: (a) an integral part of general education; (b) a means of preparing for occupational fields and for effective participation in the world of work; (c) an aspect of lifelong learning and a preparation for responsible citizenship; (d) an instrument for promoting environmentally sound sustainable development; (e) a method of facilitating poverty alleviation.
Many TVET educators favour the integration of traditional academic and technical/technological curricula. The education and training of knowledge workers suggests this integration will predominate in the twenty-first century, because learning technological concepts requires a sound foundation in mathematics, science, communication skills, and also an understanding of technology (Wilson, 2001). ICTs facilitate the development and strengthening of TVET around the world by enhancing networking and knowledge-sharing opportunities. In the mid-1990s, electronic mailing lists dedicated to TVET emerged, such as VOCNET (developed in 1995 by the former National Center for Research on Vocational Education and Training at the University of California, Berkeley) and ‘Technology-edu’ (a mailing list for technology education teachers in the United States of America established in 1995 by the Council on Technology Teacher Education). Since then, the Internet has developed rapidly as a communication and knowledge-sharing tool, and sophisticated TVET on-line communities have developed offering space for sharing information and knowledge, as well as for networking. For example, the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) has established the European Training Village (ETV), an interactive platform for anyone interested or involved in TVET. The ETV provides structured and up-to-date information on TVET in Europe, spaces for dialogue and collaborative learning, such as forums, documents and databases, as well as on-line surveys. The sheer volume of information exchanged by the various Internet resources available is impressive and the impact of this interchange of ideas about aspects of TVET has ushered in a new global age for the development and reform of TVET worldwide. The potential for such networks suggests that the exchange of information and ideas among TVET educators may make a greater impact upon TVET worldwide than any single development and technical assistance project in the past. In addition to formal North-South and South-South technical assistance, we are now seeing teacher-to-teacher and specialist-to-specialist interactions on a one-to-one and one-to-many basis. The web-sites and on-line communities dedicated to TVET establish a virtual presence for TVET anywhere in the ‘wired’ world. The instant access to information, expertise, advice and TVET curricula has created a revolution
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in the way TVET educators function. The future impact of these ICT interactions deserves in-depth study by those concerned with the sharing, transfer and replication of TVET models, systems, ideas, etc., between nations—both developed and developing. Yet, given that many areas in TVET require hands-on experience and manual skills, ICTs and virtuality are not panaceas and often neither should, nor can, completely replace the need for fixed education and training facilities with specialized equipment and trained specialist instructors. In those TVET areas where manual skills are crucial, ICTs and virtuality can only substitute for a portion of hands-on, practical work. The importance of the social aspect of learning and the learning process that is provided by face-to-face interaction between teachers and students and among students should also not be underestimated. However, ICTs in TVET are reducing the need for fixed education and training facilities and for some learning of theory and practical workshop experience, and students can be offered more individualized learning. ‘Free’ instructors can work with those students requiring extra help. Many nations—both developed and developing—have debated, researched and developed plans and strategies to create pedagogical applications for ICTs. In many instances, these initiatives have been driven by demand from the business community and employers, whose motivation has been to become, or remain, internationally competitive. However, adequate information to make such decisions has varied from nation to nation. In many instances, international agencies have been instrumental in either providing such information or influencing decisions in some nations, largely by means of technical assistance or development projects. In some cases, undue influence has resulted in nations receiving hardware and software that were incompatible with their needs, incompatible with other hardware and software, expensive or difficult to upgrade. Problems that have plagued TVET for decades, i.e. the rapid obsolescence of quite expensive workshop or laboratory equipment, are now amplified by the even shorter life-span of computer equipment. A Province of Alberta (Canada) study of ICTs acknowledges this problem, noting that ‘the economic life of ICT is measured in months before a new or improved model becomes available.’ Faced with technological dilemmas and constraints, TVET policy-makers must balance investment cost considerations with considerations of technological obsolescence and the pedagogical necessity to have ICTs available for instruction. The complexity of the myriad of issues involved in these decisions certainly does not make it easy to choose among alternatives. Lieberg and Morgan indicate that the challenge for decisionmakers ‘is to make use of ICT to add value and new possibilities to the learning process and to qualify the individual to sort, select, process and use information made available by ICT [. . .] as a basis for developing [. . .] knowledge.’ They stress ‘the pedagogical use of ICT as an integrated tool in the teaching/learning process on all levels in the educational system’ (Lieberg & Morgan, 1997). The issue of what constitutes the most appropriate, most desirable or most affordable ratio of computers to students is the subject of considerable debate and literature. Former United Kingdom Prime Minister Blair ‘promised “universal access”
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Fig. 1 The number of pupils per computer and the number of pupils per computer with an Internet connection in European secondary education (ISCED 2 and 3), 2001
(whatever that means) by 2005 and is putting plenty of money [. . .] including £250m for disadvantaged communities to go online, £250m to train teachers, and increased pressure on BT (British Telecom) to deliver broadband’ (Keegan, 2000). EURYDICE data on the number of pupils per computer in 2001 are shown in Figure 1. A 2004 EURYDICE report on key data on ICTs found that: In the majority of countries, decisions pertaining to investments in computer facilities are taken at the local level. There are no central recommendations specifying a number of pupils per computer or a number of computers per school. Schools or local authorities decide on their own investment scheme based on their priorities and specific needs. Some countries or regions (Belgium (Flemish Community), the United Kingdom (England and Scotland), Malta and Slovenia) have central recommendations that specify a ratio for the number of pupils per computer. In the United Kingdom, this ratio varies with the level of education. In Malta, such ratios have been established for primary education only. On the other hand, in Hungary and Poland, it is specified that there should be at least one computer classroom in each school, irrespective of the number of pupils enrolled. It is noteworthy that the situation is changing. Greece, Portugal and Lithuania have established official objectives for reducing the number of pupils per computer. Portugal and Lithuania plan to attain the ratio of ten pupils per computer between 2004 and 2006. Greece has fixed specific ratios by level of education (34 pupils per computer at primary level, 9 at lower secondary level and 13 at upper secondary level) to be reached by 2006 (Delhaxhe, 2004, p. 31)
In Africa, ICT infrastructure is still very limited. While investment in connectivity has increased dramatically in recent years (US$8 billion in 2005, up from US$3.5 billion in 2000) and the use of mobile phones has grown by as much as 400%, even surpassing fixed-line telephone access, fewer than 4 out of every 100 Africans have Internet access. Broadband penetration remains below 1%, and 70% of all Internet traffic within Africa is re-routed outside the continent, driving up costs for businesses and consumers (International Telecommunication Union, 2007). A report by the Association for the Development of Education in Africa’s (ADEA) Working Group on Distance Education and Open Learning depicts the availability of ICTs in schools throughout Africa:
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South Africa has the highest penetration of radios per 1,000 individuals at 316. Egypt has the highest percentage of computers in schools, at 31.25%. In Mozambique, only 20 schools currently have access to computers. Across the continent, radio is the most widely available technology. Looking at Ghana and South Africa, the countries for which both radio and computers in schools data are available, it is clear that in Ghana, for instance, only 1.43% of schools have access to a computer, 238 in 1000 (23.8%) people have access to a radio. Similarly, for South Africa, 17.36% schools have access to a computer while 31.6% of people have access to a radio (and this does not take shared use into account). These comparisons highlight the importance of using the most appropriate ICT for a given environment rather than making the focus of ICT and education efforts on computers, specifically (Butcher, 2003).
An issue that requires considerable attention is the preparation of teachers for ICTs in TVET. Lieberg and Morgan noted that ‘the lack of nationally accepted standards of content or skill that teachers are expected to possess in order to use new technologies effectively in the classroom’ is a problem pervading all nations. [In Europe,] irrespective of whether it is part of initial teacher education, the acquisition of ICT-related knowledge, including the educational use of ICT, is provided in all countries within continuous professional development. In the majority of countries, in-service education in ICT is part of a national programme to initiate, develop and improve the use of ICT by teachers. Most of these specific projects provide courses for teachers for all three levels of education. In Denmark, there are separate programmes specifically aimed at teachers working in compulsory education and those working at upper secondary level. The United Kingdom (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and Hungary provide special projects for teachers working at lower secondary level (Delhaxhe, 2004, p. 50)
The question of whether individual teachers are able to develop ICT capabilities is addressed by Lieberg and Morgan, who write that ‘it is very difficult for teachers on their own to develop and implement pedagogical use of digital media in the classroom.’ The 2003 European Schoolnet review of studies of ICT impact on schools in Europe also includes findings on the impact of ICTs on teachers and teaching. It reports increased enthusiasm, efficiency and collaboration. Yet, while teachers’ basic ICT skills have increased dramatically, ‘their poor ICT competence, low motivation and lack of confidence in using new technologies in teaching are significant determinants of their levels of engagement in ICT. These are directly related to the quality and quantity of teacher training programmes’ (Balanskat, Blamire & Kefala, 2006, p. 6) The northern European countries have been very successful in promoting ICT skills among teachers. For example, the interactive conference ‘Technology in Education’ is the largest conference on ICT in education in Northern Europe. It takes place in Finland, and some 1,000 to 1,500 participants meet at this conference annually since 1990 to promote ICT skills and competencies among teachers in all areas of education. The conference is organized by the Summer University of Hame, in collaboration with the University of Tampere, HAMK University of Applied Sciences, the Finnish Ministry of Education, the Finnish National Board of Education, the union of class teachers, and a pedagogical subject organization which works for
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the advancement of mathematics and natural sciences in Finnish society. Versatile workshop-days, common lectures, forums and studios precede the conference each year. The quality of available hardware and software is yet another issue that needs to be adequately addressed. The differences in quality—and cost—between opensource software developed in the public domain and software developed by private sector enterprises is quite large. An earlier Danish study acknowledges that ‘the development of educational software and digital educational resources’ in small nations is an ‘area for governmental attention and economic support’ because ‘the size of the commercial market in Denmark is too small to raise risk capital for development of quality digital educational resources’ (Lieberg & Morgan, 1997). As the above discussion suggests, there are many crucial but very different issues around ICTs in TVET that require attention. The chapters in this section address the issues laid out in this introductory chapter (Chapter XI.1) as well as other topics and explore them in greater depth.
4 Overview of the Contributions XI.2 The Pedagogical Framework for On-Line Learning, by Shyamal Majumdar The section starts out with a detailed analysis of the characteristics of on-line education from an epistemological and pedagogical perspective by Shyamal Majumdar. Majumdar suggests a conceptual framework for on-line learning based on cooperative/collaborative learning strategies. He also discusses innovative ways to design on-line courses to enhance creativity and critical thinking processes, and argues that there is an urgent need to shift pedagogy from instructivist to constructivist, behavioural to cognitive, didactic to facilitative, and learner centred to learning team centred to meet the demand of the on-line learner of the new millennium.
XI.3 A Short Method for Building Web-Based Teaching and Learning Systems: the CPSC Experience, by Myong Hee Kim and Man-Gon Park Myong Hee Kim and Man-Gon Park describe in Chapter XI.3 a method for building web-based teaching and learning systems, as is in use at the Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Education (CPSC) in Manila, Philippines. CPSC uses e-learning to foster skills development to leverage emerging technologies in education. Kim and Park examine issues of design, implementation and maintenance of e-teaching and learning systems. They also address the benefits and advantages of the e-learning system developed and used by CPSC.
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XI.4 ICT Application in TVET, by Boris Kotsik, Natalia Tokareva, France Boutin and Chris Chinien In Chapter XI.4, Kotsik, Tokareva, Boutin and Chinien discuss issues of policy development concerning the implementation of ICT-mediated teaching and learning in TVET. They introduce a vision, mission, goals and strategies and provide an overview of pedagogical considerations for successful ICT usage in TVET.
XI.5 Technology and Leadership on the Fourth Wave of Environmental Changes with Ubiquitous Technology, by Man-Gon Park As mentioned previously in this chapter, information and communication are becoming ubiquitous. Man-Gon Park describes in Chapter XI.5 how ubiquitous computing, which maximizes computer utilization by embedding programmable chips throughout the physical environment, will become pervasive and will form the invisible computational infrastructure of our lives. Park argues that the technological changes based on ubiquitous technology lead to emergent needs for innovation in human resources development training institutions with technology leadership in Asia and the Pacific.
XI.6 Knowledge Workforce Development for ComputerSupported Collaborative Work Environments, by Man-Gon Park and Myong Hee Kim Building on what is described in Chapter XI.5, in Chapter XI.6 Man-Gon Park and Myong Hee Kim discuss the scenarios and needs for knowledge workforce development for computer-supported collaborative work environments (CSCW) with particular reference to knowledge workforce mobility and the opening up of the labour markets across the Asia-Pacific Region. The new form of collaborative work in digital work places with emphasis on multicultural environments sets new dimensions for workers and multinational organizations/corporations.
XI.7 The Role of ICTs and TVET in Rural Development and Poverty Alleviation, by Chiranjib Kumar Basu and Shyamal Majumdar In Chapter XI.7, Shyamal Majumdar returns as co-author with Chiranjib Kumar Basu to examine the role of open and distance learning (ODL) in TVET in rural development and poverty alleviation. Information and knowledge are critical
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components of poverty alleviation strategies, and ODL offers the promise of easy access to huge amounts of information useful to the poor. However, Basu and Majumdar point out that ICT alone is not a sufficient condition to produce optimal outcomes, until and unless it works under wider development strategies for rural development. Equitable access, meaningful use, social appropriation of ICT resources and people’s participation in the development project are all necessary to take advantage of available opportunities and achieve positive results. International and national technical and financial support need to be substantially augmented to build human and knowledge capital as well as infrastructure in the twenty-first century and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
XI.8 Switched on: International Approaches to Skills Development through ICTs, by Maja Zarini As the specialized agency of the United Nations that contributes to peace and security by promoting international collaboration in education, science and culture, UNESCO has a major role in promoting ICTs to achieve Education for All and to narrow the gap between those with regular, effective access to digital and information technology, and those without this access. In this context, in chapter 8, Maja Zarini examines international approaches to fostering ICTs in TVET on global and regional levels, with particular reference to the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training—UNESCO’s specialized centre for TVET. UNESCO-UNEVOC’s activities particularly focus on strengthening and upgrading the worldwide UNEVOC Network by sharing best practice and knowledge in the field of TVET.
XI.9 VOCED: The International Research Database on Vocational Education and Training, by Miriam Saunders and Radhika Naidu In the academic world, people are currently in the process of converting paper libraries into electronic libraries and making these accessible to the entire world via the Internet. Besides general libraries, all kinds of data in many forms will thus become accessible worldwide. In that regard, Chapter XI.9 introduces a very useful TVET research tool: VOCED, a free, international database of research abstracts for TVET with a special focus on Australia and the Asia-Pacific Region. It is an extensive database that contains nearly 30,000 English-language records, many with links to full-text documents. VOCED is produced by the Australian National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) and supported by the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training.
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XI.10 What are the Limits of ICTs and Media in the Delivery of TVET? An Australian Focus, by Peter Kearns In the following chapters, the papers discuss the growing interaction between ICTs and teaching and learning processes in TVET in a national context. In the case of Australia, the adoption of ICTs and media to improve quality and accessibility to TVET programmes has rapidly accelerated since 2000. In Chapter XI.10, Peter Kearns discusses the Australian Flexible Learning Framework, a collaborative, national strategy to address barriers to ICTs in TVET. Kearns expects that, in the future, TVET in Australia will be a system where flexible vocational learning occurs in many contexts with technology a key tool of learning, and that demand-side pressures are likely to drive an acceleration of the pace of technology-enabled flexible learning strategies in TVET.
XI.11 Education System Profile: South Africa, by Tracey Wallace What is South Africa’s position on using ICTs to address inequities in its education system? The development of ICTs in the South African education system, with particular reference to policy and financing measures that drive ICT educational plans and delivery, are discussed in Chapter XI.11. Tracey Wallace here looks at key initiatives in e-education by the South African government, international donor agencies and industry and the private sector.
XI.12 Integrating TVET with Open and Distance Learning: Taking Skills Training to the Doorstep, by Vinay Swarup Mehrotra and Avant Kumar Sacheti The various delivery mechanisms for continuing TVET and the possibility of their integration into a comprehensive TVET system in India are discussed in Chapter XI.12. Mehrotra and Sacheti argue that the productivity and quality of the Indian workforce can be enhanced through the provision of appropriate opportunities, adequate resources, student support systems, adequate funding and an enabling environment in open and distance education.
XI.13 Distance Education: The State of the Art in Career and Technical Education, by Christopher J. Zirkle In the final chapter of this section, Zirkle provides an insight into many crucial issues related to distance education in career and technical education (CTE: education that prepares youth and adults for successful careers), particularly in the context of the United States. His discussion includes the benefits and challenges, the types
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of educational research conducted, and the use of distance education in career and technical education. Zirkle also presents recommendations for the further use of distance education in CTE.
References Balanskat, A.; Blamire, R.; Kefala, S. 2006. The ICT Impact Report: a review of studies of ICT impact on schools in Europe. Brussels: European Communities. Butcher, N. 2003. Technological infrastructure and use of ICT in education in Africa: an overview. Phoenix, Mauritius: ADEA Working Group on Distance Education and Open Learning. Delhaxhe, A. 2004. Key data on information and communication technology in schools in Europe, 2004 ed. Brussels: EURYDICE. <www.eurydice.org/ressources/eurydice/pdf/048EN/ 011.pdf> Finch, C.R.; Crunkilton, J.R. 1999. Curriculum development in vocational and technical education. Toronto, Canada: Allyn & Bacon. Haddad, W.D.; Draxler, A. 2002. Technologies for education. Paris: UNESCO; Washington, DC: Academy for Educational Development. Heppell, S. 2000. The online learning revolution in schools and beyond. In: Lucas, B.; Greany, T., eds. Schools in the learning age, pp. 51–56. London: Campaign of Learning. International Telecommunication Union—ITU. 2007. World Information Society Report 2007: beyond WSIS [Electronic version]. <www.itu.int/> Keegan, V. 2000. Divide and rule out. Guardian Unlimited Net News, 14 December. Lieberg, S.; Morgan, J. 1997. Information and communication technologies in the Danish school system: a state of art evaluation in 6 areas of government action. Copenhagen: Ministry of Education. <eng.uvm.dk//publications/14ict/> UNESCO; ILO. 2002. Revised Recommendation concerning Technical and Vocational Education (2001). Paris: UNESCO; Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Wilson, D.N. 2001. Reform of TVET for the changing world of work. Prospects: quarterly review of comparative education, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 21–37. Wikipedia. No date. Web 2.0. <en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web 2.0>
Chapter XI.2
The Pedagogical Framework for On-Line Learning Shyamal Majumdar
1 Introduction The development of new broadband communication services, the convergence of telecommunication with computers and recent developments in the field of communication protocols have fostered numerous proposals for the use of these tools to aid the teaching and learning environment. The integration of computers and communications offers unprecedented opportunities to education systems with their capacity to integrate and interact with each other over a wide geographic distance in a meaningful way to achieve instructional objectives. The growth of these communication and computer systems, their ease of use, and the power and diversity of information transfer allow teachers and students to have access to a world beyond the classroom. This has the potential to transform the nature and process of the learning environment (Majumdar, 1997). Recent advances in technology, from distributed to interactive and finally to collaborative technology through the Internet and World Wide Web connectivity, encourage the development of a new teaching environment and a paradigm shift in the learning process. The link between distance learning and telecommunications is becoming even stronger, yielding new solutions to old problems, innovative educational resources and new teaching/learning models. One of the most innovative and promising outcomes of this relationship is on-line education. It is a process whereby teachers and learners are linked up in a computer network to create a fully-fledged learning community in which all individuals play an active part and make a valuable contribution to the group. The educational arena of on-line learning is still in its infancy. While there are many institutions that are offering on-line courses, an in-depth understanding of the pedagogical issues related to on-line education remains an unexplored frontier. Many on-line courses are nothing but web pages combined with e-mail and chat rooms without any pedagogical foundation. Most of the current use of on-line education transfers traditional classroom instructions to on-line settings, recasting reading materials into web-based materials that rely on information acquisition and rote learning. Both reflect low-level learning experiences.
R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XI.2, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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While literature provides some evidence of the effectiveness of using on-line education (Kearsley, Lynch & Wizer, 1995), little is known about which learning strategies should be used for which type of education and training. How should one construct these electronic teaching and learning environments so that they are based on specific epistemologies or knowledge bases? What is an appropriate pedagogical framework for on-line learning? This chapter discusses the characteristics of on-line education from epistemological and pedagogical perspectives, and suggests a conceptual framework for on-line learning based on co-operative/collaborative learning strategies. It also discusses innovative ways to design on-line courses to enhance creativity and critical-thinking processes.
2 Distance Education and On-Line Learning Over the past century, the steady evolution in communication technology has considerably influenced the parallel development of distance education (DE) systems. The first generation of DE consisted largely of correspondence courses based on printed material where interactions between the teacher and the learner were few and far between. Distribution technology was the foundation of this generation, which supported the instruction-centred approach, along with information transfer learning objectives. The underlying pedagogical assumption was the transfer of information, rather than interpreting or changing it. Second-generation DE systems incorporated various media such as television, audio recordings and, in some cases, courseware delivered on a floppy disc. Teacher and learner interaction remained virtually unaltered from the first generation, even if supported by telephone, fax and the like. Interactive technology was the foundation for this generation, allowing the learner to progress at his or her own pace towards the goal of skill acquisition. The underlying pedagogical assumptions were based on the learner-centred approach—to interpret information and not merely to receive it. Thus, first-generation and secondgeneration DE systems were based primarily on the production and distribution of learning materials. Communication between learners was virtually non-existent and DE seemed to have been conceived merely to bridge geographical distance. Hence, education was no longer seen as a social activity centred on learner-to-learner interaction, but rather as an almost totally individual pursuit (Trentin, 1997). There was hardly anything that would differentiate DE from self-study. This is known as one-to-one or one-to-many relational and is depicted in Figure 1. The driving force beyond the development of third-generation DE systems is the re-definition of learning as a social activity involving extensive use of the computer network. In DE terminology, the third-generation system is known as on-line education or network-based education. In this environment, all the actors in the learning process—learners, tutors and experts—are connected via computer networks to overcome isolation, enhance group interactivity and promote collective development. Collaborative technology is the foundation of this generation, which supports
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Fig. 1 One-to-one or one-to-many relational
the learning objectives of mental model change in conjunction with learning-teamcentred education. The learning-team-centred approach creates an environment in which knowledge emerges and is shared through the collaboration of individuals within learning teams. This is known as many-to-many relations and is illustrated in Figure 2. Kaufman (1989) sums up these three generations as a progressive increase in learner control, opportunities for dialogue and emphasis on thinking skills, rather than mere comprehension. More significantly, this progression is leading to new types of educational organization. Figure 3 illustrates increasing degrees of collaboration across three generations of DE.
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Fig. 3 Technology, learning objectives and instructional models in three generations of distance education Source: Lotus Development Corporation, 1996.
3 The Pedagogical Framework The on-line educational environment can be developed based on two main schools of thought: the objectivist/objectivism versus constructivist/constructivism learning theories. Based on these approaches, two types of on-line learning environments can be created.
3.1 On-Line Learning Based on Objectivism In these learning environments, the student(s), by way of computer-mediated communication, learn as individuals by interacting with web-based instructional materials stored at remote locations, while maintaining a minimum interaction with instructors/teachers and peers. As shown in Figure 4, ‘student-A’ and ‘student-B’ who are at distant places, interact, using their own computers, with the web-based instructional material stored and delivered by the instructor from a remote place in an on-line learning environment. This type of on-line learning environment is based on behavioural psychology, where a student is presented with information, which they repeat back to the teacher (reproduction). It is based on a learner’s behaviour corresponding to a particular kind of stimulus that can be modified by rewards and punishments (Inglis, 1996). The design is aimed at developing an on-line learning environment that is a planned, structured, guided but often-rigorous study course involving tasks for individual reflection and problem-solving. These planned courses have learning objectives, methods, materials and evaluation schemes defined by the tutor himself/herself. As far as the nature and authority of knowledge of the learner is concerned, the learner individually undertakes and completes the task. This learning is based on the indi-
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vidual construction of knowledge and reproduction rather than on social processes. It is based on the idea that there is a body of objective knowledge that can be delivered to learners through presentation and explanation. Today’s on-line learning is dominated by the behaviourist school of thought and the use/role of technology is a substitute for the teacher in the delivery of instruction. Most current use of the on-line learning environment transfers traditional classroom instruction to on-line settings, recasting reading into web-based materials, lectures into on-line lecture notes or video clips and discussion into on-line conferencing (Bourne et al., 1997). This is basically nothing more than an Internet-based correspondence course, which relies on information acquisition and reflects only low-level learning. The on-line learning environment based on objectivism suffers from a number of disadvantages (Mangal, 1990), as it does not encourage learners to acquire higherorder complex skills, like creative skill, problem-solving, designing and decisionmaking abilities and the construction of knowledge through social interaction. For this reason, it has been subject to criticism, modification and refinement in a number of ways by contemporary psychologists, such as constructivists.
3.2 On-Line Learning Based on Constructivism Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) can be understood as an emerging phenomenon of on-line education that provides frameworks to bring the individual learners together in a group, to achieve a shared learning goal by way of
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managing their learning process. The constructivist school of thought is considered as the base of the CSCL environment. A CSCL environment can be illustrated as in Figure 5, where ‘student-A’, ‘student-B’, ‘student-C’ and ‘student-D’, who are situated at geographically distant places, collaborate, analyse and synthesize in a group with asynchronous and synchronous communication tools. Such learning is based on a web-based curricula and it works as a shared learning space to achieve a shared learning goal of learners using their own computers. Here, learners work together to construct knowledge with peers. Such collaborative learning environments help develop complex skills, like creative skills, problem-solving, designing and decision-making abilities in the learner (McDonald & Gibson, 1998). Constructivism can be considered as a worldview or ontology that is based on a set of learning theories falling somewhere between cognitive and humanistic views. To create an effective learning environment from this ontology, an epistemology can be formed which can help to explain how knowledge is formed. The constructivist theory holds that knowledge has to be discovered, con-
Fig. 5 On-line learning based on constructivism
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structed, practised and validated by each learner, such that learning involves ‘active struggling by the learner’. The cognitive psychologists totally oppose the stimulus/response and reward/punishment approach of the behaviourists. They maintain that there is something more to learning and behaving than just giving single responses to stimuli. The human mind does not accept information from its environment in exactly the same form and style as it is conveyed to it but explores, interacts and reflects with it, to construct knowledge from experience. Pedagogical methods using constructivist approaches include collaborative learning; it creates learning situations that enable learners to engage in active exploration and social collaboration. Passive approaches to learning assume that students ‘learn’ by receiving and assimilating knowledge individually, independent from other students (Johnson, 1979). In contrast, active approaches present learning as a social process, which takes place through communication with others. The learners actively construct knowledge by formulating ideas into words, and these ideas are built upon through the reactions and responses of others. Collaborative learning refers to instructional methods that seek to encourage learners to work together on a given academic task. Collaborative learning is fundamentally different from traditional ‘direct transfer’ or one-way knowledge transmission model, in which the instructor is the only source of knowledge and skills (Harasim, 1990). The conversation (verbalizing), multiple perspectives (cognitive restructuring) and arguments (conceptual conflict resolution) that arise in co-operative groups may explain why collaborative groups lead to greater cognitive development than that achieved by the same individuals when working alone (Sharon, 1980; Webb, 1989). It is believed that constructing knowledge requires teaching and learning strategies and an environment that present learners with knowledge-building structures. There are three distinct viewpoints of the constructivist epistemology: a personality view; the social point of view; and academic modes of knowing (Joyee & Weib, 1996). Each of these views provides important frameworks for the design and development of on-line courses. The personality view focuses on the students and their interaction. It focuses on individual personality within the context and assists individuals with understanding themselves and their relationship to the world. The social point of view centres on students constructing knowledge together. This framework establishes that knowledge-building is based on the social processes provided by the context. The academic modes of knowing, also known as the academic inquiry view, centre on the academic disciplines. This view starts from the idea that the function of schooling is to provide students with the academic tool-sets to assist them with constructing knowledge. Information-processing theory (Lange, 1965) provided a good framework for the use of academic tool sets. In constructivism, learning is seen as a constructive process in which learners play an active role and learning is based on their cognitive functioning. The learners obtain new knowledge by constructing it on the basis of their earlier knowledge, upon their active functioning in continuous interaction with the surrounding reality, and from other learners. Based on the constructivist theories of learning, the on-line education environment can be designed assuming that learners themselves are active learning agents and that they will use social skills in undertaking and completing the group tasks.
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One of the limitations of this environment is that ‘it does not always produce predictable learning outcomes’. The facilitators should foster the constructive process of the learner and not attempt to closely control the process or result. The process of instruction and role of instructor should be like a ‘guide to discovered knowledge’, providing expert feedback during construction of knowledge through structured collaborative learning tasks. The learners themselves will control the thread of the learning process. As far as the nature and authority of knowledge of the learner is concerned, the learners in groups, using their social and team skills based on their experiences, undertake and complete the task.
3.3 On-Line Learning Based on an Eclectic Pedagogical Approach To ensure a uniform and predictable learning outcome in the CSCL environment based on constructive pedagogy, an eclectic andragogical/pedagogical approach has been suggested. In this model, most appropriate aspects of both constructivist and behaviourist perspectives have been used in the learning context. This type of learning, based on the eclectic andragogical/pedagogical approach postulated from the two approaches, will minimize the transactional distance as propagated by Moore & Kearsley (1996), accommodating learners with multiple learning styles, as well as learners who are not at a state of readiness for fully self-directed learning. This approach assumes that learners will learn 50% by themselves and 50% by collaboration with others. Again, the collaborative learning includes both synchronous and asynchronous learning components. However, much emphasis will be on the asynchronous component due to its inherent strengths of ‘anytime/anywhere’ learning. Synchronous interactions happen in real time, when learner and instructor are on-line at the same time in direct contact. In contrast, asynchronous interactions take place at the convenience of learners and teachers. The key feature of asynchronous learning is ‘anytime/anywhere’ learning utilizing the conferencing facilities of the web. It may result in both immediate and delayed feedback. Immediate feedback happens when the programme automatically links documents. On the other hand, delayed interaction occurs due to the time required for the other learner to respond to list servers, forum and e-mail messages. Synchronous interactions require a set of tools that enable learners to see, hear and share applications across the Internet. Complex topics can be explained directly using tools such as white boards, Internet relay chat, audio and video conferencing. Figure 6 illustrates this approach. Various theorists from socio-cultural to situated learning have stressed the importance of social interactions. It has been observed that ‘students do not like to work alone, they like to share ideas with each other’ (Chu et al., 1999). This strength of social interaction (learning) in the form of collaborative learning and on-line learning had traditionally been difficult to incorporate into on-line learning programmes for learners at geographically distant places. But today, the collaborative/groupware tools can be used for social negotiation and group learning, enabling learners in group learning to interact with more capable peers. Learning is distributed in an environment and among the learners. Knowledge arises from a community of learn-
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SELF LEARNING (50%)
Self-learning courseware
Presentation/ announcement
LEARNING WITH OTHERS (50%)
Asynchronous conferencing component
Synchronous conferencing component
Fig. 6 Learning components based on the proposed eclectic model
ers who interact together. Students actively learning in co-operative groups have demonstrated an ability to generate higher-level reasoning strategies, greater diversity of ideas, more critical thinking and increased creative responses as compared to those learning individually or competitively (Schlechter, 1990). A variety of socio-psychological mechanisms make collaborative learning effective. They include: (a) conflict or disagreement; (b) the alternative proposal; (c) (self)-explanation; (d) internalization; (e) appropriation; (f) shared cognitive load; (g) mutual regulation; and (h) social grounding (Dillenberg & Schneider, 1995). These expressions are briefly explained below. The conflict between learners postulates that, when disagreement occurs between peers, social factors prevent learners from ignoring conflict and oblige them to find a solution. The alternative proposal, referred to as the ‘confirmation biases’ subject, tends to design only experiments that confirm their hypotheses and to disregard any empirical finding that contradicts their hypotheses. (Self)-explanation occurs when a more knowledgeable peer explains a topic to another. One receives an explanation and other benefits by articulating and integrating various pieces of knowledge. Internalization is the process of learning by verbalizing in a conversation. Appropriation occurs as one learns from watching and working with a more skilled partner: apprenticeship is a form of appropriation. The shared cognitive load is the sharing of the cognitive burden between learners implied by the task. Mutual regulation is the way of regulating partner’s activities. Social grounding is the mechanism by which an individual attempts to maintain the belief that his/her partner has understood what he/she meant, at least to an extent, which is sufficient to carry out the task at hand. Group composition, task features and communication media play important roles in implementing collaborative learning effectively. It has been argued (Harasim, 1990) that the collaborative potential of computer conferencing enables learners to engage actively in their own knowledge building or knowledge creation in three ways: idea generation, idea linking and idea structuring. The four fundamental features of collaborative learning are: 1. Learning centred on student activities rather than being teacher focused. 2. An emphasis on students assisting each other to find answers to areas of common inquiry.
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3. Learning based on the solving of problems by analysis and discussion by learner groups. 4. An emphasis to promote creative and critical thinking. But the question is: do we follow the collaborative dimension of the above framework when designing web courses? Are our strategies on the web enhancing learnercreative processes, critical thinking and problem-solving skills? Do we exploit all the inherent capacity of conferencing facilities offered by the Web? However, simply making on-line conferencing available and asking learners to use it does not constitute collaborative learning. Developing on-line course material for enhancing creativity requires more than an understanding of hard technology, i.e. bits and bytes, electronics and satellite, search engines or html. What we need to understand is the soft aspect of the technology that provides a framework to develop courses on the Web to enhance creativity in collaborative environment. A framework for a pedagogical technique for computer-mediated communication has been organized into four communication paradigms. The paradigms are information retrieval, electronic mail, bulletin boards and computer conferencing. They have been further classified into four classes of techniques as characterized below (Paulsen, 1995): 1. One-alone techniques: the on-line resources paradigm—on-line database, online journals, on-line libraries and on-line application. 2. One-to-one techniques: the e-mail paradigm—learning contracts, apprenticeships, internships and correspondence studies. 3. One-to-many techniques: the bulletin board paradigm—lectures, symposia and skits. 4. Many-to-many techniques: the conferencing paradigm—debates, role-plays, discussion groups, brainstorming, forums, transcript-based assignments, etc. Most of the on-line courses utilize the first three classes of technique, ignoring the many-to-many techniques, which is the core of a collaborative learning environment. Some of the key co-operative learning techniques include (Harasim, 1990, 1995):
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Partner activities and round-robin table: sharing and summarizing ideas through e-mail; Asynchronous conferencing: discussion and reflection through the bulletin board; Synchronous conferencing: real-time conferencing through relay chat, net meetings and video conferencing tools; Group investigation: selection of a topic by the group, exploring individually and then compiling collectively; Project-based learning: learning through project planning and development in a team; Other activities: panel discussions, symposia, debates, role-plays, discussion groups, brain-storming and team competition in a group, etc.
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4 Creative Thinking on the Web Researchers such as Davis (1992), Perkins (1986) and de Bono (1982) have championed instructional techniques that address students’ divergent or creative thinking. The on-line environment has provided a large array of tools and environments to implement instructional techniques that address the students’ divergent or creative thinking. Web-browsing software now exists to explore and search, find patterns and relationships, rank ideas, view results and send findings to peers and instructor. Apparently, the Web is an ideal tool to nurture the students’ willingness to take risks, their commitment to tasks, curiosity, openness to experience, broad interest, originality, imaginative play, intuition, attraction to novelty, artistic ability, metaphorical thinking, problem-finding, elaboration of ideas and breaking away from the norm—all of which are attributes of creative people (Davis, 1992; Starko, 1995; Young, 1985). The anonymity of pen names and pseudo roles during electronic discussions encourages students’ ideas about experimentation and risk-taking disclosures (Harasim, 1995). Some of the suggested techniques to enhance creativity in the electronic environment on the Web are as follows.
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Brainstorming and reverse brainstorming: focus on idea generation; Assigning thinking roles: anyone in the round-table is assigned a role; Creative writings: one starts writing, another expands the idea; Just suppose: ‘just suppose you are education minister’—what would your priority be?; Idea-spurring questions: provide suggestions to modify and improve; Semantic webbing: give a word in the middle of a semantic map; suggest attributes related to the concept; Simulation and role-play: role-play in a simulated environment.
It has been observed that discussion and interaction under asynchronous conferencing in a different time and a different place tend to be more extended and engaging for the learners than those in a traditional environment. Learners can reflect their opinion in a more relaxed way and in their own convenient time, which creates a congenial environment for creative reflection.
5 Critical Thinking on the Web Critical thinking is reasonable; it is reflective thinking that focuses on deciding what to believe or what to do. Learners learn to look at a concept or phenomenon being aware of their own biases and approach the situation objectively and logically. Creative thinking, on the other hand, is the ability to form new combinations of ideas to fulfil a need or to understand a specific natural occurrence. Despite extensive divergent thinking avenues, enhancing critical thinking pathways may be an equally strong dimension of the Web. Some of the emergent ideas on critical thinking for the Web are:
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Graphic organizer: emphasizing a spatial representation-like model, Venn diagram, etc. (This facilitates critical thinking by helping the learner to sort out the hierarchy and logical flow of ideas.) Ranking methods: to rank and categorize brainstorming ideas. Reflection: writing, to think, activities for reflection and critical evaluation. Mock trial and debate: encourage people to come-up with arguments. Case-based reasoning: case studies and comments.
Any activity that encompasses the search for cause and effect, finding patterns and relationships, ranking ideas, developing timeliness, building taxonomies, etc., is a worthwhile exercise of critical thought (Bonk & Reynolds, 2001). On the Web, there are plenty of opportunities to enhance cause-and-effect relationships by using simulation and animation programmes in Web/computer-based training packages.
6 Major Types of Web Delivery There are a variety of ways in which courses can be delivered in the Web environment. They are Web/computer-based training (W/CBT), Web/electronic performance support system (W/EPSS), Web/virtual asynchronous classroom (W/VAC) and Web/virtual synchronous classroom (W/VSC). Selecting the most appropriate Web-based training method is a complex task. It requires a careful analysis of purpose, type, characteristics of learning and level of interaction therein. Without these analyses, the efficacy of Web-based education will be in serious doubt, however sophisticated the presentation may be! Designing Web-based instruction (WBI) requires consideration of many factors. The easiest means to evaluate are practical considerations, such as the need to restructure existing course materials, the limitations imposed by financial considerations and the boundaries created by technical infrastructures. These factors are relatively straightforward to identify and plan for. The more challenging factors to consider are learning outcomes, the roles of instruction and types of interaction available in WBI. Web/CBT and Web/EPSS systems tend to maximize time, pace and place flexibility for both learner and facilitator, but are relatively static in content and learning approach. Web/EPSS provides practical knowledge and problem-solving skills in a just-in-time format. Web/VAC provides time and pace flexibility by allowing participants to give considered responses at a time that suits them so that they employ non-real-time experiential tasks, discussions and team projects. Web/VSC is collaborative learning in real-time, which allows somewhat less time, pace and place flexibility. It is, however, more dynamic and flexible in its ability to respond to individuals and group learning needs as learning progresses. It uses discussions, problem-solving and reflection. The types of Web-based training and their characteristics and descriptions are summarized in Table 1. Taking decisions on the appropriate methods needs a close and careful observation of learner needs and matching the choice with each delivery. Designing lessons
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Table 1 Characteristics of Web-based training types Types
Descriptions
Characteristics
Web/computer-based training
Individual learning that features drill and practice, tutorials and simulation Just-in-time training focused on problem-solving, scientific method, experiential method Non-real time group learning that employs team-based activity and discussions Real-time group learning that uses discussions, problem-solving and reflection
Self-paced, individual learning, suited for highly structured problems Just-in-time, learner determined, suited for ill-structured problems Group learning, different time and different place, suited for semi-structured problems Group learning, fixed time and suited for ill-structured problems
Web/electronic performance support systems Web/virtual asynchronous classroom Web/virtual synchronous classroom
on the Web requires a systematic analysis and mixture of WBT strategies in appropriate proportions.
7 Guiding Principles There are several guiding principles for designing effective on-line learning. These include:
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The present problem-based learning environment; The present authentic and realistic tasks; Focusing on the construction of knowledge; Promoting active learning; Using multimedia effectively. Mixing appropriate instructional strategies; Designing appropriate structured discussions; Presenting contextual learning environments; Focusing on learning in groups.
The role of a student in an on-line environment is that of a learner, as well as that of a collaborator and a team member. There is a paradigm shift in educational practice (Majumdar, 1999) when teaching and learning take place in a network environment and knowledge explosion. Whereas learning through facts, drills and practices, rules and procedures was more adaptive in earlier days, learning through projects and problems, inquiry and design, discovery and invention, creativity and diversity, action and reflection is more fitting for the present times. So there is a need to develop a conceptual framework on the pedagogical dimensions of on-line learning based on collaborative learning strategies. For this purpose, desirable shifts required in each of the pedagogical dimensions of on-line learning are presented in Table 2.
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Dimensions
Undesirable
Desirable
Pedagogical base Learning focus Learning strategies Learning goal Learning theory Teacher role Delivery modes Learning approaches Learning structures Instructional models Learning objectives Learning methods
Instructive model Content Solely interactive External controlled Behavioural Didactic Fixed Surface Rigid Instructor centred Information transfer Passive
Eclectic model based on constructivism Learning to learn Collaborative and interactive Autonomous Cognitive Facilitative Open Deep Flexible/modular Learning team centred Mental model change Active
8 Implications and Future Direction The way a learner learns in on-line settings is yet to be extensively studied. Designing and developing effective on-line courses requires a new approach to various pedagogical dimensions of the on-line environment. It requires knowledge of: (a) new media from communications research; (b) the pedagogical perspective from educational research; and (c) group interaction from social psychological research. Each of these can be adapted, applied and integrated to help explain what happens and why in on-line classes (Coppala, Hiltz & Rotter, 1999). An instructional designer using on-line collaborative learning must integrate increased group work, work-based learning and problem-solving to encourage higher-order thinking. Given the endless possibilities for higher-order thinking (Majumdar, 2000) and teamwork, there is perhaps no debate that the World Wide Web has the power to generate novel learning strategies which will eventually be embedded in cognitive, social and cultural contexts. If on-line courses are designed incorporating the desired changes in pedagogical dimensions, the difference between teaching and training on the Web and traditional methods can be profound. Let us work together in that direction with the ultimate goal of developing TVET for a knowledge-based society.
References Bonk, J.C.; Reynolds, H.T. 2001. Learner-centered web instruction for higher-order thinking, teamwork and apprenticeship: web-based instruction. In: Khan, B.H., ed. Educational technology publications, pp. 167–78. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Erlbaum. Bourne, J.R. et al. 1997. Paradigms for on-line learning: a case study in the design and implementation of an asynchronous learning networks course. Journal of asynchronous learning networks, vol. 1, no. 2. Chu, K.C. et al. 1999. The benefits of virtual teaching to engineering education. The international journal of engineering education, vol. 15, no. 5, pp. 334–38. Coppala. N.; Hiltz, S.R.; Rotter, N. 1999. Becoming a virtual professor: pedagogical changes and ALN. (Paper presented at the fifth International Conference on ALN, University of Maryland, October 1999.) <www.hicss.hawaii.edu/HICSS 34/PDFs/CLALN01.pdf>
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Davis, G.A. 1992. Creativity is forever, 3rd ed. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing. De Bono, E. 1982. De Bono’s course in thinking. New York, NY: Facts on File. Dillenberg, P.; Schneider, D. 1995. Collaborative learning in the Internet. (Paper presented at the fourth International Conference on Computer-Assisted Instruction, Hsinchu, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, 7–10 March 1995.) Harasim, L. 1990. On-line education: perspective on a new environment. New York, NY: Praeger/Greenwood. Harasim, L. et al. 1995. Learning networks: a field guide to teaching and learning on-line. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Inglis, A. 1996. Theories of learning in educational development: relocating the paradigmatic divide. Open learning, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 28–37. Johnson, D.W. 1979. Conflict in a classroom: controversy and learning. Educational research, vol. 49, pp. 51–70. Joyee, B.; Weib, M. 1996. Models of teaching. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Kaufman, D. 1989. Third generation course design in distance education. In: Sweet, R., ed. Postsecondary distance education in Canada: policies, practices and priorities. Athabasca, Canada: Athabasca University/Canadian Society for Studies in Education. Kearsley, G.; Lynch, W.; Wizer, D. 1995. The effectiveness and impact of on-line learning in graduate education. Educational technology, vol. 35, no. 6, pp. 37–42. Lange, R. 1965. The conditions of learning. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Lotus Development Corporation. 1996. White Paper on distributed learning: approaches, technologies and solutions. <www2.lotus.com/education.nsf> McDonald, J.; Gibson, C.C. 1998. Interpersonal dynamics and group development in computer conferencing. The American journal of distance education, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 6–21. Majumdar, S. 1997. Network based flexible learning: prospects and challenges in the 21st century. In: Lasonen, J., ed. IVETA ’97 conference proceedings: the challenges of the 21st century for vocational education and training, pp. 347–352. Jyv¨askyl¨a, Finland: Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyv¨askyl¨a. Majumdar, S. 1999. On-line collaborative learning. In: Proceedings of the fifth UNESCO– ACEID International Conference on reforming learning curriculum and pedagogy: Innovative vision for the new century, Vol. 1, pp. 72–73. Bangkok, Thailand: UNESCO Bangkok Office. Majumdar, S. 2000. Designing web-based instruction to enhance creativity. (Paper presented at the International Conference on Technological Creativity Development, Taipei, Taiwan, 20–23 April 2000.) Mangal, S.K. 1990. General psychology. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers. Moore, M.G.; Kearsley, G. 1996. Distance education theory: a systems view. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Paulsen, M.F., ed. 1995. The on-line report on pedagogical techniques for computer-mediated communication. Oslo: NKI. <www.emoderators.com/moderators/cmcped.html> Perkins, D.N. 1986. Knowledge as design. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Schlechter, T.M. 1990. The relative instructional efficiency of small group computer-based training. Journal of educational computing research, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 329–41. Sharon, S. 1980. Co-operative learning in small groups: recent methods and effects on achievement, attitudes and ethnic relations. Review of educational research, vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 241–47. Starko, A.J. 1995. Creativity in the classroom: schools of curious delight. New York, NY: Longman. Trentin, A. 1997. Telematics and on-line teacher training: the POLARIES project. Journal of computer-assisted learning, vol. 13, pp. 261–70. Webb, N. 1989. Peer interaction and learning in small groups. International journal of educational research, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 21–29. Young, J.G. 1985. What is creativity? The journal of creative behavior, vol. 19, pp. 77–87.
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Chapter XI.3
A Short Method for Building Web-Based Teaching and Learning Systems: the CPSC Experience Myong Hee Kim and Man-Gon Park
1 Introduction Inevitably, the World Wide Web (hereafter Web) has become one of the fastestgrowing and most effective media for the delivery of distance education. It is widely chosen as a medium for both delivery and instruction, for it has proved to provide a more flexible learning environment that is not always possible via traditional classroom instruction. Recently, e-teaching and learning systems have become the most popular Web technology, providing the opportunity to learn at almost anytime, anywhere, at any age and at one’s own pace. It has always been a matter of concern for educators to find ways and means to enhance the teaching and learning process. The quest for using better tools and techniques for teaching and learning started from the use of traditional slate and chalk, charts, audio and video cassettes, manual or electronic teaching kits and is now reaching new heights through the use of information technology tools, such as computers, the Internet and Web-based multimedia (hypermedia). As a result, more and more efforts, internationally, regionally and locally, are being directed towards developing Web-based instructional systems that maximize the potentials of these information technology tools. Developing these systems to be operationally effective and efficient is of paramount importance to providing learners with the necessary tools to achieve the objectives of formal classroom instruction since, in the absence of face-to-face instruction, learners need greater instructional support and explicit directions in using Web-based instructional systems or on-line courses meaningfully. Thus, any individual or group that aims to ensure substantial learning among its target learners through Web-based teaching and learning systems needs to devote considerable attention to good course design. In the Web-based Teaching and Learning System (WTLS) for Technician Education developed by the Colombo Plan Staff College (CPSC), good system design is one of the topmost considerations. In this system, learners are given a study guide instead of lecture notes in the form of subject content placed on the Web. Questions and topics for discussion are linked to the system, so instead of having the learners merely browse superficially through the content, they become more engaged as they are obliged to actively process the content presented. Furthermore, answers to the R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XI.3, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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discussed tutorial questions are posted on-line. This instructional strategy encourages increased interaction between the learners and the WTLS. Besides the usual interactivity feature of learner control in the selection of content, sequence and pace, greater interactivity is introduced through the practice unit. The practice unit helps the learners to assess their comprehension and mastery of the content via immediate feedback and review through multiple-choice questions. Multiple-choice questions (MCQs) are included in each sub-topic. All the MCQs are stored in a database and are randomized whenever retrieved to generate dynamic pages. Each time learners submit their answers to the MCQs on-line, their responses are ‘captured’ under the same database for monitoring purposes and to provide the score. The lecturers can then view the output of the score on a Web page. With this feature, the learners receive on-line personalized feedback. Design is among the initial considerations in building a web-based teaching and learning system. There is more than just coming up with a good design if one desires to maintain an operational and successful system. In addition, this unique and innovative system should bring benefits and potential advantages for the CPSC member countries in the Asia and the Pacific Region.
2 The Design of E-Teaching and Learning Systems As one e-learning teacher put it: ‘When designing an e-course, one cannot be disorganized’. It is important that the e-teaching and learning system as a whole is pedagogically sound. Serious thought and consideration must be given to all of its aspects before it is employed to facilitate the learning of diverse groups of clientele around the globe. Technically, the design of an e-teaching and learning system usually consists of the following steps: basic components of the e-teaching and learning system; membership management; viewing contents with video-on-demand systems (VODs); e-boards; question-and-answer sessions; submitting assignments; and an on-line examination.
2.1 Basic Components of an E-Teaching and Learning System An e-teaching and learning system can be relatively complex. For a better understanding, the system is broken down into smaller components. These basic components are graphically presented in Figure 1. The basic components of an e-teaching and learning system include the following: 1. Courseware and Web documents as instructional materials produced from theme papers; 2. VOD (video-on-demand)/LOD (lecture-on-demand) or multimedia contents for on-line lectures;
XI.3 A Short Method for Building Web-Based Teaching and Learning Systems Courseware and Web documents for instructional materials Introduction
On-line guideline
VOD/LOD and multimedia contents
Assignment board
e-teaching and learning system
On-line evaluation
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On-line examination Question and answer board
Fig. 1 Basic components of an e-teaching and learning system
3. 4. 5. 6.
An assignment board; On-line examination in order to evaluate learners’ performance; Question-and-answer board for sharing knowledge and solving problems; An introduction that presents the background of the web-based e-teaching and learning system; 7. An on-line guideline showing learners how to explore the e-teaching and learning system; and 8. On-line evaluation for estimating students’ performance in a specific training course. The CPSC WTLS is divided into four groups: 1. General information, which consists of the welcome messages, on-line guide, programme book and acknowledgements; 2. Course interaction, which consists of the question-and-answer session, submitting assignments and on-line examination; 3. Instructional material, which consists of the special lectures and modules with VODs, theme papers and group/individual tasks; and 4. Student management, consisting of student information, the score achieved in tasks/projects and questions for on-line examination which undergoes add/ modify/delete processes as shown in Figure 2. All of these components are essential in providing effective and efficient training to the target learners while providing a venue for on-line interaction between instructor and learner or among the learners. Shown in Figure 3 is a sample Web page in the CPSC WTLS reflecting the structure presented in Figure 2. The arrangement of the elements is important for the convenience of using the system. The learner should find it easy to go from one page to another and back to the main page by right hyperlink. Through its e-teaching and learning system, CPSC continues to assist its member countries in acquiring the capabilities to exploit the emerging electronic technologies in teaching and learning. In the near future, CPSC hopes to gain a competitive advantage in delivering Web-based courses in the region. As the in-house
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Fig. 2 The various components of the CPSC WTLS
Fig. 3 Sample page in the CPSC WTLS
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capabilities of CPSC continue to grow and function, the Web-based programmes will become the standardized provision of CPSC.
2.2 The Membership Management The membership management system refers to the process of determining who will be given access in the use of the e-teaching and learning system. Before any interested persons can benefit from the system, they need to register. After registration, personal data is saved in a database. Only registered persons with their personal identity and password can access lectures with VODs, submit questions and answers or take the on-line examination. Figure 4 shows a sample of the registration form. It also presents the login/logout buttons.
Fig. 4 Registration form and log-in/log-out buttons
2.3 A View of the Contents with Video-on-Demand This is one of the most salient features of the CPSC WTLS. It presents theme papers and other instructional materials in an audio/video form so that learners can listen and watch the contents simultaneously. Figure 5 shows the outline of a theme paper presentation with VOD.
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Fig. 5 Outline of a theme paper presentation with VOD
The outline presented in Figure 5 serves as an advance organizer to the learners and provides them with easy access to the use of VODs. The VODs, on the other hand, are records of short lectures on various aspects of the contents of the theme papers. These VODs consist of the lecture screen to present instructional materials and the video screen to the display the lecturer’s face, as is shown in Figure 6. The short VODs are not tedious, so learners will not lose their concentration while listening to and watching the lectures.
2.4 E-Boards: For Questions and Answers and Assignments Since interaction is of great importance in the teaching and learning process, the e-board has been created to overcome the drawback of limited interaction between the instructors and the learners and among the learners themselves. Figure 7 illustrates this unique feature that provides an avenue for interaction through the use of an e-board. The e-board provides a forum for discussion among all the participants in the learning process and is accessible to all through the on-line question-andanswer activities. The e-board is also used to upload learners’ tasks or assignments, as is shown in Figure 8. After they finish them, learners can submit their assignments from anywhere that they happen to be, at a convenient time, and within the deadline set by the facilitator.
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Fig. 6 Lecture screen and video screeen of a VOD
Fig. 7 The use of the e-board for questions and answers
2.5 On-Line Examination The on-line examination comes in the form of a self-test, which determines how much knowledge and skills the learners have acquired from the training course. The score of learners in the on-line examination also reflects their general understanding of the subject matter. This feature is included to ensure an objective and accurate evaluation of learners’ performance. Figure 9 shows the multiple-choice type questions used in an on-line examination.
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Fig. 8 An e-board for assignments
Fig. 9 Multiple-choice type questions used in an on-line examination
2.6 Student Management The student-management system is a feature of the CPSC WTLS intended to manage the students’ general information, their score of tasks or projects and the multiple-choice-type questions used in the on-line examination. Apart from the site administrator, it can be accessed by the faculty members and co-ordinators assigned to particular programmes. Figure 10 shows the menu used in the system including general information about each student. The professors can readily check how many students are using the WTLS at any one time. For the purpose of evaluating the students’ overall performance in the training course, the score management feature is used. Through this feature, the professor can evaluate students’ tasks and projects after checking their outputs. After the students take the final examination (multiple-choice type), they will see their total scores automatically computed as shown in Figure 11. If the score is below sixty points, the student(s) are expected to undergo re-training. The multiple-choice questions in the final examination are created in the examination system which is shown in Figure 12. Only the professor can create the
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Fig. 10 Students’ general information
Fig. 11 Score management: tasks, projects, examination
questions for on-line examination and can start/stop the examination using the toggle button. There are two sections in the examination system: the question and file fields for inserting the image file; and the answer field for inserting choices and checking answers.
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Fig. 12 Creating multiple-choice type questions for on-line examination
3 Implementation of E-Teaching and Learning Systems A good e-teaching and learning system should be cost-effective and efficient. This is the rationale upon which the CPSC WTLS is constructed using cost-effective methodologies and tools, bearing in mind considerations about maintenance costs. The featured system is based on Linux, which is provided as free software. Table 1 shows the basic components of the e-teaching and learning system together with the tools used in building these components. The main software tools used in the implementation of the e-teaching and learning system are as follows: (a) Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator for the overall layout of the website design; (b) Namo Web Editor for creating and editing web documents; (c) CBI tool for lecture recording with screen capture and video capture and Adobe Premier for editing videos; and (4) finally, other web-based programmes and database tools are employed to develop various e-boards with their own functions, on-line examinations and on-line evaluations based on the Linux system.
4 Maintenance of E-Teaching and Learning Systems The e-teaching and learning system is a platform (web programmes and database) that is shared with other countries. The resources in the system can be customized, localized and/or managed as part of the websites of these countries if they agree to the following conditions:
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To keep the basic structure for knowledge-sharing unchanged; To acknowledge that they are a member of the e-community network; To use the resources only for non-commercial purposes;
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Table 1 Main software tools used in the implementation of the e-teaching and learning system Components
Tools
Remarks
Website design
Adobe Photoshop and Website layout Adobe Illustrator
Web documents:
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VOD/LOD
Namo Web Editor
Editing web document
CBI Tool Adobe Premier
Recording lecture Editing video
PHP, MySQL & others
Linux system
PHP, MySQL & others PHP, MySQL & others
Linux system
e-Boards:
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On-line examination On-line evaluation
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To agree to the editorial and privacy policies; and To accept that all information acquired by partner websites will be shared with others through database synchronization and an integrated directory system.
It is exceedingly important for eligible learners to maintain e-teaching and learning system services and to synchronize the contents continuously. Three important issues in the maintenance of the e-teaching and learning system are discussed below.
4.1 Monitoring the E-Teaching and Learning System Once the e-teaching and learning system is launched, it is necessary to know how well it meets the objectives of the course. It is also equally important to keep track of how many people use the system, which pages users look at and how many of them contact the system administrator. The results of these inquiries will help determine how the e-teaching and learning system should evolve.
4.2 Regular Updating Keeping the e-teaching and learning system up to date after it has been launched is as important as creating the site in the first place. When e-teaching and learning system materials remain static, there is little reason for people to continue using the system and therefore an opportunity to promote e-teaching and learning is lost. The budget for on-going maintenance of the system should cover routine check-ups and updates to the materials, such as price changes, and it is a good idea to set aside an additional budget for more radical changes to the site, for example, if it is necessary to make e-commerce capability, discussion forums or multimedia applications available.
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4.3 Useful Information on the E-Teaching and Learning System There should be clear, concise and relevant information about the e-teaching and learning system. It should cover an introduction, a brief overview of the topic, the services and how the site fits into the overall project plan. The features and functionality should clearly describe the purpose of the e-teaching and learning system. The target audience and the areas of content and functionality of the e-teaching and learning system should also be described. These factors lead people to return to the site on a regular basis, to look at it, to learn new things and ask questions. In technical terms, knowledge of hardware and software is essential. This needs to be mastered by the person in charge in case there are problems with the e-teaching and learning system. Contact details should be an option in case users encounter problems.
5 Benefits and Potential Advantages of Conducting the Programme There are several benefits that have been achieved and others that are likely to accrue as a result of launching the CPSC WTLS. The benefits and advantages of an e-teaching and learning system may be divided into three main categories namely: ‘pedagogical’, ‘teaching and learning anytime, anywhere’ and ‘cost reduction’.
5.1 Pedagogical Benefits The following pedagogical benefits have been realized in the implementation of the CPSC WTLS: 1. The e-teaching and learning system is self-directed so it allows learners/users to choose content and focus on areas appropriate to their different interests, needs and choices. 2. e-boards are visible and usable for all learners/users, including faculty. All learners are able to benefit equally by reading the questions asked and the answers given by the instructors/faculty. This fosters greater participant-to-participant and participant-to-instructor/faculty interaction and collaboration. 3. The learners enhance their computer/Internet skills and knowledge about webbased technology for teaching and learning. 4. The simultaneous presentation of modules on-line makes available a variety of materials on different topics. It broadens the choice of the learners in selecting a module that they would like to listen to or read. 5. As a result of putting all the materials on the web (which is available twentyfour hours a day and seven days a week—24/7), learners are able to learn continuously and acquire the habit of initiating lifelong learning and adopting the concepts of knowledge workers.
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6. The learners have the option of reading the text material, observing the reference material and using web links to learn about the topic. They can listen to the lectures and, if desired, supplement them by reading associated materials and/or browsing links for more advanced materials. 7. The content of the CPSC WTLS is very dynamic and can be changed quickly to accommodate new concepts. In other words, e-learning contents are easy to maintain and reuse. The lecturer can update his/her lectures at any time and modify and edit as and when needed using a simple web-editor programme.
5.2 Teaching and Learning Anytime, Anywhere The CPSC member governments consist of twenty countries in Asia and the Pacific Region. Geographically speaking, it used to take a lot of time for participants to be brought together to participate in a training course and it also meant interrupting their busy schedules. The e-teaching and learning system has not only been convenient but also less costly and time consuming. This system has the following benefits and potentials in geographical, time and age features: 1. Geographical barriers are eliminated and all participants can access the CPSC WTLS as long as they have an Internet connection. 2. The 24/7 accessibility of CPSC WTLS allows for easy scheduling, giving participants additional time to learn and browse the system. It also allows CPSC to admit as many participants as necessary without affecting the amount of time each spends consulting the system. 3. The CPSC WTLS enables the participants to access it at any time at their convenience so that learning can take place precisely when needed. 4. Learning has no age limits. Some participants are slow learners while others pick up the lesson rapidly. The provision of learning at the pace of the learner breeds confidence, e.g. elderly participants may continue learning according to their own mental capabilities. Despite the benefits and advantages, problems still remain in operating and managing the system properly in areas that have poor Internet facilities, as a result of both the capacity of computers and of network infrastructures. In response, movable servers are employed. These movable servers are calibrated on the e-teaching and learning system and provide multi-user access to local-area networks.
5.3 Cost Reduction A prime factor for consideration in any training venture is the cost of investment and the rate of return on investment. As a result of cost-cutting measures and budgetary shortages faced by institutions in most countries, they have always been faced with the prerogative of educational institutions and organizations to help minimize cost
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while optimizing resources. The CPSC WTLS helps reduce the cost of training in the following ways: 1. Because of the elimination of travel and associated costs, on-line courses save money. While other faculty members are involved in the e-teaching and learning system through their pre-recorded VODs, only one course co-ordinator needs to be present at the training venue to conduct the course. 2. Once produced, except for occasional updates, the courses and materials can be modified and reused easily according to the nature of new groups of learners. On-line instruction is said to facilitate faster understanding of the subject matter compared to classroom instruction, due in part to the nature of the medium. 3. This CPSC WTLS is based on Linux and other related programming, which are provided as free software. Because of these cost-effective methodologies and tools, CPSC saves a lot of time and money.
5.4 Future Challenges CPSC, with its web-based teaching and learning system, envisions fulfilling the following ambitions in its contribution to the enhancement of technician education in Asia and the Pacific Region: 1. Expanding the e-teaching and learning system to its member countries in Asia and the Pacific Region and thus helping in transforming regional capabilities with regard to technology and skills development. 2. Establishing information and communication technology (ICT) sub-centres in the member countries for continuous materials updating and knowledge-sharing in special areas. Further, local language versions of the e-teaching and learning system will be created. 3. Very small aperture terminal (VSAT) satellite network systems for linking all ICT sub-centres is recommended to be installed to address the poor network infrastructure.
6 Conclusion The design of an e-teaching and learning system covers its basic components: membership management; overview of the contents; e-boards for questions, answers and assignments; and an on-line examination. In the implementation of e-teaching and learning systems, cost-effectiveness and efficiency are vital considerations. Therefore, the choice of methodologies and tools in building the system should be carefully examined. Choosing free software like Linux, which does not entail costly maintenance, is a wise strategy. There are three important issues in the maintenance of the e-teaching and learning system, as follows:
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1. Monitoring the e-teaching and learning system; 2. Updating the system regularly; and 3. Writing good, brief information about the e-teaching and learning system. In addition, profound knowledge of the hardware and software is essential in solving the problems that may arise in the everyday operation of the system. The benefits and advantages of the e-teaching and learning system that can readily be achieved may be divided into three main categories namely: ‘pedagogical’, ‘teaching and learning anytime, anywhere’ and ‘cost reduction’. The short method discussed here for building a web-based teaching and learning system has been the outcome of years of innovation, experimentation, modification and continuous improvement. The formula presented may well apply to most organizations but, in the case of Colombo Plan Staff College, the system has indeed proved to be an effective tool for enhancing technician education in its twenty member countries. In the spirit of knowledge-sharing, it is hoped that the information presented here will be helpful to those contemplating designing a workable e-teaching and learning system in their own particular area as a strategic way of improving livelihoods through cost-effective and efficient measures.
Bibliography American Society for Training and Development—ASTD. 2003. E-Learning in Europe: interview with Jane Massy, Learning Circuits. 24 February 2003. <www.learningcircuits.org/ 2003/feb2003/massy.htm> An, Mi-ri et al. 2000. A study on quality control for distance learning and recognition of course credits for distance learning. Seoul: Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development. Bannan, B.; Miheim, W.D. 1997. Existing web-based instruction courses and their design. In: Khan, B.H., ed. Web-based education, pp. 381–88. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Educational Technology Publications. Black, U. 2000. Internet architecture. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Brandon-Hall Research. 2002. Market analysis of the 2002 U.S. e-learning industry. Sunnyvale, CA: Brandon-Hall. Chadha, G.; Nafay Kumail, S.M. 2002. E-learning: an expression of the knowledge economy. New Delhi: McGraw-Hill. Henderson, A.J. 2003. The e-learning, question and answer book. New York, NY: Amacom. Lee, Insook. 1999. An analysis of learners’ perspectives and learning styles in a web-based environment mixed with a traditional classroom. (Paper presented to the seventh International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE), Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), Chiba, Japan, 4–7 November 1999.) Park Man-Gon. 1996. Topics in Internet. Seoul: E-hahn’s Computer Science Series. Park Man-Gon. 1997. Construction of homepage in cyber space. Seoul: E-hahn’s Publishing Co. Rosenberg, M.J. 2001. E-learning, strategies for delivering knowledge in the digital age. Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill. Sloman, M. 2002. The E-Learning Revolution: how technology is driving a new training paradigm. New York, NY: AMACOM. Valiathan, P. 2002. Blended learning models. Available at: <www.learningcircuits.com/ 2002/aug2002/valiathan.html>
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Chapter XI.4
ICT Application in TVET Boris Kotsik, Natalia Tokareva, France Boutin and Chris Chinien
The problem in education today is that hundreds of millions of the world’s citizens do not receive it. [. . .] Over 100 million children never see the inside of a school. And many more do not stay in school long enough to gain useful skills. 800 million adults have their lives blighted by illiteracy (Daniel, 2002).
1 Introduction Political, cultural, technological and economic changes determine the development of advances in learning and in the competencies needed to live actively in knowledge and lifelong-learning societies. The development of modern society is characterized by a global information space where information and communication technologies (ICTs) form a large share of gross domestic products. Considering the rapid changes of occupational profiles and the high demands for a qualified workforce, current technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems should be modified to meet the needs of evolving societies. In compliance with the new ideology of sustainable development, the main challenge to education is to provide people with a combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes relevant to the demands of societies. In modernizing TVET, the emphasis should therefore be on skills development alongside technological innovations that support this new lifestyle concept. The materials presented in this chapter are based on the specialized training course ICT application in TVET developed for the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO-IITE, 2006) by Chris Chinien (UNEVOC Centre, Canada), in close co-operation with France Boutin (University of Quebec at Montreal, Canada). The chapter includes materials devoted to major issues in the development and implementation of ICT-mediated teaching and learning programmes in TVET.
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2 Policy Development for ICT-Mediated Teaching and Learning in TVET 2.1 The Benefits of ICTs in TVET ICTs are revolutionizing education by eliminating distance and making knowledge more accessible to all. ICTs can enhance teaching and learning; they have the potential to become cost-effective and offer greater flexibility regarding time and location of training delivery (Furst-Bowe, 1996).
2.2 Components of ICT Readiness Certain critical conditions should prevail before ICTs can be successfully implemented in TVET: strategic readiness; pedagogical readiness; organizational readiness; and technical readiness.
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Strategic readiness is achieved by developing a comprehensive master plan for the integration of ICTs into TVET. This plan should include the vision, mission, values, objectives, strategies, timeframe and the evaluation scheme for ICT initiatives. It should also outline the budget to cover costs related to hardware and software, connectivity, maintenance and staff training. The plan should clearly delineate the purposes of ICT-mediated learning with respect to current practices. It should be widely disseminated amongst all key stakeholders. Pedagogical readiness focuses on the fit between ICTs and current teaching and learning practice. To be pedagogically ready, TVET institution must complete an assessment of the compatibility of ICTs with the current philosophy of learning, an examination of various opportunities for including ICTs in TVET, an assessment of the technological proficiency requirements for teachers and learners, ensuring that ICTs will meet learners’ educational needs, and provision that instructors are competent to facilitate ICT-mediated learning. Organizational readiness focuses on teachers’ involvement in integrating ICTs into TVET. The following key questions are used to assess organizational readiness. To what extent do TVET institutions embrace innovation and change? Do teachers support the integration of ICTs in TVET? Has the necessary leadership been provided to champion and rally support for ICT integration? Has the existence of training support systems been communicated to TVET teachers? Organizational readiness also ascertains that the necessary actions have been taken to ensure that TVET teachers possess the necessary ICT competencies. These actions include conducting needs assessments to determine the ICT comfort level of teachers, establishing minimum training standards, developing training plans and establishing appropriate mechanisms to monitor training results. Technical readiness addresses issues related to infrastructural requirements for ICT integration. The following key questions are used to assess technical readiness. Has an overview of existing technologies been established? Have existing
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technologies been benchmarked against those available in the marketplace? How well does the current technological infrastructure meet the basic requirements for ICT integration in terms of hardware, connectivity, educational software, software licenses, systems maintenance and staff training? Is it necessary to develop a plan for a new technological infrastructure? Has the existence of technological support systems been communicated to all key stakeholders? Since TVET is perceived as an enabling instrument for economic and social growth, components of institutional readiness should contribute to the development of a highly skilled workforce that can support strong performance in the global economy.
2.3 Areas for General ICT Policy Development An ICT policy plan is an essential management tool that can facilitate the successful implementation of ICTs in TVET. According to BECTA (2001), the following areas should be included in it:
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The aims of ICTs and how they contribute to the achievement of school aims; The contribution of ICTs to the TVET curriculum; The contribution of ICTs to other subjects; A strategy for monitoring and evaluating the intergration of ICTs in TVET; A strategy for implementation; Teaching and learning styles; Recording, assessment and reporting; Monitoring and review; Classroom and resource management; Inclusion and special needs education; Continuity and progression; Staff development and training; Leadership and management roles; Links to the management information system (MIS); After-classes and community use.
2.4 Developing an ICT Strategy for TVET The main areas of ICT application in TVET include:
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Administration; Programme development; Assessment and recognition of prior learning; Teaching and learning; Assessing TVET results; Labour-market information; Career education and guidance;
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Placement of graduates; Virtual internships; Accommodating special needs learners; Research and communication; Informal skills development.
2.5 Stages for the Strategic Planning Process Four steps in devising a strategic plan for the integration of ICTs in TVET are: developing a vision; the mission; the goals; and the strategy. This sequence allows the goals to be derived from the vision and mission and the strategy to support the goals.
2.5.1 Vision Distinctiveness is one of the most notable benefits of creating a unifying vision that reflects the activities of an institution. Institutional distinctiveness results when both internal and external constituents support the values and vision that drive an institution’s curriculum and educational practice (Townsend, 1992). Vision can build continuity, cultivate loyalty, encourage ingenuity, improve efficiency, foster interest and commitment, fine-tune focus, clarify purpose and generate attentiveness when change is needed.
2.5.2 Mission A mission statement is effective to the degree that its premise is meaningful to those who follow it. The identity of the institution for which the mission statement was written makes the statement unique and implies or overtly states the goal of the institution, the tasks of the people who will fulfil the goals and the values of the institution.
2.5.3 Goals Goal-setting is a reflective process because it requires people to examine what they want and what they do not want. One of the first steps in establishing goals is acknowledging that there is something that requires change. The following model can be used to formulate goals for the integration of ICTs in TVET.
Desired accomplishment
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2.5.4 Strategy Developing a strategy is critical to determining how goals will be achieved. A strategy facilitates the development of an action plan by outlining activities that will be undertaken to achieve identified goals. Because there are usually several goals, there can be several strategies and there may also be more than one strategy for each goal. Strategy development should be systematic, rational and iterative. It takes place over an extended period of time, allowing for additions, changes and modifications based on the interests of all the relevant stakeholders. It is also subject to institutional political forces and should be modified accordingly.
2.6 Basic Mistakes in Strategic Planning for Integrating ICTs in TVET The successful implementation of ICT-mediated teaching and learning requires careful planning as there are many pitfalls (Farrell, 2001), such as:
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Allowing decisions to be driven by technology; Jumping on the ‘everybody’s doing it’ bandwagon; Overlooking existing educational and ICT systems; Underestimating the front-end and on-going funding requirements; Unclear definitions of objectives; Unrealistic expectations; Failure to keep stakeholders informed and involved in the decision-making process.
3 ICT-Mediated Teaching in TVET 3.1 Pedagogical Considerations for ICT Usage in TVET Debate related to the use of pedagogic principles in the design and delivery of ICTbased teaching and learning is usually between those who favour more traditional didactic approaches and those who support pedagogies based on modern educational theories. In relation to these principles, a broad range of educational schools and learning theories may be categorized into three main approaches: behaviourism, socio-culturalism and constructivism. The key elements of each theory and model highlight the potential for an enhanced application of ICT-based learning. It is important to examine pedagogic principles that must underpin the design and delivery of ICT-mediated teaching and learning in order to ensure effective and appropriate methods of practice.
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3.1.1 Self-Directed Learning This is a concept that was first discussed as early as 1926. Indeed, it is estimated that 70% of learning is self-directed. Research undertaken by Houle (1961) developed a typology of learning styles:
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Goal oriented—some specific goal or objective serves as the learning stimulus; Activity oriented—being with others in the pursuit of learning is the primary motivation; Learning oriented—enjoyment of learning for its own sake is the stimulator.
In self-directed learning, individuals can diagnose their learning needs, formulate goals, identify resources, select and implement strategies, and evaluate learning outcomes. It is this feel of autonomy in the decision-making process that is paramount to the success of a self-directed learning situation. Optimal self-directed learning occurs when the learner is in control of all aspects of the learning experience. This does not happen in traditional formal learning that is frequently encountered in vocational education settings. 3.1.2 Transformative Learning Transformative learning, based on psycho-analytical theory, has developed into a topic of research and theory building in education. Centrality of experience, critical reflection and rational discourse are three central themes within this theory. Transformative education is based on emotion, creativity and intuition, as well as rational and logical thought. Both self-directed and transformative learning theories share common characteristics, such as autonomy, critical reflection, discourse, communication and selfknowledge. Probably the most important skill for today’s competitive workforce is selfreflection. The highly motivated, self-directed learner with skills in self-reflection can approach the workplace as a constant classroom from which to learn. In an ICT-mediated learning environment, this constancy may present a challenge to the teacher and the student alike.
3.2 Provision of ICT-Mediated Learning Programmes in TVET There are two possible scenarios for adapting existing materials to meet a specific programme need: (a) adapting ICT-mediated learning materials; and (b) converting print-based materials to an ICT-mediated learning format. A comparative analysis of efficiency and cost-effectiveness must be used in deciding whether to adapt existing material or to design new material. The process of producing any form of instructional material can be classified into five distinct stages: analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation.
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3.2.1 Analysis For the first stage, three types of analyses are carried out: needs assessment, task analysis and training-needs analysis. Task analysis is a strategy developed to identify job content and skills needs, as well as knowledge and attitude requirements. Michalak and Yager (1979) define task analysis as a method to specify in precise detail and measurable terms the human performance required to achieve specific job objectives, the tools and conditions needed to perform the job, and the skills and knowledge required of the employee. Training-needs assessment and analysis. Kaufman and Stone (1985) provide a needs-assessment model that they claim can be equally effective and efficient in business and industry, as well as in educational settings. They named this model the ‘organization element model’. Kaufman and Stone identified five functions of organization: input, process, product, output and outcome. They also considered the input and process functions as the organizational efforts; the product and output functions as the internal results; and the outcome function as the external organizational result. Since they defined ‘need’ as the gap between what is and what should be in terms of results, they argue that, at the level of input and process, one can only perform a quasi needs assessment; the true internal needs assessment is performed at the product and output level, and the true external needs assessment is performed at the outcome level.
3.2.2 Design The design of ICT-mediated learning programmes includes definitions of programme objectives, learning objectives and objective analysis. In the first design phase, programme and learning objectives are defined. These objectives are essential to the implementation of an ICT-mediated programme of instruction. The definition of objectives is the analysis and synthesis of the results of the needs assessment, the needs analysis and the training needs analysis. Programme objectives provide statements of results that one can expect to be achieved from an educational programme. They also provide the basis for instructional design and programme evaluation. ICT-mediated programme objectives may focus on an individual’s learning outcomes and/or on the programme operations outcomes. Programme objectives can be composed of both measurable and non-measurable achievements. Learning objectives are descriptions of activities that the learner must perform in order to ensure mastery of content or skills. Learning objectives describe what the learners will do, how well they should perform the activities and what assistance will be given or constraints will be imposed. They are stated in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes. Learning objectives allow the learner to focus on the intended outcome of the learning process and the instructor to focus on the needs of the learner through specific statements of intent.
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Objective analysis is undertaken in three domains of learning that cover skills, knowledge and attitudes. Simpson’s taxonomy for psychomotor skills, Bloom’s taxonomy for cognitive levels and Krathwohl’s taxonomy for affective levels are most commonly used (Bloom, 1956; Krathwohl, Bloom & Masia, 1964). The categorization and analysis of the learning objectives assures the programme planner that all domains of learning have been covered in the instructional plan. The objectives should also be analysed in terms of frequency of occurence and level of difficulty. The instructor and/or programme planner will require this information to plan effective teaching and learning strategies in the development phase of ICT-mediated programme planning.
3.2.3 Development Programme objectives developed during the design stage are used to determine programme content and sequencing of the material, teaching strategies, learning activities, instructional aids, learner assessment and programme evaluation.
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Content of the learning programme must convey knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to fulfill these objectives. Content and its sequencing are interwoven with teaching strategies and methods used to deliver the content; and much of the analysis made by the programme planner occurs simultaneously. However, it is important to review each step in the process to ensure that no elements of the programme development puzzle are overlooked and conscious and deliberate decisions are made regarding each element. Sequencing is the ordering of the elements of the programme and learning activities in a logical sequence to achieve maximum outcomes. Sequencing allows the programme planner to present information in a logical way that is compatible with learning styles, determined in the initial step of programme development. Teaching strategies for delivering information are based on prior assessment of the learner, the needs of the instructor and the learning environment. Learning strategy analysis through inventories, such as the Self-knowledge Inventory of Lifelong Learning Strategies (SKILLS) or Assessing the Learning Strategies of Adults (ATLAS), allow the programme planner to develop teaching strategies. Teaching strategies come in a variety of forms, from lectures to experiential exercises. It is important to select teaching and learning activities that will enable the achievement of specific training outcomes and facilitate the transfer of learning. While defining instructional aids, the programme planner should have an understanding of the learner and the environment in which learning is to take place. The programme planner must select the most appropriate teaching and learning aids to facilitate the achievement of training outcomes. These materials must be selected in view of a variety of factors, such as learning style, timing, group size, facilities, resources available, etc.
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In an assessment framework, two key elements must be taken into account, namely instructional effectiveness and instructional efficiency. The effectiveness of instructional material should be viewed within a framework that encapsulates three major elements: achievement, study time and the students’ attitude toward the material.
3.2.4 Evaluation In spite of considerable progress made in the development of instructional programmes, practitioners have difficulties producing efficient and effective materials because knowledge of human learning is still limited. Many of the critical assumptions that are made during the design and development of instructional programmes are based on weak learning theories. The final product is therefore less than perfect. Conscious of this inherent difficulty, and recognizing that the design process is not foolproof, instructional developers have included a formative evaluation that facilitates the identification and correction of errors and problems within a set of instructional materials while they are still at the developmental stage.
3.3 Barriers to the Integration of ICTs in TVET The most critical barriers to the integration of ICTs in TVET are: content and curriculum; appropriateness and efficacy; quality and branding of ICT-mediated learning; stakeholders’ resistance; lack of appropriate software; the digital divide; the cognitive divide; and copyright issues. 3.3.1 Content and Curriculum While much attention is given to the development of technologies for ICT-mediated learning, one of the most critical issues remains the curriculum content. An impediment to the further diffusion of ICTs around the globe is the unavailability of relevant, well-designed instructional content (Stevens, 2001). This is especially problematic in TVET because recovering investment costs is difficult due to the relatively small markets, particularly in developing countries. 3.3.2 Appropriateness and Efficacy There is a perception that ICTs are not appropriate for delivering vocational and technical skills. However, ‘for many occupations within the emerging “knowledge economies” the cognitive and affective learning domains are becoming more substantial relative to psychomotor skills’ (Stevens, 2001). Providing ICT-mediated instruction in these two domains is much less challenging than teaching manual skills. The efficacy for ICT-mediated TVET will keep improving with the upgrading and improvement of: learning technology, instructional design, adaptive learning
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models, simulation of the workplace environment, learners’ support systems, access to e-learning, and the development of intelligent tutoring. Greater emphasis on a self-directed style of learning and increase in computer literacy among stakeholders will further enhance the efficacy of ICT-mediated TVET. 3.3.3 Quality and Branding of ICT-Mediated Learning The proliferation of ICT-mediated learning courses in North America raises misgivings among learners as to the quality of course content and the credibility of the institution. These courses must be accredited by educational authorities in order to become a legitimate method of course delivery and to gain learners’ confidence (Stevens, 2001). 3.3.4 Stakeholders’ Resistance The shift to technology-based learning may represent a threat to job security for some stakeholders, thus resulting in resistance to embracing the innovation. Teachers’ barriers: adopting ICTs for teaching will not result in loss of jobs; however, there will be a change in the instructor’s role, moving from teaching to facilitating and guiding the learning experience (Stevens, 2001). Practitioners are forced to examine and justify their existence. Institutional barriers associated with ICT-mediated learning have been well documented in the literature. They include:
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Lack of equipment and support; Difficulties in scheduling; Lack of adequate resources; The high cost of programme development; Instructional difficulties; Difficulties in recruiting qualified instructors; Difficulties in maintaining reliable technical assistance and support (Zirkle, 2002).
Student barriers: There are many barriers experienced by learners, for example:
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The cost of equipment and access to technology; Motivation; Lack of immediate feedback from instructors; Lack of adequate support and services; Alienation and isolation; Lack of ICT literacy skills; Lack of skills in managing data and time (Zirkle, 2002).
ICT-mediated learning requires a high level of self-discipline and motivation and can often be daunting for those who lack computer and/or typing skills. The students also seemed to be uncomfortable with ICT-mediated learning.
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3.3.5 Lack of Appropriate Software The development of ICT-mediated learning materials for TVET has been slow compared to the rate of development in the general education sector. This trend can be explained by comparatively low enrolment in technical and vocational education and training and by the need for a wide variety of occupationally specific software. Vocational education does benefit from industrially developed software and hardware dealing with specific products or services. On the other hand, many of the products are not comprehensive enough to cover all aspects of a programme’s curriculum. 3.3.6 Digital Divide ICTs can be seen as driving the new network economy. Access to ICTs is essential to innovation, economic growth and social development. Research has attributed growth in GDP and economic activity, productivity growth, research and innovation, and higher paying jobs to the use of ICTs. Therefore, differences in access to ICTs create a ‘digital divide’ between those who can benefit from the opportunities offered by ICTs and those who cannot (Montagnier, Muller & Vickery, 2002). This digital divide is widening inequalities between the haves and the have-nots, not only between countries but also within them. The digital divide has accentuated the existing social and economic inequalities among nations. The world today is not only divided by ideology, but also by technology. 3.3.7 Cognitive Divide Technology is said to be driving the new economy, and human capital is its fuel (Moe & Blodget, 2000). Increasingly, human capital investment is seen as an essential ingredient in the growth recipe of advanced economies. In a report on human resources development, the ILO noted: ‘People with low skill levels, outdated skills or no employable skills are more likely to be excluded from the labour market. [. . .] Their exclusion incurs high costs on social security systems and society in general. Also, the opportunity cost to national economies of having so many inactive people is substantial’ (ILO, 2002). Access to and equity in vocational education and training is seen as essential to promote inclusion, especially among disadvantaged groups. Considerable efforts and resources are devoted to providing equal education and training opportunities to all. However, having equal educational opportunities today means more than having access to education and training. In order to succeed, a student must possess a repertoire of thinking skills that meet the cognitive demands of learning and performance tasks (Letteri, 1985). Seven of these cognitive skills—analytical, focus, reflective, narrow, complex, sharpener and tolerant—appear to contribute to effective learning more significantly. However, many adults lack these essential cognitive literacy skills.
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3.3.8 Copyright for ICT-Mediated Training Materials The main goals of copyright are to ensure that the creators of a work are credited and compensated for their effort and to encourage creation and innovation (Dusollier, Poullet & Buydens, 2000). Copyright covers the expression of an idea, not the idea itself, which is in the public domain (Australian Copyright Council, 2002). Copyright protection comes into effect as soon as the creator’s work is in a reproducible form. Creators should place a copyright notice and symbol on their work.
4 ICT-Mediated Learning in TVET 4.1 Technology as an Instructional Tool The learning process can be divided into two broad categories: (a) learning conditions that are internal to the learners; and (b) learning conditions that are external to the learners. People learn through the five senses and the contribution of each to the amount that we learn varies. The amount of information that people retain is also an important aspect of learning. Analysis of the retention rate through the various senses indicates that ICTs can be used to create a variety of external conditions that are conducive to learning and retention.
4.2 ICT Literacy for Learners Jones (2001) identified the low level of ICT skills among learners as a key factor that inhibits learners in an ICT-mediated environment. The five components considered essential for ICT literacy represent a set of skills and knowledge presented in a sequence that suggest increasing cognitive complexity. They are:
r r r r r
Access: knowing about and how to retrieve information; Manage: applying an existing organizational scheme; Integrate: interpreting and representing information, summarizing, comparing and contrasting information; Evaluate: judging the quality, relevance, usefulness or efficiency of information; Create: adapting, applying, designing, inventing or authorizing information.
Without appropriate cognitive skills, information may be rejected, lost, translated incorrectly or stored incorrectly. The students may not be able to perform a particular task because they do not possess the information-processing skills demanded of them by the task. The environment must be adapted to meet the learners’ needs. However, a more appropriate approach would be to alter the cognitive style of the learners so that it can become more adaptable to the needs of the learning environment (Ausburn & Ausburn, 1978).
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4.3 Transfer of Learning Strategies The way in which individuals live and work has undergone significant change due to innovation through the use of ICTs. In this context, learning in an ICT-mediated environment plays an important role in providing individuals with the choice of learning in a way they prefer. However, it is not enough to have the skills to access information in order to achieve a relative advantage. There is also a need to possess a unique set of cognitive skills in order to benefit from the available information. Those who master the skills of collecting information, and have the ability to analyse, classify and organize it, can achieve a social, cultural and economic advantage. Learning plays a central role in knowledge creation, which in turn is essential for the transition from a society of information to a society of knowledge. The increased use of ICTs provides greater flexibility in terms of access, but it also provides a student-centred approach to learning and motivates students by providing relevant and sometimes individualized learning programmes. The teacher is now a facilitator and negotiator of the pathways for student learning. Pedagogically, ICTs can support a variety of learning styles, provided that the course designers have an understanding of the potential of the technologies and provide engaging content relevant to the context in which learning takes place.
4.4 Implications of Learning Styles in an ICT-Mediated Environment Individuals respond differently to learning situations. This depends on the way they think, their past experience, the demands of the environment and the demands of the task, which comprise an individual learning style. A successful learner will be able to adapt his or her approach to meet the needs of the activity, but not all learners have developed this skill. Equal opportunity of access to ICT-mediated education and training refers not just to the use of resources but also to the cognitive skills to learn effectively. The most important reason as to why achievement levels differ is the differing level of cognitive skills amongst learners. These cognitive skills are even more important in an ICT-mediated environment where the mediating role of the instructor is somewhat absent. The expansion of ICTs has removed distance as a barrier to education and increased access to knowledge. It has also provided the opportunity for people to learn with choice and autonomy. However, less focus has been placed on the learning process than the technology itself. A common approach to viewing learning styles is linked to a learning cycle of experience, observation, reflection, formation and then testing of concepts.
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4.5 ICT-Mediated Learning Environments ICT-mediated learning provides the learners with two educationally rich learning environments: an explorative environment and an interactive environment. Six critical dimensions must be examined in order to bring out the best of educational technology in the explorative and interactive environments: 1. Information modality: the ability of the technology to transmit verbal, paraverbal and non-verbal information. 2. Linearity: technology can transmit the information in a linear or non-linear way. 3. Type of interaction: the distinction between human-to-human and human-tomachine interaction. 4. Number of participants: the interaction with ICT-mediated learning can be onealone, one-to-many and many-to-many. 5. Time/place (in)dependency: the ability of the technology to transmit information independent of time and place. 6. Immediacy: short intervals between sending a message and obtaining a response. On-site learning can combine traditional pedagogy with ICTs to enhance the learning process. ICTs can help to improve the delivery of existing services, make them more accessible and present them in new and exciting ways.
4.6 Open and Distance Learning in TVET Open and distance learning (ODL) is defined as an educational process in which all or most of the teaching is conducted by someone removed in space and/or time from the learner. The open nature of ODL helps learners to take a responsibility for ‘what they learn, where they learn, how quickly they learn’ (UNESCO, 2002). ODL can be used in TVET to empower the most disadvantaged people, such as the disabled, the unemployed and ethnic minorities. ODL can also allow greater participation in TVET after work hours for those who cannot afford to take time off from their jobs and who are interested in improving their vocational mobility. ODL in TVET may have to be supplemented by hands-on training which could be carried out through residential schools, home experiment kits or collaboration with the workplace. In developing countries, ODL has been successfully used to change the lives of people, raising them from economic vulnerability to economic empowerment. ODL has been successfully used for training workers in many fields, from farming and health to electronics and engineering.
5 Conclusion ICTs present opportunities to resolve traditional trade-offs between economic growth, environmental protection and social cohesion. There is an opportunity to
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integrate sustainability criteria into the information society and therefore maximizing the social and environmental opportunities of ICTs and mitigating its adverse impacts. Such opportunities could be realized if increasing demands to produce, consume and apply scientific knowledge and information would be based on new lifestyle concepts and corresponding skills development alongside technological innovations. Broad introduction of new digital technologies in education provides great possibilities and initiates new pedagogical approaches apt to meet the demands of modern society. However, despite its great potential, ICTs cannot be considered as a force for educational development by themselves. ICT integration in TVET must be seen as a complex proposition based on the principle that technology is only a tool. The focus must shift from technology provision to design of learning environments. In this regard, ICTs could be seen as an appropriate tool to develop a totally new paradigm in education, based on principles of sustainability.
References Ausburn, L.J.; Ausburn, F.B. 1978. Cognitive styles: some information and implication for instructional design. Educational communication and technology, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 337–54. Australian Copyright Council. 2002. A user’s guide to copyright. Strawberry Hills, Australia: Australian Copyright Council. Bringing Educational Creativity to All—BECTA. 2001. What is whole-school ICT policy? <www.becta.org.uk/technology/infosheets/html/itpolicy.html> Bloom, B.S., ed. 1956. Taxonomy of educational objectives: the classification of educational goals. Handbook I: cognitive domain. New York, NY: David McKay. Daniel, J. 2002. Technology and education: adventures in the eternal triangle. (Keynote address presented at the LEARNTEC conference, Karlsruhe, Germany, 6 February 2002.) <www. unevoc.de/learntec2002/KeynoteDaniel.pdf> Dusollier, S.; Poullet, Y.; Buydens, M. 2000. Copyright and access to information in the digital environment. (A study prepared for the third UNESCO Congress Infoethics 2000.) <webworld.unesco.org/infoethics2000/documents/ study poullet en.rtf> Farrell, G.M. 2001. Issues and choices. In: Farrell, G.M., ed. The changing faces of virtual education, pp. 141–52. Vancouver, Canada: The Commonwealth of Learning. Furst-Bowe, J. 1996. Competencies needed to design and deliver training using instructional technology. In: Simonson, M.R.; Hays, M.; Hall, S., eds. Proceedings of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, pp. 231–38. Indianapolis, IN: Iowa State University. (ED 397 772) Houle, C.O. 1961. The inquiring mind: a study of the adult who continues to learn. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. International Labour Office—ILO. 2002. [Material presented to an Expert Working Group at the UNESCO International Institute for Technologies in Education, Moscow.] Turin, Italy: ILO Training Centre. Jones, J. 2001. CALL and the teacher’s role in promoting learner autonomy. CALL-EJ Online, vol. 3, no. 1. <www.clec.ritsumei.ac.jp/ english/callejonline/6-1/jones.html> Kaufman, R.; Stone, B. 1985. Planning for organizational success: a practical guide. New York, NY: John Wiley. Krathwohl, D.R.; Bloom, B.S.; Masia, B.B. 1964. Taxonomy of educational objective: the classification of educational goals. Handbook II: Affective domain. New York, NY: David McKay.
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Letteri, C.A. 1985. Teaching students how to learn. Theory into practice, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 112–22. Michalak, D.F.; Yager, E.G. 1979. Making the training process work. New York, NY: Harper & Row. Moe, M.T.; Blodget, H. 2000. The knowledge web. New York, NY: Merrill Lynch. Montagnier, P.; Muller, E.; Vickery, G. 2002. The digital divide: diffusion and use of ICTs. (Paper presented at the International Association for Official Statistics Conference on Official Statistics and the New Economy, London, 2002.) <www.statistics.gov.uk/ iaoslondon2002/contributed papers/IP Vickery.asp> Stevens, G. 2001. Distance learning for technical and vocational education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank. <www.gtz.de/wbf/ bibliothek/detail.asp?number=1431> Townsend, B.K. 1992. Creating distinctiveness: lessons from uncommon colleges and universities. Washington, DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education. <www.ericfacility.net/ databases/ERIC Digests/ed356753.html> UNESCO. 2002. Open and distance learning, trends, policy and strategy considerations. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO-IITE. 2006. ICT application in TVET: specialized training course. Moscow: UNESCOIITE. Zirkle, C. 2002. Distance education and career/technical education: a good match? Columbus, OH: Ohio State University, National Research Center/National Dissemination Center.
Chapter XI.5
Technology and Leadership in the Fourth Wave of Environmental Changes with Ubiquitous Technology Man-Gon Park
1 The Fourth Wave of Environmental Changes Throughout history, advances in information and communication technologies have powered paradigm shifts. There had been movements or changes in directions from old explanations resulting in a redefinition following the emergence of a new model or way of thinking, valuing and perceiving the world. Alvin Toffler in his provocative book ‘Future Shock’ gave us the theory of the three waves. The first wave transformed the primitive culture into an agricultural society. The ‘ate what you caught and caught what you ate’ foraging, fishing, hunting and herding nomadic styles had been transformed into primitive agriculture. In the field of information and communication technology, drums, torches, signal fires, flags, pictographs on papyrus, and writing on clay and stone tablets were introduced. The second wave or Industrial Revolution resulted in the invention of the telegraph, telephone, phonograph, radio and movable type printing—a new learning style developed. In the school system, lectures, rote memorization and recitations along with instructional aids such as phonographs and radio were introduced. The opening of monastic libraries to the public and the mass production of books led to the diffusion of knowledge. The third wave, the Information Revolution or Technetronic Age, was marked by widespread proliferation of emerging information and communication technologies, such as advanced semiconductors, advanced computers, fibre optics, cellular technology, satellite technology, advanced networking, improved human-computer interaction and digital transmission and digital compression. In the school system, overhead projectors, television, film, videos, cable TV, computers, multimedia, Internet and teleconferencing among others became common methods used to process information and also to make decisions (Brown, Green & Harper, 2002). Today, the fourth revolution is creating the ubiquitous society. Described by Mark Weiser (1991) in his article entitled ‘The computer for the twenty-first century’, multiple computers in a room can be in the form of tabs, pads and boards, roughly corresponding to active Post-It notes, sheets of paper, white boards and bulletin boards. These computers serve many functions, such as: tracking people by sensors or other devices; sending e-mails automatically to wherever the person is
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located; monitoring the students in a classroom; checking one’s health status; and locating people at work in order to deliver important messages. From the above, we can see that information and communication technology was and always has been the driving force in the transformation of civilization, from the primitive to the information societies. Technologies during the agricultural and industrial societies, though primitive, helped shape human activities and institutions. They provided an understanding of how and why things work and, more importantly, they provided clues about how emerging technologies influenced the future shape, relationships and conduct of human institutions and activities.
2 Ubiquitous Computing The word ‘ubiquitous’ stems from a Latin word meaning ‘being or seeming to be everywhere at the same time’ or ‘omnipresent’. Ubiquitous computing refers to a computer environment to which access is available anywhere and anytime: wherever we go, whenever we want to use it, we can access the computing network and acquire the necessary information. According to Weiser (1993a, 1993b, 1994), ubiquitous computing is the method of enhancing our lives by making many computers available throughout the physical environment, but at the same time making them effectively invisible to the user. To achieve this, use would be made of microchips located in products, roads, bridges, tunnels, buildings and other items that are all connected via wire or wireless telecommunication lines. Ubiquitous computing is a system of safe, convenient and comfortable networks with flexible contents using anything as terminals and reaching anywhere, whether one is staying in one place or on the move. It is mobile because it increases our capability to move physically while continuing to benefit from computing services (Galloway, 2004a, 2004b). It is invisible because of the reduced size of chips and other computing devices. Access is provided to computing capability over a broadband network through lightweight devices (Figure 1).
2.1 Trends in Computing Systems The first wave of computing was dominated by many people using one computer. The second wave, which is still peaking, has one person and one computer in an uneasy relationship, staring at each other across the desktop without really inhabiting each other’s worlds. The third wave—just beginning—has many computers serving each person everywhere in the world. Table 1 presents the three trends in computing systems, namely: mainframe, personal computer and ubiquitous computing. All three trends are still in existence, although mainframe computers have started to decline in terms of sales since the 1980s. Personal computers, second highest in
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Fig. 1 The concept of ubiquitous computing
terms of sales for 2005, have also registered a declining trend after reaching a peak in 1995. Ubiquitous computing is gaining momentum as it displays a sharp upward movement.
2.1.1 The First Trend: the Mainframe Computer Era (1950–1975) During this period, computers were mostly manipulated by experts behind closed doors. Computers were rare pieces of equipment weighing as much as eighty tons and placed in a well-protected room or office. Utilization had to be negotiated and shared with others.
2.1.2 The Second Trend: The Personal Computer Era (1975–2000) Here, the computing relationship is personal, even intimate. The personal computer can be compared with the automobile—a special, relatively expensive item that can ‘take you where you want to go’ and which requires considerable attention to operate. And, just as one can own several cars, one can also own several personal computers: for the home, for work and for the road. Any computer with which one has a special relationship or that fully engages or occupies a person when they use it is a personal computer.
Table 1 Trends in computing systems Era
Trend
Description
First Second Third
Mainframe computer Personal computer Ubiquitous computing
Many/few people, one computer One/few people, one computer Many computers, one person
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2.1.3 The Third Trend: Ubiquitous Computing (UC) Era (2000–2020) In the ‘ubiquitous computing’ era, there will be masses of computers sharing our lives, rather like the hundreds that we may access today in the course of a few minutes of Internet browsing. They will be embedded in walls, chairs, clothing, light switches, cars—in everything and everywhere. Ubiquitous computing is fundamentally characterized by the connection of things in the world through computation. This innovative trend requires letting go of old assumptions and re-appropriating old technology into new contexts (Norman, 1998). The networking environment for ubiquitous computing is the ‘cross space’, a convergence of the electronic space and smart real space. Electronic cyberspace is a medium where electronic data flow around a computer system or network. The computer system or network is composed of hardware, software and the Internet. On the other hand, the smart real space is an incredibly rich set of animate and inanimate objects. In ubiquitous computing, electronic space is integrated with the smart real space by embedding technology into normal physical objects. Simple computers equipped with sensors are located in these physical objects to obtain data and information and respond to data through actuators. The physical objects of traditional communication (letters, books and so on) are being superseded by new electronic objects. And, just as physical objects exist in physical space, so do cyber objects exist in cyberspace (Figure 2).
Fig. 2 Electronic cyberspace and smart real space
2.2 The Home Ubiquitous Environment The home ubiquitous environment is also called a ‘smart house’. Smart houses have had different connotations throughout history: a book in every room in 1801; an
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electric light in every room in 1935; a television and telephone in every room in 1955; and many computers in every room in 2002. Computers are becoming part of the informing environment and will make a house a giant connection to the world—quietly, unobtrusively and naturally. The ubiquitous home is characterized by the interconnectivity of appliances—a distributed, collaborative infrastructure. Cameras, microphones, floor sensors and other devices will be installed at all locations in the home. The system gathers information on the assumption that two or more people live in the home and it will provide them with all services for and relevant information about each inhabitant. The home ubiquitous computing environment refers to an environment in the home where people can naturally use computers and other devices at any place and at any time. These computers, embedded in places that are not apparent, collaborate and communicate with one another. The system is composed of a sensor that obtains various kinds of information, such as images, voice, the status of switches, locations, temperatures, etc., from users and their living environment. The information is stored and processed to be displayed later or provided directly to the users by the actuator. A controller is also there to give instructions for users and appliances. The following illustrations present the components of ubiquitous environments for the entire home (Figure 3), the living room (Figure 4) and a classroom setting (Figure 5).
Fig. 3 Components of a ubiquitous home environment
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Sensor Node Access Point
Flowerpot management status; Entrance gate monitoring the persons who enter; Multi-vision monitoring all information in connection with home server systems; Sensor measuring temperature and humidity status in the living room; Automatic illumination and adjustment of lighting levels; Sofa checking health status of users; Shelves and drawer displays indicating the location of things.
Fig. 4 Components of a ubiquitous living room
Sensor Node Access Point
Automatic illumination and adjustment of lighting levels; Automatic windows; Door identifying and monitoring those who come in and go out; Computer identifying users and setting the user-environment when connected with school servers; Flowerpot management status; Chairs recognizing health status and linked to the server for health care; Multi-vision class presentation connected with the school server.
Fig. 5 Components of a ubiquitous classroom
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3 Ubiquitous Computing Research Projects Many institutions and large-scale projects have investigated the use of context—in a particular location—as a source of information to enhance applications and systems. The following sections provide an overview of larger research efforts where context is a central concern.
3.1 United States of America 3.1.1 MIT’s Oxygen Oxygen enables pervasive, human-centred computing through a combination of specific user and system technologies (Scanlon, 2001). Oxygen’s user technologies directly address human needs. Speech and vision technologies enable the user to communicate with Oxygen as if he or she were interacting with another person, saving much time and effort. Automation, individualized knowledge access and collaboration technologies help users perform a wide variety of tasks that they want to do in the way they like to do them. Oxygen’s device, network and software technologies dramatically extend a person’s range by delivering user technologies to him/her at home, at work or on the move. Computational devices, called Enviro21s (E21s), embedded in homes, offices and cars sense and affect a person’s immediate environment. Handheld devices, called Handy21s (H21s), empower users to communicate and compute no matter where they are. Dynamic, self-configuring networks (N21s) help machines locate each other, as well as the people, services and resources a person wants to reach (MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, 2000). Software that adapts to changes in the environment or in user requirements (O2s) helps users to do what they want when they want (Figure 6). 3.1.2 Project Aura Project Aura (Sousa & Garlan, 2002), originating in the Human Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, works on the principle that every person should have a personal information digital aura. The aura spans desktop, personal and infrastructural computers. But the aura is focused on tasks rather than hardware. It uses speech recognition software, video cameras, language translators or any currently available technology that will make one’s life easier. Its goal is to remove the distraction from using computers. It uses computers, cameras, actuators and sensors that are embedded in the environment to allow the user to focus on tasks and ideas rather than having to boot Windows and to start typing. 3.1.3 CoolTown Project The CoolTown Project (Barton & Kindberg, 2001) at Hewlett-Packard Labs applies Web technology to develop systems that support users of wireless, handheld devices
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Fig. 6 MIT’s Oxygen
in interaction with their environment—wherever they are. The CoolTown user experiences a mixture of Web browsing and manipulating a handheld device. The ‘browsing’ experience may not resemble the desktop Web experience. Indeed, the device may load Web pages and submit Web forms without user intervention. The Web client embedded in the handheld device is necessarily compact and utilitarian; the handheld device is enhanced with sensor technology triggered by the user and integrated with the Web functions. Each digital device is devoted to a particular purpose, and differs from others in the way it uses the Web content. The actual experience depends on the device and its application by the user. Users will become aware that their handheld device controls services that depend upon and integrate with their physical surroundings.
3.2 Europe 3.2.1 Disappearing Computer Initiatives The Disappearing Computer Initiative, which started on 1 January 2001, funds seventeen projects that would last for five years from 1998 to 2003. The mission of this initiative is to see how information technology can be diffused into everyday objects and settings, and how this can lead to new ways of supporting and enhancing people’s lives—going beyond what is possible today. Specifically, the initiative focuses on three interlinked objectives: (a) creating information artefacts based on new software and hardware architectures that are integrated into everyday objects; (b) looking at how collections of artefacts can act together, so as to produce new behaviour and new functionalities; and (c) investigating new approaches to designing
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collections of artefacts in everyday settings and how to ensure that people’s experiences in these new environments are coherent and engaging. The initiative addresses these three objectives through a number of independent research projects and support activities run by a network of project partners (Schenker, 2000).
3.2.2 2WEAR The 2WEAR project explores the concept of a personal system that is formed by putting together computing elements in an ad-hoc fashion and using short-range radio. Certain elements are embedded into wearable objects, such as a wristwatch and small general-purpose compute/storage modules that can be attached to clothes or placed inside a wallet. Others have the form of more conventional portable computers, like personal digital assistants (PDAs) and mobile phones. Also, stationary elements are part of the environment, some of which are visible, such as big screens and home appliances, while others are not directly perceivable by the user, such as network gateways and backend servers (Lalis, Savidis & Stephanidis, 2003; Final Project Report of Project 2WEAR, 2000).
3.2.3 Grocer The Grocer project aims to build two technical prototypes: embedded location-based artefacts in real-world objects, such as cereal boxes in grocery stores; and a wireless architecture and application server system integrating these artefacts with handheld devices and distributed software agents. This system will be built using WAP, RFID, Bluetooth, P3P and XML protocols and technologies. It will help create new dynamically conceived functionalities (some of which cannot yet be predicted) that the project will then explore and exploit. The architectures and functionalities created can be leveraged across multiple markets and physical spaces (Ribas, 2000).
3.3 Japan 3.3.1 TRON TRON is an open real-time operating system kernel design, and is an acronym for ‘The Real-time Operating system Nucleus’. The project was begun by Ken Sakamura of the University of Tokyo in 1984 (Krikke, 2003; Wikipedia, n.d.). The project’s goal is to create an ideal computer architecture and network, to provide for all of society’s needs. TRON is a set of ‘interfaces and design guidelines’ (or a set of software design specifications) for creating the computer code that will become the kernel. The specifications are copyrighted but available for use by software developers worldwide. TRON architecture is divided into four main sub-architectures (Figure 7).
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Fig. 7 TRON architecture
r r r r
Industrial TRON (ITRON) is a specification for designing real-time kernels that control home appliances, office automation equipment, factory machinery, etc. An ITRON-based system is referred to as an ‘intelligent object’. Business TRON (BTRON) is a specification for designing real-time multitasking operating systems for personal computers, workstations, PDAs, etc. BTRONbased systems serve as the main human/machine interface (HMI) in networks based on TRON architecture. Central and Communications TRON (CTRON) is a specification for designing real-time operating systems for mainframe computers, digital switching equipment, etc. Macro TRON (MTRON) is an architecture that links together ITRON, BTRON, and CTRON-based systems.
3.4 Republic of Korea 3.4.1 Ubiquitous Korea Project The Republic of Korea has been pursuing an ambitious national information industrial project in an attempt to stay one step ahead of the world, in which it is already a recognized leader. The u-Korea—short for ubiquitous Korea—refers to a futuristic environment that will offer uninterrupted access to the Internet, fixed-line and mobile networks at any time in any location (Figure 8). The Ministry of Information and Communication disclosed the 8-3-9 structure (see Figure 9), which stands for eight new services, three infrastructures and nine new growth engines as an action plan to attain the u-Korea vision. The underlining tenet is that the introduction of new services will generate investment in major infrastructures, which will help to develop key new growth engines (IT 839 Strategy, 2006).
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Fig. 8 The u-Korea project
Fig. 9 The 8-3-9 strategy
‘Eight services’ include such services as portable Internet or telematics (Table 2). They are: wireless broadband (WiBro); digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB); home network; telematics; radio frequency identification (RFID); wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA); terrestrial digital televisions; and Internet telephony (VoIP). The three infrastructures consist of next-generation systems that are needed for news services: background convergence network (BcN); ubiquitous sensor network (USN); and next-generation Internet protocol (IPv6). Lastly, the nine new growth engines, originally selected by the ministry in March 2005, are: next-generation mobile communications; digital televisions; home network; IT system-on-chip (SoC); next-generation PCs; embedded software; digital contents; telematics; and intelligent service robot.
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New services
Plans for 2004
Mid- and long-term plans
1. Wireless portable Internet 2. Digital multimedia broadcasting 3. Home network 4. Telematics
Decide directions for standardization and licensing License broadcasters and commence service
Commercial service
Expand to 500,000 households Create information centres and implement pilot projects Allocate spectrum and develop core technologies Allow subsidies and support technology development End the standard controversy and expand reception coverage system Establish systems, including price and identification number
10 million households 10 million users
5. Radio frequency identification 6. W-CDMA 7. Terrestrial digital televisions 8. Internet telephony
Two-way service
5% of global market share Build network in cities nationwide Build nationwide N/M 4 million users
The IT service market in the Republic of Korea is expected to grow from 2.6 trillion won in 2004 to 10 trillion in 2007 and IT production will expand from 240 trillion won in 2004 to 370 trillion in 2007. Employment in the IT sector should grow from 1.28 million in 2004 to 1.5 million in 2007.
4 The Emerging Paradigm Shift in HRD with New Technologies Information and communication technology (ICT) is the child of the computer. ICT is changing all aspects of life, even educational paradigms. One example is the education of technicians.
4.1 Emerging Technologies Business week forecast four further technology waves that will break upon us in the near future in the quest for the next ‘big things’: utility computing; sensor revolution; plastic electronics; and bionic bodies (Hof, 2003). The MIT enterprise technology review identified ten emerging technologies that are predicted to have a tremendous influence in the near future: wireless sensor networks; injectable tissue engineering; nano-solar cells; mechatronics; grid computing; molecular imaging; nano-imprint lithography; software assurance; glycomics; and quantum cryptography. In these two forecasts, a good number of technologies concern information and communication technology (10 Emerging technologies . . ., 2003).
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4.2 Change in the Economic System and Management Strategy In a ubiquitous network, space is considered a good, on the same level as physical goods and information goods. Physical goods are objects of possession; information goods are objects of access; and space goods are objects of living. The ‘economy of the third space’ suggests that management strategies change with the times. In the first space, price competition is paramount. The second space employs management strategies with priorities for information distribution, network externality and increasing returns to scale in the information society. A new management strategy is emerging in the third space. Technology leaders need more understanding of this new management strategy with the third space under ubiquitous technology, which is one of the emerging technologies (Weiser, 1998).
5 The Innovation Needs in Human-Resources Development (HRD) Given the emerging trends and alternative scenarios of the fourth wave, technology leaders have to plan for shifting the paradigm to ubiquitous technology. The new paradigm emphasizes information and communication as the powerhouse to perform mandated functions. This process suggests the following directions.
5.1 Understanding Technological Environment Changes for HRD Advocacy programmes on the nature, advantages and opportunities of technological environment changes have to be developed and disseminated. As one traverses home automation, home networking, ubiquitous networking and ubiquitous computing trends, one has to define the appropriate technology that fits a specific era.
5.2 The Need to Re-Adjust HRD Systems Technology leaders should be aware of the needs to improve existing infrastructures in support of pervasive computing, digital convergence and broader bandwidth. They will have to bear in mind the provision of next-generation Internet (NGI) communication services, infrastructures and growth engines, such as wireless broadband service (WiBro), radio-frequency identification (RFID), system-on-chip (IT SoC), embedded software, digital multiple broadcasting (DMB) and others. Moreover, faculty and staff will have to be re-trained and up-trained so as to be responsive to the calls of the new technology in human-resources development institutions.
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5.3 Encouragement of ICT-Based TVET Systems Since ICTs determine to a large extent the future of an institution, relevant efforts should be directed at the education and training of staff in the promotion of ICTs. This includes development of non-traditional instructional materials and flexible online and non-linear courses. Moreover, technical leaders should continue to consider measures to overcome the problems of the digital divide by making it a priority to promote digital opportunities through the launching of regional, in-country and special country projects.
5.4 Increasing CSCW in Industry and Institutions Recently CSCW (computer supported co-operative works) have begun to change our work environment through the widespread use of ICTs. Technical leaders should offer other institutions the opportunity to access ICTs by forging alliances and networks:
r r
To promote pilot projects that will diffuse computer literacy in a country; To establish effective co-operation with other regional and international bodies to bridge the digital divide.
5.5 The New HRD Management Strategy in the Third Space Technical leaders will strengthen basic and specific infrastructures to promote advanced training in research on ubiquitous technology. They should seek assistance from international organizations and international co-operation agencies within OECD member countries.
5.6 Establishment of E-TEVT and U-TEVT Systems for HRD Technical leaders should provide the necessary education and training for faculty and staff on ubiquitous computing as a pre-requisite to planning for u-TEVT (ubiquitous technical education and vocational training) systems. Thereafter, the HRD institutions could acquire higher speed Internet connections and highgeneration computers and hypermedia equipment.
6 Conclusion The convergence of ICTs has ushered a revolution in every facet of human life. It is vitally important that we understand how this revolution has changed and will continue to change our now ‘primitive’ community to a ‘ubiquitous’ community
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or a ‘ubiquitous’ world. With this change in the technology environment (based on ubiquitous technology), there are emergent needs for innovations in HRD training institutions with technology leadership in Asia and the Pacific. The paradigm reveals directions towards: (a) understanding technological environment changes for HRD; (b) recognizing the needs for re-adjustment of HRD systems through re-focusing, repositioning and re-engineering; (c) encouragement of ICT-based HRD systems; (d) increasing computer-supported co-operation in industry and institutions; (e) new HRD management strategies in the third space under ubiquitous technology; and (f) establishment of e-TEVT and u-TEVT systems for HRD.
References 10 Emerging technologies that will change the world. 2003. MIT Enterprise Technology Review, February. Barton, J.; Kindberg, T. 2001. The CoolTown user experience, Internet and Mobile Systems Laboratory. Palo Alto, CA: HP Laboratories. (Technical Report HPL-2001-22.) Brown, B.; Green, N.; Harper, R., eds. 2002. Wireless world: social and interactional aspects of the mobile age. London: Springer. Final Project Report of Project 2WEAR. 2000. A Runtime for Adaptive and Extensible Wireless Wearables. 2WEAR Consortium. (Technical Report IST-2000-25286.) <2wear.ics.forth.gr/deliverables/2wear FinalReport draft.pdf> Galloway, A. 2004a. Playful mobilities: ubiquitous computing in the city (Part I). (Paper presented at the Alternative Mobility Futures Conference, Centre for Mobilities Research, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK, 9–11 January 2004.) Galloway, A. 2004b. Intimations of everyday life: ubiquitous computing and the city. Cultural studies, vol. 18, no. 2-3, pp. 384–408. Hof, R.D. 2003. The quest for the next big thing, the future tech-road map. Business week, 25 August 2003. IT 839 Strategy. 2006. Dynamic u-Korea: a leap to advanced Korea based on IT. Seoul: Ministry of Information and Communication. Krikke, J. 2003. The most popular operating system in the world. LinuxInsider, 15 October 2003. (Technology Special Report.) <www.linuxinsider. com/story/31855.html> Lalis, S.; Savidis, A.; Stephanidis, C. 2003. Wearable systems for everyday use. ERCIM news, no. 52, January, pp. 16–17. (Special issue on embedded systems.) MIT Laboratory for Computer Science. 2000. MIT Project Oxygen-Pervasive Human-Centered Computing, 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT. [Brochure.] Norman, D.A. 1998. The invisible computer. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Project Aura. Distraction-free Ubiquitous Computing, Human Computer Interaction Institute. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Mellon University. <www.cs.cmu.edu/∼aura/> Ribas, M.M. 2000. GROCER-Grocery Store Commerce Electronic Resource. Barcelona, Spain: Information Society Technologies. (Technical Report IST-2000-26163.) Scanlon, L. 2001. Rethinking the computer, Project Oxygen is turning out prototype computer systems. <www.technologyreview. com/Infotech/13687/?a=f> Schenker, J.L. 2000. The disappearing computer: Europe enters post-PC era. Time Europe, vol. 155, no. 8, 28 February. <www.time.com/time/ europe/magazine/2000/228/devices.html> Sousa, J.P.; Garlan, D. 2002. Aura: an architectural framework for user mobility in ubiquitous computing environments. In: Proceedings of the 3rd Working IEEE/IFIP Conference on Software Architecture, August 25-31, 2002, pp. 29–43. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
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Weiser, M. 1991. The computer for the twenty-first century. Scientific American, vol. 265, no. 3, pp. 91–104. Weiser, M. 1993a. Hot topics: ubiquitous computing. IEEE computer, vol. 26, no. 10, pp. 71–72. Weiser, M. 1993b. Some computer science problems in ubiquitous computing. Communications of the ACM, vol. 36, no. 7, pp. 74–83. Weiser, M. 1994. The world is not a desktop. Interactions, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 7–8. Weiser, M. 1998. The future of ubiquitous computing on campus. Communications of the ACM, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 41–42. Wikipedia. No date. TRON Project. <en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ TRON Project>
Chapter XI.6
Knowledge Workforce Development for Computer-Supported Collaborative Work Environments Man-Gon Park and Myong Hee Kim
1 Introduction With the globalization of the economy and its requirement for multi-skilled professionals, the demand for a knowledge workforce is increasing. The presence and the acquisition of a knowledge workforce in any organization is a critical factor for its success. Another important parameter that determines the success of an organization is the use of groupware that affects and facilitates interpersonal or group communication. Computer-based tools supporting collaborative work are becoming crucial elements in organizing the activities of groups of people. The computersupported collaborative work environments are a response to the growing interest in the design, implementation and use of technical systems (including computing, information and communications technologies—ICTs) that support people working co-operatively. Hence, there is a need to develop a knowledge workforce suitable for the CSCW environments. The term computer-supported co-operative work (CSCW) was first coined by Irene Greif and Paul M. Cashman in 1984 (Grudin, 1994) at a workshop attended by individuals interested in using technology to support people in their work. According to Carstensen and Schmidt (1999), CSCW addresses ‘how collaborative activities and their coordination can be supported by means of computer systems’. On the one hand, many authors consider that CSCW and groupware are synonyms. On the other hand, different authors claim that while groupware refers to real computer-based systems, CSCW focuses on the study of tools and techniques of groupware as well as their psychological, social and organizational effects. Wilson (1991) expresses the definition of CSCW with differences between these two concepts: ‘CSCW is a generic term, which combines the understanding of the way people work in groups with the enabling technologies of computer networking, and associated hardware, software, services and techniques’. This paper discusses the scenarios and needs in developing a knowledge workforce for CSCW environments with particular reference to knowledge workforce mobility across the Asia-Pacific Region and the opening up of labour markets. Collaborative work in digital work places with emphasis on multicultural environments has set new dimensions for workers and multinational organizations.
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2 The Knowledge Workforce Working in the knowledge economy does not mean that the apex of learning is being good at finding information created by others or locating products to consume. The real power of the Internet lies in unleashing creative potential. In the future, the most valuable knowledge workers will be those who find and use collaborative technologies at work, home and in civil society. They are the assets of nations in developing and promoting the knowledge economy. Describing the historical perspective of knowledge-based economic development; Judy (2002) quotes Peter F. Drucker who says that, by 2030, 40% of the workforce will be knowledge workers. Judy also mentions the traits of a twenty-first century knowledge-based economy, which are depicted in Table 1. It is worth noting that the knowledge workforce and informationtechnology lie at the heart of success. These two have to work in combination to produce competitive products and services.
Table 1 The traits of a twenty-first century knowledge-based economy 1. A high and rising share in GDP of output from knowledge-intensive industries, i.e. industries in which the quantity and quality of firms’ intellectual property is critical to their competitive success. These include the information technology (IT) industries and other high-tech sectors. They also include financial, business, health and educational services. 2. The ‘knowledge content’ of everyday goods and services is high and rising. 3. High levels of R&D at all levels—government, university and corporate. 4. A rapid pace of technological innovation accompanied by insistent pressures on companies to innovate or lose their competitive position. 5. Shortening life spans for both products and services, i.e. a contraction of the time period between when they are designed or conceived to when they become obsolete and are replaced. 6. Intense competition in markets where both buyers and sellers are very well informed by the Internet and other telecommunications media. 7. A major need for rapid responsiveness and adaptability to ever-changing customer needs and other market circumstances. From this comes the need to know and anticipate those changes ahead of the competition. 8. High tolerance of risk among businesses and individuals accompanied by a high incidence of entrepreneurial activity. 9. High levels of ‘creative destruction’ in which established technologies (and the companies based on them) are constantly threatened by newcomers, both from within and outside their industries as previously defined. 10. Many ‘gazelles’, i.e. recently formed and very rapidly growing companies based on new or transformed intellectual property. 11. High levels of education and skills among broad sections of the population and workforce. 12. More and more work is done by teams of people working collaboratively to combine their various talents to accomplish a common goal. 13. Insistent pressure on individuals to upgrade their skills and knowledge bases in order to remain employable, well compensated and professionally mobile. 14. High levels of penetration of computers, telecommunications, the Internet and other forms of information technology in homes, schools and workplaces.
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3 Digital Works, Digital Workplaces and the Digital Workforce The shift from an industrial to an information age has altered the nature of the workplace, the worker and work. Workers in the Information Era can work anywhere as long as they have electronic connectivity and flexible time schedules. They are required to be innovative, learn quickly and continuously, work collaboratively, and be comfortable with experimentation and risk taking. They require less supervision and more coaching and vision from their leadership. The three main components of the collaborative work environment in the ICT-oriented workplace can be shown as in Figure 1. CSCW holds great promise for organizations through the infusion of teamwork, effective networking and creating multilateral work environments. People who work together in cross-functional or even cross-organizational teams can quickly establish work plans, divide up tasks, and determine means of co-ordination and self-regulation. Often team members work asynchronously, but their work can be co-ordinated effectively through computer-supported co-operative work (Dourish & Bellotti, 1992). The Microsoft Chief Executive Bill Gates (2005), commenting upon workplace trends, states that we already have the platform of the Internet and low-cost connectivity. The thing that is driving the most change is improvement to the software that sits on top of that platform. He is of the opinion that a technologically oriented workforce is coming to the fore that is willing to use this technology. More collaboration, the availability of information 24-hours per day and collaboration among several organizations are some of the recent trends in work places. Gates presents a picture of workplace trends as shown in Figure 2. He further suggests that information has become overloaded, as estimated e-mail traffic has increased ten times since 1997 and e-communication will increase five times over the same period up to 2008, but in most cases the requisite information may still not be available in the right form and, hence, we are also suffering from information underload. The digital work style is taking shape with elements like presence, unified communication, optimizing supply chains, team collaboration, finding the right
Computer supported co-operative work
Fig. 1 Components of collaborative work environments
Digital workforce
Digital works
Digital workplaces
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M.-G. Park, M.H. Kim Economic transformation One world of business
Competition in a shrinking workforce
Managers and the workforce
Workplace trends
Always on, always connected
The transparent organization
Fig. 2 Workplace trends according to Bill Gates (2005)
Unified communication Improving personal productivity
Insight and structured workflow
Presence
Digital work style
Spotting trends for business intelligence
Optimizing supply chains
Team collaboration Finding the right information
Fig. 3 Digital work style according to Bill Gates (2005)
information, spotting trends for business information, insight and structured workflow and improving personal productivity. The future digital workplace, Bill Gates (2005) argues, would look like Figure 3, with less complexity of software, good control of information and significant productivity benefits.
4 The Knowledge Workforce for the Knowledge Economy The foundation stones of the knowledge economy are human ingenuity and skill and a commitment to innovation through research and development.
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Understanding the meaning of ‘knowledge’ is essential when talking about the ‘knowledge-based economy’. This is because the success of firms and individuals depends on the ability to produce new ideas, to transform old ones, to combine and codify information into intellectual property and to incorporate it into new products and processes. In short, success increasingly depends on individual and collective abilities to produce and use knowledge. The shift from an agricultural or industrial economy to a knowledge-based economy carries profound implications for the workforce. The workforce’s level of knowledge and skills, its flexibility and responsiveness, the ability of its members to work in teams—all of these are raised to new and higher levels in the knowledgebased economy. An excerpt from the report of the Information Technology Advisory Group to the New Zealand Minister for Information Technology is worth quoting here: In today’s information age knowledge has become the gold standard. If New Zealand is to prosper in the third millennium it is vital that we understand the implications of this change. But time is short. Prices for our commodity exports are in decline and we face tight competition for markets. It is unlikely that the traditional foundations of our economy alone—farming, forestry and fishing—can deliver the level of growth needed for our future well-being. If we don’t change the way we compete in the global economy our way of life and standard of living are at risk (Information Technology Advisory Group, 1999).
Similarly, Richard W. Judy, analysing the knowledge workforce development efforts vis-`a-vis the knowledge economy in the Russian Federation, concluded with the following lesson: The lesson is that economic development and workforce development are overlapping domains. Attempting economic development with no eye to the workforce implications and needs is like trying to walk on a single leg. To attempt workforce development without a vision of economic development is to stumble aimlessly without a goal or destination (Judy, 2002).
From the above examples and from the emphasis laid on knowledge workforce development in the knowledge-based economy, it becomes clear that the long-term forecasting of manpower ‘requirements’ is not feasible in a dynamic economy. We need to have a more flexible and systems-oriented approach for workforce planning and development.
5 Knowledge Workforce Planning It is said that plans are nothing—planning is everything. Workforce planning, particularly knowledge workforce planning, has many facets. It has normally been performed at two different levels: (a) at the micro-level of the individual company or firm; and (b) at the macro-level of national economies. The first type of workforce planning falls under the human-resource management of an individual firm or organization, while the second type takes place at the national level.
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Organizations and countries all over the world practise some kind of workforce planning. After the Second World War, the USSR was among the first nations to practice manpower planning. According to the priorities established by the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the Soviet State Planning Commission (Gosplan) set goals for national economic development and elaborated both long- and short-term plans that were designed to achieve them. Later on, the same kind of central planning was adopted in a modified form by East European nations, the Chinese, the North Koreans, the Vietnamese, the Cubans and other nations that imitated the Soviet system (Judy, 2002). The USSR’s Gosplan endeavoured to forecast the entire range of resources, including human resources, required to achieve their plans. Detailed manifests of specific occupations were developed which, in turn, were translated into targets for educational and training institutions. Young people were evaluated and streamed from an early age into specific manpower preparation programmes that converted the unskilled workers into highly educated scientists and engineers. These targets became the basis for ‘production plans’ of schools and higher educational institutions. Later on, however, it came to light that there were many deficiencies in workforce planning (Judy, 2002). Some of them are listed in Table 2. Similarly, the United States Bureau of Labour Statistics, which is a division of the federal Department of Labour, produces ten-year workforce and occupational projections to guide workforce policy-makers, occupational counsellors, educators, students, workers, scholars and the public at large. Realizing the need for globalizing the New Zealand economy, the abovementioned report of the Information Technology Advisory Group exhorted the government to seize the opportunities provided by the knowledge economy and to plan for and develop a knowledge workforce. The report mentions several issues faced by New Zealand and possible solutions to make the economy knowledge intensive
Table 2 Deficiencies in the Gosplan workforce planning exercise and the lessons to be learned 1 It was anti-market: The assumption that Gosplan or any other set of central planners could accurately determine future workforce needs proved to be ill-founded. Essentially, Soviet planners lacked the necessary information, prescience and computational ability to predict the labour market through central planning and directives. 2 Mismatches: Educating and training young people in highly specialized fields produced countless mismatches between workers’ knowledge and skill sets, on the one hand, and the actual needs of industry on the other. As it turned out, many—if not most—workers found themselves working outside the narrow specialties for which they had been trained. 3 Inflexibility: Narrow training left workers poorly equipped to adapt to new circumstances as they evolved during their professional lifetimes. 4 Conservativeness: Nobody in the Soviet system had any incentive to innovate. Planners, managers, educators and workers all found innovation to be disruptive of carefully calculated plans. Also, they found the risk associated with innovation to be threatening to their professional and personal security. Avoiding risk and innovation meant avoiding change and progress. Stagnation was the result.
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Table 3 The roles that the New Zealand Government should assume 1 See education as the springboard for disseminating and implementing the knowledge economy strategy. 2 Develop education policies to ensure that all students are exposed to ICTs at an early age and that information literacy and computer skills are made a part of the national curriculum. 3 Require all teachers to undertake fast-track courses in computer skills. 4 Provide teachers with access to technology and on-going support to improve their skills and knowledge of ICTs. 5 Offer an approved course in information and communication technologies to encourage more students to enrol in IT courses at university. 6 Fund extra places in IT courses at tertiary level to produce more IT graduates. 7 Fund post-graduate scholarships in IT, perhaps through Technology New Zealand, to stimulate more post-graduate research in areas of special importance. 8 Ensure that computers and Internet access are available to every student in a tertiary institution. 9 Ensure that within five years all primary and secondary students have adequate access to a computer and Internet connection. 10 Ensure investment in education that enables Maoris to develop skills to participate in the knowledge economy. 11 Promote on-the-job and institution-based training to up-skill older workers in areas important to the knowledge economy. 12 Explore ways of making an investment in industry training to increase the number of workers able to participate in knowledge-based industries.
(Information Technology Advisory Group, 1999). Some of the roles that the report suggests should be assumed by the government are indicated in Table 3. It is evident that the concerns and initiatives shown in Table 3 indicate commonalities and links among the knowledge economy, the knowledge workforce and information technology. Since initiatives in this direction may require collaborative work with the participation of groups or individuals within organizations and institutions, the knowledge workforce may need to be prepared for computer-supported collaborative work.
6 Knowledge Workforce Development It has been said that access to knowledge has been the most critical component in the evolving global economy. This apprehension leads organizations, governments and managements to devise strategies to manage multilateral work environments effectively. Knowledge today is becoming IT based with web-based resources approachable anywhere and anytime. Knowledge management and information technology cannot be separated. With this amalgamation, the nature of work at the work places is becoming more and more digitally based and multilateral in nature. The skills required in workplaces are therefore becoming wider and more complex, with the composition of both technical and non-technical competencies. For example, a simple e-commerce model involves manufacturer, customer and banks—Figure 4. Customer handling, money transactions, the quality of products and services and similar other works are all interlinked together to produce a whole
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Consumers Supplier
Electronic exchange Manufacturer’s bank
Supplier’s bank Shopper’s bank
Fig. 4 E-commerce model with multilateral work environments
system. The basic elements of e-commerce are information sharing, ordering, payment fulfilment, and provision of service and support. All these elements create multilateral work environments (Van Der Mast, 2001). CSCW draws developers and researchers from each pre-existing culture. It represents a merging of issues, approaches and languages. Spanning boundaries, CSCW and groupware are difficult to define—no definition satisfies everyone involved. This creates an exciting potential for cross-fertilization and for doing work with broad implications in a multilateral environment (Eseryel, Ganesan & Edmonds, 2002). The framework of knowledge workforce development has been carried out primarily focusing on two important aspects—employment and education. The first concentrates on the necessary conditions conducive for productive employment generation and productivity enhancement, or what is seen as the ‘demand’ side of workforce development. The ‘supply’ side is primarily concerned with determining the skill composition of this demand and the corresponding investments in skill development. ‘Education’ is required to meet the demands of the ‘demand’ side and the ‘supply’ side. The ‘supply’ side, however, is not limited to a technically trained knowledge workforce, but also encompasses overall ‘education’ including general education, as well as the whole issues of quality of education—an area unfortunately neglected in most discussions on knowledge workforce development. And all ‘statistical data’ related to ‘employment’ and ‘education’ will be provided to the ‘demand’ side, ‘supply’ side and ‘third group’. Figure 5 illustrates the model of knowledge workforce development. Individuals in offices, other work places and even at home perform most of their work by communicating with others. Groupware/CSCW allows the management of an organization to rethink how they run their business. People need not work in
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Education
Demand
Employment
Supply
Statistical data
Third group
Fig. 5 The model of knowledge workforce development
the same place, particularly in multinational organizations, where the branch office locations are scattered and they need to share their resources. This shared communication lowers the cost significantly, allowing the same resource to be used by all and also receiving the status of the on-going work or project in an easier and more convenient way (Park, 2006). Problem resolution, idea generation and innovation are enhanced when using group support systems. Figure 6 shows the model with knowledge workforce development for CSCW (Koksal, Cingil & Dogac, 1999).
7 Conclusions Technologies of computer networking, and associated hardware, software, services and techniques that are used to facilitate, augment and support interactions among members of a community of practice are called computer-supported collaborative work systems. While making use of group work for the purpose of achieving higher levels of productivity within a group, it is important to note that CSCW systems are not just useful for the purpose of collaborative work. Their capabilities are equally important for collaborative learning and knowledge construction. That is why many organizations are utilizing CSCW technologies in their training programmes. CSCW technologies have enhanced collaboration in ways previously thought impossible. It is apparent that the advancement in information technologies will affect our working, learning and teaching practices. What is not as well known is
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Collaborative technologies
Education Group support system
Problem solution Idea generation Innovation
Demand
Supply
Employment
Statistical data
Third group
Fig. 6 Model with knowledge workforce development for CSCW
how to build a model of collaborative work across distances that works best in a given situation.
References Carstensen, P.H.; Schmidt, K. 1999. Computer supported cooperative work: new challenges to systems design. Dourish, P.; Bellotti, V. 1992. Awareness and coordination in shared workspaces. New York, NY: ACM Press. Eseryel, D.; Ganesan, R.; Edmonds, G.S. 2002. Review of computer-supported collaborative work systems. Educational technology and society, vol. 5, no. 2. Gates, B. 2005. The new world of work. (Speech at ninth Annual Microsoft CEO Summit, 19 May 2005, Redmond, Washington, USA.) Grudin, J. 1994. Computer-supported cooperative work: its history and participation. Computer, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 19–26. Information Technology Advisory Group. 1999. The knowledge economy. Wellington: Ministry for Information Technology.
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Judy, R.W. 2002. Workforce planning in the knowledge-based economy. (Paper prepared for the seventh Annual Conference on Human Resource Development in a Knowledge-Based Economy of the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research, 11 February 2002, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.) Koksal, P.; Cingil, I.; Dogac, A. 1999. A component-based workflow system with dynamic modifications. In: Proceeding of the Next Generation Information Technologies and Systems (NGITS’99). Berlin: Springer. Park, M.G. 2006. Shared workspace for computer-supported cooperative work. Quarterly, vol. 33, no. 3. Van Der Mast, C. 2001. A course on human-computer interaction design using computer-supported collaborative work. Delft, Netherlands: University of Technology. Wilson, P. 1991. Computer supported cooperative work: an introduction. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer.
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Chapter XI.7
The Role of ICTs and TVET in Rural Development and Poverty Alleviation Chiranjib Kumar Basu and Shyamal Majumdar
1 Introduction The focus of this chapter is on rural development and poverty alleviation in developing countries, which is one of the greatest challenges for the international community in the twenty-first century. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) can play very important roles in meeting these challenges. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a compact among United Nations Member States to end human poverty, was adopted by the heads-of-state and governments of 189 countries in the year 2000. The strategy to end poverty has to be multi-sectoral and will require a committed action programme for infrastructural development, institutional capacity-building and empowerment of people. ICTs and TVET are important tools to wage war against poverty in all developing countries. Sachs (2005) points out that for the first time in history our generation has the power and opportunity to end extreme poverty in the world’s most desperate regions. Education for All (EFA), TVET for All and ICTs are the keys to empowering rural people. This action programme for empowerment and capacity-building must start in the millions of villages and city slums spread all over Africa, Asia and Latin America.
2 Millennium Development Goals to Reduce Poverty The MDGs of 2000 committed countries to reduce poverty by half by the year 2015 or earlier. Most of the world’s poor people live in Africa and Asia. They live in rural areas and urban slums. A large part of them are women. Since 1990, separate reports by the United Nations Development Programme (see UNDP, 1992, 1997, 2005) echoed key points in human development, defined as ‘the process of enlarging people’s choice’. The most critical human choices are: (a) to live a long and healthy life; (b) to be educated and skilled; and (c) to be able to generate income in order to enjoy a decent standard of living. Human development and human poverty are the two contrasting pictures of the development paradigm. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XI.7, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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They reflect two contrasting approaches to evaluating development. Poverty means denial of opportunities and choices in the most basic elements of human development. Jeffrey Sachs, Special Advisor to former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, travelled and worked in more than 100 countries across the globe in the search for a strategy to ‘end poverty in our life time’. Sachs (2005) provides a road-map for investment in people and in the infrastructure of sustainable development in rural areas and urban slums.
3 Incidence and Extent of Poverty Measurement of poverty can be done in many ways—one approach is to identify a threshold level of consumption based on a person’s minimum calorific requirements, plus a provision for other basic essentials of life. This is called ‘the poverty line’. An alternative approach is the ‘dollar-a-day’ income level, which makes the international comparison of the incidence of poverty easier. In this approach, all people living on less than US$370 a year, measured in purchasing power parity (PPP), are defined as poor. Based on the ‘dollar-a-day’ approach, more than 1 billion people are living below the poverty level (Table 1). Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is one of the poorest regions in the world. By 2001, the poverty incidence in SSA reached an alarming 46.4% of the total population. In Asia, South Asia is one of the worst hit areas. About 32% of the people in South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bhutan, live in poverty. In East Asia, countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, Thailand and Taipei-China have seen a rapid decline of poverty during the last three decades. The education, skill development and training programmes have sharply reduced the incidence of poverty in East Asian countries, including China. Sachs (2005) visited a Kenyan village, Souri, and found that among the villagers only one-quarter of the farmers used new technology and modern methods in their farming practice. The low productivity of their farming enterprises was due to many factors including: lack of information, knowledge and skills related to modern farming; and lack of available finance to introduce new technology. However, he found the villagers ‘ready and eager to be empowered by increased information and technical knowledge’. Rural vocational and technical education and training Table 1 Income/poverty in selected regions in the world, 1981–2001: the percentage of people living on less than US$1/day Region
1981
1990
2001
East-Asia and Pacific South Asia Sub-Saharan Africa
56.7% 51.5% 41.6%
29.5% 41.3% 44.5%
14.3% 31.9% 46.4%
Source: UNDP, 2005.
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could help them to learn about modern methods of farming (e.g. using improved harrows, using improved fertilizers and pesticides, etc.) and vocational skills like computer literacy and Internet use for the collection of information, learning basic infrastructural maintenance skills (e.g. electrical wiring, maintenance of diesel engines and generators, water harvesting, bore-well construction, hand-pump repair, etc.), carpentry, plumbing and other locally relevant skills. In Souri, the villagers, with the help of the visiting United Nations team, identified the ‘Big-Five’ needs: (a) agricultural inputs; (b) investment in basic health; (c) investment in education and training; (d) investment in power, transport and communication; and (e) investment in safe-drinking water and sanitation. Sachs (2005) met a group of slum dwellers in Mumbai, India, in June 2000. The women in the group began to talk about the realities of urban poverty and suggested a range of solutions. Urban poverty in Asia and Africa provides evidence of a lack of basic infrastructures, lack of literacy and income-generating skills, and lack of finance for self-employment or for starting a small business enterprise. Michael Diamond, Asia Director for Plan, an international agency, reported in the ‘Times of India’ (2005) that 600 million Asian children live in poverty and lack access to the very basics of human development. In his road-map to end poverty, Sachs concluded that the ‘end of poverty must start in the villages of Souri and slums of Mumbai and millions of places like them’. Key components of such action are building human capital and infrastructure in rural areas and it must take special care of the children living in poverty.
4 Strategy for Rural Development and Poverty Reduction A broad strategy for rural development has to be multidimensional. Building basic capital for economic growth, employment generation and poverty alleviation in rural areas requires: 1. Building human capital through basic education, vocational education and training, healthcare and nutrition; 2. Strengthening knowledge and information capital through access and ability to use scientific, technological and market information related to agricultural products, farming techniques and crafts and trades; 3. Building financial capital for the poor through micro-credit, rural banking, rural credit policy and rural employment guarantee schemes for people.
4.1 Building Human Capital The World Education Forum, sponsored by UNESCO, provided a Framework for Action and highlighted that 113 million school-age children, mostly girls, are out of school. Lack of or the low level of basic education leads to poverty, HIV/AIDS,
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violence and social conflict. To achieve Education for All (EFA), the framework called for ensuring that by 2015 all children—with special emphasis on girls and children in difficult circumstances—have access to and opportunities for free and compulsory primary education. Devarajan and Reinikka (2004) identified five common problems in educational development for rural areas. They are:
r r r r r
Unaffordable access to basic education; Dysfunctional schools; The low level of parental and community participation; The low quality of teaching/learning in schools; Stagnant productivity.
4.2 Synergy Between General Education and TVET The second International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education, organized by UNESCO in Seoul, Republic of Korea, in April 1999, formulated recommendations for UNESCO and its Member States, concerning the orientation of TVET in the new century (UNESCO, 1999). These recommendations included:
r r r r r
Improving systems providing education and training throughout life; Innovating education and training processes; Technical and Vocational Education for All; Making efforts to enhance the public image and prestige of TVET; Enhancing international co-operation in TVET.
Synergy between general education and TVET was highlighted at the conference. Problems of rural unemployment and the low level of productivity require the development of technical and vocational skills to suit the local needs. Enhancing selfemployment opportunities and starting small business enterprises are critical means of rural development. A follow-up programme to the second TVET Congress, the International Conference on Vocational Education and Training in the Asia-Pacific Region, was held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, in October 2000 (KRIVET, 2000). At this conference, Basu (2000) highlighted emerging innovations in TVET for the twenty-first century. These include:
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Development of generic skills in TVET; Integration of information and communication technologies; Development of entrepreneurship and self-employment skills; Development of attitudes, behaviour and other non-technical skills in TVET; Education and training of TVET teachers; Standardization, certification and accreditation of TVET; Use of distance, open and on-line learning for TVET.
The Director-General of UNESCO pointed out that TVET skills will empower youth and adults to play a prominent part in the new development paradigm. Basu (2000)
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identified the following six generic skills for TVET that have been successfully adopted in many East Asian countries:
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Basic mathematics and language skills; Planning, decision-making, critical-thinking and problem-solving skills; Inter-personal and communication skills; Ethics, management and leadership skills; Hands-on experience and training-on-demand occupations; Computer literacy and Internet training.
The ILO (1999) stated in its technical report that the experience of countries in East Asia points to six core principles of successful vocational education and training. These are:
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The importance of primary education; Increased allocations to technical/vocational education; Planning for TVET with the projection of future demand; Teacher training for TVET; The public sector role of TVET; Clear linkage between general and technical education leading to vertical career mobility.
In India, a Community Polytechnic Scheme, sponsored by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), has successfully introduced vocational education and training at the grassroots level in Indian villages (Government of India, n.d.). Seven identified areas for the community polytechnics are: (a) agriculture; (b) housing and shelter; (c) water supply and irrigation; (d) agro and small-scale village industries; (e) road and village transport; (f) electrification; and (g) sanitation.
4.3 Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment Training The importance of promoting, encouraging and strengthening entrepreneurship and self-employment skills training is evident from experience in East Asia and in many industrialized countries. In East Asia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea and Taipei-China have all achieved much economic development through the development of small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs). Many SMEs started on the initiative of a single individual. A study in Malaysia found that 86% of firms sampled were started by their present owners. An increasing number of SMEs are launched by women. Rural TVET institutions, like the community polytechnics in India, need to promote and strengthen entrepreneurship and self-employment training through formal and non-formal methods. The Colombo Plan Staff College, a regional organization based in Manila, introduced such programmes in many Asia-Pacific countries in the 1990s with aim of:
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Developing entrepreneurial values, attitudes and spirit; Developing technological knowledge and technical skills, and Developing business planning skills and leadership.
4.4 Strengthening Knowledge and Information Capital Education and TVET in rural areas are important for strengthening knowledge capital. Delors et al. (1996) pointed out that the bridge from economic growth to human development has to be built through teachers who are well trained. The most important ‘agent of change’ in ‘the knowledge society’ is the teacher. Experts highlighted the need for innovations and quality improvement in the training of TVET teachers to meet the challenges in rural areas. New information and communication technologies, electronic media and e-learning possess immense possibilities to open up avenues of open and distance learning (ODL) for TVET. The concept of lifelong learning emerged as one of the major concepts of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century (Delors et al., 1996) leading to the publication of ‘Learning: the treasure within’. It is a blueprint for teacher training. In India, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has dedicated an educational TV channel, Gyan Darshan, and an educational FM radio programme, Gyan Vani, for distance education programmes for TVET students and teachers. At the international level, the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), based in Vancouver, and the Colombo Plan Staff College (CPSC), Manila, have major programmes for the training of TVET personnel. COL is involved in the use of ODL and ICTs for teacher development in six major areas:
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Advocacy and awareness building; Capacity-building and strengthening institutions; Facilitating collaboration; Electronic networking; Facilitating professional development; and Assuring quality in teacher development.
COL International (2000) launched the ‘Life-long Learning for Farmers’ programme in the village of Govindanagaram, Tamil Nadu, India, which draws on the methodology of technology-mediated open and distance learning to improve the livelihood of farmers in rural India. It is supported through the partnership of villagers, banks, technology providers and educators. ‘Life-long Learning for Farmers’ is a grassroots initiative to build a knowledge society.
4.5 ICTs for Rural Development and Poverty Alleviation During the past few years, the world has witnessed phenomenal growth in ICTs. The development of broadband communication services, the convergence of telecommunications with the computer and recent advances in the field of communication
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protocols through the World Wide Web have drastically changed the world scenario of business, commerce, education, research, governance, entertainment and various aspects of economic activity leading to a distance-less world. There is a growing recognition that ICTs can: (a) provide opportunities for development; (b) help people overcome the limitations of time and space; and (c) empower people by providing knowledge and learning opportunities. ICTs are breaking down the old barriers and building new interconnections in the emerging global village. Thus, ICTs are likely to become the chief determinants of the progress of nations, communities and individuals in the years to come (Majumdar, 2005a, 2005b). Unfortunately, the benefits of ICTs are not universal. The rural masses are yet to benefit from the ICT revolution. The information gap is increasing between urban and rural, as also between rich and poor, resulting in an increased power flow towards the elite. These gaps affect not only the economic development of the rural poor, but also their participation in governance, their health, education and, finally, the quality of their lives. A virtual wall of isolation separates the rich from the impoverished millions of the world who continue to flounder in basic agricultural practices without access to information. We need to develop a different framework to bring ICTs to the doorsteps of the poor, making it one of the most important tools for poverty alleviation, employment generation and information provision—all leading to improvement in the quality of life for the rural population. A good number of prominent initiatives for rural development using ICT-based strategies have been introduced in the Asia-Pacific Region. They will provide considered understanding and suggestions on ways in which ICTs might be used most effectively for development and poverty reduction (Majumdar, 2005b).
4.6 Some Major Initiatives A number of initiatives have been taken up by various stakeholders in applying ICTs to rural development in the Asia and Pacific Region and a few case studies are presented in Table 2. The case studies mentioned in the table are drawn from the UNDP-APDIP series and show that today’s ICT media are excellent vehicles for conveying muchneeded information anytime and anywhere. Internet technologies are not only becoming a lot smarter, but they are also growing more user-friendly and helpful for communities in overcoming poverty by arming them with information, knowledge and technologies. Communication is no longer limited to radio or TV. A digital technology-based information kiosk can provide the disadvantaged in rural areas with access to telephone and fax services, e-mail, Internet and electronic networks, databases and libraries. The Internet can provide cheap services to people at a time and place convenient to them. The rural poor need not spend large sums of money travelling to towns to file applications for basic services, like land registration, medical and health care information, educational services and so on. All these can
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Table 2 Some initiatives in applying ICTs to rural development Projects
Location
Content
Remarks
1
Gyandoot: Cybercafecum-cyberoffices for the masses
Forty-four locations in Madhya Pradesh, India
More than twenty-four public services, provided on a user-charge basis
2
Community information centres
3
e-Bario
Seven states of the North-Eastern (NE) Region, India Sarawak, Malaysia
4
Multi-purpose community tele-centres (MPCC) Grameen phones
Mindanao, Philippines
All 487 blocks in seventy-nine districts of the NE states have been covered University/ community partnership to improve the lives of marginalized groups by using ICTs A pilot project run by the Philippines Government to set up MPCC in rural villages of Mindanao Grameen Bank, the village-based micro-finance organization leases cellular mobile phones to women for business purposes
Strengthening distance education for agriculture and rural development in China
CABTS System, China
Replicated in more than thirty districts in India. A path-breaking project, known as the community-based initiative with PP partnership Providing ICT infrastructure at block level: e-governance, tele-education and e-health with VSAT Tele-centres, smart schools, e-commerce implementation with participatory action-research principles Essentially a top-down approach to community development using ICTs, involving 44,000 villages in the future The phones are mostly used for exchanging price, business and health-related information. It has had a positive impact on the empowerment and social status of phone-leasing women Facilitate adoption of digital delivery methods in distance education to reduce rural poverty and to enhance agricultural productivity
5
6
Bangladesh
Enhancing the institutional capacity of the CABTS system to incorporate digital delivery methods in its provision of education for agriculture and rural development
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Case study
Projects
Location
Content
Remarks
7
Digital radio programming
Nepal
8
INSAT
India
A digital broadcast initiative is being tested that will broadcast digital radio programming via satellite to low-cost receivers in rural villages Indian National Satellite System is extensively used for educational purposes, such as country-wide classrooms in which programmes are telecast in local languages for the benefit of the rural population
The programme is targeting HIV/AIDS awareness and has the potential to link with computers so as to receive multimedia content Besides education, INSAT has improved weather forecasting and is providing advance warning about disasters. About 150 telecommunication terminals are today operating under the INSAT network providing various tele-services. A separate Educational Satellite has been launched recently
Source: Dougherty, 2006; Harris & Rajora, 2006.
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be done from a local Internet kiosk, eliminating the need to make a round trip. Application can be made for every government facility at a convenient kiosk. The rural poor can also view progress in these applications, which is likely to eliminate corruption, provide transparency and a certain accountability for government services. Internet technology can, therefore, offer greater benefits to the poor than to the rich in developing countries.
4.7 Building Financial Capital for Rural Poor One of the key problems preventing the rural poor from engaging in self-employment or starting a small business enterprise is access to finance. Financing mechanisms for rural entrepreneurship are generally very unfriendly and corrupt. Banks are often unwilling to risk lending, partly because poor people cannot offer acceptable collateral and frequently because the loan they require is too small to be profitable to the bank. Rural women have particular difficulty in obtaining loans from established financial institutions. Micro-credit is conceived as an integral part of the collective effort to meet the challenges of small finance in rural areas. The International Year of Micro-credit, in 2005, brought this into further focus. Micro-credit is the provision of small loans to groups of poor people, especially women, in order to invest in small-business enterprise or self-employment. The scheme provides for credit to small groups of six to eight poor people. Group-liability for defaulters ensures a high rate of loan recovery that often exceeds 90%. Grameen Bank and its associate BRAC in Bangladesh pioneered micro-credit with great success. Indonesia has similar schemes like Baden Kredit Kecamatan and Badan Credit Desa. In Mumbai, India, the Self-Employment Women’s Association (SEWA) has similar programmes for women entrepreneurs. UNICEF-supported programmes in Benin, Brazil, Cambodia, Egypt, Kenya, Nepal and Viet Nam have broadened access to finance for poor people. Many developing countries have provided institutional frameworks for rural financing through rural banks, agricultural banks, co-operative banks, etc., providing user-friendly loans to rural farmers and poor people.
5 Action Plan towards the Future The ‘Human development report’ (UNDP, 2005) observers that ‘the year 2005 has been marked by an unprecedented global campaign dedicated to relegate poverty to the past’ (p. 1). The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), meeting at its sixtieth Anniversary Session in September 2005, urged Member States to take action to eradicate poverty. Each developing country in Africa, Asia and Latin America has to translate this vision into action plans to meet country-specific needs, to meet the challenges of poverty and other MDGs. The plans must layout multi-sectoral approaches to ensure sustainable progress. The ‘Human development report 2005’
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shows that, while there has been substantial overall progress globally, many individual countries and regions within countries are actually falling behind. An action plan for TVET for rural development and poverty alleviation must be carefully drawn-up by each country according to its specific poverty scenario and national priorities. Available human resources, institutional support and infrastructures will remain critical considerations in drawing up the plan. However, countries must ensure that rural people become full partners to achieve the MDGs. Rural people must become productive as well as promoting their own education, information, health, human rights and happiness. Information and knowledge are critical components of poverty alleviation strategies and ICTs offer the promise of easy access to huge amounts of information useful to the poor. However, ICTs alone are not a sufficient condition to produce optimal outcomes, until and unless they work under wider development strategies for rural development. Giving voices to the poor and helping them to apply their knowledge is a key component in combating poverty. Directly addressing the needs of the poor and the most marginalized groups is vital for successful implementation of applying ICTs for poverty alleviation. Equitable access, meaningful use, social appropriation of ICT resources and people’s participation in the development project are all necessary to take advantage of available opportunities and achieve positive results. International and national technical and financial support need to be substantially augmented to build human and knowledge capitals as well as infrastructure in the twenty-first century. Education For All (EFA) and Technical and Vocational Education for All (TVETA) must incorporate the four basic pillars of learning to know, to do, to live together and to be (Delors et al., 1996). New approaches to international co-operation and national prioritization in ICTs and TVET are vital to achieve the objectives of the MDGs by the year 2015.
References Basu, C.K. 2000. Role of technical and vocational education and training in the process of globalization in Asia Pacific Region. In: KRIVET, ed. Proceedings of the International Conference on Vocational Education and Training in Asia-Pacific Region. Seoul: Ministry of Education, KRIVET. COL International. 2000. The use of information and communications technology (ICT) in learning and distance education, final report. Vancouver, Canada: COL International. (Prepared by Intelecom Research.) Delors, J. et al. 1996. Learning: the treasure within. Paris: UNESCO. (Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century.) Devarajan, S.; Reinikka, R. 2004. Making services work for poor people. Journal of African economies, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 42–66. Diamond, M. 2005. 600 m Asian kids live in poverty. Times of India, 23 August 2005. Dougherty, M. 2006. Exploring new modalities: experiences with information and communications technology interventions in the Asia-Pacific Region: a review and analysis of the Pan-Asia ICT R&D Grants Programme. New Delhi: Elsevier. (UNDP-APDIP ICT4D series.)
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Government of India. Ministry of Human Resources Development. No date. Scheme of community polytechnics in India. New Delhi: Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Education. Harris, R.; Rajora, R. 2006. Information and communications technology for governance and poverty reduction: a study of rural development projects. New Delhi: Elsevier. (UNDP-APDIP ICT4D series.) International Labour Office. 1999. Skills in Asia and the Pacific: why training matters. Bangkok: International Labour Office, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training—KRIVET. 2000. Proceedings of the International Conference on Vocational Education and Training in Asia-Pacific Region. Seoul: Ministry of Education, KRIVET. Majumdar, S. 2005a. Enhancing quality for rural education through multimedia community centers. In: International Research and Training Centre for Rural Education—INRULED, ed. Proceedings of the International Seminar on ‘Rural Education through Sustainable Development’, China, 26-28 May 2005. Baoding, China: INRULED. Majumdar, S. 2005b. Open and distance learning for rural development in India. In: FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, ed. Proceedings of the Regional Workshop on ‘ODL for Agricultural Development and Rural Poverty Reduction’, Thailand, 28-30th June, 2005. Bangkok: FAO. Sachs, J. 2005. The end of poverty: how can we make it happen in our lifetime. London: Penguin Books. United Nations Development Programme. 1992. Human development report: global dimensions of human development. New York, NY: UNDP. United Nations Development Programme. 1997. Human development report: human development to eradicate poverty. New York, NY: UNDP United Nations Development Programme. 2005. Human development report: aid, trade and security. New York, NY: UNDP. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 1999. Second International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education: lifelong learning and training. Paris: UNESCO. <www.unesco.org/education/educprog/tve/nseoul/indexe.html>
Chapter XI.8
Switched on: International Approaches to Skills Development through ICTs Maja Zarini
We must ensure that information and communication technologies (ICTs) are used to help unlock the door to education. Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, in a message to the ‘Global Forum’ in Dublin, Ireland, in 2005 (United Nations. Secretary-General, 2005).
1 Setting the Scene The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), held in Geneva (10–12 December 2003) and Tunis (16–18 November 2005), emphasized: the common desire and commitment to build a people-centred, inclusive and developmentoriented Information Society, where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information and knowledge, enabling individuals, communities and peoples to achieve their full potential in promoting their sustainable development and improving their quality of life, premised on the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and respecting fully and upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (WSIS, 2005).
The WSIS was endorsed by the United Nations and is part of a growing number of events and activities on the significance and impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the world today. ICTs are now encountered in virtually all areas of life and, increasingly, are becoming a key tool in education and training. ICTs facilitate the administration of education and training and the provision of learning content. Computer-enhanced delivery of education and training (e-learning) is becoming increasingly widespread and can make education and training available to many more people around the world. ICTs are therefore a key tool in the provision of technical and vocational education and training (TVET). But there are even further implications. Around the world, gaining employment increasingly depends on a person’s ability to effectively and efficiently use ICTs. ICTs also simplify and accelerate information and knowledge sharing about TVET, so that best practices and lessons learned can easily be disseminated. A recent study commissioned by the European Union (2005) on the current and potential future use of ICTs in initial TVET in the European Union (EU) addressed many issues around ICTs in TVET, such as to what extent and in what way ICTs and R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XI.8, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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e-learning are currently being applied to support learning in TVET, the qualitative impact of the use of ICTs, and prerequisites for success and reasons for failure. The study found that the use of ICTs in TVET in Europe varies greatly between countries and branches, but that the national strategies and action plans of all EU Member States primarily focus on:
r r r r r
Infrastructure and equipment; E-content; The training of teachers; Students’ use of e-learning, as well as their information technology (IT) skills; Co-operation among TVET providers and/or between providers and local businesses.
While e-learning is integrated into initial TVET in different ways, it is mainly used for communication, simulation, student assessment (e.g. through multiple-choice questionnaires) and as a general resource. The use of learning/content management systems is also prevalent. According to the study, the new educational models brought about by e-learning have a number of impacts. E-learning in TVET may:
r r r r r r r r r r r r
Link theory and practice better; Enhance the level of students’ knowledge, skills and competences; Better prepare students for the world of work; Increase the quality of teaching; Increase efficiency; Ensure realistic and safe student assessment; Increase flexibility; Increase motivation; Change the role of teachers and make students responsible for their own learning; Lead to individualized learning; Prepare the students for lifelong learning; Increase the scope for parental involvement (European Union, 2005).
In the development context, many actors in international development have recognized the importance of ICTs in education and have adopted this issue. In its policy on education, the Asian Development Bank states: The rapid growth of information and communication technology (ICT), and its everincreasing importance to social and economic development, has profound implications for education—both how ICT can be used to strengthen education, and how education can be more effectively used to promote the growth and application of ICT. The continuing challenge for education is to ensure that all people have the knowledge and skills necessary for continuing human and economic development, and for breaking the poverty cycle (ADB, 2002).
Especially in developing countries, ICTs can be harnessed to provide a cost-effective way to offer demand-driven training opportunities to a wide range of people and may be one response to the problem of providing education to today’s growing world population.
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The German Agency for Technical Co-operation (GTZ) is just one development agency that has taken up this issue in an initiative entitled ‘To “e” or not to be— innovative ICT approaches in vocational training’. The initiative is based on three pillars: qualification for ICT; qualification through ICT; and access to ICT. Another GTZ activity, the Crystal Sector Project, offers all implementing organizations involved in German vocational training co-operation a platform for jointly developing a coherent and competitive range of e-learning inputs. The project examines and assesses the potential of new e-learning approaches and provides advice on the design and implementation of technology-based training concepts. Its aims are to enhance the effectiveness of existing TVET activities through ICT, and the results of cooperation within Crystal are made available for further use (Deutsche Gesellschaft f¨ur Technische Zusammenarbeit—GTZ, 2007).
2 The Role of UNESCO UNESCO is giving a high priority to ‘the use of ICTs for more equitable and pluralistic development in education, aiming to (i) expand the knowledge base about the issues, both within the Organization and worldwide, (ii) work with partners and Member States to establish principles and guidance for good practice, (iii) give policy advice, and where appropriate (iv) engage in specific development co-operation’ (UNESCO, 2005). Education for All (EFA) is the largest UNESCO initiative in the area of education, and TVET is a crucial part of EFA. At the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, April 2000, 164 UNESCO Member States pledged to reach six main educational goals by the year 2015. On the basis that Education for All is a basic human right and at the heart of development (WEF, 2000), the outcome of the World Education Forum, the Dakar Framework for Action as well as related documents, specify strategies to achieve the goals set at the forum. The Dakar Framework for Action recognizes that ‘achieving the six [EFA] goals necessitates a broad-based approach which extends well beyond the confines of formal education systems’ (WEF, 2000). It identifies information and communication technologies as a critical strategy to achieve EFA (see Box 1). Box 1. Extract from the Dakar Framework for Action 10. Harness new information and communication technologies to help achieve EFA goals 71. Information and communication technologies (ICT) must be harnessed to support EFA goals at an affordable cost. These technologies have great potential for knowledge dissemination, effective learning and the development of more efficient education services. This potential will not be realised unless the new technologies serve rather than drive the implementation of education strategies. To be effective, especially in developing countries, ICTs should be
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combined with more traditional technologies such as books and radios, and be more extensively applied to the training of teachers. 72. The swiftness of ICT developments, their increasing spread and availability, the nature of their content and their declining prices are having major implications for learning. They may tend to increase disparities, weaken social bonds and threaten cultural cohesion. Governments will therefore need to establish clearer policies in regard to science and technology, and undertake critical assessments of ICT experiences and options. These should include their resource implications in relation to the provision of basic education, emphasising choices that bridge the ‘digital divide’, increase access and quality, and reduce inequity. 73. There is need to tap the potential of ICT to enhance data collection and analysis, and to strengthen management systems, from central ministries through sub-national levels to the school; to improve access to education by remote and disadvantaged communities; to support initial and continuing professional development of teachers; and to provide opportunities to communicate across classrooms and cultures. 74. News media should also be engaged to create and strengthen partnerships with education systems, through the promotion of local newspapers, informed coverage of education issues and continuing education programmes via public service broadcasting (WEF, 2000).
UNESCO applies a variety of approaches to promote the use of ICTs in education and expand learning opportunities to achieve the EFA goals. In addition to its focus on how ICTs can accelerate progress towards EFA, UNESCO examines issues such as possibilities for ICTs to create a better balance between equity and educational quality and relevance, as well as the potential of education to prepare individuals and societies to master and benefit from ICTs in the Information Age. Particularly through its institutes and centres, UNESCO has a major role in promoting ICTs in education and learning. The institutes and centres are an integral parts of UNESCO that are specialized in key educational areas and function as laboratories of ideas, standard setters and clearing-houses. They provide intellectual leadership and: have advantages that make it possible for them to carry out their missions effectively: they are relatively small (which means less bureaucracy) and autonomous (hence more flexible to respond to needs), yet international in character and experienced in networking and partnerships. They can deliver assistance that is tailor-made for specific situations, such as rebuilding education systems in post-conflict regions or promoting HIV/AIDS prevention through education. They can act alone or with other agencies (within or outside the United Nations system). Most of them have their own statutes and governing boards, which are usually made up of experts, and manage their own personnel and budget (UNESCO, 2004, p. 3).
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As a UNESCO centre, UNESCO-UNEVOC fosters the development and use of ICTs in TVET through various and diverse activities.
3 The Activities of UNESCO-UNEVOC 3.1 Southern Africa ‘Learning for Life, Work and the Future: Stimulating Reform in Southern Africa through Sub-regional Co-operation’ was a joint initiative of the Department of Vocational Education and Training of the Ministry of Education of Botswana and UNESCO-UNEVOC. The initiative’s main objective was to develop sub-regional co-operation in TVET in the fourteen member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which currently includes Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. At the initial workshop held in Gaborone, Botswana, in December 2000 (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2001, 2002), decision-makers from twelve of these countries agreed on joint project proposals in eight areas related to TVET. These proposals were then elaborated and introduced to a number of international and national donor agencies. UNESCO-UNEVOC decided to take on two of the project proposals: ‘Development of an Information and Communication Technologies Programme’ and ‘Information, Knowledge Management and Networking’. The project proposal ‘Development of an Information and Communication Technologies Programme’ aimed at facilitating the use of ICTs in the world of work through the delivery of quality vocational training. Another goal was to raise ICT awareness and familiarize trainers and trainees with computers, their uses and basic applications. Through developing a cadre of teachers and trainers that could facilitate the introduction and/or improvement of ICT curricula and programmes in technical colleges and technical education programmes in Southern African countries, the project sought to increase familiarization with and the use of computers in such institutions and foster a culture of regional networking and co-operation. To follow up on this proposal, UNESCO-UNEVOC organized, together with the UNESCO Regional Office for Education in Africa (UNESCO/BREDA) and the Commonwealth of Learning (COL),1 a seminar for key personnel and designated co-ordinators from SADC/UNEVOC Centres in the use of ICTs and the application of COL’s Technical and Vocational Teacher-Training Core Curriculum. The Technical and Vocational Teacher-Training Core Curriculum is a distance education training programme for all levels of TVET educators and addresses the core pedagogical needs as they relate to distance education in TVET. Originally published in 1995, the fourth edition was released in 2001.
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Twenty-three key players in TVET teacher education participated in the workshop in Mauritius, as did experts in open and distance learning (ODL) and key personnel in the application of ICTs. The workshop familiarized the TVET experts with the use of ICTs and the principles of ODL. A second workshop to track the action taken and assist with difficulties encountered is planned. This workshop will also focus on an in-depth quantitative and qualitative analysis of the changes implemented at the national level as a result of the workshop. In addition, Seychelles agreed to take on responsibility for the activation of a SADC TVET on-line forum and to help facilitate sub-regional dialogue. The second proposal, ‘Information, Knowledge Management and Networking’, suggested an on-line platform for the region to ensure on-going networking and knowledge sharing. The purpose of communication and information sharing is always to bring about some form of change. Experience shows that educational reforms that work in one country or setting may also work in another country, if modified appropriately to satisfy local conditions. Through access to such information, countries can learn from each other’s success stories and also from their disappointments. A key goal of UNESCO-UNEVOC is therefore to facilitate the exchange of information, knowledge and experience between UNESCO Member States. The focus is on best and innovative practices concerning TVET for the changing world of work. The platform was to:
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serve as an information repository for legal texts, curricula, course contents, teaching materials and any proceedings from projects; provide analytical assistance; and serve as a decision-support system.
The proposal to establish an Internet platform stemmed directly from the felt needs of the ‘Learning for Life, Work and the Future’ workshop participants so that they could easily retrieve information on relevant educational policy, planning and development material. It was also a proposal that was consistent with the recommendations that were the outcome of a meeting of SADC Permanent Secretaries in Lusaka, Zambia, in February 1998, which stressed the importance of strengthening collaboration at the regional level and through professional exchanges. The aim of the project was therefore to conceptualize and provide a logical and cohesive framework to foster co-operation within a formalized structure for information sharing, as opposed to informal networking with all the attendant breakdowns and risks. Information and knowledge sharing between Member States then becomes systematic and is no longer dependent on the goodwill and initiative of TVET specialists. An additional benefit of structured knowledge sharing on an Internet platform is that the impact of staff losses to the TVET system due to HIV/AIDS, a major concern in Sub-Saharan Africa, can be decreased. The high death rate of trainers, students and officials (mainly due to HIV/AIDS) often leads to communication and information breakdowns. One goal of the establishment of a knowledge-sharing platform was therefore improved management (in terms of rationalization and prioritization) of information. By formalizing the process and creating a centralized system, the effectiveness
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of TVET departments in Member State ministries could be enhanced, especially since, given the trend towards globalization, increasing policy convergence and cross-cutting implementation themes exist among the national TVET programmes. The governments of the SADC countries agreed to co-ordinate their efforts to maintain an on-line platform in terms of human resources, through funding or simply by providing electronic data of TVET news and information from their country. The private sector supported the project by providing hardware and software. To familiarize TVET experts with the specifics of the knowledge-sharing software, TVET experts from selected UNEVOC Centres in eight Southern African countries followed a four-day training course in Johannesburg, South Africa, in December 2005. After the purely technical software training, a UNEVOC add-on day took place, and participants determined what information to share on the platform, how to classify the information and what further steps needed to be taken. The themes the participants agreed upon were all issues of training, TVET policy frameworks, HIV/AIDS prevention in TVET, administration and management of TVET programmes, networking, labour-market information, ICTs in TVET, vulnerable groups (such as unemployed youth, girls and women and persons with special needs) in TVET and TVET for sustainable development. Since the training course, a server has been set up and countries can share information on the platform. While this is a good opportunity, there are also challenges. The software requires more than basic computer literacy, and this has been problematic. Already in the selection process for training, it was not possible to identify TVET experts from all SADC countries who possessed the necessary IT skills. In addition, there were problems with the installation of the front-end software, as well as with connectivity. In 2007, UNESCO-UNEVOC intends to evaluate this project and examine possible solutions to the problems, as well as the next steps.
3.2 UNESCO-UNEVOC Website Globally, UNESCO-UNEVOC aims to enhance the sharing of TVET information and knowledge through the further development of the UNESCO-UNEVOC website2 and the e-Forum. UNESCO-UNEVOC relaunched its website in July 2006 based on ‘wiki’ technology. Wikis are part of the so-called ‘Web2.0’—the second generation of online services. Web2.0 describes all web applications that stress knowledge sharing and communication. Examples are communication tools, social networking sites and, as mentioned, wikis. A wiki website encourages a collaborative approach to writing texts through a simple mark-up language and a web browser. Visitors to a wiki website can easily add, remove and change the content of the site, since the system is a simple, user-maintained database for searching and creating information and knowledge.3 The wiki allows for the sharing of information in all languages, including those that use non-Latin characters. A new design was also implemented on the UNESCO-UNEVOC website. It follows the guidelines of the ‘UNESCO Common Browser’, which aims to improve
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usability by providing a similar look and feel on all UNESCO websites. In addition to the new design, the content was rewritten and reorganized, and several databases—for example for the UNEVOC Network4 directory and the UNEVOC publications—were customized and integrated into the site. All databases have flexible search functions. A user-management system was established to provide editing rights to external contributors. It enables users to subscribe online to UNESCOUNEVOC services and publications and to edit UNEVOC Centre5 information online. Gradually, UNESCO-UNEVOC plans to offer more information on its activities in languages other than English. UNESCO-UNEVOC is currently in the process of developing a ‘TVET Portal’ or ‘TVETipedia’ (working titles). In this open space, it is expected that TVET experts from UNEVOC Centres and beyond will share information and documents on all aspects of TVET development and delivery. The ‘TVET Portal’ or ‘TVETipedia’ builds on the philosophy of wiki systems. The first ever wiki—WikiWikiWeb—was created in the mid-1990s to facilitate the exchange of ideas between programmers through easily editable web pages. The WikiWikiWeb pages state the purpose of the wiki: This wiki’s primary focus is People Projects And Patterns in Software Development. However, it is much more than just an Informal History Of Programming Ideas. It started there, but the theme has created a culture and Dramatic Identity all of its own. All Wiki content is Work In Progress. Most of all, this is a forum where people share ideas! It changes as people come and go (WikiWikiWeb, n.d).
The best known wiki is Wikipedia, a multilingual, Web-based, free encyclopaedia project. As is the case with all wiki systems, the content of Wikipedia is produced collaboratively by users of the website. Wikipedia was launched in English in 2001, as a complement to ‘Nupedia’, an expert-written encyclopedia. Since its beginnings, Wikipedia has grown to include over 6 million articles in 250 languages, including 1.6 million in the English edition (Wikipedia, n.d). Today, it is among the twelve most visited websites worldwide. Although the accuracy of Wikipedia has been questioned and it has been criticized for ‘susceptibility to vandalism, uneven quality, systemic bias and inconsistencies, and for favouring consensus over credentials in its editorial process’ (Wikipedia, n.d.), studies have concluded that Wikipedia is about as accurate as any other on-line encyclopaedia. In the development of its web services, UNESCO-UNEVOC aims to involve, develop and expand the TVET communities that already exist in the context of UNEVOC activities. The ‘TVET Portal’ or ‘TVETipedia’ will be both a source of information and knowledge for these communities and other TVET experts worldwide and a platform to share and post policies, guidelines, curricula and other material that have been developed in the different countries and institutions.
3.3 E-Forum UNESCO-UNEVOC is also further developing its e-Forum.6 The e-Forum is a mailing list of TVET experts that is being developed into a fully-fledged on-line
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community. As a first step, an on-line discussion board was developed, which mirrors e-mail messages. Users who have logged on can post to the board (and therefore the list) on-line. A chat room allows for real-time discussions. As a next step, other features such as user profiles, etc., will be implemented. From 2007, UNESCO-UNEVOC will hold short-term virtual conferences on specific TVET topics. Virtual conferences are conferences that are facilitated by computer software. A more precise definition says: ‘A virtual conference is an activity that is organized in a way so that participants can meet and discuss themes of common interest through the use of communication tools at a central location on the Internet’ (Wieman, 2001). UNESCO-UNEVOC aims to bring together TVET experts in a virtual space on themes that are of particular importance in the context of TVET and to the work of UNESCO. These themes include Education for All (EFA), HIV/AIDS education and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The United Nations Decade on Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) was launched in 2005, and UNESCO-UNEVOC emphasizes TVET and ESD through its programme activities and publications as a contribution to the decade. The first UNESCO-UNEVOC virtual conference will focus on this topic. Virtual conferences can bring together experts to discuss innovative ideas who might otherwise not be able to engage in such knowledge-sharing and knowledgebuilding activities. E-mail and Internet access are the only requirements for participation in such conferences, and UNESCO-UNEVOC has to ensure that the level of connectivity (low or high bandwidth), as well as IT security (firewalls, etc.), do not infringe on the communication and discussions. To enable TVET experts from around the world to participate, UNESCO-UNEVOC decided that discussions will be e-mail based. Enough time for responses from those experts who cannot access their e-mail accounts on a daily basis will be provided.
3.4 International Conferences and Workshops In addition to the activities described above, UNESCO-UNEVOC organizes conferences and workshops on the use of ICTs in TVET. E-Learning Africa, an annual international conference on ICTs for development, education and training, took place for the first time in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 24–26 May 2006. The main purpose of this conference was to build e-learning capacities in Africa. The fact that e-Learning Africa is supported by many corporations and organizations from the private as well as the public sector shows how important the issue of ICTs in education has become. International organizations, including UNESCO, are providing support through the organization of workshops and other events that take place within the context of the e-Learning Africa Conference. In May 2007, UNESCO-UNEVOC hosted, in partnership with the Commonwealth of Learning, the UNESCO Regional Office for Education in Africa and the German Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, the first African UNESCO-UNEVOC TVET Summit: ‘Access and Inclusion for TVET in Africa Through New ICT-based Solutions’ at e-Learning Africa 2007, which took place in
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Nairobi. The Summit brought together TVET experts from around Africa to share experiences, discuss strategies and implement mechanisms for the promotion and sustainability of best practices. In the Arab States, UNESCO-UNEVOC organized, together with the UNESCO Regional Office in Beirut and in collaboration with the Tunisian National Commission for UNESCO and the Ecole sup´erieure des sciences et techniques de Tunis (ESST)—the UNEVOC Centre in Tunisia—the ‘Regional Symposium on the Development of Teaching and Learning Methods in TVET Programmes through the Use of Information and Communication Technology’. The meeting took place in Tunis from 20 to 22 November 2006. The use of ICTs in TVET was one of seven project proposals developed at a regional TVET experts meeting for the Arab States in Amman, Jordan, 1–3 August 2005. This meeting was organized by UNESCO-UNEVOC and the UNESCO Regional Office in Beirut, in collaboration with the National Centre for Human Resources Development (NCHRD) in Jordan. ICT applications in TVET ranked third on the list of priorities for projects or areas of co-operation in the Arab region at the meeting in Amman. Moreover, ICT applications in education and learning were a major aspect of the G8-BMENA Ministers of Education meeting held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt (G8-BMENA, 2006). The symposium in Tunis in November 2006 served UNEVOC Centres in the Arab Region. Its objective was to guide them in the preparation and development of strategies to enhance the use of ICTs for active learning in TVET programmes and specializations. The themes that the symposium focused on were new teaching and learning techniques through the use of ICTs, new teaching and learning resources for use in institutional and workplace settings (e-learning and distance learning), linking the curriculum, instruction and assessment through the use of ICTs, and infrastructure support for ICT applications in TVET institutions. The following mechanisms were applied: 1. Sharing of best and innovative practices and experiences from the Arab States and Europe; 2. Locating information sources for technical co-operation in ICT applications in TVET; and 3. Developing national and regional strategies on ICT applications in TVET.
4 Conclusion UNESCO-UNEVOC’s activities to improve TVET through the advancement of ICTs touch on various aspects of their use in education. They range from e-learning to knowledge sharing and span across all regions of the world. Even though the use of ICTs and Internet connectivity is still limited in many parts of the world, it is growing at a very rapid rate. In January 2007, 3.5% of the population in Africa used the Internet, but the growth rate of Internet usage in Africa between the years 2000 and 2005 was 614.80% (UNCTAD, 2006). This corresponds to almost 123%
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annually, and Internet usage is expected to continue to grow at a very high rate around the world. The activities of UNESCO-UNEVOC aim to foster the further use and development of ICTs in TVET and success is expected to be reached in the medium term. Although, as discussed above, ICTs can advance TVET in a number of ways, monitoring and evaluation of activities that promote the use of ICTs in TVET is crucial. UNESCO-UNEVOC is currently not putting enough emphasis on monitoring and evaluation as key strategies to ensure the impact of its activities in a broader context. This needs to be improved. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development suggests examining a number of key questions. They include:
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What are the factors that lead to ‘success’ in an ICT for education (ICT4E) intervention programme? How do ICT interventions compare to other types of interventions? How are different populations (such as boys versus girls or first- versus secondlanguage speakers of a national language) affected differentially by ICT4E interventions? How should this impact be measured, and what are the related issues, especially as they relate to Education For All and other Millennium Development Goals? How should monitoring and evaluation studies of the impact of ICTs in education be conducted? What would a ‘cost-effective’ ICT4E programme look like? And could it be ‘transferred’ from country X to country Y? (Wagner et al., 2005, p. 6).
UNESCO-UNEVOC needs to apply quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods as an integral part of its activities in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the activities’ impact. Monitoring and evaluation has to take place on many levels, for example national, regional, local, institutional, etc., and partners must co-operate in this area.
Notes 1. The Commonwealth of Learning ‘is an intergovernmental organisation created by Commonwealth Heads of Government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning/ distance education knowledge, resources and technologies’ (<www.col.org>). It is dedicated solely to promoting and delivering distance education and open learning and has a strong focus on the use of ICTs. 2. <www.unevoc.unesco.org> 3. <www.wikipedia.org> 4. The UNEVOC Network of specialized technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions is the most prominent network of the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre. It is a unique platform for the sharing of knowledge and experiences regarding all aspects of TVET and, at the end of 2008, consisted of more than 270 specialized TVET institutions—the so-called UNEVOC Centres—in 166 UNESCO Member States. 5. Members of the UNEVOC Network are called UNEVOC Centres. 6. <www.unevoc.unesco.org/forum>
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References Asian Development Bank—ADB. 2002. Policies and strategies. <209.225.62.100/documents/ Policies/Education/default.asp> Deutsche Gesellschaft f¨ur Technische Zusammenarbeit—GTZ. No date. Crystal: innovative solutions for activity-centred training. Information on software. <www.crystal-elearning.net/ index eng.html> European Union. 2005. The use of ICT for learning and teaching in initial vocational education and training, 2005: final report to the EU Commission, DG Education & Culture. <ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/elearning/ doc/studies/ict in vocational en.pdf> G8-BMENA. 2006. The G8/BMENA Declaration. (Outcome of the second Meeting of Education Ministers of the Broader Middle East and North Africa and the Group of Eight. Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.) <www.cmec.ca/publications/G8-BMENA-declaration-2006-05-en.pdf> UNESCO-UNEVOC. 2001. Learning for life, work and the future. Stimulating reform in Southern Africa through subregional co-operation: Proposals for Subregional Cooperation in Southern Africa in Technical and Vocational Education and Training. Bonn, Germany: UNESCOUNEVOC. UNESCO-UNEVOC. 2002. Special UNESCO-UNEVOC Workshop ‘Focus Southern Africa’. (Proceedings of the Learning for Life, Work and the Future: Stimulating Reform in Southern Africa through Sub-regional Co-operation initiative Workshop, Botswana, 2002). <www.unevoc.unesco.org/southernafrica/learntec2002/index.htm> United Nations Conference on Trade and Development—UNCTAD. 2006. Promoting the building of a people-centred, development-oriented and inclusive information society, with a view to enhancing digital opportunities for all people. (Issues paper for the UNCTAD Inter-sessional Panel, 6–8 November 2006.) <www.unctad.org/sections/dite dir/docs/ dite pcbb stdev0029 en.pdf> United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization—UNESCO. 2004. UNESCO and education: institutes and centres. Paris: UNESCO. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization—UNESCO. 2005. Education and ICT. <portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL ID =2929&URL DO=DO TOPIC&URL SECTION=201.html> United Nations. Secretary-General. 2005. The importance of ICT to help unlock the door to education New Yok, NY: United Nations. (Press release: SG/SM/98) <www.un.org/News/ Press/docs/2005/sgsm9816.doc.htm> Wagner, D. et al. 2005. Monitoring and evaluation of ICT in education projects: a handbook for developing countries. Washington, DC: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank. <www.literacyonline.org/ PDFs/ICThandbook.pdf> Wieman, A. 2001. Organising virtual conferences: lessons and guidelines. The Hague, Netherlands: IICD. Wikipedia. No date. Wikipedia Home Page. <www.wikipedia.org> WikiWikiWeb. No date. Welcome Visitors Page. World Education Forum. 2000. Dakar Framework for Action. <www.unesco.org/education/efa/ ed for all/dakfram eng.shtml> World Summit on the Information Society—WSIS. 2005. Declaration of Principles—Building the information society: a global challenge in the new millennium. Geneva, Switzerland: ITU. <www.itu.int/wsis/docs/geneva/official/ dop.html>
Chapter XI.9
VOCED: The International Research Database on Vocational Education and Training Miriam Saunders and Radhika Naidu
1 Introduction VOCED is a research database for technical and vocational education and training (TVET). It is an international database of research abstracts with a special focus on Australia and the Asia-Pacific Region. VOCED contains nearly 30,000 Englishlanguage records, many with links to full-text documents. It is a free database available on the World Wide Web (Figure 1).1 VOCED is produced by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), based in Australia. VOCED is an Australian government-funded
Fig. 1 The VOCED home page R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XI.9, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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operation (federal, state and territorial governments) and is supported by UNESCO’s International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (UNESCOUNEVOC) in Bonn, Germany, the hub of the international UNEVOC Network.
2 Background to VOCED VOCED is produced with assistance and support from a network of clearing-houses throughout Australia. The network was set up nearly thirty years ago to share information about what was being done in the technical and further education sector. The clearing-house network produced two hardcopy publications, ‘Initiatives in Technical and Further Education’ and ‘TAFE Projects in Progress’, which identified materials held in the clearing-house collections and captured information about current projects. ‘The Vocational Education and Training Research Database’, developed in 1989, replaced the two hardcopy publications. This database was distributed in electronic (diskette) and printed format to technical and further education libraries and direct subscribers (Robinson & Hayman, 1998). In 1997, the first Web version of VOCED was made available from the NCVER organizational website. Over time, VOCED expanded to include international material. A major project was initiated in 1988 to upgrade the database and expand its coverage of both Australian and international TVET information, leading to the creation of VOCED’s own website in 2001 (Hayman, 2004). In 2001, VOCED received endorsement as the UNESCO international database for TVET research information, when NCVER, together with the Adelaide Institute of Technical and Further Education, were established as a joint UNESCO Regional Centre of Excellence in Technical and Vocational Education and Training. This endorsement has strengthened links with all UNESCO Member States and facilitated the acquisition of information from their sources (New UNESCO Regional Centre of Excellence, 2001). The past few years have seen many changes to the VOCED website and database. The impetus to improve VOCED products on a continuous basis is in response to user feedback, technological innovations and changes in the TVET research field. Value-added features to the website include the VOCED thesaurus, a list of journals indexed in VOCED and a partners’ page. The database itself has been incorporated as part of federated searching on other websites in which a common user interface for searching and retrieving information is provided across several different data sets. The number of entries added to VOCED continues to increase by over 2,000 per year, while usage remains high with over 300 organizations worldwide linking to VOCED from their own websites.
3 About NCVER NCVER is a not-for-profit company owned by the Australian state, territory and federal ministers responsible for VET. It is Australia’s leading provider of quality,
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independent information on VET. It collects and analyses national VET statistics and survey data, undertakes a strategic programme of VET research and development and communicates the outcomes of its research and data analysis to policy-makers and practitioners. Since 1997, NCVER also administers an Australian national VET research and evaluation programme and the national VET statistical programme. NCVER publishes a range of research and statistical reports. Publications from 2000 onwards are freely available online on the NCVER website.2 They can also be searched for via the VOCED database.
4 The Australian National VET Clearing-house Network The Australian National Technical and Further Education Clearinghouse System dates from 1979 (Kinnear, Kuhl & Parkinson, 1980). Clearing-house offices were established in each Australian state and territory, usually in the departmental central library, with a national technical and further education clearing-house based initially in the South Australian Department of Further Education. Later the Australian national clearing-house role was transferred to NCVER. In the early 1990s, two specialized clearing-houses joined the network: the New Zealand University of Technology, which acts as the national clearing-house for the institutes of technology and polytechnics in New Zealand; and the Council for Adult Education, hosting a clearing-house for adult and community education. The Australian National Training Authority (replaced by the Australian Department of Education, Science and Training) joined the clearing-house network in 1995. Today, there are twelve clearing-houses: one in New Zealand; one in each state and territory in Australia; the Australian Department of Education, Science and Training clearing-house; the Adult and Community Education clearing-house; as well as the Australian national clearing-house at NCVER. These clearing-houses collect local information, prepare entries for VOCED and provide access to the material collected and indexed. The role of the local clearing-houses, in support of VOCED, encompasses: (a) the maintenance of a local clearing-house collection; (b) identification and acquisition of locally produced information about VET research and policy; (c) the creation of VOCED records; (d) provision of a document delivery service; (e) monitoring of key state sources of information; (f) promotion of the VOCED database; and (g) contribution to the planning and strategic development of the VOCED database and clearing-house service. Each Australian state and New Zealand itself, through the avenue of its local clearing-house, has the opportunity to be part of a prestigious international database and to showcase its own information to the rest of the world. The Australian national clearing-house, based at NCVER, is responsible for: (a) the overall design, production, maintenance and development of the VOCED website and database; (b) the identification, acquisition and indexing, for VOCED,
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of nationally produced Australian documents and international documents; (c) the checking of entries submitted by the local and specialized clearing-houses, as part of the quality-control process, and undertaking the incorporation of new records into the database; (d) maintaining the national clearing-house collection of VET and TVET resources; and (e) undertaking regular promotion of the VOCED database nationally and internationally by producing associated documentation, such as flyers, and liaising with strategic partners within and outside Australia. NCVER has developed standards and guidelines for data entry and provides regular training to clearing-house officers. It reviews these standards regularly as part of its continuous improvement process and also evaluates on a regular basis the core set of journals indexed and the organizations monitored as sources of information for the database.
5 Other Australian Partnerships NCVER has established a number of Australian partnerships in addition to those of the Australian Clearing-house Network in order to improve Australian coverage of information from a wide range of sources. NCVER has memoranda of understanding with a number of Australian organizations, including the Australian Council for Educational Research Ltd., the Centre for Research in Education, Equity and Work at the University of South Australia and OVAL Research, the Australian Centre for Organizational, Vocational and Adult Learning at the University of Technology, Sydney. These memoranda of understanding contain agreements to undertake a number of co-operative activities, one of which is the exchange of publications. All relevant publications from these organizations are included in VOCED and in the NCVER national clearing-house collection. NCVER also works closely with organizations such as: (a) education.au limited, an Australian national ICT agency for education and training, which is responsible for the development of the Education Network Australia (edna) website, which houses and links to thousands of educational resources in Australia and overseas; and (b) training.com.au, a one-stop shop website for Australian VET products and services, to allow federated searching of the VOCED database. Federated searching (also known as meta-searching or cross-database searching) is a technology that allows users to search many networked information resources, including databases, from one interface simultaneously.
6 International Partnerships NCVER also has memoranda of understanding with many overseas organizations, including: the Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Education in the Philippines; the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training
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(CEDEFOP) in Greece; the Korean Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (KRIVET); the Overseas Vocational Training Association in Japan; the Federal Institute for Vocational Training (Bundesinstitut f¨ur Berufsbildung—BiBB) in Germany; and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In addition, NCVER has less formal agreements with several key international organizations for document exchange. In 1986, the Australian national clearing-house became the focal point for the Asian Pacific Skill Development Information Network (APSDIN) of the International Labour Organization (ILO). In 1989, the title of the network changed to the National Vocational Education and Training Clearinghouse Network to reflect the increased coverage of information from outside the technical and further education sector (Jones, 1993). In 1992, NCVER became the lead institution for information networking in the Asia-Pacific Region for the ILO and the Asian and Pacific Skill Development Programme (APSDEP) leading to the inclusion of the ILO’s APSDIN information resources in VOCED (Jones, 1992). Through APSDIN and APSDEP, NCVER has undertaken a number of projects and consultancies, including an evaluation of the Fiji National Training Council Library and a consultancy for the South-East Asian Ministers for Education Organization (SEAMEO/INNOTECH) in Brunei to establish library and information networking procedures. Although APSDIN has been disbanded, NCVER has recently attended a meeting held in Bangkok of the newly formed Regional Skills and Employability Programme (SKILLS-AP) to explore a possible future role for the organization in the development of an effective skills network.
7 VOCED Coverage VOCED provides access to bibliographic information from a wide range of Australian and international sources on TVET policy research and practice. NCVER’s aim is for coverage in VOCED to include all key international Englishlanguage documents and a comprehensive coverage of Australian information. VOCED includes entries for research reports, monographs and individual chapters, journals and journal articles, links to electronic documents, conference papers, policy documents, government reports/white papers, survey results, bibliographies, theses, published statistics, unpublished papers/reports and websites. VOCED entries contain abstracts of documents and a significant number of fulltext links. Each entry provides information about how the full-text document may be accessed. These documents can be obtained via interlibrary loan from the clearinghouse that holds the document. This service is guaranteed to Australian users and in some circumstances is also provided to overseas users. Where possible, alternative sources for the full documents are supplied, and many entries now contain links to the full text on the Web.
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NCVER does not have statutory provision which obliges publishers to deposit copies of their publications in the collections of the Australian national clearing-house network. Thus, to ensure the acquisition of resources, the clearinghouse network has to find and acquire documents itself. Material is sourced primarily by regularly monitoring the websites of relevant research organizations, but also by checking printed catalogues and bibliographies within other publications. NCVER uses these sources for the material indexed in VOCED: (a) key Australian and international vocational education and training journals; (b) key international organizations that produce publications about vocational education and training (including government bodies, national and international agencies and networks, research centres, universities and commercial publishers); (c) contributions from the Australian national clearing-house network and from partner organizations; and (d) direct submissions from users of the database. VOCED’s coverage is broad and includes all aspects of skill development for the workplace. As a general rule of thumb, documents relating to vocational education, vocational training, skill development, TVET in schools, career education, financing of TVET, adult education, adult literacy and numeracy, professional roles and development for providers of TVET, lifelong learning, the learning society, TVETrelated policy documents, workforce development, human-resource development, workplace learning and training investment/return on investment are included. As the boundary between VET and higher education becomes blurred, VOCED’s coverage has also expanded to reflect this and other changes in society, such as the ageing population and skilled migration.
8 The VOCED Website VOCED is an evolving website with recent changes made to the updating process and the way searches are conducted in the database. VOCED can now be updated more frequently so that key TVET reports can be added as soon as they are published and broken web links to publications can be fixed promptly. The latest version of VOCED enables complex searching and refined sorting of results. Key features include: (a) an integrated search screen that enables complex searching, highlighting of search terms in the results which helps determine the relevance of the items retrieved and with options to print, save and e-mail search results; (b) a ‘limit search’ option by date (the last five years), journal articles, full-text online, Australian documents; and (c) a special ‘landmark reports’ page which is a project in progress to identify key documents that have been influential in creating the impetus for change/reform in the Australian national vocational education and training system from the 1970s to the present. Figure 2 presents a sample record. The VOCED website contains a range of additional features in addition to the database itself:
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Fig. 2 A sample record resulting from a VOCED search
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The VOCED online thesaurus is maintained by NCVER and supplies index terms for database entries. It contains over 3,000 terms related to TVET, especially in the areas of research and policy. This is a valuable source of controlled terms for use as metadata, as well as for enabling greater precision in VOCED indexing and searching. The search interface allows the user to search for any term or part of a term in the thesaurus, retrieving all records containing that term in any field. All terms appearing in the search results are linked
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to their full entries in the thesaurus, making it possible to move through the thesaurus following links, to check for related, narrower and broader terms, with their definitions. The VOCED Thesaurus is based on the original APSDEP Thesaurus, produced in 1993. Selected appropriate terms from the APSDEP thesaurus have been merged with terms from a supplement, produced at NCVER, containing recent Australian vocational education and training terms. The Thesaurus has been updated in a project to ensure comprehensive and current coverage of terms for occupations and industries in the Australian VET sector. The Journals’ list contains all journals indexed in VOCED, with each title linked to entries for articles from that journal. VOCED highlights is a quarterly newsletter providing a snapshot of the best of the latest entries from VOCED—a quick way to sample the latest in worldwide TVET research. VOCED highlights is also available in print format as a supplement to Insight, NCVER’s quarterly newsletter and can be subscribed to by e-mailing your details to: [email protected]. Useful websites for VET information is a document that lists Australian and international websites containing useful information about technical and vocational education and training. Other databases and resources list other useful databases and resources on TVET and general education and are reproduced below in Appendix A.
NCVER welcomes submission of English-language papers, or in certain circumstances languages other than English, relating to TVET research, policy and practice for inclusion in the database. Publications can be submitted by sending information about the document via the ‘Add to VOCED’ link.
8.1 VOCED Statistics Over 450 websites worldwide link to the VOCED database. These range from Australian sites—Department of Education, Science and Training, edna and training.com. au—to international organizations’ websites including UNESCO, CEDEFOP and BiBB. A total of over 240,000 searches were performed in VOCED in 2006. This figure has grown exponentially in the past year or so because search engines, such as GoogleTM , are now crawling the database and VOCED records can be retrieved using GoogleTM .
9 Recent and Future Initiatives Recently, NCVER has developed a programme of electronic storage of international and some Australian documents which will safeguard future access, reduce paperstorage processes and provide ‘just-in-time’ access to useful resources. This project involves requesting permission from the publishing organization to store documents
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on the NCVER network and to assign a permanent VOCED URL if the document becomes unavailable from the publisher’s website. In an on-going commitment to expand the content of the VOCED database, NCVER has recently taken on responsibility for the management of the collections and databases associated with the Australian Workplace English Language and Literacy Programme and the National Adult Literacy Projects. NCVER acts as the clearing-house for these publications and has incorporated the associated databases in VOCED. NCVER has the ability to produce a ‘canned’ version of the entire site, including all data and the search engine and to make this accessible via a stand-alone laptop computer or CD-ROM. This would be of benefit to those countries and users who do not have cheap or easy access to the Internet. NCVER is looking at exploring options for the production and distribution of a CD-ROM version of the VOCED website to remote localities in Australia and to developing countries in the Asia-Pacific Region. VOCED is well known and well used by those whose core business is TVET research and policy. To encourage its wider use, more work will be undertaken to enable VOCED to be embedded into other databases using federated searching. Though VOCED is already accessible via edna and training.com.au, other similar links are possible and are to be encouraged. ANSI/NISO Z39.50, the American national standard for information retrieval, is a computer-to-computer communications protocol designed to support searching and retrieval of information in a distributed network environment. NCVER is exploring ways to become Z39.50 compliant, which would allow VOCED to be easily integrated into library catalogue meta searches now offered, for example, in university libraries and be more readily incorporated within Internet gateways or portal sites.
10 Conclusion This chapter has provided a historical account of, and examined the changes to, VOCED over the past thirty years. From its inception, VOCED has developed from a hard-copy bibliographic index on Australian vocational education information to an international database in the field of TVET research, policy and practice endorsed by UNESCO.
Notes 1. <www.voced.edu.au> 2. <www.ncver.edu.au/publications/index.html>
Appendix A: Other databases and resources The following databases and resources are available free on the Internet and contain information about technical and vocational education and training as well as education in general.
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ALICE: Adult Learning Information Centre Europe <www.isisnl.org/alice/ index.html> The ALICE database contains information on European organizations and institutions that are active in the area of non-formal adult education. Australian Flexible Learning Framework The Resources page of the Australian Flexible Learning Framework website contains over 500 resources generated by Framework projects since 2000, including research reports, case studies, training products, access and equity guidelines, legal issues, business planning and interoperability. edna <www.edna.edu.au/> edna is a collection of resources contributed to and used by the Australian education community. It contains some full-text documents and also links to many resources on-line in Australia and overseas. EdResearch Online <cunningham.acer.edu.au/dbtw-wpd/sample/edresearch. htm> EdResearch Online, produced by the Cunningham Library of the Australian Council for Educational Research, is an on-line subset of the Australian Education Index covering all educational sectors. Education-line <www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/> Education-line is a database provided by the British Education Index. It contains the full text of conference papers, working papers and electronic literature supporting educational research, policy and practice. Educator’s Reference Desk <www.eduref.org/> The Educator’s Reference Desk provides access to the following resources: links to resources on a variety of educational issues; lesson plans; and responses to popular questions on educational practice, theory and research. Education Resources Information Centre (ERIC) <www.eric.ed.gov/> ERIC is a digital library of education-related resources, sponsored by the Institute of Educational Sciences of the United States Department of Education. ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career and Vocational Education (ERIC/ACVE) <www.cete.org/acve/> This is an archived website containing information on adult and continuing education, career education, vocational and technical education, and employment and training. European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) <www.trainingvillage.gr/etv/Information resources/Library/databases.asp> CEDEFOP’s European Training Village website contains the following databases: VET-Bib bibliographical database; VET-iR: VET Internet resources; VET-Thes; VET-eLib: VET digital library; VET-Instit: the training institutions
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database; VET-acro: database of acronyms and abbreviations; and VET-ePer: database of electronic journals. European Research Overview <www.b.shuttle.de/wifo/vet/ero.htm> Information on research in vocational education and training and human-resource development. Eurybase <www.eurydice.org/portal/page/portal/Eurydice/DB Eurybase Home> Eurybase is the EURYDICE database providing detailed information on education systems in Europe. GLADNET: Global Applied Disability Research and Information Network <www.gladnet.org/> GLADNET’s goal is to advance competitive employment and training opportunities for persons with disabilities. INFOR Database <www.cinterfor.org.uy/public/english/region/ampro/cinterfor/sid/b infor/index. htm> This source is an ILO database containing information on vocational training and related themes and includes teaching materials, audiovisuals, books and articles. UNEVOC Canada Research Database <webapps.cc.umanitoba.ca/unevoc/documentSearch.asp> This Canadian UNEVOC Research Database is a collection of UNEVOC-sponsored research projects, as well as UNEVOC members’ individual research projects which are of potential interest to the UNEVOC network. UNESCO <www.unesco.org/unesdi/index.php/eng/accueil/> This web page is the access point for all UNESCO documentation resources.
References Hayman, S. 2004. Transformation of a library: taking an Australian service to the world; what lessons did we learn and what can we share? (Paper presented at ALIA Biennial Conference ‘Challenging Ideas’, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, 21–24 September 2004.) Jones, M. 1992. National Centre for Vocational Education Research and National Vocational Education and Training Clearinghouse information pack. (Paper presented at Open Learning Clearinghouse Meeting, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 14 July 1992.) Jones, M. 1993. The Asian and Pacific Skill Development Information Network (APSDIN): a lesson in patience. In: Australian Library and Information Association, ed. Infobridges: linking Australia and Asia. Proceedings of the second National Reference and Information Service Section Conference. Deakin, Australia: ALIA. Kinnear, D.; Kuhl, D.; Parkinson, K. 1980. The planning and implementation of an Australian TAFE Clearinghouse System. Adelaide, Australia: Department of Further Education. New UNESCO Regional Centre of Excellence. 2001. NCVER insight, no. 3, April, p. 6. Robinson, C.; Hayman, S. 1988. Enhancing partnerships in TVET information networking in the Asia-Pacific Region. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER.
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Chapter XI.10
What are the Limits of ICTs and Media in the Delivery of TVET? An Australian Focus Peter Kearns
1 Introduction Australia, with its large areas of sparse population, has had a long interest in distance education, and has a tradition of innovation in searching for new ways of widening educational opportunities for people disadvantaged in access. More recently, this tradition has found expression in exploration through national partnership action of the role and potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and media in technical and vocational education and training (TVET). This experience since 2000 has seen the acceleration of the adoption of ICTs and media in TVET delivery as barriers have been addressed through collaboration under the Australian Flexible Learning Framework. While this process of change is not yet complete, concurrent changes in society and the economy, associated with the embedding of ICTs in Australian society, point to a further stage of development in which technology will transform the way we learn. The focus of this chapter is on national collaboration, as an example of constructive federalism, in a sustained development process which may also be seen as an organic learning process passing through several stages as ICTs becomes more fully embedded in TVET and in Australian industry and society. While national collaboration has accelerated progress, the interplay and growing interdependence between the forces driving technology, learning, industry and workplace changes are likely to lead to a fundamental re-definition of TVET in a dynamic knowledge society. Rather than limits, the real significance of the impact of technology on Australian TVET resides in an unfolding re-definition, as yet incomplete, of the very nature and processes of vocational learning in a dynamic knowledge society.
2 The Australian TVET System Under the Australian federal system, TVET is a state and territory responsibility. However, the interface of the TVET system with areas of Commonwealth (i.e. federal) responsibility, such as employment, has meant that there has been a growing R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XI.10, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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national interest in TVET provision, and the development of national arrangements for collaboration between state and territory systems and the Commonwealth. This trend led to the establishment of the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) in 1992 as a vehicle for national partnership and collaboration in industry training, with a subsequent stage implemented in 2005 when ANTA was abolished.1
2.1 Harnessing the Potential of ICTs and the Media The development in Australia of national frameworks for partnership and collaboration in harnessing the potential of technology for TVET delivery has been influenced by national objectives in adapting to the challenge of the information economy. This challenge led to the establishment of a National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) in 19982 and the release in 1999 of the Australian Government’s ‘Strategic Framework for the Information Economy’. The recognition in this framework that appropriate education and skills were key requirements for a successful information economy and society led to the development of an Education and Training Action Plan for the Information Economy, covering all sectors of education and training, released in 2000 (Australia. DEST, 2000). This document included both a cross-sectoral action plan and separate plans for each sector. The TVET action plan, ‘Flexible Learning for the Information Economy’, set a framework for a five-year national development effort over the period 2000–2004 under the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (AFLF), which associated the states, territories and Commonwealth in partnership action.3 The five goal areas built into the AFLF, and repeated in the cross-sectoral action plans, reflected the main requirements and issues identified at this stage. In the case of the AFLF, they involved pursuing the following goals during 2000–2004:
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Creative capable people: from which stemmed a range of activities, such as Learnscope and Flexible Learning Leaders designed to build up the skills of personnel associated with e-learning. Supportive technological infrastructure: which focused on technical standards to enable more effective communication between different software and hardware systems and platforms. It also included collaborative efforts to improve access to bandwidth for the TVET system. World-class online content, applications and services: which enabled the pooling of funds to develop high quality e-learning resources (flexible learning toolboxes), which supported delivery of training courses based on the nationally agreed competencies in Australian training packages. Enabling policies: which researched areas in which government policies affect e-learning. This has enabled collaborative advocacy on issues such as digital copyright.
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Problem-solving regulation: which researched areas affected by regulations impacting on e-learning (e.g. legal issues, electronic authentication, intellectual property).
The TVET action plan, ‘Flexible Learning for the Information Economy’, was significant in reflecting key themes influencing the directions of AFLF over the next five years. These included:
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TVET was caught up in ‘a profound transition from the old mechanized economy to the new information economy’; TVET must use the tools of the new economy: innovative ideas and technology should be embedded in its products and services; there was an imperative to accelerate the pace with which the new technologies were applied in TVET; flexible learning was seen as a change process; creative partnerships were needed to drive the change process, with the government playing a catalytic role (Australia. DEST, 2000, pp. 62–70).
These themes set an ambitious agenda for the five-year national development programme implemented under AFLF from 2000.4 The outcomes are discussed below.
3 Progress and Outcomes There has been a close monitoring of the lessons and outcomes of AFLF, with evaluation studies conducted in 2002 and 2004. These evaluation reports, and supplementary papers available on the programme website,5 provide a valuable portrait of a system in transition, including identification of barriers that have impeded achieving all the objectives of the framework. The 2002 evaluation report, while highlighting some areas of outstanding achievement, also pointed to difficulties encountered in achieving cultural and policy change. The report concluded that, although considerable progress had been made in three areas, there were also some broad areas where little progress had been achieved (Eccles et al., 2002). The three areas where most progress had been achieved were: 1. The growth in the knowledge, skills and confidence of TVET practitioners in using flexible learning approaches in their teaching. The emphasis on professional development marks the framework out as a distinctive, leading model for change across the system. 2. The increase in the number and variety of resources on which they can call in implementing flexible learning; in particular, the development of a body of nationally available, government copyrighted on-line material to support teaching and learning. 3. The development of networks and communities of practice across the country. The collaborative culture on which the framework’s philosophy and its
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management are based is one of the outstanding achievements of the framework and potentially one of its strongest legacies to the TVET sector (Eccles et al., 2002). The areas where least progress had been made and barriers encountered that limited the capacity of the framework to achieve its objectives were: 1. The lack of close engagement of industry stakeholders with framework activities, products and processes. The evaluation has identified a need to achieve a better balance in the framework between a supply-driven model of e-learning and a demand-driven approach including industry more clearly within its scope. 2. Three framework goals have not achieved their potential. Their aims are couched in terms of achieving change in policy and practice, but at best the Flexible Learning Advisory Group (FLAG) can advocate for such change on the basis of framework findings. These shortcomings are found for Goal 2 (Technical infrastructure), Goal 4 (TVET Policy) and Goal 5 (Legal and Regulatory Environment). 3. Thirdly, returns on the investment are inhibited by a lack of systematic capability to leverage the framework through communication, promotion and advocacy. One imperative is to communicate the opportunities, outcomes and outputs of the framework and its projects to TVET staff and to TVET stakeholders with a view to engaging their participation and adoption of framework resources. The other is to advocate for flexible learning as integral to mainstream delivery of training, and as fundamental to enabling the TVET sector to become more client-focused (Eccles et al., 2002). The experience with the early years of the framework suggests a pattern of change in which an enthusiastic network of ‘ambassadors’ can progressively extend their influence at a delivery level through a type of ripple effect, while certain limits to general cultural, organizational and policy change remained as barriers to the mainstreaming of technology-enhanced flexible learning and client-focused TVET. The 2004 evaluation study which followed provided further insights into this change process and the barriers that remained. By 2004 the policy and socioeconomic environment of flexible learning had clarified a number of issues with extensive consultations and research undertaken in the preparation of the TVET National Strategy for 2004–2010 providing a clearer context for the role of flexible learning in a more client-driven TVET system (ANTA, 2003). The 2004 evaluation report concluded that a good deal had been achieved since 2000. Since 2000 the Framework has significantly influenced Australia’s TVET system through development of products and services to support flexible learning, building the capability of the TVET workforce and organisations, creating an effective knowledge managed infrastructure and changing attitudes in the TVET sector to flexible learning (Phillips et al., 2004, p. 5).
The report noted the priorities of the framework with 41% of funding going to direct professional development objectives and 42% to on-line content, so that the prime
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impact had been on teaching and learning, supported by a significant pedagogical thrust (Phillips et al., 2004, p. 5; Eklund, 2003, pp. 3–5; Schofield, 2003, p. 18). It was also concluded that, with the TVET sector’s flexible learning capability enhanced, there had been exponential growth in the uptake of flexible learning in TVET since 2000, predominantly in a blended approach to teaching and learning (Phillips et al., 2004, p. 1). While this is a considerable achievement, the 2004 evaluation report also noted the enormity of the challenge, with various limits not yet breached. The TVET system’s response must involve the effective use of technology, because the system’s physical infrastructure will not cope with the potential volume and type of demand. [. . .] For despite the many advances made through the Framework and other national, state and territory initiatives over the past four years, the TVET sector is not yet fully equipped in a technological, personal or policy sense to meet the challenge posed by the national strategy (Phillips et al., 2004, p. 2).
4 Measurement of the Impact In order to measure the up-take and use of e-learning and e-business in the TVET system, the Flexible Learning Advisory Group in 2004 initiated an e-learning indicators project. This project led to the identification of twelve initiatives that assessed the up-take of e-learning and e-business, the outcomes, and the impact on teaching and training practices, and outcomes (AFLF, 2005b). A 2005 Benchmarking Report based on these indicators demonstrated the level of acceptance of e-learning in this system. This survey will be repeated regularly.
4.1 Three Stages of Development? Observing the Australian experience over the past decade in harnessing ICT and media for the provision of education and training suggests a pattern of development with three stages. This concept of a three-stage development pattern was incorporated by Kearns and Grant in a 2002 report for the Australian Department of Education, Science and Training (Kearns & Grant, 2002), and in a companion international overview report by Kearns covering developments in ten countries across three continents (Kearns, 2002). The concept of three stages of development drew on some ideas discussed in Sweden, the Netherlands and other countries. These stages were seen by Kearns and Grant as: 1. An initial rolling-out phase with a focus on getting computers into institutions, accompanied by some professional development of teachers and software development—this is the Australian situation prior to about 1999. 2. A mainstreaming phase concerned with integrating ICTs into the work of schools and TVET based on the overall strategic directions of these institutions, and with
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a deepened concern for learning outcomes (Kearns & Grant, 2002, p. 1). This second, mainstreaming phase may be seen as coinciding with the implementation of the AFLF from 2000 but, as the 2004 evaluation report makes clear, this phase is not yet complete. A difficulty in achieving the mainstreaming of ICTs in TVET delivery has been the changing nature of TVET objectives during this period—as reflected in the TVET National Strategy for 2004–2010—and the accompanying social and economic changes which bear on TVET policy and practice. 3. While this mainstreaming effort will need to continue for some time, as ICTs are more deeply embedded in Australian industry and society—and with generational change as a ‘computer savvy’ generation proceeds through the workforce and society—there are prospects that the present limits will recede as Australia moves on to a third phase of development in harnessing ICT and media for the provision of vocational learning relevant to the needs of a knowledge society and economy. Looked at historically, the stages of flexible learning evolution in Australia, stimulated by the impact of the AFLF, also appear to reflect the stages of connectedness in Australia, and the evolution of Internet applications and ecologies. For example, as the AFLF has moved towards a more client-oriented focus, so too has the capacity of the Internet to provide services in the conception of Web 2.0. These developments can be seen in a collective digital ecology (such as open source applications, open standards, wikis, blogs, fora and social presence technologies) which is demand driven and increasingly integrated.6 The deepening impact of new technologies on Australian society and the way people learn was recognized in a Joint Statement on Education and Training for the Information Economy issued by the Ministerial Council of Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs in early 2005: ‘New technologies are transforming our societies: the way we work, our social and community life and the way we learn’ (MCEETYA, 2005). The potential to move forward to such a transformative stage was also a conclusion of Spring Consulting Services in a review of technology in education undertaken for the Department of Education, Science and Training: ‘We are in the cusp of the first major shift in teaching and learning methodology for hundreds of years where it could be available for anyone, anytime, anywhere’ (Spring Consulting Services, 2004, p. i) In this context, a third phase of development is likely to witness a more fundamental transformation of education and training to fit the conditions and needs of a learning and knowledge society (Kearns & Grant, 2002, pp. 82–83). In this development towards a transformative stage, further enabling capacities of Internet services will allow users to access tools to support learning throughout life in many situations. In this context, a key role of the AFLF will be in supporting users (both practitioners and learners) to help themselves. Whether the current limits and barriers are likely to be breached to achieve this condition is discussed below. Some interesting insights into this change process are provided in a paper by the Chief Executive Officer of education.au limited which links the stages of ICT
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evolution to changing theories of learning (White, 2005). White observed that, while behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism continue to be dominant in an age when computers and the Web have revolutionized learning, a new learning theory is now required, relevant to the digital era, to underpin pedagogical practice in education and training. White notes the current popularity of blended e-learning in Australia7 and follows Siemens in recognizing the need for a new unifying theory, which Siemens calls connectivism (Siemens, 2004), to underpin learning in a range of contexts, including learning in organizations and communities as well as by individuals (White, 2005, pp. 3–6). While pedagogical aspects have been important in the development of AFLF, this argument by White and Siemens suggests the need for a fundamental examination of the theoretical foundations of learning in many contexts in the digital era, linked to the way new knowledge is created and applied in these contexts, and developments in the learning sciences influenced by findings in fields such as brain research.8
4.2 Transition Issues and Barriers: Pushing the Boundaries The issues and barriers discussed in the two AFLF evaluation reports may be seen as basically transition issues needing to be addressed by a system in a process of major change, rather than permanent limits on the role of ICTs and media in TVET. The barriers range across the broad areas identified in the 2000 ‘Learning for the Knowledge Society’ action plan and include technical and infrastructural, policy and organizational barriers, pedagogical issues, issues posed by the regulatory framework and, perhaps above all, achieving cultural change to drive innovation in learning strategies and practices, and the way institutions operate. Access to high-speed bandwidth outside metropolitan areas remains a major issue and barrier in many parts of Australia. A number of Australian Government programmes have been designed to improve the delivery of broadband services in regional Australia. For example, the National Communications Fund and Coordinated Communications Infrastructure Fund supported interactive distance elearning projects in New South Wales and the Northern Territory. As a result of funding, 746 School of the Air sites and 15 remote indigenous communities now have access to TVET courses that are delivered over the Internet. The recently announced A$1.1 billion ‘Connect Australia’ package also aims to increase broadband penetration in rural and regional Australia. Initiatives such as these aim to progress towards the objective of all Australians benefiting from broadband. While access to broadband remains an issue, there has nevertheless been overall rapid acceleration in the use of broadband in recent years with the proportion of home users accessing Internet via broadband reaching 30% by June 2004, an increase of 300% in the period (Australia. DCITA, 2004, p. 8). By July 2005 this proportion had risen to 57% (Australia. DCITA, 2005, p. 9). It is likely that this
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trend will continue with a consequent impact on the way ICTs and media are used in TVET. Australia ranked sixth overall in 2004 on the DCITA Information Economy Index, behind the United States, Canada, Sweden, Hong Kong and the Netherlands, but ahead of a range of other leading OECD countries (Australia. DCITA, 2004, p. 5). With the speed of technological change, enabling TVET systems to keep pace with technology remains an issue despite the commendable progress made under the AFLF. As the two evaluation reports on the framework have made clear, progress up to 2004 has been variable in addressing these barriers with most progress made in building a cadre of flexible learning leaders to drive change, and in staff development generally, and in producing quality on-line content.9 Perhaps above all, achieving cultural change in the TVET system to build a client-focused environment, where flexible learning in many contexts is normal TVET provision, remains a central challenge. While achieving cultural change in a system is usually a complex and lengthy process (Kearns & Papadopoulos, 2000), the drivers of change discussed in the major DEST, AFLF, and ANTA reports in recent years10 will almost certainly result in a system where flexible vocational learning occurs in many contexts with technology as a key tool of learning. The demand-side pressures discussed in the 2004 AFLF evaluation report (Phillips et al., 2004, pp. 23–24) will increase, and are likely to drive an acceleration of the pace of technology-enabled flexible learning strategies in TVET—or whatever TVET is then called.
5 Technology, TVET and Lifelong Learning While Australia has developed national collaborative frameworks to advance in the direction of harnessing ICTs for education across all sectors, similar action has not occurred at a national level in adapting education and training to the imperatives for lifelong learning in a dynamic knowledge society. Australia differs from many leading OECD countries, including European Union countries, in this respect.11 Although the growing client focus of TVET provision means that practitioners are using technology to engage learners throughout life in a wide range of settings— including the workplace, home and community—there is nevertheless an issue as to whether the absence of a national policy framework for lifelong learning limits the range and impact of this action. It may be that, in the longer term, ICTs will be a driver, along with the current trend towards a client focus and demand-side pressures, for a shift from the current training paradigm in TVET to a new approach to vocational learning throughout life. A good example of where collaborative action under the framework has pushed the boundaries exists in action taken by FLAG to address interoperability issues so as to establish standards enabling the easy transfer of resources between systems. This has been a priority since 1999 with developments over the last two years
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making progress towards an integrated infrastructure for learning resources distribution across Australia. This action has been facilitated by the work of the FLAG Interoperability Expert Group.
6 The Future: are There Limits? Australian experience in the application of ICTs and media over the past decade for the delivery of TVET suggests a pattern of change in which limits and barriers are re-defined as the system evolves and matures. This pattern may be observed in the evolution of the two iterations of the Australian Flexible Learning Framework. While the initial 2000–2004 Framework was focused on the five categories of need and barriers identified in 2000, the second Framework for 2005–2007 placed a strong emphasis on inviting client groups to shape e-learning provision in more interactive processes within a framework conditioned by the following goals:
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client engagement; provider flexibility and innovation; VET system support.
This development to address a wider range of contexts in more interactive strategies is illustrated by the projects being funded in 2006 under the client-engagement goal. Projects directed at industry engagement, indigenous engagement and creative community partnerships illustrate this trend. This orientation in reflected in such aspects as strengthened demand-side initiatives and integrating e-learning with e-business (AFLF, 2005a). The evolution of the framework over this period and the applications it has supported have been responsive to ways in which developments in new technologies have enabled further innovations to be promoted in harnessing technology for learning purposes in such areas as the application of social software, e-portfolios and mobile learning technologies. There is a growing interest in the use of mobile learning technologies, such as PDAs and i-PODs, with particular client groups, such as young people in apprenticeships. These developments have enabled new audiences to be engaged through technology-enabled strategies. This experience has confirmed the basic point that, while ICTs and media should be seen as tools for learning, the power of their impact and contribution resides in the human potential to interact with these tools so as to innovate in the ways vocational learning occurs throughout life. This core capability of the digital era was recognized in the OECD’s Definition and Selection of Competencies (DeSeCo) Programme on key competencies in which ‘using tools interactively’ was identified as one of the three essential categories of key competencies (Rychen & Salganik, 2003, pp. 97–103). As Rychen and Salganik rightly observe: ‘although the ability to adapt to technologies is an important aspect of technological competence, its full power is only reached with an
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awareness of the new forms of action and interaction made possible by technology, and the ability to take advantage of that potential in daily life’ (ibid., p. 102). The development of the AFLF since 2000 demonstrates a growing sophistication in the capability of the TVET system to use technology in interactive ways that foster innovation in delivery. This has taken place in many situations in a context of constant change. From this strategic perspective of the TVET role in society, the AFLF may be regarded as an organic learning process which has involved a national exploration of new forms of action and interaction in harnessing the potential of technology for vocational learning. At the same time, while considerable progress has been made, the extent of the impact on the TVET systems overall remains problematic. While the AFLF has undoubtedly been a valuable development process with important lessons and achievements, the wider question of embedding flexible learning organically in a client-focused TVET system remains not fully answered. This is a challenge for all education sectors, with TVET perhaps leading the way in achieving strategic change in a journey not yet complete. White observes that ICTs have yet to have an impact on the delivery of education and training to the same extent that transformations have taken place in business practices, manufacturing, administration, finance and other services (White, 2005, p. 1). He also notes that the slow rate of take-up and utilization in education and training would appear to be puzzling in the light of the role of education and training in a knowledge society (ibid.). These are questions that are likely to be taken up in the review of infrastructure funding to be undertaken during 2006. Perhaps White is right that the need exists to look beyond current theories of learning towards a new unifying theory of learning in a digital era marked by exponential change and new ways of learning in many contexts. While clearly barriers still remain in achieving the ‘big transition’ envisaged in the 2000 Education and Training Action Plan, it is unlikely that these barriers will set permanent limits to the role of ICTs and media in the delivery of TVET. Rather, the tide of social, economic and technological change is flowing in the direction of technology that is transforming the way we learn and build knowledge. This trend will increasingly widen contexts and arrangements for vocational learning throughout life. This reality was noted by Schofield in her observations on the future as new technologies are increasingly embedded in products and services, and in society overall. This raises the question of whether existing practices associated with either e-business and e-learning (and the distinction between them) will still have meaning in five years time as ICT becomes more fully embedded in business and in learning (Schofield, 2003, p. 5).
The answer is surely an emphatic ‘no’ as generational change, and further developments in the knowledge economy and society, impact more deeply on Australian society.
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While the paradigms of tomorrow are unknowable, the interplay of the growing interdependence between the forces driving technology, learning, industry patterns and workplace change will set future general directions for TVET. Current barriers and limits will inevitably shift in this broad process of socio-economic/technological change. In this context, while ICTs and media may be seen as impacting on the delivery of TVET, at a deeper level technology, along with concurrent changes in society and the economy, will serve as a catalyst for a fundamental re-definition of the very nature of TVET in a knowledge society marked by exponential change and shifting boundaries. The real question is how can vocational learning throughout life best be embedded, maintained and deepened in such a society. The deeper significance of the pattern of development of ICTs and TVET in Australia over the past decade resides in a gradual, and at times painful, convergence of technology, TVET provision and associated changes in Australian industry and society. While this process of change is not yet complete, there are compelling reasons to believe that this evolving convergence will have an even greater impact on TVET, industry and society over the next decade. Rather than limits, the real significance of the impact of technology on Australian TVET resides in an unfolding re-definition, as yet incomplete, of the very nature and processes of vocational learning in a dynamic and ever-changing knowledge society. Whether the pattern of change discussed in this chapter also exists in other UNESCO Member States merits discussion, so that this subject has high value for further international exchanges of experience and the building of an international knowledge base on the impact of technology on TVET and on society.
Notes 1. ANTA was abolished in June 2005 when responsibility for the new National Training System was assumed by the Australian Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) under national collaborative arrangements. 2. NOIE was abolished in 2005 and its national functions transferred back to the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. 3. The framework has been managed by a Flexible Learning Advisory Group (FLAG). See <www.flexiblelearning.net.au> 4. The programme was extended with single-year funding in 2005 and in 2006 with the future to be determined by a review of TVET infrastructure funding undertaken in 2006. 5. <www.flexiblelearning.net.au> 6. I am indebted to Gerry White for these insights. 7. Blended e-learning may be seen as a transitional learning strategy that combines elements of the old and the new, a typical feature of periods of major change as White observes in his discussion of ‘The horseless carriage’ (White, 2005). 8. There is a contrary view that the framework has evaluated learning paradigms in the development of Toolbox e-learning resources, and that the more significant issue is that learning resource developers often lack adequate instructional design know-how. 9. A particular feature of the AFLF has been the production of flexible learning toolboxes, which are e-learning products provided on CD-ROM to support flexible TVET delivery from
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certificate to diploma level. Toolboxes support TVET provision in training packages under the Australian national competency-based training system. See: <www.flexiblelearning.net.au/ toolboxes> 10. For example, the reports produced in the preparation of the TVET National Strategy for 2004–2010 and the High-Level Review of Training Packages. 11. Some Australian states have, however, moved towards a lifelong learning approach, with Tasmania as a leading example.
References Australia. Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts—DCITA. 2004. Information economy index 2004. Canberra: DCITA. Australia. Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts—DCITA. 2005. The current state of play. Canberra: DCITA. Australia. Department of Education, Science, and Training—DEST. 2000. Learning for the knowledge society: an education and training action plan for the information economy. Canberra: DEST. Australian Flexible Learning Framework—AFLF. 2005a. 2006 Framework Business Plan. Canberra: DEST. Australian Flexible Learning Framework—AFLF. 2005b. e-learning indicators. Canberra: DEST. <www.flexiblelearning.net.au/e-learning indicators> Australian National Training Authority—ANTA. 2003. Shaping our future: Australia’s National Strategy for Vocational Education and Training, 2004-2010. Brisbane, Australia: ANTA. Eccles, C. et al. 2002. Evaluation of the Australian Flexible Learning Framework, 2000-2001. Brisbane, Australia: AFLF. <www.flexiblelearning.net.au> Eklund, J. 2003. e-learning: emerging issues and key trends—a discussion paper. Brisbane, Australia: AFLF. <www.flexiblelearning.net.au> Kearns, P. 2002. Towards the connected learning society: an international overview of trends in policy for information and communication technology in education. Kambah, Australia: Global Learning Services. <www.ictpolicy.edna.edu.au> Kearns, P.; Grant, J. 2002. The enabling pillars: learning technology, community, partnership. A report on Australian policies for information and communication technologies in education and training. Kambah, Australia: Global Learning Services. <www.ictpolicy.edna.edu.au> Kearns, P.; Papadopoulos, G. 2000. Building a learning and training culture: the experience of five OECD countries. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs. 2005. MCEETYA joint statement on education and training in the information economy. Melbourne, Australia: MCEETYA. Phillips, J. et al. 2004. Evaluation of the Australian Flexible Learning Framework, 2000-2004: Phase two evaluation. Brisbane, Australia: ANTA. <www.flexiblelearning.net.au> Rychen, D.; Salganik, L. 2003. Key competencies for a successful life and a well functioning society. G¨ottingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber. Schofield, K. 2003. Flexible learning futures on vocational education and training: drivers and issues. Brisbane, Australia: ANTA. <www.flexiblelearning.net.au> Siemens, G. 2004. Connectivism: a learning theory for the Digital Age. <www.elearnspace.org/ Articles/connectivism.htm> Spring Consulting Services. 2004. Australia’s future using education technology. Canberra: DEST. White, G. 2005. Beyond the horseless carriage: harnessing the potential of ICT in education and training. <www.educationau.edu.au/papers/>
Chapter XI.11
Education System Profile: South Africa Tracey Wallace
1 Introduction Since 1994, after forty years of apartheid, South Africa has been addressing the need to transform an education system ravaged by many years of racially skewed educational policy and international isolation. One of the first mandates of the postapartheid government was to develop the national ‘School Register of Needs 2000 Survey’ (Republic of South Africa (RSA). Department of Education (DoE), 2000b), which gave evidence of the dire state of schools in the country. Apartheid education resulted in a minimal level of resources for many of South Africa’s learners, inadequately trained staff, poor quality learning materials, shortage of classrooms, and absence of libraries, laboratories and toilets. Large sections of the schooling system are still dysfunctional, largely because of lack of proper management, administrative and communication mechanisms. Reconstructing the education system to address past inequities is the main focus of the current South African administration. As stated by Kadar Asmal, Minister of Education: ‘we devote 22% of our national budget to education. That’s much more than for defence. 5.6% of our gross national product goes to education. Indeed, South Africa has one of the highest rates of government investment in education in the world’ (Government Communications, 2003). At the same time as addressing past inequities, South Africa sees the need to enter into the global economy. The world is now in the midst of an information revolution, the economic development of a nation depends a great deal on investment in a technically literate workforce that can participate in an information society. Already a significant level of scientific and technological understanding is necessary for everyday living, from agricultural practice to market-place processes, banking, business transactions, health services and transportation. Without the ability to use technology, to find essential knowledge and to acquire the skills for a constantly changing world, people will find themselves—in a very short time—‘disadvantaged’ (Haddad & Draxler, 2002). South Africa has recognized this need and, as illustrated below, is attempting to put into place policies and strategies to keep pace with the world of technology. This new world of technology requires high levels of quality education and reorientation concerning significant aspects of existing education systems. This poses a R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XI.11, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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massive challenge for educational planners: the need to elevate an education system to a level that produces learners for a labour market that demands a minimum level of technological know-how and, at the same time, provides a minimum level of basic education to all members of society. South Africa must simultaneously invest in highly trained scientific and technological education and provide the most basic needs, all with limited physical, financial and human resources. The challenge lies in reaching the disadvantaged populations: those in rural areas, those marginalized because of gender, location or physical obstacles, as well as the illiterate. Present-day educational challenges cannot be met with traditional means alone. Introducing technology into schools without the necessary underlying infrastructure does not make sense. Bringing schools up to a level of basic needs (electricity, water and feeding programmes) is essential and will continue to be a focus for South Africa for some time to come. However, as stated by Haddad and Draxler in ‘Technologies for education’ (2002): Countries must embrace a holistic approach to education, investing concurrently in the whole pyramid of basic education, secondary education, skill training, and tertiary education. Each level in the knowledge structure has its own importance, and one cannot be traded for another.
Fundamentally, South Africa is faced with two challenges: the need to invest in education to build capacity and compete in the new world economy; and the need to distribute resources to address inequities of the past. In order to assess the South African Government’s position on making use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in education to address access, equity and quality in education, it is essential to present an overview of South African economics, and the current state of ICTs in education, including: statistics on learners and institutions; the structure of the education system; basic needs; the curriculum; and educational plans. This chapter will then examine policies that have shaped the current educational position, as well as policies specific to ICTs in education. Strategic objectives for the Implementation Plan for the White Paper on e-Education (RSA. DoE, 2004) will be used to illustrate South Africa’s immediate commitment to ICTs in education, particularly in the areas of connectivity, infrastructure and ICT professional development. Various initiatives by government, international donor agencies, industry and the private sector will also be summarized according to those same areas. Finally, the budgetary process supporting ICT education will be reviewed. Is South Africa using ICTs to address inequities in the education system or are ICTs serving to create further disparities in the education system?
2 Economic Overview South Africa is a middle-income developing country with an estimated gross domestic product (GDP) of R1,082.8 billion in 2002/2003 and a population of 46.6 million. It has a rich supply of natural resources; well-developed financial, legal,
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communication, energy and transport sectors; a modern infrastructure; and a stock exchange that ranks among the ten largest in the world. South Africa’s economic policy over the past nine years has been shaped by the government’s development strategy in the areas of education, health, social development, security, land reform and poverty eradication. The government’s policy decisions have been designed to promote sustainable economic growth, and to ensure that the benefits of growth are shared across an increasingly greater spectrum of society (South Africa Economic Overview, n.d.). The country’s economic policy is based on the macro-economic policy called ‘Growth, Employment and Redistribution’ (GEAR). It aims to find a balance between promoting economic growth, social service delivery and job creation. GEAR combines the goals of deficit reduction, reprioritization of government expenditure to reduce poverty, and macro-economic reforms to promote job creation (South Africa Economic Overview, n.d.). South Africa’s Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) is a socioeconomic policy framework which seeks to mobilize the entire population and the country’s resources toward the final eradication of apartheid and the building of a democratic, non-racial and non-sexist future. There are a myriad of proposals, strategies and policy programmes contained in the RDP. It was through the RDP programme that South Africa redistributed teachers to rural areas in an attempt to address the high teacher/pupil ratio in rural areas (Government Communications, 2003).
3 Current Structure of the Education System The Bill of Rights in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa states that: ‘everyone has the right to a basic education, including adult basic education and to further education, which the state, through reasonable measures, must make progressively available and accessible.’
3.1 Learners and Educational Institutions The school-age population is approximately 30% of South Africa’s total population. According to the South African Census 2001 survey, more and more South Africans are receiving formal education, the age of entry into the education system has dropped, and the number of students completing tertiary education has increased (Figure 1).
3.2 Structure of the Education System There are nine provinces with their own provincial education departments, but they are administered from a single centralized national Department of Education. The
1974 Fig. 1 Percentage distribution of learners in the education system Source: RSA. DoE, 2001
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ELSEN centres 0.6%
Public FET institutions 2.7% ABET centres 2.9% Public HE institutions 5.0%
Public schools 85.6%
national Department of Education is responsible for policy-making, monitoring and support, while the provinces are responsible for actual service delivery and the financing of education (Kistan, n.d.). The National Qualifications Framework (NQF) is the national system for regulating qualifications in South Africa. It is ‘a set of principles and guidelines in which records of learner achievement are registered to enable national recognition of acquired skills and knowledge, thereby ensuring an integrated system’ (Government Communications, 2003). Learners work their way through the levels of the NQF, beginning with general education at Level 1, to the doctorate level at Level 9. Formal education is categorized according to three levels. The general education and training (GET) band consists of the Reception Year (Grade R) and learners up to Grade 9, as well as an equivalent adult basic education and training (ABET) qualification. GET is further broken down into three phases of learning: foundation phase, intermediate phase and senior phase. The further education and training (FET) band consists of all education and training from the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) levels two to four (equivalent to grades 10 to 12 in schools) and the national technical certificate one to three in FET colleges. The higher education band consists of a range of degrees, diplomas and certificates up to and including post-doctoral degrees (Government Communications, 2003).
3.3 Basic Needs The national ‘School Register of Needs 2000 Survey’, a comprehensive survey of the physical infrastructure for education that had been conducted in 1996 and again in 2000, was used for planning educational resources. According to the survey, the average learner/classroom ratio was 38:1 in 2000 compared to 43:1 in 1996. There had been a significant increase in the number of schools that are supplied with electric power. In 1996, 41.8% of all schools nationwide had access to electricity, compared to 57.1% in 2000 (RSA. DoE, 2000b). The Reconstruction and Development Programme saw R1.4-billion spent on school construction and maintenance from 1995 to 1997. The building of new class-
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rooms reduced classroom shortages from 49% in 1996 to 40% in 2000. Whereas in 1996 40% of schools had no access to water, by 2000 this had dropped to 34%. Sanitation provision has improved by 68% over the same period, although 16.6% of schools still lacked toilet facilities. And whereas 59% of schools were without telephones in 1996, only 34% still lacked them in 2000 (RSA. DoE, 2003b). Many schools continue to be plagued by inadequate provision of material and physical resources. These range from a lack of textbooks and other teaching materials, to classroom shortages and lack of facilities, such as libraries and laboratories. Fortunately, in the new financial budget (2005/2006) R500-million is allocated for expanded capacity in water-resource management over the next three years. The above statistics suggest that South Africa is addressing basic needs. However, as stated by Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa, it is just as important to overcome social exclusion by continuing to ‘fight for liberation against poverty, against underdevelopment, against marginalization and [. . .] information and communication technology is critically important in that struggle’ (RSA. DoE, 2003a).
3.4 Curriculum ‘The worker of the 21st century will be more of a knowledge worker, who employs logical-abstract thinking to diagnose problems, research and apply knowledge, propose solutions and proceed to design and implement those solutions’ (Wilson, 1998). South Africa has addressed the need for knowledge workers through its most recent curriculum reform—Curriculum 2005—and, subsequently, the ‘Revised National Curriculum Statement’ (RSA. DoE, n.d.). At the heart of this new curriculum is a set of values linked to social justice, human rights, equity and development, as well as a learner-centred approach. The general shift in the new curriculum moves away from:
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content-based education in favour of outcomes-based education; passive learners in favour of active learners; examination-driven assessment in favour of on-going assessment; rote learning in favour of critical thinking; textbook/worksheet-bound, teacher-centred education in favour of learner-centred education.
The new curriculum, modelled on outcomes-based education (OBE), aims to improve the quality of the learning experience through methods that emphasize activitybased learning rather than rote learning (RSA. DoE, n.d.). Implementation of the new curriculum is on-going throughout the entire education system.
3.5 ICTs in the Curriculum The curriculum is broken down into learning areas and outcomes; one of the learning areas includes technology. The outcome for technology in the curriculum is as follows: ‘The learner is able to apply technological processes and skills ethically and
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responsibly using appropriate information and communication technologies’ (RSA. DoE, n.d.). In the senior phase of schooling, provision is made for a language, literacy and communication programme using ICTs. At the foundation and intermediate phases, there are only suggestions that learners be able to access information beyond books and texts.
4 Educational Plans 4.1 Tirisano In 2000, the Department of Education’s five-year strategic plan for education was put into place. Tirisano (meaning ‘working together’) outlined nine areas of priorities organized into seven core programme areas. These include:
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HIV/AIDS awareness programmes; School effectiveness and teacher professionalism; Literacy; Further education and training and higher education; Organizational effectiveness of the national and provincial departments of education; Values in adult basic education and training; Development of the professional quality of the teaching force and creating schools as centres of community life (RSA. DoE, 2003c).
4.2 Education for All In the ‘Education for All Status Report—Incorporating Country Plans for 2002 to 2015’ (RSA. DoE, 2002), South Africa summarizes the plans to strengthen the education system. Plans in this report include:
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Mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS through the curriculum and in the education system itself; Implementing the curriculum reform; Managing teacher supply and demand; Alleviating poverty through an Integrated Nutrition Programme in schools; Introducing a ‘redress pool’ of approximately 5% of educators to be allocated to schools with the poorest learners.
4.3 ICTs in Education Plans Plans for implementing ICTs into education are not included in the national Department of Education’s ‘Tirisano: Strategy for Education’, or in the plans for improving quality in education provision for 2002 to 2015 as outlined in the ‘Education for All
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Status Report’. The national Department of Education distinguishes plans for implementing ICTs in education from general plans in the education system through the ‘Implementation Plan of the White Paper in e-Education’ (RSA. DoE, 2004). An overview of the policy and implementation plans for ICTs in education is discussed below.
5 Policy South Africa views education as pivotal to its economic prosperity and is attempting to address these past inequities by providing policy documents that present a framework within which planners, decision-makers, administrators and educators can act. Several acts, policies and legislations, including the ‘South African Schools Act’ (SASA) (RSA. President’s Office, 1996) and the ‘White Paper on Education and Training’ (RSA. DoE, 1995) were implemented in order to build a single coordinated education system (RSA. DoE, 2000a, 2003c). The general philosophy, principles and goals for education are expressed in the ‘White Paper on Education and Training’ and the way in which schools are organized, governed and funded is outlined in the SASA. The SASA ensures that all learners have the right of access to quality education without discrimination, and makes schooling compulsory for children aged 7 to 14 (Government Communications, 2003). These two documents have been important in shaping policy for ICT in education. The general philosophy, goals, values and principles for the new education and training system outlined in the White Paper and SASA form the basis for plans to explore the use of technology in education. These principles include:
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Providing access to quality education, and a right to basic education; Redressing imbalances of the past through the implementation of new teaching and learning strategies and through the equitable distribution of resources; Enabling all people to value, have access to and succeed in lifelong education and training.
The implementation of these principles is the joint responsibility of the national and provincial departments of education.
5.1 ICT Policies In 1995, the national Department of Education began the task of producing a proposal for Technology Enhanced Learning (TELI) in South Africa. The research team for TELI found that ‘there was no uniform learning environment in South Africa for which a uniform and standardized set of recommendations could be determined’. Consequently, rather than producing a document detailing specific objectives for ICTs in education, the TELI report became a ‘decision making framework for educators’ (Williams et al, 2000). Following this report, a number of varied and
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scattered initiatives took place among individual provinces and districts. Without national co-ordination, however, there was duplication and inefficiency between the projects. Given the multiplicity of contexts within education in South Africa, it has been difficult for the national Department of Education to mandate a specific ICT strategy (Williams et al, 2000). Most recently, provincial education departments have been asked to develop their own individual business plans that detail their implementation strategies for ICT infrastructure, teacher development and funding (van Wyk, 2005). The national Department of Education has provided a ‘Draft White Paper on e-Education’ (RSA. DoE, 2003a), which provides a framework and mechanism for introducing ICTs into education. The overarching goal of the White Paper is to equip every general and further education and training (GET and FET) learner ‘with the knowledge and skills to use ICT confidently, creatively and responsibly by 2013’ (ibid.). In June 2004, the policy for e-education was formalized with the ‘Implementation Plan for the White Paper on e-Education’, which presents timelines for ICT implementation (RSA. DoE, 2004). Essentially, the national Department of Education is not mandating a specific ICT strategy, but it is providing timelines and goals through the above documents for introducing ICT into education.
5.2 ICT Implementation Plan for the White Paper on E-Education The Implementation Plan comprises seven strategic objectives broken down further into specific objectives with expected outcomes, covering a span of three years (2004–2007). The six strategic objectives include:
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ICT professional development; Electronic content resources; Infrastructure; Connectivity; Community engagement; Research and development.
This chapter will focus on three specific areas of e-education as outlined in the Implementation Plan: connectivity; infrastructure; and ICT professional development.
5.3 Strategic Objective: Connectivity Connectivity in South Africa is constrained by geographic location and the cost of a local telephone call, on average US$0.33 per minute; Internet users pay their subscription by the minute. At present, domestic broadband Internet connections in South Africa cost four times as much as a comparable service in the United States (Connectivity in South Africa, 2005). Consequently, it is not only access to a telephone that prohibits Internet connectivity; it is the cost of a simple local call.
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According to the national ‘School Register of Needs 2000 Survey’, there has been an improvement in access to telecommunications post-apartheid: Telecommunications access has improved by 24 percentage points due mainly to the cellular phone revolution. In 1996, 59.5% of all schools nationwide had no telephones. In 2000, this had declined to 35.5% of schools with no access to any form of telecommunications (RSA. DoE, 2000b).
Mobile telephone subscribers have now surpassed fixed-line users. Due to the low cost and long range of the mobile phones, many rural areas have also been covered. Mobile phone use increased from 14 users per 1,000 in 1995 to 252 per 1,000 in 2001 (World Bank, 2003). Nevertheless, there are still huge provincial and rural/urban variations in access to the telephone infrastructure with poorer provinces lagging behind the richer provinces. And, of course, the cost for cellular services (approximately $0.50 per minute) is beyond the economic means for most of the rural population. Consequently, mobile phones currently are not seen as a viable use for Internet connectivity for schools. There has been a conscious attempt by the national government to improve the coverage and delivery of the necessary infrastructure for ICTs through the White and Green papers and Tele-communications Act (1996), as well as the Universal Services Agency funding programme. The strategic objective for connectivity in the implementation plan of the ‘Draft White Paper on e-Education’ is for ‘every teacher and learner in general and further education and training to have access to an educational network and the Internet’. Currently, there is no comprehensive inventory of connectivity for schools. Accordingly, the national Department of Education plans to conduct a needs analysis in the first year of the implementation plan in order to set priorities.
5.4 Connectivity Initiatives Plans to implement these connectivity objectives include the introduction of an e-rate for general and further education and training institutions to address the recurrent costs of connectivity. The e-rate is a discounted rate designed to ensure that the cost of basic connectivity is affordable. This will be applied through the Universal Services Fund. The Universal Services Agency was created under the Telecommunications Act and is funded by the South African Government. Its objectives include advising on ways to bring about universal access and service, co-ordinating initiatives by service providers such as Telkom, Vodacom and Mobile Telephone Network and to extend access to telecommunications by working with community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, donor organizations and businesses. The agency manages the Universal Services Fund, which holds a percentage of funds allocated from the licenses of all telecommunications suppliers to support projects that increase universal access.
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In addition to the e-rate and the Universal Services Agency, connectivity is provided by and supported by the following initiatives: 1. As of 1 February 2005 the South African government ended the monopoly that Telkom, previously South Africa’s only fixed-line provider, had on the telecommunications sector. Private companies may now provide many of the services previously allocated to Telkom. The South African government hopes that this will be translated into lower telecommunication costs (Liberalizing Telecommunications in South Africa, 2005). 2. Under existing licensing conditions, Telkom is obliged to provide 1.8 million fixed telephone lines in rural areas and in the Community Service Obligations of the cellular phone operators. 3. Mandated by the Department of Communications, mobile phone operators will be granted licenses valid for fifteen years. They will have to fulfil annual universal service obligations, including the supply of 250,000 free phones over five years; Internet and phone links including computers in schools; and public pay phones in accessible places in rural areas and multi-purpose community centres (Bridges, 2003). 4. SchoolNet SA develops and supports the use of ICTs in education by working with government departments, NGOs, donors, the private sector and on-theground educators. It was established as a national body to co-ordinate the linking of South African schools to the Internet. The SchoolNet SA structure consists of participants from the Department of Education and regional school networking organizations. Three advisory groups focusing on issues of connectivity and technology, human resource development and training, and content generation and curriculum provide direction for SchoolNet SA policy (SchoolNet South Africa Homepage, n.d.). Although South Africa is by far the African country with the most dense telephone network, access to computers and the Internet remains largely limited to the white and wealthy population. The execution of the above initiatives, the e-rate for schools, liberalizing telecommunications and providing a second national operator and universal service obligations all aim to close the gap between connectivity disparities. On-going dialogue between the education sector and providers is essential to ensure that the needs of connectivity and access are met.
5.5 Infrastructure Not surprisingly, existing infrastructure for ICTs in schools is largely found in wellresourced schools. Disparities reflected in South African society also find expression in ICT integration into education. Although the number of schools with computers for teaching and learning has increased from 12.3% in 1999 to 26.5% in 2002, there are still more than 19,000 schools without any computers for teaching and learning (RSA. DoE, 2003b).
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The ‘Draft White Paper on e-Education’ estimated that more than a quarter of South Africa’s schools had computers for teaching and learning in 2002. However, these schools are predominately based in major centres (see Figure 2). Inequities are evident when the distribution of schools with computers are compared between provinces. The provinces with the highest number of computers have major urban cities located in them—Western Cape (Cape Town) and Gauteng (Johannesburg). The least-advantaged provinces are former homelands. Significant progress in the more economically advantaged provinces in ICT penetration has been made with specific provincial projects such as the Khanya in the Western Cape, Gauteng Online in Gauteng, Connectivity Project in the Northern Cape (RSA. DoE, 2003a). According to the ‘Strategy for Information and Communication Technology in Education’ (RSA. DoE/Department of Communications, 2001) the provision for ICT equipment, like other learning support material, should in the medium to long term be incorporated into the capital expenditure of provincial budgets. For those provinces addressing basic needs, capital excess is rare and placing computers in the classrooms is not a priority. In this case, the province counts on aid and international donations for ICT infrastructure. Many problems are associated with this scenario:
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ICTs rely heavily on recurrent costs; these costs are often not included in donor funding and are beyond the means of the province. The technology is often introduced from the perspective of the donor agency and not according to the schools needs. Frequently the provision of infrastructure is in advance of the skills required to exploit it.
‘Those provinces that have financed and led the projects themselves have fared better in their ICT programmes. Those provinces that have relied on donor funding for ICT programmes have fared less well’ (van Wyk, 2005). Provinces that can afford
Fig. 2 Inequities among the provinces of South Africa in the percentage of schools with computers
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to invest in ICT will move ahead with sustainable, successful projects and this may serve to entrench the gap between rich and poor.
5.6 Strategic Objectives: Infrastructure The strategic objective for infrastructure in the ‘Implementation Plan of the White Paper on e-Education’ states: ‘every teacher and learner in general and further education and training to have access to an ICT basic set, including computers’ (RSA. DoE, 2004). According to the plan the national Department of Education will have developed norms and standards for physical infrastructure readiness by 2005. (No documentation was found testifying as to whether or not this objective has been achieved.) Every province and its education department will have ‘applied hardware implementation models and complied with norms and standards’. Provinces will also provide computers to some target schools.
5.6.1 Infrastructure Initiatives The following points are not an exhaustive list of initiatives, but they do illustrate that the majority of projects are provincially based: 1. Telkom Foundation has established Supercentres in more than 1,300 schools, including connectivity, computer software applications, monthly subscriptions and a rent-free telephone line (Bridges, 2003). 2. Gauteng On-line is a private/public partnership with the ambitious aim of giving every public school learner in the Gauteng province (a highly resourced province) Internet access and an e-mail address by 2006 (roughly 1.5 million learners). The provincial government has pledged R500 million, but the final bill is estimated to top R3 billion. Six corporate sponsorships were involved in the pilot: IBM, Sun/MGX, Mustek/Mecer, NCD, Sahara and UNISYS. The overall aim of the project is to begin building the intellectual capital within the education system that would contribute to an information-based economy, job creation and economic growth. A pilot project at thirty schools has been implemented and the programme will be considered in future for implementation at the national level (Gauteng Department of Education, n.d.). 3. The Khanya Project in the Western Cape Province aims to make use of electronic technologies to supplement and improve teaching and learning through providing resources for computer centres at schools, especially in socio-economically disadvantaged areas (Cape Gateway, 2006). 4. The Digital Partnership Programme has provided 188,000 refurbished computers and 20,000 laptops. This programme’s approach to implementation is based on the integration of a network of partners—corporate, government and nonprofit—combining resources to achieve access to technology and the Internet for skills training.
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5. Licensing obligations from the second national telecommunications operator, SENTEC, will provide 500 schools with computer labs (Bridges, 2003). 6. Western Cape School Network (WCSN) is an educational networking organization, which aims to promote the use of the Internet in education. It supplies Internet services to primary and secondary schools in the Western Cape. The member schools of the network own the resources and network infrastructure of the WCSN collectively. The network supports an equal access policy, and will not refuse membership to any school unable to pay the full membership fee. The WCSN was founded with ten schools, and is totally self-funded. They connected more than 900 schools in the Western Cape (Bridges, 2003). 7. Info.com 2025 is a national governmental initiative supporting a number of IT-related projects, which ‘collectively, are intended to establish a networked information community that empowers people in the way they work, live and play, and to make South Africa globally competitive’. One of its objectives is ‘to facilitate and promote education and training through the use of telecommunications technologies’. Other programmes supported by Info.com 2025 include the establishment of community information centres, public information terminals, and Internet connectivity in schools accompanied by training for teachers. On the national level, the government does see the need for equitable allocation of resources and that schools in rural and underserved communities should be prioritized to ensure that technology use in the education sector does not further exacerbate the digital divide already present. They are addressing this through their most recent financing policies, discussed below in this chapter. However, it is realistic in its approach to funding e-education and encourages provincial departments of education to seek additional funding from business partnerships, donor agencies and private investment. 5.6.2 ICT Professional Development There are currently 424,095 educators in South Africa. There is an undersupply of teachers in the area of maths and science; however, it is unclear if there is an oversupply or undersupply of teachers in the school system as a whole. Estimates of teacher vacancies are widely varied between schools and provinces and therefore an accurate view of teacher supply is unavailable (Government Communications, 2003). A matriculation certificate plus three years of higher education training is regarded as the minimum level of qualification to become a teacher. Yet, a substantial number of serving educators have qualifications lower than this. This situation is reportedly changing: according to the Minister of Education, Kadar Asmal, South Africa has ‘embarked on a major campaign to upgrade teachers and facilities. For example, we have reduced the level of under-qualified teachers from 77,000 to about 30,000’ (Asmal, 2004). In the area of professional development, 300,000 educators require training in ICT skills. Among these, there are those who are under-qualified; those who are qualified but are teaching without the necessary pedagogical content knowledge;
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and the bulk of teachers who require induction into the new model of Curriculum 2005. Although there is evidence of a number of teacher-training initiatives in South Africa at both pre-service and in-service level, these are mostly small-scale, regional and fragmented (Mafanga, n.d.). Most professional development for ICTs occurs through programmes offered by organizations such as SchoolNet South Africa. ICT integration into teacher education is complicated by the variety of levels at which ICT capabilities can be taught (pre-service versus in-service, primary versus secondary, simple versus advanced skills) and by the variety of types of capabilities (pedagogically-linked or de-contextualized ICT skills, subject specific ICT skills) (Mafanga, n.d.). These layers of complexity make it very difficult to plan broadscale and effective strategic interventions in this field. Nevertheless, the Implementation Plan calls for a strategy from all provinces for teacher development in ICTs (van Wyk, 2005).
6 ICT Skills Development Plans South Africa is facing a significant ‘brain drain’ in technical and entrepreneurial ICT skills, with an estimated 200 to 300 ICT-skilled resource personnel leaving the country each month. Current unemployment rates are very high (30–35%), but it is also difficult to find a sufficient supply of skilled ICT workers to meet the rising demand. In the case of training supply in ICT, a very small number of learners graduating from the schooling system are receiving formal tuition in ICT, or have used computers in the process of learning. At the post-school level, it is clear that private training organizations are providing the bulk of focused professional training. Two major government projects aimed to address the skilled work-force shortage include: 1. Modifying the further education and training (FET) colleges to include ICT courses. The Department of Education, together with other private/public partners, has agreed that a pilot project for FET programmes should be designed and implemented to deliver ICT courses with recognized qualifications at selected institutions. The pilot project is aimed at building a sustainable ICT skilled workforce (Mafanga, n.d.). 2. An initiative by the South African government to pioneer a ‘skills revolution’ to address the under-skilled workforce. A new Skills and Training Policy aims to match workplace training with the needs of the workforce and involves the payment of a 1% levy annually from government and business payrolls to fund training by twenty-seven sectoral education and training authorities (SETAS). The European Union provided a grant of R276 million for the skills and training policy. ‘Eighty percent of the training funds collected by government will go to training authorities or be paid as grants to companies which already have their own training programmes in place. The remainder of the funds will be used to train economically marginalized people like the self-employed in survivalist enterprises, new entrants and domestic workers’ (UNESCO, 2000).
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7 Financing Education In order to provide a picture of financing for ICT in education it is necessary first to look at the overall financing strategy for education.
7.1 General Financing Policy for Education Financial planning in the national department occurs within the government’s threeyear medium-term expenditure framework. Equity between and within provinces is achieved through the National Norms and Standards for School Funding (1999) and Equitable Shares Formula, which are aimed at achieving equality and poverty, redress at schools in terms of non-personnel expenditure within a province. Some 60% of a province’s non-personnel expenditure goes to the poorest 40% of learners in public schools. The poorest 20% of learners receive 35% of non-personnel resources, while the richest 20% receive 5%. The size of the school-age population and the number of learners enrolled in public ordinary schools are taken into account, as well as capital-investment needs. Although national priorities inform their decisions, each provincial education department is responsible for how their education budgets are spent (Government Communications, 2003). However, despite 5.7% of GDP or 22% of their national budget invested into education, there still do not seem to be enough funds to go around. As a result, the South African Schools Act (RSA. President’s Office, 1996) allows schools to supplement national funding by charging school fees. The fees raised are used to enhance the quality of educational provision. Those families that cannot afford the fees may apply for exemption from fee payment.
7.2 School Fees Fees vary considerably depending on factors such as class size, facilities and the quality of teaching offered. For example, former white schools in suburbs charge R10,000 (US$1,500), and other schools charge R150 (about US$25) a year. These differences in fees result in resource disparities between the qualities of schools. Fees often supplement personnel salary; private schools have one teacher for every fifteen students, while schools with extra fees have a maximum of thirty students per class, and the least-advantaged schools have as many as forty to fifty per teacher (Ocampo, 2004).
This means that the least-advantaged members the population will have less economic means to pay for a higher quality education—for supplemental learning materials, equipment and other optional resources that enhance a school’s learning environment.
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7.3 Financing ICTs in Education The national Department of Education is realistic about the financial constraints for investment in ICTs. It realizes that providing financial support for ICTs cannot be the sole responsibility of the government (RSA. DoE, 2003a). Investment from industry and business, as well as from other sources is encouraged to supplement government contributions. It is the subject of school fees that is of particular importance to ICTs in schools. Those schools that are able to charge a higher fee have more to spend on other resources, such as computers and professional development. Those that do not have such funds will ultimately fall behind, widening the inequality that already exists in the education system. According to the ‘Implementation Plan of the White Paper on e-Education’, primary sources of funding for ICTs are the National Treasury and national and provincial budgets (RSA. DoE, 2004). It states that the national Department of Education will explore secondary sources of funding. However, it also states that provincial education departments develop funding strategies by:
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Exploring sources of funding from private sector donations and international development assistance agencies; Investigating, and where appropriate, establishing public/private partnerships to ensure the sustainability of the implementation of the e-Education policy; Carrying out research on frameworks for academic research and development for institutions to solicit funding for research in e-Education.
The above responsibilities, to ‘explore sources of funding’, pose a considerable challenge for the least-advantaged provincial education departments, mainly due to a lack of personnel. Although, financial equity among provinces has advanced in South Africa through the Equitable Share Formula (ESF) and the implementation of National Norms and Standards for School Funding, there are still processes—such as the above—that serve to widen the inequality (Wildeman, 2000).
8 Conclusion The current South African government has committed itself to addressing wideranging inequities in education through their involvement in Education for All by 2015, as put forward at the World Conference on Education in 1990 and again at the World Education Forum in 2000. South Africa wants to achieve ten years of compulsory education by 2007 (Asmal, 2004). Additionally, it has committed itself to promoting ICT skills through membership in the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) programme. South Africa has also placed a strong emphasis on ICTs in education through the development of various policies and initiatives: two of these policies include the ‘Draft White Paper on e-Education’ and the ‘Implementation Plan for the White Paper on e-Education’ (RSA. DoE, 2003a, 2004). It has also committed itself to
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upgrading the ICT skills of the workforce by including ICT programmes in further education and training institutions and the latest skills and training policies. Plans to implement ICTs into education are not specifically included in the two major documents for educational plans for the country (RSA. DoE, 2000a, 2003c). Yet, the national government has asked each provincial education department to ‘align their provincial priorities, i.e. housing, combating poverty, electrification, running water, job creation, etc. with ICT in education—as all those priorities have an educative component that would assist in alleviating these social issues’ (van Wyk, 2005). South Africa also seeks to address inequities in its education system through financing policies that give priority to less advantaged schools in an attempt at ‘levelling the playing field’ in terms of basic infrastructure, personnel and learning resources. The National Norms and Standards and Equitable Shares Formula distribute a larger portion of funds to those provinces and schools most in need. Moreover, projections from the last national budget indicate ‘an additional R74.4 billion to be added to allocations of national departments, provinces and municipalities of which R1 billion will be allocated to further education and training (FET) colleges, R776 million for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme and R6.9 billion to improve teachers’ salaries’ (South Africa: the official gateway, 2005). Yet, despite these developments there are two processes that may deepen inequity between provinces. The fact that individual provincial departments of education must seek additional funding to supplement ICT resources from private sector partnerships and community enterprises puts the provinces that do not have the time or resources to pursue these partnerships at a disadvantage. It has also been observed that projects that rely on donor funding and international aid are not as successful as projects that emerge from provincial budgets (van Wyk, 2005). And, although financing schemes have progressed in terms of overall equity, the school fee policy may hamper progress in equality; supplemental fees allow schools to invest in resources for technology, but it only succeeds where there is a more advanced socioeconomic population. This leaves provinces with a low school-fee base with little funds to invest in new technologies. ‘As with other basic services, the distribution of education and training provision in our country follows a pattern of contrasts and paradoxes’ (RSA. DoE, 1995).
References Asmal, K. 2004. Learning to live together in South Africa. Education today newsletter, January– March. <portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL ID=27740&URL DO=DO TOPIC& URL SECTION=201.html> Bridges. 2003. Inventory and analysis of South African ICT initiatives: government, private sector and civil society. Cape Town, South Africa: Bridges. <www.bridges.org/> Cape Gateway. 2006. Khanya: Technology in Education Project. <www.capegateway.gov.za/ eng/directories/projects/14997/16586/> Connectivity in South Africa. 2005.
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Gauteng Department of Education. No date. <www.gautengonline.com> Government Communications. 2003. South Africa Yearbook. 2003/04. Pretoria: GCIS. <www.gcis. gov.za/docs/publications/yearbook.htm> Haddad, W.D.; Draxler, A. eds. 2002. Technologies for education: potential, parameters and prospects. Paris: UNESCO. http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL ID=5700&URL DO=DO TOPIC&URL SECTION=201.html. Kistan, C. No date. Education and the status of e-learning in a post-apartheid South Africa. <www.e-mentor.edu.pl/ xml/wydania/7/105.pdf> Liberalizing Telecommunications in South Africa. 2005. Mafanga, S. No date. A shared vision for ICT skills development in South Africa. <www.saide.org.za/ Frontend/> Ocampo, M. 2004. A breif history of educational inequality from apartheid to the present. <www.stanford.edu/∼jbaugh/saw/Lizet Education Inequity.html> Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. No date. Revised National Curriculum Statement Grades R-9 (Schools). Pretoria: DoE. <www.idasa.org.za/bis/briefs/brief44.htm> Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. 1995. White Paper on education and training. Cape Town, South Africa: DoE. <www.info.gov.za/whitepapers/1995/education1.htm> Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. 2000a. Implementation plan for Tirisano 2000–2004. Pretoria: DoE. Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. 2000b. School Register of Needs 2000 Survey. Pretoria: DoE. <www.sadtu.org.za/ev/nov dec 2002/thenational.html> Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. 2001. Education statistics of South Africa at a glance in 2001. Pretoria: Department of Education. Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. 2002. Education for All Status Report: South Africa—incorporating country plans for 2002 to 2015. Pretoria: DoE. <www. education.gov.pwv.za> Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. 2003a. Draft White Paper on e-Education. Pretoria: DoE. <www.info.gov.za/whitepapers/2003/e-education.pdf> Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. 2003b. Education statistics of South Africa at a glance, 2003. Pretoria: DoE. Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. 2003c. Tirisano: Strategy for Education, 2003. <www.education.gov.pwv.za> Republic of South Africa. Department of Education. 2004. Implementation Plan of the White paper on e-Education. Pretoria: DoE. <www.education.pwv.gov.za> Republic of South Africa. Department of Education/Department of Communications. 2001. Strategy for informationa nad communication technology in education. Pretoria: DoE. Republic of South Africa. President’s Office. 1996. South African School’s Act, 1996. Pretoria: President’s Office. <www.info.gov.za/acts/1996/a84-96.pdf> Schoolnet South Africa Homepage. No date. <www. school.za> South Africa Economic Overview. No date. <www.dti.gov.za/econdb/raportt/southafricaOverview. html> South Africa: the official gateway. 2005. Budget 2005: economic growth forecast at 4.3%. <www.southafrica.info/doing business/economy/fiscal policies/budget2005e.htm> van Wyk, T. 2005. ‘Provincial Education Budgets.’ E-mail to Tracey Wallace, 14 April 2005. Wildeman, R. 2000. Equity in education: how far are we? <www.idasa.org.za/bis/ briefs/brief44.htm> Williams, R. et al. 2000. Issues in education and technology. London: Commonwealth Secretariat. Wilson, D.N. 1998. Defining international competencies for the New Millennium. Ottawa: Canadian Bureau for International Education and Human Resource Development. World Bank 2003. ICT at a glance: South Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank, The Development Data Group. <www.worldbank.org/ cgi-bin/sendoff.cgi?page=%2Fdata% 2Fcountrydata%2Fict%2Fzaf ict.pdf> UNESCO. 2000. World Education Forum. <www.unesco.org/ education/efa/wef 2000/>
Chapter XI.12
Integrating TVET with Open and Distance Learning: Taking Skills Training to the Doorstep Vinay Swarup Mehrotra and Avant Kumar Sacheti
1 Introduction Human beings are seekers of truth and knowledge because of their intelligence and emotional superiority over other beings. Vedas, the great repositories of the spiritual knowledge of the Indians, have propounded the four planes of existence for the seekers of knowledge. These are: knowledge, action, devotion and wisdom. Knowledge, action and devotion have been regarded as the three pillars of religion and necessary for the process of self-development. Work-oriented education has received a great deal of attention in religious teachings too. For example, Buddhist monks living in Viharas (monastries) had to learn sewing, spinning and knitting as a part of their learning activities so that they could satisfy their own clothing needs. They also studied various techniques related to art, science and technology, such as handicrafts, sculpture, painting, house-building, healing wounds, curing diseases, agriculture, animal husbandry, etc. Abhyas or practice was important for the attainment of knowledge and skills. Work-oriented education made the monks physically, mentally and spiritually apt to attain spiritual radiance or salvation—the Nirvana. The doctrine of Karma (action), therefore, occupies a significant place in the ancient Indian system of education. In the post-independence era, the Education Commission (Government of India, 1966), popularly known as the Kothari Commission, recommended the diversification of students at the secondary stage of education into a variety of vocational courses. One of the recommendations of the Kothari Commission was that ‘an immediate beginning should be made to develop a wide range of vocational and technical courses through correspondence. Such courses may be of varying duration and may include part-time courses, correspondence courses, sandwich courses, etc.’ The National Policy on Education (Government of India, 1968) endorsed the recommendations of the Kothari Commission by resolving that part-time education and correspondence courses would be developed on a large scale at the university stage. Such facilities would also be developed for secondary school students, for teachers and for agricultural, industrial and other workers. Education through part-time and correspondence courses would be granted the same status as full-time education. Such facilities would ease the transition from school to work, promote the cause of education and provide opportunities to the large number of people who R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XI.12, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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had the desire to educate themselves further but could not do so on a full-time basis. In 1976, the National Council of Educational Research and Training brought out a document entitled ‘Higher secondary education and its vocationalisation’, which dealt with various issues pertaining to diversification, flexibility (including the semester system approach), district surveys, identification of important vocational courses, admission, integration of part-time courses into the system, teacher orientation and evaluation (NCERT, 1976). The Vocational Education Programme (VEP) at the higher secondary stage was launched in India in 1976/77, with the following objectives: (a) to reduce the mismatch between the demand and supply of skilled manpower in the country; (b) to enhance individual employability; and (c) to provide an alternative for those pursuing higher education, but without any particular interest or purpose. Under the programme, a variety of vocational courses lasting two years are offered at the secondary stage. The progress of the VEP in schools has been rather slow, as the conventional and rigid programme could not cater to the vast range of students’ training needs and aspirations. Of course, there were other issues related to inadequate and outdated infrastructure and equipment, lack of trained teachers and separate management structures, etc. Furthermore, the vocational courses could not offer the range of generic or life skills that could be applied across different contexts and were also needed for further education and training. Therefore, the matter of retention of vocational students in schools and the maintenance of quality and equity in vocational education programmes at the higher secondary stage still engages the attention of state governments. At the third level of education, the University Grants Commission introduced vocational courses on the recommendations of the revised National Policy on Education (Government of India, 1986) and its Programme of Action (Government of India, 1992). About thirty-eight courses have been running since 1994/95 in selected colleges and universities under the scheme of ‘Career Orientation to Education’. The scheme has been able to attract only a few thousand students out of a total enrolment of more than 9 million students at the first-degree level of higher education in the country. Access to formal training through other training institutions, like industrial training institutes, polytechnics, private training institutes, etc., remains limited to a minority of educated people. In India, only 5% of the labour force in the 20–24 age group had obtained any vocational training through formal institutions, as compared to developed countries where the figure ranges from 60 to 80%. There is little or no attempt to cater to the training needs of those who wish to live and work in rural areas. Such people are compelled to migrate to urban areas for training and thus a majority of them join the informal training sector, which is cheaper and much more accessible than the formal training sector. People, especially those who are traditionally burdened with social and economic responsibilities within the household, often prefer the informal training system, which offers flexibility in terms of entry conditions and the period of training. For the vast majority of the workforce, training is often passed down from generation to generation by means of informal apprenticeship and on-the-job learning. In the
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informal apprenticeship or on-the-job learning, the trainer is the Ustad (while a majority of them may have attended primary or upper primary classes, some of them have never seen the four walls of a classroom) and the student is the Chela (one who has left the school at primary or upper primary stage mainly for economic reasons and is compelled to earn a living to support the family). The common interest that both the Ustad and the Chela share is to earn enough money for their daily bread and butter. The ‘technical’ skills imparted to children and young people through a gigantic and ever-expanding system of informal vocational training does not necessarily provide them with the opportunity to adopt behavioural changes that would enable them to work for the customer’s satisfaction and to maintain a sustained decent standard of living. The question, therefore, is: ‘How does one bring about the necessary changes through vocational education and training?’ An answer to this question may be that: ‘There is a need to groom the abilities of people working in various occupations through short-term vocational courses offered on their doorstep’. Open and distance learning (ODL) is becoming increasingly popular because of its capacity to provide education in a flexible and learner-friendly manner, particularly to those who have not been able to gain access to the formal system of education. Distance education eliminates the costs of travel to and residence in the vicinity of the study institution and can take place while the learner continues to be involved in full-time employment (Truelove, 1998). People who live in rural areas find that ODL permits them to enrol in programmes that otherwise would not be available to them. Distance education in India comprises eleven open universities, 104 correspondence course institutes, and many private or autonomous providers in the governmental and non-governmental sectors. Workplace learning is also expanding rapidly in organizations, boosted by on-line learning opportunities. Internet-enabled learning, which includes content delivery, management of the learning experience, content development and networking of learners, helps in acquiring and upgrading knowledge and skills through regularly scheduled lectures, web pages, videos, discussion via e-mail, and chat sessions and on-line tests. Web-based training or e-training, an innovative approach to distance learning, can be effectively utilized for delivering knowledge to individuals anywhere in the country. If developing countries want to enhance their international competitiveness for the well-being of their people, they must address the concerns of technical and vocational education and training (TVET). The path to economic development and prosperity through skills training and ODL as the modality for TVET allows vast numbers of people—hitherto unreached—to take advantage of education and training opportunities (Mishra, 2002). The changing skills demands due to competition and rapid market changes, especially in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), call for the provision of continuous learning and training opportunities through governmental, non-governmental and private institutions. There is a need for a paradigm shift in the training approaches employed in the formal and informal sectors for developing skills attuned to the needs of the society.
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2 Recommendations of the ILO In the Revised Recommendations concerning Technical and Vocational Education, published by the International Labour Office and UNESCO, the main provisions concerning continuing education are as follows: 1. The development and expansion of technical and vocational education as continuing education, both within and outside the formal education system, with either public or private funding, and within the framework of lifelong learning, should be a priority objective of all educational strategies. Broad provision should be made for allowing everyone, whatever their prior qualifications, to continue both their professional and general education by facilitating seamless pathways for learners through articulation, accreditation and recognition of all prior learning and relevant work experience. 2. In addition to permitting adults to make up deficiencies in general or vocational education, which has often been its sole objective, continuing education should now:
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offer possibilities for personal development and professional advancement by providing flexibility in programme administration and curriculum design to facilitate smooth lifelong learning and ensure continuous entry, exit and re-entry points; permit the updating and renewal of knowledge and practical abilities and skills in the occupational field; enable individuals to adapt to technological changes in their occupation or to enter another occupation; be available throughout the individuals’ working life without restriction with regard to age, sex, prior education and training or position, recognizing work experience as a substitute for prior learning; be available to the increasing numbers of the aged population; be broad in scope, including general education elements and contemporary cross-cutting areas. The appropriate authorities should be encouraged to provide the basic conditions for continuing technical and vocational education, such as providing for paid educational leave and other forms of financial aid.
3. Continuing technical and vocational education should be actively encouraged through:
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widespread dissemination of information concerning the programmes available and ways of taking advantage of existing opportunities, including full use of the mass media and the Internet; recognition of successful completion of programmes by increased remuneration and professional advancement, with the involvement of employers and professional associations.
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4. Organizers of continuing technical and vocational education should consider the following flexible forms of delivery:
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courses and training offered during working hours at the workplace; part-time courses utilizing existing secondary and tertiary technical and vocational education institutions; evening and weekend courses; correspondence courses; courses on educational radio and television and the Internet; short professional ‘refresher’ courses.
5. The following forms of study/training leave from work should be considered:
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day release; block release of varying lengths; release for one or more hours during the working day.
6. Programmes of continuing technical and vocational education should:
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be designed and delivered to suit the special requirements of adults using flexible teaching methods that recognize already acquired expertise; be designed for individually paced learning; be programmed to accommodate the potential that information and communication technology has to offer.
7. Provision should be made for the particular requirements of special groups:
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to enable women completing maternity leave to update their knowledge and professional skills for re-entering the workforce; to enable older workers and the unemployed to adapt to new occupations; to provide minorities, foreign workers, migrants, refugees, indigenous people and people with disabilities with training programmes to help them to adapt to working life; to enable other marginalized and excluded groups, such as early school leavers, out-of-school youth and demobilized soldiers in post-conflict situations to re-enter the mainstream of society.
8. Continuing technical and vocational education programmes through the distance learning mode should be promoted for the benefit of those disadvantaged by distance and location, such as individuals in rural communities and those engaged in seasonal work (ILO/UNESCO, 2001, paras. 45–53). Although the recommendations of ILO/UNESCO can serve as comprehensive guidelines for implementing continuing TVET programmes, integrating ODL with TVET to provide quality programmes for practical skills training for a variety of vocations is still a major challenge. For the ODL environment, the teaching of practical skills poses considerably more difficulties than the teaching of knowledge and theory (Hampton, 2002). Open learners in academic education learn mostly
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from self-instructional packages, whereas vocational open learners require on-thejob training in order to acquire practical skills and work experience. Therefore, the latter group inevitably needs the support of human beings and machines to attain the competencies required to perform in the work place. In addition, the presence of the instructor is needed to provide the appropriate, timely and individualized feedback on the performance of the learner and to encourage him/her to perform even better in technical skills. Thus, the major challenge is: ‘How to provide technical and soft skills through open TVET programmes?’ The various aspects of integrating TVET with ODL, which needs to be considered for providing skills training at the doorstep of the learner, are discussed briefly below. However, we should first specify who needs TVET through ODL. Technical and vocational education and training should cater to the requirements of a variety of target groups, which will include youth, traditional artisans and craftsmen, adults, neo-literates, unskilled and semi-skilled workers, socially disadvantaged groups (women, child labourers, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes), people with disabilities, refugees, and underprivileged and marginalized youths.
3 Models of Continuing TVET Programmes in India The standard model of ODL is the one in which the providing institution first develops the course materials and then delivers the course to the learners. In India, there are four types of institutions offering programmes through distance mode: the National Open University; other state open universities; directorates of distance education functioning under conventional universities i.e. dual-mode universities; and private professional institutes. The models of delivery of continuing TVET programmes in India can be broadly divided into: the NIOS model; the IGNOU model; and the MTU model.
3.1 The NIOS Model The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), which operates its vocational education programme through accredited vocational institutes (AVIs) and some Special Accredited Institutes for Education of the Disabled (SAIED), offer a variety of vocational courses in agriculture, technology, health and paramedical, home science, business and commerce, computer science, information technology, library science, etc. The vocational courses are offered as: (a) package courses at certificate and diploma level lasting one or two years; (b) stand-alone courses that are available in combination with academic courses or alone; and (c) life-enrichment courses. NIOS also provides opportunities to learners to choose certain vocational subjects in combination with academic subjects at both secondary and senior secondary levels. Certain vocational courses are offered independently or in combination with academic subjects at the secondary and the senior secondary levels (Williams, 2005).
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3.2 The IGNOU Model The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), in collaboration with the Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC), launched a ‘Construction Trades Training Pilot Project’ in 1997 with the intention of providing skills training in masonry work, shuttering carpentry and bar-bending for the construction industry. The programme is designed for each basic competency and includes industryaccepted performance standards. The performance standards are statements of work outcomes, functions or tasks, as perceived by the employer, and are necessary to achieve basic competence. When the learner acquires certification in all basic competencies under the given competency, then he/she is eligible to receive the certificate for the competency under consideration (Kulshrestha, 2005).
3.3 The MTU Model Mobile training units (MTUs) or mobile training vans (MTVs) fulfil the training needs of a target group by providing regular training in an environment which supports the learner’s training needs and learning style. Learners can be given work individually or in small groups in order to consolidate their learning and to achieve the competencies within the time target. Some good practices of mobile training units initiated by NGOs and private companies are presented in Boxes 1 to 4.
Box 1. Mobile training vans for training in organic farming Sri Sri Mobile Agriculture Institute’s (SSMAI) van was launched in October 2003. One of the key objectives of this programme is to provide guidance to farmers to become self-reliant and build their inner confidence to promote and revive organic farming. Village youth leaders are given extensive training on theoretical and practical aspects of organic farming and they are also provided with ample experience in the practical application of their newly acquired knowledge. The programme also educates farmers in the use of quality agricultural inputs and implements aimed at higher quality yield. The promotion of chemical-free farming and awareness creation among the village population and particularly the farmers on biodiversity, the hazards of genetic engineering on bio-safety and the health hazards caused by the use of chemical products lie at the core of the interventions. Since October 2003, the van has been working intensively in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka and Rajasthan. The institute is working closely with faculties of various agricultural universities and colleges and the government with the objective to provide best solutions to the farmers and to access available government subsidies. Source: <www.artofliving.org/bioagri.htm>
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Box 2. Mobile training cr`eches for training in child care Mobile Cr`eches, an NGO founded in 1969 in Delhi, is running mobile training programmes, besides its day-care centres on construction sites in Mumbai, Delhi and Pune. The Bal Palika Training (BPT) programme is a one-year diploma course run by the organization providing training in professional child care. The entry qualification is tenth class pass. Those students who have not passed the tenth standard receive a Mobile Cr`eches Certificate. The BPT programme, which comprises theory and fieldwork on current and accepted approaches to childcare and development, is affiliated to Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women’s University, Mumbai. Source: <www.karmyog.com/ngos/mobile.htm>
Box 3. Mobile training units for training in tailoring An NGO, Reaching the Unreached in Theni District of Tamil Nadu, is operating a mobile unit containing half-a-dozen sewing machines. The mobile training unit is taken to the neighbouring villages for three-month periods and a teacher from the organization provides training in dressmaking to local girls and women. At the completion of the course, the local Women’s Committee provides financial assistance in obtaining a sewing machine for the village enabling participants to earn an income themselves. Source: <www.rtuindia.org>
Box 4. Mobile training units for training in vehicle driving Ashok Leyland Limited, a company that manufactures vehicles, is providing a service training drivers through mobile service training vans and drivertraining centres. Nearly 50,000 drivers have been tested at the driver-training centre at Namakkal in Tamil Nadu. The three-month course goes beyond imparting driving skills—it aims at readying the driver for life on and off the road. Along with education about the vehicle and on traffic rules, sessions on physical fitness, personality development and health risks like smoking are also conducted. The drivers also attend awareness sessions on sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Source: <www.ciionline.org/socialinitiatives/188/?Page=Ashok+Leyland+ Limited.htm>
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Mobile training units have the following advantages over face-to-face programmes in the provision of vocational education and training:
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Increased access, especially for the unreached and the disadvantaged groups; A personalized approach to training; It is possible to re-equip the van for different vocations; Tailor-made programmes through well-designed modular competency-based vocational courses; Continuous development of the workforce; Local community needs for skilled personnel can be satisfied to a greater extent; They can provide training to remote, distant and hilly areas.
However, there are certain limitations in using MTUs widely, which include the high cost of installation and the fact that only a limited number of persons can be trained at any one time.
4 Capacity-Building Areas The demand for skills arising out of market needs and various development programmes, especially in rural areas, should be identified in order to offer open vocational courses. Some of the courses listed in Table 1 are being offered through ODL in other countries, such as Australia and the United Kingdom. There is a need to introduce correspondence vocational courses in India in order to meet the specific requirements of the target groups.
5 Building a Comprehensive System of Continuing TVET A comprehensive system of delivery and assessment strategies for TVET should be developed and implemented in order to provide an opportunity for articulation with the learners. It will require an integration and networking of formal, non-formal and continuing programmes of TVET, supported by vocational guidance and counselling and greater investments.
5.1 Integration of Formal, Non-Formal and Continuing TVET Programmes A National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) framework should be introduced to certify professional competencies in formal, non-formal and continuing vocational education and training programmes. Such a system exists in several countries, such as England (National Vocational Qualifications—NVQs), Scotland (Scottish Vocational Qualifications—SVQs), Australia (National Training Framework—NTF), New Zealand (New Zealand Qualifications Framework—NZQF) and South Africa
1998
Table 1 Some typical courses provided by open and distance learning Agriculture
r r r r r r r r r
Agribusiness Dairy technology Floral design Gardening Mushroom cultivation Organic farming Pesticide application Soil testing Vermicompost production
Business & commerce
r r
Bookkeeping Hospitality & tourism
Engineering & technology
r r r r r r
Humanities
r r r r r r r
r r r r
Commercial cookery Cr`eche management Dressmaking & designing Embroidery & knitting Hairdressing & styling Health care & beauty culture Pottery
Fabric crafts Glass/ceramic/stone crafts Photography Wood cane/furniture crafts
V.S. Mehrotra, A.K. Sacheti
r r r r r r
Auto repair & servicing Clock & watch repair technology Computer applications Computer repair & maintenance Internet browsing Metal working & finishing Motorcycle repair Plastering Plumbing Screen printing Wall painting Welding
Home science
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(National Qualifications Framework—NQF). The NVQ system will provide flexible multi-entry and multi-exit options through a set of occupation-based modules/modular courses. This kind of alternative education and training system will link the formal and non-formal vocational programme and would prepare manpower for work at various levels (Sacheti & Mehrotra, 2002). The introduction of an NVQ system would require the development of skill profiles, standardization of competencies and creation of the necessary infrastructures and management systems for ensuring quality skills development. It would also require the creation of a National Vocational Authority (NVA), a Qualification and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA), a Training Board (TB) and National Certification Agency (NCA) with specific roles and functions for ensuring delivery of quality TVET (Sacheti, 2005). Compatibility of curricula between the formal and open learning systems would help learners move easily from the open learning system to the formal school system and vice-versa. It would also enable them to postpone temporarily their ambitions to achieve higher qualifications and professional status.
5.2 Providing Student Support Vocational guidance and counselling should form an integral part of all continuing TVET programmes so as to orient individuals about the relevance of the programmes offered by the institutions vis-`a-vis employment opportunities. A guidance resource centre (GRC) should be established in every study centre or vocational training centre (VTC). It should help students to pick and choose modules and select suitable vocational courses. Only professionally trained personnel should provide guidance to students. The GRCs should develop print materials for students, like charts, posters, brochures, handbills, pamphlets, etc. GRCs should also undertake a wide variety of other activities, such as career talks, career conferences and industrial visits. They should keep abreast of the changing work opportunities and the track record of the candidates. All necessary information concerning the world of work and career opportunities should be available to the students of open vocational education programmes. One of the reasons for the students not continuing in schooling is the need to supplement family income. Adequate incentives in the form of scholarships, educational loans or unconditional grants, especially for students from low-income groups, will encourage them to continue their vocational studies.
5.3 Greater Investments in TVET Programmes Technical and vocational education and training costs more than general education and, therefore, it is important to manage costs efficiently. The government will need to finance continuing TVET programmes, with more investments in setting up management structures and the development of delivery models. The Distance Education Council and sector-wise associations in different areas of the economy
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should finance continuing TVET programmes. The provision of a donation through a percentage of the profits made by an enterprise/industry through the sale of products or services should be made to a centralized TVET fund.
6 Conclusions Students who leave school after Class VIII or X for various reasons may look for an alternative route to learning that suits their interest and develops their earning capability. Such vocational courses should have flexibility in the length of training, reflecting the expected levels of competencies and skill proficiency, as any rigid pattern of two or three years duration tends towards perpetuation of the existing one-size-fits-all system. Continuing TVET programmes can serve as an alternative to providing a flexible system, comprising modular courses of different durations. The duration will, however, vary from course to course. In some cases, training might be short, because the skills are relatively simple (e.g. gardening, beauty care, hairdressing). In others, it might take much longer, as is the case with electronics. However, short training programmes cannot bring much in terms of educational content if they are not combined with other support services, such as micro-finance, market information and other business development services, as well as social services. Part-time, on-the-job, vocational and technical training should be made available for those who have entered employment and wish to improve their professional competence through further education. Specific continuing TVET programmes should be made available for professionals who desire to re-enter educational institutions. Provision of ‘day release’ or ‘block release’ in all organized and informal industries, enterprises and public and private departments have to be made to allow workers to attend part-time courses offered by institutions.
References Government of India. 1966. Education and national development. New Delhi: Ministry of Education. (Report of the Education Commission, 1964–66.) Government of India. 1968. National policy on education (1968). New Delhi: Ministry of Education. Government of India. 1986. National policy on education (1986). New Delhi: Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Education. Government of India. 1992. Programme of action (1992). New Delhi: Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Education. Hampton, C. 2002. Teaching practical skills. In: Mishra, A.K.; Bartram, J., eds. Perspectives on distance education skills development through distance education. Vancouver, Canada: Commonwealth of Learning. International Labour Office; United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2001. Revised Recommendation concerning technical and vocational education. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO; Paris: UNESCO.
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Kulshrestha, M. 2005. Vocational training and training providers in the construction sector: a case study. In: Sacheti, A.K.; Verma A.P.; Mehrotra, V.S., eds. Vocational education and training: challenges and strategies, pp. 148–57. Bhopal, India: PSS Central Institute of Vocational Education. Mishra, A.K. 2002. Economic development and skills development. In: Mishra, A.K.; Bartram, J., eds. Perspectives on distance education skills development through distance education. Vancouver, Canada: Commonwealth of Learning. National Council of Educational Research and Training—NCERT 1976. Higher secondary education and its vocationalisation. New Delhi: NCERT. Sacheti, A.K. 2005. A comprehensive system for management of technical and vocational education and training in India. In: Sacheti, A.K.; Verma A.P.; Mehrotra, V.S., eds. Vocational education and training: challenges and strategies, pp. 79–87. Bhopal, India: PSS Central Institute of Vocational Education. Sacheti, A.K.; Mehrotra, V.S. 2002. National vocational education system. In: Mukhopadhyay, M.; Narula, M., eds. Secondary education: the challenges ahead, pp. 71–85. New Delhi: National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration. Truelove, W. 1998. The selection of media for distance education in agriculture. Rome: FAO Research, Extension and Training Division, SDRE. <www.fao.org/sd/CDdirect/CDre0017.htm> Williams, V. 2005. Initiatives and future thrusts in vocational education programmes of National Institute of Open Schooling. In: Sacheti, A.K.; Verma A.P.; Mehrotra, V.S., eds. Vocational education and training: challenges and strategies, pp. 109–16. Bhopal, India: PSS Central Institute of Vocational Education.
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Chapter XI.13
Distance Education: The State of the Art in Career and Technical Education Christopher J. Zirkle
1 Introduction Technology is changing the methods by which education is delivered. Students enrolled in distance education, particularly those programmes using information and communication technologies, can have almost the same instructional contact and interaction as students in traditional settings (Galusha, 1998). These technological changes have also driven the growth of distance learning opportunities, as students who are time bound due to job or travel difficulties or place bound due to geographic location can now access courses and degree programmes at their convenience (Zirkle, 2002a). Colleges and universities across the United States have recently faced several changes affecting the nature of the courses and degree programmes they offer. Ever-increasing competition for students and calls for improved ease of access have driven institutions to create innovative approaches to course delivery methods and degree requirements (Lewis et al., 1999). Many students want to pursue degrees without having to move house so as to retain their current employment or because of family responsibilities. Legislators and taxpayers have called for better quality and more accountability in all educational arenas. In response to these pressures, many educational institutions are seeking to improve their programmes with new information technology tools (Zirkle & Shoemaker, 1999). At the secondary level, schools are seeking new ways to deliver effective instruction in an efficient manner and have begun exploring distance education strategies; these issues have begun to affect career and technical education (CTE) programmes, primarily at the postsecondary level.
2 Overview of Distance Education 2.1 The Historical Background of Distance Education The rapidly changing workplace of the 1980s began to push educational institutions to find more ways to meet the diverse needs of their students. As employees returned R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XI.13, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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to school to keep pace with evolving technologies and other workplace demands, educational institutions responded by developing off-campus programmes and more learning opportunities not constrained by time or place. Consortia of colleges and universities—such as the National Technological University, established in 1985, and the Mind Extension University, founded in 1987—illustrated the collaborative efforts of educational institutions to use technology in the delivery of courses and programmes. The development of the World Wide Web accelerated the growth of distance education opportunities to an unprecedented level in the 1990s. Colleges and universities in the United States, such Nova Southeastern University, Walden University and the University of Phoenix, already established as distance education providers, found an increasing number of competitors. The California Virtual Campus,1 a consortium of nearly 100 California colleges and universities, opened with 1,500 courses online (Public Broadcasting System, n.d.). Jones International University opened in 1995 and became the first Web-based university to exist entirely on-line (University of Houston College of Education, n.d.). Traditional bricks-and-mortar universities, such as Penn State University and the University of Texas system, developed major distance education programmes to complement their on-campus offerings. Learning portals and course software providers, such as WebCT, Blackboard and eCollege, emerged to assist colleges and universities with their on-line efforts. The decade of the 1990s ended with distance education firmly established as a significant alternative to traditional ‘on-campus, in-a-seat’ education. Recent statistics support this contention. Estimates calculate the number of distance education courses in the academic year 1997/98 at 54,470 with about 1.66 million enrolments (Lewis et al., 1999). Over 1,200 degrees of various types were offered at a distance as well. The new century brings continual technological change that will affect educational efforts in many respects and will have profound effects on distance education. Numerous technologies are currently used to deliver distance education and these will only advance and improve.
2.2 Distance Education in Career and Technical Education 2.2.1 High Schools At present, not much is known regarding the use of distance education methodologies in CTE-related courses and programmes at the high-school level. Courses offered at a distance in high schools are used primarily for remediation/skill development in academic subjects, ‘make-up’ of failed classes, or to help students meet graduation deadlines or graduate early. Other schools, often in co-operation with colleges and universities, have begun offering advanced placement courses, often to help rural and inner-city students access these courses, which may be unavailable in their school (Carnevale, 2002).
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These ‘virtual schools’ can be categorized by their operational structure, i.e. the entity responsible for oversight of the distance education programme. The Distance Learning Resource Network defines eight different types of K–12 virtual schools:2
r r r r r r r r
State-operated—operated by state education agencies; University-operated—operated by colleges and universities; District-operated—operated by public school districts and other local education agencies; State charter schools—operated by state-chartered entities; Private K–12—operated by private K–12 schools; Agency and consortia-operated—operated by regional agencies and consortia of educational entities, non-profit and for-profit organizations; Other private/home schools—operated as virtual home schools and/or other private schools; For-profit private—operated by private for-profit companies.
Despite a slow start, career and technical education has begun to enter the distance education arena at the secondary level. The University of Oklahoma Independent Learning High School lists courses in business education, family/consumer sciences, computer applications and aviation science among their offerings.3 The University of Missouri Center for Distance and Independent Study lists a number of career and technical education courses, including agriculture, business education, family/consumer science and technology education.4 The Francis School, a private K–12 virtual school, offers courses in technology education, agriscience and computer/Internet skills.5 Williams (2000) described the Virtual High School, a collaborative of participating high schools sponsored by the United States Department of Education and educational and industry partners, which has a significant number of information technology-related courses offered at a distance. With respect to the disciplines catered to by career and technical education, it appears that business and information-technology courses are the most likely to be offered at a distance. Agriculture, family/consumer science and health-related courses also are fairly well represented. Courses and programmes in the technical trades are sparse, probably due to the significant ‘hands-on’ component involved in these programmes, coupled with a lack of appropriate simulation methods to approximate the equipment and tools used in these programmes. Within the eight types of virtual schools defined by the Distance Learning Resource Network, those schools overseen by colleges and universities are more likely to have course offerings in career and technical education. The high schools connected to the University of Oklahoma, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln ISHS, the University of Missouri CDIS, and the University of Texas at Austin CEE all have several courses in career and technical education.6 This may be due to several factors, including the resources within the university to develop the courses, the stature of the university within its home state, and these universities’ historic ties to the discipline of vocational/career and technical education. Studies of high-school students participating in distance education courses and programmes are limited at this point. With respect to career and technical education,
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a study conducted by Swan and Jackman (2000) compared student success in courses at a distance with that of students enrolled in a variety of traditional classroom courses, including agricultural business management, vocational marketing, natural resources and animal science. A case study in Australia (Halsey, 2000) described a vocational education programme offered at a distance to students in the state of Victoria. 2.2.2 Two-Year Technical and Community Colleges Recent studies and reports (Lewis, Farris & Alexander, 1997; Lewis et al., 1999; Sikora & Carroll, 2002; United States General Accounting Office, 2002) have shown that two-year college students enrol in more courses at a distance than do students at four-year institutions. These studies have also shown that students taking courses at a distance tend to work full time, be older, have family responsibilities and enrol part time. Many of these characteristics are shared by students taking courses and programmes on campus at community and technical colleges. There are many two-year colleges offering courses and programmes through a significant number of distance education methodologies, such as web-based instruction, audio- and videotape, print correspondence, CD-ROM and interactive television. These courses and programmes may be designed for entry-level employment, remedial education in a variety of subjects, skill upgrading or career change. In general, two-year technical and community college websites list a number of CTE-related courses and programmes, such as: accounting; allied health; early childhood education; electronics; general business; and information technology. Many of the courses and programmes are concentrated in business education and information technology-related areas. Few courses and programmes are found in the agricultural sciences, family/consumer sciences and the technical trades. Many of the programmes, such as those found at Portland Community College in Portland, Oregon, are designed to be ‘2 + 2’ programmes, where students complete an associate of arts or associate of science degree, then transfer to a four-year institution to complete a baccalaureate degree.7 The largest community colleges in the country also have significant distance education programmes. Examples include the following:
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Miami-Dade Community College—accounting fundamentals, medical transcription, introduction to microcomputers and introduction to electronics; Houston Community College System—accounting, business technology, child development, home economics and marketing; Northern Virginia Community College—accounting, administrative support technology, health information technology, and marketing.8
Individual states in the USA, in developing virtual universities, have begun to emphasize degree programmes with career and technical education emphases, such as the ones found in Kentucky’s Virtual University, part of the Kentucky Community
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and Technical College System.9 Offered are numerous on-line courses in technical fields and two degree programmes available completely on-line: an associate of science in information technology and an associate of arts in business, designed to be transferred to a four-year institution. 2.2.3 Baccalaureate-Granting Institutions Colleges and universities involved with career and technical education have been developing courses and programmes for delivery through distance education. Curricular models vary, and schools range from offering a handful of courses to full degree options. There are career and technical education distance courses available at the undergraduate level at a number of four-year educational institutions. A recent Internet search revealed a significant number of four-year schools among those offering career and technical education-related courses: Central Michigan University; Northern Arizona University; Purdue University; Southwest Missouri State University; University of North Texas; University of Toledo; Washington State University; and West Virginia University.10 There are undoubtedly more, and additional universities will likely join the distance education bandwagon. Although there are significant numbers of career and technical education courses available at a distance, actual bachelor degree programmes are more difficult to find. Possible reasons for this may include the longer duration of a bachelor’s programme, the difficulty for universities to develop a university-wide programme at a distance that includes courses in a major and the liberal arts/general education courses required by most universities (Zirkle, 2002c), and the fact that most degrees at this level do not offer teacher certification/licensure options as part of the degree completion. However, some universities have developed bachelor’s degree programmes at a distance. The University of Arkansas offers a bachelor of science degree in education with a vocational education major through the Fayetteville campus.11 Indiana State University, through its DegreeLink initiative, offers bachelor’s degree completion programmes at a distance. Students can transfer courses or associate degrees from Indiana’s IVYTECH technical college system in the aforementioned ‘2 + 2’ programme to bachelor’s degree programmes in such fields as career and technical education, criminology, electronics technology, industrial technology and nursing. Courses are delivered through on-line, satellite, videotape and print correspondence methods.12 The University of Louisville offers an on-line bachelor of science degree in occupational training and development, which also allows students to receive up to forty-eight hours of course credit through documented technical certifications, job experience and/or job-related courses.13 With respect to teacher education, the State University of New York system lists a vocational teacher preparation bachelor of science degree as available at a distance through the Oswego campus.14 Although perhaps not traditionally recognized as connected to career and technical education, the Rochester Institute of Technology offers many baccalaureate
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programmes closely tied to the discipline at a distance. Full on-line programmes are available in such areas as environmental management and technology, technical communication, applied computing and network management.15
2.3 Teacher Education The past decade or so has seen significant reductions in the number of institutions offering courses, certification/licensure tracks, and degrees in career and technical education (Zirkle, 2002b). Bruening et al. (2001a) noted an 11% decline in the number of institutions offering career and technical education teacher education programmes. Numerous other studies and articles, all within the recent decade (Camp et al., 1998; Hartley, Mantle-Bromley & Cobb, 1996; Lynch, 1996; Pucel & Flister, 1997), have documented the consistent decline in the number of programmes within institutions of higher education. Many of these institutions are currently exploring ways to use distance education in the preparation of career and technical education teachers. Bruening et al. (2001b) found that almost two-thirds of the institutions involved in CTE teacher education regularly offered courses via distance education methodologies, whereas the remaining one-third offered distance courses occasionally. Web-based courses or courses using interactive compressed video were the two most common means of distance delivery. Several institutions have considerable numbers of courses and programmes available for individuals interested in pursuing some type of career and technical education teacher preparation programme. CalStateTEACH, a programme offered through California State University–San Bernadino,16 is the first teacher-credentialing programme in California to offer an on-line option for all required coursework (Cutshall, 2002). Virginia Tech offers courses specifically to meet the curriculum and instruction requirement for provisionally licensed teachers in career and technical education in the state of Virginia, as does the University of Minnesota for Minnesota teachers.17 A collaborative distance programme between Mississippi State and Alcorn State delivers all the courses needed for vocational teacher licensure through the Mississippi Interactive Video Network.18 Oregon State University offers a professional technical teacher education and licensure (PTE) programme online, as part of a master in education degree. The first twenty-eight credits of the programme qualify students for initial licensure in business education and technology education in the state of Oregon. Students can finish the master’s degree with an additional twenty hours of coursework.19 A teacher licensure programme called Licensure in Education for Agricultural Professionals (LEAP) is a completely web-based programme offered by North Carolina State University in collaboration with the University of Arizona, Washington State University, the University of Delaware, Fort Valley State University, Wayne State University and the University of Missouri.20 The programme is available to individuals with baccalaureate degrees in agriculture, natural resources
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and closely related disciplines who want to become agriculture teachers. The University of Central Florida offers initial teacher certification at the local district level for trade and industrial and health occupations teachers through on-line coursework.21 Additional approaches are being explored. Twomey (2002) discussed the concept of a ‘virtual teacher training center’, where individuals with industry and field experience could be trained as CTE teachers through a one-year programme delivered via the Internet, in co-operation with mentor teachers who would supervise field experience. This programme would not be degree dependent, instead concentrating on the pedagogical knowledge needed by an entry-level teacher. Western Governors University adopted a resolution in late 2002 calling for a programme to allow teachers to be trained entirely through distance learning, primarily through the Internet, and the creation of an entirely new computer language, referred to as ‘curriculum markup language’ or CML (Anderson, 2000), which would increase the interactivity of distance courses and lead to the development of standardized teacher preparation courses that could be taught across multiple state boundaries.22 Significant concerns regarding the use of distance education in teacher education in CTE remain. Bruening et al. (2001b) found that CTE teacher educators had reservations about using distance education methods in their courses, especially with pre-service teachers. In addition, two specific issues appear to come to the forefront of the discussion: the development of a pre-service teacher’s technical skill during a programme; and the supervision of any field-based component, such as student teaching. The difficulty in teaching and acquiring specific technical or psychomotor skills at a distance has been mentioned frequently (Dreyfus, 2001; Williams, 2000; Zirkle, 2000a, 2000b). Sparkes (1982) discussed this concern at length and determined that the need for face-to-face supervision during the development of technical skills made distance education unsuitable for this purpose. This concern would appear to be most prevalent with trade and technical teacher preparation programmes, such as welding or carpentry, which rely heavily on the use of specific equipment for psychomotor skill development, and less of an issue in business education/information technology programmes, which may be more lecture based and likely to involve the computer in instruction. Teaching is a dynamic profession, with interpersonal relationships a key to success (Zirkle, 2002b). Field experiences (class observations, practicum, student teaching, etc.) have long been a part of teacher preparation programmes and individual teacher licensure requirements. Traditionally, these field experiences have been supervised by a college/university teacher educator, through a co-operating, on-site teacher. Pre-service teachers enrolled in licensure programmes at a distance may be participating in a field experience far from the college/university teacher educator. Many of the programmes that currently prepare teachers through distance methods use satellite communication and asynchronous means such as videotape and audio/video streaming as a way of assessing many of the interpersonal skills found in teaching (Levin et al., 2001; Rogers & Coles, 2000; Sack, 1999). Another strategy is to include more extensive use of mentor teachers at a co-operating school.
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However, face-to-face instruction has advantages over any form of distance education in terms of interpersonal contact, social contact and non-verbal communication (Smith, Smith & Boone, 2000), and the limited face-to-face interaction between teacher education faculty and pre-service teachers has raised concern (Rhone, 2001; Rogers & Coles, 2000; Twomey, 2002). Studies on the effectiveness of distance education in teacher education are sparse. Experts are concerned that quality in these programmes is suspect (Rhone, 2001). A recent document published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (2002) examined several issues related to the implementation of distance education, including its role in teacher education, planning and management of distance education in teacher education, funding, and guidelines for assessment of distance education in teacher education. Career and technical education programmes using distance education have yet to analyse its effectiveness, especially when compared to traditional on-campus programmes.
2.4 Graduate Study and Professional Development Many colleges and universities have begun offering graduate-level degrees with an emphasis in areas related to career and technical education. Most graduate programmes in CTE are not concerned with technical skill development: students at this level would probably have acquired these skills prior to enrolment. Additionally, these programmes generally do not provide initial teacher licensure and do not have the aforementioned constraints associated with field experiences and student teaching that are part of teacher licensure. Therefore, these programmes can focus on text-based content augmented with audiovisual technology to increase interactivity and address different learning styles. Several universities have distance programmes leading to master’s degrees:
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The University of Arkansas-Fayetteville offers a master of education (M.Ed.) degree. In addition, an educational specialist (Ed.S.) degree is available with an emphasis in vocational education.23 Indiana State University offers a master’s degree in career and technical education through on-line, satellite, videotape and print correspondence methods. They also offer an online Ph.D. in technology management in collaboration with Bowling Green State University, Central Missouri State University, East Carolina University and North Carolina A&T.24 Virginia Tech’s master of science degree programme uses online and interactive videoconferencing to deliver courses.25 Ball State University offers online master of arts degrees in both technology education and industrial vocational/technical education.26 Oklahoma State University offers a master’s degree in agricultural education through on-line programming.27
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A collaborative distance programme between Mississippi State and Alcorn State in workforce education leadership is targeted to develop individuals for workforce education leadership positions at rural community colleges.28 The University of Central Florida offers an on-line master of arts degree programme in vocational education and industry training.29 Delivered through web-based methods, Washington State University’s master of science degree in agriculture is targeted at educators and other professionals.30 The University of Texas Telecampus’ on-line master of science programme in technology with a human resource development option also leads to Texas trade and industrial teacher certification.31 The University of Nebraska–Lincoln offers masters’ degrees in agriculture and family and consumer science.32 The University of Florida’s (2002) master of agriculture degree, designed for professionals in extension, education or agribusiness is delivered through the Internet, videotape or the state-wide interactive videoconferencing network.33 Emporia State University offers an on-line master of science degree in business education programme designed for recertification and professional development.34 Texas A&M University offers a master of agriculture (M.Agr.) degree through web-based instruction, to prepare individuals for leadership roles in education, natural resource management and other professional careers in agriculture and the life sciences.35 The University of Illinois offers a master of science degree in agricultural education through a series of Web-based courses.36
With respect to teaching areas within career and technical education, agricultural education appears to have the most degree offerings available through distance methodologies. Graduate degree programmes with a general emphasis in career/vocational education are also available, whereas degree programmes with emphases in business education, family/consumer sciences, health occupations education, technology education and trade and industrial education are scarce or nonexistent. Many universities, although not offering entire degree programmes at a distance, have significant numbers of courses available through a variety of methods that lead to a graduate degree or for professional development or teacher licensure renewal. The University of Wisconsin-Stout has several career and technical education-related programmes, including M.S. and Ed.S. degrees in career and technical education, with significant distance education components.37 Wright State University offers online courses leading to a master’s degree in workforce education, which can be completed on campus.38 Utah State University (2002) offers a number of distance courses in agricultural education, business education, and family and human development.39 Western Michigan University (2002) offers graduate courses at a distance for two programmes—a master of arts in career and technical education and a master of arts in family and consumer sciences.40 At the doctoral level, colleges and universities have slowly developed programmes available at a distance with a career and technical education emphasis.
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Nova Southeastern University offers a doctor of education (Ed.D.) with a specialization in vocational, technical and occupational education.41 In a collaborative effort, Texas A&M University and Texas Tech University have developed a doctor of education in agricultural education degree for delivery at a distance. Using primarily Internet delivery and the Trans-Texas Videoconference Network, the ‘Doc@Distance’ programme is designed to use the strengths of both universities, which are nationally recognized in agricultural education.42
3 Recommendations for the Use of Distance Education in CTE Distance education offers several benefits to students, faculty and educational institutions. However, it is not without challenges. In career and technical education, distance education may hold promise for addressing some critical issues affecting the discipline, most notably the decline in the number of post-secondary programmes of teacher preparation, teacher shortages and the availability of professional development for practising professionals. With respect to areas discussed in this chapter, specific recommendations can be made.
3.1 Educational Research The paucity of research on distance education has been fairly well documented (Holmberg, 1987; Phipps & Merisotis, 1999; Simonson et al., 2003). In addition, much of this research has been ‘one-shot’ case studies, examining perceptions of students involved in a particular distance education course or barriers to accessing distance education courses. Very little specific research has addressed learning outcomes and student achievement in distance education courses, especially when compared to traditional courses. Research on distance education in career and technical education has mirrored this landscape and has only recently become of interest to career and technical education researchers (Wonacott, 2001). With respect to this issue, the discipline of career and technical education should:
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Begin to conduct rigorous, structured research of the effects of distance education on student performance and achievement at all educational levels; Examine these effects at the individual course, programme of study and institutional level (if applicable); Compare these affects to similar courses and programme levels offered through traditional methods (i.e. in-class, on-campus settings).
3.2 Teacher Education A multitude of studies and reports have documented the decline of teacher education programmes in career and technical education programmes (Bruening et al., 2001a;
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Camp et al., 1998; Hartley, Mantle-Bromley & Cobb, 1996; Lynch, 1996; Pucel & Flister, 1997; Zirkle, 2002b). At the same time, teacher shortages have arisen in several career and technical education areas. As a result, many institutions are exploring ways to offer more teacher education-related coursework and programming through distance means. This, however, has met with some concern among career and technical teacher education faculty (Bruening et al., 2001b; Ndahi, 1999). Much of the concern has focused on the lack of face-to-face contact in distance courses, seen as a necessity in teacher preparation (Rhone, 2001; Rogers & Coles, 2000; Twomey, 2002). However, some innovative approaches show promise. Cal StateTEACH, providing courses online with field experiences supervised by local district personnel, offers opportunities for individuals who already possess a degree to become licensed career and technical teachers (Cutshall, 2002). Other universities have begun partnerships to offer licensure courses and programmes, often crossing state lines. In this time of decreasing budgets and wavering support for many programmes, these types of collaborative efforts may become standard operating procedure for many teacher education programmes in career and technical education. With respect to the use of distance education in career and technical teacher education, some recommendations appear warranted:
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Teacher education programmes offering distance courses and programmes need to ensure the quality of instruction and high levels of interactivity between instructor and students and between students themselves—both common concerns of teacher education courses at a distance. As new technologies become available to increase the quality of instruction and interaction, they should be tested and implemented. Encourage faculty to use technology in all facets of their teaching. As specified in the standards of the International Society for Technology in Education and National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, new teachers should have a good grasp of the use of technology. This can best be obtained through the effective modelling of technology by teacher education faculty.43 Teacher education programmes should seek out K–12 partners to facilitate the field experiences required of their teacher education students. An expansion of the field experience radius will likely be required as these programmes expand. Teacher education programmes need to continue to explore collaborative programmes at a distance, such as North Carolina State University’s LEAP programme, offered in co-operation with six other universities. Particular expertise at a given institution can offer students the best courses and faculty of several institutions—not just one.
3.3 Curriculum/Educational Programming for Degrees Institutions at the K–12 and post-secondary level have begun examining the feasibility of offering courses and entire programmes through distance education
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methodologies. There are several ‘virtual high schools’ offering remediation and advanced study through distance learning, and many colleges and universities have full degrees available at a distance, from the associate to the doctoral level. Distance courses and programmes in career and technical education programmes continue to grow, but perhaps at a slightly slower pace than other disciplines. At the high-school level, schools have begun offering distance courses, primarily in business education, family/consumer sciences and information technology. At the associate degree level, courses are plentiful but entire degrees in career and technical education subjects are a bit more difficult to find. The same is true with bachelor’s degree programmes. At the graduate level, a recent publication lists graduate programmes in education offered through distance education (Phillips, 2002). Of the 65 institutions with over 175 graduate degrees in education listed, only five programmes had a relationship to career and technical education. This is perhaps an evolving document that omits some programmes listed in this synthesis chapter; however, the report does suggest that, at least with respect to graduate education programmes offered at a distance, career and technical education is lagging behind. Many of the difficulties of offering CTE-related courses and programmes can be traced to the complexities of developing technical skills in students and the limitations of technology, a concern voiced for several years by individuals connected to vocational/technical training at a distance (Oliveira & Rumble, 1992). As technology continues to evolve, new methods may emerge to address this issue. In addition, much research has been conducted into the barriers educational institutions inadvertently construct to the access of distance education courses. The research has provided some insightful information and suggestions for alleviating these barriers. Therefore, some recommendations related to curriculum and educational programming for career and technical educators and educational institutions in distance education are as follows:
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Examine organizational resources to determine if capabilities exist in noninstructional areas to successfully offer distance education courses and/or programmes. Specific areas would include registration, advising, library and media resources, and technical support for students. Determine what, if any, institutional barriers exist that may keep students from accessing these courses and programmes. Continue to inquire about and experiment with new audiovisual technologies that appear on the market to address the issue of technical skill development at a distance. Provide professional development and technical assistance for faculty and staff involved in distance education efforts. Develop avenues of collaboration between colleges and universities for the purposes of offering courses and degrees with limited institutional resources. Models currently exist, such as the Texas A&M and Texas Tech ‘Doc@Distance’ programme and the Ph.D. programme in technology management collaboratively
XI.13 Distance Education: The State of the Art
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offered by Indiana State University and Bowling Green State University, Central Missouri State University, East Carolina University and North Carolina A&T.44 Develop effective marketing strategies for these programmes. One of the major attractions of distance learning is its ‘any time, any place’ approach to learning. Many career and technical education programmes have historically had a strong marketing focus in order to attract students, and this market has a significant potential for expansion due to distance learning.
The future will likely bring continual technological changes. Based on this synthesis chapter, career and technical education appears poised to address these changes, but much work remains to be done. Research on the effectiveness of distance education is sorely needed in several areas related to career and technical education, most notably the development of technical skills and teacher preparation. Although distance education is beginning to break down some of the barriers to accessing educational offerings, particularly to non-traditional learners, there are still significant deterrents to participation. However, inter-institutional co-operation, at one time perhaps unthinkable, has become more common as a result of the technological ability to close the distance gap. Distance education and career and technical education would appear to be a good match (Zirkle, 2002a). Most career and technical education programmes use computer technology to a high degree, perhaps more so than many of the academic disciplines. Use of the Internet in many CTE areas for student research and knowledge is growing exponentially and more programmes will come to rely on the Internet as a primary source of technical information. It perhaps stands to reason that distance education, and particularly the Internet, will become an even more common medium for the delivery of education at all levels, particularly career and technical education.
Notes California Virtual Campus: <www.cvc.edu/> Distance Learning Resource Network: <www.dlrn.org/k12/virtual list.html> University of Oklahoma Independent Learning High School: University of Missouri Center for Distance and Independent Study: Francis School—On-Line High School: <www.francisschool.com/> University of Oklahoma Independent Learning High School: ; University of Nebraska-Lincoln: ; University of Missouri Center for Distance and Independent Study: ; University of Texas at Austin Continuing and Extended Education: <www.utexas.edu/cee/dec/uths/index.shtml> 7. Portland Community College: <www.distance.pcc.edu> 8. Miami-Dade Community College: <www3.mdcc.edu/distance education/>; Houston Community College System: ; Northern Virginia Community College: <www.nv.cc.va.us/depts/distancelearning/> 9. Kentucky Community and Technical College System: <www.kctcs.net/distancelearning/>
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
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10. Central Michigan University: <www.cel.cmich.edu/courses/default.html>; Northern Arizona University: <www.distance.nau.edu/>; Purdue University: <www.tech.purdue.edu/graduate/ weekend/>; Southwest Missouri State University: ; University of North Texas: <web2.unt.edu/courses/>; University of Toledo: <www.dl.utoledo.edu/>; Washington State University: <www.distance.wsu.edu/degrees/agriculture ms.asp>; West Virginia University: <www.wvu.edu/∼exlearn/students/courses.htm> 11. University of Arkansas: <www.uark.edu/depts/coehp/de/index.html> 12. Indiana State University: <web.indstate.edu/ite/home.html> 13. University of Louisville: <www.ddce.louisville.edu/distance/degree.html> 14. State University of New York: <sln.suny.edu/sln/public/original.nsf/> 15. Rochester Institute of Technology: <www.distancelearning.rit.edu/> 16. California State University—San Bernadino: <www.calstateteach.net/> 17. Virginia Tech Career and Technical Education: <www.iddl.vt.edu/cte/lic/>; University of Minnesota: 18. Mississippi State University: <www.distance.msstate.edu/votech.html> 19. Oregon State University: 20. North Carolina State University: <www.cals.ncsu.edu/agexed/leap/> 21. University of Central Florida: 22. Western Governors University: <www.wgu.edu/wgu/index.html> 23. University of Arkansas: <www.uark.edu/depts/coehp/de/index.html> 24. Indiana State University: <web.indstate.edu/ite/home.html> 25. Virginia Tech Career and Technical Education: <www.iddl.vt.edu/cte/lic/>; University of Minnesota: < idlwebdb.cce.umn.edu/courses.asp> 26. Ball State University: <www.bsu.edu/web/iandt/> 27. Oklahoma State University: 28. Mississippi State University: <www.distance.msstate.edu/votech.html> 29. University of Central Florida: 30. Washington State University: 31. University of Texas Telecampus: <www.telecampus.utsystem.edu/programs/mst hrd/hrd. html> 32. University of Nebraska–Lincoln Independent Study High School: 33. University of Florida: <www.fred.ifas.ufl.edu/mag am/> 34. Emporia State University: <www.emporia.edu/lifelong/grad.htm#MSBE> 35. Texas A&M University Department of Agricultural Education: <doc-at-distance.tamu.edu/> 36. University of Illinois: <w3.aces.uiuc.edu/AgEduc/agedmasters.htm> 37. University of Wisconsin-Stout: <www.uwstout.edu/programs/deo.shtml> 38. Wright State University: <www.wright.edu/dl/list.html> 39. Utah State University: 40. Western Michigan University: <www.wmich.edu/conted/dde/index.html> 41. Nova Southeastern University: <edl.nova.edu/> 42. Texas A&M University and Texas Tech University: <doc-at-distance.tamu.edu/>; Texas Tech Extended Studies Program: <www.dce.ttu.edu/K12/K12GEN.asp> 43. International Society for Technology in Education: <www.iste.org/standards/index.cfm>; National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education: <www.ncate.org/standard/ programstds.htm> 44. Texas A&M University and Texas Tech University: <doc-at-distance.tamu.edu/>; Indiana State University: <web.indstate.edu/ite/home. html>
References Anderson, H. 2000. Technology: Western teachers. United Press International. 4989114c.html> Bruening, T. et al. 2001a. Characteristics ucation. Minneapolis, MN: University
Governors seek standard technology for training <www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/667448pof teacher educators in career and technical edof Minnesota, National Research Center for Ca-
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reer and Technical Education. (ED 458 407.) <www.nccte.org/publications/secure/index. asp#CharofTchrEdinCTE> Bruening, T. et al. 2001b. The status of career and technical education teacher preparation programs. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, National Research Center for Career and Technical Education. (ED 455 367.) <www.nccte.org/publications/secure/index. asp#StatusofCTE> Camp, W. et al. 1998. A national study of the supply and demand for teachers in agricultural education in 1995. Blacksburg, VA: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. (ED 424 405.) Carnevale, D. 2002. U. of Wisconsin will develop online advanced-placement courses for high-school students. The chronicle of higher education, 19 November. Cutshall, S. 2002. Going the distance: when online learning works. Techniques: connecting education and careers, vol. 77, no. 5, pp. 22–23. Dreyfus, H.L. 2001. On the Internet. London: Routledge. Galusha, J. 1998. Barriers to learning in distance education. Hattiesburg, MS: University of Southern Mississippi. (ED 416 377.) Halsey, R.J. 2000. MCEETYA Taskforce on Rural and Remote Education, Training Employment and Children’s Services: national case studies. Carlton South, Australia: Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs. (ED 453 990.) <www.edna.edu.au/publications/rural remoteed/index.html> Hartley, N.; Mantle-Bromley, C.; Cobb, R.B. 1996. A matter of respect. Vocational education journal, no. 71, no. 1, p. 25. Holmberg, B. 1987. The development of distance education research. American journal of distance education, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 16–23. Levin, S.R. et al. 2001. Highly interactive and effective online learning environments for teacher professional development. International journal of educational technology, vol. 2, no. 2. <www.outreach.uiuc.edu/ijet/v2n2/slevin/index.html> Lewis, L.; Farris, E.; Alexander, D. 1997. Distance education in higher education. Rockville, MD: Westat, Inc. (ED 413 829.) Lewis, L. et al. 1999. Distance education at postsecondary institutions: 1997–98. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education. (ED 437 879.) Lynch, R.L. 1996. Vocational teacher education: at a crossroads. Vocational education journal, vol. 71, no. 1, pp. 22–25, 61. Ndahi, H.B. 1999. Utilization of distance learning technology among industrial and technical teacher education faculty. Journal of industrial teacher education, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 21–37. <scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JITE/v36n4/ndahi.html> Oliveira, J.; Rumble, G. 1992. Vocational education at a distance. In: Rumble, G.; Oliveira, J., eds. Vocational education at a distance: international perspectives, pp. 3–9. London: Kogan Page. Phillips, V. 2002. GetEducated.com’s best distance learning graduate schools— Education and Library Science 2003. Essex Junction, VT: GetEducated.com, LLC. <www.geteducated.com/eddies/downloaded.htm> Phipps, R.; Merisotis, J. 1999. What’s the difference? A review of contemporary research on the effectiveness of distance learning in higher education. Washington, DC: The Institute for Higher Education Policy. <www.ihep.com/PUB.htm> Public Broadcasting System. No date. Distance education: an overview. <www.pbs.org/ als/dlweek/history/index.html> Pucel, D.J.; Flister, F. 1997. The current status and future of industrial teacher education and nonteacher education programmes in institutions of higher education. Journal of industrial teacher education, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 64–79. <scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JITE/ v34n4/html/pucel.html> Rhone, N. 2001. In teacher training, some prefer homework. Los Angeles Times, 27 September, T1. <www.student.carleton.edu/g/graift/cs webpage/in the news.html#Teacher>
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Rogers, P.; Coles, T. 2000. Online teacher training. (Paper presented at the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, Canada, March 2000.) (ED 444 362.) Sack, J.L. 1999. Prospective teachers in rural areas tune in to satellite classes. Education week on the Web, 24 March. Sikora, A.C.; Carroll, C.D. 2002. A profile of participation in distance education: 1999–2000. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Simonson, M. et al. 2003. Teaching and learning at a distance, 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall. Smith, S.B.; Smith, S.J.; Boone, R. 2000. Increasing access to teacher preparation: the effectiveness of traditional instruction methods in an online learning environment. Journal of special education technology, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 37–46. Sparkes, J. 1982. Pedagogic differences in media. In: Bates, A.W., ed. The role of technology in distance education, pp. 213–18. London: Croom Helm. Swan, M.H.; Jackman, D.K. 2000. Comparing the success of students enrolled in distance education courses vs. face-to-face classrooms. Journal of technology studies, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 58–63. <scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTS/Winter-Spring-2000/swan.html> Twomey, S. 2002. The Virtual Teacher Training Center: a one-year programme to transform subject-matter experts into licensed career and technical education teachers. Columbus, OH: National Dissemination Center for Career and Technical Education, The Ohio State University. (ED 462 547.) <www.nccte.org/publications/infosynthesis/ r&dreport/Virt Tchr TwomeyAll.pdf> United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2002. Teacher education guidelines: using open and distance learning. Paris: UNESCO. United States General Accounting Office. 2002. Distance education: growth in distance education programmes and implications for federal education policy. Washington, DC: GAO. <www.gao.gov/new.items/d021125t.pdf> University of Houston College of Education. No date. History of distance education. Williams, J.G. 2000. World Wide Wonder. Techniques: connecting education and careers, vol. 75, no. 5, pp. 22–25. Wonacott, M. 2001. Implications of distance education for CTE. ERIC digest, no. 227. (ED 452 368.) <ericacve.org/docgen.asp?tbl=digests&ID=112> Zirkle, C. 2000a. Distance education/technical education: too far apart? ATEA journal, vol. 28, no. 1, p. 30. Zirkle, C. 2000b. Preparing technical instructors through multiple delivery systems: a working model. T.H.E. journal, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 62–68. Zirkle, C. 2002a. Distance education and career and technical education: a good match? National Dissemination Center for Career and Technical Education Professional Development Speaker Series webcast. Columbus, OH. <www.nccte.org/events/profdevseries/20020606/ index.asp> Zirkle, C. 2002b. Distance education and the trade and industry educator. Tech directions, vol. 62, no. 4, pp. 32–36. Zirkle, C. 2002c. Identification of distance education barriers for trade and industrial teacher education. Journal of industrial teacher education, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 20–44. Zirkle, C.; Shoemaker, H. 1999. Indiana State’s Multiple Delivery Approach: integrating industrial technology education with educational technology. The technology source.
International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: UNESCO-UNEVOC Handbooks and Book series Editor-in-Chief: Dr Rupert Maclean, UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany
Associate Editors: Professor Felix Rauner, TVET Research Group, University of Bremen, Germany Professor Karen Evans, Institute of Education, University of London, United Kingdom
Editorial Advisory Board: Dr David Atchoarena, UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning, Paris, France Dr Andr´as Benedek, Ministry of Employment and Labour, Budapest, Hungary Dr Paul Benteler, Stahlwerke Bremen, Germany Ms Diane Booker, TAFESA, Adelaide, Australia Mr John Budu-Smith, formerly Ministry of Education, Accra, Ghana Professor Michel Carton, NORRAG c/o Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland Dr Chris Chinien, Workforce Development Consulting, Montreal, Canada Dr Claudio De Moura Castro, Faculade Pit´agoras, Belo Horizonte, Brazil Dr Wendy Duncan, Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines Dr Michael Frearson, SQW Consulting, Cambridge, United Kingdom Dr Lavinia Gasperini, Natural Resources Management and Environment Department, Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy Dr Philipp Grollmann, Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BiBB), Bonn, Germany Dr Peter Grootings, European Training Foundation, Turin, Italy Professor W. Norton Grubb, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley, United States of America Dr Dennis R. Herschbach, Faculty of Education Policy and Leadership, University of Maryland, College Park, United States of America Dr Oriol Homs, Centre for European Investigation and Research in the Mediterranean Region, Barcelona, Spain Professor Phillip Hughes, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia Professor Moo-Sub Kang, Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Seoul, Republic of Korea Dr Bonaventure W. Kerre, School of Education, Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya Dr G¨unter Klein, German Aerospace Centre, Bonn, Germany Dr Wilfried Kruse, Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund, Dortmund Technical University, Germany Professor Jon Lauglo, Department of Educational Research, Faculty of Education, University of Oslo, Norway Dr Alexander Leibovich, Institute for Vocational Education and Training Development, Moscow, Russian Federation Professor Robert Lerman, Urban Institute, Washington, United States of America Mr Joshua Mallet, Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, Canada Ms Naing Yee Mar, UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany Professor Munther Wassef Masri, National Centre for Human Resources Development, Amman, Jordan Dr Phillip McKenzie, Australian Council for Educational Research, Melbourne, Australia Dr Theo Raubsaet, Centre for Work, Training and Social Policy, Nijmegen, Netherlands Mr Trevor Riordan, International Labour Organization, Bangkok, Thailand Professor Barry Sheehan, Melbourne University, Australia Dr Madhu Singh, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, Hamburg, Germany Dr Manfred Tessaring, European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, Thessaloniki, Greece Dr Jandhyala Tilak, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi, India Dr Pedro Daniel Weinberg, formerly Inter-American Centre for Knowledge Development in Vocational Training (ILO/CINTERFOR), Montevideo, Uruguay Professor Adrian Ziderman, Bar-llan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
UNESCO-UNEVOC Head of Publications: Alix Wurdak
Rupert Maclean · David Wilson Editors Chris Chinien Associate Editor
International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work Bridging Academic and Vocational Learning
123
Editors Dr Rupert Maclean UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Education Hermann-Ehlers-Str. 10 53113 Bonn Germany [email protected]
Professor David Wilson University of Toronto Canada
Associate Editor Dr Chris Chinien Workforce Development Consulting Montreal Canada
ISBN: 978-1-4020-5280-4
e-ISBN: 978-1-4020-5281-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008930131 c Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com
Contents
List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxix List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xlvii Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Foreword:
TVET for the Sustainability of Human Kind . . . . . . . . . . . . .
lv lxix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lxxiii Rupert Maclean and David N. Wilson Prologue: Skills Development in the Informal Sector of Sub-Saharan Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cxiii Arvil V. Adams VOLUME 1 Part I Overview 1 The Pedagogical Roots of Technical Learning and Thinking . . . . Ron Hansen
5
2 A Conceptual Framework for Technical and Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Jay W. Rojewski 3 Towards Achieving TVET for All: The Role of the UNESCOUNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Astrid Hollander and Naing Yee Mar 4 TVET Glossary: Some Key Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Jeanne MacKenzie and Rose-Anne Polvere v
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Part II The Changing Context of Work and Education Section 1 Changing Workplace Requirements: Implication for Education Margarita Pavlova and L. Efison Munjanganja I.1 Overview: Changing Economic Environment and Workplace Requirements: Implications for Re-Engineering TVET for Prosperity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 France Boutin, Chris Chinien, Lars Moratis and Peter van Baalen I.2 The Right to a New Utopia: Adult Learning and the Changing World of Work in an Era of Global Capitalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Budd L. Hall I.3 Decent Work for All: From ILO Initiative to a Global Goal . . . . 111 Peter Poschen I.4 Redefining Gender Roles in the Workforce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Karen F. Zuga I.5 Anticipation of Skill Requirements: European Activities and Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Manfred Tessaring I.6 Redefining the Status of Occupations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Walter R. Heinz I.7 Changing Work, Work Practice: Consequences for Vocational Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Stephen Billett I.8 Traditional and Transitional TVET Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Poonam Agrawal I.9 Partnering to Meet the Needs of a Changing Workplace . . . . . . . 203 LuAnn Hiniker and Robert A. Putnam I.10 Bridging the Learning Divide: A Study into Adult Learning and Peer Mediation in the Workplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 David Johnson Section 2 Education and Training in Informal Economies Madhu Singh
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II.1 Overview: Education and Training in the Informal Sector . . . . . 235 Madhu Singh II.2 Tinkering with the Tinker: Meeting Training Needs in the Informal Sector of Chad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 Joshua A. Muskin II.3 The Traditional Informal Apprenticeship System of West Africa as Preparation for Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 William Ahadzie II.4 Initiatives to Link TVET to Self-Employment in Ghana . . . . . . . 277 Robert Palmer II.5 Criteria for Training Policy in the Informal Sector: Demands and Challenges in Latin America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 Enrique Pieck II.6 Informal Learning at Work: The Case of Working Children in Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 Laila Iskandar II.7 Informal Learning and Work: From Genealogy and Definitions to Contemporary Methods and Findings . . . . . . . . . . 319 Peter H. Sawchuk II.8 New Learning Spaces in TVET: The Contribution of Social Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 Terri Seddon, Kathleen Fennessy and Kathleen Ferguson II.9 Social and Cultural Aspects of Informal Sector Learning: Meeting the Goals of EFA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349 Madhu Singh VOLUME 2
Part III
Education for the World of Work: National and Regional Perspectives
Section 3 Reforming National Systems of Vocational Education and Training David Atchoarena and Peter Grootings
viii
Contents
III.1 Overview: Changing National VET Systems through Reforms . 365 David Atchoarena and Peter Grootings III.2 Latin America’s Efforts in the Vocational Training of Young People from Poor Backgrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379 Claudia Jacinto III.3 Accountability and Career Technical Education (CTE) Policy: A Brief Review of Six States of the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 Joshua D. Hawley and Alexandra de Montrichard III.4 The Regional Perspective of Vocational Education and Training 411 Mike Coles and Tom Leney III.5 Vocational Education, Training Reform and Regional Integration in the Middle East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 Munther Wassef Masri III.6 The Influence of Qualifications Frameworks on the Infrastructure of VET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 Mike Coles and Patrick Werquin III.7 Reforming Skills Development, Transforming the Nation: South African Vocational Education and Training Reforms, 1994–2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453 Simon McGrath III.8 Reform of Vocational Education in the Russian Federation . . . . 469 Olga Oleynikova and Anna Muravyeva III.9 Vocational Education in the Netherlands: In Search of a New Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483 Jan Geurts and Frans Meijers III.10 Facilitating Policy-Learning: Active Learning and the Reform of Education Systems in Transition Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499 Peter Grootings
Section 4
National Initiatives for Reengineering Education for the New Economy Joshua D. Hawley
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IV.1 Overview: Regional Reviews of TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515 Joshua D. Hawley IV.2 To Vocationalize or Not to Vocationalize? Perspectives on Current Trends and Issues on TVET in Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531 Moses O. Oketch IV.3 TVET in the Asian Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects . . . 547 P.P.G. Lionel Siriwardene and Muhammad Ashraf Qureshi IV.4 Transforming TVET Systems with the CPSC in the Asia and Pacific Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565 Man-Gon Park IV.5 European Action Programmes for Lifelong Learning . . . . . . . . . 583 Johanna Lasonen IV.6 VET in the Baltic States: Analysis of Commonalities and Differences of Reforms in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania . . . . . . 597 Frank B¨unning and Berit Graubner IV.7 Education and Training Needs of Rural Communities: A Situational Analysis of Selected Villages in Fourteen Provinces of Fiji . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609 Paula Cavu, Isimeli W. Tagicakiverata, Seveci Naisilisili and Viliame Rabici IV.8 Social Partnership in Vocational Education and Training in Lithuania: Challenges and Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619 Lina Kaminskien˙e IV.9 Integrating Education and Work: The Status of Vocational Education in Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637 Luc´ılia Regina Machado and Carlos Roberto Jamil Cury IV.10 China’s Higher Technical and Vocational Education: Development and Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649 Jing Mi and Aihua Wu IV.11 The Adoption and Adaptation of the Work-Team Concept in Urban Thai Workplaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659 Chitrlada Burapharat
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IV.12 Globalization of the Labour Culture in the Republic of Korea: What ‘Tripartite Relations’ Mean for Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673 Phoebe Moore IV.13 Involvement of Labour-Market Partners in TVET in the Russian Federation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689 Olga Oleynikova IV.14 Strengthening TVET to Achieve Lifelong Learning for All: Historical Snapshots and Recent Initiatives in Myanmar . . . . . . 703 Naing Yee Mar IV.15 Technical and Vocational Education and Training and Rural Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721 Lavinia Gasperini IV.16 An International TVET Programme Development by the International Baccalaureate Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735 Monique Conn IV.17 A Profile of TVET in the Asia and Pacific Region: A Survey of Progress, Innovations and Promising Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749 Chris Chinien, Elspeth McOmish, Mohan Perera and Alex Chinien
Section 5
Learning for Employment and Citizenship in Post-conflict Countries David Johnson and Lyle Kane
V.1 Overview: Vocational Education, Social Participation and Livelihoods in Post-Conflict Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767 David Johnson and Lyle Kane V.2 From Assessment to Planning: Hope for TVET in Uganda . . . . . 775 Bilal Barakat, Lyle Kane and Alex Inglis V.3 Linking TVET to Economic Opportunities in Post-Conflict Liberia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787 Lyle Kane V.4 Deepening the Divide: The Differential Impact of Protracted Conflict on TVET Versus Academic Education in Palestine . . . . 799 Bilal Barakat
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V.5 Co-ordinated Programming for Skills Development and Livelihoods in Post-Conflict Societies: What Promise Does TVET Hold for Southern Sudan? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813 Zuki Karpinska V.6 Vocational Training in Post-War Sierra Leone and Liberia . . . . 827 Andrew Benson Greene Jr. V.7 TVET and Community Re-Integration: Exploring the Connections in Sierra Leone’s DDR Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835 Julia Paulson V.8 TVET, Women and Conflict: Palestinians in the Lebanese Civil War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 849 Rachel Yarrow VOLUME 3 Part IV The Management of TVET Systems
Section 6 Policy and Management of TVET Systems Rupert Maclean and Chris Chinien VI.1 Overview: Navigating the Policy Landscape: Education, Training and Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869 Dennis R. Herschbach VI.2 Research for TVET Policy Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 891 Jon Lauglo VI.3 The Reform and Governance of Public TVET Institutions: Comparative Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905 Keith Holmes VI.4 National Versus Regional Policy Dimensions of TVET . . . . . . . . 921 Peter Noonan VI.5 Planning for Education and Work: Alternatives and Issues . . . . 939 Dennis R. Herschbach VI.6 South African Technikons and Policy Contestation over Academic Drift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 961 Andre Kraak
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VI.7 New Policy Actions and Government Roles: China’s Reconstruction of TVET Systems Since the 1980s . . . . . . . . . . . . 977 Deyu Sun, Jingwen Lu and Jun Li VI.8 Some Generic Issues in TVET Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989 George Preddey VI.9 An Overview of Contemporary TVET Management Practice . 1003 George Preddey Section 7 The Economics and Financing of TVET David Atchoarena VII.1 Overview: Issues and Options in Financing Technical and Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1029 David Atchoarena VII.2 Education, Skills, Sustainability and Growth: Complex Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1037 Kenneth King VII.3 Financing Mechanisms and Instruments: A Conceptual and Operational Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1051 Richard Walther VII.4 Financing Training Through Payroll Levies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1075 Adrian Ziderman VII.5 Financing Vocational Education and Training in South Africa 1091 Martin Gustafsson and Pundy Pillay VII.6 Voucher-Financed Training for Small Businesses . . . . . . . . . . . . 1107 F´elix Mitnik VII.7 Employers’ Participation in Training Finance: An Example from Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1123 Candido Alberto Gomes VII.8 Funding Lifelong Learning from a Life-Course Perspective . . . 1137 Barry J. Hake VII.9 Economic Perspectives on Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1155 Gerald Burke and Christopher Selby Smith
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Part V Teacher Education for Vocational Education and Training
Section 8 The TVET Profession Stephen Billett VIII.1 Overview: The Technical and Vocational Education and Training Profession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1175 Stephen Billett VIII.2 Professionalization of VET Teachers and Lecturers and Practices in TVET Institutions in an International Perspective 1185 Philip Grollmann VIII.3 Teachers, Instructors and Trainers: An Australian Focus . . . . . 1203 Erica Smith VIII.4 TVET Teacher-Training Requirements in the Russian Federation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1219 Vasiliy P. Kosyrev, Petr F. Kubrushko and Andrei N. Kouznetsov VIII.5 TVET Teachers and Their Professionalization in China: A Problem Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1229 Zhiqun Zhao and Lianwei Lu VIII.6 The Development of Training Modules for Instructors . . . . . . . 1243 Fred Beven VIII.7 Literacy and Learning: Are TVET Professionals Facilitators of Learning or Deliverers of Knowledge and Skills? . . . . . . . . . . 1259 Jean Searle VIII.8 Vocational Education in the Private Sector in Brazil . . . . . . . . . 1271 Elenice Monteiro Leite, Marinilzes Moradillo Mello and Nacim Walter Chieco VIII.9 TVET and Teacher-Training Curricula: A Developed National Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1285 Vasiliy P. Kosyrev, Petr F. Kubrushko and Andrei N. Kouznetsov
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VIII.10 Vocational Qualifications: The Role of Trade Unions as Negotiation Fora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1293 Antˆonio Almerico Biondi Lima and Fernando Augusto Moreira Lopes VIII.11 Vocational Education and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1307 Gaudˆencio Frigotto, Maria Ciavatta and Marise N. Ramos VIII.12 A Technical and Vocational Teacher-Training Curriculum . . . . 1319 Bonaventure W. Kerre VIII.13 Transforming Teachers’ Practice Through Action Learning . . 1333 Stephen Billett VIII.14 Professional Learning and TVET: Challenges and Perspectives for Teachers and Instructors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1351 Christian Harteis VIII.15 Industrial Attachments for Instructors in TVET Delivery . . . . 1367 Sarojni Choy and Sandra Haukka VIII.16 I Hate Left-Handers or Occupational Health and Safety Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1383 Richard Gagnon VIII.17 The Bologna Declaration and Emerging Models of TVET Teacher Training in Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1393 Frank B¨unning and Alison Shilela VIII.18 Standards for Occupation-Directed Professional Development of TVET Personnel in Developing Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1407 Peter Gerds VIII.19 Curriculum Research and Design as a Subject of TVET Teacher Training: Practice and Experiences from Two International Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1423 Joachim Dittrich VOLUME 4
Part VI
Education for Work: Research, Curriculum Development and Delivery
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Section 9 Research and Innovation Felix Rauner IX.1 Overview: TVET Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1443 Felix Rauner IX.2 Methods of TVET Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1461 Felix Rauner IX.3 TVET Research as an Aid to Improved Policy and Performance in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1469 Christopher Selby Smith IX.4 Repositioning the Role of Research in the Innovation of TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1483 Anneke Westerhuis IX.5 TVET Research as a Dimension of Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1495 Klaus Ruth IX.6 Modellversuchsforschung: Pilot Project Research in Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1505 Peter Dehnbostel IX.7 TVET and R&D Evaluation: The Potential for Optimizing TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1521 Ludger Deitmer and Lars Heinemann IX.8 TVET Research Organizations and Scientific Communities: Challenges to the Institutionalization of TVET Research . . . . . 1535 Wolfgang Wittig, Uwe Lauterbach and Philip Grollmann IX.9 Qualifications Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1553 Felix Rauner IX.10 Measuring Educational Quality in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1563 Robert D. Renaud Section 10 Curriculum Development and Delivery Felix Rauner X.1 Overview: TVET Curriculum Development and Delivery . . . . 1579 Felix Rauner
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X.2 The Mutual Shaping of Work, Vocational Competence and Work-Process Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1593 Nicholas Boreham and Martin Fischer X.3 Situated Learning and Cognitive Apprenticeship . . . . . . . . . . . . 1611 Michael Gessler X.4 Curriculum Approaches and Participative Curriculum Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1627 Georg Sp¨ottl X.5 The Deskilling and Upskilling Debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1639 Ulrich Heisig X.6 The Pedagogy of Apprenticeship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1653 Uwe Lauterbach X.7 Approaches to Designing TVET Curricula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1669 Richard Huisinga X.8 Collaborative Work-Related Learning and TechnologyEnhanced Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1687 Alan Brown, Jenny Bimrose and Sally-Anne Barnes X.9 Action-Based TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1699 Hans-Dieter H¨opfner X.10 Vocational Learning: Contributions of Workplaces and Educational Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1711 Stephen Billett X.11 Work-Based Learning: An English Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1725 James Avis X.12 Language Mastery Development within TVET for Professional Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1739 Andrei N. Kouznetsov X.13 Why do German Companies Invest in Apprenticeship? . . . . . . 1747 Klaus Schaack X.14 Workplace Learning: Metacognitive Strategies for Learning in the Knowledge Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1763 Hugh Munby, Nancy L. Hutchinson and Peter Chin
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X.15 Literacy, Design and Technology: New Contexts for Learning and Skills Development in South Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1777 David Johnson X.16 The Education Gospel and Vocationalism in an International Perspective: The Promises and the Limits of Formal Schooling 1791 W. Norton Grubb and Marvin Lazerson X.17 The Vocationalization of Secondary Education: The Relationships between Vocational and Technology Education . 1805 Margarita Pavlova X.18 Valuing Experience as well as Knowledge in Schools . . . . . . . . . 1823 Ron Hansen Section 11 Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Vocational Education and Training Maja Zarini, Tapio Varis and Naing Yee Mar XI.1 Overview: The Growing Role of ICTs in Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1835 Maja Zarini, David N. Wilson, Naing Yee Mar and Tapio Varis XI.2 The Pedagogical Framework for On-Line Learning . . . . . . . . . . 1847 Shyamal Majumdar XI.3 A Short Method for Building Web-Based Teaching and Learning Systems: the CPSC Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1863 Myong Hee Kim and Man-Gon Park XI.4 ICT Application in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1879 Boris Kotsik, Natalia Tokareva, France Boutin and Chris Chinien XI.5 Technology and Leadership in the Fourth Wave of Environmental Changes with Ubiquitous Technology . . . . . . . . 1895 Man-Gon Park XI.6 Knowledge Workforce Development for ComputerSupported Collaborative Work Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1911 Man-Gon Park and Myong Hee Kim XI.7 The Role of ICTs and TVET in Rural Development and Poverty Alleviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1923 Chiranjib Kumar Basu and Shyamal Majumdar
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XI.8 Switched on: International Approaches to Skills Development through ICTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1935 Maja Zarini XI.9 VOCED: The International Research Database on Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1947 Miriam Saunders and Radhika Naidu XI.10 What are the Limits of ICTs and Media in the Delivery of TVET? An Australian Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1959 Peter Kearns XI.11 Education System Profile: South Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1971 Tracey Wallace XI.12 Integrating TVET with Open and Distance Learning: Taking Skills Training to the Doorstep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1989 Vinay Swarup Mehrotra and Avant Kumar Sacheti XI.13 Distance Education: The State of the Art in Career and Technical Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2003 Christopher J. Zirkle VOLUME 5
Part VII
Learning for Life and Work: Bridging Academic and Vocational Education
Section 12 Participation in Formal Programmes of Learning and Skills Development Rupert Maclean and Hendrik van der Pol XII.1 Overview: Participation in Formal Programmes of Learning and Skills Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2025 Natalia Matveeva and Joachim Lapp XII.2 Access to TVET for All: An Essential Basis for Education for All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2039 Phillip Hughes XII.3 The Challenges of TVET Global Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2053 Manuel Cardoso
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XII.4 Making Global Classifications of Types and Levels of TVET . . 2067 Andy Green, Moses O. Oketch and John Preston XII.5 Trends and Issues in TVET across the Globe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2081 Moses O. Oketch, Andy Green and John Preston XII.6 Statistical Overview of TVET across Educational Levels . . . . . 2095 Manuel Cardoso XII.7 The Ethics of TVET Policy and Practice: Issues of Access and Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2163 Richard G. Bagnall XII.8 Special Needs Education and TVET: The Perspective from the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2177 Michael W. Harvey Section 13 Education for the Changing Demands of Youth Employment Karen Plane XIII.1 Overview: TVET for Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2197 Karen Plane XIII.2 Skills Shortages, Over-Education and Unemployed Youth: An International Dilemma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2211 Kenneth Gray and Sang Hoon Bae XIII.3 New Directions for High-School Career and Technical Education in the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2229 Richard L. Lynch XIII.4 Occupations in Demand/Youth Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2247 Antoaneta Voikova XIII.5 Pathways and Transitions from School to Work: Australian Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2263 Annette Gough XIII.6 School/Workplace Partnerships: A Case Study of Four Vocational Studies Programmes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2279 Marcelle Hardy and Louise M´enard XIII.7 Vocationalized Secondary Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2295 Jon Lauglo
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XIII.8 Vocational Guidance and Career Counselling in the European Union: Origins and Recent Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2313 Frederic J. Company XIII.9 ‘White-Collar’ Work or a ‘Technical’ Career? The Ambitions of Fiji Final-Year School Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2329 Pam Nilan, Paula Cavu, Isimeli W. Tagicakiverata and Emily Hazelman XIII.10 14–16 Year Olds Taking Vocational Courses in English Colleges: A Dumping Ground for the Disengaged or a Real Alternative? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2343 Norman Lucas XIII.11 Reconciling the Competing Policy Platforms in TVET? Promulgating ‘the 6Es Plus Education’ for Youth through Social Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2357 Karen Plane Section 14 The Skills Debate in an Ageing Society Tom Karmel and Rupert Maclean XIV.1 Overview: TVET in an Ageing Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2375 Tom Karmel and Rupert Maclean XIV.2 Policy Framework on the Retraining for Reskilling of Older Workers through Specialized TVET Programmes . . . . . . . . . . . 2385 Theodora Josue Tesoro Gayondato and Myong Hee Kim XIV.3 Reskilling for All? The Changing Role of TVET in the Ageing Societies of Developing Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2401 Margarita Pavlova and Rupert Maclean XIV.4 The Changing Context of TVET for the Workforce in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2417 Jagmohan Singh Rajput XIV.5 The Reform of the TVET System in the Republic of Korea for an Ageing Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2431 Hong-Geun Chang XIV.6 Will We Run Out of Young Men? Implications of the Ageing of the Population for the Trades in Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2445 Tom Karmel and Koon Ong
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XIV.7 The Ageing Labour Force and the Retraining of Workers in the Republic of Korea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2457 Jihee Choi XIV.8 Technical Entrepreneurship Development for the Aged . . . . . . 2469 Man-Gon Park and Suresh Kumar Dhameja XIV.9 The Ageing TVET Workforce in Australia: Issues and Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2487 Hugh Guthrie and Phil Loveder XIV.10 Working and Lifelong Learning among Older Workers (45+) in Japan: Implications for TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2499 Toshio Ohsako VOLUME 6
Part VIII Lifelong Learning for Livelihoods and Citizenship
Section 15 Adult, Continuing and Lifelong Learning Chris Chinien and Madhu Singh XV.1 Overview: Adult Education for the Sustainability of Human Kind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2521 Chris Chinien and Madhu Singh XV.2 The Emergence of ‘Workforce Development’: Definition, Conceptual Boundaries and Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2537 Ronald L. Jacobs and Joshua D. Hawley XV.3 The Challenge for ESD in TVET: Developing Core Sustainable Development Competencies and Collaborative Social Partnerships for Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2553 Chris Chinien, France Boutin and Karen Plane XV.4 Key Competencies: Overall Goals for Competence Development: An International and Interdisciplinary Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2571 Dominique Simone Rychen XV.5 Education and Training in the Context of Poverty Reduction . 2585 Bernd Overwien
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XV.6 Recognition, Validation and Accreditation of Non-Formal and Informal Learning and Experience: Results of an International Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2597 Madhu Singh XV.7 Self-Directed Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2615 Stephen D. Brookfield XV.8 New Learning Strategies and Learning Cultures in Companies 2629 Peter Dehnbostel XV.9 PLAR, Training and Efficient Labour Markets: The Canadian Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2647 Bill Empey and Christine Newton XV.10 Transformative Learning Theory and TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2661 Karen Magro XV.11 The Implications of Cognitive Style to Adult Distance Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2679 Cindy Marie Isaak-Ploegman and Chris Chinien XV.12 Competency, Meaningful Learning and Learning Styles in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2697 Richard Gagnon XV.13 Workplace Essential Skills in Policy and Practice: A Canadian Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2713 Erik de Vries XV.14 Adult Numeracy for Work and Life: Curriculum and Teaching Implications of Recent Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2731 Gail FitzSimons and Diana Coben XV.15 An Innovative System of Vocational Training in the German IT Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2747 Rita Meyer Part IX Assessment of Skills and Competencies Section 16 Recognition, Certification, Accreditation and Quality Assurance in TVET Karina Veal XVI.1 Overview: Competencies, Qualifications and Recognition . . . . 2763 Karina Veal
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XVI.2 The Certification of Competencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2777 Danielle Colardyn XVI.3 Modularization and Modular Delivery of TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . 2793 John Stanwick XVI.4 Diverse Approaches to the Recognition of Competencies . . . . . 2811 Danielle Colardyn XVI.5 How Do We Measure Up? Benchmarking the WorldSkills Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2827 David Hoey XVI.6 Validation of Educational Programmes: Comparing Models and Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2841 Grazia Scoppio XVI.7 Regional Accreditation and Certification of TVET Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2853 Ligaya Valmonte and Man-Gon Park XVI.8 National Qualifications Frameworks: An Analytical Overview 2867 Michael F.D. Young XVI. 9 Developing a National System of Vocational Qualifications . . . 2881 John Hart XVI.10 National Qualifications Frameworks in Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2899 Bonaventure W. Kerre and Astrid Hollander XVI.11 Implementing National Qualifications Frameworks: Problems and Possibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2917 Michael F.D. Young XVI.12 Labour Mobility and Mutual Recognition of Skills and Qualifications: The European Union and Australia/ New Zealand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2935 Chandra Shah and Michael Long XVI.13 Quality Assurance in TVET in Romania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2953 Magdalena Balica Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2971 Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3003
VOLUME 5
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Part VII
Learning for Life and Work: Bridging Academic and Vocational Education
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Section 12 Participation in Formal Programmes of Learning and Skills Development
Rupert Maclean UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany Hendrik van der Pol UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Montreal, Canada
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Chapter XII.1
Overview: Participation in Formal Programmes of Learning and Skills Development Natalia Matveeva and Joachim Lapp
1 Introduction The meaning and practice of work in knowledge economies and in globalized networks of production and trade is changing. The need for a highly skilled and productive workforce is shaping all nations’ economies. To increase their chances for employability, young people and adults need skills that are flexible and relevant to the demands of today’s societies, which require individuals to possess a combination of knowledge, practical and social skills, and positive attitudes and the ability to adapt to rapidly changing work environment (Castells, 2000; Ordonez & Maclean, 2007). Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is education for the world of work. It is one of the providers of learning and life-skills programmes for young people and adults. Following an era of growth during the first half of the twentieth century, TVET faced a decline in its share of secondary education after the Second World War throughout the world (except in Eastern Europe). In his pioneering article ‘The rise and decline of vocational education’, Aaron Benavot ascribes this trend first of all to a shift in ideological imperatives: The rise and fall of vocational education coincides with a shifting mandate for secondary schooling—a movement away from the production of differentiated workers that fit a differentiated economy into the production of more standardized citizenry in line with the egalitarian demands of nation-building and citizenship privileges. In short, ideological imperatives appear to have undermined the impact of economic imperatives even for the most economically relevant form of schooling—vocational education (Benavot, 1983).
Following a shift in policy by the World Bank in 1991, TVET virtually disappeared from the international agenda and emphasis was laid instead on primary education. Especially in developing countries, this supply-driven approach to poverty reduction turned out to be somewhat counterproductive as it led to an emerging skills divide. Today, however, there seems to be a come-back of technical and vocational education programmes. It is more and more acknowledged as a demand-oriented way of equipping individuals with the skills they need for working and living in the knowledge society (UNESCO, 2005). R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XII.1, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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1.1 TVET as a Means of Poverty Alleviation In his 1999 monograph ‘Development as freedom’, Sen defines poverty as a ‘deprivation of basic capabilities’, that is ‘the substantive freedoms [a person] enjoys to lead the kind of life he or she has reason to value’ (Sen, 1999, p. 87). Economically, this means deprivation of skills and knowledge (such as vocational, management, financial and technology skills, business knowledge, access to loan credits, skills updating opportunities and trade agreements) that enable the individual to act autonomously for productivity in the market economy (Preece, 2005). Education can have a positive as well as a negative effect on the development of capabilities. In the latter case, education can (re-)produce poverty, e.g. when the skills taught do not correspond with labour-market demands or when schooling systems ‘discourage critical thinking or questioning the status quo, thus producing a hegemonic acceptance of a poverty identity amongst the already deprived’ (Preece, 2005, p. 4). But, despite these contradictions, education can be a means of developing adequate knowledge and skills for participation in economic life (e.g. through enterprise education), a critical mind and awareness of social responsibility and the need for lifelong learning (ibid.). Since about 80% of jobs in poorer countries require vocational skills, TVET has to be regarded as a major means of poverty alleviation in those regions (UNESCO, 2005). Understanding the overarching multiple roles of TVET has led to the integration of skills development issues into the Education For All (EFA) initiative and to a recognition of TVET as an enabling component for the achievement of the EFA goals (UNESCO, 2000; UNESCO, 2003). A comprehensive vision of TVET makes it qualitatively different from general education systems, which consist mainly of such familiar institutions as schools, colleges and universities, in which age and educational level correspond more closely than is usually found for TVET. The 2001 UNESCO/ILO ‘Revised Recommendation concerning Technical and Vocational Education’ defines technical and vocational education as: a comprehensive term referring to those aspects of the educational process involving, in addition to general education, the study of technologies and related sciences, and the acquisition of practical skills, attitudes, understanding and knowledge relating to occupations in various sectors of economic and social life (UNESCO/ILO, 2001).
The Revised Recommendation understands technical and vocational education as: 1. An integral part of general education; 2. A means of preparing for occupational fields and for effective participation in the world of work; 3. An aspect of lifelong learning and a preparation for responsible citizenship; 4. An instrument for promoting environmentally-sound sustainable development; 5. A method of facilitating poverty alleviation. It includes: aspects of education that are technical and vocational in nature, provided either in educational institutions or under their authority by public authorities, the private sector or through
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other forms of organized education, formal or non-formal, aiming to ensure that all members of the community have access to the pathways of lifelong learning (UNESCO/ILO, 2001).
The difference between general education and TVET is most clearly reflected in the broad formulation of Education for All Goal 3 of the Dakar Framework for Action: ‘to ensure that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programmes’ (UNESCO, 2000).
1.2 The Status of TVET While in some countries TVET enjoys a prestigious reputation and has stimulated economic growth, it is a fact that in many countries it still lacks the status and image that it deserves. This branch of education is often perceived as a second-class option or a fall-back position for those who were not successful in the ‘more academic streams’. But this perception has been changing as the role of work (increasingly technological) and its impact on national and international economies evolves. Young people and adults increasingly acknowledge that vocational skills are needed to participate in the world of work and can enhance their chances of finding a job. Governments see TVET as essential for enhancing economic competitiveness and for contributing to social inclusion, poverty reduction and sustainable development. As well as responding to labour-market trends, TVET is expected to equip learners with basic skills and to support personal and social development. Employers are increasingly emphasizing the need for new ‘soft’ skills, such as communication, negotiation and teamwork, in addition to technical knowledge and ability. In addition to preparing individuals for the world of work by teaching them technical skills and competencies needed for economic competitiveness as well as soft skills, TVET is also more and more considered to have a responsibility for the personal development of its learners, and for their effective participation in societies. It can serve as empowering education—addressing the needs of individuals for whom some forms of exclusion have reduced their life chances and career opportunities (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2004). In order for TVET to fulfil its role as one of the providers of learning and lifeskills programmes for young people and adults, it is important that access to TVET is provided in all countries, worldwide, as part of EFA. In this section, issues concerning access to and participation in TVET programmes are addressed.
2 An Overview of the Contributions XII.2 Access to TVET for All: An Essential Basis for Education for All, by Phillip Hughes In his chapter, Hughes reminds us of the convergence of disadvantage—the most striking concept arising from the World Conference on Education for All, Jomtien,
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Thailand, 1990. According to this concept, limitations on many separate aspects of life—employment, health, community development and political influence—are all linked to the lack of an effective education (UNESCO, 1990). He offers a reverse concept—the convergence of advantage. The motivation of people to have more control over their own lives can add to their motivation to learn because learning can enhance those multiple areas of life and give hope. TVET, with its linkage to the world of work and the variety of its issues and values, can help considerably in this regard. Education for All (EFA) has been a continuing effort of UNESCO for over sixty years. The World Education Forum, convened in Dakar in 2000 to revisit the concept of EFA, established six goals specifying targets for achievement by 2015. TVET particularly contributes to EFA Goals 3 and 6, as they relate to life skills: Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes (Goal 3) [. . .] Improving all aspects of the quality of education, and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy, and essential life skills (Goal 6).
The fact that after such a long and persistent effort countries have made insufficient progress towards achieving the EFA goals showed a need to complement the approach through extension from literacy to multiple literacies, skills development for employability and effective citizenship—issues that can be addressed through TVET. This shift was consolidated at the UNESCO General Conference in 2003 (UNESCO, 2003). Although areas of need for EFA and effective TVET vary among developed, developing and transition countries, there are broad issues where TVET can make a positive contribution to people and to their societies. TVET in support of EFA can be a powerful means for breaking the circle of poverty and unemployment and bring greater justice and equity to developing countries. For developed countries, it could provide patterns that will help resolve the problems of alienated young people who fail to find their place in the system. For transition countries, skills development for employability and citizenship can assist in the difficult political transition and stimulate economic development. With its variety of forms and approaches (including both formal and non-formal education that can supplement the formal systems of schools in ways that will increase their effectiveness), TVET has a particular potential to empower people by providing employable skills, but also by providing motivation for the lifelong learning that is now a universal need for everyone. This empowering element of TVET is particularly relevant to the most vulnerable groups in society. Hughes emphasizes that TVET has a special relevance to the achievement of EFA as it includes a particular focus on developing countries, countries in transition and those in post-conflict situations, with particular attention to youth, girls and women, and the disadvantaged—the groups where it has been most difficult to make significant progress towards EFA.
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As TVET is to meet diverse expectations, substantial changes are required— education and training systems should be re-oriented to impart a broad range of life skills. TVET systems vary greatly from country to country depending on their historical, cultural and economic conditions and background. However, there is a common need: a need to revitalize, reform and develop effective TVET systems to prepare individuals for life and work. These systems should be able to adapt themselves to the diverse and constantly changing needs of the labour market, and establish a framework that influences access to and the quality of TVET. A statistical perspective towards TVET can provide useful descriptions and analysis to effectively support the reform of TVET systems and make them relevant, demand-driven and inclusive. It can allow governmental structures and other public and private partners involved in determining strategies and policies in the areas of TVET and employment to make informed decisions and exchange information. Adequate data and clear classification can facilitate the needs assessments of the existing TVET systems and labour-market requirements. It enables monitoring and adjustment of the reform process. The availability of comparative information could allow the development of comparative approaches, the identification of trends and the transfer of good practices. A global statistical picture of TVET is required to better inform policy at national and international levels. There is a common perception that TVET is diversifying and expanding in terms of its supply and demand. Practitioners and policy-makers often believe that education systems offer a wider array of programmes at different levels and in various fields of study. They also assume that these programmes are attracting larger and more diverse populations. There has been a shortage of comparable quantitative data and indicators on global TVET participation. There are several reasons for this void: lack of data for a vast number of countries; comparability issues; methodological difficulties in defining relevant indicators; and even the misrepresentation of TVET as being less relevant than other forms of education. Fortunately, comparable data are becoming increasingly available as these programmes become more visible and are justly valued. This, in turn, fuels the debate over which indicators should be used to measure the perceived progress. Despite growing international recognition of the importance of skills for development, it is difficult to get a global picture of the current situation. Chapters 3 to 6 in this section make an attempt to fill this gap.
XII.3 The Challenges of TVET Global Monitoring, by Manuel Cardoso Whilst a holistic vision of TVET is welcome, and is consistent with the lifelong learning agenda, this vision presents both conceptual and administrative challenges to educational planners—and statisticians in particular—when it comes to monitoring progress. As demonstrated above, TVET is complex and multifaceted. Unlike general education, TVET is not organized as a ‘system’ per se. In most countries
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there is a wide range of TVET institutions including State, non-governmental and private providers, each with differing interests, administrative structures and traditions. Public formal TVET often overlaps awkwardly with the school and tertiary education systems, and ministries of education often share responsibility for TVET policy with ministries of labour and/or employment, among others (Holmes, 2003). At the national level, many countries are now establishing bodies to co-ordinate TVET planning based on the analysis of statistical data and projections that take account of labour-market trends and ensure complementarities between education and employment policies. Even so, national statistics on access to TVET are often not available, and even when they are their quality is variable. Furthermore, while these data may meet some national information needs, they can rarely be used for cross-national comparisons. What does exist for many countries are data on enrolments in public general and vocational education programmes, disaggregated by level, age and gender according to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED—UNESCO, 1997). Data on non-formal and informal TVET are not readily available. Indeed, participation in these activities is difficult to quantify in the normal ways. Thus, whilst recognizing that enrolment in formal TVET programmes is only a small percentage of overall participation in TVET (especially in developing countries), the scope of the statistical part of this section is limited to formal TVET. The data reported here were provided by education ministries or their equivalents. Manuel Cardoso points out that there is not only an absence of data in many countries, but the boundaries between TVET and general education differ from place to place. Statistical indicators developed for general education assume a far closer correspondence between age and education than exists in TVET, which not only takes place prior to entry to the labour market but includes deferred initial training, updating, upgrading and retraining. This therefore presents the long-term methodological challenge of developing new indicators that encompass public and private formal, non-formal and informal TVET.
XII.4 Making Global Classifications of Types and Levels of TVET, by Andy Green, Moses O. Oketch and John Preston By definition, TVET covers a very diverse spectrum of learning activities: initial skills development and various forms of ‘re-skilling’ and ‘up-skilling’ encompassing ‘non-formal learning’ and ‘informal learning’. In addition, there is also work-based training and particularly on-the-job training (OJT), which is either non-formal or informal. Although a comprehensive classification of non-formal and informal learning is not feasible, formal TVET can be—within limits—classified into different types by mode of learning, provider, level, programme orientation and by its intended destination. A system used for classifying formal TVET is ISCED, developed by UNESCO (1997). This system provides a framework for the comprehensive statistical
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description of national education systems and a methodology that translates national education programmes into internationally comparable levels of education. A programme is used as a unit by ISCED. Programme characteristics relate to typical starting age, duration of programmes, entrance requirements for programmes, intended destination of graduates and types of qualifications awarded. With regard to TVET, the ISCED criteria, although they cannot be applied automatically to all cases, do nonetheless provide a basis for classifying formalized TVET programmes globally in a standardized fashion. In their chapter, Green, Preston and Oketch provide an analysis of ISCED levels relevant for TVET. They describe types of TVET provision in OECD countries and countries outside OECD, utilizing ISCED-based indicators. The statistical overview of TVET participation and outcomes shows some distinct variations across the countries, as well as some trends. So, upper secondary level (ISCED-3) is probably the most common level for initial TVET to start in most countries around the world, and certainly in countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The UNESCO/OECD ISCED levels, presented in this chapter, form an essential basis for producing comparative tables of participation, completion and qualification rates in different types of provision across countries and regions. However, this classification clearly has some limitations. Firstly, it disregards much of the TVET that takes place in many countries because it is not sufficiently formalized to be assigned to the ISCED categories. Secondly, the use of the ISCED levels as a means for comparison of participation and completion rates in different forms of provision across countries is only valid to the extent that country provisions and qualifications are accurately mapped to the right ISCED levels using the agreed criteria. Green, Preston and Oketch note a number of cases where agreed mappings are debatable and can undermine the reliability of comparisons across countries and regions.
XII.5 Trends and Issues in TVET across the Globe, by Moses O. Oketch, Andy Green and John Preston A comparative analysis of current trends in TVET provision can identify differences and similarities between countries and provide a useful reference for dealing with emerging issues in global TVET, rapidly changing economies, labour markets and societies. These trends are mainly related to intensified global economic competition and to recent and cutting-edge scientific and technological advances, all of which lead to increasing global demands for skills and a skilled workforce. These demands are found in the most economically globalized regions, including North America, Europe and East Asia. In other less-developed regions of the world, where many countries are still only marginally engaged in the global economy, changes in skills demands have been less dramatic. A number of pervasive differences with regard to TVET provision exist across regions and are concentrated among the more developed, medium-income and
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low-income countries. An analysis of trends and issues by Oketch, Green and Preston, highlights certain trends within the various levels of TVET and concentrates on initial TVET, since data on continuing TVET are so limited for many regions that an overview is not possible. Among the trends in initial TVET that are apparent in the more developed countries and at least emergent in some of the less-developed countries are: (a) massification of upper secondary TVET; (b) the creation of broad vocational tracks to prepare participants for a cluster of occupations in a given sector rather than for a single one; and (c) diversification of a higher level of TVET in terms of content, intended labour-market utility, provider institutions and modes of delivery. New programmes aimed at developing skills are offered for occupations that previously did not exist. The reform of the apprenticeship system, designed to make the system more flexible and raise its attractiveness and status in the eyes of young people and encourage employers’ involvement, has also shaped TVET strategies in developed countries. Basic contextual factors are not necessarily captured by the ISCED typology and can vary substantially between richer and poorer regions, even where it may appear possible to identify similar classes of provision. These factors shape the quality of TVET provision and, consequently, the levels of participation and successful completion. Problems faced by many less-developed countries in delivering effective TVET and in ensuring high-level participation go beyond those experienced in the most-developed countries. These include in many cases problems of supply in terms of: (a) lack of public finance; (b) lack of adequately trained instructors; (c) communication and co-ordination problems (particularly in remoter areas); (d) inadequate ICT infrastructure; and (e) system capacity in terms of central planning agencies and research capabilities. Barriers to access on the demand side include: (a) low levels of literacy which impede participation in TVET; (b) lack of resources to pay tuition fees and materials; (c) inadequate counselling; and (d) traditional attitudes that constrain female participation in TVET. The overview of specific contexts and trends characterizing TVET provision across the African continent points to the debate about the extent to which TVET should be provided by the formal education system in developing countries. It shows that patterns of TVET delivery vary depending on the historical heritage, hence are different among English-speaking and French-speaking countries. The analysis indicates that a key element could be to transform TVET in such a way as to reflect the prevailing reality of the labour market, emphasizing the need to link it to the informal sector and support communities and individuals in self-employment (also see Section 2 in Volume 1), although this approach is also open to debate.
XII.6 Statistical Overview of TVET across Educational Levels, by Manuel Cardoso The overview of technical/vocational and other related programmes at each of the four applicable ISCED levels and their combinations demonstrate a substantial heterogeneity in TVET provision around the world—they vary considerably across
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regions, as well as across countries within regions. Application of the diversification index that ranges from 0 to 3, depending on the number of levels that offer TVET streams, enables identification of some important regional variations. The highest levels of diversifications are recorded in Europe. Analysis also shows that TVET provision is more frequent at the upper secondary level, less so at the post-secondary non-tertiary (ISCED-4) and lower secondary (ISCED-2) levels. Industrialized countries offer combinations of programmes that tend to be more diversified by ISCED level and have higher levels of TVET participation at the upper secondary level (ISCED-3). The most common pattern of vocational education provision combines the two most-advanced levels: upper-secondary (ISCED-3) and post-secondary non-tertiary (ISCED-4). Patterns of provision are strongly related to cultural institutions, colonial history and geographic proximity. Aside from the fact that combinations of programmes by ISCED level vary systematically across regions, it is also worth noting that these combinations do not just occur at random; they are positively or negatively associated with each other. Vocational gross enrolment ratios (VGER) are used for an in-depth look at enrolments in TVET at the secondary and post-secondary levels. Due to limitations of VGERs, it is argued that they should be complemented by another measure—the ‘percentage of technical/vocational enrolment’. This is plotted against gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and against the gross enrolment ratio in upper secondary education to test hypotheses concerning the relationship between the two, where the higher the GDP per capita, the higher the percentages of technical/vocational enrolment. Whilst the findings are not conclusive, this exercise illustrates how the availability of TVET data enables possible associations of this kind to be explored. Similarly, the percentage of technical/vocational enrolment is plotted against the respective gender parity indices to provide a visual representation of a possible association. In this case, the relationship between gender and TVET is shown to be complex and likely to vary considerably across regions and countries, with the hypothesis that gender parity seems to be a necessary but not sufficient condition for TVET expansion. Statistical tables introduced in this section provide the clearest picture yet of what national-level data currently exist to describe access to formal TVET programmes by level, age and gender. The statistical part of this section, despite shortcomings in the coverage, reliability and comparability of the available TVET data, presents one of the most comprehensive statistical analyses to date of enrolment in formal TVET in the world. While use of the statistics can reveal some of the distinctive features of TVET, it should be noted that TVET statistics can be approached in a critical way, which can assist in the development of more relevant and appropriate indicators and analytical tools. It is important to note that while providing basic information on the supply of TVET programmes and their demand as indicated by student participation, measures of participation do not reflect the un-met demand in many countries. Various sources of data should be used and analysed to support decision-making in TVET— the statistical data on global participation in formal TVET should be complemented
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with data from informal and non-formal sectors, as well as data from employment offices taking into account labour-market needs and the employment situation. Although they measure quantitative characteristics of TVET, current statistics do not reflect its qualitative dimension: the quality of TVET; the internal efficiency of providers; the relevance of programmes; and the contribution that TVET makes to individuals or, indeed, what it contributes to wider development objectives. These dimensions are clearly important and suggest a rewarding future agenda for TVET research. Quality is now recognized as an integral part of Education for All, and the 2004 Bonn Declaration on ‘Learning for Work, Citizenship and Sustainability’ notably states that TVET can ‘help improve the quality of life for all and help achieve sustainable development’ (UNESCO, 2004; UNESCO, 2001). Access remains one of the challenges in TVET. In many countries, and particularly in developing countries, individuals, and especially the most vulnerable groups in societies, are excluded from TVET. The reasons are manifold: the low status of TVET; disabilities; lack of resources to pay tuition fees; living in remote areas where TVET programmes are not available; age and language constraints; traditional and cultural reasons impeding girls and women entering TVET programmes (UNESCO, 2000). Yet, for TVET to make an impact it is crucial not only to provide access to TVET programmes, but also to make sure that these programmes are high-quality, efficient and relevant. A broad range of ethical aspects of access and quality in TVET are addressed in the following chapter.
XII.7 The Ethics of TVET Policy and Practice: Issues of Access and Quality, by Richard G. Bagnall It is evident from a brief examination of policy and literature in TVET that issues of an ethical nature are of considerable importance to the field. A recurrent theme throughout this overview is that human resources development and training underpins the fundamental values of society—equity, justice, gender equality, nondiscrimination, social responsibility and participation (UNESCO/ILO, 2001, p. 48). Aside from these much broader issues familiar to most TVET practitioners, there are also specific ethical issues that are relevant to TVET activity. Are vocational learning outcomes achieved through non-formal education yielding access to work equivalent to that from study in more formal TVET courses? Is the quality of learning in TVET the same for persons with disabilities as it is for those with more standard ability? To examine these questions and many others like them, Richard Bagnall presents a framework that helps understand the diversity of ethical questions and issues arising in TVET. He argues that ethical issues may arise with respect to either access or quality, and, on the other hand, with respect to learning engagements, learning outcomes or the impact of learning—thus with respect to any aspect of TVET activity.
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Brought together in a two-way matrix of key aspects of TVET of ethical concern, the following categories present the contemporary ethical issues in TVET:
r r r
Access to and quality of TVET learning engagements; Access to and quality of TVET learning outcomes; Access to and quality of learning impact.
This matrix can be used to inform policy development, implementation or evaluation in TVET—to ensure that the intended foci and balance of ethical concerns are being given appropriate attention. It emphasizes the importance not only of access, but also of quality in any TVET activity. Though, until recently, ethical attention has been focused more specifically on issues of engagement in TVET—especially access to and the quality of that engagement—there has been a considerable shift of focus to learning outcomes, facilitated by the increasing predominance of competency-based approaches to teaching and learning in TVET and of raising awareness of what TVET learning outcomes actually contribute to the well-being of individuals and society. It is imperative for TVET practitioners and policy-makers to make access to the impacts of TVET learning outcomes and the quality of those impacts explicit and to systematically use them in their activities.
XII.8 Special Needs Education and TVET: The Perspective from the United States, by Michael W. Harvey In the light of the above arguments, TVET provision for people with special needs presents an ethical issue of both broader and specific sense. According to ISCED (UNESCO, 1997), the concept of people with ‘special educational needs’ is mainly understood to refer to the education of people with disabilities. However, it has been extended to cover those who are failing in school for a wide variety of other reasons that are known to be likely to impede one’s optimal progress. People with disabilities face particular challenges in education and training. Many are denied access to basic literacy and numeracy skills. In all countries, disabled people may encounter discrimination and barriers to full participation in skills training and employment programmes. The promotion of increased opportunities for this group of people to participate in and complete training courses can facilitate their full social inclusion. The chance to gain valuable skills empowers individuals and leads to meaningful lives and socalled ‘vocational rehabilitation’, while at the same time enhancing the social and economic welfare of their family and community. Together with other agencies, UNESCO works with governments to address the issue of disability through TVET. The Revised Recommendation concerning Technical and Vocational Education strongly advocates developing opportunities and appropriate learning mechanisms for people with disabilities to acquire skills for employment (UNESCO/ILO, 2001).
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Sharing experiences and best practices on the ways to improve access to highquality and effective TVET programmes for the marginalized and most vulnerable cohorts of society can inform TVET policy-making and moreover provide a blueprint for other nations. The last chapter in this section, by Michael W. Harvey, focuses on the development and dynamics of career and technical education (CTE) and special education for students with disabilities in the United States. Workforce development, labour demands and the need for comprehensive CTE programming for students with special needs are explored in this chapter regarding greater postsecondary employment opportunities and employability success for individuals with disabilities. It presents a comprehensive overview of legislation initiatives aimed at improved provision and delivery of TVET programmes and the creation of individualized transition plans, and also addresses the issue of highly qualified special education teachers. The system and legislative structure concerning special needs education and TVET provides a model that has positively shaped workforce development in the United States.
References Benavot, A. 1983. The rise and decline of vocational education. Sociology of education, vol. 56, no. 2, pp. 63–76. Castells, M. 2000. The Information Age: economy, society and culture, Vol. 1: The rise of the network society, 2nd ed. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Holmes. K. 2003. The reform of public technical and vocational education institutions. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. Ordonez, V.; Maclean, R. 2007. Seeking a new education paradigm for teaching and learning: achieving education for sustainable development. In: Maclean, R., ed. Learning and teaching for the twenty-first century: Festschrift for Professor Phillip Hughes. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Preece, J. 2005. The role of adult education in poverty alleviation for sustainable development. (Paper presented at the Conference on Making Knowledge Work: Building Sustainable Communities through Partnerships in Place Management, Social Capital and Lifelong Learning, University of Stirling, UK, 25–28 October 2005.) <www.gla.ac.uk/centres/cradall/docs/Publications/JP-papers/Oct-06/Paper%20221.pdf> Sen, A. 1999. Development as freedom. New York, NY: Anchor. UNESCO-UNEVOC. 2004. Final Report of the UNESCO International Experts Meeting on ‘Learning for Work, Citizenship and Sustainability’, 25–28 October 2004, Bonn, Germany. Bonn: UNESCO-UNEVOC. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 1990. World Declaration on Education for All: Meeting Basic Needs. Paris: UNESCO. (World Conference on Education for All, 5–9 March 1990, Jomtien, Thailand.) <www.unesco.org/education/efa/ ed for all/background/jomtien declaration.shtml> United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 1997. International Standard Classification of Education—ISCED 1997. Paris: UNESCO. <www.unesco.org/education/ information/nfsunesco/doc/isced 1997.htm> United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2000. World Education Forum. Dakar, Senegal, 26–28 April 2000—Final Report.
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United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2003. Approved Programme and Budget 2004–2005—32C/5. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2004. The Bonn Declaration. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2005. Vocational education: the come-back? Education Today, no. 13, April–June 2005. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; International Labour Organization. 2001. Revised Recommendation concerning Technical and Vocational Education (2001). Paris: UNESCO. <portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL ID=13145& URL DO=DO PRINTPAGE& URL SECTION=201.html>
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Chapter XII.2
Access to TVET for All: An Essential Basis for Education for All Phillip Hughes
1 The Continuing Task 1.1 EFA: A Long-Term Commitment Education for All (EFA) has been a continuing goal for UNESCO from its foundation in 1946 and affirmed by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights with its specification in Article 26(1) that ‘Everyone has the right to education’ (UNESCO, 1949). Determined international efforts have been made to achieve this goal, which has been made more difficult by massive population growth, violence and civil wars, among other factors. At Jomtien, Thailand, in 1990, 155 countries joined together to adopt the World Declaration on Education for All. Every person [. . .] shall be able to benefit from educational opportunities designed to meet their basic learning needs [. . .] to be able to survive, to develop their full capacities, to live and work in dignity. [. . .] the scope of basic learning needs [. . .] inevitably changes with the passage of time (UNESCO, 1990).
A World Education Forum was held at Dakar, Senegal, in 2000 attended by 160 countries. The Forum noted that more than 100 million children were still not attending any school and that one-third of the world’s population lived in countries where the achievement of the EFA goals was unlikely. Six goals were adopted to achieve EFA, specifying targets for achievement by 2015:
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in early childhood education; in universal primary education, including recognizing the needs of the most disadvantaged; in access to learning and life-skills programmes for youth and adults; in improving adult literacy levels; eliminating gender disparities; and in improving the quality of education, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills (UNESCO, 2000).
R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XII.2, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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1.2 Universal Primary Education: An Insufficient Emphasis EFA was first defined in terms of universal primary education (UPE), the achievement of six years of education for all students. In assessing the degree to which this had been achieved, the Jomtien Declaration went beyond the idea of UPE to use the term ‘basic education’, defined by UNESCO as ‘the minimum skills and knowledge needed in order to be able to make a full contribution to one’s local environment and to be in control of one’s life’ (UNESCO. Director-General, 2000) Jomtien noted that problems with literacy and low school attendance are related to other social indicators: high birth-rates; high infant mortality; low agricultural productivity; lower life-expectancy; poor housing quality; limited access to clean water; restricted employment opportunities; and a lack of political participation. There is a strong correlation between all of these figures and education: where there is deterioration in one indicator there tends to be deterioration in all of them. Jomtien called this grim conjunction ‘the convergence of disadvantage’. Basic education was seen as the essential tool for breaking this cycle of disadvantage. The DirectorGeneral of UNESCO, Ko¨ıchiro Matsuura, stressed that UPE is an insufficient goal to break this cycle. Basic education denotes the minimum skills and knowledge needed in order to be able to make a full contribution to one’s local environment and to be in control of one’s life. In an increasingly interdependent world, the contents, and therefore the very notion of the ‘quality’ of basic education, are evolving. It can no longer be reduced to learning reading, writing and arithmetic. It must also teach individuals to be, to do, to learn and to live together (UNESCO. Director-General, 2000).
1.3 Progress Towards EFA It is useful to consider why EFA has not been achieved despite sixty years of substantial, if uneven, effort. Some of the reasons for this failure are obvious. In the period in which EFA has been a major goal, the world’s population has increased threefold and the increase in school-age numbers is even higher. Most of those who miss out on school live in the less-developed countries which face major problems in financing education. Other reasons lie in the nature of the responses to the need for education, some of which relate to the lack of consistent policy and effort and some to poor conditions within many schools. These reasons cannot be allowed to diminish the urgency of this goal. Unless the gap can be bridged to allow all children to receive an effective basic education, other key national and international goals—economic and social—will remain unachieved. Eight years after Dakar the sense of urgency grows. The need for EFA has increased over the whole period of the quest, but in the recent ‘EFA Global Monitoring Report’ severe doubt is expressed about the achievement of the goals by 2015. Data were available on four of the goals for the 160 countries: universal primary education; adult literacy; educational quality, as expressed by the survival rate of
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students to grade 5; and gender parity. The ‘EFA Global Monitoring Report’ noted the following achievements:
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forty-one countries have achieved or nearly achieved the four goals; fifty-one countries, including many Arab States and Latin American countries, are well on the way to achieving three of the goals, but are lagging behind on the quality goal; thirty-five countries, including twenty-two in sub-Saharan Africa and the high population states of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are ‘very far from achieving the goals by 2015’ (EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2005).
1.4 TVET: An Enabling Component The fact that the goal remains unachieved after such a long and persistent effort points to the need for some new initiative to complement the continuing approach through primary and secondary education. A partnership of EFA with technical and vocational education and training (TVET) can make major strides towards meeting the goal. Support for such a partnership now can provide a major boost to the achievement of EFA by 2015. This extension from literacy to multiple literacies was recognized at the General Conference of UNESCO in 2003. At the 2003 UNESCO General Conference there was a shift in dealing with EFA from issues of general literacy and UPE to specific aspects of EFA, such as TVET; skills development for employability; effective citizenship; and functional literacy for the world of work (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2003).
2 EFA: Current and Continuing Needs 2.1 Areas of Need for EFA in Developed Countries The ‘EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2005’ notes the relative success of the fortyone developed countries and yet these countries have not fully delivered on the goals of EFA. They have achieved UPE but are finding that this leaves a substantial segment of young people leaving school without any usable qualifications and excluded from secure and productive employment, as well as from many social benefits. The cost of these failures is high. Students who do not succeed in school find their opportunities limited in their lives after school with costs to both the individual and their society. For Australia that cost was put at US$30,000 per person per year (Dusseldorp Skills Forum, 2003), involving more than 20% of the graduating group, making a total cost of US$2.1 billion per year. OECD notes the failure of our current systems to create a sense of purpose. Too often the education and training that they are participating in fails to motivate or interest them, and its connections to working life are too tenuous [. . .] too many do not receive either
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real learning opportunities in work settings while they are students, or effective information and guidance to help them to chart their futures (Durand-Drouhin, 1999).
Given these problems, which are apparent in all developed countries, there are vital lessons here for the developing countries. The patterns sought for the schools of the latter are largely based on those of the developed countries. It will be unhelpful for them to re-create systems that are not working well, even for those countries that produced them. The connection with work is vital to motivate many students. Canada is trialling approaches that lean heavily on TVET, not only as preparation for work but because it succeeds in helping to rehabilitate students who were alienated by the regular system. In 1987 Normand Maurice launched a training centre in business and waste recycling for secondary school students, most of them drop-outs. This ground-breaking approach takes students off the scrap heap of the education system, restores their self-esteem, gives them goals, hope, training and, in most cases, a job (Maurice, 1999).
Building self-esteem through providing work skills has had a great impact as the incentive to continue. It has also been the lever to provide literacy and numeracy training for these young people—training that they had rejected in the past.
2.2 Areas of Need for EFA in Developing Countries In developing countries the problem of the millions who do not attend school is compounded by those who attend poorly equipped schools with large classes and poorly trained teachers. It is in many of these countries that civil wars, violence and disease create severe problems. If the formal system is incomplete and the achievement of UPE is inadequate, this will still leave a substantial proportion of people excluded from opportunity. Nepal, for example, has a population of 23 million people, mostly in rural areas, with 2 million children working in agriculture. It is estimated that 54% of children never complete primary school. A radical change of approach is necessary to deal with this reality. An approach that provides skills for work can help transform attitudes (Holmes & Tschanz, 2004). The priority in Nepal and other developing countries is to meet the current needs for primary education while also providing help for those currently missing out. It is urgent to help the most vulnerable groups, including skills development for those who are currently restricted in opportunity.
2.3 Areas of Need for EFA in Transition Countries Those countries in transition from a centrally planned to a market economy have a different set of issues to resolve. This category includes the Central Asian Republics, the countries of Eastern Europe and some countries in Asia, such as Mongolia.
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For these countries there are urgent needs to provide skills development for gainful employment to assist in this difficult transition and for citizenship. The Conference confirmed UNESCO’s belief that the foundation for sustained peace and development in the region cannot be based on political settlements and economic considerations alone. Rather, the empowerment of citizens to become active and participating members of their societies is also a prerequisite for the peaceful development of the region (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2005).
This interconnection between employability and citizenship is significant. These societies, with their history of conflict, have an immense task in building peace. That task is greatly helped by a prosperous economy that depends in its turn on available workers with adaptable skills, as well as constructive attitudes.
2.4 Broad Issues where Help is Needed The case for a broadening of the approach to EFA is made even stronger by a consideration of those issues where education can make a positive contribution to people and to the societies of which they form part. 2.4.1 Violence Wars or other forms of involvement in violence may not only prevent young people from attending school, but may actively enlist them in the violent activity itself. In such cases, the development of anti-social skills makes such young people difficult, even dangerous, members of a civil society. Their self-esteem is built upon their destructive skills and they may actively resist any circumstances that seem to devalue those skills or emphasize other values, such as learning. In many countries, such as Bosnia, Croatia, Cambodia, Rwanda and Viet Nam, those who have been severely affected by violence find themselves living side-by-side with those whom they see as the causes of that violence. The genocide in Rwanda in 1994 cost an estimated 2 million lives. In that period 50% of the teachers in the country were killed. Today, the survivors have set up schools again to help rebuild society. In many classes, the majority of the students are orphaned or have lost people who were close to them. They share classes with students whose families shared in the killing. The task of creating a peaceful atmosphere is very difficult and painful and made more so because most schools, like hospitals and churches, were reduced to rubble and the students now work in makeshift conditions with little or no materials or equipment. Major benefits of education and training in such situations are helping people to live together harmoniously and gain skills for productive work. 2.4.2 Poverty Some 1.3 billion people live on less than US$1 per day, with this number growing daily as newly impoverished groups are being created by violence, loss of
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employment and the restructuring of society. Two-thirds of these people are women and a high proportion of them are young people and children. In many countries, youth employment under harsh conditions is a problem because of its effects on their health, but it also limits opportunities for education and self-improvement. Yet, the opportunity to earn may be an important contribution to family income. In Haiti, only 20% of the age-group completes primary school and unemployment is very high. New initiatives in non-formal education through TVET are proving helpful in bridging the gap between poverty and self-sufficiency (Holmes & Tschanz, 2004). A major need in such situations is for students to see that the school has relevance to their lives, both now and in the future, otherwise they often consider it to be irrelevant and boring. Providing skills needed for work, as well as pathways into work, can help people to break the cycle of poverty and unemployment. UNESCO is playing a significant role in the fight against poverty, while providing skills for work and helping to meet EFA goals. UNESCO launched a six-year programme for practical training of youth at risk, linked with their basic education. [. . .] As of 1998, more than twenty countries are participating. All involve certain common features: linking immediate needs with a training programme that teaches relevant skills and knowledge while at the same time strengthening literacy, helping towards economic independence through assisting with marketing and showing the relevance of numeracy, involving the learners in the running of their own communities, seeing social integration as a necessary adjunct to economic independence (UNESCO, 1999).
These projects can make a major difference to communities, individuals and the achievement of EFA goals. 2.4.3 Unemployment In many developing countries, young people suffer disproportionately high rates of unemployment. At the Bonn Meeting of UNESCO Experts on ‘Learning for Work, Citizenship and Sustainability’, the Youth Representative Lyngdoh pointed out the severity of the situation. He noted that global youth unemployment was 14.4% in 2003 with rates of 26.8% in the Middle East and Africa and that, while the overall youth population grew by 10.5% over ten years, youth employment grew by only 0.2% (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2004). The combined approach of basic education and vocational training is particularly effective because it provides the means to move ahead economically and breaks the cycle of poverty. The addition of micro-finance schemes introduces another important dimension. The Grameen Bank has made a striking impact in developing countries. Its founder, Dr Muhammad Yunus, commented recently on the impact on poor people of providing micro-finance to women, which also assists EFA outcomes. All of Bangladesh has changed. Bangladesh is still a poor country but empowerment has come to the women of Bangladesh. It’s a tremendous change that has taken place. Women have access to money. They can now plan. They can now dream. Their children are in school. Many of them are now going into education through Grameen Bank financing. [. . .] People are now creating their own jobs (Pandya et al., 2005).
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Productive skills and the initiative to use those skills can help establish a sense of hope for the future, a quality that many young people find in short supply. Young people in many countries have the highest suicide rates of any age group. Involvement in useful work can be a valuable approach and that involvement can only come with their enhanced capacity for such work. The Grameen experience shows that the capacity to work, plus the willingness to seek and create opportunities, can revolutionize situations that seemed hopeless.
3 TVET: The Necessary Component 3.1 A Necessary Interrelationship: EFA and TVET The various groups of nations share a common need: to ensure that EFA is able to respond to current social and economic demands. TVET is specifically designed to provide access to and competence in these literacies because of its focus on technology. Access to productive work is one need, but so are the creative attitudes relevant to seeking and finding work. Comments at the 2004 International Conference on Education (ICE) emphasized the new meaning of ‘education’ in EFA as ‘that basic education which prepares for both life and work’. This new breadth for EFA requires a necessary relationship with TVET, given its commitment to linkages with the world of work. This is especially relevant for developing countries (UNESCO, 2004). In 2002 UNESCO and the German Government established the UNESCOUNEVOC International Centre in Bonn. This gives TVET the task of providing a powerful backing to EFA, with particular emphasis on developing countries where the need is most urgent. Nozawa reviewed the EFA initiatives in four of the lessdeveloped countries (LDCs), affirming a particular role for TVET. EFA initiatives in the LDCs have concentrated too exclusively on UPE and literacy. There is a need to reach and empower marginalized groups through vocational skills training programmes. UNESCO’s Section for TVE and the IIEP have launched a project in four LDCs: Mali, Senegal, Laos and Nepal, to integrate a vocational skills training project in their EFA National Action Plans to meet the needs of out-of-school youth, particularly rural poor, girls and women (Nozawa, 2003).
This recognizes that EFA must link with the most productive elements of education, including technical and vocational education and training. The Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) identified the necessity of extending primary education in this direction. Sida points out that the great majority of students in developing countries receive no education after primary school and identifies the need to provide more vocational emphasis at this level (Sida, 1997). This link between primary education and technical and vocational education is highly relevant, given the failure of so much formal education to address the needs of all students, particularly those for whom some forms of exclusion have reduced their life chances.
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3.2 Current Education is not Sufficient—Anywhere If education is to meet such varied needs, substantial changes are needed. The task of education to fulfil the high hopes for success is formidable. Many problems cannot be solved simply by providing more of what currently exists. Victor Ordonez affirms that transformation of schooling is needed and must include fundamental rethinking. The world has changed and the schools, instead of leading the change, are lagging behind it or even resisting it. If you go to a bank today, it is radically different from what a bank was like twenty years ago—it has ATM machines and computerized services that were not there twenty years ago. If you go to a school today, it is much the same as it was twenty years ago, with the same teaching styles, the same subjects, the same lesson plans, even the same examinations. This must and will change (Ordonez, 1998).
The Inter-Agency Working Group (IAWG) on Life Skills in EFA, which included many key agencies in addition to UNESCO, agreed on the changes needed in EFA. The meeting identified three necessary areas: ‘giving everyone the means to acquire recognized and measurable learning outcomes, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills’ (IAWG, 2004). The answer to the problems is not to do more of the same. It is in this context that the special contribution of TVET will be vital.
3.3 New Approaches in TVET are Proving their Worth Technical and vocational education has suffered from being considered as the fallback position for those who did not succeed in the ‘more academic streams’. It is only in recent decades that this perception has been challenged and altered. A major reason for this modification has been the changing role of work and its impact on national and international economies. With work becoming more technologically based and more diverse, thus reducing the opportunities for unskilled work, technical and vocational education has assumed a key educational role. The enhanced role of TVET as an entry point to the ‘knowledge society’ is reflected in the role it has been accorded by UNESCO. UNESCO has recognized the importance of TVET from its early beginnings, working in concert with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to develop ‘vocational guidance and technical education’. A series of initiatives over the years has confirmed its role and in 1999 UNESCO convened the second International Conference on TVE, held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, to express the organization’s current emphasis on ‘Lifelong Learning and Training: a Bridge to the Future’. In 2001, the UNESCO General Conference adopted a new definition for TVET: [A] comprehensive term referring to those aspects of the educational process involving, in addition to general education, the study of technologies and related sciences, and the acquisition of practical skills, attitudes and understanding and knowledge related to occupations in various sectors of economic and social life (UNESCO, 2002b).
Some of the success stories in different countries illustrate the necessary directions of change.
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3.3.1 The Lao People’s Democratic Republic Less-developed countries, such as the Lao PDR, illustrate the need for this combined approach. This country has forty-nine recognized minority groups and 54.8% of those between 15 and 59 are illiterate. Many villages have no schools and the dropout rate is very high. Many people such as these have no possibility of primary education, but need knowledge and skills to make a living. To wait for full UPE is to leave untouched the needs of millions of people (Holmes & Tschanz, 2004).
3.3.2 Burundi Many African countries are seeking new approaches. The lead YES agency in Burundi teamed up with the Dutch YES team [. . .] to fund a microcredit scheme for Burundian families. About 37 families received 100 euros each to begin micro-enterprise activities in late 2002. Other activities included technical training provided by the lead agency for youth to set up small businesses in different villages. Additional school materials were provided to assist (Holmes & Tschanz, 2004).
3.3.3 Mali Mali provides an interesting example of a country that has made great advances, but still faces severe problems. Mali has a population of 12 million, with more than 75% in rural areas. The country is among the poorest in the world. Mali adopted the Jomtien Declaration in 1990 and reaffirmed this at Dakar in 2000. The gross enrolment rate for the first primary level was 7% in 1962 increasing to 62% in 2002. An effort on this scale has its costs. The education sector currently accounts for 30% of the overall central government budget. The gains in primary enrolment are striking, but it is a heavy strain on limited resources. Also, this success leaves a difficult problem untouched. The socio-economic development of the country has been substantial, but there is an extra challenge because disadvantaged groups still have limited access to vocational skills. The government is using non-formal education programmes to provide literacy and basic education, as well as vocational and rural skills training. These are combined with micro-finance schemes at the village level to provide extra opportunities (Holmes & Tschanz, 2004). Such cases need and deserve special help from EFA funds to assist disadvantaged groups gain access to vocational skills and also to literacy. Where the country has made such significant advances, it offers good prospects that it will be able to make use of further funds. The Interregional Seminar 2004 made the following recommendation: The effective implementation of Mali’s skills development strategy in the framework of the EFA National Action Plan will require increased mobilization and technical and financial support from all parties involved in the EFA process. Such support is all the more important in that it is directed as a matter of priority towards the most deprived and economically distressed segments of the population (Holmes & Tschanz, 2004).
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3.3.4 Bangladesh Bangladesh has also made good progress with UPE since Jomtien. Government programmes have helped by providing incentives for poor families to send their children to school. Some 6 million children have benefited from these programmes, but there are still 6.3 million working children, largely from excluded and disadvantaged groups, for whom the future is bleak. They lack both literacy and work skills to enable them to move from their present disadvantaged state. Support from EFA funds could change this situation dramatically, providing these children with the means to improve their prospects (Holmes & Tschanz, 2004). 3.3.5 Chile An example of a different kind comes from South America. The Chilean Centre for Research and Development has created training modules to help students acquire basic skills together with their vocational training. [Other centres] in Uruguay and Argentina have developed strategies for providing basic skills in tandem with technical skills (Jacinto, 2003).
The early successes reported from these ventures are a measure of the growing flexibility of TVET to meet different needs in appropriate ways, but ways that achieve EFA goals as well as those of TVET. 3.3.6 Developed Countries The failure of the conventional system to succeed with all students, even in developed countries, has caused many to reconsider the way that the system works and to seek alternatives for some students. In Australia, the Dusseldorp Skills Foundation investigated other approaches precisely because, for a substantial minority, the conventional approaches were failing. The settings that did succeed were those that developed ‘a stronger connection with practical skills related to the world of work’ (DSF, 2003). A Canadian case has been mentioned above. A special programme to assist school drop-outs through skills development has had encouraging results in changing the attitude of these students towards further education. The link between practical skills and attitudes to further education has changed life prospects for many (Maurice, 1999). An interesting and slightly different example is the pattern developed in Denmark to meet this need for those who have not received help in the conventional stream. Denmark uses alternative learning settings as part of the regular system. Production schools provide for 2% of the school population who have had difficulty in making the transition to secondary education. Results are encouraging. The goals are to develop a renewed appetite for learning; to impart tangible skills including improved literacy and numeracy through the practice, enjoyment and discipline of work. [. . .] The schools are typically centred around permanent workshops where instructors and participants work together on practical ideas, designs and projects that result in real goods
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and services. [. . .] They operate as a hybrid school-business with a significant portion of their income derived from their produce sold into the market (DSF, 2003).
EFA should be seen as a means of achieving poverty eradication and greater equity and justice in societies, with particular reference to meeting the needs of girls and women and other marginalized groups. If programmes promoting EFA are to be effective and relevant to the perceived needs of the populations concerned, then the emphasis should include education for good citizenship and for employment.
4 Conclusion 4.1 The UNESCO-UNEVOC Centre for TVET and its Role in EFA The establishment of the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Bonn in 2000 has greatly increased UNESCO’s capacity to support this new definition of TVET. The Dakar decisions have had particular implications for the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre and for TVET as they include the commitment to skills development for employability, stressing the importance of functional literacy for the world of work and for sustainable livelihoods. This functional literacy is particularly relevant to the most vulnerable groups in society if EFA is to have a useful impact. TVET can perform a dual function: assisting in the development of this special literacy and, through this empowering process, helping to achieve a genuine EFA—an EFA that recognizes the increased breadth of ‘basic education’. TVET in support of EFA in this way can be a powerful means of alleviating poverty and bringing greater justice and equity to developing countries. This could be a major step forward for these countries and will be made even more valuable in providing patterns for the developed countries—patterns that will help resolve the problems of the alienated young people for whom the present system is viewed as a failure. TVET in general, and the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre in particular, can help EFA not only by developing productive skills but also by motivating student learning. Students who do not succeed in school, both in developed and developing countries, are almost without exception those who lack the motivation to learn—those who see no value for themselves in learning. A key finding of research on ‘disengaged students’ has identified the power of the perceived usefulness of learning in motivating the learner. There are few motivators to match the value of an education that provides an avenue for varied work opportunities, as well as the capacity to use those opportunities well (Marks, 2000). TVET has a role not just in preparing students for work but in increasing their motivation to learn more generally. The UNEVOC Centre is uniquely placed to provide countries with technical assistance in these areas. This is being done through a variety of means, such as: conducting training workshops at the country, sub-regional and regional levels; developing training modules related to key aspects of education for work; training
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TVET teachers; sharing innovative best practice regarding education for work and TVET; acting as a platform for inter-agency collaboration regarding education for work and TVET; and strengthening the network of UNEVOC centres worldwide. This role was emphasized at the opening of the 2004 International Conference on Education by the Director-General of UNESCO, Ko¨ıchiro Matsuura, stressing the importance of ‘competencies for life. [. . .] Lack of technical and vocational education and training, including entrepreneurship and training for creativity, hampers creativity’ (UNESCO, 2004). A major task for the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre is to provide technical support to strengthen and up-grade TVET systems in UNESCO’s 193 Member States and to promote a greater availability of skills development options so as to implement Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UNESCOUNEVOC International Centre is not confined to the patterns of the past, but sees TVET, with its variety of forms and approaches, as having particular potential to empower people, both by providing employable skills but also to provide motivation for the lifelong learning that is now a universal need for people. It has a special relevance to the achievement of EFA as it includes a particular focus on developing countries, countries in transition and those in post-conflict situations, with particular attention to youth, girls and women, and the disadvantaged—precisely those groups where it has been most difficult to make significant progress towards EFA.
4.2 Multiple Literacies The concept of multiple literacies is relevant to preparation for work, but is also a part of a wider preparation for constructive citizenship. This was recognized by Article V of the World Declaration on Education for All. The third point stresses this need. The basic needs of youth and adults are diverse and should be met through a variety of delivery systems. Literacy programmes are indispensable because literacy is a necessary skill in itself and the foundation of other life skills. Literacy in the mother tongue strengthens cultural identity and heritage. Other needs can be served by: skills training, apprenticeships and formal and non-formal education programmes in health, nutrition, population, agricultural techniques, the environment, science, technology, family life, including fertility awareness, and other societal issues (UNESCO, 1990).
TVET now involves such a variety of approaches, including both formal and nonformal education, that it can supplement the formal systems of schools in ways that will increase their effectiveness. TVET addresses needs that are fundamental to human motivation and achievement, in particular the capacity to work productively and creatively. In 2004 a meeting of UNESCO Experts on ‘Learning for Work, Citizenship and Sustainability’ was held in Bonn. The resulting Bonn Declaration proclaims the central role of TVET.
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We, the participants in ‘Learning for Work, Citizenship and Sustainability’, a UNESCO meeting of international experts on technical and vocational education and training, are agreed that, since education is considered the key to effective development strategies, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) must be the master key that can alleviate poverty, promote peace, conserve the environment, improve the quality of life for all and help achieve sustainable development (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2004).
4.3 The Way Ahead A striking concept from the Jomtien Conference was that of ‘the convergence of disadvantage’: the concept that limitations on many separate aspects of life— employment, health, community development and political influence—were all linked to the lack of an effective education. If we are to move ahead against the difficulties and barriers that limit people’s opportunities, the reverse concept must be used: ‘the convergence of advantage’. The motivation of people to have more control over their own lives can add to their motivation to learn because that learning can enhance those multiple areas of life. There are many examples of the ways that TVET can help. The current UNEVOC programmes are successful, but they are not reaching far enough to meet all the needs in the time available. A postponement now of that effort is a postponement for life for so many people. What is needed is a major commitment to provide the resources to enable this effort to succeed. EFA has been a commitment for sixty years. The challenge for all countries and agencies, and particularly donor countries, is to achieve this aim in the next ten years. The Bonn Declaration states clearly the claim for TVET to be a part of EFA: Recognizing that the vast majority of the worldwide labour force, including knowledge workers, require technical and vocational knowledge and skills throughout life, we affirm that skills development leading to age-appropriate TVET should be integral to education at all levels, and can no longer be regarded as optional or marginal. It is especially important to integrate skills development in Education for All (EFA) programmes and to satisfy TVET demand created by learners completing basic education (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2004).
Dakar has set 2015 as a target date to achieve EFA, including UPE. This includes a special effort towards equity—meeting the needs of disadvantaged groups. It also includes the commitment to the learning needs of all young people through ‘equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programmes’ (UNESCO, 2002a).
References Durand-Drouhin, M. 1999. Thematic review of the transition from initial education to working life. Paris: OECD. Dusseldorp Skills Forum. 2003. A note on educational diversity, compulsory schooling and DSF. Glebe, Australia: DSF. EFA Global Monitoring Report. 2005. Education for All: the quality imperative. Paris: UNESCO.
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Inter-Agency Working Group. 2004. Report of the Inter-Agency Working Group on Life Skills in EFA. Paris: UNESCO. Holmes, K.; Tschanz, Y. 2004. Promoting skills development: Report of an Interregional Seminar on ‘Assisting the design and implementation of Education for All skills development plans: skills development to meet the learning needs of the excluded’, Paris, 22–23 January 2004. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. Jacinto, C. 2003. Latin America: developing life skills for youth in disadvantaged areas. IIEP newsletter, December. Marks, H. 2000. Student engagement in instructional activity: patterns in the elementary, middle, and high school years. American educational research journal, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 153–84. Maurice, N. 1999. No diploma, no future: true or false? In: Class acts: how teachers awaken potential. Paris: UNESCO. Nozawa, M. 2003. Assisting the design and implementation of EFA skill development. UNEVOC bulletin, no. 7, December. Ordonez, V. 1998. Learning to know in the twenty-first century. In: Haw, G.W.; Hughes, P.W., eds. Education for the twenty-first century in the Asia-Pacific Region: report of the Melbourne UNESCO Conference, 1998. Canberra: Australian National Commission for UNESCO. Pandya, M. et al. 2005. Nightly Business Report presents lasting leadership: what you can learn from the top 25 business people of our times. Philadelphia, PA: The Wharton School. Sida. 1997. Paper 1: Donor policies in skills development. Report of the Frankfurt meeting (Nov. 1996) of the Working Group for International Co-operation in Vocational and Technical Skills Development. [Geneva, Switzerland]: NORRAG; SDC; ILO. UNESCO-UNEVOC. 2003. Editorial. UNEVOC bulletin, December. UNESCO-UNEVOC. 2004. Final Report of the UNESCO International Experts Meeting on ‘Learning for Work, Citizenship and Sustainability’, 25–28 October 2004, Bonn, Germany. Bonn: UNESCO-UNEVOC. UNESCO-UNEVOC. 2005. Skills development for employability and citizenship. UNEVOC bulletin, April. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 1949. The right to education. The UNESCO Courier, October. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 1990. World Declaration on Education for All: Meeting Basic Needs. Paris: UNESCO. (World Conference on Education for All, 5–9 March 1990, Jomtien, Thailand.) <www.unesco.org/ education/efa/ed for all/background/jomtien declaration.shtml> United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 1999. Final Report of the second International Conference on Technical and Vocational Education. Paris: UNESCO. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2000. World Education Forum. Dakar, Senegal, 26–28 April 2000—Final Report. Paris: UNESCO. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2002a. An international strategy to put the Dakar Framework for Action on Education for All into operation. UNESCO, Paris. <portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL ID=48755& URL DO=DO PRINTPAGE& URL SECTION=201.html> United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2002b. Records of the thirty-first session of the General Conference: Resolutions, p. 28. Paris: UNESCO. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2004. Final report of the fortyseventh session of the International Conference on Education. Paris: UNESCO. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Director-General. 2000. Address by the Director-General of UNESCO at the closing meeting of the Rencontres de Versailles, Chˆateau de Versailles, 17 June 2000. Paris: UNESCO. (DG/2000/22.)
Chapter XII.3
The Challenges of TVET Global Monitoring Manuel Cardoso
1 Introduction Global statistical monitoring of TVET is faced with several particular challenges:
r r r r r
Improving coverage by ensuring that all forms of TVET are included: education and training; formal education; non-formal education; informal learning; public and private sector or community provision. Distinguishing TVET from other types of education, such as general and prevocational education, or adult education. A related challenge would be clarifying sponsorship of TVET programmes by ministry, public or private provision, etc. Classifying TVET programmes by ISCED level and type of subsequent education or destination. Counting enrolments in these programmes, while bearing in mind the issue of part-time and short courses in order to avoid the double counting of those involved in several part-time courses simultaneously or several short courses back to back in the same year. Developing indicators (such as gross enrolment ratios and net enrolment rates) or other appropriate indicators for monitoring participation in TVET.
This chapter will assess our readiness to face each of these challenges in the current stage of development of TVET monitoring.
2 Education and Training (UNESCO/ILO) Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is a central item on the agendas of both the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO). UNESCO’s concern is centred on technical and vocational education, which the Organization considers an integral part of the global Education for All initiative. The ILO focuses on training for employment, decent work and the welfare of workers, in the context of the Global Employment Agenda. However, the two Organizations are aware that education and training are rapidly becoming inseparable, especially as the notion of a job for life is being replaced by the necessity for lifelong learning (UNESCO/ILO, 2002, p. 3).
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A clear-cut division between the two concepts is hard to establish: Education cannot be separated from training. Basic and secondary education is the foundation on which an effective vocational education and training system should be built. Good quality basic education and initial training, availability of adult and second-chance education, together with a learning culture, ensure high levels of participation in continuous education and training (UNESCO/ILO, 2002, p. 57).
Recent trends seem to blur this distinction even further: ‘Some countries have introduced TVET reforms that endeavour to integrate workplace-based learning and training into the vocational education curriculum’ (ibid., p. 2) In practice, the educational component of TVET is obviously the one closer to the formal education system, while the training component is more closely linked to the labour market. Still, there is a thin line between education and training, made even thinner by such diverse examples as the German dual system, England’s modern apprenticeships or the Botswana Brigades. Consistent with its aforementioned focus, UNESCO mainly collects data on the formal education component of TVET, which are the data presented in this Chapter XII.6.
3 Formal, Non-Formal or Informal TVET? The distinction between formal, non-formal and informal learning is also a matter of much debate. In the past this distinction would be applied to education, but the current trend calls for a wider look at ‘learning activities’, many of which occur outside the realm of educational institutions. Table 1 shows the perspectives of three recent sources on the issue, revealing that, despite minor variations, there is a fundamental consensus in defining formal education as the type of learning activity that takes place within traditional education centres. Eurostat’s definition in the Classification of Learning Activities (CLA) includes two aspects that may seem obvious but will be essential to us: the ‘ladder’, that is, the idea that one formal education level leads to the next; and the idea of the ‘dual system’, meaning that formal education can also partially happen in the workplace. The data presented in Chapter XII.6 refer only to formal education.
4 General, Pre-Vocational or Vocational TVET? The distinction between: (a) general; (b) pre-vocational and pre-technical; and (c) vocational and technical education is well-established in theory, but in practice, its application may become ambiguous. These categories are defined in ISCED (UNESCO, 1997) under the ‘programme orientation’ label, but the UNESCO Institute for Statistics has partially redefined the first two categories by introducing minor changes that are indicated in Table 2.
Non-formal education
Informal learning
Green, Oketch & Preston, 2004
“‘organized” and “intentional” learning whose outcomes are accredited’
‘results from organized activities within or outside the workplace which involve significant learning which is not accredited’
Tight, 2002
‘Formal education is that provided by the education and training system set up or sponsored by the state for those express purposes’ (Groombridge, 1983, p. 6)
‘any organized, systematic, educational activity, carried on outside the framework of the formal system, to provide selected types of learning to particular subgroups in the population, adults as well as children. Thus defined, non-formal education includes, for example, agricultural extension and farmer training programmes, adult literacy programmes, occupational skill training given outside the formal system, youth clubs with substantial educational purposes, and various community programmes of instruction in health, nutrition, family planning, co-operatives, and the like’ (Coombs & Ahmed, 1974, p. 8) ‘education for which none of the learners is enrolled or registered’ (OECD, 1977, p. 11)
‘that which occurs “unintentionally” or as a by-product of other activities (OECD, 2003). New classifications of learning activities are currently being developed for the EU Adult Education Survey and these will form a good companion to ISCED definitions for informal and non-formal learning, especially for the developed world.’ See below. ‘The life-long process by which every individual acquires and accumulates knowledge, skills, attitudes and insights from daily experiences and exposure to the environment—at home, at work, at play: from the example and attitudes of family and friends; from travel, reading newspapers and books; or by listening to the radio or viewing films or television. Generally, informal education is unorganized, unsystematic and even unintentional at times, yet it accounts for the great bulk of any person’s total lifetime learning—including that of even a highly “schooled” person.’ (Coombs & Ahmed, 1974, p. 8)
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Table 1 An overview of different conceptions of ‘formal’, ‘non-formal’ and ‘informal’, as applied to education and learning
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Table 1 (continued) European Commission, 2005, p. 22.
Formal education
Non-formal education
Informal learning
‘education provided in the system of schools, colleges, universities and other formal educational institutions that normally constitutes a continuous “ladder” of full-time education for children and young people, generally beginning at age of 5 to 7 and continuing up to 20 or 25 years old. In some countries, the upper parts of this “ladder” are organized programmes of joint part-time employment and part-time participation in the regular school and university system: such programmes have come to be known as the ‘dual system’ or equivalent terms in these countries.’
‘any organised and sustained educational activities that do not correspond exactly to the above definition of formal education. Non-formal education may therefore take place both within and outside educational institutions, and cater to persons of all ages. Depending on country contexts, it may cover educational programmes to impart adult literacy, basic education for out of school children, life-skills, work-skills, and general culture. Non-formal education programmes do not necessarily follow the “ladder” system, and may have a differing duration.’
‘intentional, but it is less organized and less structured [. . .] and may include for example learning events (activities) that occur in the family, in the work place, and in the daily life of every person, on a self-directed, family-directed or socially directed basis’. As defined in the report of the Eurostat TF/MLLL (paragraph 32, page 12) (Pilos, 2001). The UNESCO manual for statistics on non-formal education (page 6) reads ‘Informal learning is generally intentional, but unorganised and unstructured learning events that occur in the family, the work-place, and in the daily life of every person, on a self-directed, family-directed or socially-directed basis.’
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Table 2 Definitions of programme orientations according to ISCED and the UIS ISCED
UIS GENERAL
r r r
r
Similarities Designed mainly to lead pupils to a deeper understanding of a subject or group of subjects, especially, but not necessarily, with a view to preparing pupils for further education at the same or a higher level. Typically school-based. Differences regarding labour-market-relevant qualifications Successful completion of these programmes may or may not provide participants with a labour-market-relevant qualification at this level.
Programmes with a general orientation and not focusing on a particular specialization should be classified in this category.
r
r r r
They do not typically allow successful completers to enter a particular occupation or trade or class of occupations or trades without further training.
Other differences Successful completion of these programmes may or may not lead to an academic qualification. May or may not contain vocational elements. General education has a technical or vocational content of less than 25%, but pre-technical/pre-vocational programmes (i.e. programmes with a technical/vocational content of more than 25% that do not lead to a labourmarket-relevant vocational or technical qualification) are typically reported with general programmes.
PRE-VOCATIONAL
r r r r
r r
Similarities Mainly designed to introduce participants to the world of work and to prepare them for entry into vocational or technical education programmes. Successful completion of such programmes does not yet lead to a labour-market-relevant vocational or technical qualification. For a programme to be considered as pre-vocational or pre-technical education, at least 25% of its content has to be vocational or technical. Differences This minimum is necessary to ensure that the vocational subject or the technical subject is not only one among many others. VOCATIONAL Designed mainly to lead pupils to acquire the practical skills, know-how and understanding necessary for employment in a particular occupation or trade (or class of occupations or trades). Successful completion of such programmes normally leads to a labour-market relevant vocational qualification recognized by the competent authorities (e.g. ministry of education, employers’ associations, etc.) in the country in which it is obtained.
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It is often unclear whether pre-vocational and pre-technical enrolment should be counted towards general or vocational and technical enrolment (it is even possible that the very concept of pre-vocational and pre-technical education is not universally understood among practitioners and data providers). Different international sources have different standards in this regard: the UNESCO/OECD/Eurostat (UOE) and the World Education Indicators (WEI)1 data collection procedures include prevocational under the general education label; it is not entirely clear how this distinction is handled in other countries. This hampers comparisons between developed and developing countries, as well as between middle-income and the leastdeveloped countries. It is possible that pre-vocational programmes are infrequent in developing countries, but actual data on this cannot be produced at this point. This problem is likely to worsen as, at least in developed countries, vocational and technical education is becoming less occupationally-specific and increasingly subdivided into stages: ‘the divide between academic and vocational training is becoming more blurred. The practitioners we train require not only skills that are immediately applicable to work, but also a knowledge base that will enable them to adapt as products and production methods change’ (Hernes, 2004, p. 2). (In addition, many nations have differentiated TVET upwards into higher levels of their education systems.) Counting pre-vocational enrolment together with general programmes is not the best alternative if we intend to forecast flows through education systems. The ideal would be, of course, to have pre-vocational programme enrolment as an entirely separate item, but if we take into account that these totals are usually accompanied by gender and age breakdowns, countries may be unwilling to introduce a third category, which in the pertinent levels would increase substantially the level of data disaggregation. Faced with the choice of counting pre-vocational with either vocational or general, it seems clear that the former option would allow for better forecasting of future vocational enrolments.
5 Measurement Problems This section outlines some of the major measurement problems faced when collecting data and developing indicators for TVET.
5.1 The Adult Population in TVET The presence of adults is often stronger in TVET programmes than in general programmes, because integration into the labour market, and consequently the need for marketable skills, increase from adolescence to youth to adulthood. Moreover, many TVET programmes effectively started to attract this population by specifically designing programmes that are tailored to their needs: part-time programmes that do not oblige them to leave their jobs; short programmes focusing on skills needed
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in particular trades and new occupations; etc. (e.g. post-diploma programmes in community and technical colleges). This poses two kinds of problems. First, international organizations have in theory chosen to separate adult education programmes from the rest and face definitional problems with continuing education; but the question remains as to how this should be done in practice. Second, there may be discrepancies in the treatment of these data; that is to say, different sources of data deal with this issue differently, which introduces systematic biases. ISCED does not classify education programmes by participants’ age. For example, any programme with a content equivalent to primary education, or ISCED 1, may be classed as ISCED 1 even if provided to adults. However, the guidance provided by the UIS for respondents to the regular annual education survey requests countries to exclude ‘data on programmes designed for people beyond regular school age’. The guidance for UOE and WEI questionnaires states that ‘activities classified as “continuing”, “adult” or “non-formal” education should be included’ if they ‘involve studies with subject content similar to regular educational programmes’ or if ‘the underlying programmes lead to similar potential qualifications’ as do the regular programmes. As a result of these distinctions, data from WEI countries and countries completing the UOE questionnaires, particularly concerning secondary education, may include programmes for older students. Despite instructions, data from countries in the regular UIS survey may also include pupils who are substantially above the official age for basic education. The reader should bear this problem in mind because it will have direct consequences on some of the analyses presented here, raising question about crossregional comparability. However, this situation is about to change for the better: UOE has introduced a modification in its data collection procedures that will facilitate netting out adult education programmes. Consequently, the differences between UOE and UIS procedures will be significantly reduced. In the long run, nevertheless, the next ISCED reform should include this issue as part of its agenda.
5.2 The Complexities of Applying ISCED to TVET Vocational programmes are often harder to classify by ISCED2 levels than general programmes, due to their greater heterogeneity, shorter average duration and higher specificity. Due to their comparatively low enrolment and lack of parity of esteem, they are usually not regarded as part of the mainstream and, as a result, some of the student ‘flows’ from and to other educational programmes (be they vocational, prevocational or general) are not as clearly established as between general programmes. As a result, they may be misclassified, and later reclassified. Several countries have recently reclassified programmes from ISCED 3 or 5B to level 4, as they become more aware of this level’s intended profile. Obviously, even though the end result may be more accurate, these modifications work to the detriment of national time
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series analyses, because it is sometimes difficult to reassign enrolments for previous years. Moreover, this also hinders regional comparisons because each country tends to react to these ‘trends’ at its own pace. Also, the occasional mismatches between international and national classification systems have led to the emergence of what might be called ISCED ‘mixed’ programmes: a particularly illustrative example of this situation is a Russian Federation programme that has recently been reclassified as 3B+5B, meaning that students in the programme’s first two years are considered to be enrolled in ISCED 3B, whereas students in the last two years are regarded as enrolled in ISCED 5B. A similar phenomenon in the United States concerns TechPrep programmes which seamlessly combine the last two years of secondary school with the first two years of community or technical college. An additional complexity is the combination of programme orientations (general; pre-vocational or pre-technical; and vocational or technical) and types of subsequent education or destination. Type A programmes are on a pathway that leads directly to tertiary education, whilst Type C programmes usually lead to the labour market and Type B programmes may lead either to the labour market or to tertiary education, depending on the level. The ‘programme orientation’ criterion is used at levels 2 through 4, but not at level 5. As a result, we are faced with a dilemma: if the ‘vocational’, ‘general’ and ‘pre-vocational’ categories do not apply to ISCED 5, does that mean that tertiary education is uniformly general? Clearly, that is not the case. Many programmes at this level are described as ‘technical’ or ‘vocational’ by the national educational authorities themselves, as well as by the UOE data collection manual. These programmes tend to be ISCED 5B rather than 5A; short rather than medium, long or very long; and the first qualification rather than the second qualification. At levels 2 through 4, vocational education is defined (as opposed to general education) as the kind that leads ‘to a labour market-relevant qualification’. At the tertiary level, though, the distinction between ‘general’ and ‘vocational’ becomes blurred because tertiary programmes tend to be specialized regardless of whether their contents are theoretical or practical, academic or technical; therefore, it is difficult to think of tertiary education as ‘general’. Furthermore, even academic-oriented programmes lead to labour market qualifications at the end of tertiary education. Despite these difficulties, acknowledging TVET’s undeniable presence at the tertiary level is a necessary step towards achieving parity of esteem with general education. Therefore, throughout this report we will present data on ISCED 5B programmes, without assuming that they are vocational, in order to emphasize this presence, even though current classification systems do not identify it in a precise way. Finally, the ‘type of subsequent destination’ criterion is applied at levels 2 through 5, but not in the same way throughout (see Figure 1):
r r
At ISCED levels 2 and 3, there are three types: A, B and C. At level 4, there are only two ISCED types: 4A and 4B. However, the UOE data collection subdivides ISCED 4A (which provides entry to ISCED 5) into two
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UOE Data Collection
ISCED Mapping Diagram
0
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3A
2B
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5A
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4A 4B
5B
LABOUR MARKET
0
1
2A
3A
2B
3B
2C
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4A 4B
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LABOUR MARKET
Fig. 1 ISCED mapping diagram showing levels and destinations, and UOE’s modified version
r
types, calling them ‘4A’ (which provides entry to ISCED 5A) and ‘4B’ (which provides entry to ISCED 5B), while re-labelling the old ISCED 4B (designed for direct labour-market entry) as ‘4C’. At ISCED level 5, there are also only two types, 5A (which provides entry to ISCED 6) and 5B, which are not modified by UOE data collection.
In summary, the fact that ISCED uses different criteria or categories to subdivide each level seems to have less impact on the analysis of general education than on TVET, which should be another central focus of a future ISCED reform. Indeed, this discussion may address ISCED as a whole as much as the place of TVET within the classification.
5.3 Part-Time and Short Courses Part-time courses, as well as courses that last for less than one year, tend to be more a feature of TVET than general education. As a result, the gap between the outcomes of ‘headcounts’ and ‘full-time equivalent’ approaches is much wider in the former case, which makes the decision to use one or the other much more critical. The headcount approach has two main advantages: its simplicity and the fact that it gives a straightforward measure of impact in terms of students ‘reached’ by the education system in a given year. On the other hand, it can lead to a certain amount of double counting; for instance, two apparently different students in two consecutive semester-long courses might turn out to be the same person. The full-time equivalent approach produces a more refined outcome that may be better integrated into a cost/benefit analysis. However, as we will see below, finance data are often unavailable for TVET programmes; without the cost side of the equation the benefit side becomes less relevant for this particular purpose. All enrolment figures presented in Chapter XII.6 have been calculated by using the headcount approach. This might be one of the reasons why some countries that offer a wide range of part-time and semester-long courses (e.g. Australia) appear to have the highest levels of TVET participation, part of which could be due to double counting. This undoubtedly constitutes a drawback that in the future should be over-
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come by addressing the challenge of applying the full-time equivalent, which would become much more useful if separate finance data were also available. (Another available measure is the ‘pupil-hour’ approach that quantifies the delivery of TVET and can be used to track expenditures as well.)
5.4 Why the Standard Tools may not Work Many of the tools that tend to be commonplace in describing the reach and assessing the impact of educational programmes seem to be less appropriate in the case of TVET. The following sections review some of the most commonly-used educational indicators and explain why some cannot be used for the moment for TVET global monitoring, or why some others should be used in a very cautious way. 5.4.1 Gross Enrolment Ratios and Net Enrolment Rates The gross enrolment ratio (GER) is defined as the ‘number of pupils enrolled in a given level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the population in the theoretical age group for the same level of education’ (UIS, 2006, p. 183). Meanwhile, the net enrolment rate (NER) is defined as the ‘number of pupils in the theoretical age group for a given level of education enrolled in that level expressed as a percentage of the total population in that age group’ (ibid.). The theoretical age group is critical in order to calculate both indicators: for a given ISCED level this is in theory determined by the general programme with the highest level of enrolment. Typically there are no other general programmes at the same level, or they tend to be much smaller than the main one. Thus, determining the denominator for enrolment ratios and rates is relatively straightforward in the case of general programmes, and the resulting figure is by and large consistent with the typical ages of a programme that represents, if not all, at least an important share of the enrolment. This is not the case with TVET, where heterogeneity is the norm: usually several programmes with different theoretical school-age groups coexist at the same level, each of them having a relatively small share of the total vocational enrolment. As a result, the theoretical age group for a given level is unlikely to be defined by vocational programmes even if the sum of their enrolments were higher than those of the most popular general programme. Moreover, theoretical age groups for vocational programmes are often ambiguously or broadly defined: the ‘typical’ starting age for many of these programmes is often, rather than an individual age, a range that can be as wide as twenty-five years.3 Therefore, depending on whether the theoretical age group for the (usually general) programme that defines the level is narrower or wider than the vocational programme’s, its gross enrolment ratio will be respectively overestimated or underestimated. Also, TVET enrolments by age are not available as often as their general education counterparts. Even when available, they are more likely to include ages that fall outside the range defined in the questionnaires (for instance, more than
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twenty-four years for secondary education). Furthermore, TVET enrolment is not reported by age and grade, which in the case of general education is frequently used for consistency analysis. Consequently, the numerator of the net enrolment rate is, to some extent, more likely to include missing data or inaccuracies for TVET than for general education. Therefore, net enrolment rates have not been calculated in Chapter XII.6. On the other hand, despite the problems with the theoretical age groups, gross enrolment ratios have been calculated for TVET at all the relevant ISCED levels. Even though these measures should be treated with caution for all of the abovementioned reasons, they are probably the most basic indicator currently available that can be used to compare TVET participation in countries with populations of widely varying sizes, therefore becoming indispensable for our purposes.
5.4.2 Measures of Progression and Completion Measures of TVET completion, such as graduation rates, are sometimes of little relevance because of the immense variety of programmes of different durations: a country may have, at the same ISCED level, several TVET programmes with durations ranging from six months to four years, and all of these programmes may lead to a certificate. The most usual measures of progression (such as survival to a given grade or repetition) are either unfeasible or irrelevant (or both):
r r
Survival to a given grade cannot be calculated simply because TVET enrolments are not available by grade. Repetition seems to be less frequent in TVET than in general education; in some programmes it may even be inapplicable, or at least avoided whenever possible. Some TVET programmes are specifically intended for students who repeated one or more grades in general education and are regarded as prone to dropping out as a result.
Therefore, no measures of completion or progression are presented in this report.
5.4.3 Transition Transition rates (e.g. from primary to secondary education) cannot be calculated because technical and vocational programmes are sometimes ‘terminal’ in the sense that they prepare the student to leave the education system and enter the labour market. Nevertheless, we should not identify vocational with terminal: it would be incorrect to classify a programme as vocational just because it its terminal, or vice versa; classification should be based, among other criteria, on programme content. Yet, current trends suggest that articulation between formerly terminal programmes and continuing education may erode this distinction in future.
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In addition, transition rates are most often calculated for the passage from primary to secondary education, and TVET programmes as such do not exist at the primary level. Consequently, no transition rates will be provided in Chapter XII.6.
5.4.4 Finance In most cases, it is extremely difficult to distinguish the resources devoted to TVET from those allocated to general education. This is particularly hard to achieve when the same educational institutions are responsible for offering general and vocational programmes, which is the case in many countries at several ISCED levels. Also, TVET may obtain resources from the private sector, sometimes in informal ways (such as equipment donations). Employers’ levy (taxes on payrolls) is another quasigovernmental source of public formal TVET financing. The future availability of disaggregated finance data should be a priority, since TVET has a reputation for being very expensive (owing to the necessary consumable materials, the purchase of expensive equipment, maintenance of equipment and facilities, and perceived low pupil/teacher ratios), a notion that has recently been challenged by several authors writing on the subject.
5.4.5 Outputs and Outcomes The achievement of TVET’s expected outputs is hard to measure for a number of reasons, including: they tend to be practical skills that may be hard to measure by using standardized tools; and programmes are extremely heterogeneous both between and within countries, as are the skills they develop. However, students attending vocational streams are usually included in international assessment programmes, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). This has been a source of much controversy, among other reasons because these assessments focus on general rather than vocational skills. Not surprisingly, given the aforementioned difficulties, no large-scale attempts have been made yet to assess the development of vocational skills on a comparative, cross-national basis. Here, guidance can be obtained by examining two or three country comparative studies of TVET. The measurement of TVET outcomes also poses a problem. For instance, when programmes seek to improve labour-market access, data on their success rates are usually not accessible to the education system and, in many cases, especially in developing countries, they are not collected at all. Paradoxically, when graduates’ employment data are available, TVET outcomes are easier to measure than those of general education, which are often less clearly defined. However, when we regard employment as a consequence of training, the time-frame issue becomes critical: in some cases, people are hired before they are trained (employers expect employees to receive training and hire them on that condition); in the opposite situation, several months can elapse before a graduate finds a job. Therefore, assessments of TVET
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outcomes, in terms of its impact on employment, should be carefully designed. Surrogate indicators are available from ‘tracer studies’. To sum up, there are several difficulties and limitations in the work with TVET data that, rather than leading us to inaction, should prompt creative data treatment and analysis, together with caution in drawing conclusions.
Notes 1. These two data collection operations include mostly OECD and European Union countries, as well as the nineteen middle-income countries of the World Education Indicators project. 2. The International Standard Classification of Education (1997) is explained in Green, Preston & Oketch (the following chapter in this volume): ‘Making Global Classifications of Types and Levels of TVET.’ 3. Prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR) mechanisms may enable different starting ages and different entry levels in TVET, making it even more flexible.
References Coombs, P.H.; Ahmed, M. 1974. Attacking rural poverty: how non-formal education can help. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. European Commission. 2005. Task Force report on adult education survey. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Commission. Green, A.; Oketch, M.; Preston, J. 2004. Global report on technical and vocational education and training. London: University of London, Institute of Education. Groombridge, B. 1983. Adult learning and education. London: Croom Helm. Hernes, G. 2004. Education for work or education from work. IIEP newsletter, vol. 22, no. 3, July–September. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 1977. Learning opportunities for adults, Vol. 4: Participation in adult education. Paris: OECD. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2003. Beyond rhetoric: adult learning policies and practise. Paris: OECD. Pilos, S. 2001. Eurostat Task Force on Measuring Lifelong Learning (TF/MLLL): Report. Luxembourg: Eurostat. (Eurostat Working Papers ‘Population and social conditions’—3/2001/ E/N◦ 4.) Tight, M. 2002. Key concepts in adult education and training. London: Routledge. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 1997. International Standard Classification of Education: ISCED-1997. Paris: UNESCO. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; International Labour Organization. 2002. Technical and vocational education for the 21st century: UNESCO and ILO recommendations. Paris: UNESCO; Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. UNESCO Institute of Statistics. 2006. Global education digest 2006. Montreal, Canada: UIS.
Chapter XII.4
Making Global Classifications of Types and Levels of TVET1 Andy Green, Moses O. Oketch and John Preston
1 Defining TVET Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) refers to a range of learning experiences that are relevant to the world of work and which may occur in a variety of learning contexts, including educational institutions and the workplace. It includes learning designed to develop the skills for practising particular occupations, as well as learning designed to prepare for entry or re-entry into the world of work in general. In both cases, the learning may be intended to lead to direct labour-market entry or to act as a foundation for entry into further education and training for specific occupations. TVET includes both initial vocational training undertaken by young people prior to entering the labour market and continuing vocational training undertaken by adults whilst in work or during periods when they are economically inactive. In other words, it encompasses both initial skills development and various forms of ‘re-skilling’ and ‘up-skilling’. Training for the unemployed is sometimes considered as a separate category and designated ‘unemployed vocational training’ (UVT) (Green, Hodgson & Sakamoto, 2000). Most TVET data available is on ‘formal learning’—i.e. ‘organized’ learning whose outcomes are accredited. However, TVET also encompasses ‘non-formal learning’ and ‘informal learning’. Non-formal learning results from organized activities within or outside the workplace which involve significant learning which is not accredited. Informal learning is less organized and less structured, and usually occurs outside educational institutions (OECD, 2003). Much of what is often referred to as work-based training, and particularly on-the-job training (OJT), is either nonformal or informal in character and constitutes a large part of the vocational learning that occurs in most societies. Increasingly, informal learning is being accessed through websites, documents and discussion groups through the Internet. By definition, TVET thus covers a diverse spectrum of learning activities that are hard to capture in any single classification. Although some efforts have been made to categorize types of non-formal and informal learning, particularly in relation to forms of on-the-job training, the full range of these learning types are clearly beyond comprehensive categorization (Ashton & Green, 1996; Ashton et al., 1999; Brown, Green & Lauder, 2001; Crouch, Finegold & Sako, 1999; Koike & Inoki,
R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XII.4, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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1990). However formal TVET and OJT, which includes periods of formal TVET, can be—within limits—classified into different types. Classification can be made, inter alia, by mode of learning (whether full-time, part-time or block/day release and whether in the classroom or by distance learning, etc.); by type of provider (i.e. school, college, institution of higher education, training centre, community centre, enterprise, etc.); by level; by content type or programme orientation; and by the intended destinations of learners. New classifications of learning activities are currently being developed for the European Union Adult Education Survey and these will complement ISCED classifications. Different forms of TVET are traditionally described with reference to the types of institutions that provide them and, which is often related, to the mode of study involved. Thus, at the initial level of TVET, which in most countries follows compulsory schooling, it is common to distinguish between school- or college-based vocational education and training and work-based vocational training (OECD, 1985). College- or school-based provision (i.e. l’´ecole des ponts et chauss´ees in the eighteenth century and the trade school in the nineteenth century are early examples (Green, 1995)) frequently involves a combination of general educational study in core subjects (such as maths and languages); study of the theoretical foundation of the occupation for which training is provided; and the development of practical competences for occupational proficiency. Such courses are often an integral part of upper secondary education. They tend to be provided in graded sequences corresponding to levels in upper secondary general education and sometimes involve general education requirements shared in common with the more academic courses. These programmes are sometimes certificated through a common framework of examinations, as with the general, technical and vocational systems of baccalaur´eat qualifications in France (Green, 1998). The provider institutions are most usually monotechnic in nature (i.e. agricultural or horticultural schools in many countries) or they cater to a range of occupations within a particular sector (i.e. vocational high schools for construction or engineering in the Republic of Korea). However, in some cases school- and college-based initial vocational training occurs either in general purpose vocational institutions or in comprehensive or integrated upper secondary institutions. England provides a large part of its initial vocational training in general purpose further education colleges. In other countries, initial vocational training programmes are offered alongside general upper secondary courses in combined institutions, such as the lyc´ees polyvalents in some areas of France or the integrated high schools (sogo gakko) in certain districts in Japan (Green, 2000). Contrary to trends in Europe, Sweden has a complete system of integrated general and vocational high school (gymnasieskola) (Boucher, 1982). Vocational provision in upper secondary vocational schools and colleges tends to be workshop- and classroom-based, sometimes interspersed with periods of on-the-job work experience in enterprises. Such institutions may also offer parts of their courses by distance learning or correspondence. Work-based initial vocational training refers mainly to apprentice training where young people are employed on recognized training contracts which include the provision of specified forms of occupational training and a trainee wage. This will often
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be on a dual system basis, as in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, where trainees combine supervised on-the-job and off-the-job training in the workplace with periods of study in public vocational colleges or apprenticeship centres organized on a day-release or block-release basis (Crouch, Finegold & Sako, 1999). The latter will typically include study of both general subjects and vocational theory. In many countries, however, where apprenticeship systems are less organized and regulated, apprentices will not have formal agreements with their employers to receive training at work and will make more ad hoc provision for themselves as regards gaining school-based theoretical knowledge. In recent years, a number of countries—such as Denmark—have experimented with more hybrid kinds of apprenticeship systems where, for instance, a public agency takes responsibility for finding the employment placements and for monitoring the apprentice contract. In Denmark the organizing authority is the vocational college and in England, with the so-called modern apprenticeship, it is the local learning and skills council. The SENAI model in Brazil has been in operation since 1941, under the aegis of the Federation of Brazilian Industries. The nature of initial work-based training varies substantially across countries in the degree to which it is organized and regulated, in the level of training and proficiency of the instructors, and in the status attached to the qualifications, if any, which can be gained through participation in it. It should also be noted that formalized apprenticeship systems are on the whole rather less extensive in Asian and African countries than they are in northern Europe. Initial vocational education and training is, of course, also provided at a higher level in a range of public and private higher education institutions (HEIs) in most countries. Preparation for the so-called ‘high skills’ professions is often offered in general universities, and most countries also have a range of vocational universities and polytechnics with professional-level vocational preparation. In addition, training for certain occupations may occur in specialized institutions—as with schools of nursing, which may be outside the mainstream university structure. TVET at this level will normally involve a preponderance of general and more theoretical study in the first stage, which may be complemented by occupationally-specific skills development in post-graduate courses or professional training programmes, as typically in some countries with training for professions such as medicine, law, architecture and engineering. Continuing vocational education and training (CVET) provision for adults in the labour market is highly diverse in most countries and often less regulated than TVET provision at the initial level. It can be designed to serve four major purposes: deferred initial training, updating, upgrading and retraining (Green, Hodgson & Sakamoto, 2000). Much CVET is probably provided by private employers in many countries, although the data in this area are often so incomplete that we cannot be sure of the exact proportions of training which are provided or funded respectively by the State, the enterprise or individuals. Many countries will have a mix of provision, such as: government-funded skills centres for upskilling and re-skilling adult workers (including for the unemployed and those at risk of losing their jobs); private training institutions for the acquisition of skills and qualifications in specific
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occupational areas (as with the pervasive business, commercial and informationtechnology-related schools); and also more- or less-organized programmes of continuing training in enterprises. Community and technical colleges in the United States have entered this ‘market’ with the provision of post-diploma programmes that enrol both diploma and B.A.-holders. Eurostat conducts research on training in large- and medium-sized firms in the European Union (EU) through the Continuing Vocational Training Survey (CVTS) (European Commission, 1999). The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) (OECD/Statistics Canada, 2000) also collected data on types and frequency of adult learning, as do the national labour-force surveys in some countries. However, little is known about the frequency of work-based training for countries outside the EU, and there are relatively little internationally comparable data on forms of work-based learning. We do know that levels and quality of training in enterprises vary significantly, not only between countries but also within countries, not least by sector and size of enterprise (OECD/Statistics Canada, 2000). Larger firms typically provide more training than smaller firms. Firms that seek long-term employment for core workers, as with many of the large multinational corporations, tend to develop internal labour markets which are often associated with higher levels of training than where firms recruit mostly through external labour markets thus buying in rather than generating the skills they need (Ashton & Green, 1996).
2 The ISCED 1997 Classification System The most widely used set of international educational classifications—the ‘International Standard Classification of Education: ISCED-1997’ developed by UNESCO (1997)—is designed to provide an integrated and consistent framework for the collection and reporting of internationally comparable education statistics. To achieve this comparability, it adopts a taxonomy essentially based on programmes of ‘organized’ learning, thus limiting the coverage of the framework to forms of learning with ‘established aims and curricula’ which are planned and executed by an ‘educational agency’ (UNESCO, 1997; OECD, 2004). Data collected through the UOE (UIS/OECD/Eurostat) surveys thus exclude learning which is solely workbased as well as learning which is primarily for leisure or recreational purposes. Data collected by UIS/OECD/Eurostat for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Education Indicators (WEI) countries include adult education programme enrolment, whereas data collected by the UIS for the remainder of Member States do not. ISCED-1997 categorizes programmes primarily by level, intended destination and programme orientation, the latter characterized as ‘general education’, ‘pre-vocational’ and ‘vocational’ education. ISCED levels are, in principle, based on the ‘complexity of the content’ of programmes (UNESCO, 1997; OECD, 2004). However, in practice, given the lack of international standards on levels of educational complexity, they rely on a number
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of programme characteristics which are used as proxies. These relate to: (a) typical starting ages; (b) duration of programmes; (c) entrance requirements for programmes; (d) intended destination of graduates; and (e) types of qualifications awarded. The ISCED levels ascend from Level 0 to Level 6, where Level 0 refers broadly to pre-primary education, Level 1 to primary education and Level 6 to advanced research qualifications. The remaining levels, which correspond to this range ascend broadly from lower secondary (2), to upper secondary (3) to post-secondary non-tertiary (4) to first stage tertiary (5). These levels are further subdivided on the basis of the destination for which the programmes have been designed to prepare the students. The ISCED levels relevant here are defined as follows (UNESCO, 1997; OECD, 2004): ISCED Level 2 programmes (usually designated nationally as lower secondary) are those which start when education begins to be organized into a more subject-oriented pattern. Level 2A programmes are designed to prepare students for entry to Level 3A or 3B programmes, which may in turn lead to tertiary education. Level 2B programmes are designed to provide access to Level 3C programmes, which will lead to direct entry to the labour market. Level 2C programmes are designed primarily for direct access to the labour market. ISCED Level 3 programmes correspond to the upper secondary phase of education, normally require completion of ISCED Level 2 for admission (or its equivalent for adults) and typically run between two to five years. Level 3A programmes are designed to provide direct access to Level 5A programmes. Level 3B programmes are designed to provide direct access to Level 5B programmes. Level 3C programmes are designed to lead directly to the labour market, to Level 4 programmes or to other Level 3 programmes. ISCED Level 4 programmes are significantly more advanced than the Level 3 programmes and are typically attended by students who are older than those at Level 3. Students will normally have completed a programme at 3A or 3B to gain admission and the course will last between six months and two years. Level 4A programmes are designed to provide direct access to Level 5A programmes. Level 4B programmes are designed to provide direct access to Level 5B programmes. Level 4C programmes are designed to lead to direct entry to the labour market or to other Level 4 programmes.2 ISCED Level 5 programmes represent the first stage of tertiary education, are significantly more advanced than Level 4 programmes and normally require successful completion of programmes at Level 3A, 3B, 4A or 4B for entry. Level 5A programmes are largely theoretically-based, involve at least three years of learning at tertiary level and are intended to provide sufficient qualifications for entry into advanced research programmes or professions with high-skill requirements. Those involving three to five years of study are classified as ‘medium’; those with five to six years as ‘long’. Level 5B programmes are more practically-oriented and occupationally-specific than 5A programmes, last at least two years and do not prepare students for direct
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access to advanced research programmes. Courses lasting for less than three years are categorized as ‘short’. Those lasting from three to five years are categorized as ‘long’. Additionally, programmes can have three types of programme orientation at Levels 2, 3 and 4: Type 1 (general) covers education which is not designed specifically to prepare participants for a specific class of occupations or for entry into further vocational or technical education programmes. Less than 25% of the programme content is vocational. Type 2 (pre-vocational) covers education that is mainly designed to introduce participants to the world of work and to prepare them for entry into further vocational or technical education programmes. Successful completion does not lead to a labour market-relevant vocational qualification. For a programme to be considered as pre-vocational, it should comprise at least 25% of vocational or technical content. Type 3 (vocational or technical) covers education that prepares participants for direct entry into specific occupations and successful completion leads to a labour market-relevant vocational qualification. The ISCED classifications cannot provide a complete framework for classifying TVET learning across the globe. They do not seek to cover many aspects of nonformal and informal learning, which may have vocational content, and such is the diversity of forms of provision in different countries that the criteria for level and type cannot be applied in a mechanical fashion in all cases. Mapping programmes into the ISCED levels is essentially an exercise of judgement that may involve a variety of different considerations—and is often difficult. The boundary between Level 2 and Level 3, for instance, is somewhat blurred, making it problematic to determine whether a given programme should be at the higher or lower level. This is especially the case where, in a given country, the institutional divisions between lower and upper secondary education occur at untypical ages by comparison with the international averages (as in England where upper secondary institutions take students aged 16, rather than 15 as is more typical internationally) or where (also as in England) students take selective rather than grouped examinations which can lead to the accumulation of different numbers of ‘passes’ by different students rather than one single qualification. In such cases it is hard to determine whether ‘more passes’ means a higher level. The United Kingdom, for instance, argues for ISCED classification at Level 3 for a number of programmes (such as GCSEs and GNVQ Foundation and Intermediate) which are classified below Level 3 in the national qualifications framework and which often involve less than two years of participation after lower secondary completion, on the grounds that the upper secondary curriculum actually starts at 14 years, and not 16 when young people move to upper secondary institutions (like further education and sixth-form colleges). Differentiation between Type B and C programmes
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can also be difficult, particularly at Level 3 where a programme may be designed for direct labour-market entry but also allows progression to 5B courses for those who complete at a high level (as may be the case with the dual system apprenticeships in Germany and with the college-based baccalaur´eat professionnel courses in France). The baccalaur´eat professionnel programmes are designed for direct entry to the labour market but are classified at Level 3B because a minority of graduates progress to Level 5B IUT (institut universitaire de technologie) programmes. Dual system apprenticeships lead, in the vast majority of cases, to direct entry to the labour market, but are classified at Level 3B on the grounds that some apprentice graduates progress to Level 5B. The distinction between pre-vocational and vocational courses is also becoming increasingly unclear as more countries introduce generic types of vocational course which prepare for a set of occupations rather than a single occupation, but which nevertheless provide vocational qualifications that can be used for labour-market entry. Further erosion of these differences is likely to result from the convergence of ‘academic’ and TVET programmes intended to educate ‘knowledge workers’. The ISCED criteria do, nevertheless, provide a basis for classifying the more formalized TVET programmes across the world in a standardized fashion. The analysis which follows here, therefore, utilizes ISCED-1997 as the initial basis for describing TVET provision in countries and ISCED-based indicators for its statistical overview of TVET participation and outcomes.
3 Types of TVET Provision in Different Regions 3.1 Lower Secondary Level (ISCED 2) TVET at lower secondary level has traditionally been taken by ‘less academic’ students opting for a more vocational track in the secondary school or leaving the school system early and transferring to specialized vocational programmes or early apprenticeships. This type of provision has been phased out in recent years in many countries, particularly in the more-developed regions, as governments have sought to introduce universal general education through the primary and lower secondary years. Developing nations, e.g. Indonesia, have recently replicated these trends. However, some provision at this level does remain in both OECD and non-OECD countries and is variously classified into either Level 2A, 2B or 2C. Within OECD countries, there are a number of examples of vocational or prevocational provision at Level 2A. The Berufsvorbereitungsjahr in Germany is a pre-vocational programme taken in a vocational school designed for students with nine or ten years of general education who have not obtained an apprenticeship contract in the dual system. The programme lasts one year and prepares participants for vocational training at ISCED 3B. The enseignement technique programme in secondary schools in the French community in Belgium is a two- to three-year vocational programme for those who have successfully completed the first two-year
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cycle of secondary schooling. This programme aims to provide direct entry to the labour market or to further training. TVET at ISCED 2B in OECD countries also includes both pre-vocational and vocational programmes. The pre-vocational Brobygning (bridge-building) course in Denmark was introduced to facilitate the transition from basic school to the vocational training system for those who have not yet decided on their type of further education. Likewise, the classe pr´eparatoire a` l’apprentissage in France is a one-year programme usually taken in a secondary school (coll`ege) designed for students aged approximately 14 years to help them decide on future training. Examples of vocational courses at this level would be the lower secondary vocational courses (LSBS—lagere secundaire beroepsleergangen) and lower secondary technical courses (LSTL—lagere secundaire technische leergangen) under the social advancement programme (SOSP—secundair onderwijs voor sociale promotie) in the Flemish community in Belgium. Level 2C pre-vocational and vocational courses that prepare directly for the labour market are fairly rare in Western Europe, but there are a number of examples in other OECD countries. The National Vocational Qualification List programmes in Hungary are designed as pre-vocational programmes which require less than ten years of completed general education and can lead directly to the labour market. Lower secondary job-training programmes in Mexico (CONALEP) are vocational and designed to prepare for work. They are taken by young people and adults and are typically four-year vocational courses. Within the non-OECD countries, there are only a small number of pre-vocational and vocational programmes that have been officially mapped at Level 2. The twoyear Tunisian apprenticeship designed for 15- to 17-year-olds provides one example of a programme at Level 2C. There are various other programmes which have not been ISCED-mapped and might fall into one of the Level 2 categories. Ghana has junior secondary technical schools, both public and private, which offer broadly prevocational training as well as more occupational training programmes. China also has a large number (1,477 according to the UNESCO profile) of junior secondary technical schools in its rural areas that are designed to provide work preparation for primary graduates. The Directorate of Non-Formal Education in Indonesia offers what it calls ‘out-of-school’ (kejar package B) programmes for 13- to 15-year-olds which provide a mixture of general and vocational content. These could probably be classified as Level 2B or 2C pre-vocational.
3.2 Upper Secondary Level (ISCED 3) Upper secondary is probably the most common level for initial TVET to start in most countries around the world, and certainly in countries within the OECD. The upper secondary vocational school or college course which combines general and vocational learning is probably the most common format, but there is a wide variety of others, including various forms of apprenticeship.
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Courses at Level 3A offer progression to ISCED 5A tertiary courses and must therefore provide a strong academic foundation. This tends to mean that they are more general in nature rather than vocational, but there are a few examples of both pre-vocational and vocational courses of this type. Examples of 3A pre-vocational courses in the OECD exist in both Hungary and Ireland. Upper secondary level education with pre-vocational elements in Hungary (Szakk¨oz´episkola nappali k´epz´es 9-12 e´ vfolyam) is designed to prepare students for the Maturity Examination. The Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme in Ireland combines both general and vocational subjects, including languages and work experience, and leads to an employment-targeted leaving certificate, but these courses have nevertheless been mapped to 3A. Such courses are less easy to identify in non-OECD countries, although the Tunisian and Lebanese technical baccalaur´eat courses probably fit into this category. Courses at Level 3B are designed to lead to the usually vocational ISCED 5B courses at tertiary level and include many that are vocational in nature and rather fewer that are pre-vocational. Hungary and Iceland offer pre-vocational programmes mapped at Level 3B. In Hungary, Felnottek szakk¨oz´episkol´aja 9–12 is a part-time secondary course consisting of general and pre-vocational elements and leads to the maturity examination. In Iceland, Listn´am a´ framhaldssk´olastigi includes fine and applied arts programmes at the upper secondary level that are designed to provide access to fine arts programmes at ISCED 5B. There are no programmes mapped at this level for non-OECD countries. However, the Malaysian vocational upper secondary courses, which include general and broad vocational education elements designed to lead to polytechnic courses, might be classified here (although they have been officially mapped at 3C). Malaysia has also had an upper secondary VET examination, Sijil Pelajaran Vokasional Malaysia (SPVM), fully equivalent to its O-Level academic leaving examination Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) since the 1970s. Vocational programmes at Level 3B are relatively common both within the OECD and outside. OECD maps the dual system apprenticeships in Austria and Germany and the baccalaur´eat professionnel in France at this level, as well as the Australian skilled courses for recognized trades, because such programmes can lead to level 5B programmes in some cases. However, the vast majority of graduates from these courses go directly to the labour market, which suggests that they might be more accurately mapped, on the destination criterion, as Level 3C provision. Programmes at this level in non-OECD countries can also be hard to classify. The Thai vocational upper secondary courses for 15- to 18-year-olds, in both public and private institutions, lead to a vocational education certificate. Most graduates go straight to the labour market, but the programmes are officially mapped at Level 3B. Many other countries in Asia have programmes of this type, although they have not been officially mapped. China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and the Republic of Korea all have two- to three-year upper secondary vocational schools which provide a combination of general education and broad vocational training. In most cases, graduates proceed directly to work, although in some countries progression to tertiary levels is possible. On the basis of comparability with Thailand, these courses
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could be mapped at Level 3B, although they mainly prepare for labour-market entry and on these grounds could be classified as 3C. Tunisia’s school-based craft courses can provide progression to advanced craft level training and have been mapped at Level 3B, even though they are certificated by the CAP exam which is based on the equivalent French qualification mapped at Level 2. ISCED Level 3C programmes are designed to lead directly to the labour market and probably represent in practice the most common form of vocational training at Level 3 in both OECD and non-OECD countries. Courses at this level are almost all vocational rather than pre-vocational (in fact, by definition 3C pre-vocational is a contradiction in terms since C designates labour-market destinations whereas pre-vocational designates further training destinations). OECD examples of ISCED 3C vocational programmes include both schoolbased provision and apprenticeship type programmes. The Erhvervsfaglige uddannelser in Denmark includes eighty-six types of three- and four-year programmes in various trades and technical fields which are all designed for labour-market entry. The apprenticeship system in the Flemish community in Belgium (opleidingen in de leertijd georganiseerd door het VIZO) is aimed at 15- and 16-year-olds and involves four days of learning on the job and a fifth day in a VIZO training centre taking additional general, vocational and social courses. Since most apprenticeship programmes are aimed at direct labour-market entry, there are many other programmes which could be classified here. Many examples of programmes at this level are found outside OECD countries. Apprenticeship programmes aimed at lower secondary graduates exist in, amongst other places, Botswana, Ghana, Indonesia and Zimbabwe. The apprentices in Ghana typically spend fifteen to seventeen weeks in college, and Zimbabwean apprentices also receive college tuition. More school-based provision at this level also exists in a number of countries. China has numerous three- to four-year specialized vocational secondary schools for junior secondary graduates which prepare for jobs at craft or technician levels. Ghana has a National Vocational Training Institute which offers various two- to four-year courses for junior secondary graduates consisting of 75% occupational training and leading to direct labour market entry. Zimbabwe offers upper secondary vocational college courses for those with an O-level entry standard which lead to national certificate qualifications in different occupational areas, including engineering, construction, horticulture, leather work, textiles and woodwork. Further examples of terminal TVET courses at Level 3 are provided by the many maritime and agricultural colleges in the Pacific Islands which, in many cases, represent the highest level of vocational education that can be gained without leaving the islands. The OECD has created a new category of Short Level 3C programmes to cover those which do not easily fit into the standard definitions. These last more than one year but are shorter than the typical programmes at Levels 3A and 3B. Programmes in this category include the pre-vocational General National Vocational Qualification Foundation Level courses in England which normally last for one year and aim to give a broad introduction to general vocational fields, such as commerce, manufacturing and retailing and distribution. General Certificate of Secondary
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Education (GCSE) courses undertaken in England which lead to less than five passes at higher A∗ to C grades have been classified at Short 3C as well as Level 2. Other examples of vocational Short 3C programmes in the OECD would include the BEP (brevet d’´etudes professionnelles) programmes in vocational lyc´ees in France and the formazione professionale regionale (FPR) in Italy. The BEP programmes typically start between 15 and 17 years of age, last two years and comprise substantial elements of general education with work experience (the stage) and vocational training in broad occupational fields. They can lead either directly to the labour market or to higher-level training. The FPR is also a two-year programme at the end of compulsory schooling which trains skilled workers for various sectors of the economy. The grouping together of such courses at a new Level 3C certainly raises some questions about comparability of levels of difficulty. Whereas the French BEP courses qualify students for skilled jobs or progression to Level 3 baccalaur´eat professionel and baccalaur´eat technologique courses which can give access to higher education, GNVQ foundation level is a basic introductory course which would not normally qualify for skilled work and which gives access to Level 3 GNVQ advanced or Vocation A-level courses—the qualification normally considered comparable with the French baccalaur´eat professionel—only via a further GNVQ intermediate (now Vocational GCSE) course. GCSEs with less than five high-grade passes are also difficult to equate with the BEP. GCSEs can be re-taken at the beginning of upper secondary schooling, but the vast majority of students take them initially at the end of lower secondary schooling and they are the terminal assessment for this stage. The BEP, on the other hand, is clearly at a higher level than the French lower secondary qualification, the brevet, and requires the latter for entry. See, for instance, Prais and Wagner (1985) for an analysis on the comparability of standards.
3.3 Post-Secondary Non-Tertiary Level (ISCED 4) ISCED Level 4 programmes are post-secondary but non-tertiary, straddling the boundary between upper secondary and post-secondary education from an international point of view, although they might be considered as either upper secondary or post-secondary programmes in a national context (OECD, 2004). As such, they are intermediary and transitional and can be difficult to classify. Level 4A programmes typically lead to Level 5A programmes; 4B programmes to 5B programmes; and 4C programmes to the labour market. Examples of vocational Level 4 programmes in the OECD would include the following. The third year of the third stage of vocational upper secondary education in the Flemish community in Belgium (gewoon secundair onderwijs–3de leerjaar van de 3de graad BSO) gives access to higher education and is classified as a vocational 4A-type programme. Second cycle dual system apprenticeships in Germany give access to Fachschulen (5B) programmes and are classified as vocational Level 4B.
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A number of examples can be given of Level 4 vocational courses in non-OECD countries. Tunisia has two-year BTS (brevet de technicien sup´erieur) courses for baccalaur´eat graduates which are classified as vocational Level 4B. They can lead to technician-level employment or to higher-level training. Peru’s post-secondary vocational programmes (escuela de suboficiales) require Level 3 completion for entry and lead to technical certificates. They are classified by OECD as Level 4C. Malaysia’s one- and two-year skills training courses for post-secondary students are also classified as Level 4C. Sri Lanka’s two-year technical college programmes, open to those with six or more O-levels or equivalent, lead to national certificate qualifications which give access to skilled jobs and to Level 5B training. These can be taken either full-time or part-time and are classified as Level 4C vocational programmes. Participation in Level 4C courses appears to be particularly high in Nordic and central European countries, as our analysis in Section 2 shows. Asian countries typically classify all of their Level 4 provision as terminal, as for instance in China. It seems likely that there is a large and growing number of vocational courses of the 4C type run by private institutions in many countries. Such provision is not always licensed and data not always recorded.
3.4 Tertiary Level (ISCED 5) Vocational provision at the tertiary level is classified at ISCED Level 5B. Programmes in this category have to be at least two years in length and must focus on occupationally-specific skills. Those lasting two to three years are designated ‘short’, and those lasting three to five years, ‘medium’. OECD countries provide many examples of short cycle ISCED 5B programmes. The Finnish vocational colleges (ammatillinen opisto) run two- to three-year advanced vocational programmes leading to diplomas and the title of technical engineer and are classified as Level 5B courses. The two-year IUT courses in France and the two-year higher national diploma programmes in England are also considered as Level 5B Short. Mexico’s two-year vocational associate degree programmes for qualified technicians are classified likewise. The French BTS, also a two-year programme, is placed here although, interestingly, its Tunisian equivalent is placed at 4C. Examples of Short 5B programmes in non-OECD countries would include the short-cycle vocational degrees in China’s universities, as well as the two-year vocational programmes in Thailand which lead to vocational education certificates. Ghana’s higher national diploma courses offered in polytechnics might also be included here. ISCED Level 5B Medium courses in OECD countries include the following. Vocational programmes in the German Fachschulen, which are attended after apprentice graduation and several years of subsequent qualified work experience, can vary in length from two to four years; the longer of these are classified as Medium 5B
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programmes. New Zealand’s two- to three-year vocational programmes, which lead to national diploma qualifications are also classified as Level 5B Medium. In the Czech Republic there are three-year university programmes leading to the bakalar (bachelor’s degree) which may be classified as 5B as long as they do not lead to a master’s programme. Outside the OECD, there is also a wide range of polytechnic-type courses which could be classified as Level 5B Medium. Malaysia’s polytechnic courses last between two and four years and would therefore classify as 5B Medium. Sri Lanka’s vocational college courses for A-level or equivalent qualification graduates run between one and four years. The longer of these would classify as 5B Medium.
4 Conclusion The UNESCO/OECD ISCED levels clearly provide an indispensible tool for classifying TVET provision and they form a necessary basis for producing comparative tables of participation, completion and qualification rates in different types of provision across countries and regions. However, they are clearly subject to some limitations. Firstly, they relate only to organized learning and thus leave out of account much of the TVET that takes places in many countries which is not sufficiently formalized to be so categorized. Secondly, the use of the ISCED levels as a means for comparison of participation and completion rates in different forms of provision across countries is only valid to the extent that country provisions and qualifications are accurately mapped to the right ISCED levels using the agreed criteria. Unfortunately, this process is difficult and contested in some cases. This chapter has noted a number of cases where agreed mappings are debatable and where skews or inconsistencies in particular country mappings may bias indicators and undermine the reliability of comparisons across countries and regions. No doubt the global data on TVET would benefit from more open debate and research in relation to controversial mapping issues, particularly as they arise around the Level 2 and 3 division and the B/C distinctions.
Notes 1. This chapter is developed from the report submitted by the authors to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics entitled ‘Global report on TVET’ in September 2004. 2. UNESCO ISCED-1997 does not have a 4C category and this is a modification introduced by OECD. UOE data collection for OECD and WEI countries includes a 4C category, but data collection by the UIS for the rest of the world does not. While the UOE data survey for OECD and WEI countries collects data on enrolments by level and categories A/B/C, the UIS survey for other countries does not. The UOE survey collects data by types 1, 11 and 111; the UIS survey for non-OECD/WEI countries collects data by type 1 and types 11 and 111 combined.
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References Ashton, D.; Green, F. 1996. Education, training and the global economy. Aldershot, UK: Edward Elgar. Ashton, D. et al. 1999. Education and training for development: the political economy of skill formation in East Asian newly industrialised economies. London: Routledge. Boucher, L. 1982. Tradition and change in Swedish education. London: Macmillan. Brown, P.; Green, A.; Lauder, H. 2001. High skills: globalisation, competitiveness and skills formation. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Crouch, C.; Finegold, D.; Sako, M. 1999. Are skills the answer? The political economy of skill creation in advanced industrial countries. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. European Commission. 1999. Continuing training in enterprises: facts and figures. Brussels: European Commission. Green, A. 1995. Technical education and state formation in nineteenth-century England and France. History of education journal, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 123–39. Green, A. 1998. Core skills, key skills and general culture: in search of the common foundation in vocational education. Evaluation and research in education, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 23–44. Green, A. 2000. Converging paths or ships passing in the night? An ‘English’ critique of Japanese school reform. Journal of comparative education, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 417–35. Green, A.; Hodgson, A.; Sakamoto, A. 2000 Financing vocational education and training. In: Descy, P.; Tessaring, M., eds. Training in Europe: second report on vocational training research in Europe 2000. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. (CEDEFOP reference series, vol. 1.) Koike, K.; Inoki, T., eds. 1990. Skill formation in Japan and South East Asia. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 1985. Beyond basic schooling. Paris: OECD. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2003. Beyond rhetoric: adult learning policies and practise. Paris: OECD. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2004. OECD handbook for internationally comparative education statistics. Paris: OECD. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Statistics Canada. 2000. Literacy in the Information Age: final report of the International Adult Literacy Survey. Paris: OECD. Prais, S.; Wagner, K. 1985. Schooling standards in Great Britain and West Germany. London: National Institute for Economic and Social Research. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 1997. International Standard Classification of Education: ISCED-1997. Paris: UNESCO.
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Chapter XII.5
Trends and Issues in TVET across the Globe1 Moses O. Oketch, Andy Green and John Preston
1 Some Widespread Tendencies in TVET This chapter does not seek to provide a systematic analysis of global trends in technical and vocational education and training (TVET). The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), upon whose material it draws, does not have enough historical data concerning many countries to provide a statistical basis for such an analysis. Moreover, inter- and intra-regional differences in TVET provision are too complex for it to be possible to generate any comprehensive analysis of such trends within a chapter of this scope. Although descriptive, qualitative accounts of TVET provision exist for many countries, creating an internationally comparable and systematic synthesis out of these accounts would be a task of Herculean proportions. Nevertheless, it is possible to draw attention to some of the more common trends in TVET development for certain regions which have been well-analysed in the comparative literature. It is also possible to note some of the more pervasive differences in the context for TVET provision which exist across regions and particularly between the more-developed countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the medium-income World Education Indicators’ (WEI) countries and the low-income non-WEI countries. In this chapter, we concentrate on initial TVET, since data on continuing TVET are so limited for many regions that an overview would not be possible. Global demands for skills have increased substantially in recent years as a result of scientific and technological advances, rapidly changing markets and the intensified global economic competition due to accelerated globalization.2 Such changes have not, of course, affected all countries and all regions of the world in the same way. The most economically globalized regions, including North America, Europe and East Asia, have experienced the most dramatic increases in the demand for skills, not least as a result of the rise of the so-called knowledge economy. In less-developed regions of the world, particularly those of Africa still only marginally engaged in the global economy, changes in these demands have been less dramatic. Nevertheless, all regions feel the effects of a global economic transformation and an increasing proportion of countries are in direct
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competition in trade for more advanced goods and services within the global economy. Creating the ‘high-skills’ economy used to be the policy ambition of only the most-developed countries. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is not only the mature industrialized economies that seek to maintain their prosperity through shifting their economies into the high value-added, high-skills areas of production and services which generate the highest profits on the world markets. Newly industrialized countries and even many of those only just beginning to industrialize are also increasingly adopting long-term policies designed to promote high skills and the knowledge economy (Brown, Green & Lauder, 2001). Moreover, in all countries and regions, at whatever level of development, economic survival depends on the generation and maintenance of human capital (Becker, 1964). More advanced technologies and changing patterns of work organization have transformed the demand for skills in a number of ways. On the one hand, increasing proportions of the workforce are required to have more advanced ‘basic’ or ‘core skills’ (European Commission, 1999). These included not only functional levels of literacy but also numeracy. They also now involve: (a) the ability to communicate effectively in different registers, contexts and sometimes languages; (b) basic competence in the use of information and communications technologies; (c) problemsolving techniques of various kinds; (d) and, not least, the skills and personal attributes needed to work autonomously, respond flexibly to new situations in rapidly changing work environments, participate in work teams and, above all, to learn continuously (Reich, 1991). Nowadays, in many of the world’s societies to lack these more advanced basic skills is to be increasingly marginalized from the labour market. On the other hand, technological advance is also increasing the demand for highly-specialized skills based on high levels of knowledge in specific fields or even at the intersections of fields, as in areas like biotechnology (European Commission, 1995). Such requirements exist only for the elites in many countries, but the required size of these elites is growing rapidly. The extent of these new skills demands, of course, varies hugely across countries and regions, and the so-called knowledge economy is only on the distant horizon in many developing countries. Nevertheless, some new skills, and particularly those involved in basic computer and information and communication technology (ICT) functions, are beginning to be important for a significant number of employees and private citizens, even in the rural areas of these countries. It is increasingly evident to more and more of the world’s population, for instance, that to be information technology (IT) illiterate is to be marginalized from the world of global communications. In the face of these new realities, benchmarks are being set in many countries for levels of education and training thought necessary to function in the modern world. These allow us to analyse, albeit in very general terms, some of the common trends in TVET provision across regions of the world. A number of quite common trends in initial TVET are apparent in the moredeveloped countries and at least emergent in some developing countries.
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1.1 The Massification of Upper Secondary TVET The baseline level of TVET is changing. Until relatively recently, say until the mid1970s, the most typical age for entry into the labour market in more-developed countries was at the end of compulsory schooling, usually after graduating from lower secondary school. The transition to work was sometimes via an apprenticeship, but in many cases it was directly into full-time employment. Clearly this has now changed. In many OECD countries, between one-third and one-half of young people go through some form of tertiary education. For the remainder, it has become typical to continue in education and training at least until the end of the upper secondary stage. ISCED Level 3 qualifications are increasingly seen as the minimum necessary to ensure reasonably good prospects in the labour market in most OECD countries. In North America, Eastern and Western Europe, and East Asia, the vast majority now continue in education and training until the end of this stage. Uniquely, in Germany many dual system participants are now enrolling in universities after completing their apprenticeships. Many middle-income countries, particularly in Asia, are seeing similar patterns. This change has a number of important consequences for TVET. First, ISCED Level 2 TVET is being gradually phased out in many regions. Policy in many countries is now for comprehensive general education to last at least until the end of compulsory schooling to ensure the acquisition of the new basic skills to an adequate level. Many countries will still offer some vocational options for students during the lower secondary phase, and a few OECD countries have some kind of vocational track at the lower secondary level, but this is increasingly rare. In less-developed countries, vocational tracks in lower secondary schools are more common, as is the post-primary apprenticeship system. The United States has addressed the secondary school drop-out problem by creating the TechPrep programme, which provides a seamless transition between the final two grades of secondary school and the first two years of post-secondary education in community and/or technical colleges. Second, as upper secondary education becomes a mass phenomenon, its character changes. On the one hand, it is bound to become more diverse. Meeting the learning and qualification needs of a larger and more differentiated group of participants requires a wider range of provision. On the other hand, as it becomes more diverse, it becomes more complex and prone to internal tensions and strains. This leads to demands for new measures to restore the transparency of systems and to ensure greater linkages and parity between its different parts.
1.2 The Creation of Broad Vocational Tracks Changes in technology and in work organization require workers who have multiple skills and the ability to adapt rapidly through continuous learning. This has led to demands for broader forms of initial vocational training which lay the foundation for
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further learning. The response to this in many countries has been to readjust some of the Level 3 vocational programmes to contain a larger element of general education and more generic forms of vocational preparation, where the latter prepares participants for a cluster of occupations in a given sector rather than for a single one. The trend can be seen in the creation of vocational programmes with enhanced general education content, such as the baccalaur´eat professionnel in France and the MBO programmes in the Netherlands created during the 1980s, where up to one-half of the course is based on general education (Green, Wolf & Leney, 1999). It can also be seen in the development of very broad vocational programmes, such as the General National Vocational Qualification (GNVQ) programmes set up in England in the 1990s, which were divided into only twelve broad fields. A somewhat different response, as in the case of the German and Austrian apprenticeships, has been to maintain occupational training but with enhanced general content and slightly broader vocational fields, so that the overall list of vocational qualifications is reduced. This shift towards broader initial vocational training programmes has been quite marked in Europe. However, it is not necessarily so evident in other regions. Some East Asian countries, for instance, already had a broad concept of upper secondary vocational education. The vocational high schools in Japan, the Republic of Korea and Thailand have traditionally offered rather broad initial vocational training, which usually involved around 30 to 50% of the curriculum time being devoted to a wide range of general education subjects. Academic and vocational widening has not therefore been a priority here.3 On the other hand, in regions where upper secondary education is still the preserve of the minority, as is the case in much of Sub-Saharan Africa, there have not been the same pressures to develop these intermediary type programmes. Those continuing in upper secondary education have usually been on an academic track and have taken general subjects. Where students have stayed in upper secondary level TVET, it has usually been through apprenticeships or vocational courses geared towards traditional crafts and trades which have not changed in such a way as to require more generic forms of training. The rise of more service-sector employment opportunities in these countries may, however, encourage a similar trend in time.
1.3 Measures to Enhance Parity of Esteem for TVET Diversification of post-compulsory provision has inevitably led to concerns about status differentiation between the different tracks, particularly in those countries with weak or low-status apprentice systems and largely school-based provision (Lasonen, 1996). Upper secondary education has tended historically to be associated with university entry preparation through general academic study, and this has remained the pathway which holds the highest status. Vocational courses have been more or less successful in gaining public credibility, depending on how highly employers regarded the qualifications to which they lead and what opportunities they
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open up to the young people who take them. Generally, though, they are less highly valued than their academic counterparts and, therefore, in some countries at least vocational courses tend to recruit those students who were unable to enter academic programmes. There has, consequently, been widespread concern by governments and educationalists, particularly in the northern European States but also in other regions, to find ways of improving the status and employment value of these courses. Various strategies have been attempted to achieve this. Vocational qualifications have been given names which stress their affinity with traditional academic qualifications (the vocational or applied A-level in England and the baccalaur´eat professionnel in France); formal entitlements to enter higher education have been accorded to graduates of certain vocational programmes (the baccalaur´eat professionnel in France and the vocational lines in Swedish upper secondary education); and increased possibilities for transfer between vocational and academic courses have been developed. Most noteworthy in recent years perhaps has been the widespread policy in Europe of building improved progression routes into, and out of, vocational tracks. It remains to be seen whether any of these measures will do much to erode the status differentials between the academic and vocational tracks. Whatever may be the case, there is a growing tendency amongst policy-makers, particularly in northern Europe, to increase the alignment between different programmes and therefore to bridge the gap between vocational and academic learning. In some cases this has involved policies to create overarching qualification frameworks—sometimes involving modular courses and credit accumulation and transfer—which make it easier for students to combine elements from different pathways or to transfer between pathways. In these and other cases, policies have been proposed which would fully unify qualification systems creating common certificates embracing all the various programmes and programme combinations. The policies followed have differed in systems where school-based provision dominates and in systems where the apprenticeship system dominates. In systems where school-based TVET dominates, raising the status of vocational tracks has often proved particularly problematic. Vocational provision exists alongside general or academic provision in the same or similar institutions and has generally been judged by the standards of the academic tracks. For the most part, comparisons with the academic tracks have proved unfavourable and the courses have been less esteemed as a result. As mentioned earlier, one response to this endemic problem in many countries has been to seek to enhance the general content of the vocational track, in some cases designing this as common with the core components in the general tracks. Where the latter has occurred, as with the baccalaur´eat professionnel in France, the vocational tracks have been incorporated into the same overarching qualification system as the general tracks (CEREQ, 2004). A further development has been to devise progression routes for the vocational tracks so that successful students may have further access to tertiary level education and training. The results of such reforms have been mixed. In some countries, the academic enhancement of the vocational tracks has led to greater progression possibilities (e.g. the GNVQ in England and vocational lines in Sweden) that has raised their
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prestige and popularity. However, this has often come at the price of eroding the essentially vocational nature of these tracks so that they become less useful as a preparation for direct labour-market entry. The overall result has been to accelerate the already strong trend towards ‘academic drift’ which can be seen in many developed countries. Inasmuch as changes in the labour market require higher proportions of more-educated graduates in the workforce, this may not be seen as a big problem. However, in some countries it has led to a shortage of skills at craft levels, as well as an oversupply of graduates with non-marketable degrees. In this case, those on the vocational track who have progressed to higher education may find that they have not improved their labour prospects very much because they are in a weaker position than those who have gained degrees through conventional—more prestigious—academic routes. The response in some countries has been to seek to channel the ISCED Level 3 vocational students into shorter vocational higher degrees (like the Foundation Degree in England), which meet a labour-market demand and may win a distinctive niche in the labour market. In systems where apprenticeship dominates in Level 3 TVET provision, different solutions have been sought to the problem of prestige and esteem. Since the popularity of apprenticeships has been very dependent on their close links with the labour market and on their ability to guarantee their graduates entry into skilled jobs, it has been important to maintain the occupational credibility of their qualifications in the labour market. This has meant that apprentice training has had to remain relatively occupationally-specific. However, many young people who contemplate taking an apprenticeship have also wanted to keep their options open as regards going straight into employment or progressing to higher levels of training. To make the apprenticeship more attractive, therefore, it has been felt desirable in a number of countries to create progression routes to programmes of further training at Levels 4 and 5. This has been achieved in part in Austria and Germany by strengthening the general components of the dual system programmes and by creating new ‘dual qualification programmes’ whereby, with an extended period of study, students can gain both an apprentice qualification and a qualification which gives them access to higher education (Brown, Green & Lauder, 2001). Due to these changes, dual system apprenticeships now tend to be mapped at Level 3B rather than 3C and, in the cases of the advanced apprenticeships, at Level 4. Problems of parity of esteem for the vocational tracks have not only concerned policy-makers in European countries; they have been an issue for many years in several Asian countries. This has not been in relation to apprentice training, since that has tended to remain underdeveloped, but in relation to educational provision in vocational high schools which, as elsewhere, is held in rather lower esteem than general upper secondary education. Countries such as Japan and the Republic of Korea have experienced continuing academic ‘drift’ in upper secondary participation as young people increasingly opt for the general tracks giving access to tertiary education and to better paying and more secure professional jobs in prestigious larger companies. Such has been the trend in Japan, for instance, that the vocational high school is now often seen as a dead-end by many students because it may only give
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access to skilled craft and operative jobs in smaller companies. East Asian states have adopted a number of different strategies for dealing with this problem. This ‘academic drift’ is often accompanied by a ‘mission drift’. Japan and the Republic of Korea, for instance, have not been able to impose quotas on entry to high school so that vocational high schools maintained a fixed proportion of places whatever the preferences of young people. This has happened partly because there were a very large number of private high schools which could not be effectively subjected to these policies in the same way (Ashton et al., 1999). Alternative means have therefore been sought to make the vocational high schools more attractive. These have mainly involved, as in Europe, attempts to create progression routes to vocational tertiary study for graduates from vocational high schools. To date, such efforts have not been notably successful. However, more will certainly have to be done in this area. There is already a considerable oversupply of higher education graduates in non-vocational areas in both the Republic of Korea and Japan, which can only be ameliorated by strong measures to limit the current trend of academic drift. Parity of esteem for vocational tracks is most certainly also a problem in other regions of the world, including in Africa. In most African countries young people have a preference for the general upper secondary programmes that give access to higher education. However, many of these graduates will not find jobs commensurate with the qualifications that they may achieve. Raising the quality and attractiveness of the upper secondary vocational programmes must be a high priority here as well, although the issue arises only for a minority who have access to provision at this level at the present time.
1.4 Diversifying Higher-Level TVET Employment in technical, managerial and professional occupations is rising in most industrialized countries. This has created a rising demand for skills and qualifications at Levels 4 and 5 of the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) which are designed for these levels of employment. This has given rise to several trends which apply, in varying degrees, to richer OECD countries and middle-income countries alike. As the demand for enrolment at post-secondary and tertiary levels has increased in most countries, the pressure has grown for diversification of the types and modes of provision at these levels. In many countries this has led to proliferation of new vocational programmes, both at Levels 4 and 5. Many two-year ‘colleges’ in Japan, which catered exclusively to women, have either closed or converted to four-year institutions as the ‘glass-ceiling’ in the labour market changes. The definition for programmes at Level 4 is extremely broad, and there is a wide range of programme types which may be classified here, ranging from short preemployment courses to longer courses oriented towards higher-level education and training. One area where there has been a marked rate of growth in participation
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across regions is in the provision of skills-training programmes for lower- and middle-ranking administrative and technical occupations, and particularly those involving business, administrative and ICT skills. A comparable diversification has occurred in vocational tertiary programmes. As demand for tertiary education has increased, many countries have substantially extended the range of short- and medium-length vocational programmes available at ISCED 5B. These have included developing skills for a large number of occupations which previously did not exist or for which there was previously no higher-level qualification. In some cases these new programmes have been offered in traditional university environments, but for the most part they have been developed in polytechnic type tertiary vocational institutions. Community and technical colleges in the United States have developed post-diploma programmes to deliver such ‘newer’ skills to both degree and non-degree graduates, as well as to those wishing to upgrade skills. At the same time, as the range of types of programme has increased in terms of content and intended labour-market utility, so has the range of types in terms of provider institutions and modes of delivery. Many countries, notably Malaysia and the Republic of Korea, have developed very extensive systems of open university distance education provision, both in general areas and TVET, although the latter is largely limited to what can be learned without highly specialized and expensive equipment. The United States has also developed ‘open college’ TVET programmes. It is interesting to note that much of the new programmes are delivered by private providers, especially in Asia, although they are often licensed and subsidized by the State. Increasingly, they also include entirely independent providers, particularly at Level 4.
2 Regional Diversity In the preceding section we noted some of the trends in types of provision that appear to be common across many countries in different regions. However, it is also apparent that the nature and quality of TVET provision vary substantially between regions, even where it may appear possible to identify similar classes of provision according to the ISCED typology. The reasons for this are obvious but bear re-stating. Firstly ISCED types refer to the intended and formallydeclared characteristics of programmes but do not necessarily capture the quality characteristics of the actual learning experiences which determine their outcomes. Secondly, whilst the range of types of TVET provision may look in many ways similar across different regions, the incidence of participation in them is most clearly not. Many less-developed countries face multiple problems in delivering effective TVET provision and in ensuring high-level participation, over and above those experienced in the most-developed countries. These include in many cases problems of supply in terms of:
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lack of public finance for physical infrastructure and equipment; lack of adequately trained instructors; problems of communication and co-ordination, particularly in the more remote areas; inadequate ICT infrastructures; inadequate system capacity in terms of central planning agencies, research and development capabilities, standard setting bodies, etc.; and lack of finance and/or capability to undertake routine and preventive maintenance of the physical plant and equipment.
Barriers to access on the demand side may be equally problematic in many of the poorer countries including:
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low levels of literacy which impede participation in TVET; lack of resources to pay for TVET tuition and materials; inadequate information and counselling with regard to what is available; and traditional attitudes which constrain female access to TVET.
Richer and poorer regions vary enormously in terms of these basic contextual factors which shape the quality of TVET provision and, consequently, the levels of participation and successful completion. By way of illustrating these differences, we include in the sections below an analysis of some of the specific contexts and trends which characterize TVET provision across the African continent. This is based on our 2004 report to UIS following seventeen interviews with returning officers in Africa and a selection of secondary commentaries on TVET in the region. Africa has been singled out for special emphasis because it holds many of the world’s least-developed countries and is the focus of intensive aid policies in which TVET might be expected to play a part.
2.1 Trends and Issues in TVET in Africa One dilemma which has preoccupied many African countries since most gained their independence in the 1960s has been how to balance investment in general and vocational education to match labour-market and economic production needs. Many educationalists and governments have viewed general education as a suitable type of education that is capable of responding to economic and labour-force changes in society, but TVET also has been regarded as having the advantage of imparting specific job-relevant skills making the worker more readily suitable for a given job and more productive (Tilak, 2002). Both are important and education systems in Africa include both general and vocational streams of education in varying proportions. While general education is currently directed towards the goals of Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), there is a more diverse pattern of emphasis and provision of TVET across the continent (Atchoarena & Delluc, 2002).
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In several countries, the mode, functioning and content of TVET systems still retain patterns initiated by the former colonial powers, resulting in significant differences in patterns of delivery, levels of participation and general organization of TVET. Sharp contrasts can be seen between French-speaking and English-speaking African countries and at least two major forms of provision can be identified across the continent. The first involves TVET provision in formal education systems at lower secondary (ISCED Level 2) and upper secondary (ISCED Level 3), post-secondary non-tertiary (ISCED Level 4), and provision at first-stage tertiary level (ISCED Level 5). The second involves training outside the formal education system. The latter is in the form of informal apprenticeships or traditional forms of training offered at artisanal workshops owned by master craftspeople. These forms of training usually prepare participants for trades, such as carpentry, masonry, dyeing, auto-mechanics, welding, foundry, photography, tailoring, dressmaking, cosmetics, etc. Some of these informal types of training are provided on the basis of family ties, and operators tend to exhibit creativity but lack the necessary technological knowledge related to their skills and the capital to expand their enterprises (Atchoarena & Delluc, 2002). In Kenya, for instance, this informal sector has grown in importance and acquired its popular Swahili name, jua kali.
2.2 Should Africa Focus Mainly on Vocationalized Education? TVET is primarily regarded as occupational education in much of Africa and was initially thought to be undesirable to most African countries, which felt the need to emphasize academic education as one of their independence pledges. However, soon after independence many countries turned to TVET to solve emerging urban unemployment problems, which were blamed on rural/urban migration. It was felt that TVET would be an appropriate measure to stabilize traditional agricultural life and to curb educational ‘over-production’—the tendency for individuals from rural areas to continue in school past the capacity of labour markets to absorb them (Tilak, 2002). During the early post-independence years, arguments were advanced in favour of TVET, and leaders—such as the late Julius Nyerere of Tanzania—were quoted in support of TVET (Tilak, 2002). But TVET was not necessarily favoured by all, and Philip Foster’s arguments in 1965 added international confusion to what had already been a dilemma to many of these newly-independent African nations. In his often-quoted piece on the ‘vocational school fallacy’, Foster exploded the vocational school myth. Mark Blaug followed later in 1973 arguing that vocationalization cannot be a remedy for educated unemployment (Foster, 1965; Blaug, 1973). But such strong arguments have to date not prevented African countries from continuing vocational education programmes. TVET appears to have maintained an inherently powerful—but also paradoxical—appeal in Africa’s education systems.
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2.3 Patterns of TVET Delivery There is an obvious distinction to be made between the way TVET is organized in French-speaking and English-speaking African countries. This, as noted earlier, is due to the influence and patterns initiated during the colonial period. TVET in French-speaking countries, such as Algeria, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia, still has a large amount of general education content, as it does in France. This may imply that programmes have not been linked to the specific skills needed in the mostly informal local labour markets. For example, in their case study of TVET in four French-speaking African countries—Cˆote d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Mali and Senegal—David Atchoarena and Andr´e Delluc found that the fundamental deficiency in TVET programmes and their patterns of delivery is the fact that they completely ignore the informal sector, especially artisans’ micro-enterprises. Originally modelled on the French school system, TVET in these countries has often not fully taken into account the possibilities of traditional apprenticeship for meeting the needs of the artisan sector, which both provides jobs and often stands in need of improvement. This is mainly because their TVET programmes have maintained a fairly large amount of general content that is not relevant to the specific skills required for the informal sector (Atchoarena & Delluc, 2002). In contrast, as revealed by the same authors, the English-speaking countries have more experience in dual forms of public sector training and artisan sector training. In these forms of provision, the vocational aspect tends to be more dominant and general education plays a smaller part. One disadvantage of this is that it makes progression between vocational and general courses more difficult and hence, for the most part, those who enrol in TVET have no way of advancing their educational level—which leads to it being perceived as a ‘dead-end’ type of education. Nevertheless, some countries in Africa, like Botswana, Ghana and South Africa, have advanced further in modernizing traditional apprenticeship schemes to integrate them into a national training system. This will hopefully lead to both lateral movement and progression between various ISCED levels. Another notable contrast between the French-speaking and English-speaking countries is the place of TVET within the education system, as well as its situation in the world of work. Atchoarena and Delluc observe that, despite certain national specificities, French-speaking countries often seem to encounter difficulties of the same nature, especially when trying to balance supply and demand. This can be attributed to unclear demarcation of how much general content there should be in TVET programmes. Maintaining a large amount of general content can lead to difficulty in balancing demand and supply (Atchoarena & Delluc, 2002).
2.4 Some Recent Concerns over Formal TVET in Africa Aside from the early criticisms by Philip Foster (1965) and Mark Blaug (1973), numerous concerns over TVET have been voiced over the past decade. Atchoarena and Delluc (2002, p. 38) summarize them in terms of:
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poor quality; very high cost; training not suited to actual socio-economic conditions; disregard of the needs of the informal sector; and disregard of the labour market and high unemployment rate among graduates.
In view of the changes in the labour market, the objectives of TVET have become more diverse: they are no longer simply economic but also social, including the fight against poverty and the integration of young people into the working world, all in line with the articulations in the Millennium Development Goals (Atchoarena & Delluc, 2002, p. 38). Given the prevailing economic trend, two other major objectives have been identified and must now be pursued: (a) to train the workforce for self-employment; and (b) to raise the productivity of the informal sector (Caillods, 1994). But lack of resources is seen as a hindrance to pursuing these new critical objectives; even more so given that TVET is an expensive form of education and expanding it without necessary and adequate facilities and equipment does not lead to productivity in the long run. Yet, at the same time, criticisms of TVET have led to cuts in the volume of training provided in public institutions and a call for the mostly family-run informal enterprises in countries, such as Kenya, to take on more of the responsibility for providing TVET. A look at the funding of TVET can shed light on the contradiction between the emphasis for skills and the limited funding that governments are willing to commit to TVET. Moreover, the international pressure on countries to meet their EFA goals by 2015 has meant that more resources have been shifted, both within national budgets and international aid assistance, to realising universal primary education; yet, the rhetoric over skills and the value of TVET continues.
2.5 Future Issues Some authors argue that, from the analysis of trends and issues in the region, the key point is to transform TVET to reflect the prevailing reality in the labour market. This transformation must begin with TVET shedding its traditional mould and taking as its objective the need to link itself to the informal sector, including agriculture and fisheries. In UNESCO-UNEVOC’s view, however, this approach does not seem to have been successful in Botswana, Kenya, Ghana and elsewhere in Africa (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 1996). In any case, more data should be collected to monitor patterns of provision in both government and private institutions. Ideally, data should be available to publish indicators on the proportion of secondary enrolment in TVET by level, destination and orientation types and gender and on net enrolments rates in TVET by level, types and gender. Data on the percentage spent on TVET as a proportion of total
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educational expenditure could also be helpful if they can be collected by countries. Without adequate data and clear classification, progress in monitoring the impact of TVET can be hampered.
Notes 1. This chapter is developed from the report submitted by the authors to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics entitled ‘Global report on TVET’ in September 2004. 2. The SKOPE project based at Oxford and Warwick Universities provides evidence of how demand for skills has increased across a range of European countries. 3. The UIS data on enrolment by programme orientation mask these comparisons as Asian countries tend to categorize all of their vocational Level 3 provision as vocational rather than prevocational, despite the fact that much of it is very broad in nature.
References Ashton, D. et al. 1999. Education and training for development: the political economy of skill formation in East Asian newly industrialised economies. London: Routledge. Atchoarena, D.; Delluc, A. 2002. Revisiting technical and vocational education in Sub-Saharan Africa: an update on trends, innovations and challenges. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. Becker, G.S. 1964. Human capital. New York, NY: National Bureau of Economic Research. Blaug, M. 1973. Education and employment problems in developing countries. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Brown, P.; Green, A.; Lauder, H. 2001. High skills: globalisation, competitiveness and skills formation. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Caillods, F. 1994. Diversit´e et convergences des syst`emes de formation professionnelle. Revue internationale du travail, vol. 133, no. 2. Centre d’´etudes et de recherches sur les qualifications—CEREQ. 2004. Apprenticeship: which way forward? Paris: OECD. European Commission. 1995. White Paper: teaching and learning-towards the learning society. Brussels: European Commission. European Commission. 1999. Continuing training in enterprises: facts and figures. Brussels: European Commission. Foster, P.J. 1965. The vocational school fallacy in development planning. In: Anderson, C.A.; Bowman, M.J., eds. Education and economic development. Chicago, IL: Aldine. Green, A.; Wolf, A.; Leney, T. 1999. Convergence and divergence in European education and training systems. London: University of London Institute of Education. Lasonen, J., ed. 1996. Reforming upper secondary education in Europe. Jyv¨askyl¨a, Finland: University of Jyv¨askyl¨a. Reich, R. 1991. The work of nations: a blueprint for the future. London: Simon & Schuster. Tilak, J. 2002. Vocational education and training in Asia. In: Keeves, P.J.; Watanabe, R., eds. The handbook on educational research in the Asian Pacific Region. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; UNEVOC International Centre. 1996. The development of technical and vocational education in Africa. Dakar: UNESCOBREDA.
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Chapter XII.6
Statistical Overview of TVET across Educational Levels Manuel Cardoso
1 Introduction This chapter presents an analysis of the data that are available at the global level. The data come from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) regular annual survey, which usually draws upon the contributions of ministries of education. Data used in the survey are transformed from national programme structure to the format of the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) and are applied to the United Nations population estimates to make education and demographic data consistent and comparable. The data are, as stated in earlier chapters, confined to enrolment in the formal education system. They cannot, therefore, be used to present a complete picture of technical and vocational education and training (TVET). However, given the debate presented earlier in the section on the extent to which TVET should be provided by the formal education system in developing countries, it is useful to examine the overall level and nature of this provision across the world.
2 Global Overview: TVET Programmes across ISCED levels This section presents an overview of technical/vocational and other related programmes at each of the four applicable ISCED levels (lower secondary, upper secondary, post-secondary non-tertiary and tertiary) and their combinations, both globally and by region. The reason for excluding the remaining levels is straightforward: even though some primary school curricula may feature some vocational content, there are no vocational programmes at pre-primary (ISCED 0) and primary (ISCED 1), and there are no such programmes either at the other end of the education system—the second stage of tertiary education (ISCED 6). Therefore, these three levels are omitted from the discussion. The chapter begins by dealing individually with the four pertinent levels in ascending chronological order. Among those levels that do offer vocational programmes, lower secondary (ISCED 2) is the least frequent: 125 countries do not report enrolment in such programmes, while 49 countries do. In some regions, this may be regarded as too early a stage to offer TVET; other countries, however, offer vocational programmes R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XII.6, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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within compulsory education ages as a way to provide marketable skills to children who may not pursue further studies. In developed countries, pre-vocational may outnumber vocational programmes at this level, but, since they are included with general programmes, they remain undetected for purposes of international statistics. Upper secondary education (ISCED 3), on the other hand, is by far the most ubiquitous form of vocational education provision: 136 countries report enrolment in vocational programmes at this level. In most countries, this stage follows the end of compulsory education and may thus be regarded as a suitable point for curriculum diversification. Enrolment in vocational programmes in post-secondary non-tertiary education (ISCED 4) is reported in eighty countries. Vocational provision at this level, even though still rare, has recently been growing as a result of the creation of new programmes and the reclassification of existing ones, which were formerly labelled ISCED 3 or 5B. Finally, ISCED does not apply the ‘programme orientation’ criterion at the tertiary level; therefore, ISCED 5B programmes are not formally classified as vocational, despite being defined as ‘practically-oriented/occupationally-specific’. These programmes are quite widespread: 104 countries report enrolment in them (Table 1). In addition to looking at the distribution of programmes at each ISCED level by country, it would be useful to consider the vocational education sub-systems as such: by combining three of the previous four criteria (presence or absence of enrolment in vocational programmes at each of ISCED Levels 2 to 4), it is possible to create an index of diversification that ranges from 0 (in those countries that do not offer vocational education at all) to 3 (in those that offer this stream at all three levels). This index has been calculated for the 143 countries with valid information on vocational enrolment for all ISCED Levels 2 (lower secondary) to 4 (post-secondary non-tertiary).
Table 1 TVET provision by level and ISCED 5B programmes (number and percentage of countries)
Vocational enrolment at lower secondary (ISCED 2) Vocational enrolment at upper secondary (ISCED 3) Vocational enrolment at post-secondary non-tertiary (ISCED 4)
No
Yes
Data not available
Total
N
125
49
33
207
% N
60.4% 29
23.7% 136
15.9% 42
100.0% 207
% N
14.0% 79
65.7% 80
20.3% 48
100.0% 207
38.6% 104 50.2%
23.2% 60 29.0%
100.0% 207 100.0%
% 38.2% N 43 % 20.8% Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005. Enrolment at tertiary (ISCED 5B)
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Box 1. Are technical/vocational programmes terminal? Technical and vocational programmes are often seen as leading exclusively to the labour market. ISCED does not formally classify programmes as ‘terminal’, but uses the ‘type of subsequent education or destination’ criterion (applied regardless of the programme’s general or vocational orientation). While other programmes (classified as Type A or B in secondary, and just as Type A in post-secondary non-tertiary) qualify their graduates to enter programmes at the subsequent educational level, we can think of Type C programmes at Levels 2 and 3 (secondary) and Type B programmes at Level 4 (post-secondary non-tertiary) as leading directly to the labour market, therefore being the closest to ‘terminal’ programmes: ‘2C: programmes primarily designed for direct access to the labour market at the end of this level (sometimes referred to as ‘terminal’ programmes). [. . .] 3C: programmes at Level 3 not designed to lead directly to ISCED 5A or 5B. Therefore, these programmes lead directly to the labour market, ISCED 4 programmes or other ISCED 3 programmes. [. . .] 4B programmes not giving access to level 5 (primarily designed for direct labour market entry)’ (UNESCO, 1997, pp. 19, 23, 26). Are all vocational programmes ‘terminal’? No. The following table shows, for ISCED Levels 2 to 4, the distribution of general and vocational programmes by type of subsequent education or destination: General
Level
Secondary
Destination (ISCED 2 & 3)
Post-secondary
Destination non-tertiary (ISCED 4)
A B C Total A B Total
Vocational
Count
%
Count
%
531 34 33 598 88 34 122
89% 6% 6% ∗ 100% 72% 28% 100%
119 115 221 455 62 157 219
26% 25% 49% 100% 28% 72% 100%
∗ Due to rounding, percentages may appear not to sum exactly to 100%. Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
At the secondary level (both lower and upper, ISCED 2 and 3) about onequarter of vocational programmes (26%) are Type A, another one-quarter (25%) are Type B, while about one-half (49%) are Type C or ‘terminal’. As for general programmes, about 9 out of 10 (89%) are Type A, and the rest are split equally between Types B and C (6% each). In summary, at the secondary level about one-half of all vocational programmes are ‘terminal’ (Type C), while only about 1 out of 20 general programmes are ‘terminal’ (Type C).
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At the post-secondary non-tertiary level (ISCED 4) about one-quarter (28%) of vocational programmes are Type A and three-quarters (72%) are Type B. Among general programmes, the distribution is reversed: about threequarters (72%) of vocational programmes are Type A and one-quarter (28%) are Type B. In conclusion, even though vocational (as opposed to general) programmes are more likely to be ‘terminal’, not all vocational programmes fall into that category. In fact, Type C programmes comprise only about one-half of vocational programmes at the secondary level and about three-quarters of those at the post-secondary non-tertiary level. Table 2 presents the distribution of this index by region, showing that: out of 143 countries, only 22 report enrolments in vocational programmes at all three ISCED levels considered; one-third of these are in Europe and the rest are scattered across all other regions. Almost one-half of all countries (67 out of 143) provide vocational education enrolment at two different ISCED levels; once again about one-third of these countries are in Europe. Almost one-third of all countries (46 out of 143) supply vocational education enrolment at one ISCED level; about 40% of these (17) are in the Asian region. Only eight countries report null vocational education enrolment at all three ISCED levels. Some important regional variations are also clear from Table 2. Europe has the highest and most homogeneous level of diversification: the vast majority (more than four-fifths) of countries report vocational education enrolment at two or more ISCED levels. In Asia and South America, the level of diversification is noticeably lower since one-half or less of each region’s countries report vocational education enrolment at two or more ISCED levels. However, both regions have viable nonformal TVET institutions. North America is the most heterogeneous region. Africa is the only region where vocational enrolment is reported at least at one level for all countries with available data. Additionally, it is possible to create a typology that would consider the number of levels that feature vocational programmes and each particular combination of levels, resulting in a classification that would allow the identification of different patterns Table 2 Index of diversification of TVET programmes, by region (number of countries) Index of diversification of TVET programmes No programmes 1 level 2 levels 3 levels Total
Region
Total
Africa
North America
South America
Asia
Europe
Oceania
0 8 14 4 26
2 9 9 5 25
1 6 2 2 11
2 17 16 3 38
1 6 23 8 38
2 0 3 0 5
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
8 46 67 22 143
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Table 3 Typology of TVET provision, by region (number of countries) Typology of countries Region according to TVET Africa North South provision by ISCED America America levels No programmes 0 2 1 ISCED 2 1 0 0 ISCED 3 4 6 6 ISCED 4 3 3 0 ISCED 2 + 3 7 4 1 ISCED 2 + 4 1 3 0 ISCED 3 + 4 6 2 1 ISCED 2 + 3 + 4 4 5 2 Total 26 25 11 Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
Total Asia
Europe
Oceania
2 0 16 1 2 0 14 3 38
1 0 5 1 2 0 21 8 38
2 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 5
8 1 37 8 18 4 45 22 143
of vocational education provision. Table 3 shows the distribution of this typology by region (once again, it only includes the 143 countries with valid information on vocational enrolment for ISCED Levels 2 through 4). The most common pattern of vocational education provision combines the two most-advanced levels: upper secondary (ISCED 3) and post-secondary non-tertiary (ISCED 4). Out of 45 countries, 21 are European, 14 are Asian and 6 are African. The European group includes: all Scandinavian countries but Denmark; four former Soviet republics (Belarus, Estonia, Russian Federation and Ukraine); and five other Eastern countries (Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia); as well as several Central or Western European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Switzerland); plus Mediterranean Greece and Italy. The heterogeneous Asian group includes, among others, four former Soviet republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. The African countries include, among others, partially English-speaking neighbours: Botswana and South Africa. The North American group is entirely English-speaking: Belize, Grenada, and Turks and Caicos Islands. South America and Oceania have each only one country in this group, respectively: Uruguay and New Zealand. The second most recurrent pattern is circumscribed to the most frequent level: upper secondary (ISCED 3). Out of 37 countries, 16 are Asian. Out of five European countries, three are Eastern (Albania, Croatia and Republic of Moldova). The third most common pattern is truly all-encompassing: it involves ISCED Levels 2 to 4. Out of these 22 highly-diversified vocational education systems, eight are European. In this group we can find five Eastern European countries (namely Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Slovakia; and the Baltic republics of Latvia and Lithuania), as well as neighbours and long-time economic partners Belgium and the Netherlands, plus Malta. The fourth most frequent mix combines lower and upper secondary (ISCED 2 and 3) and is present in 18 countries. Even though there is no clear pattern, these include: two neighbouring European countries, Spain and Portugal; former
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Portuguese colonies in Asia (Macao, China) and Africa (Mozambique); and three Spanish-speaking countries in North America (Mexico, Costa Rica and Nicaragua). Also included in this group are former Dutch colonies, Aruba and Suriname. We can also find former French colonies in Africa (Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Mauritania and Tunisia) and Asia (Lebanon). Uganda is the only English-speaking country in this group.
Box 2. Are technical/vocational programmes shorter than general programmes? Technical and vocational programmes are generally perceived as being of a shorter duration than general programmes. The following table shows summary statistics for programme duration in years, by orientation within each relevant ISCED level (2 through 4):
Level
2
Orientation
3
Orientation
4
Orientation
General Vocational General Vocational General Vocational
N
Mode
Median
Mean
Standard deviation
281 122 317 333 122 219
3 3 3 3 2 2
3 3 3 3 2 2
3.25 2.75 2.88 2.69 1.82 2.03
.99 1.04 .94 .97 .69 .86
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
The modes and medians are the same for both orientations within each ISCED level: in lower and upper secondary, the mode and median are three years, regardless of programme orientation. At the post-secondary non-tertiary level, the mode and median are two years for both orientations. As for the means, the differences between general and vocational are far from impressive. Furthermore, in the particular case of post-secondary nontertiary education (ISCED 4), vocational programmes are actually longer, on average, than general programmes. In summary, contrary to a widespread notion, vocational programmes are not necessarily shorter than general programmes, and at some ISCED levels, they tend to be slightly longer on average.
Conversely, all four countries that report vocational education at the lower secondary (ISCED 2) and post-secondary non-tertiary (ISCED 4) levels are Englishspeaking: Swaziland, Dominica, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (the last three are from the Caribbean). It is also possible to define sub-regional or cross-regional clusters of countries by taking historic and cultural factors into account in order to reveal additional patterns. The Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries of Europe and the
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Americas, which often identify themselves as ‘Iberoamerica’, would be an example of a cross-regional cluster (a group of countries from different regions that nonetheless share some relevant traits). They seem generally disinclined to provide TVET programmes at the post-secondary non-tertiary level (ISCED 4). Only four countries (Cuba, Panama, Paraguay and Uruguay) report such enrolment, while fourteen others (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Portugal, Spain and Venezuela) do not. However, twenty-one nations in Latin America and the Caribbean have non-formal TVET systems that are at least as viable as the formal systems in these nations. In fact, in Brazil the government contracts SENAI to run its TVET schools. Aside from the fact that combinations of programmes at different ISCED levels are more frequent in some regions than others, it is also worth noting that these combinations themselves do not just occur at random: the presence of TVET enrolments at one given level seems to be associated with their presence at other levels. In particular, having TVET enrolments at the upper secondary (ISCED 3) level would decrease the likelihood of having them also at the post-secondary nontertiary (ISCED 4) level, as Table 4 shows (presenting 116 countries with data on 5B enrolment and thorough information on TVET enrolment at Levels 2 to 4). ISCED 5B programmes are also associated with TVET programmes, even though they are not necessarily vocational. They are more likely in countries with upper secondary TVET and less likely in countries with post-secondary non-tertiary TVET. As we see in Table 5, only 13 countries have no TVET enrolment at the upper secondary (ISCED 3) level. Of those, more than one-half do not have enrolment at ISCED 5B either. However, 84 out of 103 countries with TVET enrolment at the upper secondary level also have ISCED 5B enrolment. Therefore, having TVET enrolment at the upper secondary level increases the likelihood of having also ISCED 5B enrolment. On the other hand, the vast majority of countries without TVET enrolment at the post-secondary non-tertiary level (38 out of 46, or 82.6%) nevertheless have ISCED 5B enrolment. Out of 70 countries with TVET enrolment at the post-secondary nontertiary level, only 52 (or 74.3%) have enrolment at ISCED 5B. Thus, having TVET
Table 4 Vocational enrolment at ISCED 4 by vocational enrolment at ISCED 3 Vocational enrolment at ISCED 4 No Vocational enrolment at ISCED 3
No
N 2 % 15.4% Yes N 44 % 42.7% Total N 46 % 39.7% Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
Yes
Total
11 84.6% 59 57.3% 70 60.3%
13 100.0% 103 100.0% 116 100.0%
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Table 5 Vocational enrolment at ISCED 5 following vocational enrolment at ISCED 3 and 4 Enrolment at ISCED 5B No Vocational enrolment at ISCED 3
No
N 7 % 53.8% Yes N 19 % 18.4% Vocational enrolment at No N 8 ISCED 4 % 17.4% Yes N 18 % 25.7% Total N 26 % 22.4% Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
Yes
Total
6 46.2% 84 81.6% 38 82.6% 52 74.3% 90 77.6%
13 100.0% 103 100.0% 46 100.0% 70 100.0% 116 100.0%
enrolment at the post-secondary non-tertiary level actually reduces the likelihood of also having ISCED 5B enrolment. Therefore, ISCED 5B programmes and TVET programmes at ISCED 3 and 4 seem to follow a peculiar pattern: ISCED 3 vocational programmes and ISCED 5B programmes are very likely to appear in tandem. One reason for this is that some ISCED 3 TVET programmes are specifically designed to lead to ISCED 5B programmes. Meanwhile, ISCED 4 is less likely to be present if either ISCED 3 vocational or 5B are, and it is even less likely if both are present. One possible reason for this is that some countries may opt for introducing ISCED 4 programmes that (even though they evidently require upper secondary completion) fill to some extent the void that in other countries is occupied by a combination of ISCED 3 vocational and 5B programmes. (Another possibility is that non-formal TVET programmes exist in many of these nations.) In summary, TVET provision is more frequent at the upper secondary (ISCED 3) level and less so at the post-secondary non-tertiary (ISCED 4) and lower secondary (ISCED 2) levels. The degree of TVET diversification varies substantially across regions, with the highest levels in Europe. Out of the many theoretically-possible combinations of programmes by ISCED levels, some are much more frequent than others; these also vary systematically across regions. Finally, TVET provision in upper secondary education is positively associated with ISCED 5B presence, while they are both negatively associated with TVET provision at the post-secondary nontertiary level.
3 Formal TVET Enrolment across ISCED Levels In the following sections, we will take a more in-depth look at enrolment in vocational programmes at each ISCED level by region.
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For this purpose, we will use an indicator specifically designed to measure participation in vocational education: the vocational gross enrolment ratio (VGER), which is a fundamental indicator for formal education. This indicator is analogous to the already standard total gross enrolment ratio. The vocational gross enrolment ratio is the number of pupils enrolled in vocational or technical programmes in a given level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the population in the theoretical age group for the most important TVET programme at that same level of education. For the post-secondary non-tertiary level, the population used is the age group that comprises the two years following on from the secondary school-leaving age, since that is the typical duration for these programmes. Further analyses will then be conducted specifically for the secondary level: these will include a second participation indicator (percentages of technical/vocational enrolment or PTVE) and involve country-level contextual variables, namely gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and total gross enrolment ratio. Finally, the relationship between TVET and gender will be explored in some depth for the upper secondary level.
4 TVET at the Secondary Level (ISCED 2 and 3) As shown in the previous section, secondary education includes both the least- and the most-widespread types of vocational programmes at its lower and upper levels, respectively. For this reason, this section presents information on enrolment separately, rather than jointly, for these two levels. There are fewer countries with enrolment at the lower than at the upper level and the average level of enrolment tends also to be higher in the latter, even if we focus solely on the countries that do have programmes at each level. However, there are some exceptions where countries concentrate their secondary TVET enrolment at the lower rather than at the upper level. For both levels, there are important variations in enrolment across regions and countries within each region. As for the regional differences, Oceania has fairly high mean VGERs at both lower and upper secondary education, while Europe has the highest at the upper level but has relatively little vocational enrolment at the lower level. North America is the one region with a higher mean VGER at the lower level. Some differences among regions can be explained by the asymmetries within each region, because some countries may stand out due to their larger size or a markedly different distribution of TVET enrolment by level, or a combination of both (e.g. Australia in Oceania; Mexico or the United States in North America). In other cases, a regional average truly reflects a relatively homogeneous pattern in that area of the world (e.g. Europe). Figure 1 presents regional averages for VGER at the lower secondary level (calculated by weighting each country’s VGER by its school-age population size; thus, countries with bigger school-age populations have stronger impact on regional means). It shows that Oceania has the highest mean, followed by North America.
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Mean vocational gross enrolment ratio at lower secondary
30.00 27
25.00
20.00
15.00
10.00
5
5.00 1
0
0
0.00 Africa
North America
South America
Asia
1
Europe
Oceania
Region Cases weighted by school-age population
Fig. 1 Regional averages for vocational gross enrolment ratios at ISCED 2, 2002 Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
Asia and South America have the lowest average VGER at this level, which is remarkable in the case of the latter because this region has the highest average total gross enrolment ratio,1 even higher than that of Europe. The average for Africa, however, is a UIS estimate and should be interpreted with caution.2 While most countries do not have technical/vocational programmes at this level, Table 6 shows that a few countries report high participation levels. Table 6 Highest vocational gross enrolment ratios at ISCED 2, 2002 Region
Country
Europe Belgium Oceania Australia North America Netherlands Antilles South America Suriname North America Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Europe Netherlands North America Panama North America Mexico North America Costa Rica Africa Mauritius Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
VGER at lower secondary 64.54 60.58 45.51 33.14 30.75 30.40 27.70 14.17 12.40 10.13
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Australia’s exceptionally high VGER explains in part the high regional average of Oceania. However, the country with the highest VGER at this level is located in Europe: Belgium shows consistently high participation in vocational education at all levels. Its neighbour and main long-time economic partner, the Netherlands, has the second-highest European VGER at this level; while two former Dutch colonies, Suriname and Netherlands Antilles, also show very high VGERs at the lower secondary level. At the regional level, North America stands out with five out of the ten countries with the highest VGERs. Figure 2 shows that Europe has the highest average VGER at the ISCED 3 level, closely followed by Oceania. The most outstanding feature of Figure 3 is North America’s low average participation in vocational education at ISCED 3, which is even lower than at ISCED 2. This is partly due to Mexico’s VGER in lower secondary (14.2%) being more than three times as high as in upper secondary (4.3%). The African average is a UIS estimate and should be interpreted with caution.3 Figure 3 is a box plot that shows the distribution of VGERs for each region and displays the extreme cases and outliers—the countries with exceptionally high
Mean vocational gross enrolment ratio at upper secondary
100.00
80.00 69 62
60.00
40.00
20.00 14 11 8 4
0.00
Africa
North America
South America
Asia
Europe
Region Cases weighted by school-age population
Fig. 2 Regional averages for VGERs at ISCED 3, 2002 Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
Oceania
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Vocational gross enrolment ratio at upper secondary
United Kingdom
300.00
200.00
100.00
New Zealand Argentina Egypt Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Bahrain
0.00
Africa
NAmerica
SAmerica
Asia
Europe
Oceania
Region
North Africa Valid 34 Total 53
South America 26 31
America Asia Europe Oceania 12 12
45 50
41 44
9 17
Fig. 3 Distributions of vocational gross enrolment ratios at ISCED 3, 2002 Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
VGER as compared to other countries in their region. The distributions of VGER show important variations among regions at the upper secondary level. Europe’s median is close to 50%; while Oceania’s is exactly 0% (meaning one-half or more of countries have no vocational enrolment at his level). Africa’s median is close to 0% and, with two exceptions, all countries have relatively low VGERs at this level. The United Kingdom has the highest VGER overall, which can be partially explained by the fact that 68% of all secondary TVET students are over 24 years old. In both Africa and Asia, the highest VGERs at this level are found in the Arab States, namely Egypt, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and Bahrain. The following sections provide analogous information for the subsequent ISCED levels (4 and 5), while a more in-depth analysis of the association between secondary TVET enrolment and other variables will be presented later.
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5 TVET at the Post-Secondary Non-Tertiary Level (ISCED 4)
Mean vocational gross enrolment ratio at postsecondary non-tertiary
TVET at Level 4 shows notable variations from one region to the next. Some countries embrace it as their main form of TVET provision, while others seem to ignore it altogether. This section presents a proxy of VGER at this level, calculated by dividing the number of students in TVET programmes at ISCED 4 level by the ‘postsecondary school-age population’—since most countries failed to provide data for entrance ages and duration of post-secondary non-tertiary vocational programmes, the population used is the two-year age group4 following on from the secondary school leaving age. Figure 4 shows that Oceania has the highest regional average (please note that this is a UIS estimate and should be interpreted with caution).5 South America on the other hand, stands out for having by far the lowest regional average (only three countries report vocational enrolment at this level). The African average is also a UIS estimate. Figure 5 shows very important regional variations in VGER distributions at this level. Europe has the highest median, followed by North America. The other four regions have medians of 0%, which means that one-half or more of the countries in each of them have no enrolment in vocational programmes at Level 4.
10.00
10
8
8.00
6.00
4
4.00 3 2
2.00
0
0.00 Africa
North America
South America
Asia
Europe
Region Cases weighted by school-age population
Fig. 4 Regional averages for VGERs at ISCED 4, 2002 Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
Oceania
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Vocational GER in post-secondary non-tertiary
50.00
NAmerica
SAmerica
Asia
Europe
Oceania
Seychelles Turks and Caicos Islands
40.00
Barbados
Ireland Belarus Kazakhstan
30.00 Islamic Republic of Iran Armenia 20.00
Montserrat Bahrain Azerbaijan Kuwait
Botswana 10.00
Mauritius South Africa Egypt Morocco Cape Verde
Tajikistan Lao PDR
Guyana
New Zealand
Uruguay
0.00
Africa
NAmerica
SAmerica
Asia
Europe
Oceania
Region
Africa North America
South America
Asia Europe Oceania
Valid 40
26
11
39
39
8
Total 53
31
12
50
44
17
Fig. 5 Distributions of vocational gross enrolment ratios at ISCED 4, 2002 Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
Of note are the following cases: the five overall highest VGERs are found in English-speaking island States with virtually no tertiary level education in their own territories,6 and in three cases, no upper secondary vocational education.7 Four of these are Caribbean countries or territories (British Virgin Islands, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Turks and Caicos Islands and Barbados). In Africa, the four most outstanding VGERs are found in countries that are at least partially English-speaking: island states, Mauritius and Seychelles, and southern tip neighbours, Botswana and South Africa. One European and three Asian outstanding VGERs are found in former
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Soviet republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Kazakhstan. New Zealand has the highest VGER in Oceania at ISCED 4.8
6 Enrolment in ISCED 5B Programmes
Mean gross enrolment ratio at ISCED 5B
Although as mentioned before, ISCED does not apply the programme orientation criterion at the tertiary level, the UOE data collection manual uses the terms ‘technical’ or ‘vocational’ to describe most of the ISCED 5B programmes it presents as examples. Even though ISCED 5B is not strictly part of TVET, this report would not be complete without it. This section presents a proxy of GER in ISCED 5B programmes, calculated by dividing the number of enrolees by the two-year age group9 following on from the secondary school-leaving age. ISCED 5B programmes also show important variations across regions, as shown in Figure 6: Oceania has the highest regional average GER in these programmes, followed by Europe and North America; while Africa has the lowest average (please note that this figure is a UIS estimate and should be interpreted with caution). South America’s average GER for Level 5B is also a UIS estimate.10 As Figure 7 shows, South America has the highest median, the most symmetric distribution, is relatively homogeneous and does not have extreme cases. Meanwhile, Europe has the second-highest median but a different, more skewed distribution, with Slovenia as the only extreme case. Asia has the third-highest median and an even more heterogeneous distribution, with the Republic of Korea and Cyprus as extreme cases. Oceania has a median GER of 0, which means that at least one-half of the region’s countries have no enrolment in these programmes; on the other hand, Australia and
Fig. 6 Regional averages for gross enrolment ratios at ISCED 5B programmes, 2002 Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
40.00 35
30.00
28
27
19
20.00
10
10.00
4
0.00 Africa
North South America America
Asia
Europe Oceania
Region
Cases weighted by school-age population
2110
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100
Gross Enrolment Ratio at ISCED 5B
Republic of Korea
Slovenia
80
Cyprus
60 Aruba United States New Zealand
40 Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Mauritius
Australia
Jamaica
20 Tunisia
0 Africa
NAmerica SAmerica
Asia
Europe
Oceania
Region
Africa
North America
South America
Asia
Europe
Oceania
Valid
28
23
8
44
43
17
Total
53
31
12
50
44
17
Fig. 7 Distributions of gross enrolment ratios at ISCED 5B programmes, 2002 Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
New Zealand have relatively high GERs. North America also has a low regional average, but Aruba, the United States and—to a lesser extent—Jamaica show high GERs. Meanwhile, Africa also has a low mean and two out of its three highest GERs are found in Arab States (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and Tunisia).
7 The Limitations of VGER and the Need for an Additional Indicator In the previous sections we have used VGER at the lower and upper secondary levels as measures of participation in these educational streams. They provide valuable information that allows for the comparison of regions and countries. However,
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secondary VGERs could be regarded as an ambiguous indicator because they depend on two different factors:
r r
What proportion of the population attends secondary school? What proportion of those who attend secondary school do so in vocational rather than general programmes?
Therefore, the differences across regional averages might be due to: (a) total participation in schooling; (b) relative weights of general and vocational programmes; or (c) a combination of both of the above. For instance, as seen in Table 7, Guatemala and Ukraine have similar VGERs at the upper secondary (ISCED 3) level: 21.4% and 21.5%, respectively. However, these figures mask two very different situations: Guatemala has a total gross enrolment ratio of 35.3%, while Ukraine has a gross enrolment ratio of 103.6%. But in Guatemala, roughly nine out of ten (89%) students who attend upper secondary school do so in vocational programmes, while in Ukraine only one out of five students at this level do so. Therefore, VGERs give only a partial view of the state of TVET in a given country and should be complemented by another measure that accounts for the proportion of students that, at a given level, attend vocational rather than general programmes. This measure is called here ‘percentage of technical/vocational enrolment’ (PTVE): technical/vocational enrolment as a percentage of total enrolment at that level. It is defined as the ‘number of students enrolled in technical/vocational programmes at a given level of education as a percentage of the total number of students enrolled in all programmes (technical/vocational and general) at that level’ (UIS, 2006, p. 184). Regional averages for percentages of technical/vocational enrolment tend to vary along the same lines as regional averages for VGERs at this level. We will see, however, that this is not necessarily the case at the national level. Figure 8 shows regional averages for the percentage of technical/vocational enrolment at the lower (ISCED 2) and upper (ISCED 3) secondary levels. At the lower secondary level, Oceania has the highest mean, followed by North America. South America and Asia have the lowest means. At the upper secondary level, Europe has the highest mean, followed by Oceania. The African averages, however, are UIS estimates and should be interpreted with caution.11 Under various names, this measure has been used at least as early as 1983. In a pioneering article, Benavot (1983, p. 71) focuses on this variable and postulates its
Table 7 Comparison of vocational gross enrolment ratios and percentages of technical/vocational enrolment for selected countries, 2002 Country
ISCED 3 vocational GER
ISCED 3 total GER
ISCED 3: percentage of technical/vocational enrolment
Guatemala Ukraine
21.4 21.5
35.3 103.6
89.4 20.8
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
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50.00
48
41
40.00
Percentage of technical / vocational enrolment in lower secondary education Percentage of technical / vocational enrolment in upper secondary education
Mean
30.00
20
20.00
18
17 16
10
10.00 6 4
0
0.00 Africa
0
North South Asia America America Region
1
Europe Oceania
Cases weighted by school-age population
Fig. 8 Regional averages for percentages of technical/vocational enrolment in secondary, 2002 Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
association to economic development and total secondary enrolment. These two hypotheses, slightly modified, will guide our analysis in the remainder of this section. In explaining the rationale for his first hypothesis, Benavot suggests that ‘those economies with a greater proportion of skilled jobs would tend to expand practical vocational programmes tailored to the needs of industry’. Figure 9 shows that the greater a country’s gross domestic product per capita, the greater its secondary percentage of technical/vocational enrolment. For instance, the three countries with the highest PTVEs—Australia, Belgium and the United Kingdom—also have very high GDP per capita; meanwhile, Malawi, Niger and Nigeria have low values for both GDP per capita and PTVEs. Some neighbouring and/or relatively homogeneous countries tend to cluster, e.g. all five Nordic countries have high income levels and PTVE between 20% and 35%; Japan and the Republic of Korea have similarly high income and PTVE around 15%; and Armenia and Azerbaijan have lower income and very low PTVEs.
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Percentage of technical / vocational enrolment in secondary education
60.00
Belgium United Kingdom
50.00 Australia
Suriname Panama
40.00 Finland
Netherlands
Austria
30.00
Sweden
Guatemala
Norway
Denmark
Iceland
20.00 Republic of Korea Japan
10.00
Malawi
0.00
Azerbaijan Armenia
Niger
2.50
United States
Nigeria
3.00
3.50 4.00 GDP per capita (Logarithm)
Ireland
4.50
5.00
Fig. 9 Percentages of technical/vocational enrolment in secondary by GDP per capita (logarithm), 2002 Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
There are exceptions, however. The United States and Ireland12 do not have secondary vocational education despite their high GDP per capita. In contrast, Suriname and Panama are middle-income countries with very high PTVEs. A similar (even though not as strong) association is found when analysis is restricted to upper secondary education only, as shown in Figure 10. The most striking difference between Figures 10 and 11 is the location of Guatemala, which has the highest percentage of technical/vocational enrolment at the upper secondary level despite a relatively low GDP per capita. Conversely, Belgium appears closer to the mainstream in Figure 11, because an important proportion of its secondary TVET enrolment is concentrated at the lower level. Figure 11 shows that the greater a country’s secondary gross enrolment ratio, the greater its percentage of technical/vocational enrolment at the secondary level. Australia, Belgium and the United Kingdom have both the highest secondary total GERs and the highest secondary PTVEs. Eritrea, Gambia and Niger have
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Percentage of technical / vocational enrolment in upper secondary education
100.00 Guatemala Argentina Czech Republic
80.00
Croatia
Slovakia
Egypt
Austria
Netherlands
Belgium
Switzerland Australia
El Salvador
60.00 Ecuador
Poland Suriname
Bulgaria
China Uzbekistan
Israel
Indonesia
Mali Estonia Burundi
Benin
Burkina Faso
Lebanon
Djibouti
Ethiopia
20.00
Guyana Kyrgyzstan
Zambia Mozambique
Costa Rica
Jordan Grenada Kazakhstan
New Zealand Malta Brunei Darussalam
Papua New Guinea Trinidad and Tobago
Lesotho Ghana
0.00
Greece
Spain
Albania
Georgia
Denmark
Sweden Chile Russian Federation
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
40.00
Norway Bahrain
Gambia
Peru
Brazil
United Arab Emirates Qatar
Myanmar
2.50
3.00
Namibia
3.50
Dominica
4.00
Ireland
4.50
5.00
GDP per capita (Logarithm)
Fig. 10 Percentages of technical/vocational enrolment in upper secondary by GDP per capita (logarithm), 2002 Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
very low GERs and percentages of technical/vocational enrolment in secondary education. Figure 12 shows that a similar pattern occurs in upper secondary education. Once again, when we focus on this level, Argentina and Guatemala stand out, while Belgium and the United Kingdom become closer to the mainstream. From a decision-maker’s point of view, this hypothesis is important because both variables (unlike GDP per capita) are part of education policy. Consequently, further consideration should be given to the probable causes behind this relationship. First, alternative explanations should be discarded, or at least the most obvious one: it has been established that PTVEs are positively correlated with both GDP per capita and GERs; at the same time, the greater a country’s GDP per capita, the greater its secondary GER. In other words, total GERs, PTVEs and GDP per capita are all positively correlated. Could the apparent association between GERs and
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Percentage of technical / vocational enrolment in secondary education
60.00
Belgium United Kingdom
50.00 Australia
Suriname Panama
Slovenia
Netherlands Antilles
40.00
Finland
Croatia Argentina
Netherlands Poland
30.00
Guatemala
Chile
Denmark France
Bahrain
Turkey Ecuador Cameroon
20.00
Germany
El Salvador
Iceland Aruba Lebanon
Mali
10.00
Benin Burundi
Mauritius
Spain Mexico
Uzbekistan
Papua New Guinea
Cyprus
Albania Mozambique Eritrea
0.00
0.00
India
Myanmar
Kyrgyzstan
Saint Lucia Georgia
Gambia Niger
Samoa
50.00
Japan
Brazil Peru
Grenada
Ireland Montserrat
100.00
150.00
200.00
Gross enrolment ratio in secondary education
Fig. 11 Percentages of technical/vocational enrolment in secondary, by overall secondary gross enrolment ratio, 2002 Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
PTVEs then be a result of both of them being associated with GDP per capita? Further analyses led us to conclude that the association between them cannot be fully explained by variations in GDP per capita; therefore, GERs and PTVEs are indeed associated, not merely as a result of GDP per capita having an effect on both of them. However, in the case of the present dataset, there may also be a measurement issue: ‘data from WEI countries and those for which statistics are collected via the UOE questionnaires, particularly concerning secondary education, may include programmes for older students’ (UNESCO, 2004, pp. 248–49). The WEI (World Education Indicators) project includes nineteen middle-income countries and the UOE (UNESCO/OECD/Eurostat) questionnaires are mostly administered to OECD and EU countries. As a result, programmes for older students are more likely to appear in countries with above-average income levels and GERs. The inclusion of these programmes leads to an overestimation of both GER and PTVE for a particular
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100.00
Percentage of technical / vocational enrolment in upper secondary education
Guatemala Argentina Czech Republic
80.00
Slovakia Croatia Netherlands Egypt
Suriname
Poland Denmark
Bulgaria
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Ecuador
Australia
Norway Finland
Germany
Cuba
El Salvador
United Kingdom
Slovenia
Romania
60.00
Belgium
Sweden
Chile China
40.00
Turkey
Colombia
Aruba
Andorra
Burkina Faso
Lithuania
Costa Rica
Uganda
Mongolia
New Zealand Grenada
Jordan
Djibouti Albania Venezuela Ghana Gambia
0.00
Spain
Mali Indonesia Benin
20.00
Latvia
Armenia
Macao, China
Nepal
Mozambique
0.00
Kyrgyzstan Georgia
Samoa
Brazil
Seychelles
Peru
50.00
Montserrat
100.00
150.00
200.00
250.00
GER in upper secondary education (ISCED 3)
Fig. 12 Percentages of technical/vocational enrolment in upper secondary, by upper secondary gross enrolment ratio, 2002 Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
set of countries; as a result, the association between the two might be overestimated as well. This is also likely to affect the results of the hypothesis that links GDP per capita and PTVE. It remains unsolved and should lead us to interpret these data with caution. This situation will soon be ameliorated by a recent modification in UOE’s data collection, which has introduced a specific table for programmes targeting adult populations (even though double counting, not just among adults, may still occur due to multiple course enrolment). Benavot (the original proponent of this hypothesis, who worked with an older dataset that was not affected by the above-mentioned problem) claims that ‘countries that have more of their eligible population enrolled in secondary schools are more likely to expand vocational education because of their ability to control and allocate scarce educational resources’ (Benavot, 1983, p. 71). This may be regarded as a supply-side argument that deals mostly with countries’ different ability to pro-
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vide TVET programmes, rather than with the students’ (or their families’) decisionmaking process. Others may argue that the reason for this might be found on the demand side in the profile of TVET students. The stereotype claims that they are from relatively disadvantaged households and have low ability or at least low achievement levels. If these notions were true, it would be reasonable to expect these students to drop out of general school because of a number of factors, mainly the economic pressure to join the labour market at an early age or the frustration caused by low achievement. Under these assumptions, some countries may provide TVET in order to prevent these students from dropping out, i.e. by offering them a curriculum that is both more suitable for early labour market entry and less demanding in the purely academic subjects that these students might find the most challenging. In these circumstances TVET becomes, among other things, a device to keep students in school, which—when successful—results in an increase both in the total gross enrolment ratio and the percentage of vocational/technical enrolment. This is indeed the case in Latin America with SENAI, SENA and INA. Nevertheless, this is a dangerous argument because it cuts both ways: on the one hand, it claims that TVET may provide a way to keep the underprivileged in school, resulting in lower drop-out and maybe even—in the long run—lower unemployment rates and higher social integration. On the other hand, it reinforces the negative stereotypes that afflict TVET and prevents it from achieving the badly needed ‘parity of esteem’. Additionally, this issue is not only politically sensitive but also very difficult to address from an empirical point of view: testing the hypothesis that postulates this effect of TVET on drop-out rates would require long, complex, expensive and ultimately unfeasible studies. In conclusion, this is a relevant but also sensitive issue where several interpretations compete against each other. This brief review of some possible explanations is unlikely to exhaust this controversial topic, which remains open for discussion.
8 TVET and Gender: The Case of Upper Secondary (ISCED 3) TVET enrolment by gender is available separately for ISCED 2 and ISCED 3: at the lower secondary (ISCED 2) level, all 173 countries that provided data on TVET enrolment also provided breakdowns by gender. However, 125 of these countries do not have vocational programmes at this level. At the upper secondary (ISCED 3) level, out of 164 countries that provided the number of TVET enrolment, 162 also provided figures on enrolment by gender. Thus, analyses will be conducted at the upper secondary level. The main hypothesis in this section postulates that the greater a country’s percentage of technical/vocational enrolment, the less inequality in this indicator for males and females. The ‘gender parity index’ (GPI)13 and a lesser-known variation
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called the ‘transformed gender parity index’ (TGPI) will be used as indicators of the gender dimension. The main reason for using TGPI as well is that ‘the GPI, when expressed as the ratio of females to males in enrolment ratios [. . .] can exceed unity when more girls/women are enrolled than boys/men’,14 which also constitutes a form of gender disparity. This is particularly important in the case of vocational education—for a number of reasons. In many countries, vocational education still struggles to achieve parity of esteem in relation to general education; in some of those countries, females may be led to the former while males occupy a wider share of the more prestigious streams. As a result, vocational education indicators appear misleadingly advantageous for females. On the other hand, gender issues not only affect females: as is well known, in some countries education systems tend to exclude boys rather than girls; vocational education may or may not be the exception. The first version of our hypothesis postulates that ‘the greater a country’s percentage of technical/vocational enrolment at the upper secondary level, the greater its own gender parity index’. As seen in Figure 13, the percentages of technical/vocational enrolment tend to increase as the gender parity index approaches a value of 1, as shown by the cases of Argentina and Guatemala. However, they go down again when GPIs reach even higher values, as shown by the cases of Burkina Faso and Mali. This is reasonable, since a GPI above 1.3 is usually regarded as an indication of gender disparity. This difficulty can be overcome by using a more suitable indicator: ‘the “transformed GPI” has been created in order to highlight gender disparities neutrally—whether to the disadvantage of females or males’ (UNESCO, 2003, p. 285). Therefore, the second version of our hypothesis postulates that: ‘The greater a country’s percentage of technical/vocational enrolment at the upper secondary level, the greater its own transformed gender parity index’. As shown in Figure 14, Guatemala and Argentina, the two countries with the highest percentages of vocational/technical enrolment, are among the closest to perfect gender parity. In the lower left corner, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are among the countries with no females enrolled and a low percentage of technical/vocational enrolment. Those countries with GPIs above 1 now appear among the countries with moderate gender disparity—even though in these cases the females outnumber the males. Burkina Faso and Mali are two examples of such countries, and they now appear closer to Burundi, where the situation is almost exactly the opposite in terms of gender but very similar in terms of percentage of enrolment. This shows that disparity hinders TVET expansion, regardless of which gender is less emphatically targeted or less successfully attracted than the other. Though Kenya, for example, has relatively high gender parity and low percentage of technical/vocational enrolment, no country has low gender parity and a high percentage of technical/vocational enrolment. Therefore, gender parity seems to be a necessary but not sufficient condition for TVET expansion.
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Percentage of technical / vocational enrolment in upper secondary education
100.00 Guatemala
Argentina
80.00
60.00
Suriname
40.00 Mali Burkina Faso
Burundi Ethiopia
20.00
Ghana
Brazil
United Arab Emirates
0.00
Qatar
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
Gender parity index for the percentage of technical / vocational enrolment in upper secondary education
Fig. 13 Percentage of technical/vocational enrolment in upper secondary, by its gender parity index, 2002 Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
Finally, how do gender gaps in upper secondary education as a whole correlate to gender disparity in TVET at this level? In the countries that enrol fewer females than males in upper secondary education, are enrolled females more or less likely than enrolled males to attend vocational streams? It seems that there is no such relationship. Figure 15 plots GPIs for overall upper secondary gross enrolment ratios and percentages of technical/vocational enrolment. Even though there is no trend in the data (or perhaps because of that) the figure works as a visual typology of the relationships between gender and TVET enrolment in different countries. In Brazil (upper-right quadrant) females are slightly more likely than males to be enrolled in upper secondary education, and enrolled females are twice as likely as enrolled males to attend vocational streams. As a result, there are about five females for every two males enrolled in TVET.
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Percentage of technical / vocational enrolment in upper secondary education
Guatemala
80.00
Argentina
60.00
40.00 Mali Burkina Faso Lithuania Burundi
20.00
Ethiopia
Ghana United Arab Emirates
0.00
Kenya
Qatar
0.00
0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 Transformed gender parity index for the percentage of technical / vocational enrolment in upper secondary education
1.00
Fig. 14 Percentage of technical/vocational enrolment in upper secondary education, by its transformed gender parity index, 2002 Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
Burkina Faso’s case (upper-left quadrant) is different: enrolled females are twice as likely as enrolled males to attend TVET (as in the case of Brazil), but females are one-half as likely as males to be enrolled in upper secondary education at all. Therefore, VGERs are similar for both genders, but within general education the ratio for males is much higher than that for females. Qatar and United Arab Emirates (lower-right quadrant) have more female than male enrolment in upper secondary education, but no female enrolment at all in TVET. This means that females are even more over-represented within general education. Females in Yemen (lower-left quadrant) are considerably under-represented in upper secondary, and even more so in its TVET stream. As shown, countries present very different pictures of the relationship between gender disparities in participation in overall education and in TVET.
XII.6 Statistical Overview of TVET across Educational Levels Burkina Faso
Brazil
2.00
Gender parity index for the percentage of technical / vocational enrolment in upper secondary education
2121
1.80 Mali
1.60
Ethiopia Suriname
1.40 Senegal
Belize
1.20
Nicaragua Benin
1.00 0.80 0.60 0.40 Ghana
0.20
Yemen Zambia United Arab Emirates
0.00
Qatar
0.40
0.60 0.80 1.00 1.20 1.40 1.60 Gender parity index for GER in upper secondary education
1.80
Fig. 15 Gender parity index for the percentage of technical/vocational, by the gender parity index for the total gross enrolment ratio, upper secondary education, 2002 Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
In short, the relationships between gender and TVET are complex and likely to vary greatly across regions and countries. Among the countries where females are considerably under-represented in general education, there are some where females are even more so in vocational education, and others where females are actually over-represented in the vocational streams as compared to the whole of the schooled population. Within the group of countries where females are over-represented in general education, there are countries where female over-representation is even higher in vocational streams while others exclude females completely from TVET. This question should be considered in the context of the issue of parity of esteem for TVET and female participation in overall education—as well as in the labour market.
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Box 3. TVET growth and female participation in Bahrain Technical/vocational education in Bahrain has shown steady growth over recent years. At the upper secondary level, this country now has Asia’s highest vocational gross enrolment ratio. New programmes have appeared at this level: in 1999, new vocational 3C programmes were created; in 2000, all three existing 3A vocational programmes were reclassified as 3B; the latter can now lead to several ISCED 5B programmes that were initiated two years later. Enrolments in vocational programmes at the upper secondary level have risen gradually from 1998 to 2002, driving the total gross enrolment ratio up (even though general enrolment has tended to decrease).
Gross enrolment ratio in upper secondary education
100 91 87
86
Total Vocational General
87
83
80
60 54
54 50
47
45
40
40
36 33 29
20
0 1998
1999
2000 Year
2001
2002
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005.
As shown in the above figure, the total GER increases as the diminishing general GER and the growing vocational GER converge around 45%. Just as technical/vocational enrolment has been pushing total enrolment up; TVET growth has been fuelled in part by an increased participation of females: their vocational GER nearly doubled in five years, rising from 21% in 1998 to 37% in 2002 (below).
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Males Females
Vocational gross enrolment ratio in upper secondary education
100
80
60 52 47
40
40
42 37
37 33 29 25
20
21
0 1998
1999
2000 Year
2001
2002
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2005
It should be noticed that Bahrain offers several advantages for planned educational change: the smallest and most densely populated of the Arab States, it is also rich and highly urbanized. Still, this growth may be mostly a result of the new programmes’ initial impetus. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether Bahrain’s change is sustainable and whether other countries with low TVET development and low female participation see in this an opportunity for change.
9 Conclusions The degree of heterogeneity in TVET provision around the world is substantial. The combinations of programmes offered at different ISCED levels, as well as the levels of enrolment in them, vary considerably across regions, as well as across countries within regions.
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Industrialized countries offer combinations of programmes that tend to be more diversified by ISCED level and have higher levels of TVET participation at the upper secondary level (ISCED 3)—where they also tend to have higher values both in vocational gross enrolment ratios and in percentages of technical/vocational enrolment. The dominant pattern of formal TVET provision combines ISCED 3 and ISCED 4 programmes. The second-most frequent pattern concentrates TVET provision solely at ISCED 3. Patterns of provision are strongly related to cultural institutions, colonial history and geographic proximity, i.e. English-speaking countries tend to have high levels of TVET provision at ISCED 4 level, which is rather infrequent in Latin America; while there are high levels in ISCED 2 in Belgium, the Netherlands and the former Dutch colonies. The data reported sustain the hypothesis that the higher the GDP per capita, the higher the percentages of technical/vocational enrolment. The data also support the hypothesis which claims that the higher the total GER, the higher the percentages of technical/vocational enrolment. These hold for both overall (or general?) and upper secondary education; the latter is true even after controlling for GDP per capita. This may suggest that promoting TVET at the upper secondary level might be a way of expanding total coverage of upper secondary, but this idea should be handled with caution and alternative explanations should be considered—especially given that data collection procedures in this area hinder global comparability. The present data also support the hypothesis that TVET participation, as measured by the percentage of technical/vocational enrolment, is associated with its own gender parity: the more equitable in terms of gender, the higher the percentage of TVET participation. What steps should be taken next? When it comes to data collection, some changes should be introduced in order to enhance comparability between developed and developing countries. In fact, some of these modifications, such as those pertaining to pre-vocational and adult education programmes, are already underway. In terms of strategies for data analysis, we would probably gain a deeper understanding of these relationships if we looked at the evolution over time of these variables and searched for patterns of growth. Currently, data have been collected using the same methodology for five years, which is a wide enough time span to show some change in education systems.
Notes 1. According to UNESCO Institute for Statistics database (2005), South America’s average total GER is 110 (p. 78) while Europe’s is 100 (p. 80). However, total gross enrolment ratios are sensitive to repetition rates, and these tend to be higher in South America than in Europe. 2. It includes non-publishable estimates for a set of countries that represent more than 25% of the region’s school-age population. These estimates usually fill the gaps generated by countries failing to submit reliable data in a timely manner. In some cases, data are not submitted due to extreme conditions in those countries, such as political upheaval or natural disasters.
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3. It includes non-publishable estimates for a set of countries that represent more than 25% of the region’s school-age population. 4. Two years is a typical value (both the mode and the median) for the duration of vocational programmes at the post-secondary non-tertiary level. 5. It includes non-publishable estimates for a set of countries that represent more than 25% of the region’s school age population. 6. Commonwealth Caribbean States organize tertiary education regionally through the University of the West Indies, which has campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. Turks and Caicos Islands, however, has a VGER of 0.7% at ISCED 5B. 7. British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands do have upper secondary vocational programmes. 8. Australia’s vocational enrolment at this level is confounded with general enrolment. This situation makes it impossible to calculate VGERs. 9. Two years is the mode for duration of ISCED 5B programmes. 10. These include non-publishable estimates for a set of countries that represent more than 25% of each region’s school-age population. 11. They include non-publishable estimates for a set of countries that represent more than 25% of the region’s school-age population. 12. In the United States, a high proportion of the population completes secondary and continues to tertiary education—more students enrol in ISCED 5B programmes here than in any other country. At the same time, the United States has no vocational education at the secondary (either lower or upper) level. It is possible that, in this case, the separation between vocational and general education occurs after secondary school rather than during it. This has been called the upward differentiation of TVET in North America to community and technical colleges. 13. ‘Gender Parity Index (GPI). Ratio of the female-to-male values of a given indicator. A GPI of 1 indicates parity between sexes’ (UIS, 2006, p. 183) 14. For the transformed gender parity index (TGPI), where the gender parity index is higher than 1, the usual female-to-male formula is inverted to male-to-female (UNESCO, 2004, p. 241). As a result, the upper boundary for TGPI becomes 1, which represents perfect parity. A TGPI below 0.97 indicates disparity either in favour of males or females.
References Benavot, A. 1983. The rise and decline of vocational education. Sociology of education, vol. 56, no. 2, pp. 63–76. UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 2005. Global education digest, 2005. Montreal, Canada: UNESCO Institute for Statistics. UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 2006. Global education digest, 2006. Montreal, Canada: UNESCO Institute for Statistics. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 1997. International Standard Classification of Education, 1997. Paris: UNESCO. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2003. Education for All: Global Monitoring Report 2003/4. Gender and education for all: the leap to equality. Paris: UNESCO. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2004. Education for All: Global Monitoring Report 2005. The quality imperative. Paris: UNESCO.
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Annex 1: Statistical Tables Table 8 Presence of vocation and 5B enrolments
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XII.6 Statistical Overview of TVET across Educational Levels Table 9 Secondary education, ISCED 2 and 3: vocational enrolments
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Table 10 Post-secondary education: non-tertiary vocational enrolments: tertiary 5B enrolments
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Annex 2: Glossary Compulsory education
Number of years or the age-span during which children and young people are legally obliged to attend school.
Duration
Number of grades (years) in a given level of education.
Enrolment
Number of pupils or students officially enrolled in a given grade or level of education, regardless of age. Typically, these data are collected at the beginning of the school-year.
Entrance age (theoretical)
The age at which pupils or students would enter a given programme or level of education assuming they had started at the official entrance age for the lowest level of education, had studied full-time throughout and had progressed through the system without repeating or skipping a grade. Note that the theoretical entrance age to a given programme or level is often—but not always—the typical or most common entrance age.
Full-time students
Students engaged in an educational programme for a number of hours of study statutorily regarded as full-time at the particular level of education in the given country.
Full-time equivalent number of students
These are generally calculated in person-years. The unit for the measurement of full-time equivalence is a full-time student. Thus, a full-time student equals one full-time equivalent. The full-time equivalence of parttime students is determined by calculating the ratio of their hours studied to the statutory hours studied by a full-time student during the school year. For example, a student who studied one-third of the statutory hours of a full-time student equals one-third of a full-time equivalent student.
Gross domestic product (GDP)
The sum of gross value added by all resident producers in the economy, including distributive trades and transport, plus any product taxes and minus any subsidies not included in the value of the products.
International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED)
A classification system that provides a framework for the comprehensive statistical description of national education systems and a methodology that translates national educational programmes into internationally comparable levels of education. The basic unit of classification in ISCED is the educational programme. ISCED also classifies programmes by field of study, programme orientation and destination.
General education
This type of programme is designed mainly to lead pupils to a deeper understanding of a subject or group of subjects, especially, but not necessarily, with a view to preparing pupils for further education at the same or a higher level. These programmes are typically school-based and may or may not contain vocational elements. Successful completion of these programmes may or may not lead to an academic qualification. However, they do not typically allow successful completers to enter a particular occupation or trade or class of occupations or trades without further training. General education has a technical or vocational content of less than 25%, but pre-technical/pre-vocational programmes (i.e. programmes with a technical/vocational content of more than 25% that do not lead to a labour-market relevant vocational or technical qualification) are typically reported within general programmes.
Pre-vocational or pre-technical education
Education which is mainly designed to introduce participants to the world of work and to prepare them for entry into vocational or technical education programmes. Successful completion of such programmes does not yet
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Technical and vocational education
This type of programme is designed mainly to lead pupils to acquire the practical skills, know-how and understanding necessary for employment in a particular occupation or trade (or class of occupations or trades). Successful completion of such programmes normally leads to a labourmarket relevant vocational qualification recognized by the competent authorities (e.g. Ministry of Education, employers’ associations, etc.) in the country in which it is obtained.
School-age population
Population of the age-group which corresponds to the relevant level of education as indicated by theoretical entrance age and duration.
Student/pupil
A person enrolled in an educational programme.
Part-time students
Students whose statutory study hours are less than those required of fulltime students in the given level and country.
Annex 3: Definitions of Indicators Gender parity index (GPI) Gross enrolment ratio (GER)
Ratio of the female-to-male values of a given indicator. A GPI of 1 indicates parity between the sexes. Number of students enrolled in a given level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the population in the theoretical age group for the same level of education. For the tertiary level, the population used is the five-year age group following on from the secondary school-leaving age. Gross enrolment Number of students enrolled in 5B programmes, regardless of age, exratio at ISCED 5B pressed as a percentage of the population in the theoretical age group for that level of education. For the tertiary level, the population used is the five-year age group following on from the secondary school-leaving age. Percentage of techNumber of students enrolled in technical/vocational programmes at a given nical/vocational level of education as a percentage of the total number of students enrolled enrolment (PTVE) in all programmes (technical/vocational and general) at that level. Transformed gender Ratio of the female-to-male values of a given indicator for those cases where parity index the value for females is lower than for males; or the ratio of the male(TGPI) to-female values of a given indicator for those cases where the value for males is lower than that for females. A TGPI of 1 indicates parity between sexes. Vocational gross Number of students enrolled in technical/vocational programmes at a given enrolment ratio level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the (VGER) population in the theoretical age group for the same level of education. For the post-secondary non-tertiary level, the population used is the twoyear age group following on from the secondary school-leaving age. For the tertiary level, the population used is the five-year age group following on from the secondary school-leaving age.
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Annex 5: Regions Africa (53 countries or territories) Algeria; Angola; Benin; Botswana; Burkina Faso; Burundi; Cameroon; Cape Verde; Central African Republic; Chad; Comoros; Congo; Cˆote d’Ivoire; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Djibouti; Egypt; Equatorial Guinea; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Gabon; Gambia; Ghana; Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Kenya; Lesotho; Liberia; Libyan Arab Jamahiriya; Madagascar; Malawi; Mali; Mauritania; Mauritius; Morocco; Mozambique; Namibia; Niger; Nigeria; Rwanda; Sao Tome and Principe; Senegal; Seychelles; Sierra Leone; Somalia; South Africa; Sudan; Swaziland; Togo; Tunisia; Uganda; United Republic of Tanzania; Zambia; Zimbabwe.
America, North (31 countries or territories) Anguilla; Antigua and Barbuda; Aruba; Bahamas; Barbados; Belize; Bermuda; British Virgin Islands; Canada; Cayman Islands; Costa Rica; Cuba; Dominica; Dominican Republic; El Salvador; Grenada; Guatemala; Haiti; Honduras; Jamaica; Mexico; Montserrat; Netherlands Antilles; Nicaragua; Panama; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Trinidad and Tobago; Turks and Caicos Islands; United States.
America, South (12 countries or territories) Argentina; Bolivia; Brazil; Chile; Colombia; Ecuador; Guyana; Paraguay; Peru; Suriname; Uruguay; Venezuela.
Asia (50 countries or territories) Afghanistan; Armenia; Azerbaijan; Bahrain; Bangladesh; Bhutan; Brunei Darussalam; Cambodia; China; Cyprus; Democratic People’s Republic of Korea; Georgia; Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region of China); India; Indonesia; Iran, Islamic Republic of; Iraq; Israel; Japan; Jordan; Kazakhstan; Kuwait; Kyrgyzstan; Lao People’s Democratic Republic; Lebanon; Macao (China); Malaysia; Maldives; Mongolia; Myanmar; Nepal; Oman; Pakistan; Palestinian Autonomous Territories; Philippines; Qatar; Republic of Korea; Saudi Arabia; Singapore; Sri Lanka; Syrian Arab Republic; Tajikistan; Thailand; Timor-Leste; Turkey; Turkmenistan; United Arab Emirates; Uzbekistan; Viet Nam; Yemen.
Europe (44 countries or territories) Albania; Andorra; Austria; Belarus; Belgium; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bulgaria; Croatia; Czech Republic; Denmark; Estonia; Finland; France; Germany;
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Gibraltar; Greece; Holy See; Hungary; Iceland; Ireland; Italy; Latvia; Liechtenstein; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Malta; Monaco; Netherlands; Norway; Poland; Portugal; Republic of Moldova; Romania; Russian Federation; San Marino; Serbia and Montenegro; Slovakia; Slovenia; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia; Ukraine; United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Oceania (17 countries or territories) Australia; Cook Islands; Fiji; Kiribati; Marshall Islands; Micronesia (Federated States of); Nauru; New Zealand; Niue; Palau; Papua New Guinea; Samoa; Solomon Islands; Tokelau; Tonga; Tuvalu; Vanuatu.
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Chapter XII.7
The Ethics of TVET Policy and Practice: Issues of Access and Quality Richard G. Bagnall
1 Introduction Much research, deliberation, policy and programming in TVET is concerned with issues of an ethical nature. We ask, for example, whether the access that women and girls have to TVET opportunities is equal to that of men and boys. We ask whether the quality of the TVET experience of students in rural and remote areas is equivalent to that of students in the towns and cities. We ask whether the quality of the learning in TVET is the same for persons with disabilities as it is for those of more standard ability. We ask whether vocational learning outcomes achieved through non-formal education give access to vocational qualifications and to work equivalent to that from study in more formal TVET courses. We ask whether TVET is preparing students to work in a manner that properly respects the interests of others. And if the answer to any of these and other such questions is not ‘yes’, then we ask why and what can and should we do about it. All of these questions—and the myriad others like them—are questions of ethics and are the focus of this chapter. The chapter begins by examining the nature of ethics in TVET, presenting then a framework for understanding the diversity of ethical questions and issues arising in TVET. That framework is then used to examine briefly the sort of ethical issues that are evident in recent TVET policy and literature.
2 Ethics When we talk of the ‘ethics’ of a policy, programme, practice, person or action, we mean the impact of that policy, programme, practice, person or action on the wellbeing of persons who are affected by it, or on the public good (Bagnall, 2004). We cannot judge the ethics of a policy or practice unless we know—implicitly or explicitly—the nature of the ethical values by which we are making the judgement. We may, for example, use an ethical value of equity in access to TVET opportunities to judge the ethics of different national policies on TVET. Different policies are likely, on that ethical value or criterion, to emerge as being more or less ethical and in different ways. We may thus speak of a policy as being ethical, in indicating R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XII.7, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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that it meets the criterion at least to an acceptable extent, or we may judge it to fall below the standard of acceptability and term it ‘unethical’. The term ‘ethical’ is thus used in two distinct ways: in the generic sense, when our concern is with matters of ethical value (as is the case, for example, in the title of this chapter), and in the evaluative sense, when we are making the judgement that something is not unethical. The linguistic context of these two uses will normally make it clear which one is being called upon. In contrast to that conception of ethics, the notion of morality may best be understood as relating just to the actions of individuals, groups, organizations or governments, and as requiring both an intention to act in the interests of the well-being of persons affected by it, and that the action be informed by an understanding of what it means to act in that way (Bagnall, 1999; Jarvis, 1997). Evaluations of morality are thus complicated by the intentions and moral understanding of the actors. Evaluations of ethics, in contrast, may be made independently of both the intentions and the understandings of the actors involved, although they do require an understanding of the ethical criteria being brought to the judgement. In these senses, then, the present chapter focuses primarily on the ethics of TVET, rather than on its morality. Education and training are matters that, by their very nature, have a potentially profound impact on the well-being of participants and, by extension, also on those who do not participate. They are also matters of considerable public import and value. Ethical considerations may thus be expected to be of paramount importance in education and training policy and practice and in evaluations of policy and practice. Often, though, the ethical values that are brought to bear in drafting or evaluating TVET policy, or in planning, executing and evaluating TVET practice, are implicit, rather than explicit. In other words, they assume a shared body of pertinent ethical values. However, upon critical scrutiny, the acceptance and interpretation of the values and their realization in policy and practice are often found to be less generally shared and realised than was assumed. One of our important tasks as TVET practitioners, therefore, is to make these ethical values explicit and to use them systematically in our activities. Whether a value is ethical in nature in a particular instance will depend upon the perspective that is taken. For example, from my perspective as a student of TVET, the quality of the work skills and work values that I learn, and the impact that these have on my chances of obtaining productive employment, are not ethical matters. They are, rather, matters of self-interest. However, from the perspective of the provider of that TVET, or of a government regulator of TVET provision, or of society as a whole, the quality of the TVET provided to me is an ethical matter if we bring to it ethical values, such as the duty of providers to maintain at least minimal standards in their TVET provision. If there is such a duty, it will be matched by a correlative right. I may then assert my right as a learner in TVET to learning engagements of at least the quality of those minimal standards. In doing so, though, I am relying on the ethical force of the duty upon the provider. These days, statements of rights are commonly used as a way of capturing ethical values. The ethical burden, though, falls upon and applies to the person or office to whom or which the correlative duty applies.
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As is implied in the foregoing analysis, ethical values may be used either as guides to practice or as criteria for evaluating practice. As guides to individual or collective practice, an ethical value will (variously) be understood as a moral principle, a rule, a duty or a virtue that constrains us to act or behave in a certain way (Blunden, 1999). The guidelines, for example, developed in 1984 by the International Technology Education Association for achieving equity in technology education are framed as guides to practice (Boben, 1985), as are the UNESCO/ILO (2002) recommendations for TVET. As a criterion, an ethical value identifies a measure of human action, intention or practice—or the products of human action or practice—that we use to evaluate that action, practice or product. A principle of practice may also, of course, be re-phrased to serve as a criterion—as is commonly done in studies of policy impact or compliance. The study, for example, of equity and access to education conducted by the Asian Development Bank (Lee, 2002), used gender equity as one of the criteria in its assessment of the relationship between equity in education and economic development. The products of TVET practice here should be seen broadly as including policy and legislation directed to TVET, as well as TVET programmes and providing bodies, institutions or sectors. More formal statements of ethical values will normally include not just a statement of the guide or measure itself but also that of the standard to be accepted as ethical on that guide or measure. The Australian National Training Authority (ANTA), for example, in its recommended strategies for achieving equity in TVET, includes quantitative equity targets such as: ‘A 40% increase in English language, literacy and numeracy training for migrants, particularly women operatives’ (ANTA, 1996, p. 8). Ethical values are commonly captured by and given expression in the ethical issues which inform TVET activity—issues such as gender equality, age equity, the right to human dignity, the right to vocational opportunity, etc. It is these issues with which we are most familiar as TVET practitioners. They are much broader in their scope than is the occasionally specific mention of ethics in TVET policy or practice. Examples, though, of the latter may be found in the ‘Revised Recommendation concerning Technical and Vocational Education (2001)’ (UNESCO/ILO, 2002). There, Recommendation 36 includes the principle that: ‘All programmes of technical and vocational education as preparation for an occupational field should: [. . .] (d) stress developing a sense of [. . .] ethics [. . .] to prepare the learner for [. . .] responsible citizenship.’ Recommendation 75 presents the principle that: ‘Technical and vocational teachers, on a full-time or part-time basis, should possess the appropriate [. . .] ethical [. . .] teaching qualities.’ (Curiously, though, that last principle is not reflected in Recommendation 84, where the core requirements for TVET professional preparation are articulated.)
3 A Framework for Understanding the Ethics of TVET In the field of TVET, ethical issues may be raised with respect to any aspect of TVET activity: teaching or learning engagements, or the consequences of those engagements within their particular cultural contexts. A possibly helpful way of
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conceptualizing that diversity is to recognize, on the one hand, that ethical issues in TVET may arise with respect to either access or quality and, on the other hand, with respect to learning engagements, learning outcomes, or the impact of learning. These aspects of TVET may be understood as follows.
3.1 Access The access aspect of the ethics of TVET identifies the extent to which individuals have access to learning engagements, learning outcomes or the impact of learning. The ethical issues involved here often focus on the extent to which persons in particular categories experience equity of access to TVET. There is, for example, a general commitment in liberal-democratic societies to equality of access to cultural goods, such as TVET, being based only on matters of direct import to a person’s ability to benefit from the engagement. Of course, that general commitment to equality of access must necessarily be expressed in terms of what is socially affordable, safe and reasonable—in others words, in terms of equity, rather than equality. For a number of reasons, it also generally applies only to agreed minimal standards of access. It is also expressed, at any historical moment, in terms of those human qualities that are given priority at that moment. In recent years, for example, there has been much concern in TVET for equity of access on the basis of gender. UNESCO’s Education for All (EFA) commitments thus focus strongly this issue (Fordham, 1992) and it is singled out in the ‘Bonn Declaration on Learning for Work, Citizenship and Sustainability’ (UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre, 2005, p. 122). Access to TVET, at one level, pertains to access to learning opportunities in TVET. This aspect of access covers the full range of TVET learning opportunities, including classes, laboratory and studio sessions, mentoring, on-the-job supervision and instruction, apprenticeships, on-line learning, both formal and non-formal learning, and so on. It is that aspect of access which has been the focus of the majority of policy statements and evaluative studies of access in TVET (see, for example, the access principles in the statement by UNESCO/ILO, 2002). At another level, access to TVET pertains to access to the outcomes of learning engagements. Included here are the skills, knowledge and sensitivities acquired, but also the sense of self-worth, achievement and other qualities that can develop through TVET learning engagements. Included here also is access to assessment of individual learning and to the recognition or accreditation of that learning in qualifications (Hager, 1998). At a further level, access to TVET pertains to access to the impact of those learning outcomes beyond the individual. Included here are the impact of learning outcomes on social status, educational progression, employment and promotion. Hughes, Bailey and Karp (2002), for example, identify the value of school-to-work programmes to educationally poorer students, not only in enhancing their access to employment, but also further education.
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3.2 Quality The quality aspect of the ethics of TVET identifies the cultural value of the engagement or its effects. It includes the immediate value of the engagement, such as the sense of social belonging and achievement that learners may draw from studying with others. It includes also the value of the learning outcomes that the learners take from the engagement—such as their increased skills and technical understanding. And it includes the impact of those outcomes on their subsequent well-being—on their employability, their social relationships and so on. Included here is the quality of that learning with which much research to date into the ethics of TVET has been concerned: that of the learning of workplace values, such as punctuality, reliability, pride in workplace achievements, a commitment to excellence, respect for workplace colleagues and so on (Kraska, 1990; Leone & Howell, 1995). These values may be seen more as matters of self-interest than of public interest—relating as they do to enhancing employability opportunities. However, they are commonly included within a broader conception of a ‘work ethic’, in which the primary values are those of leading productive, socially integrated, self-sufficient lives, independent of the charity of others or of society as a whole. As such, they are reasonably understood collectively as being ethical in nature. The contemporary relevance of that traditional work ethic is an important focus of ethical critique in the literature, with authors such as Bauman (1998) arguing that it is being replaced in post-traditional society by an aestheticized ethic of consumerism. Also included here is the quality of sustainability (UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre, 2005). Part of this quality relates to the learning of social sustainability through TVET—the extent to which learners learn knowledge and skills that contribute to a socially sustainable society (Bopp & Bopp, 2001). Also included here is the extent to which the TVET taught and learned is sustainable in its impact on the lived environment—the extent to which, in other words, it is grounded in a concern for the well-being of future generations (UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre, 2004).
3.3 Engagement The engagement aspect of ethics in TVET identifies learning, teaching and training activities as the focus of ethical concern. Included here are both the provision of TVET opportunities—in either formal or non-formal sectors—and the participation of learners in those activities or in engagements that lead to TVET learning outcomes (such as in self-directed learning, workplace learning or other informal activities). With the current preoccupation in TVET scholarship with workplace learning, engagement should also be seen as importantly including ethical learning in that context—as has been done, for example, in the study by Lempert (1994).
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3.4 Outcomes The outcomes aspect of ethics in TVET identifies whatever the learners take from the engagement—such as their increased skills, sensitivities and technical understanding. Also, though, an enhanced sense of self-worth, achievement and other qualities can develop through TVET learning engagements. Outcomes are an important concern in research into the effectiveness of TVET directed to developing the ethical qualities of vocational practice (e.g. Brown, 1996). Included here also is the assessment of individual learning and the recognition or accreditation of that learning in qualifications. This last component provides an important bridge to the following aspect (i.e. impact). It also importantly embraces the assessment and recognition of prior learning and is reflected in the general commitment to establishing national qualifications frameworks.
3.5 Impact The impact aspect of ethics in TVET identifies the extent to which and the ways in which the learning outcomes influence the learners’ subsequent well-being. For TVET, the primary impact may be expected to be on employability, selfemployability, entrepreneurship capability and the capacity to engage successfully in co-operative enterprise. However, also important may be other impacts, including those on the learners’ social relationships, their educational progression and so on. The opportunity for educational progression, including transfer to higher education, is, indeed, an important contemporary issue in TVET (Moodie, 2004; Prager, 1993). These categories of TVET may then be brought together in a two-way matrix to give six cells (Table 1). The cells in this matrix may be used to identify the focus of practice, research and evaluation in the ethics of TVET, or of issues in the ethics of TVET, as is done in the last substantive section of this chapter. They may also be used to inform policy development, implementation, or evaluation in TVET—to ensure that the intended foci and balance of ethical concern are being given appropriate attention. Table 1 Matrix of key aspects of TVET of ethical concern Engagement Outcomes Impact
Access
Quality
Access to learning engagements Access to learning outcomes Access to learning impact
The quality of learning engagements The quality of learning outcomes The quality of learning impact
4 Selecting Ethical Values in TVET The ethical values selected for use in any given aspect of TVET activity vary with the political and the broader cultural context in which the activity is located. The values selected thus vary across time and place and with the purposes and con-
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text of those in control of the activity involved. Their selection is thus a political matter (Carnoy, 1994). The ethical values, for example, of activities undertaken or supported by UNESCO-UNEVOC are strongly influenced by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, especially by Articles 2, 23(1) and 26(1). Article 2 opens with the statement that: ‘Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.’ Article 23(1) states that: ‘Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.’ Article 26(1) includes the statement that: ‘Everyone has the right to education. [. . .] Technical and professional education shall be made generally available [. . .]’ (Quisumbing & de Leo, 2005, pp. 198, 200). The ethical values captured in these rights are then articulated further in the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Garcia, 1990). They are picked up further in UNESCO-UNEVOC policy and activities, albeit rather weakly to date. For example, the recommendation to UNESCO from the second International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education includes in paragraph 1.2 the call for: A new development paradigm [. . .] which will encompass inclusiveness and wider access [. . .] and empowerment for effective participation in the world of work. [. . .] TVE has a crucial role to play in this new paradigm by providing skills for all and should include the poor, the excluded and the unreached so that education remains an accessible basic human right (UNESCO, 1999, pp. 61–62).
The selective attention to particular ethical values at particular points in time is shown in the emphasis on redressing the disparity of educational access between boys and girls in the Dakar Declaration (UNESCO, 2000) articulating the further agenda for UNESCO’s Education for All (EFA) programme, begun at the 1990 World Conference on Education for All at Jomtien, Thailand (Haggis, 1991). In the Dakar Declaration, it is notable that other bases for unethical discrimination that are articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights do not feature as strongly, if at all. Discrimination on the basis of race and religion, for example, although serious issues in many parts of the world, are not picked up to any extent. While the relative global magnitude of these issues is no doubt an important consideration in this selective attention to sex-based discrimination, it is also undoubtedly politically convenient—in its down-playing of the politically sensitive issues of race and religion in many parts of the world. Outside strictly communist or socialist jurisdictions or ideologies, egalitarian or equalitarian ethical values are rarely selected, although equality of educational access by boys and girls in the Dakar Declaration (UNESCO, 2000) may be an exception here. Much more common are ethical values expressing equities, rather than equalities. An ethical value articulated in terms of equity allows situational differences, such as the capacity to fund, pay for or attend, geographical proximity, and overriding cultural traditions, to be admitted as ethically legitimate moderators of equality. Equity is commonly articulated in policy statements by specifying
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some minimum standard of access or quality. In UNESCO/ILO’s ‘Revised Recommendation concerning Technical and Vocational Education (2001)’, for example, Recommendation 52 requires just that: ‘Provision should be made for the particular requirements of special groups’, no reference being made to equality or even the equivalence of provision (UNESCO/ILO, 2002).
5 Contemporary Ethical Issues in TVET I now return to the matrix of aspects of ethical issues in TVET (Table 1) in order to use that matrix in exemplifying the diversity of literature in this area.
5.1 Issues of Access to TVET Learning Engagements Issues of access to engagements in TVET may be seen as the most commonly addressed category of issues in TVET policy and literature. They are seen in TVET policy statements, most comprehensively in the Revised Recommendation noted above (UNESCO/ILO, 2002). There it is stated in Recommendation 7(f) that access to TVET engagements should be both ‘available [. . .] on a basis of equality to women as well as men’ and in 7(g) that it should be ‘available to people with disabilities and to socially and economically disadvantaged groups such as immigrants, refugees, minorities (including indigenous peoples), demobilized soldiers in post-conflict situations, and underprivileged and marginalized youth in special forms adapted to their needs.’ Policies and programmes to broaden access to TVET engagements—to more equitably embrace marginalized, excluded and otherwise disadvantaged groups— would seem to lag behind those that focus on enhancing access to higher education. Interestingly, the major concern to date appears to have been to generate policies and programmes that construct TVET as a route to higher education and to facilitate that progression (see, for example, Osbourne, 2003). Nevertheless, there are a number of policy and programme initiatives of this type in TVET. The programme of clinical health education developed for New Zealand Maori (Jansen et al., 2001) and the Australian Vocational Training System pilot programme (Spark, 1995) are examples. The study by McIntyre et al. (2004) is a good illustration of the range of approaches used by providers to enhance access to TVET.
5.2 Issues of the Quality of TVET Learning Engagements Issues of the quality of engagements in TVET may also be seen in policy statements, for example, the Revised Recommendations 36 to 44 (UNESCO/ILO, 2002) articulating the principles that should guide TVET ‘programme content’ may be
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understood as providing criteria of the quality of TVET engagements. The extent to which those guidelines are addressed in TVET provision and are part of the experience of TVET learners, then, are ethical issues. The quality of TVET engagements includes direct attention to the processes of teaching and learning ethics for the workplace. This has been of variable concern in TVET. The occupational category on which most research and development to date has been focused is that of business studies and practice (e.g. Apostolou & Apostolou, 1997; Brown, 1996). Hyland (1992) provides a strong critique of what he terms ‘moral vocationalism’ or ‘moral competence’ in the United Kingdom. Studies of particular approaches to the teaching of ethics in TVET include those of Apostolou and Apostolou (1997) on the study of heroes in the teaching of ethics for accountancy practice and Martin and Stout (1989) on an approach using ethical dilemmas. Wells (1998) reports a study of the teaching of ethics for the workplace to health-care trainees. More general works and guides on the teaching of ethics in TVET include those of Hyland (1995), Leone and Howell (1995) and Miller and Coady (1989). More broadly, though, the concern of TVET practice, evaluation and research in this cell of the matrix is with the overall quality of the educational provision and engagement. This concern is expressed in the societal expectation that TVET providers should always provide the most appropriate and up-to-date curriculum available, using the most efficacious approaches to teaching and learning. Among the many studies with this focus is that of Strickland et al. (2001) into alternative approaches to apprenticeships and traineeships. Research into the efficacy of alternative approaches to TVET falls primarily into this category, for example, the case study by Curtain and Ormond (1994) of a competency-based approach to TVET. The longitudinal study of the moral development of post-apprenticeship workers by Lempert (1994) exemplifies a focus on the quality of ethical learning engagements in the workplace. The study indicated the importance of workplace learning on moral development.
5.3 Issues of Access to TVET Learning Outcomes Issues of access to TVET outcomes tend to be presupposed in policy principles of access to TVET engagements—it being assumed that learning and accreditation outcomes will flow automatically from access. However, that assumption is clearly misplaced, since non-educational factors and the variable quality of the engagements can intervene to generate very different outcomes. In recognition of this situation, there is increasing attention being given in studies of TVET to the ethics of the learning outcomes (e.g. Teese et al., 2003). The critique by Carnoy (1994) encompasses a review of measures of TVET learning outcomes. One area where policy does focus specifically on access to TVET outcomes is in principles of access to learning assessment and qualifications, especially to the assessment and accreditation of prior learning through non-formal education and informal learning (Wheelahan, 2002). This recognition of prior learning (RPL) has
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been greatly facilitated in TVET in recent years by the common shift to competencybased approaches in the assessment of learning and the development of national qualifications frameworks, although there are many outstanding issues here requiring serious attention (Bateman & Knight, 2001; L. Smith, 2004; Young, 2001).
5.4 Issues of the Quality of TVET Learning Outcomes Traditionally, issues of the quality of TVET outcomes have tended to be implicit in the criteria specifying the quality of engagements. In other words, they have tended to assume in TVET policy that engagement with an appropriate curriculum will deliver the intended learning outcomes—policy attention thus being focused on the quality of the curriculum, rather than on that of the learning. Increasingly, though, policy and evaluations of TVET curriculum or provision are including assessments of the learning outcomes. Competency-based approaches to TVET (Cornford, 2000; Mulcahy & James, 1999) and the replacement in Australian TVET of curricular frameworks with ‘training packages’ (Schofield & McDonald, 2004; Simons et al., 2003) are examples of this shift in focus and which are being taken up in many other countries. The review by Schofield (2000) of TVET in Victoria, Australia, exemplifies studies focused strongly on the quality of TVET outcomes. Durnan and Boughton (1999) argue for the equity value of community-based approaches to indigenous vocational education by evidencing their superior learning outcomes. Studies of the learning outcomes of an ethics curriculum are included here, such as the study by Cole and Smith (1995) on the influence of ethics instruction on responses of business studies students to ethically challenging situations. More broadly, research studies of the ethical inclinations or actions of occupational categories are included here also—for example, that by Brown (1996) of business studies students and student-teachers.
5.5 Issues of Access to Learning Impact Issues of access to the impact of TVET learning outcomes have been largely ignored in TVET policy and practice, which have focused largely on access to and the nature of engagement and, to a lesser extent, also on learning outcomes. However, there appears to be in recent times some increase in attention being given to issues of what TVET learning outcomes actually contribute to well-being. In their review of over 100 studies of school-to-work programmes in the United States of America, Hughes, Bailey and Karp (2002), for example, do note the value of many of the programmes in enhancing student access to post-secondary educational opportunities for students who are educationally less successful. In a study on the impact of vocational education on the employment prospects of secondary school students, Crump (2003) reports perceptions of a positive impact in enhancing access to vocational outcomes by educationally disadvantaged students. The study
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by Teese et al. (2003) includes a focus on employment as an outcome measure. A review of equity in access to education (including TVET) among developing member countries of the Asian Development Bank (Lee, 2002) underlines the positive association of equity in access to education and training programmes with economic development.
5.6 Issues of the Quality of Learning Impact Finally, here, issues of the quality of the impact of TVET outcomes tend to be more the focus of labour-market and economic policy than of TVET policy per se. The assessment of that quality is, nevertheless, becoming a matter of increasing concern to TVET policy-makers and practitioners. An important concept here is the notion of ‘employability skills’ (Kearns, 2001)—a re-focusing of the earlier concept of ‘generic skills’ or ‘generic competencies’ (Werner, 1995). A number of studies have focused on the impact of TVET and workplace learning on their development, including those of Kearns (2001) and E. Smith and Comyn (2003). Studies of the impact of ethics instruction should be included here. The critique by Kilpatrick (1992), for example, of formal or rational approaches to ethics education is based heavily on his argument that such approaches fail to lead to the formation of ethically responsive or informed adults.
6 Conclusion It is evident from this brief examination of policy and literature in TVET that issues of an ethical nature are of some importance to the field. While the imperatives of meeting workforce demands in the most cost-efficient manner may well prevail in most TVET policy and practice, there is also considerable policy concern to identify and redress inequities in access to and the quality of TVET. That concern is captured most strongly through the policies, priorities and programmes of UNESCO and its agencies. A concern for ethical behaviour in the workplace and for the role of TVET in developing and enhancing such behaviour is less strongly evident, except in the area of business studies and in developing workplace values or what has traditionally been understood as a work ethic. Ethical attention has been focused most heavily on issues of engagement in TVET—especially access to but also the quality of that engagement. Policy and practice have recently shown a considerable shift to a focus on learning outcomes, facilitated by the increasing predominance of competency-based approaches to teaching and learning in TVET. The impact of TVET learning outcomes on the welfare of individuals and society remains the most neglected aspect of ethics in TVET. In both access to the impacts of TVET learning outcomes and the quality of those impacts, there is indicated the imperative for policy and practice to address issues of impact.
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References Apostolou, B.; Apostolou, N. 1997. Heroes as a context for teaching ethics. Journal of education for business, vol. 73, no. 2, pp. 121–25. Australian National Training Authority—ANTA. 1996. Equity 2001: strategies to achieve access and equity in vocational education and training for the new millenium. Brisbane, Australia: ANTA. Bagnall, R.G. 1999. Ethical implications of contemporary trends in work and adult learning. In: Singh, M., ed. Adult learning and the future of work, pp. 69–85. Hamburg, Germany: Robert Seeman. Bagnall, R.G. 2004. Cautionary tales in the ethics of lifelong learning policy and management: a book of fables. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic. (Lifelong Learning Book Series, vol. 1). Bateman, A.; Knight, B. 2001. Giving credit: a review of RPL and credit transfer in the vocational education and training sector, 1995-2000. Adelaide, Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Bauman, Z. 1998. Work, consumerism and the new poor. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. Blunden, R. 1999. The ethics of VET policy and practice. Australian and New Zealand journal of vocational education research, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 102–26. Boben, D.P. 1985. Guidelines for equity issues in technology education. Reston, VA: International Technology Education Association. Bopp, M.; Bopp, J. 2001. Recreating the world: a practical guide to building sustainable communities. Cochrane, Canada: Four Worlds Press. Brown, P. 1996. A comparison study of ethical standards of potential business studies teachers and potential businesspersons on selected business practices. Delta Pi Epsilon journal, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 1–13. Carnoy, M. 1994. Efficiency and equity in vocational education and training. International labour review, vol. 133, no. 2, pp. 221–41. Cole, B.C.; Smith, D.L. 1995. Effects of ethics instruction on the ethical perceptions of college business students. Journal of education for business, vol. 70, no. 6, pp. 351–56. Cornford, I.R. 2000. Competency-based training: evidence of a failed policy in training reform. Australian journal of education, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 135–54. Crump, S. 2003. Learning and leadership: enriching post-compulsory curriculum through VET? In: Searle, J.; Yashin-Shaw, I.; Roebuck, D., eds. Enriching learning cultures, pp. 133–39. Brisbane, Australia: Centre for Learning Research, Griffith University. Curtain, R.; Ormond, H. 1994. Implementing competency-based training in the workplace: a case study in workforce participation. Asia Pacific journal of human resources, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 133–43. Durnan, D.; Boughton, B. 1999. Succeeding against the odds: the outcomes attained by indigenous students in Aboriginal community-controlled adult education colleges. Kensington Park, Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Fordham, P. 1992. Education for all: an expanded vision. Paris: UNESCO. Garcia, E., ed. 1990. Human rights reader: towards a just and humane society. Manila: National Book Store. Hager, P. 1998. Recognition of informal learning: challenges and issues. Journal of vocational education and training, vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 521–35. Haggis, S.M. 1991. Education for all: purpose and context. Paris: UNESCO. Hughes, K.L.; Bailey, T.R.; Karp, M.M. 2002. School-to-work: making a difference in education. Phi Delta Kappan, vol. 84, no. 4, pp. 272–79. Hyland, T. 1992. Moral vocationalism. Journal of moral education, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 139–50. Hyland, T. 1995. Morality, work and employment: towards a values dimension in vocational education and training. Journal of moral education, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 445–56.
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Jansen, D. et al. 2001. Teaching Maori health professionals in a culturally appropriate setting. In: Beven, F.; Kanes, C.; Roebuck, D., eds. Knowledge demands for the new economy, pp. 292–98. Brisbane, Australia: Centre for Learning and Work Research, Griffith University. Jarvis, P. 1997. Ethics and education for adults in a late modern society. Leicester, UK: National Institute of Adult Continuing Education. Kearns, P. 2001. Generic skills for the new economy: a review of research relating to generic skills. Adelaide, Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Kilpatrick, W.K. 1992. Why Johnny can’t tell right from wrong. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Kraska, M.F. 1990. Work ethics of students who are disadvantaged enrolled in vocational education. The journal for vocational special needs education, vol. 12, pp. 27–30. Lee, W.O. 2002. Equity and access to education: themes, tensions and policies. Manila: Asian Development Bank, Comparative Education Research Centre. Lempert, W. 1994. Moral development in the biographies of skilled industrial workers. Journal of moral education, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 451–68. Leone, L.; Howell, D. 1995. Teaching work ethics: the role of vocational education. Journal of family and consumer services, vol. 87, no. 3, pp. 31–34. McIntyre, J. et al. 2004. Understanding equity strategies of training providers. Adelaide, Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Martin, R.E.; Stout, B.L. 1989. Ethics: developed through dilemmas and deliberation. Journal of vocational and technical education, vol. 6, no. 1, vol. 33–39. Miller, P.F.; Coady, W.T. 1989. Teaching the ethics of work. Vocational education journal, vol. 64, no. 5, pp. 32–33. Moodie, G. 2004. Reverse transfer in Australia. International journal of training research, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 24–48. Mulcahy, D.; James, P. 1999. Evaluating the contribution of competency-based training. Adelaide, Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Osbourne, M. 2003. Policy and practice in widening participation: a six country comparative study. International journal of lifelong education, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 43–58. Prager, C. 1993. Transfer and articulation within colleges and universities. The journal of higher education, vol. 74, no. 5, pp. 539–54. Quisumbing, L.R.; de Leo, J., eds. 2005. Learning to do: values for learning and working together in a globalized world. Bonn, Germany: UNESCO-UNEVOC. Schofield, K. 2000. Delivering quality: report of the independent review of the quality of training in Victoria’s apprenticeship and traineeship system. Melbourne, Australia: Victorian Government Printer. Schofield, K.; McDonald, R. 2004. Moving on: report on the high level review of training packages. Brisbane, Australia: Australian National Training Authority. Simons, M. et al. 2003. Implementing innovative approaches to learning and assessment through training packages. Adelaide, Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Smith, E.; Comyn, P. 2003. The development of employability skills in novice workers through employment. Adelaide, Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Smith, L. 2004. Valuing RPL: selected case studies of Australian private providers of training. Adelaide, Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Spark, C. 1995. Equity issues in the AVTS pilots, NSW TAFE Commission. In: Griffith University, ed. Barriers and boundaries in adult, vocational and post-compulsory education and training, pp. 87–101. Brisbane, Australia: Centre for Skill Formation Research and Development. Strickland, A. et al. 2001. Evaluating on- and off-job approaches to learning and assessment in apprenticeships and traineeships. Adelaide, Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Teese, R. et al. 2003. Young people’s participation in VET: patterns and outcomes. Melbourne, Australia: Centre for Post-compulsory Education and Training, University of Melbourne.
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UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre. 2004. Orienting technical and vocational education and training (TVET) for sustainable development. Bonn, Germany: UNESCO-UNEVOC. UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre. 2005. Learning for work, citizenship and sustainability: UNESCO international experts meeting. Final report. Bonn, Germany: UNESCO-UNEVOC. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 1999. Second International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education: final report. Paris: UNESCO. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2000. Final report of the World Education Forum. Dakar, Senegal. 26-28 April 2000. Paris: UNESCO. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; International Labour Organization. 2002. Technical and vocational education and training for the twenty-first century: UNESCO and ILO recommendations. Paris: UNESCO; Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Wells, J.L. 1998. Teaching vocational work ethics using direct, indirect and self-evaluative methods. Journal of vocational and technical education, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 1–6. Werner, M. 1995. The development of generic competencies in Australia and New Zealand. Leabrook, Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Wheelahan, L. 2002. A discussion paper proposing AQF national principles and operational guidelines for recognition of prior learning (RPL) in post-compulsory education and training in Australia. Lismore, Australia: Southern Cross University. Young, M. 2001. The role of national qualifications frameworks in promoting lifelong learning: a discussion paper. Paris: OECD.
Chapter XII.8
Special Needs Education and TVET: The Perspective from the United States Michael W. Harvey
1 Introduction Workforce development, human capital and productivity have been interconnected for decades concerning local, regional, state/provincial, national and even international economic success and power. Economies are driven by production, the sales of goods and services, and workforce productivity (Harvey, 2001). Today’s climate of globalization, advanced technology, high skills and demand for quality goods and services at competitive prices, driven by the demand for greater market share, are factors that have shaped all nations’ economies, especially that of the United States. The need for skilled workers and a productive workforce has been part of public policy development concerning education and workforce development within the United States for years. Workforce development, career and technical education, and educational reform concerning higher academic standards and technology are important factors concerning economic stability and success in the new economy. Options and opportunities to assist individuals to better compete in a high-tech global economy continue to shape public policy in the Unites States. This chapter focuses on the development and dynamics of career and technical education (CTE) and special education for students with disabilities in the United States. The intent is to present an overview of the system of career and technical education, special education programming and services, and issues concerning service delivery in the United States. Workforce development, labour demands and the need for comprehensive CTE programming for students with special needs are explored here regarding greater post-secondary employment opportunities and employability success for individuals with disabilities.
2 Background Employment and work have been important social identifiers for individuals within American society. The United States places a high value on economic independence and one’s ability to contribute to society as an adult life outcome (Harvey, 2002). Employment has been the benchmark measure of this independence. Employment R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XII.8, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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rates are used by a variety of sources as an indicator of the health of the American economy (e.g. United States Department of Labour, Bureau of Labour Statistics). Labour economists use these data as a critical indicator and correlate this information by region, employment sector and workforce groupings. Policy decisions on a variety of levels are shaped by this information (i.e. trade, economic, education and training). The current economy places unique demands and challenges on the workforce. Employment sectors are more clearly defined in terms of high-skills/high-wage and low-skills/low-wage jobs (National Center on Education and the Economy, 1990). These challenges focus workforce development policy and practice with the goal of producing a better-educated and more highly skilled workforce to address the demands of labour shaped by increased globalization, technological advances and competitiveness in the marketplace (Gordon, 2000). Employment opportunities in today’s economy require advanced academic, technical and occupational skills, given the ever-changing labour demands in the high-skills technology economy. Individuals who lack these essential skills do not effectively compete in today’s economy and place themselves at a disadvantage concerning employment options, opportunities and wage earnings. Frequently, individuals who do not possess the skills to compete in the high-skills economy are relegated to lowskills/low-wage positions or are not gainfully employed (Carnevale & Desrochers, 2002). This translates to all sectors of the economy and all levels of the labour force. Concern about workforce development, youth employment and successful labour-force participation is not new to the American economy or public policy (Harvey, 2001). In 1983 a Blue Ribbon Commission Report chaired by the Secretary of Education, ‘A Nation at Risk’, raised serious concerns as to whether students in the United States were academically prepared to effectively compete in the emerging global economy given the challenges of higher skills and advances in technology. Significant interest was generated by this report. Policy-makers used the report to leverage changes in the education system. The education reform movement, which emphasizes increased academic achievement, standards-based reform and advanced skill development, including technical abilities, was born from this report. A serious concern focused on labour demands presented by the new economy. Americans have witnessed a renewed emphasis on advanced skills training and workforce development in order to meet the challenges of the new economy (Gordon, 2000). These have best been exemplified in education and labour public policy initiatives.
3 Legislative Initiatives Public policy in the form of legislation has provided the impetus for change and has shaped the direction of workforce development, CTE and disability services in the United States. The American education system has long been focused on occupational
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skill development, employability and successful post-school outcomes for youth with and without special needs. Career and technical education under the mandate of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998 (Public Law 105–332, see Table 1) and special education services mandated under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (P.L. 108–446, see Table 2) have been the key pieces of educational legislation to address these issues. Additionally, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB—P.L. 107–110, see Table 3), mandated under reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (P.L. 107–110), emphasizes ‘(a) increased accountability for states, school districts, and schools; (b) more choices for parents and students; (c) more flexibility for state and local schools
Table 1 Career and technical education legislation Area:
Public law:
Legislative title:
Highlights of legislation:
Career and Technical Education Legislation
P.L. 88–210
The Vocational Education Act of 1963
P.L. 90–576
The Vocational Education Amendments of 1968
P.L. 98–524
The Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act of 1984
First federal educational legislation to include specific provisions and language concerning the handicapped in vocational education. Allocated basic vocational federal funds to states with specific set-asides: 10% for students with disabilities; 15% to serve the disadvantaged. Improved quality of vocational education programmes to meet workforce demands; emphasis on accessible CTE for special population students. Promoted equal access to high quality CTE programmes for special populations; assist in nation’s technical skill development; integrate vocational and academic education for a competitive workforce. Increased state accountability to make certain that students from special populations had equal access to CTE; competency-based applied learning that contributes to the academic knowledge, higher-order reasoning and problem-solving skills, work attitudes, general employability skills, technical skills, and occupational-specific skills.
P.L. 101–392 Perkins Acts, the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Act of 1990
P.L. 105–332 The Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998
Sources: Sarkees-Wircenski & Scott, 2003; Gajar, Goodman & McAfee, 1993.
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Area:
Public Law:
Legislative title:
Highlights of legislation:
Special Education Legislation
P.L. 94–142
The Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975
P.L. 98–199
The Education Handicapped Act Amendments of 1983
P.L. 99–457
The Education Handicapped Act Amendments of 1986
P.L. 101–476
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1990
P.L. 105–17
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997
P.L. 108–446
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004
First federal mandate to ensure persons with disabilities between ages of 3 and 21 were offered a free appropriate public education (FAPE) and served with an IEP. Established Section 626—Secondary Education and Transitional Services for Handicapped Youth concerning transition from school to adult life. Continued Section 626 emphasis; added funds to establish model demonstration programmes for transitional services for youth with disabilities. IDEA broadened to include instruction extending to workplace and training environments; mandated transitional services to include IEP component for all students aged 16 years old and older; defined as co-ordinated set of activities with an outcome oriented process. Students with disabilities included in state and district-wide assessments; IEP course of study starting at age 14; age 16 focus on transitional services, specific outcomes, interagency linkages. IDEA align with No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB); requiring performance goals and indicators, reporting of student achievement, and providing for measures of achievement on alternative assessments for children with disabilities; drops age 14 transition services requirement.
Sources: Sarkees-Wircenski & Scott, 2003; Gajar, Goodman & McAfee, 1993.
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Table 3 Other significant federal legislation Area:
Public law:
Legislative title:
Highlights of legislation:
Other Legislation
P.L. 93–112
The Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Advanced disability policy civil rights: Section 503 addressed employment opportunities for persons with disabilities; Section 504 provided for non-discrimination of individuals with disabilities in education and equal employment opportunities.
P.L. 101–336
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990
Extended federal civil rights legislation; prohibits discrimination/provides accommodation in employment, public services, public accommodations and transportation, telecommunications.
P.L. 105–220
The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998
Consolidated workforce development, programme accountability, customer choice, One-Stop Career Centers for service delivery; Title IV contains The Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998.
P.L. 107–110
No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB)
Intended to close achievement gap, while ensuring high levels of academic achievement for all students; programme accountability; parent/student choice.
Sources: Sarkees-Wircenski & Scott, 2003; Gajar, Goodman & McAfee, 1993.
concerning federal dollars supporting public education; and (d) a stronger emphasis on reading skills development’ (U.S. DoE, 2002, para. 3). The major thrust of NCLB has been to establish standards-based reforms governing the K–12 public education system with a greater emphasis on attaining grade-level academic standards and higher academic achievement for all students. States have developed grade-level testing and accountability measures to report annual yearly progress (AYP) benchmarks. There are corrective measures that come into play for school districts and schools within those districts that do not meet AYP benchmarks under NCLB. One of the more challenging elements of NCLB centres on accountability and the reporting of AYP for struggling students in school districts. If schools and/or districts do not meet AYP benchmarks they are designated as ‘needs improvement’. Under the needs improvement status, schools are required to write an action plan for improvement. This
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plan has progressive corrective steps built in and, upon reaching year five of ‘needs improvement’ status, restructuring of the school can occur. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Table 3) has placed an emphasis on high standards for all students, highquality professionals, increased accountability, more choice for parents and students, and increased flexibility for states, school districts and schools. The primary intent of NCLB is to close the achievement gap, while ensuring high levels of academic achievement for all students (National Association of Secondary School Principals, 2005).
3.1 Career and Technical Education Legislation Career and technical education in the United States has a rich history of programme development and opportunities that dates back to the early 1900s. Career and technical education has been identified by Sarkees-Wircenski and Scott (2003) as the means by which youth and adults are prepared for work. The SmithHughes Act was passed in 1917 with the explicit intent to provide vocational rehabilitation and employment services to disabled American veterans. The act also established the first federal legislation to include vocational education as part of the curriculum in secondary education (Gajar, Goodman & McAfee, 1993). This was significant in that it established career and occupational training options within the public school curriculum for American youth. The Smith-Hughes Act represents an early implementation of workforce development into public education in the United States. Additionally, it signalled the importance of education and occupational training for American youth in the areas of agriculture, trade and industry, and home economics. The inclusion of CTE into the high-school curriculum marked a critical philosophical shift in traditional American education. Career and technical education became an integral part of the high-school curriculum under the provisions of the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917. Nearly a century later, CTE still has strong support among policy-makers and educators concerning workforce development and occupational skills training. This holds true for secondary CTE even in an era of educational reform centred on standards-based academics, accountability and student achievement (Gray, 2001). In the 1960s, President John F. Kennedy instituted the President’s Panel on Mental Retardation. That panel’s report, published in 1962, called for vocational training and related services for youth with mental retardation. Additionally, the report indicated a lack of job and training opportunities available to the nation’s handicapped (Gajar et al., 1993). The Vocational Education Act of 1963 (P.L. 88–210, Table 1) was the first federal educational legislation to include specific provisions and language to serve students with special needs in vocational education. The Vocational Education Act of 1963 specified that the handicapped should have access to and assistance in regular vocational education programmes (Sarkees-Wircenski & Scott, 2003). Subsequent legislation under The Vocational Education Amendments of 1968 (P.L. 90–576, Table 1) advanced the commitment to serving students with special needs in regular vocational education programmes by allocating federal funds so that states were required to set aside 10% of their basic vocational dollars
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to provide programmes for students with disabilities and 15% for programmes to serve the disadvantaged (Sarkees-Wircenski & Scott, 2003). These early vocational education laws helped establish access and assistance for special needs students in regular vocational education. The legislation provided language, intent and funding allocations to serve this population of students. Recent vocational education legislation under The Carl D. Perkins Acts expanded services and opportunities for special needs students in the area of CTE. The Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act of 1984 (P.L. 98–524, Table 1) focused on improving the quality of vocational education programmes to meet workforce demands in a changing economic climate and to make vocational education accessible to all individuals, including special population students (SarkeesWircenski & Scott, 2003). Special population students were defined to include those with disabilities, the disadvantaged, single parents and homemakers, and adults in need of retraining, among others. The 1984 Perkins Act mandated specific set-aside funding to serve all categories of special population students. High-quality vocational education programmes were to be accessible to all students. The second Perkins Act, the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Act of 1990 (P.L. 101–392, Table 1), was designed to provide equal access to high-quality vocational education programmes for special populations, to assist in our nation’s technical skill development, and to integrate vocational and academic education to advance a more competitive workforce (Sarkees-Wircenski & Scott, 2003). One of the unique features of the act emphasized training experiences in all aspects of an industry and occupational area. Vocational competencies for labour demands and job placement were also a focus in CTE programmes, especially those training in specific occupational areas. The act eliminated the need for the funding set-aside for special populations, but provided for more flexibility on the part of state and local agencies to better serve special population students, including those with disabilities. The Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998 (P.L. 105–332, Table 1) is the current legislation under which vocational education services are funded and programmes are mandated. Perkins III, as the legislation is known, established guidelines to increase state accountability under the law to make certain that students from special populations, including those with disabilities, had equal access to vocational education programming. The act specifies that state plans must describe: how special populations will be provided with equal access to CTE activities, will not be discriminated against, and will be provided with programs designed to enable them to meet or exceed state adjusted levels of performance and prepare them for learning and for high skill, high wage careers (section 122(c)[8]).
Public Law 105–332 defines special populations to include: individuals with disabilities; individuals from economically disadvantaged families, including foster children; individuals preparing for non-traditional training and employment; single parents, including single pregnant women; displaced homemakers; and individuals with other barriers to educational achievement, including individuals with limited English proficiency (20 U.S.C. 2301, Sec. 3(23)).
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Access included recruitment, enrolment and placement activities. Career and technical education’s mission is to provide ‘academic and technical knowledge and skills the individuals need to prepare for further education for careers in current or emerging employment sectors’ (112 STAT. 3082). Gray (2001) indicates that CTE is designed to serve all students in the secondary public education curriculum who elect to participate. Clearly the mandate under the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998 is to meet this intent. The current Carl D. Perkins Act was in the process of reauthorization in the United States Congress with passage slated for the 2005/2006 Congressional session. One aim of the reauthorization will be to align CTE with NCLB and to promote continued academic and technical accountability to high standards.
3.2 Special Education Legislation Services for persons with disabilities have a long-standing reputation in American society. Professionals have implemented the medical model, the behaviouraldevelopmental model, and promoted habilitation and rehabilitation programmes to serve the needs of individuals with disabilities (Flexer et al., 2005). The perception of disability has changed dramatically in recent years. A variety of legislative initiatives has provided services and programme opportunities, and has assisted persons with disabilities in leading more self-determined and fulfilling lives. Most noteworthy of these legislative initiatives has been the thirty-year commitment to educational services for individuals with disabilities in American public schools. The Education of All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) of 1975 (P.L. 94–142, Table 2) was the first federal mandate to ensure that persons with disabilities between the ages of 3 and 21 were offered a free appropriate public education (FAPE). In order for states to receive federal funds under P.L. 94–142, they had to ensure that all students with a disability had the right to receive FAPE. States needed to develop child identification procedures, providing educational services in the least restrictive environment, using non-discriminatory testing and evaluation procedures, and ensuring that each child with a disability had an individualized educational programme (IEP) (Gajar et al., 1993). Additional requirements under P.L. 94–142 included a provision for parents to access records for their disabled child and the right of due process (Sarkees-Wircenski & Scott, 2003). The core principles and rights under P.L. 94–142 established that children with disabilities could have equal access to public schools and the same educational opportunities afforded to non-disabled students. These basic rights have remained the cornerstone of special education law in the United States. The Education Handicapped Act (EHA) Amendments of 1983 (PL 98–199, Table 2) continued the support for special education services set forth under P.L. 94–142 and established Section 626, ‘Secondary Education and Transitional Services for Handicapped Youth’, which addressed transition from school to adult life. Federal funds were made available for transition demonstration projects. Focus areas
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included the development of transition strategies that would lead to independent living, demonstration models focusing on vocational, transition and job placement services, and programme evaluation procedures. The Education Handicapped Act Amendments of 1986 (P.L. 99–457, Table 2) reauthorized the EHA of 1983 and continued support for transitional services. The reauthorization provided additional funds to establish best practices and model demonstration programming for transitional services for youth with disabilities. The legislation emphasized vocational and life-skills development, technical assistance to support transitional activities, and follow-up studies of transition effectiveness (Sarkees-Wircenski & Scott, 2003). The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1990 (P.L. 101–476, Table 2) added disability categories of autism and traumatic brain injury to the law. The definition of special education was broadened to include instruction in all settings extending to the workplace and training environments. Additionally, IDEA mandated transitional services to include a co-ordinated set of activities with an outcome-oriented process and that all students aged 16 years and older (age 14 where appropriate) were to have a written individual transition plan (ITP) as a component of their IEP. This mandate required schools to set forth individualized transition plans with outcome goals for students with disabilities aged 16 years and older. The ITP was designed to assist the student in moving toward their transitional goals by providing the needed programme supports and related services to meet the individual student’s transitional needs. The ITP was also to include a statement of interagency linkages and their role and responsibilities in assisting the transition process. The IDEA also established that the IEP team would have a follow-up meeting if the interagency service provider failed to provide any agreed-upon services in a student’s IEP/ITP (Sarkees-Wircenski & Scott, 2003). The IDEA has been considered the most important piece of federal special education legislation in the area of transition services because it required schools to address transition planning and services as a formal part of the special education process and incorporate transition plans and goals into a student’s IEP. The need for mandated transition planning incorporated in the IDEA cannot be overstated, given the importance of successful post-school employment and adult life outcomes for individuals with disabilities. The IDEA was reauthorized by The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997 (P.L. 105–17, Table 2). A significant change in the new law established that students with disabilities were to be included in state and districtwide assessment testing with appropriate accommodations. Alternative assessment methods were to be developed for students who could not participate in the regular assessment with modifications or accommodations (Sarkees-Wircenski & Scott, 2003). The reauthorization continued and expanded the transitional mandate of IDEA 1990. Public Law 105–17 included an age 14 requirement that the IEP must include ‘a statement of the transition service needs of the student under the applicable components of the student’s IEP that focuses on the student’s course of study (such as participation in advanced-placement or vocational education programme)’ (34 C.F.R. Parts 300 and 303, Sec. 300.347 (7)[ii][B][b][1]). Transition services are
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defined as a ‘coordinated set of activities designed within an outcomes oriented process that promote movement from school to post-school activities, including post-secondary education, vocational training, integrated employment, continuing and adult education’ (34 C.F.R. Parts 300 and 303, Sec. 300.29 (a)[1]). Transition services and planning are based on the student’s individual needs accounting for their preferences and interests. Transition planning assists students with disabilities in secondary education to find meaning and significance in their educational activities (Flexer et al., 2005). The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004 (P.L. 108–446, Table 2) is the most recent reauthorization of the IDEA and the current legislation. The IDEA 2004 was signed into law on 3 December 2004 with the provisions of the act becoming effective on 1 July 2005. The new IDEA aligns with the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in that it requires performance goals and indicators, requires reporting of student achievement, and provides for measures of achievement on alternative assessments against alternative achievement standards of children with disabilities. The IDEA 2004 also addresses the issue of highly qualified special education teachers. The new IDEA has significant changes concerning transition services. The new language refers to a child with a disability rather than a student with a disability. Transition services are defined to mean: a coordinated set of activities for a child with a disability that (A) is designed to be within a results-oriented process, that is focused on improving the academic and functional achievement of the child with a disability to facilitate the child’s movement from school to post-school activities, including postsecondary education; vocational education; integrated employment (including supported employment); continuing and adult education; adult services; independent living or community participation; (B) is based on the individual child’s needs, taking into account the child’s strengths, preferences, and interests; and (C) includes instruction, related services, community experiences, the development of employment and other post-school adult living objectives and, when appropriate, acquisition of daily living skills and functional vocational evaluation (20 USC 1401 118 STAT 265 Sec. 602[34]).
Another significant change in secondary transition requirements under the IEP was the revision to drop the age-14 programme of study requirement under IDEA 1997. The new IDEA 2004 language concerning IEP requirements states that: Beginning not later than the first IEP to be in effect when the child is 16 and updated annually thereafter, the IEP must include: (aa) appropriate measurable postsecondary goals based upon age-appropriate transition assessments related to training, education, employment and, where appropriate, independent living skills; (bb) the transition services (including course of study) needed to assist the child in reaching those goals; and (cc) beginning not later than one year before the child reaches the age of majority under state law, a statement that the child has been informed of the child’s rights under IDEA, if any, that will transfer to the child on reaching the age of majority under Section 615(m) (20 USC 1401 118 STAT 265 Sec. 614(d)(1)(A)[VIII]).
The changes mandated in the new IDEA indicate an alignment with the NCLB concerning greater emphasis on academic attainment, higher standards and greater levels of achievement for students with disabilities. The new IDEA includes accountability measures for students with disabilities. Most importantly for those
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concerned with transition services has been the shift to academic achievement and the revisions in IEP planning, especially eliminating the age-14 requirements and adjusting them to 1990 IDEA age-16 parameters. Much of the original intent of transition services remains in the new IDEA 2004. Although the timetable for IEP development and the intensity/focus of services have been shifted to align with standards-based reform articulated in NCLB, services to assist individuals with disabilities in achieving successful adult life outcomes is still a mainstay of special education public policy.
3.3 Other Legislative Initiatives Civil rights legislation under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (P.L. 93–112, Table 3) presented important advances in disability policy in the United States. Section 503 addressed employment opportunities for persons with disabilities. Specifically, employers awarded federal contracts of $2,500 or more and those with contracts of $50,000 or more or having fifty employees or more were required to develop and implement affirmative action plans that addressed recruiting, hiring, training and promoting qualified persons with disabilities. Additionally, employers were to make reasonable accommodations in the workplace for individuals with disabilities. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act provided for non-discrimination of individuals with disabilities in education, in admitting them to CTE programmes, or in equal employment opportunities (Sarkees-Wircenski & Scott, 2003). The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 (P.L. 101–336, Table 3) extended federal civil rights legislation by prohibiting discrimination in employment, public services, public accommodations and transportation, and provided accommodations in telecommunications (Gajar et al., 1993). With the passage of the ADA, Americans with disabilities were assured of equal opportunities in all aspects of American society and life. The intent of the ADA was to provide the disabled with opportunities to participate in and contribute to American society. The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 (P.L. 105–220, Table 3) implemented a restructuring of workforce development with a re-alignment of existing programmes. Some of the central themes and intent of the legislation were to consolidate workforce development activities, focus on programme accountability, emphasize customer choice, and implement One-Stop Career Centres for delivery of services (Association for Career and Technical Education, 1999). Literacy, youth training and employment and vocational rehabilitation programmes were incorporated into the WIA of 1998. Title IV of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 contains major sections of The Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998 representing civil rights legislation (Sarkees-Wircenski & Scott, 2003). This section provides supports to individuals with disabilities to assist them in employment, community living and adult life activities. A major focus of vocational rehabilitation (VR) services is to develop and implement individual plans for employment (IPE). The WIA has emphasized significant efforts to co-ordinate and streamline
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workforce development services at the state and local level with the intent of better serving customers. The WIA extended civil rights and workforce development opportunities to more broadly cover persons with disabilities. The current WIA of 1998 has been in the process of reauthorization in the United States Congress. The House of Representatives bill and the Senate version have several differences that had to be resolved. Reauthorization is scheduled for the 2005/2006 session of Congress.
4 Special Needs Education and Secondary CTE Reaching the goal of successful post-school employment for individuals with disabilities has been a challenging exercise given the rapid change in technology and skills development needed for the workforce in a changing economy. America’s traditional low-skills jobs have evolved to demand more advanced basic and technical skills (National Alliance of Business, 1999). Employment for individuals with disabilities continues to be a significant concern within the field (Harvey, 2002; National Organization on Disability, 2000; Phelps & Hanley-Maxwell, 1997). Several models of transition from school to adult life have been proposed for students with disabilities. Two of the most influential have been the OSERS ‘Bridges from School to Work’ models developed by Madeleine Will (1984) and the ‘Community Adjustment’ model developed by Andrew Halpern (1985). The Bridges model proposed three distinct pathways to employment with varying levels of support services aligned with each pathway. The support pathways consisted of: (a) no supports needed; (b) time-limited support structures; and (c) on-going extensive support services to assist students with disabilities as they transitioned from school to work. The Community Adjustment model utilized a similar conceptual framework of support structures including generic supports, time-limited supports and on-going support systems to facilitate the transition process. A significant modification under this model was the expanded breadth of transition outcomes and domains. The Community Adjustment model included the aspects of residential environment, social and interpersonal networks and employment. These domains encompassed all aspects of adult life and community integration (Gajar et al., 1993). These conceptual models have shaped transition programming in the field of special education and continue to influence transition policy and practices. More recent models of transition services have emerged to guide practice. The ‘Taxonomy for Transition Programming’ model (Kohler, 1996) sets forth a framework for the planning and delivery of transition services. The major categories in this taxonomy include: student-focused planning; family involvement; programme structure and attributes; interagency collaboration; and student development (for a more complete explanation, see Kohler, 1998). The major categories identified within the taxonomy are interrelated and interactive in designing, developing and serving students with disabilities’ individual needs as they transition from
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school to adulthood and post-secondary goals. Transition planning is a very comprehensive, complex process. Kortering and Braziel (2001) reported students’ perspectives indicating the most important advantage of high school for students with disabilities was preparation for life after high school, including skills preparation for a better job, high-school graduation and college entrance. Students wanted the opportunity to participate in vocational preparation. Occupational skill development through secondary CTE is a curricular option available to students as part of the general education curriculum (Gray, 2001; IDEA, 2004; Carl D. Perkins Act, 1998). Several researchers (Baer et al., 2003; Harvey, 2002; Sarkees-Wircenski & Scott, 2003; Wagner, 1991) have indicated that CTE has enhanced post-school transition and employment for individuals with disabilities. The National Center for Education Statistics reported that approximately 25% of all secondary students concentrate in vocational education (National Alliance of Business, 2000). The National Assessment of Vocational Education reported that 37.5% of all students who were classified as CTE occupational concentrators were students with a disability of those enrolled in secondary CTE in 1998 (U.S. DoE, 2002). With the multi-dimensional aspects of CTE programming and the diverse student population served in secondary CTE, instructors are faced with the challenge of delivering occupational skills training to meet the needs of all students (Kraska, 1996; Meers & Towne, 1997). CTE instructors should have the skills and ability to adapt instructional strategies and assessment procedures to accommodate students with special needs, including those with disabilities, in CTE programmes (Frantz et al., 1996). Rojewski, Pollard & Meers (1990) reported a direct relationship between CTE instructors’ attitudes concerning students with disabilities and the students’ success in CTE programming. Several studies have addressed CTE educators’ training needs, attitudes and expectations in working with students with disabilities in CTE settings (Custer & Panagos, 1996; Harvey, 1999; Harvey, 2000; Harvey & Pellock, 2003; Harvey, Cotton & Koch, 2005; Kraska, 1996; Kraska, 1997). Custer and Panagos (1996) found CTE instructors less confident in working with students with disabilities compared to those identified as disadvantaged. Harvey (1999) reported similar findings. Skills that would assist CTE instructors in meeting the needs of all students enrolled in secondary CTE were identified as an important training need (Custer & Panagos, 1996; Harvey, 1999). Kraska (1996) suggested continued training for CTE instructors in meeting the needs of a diverse student population, specifically in the area of vocational special needs. Harvey (1999) found that CTE instructors were less confident in working with students who were labelled mildly mentally retarded, suffering from emotional/ behaviour disorders, blind or visually impaired, and deaf or hard of hearing. Harvey, Cotton & Koch (2005) found that students with disabilities were identified as more challenged compared to the non-disabled concerning CTE social fit, academic attainment, achieving occupational skills competencies and skill performance. Additionally, these students were more likely to need assistance with behaviour management, peer relationships, CTE assignments and occupational task modifications. Secondary CTE instructors indicated training needs in vocational
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IEP development, adapting teaching methods, and modifying/developing instructional materials and equipment, classroom management techniques and adapting teaching methods (Custer & Panagos, 1996; Harvey, 1999; Harvey, 2000). Training needs resonate from the literature concerning CTE and special-needs students. While these are on-going challenges as part of professional development in CTE, the critical educational, occupational and economic potential secondary CTE provides to special-needs students, especially those with disabilities, is well documented. Secondary CTE is a critically important curricular option for special-needs students for successful post-school transition to employment.
4.1 The Importance of CTE for Special-Needs Students Carnevale, Gainer & Villet (1990) have stated that ‘the United States must expand its original public policy goals in education and training’ (p. 239). The authors indicate that a more comprehensive approach to education and training utilizing both social and economic policy goals through human capital development within and beyond the workplace are needed. This review of the legislation and current literature would suggest that American public policy has moved forward in addressing this aim within the past decade. Workforce development, employment, academic skills training and higher academic achievement are at the core of American public policy (Harvey, Cotton & Koch, 2005). The aforementioned legislative initiatives bear witness to this fact. The reform agenda in American public education, highlighted by NCLB, is a direct result of the labour demands in the workplace, global competition and technical advances (Ysseldyke, Algozzine & Thurlow, 2000). Gordon (2000) reported that ‘workforce education has long been the “poor man” of corporate training and the “bastard” of the American educational system’ (p. 145). It can be argued that CTE has positioned itself to serve today’s diverse population while meeting workforce demands for labour in an ever-changing economic environment (U.S. DoE, 2002). Secondary CTE provides employability and occupational skills training, drop-out prevention and authentic learning through applied learning curriculum to a host of students who enrol in CTE programmes (Gray, 2001; Harvey & Koch, 2004). In fact, today’s comprehensive CTE has shown it can directly enhance students’ labour-market potential and it may foster a ‘deeper understanding of academics’ (Hochlander, 2006). Career and technical education has a long and rich history of providing opportunities and quality occupational skills training to students with special needs (Meers & Towne, 1997). This history is important to the past but, given the nature of the economy and labour demands, CTE is essential, especially for students with disabilities, for the future. A recent National Organization on Disability report indicated that the employment rate for persons with disabilities aged 18 to 29 was 57%, 15 percentage points below the employment rate for non-disabled persons in this age group (Test, Aspel & Everson, 2006). Other studies have reported similar employment rates for individuals with disabilities (Harvey, 2002; Flexer et al., 2005; Wagner, 1991).
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Harvey (2001) reported that persons with disabilities from the National Education Longitudinal Study (Haggerty et al., 1996) were more likely to be employed in the retail trade, professional related services, and manufacturing of durable goods and non-durable goods by industry area. Additionally, they were more likely to have jobs in service, as labourers, sales or clerical staff compared to skilled operators and/or craftsmen. Continued emphasis on education and training is critically important for individuals with disabilities. Transition services, with the opportunity to access and benefit from high-quality occupational skills training, are essential for students with disabilities. The mandates of IDEA and the training opportunities provided by the Perkins Act are essential supports in meeting the goal of employment, independence and successful transition for special-needs students.
5 Conclusion The U.S. Department of Labor has projected continued growth in occupational skill demands within the economy up to 2010. Hecker (2001) reported that the economy of the United States will require labour at all levels of education and training. The economy will continue to challenge education and workforce development entities with increasing demands for greater knowledge and training requirements for the labour force. The need for knowledgeable workers continues to be a pervasive issue for both education and workforce development policy and practice in the United States. The nature of work has dramatically changed from past industrial and agricultural economies. Technology, global competition, skill demands and the need for knowledgeable workers are at the core of education and workforce development in today’s economy. All sectors of the economy, including high-skills and low-skills employment, have moved to higher skill demands in the labour force. The challenge for American education and workforce development is to provide opportunities to learn the skills needed for economic demands of the twenty-first century. The American education system has emphasized higher levels of academic achievement for all students. This is articulated in NCLB, IDEA and the Perkins Acts. Occupational skills development, under Perkins III, and successful post-school transition outcomes, under IDEA, are goals that align with the standards-based reform agenda of NCLB. The United States have developed a comprehensive approach to workforce development with special attention given in educational policy as mandated in NCLB, IDEA and the Perkins Acts. As with any institution, the American education system needs to improve both policy and practice on a continuous basis. Potential improvements identified in current standards-based reform are best described as NCLB being too narrowly focused on academic achievement and accountability, the potential of limiting educational opportunities like CTE for students given the AYP demands of NCLB, training needs for educators to be highly qualified, educators’ ability to serve a diverse student population, and the need for better post-school outcomes
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for all students, especially employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities. The intent and strength of the American education system is its comprehensive approach and commitment to academic achievement, occupational skills development and post-school outcomes for all students. The reauthorization process allows for policy and practice to be revisited and revised. The system and legislative structure concerning special needs education and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) provides a model that has positively shaped workforce development in the United States. This model can serve as a prescriptive blueprint for other nations concerning TVET, especially countries working to develop TVET services for special-needs students.
5.1 Recommendations 1. Strong education and workforce development systems, governed by appropriate legislative initiatives, should be developed to support special needs education and CTE. These systems’ structures need to be comprehensive and committed to high-quality services that promote individual academic achievement, occupational skills development and successful post-school employment outcomes. There need to be locally developed support systems to facilitate these broad education/workforce development goals. 2. Training opportunities need to be available to educators and practitioners to support ‘best practice’ in academic achievement, occupational skill development and appropriate transitional services for all students to move from school to post-school employment. Attention needs to be given to special-needs education. 3. Training activities need to be part of a comprehensive approach to professional development focused on supporting educators’ and practitioners’ specific needs to ensure effective programme services designed to serve all students.
References Association for Career and Technical Education. 1999. User’s guide to the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. Alexandria, VA: ACTE. Baer, R. et al. 2003. A collaborative follow-up study on transition service utilization and postschool outcomes. Career development for exceptional individuals, vol. 26, pp. 7–25. Carnevale, A.P.; Desrochers, D.M. 2002. The missing middle: aligning education and the knowledge economy. The journal for vocational special needs education, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 3–23. Carnevale, A.P.; Gainer, L.J.; Villet, J. 1990. Training in America. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Custer, R.L.; Panagos, R.J. 1996. Effectiveness of vocational educators: perceptions of training needs and barriers for working with students with special needs. The journal for vocational special needs education, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 17–25. Flexer, R.W. et al. 2005. Transition planning for secondary students with disabilities, 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Frantz, N.R. et al. 1996. Standards of quality for the preparation and certification of trade and industrial education teachers. Journal of industrial teacher education, vol. 34, no. 10, pp. 31–40.
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Gajar, A.; Goodman, L.; McAfee, J. 1993. Secondary schools and beyond: transition of individuals with mild disabilities. New York, NY: Macmillan. Gordon, E.E. 2000. Skill wars: winning the battle for productivity and profit. Boston, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann. Gray, K. 2001. The role of career and technical education in the American high school: a student centered analysis. The journal for vocational special needs education, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 15–25. Haggerty, C. et al. 1996. National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS: 88/94) methodology report. Technical report. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Halpern, A.S. 1985. Transition: a look at the foundations. Exceptional children, vol. 51, pp. 479–586. Harvey, M.W. 1999. Perceptions of vocational special needs: concerns and comparisons from area vocational technical center and comprehensive high school educators. Workforce education forum, vol. 26, pp. 40–57. Harvey, M.W. 2000. How do vocational educators fare in working with students with special needs: perceptions from the field. The journal for vocational special needs education, vol. 22, pp. 25–37. Harvey, M.W. 2001. Postsecondary employment status’ influence on future education public policy: findings from the National Education Longitudinal Study. The journal for vocational special needs education, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 21–32. Harvey, M.W. 2002. Comparison of postsecondary transitional outcomes between students with and without disabilities by secondary vocational education participation: findings from the National Education Longitudinal Study. Career development for exceptional individuals, vol. 25, pp. 99–122. Harvey, M.W.; Cotton, S.E.; Koch, K.R. 2005. Secondary career and technical education program expectations for students with and without disabilities: perceptions of Indiana and Pennsylvania instructors. Workforce education forum, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 35–57. Harvey, M.W.; Koch, K.R. 2004. No child left behind: policymakers need to reconsider secondary career and technical education for students with special needs. Workforce education forum, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 1–17. Harvey, M.W.; Pellock, C. 2003. Influences of student educational labels, behaviors, and learning characteristics as perceived by Pennsylvania secondary career and technical educators: a case study approach. The journal for vocational special needs education, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 30–41. Hecker, D.E. 2001. Occupational employment projections to 2010. <www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2001/ 11/art4full.pdf> Hochlander, G. 2006. Ready for college and careers: no longer a second-class citizen, vocational education contributes deeper learning while raising job prospects. The school administrator, vol. 1. <www.aasa.org/publications/ saarticle.detail.cfm?ItemNumber=4917& snItemNumber=950> Kohler, P.D. 1996. Taxonomy for transition programming. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois. Kohler, P.D. 1998. Implementing a transition perspective of education. In: Rusch, F.R.; Chadsey, J.G., eds. Beyond high school: transition from school to work, pp. 179–205. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company. Kraska, M.F. 1996. Trade and industrial teachers’ knowledge related to special populations. Journal of industrial teacher education, vol. 33, pp. 47–59. Kraska, M.F. 1997. T & I teachers and inclusion: attitudes of trade and industrial education teachers toward inclusion. The journal for vocational special needs education, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 9–21. Kortering, L.J.; Braziel, P.M. 2001. A look at the consumer’s perspective of secondary special education: implications for the role of vocational special educators. The journal for vocational special needs education, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 3–14. Meers, G.D.; Towne, V.A. 1997. Missions and milestones: yesterday, today, and tomorrow in vocational special needs education. The journal of vocational special needs education, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 94–98. National Alliance of Business. 1999. Workforce economics. Washington, DC: NAB.
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National Alliance of Business. 2000. Percentage of high school students by type of academic concentration completed 1982 and 1998. <www.nab.com/PDF/1> National Association of Secondary School Principals. 2005. What counts: defining and improving high school graduation. Reston, VA: NASSP. National Center on Education and the Economy. 1990. America’s choice: high skills or low wages. Washington, DC: NCEE. National Organization on Disability. 2000. Harris Survey of Americans with disabilities. Washington, DC: NOD. Phelps, L.A.; Hanley-Maxwell, C. 1997. School-to-work transition for youth with disabilities: a review of outcomes and practices. Review of educational research, vol. 67, no. 2, pp. 197–226. Rojewski, J.W.; Pollard, R.R.; Meers, G.D. 1990. Practices and attitudes of secondary industrial education teachers toward students with special needs. Journal of industrial teacher education, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 17–32. (ED 357 535). Sarkees-Wircenski, M.; Scott, J.L. 2003. Special populations in career and technical education, 3rd ed. Homewood, IL: American Technical Publishers, Inc. Test, D.W.; Aspel, N.P.; Everson, J.M. 2006. Transition methods for youth with disabilities. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. United States Department of Education. 2002. National assessment of vocational education: interim report to Congress. <www.ed.gov/offices/ OUS/PES/NAVE/interim report.pdf> Wagner, M. 1991. The benefit of secondary vocational education for young people with disabilities: findings from the national longitudinal transition study of special education students. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International. (Report No. EC 300 485.) (ED 334 739.) Will, M. 1984. Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) Programming for the Transition of Youth with Disabilities: bridges from school to working Life. (ED 256 153.) Ysseldyke, J.; Algozzine, B.; Thurlow, M. 2000. Critical issues in special education, 3rd ed. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
Section 13 Education for the Changing Demands of Youth Employment
Karen Plane Centre for Research in Education Equity and Work, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
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Chapter XIII.1
Overview: TVET for Youth Karen Plane1
1 Introduction This chapter presents an overview of the topical discourses in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) with and for youth as a central theme of action and sets the context for the diversity of the debates that follow in this section. In developed, transitional and developing economies adult learning with and for young people is undertaken across a spectrum of institutional, workplace and community contexts, and supplied by a range of public, private and non-governmental providers of TVET. At the policy level, TVET plays a critical access and equity role in achieving employment for youth, managing work/life balance, and providing citizenship and parenting skills for young people. At the provision level, expanding TVET is integral for second-chance education for youth in crisis or post-conflict situations, tackling poverty, inequity, and promulgating cultural inclusion for tolerant, peaceful societies. Adult learning with and for youth takes place across a variety of contexts, including basic skills and preparatory education, general, vocational, technical and academic education, mixed mode, dual systems and through learning in the workplace. This chapter presents inspiring work from researchers around the world, exploring capacity-building strategies for the younger person. Each author highlights the role for policy, practitioners and practice in delivering opportunities to meet the work/life skills needs of young people, and the challenge to provide and to redefine a more holistic and effective role for TVET.
2 The Emerging Paradigm: Youth, TVET and Sustainable Development A raft of broad-based policy platforms have been launched with the aim of embedding education for sustainable development (ESD) in the workforce and communities through capacity-building with TVET at the international, regional, sub-regional and grass-roots le vels (Botaya et al., 2004; Birch, 2004; OECD, 2002; UNESCO, 2005a, 2005b, 2006a; UNESCO/UNEP, 2005; UNEP, 2002; Kronner, 2005a, 2005b). Supranational policy statements, such as the Millennium Development Goals, the R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XIII.1, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014), and World Business Council on Sustainable Development Global Compact (Birch, 2004) advocate public/private co-operation to underpin the pillars of sustainable development in economies and societies, while preserving our natural environment and cultural heritage. For young people, embedding education for sustainable development in TVET means new opportunities and roles in innovation, sustainable entrepreneurship and workforce development, within the context of adaptation to climate change and protection of the environment through sustainable living. This will demand capacities and capabilities for emerging ‘green’ industries and occupations not yet defined by the TVET system, and finding better ways to ‘legitimize’ skills and learning that do not fit existing TVET frameworks (Billett, 2004a, 2004b; Patton & Marlow, 2002). It will also demand reconciling the competing ideologies, values and politics of business and industry and the economic development paradigm with the politics of sustainable development and, controversially, what has been termed the search for sustainable capitalism and a post-growth society (Hamilton, 2003; Hamilton & Denniss, 2006; Beder, 2006; Birch, 2001, 2004; Gore, 2006). In Canada, Chinien (2003) and Chinien et al. (2004) have been working on redefining core sustainable development competencies for the workforce. However, Yarnit (2004) has written that there is a fragmentation in vocational education and training (VET) systems and devolved administrations that has to be overcome: In a sector struggling to deliver quality while dealing with successive funding regimes, targets and evaluation frameworks, the record on integrating sustainable development has been patchy (Yarnit, 2004, p. 13).
3 Economic Development and Supply-Side TVET There is another discourse competing with the sustainable development paradigm and which is also integral to underpinning TVET in the context of a globalizing knowledge economy. Within this discourse, maintaining economic growth and the international standards of free trade and competitiveness are essential for healthy national economies, raising living standards, and providing aid to low-income countries, or those in crisis or transition. Clearly established by the chapters in this section is the need to resource the expansion of TVET and improve participation and quality standards for young people in the job markets, and to ensure that curricula and labour-market strategies are matched to industry’s needs. TVET is integral for providing work opportunities for youth by preventing labour-market mismatches and falling living standards brought about by a lack of decent work, industry restructuring and change. According to UNESCO (2006b, p. 1), young people in developing and transitional countries have been extremely disadvantaged by increasing rates of unemployment. It is reported that 88 million young people are classified as unemployed, with the highest levels of unemployment in sub-Saharan Africa. In developing countries, young people are 3.8 times more likely to be unemployed than adults, as compared with 2.3 times in industrialized countries (ILO, 2005; UNESCO, 2006b, p. 1). By 2015 there will be more first-time job seekers than ever before.
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In OECD countries, Quintini, Martin and Martin (2007, p. 4) write that, in 2005, 15.7% of young people who could potentially participate in the labour market were unemployed. This is a significant decline of 16.4% from the previous ten-year statistics. However, in all OECD countries young people are more likely to be unemployed than prime-age adults. Those who leave school without qualifications often find themselves neither in education nor employment. Youth can have difficulty in gaining a first job, and may be out of the labour market for long periods of time before securing that first position. Once gained, it may be low paid, casual and not a good stepping stone to other opportunities. At the broad policy level, it is clear that TVET plays an essential role with its focus on access, equity and inclusion, and improving young people’s chances for life and work. There are questions for resourcing competing policy goals at the local level in practice. Before youth can fully grasp opportunities, overcome setbacks and build identity capital, there is a need to resolve the structural, societal, workplace and institutional hegemonic barriers that act as impediments to young people realising their full potential.
4 Understanding the Heterogeneity of Youth Defining the meaning of youth in terms of age span and development is very contestable, but the World Bank report (2006, p. 4) states that there are 1.5 billion young people in the age cohort 12–24 years, with 1.3 billion living in developing countries—the largest number in history. Each of these young people is ‘entering an age fraught with risks and laden with opportunities’. In most developing countries the number of youth in this age cohort is peaking, or will peak within the next ten years (World Bank, 2006, p. 1, 5, 6). At the age of 12 more than 85% of children around the world are in school, but this percentage thereafter declines and, although progress has been made towards the Millennium Development Goals, children are not learning as much as they should at the primary school level. TVET is a second chance for youth, but costs more to deliver than earlier levels of primary school; hence, the need for innovative partnerships between stakeholders. By the time young people are into young adulthood, the majority of the cost of TVET falls on parents, the individual and families. Young people then face risks in three key areas: starting work too early; breaking into the job market; and moving upwards on the skills ladder (World Bank, 2006, p. 7). Poverty, poor living standards and family and parenting responsibilities also minimize the capacity of the younger person to grasp opportunities in TVET. Nearly 60% of young women in developing countries are mothers by the age of 25 and caring for a new generation of growing learners. In 2005, half of the 5 million people who contracted HIV/AIDS were between 15 and 24 and the majority of them young women and girls (World Bank, 2006, p. 3). Evidence of the acute decline in living standards and social sustainability—on a global scale—has been cited in the ‘Report on the World Social Situation’ (United Nations, 2005, p. 99) with its findings on child slavery, forced labour, trafficking in women and children, and corruption. Much has been written in the research literature about
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building social capital in the context of community development (World Bank, 2003; Putnam, 2000, 2002; Productivity Commission, 2003; Onyx & Bullen, 2000; Onyx, 1996). Woolcock and Narayan (2000, p. 230) argue though that strategies to improve ‘community’ and social solidarity do not necessarily lead to better living standards, equality and economic stability. McKenzie (2004, p. 2) has contended that what should also be discussed—as another key pillar of the sustainable development discourse—are policies for promulgating social sustainability.
5 New Lenses for Working with, and for, Youth Capability in TVET Including the ‘voice’ and involvement of young adult learners in TVET is paramount then in a globalizing market economy which can produce both winners and losers, and which has the capacity to be culturally divisive, fragmenting and isolationist. There is a need to take a kaleidoscopic perspective and create better opportunities for those experiencing the multiple challenges of poverty, poor living standards, no post-school qualifications—those who are neither in employment nor education and training. The UNESCO YES Summit (2006b, p. 1) has argued that for young people the focus should be the ‘6 E’s plus education’: employability, employment creation, equity, entrepreneurship, environmental sustainability and empowerment. The World Bank’s ‘World Development Report’ (2006, p. 2) has also advocated a new approach, and postulates three broad-based policy platforms—or new lenses— through which we can explore and better understand the context and situated needs of younger people. These lenses are:
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Opportunities: Broaden the opportunities for developing human capital by expanding access to and improving the quality of education and health services; by facilitating the start to working life; and giving young people a voice to articulate the kind of assistance they want and to participate in delivering it. Capabilities: Develop young people’s capabilities to choose well among these opportunities by recognizing them as decision-making agents and by helping ensure that their decisions are well informed, adequately resourced and judicious. Second chances: Provide an effective system of second chances through targeted programmes that give young people the hope and incentive to catch up from bad luck or bad choices.
6 Resourcing Devolved TVET through Social Partnerships There is another powerful debate about seeking reconciliation and re-building trust and common ground to the benefit of both the economy and broader society. By enculturing healthy networks and alliances across institutions, industry and civic
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society, it offers a reconciliatory model for proactively managing discontinuous change and seeking collaboration in, and across, communities (Senge et al., 2005). Ideally, by developing dense industry and community alliances and partnerships, regions can share and distribute knowledge, innovation and leadership to solve problems at the local level. Within this discourse, proponents for social partnerships contend that the resulting ‘social capital’ from the positive synergies is a vital resource for industry by reducing the cost of transactions and of doing business. In ‘can doing’, communities too are better equipped, skilled and prepared to weather the shrill winds of globalization, increased competition and risk, and unpredictable market change (Fukuyama, 1995, 2001; Spence, Schmidpeter & Habisch, 2003; Spence, 1999; Kilpatrick & Bell, 2000; Kearns, 2004a, 2004b; Seddon & Billett, 2004). There is some tension within this discourse though, about governance and determining the role for the State (Humphries, 2006; Humphries & Grant, 2005; Considine, 2005; McKenzie, 2004). There are also problems about balancing the extent of corporate involvement in TVET, and to what degree industry should drive the policy agenda, without assuming a significant social partnership involvement at the same time (Billett, 2004a,b). Cornford (2006) has concerns about equity in TVET policy in the stakeholder context, and about industry dictating to the other partners: when the needs of the broader society are neglected and the requirements of business and industry are seen as paramount, and more important than any other stakeholder group, there will be serious consequences that stem from failure to recognize that employers operate within and are part of the broader social context (Cornford, 2006, p. 1).
7 Implications for TVET Policy with and for Young People The chapters presented below do raise concern about access and equity for youth in TVET and for building the capability of TVET systems to address their future career aspirations and employment needs. These include:
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Resolving industry mismatches, poor workforce profiling and workforce development by targeting funding to where skills are most needed. Reconciling the discourse tensions between TVET and higher education, as well as the vocational knowledge/academic knowledge dichotomy. Resourcing ecumenical TVET career planning and information and advice as a central tenet for young people. Overcoming traditional stereotypes from parents and family and youth themselves about TVET and opportunities for decent work and careers. Restructuring and resourcing TVET supply adequately in transitional and developing economies to cope with increased numbers of young learners. Building better collaboration and information-sharing with industry and community stakeholders through social partnerships. Improving the take up, dissemination and sharing of regional information on changing labour markets to key decision-makers and stakeholders.
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Finding new ways for addressing pathways, seamlessness, transition and articulation in TVET which match the diversity of pathways young people take. Seeking better ways to include the enthusiasm, energy, capacities and capabilities of youth in driving this proactive change management process. Supporting the changing, challenging role for the TVET provider and practitioner through capacity- and capability-building. Bringing together the policy platforms of economic development and sustainable development for better integration of strategies in TVET.
8 Overview of the Contributions XIII.2 Skills Shortages, Over-Education and Unemployed Youth: an International Dilemma, by Kenneth Gray and Sang Hoon Bae The first of these international chapters is located in the discourse of matching human capital and technical skills to industry and understanding the close relationship between the labour market and skills development. It questions the impact on economic development of mismatches in policy and planning that result in skills shortfalls for industry and youth. The chapter discusses four key areas of misconception and short-sightedness in the debate between the value of higher education, degreelevel qualifications and technical/vocational education skills-based qualifications in the context of the developed economy of the United States. It bravely tackles the ‘undiscussable’ problem of the predominance of managerial graduate education in the USA, resulting in the over-education of youth and a pool of underemployed, disillusioned graduates. The discussion dismisses some of the myths surrounding the lack of value given to TVET qualifications by parents, career advisers and youth themselves. It argues that rebalancing the equation, by investing in TVET at the policy and supply level, will provide the needed change for meeting the labour needs of growing firms and industry. It calls for greater involvement by industries as key employers for younger people.
XIII.3 New Directions for High-School Career and Technical Education in the United States, by Richard L. Lynch Richard Lynch presents an insightful discussion of the on-going debates on career and technical education in the United States. He writes of the pressure from industry stakeholders to improve high-school curricula for young people and to make them more relevant in terms of labour-market preparation for workplaces in industry. According to Lynch, there was an awareness of the need for change to improve the pathways and opportunities for youth who were disadvantaged at school, not bound for post-secondary institutions or colleges, and intent on learning
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through occupations and on the job. The study undertook a qualitative approach to data gathering through discussion, ‘list servs’, literature review and face-to-face, telephone or focus interviews with a wide range of stakeholders. He writes that there was concern from parents and students to reform the high-school curricula, as well as new demands from the findings of research being undertaken on learning in adulthood and the changes to the structure of the economy. He argues that ‘hitech’ economies and converging technologies demand high-level skills from young people in order to find jobs in a sophisticated marketplace. However, at the same time, generic competencies are important in meeting the range of skills that employers demand enabling young people to work successfully as team workers in the workplace.
XIII.4 Occupations in Demand/Youth Employment, by Antoaneta Voikova This informed discussion by Antoaneta Voikova draws the reader’s attention to the TVET policy issues in the labour market for youth in countries undergoing transition or experiencing crises, and those which have been through major industrial restructuring leading to a renewal of the job market for young people. It outlines the redesigning of a quality TVET system which better meets their employment and post-school technical and vocational education needs. By presenting a history of the structural and labour-market changes in Eastern Europe, she examines the supply and demand for TVET in the last decade and some of the barriers for youth in gaining employment. The chapter presents an overview of the way in which TVET was initially provided in schools until 1989, but without embedding regional needs or industry changes in the curricula. It highlights the complex challenges for East European countries brought about by the impact of industrial restructuring and high levels of long-term youth unemployment. The author presents the differences in participation rates across these countries for young people leaving school early, or with no post-school qualifications. By tackling the changes taking place in Bulgaria at the policy and practice level, she discusses both the successes and the failures of TVET in matching policy with broad-based change.
XIII.5 Pathways and Transitions from School to Work: Australian Experiences, by Annette Gough In this research chapter, Annette Gough enhances our peripheral vision by unpacking the strategies to address the A$3 billion cost to a developed nation of one year’s cohort of early school-leavers. She gives a detailed account of the nature of intervention strategies to provide a diversity of pathways and transitions for young people in the context of TVET or, as it is coming to be known in Australia, VTE (vocational and technical education) in the state of Victoria. The chapter presents a snapshot of
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schooling participation and retention rates. This is followed by a discussion of the redefinition of employability skills. It documents the changes that have taken place in TVET from the establishment of the Mayer Key Competencies, to the evolution of the Employability Skills Framework, which is now being adopted as a basic standard in TVET to meet industry’s needs. The discussion highlights the need for language and literacy skills training for young people, and for supporting strategies for transition through a variety of pathways for youth between school and work.
XIII.6 School/Workplace Partnerships: A Case Study of Four Vocational Studies Programmes, by Marcelle Hardy and Louise M´enard This chapter by Hardy and M´enard sharpens our perspective through their research findings from a study of a school/workplace partnership and four vocational programmes in industry workplaces. This research puts under the microscope in a qualitative way the difference in approaches and philosophies for mentoring learning in the workplace by teachers, workplace mentors and industry. It examines strategies for learning and induction in the workplace in four TVET programmes: jewellery making; drafting; power technology; and industrial mechanics. At the heart of this chapter is the focus on understanding subtle differences in the quality of training between traditional models of mentoring and experiential models of mentoring in workplace induction within a schools’ partnership programme.
XIII.7 Vocationalized Secondary Education, by Jon Lauglo In this work, Jon Lauglo examines the meaning of ‘vocationalized secondary education’ and the difference in perspective and definition with ‘vocational education and training’. The first, he writes, refers to a curriculum which remains general or academic in nature; the latter is predominately learning about skills for the workplace. In his view, technical secondary schools sit in the middle as a ‘hybrid’ between the two. Lauglo asks whether this ‘vocationalization’ has improved the relevance of education, and argues that while it may be a sustainable strategy in developed economies, he questions whether it can be adequately resourced and sustained in lower-income countries. He argues: Thus, policy debate in developing countries has tended to treat vocationalization as if it could function as a thinly spread form of VET. The recurring question has been whether vocationalized secondary education in fact turns out to be more ‘economically relevant’ than purely general education, and whether it is affordable.
Lauglo concludes with a note of caution: In my judgement, the degree of institutional integration of vocational training with the mainstream of the secondary system, which may be advisable for countries with well-functioning and well-resourced secondary school systems that enrol the great majority of youth, make
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little sense in systems which enrol a modest minority of the age group, which are in urgent need of quality improvement in core general education subjects, and in which financial and human resources needed to develop and sustain vocational subjects are much scarcer than in economically advanced countries.
XIII.8 Vocational Guidance and Career Counselling in the European Union: Origins and Recent Trends, by Frederic J. Company Company places a historical lens on the development of career guidance and planning as a central tenet of TVET in the context of the European Union. By tracing the time-span development of guidance and career information policies over the last fifty years of European governance, he draws our attention to the fact that raising the visibility of the TVET agenda takes time. He begins with the founding fathers of the European Community and states that: It is in this sense that vocational guidance and career counselling, covering a broad range of education and training-related initiatives and activities on the one hand, and the development of human resources and labour on the other, have acquired paramount importance and play a crucial role in the social and economic development of this continent.
He also presents an informing outline of the changing guidance trends in Europe from being peripheral to TVET policy, to being highly centralized with contextualization. Sixteen specific conclusions are drawn from CEDEFOP research cited in this chapter to assist in formulating policy across the European Union. He concludes: The debate is open, not only at the European but also at the international level. Only through dialogue between policy-makers, practitioners and the users of these services will it be possible to find new means of co-operation and co-ordination which will make the best possible use of the potential offered by guidance services to facilitate lifelong learning, self-guidance and the lifelong career development of every single citizen.
XIII.9 ‘White-Collar’ Work or a ‘Technical’ Career? The Ambitions of Fiji Final-Year School Students, by Pam Nilan, Paula Cavu, Isimeli W. Tagicakiverata and Emily Hazelman This chapter outlines a research project based on the work of Joseph Veramu and his findings on the unrealistic career expectations and visions of young people in Fiji. The project aimed to verify if the same would be true of senior high-school graduates with their traditional preference for white-collar jobs. In recent times the opportunity for this kind of work has diminished on the island as it has shifted to a service and manufacturing economy. The research was undertaken in the context of a joint collaboration between the University of Newcastle (Australia) and the Fiji
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Institute of Technology. It sought to reframe and resolve the issue of large numbers of young people graduating from high school with mismatched qualifications for the changed labour market and with few opportunities of realising their dreams of professional work. The structural and demographic changes that have been taking place on Fiji have led to changed demands for skills in new industries, such as tourism, garment manufacturing and services. However, the combination of industry changes and youth expectations of career, along with parental influence over preferred type of post-school education, is resulting in labour-market mismatches and ‘little alignment of the education system with manpower needs’. They conclude: The rhetoric of many educationalists and economists in Fiji is about building human resource capacity to support a new set of industries and endeavours in the country. However, our research indicates that this may stand for nothing if young people and their families continue to believe in only a narrow and outdated set of career paths.
XIII.10 14–16 Year Olds Taking Vocational Courses in English Colleges: A Dumping Ground for the Disengaged or a Real Alternative? by Norman Lucas This provocative contribution by Norman Lucas outlines change from the development of the vocational curriculum in schools in England in the early 1950s and 1960s, to its inception in secondary modern schools and comprehensive schools in the late 1960s and 1970s, to the present-day partnerships between schools and colleges of further education. In doing so, Lucas draws our attention to the complex, pedagogic questions for TVET curricula and service provision in attempting to bridge the academic and vocational divide in schools by offering second-chance pathways for disengaged youth through partnerships. This new initiative between schools and colleges—the Increased Flexibility Programme (IFP)—has been in operation since 2002 and is designed to be an alternative programme for young people in schools in need of more practical pathways to work and career, from the traditional academic focus of the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). Fundamentally, this means one day a week release from school for the young person to attend a further education college, and participate in vocational and workrelated training leading to career education or training, and a GCSE in a vocational subject, or a national vocational qualification (NVQ) Level 1. These young people may be disengaged from school in a number of different ways and, as Lucas points out, benefit greatly from the alternative pathways to work and career. But, in doing so, this initiative runs the risk of being perceived as having less value, and being seen as a ‘second class’ catchment area for those failing in the school system by teachers in further education, schools, parents and even the young people themselves. Lucas concludes that what are needed in TVET are a viable set of vocational qualifications with both perceived and actual parity of esteem by all the stakeholders, with a blending of academic and vocational approaches and a balanced input by key bodies, but he warns:
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I would like to suggest that in the English context the talk of a parity of esteem between vocational and academic qualifications is mere rhetoric. What is actually possible and practical is to develop vocational qualifications that are valued.
XIII.11 Reconciling the Competing Policy Platforms in TVET? Promulgating ‘The 6 Es Plus Education’ for Youth through Social Partnerships, by Karen Plane This chapter attempts to come to grips with the impact of the competing policy discourses in TVET on the young adult learner. It takes as a focus the challenges for implementing ‘The 6 E’s plus Education’ in the context of social partnerships with TVET and its stakeholders. Plane argues that the traditional pedagogic divides between academic, general and technical vocational education may no longer apply in a fluid, globalizing knowledge society and there is a need to take a youth-centred, kaleidoscopic focus on TVET which matches young people’s pathways with opportunities through a better cross-sectoral collaboration between the stakeholders. She presents a number of systemic concerns for converging TVET policy evolving from the political tensions in the current discourses about skilling youth for economic development and higher growth, and/or skilling for education for sustainable development, less wasteful economies and sustainability practices. It questions the fundamental philosophical basis of TVET for the future and the divisive impact of the present forces driving pedagogy and curricula, contending that there is a need to converge, and not diverge, the competing TVET policy platforms. The chapter concludes that: In the search for new political frameworks to underpin TVET there is a need to reconcile the competing policy platforms and the focus on productivity, growth and technical skills and/or skills for life, citizenship and sustainable development. In this context, TVET has a vital access and equity role, but it also needs to be resourced adequately at the policy and practice level to give TVET practitioners, and young people, the capacity to implement the change management process for the future.
9 Conclusion This section of the handbook presents a selection of the current debates on TVET with a focus on young people and the tensions between policy and practice in meeting the career, vocational and life-skill expectations of a younger generation of adult learners in transitional, developing and developed economies. The chapters serve to heighten our awareness of not only the successes of the TVET system and what works, but raise concerns about the failure of TVET policy and practice in meeting the needs of young people. In doing so, they demonstrate clearly the paradoxes of what may be irreconcilable tensions in realising broad policy goals within the current predominant paradigm and the search for alternative political frameworks to underpin TVET for the future. All that is left is for the reader to reflect on these
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writings, and his/her own personal/political discourse and life-world view of TVET with and for youth, and promulgate a call to action.
Note 1. The author wishes to acknowledge the contribution of her supervisors, Professor Roger Harris and Dr David Snewin, and the Centre for Research in Education Equity and Work, Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies, University of South Australia, and also Professor Chris Chinien, UNESCO-UNEVOC Canada. Thanks are also due to the regional participants and stakeholders in the writer’s on-going Ph.D. research.
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United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2005a. Draft International implementation scheme for the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014). Paris: UNESCO. (172 EX/11.) United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2005b. Report by the DirectorGeneral on the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development: International Implementation Scheme and UNESCO’s contribution to the implementation of the Decade. Paris: UNESCO. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization/International Labour Organization. 2002. Technical and vocational education for the 21st Century: Recommendations. Paris: UNESCO; Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; United Nations Environment Programme. 2005. Workshop on the Draft Strategy for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development in Asia Pacific, 1–3 February 2005. Bangkok: UNESCO Bangkok. United Nations Environment Programme. 2002. Industry as partner for sustainable development. 10 years after Rio: The UNEP assessment. Malvern, UK: Beacon Press. Woolcock, M.; Narayan, D. 2000. Social capital: implications for development theory, research and policy. The World Bank research observer, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 225–49. World Bank. 2003. What is social capital? Social capital for development. Washington, DC: World Bank. <www.worldbank.org/poverty/scapital/whatsc.htm> World Bank. 2006. World Development Report (2007): development and the next generation. Washington, DC: World Bank. Yarnit, M. 2004. Regeneration and all that: learning and skills and sustainability. London: Learning and Skills Development Agency. <www.lsda.org.uk/ files/pdf/1681.pdf>
Chapter XIII.2
Skills Shortages, Over-Education and Unemployed Youth: An International Dilemma Kenneth Gray and Sang Hoon Bae
1 Background One goal of all nations is to pursue policy that continuously improves the wealth and standards of living of its population. For this reason, economic growth is a priority worldwide. Modern economic theory attributes economic growth to the interaction of four types of economic capital: natural resources; technology; human capital— i.e. skilled workers; and social capital. These are social standards that are conducive to economic growth. Of these four, human and social capital are now generally considered as the most important resources in the new global economy (Thurow, 1996, 2003). The reason is that natural resources and technology now move around the world to a place where the prerequisite workforce skills can be purchased for the lowest relative wage rates. This reality is not lost even on oil-rich nations as they look to the future, and in fact there are cases in developing countries where rising world prices for oil and other minerals have led to a decline, not an increase, in gross national product (GNP). Thus, a nation’s workforce will determine the degree to which it participates in global economic growth in the long run. Importantly, a nation’s workforce—its citizens—are ‘relatively’ less mobile than other types of capital, more likely to stay in the country and, thus, human capital investments—or human resource development—are becoming the best public policy for the future growth of nations (McLean, Osman-Gani & Cho, 2004; Paprock, 2006).
1.1 The High-Skill/High-Wage Strategy Human capital can be divided into two types: low-skill/low-wage; and high-skill/ high-wage. Countries with low relative wage rates can initially capitalize on this human capital-based advantage by producing goods and services that require low wage rates to be competitive in the global market. This strategy is effective only as long as wage rates stay low. Prosperity, it has been shown, invariably leads to higher wage rates. Achieving higher wage rates is an important national goal because this is a prerequisite to sustained economic growth. Thus, developed and developing countries, faced with the certainty of higher wage rates now or in the future, can R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XIII.2, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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compete in the long run only by being more productive than low-wage-rate countries and/or by producing value-added goods and services that require more highly skilled workers. This is termed the high-skills/high-wage economic growth strategy and is the ultimate goal of all nations. Consider a hypothetical situation where two countries manufacture the same product that sells on the world market for one United States dollar (US$1). Country A has wage rates of US$20 per hour, while country B has a wage rate of US$1 per hour. How can country A hope to compete with country B? By being more productive. Assuming all other costs are equal, country A can be competitive if it can produce twenty times as many units as country B in the same given time. To do so, however, requires a much more skilled and efficient workforce. The key, therefore, to a world-class standard of living is a world-class high-skill/high-wage workforce. In conclusion, human capital investments that produce skilled technical workers, such as technical and vocational education and training (TVET), are essential to sustained growth and prosperity.
1.2 Dissecting the High-Skills Workforce While there is international recognition of the importance of a world-class workforce for economic growth, the skills/credentials composition of this workforce is generally misunderstood. The common misconception is that the majority of workers in global high-technology industries will need a four-year college degree. In the United States of America, for example, the growth in information technology (IT) led to the conventional wisdom that most jobs in this field would require an engineering degree in computer science. This conclusion is incorrect. Contrary to this conventional wisdom, individuals trained at professional or university level represent the smallest segment of the high-technology labour force. Figure 1 shows the results of a study of the United States’ high-technology labour market carried out by the American Association of Training and Development (ASTD). It is notable that professionals are in fact the smallest segment of the technical workforce (19%). The largest group is blue-collar technical workers with skills associated with vocational education (57%). Professionals Technicians Blue-collar tech. workers
24.74%
Fig. 1 The technical workforce Source: Carnevale, Gainer & Meltzer, 1990
56.70% 18.56%
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Of particular importance to this discussion is the group called technicians. In the United States, they are often referred to as ‘gold-collar workers’ because of the high salaries they earn. Four observations about this group are important. First, they outnumber university-level professional workers. Second, they are the fastest growing segment of high-technology workers. Third, they are typically prepared at the pre-bachelor (or first university degree) technical college level. Finally, and most importantly, firms will recruit internationally for engineers or transfer them in from abroad. However, such firms expect/prefer to find technicians in the local labour market so as to be able to locate/expand where they are situated. In the United States, for example, it is generally recognized that the existence of a significant mass of workers, technically trained at the pre-first-degree level, is the key factor in a firm’s decisions to expand or relocate. The importance of this group of workers cannot be overstated. In one case, a firm needed only fifteen technicians to begin a major plant expansion. It could not find these technicians and so did not expand. The direct and indirect economic effect was a loss of US$19 million to the economy of the region or US$1.25 million per technician (Wall & Passmore, 1997). Thus, among economic development experts in the United States, it is generally agreed that: A region that does not have a growing percentage of its non-professional workforce trained beyond the high school level will have increasing difficulty in supporting the competitiveness of high value business (Pennsylvania Economic League, 1996, p. i).
A region can be an urban area, a province or a nation. Ireland, for example, experienced a GDP growth of 90% in the decade of the 1990s. It increased employment by over 40% (The Economist, 2000). It met job growth initially from a large pool of unemployed or under-employed workers and by attracting expatriates back to the country. Now it finds its growth hindered by technical labour shortages. This situation exists not just in Ireland, but internationally, and hints at a quiet global dilemma.
2 The Quiet Dilemma Virtually all nations seeking to compete in the global market for high-skills/highwage goods and services face a common ‘quiet’ dilemma. The dilemma consists of two parts: skilled labour shortages and over-education of many university graduates.
2.1 International Shortages of Technicians The first part of the ‘quiet’ dilemma is actually not ‘quiet’ at all. It is common knowledge that there are severe labour shortages among nations seeking to compete on a high-skills/high-wage basis in the global economy. Firms are not finding it difficult to recruit university-trained engineers or scientists; in fact there is, in general, a worldwide surplus. Instead, the shortage is for those with training typically
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associated with pre-first-degree TVET. Specifically, the credentials in demand are for associate degrees or certifications in technical fields. In the case of the labour market in the United States, for example, the occupational employment projections to 2010 issued by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that computer support-related occupations typically requiring two-year college education are projected to generate 490,000 new jobs over the 2000–2010 period, while computer software engineers normally requiring four-year university education are expected to add 380,000 new jobs during the same period. Moreover, in terms of 2000 median annual earnings, the report suggests that the quartile rank of the computer support occupations belong to ‘high’ among the following four categories: very high ($39,700 per annum and over); high ($25,760 to $39,700 p.a.); low ($18,500 to $25,760 p.a.); and very low (up to $18,490 p.a.) (Hecker, 2001). No developed or developing country seems to be immune from this problem. A good example is the Republic of Korea, which aggressively invested in developing a world-class workforce in its drive to become an advanced economy. It now has a highly, post-college educated workforce and high levels of technology, which have resulted in economic success during the past few decades and manifested the ‘importance of creating man-made sources of competitive advantage’ (Thurow, 2003, p. 291). This country is now, however, faced with a growing shortage of technicians typically requiring two-year college-level education—particularly, the problem is found in small- and medium-sized businesses that are integral to the Korean economy (Republic of Korea. Prime Minister’s Office, 2004). Another example is China where the economic growth rate is reported to have slowed down due to labour shortages of technicians (More college graduates put strain on China’s job market, 2002).
2.2 Over-Education The second part of the dilemma is the quiet part. Few people want to talk about the worldwide growing numbers of under-employed four-year college graduates. It is somewhat of an embarrassment to public policy-makers, government officials, universities and university graduates themselves. It is an uneasy topic. It hints at educational and economic development policy gone wrong, of public investment wasted, and of un-kept promises made to youth. It is difficult to understand why skills shortages exist. Following the ‘education as salvation’ argument (Livingston, 1998, p. 6), nations have sought to increase educational levels in general and that of university graduates in particular. This growth is illustrated in Table 1 for selected Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Similar growth occurs in Asia. In the Republic of Korea, for example, despite the declining student population, the number of college-educated people has increased by 2.6 times over the past two decades— from 192,511 in 1985 to 493,944 in 2004 (KEDI, 2004). China has also pursued a
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Table 1 University enrolment as a percent of the age cohort: 1950 and 1993 Country
1950
1993
Sweden France United Kingdom United States of America
4 4 4 6
35 50 37 81
Source: World Bank, 1997.
policy of increasing college graduates since 1999: college graduates increased by 670,000 from 2002 to 2003 alone (China in serious shortage of skilled workers, 2004). In the last half of the twentieth century post-secondary enrolment has increased dramatically around the world. In the United States, for example, college education is now the norm rather than the exception. Yet it would seem that there is a surplus of individuals with degrees at the same time as a shortage of university graduates with skills. The evidence for this lies in the increasing rates of systemic over-education. Over-education is defined in this chapter as the gap between an individual’s performance potential as indicated by educational credentials and the skill set actually used or required in their job. While the actual percentage of over-educated university graduates varies depending on the method of calculation, all methods indicate that the rate has doubled in the North American labour force (Livingston, 1998). Writing in the Monthly labor review, Pryor and Schaffer (1997) estimated the rate of college graduates in high-school-level jobs in the United States at 30%. Those most likely to be over-educated are young workers with higher education qualifications (Livingston, 1998). In an American study, 43% of recent four-year university graduates self-reported that they held jobs that did not require advanced degrees (McCormick & Knepper, 1996). Over-education among those with degrees in technical areas, such as engineering and computer science, was 20% or less, while the rate for those with degrees in the social sciences was 50% or more. Similar situations exist throughout the world. In the Republic of Korea, for example, the employment rate for four-year college graduates in 2003 was 56.7%. But, for vocational high school graduates, it was 92% (KEDI, 2004). In China, the dramatic growth of college graduates has left many disappointed and unemployed (More college graduates put strain on China’s job market, 2002). Over-education has spawned a second development that is indicative of the quiet dilemma—namely reverse transfers. The term reverse transfer refers to individuals who enrol in associate degree or certificate programmes after they have completed or dropped out of four-year or graduate degree programmes. Corresponding to the growth of over-education in the United States, reverse transfers are the fastest growing group of students enrolled in pre-first-degree technical education. In the United States, it is estimated that 30% of pre-first-degree technical education students are
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reverse transfers. In some technical programmes, reverse transfers are the majority. The motive of reverse transfers is to learn skills that students hope will make them competitive for high-skills/high-wage employment. Reverse transfers tend to be, for example, the least competitive of university graduates, graduating with low gradepoint averages and/or with majors in the social sciences (United States. Department of Education, 1995). This, then, is the quiet international dilemma. First, there are worldwide shortages of technicians. Second, the number of university graduates has never been higher. Third, many who graduate from universities end up being over-educated/ under-employed; many of them accept reverse transfers in order to learn technical skills that lead to high-wage employment. It is paradoxical that, while some of a nation’s most academically talented young people go under-employed, firms often cannot expand due to a lack of technicians. In terms of stimulating economic growth and promoting individual economic opportunity, a human capital development policy that emphasizes university education alone has proved to be a failure. What is needed is a greater emphasis on secondary and post-secondary TVET. In The competitive advantage of nations, Michael Porter, a leading scholar on competitive strategy and the economic development of nations, made this point clear: Contrary to conventional wisdom, simply having a general workforce that is high school or even college educated represents no competitive advantage in modern international competition. To support competitive advantage, a factor must be highly specialized to an industry’s particular needs (Porter, 1990, p. 78)
3 Understanding the Quiet Dilemma The root cause of the quiet dilemma is poor decisions by those charged with economic/workforce development, as well as by students and their parents. These decisions can be traced to misconceptions regarding the labour market and the conclusion that a four-year degree is the ‘only way to win’.
3.1 Labour-Market Misconceptions One cause of the quiet dilemma is widespread misconceptions about the new labour market. Here are three examples. 1. In the future most careers or at least high-wage technical careers will require a university education. Thus, economic and human capital development policy should emphasize university education. Labour-market projections are consistent internationally; the majority of total employment in the future still will not require a university education. In the United States, for example, the Department
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of Labor projects that only 26% of all occupations up to 2014 will require a four-year university or graduate school degree; unfortunately, the reality is that low-skill/low-wage jobs will still outnumber high-skill/high-wage jobs in the future (Hecker, 2005). The sobering fact is that even in the world’s most developed economy, 40% of all jobs are low-skilled occupations that can be learned in only two weeks or less of on-the-job training (Silvestri, 1997). Although it is predicted that the majority of jobs that are newly added to the labour market may well require a university education, the largest number of these jobs will require secondary or post-secondary pre-first-degree TVET, not university or graduate school education. 2. The economy will create enough university jobs to accommodate the increased numbers of graduates. This misconception appears to be universal. It is the belief—mixed with a great deal of hope—that the answer to the widening gaps in the distribution of income is to urge as many people as possible to get a university degree. The assumption is that the economy will respond with more universitylevel employment. It is implied that labour-market demand for university graduates is labour-supply driven. While there are cases of labour supply driving labour demand, such as in health care, they are unique. Generally, labour-market demand is a response to the demand for goods and services. In this context, over-supplied four-year college graduates would cause various labour-market problems. As seen earlier, even in the economy of the United States, one of the most advanced economies in the world, only 15% of the total job openings are projected to be filled by four-year university degree holders over the 2004–2014 period (Hecker, 2005). From this statistic, one may speculate that any nation that increases the numbers of university graduates much beyond 20% of the labour force will experience over-education that, in turn, can lead to brain-drain as the under-employed seek employment abroad or—even worse—social unrest among the highly educated but unemployed. 3. University graduates will displace those with less education in jobs that do not require a four-year college degree. This myth is at the heart of youths’ and parents’ fears that fuel the mania for a four-year university degree and the neglect of TVET. It is the worry that an increase in the number of four-year degree-holders will result in a situation where those without a first degree will not be able to compete for the better jobs that do not even require a university education. However, there is little evidence to support this fear. In a 2005 national survey of US manufacturing employers (NAM, 2005), 80% of respondents indicated that they would have shortages of skilled production workers over the next three years, while only 35% of respondents anticipated shortages of scientists and engineers. In the case of the Republic of Korea, despite the increasing numbers of university graduates, 90% of the TVET high-school completers, equipped with technical skills, have continued to be employed during the past decade (KEDI, 2005). There are cases of four-year degree holders displacing high-school graduates, but mostly in low-skill/low-wage work in retailing, service and recreation. In the com-
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petition for technical high-skill/high-wage occupations, however, they do not displace TVET graduates who already have the required specific occupational skills. To be specific, an individual with a university degree in art but lacking computer graphic design (CGD) skills will not displace a person with an associate degree in CDG. In fact, it is highly unlikely that university graduates will be employable in the graphics fields until/unless they learn these skills. This is a critical point. Because of the importance of specific technical skills, a person with more formal education will not necessarily displace an individual with less education but who has the requisite technical skills. A study undertaken on the Korean labour market supports this critical point (Bae & Song, 2006).
3.2 The One-Way-to-Win Paradigm A second factor creating the quiet dilemma is the ‘one-way-to-win’ paradigm (Gray & Herr, 2006). It is commonly believed that the only ‘way to win’ economically and socially is (a) to obtain a university degree (b) in order to earn high wages (c) in the professional ranks. In the United States, for example, a national poll of students in their final year of high school found that 85% hoped to gain a four-year university degree. Surveys of freshmen entering university in turn revealed that the ‘number one’ reason given for enrolling is to obtain a high-paying job. When asked what kind of job they aspire to have by age 30, 68% of young women and 49% of young men all said that they hoped to get a job in the professions (Gray, 2000). And while the percentages of young people that actually attempt to pursue this goal may be highest in the United States, the goal itself is universal. Thus, American experience suggests that, while lacking any contrary information that there are ‘other ways to win’, the majority of youth will reject TVET in favour of a university education. In fact, the ratio between the number of associate degrees conferred and the number of bachelor’s degrees conferred in the US colleges is projected to widen—from 1:1.98 in 2003 to 1:2.16 by 2013 (Projections of college enrollment, degrees and high-school graduates, 2005). This in turn creates the quiet dilemma: shortages of technicians and over-education. The remaining question is: what can be done about it?
4 Solving the Quiet Dilemma The quiet dilemma is an economic conundrum. Nations that can solve or prevent the quiet dilemma will have a strategic advantage over those that cannot. The answer to the quiet dilemma is increased emphasis/enrolments in secondary and post-secondary pre-first-degree TVET. What follows are eight recommendations for increasing the importance of TVET.
4.1 Promote an Understanding that there are ‘Other Ways to Win’ Solving the ‘quiet dilemma’ requires first an understanding that, from both an economic development point of view, as well as an individual career opportunity
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perspective, there are ‘other ways to win’. The ‘other way’ is technician-level employment. The economic importance of having a growing technician class of workers was discussed earlier. It is this class of workers that is the keystone of economic growth. In the United States, for example, many firms that moved abroad in the 1980s are now returning. Why? It is because the nature of their business has become increasingly sophisticated. The low wages that attracted them abroad in the first place cannot make up for the fact that they cannot find employees with sufficient levels of technical skills. It is important to remember that the market for universitytrained engineers is global, but firms look locally for technicians and move around the world to where they can find them, bringing their engineers along with them. In particular, regarding the role of post-secondary pre-baccalaureate TVET, Zinser and Lawrenz (2004) pointed out that TVET programmes offered at US community colleges are very effective in assessing local labour-market needs and providing technician training for the economic development of the community ‘because of their proximity, access, flexibility, cost effectiveness, and experience of working with industry’ (p. 88). Likewise, from an individual’s career opportunity point of view, TVET offers the best return on their investment of time and money. By way of illustration, Table 2 lists the six main occupational groups in the US economy ranked by annual earnings and net opportunity (demand minus supply). Managerial/professional has the highest annual earning and virtually all occupations at this level require a university or graduate degree. But, in terms of net opportunity, it is last. In fact, it is negative because in the United States there are twice as many people prepared with the appropriate qualifications annually than managerial/professional vacancies. Nonetheless, it is notable that the second highest-paying occupational group in the United States economy is craft/precision manufacturing and specialized repair. Most of the occupations in this group can be taught in TVET high-school and prefirst-degree programmes. In terms of net opportunity, it is third. In the United States, the annual earnings of workers in this group exceed that of university graduates, except those who find managerial/professional employment. It should also be noted that third in earnings is the group called ‘technical support’. This group is first in terms of net opportunities. Many new IT non-professional technical occupations fall
Table 2 Occupational groups ranked by earnings and net opportunities (projected through 2006) Group
Annual earnings
Net opportunities (demand/supply)
Managerial/professional Craft/precision manufacturing/specialized repair Technical support Service Operative/labour Farming/fishing
1 2
6 3
3 4 5 6
1 4 2 5
Source: Gray & Herr, 2006.
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Table 3 Job shortages for each educational category in small- and medium-sized businesses Management/ Clerical
Production Professional
Technician
Operators
Labour
11,018
4,896
13,398
52,206
51,495
Service
Sales
Total
624
5,310
138,947
Note. ‘Professional’, ‘Technician’, and ‘Operators’ are job categories that typically require a fouryear degree or more, a two-year degree, and the high-school-level vocational training, respectively. Source: Republic of Korea. Prime Minister’s Office, 2004.
into this category. Clearly, there are other ways to win—specifically, high-skill/highwage occupations that do not require a four-year college degree, but instead will require high school or post-secondary pre-baccalaureate TVET. (See Appendix 1 for a representative list of these occupations.) In terms of employment opportunities for TVET programme completers, the same was found in the Korean labour market, even though it concerns small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). As shown in Table 3, the 2003 Small and Medium Business Employment Survey points out that the greatest and growing labour shortage is for the group of technicians and operators that typically require two-year college and high-school-level vocational education respectively. Moreover, the manpower shortage in SMBs, according to the Ministry of Labour of the Republic of Korea (2004), accounts for 93.6% of the total labour shortage.
4.2 Explain the Sources of Labour-Market Advantage Another misunderstanding fuelling the ‘one-way-to-win’ philosophy is about what credentials are necessary to successfully seek high-skills/high-wage employment. In general, there is widespread confusion regarding the relative importance of work ethics, formal education and occupational skills. Employers frequently indicate that all they need is someone with a good work ethic. Academics argue that educational credentials are what counts; employers will provide the specific training necessary. However, in reality, what counts in seeking high-skill/high-wage technical employment is occupational skills. Figure 2 below illustrates this point. There are three types or levels of employability skills: work ethics; academic skills; and specific occupational skills. Those who have these skills have an ‘advantage’ over others in competing for employment. Level I—work ethics and related behaviours—are essential for all types of employment, but are the only skills needed for low-skill/low-wage jobs that require minimum on-the-job training. When employers indicate that all they need are applicants with a good work ethic, it is an indicator that they are hiring low-skill/low-wage workers. Level II academic skills—literacy, mathematics, communication skills and science—become prerequisites as the nature of work progresses toward high-skill/ high-wage employment. They are important, however, not because they are used daily on the job. In reality, the academic skill-set used in any occupation is specific
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High-skill/high-wage jobs Level III = Specific occupational skills/ advance literacy skills Level III Level II = Academic skills Level II Level I
Level I = Work ethics
Low-skill/low-wage jobs
Fig. 2 The source of individual labour-market advantage Source: Gray & Herr, 1998.
and small (Pucel, 1995). Mathematical reasoning ability is the only academic skill that predicts productivity on the job. But academic skills are still important because they are necessary for learning what really counts in modern high-technology employment, namely Level III specific occupational skills. Labour market advantage and employability for high-skill/high-wage technical occupations require Level III certified occupational skills or a set of experiences that demonstrates these skills. In national studies of manufacturers in the United States, occupational skills were listed first in importance in hiring decisions (Bishop, 1995; NAM, 2005). This is true for two reasons. First, in many industries the skillset required on the job is very specific and changes so rapidly that firms require individuals with the needed skill-set immediately. While employers may provide job-specific training, they need trainees with prior advanced technical skills as a prerequisite. As an indication of the rising importance of skill and the decreasing importance of general higher education, IT firms in the United States are not as concerned about what degrees a person has as they are about what IT skills certificates they hold. It is now relatively common for high-school graduates with advanced IT skills to go directly to work in IT, skipping college altogether or attending part time. The second reason why skills are of primary importance for individuals seeking high-skills/high-wage employment is that in some industries there is a surplus of applicants, particularly for soft-skill managerial-trainee type positions. Because applicants outnumber openings by almost two to one, employers can be very selective. The criterion they use is demonstrated occupational skill as documented by actual work experience or internships.
4.3 Monitor Human-Resource Investments and Graduates Solving the quiet dilemma suggests a closer look at human-resource investments at the government level. As argued earlier, in most cases, there are excess investments in university education and insufficient investments in TVET. One useful but simple monitoring method is to calculate the ratio of degrees awarded at the university level compared to the number awarded at the one- and two-year pre-firstdegree TVET level. In a pure workforce development higher education system, the
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ratio, as dictated by the labour market, should be about two university degrees to three TVET pre-baccalaureate degrees. In the United States, the ratio of university degrees awarded to associate degrees is almost the opposite, namely two to one, and the majority of associate degrees awarded are in general education, not TVET. The true relationship is probably closer to 3:1—this brings about the quiet dilemma in the United States. Human capital investments in pre-first-degree TVET will have positive national returns on investment only if those trained stay in the country. If and when firms cannot find technicians in the local labour market or relocate to where they can find them, then they have no choice but to try to attract technicians away from other firms in other countries. Therefore, the international shortage of technicians can be predicted to lead to a new economic development challenge, namely preventing technician brain-drain. For this reason, some economists suggest that countries should develop a new economic indicator that monitors their balance of trade in skilled technicians. Economic success in the future will depend both on developing a technician class of workers and keeping them in the country.
4.4 Provide Career Guidance to Youth Ultimately, the quiet dilemma will be resolved when more young people decide to become technicians. The decision process, of course, differs greatly around the world. On the one extreme is the United States, which allows any students to study any type of higher education independent of their academic ability. More common are systems that limit the number of students admitted to universities and, therefore, TVET becomes a second choice by default. In either case, however, TVET is successful only when those who enrol do so for well-thought-out reasons. Return on investment (ROI) studies of TVET consistently found positive returns, but only when individuals pursue careers in occupations related to their training. Very often when students drop out of TVET programmes or do not pursue a related career when they graduate, it is because they decided they did not like that occupation after all. The chances of preventing this from happening are greatly improved when the decision is well thought out in the first place. It is worth noting, for example, that the German system of TVET places a premium on career counselling and awareness. German firms understand that their investment/support of the apprenticeship system pays off only when students pursue careers in their apprenticeship field and that good career guidance helps to ensure that this happens. For these reasons, it is important that TVET educators become vocal advocates for career development activities in the primary and secondary education systems in their country. TVET at the high-school level can play an important role in these efforts. In particular, students need a chance to validate tentative career choices prior to making a decision regarding pursuing a TVET programme of study. High-school TVET can help by running exploratory programmes as part of their curriculum offerings.
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4.5 Increasing TVET Incentives for Students Even with adequate career development activities for young people, universal cultural preferences for a university education—‘education fever’ (Seth, 2002) and ‘diploma disease’ (Dore, 1976)—are still very powerful. For this reason, incentives for students to pursue TVET are necessary. Incentives can be of at least three types: advanced placement/time shortened; tuition waivers; and guaranteed job placement.
r
r
r
Advanced placement/time shortened. One effective incentive for youth to pursue post-secondary TVET is to provide opportunities to receive advanced placement for course work taken in high school. This results in either less time to complete a post-secondary TVET degree or allows them to take more advanced courses. One such programme is called ‘Tech Prep’ and is a United States federal priority. Tech Prep is best viewed as a transitional programme between secondary TVET and post-secondary TVET, and is historically known as the ‘two plus two’ system. In the United States, the lines between the last years of high school and the first year of college are increasingly blurred as students take college courses while still in high school. In a Tech Prep curriculum, the last years of high school are closely aligned with the technical college curriculum. Often, students are ‘dual-enrolled’, meaning that the courses are actually taught by the technical college and count both for a secondary and post-secondary degree. Tuition waiver. Most students pursue advanced degrees in order to get a highpaying satisfying job. But pursuing post-secondary education is costly. The lower the costs to pursue TVET relative to other options, the more popular it will be. Hence, any programme that makes TVET relatively less expensive is effective. One very effective method is to provide government tuition loans and then reduce these loans after graduation for each year a student works in a related technical area. Guaranteed job placement. Perhaps the most effective way to promote TVET among students is to guarantee employment. In a market economy, there are, of course, no ironclad employment guarantees. Nevertheless, the odds are considerably better if industry is heavily involved in the TVET programme. In the United States, it is common for firms to sponsor a particular TVET programme by providing instructional equipment, internship opportunities and sometime even the instructor. Firms do so because it gives them access to a pool of technicians. Meanwhile, from a student’s point of view, it provides increased probability of access to high-skills/high-wage employment.
4.6 Increase Government Support Relative to general and theoretical education, applied TVET is expensive. Because TVET student-outcome objectives are measurable job competencies, TVET usually
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provides opportunities for students to practise these job tasks. For this reason, TVET requires instructional laboratories that include expensive industrial equipment. Government funding in favour of theoretical education—because it is cheap— is short-sighted, especially when the outcome is growing numbers of over-educated workers. Informed government policy tends to fund TVET, understanding that it is the keystone to economic growth. Malaysia is an excellent example of a country that understands this truth and has acted accordingly by increasing the availability of TVET. The Republic of Korea is also active in supporting secondary TVET education. According to the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development of the Republic of Korea (2004), due to governmental efforts, the applicants for TVET high schools outnumbered available spaces in the 2005 school year.
4.7 Hold Industry Accountable While industry has the most to gain from solving the ‘quiet dilemma’, it is often part of the problem. Shortages of technicians can be traced, in some industries, to low wages. Equally important, technicians are often barred from advancement in companies because they lack four-year degrees. Both are serious disincentives. It is time for TVET to be forthright with industry and confront its representatives with these issues. Industries have to both change their employment policies and increase their financial support to educational programmes that provide the workforce they need, namely TVET. In countries like Australia where the TVET system is double the size of the higher education system, the reason is that industry values the qualifications that TVET provides. The government working alongside industry to align training with industry’s requirements goes a long way to solving the dilemma.
4.8 Do not Neglect High School TVET In light of the importance of post-secondary pre-first-degree TVET, there is a tendency to dismiss the importance of high-school TVET and argue for its elimination. This is misguided for three reasons. First, experience around the world suggests that a prerequisite for a strong post-secondary TVET system is a strong high-school system. The reason is that the high-school system tends to be the prime feeder for the post-secondary system. Students who spend their high-school years in academic preparation for a university education seldom change their preference to TVET. In the United States, the majority of pre-first-degree post-secondary TVET students who matriculate directly after high school participated in high-school TVET. Second, while the key to sustaining a world-class economy is a pool of technicians, it is to be remembered that blue-collar technical workers are by far the largest group (see Figure 1). The skill set of these individuals is best taught in high-school
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TVET. Third, in most countries, the majority of students start work after high school rather than going to university. If there is no TVET, then what high-school curriculum will prepare these students for the transition from school to work? As an indication, high-school TVET is very effective in reducing high-school dropout rates because students view the curriculum as relevant to their future and stay in school.
5 Summary Worldwide, nations have sought to increase educational levels to compete in the new global economy. Typically these human capital investments have stressed basic, and then university education, neglecting TVET. The result is a ‘quiet dilemma’ or labour-market disequilibrium characterized by an oversupply of university graduates concurrent with a shortage of technician-level workers. As a result, overeducation of university graduates is now a worldwide occurrence. Nations that can avoid this dilemma or resolve it will have a strategic advantage over those that cannot. It is wise to remember, for example, that the labour market for engineers is international, but firms expect/prefer to find technicians in the local labour market and locate themselves where this labour supply exists or where TVET providers can supply training. Thus, promoting TVET at both the high school and pre-firstdegree post-secondary levels should be a major emphasis of national human-capitaldevelopment policy. It is an important key to both economic growth and to providing individual economic opportunity.
Appendix 1: High-Skill/High-Wage Non-professional Occupations I. Information technology
I. Information technology (continued)
r r r
r
r r r r r r
Computer network administrators Web page(s) creators/administrators Computer systems installation and maintenance Computer repair technician Computer applications specialist Information technical consultant Data retrieval specialist Computer training specialist Communications systems installation and repair
r r r r
Communications systems technical consultant Data entry/processing Help desk Internet design, development, administration Technical documentation
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II. Traditional crafts
r r r r r
Automotive technician Precision welding Pipe fitting/plumbing Heating/ventilation/air conditioning/stationary engineers Mason
III. Industrial manufacturing technology
r r r r r r
Computer numeric control machine tool operator: metal and wood Tool and die maker Automated manufacturing system technician Computer-aided designer Millwright/industrial maintenance Industrial electrician
IV. Allied health career
r r r r r r r r r r
Licensed practical nurse Dental hygienist Surgical technician Paramedic Radiologist Health facilities management Dietary management Health information technicians Cardiology technologists Respiratory therapists
V. Service industries
r r r r r r r r
Paralegal Professional chef Recreation/restaurant management Law enforcement Fire prevention Court/conference reporter Interpreter Landscape management
VI. Electronic
r r r r
Avionics Electronics technician Electro-mechanical repair technician Mobile electronics installation and repair
VII. The Arts
r r r r r
Computer graphic designer Animated graphic designer Lighting design/installation/repair Cinematography Custom/set design/installation
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References Bae, S.H.; Song, J.H. 2006. Youth unemployment and the role of career and technical education: a case study of the Korean labor marker. Career and technical education research, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 3–21. Bishop, J. 1995. Expertise and excellence. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies. (Working paper 95–13.) Carnevale, A.; Gainer, L.; Meltzer, A. 1990. Workplace basics. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. China in serious shortage of skilled workers. 2004. People’s Daily, 16 September. <english.people.com.cn/200409/16/eng20040916 157294.html> Dore, R.P. 1976. The diploma disease: education, qualification and development. Berkeley, CA: University of California–Berkeley. The Economist. 2000. Guide to economic indicators: making sense of economics. Princeton, NJ: Bloomberg Press. Gray, K. 2000. Getting real: helping teens find their future. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Gray, K.; Herr. E. 1998. Workforce education: the basics. Needham Heights, MA: Alleyn & Bacon. Gray, K.; Herr, E. 2006. Other ways to win: creating alternatives for high school graduates, 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Hecker, D. 2001. Occupational employment projections to 2010. Monthly labor review, vol. 124, pp. 57–84. Hecker, D. 2005. Occupational employment projections to 2014. Monthly labor review, vol. 128, pp. 70–101. Korean Education Development Institute—KEDI. 2004. Statistical yearbook on education in Korea. Seoul: KEDI. Livingstone, D. 1998. The education/jobs gap. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. McCormick, A.; Knepper, P. 1996. A descriptive summary of bachelors’ degree recipients one year later. Washington, DC: US Department of Education. (NCES Publication no. 96–158). McLean, G.N.; Osman-Gani, A.M.; Cho, E., eds. 2004. Human resource development as national policy. Advances in developing human resources, vol. 6, no. 3. [Entire issue.] More college graduates put strain on China’s job market. 2002. People, 31 December. National Association of Manufacturers—NAM. 2005. 2005 Skills gap report: a survey of the American manufacturing workforce. Washington, DC: NAM. Paprock, K.E. 2006. National human resource development in transitioning societies in the developing world: introductory overview. Advances in developing human resources, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 12–27. Pennsylvania Economic League. 1996. Building a world-class technical workforce: the key to a competitive greater Philadelphia. Philadelphia, PA: Pennsylvania Economic League. Porter, M. 1990. The competitive advantage of nations. New York, NY: The Free Press. Projections of college enrollment, degrees and high-school graduates. 2005. The chronicle of higher education, 2004–5, August 26. Pryor, F.L.; Schaffer, D. 1997. Wages and the university educated: a paradox resolved. Monthly labor review, vol. 120, no. 7, pp. 3–16. Pucel, D. 1995. Occupationally specific mathematics requirements and application contexts. Journal of industrial teacher education, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 51–75. Republic of Korea. Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development. 2004. The 2005 career and technical education high school recruitment results. Seoul: Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development. [Unpublished ministerial media statement (in Korean).] Republic of Korea. Ministry of Labour. 2004. The 2004 labour demand survey results. Seoul: Ministry of Labour. [Unpublished ministerial media statement (in Korean).] Republic of Korea. Prime Minister’s Office. 2004. Special report on youth unemployment. Seoul: Prime Minister’s Office. [Unpublished government document (in Korean).]
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Seth, M.J. 2002. Education fever: society, politics, and the pursuit of schooling in South Korea. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii. Silvestri, G. 1997. Occupational employment projections to 2006. Monthly labor review, vol. 120, no. 11, pp. 58–83. Thurow, L. 1996. The future of capitalism. New York, NY: Morrow & Company. Thurow, L. 2003. Fortune favors the bold. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers. United States. Department of Education. 1995. Baccalaureate and beyond data set. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Wall, J.; Passmore, D. 1997. Economic effects of technicians shortages. State College, PA: The Penn State University. World Bank. 1997. World development report: the state in a changing world. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Zinser, R.; Lawrenz, F. 2004. New roles to meet industry needs: a look at the advanced technological education program. The journal of vocational education research, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 85–99.
Chapter XIII.3
New Directions for High-School Career and Technical Education in the United States Richard L. Lynch
1 Introduction Career and technical education (formerly known as vocational education) is the most prominent term used in United States high schools today to identify collectively those curriculum programmes designed to prepare students to acquire job skills and related general or academic education, enabling them to enter the labour market immediately upon high-school graduation. Nearly all high schools in the United States (US) offer introductory courses for the purposes of general labour-market preparation, such as word-processing (formerly known as typing), introduction to computers, technology education, and family and consumer sciences. About 75% of all US comprehensive high schools also offer several courses in one or more specialized labour-market preparation programmes in areas such as agriculture, business and marketing, health occupations, food services and hospitality, child care, trade and industrial education, technical and communications, etc. Typically, high schools will offer at least three Carnegie unit courses in one or more of these specialized labour-market programmes. Throughout the latter part of the twentieth century, particularly during the 1990s, researchers and observers began to note and document fairly significant changes in US high-school vocational education. The reasons for change seemed to be in response to declining enrolments in most traditional vocational education programmes, an often poor image or perception of the quality of these programmes, various state policy changes requiring high-school students to enrol in more academic courses and thus leaving less time in the school day for ‘voc ed’, or pressure from businesses and other economic factors to improve the curriculum. As might be suspected, substantive changes did not come everywhere nor easily, not always often enough, and were usually accompanied with great debate on the contemporary role of vocational education in the US high school, its purposes, structure and value. There were, in the late 1980s and 1990s, mixed directional signals about the future of high-school vocational education among federal and state policy-makers, professional educators—especially those engaged in school reform—the vocational education establishment itself, the business community and public watch-dogs. Four schools of thought seemed to be the most significant: R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XIII.3, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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1. Concentrated preparation in specialized job skills targeted primarily to the 8–12% of educationally disadvantaged students who, in all likelihood, will not attend college and who need extensive job training to enter the labour market upon high-school graduation; 2. ‘Education through occupations’, where career and technical education is recognized as an educational instructional modality for teaching traditional academic courses; 3. Job skills targeted to about one-third of high-school graduates who are not university bound—at least not immediately upon graduation from high school; and 4. A K–14 model (i.e. kindergarten to grade 14), whereby the curriculum and programmes in high-school career and technical education are closely articulated with those in post-secondary institutions and the student outcomes include a valid occupational license or certification, diploma, associate degree and/or career sustaining employment. Thus, at the turn of the century and at the time of the work described in this chapter, vocational education (now becoming known as career and technical education) seemed to be at a crossroads. There was consensus that much needed to be changed, but what those specific changes ought to be or in what direction were not well documented.
2 Purpose The purpose of the work described here was to underpin, identify and then describe new directions for career and technical education in US high schools. The essential purpose of this chapter is to describe an appropriate education and the experiences needed by US high-school students to prepare them concomitantly to enter employment upon graduation and/or to continue studying in post-secondary institutions at that time or at some later period in their lives.
3 Methodology New directions have been drawn from a review and synthesis of creative thought, opinion, policy-influencing documents, research and reflective thinking from a plethora of stakeholders involved generally with high-school education in the United States and specifically with career and technical education. Position papers, strategic plans and other documents—primarily those published in the 1990s—were reviewed from many educational groups, trade and professional organizations, state and local school systems, businesses or business coalitions, and the government. Presentations were given to and conversations held with participants at the national conferences of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE), the National Association of State Directors of Vocational and Technical Education Consortium (NASDVTC) and the American Association of Colleges for
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Teacher Education (AACTE). Three regional conferences on ‘Improving America’s Schools’ were held, sponsored by the US Secretary of Education, as well as two state career and technical education conferences, in New York and Kentucky. Discussions were held with participants on several e-mail ‘listservs’, including state directors of vocational and technical education, faculty/administrators affiliated with the University Council for Workforce and Human Resource Education (UCWHRE), those online with the National Center for Research on Vocational Education (NCRVE), and two other groups focused on high-school reform and teaching and learning. Face-to-face, telephone or focus-group interviews were held with many business persons, representing a range of industries; trade and professional association executives and staff; public school administrators; state directors of career and technical education programmes; university deans and faculty; government officials; and other individuals known to have researched and published about and/or advocated widely for career and technical education. Open-ended responses about the vision or new directions for secondary-level education necessary to prepare youth for success in twenty-first century workplaces were received through mail and/or e-mail from over 200 individuals. The literature and research review, interviews, conference presentations and conversations, and a review of written strategic plans and positions took place from July 1998 to June 1999. Subsequently, drafts of written sections about new directions or an executive summary were reviewed by and discussed with over fifty stakeholders (e.g. state directors of career and technical education, federal officials, and staff from business coalitions or professional associations). Where appropriate, directions were modified in an attempt to reach consensus from primary stakeholders.
4 The Grounding of High-School Career and Technical Education Briefly reviewed here are four forces that are underpinning the demand for reform in high-school vocational education, hereafter referred to as career and technical education: (a) the new economy, (b) public expectations for students, (c) new research on student learning and motivation and effective teaching, and (d) a loud and vocal call for reform of the American high school.
4.1 The New Economy As economists are widely pointing out, it is no longer a post-agricultural or postindustrial world. Rather it is a new world of fast communications and information, rapid decision-making and intelligent social skills that are needed to deal with economic, technical, ecological and ethical issues identified with the complex problems facing every economic, social or political system (Nijhof, 1998). This new economic world is vastly different from the agricultural/factory environment that ushered in US pubic school vocational education at the turn of the twentieth century. It is
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characterized today by international activity, cyberspace, ever-changing market demands and standards, rapid product life cycles, ever-increasingly sophisticated computers, and the need for a more thorough knowledge of the holistic (the gestalt) of the business environment rather than just specific skills or narrow job tasks (Carnevale, 1991; O’Hara-Devereaux & Johansen, 1994; Wirth, 1992). Today’s workplaces are often situated in a multitude of locations characterized by cultural diversity—almost a mosaic of fragmented or ‘different’ organizations and infrastructures, periodic economic restructuring, and constantly changing worker roles and duties. Increasingly, economists and scholars talk about the ascendancy of knowledge as a primary product and competitive edge for many businesses; increased reliance on team problem-solving—often from remote locations; and an incredible (and sometimes difficult) need to manage information and technology; the ability to analyse, synthesize and evaluate information and use that information to solve problems; new versions and forms of prerequisite technical skills; flexible jobs; and new iterations of related education and skill requirements—that is, a constant need to continue to learn and upgrade (Bernhardt et al., 1998; Brown, 1999; Carnevale, 1991; Marshall & Tucker, 1992; Wirth, 1992). At the same time, the specific skills to enter and succeed in these workplaces have also changed significantly in the past two decades. Technical and technological skills remain important, but they must be modified and grounded in employees’ ability to think of them in the context of the big picture (i.e. technical skills’ role in knowledge and understanding of all aspects of the industry). Employers increasingly discuss the importance of new skills crucial to the employees’ ability to work effectively, such as knowing how to learn, interpersonal skills, competence in applying general education (reading, writing, calculating, computing) to workplaces, the ability to work in teams or groups, effective listening and oral communications skills, adaptability and flexibility, personal management skills with good self-esteem, and personal and workplace ethics, leadership or initiative, and—seemingly, above all— the ability to think and to solve problems in workplaces. Many of these skills were once reserved for those in management; today, they are considered necessary for individuals in all levels of employment (Alpern, 1997; Clagett, 1997; Evers, Rush & Berdrow, 1998; Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, 1991; Stasz, Ramsey & Eden, 1995). In the US today, less than 20% of the workforce is in jobs classified as unskilled. This is almost an exact reversal of the American workforce just forty years ago. In 1959, 60% of the workforce was unskilled, with 20% classified as professional and 20% as skilled. Today 60% of the workforce is in skilled occupations and 20% in professions. The assembly line, single-skill jobs of the factory or construction site and the office clerk typist or bookkeeper are largely defunct. Rather, there is a tremendous demand for educated people with general employability and specialized technical skills in areas related to computer science and computer science technology, high-tech manufacturing, software development, biotechnology, biomedical applications, sales and services, database management and health care. Nearly all of the rapidly growing jobs and occupations require post-secondary or extensive continuing education (Murnane & Levy, 1996; 10 Hot Jobs, 1999; Stuart et al., 1999).
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Thus, it is important to recognize in any redirection of high-school career and technical education the role that the new economy is playing in determining the need for all students today to have increasingly higher levels of academics and, simply stated, to know more and to be able to learn even more. Not only will they be better prepared—both in the short term and in the long term—for career sustaining employment, but various government data sets show that higher levels of learning result in: (a) significantly increased wages over the lifespan; (b) improved worker productivity; (c) less unemployment; (d) greater employee benefits; (e) the ability to negotiate successfully changes in workplaces; and (f) exposure to and engagement with technology. (See, for example, United States. Bureau of Labour Statistics, 1998; Choy, 1998; Decker, 1996; Medrich, 1996; Phillippe & Patton, 2000; Toth, 1999; Stuart et al., 1999). It is simply in the best interests for all high-school students to plan for and prepare to attend post-secondary education, whether they want to or not. This is crucial information and needs increasingly to be included in career development and guidance sessions for all students in all schools.
4.2 Public Expectations US public survey data lead to two conclusions about expectations relevant to career and technical education: (a) the public does indeed want career education and work skills included as critical components of the public school, K–12, curriculum; and (b) parents expect their children to attend university. Marzano, Kendall and Cicchinelli (1999) concluded that five subject areas have majority acceptance by the American adult public as definitely necessary in the school curriculum: health, work skills, language arts, technology and mathematics. All standards identified with the work-skills subject category were rated as definitely necessary; specific skills were drawn heavily from general employability skills and included, for example, standards about working with others, working with tools and technology, work ethics and managing money. This government-funded and Gallup-conducted study also concluded that a main goal of education should be to provide knowledge that helps individual students obtain meaningful employment. Nearly 100% of parents say they want their children to attend university, and the vast majority of students say they plan to do so. Nearly all graduates of the class of 1992 said they planned to attend post-secondary education either immediately after high school (77%) or at some later point (an additional 20%); 71% of them said they planned to earn a bachelor’s degree. These figures were generally true regardless of the parents’ formal education, income level, race or ethnicity (Choy, 1998). In reality, however, actual university attendance compared with ‘wannabe’ university attendance is far from a perfect correlation. Levesque et al., (2000) found that about 73% of 1992 high-school completers were enrolled in a post-secondary institution within two years of graduation. About 67% of 1997 high-school completers were enrolled in university in October of that year; nearly two-thirds of them at a four-year college and another third at a two-year institution (United States. Bureau of Labour Statistics, 1998).
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Despite the positive enrolment of high-school graduates into higher education, studies indicate that the US has a dismal record for university programme completion or graduation. According to a most recent study by ACT (an independent, not-for-profit organization that provides assessment, research, information and programme management services), nearly 26% of all 1999 freshmen in four-year colleges and 44.9% of freshmen at two-year colleges did not return for a second year. Further, ACT claims that only about 51% of all students who attend university will eventually complete a first degree (Vocational training news, 2000). Studies and statistics vary on the exact percentages of students who complete degree programmes, usually depending on what programmes (e.g. certification or license only, associate degree, bachelor’s degree) are considered. However, it is generally concluded that only about 50% of students who start in a US college or university—and certainly those who attend state-supported systems—will eventually receive a bachelor’s degree (Kirst, 1998). In reviewing public survey data and some government databases and in analysing comments from position papers and interviews, a few conclusions seem obvious: (a) the public expects its high-school youth to attend university and, indeed, more high-school graduates continue to do so each year; (b) the public expects public high schools to prepare youth for employment; (c) huge numbers of high-school graduates are not prepared to be successful at four-year colleges, and large percentages (≈ 50% on a nation-wide average) will drop out before completing a liberal arts bachelor degree or a professional programme within six years; (d) virtually all American young people should complete a solid, high-quality education that includes some career and technical education through the equivalent of two years of post-secondary education.
4.3 Student Learning Motivation and Achievement As commented by Howard Gardner (1995), renowned Professor of Education at Harvard University: ‘We’ve probably learned more about the mind and how it works in the last, say, twenty-five years than has been learned in all previous systematic study’ (p. 4). We simply know so much more today about how young people learn, think, remember, perceive, form associations, transfer knowledge, construct knowledge and meaning from new information, and apply knowledge to solve problems, including those that are poorly structured and unfamiliar. We also know more today about how to structure the curriculum and the learning experiences for young people that build on our new knowledge of cognition. Further, we know more about how to motivate more students to continue to learn more. Our challenge, of course, is to figure out how to use this new knowledge to advance student achievement in schools and other learning environments (e.g. workplaces). Businesspersons and educational researchers continue to say that we must teach all students to new levels of higher-order thinking. This, then, is much of the impetus that undergirds the initiatives to integrate vocational and academic education in US high schools. It is important to teach youth how to think, not just what to think.
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Any definition of higher-order critical thinking skills includes the ability to think creatively, make decisions, solve problems, visualize a solution, reason, analyse, interpret and continue to learn. Critical thinkers draw on a variety of resources and disciplines to solve problems, use standards of performance as a benchmark, and are intermittently independent and group reliant for assistance. Many recent theories and research on cognition and learning clearly support some of the pedagogical approaches historically used by career and technical educators—‘learning by doing’, ‘heads and hands’, ‘theory and practice’ and cooperative education. The theories and published works on multiple intelligence and how the brain processes information (Gardner, 1983), learning styles (Flannery, 1993; James & Gardner, 1995; Griggs, 1991), contextual teaching and learning (Borko & Putnam, 1998; Howey, 1998); out-of-school learning (Resnick, 1987); situated cognition (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989), and constructivism (Lynch, 1997) are prominent examples. Conversely, career and technical education needs to set aside its historical reliance on an essentialist philosophy and habit psychology (Prosser & Quigley, 1950) that helped to shape pedagogy and practice throughout its history. The premise behind Prosser’s essentialism is that education should train for specific jobs rather than train for culture and that the ‘right habits of doing and thinking are repeated to the point that the habits developed are those of the finished skills necessary for gainful employment’ (p. 222). In contrast to Prosser’s essentialism of the twentieth century, the economy of the twenty-first century clearly calls for thinking and culture to be included in career and technical education. The learner needs to be able to make sense of the workplace and its context within that person’s life. It is not just ‘training’ for specific jobs that is needed, but to make decisions, solve problems, find answers and draw on a variety of disciplines and cultural contexts to make sense out of changes, challenges and day-to-day operations at the workplace. Thus, the learner (i.e. the worker) needs both the theory and the broad framework of that which underlies the mission and all aspects of that industry, as well as the company’s and his or her role, responsibilities and duties within the larger society. This leads to the integration of vocational and academic education, which may be among the most important recommendations emanating from US federal legislation and funding in the past decade.
4.4 School Reform Nearly every individual or group interviewed commented that it is insufficient to reform only vocational education into a new career and technical education without introducing major changes in public schools, especially high schools. Poll after poll, thousands of pieces of education legislation from the fifty US states, and cumulative analysis of writings of scores of educational journalists from the nation’s top news magazines and newspapers all show that education today is the ‘number one’ concern of the American public. The National Conference of State Legislators expected school quality to top state legislative agendas in 1999 (Toth, 1999) and high schools are thought to be a principal target for reform.
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Several prominent professional groups of educators have theorized about or researched effective high schools. In synthesizing their work, common denominators for ‘outstanding’ or ‘effective’ high schools include: (a) high academic standards; (b) a coherent core curriculum that integrates rigorous academic content with realworld applications; (c) authentic student assessment; (d) good human, equipment, governance and financial resources to enhance student success; (e) the availability of school-supervised service- and work-based learning opportunities; (f) highly qualified teachers—the key to increased student achievement; (g) meaningful partnerships with parents, local or area colleges including community and technical colleges, business and industry, policy-makers, social services and other community groups; (h) a small-school or school-within-a-school environment where administrators and teachers know each student, often achieved with a team approach through an integrated professional, career or applied major (American Association of School Administrators, 1999; Bottoms, Presson & Johnson, 1992; National Association of Secondary School Principals, 1996; Toth, 1999; United States Department of Education, n.d.).
5 Purposes of Career and Technical Education A ‘new’ career and technical education is integral to reform of the American high school. The public demands and the students need relevant, contemporary career information, knowledge and skills. Career and technical education is integral to whole school, comprehensive reform; it is not separate from it. Drawing from recent research and literature and opinion, four purposes for high school career and technical education appear to be: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Providing career exploration and planning; Enhancing academic achievement and motivation to learn more; Acquiring generic work competencies and skills useful for employment; Establishing pathways for continuing education and lifelong learning.
5.1 Themes and Components of High-School Career and Technical Education There are four themes that were consistently discussed in the extant literature and that seemed to frame much of the discussion of career and technical education. These themes or unifying representations about needed reform in high-school career and technical education were almost ubiquitous in conversations with educators, business persons and policy groups: 1. Infuse career planning throughout the entire curriculum, from pre-kindergarten to lifelong learning. The essence of this theme is that all teachers (and parents) should be cognizant of applications of knowledge to real-world environments, especially workplaces.
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2. Ground career and technical programmes in high-school reform. Consistently, respondents spoke of the need to change the way in which high schools are organized, programmes and curricula are delivered, and students are taught. 3. Improve the image and upgrade twentieth century vocational education into a new and improved career and technical education for the twenty-first century. Reform initiatives must be important and substantive. 4. Prepare high-school graduates both for workplaces and continuing education. Many of the reports reviewed and most of the people interviewed for this project called for a thirteenth and fourteenth year as a minimum education benchmark for the next generation of American students. Six components underlay the four themes and are focused on that which is thought to bring about improvements in students’ learning, achievement, motivation and performance to prepare them well for post-secondary education and for workplaces. Substantive changes in these components will involve: careful attention to implications from further research and evaluation studies; much developmental work in curriculum, systems and assessment; and vastly improved teacher education, counsellor education and school leadership development programmes. Furthermore, the substantive changes cannot be developed and implemented by career and technical educators themselves, but will involve significant partnering with other educators, business and industry, parents and government agencies to prepare high-school students well for employment and for post-secondary education.
5.2 High School Majors Organizing the high-school curriculum into majors is conceptually similar to the liberal arts and professional fields that students choose in university in order to: organize a programme of study; choose specific courses, including general, professional and applied work; arrange internships and other experiences; complete term or senior projects; and collaborate with fellow students, advisors, faculty and others involved with the major. It is not just career and technical majors that would be provided to high-school students, but focused study and related experiences might surround majors, such as the performing arts, the liberal arts, technology, math and science, and teacher education. The applied subject matter and experiences should comprise about 10–20%—three to four Carnegie units of credit, comparable to the number currently completed by a student concentrating or specializing in career and technical education—of the students’ total high-school curriculum. It is assumed that all high-school students would select a major no later than the junior year or at about age 16. The system of majors offered by a local high school would replace the current tracking and labelling system that typically identifies students as college prep, general, vocational and special education. All students would select a major that presumably is compatible with their personal and career plans and whose interests align closely with the subject matter and experiences available through the major.
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Students from all majors would converge to study many academic subjects, such as language arts, math and science. For career and technical education purposes, the majors available at any high school should be determined at the state and local levels. Policy groups and school administrators should consider the following criteria for organizing career and technical majors: 1. A mission to provide the foundation for long-term employment and lifelong learning; 2. High-growth employment industries and occupations that offer high wages, good career opportunities for graduates and a clear pathway to advancement; 3. Requirements for a rigorous, coherent, sequenced programme of study that includes high-level academics, technology applications, a recognized body of knowledge by industry standards, the infusion of employability skills, workbased learning and instruction in all aspects of the industry; 4. Connections with business and industry; 5. Connections with post-secondary education; 6. Recognition at key points (e.g. high-school graduation) with a transcript delineating accomplishments and/or a skill certificates based on valid and reliable assessments. There are many examples of organizational schemata around career clusters or majors throughout the United States and in other countries known for their effective technical and vocational education and training systems. Examples include: career and technical education programme areas organized around eight broad economic sectors, plus technology education from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards; fifteen economic sectors identified by the National Skills Standards Board; and sixteen career clusters recently identified by the United States Department of Education. (For further discussion of these points and others, as well as examples from other countries, see Hoachlander, 1998; Lynch, 1997.) Obviously, many of these programmes or career cluster areas could be transited into bona fide high-school majors using the above criteria.
5.3 Contextual Teaching and Learning Contextual teaching and learning (CTL) is a conception of pedagogy that requires educators to use instructional approaches to relate subject matter content to real-world situations that, presumably, will help students apply this knowledge to their current and future roles as students, family members, citizens and workers. Drawing from various theoretical and development works, Howey (1998) and colleagues operationally defined CTL as follows Contextual teaching [. . .] enables learning in which students employ their academic understandings and abilities in a variety of in and out of school contexts to solve simulated or real world problems, both alone and with others. Activities in which teachers use contextual teaching strategies help student make connections with their roles and responsibilities as
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family members, citizens, students, and workers. Learning through and in these kinds of activities is commonly characterized as problem based, self-regulated, occurring in a variety of contexts including the community and work sites, involving teams of learning groups, and responsive to a host of diverse learners’ needs and interests. Further contextual teaching and learning emphasizes higher level thinking, knowledge transfer, and the collection, analysis, and synthesis of information from multiple sources and viewpoints. CT&L includes authentic assessment, which is derived from multiple sources, ongoing, and blended with instruction.
Contemporary research on teaching and learning from the cognitive sciences underpins contextual teaching and learning. The essence is that most students need context to understand, learn, remember and transfer knowledge. Much of the current contemporary developmental work in contextual teaching and learning is focused on seven instructional strategies: (a) problem-based learning; (b) project-based learning; (c) inquiry-based learning; (d) work-based learning; (e) service learning; (f) collaborative or co-operative learning; and (g) authentic assessment. There was general consensus among all groups contributing to the discussions of new directions in high schools that the pedagogy in schools needs to be vastly improved and that CTL should frame the instructional strategies. Much of CTL is, of course, compatible with historical and contemporary instructional practices in career and technical education. But nearly all groups felt that CTL strategies need to be incorporated more throughout the high-school curriculum and certainly need to be included in the academic subjects as well. In fact, the general consensus seemed to be that academic subjects needed to emphasize far more career or real-world connections and that career and technical education needed to step up its theory base in classrooms to reinforce and strengthen the academics that must provide the foundation for applications in workplaces and other contexts. And, thus, there was a continuing thrust to integrate academic and applied instruction through contextual teaching and learning.
5.4 Work-Based Learning A third essential component in improving and developing reformed programmes of high-school career and technical education is to design and include quality, work-based learning experiences as an integral part of the curriculum for all students with career and technical majors. Most educators and businesspersons also consider it important to include work-based learning experiences for all students in workplaces related to other high-school majors as well (e.g. the performing arts, math and science, technology). Contemporary work-based learning is grounded in teaching and learning research emanating from the cognitive sciences, psychology and pedagogy. Consistent with research from these various disciplines, work-based learning blends the mental and tactile, the theoretical and applied, and the academic and vocational into an integrated curriculum. This blending appears—for most students most of the time—to result in increased retention of knowledge, deeper understanding of subject matter
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and the ability to apply (i.e. transfer) knowledge and skills in ill-structured environments. The effectiveness of blended classroom- and work-based activities also draws strength from the psychological and pedagogical principles underlying constructivism, contextual learning, the teaching of concepts and subjects through a variety of methods based on students’ preferred learning styles, and authentic assessment. Much of what we know about effective work-based learning has been gleaned through research on learning and training in workplaces. In 1995, the US Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) described work-based learning as ‘learning that results from work experience that is planned to contribute to the intellectual and career development of students’ (p. 3). It is critical to emphasize the intellectual development of students in that all school-sponsored activities must have solid educational objectives and that the work experiences are planned. Based on OTA’s study, some research studies emanating from the US School to Work Office and recent theoretical and applied work on contextualized teaching and learning, an operational definition of work-based learning has surfaced: Work-based learning is an educational approach that uses workplaces to structure learning experiences that contribute to the intellectual, social, academic, and career development of students and supplements these with school activities that apply, reinforce, refine, or extend the learning that occurs at a work site. By so doing, students develop attitudes, knowledge, skills, insights, habits, and associations from both work and school experiences and are able to connect learning with real-life work activities (Lynch & Harnish, 1998, p. 131).
Results from recent studies examining the use of structured work-based learning approaches in education provide positive indications of its impact on student achievement, motivation and educational continuation (Bailey & Merritt, 1997; OTA, 1995; Phelps, 1998; Steinberg, 1998). In much of the research and evaluation studies, there appears to be a correlation between the positive student outcomes and the structure that the school and employers put into the work experiences. When the goals, school curriculum and work-site experiences, and staff support are well planned, implemented and evaluated relative to the education and career goals and the integrity of the school programme—and to some extent, vice versa with the place of employment—the outcomes for all are very positive (Goldberger, Kazis, & O’Flanagan, 1994; Lynch & Harnish, 1998; Steinberg, 1998).
5.5 Authentic Assessment Several years ago, the United States Department of Education estimated that American schoolchildren take 100 million standardized tests a year with an average of 100 multiple-choice questions, and thus they fill in 10 billion ‘bubbles’ annually (Caudell, 1996). This is at a cost of at least US$200 million for these tests alone. Examples of the major tests typically used throughout the US include the Stanford Achievement Tests, known best as the Stanford 9, the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, and the ACT and Education Testing Service’s SAT—used primarily by colleges and universities as one criterion for selecting ‘qualified’ students to admit.
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Compatible with the high-standards rhetoric and legislated policies, many states are now actively developing their own tests of academic achievement. At least twenty-four states have recently introduced tests that high-school seniors must pass in order to get a high-school diploma. Similarly, forty-eight states are setting higher academic standards and thirty-four states have or are developing relatively highstakes tests in the earlier grades and/or high school subjects in the core curriculum (Chase, 1999). What is perhaps most troublesome about the test mania is fourfold: 1. Much of the practice of standardized testing flies in the face of knowledge about student learning and effective teaching. 2. The bubbles on the tests do not always measure what youngsters need to know, the critical thinking they need to master, problems they ought to be able to solve and the skills we—as a society—value that they acquire. 3. Standardized tests are not perceived by many segments of the population as fair in that, despite gains, women and minorities consistently under-perform, especially on SAT scores. 4. Standardized tests are increasingly being used or taunted as the only measures that really count in assessing student achievement. Career and technical educators need to posit forcefully for the increased use of multiple, authentic assessments to measure student achievement. It is not that we should argue that standardized tests of academic achievement are not appropriate, but that they are not enough. Compatible with ‘Breaking ranks: changing an American institution’ (NASSP, 1996), career and technical educators need to ensure that high schools ‘assess the academic progress of students in a variety of ways so that a clear and valid picture emerges of what [students] know and are able to do’ (p. 54). Examples of multiple assessments—and thus reflected on the students’ transcripts—typically include ‘scores’ or evaluative commentary from portfolios, demonstrations, oral and written reports, work-based activities, student productions, term papers or projects, essays, student critiques of literary and technical work, standardized and teacher-made tests, employers’ and teachers’ formal and informal observations, case study analyses and so forth. Assessments should represent a history (i.e. over time) of learning, organized progress of accomplishment, a direct and valid outgrowth of the standards and objectives set for the curriculum or learning event, and input from multiple human resources. Learners themselves should have input into the assessment processes and some selection of assessment instruments. Increasingly, authentic assessments are being developed specifically from the knowledge and skills needed in workplaces. One prominent example is WorkKeys. Developed by ACT, WorkKeys provides assessment profiles of students’ skills in applied mathematics, applied technology, listening, locating information, observation, reading for information, teamwork and writing. Another prominent example is from the Cisco Networking Academy Program which teaches, tests and certifies high school (and university) students to design, build and maintain computer networks. Certification is based on students’ mastery of industrial standards through various computer-based demonstrations, design and network management
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projects, and internships. This arena of authentic, work-related assessment has great potential for measuring student achievement and should be advocated strongly by career and technical educators and included in their accountability reports to school administrators and policy groups.
5.6 Career Academies Several business persons and educators interviewed and some recent studies support revitalizing US vocational high schools or regional vocational centres into career academies and changing names and descriptors accordingly. A high-school career academy is typically a separate or distinct building near or distant from the comprehensive high school(s) or a ‘school within a school’ with a separate wing, floor or section identified with the career academy within the comprehensive high school. In reviewing recent descriptive and evaluative studies, it appears as though successful career academies (and, incidentally, those identified with the classical curriculum, as well) throughout the country have at least as many as five characteristics in common: (a) clusters of students who share many of the same classes each day and have some of the same teachers from year to year; (b) sufficient depth and breadth of academic courses that meet high-school graduation and universityentrance requirements; (c) career and technical courses sufficient to comprise a career major; (d) work-based learning experiences built into the curriculum; and (e) a group of business persons who advise the school district on important components of the programme, such as curriculum, work-based learning, financial aspects, specific courses to offer and equipment needs. In current career academies, the teachers from both academic and career and technical fields usually teach the same group of students for two to three years, engage in group curriculum and programme planning, collectively advise the students relative to career and educational goals, and focus the curriculum around a particular industry. Typically, in today’s academies, about fifty students are enrolled in a particular major at each grade level. The academies are designed to ensure that their graduates are academically and technically proficient, have marketable job skills, and are academically prepared to enrol in post-secondary education (Dayton, 1999; Kemple, 1997; Raby, 1995; Stern, Dayton & Raby, 1998; personal interviews). It is recommended that US vocational high schools or area/regional vocational schools consider transforming their current structures into career academies. This will need to be substantive transformation—not just a name change or curricular tinkering on the margins. To be successful these academies are going to have to be credible to their constituents (students, parents, community, businesses, higher education) and serve students successfully (i.e. prepare them both for college and for careers). A school-wide age-appropriate career development programme, a rigorous programme of studies surrounding career majors and a framework for Tech Prep, and implementing the characteristics identified with the currently successful career academies must underpin the development of these new twenty-first century career academies.
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5.7 Tech Prep The original design for Tech Prep emanated from the thinking of Dale Parnell in his 1984 text, Neglected majority. Parnell, known as the father of Tech Prep, called for a significant reform of vocational education based on his observation and some data that ‘voc ed’ had been relegated in many high school systems as a track for the ‘educational have-nots’ (Hull & Grevelle, 1998). Schools in general were neglecting the learning styles, academic needs and goals of the majority of their students to concentrate resources and teaching methods toward abstract learners who, of course, were or should be university bound. The fundamental premise of Tech Prep was and is that all high-school graduates are to be prepared with foundations in both academic and technical course work to matriculate into post-secondary education and enter high-skill/high-wage occupations. This, then, was to be the crux in the reform of vocational education and a cornerstone in the reform of the K–12 public school curriculum. Summarizing her years of research and that of others as well as some of the theoretical literature, Bragg (1995) from NCRVE identified six core concepts that formed and were continuing to form the basis for developing and implementing solid programmes of Tech Prep: 1. Tech Prep must be grounded in an integrated, authentic and rigorous core curriculum at both the secondary and post-secondary levels. 2. There must be formal articulation between secondary and post-secondary schools. 3. Work-based learning experiences should be integrated into the curriculum. 4. Tech Prep should be established as a standards-driven, performance-based educational initiative. 5. Tech Prep is to be an educational vehicle accessible to all students. 6. Collaboration among stakeholders is essential (p. 299). Today, the concept and design of Tech Prep seems to be in good standing with both the business and educational communities. Nearly all of those interviewed for this project promoted the 2 + 2 plan to articulate high school and community college studies and wished for more collaboration between the two. Effective Tech Prep programmes that will result in improved student achievement, increased college attendance by more high-school graduates, and a solid career and technical education for more youths will take time and commitment to develop from secondary and post-secondary stakeholders, considerable human and financial resources, and careful adherence to the concepts for Tech Prep as identified by Bragg (1995) and others.
References 10 hot jobs. 1999. Techniques, vol. 74, no. 1, pp. 26–27. Alpern, M. 1997. Critical workplace competencies: Essential? Generic? Core? Employability? Non-Technical? What’s in a name? Canadian vocational journal, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 6–16.
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American Association of School Administrators. 1999. Preparing schools and school systems for the 21st century. Arlington, VA: AASA. Bailey, T.; Merritt, D. 1997. School-to-work for the college bound. Berkeley, CA: University of California–Berkeley, National Center for Research in Vocational Education. Bernhardt, A. et al. 1998. Work and opportunity in the post-industrial labour market. New York, NY: Columbia University, Teachers College, Institute on Education and the Economy. (IEE Brief, no. 19.) Borko, H.; Putnam, R.T. 1998. The role of context in teacher learning and teacher education. In: United States Department of Education, ed. Contextual teaching and learning: preparing teachers to enhance student success in the workplace and beyond, pp. 33–67. Columbus, OH: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education, Center on Education and Training for Employment. Bottoms, G.; Presson, A.; Johnson, M. 1992. Making high schools work. Atlanta, GA: Southern Regional Education Board. Bragg, D.D. 1995. Linking high schools to postsecondary institutions: the role of tech prep. In: Grubb, W.N., ed. Education through occupations in American high schools, Vol. 2. The challenges of implementing curriculum integration. New York, NY: Columbia University, Teachers College Press. Brown, B.L. 1999. Knowledge workers. Columbus, OH: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education. (Trends and Issues Alert, no. 4.) Brown, J.S.; Collins, A.; Duguid, P. 1989. Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational researcher, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 32–42. Carnevale, A.P. 1991. America and the new economy. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Caudell, L.S. 1996. Bursting the bubbles. NW education, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1–7. Chase, B. 1999. Testing, testing. The Washington Post, 11 April, p. B5. Choy, S.P. 1998. College access and affordability. In: Wirt, J. et al., eds. The condition of education 1998, pp. 20–29. Washington, DC: United States Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement. (NCES Report no. 98-013.) Clagett, C.A. 1997. Workforce skills needed by today’s employers. Largo, MD: Prince George’s Community College, Office of Institutional Research and Analysis. (Market Analysis MA98-5.) Dayton, C.U.C. 1999. Berkeley awarded foundation grant for career academy support network. Decker, P. 1996. Education and worker productivity. In: Smith T.M., ed. The condition of education 1996, pp. 4–10. Washington, DC: United States Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (NCES Report no. 96-304.) Evers, F.T.; Rush, J.C.; Berdrow, I. 1998. The bases of competence: skills for lifelong learning and employability. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Flannery, D.D. 1993. Global and analytical ways of processing information. New directions for adult and continuing education, no. 59, pp. 15–24. Gardner, H. 1983. Frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. New York, NY: Basic Books. Gardner, H.W. 1995. Technos interview with Howard W. Gardner. Technos, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 4–7. Goldberger, S.; Kazis, R.; O’Flanagan, M.K. 1994. Learning through work: designing and implementing quality worksite learning for high school students. New York, NY: Manpower and Demonstration Research Corporation. Griggs, S.A. 1991. Learning styles counseling. Ann Arbor, MI: ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Personnel Services. Hoachlander, G. 1998. Toward a new framework of industry programmes for vocational education. Berkeley, CA: MPR Associates. [Unpublished manuscript.] Howey, K.R. 1998. Introduction to the commissioned papers. In: United States Department of Education, ed. Contextual teaching and learning: preparing teachers to enhance student success in the workplace and beyond. Columbus, OH: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education, Center on Education and Training for Employment.
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Hull, D.; Grevelle, J. 1998. Tech prep: the next generation. Waco, TX: Center for Occupational Research and Development, Inc. James, W.B.; Gardner, D.L. 1995. Learning styles: implications for distance learning. New directions for adult and continuing education, no. 67, pp. 19–32. Kemple, J.J. 1997. Career academies: communities of support for student and teachers. Further findings from a 10-site evaluation. Executive summary. New York, NY: Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation. Kirst, M.W. 1998. Bridging the remediation gap. Education week, vol. 18, no. 1, 9 September, pp. 52–76. Levesque, K. et al. 2000. Vocational education in the United States: toward the Year 2000. Washington, DC: United States Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement. Lynch, R.L. 1997. Designing vocational and technical teacher education for the 21st century: implications from the reform literature. Columbus, OH: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career and Vocational Education. (Information Series, no. 368.) Lynch, R.L.; Harnish, D. 1998. Preparing preservice teacher education students to use work-based strategies to improve instruction. In: United States Department of Education, ed. Contextual teaching and learning: preparing teachers to enhance student success in the workplace and beyond, pp. 127–58. Columbus, OH: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education, Center on Education and Training for Employment. Marshall, R.; Tucker, M. 1992. Thinking for a living: education and the wealth of nations. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, Basic Books Division. Marzano, R.J.; Kendall, J.S.; Cicchinelli, L.F. 1999. What Americans believe students should know: a survey of U.S. adults. Washington, DC: United States Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement. (Contract no. RJ96006101.) Medrich, E. 1996. Preparation for work. In: Smith, T.M., ed. The condition of education, 1996, pp. 11–16. Washington, DC: United States Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (NCES Report no. 96-304.) Murnane, R.J.; Levy, F. 1996. Teaching the new basic skills: principles for educating children to thrive in a changing economy. New York, NY: Free Press. National Association of Secondary School Principals—NASSP. 1996. Breaking ranks: changing an American institution. Reston, VA: NASSP. Nijhof, W.J. 1998. Qualifications for the future. In: Nijhof W.J.; Streumer, J.N., eds. Key qualifications in work and education, pp. 19–35. Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Office of Technology Assessment—OTA. 1995. Learning to work: making the transition from school to work. Washington, DC: OTA. O’Hara-Devereaux, M.; Johansen, R. 1994. Globalwork, bridging distance, culture, and time. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Parnell, D. 1984. The neglected majority. Washington, DC: AACC/Community College Press. Phelps, L.A. 1998. Changing work, changing learning: the imperative for teacher learning in workplaces and communities. In: Teacher learning in the workplace and community. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, Center on Education and Work. Phillipe, K.A.; Patton, M. 2000. National profile of community colleges: trends and statistics, 3rd ed. Washington, DC: Community College Press, American Association of Community Colleges. Prosser, C.A.; Quigley, T.H. 1950. Vocational education in a democracy. Chicago, IL: American Technical Society. Raby, M. 1995. The career academies. In: Grubb, W.N., ed. Education through occupations in American high schools: Vol. 1: Approaches to integrating academic and vocational education, pp. 82–96. New York, NY: Columbia University, Teachers College Press. Resnick, L.B. 1987. Learning in school and out. Educational researcher, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 13–20. Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills. 1991. Learning a living: a blueprint for high performance. Washington, DC: United States Department of Labour. (A SCANS report for America 2000.)
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Stasz, C.; Ramsey, K.; Eden, R. 1995. Teaching generic skills. In: Grubb, W.N., ed. Education through occupations in American high schools: Vol. 1: Approaches to integrating academic and vocational education, pp. 169–91. New York, NY: Columbia University, Teachers College Press. Steinberg, A. 1998. Real learning, real work: school-to-work as high school reform. New York, NY: Routledge. Stern, D.; Dayton, C.; Raby, M. 1998. Career academies and high school reform. Berkeley, CA: University of California–Berkeley, Graduate School of Education. Stuart, L., et al. 1999. 21st century skills for 21st century jobs. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office. Toth, T. 1999. Outstanding high schools. U.S. News & World Report, vol. 126, no. 2, 18 January, pp. 47–51. United States. Bureau of Labour Statistics. 1998. College enrollment and work activity of 1997 high school graduates. Washington, DC: Office of Employment and Unemployment Statistics. United States. Department of Education. No date. New American high schools. Washington, DC: Office of Vocational and Adult Education. Vocational training news. 2000, vol. 31, no. 6, pp. 1–3. Wirth, A.G. 1992. Education and work for the year 2000: choices we face. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Chapter XIII.4
Occupations in Demand/Youth Employment Antoaneta Voikova
1 Background The on-going processes of globalization have increased the role of human resources development in European policy. The European Neighbourhood Policy is the main strategic framework for enhancing stability and prosperity, as well as European values between neighbours (European Training Foundation, 2005a). The major priority of the neighbourhood co-operation programmes is the reorientation of education towards actual demands. In recent years complex economic processes have been going in South-East Europe (SEE). They have had a dramatic effect on employment—particularly youth employment—in the countries of the region. In the last decade of the twentieth century most of the countries in the region were affected by: (a) deep economic restructuring with low industrial productivity, far below the level of 1990; (b) a prolonged and measured phase of privatization; (c) inflation; (d) crises in the financial and banking systems; (e) the collapse of ‘traditional’ industries; (f) a high number of dismissed employees; and (g) a slow rate of job creation and of private sector development. The needs for certain qualifications— knowledge management and problem-solving skills—were dynamically changed. Hence, the national labour markets were characterized by stagnation and structural unemployment, with a large number of unemployed young people, long-term unemployment and the emergence of disadvantaged groups. The absence of economic and social perspectives set in motion emigration to Western European countries. Most of those who left their countries were young people. This negative trend, combined with a demographic crisis (low birth rates and ageing of the population) reduced the quality of the labour force. These troubled economies, labour markets, and education and training systems demonstrated limited institutional capacity to tackle the factors leading to unemployment and the social exclusion of young people. This ultimately set in motion a reform and modernization process in education and training and in the labour market. The years 1996–1997 proved to be the most crucial for all countries in the region, as the economic and social crises reached their peak. Since 1999–2000 the SEE countries have started to consolidate and stabilize their economies. These processes have affected the employment levels and the characteristics of the labour market. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XIII.4, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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Some development plans and programmes have been prepared by these countries in accordance with their national specificity and potential. During the transition period, the number of employees decreased in all sectors of the economy. The most evident decrease was registered in heavy industry (mining, metallurgy, etc.), falling by at least 50% in all countries in the region. Unemployment has affected both the ex-industrial regions, where enterprises were closed down and insufficient new jobs created, and the rural regions. The employment pattern has remained largely unchanged, but has begun to make some progress in manufacturing, civil construction, trade, tourism and communications. The big questions are what kind and which forms of education and training would be appropriate for young people in order to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills that will make them competitive on the labour market. Since 1999–2000 the processes of restructuring and investment in economic sectors and branches have begun to have an effect, and this is connected with human-resources development as a major factor in economic prosperity. As a result of investments in the labour force, changes can be noticed in labour-force quality, productivity, flexibility and adaptability. Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) have become important factors in individual identity and the progress of society. People have once again been able to manage their lives through the formal education system and through their chosen profession in a business company or in other settings. The TVET system ensures equal opportunities for all people, regardless of age, to upgrade their knowledge and skills or to acquire vocational qualifications. It integrates young people into society through the sharing of common values, the transfer of cultural traditions and the encouragement of self-sufficiency. This chapter reflects issues of youth employment in the SEE countries. The main aim is to describe the current reforms in TVET systems, and the policies and measures implemented in these countries to encourage the employment of young people, to outline some obstacles and problems encountered by the labour market and to identify areas for further improvement.
2 Vocational Education and Training to Ensure Youth Employability 2.1 Youth Employment and the Enrolment Plan Policy By tradition, TVET plays a determining role in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Bulgaria is in the group of Eastern European countries where the majority of the population (about 60%) acquires TVET within the framework of the upper secondary education system. The curricula applied in vocational schools provide the possibility of graduating from upper secondary education with a vocational qualification. It should be pointed out that the present group of young workers aged 25 to 29 have completed upper secondary education and acquired vocational qualifications. A common trend in all CEE countries is the growing number of peo-
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ple who have completed upper secondary education. The upper secondary level of education is extremely important in all education systems because its successful completion is a common requirement for starting work or going on to higher education. Despite this trend, the level of educational attainment of the population aged 20 to 24 in Bulgaria and Romania remains low. The percentage of young people who completed upper secondary education in 2004 is respectively 76% in Bulgaria and 74.8% in Romania, which is below the EU level of 76.4% and a long way from the 2010 target of 85% for this age group (European Training Foundation, 2005b). The situation in Croatia is different. There, the percentage of young people aged 20 to 24 with at least upper secondary education was 90.7% in 2004. A high level of education is a precondition for stable employment. Employed people in Bulgaria in the last quarter of 2004 usually had completed secondary vocational education or higher education. About 26.4% of all employed people had graduated from higher education, about 55.5% from upper secondary education and 18.1% from lower secondary, primary or lower levels of education (National Statistical Institute, 2004). In the period up to 1989, young people had preferred to study professions in the area of machinery construction, the chemical industry, light industry, transport, metallurgy and the mining industry. Up to that time these branches had functioned successfully, providing employment to those who graduated from vocational schools. Until 1993 the planning of vocational education in Bulgaria had been carried out mainly by the individual schools themselves, without taking into consideration specific regional needs and economic development trends. The dynamic changes taking place in the labour market have obliged schools to align themselves with TVET development. In the period 1997–1999 international experience in the field of TVET was studied and adapted to Bulgaria’s needs. Research on employers’ needs for certain qualifications was conducted under the PHARE project1 ‘Upgrading Vocational Education and Training’. Since the beginning of 2005 a national research project named ‘Identification of Employers’ Needs for a Labour Force with Certain Qualifications’ has been implemented as part of an active labour-market policy. Data from surveys, including this latter one, show a demand for qualified labour in the fields of textile manufacturing, construction, machine manufacturing, electronics and communication, amongst others. New jobs are being created, especially for large companies, in such sectors as construction, real estate, mineral extraction and processing, trade, tourism, tailoring, textiles and the food industry. There is also a general tendency for an increase in the productivity of labour as the qualifications of the labour force increase. An obstacle for future labour-force planning of the economy for people with certain qualifications is the lack of a past record of those who graduated from upper secondary and those who graduated from higher education. In recent years, Bulgarian enrolment plans by professions have been prepared in accordance with the strategies, programmes and plans for the economic development of municipalities, districts and regions and agreed with financing institutions, employment committees and regional chambers of commerce.
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The planning mechanism for TVET has also been improving in Romania through the creation of regional consortia that have developed regional educational action plans within a mid-term perspective—with PHARE assistance. In Bulgaria and Romania the majority of students are enrolled in upper secondary vocational schools. For the 2004/2005 school year, the proportion of students in vocational and general education schools was respectively 58% versus 42% for Bulgaria and 59.6% versus 40.4% for Romania (Skills development for employability and citizenship, 2004). In Croatia, enrolment in TVET was lower—38.5% (Figure 1). In the school year 2004/2005, the total number of classes in the secondary education system was 3,362 in Bulgaria—1,997 of which were vocational and 1,415 general (Skills development for employability and citizenship, 2004). There has been a tendency for the number of pupils enrolled in vocational schools to increase in the period 2000–2004. In 2000 about 57% of all pupils (at the age of 15) in Romania were enrolled in vocational schools, and this increased to 59.6% by 2004. For Bulgaria the figures are respectively 55.8% enrolled in vocational schools in 2000 and 58% in 2004 (Figure 2). This trend shows the increasing interests of pupils to graduate with a vocational qualification, since it is seen as an advantage when entering the labour market. By level of vocational qualification,2 the distribution of students in the Bulgarian enrolment plan for the 2005/2006 school year is as follows: 3.56% for professions with a first level of qualification (LQ); 25.08% for professions with a second LQ; and 71.34% for professions with third LQ.3 When comparing the previous school year with this one, there is an increase of 1% in enrolment for professions with the first LQ and 2% for second LQ. Enrolment for professions with the third LQ decreased by 3%. The employment of young people is determined to a great extent by the professions and specialities available within the TVET system. Training in vocational gymnasiums is carried out according to the ‘List of Professions’, which is developed in close co-operation by educational experts and employers. The ‘List’ is an
80.0% 59.6%
58.0%
60.0% 42.0%
61.5%
40.4%
38.5%
40.0% 20.0% 0.0% Bulgaria
Romania
General educational schools
Croatia
Vocational schools
Fig. 1 Enrolment in secondary general and secondary vocational schools, 2004/2005
XIII.4 Occupations in Demand/Youth Employment Fig. 2 Percentage of an age cohort enrolled in vocational schools
60,0% 59,0% 58,0% 57,0% 56,0% 55,0% 54,0% 53,0%
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Bulgaria Romania
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
open system and it can be updated on an annual base in order to achieve a better correspondence between the professions and labour-market needs. The ‘List’ is updated with the participation of employers, trade unions and representatives of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and respective branch ministries. According to statistical data, in most of EU countries the number of professions available through education is about 200. In Romania the number is about 470, in Croatia 400, classified into thirty-two vocational areas. In Bulgaria the ‘List’ includes 260 professions, classified into 39 vocational areas. The trend is towards updating the ‘List of Professions’ and the creation of wide-profiled professions in order to provide broader vocational education in the school system and closer accordance with job specialization. In many countries, the subjects that actually interest students are not relevant to labour-market needs. In Croatia the enrolment of students is biggest in professions in the field of economy and trade, following by professions in the fields of tourism, hairdressing/beauty services, machinery building and electrical engineering. In Bulgaria, the biggest share belongs to students enrolled in the fields of business management and administration, following by electrical engineering and energy, tourism and hotels, electronics and automatization, and agriculture. Enrolment is lowest for professions in the fields of mining and minerals. A steady increase is observed in enrolment for professions in the field of textile production, clothing and shoes, as well as in the field of machinery building. In recent years, the State enrolment plan has been prepared to reflect the structure of the labour market, but it is still influenced to a large extent by pupils’ interests. The State enrolment plan in Bulgaria can be analysed for 2004 and 2005 as shown in Table 1. The conclusions of this analysis raise the following issues for further discussion at national and regional levels: 1. The mechanism for defining State enrolment—articulation of the education system with the labour market—how to accommodate information about the real needs for TVET? 2. Enrolment by levels of vocational qualification should reflect: (a) labour market needs; and (b) the interests of pupils in vocational education. 3. The necessity for dialogue on enrolment problems between partners: regional inspectorates for education, vocational schools, employers and trade unions. The trend is towards an increase in enrolment of professions for the first and second levels of vocational qualification (routine and simple activities) and decreasing
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A. Voikova Table 1 Strengths and weaknesses of the State enrolment plan in Bulgaria
Strengths
Weaknesses
1. Use of the List of Professions for TVET, which is harmonized with educational fields in ISCED-97 and ISCO-89. 2. On-going optimization process of the vocational school network is a result of the demographic crisis and duplication. 3. Introduction of new professions. 4. Development of institutional dialogue and involvement of social partners. 5. Search for correspondence with the regional and municipal labour-markets’ needs. The State enrolment plan takes into account the strategies and plans for development at regional, municipality and district levels. It is developed in close co-operation with labour offices, regional organizations of employers and employees, and NGOs.
1. Enrolment in traditional vocational courses taking into consideration the teachers who are actually available in schools. 2. Duplication. 3. Imbalance in the enrolment by levels of vocational qualification. Enrolment in professions for the second and third levels of vocational qualification predominates. 4. Enrolment in some vocat ional courses is declining due to the lack of interest on the part of the pupils. This trend is leading to a lack of qualified labour in some professions that are still required by the economy. 5. Insufficient and ineffective participation of social partners in the management of TVET.
enrolment on professions for the third level of qualification (practice of a range of complex activities). Forthcoming priorities are connected with: 1. Analysis of the present situation of TVET by districts. Providing suggestions for amending the List of Professions, the framework and enrolment by professions; 2. Active dialogue with social partners: the organization of regional seminars aimed at linking TVET provision with the needs of the labour market; 3. Strengthening media policy with regard to the dissemination of information about TVET reform; 4. Providing consulting and vocational guidance services, as well as information about the possibilities for vocational education, access, training and certification of students.
2.2 Youth Employment and the Quality of TVET The issue of youth employment is closely related to the quality of TVET. The quality of TVET increases the chances of young people finding a job, integrating into society and pursuing a career. Furthermore, ensuring the quality of TVET will reduce the discrepancy between the present qualifications of the labour force and the skills and knowledge required in the future. The main objective of the TVET system under discussion by educational institutions and employers is how to facilitate the transition from school to work. The system of learning and teaching should be adapted to the evolution of the labour market. In this respect, the quality of TVET remains a major concern for all countries in the region. Analyses of all
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factors having an influence on the quality of TVET have been conducted by different stakeholders, research organizations and employers, and they suggest the following main shortcomings facing young people graduating from vocational schools:
r r r r
The relatively low proportion of practical training during the educational process; The acquisition of insufficient practical knowledge and skills; Insufficient co-ordination between the institutions dealing with the needs of young people concerning the planning and delivery of education and training activities; lack of motivation among the young people due to the low level of salaries and bad working conditions.
Some actions for quality assurance have been taken in Bulgaria.
2.2.1 Standards for Vocational Qualifications Standards for vocational qualifications have been developed with the active participation of the social partners. In the framework of the PHARE programme project ‘Upgrading Vocational Education and Training’, standards for eighteen pilot professions have been prepared. These professions are from vocational fields with priority importance for national economic development, such as construction technician, gas supply technician, telecommunication technician, etc. Training is organized on a modular approach through development of new educational content—creation of wide-profiled professions (providing wide-scope vocational education in the school system and closer job specialization), the acquisition of key competencies valid for all professions in the initial phase of training and gradual specialization in the profession towards the end of training. The development of standards for vocational qualifications after the end of the PHARE Upgrading of Vocational Education and Training Project (UVET) in 1999 continues through the establishment of the National Agency for VET (NAVET) in 2000 in compliance with the VET Act (Bulgaria. Ministry of Education and Science, 1999). NAVET is responsible for the development of standards for professions in all vocational fields. So far, standards for fifty-five professions have been issued, another fifteen are in the process of approval by the concerned ministries and thirty-five are being prepared. The standards are developed by expert teams, including representatives of different stakeholders dealing with vocational education and training— educational institutions, employers, branch chambers of commerce, etc. The list of detailed vocational competencies that the trainee should have acquired by the completion of training is used in the development of training documentation for the curriculum and the syllabus. The development of standards for vocational qualifications will help to increase the quality of TVET and thereby increase young people’s chances of employment.
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2.2.2 New Educational Approaches New pedagogical and didactic approaches should be used for practical training (for some professions) and training should be introduced during the last years at school through school training companies. School training companies simulate the operations of real business decision-taking through virtual production. The training is interdisciplinary, problem-oriented and includes the acquisition of practical knowledge for real business activities. The training methods used are active and the pupil is at the centre of the training process. The learning process includes competitiveness between the school companies and this leads to high levels of motivation among the trainees. The stimulation of entrepreneurial attitudes, the understanding of economic connections and interactions, the acquisition of key competencies such as teamwork skills, a network approach, language competencies, etc., make the trainee flexible and mobile for future working life and provide a basis for lifelong learning. The school training companies provide new teaching environments for the teachers themselves. They have a new role as consultants and trainers. This places new requirements on the teachers’ skills for communication and co-operation, which will increase the quality of TVET provided to young people.
2.2.3 Unified National Assessment Criteria Unified national criteria for the assessment of vocational competencies will be applied to graduates. The objective is transformation from a resource-oriented towards a results-oriented TVET system. According to the VET Act, national examination programmes for the acquisition of different levels of vocational qualification have been approved by the Minister of Education and Science and since 2004 they have been implemented successfully. In this way, unified national criteria have been introduced for the assessment of vocational competencies upon graduation from TVET. The unified criteria established in collaboration with employers are based on the knowledge levels and the categories of Bloom’s ‘Taxonomy’: analysis, synthesis and assessment; designing, planning and summarizing. These criteria assess the skills acquired through the transfer of knowledge in a new way, as well as the skills bringing knowledge together from different scientific fields in the process of elaborating a plan for solving concrete problems. Assessment of the results achieved during practical training concentrates on the following skills:
r r r r r r
to make a selection, to argue, reject, assess, prefer, justify, etc.; to implement the principles, norms, methods and approaches for the practical solution of production or technological problems; to carry out complex activities; to predict and describe the anticipated outcomes; to assess the quality of production activity/services; to apply health and safety requirements to the working conditions and to protect the environment.
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2.2.4 Attention to the Disadvantaged Special attention will be paid to vocational education and training for young people suffering from chronic illness, and with physical and mental disabilities. These people will receive consultation services and guidance towards suitable professions. Special curricula have been developed in order to prepare them for future employment and social integration into society. A National Action Plan has been approved in Bulgaria for the integration of children with special educational needs into mainstream education. A similar plan for the physically and mentally handicapped also exists in Romania. Reviewing recent developments in the TVET systems of Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, FYR Macedonia and Romania from the point of view of the quality of the final results, it is extremely important to resolve the following problems:
r r r r r r r r
an imbalance between theoretical and practical training; the necessity of introducing measures for training control and assessment; the lack of a mechanism for linking training content to the needs of the economy; no guarantee of a lifelong learning system; the TVET system does not necessarily provide the vocational competencies that are required from the point of view of employment; insufficient teacher training—the teacher training delivered by higher education institutions needs to be reviewed; the necessity of financial support for the development of vocational schools; support for the training of disadvantaged groups.
In recent years, all young people in Bulgaria have shown an increasing interest for professions in the area of tourism, entrepreneurship, information technologies, communications, business services, hairdressing/beauty services, construction, agriculture and ecology. Together with traditional training for professions in the school system, some new professions have been introduced, i.e. software technician, gas supply technician, hotel and catering trades, farmer, administrator of small and medium-sized businesses, tourist guide, economist-mediator on the labour market, social worker, orthopaedic technician, etc. These professions are in demand on the labour market and have now been included in the List of Professions. The ability of the education system to respond flexibly to the introduction of new professions on the labour market has been hampered by the following obstacles:
r r r
outdated equipment in schools is unable to deliver appropriate practical training; a lack of financial resources for renovation; a lack of qualified teachers and trainers to teach the new subjects and technologies.
The demand for new professions and the assurance of financial resources for TVET have led to a ‘National Strategy for Continuing Vocational Training, 2005–2010’ in Bulgaria, which was adopted by the Council of Ministers in 2004. The strategy is targeted at people over 16 years of age in order to acquire, extend and upgrade their vocational qualification so as to improve their employability. To achieve this strate-
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gic goal and with a view to future development perspectives, the following priorities for continuing vocational education and training (CVT) have been identified:
r r r r r
improving access to CVT; improving co-operation between key stakeholders in CVT; ensuring high quality for CVT; increasing investments in CVT; expanding the scientific capacity of CVT.
In connection with the practical implementation of the CVT strategy, a National Action Plan for 2006 has been prepared. It includes the following activities:
r r r r r
updating the equipment necessary for carrying out CVT; improving the measures and incentives for participation in CVT; developing a concept for collecting and disseminating data and information about qualifications and TVET providers; preparing a concept for expanding the scientific capacity of CVT. The effective CVT system assumes that methodology, teaching approaches, analyses and research will be developed; review and analysis of the existing methodology and good practices for adult training in Bulgaria.
2.2.5 Pilot Programmes Pilot programmes for the vocational education and training of pupils and adults over 16 years of age were developed and approved by the Minister of Education and Science in 2004. The objective was to ensure access to lifelong vocational learning. Despite the legislative framework and methodological approaches already developed to support CVT, additional activities and appropriate instruments are required to provide additional support, to improve the administrative and technical infrastructure and staff development, and to improve the information database for analysing and forecasting the evolution of the labour-market.
3 Employment Policies for Youth Young people are particularly vulnerable to unemployment and this is not unique to the countries in South-East Europe.4 Despite this common trend, youth unemployment has become a particularly important issue for the SEE countries because of its extent and the implications that it may have for the economic reconstruction and further development of the region. Unemployment rates for 15–24 year olds in the SEE countries are twice and more times higher than the rates for the total working-age population and range from 20.7% and 21.8% in Romania and Serbia to 72% in Kosovo, compared to 18.3% in the other twenty-five European Union member states (European Training Foundation, 2005b) (see Table 2).
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Table 2 Unemployment in SEE compared with the EU average Country (year of reference)
Unemployment rate
Youth unemployment rate
Albania (2001) Bosnia and Herzegovina (2002) Bulgaria (2004) Croatia (2003) Kosovo (2002) Montenegro (2002) FYR Macedonia (2004) Romania (2004) Serbia (2002) EU 25 (2004)
22.7 40.0 12.2 14.3 49.0 28.0 35.8 8.1 14.0 9.0
35.5 65.0 25.8 35.8 72.0 35.0 61.6 20.7 21.8 18.3
Research work and analyses conducted by different stakeholders and scientific institutions have listed the following main reasons for high unemployment rates among young people:
r r r r
r r
the low level of economic activity has resulted in a reduction of the demand for labour; skills mismatch: the types of qualifications that young people acquire through education and training systems do not correspond to the requirements of the labour market; lack of work experience and practice; early school leaving: a large percentage of young people aged 18 to 24 have at most acquired lower secondary education (ISCED 2). This phenomenon takes on huge dimensions in Albania, where 61.2% of young people aged 18 to 24 years have a low level of education and have not participated in further education and training (European Training Foundation, 2005b). The problem can be illustrated by the FYR Macedonia with a 36.2% dropout rate for 18–24 year olds. The rates in Bulgaria and Romania are significantly lower—22.4% and 23.6% respectively—but higher than the 15.9% average of the twenty-five European Union (EU) countries and the 10% EU objective for 2010. lack of motivation, lack of an entrepreneurial culture and the difficult administrative procedures discourage young people from setting up their own business; employment in the grey economy: most young people who are employed work without any contract, without fixed working hours, at a minimal wage and without social security contributions.
The high rate of unemployment among young people in the SEE countries makes them a target group for the national employment policies of these countries, but the authorities’ awareness of the problem is different in the candidate countries5 and in the countries from the Western Balkans.6 To some extent, all of these countries have addressed the issues of employment and vocational training of youth in political documents, i.e. strategy papers and country plans. At one end of the spectrum, Bulgaria and Romania explicitly identify young people as a priority for their employment strategies and action plans, corresponding to the European Employment
2258 Fig. 3 The youth unemployment rate in Bulgaria, 2001–2004
A. Voikova 50,0% 38,4%
40,0%
34,7% 28,2%
30,0%
25,8%
20,0% 10,0% 0,0% 2001
2002
2003
2004
Strategy. The employment legislation and institutional structures in both countries have been reviewed and continuously improved. Diverse programmes and measures for young people have been implemented. As a result of this implementation, the youth unemployment rate in Bulgaria has decreased by about 12.6% for the period 2001–2004 (National Statistical Institute, 2004) (Figure 3). The Western Balkans (WB) countries have recently started the process of developing employment strategies and action plans, but only Albania has actually adopted one. The other countries have addressed the employment issues indirectly in other documents (macro-economic policy document in FYR Macedonia, country strategy paper in Bosnia and Herzegovina) or are at the beginning of the process (Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro) (European Training Foundation, 2005a). The lack of a comprehensive employment strategy in these countries means that the employment and training measures for young people are relatively ad hoc and are unlikely to bring about long-term results. Furthermore, the active labour-market measures are new instruments for some of the WB countries and they lack institutional experience—and especially budgetary resources—to develop and implement them. Financial constraints on the implementation of active labour-market policies7 for young people are a common problem for all countries in the region. There is no concrete information about investments in training and employment measures for youth spent by employers, the government, young people themselves and their families. In most cases, the only indicators available are the share of public expenditure spent on active labour-market policy (as a percentage of GDP), and the relative share of expenditures for measures and programmes directed to youth (Figure 4). The data about Bulgaria and Romania8 show that despite a continuous increase in public expenditure on active labour-market policies in both countries, they are still very low compared with other EU countries. The total public expenditure on active labour-market measures in Bulgaria is 0.24% of GDP (in 2001), and in Romania, 0.14% of GDP (2002), which can be compared to the figures for Germany, 8,0%
6,4%
6,0%
Fig. 4 Public expenditure on measures designed for young people (as a percentage of total expenditures on active labour-market policies)
2,9%
4,0% 2,0%
0,3%
2,7%
0,4%
0,0% 1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
XIII.4 Occupations in Demand/Youth Employment
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0.97%; Belgium, 1.13% in 2000; Denmark, 1.44% in 2000; and France, 1.13% in 2000 (Eurostat, n.d.). The expenditures specifically for young people increase as well, but their share in the total expenditures for active labour-market policy is still low. The most common active labour-market measures targeted at young unemployed people in the countries from the region are as follows (European Training Foundation, 2000):
r
r r
Subsidies to employers to recruit young people for a certain period of time. This measure is implemented in almost all countries in the region. Its popularity lies in the fact that it tries to counteract one of the known reasons for youth unemployment—the lack of work experience. Through this measure, employers can recruit young people (at low cost), verify their capacities, knowledge and potential and provide them with some training (often this measure takes the form of on-the-job training) before they may eventually decide to recruit them full time. Temporary work (in the public sector). Young people with higher education diplomas are employed temporarily in the public administration. This has become a very popular measure in Bulgaria in the last few years. Training, retraining and further training for young people. This measure has a double objective: (a) to reduce skill mismatches with the local labour market; and (b) as a second chance for unqualified or low-qualified young people to acquire a first or higher level of qualification. The data for Bulgaria and Romania show very low levels of participation by unemployed youth in training programmes. About 7,200 unemployed below the age of 25 years participated in training in 2003 in Romania, which represents about 30% of all unemployed people involved in training measures. Young unemployed people aged up to 29 years who participated in training in 2004 in Bulgaria were respectively 13,871 or 44.1% (European Training Foundation, 2005b, 2005c). Some training programmes are institution-based and are provided in training centres or in schools used as training centres, while other programmes provide on-the-job training. Furthermore, employers are encouraged to provide practical training or apprenticeships for the young unemployed (Bulgaria). The active involvement of local employers in the process of training programmes, thereby taking into consideration the circumstances of the local economy, is a precondition for the success of training.
It should be pointed out that these measures are directed more at young unemployed people than at young people as a whole. The participation of young unemployed people in measures and programmes aimed at the labour market has been increasing continuously. For the period 2002–2004 the share of young unemployed aged 15 to 29 compared to all unemployed included in measures and programmes on the labour market in Bulgaria increased by 5.7% (National Employment Agency of Bulgaria, n.d.). Specific measures targeting sub-groups of young unemployed are implemented as a part of overall active labour-market measures. These sub-groups are those considered more exposed to unemployment, e.g. school drop-outs, young people from
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orphanages, young people without previous work experience, etc. In Bulgaria the National Employment Agency implements several programmes and measures connected with social integration and employment: (a) young people from orphanages; (b) vocational training and social adaptation courses for school drop-outs; (c) specialized programmes and measures for young people with disabilities; (d) vocational training courses for young people without vocational qualifications; (e) training for young people from ethnic minorities with low levels of education and without qualifications, etc.
3.1 Vocational Information and Guidance One of the big disadvantages common to all countries of the region is the weak provision of vocational information and guidance to young people. Only Bulgaria and Romania have worked on this issue by introducing vocational guidance services through employment offices or by setting up other specific structures for the delivery of such services. Young job-seekers can obtain full information about professions that are in demand on the labour market, as well as training programmes and the possibilities for starting work. The client-oriented model of work is gradually being introduced through employment offices in Bulgaria. This includes development of an individual action plan and delivery of individual vocational information and guidance. The major obstacle for effective functioning of vocational guidance recognized by all countries of the region, including Bulgaria and Romania, is the lack of sound information about the labour market and of specialists on vocational guidance.
3.2 Lack of Entrepreneurial Support Another disadvantage is the weak support for young people to develop entrepreneurial skills and to set up their own small or medium-sized enterprises or to become self-employed. Some countries have implemented such measures, but they are rather targeted at all unemployed or redundant workers. However, young people may participate in them as well. The instruments used are different, but in almost all cases start-up funds are provided in the form of loans or grants. (The European Guarantee Fund for Micro-credits has been functioning in Bulgaria since 2001; one of the target groups for credit is the young unemployed aged 20 to 29 years.) Beneficiaries can also receive training in the vocational field in which they would like to start a business and in micro-business management. Furthermore, business ‘incubators’ and business centres have been set up through national initiatives or through the projects of international organizations and NGOs (a framework of thirty-seven business centres/business incubators has been established in Bulgaria to support the development of micro- and small-sized enterprises).
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In order to align the capacity of young people with labour market needs and the transition to a market-oriented economy, and in compliance with European criteria, activities should be directed towards the following objectives:
r r r r r r
improvement of employability; employment enhancement; entrepreneurship development; increasing mobility; providing information about employment and TVET; monitoring development.
4 Conclusions Taking into consideration the reforms carried out in the area of TVET and employment, as well as the problems related to occupations in demand/youth employment presented above, the main challenges are related to further increasing the involvement of young people in economic activity and improving the education and qualification characteristics of the young labour force. This means encouraging young people aged 15 to 19 to pursue secondary education. In this respect the key priority areas for future efforts could be summarized as follows:
r
r r
Further upgrading of the quality of vocational education and training is a precondition for successful employment. This can be carried out through the establishment of a unified national system for quality assurance, the assessment of training results, in-service teacher training and trainer training, and the linkage of the TVET system with labour-market needs. In this respect, it is necessary to carry out regular surveys and analysis of labour-force demand, and establish a system providing information about the needs for certain qualifications and the providers of education and training. Furthermore, there needs to be further research work in the area of youth employment (reasons, obstacles, regional disparities, etc.). The development of vocational information, counselling and guidance services for children, students, youth and young disadvantaged groups about their choice of further education and training, their career and personal development. These services will support the gradual transition from school to work. The development of comprehensive policies for combating youth unemployment and their harmonization with economic, social and employment policies; increasing investments in young human capital, institutional development and capacitybuilding; strengthening partnerships at local/regional levels between schools, employers, labour offices, chambers of commerce, NGOs, local authorities and young people themselves; the introduction of more effective active labour-market measures targeted at the training and employment of young people, including support for the development of self-employment and entrepreneurship initiatives.
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Notes 1. The PHARE programme is one of the three pre-accession instruments financed by the European Union to assist the applicant countries of Central and Eastern Europe in their preparations for joining the European Union. 2. According to the Bulgarian Act for VET there are four levels of vocational qualification: Level 1—acquired vocational competencies to practise professions involving routine activities performed under routine conditions; Level 2—acquired vocational competencies to practise professions involving a range of complex activities performed in changing conditions; Level 3—acquired vocational competencies to practise professions involving a range of complex activities performed in changing conditions, as well as responsibilities for the performance of others; Level 4—acquired vocational competencies to practise professions involving a wide range of complex activities performed in changing conditions, as well as managerial responsibilities for the performance of others and for the allocation of resources. Levels 1 to 3 are acquired in vocational schools and Level 4 in vocational colleges, which are at the higher education level. 3. Data from the Ministry of Education and Science. 4. All EU countries register high rates of youth unemployment, which is a result of the special difficulties that young people face during their transition from school to working life. 5. Candidate countries include: Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Turkey. 6. Western Balkan countries include: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia. 7. An active labour-market policy aims to improve labour-force employability and to increase employment through carrying out training activities for the unemployed and the employed and conducting programmes and measures to encourage employment. 8. No data are available for the remaining SEE countries.
References Bulgaria. Ministry of Education and Science. 1999. Act for Vocational Education and Training. [In Bulgarian.] <www.minedu.government.bg> [Promulgated in 1999, but subsequently amended in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006.] European Training Foundation. 2000. Youth unemployment in South Eastern Europe: extent, nature, reasons, implications. Turin, Italy: ETF. European Training Foundation. 2005a. Live and learn, no. 3. European Training Foundation. 2005b. Review of progress in VET reform in Bulgaria. Turin, Italy: ETF. <www.etf.eu.int> European Training Foundation. 2005c. Review of progress in VET reform in Romania. Turin, Italy: ETF. <www.etf.eu.int> Eurostat. No date. Employment indicators. <epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu> National Statistical Institute. 2004. Labour force in Republic of Bulgaria in 2004. Sofia, Bulgaria: National Statistical Institute. National Employment Agency of Bulgaria. No date. Statistical database. <www.az. government.bg> Skills development for employability and citizenship: the Southeast European Experience within a global context. 2004. (An expert meeting jointly organised by UNESCO and the Austrian Commission for UNESCO in co-operation with ETF, ILO and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Vienna, 21–24 November 2004.)
Chapter XIII.5
Pathways and Transitions from School to Work: Australian Experiences Annette Gough
1 Introduction Australian governments, both national and state, acknowledge the importance of having a highly skilled workforce to achieve economic growth, to increase international competitiveness and to build ‘Australia’s capacity to effectively operate in the global knowledge-based economy’ (ACCI/BCA, 2002, p. 1) through policies such as ‘Backing Australia’s Ability’ (Australian Government, 2004), ‘Backing Australia’s Skills’ (Australia. DEST, 2004) and ‘Skills for the Future’ (Australian Government, 2006). In order to achieve such a workforce, there have been increasing numbers of initiatives by all levels of government to address skill shortages and to encourage young people to acquire employability skills. They should look upon technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and other options as viable post-school pathways between school and work. These initiatives are focused on both retaining students at school until Year 12 (the end of secondary schooling) and at providing opportunities for students to acquire appropriate employability skills and work experiences while at school, including qualifications, where relevant. At the national level, initiatives being implemented to date include:
r r r r
Reinvigorating the vocational and technical education system; The national training system; Elevating the status of trades; Rewarding and encouraging participation (Australia. DEST, 2005).
The Victorian state government released its skills statement, ‘Maintaining the advantage: skilled Victorians’, in March 2006 (Victoria. DET, 2006b). Here, schoolto-work transition is highlighted through one of the four significant action areas. Labelled ‘starting earlier’, this action area focuses on building a skilled workforce by providing greater opportunities for students to participate in TVET while at school to increase their chances of further employment. (The other action areas in this statement are learning longer, getting smarter and making it easier.) Currently, approximately one-third of Victorian senior high-school students participate in a vocational programme while at school, but the government is investing in a programme to help students start their vocational education earlier, as about one R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XIII.5, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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in seven Victorian teenagers is still not fully engaged in education or employment (Victoria. DET, 2006b, p. 26). It is well recognized that some students do not wish to remain at school beyond the minimum leaving age and, as this age level is being raised to 16 years around Australia (and it will be 17 in some states in the near future), there is increased pressure on alternative training providers to address the education, training and employment needs (and interests) of young people—especially within the context of the goal of achieving a skilled workforce. An essential part of preparing school-leavers for the world of work is the development of their personal attributes and employability skills (previously called key competencies). As discussed later in this chapter, the Employability Skills Framework (Australia. DEST, 2002) is addressed through competency standards and training packages in the vocational education and training sector in Australia. It will soon be linked to the Years 9 and 10 of secondary schooling in Victoria and to the work-related skills units of the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) for Years 11 and 12 (Thomas, Roe & Tarrant, 2006). Within this policy and framework context, this chapter discusses Australian experiences of pathways from school to post-school education that include both higher education and vocational education, and transitions from school to work. These pathways and transitions have been studied since 1995 in Australia through the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), through projects conducted by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) and through numerous individual research projects. Some of these research findings will be discussed here. To set the context for these discussions, the following section provides some background information on the current situation in Australia with respect to numbers of students and retention in schooling.
2 Schooling in Australia 2005: A Statistical Snapshot The following information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, 2006) provides a snapshot of the current numbers of students in schools in Australia, the age participation rates and the retention rates. This information provides the background for the action projects described later in this chapter.
2.1 Students
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In 2005 there were 3,348,139 full-time school students. There were 25,073 part-time school students in 2005, a decrease of 4.1% since 2004. In 2005 there were 135,097 Indigenous full-time school students, a 3.5% increase since 2004. In 2005, there were 3,427 Indigenous full-time students in Year 12, across all states and territories, compared to 2,620 five years earlier.
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2.2 Age Participation Rates At the Australian level, the age participation rates for full-time school students in 2005 were 94.7% for 15-year-olds, 82.6% for 16-year-olds and 63.5% for 17-yearolds, the latter rising from 58.6% in 1995 (Figure 1).
Aust. ACT(a) Vic. NSW SA Tas. Qld NT WA 30
1995 2005 40
50
60
70
80
90
100
%
Fig. 1 Participation rates of full-time students aged 17 years (a) The ACT figures include some students who are not ACT residents
2.3 Apparent Retention Rates
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In 2005 the apparent retention rate of full-time school students from Year 7/8 to Year 12 was 75.3% compared to 75.7% in 2004 and 72.2% in 1995. As in previous years, the apparent retention rate for females (81.0%) was significantly higher than the rate for males (69.9%). Apparent retention from Year 10 to Year 12 is down 0.7 percentage points between 2004 and 2005, while over the last decade it has increased from 73.4% in 1995 to 76.5% in 2005. The Year 10 to Year 12 rate for females in 2005 was again considerably higher than that for males (81.6% and 71.5% respectively). Apparent retention rates for Indigenous full-time school students, from Year 7/8 to both Year 10 and Year 12, have continued to rise over the previous five years — the rate to Year 10 increased from 83.0% in 2000 to 88.3% in 2005, and the rate to Year 12 increased from 36.4% to 39.5%.
This data is broken down by states and years in Table 1. While there has been significant growth in retention rates to Year 12 since 1999, data for 2005 indicate that in most states—including the populous ones, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland—the retention rates have levelled off or declined. This is of concern to governments such as Victoria’s, for example, which has a goal that by 2010 90% of young Victorians will successfully complete Year 12 or its equivalent (Kosky, 2003), yet the completion rate has been falling since 2003 in Victoria (Victoria. DET 2006a).
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Table 1 Apparent retention rates of full-time secondary students in Australia, from Year 7/8 to Year 12 NSW Vic. Qld % % %
SA %
WAa Tasb NTc ACTc Males Females Persons % % % % % % %
All schools 1999 67.6 76.2 77.5 67.0 71.5 66.7 52.9 92.5 66.4 78.5 72.3 2000 67.5 77.2 77.3 65.4 71.3 69.5 49.7 87.1 66.1 78.7 72.3 2001 68.2 79.3 79.0 66.4 72.0 68.7 50.9 89.3 68.1 79.1 73.4 2002 69.9 80.9 81.3 66.7 73.7 72.6 53.0 88.1 69.8 80.7 75.1 2003 70.5 81.4 81.5 67.1 71.2 74.9 56.3 89.7 70.3 80.7 75.4 2004 71.1 81.1 81.2 68.0 72.6 76.4 59.0 88.5 70.4 81.4 75.7 2005 71.1 80.6 79.9 70.7 72.5 67.1 59.1 87.5 69.9 81.0 75.3 Government 65.8 74.0 73.0 61.7 65.4 65.5 70.5 99.6 63.4 75.7 69.4 Non-government 80.6 91.0 92.5 88.4 85.2 70.9 39.0 73.3 81.5 90.3 85.8 a Data for Western Australia (WA) have been affected by changes in scope and coverage over time. b Relatively small changes in student numbers in smaller jurisdictions can create apparently significant movements in retention rates. c Some Australian Capital Territory (ACT) rates exceed 100%, largely reflecting the movement of students from non-government to government schools in Years 11 and 12, and of New South Wales (NSW) residents from surrounding areas enrolling in ACT schools. Source: Australian Government, 2006.
2.4 Employability Skills Industry and educators agree that in making the transition from school to work all young people need a set of skills that will prepare them for both employment and further learning. Employers are looking for these skills in people, whether they are prospective or existing employees, and post-school education and training institutions are looking for students who have a similar set of attributes. In 1992 a set of seven generic skills, the Mayer ‘key competencies’, were identified as the basic transferable competencies that underpin employability and the capacity to adapt to different types of whole work roles, as well as personal and community activities throughout an individual’s life. These key competencies are:
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collecting, analysing and organizing information; communicating ideas and information; planning and organizing activities; working with others and in teams; using mathematical ideas and techniques; solving problems; using technology (Mayer et al., 1992).
These competencies have been incorporated into vocational education and training programmes for over a decade as they are seen as playing a critical role in ensuring that the Australian workforce is equipped with the necessary skills for effective participation in the workplace. More recently, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Business Council of Australia (ACCI/BCA, 2002) conducted a research project to
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provide the Department of Education, Science and Training with a detailed understanding of the employability skills needs of industry. This project sought the views of employers with regard to the set of employability skills relevant to Australian industry for the future. The project identified those key generic employability skills that enterprises argue individuals should have, along with the job-specific or relevant technical skills. The project also identified the on-going relevance of the Mayer key competencies, but confirmed that employers now required a set of personal attributes in all employees and a set of additional skills. These additions were seen as essential by the enterprises participating in the research project. As a result of the research project, an ‘employability skills framework’ has been developed to contribute to the thinking and curriculum development of the Australian education and training system. This framework reflects the personal attributes and employability skills needs of enterprises seeking to grow and compete in an era of globalization. The personal attributes that contribute to overall employability are: loyalty, commitment, honesty and integrity, enthusiasm, reliability, personal presentation, commonsense, positive self-esteem, a sense of humour, balanced attitude to work and home life, the ability to deal with pressure, motivation and adaptability. Enterprises saw these attributes as new and essential components of employability skills. The key skills that, together with the personal attributes, make up the employability skills framework are:
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communication skills that contribute to productive and harmonious relations between employees and customers; teamwork skills that contribute to productive working relationships and outcomes; problem-solving skills that contribute to productive outcomes; initiative and enterprise skills that contribute to innovative outcomes; planning and organizing skills that contribute to long-term and short-term strategic planning; self management skills that contribute to employee satisfaction and growth; learning skills that contribute to on-going improvement and expansion in employee and company operations and outcomes; and technology skills that contribute to the effective execution of tasks (Australia. DEST, 2002).
This employability skills framework has generally replaced the Mayer key competencies as the set of defined skills to be explicitly addressed in all future development of competency standards and training packages in the TVET sector in Australia.
2.5 Literacy and Numeracy Skills Literacy and numeracy skills are a key issue. According to the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation (2004), 44% (6.2 million) of Australian adults aged
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15–74 have poor literacy skills and could be expected to experience difficulty in everyday life, and 30% of unemployed Australians have very poor literacy skills. During the employer consultations for the development of the employability skills framework, there was a significant opinion that such skills should be rated higher than other skills. However, while not specifically included in the list of employability skills finally adopted, literacy and numeracy are regarded as integral underpinning components of the skills in the framework. Nevertheless, ‘whilst general employer support for literacy and numeracy is readily apparent, there is not a great deal of evidence in Australia concerning the understanding which individual employers across a range of businesses of different size and type have about employees’ literacy and numeracy skills’ (Balzary, 2004, in Hartley & Horne, 2005, p. 14). Since the early 1990s there has been a growing realization that literacy levels of adults, from both English-speaking and non-English-speaking backgrounds, are inadequate for the long-term development of Australian industry and society as a whole. Attention is slowly being paid to both the social and economic costs to Australia of allowing a significant number of both English-speaking and nonEnglish-speaking background adults to remain ‘illiterate’ in the English language. However, as Hartley and Horne (2006) point out, assessing the social and economic costs of poor adult literacy and numeracy is largely uncharted territory in Australia, and the benefits of investing in adult literacy and numeracy skills have also been under-researched. One exception is reported by Conyer (1992) who states that: ‘Illiteracy is estimated to cost the nation A$3.2 billion a year in lost production, such as through workplace accidents and health problems caused when workers cannot understand safety instructions written in English, [and] social problems arise when people cannot perform basic literacy skills such as filling out a form.’
2.6 Supporting Students to Stay at School Students are being encouraged by governments (and often parents) to stay at school—because education and training increases the likelihood of a better job and the likelihood of engaging in lifelong learning, and because ‘research indicates that if young people have trouble making the transition from education and training towards secure employment by their mid-twenties, they continue to be disadvantaged in many ways, both financial and social’ (Victoria. DET, 2006). In 2004 the percentage of Australian students achieving Year 12 or equivalent qualifications was around 75% (compared with 88% in Canada and the United States of America, 91% in Germany and 94% in Japan), and the estimated cost to Australia of one year’s early school-leavers is A$3 billion. A submission to the Commonwealth Treasurer by a group of nine key organizations (McCallum et al., 2003) proposed a policy to lift the proportion of young people completing twelve years of worthwhile learning to 90% by 2010. They calculated that this would generate non-market social benefits of more than A$100 million a year by 2010 in terms of
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improved health, reduced crime, increased family educational attainment and more effective consumer choices. A number of strategies to support students staying at school and to prepare them for the world of work have been initiated in the state of Victoria, and these are discussed below. Similar strategies are in place in other states in Australia.
2.7 Youth Guarantee While school is usually the best place for most students to complete their education by obtaining a senior secondary certificate—usually the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) or the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL)—for some young people options other than school may be more suitable. The Victorian Education and Training Reform Act 2006 provides a guaranteed place (the Youth Guarantee) in technical and further education institutions (TAFE), the Centre for Adult Education (CAE), Adult Multicultural Education Services (AMES) and participating adult community education (ACE) providers to young people who have not completed Year 12 or its equivalent. Young people must be aged 16 or over to access a guaranteed place in a TAFE institute, the CAE, AMES or participating ACE providers. Youth Guarantee providers are required to offer a place to eligible young people as a matter of priority. Providers are to work to place young people in courses that will meet their needs and which are consistent with government training priorities.
2.8 Managed Individual Pathways The Managed Individual Pathways (MIPs) programme was introduced to help all students 15 years and over through the final years of school and into further education, training or secure employment. Each student has individual pathway plans and receives support to help them achieve their goals. Each school has a MIPs coordinator. MIPs aim to help young people to:
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make a smooth transition from compulsory schooling to further education, training and employment; develop skills to manage their pathways throughout their working lives; and develop their knowledge, understanding and experience of opportunities in education, training and employment;
Schools see the MIPs programme as a way of addressing absenteeism and low retention rates as students’ pathway plans are used within the school in ways that lead students to access, value, identify with and ultimately complete their plans. Students retain their plan when they leave or transfer to another school. The programme also includes follow-up of early school-leavers (those who do not complete Year 12) at the time of leaving and six months later.
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At TAFE institutes and ACE organizations, young people 15 to 19 years old who have not yet completed Year 12 and who are not in full-time employment can participate in a Youth Pathways Programme, which incorporates MIPs support within a training or education programme.
2.9 Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning The Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) is a hands-on option for students in Years 11 and 12. It gives students practical work-related experience, as well as literacy and numeracy skills and the opportunity to build personal skills that are important for life and work. Many students commence or complete TVET certificates as part of their industry-specific skills. Like the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE), VCAL is an accredited secondary certificate. The VCAL has been structured for students who are likely to be interested in going on to TVET, starting an apprenticeship or getting a job after completing school. However, students can also transfer to the VCE if they decide that they would like to go on to university. The VCAL has been a huge success for Victorian students, improving their pathways to employment destinations and improving school retention rates. Beginning with over 5,000 students in pilot schools in 2003, in 2006 there were more than 12,000 students enrolled in the VCAL. The 2006 Victorian budget included funding to help VCAL teachers strengthen links between schools and industry so as to improve opportunities for students and also tailor VCAL programmes to meet local and state-wide skills shortages.
2.10 School-Based New Apprenticeships A recent initiative in Victorian schools is the School-Based New Apprenticeships (SBNA), which enable students to follow an apprenticeship or traineeship part-time while still at school completing VCAL or VCE. Currently there are over 800 apprenticeship and traineeship pathways available to students and undertaking these can be credited as part of VCAL or VCE studies.
2.11 Informing Post-School Pathways Many Australian school students engage in the world of work through their paid part-time work outside school hours. In addition, school students are increasingly being employed as school-based apprentices and trainees as part of their schooling programme (see below). Schools can use these work experiences as a resource to assist students to prepare for and make decisions about their transition to work and working life. For example, teachers can incorporate instances of ‘authentic’ working-life experiences
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in classroom-based activities to encourage individual reflection and collective discussion and appraisal of the world of work, working life and post-school pathways. A recent research project conducted by Stephen Billett (2006, p. 2) around this topic concluded that ‘the paid work experiences of Australian school students are different from and potentially superior to [the] school organised work placements, because paid work expects both students and employers to recognise the rights and responsibilities of their employee/employer relationship.’ Also, the students’ paid work experiences are usually on-going and of a longer duration than schoolorganized work placements, which gives them a more authentic experience of the world of work. Billett (2006, p. 3) thus concluded that using reflection and discussion of these experiences instead of actual work placements by schools provides a practical solution to a shrinking pool of work placements, given the difficulties that many schools experience in providing and monitoring these placements. Classroombased reflections on students’ paid work experiences can become an educational resource— one that is freely available in Australian schools—and offer the prospect of considerable savings in school resources (for example, administrative and travel costs to support work placement programs). These resources can then be redirected to other means of preparing and supporting students for their post-school pathways. In this context these paid work experiences have the potential to provide a rich resource.
As this is a recent research report, there has been no opportunity for schools to take heed of its conclusions.
3 Post-School Learning Pathways 3.1 On Track ‘On Track’ is a Victorian Government initiative designed to ensure that Year 10 to 12 school students are on a pathway to further education, training or employment after leaving school. It builds on the (previously discussed) Managed Individual Pathways (MIPs) programme available in government schools. MIPs assist 15- to 19-yearold students with individual career and education plans and support to implement those plans. ‘On Track’ ensures that Year 10 to 12 students are contacted after leaving school and assisted with further advice, if they are not already studying or in full-time employment. It also includes a research component to provide a comprehensive picture of what happens to young people after they leave school. This information is available on the ‘On Track’ website: <www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/voced/ontrack/ default.htm>.
3.2 Pre-apprenticeship Programmes Pre-apprenticeship programmes are designed for students without Year 12 certificates to acquire the basic skills required to apply for and enter a formal
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apprenticeship course. Training providers often then assist students to find an employer and take on a formal apprenticeship. Currently pre-apprenticeships are available for the following industries in Victoria: automotive, general construction, engineering, furnishing, hairdressing and recreational vehicle manufacturing. NCVER has funded a research project on pre-apprenticeship policy options in key trades to determine, among other things, the apparent value added through preapprenticeship. This aspect of the study will seek employer and apprentice views on whether undertaking a pre-apprenticeship assists the student in gaining an apprenticeship compared with those who have not done so, whether pre-apprenticeship graduates enjoy better retention rates through an apprenticeship related to their preapprenticeship study and whether their apprenticeship completion rates are better. The project report was due in mid-2007.
3.3 Vocational Education and Training and University Education The formal TVET sector is the main vehicle through which Australians can respond to emerging skill needs so that they are both employed and productive. Currently there are more than 1.5 million people involved in formal TVET studies, including over 400,000 apprentices. The most recent NCVER student outcomes from TVET studies reported that almost 90% of graduates who undertook training as part of an apprenticeship or traineeship were employed after training (NCVER, 2006), which is good news for students’ successful transition from school to work. A different study, focusing on tailoring TVET to meet the needs of the emerging labour market, found a number of factors that drive participation in TVET at the regional level (Teese in Mouhtouris, 2007). These include
r r
The regional economic structure, which relates to the kind of industries in a region and the state of the labour market. Regional economic structure is influential because it represents a set of employment incentives to training. Population characteristics, such as level of education, indigenousness and nonEnglish-speaking background, have a significant secondary influence on the level of participation in TVET.
According to Richard Teese (in Mouhtouris, 2007, p. 11): Participation in VET depends upon what you’ve got in your region in the way of jobs and what access you, as an individual, have to these labour markets. Regional economic structure influences how many jobs there are. You can’t force people into training. They’ve got to have obvious economic incentives to engage in training.
The study has also pointed out the need for greater equity so that people from disadvantaged and poorer backgrounds have much greater access to skilled and technician-level training, and the need for greater dialogue between employers and the community if there are to be skilled people to do the work within the community.
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For some time, the Australian Government has argued that students need to be encouraged to pursue vocational rather than university programmes, such as in the following extract from the 2005 budget papers (Australia. DEST, 2005): For too long, students have been pushed to consider university as the one and only acceptable option for achieving status and success after school. Progressively, people are realising that a vocational qualification can lead to a challenging, diverse, independent and, for many, lucrative career. Today there are almost 394,000 Australian Apprentices in training, compared with around 144,000 in the mid 1990s. Australian Apprenticeships are available in more than 500 occupations – commencements in trades and related Australian Apprenticeships increased by 19% in the 12 months to September 2004. The Australian Government will continue to provide choice and ensure that young people are aware of their options.
However, the issue is not so simple. For example, Birrell and Rapson (2006) argued that there is need for places in university education as much as in vocational education to meet the growing demand for professional skills caused by the impending baby-boomer retirement. The Australian Government’s (2006) ‘Skills for the Future’ initiative includes more engineering places at universities, but all other programmes are targeted at vocational education. What is clear from a recent research study (Harris, Rainey & Sumner, 2006) is that young people’s moves between TVET and higher education are more like crazy paving than stepping stones. Students move as much from TVET into higher education as they move in the other direction, and the moves they make are both functional and effective to meet their particular choices—although in some instances their ‘zigzag’ paths were because of lack of guidance, lack of fit between courses attempted, inexperience and lack of course prerequisites. Back in 1982 Ted Mooney succinctly stated: ‘here we are getting older, there they are getting different’ (p. 80). The Harris et al. (2006) study had similar findings in that, instead of a linear journey of learning—as we would expect from past experiences—young people presented a fragmented picture of a learning pathway resembling crazy paving with five distinct patterns of movement: interest chasers, career developers, career mergers, forced learners and two-trackers.
3.4 Case Study: Young Parents’ Access Project In Victoria, one outcome from the ministerial review of post-compulsory education and training pathways (Kirby et al., 2000) was that schools developed partnerships with local community agencies to support students to successfully complete their schooling and make an effective transition into further education, training or employment. At Corio Bay Secondary College, a school in a low socio-economic area in the regional city of Geelong, Victoria, low levels of retention, attendance and student outcomes had been an issue for some time. Teenage pregnancy rates in the area were well above the national average (> 92 births per 1,000 women aged 15–24
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compared with 68.9 per 1,000 women aged 15–24 nationally). The school introduced the Young Parents’ Access Programme (YPAP) in 2002 with the specific objectives of retaining, re-attracting and supporting young parents into the education system, and improving the educational levels and future educational and employment opportunities for this target group (Armstrong, 2003). Students who have returned to schooling through YPAP have done so for a number of reasons—to complete their school qualification, as a stepping stone to employment or further education and training, or a better life in the short term. Returning to study has not been easy for many of the students. After short or long absences the students are juggling being parents with being school students, as well as being re-inducted into learning practices. Their transition back into schooling requires that their previous educational histories are taken into account (often these have not necessarily been very successful), that their readiness is assessed, their pathways are planned with realistic choices and sensible study loads, and that they receive support through pathway counselling and planning (Shacklock et al., 2006). The school has introduced flexible modes of learning and assessment, which allows for irregular attendance and a more applied and adult approach to learning. Not all has gone smoothly for either the school or the students returning through YPAP, although there are many positive stories. One of the major issues identified by Shacklock et al. (2006, pp. 38–39) is that ‘the school’s teachers operate from an expectation that students need to conduct their participation in learning as if they were not pregnant or parenting. This is a contradiction and sets up conditions for failure’. This issue is closely related to other issues, such as poor attendance, and it needs to be addressed through greater educational support to complement the strong personal support being provided to the students. What is important about this story is that the school did establish YPAP in response to a local need and it has been successful in retaining, re-attracting and supporting young parents into the education system, and improving the educational levels and future educational and employment opportunities for this target group. And the programme is accumulating more success stories each year as the students are supported through their schooling and into employment or further education and training.
3.5 Studying the Learning Pathways of Australian Youth One of the major policy thrusts of Australian governments in recent years has been the creation of flexible pathways between education, training and paid employment. The Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth (LSAY) has been conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) since 1995 to help understand the transitions between education, training and work through longitudinal surveys of cohorts of young people. Using annual telephone interviews, the LSAY project studies the progress of several groups of young Australians as they move from school into post-secondary education and work. Recent reports from the LSAY project have included studies of
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Assessing the value of additional years of schooling for the non-academically inclined (Dockery, 2005); Attitudes, intentions and participation (Khoo & Ainley, 2005); Course change and attrition from higher education (McMillan, 2005); Life satisfaction of young Australians: relationships between further education, training and employment and general and career satisfaction (Hillman & Thomson, 2005); Non-apprenticeship VET courses: participation, persistence and subsequent pathways (McMillan, Rothman & Wernert, 2005); Participation in and progress through new apprenticeships (Ainley & Corrigan, 2005); Pathways from school to further education or work: examining the consequences of Year 12 course choices (Thomson, 2005); The first year experience: the transition from secondary school to university and TAFE in Australia (Hillman, 2005a); The transition to full-time work of young people who do not go to university (Marks, 2006); Unmet demand? Characteristics and activities of university applicants not offered a place (Marks, 2005); Variations in VET provision across Australian schools and their effects on student outcomes (Lamb & Vickers, 2006); Young people outside the labour force and full-time education: activities and profiles (Hillman, 2005b).
In addition, LSAY has published ‘An easy reference guide to longitudinal surveys of Australian youth research reports, 1996–2003’ (Penman, 2004) to enable easier access to information about the experiences of Australian youth as they move through secondary schooling, into further education or training, and into the world of work and adult life.
4 Conclusion, Implications and Recommendations Australia shares an agenda with most other countries: to have a highly skilled workforce able to operate effectively in a globalized economy. In order to achieve this goal, the national and state governments have introduced a range of initiatives to encourage students to stay at school, to gain employability skills and employment experiences while at school, and to have a range of learning pathways available in the post-school period. However, what this well-skilled future looks like and pathways for getting there are not necessarily clear. Students in Victoria—and many other Australian states—are consciously being prepared for work through the education system and managed in their transition from school to work through a number of strategies. The support structures and initiatives available are more numerous than those available a decade ago. Young
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people’s responses are also being monitored through research studies, such as the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) conducted by ACER, and the studies being undertaken by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). However, what is clear is that the nature of both students and the workforce is changing. Much of the agenda for schools in preparing students for work is being driven by employers and industry, through strategies such as the Employability Skills Framework (ACCI/BCA, 2002), which now provides the underpinnings of all vocational education and training packages and affects secondary schooling too. But, as Richard Teese (in Mouhtouris, 2007) recently noted, while the formal TVET sector has a significant role to play in skills development, employers also need to be continuously active in training because the workplace is a major site of skills development, including for students still in school engaged in casual employment. Training needs to become part of the culture of the workplace, as well as an expected outcome of formal schooling as students make the transition from school to the world of work. We also need to recognize that traditional transitions and pathways between school and work may no longer apply: more students undertake paid employment from age 15 which can be used as part of discussions of work experiences in classrooms. Young people hop between work, TVET and university studies like ‘crazy paving’. School subject choices have an influence on future pathways. More students are pursuing TVET and university pathways. Transitions between school and further study are generally smooth for young people (with a few exceptions). Strategies such as the Managed Individual Pathways programme are helping students plan their school-to-work transitions and maximize their options. A huge silence to date within the employability skills context in Australia is skilling for the future with respect to sustainable development. The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development commenced in 2005 but by the beginning of 2007 there still had not been any discussion of its implications for skilling the workforce. In the Canadian context, the research study by Chinien (2003) has identified the broadly transferable sustainable developmentrelated knowledge, skills and attitudes required by the Canadian workforce. Australian governments and employers need to examine these research findings and determine their appropriateness for the Australian workforce and/or develop their own revised employability skills framework, which includes sustainable development-related knowledge, skills and attitudes. Industry also needs to expand its employment opportunities to match the population’s interest in sustainable development issues. Skilling the future is a shared goal of government, industry and educational providers, and while employers need to take a more active role in training, government and industry also need to ensure that the employment opportunities are meeting the needs of future generations. Students making the transition from school to work also need to be supported in making choices that will ensure smooth pathways and transitions from school to the world of work in a globalized, evolving and sustainable environment.
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References Ainley, J.; Corrigan, M. 2005. Participation in and progress through new apprenticeships. Camberwell, Australia: ACER. (LSAY Research Report, no. 44.) Armstrong, L. 2003. Corio Bay Secondary College: young parents’ access project. Health Education Australia, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 12–15. Australia. Department of Education, Science and Training. 2002. Employability skills for the future. Canberra: DEST. Australia. Department of Education, Science and Training. 2004. Backing Australia’s skills at a glance. Canberra: DEST. <www.dest.gov.au/portfolio department/ dest information/publications resources/resources/budget information/budget 2005 2006/bas at a glance.htm> Australia. Department of Education, Science and Training. 2005. Portfolio budget 2005–2006 (and related papers). Canberra: DEST. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2006. 4221.0 - Schools, Australia, 2005. <www.abs.gov.au/ AUSSTATS/[email protected]/mf/4221.0?OpenDocument> Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Business Council of Australia—ACCI/BCA. 2002. Employability skills for the future: project final report. Canberra: DEST. Australian Government. 2004. Backing Australia’s ability: building our future through science and innovation. Australian Government. 2006. Skills for the future. <www.skillsforthefuture.gov.au/about.htm> Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation. 2004. Facts and statistics. <www.alnf.org/facts stats.php> Billett, S. 2006. Informing post-school pathways: investigating school students’ authentic work experiences. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Birrell, B.; Rapson, V. 2006. Clearing the myths away: higher education’s place in meeting workforce demands. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University, Centre for Population and Urban Research. Chinien, C. 2003. Skills to last: broadly transferable sustainable development skills for the Canadian workforce: a technical research report for Human Resources Development Canada, Human Resources Partnerships. Bonn, Germany: UNESCO-UNEVOC. <www.unevoc.unesco.org/sustainable/docweb/SkillsToLast.pdf> Conyer, M. 1992. English in the workplace. CD-ROM, self paced literacy training course. <www.ascilite.org.au/aset-archives/confs/iims/1992/ conyer.html> Dockery, A. 2005. Assessing the value of additional years of schooling for the non-academically inclined. Camberwell, Australia: ACER. (LSAY Research Report, no. 38.) Harris, R.; Rainey, L.; Sumner, R. 2006. Crazy paving or stepping stones? Learning pathways within and between vocational education and training and higher education. Adelaide, Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Hartley, R.; Horne, J. 2005. Social and economic benefits of improved adult literacy: towards a better understanding. Support document. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Hartley, R.; Horne, J. 2006. Social and economic benefits of improved adult literacy: towards a better understanding. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Hillman, K. 2005a. The first year experience: the transition from secondary school to university and TAFE in Australia. Camberwell, Australia: ACER. (LSAY Research Report, no. 40.) Hillman, K. 2005b. Young people outside the labour force and full-time education: activities and profiles. Camberwell, Victoria: ACER. (LSAY Research Report, no. 45.) Hillman, K.; Thomson, S. 2005. Life satisfaction of young Australians: relationships between further education, training and employment and general and career satisfaction. Camberwell, Australia: ACER. (LSAY Research Report, no. 43.) Khoo, S.T.; Ainley, J. 2005. Attitudes, intentions and participation. Camberwell, Australia: ACER. (LSAY Research Report, no. 41.)
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Kirby, P. et al. 2000. Ministerial review of post compulsory education and training pathways in Victoria: final report. Melbourne, Australia: Department of Education, Employment and Training. Kosky, L. 2003. Framework for reform. <www.education.vic.gov.au/about/publications/speech/ framework.htm> Lamb, S.; Vickers, M. 2006. Variations in VET provision across Australian schools and their effects on student outcomes. Camberwell, Australia: ACER. (LSAY Research Report, no. 48.) McCallum, A. et al. 2003. A 2004 Budget Proposal: boosting young people’s educational and economic participation: addressing the other end of the inter-generational equation. McMillan, J. 2005. Course change and attrition from higher education. Camberwell, Australia: ACER. (LSAY Research Report, no. 39.) McMillan, J.; Rothman, S.; Wernert, N. 2005. Non-apprenticeship VET courses: participation, persistence and subsequent pathways. Camberwell, Australia: ACER. (LSAY Research Report, no. 47.) Marks, G. 2005. Unmet demand? Characteristics and activities of university applicants not offered a place. Camberwell, Australia: ACER. (LSAY Research Report, no. 46.) Marks, G.N. 2006. The transition to full-time work of young people who do not go to university. Camberwell, Australia: ACER. (LSAY Research Report, no. 49.) Mayer, E. et al. 1992. Putting general education to work: the key competencies. Canberra: Australian Education Council/Ministers for Vocational Education and Training. Mooney, T. 1982. Easy travel to other planets. London: Jonathan Cape. Mouhtouris, A. 2007. Skilling up. Campus review, 10 January, pp. 10–11. National Centre for Vocational Education Research—NCVER. 2006. Australian vocational education and training statistics: student outcomes 2006: Summary. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Penman, R. 2004. An easy reference guide to longitudinal surveys of Australian youth research reports, 1996–2003. Camberwell, Australia: ACER. Shacklock, G. et al. 2006. A research report from the taking your baby to school project: teaching and learning and the young parents’ access project at Corio Bay Senior College. Geelong, Australia: Deakin University. Thomas, P.; Roe, J.; Tarrant, M. 2006. Inquiry into vocational education and training: a report to the Minister for Education and Training. Melbourne, Australia: Department of Education and Training. Thomson, S. 2005. Pathways from school to further education or work: examining the consequences of Year 12 course choices. Camberwell, Victoria: ACER. (LSAY Research Report, no. 42.) Victoria. Department of Education and Training. 2006a. Leaving school before end of year 12. <www.education.vic.gov.au/aboutschool/leaving/ default.htm> Victoria. Department of Education and Training. 2006b. Maintaining the advantage: skilled Victorians. Melbourne, Australia: DET.
Chapter XIII.6
School/Workplace Partnerships: A Case Study of Four Vocational Studies Programmes1 Marcelle Hardy and Louise M´enard
1 Introduction Our study of the learning process in the workplace proceeds according to the following steps. After outlining our area of interest and formulating the research question, we will provide the main points concerning our framework of analysis and describe our research methodology and the characteristics of the subjects surveyed. Our survey of four vocational education programmes draws on the research of Guile and Griffiths (2001); as a result, we will present the results of our case studies using the features of the traditional model and the experiential model as defined by these authors. By way of conclusion, we will provide an answer to our research question by discussing the facilitating and limiting factors influencing the learning process of students involved in a work-based training experience.
2 The Field of Interest In recent years, work-based learning experiments have intensified and spread throughout numerous industrialized countries. The concerns of educational bodies and the efforts of researchers have been increasingly focused on the quality of such work-based training (Stern & Wagner, 1999). The goal is no longer simply to integrate work-based training experiences into technical and vocational education and training (TVET) programmes, but rather to improve the quality of training itself (Lasonen, 1999, 2001; Rojewski, 2002). Successful work-based learning relies on the collaboration of several actors from the school and business sectors. The few studies concerned with work-based learning have mainly examined the perceptions of teachers and school administrators (G´erard, 1999; Monod, 1999; Hardy & Parent, 2003), workplace mentors (Harris, Simons & Bone, 2000; Agulhon & Lechaux, 1996) and, occasionally, students themselves (Hardy, Bouteiller & Parent, 2001). These various groupings of actors interact and should be involved jointly in any potential quality enhancements in work-based learning. For this reason, we propose four case-study analyses for comprehending the viewpoints of most actors from both the school and company sectors. More specifically, we have attempted to understand R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XIII.6, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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what characterizes the training of students who experience one or more internships in the workplace. We will attempt to answer the question: What are the main conditions affecting the learning process of students involved in work-based training?
3 The Analytical Framework The typology of models of work experience developed by Guile and Griffiths (2001)2 is very complex, and we will present only the main elements of it here. Their work ‘draws upon the socio-cultural tradition within contemporary learning theory (e.g. Beach, 1999; Cole, 1995; Engestr¨om, 1996; Lave, 1993; Lave & Wenger, 1991) and recent developments in adult education’ (p. 113). The authors ascribe great importance to various types of contexts (educational and work-based) on the learning process. They selected six elements that describe their models of work experience, namely:
r r r r r r
Purpose of the work experience; Assumptions about learning and development; Practice of work experience; Management of work experience; Outcome of work experience; Role of the education and training provider.
Guile and Griffiths also set out five models of work experience, which they named: the traditional model; the experiential model; the generic model; the work-process model; and the connective model (2001, p. 120). We will summarize the main characteristics of the traditional model and the experiential model, as they are the only models we observed in the four programmes studied (Figure 1). The traditional model of work-based learning is designed to ‘launch’ students into work. The objective is quick insertion in the workplace. Traditional internships are oriented toward adaptation to the workplace, and are focused on skill acquisition and knowledge of ‘work readiness’. During these internships, students must manage the tasks and instructions they have been given. Internships are viewed as an instrument for acquiring the contents of the curriculum, but the host company’s own resources are accorded little or no consideration and are seldom used. Students’ work in the workplace is more or less closely supervised. Overall, students participating in internships are viewed as receptacles for learning what has been prescribed in the curriculum in preparation for a career in their chosen field. The experiential model of work-based learning is characterized by the focus on the ‘co-development’ of education and work. Value is also attached to the social development of students, the acquisition of maturity, and the improvement of their sense of responsibility. The tasks assigned to interns represent opportunities for taking advantage of different sources of stimulation and diversifying their experiences. Periods of internship are planned so that students may delve more deeply
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Fig. 1 Typology of work experience Source: Guile and Griffiths, 2001.
into the highly different components of their occupation. This work-based model of learning entails a form of negotiation between school and company; it also enables internship training to afford greater balance to academic learning. Monitoring of students in the workplace is enhanced by arms-length supervision—the result of an increase in the number of internship locations. In terms of outcome, the concern is to aid students to enhance their awareness of the technological and economic development occurring in the sectors where they will be actively employed. In this model, management of work experience emphasizes briefing and de-briefing around the internship experience. In our analysis of four vocational programmes, greater emphasis has been placed on the outcome of the work experience. The types of outcome that emerged from our qualitative analysis are:
r r r r
Establishment of relationships between academic learning and work-based learning. Preparation for the job market. Occupational socialization. Learning of techniques and methods associated with the occupation.
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Personal development of students in terms of self-confidence and autonomy. Validation of vocational orientation in the chosen career.
4 Methodology This survey, which was conducted among teachers, mentors and students in vocational education, is based on a case study-type approach according to Stake (1995). The cases studied were four programmes that have been offered on an alternance (or alternating) basis and that provide preparation for the following occupations: jewellery-making; drafting (draughtsmanship); industrial mechanics; and power engineering technology.3 We analysed the viewpoints of seventy-one students, fourteen teachers and twenty-five mentors involved in the vocational education of students. The data analysed were gathered using recorded semi-structured interviews. Interviews lasted an average of twenty minutes for students, sixty minutes for teachers and thirty minutes for mentors. Once the interviews had been transcribed, they were then coded and processed using the NUD*IST software.4
5 Characteristics of the Actors Jewellery-making was comprised mainly of female students (n = 14/17), while drafting (n = 14/17) and power engineering technology were made up almost exclusively of males (n = 17/18); only male students were enrolled in industrial mechanics (n = 19). The average age of students in the industrial mechanics and jewellery-making programmes was 21.7 and 23.5, respectively, with all students being under 30. The average age was higher in drafting (25) and power engineering technology (24.7), since these programmes included students who were up to 38 and 41 years old, respectively.5 At least four out of every five students had already received a high-school diploma when they began their vocational studies. A number of individuals (n = 9), concentrated in power engineering technology, already held a vocational diploma in a related occupation. Nearly 10% of students had already begun or completed junior college or university studies. Almost all teachers had received a university degree in education. With the exception of drafting teachers, teachers had, on average, worked longer in industry than in education. All mentors had a technical diploma in the field in which they practised. Half of them (n = 12) had a junior college diploma, while a third, concentrated in drafting, held a university degree. Average work experience ranged from 11.3 years in industrial mechanics to 18.7 years in power engineering technology. All mentors had managed interns for a period ranging from approximately three years to nearly seven years.
6 Analysis of the Four Vocational Curricula Beginning in 1992, workplace training was introduced into the vocational education programmes of Quebec. This workplace training is ‘alternance training’ and draws inspiration from the predominant model in France (Agulhon, 2003). The number
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and length of workplace training sessions may vary. The most common model is comprised of four periods of internship of four weeks each, spread out between academic sessions. Our case analyses led to the classification of four programmes according to two of the models of Guile’s and Griffiths’ typology. Workplace training in the jewellerymaking and drafting programmes corresponded to the traditional model, while that of power engineering technology resembled the experiential model, whereas workplace training in industrial mechanics combined features of both the traditional model and the experiential model. We will begin by presenting the programmes classified as falling within the traditional model and then proceed to describe programmes matching the experiential model.
6.1 The Traditional Model The jewellery-making and drafting programmes were offered in the same vocational training centre. The implementation of alternance training initially stemmed from a concern of the training centre, which wanted to revitalize these programmes by making them more attractive for a larger clientele. The purpose of work experience was expressed by the teachers in terms of launching into work. In jewellery-making and drafting, teachers viewed workplace training for students as providing the latter with an initiation into the reality of the workplace, enabling them to acquire work experience and preparing them for the labour market. The assumptions about learning and development of the three groups of actors were centred on technical and social adaptation in the working environment. Technical adaptation involved the improvement of working methods related to handling tools and the execution of techniques. Internships were viewed as the application of or an adaptation to the knowledge acquired at school. Adaptation was also social in nature because the internships prepared students to enter the job market by stimulating the acquisition of social behaviour sought by companies. With regard to the practice of work experience, the majority of jewellery-making and drafting students completed their four internships at the same firm. However, their teachers could possibly be unable to direct students toward an internship when their academic performances were weak, had failures, or too long a record of absence or tardiness.6 The activities consisted of managing the duties and the instructions they had been given in the workplace. In both programmes, a number of students would have liked performing more activities or having more work to do. Management of work experience was defined as supervision by the mentor and the teacher. In both programmes, the preparation of each internship was carried out by the teachers, who selected the students ready to go into workplace training and explained how the internship proceeded. During internships, the role of mentor was specific to each programme. In jewellery-making, the workshop supervisor gave interns advice concerning their projects,7 helped them solve problems, and talked with them about their learning goals. The student in no way contributed to the firm’s production. In drafting, the mentor, assisted by one or more employees, specified the various tasks to be performed by the intern, whom the mentor also advised
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on technical matters. The interns thereby assisted the employees in their work and contributed to production. During internships, the jewellery-making teachers visited their students once a week. At that time, they answered interns’ questions, assisted them in resolving difficulties and encouraged them. The interns commented that these visits were a help in terms of completing their internship project. During visits, the teacher also listened to the mentor’s comments and answered this person’s questions. The drafting teachers met quickly with their students once during the onemonth workplace training. Several interns described these visits as useless and too short. The outcome of this work experience was characterized by skill acquisition and knowledge of ‘work readiness’. More specifically, the sections below describe how the various actors classified the impact of workplace internships for students. 6.1.1 Establishment of Relationships Between Academic and Work-Based Learning Drafting and jewellery-making teachers asserted that the tasks performed during internships bore a relation to academic learning. For all three groups of actors, school was responsible for teaching the theory and the workplace was defined in terms of work experience. As a result, teachers and mentors provided little or no opportunity for establishing relationships between the two forms of learning, owing to their compartmentalized vision of the roles of school and the workplace. The students also endorsed this traditional perception of internships. 6.1.2 Preparation for the Job Market According to students and teachers, internships offered work experience that prepared them for the job market and enhanced their employability. On this point, mentors had no comment. Readiness for the job market was nevertheless likely to be limited, as most students performed all their internships within the same company. 6.1.3 Development of Occupational Socialization Mentors, teachers and students indicated that internships offered an opportunity for becoming familiar with the reality of the job market and company organization. Students also mentioned that their integration into the company had been facilitated by the positive reception they received. In fact, all respondents observed that internships facilitated students’ adaptation to the workplace. 6.1.4 Learning of Occupational Techniques and Methods Several students in both programmes stated that internships enabled them to learn the tasks and methods of their occupation and become familiar with the tools and equipment of the company, whereas other students found that their learning was limited because they did not take part in production or because they performed tasks offering little variety. For their part, the mentors in the drafting programme
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noted that internships enabled students to accomplish a variety of tasks, whereas the mentors of the jewellery-making programme mentioned that internships allowed students to familiarize themselves with cutting-edge technology. For mentors in the drafting programme, internships were too short for learning techniques and methods, while for jewellery-making mentors, internships seemed too long, considering the workplace training programme that the school had set up for the interns. The mentors of both programmes added that they lacked time for monitoring interns and that it was hard to perform such supervision while satisfying production requirements at the same time.
6.1.5 Personal Development of Students Teachers and students noted that internships developed student self-confidence and autonomy. Several students from the drafting and jewellery-making programmes added that internships were a major source of motivation for pursuing their studies. For the most part, internships enabled students to develop their capacity for adaptation to their workplace.
6.1.6 Validation of Vocational Orientation The teachers and students recognized that internships enabled students to find out whether they had made the right career choice, further focus on the niche that interested them in particular, or reassure themselves as to their future working environment. Several teachers also pointed out that students quit their studies most often after their first internship. Drafting teachers and students added that alternating work and studies also facilitated the search for jobs, as this approach afforded students the opportunity to make themselves known and to meet the expectations of companies that wanted candidates to have a minimum of work experience. The role of education and training provider is defined as providing formal preparation in line with the curriculum. In both programmes, the teachers placed importance exclusively on the application of the curriculum and strove to ensure that each internship complied with a particular aspect of it. They complained that the internships reduced the number of classroom lessons and appeared to view internships as time that cut into training hours during which students carried out what they had already learned in school. They did not view the company as a place for knowledge acquisition and did not seem to acknowledge the advantages of learning in a real context. For their part, all mentors did not appear to see the company as constituting a context favourable to the learning of specific knowledge and skills, but rather as a place for applying knowledge that was different from that learned in school. Teachers and mentors too, seemed to view the workplace experience as a time that should be devoted solely to the official objectives of the curriculum.
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6.2 The Experiential Model The description we have to offer of the power engineering technology programme qualifies the degree to which the programme corresponds to the experiential model, whereas the description of the industrial mechanics accounts for its dual affinity. In Quebec, a single vocational training centre offers the power engineering technology (PET) programme with alternance training internships. The Quebec Department of Education8 was responsible for initiating this programme in response to the manpower requirements of this sector and the financial difficulties associated with acquiring highly expensive machinery and equipment. The PET curriculum was reviewed with representatives of the job market and with the teacher responsible for implementing the alternance programme in the selected vocational training centre. One of the primary objectives of this review exercise was to improve the quality of training offered, by taking advantage of the educational value of the workplace and by maximizing the ‘co-development’ of academic training and work-based training. The vocational training centre hosting the industrial mechanics programme proposed training in one of two forms: either as alternance internships or as a regular internship at the end of studies. The younger candidates were invited to enrol in the programme on an alternating basis, and the older candidates were directed toward the regular programme.9 The explanation given for this choice was that younger students have little or no work experience and alternance training was a way of meeting their training needs, while also serving to diversify the locations and learning approaches offered school clienteles. The purpose of work experience stated by the teachers in both programmes was characterized by the search for ‘co-development’ between education and work. They stated this goal as follows: (a) to supplement the competencies acquired in school with diversified, complementary work experiences; (b) to stimulate the acquisition of relational maturity and a sense of responsibilities among students; and (c) to put into practice the theory reviewed in school. Teachers in the PET programme added that they wanted to teach students to reflect and find answers to their own questions in various working environments. Teachers and students in the PET and industrial mechanics programmes presented their assumptions about learning and development in terms appropriate to both models. On the one hand, teachers and students in both programmes stood in closer relation to the experiential model when they stressed the variety and complexity of students’ work experience and noted the opportunity for becoming familiar with various workplaces. More specifically, PET teachers presented internships as a means for acquiring vocational skills that were specific to each internship and that complemented those of the other internships completed. They explained that they were thus able to establish relations between specific tasks performed in the workplace with theoretical knowledge acquired in school. On the other hand, teachers and students in both the PET and industrial mechanics programmes fitted more closely with the type of adaptation associated with the traditional model when they perceived the work experience as a period for readying students for the job market, during which the latter would acquire the behaviour and attitudes expected in the workplace, develop their employability, and gain self-confidence and autonomy.
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The practice of work experience portrayed by teachers and students in both programmes enables interns to make connections between various sources of stimulation and enjoy a greater number of work experiences. In effect, internships were performed in different companies, where all students performed a variety of tasks related to production and maintenance. According to teachers and mentors, several graduating interns were even considered as new employees without experience who worked autonomously. In PET, management of work experience was characterized by arms-length supervision; in that respect, the programme corresponded to the experiential model. In effect, the preparation of internships involved all teachers, who incorporated the broad outlines of preparatory materials into all courses featured in the curriculum and then provided a more focused preparation before each internship. The themes and objectives of the four internships enabled them to choose internship locations in accordance with the targeted objectives while also taking into consideration the preferences of students. Students noted that teachers not only explained the behaviour they were to adopt and the technical skills they were to acquire in the workplace, but also gave them descriptions of the various internship contexts. Teachers also presented students with the objectives of internship in the form of a separate booklet for each internship. During internships, teachers made a weekly tour lasting seven to nine hours in each internship location. They worked with each student in order to help him or her reach the prescribed objectives and make connections with the content learned in school. This role was confirmed by most students, who pointed out that the teacher: (a) supported them in transferring their own knowledge into the work setting; (b) made them think in order to find answers to their questions; and (c) guided them during the problem-solving process. In industrial mechanics, management of work experience, which corresponds to supervision under the traditional model, was the responsibility of a teacher who acted as internship co-ordinator. The preparation of each internship was centred on initiating students into the job search, as experienced through the search for an internship location. The co-ordinator’s role was to guide the students, and then ensure that the company which had selected a given student then identified a mentor for supervising him and had entrusted this student with tasks usual for industrial mechanics. During the first several days of an internship, the co-ordinator phoned all students and all mentors in order to see that internships got off to a ‘smooth start’. During the second half of the internships, he visited students in the workplace for the purpose of verifying the tasks they had performed and, where necessary, to give them advice. More than three-quarters of the students did not see any value in these visits. Most of the mentors in both programmes also supervised their interns according to the traditional model. They defined and explained the tasks they assigned interns and then checked up on them. Teachers, mentors and students in both programmes described the six types of outcome of internships for students in ways referring to the viewpoints expressed in both models. We found, moreover, that perceptions more often stood in relation with the experiential model.
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6.2.1 Establishment of Relationships between Academic Learning and Work-Based Learning Thus, teachers and students in the PET programme had an experiential perspective concerning the establishment of relations between academic and work-based learning. The teachers explained that choices of internship locations and their own weekly visits to the workplace were designed to enable students to establish links with academic learning, facilitate the transfer of theory into practice and complement workplace learning. The students in the PET programme felt that internships allowed them to apply what they had learned in school and to better integrate theory. Several students added that internships also made it possible to learn more and delve deeper into theory. The teachers and students in the industrial mechanics programme, as well as the mentors of both programmes, adopted the viewpoint typifying the traditional model, perceiving each person’s role in a compartmentalized fashion. 6.2.2 Preparation for the Job Market As concerns preparation for the job market, the diversity of work experiences offered students was the distinguishing feature of the experiential model. In effect, the teachers and students in both industrial mechanics and PET were of the opinion that interns developed greater versatility thanks to the variety and complexity of tasks, equipment and work methods encountered. They were thus better adapted to the job market and more fully aware of the complexity of their environment. 6.2.3 Development of Occupational Socialization On the issue of the development of occupational socialization, the experiential model stands out from the traditional model in terms of the awareness that interns gain of their socio-professional environment. Thus, the teachers and students in PET were fully aware that the diversity of internship experiences and locations enabled interns to develop a significant socio-professional network. In addition, teachers, mentors and students in both programmes conformed to the traditional model because, in their view, internships also initiated students into the behaviour companies expected of them, such as discipline, health and safety, and punctuality. 6.2.4 Learning of Occupational Techniques and Methods Teachers in PET, as well as students in both programmes, had an experiential viewpoint of the learning of career-related techniques and methods. In effect, PET teachers believed that internships enabled students to go beyond the training plan by giving the latter access to other equipment and by making them work with several employees who had different strengths and viewpoints. Most students acknowledged, moreover, that they had familiarized themselves with new equipment, acquired new competencies and learned a diversity of complex lessons. Students in
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industrial mechanics reported acquiring the same learnings over the course of the internships that they had pursued in three different workplaces. The mentors of both programmes nevertheless had a traditional perception of the internship experience, as they defined this primarily on the basis of the development of technical competencies or the acquisition of practice. 6.2.5 Personal Development In both programmes, the personal development of students over various internships was particularized by gaining maturity, a sense of responsibility, and awareness of occupational worth, in keeping with the experiential model. 6.2.6 Validation of Career Orientation The teachers and students in industrial mechanics and PET mentioned that the internships enabled students to verify their career choices, practice their occupation in genuine working environments, try out a range of work-related duties in their sector, and thus further narrow their career preferences. On the subject of the role of education and training provider serving to foster work-based learning, PET teachers were assigned an important role as they were responsible for practically all preparation and a major portion of the training and monitoring of interns in the workplace. In this case, the duties described by teachers complied with the characteristics of the experiential model, in that teachers fostered establishing relationships between academic learning and workplace experiences and stimulated the reflection of students. Following internships, teachers also helped students find answers to technical and personal problems encountered during their experience. Furthermore, the role of education and training provider adopted in industrial mechanics was very loosely structured and was designed to round off the vocational education given by the school. It fitted perfectly with the traditional model. The teacher acting as internship co-ordinator was involved primarily in the process of identifying an internship location for each student. After making sure that the host company offered a relevant, diversified work experience, he relied on the training resources at the workplace to do the rest. Most of the mentors supervised their interns and provided them with feedback as a way of aiding students to complete the tasks assigned them and to handle equipment appropriately. However, they did not seem to be concerned by the development of reflection among their students. Half of the mentors in industrial mechanics said that they had talked and shared views with their interns so as to help them improve their weak points.
7 Conclusion By way of conclusion, we have grouped together our main observations concerning the workplace training experience in the form of facilitating factors and limiting factors influencing students’ learning.
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In concrete terms, facilitating factors were observed in the aspects previously associated with the experiential model, whereas the factors limiting learning were identified in connection with the traditional model. Both types of conditions were observed in terms of organization and teaching. The organizational conditions fostering the enrichment of training became apparent as soon as workplace or alternance training was implemented. The Quebec Department of Education was at that time involved in revising the curriculum so as to integrate resources from the working environment. It thereby contributed to ‘co-development’ between education and work within the curriculum. Subsequently, additional major benefits were to be had by involving all teachers in monitoring student internships and diversifying internship locations. In terms of teaching practice, incentives primarily took the following forms: (a) the identification of each internship’s objectives, combined with an offering of internship locations, enabled students to familiarize themselves with complex work methods and a variety of tools and equipment; (b) during visits of the internship sites, teachers took the time to help students reflect on their internship experience in the light of the theoretical notions previously acquired; (c) in class, teachers oriented course content in order to help students find answers to the technical problems they had encountered during internships. The factors limiting student learning stand in opposition to the previously mentioned facilitating factors. In terms of organization, some of the justifications for implementing alternance training were not very helpful. Among such justifications, it is worth noting: the concern for overcoming the difficulties of recruiting students into a programme and the desire to offset the lack of attraction among particular vocational curricula by means of introducing internships; in addition, the concentration of all internships within the same company, as a means of surmounting the problem of finding internship locations, seems to have impoverished the workplace training experience offered to students. A number of teaching-related conditions also seemed to detract from the internship programme. Exclusion was practised against students who had poorer records or who were less motivated by their vocational studies so as to reassure employers, but this measure deprived the very students who had the greatest need for this type of experience in order to give meaning to their studies or to review their career choices. The orientation of internships solely toward insertion in the job market, combined with a lack of specific objectives for each internship, probably reduced the educational ‘added value’ being sought by means of introducing a workplace training period. Furthermore, several of these students complained of the lack of diversity of their activities or of ‘not having enough work to do’ during their internship. The absence of student input in the production process also reduced their socialization into the real conditions of production, such as compliance with the pace of work. The weak involvement of teachers and mentors in intern supervision also had major repercussions. For one, short visits by teachers did not stimulate student reflection about their workplace training experiences. Several students did not see what the point of such visits was. Secondly, the lack of availability on the part of mentors, who were absorbed by their own production-related duties, did not benefit interns.
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All of the observed limitations are characterized by a dual lack of recognition— on the one hand, of the value of learning in real situations by actors in the academic and workplace sectors, and, on the other, the importance and requirements attaching to the monitoring of interns by teachers and mentors. These limitations are typical of the traditional internship model. In Quebec, this model covers most of the alternance training experiences implemented in 69% of vocational training centres and proposed in 42% of the vocational programmes taught (Hardy, 2001). This workplace training could be improved by borrowing from the qualities typifying the experiential model. Training mentors or teachers in the supervision of interns is one aspect that has been practically ignored in the development of workbased training in Quebec. It is almost as though the workplace were considered capable of fostering learning merely because it hosted one or more students for approximately one month, three to four times over the course of vocational education. This analytical approach based on the models of Guile and Griffiths highlights the poverty of the learning offered students in most alternance experiences in comparison with the results that could be obtained by means of rooting vocational learning in the context of the working environment. This approach also stresses the importance of the role played by teachers and mentors in monitoring work-based training. It also serves to further stress the training needs of teachers and mentors so that they can, in turn, enable their students or interns to fully benefit from the learning potential represented by an integration of the work context.
Notes 1. This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Fonds FCAR (Researcher Training and Research Assistance Fund) of the Government of Qu´ebec. 2. This typology was previously applied to the analysis of vocational and technical programmes in six European countries: Denmark, England, Hungary, Ireland, Spain and Sweden. These countries worked together within the framework of the research programme entitled ‘Work experience as an education and training strategy: a new approach for the 21st century’ (WEX21C) funded by the European Union. 3. Respectively, these programmes prepare students to work in the following sectors: drafting (draughtsmanship) prepares for work in the sector of architecture; jewellery-making provides training in the design and creation of jewellery; industrial mechanics provides instruction in the maintenance of systems and the repair of production machinery, as well as the building of plant equipment and machinery (conveyers, presses, wrapping systems, ventilation systems, etc.); power engineering technology prepares mechanics who will be in charge of the smooth running of a thermal power plant. 4. The interviews were gathered, codified and analysed by Rita Bissoonauth, Olenka Brynczka, Guylaine Cyr, France Dessureault, Nadine Fortin, Sophie Grossmann, Marie-Jos´ee Gicali, Pascale Gingras, Danielle Melanc¸on, Olivier M´enard and Louis Trudel under the supervision of the authors. 5. This is explained by the Quebec policy of integrating young and adult clienteles in vocational training classes. 6. The teachers justified these decisions on the basis of the requirements of a company that wants responsible, autonomous interns. These students may thus take advantage of a personalized catch-up programme that will hopefully prepare them to take part in the next internship.
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7. In jewellery-making, the internship project was developed at school, where students designed a piece of jewellery which they would then produce during their internship. The project for each internship corresponded to a module of the curriculum and was approved by the teacher. 8. In Quebec, all vocational and technical programmes are reviewed by the Comit´e national des programs d’enseignement professionnel and technique (National Vocational and Technical Programmes Committee) under the auspices of the Vocational and Technical Training Branch of the Quebec Department of Education. This committee is headed by the deputy minister responsible for vocational and technical education, and brings together representatives of the employer, union and education sectors. 9. The average age of students in the alternance option was 21.7, whereas the average age of students in the regular option was 26.6.
References Agulhon, C. 2003. La formation professionnelle: deux mod`eles en tensions. In: Hardy, M., ed. Concertation e´ ducation travail: politiques e´ ducatives et exp´eriences. Ste-Foy, Canada: Presses de l’Universit´e du Qu´ebec. Agulhon, C.; Lechaux, P. 1996. Un tutorat ou des tutorats en enterprise: diversit´e des pratiques. Recherche et formation, vol. 22, pp. 21–34. Beach, K.D. 1999. Consequential transitions: a sociocultural expedition beyond transfer in education. Review of research in education, vol. 24, pp. 124–49. Cole, M. 1995. The supra-individual envelope of development: activity and practice, situation and context. In: Goodnow, J.J.; Miller, P.; Kessel, F., eds. Cultural practices as contexts for development. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass. Engestr¨om, Y. 1996. Development as breaking away and opening up: a challenge to Vygotsky and Piaget. Swiss journal of psychology, vol. 55, pp. 126–32. G´erard, F. 1999. La formation des enseignants et formateurs en Europe. Actualit´e de la formation permanent, vol. 160, pp. 33–94. Guile, D.; Griffiths, T. 2001. Learning through work experience. Journal of education and work, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 113–31. Hardy, M. 2001. Work-based training in Quebec: principal outcomes for students and main difficulties for instructors and mentors. (Paper presented at the IVETA Annual Conference: ‘Improving Vocational Education and Training Systems’, Kingston, Jamaica, August 2001.) Hardy, M.; Bouteiller, D.; Parent, C. 2001. Tuteurs et stagiaires en alternance: quelles relations de formation. (Paper presented at the Colloque annuel de l’Association Qu´eb´ecoise Alternance ´ Etudes-travail, Qu´ebec, Canada, 26–27 April 2001.) Hardy, M.; Parent, C. 2003. School-workplace collaboration: an uneasy partnership—experiences from two alternation programs in Quebec. In: Schuetze, H.G.; Sweet, R., eds. Integrating school and workplace learning in Canada: principles and practices of alternation education and training. Montreal, Canada: McGill/Queens University Press. Harris, R.; Simons, M.; Bone, J. 2000. More than meets the eyes? Rethinking the role of workplace trainer. Kensington Park, Australia: NCVER. Lasonen, J. 1999. Enterprises as environments for workplace learning and training. In: Lasonen, J., ed. Workforce preparation in a global context, pp. 199–216. Jyv¨askyl¨a, Finland: Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyv¨askyl¨a. Lasonen, J. 2001. Workplaces as learning environments: assessments by young people after transition from school to work. (Paper presented at the IVETA Annual Conference: ‘Improving Vocational Education and Training Systems’, Kingston, Jamaica, August 2001.) Lave, J. 1993. The practice of learning. In: Chaiklin, S.; Lave, J., eds. Understanding practice: perspectives on activity and context. London: Cambridge University Press. Lave, J.; Wenger, E. 1991. Situated learning. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
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Monod, A. 1999. Formations et apprentissage. Actualit´e de la formation permanente, vol. 159, pp. 5–91. Rojewski, J.W. 2002. Preparing the workforce of tomorrow: a conceptual framework for career and technical education. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University, National Dissemination Center for Career and Technical Education. Stake, R.E. 1995. The art of case study reseach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Stern, D.; Wagner, D. 1999. International perspectives on the school-to-work transition. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
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Chapter XIII.7
Vocationalized Secondary Education Jon Lauglo
1 Introduction ‘Vocationalized secondary education’ refers to a curriculum which remains overwhelmingly general or ‘academic’ in nature, but which includes vocational or practical subjects as a minor portion of the students’ timetable during the secondary school course. Closely related terms are ‘diversified curriculum’ (Psacharopoulos & Loxley, 1985), ‘work orientation’ (Hoppers, 1996), ‘practical subjects’ in secondary schools (Lauglo, 1985), and ‘pre-vocational education’ (education especially designed to be preparatory for vocational education and training. The contrast with technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is worth emphasizing. Under TVET, the main purpose is vocational skills preparation and a student’s timetable will be dominated by the learning of work skills and related theory. In ‘vocationalized secondary education’, the main purpose of a student’s whole curriculum remains general education; and the curriculum allows the student to remain on the track that could possibly lead towards higher stages of academic education. Vocational subject matter then typically takes no more than one-tenth to one-fifth of curriculum time. Under vocationalized secondary education, the student’s weekly timetable typically conforms with a framework that is common to all secondary education. The same applies to the duration of the course. On the other hand, TVET often has substantially more weekly contact hours than mainstream secondary courses. The TVET-day is deliberately made to resemble a ‘real work day’. Technical secondary schools may be thought of as hybrid cases between TVET and vocationalized secondary education. They teach vocational courses to substantially greater curricular depth than under vocationalized secondary education— and yet they too remain preparatory for higher education. This they achieve by employing a longer school day and by running courses of longer duration. Examples are the technical secondary schools in Eritrea, or the technical secondary schools in Sweden under the old system from the 1960s, and the technical secondary schools in Mozambique included in a study by Billetoft and Austral Consultores (2005). The main goal of vocationalization is the improved vocational relevance of education. In practice, this has meant practical and vocational subjects, though this goal could presumably also be achieved by a more applied way of learning across different subjects. The goals of the practical or vocational subjects will usually include R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XIII.7, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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certain general education objectives, but the main objectives are to prepare for designated occupations, clusters of occupations—and more widely for the world of work. Vocational relevance is the most important reason why governments introduce vocationalization. The recurring question has been whether this goal is achieved. Two decades ago Bacchus (1988) elucidated why vocationalization is a policy preoccupation which ‘refuses to go away’, a major reason being that the problem which such policies purport to address refuses to go away: secondary school students have problems finding work in depressed labour markets. Wilson (2005) similarly points to the long history of attempts to change secondary education in this direction. However, ever since Foster’s (1965) critique, there has been the argument that vocationalization is not an effective means of alleviating these problems—and that it is also costly. Following literature reviews and a small number of tracer studies in the 1980s that yielded discouraging findings on the external effectiveness of vocationalization,1 a number of development agencies, led by the World Bank, distanced themselves from vocationalization policies which they previously sometimes had persuaded governments in developing countries to introduce as part of projects financed by these agencies. The special priority given to primary education since the early 1990s also deflected governments and agencies from major investments in secondary education. In rich countries, where secondary education will enrol the great majority of young people, models of secondary education that blend general education and vocational training can be affordable and may make sense as an educational response to the varied needs of an entire age group. A trend since the late 1970s towards an increasingly blurred distinction between vocational and general secondary education is noted in OECD countries. However, it does not necessarily follow that such blurring of institutional specialization is appropriate for low-income countries that enrol only a minority of their youth in secondary schooling and which can ill afford to finance costly organizational models. Some developing countries continued to pursue vocationalization policies in the 1990s. Botswana, Ghana and Kenya are notable African examples. In addition to using the wider literature on vocationalization in developing countries, especially in Africa, the present chapter will draw on studies which were commissioned by the World Bank in these three countries—respectively by Weeks (2005), Akyeampong (2005) and Mwiria (2005).
2 Rationales for Vocationalization Vocationalization rationales differ as to their main policy goals. In broad agreement with Coombe (1988) and earlier UNESCO usage, one can point to personal development goals, socio-cultural goals and economic relevance goals. Dominant theories of general education, also at secondary level, point to the ideal of ‘wellrounded’ personal development—not just the mastery of cognitive knowledge as organized in subjects based on book knowledge. Teaching practical skills in design
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and in the use of tools are, in this perspective, legitimate parts of general education (e.g. the Nordic sløyd tradition, or more recent ‘design and technology’ courses as originally developed in the UK). Personal development goals are typically included in formulations used by educationists when framing actual curricula and syllabuses in such subjects, but they seem rarely to be among the policy concerns that drive decisions to introduce such subjects to begin with. A diversified curriculum structure that includes vocational subjects can be seen to serve socio-political equity goals, especially when secondary education comes to serve a majority of youth and a wider range of talents and interests than an ‘academically select’ minority of youth. The rise of ‘education for life adjustment’ in the history of the United States high schools was connected with such a widening of the schools’ recruitment base. Socialist and populist views on education have historically favoured practical and vocational subjects as a hoped-for means to break down social class barriers while teaching respect for manual labour—also for ‘academic’ students (e.g. the Soviet concept of polytechnical education). Such concerns have faded with the declining world influence of socialist ideology. The issue at the heart of policy debate has however been ‘economic relevance’. By teaching vocational skills, the hope has been that students would more easily find work when they leave school, and become more productive and trainable. Sometimes, a goal that is mentioned is preparation for self-employment. In some countries there has also been a legacy of rural-centred ideas of development—the view that migration to town should be slowed down and that curriculum change could be a means to this end. Thus, policy debate in developing countries has tended to treat vocationalization as if it could function as a thinly spread form of TVET. The recurring question has been whether vocationalized secondary education in fact turns out to be more ‘economically relevant’ than purely general education, and whether it is affordable.
3 African Cases of Countries ‘Going it Alone’: Botswana, Ghana and Kenya Botswana, Ghana and Kenya stand out as African countries that have decided to continue vocationalization policies since the mid-1980s. Since interest in these policies by external financing agencies had dried up by that time, these developing countries decided to proceed with vocationalization policies in spite of the absence of external support. In all three countries economic relevance rationales dominated the policy rationales. They differ as to the quality of policy preparation and the capacity to implement. Ghana and Kenya embarked upon vocationalization by something close to political fiat—the top political leadership at the time deciding without much consultation or preparatory work. They also failed to make State finance available to implement this policy. Rather, it was left to parents, communities and local government to find the resources for implementation. Thus, the process could be said to have followed
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a recipe for ‘not succeeding’. One could say that the government of Botswana invested more time and resources in preparatory groundwork in policy formulation— including cost estimates—before their policy was adopted. In all three countries improved ‘economic relevance’ of secondary education was the driving goal. Yet, there is in all these countries a striking absence of government initiated evaluation work to ascertain the extent to which large-scale vocationalization actually helps school-leavers to find livelihoods.
3.1 Curriculum Structure and Pedagogy In Ghana and Botswana, the drive to vocationalize has been strongest at the junior secondary level. Since many junior secondary students will leave school rather than continue to senior secondary, the question of relevance of their education for the world of work is especially important at this stage. Kenya has a one-stage secondary system. In contrast to TVET in specialized vocational training institutions in these three countries, the vocational subjects constitute only a minor portion of the curriculum in secondary schools. Policy rhetoric in all three countries has recognized generic skills. A 1999 commission in Kenya pointed to the importance of learning to ‘communicate better, work in teams with less supervision, use information technology to access new ways of doing things, promote entrepreneurship [. . .] be creative [. . .] [show] initiative for problem solving’ (Mwiria, 2005). But only in Botswana is there evidence of any real effort being made to shift pedagogy toward activity methods and problem-solving. One measure is the introduction of a much greater role for continuous assessment. In both Kenya and Ghana, the case studies describe teaching and learning styles in vocational subjects as typified by one-way communication from teacher to student, with heavy reliance on memorization of vocational theory.
3.2 The Supply of Teachers All three countries have severe problems in staffing vocational subjects. In Kenya, apart from home science, there is a general shortage of teachers trained to teach vocational subjects. This is especially true for agriculture and commerce. Lack of staff with needed skills has constrained the expansion of computer applications. Following the introduction in 1987 in Ghana of pre-vocational subjects at the junior secondary level, the Ministry of Education had hoped that neighbouring schools could share specialist teachers and that extensive use could be made of local artisans. It was found that timetables were not flexible enough to accommodate teachers moving from school to school, and that the use of artisans as teachers reduced the attractiveness of the junior secondary school concept of vocational education in the eyes of many parents. The artisans also lacked the necessary pedagogical skills to teach to large student groups and to teach the skills according to curriculum
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objectives and standards. Teacher training for vocational subjects was accordingly expanded, but serious shortages and training voids have persisted (Akyeampong, 2005). In Botswana, there is a severe lack of local teachers trained to teach vocational subjects (apart from agriculture and home science). However, the government has had the financial resources to recruit teachers extensively from abroad in order to meet this shortage. This is, of course, an expensive solution. In computer applications, Botswana is relying on in-service supplementary training of mathematics and science teachers. In-service support becomes especially important when teachers are not well trained. Yet, the Kenyan case study (Mwiria, 2005) notes that professional support for vocational teachers is extremely limited. By way of contrast, the Botswana case study notes considerable in-service support and retraining by means of workshops (Weeks, 2005).
3.3 Workshops and Equipment Though many schools in Botswana were inadequately equipped in the early 1990s, they were probably better equipped than in Ghana and Kenya. That lead has increased dramatically. As of 2004, Botswana was in the midst of large-scale investments in workshops and equipment for vocational/practical subjects, as well as in other school construction. Practical subjects have been given a prominent emphasis in the architecture and layout of the junior and senior secondary schools. In the past decade, nearly all schools have been completely rebuilt (an investment unparalleled in Africa). Junior secondary schools have computer laboratories, a block for home economics, a block and machine room for design and technology, a new art room and space for ceramics and sculpture, and so on. Recently, ‘pavilions’, with two substantial rooms and storage areas under one roof, have been built at the larger junior secondary schools to provide additional space for design and technology. In the senior schools the new facilities for art and design, home economics, computer studies, and design and technology are among the best in the school. Kenyan and Ghana tell the opposite story. The State has failed to provide financial resources for the implementation of the vocationalization policies. The Kenya case study (Mwiria, 2005) notes that many schools were reduced to teaching ‘mainly obsolete theoretical knowledge that is the main focus of the national examination system’ without much capacity to teach practical skills. The study refers to a lack of books and teaching materials and remarks that available teaching materials are of poor quality. In Ghana the vocationalization of junior secondary education was supposed to be achieved without sophisticated facilities and equipment. This problem was largely left to schools and communities to solve; and a recurring criticism has been that most schools lack even the most basic facilities for practical work. Less than a quarter of the junior secondary schools are reported to have the workshop facilities and capacity for delivering the vocational options reflected in the curriculum. No special funding from the government is earmarked for vocational subjects
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(Akyeampong, 2005). In senior secondary schools there is a similar widespread lack of basic equipment for effective technical/vocational education. Only Botswana is providing most schools with minimally adequate facilities and equipment for teaching vocational subjects.
3.4 Uneven Starts in Teaching ICT Skills Basic skills in information and communications technologies (ICTs) may be seen as part of vocationalization. In developing countries, keyboard skills, word processing and spreadsheets are found in the most advanced parts of commerce and industry. Use of the Internet may be limited to a very small proportion of the population, but is likely to be spreading fast. ICTs can also be tools for learning more generally. The World Links Project, which connects secondary schools in many countries, is an example.2 For teaching science, ICTs have potential as an alternative to laboratories. There is a rapidly increasing role for ICTs as tools for accessing information sources. Basic skills in computer applications will also increasingly be required of students in higher education. In advanced economies computer applications have widespread importance throughout vocational education (see Bishop and Ma˜ne’s (2005) study of the United States). In the many African countries where 70–80% of the labour force is in the informal economy, the demand for computer application skills will remain dramatically lower for the foreseeable future, but the demand will no doubt increase at a high rate. The question in African education is not ‘whether’ basic computer applications need to be taught, but at what stage of education the teaching of these skills should be introduced. ICT technology in schools is rare in Kenya and Ghana. In Botswana this technology has been introduced throughout the system, but the experience is so recent (as of 2003) that it is too early to draw lessons from implementation. What is striking is the strong will of the government in Botswana to introduce ICT teaching throughout its secondary system, either non-examinable ‘computer awareness’ as a subject for all students or ‘computer studies’ as an optional subject. The will to implement is demonstrated by the Ministry of Education’s determination to equip all schools with computer laboratories (Weeks, 2005). The pioneering work in Botswana will be something for other African countries to watch, though few (if any) other African countries will have the financial resources for education that are at the disposal of the Botswana Government. One lesson that can already be drawn is that the provision of qualified teachers can be a major obstacle, even when equipment and facilities can be afforded and provided.
3.5 Modes of Assessment In Ghana and Kenya the final assessment of student performance in vocational subjects relies nearly exclusively on external examinations. Written exam papers carry
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much greater weight than practical exams. Botswana has previously gone much further than the other countries toward giving weight to ‘practicals’. Up to 50% of each student’s final grade will be made up of marks on practical tasks and of the student’s individual project. Continuous assessment will count toward final assessment (Weeks, 2005). Projects carried out by students and portfolios of their work are to count strongly in that assessment. But implementation of such assessment is held up by lack of teacher skills and lack of available reference materials to support the new methods of teaching and assessment. The case studies show great variation as to how assessment techniques give recognition to practical skills. Botswana has progressed the furthest in this regard and Kenya the least. In Kenya and Ghana, there is still heavy reliance on pen-andpaper exams that mainly test memorization of facts in vocational subjects.
3.6 A Possible Lesson from the Cases The cases illustrate how vulnerable vocationalization policies are. Unless they are backed up by the type of major financial resources which only relatively rich states can provide, and unless these policies can draw on strong professional capacity to plan, implement and to follow them up, implementation will falter. In these three cases, the countries ‘went it alone’ apparently without any involvement of external agencies. Botswana was the only country that had the financial capacity to sustain implementation in a systematic way, but has run up against local staffing shortages. Tellingly, in this situation, without external agency involvement, there was no impact evaluation—even in Botswana (as of 2004).3
4 Summing Up Case Study Findings Earlier research, as well as the recent case studies on Kenya, Ghana and Botswana, support the conclusion that there is no iron law of ‘low’ attractiveness of vocational subjects. Even when such subjects may be seen as suitable for youth who are deemed to have dim prospects of succeeding in purely academic education (which is not universally the way these subjects are perceived by parents and students), these subjects can have committed students and be taught by committed teachers. Nor is there an iron law that says that vocational subjects lack attraction to academically wellqualified secondary students. When vocational subjects can be combined with a sufficient load of academic subjects to make students eligible also for further academic education, they can have attraction as ‘something to fall back upon’—as a means to hedge one’s bets on continuing higher up the educational ladder. Such attraction will be boosted when vocational subjects are well taught and well equipped, and when they are perceived to give advantage for opportunities in the future. In those cases when vocational courses tend be seen as inferior to academic courses within secondary education, it does not follow that vocational education
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and training outside the secondary education system suffers demoralizing consequences from insufficient attractiveness. When any kind of educational opportunity is very scarce, vocational courses can be more than ‘attractive enough’ to stimulate interest among the great number of youth looking for opportunity. In the late 1980s, the competition to get into national vocational training centres in Tanzania was exceedingly great, though the entering trainees may well have preferred general secondary education (Lauglo, 1991). In 2002, a post-‘O’-Level vocational training course in Botswana with space for 180 trainees was advertised and received 18,000 applicants.4
4.1 Gender Inequity Botswana, Ghana and Kenya all have gender biases in their vocational enrolment. Boys gravitate towards subjects that are associated with traditionally male occupations: building and construction, and mechanical workshop subjects. Home economics is nearly exclusively taken by girls. Other subjects already have a degree of mixed recruitment, notably business subjects/office skills and agriculture, which also are the subjects that schools most frequently offer. It is noteworthy that in Kenya enrolment in computer studies is fairly well gender balanced.5 The gender balance among some subjects can be partly attributed to the prevalence of single-sex secondary schools in some countries. Botswana, Ghana and Kenya report no action to mitigate gender-biased enrolment patterns. In general, vocationalized secondary education will be fraught with greater problems of gender segregation than those of purely ‘general’ curricula.
4.2 Cost Cost analysis is useful even when effects or benefits cannot be measured and compared by any quantitative indicators. It is especially useful before new subjects are capitalized and when expansion of small-scale pilots is considered. In a situation where subject A is found to be twice as costly as subject B, e.g. per student hour taught, one can ask: Is it plausible that the benefit, in some sense, of one hour of A would be twice that of one hour of B? What if the ratio is 4:1 in such a comparison of subject costs? Unit costs per student class hour will vary depending on class size, facilities and equipment required, and consumables expended. Vocational subjects as a group are generally found to be more expensive than academic subjects—often very much more expensive; but there is often great variation among schools both with regard to levels of unit costs and cost relativities among subjects. Cost is driven up when teaching is conducted in half-classes for pedagogic and/or safety reasons. Most vocational courses require ‘half-class’ groups while few academic courses do. Further, most vocational courses require more equipment and consumables per student place than academic courses do. In such circumstances vocational courses will be at least
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twice as costly as academic courses. Under conditions of high drop-out, group size can dwindle by the time students complete a course. Using examination entries as an indicator, Mwiria (2005) noted distinctly small class sizes in vocational subjects in Kenyan secondary education, with some schools entering only five students in some vocational subjects in a given year. Any unit-cost relativity would be driven sky high when cost per completer in such subjects is compared with an average for academic subjects. Back in the 1980s in Kenya, Cumming (1985, 1988) noted very substantial variation in unit costs per student class hour among schools in the same practical industrial education subjects in secondary schools. Workshops for these schools had been provided with donor finance. Some variance reflected differences in capitalization; but the schools differed strikingly in how fully they utilized facilities and teaching resources. Underutilization of expensive facilities was a greater problem in the smaller schools (Lauglo, 1985). The Ghana study (Akyeampong, 2005) similarly noted that vocational courses sometimes will be undersubscribed in small senior secondary schools, thus driving up unit recurrent cost in such institutions. Not all practical or vocational subjects need to be more expensive than academic subjects. Accountancy can have much the same cost as mathematics; agriculture if taught to a full class can be cheaper than laboratory science. Under the Moi regime in Kenya, the cost of providing facilities and equipment for vocational subjects, which schools were required by the State to introduce, fell upon the parents. As one would expect, this led to much dissatisfaction among parents with these costly subjects, and to many inadequate facilities. Also not surprisingly, schools often chose to offer the ‘cheap’ subjects of agriculture and commerce/accounting, when confronted with the requirement to vocationalize. It may seem as if the main cost barriers to the introduction of vocational subjects would be facilities and equipment. These are investments that very few States in low-income countries have been willing to finance themselves. Invariably, grants and soft loans have been the source of finance, leaving the government to foot the bill for teachers’ pay, maintenance and consumables. Botswana does not fit this pattern, but then it is also a relatively rich country because of the income from mining. In terms of the national resource base, it is a middle-income country. The case studies of Ghana and Kenya are examples of what happened when reliance on local resources has meant very insufficient levels of capitalization. Thus, it might seem that the main ‘expense barrier’ is facilities and equipment. However, estimates of ‘combined unit cost’ show that the total cost (also for the more ‘capital expensive subjects’) tends to be dominated by teachers’ salaries, not by depreciation estimates of facilities and equipment. Estimates made in Ghana by Akyeampong (2005, Table 19) on the relative importance for total unit costs of respectively (a) recurrent costs and (b) capital costs (workshops, equipment) underline the impact of ‘class size’ rather than of capital depreciation in driving up the cost of vocational subjects. The total unit cost of the technical (vocational) programme was in this case more than three times the unit cost of a general education arts programme. For comparison, the general education science programme was more than twice the unit cost of the arts programme. However, there was not much difference
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between the business programme and the arts programme—if anything the business programme was in this case cheaper! The reason is that both are taught to ‘large classes’. Analysis of cost relativities in Botswana (Weeks, 2005) points to the same type of conclusion: class size is decisive for cost relativities, not capital depreciation. Earlier work in Kenya (Lauglo, 1985) points in the same direction.
5 The Bottom Line: Is There a Labour-Market Payoff? Does vocationalization in fact serve its politically most important goal: is there a labour-market payoff? Such a payoff will be contingent on market conditions, on the connections that a person has to that market and on the level of skill acquired. Psacharopoulos and Loxley (1985) carried out a tracer study in Tanzania (and Colombia) comparing students from mildly vocationalized tracks with students from purely academic tracks. They found lower internal rates of return (private as well as social) to the vocational tracks than to the academic ones. More convincingly to those who are sceptical about the feasibility of sufficiently accurate rate-of-return analysis in such circumstances, they found that the vocationalized courses conferred no advantage over academic ones in obtaining employment. Another tracer was carried out in 1986 on graduates from five Kenyan technical secondary schools (about one-third technical curriculum) (N¨arman, 1988b; Lauglo, 1989). When traced approximately one year after graduation, only 15% of the graduates had either continued in ‘relevant’ further training or found a job for which their technically biased secondary education could be said to have been broadly preparatory. Some 39% had continued in further general education; 42% were unemployed and looking for either work or some opportunity for further education or training. Only one person was self-employed. None had obtained an apprenticeship, even though preparation for apprenticeship was one of the declared objectives of this type of school. The study of Kenyan industrial education (IE) subjects included a tracer study that reached more than a thousand students (71% of the target sample) from twentyseven junior secondary schools. IE gave even less time for vocational subjects than the technical secondary schools: only three to five periods per week. After one year, roughly four-tenths of them were continuing in academic education. Another fourtenths remained unemployed. Only 5% had secured further training of a kind for which the IE subjects were broadly relevant (Lauglo & N¨arman, 1987). Having had ‘some IE’ (two years), or having had more IE (four years), did not help ease the transition to work compared to those who had no IE at all. However, there was a wide range of episodic and private use of skills acquired—fixing things at home and helping friends or neighbours. The sample was further traced after three years (N¨arman, 1988a). Again, there was no association between the level of exposure to IE subjects and having a job. Also, and sadly, the overall percentage of those who had neither found work nor been able to continue in school had not declined since the one-year tracer. It is clear that the studies referred to above failed to show minimally adequate labour-market pay-off.
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In the IE studies, the quality of school credentials (passing the exam, the grade/mark obtained) did not seem to improve a person’s chance of finding work either (Lauglo & N¨arman, 1987). One would conclude that in labour markets with staggeringly high rates of youth unemployment—such as Kenya since the early 1980s—finding a job of some regularity will depend strongly on social capital, i.e. networks and sponsorship. When skills are taught to greater depth and under buoyant labour-market conditions, the opportunities for adequate external effectiveness are better. A number of tracer studies have in fact shown positive labour-market effects of school-based ‘vocational education’, but these all refer to training in greater depth than the ‘light dosage’ associated with vocationalized secondary education. Chin-Aleong (1988) conducted a study in Trinidad and Tobago when there was brisk demand for skilled workers. Vocationalized secondary education that affected a minor portion of the timetable failed to have any clear effect on the chances of employment, but more specialized training in comparable areas of skill did improve the chances. Similarly, a tracer study in Eritrea by Atchoarena and Tekie (1997), which was also conducted at a time when the demand for skilled labour was brisk, showed a high transition to ‘related work’ among graduates from technical secondary schools (50% of curriculum time had been devoted to vocational subjects). Another quite successful example are the ‘technical schools’ at lower and upper secondary levels in Mozambique, according to a very thorough tracer study reported by Billetoft and Austral Consultores (2005) and in greater detail by Austral Consultores (2003). In spite of natural catastrophes and pervasive poverty, the modern sector in Mozambique has shown ten years of dynamic growth. Furthermore, in spite of many weaknesses evinced in low internal efficiency, the technical schools achieved strikingly good labour-market absorption for graduates, also in private sector employment. Among the graduates from different types of technical secondary schools, the tracer study found that hardly anyone was unemployed. Even if informal sector self-employment was counted as ‘hidden unemployment’, very few would be ‘unemployed’ three years after they left school. The Mozambican technical schools of the Ministry of Education follow a timetable with longer hours than those found in the general secondary schools, which run parallel to these technical schools. The technical schools devote 30–40% of curriculum time to vocational subjects. In addition, most students obtain a period of workplace attachment in business and industry, organized by their school. The most successful type of technical school is at the upper secondary (medio) level. Its courses last for three-and-a-half years, inclusive of workplace attachment, as compared to two years in the academic upper secondary schools. To conclude: no tracer study has shown that vocationalization implemented on a large scale in developing countries confers any advantage in access to employment (let alone self-employment) under conditions of highly depressed labour markets for youth. But there are examples from developing countries of ‘good’ labour market absorption of graduates from school-based TVET (with curricula in which vocational subjects dominate).
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6 Concluding Observations 6.1 ‘Process Skills’ and General Education Matter Practical skills can be justified as part of a well-rounded general education. Skills of this type often have their uses in people’s private lives. But what about preparation designed to help ease the transition to the labour market for those secondary school students who will not continue in further stages of schooling? The reports from the recent case studies of the three African countries, which during the 1990s decided to ‘go it alone’ in vocationalizing secondary education, all refer to the vocational relevance of what they variously call ‘key skills’ (Botswana), ‘communication skills’ (Kenya) or ‘generic problem-solving and creative skills’ (Ghana). These are neither occupation-specific nor are they developed in any single subject. A longitudinal study from the United States (Bishop & Ma˜ne, 2005) similarly concludes that the labour-market payoff of vocational skills is enhanced when there is simultaneous stress on minimum requirements to achievement in key general subjects. This emphasis on general education and on the importance of process skills echoes earlier critiques of ‘low dosage’ vocationalization. The main reason why vocationalization is so problematic is that intended usage does not lead to actual usage. For students in these broad curricula with only ‘light dosage vocational skills’, the connection will be loose between occupation-specific skills that are learned and the type of work that they will actually be doing some years later. Many will continue on to further schooling before entering the labour market. And the type of work actually obtained by those who enter the labour market directly after secondary school cannot be well predicted. Even in overwhelmingly agricultural countries, it does not follow that most of those who are secondary school-leavers will make a living in agriculture. Such looseness of connection means that the skills that will turn out to be most useful for the great majority of students are those that are not occupation specific. It is easy to point to capacities that are widely acclaimed as highly relevant for working life: initiative, drive, mental alertness, responsibility, creativity, ability to solve problems and being able to work collaboratively. It is widely recognized that upbringing in the home and community will play a large part in shaping such general capacities. Rote learning of ‘vocational theory’, which is what severely underresourced vocationalization in low-income countries all too often has degenerated to, is contrary to the development of such process skills. Schools can do better than that and organize school work and social life at school in ways that enhance the valued process skills. Good skills in language and arithmetic have general economic relevance. All these skills and capacities are also valuable for further schooling and for life in general. Therefore, the task of improved economic relevance of secondary education will overlap to a considerable degree with the general task of improving the quality of education. What education systems are up against, in the North as well as in the South, is how to strengthen the learning of these process skills, as well as skills in key general education subjects—first of all language and mathematics.
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6.2 What Can Vocational Subjects Achieve? The record of vocationalization shows that it is entirely possible for vocational or practical subjects to become pedagogically viable systems with high morale among students and teachers. Exposure to vocational subjects can stimulate interest in the types of work for which the subjects are broadly preparatory. Further, there is no cast-iron law saying that vocational subjects are doomed to be unattractive to their clientele. Students and parents often have supportive views of the value of these subjects. There is no international pattern showing lack of interest among secondary school-leavers in entering careers in commerce, agriculture or industry. However, the key question is not ‘interest’ but whether this type of education helps schoolleavers find a livelihood; and does it make them more economically productive? There are few good tracer studies to help answer this question. Those studies that have been conducted in developing countries in the last couple of decades have failed to show that the kind of secondary school vocationalization affecting a small proportion of the student’s total curriculum—e.g. 10–20% of curriculum time—gives any advantage in finding work. There is no support for the view that ‘a little bit of vocational preparation’, taken alongside a mainly ‘general’ secondary course, is a means of easing secondary school graduates into depressed labour markets for young people. There are some studies that do show good labour-market absorption from vocational courses in secondary education. In the North, there is recent study by Bishop and Ma˜ne (2005) of vocational courses in high schools in the United States. In the South there is an example from the 1980s concerning Trinidad and Tobago (Chin-Aleong, 1988), and more recent examples from Eritrea (Atchoarena & Tekie, 1997) and Mozambique (Billetoft & Austral Consultores, 2005). But these are all examples of (a) relatively favourable labour-market conditions for secondary school graduates in general, and (b) skills taught to considerably greater depth than what ‘vocationalization’ implies—i.e. this is TVET rather than ‘vocationalization’. What these examples show is that it is entirely possible to set up within the context of a secondary school system provisions for in-depth vocational training that have respectable rates of labour-market absorption into ‘related work’. It is less clear whether this type of curriculum gives much advantage in severely depressed labour markets. If such TVET is to be combined with holding the door open to higher education admission for the same students, more total curriculum time (often an extra year) is needed than for purely academic courses preparing for the same higher education. It is therefore a costly policy choice. The main lesson from these positive examples is that elementary courses spread thinly across an education system are not effective; advanced vocational courses and more concentrated inputs are needed—and such training in greater depth is not possible ‘on the cheap’. It should be recognized, however, that another discourse is needed if the question is: ‘What is the best way to organize vocational training?’ The focus should then be on a much wider range of target groups and institutional ‘homes’ than youth in secondary education. There will be those who argue the case for institutions especially dedicated to vocational training, rather than integrating vocational lessons
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into schools whose main purpose is education, not training. There will be those who stress the importance of stimulating industry to play a greater role (internships, attachments, apprenticeships, training of industry’s own employees). There will be those who argue the case for separating vocational training out from a ministry that is mainly concerned with ‘education’ and placing it under a national training authority—in which labour-market partners have a major say. There will be those who are concerned with how best to combine basic literacy education for adults and out-of-school youth with training that will reinforce livelihood skills, which they are already practising in their work, etc.
6.3 A Special Case for ICT Skills In economically advanced countries, computer applications are increasingly important for vocational skills training across a range of other skill areas, as shown in the study by Bishop and Ma˜ne (2005). Because of the importance of ICTs in the global economy and because of the spread of computer applications as a tool for communicating, the question in developing countries is not whether computing skills need to be taught, but how soon it will be affordable and practicable to teach such skills in secondary schools, and in what way ICT skills should be introduced. Viewed as vocationalization, ICT applications have the advantage of increased relevance across a widening range of occupations in the higher echelons of the modern sector. Computer applications may at present be used in a very small occupational niche, but it is a fast-growing niche. With the ‘downward’ diffusion of ICTs within the education system itself, often starting in higher education and in institutions at all levels preparing for business and commerce, ICT skills in low-income countries will increasingly become essential process skills for post-secondary education, as these skills already are in high-income countries and in a number of middle-income countries. In higher education they should not necessarily be seen as ‘teaching devices’, but as tools for word-processing, calculation, and information retrieval and processing. A long-term view is needed for the development of ICT applications in the secondary schools of most low-income countries. At present there are many constraints that need to be overcome before mass introduction is possible: lack of electricity; high costs when electricity is provided; high costs of software; problems with maintenance of equipment; and the use of Internet being barred by lack of adequate telephone connections and by high telephone charges. Even when facilities and equipment can be afforded, the case of Botswana shows that lack of qualified staff has been a major constraint in the introduction of ICT teaching in schools. In the short run, the trying out of ICT teaching in a small number of secondary schools should be encouraged, even if large-scale introduction is not yet feasible. Since the teaching of computer applications is a specialty of private computer schools, there is a strong case for public/private partnership in developing the teaching of ICT applications in secondary schools. There is a need for international sharing of experience with organizational models for such co-operation.
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Botswana may be the only country in Sub-Saharan Africa that has embarked upon system-wide implementation of computer education in public secondary schools. It uses a two-pronged approach of ‘computer studies’ and ‘computer awareness’. African countries can learn by staying informed about the Botswana experience, e.g. how to cope with cost, maintenance and staffing constraints.
6.4 Questions to Ask Here are some questions relevant for deciding what subjects to offer if it is decided to introduce practical/vocational subjects:
r
r r r r r r
What is the scale of potential work opportunities in the occupational segment for which the subject would be broadly preparatory? What entry-level skills are needed for those jobs? How fast is the demand likely to grow? It is not enough that the occupational segment be a ‘large’ one. What would the opportunities be for secondary school graduates? What other uses are there for the subject other than those connected with specific occupations? What are the practicalities of obtaining the needed facilities, equipment and consumables? How does one recruit, train and keep good teachers? What are the estimated capital and recurrent costs, as compared to other subjects? How can one ensure a reasonable balance between females and males? How compatible are the pedagogic requirements of the subject with the existing ‘teaching logic’ in the schools?
The case for special attention to ICT skills has been mentioned. However, business and agriculture are the two most commonly offered subjects in the countries covered in this study. This is not accidental. Business subjects may seem optimal when examined in the light of the questions just posed. The occupational segment is large, with skills practised at various levels. When taught to large groups—which they usually are—business subjects are not expensive. However, the challenge is to develop contents and ways of teaching that can stimulate entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviour. No recipe is offered for this in the present volume. Much attention should be given to developing and trying out innovations in this area. Agriculture may seem like a good fit in several respects. It is typically taught to large classes and at low cost (when schools have land). Agriculture is a very large economic sector in most African countries. There is also the private benefit that many secondary school graduates will obtain from growing their own food, keeping some domestic animals, etc. But, as shown in the Mozambique tracer study by Billetoft and Austral Consultores (2005), jobs in agriculture may actually be quite limited for secondary school graduates—in the midst of a country well known for its agricultural potential. Further, the structure of farming and the general function
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of select secondary education may be such that few secondary school-leavers return to the land to farm for their main livelihood. It is not essential that all schools should offer the same options. Better use can be made of scarce human and financial resources if schools are allowed to specialize.
6.5 A Case for Caution In rich countries where the full age group continues in school beyond the primary stage, the case for organizing provisions in a unified way in the same locality or district is compelling. When compulsory education is raised to include the secondary stage, or part of it, an important goal must be to cater for the full range of career and education prospects that an entire age group faces at this stage in their life. Vocational courses must be part of such provisions, whether taught in specialized institutions or, whenever conditions make it possible for some specialties, across a wide range of ‘secondary school’ sites. The development of more ‘comprehensive’ forms of secondary education has thus been part and parcel of the growth of mass secondary education—but with varying degrees of integration between ‘academic’ and ‘vocational’ education in different countries. It is important to note, however, that an organizational model that integrates mainstream general education along the academic route, with vocationalized curricula at secondary school level, has never been typical of systems where only a minority of the age group continues in school beyond the primary level. In my judgement, the degree of institutional integration of vocational training with the mainstream of the secondary system, which may be advisable for countries with well-functioning and well-resourced secondary school systems that enrol the great majority of young people, make little sense in systems that enrol a modest minority of the age group, where there is an urgent need of quality improvement in core general education subjects, and in which the financial and human resources needed to develop and sustain vocational subjects are much scarcer than in economically advanced countries. Thus, whether vocational skills training for youth is best provided within the mainstream secondary school system and from other institutional bases will be conditioned by the proportion of youth entering that system, by whether quality improvement concerns in key general education subjects in that system are deemed more urgently pressing, and by what countries can afford.
Notes 1. Empirical tracer studies include Psacharopoulos and Loxley (1985) on Colombia and Tanzania, Lauglo and N¨arman (1987) and Lauglo (1989) on Kenya, and Chin-Aleong (1988) on Trinidad and Tobago. Lauglo and Lillis (1988) include summary reports from some of these studies and a collection of other contributions from the mid-1980s. Coombe (1988) and, more recently,
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Hoppers (1996) have provided general reviews of the international research and evaluation literature on vocationalization. Website: <www.world-links.org/english/> Lines of accountability to ‘remote’ sources of funding probably drive formalization of evaluation procedures, when funding is in the form of grants or soft loans rather than commercial transactions. Tracer studies, for example, are very rare as a means of feedback to policy-makers in the North about the operations of their own vocational training systems. But donor agencies (including the soft lenders) in the North invariably want a range of performance indicators from activities financed in the South, as typified in LOGFRAME planning, which is a distinct tool for ‘donor agency’ work, not at all for governments in the North. Personal communication from Sheldon Weeks. Kilemi Mwiria suggests that girls are given an added impetus to take computer studies because this subject is a prerequisite for access to modern-sector secretarial occupations.
References Akyeampong, A.K. 2005. Vocationalisation of secondary education in Ghana. In: Lauglo, J.; Maclean, R., eds. Vocationalisation of secondary education revisited. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Atchoarena, D.; Tekie, T.M. 1997. Skill development and labour market study in Eritrea: report of the tracer and enterprise surveys. Asmara: Ministry of Education (in collaboration with UNESCO-IIEP). Austral Consultores. 2003. Study of cost and external efficiency of technical and vocational education in Mozambique. Maputo: Ministry of Education, National Directorate of Technical Education. [Document translated from the original: Estudo de Custo e Efic´acia externa do Ensino t´ecnico e Profissional em Moc¸ambique.] Bacchus, K. 1988. The political context of vocationalisation of education in the developing countries. In: Lauglo, J.; Lillis, K., eds. Vocationalizing education: an international perspective. Oxford, UK: Pergamon. Billetoft, J.; Austral Consultores. 2005. Technical and vocational education and training in Mozambique: better than its reputation. In: Lauglo, J.; Maclean, R., eds. 2005. Vocationalisation of secondary education revisited. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Bishop, J.; Ma˜ne, F. 2005. Economic returns to vocational courses in the U.S. high schools. In: Lauglo, J.; Maclean, R., eds. 2005. Vocationalisation of secondary education revisited. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Chin-Aleong, M. 1988. Vocational secondary education in Trinidad and Tobago and related evaluation results. In: Lauglo, J.; Lillis, K., eds. Vocationalizing education: an international perspective, pp. 295–334. Oxford, UK: Pergamon Press in association with the Swedish International Development Association. Coombe, C. 1988. Survey of vocationally-oriented education in the Commonwealth. London: Commonwealth Secretariat. Cumming, C.E. 1985. The contribution of cost studies. In: Cumming, C. et al., eds. Practical subjects in Kenyan academic secondary schools: background papers, pp. 77–107. Stockholm: Sida. (Education Division documents, no. 22.) Cumming, C.E. 1988. Curriculum costs: vocational subjects. In: Lauglo, J.; Lillis, K., eds. Vocationalizing education: an international perspective, pp. 293–94. Oxford, UK: Pergamon Press in association with the Swedish International Development Association. Foster, P. 1965. The vocational school fallacy in development planning. In: Anderson, C.A.; Bowman, M.J., eds. Education and economic development. Chicago, IL: Aldine. Hoppers, W. 1996. Searching for relevance: the development of work orientation in basic education. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. (Fundamentals of educational planning, no. 52.)
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Lauglo, J. 1985. Practical subjects in Kenyan academic secondary schools: general report. Stockholm: Sida. (Education Division documents, no. 20.) Lauglo, J. 1989. Technical secondary students in Kenya: origins, achievement and destinations. Prospects, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 409–26. Lauglo, J. 1991. Vocational training in Tanzania and the role of Swedish support. Stockholm: Sida. (Education Division documents, no. 48.) Lauglo, J.; Lillis, K., eds. 1988. Vocationalizing education: an international perspective. Oxford, UK: Pergamon Press in association with the Swedish International Development Association. Lauglo, J.; N¨arman, A. 1987. The status of practical subjects and their uses after school: diversified secondary education in Kenya. International journal of educational development, vol. 7, no. 2. Mwiria, K. 2005. Vocationalisation of secondary education: Kenya case study. In: Lauglo, J.; Maclean, R., eds. Vocationalisation of secondary education revisited. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. N¨arman, A. 1988a. Practical subjects in Kenyan academic secondary schools: tracer study II (Three-year follow-up). Stockholm: Sida. (Education Division documents, no. 39.) N¨arman, A. 1988b. Technical secondary schools and the labour market: some results from a tracer study in Kenya. Comparative education, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 19–35. Psacharopoulos, G.; Loxley, W. 1985. Diversified secondary education and development: evidence from Colombia and Tanzania. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. Weeks, S.G. 2005. Pre-vocational secondary education in Botswana. In: Lauglo, J.; Maclean, R., eds. Vocationalisation of secondary education revisited. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Wilson, D.N. 2005. Promise and performance in vocationalised secondary education: has the baby been thrown out with the bath water? In: Lauglo, J.; Maclean, R., eds. Vocationalisation of secondary education revisited. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.
Chapter XIII.8
Vocational Guidance and Career Counselling in the European Union: Origins and Recent Trends Frederic. J. Company
1 A Concept and an Evolving Reality The present education and training policy of the European Union (EU) is based on two main lines of action. The first is the financial support granted by the EU programmes to promote trans-national exchange, mobility and co-operation projects involving the different actors in the education and training systems at national, regional and local level. The second is the creation of a co-operation area, after the European Summit in Lisbon in 2000, which will help member States to modernize their respective education and training systems. This is known as the Work Programme ‘Education and Training 2010’ (European Commission, 2006) and, as it is based on the open method of co-ordination, it implies consensus on various common strategic objectives and paths towards mutual learning and exchange of experience in a framework of co-operation between the member states. Jean Monnet, one of the founding fathers of the European Community, once said: ‘If we could start again, I would proceed through education and culture’. At the end of his life, Monnet was convinced that the construction of Europe could not be fully achieved without taking due account of vocational education and training. He believed that the union of the member states could not really be achieved without the cohesion and active participation of their nations and their citizens. Education and culture were the two fundamental pillars for the complete success of European integration. It is in this sense that vocational guidance and career counselling,1 covering a broad range of education and training-related initiatives and activities on the one hand, and the development of human resources and labour on the other, have acquired paramount importance and play a crucial role in the social and economic development of this continent. Its importance is paramount because guidance is not only a service offered to individual people to help them to find their own training and employment paths and to develop their own security and autonomy, but is also a service to society to make it more equal and cohesive, as well as building up economic prosperity. Its role is crucial because guidance is located at the junction where challenges converge. These challenges confront policy-makers who are planning to achieve the objectives of education and training (lifelong learning), social well-being (reducing R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XIII.8, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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social exclusion and raising the quality of life), employment (work efficiency) and economic development. That is why vocational guidance and career counselling is on the political agenda, not only of each Member State of the EU but on the common agenda. The concept of guidance in Europe is a developing concept which is becoming a more tangible reality from day to day. The resolution on lifelong guidance adopted by the Ministers of Education on 24 May 2004 gives us a common definition: Guidance refers to a range of activities2 that enables citizens of any age and at any point in their lives (lifelong) to identify their capacities, competences and interests, to make meaningful educational, training and occupational decisions and to manage their individual life paths in learning, work and other settings in which these capacities and competences are learned and/or used (life wide). Guidance is provided in a range of settings: education, training, employment, community and private (Council of the European Union, 2004).
The guidance services can also influence the effectiveness and efficiency of education and training provision, and thus ensure a better balance between the wishes of individuals and the necessities of the working world, and reduce the considerably high drop-out rates in study courses and training programmes.3 In this chapter, a historical review of the development of guidance in Europe is undertaken with the aim of understanding the political context in which guidance developed: from being considered an incidental and peripheral element within education, training and employment systems to its position today as a fundamental and integral part of them. In a period of history where everything seems to indicate that the greatest wealth of a nation is knowledge, education, training and employment policies have to broaden the options open to the citizens and adapt systems and services so that they are capable of responding to the diversity of people’s needs throughout their lives. Career guidance is becoming increasingly important for the development of public policies. This is occurring at a time when public policies are having a greater impact on guidance as they define its limits and set out the main reasons why it should be financed. However, an imbalance continues to exist between these two spheres: few guidance practitioners are directly interested in the entire issue of public policies, and few policy-makers have detailed knowledge of the nature, the organization and the development of guidance services in terms of their diverse personal/social, educational and professional aspects.
2 The Origins of European Career Guidance Co-operation (1963–1985) An overview of policy developments in vocational education and training in the fifty years of the European Union is presented here to contextualize the current position of career guidance. The primary goal of the construction of Europe in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s was essentially economic, and education was not given
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any consideration anywhere in the first treaties of the European Economic Community. For vocational training, however, the point of departure was quite different. The treaties gave it a place of honour. The famous Article 128 of the Treaty of Rome, which permitted decisions to be taken with a simple majority, gave vocational training the possibility of formulating a common policy, thus making a contribution to the harmonious development of the national economies and the ‘Common Market’.4 The main aim of vocational training policy5 was to improve the access of workers to training and employment and to ensure the free movement of the workforce. It was exclusively addressed to adults and did not take the general and vocational education of youth into consideration. Although vocational training had greater legal support than general education through the European Social Fund, political co-operation in the field of vocational training faced and still faces more difficulty in forging ahead than co-operation policy in the field of education. These difficulties are due to the fact that vocational training is a sector more difficult to comprehend than education. In the latter, the institutional actors are clearly identifiable and their systems are generally more structured and well organized. In the field of vocational training, community co-operation faces some difficulty because, on the one hand, it has to approach a large number of partners, public and private (States, regions, enterprises, trade unions, employers’ associations, etc.) and, on the other, it has to play a catalytic role and ensure the continuation of systems with diffuse contents and complex modes of functioning. It is difficult to measure the visibility of co-operation and its impact on the development of national vocational training systems. Thus, till the end of the 1980s, European co-operation policies in education and vocational training were handled separately. However, at the level of recommendations of the European Commission (July 1966),6 the six member States which constituted the Community at that time highlighted the need to promote vocational guidance activities and services, both at national and Community level. The recital of this recommendation states: Guidance7 is increasingly being considered as an institution of an educational, social and economic nature, which responds not only to the interests of the individual wishing to exercise an activity geared to his desires and capabilities, but also at the same time, to the demands of the labour market seen as a whole. Guidance supports the free and effective choice of a profession, and also facilitates later changes brought about by economic, technical and social circumstances; its main justification is to be found in the fact that growing occupational and geographical mobility is tending to assert itself as one of the factors which, from now on, will be indispensable to maintain the global balance of employment.
For these reasons the European Commission recommends that Member States: 1. promote the development of vocational guidance activities for youth and adults; 2. adapt the structures of their vocational guidance services and their means of action to the requirements of the people; 3. give more continuity to guidance activity, link it more permanently with placement services and strengthen the general co-ordination of guidance measures; 4. contribute to the strengthening of Community collaboration.
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These recommendations were formulated on the basis of a research survey that was aimed at identifying common interests in this field. It revealed a number of shortcomings in the issues of access to guidance by various target groups, such as people with a physical or mental disability, people living in rural zones, and adults, including immigrants, who require re-training. The European Commission concluded in 1971 that the work undertaken on the basis of previous recommendations had not produced the desired results. With the entry of the United Kingdom, Denmark and Ireland in l973, education and vocational training received new impetus at the community level. These countries called for new forces in the field of vocational training and human resource development. A first resolution was adopted in 1974. It re-emphasized the importance of a common vocational training policy and the progressive achievement of its objectives. It foresaw the creation of a European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (commonly known as CEDEFOP from the French abbreviation of its name). Established in 1975,8 this centre has the aim of analysing data and providing technical information on vocational training, compiling and disseminating documentation, and stimulating research and studies on training regulations, with the final aim of promoting the free movement of workers. The economic and social changes occurring in the ten years of the 1970s encouraged the use of vocational training to achieve social objectives with measures especially designed for specific target groups. The first target group selected for special assistance in 1974 was disabled people. The next group was youth. The Council adopted a number of measures incorporated in two Resolutions: one passed in 19769 with the aim of facilitating transition from school to working life, and the other in 1979 linking work and training for youth. It was also in 197610 that the first resolution on the creation of an action programme for education was adopted. Its priorities included the educational measures to be taken to prepare young people for work, to facilitate their transition from study to working life, and to increase their chances of finding employment and thereby reducing the risk of unemployment. Two programmes for the ‘transition of young people from education to adult and working life’ were launched as an outcome of these Council decisions, the first in 1977 and the second in 1982. The European Commission, with the technical support of IFAPLAN,11 co-ordinated and co-financed various work programmes in co-operation with the Member States who tried, through educational programmes, to find effective mechanisms for the social integration and entry into working life of European youth. In terms of career guidance the following conclusions were made: Firstly, the schools have started to play a more important role in educational and occupational guidance. This new role is in line with the concept teachers and counsellors have of what the organisation and nature of guidance should be:
– guidance should start straight away; – it should continue throughout the schooling period of the pupils until they have made a choice of profession and up to their transition to working life;
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– its goal should not be information alone; it should help these young people to use this information to identify and strengthen their personal qualities so that they can get a general idea, in the long term, of their future as adults and workers. Experience shows that the school is the best place to learn and practice the required knowledge, skills and attitudes. In those countries where guidance organizations work within the school, their role is slowly changing to that of a counselling and consultative body for the school’s guidance activities. Secondly, the schools cannot assume these new responsibilities alone. They need strong links with other partners such as: – other guidance agencies, both formal and informal: that is, the parents, on the one hand, who are the main source of informal guidance, and specialised organisations on the other, which are generally better organised and more well equipped than the schools; – industrialists and other persons and institutions in the surroundings who are able to provide access to opportunities for out-of-school learning; – other indispensable counterparts so that young people can assess their own capacities in a realistic situation; and – the local community, in order to identify occupational needs and employment opportunities available in the area and the responses the school can make (IFAPLAN, 1987a, 1987b).
3 Guidance in the Community Programmes (1985–1995) At the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s there were ten member States in a European Community with a shared belief that the education and training systems were ‘compartmentally sealed both at intra-national and international level’. The first attempt to close the gaps between the sectors of education and training took place in 1985 following a judgement by the European Court of Justice. This concerned the ‘Gravier Case’ of 13 February 1985. A French student, Franc¸oise Gravier, wished to study cartoon techniques in Belgium, in a non-university institution of higher learning which compelled foreign students to pay a registration fee five times the amount paid by students from the country itself. Gravier appealed to the European Court and the Court ruled that, in accordance with Article 128 mentioned above, every student was entitled to access the vocational training courses in the other member States under the same conditions as the nationals of that country, and that discrimination on the grounds of nationality was not allowed. With this judgement the European Court gave a broader interpretation to the concept of vocational training. It said that any type of teaching leading to a qualification for the exercise of a profession, occupation or job, was a form of vocational training, whatever the age or the educational level of the trainee. The Court thus established an interpretation of vocational training which enabled the inclusion of higher learning or university education. This judgement was to change the course of events affecting co-operation in education.
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Large-scale programmes, such as COMETT,12 ERASMUS13 and LINGUA14 in education and PETRA and FORCE in initial and continuing vocational training, were initiated by the European Commission. To provide an information base for the process, CEDEFOP (set up in 1975 to conduct studies on vocational training) commenced drawing up a European directory of occupational profiles. At the beginning of the 1980s, the network EURYDICE was established with the aim of developing shared knowledge about the education systems of Europe. The European Community continued promotion of trans-national mobility of youth to foster better understanding between its peoples and to enable a better use of the existing education, training and employment resources. The full implementation of the single European market and the entry into force of the Treaty of Maastricht (1993), which created the European Union, opened a number of new possibilities that helped young people seeking trans-national experiences as an element above and beyond the usual training routes and to remove the barriers which separated different national systems of education. Thus, the role of guidance practitioners became that of providing updated information on training possibilities. One objective of PETRA15 was specifically related to setting up an exchange of information on guidance between Member States, and the creation of a network of resource centres16 which promoted the training—with a European dimension—of guidance counsellors. Before that, with the assistance of CEDEFOP and EURYDICE, the Commission had published a report (1985–1987) updated in 1994, on ‘Educational and Vocational Guidance Services in the European Community’ which dealt not only with youth but also with adults and the European dimension of these services (Watts et al., 1994). This report confirmed four basic trends: 1. Guidance is an on-going process which has to be initiated at an early stage in schools. It should continue throughout the period of transition to adult and working life, and should be accessible throughout life. 2. The concept of guidance should change. The prevailing concept of a guidance expert who works with individual clients in a psychological atmosphere should be replaced by a more open professional model with a broader focus using a range of more comprehensive measures and paying more attention to co-operation with networks of other practitioners and agencies. 3. More importance should be given to the individual as an active player and not just a passive recipient in the guidance process. 4. There should be more awareness of the European dimension in the provision of guidance services. The other comments made in this report referred to the lack of services for adults who were not unemployed, liberalization in some countries that did not fully apply market principles, decentralization, the situation with regard to quality levels, the need for a good assessment of the services and the lack of co-ordination between different services. Finally, the report recommended a new strategy based on three complementary elements:
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1. Education and vocational guidance should be an integral part of overall educational provision giving the students the permanent opportunity of examining the relationship between what they were studying and their later professional careers. 2. Career development should be an integral part of all employment offers, offering practitioners and entrepreneurs continuous opportunities for an on-going analysis of their work, future aspirations, technical requisites and means of updating them. 3. Access to neutral vocational training should be provided at moments when individuals are considering the possibilities of a change between different academic institutions, between different enterprises or between the two types of institutions. As a result of the PETRA programme, two actions were initiated: Firstly, the CEDEFOP survey on occupational profiles and professional qualifications, the ‘European Handbook for Guidance Counsellors’ (European Commission, 1994), was created with the intention to stimulate the mobility and foster the exchange of good practice. Secondly, a summary of basic information to respond to the growing demands of citizens for counselling about their mobility plans—i.e. their intention to study and work in other European countries—was created. At the university level, the European Forum for Academic Guidance (FEDORA)17 was set up in 1988 with a clear objective: to reply to the questions asked by guidance counsellors so that they could assist university students and inform them of training and employment opportunities in Europe and the possibility of academic mobility. Thus, this period was characterized by research on the state of guidance in the EU member states, by the promotion of mobility and the creation of networks and associations in the guidance sector.18
4 The New Knowledge Society (1995–2005) A new input into the process of developing co-operation in the field of education and training was accomplished through the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) that provided the basis for the launching of an employment strategy with a European dimension. A need for such a strategy was justified in Delors’ White Paper ‘Growth, Competitiveness and Employment’ to the European Council in Brussels in December 1993 (European Commission, 1993). In this paper, education and training systems were closely related to employment. Recalling their dual task of promoting personal development and citizenship values, but also sustaining economic growth with ample employment, the Commission proposed that these systems can play an undisputed role in producing a new socio-economic development model for the Community. The White Paper analyses the weak points of the education and training systems in member states (inadequate levels of initial and continuing training, lack
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of qualifications, early school-leavers, etc.). It believes that in a society that is becoming more and more dependent on production, the transfer and dissemination of knowledge and access to know-how will become increasingly important and that knowledge and know-how, acquired at a given moment in life, will have to be permanently updated. The systems have to adapt themselves to this new reality. According to the White Paper: ‘the challenge of lifelong education is the biggest project to which national education and training communities are invited’. It stresses the necessity of creating a true European area and market for qualifications and occupations, the need to remedy the lack of mutual transparency, and the still inadequate recognition of certificates and competences at the Community level. As a result, the employment sector was formally incorporated in the Treaty of Amsterdam, which is still delegated the exclusive responsibility for this sector by member states, while granting the Community institutions more power and broader possibilities for taking initiatives and action than in the past. The Council proposed that the Commission should produce some guidelines every year, which all member states would have to take into consideration when defining their national employment policies. Member states would have to submit a report (national action plan for employment) describing the main measures taken to implement the common guidelines. The Council could then make recommendations to the member states on this basis. As education and training systems were a vital element in the fight against unemployment and especially youth unemployment, education ministers were called upon to take a more effective stand at the European level, alongside their counterparts from economic and social affairs, and to assert their points of view more forcefully to prevent the education sector from being instrumentalized or subordinated to the sole imperatives of the economy and employment. Their involvement became even more important because of the priority given by the employment guidelines to lifelong education and training. To facilitate further co-operation and innovation in the field of guidance, the second phase19 of the Leonardo da Vinci Programme (2000–2006) was adopted by the Education Ministers in 1999. Together with the Grundtvig Action,20 dedicated to adult education within the framework of the Socrates Programme, both programmes gave priority to the promotion of the European dimension of vocational guidance, facilitating the exchange of experience and mobility, and providing information on jobs and learning opportunities at the European level. The next important step in developing a European approach towards career guidance is associated with the Lisbon Summit (2000) that made an important contribution to the process of accelerating more coherence in overall co-operation in education and training, and gave an impetus to educational issues so that they took up a central position in the new economic and social strategy of the EU. Indeed, the European Council of Lisbon took an innovative step by proposing a coherent work programme covering the areas of economy, finance, the information society, employment, education and training, research and social cohesion— whereas all these policies had followed separate directions up to the year 2000.
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The Heads of State and Government defined a strategic goal for the medium term until 2010 and beyond: ‘to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledgebased economy in the world, capable of sustainable growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion’.21 The European Council for the first time looked far into the future and, although ten years did not give enough time to achieve such ambitious objectives, it set a time limit of 2010, and spurred movement and impulses in all the sectors mentioned above, demanding that they produce results. An understanding that education and training, like economics and employment, play a key role in implementing the global strategy of Lisbon led to a historic political agreement which took the form of a detailed ten-year programme.22 This tenyear ‘road map’ was to become the reference framework for political co-operation in the field of education and training at the Community level. This agreement has three strategic goals: quality; access; and opening to the wider world. Together with the concept of lifelong learning, they provided the basis for the further development of career guidance in the EU. In Point 5 of the Memorandum on Lifelong Learning, published by the European Commission in 2000 and that was the subject of an opinion survey undertaken by the Member States and civil society organizations (European Commission, 2001b, 2001c, 2001d), lifelong learning was defined as ‘all learning activities undertaken throughout life, with the aim of improving knowledge, skills and competence, within a personal, civic, social and/or employment-related perspective’.23 The aim of lifelong learning is to enable all people, whatever their age, to have free access to all forms of high-quality training and to a whole range of educational experiences, formal and non-formal, all over Europe. Guidance and counselling should play a crucial role in both facilitating access to learning and in motivating potential learners (European Commission, 2001a). In the same document, they continue: Open dialogue between guidance systems, lifelong learning provision at all levels and labour market actors is a prerequisite for fulfilling this role. Guidance services should promote equal opportunities by being accessible to all citizens, especially those at risk of exclusion, and tailored to their needs through systems that are coherent, cohesive, transparent, impartial and of high quality. ICT based services, in partnership with other local level services, e.g. libraries, may serve as access points. Systems must also be flexible, and adaptable to the changing needs of the individual learner—bearing in mind the value of guidance for personal fulfilment, as well as the needs of the labour market and the wider community.
A survey of the situation of educational and vocational guidance in Europe (2001–2003) was undertaken through such organizations as OECD, CEDEFOP, ETF and the World Bank. The differences identified via the survey showed a number of guidance systems co-existing with one another; however, the dynamics of globalization, together with the increasing adoption of international co-operation policies, mean that this sector is facing great challenges. Without ignoring the progress achieved, we find ourselves in a situation where initial and continuing vocational training has to be up-valued as a decisive component
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of the education and training chain throughout life. A strong co-operation policy and the firm commitment of the actors concerned are regarded as indispensable to achieve substantial progress. In November 2002 the ‘Declaration of Copenhagen’24 was adopted by the ministers responsible for vocational training. This is a genuine political mandate to take similar measures for vocational training as the measures adopted for higher learning/university education through the Bologna Process (CRE, 2000). These measures were:
r r r r r r
To develop a single framework for transparency (Europass25 /Ploteus26 /European CV27 ); To create a European credit transfer system for vocational training (ECTS); To clarify criteria and principles for the assessment of vocational training; To define a set of common principles regarding validation of competences acquired through formal or non-formal learning; To improve guidance policies and services so that they can accompany a person throughout life; To promote the training of teachers and trainers.
With a view to improving guidance policies and services, a questionnaire drawn up by OECD was used to review thirty-eight countries (European countries, developing countries and non-European developed countries): fourteen by OECD (Sweet, 2002); six by CEDEFOP (Company, 2003); eleven by the ETF (Sultana & Zelloth, 2003); and seven by the World Bank (Watts & Fretwell, 2003). Each organization which participated in this policy review produced its own report. Finally, CEDEFOP published a synthesis report (Sultana, 2004) with an overview of the results of this survey in order to facilitate a transversal and thematic analysis of guidance policy across Europe. Sixteen specific conclusions that relate to the career guidance policy across Europe were formulated: 1. Guidance in schools should be linked with the learning of skills to manage one’s own personal and professional life (and not only address the choice of academic or occupational outlets). 2. School guidance should have its own identity (there is the risk that vocational guidance will predominate). (Personal and social guidance should not forget the other dimensions.) 3. The schools should have contact with external agencies having close links with the labour market. 4. Guidance is a vital instrument for early school-leavers. 5. University guidance is inadequate in most countries. 6. Guidance services for employed adults are practically non-existent everywhere. 7. Private guidance services find it difficult to develop. 8. The governments have a role to play: develop the market/assure quality/compensate for the lack of provision.
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9. Public employment services should be better co-ordinated with lifelong learning strategies. 10. Voluntary services and non-profit-making organizations have an important role to play. 11. Guidance for the ‘third age’ is neglected almost everywhere. 12. The new technologies offer many possibilities, but they are not an alternative. 13. Qualifications should be modernized; the teaching of competences should be focused more on the learner. 14. Concepts and basic theories should be strengthened (there is a great need to improve research and assessment and to have a better administration of the statistical data obtained). 15. Co-ordination and good leadership should be strengthened. 16. Quality standards should be taken into greater consideration: in the delivery of services; in the evaluation of staff competences; and in the results obtained by the services.
5 Conclusions and Recommendations The advantage of this attempt to survey the guidance situation in Europe is that it enables us to find reference points and good practice from which we can profit in our daily professional work. Policy-makers and practitioners can thus deploy their forces better within their natural surroundings—which is Europe—and make cooperation and mutual learning a reality.
5.1 Guidance Trends in Europe The nature of guidance:
r r r
From a service which is considered peripheral to a permanent right of the citizens. From a service based on psychology to a multidisciplinary measure. From a service that considers training and work opportunities only in the national, regional or local context to a service that tries to facilitate student and worker mobility across Europe. The beneficiaries:
r r r
From a service limited to youth and unemployed adults to a permanent service for all. From a service centred on groups at risk of exclusion to a mainstream service available more broadly. From a service addressed to secondary school pupils to a permanent service responding to the needs of all pupils/students in any academic or occupational situation.
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‘When’ is guidance provided
r r
From a service that is provided mainly at key decision points to a service that is provided lifelong. From a service that is mainly curative to a service that is preventive, educative and enriching for decision-making at any point throughout life. ‘Where’ is guidance provided:
r r
From a service that is offered only in institutions to a service that will be offered in the home, in the local community and in leisure sites. From a service that is formally bounded in time and space to a service that is ubiquitous. ‘Who’ provides guidance
r r r r
From a service that is almost exclusively provided by the State to services offered by local organizations and private entities. From a service that is delivered only by guidance staff to a service provided with the collaboration of other practitioners and organizations. From a service that is delivered by non-specialized personnel to a service that requires pre- and in-service training. From a service centred on educational guidance to a service that gives more importance to socio-professional development and career management. ‘How’ is guidance provided?
r r r r r r r r
From a service centred on external delivery to a service that focuses on selfguidance and self-service with appropriate levels of assistance or none. From a service that is highly centralized to a service with a high degree of decentralization and contextualization. From a service that is largely homogenous to a service that is differentiated and able to respond to specific needs. From a service that is segmented by sector to an interdisciplinary and collaborative service. From a service that focuses on individuals to a service which tries to work with groups. From a service that is outside educational and training curricula to a service incorporated in these curricula and based on the learning of competences. From a service that demands guidance staff to fulfil multiple roles to a service that encourages specialization. From a service without quality standards and codes of conduct to a service with more legal, ethical and professional regulations.
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r r
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From a service that fails to connect education and the labour market to a service that is interrelated and uses the new information and communication technologies. From a service that is under-researched to a service that is systematically reflexive.
As a follow-up to the implementation of the conclusions of the ‘Memorandum on Lifelong Learning, the Work Programme on the Future, Concrete Objectives for Education and Training Systems in Europe’28 and the ‘Council Resolution on Lifelong Learning’,29 the European Commission proceeded to set up various expert groups, including the Expert Group on Lifelong Guidance30 to which it gave a mandate for the two following tasks:
r r
to develop a common understanding of basic concepts and underlying principles for guidance; to reflect on the quality of guidance provision with a view to developing common guidelines and quality criteria for accreditation of guidance services and products.
These two tasks were derived from the studies undertaken by OECD, CEDEFOP and the ETF, which identified the trends and needs summarized in the preceding paragraphs. Given the fact, as has been mentioned previously in this chapter, that education and training policies lie within the competence of the member states, the implementation of some measures has to be based on voluntary co-operation. In order to jointly improve and modernize education and training policies, systems and practices, member States have to agree on priorities and common objectives, develop indicators, reference levels and common criteria while, at the same time, learning from one another through contrasting examples and good practice. In view of all these factors, the Expert Group on Lifelong Guidance drew up three reference tools (CEDEFOP, 2005):
r r r
Common aims and principles of lifelong guidance provision. Some reference points for evaluating the quality of guidance. Key features of a lifelong guidance system.
These instruments have the aim of helping member States to improve and modernize their guidance policies and systems through self-assessment and the autonomous development of their services at national, regional and local levels. Therefore, for the first time in this context and after the long historical process described in this chapter, the Education Ministers of the European Union proclaimed their intention in the Resolution of 24 May 200431 of developing high-quality guidance services for all citizens and, with this Resolution, they invited member States to examine their services in the education, training and employment sectors in the light of the conclusions obtained from the studies mentioned above. The debate is open, not only at the European but also at the international level. Only through dialogue between policy-makers, practitioners and the users of these services will it be possible to find new means of co-operation and co-ordination
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which will make the best possible use of the potential offered by guidance services to facilitate lifelong learning, self-guidance and the lifelong career development of every single citizen.
Notes 1. ‘Career’ refers to pathways in life in which competences are learned and/or used. The term covers life-wide experiences, both formal (education, work) and informal (home, community). 2. Examples of such activities include information and advice giving, counselling, competence assessment, mentoring, advocacy, and teaching career decision-making and career management skills. A variety of terms is used in different countries to describe these activities. These terms include educational, vocational or career guidance, guidance and counselling, and occupational guidance and counselling. To avoid ambiguity, the term ‘guidance’ is used in the text to identify any or all of these forms of provision. Countries should interpret the term as referring to the appropriate provision in their own countries. 3. Within the context of social dialogue on the subject of transition from school to adult and professional life, a joint opinion of the social partners especially stresses: the preventive role of guidance in the fight against school drop-out and abandonment of studies; the regulatory role of guidance in keeping the balance between training provision and demand; the catalytic role of guidance in the interrelations and strengthening of links between the training institutions and the world of industry. 4. An integral part of the social provisions is set out in the Treaty of Rome in Article 128, which stipulates that the Council of Ministers should lay down ‘general principles to apply a common vocational training policy capable of contributing to the harmonious development of national economies and the common market’. 5. Council Decision of 2 April 1963 laying down general principles for implementing a common vocational training policy (63/266/EEC) (Official journal, 063, 20.04.1963, p. 1338). 6. Commission Recommendation of 18 July 1966 to the Member States on the promotion of vocational guidance. Official journal, no. 154, 24.08.1966, p. 2815–19. 7. This term, used here in its broad sense, covers information, counselling in school and vocational guidance. 8. Regulation (EEC) No. 337/75 of the Council of 10 February 1975 establishing a European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training. 9. Resolution of the Council and of the Ministers of Education, meeting within the Council, of 13 December 1976 concerning measures to be taken to improve the preparation of young people for work and to facilitate their transition from education to working life. Official journal, C 308, 30.12.1976. 10. Resolution of the Council and of the Ministers of Education, meeting within the Council, 2 February 1976, comprising an action programme in the field of education. Official journal, C 038, 19.02.1976. 11. An institute for social research with its main offices in Cologne and Brussels. 12. Community Programme for Education and Training in Technology—COMETT, 1986. 13. European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students, 1987. 14. Action Programme for the Promotion and Improvement of Foreign Language Skills and Learning, 1990. 15. Council Decision 91/387/EEC of 22 July 1991 amending Decision 87/569/EEC concerning an action programme for the vocational training of young people and their preparation for adult and working life (PETRA, 1988–1992). 16. R´eseau europ´een des centres nationaux de ressources pour l’orientation (CNROP): known today as EUROGUIDANCE. See: <www.euroguidance.net/Index.htm>
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17. <www.fedora.eu.org/cms/ShowPage/Home page/p!ecfb> 18. More information on different activities is available on the following web sites: National Academic Recognition Information Centres—NARIC: <www.enic-naric.net/>; European Employment Services—EURES: <europa.eu.int/eures/index.jsp> 19. Council Decision of 26 April 1999 establishing the second phase of the Community vocational training action programme ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ (1999/382/EC). Official journal, L 146/33, 11.06.1999. 20. Decision No. 253/2000/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 January 2000 establishing the second phase of the Community action programme in the field of education ‘Socrates’. Official journal, L 28/1, 03.02.2000. 21. Conclusions of the Presidency, Lisbon European Council, 23 and 24 March 2000. (SN/100/00.) 22. Detailed work programme on the follow-up of the objectives of education and training systems in Europe. Official journal, 2002/C 142/01, 14.06.02. 23. Communication from the Commission ‘Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning a Reality’. (COM (2001) 678 final. 21.11.01.) 24. Declaration of the European Ministers of Vocational Education and Training, and the European Commission, convened in Copenhagen on 29 and 30 November 2002, on enhanced European co-operation in vocational education and training. 25. Europass: a single Community framework for the transparency of qualifications and competences. Decision No. 2241/2004/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, December 2004. 26. Ploteus: Portal on Learning Opportunities throughout Europe. Portal on the web set up by the European Commission (2003). Ploteus means ‘navigator’ in ancient Greek. <europa.eu.int/ ploteus/portal/home.jsp> 27. Common European Format for Curricula Vitae (CVs). Communication concerning the Commission Recommendation on a common European format for curricula vitae (CVs), March 2002. 28. Detailed work programme on the follow-up of the objectives of education and training systems in Europe. Official journal, 2002/C 142/01, 14.06.02. 29. Council Resolution of 27 June 2002 on lifelong learning. Official journal, 2002/C 163/01. 30. Twenty-five members representing the ministries of education and labour, universities, parents and students associations, European organizations (OECD, CEDEFOP, ETF), trade unions, employers’ organizations and guidance associations. 31. European Council Resolution on strengthening policies, systems and practices for guidance throughout life (May 2004).
References CEDEFOP. 2005. Improving lifelong guidance policies and systems. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. <www.trainingvillage.gr/ etv/Information resources/Bookshop/result publ.asp?from= 1&cedefop nr=4045> Company, F.J. 2003. Synth`ese des politiques et des services d’information, orientation et conseil en France, Italie, Portugal, Gr`ece, Su`ede et Islande. Thessaloniki, Greece: CEDEFOP. Confederation of EU Rectors’ Conferences; Association of European Universities—CRE. 2000. The Bologna Declaration on the area of European Higher Education: an explanation. <ec.europa.eu/education/policies/educ/bologna/bologna.pdf> Council of the European Union. 2004. Resolution on strengthening policies, systems and practices in the field of guidance throughout life in Europe. <ec.europa.eu/education/ policies/2010/doc/resolution2004 en.pdf> European Commission. 1993. Growth, competitiveness and employment: the challenges and ways forward into the 21st century. Bulletin of the European Communities, supplement 6/93.
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European Commission. 1994. European handbook for guidance counsellors. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. ISBN 92-826-7991-8. European Commission. 2001a. Making the European area of lifelong learning a reality. Brussels: European Commission. (COM(2001) 678 final.) European Commission. 2001b. Summary and analysis of the feedback received from the Member States and the EEA countries. Brussels: European Commission. European Commission. 2001c. Summary and analysis of the feedback received from the candidate countries: prepared by the European Training Foundation (ETF). Brussels: European Commission. European Commission. 2001d. Summary and analysis of the feedback received from civil society. Brussels: European Commission. European Commission. 2006. Modernising education and training: a vital contribution to prosperity and social cohesion. (Memo/05/415.) <europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/cha/c11091.htm> IFAPLAN. 1987a. Nuevos temas y lugares educativos (J´ovenes en transition 2). Madrid: Ministerio de Educaci´on y Ciencia, Editorial Popular. IFAPLAN. 1987b. Pol´ıticas educativas europeas (Treinta experiencias piloto–J´ovenes en transition 1). Madrid: Ministerio de Educaci´on y Ciencia, Editorial Popular. Sultana, R.G. 2004. Guidance policies in the knowledge society: trends, challenges and responses across Europe. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. (CEDEFOP Panorama series/85.) Sultana, R.G.; Zelloth, H. 2003. Review of career guidance policies in 11 acceding and candidate countries. Turin, Italy: ETF Sweet, R. 2002. Career guidance and public policy: bridging the gap. Paris: OECD. Watts, A.G. et al. 1994. Educational and vocational guidance services in the European Community. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Watts, A.G.; Fretwell, D.H. 2003. Public policies for career development: policy strategies for designing career information and guidance systems in middle-income and transition economies. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Chapter XIII.9
‘White-Collar’ Work or a ‘Technical’ Career? The Ambitions of Fiji Final-Year School Students Pam Nilan, Paula Cavu, Isimeli W. Tagicakiverata and Emily Hazelman
1 Introduction The original idea for this research project came from local researcher Joseph Veramu’s important findings on youth expectations in Fiji. Veramu interviewed 1,008 young people aged 15 to 29 of both races1 in rural and urban areas and found ‘high but unrealistic expectations for future employment’ (ECREA, 2002, p. 9). We hypothesized that if this also held true for senior high-school graduates, this would imply some serious effects on future Fiji human resource capacity. Of the youth he interviewed, Veramu concluded: ‘too many of them were unemployed and the reality is that the current education system does not provide the necessary skills required by the job market’ (ECREA, 2002, p. 9; see also: Veramu, 1992). The 2000 national education report reached similar conclusions (Tavola, 2000; Sharma, 2000). This provided the impetus for our focus on nine ‘ordinary’ secondary schools. The first five years of the twenty-first century have certainly seen a much greater emphasis on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in secondary schools in Fiji. Yet it has always been difficult to persuade parents and pupils of the value of vocational study. While secondary schools can develop subjects and courses more ‘responsive to market needs’, there remains the problem of student choice. Senior-level pupils and their parents still cling to traditional ‘white-collar’ job stereotypes which guide their choice of school subjects.
2 Background 2.1 Fiji and its Economy A relatively prosperous State, Fiji forms an important centre of industry and education in the South Pacific (European Union, 2002a, p. 29). GDP was predicted to grow at 4.1% in 2005 (Fijilive, 2004). Life expectancy is around 70 (World Bank, 2003). Literacy is around 91.6% (European Union, 2002b, p. 7). Formerly reliant on sugar production, Fiji has developed garment manufacturing industries (Storey, 2004), and become an international tourist destination. The tourist industry is growing very R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XIII.9, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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rapidly (Waqausa, 2004; Narayan, 2003), creating not only a new labour market (direct and subsidiary sectors), but new education and training imperatives (Yarrow, Strachan & Krishnamurty, 2000). However, the sugar and garment industries are under threat as the world moves towards full economic integration. The future will see some radical, potentially destabilizing shifts in the economic base of Fiji in the composition of the labour force, and in education and training alignments (Chand, 2001). Fiji has already undergone some ‘deagrarianization’ (Potter & Cooke, 2004, p. 306). Over half the population are urban residents (Connell, 2003). In terms of political stability, Fiji has seen a number of military coups. The most recent, and the least violent, took place in 2006. The Fijian economy suffers on each occasion. Fiji has a young population, so the entry of large numbers of workers with inappropriate qualifications into the urban labour market in a climate of low growth of traditional employment opportunities and diminishing wage rigidity will lead to a growing pool of under- and unemployed people (Chand, 2003, p. 22) and possibly lead to further instability. So, careful development of relevant human capital potential is therefore central, not only to a future stable economy, but to the maintenance of political calm. However, it would appear from our research that an important locus of future career decision-making still lies in outdated family and community discourses about traditionally appropriate jobs for Fijians and Indians, both males and females. This suggests an increasing role for schools in actively shaping the technical career ambitions of pupils.
2.2 Secondary Education and Training Tables 1 to 4 show that total enrolments have increased in Forms Six and Seven, but perhaps decreased in TVET. Increased enrolments in Forms Six and Seven (Form Seven is the qualifying year for tertiary entry) indicate the present upward credentialling of the local labour market. Formal education has been important for Fijians since first colonization (Tavola, Table 1 Form Six enrolments by race, 2003–2004 Sector
2003
2004
Sector
2003
2004
Fijians Indians Europeans
6368 5627 118
6965 5565 61
Chinese Others Total
82 454 12649
58 536 13185
Source: Fiji Ministry of Education Table 2 Form Seven enrolments by race, 2003–2004 Sector
2003
2004
Sector
2003
2004
Fijians Indians Europeans
1447 2726 22
1755 2793 28
Chinese Others Total
32 141 4368
19 142 4737
Source: Fiji Ministry of Education
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Table 3 TVET enrolments by number of schools and gender 2003–2004 2003 2004
Schools
Males
Females
Total
63 62
1,536 1,374
783 600
2,319 1,974
Note: It is not clear whether these figures include those pupils taking Fiji Institute of Technology franchised TVET programmes in secondary schools. Source: Fiji Ministry of Education Table 4 FIT franchise TVET enrolments 2003–2004 Total
2003
2004
2005
644
809
830
Source: Fiji Institute of Technology
1991, p. 9), while schools for Indian children were established in 1898 (p. 11). Tavola emphasizes that ‘perceptions of education were inextricably linked with white-collar occupations in the modern sector of the economy and social demand throughout the colonial period was for a western-type literary education’ (1991, pp. 15–16). Teasdale explains that: A system of examinations and reporting regulated progression through the school, and provided incentives for students to acquire knowledge and the formal credentials for having done so. These credentials in turn were linked to subsequent employment. The higher the credentials, the more prestigious and well-paid the job at the end. This was the system of education that was exported to Oceania during the colonial era (2005, p. 2).
As Burnett (2005) states, in the British colonization of the Pacific ‘the conception of the educated person’ became attached to ‘English language mastery and public service employment’ (p. 100). Senior schooling in colonial times explicitly produced indigenous civil servants. Tevita Koroi, a Suva school principal, believes that this ideology still prevails, so that the entire logic of the Fiji schooling system remains implicitly driven by a colonialist mindset. By the 1950s, ‘post-war prosperity had spread to Fiji and economic growth was starting to be linked with manpower planning’ (Tavola, 1991, p. 23), although indigenous Fijians were largely left out of this. The 1959 Spate Report recommended that, with the exception of Chiefs, ‘Fijians should become independent farmers on traditionally owned land, while retaining villages as communal centres’ (Spate, 1959, p. 24). The 1960s saw the opening of the Derrick Technical Institute (now the Fiji Institute of Technology—FIT) and the University of the South Pacific in Suva. Independence in 1970 heralded the restructuring of schooling, curriculum reform and Fijian affirmative action. Form Seven enrolments show that Fijian enrolments increased from 1,447 in 2003 to 1,755 in 2004, demonstrating the flow-on effects. In the mid-1970s vocational education initiatives started to respond to manpower needs. This continued in the 1980s, but the problem of too many academic schoolleavers for the number of white-collar jobs remained, partly because it was hard to
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convince parents of the merits of vocational education (Tavola, 1991, pp. 34–41). Accordingly, in 2002 (for example) there was ‘an average of only 2,000 new jobs for the usual annual figure of 17,000 school leavers’ (Mausio, 2003, p. 445). Our research confirms that this remains a serious problem. Teacher and nurse training institutions turn away thousands each year, and graduates from some university degrees can take up to ten years to find steady work—many have to complete a technical qualification to make themselves employable. Indo-Fijian teachers and nurses often migrate to other countries with a shortfall of practitioners. Yet, there are sectors of the local labour market showing such a severe skills shortage that workers are brought into Fiji from overseas: skilled garment cutters, pattern-makers and embroiderers, building construction managers, qualified diving instructors, beauticians, chefs and air-conditioning technicians. There seems to be little alignment of the education system with manpower needs. We found that the historically-established career orientation towards standard ‘white-collar’ work on the part of pupils and their parents remains strong, even though new job opportunities in the public sector have markedly declined. For young males, the fast-growth labour force sectors (FIBS, 2003) are as follows: community, social and personal services; manufacturing; wholesale/retail trade; restaurants and hotels; transport, storage and communication. For young females: manufacturing; community, social and personal services; wholesale/retail trade; restaurants and hotels. In the professional fields, Fiji has a shortage of trained psychologists, veterinarians and architects. Yet very few of the occupations just mentioned were listed as career ambitions from our respondents in the survey.
3 Methodology The research project we report here was carried out through collaboration between the University of Newcastle and the Fiji Institute of Technology in 2005. Permission was obtained from the Fiji Government to conduct the research. This chapter draws on large-scale survey and small-scale interview data collected on school-to-work transitions in nine non-elite secondary schools in Fiji (see Nilan et al., 2007) following a mixed methods approach. The value of mixing quantitative and qualitative methods in educational research has been a matter of some debate since the 1970s (see Guba & Lincoln, 1994). In this, we concur with Kidder and Fine (1987) who stated: ‘there is nothing mysterious about combining quantitative and qualitative measures. This is, in fact, a form of triangulation that enhances the validity and reliability of one’s study’ (p. 72). Survey respondents were drawn using a purposive sample (Patton, 1990, p. 169) in which subjects are selected because of a certain characteristic that ‘intensely’ exemplifies the phenomenon under investigation. In this case, final year secondary school students in Fiji, as a distinct minority of fewer than 5,000 people each year, by definition overtly demonstrate academic success, and seem certain to enter the labour force, thus exemplifying the target research phenomenon of school-to-work transition.
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A total of 1,012 surveys were completed. Pupils (aged 17–18) came from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds—from regional towns in Vanua Levu and Viti Levu, and from the cities of Suva and Nadi. Some 576 Fijians, 390 Indo-Fijians and 46 coded as ‘others’ completed the survey. There were 314 Fijian female respondents and 262 males. Interviews were conducted with the principal or vice-principal at each of the nine schools, and with two careers officers in the Fiji Ministry of Education. The student survey consisted of twenty-three questions on family background, leisure pursuits, role models, school subject preferences, career ambitions and long-term life goals. The structured interviews with educators asked for descriptions of current careers education activities in schools, local and national TVET initiatives, knowledge about contemporary labour-market trends, and opinions about the career ambitions of senior male and female pupils. The following schools participated in the study:
r r r r r r r r r
All Saints Secondary (Labasa); Labasa College; Labasa Sangam (SKM) College; Ratu Navula Secondary (Nadi); Nadi College; Jasper Williams High (Lautoka); Natabua Secondary (Lautoka); Ba Methodist High (Ba); Nasinu Secondary (Suva).
None of these are ‘flagship’ elite schools, like Queen Victoria, Adi Cakobau or Yat Sen. Rather, they were chosen to approximate a general range of choices for ‘ordinary’ pupils and parents who must find tuition fees for senior years. Nasinu Secondary has an almost exclusively Fijian enrolment, while all others have mixed race enrolment. Labasa Sangam, Labasa College and Natabua Secondary enjoy a reputation for excellent examination results. Jasper Williams (all female) and Ba Methodist occupy a starkly contrasting lower socio-economic and academic position. All Saints, Labasa College, Natabua, Ratu Navula and Nasinu all have TVET programmes (either Ministry of Education, franchised FIT modules or both). Form Seven education is not readily available everywhere in Fiji. Many of the students in this study came from small islands or the mountainous interior. They lived in boarding houses attached to schools, in local hostels or with relatives. All schools studied have solid reputations and some dedicated former pupils tend to send the next generation of children to the same school. This is particularly so for Fijian students. As we shall see below, this sense of ‘following in the footsteps’ of older family members in schooling may extend to replicating the career choices of the previous generation. Descriptive statistical analysis of some key survey questions indicated that most career ambitions followed stereotypes—‘white-collar’ work of various kinds. We also found substantial influence on career decision-making by families and community members. In the following section, data on parents’ occupation is compared with students’ job choices. Best-liked and least-liked school subjects are reviewed
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with the aim of illuminating how ‘realistic’ or feasible some career aspirations might be. Finally, sources of information about future career choices are examined in relation to three other relevant questions.
4 Findings 4.1 Parents’ Occupations and Student Career Aspirations The parents’ occupations were coded using a scale based on Erickson and Goldthorpe’s (1992) classification of occupational groupings: 1. Professional, executive and senior managerial: doctor, engineer, lawyer, architect, university lecturer, stockbroker, bank manager, politician, significant business owner, CEO or executive officer, resort manager. 2. Para-professional, lower-managerial, small business owner: teacher, school principal, nurse, paramedical and health workers, accountant, field officer, journalist, owner of a retail or service business, real-estate agent, police, army, ship’s captain, foreman, shop steward, farmer (large land-holding), reverend, pastor, clergyman. 3. Clerical, service and financial: civil servant, clerk in a small company or business, shop assistant, waitress, bank teller or worker, public relations, receptionist, booking clerk. 4. Trades and technical fields: automotive mechanic, mechanical or other engineering (no degree), IT (no degree), carpenter/joiner, tiler, plumber, electrician, telecommunications worker, electricity company worker, cook, pastrychef, beautician, builder, musician. 5. Manual work: factory worker, cane-cutter, labourer, miner, fisherman, market seller/trader or worker, farmer (small land holding), taxi driver, transport driver, dock worker. 6. Unemployed, no job, domestic labour or housewife: (no income, small inconsistent income from various sources, or traditional land leased out providing some small income). 7. Other: example: international rugby player. It is assumed that members of these occupational groupings share relatively similar ‘levels of income, levels of economic security, chances of career advancement, scope of authority and control, and levels of work autonomy’ (Pakulski, 2004, p. 98). Except at Labasa Sangam and Natabua Secondary, where there were more occupations in code 2, over 50% of parents’ occupations were manual work or unemployed, no job, domestic labour or housewife. There is no classic ‘ethnic’ explanation of the kind often used to explain such a pattern. Labasa Sangam was certainly 71.77% Indo-Fijian, and Natabua was almost 60%, but Labasa College—with almost 65% of parents’ occupations in codes 5 and 6—was over 65% Indo-Fijian.
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At seven of the nine schools, where over 50% of parents’ occupations were in codes 5 and 6, over 60% of respondents wanted a job in occupational category 2 (Tables 5 and 6). At All Saints for example, nearly 60% wanted to be an accountant, a teacher or a doctor. At Labasa College, almost a quarter wanted to become accountants. At Labasa Sangam 20% were hoping for various ‘white-collar’ jobs. At Jasper Williams, 40% aimed to be an accountant or a teacher. At Nadi College, Ba Methodist and Nasinu, 161 of 351 students wrote ‘teacher’. In total, the most popular jobs (in descending order) were teacher, accountant, ‘white-collar’ worker or civil servant, engineer, nurse, doctor and lawyer. Confirming Veramu’s earlier finding, the career ambitions of most pupils were inflated in relation to actual chances of success. This is either because the labour sector is already over-supplied, or because the exam results needed for relevant tertiary education are rarely attained by students at that school. Senior educationalists acknowledged the ‘mismatch’ problem. For example: This is what happens when you take people through a system that is targeting a white-collar job—that job market. It takes young people through that tunnel kind of preparation. So if the job’s available they will be able to get those jobs. But if the jobs are not available, those young people just stay [. . .] in towns. [. . .] It’s partly the system—partly the opportunities that are available and the advice that they get. That’s the kind of perception most people have—you go to school and you get a job—you get a government job. And when you look at government jobs, it’s mostly teaching and nursing and I know a few departments and ministries that used to take people into the public service [. . . ]. So it’s that which has been there for quite some time (Tevita Koroi, Principal, Nasinu Secondary, October 2005).
Table 5 Parents’ occupations (coded), expressed as a percentage School
Code1
Code 2
Code3
Code 4
Code 5
Code 6
Code 7
Total
All Saints Labasa College Labasa Sangam Natabua Nadi College Jasper Williams Ratu Navula Ba Methodist Nasinu
0% 0% 7% 4% 7% 0% 1% 9% 0%
21.98% 22.39% 33.10% 33.98% 17.10% 22.44% 12.74% 10.50% 21.10%
2.19% 7.60% 4.84% 7.76% 9.21% 2.04% 0.98% 7.90% 3.51%
4.39% 15.21% 5.65% 5.56% 9.21% 22.44% 10.78% 2.63% 13.50%
42.85% 43.75% 30.65% 27.18% 23.70% 36.73% 46.07% 27.60% 28.14%
25.27% 21.85% 12.90% 10.67% 27.60% 16.32% 24.50% 39.50% 30.15%
3.29% 1.04% 5.65% 1.94% 6.57% 0% 3.92% 2.63% 3.51%
100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Table 6 Student career ambitions (coded), expressed as a percentage School
Code1
Code 2
Code 3
Code 4
Code 5
Code 6
Code 7
Total
All Saints Labasa Coll Lab Sangam Natabua Nadi Coll Jasper Will Ratu Navula Ba Meth Nasinu
22% 18% 30% 35% 18% 10% 4% 22% 13%
60.43% 59.89% 50.80% 35.92% 69.70% 79.59% 41.17% 68.40% 63.80%
5.49% 5.72% 9.68% 5.82% 5.26% 4.08% 4.90% 5.26% 6.03%
2.19% 15.62% 8.06% 15.56% 2.63% 0% 19.60% 1.32% 10.00%
2.19% 1.56% 0.80% 3.88% 1.32% 0% 29.41% 0% 0.50%
3.29% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
4.39% 0% 0.80% 5% 2.63% 6% 0.98% 3.00% 7.03%
100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
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Ratu Navula and Natabua schools stand out in Table 5, although for different reasons. Some 52% of students at Natabua were contemplating non-traditional professional or para-professional careers, higher than any other school. Almost 50% of students at Ratu Navula indicated a job in codes 4 and 5, reflecting their career orientation towards sectors of the local tourism industry. Notably, not only were innovative and thorough approaches to career education observed in those two schools, but both have well-supported and extensive TVET programmes. This significant point will be taken up later.
4.2 Subject Preferences and Student Career Aspirations The accepted wisdom of career counselling is that young people should form career ambitions around the subjects they like, and avoid fields they dislike. It should be noted from Table 7 that it was possible for some to name mathematics as their favourite subject, while others named it as the least favourite. However, 45.5% of 1,012 students disliked mathematics, while only around 25% at the three highest achieving schools liked it. Mathematics constitutes a significant career barrier for many students. All school principals expressed concern about this. The current single senior mathematics syllabus aims for advanced theoretical knowledge, more suited to university study of science than for skilled technical careers. Table 7 Favourite and least-favourite subjects by school, n = 1012 School
Most common favourite subject Most common least favourite subject
All Saints Secondary School Labasa College Labasa Sangam (SKM) College Natabua Secondary Nadi College Jasper Williams High School Ratu Navula Ba Methodist Nasinu
Economics and accounting Mathematics Mathematics Mathematics English English English English English
Mathematics Mathematics Mathematics Mathematics Mathematics Mathematics Mathematics Mathematics Mathematics
4.3 Factors Affecting Career Ambitions A preference scale indicated the importance or otherwise of a list of factors influencing career choices: 1 indicated extremely important and 5 signalled unimportant. These ranked factors do not, however, represent the actuality of student choice processes. In responses to two other questions, it was obvious that the church, the local community, family members and relatives play a much more significant role than is implied in the Likert Scale responses ranked in Table 8. However, the apparent wide agreement by pupils that success in a school subject is important does bear upon the issue of antipathy to mathematics.
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Table 8 Ranking of factors influencing personal career choice, n = 1012 Factor
Rank
Factor
Rank
Success in a school subject Future income Future job security To support my future family Interest in a school subject My own interests Teachers at school
1.1 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.4 1.8
Family members and relatives Reading about jobs Ideas from media So I can move overseas People that I met Input from friends
1.9 1.9 2.3 2.6 3.1 3.3
The question that followed the job preference asked whether they had ever met anyone who worked in that kind of job. In all schools, more than three-quarters answered ‘yes’ (Table 9). The lowest affirmative responses—Natabua and Jasper Williams—are probably low for slightly different reasons. In both schools, pupils were aiming for code 1 occupations, so possibly they had never personally met an architect or a lawyer. The next question asked: ‘If yes, how did you meet (or know) that person?’ (Table 10). This data contradicts the earlier data on factors influencing career decisions. ‘Family’ and ‘community’ does play an important role it seems. Broadly speaking, females were more likely to be following a family or local community member in their career choices (with Natabua and Ratu Navula as exceptions). No ‘race’ pattern in responses was found. Instead, the difference seems to derive from the commitment to careers education of the school itself. Moreover, both Natabua and Ratu Navula offer substantial TVET programmes primarily oriented to skilled technical careers in the relatively new local tourism industry. So it may be that the ‘generational’ effect is somewhat minimized in those schools.
Table 9 Responses to ‘Have you ever met anyone with that job?’, expressed as a percentage, n = 1012 School
1 = Yes
School
1 = Yes
All Saints Labasa Col Lab Sangam Natabua Nadi Coll
86% 83% 81% 78% 83%
Jasper Will Ratu Navula Ba Meth Nasinu
76% 85% 84% 80%
Table 10 ‘Family or community member’ responses to ‘What is your relationship to that person?’ expressed as a percentage, n = 827 School
Male
Female
School
Male
Female
All Saints Labasa Col Lab Sangam Natabua Nadi Coll
47.61% 45.65% 52.94% 62.50% 27.27%
69.81% 61.35% 64.40% 46.87% 57.50%
Jasper Will Ratu Navula Ba Meth Nasinu
0.00% 35.50% 36.36% 48.31%
71.87% 29.26% 43.75% 64.83%
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5 Discussion In summary, we found: 1. A limited range of career choices based almost exclusively on who students knew and had met in the first seventeen years of life, i.e. a lack of current labour market knowledge. 2. A limited range of career choices based on the career aspirations of the previous generation, i.e. dominance of the colonial ‘white-collar’ discourse of work. 3. Career choices that relied on tertiary training, despite severely limited quotas for nursing, teaching, university degree study, further complicated by failure and fear of mathematics. 4. Career choices limited by fixed ideas about gender and race. 5. Career ambitions towards labour-market sectors with high levels of graduate unemployment. 6. Career ambitions towards shrinking fields of work (like the civil service), rather than expanding ones. 7. Apparent antipathy to, or lack of knowledge about, skilled ‘technical’ careers allied to the developing economy. More than two-thirds of the desired jobs nominated by the students at the nine schools were in the code 2 occupations of accounting, teaching, civil service and nursing, or code 1 occupations of medicine, engineering and law. In relation to the original Veramu finding, it does seem that career aspirations of students at most schools are inflated—or at least distorted—in relation to actual chances of success. According to the Lautoka Teachers College 2003 prospectus, each year approximately 6,000 applications are received for less than 300 actual places. Similar numbers apply to the Fiji College of Nursing for a strictly limited quota of places (around 210). Fiji College of Advanced Education, Fiji School of Medicine, University of the South Pacific and the Fiji Institute of Technology also have very high numbers of Form Seven graduates applying. In all cases it will be examination results that determine entry and access to scholarships. It was suggested by a teacher at Ba Methodist School that when some graduating Form Seven Fijian students fail to obtain entry to commerce programmes, teacher or nurse training, and are unable to find a ‘white-collar’ job, they simply return to their village, especially the girls. While this is certainly understandable, it does represent a net loss of human resource potential for the nation, and a lack of return on the considerable investment of parents in schooling. Moreover, it would be so much better if the young person in question were to return to the local community with some much-needed high-level technical skills in such areas as agriculture, marketing, mechanics or textiles, rather than just the abstract academic knowledge obtained in senior secondary school. In fact, the three most desired occupations of Fijian students—accounting, teaching, and various other kinds of ‘white-collar’ work—are virtually guaranteed to ensure that the young person who finds such a job never returns to his or her own local community, whereas some other occupations, such as plumber, electrician or seamstress, do offer that possibility.
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In relation to school subjects, we conclude that in both direct and indirect ways mathematics, as it is currently taught to Form Four and Five, acts as a gate-keeping device, implicitly favouring the academic orientation of only a few students. Excluding ‘others’: 51.53% of females indicated mathematics was least favoured, compared to only 35.37% of males (see Chandra & Lewai, 2005; Evening, 2004). Even more starkly, 71.72% of Fijian students indicated they disliked mathematics (Puamau, 2002), compared to only 31.28% of Indo-Fijian students. It is a case of the system failing the pupils rather than the pupils failing the system. All nine principals confirmed the mathematics ‘problem’ and expressed concern about the effect it had on student confidence. It may also have an indirect influence on career ambitions. If so many students dislike mathematics, then this must affect their choice of study ‘streams’ in senior years. Many must rule themselves out of careers in science, for example, by avoiding maths. Certainly some knowledge of mathematics is required for many of the highest growth labour sector jobs of a technical nature. However, calculus, advanced trigonometry or algebra need not be included. More training in simple arithmetic, geometry, statistics, and less reliance on calculators is needed, and should form the basis for a second level of technically-oriented mathematics study. Responses to the preference scale for factors affecting career choice must be read sceptically, since denial of family influence is contradicted by responses to some other questions. In Fijian culture, for example, children usually play an almost insignificant role in family decision-making, although this may be changing for urban-dwellers. The majority of all females who wanted to be nurses identified a relative as a role model, and the same pattern was true for males who wanted to be agricultural field officers. In other words, the formation of career ambitions seems grounded in the particular local environment for over half of these young people—possibly experienced as a much more authoritative source of ideas about jobs than the abstract world of career choice pamphlets which schools might infrequently provide. It became clear from interviews with principals that the two schools at which the pattern of limited career choice was least evident were those with successful TVET programmes and well-organized careers counselling, as well as careers information days. We identify a generational issue. With the best intentions, parents and families may well be advising students and recommending role models for occupational choices that made more sense twenty years ago than they do now: My belief is that this is part and parcel of the colonial legacy. Because for a long time, since colonisation, Fijian parents, as well as Indian parents, have been led to believe, or could I say, have been misled to believe, that the best work anybody could ever get is in the white-collar jobs. [. . .] Fijian citizens have been led to believe that—you know—get your kids educated so they become teachers, doctors, nurses and all because that is where the money lies (Mr Nemani, Careers Officer, Ministry of Education, September 2005).
However, not only is that no longer ‘where the money lies’, but obtaining any kind of ‘white-collar’ job can no longer be expected. There are a great many more rewarding careers in the new economy than becoming a ‘white-collar worker’, which promise
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less intensely competitive tertiary entry, better graduate employment prospects and higher pay rates. But students seem unaware of this.
6 Conclusion We noted above that ‘white-collar’ career opportunities are now few in Fiji, while worker demand in skilled technical fields is very high. Yet, most of the 1,012 pupils in the final year of secondary schooling we surveyed seemed to imagine only a very limited, traditional range of ‘white-collar’ careers. This does not bode well for the economic sustainability of Fiji as a leader in the Pacific, given the current serious shortage of skilled technical workers in key growth industries, such as tourism and small and medium-sized enterprises marketing niche products (see, for example, Connell, 2006). We identify a problem with careers education in most schools, and the continuing low status of TVET. In the absence of initiatives, such as careerplanning and appealing high-tech TVET programmes informed by accurate knowledge of current and future labour-market needs, young people continue to refer to traditional role models in shaping their career ambitions. Over 80% of the survey respondents knew an adult with the kind of ‘white-collar’ job they were aiming for, and many of these people were either relatives or active in their local environment. It is significant that schools in which a well-supported vocational training programme was established tended to show much wider career ambitions—not only for TVET students but also for students taking academic subjects. This strongly implies the need for a flexible, integrated senior school curriculum incorporating both academic and TVET options if Fiji is to have an economically sustainable future. The rhetoric of many educationalists and economists in Fiji is about building human resource capacity to support a new set of industries and endeavours in the country. However, our research indicates that this may stand for nothing if young people and their families continue to believe in only a narrow and outdated set of career paths. At present it seems some schools rely for careers ‘education’ on information given out by tertiary education providers during infrequent school visits. Since tertiary institutions are interested in promoting their own courses rather than addressing labour-force needs, this certainly does not represent adequate career education. We stress that a broader range of career options and often less stereotyped career choices were observable at the schools where solidly-supported TVET programmes were offered. We suggest that the positive focus of principals, teachers and community leaders on these programmes may alter the entrenched school culture of traditional ‘white-collar’ work as the only logical outcome for completing senior secondary school. Accordingly, we recommend systematic expansion of careers module teaching and counselling in schools, right down to primary schools, with careers information made directly available to all parents, even those in villages, perhaps through the local primary school. Parents, who care deeply about the future of their children, and spend a great deal of their income on schooling, should have much better careers awareness. This could be achieved through some informal training sessions using
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existing forums, such as churches, village meetings, school functions and so on. It is only through such local input that the status of TVET will start to change. An important recommendation emerging from the research is for the introduction of another kind of mathematics syllabus from Form Three, so that the subject does not act as an implicit gate-keeping device keeping some groups of students away from technical careers in growth industries. Finally, we recommend a much more flexible senior curriculum, with integration of practical and academic subjects leading to more targeted pre-career study. In closing, we stress that the data imply the continuing entry of large numbers of disappointed, well-educated young people with inappropriate qualifications into the urban labour market of Fiji in a climate of low growth of traditional employment opportunities. If the trend goes unchecked, this will only add to the growing pool of under- and unemployed people, with accompanying social unrest. It is also a great waste of local human potential when overseas workers must be brought in to fill so many skilled technical proficiency gaps in the labour force. We maintain that relevant reform is central not only to ensuring Fiji has a strong economy in the future but, through that, to the maintenance of on-going political stability.
Note 1. ‘Both races’ is used everywhere in Fiji to differentiate between ‘Fijians’ and ‘Indo-Fijians’. ‘Fijian’ refers to the indigenous people of the Fiji Islands. Slightly less than half the rest of the population of Fiji—Indo-Fijians—are people of South Asian origin, descendents of indentured labourers brought in during British colonial rule. The race-relations situation in Fiji is highly complex and volatile.
References Burnett, G. 2005. Language games and schooling: discourses of colonialism in Kiribati education. Asia-Pacific journal of education, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 93–106. Chand, A. 2001. Human resource strategies in small states: the case of garment factories in the Fiji Islands. International journal of educational development, vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 273–84. Chand, S. 2003. Impact of rich country policies on the Pacific Island countries. (Paper presented at the Experts’ Seminar on The Coherence and Impact of Rich Countries’ Policies on Developing Countries, OECD Development Centre, Paris, France, 23–24 June 2003.) Chandra, D.; Lewai, V. 2005. Women and men of Fiji Islands: gender statistics and trends. Suva: University of the South Pacific. Connell, J. 2003. Regulation of space in the contemporary postcolonial Pacific city: Port Moresby and Suva. Asia-Pacific viewpoint, vol. 44, no. 3, pp. 243–58. Connell, J. 2006. ‘The Taste of Paradise’: selling Fiji and FIJI Water. Asia-Pacific viewpoint, vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 342–50. Ecumenical Center for Research, Education and Advocacy—ECREA. 2002. Listening to youth: a nationwide survey to gauge the fears, hopes and dreams of youth in Fiji. Suva: ECREA. European Union. 2002a. The Pacific and the European Union. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.
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European Union. 2002b. Republic of the Fiji Islands/European Community: Country strategy paper and national indicative programme for the period 2003–2007. <europa.eu.int/comm/ development/body/csp-isp/print/fj> Erickson, R.; Goldthorpe, J. 1992. The constant flux. Oxford, UK: Clarendon. Evening, L.L. 2004. Why girls don’t do physics: the Fiji experience. In: Baba, T. et al., eds. Researching the Pacific and indigenous peoples: issues and perspectives. Auckland, New Zealand: University of Auckland, The Centre for Pacific Studies. Fiji Islands Bureau of Statistics—FIBS. 2003. Annual Report 2003. Suva: Government Printer. Fijilive. 2004. Fiji economy sound: Qarase’, News 15/07/05. <www.fijilive.com/news/show/ news/2004/07/15/15news11.html> Guba, E.G.; Lincoln, Y.S. 1994. Competing paradigms in qualitative research. In: Denzin, N.K.; Lincoln, Y.S., eds. Handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Kidder, L.; Fine, M. 1987. Qualitative and quantitative methods: when stories converge. Multiple methods in program evaluation. In: Mark, M.M.; Shotland, L., eds. New directions in program evaluation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Mausio, A. 2003. Melanesia in review: issues and events—Fiji. The contemporary Pacific, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 440–47. Narayan, P.K. 2003. Determinants of tourist expenditure in Fiji: a cointegration approach. Pacific tourism review, no. 6, pp. 159–67. Nilan, P. et al. 2007. ‘White-collar work’: career ambitions of Fiji final-year school students. International education journal, vol. 7, no. 7, pp. 895–905. Pakulski, J. 2004. Globalising inequalities. London: Routledge. Patton, M.Q. 1990. Qualitative evaluation and research methods, 2nd ed. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Potter, L.; Cooke, F. 2004. Introduction: negotiating modernity, themes and ideas. Asia Pacific viewpoint, vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 305–09. Puamau, P. 2002. Cultural indigenisation. In: Pene, F.; Taufe’ulungaki, ’A.M.; Benson, C.J., eds. Tree of opportunity: re-thinking Pacific education. Suva: University of the South Pacific. Sharma, A. 2000. Technical and vocational education and training. In: Fiji Islands Education Commission, ed. Learning together: directions for education in the Fiji Islands. Suva: Ministry of Education. Spate, O.H.K. 1959. The Fijian people: economic problems and prospects. Suva: Government Press. (Legislative Council paper, no. 13.) [The Spate Report.] Storey, A. 2004. The Fiji garment industry. Auckland, New Zealand: Oxfam New Zealand. <www.oxfam.org.nz> Tavola, H. 1991. Secondary education in Fiji: a key to the future. Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies. Tavola, H. 2000. Education in rural Fiji. In: Fiji Islands Education Commission, ed. Learning together: directions for education in the Fiji Islands. Suva: Ministry of Education. Teasdale, G.R. 2005. The big picture: international perspectives on education for planners. In: Puamau, P.; Teasdale, G.R., eds. Educational planning in the Pacific: principles and guidelines. Suva: University of the South Pacific. Veramu, J. 1992. Let’s do it our way: a case study of participatory education in a rural Fijian school and community. Suva: University of the South Pacific, Institute of Pacific Studies. Waqausa, D. 2004. Tourism targets a billion dollars. Fiji Sun, 11 February 2004, p. 15. World Bank. 2003. Fiji: country profile. <devdata.worldbank.org> Yarrow, R.; Strachan, G.; Krishnamurty, J. 2000. Youth employment policy framework. Suva: International Labour Organisation.
Chapter XIII.10
14–16 Year Olds Taking Vocational Courses in English Colleges: A Dumping Ground for the Disengaged or a Real Alternative? Norman Lucas
1 Introduction This chapter focuses on the large influx in 2005 of approximately 120,000 14–16 year olds entering English1 further education (FE) colleges to pursue vocational qualifications. The chapter argues that, although there have been ad hoc arrangements in the past, the Increased Flexibility Programme (IFP) introduced in 2002 represents the first initiative by the British Government to bring about partnerships between schools and colleges. The evidence suggests that the scheme is overwhelmingly intended for those ‘not doing well’ at school and that vocational qualifications are seen, yet again, for the ‘less able’ and the disengaged. However, both pupils and parents express positive views about the scheme and as many as 90% of IFP learners continued their studies after 16. These responses have been critically analysed, suggesting that asking disaffected school pupils if they like getting out of school is likely to record a positive response no matter what the scheme. The chapter then examines the consequences of releasing 14 year olds for one day per week from school work, asking if such a scheme meets the long-term needs of struggling 14–16-year-old learners—particularly those with basic skills needs or behavioural problems. The chapter concludes by arguing that the early evidence suggests that some disaffected 14–16 year olds do benefit in the short term. However, for others this is not the appropriate route and may not serve the long-term interests of many in this age group.
2 The Research Base The chapter is based upon a number of research projects investigating the British Government’s Increased Flexibility Programme (IFP), which aims to increase vocational choices for 14–16-year-old pupils at school. The research started as a small-scale National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) funded survey, carried out in early 2004 (Lucas et al., 2005). The aim of the survey was to obtain a picture of the scale, organization and development of 14–16 year olds in colleges, to investigate the amount of staff development offered R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XIII.10, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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to FE teachers, to obtain information concerning college management policies, and the perceptions of learners and teaching staff. The survey was based upon questionnaires sent to NATFHE branch secretaries in England. Of the 150 questionnaires sent, 58 were returned, showing that 53 of the 58 colleges were working with 14–16 year olds. Some colleges had very few 14–16 year olds, while others had over 1,000 of them. In undertaking this work, other research on 14–16 year olds in FE colleges was consulted. In order to draw all the research together and to discuss the major findings, two seminars were organized in London sponsored by NATFHE, the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA) and the Institute of Education, University of London. The first seminar was held on 19 January 2005 and was called ‘From Schools to College: 14–16-year-old Learners in Post-16 Institutions: Research, Issues and Challenges’. A range of people from universities, research organizations, awarding bodies, policy-makers, regulatory bodies and practitioners from FE colleges were invited to attend. A second invited seminar was organised on 3 November 2005 entitled ‘Teaching 14–16 year olds in FE Colleges’. The contents of this chapter are based upon the research, presentations, issues and information presented at these two seminars and the original NATFHE research.
3 Past Initiatives to Offer a Vocational Curriculum for School Students Vocational links and curriculum innovation between schools and colleges can be found in England in the 1950s and early 1960s. Sometimes curriculum innovation was brokered by a local education authority or was developed through the work of altruistic individuals in institutions who were motivated by their belief in the value of vocational and technical education for pupils who could not succeed through the traditional academic curriculum. During the 1950s and early 1960s, secondary modern schools were often at the forefront of these developments. These schools took advantage of the lack of prescription in the school curriculum at that time and introduced courses such as ‘rural studies’, ‘farm studies’, ‘domestic studies’ and all sorts of bridging courses in their efforts to find a more practical way of improving skills and knowledge (Steedman & Stoney, 2004). Because of the absence of any national strategy or plan for technical and vocational education and training (TVET), these schemes and initiatives were ad hoc, sporadic, not formally evaluated or researched and often ceased when personnel moved on, or when the context changed. One significant contextual change was the swing towards comprehensive secondary education in late 1960s and 1970s. While schools became comprehensive in terms of their pupil intake, the curriculum became more restrictive and less comprehensive as a result of greater regulation in the form of academic public examinations. This had the effect of squeezing out the practical element in the secondary modern school curriculum, estimated in the early 1960s to be 15%. Although there is evidence during this period of many sporadic and varied initiatives between schools and colleges to enhance young people’s opportunities to follow vocational
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programmes, policy-makers, employers and trade unions gave little priority to technical and vocational qualifications and did nothing to save or transform apprenticeships (Steedman & Stoney, 2003). In fact, it was the growth of youth unemployment in the late 1970s and 1980s and the consequent civil unrest that made governments think again about vocational education and training and the role of schools and colleges (Green & Lucas, 1999). The government, in reaction to the crisis, took important initiatives in vocational qualifications for the unemployed school-leaver, such as the Youth Opportunities Programmes (YOPs) and later the Youth Training Schemes (YTS), although these did not involve partnerships between schools and colleges as the focus was upon those over 16 years of age. In the 1980s, TVET in schools was given a boost by the Technical and Vocational Employment Initiative (TVEI). This was originally intended to develop vocational education courses for 14–18 year olds. However, by the mid-1980s this had changed to a more vague aim, which was to relate what was learned in schools and colleges to the world of work. In practice TVEI was used very flexibly to introduce employment-related aspects into an existing curriculum (West & Steedman, 2003). The initiatives in schools stimulated by TVEI funds were, following the 1988 Education Act, overtaken by changes to the National Curriculum,2 which again squeezed out any initiatives towards a more practical curriculum in schools. While schools were required to follow the national curriculum in the late 1980s and early 1990s, FE colleges acquired a much more diverse curriculum than hitherto. In addition to their traditional focus on vocational education and training, they also became responsible for some 40% of post-16 general education courses. As is still the case today, FE colleges, in comparison with school sixth forms (or sixthform colleges), tended to accrue a disproportionate share of the more disadvantaged students and those seeking a ‘second chance’ after unsatisfactory previous experiences of learning. Furthermore, the diversity of learners in FE colleges during this period also took on a new dimension as ‘new vocationalism’ or ‘pre-vocational’ programmes were developed offering a range of courses that emphasized preparation for work in general, not for specific jobs (Lucas, 2004). This was in reaction to continued youth unemployment mentioned above. During the 1980s and 1990s, many efforts were made to change and broaden the post-16 curriculum by introducing alternative vocationally-related qualifications, such as the National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs),3 the Certificate of PreVocational Education (CPVE) and the General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs). Some of these programmes were offered to 14–16 year olds in schools and in many ways led to the growth of vocational General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSEs).4
4 The Increased Flexibility Programme and Future 14–19 ‘Reforms’ A government consultation paper called ‘14–19: Extending Opportunities, Raising Standards’ announced in 2002 the introduction of new GCSEs in vocational subjects and proposed to relax the Key Stage 4 (KS4)5 requirements by increasing
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the flexibility of the curriculum to allow pupils new routes to achieve vocational qualifications. This led to the establishment of the Increased Flexibility Programme (IFP) in 2002. The IFP aimed to ‘create enhanced vocational and work related opportunities for 14–16 year olds of all abilities who can benefit most’. The targets set for the IFP scheme were:
r r r r
three-quarters of IFP pupils should progress into training or further education; one-third should gain a minimum of one GCSE in a vocational subject over their predicted GCSE grades; one-third should gain at least one national vocational qualification (NVQ) at level 16 above their predicted grade; the attendance of those involved in the IFP should match the average of KS4 pupils.
In 2002/2003, £120 million was allocated and a total of 269 partnerships were established. Further funding was made available in 2003/2004 and 2005/2006. The lead partner in the majority of cases was the FE college, which in turn was funded by the local Learning and Skills Council (LSC).7 With such generous funding by central government, the IFP represents a major new policy initiative, not only because of the sheer numbers of 14–16 year olds who are now learning out of school, but also because it is the first national government programme aimed at bringing about partnerships between schools and colleges. Although the IFP is a massive national initiative, it is also worth noting that there are many different initiatives outside (or alongside) the IFP scheme to provide vocational education in colleges to 14–16 year olds. While the IFP provides the vast majority of funding (the arrangements for which vary significantly), other funding initiatives are significant. For example, one college has the IFP running alongside a European Social Fund (ESF) programme for year 10 and 11 pupils who spend one day at college and one on work experience. There are also many schemes where colleges are working with disaffected pupils in schemes with Pupil Referral Units (PRUs),8 as well as schemes with ‘young apprentices’ in catering (Stopani, 2005). Another college developed a Work and Vocational Education (WAVE) scheme whereby twenty-five 14-year-old school students were referred to the college from PRUs or schools and attended for two-and-a-half days a week (Turford, 2004). In some cases colleges were accepting 14–16 year olds on a full-time basis funded outside the IFP (Lucas et al., 2005). Within the context of the current government’s focus on changing the curriculum for 14–16 year olds, the future of the IFP is uncertain. Following the rejection of the more radical elements of the Tomlinson Report (Working Group on 14–19 Reform, 2004), which proposed diplomas that could embrace both academic and vocational qualifications, the government has put forward its own proposals on 14–19 year olds (United Kingdom. DfES, 2005). This retains GCSEs and A-levels as separate and the cornerstones of the qualification system and proposes the introduction by employer-led Sector Skills Councils9 of new specialist vocational diplomas for each occupational sector. These diplomas will eventually be available at foundation (level one), intermediate (level two) and advanced (level three).10 It is proposed that
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the existing 3,500 or so vocational qualifications will be rationalized around these fourteen sector diplomas. At level two, learners must achieve ‘functional’ English and mathematics based primarily on GCSE grades A–C. The consultation paper put out by the government shows some serious gaps in its understanding of the range, diversity and levels of vocational qualifications. The Sector Skills Councils are ill-equipped to develop qualifications and the funding of the new vocational diplomas remains unclear. The government sees colleges as the major providers of the level-three diplomas, but the paper also indicates that schools may also offer such programmes as well as level-one and level-two qualifications. In all, the proposed changes in the vocational curriculum and the uncertainty of the future funding of the IFP make it difficult to judge the future of the scheme.
5 The IFP in England: What the Research Evidence Shows 5.1 How the Learners are Selected by Schools By 2003/2004, approximately 2,020 schools were participating in the scheme. This represented a majority of schools and approximately 53,000 pupils. By 2005 it was estimated that it had risen to approximately 120,000 pupils with the Learning and Skills Council predicting a further increase to 240,000 by 2013 (Whittaker, 2005). Of those schools participating in IFP, most were 11–16 schools with lower levels of attainment compared to schools nationally (Golden et al., 2004b). Most pupils on the IFP scheme were taking courses away from the school site, usually having a one-day per week release to complete NVQs or vocational GCSEs at college. In a minority of cases, however, vocational GCSEs were taught by college staff in schools. Getting an accurate picture of how 14–16 year olds are selected for the IFP is difficult, as it varies between partnerships and changes as partnerships develop and learn from previous experience. For example, one evaluation found some schools operating an ‘open to all’ policy for those who had a particular interest or wanted a new learning experience. Other schools targeted those with poor academic ability and those with behavioural difficulties (Devitt, 2005). According to a governmentfunded research report (Golden et al., 2004a), the IFP was more attractive to those ‘who have a more negative attitude towards school’ and prefer a ‘more practical style of learning’. Another study found that IFP pupils had absolutely no choice on whether to attend college. When they turned up at the beginning of term they were told to go on the basis of under-performance at school. There was also very little parental involvement in the decision (Harkin, 2004). On the other hand, in another IFP scheme, partnership schools did consult parents with colleges and schools, arriving at agreement on predicted scores for certain qualifications. Groups of schools were also regulating themselves as far as selection was concerned, because if one school sent disruptive students it undermined the more selective approach taken by other schools in the partnership (Stopani, 2005).
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The research suggests, however, that overwhelmingly schools were responsible for selecting which learners participated in the IFP. This was not open to all abilities as the government had stated, but based upon the extent to which students were underachieving or lacking motivation at school. With very few exceptions, students participating in the IFP had lower attainment than average. In other words, the interpretation of those ‘who would benefit most’ meant those who were not doing well in academic GCSEs. Those ‘not doing well’ ranged from disruptive pupils at risk of exclusion (Aynsley, 2004), excluded pupils, those with poor basic skills, or those who were merely not motivated by the academic curriculum and were ‘selfexcluded’ (Lobley, 2005; Vose, 2005).
5.2 The Courses Followed by IFP Learners in Colleges It is estimated that about half of the IFP cohort were taking vocational GCSEs. Applied information and computer technology (ICT) and health and social care were the most popular. This was followed by the new GCSEs in engineering, leisure and tourism and applied business. The other half of IFP learners followed a variety of level-one vocational qualifications and national vocational qualifications (NVQs). These usually consisted of courses in areas such as hairdressing, construction, motor-vehicle maintenance and so on. GNVQs were taken by 11% of the cohort, the most common of which was intermediate-level ICT (Golden et al., 2004b). There were also differences in the characteristics of students taking different types of courses, particularly between those taking NVQs and vocational GCSEs.11 For example, males were over represented in vocational qualifications and females slightly over represented in GCSEs. Students on vocational GCSE programmes were, on the whole, not in receipt of free school meals, not recognized on the special educational needs (SEN) code of practice and had a higher attainment at Key Stage 3 (KS3)12 than would have been expected given the profile. However, a higher proportion of students on NVQ programmes were in receipt of free school meals,13 had some form of SEN, had low attainment at KS3, had poor basic skills (Lobley, 2005) and did not have a positive attitude to school. Most of the vocational qualifications at level one were dominated by a single gender. This was the case, for example, in courses such as beauty therapy and motor-vehicle maintenance (Golden et al., 2004a), raising concerns about selection methods and gender bias (Devitt, 2005). Both IFP learners and parents constantly suggested that more advice and guidance in choosing vocational courses was needed prior to arriving at the college (Le Gallais & Coles, 2005), although parents and extended family also helped IFP learners make vocational choices (Aynsley, 2004). This reinforces the OfSTED (2004a, 2004b) view that one of the weakest elements in the first year of the IFP was the lack of advice and guidance.
5.3 What did 14–16 Year-Olds, FE Teachers and Parents Think? In reports of research given at both seminars, 14–16 year olds were overwhelmingly positive about their experience in FE colleges, although this did vary between
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subject areas. Positive feedback was strongest for practical vocational courses, such as hairdressing, catering and motor-vehicle maintenance, and it was weakest amongst those of lower ability who were struggling with vocational GCSEs. Some of the main reasons given for the positive attitudes of 14–16 year olds included the ‘fresh start’ that college provided, being able to dress in their own clothes and the more adult environment—including being able to smoke (Harkin, 2004). Researchers were told by learners that the practical curriculum was more satisfying and they appreciated both the different teaching methods taken by FE teachers and being able to work at their own pace, but found writing difficult (Lucas et al., 2005; Hardman, 2004). IFP learners liked being off-site, thought the specialist facilities of the college were beneficial and liked the interaction with learners from other schools, although some felt they suffered from other students’ bad behaviour (Devitt, 2005). When asked, 14–16 year olds thought that they learned better in colleges. Parents pointed to positive benefits for their child in terms of confidence, self-esteem, motivation and re-engagement in learning. Parents were positive about the day release to FE colleges, but expressed concern about the effects on schoolwork of their offspring being in college one day a week. Most parents hoped the vocational qualifications would lead to employment (better employability) and this reflected IFP students’ aims, which were to get a job as soon as they could (Harkin, 2004). This is hardly surprising as those who feel that they are ‘failing’ at school see getting a job as their only option. For many learners who are deemed to be failing at school expressing satisfaction at being in college may not mean that they endorse the IFP. It could be that they just like ‘getting away from school’. Simply asking disengaged 14 year olds if they like being away from school is not a reliable measure of learner success. There is no real hard evidence that 14–16 year olds learn better in colleges. However, the school and college inspectorate (OfSTED, 2004a, 2004b) did report that 14–16 year olds following vocational courses in colleges were showing improved confidence, behaviour and attitude. This is reinforced by a recent research report (Golden et al., 2005), which showed that 90% of those who participated in the IFP continued on to post-16 education and training. The majority of general FE teaching staff expressed concerns about teaching 14–16 year olds and there was a general worry among FE teachers and managers about the ‘kidification of FE’. Some staff had the perception that 14 year olds were disruptive and disaffected young people and said that ‘some kids were forced into it’ (Golden et al., 2004c). FE teachers said schools needed to be more selective about who came on the scheme and that vocational options should be a reward for good behaviour—not bad. They also said that vocational GCSEs were not practical enough and not appropriate for students of lower ability (Golden et al., 2004c). While initially there was some reluctance among FE teachers to get involved in the scheme, those who did teach 14–16 year olds were coming round to the idea that it was useful for learners (Turford, 2004). They said that, while working with 14–16 year olds was challenging, they could see the benefits and gained professional satisfaction when learners succeeded (Lucas et al., 2005). The main areas of concern were a lack of professional training for teaching that
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age group and that the 14 year olds had unrealistic expectations and exhibited ‘challenging’ behaviour. The overwhelming majority of FE teachers expressed a need for extra support in responding to the needs of 14 year olds, particularly in dealing with discipline problems specific to this age group. Many FE college teachers suggested that more staff development was needed and that teaching this age group should be a part of initial teacher education programmes (Lucas et al., 2005). The evidence suggests that the staff development FE teachers received varied considerably from college to college. One survey suggested that out of the fifty-three colleges, forty-four offered some kind of staff development to those teaching 14–16 year olds (Lucas et al., 2005). The content of staff development programmes focused mostly upon different age/ability teaching, the national curriculum, behaviour management, assessment and child protection. According to OfSTED (2004a, 2004b), a significant minority of college teachers, particularly part-time teachers, are not qualified and too few teachers in colleges had received any training in the teaching of 14–16 year olds. Another survey suggested that 81% of FE college teachers in one college felt unqualified to work with 14–16 year olds and what training had been offered was seen as overwhelmingly inadequate (Grimsby Institute for Further and Higher Education, 2005). Many FE teachers were not clear about their legal obligations towards 14–16year-old school students and their pastoral responsibilities (Lucas et al., 2005). There were also questions raised about how 14–16 year olds were monitored, tutored and supervised in colleges. FE teachers mentioned the helpful guidance provided by the ‘Guidance for FE Colleges Providing for Young Learners’ (AoC/Leacan, 2004), which clarified colleges’ legal statutory duties, the policies and procedures required and the promotion of partnership learning. Approximately one-third of staff had been given an option of whether to teach 14–16 year olds. In other words, two-thirds had no choice (Lucas et al., 2005). Furthermore, it was also suggested by some teachers that working with 14 year olds did not suit all college staff and that it was important to select appropriate staff for this age group (Le Gallais & Coles, 2005). Some colleges found it best to employ dedicated 14–16 staff (Hardman, 2004). Indignation was expressed by FE teachers that regular school-teachers working with the same age group received bigger salaries than they did and suggested that colleges should pay a premium to those who teach 14 year olds. As one FE teacher put it: ‘If I am to teach schoolchildren (specifically the ones school-teachers cannot cope with), then I believe I deserve parity of pay with secondary school-teachers’ (Grimsby Institute, 2005, p. 5). Schools admitted that, after the first year of the IFP, there seemed to be a growing realization that the scheme was not just a way of off-loading challenging students. A growing number of school-teachers involved in the partnership recognized the benefits of under-achieving 14 year olds going to college, but expressed some concern about learning styles in colleges and the fact that pupils were allowed to smoke. They suggested that FE teachers sometimes forgot how young the learners were (Golden et al., 2004c).
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5.4 The Importance of Schools/Colleges Collaboration All of those questioned by researchers considered close collaboration and partnership between schools and colleges to be the most important factors in the success of the IFP programme. This included the active support of senior management. The importance given to close partnerships is reflected in an early OfSTED report (2004a), which identified it as a weakness in one in four partnerships. Collaboration included sharing information and harmonizing data collection, such as KS3 results and identifying learners who required special support. It was often said that 14 year olds required a lot more guidance than they received (Hardman, 2004) and more should be done to raise awareness of school-teachers and parents about vocational opportunities. One group of FE staff found spending time in a school very useful in helping them to understand the different environment. Most, however, found the school environment rather rigid (Turford, 2004). One issue that was identified as a challenge for partnership was that of timetabling. A major concern was the difficulty of matching the times when college courses were available to the times when students were able to attend. Many IFP pupils missed important lessons at school and only one-fifth of schools believed that pupils could catch up on missed lessons (Golden et al., 2004a). The average partnership consists of eight schools and 132 students with an average of twenty-six students per school (Golden et al., 2004c). This average, however, hides a wide variety of partnerships and cohort size of 14–16 year olds in colleges, which varied from very few to over 1,000 14–16 year olds, with nearly 80% of the colleges having formal agreements and joint committees with participating schools (Lucas et al., 2005).
6 Some Reflections on the Evidence The idea of a vocational or a more practical work-related learning curriculum has been discussed in England for some time. Despite the rhetoric from policy-makers of ‘parity of esteem’ between the vocational and the academic, the reality is that the applied or vocational route is intended for those pupils who are seen as achieving badly in schools and are disengaged from the traditional GCSE curriculum and school. Those ‘who can benefit most’ from the IFP are in reality those who are not doing well in the GCSE stakes, representing about one-third of the cohort. The overwhelming perception is that 14–16 year olds coming to FE colleges are those with educational or behavioural difficulties. This raises the question of whether this is simply a return to the situation where vocational education becomes a dumping ground for the ‘less able’. The IFP scheme is quite a different agenda from that of the Tomlinson Report (Working Group on 14–19 Reform, 2004) discussed above with its proposals of broadening the curriculum so that all 14–16-year-old pupils could benefit from taking vocational courses alongside academic studies, thus enhancing the value and status of vocational education and training. The IFP has given
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vocational GCSE options to some 14 year olds, but for the majority it has been seen as an escape from the traditional GCSE curriculum and is certainly seen by school-teachers as a route for the ‘not so bright’. It is still too early to judge if IFP students progress from vocational qualifications to well-paid employment. Whatever one’s view on these issues, what stands out from all the research is that when 14–16 year olds and their parents are asked, they express positive views about IFP. In the short term, the IFP may be beneficial to many 14–16 year olds, in the sense that for many it is a fresh start with a vocational practical curriculum. Not failing in written tests does raise self-esteem and motivation. Evidence does suggest that this, in turn, leads to a more positive attitude to post-16 education and training (McCrone & Morris, 2004). Research on the outcomes of the first IFP cohort (Golden et al., 2005) shows an uneven picture of those achieving GNVQ and GCSE qualifications compared with their peers outside IFP. Yet, of those involved in the IFP, 90% were continuing with further education and training and, of these, two-thirds were pursuing a higher-level qualification other than that taken as part of their IFP. How these learners will progress remains to be seen. Is there any hard proof that learners who go to college for vocational programmes gain any benefit towards school work? IFP learners may appreciate the more practical curriculum and like the fact that there is less writing. Is the real benefit the fact that the 14 year olds are mixing with other adults and receiving more support? Or is it because of a change of learning environment? In the long term, what are the educational consequences of missing GCSE lessons, particularly in ‘key skill’ areas? The evidence is not there. It is important to remember that most IFP pupils are disillusioned with school, and in those circumstances any out-of-school experience could be seen as positive. This suggests that asking for the perceptions of learners may not be a sound basis for judgement. There is some evidence showing that the benefits of work-related learning do not readily transfer to levels of motivation or attainment at school (Watson, Stuart & Ferguson, 2000; Hall & Raffo, 2004). The view expressed by many schoolteachers was that most pupils who missed school lessons because they were at college were unable to catch up. That is not to say that there were no learning benefits or that high flyers or those doing well at GCSEs could not transfer work-related learning back to their schoolwork. It is simply that, in the present circumstances, those going to college are overwhelmingly not doing at all well at school and that negative attitudes to school can be reinforced by this out-of-school experience of learning. In other words, being away from the school peer group and mixing with new learners and being ‘treated like an adult’ can help a young person to forge new identities and relationships (Hall & Raffo, 2004). The extension of vocational options and a more flexible curriculum appears to lead to improved motivation, attendance and behaviour, although this is hard to measure and it is difficult to know if it can be sustained. What is also not known is the extent to which those who went to college on the IFP improved their GCSE performance back at school or whether 14–16 year olds on the IFP will benefit in the long-term. These are very important unanswered questions.
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Steedman and Stoney (2003) focus upon asking about which type of learner is best served by pursuing vocational qualifications. They suggest that when considering offering vocational options, those 14–16 year olds who obtain four GCSEs below grade C14 need to be seen differently from those who are ‘disengaged’ from school—estimated to be between a third and a fifth of any cohort. The authors point out, however, that the ‘disengaged’ are not homogeneous. There are those who have good but under-used potential, yet their focus is away from school. These students may respond well to level-two vocational studies. Then there are those who attend school fairly regularly, make little effort and view the curriculum and school negatively. They may also respond well to a vocational curriculum. These two groups are described as ‘disaffected but in touch’. At a further end of the disengaged spectrum are those 14–16 year olds who attend school infrequently and struggle with low levels of basic skills. At the far end is another cohort, estimated at 1 or 2%, who have dropped out of school altogether and are ‘out of touch’. The authors argue that it is important not to conflate ‘disaffected but in touch’ with the four-GCSE group or with those who have basic skills needs and those who have dropped out of school. The important issue is that 14–16 year olds who are not seen as doing well in the academic school curriculum have different needs and may respond and benefit differently to opportunities to follow a vocational curriculum. In other words, simply to see those ‘who will benefit most’ as those who are not doing well in GCSEs does not target the learning needs of different groups within that category. I would suggest that for many 14 year olds almost any alternative to continued failure at school would seem like a positive option. However, the more practical and vocational courses reflected in schemes like the IFP can help some of the 14–16 group, yet may not serve the long-term interests of others.
7 Final Comments There is little doubt that the debate will continue in England about providing 14–16 year olds with a genuine vocational alternative to those who cannot achieve through the traditional academic curriculum. There are too many who ‘fail’ for it to go away as an educational and political issue. However, I would like to suggest that in the English context the talk of a parity of esteem between vocational and academic qualifications is mere rhetoric. What is actually possible and practical is to develop vocational qualifications that are valued. In this regard, the rejection in 2005 of the more radical elements of the Tomlinson Report, which proposed a framework where academic and vocational qualification could be mixed, is a profound setback. This is particularly so because of the broad consensus that existed about the proposals on the part of schools, colleges, universities and employer organizations. At the time of writing, the continued funding of the IFP is uncertain. In any case, funding-led initiatives like IFP are not an alternative to a strategic reform of the 14–19 curriculum. During 2006 the Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) struggled under government pressure to produce a viable set of separate vocational qualifications. While it could be
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said that it is too early to judge, the outlook is not good. SSCs have no experience of developing qualifications and have little standing or credibility. In my view, the present policy is a reflection of the UK Government’s na¨ıve belief that somehow employer-led organizations can deliver relevant qualifications that will be acceptable to the wider society. The issue of providing a genuine alternative to the academic curriculum for young people in England will continue into the next decade.
Notes 1. The focus is on England. This is because Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own arrangements. 2. The National Curriculum is the curriculum that all schools must follow. This is then tested in four key stages. Key Stage 3 is at 14 years of age and Key Stage 4 is GCSEs at age 16. 3. NVQs are vocational competence-based qualifications. These are assessed through observation of practice, not through written tests. 4. GCSEs are usually taken by 14 to 16 year olds at school. This is followed by A-levels (‘advanced’) taken by 16 to 19 year olds. Traditionally, these qualifications have been academic, with A-levels used for selecting those who go to university. In the last decade or so, vocational GCSEs and A-levels have been introduced, but are not held in the same esteem as academic qualifications. 5. This means relaxing the GCSE requirements taken at 16 years of age. 6. NVQs are competence-based vocational qualifications and level one is the level below GCSEs, which is the standards 14–16 qualification. 7. Learning and Skills Councils (LSCs) are organized nationally and locally and their role is to strategically plan and fund post-16 education and training outside the university system. They are very much the arm of central government’s targets and funding. 8. These are special units for children who have been excluded from school often for behavioural reasons. 9. Sector skills councils are the latest version of government-funded employer-led organizations that set standards for each occupational sector. 10. Level one is below the standards’ 16-year-old level; level two is the standards’ GCSE; level three is equivalent to A-levels, which gives access to university. 11. It is worth noting when discussing the characteristics of IFP learners that vocational GCSEs required written exams similar to those of academic GCSEs. NVQs were not only a level lower but required no written tests. 12. This refers to standard attainment targets tested at age 14. 13. Free school meals are only given to those of low income, thus reflecting socio-economic deprivation. 14. Generally, a five-GCSEs grade C is judged to be the lowest grade enabling progress to Alevels. Thus, those who get grade D or below are considered to have not done well.
References Association of Colleges and LEA Curriculum Advisors’ Network—AoC/Leacan. 2004. Guidance for FE colleges providing for young learners. London: AoC/Leacan. Aynsley, S. 2004. Intermediate pathway: supporting the successful transition from KS4. Guildford, UK: University of Surrey. [Unpublished draft report.]
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Devitt, K. 2005. Vocational training for 14–16 year olds: evaluation of the new increased flexibility programme. Brighton, UK: Trust for the Study of Adolescents. <www.tsa.uk.com> Golden, S. et al. 2004a. Evaluation of increased flexibilities for 14–16 year olds: the first year. Slough, UK: National Foundation for Educational Research. (Report 511.) Golden, S. et al. 2004b. Evaluation of increased flexibilities for 14–16 year olds: profile of partnerships and students 2002 and 2003. Slough, UK: National Foundation for Educational Research. (Report 558.) Golden, S. et al. 2004c. Implementing the increased flexibility for 14–16 year olds programme: the experience of partnerships and students. Slough, UK: National Foundation for Educational Research. (Report 562.) Golden, S. et al. 2005. Evaluation of increased flexibilities for 14–16 year olds: outcomes for the first cohort. Slough, UK: National Foundation for Educational Research. (Report RR668.) Green, A.; Lucas, N., eds. 1999. FE and lifelong learning: realigning the sector for the twenty-first century. London: University of London Institute of Education. (Bedford Way Papers.) Grimsby Institute for Further and Higher Education. 2005. 14–16 survey conducted by the NATFHE Branch of Grimsby Institute. Grimsby, UK: Grimsby Institute. [Unpublished.] Hall, G.; Raffo. C. 2004. Re-engaging 14–16 year olds with their schooling through work-related learning. Journal of vocational education and training, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 69–79. Hardman, J. 2004. Update on the 14–16 provision: case study project. Solihull, UK: West Midlands Learning and Skills Research Network. Harkin, J. 2004. Meeting the needs of younger learners in further education. London: The Learning and Skills Development Agency. Le Gallais, T.; Coles, A.M. 2005. What works for learners? Case studies of provision in West Midlands Colleges. The 14–16 Jigsaw: younger learners in the learning and skills sector— research, policy and practice. (Paper presented at the Learning and Skills Development Agency Conference, Birmingham, UK, June 2005.) Lobley, G. 2005. 14–16 year olds with basic skill needs in FE. Basic skills bulletin, no. 39, December, p. 29. Lucas, N. 2004. Teaching in further education: new perspectives for a changing context. London: University of London Institute of Education. (Bedford Way Papers.) Lucas, N. et al. 2005. Survey of 14–16 year olds in FE colleges. London: University College Union. (NATFHE funded project.) [Unpublished.] McCrone T.; Morris, M. 2004. Research into the impact of pre-16 vocational education. Slough, UK: National Foundation for Educational Research. Office for Standards in Education—OfSTED. 2004a. Increased flexibility programme at key stage 4: evaluation of the first year. Manchester, UK: OfSTED. (HMI 2074.) Office for Standards in Education—OfSTED. 2004b. Increased flexibility programme: improving work experience. Manchester, UK: OfSTED. (HMI 2220.) Steedman, H.; Stoney, S. 2003. How to motivate (de-motivated) 14–16 year olds, with special reference to work-related education and training. (Paper presented at the final seminar 27 November 2003 in the ESRC-funded seminar series.) Steedman, H.; Stoney, S. 2004. Disengagement 14–16: context and evidence. London: London School of Economics, Centre for Economic Performance. (CEP Discussion Paper, no. 654.) Stopani, J. 2005. Effective collaboration at Key Stage 4. (Workshop presentation at London Region Network Conference, 14–19: Collaboration, Co-Existence or Co-Ownership, University of London Institute of Education, UK, 4 July 2005.) Working Group on 14–19 Reform. 2004. 14–19 Curriculum and Qualifications Reform: Final Report. London: DfES. [The Tomlinson Report.] Turford, R. 2004. An evaluation of the 14–16 open studies certificate in working with 14–16 year olds for PCET practitioners. Warwick, UK: Warwick University. (Report Commissioned by the Centre for Lifelong Learning.) United Kingdom. Department for Education and Science. 2005. 14–19 education and skills. London: DfES. (CM 6476.)
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Vose, K. 2005. Presentation from New College Durham at ’14–19 Collaboration: co-existence, co-operation or co-ownership. Durham, UK: New College. (Paper presented at the London Region Network Conference, University of London Institute of Education, 4 July 2005.) Watson, A.; Stuart, N.; Ferguson, J. 2000. National evaluation of Key Stage 4 work related learning demonstration projects. London: HMSO. (DfEE Research Report RR218.) West, J.; Steedman, H. 2003. Finding our way: vocational education in England. London: London School of Economics, Centre for Economic Performance. (Skills for Life Report, no. 5.) Whittaker, M. 2005. Beyond the Bash Street Kids. FE Focus, Times Educational Supplement, 2 December, p. 16.
Chapter XIII.11
Reconciling the Competing Policy Platforms in TVET? Promulgating ‘the 6Es Plus Education’ for Youth through Social Partnerships Karen Plane
1 Introduction: The 6Es Plus Education The World Development Report (World Bank, 2006, p. 4) states that there are now 1.5 billion young people in the 12–24 years age cohort, with 1.3 billion of them living in developing countries—the largest number in history and that we need new approaches to address opportunities, capabilities and second chances for youth (ibid., p. 11). In this light, the UNESCO Youth Employment Summit (YES) (2006b, p. 1) has argued that for young people in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) the focus should be the ‘6Es plus education’: employability, employment creation, equity, entrepreneurship, environmental sustainability and empowerment. Resourcing TVET by developing pathways through schools and enabling effective post-school transition for youth means encouraging better collaboration across the stakeholders, and minimizing the numbers of young people leaving school with no formal qualifications (Quintini, Martin & Martin, 2007). This will mean working in social partnership with TVET providers, industry, trade unions, small business and the wider community in addressing innovative ways in which TVET can be resourced for the longer term—not just the short term. It will also demand new governance in TVET and strategic policies to implement change (Buchholz & Rosenthal, 2004; Das Gupta, Grandvoinnet & Romani, 2003; Apple, 2005b; United Nations. Secretary-General, 2006). Argy (2004) has written of the complex challenges for governments in managing conflicting policy goals and priorities. This chapter presents a number of concerns for TVET policy arising from the tensions in the current discourses in skilling youth for economic development and higher growth, and/or skilling for education for sustainable development, less wasteful economies and sustainability practices. There are paradoxical questions for the economic/sustainable development nexus and for broadening our understanding of the diverse roles that TVET plays, or can play, in meeting the transitional and work/life skills needs of youth and the younger person.
R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XIII.11, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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2 Reconciling the Competing TVET Policy Platforms To begin the debate, we need to be bold and engage in the tensions in the TVET discussions around the world framed by the instrumentalist, neo-liberalist doctrine with its monocular focus on skilling for growth, higher productivity and economic development. This discourse fundamentally suggests that improving the position of national economies, gross domestic product (GDP) and international trade is good for all, and that a rising tide will successfully lift all boats. Within this discourse, matching human capital to industry and labour-market needs is essential for regional economic development and job creation. It is integral also for countries to compete at the international level, and to improve standards of living, and reduce poverty and disadvantage at the local level. Within this economic ‘lifeworld’, a paramount goal is upskilling people as human capital so that national and international workforces can maintain their place in a competitive, global marketplace of free trade in goods and services. In this context, this human capital is positioned as merely the fuel to build the wealth, the GDP, regional economic development and improve competition between regions. This growth is unchecked, unfettered, but very much benchmarked and measured in terms of calculative rationality and increased productivity (Hamilton & Denniss, 2006, pp. 137–38; Hamilton, 2003; Beder, 2006; Hamilton & Denniss, 2000; Yencken & Porter, 2001; Humphries, 2006; Humphries & Grant, 2005; Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 2005). This debate positions TVET providers, practitioners and learners clearly in the context of skilling for economic development, growth and innovation for competing with other regions on the world’s free-trade stage.
3 Promulgating the Shift in Discourse to Stakeholder Capitalism We will have time to reach the Millennium Development Goals—worldwide and in most, or even all countries—but only if we break with business as usual (United Nations. SecretaryGeneral, 2006, p. 1).
The neo-conservative position (Apple, 2005a, 2005b; Humphries & Grant, 2005), however, is tempered with alternative debate about redefining a more holistic capacity-building, life-skills discourse for education for sustainable development (ESD) and promulgating the shift to a more equitable future for the world (Cornford, 2006; Hamilton, 2003; Newman, 2006). There has been much contention about the marginalized pillars of ESD, the ‘othered capitals’: climate change, environmental degradation, cultural inclusion and social sustainability (WMO/UNEP, 2007; Bardsley, 2006; McManus, 2005; Gleeson, 2006; Pusey, 2003; Yencken & Porter, 2001; McKenzie, 2004; Ellyard, 1998; Sumner, 2000). Hamilton (2003) contends that we need to reconstruct a policy culture more suitable for a post-growth society. Humphries (2006) argues that we have few ways of thinking beyond the market place and this ‘lifeworld’ dominates our relationships with everything around us. Seeking alternatives to the traditional market model and more effective ways of measuring GDP and other ‘sustainabilities’ will redefine stakeholder capitalism.
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Anderson (2002a, 2002b) has called for a paradigm shift for ecologically sustainable development, arguing that environmental concerns have been abrogated to market ‘productivism’ in TVET strategy. He contends that short-term economic systems do not encourage environmental sustainability in the long term, which is not deemed a priority. Bourne (2001, p. 1) has stated that sustainable development demands industry leadership, and tripartite partnerships between business, community and government. Gough (2007, p. 12) finds that in the Australian workplace context there has been ‘a huge silence to date within the Employability Skills context in Australia [about] skilling for the future with respect to sustainable development.’
4 Environmental Sustainability and the Role of Social Partnerships There is increasing pressure then for TVET research and practice to come to grips with cross-sectoral policy convergence enabling better collaboration for sustainable development between the State, industry and civic society in developing transitional and developed market economies. Third-way public policies around the world have advocated social partnerships for engaging industry in TVET for resourcing the Millennium Goals (United Nations. Secretary-General, 2006), lifelong learning, education for sustainable development (ESD), environmental protection and meeting the demands of an expanding TVET system. Supranational policy statements, such as the United Nations/UNESCO Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014) (UNESCO, 2005a, 2005b, 2006a), the ILO Decent Work Strategy (ILO, 2005), and World Business Council on Sustainable Development Global Compact (Birch, 2004) call for improved business community co-operation across stakeholders for implementing policy through partnerships at the local level. The World Bank’s ‘World Development Report’ (2006, pp. 72–75) and United Nations’ ‘Report on the World Social Situation’ (2005, pp. 25, 28, 31) contend that partnerships and alliances can resource an expanding TVET system and underpin policies for sustainable development for economies, cultures and society, and protection of the natural environment. These documents argue that partnerships with industry are a necessary vehicle to resource the needs of the TVET sector and meet the increased demands from a growing cohort of youth (World Bank, 2006, pp. 78–80, 89). By encouraging industry and the wider community to play a more active role, partnerships offer a resourceful, devolved approach to governance through local community development, and are a positive, proactive way in which communities can build capacity and annex resources for growth, infrastructure and regional sustainability (Senge, Dow & Neath, 2006; Caldwell & Keating, 2004; Dixon & Barnett, 2002; Kenyon & Black, 2001; Centre for Corporate Public Affairs/Business Council of Australia, 2000; Cheers et al., 2002; Allison, Gorringe & Lacey, 2006; Seddon & Billett, 2004; Considine, 2005; Geddes & Benington, 2001; Adult Learning Australia, 2004). Building and sustaining social partnerships, however, takes time, energy, commitment and resilience from the stakeholders in working towards
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the common good. Garratt (2003), Beder (2006) and Gettler (2005) all have concerns about leadership capacity and the extent of social conscience, corporate governance change and corporate responsibility in industry. There is an important role for TVET in working in partnership with industry and encouraging sustainable innovation and triple bottom-line thinking in the workplace. It could be argued, however, that the TVET curriculum for industry, particularly for small businesses, is not keeping pace with the emerging shift to sustainable capitalism (Plane, 2007).
5 Educational Contexts, Diversity in TVET and Young People There are systemic restraints too for practitioners arising from what Humphries and Grant (2005) define as the current instrumentalist policy context. Within TVET, a preoccupation with accounting for learning from the viewpoint of new managerialism means that we overlook the contextual ‘life worlds’ of youth. Donning the TVET institutional white coat, metaphorically speaking, abrogates us from confronting the challenges young people face in creating personal space, and finding voice as active citizens in a global society. Before we continue with our checklists for competencies, we need to ‘de-anaesthetize’ ourselves from our functionalist policy climate to understand more about young people as human beings, by taking a closer look through new lenses at the diversity of contexts in which they learn, live, socialize and grow. There are a plethora of contexts for transformational learning (Cranton, 1994) in which young people build identity capital. We list below some of the terms—not intending to be hierarchical or definitive—found searching the literature of technical and vocational education and training, learning, youth and younger people. They show a diversity of the ways in which learning is contextualized both within, and outside, TVET. It would be somewhat na¨ıve to think that all youth learning is constructive. Some of these terms include:
r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r
Post-school education, post-compulsory education and training; TAFEs and institutes of vocational education and training; Vocational/higher education transition and two-way pathways; School-to-work transition 14–19, Tech Prep, career and technical education; Basic skills education, life-skills education; Learning in the workplace, work experience and induction; Structured workplace learning, workforce development and youth; Skills networks, enterprise skills networks, youth enterprise networks; Workforce profiling with youth, mentoring programmes; VET in schools, technical education in schools, dual systems; Enterprise education in schools, school enterprises, virtual enterprises; Youth in rural schools, pathways-to-work programmes; Apprenticeships and traineeships, accelerated traineeships; Technical colleges, technical skills and career education; ‘Vocationalization’ and personal development and growth; Adult and community education, neighbourhood-house pathways;
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Learning in the community and learning for active citizenship; Young people as seasonal workers, migrant workers; Learning outdoors and outdoor recreational learning; Youth Corps and environmental programmes; Learning for youth with special needs, disabilities; Language and literacy, English as a second language and young people; Self-employment and entrepreneurship, business mentoring programmes; Indigenous youth, community development employment programmes; Youth, health and HIV/AIDS and transferable diseases education; Youth, TVET and English as a second language; Homeless and refugee youth, youth at risk or in crises; Youth and human rights education; Youth in arts, media and science and converging technologies; Young people as peace and aid workers; Youth in neighbourhood regeneration and capacity-building; And, tragically, as Toolis (2006) has written, young people participating in ‘adult learning’ through war and conflict, terrorism, crime and retaliatory violence.
In the context of the last of the above, and the broadened role for TVET, the ‘World Development Report’ (World Bank, 2006, p. 9) states: ‘Without opportunities for productive civic engagement, young people’s frustrations may boil over into violent behaviour and lead to economic and social instability—sparks that can ignite longsimmering disputes.’
6 Equity for Youth and Decreasing the Polarization in Global Societies Whilst economic growth can bring better living standards, due attention also needs to be paid to finding new ways to resource the human, cultural and societal pillars of ESD to ameliorate the negative impact of three decades of economic reform in industry and structural adjustment. According to UNESCO (2006b, p. 1), young people in developing and transitional countries have been extremely disadvantaged by increasing rates of unemployment. It is stated that 88 million youth are classified as unemployed, with the highest levels of unemployment in Sub-Saharan Africa. In developing countries, young people are 3.8 times more likely to be unemployed than adults, as compared with 2.3 times in industrialized countries (ILO, 2004 in UNESCO, 2006b, p. 1). By 2015 there will be more first-time job seekers entering the workplace with high expectations of career and finding decent work than ever before. TVET is integral for providing career opportunities for youth by preventing labour-market mismatches, falling living standards and youth unrest brought about by no work, industry failure and market change. The United Nations (2005, p. 34) writes: ‘Economic growth is not a panacea, as the level of inequality can be a determining factor in the impact growth has on poverty reduction.’
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Gettler (2005, p. 51) states that proactive change will not be realised at the organizational and policy level unless society is prepared to tackle what Argyris has termed the ‘socially undiscussables’. Exacerbating this global polarization is the ‘inconvenient’ problem in the world’s ‘Westernized’ developed countries of admitting the size of our ecological footprint, over-consumption and ‘affluenza’ (Gore, 2006; Hamilton & Denniss, 2006; Wackernagel & Rees, 1996). In our comfort and complacency, we overlook our resource-greedy ‘lifestyle’ and the fact that in the most developed countries of the world—and for the sake of peace, the climate and the next generation—we have to very quickly learn how to produce less waste. In this insatiable consumerist context, Hamilton and Denniss (2006, pp. 137–38) write of the challenge for embedding notions of sustainability for youth in TVET: Education systems’ increasing emphasis on vocational training at the expense of understanding self and society, coupled with the narcissism of the consumer culture in which these young people have grown up, mean that, while despair for the future of democracy is warranted, we should expect nothing more.
7 Employment Creation, Skills Profiling and the Role for Industry Beaver and Jennings (2005, p. 21) contend that small business owners can be immensely powerful in instilling values and setting the workplace culture of their enterprise. Small businesses now comprise 99.7% of all small and small-to-mediumsized businesses on the planet, and employ 75% of the world’s workers (UNESCO, 2005b, Annex 2, p. 5). But, like everyone else, they can also suffer from what Watkins and Bazerman (2003) define as ‘cognitive blindness’ in proactively anticipating the mix of skills their industry is going to require in the future. In this context, business planning is essential, but for many small businesses planning is lost in the conundrum of day-to-day practices and the need simply to survive in a fluid and unpredictable marketplace. What is forgotten in the competition and race for productivity is that this myopia from industry, accompanied with distance at the policy level, ‘politicking’ amongst the stakeholders, knowledge feudalism in the regions and power vacuums in governance, can have a detrimental impact on those at the end of the supply chain—i.e. young people. Enculturing business, community and institutional collaboration for workforce development is essential for identifying regional skills needs and preventing skills shortages, as well as determining the direction of TVET funding for improving the labour-market opportunities for young people. In short, we need to get our act together! This is shown by the following comments from one frustrated practitioner whose capacity was reduced by unnecessary information and political barriers in the system: Once we can access that information about training needs and regional growth, we have then got to get [regional stakeholders] to a realization that schools can meet their training needs, along with the local TAFE college and registered training organizations—if they let us know what they are on a fairly short-term and long-term basis.
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8 Educational Epistemologies, Elitism and ‘Legitimizing’ Quality Learning Adding to the fragmentation in devolved systems is the elitism and disagreement in TVET academic debates about skilling for vocational and technical knowledge, and/or general education/knowledge for life and which knowledge or competencies are more valuable. This on-going discourse (squabble?) in cloistered corridors of power about the value and positioning of institutional or industry workplace knowledge, epistemologies and pedagogies is distant and remote from youth. Yet, it can have a detrimental impact on youth inclusion and employability by increasing fragmentation in TVET service delivery and divisiveness across stakeholders. It also overlooks what counts the most for youth in the long term: sustainable living opportunities, a chance to pursue a career, and a foot on the first rung of the ladder to decent work. Research from the United Kingdom by Malcolm, Hodkinson and Colley (2003) contends that formal and informal education and training both have value. Polarizing these two distinct aspects of learning is an outdated argument and not helpful: ‘The challenge is to recognize and identify them and to understand the implications’ (Malcolm, Hodkinson & Colley, 2003, p. 315). Illeris (2002) brings us down to earth by reminding us that learning has cognitive, social and emotional components and there is a need for ecumenical approaches. Beckett and Hager (2002), Beckett (2001) and Boud, Cressey and Docherty (2006) have called for a redefinition of the ‘practical wisdom’ that is learnt in the workplace. Patton and Marlow (2002, p. 261) also conclude that: ‘Diffuse forms of knowledge and skill accumulation should not be ignored because they are outside the measurable template of formality’.
9 Employability, Self-Employment and Small Business Small businesses are essential for youth opportunities for work in rural and regional areas, and the first line of resistance against what can be the hollow pull for young people of the bright lights, sex in the city and the sponge city phenomena. They offer first-chance opportunities to find decent paid work at the local level and ‘savvy’ for future self-employment. Small-firm owners can play an integral leadership role in workforce development as employers and shapers of a new generation of entrepreneurs with sustainable business skills. In this context, young people learn very quickly what works and what does not from observing both the soaring successes and the dismal failures of their employers and workplace mentors. But, in presenting young people with the opportunity to assist in ‘holding the fort’, they are a rich training ground in situated learning and in building future employability skills for managing what Watkins and Bazerman (2003) call ‘predictable surprises’: learning by being proactive, anticipatory and managing crises. Paradoxically though, small businesses are seldom included or listened to in policy development within TVET and they are disenfranchised by the very discourses and ideologies meant to increase
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their participation and collaboration in social partnerships (Cornford, 2006; Plane, 2007). There are serious questions about whether TVET is training small business owners for subjugation to a culture of audit and compliance, or for entrepreneurship, innovation, growth and creativity. There are concerns also about small businesses downshifting and downsizing to survive in a lean global market economy and the resulting impact on apprenticeship positions, training in the workplace and employment opportunities. A common thread from the writer’s research is that small firm owners would take more time out of the firm for work/life balance, and would employ and train more people in an instant—as long as the business could afford to do so.
10 Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Capacities and Innovation The above debate also needs to be underpinned by an approach that ‘recontextualizes’ and ‘revalues’ learning and innovation in industry and redefines the meaning of entrepreneurial capacity or ‘entrepreneurial capital’. Hindle & O’Connor (2005, p. 3) state that, in terms of supply-side TVET, existing education and training practices misperceive entrepreneurship education and the need for initiatives which cultivate entrepreneurial capacities (Audretsch & Keilbach, 2004). Fenwick (2003) argues that we do not have comprehensive theories for learning processes in practice-based innovation and questions whether rationalistic approaches are counterproductive and stifle the creativity needed for innovation. Rae (2005, 2004) and Rae and Carswell (2001) have taken a discursive, social constructionist approach to understanding entrepreneurial decision-making and practice-based theory within the firm. This ‘phronesis’ (Beckett & Hager, 1997) or life-story narratives (Rae, 2005, 2004; Rae & Carswell, 2001; Cope, 2000, 2003, 2005) is a powerful situated theory and, in this context, learning can be understood from the community of practice perspective (Wenger, 1998).
11 Empowerment, Innovation and Building Identity Capital There are those who seek a new approach to small-business training in TVET (Gibb, 2006; Birch, 2004; Storey, 2004; Johnson, 2002), finding that existing curricula are grossly inadequate and anachronistic for enculturing risk taking, successful entrepreneurship skills and fostering leadership, creativity and innovation. Hunt (2003) finds that, in the new paradigm of stakeholder capitalism, management in industry has become timid and indecisive, has lost its pioneering spirit and has become a victim of change—as opposed to driving it. TVET then has an integral role in developing the capability of the younger person in building resilience and confidence in their beliefs and actions in managing their lives, work and discontinuous change. Meeting this commitment will demand credible mentors from a diverse
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range of industry and community backgrounds working together towards a common goal. Below is a short success story from one practitioner: I’ll tell you about a young guy in our programme—he won’t mind me telling you this story because he talks about it all the time. This is a kid who has never done any public speaking. He dropped out of school—he is very smart actually. He said: ‘I was so bored. I was bored out of my brain and I was looked on as a trouble-maker at school. All I wanted to do was to get out of there and work.’ So his parents agreed that he could leave school provided he could get a job and I think he worked as a painter or a builder doing hack work for a long time. While he was there, he realised that he probably did need to finish his schooling and at night time he actually did his high-school certificates and that was really great—but he still wanted to be in small business. He now has his own small business and it’s efficient and he is as happy as Larry, but he is very anti the school [. . .] because it was not meeting his needs and he said there are a lot of young people who feel the same way. But he is now running his own business and he is successful and he is answerable to himself, and if he doesn’t get the money in that’s because he hasn’t gone out there and worked hard enough—but that does not worry him, because he says the main thing is that I am not answerable to other people any more. He is 20, 21 something like that. He is inspirational.
12 Equal Opportunities, Inclusion and Multiple Disadvantages A matter of concern for equity and inclusion for other youth in the Australian context is that the participation rate of people with a disability in both work and in TVET has fallen since 2002. In 2003, 53.2% of people with a disability participated in the workplace as opposed to 80.6% of those without a disability. According to Barnett (2004), the proportion of VET students with a disability has decreased from 5.1% to 4.5% of all students. Barnett (2004) contends that there are a number of issues for disabled learners that also become a concern for the TVET practitioner. Harrison and Barnett (2006, p. 1) state that, according to Australian data, only 3.5% of the disabled working population participate in TVET with less than 2% being apprentices and trainees. Similar results have been found in the HREOC Inquiry (2005a, 2005b), which noted that the fractured policy environment, the lack of collaboration at the policy level and across sectors are resulting in increased barriers for people with a disability. Also present are systemic issues, such as the lack of a ‘one-stop shop’ for information, and employers not being able to access the necessary information about support services or programmes for employing a disabled worker. Considine, Watson and Hall (2005, p. 5) have argued for a shift in thinking in TVET from a culture of isolated disability and misconception that the TVET disabled client is a discreet group, to a greater understanding of the nature and impact of multiple disadvantage, which can include a combination of socio-economic factors and cultural exclusion. Equity emerges as a universally important issue with many young people being deprived of access to opportunities on the grounds of race, gender, religion and social status. Lack of equity affects not only employment but, at an earlier stage, access to and quality education (UNESCO, 2006b, p. 3).
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13 TVET Practitioners as Advocates for Young People Kell, Shore and Singh (2004) have written of the integral role for the TVET practitioner as a champion of access and equity. TVET practitioners have a clear advocacy role in skilling youth holistically for reconciliation and resilience (Newman, 2006) in the face of discontinuous change, but they too need to be better supported in their work in the current policy climate. Facilitators in TVET can resist the predominant discourses and inculcate not only workplace and technical skills, but also life-skills, human rights and active citizenship for sustainable living. By providing accurate, timely resources through TVET networks and alliances at the local level, learning and information provision can be very empowering in assisting young people to make decisions about not only career and work, but sustainable living practices. Here is the voice of one practitioner working with young people: I also believe that the best promoters of our programme are the young people themselves and we invite them very often to accompany me, if I am asked to speak at a club or a school group. Many of the young people that I take with me have never done any public speaking before. So just by encouraging them and having faith in their ability I have now got some very competent young people who are able to express themselves far better and as a consequence that has been very good for their self-development and will help them long term. I find them delightful to work with to be quite honest. I learn as much from them as they do from me I think. I find it exciting, I find it challenging and their ideas different, but I find them very socially aware. The type of people I am dealing with are very committed to making a difference to the society that they are involved in, probably more so than a lot of people my age, I think, and that’s why I like working with them. They are really like soaks—they are keen to learn.
14 Rethinking the Vision for TVET and Youth There is an argument then for a broader multidisciplinary approach to the TVET curriculum which supports youth in a diversity of roles and emerging roles, not just traditional workplaces. Some of these may be listed as:
r r r r r r
Growing prosperity through self-employment and home-based businesses; Outdoor education, managing natural capital and the local environment; Local food production, agribusiness and sustainability—sustainable growth; HIV/AIDS education and prevention and transferable diseases education; Skilling for peace work, democracy and advocacy; Youth, corporate citizenship and enculturing the triple bottom line in industry.
Norton Grubb (2007) has recently criticised ‘the Education Gospel’ and its predominance in TVET. We need to critically question this gospel as we search for alternative paradigms in TVET and for new frameworks to underpin social partnerships and converging policies for:
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r r r r r r r r
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Skilling for career and technical skills, industry acumen and sustainable entrepreneurship; Skilling in adaptation to climate change and education for sustainable development—engaging in healthy communities, healthy neighbourhoods; Enculturing life-skills, skilling youth for parenthood and juggling work/family; Building emotional and identity capital for resilience in discontinuous change; Improving personal safety and reducing risks for young people; Skilling for community development and capacity-building at the local level; Promulgating social skills for active citizenship, political engagement and advocating cultural inclusion and religious tolerance; Recovery for youth in war-torn countries and those recovering from natural disasters and crises.
15 Conclusion This chapter has discussed some of the systemic challenges for promulgating the ‘6E’s plus education’ for youth through social partnerships in TVET. It argues that the traditional pedagogic divides between academic, general and technical vocational education may no longer apply in a fluid, globalizing knowledge society. There is a need to take a youth-centred, kaleidoscopic focus in TVET which matches young people’s pathways with opportunities. There are a number of concerns for converging TVET policy evolving from the tensions in the current discourses in skilling youth for economic development and higher growth, and/or skilling for education for sustainable development, less wasteful economies and sustainability practices. In the search for new political frameworks to underpin TVET and social partnerships, there is a need to reconcile the competing policy platforms and the focus on productivity, growth and technical skills and/or skills for life, citizenship and sustainable development. In this context, TVET has a vital access and equity role, but all the ‘capitals’ need to be resourced adequately at the policy and practice level to give TVET providers, practitioners and young people the capacity to implement the change management process for the future.
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Section 14 The Skills Debate in an Ageing Society
Tom Karmel National Centre for Vocational Education Research, Adelaide, Australia Rupert Maclean UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany
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Chapter XIV.1
Overview: TVET in an Ageing Society1 Tom Karmel and Rupert Maclean
1 TVET in an Ageing Society One of the most striking features of the modern world is its changing demographic profile. In almost any policy arena, the issue of demographic change (or ageing) sits alongside globalization, climate change and the knowledge revolution as areas which are transforming societies, including the ways in which we organize and go about our work activities. While ageing has particular salience for developed countries, in fact, the phenomenon is actually more dramatic in developing countries. By 2050, according to United Nations projections, 22.1% of the world’s population will be 60 years or older, compared with 10% in 2000 (United Nations, 1998). The percentages of older persons will be rather less than this in developing countries, but the magnitude of the changing demographic profile is arguably greater, as can be seen from Figure 1. Age pyramids will be a thing of the past (they already are in developed countries). Indeed, our metaphors for age structures will have to change. This significant and worldwide phenomenon motivated an international meeting of a number of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) research agencies, hosted by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) in Adelaide, Australia, in October 2006. Experts from NCVER, the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (Bonn, Germany), the National Council of Educational Research and Training (Delhi, India), the Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Education (Manila, Philippines), and the Korean Institute of Vocational Education and Training (Seoul, Republic of Korea) met to present papers on various aspects of TVET in an ageing society. The first thing that stands out about the chapters presented is their variety. While ageing as a theme resonates widely across the world, its implications are widespread and will affect many different aspects of TVET. This is not a simple issue where a standard piece of research or analysis will suffice.
R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XIV.1, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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Percentage of population
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Fig. 1 Population pyramids: age and sex distribution, 2000 and 2050 Source: United Nations, 1998.
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2 Overview of the Contributions For convenience, we have divided this section into two parts. The overview of chapters 2 to 5 presented below first deals with the issue at a broad policy level, while the second contains five chapters (6 to 10), each considering a particular aspect of TVET in an ageing society. Our overview consists of an abstract of the chapter and (with the exception of chapter XIV.10) a short summary of the ensuing discussion that took place at the meeting in Adelaide in October 2006.
XIV.2 Policy Framework on the Retraining for Reskilling of Older Workers through Specialized TVET Programmes, By Theodora Josue Tesoro Gayondato and Myong Hee Kim The first chapter, by Gayondato and Kim of the Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Education, provides a framework for transforming the role of older workers. The authors first argue that the mindset of older workers needs to be changed. They then provide a number of conceptual models for the TVET system in order to address the needs of older workers. Finally, they discuss the roles of the various players: institutions, industries, small- and medium-sized enterprises and government agencies. During the meeting in October 2006 where these papers were presented, each paper was the subject of a discussion by the participants. The discussion of this chapter was led by Di Booker, of the TVET provider in South Australia, TAFE SA. As Booker notes in her written comments, the chapter generated lively discussion around social, economic and learning issues, and the differences between developed and developing countries. Booker warned against unwarranted assumptions, in particular, the presupposition that the majority of the aged is un- or undereducated. TVET needs to build on the previous education and experience of this cohort. In terms of next steps, the challenge is to put Gayondato and Kim’s policy framework for TVET institutions into action. Finally, in terms of integrating the main players—government, industry, TVET and small and medium-sized enterprises— there may be a role for multilateral agencies, such as the World Bank.
XIV.3 Reskilling for All? The Changing Role of TVET in the Ageing Societies of Developing Countries, By Margarita Pavlova and Rupert Maclean The second chapter, by Margarita Pavlova and Rupert Maclean, representing the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre, also takes a high-level perspective. While ageing of the population is more pronounced in developed countries and certainly has received more attention, Maclean and Pavlova point out that ageing poses a serious set of issues for developing countries: ‘the tempo of ageing in developing
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countries is more rapid than in developed countries, thus developing countries are likely to have less time than the developed countries to adapt to the consequences of population ageing.’ The ageing of the population in developing countries will have very direct economic consequences. The employable population will shrink in relative terms and older people living at subsistence levels will be particularly vulnerable because of insufficient numbers of young people to support them. The chapter looks at the experience of both developing and developed countries in dealing with older workers. It then presents a model of human activity (activity theory) which might be applied to learning for older people, and goes on to discuss some issues of particular pertinence for developing countries. Notable issues are the low status of vocational education and a disregard by the TVET system of the needs of the informal sector of the economy—which is so important in many developing countries. The authors suggest two major objectives to be pursued: (a) training the workforce for self-employment; and (b) raising the productivity of the informal sector. Finally, the chapter touches on how policy-makers might go about developing strategies for retraining older people in developing countries. Meredith Baker, Australian Government Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, opened the discussion on Maclean and Pavlova’s chapter. She made a number of observations, beginning with the point that the very rapid ageing in developing countries is associated with very positive developments (in particular, reductions in infant mortality). Further, she warned against focusing solely on retraining older workers as the solution to ageing and, to emphasize this point, described the Australian Government’s policy response: a focus on the ‘the three Ps’—expanding the population, increasing labour force participation, and increasing workforce productivity; the notion of ‘well-governed flexibility’; and the release of the Australian Government’s (2002) Intergenerational report. She also raised the question of whether wider issues may be more important than ageing; for example, getting markets working, addressing basic literacy and numeracy issues, and the effectiveness of TVET systems. Discussion raised a number of other points, including the idea of sustainability, the role of the informal sector and the effect of international migration.
XIV.4 The Changing Context of TVET for the Workforce in India, By Jagmohan Singh Rajput The final two chapters in the section adopt country-specific perspectives. J.S. Rajput, of the National Council of Educational Research and Training Campus, mentions a couple of pertinent facts that bring home the point that ageing is an issue in India. First, the Indian aged population is currently the second largest in the world. Secondly, in the 100 years to 2016 it is expected that India’s population will have increased five times, but the aged population by thirteen times. While issues relating to ageing are important, Rajput argues that, in an Indian context, they are
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not necessarily the most pressing. Rather, the critical priorities are unemployment among youth and adults, the universalization of elementary education, and the need to put more emphasis on TVET rather than on more academic education. It is also important to pay more attention to non-formal and open and distance education. This is not to say that the issues concerned with ageing are not important. However, the overarching challenge is to have ‘a well-balanced, spread-out and dynamic system of technical and vocational education’, while making use of the productive talents of all members of society, including older people. Bill Martin, Flinders University, opened the discussion of Professor Rajput’s chapter by sharing his immediate response: a realization of the size and complexity of Indian society. He agreed that ageing was not the foremost issue for India and noted the many challenges that India faced in building an effective TVET system. The variety of TVET providers suggested to Martin that a key challenge for Indian policy was to bring out the best of these institutional forms by matching the needs with the form that serves it best. Finally, he drew attention to a positive aspect, that India may have the luxury of time and the lessons of the developed countries in formulating a response to the ageing workforce.
XIV.5 The Reform of the TVET System in the Republic of Korea for an Ageing Society, By Hong-Geun Chang In contrast to the Indian situation, Chang, of the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, notes that: ‘Many are concerned that Korea will surely be driven into catastrophe if it fails to respond wisely to the situation’ (of its population ageing at an unprecedented speed). Indeed, the Korean Government has established the Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy. With this as background, Chang’s chapter systematically analyses the vocational competency development system, noting that the participation among adults (from 25 to 64 years) is particularly low in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) context, and that many groups (including workers of small- and medium-sized firms, non-regular workers, people with low education) have little exposure to vocational programmes. The chapter argues that the middle and older populations need attention—in addition to the standard groups of youth, employed workers and the unemployed. The chapter concludes that the issues of globalization, the knowledge society and the ageing of the population make it imperative to reform the Korean vocational competency development system, which has been traditionally centred on the industrial workforce. It has to be transformed into a system that is flexible and innovative, one which fosters knowledge workers and ensures equal opportunities in competency development for all. The discussant, Josie Misko of the National Centre for Vocational Education Research, Australia, finds the notion of ‘vocational competency development as a common right’ of particular interest. In pursuing the conceptualization of a new approach to vocational competency development in the Republic of Korea, she
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suggests that the author might also investigate: how to ensure that workers are informed about rights to training and how to encourage them to undertake training; how the needs of workers with low literacy and numeracy can be addressed; the particular case of women making the transition from domestic work; and the relatively low retirement age of Korean workers.
XIV.6 Will We Run Out of Young Men? Implications of the Ageing of the Population for the Trades in Australia, By Tom Karmel and Koon Ong Tom Karmel and Koon Ong focus on trades in Australia. They noted that almost all new entrants into the trades are young men and speculated that the ageing of the population has the potential therefore to have a large impact on the trades’ workforce. In their chapter, they present the results of a statistical exercise in which flows into and out of the trades are modelled. This supply focus is then contrasted with a view about the likely size of the demand for tradespersons. Their findings suggest that the ageing of the population does not in fact have serious implications for the supply of tradespersons. Rather, what is important is the attractiveness of employment in trades versus other occupations. Moreover, the authors do not expect the age distribution of the trades’ workforce to change significantly, in contrast to what is happening in many other occupations. Lynne Bennington, Head of the School of Management at RMIT University, opened the discussion. (The written version of her comments acknowledges the assistance of Alan Montague who took a very active part in the discussion.) She observes that Karmel and Ong’s conclusion—that the ageing of the population does not have particularly serious implications for the supply of tradesmen—is similar to conclusions drawn in Canada (McMullin, Cooke & Downie, 2004). What intrigues Bennington is what lies behind the models presented in the chapter. Why are there so few female apprentices? Why do the majority commence before the age of 24 years: is it the low wages or age discrimination? Why have shortages in some trades been so persistent? Bennington argues that a systems approach is required to model the supply of and demand for tradespersons and, rather provocatively, suggests that the authors have not asked the right question. Would a better question have been: if there are currently shortages, why will these not continue? However, this question is straying from the ageing theme of the seminar and so perhaps should be left for another day.
XIV.7 The Ageing Labour Force and the Retraining of Workers in the Republic of Korea, By Jihee Choi The second chapter in the section, by Jihee Choi of the Korean Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, introduces the observation that the process
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of ageing has been particularly rapid in the Republic of Korea when contrasted with developed countries, such as France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. For example, it took fourteen years for the proportion of persons aged over 65 years to increase from 7% to 14% in Korea, compared with forty-one years in France. The rapidity of this demographic transformation, together with the adverse labour market for older people (most workers are forced out of their workplace far earlier than full retirement at between 55 and 60 years) make the retraining of older persons a critical issue. In addressing this issue, Choi points to a number of factors: a high proportion of older workers are self-employed; older workers are a low priority for companies and their participation in training is very low; and older people comprise a very heterogeneous group. Finally, she argues that the retraining of older workers needs to occur before people retire and that training should be directed towards helping them plan for their formal retirement and the world of work they face in the future. That is, the focus needs to be on career development. Phil Loveder, National Centre for Vocational Education Research, opened the discussion about this chapter with the comment that the challenges faced by older workers in maintaining a career are universal, not one peculiar to Korea. He echoed Choi’s sentiment that changing demographics provide an opportunity to review employment policies and pointed to the OECD’s active ageing approach as a good starting point: an emphasis on prevention and early intervention; attention to transition points over working lives; a longer-term perspective for social security systems; and a whole-of-life approach. Co-discussant, Libby Hicks-Maitland, from the South Australian Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology, suggested that the challenge is to break down the barriers faced by older workers.
XIV.8 Technical Entrepreneurship Development for the Aged, By Man-Gon Park and Suresh Kumar Dhameja The theme of the importance of employment for ‘retired’ persons is carried further by Man-Gon Park and Suresh K. Dhameja, Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Training. The authors observe that self-employment is the best alternative for many older people because employers are not particularly friendly towards them (hence the terms, ‘senior entrepreneurs’, ‘third-age entrepreneurs’, ‘silver entrepreneurs’ and so on). Such economic activity is important for both the individual and overall society, not least for social as well as economic reasons. TVET has an obvious role in assisting these people in becoming successful entrepreneurs. The problems of becoming a successful entrepreneur are well known, with many small businesses disappearing in the initial years. While all young businesses face economic survival issues, the circumstances of older people differ from those of their younger counterparts. Older people are less well placed to be able to wait out lengthy periods before success. However, they often have better financial resources, tend to have the respect accorded to older members of society and benefit from existing
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networks. The chapter discusses the role of TVET institutes in assisting older people. This includes the provision of technical and technology information training (specifically for trades suitable for older people), the establishment of business incubators and science parks, and the promotion of technical entrepreneurship for older people. Two areas of particular relevance to this group are social entrepreneurship (giving back to the community) and use of the Internet (cyberpreneurship). The authors conclude on an uplifting note: The ‘package’ of knowledge, wisdom and experience that so often comes with age is part of an inner awareness that cannot be traded, sold or stolen. It should, however, be activated, amplified and utilised in all the crossroads, fields and storefronts of society, and in the windows of our creative imaginations.
Alan Montague, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, was the discussant for this chapter. Montague commended the chapter, noting that ageing is often seen as a problem leading to an ageist outlook, rather than the positive view taken in the chapter of potential and possibilities. He also commented on the importance of taking cultural issues into account, the crucial role of small businesses in the economy, and the need to guard against the assumption that developing countries need to learn from developed countries rather than vice versa. Montague introduced two initiatives from the Australian experience that are worth consideration in other countries: the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme that assists unemployed people to start their own business; and group training companies that employ apprentices and trainees and place them with host employers.
XIV.9 The Ageing TVET Workforce in Australia: Issues and Challenges, By Hugh Guthrie and Phil Loveder This chapter, by Hugh Guthrie and Phil Loveder, both of the Australian National Centre for Vocational Education Research, looks at a very practical issue for the TVET sector. The workforce in the public technical and further education (TAFE) system has a particular problem because of the bulge of full-time TAFE practitioners and administrators who are approaching retirement age. The challenge for TAFE is to ‘capture’ the knowledge and industrial goodwill acquired by this group and to train remaining staff to take over when this group leaves. Progressive disengagement from full-time work, succession planning and helping practitioners currently in part-time jobs to move into full-time employment are suggested as major ways for dealing with these challenges. Standing in the way of effective workforce development and replacement in most states and territories, however, is a lack of good data on retention and attrition. This then affects the extent to which TAFE systems and local providers are able to plan for the future. The discussant for this chapter was Rupert Maclean, UNESCO–UNEVOC International Centre, Bonn, Germany. Maclean commended the authors for a thoughtful and useful contribution to the debate through their identification of important issues, concerns and prospects relating to the demographic challenges associated
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with the ageing TVET workforce in Australia. He noted that the matter of an ageing workforce has important implications for labour supply and demand. Despite its importance, this is an under-researched area which warrants greater attention. For example, more research is necessary to ascertain whether ageing and the workforce is more an issue for males than for females. Maclean notes that it would also be interesting to explore the benefits of an ageing TVET workforce, given the implied high level of experience of older employees. Finally, he suggests that this study of Australia provides a useful foundation of information which could be augmented by further studies of other countries to identify points of similarity and difference.
XIV.10 Working and Lifelong Learning among Older Workers (45+) in Japan: Implications for TVET, By Toshio Ohsako The chapter by Ohsako begins with an overview of recent major issues and developments concerning the employment and status of Japanese workers aged over 45, the emergence of new and diverse employment patterns and work, retirement policies and practices, as well as the historical development of lifelong learning. It then describes the implications of these issues and developments for TVET for older workers (45+) in Japan. The chapter, underlining the importance of a learning society in which everyone continues to learn, concludes that there are three crucial lifelong learning strategies that facilitate the long-term retention of older workers in the job market, namely: (a) the development of self-efficacy/self-direction for continuous upgrading of technical and vocational skills by older workers themselves; (b) joint negotiation, organization and delivery of technical and vocational education and training programmes by employers, employees and labour unions; and (c) the necessary legislative and policy supports that safeguard such learning and training programmes.
3 Concluding Comments The range of chapters presented in this volume highlights the importance of ageing as an issue right across the world. For us, the most important points to come out of these chapters are: the variety of aspects that need attention; the desirability of seeing ageing as an important issue rather than as a problem; and the need to reflect on the matter. We note also that a balanced perspective is always needed. In many countries, it is not the number one issue, and the fundamental challenges in developing countries need to be kept in mind: economic development, poverty and low levels of education. Even in relationship to TVET, the number one priority is to have a well-functioning TVET system, before specifically dealing with the needs of older workers.
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However complicated the issue of TVET in an ageing society is, we trust that this section will provoke thoughtful consideration by those with responsibility for TVET.
Note 1. With the exception of Chapter XIV.10 by Toshio Ohsako, these articles were first published in: Karmel, T.; Maclean, R., eds. 2007. Technical and vocational education and training in an ageing society: expert meeting proceedings. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER.
References Australian Government. 2002. Intergenerational report: 2002–2003. Canberra: Department of Treasury. McMullin, J.-A.; Cooke, M.; Downie, R. 2004. Labour force ageing and skill shortages in Canada and Ontario. Ottawa: Canadian Policy Research Networks. United Nations. 1998. The sex and age distribution of the world populations: 1998 revision, Vol. 2: Sex and age. Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations.
Chapter XIV.2
Policy Framework on the Retraining for Reskilling of Older Workers through Specialized TVET Programmes1 Theodora Josue Tesoro Gayondato and Myong Hee Kim
. . . the transition to a positive, active and developmentally oriented view of ageing may well result from action by elderly people themselves, through the sheer force of their growing numbers and influence. The collective conscious of being elderly, as a socially unifying concept, can in that way become a positive factor (United Nations, 1983, I/para. 32).
1 Introduction One of the greatest social challenges of the twenty-first century is the ageing of human society. A number of commentators have highlighted that the increasing numbers of older people in the world today represent a phenomenon never previously experienced. Current generations are among the first in history to be raised with the expectation of living to an old age. They are the forerunners of a longevity revolution that will be felt for centuries to come. Some 20% of all people who have ever lived past the age of 65 years are alive now. So profound is this demographic revolution that every aspect of social life and society is affected. Retraining for the reskilling of the ‘third age’ will be an essential part of the new set of public policies and programmes. According to recent studies, the potential areas for learning to meet the evolving economic and social needs of an ageing population are: individual health; strengthening community and family; productive employment; and self-fulfilment. The prospect of retraining for the reskilling of older workers is a highly promising field and responds to the third and fourth areas. This chapter discusses the changing environment, potential opportunities, challenges and issues relating to the policy directions and strategy-setting for specialized technical and vocational education and training (TVET) for an ageing society. The chapter discusses the areas for growth and the changes and shifts in the socio-economic realities that play major roles in the shaping of policy measures and strategies relating to the development of programmes for the retraining of older workers in TVET, particularly their use of delivery modes using new technologies and other alternatives. The major challenge is choosing strategies that suit the R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XIV.2, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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specific environment, which is primarily composed of industry, small and mediumsized enterprises, TVET institutions and government agencies.
2 Global and Regional Issues and Challenges 2.1 Global and Regional Issues Affecting the Ageing Society The global phenomenon of an increasing number of aged people points to the potential for the slowing-down of economic growth, capital markets, investment and trade in countries worldwide. By 2050, the European countries, plus Japan, Russia and China will face the most immediate impact of ageing, with more than 15% of the population aged over 60 years (see Figure 1). In addition, the developing regions of Latin America, Asia and Africa will also have a significant aged population. Furthermore, by 2050 the rate of increase in the share of the population aged 60 + is projected to be highest among more developed countries (34%) and lowest among least-developed countries (17%) (United Nations, 2003) (see Figure 2). A 1999 Expert Consultative Meeting highlighted that the demographics of ageing includes an awareness of the increasing median age, reflecting reductions in fertility for many regions and almost all individual countries of the world. The Vienna Convention Report (United Nations Programme on Ageing, 1999) shows that, by 2020, the world as a whole is expected to have a median age of 30.9 years. The more-developed regions will have an estimated median age of 42 years; in the lessdeveloped regions the figure will be 29.1. Thus, the world is becoming distinctly
Fig. 1 The world’s ageing population
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Fig. 2 Rate of increase in the share of the population aged 60 and above Source: United Nations, 2003.
older, with an increasing proportion of older people and a declining proportion of children in the total population. This report further stated that, as early as 2020, the population aged 60 years and over is expected to exceed 13% of the total world population. Figure 3 indicates that the relative growth of the older population in developing countries, most of which are in Asia and the Pacific region, will increase between 2010 and 2020. The Asia and Pacific countries in particular have risen from the ashes of the Second World War as new independent states; the past few decades have seen countries in the region undergo a tumultuous period of civil conflict, political challenges and, lately, an unprecedented period of growth. In a region where the living environment is continually changing and where more and more individuals are expected to live beyond 60 years of age, older workers need specific life skills, such as change-management, self-reliance, trainability, independence, positive thinking, flexibility and foresight, all of which may be developed through training and development, called here retraining for reskilling of older workers. To achieve this, these older people need enabling agents, consisting of the government, TVET institutions, industries and small to medium-sized businesses, who will provide the environment for fostering lifelong education, skills-upgrading and retraining for reskilling, so that their minds and bodies are fully occupied. Many need support so that the transition to old age becomes a time for fulfilling individual aspirations and for adjusting careers and lifestyles, as well as family life.
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Fig. 3 Growth of the older population in developed and developing countries
2.2 Challenges Faced by the Ageing Society In the midst of unprecedented developments in technology worldwide, Asia is among the world’s regions undergoing transition. The passing of traditional society is evident in the sense that the once-traditional villages are rapidly becoming modern urbanized centres. Increasing diversification and shifting social roles and functions are now very much in evidence. In terms of the development of information and communications technologies, the South-East Asian countries are progressing well. Singapore reflects the qualities of an information-endowed country. In many urban areas in South-East Asia, the Internet is becoming a part of the information sector, with numerous hardware manufacturing entities located in the region. Consequently, information services, such as call centres, are showing positive growth. Hand in hand with these rapid and far-reaching technological developments is the considerable potential in the countries of the region for exploring the policy directions, strategies, approaches and challenges related to developing TVET programmes for retraining, particularly in new technology areas, for the ageing society. The rapidly expanding aged population has particular demands and needs. These include: retraining for employment, income security, housing and environment, health and hygiene, social welfare and family. Community-based training centres, close-to-the-family activity centres (such as churches, markets, malls, schools, sports centres, multi-purpose halls and so on) must be tapped to generate the wider participation of this group of older people in training. Skills retraining needs to be addressed via the appropriate sector—the TVET sector. Mobile technologies and
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e-community centres are innovations that may be investigated and developed to promote new businesses and enterprises focusing on aged entrepreneurs.
2.3 The Need for Reskilling Older Workers through Retraining During the 1960s, the policy of requiring all employees to retire at the age of 65 years and encouraging some employees to retire at an even earlier age began. Today, retirement is accepted, together with its ideological justifications. Sadly, rather than being a sign of status, retirement is merely the next stage in the life cycle—a stage when individuals are no longer expected to be social contributors. The old have come to serve as a balance between the supply and demand for labour in a highly differentiated, specialized and interdependent market system. Their employment opportunities in such a system have become a function of the population/age structure, with openings varying by sector according to the rate of young people reaching working age, and as a function of corporate intervention in the marketplace. The processes of ‘modernization’ have regularized the structural unemployment of the older workers. This situation reflects the phenomenon of change. Change occurs when something ends and something new or different begins. The period between these two points is called ‘transition’. In this stage people have to learn to let go of the old and embrace the new. Usually it means moving from the familiar to the unknown.
2.4 Changing the Mindset of Older Workers Earlier in this chapter we noted the two relevant areas that have potential for teaching and learning interventions by TVET programme providers. These are older people’s economic and social needs—for productive employment and self-fulfilment. Henry Ford’s unforgettable quote is: ‘Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. And the greatest thing on life is to keep your mind young.’ Figure 4 shows the ageing person’s transformation process in four distinct phases to ensure a proper mindset for retraining for reskilling. These phases holistically cover the mind, body, environment and spiritual dimensions of an ageing person as she/he prepares her/himself for the challenges of taking up a new life-skill or a segment of a lifelong career.
2.5 Change Management through Retraining in the TVET System Enabling agents that would support the transition stage of older workers consist of TVET institutions, non-governmental organizations, community leaders and
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Fig. 4 Model of enabling agents for transformation of the older person through retraining and reskilling
PHASE 1: Reframe
PHASE 4: Renew
(The mind) Generate mental energy Create a vision for vitality Build the commitment via visible results and measures
(The spirit) Create reward structure Build individual learning Develop the older person
Ageing person’s transformation
PHASE 3: Restructure
PHASE 2: Revitalise
(The environment) Construct TVET value chain Formulate social strategy Redesign teaching and learning architecture
(The body) Achieve client focus Invent new enterprises Leverage on user-friendly technology
other formal or informal organizations. In order to transform older people, the strategies that may be effectively employed in bringing about this change use the basic change-management strategies developed by Bennis and Mische (1995). Figure 5 is an adaptation of the model, intended for the retraining of older workers. In Figure 5, the government serves as the key initiative in bringing about planned change for the ageing sector of society. Resources from the other enablers— industry, education and training institutions, and even small and medium-sized enterprises and businesses—provide the necessary resource inputs for the actual transformation process.
Sense of fulfilment
Confidence and self-worth
INPUT
PROCESS
Environment
Informal organization
Government initiatives through policies, research and development and data banking systems
Resources Partnerships with industries, TVET institutions and enterprises for investment in retraining and infrastructure development
Acceptance and belongingness
OUTPUT National development
Older workers
Retraining for reskilling
Formal organization
Active mind, hands and body
Fig. 5 Congruence model for retraining older workers
Local community development
Individual actualization
Empowerment and economic stability
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The core process involves aligning the needs of older workers with the retraining interventions demanded by those sectors of society that are likely to benefit from the provision of new or adapted skills. These measures should be accompanied by the support system provided by both the formal organization and the informal organizations to which older workers belong. What are the advantages of retraining older individuals? The national economy benefits; local communities benefit; and the individuals themselves benefit. Empowerment of older workers leading to the attainment of economic stability is necessary to challenge the status quo in order to initiate and sustain planned change. Bennis and Mische (1995) define empowerment as removing bureaucratic barriers that box people in and keep them from making the most effective use of all their skills, experiences, energies and ambitions. Empowerment allows older workers in the organization to develop a sense of ownership over parts of the change plan that are uniquely their responsibility, while at the same time demanding that they accept a share of the broader responsibility and ownership of the work.
2.6 Role of Change Leaders in TVET Institutions Change leaders in TVET must have the qualities depicted in Figure 6 to be able to create the enabling environment in order to plan, mobilize, implement and monitor retraining and reskilling programmes for older people. The manager with responsibility for special TVET programmes should provide the older members of society with the opportunity to acquire upgraded skills and competencies for daily functioning and even potential work roles. There is a need for individuals and groups to acquire the ability to appreciate other cultures and traditions, while remaining mindful and proud of their own. There are four action ‘Ps’ used by the action manager and the change leader for transforming the elderly during their reskilling and retraining efforts: prepare, plan, present and pronounce (Table 1).
Committing substantial time for change Visibly supporting the action manager
Fig. 6 Essential qualities of a change leader
Aligning critical mass of stakeholders
Acting as vision architect
Building energy, urgency and enthusiasm
Role modelling new values and behaviours
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The 4 Ps PREPARE
Actions
r r r r
PLAN
r r r
PRESENT
PRONOUNCE
r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r
Have a good reason for developing the special TVET programme on retraining for the reskilling of older workers. Assess your older workers for change. Prepare the people, especially those who will undergo reskilling and retraining. Consult those affected for possible suggestions on how best to implement the programme for them. Involve the older workers in the planning of the retraining for reskilling programme and encourage their input. Make contingency plans, anticipate potential problems. Establish clear objectives, action points, timetables and key persons responsible for each activity. Create transition groups and structures, develop policies and procedures. Communicate the need for change and obtain feedback. Track your progress. Put a respected person in charge of the change process. Refocus attention to the vision. Get your message across clearly, using simple language. Be positive. Present the need for change in a positive way. Tell the truth and explain the need for everyone to make adjustments. Discuss support mechanisms that will help everyone affected during the transition process. Affirm your personal support to your team. Ask for commitment to partner with your organization in the change process. Solicit comments and queries. Listen with empathy. Assure older workers that all suggestions/comments will be passed to higher management.
3 Proposed Policy Framework for Retraining Older Workers 3.1 Sectors Involved in Policy Formulation Amidst the changes in the learning landscape, technology is emerging as a primary mode for delivering education to learners in the formal and non-formal sectors. A number of issues require policy consideration to generate awareness of and interest in the retraining and reskilling of older workers through the TVET system. There are four main sectors involved in the formulation and development of the policy framework for the retraining of older workers. They are: the governmental
XIV.2 Policy Framework on the Retraining for Reskilling Fig. 7 Sectors for policy formulation
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TVET institutions
SMEs
Industries Older workers
Government agencies
sector; the industrial sector; TVET institutions; and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (Figure 7). The government provides policies and developmental strategies that must be regularly and continuously reviewed and assessed to be responsive to the needs of an ageing society. They should provide: (a) job models for job seekers from the ageing workers’ groups; (b) lifelong career-management services to older workers matching the needs and demands of industries and business; and (c) support for retraining programmes through TVET institutions. Industry provides the necessary financial resources needed for investing in the recruitment of older workers and for providing the necessary support systems. Industry should provide older-worker-friendly environments to ensure a safe, convenient and conducive workplace and working environment. Industry should lead in the development of job models for older workers. The role of TVET institutions is to design and develop the training modules necessary for the implementation of retraining courses, based on job models provided by the government, industry, and small and medium-sized enterprises. The actual training needs of older workers also must be borne in mind. TVET institutions should provide lifelong learning interventions for continuous upgrading of the skills and knowledge of the older members of society. Older workers are also being provided with the necessary training to become entrepreneurs through the TVET sector. Small and medium-sized enterprises can assist TVET institutions by providing relevant hands-on training in various technologies for these budding entrepreneurs. The government can also play an active part by providing suitable policies, in terms of infrastructure, financial and other requirements, to encourage these older workers to set up their own small and medium-sized enterprises.
3.2 Integrated Policy Frameworks The perspectives for developing human-resources management models for retraining older members of society are conceptualized in frameworks for policy development and implementation at the global, national and local levels.
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3.2.1 Global Change Leadership Various internationalized change leadership models may be used to effectively address the needs of the ageing society. The Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Education (CPSC), as an intergovernmental organization and a specialized agency of the Colombo Plan, presents a policy framework called the CPSC Model for Global Change Leadership. Its purpose is to demonstrate the effectiveness of its educational programmes in bringing about planned change in its member countries in the Asia-Pacific Region and the rest of the world (see Box 1).
Box 1 Educational programmes of the CPSC to bring about planned change CPSC Mandate: To provide leadership in the Colombo Plan Region by designing and conducting various programmes and courses at different levels (including for older workers) primarily intended to equip TVET institutions’ senior managers and administrators in the member countries with up-to-date knowledge and skills in relevant human-resource development areas brought about by globalization and internationalization. Focus Area (FY 2005–2006): Reskilling of the Ageing Society:
r r r r r r r r r r r
Cross-cultural communication skills development; Conferences on the internationalization of education; Synergistic technology transfer of new ICT skills to the ageing sector; Reskilling towards a standardized international language for greater understanding among senior officials in regional and global TVET; Re-tooling in the new technologies; Reskilling programmes in electronic, mobile and ubiquitous teaching and learning systems; Development of thinking skills; Re-integration for institutional knowledge and memory; Analytical and problem-solving competencies; Familiarization with change or crisis and management models; Building of the CPSC Alumni and Retirees Society.
As the only regional institution established specifically to enhance the quality of TVET, the Colombo Plan Staff College provides leadership by designing and conducting various programmes and courses at different levels. Starting in the fiscal year 2005–2006, a series of focused studies were undertaken to look at various aspects of the reskilling of the ageing society, including: (a) reskilling in standardized international languages for greater understanding; (b) cross-cultural communication skills development; (c) re-integration for institution knowledge and memory;
XIV.2 Policy Framework on the Retraining for Reskilling Characteristics of global leaders Vision architect. Energy builder. Role model. Capacity to create aligned critical mass. Gives visible support to action.
2395 Context Global and regional partnership. Global and local enabling products. Policies and processes for the ageing society. Strategic and corporate plans for older workers retraining through TVET. Best and shared practices and performance.
Fig. 8 Proposed policy framework—global change leadership
(d) internationalization of education; and (e) synergistic technology transfer of new information and communication technology skills. These activities are primarily intended to equip TVET institutions’ senior managers and administrators in member countries with up-to-date knowledge and skills in relevant human-resource development areas brought about by globalization and internationalization. They are likewise trained to develop thinking skills, analytical and problem-solving competencies, and appropriate change- or crisis-management models that are necessary to meet the demands of expanding technological developments in a global market economy. The key focus areas are: (a) global and regional partnerships with TVET institutions and relevant international and regional organizations and transnational industries and business enterprises; (b) strategic and corporate planning exercises to address issues related to older workers’ retraining within formal or informal organizations; (c) promotion of the best practices, as well as shared management practices utilizing accreditation and certification and quality systems management; (d) policies and processes for the ageing society with strong support from the Colombo Plan Staff College’s governance and related diplomatic and ministerial focal agencies; and (e) studies on emerging global and local products utilized for upgrading TVET training systems. The left-hand box in Figure 8 represents the characteristics of effective global leaders; these are the universal qualities of visioning, energizing, role modelling, aligning of the critical mass and support of action management. 3.2.2 National Framework for Retraining Older Workers through TVET Systems The collective personality of a country can be seen when leadership decides whom and what the nation should be like. The mind maps shown in Figures 9 and 10 serve as the charter that provides consistency of purpose for the nation. These may be utilized in the development of strategies for retraining older workers through the TVET system: mission or values; strategic thrust or value chain; goals or road map; and review of resource allocation, evaluation and recognition. Moreover, the interplay of the key sectors—government, TVET institutions, industries and small and medium-sized enterprises—with the older workers group are illustrated in Figure 10. Figures 9 and 10 collectively represent the national framework.
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Fig. 9 Key sector relationships for older worker retraining
Thrust
Mission
Leadership
Review
Goals
3.2.3 Policy Fundamentals for Local TVET Application The framework for local TVET application is centred on human capital or the abilities and talents of people. The other contributors are: (a) financial assets, which are the core capability enabling the strategic resources to perform; (b) time cycles, which refer to the management of time in both the external and internal environments; (c) organizational capital, which is comprised of the five Ss of strategy, systems, structures, style and synergies; and (d) marketing capital, which is interchangeably called goodwill (Figure 11). Human capital and organizational capital are most critical in our globalizing environment. These three frameworks—the Global Change Leadership Model, the National Retraining for Older Workers Framework, and the Local TVET Application Model— are combined to create an integrated methodology, which is activated through shared management practices. These multi-level policy frameworks, taken as an integrated whole, have the following features:
TVET institutions Retraining for qualification certification
Retraining
Reskilling
Entrepreneurship
Employment
SMEs
Industries Hands-on training
Business models
Retraining curriculum industry–institution linkages for on-the-job training
Older workers
Socio-economic stability
Job seekers application
Job placement
Government agencies
Fig. 10 Relationships between key sectors in older worker retraining
Job models
XIV.2 Policy Framework on the Retraining for Reskilling Fig. 11 Proposed policy framework: local TVET application
2397 Time cycles
Financial assets
Reskilled older workers as human capital
Organizational capital
Marketing capital
r r r
They form a logical construct that integrates business principles and practices into a single, interactive methodology of management. This framework is a prerequisite for an effective global/national/local organization. The globalizing environment provides the tempo of change through: partnerships (strategic and corporate); plans (global and local); products (policies); and processes; and (best and shared practices and) performances. These business enablers may be termed the 5Ps of the global environment. The national sub-environment emphasizes the connectivity of people, and the relational, rational and creative elements of management are highlighted through the driving force and vision of national leadership.
The local processes are involved in operational management with a focus on valueadded enterprises. The comprehensive and integrative processes provide a coherent and consistent flow of ideas, information and communication at each level of the environment. The policy framework is structured to serve as a mind map in the implementation of appropriate programmes to ensure the development of the world’s and the nation’s important resource—the older members of our society. Figure 12 demonstrates the relationships between the various levels and the older worker.
Older workers
Local
National
Fig. 12 Global/national/local relationships and the older worker
Global
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4 Conclusions The world’s older population is increasing at a significant rate, resulting in corresponding socio-economic implications for individuals, local and national governments, and international development agencies. The rapidly expanding older population has particular demands and requirements which need to be addressed through retraining leading to productive employment and self-fulfilment. However, there is no focused national or regional development programmes that can be considered as specific to the ‘older workers’ or the ageing society. Some early work in this area has been undertaken in a number of developed and developing countries on creating policies, although these were inadequate in terms of the specific focus and importance necessarily required by the ageing society. To manage the rapid change in both the macro and micro environments of the ageing society, there is a need for enabling agents, such as the government and TVET institutions, to provide the environments fostering lifelong education, skillsupgrading, retraining, reskilling and re-tooling. Educators and TVET administrators in the regions have to develop strategies that respond to the learning needs of the ageing population. The change leaders for the realization of specialized TVET programmes for older workers should provide an opportunity for the ageing society to acquire upgraded skills and competencies, not only for daily living, but also for employment opportunities and for the setting up of small and medium-sized enterprises, leading to greater economic stability and empowerment. The four main sectors involved in the formulation and development of the policy framework are decisive focal areas for the successful implementation of retraining programmes, since they can become the enabling-change institutions for retraining older workers at the national level. In the future, lifelong learning for the ‘third age’ will be an essential part of public policies and programmes. In the Asia-Pacific Region, where the living environment is continually changing, older workers need new sets of life-skills, starting with a reframed mind, revitalized body, restructured environment and renewed spirit. Older people who have been retrained though the facilitation of international and regional organizations with responsive TVET institutions will have gained a holistic and change-adaptive lifestyle. It will be essential for those organizations implementing these models to embrace the experience and contribution that older people bring and to recognize the role they have in developing the new global change leaders of the future.
Note 1. First published in Karmel, T.; Maclean, R., eds. 2007. Technical and vocational education and training in an ageing society: expert meeting proceedings. Adelaide, Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research.
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References Bennis, W.; Mische, M. 1995. The 21st century organization. San Diego, CA: Pfeiffer. United Nations. 1983. Vienna International Plan of Action on Aging. New York, NY: United Nations. <www.monitoringris.org/documents/norm glob/vipaa.pdf> United Nations. 2003. The ageing of the world’s population. <www.un.org/esa/socdev/ageing/ agewpop.htm> United Nations Programme on Ageing. 1999. Report of an expert meeting held in Vienna International Centre, 1–3 February 1999. <www.un.org/esa/socdev/ageing/vienna report back.html
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Chapter XIV.3
Reskilling for All? The Changing Role of TVET in the Ageing Societies of Developing Countries1 Margarita Pavlova and Rupert Maclean
1 Introduction The changing age profile of the world’s population is now a well-established fact. Research carried out by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs demonstrates that by 2050, 22.1% of the world’s population will be aged 60 years or older (in 2000 it was only 10%). However, a closer look at those statistics reveals that the situation in developed and developing countries is quite different. For example, in Europe in 2000, 19% of the population was already aged 60 or over, while in Asia this was only 8% (United Nations, 1998). Even within the OECD countries (taking, for example, Turkey, Mexico and the United Kingdom), there are differences in demographics. However, modelling performed by the UN demonstrates that the rate of ageing in developing countries is more rapid than in developed countries, thus developing countries are likely to have less time than developed countries to adapt to the consequences of population ageing. For developing countries, age-related reforms are often not at the top of the political agenda, since other pressing issues such as poverty alleviation, skill development for youth and unemployment capture most attention. There is thus an urgent need to explore the issue of the ageing population in developing countries and identify some approaches and strategies for dealing with this important emerging issue.
2 Population in Statistics Over the past few years, the world’s population has continued on its remarkable transition from a state of high birth and death rates to one characterized by low birth and death rates. At the heart of that transition has been the growth in the number and proportion of older persons. Such a rapid, large and ubiquitous growth is something new for our civilization. Modelling of the population profile demonstrates that by 2050 the tendency for population ageing is evident across the globe. The reader is referred to Figure 1 in the overview chapter for this section (XIV.1), which shows the rate of ageing for the different regions in the world. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XIV.3, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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Fig. 1 Median age by region, 1999–2050 Source: United Nations, 1998.
Figure 1 in this chapter shows the median age by region. It illustrates that the difference between the current and future median age is much bigger for Africa, Latin America and Asia than it is for Europe and Northern America. The high speed of change for the developing world is also evident. China and India are the two most populous nations on Earth and presently together comprise a little more than one-third of the world’s population (Fathers for Life, 2006). Demographers, as well as the general public, believe that unchecked population growth is a serious problem for those countries. However, the problems faced by China and India in the next few decades will be quite different from what most people expect. Both countries will be facing a population problem of unprecedented proportions. In consequence, they will lose the steady renewal of their working and productive population sector. The productive, employable population sectors of these countries will shrink to less than two-thirds of their population, meaning that even if all people of working age were to be gainfully employed, they would still have to support at least one-third (and growing) of their population that is not yet or no longer capable of working. Another issue is that there will not be the necessary wealth to maintain the standard of living that people have become accustomed to. This means that for many presently living at or barely above subsistence levels, the situation will get worse. Not the least of the reasons will be that elderly people will have no or few younger people to help support them, while the State will be unable to do so because of insufficient financial resources. Projections for population distributions for China and India for the years 2000, 2025 and 2050 are presented in Figures 2 and 3.
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Fig. 2 Projection for the population distributions for China
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Fig. 3 Projection for the population distributions for India Source:
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Thus, the supply of labour, the reduction of economic growth and social security may be the major problems for these countries in the future. Four major features of the current demographic revolution identified by the United Nations (2003) are relevant to developing countries:
r r r r
Currently, striking differences exist between regions. One out of five Europeans, but one out of twenty Africans, is 60 years or older. Thus, at this particular moment, ageing is not an issue for developing countries. The majority of older people (55%) are women. Among the oldest group, 65% are women. As the rate of ageing in developing countries is more rapid than in developed countries, developing countries will have less time than developed countries to adapt to the consequences of population ageing. The impact of population ageing is increasingly evident in the old-age dependency ratio: that is the number of working-age persons (age 15–64 years) per older person (65 years or older) used as an indicator of the ‘dependency burden’
Fig. 4 Comparison between and Canada and China by sex and age for 2000, 2025 and 2050 Source: Fathers for Life, 2006.
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on potential workers. Between 2000 and 2050, the old-age dependency ratio will double in the more-developed regions and will triple in less-developed regions. The potential socio-economic impact on society that may result from an increasing old-age dependency ratio is an area of growing research and public debate (United Nations, 2003). The last illustration that highlights the speed of changes for developing countries is presented in Figure 4. Currently the percentage of the population over 65 years of age in China is much less than in Canada; however, by 2050 the percentage of the over-65 age group will be very similar across the two countries. Can we deal with the issue in developing countries by drawing on experience from developed countries? To answer this question, a brief summary of the current trends in initial TVET provision in developed and developing countries is presented to identify differences and similarities between them. Then the major concerns in relation to the process of the ageing population in developed countries and its relevance to developing countries are explored.
3 The Current Trends in Initial TVET The recent report produced by UNESCO-UNEVOC on worldwide participation in formal TVET programmes identified a number of quite common trends in initial TVET that are apparent in the more-developed countries and at least emergent in some of the less-developed countries (UNEVOC/UIS, 2006). The report relates these trends mainly to accelerated globalization in terms of scientific and technological advances, rapidly changing markets and intensified global economic competition. Global demands for skills are evident in the most economically globalized regions, including North America, Europe and East Asia. In other lessdeveloped regions of the world, where many countries are still only marginally engaged in the global economy, changes in skills demands have been less dramatic. Among the trends identified in the more-developed countries we may note:
r r r
the massification of upper secondary TVET; the creation of broad vocational tracks; and the reform of apprenticeships.
The base-line level of TVET is changing. In many OECD countries, between onethird and a half of young people go through some form of tertiary education. For the remainder, it has become typical to continue in education and training at least until the end of the upper secondary stage. Level 3 qualifications are increasingly seen as the minimum requirement necessary to ensure reasonably good prospects in the labour market in most developed OECD countries. Level 2 TVET qualifications are gradually being phased out in many regions. The policy in many countries is now for comprehensive general education to last at least until the end of compulsory schooling to ensure that the new basic skills have been acquired to an adequate level. Some vocational programmes at Level 3 have been adapted so that they contain a larger element of general education and more generic forms of vocational
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preparation. These programmes, such as the baccalaur´eat professionnel programmes in France, prepare participants for a cluster of occupations in a given sector rather than for a single occupation. Apprenticeship systems have experienced a decline in a number of developed countries. Recent reforms in a number of countries2 have sought to make the apprenticeship system more flexible, to increase its reach across sectors, and to raise its status in the eyes of young people. Greater flexibility has been sought by extending the upper age limits for apprentices, by modularizing programmes and by broadening training through reducing specialisms and enhancing general education. Extending the range of apprenticeships has involved seeking to establish programmes in new sectors and various measures to encourage more of the very large and the very small employers to become involved (UNEVOC/UIS, 2006, p. 37). The situation in the less-developed countries is quite different. As stated in the UNEVOC/UIS Report (2006), many less-developed countries face multiple problems in delivering effective TVET provision and in ensuring high levels of participation, over and above those experienced in the most-developed countries. These include in many cases problems of supply in terms of:
r r r r r r
lack of public finance for physical infrastructure and equipment; lack of adequately trained instructors; problems of communication and co-ordination, particularly in remote areas; inadequate ICT infrastructures; inadequate system capacity in terms of central planning agencies, research and development capabilities, standard-setting bodies, etc.; lack of finance and/or capability to undertake routine and preventive maintenance of the physical plant and equipment.
Barriers to access on the demand side may be equally problematic including, in many of the poorer countries:
r r r r
low levels of literacy which impede participation in TVET; lack of resources to pay for TVET tuition and materials; inadequate information and counselling with regard to what is available; traditional attitudes which constrain female access to TVET (UNEVOC/UIS, 2006, p. 42).
From this analysis it is evident that developed and developing countries are currently facing different issues and trends in terms of TVET provision in general.
4 The Ageing Population: The Experience of Developed Countries In terms of the ageing population, most OECD countries are undertaking reforms through an accumulation of small measures aimed at later retirement, job opportunities, training, reduced labour cost and career management (Spiezia, 2002). Integrated policies aimed at addressing the specific needs of elderly workers are rare. As
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stated in the recent OECD report (2006) ‘action is required on many fronts if work is to be made a rewarding and attractive proposition for older people: work incentives [such as pension reform that encourages later retirement] must be improved; employers must be encouraged to hire and retain older people; and the employability of older workers must be strengthened’ (p. 137). Thus, ‘a co-ordinated and comprehensive package of age-friendly employment measures and policies is required’ (ibid.) and TVET can play its important, but limited, role in achieving this goal. Its role can be mainly related to improving the employability of older workers and, in particular, to promoting training. As highlighted in the OECD report (2006): An important requirement for improving the employment prospects of older workers is to upgrade their skills. Older people in the workforce tend both to have lower prior levels of education and to engage in less training than younger workers. Tackling this double disadvantage is not an easy task, and no country has yet found an ideal way of doing so (p. 118).
The request for up-to-date skills and effective approaches towards their development were established by the OECD in 1998, when seven principles to guide ageingrelated reforms were formulated. Among them, a strong emphasis was placed on the need to ensure that more job opportunities are available for older workers and that they are equipped with the necessary skills and competence to take them up (OECD, 1998, cited in Spiezia, 2002). Although in developed countries the TVET system is well positioned to respond to the above need, the progress achieved between 1998 and 2006 is limited. A number of studies (e.g. Dawe & Elvins, 2006) have identified some barriers to the skill development of mature-aged people that need to be addressed to facilitate a better linkage to the labour market. The Dawe and Elvins’ paper is focused on individuals’ attitudes to learning and the ways in which the narrow skill base of older workers (as a barrier to learning) can be dealt with by TVET. ‘Age-enhanced’ activities (those in which work remains within older people’s capacities and performance improves as a result of experience, with the additional knowledge compensating for a decline in information processing or physical capabilities) can be seen as a framework for developing training approaches. Theoretical approaches adopted in this paper consider individuals within the context of where they perform their activities, using ‘tools’ they have learned in their personal and social relations throughout their lives. An approach proposed by Warr (1994) is summarized in Table 1. In a sense, in traditional societies the communities appreciate the wisdom of the elderly and their knowledge-based judgements. Application of this approach has two implications: (a) within each institution careers have to be managed in order to move workers progressively from age-impaired work to age-neutral or age-enhanced work, as they grow older; (b) the need for appropriate training for elderly workers. Training for age-enhanced work would get a higher return for the employers when formal training enhances the working knowledge accumulated on the job and updates the know-how of elderly workers when technological and organizational changes have made it obsolete (Spiezia, 2002, p. 102). Thus, a major organizational challenge would be to create a particular learning culture among older workers and within organizations.
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Table 1 Task categories and expected relationship of performance with age Task category
Basic capacities Performance can exceeded with be enhanced by increased age experience
Expected Illustrative job relationship content with age
Age-impaired
Yes
No
Negative
Age-counteracted Age-neutral
Yes No
Yes No
Zero Zero
Age-enhanced
No
Yes
Positive
Continuous paced data-processing; rapid learning; heavy lifting Skilled manual work Relatively undemanding activities Knowledge-based judgements with no time pressure
Source: Warr, 1994, p. 314 cited in Spiezia, 2002, p.101.
The approach presented above is supported by the findings of recent research published by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) (Dawe & Elvins, 2006) concluding that ‘labour market-related gains are greater for the mature-aged who complete higher-level qualifications’ (p. 3). It was also reported that three major factors emerged as barriers to the skill development of mature-aged people. These are:
r r r
negative attitudes and behaviours of employers and employees towards older people working and to learning new skills and knowledge; individuals’ personal circumstances and attitude to learning, and public policy beyond vocational education and training, such as some aspects of superannuation and retirement income policies (Dawe & Elvins, 2006, p. 3).
Thus, a learning culture (within the learner and within the organization) that reflects the need and appreciation of learning for elderly workers has been highlighted in the literature as a major important factor supporting effective skill development for older people. As the OECD (2006) suggests, ‘training that is targeted and has a strong on-the-job element is most likely to be successful’ (p. 122).
5 The Ageing Population: The Experience of Developing Countries Developing countries, however, do not see the issue of an ageing population as a priority item on their agenda. Why is this so? The major reasons for concern in developed countries, as argued by Spiezia (2002), relate to ‘the financial sustainability of pensions and health-care systems and a possible reduction in economic growth’ (p. 1). These reasons are not particularly relevant to developing countries. Thus, there are a number of issues that should be resolved when formulating policies for developing countries: currently the ageing population is not an issue for these countries; currently the concerns stated above by Spiezia (2002) are not relevant to
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developing countries; TVET trends in developing countries are very different from those in developed countries. However, the results of population modelling demonstrate that forward planning should be undertaken to address the potential problems in the future, such as the supply of labour, reduction in economic growth and social security. In that respect, to what extent can we draw on the limited experiences of developed countries in addressing the issue of the ageing population through education and training? Would the concept of a learning culture be a framework for addressing the issue in developing countries?
5.1 Activity Theory The theoretical perspective adopted in this chapter is based on activity theory as a conceptual tool developed to help in our understanding of the process of learning that is situated within a particular cultural-historical context. Developed by Vygotsky (1978, 1987), then by Leont’ev (1981), it looks at the complex interrelations between the individual subject and his/her community. The theory was further developed by Wertsch (1991) who introduced Bakhtin’s ideas (1981, 1986) on dialogicality and by Engestr¨om (1987, 1993, 1995, 1999a, 1999b) through the development of ideas on multiple perspectives and networks of interacting activity systems. Figure 5 represents the model of human activity. Within this model, elderly individuals are considered within the context of where they perform their activities, using material and immaterial tools (mediating artefacts) they have learnt in their personal, social and working lives. An application of activity theory also suggests that all components of the system are different for different contexts (developed and developing countries). Rules, for example, include the general rules imposed by society and working communities and these influence the activity of older people. From this model it is evident that a person’s learning activity is the outcome of the interaction of multiple factors, where individual aspects are difficult to separate from contextual ones. Individual performance is fully embedded in the context and social relations are the main drivers in their individual lives. The elderly, who have utilized
Fig. 5 The structure of a human activity system Source: Engestr¨om, 1987, p. 78
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the particular tools for a long time, are challenged by the complex relationships associated with their new learning activity. The adaptation of new tools has both social and individual implications. In constructing a learning activity to achieve a particular set of outcomes—for example ‘age-enhanced’ work—all components of the model should be adjusted to match these requirements (Figure 6). The majority of components will be different for the contexts of developed and developing countries. When analysing the difference, a number of limitations that influence such an analysis should be accounted for. Firstly, the object of activity is a ‘moving target’ (Engestr¨om, 1999a) that is closely related to a particular context at a particular time. Secondly, both developed and developing countries differ widely in both the extent to which they have identified issues concerned with learning by older workers and the extent to which they have addressed it. When activity theory is used to analyse the learning activity, a number of factors should be considered. For example, differences in the object of activity are closely related to tensions in well-being—survival paradigms used in the world values surveys (Inglehart, 1997). If we take the African continent as an example, it includes many of the world’s least-developed countries and is the focus of intensive aid policy in which TVET might be expected to play a part. What are the specificities of the context that should be seen as influencing the structure of learning activity for elderly people? A number of studies conducted in Africa and summarized in the UNEVOC/UIS Report (2006) identified its specificity. For example, in the case study of TVET in four French-speaking Africa countries (Cˆote d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Mali and
Cultural tools: new concepts, old concepts Physical resources: equipment, tools, etc. Goal: Develop new capability: socially and personally functional Learning for the particular purpose
Elderly worker
Outcome: Learning new skills and knowledge for age-enhanced work
Rules developed within the institution/industry, general rules of society
Community of learners at the working place— learning culture
Fig. 6 The structure of learning activity for the elderly person
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Senegal), David Atchoarena and Andr´e Delluc found that the inherent deficiency in TVET programmes and their patterns of delivery is the fact that they ignore the informal sector, especially the artisans’ micro-enterprises. Originally modelled on the French school system, TVET in these countries has often not fully taken into account the possibilities of the traditional apprenticeship for meeting the needs of the artisan sector, which both provides jobs and often stands in need of improvement (Atchoarena & Delluc, 2002). This is mainly because their TVET programmes have maintained a fairly large amount of general content that is not relevant to the specific skills required for the informal sector (UNEVOC/UIS, 2006, p. 46). Thus, this request to emphasize the informal sector will affect almost all components of the model: division of labour, mediating tools, community, rules and object. Generally speaking, the low proportion of TVET in general secondary education is partly due to the public’s attitude towards this branch of learning, which is usually regarded as leading to low-status occupations and a lack of progression to higher levels of education. That definitely should be reflected in community and rules components. Moreover, the pupils who enrol in this kind of education are often those who have failed in general education. This results in a contradiction between the generally negative image of TVET and the strategic role it is supposed to play in the economy both as regards the important, if fluctuating, informal sector and the sectors more integrated into the global economy (Atchoarena & Delluc, 2002). Numerous concerns have been voiced over the past decade about African TVET. Atchoarena and Delluc (2002, p. 38) summarize these concerns in terms of:
r r r r r
poor quality; very high cost; training not suited to actual socio-economic conditions; disregard of the informal sector’s needs; disregard for the labour market and of the high unemployment rate among graduates.
In view of the changes in the labour market, the objectives of technical and vocational education and training have become more diverse: they are no longer simply economic but also social, including the fight against poverty and the integration of young people into the working world. All of these objectives are in line with the articulations of the Millennium Development Goals. Given the prevailing economic trend, two other major objectives have been identified and must now be pursued: (a) to train the workforce for self-employment; and (b) to raise the productivity of the informal sector (Caillods, 1994, cited in Atchoarena & Delluc, 2002). Both objectives will influence the object of learning and activity for elderly people. Another important issue is that many children in Africa are receiving training through apprenticeships within family business or in formalized village polytechnics. This analysis demonstrates that the model based on the activity can be appropriate for the African context, where informal training and training through apprenticeship are playing an important role, and for the contexts of the other developing countries due to the nature of the activity theory that is focused on the individual.
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6 Retraining the Ageing Population in Developing Countries Although TVET development trends are different for developed and developing countries, activity theory can provide a useful concept of analysis of elderly learning within a particular context. For developing countries there is a particular need for a complex approach towards the issue. Development of public policies oriented towards the current and future awareness of the demographic trends should be supported by trialling and analysis of the different types of training interventions, which could be employed to prevent labour-market exclusion of elderly workers in developing countries. However, as O’Connell (2005, in Dawe & Elvins, 2006) found in his analysis of developed countries, there is a lack of information available regarding which types of training interventions should be employed or how these interventions should be funded. Thus, for both types of countries the role of research on this issue should be highlighted here and the starting point for this research can be based on an activity theory model. The learning that would take place through formal or informal training will be different in different situations and the activity theory models could be used to analyse and reflect upon each situation. Differences in the object of activity in the different contexts constitute an important basis for the development of strategies for the ageing population. Is it a survival strategy or a well-being strategy? Both educational knowledge and educational policies need to re-examine assumptions behind the belief in the universal validity of approaches designed within the context of developed countries.
7 Conclusion This chapter has analysed demographic trends within developing countries and has demonstrated that, although an ageing population is not a current issue, in fifty years time it would constitute an emergency situation. A key concern is that there are current problems related to the provision of TVET and there are other emergency issues that prevent governments of developing countries from orienting their policies towards the future issue of an ageing population (although the rate of increase in the proportion of elderly people in developing countries is higher than in developed countries). The chapter focused on the role of TVET within a comprehensive approach to broad ageing policy development undertaken by some countries. Improving employability is seen as a major area where TVET can make a contribution. Vast differences identified between developed and developing countries led to the conclusion that a critical approach is required when considering the application of experiences from other countries. However, it is proposed that research should play the leading role in formulating any policies for developing countries. The analysis undertaken on the basis of activity theory can be useful for understanding learning activities for the elderly in developing countries. Such an approach firmly positions it within
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a particular context, including the need, policies and meaningfulness for learners and employers. This analysis can help to develop training interventions for policy formulations and contribute to an increase in public awareness of the ageing issue and its potential socio-economic impact on society. Thus, the starting point for formulating the TVET role and informal training role in improving employability of the elderly should be an analysis specific to the context in each country and states/regions within the country that would help to understand the relationships and tensions between the elderly workers’ goals and the outcomes for their activity.
Notes 1. First published in Karmel, T.; Maclean, R., eds. 2007. Technical and vocational education and training in an ageing society: expert meeting proceedings. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. 2. Denmark and Greece in 1989; Luxembourg in 1990; Portugal in 1991/1992; France in 1992/ 1993; Ireland and the Netherlands in 1993; Spain and the UK in 1994.
References Atchoarena, D.; Delluc, A. 2002. Revisiting technical and vocational education in Sub-Saharan Africa: an update on trends, innovations and challenges. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. Bakhtin, M.M. 1981. The dialogic imagination: four essays by M.M. Bakhtin. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. (Edited by M. Holquist.) Bakhtin, M.M. 1986. Speech genres and other late essays. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Caillods, F. 1994. Diversit´e et convergences des syst`emes de formation professionnelle. Revue internationale du travail, vol. 133, no. 2, pp. 267–85. Dawe, S.; Elvins, R. 2006. The mature-aged and skill development activities: a systematic review of research. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Engestr¨om, Y. 1987. Learning by expanding: an activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Helsinki: Orienta-Konsultit. Engestr¨om, Y. 1993. Developmental studies on work as a testbench of activity theory. In: Chaiklin, S.; Lave, J., eds. Understanding practice: perspectives on activity and context. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Engestr¨om, Y. 1995. Objects, contradictions and collaboration in medical cognition: an activitytheoretical perspective. Artificial intelligence in medicine, vol. 7, no. 5, pp. 395–412. Engestr¨om, Y. 1999a. Activity theory and individual and social transformation. In: Engestr¨om, Y.; Miettinen, R.; Punam¨aki, R.-L., eds. Perspectives on activity theory. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Engestr¨om, Y. 1999b. Changing practice through research: changing research through practice. (Keynote address at the seventh Annual International Conference on Post-compulsory Education and Training, Gold Coast, Australia, 6–8 December 1999.) Fathers for Life. 2006. China and India. Inglehart, R. 1997. Modernization and postmodernization: cultural, economic and political change in 43 societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Leont’ev, A.N. 1981. Problems of the development of the mind. Moscow: Progress. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2006. Live longer, work longer. Paris: OECD.
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Spiezia, V. 2002. The greying population: a wasted human capital or just a social liability? International labour review, vol. 141, nos. 1–2, pp. 71–114. UNEVOC/UIS. 2006. Participation in Formal TVET Programmers Worldwide: an initial statistical study. Bonn, Germany: UNESCO-UNEVOC. United Nations. 1998. World population prospects—the 1998 revision, Vol. 2: Sex and age. New York, NY: United Nations, Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. United Nations. 2003. The ageing of the world’s population. New York, NY: United Nations, DESA. <www.un.org/esa/socdev/ageing/ageing/> Vygotsky, L.S. 1978. Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Vygotsky, L.S. 1987. Thinking and speech. New York, NY: Plenum. Warr, P. 1994. Age and job performance. In: Snel, J.; Cremer, R.; Kemper, H., eds. Work and ageing: a European perspective, pp. 309–21. London: Taylor & Francis. Wertsch, J.V. 1991. Voices of the mind: a sociocultural approach to mediated action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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Chapter XIV.4
The Changing Context of TVET for the Workforce in India Jagmohan Singh Rajput
1 Introduction India is a nation on the march. Hence, India is under global observation. India is emerging as a major economic power and the entire world is keenly watching the way that it will transform itself in the near future. The Indian economy grew by 8.9% in the first quarter of the year 2006–2007 (Economy grows at 8.9% in the first quarter, 2006), although the Government of India had aimed at 8% only. A comparison with the same quarter of the previous year indicates a maximum increase in the areas of trade, tourism, transport and communication. There was considerable decline in electricity, gas and power supply, and stagnation in agriculture, forestry and fisheries. The day these details appeared in the national media there was another significant development that attracted attention. Based on a survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Organization, it was reported that ‘58% Employable Population Was Jobless in 04–05’ (2006). According to this survey, 44% of people living in rural areas were employed. For urban areas the figure was a mere 37%. In rural India the proportion of male workers engaged in agricultural activities declined from 81% in 1977–1978 to 67% in 2004–2005, indicating the degree of rural/urban migration. The two aspects of economic growth and the level of employment very clearly set the agenda for understanding the challenges and opportunities facing India. This understanding is essential to appreciate the Indian initiatives, achievements and failures in the process of development, poverty alleviation, the creation of job opportunities, the provision of education and technical and vocational education and training (TVET), and social security for the aged. Currently, about 60% of the world’s aged persons live in developing countries. This percentage will rise to 75% by the year 2025. In the year 2000, for the first time in human history, numbers of those above the age of 60 exceeded those below 14 years of age in a number of developed countries, such as Germany, Japan and Spain. This silent revolution has begun to create an impact on all aspects of human endeavour and activity. The Indian aged population is currently the second largest in the world. In the 100-year span from 1916 to 2016, while the total population increased five times, the number of older persons increased thirteen times. The only social security available R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XIV.4, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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to around 85 to 90% of them is that of the traditional joint family system. This concept of pious obligations ensures the protection of the elderly by creating human obligations. These emanate from one of the basic values of life evolved as a part of Dharma—righteous conduct—and are best expressed as ‘gratitude’. Every individual is supposed to discharge four pious obligations. These are debt: towards gods; towards parents; towards teachers and the creators of knowledge and wisdom; and towards humanity. These four obligations can be discharged by worship, by maintaining the continuity of the family, by acquisition and dissemination of knowledge, and by every type of social service (Rama Jois, 1997). This traditional system too is changing visibly under the influence of contemporary global pressures. India has already 7% of its population above 60, which means that it reached the United Nations threshold of an ageing country; the present 7.7% will rise to 12.6% by 2025 (National Council of Educational Research and Training, 2003). India accounts for a meagre 2.4% of the world’s surface area, but supports 16.7% of its population. In 1951, India’s population had been 361 million and grew to 1,028 million in the 2001 census. The population increase between 2000 and 2020 is estimated to be 320 million. Eighty-seven per cent of the total growth will be in the age span 16 to 64 years. In this expansion, the share of 0–14 years will be just 3% and those above 65 years will be only around 10%. The life expectancy is also likely to rise to 71 years for males and 74 years for females by 2020 (India. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, 2006). The literacy rate increased between 1951 and 2001 from 18.33% to 64.84%. The rate of urbanization is reflected by the rural and urban population ratios, which in 1951 had been 82.7% and 17.3% respectively, and were estimated at 72.2% and 27.8% in 2001. By 2020, 35% of India’s population is likely to be urban. These projections have been made on the basis of several factors, including population growth, the growth of the working-age population, the labour-force participation rates, educational enrolment at higher levels and school drop-out rates. India’s labour force reached approximately 375 million in 2002. These figures indicate a rise of between seven and eight-and-a-half million per year in the labour force, projecting an expansion of 160 to 170 million new workers by 2020, that is, 2.0% per annum (India. Planning Commission, 2004). Total unemployment in India has been estimated to be around 35 million persons in 2002. Around 39.3 million job seekers were registered in employment exchanges throughout the country in December 2005 (India has 52-lakh jobless graduates, 2006). Over three-quarters of the unemployed are in rural areas and three-fifths of them are educated. In the current scenario of economic development—the tendency of industry to shed excess labour in order to improve competitiveness—it is important to create job opportunities for all. Access to employment is an essential component of economic well-being resulting in a better quality of life. This requires continuous monitoring, review and reorientation of national priorities, technology policies, educational infrastructures and the levels of commitment at implementation levels. Most crucial will be the role of formal TVET for young people in schools and colleges.
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However, this alone will not suffice. The infrastructure will need to be extended to other groups, that is, adults, the aged, the skilled or unskilled who are willing to learn, those in need of reorientation and upgrading of skills or those who need to acquire new skills. In developing countries like India, the attitudinal rigidity of preference for a governmental or white-collar job has just recently begun to melt. This trend has to be consolidated. Countries such as India really need intensive programmes of adult education, not only in literacy but also in TVET. India’s long and distinguished tradition in science and technology, scientific thought and innovative ideas is part of its 5,000-year civilization. There is plenty of evidence of a profound Indian tradition of science and technology: the Indian contribution to the sciences, mathematics, yoga and the Ayurveda medicinal system is now receiving renewed global attention—far more than ever before. These indicate the presence of a strong tradition of training in technical and vocational areas and, consequently, of a scientific predisposition. Even in the nineteenth century, India had a reasonably good and functional system of TVET (Crane, 1965). However, the domination of foreign rule for over 200 years made the Indians believe that they were not scientifically or technologically advanced. Sixty years after independence, India has re-established its place in the scientific and technological world. Developing countries have realised rather late that the skills and competences of the workforce augmented with knowledge and technology determine the extent and magnitude of economic growth and provide opportunities for individuals to become part of the process.
2 The Context In the mid-1960s Indian educational planners realised the critical importance of vocational training in schools and colleges and also outside the formal sector of education—in non-formal education and adult education initiatives. Nevertheless, it is only possible to report around 5–6% of young people in the 20–24 age group who have undergone formal vocational training during schooling. If we adopt a wider definition and consider the entire TVET segment, this figure may be stretched to around 15%. The corresponding figures in Mexico and the Republic of Korea are 28 and 96% respectively. This percentage is usually around 60 to 80% in developing countries. The Indian education system has expanded substantially during the postindependence period. The population, too, has grown three-fold. In a recent survey it was reported that, out of nearly 1 million schools, 42,000 have no building and 100,000—that is, 10%—are housed in a single room. Over 140,000 schools have only one teacher. These figures should give a fairly good indication of why there are not more vocational schools. Yet the target of achieving universal elementary education still remains elusive. To achieve this target by 2020, another 75 million or 44% more children will have to be enrolled. That means a proportionate rise in infrastructures, as well as in the recruitment of trained teachers. Provision for training
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and retraining of teachers means more teacher educators and more teacher-training institutions. Reducing the teacher/pupil ratio from the present 1:42 to 1:20 would mean an increase of 65% in the number of classrooms in the next twenty years. Quality improvement can certainly not be achieved unless the teacher/pupil ratio is brought to within an academically acceptable range. The task ahead in education is indeed daunting. Larger enrolments and fewer children per classroom mean increasing demand on secondary and university education. It follows that there is a necessary requirement for TVET in the formal sector and also in the out-of-school non-formal sector. Policies now need to incorporate prominently the significance of work experience, schooling in vocational streams, technical education for middle-level functionaries and TVET in the higher education segment. Policies in general education have paid attention to sustainability in several areas, particularly ecology, environment and the conservation of natural resources, as well as to citizenship education, to enable learners to contribute to and create a sustainable future. Policies must be reoriented to reshape TVET so that it addresses the emerging concerns of sustainability. Linking TVET to the economic, environmental and social aspects of sustainability must become a critical concern of policymakers and curriculum developers. It should be extended to the entirety of general education. It is also now acknowledged that teacher education systems have to be geared to ‘a trans-disciplinary, holistic approach, which emphasizes the importance of interrelatedness of the environment as a whole and the interdependence of parts’ (Maclean, 2005). The 1968 National Policy on Education (Naik, 1997) made major recommendations in regard to the environment, the conservation of natural resources, citizenship education and hands-on work experience. For the first time, it recommended bifurcation of the secondary stage of schooling into vocational and academic streams. Emphasizing what is currently being included under TVET, the essential concepts of work experience, vocational and technical education were included into this policy.
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The school and the community should be brought closer together through suitable programmes of mutual service and support. Work experience and national service, including participation in meaningful and challenging programmes of community service and national reconstruction, should accordingly become an integral part of education. Emphasis in these programmes should be on self-help, character formation and on developing a sense of social commitment. Special emphasis should be placed on the development of education for agriculture and industry. For technical education, periods of practical training in industry should form an integral part of such education. Technical education and research should be closely related to industry, encouraging the flow of personnel in both directions and providing for continuous co-operation in the provision, design and periodical review of training programmes and facilities (India. Ministry of Education, 1968).
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At present, the major technical education infrastructure in the formal sector at the initial stage is that of industrial training institutions. The nature of vocational skills, the variety of new skills needed and the paucity of resources, including qualified trainers, have all caused severe stress in the development of these and similar institutions. As well as industrial training institutions, TVET is provided by the polytechnics established for those who complete full-time school education. Courses at these institutions last for three years, at the end of which students get a diploma. At higher levels, India has a well-established network of institutes of technology, national institutes of technology, national technical teacher-training and research institutions, agricultural universities and a couple of universities of science and technology. The inadequacy of the formal sector has been well understood and several attempts in the non-formal, private sector and through the open and distance learning systems have been attempted and are making a contribution. ‘The changes in technology and work processes are too rapid for training courses and their instructors to stay up to date. The cost of training is also relatively high, as it often demands full-time enrolment for a prolonged period. Some vocational fields do not lend themselves to classroom or laboratory study at all’ (India. Planning Commission, 2004). The policy and programme formulations have taken note of the experiences gained so far. The private sector has grown significantly in the areas of providing computer training, even in rural, remote and far-flung places. However, training has also to extend beyond computer-related skills. With a majority of Indians engaged in agriculture, attention has been paid to imparting TVET at various levels to those working in this sector. Rising from a very dismal situation, India has achieved selfsufficiency in food provision, thanks to its agricultural universities, national research and training institutions and the strategy of extension services. In absolute terms, India’s manpower base of scientists and engineers is its ‘greatest core competence’. However, its contribution to global scientific knowledge has now slipped from 10% to 2.5%. This is the reverse of what has happened in China. The number of scientists per million people in India, China and Japan is 157, 545 and 5,095, respectively. This clearly indicates the need to expand the base of TVET much more widely. India has institutions that meet the highest international standards in science and technology. It is also an acknowledged fact that there is a need for greater and stronger links between these institutions and the ‘other’ institutions performing teaching and research functions at the same level and the practitioners in agriculture, industry and other relevant sectors. There is one more aspect which needs to be examined in order to appreciate India’s needs and requirements in relation to TVET. Vocational training for farmers has not received the level of attention it deserved. Whatever has been done is significant—but not sufficient. To sum up, the sectors with high employment potential include:
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retail and wholesale trades; tourism; housing; construction; the garment industry; other small-scale and medium industries; information and communication technologies (ICTs) and information technology enabled services; education; health; financial services; transport; communications; community services (India. Planning Commission, 2004).
The TVET system has to remain ever prepared for unexpected additions to the above list; obviously, those areas which become obsolete in the ever-changing scenario of the job market also need to be regularly deleted.
3 TVET beyond the Formal System A tiny system of vocational schools that prepares less than 5% of the senior secondary vocational course completions and the products of industrial training institutions and polytechnics do not suffice to meet the needs of the system or of society. Further, these training provisions are grossly inadequate for dealing with the increasing numbers of educated adults with qualifications in liberal education, but without skills in technical or vocational areas. Those coming from rural areas return to these areas with such an education; this neither gives them a job in the much-sought-after urban environment nor leaves them fit to contribute to the traditional professional tasks of the family. These educated people form one of the most significant groups of adults that need to be brought into the fold of TVET. Care has also to be taken of those who dropped out of schools at various stages and who have spent several years in a frustrating and demoralizing environment at an age when they should be contributing happily to the process of productivity. This group could be prepared for rural, and also urban, locations using recently emerging production processes that do not require highly specialized manpower. There are also groups of people already in jobs or engaged in business, but who are being left behind by the new advances in equipment, tools and technological variations. They desire to change their area of operation and for that they need new skills or the renewal of skills. A large number of people who retire from the armed forces at a relatively young age are generally well equipped with technical and vocational skills, which could be gainfully exploited after reorientation and renewal. Their rehabilitation is a major issue. A good percentage of them come from rural areas and their services could be utilised as trainers and
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resource persons for the TVET system. Adopting practices such as these requires an attitudinal change at policy levels. The changing cultural context and the encouraging performance of women in all sectors of education have opened up an entirely new dimension in employment and entrepreneurship in India. Education for women is now supported and appreciated by the community. However, the drop-out rates remain considerably higher for girls. As they grow up, they would certainly prefer to acquire skills to add to the family income, giving them a sense of equality as contributors to the process of economic growth and development. Various factors continue to contribute to the utility of the traditional vocational skills, which are transferred within the family to the next generation. Such available expertise could also be augmented by non-formal TVET initiatives, enhancing the relevance of such skills. The percentage of special education children who enter schools is still relatively low. TVET for this group also needs to be adequately addressed at the implementation level. The groups mentioned above would certainly benefit if the formal system in schools were to expand and adequate provisions put in place for the children who are classified as disabled. Further, provision needs to be made for career counselling and guidance for different age groups interested in a variety of pursuits. Vocational guidance units must be available in all institutions for people of all ages and inclinations. A modular approach, decentralized planning and establishing close co-ordination between formal and non-formal TVET should be seriously attempted. Linkages to services, crafts and industries must determine the nature of TVET to be imparted.
4 Experiences Gained Generally, vocational training outside schools and institutions has targeted unemployed and unskilled workers to prepare them for productive work. It also targets school-leavers to prepare them for the labour market. This is a major concern not only for educational planners but also for communities and society. The critical importance of this issue becomes clear with the realization that 55% of children drop out of school by the time they reach class VIII; this number increases to 63% by class X. Under such conditions, promises of equality of opportunity and social justice remain elusive—despite all good intentions. The response to this issue comes in the shape of various schemes launched by different ministries of the federal government and the initiatives of non-governmental voluntary organizations. Many of these have largely achieved their targeted objectives and, consequently, have attracted attention. Upskilling of skilled or unskilled workers already in jobs has also been an important focus. Many have reached ‘older workers’, although not necessarily those above 60 years of age. They belong to the category that otherwise was not contributing to production activities. These initiatives also enhance understanding and appreciation of the tasks ahead in the context of a defined ageing population.
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Understanding these experiences would help planning and extending their outreach to those who are keen to play a ‘second innings’. Some of the formal institutional arrangements and also the non-formal and voluntary initiatives could provide the basis for extending the outreach of TVET for all age groups, particularly including the aged.
5 A Voluntary Initiative: Banwasi Sewa Ashram In India a considerable number of voluntary initiatives can be identified that attempt to transfer technology, new knowledge and other relevant inputs in response to local community needs and to provide vocational and technical competencies at initial levels. This is necessary since a considerable percentage of the rural population in India still lacks access to education, health and an adequate supply of food. One such initiative which has earned respect and reputation over the years was established in 1954 in Sonbhadra district of the most populous state of India—Uttar Pradesh. Known as Banwasi Sewa Ashram, it caters to the tribal population in a forest area that witnessed the advent of heavy industries. It also witnessed the original inhabitants being ignored. They lost their traditional dependence on forest resources and were left uncared for by industry. A dedicated couple moved in, motivated by the Gandhian spirit, with the objective and understanding that none should be ignored or neglected; development must be for the benefit of all, including the ‘last man’ defined by Gandhi: I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test: Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you are contemplating is going to be of any use to him? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to Swaraj [selfsufficiency] for the hungry and the starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your ‘self’ melting away (Pyarelal, 1958, p. 65).
The Banwasi Sewa Ashram envisages a strong, dignified and progress-oriented village community life that incorporates positive values of traditional life and assimilates the benefits of modern knowledge in such a way that people are not denied the benefits of development. The organization has mobilized people for community development, launched programmes for the empowerment of women, developed community assets, trained personnel in technical and vocational skills, and achieved qualitative improvement in education, health, sanitation and agricultural activities. It is a comprehensive programme designed to keep the local needs in view and prepared in consultation with the local people. The initiatives include generating community awareness, creating community assets, education, health, developmental activities and training. Skill training is a necessary component and is imparted in a totally non-formal manner. Due to the prevailing conditions and concerns, the focus remains on cottage industries. These include agriculture, animal husbandry, tailoring, electrical fittings and utensil repairs, repair of diesel pumps and hand pumps, basic skills in dealing with the health concerns of humans and animals, etc. Improved skills are provided to the traditional carpenters, fitters, turners, blacksmiths
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and others. Several other voluntary agencies working in and around the area are also taking advantage of the training facilities created by the organization. The work is mostly confined to an area comprising 60% forestland and with a literacy rate of only 50%. The achievements listed by this organization are seemingly very modest. However, this organization has achieved great community credibility and acceptance, establishing it as an example to emulate by those working in the voluntary sector.
6 Open-Learning Systems The National Open School, established in 1989, and in 2002 renamed the National Institute of Open Schooling, offers vocational courses in broad areas of agriculture, engineering, technology, health, paramedical, business and commerce and others. It operates through a well-knit network of regional centres and accredited institutions/schools. Planned essentially for school drop-outs, it also offers vocational courses in combination with academic subjects. The Indira Gandhi National Open University, established in 1985, has carved out a unique place for itself in open and distance education. It has launched nearly eighty programmes of TVET in distance modes in various trades and skills at different levels for persons over 14 years of age. It does not insist on possession of any pre-qualification from the formal system. Most provinces in India have an open university, which are all closely linked to the Indira Gandhi National Open University. A large number of people in the higher age groups and those who are already in jobs take advantage of the vocational and technical courses offered by Indira Gandhi National Open University and other open universities. India has been struggling with huge programmes of adult education. Initially, these were confined to providing literacy, numeracy and a general awareness of the environment around the adult learners. Gradually, the need to provide skills and technical know-how has been recognized. To this end, nearly 160 people’s education centres, known as Jana Shikshan Sansthan, have been established. Here, a number of skill development programmes that provide vocational and technical education and training of varying duration are run. So far around 1.5 million people have benefited. The scheme has visibly contributed to improving the vocational skills and quality of life of the beneficiaries. It is essentially an attempt to achieve the educational, vocational and occupational development of disadvantaged groups, including socially, economically and educationally backward people belonging to urban and rural populations, particularly neo-literates, semi-literates, women and girls, slum dwellers, migrant workers and others.
7 TVET and Women The empowerment of women is crucially dependent on economic empowerment. ‘Self-help groups’ form an effective strategy and work in areas like health, nutrition, agriculture, forestry, etc. Organized groups are now interacting with experts
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through the Direct Receiving System of Indira Gandhi National Open University. There is an emphasis on schemes and programmes that lead to income-generation activities for women and arrangements for providing the necessary training for the same. A large number of ‘training-cum-employment-cum-production’ centres have been set up and these provide training in areas like electronics, watch assembly, garment making, weaving and spinning, hotel management and fashion design. The scheme of condensed courses of education and vocational training for adult women was started as early as 1958. Mostly utilised by school dropouts, nearly a million young girls and adult women have undergone vocational training. A large number of voluntary initiatives have earned great credibility in creating equality of opportunity for women in certain places and situations where previously most of them faced a bleak future. There has been a more realistic understanding of the implications of TVET for women. The technical training institutions at various levels could not provide a ‘level playing field’ for the female entrants whose numbers were too small and for whom the training did not always respond to the employer’s requirements. Gradually, dedicated organizations have been established, some of which are focused specifically on women. The Self-Employed Women’s Association has organized women workers for full employment through training in technical and management skills, along with raising awareness of their rights, and also through activism. It has empowered even those women who were illiterate, i.e. unable even to sign their names. This is a great success story that motivates and generates confidence in the role of the voluntary sector in providing vocational and technical preparedness amongst women, particularly the most deprived and deficient in society. Science and mathematics were made compulsory components of the school curriculum in India only after the 1968 National Policy on Education was accepted and implemented. It proved to be a decision of rare foresight in the context of bringing women to science and technology. Within the constraints imposed by socioeconomic and cultural factors, girls have performed better than boys in the technical, scientific and other related areas. The group of aged women is only now emerging. The attention of educational policies, however, still focuses on bringing all girls into elementary education and attempting to ensure their further participation in education. India’s achievements in the education of women deserve appreciation and attention. Women constitute a significant part of the workforce in India but continue to lag behind men in terms of the level and quality of employment. The 2001 census registered 25.6% of the female population as workers. The majority of these are employed in rural areas and, among the rural female workers, 87% are agricultural labourers and cultivators (India. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, 2006). This group requires maximum attention in the form of short-duration courses in vocational training and in imparting technical know-how suitable to their level and area of work. The distribution of women employees in the major industries reveals that the community, social and personal services sectors continued to absorb the majority of them. The lowest employment of women was noticed in the electricity,
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gas and water sectors. In the factory and plantation sectors, women constituted 10% and 5%, respectively.
8 International Context An analysis of social rates of return is not an easy task. However, attempts made to estimate these have not established any superiority for those studying vocational education over general education. However, earnings alone are not the criterion, since ‘workers with vocational education and training may be more productive than those with general education’ (Tilak, 2002). The fact that investments in TVET are high and it is considered only as a second option make it imperative to present visible and tangible evidence of the totality of the gains from TVET. Once older populations are brought into the fold of TVET, this aspect can be handled better at family and community levels. The most important aspect for consideration is that countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are hardly in a position to think of TVET for the aged in the same way that certain European countries have begun to focus on this emerging aspect in their educational plans and programmes. In these Asian countries, the priorities are likely to remain focused around the universalization of elementary education and its impact on secondary and higher education. Beyond any doubt, TVET is coming into greater focus in these countries, particularly in the context of emerging job requirements and conditions of unemployment. Historically, after paying attention to the formal system, attention shifted to non-formal and open and distance systems, which focused on those outside the schools or beyond formal systems and thus were relevant to the aged—who were to be made eligible to be part of the workforce. If this was the second phase, the third is yet to emerge—one that caters to those above 60 years of age. Some changes are visible. Sheltered accommodation for the elderly is increasing in numbers. In the Indian social context this is a recent phenomenon. In such places, attention is paid to keeping the inmates busy. Not much beyond that has been conducted and actually implemented. The rural and far-flung areas are still practically untouched in the context of providing training to the aged for productive outputs. Provisions, such as a nominal old-age pension to the weakest in the socio-economic ladder, serve only a limited purpose and may not remain of much use after a couple of years.
9 Conclusions The Ministry of Education continues to treat TVET as an addendum to mainstream education in schools and also in universities. This, in combination with the traditional societal preference for white-collar jobs, retards the expansion of vocational education. Resource constraints are, of course, a major hurdle, common to most developing countries. There is also a lack of co-ordination and comprehensive
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planning due to separate ministries dealing with vocational education and technical education. In India, this is the case not only at the federal level; it becomes more acute in several states due to the multiplicity of ministries involved in the education sector. Industries have not discharged their responsibility in assisting governments by establishing training institutions and creating facilities in existing institutions. Considerable groundwork has yet to be undertaken to convince people that TVET is one form of education with the potential to lead to upward mobility. Further, people would like to know about and see for themselves the outcomes of TVET in their own area. A leap ahead in TVET, although essential and necessary, would not be possible unless the credibility of the system is restored. A major factor that retards the transition to TVET is an almost total neglect of practical work in the process of teaching and learning in schools. Several attempts, like work experience, socially useful productive work and work education made in this direction at various periods, were largely converted into an unavoidable ritual by the system. A much-needed attitudinal transformation was thus lost. The stagnant system of examinations generally persuades parents to focus all their attention on their child getting ‘the highest percentage of marks’ at the year-end examination, which eventually makes all the difference in ‘getting ahead’! TVET in India is a distributed responsibility. The major players are the central government, state governments and the private entrepreneurs. In the government, both at the state and central levels, there is a further separation between the ministry of education and the ministry of labour. Then again, the ministry of education may itself be divided, under separate deputy ministers, into several departments. Co-ordination occurs more on paper than in practice and there is no spirit of healthy competition to be target-oriented and to excel in quality. Industries show considerable indifference in supporting structural arrangements for TVET at different levels. From the private sector, the top-class avenues being created for TVET are generally confined to the lucrative sector of computer-related job opportunities. These are often highly sought after and thus deny entry to the weaker sections of the society. This also creates imbalances in the availability of adequate trained manpower in certain sectors like, for example, agriculture-related vocations. While generally these are open to all age groups, the target group remains ‘the young of the affluent’. It is indeed very interesting to observe that the elderly in India continue to treat skill orientation and technical competency acquisition as the ‘other education’ for ‘them’, not for themselves! The traditional dominance of white-collar work continues, particularly amongst aged and retiring employees who may be an appropriate group for acquiring new skills and technical competence. It will take years before the ‘second-class education’ tag can be removed from the TVET sector. Poor career prospects and salaries are also responsible for the continuation of this social segregation. The other factor appears to be the general condition of deficiency and deprivation of the institutions that are responsible for imparting TVET. The scheme of bifurcating secondary education into vocational and academic streams had the potential of convincing parents and society about the positive advantages of vocational
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education. This did not happen. The probable reason is that even those responsible for its proper implementation had themselves the same ‘second-class’ attitude to the entire issue.
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Policy formulations now need to incorporate comprehensive programmes for the aged. Considerable measures of initial preparation would be necessary in terms of preparing people and also in ensuring a comprehensive and co-ordinated approach. A review of national needs, international experiences and an overview of the impact of urbanization and also of the spread of ICTs to non-urban groups and areas would be necessary before a comprehensive understanding of managing various aspects of the aged, and particularly in relation to TVET, can be achieved. The provision of mobile training teams, part of a large-scale network that can visit villages to give practical demonstrations on the usefulness of TVET and generate awareness of its value in school education, is necessary. A demand has to be generated and an attitudinal transformation achieved in people’s perception of TVET. The management of TVET systems, as also of science, technology and ICTs, requires new management skills and competencies. Not much can be achieved under traditional bureaucratic control, which still persists as a legacy of the past. The system of certification for those who acquire TVET in informal or in the private enterprise sector has to be popularized, extended and expanded. Informal and other private training establishments also deserve encouragement and recognition. Career counselling and vocational/technical guidance units in schools and other institutions need to expand their canvas to respond to individuals of every age group. They need to be trained in dealing with the elderly. Gerontology—the scientific study of ageing—needs to become an area of study in universities and colleges. Further, competency-based vocational programmes need to be started by various institutions dealing with TVET. The open learning systems need to come forward and take the lead. Success stories, like Banwasi Sewa Ashram, deserve greater policy support and encouragement at implementation levels. The training of government personnel in dealing with the voluntary sector is essential for an attitudinal change towards the preparation of the aged for creativity, productivity and self-sufficiency.
A well-balanced, diversified and dynamic system of technical and vocational education can certainly emerge from the existing infrastructure that most of the developing countries have created. Policy changes have not only to be more responsive; they have to be swift and needs-based in real terms. The fast-changing global scenario poses several challenges but, simultaneously, offers possibilities to convert these into opportunities. This requires the participation of every adult, irrespective of being ‘aged’ or otherwise, to be prepared to contribute in the endeavours towards progress and peace.
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Note 1. First published in Karmel, T.; Maclean, R., eds. 2007. Technical and vocational education and training in an ageing society: expert meeting proceedings. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER.
References 58% employable population was jobless in 04–05. 2006. The Times of India, 30 September. Crane, R. 1965. Technical education and economic development in India before World War I. In: Anderson, C.; Bowman, M., eds. Education and economic development, pp. 142–46. Chicago, IL: Aldine. Economy grows at 8.9% in first quarter. 2006. Hindustan Times, 30 September. India has 52-lakh jobless graduates. 2006. The Pioneer, 21 September. India. Ministry of Education. 1968. National policy on education. New Delhi: Ministry of Education. India. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. 2006. A reference annual. New Delhi: Publications Division. India. Planning Commission. 2004. Vision 2020: the report of the Committee on India Vision 2020. New Delhi: Government of India. Maclean, R. 2005. Orienting TVET for sustainable development: introduction to the Open File. Prospects, vol. 35, no. 3, p. 271. Naik, J. 1997. The Education Commission and after. New Delhi: APH Publishing Corporation. National Council of Educational Research and Training. 2003. Gerontology: the scientific study of ageing. Bhopal, India: NCERT, PSS Central Institute of Vocational Education. Pyarelal, L. 1958. Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase, vol. 2, p. 65. Ahmedabad, India: Navajivan Press. Rama Jois, M. 1997. Human rights and Indian values. New Delhi: National Council for Teacher Education. Tilak, J.B.G. 2002. Vocational education and training in Asia. In: Keeves, J.P.; Watanabe, R., eds. The handbook on educational research in Asia and Pacific region. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.
Chapter XIV.5
The Reform of the TVET System in the Republic of Korea for an Ageing Society1 Hong-Geun Chang
1 Introduction Nowadays, most advanced countries face issues concerned with ageing societies. Advances in science and technology have led to improved health and longevity and these, combined with low fertility rates among the young population (also associated with increased female participation in economic activities and the desire for smaller families), are accelerating population ageing. In most developed countries this ageing of the overall population and the workforce is also occurring at a very rapid pace and will eventually slow their economies down. As a consequence, there will be a rise in problems associated with the adequate supply of human resources and intergenerational conflicts regarding support for the elderly. The population of the Republic of Korea (hereafter Korea) is ageing at an unprecedented rate and the country has recently recorded the world’s lowest birth rate. Many are concerned that Korea is likely to experience a social and economic crisis if it fails to respond wisely to the situation. The Korean Government has established the Presidential Committee on the Ageing Society and Population Policy and is also in the process of developing measures that can be applied across all government ministries. Population ageing has a significant impact on the Korean policy for national human resources development (which aims to achieve efficient workforce development, distribution and utilization). In a rapidly ageing society where the productive labour force is expected to decrease, it becomes more and more important to establish a strong foundation for sustainable economic growth. A key solution is to reform traditional ways of thinking about the development of vocational competency (especially that of women and middle-aged and older populations) by encouraging individuals to resume or continue to participate in work. This will help to maintain the sustainability and growth of the labour market and the social security system. A new system of vocational competency development can help early retirees and the middle-aged or older unemployed to restart their economic activities by making it easier for them to change their occupation or re-enter employment. In so doing, the cost of social security will be reduced. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how Korea is attempting to revitalize its competency development system in an environment characterized by globalization, R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XIV.5, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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rapid advances in information and communications technology (ICTs), declining birth rates and accelerated population ageing. The paper will first describe problems with Korea’s current system for vocational competency development and discuss the types of policies that are required to revitalize it. It will then suggest a new structure for vocational competency development in Korea and discuss associated issues.
2 The Korean System of Vocational Competency Development Figure 1 indicates that, as of 2004, the total amount of investment in vocational competency development by government, business and workers is about 5.3 trillion won (about US$6 billion). The number of training participants is about 4.8 million, and training for currently employed workers accounts for 71% of the total. In addition to the public and private training institutes, schools like vocational high schools and community colleges are also responsible for providing vocational competency development and vocational training services. There are also some large enterprises that operate their own vocational training institutes, as well as small- and medium-sized firms that carry out their education and training programmes in conjunction with larger companies or public training institutes.
Training participants Finance
Providers Total: 4.8 million (2004)
Total: 5.35 trillion
Government
Budget: 550 billion Fund: 1.12 trillion Local governments: 23.6 billion (2005)
School Currently employed workers: 3.4 million (2.45 million in SMEs)
Vocational high school: 713 Community colleges: 158 Universities: 173
Youth: 1.3 million Training institute Middle aged: 610 000 Public polytechnics, etc.: 51 Private institutions, etc.: 3 121
Companies
3.66 trillion (2003)
Individual
Non-regular workers: 430 000 Women: 1.59 million
Unemployed: 250 000
Companies
In-service training centre, association,consortium, etc.
Fig. 1 Basic structure of the vocational competency development system (unit: Korean won, persons, establishments)
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The recognition that vocational competency development can be realised throughout all stages of a person’s life—instead of only at particular stages—is a concept that has driven the Korean Government’s endeavours to build an effective lifelong vocational competency development system. This concept is very much broader than previous understandings of vocational training, which referred to vocational training as ‘activities related to education and training given to economically active workers or people who wished to become workers to improve their abilities required for employment and work performance’. In this paper we conceive of lifelong vocational competency development as ‘all kinds of education, training and related activities, provided by all types of learning institutions, from schools and enterprises to technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, that aim to develop and improve competency for people preparing to enter the labour market, including workers in their prime working age, and middle- and old-aged workers preparing for their second occupational life’. If we apply this definition to the relationships between school education, vocational training and lifelong vocational competency development at different life stages, the result is Figure 2. Vocational education in school plays a key role in equipping students with the various basic capabilities necessary for economic activity. Primary and secondary schools focus on helping students to form views on work and vocation and to understand the nature of different occupations. Secondary education occurs in general high schools, which prepare students for higher education, and vocational high schools, which prepare students for employment. Tertiary education is provided by occupational education colleges (with programmes lasting from two to three years) and universities (with programmes lasting from four to six years). The Korean Government is promoting the New University for Regional Innovation (NURI) project aimed at enhancing vocational competency
Economically active stage
School age
Employment
School
Companies, training institutes, etc.
Latter stage of life
Retirement
Formal education
Vocational training Lifelong vocational competency development
Fig. 2 Scheme of lifelong vocational competency development
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development in tertiary educational institutes. This project promotes stronger cooperation between higher education and business, on-site training for the unemployed and re-education for workers in industry. It also encourages universities to provide employment support services for students. Employed workers and retirees can develop their competency through vocational education. Training for employed workers is usually provided by large enterprises (training is normally available for regular workers), while training for the unemployed is funded by the government. In contrast, the underprivileged groups in the labour market (such as workers employed in small and medium-sized firms, middle- and old-aged workers, women, non-regular workers and the disabled) have relatively little opportunity to access vocational competency development services. Although the Korean Government has attempted to implement different policies to expand opportunities for these groups, they have yet to be successful. In addition, vocational development programmes available for the middle- and old-aged working population facing retirement and for middle- and old-aged retirees who wish to be re-employed are still poorly designed. In the context of accelerated population ageing, there is a crucial need for a policy that enables these groups to maintain and develop their vocational competency so that they can stay in the labour market for longer periods.
3 Funding and Participation In comparison with other countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Korea has a high rate of educational investment in formal education. On the contrary, it has one of the lowest rates among OECD countries when it comes to investment in vocational competency development for workers who have already entered the labour market (Table 1). In 2004 investment in public and private education accounted for 8.2% of gross domestic product (GDP). This exceeds the 2001 United States rate of 7.3%, and is well above the average of 6.2% for OECD members. Korean expenditure for vocational training is only 0.06% of GDP, which falls short of the OECD average of 0.21% of GDP. The rate of investment in education and training in relation to the labour cost of companies has been declining since the economic crisis that began in 1997. The investment rate, which recorded 2.09% in 1996, dropped to 1.47% in 2003, and has not recovered to pre-economic crisis levels (Republic of Korea (RoK). Ministry of Labour (MoL), 2004). Along with this, labour productivity has also remained Table 1 Public expenditure on vocational training as a percentage of GDP in selected OECD countries Country
Korea (2004)
Denmark (2003)
France (2003)
Germany Japan (2003) (2004)
Netherlands UK (2004) (2004)
US (2004)
%
0.06
0.52
0.31
0.40
0.60
0.05
Source: OECD, 2005.
0.04
0.14
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Table 2 Education and training expense rate to total labour cost according to the number of people employed (unit: thousand won) Category
30–99 people
100–299 people
300–499 people
500–999 people
Over 1,000 people
Total labour cost (A) Monthly expense on education and training (B) Proportion (B:A, %)
1 925
2 199
2 613
2 710
3 573
6
11
24
22
61
.31
.50
.92
.81
1.71
Source: RoK. MoL, 2004.
at a low level, especially when compared with other advanced countries. Labour productivity per worker reaches only 40% of the average of G7 nations (Korea Development Institute, 2005). The volume of investment also varies greatly with the size of the company. In 2003, investment made in employee education and training by companies with fewer than 300 employees was far lower than the 1.71% made by large companies with more than 1,000 employees (Table 2).
4 Participation in Vocational Competency Development Programmes Currently, the biggest problem being experienced by the Korean vocational competency development system is low participation. As of 2004, only 14.3% of adult workers aged between 25 and 64 years were involved in occupation-related training. This number is far lower than the OECD average of 37.1%. The Korean participation rate in lifelong learning services at 23.4% is also the lowest (except for Ireland) among OECD countries (which have an average of 44.0%) (Figure 3). Moreover, low investment by companies in vocational competency development also restrains workers’ opportunities to develop their capabilities. The number of companies implementing vocational competency development programmes has barely changed—from 65.7% in 1999 to 66.1% in 2003 (RoK. MoL, 2004). In addition, workforce participation in vocational competency development activities funded by companies only amounted to 26.4%. This is a much lower rate than that in other developed countries. The average for OECD companies was 35% in 2005.
5 The Gap in Opportunities for Vocational Competency Development Under the current system, workers of small and medium-sized firms, non-regular workers, people with low education, women and people running small businesses are less exposed to vocational competency development programmes. First, a great
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Fig. 3 International comparison of participation in vocational competency development programmes among adults (aged 25–64) Source: OECD, 2003.
gap exists in opportunities for vocational training according to company size, with smaller companies displaying much lower rates than large companies (Figure 4). The lower participation rates of smaller companies are due firstly to employer difficulty in recruiting manpower, which in turn eventually leads to problems in productivity and, second, to a shorter period of employment. This also explains why small business employers are reluctant to invest in the competency development of their employees. Second, a gap exists between the training participation rates of different types of employment categories (Korea Labour Institute, 2004). Temporary and daily workers have much lower training participation rates than regular workers (10.7%, 2.6% and 36.2%, respectively). Companies do not invest in training for these less ‘regular’ workers, which means that they have little access to competency development. It triggers the vicious cycle of ‘low skill—low income—low opportunity for training—low skill’, from which it is difficult to escape. Training rates also vary according to gender and age. Women’s training participation rate of 8.2% is half that of men’s (17.6%). The training participation rate of workers in their 20s and 30s is high, whereas that of people over 50 is considerably lower (Figure 5).
6 Delivery System and Infrastructure Another problem for the vocational competency development system is its supplieroriented delivery system and weak infrastructure. Until now, this system has been
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Fig. 4 Vocational competency development participation by company size Source: Korea Labour Institute, 2004, based on Social Statistic Investigation data and Economically Active Population Census data.
Fig. 5 Vocational training participation rate by gender and age Source: Korea Labour Institute, 2006.
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organized and driven by the government and has failed to meet the demand for human resources adequately. Moreover, because the vocational competency development system has not taken future workforce supply and demand issues into account, it has been unable to respond promptly to new demands for manpower resulting from structural changes in industry, namely, the growth of knowledge-based and social-service industries. The system did not also fully consider how to meet the demands of different regional labour markets and different industries. There are also issues with the adequacy of the infrastructure, in terms of its ability to support the demand for training. Information on training institutes, trainers and available courses is not easily accessible and there is insufficient attention paid to quality assessment of training provided. There is also a lack of diversity between consulting and training management services and training institutes (Chang, 2005).
7 Innovation in the Vocational Competency Development System The policy relating to the revitalization of the vocational competency development system has three major directions. First, it fosters the need for knowledge workers with a competitive edge; second, it establishes the right for individuals to develop vocational competency as a common right; and third, it provides for innovation in the delivery system and its infrastructure. Table 3 provides details of these three major directions.
7.1 Youth: Improving Vocational Competency in and out of School The vocational competency of students and unemployed youth who are preparing to enter the labour market has usually been developed through the school curriculum or training. At present, the key aim is to address the discrepancy between school education and labour-market demands, and to make the school services required for the development of vocational competency more substantial. Efforts must also be made to promote co-operation between colleges and business, to expand learning programmes to allow students and unemployed youth to experience workplaces, and to encourage schools and businesses to promote active vocational education.
7.2 Employed Workers: Better Capability and Equal Opportunities The current system is biased towards providing greater access to vocational competency development for employees in large-sized companies. This must be changed to a system that gives all workers easy access to opportunities for competency development, as well as the training and assistance they require to achieve the capability to perform their duties more efficiently. To this end, the innovative
Policy direction
Present
Knowledge workers with competitive edge for:
r r r r
youth; employed workers; middle–old population; unemployed.
r r r r
discrepancy between school education and labour market; training focused on core workers; early retirement/retirement;
2010
r r r r
improved competency development in school; equal assessment of all workers; active ageing; raised employment rate.
low employment rate.
Competency development as a common right for:
r r r r
non-regular workers; self-employed running small business; women; the disabled.
Delivery system and infrastructure for:
r r r r
training institutes; universities; training information; qualification.
r r r r r r r r
concern for non-regular workers’ underprivileged condition;
r
lack of target-specific programmes.
r r r
supplier-centred service;
r
scarce opportunities for vocational training; career discontinuation due to child raising;
degree course focus; provision of simple information; employment-centred qualifications.
r r r
XIV.5 The Reform of the TVET System
Table 3 Directions of vocational competency system reform
expanded opportunities for vocational competency development; wage earner/highly value-additive self-employed; easy re-entry to the market; customized programmes.
demand-oriented service with close attention on users; lifelong vocational competency development; comprehensive information; 2439
qualifications focusing on site vocational competency.
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capacity of all employees of small and medium-sized companies must be strengthened; it should also be developed in those with the potential to provide leadership and promote change. More support needs also to be given to employees to engage in voluntary competency development services. More specifically, there is a need to expand and strengthen support networks for employees in small and mediumsized enterprises who have been targeted for vocational training. These enterprises must also be able to obtain assistance for training provision. Reforms will also include: (a) implementation of a ‘structured on-the-job training (OJT) model’ suitable for small and medium-sized firms; (b) expansion of special education and training courses in advanced technology; and (c) development and implementation of specialized programmes for education and training in knowledge-based service areas. The new system will also increase financial assistance for workers undertaking training programmes and introduce the ‘best HRD’ certification system for organizations (including companies) with excellent human-resources development (HRD) services.
7.3 Middle-Aged and Older Populations: Staying Economically Active In an ageing society, competency development in the middle-aged and older population is becoming ever more important. Currently, a variety of efforts are being made to develop and support competency development programmes for this group of workers. These include: (a) supporting programmes for productivity maintenance linked to the wage system; (b) designing career counselling and development programmes for middle- and old-aged workers; and (c) supporting outplacement services for such workers who wish to change their jobs. Ways to provide subsidies to support and encourage career changes for middle- and old-aged workers are currently under review.
7.4 The Unemployed: Making Training More Effective In order to provide effective vocational competency development for unemployed people, training courses need to be provided in occupations and regions where there is a demand for workers. Instead of longer training courses designed for mass consumption, programmes need to be shorter and more diverse and use a blended learning approach. Training institutes must also be diversified and operate in welfare centres and non-governmental organizations. Public funding can be used to select or establish training institutes, with project-based funding and support also being established. In addition, there is a need to improve the quality of training consultancy services to raise the efficiency of training provision. Job-seeking allowances available to individuals undertaking training must also be raised.
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8 Vocational Competency Development as a Common Right 8.1 Non-Regular Workers A system of ‘workers’ training accounts’ is being implemented as a trial from October 2006. This will ensure increased training opportunities for non-regular workers who traditionally have had almost no access to training. The training delivery system and training courses themselves will also be revamped to suit and appeal to non-regular workers. Universities, social welfare centres, local governments, non-governmental organizations and regional and industrial labour and management associations must reinforce and support training designed for non-regular workers in different regions.
8.2 Self-Employed Workers in Small Businesses Self-employed workers in small businesses must also possess the basic right to take advantage of opportunities for developing their competency. Vocational training, employment services, on-the-job training and customized services must be available to self-employed workers of small businesses who wish to move into other forms of employment. In consideration of their current work obligations, such training programmes must be conducted during weekends and weeknights. Competency development programmes, which aim to help these workers to add value to their businesses, must also be expanded. Providing them with a loan to assist them to support themselves during their training period could also be considered.
8.3 Facilitating Re-Entry of Women into the Labour Market Competency development for women must be focused on easier re-entry into the labour market. Developing provisions, such as ‘home-to-work transition’ programmes and making these more available to women, will help those with discontinued careers to develop their competency and get back into the workforce. There should be more attempts to invigorate internships and short-term customized training programmes. Support for specialized competency development courses in social services should also be increased. In addition, lifelong-learning institutes in universities must develop and provide courses to assist highly educated females to acquire specialized skills and the required licensing to enable them to re-enter the workforce.
8.4 The Disabled: Providing Customized Programmes This target-specific programme is a core element in the development of vocational competency for the disabled. Training must be targeted to the needs of each
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disabled person and adapted both to the type of handicap and the desired occupation. The provision of e-learning services must be maximized. It is also important to provide funding and support for disabled learners who would like to start up a business. Enterprises must also expand training courses (including customized training programmes) which lead to employment for a specified number of disabled workers.
9 Delivery of Services and Innovation of Infrastructure 9.1 Building Partnerships The importance of partnerships in vocational competency development is growing, along with the trend in decentralization, localization and privatization of government services. There is a need for the central government to focus on the integration and co-ordination of relevant policies, the provision of assistance for building the required infrastructure, and collaboration between agencies responsible for assessment. This requires the employment policy advisory committee to develop and co-ordinate effective and efficient linkages between vocational competency development policies and projects (with specified budgets) across different ministries. Local governments need also to increase their capacity and strengthen their networks for workers’ competency development in regional areas. A system that links employment-support centres, the Korean Employment Information Service, HRD Korea, colleges and Korean polytechnic colleges and training institutes is essential. Local employment advisory committees (chaired by mayors or governors) must be able to determine and co-ordinate policies for regional human resource development. It is essential that local governments seek measures that promote local industry participation. Industry must also participate in the vocational competency development system. The establishment of ‘sector councils’ is also planned to assist in this area. Sector councils will have a number of roles. They will be required to manage the system of national technical qualifications, analyse industry trends, make forecasts about workforce demand and investigate client satisfaction with university education. The assessment of training institutes and training specialists, and the development of industry partnerships through the creation of industrial innovation clusters must also be vigorously promoted.
9.2 Innovation with a Focus on Users Colleges, companies and public and private training institutions must become learner-oriented. Universities need to increase specialist education and short-term courses for competency development and provide a suitable environment in which students can work and study. The major task for industry is to promote training
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for workers in small and medium-sized enterprises. Industry associations may also need to provide support and resources for the development of on-site learning programmes. The introduction of an e-learning context will also improve the quality and outcomes of training courses.
9.3 Expanding the Information Infrastructure The HRD-Net website should be reorganized to provide a source of comprehensive information on employment, training and qualifications. Information on courses in training institutes and evaluation and assessment of trainee satisfaction should be available for consumer reference. Special broadcasting for vocational training must be resumed, and the use of free subway tabloids to publicize human resources development information should also be reviewed.
10 Conclusion In dealing with issues brought about by increased globalization, advances in information technology, population ageing and decreasing birth rates, Korea requires a new paradigm of innovative economic and social development. The traditional system of vocational competency development has been focused on the development of skills required for an industrial workforce. Today, this is no longer appropriate and must be reformed. In its place we should implement a new system of vocational competency development to be focused on a more flexible and innovative workforce. Efforts must be applied to fostering the development of competitive knowledge workers able to take their place in today’s knowledge-based economy. We must also ensure that equal opportunities for competency development are available to all and that opportunity for competency development is established as a common right. If we are to get the most out of our investment in vocational competency development, then we must also reform and revitalize the system of delivery and build appropriate infrastructures. If all these tasks are completed as planned, Korea’s vocational competency development will hover around the average of the OECD countries, both in terms of quality and quantity. An effective vocational competency development system that covers a great variety of groups will be the driver of an innovative economy and will provide a new stepping stone for Korea’s economy.
Note 1. First published in Karmel, T.; Maclean, R., eds. 2007. Technical and vocational education and training in an ageing society: expert meeting proceedings. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER.
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References Chang, H.-G. 2005. The delivery and consumption of vocational training in Korea. Seoul: Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training. [In Korean.] Korea Development Institute. 2005. A comprehensive study on the industrial competitiveness in Korea. Seoul: KDI. Korea Labour Institute. 2004. A study on lifelong learning and labour market. Seoul: KLI. Korea Labour Institute. 2006. Korea labour panel survey. Seoul: KLI. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2003. Employment outlook. Paris: OECD. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2005. Employment outlook. Paris: OECD. Republic of Korea. Ministry of Labour. 2004. Investigation on labour cost of enterprises. Seoul: Ministry of Labour. [In Korean.]
Chapter XIV.6
Will We Run Out of Young Men? Implications of the Ageing of the Population for the Trades in Australia1 Tom Karmel and Koon Ong
1 Introduction Current skill shortages and the knowledge that our population is ageing have given rise to concerns that we will face severe skill shortages in coming decades (see, for example, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, 2004). This chapter looks at one area of particular interest, that of the trades.2 The reason we single out the trades is that they draw their new entrants from a narrow demographic group—young men— and therefore, prima facie, this labour market will be particularly vulnerable to the ageing of the population.3 This dependence on young men can be illustrated as in Figure 1, which shows the age and gender distribution of those commencing an apprenticeship in the trades.4 The approach we take is quite straightforward. We build a workforce model that assumes a supply-driven approach and compare the projections with those obtained from a demand-driven approach. Any shortfall will be taken as evidence that we have a particular problem. The structure of the chapter is as follows. In the first section we build the supply workforce model. Following this, we use the model to provide a set of projections. We then construct a set of projections with a more demand flavour. The next section brings the two approaches together in order to gain an understanding of the extent to which we will have shortages in the trades. We end with some final comments.
2 The Supply Model The basis of the model is that the number of people in a trade at a point in time is determined by the number at the previous point in time, plus commencing apprentices, less withdrawals from apprenticeships and those who leave the trade. While we have data on commencements and withdrawals of apprentices, we do not have data on those persons in the trade who leave. So in practice we model net attrition rather than actual attrition. More formally, X t = X t−1 + Ct − Wt − Dt R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XIV.6, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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Fig. 1 Commencements by age and sex, 2005
Where X t is the number of persons in the trades at the end of year t; Ct is the number of apprentice commencements during the year; Wt is the number of apprentices who have their contract cancelled during the year; and Dt is the net attrition during the year. We reparameterize the model by expressing C, W , and D as rates.
r r r
Define w as the withdrawal rate, that is w = W/C; Define d as the net attrition rate, that is, d = D/ X ; Define c as the commencing rate (proportion of the population), that is, c = C/N where N is the population size.
Then we have: X t = X t−1 (1 − dt ) + ct (1 − wt )Nt−1
(2)
We use historical data to estimate the parameters of the model d, c and w and then project-forward using demographic projections of N . Now the model as in (1) and (2) is highly stylised and has no demographic dimension to it, apart from the total population. In order to make the model more interesting, we introduce a demographic dimension through the index i, as follows: X i,t Xt = i
and X i,t = X i−1,t−1 (1 − di,t ) + ci,t (1 − wi,t )Ni−1,t−1
(3)
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So now the commencement, withdrawal and net attrition rates all depend on the demographic age group. It is this dimension that is at the heart of the chapter.
3 The Supply Projections Before getting into the actual projections, we present the ingredients: the commencement rates, the cancellation rates and the net attrition rates.5 We concentrate on males because of their dominance in the trade occupations (although the model has an analogous set for females). One of the points apparent from the construction of our model is that the parameters that drive employment in the trades have changed during the last ten years. So rather than produce one set of projections, we produce three, corresponding to average, best and worst scenarios. The differences between these scenarios are of some importance, as we will see later on. In the Australian context, the labour market for the trades has been very buoyant in recent years and we have seen increasing numbers of apprenticeship commencements in the trades. Figure 2 shows the commencement rates we use for the model. They have been derived from historical data6 and represent the proportion of the age cohort who commenced an apprenticeship or traineeship in the trades. There are a couple of points worth making about this figure. First, as we already have seen from Figure 1, the only age groups with sizeable numbers entering an apprenticeship or traineeship in the trades are young men, up to the age of 24. While older men do undertake them, the numbers are small. The other point to note is how large these commencement rates are: over 25% for men aged 15–19 and around 9% for men aged 20–24 years, on average. If we add the rates over all age groups, we get an implied commencement rate of around 40% (although this includes those who commence more than once). Thus, trade apprenticeships and traineeships are really important for men. However, the cancellation rates in our model (Figure 3) are rather sobering. Again these are based on historical data. They indicate that, for young men, around 50% of apprenticeships are not completed—a rather high level of wastage.7 The cancellation rates for older males (over the age of 30 years) are lower. However, this is not very helpful because very few older males enter an apprenticeship or traineeship in the trades. Finally, we present the net attrition rates (Figure 4). While they are very important for our projections, they are really the least satisfactory part of our model for reasons we will try to explain. The net attrition rates are obtained by solving equation (3) shown above using historical data. The intuition is that they represent the attrition within cohorts over a five-year period (the number of 30 to 34 year olds in 2006 in the trades compares with the number of 25 to 29 year olds in 2001, for example), but taking account of actual commencements and withdrawals in apprenticeships. The reasons that they are not overly satisfactory are two-fold. First, the trades are not totally regulated; there are people who are employed in the trades who have not formally completed any apprenticeship or traineeship.8 Putting it another way, there are substantial numbers of people working as tradespersons who do not
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Fig. 2 Apprenticeship and traineeship commencement rates for the trades (proportion of age cohort)
Fig. 3 Apprenticeship and traineeship cancellation rates for the trades (as a proportion of commencements)
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Fig. 4 Five-year net attrition rates for the trades (per cent of employment)
have actual qualifications. Second, our model has not explicitly taken account of immigration, which has been of some importance for the trades. So our net attrition rates capture a number of flows, for which, ideally, individual modelling would be preferable. Before reaching the projections, we should comment on the negative attrition rate for males aged 20 to 24. The interpretation of this is that there are considerable numbers of young men who enter a trade without undertaking an apprenticeship or traineeship. Now the major point of this chapter is to examine the effect of demographics on labour supply. Thus, for each of the scenarios we calculate a further variation in which the population is assumed to grow at a constant rate within each demographic group according to the population rate from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) projections over the period.9 We think of this counterfactual as a world in which population growth occurs as in the ABS demographic series, but where there is no ageing. The difference between the projection based on the ABS demographic series and the projection based on the ‘no ageing’ counterfactual shows the impact of the ageing of the population on the supply over the next forty years. Figure 5 shows that the difference between the ageing and no-ageing scenarios grows from 12,000 in 2015 to 43,000 in 2020 and 320,000 in 2040. So the ageing of the population has a real kick in terms of the impact on total labour supply for the trades. It appears that we should answer the question posed in the title in the affirmative—perhaps we will run out of young men!
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Fig. 5 Impact of demographics on the supply of tradesmen
Up to this point we have concentrated on the impact of ageing on the overall numbers of tradespersons. The ageing may have another impact; one could posit that it will alter the distribution of demographic groups within the trades, and this would have an impact on workplace dynamics and work organization. Figure 6 plots the evolution of the age distribution of people in the trades. The projections put paid to our supposition; there is, in fact, little change to the age distribution. The reason for this is that entry into the trades consists almost entirely of young people and thus the age distribution depends on the rate of attrition rather than the demographics of the population. This finding contrasts with what is expected in many other occupations. For example, Karmel and Li (2002, pp. 71–124) project that the nursing workforce will age substantially.
4 Demand Projections The projections we have constructed to date have a supply focus because of the focus on new entrants and attrition rates, and we need to compare those with demand projections. The essential difference is that the supply projections concentrate on demographics and historical flow rates, while the demand projections are based on a view of the economy in which employment is constrained and product markets and labour markets adjust to a set of economic forces. This is a world in which economic activity adjusts—not a world in which fixed proportions are assumed to continue. The demand for labour in a particular occupation will depend on how fast
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Fig. 6 Age distribution of people in the trades, various years
the economy grows (and this will be constrained by the size of labour supply), how labour productivity changes in that occupation and others, and how product markets adjust. It is beyond our competence to build a model of the economy in which all these forces interact.10 The approach we take is simply to project changes in employment shares and then apply them to an assumed overall level of employment. The intuition is that the changes in employment shares we have observed over the last ten years reflect some fundamental changes in the economy (technology changes, overseas trade, capital flows, changes in consumers tastes and so on), and that these trends will continue. This is pretty naive but has more face validity than a fixed-coefficients view of the world, in which occupational shares remain constant (although we include this as a benchmark). More formally, let E t,i be employment in occupation i and time t. Then we can write E t,i = EEt,it E t = st,i E t where s denotes the share. Then our unadjusted projection is Eˆ t,i = sˆt,i E t and our adjusted projection is Eˆ t,i Eˆ t,i = Et Eˆ t,i i
We obtain the projected shares by annualizing observed changes and then projecting forward. That is sˆt,i = s0,i (1 + r )t where t is the number of years after the base period.
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This is a fancy way of saying that the share of total employment in the trades has dropped over the past and we expect it to drop in the future. For our projection we also need total employment. Here, the key assumption is that the total employment will be constrained by the projected population, with the age-specific employment-to-population ratios a little higher than they are now for the 15- to 64-year-old population. The reason for this is that age-specific employment-topopulation rates will increase because of higher educational levels (better qualified people tend to have high employment rates), as argued by Karmel and Woods (2004). The trades employment projection (which we label as the base scenario) and the benchmark projection (assuming no decline in the share of employment held by the trades, and labelled as maintain share scenario) are shown in Figure 7. The base scenario assumes that the trades’ share of employment declines from 12.7% of total employment in 2005–2006 to 9.3% in 2040 (a projection of the trend between 1996–1997 and 2005–2006). As can be seen, the projections are quite sensitive to employment shares. If the share of employment in the trades were maintained, then in 2040 we would be looking at around half a million additional jobs compared with the base scenario. However, our base scenario is in line with scenarios developed by other modellers. For example, Access Economics (2006) projects very modest growth in the trades up to 2020.11
Fig. 7 Projections of employment in the trades
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5 Comparison of Demand and Supply We now compare the supply and demand projections. We have a bewildering array of projections. We therefore start with what we consider to be the most middle-of-the-road projections: the average scenario for the supply model and the base scenario for the demand projections (Figure 8). The point that jumps out from this figure is that, according to these projections, there is a potential oversupply of tradespersons. We would therefore answer the hypothetical question embedded in the title with a resounding ‘no’. However, perhaps this is a little hasty. Recall that commencement rates have been high in recent years and attrition rates have been lower than in earlier times, reflecting a very strong labour market. If we look at a second scenario (the worst scenario), then the picture is very different, as can be seen in Figure 9. In this case, we would be looking at a decline in the trades workforce and very serious labour shortfalls. That is, if commencement, cancellation and attrition rates were at the poorer end of historical experience, there could well be very serious shortages in the trades. To round off the presentation of the results, we also compare the supply and demand projections under the other combinations of scenarios. These results are shown in Table 1. Table 1 shows that the extent to which we project skill shortages or surpluses is quite sensitive to the assumptions. The conclusion, on the assumption that our demand projections are not grossly understated, is that there is no reason to be overly concerned about the supply of tradespersons if the trades can maintain their
Fig. 8 Comparison of the average supply scenario and the base demand scenario
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Fig. 9 Comparison of the worst supply scenario and the base demand scenario Table 1 Difference between demand and supply projections for the trades, 2040 (+ indicates potential surplus; − potential shortage), per ’000 persons Worst supply projection Average supply projection Best supply projection
Base demand scenario
Maintain share demand scenario
−400 +200 +1 400
−900 −300 +900
attractiveness relative to other occupations. That is, commencement rates must be kept at reasonably high levels and attrition rates at reasonably low levels. Otherwise, skill shortages are likely to emerge.12 Another way of expressing these results is that the potential supply is more than sufficient to underpin any reasonable projection of employment demand in the trades. There may well be shortages in the future—but do not blame the demographics!
6 Final Comments It is worth noting again that this conclusion is contingent on the demand projection and that our assumption is that employment demand in the trades is primarily related to total employment. Essentially, we are arguing that demand in the trades will be related to the overall level of economic activity, which will be constrained by the labour force and not driven by the population size. This approach is quite different from that employed in some manpower models, especially in service industries.
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For example, planning in health and community services commonly assumes that demand is related to population numbers, not employment numbers. However, the demand for the trades primarily depends on the level of economic activity in industries, such as construction and manufacturing, and these industries are clearly driven by levels of economic activity. To sum up:
r r r r
r
The trades’ workforce is going to be directly affected by the ageing of the population because of its reliance on young men as entrants. The ageing of the population will make a very significant difference to the size of the trades workforce—some 320,000 people by 2040. Despite this impact on the size of the workforce, moderate scenarios suggest that there will be no overall imbalance between supply and demand over coming decades, because the slowing in employment growth caused by the ageing of the population will dampen the demand for tradespersons. This conclusion presupposes that the trades retain their attractiveness and we do not see significant declines in commencement rates among young men or significant increases in attrition. That is, the ageing of the population does not play a big role. Rather, any shortages are more likely to be a result of the attractiveness of the trades relative to other occupations. Unless patterns of commencements and attrition change, the age distribution with the trades will be largely unchanged; demographics do not play a big role here.
A last word of caution: this analysis has looked at trades as a whole. What applies at this aggregate level may not apply within particular occupations, because the projections are sensitive to rates of commencement, rates of cancellations and attrition rates, all of which we know vary significantly across trades. However, the extension of our approach to the individual trades (Karmel & Ong, 2007) does not alter our conclusions, although there is considerable variation in the model parameters and projections at the individual trade level.
Notes 1. First published in Karmel, T.; Maclean, R., eds. 2007. Technical and vocational education and training in an ageing society: expert meeting proceedings. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. 2. By trades we mean the following occupations: Tradespersons and related workers—not further defined (Australian Standard Classification of Occupations—ASCO 40); Mechanical and fabrication engineering tradespersons (ASCO 41); Automotive tradespersons (ASCO 42); Electrical and electronics tradespersons (ASCO 43); Construction tradespersons (ASCO 44); Food tradespersons (ASCO 45); Skilled agriculture and horticulture workers (ASCO 46); Other tradespersons and related workers (ASCO 49). 3. Men dominate the trades except for hairdressing and, to a lesser extent, the food trades. We concentrate on young men because of their dominance and also to aid our exposition. 4. By apprenticeship we actually mean a contract of training. In the Australian context this covers both apprenticeships and traineeships. 5. More information on the technicalities of the calculations can be found in Karmel and Ong, 2007.
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6. We have smoothed the historical rates in order to ensure that the model is well behaved. 7. The commencement and cancellation rates refer to contracts of training. If we were to look at individuals and make allowances for those who change trades, we would have lower commencement and cancellation rates. This would make little difference to our projections because they offset one another. 8. It should be noted that our employment data come from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Labour Force Survey, which relies on information from any responsible adult in the household. No doubt there is some noise in the response to questions about occupation. 9. We have used the Australian Bureau of Statistics Series B population projections (ABS, 2006). 10. A potential model is the MONASH model, a general equilibrium model of the Australian economy (Dixon & Rimmer, 2002). 11. The Access Economics model does not align exactly with ours in terms of coverage. However, if we aggregate their categories, mechanical engineering & automotive; fabrication engineering; electrical, plumbing & construction; food; printing; wood; hairdressers; and textile & miscellaneous, then the aggregate can be directly compared with our projections for total trades (acknowledging that the Access Economics model does not cover horticultural workers). If we do this, the Access Economics projected average growth of 1.9% per annum is slightly higher than our rather simplistic demand projection for all of trades (0.5%). However, there is some variation within the Access Economics projections: from −0.1% for mechanical and automotive to 1.2% for food tradespersons. 12. Implicitly, the line of argument presupposes that, at the starting point, the labour market for the trades is more or less in balance. The fact that the Department of Workplace Relations’ list, Migration occupations in demand, includes a number of trades suggests that there are currently shortages. However, any current imbalance is relatively immaterial when undertaking projections over a thirty-five-year period.
References Access Economics. 2006. Future demand for vocational education and training in NSW. Sydney, Australia: Access Economics. (Report for the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal.) Australian Bureau of Statistics—ABS. 2006. Population projections, Australia 2004–2101. Canberra: ABS. Australian Council of Trade Unions—ACTU. 2004. Australia’s looming skills shortage. Melbourne, Australia: ACTU. Dixon, P.; Rimmer, M. 2002. Dynamic, general equilibrium modelling for forecasting and policy: a practical guide and documentation of MONASH. Amsterdam: North-Holland. Karmel, T.; Li, J. 2002. The nursing workforce in 2101: the National Review of Nursing Education 2002: the nursing workforce. Canberra: Department of Education, Science and Training. Karmel, T.; Ong, K. 2007. Will we run out of young men? Implications of the ageing of the population for the trades in Australia. In: Karmel, T.; Maclean, R., eds. Technical and vocational education and training in an ageing society: expert meeting proceedings. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Karmel, T.; Woods, D. 2004. Lifelong learning and older workers. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER.
Chapter XIV.7
The Ageing Labour Force and the Retraining of Workers in the Republic of Korea1 Jihee Choi
1 Introduction The ageing of the population of a country has many implications. Ageing raises the dependency ratio, meaning there are fewer people available to undertake productive work and contribute actively to the economy. In addition, population ageing raises the issue of labour productivity and labour quality. Productivity may be reduced by lower rates of labour-market participation among older people, and the quality of labour may be reduced in jobs requiring hard physical labour. Population ageing in the Republic of Korea (henceforth Korea) has been plagued by additional factors. First, Korea has been experiencing ageing at an unprecedented speed, thereby making social and individual adjustment more difficult. Second, the social safety net for older people is not yet fully developed and access to welfare benefits is limited. Third, Korean workers begin to experience age-related job displacement as early as 45 years of age. Once displaced from their jobs, older people experience particular difficulties in obtaining new jobs, due to labour-market discrimination and also due to the structure of the labour market, where job mobility in general is relatively low. This study reviews key characteristics of ageing in Korea, identifies major issues associated with ageing, and suggests how retraining for older workers in Korea needs to be restructured to meet the challenges posed by a rapidly ageing society.
2 Characteristics of Ageing in Korea 2.1 A Rapidly Ageing Society What is most characteristic of ageing in Korea is probably the rapid rate at which population ageing is proceeding. Table 1 shows the years that different countries reached or will reach critical stages in ageing—where the proportion of those aged 65 years and over reaches 7%, 14%, and 20% in each country. The table also shows, for each country, the number of years taken to move from 7% to 14%, and again R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XIV.7, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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Table 1 The year of reaching critical shares of the population aged over 65, selected countries Year reaching Korea Japan France Germany UK Italy USA
Number of years taken
7%
14%
20%
7%–14%
14%–20%
2000 1970 1864 1932 1929 1927 1942
2019 1994 1979 1972 1976 1988 2013
2026 2006 2020 2012 2021 2007 2028
19 24 115 40 47 61 71
7 12 41 40 45 19 15
Source: Korea National Statistical Office, 2001.
from 14% to 20%. Among the countries listed in the table, France was the first country, in 1864, to reach the first critical point where the proportion of the people aged 65 represented 7%. The United States reached the same stage in 1942 and Japan in 1970. Among all the countries, Korea was the last to reach this stage—in 2000. Korea was again the last country to reach the second critical point where the proportion of those 65 years and over rises to 14%. However, when it comes to the third critical point, where the proportion of the elderly people is 20%, Korea is projected to reach this stage in 2026, ahead of the United States, which is projected to reach it in 2028, and only six years later than France, which is projected to reach it in 2020. This can be further illuminated by comparing the number of years it takes in the transition from one critical point to another in these countries. It took France 115 years—over a century—to shift from the 7% stage to the 14% stage, while the same transition took seventy-one years for the United States, twenty-four years for Japan, and only nineteen years for Korea. The progress of ageing in Korea is projected to be further accelerated in the coming years. The number of years it will take for Korea to move from the 14% point to the 20% point is expected to be only seven!
2.2 Shifts in Age Structure in Korea, 1960–2050 The rapid pace at which ageing proceeds in Korea is well demonstrated by the shifts in the age structure of the Korean population from the past to the future, as shown in Figure 1. The figure shows and projects the changes occurring in the age structure of the population during the period, 1960–2050. The shape of the structure has changed from a pyramid to a bell shape between 1960 and 2000—in only forty years—as ‘the baby boom generation’ after the Korean civil war approaches retirement age. This shape is further projected to turn into almost an inverse pyramid by 2050.
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Year 1960
Age
Men
Age
Women
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
0.05
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
0.00
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.01
0.02
0.02
0.05
Year 2000 Men
Age
Age
Women
80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
0.03
0.02
0.02
0.01
0.01
0.00
0.01
0.03
Year 2050
Age
Men
Age
Women
90 80 70 60 50 40
30 20 10 0
0.02
0.02
0.01
0.01
0.00
0.01
0.01
Fig. 1 Changes in age structure of the Korean population, 1960–2050 Source: Korea National Statistical Office, 2001.
0.02
0.02
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2.3 The Rising Dependency Ratio Population ageing is anticipated to raise the dependency ratio of the population. The total dependency ratio of the population was very high in 1970, at 83.8%. This ratio continues to decrease until the year 2000, being projected to hit the lowest point in the year 2010. After this point, the ratio is projected to continue to rise to reach 86.1% in 2050, a higher ratio than it was in 1970. To understand the drops and increases in the total dependency ratios during the projected period 1970–2050, changes in the total ratios need to be further broken down to the changes in the youth dependency ratios and the changes in the elderly dependency ratios. The drops in the total dependency ratio up to the year 2010 are explained by the fact that the drop in the youth dependency ratio exceeds the increase in the elderly dependency ratio until 2010. However, in 2010, the increase in the elderly dependency ratio begins to exceed the decrease in the youth dependency ratio, thereby resulting in a constant rapid increase in the total dependency ratio after 2010. A high total dependency ratio caused by a high proportion of the young population offers some hope in that, as the young generation matures, it will lower the dependency ratio by increasing the base of the ratio. However, a high dependency ratio caused by a high proportion of elderly people does not provide much room for improvement, unless some external active intervention takes place, such as measures to increase the national fertility. Korea has been suffering from a low fertility rate as the rapid drops in the youth dependency ratio in Table 2 show. Table 2 Changes in the dependency ratios and median ages, 1970–2050 Year
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050
Total dependency ratio (%)1 Youth dependency ratio (%)2 Elderly dependency ratio (%)3 Median age of the aged population
83.8 78.2 5.7 18.5
60.7 54.6 6.1 21.8
44.3 36.9 7.4 27.2
39.5 29.4 10.1 31.8
37.3 22.3 14.9 37.5
39.4 17.6 21.8 42.8
54.7 17.4 37.3 47.7
72.6 17.4 55.2 50.9
86.1 16.7 69.4 53.8
Notes: 1. Total dependency ratio: (aged 0–14) + (aged over 65)/(aged 15–64)∗ 100. 2. Youth dependency ratio: (aged 0–14)/(aged 15–64)∗ 100. 3. Elderly dependency ratio: (aged over 65)/(aged 15–64)∗ 100. Source: Korea National Statistical Office, 2001.
2.4 The Labour Shortage Issue Ageing also raises the issue of productivity, because labour-force participation is generally lower among older people. Table 3 shows that labour-force participation drops with age for those aged 50 years and over in Korea. In the year 2005, the rate of labour-force participation among men drops from 89.1% for the age group of 50–54 years, to 66.5% for the age group of 60–64 years, and to as low as 41.2% for the age group of 65 years and over. The rate of drop is a little slower for women than for men. In the same year, the rate of labour-force participation among women
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Table 3 Trends in the labour-force participation rates by age groups 50 years and older, by gender (%) Aged 50–54 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Aged 55–59
Male
Female
Male
Female
90.5 88.1 90.6 91.3 89.1 88.0 88.3 89.7 89.4 89.1
53.9 52.4 60.0 58.8 55.2 56.5 58.0 55.5 56.1 58.3
80.0 77.3 83.6 83.9 77.7 77.8 80.1 80.3 80.7 80.6
46.2 47.2 54.4 54.1 51.1 50.6 49.6 49 49.4 49.0
Aged 60–64 Male
67.2 73.7 63.4 65.0 66.5 63.7 64.8 66.5
Female
43.6 46.0 45.9 45.6 46.4 42.7 43.4 43.3
Aged 65 and over Male
39.3 40.8 40.6 41.2 42.7 39.8 41.3 41.2
Total
Female
18.4 20.2 22.8 22.9 23.0 21.5 22.2 22.4
59.0 56.6 60.0 61.9 61.0 61.3 61.9 61.4 62.0 61.9
Source: Korea National Statistical Office, 1980–2005.
drops from 58.3% for those aged 50–54 years, to 43.3% for those aged 60–64 years, then to 22.4% for those aged 65 years and over. The gaps between men and women in the labour-force participation rate decrease with age among those aged 50 years and over. As shown in Table 3, the rapid decrease in the labour-force participation rate occurs as age increases. If the current trends in the age structure of the population in Korea continue and the rate of labour-force participation by age group remains the same, this could soon lead to a labour-shortage problem in Korea. A couple of important suggestions have been made to boost labour-force participation and, at the same time, to solve the future labour-shortage problem in Korea. The first solution is to utilise the female labour force in Korea to a greater extent. The labour-force participation of females in Korea is one of the lowest in the countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). During the prime working ages of 35–55 years, the differences in the participation rate between men and women can be as high as 30%. Also, there is an argument that the retirement ages in Korea need to be readjusted if population ageing continues at the current rate. If this measure is taken, it will raise the labour-force participation rates of the age groups affected. However, this is not yet considered to be a realistic measure. In Korea, a great proportion of workers aged 45 years and over retire from work before they reach their official full retirement— between 55 and 60—and many of them do not obtain re-employment.
2.5 The Decline of Skills among Older People Along with the labour shortage issue, the ageing population also raises concerns about the decreasing quality of labour, as physical ability declines with age. There is a debate about how much ageing affects a worker’s ability to perform the task required at work. While it is widely understood that the overall skills of an individual
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decrease with age, the decline in the worker’s ability is known to be affected by several factors, such as the skill level of the worker. Table 4 shows how the basic skill levels decline with age. When the skill levels of those in their 60s are compared with those in their 20s, prose literacy declines by 40 points, document literacy by 40 points, and the problem-solving ability by over 30 points. Numerical literacy shows the largest decline for those in their 60s, with a 57-point decline compared with those in their 20s. These declines for older people in the crucial basic skills are likely to affect not only their work but also their everyday lives. Also, declines in these basic skills for older people imply that older people have low trainability. Table 4 also shows that basic skill levels increase with educational attainment. This implies that, given the lower educational attainment among the older generations in Korea, low basic skill levels of older people could be attributed to the lower level of schooling of the older generation, and not only to the age factor. It is not clear yet how much schooling slows down a decrease in skills associated with ageing. However, while the younger generation in Korea continues to obtain more schooling compared with the older generation, the gap between the young and old will continue to exist. Table 4 Differences in the level of basic skills by age, gender, educational attainment Prose literacy N Sex
Document literacy
Mean SD N
Numerical literacy
Mean SD N
Problemsolving ability
Mean SD N
Mean SD
Male 2120 499 48 2125 500 49 981 502 48 958 500 49 Female 2109 500 51 2107 499 50 967 496 51 938 499 50 Total 4229 500 50 4232 500 50 1948 499 49 1896 500 50 Age 10–19 408 501 40 410 502 40 214 503 43 188 502 44 20–29 1044 511 44 1045 511 46 474 514 41 468 510 48 30–39 1167 506 47 1168 506 47 512 508 42 497 505 47 40–49 927 498 49 926 496 46 419 499 50 403 496 49 50–59 505 475 55 503 480 58 238 480 56 247 483 52 60–69 178 460 60 180 460 62 91 446 56 93 469 56 Total 4229 500 50 4232 500 50 1948 499 49 1896 500 50 Educational Elem. educ or 203 440 70 203 449 66 96 437 63 109 464 55 attainment lower Middle school 528 476 47 530 477 50 247 471 53 239 482 49 Some high 273 500 38 273 502 37 152 499 40 121 503 48 school High school 1793 501 45 1793 499 46 797 500 43 788 497 47 completed Associate degree 368 512 46 368 510 40 184 509 36 165 511 48 Some coll. educ. 270 515 44 271 510 39 123 521 42 143 513 40 Bachelor or 793 517 44 793 520 50 349 514 45 330 517 47 higher Total 4228 500 50 4231 500 50 1948 499 49 1895 500 49 Note: The means and standard deviations listed are standardized numbers with bases on the mean score 500 and the standard deviation 50. Source: Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, 2005.
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3 Issues for Older Workers in Korea 3.1 Critical Issues Facing Older Workers Population ageing poses critical issues for society as well as for the individual. These issues need to be examined before discussing the training needs of older workers. First, ageing itself could be a problem in any country. But, in Korea, the problem is not ageing itself, but the speed at which ageing of the population is occurring. The rapid ageing allows little time for both society and the individual to prepare for the future. Responding to ageing by making adjustments in social policies is not easy because it takes time to adopt policy reforms in such fields as employment policies and social welfare. As ageing reaches a more mature stage, the issue will be more focused on those aged over 65 years. As people live longer, society should be able to find a way to enable them to work longer. However, at the current stage of ageing in Korea, the issue is more urgent. While the full retirement ages in Korea range between 55 and 60, depending on the sector of employment, most workers in Korea are forced from their workplaces far earlier. High unemployment among people aged between 45 and 65 is a serious social problem, along with high youth unemployment. Discriminatory labour-market practices play a negative role in displaced older workers obtaining new jobs at a comparable level. Also, the traditional paternalistic values and work attitudes of older people work against older people obtaining a low-level job. Currently, the most urgent issue for older people in Korea is for them to able to continue to work until they reach the official retirement age. Table 5 illustrates the distribution of labour-market status of the older workers aged 55 years and over in Korea. As they get older, the proportion of the selfemployed, including employers, increases. For men aged 55–64 years, the share of the self-employed reaches 53.2%. For men aged 65 and over, the share increases to 72.2%, and 77%, when unpaid family workers are included. The high proportion of self-employed workers among those aged 55 years and over in Korea explains the gap between the effective retirement age and the official retirement age, as shown in a recent OECD report (OECD, 2006). The effec-
Table 5 Labour-market status of older people in Korea, 2000 (%)
Salary workers: permanent Salary workers: temporary Salary workers: daily basis Employers Self-employed Unpaid family workers
Male
Female
Male
Female
Ages 55–64
Ages 55–64
Ages 65 and over
Ages 65 and over
21.6 13.6 10.7 8.7 44.5 1.2
3.9 19.4 16.7 2.9 26.2 30.8
6.6 10.7 5.8 4.8 67.4 4.8
1.0 8.4 14.8 0.6 42.2 33.0
Source: Korea National Statistical Office (various dates [2001]).
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tive retirement age is reported to be far higher than the official retirement age in Korea. Those who are forced from their workplace against their will continue to work as self-employed people. The high proportion of self-employed among older workers in Korea explains the high actual age of retirement of about 70, since in general the retirement age is much higher for the self-employed than for salaried workers. Finally, the lack of a social safety net for the elderly is a significant problem in Korea. While many may have to leave the labour market before they reach the official age of retirement, they have only accumulated sufficient wealth for life upon reaching retirement. There is no social welfare available for these people.
3.2 Policy Reform Needs in an Ageing Society Korea faces the need for an urgent social policy reform in key sectors to solve issues associated with ageing. First, reform of the social welfare system is needed to better support older people in Korea. Currently, social welfare for the elderly is not fully developed since supporting the elderly has been the responsibility of the direct family until very recently. Due to changes in the values of young people and also due to rapidly rising longevity, this situation is changing. These days, parents live until their children themselves grow old. So, public intervention is needed to support old people. Although the social welfare system in Korea has recently begun to respond to this need of older people for social welfare, the process is very slow. Second, population ageing has financial implications for society. An increasing proportion of older people places a burden on national finance systems, such as the social security and health budgets. Supporting old people incurs high social costs. This could lead to running national deficits unless some measures to increase tax income are introduced. Also, increases in the aged population create the need to adjust the national pension system to better meet the needs of older people. In Korea, the national pension system is facing major reform since it cannot maintain the current level of payment due to the rapidly increasing older population. Third, a labour-market adjustment is needed which allows older workers to stay and work longer in the labour force. This can be done in two ways. First, measures need to be taken to make sure that workers stay until they reach official retirement age. Second, the current retirement age, which is set at between 55 and 60, needs to be pushed upward to allow workers to work longer. To make this adjustment, a social agreement between the workers and the firms needs to be established. Recent debates in Korea have focused on adopting wage adjustment practices, such as a wage peak system, in labour markets. On the whole, social safety nets for older people need to be strengthened to meet the requirements of an ageing society.
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4 Retraining Older Workers in Korea 4.1 The Low Participation of Older People in Training Participation by Korean people in continuous education and training is very low by comparison with other OECD countries. Furthermore, most continuous education and training takes place among the employed while they are employed. In the workplace, the chances of a worker obtaining vocational education and training are determined by the size of the firm and the age and the educational attainment of the worker. Employees in large firms have a greater likelihood of receiving training compared with workers in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Those with more years of schooling have a greater likelihood of receiving training than those with fewer years of schooling. When other factors are held constant, younger workers have a greater likelihood of receiving training than older workers, while those with middle-level jobs are more likely than those in high-level jobs. Table 6 shows the pattern of participation in continuous education and training by age, gender and educational attainment. Focusing on the age groups, it can be observed that participation in continuous education and training drops sharply with age. For the age group of 10–19 years, the total participation rate is 61.5%. But, it drops with age after that. When the total participation rates are compared between those in their 40s and those in their 50s, the decrease is extremely large. Also, the participation of older people aged 50 and over is very low. The rate is only 4% for the age group of 50–59 and 2.5% for the age group of 60–69. The total participation rate in continuous education and training includes participation in formal training as well as in informal training. In Table 6, rates of participation in both are shown. In Table 6 Participation in continuous education and training (CET), by age, gender and educational attainment Total CET
Sex Age
Educational attainment
Male Female 10–19 20–29 30–39 40–49 50–59 60–69 Elementary school Middle school diploma High school diploma Associate degree Bachelor or higher Total
Formal CET
Informal CET
N
Rate of N part. (%)
Rate of N part. (%)
Rate of part. (%)
250 281 48 203 142 101 29 8 7 32 250 69 173 531
10.7 11.5 61.5 19.4 9.9 8.5 4 2.5 2 4.4 11.1 14.8 32.6 11.1
6.7 6.4 14.1 8.3 7.6 6.3 3.2 2.2 1.4 2.6 5.9 8.6 37.2 6.5
4.4 5.3 57.7 12.3 2.2 1.8 1.3 0 0.9 2.2 6.1 5.4 22.2 4.9
155 157 11 87 109 75 23 7 5 19 132 40 116 312
Source: Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, 2005.
103 131 45 128 31 21 9 3 16 138 25 52 234
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both formal and informal participation, the rates drop sharply with age. This shows that there needs to be strong policy support to increase the opportunities for older people to obtain education and training.
4.2 Major Considerations for the Retraining of Older Workers In structuring the retraining of older workers in Korea, the following factors need to be considered. First, a high proportion of older workers are self-employed. The rate of selfemployment is relatively high in Korea compared with other countries. A high proportion of older salaried workers displaced from their jobs turn to self-employment. Supporting self-employed older workers with the kind of training they need is important. Second, participation in continuous training to further develop skills is very low compared with other countries. In addition to this, older workers are a low priority group for receiving training in companies. The number of older people is increasing in Korea. Thus, older people are no longer a minority group in terms of numbers, but they are still treated so socially and in relation to the establishment of public policies. Retraining of socially disadvantaged groups in Korea is still a low-priority issue. Insufficient investment is being made in retraining older workers to enable them to find re-employment after retirement. Policy reforms with respect to the retraining of older workers should be based on an understanding of this situation. Third, the training needs of different groups among older people vary according to background factors, such as their diversity in gender, age, employment status and socio-economic status. Older people in Korea are a very heterogeneous group. Their training needs differ and depend on their characteristics.
4.3 Schemes to Retrain Older Workers in Korea Considering the situation of older workers, their retraining should be structured to focus on preparing them for the future world of work. Retraining of workers should also be structured to help them plan for a career after retirement. Depending on the type of work in which the older worker is currently engaged, preparation for a future career could be diversified into a different career path. However, what is more important in structuring training for older workers is that the training programmes should be able to help older workers to clearly plan and prepare for the world of work they face in the future, while providing them with critical information on the kinds of jobs they can take when they retire. Ra, Choi and Kim (2004) divide workers aged between 45 and 65 into four distinct groups. The first group consists of salaried workers who did not change their employer during their lifetime; this constitutes 30% of workers. The second group consists of salaried workers who changed their employer more than once, which
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accounts for 25% of workers. The third group consists of self-employed workers who never changed their job; this is 25.8% of workers. The fourth consists of self-employed workers who have changed their job more than once, which explains 19.3% of the population. What these groups have in common is that they all need career development programmes to be able to work longer. Some older workers need to change their careers completely, while others need to seek a new career in a field relatively close to their current job. Retraining needs for different groups are different. First, the group of older workers whose careers have been stable tends to maintain job security until they reach 55, which is the mandatory retirement age in most companies. However, at 55, they retire from work and become re-employed at entry level or they work as temporary workers. For this group of people, training programmes are needed to prepare them for a stepped retirement from work, such as obtaining re-employment at the same firm after official retirement. The group of stable self-employed workers is typically working in a traditional sector, such as farming. Thus, for this group, training programmes are needed to help them to update their skills and to teach them how to run their businesses more successfully. While older workers still have difficulty in finding jobs in Korea, they have a high degree of motivation towards working and employment. This implies that, when associated with higher chances of employment, the retraining needs of older workers are very high in Korea.
Note 1. First published in Karmel, T.; Maclean, R., eds. 2007. Technical and vocational education and training in an ageing society: expert meeting proceedings. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER.
References Korea National Statistical Office. Various dates. Annual report on the economically active population survey. Seoul: Korea National Statistical Office. Korea National Statistical Office. 2001. Population projections for Korea: 2000–2050 (based on the 2000 Census). Seoul: Korea National Statistical Office. Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training—KRIVET. 2005. Adult Literacy and Life-skills Survey (ALLS—Korea). Seoul: KRIVET. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2006. Live longer, work longer. Paris: OECD. Ra, Young-sun; Choi, Ji-hee; Kim, Sangho. 2004. Thematic review of adult learning of the loweducated and low-skilled in Korea. Paris: OECD.
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Chapter XIV.8
Technical Entrepreneurship Development for the Aged1 Man-Gon Park and Suresh Kumar Dhameja
Allow me to be good to you. If not me, who else? If not now, when? And if I won’t be good to you, what will happen to us? Elisabeth Lukas
1 Introduction We are living in an ageing world. While this has been recognized for some time in developed countries, it is only recently that the ramifications of this changing social structure are being fully acknowledged. Developing countries have yet even fully to recognize this phenomenon. We can say that, while global communication is ‘shrinking’ the world, global ageing is ‘maturing’ it. The increasing percentage of aged in the world is making people of all ages more aware that we live in a diverse and multigenerational society. The ageing of the population impacts on all social, economic and cultural spheres. However, there is a need to view ageing as a lifelong and society-wide phenomenon. Older people should not be perceived as people merely to be protected, but as valuable human resources who can contribute effectively to society. Another irony of today’s societies is that, although people are living longer, they tend to retire earlier. The number of years that workers can expect to spend in retirement has risen considerably—for men, from fewer than eleven years on average across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in 1970 to just under eighteen years in 2004; and, for women, from fewer than fourteen years to just under eighteen years.2 This has repercussions from both economic and social points of view. Therefore, expanding employment options, as well as self-employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for these aged people, have become increasingly important. In OECD countries in 2004, on average, less than 60% of the population aged 50–64 years had a job. There are numerous work disincentives and employment R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XIV.8, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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barriers facing older workers which often result in early exit from the labour market. This is primarily due to negative perceptions about the capacities of aged workers to adapt to technological and organizational change and a perceived reduction in their productivity. The bottom line is that population ageing is both a challenge and an opportunity. While it puts upward pressure on public expenditures and presumably drags down economic growth, it also offers a tremendous opportunity by way of taking the benefit of experience and maturity of these aged people by utilizing them productively. It also helps these people as they can spend more rewarding years at work even after retirement. However, this calls for the provision of alternative employment opportunities for this category of people. Age is not an accurate representation of an individual’s energy or ability to succeed. A recent study conducted by the National Council on the Aging in the United States found that one-third of Americans in their 70s considers themselves only ‘middle-aged’. In the United States ‘baby boomers’ are beginning businesses after so-called ‘retiring’ age. A 2004 Rand Corporation study found that self-employment rates rise at older ages. The report noted that, in 2002, the rate of self-employment for the workforce was 10.2%, but the rate for those aged 50 was 16.4%. While the 50-plus people made up 25% of the workforce, they composed 40% of the self-employed. Howard Stone, a life-coach and co-author with his wife of Too young to retire, claimed that more people of retirement age are deciding to redefine the third and fourth quarters of life away from the concept of just ‘taking it easy’. In this book they comment that the prospect of living longer is also motivating more seniors to start businesses after retirement. ‘When you have a job, even if it’s a few hours a week, your mind and body want to stay in the game longer’ (Stone & Stone, 2004). Yahoo’s second annual survey of entrepreneurial aspirations finds that two-thirds of American adults (66%) claim that they’ve considered starting their own businesses. (The survey was commissioned by Yahoo Small Business and conducted by Harris Interactive.) Baby boomer-aged survey respondents indicated a significant increase in entrepreneurial aspirations. For example, when asked: ‘At what age do you think it would be too late to start your own business?’, 70% of respondents who were aged 45 to 54 years and 72% of those 55 years and older answered: ‘I will never be too old to start my own business’. Fifty-five per cent of respondents chose ‘own my own business’ as the kind of work they would prefer to undertake late in life. In the United Kingdom, 18% of the working population aged 16 to 65 years are self-employed. Indeed, 23% of entrepreneurs are aged between 45 and 54 years. According to research by Barclays Bank (2001), new businesses run by the over-50s are growing in number; this situation seems set to continue in line with the United Kingdom’s ageing population. There is a need to utilize the capabilities of aged people in developing countries productively, and especially those in the Asia and the Pacific Region. In view of the decreasing wage employment opportunities because of employers’ preferences for hiring young people, the entrepreneurial option seems to be the best alternative career. There is, thus, a need to provide them with the necessary technical training to turn them into ‘techno-preneurs’, which will go a long way in utilizing their
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time, talent and experience productively. It will result in employment for others also, thereby further contributing towards the socio-economic betterment of a country.
2 The Magnitude of the Aged Population Over the past few years, the world’s population has continued on its remarkable transition path from a state of high-birth and high-death rates to one characterized by low-birth and low-death rates. The result of that transition has been the growth in the number and proportion of older people. Such a rapid, large and ubiquitous growth has never before been seen in the history of civilization. The current demographic revolution is predicted to continue well into the coming century. Its major features include the following.
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The number of people aged 60 years or older was estimated to be 629 million in 2002 and is projected to grow to almost 2 billion by 2050, at which time the population of older people will be larger than the population of children (0–14 years) for the first time in human history. The majority of the world’s older people reside in Asia (54%), while Europe has the next largest share (24%). One in every ten people is now aged 60 years or older. By 2050, the United Nations projects that one person of every five and, by 2150, one of every three will be aged 60 years or older. The percentage is currently much higher in the more-developed than in the less-developed regions, but the pace of ageing in developing countries is more rapid, and their transition from a young to an old age structure will be more compressed in time. The world has experienced dramatic improvements in longevity. Life expectancy at birth has climbed about twenty years since 1950 to its current level of sixty-six years. Of those surviving to age 60, men can expect to live another seventeen years and women an additional twenty years. The majority of older people are women (55%). Because female life expectancy is greater than male life expectancy, in 2002, among older people, there were 81 men per 100 women. Countries with high per capita incomes tend to have lower participation rates of older workers. In more-developed regions, 21% of men aged 60 years or older are economically active, compared with 50% of men in less-developed regions. In more-developed regions, 10% of older women are economically active, compared with 19% in less-developed regions. Older people participate to a greater extent in labour markets in less-developed regions largely owing to the limited coverage of retirement schemes and the relatively small incomes from pensions, when provided.
The report, World population ageing: 1950–2050 by the United Nations (2002), prepared as a contribution to the 2002 World Assembly on Ageing and its follow-up, notes that:
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population ageing is pervasive, a global phenomenon affecting every man, woman and child—but countries are at very different stages of the process, and the pace of change differs greatly. Countries that started the process later will have less time to adjust and population ageing is enduring. [. . .] Population ageing has profound implications for many facets of human life.
The following are the major features of the socio-economic characteristics of the older population.
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Labour-force participation of the older population has declined worldwide over the last decades. Older people today are significantly less likely to participate in the labour force than they were in the past. Over the past fifty years, labour force participation of people aged 65 or over declined by more than 40% at the global level. In 1950, about one in every three people aged 65 or over was in the labour force. In 2000, this ratio decreased to just less than one in five. Among men, the reduction in labour force participation was from 55% in the labour force in 1950 to 30% in 2000. By 2010, the total participation rate is projected to decrease slightly to 18%, owing to the drop in the male rate to 28%. The female share of the older work force is increasing. Traditionally, the proportion of older men who are economically active has been notably higher than the proportion of older women. However, as participation in the labour force at older ages has dropped faster among men than among women, the female share of the older labour force has steadily increased over the last decades, especially in the more developed regions. In 1950, 26% of the workers aged 65 or over were women in both the more- and less-developed regions. By 2000, this proportion had increased to 29% in the less-developed regions and to 41% in the more-developed regions. At the global level, the percentage of older workers who were women increased from 26 in 1980 to 31 in 2000. Participation rates of older persons are higher in the less-developed regions. Old-age support systems in the form of pension and retirement programmes are much less prevalent in the less-developed regions than in the more-developed regions. It is not surprising, therefore, to find higher proportions of older people in the labour force in the less-developed regions. In 1950, the labour-force participation rate among people 65 or older was about 40% in the less-developed regions and 23% in the more-developed regions. Over the following fifty years, the participation rate decreased considerably faster in the more-developed regions. The employment rate is lowest in Europe and highest in Africa. Among the world’s major areas, Africa has by far the highest proportion of economically active people among those 65 years or older, while Europe has the lowest. Between these two extremes, labour-force participation rates among the older population are lower in Oceania and Northern America and higher in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Literacy among the older population is nearly universal in the more-developed regions. The widespread attainment of at least primary education has been long
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established in the more-developed regions. As a result, literacy in these regions is assumed to be nearly universal, even among the older population. Illiteracy remains high among older people, especially women, in the lessdeveloped regions. Although illiteracy among older people has consistently declined in most of the less-developed regions over the last two decades, it still remains generally high. In one of the surveys the United Nations conducted in 105 less-developed countries, 56% of people aged 60 or over were illiterate in 2000. Over the decade 2000–2010, the illiteracy rate among older people is projected to continue decreasing in virtually all countries. By 2010, the aggregate rate for the 105 less-developed countries is expected to decrease to 43%. The reduction in illiteracy rates among older people in the less-developed regions was greater among males than females. As a result, the gender gap in literacy has increased over the few years. Since education levels have improved for each generation over the last century, it is common to find important differences in the educational attainment of younger and older segments of the older population. Therefore, illiteracy among older people in the less-developed regions is particularly high among those in the most-advanced age groups.
Table 1 shows the population 60 years and above (in percentages), the dependency ratio and labour-force participation rate for Asia and the Pacific countries in the year Table 1 The aged population in Asia and the Pacific countries, 2005 Country
Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Cambodia China Fiji India Indonesia Iran Laos Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Myanmar Nepal Pakistan Papua New Guinea Philippines Republic of Korea Singapore Sri Lanka Thailand Viet Nam
Population 60 years and above (%) 4.4 5.7 7.0 4.7 5.6 10.9 6.4 7.9 8.4 6.4 5.3 7.0 5.1 5.7 7.5 5.8 5.8 3.9 6.1 13.7 12.2 10.7 10.5 7.5
Dependency ratio (%) 97 64 75 49 68 41 55 60 51 50 80 59 79 52 52 74 73 74 64 39 39 46 45 54
Labour force participation rate, age 15–64 (%) Male
Female
87.7 89.8 91.2 84.2 82.3 90.1 84.5 87.6 86.3 76.4 91.1 35.7 75.7 61.2 89.7 92.1 84.6 88.7 84.3 77.9 82.7 76.8 81.1 86.0
48.9 57.2 59.6 49.4 76.2 80.3 32.8 43.5 53.2 11.2 74.4 39.4 28.6 56.1 68.3 85 15.4 68.7 54.8 52.8 56.3 35.6 65 79.4
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2005. We can see from this table that, in terms of the percentage of their total population, the population of people aged 60 years or above is highest in the Republic of Korea (13.7%) followed by Singapore, China, Sri Lanka and Thailand in that order. It clearly shows that these countries have ageing societies who need to be cared for. The countries with a low ageing population are Brunei (4.7%) and Afghanistan (4.4%). Considering that we are taking age 50 as defining the aged entrepreneurs, this percentage could be much higher in all of the countries if we used a higher age as the defining criterion. In terms of the dependency ratio, Afghanistan (97%) leads the table followed by Laos (80%) and Maldives (79%). But in general the dependency ratio is quite high and well above the 40% mark, except for the Republic of Korea and Singapore (39% each). The old-age dependency ratio indicates a situation in which an increasing number of potential beneficiaries of health and pension funds are supported by a relatively smaller number of potential contributors (those in the economically active age group). In relation to the male labour-force participation rate between the ages of 15 and 64, Nepal leads the table closely followed by Bhutan and Laos, while for the female labour force participation rate, Nepal is followed by China and Viet Nam.
3 The Problems of Aged People The problems of aged people can be broadly divided into three categories. 1. Physical: disabilities and diseases; movement disorders; incontinence; malignancies. 2. Emotional: loneliness; generation gap; rejection from family; depression or hyper-excitement; sleeplessness; dementia; confusion. 3. Social: loss of social status; inactive life because of retirement; addictions. While the remedy for the physical problems lies in medical treatment, the remedies for emotional and social problems could be: (a) counselling; (b) support from society, neighbours and family; and (c) integration into useful and constructive work which will give self-satisfaction. In most of the Asian and Pacific countries there are no social security systems. In addition, in earlier times most of these countries had joint family systems and aged people were taken care of. But, with the breaking-up of the extended family system and the onset of the nuclear family system, the need for income generation amongst these older people is much greater. It is truly said that a busy and productive mind and body can halt the progress of disease. Therefore, there is a need to utilize the productive capacities of these older people; this will not only give them a sense of fulfilment but will also hold back the diseases of old age. There is no better way of utilizing the potential of these people than initiating them into an entrepreneurial career.
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4 Defining the Older Entrepreneur This population has been variously referred to as ‘senior entrepreneurs’, ‘thirdage entrepreneurs’, ‘elder entrepreneurs’, ‘second-career entrepreneurs’, ‘older entrepreneurs’ and ‘silver entrepreneurs’. Although there is no standard of what age differentiates an older entrepreneur, using 50 or older to define this group is a plausible approach. According to de Bruin and Firkin (2001), ‘many of the issues that confront the older worker [. . .] apply to people in their fifties’, and, ‘increasingly the age of fifty is being used [by] insurance and retirement service providers as a benchmark age for categorizing those in the older group’. People who start their business after 50 years of age have presumably never faced the trials of entrepreneurship before and are therefore in a more challenging and unique position. There is a greater need to pay more attention to those businesses that are started by entrepreneurs. The reasons given by older entrepreneurs for starting businesses are often unique. Some say they were restless in retirement, others have the desire to pass something on to their descendants, and still others want to pursue their dreams or ideas after long careers as employees. Compared with entrepreneurs under 50 years of age, older entrepreneurs are less likely to cite increased freedom as a reason for starting up (Barclays Bank, 2001). Others may want to supplement social security or retirement benefits. Bruce, Holtz-Eakin and Quinn (2000) state that, in response to the possibility of ‘reduction or delay in future social security benefits [and] the increasing health and longevity of older Americans’, people in this group may stay employed longer, possibly seeking out self-employment at a higher rate. Yahoo’s second annual survey of entrepreneurial aspirations found that nearly one-third (31%) of those polled said that doing work they really love was the main reason for launching a business. The second most popular reason, selected by 22% of respondents, was ‘to be my own boss’. Less than one-fifth (17%) said they decided to start a business ‘to make more money’. Older entrepreneurs also stand apart due to many other unique characteristics— they tend to work fewer hours, tend to take more vacations and tend not to have any employees (Barclays Bank, 2001)—all of which indicate that self-employment can offer older people a great deal of flexibility and freedom (all the while supplementing savings or other income, of course) that may help enhance their later years.
5 TVET and the Aged The absence of an organized effort in the provision of entrepreneurship education and training to elderly people is resulting in a restricted supply of these matured and experienced people in the business and economic arena. A low level of entrepreneurship in any country is characteristically linked to slow economic growth. The technical and vocational education and training (TVET) sector is specifically responsible for providing technical and skilled manpower to large, medium and
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small-scale enterprises and industries, both in terms of wage employment and entrepreneurial careers. In this context, imparting technical training, along with entrepreneurship education, to older people is of paramount importance for sustainable development through the establishment of small and medium-sized enterprises. Small and medium-sized enterprises offer a blend of employment and incomegeneration potential, which, coupled with the labour-intensive nature of the technologies used and the low cost, presents a very desirable direction in industrial growth. Entrepreneurship is a significant factor in the development of this sector, as is the infrastructural set-up needed to facilitate entrepreneurial ventures. Because of their unique economic and organizational characteristics, small and medium-sized enterprises play important economic, social and political roles in employment creation, resource utilization and income generation, and in helping to promote change in a gradual and peaceful manner. ‘How small is small’ is the question which generally baffles people. Indeed, small-scale enterprises comprise a wide variety of undertakings. They can be categorized in diverse ways, depending on a country’s pattern and stage of development, policy aims and administrative set-up. One study found at least fifty different definitions used in seventy-five different countries. Definitions may relate to the capital invested (with maxima ranging from about US$25,000 to US$2 million) or employment (maxima from 15 to 500) or both, or to other criteria. By offering various facilities and incentives, many countries with a view to promoting the establishment of such enterprises have set up organizations that are working at national, state/provincial and local levels. There are many schemes under which the potential entrepreneurs can obtain loans and set up their own enterprises. In some countries, there are special schemes for technical people in which they are given assistance through more attractive lending terms. For example, in Australia there is the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme which aims to help eligible unemployed people start their own businesses. It is extremely successful, helping to generate around 7,000 new (Australian) businesses each year.3 Similar schemes are offered by entrepreneurial support organizations in many countries. Older entrepreneurs, like other entrepreneurs, face many challenges in their entrepreneurial careers. However, some of these challenges are unique. These can be enumerated as below.
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It has been conclusively proved that in any business the initial 1,000 days (roughly three years) are very crucial. If the entrepreneur can survive this period, then the chances of success in the business increase substantially. Of course, this also applies to older entrepreneurs. But since these people initiate their businesses later in their life, waiting for almost three years to ensure the sustainability of their enterprises is a little hard. In addition, the rigours of the starting-up years may also be a deterrent for many older people entering the entrepreneurial world. Raising money is often identified as the number one problem for those starting up in business, and some suggest that this problem might be exacerbated for older entrepreneurs. The health of the borrower is one of the factors banks consider, and a bank might not make a large loan to an older person if it had a
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repayment term of ten years or more (Wadley, 2001). Other commentators claim that seniors are in a better financial position than younger entrepreneurs to start up, and that their greater financial cushion—often due to retirement packages and owning their own home—may actually encourage them to try working for themselves. The Business Banking Division of the United Kingdom firm Barclays Bank found that older entrepreneurs ‘use more of their own resources to fund their start up’ (Barclays Bank, 2001) and, conversely, have more savings to fall back on should their ventures not take off. But sometimes it has been seen that these people hesitate to put their hard-earned money, which they consider as their insurance for a carefree life, at risk. On the positive side, research indicates that this group is widely respected. Barclays Bank found that both individuals aged 50+ and those below age 50 consider older entrepreneurs to be ‘wiser and more practical’ (Barclays Bank, 2001). This view bodes well for success as an older entrepreneur, as experience and wisdom are highly valued assets in the business world. Moreover, older entrepreneurs are more likely to call upon an invaluable network of contacts, credibility and investment acumen (Goldberg, 2000) in dealings with clients and partners, as well as in the early start-up stages.
Nevertheless, despite these challenges, the trend towards rising numbers of older entrepreneurs is likely to continue, as people are increasingly living longer and needing to support themselves. The research on entrepreneurs aged 50+ indicates that entrepreneurship has many innate factors that make it more attractive, more beneficial and more suited to older people than conventional employment or complete retirement. The TVET sector has to play a more important role by equipping these people with the right kind of technical training and entrepreneurial awareness for becoming successful.
6 Models for Promoting Technical Entrepreneurship This section lists different models that can be implemented by TVET institutions for promoting entrepreneurship amongst older people.
6.1 Technology-Based Entrepreneurship Development Programmes A ‘technology-based entrepreneurship development programme’ will focus on training and developing potential entrepreneurs in a specific technology area (for example, electronics and communication, instrumentation, computer hardware, leather, plastic, food processing, biomedical equipment, glass and ceramics, jute products, biotechnology, sustainable building materials, etc.). The participants are provided with hands-on training in technologies. These technologies could also be those
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developed by the country’s research and development institutions and are available for commercial exploitation. In each technology-based entrepreneurship development programme, twenty to twenty-five people, preferably having a degree/diploma in science and technology, will be trained through a structured training programme lasting about eight weeks full time. However, this time span is flexible and can be adjusted, depending upon participants’ time availability. In the case of a part-time technology-based entrepreneurship development programme, the duration is likely to be increased to fourteen or sixteen weeks. Similarly, participants should be provided with additional training in technical areas until such time as they are proficient in the technology they are going to adopt in their enterprises. TVET institutes are in the best position to provide this technology training. The technology-based entrepreneurship development programme will provide classroom training on all aspects of enterprise set-up and its management, including industrial legislation, taxation procedures and other formalities, as well as motivational aspects, including interpersonal, communication, leadership and other such skills required by an entrepreneur. A strong component of the training will be the actual hands-on training conducted by technology providers in the specific technology areas. The following are features of a technology-based entrepreneurship development programme.
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The entrepreneurs are exposed to technical knowledge about the products and technologies and are assisted to develop their skills in the laboratories and workshops of TVET institutes. If necessary, participants can also be sent for higherlevel technical training in relevant institutes or industries, or both. Research and development labs with commercially viable technologies can attract potential entrepreneurs as ‘takers’. There could be a tie-up between TVET institutes and the research and development labs for this purpose. TVET institutes devote concerted effort in specific disciplines of product technology and thus can have better control over the course of the programme and its success. During training, the participants will also get to know the intricacies of how to start and manage an enterprise. At the end, they are assisted in preparing a report that can be used to seek venture capital or establishment funds.
As a result of this training, the potential entrepreneurs are expected to establish larger projects that might be in manufacturing or servicing areas. The entrepreneurs can also set up trading ventures in their chosen area.
6.2 Skill Development Training through Science and Technology Changes taking place in the economies of Asia and the Pacific by virtue of an accelerated rate of industrial growth imply a larger demand for vocational skills. In addition, the rapid migration of rural populations to urban areas has also created a
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demand for trained people to meet the needs of urban services. Further, a variety of new services have emerged, such as in the areas of financial, health, media, advertisement, urban utilities, entertainment and telecommunications. There has been a sharp growth in the introduction of new products/services in many industries, for both internal use and for exports, requiring special skills. ‘Skill development training through science and technology’ aims to develop skills through training for which special curricula and models for offbeat and innovative skill areas have been developed. This can be done by utilizing the expertise developed in TVET institutions for upgrading the skills of older people. With the development of new and better technologies, it becomes essential to upgrade the skills of those sections of the workforce using enhanced versions of equipment and tools. More specifically, the objectives of skill development training through science and technology programmes would be:
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developing/upgrading the skills of older people through the application of science and technology; harnessing the resources of TVET institutes of the country for skill development training; enhancing the quality of services/products, thereby enhancing income-generation among aged people.
Each skill development training through science and technology programme will vary, depending upon the type of trade. However, an attempt should be made to keep the duration to less than six months and preferably between two and three months. Trades would be selected by TVET institutes, depending upon the entrepreneurial opportunities available at the location of training. However, trades with distinct science and technology inputs should be given preference. The idea is to take up trades that are location-specific, needs-based and have high potential for self-employment. To accomplish these objectives, the various tasks to be undertaken by implementing TVET institutions should include the following:
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a survey of opportunities in specific trades for skill development training; identification of trainers, experts and master craftsmen, in addition to the human resources available in TVET institutions, and providing them with suitable orientation training; preparation of lecture and training materials; selection of trainees through appropriate aptitude tests for specific trades; actual conduct of training; required tool-kits/materials to be provided to trainees; post-training follow-up.
It has generally been observed that lack of information, whether in relation to technology, raw materials or the market, is a stumbling block to the success of budding entrepreneurs. This is especially true in the case of Asian and Pacific countries. While the bigger players in the field employ market-research agencies, the small entrepreneurs do not have resources enough to take advantage of these services.
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There is also a need to equip these small entrepreneurs with information that will assist them in remaining competitive.
6.3 A Science and Technology Entrepreneurs’ Park TVET institutions can assist the generation of older entrepreneurs with the help of local industries by establishing a ‘science and technology entrepreneurs’ park’. A science park is defined as an industrial complex close to a place of higher learning that provides a high-quality environment and accommodation to the tenant companies on a rental basis. A technology park is usually a development to accommodate companies engaged in commercial applications of high technology with very little or no institute linkage. Worldwide, and including some of the Asian countries, initiatives such as science parks and related structures have proved to be quite successful. Science and technology entrepreneurs’ parks will be useful to the older entrepreneurs, in that the rigours of the initial start-up of a business are likely to be less since, in the initial years of their business, they are able to use the space available in the science and technology park for starting their business. After becoming successful, they can move out to bigger and better locations. In a nutshell, these parks signify a systems approach to creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. Science and technology entrepreneurs’ parks can therefore be established in and around TVET institutions. Successful examples of science parks and related mechanisms have shown that there is no single model to be replicated; they have to be modified to suit local conditions. Science and technology entrepreneurs’ parks need to work in close liaison with the TVET institution to ensure maximum advantage of the facilities and expertise available there. Only those facilities that are not available in the institute are created in the science and technology entrepreneurs’ park. It would be a good idea to encourage participation of older potential entrepreneurs in these facilities and to actively reserve places for them. Services and facilities offered and functions to be performed are depicted in Figures 1 and 2, respectively.
6.4 Technology Information Service With the wide uptake of the Internet, the information delivery scenario has undergone a dramatic change. Information on any topic in any form (text/audio/video) is available freely on the net. Whether it is the source of a raw material or a query from a prospective client abroad wanting to know about the product and services, the Internet offers a perfect delivery medium for an entrepreneur. In fact, with the introduction of e-commerce and e-cash, the methodology of conducting business is undergoing change on a global scale. Therefore, one such service that will provide a knowledge base for budding older techno-preneurs and will help them to retrieve information and offer guidance and assistance in setting up their units from a single source can be established on the
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Industrial promotion agencies
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Fig. 1 Science and technology entrepreneurs’ parks: the mechanism for industry and TVET institute linkage
Internet by the centralized agencies controlling the TVET institutions of a country. Since the Internet-based database and website services are time- and distanceindependent, potential entrepreneurs would find such a service extremely convenient to use.
Fig. 2 Science and technology entrepreneurs’ parks: functions and activities
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In India, such a service is being provided by the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board4 under the name of Technology Innovation Management Entrepreneurship and Information Services. In fact, this service is intended for entrepreneurs of all ages. There is a need to provide such a service exclusively for the aged, as they often have particular requirements and problems. Such a service will ensure that information on financial, managerial and technology inputs is within easy reach of these older entrepreneurs and will keep them updated about the ever-changing business scenario. Not only will entrepreneurs be given the capacity to survive, but they will also remain competitive in the face of stiff competition from bigger corporate multinational companies. Some of the key activities of this service could be:
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to assist older entrepreneurs in locating available technologies from various laboratories and companies; to keep these entrepreneurs informed about salient technology in different sectors; to assist research and development institutions in both public and private sectors to publicize adequate information about the technologies available, with status and cost details; to make information about the policy and legal framework applicable to small and medium-sized enterprises available; to provide information on appraisal methodologies adopted by various financial institutions.
6.5 Social Entrepreneurship We can even consider diverting the older entrepreneurs towards ‘social entrepreneurship’. Some of these people have a tendency to move away from a focus on themselves and instead concentrate on giving back to the community. They want to feel as if they are making a difference. They may feel guilty, having spent a lifetime focusing on their own goals, and now want to focus on others. Social entrepreneurship can range from starting a non-profit business to simply supporting social causes in the context of a profit-making business. Either way, we have to help support their desire to give back. A technology-based enterprise can help them employ a number of people, which will give them the satisfaction of doing something for society apart from contributing to its socio-economic development.
6.6 Cyberpreneurship (Entrepreneurship on the Internet) One recent form of technical entrepreneurship uses the improvements in computer technology, especially the Internet, to conduct business, promote business or perform the process called entrepreneurship. This whole field has become known as cyberpreneurship and varies from an organization which merely promotes itself by
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using an electronic brochure—called a ‘home page’ on the Internet—to companies and organizations that sell their products and services via the Internet. The on-going globalization movement is helping to diminish trade barriers and to bring world economies closer to one another. Advances in information technology, communications, and multimedia are slowly converting the world into a global village. Seventy-five per cent of adults in the United States who go on-line said that the Internet had made it easier to start a small business. Ninety-two per cent said it was important for a new small business to have an Internet presence. ‘The vast majority of people, regardless of age, have entrepreneurial aspirations, and they recognize the power of the Internet in making it easier for them to act on those aspirations and launch small businesses,’ said Rich Riley, vice president of small business services at Yahoo. Cyberpreneurship is also easy to conduct and will therefore suit older people who will not have to face the difficulties of travel and can safely operate from the confines of their homes or workplaces. They can set up new businesses or even go for franchising. Sara Wilson, in the August 2004 issue of Entrepreneur magazine, says that: ‘Americans are hitting 50 and finding they’re anything but over the hill. These entrepreneurs prove it’s never too late to buy a franchise.’ Many British people over 50 have already set up successful businesses. Research has shown that rates for business start-ups with owner/managers over 55 are far higher than the national average—70% and 19%, respectively. Embracing technology, above all as a medium of communication with the widest possible customer base, goes hand in hand with this success.
7 A Policy for Promoting Technical Entrepreneurship amongst the Aged Previous policies had been designed with a youthful society in mind. However, from now on policies for older people, for younger people and for those in between must be designed with an ageing society in mind—a society where soon every third individual will be over the age of 60. International, national and local communities must begin now to adjust and design their infrastructures, policies, plans and resources. Policy interventions that include social and human as well as economic investments can prevent these older people from becoming unnecessarily dependent. If judicious investments are made in advance, ageing can be changed from a drain on resources to a build-up of social, economic and environmental capital. Today’s older people are those who have dedicated their lives to the development of their societies and countries. Theirs was a generation of great sacrifice to causes far beyond their own personal welfare. We owe them effective policies that will assist them to lead independent lives, to find fulfilment and to continue active participation in society, and to maintain their human dignity. For those who need help, for economic, health and other reasons, adequate protection should be provided.
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There is a need, in promoting technical entrepreneurship, to encourage TVET institutes to provide the necessary entrepreneurship education and training to enable the ‘silver’ people of our societies to be productive. Creating financial schemes to provide credit at lesser rates of interest and without any procedural delays, as well as helping them in the marketing of their products, is important. Guidance and counselling services should also be provided to them when they choose entrepreneurship as their second career after retirement from their previous jobs. Group training, followed by group entrepreneurship, for older people who wish to become entrepreneurs should also be promoted. This is particularly beneficial for those who are reluctant to venture alone. There are many success stories of group (or co-operative) entrepreneurship, such as the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in Gujarat state of India. The entrepreneurial training organizations should begin offering group training programmes for aged people. They will be all the more beneficial if such programmes are supplemented by credit delivery mechanisms from the commercial banks and other financial corporations. Special policies need to be framed to ensure that the ageing population of women is offered the opportunity to be productive, as they are more likely to live longer than their male counterparts. Speaking at the meeting on the ‘Issues of Aging’ organized by the Geriatric Care Foundation, the former Chief of the United Nations Programme on Population Aging in Developing Countries, Dr M. Nizamuddin, said that the United Nations had adopted a slogan—‘let us build a society for all ages’—to protect old people from discrimination, and now was the right time to adopt policies to solve the issues being faced by the elderly.
8 Conclusion Global population ageing is a by-product of the demographic transition in which both mortality and fertility decline from higher to lower levels. An increase in the old-age dependency ratio indicates a situation in which an increasing number of potential beneficiaries of health and pension funds are supported by a relatively smaller number of potential contributors (those in the economically active age group). This trend tends to impose heavier demands on the working-age population (in the form of higher taxes and other contributions) in order to maintain a stable flow of benefits to the older groups. The world is changing as it ages, and just as aged people have been agents of that change, they must also be its beneficiaries. Ageing is not an issue separate from social integration, gender advancement, economic stability or issues of poverty. It has developed a connection with many global agendas and will increasingly play a prominent role in the way society interacts with economic and social welfare institutions, family and community life. We are all constituents of an ageing society: rural and city dwellers; public and private sector identities; families and individuals; old and young alike. It is crucial that societies adjust to this human paradigm.
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Recognition of the uniqueness that unfolds throughout life is core to igniting society’s embrace of the contributions of its older citizens. The ‘package’ of knowledge, wisdom and experience that so often comes with age is part of an inner awareness that cannot be traded, sold or stolen. It should, however, be activated, amplified and utilized in all the crossroads, fields and storefronts of society, and in the windows of our creative imaginations. There is a need to divert these knowledgeable, wise and experienced people towards entrepreneurship. Old age is a period of life that has its own specifics, but it doesn’t have any less importance and meaning as any other period of life. For experiencing old age it is important that the person accepts his/her own age, maintains or forms a good interpersonal relationship and that she is personally connected with people from young and middle generations. If all three generations are closely related, the youth is safely—beautiful, the middle age years are silently—fruitful, and serene old age—rich.
Notes 1. First published in Karmel, T.; Maclean, R., eds. 2007. Technical and vocational education and training in an ageing society: expert meeting proceedings. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. 2. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development—OECD: <www.oecd.org> 3. New Enterprise Incentive Scheme: <www.nna.asn.au/NEIS.htm>. 4. National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Board: <www.nstedb.com>
References Barclays Bank. 2001. Third age entrepreneurs: profiting from experience. London: Barclays Bank PLC, Business Banking Marketing Services. Bruce, D.; Holtz-Eakin, D.; Quinn, J. 2000. Self-employment and labour market transitions at older ages. Chestnut Hill, MA: Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, De Bruin, A.; Firkin, P. 2001. Self-employment of the older worker. Auckland, New Zealand: Massey University, Labour Market Dynamics Research Programme. Goldberg, S. 2000. Senior startups: why older entrepreneurs are turning to a young person’s game. Business Week Online, Stone, M.; Stone, H. 2004. Too young to retire: 101 ways to start the rest of your life. New York, NY: Penguin. United Nations 2002, World population ageing: 1950–2050. New York, NY: United Nations. <www.un.org/esa/population/publications/worldageing19502050/pdf/91chapterv.pdf>. Wadley, J. 2001. Never too late: seniors with skills and good ideas are starting their own businesses. Riverside, CA: The Press Enterprise.
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Chapter XIV.9
The Ageing TVET Workforce in Australia: Issues and Challenges1 Hugh Guthrie and Phil Loveder
1 Introduction The ageing population of many countries and its impact on global economic performance has been the subject of significant debate across the world. Many developed nations in particular have ageing populations brought about by declining fertility rates and an increasing life-span. An implication of this has been a forecast reduction in the future supply of labour and possible diminished economic performance. The extent of ‘the problem’ varies widely between industries and countries; however, it appears to be particularly apparent in the education and training sector which, in turn, is a key resource in helping to supply appropriately trained and skilled labour. This chapter will explore some of the issues and challenges relating to an ageing technical and vocational education and training (TVET) professional workforce and will detail some of the ways in which Australia is responding (or not responding) in terms of changing conceptions of the nature of their work, workforce development and professional development strategies and solutions.
2 The ‘Demographic Challenge’: Ageing TVET Workforces Hugo (2005) cited the ‘academic sector’ as having one of the oldest workforces in contemporary society. In both higher education (universities) and TVET institutions, there are a great many academics and teachers who commenced their professional careers back in the 1970s and 1980s during the dramatic growth phases of these sectors, and who are now approaching retirement. A similar trend is apparent in New Zealand (Guerin, 2006) and in Europe (de Rooij, 2005). McGrath (2004) also identifies the ageing profile of many technical education systems worldwide as one of the largest challenges for skills development in the future. Technical education systems in Europe, the Americas, parts of East Asia and Australasia are increasingly characterized by ageing workforces and the high natural attrition of senior and experienced practitioners and managers. This is true across the range of their activities, including for professional practitioners—teachers. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XIV.9, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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However, it may be particularly serious in the area of skills development. There may also be a gender bias in the ageing phenomenon, given the male domination of many areas of traditional TVET activity. According to McGrath, agencies faced with such an age profile need to try to ‘capture’ as much of the knowledge of these departing staff as possible. Those that intend to retain a focus on skills development need to engage in far more active recruitment policies. Better retention of those in mid-career is also an issue. As with other countries, little is understood about the dynamics of the Australian TVET workforce and the factors that contribute to the movement into, out of and within the sector by members of the TVET workforce. Dickie et al. (2004) reported that TVET is experiencing the same workforce trends as other industries and faces many of the same challenges. For example, TVET is experiencing problems with matching employees to required skills and in recruiting suitable new talent faced with greater levels of retirement. In an era when the demand for professional and technical skills is at a historical high, and where there are critical skill shortages in some key industrial sectors, TVET employers need to compete now to attract a skilled workforce. Unfortunately, the wage levels they are able to offer in some areas are well below those available externally. Similarly, in an era when new entrants to the labour market do not expect to stay in the same job or career for life, retaining good staff becomes critical.
3 The Ageing TVET Workforce in Australia The characteristics of the TVET workforce in Australia are generally poorly understood. This is due to weaknesses in the available data, there being no single ‘accepted’ measure of employment levels and no consistent definition of key workforce concepts, such as that of teacher, practitioner and so on. Furthermore, there is no national TVET workforce data collection in Australia. Although most states and territories do collect some data on the workforce characteristics of those employed in the public TVET systems, this is not aggregated to build a national picture. There is no plan to do this in the medium-term future. In addition, there is very little information about the characteristics of staff employed by Australia’s private and enterprise-based providers, although recent research by Harris, Simons and McCarthy (2006) investigated the nature of private TVET providers using an extensive survey. This research showed that private providers are generally small; however, it did not shed any light on the age profile and other staff characteristics in this key workforce component of the Australian TVET sector. In 2004, the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) (Cully et al., 2004) undertook an analysis, profiling the national TVET workforce to collect nationally consistent baseline data for the first time. Using a variety of data sources, including Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) labour-force statistics, and accessing a limited spread of state and territory demographic and workforce data, a profile
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of the public VET system was developed. This study showed that there were large differences between the data sources in the estimates of staff numbers. In Australia, the TVET workforce and, in particular, the public technical and further education (TAFE) system, is clearly ageing. While national data suggest that TVET professionals in general are no older than the workforce at large, with 34% aged 45 years or older, TVET practitioners in the TAFE sector are—on average— much older. In 2002, 61% of TAFE practitioners were over 45 years of age and a further 16% were aged over 55 years. A similar picture emerges for management and executive staff too, with one Victorian study finding that over 60% of all executive staff in TAFE were likely to retire over the next decade (Victoria. Office of Public Employment, 2002). Figure 1 shows the age profiles of TAFE teachers by state and territory as a percentage. It shows that there are very few teachers under the age of 40 in all states and territories (Victoria is not included in the analysis) and that, although there are some regional variations (for example, Tasmania and Western Australia have a comparatively older workforce), the picture of an older workforce profile is more or less consistent across the country. This finding is consistent with other studies conducted in Australia, including a Victorian study of the TAFE teacher workforce which found 63% of practitioners were aged between 41 and 60 years and 4% over the age of 61 years (Victoria. Office of Public Employment, 2002). The NCVER study also found, not surprisingly, that the permanent workforce is, on average, older than the sessional, casual or contract and temporary workforce. The age data in this report also found that the non-teaching workforce is younger than the teaching workforce, but still older than the Australian labour market as a whole (Cully et al., 2004). The age data have not been broken down by gender. Nevertheless, in those states where length-of-service data in the TAFE sector were available, males in the permanent teaching workforce have served longer than females, with significant numbers—between 24.1 and 43.7%—having served twenty years or more. In contrast, female permanent staff with twenty or more years of service made up between 8.4 and 19.9% of the female workforce. Intuitively therefore (and because the numbers of male and female staff are about equal), ageing may be more of an issue for male TVET staff than for females, although the validity of this conclusion will be affected by work patterns of female staff; for example, time out of the workforce for childbirth and rearing. More analytical work is needed. On top of the issues relating to ageing, the TVET workforce in Australia has generally been downsized and management structures have been flattened, with the core of full-time permanent staff reduced. New models of employment have emerged in response to budget constraints and business needs, including the greater use of contractors and casual staff. Contractors and casual workers are potential sources of staff for the permanent positions that become available, but this also points to a need to develop strategies for the development of career paths and for professional development for casual staff (Rumsey & Associates, 2002). This need has been reinforced in more recent work, with casual staff identified as a professional development priority (Guthrie, Perkins & Nguyen, 2006).
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Fig. 1 Age profiles of TAFE teachers in 2002 Note: Victoria is excluded.
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4 Challenges for TVET Institutions of Ageing Workplaces There are a range of important challenges for technical education institutions arising from the trends and issues reported in this chapter. A variety of studies (for example, Rumsey & Associates, 2002; Chappell et al., 2003; Dickie et al., 2004; Harris, Simons & Clayton, 2005; Mitchell et al., 2005) have examined and summarized the key influences from outside and within the TVET sector in Australia. They include:
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the ageing of the population and an increased emphasis on people staying longer within the workforce; changes in the way people work; a more diverse society, reflecting a greater mix of cultural values, beliefs and expectations; the growth of the knowledge economy and rapidly changing technologies; an increasing customer sophistication; an increasing focus on industry needs and a range of skills shortages in areas of critical industry and general community need; the raising of the school-leaving age in a range of Australian states and territories; a national focus on increasing the participation of Indigenous Australians in work and work-related training; moves to get those at present in receipt of welfare benefits, but capable of work, into work or training for work; an increased proportion of people with disabilities participating in mainstream community life; national recognition of the need to build economic and social capital through education and training.
Forces within the sector itself also continue to influence the TVET landscape. Critical to the future of TVET providers and their staff alike are:
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addressing the increasing complexity of the provider role; meeting quality assurance requirements and other formal accountability measures; adopting more flexible approaches to delivery, including a greater focus on learning in the workplace and more team-based approaches to delivery; increasing the focus on the use of partnerships and networks; having the skills to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse TVET client base; maintaining the currency of their vocational skill base; shifting the role of the TVET practitioner from industry expert to learning facilitator.
Several commentators report that there need to be greater opportunities for managers of TVET institutions to access training that advises on how to manage diverse workforces and workforce planning. In particular, institutions are increasingly concerned about their ability to adapt their staff and professional development practices to an ageing training environment and to meet emerging business needs.
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McGrath (2004) believes that staff development is essential to addressing the problems relating to the composition of the TVET workforce, especially with ageing profiles. He recommends that institutions need to address the needs of new practitioners—especially for basic orientation—and balance this with the needs of existing staff. It is sometimes forgotten that staff development needs arise equally for experienced practitioners, as a result of the changing nature of work and new technologies, as they do for novices. Guthrie, Perkins and Nguyen’s work for the Western Australian Department of Education and Training highlighted the need to continue to develop the skills of its existing workforce, particularly those in midor later career, in order to renew and upgrade their skills in teaching, learning and assessment approaches. Maintaining the currency of their industry knowledge was also considered crucial. Providing adequate opportunities for staff development for more experienced staff has been proved to be an important factor in retaining good staff in technical education institutions, especially when they have been recruited from industry (Strebler, Neathy & Tackey, 2005). Nevertheless, the sector is also under pressure to recruit and retain key staff in areas of skill shortage where there is a high demand for their skills—accompanied by high wages—in industry (Guthrie, Perkins & Nguyen, 2006). Managers of technical education institutions need to be aware of the mediumterm career pathways of their staff to ensure that appropriate opportunities for staff development are provided. These also need to be balanced with the medium- and longer-term strategies and visions for the operation of the institution. A consortium of researchers is currently investigating a range of issues related to supporting TVET providers to build their capability for the future. One of the key initiatives is investigating, for the first time, the career paths of Australian TVET staff to examine how they move into, out of, and within the sector. The activities of this consortium can be monitored on its website.2 In an era of cost-cutting and scarce resources, insufficient attention is sometimes paid to ‘capturing’ the knowledge of those practitioners leaving the system. Those consulted in recent national research by Clayton, Fisher & Hughes (2005) saw the imminent departure of a large cohort of experienced practitioners as both a loss and an opportunity for organizational renewal. Clayton, Fisher and Hughes (2005) examined the issue of sustaining the skills base of TVET providers in the face of its ageing workforce, particularly that in TAFE. They found that TAFE managers recognized knowledge loss in many forms and acknowledged that this ultimately affects organizational efficiency and achievement, whether the loss is of teaching experience, qualifications, course development knowledge, TVET know-how, organizational knowledge, or industry connections and good will. Several approaches to addressing this problem were identified, including: recruitment; retention of key staff, coupled with a knowledge transfer process; staff re-training; knowledge sharing; and mentoring. Providing opportunities for experienced practitioners to continue to play a role in the life of the institution is essential. Providing incentives and options for practitioners to ease out of the workforce, for example, as ‘phased retirement’, are popular
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strategies for maintaining the workforce, according to Leslie and Janson (2005). Unfortunately, however, some of the pension and retirement schemes in use in the public TVET sector do not allow progressive disengagement from full-time work, such that the experience and skills of staff can be retained and passed on.
5 Australian Strategies and Responses Many of the strategies employed to overcome the demographic challenges in the Australian TVET workforce relate to workforce planning and offering greater (different) professional development opportunities. Other aspects, such as recruitment and retention strategies, rewards and understanding what motivates teachers and non-teachers to either enter or remain in TVET, are less well developed. McNickle and Cameron (2003) surveyed TAFE managers, asking them what changes in human resource practices they have initiated in order to meet the learning needs of their clients more effectively. Managers reported that much of the focus has been on professional development in line with national initiatives in the area. When asked where change is currently most needed, managers nominated job design, workload management and workforce planning as key issues. This indicates that these issues, even if they are not getting active attention at provider level, are at least on the collective radar of managers. Dickie et al. (2004) list a number of strategies that are being or could be used to address the skills shortage caused by an ageing TVET workforce in Australia. These include:
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matching workforce capability to employment trends and skills needs (at national, organizational and work team level); shaping recruitment, retention and retraining strategies and initiatives to meet strategic and organizational objectives; understanding the motivation of current and prospective staff for entering, staying in and leaving the TVET workforce; matching initial training and professional development strategies and implementation to broad strategic objectives (at national, state and provider level); matching job design and employment agreements to the current and future work performed by TVET practitioners and professionals, while balancing the needs of employees and employer organizations; providing a balance of tangible and intangible rewards to attract and retain staff, drawing on the identified motivations and aspirations of the current and prospective workforce; employing recruitment and development strategies to address succession planning and retention issues, to ensure the presence of a new generation of leaders and managers in TVET providers; incorporating strategies for managing and disseminating knowledge and information, including ‘soft knowledge’, within providers and across training, client and partner organizations;
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building in evaluation measures that clearly demonstrate the return on investment from workforce development and management activity, including the impact on client and staff satisfaction.
There is evidence that some TVET institutes are beginning to develop proper workforce plans rather than simply relying on short-term measures, such as use of short-term staff to meet current or immediate rather than future needs. The supporting documents for Clayton, Fisher and Hughes (2005), which are published on NCVER’s website,3 provide examples of approaches that are in use overseas and in other workforce sectors with similar issues of workforce ageing. At the macro-level, some states and territories at the training authority (departmental) level are now matching training and professional development strategies to broader strategic objectives. Queensland, for example, has a professional development strategy that clearly identifies priority needs and requires initiatives to respond to system-wide priorities. New South Wales has adopted a professional development framework that keeps pace with the careers of their practitioners as they progress from novice to expert teachers (Dickie et al., 2004, p. 120). Such frameworks are in place, or in active development, in a range of other states and territories, including Western Australia and South Australia. Deborah Wilson Consulting Services (2003) suggests that, with significant changes to the current and future TVET workforce in Australia, professional development is needed to address a larger range of practitioners, including:
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part-time workplace trainers, assessors and mentors; short-term and casual staff in registered training organizations; entry-level and inexperienced full-time trainers; experienced TVET professionals; co-ordinators of TVET; managers of TVET.
Gaps in the way Australia is responding to the challenges of an ageing workforce include a lack of understanding of what motivates professionals to enter or stay in the sector. Most states and territories do not track retention and attrition in their publicly-funded system (other than Victoria, currently), unlike various other professions, such as nursing. More information is also needed about: the private TVET sector and how people move into, within, out of, and between it; work in industry; and the public TVET system. An implication of the ageing workforce and the need to replace retiring practitioners might be the need to consider adopting succession planning strategies. As noted earlier, these strategies could include recruiting casual staff to permanent positions. However, since casual staff often do not have the same educational knowledge as permanent staff, putting in place appropriate professional development strategies and career pathways is essential (Clayton, Fisher & Hughes, 2005; Rumsey & Associates, 2002; Malley et al., 2000). In order to retain and cater for older teachers occupying permanent positions in areas of declining demand, improved workforce planning is needed to ensure
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they have the right balance of current skills and knowledge to move into new or higher-demand areas (Malley et al., 2000).
6 Conclusions It is clear that it is timely to acknowledge the importance of the TVET ‘industry’ in Australia as a significant employer in its own right, as well as the contribution it makes both to supporting the training needs of other industries and Australia’s export earnings through off- and on-shore education. Better information about its workforce dynamics is therefore critical. A search of the international literature and contact by the authors with a range of agencies in New Zealand, Europe, the United States and Canada suggests that, while there is general acknowledgement of the importance of good TVET workforce data, there is, apparently, a lack of readily available, comprehensive and valid statistical information to help inform policy and practice. This is ironic, given the preoccupation the TVET sector can have with workforce data in helping to meet the needs of other ‘industries’. This is particularly so, given that the public TVET workforce is, on the whole, substantially older than those it supports in industry. Ageing of the TVET workforce is an issue in Australia—and anecdotally seems to be so internationally as well. Both in Australia and internationally there is a paucity of research information and data at the national, jurisdictional and provider levels. Because of this, it is hard for the sector as a whole to develop staffing, recruitment and retention policies. It is also hard for individual providers and the discipline areas within them to determine how they are ‘travelling’ in relation to a range of key workforce issues—including ageing—with other similar organizations and teaching units with whom they might benchmark. While workforce data are poor for public sector providers in Australia, such data are non-existent in any consolidated form for the private TVET sector. This issue needs to be addressed. Better data would help us to understand more about the dynamics and local variation in workforce make-up in order to identify the teaching areas where ageing is a real issue requiring effective management and succession planning. In some providers, older and more traditional vocational areas may have large numbers of older, permanent staff—perhaps male-dominated. The staffing profile, including their retirement, needs to be effectively managed in order to maintain quality and continuity of service to clients. At the other extreme, some teaching areas have high proportions of casual staff supported by a small core of permanent staff. This makes them vulnerable when permanent staff move on or retire, unless effective steps are taken to ensure that knowledge is able to be developed and transferred to those remaining. As McNickle and Cameron (2003) have pointed out, more attention is needed to the issues of job design, workload management and workforce planning. Apart from local knowledge that is not more widely captured and shared, we also know little about workforce dynamics and turnover. Little is captured beyond the local level in relation to why people leave. As we noted above, we need to
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understand more about what motivates people to enter the sector, what is important to them in career development terms and what causes them to leave their present TVET employer or the sector altogether. We need more information about the career dynamics of those in the TVET sector and what encourages or discourages people from entering it. Likewise, we have little or no information on the fill rates for vacant positions, nor the time and effort required to find suitable staff when others leave. We know relatively little, except perhaps anecdotally, about the discipline areas in which it is difficult to recruit new staff when required. All of the change factors and issues for the TVET sector and its training organizations outlined in this chapter—and many more—impact on the ways the sector and its staff have to work now and in the future. These also challenge the existing experience base and abilities of TVET staff and help to identify the skill sets the TVET workforce will need to sustain its future. For some TVET staff these changes and development opportunities are willingly embraced. Others find it hard to change as they are set in their ways and comfortable with the status quo. In the end, what is really important is for TVET staff to work in a culture which encourages critical examination of how things are done, or what could be done better. This culture is not necessarily age-dependent. It depends on how new staff are welcomed and encouraged to contribute new ideas. It depends on how willing those who are already there (and may have been for some considerable time) are open to change. The leaders and middle managers in training organizations have an important role in getting the cultures and structures right in providing an atmosphere which promotes a learning culture—a sharing of ideas, knowledge and experience—and a culture of excellence and continuous improvement. This needs to be supported by appropriate professional development—perhaps by older staff working with younger staff with more recent workplace experience—to assist the ‘old hands’ to gain new skills needed to meet emerging client and business needs. For their part, older staff can help to transfer knowledge, TVET sector ‘savvy’ and experience to younger staff through a range of processes, such as mentoring. The knowledge transfer system is therefore by no means a one-way street. More flexible arrangements are needed to keep key older staff available. This may include processes which allow progressive disengagement from full-time permanent work without loss of superannuation and other entitlements. The TVET sector as a whole also needs to be seen as a better employment choice. It needs to be seen, or to build its reputation, as a worthy and highly regarded vocation (see de Rooij, 2005). In addition, individual training organizations need to work as hard as they can to become an ‘employer of choice’. They are competing against other potential TVET employers, as well as industry-based employers who can often offer better salaries. The TVET sector therefore needs to be better aware of where its competitive advantages as an employer lie and should seek to enhance these with more flexible employment conditions, including salary packaging and job design, for example, and multiple employment options in industry and in a teaching role. Such approaches are used in the professions in universities, for example, with legal and medical academic teaching staff.
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From anecdotal experience the authors are aware that new staff come to this sector for a range of reasons, including lifestyle, to give back, or because they admired a teacher when they were trained. Effective induction processes are needed to support these new entrants, and older staff need to play their part, as many do, to support and nurture new entrants. Guthrie, Perkins and Nguyen (2006) noted, however, the role that organizational or systemic cultures, including excessive bureaucracy and administration, can play in job satisfaction and, therefore, potentially, in the loss of key and promising new staff. Overall, the TVET sector’s strategic human resource practices need to focus more upon developing and supporting the achievement of business goals to improve organizational effectiveness (see Noe et al., 2000). Central to this is the development and promotion of an organizational culture that attracts and retains people with recognized capabilities and the knowledge and skills that will drive the future performance of an organization (Callan, 2005). If issues in this broader context are not adequately addressed alongside the issues of retaining or capturing the key skills of TVET’s ageing workforce and providing appropriate professional development, the chances are that the skills and knowledge that practitioners need will not be properly developed and sustained. This, in turn, will adversely affect the ability of the TVET sector to deliver adequate services at a time when the training it provides is critically needed.
Notes 1. First published in Karmel, T.; Maclean, R., eds. 2007. Technical and vocational education and training in an ageing society: expert meeting proceedings. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. 2. Consortium Research Program: <www.consortiumresearchprogram.net.au> 3. National Centre for Vocational Education Research Ltd: <www.ncver.edu.au/publications/ 1591.html>
References Callan, V. 2005. Investigating approaches for sustaining and building educational leadership. Chappell, C. et al. 2003. High level review of training packages: Phase 1 report—an analysis of the current and future context in which training packages will need to operate. Brisbane, Australia: ANTA. Clayton, B.; Fisher, T.; Hughes, E. 2005. Sustaining the skill base of technical and further education institutes: TAFE managers’ perspectives. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Cully, M. et al. 2004. Profiling the national vocational education and training workforce. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. de Rooij, P. 2005. Teachers and trainers in education and training: a need for reprofessionalisation. In: European Training Foundation, ed. ETF Yearbook 2005: teachers and trainers— professionals and stakeholders in the reform of vocational education and training. Turin, Italy: ETF.
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Deborah Wilson Consulting Services. 2003. Final report: Strategic Professional Development Project: strategic analysis of the professional development needs of VET professionals and stakeholders in Queensland. Brisbane, Australia: Queensland Department of Employment and Training. Dickie, M. et al. 2004. Enhancing the capability of VET professionals. Brisbane, Australia: ANTA. Guerin, D. 2006. Strategic review of the tertiary education workforce: tertiary education workforce statistics: background report. Wellington: Education Directions and Martin Jenkins & Associates for the New Zealand Tertiary Education Commission. <www.tec.govt.nz/funding/ et-reviews/s-reviews/workforce/workforce.htm> Guthrie, H.; Perkins, K.; Nguyen, N. 2006. VET teaching and learning: the future now 2006–2010. Perth, Australia: Western Australian Department of Education and Training. Harris, R.; Simons, M.; Clayton, B. 2005. Shifting mindsets: the changing work roles of vocational education and training practitioners. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Harris, R.; Simons, M.; McCarthy, C. 2006. Private training providers in Australia: their characteristics and training activities. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Hugo, G. 2005. Demographic trends in Australia’s academic workforce. Journal of higher education policy and management, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 327–45. Leslie, D.; Janson, N. 2005. Easing the exit: an ageing professoriate likes options. Magazine of higher education, vol. 37, no. 6, p. 40. McGrath, S. 2004. The challenge of rural skills development. Geneva, Switzerland: Working Group for International Cooperation in Skills Development. (Debates in skills development, no. 10). <www.norrag.org/wg/documents/Paper%2010.pdf> McNickle, C.; Cameron, N. 2003. The impact of flexible delivery on human resource practices: survey of TAFE managers. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Malley, J. et al. 2000. Trends in the Victorian TAFE institute workforce: a research report. Melbourne, Australia: Office of Post-compulsory Education, Training and Employment. Mitchell, J. et al. 2005. Critical issues: a draft literature review on critical issues in teaching, learning and assessment in vocational education and training. Noe, R. et al. 2000. Human resource management. Boston, MA: Irwin McGraw-Hill. Rumsey and Associates. 2002. Shaping the VET practitioner for the future. Perth, Australia: Western Australian Department of Training. Strebler, M.; Neathy, F.; Tackey, N. 2005. Recruitment and retention of teachers with industrial or professional experience. London: Learning and Skills Development Agency. Victoria. Office of Public Employment. 2002. Workforce data collection, Melbourne, Australia: Victorian Office of Public Employment. [Unpublished.]
Chapter XIV.10
Working and Lifelong Learning among Older Workers (45+) in Japan: Implications for TVET Toshio Ohsako
1 Demography and the Employment Status of Older Workers 1.1 Demographic Evolution and Challenges In 2004, Japan’s population was 127.66 million—the ninth largest in the world. The life expectancy for men in that year was 78.36 and 85.33 for women. Thus, women live on average seven years longer than men. As of September 2004, 931,000 people were over 90 years old and 23,038 people were over 100. The oldest person was 114 years old. The ten oldest persons were all women. The population over 45 years of age was 58 million, which constituted 46 % of the total population. The fertility rate in Japan in 1950 had been 3.65 per woman, but fell to 1.35 in 2000 (Japan. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, 2004b). It is predicted that by 2050, Japan’s population will shrink by 27 million. In 2005, 20 % of the Japanese population was over 65 years old and this figure will jump to 36 % by 2050 (Japan. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, 2004c). The effective retirement age during the period 1997–2002 was 69.6 for men and 65.9 for women (OECD, 2004a). Men and women may now expect to live in retirement for fifteen and twenty-five years, respectively. Long life means that individuals have more time and opportunities for work, learning and leisure/free-time activities. It also means that one has to be prepared to work longer beyond the mandatory retirement age and save money to supplement a modest pension income for a longer life. Society therefore now expects older citizens to work longer and stay competitive in the job market. It is important for them that leisure activities are also aimed to maintain and promote physical and mental health and an active social life. In other words, work, learning and leisure/free-time activities need to be mutually facilitative activities for older people. For example, continuing in work requires continued skill updating through lifelong learning, which is most effective when older people are healthy and enjoy their leisure/free-time activities. Social policies for older people therefore need to take into consideration employment, education/training and social participation altogether.
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1.2 The Employment Status of Older Workers—45+ In 2000, Japan’s labour participation rate (including people who are employed and unemployed but looking for a job) for people aged over 50 was 55 % (OECD average 44 %). In 2004, employed persons (employed, self-employed, family worker) aged over 45 constituted 48 % (29 % for men and 19 % for women) of the entire labour force of 67 million (Japan. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, 2004a). The average unemployment rate of older workers aged between 45 and 64 was 3.3 % as compared to 4.8 % for the 25–44 age-group. Japanese people work considerably longer than their counterparts in OECD countries. On average, Japanese workers aged 50 and over worked 40.3 hours per week (OECD, 2004b). Japanese workers in 2004 were given an average annual paid vacation of eighteen days, but the number of days actually taken was only eight. This probably reflects the situation that the current labour-force reduction exercises have left fewer workers who are able to take their holidays freely.
1.3 Women and Employment It is no longer true that most Japanese women stay home as housewives. The 2003 Labour Force Survey (Japan. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, 2004a) showed that the labour force participation rate of women is 48 % (compared with 75 % for men). The Asahi Newspaper Public Opinion Survey conducted in 2004 (based on a nation-wide sampling) revealed that 77 % of Japanese people supported the idea of women going out to work and 52 % of them thought that women should participate in paid work after having children. Employed married women in 1960 were only 8.8 % of the population but, in 1992, double-income households started to outnumber single-income households. Imada (1996) found that domestic duties had been reduced in double-income households where the wife works full-time. When the wife worked part-time, she did nearly all of the housework. This situation seems unfavourable for women’s work, as well as for their training and lifelong learning activities. The longer life of women also means that they face a longer period of living alone as old people. This fact compels women to plan for a longer life. This situation is aggravated particularly for those women who have never worked. Public policies should therefore take into account the realities of women’s life and consider their learning needs to improve their employability and the quality of their life in late adulthood.
2 New Employment, Working and Retirement Practices 2.1 Re-Deployment of Older Workers Japanese companies practice different re-deployment schemes and workers aged 45 and in their 50s are the prime target for this exercise. The Shukko scheme transfers
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older workers to another firm (often a subsidized one). The sending firm, however, remains the employer. The Tenseki scheme transfers workers to another firm (often to a subsidized company) under a contractual arrangement with the receiving firm. There are many reasons companies practice Shukko and Tenseki. The age of an employee is an important factor. Sato (1999) listed the following reasons: (a) to overcome the receiving firm’s labour shortage; (b) to provide job security for employees beyond the mandatory retirement age; (c) to reduce the number of employees seeking managerial posts; and (d) to reduce the number of redundant workers. A recent employment survey conducted by a major insurance company indicated that nearly 44 % of firms lacked ‘highly’ skilled and ‘experienced’ workers. However, re-deployment of workers should not be considered as the sole measure to meet such a need. As a matter of fact, the same survey showed that nearly 56 % of these firms indicated the need to reinforce lifelong learning and training systems as a means to retain highly skilled and experienced employees (Japan. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, 2002). ‘Retention’ of workers’ jobs through lifelong learning/training is a challenging alternative.
2.2 Changing Jobs In Japan, changing jobs has not traditionally been a common practice, particularly among the majority of well-educated workers. Nevertheless, this has now come about as a product of the recent poor economic performance, which created a higher rate of unemployment. Under Japan’s lifelong employment system, it was unusual for workers aged between 45 and 60 to either lose or change their jobs. Persons who had changed jobs (i.e. started a new one) accounted for approximately 4.4 % for men and 6.3 % for women according in the afore-mentioned ‘2002 Employment Status Survey’ (Japan. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, 2002). Both the educational level and age of workers tends to be negatively correlated with job change. The results of the survey showed that 52.7 % of high-school graduates had changed jobs and 38 % of university or graduate-school graduates had done so. Workers between 15 and 44 years of age changed jobs nearly three times more often (9.8 %) than their counterparts aged between 45 and 65 years or more (3.5 %). A higher job turnover rate was observed for workers who left the previous job voluntarily (‘poor business performance and uncertain future’, ‘low wages’, ‘bad working conditions’, etc.) than those who were obliged to leave their the job (‘bankruptcy’, ‘closing down of offices’, ‘personal entrenchment or encouraged departure’.)
2.3 Diversification in Employment: Contingent Workers A survey conducted in 1999 with a random sample of 6,813 establishments revealed that more than a quarter of all firms have non-regular (part-time) workers.
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A decade-long economic stagnation (1991–2001) created an unprecedented rate of unemployment in Japan. Lifetime employment, seniority-based wages and benefits became less and less common. Under the Japanese seniority-based life-employment system, workers’ wage increases depended on their tenure. Japanese companies have started to hire part-time and temporary workers in order to counter the rising labour costs. ‘Contingent workers’ (or non-regular) means non-full-time workers or workers under indefinite work contracts. Part-time workers are defined as those people who work less than thirty-five hours per week (Kezuka, 2000). Morishima (2001) classified them further as follows:
r r r r
temporary workers hired directly by the employer; sub-contracted workers (often from subsidized companies); workers hired by a temporary-employment agency; and self-employed workers (who work less than thirty-five hours per week).
The ‘2002 Employment Status Survey’ (Japan. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, 2002) found that there had been 14.8 % and 42.2 % non-regular employees among male and female workers, respectively. Although non-regular work permits older workers to decide for themselves about weekly working hours, as well as job duration and locations, part-time workers are in general disadvantaged compared with regular workers in terms of working conditions, social security, salary, fringe benefits, training opportunities, etc. In 2001, employment insurance was created for part-timers to improve this situation. The average age of workers establishing new businesses has been rising recently, probably suggesting that the middle-aged and older workers who have been made redundant due to corporate restructuring may be setting up their own businesses. The above-mentioned survey showed that establishments doing well tend to increase both regular and non-regular employees, while those performing poorly tended to replace regular workers by non-regular workers (Morishima, 2001). Particularly, when companies’ concern was more about the price of products than about the quality of products, they tended to hire more non-regular workers (ibid.). While recognizing that non-regular workers do help firms to reduce labour costs and also provide them with a flexible labour force for different types and purposes of work, Morishima expressed a concern that contingent workers can become a threat to regular workers as the latter may think that the former will eventually replace them. This anxiety may negatively affect regular employees’ work morale and also discourages their participation in training and learning. It is also possible that non-regular workers may manifest less loyalty and attachment to their companies than regular workers. This situation may, in the worst case, invite conflicts between the two groups.
2.4 Volunteer Activities Volunteer work is generally unpaid, but it is still considered as work. Although volunteer activities (VAs) are mainly promoted and maintained by non-governmental
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bodies and community members, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) collaborates with them, providing technical and financing support for establishing volunteer centres and volunteer data banks, coordinating some VA projects at the prefecture level, undertaking research on VA needs, and providing technical support for the training of volunteers. The 1992 report of the Lifelong Learning Council identified the following four main goals of VAs:
r r r r
to promote self-development and self-actualization of learners; to help participants to ‘learn how to volunteer’; to promote lifelong learning of people involved; and to bridge school, family and community.
The three main features of VAs are that they:
r r r
are self-initiated by individuals; non-profit making; and beneficial to the public.
The report of the Lifelong Learning Council identified the following four main goals of VAs:
r r r r
to promote self-development and self-actualization of learners; to help participants to ‘learn how to volunteer’; to promote the lifelong learning of the people involved; and to bridge school, family and community.
The ‘Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities’ (Japan. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, 2001) revealed a high rate of participation in VAs for the age group 40–44 (approximately 35 %). This remained so until this cohort group reached 60–64 years, but it declined to the 25 % level in their 70s. Women’s participation reached the highest level (43 %) in their early 40s.
2.5 Mandatory Retirement Strong ageism still exists in Japan. This affects mandatory retirement and attitudes towards older workers. The 1994 pension reform raised the eligibility age for the National Pension Plan and Employers Pension Insurance from 60 to 65, to be fully implemented by 2025. The 2000 survey (six years after the pension reform was initiated) on employment management, however, indicated that 91.3 % of firms with thirty or more regular employees set the mandatory retirement age at 60 (Fujimura, 2004). The extension of the retirement age and ageism do not simply go together. Further efforts are needed on the part of the concerned authorities in order to meet the newly set mandatory retirement age. In addition, the age limit is frequently mentioned in job vacancies. Some 40 % of unemployed people aged 45–54 and half of those aged 55–64 mentioned difficulty in finding another job due to the age
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limits imposed (Genda, 2001). Consequently, some people assert that Japan needs an anti-age discrimination law (like the one that exists in the United States) which bans the mandatory retirement age. For firms, it is important that the extension of mandatory retirement does not automatically increase the wage of older workers. In contrast, they believe that the wages and promotions of workers should be determined according to their job performance, whether younger or older. However, companies often set a retirement age for managers to deal with the surplus of college-educated white-collar employees (Sato, 1999). For example, Yakushoku-Teinen—retirement from a managerial post about ages 55–56—reduced the labour costs. Although managers can stay in the same company until they reach the mandatory retirement age by accepting a lower post, the majority of them prefer to be transferred to a subsidiary firm or a company their original company had business with (Sato, 1999). Genda (2001) suggested the need for older workers to demonstrate their ability with certified qualifications and professional and specialized technical and vocational skills. To obtain a certified qualification for a specialized job skill may be easier if workers could foresee what types of vocational skill requirements they may face in the future and proactively plan and initiate their lifelong-learning programmes at an earlier stage of career development.
2.6 Workplace Accidents and Karoshi There are annually more than a half million casualties of workplace accidents. The statistics (during the period 1973–2001) of the Japan International Centre for Occupational Safety and Health (JICOSH, 2004) revealed that 28 % and 14 % of on-the-job accidents occurred to the age groups 50–59 and 60–69, respectively. Extreme overtime (paid or unpaid) deteriorates the health of workers, while suicides are at least partly caused by depression connected with a heavy workload. There were 143 cases of Karoshi (death from overwork) and 31 suicides in 2001 (Matsumoto, 2003). The age group 40 to 44 represented the highest risk for Karoshi. Death from overwork can be prevented when supervisors learn to maintain their employees’ workload at a reasonable level. The survey conducted by Rengo (see Matsumoto, 2003) in 2002, which targeted 23,000 workers, revealed that 17.8 % of the respondents had ‘frequently’ performed overtime services with half pay and 23.5 % of the respondents said that they ‘occasionally’ worked overtime without pay. The culture of overtime (e.g. ‘I must complete the norms assigned to me’, ‘my colleagues also do. . .’) needs to be assessed to protect workers’ health and quality of life. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is currently trying to introduce stricter regulations to supervise employees’ working hours and to punish those firms engaged in ‘outrageous’ violations. While safety guidelines and penalty measures are needed, workers themselves need to share responsibility for occupational safety and health. While recognizing the useful security measures introduced by companies and interventions by public bodies to make working places safer, it is further
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recommended that older workers engage themselves in lifelong-learning efforts in order to keep themselves mentally alert and physically fit.
3 Developing Lifelong Learning Policies 3.1 Social Demand The development of lifelong learning in Japan has been significantly affected by population ageing, economic and technological developments and globalization, as well as the excessively competitive examination systems and heavily cognitiveoriented formal curriculum (Yamada et al., 2003). The shrinking young labour force compels older workers to stay in the labour market longer and to train themselves in order to update and improve their vocational skills. Older workers cannot escape from the skill requirements of a high-tech society. The ‘Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities’ (Japan. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, 2001) reported that 55 % of men and 35 % of women used the Internet. Exchanging and collecting information were the most popular modes of Internet use. This figure remained fairly constant over time, but it falls below the 10 % level for both sexes as of the age of 70. To create conditions for people to maintain or improve their computer skills beyond this age is a challenge for Japanese TVET. The acquisition of foreign languages (especially English) is essential for Japanese workers to remain effective in the global market. The globalization of trade and business has been exerting influence on Japanese employment practices and shifted its focus from traditional lifelong employment (where workers’ training programmes were rather employer-driven) to more diversified employment patterns in which self-direction and flexible courses are preferred modes of vocational training programmes. To cope with rising social problems in schools, such as bullying, violence, children who do not want to attend school, etc., educators are designing lifelonglearning interventions. The main objective of this approach is to foster the all-round personality development of students, that is, to help learners to develop a balanced personality (thinking and feeling), social and communication skills, empathetic attitudes towards others, and a healthy body and mind. Japanese TVET therefore must consider this lifelong-learning perspective.
3.2 The Japanese Concept of Lifelong Learning Public policy on lifelong learning is expressed as follows: ‘It is vital to achieve a lifelong learning society in which people can freely choose learning opportunities at any time during their lives in which proper recognition is accorded to their learning achievement’ (Japan. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, 2000).
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Japan attributes its miraculous economic achievements, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, mainly to its highly skilled, devoted, hard-working labour force. However, the tottering economy over the last decade of the twentieth century forced Japanese society, people and policy-makers to rethink the future direction of the country. People are now convinced that diplomas from prestigious educational institutions and hard-work alone will no longer make Japanese workers sufficiently effective to face the new demands of the job market, which is characterized as less stable, diversified, and even more demanding for new and highly professional skills. People started thinking that, although steady economic growth is desirable, they have to achieve a better balance between working and family life and also between hard work and the quality of life (good health, physical fitness, active social life, leisure and sports, etc). Japanese people are therefore comfortable with a very broad definition of lifelong learning which involves areas such as sports, cultural activities, hobbies, recreation, physical fitness and voluntary activities. They have equal expectations in terms of what lifelong learning can do to deal with this new economic reality.
3.3 A Historical Overview of Lifelong Learning Policy Development The main goal of lifelong learning policy is ‘to comprehensively review various systems, including education, in order to create a lifelong-learning society and implement the lifelong-learning concepts at all stages of life’ (Japan. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, 2000). The origin of lifelong learning policy can be traced back to Japan’s Social Education Law, enacted in 1949, which proclaimed learners’ legal right to non-formal education at home, at the workplace or in other places outside the formal system. The creation of Kominkan (the largest community learning centres) was a major implementation of this law. From 1984 to 1987 national discourse on lifelong learning was led by the Ad Hoc Council for Educational Reform, which recommended to the Prime Minister that the future of education should have lifelong learning as its basic premise and the most fundamental educational reform goal is therefore the transition to a lifelong-learning system. The decentralization reform of Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, which began in the middle of 1985, has been the most significant single factor affecting lifelong learning. In 1990, the Japanese Diet enacted ‘The Law for the Promotion of Lifelong Learning’. This law set a decentralization course for lifelong learning at the prefecture and municipal levels and established Lifelong Learning Councils— decentralized bodies responsible for lifelong learning direction and policies at these levels. The decentralization of lifelong learning also created a strong demand for a public/private partnerships, which consequently encouraged the establishment of a large number of non-profit-making organizations (NPOs), citizen groups and the
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private sector, as well as networks across municipalities for information sharing and identification of experts in lifelong learning (Yamada et al., 2003).
4 Current Developments in Lifelong-Learning-Based TVET 4.1 Situations Affecting the Employability of Older Workers 4.1.1 The National Economy When Japan was enjoying steady economic growth, its lifelong employment system made it possible for employers to retain older workers together with seniority-based promotion. However, as mentioned in the previous sections, with the stagnation of the economy, companies started to dismiss and redeploy older workers especially when they reach their late 50s. Paradoxically, there has recently been a strong counter argument against this employment practice. There is a real argument that older workers will become indispensable for the future economy of Japan, for two reasons: the young workforce is rapidly shrinking; and a sharp population decrease is foreseen over the coming fifty years. ‘Japan’s Vision for the Twenty-first Century’, prepared by the Economic Advisory Council (19 April 2005) and submitted to the Minister of Economy and Finance, clearly recognizes the retention and use of older workers in the labour market as a vital solution to the shrinking number of younger workers. 4.1.2 The Educational Level of Older Workers The educational attainment rate of Japanese workers in the 50–64 age-group is expected to increase significantly over the next twenty years. This means that young workers aged around 20 and over will grow up to be better educated older workers. In 2025, 45 % of older workers aged 50–64 will have completed tertiary-level education (OECD, 2004c). 4.1.3 Ageism There are mutually influential social and individual aspects of ageism. Ageism, which was once concealed in the mind of Japanese employers, has started to emerge again. Watanabe (1992) indicated that companies hold a traditional view that workers in general lose their occupational ability and flexibility as they grow older. She thought that there was no scientific evidence to support such a generalized view about older workers and their abilities. Referring to the research findings which revealed large individual differences in older workers’ cognitive abilities, social attitudes and health status, she advocated a comprehensive system of evaluating their vocational skills, experiences and values, which determine the employability of this group of workers.
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The individual view of ageism refers to the self-evaluation of whether one is motivated to work, learn and remain socially and physically active (participate in sports and recreation). One’s self-evaluation can also be addressed to one’s level of confidence about vocational skills. For example, Kawakita (1997), having reviewed the results of research conducted with unemployed men aged 50 and over, reported that older workers scored high in work ethics (e.g. hardworking, loyalty to the company, good human relationship skills) but scored low in business management skills (e.g. networking skills, accounting and financial skills, computer skills). These findings not only caution us against a generalized notion that older people’s vocational abilities decline as their age advances, but also point to the need to assess their vocational and technical skills from multiple angles. As regards the participation rate of older workers in learning and training, Japan is doing relatively well. In 1998, nearly 50 % of older workers (aged 55+) participated in self-training programmes compared with the average participation rate (25 %) of counterparts in OECD countries. However, the gender gap is large (60 % for men and 46 % for women) (OECD, 2004c).
4.2 Types of TVET Firm-based and self-directed modes of training are two popular modes of TVET in Japan. The former was developed as a major form of OJT (on-the-job training) under the former lifelong employment system. Under this system, young people, once recruited, were placed in intensive OJT programmes within the firm. Firms did not expect their young workers to be sufficiently equipped with TVET skills during their formal school and university education years and their academic base for TVET had to be further reinforced through experiential TVET training programmes in work places. It was generally understood that companies thought it advantageous to recruit young workers who are ‘uncontaminated’ by the real world of work, so that company-based TVET programmes can train young workers according to their own professional skill requirements and management needs. Along with the collapse of the traditional lifelong employment system, the relatively short and limited scope of the OJT, conducted under this system, could not prepare older workers sufficiently equipped with new (e.g. high tech) and highly professional skills. Due to Japan’s economic stagnation, companies could not also retain all middle-aged or older workers and started to dismiss or redeploy them. Although firms are still keeping older workers who possess highly professional and specialized technical skills, they are not willing to invest in their TVET because—firms think—the returns are modest. As a result, those older workers who lack highly specialized skills are compelled to turn to self-directed TVET. That is why there has been a surge in the establishment of private human-resource development firms, particularly since the revision of the Employment Security Law relaxed regulations concerning job introduction services in 1999. This law allows
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private human-development resource firms to join a wide range of human resource services and training programmes for the purpose of adjusting the balance of labour supply and demand (Matsumoto, 2003). In addition, workers, particularly those older workers who have experienced unemployment, feel less motivated to receive a training programme whose outcomes are only relevant to a specific firm. That is why the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) encourages workers’ ‘self-training’ by providing them with financial support, especially for outside-firm training programmes (which is relatively more flexible and diversified in meeting workers’ needs). Fujimura (2004), who reviewed the results of a large-scale survey carried out in companies, namely, the ‘Vocational Ability Development Survey’ (Japan Institute for Labour, 2001) and the ‘Fuji Research Survey’ (Fuji Research Corporation, 2000), concluded that both employees and employers were of the opinion that employees should be mainly responsible for their own skill development and that they preferred long-term leave (e.g. graduate study or overseas volunteer work), but employers were reluctant about this for obvious reasons. Fujimura thinks it important to cultivate ‘inter-company’ skills, particularly for those mid-career employees and older workers who face changing jobs or companies. To this end, he recommends the incorporation of OJT and Off-JT, the combination of which allows employees— whether young or old—to increase wide information gathering skills, to analyse diverse information sources and to develop transferable professional skills, which are also usable in other companies. The Education Committee of the Japan Federation of Employers (Fujimura, 2004) defined employability as ‘skills that enable worker mobility’ and also ‘skills that are demonstrated in a company that enable a worker to be employed on a continuous basis’. Given the changing nature of firm-based TVET and increased emphasis on offjob training, let us turn to actual policies and support systems that are being implemented in order to promote TVET for older workers.
4.3 Policy and Legislative TVET Support for Continued Employment In 1994, the Law concerning the Stabilisation of Employment of Older Persons was revised to prohibit companies to fix their mandatory retirement age at less than 60 years of age. This law permitted the government to provide counselling services and financial support to companies that promoted continued employment and training. This law was revised in 2000 and raised the mandatory retirement age from 60 to 65, to be fully implemented by 2025. The same law was revised again in 2004 to include such measures as:
r
the standards for continued employment of older workers can be set not only through union/employer negotiation, but can also be established in the work rules of firms;
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age eligibility of the law will be progressively raised by 2013 by taking into consideration the pension entitlement age of older workers; the age limit placed in job advertisements during recruitment should be explained and justified; a CV and other relevant documents should be provided by employers in the case of the dismissal of older workers; official authorization is obligatory when ‘Silver Human Resource Centres’ undertake temporary or short-term dispatch of older workers.
4.4 Financial and Technical Support to Firms The MHLW is playing a leading role in implementing the support programmes for firms’ re-deployment exercises and TVET. The following financial support measures are provided to firms by the ministry:
r r r r r r r
‘Re-deployment support benefit’ to cover the firms’ part of expenses for establishing re-deployment plans and systems; grants are also awarded to those firms that accept re-deployed older workers; ‘Emergency unemployment support benefit’ to be granted to firms that employ unemployed (non-voluntary) older workers and to those willing to receive middle-aged/older vocational trainees; ‘Education and training benefit’ grants to cover a part of trainees’ salaries during training; ‘Vocational skill development leave benefit’ to cover course fees of training and those of vocational skill tests; ‘Incentive pay for long-term education and training leave’ to be given to firms for initiation of the leave scheme and to cover part of workers’ long-term training leave; ‘Vocational skill evaluation promotion benefit’ to cover fees for vocational skill tests and part of wages during the test; ‘Career counselling promotion benefit’ to cover the outsourcing cost of career counselling experts.
Besides financing these provisions, the Employment Security Bureau of the MHLW provides various technical support and services at prefectural and municipal levels to assist firms employing older workers. There are nearly 600 public employment security offices across the country equipped with vocational guidance officers in charge of job introductions, career counselling and advisory services (Matsumoto, 2003). The following services are offered:
r r r
advisory service by older-worker-employment specialists (e.g. consultations on extension of mandatory retirement age, continuous employment, etc.); project planning assistance (management system for older workers, improvement of working conditions, reduced working hours, home-working, etc.); computer-based assessment and analysis for recruiting and employing older workers;
XIV.10 Working and Lifelong Learning among Older Workers (45+)
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joint research on employment issues on older workers; training aimed at the vitalization of workplaces through a continuous employment system for older workers; consultant service for re-employment and for work-life planning for middle-aged and older workers; The worker’s Life Department promoting lifelong-learning programmes for workers’ fulfilment and lifetime security in work places, homes and communities throughout their careers; ‘Age Free Project’—an advisory service for moderation of the employment age.
Matsumoto pointed out two recent directions of career counselling services, which are lifelong learning-based. Firstly, this service, in collaboration with schools, offers sustainable learning experiences through internship programmes to heighten the vocational awareness of future workers. Secondly, the service supports middle-aged unemployed older workers facing difficulties due to the transition from a lifetime employment practice to a more ‘self-reliant’ model in which workers are more responsible themselves for job search/change and the development of vocational skills. Policies to promote older workers’ technical and vocational training need to take into account the fact that older workers do not form a homogeneous group, but form a diverse population (age, gender, level, training needs, etc.).
5 Conclusions and the Future 5.1 The Need for the Development of Self-Sufficiency The development of self-sufficiency is required on the part of older workers. To achieve self-sufficiency, they should be motivated to direct their own learning activities in vocational education and training programmes. It is critical for older workers to invest more time, energy and money in lifelong learning in order to improve their knowledge base for coping with all the critical factors affecting their present and future working environments. Self-directed learning is sustainable as it intrinsically motivates the learner to learn. The development of self-sufficiency skills can be targeted at: (a) knowledge about laws, regulations, policies, innovations, research findings on education/training, employment practices, employer/employee relations, working conditions, social security, retirement and investment practices, career counselling services, family life, Internet sites, etc.; (b) ways to develop a comprehensive mid-life plan (at around age 40 or earlier) from which a career plan is drawn up, taking into account one’s present and future professional development needs and aspirations, personal and family life, financial needs, health and leisure; (c) lifelong-learning strategies to prepare the worker for flexible yet sustainable and transferable skills, certified qualifications and graduate-level degrees on specific skill areas (IT, foreign language, inter-cultural communication skills, etc.); (d) life-skills to share child-rearing and housework; (e) skills for sports, physical fitness and recreational activities. The development of
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self-sufficiency in all of these skill development areas should be considered as an overall objective of lifelong learning for older workers. Self-directed learning and the joint management of vocational training by public and private bodies are two lifelong-learning strategies preferred by Japanese workers. This conclusion is consistent with the findings of an international survey (Ohsako, 1999) conducted by the National Institute for Social Education, in which Japanese senior citizens aged between 60 and 79 reported self-initiated learning (37 %).
5.2 Employers’ Support Furthermore, lifelong learning among older adults requires a supportive learning environment. In this respect, the self-motivation of older workers becomes operational and sustainable when both public and private bodies co-operate to mobilize lifelong-learning resources for the benefit of workers. For employers and firms, it is important to co-operate and negotiate with employees and public and private bodies for the establishment of lifelong-learning-based human-resource development programmes to maximize productivity. As work quality is not independent of the life satisfaction and psychological fulfilment of workers, it is equally important to enhance the quality of life and motivation among employees in workplaces. It is therefore advisable for firms to conceive a broader lifelong-learning-based training programme, by combining on-the-job and off-thejob training programmes, which cover not only the vocational skills but also all other factors that affect the motivation and productivity of workers. On-the-job training in Japan has traditionally been too ‘firm-centred’, and has tended to neglect the aspect of a self-initiated/directed dimension of career development. When moving from a seniority-based promotion and wage system to a more competenceor qualification-based system, it is essential for employers to have a valid job specification system, placement and fair personnel evaluation mechanisms to determine wages and job performance. Employers should also make use of the work-relevant experiences of older workers and place them in the right positions and jobs.
5.3 Policy and Legislative Support Lawmakers and public policy-makers should examine possible amendments of laws and regulations to support the joint delivery of lifelong learning between the education sector and the employment sector. Employment/labour and social policymaking processes should fully consider the merits of capturing a lifelong-learning approach as a means to enhance the employability of young and older workers. This claim is consistent with Article 3.2.2 of the Human Resources Development Promotion Law (enacted since 1969), which proclaimed the implementation of this law in close connection with the School Education Law. Public policies should equally
XIV.10 Working and Lifelong Learning among Older Workers (45+)
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support career development and job-training programmes jointly conducted by older workers and their employers. Such policies should encourage employers to design lifelong-learning-based education and training initiatives by taking into consideration workers’ diverse mental and social needs, abilities and the conditions of the learning environment. Training policies should reflect worker’s voices, family life and leisure needs. Such policies should also be responsive to diverse working environments characterized by diverse employment opportunities (e.g. small businesses, self-employment, re-deployment, contracted work) and work-styles (e.g. working at home, work-sharing, part-time work, volunteer work, etc.). Indeed, to contribute to the creation of a prosperous, dynamic and yet caring and inclusive leaning society, we needs to design TVET from a perspective of lifelong learning in order to enable workers of all ages to make long-term and informed career plans and decisions. As an alternative to the bygone life-time employment system which used to provide comfortable job security to workers, the Japanese labour market has become more achievement/results-oriented and places a high value on individual worker’s achievements as a major criterion for promotion and wage-increases. This transition is particularly hard for middle-aged or older workers who have never faced it before. This can be illustrated by the increasing number of suicides of workers in this age groups due to depression caused by work-related stress (8,897 cases in 2004 according to Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare). Given this fact, the need for lifelong learning, particularly its integrated approach to life, work and learning, is ever strongly and widely voiced in all spheres of society in Japan. The retention of older workers in the labour market, as long as they can make economic and social contributions, is now considered an imperative policy option to counter the drastically shrinking younger working-age population (i.e. the 20–44 age-group) in Japan. Under these circumstances, it is essential for TVET policy-makers and practitioners to make further efforts to create supportive learning and working environments under which older people’s self-motivation is sustained and enhanced for participation in continued working and learning.
References Fujimura, H. 2004. Managing the development of one’s own vocational skills in Japanese companies. Japan labour review, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 23–44, March. Fuji Research Corporation. 2000. Fuji Research survey. Tokyo: Fuji Research. Genda, Y. 2001. The unhappiness of middle-aged and older workers. Japan labour bulletin, vol. 140, no. 5, May. Imada, S. 1996. Female labour force after the enforcement of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law. Japan labour bulletin, vol. 35, no. 8, August. Japan International Centre for Occupational Safety and Health—JICOSH. 2004. Death and injuries by age of worker. Tokyo: JICOSH. <www.jicosh.gr.jp/english/> Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training; Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. 2001. Vocational ability development survey. Tokyo. <www.mhlw.go.jp/english/> Japan. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. 2000. What is lifelong learning? <www.mext.go.jp/english/org/f lifelong.htm>
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Japan. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication. 2001. Survey on time use and leisure activities. Tokyo. Japan. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, 2002. The 2002 employment status survey. Tokyo. Japan. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication. 2004a. Labour force survey. Tokyo. Japan. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication. 2004b. Population census 2004. Tokyo. Japan. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication. 2004c. Statistical Yearbook, 2004. Tokyo. Kawakita, T. 1997. The mid-career unemployed in Japan. Japan labour bulletin, vol. 36, no. 3, March. Kezuka, K. 2000. Legal problems concerning part-time work in Japan. Japan labour bulletin, vol. 39, no. 9, September. Matsumoto, J. 2003. The current state of ‘career counselling’ in Japan. Japan labour bulletin, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 6–9, March. Morishima, M. 2001. Contingent workers in Japan: new developments and unexpected consequences. Japan labour bulletin, vol. 40, no. 3, March. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2004a. Effective and official age of retirement. In: Ageing and employment policies: Japan, pp. 79–80. Flitwick, UK: Databeuro. <www.databeuro.com/acatalog/OECD Ageing Employment Policy Series.html> Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2004b. Reducing work hours. In: Ageing and employment policies: Japan, p. 137. Flitwick, UK: Databeuro. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2004c. Employability and training. In: Ageing and employment policies: Japan, p. 129. Flitwick, UK: Databeuro. Ohsako, T. 1999. Learning and social participation by senior citizens in Japan: analysis of major issues from an international perspective. In: How adults learn, pp. 119–43. Washington, DC: US Department of Education; Paris: OECD. (Paper prepared for the International Conference on ‘How Adults Learn’, Washington, DC, United States, 6–8 April 1999.) Sato, A. 1999. Employment and treatment of middle-aged and older white-collar employees after the bubble. Japan labour bulletin, vol. 38, no. 6, June. Watanabe, M. 1992. Employment and treatment of older persons and measures to respond. Japan labour bulletin, vol. 31, no. 10, October. Yamada, K. et al. 2003. New trends and challenges of lifelong learning policies in Japan. (Paper prepared for the International Policy Seminar: ‘Making Lifelong Learning a Reality’, coorganized by UNESCO-IIEP and KRIVET, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 24–26 June 2003.)
International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: UNESCO-UNEVOC Handbooks and Book series Editor-in-Chief: Dr Rupert Maclean, UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany
Associate Editors: Professor Felix Rauner, TVET Research Group, University of Bremen, Germany Professor Karen Evans, Institute of Education, University of London, United Kingdom
Editorial Advisory Board: Dr David Atchoarena, UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning, Paris, France Dr Andr´as Benedek, Ministry of Employment and Labour, Budapest, Hungary Dr Paul Benteler, Stahlwerke Bremen, Germany Ms Diane Booker, TAFESA, Adelaide, Australia Mr John Budu-Smith, formerly Ministry of Education, Accra, Ghana Professor Michel Carton, NORRAG c/o Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland Dr Chris Chinien, Workforce Development Consulting, Montreal, Canada Dr Claudio De Moura Castro, Faculade Pit´agoras, Belo Horizonte, Brazil Dr Wendy Duncan, Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines Dr Michael Frearson, SQW Consulting, Cambridge, United Kingdom Dr Lavinia Gasperini, Natural Resources Management and Environment Department, Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy Dr Philipp Grollmann, Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BiBB), Bonn, Germany Dr Peter Grootings, European Training Foundation, Turin, Italy Professor W. Norton Grubb, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley, United States of America Dr Dennis R. Herschbach, Faculty of Education Policy and Leadership, University of Maryland, College Park, United States of America Dr Oriol Homs, Centre for European Investigation and Research in the Mediterranean Region, Barcelona, Spain Professor Phillip Hughes, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia Professor Moo-Sub Kang, Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Seoul, Republic of Korea Dr Bonaventure W. Kerre, School of Education, Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya Dr G¨unter Klein, German Aerospace Centre, Bonn, Germany Dr Wilfried Kruse, Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund, Dortmund Technical University, Germany Professor Jon Lauglo, Department of Educational Research, Faculty of Education, University of Oslo, Norway Dr Alexander Leibovich, Institute for Vocational Education and Training Development, Moscow, Russian Federation Professor Robert Lerman, Urban Institute, Washington, United States of America Mr Joshua Mallet, Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, Canada Ms Naing Yee Mar, UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany Professor Munther Wassef Masri, National Centre for Human Resources Development, Amman, Jordan Dr Phillip McKenzie, Australian Council for Educational Research, Melbourne, Australia Dr Theo Raubsaet, Centre for Work, Training and Social Policy, Nijmegen, Netherlands Mr Trevor Riordan, International Labour Organization, Bangkok, Thailand Professor Barry Sheehan, Melbourne University, Australia Dr Madhu Singh, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, Hamburg, Germany Dr Manfred Tessaring, European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, Thessaloniki, Greece Dr Jandhyala Tilak, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi, India Dr Pedro Daniel Weinberg, formerly Inter-American Centre for Knowledge Development in Vocational Training (ILO/CINTERFOR), Montevideo, Uruguay Professor Adrian Ziderman, Bar-llan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
UNESCO-UNEVOC Head of Publications: Alix Wurdak
Rupert Maclean · David Wilson Editors Chris Chinien Associate Editor
International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work Bridging Academic and Vocational Learning
123
Editors Dr Rupert Maclean UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Education Hermann-Ehlers-Str. 10 53113 Bonn Germany [email protected]
Professor David Wilson University of Toronto Canada
Associate Editor Dr Chris Chinien Workforce Development Consulting Montreal Canada
ISBN: 978-1-4020-5280-4
e-ISBN: 978-1-4020-5281-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008930131 c Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com
Contents
List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxix List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xlvii Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Foreword:
TVET for the Sustainability of Human Kind . . . . . . . . . . . . .
lv lxix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lxxiii Rupert Maclean and David N. Wilson Prologue: Skills Development in the Informal Sector of Sub-Saharan Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cxiii Arvil V. Adams VOLUME 1 Part I Overview 1 The Pedagogical Roots of Technical Learning and Thinking . . . . Ron Hansen
5
2 A Conceptual Framework for Technical and Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Jay W. Rojewski 3 Towards Achieving TVET for All: The Role of the UNESCOUNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Astrid Hollander and Naing Yee Mar 4 TVET Glossary: Some Key Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Jeanne MacKenzie and Rose-Anne Polvere v
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Part II The Changing Context of Work and Education Section 1 Changing Workplace Requirements: Implication for Education Margarita Pavlova and L. Efison Munjanganja I.1 Overview: Changing Economic Environment and Workplace Requirements: Implications for Re-Engineering TVET for Prosperity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 France Boutin, Chris Chinien, Lars Moratis and Peter van Baalen I.2 The Right to a New Utopia: Adult Learning and the Changing World of Work in an Era of Global Capitalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Budd L. Hall I.3 Decent Work for All: From ILO Initiative to a Global Goal . . . . 111 Peter Poschen I.4 Redefining Gender Roles in the Workforce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Karen F. Zuga I.5 Anticipation of Skill Requirements: European Activities and Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Manfred Tessaring I.6 Redefining the Status of Occupations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Walter R. Heinz I.7 Changing Work, Work Practice: Consequences for Vocational Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Stephen Billett I.8 Traditional and Transitional TVET Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Poonam Agrawal I.9 Partnering to Meet the Needs of a Changing Workplace . . . . . . . 203 LuAnn Hiniker and Robert A. Putnam I.10 Bridging the Learning Divide: A Study into Adult Learning and Peer Mediation in the Workplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 David Johnson Section 2 Education and Training in Informal Economies Madhu Singh
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II.1 Overview: Education and Training in the Informal Sector . . . . . 235 Madhu Singh II.2 Tinkering with the Tinker: Meeting Training Needs in the Informal Sector of Chad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 Joshua A. Muskin II.3 The Traditional Informal Apprenticeship System of West Africa as Preparation for Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 William Ahadzie II.4 Initiatives to Link TVET to Self-Employment in Ghana . . . . . . . 277 Robert Palmer II.5 Criteria for Training Policy in the Informal Sector: Demands and Challenges in Latin America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 Enrique Pieck II.6 Informal Learning at Work: The Case of Working Children in Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 Laila Iskandar II.7 Informal Learning and Work: From Genealogy and Definitions to Contemporary Methods and Findings . . . . . . . . . . 319 Peter H. Sawchuk II.8 New Learning Spaces in TVET: The Contribution of Social Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 Terri Seddon, Kathleen Fennessy and Kathleen Ferguson II.9 Social and Cultural Aspects of Informal Sector Learning: Meeting the Goals of EFA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349 Madhu Singh VOLUME 2
Part III
Education for the World of Work: National and Regional Perspectives
Section 3 Reforming National Systems of Vocational Education and Training David Atchoarena and Peter Grootings
viii
Contents
III.1 Overview: Changing National VET Systems through Reforms . 365 David Atchoarena and Peter Grootings III.2 Latin America’s Efforts in the Vocational Training of Young People from Poor Backgrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379 Claudia Jacinto III.3 Accountability and Career Technical Education (CTE) Policy: A Brief Review of Six States of the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 Joshua D. Hawley and Alexandra de Montrichard III.4 The Regional Perspective of Vocational Education and Training 411 Mike Coles and Tom Leney III.5 Vocational Education, Training Reform and Regional Integration in the Middle East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 Munther Wassef Masri III.6 The Influence of Qualifications Frameworks on the Infrastructure of VET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 Mike Coles and Patrick Werquin III.7 Reforming Skills Development, Transforming the Nation: South African Vocational Education and Training Reforms, 1994–2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453 Simon McGrath III.8 Reform of Vocational Education in the Russian Federation . . . . 469 Olga Oleynikova and Anna Muravyeva III.9 Vocational Education in the Netherlands: In Search of a New Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483 Jan Geurts and Frans Meijers III.10 Facilitating Policy-Learning: Active Learning and the Reform of Education Systems in Transition Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499 Peter Grootings
Section 4
National Initiatives for Reengineering Education for the New Economy Joshua D. Hawley
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IV.1 Overview: Regional Reviews of TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515 Joshua D. Hawley IV.2 To Vocationalize or Not to Vocationalize? Perspectives on Current Trends and Issues on TVET in Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531 Moses O. Oketch IV.3 TVET in the Asian Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects . . . 547 P.P.G. Lionel Siriwardene and Muhammad Ashraf Qureshi IV.4 Transforming TVET Systems with the CPSC in the Asia and Pacific Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565 Man-Gon Park IV.5 European Action Programmes for Lifelong Learning . . . . . . . . . 583 Johanna Lasonen IV.6 VET in the Baltic States: Analysis of Commonalities and Differences of Reforms in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania . . . . . . 597 Frank B¨unning and Berit Graubner IV.7 Education and Training Needs of Rural Communities: A Situational Analysis of Selected Villages in Fourteen Provinces of Fiji . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609 Paula Cavu, Isimeli W. Tagicakiverata, Seveci Naisilisili and Viliame Rabici IV.8 Social Partnership in Vocational Education and Training in Lithuania: Challenges and Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619 Lina Kaminskien˙e IV.9 Integrating Education and Work: The Status of Vocational Education in Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637 Luc´ılia Regina Machado and Carlos Roberto Jamil Cury IV.10 China’s Higher Technical and Vocational Education: Development and Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649 Jing Mi and Aihua Wu IV.11 The Adoption and Adaptation of the Work-Team Concept in Urban Thai Workplaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659 Chitrlada Burapharat
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IV.12 Globalization of the Labour Culture in the Republic of Korea: What ‘Tripartite Relations’ Mean for Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673 Phoebe Moore IV.13 Involvement of Labour-Market Partners in TVET in the Russian Federation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689 Olga Oleynikova IV.14 Strengthening TVET to Achieve Lifelong Learning for All: Historical Snapshots and Recent Initiatives in Myanmar . . . . . . 703 Naing Yee Mar IV.15 Technical and Vocational Education and Training and Rural Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721 Lavinia Gasperini IV.16 An International TVET Programme Development by the International Baccalaureate Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735 Monique Conn IV.17 A Profile of TVET in the Asia and Pacific Region: A Survey of Progress, Innovations and Promising Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749 Chris Chinien, Elspeth McOmish, Mohan Perera and Alex Chinien
Section 5
Learning for Employment and Citizenship in Post-conflict Countries David Johnson and Lyle Kane
V.1 Overview: Vocational Education, Social Participation and Livelihoods in Post-Conflict Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767 David Johnson and Lyle Kane V.2 From Assessment to Planning: Hope for TVET in Uganda . . . . . 775 Bilal Barakat, Lyle Kane and Alex Inglis V.3 Linking TVET to Economic Opportunities in Post-Conflict Liberia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787 Lyle Kane V.4 Deepening the Divide: The Differential Impact of Protracted Conflict on TVET Versus Academic Education in Palestine . . . . 799 Bilal Barakat
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V.5 Co-ordinated Programming for Skills Development and Livelihoods in Post-Conflict Societies: What Promise Does TVET Hold for Southern Sudan? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813 Zuki Karpinska V.6 Vocational Training in Post-War Sierra Leone and Liberia . . . . 827 Andrew Benson Greene Jr. V.7 TVET and Community Re-Integration: Exploring the Connections in Sierra Leone’s DDR Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835 Julia Paulson V.8 TVET, Women and Conflict: Palestinians in the Lebanese Civil War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 849 Rachel Yarrow VOLUME 3 Part IV The Management of TVET Systems
Section 6 Policy and Management of TVET Systems Rupert Maclean and Chris Chinien VI.1 Overview: Navigating the Policy Landscape: Education, Training and Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869 Dennis R. Herschbach VI.2 Research for TVET Policy Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 891 Jon Lauglo VI.3 The Reform and Governance of Public TVET Institutions: Comparative Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905 Keith Holmes VI.4 National Versus Regional Policy Dimensions of TVET . . . . . . . . 921 Peter Noonan VI.5 Planning for Education and Work: Alternatives and Issues . . . . 939 Dennis R. Herschbach VI.6 South African Technikons and Policy Contestation over Academic Drift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 961 Andre Kraak
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VI.7 New Policy Actions and Government Roles: China’s Reconstruction of TVET Systems Since the 1980s . . . . . . . . . . . . 977 Deyu Sun, Jingwen Lu and Jun Li VI.8 Some Generic Issues in TVET Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989 George Preddey VI.9 An Overview of Contemporary TVET Management Practice . 1003 George Preddey Section 7 The Economics and Financing of TVET David Atchoarena VII.1 Overview: Issues and Options in Financing Technical and Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1029 David Atchoarena VII.2 Education, Skills, Sustainability and Growth: Complex Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1037 Kenneth King VII.3 Financing Mechanisms and Instruments: A Conceptual and Operational Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1051 Richard Walther VII.4 Financing Training Through Payroll Levies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1075 Adrian Ziderman VII.5 Financing Vocational Education and Training in South Africa 1091 Martin Gustafsson and Pundy Pillay VII.6 Voucher-Financed Training for Small Businesses . . . . . . . . . . . . 1107 F´elix Mitnik VII.7 Employers’ Participation in Training Finance: An Example from Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1123 Candido Alberto Gomes VII.8 Funding Lifelong Learning from a Life-Course Perspective . . . 1137 Barry J. Hake VII.9 Economic Perspectives on Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1155 Gerald Burke and Christopher Selby Smith
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Part V Teacher Education for Vocational Education and Training
Section 8 The TVET Profession Stephen Billett VIII.1 Overview: The Technical and Vocational Education and Training Profession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1175 Stephen Billett VIII.2 Professionalization of VET Teachers and Lecturers and Practices in TVET Institutions in an International Perspective 1185 Philip Grollmann VIII.3 Teachers, Instructors and Trainers: An Australian Focus . . . . . 1203 Erica Smith VIII.4 TVET Teacher-Training Requirements in the Russian Federation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1219 Vasiliy P. Kosyrev, Petr F. Kubrushko and Andrei N. Kouznetsov VIII.5 TVET Teachers and Their Professionalization in China: A Problem Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1229 Zhiqun Zhao and Lianwei Lu VIII.6 The Development of Training Modules for Instructors . . . . . . . 1243 Fred Beven VIII.7 Literacy and Learning: Are TVET Professionals Facilitators of Learning or Deliverers of Knowledge and Skills? . . . . . . . . . . 1259 Jean Searle VIII.8 Vocational Education in the Private Sector in Brazil . . . . . . . . . 1271 Elenice Monteiro Leite, Marinilzes Moradillo Mello and Nacim Walter Chieco VIII.9 TVET and Teacher-Training Curricula: A Developed National Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1285 Vasiliy P. Kosyrev, Petr F. Kubrushko and Andrei N. Kouznetsov
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VIII.10 Vocational Qualifications: The Role of Trade Unions as Negotiation Fora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1293 Antˆonio Almerico Biondi Lima and Fernando Augusto Moreira Lopes VIII.11 Vocational Education and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1307 Gaudˆencio Frigotto, Maria Ciavatta and Marise N. Ramos VIII.12 A Technical and Vocational Teacher-Training Curriculum . . . . 1319 Bonaventure W. Kerre VIII.13 Transforming Teachers’ Practice Through Action Learning . . 1333 Stephen Billett VIII.14 Professional Learning and TVET: Challenges and Perspectives for Teachers and Instructors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1351 Christian Harteis VIII.15 Industrial Attachments for Instructors in TVET Delivery . . . . 1367 Sarojni Choy and Sandra Haukka VIII.16 I Hate Left-Handers or Occupational Health and Safety Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1383 Richard Gagnon VIII.17 The Bologna Declaration and Emerging Models of TVET Teacher Training in Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1393 Frank B¨unning and Alison Shilela VIII.18 Standards for Occupation-Directed Professional Development of TVET Personnel in Developing Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1407 Peter Gerds VIII.19 Curriculum Research and Design as a Subject of TVET Teacher Training: Practice and Experiences from Two International Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1423 Joachim Dittrich VOLUME 4
Part VI
Education for Work: Research, Curriculum Development and Delivery
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Section 9 Research and Innovation Felix Rauner IX.1 Overview: TVET Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1443 Felix Rauner IX.2 Methods of TVET Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1461 Felix Rauner IX.3 TVET Research as an Aid to Improved Policy and Performance in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1469 Christopher Selby Smith IX.4 Repositioning the Role of Research in the Innovation of TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1483 Anneke Westerhuis IX.5 TVET Research as a Dimension of Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1495 Klaus Ruth IX.6 Modellversuchsforschung: Pilot Project Research in Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1505 Peter Dehnbostel IX.7 TVET and R&D Evaluation: The Potential for Optimizing TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1521 Ludger Deitmer and Lars Heinemann IX.8 TVET Research Organizations and Scientific Communities: Challenges to the Institutionalization of TVET Research . . . . . 1535 Wolfgang Wittig, Uwe Lauterbach and Philip Grollmann IX.9 Qualifications Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1553 Felix Rauner IX.10 Measuring Educational Quality in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1563 Robert D. Renaud Section 10 Curriculum Development and Delivery Felix Rauner X.1 Overview: TVET Curriculum Development and Delivery . . . . 1579 Felix Rauner
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X.2 The Mutual Shaping of Work, Vocational Competence and Work-Process Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1593 Nicholas Boreham and Martin Fischer X.3 Situated Learning and Cognitive Apprenticeship . . . . . . . . . . . . 1611 Michael Gessler X.4 Curriculum Approaches and Participative Curriculum Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1627 Georg Sp¨ottl X.5 The Deskilling and Upskilling Debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1639 Ulrich Heisig X.6 The Pedagogy of Apprenticeship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1653 Uwe Lauterbach X.7 Approaches to Designing TVET Curricula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1669 Richard Huisinga X.8 Collaborative Work-Related Learning and TechnologyEnhanced Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1687 Alan Brown, Jenny Bimrose and Sally-Anne Barnes X.9 Action-Based TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1699 Hans-Dieter H¨opfner X.10 Vocational Learning: Contributions of Workplaces and Educational Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1711 Stephen Billett X.11 Work-Based Learning: An English Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1725 James Avis X.12 Language Mastery Development within TVET for Professional Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1739 Andrei N. Kouznetsov X.13 Why do German Companies Invest in Apprenticeship? . . . . . . 1747 Klaus Schaack X.14 Workplace Learning: Metacognitive Strategies for Learning in the Knowledge Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1763 Hugh Munby, Nancy L. Hutchinson and Peter Chin
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X.15 Literacy, Design and Technology: New Contexts for Learning and Skills Development in South Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1777 David Johnson X.16 The Education Gospel and Vocationalism in an International Perspective: The Promises and the Limits of Formal Schooling 1791 W. Norton Grubb and Marvin Lazerson X.17 The Vocationalization of Secondary Education: The Relationships between Vocational and Technology Education . 1805 Margarita Pavlova X.18 Valuing Experience as well as Knowledge in Schools . . . . . . . . . 1823 Ron Hansen Section 11 Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Vocational Education and Training Maja Zarini, Tapio Varis and Naing Yee Mar XI.1 Overview: The Growing Role of ICTs in Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1835 Maja Zarini, David N. Wilson, Naing Yee Mar and Tapio Varis XI.2 The Pedagogical Framework for On-Line Learning . . . . . . . . . . 1847 Shyamal Majumdar XI.3 A Short Method for Building Web-Based Teaching and Learning Systems: the CPSC Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1863 Myong Hee Kim and Man-Gon Park XI.4 ICT Application in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1879 Boris Kotsik, Natalia Tokareva, France Boutin and Chris Chinien XI.5 Technology and Leadership in the Fourth Wave of Environmental Changes with Ubiquitous Technology . . . . . . . . 1895 Man-Gon Park XI.6 Knowledge Workforce Development for ComputerSupported Collaborative Work Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1911 Man-Gon Park and Myong Hee Kim XI.7 The Role of ICTs and TVET in Rural Development and Poverty Alleviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1923 Chiranjib Kumar Basu and Shyamal Majumdar
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XI.8 Switched on: International Approaches to Skills Development through ICTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1935 Maja Zarini XI.9 VOCED: The International Research Database on Vocational Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1947 Miriam Saunders and Radhika Naidu XI.10 What are the Limits of ICTs and Media in the Delivery of TVET? An Australian Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1959 Peter Kearns XI.11 Education System Profile: South Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1971 Tracey Wallace XI.12 Integrating TVET with Open and Distance Learning: Taking Skills Training to the Doorstep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1989 Vinay Swarup Mehrotra and Avant Kumar Sacheti XI.13 Distance Education: The State of the Art in Career and Technical Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2003 Christopher J. Zirkle VOLUME 5
Part VII
Learning for Life and Work: Bridging Academic and Vocational Education
Section 12 Participation in Formal Programmes of Learning and Skills Development Rupert Maclean and Hendrik van der Pol XII.1 Overview: Participation in Formal Programmes of Learning and Skills Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2025 Natalia Matveeva and Joachim Lapp XII.2 Access to TVET for All: An Essential Basis for Education for All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2039 Phillip Hughes XII.3 The Challenges of TVET Global Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2053 Manuel Cardoso
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XII.4 Making Global Classifications of Types and Levels of TVET . . 2067 Andy Green, Moses O. Oketch and John Preston XII.5 Trends and Issues in TVET across the Globe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2081 Moses O. Oketch, Andy Green and John Preston XII.6 Statistical Overview of TVET across Educational Levels . . . . . 2095 Manuel Cardoso XII.7 The Ethics of TVET Policy and Practice: Issues of Access and Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2163 Richard G. Bagnall XII.8 Special Needs Education and TVET: The Perspective from the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2177 Michael W. Harvey Section 13 Education for the Changing Demands of Youth Employment Karen Plane XIII.1 Overview: TVET for Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2197 Karen Plane XIII.2 Skills Shortages, Over-Education and Unemployed Youth: An International Dilemma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2211 Kenneth Gray and Sang Hoon Bae XIII.3 New Directions for High-School Career and Technical Education in the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2229 Richard L. Lynch XIII.4 Occupations in Demand/Youth Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2247 Antoaneta Voikova XIII.5 Pathways and Transitions from School to Work: Australian Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2263 Annette Gough XIII.6 School/Workplace Partnerships: A Case Study of Four Vocational Studies Programmes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2279 Marcelle Hardy and Louise M´enard XIII.7 Vocationalized Secondary Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2295 Jon Lauglo
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XIII.8 Vocational Guidance and Career Counselling in the European Union: Origins and Recent Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2313 Frederic J. Company XIII.9 ‘White-Collar’ Work or a ‘Technical’ Career? The Ambitions of Fiji Final-Year School Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2329 Pam Nilan, Paula Cavu, Isimeli W. Tagicakiverata and Emily Hazelman XIII.10 14–16 Year Olds Taking Vocational Courses in English Colleges: A Dumping Ground for the Disengaged or a Real Alternative? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2343 Norman Lucas XIII.11 Reconciling the Competing Policy Platforms in TVET? Promulgating ‘the 6Es Plus Education’ for Youth through Social Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2357 Karen Plane Section 14 The Skills Debate in an Ageing Society Tom Karmel and Rupert Maclean XIV.1 Overview: TVET in an Ageing Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2375 Tom Karmel and Rupert Maclean XIV.2 Policy Framework on the Retraining for Reskilling of Older Workers through Specialized TVET Programmes . . . . . . . . . . . 2385 Theodora Josue Tesoro Gayondato and Myong Hee Kim XIV.3 Reskilling for All? The Changing Role of TVET in the Ageing Societies of Developing Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2401 Margarita Pavlova and Rupert Maclean XIV.4 The Changing Context of TVET for the Workforce in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2417 Jagmohan Singh Rajput XIV.5 The Reform of the TVET System in the Republic of Korea for an Ageing Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2431 Hong-Geun Chang XIV.6 Will We Run Out of Young Men? Implications of the Ageing of the Population for the Trades in Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2445 Tom Karmel and Koon Ong
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XIV.7 The Ageing Labour Force and the Retraining of Workers in the Republic of Korea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2457 Jihee Choi XIV.8 Technical Entrepreneurship Development for the Aged . . . . . . 2469 Man-Gon Park and Suresh Kumar Dhameja XIV.9 The Ageing TVET Workforce in Australia: Issues and Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2487 Hugh Guthrie and Phil Loveder XIV.10 Working and Lifelong Learning among Older Workers (45+) in Japan: Implications for TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2499 Toshio Ohsako VOLUME 6
Part VIII Lifelong Learning for Livelihoods and Citizenship
Section 15 Adult, Continuing and Lifelong Learning Chris Chinien and Madhu Singh XV.1 Overview: Adult Education for the Sustainability of Human Kind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2521 Chris Chinien and Madhu Singh XV.2 The Emergence of ‘Workforce Development’: Definition, Conceptual Boundaries and Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2537 Ronald L. Jacobs and Joshua D. Hawley XV.3 The Challenge for ESD in TVET: Developing Core Sustainable Development Competencies and Collaborative Social Partnerships for Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2553 Chris Chinien, France Boutin and Karen Plane XV.4 Key Competencies: Overall Goals for Competence Development: An International and Interdisciplinary Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2571 Dominique Simone Rychen XV.5 Education and Training in the Context of Poverty Reduction . 2585 Bernd Overwien
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XV.6 Recognition, Validation and Accreditation of Non-Formal and Informal Learning and Experience: Results of an International Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2597 Madhu Singh XV.7 Self-Directed Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2615 Stephen D. Brookfield XV.8 New Learning Strategies and Learning Cultures in Companies 2629 Peter Dehnbostel XV.9 PLAR, Training and Efficient Labour Markets: The Canadian Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2647 Bill Empey and Christine Newton XV.10 Transformative Learning Theory and TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2661 Karen Magro XV.11 The Implications of Cognitive Style to Adult Distance Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2679 Cindy Marie Isaak-Ploegman and Chris Chinien XV.12 Competency, Meaningful Learning and Learning Styles in TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2697 Richard Gagnon XV.13 Workplace Essential Skills in Policy and Practice: A Canadian Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2713 Erik de Vries XV.14 Adult Numeracy for Work and Life: Curriculum and Teaching Implications of Recent Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2731 Gail FitzSimons and Diana Coben XV.15 An Innovative System of Vocational Training in the German IT Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2747 Rita Meyer Part IX Assessment of Skills and Competencies Section 16 Recognition, Certification, Accreditation and Quality Assurance in TVET Karina Veal XVI.1 Overview: Competencies, Qualifications and Recognition . . . . 2763 Karina Veal
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XVI.2 The Certification of Competencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2777 Danielle Colardyn XVI.3 Modularization and Modular Delivery of TVET . . . . . . . . . . . . 2793 John Stanwick XVI.4 Diverse Approaches to the Recognition of Competencies . . . . . 2811 Danielle Colardyn XVI.5 How Do We Measure Up? Benchmarking the WorldSkills Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2827 David Hoey XVI.6 Validation of Educational Programmes: Comparing Models and Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2841 Grazia Scoppio XVI.7 Regional Accreditation and Certification of TVET Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2853 Ligaya Valmonte and Man-Gon Park XVI.8 National Qualifications Frameworks: An Analytical Overview 2867 Michael F.D. Young XVI. 9 Developing a National System of Vocational Qualifications . . . 2881 John Hart XVI.10 National Qualifications Frameworks in Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2899 Bonaventure W. Kerre and Astrid Hollander XVI.11 Implementing National Qualifications Frameworks: Problems and Possibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2917 Michael F.D. Young XVI.12 Labour Mobility and Mutual Recognition of Skills and Qualifications: The European Union and Australia/ New Zealand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2935 Chandra Shah and Michael Long XVI.13 Quality Assurance in TVET in Romania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2953 Magdalena Balica Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2971 Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3003
VOLUME 6
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Part VIII
Lifelong Learning for Livelihoods and Citizenship
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Section 15 Adult, Continuing and Lifelong Learning
Chris Chinien Workforce Development Consulting, Montreal, Canada Madhu Singh UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, Hamburg, Germany
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Chapter XV.1
Overview: Adult Education for the Sustainability of Human Kind Chris Chinien and Madhu Singh
1 Introduction In the former economies, competitive advantages included access to raw materials, natural resources and fertile lands. In an era in which knowledge is the important intangible asset, a national competitive advantage will increasingly be derived from an educated and empowered workforce able to adapt quickly to the dynamic requirements of a changing workplace (Ives, 1992). Technology is said to be the driver of this new economy and human capital is its fuel (Moe & Blodget, 2000). In the new economy, human capital is defined as workers’ knowledge that results in effective and efficient performance. The concept of ‘mind workers’ or knowledge workers has emerged from this transformation of work and it appears to be the fastest growing type of worker. Knowledge is not only beneficial to the well-being of the worker, but is also viewed as a major competitive advantage for a country and a key element to ensure national prosperity and social development. The perception of the role of human intervention in the economic transactions has also changed. Keursten and Kessels (2002) noted that the ‘focus is shifting from appreciation of physical labour and the ability to co-ordinate and regulate to the ability to contribute to knowledge generation and application’ (p. 1). The labour market has become sharply polarized by a simultaneous increase in jobs requiring post-secondary education and casual jobs for unskilled workers. This polarization of the labour force has contributed to widening inequalities in income and disparities in employment prospects between the skilled and less skilled workers (Camdessus, 1997). Tuijnman (1997) noted: ‘Alienation, social exclusion, unemployment and slow productivity growth are among the consequences of limited capacity of some countries to adapt and fully exploit the opportunities offered in the global knowledge economy’ (p. 4). The International Labour Office estimated there were 160 million unemployed workers at the end of 2000; most of them were first-time job seekers, with as many as 50 million coming from industrialized countries (ILO, 2001). Moreover, many people are currently forced to accept low-skill, low-paid, part-time and nonpermanent jobs. The ILO reported that about 500 million workers, mostly from developing countries, do not earn enough to keep their families above the poverty line. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XV.1, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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In their attempts to become and remain more competitive in this new world order, brought about by globalization and technological developments, several countries have implemented major strategic alignment initiatives to transform the economy, as well as their education and training systems. For example, in March 2000, the Council of the European Union meeting in Lisbon established a major strategic goal to make Europe the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion. This radical transformation is based on the recognition that human resources are the Union’s main asset and that investment in people is as important as investment in capital and equipment to achieve growth and improve productivity. It is estimated that a one year increase in average educational attainment of the population can yield a 5% increase in short-term growth and an additional increase of 2.5% in the long term. Furthermore, research has established some positive educational impact on employment, health, social inclusion and active citizenship (Council of the European Union, 2004). The less-developed countries, already plagued by poverty, do not have that fiscal flexibility to cope with these challenges in the same way. Additionally, they do not have the necessary infrastructure or the necessary human capital to allow them to make swift changes to reap the benefits of globalization and technological development. Consequently, they have been drawn deeper into poverty, while having to bear the heavy burden of foreign debts. Poverty is undoubtedly the most crippling of problems for the developing world (NetAid, 2005).
2 Overview of the Contributions XV.2 The Emergence of ‘Workforce Development’: Definition, Conceptual Boundaries and Implications, by Ronald L. Jacobs and Joshua D. Hawley It could be argued whether education contributes to poverty reduction or whether improved economic conditions provide for increased access to quality education. Irrespective of which perspective is considered, adult education must form an integral part of the national development strategy, which is focused on economic growth, social progress and environmental protection. At least three areas of the education system contribute to these goals, namely: human-resources development (HRD); technical and vocational education and training (TVET); and adult education. These three areas operate as distinct fields. Each field has developed its own professional associations, body of literature, research and best practices. This division is unnecessary and has hampered the effectiveness of these fields. In recent years, we have been witnessing a convergence of these fields under the umbrella of ‘workforce development’. According to Jacobs and Hawley, there are five forces that are creating the need for the convergence of TVET, HRD and adult education, namely:
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(a) globalization; (b) technology; (c) the new economy; (d) political change; and (e) demographic shifts. The coming together of professionals from these fields would lead to a convergence of very powerful paradigms, principles, philosophy and the cross-fertilization of ideas and perspectives on: (a) theories of adult education; (b) human capital development theory and labour economics; (c) sociology of work, family and community; (d) career development theory and practice; and (e) workforce development public policy (Gray & Walter, 2001). Jacobs and Hawley propose a comprehensive conceptualization of workforce development and discuss the implications of workforce development on the thinking of policy-makers, researchers and practitioners alike.
XV.3 The Challenge for ESD in TVET: Developing Core Sustainable Development Competencies and Collaborative Social Partnerships for Practice, by Chris Chinien, France Boutin and Karen Plane The human economy already consumes around 50% of the planet’s natural production every year. If this trend is maintained we will soon need many more planets to support our needs. This unsustainable approach to development is causing major ecological disasters, contaminating the air that we breathe, contaminating the water that we drink, and bringing about other irreversible damage to the environment. We are not only compromising our livelihood and quality of life, but we are also jeopardizing the livelihoods of future generations. Although reversing environmental degradation has become a global priority, world leaders recognize that environmental protection cannot be achieved without due consideration to economic and social development. The concept of sustainable development emerged from this critical reflection regarding the interdependency and interconnectedness between environmental protection and economic and social development. Members of the workforce require new ways of thinking, new attitudes and skills to be able to contribute to the goals of sustainable development. To achieve these goals TVET will have to reorient itself so that it can satisfy the four basic axiomatic assumptions of sustainable development: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Social progress for all; Effective protection of the environment; Prudent use of natural resources; and Maintenance of a well-educated workforce.
Chinien, Boutin and Plane provide an empirical perspective on the sustainable literacy requirements for the workforce. The proposed skills profile encapsulates six unifying skill clusters, namely: (a) ethics and values; (b) integrated decision-making; (c) responsible use of resources; (d) valuing diversity; (e) safety and well-being; and (f) continual improvement.
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XV.4 Key Competencies: Overall Goals for Competence Development: An International and Interdisciplinary Perspective, by Dominique Simone Rychen Rychen describes the efforts undertaken by OECD related to key competencies through its interdisciplinary and policy-oriented research programme DeSeCo (Definition and Selection of Competencies: Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations). DeSeCo has focused on individual competencies that constitute a strategic resource both for enhancing economic growth and for fostering social cohesion. Its main purpose was to provide theoretical and conceptual foundations for determining a limited set of competencies that are essential to personal, economic and social well-being. Nine key competencies were found to be of particular relevance for all individuals in OECD countries and, possibly, transition and developing countries. These were:
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the ability to relate well to others; the ability to co-operate; the ability to manage and resolve conflict; the ability to act within the ‘big picture’; the ability to form and conduct life plans and personal projects; the ability to defend and assert one’s rights, interests, limits and needs; the ability to use language, symbols and text interactively; the ability to use knowledge and information interactively; the ability to use (new) technology interactively.
Rychen also noted that most OECD countries valued certain soft competencies, such as flexibility, entrepreneurship and personal responsibility. Additionally, individuals are expected to be adaptive, innovative, creative, self-directed and self-motivated; and, thus, able to take responsibility for their decisions and actions.
XV.5 Education and Training in the Context of Poverty Reduction, by Bernd Overwien Although the right to education, work, health and well-being is entrenched in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, millions of people today are still living in abject poverty, which denies them the opportunity to exercise these fundamental rights. The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in its statement on poverty, defined poverty as ‘a human condition characterized by the sustained or chronic deprivation of the resources, capabilities, choices, security and power necessary for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and other civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights’. Poor people live in crippling conditions without adequate food, clean water, sanitation, healthcare and education.
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According to the World Bank Global Poverty Monitoring Homepage (2003), the distribution of poor people in various regions of the world was as follows: SubSaharan Africa, 46%; South Asia, 40%; Latin America, 15.6%; East Asia and China, 15.3%; Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 5.1%. The following statistics are useful to understand the crippling effects of poverty on people from the developing world:
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1.2 billion people live on less than US$1 per day. Over half of the world’s population—3 billion people—lives on less than US$2 per day. Every evening 800 million people go to bed hungry. Seventy per cent of the world’s poor are women. Every day, poverty kills 50,000 people worldwide, including 30,000 children. Every year, 6 million children die from malnutrition before their 5th birthday. Over 11 million children die each year from preventable causes (NetAid, 2005).
There is a general consensus among world leaders that the more-developed countries need to assist the developing countries in their efforts to eradicate poverty. There are two compelling reasons supporting the urgency of sustained foreign aid to developing countries. The first is essentially based on the spirit of generosity and humanitarianism. Assisting developing countries to move out of the vicious poverty cycle is also seen as a smart thing to do in the wake of the events of 11 September 2001: ‘If we ignore the problems and struggles of people who live halfway across the globe, we do so at our own peril. Those who feel locked out of our global village can make the world a dangerous place’ (Morrison, 2003). UNESCO has undertaken several international initiatives to raise awareness of the effects of poverty on human conditions and dignity. The fifth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA–V) was particularly significant in that it took place within the context of an intensifying process of globalization (UNESCO, 1997). CONFINTEA–V proposed a vision of adult learning that is firmly rooted in a framework of human development and social justice (Singh & Mckay, 2004). The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have now given world leaders a common framework to contribute to the fight against poverty, illiteracy, mortality, discrimination against women and environmental degradation. One of the key priorities of the MDGs is to reduce by half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015 (Preece & Singh, 2003). The Dakar Framework for Action (UNESCO, 2000) positions education as an important instrument for combating poverty. Education, starting with care and education of young children and continuing through lifelong learning, is central to individual empowerment, the elimination of poverty at the household and community level, and broader social and economic development. At the same time, the reduction of poverty facilitates progress towards basic education goals. There are evident synergies between strategies for promoting education and those for reducing poverty.
The UNESCO Education for All movement also promotes education for poverty reduction. On the occasion of the launch of the United Nations Literacy Decade,
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Secretary-General Kofi Annan said: ‘literacy is the key to unlocking the cage of human misery; the key to delivering the potential of every human being; the key to opening up a future of freedom and hope’ (United Nations. Secretary-General, 2003). Given that so much hope, energy and resources are being invested in the education of children and adults, some scholars have started to look for evidence-based information in support of education for development and poverty reduction. Overwien discusses the current trend which attempts to link education and economic development with an overall focus on poverty reduction. He also analyses education and training as a poverty-reduction strategy from the perspective of major international organizations and funding agencies.
XV.6 Recognition, Validation and Accreditation of Non-Formal and Informal Learning and Experience: Results of an International Study, by Madhu Singh Although adults spend a considerable amount of time on employment-related training, educational institutions fail to recognize the knowledge and skills that have been acquired outside formal institutions. This practice is absolutely unsustainable at a time when educational resources are scarce and many countries are experiencing critical skill shortages. Many nations, including Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States and others, have embraced the Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) concept. While PLAR has many benefits, there are also some major issues and concerns associated with its implementation (Singh, 2005a, pp. 21–22). 1. The danger of transferring highly developed structures of recognition, validation and certification of prior learning and experience to developing countries. 2. Who should set the standards for assessment? 3. The lack of communication between and mutual recognition among the different validation systems. 4. The need to keep a balance between broadening competencies and keeping them relevant to the local context. 5. The existence of a social bias against learning experience outside school in both developing and developed countries. 6. The need to identify, utilize and recognize traditional knowledge and wisdom as an integral part of the lifelong-learning process. 7. The need to adopt a more holistic approach to validate competencies so that their identification is not driven by the labour market. 8. The need to maintain a balance between school-focused and life-focused programming so that non-formal learning can maintain its traditionally democratic and radical function.
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9. The identification of national frameworks of qualification and the need to keep the stakeholders informed of these frameworks. 10. The identification of individual and systemic barriers to the recognition of nonformal and informal learning. Singh addresses some of the key issues regarding the recognition, validation and certification of non-formal and informal learning and experience, basing her discussions on the results of an international comparative study being conducted by UNESCO. She also challenges some of the fundamental assumptions regarding the recognition of non-formal and informal learning.
XV.7 Self-Directed Learning, by Stephen D. Brookfield Workers of the future may expect to work on short-term assignments, on a contract basis or within several project teams at the same time. They may have to work for more than one employer at any given time or even change careers several times. Additionally, it is estimated that 50% of technical workers’ skills become obsolete within three to seven years. Lifelong learning is the only way to prevent obsolescence and remain competitive in a job market where work is becoming increasingly knowledge-intensive. One of the challenges with regard to lifelong learning is to provide recurrent opportunities for access to education and training throughout the life of a person. A huge proportion of adult workers are involved in some form of education and training which is related to their current and future employment. A significant number of these adults are spending a considerable amount of time learning informally (Singh, 2005b). In this context learning to know is becoming a major priority in our attempt to reach the goal of Education for All. To prevent exclusion, TVET must not only be physically accessible to all, but must also be cognitively within the reach of all. In order to learn successfully, a student must possess a repertoire of intellectual skills that meet the cognitive demand of the learning task (Chinien, Boutin & Letteri, 1997). This is consistent with Delors et al.’s (1996) second pillar of learning— learning to know. Delors described ‘learning to know’ as a type of learning that is ‘concerned less with the acquisition of structured knowledge than with the mastery of learning tools [. . .] such study encourages greater intellectual curiosity, sharpens the critical faculties and enables people to develop their own independent judgements’ (p. 1). In other words they must become self-directed learners. In Brookfield’s ‘Self-Directed Learning’, the design, conduct and evaluation of a learning effort are directed by the learner. He further points out that in a self-directed learning mode the decisions about what and how to learn, and which resources to consult, rest with the learner. Self-directed learning gives responsibility back to the students and enables them to have direct input into the learning process. However, not all students find moving away from the traditional methods of pedagogy easy to grasp.
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Brookfield stresses the fact that self-directed learning efforts are not to be thought of as occurring in isolation, but should be viewed rather as a way in which learners move in and out of learning networks and consult a range of peers and experts. He also points out that in the context of a self-directed learning effort, it is quite possible for there to be periods in which the learner decides it is most effective to place himself/herself temporarily under the control of an expert. The author also argues that, as on-line learning continues to grow in importance, there will be a corresponding increase in interest for self-directed learning.
XV.8 New Learning Strategies and Learning Cultures in Companies, by Peter Dehnbostel The Conference Board of Canada (2001) notes that: ‘more than ever, employers depend on knowledgeable and skilful employees to create value-added products and services, efficiently and effectively, so that they can compete successfully’ (p. 3). Economic prosperity in the global economy is becoming highly dependent on an ability to develop, attract and maintain a well-educated workforce. As a result of these changes, the demand for skilled workers often exceeds the supply in many sectors of the economy. Seventy percent of ‘Fortune 1000’ companies perceive the lack of a pool of talented workers as the biggest barrier to sustaining growth. In order to ease this skill gap, employers are significantly investing in workplace education and training. Table 1 shows the participation rate of adult workers in training in OECD countries. Trends indicate that workers acquire 70% of the skills they need for the workplace through informal training on the job. Dehnbostel reviews new learning strategies and learning cultures at the workplace. He provides a very comprehensive analysis of work-related learning models along with a detailed examination of types of learning and knowledge commonly encountered in companies. Finally, he provides a detailed description of the emerging learning cultures at the workplace, as well as a comparative analysis between the traditional and the new learning cultures at the workplace. Table 1 Workers aged 25 to 54 years taking employment-related training, 1994–1995 Country
Participation rate (%)
Average number of hours per worker
Australia Canada Germany New Zealand Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States Unweighted mean Source: OECD, 1999.
44.6 37.7 20.0 49.1 55.5 33.0 58.0 48.8 37.1
61.3 41.1 40.5 69.0 – 11.3 52.1 46.6 41.5
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XV.9 PLAR, Training and Efficient Labour Markets: The Canadian Experience, by Bill Empey and Christine Newton Taking Canada as an example, Empey and Newton give a country-specific example of the ways and challenges of recognizing skills that were attained outside formal institutions. They describe how PLAR and vocational training work in a country that finds itself under growing pressure to make efficient use of skills training as it is entering a long period of demographic change with the retirement of a large number of skilled trades’ people and technicians. Also, the authors address concerns linked with PLAR and show how needed changes may proceed.
XV.10 Transformative Learning Theory and TVET, by Karen Magro Probably the most important skill for today’s competitive workforce is self-reflection. The highly motivated, self-directed learner with skills in self-reflection can approach the workplace as a continual classroom from which to learn. Transformative learning may not always be the main focus of adult education, but its importance should not be overlooked and all adult educators should attempt to understand it, even if they do not choose to embrace it. Habermas’s theory of communicative action has had an important influence on the transformative learning theory developed by Jack Mezirow in the early 1980s, based on research of adults returning to university (Mezirow, 1981). Centrality of experience, critical reflection and rational discourse are three central themes that coexist within Mezirow’s theory. Mezirow theorized about the cognitive processes of learning for individuals based on instrumental and communicative competence and functional frames of reference. Instrumental learning refers to learning how to be in the world, where communicative learning refers to understanding meanings and their underlying purposes, beliefs and values. Frames of reference are the ‘structures of assumptions through which we understand our experiences’ (Mezirow, 1995) and include our concepts, feelings, values and conditioned responses. The process of transformative learning is enabled by the following ideal conditions for learning, adapted by Mezirow from Habermas’s ideal speech conditions (Mezirow, 1995):
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access to accurate and complete information; freedom from coercion and distorting self-deception; ability to weigh evidence and assess arguments objectively; open to alternative points of view; become critically reflective about assumption and presupposition and their consequences; have equal opportunity to participate in various roles of discourse; be willing to accept an informed, objective, rational consensus as a legitimate test of validity until new perspectives, evidence or arguments are encountered.
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Magro examines how the transformative learning theory can be successfully applied in TVET. In the past, it has been dominated to a large degree by the behavioural and apprenticeship models of learning: instructor directed techniques; ‘hands on activities’; practice and demonstration; and formal assessment techniques that benchmark skill competencies. The discussion also focuses on key factors such as the educational climate, the role of the educator, the process of learning and the nature of assessment in the context of transformative learning. Finally, the limitations of transformative learning theory are examined.
XV.11 The Implications of Cognitive Style to Adult Distance Education, by Cyndy Marie Isaak-Ploegman and Chris Chinien Isaak-Ploegman and Chinien examine the implications of the cognitive style dimension of field independence/dependence for adult learners in distance learning environments using evidence-based information gathered from an integrative review of related literature and research. Their findings indicate that in the majority of settings and subject-matter domains, field-independent learners tend to outperform those who are relatively field dependent. Additionally, the study revealed that the gap in differential learning gains between field-dependent and field-independent learners may be bridged by adapting learning strategies, teaching strategies, methods of evaluation and the use of graphics. The recommendations from this review include: the use of a variety of test questions; a de-emphasis of the field factor; implementation of structural elements; instruction focused on memory strategies; increasing student supports; and encouraging style flexibility.
XV.12 Competency, Meaningful Learning and Learning Styles in TVET, by Richard Gagnon Teaching adults or young adults usually means teaching people who may have already accumulated fair amounts of experience and adopted well-defined learning styles. It also means trying to develop competencies that are meaningful to them and not only to the organizations that require these competencies. These constraints make almost every student a special case from a pedagogical point of view and challenge the teacher in his/her ability to adapt methods to suit individual characteristics. In this chapter, to better understand the problem and to develop relevant solutions to it, Gagnon first presents the concept of competence in a somewhat new perspective and defines meaningful learning. Next, after a brief review of Kolb’s theory of learning styles, he illustrates through examples how standard pedagogical methods (such as lecturing or role playing) can be adapted to accommodate personal preferences in people’s way of learning by taking into account the core-defining characteristics of each learning style. He finally discusses the modalities of putting these methods into practice.
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XV.13 Workplace Essential Skills in Policy and Practice: a Canadian Perspective, by Erik de Vries As early as 1979, the Canadian government conducted a landmark generic skill study (Smith, 1979). One hundred and thirty-one occupations were systematically and extensively studied to identify generic broadly transferable skills across these occupations. In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the generic skill concept and, as a result, various employability skill profiles have been proposed. Erik de Vries describes the efforts of Human Resources Development Canada to study the concept of essential skills, which was defined as the enabling skills that refer to: ‘the ability to read, write, calculate, and operate basic computer applications’. They also refer to the ability to think; to analyse and solve problems; to learn independently; to exercise responsibility; to adapt to a range of situations; to communicate effectively; to co-operate with others; and to work in a team environment. Essential skills—coupled with attitudes, such as drive, determination, enthusiasm and commitment—are broadly recognized as building blocks for productive participation in the work force.
XV.14 Adult Numeracy for Work and Life: Curriculum and Teaching Implications of Recent Research, by Gail FitzSimons and Diana Coben The chapter by FitzSimons and Coben deals with research into adult numeracy practices. After an opening discussion of definitions of the term itself, their chapter continues with a brief review of research into workplace numeracy that has informed conceptualizations of adult numeracy. Related to these has been the rise to prominence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the adult, technical and vocational areas, both as media for delivery and as tools for thinking with. In the particular case of adult numeracy, learning about and through the tools themselves is necessarily becoming problematic as the operation of these tools is often far from transparent. The press for numerate adults is also occurring in the so-called ‘developing’ countries. FitzSimons and Coben briefly address this issue, as well as the need for teacher preparation. Their discussions are illustrated by taking a glimpse at recent developments in adult numeracy education in England.
XV.15 An Innovative System of Vocational Training in the German IT Sector, by Rita Meyer The new economy is primarily driven by ICTs. There are three main trends which characterize the role of ICTs in the new economy. First, there is the omnipresence of microchips, which is the foremost characteristic of the digital era. In 1984, worldwide shipments of semiconductors totalled 88 billion units, and by 1997 world shipments had nearly tripled. By 2003, the number was expected to pass the 400 billion
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unit mark. Second, the costs of computing are dramatically decreasing. Computing costs are dropping nearly 25% per year. Since information technology is expected to increase efficiencies, enabling cost cutting, customizing products and services, and increasing the speed of commerce, all sectors of business are investing in ICTs. Therefore, this trend is important as it enables the transformation of business and even whole industries. The third trend co-depends on the previous trend: data costs are plummeting. Global communication is, undoubtedly, one of the major enablers of the economy (Chinien et al., 2002). The impacts of this information technology revolution and the fact that ICTs can be seen as one of the major driving forces of the new economy have caused authors to coin the term ‘digital economy’. This term arose from the observation that the relatively smooth transition from the old economy to the current new economy has been caused by the emergence of information goods, which can be digitalized. The prominence of information commodities entails three landmark events: the invention of the microprocessor in 1971, the introduction of the IBM personal computer (PC) in 1981 and the commercialization of the Internet in 1994 (Norton, 1999). The microprocessor switched the world from an analogue to a digital mode in which virtually every person, company and government is a customer for technology products, mostly because of the introduction of PCs in 1981. The definition of technology industries has expanded from large computers to include personal computers, software, semiconductors, semiconductor equipment, communications (both telecommunications and data communications), and medical technology (biotechnology and medical devices) (Murphy, 1998). The coming of the PC thus rendered anything and everything subject to the power of the computer, while retaining the crucial dimensions of human scale, decentralized decision-making, customized design and creativity (Chinien et al., 2002). The growth in the ICT sector has resulted in an acute shortage of IT workers throughout the world. Education and training systems worldwide have struggled to find efficient and effective models for training IT specialist to meet the growing demand. Rita Meyer provides a case study of an innovative and advanced vocational training system in Germany for training workers for the IT sector. Also included in the discussion is: the role played by the State, unions and employers in regulating qualifications in the IT sector; innovative approaches for curriculum design and development; the role of advisers and counsellors; and the critical importance of maintaining the knowledge and skills of IT workers to keep up with technological change.
3 Conclusions Estimates point to the inability of many developing countries to meet the minimum targets of EFA and the MDGs. The corrective action must be reframed in strategic alignment with three key elements: (a) the purpose; (b) the result to be achieved; and (c) massive actions necessary to achieve the results. The purpose of these major
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international initiatives lacked a strong focus on adult education. Critics have argued that adult education has been sidelined and ignored by the EFA and MDGs. The expected results were minimalist. There is some evidence that too often the expected outcome of adult education was limited to basic literacy development. Torres (2004) concluded that the educational needs of adults in the South were being ignored at the expense of primary education. There is a lack of massive action geared to the education and training needs of adults. There is definitely a need for a more comprehensive strategy for adult learning. Countries of the North have realized the importance of human capital for economic development and social cohesion and inclusion. The ‘haves’ are still taking massive action to ensure a skilled workforce that will drive innovations and maintain competitiveness in world trade. These same countries have a double standard for countries of the South by advocating literacy development at the expense of skills development (Torres, 2004). The World Bank used to grant up to 40% of its education loan for the development of TVET in developing countries. Today, educational loans for TVET account for only 8 to 9%. China and India are becoming the powerhouses and their skilled labour force is attracting many blue-collar jobs from the United States and Europe. Mohan Perera, Head of UNESCO’s Section for TVET (Education today, 2005) argues that by ‘substantially investing in TVET, these countries laid a major plank in their economic foundations’. The World Bank’s move to fund primary education at the expense of TVET has been detrimental to the economic development of many developing countries. The International Labour Organization’s education and training expert, Trevor Riordan (ibid.) recently noted: ‘international strategies intended to reduce poverty completely ignored the need to develop skills [. . .] we are now seeing a skill-divide emerging [. . .] with the least-developed countries falling further and further behind, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa’. In commenting on this issue, Wataru Iwamoto (ibid.), former Director of UNESCO’s Division of Secondary Technical and Vocational Education, noted: ‘this is a time-bomb waiting to happen as hundreds more kids finish primary school and look for secondary education or work opportunities which do not always exist’. Only 16% of African students are enrolled in TVET as compared to 50% in Europe. Participants at the UNESCO Expert meeting on Learning for Work, Citizenship and Sustainability, held on October 2004 in Bonn, Germany, concluded that if education is the key to poverty reduction, then TVET is the master key to the improvement of the human condition.
References Camdessus, M. 1997. Making globalization work for workers. (Address to the twenty-fourth Congress of the World Confederation of Labour, Bangkok, Thailand, 2 December 1997.) Chinien, C.; Boutin, F.; Letteri, C. 1997. Empowering at-risk students to stay in school using a cognitive-based instructional system. Journal of industrial teacher education, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 42–63. <scholar.lib.vt. edu/ejournals/JITE/v34n4/html/chinien.html>
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Chinien, C. et al. 2002. New times and new ways for learning and skill development. (Main conference document: Developing Skills for the New Economy, sponsored by the Canadian Vocational Association and UNEVOC-Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 17–19 October 2002.) Conference Board of Canada. 2001. Brain gain: the economic benefit of recognizing learning and learning credentials in Canada. Ottawa: Conference Board of Canada. Council of the European Union. 2004. Education and Training 2010: the success of the Lisbon strategy hinges on urgent reforms. Brussels: Council of the European Union. (Document 6905/04 EDUC 43.) Delors, J. et al. 1996. Learning: the treasure within. Paris: UNESCO. (The Delors Report.) Education today. 2005. Newsletter of UNESCO’s Education Sector, No. 13, April–June 2005. Gray, K.; Walter, R.A. 2001. Reforming career and technical education teacher licensure and preparation: a public policy synthesis. Columbus: OH: Ohio State University, College of Education, National Dissemination Centre for Career and Technical Education. (Information paper 1001.) International Labour Office. 2001. World employment report: life at work in the information economy. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. (CD-Rom.) Ives, B. 1992. Education: a sustainable national competitive advantage. Management information systems quarterly, vol. 16, no. 3. Keursten, P.; Kessels, J. 2002. Knowledge productivity in organizations: towards a framework for research and practice. Enschede, Netherlands: University of Twente, ECLO. Mezirow, J. 1981. A critical theory of adult learning and education. Adult education, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 3–24. Mezirow, J. 1995. Transformation theory of adult learning. In: Welton, M.R., ed. In defense of the lifeworld: critical perspective on adult learning. New York, NY: State University of New York. Moe, M.T.; Blodget, H. 2000. The knowledge web. New York, NY: Merrill Lynch, Global Securities Research & Economics Group, Global Fundamental Equity Research Department. Morrison, D. 2003. A precious opportunity to tackle poverty. The Vancouver Sun, 16 July 2003. Murphy, M. 1998. Every investor’s guide to high-tech stocks and mutual funds. New York, NY: Broadway Books. Norton, R.D. 1999. The geography of the new economy. Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University, Bryant College. (The Web Book of Regional Science.) <www.rri.wvu.edu/ WebBook/Norton/contents.htm> NetAid. 2005. Global poverty. What is poverty? <www.netaid.org/global poverty/globalpoverty/> Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. 1999. Education policy analysis: 1999 edition. Paris: OECD. Preece, J.; Singh, M. 2003. Adult learning and poverty reduction. (Report on the workshop held at CONFINTEA Mid-Term Review Conference, Bangkok, Thailand, September 2003.) Singh, M. 2005a. Recognition, validation and certification of informal and non-formal learning: synthesis report. Hamburg, Germany: UNESCO-UIE. Singh, M. 2005b. Meeting basic learning needs in the informal sector: integrating education and training for decent work, empowerment and citizenship. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Singh, M.; Mckay, V. 2004. Enhancing adult and basic learning: training educators and unlocking the potential of distance and open learning. Hamburg: Germany: UNESCO-UIE. Smith, A. 1979. Generic skills secondary vocational model for craft trades. Ottawa: Canada Employment and Immigration. Torres, R.M. 2004. Lifelong learning in the South: critical issues and opportunities for adult education. Stockholm: Sida. (Sida studies no. 11.) Tuijnman, A. 1997. The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS). Results and highlights from an international perspective IALS in relation to economies and labour markets. (Paper prepared for a workshop on ‘Literacy, Economy and Society’, Calgary, Canada, September–November, 1996.) <www.ibd.ab.ca/files/west-one.pdf>
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United Nations. Secretary-General. 2003. Remarks delivered by Secretary-General Kofi Annan at a ceremony held on Thursday evening, 13 February, at the New York Public Library, to mark the launch of the United Nations Literacy Decade (2003–2012). <www.drhmovement.org/Articel.asp?NewsID=100> United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 1997. Final report of the fifth International Conference on Adult Education, Hamburg, Germany, 14—18 July 1997. Paris: UNESCO. <www.unesco.org/education/ uie/confintea/pdf/finrepeng.pdf> United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2000. Dakar Framework for Action. Education For All: Meeting Our Collective Commitments. The World Education Forum, Dakar, Senegal, 26–28 April 2000. <www.unesco.org/education/ efa/ed for all/dakfram eng.shtml> World Bank. 2003. Global poverty monitoring homepage. <www.worldbank.org/research/ povmonitor>
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Chapter XV.2
The Emergence of ‘Workforce Development’: Definition, Conceptual Boundaries and Implications Ronald L. Jacobs and Joshua D. Hawley
1 Introduction This chapter begins a much-needed discourse about workforce development, a term used with increasing frequency among educational practitioners, policy-makers and scholars alike. In spite of the increasing use of the term, there has been limited discussion about its meaning and implications for established fields of study (Giloth, 2000; Grubb, 1999; Harrison & Weiss, 1998). This discourse is critical for both theoretical and practical reasons, particularly given the economic and social benefits that are expected from workforce development programmes (Grubb & Lazerson, 2004). Specifically, the purposes of this chapter are: (a) to discuss the emergence of workforce development based on five historical streams; (b) to propose a definition and conceptual boundaries for workforce development; and (c) to explore the implications of workforce development on policy-makers, researchers and practitioners.
2 The Emergence of Workforce Development Workforce development has evolved to describe any one of a relatively wide range of national and international policies and programmes related to learning for work. For example, many professionals involved in administering secondary vocational education programmes in the United States of America (henceforth USA), welfareto-work and other public assistance programmes, and regional economic development initiatives now use the term workforce development to describe their services. Several recent pieces of state and federal legislation in the USA use the term to describe various youth vocational training, adult training and retraining, and related employment initiatives. For example, the federal Workforce Investment Act in 1998 strengthened the integrated system of financing, while the state of Florida’s crafted legislation in 2000 creating a state-wide agency—Workforce Florida—to handle both workforce and welfare policy. As a result of these legislative and policy changes, many states in the USA— including our own state of Ohio—have included the term in the naming of various governmental co-ordinating boards, initiatives and task forces (Grubb et al., 1999). R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XV.2, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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For example, in the state of Ohio, the Department of Education, Board of Regents and the Department of Job and Family Services all have an office of Workforce Development or Education. Additionally, to a varying extent, adult educators and human-resource development professionals have begun to use the term in the context of their fields. Recent studies from Bates and Redmann (2002), as well as Jacobs (2000), describe the particular relationship between human-resource development and workforce development. While Europe’s terminology focuses on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) through the ‘DaVinci’ Initiative, national governments in Europe and Asia have also started to use the term ‘workforce development’. The United Kingdom, for example, uses the term extensively to describe local agents of education and training, while the term appears to be used in the recent Department for Education and Skills plan to refer generally to training for adults. Elsewhere, Singapore uses workforce development as the name for its government agency focused on education and training. There seems no single reason to explain why workforce development should be used to describe such a range of activities, or used in different ways by professional associations and governments. Our belief is that individuals from differing perspectives have realized a similar basic conclusion: the success of any one programme or initiative depends on its connections to other programmes that otherwise would have been considered in isolation from each other (Hawley, Sommers & Melendez, 2003). For example, vocational educators have increasingly found that secondary education programmes for youth depend more and more on organization-based training programmes. Adult retraining programmes depend more and more on the delivery of community-based social services. Adult educators have concluded that helping individuals acquire new sets of basic skills requires substantial investment in integrated skills rather than literacy programmes alone (Comings, Reder & Sum, 2001; Murnane & Levy, 1996). Finally, an increasing number of human-resource development scholars use the term national human-resource development (NHRD) to describe the articulation between government and private-sector programmes (McLean, 2003). If workforce development represents a greater awareness about the connectedness of systems, why should this notion arise at this point? We believe that the drivers for workforce development come from the contemporary intersection of five interrelated streams: (a) globalization; (b) technology; (c) the new economy; (d) political change; and (e) demographic shifts. These five factors are inter-related and each provide challenges for adult education specifically, and workforce development more broadly. The following sections outline the five drivers and provide illustrations from the literature of the implications for adult education.
2.1 Globalization Thomas Friedman (2000), the political writer and commentator, boldly asserted that today’s ‘global’ world came into existence upon the fall of the Berlin Wall on 11
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October 1989. In addition to its symbolic value, this historical event made it possible for the unrestricted flow of people and information across all national borders in Europe, from which all other human transactions could follow. At first glance, there seems much truth to this proposition. In contrast to previous eras of global economic development, the current situation has occurred rapidly and at a level of intensity not experienced previously. As a result of globalization, there have resulted unprecedented connections among markets and a qualitative difference in the way that different countries interact with each other in those markets. Consider that internationally recognized standards, such as ISO 9000, allow even the most remotely-located manufacturing operations in China or Viet Nam to compete with modern production facilities located in more developed countries. Thus, in spite of current events that might suggest the pitfalls of having open borders and markets, global competition will remain a phenomenon for the foreseeable future. Competition among nations also raises the need for workforce development. Whenever nations seek to facilitate economic growth, the needs of current and future workers becomes an issue of common concern (Ashton et al., 1999). Within this context, workforce development has become a critical part of a broader economic development strategy (Giloth, 2000). In a paper for the 2002 UNEVOC-Canada conference, Hall (2002) described the negative impact of increased globalization on adult education, focusing on its impact on adult learning. He focused on the importance of using adult education to respond to the problems of globalization, both in terms of facilitating adult learning in the workplace and resisting the negative impact of globalization
2.2 Technology Technology comes in different forms and each form has affected the extent and rate of globalization. Technological change is particularly important for the development of human capital, because changes in technology can be associated with planned workforce development to increase the productivity of workers/firms in all sectors (Foster & Rosenzweig, 1996; Levy & Murnane, 2004; Rosenzweig, 1995). In terms of communications technology, globalization could not occur without an efficient vehicle to send and receive information across great distances. Microchips, satellites and the Internet enable immediate access to information, regardless of physical location. Without this ability, developing countries would be incapable of becoming service-providers and producers of products on an equal footing with companies in developed countries. Communications technology allows companies to invest in and locate operations closer to where specific human talent and costeffectiveness might exist. For instance, the emergence of customer call centres and data-processing operations in India to serve the marketplace in the USA illustrates how technology makes distance transparent. Customers are usually unaware of the origin point of the service delivery, but they are aware of the quality of service they receive. In the same
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way, it is said that manufacturing technology enables organizations to manage their operations better, resulting in higher quality standards and lower costs to consumers. Technology presents both problems and opportunities for adult education. Technology increases access to learning, making it more widely available in rural areas and for individuals who want on-demand learning. However, there are major questions in the adult education literature about the implications of technological change. As described in a recent book, Sawchuk (2003) illustrates the difficulty when describing the role of technological change in adult learning, recognizing that it increases access, while also being imbedded within the current class and social structure.
2.3 The New Economy The new economy is generally defined by the attributes of free-market capitalism. Global competition will presumably maintain cost pressures on products and services, thus ensuring a sustainable cycle of high efficiency, high quality and low inflation. Increasingly, many scholars have proposed that these assumptions have been called into some doubt first by the Asian currency crisis in 1997 and then by the subsequent economic downturns. The new economy has also been tempered by growing awareness of the changing global demographics (Dychtwald, Erickson & Morison, 2004). Over the next thirty years, most developed countries are going to be faced with increasing numbers of individuals receiving retirement benefits and decreasing numbers of individuals actually working and making contributions to retirement accounts. The new economy has been open to continual debate and some keen observers, such as Peter Drucker (1993), have even expressed scepticism whether the new economy ever really existed in the first place. The new economy presents important challenges to adult education specifically and workforce development more broadly. Economic shifts have resulted in many new job classifications that increase the need for training and adult education in specific fields. However, the new economy’s view of economic growth overlooks the fact that, despite the development of a wide array of new occupations, most of the job growth and much of what is required of workers has taken place within low-skill service sector jobs (Levy & Murnane, 2004; Osterman, 1999).
2.4 Political Changes Important political change has been observed in both domestic and international politics. Recent international political changes include the emergence of the European Union as a single marketplace, the greater openness of many countries to foreign direct investment (FDI), legislated transparency in national financial systems, and an overall movement towards democratization and private ownership.
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China provides an illustrative example of this process. Upon entering the World Trade Organization (WTO), Chinese officials subsequently announced that they would sell shares for the Chinese railway system, without placing any limits on ownership, as a means to finance upgrades to the rail system and the eventual construction of a modern highway system. Involving foreign ownership in such largescale public projects depends on having reliable domestic financial systems and the belief that such decisions reflect the best interests of the people. National training systems have changed along with this larger shift in political structures and philosophies. Historically, the USA had very few interrelationships among government, business and trade unions in terms of education and training (Weir, 1992). This historic reluctance emerged in the early twentieth century through the Great Depression. The current national training system in the USA is shifting, incorporating more of the specific relationships between key political agents like business and government, although trade union influence has continued to slip as the proportion of workers represented by unions declines (Giloth, 2000; Osterman, 1999). In contrast, the various European and Asian models of national training systems have rested on corporatism, a political philosophy that emphasizes the mutual dependence of key governmental, trade-union and business groups in producing a skilled workforce (Crouch, Finegold, & Sako, 1999; Schmitter, 1979).
2.5 Demographic Shifts Finally, two demographic shifts influence the emergence of workforce development (Carnevale & Fry, 2001). The most powerful of these is the retirement of the ‘baby boom’ generation. For instance, the USA workforce, which has grown in size by more than 50% over the past twenty years, will slow its growth dramatically over the next few decades. To replace these individuals in the workforce will not be easy without increasing the quality and quantity of educational experience given to succeeding generations. The second demographic shift—which conflicts with the first shift—is the movement from the smaller Generation X cohort to the much larger Generation Y cohort. As a result, the larger Generation Y cohort will likely find problems in obtaining adequate training and educational opportunities, given the funding cutbacks of the early 1990s in both the private and public sectors. These individuals will not be able to make substantive contributions to their respective societies without access to training and education. These five historical streams have challenged all nations to respond in fundamental ways—upgrading transportation infrastructures, improving communications systems and revitalizing their public schooling. Of interest here are the systemic national and organizational responses related to learning for work. It has become increasingly clear that the well-being of nations—considered from both economic and social perspectives—is dependent in large measure on the competence of its people (Ashton et al., 1999). Human competence has been defined as
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the potential to achieve valued accomplishments (Gilbert, 1978; Jacobs, 2001). The focus of competence is primarily from an economic perspective, where individuals improve their competence to improve performance and productivity in organizations. However, there is a larger focus of competence to participate in civic society or competence to engage in social action, which is important particularly from an adult education perspective. Illeris (2003) suggests that lifelong learning does not only have a quantitative focus on more learning for adults, but also suggests that individuals need to respond to on-going social changes. Societies rely on their major institutions, such as schools, community colleges, universities, government agencies, trade unions and organizations, among others, to acquire human competence. Sustaining national and organizational well-being depends more and more on having human competence available, and those areas of human competence are likely to evolve continuously (Judy & D’Amico, 1997).
3 The Definition of Workforce Development The literature offers several definitions of workforce development. For instance, Harrison and Weiss (1998) state that workforce development consists of a constellation of activities from orientation to the work world, recruiting, placement, mentoring, to follow-up counselling and crisis intervention. According to Giloth (2000), at its core workforce development is about employment training, but involves deep employer and community involvement in networks that support both integrated human services and industry-driven education or training. The Urban Institute states that workforce development systems provide a broad range of employment and training services, as well as targeted assistance to employers (Pindus et al., 2000). Similarly, the National Governors’ Association defines workforce development as the education, employment and job-training efforts designed to help employers obtain a skilled workforce, as well as helping individuals to succeed in the workplace. Grubb (1999) states that workforce development provides individuals with the information necessary for employment, including basic content, specific technical information and academic competencies. Similarly, Gray and Herr (1998) define workforce education as ‘that form of pedagogy that is provided at the prebaccalaureate level by educational institutions, by private business and industry, or by government sponsored, community-based organizations, where the goal is to increase individual opportunity in the labor market or to solve human performance problems in organizations’ (p. 4). While both Gray and Herr (1998) and Grubb (1999) share the commitment to occupational preparation, Gray and Herr especially emphasize secondary-level training. In contrast, most of the current literature calls for extensive investment in community colleges or post-secondary training more broadly (Silverberg et al., 2004). We suggest that no definition currently available sufficiently addresses the potential breadth of workforce development, both in its content and potential stakeholders. Thus, we propose the following definition:
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Workforce development is the co-ordination of public and private sector policies and programmes that provides individuals with the opportunity for a sustainable livelihood and helps organizations achieve exemplary goals, consistent with the societal context.
From this definition, it should be noted that workforce development is not simply public sector programmes to promote the acquisition of skills. Indeed, workforce development entails both profit-making and non-profit-making institutions to achieve a wide range of outcomes. Giloth’s definition (2000) comes closest to that proposed definition, but still takes as its central focus job training and education for workers rather than a broader range of human performance interventions. Workforce development encompasses many different areas of education, training or business activity. The scope of involvement in workforce development can be organized around four different areas of focus. These four areas, along with examples of the types of programmes they cover, are: 1. How schools and agencies prepare individuals to enter or re-enter the workforce. Workforce development clearly covers the traditional systems of vocationaltechnical training, including initial training, co-operative education or apprenticeships that are designed to prepare people for an initial job or career. The educational or training programmes that provide these services differ from country to country. In the USA these programmes are primarily provided through secondary-level career and technical education, while in Germany and a relatively small number of European countries, this initial training is delivered through apprenticeship programmes run through business (Buechtemann, Schupp & Soloff, 1993; Culpepper, 2003; Silverberg et al., 2004). This distinction between school-based and employer-based initial training is significant and has a strong relationship to the quality of schooling (Middleton, Ziderman & Adams, 1993). Additionally, this focus encompasses what the USA labels as second-chance educational programmes (Grubb, 2001). These programmes are designed to provide adults with vocational skills, literacy and numeracy training, and offer assistance in making the transition to schooling. In the international context, these programmes are broader, offering entrepreneurial training or non-formal education, and the systems for providing second-chance training are less well developed. In fact, in recent reviews of the state of vocational education and training in Africa, the authors stressed the continuing need for these alternative programmes, pointing out that, as international funding for classic vocational education has declined, governments have experimented with many different strategies to provide training to disadvantaged groups or individuals working in the informal sector (Johansson, 2002). 2. How organizations provide learning opportunities to improve workplace performance. Human-resource development (HRD) in companies, and the associated infrastructure in higher education, consulting and the non-profit world, is focused on improving skills in firms to support improved productivity. These lifelong learning systems are a critical part of workforce development, as most of the
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training that occurs after initial vocational preparation happens within the context of corporations or in response to business needs. Both in the USA and in developing countries, the State plays a critical part in supporting human resource development in firms. In systems like Germany, where corporatist relationships link business, labour and education statutorily, the State can fundamentally design the infrastructure that supports training (Gill & Dar, 2000). In other countries, such as the Republic of Korea, Thailand or the USA, the State supports business investment in HRD through re-training activities (Hawley, 2003; Lee, 2000; Moore et al., 2003) but does not legislate training activities. 3. How organizations respond to changes that affect workforce effectiveness. Much of the difficult work within firms includes activities that respond to explicit changes in skills requirements, such as increases in the use of technology or the reorganization of work processes (Levy & Murnane, 2004; Osterman, 1999). As Levy & Murnane (2004) recount, the use of technology fundamentally alters job design, skills needed and educational requirements. More fundamentally, training is not the solution for every human performance problem. Organizations respond to changes in workforce effectiveness through organizational development, as well as classical strategies through training and development. 4. How individuals undergo life transitions related to workforce participation. Adult education has an integral role to play in workforce development, and adult learning and development theories are the foundation for teaching and learning systems in many workforce development programmes. As the skills required to work have increased significantly, adult education has been asked to provide not only literacy or basic vocational training, but integrated services that ensure mastery of advanced vocational skills, as well as assistance to enable individuals to make a successful transition into the workplace (Askov & Gordon, 1999; Comings, Reder & Sum, 2001; Imel, 2000). The life transition aspect of this issue relates directly to the demographic shift that is occurring. In many advanced capitalist countries, companies are being forced to turn to older workers to supply labour shortfalls, as the proportion of the labour force of traditional working age is declining (Stein, 2000). Therefore, firms and educational organizations alike are being forced to engage more actively with older workers to support their training needs, as well as to ensure that they have adequate transition into and out of the workforce. The four issues cited above raise important questions about the goals of workforce development. To what end does workforce development exist? How should we evaluate the progress made in workforce development programmes? Traditionally, workforce development focuses on individuals; emphasizing goals such as increased earnings or occupational mobility. In contrast, an expanded definition of workforce development, as emphasized by Holton and Wilson (2002), might add the emphasis on corporations merging in organizational outcomes like improved productivity. Neither of these goals or the outcomes are radically different from those emphasized
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currently by technical and vocational education and training. What we are arguing, however, is that there is a third dimension—society. Workforce development programmes and professionals consistently try to achieve outcomes that have a broader impact on communities, regions and nations. The extensive projects from the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Jobs Initiative in the 1990s led to the documentation of workforce development on a regional scale in the USA. Many of these programmes had only small numbers of trainees, but achieved some significant system-wide changes resulting in a better infrastructure for workforce development in communities (Giloth, 2004). Admittedly, not every workforce development programme might achieve different levels of outcomes. But, if economic and social well-being is the goal, workforce development planners should strive to view the broader context in which their programmes exist. In this regard, Kaufman (1998) suggests that greater attention should be given to the mega-level—or societal level—of educational planning. Adopting any view that restricts the level of planning makes it less probable that any one set of outcomes will be fully realized. Workforce development is distinguished from training or education by its explicit focus on economic development. The standard operating procedure for international development holds that human capital can best be strengthened by basic skills training, such as primary school education (World Bank, 1999). This truth has a long history and, in fact, has been debated extensively in the academic literature (Largo, 1996; Wilson, 2001). An alternative perspective holds that the interconnections between education and employment mandate strong programmes at the school and enterprise level to build a strong workforce, strengthen services to employers, provide reimbursement for incumbent worker training and generally support job-oriented development (Giloth, 2000). Figure 1 illustrates how societal variables and organizational variables contribute to the goals of workforce development. Critical to the success of workforce development is measuring its outcomes at both the individual level—such as, the number of people prepared to enter the workforce—and the organizational level—such as the profitability of a particular enterprise that has benefited from a workforce development programme. Indeed, since workforce development and economic development have such a close connection, it could be argued that the ultimate success of workforce development should be measured from an organizational perspective.
Encourage a culture of learning and working for economic opportunity. Achieve social and economic goals consistent with the context. Foster the achievement of exemplary goals, management, and design in organizations.
Fig. 1 Workforce development framework
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Central to understanding workforce development is how one conceives the term ‘workforce’, which inevitably includes the following five groups (Jacobs, 2000):
r r r r r
Individuals who are emerging into being employed, most prominent of whom are young adults. Individuals who are currently employed full or part time. Individuals who are undergoing transitions in their employment, such as jobseekers, the unemployed and returnees to being employed. Individuals who have been employed at one time but are not currently employed, such as those in prisons and retirees. Individuals who have been recruited from other locations for employment, such as guest workers, immigrants and invited permanent residents.
One could argue that since this list potentially includes nearly every adult, it lacks precision and usefulness. However, our goal is not to restrict groups, but rather to describe categories that represent as many adults as possible. Indeed, while workforce is not a proxy for adulthood in all cases, nearly all adults at some point in their lives participate in or have a relationship with being in the workforce. Such an insight is critical for a complete view of workforce development and its implications. For instance, during the Second World War, many women were hired to work in industry—a hiring decision that had not ever happened before in the USA. As the war ended, most of these women were replaced by returning servicemen. Although the women were employed for brief periods only, they represented a unique workforce development challenge both during the war and after it that would have important consequences at both the societal and organization levels. During the war, the federally sponsored Training Within Industry (TWI) project came about in large part to address the issue of private-sector organizations hiring and training individuals who had limited industrial work experience (Dooley, 1945). After the war, most women returned to traditional roles, but they were much changed from their experience, which undoubtedly came to affect future decisions and future generations of women.
4 Implications of Workforce Development The emergence of workforce development has brought about at least five implications for policy-makers, researchers and practitioners: (a) the need to develop collaborations; (b) the need to consider broader sets of programme goals; (c) the opportunity to enrich current theory; (d) the opportunity to consider wider sets of research problems and dependent variables; and (e) the need to re-consider graduate education.
4.1 The Need to Develop Institutional Collaborations The proposed understanding of workforce development raises the importance of institutional collaborations. Too often, private-sector and public-sector programmes
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have been planned and implemented without sufficient involvement of related institutions, which has reduced the overall impact of the programmes. Many exemplary examples of collaborations have emerged recently. Collaborations can now be observed in workforce development programmes, such as job training and retraining, job placement and post-placement services, conducted by chambers of commerce and individual businesses (Harrison & Weiss, 1998; Hawley & Sommers, 2003; Hawley & Taylor, 2002). A recent study has demonstrated that adult workforce programmes that engage in formal collaborations produce steeper earnings increases in training participants than those who are trained in adult programmes with informal collaborations (Hawley, Sommers & Melendez, 2003).
4.2 The Need to Consider Broader Goals Our view of workforce development suggests that programme planning requires the consideration of broader sets of goals. Workforce development is a programmatic response to a societal need and, thus, should not be limited in scope to a specific organization or should not be designed to benefit one set of individuals only. Rather, workforce development seeks to bridge individual, organizational and societal interests in ways that meaningfully benefit each other. Second, professionals should select criteria for judging the effectiveness of programmes using both proximal and distal criteria. That is, the achievement of immediate programme goals—such as the number of graduates from a training programme—is only one way of determining programme success. Long-term criteria should also be considered in terms of the impact of the programme downstream. Educational professionals and policy-makers working in various settings— organizations, agencies, and schools—should plan workforce development programmes, keeping in mind that the programmes should connect somehow with another level of related goals. For instance, government-sponsored dislocated worker programmes should logically have their own programme goals and they should have explicitly stated societal goals beyond the programme goals, even though the societal goals cannot possibly be controlled to the same extent as the programme goals. Planning and accountability systems developed by the California Employment and Training Panel show the benefits that follow from engaging in sustained planning for employer-supported training that takes into account societal and individual objectives, as well as corporate goals (Regional Technology Strategies, 1999). Nevertheless, reconciling different sets of goals is a defining feature of an integrated perspective of workforce development.
4.3 To Enrich Current Theory Many theories and bodies of knowledge have contributed to the fields of study that support workforce development: adult education; career and technical education;
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and human-resource development (Jacobs, 1990). These fields are based on the application of knowledge from disciplines as diverse as psychology, economics and systems theory. Workforce development introduces the possibility of combining perspectives, such that theory development in one field can be integrated with theory development in another field for the eventual enrichment of both fields. Deriving theory from one field to other fields has the potential to yield much new information not otherwise available. How to encourage such scholarly exchanges within the context of workforce development is an issue of critical importance. For instance, when unemployed individuals engage in job training, many of them do not in fact complete the training, even though they understand that this activity has the potential of helping them return to the workforce. Unfortunately, the variables that affect training persistence, for one thing, have not been studied to any extent. A current study in progress under the auspices of the National Adult Learning and Literacy Center will provide needed results about the factors that facilitate persistence in adult literacy and adult basic education and that may be applied to other areas of workforce development practice (Comings et al., 2003; Reder & Strawn, 2001). One could argue that such topics are well within the boundaries of human-resource development theory and research, but have not been studied simply because the phenomenon does not occur in organizational settings and thus has eluded HRD scholars. HRD scholars are primarily interested in training outcomes and the process of training if participants are already actively engaged in work, not when the training is for unemployed or underemployed individuals.
4.4 Research Problems and Dependent Variables Workforce development has the potential of encouraging scholars to consider wider sets of research problems and dependent variables. For instance, the source for most research problems in HRD is organizations. Thus, if the problem in mind cannot be found to exist in organizational settings, then the HRD researcher must reconsider the problem or seek out a new one. The basis for using organizations as the sole referent for HRD research problems constrains research unnecessarily. However, most HRD research problems have societal roots beyond organizations that could be addressed in a range of social settings, other than organizations. And, by looking only at organizations to confirm hunches or arm-chair hypotheses, the researcher may miss out on investigating issues of interest that otherwise would have been overlooked. Skills shortages have roots and solutions beyond organizations. Organizations such as community-based agencies and educational institutions have critical roles in helping organizations meet skills shortages. The New York based ‘Wildcat’ programme, for instance, has trained entry-level financial services workers for a number of years, working both with business and social service organizations (Schlefer, 1999). In the health-care field—a business sector with one of the most obvious shortages—non-profit providers and educational institutions have played substantial roles in training entry-level workers (Pindus & Nightingale, 1995).
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4.5 Graduate Education Finally, consideration of workforce development has implications for graduate education. While it is true that professionals need to have both an identity of their own roles—HRD specialist, adult educator or vocational educator—it is also true that such professionals need to understand the broader context in which these individuals do their work. Thus, we believe that there is less room for silo thinking among professional groups, especially when the economic and social well-being of a community is at stake. Everyday demands require that areas of practice become more blurred and less distinct, which is desirable for achieving a wider range of workforce development outcomes. This realization has implications for graduate education. More often than not, programmes of human-resource development, adult education and career and technical education have been placed together for the sake of administrative convenience. Unfortunately, when these programmes actually come together, it becomes apparent that they have as many areas of difference as areas of commonality. The question of concern becomes—what is the underlying theme that in fact ties them together. Workforce development represents a programmatic core that might provide a unifying theme for graduate study, since it seeks not to limit the influence of any one field of study. Instead, it recognizes the equal importance of the fields in contributing to broader societal goals. Having each field maintain its academic strength is the essence for achieving workforce development goals.
5 Conclusion The challenge of all civil societies is to respond to external events for the benefit of its citizens. Many countries face the same challenges of responding to issues related to working and learning. This chapter proposes that workforce development policies, programmes and activities should be considered from a more articulated perspective. No other current perspective offers the same promise of ensuring economic well-being and social justice. This definition of workforce development clarifies the current use of the terminology. Traditionally, workforce development was used to refer almost exclusively to government-sponsored or funded activities for disadvantaged people. The term was particularly tied to federal or state legislation, such as the Job Training Partnership Act. The terminology covered a limited set of activities, focusing on job training and remedial education. In the 1990s, as the vision of what it took to improve the lives of disadvantaged people changed, professionals from education, human resources and human services found the spectrum of activities covered under the term ‘workforce development’ expanding, but also converging across disciplinary lines.
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References Ashton, D. et al. 1999. Education and training for development in East Asia: the political economy of skill formation in newly industrialized economies. London: Routledge. Askov, E.N.; Gordon, E. 1999. The brave new world of workforce education. In: Martin, L.G.; Fisher, J.C., eds. The welfare-to-work challenge for adult literacy educators, vol. 83. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Bates, R.A.; Redmann, D.H. 2002. Core principles and the planning process of a world-class workforce development system. Advances in developing human resources, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 111–20. Buechtemann, C.; Schupp, J.; Soloff, D. 1993. Roads to work: school-to-work transition patterns in Germany and the United States. Industrial relations journal, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 97–111. Carnevale, A.; Fry, R. 2001. The economic and demographic roots of education and training. Washington, DC: Center for Workforce Success; National Center on Education and the Economy. Comings, J.; Reder, S.; Sum, A. 2001. Building a level playing field: the need to expand and improve the national and state adult education and literacy systems. Cambridge, MA: National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. Comings, J. et al. 2003. As long as it takes: responding to the challenges of adult student persistence in library literacy programmes. New York, NY: Manpower Demonstration and Research Corporation. Crouch, C.; Finegold, D.; Sako, M. 1999. Are skills the answer? The political economy of skill creation in advanced industrial countries. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Culpepper, P.D. 2003. Creating co-operation: how states develop human capital in Europe. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Dooley, C.R. 1945. The training within industry report (1940–1945): a record of the development of supervision—their use and results. Washington, DC: War Manpower Commission, Bureau of Training, Training within Industry Service. Drucker, P. 1993. Post-capitalist society. New York, NY: Harper-Collins. Dychtwald, K.; Erickson, T.; Morison, R. 2004. Workforce crisis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Foster, A.D.; Rosenzweig, M.R. 1996. Technical change and human-capital returns and investments: evidence from the Green Revolution. American economic review, vol. 86, no. 4, pp. 931–53. Friedman, T. 2000. The Lexus and the olive tree: understanding globalization. New York, NY: Anchor Books. Gilbert, T. 1978. Human competence: engineering worthy performance. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Gill, I.S.; Dar, A. 2000. Germany. In: Gill, I.S.; Fluitman, F.; Dar, A., eds. Vocational education and training reform: matching skills to markets and budgets. Washington, DC: World Bank. Giloth, R.P. 2000. Learning from the field: economic growth and workforce development in the 1990s. Economic development quarterly, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 340–59. Giloth, R.P. 2004. Workforce development politics: civic capacity and performance. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Gray, K.C.; Herr, E.L. 1998. Workforce education: the basics. Boston, MA: Pearson Allyn & Bacon. Grubb, W.N. 1999. From isolation to integration: occupational education and the emerging systems of workforce development. Centerpoint, no. 3. (ED 429 184.) Grubb, W.N. 2001. Second chances in changing times: the roles of community colleges in advancing low-skilled workers. In: Kazis, R., ed. Low-wage workers in the new economy, pp. 283–306. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press. Grubb, W.N. et al. 1999. Toward order from chaos: state efforts to reform workforce development systems. Berkeley, CA: National Center for Research in Vocational Education, University of California.
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Grubb, N.W.; Lazerson, M. 2004. The education gospel: the economic power of schooling. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Hall, B.L. 2002. The right to a new utopia: learning and the changing world of work in an era of global capitalism. (Paper presented at the Developing Skills for the New Economy: International Conference on Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, October 2002.) Harrison, B.; Weiss, M. 1998. Workforce development networks: community based organizations and regional alliances. Thousand Oak, CA: Sage Publications. Hawley, J.D. 2003. Comparing the payoff to vocational and academic credentials in Thailand over time. International journal of educational development, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 607–25. Hawley, J.D.; Sommers, D. 2003. The labor market outcomes of Ohio adult workforce education students. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University, Center on Education and Training for Employment. Hawley, J.D.; Sommers, D.; Melendez, E. 2003. The impact of institutional collaborations on the achievement of workforce development performance measures in Ohio. Adult education quarterly, vol. 56, no. 1. Hawley, J.D.; Taylor, J.C. 2002. Strengthening workforce development services through business associations: implications for human resource development research and practice. [Unpublished manuscript.] Holton, E.F.; Wilson, L. 2002. Delivering workforce development programs and services. Advances in developing human resources, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 167–79. Illeris, K. 2003. Towards a contemporary and comprehensive theory of learning. International journal of lifelong education, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 396–406. Imel, S. 2000. The workforce investment act: some implications for adult and vocational education. Trends and issues alert, no. 11. Jacobs, R.L. 1990. Human resource development as an interdisciplinary body of knowledge. Human resource development quarterly, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 65–71. Jacobs, R.L. 2000. Human resource development and the emergence of workforce development. In: Ruona, W.; Roth, G., eds. Philosophy of human resource development, pp. 65–70. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler. Jacobs, R.L. 2001. Managing employee competence and human intelligence in global organizations. In: Richter, F., ed. Maximizing human intelligence in Asia business: the sixth generation project. New York, NY: Prentice-Hall. Johansson, R. 2002. Sub-Sahara Africa: regional response to bank TVET policy in the 1990s. Washington, DC: World Bank. Judy, R.; D’Amico, C. 1997. Workforce 2020: work and workers in the 21st century. Indianapolis, IN: Hudson Institute. Kaufman, R. 1998. Strategic thinking: a guide to identifying and solving problems. Alexandria, VA: International Society for Performance Improvement. Largo, J. 1996. Banking on education and the uses of research: a critique of World Bank priorities and strategies for education. International journal of educational development, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 221–33. Lee, Y.-h. 2000. Technical and vocational education and training in Korea. Seoul: Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training. Levy, F.; Murnane, R.J. 2004. The new division of labor: how computers are creating the next market. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation. McLean, G. 2003. NHRD: Why countries can’t do without it. (Paper presented at the Second Asian Conference of the Academy of HRD on Human Resource Development in Asia: National Policy Perspectives, Bangkok, Thailand, 30 November–2 December 2003.) Middleton, J.; Ziderman, A.; Adams, A. v. 1993. Skills for productivity: vocational education and training in developing countries. New York, NY: Oxford University Press for the World Bank. Moore, R.W. et al. 2003. Training that works: lessons from California’s employment training panel program. Kalamazoo, MI: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
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Murnane, R.; Levy, F. 1996. Teaching the new basic skills. New York, NY: The Free Press. Osterman, P. 1999. Securing prosperity: the American labor market, how it has changed and what to do about it. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Pindus, N.M.; Nightingale, D.S. 1995. Improving the upward mobility of low-skill workers: the case of the health industry. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute. Pindus, N. et al. 2000. Coordination and integration of welfare and workforce development systems. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute and the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Reder, S.; Strawn, C. 2001. Programme participation and self-directed learning to improve basic skills. Focus on Basics, 4(D), pp. 15–18. (ERIC ED 451 397) Regional Technology Strategies. 1999. A comprehensive look at state-funded, employer focused job training programmes. Washington, DC: National Governors’ Association. Rosenzweig, M.R. 1995. Why are there returns to schooling? American economic review, vol. 85, no. 2, pp. 153–58. Sawchuk, P.H. 2003. Adult learning and technology in working-class life. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Schlefer, J. 1999. Wildcat service corporation and the private industry council. In: Evans, C. et al., eds. Improving the employment prospects of low-income job seekers: case studies. <www. nationalemploymentpanel.gov.uk/publications/ndtf/2000/improvingemploymentpro-spectscasestudies.pdf> Schmitter, P.C. 1979. Still the century of corporatism? In: Schmitter, P.; Lehmruch, G., eds. Trends towards corporatist intermediation. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications. Silverberg, M. et al. 2004. National assessment of vocational education: final report to congress. Washington, DC: United States Department of Education. Stein, D. 2000. The new meaning of retirement. ERIC Digest. Columbus, OH: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education. <www.ericdigests.org/2001-1/retirement.html> Weir, M. 1992. Politics and jobs: the boundaries of employment policy in the United States. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Wilson, D. 2001. Reform of TVET for the changing world of work. Prospects: quarterly review of comparative education, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 21–37. World Bank. 1999. The bank’s poverty reduction strategy. Washington, DC: The World Bank. (Working Draft)
Chapter XV.3
The Challenge for ESD in TVET: Developing Core Sustainable Development Competencies and Collaborative Social Partnerships for Practice1 Chris Chinien, France Boutin and Karen Plane
1 Introduction The implementation of workforce education and training for sustainable development pre-supposes that the sustainable development-related knowledge, skills and attitudes are known. However, an extensive review of the literature failed to identify the sustainable development competencies required by the workforce. This, of course, represents a major barrier for integrating the concept of sustainable development into the preparation of the workforce. Educators are overwhelmed by the challenge of weaving an abstract concept like sustainable development into education and training. The purpose of this study was to identify the sustainable developmentrelated knowledge, skills and attitudes required by the Canadian workforce (Chinien et al., 2004). This chapter describes research undertaken to achieve this objective.
2 The Conceptual Framework The UNESCO framework for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNESCO, 2005) and the result of an analytical survey of the literature and research were used to develop a conceptual framework providing the guiding theoretical orientation and the underpinning foundation to the study. This conceptual framework was used to identify the sustainable development competency profile required by the workforce. This framework consisted of two main elements: (a) sustainable development; and (b) human performance enablers. Thereafter, the three main clusters encapsulated in the concept of sustainable development—environmental, social and economic—were used as the undergirding foundation providing the conceptual framework for this study. A brief description of each is as follows:
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Environmental: an environmentally sustainable system must maintain a stable resource base, avoiding over-exploitation of renewable resource systems, and depleting non-renewable resources only to the extent to which adequate substitutes
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can be developed. The concept includes maintenance of ecosystem functions, such as biodiversity and atmospheric stability, thus addressing resources that are traditionally not considered as economic resources. Social: a socially sustainable system must achieve distributional equity, adequate provision of social services, including health and education, gender equity, as well as political accountability and participation to promote active citizenship. The overriding objective is—the quality of life (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2004, p. 1). Economic: an economically sustainable system must be able to produce goods and services on a continuing basis, and avoid sectoral imbalances between such areas as agricultural and industrial production.
The human performance enablers incorporated three dimensions which are assumed to be critical for sustainable human performance, namely knowledge, skills and attitudes. An illustration of the conceptual framework is presented in Table 1. Table 1 Conceptual framework for sustainable development skills Sustainable development
Sustainable human performance enablers Knowledge
Skills
Attitudes
Environmental Social Economic Source: Buckland, 2002.
3 Methodology The study was conducted in two main phases. Phase 1 consisted of a general scan of literature and research on the environment, society and economy in order to identify key issues related to skill needs for sustainable development. This was followed by an extensive review of the literature and research to identify specific sustainable development-related knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSAs) that were of relevance to the workforce. These KSAs were then validated using a Focus Group methodology in Phase 2.
3.1 Phase 1 The review of literature conducted in Phase 1 was focused on materials pertaining to sustainable development, education and workforce development. A particular effort was directed at how this information applies to government organizations involved in workforce development policies. Information was gathered from local, provincial/state, national and international sources through a review of a wide variety of sources, including books, government documents and reports, journals and the
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World Wide Web. The literature review was supplemented by limited consultation with relevant experts. These experts were contacted primarily through e-mail and postings on ‘listservs’ and electronic bulletin boards. The conceptual framework developed for this study guided the informationgathering process. It also assisted the researchers in placing the knowledge, skills and attitudes or values identified in the appropriate cells of Table 1 related to the environment, society and the economy. Although this conceptual framework provided a very useful tool for identifying the KSAs, the limitation of classifying KSAs according to the clusters of the environment, society and the economy separately was recognized. In many cases, some KSAs had implications for more than one category. The decision to place a KSA element in a particular cell was based on an analysis of whether that particular element had more implications for the environment, for society or for the economy. As shown in Table 2, a total of 588 KSAs were identified in the literature review and classified as they pertained mostly to environment (161), society (258) or economy (169). It is noteworthy that the largest number of KSAs related to ‘society’. Table 2 Breakdown of KSAs identified for environment, society and economy before the validation process Sustainable development
Human performance enablers Knowledge
Skills
Attitudes
Totals
Environment Society Economy Totals
66 78 67 211
58 101 63 222
37 79 39 155
161 258 169 588
3.2 Phase 2 Given the methodology used for identifying the KSAs, it was determined that they would have to be validated by a group of experts (n = 24) during Phase 2. The focus group meeting was held to validate the knowledge, skills and attitudes inventory developed in Phase 1. The expert participants were selected on the basis of their experience in sustainable development and/or workforce development. This focus group meeting had four objectives:
r r r r
To validate the relevance and importance of each KSA; To identify any gaps in the KSAs; To assess the presentation format of the KSAs included in the competency profile; To identify priority sectors for improvement efforts.
The experts were divided into three groups, with balanced representation with regard to expertise in sustainable development and workforce development. Each
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group was assigned the task of validating a profile related to the environment, society and the economy respectively. The breakdown of the inventory of KSAs after the validation process by the group of experts is shown in Table 3. The numbers in parentheses represent the KSAs before validation. The total number of KSAs was reduced from 588 to 523. While a few KSAs were added in the area of society (five), sixteen were eliminated from the economy and forty-four from the environment. Repetition was the most frequent reason for the elimination of these KSAs. Table 3 Breakdown of KSAs identified for environment, society and economy after the validation process Sustainable development Environment Society Economy Totals
Human performance enablers Knowledge
Skills
Attitudes
Totals
43 (66) 66 (78) 57 (67) 166 (211)
46 (58) 109 (101) 59 (63) 214 (222)
28 (37) 78 (79) 37 (39) 143 (155)
117 (161) 253 (258) 153 (169) 523 (588)
4 Focus Group Debriefing A plenary debriefing session was held immediately following the validation sessions. The purpose was to get a general sense of the experts’ reaction to the KSAs. The first draft of the KSAs inventory was revised on the basis of the feedback received from the experts. The most important revision made was to move away from the three content organizers—environmental, social and economic—to avoid unnecessary repetition, and to establish the interconnectedness and interdependency among these three elements. The KSAs were then analysed for commonalities and differences. The following six major skill clusters emerged from that analysis:
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Ethics and values are defined as the attitudes needed to behave and act ethically. The integrated-decision-making theme is defined as the knowledge and skills needed to process information effectively and efficiently. Responsible use of resources is defined as the knowledge and skills needed to use resources responsibly. Valuing diversity is defined as the knowledge and skills needed to contribute to, and support, diversity. The healthy lifestyle theme is defined as the knowledge and skills needed to maintain workplace health and safety. Continual improvement is defined as the knowledge and skills needed to improve the quality of life.
These six skill clusters were used to reclassify all the KSAs. This exercise resulted in the sustainable development competency profile (SDCP, Table 4).
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Table 4 Broadly transferable sustainable development competency profile for the workforce (SDCP) ETHICS AND VALUES: ATTITUDES NEEDED TO BEHAVE AND ACT ETHICALLY
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Appreciate the diversity of environmental, social and economic systems; Demonstrate a commitment to stewardship; Demonstrate leadership for sustainability; Respect human dignity; Show concern for the quality of life; Embrace a learning culture; Support equity, inclusion, human rights, social justice and peace; Acknowledge constraints, but adopt a ‘can do’ attitude; Demonstrate integrity and trustworthiness; Demonstrate self-reliance in dealing with complex issues; Embrace change with an open-mind and with confidence; Solve problems through persistence and perseverance; Accommodate different values and competing interests;
r r r r r r r r r r r
Accept trade-offs among conflicting goals; Use ethical principles in decision-making processes; Consider multiple perspectives in the decision-making process; Respect privacy of information; Respect intellectual property rights; Adhere to legislation, which protects the environment, promotes fair business practices and safeguards human rights; Understand the need for political systems in a democratic society; Learn from and work with others; Deal with others fairly and with transparency; Appreciate the dignity of work and fair pay; Adopt a ‘prevention is better than cure’ attitude.
INTEGRATED DECISION-MAKING: KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS NEEDED TO PROCESS INFORMATION EFFECTIVELY AND EFFICIENTLY
r r r r r r r r r r r
Develop and maintain essential cognitive literacy skills; Develop and maintain integrative skills; Develop and maintain essential skills; Develop and maintain ICT literacy skills; Develop and maintain technological and scientific literacy skills; Reflect critically about issues; Work in collaborative workgroups; Learn to learn; Apply interpersonal skills to resolve conflicts; Recognize the importance of involving stakeholders in decision-making Think globally and act locally;
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Evaluate impacts and consequences of actions taken; Use a system approach for thinking and analysis; Make efficient, timely, accountable and cross-sectoral decisions; Realize that today’s decisions must be balanced with tomorrow’s effects; Think imaginatively and creatively; Practice cross-functional and multicriterial thinking; Consider multiple perspectives in the decision-making process; Recognize the interdependence between environmental, economic and social systems.
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REPONSIBLE USE OF RESOURCES: KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS NEEDED TO USE RESOURCES RESPONSIBLY
r r r r r r r r
Acknowledge the limits of an area’s carrying capacity; Understand shared responsibility for using resources efficiently; Recognize the need to use renewable resources; Demonstrate basic economic literacy and accountability; Minimize waste and view waste as a potential resource; Understand factors that contribute to degradation of resources and the need for restoration; Act as caretaker to environmental, social and economic systems for present and future generations, from a local, national and global perspective; Apply precautionary principles;
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Anticipate and prevent problems; Use a proactive and strategic approach toward the use of resources; Understand the need for equitable distribution of resources and making provisions for social services; Understand that economic growth and development are compatible with responsible use of resources; Recognize the values associated with natural, human, social and produced capitals and understand the relationship among them; Recognize the key contributions of SME and entrepreneurs in economic development.
VALUING DIVERSITY: KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS NEEDED TO CONTRIBUTE AND SUPPORT DIVERSITY
r r r
Understand the importance of biodiversity to humankind and the environment; Understand that economic diversity is a competitive advantage in a global economy; Understand and respect the need to maintain cultural and linguistic diversity for strengthening the social fabric;
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Recognize the contribution of the cultural heritage and traditional knowledge of Aboriginal people for sustainable development; Understand that the social fabric is strengthened when the workforce reflects the diversity of a population; Encourage and facilitate diversity in the workforce; Adapt to cultural diversity.
SAFETY AND WELL-BEING: KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS NEEDED TO MAINTAIN WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY
r r r r
Understand that a healthy ecosystem benefits human health now and in the future; Recognize the effects of environmental degradation to health and safety; Select environmentally-friendly materials, products and processes; Handle hazardous materials safely (Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System—WHMIS);
r r r r r
Practice a healthy lifestyle: healthy diet and regular exercise; Recognize the consequences of alcohol and substance abuse; Recognize the economic impact of accidents and unhealthy lifestyles; Practice accident prevention; Think and act safely.
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Table 4 (continued) CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT: KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS NEEDED TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LIFE
r r r r
Contribute to research and innovation to advance economic growth, environmental welfare, human health and social well-being; Recognize the importance of sustainable development indicators for assessing growth and development; Understand that maintaining status quo is not an option; Understand the principles of continual improvement;
r r r r
Understand the need for using more efficient means for distributing environmental resources and economic growth; Adapt to changing requirements; Recognize the need for checking and corrective action; Upgrade skills to cope with socio-economic and socio-technical changes and environmental sustainability.
5 Challenges for Implementing ESD in TVET It could be argued that a key challenge for integrating education for sustainable development into practice in a predominantly market-driven global economy is reconciling the competing needs of the State, industry and civic society and to promulgate a policy climate more conducive to rebuilding trust, collaboration and tolerance for a democratic, sustainable, peaceful future for the world’s population. While such a consideration is perhaps idealistic, utopian and naive, this section will attempt to come to grips with the enablers and barriers to embedding education for sustainable development within technical and vocational education and training (TVET), through providing contextual evidence from a qualitative case study within one peri-urban, high-growth region of Australia (Plane, 2001). By challenging the traditional research paradigms and discourses of small business participation in TVET, this study examines a construct of learning ecologies, or capabilities for social partnerships for embedding sustainable development in learning communities in vocational education and training (VET—as it is known in Australia) (Plane, 2001). It premises that VET could be ideally placed to integrate Education for Sustainable Development into formal, non-formal and informal education through social partnerships and capacity building with stakeholders at all levels of governance, industry and the wider community (OECD, 2001, 2002; Cornish, 2005; Ellyard, 1998; Kilpatrick, 2002; Seddon & Billett, 2004; Seddon, 2004; Kenyon et al., 2001; ARIES, 2004a, 2004b; Anderson, 2002a, 2002b; Schuller, Bynner & Feinstein, 2004). There are questions brought about by the predominance of the widely accepted political ideologies underpinning TVET and for ‘converging’ the existing policy platforms of economic and sustainable development in practice.
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6 Research Methodology This qualitative case study of one outer metropolitan region in South Australia has adopted critical, interpretive inquiry as the methodology through the use of semistructured interviews with practitioners and small business (Denzin & Giardina, 2006; Piantinida & Garman, 1999; Guba & Lincoln, 1999; Rubin & Rubin, 1995). Small business is defined as the owner-managed small (six to nineteen employees) or micro-workplace (one to five employees) respectively. Practitioners are those working in VET, adult and community education (ACE), community and regional development, library and information services and local government. One-hundred and twenty interviews have been undertaken: all interviews were transcribed and returned to the interviewee for correction and comment. Whilst a case-study analysis has limitations in being able to generalize findings of value to other regions of the globe, a contextual, interpretive study of this kind may shed more light on the complexities of capacity-building through social partnerships in market economies of TVET. Research within a qualitative paradigm is necessary to balance the predominance of functionalist discussion, and to understand how VET practitioners and VET graduates can be empowered in the changemanagement process for ESD. As Smith and Billett (2004) have argued, there are at least four kinds of economic models of VET with degrees of ‘openness’, state intervention and control. Further research needs to address international comparisons of the impact of social partnerships in countries with different economies, societies and cultures, as evidenced in the findings of the work of Matlay (2001), Das Gupta, Grandvoinnet & Romani (2003) and Miraftab (2004).
7 Research Questions These are the broad research questions underpinning this study: 1. What types of small business/VET community partnerships are present in this region now and why? What purpose do they serve? 2. What capabilities and capacities comprise a learning partnership and how integral are these for sustainable development in the region? 3. Where are the enablers and barriers for a social partnerships model of sustainable development in a globalizing, mixed-market economy of VET? 4. What are the implications for engaging VET, small business and the community in learning partnerships in this particular region for the future? Where are there opportunities? Where are there threats? 5. What kinds of change-management practices would need to be instigated in VET, the community and small business and at what level of governance to enable progress towards a learning region? 6. To what extent can social partnerships enculture democratic processes for lifelong learning and sustainable development and reduce the impact of neo-classical economic paradigms on VET, small business and the community?
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8 Findings: A Hive of Informal Activity? Much adult learning activity in ESD in this particular region is being accomplished through successful local partnerships and informal alliances using a plethora of grassroots community, non-governmental, governmental and voluntary organizations. Such activities were also evident in the private sector too, in best-practice small businesses and showcase industry developments, ecotourism, natural resource management, safe chemical use and land-management practices, smallholdings management, community education and water catchment. Perhaps the most interesting—but disconcerting—finding for VET in the particular region explored is that much work in sustainable development partnerships is occurring outside formal institutional VET structures. Some might argue that this is where these partnerships should be. But there is a hive of hidden, invisible activity within informal and non-formal alliances between business and the community though local tourism associations, regional development boards, land-care groups, volunteer associations, ‘friends of’ groups, library groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and through adult and community education groups, residents associations, chambers of commerce and local government. Nevertheless, to what extent these efforts are co-ordinated productively towards ESD in the long term is open to question, and also the extent to which they can be sustained.
8.1 Understanding the Nature of ‘Learning Partnerships’ These ‘learning partnerships’ and alliances range in levels of complexity and modus operandi from the regulated partnership at one end of the spectrum, instigated by the government, to the casual and informal relationship at the other, instigated by the grassroots community. Many of these alliances have been promulgated by intervention through the various tiers of governance, in collaboration with other willing partners. At the opposite end of the spectrum, other alliances are being incubated informally in response to an immediate need, crisis or conflict within the community. Whilst local government is very proactive in promulgating partnerships, there is a clear role for local governance in sustaining the momentum, reconciling competing interests and making space for developing alliances across sectors that would not traditionally work together. The role for governance is integral to maintain the transparency of the democratic process and the ‘level playing field’ at the local level, as opposed to a climate which encourages cliques, powerful hierarchies and parochial inward-looking niches and vested interests, with some groups having more social and economic capital than others. There are limitations though in what the local government can do with its quantity of resources for promulgating lifelong learning, learning communities and community development, which usually lie outside its principal mandate and jurisdiction.
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8.2 Barriers to Implementing ESD in the Regions The findings do raise concern about the counter-productiveness and mismatch of functionalist policy trends on VET in the regions for promulgating social partnerships at the local level. Whilst successful at the time, these initiatives are often dependent upon local communities being pitched against one another in the struggle for funding where, as practitioners stated, it is difficult to sustain the initiative or repeat it. The success or not of these initiatives is tied to the community’s ability to raise matching funds and the capacity of the volunteers and inspiring local champions, leaving aside the question of how adequately sustainable development will be embedded in VET strategically for the future. Implementing ESD strategically demands more independent examination of how social partnerships might undertake the change-management process in VET for the long term. Whilst private-sector involvement is essential for its contribution and innovation in ESD, looking to the private sector alone to fill the governance and resource gap can be problematic and risky. Institutions of governance, rather than adopting a laissez-faire, free-market approach, have a clear role in maintaining the transparency of the partnerships, levelling the playing field at the regional level, and steering the fiscal input for education for sustainable development in VET equitably. Learning communities and local capacity-builders need to be resourced to be able to self-manage the changes, but also to be protected as stakeholders from the market. Whilst there is a need to encourage capability and ‘can do’ attitudes at the grassroots level across governance, industry and civic society, this social capital cannot replace fiscal input into regional infrastructures. TVET demands to be adequately supported through all regular measures for implementing ESD, without being subjugated to the dominant discourse of self-help and market-driven policy approaches.
8.3 A New Space and Role for VET Governance? There are questions too about the need for governance in steering public/private partnerships in order to manage the intense competition between communities for infrastructure and resources in the regions. While there is an integral place for the community as capacity-builders, there is also the need for supporting VET infrastructures, with VET graduates empowered as change agents and VET professionals as brokers working within industry and the community. There are tensions concerning capacity-building for sustainable development among the governmental, business and community sectors. These include the time it takes to establish partnerships, building and retaining trust, developing common goals, visions and mutual obligation, transferring risk, implementing a flexible modus operandi and defining just who is responsible—or should be responsible—for doing what. It could be argued that, in reality, the dark side of the impact of competing globally at the community level is resulting in a workplace culture that is more attuned to ‘survival of the fittest’—protecting information and knowledge, the organization, and ensuring
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that it is superior to the competition. Rather than being conducive to a climate of democratic process, tolerance and respect in communities, the impact of the fragmentation in policies, combined with contestable funding arrangements and fierce competition at the local level, often results in increased divisiveness. This gives rise to territorial tensions over resources and how to manage them, frustration about how to engage the so-called ‘disengaged’, ridding the system of its ‘freeloaders’ and pointing the finger to where the most blame lies. Each sector postulates its own very unique perspective on just who has the best knowledge, who needs engaging, who should be shouldering the blame and, of course, who is doing the most freeloading— depending on their position in the broad scheme of things. Similar findings on the vacuum in policy created by ‘neo-liberalism’ for resourcing capacity-building at the local level and its counter-productive, capacity-reducing impact on developing social partnerships have also been described in studies by Cuthill (2002), Smith (2002), Diamond (2004), Mowbray (2005), Seddon (2004), Pritchard (2005), Beer, Maude & Pritchard (2003) and Cocklin and Alston (2003). This kind of economic feudalism, combined with what Watkins and Bazerman (2003) have found about reactive management cultures, can leave organizations and communities extremely vulnerable and the victims of crises, rather than being able to proactively manage knowledge, information, risk and discontinuous change.
8.4 Stepping up for a Preferred, Proactive Future There is a need to move forward if ESD is to be strategically implemented in practice across the diversity of stakeholders in TVET, and for ensuring the democratic process and inclusiveness of all voices in community building. It needs to be acknowledged that integrating sustainable development through successful cross-sectoral partnerships and alliances within TVET can be complex and problematic—it is not for the faint-hearted. This is dependent on the expertise of skilled capacity-builders in VET and reconciling the positioning and power relationships between the many groups of stakeholders with different priorities and competing agendas. Regional communities can be fragmented by hierarchy in tiers of governance, hegemonies and levels of responsibility, and there is a strong need for building collaboration and mutual respect across traditionally disparate sectors of community, industry and government. In industry there is a call to re-examine and redefine the value and contribution of informal and non-formal learning to regional economic development, and to address the gaps and strategic resource issues in existing regional VET infrastructures in ESD. There is also a need for more independent examination and a much clearer picture on the extent to which employers contribute to formal and informal VET, as shown in the findings of Richardson (2004), and also the ways in which ESD is being embedded, or not, by employers in the workplace. More research could determine the role for governance in public/private partnerships for ESD, which is often absent from the debate, and whether social partnership models can successfully provide the
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resources for sustainable development in the long term. Within VET itself, there is a need to further question how the VET practitioner and VET graduate can be better empowered as change agents within the constraints of the VET system, to cope with their demanding role (Harris, Simons & Clayton, 2005; Smyth, 2002; Kell, Shore & Singh, 2004; Foley, 2004; Wade, 1999; Tilbury, Podger & Reid, 2004; Tilbury, 2004). For civic society and local governance, further exploration of the ability of these structures to promulgate networks and partnerships for capacity-building in ESD is needed, which might assist in reducing the impact of corporatism at the community level.
8.5 An ESD Framework for Enabling Change Management in TVET? Others such as Stehlik (2002) have given hope that collaborative processes and community engagement for strategic management for ESD is alive and successful in practice at the local level. This activity could be assisted by a workable, overarching framework for change management for ESD of use to learning communities in the regions, for developing trust and alliance building, and finding the common ground between the for-profit and the not-for-profit sectors. It demands a cross-sectoral, policy convergence approach to bring together the portfolio frameworks of land management, water management, heritage and conservation, ecotourism, natural resources management, safe chemical use, health and safety, workforce development and sustainable learning communities and the plethora of initiatives attempting to address ESD. These frameworks cannot work in isolation. Embedding sustainable development capacities and capabilities into TVET policy demands a collaborative, multitiered approach across all levels of governance, industry and the community, who should be working together on the big picture—they are, after all, serious issues for the globe. This framework also needs to become the catalyst to promote the role for VET graduates as change agents in industry and the community (Wade, 1999), and for VET professionals to be better empowered within the current system as brokers to work with providers in the regions. These capacity-builders should promulgate a flexible, cross-cultural ‘business with community approach’, compatible with the complexities of operating a business, operating a community service or running a not-for-profit small organization at the regional level. This will demand very skilled practitioners for change management, both within and outside VET.
8.6 Better Collaboration and Information Dissemination through Research? Whilst much research on ESD is being accomplished outside VET, ESD still has a low research priority within VET discourse. This is of concern, particularly at a time
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of the internationalization of VET markets. Kearns (2004, p. 6) has written about the loss of faith in and impact of educational research, at least in Europe and North America. There is a need for more research that addresses the impact of globalizing governance and public/private partnerships in VET on different cultures and societies. In this light, sharing and distributing the learning and knowledge uncovered is of paramount importance within TVET. It is essential to add credence and weight of evidence about the challenges for change management in ESD and to bring together research as a collaborative resource for all TVET stakeholders. It is suggested that, along with better integrated research and a comprehensive framework at the policy level, there is a need for:
r r r r r r r r
more understanding of the challenges and impact for business, the community and the individual in integrating ESD within VET and TVET in practice; the provision of resources for collaborative arrangements among research centres working on issues of sustainable development for better information sharing and the dissemination of research and best practice; breaking down the knowledge feudalism across sectors—business, government and community—through alliances and working partnerships in ESD; more inclusion of practitioners, both within and outside VET, into local policymaking, and their role in capacity-building in the regions and curriculum development; a revaluing of non-formal and informal learning in sustainable development in communities and in the workplace and its value to formal VET; a targeted research directive for VET in Australia and in TVET internationally; more co-operative, integrated collaboration across VET in schools, VET and higher education, and ACE, industry and the community for ESD; further research that addresses the moral obligations and impact of social partnerships on cultures and societies within different VET economies around the globe.
In summary, this section of the chapter has explored the enablers and barriers to embedding education for sustainable development within the context of VET in Australia. It has questioned the popular trend for local partnerships in the regions, without adequately addressing how these will be sustained strategically in the long term. There are further questions about how societies and local communities are disempowered by globalizing governance and the extent to which local bodies are resourced for implementing ESD for the future. Whilst, at the grassroots level, the community is a key driver in implementing change, clear directives are necessary from the top as to how ESD can be successfully embedded in TVET practice. This framework demands a redefinition of the State as facilitator of the capacity-building process in developing learning regions to reduce the fragmentation, competition for resources and disparity across stakeholders at the local level. There is a need to rethink the impact on communities of more competition, deregulation and economic growth, particularly during the internationalization of VET. This also concerns how to steer the fiscal input for ESD for sustainable learning regions to self-manage the changes, without being subjugated to the dominant discourse of economic rationalism (Plane, 2007).
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8.7 Capacity-Building for Sustainable Development This evolving, working model suggests a strategy and process for building capacities and capability for lifelong learning and sustainable development in VET through cross-sectoral learning partnerships for a learning community (Plane, 2001). Each ‘capacity-based’ ecology is an essential capital for an equitable learning partnership and sustainable learning community (Figure 1). Whilst represented here in theory, simplistically and as discrete segments of a learning community for the purposes of critical analysis of learning partnerships, in practice all are complimentary, integrated and amorphous with the relationships between them being extremely complex. All capacities need resourcing, whether through public/private partnerships, government intervention, NGOs or through the private sector, or in the community.
Fig. 1 Capacity-building for sustainable development and learning communities in VET
9 Conclusions The principle of sustainable development calls for an integrated approach to environmental, social, economic and global considerations. The prospect of full integration cannot be guaranteed in the longer term by the instruments of science,
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technology, economics and law alone. If the principle of sustainable development is to be implemented successfully, there is also a need for the workforce and the community to be equipped with sustainable development-related knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSAs). There are, nevertheless, tensions in developing collaborative social partnerships for capacity-building for sustainable development against the backdrop of a devolved, neo-liberalist, competitive, globalizing market economy. How these suggested models of social partnerships and core sustainable competencies for the workforce development are accomplished in practice will be the subject of further discussion.
Note 1. Extracts from this paper were originally published in the Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA) Conference Papers (2001–2005) <www.avetra.org. au> and ALA Conference Papers Learning Communities Conference, Ballarat (2002) <www. lcc.edu.au> as ‘work in progress’ from a Ph.D. study undertaken with VET providers, and support services to small business and the community and with small businesses in regional South Australia. The input, time and participation from these groups of people are acknowledged in this paper. Thanks to supervisor Professor Roger Harris, Centre for Research in Education, Equity and Work (CREEW), University of South Australia, and to the Office of Regional Affairs, South Australia, for the opportunity to participate in regional study tours.
References Anderson, D. 2002a. Before and after Rio: sustainable development and VET in Australia. (Keynote paper to the Inaugural National Workshop on ‘Educating for a Sustainable Future’, Centre for Sustainability, Swinburne University of Technology (TAFE), Melbourne, Australia, 31 May 2002.) Anderson, D. 2002b. Productivism, sustainable development and vocational education. In: Searle, J.; Roebuck, R., eds. Envisioning practice: implementing change, Vol. 1, pp. 61–68. Brisbane, Australia: Australian Academic Press. (Proceedings of the tenth Annual International Conference on Post-compulsory Education and Training, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.) Australian Research Institute for Education for Sustainability—ARIES. 2004a. Industry Research Forum on Education for Sustainability Report, 20 September 2004, Macquarie University, Sydney. Canberra: Australian Government, Department of Environment and Heritage. <www. aries.mq.edu.au/pdf/IndustryForumRep April.pdf> Australian Research Institute for Education for Sustainability—ARIES. 2004b. VET Research Forum on Education for Sustainability Report, Tuesday 21st September, 2004, Macquarie University, Sydney. Canberra: Australian Government, Department of Environment and Heritage. <www.aries.mq.edu.au/pdf/IndustryForumRep April.pdf> Beer, A.; Maude, A.; Pritchard, B. 2003. Developing Australia’s regions: theory and practice. Sydney, Australia: University of New South Wales Press. Buckland, H. 2002. Learning for sustainable development: a curriculum toolkit. London: The Forum of the Future. Chinien, C. et al. 2004. Skills to last: broadly transferable sustainable development literacy for the Canadian workforce. Ottawa: Human Resources Development Canada. Cocklin, C.; Alston, M., eds. 2003 Community sustainability in rural Australia: a question of capital? Wagga Wagga, Australia: Centre for Rural Social Research.
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Cornish, J. 2005. Extending the vision: Australian Government engagement with the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005–2014. Canberra: Australian Government, Department of Environment and Heritage. Cuthill, M. 2002. Exploratory research: citizen participation, local government and sustainable development in Australia. Sustainable development, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 79–89. Das Gupta, M.; Grandvoinnet, H.; Romani, M. 2003. Fostering community-driven development: what role for the state? Washington, DC: World Bank. (World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, no. 2969.) Denzin, N.K.; Giardina, M.D. eds., 2006. Qualitative inquiry and the conservative challenge. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press. Diamond, J. 2004. Local regeneration initiatives and capacity-building: whose ‘capacity’ and ‘building’ for what? Community development journal, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 177–89. Ellyard, P. 1998. Ideas for the New Millennium. Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne University Press. [Chapter Six. ‘Creating a Sustainable Society, Ecological Sustainability’.] Foley, G., ed. 2004. Dimensions of adult learning: adult education and training in a global era. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press. Guba, E.; Lincoln, Y. 1999. Fourth generation evaluation. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Harris, R.; Simons, M.; Clayton, B. 2005. Shifting mindsets: the changing work roles of vocational education and training practitioners. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Kearns, P. 2004. Education research in the knowledge society: key trends in Europe and North America. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Kell, P.; Shore, S.; Singh, M., eds. 2004. Adult education@21st Century. New York, NY: Peter Lang. Kenyon, P. et al. 2001. Small town renewal overview and case studies. Barton, Australia: Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation. (RIRDC Publication no. 01/043.) Kilpatrick, S. 2002. Community learning and rural sustainability. (Keynote address to the Lifelong Learning and Rural Sustainability South Australian Conference, Jamestown, South Australia, 5–6 May 2002.) Matlay, H. 2001. Entrepreneurial and vocational education in training in central and Eastern Europe. Education+Training, vol. 43, no. 8/9, pp. 395–404. Miraftab, F. 2004. Public private partnerships: the Trojan Horse of neoliberal development? Journal of planning and educational research, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 89–101. Mowbray, M. 2005. Community capacity-building or State opportunism? Community development journal, vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 255–64. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2001. Corporate responsibility: private initiatives and public goals. Paris: OECD. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2002. Working together towards sustainable development: the OECD experience. Paris: OECD. Piantinida, M.; Garman, N.B. 1999. The qualitative dissertation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Plane, K. 2001. Community capacity-building in regional VET. (Paper prepared for the Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association, fourth National Conference, ‘Research to Reality: Putting VET Research to Work’, Adelaide, Australia, 29–30 March 2001.) Plane, K. 2007. A very peculiar practice? Building social capital through learning partnerships with small business: but what have we learnt from research and practice? Australian journal of adult learning, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 25–45. Pritchard, B. 2005. Unpacking the neoliberal approach to regional policy: a close reading of John Freebairn’s ‘Economic policy for rural and regional Australia’. Geographical research, vol. 43, no, 1, pp. 103–12. Richardson, S. 2004. Employers’ contribution to training. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Rubin, H.J.; Rubin, I.S. 1995. Qualitative interviewing: the art of hearing data. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
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Schuller, T.; Bynner, J.; Feinstein, L. 2004. Capitals and capabilities. London: Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning. <www.learningbenefits.net/Publications/DiscussionPapers/ CapsCaps.pdf> Seddon, T. 2004. Beyond states and markets: centralised and decentralised networks in education. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University. Seddon, T.; Billett, S. 2004. Social partnerships in vocational education: building community capacity. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Smith, A.; Billett, S. 2004. Mechanisms for increasing employer contributions to training: an international comparison. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Smith, J. 2002. Developing effective government education programs for business sustainability. (Paper prepared for the Sustaining Our Communities, International Local Agenda 21 Conference, Adelaide, Australia, 3–6 March 2002.) <www.adelaide.sa.gov.au/soc?LA21 papers index.html> Smyth, J.C. 2002. Are educators ready for the next Earth Summit? Millennium papers, no. 6, pp. 1–20. Stehlik, T. 2002. Willing workers on organic farms: cultural exchange and informal adult learning in an organisation that is voluntary, non-profit and environmentally friendly. Australian journal of adult learning, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 220–26. Tilbury, D. 2004. Rising to the Challenge of Education for Sustainability in Australia. Australian journal of environmental education, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 103–14. Tilbury, D.; Podger, D.; Reid, A. 2004. Change in curricula and graduate skills towards sustainability: action research for change towards sustainability. Canberra: Australian Government, Department of Environment and Heritage; Macquarie University. UNESCO-UNEVOC. 2004. Learning for work, citizenship and sustainability. Bonn, Germany: UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2005. Draft international implementation scheme for the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014). Paris: UNESCO. (172 EX/11.) Wade, J.A. 1999. Students as environmental change agents. International journal of contemporary hospitality management, vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 251–55. Watkins, M.D.; Bazerman, M.H. 2003. Predictable surprises: the disasters you should have seen coming. Harvard business review, vol. 81, no. 3, pp. 72–80.
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Chapter XV.4
Key Competencies: Overall Goals for Competence Development: An International and Interdisciplinary Perspective Dominique Simone Rychen
1 Introduction Lifelong learning and competence or skill development are key notions in international efforts to meet the demands and challenges of a globalized, rapidly changing and increasingly complex world, and to promote economically, socially and environmentally sustainable development. Monitoring education and training systems has become a critical issue on the political agenda all over the world. In this policy context, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and other multinational institutions have directed attention to producing internationally comparable outcome indicators in the field of education. Complementary to international large-scale assessments of competencies and skills, the OECD developed an overarching conceptual frame of reference for key competencies through its interdisciplinary and policy-oriented research programme DeSeCo (Definition and Selection of Competencies: Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations). DeSeCo has focused on individual competencies that constitute a strategic resource, both for enhancing economic growth and for fostering social cohesion and a culture of peace. The main result of this interdisciplinary and policy-oriented international research programme—an overarching conceptual framework for learning and teaching outcomes, including three broad categories of key competencies—provides a valuable foundation for defining important general goals for lifelong learning. This chapter1 will highlight the core elements of the overarching conceptual frame of reference and the identified key competencies that are critical for economic, political and cultural participation and that contribute to societal benefits. Further, it will be argued that DeSeCo adds meaning and conceptual depth to the notion and purpose of adult education or lifelong learning.
2 Setting the Background Far-reaching changes in economic, social and political life, as well as technological innovation, pose major challenges in all economies and societies. In the light of global issues and transformation processes, education and competence development R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XV.4, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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is widely viewed as a crucial investment and asset for both the individual and society. In line with a growing concern from policy-makers, employers, researchers and the general public about the adequacy and quality of education and training systems, there has been an increased policy interest in comparable outcome indicators. As a result, the OECD and other multinational institutions have invested considerably in the development of comparable learning and teaching outcome indicators (Salganik et al., 1999; Salganik, 2001). The OECD Project DeSeCo was designed and carried out as a complementary theory-oriented and interdisciplinary effort to assess work, in particular the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Adult Literacy and Life Skills (ALL) surveys. Its main purpose was to provide theoretical and conceptual foundations for determining a limited set of competencies that are essential to personal, economic and social well-being. Considerations of how the identified competencies can be assessed and measured or developed were not at the forefront of DeSeCo. Its focus was on questions such as: ‘What is a competence?’ and ‘Which competencies are important?’ and ‘Important for what?’.
3 Lifelong Learning—but Learning What? DeSeCo defined—within a three-fold categorization—the following nine key competencies as particularly relevant for all individuals in OECD countries and, possibly, in transition and developing countries, in order to meet the manifold global challenges: Interacting in socially heterogeneous groups:
r r r
the ability to relate well to others; the ability to co-operate; the ability to manage and resolve conflict.
Acting autonomously:
r r r
the ability to act within the ‘big picture’; the ability to form and conduct life plans and personal projects; the ability to defend and assert one’s rights, interests, limits and needs.
Using tools interactively:
r r r
the ability to use language, symbols and text interactively; the ability to use knowledge and information interactively; the ability to use (new) technology interactively.
3.1 Basic Considerations Several basic considerations have been emphasized as particularly relevant when addressing the question of key competencies that are important across all relevant sectors.
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First, DeSeCo considered the topic of important, necessary or desirable competencies from a broad, holistic perspective in the light of the demands of democratic, market-oriented societies and global challenges. The reflection on key competencies was not limited to the school context or the labour market or to a particular age group. The project did not deal with competencies simply from the point of view of society’s basic functioning and individuals’ survival. It approached the question of competencies in relation to desired outcomes in terms of a well-functioning society and a successful life (Gilomen, 2003). Critical research questions that guided DeSeCo’s conceptual work on competencies were: Can a set of competencies of prime importance for a successful life and effective participation in different fields of life—including the economic, political, social and family domain—be identified? If so, what is the nature of these competencies? How can they be described and theoretically justified? Second, although cognitive skills and knowledge are important educational outcomes, the discussion of competencies cannot be limited to these cognitive elements. Theory underpins the importance of non-cognitive aspects, such as practical skills, attitudes, motivation and values that are not necessarily or exclusively acquired and developed in the domain of formal education (OECD, 2002; Rychen & Salganik, 2003a; Ouane, 2003; Gonzci, 2003). Third, terms such as key or core competencies, life skills and basic skills are in widespread use with multiple, varied and ambiguous definitions. Therefore, a clarification of the concept of competence and related terms was seen as an indispensable basis for the work to be carried out within the DeSeCo Project. And a fourth critical aspect is the recognition that the topic of key competencies needs to be examined from multiple disciplinary and practical viewpoints.
3.2 A Broad-Based Conceptual Approach to Key Competencies During the research process, many lists of key competencies were considered. In a first phase, scholars from different academic disciplines, including anthropology, psychology, economics, sociology and philosophy, were each asked to construct a set of relevant key competencies from their own theoretical background and disciplinary perspective (Rychen & Salganik, 2001). These scholarly contributions provided a relevant theoretical and conceptual foundation on which DeSeCo’s framework is built. A country consultation within the OECD was organized to review various approaches taken by different countries to determine and satisfy national education and training needs (Trier, 2003; Salganik & Stephens, 2003). A comparison of the different lists of desirable or necessary competencies shows that, despite national differences and specificities in the sectors, there are some important commonalities between the education and economic sectors. Similar elements with almost identical content are emphasized. However, reviews of the various lists reveal a lack of rigor and consistency in the use of terms related to competence (cf. Oates,
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2003; Trier, 2003; Weinert, 2001). The lists of competencies put forward are mostly the result of a pragmatic approach. Many of the lists include items that belong to different conceptual levels or are situated at different degrees of generality. Not only in public discourse but sometimes in the specialized literature as well, there is a tendency to use terms such a skill, qualification, competence and literacy, either imprecisely or interchangeably, in order to describe what individuals must learn, know or be able to do to succeed in school, at work or in social life. In recognition that a common understanding depends to a great extent on a common language and meaningful terms—and also to avoid juggling with catchwords only—in DeSeCo it was critical to begin by taking a step back to define the concept of competence (Weinert, 2001; Rychen & Salganik, 2003b, pp. 51–56).
4 DeSeCo’s Overarching Conceptual Frame of Reference2 DeSeCo’s main outcome is a broad overarching conceptual frame of reference that is relevant for the development of key competencies in a lifelong learning perspective and for their assessment in an international setting (Figure 1). The conclusions and recommendations of DeSeCo are the result of an international collaborative effort over several years among: scholars from different disciplines; experts from education, business, labour, health and other relevant sectors; specialists in large-scale
DeSeCo DeSeCo’s overarching conceptual framework HUMAN RIGHTS SUSTAINABILITY PRODUCTIVITY Vision of society EQUALITY DEMOCRATIC VALUES
Theoretical elements of key competencies TECHNOLOGY DIVERSITY Demands of life MOBILITY RESPONSIBILITY GLOBALIZATION
interact in heterog. groups
successful life
use tools REFLECTIVITY interactively
act autonomously
Fig. 1 DeSeCo’s overarching conceptual framework Source: OECD, 2002.
wellfunctioning society
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assessments; and representatives of OECD member countries and of international organizations, in particular UNESCO, the World Bank and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The key elements of DeSeCo’s overarching frame of reference for key competencies are: r a common vision of the world; r a holistic model of competence; r the definition of key competences based on three criteria: (a) they contribute to highly valued outcomes at the individual and societal level; (b) they are instrumental for meeting demands in a wide range of contexts; and (c) they are important for everyone; r the level of mental complexity required by modern life, based on an evolutionary model of the complexification of the mind; and r a three-fold-categorization for key competencies.
4.1 A Normative Anchoring Point Conceiving important or desirable competencies is inevitably influenced by what is valued in societies and by the goals set for human and socio-economic development. Thus, defining and selecting key competencies is not just an academic exercise; normative considerations regarding the world and the individual play a role in what are considered important, desirable and valued outcomes. The objectives postulated in international conventions, in particular the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the World Declaration on Education for All, and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, served as an explicit normative anchoring point for the discourse on key competencies (Delors & Draxler, 2001; OECD, 2002; Rychen, 2003, pp. 69–71; Gilomen, 2003, pp. 127–32). DeSeCo’s work is thus consistent with the goals outlined in the Hamburg Declaration on Adult Learning and the Agenda for the Future.
4.2 A Holistic Competence Model A competence is defined as the ability to meet successfully complex demands in a particular context. Competent performance in response to a demand implies the mobilization of knowledge, cognitive and practical skills, as well as social and behavioural components, such as attitudes, emotions, values and motivations. A competence is therefore not reducible to its cognitive dimension. Underlying this concept is a model of competence that is holistic and dynamic. It combines complex demands, psychosocial prerequisites and context into a complex system that makes competent performance or effective action possible (Rychen & Salganik, 2003b, p. 46) This holistic understanding of competence is supported by recent findings from neuroscience, namely, that reasoning and emotion are vitally connected (Gonzci,
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2003), and echoes well with learning and teaching strategies upon the four pillars: learning to know; learning to do; learning to live together; and learning to be (Delors et al., 1996; Delors & Draxler, 2001).
4.3 Defining Key Competencies—Definitional Parameters If the first step in defining key competence is the conceptualization of the notion of competence, the next step consists of defining what makes a competence a key competence. In light of the relevant literature and expert opinions, the concept of key competence is based on three general criteria. Key competencies are competencies that:
r
r
r
contribute to highly valued outcomes at the individual and societal levels in terms of an overall successful life and of societal and economic well-being. Recent research reinforces the view that not only does human capital play a critical role in economic performance, but also that important individual and social benefits flow from investment in human capital, such as better health, improved wellbeing, better parenting, and increased social and political engagement (OECD, 2001). are instrumental for meeting important, complex demands and challenges in a wide spectrum of contexts. Thus, they are transversal in the sense that they apply to multiple areas of life. They enable individuals to navigate and participate effectively in and across multiple social fields, such as the labour market, political life and the health sector. are important for all individuals. This criterion reflects a political choice and is consistent with the general commitment of OECD countries (OECD, 2001) to expand opportunities for all individuals in various spheres of life, to improve overall living conditions in society, and to invest in the development of competencies for all as a means to this end.
4.4 Reflectivity—the Required Competence Level A review of the skills and competence lists available to DeSeCo suggests that much of what is identified as key competencies or educational goals goes well beyond recalling accumulated knowledge, thinking abstractly and being well socialized. In most OECD countries, value is placed on flexibility, entrepreneurship and personal responsibility. Not only are individuals expected to be adaptive, but also innovative, creative, self-directed and self-motivated; and, thus, able to take responsibility for their decisions and actions in multiple social fields—be it as employee or employer, parent, partner, citizen, student or consumer. Taking responsibility assumes, for instance, that individuals can ‘think for themselves’, can reflect upon and
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evaluate their actions in the light of their experiences and personal and societal goals (see e.g. Canto-Sperber & Dupuy, 2001, pp. 86, 89–99; Haste, 2001, p. 101). Many scholars and experts agree that dealing flexibly with novelty, change and diversity, and coping in a responsible way with important challenges in life (Rychen, 2003, pp. 72–82)—whether they are manifested in the workplace, in the political field, in the family or in other areas of life—calls for the development of a higher level of mental complexity that implies meta-cognitive skills, a critical stance, a reflective and holistic approach to life. It is not just about how one thinks, but how one constructs experience more generally, including one’s thinking, feeling and social relations (e.g. Kegan, 2001, 1994). Underlying reflectivity is the idea of an objectification process: individuals can only be responsible for, in control of, or reflect upon that which is the object (Rychen, 2003, p. 76; Kegan, 2001, p. 197; Kegan, 1994, p. 32). The notion of reflectivity (though various terms are used) is like a leading thread throughout the various contributions from scholars and experts prepared for DeSeCo (see in particular, Kegan, 2001; Canto-Sperber & Dupuy, 2001; Perrenoud, 2001; Haste, 2001; Callieri, 2001). It represents a central transversal feature of the key competencies identified in DeSeCo.
4.5 Three Categories of Key Competencies In addition to the conceptualization of reflectivity as the required competence level for key competencies, three broad categories of key competencies have been constructed based on the abstractions and theorizations of the scholarly papers and through interdisciplinary collaboration. A three-fold categorization of key competencies—interacting in socially heterogeneous groups, acting autonomously and using tools interactively—provide a conceptual basis for identifying and mapping key competencies. Within each category a number of key competencies are put forth that are considered as particularly relevant for all individuals in OECD countries, and possibly transition and developing countries. 4.5.1 Interacting in Socially Heterogeneous Groups In this category, the focus is on the interaction with the ‘other’—the different other. In the light of fragmentation and segmentation processes and increasing individual and social diversity, strengthening social cohesion and developing a sense of social awareness and responsibility have become important societal and political goals. Living and participating in multicultural, pluralistic societies requires the ability to interact and coexist with people who do not necessarily speak the same language or share the same history. Empathy, i.e. taking the role of the other person, imagining the situation from his or her perspective (e.g. Ridgeway, 2001) is an important prerequisite.
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The following interpersonal or social competencies have been identified:
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the ability to relate well to others. This key competence allows individuals to initiate, maintain and manage relationships, for instance, with family members, friends, colleagues at work, the employer or the neighbour. Relating well to others is not only a requirement for social cohesion but, increasingly, for economic success (e.g. Levy & Murnane, 2001). the ability to co-operate, to work in teams. Many demands and tasks require individuals to join forces in groups or teams. This key competence enables individuals to work together towards a common goal. It is important to note that the focus is not on the competencies needed by the group but on the psycho-social and cognitive prerequisites needed by each member. the ability to manage and resolve conflict. The third key competence implies that individuals accept conflict as an inherent aspect of human relationships and learn to approach its management and resolution in a constructive manner.
4.5.2 Acting Autonomously The concept incorporates two central, interrelated ideas: (a) the development of personal identity; and (b) the exercise of relative autonomy in the sense of deciding, choosing and acting in a given context. Acting autonomously does not mean functioning in social isolation. Instead, individuals are empowered to manage their lives in meaningful ways by exercising control over their living and working conditions and by playing an active and responsible part in their lives. This also includes effective participation in the development of society—in its social, political and economic institutions. In general, autonomy requires an orientation towards the future and an awareness of one’s environment, its functioning (i.e. an understanding of social dynamics and the specific challenges they imply) and the roles one plays and wants to play. It assumes the possession of a sound self-concept and the ability to translate needs and wants into acts of will: decision, choice and action. Within this category the following competencies are put forth as relevant when it comes to acting autonomously:
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the ability to act within the ‘big picture’. This key competence involves understanding and considering the ‘big picture’, i.e. the larger—normative, socioeconomic or historical—context of actions and decisions, how that context functions, one’s position in it, the issues at stake, the possible consequences of one’s actions, and taking these factors into account when acting. the ability to form and conduct life plans and personal projects. This key competence enables individuals to conceptualize and actualize goals that make sense in their lives and are consistent with their values. Each objective—for example, finding a new job, planning a career, or learning a new skill—requires us to develop some idea or a plan of how to achieve it. It also implies choosing appropriate means to realize a project, and monitoring its progress.
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the ability to defend and assert one’s rights, interests, limits and needs. This key competence is important both in public and in private, and when dealing with family, friends, employers, teachers, lawyers, doctors or the government. It relates to self-oriented and collective rights and needs. Although many rights, interests and needs are established and protected, for instance, in laws or contracts, it is ultimately up to the individuals to identify and evaluate their rights, needs and interests and to actively assert and defend them.
4.5.3 Using Tools Interactively Using tools interactively—the third category of key competencies—responds, in particular, to the social and professional demands of the global economy and the information society, which require mastery of socio-cultural tools, such as language, information and knowledge (including the content of the traditional school curriculum), as well as physical tools, such as computers. Using tools interactively does not simply mean having access to the tool and the technical skills required to handle a tool (e.g. read a text, use a computer and its software, etc.). Rather, individuals are expected to create and adapt knowledge and skills. It assumes a familiarity with the tool itself and an understanding of how the tool changes the way one can interact with the world and how it can be used to accomplish broader goals. In this sense, a tool is not just a passive mediator, but instrumental as part of an active dialogue between the individual and his or her environment (see Haste, 2001). In this category the following competencies are key:
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the ability to use language, symbols, and text interactively. This key competence concerns the effective use of language and symbols in various forms and situations to achieve one’s goals, to communicate with others, to develop knowledge and potential. For instance, reading and mathematical literacy in PISA and numeracy in ALL are specificities of this key competence. the ability to use knowledge and information interactively. This key competence concerns the effective use of information and knowledge. It enables individuals to manage knowledge and information and to use it as a basis for understanding options, forming opinions, making decisions and taking actions. A concrete illustration of this key competence is scientific literacy as defined in PISA. the ability to use (new) technology interactively. This key competence is related to the awareness of the new forms of action and interaction made possible by technological innovation and to the ability to take advantage of that potential in daily life. It concerns the recognition of—new or other—ways one can work together, access information and interact with others.
4.5.4 Contextual Variation The hypothesis is that for individuals to meet the complex manifold demands and goals in a successful way, they need to be able to mobilize in a particular
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context these kinds of competencies. It is important to emphasize that these key competencies are interrelated and thus are important as constellations rather than as single competencies. These constellations vary with the respective context or situation in which they are applied. The specificities and relative importance attributed to key competencies within a constellation may be influenced, for instance, by cultural norms, technological access and power relations (Rychen, 2003, pp. 104–07). Although the work of DeSeCo was undertaken in the context of OECD countries, there are at least three trends that support the hypothesis that DeSeCo’s three-fold categorization is also a useful conceptual tool for developing and transition countries: first, the on-going globalization and standardization process; second, the influences of international organizations, such as the World Bank, OECD, UNESCO or ILO, which emphasize competence development and lifelong learning; and, lastly, the widespread adoption of a number of universal objectives, as expressed by the international conventions that form the normative basis for the competencies defined in DeSeCo (Rychen, 2003, p. 106). However, the extent to which these concepts have global validity needs to be further explored (OECD, 2002).
5 Conclusion: Some Implications for Developing Key Competencies The key competencies presented above are not submitted as a final, ready-to-use set of competencies, but rather as a conceptual tool. It will be necessary to explore further how the abstract key competencies play out in specific socio-economic contexts and for particular groups. In the perspective of lifelong learning, the key competencies can be considered as critical overarching goals bridging education and training. DeSeCo provides a starting point for guiding the design of learning programmes or curriculum and for discussing policies for enhancing key competencies for all. The question of the development of key competencies was not a focus of DeSeCo’s research programme. Thus, in conclusion, only a few general statements regarding learning and teaching of key competencies can be put forth for discussion and further reflection. First, the development of the identified key competencies are assumed to be learnable and, to some extent, teachable. The acquisition of these competencies does not presuppose either a very high degree of cognitive skills or a high level of education, but requires the overall development of critical thinking and a reflective, integrated practice based on formal and informal knowledge and experience in life (e.g. Perrenoud, 2001). Second, competencies develop and change throughout the lifespan. Developmental psychology (e.g. Kegan, 2001) shows that competence development does not end at adolescence but continues through the adult years. The competence level underlying key competencies (i.e. reflectivity) that would equip individuals to enact successfully the competencies considered necessary for adults in today’s
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societies develop only gradually throughout adulthood. Research tells us that this level of mental complexity will not ordinarily be obtained until adulthood. Before individuals can distance themselves from the socializing press, make independent judgements and take responsibility for their actions, they need to be well socialized. This understanding provides a compelling rationale for lifelong learning and adult education (see Kegan, 2001, p. 203). Educational experiences and opportunities for learning and mental development need to be provided into the adult years. Third, the acquisition and maintenance of competencies is not just a matter of personal effort, motivation and learning skills. Their development is also dependent upon the existence of a favourable material, institutional and socio-economic environment. Adequate learning opportunities and facilities need to be provided for both young people and adults. As stated by Keating (2003, p. 149): ‘if societies do not afford their citizens meaningful opportunities to use the competencies that they have and value, then erosion rather than enhancement of competencies is the more likely outcome’. Fourth, clearly, school is and remains modern societies’ primary institution for fostering and enhancing skills and competencies. A genuine learning society, however, involves also other social institutions that have a learning dimension and a responsibility for the development of their members. What specific roles can various other institutions, such as, for instance, families, workplaces, professional, religious and cultural associations, play in providing an enabling environment and in enhancing basic skills and key competencies? And fifth, different learning strategies result in qualitatively different learning outcomes. An overall development of a reflective practice and critical stance—the required competence level for key competencies—calls for more than altering or expanding school curricula or programmes; it requires a ‘conception of learning (that) takes account of the affective, moral, physical, as well as cognitive aspects of individuals and insists that real learning only takes place in and through action’ (Gonzci, 2003, section 1) Gonzci (2003, p. 119) questions the old learning paradigm in terms of filling up the mind of the learner with facts, knowledge, beliefs and ideas as if the mind were a container. More effective learning strategies include, for instance, using a wide range of problem-based learning contexts in which problems are integrated rather than broken into discrete, artificial elements, and inductive rather than deductive processes (Oates, 2003, p. 179). Yet, the question of effective pedagogical strategies and methods that increase motivation and autonomy in the learning of key competencies remains to be explored systematically for different groups at different stages of life. ‘To date, social policy with respect to human capital has focused on schooling and economic outcomes. However, building a genuine learning society that strives for sustainable development requires more’ (Rychen & Salganik, 2003b, p. 60). It calls for ‘a shift to equal consideration of societal affordances [. . .] for renewing, retaining, and reinforcing competencies throughout the population’ (Keating, 2003, section 2.3.5).
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Building a learning society would involve all social institutions that have a learning dimension and a responsibility for the growth and development of their members. This would suggest that efforts directed at individually based competencies would need to be complemented by an analysis of the actual and desirable competencies of institutions: How can social institutions provide an enabling environment for the actualization of individually based key competencies and contribute to a well-functioning, sustainable society? (Rychen & Salganik, 2003b, pp. 61–62).
Notes 1. This chapter is based on the conceptual work accomplished and reported within OECD’s DeSeCo programme (Rychen & Salganik, 2001, 2003a; OECD, 2005), 2. For a detailed presentation and discussion of DeSeCo’s overarching frame of reference, readers are referred to the final report (Rychen & Salganik, eds., 2003a; OECD, 2005).
References Callieri, C. 2001. The knowledge economy: a business perspective. In: Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H., eds. Defining and selecting key competencies, pp. 228–31. G¨ottingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber. Canto-Sperber, M.; Dupuy, J.P. 2001. Competencies for the good life and the good society. In: Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H., eds. Defining and selecting key competencies, pp. 67–92. G¨ottingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber. Delors, J.; Draxler, A. 2001. From unity of purpose to diversity of expression and needs: a perspective from UNESCO. In: Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H., eds. Defining and selecting key competencies, pp. 214–21. G¨ottingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber. Delors, J. et al. 1996. Learning: the treasure within. Paris: UNESCO. (Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century.) Gilomen, H. 2003. Desired outcomes: a successful life and a well-functioning society. In: Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H., eds. Key competencies for a successful life and a well-functioning society, pp. 109–34. G¨ottingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber. Gonzci, A. 2003. Teaching and learning of the key competencies. In: Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H.; McLaughlin, M.E., eds. Contributions to the second DeSeCo Symposium. Neuchˆatel, Switzerland: Swiss Federal Statistical Office. Haste, H. 2001. Ambiguity, autonomy, and agency: psychological challenges to new competence. In: Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H., eds. Defining and selecting key competencies, pp. 93–120. G¨ottingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber. Keating, D.P. 2003. Definition and selection of competencies from a human development perspective. In: Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H.; McLaughlin M.E., eds. Contributions to the second DeSeCo Symposium. Neuchˆatel, Switzerland: Swiss Federal Statistical Office. Kegan, R. 1994. In over our heads: the mental demands of modern life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Kegan, R. 2001. Competencies as working epistemologies: ways we want adults to know. In: Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H., eds. Defining and selecting key competencies, pp. 192–204. G¨ottingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber. Levy, F.; Murnane, R.J. 2001. Key competencies critical to economic success. In: Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H., eds. Defining and selecting key competencies, pp. 151–73. G¨ottingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber.
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Oates, T. 2003. Key skills/key competencies: avoiding the pitfalls of current initiatives. In: Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H.; McLaughlin, M.E., eds. Contributions to the second DeSeCo Symposium. Neuchˆatel, Switzerland: Swiss Federal Statistical Office. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2001. Meeting of the OECD Education Ministers, Paris, 3–4 April 2001: Investing in competencies for all (communiqu´e). <www.oecd.org/pdf/M00008000/M00008906.pdf> Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2002. Definition and Selection of Competencies (DeSeCo): theoretical and conceptual foundations: strategy paper. <www.statistik.admin.ch/stat ch/ber15/deseco/deseco strategy paper final.pdf> Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2005. The definition and selection of competencies: executive summary. <www.oecd.org/dataoecd/47/61/35070367.pdf> Ouane, A. 2003. Defining and selecting key competencies in lifelong learning. In: Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H.; McLaughlin, M.E., eds. Contributions to the second DeSeCo Symposium. Neuchˆatel, Switzerland: Swiss Federal Statistical Office. Perrenoud, P. 2001. The key to social fields: competencies of an autonomous actor. In: Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H., eds. Defining and selecting key competencies, pp. 121–49. G¨ottingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber. Ridgeway, C. 2001. Joining and functioning in groups, self-concept and emotion management. In: Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H., eds. Defining and selecting key competencies, pp. 205–11. G¨ottingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber. Rychen, D.S. 2003. Key competencies: meeting important challenges in life. In: Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H., eds. Key competencies for a successful life and a well-functioning society, pp. 63–107. G¨ottingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber. Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H., eds. 2001. Defining and selecting key competencies. G¨ottingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber. Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H., eds. 2003a. Key competencies for a successful life and a wellfunctioning society. G¨ottingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber. Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H. 2003b. A holistic model of competence. In: Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H., eds. Key competencies for a successful life and a well-functioning society, pp. 41–62. G¨ottingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber. Salganik, L.H. 2001. Competencies for life: a conceptual and empirical challenge. In: Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H., eds. Defining and selecting key competencies, pp. 17–32. G¨ottingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber. Salganik, L.H. et al. 1999. Projects on competencies in the OECD context: analysis of theoretical and conceptual foundations. Neuchˆatel, Switzerland: SFSO, OECD, ESSI. Salganik, L.H.; Stephens, M. 2003. Competence priorities in policy and practice. In: Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H., eds. Key competencies for a successful life and a well-functioning society, pp. 13–40. G¨ottingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber. Trier, U.P. 2003. Twelve countries contributing to DeSeCo: a summary report. In: Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H.; McLaughlin, M.E., eds. Contributions to the second DeSeCo symposium. Neuchˆatel, Switzerland: Swiss Federal Statistical Office. Weinert, F.E. 2001. Concept of competence: a conceptual clarification. In: Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H., eds. Defining and selecting key competencies, pp. 45–65. G¨ottingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber.
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Chapter XV.5
Education and Training in the Context of Poverty Reduction Bernd Overwien
1 Introduction Work in the field of international development is increasingly geared towards reducing poverty, one of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations dating from the year 2000. In existence since 1999, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) initiative is integrated into this framework. The governments of the poorer developing countries are required to draft PRSPs. This is to be done in consultation with civil society. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank play an advisory role in this context. The papers are to present a coherent national analysis of poverty that takes macro-economic issues into account (K¨ublb¨ock, 2001). Poverty reduction is thus one of the main objectives of all IMF and World Bank programmes. The World Bank and all other influential international players have incorporated the Education for All campaign into the PRSP initiative. This plan is thus part of poverty reduction strategies. The inclusion of the goals of the Dakar Conference (2000) in the poverty reduction strategies of international organizations opens up new prospects that reach beyond education alone. It is becoming increasingly clear that, while isolated solutions for promoting education may make sense as pilot projects, co-operation as a whole must be placed in an overall framework (Bergmann, 2002). This is true today more than ever before. As part of a refocusing of its sectoral support, the European Commission has taken the important step of placing increased emphasis on the connection between basic education and vocational training. Education and training are given a key role in the fight against poverty (European Commission, 2002a). Emphasis is placed on education for girls and education in rural areas, since the situation there is particularly critical. Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) must offer young people occupational alternatives in the formal and informal sectors (European Commission, 2002b). The 2015 Action Programme of the German Government (Germany. Federal Ministry of Economic Co-operation and Development—FMECD, 2001) also features a coherent approach to reducing poverty. Poverty reduction has now become the overriding aim of German development co-operation efforts. Activities for
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promoting education and training are now taking place in this framework. According to the programme, educational deficits reduce development opportunities. Practical and job-oriented training systems (particularly for young people), entrepreneurial skill training and loan programmes (particularly for women) help the poor become more productive and are prerequisites for economic development (Germany. FMECD, 2001, pp. 1–3). At a PRSP conference, the German Minister for Economic Co-operation and Development emphasized the importance of including educational measures in the PRSP process. On a bilateral level, the funds available for improving basic education in the partner countries of German development co-operation are therefore going to be doubled between 2003 and 2008. Strategies for reducing poverty in the partner countries form the framework of co-operation (Wieczorek-Zeul, 2002). In Ethiopia, for example, education and training are viewed as part of the PRSP process. In the field of general education, the strategy for reducing poverty features several elements. These include the development of a functioning education system that provides basic education for everyone, the use of education for developing democracy and the qualification of national workforces. Vocational training also plays a pivotal role (GTZ, 2001). It has been evident for some time that, although it is an essential factor in poverty reduction, education alone cannot sufficiently improve the situation of the poor. Developing efficient economic structures, increasing employment, and solving other poverty-related problems, such as health issues, are tasks that must be dealt with at the same time. As for education, it is important that efforts in primary school education do not outweigh all other endeavours. Education as a whole must provide flexible and creative solutions for children, adolescents and adults in various situations and with respect to their environment (cf. Herfkens, 2001, p. 264). Although school enrolment rates have increased considerably in some developing countries in recent years, quality (teacher training and advanced training, teaching and learning materials, infrastructure, etc.) is on the whole still relatively poor. In many cases, even the relevance of curricula for the intended target groups leaves much to be desired. The large number of children who drop out of school or repeat a year not only indicates that schools are working inefficiently, but also means that a large number of people are experiencing failure. This experience will often have a long-term adverse effect on educational expectations. The comparatively low number of successful school-leavers leads to inadequate numbers of sufficiently qualified newcomers in vocational training and higher education, a trend that has direct negative consequences on the economy. Even the more successful schoolchildren and students often do not receive lessons that are relevant to everyday life, survival and the economy. It is therefore necessary to increase the relevance of course contents and methods. In many cases, however, this is not enough. One educational challenge encountered, particularly in some areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, is the multitude of languages in some countries and regions; this makes it difficult to provide adequate
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lessons in the mother-tongue. Multilingualism in the classroom should nevertheless be encouraged wherever possible, since not all schoolchildren and students master the lingua franca of their respective countries (Niedrig, 2000). These schoolchildren in particular often come from the poorest parts of society and are therefore at an educational disadvantage from the outset. There have been positive experiences in this respect, both in Sub-Saharan Africa and in some South American countries. Such approaches considerably improve the life prospects of those who face exclusion because of their language; these approaches have poverty-reducing effects on various levels. In the field of education, particular attention must still be given to encouraging girls and women to attend school. Many decide against school as a result of direct and indirect school expenses, as well as obligations at home or in small businesses. As far as possible, education must be adapted to both local cultures and conditions so that girls may participate. Sometimes, factors such as insufficient infrastructure (even a lack of toilets for girls) can contribute to a low school enrolment rate. For working children and adolescents, it is necessary to find educational concepts that are commensurate with their situation, as were called for in Dakar in 2000. In view of the problems facing working children and their families all over the world, Myers suggests interlinking work and education in various ways (Myers, 2001). Possible approaches can be found in a number of concepts and reports (Recknagel, 1999). It is also necessary to continue developing adapted educational measures in post-conflict countries and regions (Lange, 2003, pp. 22 ff). In many countries, training and education systems require support on several levels. Appropriate projects and programmes adapted to regional and local conditions are needed in the fields of governmental consulting, regional school structure support, and non-formal education and training structures. In these new projects and programmes, there is a welcome trend towards sector-wide approaches.
2 Education and Economic Development The concept of human capital has played an important, albeit controversial, role in international development policy for a long time. In English-language discussions, this expression has been used in a narrow sense as an economic factor. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), however, now talks of ‘wider human capital’. This concept is intended to close the gap between a largely economic view of education and the social and individual benefit derived from it. Economic factors are nevertheless still in the foreground. Wider human capital: is defined as the capacity to develop, manage and deploy one’s own competencies, for example by investing in further learning, by finding a job that suits one’s talents and by developing facets of one’s character that enhance one’s effectiveness at work (OECD/CERI, 2002, p. 119).
What is new about this definition is the realization that these aims cannot be achieved without taking a wider perspective on education. More than ever before,
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education and training are regarded in terms of their ‘wider social, personal and cultural benefits’ (OECD/CERI, 2002, p. 119). Discussions of this new term have also integrated the professional and social skills that the OECD nations have defined for themselves. In particular, these skills are learning skills (lifelong learning) and the ability to define and pursue one’s own goals. These skills are connected to the concept of wider human capital. With reference to the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study, the OECD carefully concludes that schools must take this approach as a basis on which to operate (OECD/CERI, 2002, pp. 124 ff.). Some recent studies have confirmed that, on the whole, school education has a positive effect on productivity. This can be attributed to income advantages resulting from additional school education. Previously acquired skills are an important factor in this context (OECD/CERI, 2002, p. 126). Significant factors in connection with education and income are gender, and social and linguistic background (ibid., p. 120). Further studies claim that the most important tasks of parents are to prepare their children for the future and to motivate them to learn. Social integration plays a key role when it comes to planning careers. Acquisition of human capital is closely linked to existing social capital, i.e. integration into informal networks (ibid., p. 127). There also appears to be a connection between the vocational components of general education, improved career planning and appropriate career guidance. Career guidance should be based on job-related projects and experience. It can be given in community settings or educational facilities (ibid.). On the whole, these debates now focus less than before on economic factors alone. Particularly in rural regions, where mixed forms of market-based and subsistencebased economic systems prevail, a narrow approach does not correspond to local conditions. Investment in basic education is an important step towards poverty reduction. Education creates better earnings for individuals and communities, improves productivity and encourages employment (Herfkens, 2001, p. 255). However, it is not possible to achieve these effects through education alone; we must always question the quality and structure of education before it can contribute to empowerment, community development and, in turn, poverty reduction. At the same time, it is necessary to clarify the minimum requirements for educational measures. For some time now, economic studies on Sub-Saharan Africa have confirmed that education is an important factor for economic development and thus for poverty reduction as well. In contrast to former theories of a trickle-down effect, researchers nowadays assume that education has a more direct effect on the economy. Research findings are available, although the task of evaluating factors directly relevant to the market is not easy and often only possible on a long-term basis—education is only one of several factors in this context. One area where too little research has been carried out, however, is the role of those effects of education that are not directly related to the market; these must also be taken into account (Appiah & McMahon, 2002, p. 30). After all, human capital is not only used in wage relationships but also in the household, in home-based production and in civil society (ibid.).
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Various studies have shown a strong correlation between participation in basic education and individual life expectancy. Researchers assume that this is primarily due to an improved awareness of nutrition. There are also clear indications of a direct connection between the education of mothers, infant mortality and decreasing birth rates (Appiah & McMahon, 2002, p. 37). It has also been shown that education reduces poverty and inequality (ibid., p. 39). Appiah and McMahon believe that basic and formal education on the whole contribute more to economic development than had previously been assumed (ibid., p. 57). They summarize their findings by saying that policy-makers must pay particular attention to the quality of school education and to the lack of good teachers (ibid., p. 59). There are clear indications that insufficient vocational skills hinder economic development if there are no adequately qualified workers available for growing and increasingly complex production activities. Thailand, for example, is reported to have fallen into a crisis following its economic boom mainly because it was no longer a low-wage country, in which comparatively cheap production is possible through imported know-how and copied production methods. Qualified workers, however, were unavailable for more technological production methods. As a consequence, the Thai government has worked together with international partners, such as the Asian Development Bank, to develop programmes aimed at improving vocational training and enhancing the quality of education. These measures are also considered to be a step towards poverty reduction (Hagemann, 2002). Various country-specific studies have been carried out that shed more light on the connection between education and economy. One Indian study used internationally accepted indices for gauging poverty to evaluate data from fourteen Indian states. The question it posed was how effective is expenditure on education for reducing poverty. The study concluded that education in India does indeed help reduce poverty. It argues, however, that earnings are more directly affected by adult, technical, vocational and university education (Jha, Biswal & Biswal, 2001, p. 19). It is somewhat surprising that basic education is not mentioned at all in this context. Nevertheless, this level of education is significant, since formal and informal basic education serve as a foundation for each of the other educational levels. A more recent study deals with the Ugandan Poverty Eradication Action Plan, a campaign that started even before the global discussion on the Millennium Development Goals began. In this study, qualitative and quantitative methods are used to determine whether universal primary education can be achieved by 2003. It regards as achievable the goal of universal enrolment. In general, it argues that the primary school has had a number of positive effects on development. These include an increase in productivity in the formal and informal sectors of the economy, a positive effect on innovation in agriculture, a decrease in birth rates and an improvement in health and nutrition (McGee, 2000, p. 103). Despite the positive connection between education and economic development, however, the issue of school quality remains. Most of the critical questions resulting from this study point to precisely this issue. According to the study, a high enrolment rate says little about the quality of the school. The research results revealed that there is increasing disillusionment about the quality of schools. The drop-out rates peak
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after a few years of school, precisely when basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills have been acquired (McGee, 2000, p. 91). Drop-out rates amongst Ugandan girls are particularly high, which is why support for girls is an important objective of the poverty eradication plan (ibid.). The consequences of the HIV/AIDS epidemic are also having an immediate effect on schools. A total of 12% of the country’s children are orphans, most of whom have no access to adequate schooling (ibid., p. 102). At the same time, the epidemic is reducing the pool of potential teachers. On the whole, the teachers are poorly trained and badly motivated (ibid., p. 101). The study seriously questions the relevance of the curricula for students’ lives. It claims that education fails to take the informal business sector and rural living conditions into sufficient account. It argues that educational policy must focus on these areas (ibid.). A study carried out in Indonesia highlights the decisions made by poor families with regard to school attendance. Primary-school attendance rates have increased considerably in Indonesia during the last decade. In rural Java, for example, poorer families are no longer able to send their children to lower secondary school, however, on account of school fees,1 the direct and indirect costs incurred as a result of the long distances to school, and the loss of earnings from agricultural work carried out by 12- and 13-year-olds for their families (Mason & Rozelle, 1998, p. 19).
3 The Perspective of International Organizations One UNESCO paper emphasizes that education is not a universal remedy for poverty. Other factors, such as political participation, access to land, health services and infrastructure, must also be taken into account (UNESCO, 1999, p. 6). In this context, poverty is a term that implies more than just a lack of money. It also encompasses social and cognitive dimensions of social discrimination. In this context, poverty must be viewed quite differently from country to country. It takes different forms in cities and in rural areas. In most cases, poor people are illiterate, and their lives are characterized by little or no income, inadequate living conditions, insufficient health care and poor nutrition. The positive values and experiences of poor people do not tally with those that prevail in the education system. Poor people develop survival strategies and are often the ones who preserve many traditional skills and cultural practices. Disrespect for this background results in learning impediments that must not be underestimated. Educational issues cannot be dealt with in isolation. The children of poor families suffer from physical problems resulting from a lack of nutrition and health care. They often face problems concerning language development and the establishment of social relationships. Education must be particularly sensitive to the situation of the poor. Two-thirds of the poor are women, who have fewer opportunities than men to find ways of escaping poverty and to assume more responsibility for the next generation. Their literacy rate is lower, and they often face cultural barriers to the labour market (UNESCO, 1999, pp. 7 ff.). The official curriculum often contradicts the situation of the poor.
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UNESCO believes that it is necessary to tackle problems such as housing, health, communication and local political processes. Local skills and know-how must be appreciated, and productivity and fairness in the workplace must be achieved (UNESCO, 1999, p. 9). In specific terms, education should be less centrally planned and more flexible, improve the health of the poor, instil a sense of community and appreciate the existing potential of children (ibid., pp. 11 ff.). In the work they do at home, children from rural areas in particular have already begun learning before reaching school age. Connecting this learning with school learning will improve their prospects of success at school (ibid., p. 13). At the same time, we must ask why far fewer girls than boys attend school. A study carried out for the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (Sida) examined this issue in more detail. According to this study—against the backdrop of cultural factors and role expectations—the direct costs of school attendance (school fees, materials, clothing, transport) are just as significant as opportunity costs. Owing to a gender-based division of labour, girls take the place of their mothers when it comes to housework or caring for younger siblings when mothers work outside the house. If girls do not replace their mothers in such cases, work outside the house is impossible, resulting in a loss of income (Oxaal, 1997, p. 12). To compensate for such disadvantages, this study proposes lowering opportunity costs by offering childcare for younger siblings of students, by improving the working conditions of mothers, and by offering flexible non-formal basic education (ibid., pp. 16 ff.). Such measures are often absolutely necessary but difficult to finance. Studies on demography and health care have shown that people from poorer segments of the population only do better at school if the school attendance rate in general increases. It is firstly the non-poor and then the poor that benefit from a general increase in school attendance rates. Based on the number of children reaching grade five, it becomes apparent that the poor only benefit if school education is universally available (UNICEF, 2000, p. 47). The World Bank notes an increase in access to school education but states that many people—particularly girls and women, indigenous groups, the handicapped and rural populations—are still excluded from all levels of education. School enrolment rates alone do not say much about the quality of learning (World Bank, 1999, pp. 11 ff.). The World Bank calls for improved education that can provide the skills needed to operate successfully in a complex democratic society (ibid., p. 7). Many factors, however, stand in the way. A few of the problems confronting education are that two-thirds of the world’s population are living on less than three dollars a day, and that their schools may have classes with over 100 students, no books or the wrong books, poorly trained teachers and language barriers. At the same time, many parents find themselves confronted with high opportunity costs for sending their children to school. The World Bank sees this as a cause of child labour (ibid., p. 3). This organization is now beginning to realize that primary school education must be accessible without school fees (Herfkens, 2001, p. 258). The number of children from poor backgrounds who never attend school is reported to be approximately 145 million—60% of them girls (UNESCO, 1998). Hundreds of millions
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more children only attend school for a few years, and even many who complete primary school remain illiterate or become illiterate again. The situation has worsened most in countries and regions emerging from armed conflicts. In the social vacuum that follows, the above-mentioned problems are far more extreme (World Bank, 1999, pp. 3). On behalf of the World Bank, the International Institute for Educational Planning examined technical education and training in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on French-speaking countries (Atchoarena & Delluc, 2001). With regard to the role of vocational training in combating poverty, this study makes many important points. The relationship between vocational schools and businesses is regarded as rather reserved. But many points of contact can be found at the local level. The study is in favour of encouraging training approaches that incorporate everyday work experience. At the same time, school-leavers must be provided with good advice about the labour market, and training activities must incorporate the transition phase from training to employment. According to the study, teachers in training centres can be trained to collect market data and to make this data available in order to improve the quality of training. The study also emphasizes that training should focus on the informal sector and should take into account traditional apprenticeships, particularly in artisans’ micro-enterprises. This practice constitutes a form of training that is particularly adapted to the social and economic conditions of the countries of the region. The study also emphasizes that the use of Swiss and German dual-training methods is particularly suitable (ibid., p. 11). It states that, on the whole, vocational training—initial training, shorter training measures and continuing education—should be more flexible. Traditional apprenticeships could be incorporated into such a system. Public/private working groups could develop new forms of market-relevant training (ibid., p. 12). The organizations of market participants should also be included in strategies (ibid., p. 14). The study emphasizes that English-speaking African countries, as well as some of the Portuguese-speaking nations, are further ahead of French-speaking Africa, particularly when it comes to integrating the informal sector, promoting entrepreneurship and encouraging selfemployment. In these countries, vocational training already incorporates forms of dual training or a modernized traditional apprenticeship (ibid., pp. 15 ff.). In 1999, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) identified poverty reduction as its primary objective. It recognized a clear connection between education and poverty reduction. The underlying vision for the Asia-Pacific Region is defined in a new policy paper as follows: ‘The priorities for the education sector are reducing poverty; enhancing the status of women; and providing knowledge, attitudes and skills essential for pro-poor, sustainable economic growth’ (ADB, 2002, p. ix). Particular attention must be given to: (a) increasing equity and access; (b) improving the quality of education; (c) strengthening management; (d) mobilizing resources; (e) strengthening partnerships; and (f) access to new technologies. These must be addressed in each educational sub-sector. At the level of secondary education, the relationship between academic and vocational streams is discussed. Higher education must be organized more effectively and more flexibly; the ADB aims to enhance the role of the private sector.
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It pays particular attention to vocational training and considers the satisfaction of labour-market demand to be of the utmost importance. The ADB believes that education and economic development strategies should be closely related. It also gives attention to the development of entrepreneurial and income-generating skills for the poor. The ADB supports training both on the preparatory level and the advanced training level. In this respect, it believes that the private sector should be included in the development of appropriate political strategies (ADB, 2002, p. 26). The African Development Bank and the African Development Fund (ADB/ADF), as well as the Inter-American Development Bank, have also presented education policy papers that view education as a means of reducing poverty. The fundamental approach to poverty reduction that is presented in the ADB paper is shared by the other banks as well. With regard to the aim of reducing poverty, the ADB/ADF (1999) emphasizes the increasing need for a holistic approach. It also highlights the urgent need for improving the quality of education (ADB, 2002, p. 14). Emphasis is also given to support for vocational training (ibid., p. 23). In its communications to the European Council and the European Parliament, the European Commission has gone farther than other policy papers in viewing basic education and vocational training together.2 The stance it takes is by no means uncritical. It remarks that attempts to provide general education and vocational training at the same time and only in secondary schools have failed. It argues that this attempt has lowered the level of education, which in turn has prevented recognition from employers. The European Commission writes that alternative strategies need to be found, but there must be a direct connection to the labour market. Without an active labour-market policy, it says, it is impossible to create a link between education and the labour market (European Commission, 2002b). The definitions formulated by the Commission are influenced by international debates. There are, however, critics who view the new wider approach of development co-operation as little more than an exercise in rhetoric. A study on education and poverty reduction in Lao PDR ends with the rather pessimistic observation that the international knowledge base for implementing a more complex, multi-layered model for reducing poverty is still extremely weak and is practically non-existent in a country such as this (Adams, Hwa & Lin, 2001, p. 69). The aim of these critical statements is to encourage players to take a sensitive approach to existing structures. Even more importantly, it is necessary to involve the target group in the processes as soon as possible and on all levels.
4 Summary It is thus evident today that the acquisition of skills and the effective reduction of poverty are viewed together more than ever before. The papers presented here make this just as clear as the position papers issued recently by the German Government on the subject of basic education and vocational training. More and more attention is being devoted to the connection between this issue and the international aims of
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poverty reduction. In many cases, however, there is still a need to develop appropriate practical concepts or to relate existing concepts to each other differently on the basis of the new perspective.
Notes 1. Mason & Rozelle (1998, p. 4) point out that school fees were abolished soon after they had carried out their survey. 2. This perspective also includes higher education.
References Adams, D.; Hwa Kee, Geok; Lin, Lin. 2001. Education and poverty reduction in the periphery: can the new development assistance model achieve its goals in Lao People’s Democratic Republic? Asia Pacific education review, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 61–71. African Development Bank/African Development Fund—ADB/ADF. 1999. Education sector policy paper. Tunis: ADB/ADF. Appiah, E.N.; McMahon, W.W. 2002. The social outcomes of education and feedbacks on growth in Africa. The journal of development studies, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 27–68. Asian Development Bank—ADB. 2002. Policy on education. Manila: ADB. Atchoarena, D.; Delluc, A.M. 2001. Revisiting technical and vocational education in Sub-Saharan Africa: an update on trends, innovations and challenges. Final report. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP for The World Bank Bergmann, H. 2002. Was funktioniert und was nicht. Erfolgreiche Ans¨atze in der F¨orderung der Grundbildung. Entwicklung und Zusammenarbeit, no. 8/9, pp. 240–43. European Commission. 2002a. Education and training in the context of poverty reduction. Brussels: Sectoral Development Policies. European Commission. 2002b. Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on education and training in the context of poverty reduction in developing countries. Brussels. (52002DC0116). Deutsche Gesellschaft f¨ur Technische Zusammenarbeit—GTZ. 2001. PRSP Ethiopia: environment and education. Eschborn, Germany: GTZ. <www.gtz.de/wbf-umwelt/download/prsp-ethiopiaenvironment-and-education.doc> Germany. Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. 2001. Armutsbek¨ampfung: eine globale Aufgabe. 2015 campaign program. Bonn, Germany: FMECD. Hagemann, J. 2002. Kooperative Personalentwicklung in Thailand. In: Deutsche Stiftung f¨ur internationale Entwicklung—DSE. Internationale Personalentwicklung in der beruflichen Bildung, pp. 190–211. Mannheim, Germany: DSE/ZGB. Herfkens, E.L. 2001. Accelerating action towards education for all: reducing poverty through basic education. Prospects, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 255–64. Jha, R.; Biswal, B.; Biswal, U.D. 2001. An empirical analysis of the impact of public expenditures on education and health on poverty in Indian States. Canberra: Australian National University, ASARC, RSPAS. (Technical Report Working Paper no. 2001/05.) K¨ublb¨ock, K. 2001. PR: Public Relation oder Poverty Reduction? Die Armutsbek¨ampfungsstrate¨ gien (PRSP) von W¨ahrungsfonds und Weltbank. In: Osterreichische Forschungsstiftung f¨ur ¨ Internationale Entwicklung, ed. Osterreichische Entwicklungspolitik: Berichte, Analysen. Informationen. Themenschwerpunkt PRSP – Neue Ans¨atze zur Armutsbek¨ampfung, pp. 6–11. ¨ Vienna: OFSE. <www.oefse.at/download/OEB2000.pdf>
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Lange, R. 2003. Promoting livelihood and employment in post-conflict situations: approaches and lessons learned. Stuttgart, Germany: FAKT. Mason, A.D.; Rozelle, S.D. 1998. Schooling decisions, basic education, and the poor in rural Java. Washington, DC: World Bank. <www.agecon.ucdavis.edu/facultypages/rozelle/pdfs/ ARTICLE4.pdf> McGee, R. 2000. Meeting the international poverty targets in Uganda: halving poverty and achieving Universal Primary Education. Development policy review, vol. 18, pp. 85–106. Myers, W.E. 2001. Can children’s education and work be reconciled? International journal of educational policy, research and practice, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 307–30. Niedrig, H. 2000. Sprache–Macht–Kultur: multilinguale Erziehung im Post-Apartheid-S¨udafrika. M¨unster, Germany: Waxmann. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; Center for Research and Innovation in Education. 2002. Education policy analysis 2002. Paris: OECD. Oxaal, Z. 1997. Education and poverty: a gender analysis. Brighton, UK: University of Sussex. (Report prepared for the Gender Equality Unit, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.). <www.ids.ac.uk/bridge/reports/r53eduw2.doc> Recknagel, A. 1999. ‘Schule bringt mir nichts, da arbeite ich doch lieber.’ Zur Fragw¨urdigkeit der Formel ‘Schule statt Arbeit’ und Projektalternativen, die Bildung und Arbeit verkn¨upfen. In: Liebel, M.; Overwien, B.; Recknagel, A., eds. Was Kinder k¨onn(t)en, pp. 133–48. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: IKO. United Nations Children’s Fund. 2000. Poverty reduction begins with children. New York, NY: UNICEF. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 1998. World education report. Paris: UNESCO. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 1999. Education and poverty eradication: cooperation for action. Paris: UNESCO. Wieczorek-Zeul, H. 2002. Der Beitrag der deutschen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit zur F¨orderung nachhaltiger Armutsbek¨ampfung. (Speech on the occasion of the PRSP Conference of the German Association for Technical Cooperation, Berlin, 13 May 2002.) <www.bmz.de/presse/reden/rede20020513.html> World Bank. 1999. Human Development Network: Education Sector Strategy. Washington, DC: World Bank.
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Chapter XV.6
Recognition, Validation and Accreditation of Non-Formal and Informal Learning and Experience: Results of an International Study Madhu Singh
1 Introduction The present discussion on recognition, validation and accreditation of informal and non-formal learning is based on the results of an international study carried out by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (Singh, 2005). The study is very much embedded within the framework of the United Nations Decade on Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) (see UNESCO, 2004). Central to the notion of education for sustainable development (ESD) is the view that a transition to a socially, economically and ecologically sustainable society is possible only by promoting education from the perspective of lifelong learning, engaging all spaces of learning—formal, non-formal and informal, from early childhood to adult life—and in which everyone is a stakeholder, be it the government, civil society, the private sector or the media. Equally important is the view that education for sustainable development is about respect for difference and diversity. Education enables us to understand ourselves and others and our links with the wider national and social environment, and this understanding serves as a durable basis for building respect. Another important aspect of education’s contribution to sustainable development is the notion of recognizing prior learning experience. By making visible kinds of knowledge that are being kept outside the curriculum or standards development processes, recognition of prior learning creates, constructs and reconstructs knowledge that has meaning and relevance for our lives, our societies and our economies; such a concept of education goes beyond education as being supply-driven, in which individuals are seen as mere receivers of that education. Instead, recognizing prior learning experience is expected to generate a demand for learning by creating motivated individuals who have an interest in continuing to learn. In 2004, the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) began a major policy research project on ‘Recognition, Validation and Accreditation (RVA) of Non-Formal and Informal Learning and Experience’. On the basis of Resolution 32 C/14 adopted by the thirty-second session of UNESCO’s General Conference, the goal of this project was to develop a framework of reference for Member States to create, shape and improve their adult learning systems from the perspective of lifelong learning, drawing on existing good examples with regard to recognition, R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XV.6, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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validation and accreditation mechanisms of prior learning and experience in selected countries. Similar projects to this one have been carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2004), the European Commission (Colardyn & Bjørnav˚ald, 2005) and by the International Labour Organization in developing countries (ILO, 2002, 2004). In contrast, an important exercise of this UIL synthesis is to clarify trends and developments internationally in developing, transition and developed countries. Based on this approach, the first phase has been a purely exploratory one, i.e. finding out with the help of a simple questionnaire sent out to Member States what exists in these countries in the field of recognition, validation and certification of prior learning and experience. The overall purpose of UIL’s project is to promote a society offering lifelong learning for all, by building bridges between formal, non-formal and informal learning. The Commission of the European Communities’ document on ‘Communication on Lifelong Learning’ (2001) defines the core concepts as follows:
r r r
Formal learning is typically provided by an education or training institute; it is structured and leads to certification. Formal learning is intentional from the learner’s perspective. Non-formal learning is not provided by an education or training institution and typically does not lead to certification. However, it is structured. Non-formal learning is intentional from the learner’s point of view. Informal learning results from daily life activities related to work, family or leisure. It is not structured. Typically, it does not lead to certification. Informal learning may be intentional but, in most cases, it is non-intentional (or ‘incidental’/random).
A variety of terms are used in the field of informal learning. Nationally agreed definitions are emerging. Terms such as ‘recognition of experiential learning’ (Merle, 2005), ‘recognition of prior learning’ (RPL) and sometimes, ‘recognition of informal learning’ (Eraut, 2004; Livingstone, 2005) are used interchangeably to emphasize the importance of validation, defined as the process of identifying, assessing and recognizing a wider range of skills and competencies that people develop through their lives in different contexts (Colardyn & Bjørnav˚ald, 2005). Most reasons put forward for recognizing non-formal and informal learning and experience refer to economic indicators, the essential arguments being globalization of markets, knowledge economies and responding to the new labour demands. Other reasons at the macro-level pertain to the social realm and are embodied, for example, in the attainment of the goals of Education for All (EFA), aiming towards educational reforms in general and serving social equity purposes. Overall, however, less importance is given to the role of formal recognition of prior learning and experience from the point view of the individual or at the subject
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level. But, learners’ preferences and interests should be given more weight. After all, formal recognition could be decisive for one’s self-esteem. It may sound trivial to say that recognition is important for social esteem and that it boosts self-confidence, but there are much deeper impulses here. Validation processes should be useful and relevant from the perspective of the learner at every level of the education and training sub-sector. Therefore, what is argued below is that institutional, structural and systemic, as well as individual perspectives on recognition, need to be united so as to open the way to a more holistic and integral approach that would result in: (a) creating greater self-awareness; (b) understanding what counts and is valued as learning in our vision of the world; (c) making sense of the world by acting consciously; and (d) promoting ‘cognitive justice’.
1.1 Globalization Globalization and new technological developments have brought with them not only opportunities, but also challenges and uncertainties. In the event of unsettling identities and insecurities, recognition can boost knowledge of ourselves—what we are and what we intend to be. Greater self-awareness through recognition does not mean merely differentiating the self from the other, but means becoming self-knowing and self-caring in and through solidarity with humanity and through direct engagement and action in the world (Gibbs & Angelides, 2004, p. 336). Recognition can create awareness of one’s potential; it can make one aware of what one has learned through reflecting one’s life histories and helping to construct one’s own life project. This way of viewing personal realization as a collaborative endeavour requiring the ‘recognition’ of others and inter-subjective consensus means that, instead of dichotomizing agency and structure, or the individual and the social, it promotes an integral view that self-knowledge and learning takes place through acting consciously and by participating in shaping the world and society. And only by building on participation is it possible to promote motivation.
1.2 The Place of Learning Another important question that needs to be addressed with regard to recognition is to ask what place does learning occupy in our vision of the world? Individual knowledge is based on certain assumptions about social reality and learning is important for the kind of assumptions we have of this reality. Thus, learning is not only about how much knowledge and information we require and how we can use it to our advantage, but more importantly it is about what assumptions we have about the world. In the end, it is our reality that is at stake.
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1.3 Knowing On an epistemological plane, recognition would promote the view that all knowledge is, in its lived, existential sense, subjective and inter-subjective. In other words it exists in the lived experience of individual human beings. If we know something, it means that we have made meaning out of an event. All past knowledge is reflected upon in the present. Recognition can thus help in making tacit or embodied knowledge of an expert explicit. It can enable him/her to reflect on the principles and rules involved while acting and making judgements in the context of his/her work.
1.4 Prior Knowledge Recognition of prior learning and experience requires an inter-subjective consensus. Since self-awareness and learning come from solidarity with humanity and perceiving how others make sense of the world, this approach would promote ‘cognitive justice’ by recognizing the existence of various forms of knowledge. The term ‘cognitive justice’ emerges from the thinking of philosophers like Gandhi who tried to develop egalitarian, democracy-minded and yet culturally determined models of mass education. According to Gandhi, a culture of mind, which includes education, is subservient to the culture of the heart, understood by Gandhi as moral and ethical behaviour, deeply rooted in traditional knowledge and culture. Basically, it means being sensitive to the fate of different knowledges and their link to livelihood, lifestyles and forms of life. Vishwanath (2001, pp. 65–66) defines this sensitivity as ‘cognitive justice’ and the right of many forms of traditional ‘knowledges’ to exist, rather than only the knowledge of the elite or ‘philosopher kings’. He says: ‘All knowledge needs to be seen as partial and complementary and as containing incommensurable insights’ (ibid., p. 66). Recognition would mean understanding these different ideas of living and knowledge—even different notions of the future. In the field of science, Vishwanath says that it is the people’s movements and the grassroots movements rather than academe that have contributed to the philosophy of science discourse in India. Andersson highlights two different aims with validation and recognition of prior learning. The social justice purpose aims at providing equal chances for accessing further education, especially for the deprived populations. Andersson, Fejes and Ahn (2004) raise the question of whether the purpose of validation is to boost the global market by human capital—or for reducing inequities in society by offering validation of competencies to the marginalized. If we review the different models of recognition of prior learning (RPL) practices proposed by Harris (1999) that can be used as a mechanism to enhance social equity and social inclusion in the South African higher education context, only one comes close to our thinking of ‘cognitive justice’. Harris highlights four models: 1. ‘Procrustean RPL practices recognize only those aspects of individuals’ prior learning which “fit” or match prescribed outcomes or standards’ (Harris, 1999,
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p. 127). This model is useful for learners who have gained competencies within systems closely related to the formal system. Certification of knowledge is the main goal. 2. The second model is establishing new ways for learners to adapt to the formal system, i.e. when candidates rewrite their stories of learning to fit into academic learning. This model tends to privilege those who are already advantaged. 3. Harris’ radical validation model focuses on the value of individual experience. Experience, learning and knowledge are closely related in the radical tradition. Learning and knowledge, born out of the struggle to examine experience from new perspectives, are recognized, rather than learning gained within dominant societal structures and institutions (Harris, 1999, p. 133). What is counted as knowledge is related to the moment, the participants and the context. The focus is on changing the social structures. This method is criticized given the fact that even a radical movement can become streamlined. 4. The fourth model recognizes prior learning in and of itself rather than solely in terms of its degree of fit with existing standards or curricula or with cognitive capacities deemed to be required to succeed in traditional academia. This perspective is important for challenging and broadening the existing field of recognized knowledge. It promotes the necessary bridges between traditional academia and the social construction of knowledge, as well as enhancing ‘cognitive justice’ by applying it to all groups, but especially to the disadvantaged, who need to be helped to improve their cognitive skills and reflect on their experience.
2 Discussion of the Findings of the UIL Study This chapter is based on results of the exploratory study documented in the form of a draft synthesis (Singh, 2005) in which the responses from about thirty-six countries have been analysed in terms of: (a) the national policies and legal framework and their implementation; (b) the co-financing and co-ordination modalities; (c) examples of programmes and activities; (d) evaluation procedures and methods; (e) the kinds of competencies acknowledged; and (f) the benefits of RVA. A discussion of the findings will attempt to address the following questions: 1. Why do we need to recognize prior non-formal and informal learning and experience? 2. How do we recognize, validate and certify? 3. What limitations are there on the way to recognize learning and experience? 4. What needs to be done?
2.1 Why Do We Need to Recognize Prior Learning and Experience? We began by considering the rationale provided by the participating countries for recognizing, validating and certifying non-formal and informal learning and experience.
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From the international UIL study, five objectives of recognition of informal and non-formal learning and experience stand out. The following elements can be found in various combinations in each country: 1. Recognition and certification of prior informal and non-formal learning and experience enable the learner’s entrance into formal systems of further education or training; it is a motivating factor for individuals to continue to learn. 2. They improve the learner’s eligibility in the labour market. By creating awareness in society about the value of non-formal and informal learning, several countries have been able to make immigrants more attractive to the labour market. In the same way, improving the employability of redundant workers, the unemployed and those with no official recognition for their trades is an important benefit resulting from recognition. Recognition also addresses the issue of skills shortages on the labour market. 3. For enterprises, recognition and certification of prior learning may be of importance because they increase their potential for effective human resource management; companies are better able to organize self-organized training by getting support from continuing education institutions. 4. For a society as a whole, identification, assessment and recognition of learners’ acquired competencies may simplify the transfer of skills between different spheres, such as education, work and home, and therefore improve the allocation of a society’s resources. An outstanding project is the lifelong learning passport in Germany, which is an instrument for documenting the learner’s competencies of all kinds. These competencies are made visible for the learners themselves, as well as for future employers, thus stimulating the public learning process on the way towards an expanding culture of recognition (Preisser, 2005). 5. The recognition of non-formal and informal learning is considered to be beneficial in reducing inequalities in accessing formal education and training and employment opportunities.
2.1.1 Differences between Developed and Developing Countries Within the frameworks of developing countries, policy implications aim both at basic and primary education and at accelerating access with particular reference to equity and female enrolment. Enhancing basic literacy skills and non-formal education are still given top priority. In contrast, the apparent trends in developed countries are more global in nature. They emphasize a broad approach to learning that stems from changes towards a more globalized world, the reaffirmation of education and its validation as a basic right, and the promotion of a society for lifelong learning with many routes to learning opportunities after initial education. However, an important philosophy behind the UIL study is that, even for developing countries, basic education and literacy are not sufficient. The poor should benefit from essential living conditions and free time for learning and this should include learning beyond basic learning (McKay et al., 2006). At the same time,
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neither should it be regarded as sufficient to propagate lifelong learning only for market-related skills in the knowledge economy. Lifelong learning is not only for the West; it is equally relevant for developing countries to develop a strategy of formal recognition of competencies, regardless of how and where they have been acquired. Validation processes should help individuals to progress up the ladder of education, take up further learning or enter the labour market, as well as ensuring easy transitions from non-formal, informal learning and work-based learning environments to formal programmes.
2.2 How do we Recognize, Validate and Certify? A precondition for lifelong learning and the recognition of non-formal and informal learning is the existence of an overall national qualifications framework (NQF). NQFs are instruments of articulation and equivalency. Two features of the national qualifications framework are particularly relevant to enhancing lifelong learning: 1. The competency standards for qualifications at different levels, which provide a clear and transparent reference for individuals who plan to start, or move to, different learning and career paths. 2. Education and training institutions that attempt to accredit individual’s prior learning as part of the requirements for obtaining a qualification. From the UIL survey it became clear that, although different kinds of frameworks exist or may be introduced, they share common features of coherence, integration of qualifications systems (or sub-systems) and common objectives to increase access, progression and flexibility of qualifications as a means to meet socio-economic needs and lifelong learning. Not every country has such a framework. From the UIL international study, three groups of countries can be categorized: 1. Most developed countries underline the importance of an existing legal basis for recognition, though some of them still face an enormous discrepancy between policy and practice. While some of these countries highlight the importance of enabling access to the formal system, others point out the necessity of simplifying the process of recognition and validation of prior learning. 2. A second group of countries consists of those without a national framework but with certification activities that follow the formal national curricula. 3. With regard to countries without qualification frameworks, there is a growing request from learners and adult education providers alike that certificates should be nationally recognized and be validated, i.e. given the same value as formal education. This would offer a ‘second chance’ opportunity to re-enter the formal education system or achieve an ‘equivalent’ certificate for basic and secondary education. National qualifications frameworks are considered to help to improve economic competition and promote equality.
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2.2.1 Scope and Implementation of NQFs The international study has pointed out that legislation alone is not enough. It has also highlighted that the focus on outcomes independently of their institutional and structural dimensions cannot produce efficient reforms of education and training systems. The problems of curriculum, teaching and learning and assessment are real and not easily addressed by legislation and qualification frameworks alone. Social partnerships and the creation of new learning sites and curriculum areas are crucial. The information on institutional designs stemming from many countries highlights that co-ordination modalities differ largely. 1. In most cases, diverse social partners take recognition of prior learning as a shared responsibility. In Norway, a national institute named ‘Vox’ co-operates with trade unions, universities and colleges, public and private educators as well as with social partners (Norwegian Institute for Adult Education, 2002). Seddon and Billett (2004) define social partnerships as either being enacted by the government, by the community, or negotiated through a broker system that provides advice and structured programmes for pathways to further education or employment. Social partnerships operate as ‘learning networks’ because they provide opportunities for active, collaborative learning at the local level and link communities with networks of external educational and employer bodies. In this way they consolidate area-based capacity for action and decisions on issues of social disadvantage. Only active engagement by a wide group of stakeholders can result in the development, maintenance and implementation of qualifications frameworks. 2. Some countries emphasize the predominance of industry in the process of recognition, validation and certification of prior learning and experience, even though public authorities, training organizations, national governments and educational research organizations continue to play a role. 3. A third group of countries consists of those that are currently working on a legal framework. Here, prior skills are assessed and certified on an individual and ad hoc basis by formal education providers and initiated by public authorities, such as by ministries of education or vocational training. While this mode of conducting the validation might appear to be very flexible, it exposes the learner, however, to the arbitrariness of the assessing institution (Singh, 2005). 2.2.2 Opening up Learning Sites Providing learning opportunities for all and in different spaces and sites is one of the key challenges of lifelong learning. The international comparative study highlights the diversity of learning initiatives for which recognition programmes have been designed. Programmes can be grouped into different categories. 1. Complementary basic education programmes. Philippines, Mexico and also Maldives to a certain extent offer primary school-aged children and youth the
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opportunity of reintegration into the formal system through participating successfully in non-formal education programmes. Similar non-formal programmes exist for adults. Thus, not only do accreditation processes stimulate supplementary programmes, but the informal or non-formal routes to qualification make a difference to the learning standard that is certified. While the mode of validation is different, the result is the same. Like ABET or AET, further education and training (FET) is a new institutional learning context in which qualifications are more oriented to standards taken from the world of work (McGrath & Akoojee, 2007). School-based work-oriented programmes include ‘bridge programmes’ that help potential dropouts to complete secondary school through structured work-based programmes, such as internships and work experience. Standards contained in school qualifications are made more relevant by orienting criteria not only to the formal school criteria, but also to references drawn from work, culture and life experiences. Programmes for entry into formal apprenticeship and training exist both in developed and in developing countries, and they are closely related to the acquisition of competencies within the framework of vocational and technical learning. In South Africa many accredited learnerships are being implemented to provide vocational training for people who had very little schooling during the apartheid era and at the same time to provide unemployed people with work experience. Workforce development programmes are of several kinds. Some are for poorly qualified workers, particularly those entering the labour market without completing compulsory education and thus not being eligible to take up further formal education or skills training. Others are more oriented to improving the literacy and numeracy levels in trade and industry. Workforce development programmes also include programmes that recognize previously acquired skills in the informal economy, ensuring transition from the informal to the formal sector. Credit transfer programmes are programmes that create pathways between technical and vocational education and training and higher education. In Germany, for example, master craftsmen, technicians, business and health-care managers obtain formal access to higher education institutions and the university laws in federal states allow for access examinations. Finally, RPL programmes in tertiary institutions aim to broaden the social base in higher education by allowing access to non-traditional students and adults, as well as to address issues of gender and regional disparities. They are usually implemented by offering exemption or advanced placing through some kind of official recognition of non-formal and informal learning.
From the above it is clear that accreditation processes have the result of stimulating significant supplementary learning programmes embedded in some formal institutional context or the other. These institutional/structural dimensions are very
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important and have an impact on the number of claims for RPL. At the same time, these alternative routes, such as bridges, preparatory studies and access courses, can be perceived as competitive routes to the recognition of prior learning.
2.2.3 What Is It that Is Being Recognized and Assessed? An important feature of these programmes is that they emphasize programmes that go beyond simple acquisition of subject knowledge to learning for life and work. Within the context of responses from the developing world, countries have highlighted different types of life skills. In some cases, recognition is linked to experiences gained in non-formal organizations, but not to experiences gained in an informal way. In some countries, it is vocational skills that are given special recognition. In France, the law of 1992 and decree of 1993 extend the rights of every citizen in France to request validation of experience, including non-salaried family work and voluntary activities (Labruy`ere, 2003). A range of evidence is used to assess informal or non-formal learning. This may include an applicant’s employment history, including records of workplace training, confirmation of relevant unpaid or volunteer experience, references from current or previous supervisors, trainers, managers, testimonials from customers or clients, and certification and work samples. Norway has different assessment procedures within the ‘competence reform’ for different education levels and settings, from prior learning assessments of an ad hoc kind in higher education, dialogue-based methods and assessment of portfolios in upper secondary education, to ‘testing’, interviews and demonstrations at the vocational level, and charting, documenting and self-assessment in non-formal education courses (Mohn, 2008). Within the context of the European Union’s Leonardo da Vinci Model on the valuation of prior learning (VPL), Duvekot et al. (2007) highlight the following assessment principles: (a) continuing development of the individual; (b) transparency of the process; (c) utilization of all learning environments; (d) accessibility; (e) separation of the functions of training and assessment; (f) a good guidance during assessment; (g) low-threshold provisions for upgrading the population in general; and (h) law and regulation.
2.3 What Limitations are There? 2.3.1 Certificates Are Valued Without Questioning the Relevance and Quality of Learning In many developing countries, adult learners do not question the relevance and quality of what is being taught in adult education centres. In Kenya, for example, often the main concern is the value of the certificates that they receive at the end of the
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adult education course. Learners do not question the fact that they do not achieve a level of functional literacy (Westman, 2005). 2.3.2 National Qualifications Frameworks Many argue that the national qualifications framework proposals do not pay much attention to the area of validation and recognition of prior learning and experience. In addition, the NQF framework with specified outcomes, assessment criteria and performance indicators hinders the necessary unpredictable process of socially constructing knowledge. Johnson (2009) expresses the same concern. He argues that we should be thinking less about qualifications than about the recognition of dispositions that already exist, and that these dispositions and competencies should be harnessed by creating new learning contexts and new curriculum learning areas integrated into the educational and qualification systems. Kurtz argues that an overemphasis on outcome-oriented thinking, and the pressure to produce measurable results, is leading to a neglect of culturally sensitive issues and growing fragmentation of learning (Kurtz, 2007, p. 14). 2.3.3 Hegemony of the Formal System Underlying all of these limitations is a further major limitation: the hegemony of the formal system and traditional approaches. While, on the one hand, countries have been slow to develop systems that recognize qualifications, skills and experience, on the other hand, where national qualifications frameworks exist, they often tend to promote a system of assessment which is externally administered. According to Gibbs and Angelides (2004) external assessments by their very nature militate against organic growth and imagination. They close down options by promoting the static notion of knowledge in which reality is accepted at the face value of what others create and expect from children, youth and adults. Sometimes the too-rigid entry levels result in excluding certain groups of potential learners. Another problem is the introduction of standards, curricula, learning materials and tests for learners without raising the expertise of teachers, who are often called upon to undertake the assessment activities (Nelson, 2005). Collier (1988) has suggested that assessment should provide opportunities for students to engage with their inner motives and real values, through an authentic understanding developed through ‘existential’ responses to issues. He argues that reflecting upon inner intentions and motives can only take place in an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect because such an approach suggests the agency of the learner: movement towards autonomy; development and growth; and the active search for meaning as an intrinsic motivation (Harris, 2000, p. 4). This puts higher priority on recognition and accreditation of learning that takes place outside the formal system. The values associated with these concepts are more nuanced and express the essence of paideia. They are denied through the
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hegemony of the formal system where distinctions are made between teacher/ student, liberal/vocation, and knowledge/opinion (Allen & Axiotis, 2002, pp. 40–41). 2.3.4 Can We Transform Experience into Accreditable Knowledge? Questions pertaining to the dangers of the culture of surveillance (Foucault, 1980) and alienation through the fact of experience being objectified through assessment also need to be addressed. Trowler (1996, p. 24) argues that we need to ask if developing countries in particular have methodologies to address the transformation of experience into accreditable, propositional knowledge. Do we have pedagogies where assessment decontextualizes learning from experience?
2.4 What Needs to be Done? Considering that recognition of non-formal and informal learning is a newly emerging field, this sub-section will highlight a number of issues and gaps that currently need further attention. These are grouped under six headings. 2.4.1 Attaching New Meaning to Lifelong Learning While lifelong learning is gradually becoming a guiding principle in the educational policies of several countries, more attention should be given to informal types of education so that people can reflect experience and be able to make wise choices in life. This was articulated already in 1929 by Basil Yeaxley, who noted that, despite the growth of the formal school system, non-formal and informal adult and community education did not decline (Yeaxley, 1929). Eraut (2004) argues that all learning, including informal learning, can become focused and intentional when information is made explicit, reflected upon and becomes the subject of review and discussion. If recognition is to avoid the hegemony of an undemocratic, exclusionary and selective formal system, one that instrumentalizes assessment instruments for the benefit of a small elite and which promotes the artificial separation of experience and learning, and ‘techne’ and ‘episteme’, then we need to have another understanding of learning which surpasses the conventional division of formal, non-formal and informal. Colley, Hodkinson and Malcolm (2003) demonstrate the need to view them as continuous learning systems. According to them, all learning is an interaction of several factors. It entails a direct engagement with the world, includes diverse knowledge forms and enables persons to take issue with their socio-cultural contexts. All learning, whether in schools or workplaces, is participatory and goaldirected. Lifelong learning is not without its problematic aspects. According to Field (2006) the development of lifelong learning has continued to support the ‘haves’ rather than the ‘have nots’, and is driven by market-led demands. Mwiria (2007)
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argues that, given the paucity of resources, the unequal levels of achievement across regions, groups and gender, and the huge diversity of language/cultures, lifelong learning policies are unrealistic in the Third World context. However, despite some of these concerns, lifelong learning implies a broader concept of education and aims at bridging the formal, the non-formal and the informal. It highlights the importance of learning in different settings.
2.4.2 Creating Decentralized Models There should be a conscious model of incentives for opening, creating and promoting new learning sites, such as family, work, private and community training providers, learning networks, small businesses, community settings and even commercialized units within public education and training. The advantage of these social partnerships is that they highlight the individual as a member of learning networks that are capable of generating a demand for education, rather than being simply supply-driven and unconnected to life and work realities. It is necessary to recognize that assessment and certification affect several groups each in their own way: (a) those who are catching up; (b) those who need supplementary programmes in subjects or through foreign languages in addition to the recognition of their prior learning; and (c) adults who are learning through selfstudy, studying by correspondence or distance, health workers, temporary teachers, volunteer teachers, teachers upgrading courses conducted by NGOs, teachers trained on the job—to mention just a few.
2.4.3 Identifying a New Role for the Government Governments must create a conducive environment. There is a danger of programmes being supply driven. While multilateral organizations, such as UNESCO, can assist with sharing experience, promoting intercultural co-operation and dialogue, feeding research into policies, developing frameworks of reference, etc., there remains an array of concerns that are country specific. Instead of imposing models and frameworks from above, governments should play a mediating role. They should encourage discussion and review with interested parties and negotiate agreements by providing equal voice opportunities to all stakeholders. The chances and possibilities for disadvantaged groups to attain recognition, validation and certification of their non-formal and informal learning need to be given greater attention.
2.4.4 Perceiving NQFs as ‘Enabling’ Rather than Prescriptive Standards need to be set in ways that bring them closer to the realities of existing practice with more attention paid to developing people’s capacity to meet higher standards, rather than adhering to the paper standards themselves. Centrally imposed standards frameworks and performance targets should be advocated to provide a common sense of direction and yardstick for accountability.
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There should be a better balance between qualification development and standards development. Standards cannot be oriented according to formal school criteria alone. Standards should be oriented to criteria and references drawn from work, culture and society. But standards are not a substitute for learner-oriented educational work; they must try to help to extend participants’ possibilities of success. Many countries, such as Austria, that are in the process of developing comprehensive national qualifications frameworks are relying on bottom-up approaches, by collecting important approaches of recognition of non-formal and informal learning, and developing a typology of examples (Schneeberger, Schl¨ogl & Neubauer, 2007). 2.4.5 The Identification, Documentation and Recognition of Non-Formal and Informal learning It is necessary to professionalize the identification, documentation and recognition of non-formal and informal learning and experience. For example, the portfolio is an important tool available to the facilitator. There is need for the facilitator to have knowledge on how learning outcome descriptions relate to the identification of equivalences. Process models need to become more sophisticated, such as documentary proof, information, guidance and counselling, and quality assurance. Guidelines for quality assurance are being developed through stakeholder consensus and through regional consultations (Duvekot & Konrad, 2007). Similarly, diagnostic tests are important to enable the learners to know their own standards and place them accurately on the educational and training ladder. Recognition, validation and accreditation of non-formal and informal learning is an approach that has the ability to have an effect on learning and enhance pedagogical practice in education. It is a challenging way to renew continuing and lifelong learning. In developing countries, assessment takes place at such an informal level that it is almost impossible to monitor it. It might be necessary therefore to shift from assessment to accreditation and try to make certification compatible and comparable with those in the formal system. Costs of RPL must not be overlooked. Most of the benefits of RPL are making skills visible. There are costs for the individual and for the system, in terms of information and guidance, assessors, facilitators, auditors and awarding bodies. 2.4.6 Exploring more Rigorous Methods of Research The complex realities of implementation of procedures and mechanisms, as well as of stakeholders’ views, are not easily gleaned from the questionnaires. We need more in-depth research on: (a) how persons view their own prior learning and experience and on the range of political and cultural issues at play; (b) new forms of learning; (c) the different learning sites—job-based, housework-based, volunteerwork-based and general interest work; (d) how knowledge transfers occur between these different kinds of learning and the world of education; (e) what actually
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constitutes informal learning; (f) how participatory activities can shape communication and cognitive processes, the learning culture and how interaction is organized; and (g), finally, more research on the different understandings of informal learning in a diverse range of contexts, including contexts inhabited by poorer sections of society, including those working in the survival economy.
References Allen, V.; Axiotis, A.D. 2002. Heidegger on the art of teaching. In: Peters, M., ed. Heidegger, education and modernity, pp. 27–45. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Andersson, P.; Fejes, A.; Ahn, S-e. 2004. Recognition of prior vocational learning in Sweden. Studies in the education of adults, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 57–71 Colardyn, D.; Bjørnav˚ald, J. 2005. The learning continuity: European inventory on validation of non-formal and informal learning. National policies in validation of non-formal and informal learning. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. (CEDEFOP panorama series, no. 117.) Colley, H.; Hodkinson, P.; Malcolm, J. 2003. Informality and formality in learning: a report for the Learning and Skills Research Centre. Leeds, UK: University of Leeds. Collier, K.G. 1988. Higher education and the critique of values. Journal of moral education, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 21–26 Commission of the European Communities. 2001. Communication on lifelong learning–2001. <www.europa.eu.int> Duvekot, R. et al. 2007. Managing European diversity in lifelong learning. Brussels: European Union, European Network on Valuation of Prior Learning. Duvekot, R.; Konrad, J. 2007. Towards a transnational concept of valuing lifelong learning: some practical reflections on developing theory. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Hoogeschool van Amsterdam; Konrad Associates International. [Unpublished manuscript.] Eraut, M. 2004. Informal learning in the workplace. Studies in continuing education, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 247–73. Field, J. 2006. Lifelong learning and the learning society: the evolution of concepts and research in the UK. In: Kuhn, M.; Sultana, R., eds. Concepts of knowledge and learning: the learning society in Europe and abroad. Berne: Peter Lang. Foucault, M. 1980. Two lecturers. In: Gordon, C., ed. Power/knowledge, pp. 78–108. New York, NY: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Gibbs, P.; Angelides, P. 2004. Accreditation of knowledge as being-in-the-world. Journal of education and work, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 333–46. Harris, J. 1999. Ways of seeing the recognition of prior learning: what contribution can such practices make to social inclusion? Studies in the education of adults, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 124–39. Harris, I. 2000. Re-visioning the boundaries of learning theory in the assessment of experiential learning (APEL). (Paper prepared for the thirtieth Annual SCUTREA Conference, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, 3–5 July 2000.) International Labour Organization. 2002. Skill recognition and National Qualification Frameworks. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. <www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/skills/recogn/ index.htm> International Labour Office. 2004. Lifelong learning in Asia and the Pacific: background report for the Tripartite Regional meeting in Bangkok. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. <www.ilo.org/ public/english/employment/skills/download/event/lll meeting bangkok report.pdf> Johnson, D. 2009. Literacy, design and technology: new contexts for learning and skills development. In: Maclean, R.; Wilson, D.; Chinien, C., eds. UNESCO-UNEVOC International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work: bridging academic and vocational education, Section 10. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.
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Kurtz, J. 2007. Life skills-based education in secondary school foreign language classrooms: cornerstone of a challenging vision. (Paper presented at the International Research Symposium ‘Looking Ahead with Curiosity: Visions of Languages in Education’, Goethe-Universit¨at, Frankfurt/Main, Germany, 28 April–1 May 2007.) Labruy`ere, C. 2003. Reform of recognition and accreditation of experiential learning. (Document prepared for the International Policy Seminar co-organized by UNESCO-IIEP and KRIVET on ‘Making Lifelong Learning a Reality’, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 24–26 June 2003.) Livingstone, D.W. 2005 Expanding conceptions of work and learning: research and policy implications. In: Leithwood, K. et al., eds. International handbook of educational policy, pp. 977–96. New York, NY: Kluwer Publishers. McGrath, S.; Akoojee, S. 2007. Education and skills for development in the South: reflections on the accelerated and shared growth initiative for South Africa. International journal of educational development, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 421–34 McKay, V. et al. 2006. The NQF and its implementation in non-formal education: with special reference to South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Kenya. (Paper prepared for the 2006 ADEA Biennial Meeting, Libreville, Gabon, 27–31 March 2006.) Merle, J. 2005. Boundary work in contemporary science policy: a review. Prometheus, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 195–207. Mohn, T. 2008. Recognition of non-formal and informal learning outcomes in Norway. (Working document prepared for the 2008 ADEA Biennale on Education in Africa, ‘Post Primary Education, TVET and Labor Markets in Urban and Rural Settings’, Maputo, Mozambique, 5–9 May 2008.) Mwiria, K. 2007. Implementing lifelong learning policies: from rhetoric to action. (Paper presented at the International Policy Dialogue: ‘Building Effective Partnerships for Lifelong Learning’, organized by KEDI and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, Changwon, Republic of Korea, 2–6 September 2007.) Nelson, A. 2005. Skills for life: Department for Education and Skills. (Paper prepared for the ‘Literacy for All: Britain’s Response to the Global Challenge’ Seminar convened by the Education Committee, UK National Commission for UNESCO, 2 December 2005, in association with UKFIET and BALID.) Norwegian Institute for Adult Education. 2002. Validation of non-formal and informal learning in Norway: the Realkompetanse Project—1999–2002. Oslo: VOX Norwegian Institute for Adult Education. <www.ecotec.com/europeaninventory/publications/policy/ VOX norway valid non-f inf learn.pdf> Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2004. The role of national qualifications systems in promoting lifelong learning. Paris: OECD. Preisser, R. 2005. Portfolio building as a tool for self-reflexivity on a micro and a macro level of society: the German case. In: Chisholm, L.; Hoskins, B.; Glahn, C., eds. Trading-up, potential and performance in non-formal learning, pp. 87–97. Strasbourg, France: Council of Europe Press. Schneeberger, A.; Schl¨ogl, P.; Neubauer, B. 2007. Praxis der Anerkennung von nicht formalem ¨ und informellem Lernen in Osterreich und deren Relevanz f¨ur einen k¨unftigen Nationalen Qualifikationsrahmen (NQR). In: Langauer, S. et al., eds. Entwicklung eines Nationalen Qualifikationsrahmens: Vertiefende Analysen, pp. 69–95. Vienna: Bundesministerium f¨ur Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur, Institut f¨ur H¨ohere Studien. Seddon, T.; Billett, S. 2004. Social partnerships in vocational education: building community capacity. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Singh, M. 2005. Recognition, validation and certification of non-formal and informal learning and experience: draft synthesis report. Hamburg, Germany: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning. Trowler, P. 1996. Angels in marble? Accrediting prior experiential learning in higher education. Studies in higher education, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 17–30.
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United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2004. United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2015). Draft international implementation scheme. Paris: UNESCO. Vishwanath, S. 2001. Knowledge and information in the network society. Seminar, no. 503, pp. 64–71. Westman, K. 2005. Development of National Qualification Framework and Recognition of Prior Learning: establishing new pathways for inclusion or exclusion in Kenya? Link¨oping, Sweden: Link¨oping University. (Master Programme in Adult Education and Global Change.) Yeaxley, B. 1929. Lifelong education. London: Cassel.
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Chapter XV.7
Self-Directed Learning Stephen D. Brookfield
1 Introduction Self-directed learning is learning in which the conceptualization, design, conduct and evaluation of a learning project are directed by the learner. This does not mean that self-directed learning is highly individualized learning always conducted in isolation. Learners can work in self-directed ways while engaged in group-learning settings, provided that this is a choice they have made believing it to be conducive to their learning efforts. Self-directed learners are not to be thought of as Robinson Crusoes working without human contact. Indeed, a recurring theme of research in this area is the way learners move in and out of learning networks and consult a range of peers. The key point is that whether or not learners choose to be temporarily isolated from, or immersed within, peer networks is the learner’s decision. Indeed, in self-directed learning all decisions about how and what to learn, and how or whether to consult external resources, rest with the learner. In the context of a self-directed learning effort, it is quite possible for there to be periods in which the learner decides it is most effective to place himself/herself temporarily under the control of an expert.
2 Definitions and Concepts Self-directed learning was initially claimed by American adult educator Malcolm Knowles (1975) to be a universal disposition of adult learners who were judged to exhibit an increasing tendency to self-directedness as they entered adulthood. Selfdirection in learning was a central element in Knowles’ concept of andragogy—the art and science of helping adults to learn (as against helping children to learn). Knowles posited that a tendency to self-directedness separated adults from children and was a uniquely adult phenomenon. In his view, facilitating self-directedness should be the primary goal of adult education. If adults were skilled in this mode of learning, they would be well equipped to live in the Information Age where technological development meant most people would spend their working lives R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XV.7, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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continually retraining for new careers. In the face of criticisms that andragogy was a culture-bound concept that neglected indigenous and collective ways of knowing, Knowles gradually re-conceptualized self-directedness as one contextually determined mode of learning on a continuum from dependence to independence. Another term favoured in the area of self-directed learning is independent learning. Independent learning has been used in the United Kingdom to refer to learning deliberately located outside formal educational frameworks (Brookfield, 1982) and as such has strong connections to UNESCO’s notions of informal and non-formal adult education. In French-speaking Canada, autonomous learning is preferred (Chene, 1983) as a term emphasizing the learner’s internal locus of control. Other terms, such as self-initiated learning, self-motivated learning or auto-didacticism, occasionally appear in this discourse. In recent years the term ‘self-directed learning’ seems to have settled as the one most generally preferred by researchers, though this is now held to be a contextually determined disposition rather than a universal learning style. In August 2004, the ‘Google’ search engine revealed nearly half-a-million entries for self-directed learning illustrating the term’s widespread adoption. Merriam and Caffarrella (1999) point out that self-directed learning is now broadly understood as strongly influenced by a number of other variables, such as personality type, the learner’s previous experience in the domain being explored, the availability of relevant resources, and perceived cultural constraints or enhancers. No more is self-directedness viewed in an essentialist way as an innate capacity of learners. Several explanations have been proposed to account for the popularity of the idea of self-directed learning. One is that, in an era of cost-cutting and reductions in public spending, purse-holders are eager to seize on any idea that suggests that students are quite capable of conducting and managing their own learning without the assistance of professional educators. If Knowles’ idea of self-directed as a universal, innate tendency of adult learning is accepted, then it potentially provides a rationale for channelling limited educational funds away from adult education (since adults, as self-directed learners are teaching themselves anyway) and toward K–12 schooling. Another line of argument suggests that the ideology of self-direction, of people individually pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and moving ahead with their own learning efforts, fits congenially with Western notions of libertarian individualism. It is noticeable that self-directed learning has been met with much less fanfare in cultures that prize the collective over the individual, and in which individual and group identity is fused. There is also the argument that proposing self-directed learning as a distinctively adult mode of learning that is much less observable in children and adolescents solves for adult educators the thorny question of how they are to describe themselves. If self-direction is an adult-specific learning modality, then, at a stroke, adult educators can claim a distinctive identity for themselves as facilitators of self-directed learning.
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3 The History of Self-Directed Learning Research As a global phenomenon self-directed learning has been researched across the English- and French-speaking worlds culminating in an annual American conference in which research findings are presented. Serious work in this area began in the 1960s in Canada under the direction of Allen Tough. In a series of empirical studies of self-directed learning efforts across the world, Tough estimated that (at least as far as learners’ self-reports were concerned) self-directed learning accounted for approximately 80% of all learning. In monographs such as ‘Learning Without a Teacher’ (1966), ‘Why Adults Learn’ (1968), ‘The Adult’s Learning Projects’ (1971) and ‘Intentional Changes’ (1982), Tough argued that learning within formal education institutions represented the tip of the adult-learning iceberg. Some 90% of all adults were claimed to conduct at least one self-directed learning project each year, spending an average of 100 hours on this effort. These learning efforts occurred in community, recreational and interpersonal settings and pursued goals that often had little connection to those lauded as crucial by schools and colleges. Learning efforts studied ranged from relatively limited, recreational projects (such as how to programme a video-cassette recorder) to that which could be called transformative (such as how to use the web to understand treatment options and monitor the fight against one’s own cancer). As Merriam and Caffarrella (1999) note, early research in self-directed learning tended to be heavily descriptive. Following Tough’s approach, researchers asked learners to estimate the time they spent engaged in self-designed learning, the major resources they used, the approaches they found most effective and the evaluative measures they deemed most credible. Not surprisingly, a wide variety of resources and approaches were identified, though a major (and, to many, unexpected) theme was the importance of peers. An early analysis of how self-directed learning translated from theory to practice found that peer networks were seen as crucial resources for self-directed learning (Brookfield, 1984). Of primary importance in many learning projects was the advice, information and modelling provided by individuals that the self-directed learners viewed as credible experts. Meta-analyses of two decades of empirical research, such as those of Brockett and Hiemstra (1991) in the United States of America and Candy (1991) in Australia, noted that human resources (friends, experts, family members, colleagues, neighbours, members of support groups) were mentioned much more frequently than material resources (books, videos, CD-ROMs, web-sites). These latter materials were all necessary but, given the potentially bewildering range of material resources that existed to support almost any learning project, what self-directed learners emphasized was the early assistance of peers in judging the relative validity of these resources. It also became clear that self-directed learners used qualified, credible peers as valuable evaluative touchstones. When judging their progress, learners would typically consult the person or persons in their particular network or learning community whom they felt were best judged to give a credible verdict on how well learners were doing and what might be their next steps in a project. A 2001 Educational Resources
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and Information Clearinghouse Digest (Abdullah, 2001) reported the continuing ‘highly collaborative’ nature of self-directed learning projects across elementary, secondary and adult education. It has also become an important theme in the homeschooling movement. There has been some contemporary debate as to the viability of the concept of self-directed learning for future research and practice. To some in the new millennium, self-directed learning holds as much promise as ever for enriching our understanding of education. For example, Merriam (2001) believes it is still one of the pillars of adult learning theory, while Brookfield (2000) argues that it is one of the crucial educational issues in the learning age. Stockdale, Fogerson and Brockett (2001), while continuing to argue its relevance, believe its study needs revitalization, perhaps by revisiting questions of measurement and validity and by using technology more effectively to synthesize findings from self-directed learning research around the world. However, self-directed learning appears to continue to engage the attention of researchers across the globe and to move into increasingly provocative areas. Recent analyses have explored self-directed learning as a political act of Canadian women on welfare (Andruske, 2000), as a component of learning to become a witch (Courtney, Merriam & Baumgartner, 2003), and as part of the meaning-making of Maori and Pacific Nation people (Zepke & Leach, 2002).
4 Critiques of Self-Directed Learning Since the initial flush of empirical studies conducted in the 1970s and 1980s, a number of lines of criticism have developed regarding the uncritical espousal of the idea of self-directed learning. One concerns the culture and race-specific nature of self-directed learner samples. The vast majority of studies conducted have focused on white, middle-class North-Americans. This severely limits the validity of any generalizations made about self-directed learning as a universal disposition of adults. A second criticism concerns the self-reported nature of most of the research in this area. Adults may claim to be engaged in self-directed learning but their selfreporting may overestimate their involvement. Accurate self-reporting depends on a degree of self-awareness about one’s dispositions and actions that can by no means be assumed. Third, research on self-direction is mostly conducted with little attention to the quality of such learning. Learners may claim to have developed skills or acquired relevant knowledge to a high degree, but be unable accurately to estimate their true level of accomplishment. Fourth, empirical research into self-directed learning makes little comment on the innate validity of some learning efforts over others. In its emphasis on quantitative estimates, it almost assumes a moral similarity across learning efforts. Yet, learning to cope with cancer or AIDS, or learning to take on city hall or rebuild a community
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can be argued to be significantly different from learning how to use eBay to build a collection of sports memorabilia. A fifth criticism concerns the small amount of attention to the political dimensions of self-directed learning. Any form of learning that takes control away from formal institutions and places this in the hands of ‘ordinary’ people can be argued as inherently political, even revolutionary. Sixth, the often contradictory nature of the helping or facilitative relationship in self-directed learning is glossed over in texts which purport to explore this. For example, there is little attention to the ethical problem of how to respond to requests for help in a self-directed learning project that is clearly illegal and/or immoral, such as learning how to hack into computer records, how to construct letter bombs, or how to navigate the health system to accumulate enough prescription drugs to commit suicide. Neither is there discussion of the ethics of helping learners to engage in self-directed learning that is injurious to others (such as learning to disseminate racist propaganda more effectively) or to oneself (such as learning how to avoid medical or dietary supervision, and smoking or drinking after being warned that such behaviours will lead to an early death).
5 The Cultural Formation of Self-Directed Learning For many learners and educators the image of self-direction is of a self-contained, internally driven, capable learner working to achieve his/her goal in splendid isolation. The self is seen as a free floating, autonomous, volitional agent able to make rational, authentic and internally coherent choices about learning, while remaining detached from social, cultural and political formations. This idea of the self is what McLaren (1993) refers to as the magnificent enlightenment swindle of the autonomous, stable and self-contained ego that is supposed to be able to act independently of its own history. There are many problems with this notion of the self. First, we cannot stand outside the cultural streams within which we swim. We are all in history and the preferences and the self-directed learning choices we make that seem like an authentic exercise of private, internal control are, at least partially, social formations. The seemingly instinctive structures of feeling we exhibit are predetermined to reflect cultural conditioning. Second, the idea of a unitary, un-conflicted self—an undifferentiated ego—is a fiction. In making what seem like purely personal, private choices about learning, we play out the contradictory cross-currents of ideology and genetics that are inscribed within us. Third, it is but a short step from conceiving self-direction as a form of learning emphasizing separateness to equating it with selfishness, with the narcissistic pursuit of private ends regardless of the consequences for others. Self-direction that honours only the efforts of the individual self rests on the premise that one’s needs and desires exist sui-generis and have an inalienable right to be satisfied. In education programmes that purport to embody the spirit of self-direction, it is not unusual for learners to argue that unless they obtain
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from educators whatever learners say they want, then the spirit of self-direction has somehow been compromised. A view of learning that regards people as self-contained, volitional beings scurrying around in individual projects is one that works against collective and cooperative impulses. This view has important political implications. Citing an engagement in self-directed learning, people can deny the existence of common interests and human interdependence in favour of an obsessive focus on the self. Such a stance leaves unchallenged wider beliefs, norms and structures and thereby reinforces the status quo. This conceptualization of self-direction emphasizes a self that is sustained by its own internal momentum, needing no external connections or supports. It erects as the ideal culmination of psychological development the independent, fully functioning person, ripped from any particular history, class or culture. Fortunately, this view of developmental trajectories as leading inevitably towards the establishment of separate, autonomous selves has been challenged in recent years by work on gender (Goldberger et al., 1996) and critical psychology (Fox & Prilleltensky, 1997). This work questions the patriarchal notion that atomistic self-determination is both an educational ideal to be pursued as well as the natural end point of psychological development. In its place, it advances a feminist valuing of interdependence and a socially constructed interpretation of identity. It is important to recognize that the ‘self’ that is involved in conducting learning is culturally formed and bound. Who we are and how we decide what it is important for us to be able to know or do are questions that are matters of culture. The self in a self-directed learning project is not an autonomous, innocent self, contentedly floating free from cultural influences. It has not sprung fully formed out of a political vacuum. It is, rather, an embedded self, a self whose instincts, values, needs and beliefs have been shaped by the surrounding culture. As such, it is a self that reflects the constraints and contradictions, as well as the liberating possibilities, of that culture. The most critically sophisticated and reflective adults cannot escape their own autobiographies. Only with a great deal of effort and a lot of assistance from others can we become aware of how what we think are our own wholly altruistic impulses, free from any bias of race, gender or class, actually end up reinforcing repressive structures. Hence, an important aspect of a fully adult self-directed learning project should be a reflective awareness of how one’s desires and needs have been culturally formed and of how cultural factors can convince one to pursue learning projects that are against one’s own best interests. Candy (1991) is one of the few who has consistently argued for this kind of constructivist interpretation of self-directed learning. He argues that learning in its fullest context is a social activity, and the attainment of full personal autonomy must recognize this. Candy warns us to remember that adults are powerfully affected by aspects of their backgrounds in ways that limit and constrain their ability to be self-directing in certain learning situations. Other researchers have pointed out the macro-cultural construction of self-direction. In certain cultures a decision to learn on one’s own, and to be the ultimate arbiter of one’s decisions regarding learning, would result in the learner concerned committing cultural suicide. Furthermore, those with a learned propensity for self-direction may have acquired this habit in
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childhood because of their membership in a social class that values individual initiative and provides the financial resources for children to conduct their own learning projects.
6 Self-Directed Learning as an Oppositional Practice Despite its accommodative tendencies there is still something intrinsically critical, freeing and empowering to many people about the idea of self-direction. People understand that embedded in the idea is some strain of resistance that sets learners in opposition to powerful interests and against institutional attempts to mandate how and what people should learn. Self-directed learning can therefore be reinterpreted with a political edge to fit squarely into the tradition of emancipatory education. The case for reframing self-direction as an inherently political practice rests on two arguments. The first is that at the heart of self-direction is the issue of control, particularly control over what are conceived as acceptable and appropriate learning activities and processes, and that control is always a political issue involving questions of power. The second argument is that exercising self-direction requires that certain conditions be in place regarding access to resources and that these conditions are essentially political in nature. The one consistent element in the majority of definitions of self-direction is the importance of the learner’s exercising control over all educational decisions. What should be the goals of a learning effort, what resources should be used, what methods will work best for the learner and by what criteria the success of any learning effort should be judged are all decisions that are said to rest in the learner’s hands. This emphasis on control—on who decides what is right and good and how these things should be pursued—is also central to notions of emancipatory education. Self-direction as an organizing concept for education therefore calls to mind some powerful political associations. It implies a democratic commitment of shifting to learners as much control as possible for conceptualizing, designing, conducting and evaluating their learning and for deciding how resources are to be used to further these processes. From a political perspective, self-direction can be seen as part of a populist democratic tradition which holds that people’s definitions of what is important to them should frame and instruct governments’ actions, and not the other way round. This is why the idea of self-direction is such anathema to advocates of a core or national curriculum, and why it is opposed so vehemently by those who see education as a process of induction into cultural literacy. Self-directed learning is institutionally and politically inconvenient to those who promote educational blueprints, devise intelligence measures and administer psychological tests and profiles that attempt to control the learning of others. Emphasizing people’s right to self-direction also invests a certain trust in their wisdom, in their capacity to make wise choices and take wise actions. Advocating that people should be in
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control of their own learning is based on the belief that, if people had a chance to give voice to what most moves and hurts them, they would soon show that they were only too well aware of the real nature of their problems and of ways to deal with them. If we place the self-conscious, self-aware exertion of control over learning at the heart of what it means to be self-directed, we raise a host of questions about how control can be exercised authentically in a culture which is itself highly controlling. An inauthentic form of control is one where people feel that they are framing and taking key decisions about their learning, all the while being unaware that this is happening within a framework that excludes certain ideas or activities as subversive, unpatriotic or immoral. Controlled self-direction is, from a political perspective, a contradiction in terms, a self-negating concept as oxymoronic as the concept of limited empowerment. On the surface we may be said to be controlling our learning when we make decisions about pacing, resources and evaluative criteria. But if the range of acceptable content has been pre-ordained so that we deliberately or unwittingly steer clear of things that we sense are deviant or controversial, then we are controlled rather than in control. We are victims, in effect, of self-censorship, willing partners in hegemony. Hegemony describes the process whereby ideas, structures and actions come to be seen by people as both natural and axiomatic—as so obvious as to be beyond question or challenge—when in fact they are constructed and transmitted by powerful minority interests to protect the status quo that serves these interests so well. A fully developed self-directed learning project would have at its centre alertness to the possibility of hegemony. Those engaged in this fully realized form of selfdirected learning would understand how easily external control can unwittingly be internalized in the form of an automatic self-censorship in the instinctive reaction that ‘I can’t learn this because it’s out of bounds’ (that is, unpatriotic, deviant or subversive). A fully authentic form of self-direction exists only when we examine our definitions of what we think it is important for us to learn to the extent to which these end up serving repressive interests. Being in control of our learning means that we make informed choices. Making informed choices means, in turn, that we act reflectively in ways that further our interests. But informed choices can only be made on the basis of as full a knowledge as possible about the different options open to us and the consequences of each of these. This leads to the second political condition for self-directed learning, that concerning the unconstrained access to resources necessary for the completion of learning projects. How much control can really be said to exist when the dreams we dream have no hope of being realized because we are struggling simply to survive? A large number of supposedly self-directed initiatives have foundered because those attempting to assume control over their learning found themselves in the invidious position of being denied the resources to exercise that control properly. Being self-directed is a meaningless idea if you are too weary at the end of the day to think clearly about what form of learning would be of most use to you, or if you are closed off from access to the resources necessary for you to be able to realize your self-designed
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projects. Being the arbiter of our own decisions about learning requires that we have enough energy to make reflectively informed choices. Decisions about learning made under the pressure of external circumstances when we are tired, hungry and distracted, cannot be said to be fully self-directed. For learners to exercise control in any meaningful sense they must not be so buried under the demands of their daily work that they have neither time, nor energy nor inclination left over to engage in shaping and making decisions about their own development. Action springing from an immediate and uninformed desire to do something—anything—to improve one’s day-to-day circumstances can be much less effective than action springing from a careful analysis of the wider structural changes that must be in place for individual lives to improve over the long term. If the decisions we make for ourselves are borne out of a desperate and immediate need that causes us to focus only on what is right in front of us rather than on the periphery or in the future, if we choose from among options that are irrelevant to the real nature of the problem at hand, or if our range of choices has been framed by someone else, then our control is illusory. In this regard, decision-framing is as important as decision-making in a self-directed learning project. Understood thus, we can see that central to a self-directed learning effort is a measure of unconstrained time and space necessary for us to make decisions that are carefully and critically examined and that are in our own best long-term interests. It may also be the case in a self-directed project that I decide I want to learn something that I consider essential for my own development, only to be told that the knowledge or skills involved are undesirable, inappropriate or subversive. A desire to explore an alternative political ideology is meaningless if books exploring that ideology have been removed from the public library because of their ‘unsuitability’ or, perhaps more likely, if they have never been ordered in the first place. In a blaze of admirable masochism, I may choose to undertake a self-directed learning project geared towards widening my understanding of how my practice as an educator is unwittingly repressive and culturally distorted. In doing this, I may have to rely primarily on books because my colleagues are convinced of the self-evident correctness of their own unexamined practice. Yet, I may well find that the materials I need for this project are so expensive that neither I, nor my local libraries, can afford to purchase them. In an ironic illustration of Marcuse’s (1965) concept of repressive tolerance, critical analyses of professional practice are often priced well beyond the pockets of many who could benefit from reading them. Again, I may need physical equipment for a self-directed effort I have planned and be told by those controlling such equipment that it is unavailable to me for reasons of cost or others’ prior claims. If I decide to initiate a self-directed learning project that involves challenging the informational hegemony of a professional group, I may find that medical and legal experts place insurmountable barriers in my path in an effort to retain their position of authority. So, being self-directed can be inherently politicizing as learners come to a critical awareness of the differential distribution of resources necessary to conduct their self-directed learning efforts.
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7 Facilitating Self-Directed Learning On the face of it, facilitating self-directed learning seems an oxymoron. If the defining factor of such learning is that learners retain control over the conceptualization, design, conduct and evaluation of learning, how can there be any role for an external facilitator? Despite this potentially crippling contradiction, many have claimed a role for educators in this area. Knowles’ (1975) early influential text was sub-titled as a guide for teachers, not just learners, and in the last three decades many others have explored how educators can assist learners in their self-directed efforts. Given that learners themselves name peers, experts, educators and colleagues as valuable contributors to a self-directed learning effort, it is clear that even when the majority of learning decisions clearly rest with the learner, educators can still play an important role. Educators’ contributions to self-directed learning projects fall into six categories. First, they have a role in helping learners conduct a self-diagnosis regarding the projects that might be most helpful to learners. Here, educators function as coaches, counsellors, mentors and advisers providing their best judgement as to the skills and knowledge that might be of greatest benefit to the learner. Of course, the learner is free to accept or reject this judgement as he/she pleases. Once a learning project has been selected, a second role is for educators to help learners gain an accurate perception of the possible range of learning resources to be consulted. This would involve giving advice as to the relative credibility and utility of material and human resources. Third, the educator can help with the design of a learning plan, particularly if this involves the learner entering previously uncharted learning waters. This often happens through the development of a learning contract. Direct instruction by the educator—at the learner’s request—is the fourth role. As empirical surveys continually demonstrate, self-directed learning involves numerous episodes during which learners decide to place themselves under the temporary direction of a teacher for the purpose of learning specific skills or knowledge. A fifth role pertains to group self-directed learning projects. When a work, labour or community group decides for itself that it needs to learn new skills or knowledge, its initial unity may fracture as specific learning decisions present themselves. Judgements will have to be made by group members as to the weight of time and energy spent on different activities, or the allocation of limited resources under the group’s control. It may be that some members wish to initiate major changes of direction in the middle of an agreed-upon learning effort as new priorities and/or information emerge. Perhaps the initial goals and objectives become contested by some. In such situations, an external mediator can play a crucial role in helping group members live with differences, resolve conflicts and achieve necessary compromises, or decide to splinter into smaller, more purposeful units. A sixth contribution concerns the evaluation of learning. Empirical research suggests this is the contribution educators can make to a self-directed learning effort that is most valued by learners. Experts, role models and teachers are all frequently consulted by learners as they try to gauge their progress in a specific learning effort. Evaluation in self-directed learning is formative as well as summative and expert
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approval is cited by learners as a strong criterion they employ when determining the relative success of a learning project. Yet another contribution of educators cited as important by learners is the provision of constant encouragement and reassurance, particularly in the early stages of a project. Given that learners often feel like impostors at the beginning of new learning (believing their inabilities mean they are doomed to failure where others will succeed) educators can provide the cheerleading and positive recognition of early accomplishments that is reported as sometimes being the difference between success and failure. Part of this function also involves the educator modelling the skills and dispositions the learner is seeking to acquire. Such modelling reminds the learner of the benefits that will accrue with sticking to the learning effort during learning valleys and plateaux, and at times of deep discouragement. Learners consistently report that what most helps them over these dark times is encouragement by members of their learning community, including teachers.
8 Conclusion Self-directed learning will probably continue to be of primary interest to educators as on-line learning becomes increasingly common. One of the features of on-line and accelerated learning settings is an increasing degree of control by learners over the pace, if not the direction, of learning. Non-synchronous learning grants a degree of control to learners over the location and timing of learning that is absent in residential, more-formal patterns of provision. As such, online and accelerated education may create new possibilities for self-directed learning that its proponents have not anticipated (Brookfield, 2003). It is also likely to be the case that the intersections between race, culture and class and the conduct of self-directed learning will become increasingly discussed. How does self-directed learning manifest itself differently in cultures that are strongly dependent on teacher direction, or that prize the collective co-creation of knowledge? If middle-class, white, Western educators try prematurely to force their agenda of self-direction on reluctant learners from working-class or indigenous backgrounds, the result is likely to be a loss of trust and considerable student attrition. Race, gender and class are now common analytical constructs in education and an examination of their intersections with self-directed learning has already begun to appear (Brookfield, 2004). The apparent dichotomy between collectivist forms of learning valued in working class and tribal cultures will need to be reconciled with, and will offer a challenge to, contemporary understandings of self-directedness. The facilitator’s role in self-directed learning will also likely come under increasing scrutiny. The idea of the non-directive facilitator working at learners’ behest to provide appropriate resources has come under fire as ignoring the power relationships that are endemic to formal schooling and education. In adult education the re-emergence of the concept of the directive, critically reflective teacher emphasizes how teachers and learners need constantly to negotiate their legitimate preferences
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and goals. As the twenty-first century progresses, we can expect to see a more activist re-conceptualization of the teacher’s role within a self-directed learning effort.
References Abdullah, M.H. 2001. Self-directed learning. ERIC digest. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University, ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English and Communication. <www.ericdigests.org/20023/self.htm> Andruske, C.L. 2000. Self-directed learning as a political act: learning projects of women on welfare. In: Sork, T.J.; Lee-Chapman, V.; St. Clair, R., eds. Proceedings of the 41st annual adult education research conference. Vancouver, Canada: University of British Columbia, Department of Educational Studies. Brockett, R.G.; Hiemstra, R. 1991. Self-direction in adult learning: perspectives on theory, research and practice. New York, NY: Routledge. Brookfield, S.D. 1982. Independent adult learning. Nottingham, UK: University of Nottingham, Department of Adult Education. Brookfield, S.D., ed. 1984. Self-directed learning: from theory to practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Brookfield, S.D. 2000. Education and self-directed learning. In: Matheson, C.; Matheson, D., eds. Educational issues in the learning age. New York, NY: Continuum. Brookfield, S.D. 2003. Critical perspectives on accelerated learning. In: Wlodkowski, R.; Kasworm, C.A., eds. Accelerated learning for adults: the promise and practice of intensive educational formats. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Brookfield, S.D. 2004. The power of critical theory: liberating adult learning and teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Candy, P.C. 1991. Self-direction for lifelong learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Chene, A. 1983. The concept of autonomy in adult education: a philosophical discussion. Adult education quarterly, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 38–47. Courtney, B.C.; Merriam, S.B.; Baumgartner, L.M. 2003. Witches ways of knowing: integrative learning in joining a marginalized group. International journal of lifelong education, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 111–31. Fox, D.; Prilleltensky, I, eds. 1997. Critical psychology: an introduction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Goldberger, N. et al. 1996. Knowledge, difference and power: essays inspired by women’s ways of knowing. New York, NY: Basic Books. Knowles, M.S. 1975. Self-directed learning: a guide for learners and teachers. New York, NY: Cambridge Books. McLaren, P. 1993. Multiculturalism and the postmodern critique: towards a pedagogy of resistance and transformation. Cultural studies, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 118–46. Marcuse, H. 1965. Repressive tolerance. In: Wolff, R.P.; Moore, B.; Marcuse, H., eds. A critique of pure tolerance. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Merriam, S.B. 2001. Andragogy and adult learning: pillars of adult learning theory. In: Merriam, S.B., ed. The new update on adult learning theory. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Merriam, S.B.; Caffarrella, R.S. 1999. Learning in adulthood: a comprehensive guide. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Stockdale, S.L.; Fogerson, D.L.; Brockett, R.G. 2001. Revitalizing the study of self-directed adult learning. In: Smith, R.O. et al., eds. Proceedings of the 42nd annual adult education research conference. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University, Department of Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education. Tough, A.M. 1966. Learning without a teacher. Toronto, Canada: OISE.
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Tough, A.M. 1968. Why adults learn: a study of the major reasons for beginning and continuing a learning project. Toronto, Canada: OISE. Tough, A.M. 1971. The adult’s learning projects: a fresh approach to theory and practice in adult learning. Toronto, Canada: OISE. Tough, A.M. 1982. Intentional changes: a fresh approach to helping people change. New York, NY: Cambridge Books. Zepke, N.; Leach, L. 2002. Contextualized meaning making: one way of rethinking experiential learning and self-directed learning? Studies in continuing education, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 205–18.
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Chapter XV.8
New Learning Strategies and Learning Cultures in Companies Peter Dehnbostel
1 Introduction This chapter is about learning in medium-sized and large industrial companies, which reorganized and restructured their work processes during recent years. The empirical and theoretical basis for the analysis is based on research and development in these companies. The purpose is to verify that new learning strategies and learning forms in modern work processes are decisive for learning successes and that there is a need for new learning cultures. In particular, the differentiation of work-related learning models and a systematization of the different kinds of learning and knowledge provide a conceptual framework for analysing learning as a central theme of adult learning and competence development. In the first section, a short description of new organizational and work processes will focus on important demands for learning. Then, work-related learning models will be introduced, which indicate the increased value of learning in work and in the orientation of work. In a further step, new company-based learning forms are presented and the learning of adults in these surroundings are described, especially following the integration of informal and formal learning. Reflection on formal and informal learning leads to a systematization of different kinds of learning and knowledge in companies. Finally, from the perspective of the learning forms, kinds of learning and knowledge features discussed, new learning cultures will be presented.
2 Revival of Learning in the Work Process Since the 1970s and 1980s learning has undergone a revival in the workplace. This can generally be attributed to the widespread use of new information and communication technologies (ICTs), new work and organizational concepts and the shift from an industrial to an information society. New qualifications and educational requirements and related learning concepts are developing in changing working and living environments. The priority in business is to facilitate and stimulate improvement, optimization, development and innovation processes. This can only be achieved through intensive learning processes. Learning must be seen in R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XV.8, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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the light of competitiveness and economic target setting. It becomes an important economic factor. More and more voices in business and management are expressing the conviction that continual learning processes in the workplace are the most significant, even the only lasting way of ensuring a competitive edge in the future. New learning approaches and forms, such as independent learning, lifelong learning, learning bays and quality circles represent an initial response to the changes in the requirements of business and society. They are particularly designed to help people acquire key qualifications and extensive occupational competence. Many people maintain that the level of key qualifications needed for occupational competence can only be acquired through the work process. The rediscovery of learning in the workplace represents an about-turn in vocational training development in Germany (Dehnbostel, 2005). Since the early days of industrial vocational training in the last thirty years of the nineteenth century, vocational training has become increasingly centralized, systemized and regulated. Until the 1980s, the prevailing trend to improve the quality of vocational training concentrated on taking learning out of the workplace. The reversal of this trend goes hand-in-hand with new learning approaches and a move away from centralized learning and organizational concepts. In continuing training, this is reflected by cuts in out-of-company courses, the interaction of work and learning in the work process and the promotion of independent and lifelong learning. The changes in the ‘dual system’, the German initial training system, which was strictly regulated up to now, are more deep-seated. Training periods in the workplace are being extended, new forms of work-related learning are being developed and training regulations are becoming more flexible and work-oriented. Bringing work-related learning back to authentic work contexts should be regarded partly as a complement to and partly as a replacement for existing learning concepts (Fischer & Boreham, 2004; Streumer, 2001). People have realised that the skills needed in the workplace can be acquired only to some extent in external vocational training. Skills contents for fixed and more-or-less static qualification requirements could formerly be successfully anticipated and transferred to authentic work processes. The swift change in qualification requirements through workrelated innovations allows this only to a limited degree today. Technical, personal and social competences must mostly be acquired through learning in authentic work situations. Nevertheless, learning in the workplace still has certain limitations, even in modern work processes. Economic, technical and structural constraints in particular restrict learning and learning-friendly approaches in work processes. No scientific proof exists on the extent to which company and educational interests converge or the extent to which we can speak of the ‘reconciling of economic and pedagogical principles’ (Heid & Harteis, 2004). Investigations and studies on this subject have yet to be carried out. Theoretical conclusions from the revival of learning in the workplace are therefore difficult to evaluate at the moment. The automobile industry provides a good example of how ambivalent these developments are: retraining and
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re-professionalizing the workplace are being proclaimed alongside neo-Taylorist reorganization (Springer, 1999; D¨orre, Pickhaus & Salm, 2001). Current debate raises the criticism that the modern world of work is characterized increasingly by crumbling social relationships and dwindling possibilities to establish a personal identity. As a result, learning potential and learning opportunities at work are on the decline. We can see a clear move away from tradition and standardization, in which established professional values and social relationships are giving way to labour skills adapted to the work process, with the focus on flexibility and mobility. This can be traced back to constraints and internal dynamics in the prevalent industrial economic system, which increasingly demands more extensive and quicker production alongside more elastic and flexible work processes. Sennett (1998), for instance, is of the opinion that modern work processes are dominated by ‘flexibility’, leaving hardly any scope for opportunities for personality development and for establishing reliable social relationships. Notwithstanding the above limitations, there are other viewpoints, which associate new learning forms, increased learning and educational opportunities, and an improved learning culture with modern work and organizational concepts. The empirical and theoretical basis for these statements can be traced to research and development work sponsored by the German Federal Institute for Vocational Training (BIBB). The work comprised a series of pilot projects on ‘decentralized learning’ (Dehnbostel & Molzberger, 2004) conducted in the 1990s and this was supplemented by work on the research project ‘Work-related Innovation and Learning Strategies—Implications for Vocational Education and Training and In-company Personnel Development Processes’ (Dehnbostel & Dybowski, 2000). Both the pilot projects and the company investigations took place predominantly in medium-sized and large industrial enterprises that had just implemented, and in most cases were continuing with, intensive reorganizational and restructuring programmes.
3 Work-Related Learning Models In what follows, work-related learning in initial and continuing vocational training should be described and reflected. The term ‘work-related learning’ first needs to be defined and broken down. ‘Work-related learning’ describes learning processes within and outside companies whose subject is the content and structure of work and work processes. On the one hand, it relates to a narrow field that is learning-venue and task specific and, on the other, it must be understood as involving a methodological approach that relates learning and work to one another. In the context of the relationship between learning venue (Lernort) and work site (Arbeitsort), on the basis of experience to date in Germany, work-related learning can usefully be broken down as follows:
r r r
work-integrated learning (arbeitsgebundenes Lernen); work-connected learning (arbeitsverbundenes Lernen); work-oriented learning (arbeitsorientiertes Lernen).
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The characteristic feature of work-integrated learning is that the learning venue and the workplace are identical. The learning takes place at the workplace or within the work process. Examples of work-integrated learning are ‘on-the-job learning’, ‘team learning’ within the work process, ‘group work’ and ‘learning bays’. There is additional differentiation from the perspective of formal and informal learning: onthe-job learning and group work involves informal learning, which is normally not connected with formal learning. The increase in this kind of learning is typical for new work forms like group work and project work. On the other hand, the purposeful combining with formal learning is typical for new learning forms, like the learning bays and similar approaches, such as ‘planned training on the job’ (Jacobs, 2001) or the ‘cognitive apprenticeship’ (Collins et al., 1989). In the case of work-connected learning, while the place of learning and the actual workplace are distinct, they are directly linked both organizationally and in terms of geographical location. Examples of this kind of learning are ‘quality circles’ and ‘learning workshops’. In these examples, the objectives of vocational learning and training dominate the planning and organization of work and learning. Formal learning is emphasized more than informal learning. Finally, work-oriented learning takes place in central locations, e.g. vocational colleges (berufsbildenden Schulen) and vocational training centres (Berufsbildungszentren). In some cases this type of learning entails carrying out commissioned jobs in environments that are very similar to real-life work situations. But, of course, the learning is primarily a planned and organized activity, and it is mainly formal learning. A look at the basic forms of work-related learning shows that, typologically speaking, five models can be distinguished. These are: 1. learning by working in the actual work process; 2. learning via instruction; 3. learning via integration of learning by experience and formal learning; 4. learning via exploration and practical Table 1 Work-related learning models Basic work-related learning models
Examples of concepts, systems, forms of learning
1. Learning by working in the real work process (work-integrated learning)
Craft training; traditional side-by-side training; on-the-job training; group learning in the work process; some training programmes and dual study courses. In-company training; four-stage method; some training programmes and dual study courses.
2. Learning via instruction, systematic instruction in the workplace (work-integrated learning) 3. Learning via integration of ‘learning by experience’ and formal learning (work-integrated learning or work-connected learning) 4. Learning via exploration and practical training (work-integrated learning or work-connected learning)
Quality circles; learning bays; order-based learning; cognitive apprenticeship; coaching; constructive learning; interactive learning.
Supplementing school-based vocational training courses; skills training in training centres; study courses; school-based preparation for an occupation. 5. Learning in simulated work and production Vocational training schools; order-based work in processes (work-oriented learning) training centres.
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training; and 5. learning in simulated work and production processes. Table 1 gives an overview of the concepts, systems and forms of learning that correspond to the respective models. It also shows the kind of work-related learning that is entailed by each of the models.
3.1 Learning by Working in the Real-Work Processes Learning in the context of actual work processes can be said to be the oldest and most common form of vocational skills training. In this form of learning, the workplace is also the learning venue. In craft training and traditional work-cum-training, where the learner is assigned to a skilled worker, company- or occupation-specific work, activities are learned by imitation. The trainee learns in the company’s working situation, by watching, copying, joining in, helping and trying out or simulating what is seen. The result of the learning essentially depends on the following factors: the specialist and teaching competence of the trainer or the skilled worker doing the training; the work tasks; the organization of the process and structure; the workplace equipment; and the corporate culture. Learning is stimulated by working, and motivation and identification come into being because the products or results of the work are useful and their meaningfulness is directly apparent. A similar form, adapted and integrated into work is found in continuing training in companies. Also falling under this model are forms of learning and systems that take into account traditional training concepts, adaptation of skills in companies, and learning in modern forms of work organization.
3.2 Learning via Instruction, Systematic Instruction in the Workplace This type of learning takes place in the context of the traditional dual training in a company and in the context of skills training for starting a job or changing jobs in a company. The master craftsman, the journeyman or the skilled worker providing training has a key role in applying and carrying out the instruction. He selects the work tasks, plans the work organization and work processes, instructs the trainees, monitors the progress of the work and evaluates its results. One of the methods of instruction is the four-stage method, which includes preparation, demonstration, imitation and practice. However, other methods of workplace instruction, instruction based on analytical work and work rules have acquired only limited importance, as training for complex work activities in industrialized countries with company-based training has increasingly been transferred to training workshops. Training systems initially reacted to the change in skills requirements in production and service processes primarily by modernizing training methods in learning venues away from the workplace.
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3.3 ‘Learning by Experience’ and Formal Learning In the field of training, decentralized forms of learning, such as ‘learning bays’ and ‘learning from commissioned work’, have acquired great relevance. They combine ‘learning by experience’ and formal, organized learning via work. One fundamental reason for this integrated learning lies in the specific learning requirements of reorganized companies. Continuous processes of improvement and optimization, customer and business-process orientation, and a high capacity for innovation necessitate the integration of work and learning. From the perspective of learning one can regard the concept of ‘the learning company’ as synonymous with this integration-based approach. In Germany, new learning schemes for in-company training have been developed in numerous State-sponsored pilot projects. These schemes have promoted new methods for integrating learning through experience and formal learning. Examples are the ‘the project and team methods’ and ‘the learning-bay concept’.
3.4 Learning via Exploration and Practical Training Exploration and practical training in enterprises constitute a work-related learning concept in which actual practice in the company is integrated into wholly schoolbased training (vollschulische Ausbildung), into skills training programmes in a centre for initial and continuing training (Aus- und Weiterbildungszentrum), and into training in institutions of higher education (Hochschulausbildung). While practical training usually takes place alongside school-based training courses and training in higher education institutions, specifically targeted exploration frequently supplements skills training in initial and continuing training centres. In both cases, the main aim is generally not the acquisition of workplace- or occupation-specific qualifications. Instead, it is to give trainees an insight into the reality of work and company life, and to increase the motivation to learn via actual participation in the work of a company. The latter relates to periods of practical training in particular, while trainees systematically master subjects, such as work organization, skills training, economics or social skills, via exploration of specific issues. The model of work-related learning via practical training is particularly widespread at the international level. In reality, however, the process and quality of practical training vary widely, since schools have only a limited influence on the structuring of practical training in companies.
3.5 Learning in Simulated Work and Production Processes Work-related learning in simulated work processes takes place in training centres and, in particular, in schools-cum-production or training-cum-production units. The aim is to create a learning situation that approximates as closely as possible to
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reality and facilitates the acquisition of complex skills and experiences and reflection on these. As the setting up of quality circles and learning bays in vocational schools and training centres shows, this form of work-related learning overlaps with model 3.3 above, with its combination of learning through experience and formal learning. While here there is no authentic learning through experience, in contrast to didactically structured learning in training institutions, learning is strongly influenced by the criteria of production technology, work organization and economics.
4 New Company-Based Learning Forms In Table 1, item 3 depicts new forms of company-based learning through examples, such as ‘quality circles’, ‘learning bays’ and ‘coaching’. Research carried out in the recent years (Dehnbostel & Dybowski, 2000; Dehnbostel, 2000; Dybowski et al., 1999) showed that in modern companies, equivalent future-oriented forms of learning have come into being as a result of changing organizational forms and skills requirements. They are of crucial importance both for skills training, including in-company training, and for the initiation and implementation of innovations and improvement processes. In the above-mentioned BIBB research project, pilot studies and case studies were carried out in ten medium-sized and large companies. A key criterion in selecting companies was that they should be in the process of carrying out restructuring and reorganization measures or should have already done so. New learning orientations and new forms of work and learning organization were of crucial importance to the empirical and qualitative research. The approach and significance of the future-oriented learning forms examined in this context are outlined briefly below. As the brief descriptions of these forms show, there are considerable differences in their objectives, structures and level of dissemination, but it is decisive that they combine work and learning in a systematic form that goes beyond learning through experience.
4.1 Instruction/Coaching This form of learning is used in all the enterprises examined, and may involve individual instruction or group instruction. The instruction is provided by colleagues, group representatives, superiors, trainers and staff development workers. In contrast to traditional methods of instruction, such as vocational adjustment, briefings and the four-stage method, instruction is primarily regarded by enterprises as skills training alongside the work or production process. Coaching, which focuses on simulating and developing staff, team representatives and leaders, is an example of this.
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4.2 Quality Circle Quality circles, as a tool to involve employees in corporate problem-solving processes, were tried out in some of the enterprises examined as far back as the 1980s, when new production concepts were emerging. The fundamental aims of quality circles have today been transferred to forms of work organization, such as teamwork and project work. Objectives, such as participation, co-operation, problem-solving and improvement of skills, can obviously be realised at least just as well in these forms of work organization as in separately instituted circles.
4.3 Learning Workshop The learning workshop (Lernstatt) as a form of learning is aimed at resolving company problems connected with production and co-operation and at acquiring specialist knowledge and improving work productivity. Learning in a learning workshop, connected to work and based on experience, is aimed above all at the acquisition of skills and competences directly required in the work process. The enterprises examined are familiar with the learning workshop as a form of continuing training, but do not use it as an independent form of learning. Instead, in some cases, project work is geared to the learning workshop model, particularly with regard to communication, problem-solving and the exchange of experience.
4.4 Decentralized Learning/Learning Bay Learning bays and other decentralized learning venues, such as learning stations and skill centres, were initially set up in the context of the series of pilot studies mentioned earlier. In the majority of the enterprises studied, learning venues of this kind have been in existence for only a few years. The concept of decentralized learning provides for a shift from centralized, formal and systematic learning structures in favour of increased flexibility, more open structures and work-related learning, and for orientation in principle towards dynamically structured professionalism. At the same time, learning in decentralized learning venues is combined with learning in central learning venues, with the aim of optimizing learning potential and the benefits of learning.
4.5 Order-Based Learning This form of learning was originally developed in the craft trade and in small industrial companies, in which there were virtually no organized forms of learning. Research has shown that customer orders within and outside the company are
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implemented in the form of order-based learning in the training of some mediumsized and large companies. Orders are planned, implemented and evaluated in a coherent fashion. They are didactically and methodically processed, with the emphasis on customer orientation as a communication and structuring process and on holistic implementation. Order-based learning may also take place in the context of other forms of learning, such as instruction or learning bays.
4.6 Interactive Learning Interactive learning has been postulated for many years as an innovative form of learning for modern work processes. Research has shown that it is used as a form of learning, either on its own or in combination with other forms of learning, but that it has not gained widespread acceptance. In principle, interactive learning at work takes place on both an individual and group basis, and organizing and controlling the learning processes oneself are an important element. Software learning materials used according to the learning requirement arising in the job concerned can accordingly be regarded as teach-yourself media. These six forms of learning or, to be more precise, forms of learning organization can be regarded as symptomatic of modern industrial work processes. They have in common the fact that jobs and work processes are expanded and enriched from the point of view of systematic learning and work education, achieving a favourable starting situation for the restructuring of proven quality of in-company learning concepts. Learning based on experience and integrated into work activities is specifically combined with formal learning. A fundamental distinction can be made between forms of in-company learning aimed at the acquisition of competences that specifically include formal learning and go beyond the relevant job-oriented requirements, and forms in which skills and competences are acquired informally and remain limited to work requirements dictated by the situation. The forms of learning outlined, as forms of learning organization specifically introduced and involving the addition of a learning infrastructure within the workplace, fall into the first category. A distinction must be made between these and the second category of in-company learning, in which learning through experience plays an important part, for instance in the implementation of continuous processes of improvement and optimization; but learning is not specifically incorporated in an organized fashion. Research on company strategies for learning and innovation has shown that learning through experience is extremely effective in the following forms of work organization: teamwork, rotation, project work, vocational adjustment and continuous improvement processes. Thus, learning at work can in principle be traced back to two different types of organization: (a) forms of learning organization in which formal learning and learning through experience are specifically and systematically combined; and (b) forms of work organization, in which learning takes place informally and on the basis of experience. In the enterprises studied, independent
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forms of learning organization are apparently not considered necessary if sufficient learning takes place on the basis of experience, and can be utilized to optimize work processes in modern forms of work organization. The research has also shown that another type of in-company learning—‘learning off the job’—is undergoing significant change. It is consistently apparent that the scope and teaching and methodological investment of previous forms of off-the-job learning are not being maintained. Priority is clearly being given to learning on the job, related to and associated with the job. There are accordingly fewer traditional, systematically structured specialist courses and seminars. Work-related events, such as ‘support workshops’ for teamwork and project work, are increasingly being offered and implemented. In general, skills and vocational training measures in central venues (zentralen Lernorten) and institutions increasingly relate to social and methodological work topics. In addition, ‘benchmarking’ represents a new form of company-based off-the-job learning. Figure 1 shows the various types and forms of company-based learning.
Learning off the job
Learning on the job
Form of learning organization
Form of work organization
Courses, seminars
Meetings, events, workshops
Instruction, Coaching
Teamwork
Quality circle
Rotation
Learning workshop Project work
Training centre Learning bay, decentralized learning
Vocational adjustment Institutions of higher education
Order-based learning
Interactive learning Benchmarking
Fig. 1 Organizational typology of company-based learning
Continuous improvement processes
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5 A Systematization of the Different Kinds of Learning and Knowledge The integration of informal and formal learning plays a decisive role in new company-based learning forms, though the degree of priority attached to it differs in various concepts and approaches to connect working and learning. Informal learning processes are most common in connection with work that has a high instructional value. The criteria for quality of learning in the workplace are: complexity, problem content, leeway for action initiative, variety, holistic and communication. These criteria are most likely to be met in modern work processes if work assignments are planned, executed and monitored by an individual or a group of persons, if they call for a creative approach to tackling the work and handling the technology and if they are associated with continuous processes of improvement and optimization. With regard to the kinds of learning and knowledge in companies, a very important differentiation needs to be made. Learning has, in principle, to be differentiated between informal and formal learning. Whereas formal learning is aimed at fixed contents and objectives, informal learning is uncertain and it produces learning results without planning them. But this does not imply that informal learning is unintended; rather the intention is related to assignments and enterprise developments and not to learning subjects. Informal learning is people’s fundamental, ‘natural’ self-learning, which, according to Dohmen (2001), has the following characteristics:
r r r r
It does not take place in particular educational institutions remote from everyday life and work. There is no planned curriculum and it is not professionally organized, but tends to be triggered by events or to arise by chance and sporadically from situations of changing practical requirements. It is not arranged in a pedagogically aware way, with a system of subjects, examinations and entitlements, but tends to be unaware, casual, a holistic response to a problem, and related to coping with situations and with life in general. It does not involve stockpiling learning remote from practice, but is directly experienced in its ‘natural’ function of supporting life and survival.
A further differentiation is necessary with regard to the term ‘informal learning’. Seen analytically, one can distinguish between ‘learning by experience’ and ‘implicit learning’. The latter form of informal learning, one can say, takes place without reflection and conscious learning. In implicit learning, the learner is unaware of the course and result of the learning process or which at least he/she cannot immediately put into words. Relevant examples of this are recognizing a face in a crowd without knowing why, or learning to ride a bicycle without knowing the underlying rules and laws. On the other hand, learning by experience occurs mainly through the reflective assimilation of experience. In practice, experiential knowledge appears in the form of intuition or a feeling for materials, machines, work processes and social situations. In the theory of Dewey (1993, pp. 186 ff.) reality was already
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seen as disclosing itself via learning by experience on the basis of the learner’s own self-determined activity in real courses of action. The sequence ‘action–experience– reflection’ and its on-going continuation, taking account of previous processes of experience and realization, is then seen as ‘evolutionary progress’, on condition that learners take action to learn on their own initiative and, if possible, of their own accord. On this basis, reality will disclose itself to individuals via processes of learning and experience. This approach is correctly seen as a forerunner or precursor of the constructive learning approach (Gerstenmaier & Mandl, 1995, p. 882; Reich, 1996, pp. 197 ff.). If we look at in-company learning, the kinds of learning addressed, in combination with other kinds of learning and knowledge, can be classified as shown in Figure 2. The figure shows that experiential knowledge results mainly from informal learning i.e. ‘learning by experience’ and ‘implicit learning’. This is mainly because there is a weak link as well from formal learning to experiential knowledge because in every formal learning situation experience takes place. On the other hand, formal learning leads mainly to theoretical knowledge in which informal learning flows in to a small extent. Both theoretical knowledge and the knowledge gained from experience lead to action knowledge. To obtain broad action knowledge and a more comprehensive action competence is today the central objective of initial and further vocational training. Informal learning and the combination of informal and formal learning play a decisive role in its acquisition. The increasing significance of informal learning is also due to the too narrow focus of organized and formal learning processes. Only a certain amount of occupational competence can be gained through formal and organized learning processes. An analysis of research findings shows that the learning and development processes that form the actual basis of qualified workers’ action knowledge are determined to a large extent by informal learning processes at work. When models of learning by experience are operationalized, one sees that knowledge and insight are gained not
Theoretical knowledge
Formal learning
Action knowledge
Learning in enterprise
Informal learning
Learning by experience
Implicit learning
Fig. 2 Kinds of learning and knowledge in companies
Experiential knowledge
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when actions are repeated, but rather when unforeseen problems and uncertainties crop up during the working process and have to be resolved. This is particularly true of modern, computer-based work processes with integrated improvement and quality assurance measures. On the other hand, informal learning and learning by experience have clear limits, which are set by the logic of entrepreneurial business and organizational processes. Opportunities and scope for experience are tied to technical and economic objectives and intended purposes. Even if these boundaries are extended by the learning options in modern work processes mentioned above, ultimately experience-based learning and structuring of work and work organization so as to promote learning are subject to business calculations. The extent and boundaries of learning by experience are crucially dependent on the extent to which economic and pedagogical objectives approximate one another and overlap, a question which is virtually unanswerable in view of the change companies are currently undergoing. Another restriction on learning by experience lies in work processes that are increasingly characterized by ICTs. It is apparent that learning by experience is no longer taking place in the way that it did in traditional industrial and craftwork environments. Some of the external experiences constituting a precondition for reflection are being changed by the application of new technologies, and some are disappearing. In particular, active work governed to a great extent by the sensory organs of sight, hearing and touch are increasingly being reduced. On the other hand, in sophisticated work organization and in modern work and organizational concepts, both the need for learning and opportunities for it are increasing. The question of the extent to which this also involves an expansion of external experiences and learning by experience cannot be answered at the current stage of development. In any case, new experiences are coming into being. Although these essentially relate to mediatized work activities geared to cognition, they still involve sensory and practical elements. At any rate, informal learning and the combination with formal learning in vocational training has hardly been documented, analysed and certified in Germany, unlike in other European countries (see Bjørn˚avold, 2000). Neither in didactic and methodological concepts nor in examination and appraisal procedures is it regarded as a learning dimension in its own right. If this situation is to change, there is a need to identify and evaluate the competences that are developed through informal learning and the new learning type of combining formal and informal learning. Also in need of documentation and analysis are the vast differences that exist in terms of registering and processing the experiences gained by individuals or teams when planning, executing and monitoring a work assignment. The internal and external experience acquired here each depends on various factors, such as pre-existing knowledge, instruction value and routine. At a higher level, reflection on such experience is likewise dependent on various factors. More generally, there is a need to ascertain the extent to which informal learning contributes towards improving experiential knowledge and enhancing action competence.
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6 New Learning Cultures as a Consequence ‘Learning bays’ and other forms and kinds of learning in learning companies reflect a change of perspective in in-company qualification concepts. Active, participatory and process-based activities and learning approaches are taking the place of linear and hierarchical thought, behavioural and orientation patterns. The way is open for processes and developments that incorporate authentic experience and subjective interests more deeply, and differentiate more clearly between various educational paths and lifestyles. This also involves a change in the relationship between teaching and learning: the focus is shifting from teaching to learning. Teaching is being conceived and conducted as a supervisory and monitoring process. Active learning processes and approaches of this type are undoubtedly still carried out in companies only on a limited scale. Receptive learning will continue to be necessary in certain work situations, for example, when introducing new technology or new mechanical configurations. Furthermore, the question of how learning takes place depends to a large extent on the branch of industry, the size of the enterprise and the economic sector. Nevertheless, fundamental changes in learning culture are becoming evident in enterprises. According to Weinberg (1999, pp. 88 ff.), we can take specific learning cultures as a basis, which portray learning forms in the context of respective working and living environments and different personal and social dispositions. There is therefore a great deal of evidence to support the notion that a new learning culture is appearing in modern enterprises. The starting point is based on the willingness and ability of individuals, groups and organizational units to learn, which is essential if innovativeness, an increase in knowledge and better quality assurance are to be realised and sustained. The new learning culture is characterized in particular by the extension and, in some cases, replacement of traditional instructional learning with constructivist and experience-based learning (Dehnbostel, 2000; P¨atzold & Lang, 1999). The focus is on the learner as an active and reflecting subject. The learner discovers reality via learning and experiences processes on the basis of independent activity and selfdetermination. The respective activity or learning situation is based on the principles of authenticity, model function, situation and social interaction that promote learning and transfer of knowledge. According to Reinmann-Rothmeier & Mandl (1999, p. 37), the following process features are characteristic of a constructivist approach:
r r r r r
Learning involves active learner participation. Learners must be motivated and show or develop an active interest in what they are doing and how they do it. Learners also steer and monitor their learning processes themselves. The extent of this self-monitoring can vary according to the situation. Learning is carried out constructively. Learners’ experience and knowledge background is taken into account. Space is given to subjective interpretations. Learning is related to the situation; it occurs in a specific context. Learning is a social activity, which takes place interactively and respects learners’ socio-cultural backgrounds.
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A learning culture is always just a part of a more comprehensive corporate culture. In applying concepts, such as the learning company, the aim is to create a corporate culture in which each worker is simultaneously learner and teacher, as all work together to achieve corporate goals and visions. Corporate and individual interests must be brought into line with each other to achieve this. The corporate culture approach regards the company as a social entity with a specific culture covering the goals, messages, standards and values crucial for the staff. Here, it is important to combine economic, social and personal considerations. The focus is on ‘enculturation processes’, i.e. processes that inspire individuals to develop an identity as the employee of a certain company. Unlike traditional approaches of organizational theory, this should be achieved by eliminating hierarchies, decentralization and participation. This can only succeed if the staff plays an active part in organizing their work and their future. Learning itself and the integration of informal and formal learning assume prime importance and become the corporate culture norm. Companies can only acquire a new corporate culture and become learning companies when they establish a corresponding learning culture that has been developed by and among employees in the same way as the respective working culture (Senghaas-Knobloch, Nagler & Dohms, 1997, p. 12). The new learning culture is compared with the traditional learning culture in Table 2. The comparisons show that learning by experience and experiential knowledge are important, and could even be regarded as the most striking differences between new and traditional learning cultures. The comparison also shows that the new learnTable 2 Comparison of traditional and new learning cultures Traditional learning culture
New learning culture
• Acquiring knowledge and skills as a reaction to developments in the enterprise and its surrounding environment. • Learning is structured and consists of didactical-intentional created learning environments. • Learning contents were understood as sections of definite knowledge systems.
• Orientation of learning on competence development and the acquisition of a reflective capacity to act. • Learning in ‘natural’ learning environments as learning by experience, networking with intentional learning within and off the job. • Learning contents and knowledge, respectively, are not definite, but depend on individual and social contexts. • Knowledge is essentially constructed in complex learning situations; experiential knowledge is acquired and combined with theoretical knowledge. • Knowledge is applied in open, discrete action situations and made usable. • Learners organize and control work and learning processes to a large extent in a self-directed way. • Trainers are coaches and shape learning processes; they create prerequisites for releasing cognitive and learning processes.
• Acquisition of theoretical knowledge as mainly didactically reduced specialized knowledge. • Precise reproduction of knowledge in foreseeable, determined action situations. • Learners imitate, adopt, are affiliating. • Trainers instruct, demonstrate, explain; they are mediators of theoretical knowledge
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ing culture is breaking the boundaries of learning. Learning is restricted neither to specific learning locations, nor to certain procedures or methods. Nevertheless, learning, especially learning by experience, should not be regarded as random or lacking in context. On the contrary, in addition to the constructivist learning principle, which takes up the respective learning and corporate culture, learning in networks creates reliable contexts, which have an effect on learning processes and quality. This, therefore, counters the coincidental and random nature of learning by experience.
References Bjørn˚avold, J. 2000. Making learning visible: identification, assessment and recognition of nonformal learning in Europe. Thessaloniki, Greece: CEDEFOP. Collins, A. et al. 1989. Cognitive apprenticeship: teaching the crafts of reading, writing and mathematics. In: Resnick, L.B., ed. Knowing, learning and instruction, pp. 453–94. New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum. Dehnbostel, P. 2000. Erfahrungslernen in der beruflichen Bildung: Ansatzpunkt f¨ur eine neue Lernkultur? In: Dehnbostel, P. et al., eds. Arbeits- und erfahrungsorientierte Lernkonzepte, pp. 103–14. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Dehnbostel, P. 2005. Lernen–Arbeiten–Kompetenzentwicklung: zur wachsenden Bedeutung des Lernens und der reflexive Handlungsf¨ahigkeit im Prozess der Arbeit. In: Wiesner, G.; Wolter, A., eds. Die lernende Gesellschaft. Lernkulturen und Kompetenzentwicklung in der Wissensgesellschaft, pp. 111–26. Dresden, Germany: Juventa. Dehnbostel, P.; Dybowski, G. 2000. Lernen, Wissensmanagement und berufliche Bildung. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Dehnbostel, P.; Molzberger, G. 2004. Decentralized learning: integration of working and learning. In: Fischer, M.; Boreham, N.C., eds. European perspectives on learning at work: the acquisition of work process knowledge, pp. 290–303. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publication of the European Communities. Dewey, J. 1993. Demokratie und Erziehung: eine Einleitung in die philosophische P¨adagogik. Weinheim/Basel: Beltz. (First edition 1915.) Dohmen, G. 2001. Das informelle Lernen: die internationale Erschließung einer bisher vernachl¨assigten Grundform menschlichen Lernens f¨ur das lebenslange Lernen aller. Bonn, Germany: BMBF. D¨orre, K.; Pickhaus, K.; Salm, R. 2001. Re-Taylorisierung: Arbeitspolitik contra Marktsteuerung. [Supplement to] Zeitschrift Sozialismus, no. 9. Dybowski, G. et al. 1999. Betriebliche Innovations- und Lernstrategien: Implikationen f¨ur berufliche Bildungs- und betriebliche Personalentwicklungsprozesse. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Fischer, M.; Boreham, N.C., eds. 2004. European perspectives on learning at work: the acquisition of work process knowledge. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publication of the European Communities. Gerstenmaier, J.; Mandl, H. 1995. Wissenserwerb unter konstruktivistischer Perspektive. Zeitschrift f¨ur P¨adagogik, vol. 41, no. 6, pp. 867 ff. Heid, H.; Harteis, C. 2004. Zur Vereinbarkeit o¨ konomischer und p¨adagogischer Prinzipien in der modernen Personal- und Organisationsentwicklung. In: Dehnbostel, P.; P¨atzold, G., eds. Innovationen und Tendenzen der betrieblichen Berufsbildung, pp. 222–31. Stuttgart, Germany: Peter Steiner. (Zeitschrift f¨ur Berufs- und Wirtschaftsp¨adagogik, Beiheft 18.) Jacobs, R., ed. 2001. Planned training on the job. San Francisco, CA: Sage. P¨atzold, G.; Lang, M. 1999. Lernkulturen im Wandel: didaktische Konzepte f¨ur eine wissensbasierte Organisation. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann.
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Reich, K. 1996. Systemisch-konstruktivistische P¨adagogik: Einf¨uhrung in Grundlagen einer interaktionistisch-konstruktivistischen P¨adagogik. Neuwied, Germany: Luchterhand. Reinmann-Rothmeier, G.; Mandl, H. 1999. Unterrichten und Lernumgebungen gestalten. Munich, Germany: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit¨at, Institut f¨ur P¨adagogische Psychologie und Empirische P¨adagogik. (Lehrstuhl f¨ur Empirische P¨adagogik und P¨adagogische Psychologie, Research report, no. 60.) Senghaas-Knobloch, E.; Nagler, B.; Dohms, A. 1997. Zukunft der industriellen Arbeitskultur. M¨unster, Germany: LIT. Sennett, R. 1998. Der flexible Mensch: die Kultur des neuen Kapitalismus. Berlin: Berlin. Springer, R. 1999. R¨uckkehr zum Taylorismus? Arbeitspolitik in der Automobilindustrie am Scheideweg. Frankfurt/Main, Germany/New York, NY: Campus. Streumer, J.N., ed. 2001. Perspectives on learning at the workplace: theoretical positions, organizational factors, learning processes and effects. Enschede, Netherlands: University of Twente. Weinberg, J. 1999. Lernkultur–Begriff, Geschichte, Perspektiven. In: QualifikationsEntwicklungs-Management, ed. Kompetenzentwicklung ’99. Aspekte einer neuen Lernkultur: Argumente, Erfahrungen, Konsequenzen, pp. 81–143. M¨unster, Germany: Waxmann.
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Chapter XV.9
PLAR, Training and Efficient Labour Markets: The Canadian Experience Bill Empey and Christine Newton1
1 Introduction Canadian governments have focused new attention on the process of prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR) in the past several years. At the same time, interest has shifted to apprenticeship and related vocational training. In fact, PLAR is a very important part of apprenticeship and efforts to improve both will bring important benefits. This chapter describes how PLAR and vocational training function in Canada and how needed changes might proceed. Canada’s labour-market conditions and training systems provide distinctive challenges for the application of PLAR.
1.1 Factors that Raise the Importance of PLAR There are predictable and large new demands emerging for vocational training across Canada. The most important long-term source is the retirement of the large generation of post-Second World War Baby Boomers that will start in 2005 and last until 2025. But there are also demands from an extended economic expansion that began in 1996 and continued in 2004–2005 and has created strong employment growth. Rising demand related to new technologies is a constant and growing challenge. Low birth-rates have reduced natural population increase to a minimum and, in the near future, international immigration will be the only source of growth in the labour force. Immigration policy that targets skilled workers is already a key labour issue. Canada has a separate set of institutional challenges related to decentralized training jurisdictions. Ten provinces and three territories have authority over vocational training. They have different training standards and certifications and these interfere with the mobility of skilled labour. New training programmes are a major expense that is added to the demands placed on provincial and territorial governments at a time when their budgets are under pressure from other priorities. Costs are being offloaded onto employers and R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XV.9, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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students. Pressure is building to manage these costs and improve the efficiency of the entire training and certification system. Responding to all these challenges leads Canadians to embrace new efforts, such as lifelong learning and retention of the older workforce. Plans for change must focus on flexibility as trainers and employers all recognize the constant shifts in economic conditions, technologies and major projects that require skilled workers to move quickly from one job to another. PLAR is easily understood as a major part of the improvements and changes described here. This topic is emerging from the back rooms of large and bureaucratic training institutions into more active policy debate and corporate scrutiny. These issues are important in vocational training and in apprenticeship. Apprenticeship in Canada is enjoying a considerable renewal. New trades, new programmes and major promotional campaigns are expanding the system. However, the deeply entrenched interests of governments, institutions, employer groups and unions are retarding change. One aspect of change that these interests confront is expanded PLAR.
2 PLAR in Canada The concept of PLAR encompasses the following themes: Prior learning: This includes both formal and informal learning. Formal learning is classroom-type training that follows a structured outline and is evaluated in a formal way. With informal learning, some or all of these characteristics are missing. Assessment: Assessment of formal learning is typically carried out via reviews of course outlines and transcripts. Assessment of informal learning is a more complicated process because of the difficulties in demonstrating and verifying what has been learned. Typical assessment methods include evaluation tests, portfolio development and practical demon strations. Recognition: There is on-going debate in Canada about whether or not recognition should be incorporated into the definition. The central question is: what constitutes recognition? Because most of the current research and application of PLAR in Canada is in the post-secondary environment, it is generally understood that ‘recognition’ involves advanced standing or credit towards an education or training qualification. Recognition of formal learning is much more widespread than informal learning. This is most commonly accomplished through credit transfer2 or articulation arrangements3 within and among post-secondary institutions.
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Assessment and recognition of informal learning is growing more common in post-secondary institutions, but the process of PLAR is more complicated and subjective. Depending on the procedures established at the training institution, applicants must pay a fee, undertake counselling or workshop sessions, and develop a comprehensive portfolio that documents their learning. The time needed to complete the application materials is sometimes comparable to the length of the course that is being challenged for exemption. Research and discussion concerning PLAR is focused at the colleges and universities, which establish individual policies regarding admissions. Research and discussion include topics such as: policy development issues; implementation of pilot projects; consultative processes with stakeholders outside the training institution; and best practices for PLAR practitioners. A small number of organizations, such as the Canadian Association for Prior Learning Assessment (CAPLA), are active in PLAR-related research, publications and conferences. The somewhat limited research on the application of PLAR highlights benefits, risks, costs and problems. For example, the Cross-Canada Partnership on PLAR (1999) made the following observations:
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Early concerns that PLAR learners might attempt to acquire large portions of their credentials through PLAR and thereby jeopardize the legitimacy of institutions’ credentials were unrealized. PLAR strengthened adult learners’ confidence in their own capacities to learn and motivated adults to pursue further education. PLAR represented important efficiencies for adult learners, particularly those who decided to return to education to achieve employment-related training and occupational credentials. PLAR can be effectively used as a marketing tool to attract (adult) learners requiring training for employment or occupational certification.
On the other hand:
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The low numbers of PLAR learners and programmes in which PLAR was accessed are disturbing signals that delivery of assessments in its current forms has not been economical for most institutions. The policy focus on PLAR diminished at some institutions over the study period and resulted in a reduction in the resources for PLAR development [. . .]. Early benefits from assessor training within institutions diminished over time at some institutions due to restructuring, attrition, budgetary cuts and emphasis on other reform initiatives. This may have impeded the quality and quantity of assessments. Opportunities for full-time learners to benefit from PLAR through shortened programmes, lighter course loads or lower costs were impaired by rigid ‘lock step’ programme delivery structures that require full-time attendance, limit class scheduling and require duplication of payments by PLAR learners.’
Information about PLAR in practice is fragmented and largely anecdotal, and it is difficult to get a sense of its scope and success on a national, provincial/territorial or
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field-of-study basis. On the other hand, general lessons for PLAR in apprenticeship and trade certification can be learned from the research.
3 The Apprenticeship System in Canada The primary credential for trades in Canada is a provincial/territorial certificate of qualification (C of Q).4 A C of Q can generally be acquired in two ways: 1. By completing apprenticeship programme requirements and successfully passing a final examination(s). 2. By demonstrating sufficient experience—usually by accumulating a prescribed number of hours of experience—and then successfully challenging the final trade examination(s). A candidate who undertakes this process of challenging the C of Q examination is known as a trade qualifier (or trade challenger). For trades designated by the jurisdiction as compulsory, individuals working in the trade must have a C of Q or have completed an apprenticeship programme, or be a registered apprentice. For trades designated as voluntary, a C of Q is not required to practise the trade. Apprentices acquire skills through a combination of in-school technical instruction with on-the-job training. Apprenticeship is an agreement between the apprentice, the employer (or sponsor) and the government. Each of Canada’s thirteen provinces and territories has independent responsibility for apprenticeship, and administration is centralized at the provincial/territorial government level. In many jurisdictions, trade-specific advisory (or apprenticeship) committees are organized so that industry stakeholders can address apprenticeship-related issues and make recommendations to the government. There are currently over 250 distinct trades in Canada. Some trades are designated in many provincial/territorial jurisdictions (e.g. plumber) and some are designated in only a few jurisdictions (e.g. gasfitter). Most apprenticeable trades are in the construction and automotive-related areas, but apprenticeship programmes are also available in other fields, such as tourism and hospitality, theatre and agriculture. Apprenticeship programmes vary in length, depending on the trade and the jurisdiction. Typically, apprenticeship programmes take two to five years to complete. Apprentices report for in-school technical training approximately once per year. (However, in some jurisdictions and trades, the technical training may be ‘frontend loaded’, i.e. all technical training is completed before work time is served.) The length of in-school sessions vary between six and ten weeks of instruction per year. Approximately 80% of an apprenticeship programme consists of on-the-job training by the employer, and 20% consists of in-school technical training. The final trade examination(s) for apprentices are almost always in pen-and-paper format, and are based heavily on material covered during in-school technical training. There can be significant differences in the hours required to learn a trade in different provinces/territories, as well as curriculum content, sequencing of training topics, fees and entrance requirements. These differences make it more difficult to harmonize PLAR processes across Canada.
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There have been efforts to improve efficiency by sharing programmes and costs. For example, jurisdictions in Atlantic Canada have taken a collaborative approach to curriculum development and have developed common-core curricula for a number of trades. Other jurisdictions with low numbers of apprentices send them to neighbouring jurisdictions for technical training, adopting that jurisdiction’s technical training curriculum. One of the most significant features of the apprenticeship system is the interprovincial (Red-Seal) standards programme. For each of the forty-five Red-Seal trades in Canada, apprentices with a pass mark of 70% on the interprovincial examination will obtain a Red-Seal endorsement on their certificate of qualification. This endorsement is recognized by all participating jurisdictions5 as a demonstration of competency that corresponds to an occupational standard that all jurisdictions have participated in developing. The key benefit to having a Red-Seal endorsement is that the tradesperson’s credential is recognized if he/she works in a different province/territory than the one where the credential was obtained. It is a cornerstone of apprenticeship in Canada, and it is a solution to an issue that continues to plague other regulated professions, such as nursing and teaching—the lack of cross-jurisdictional credential recognition.
4 PLAR in Apprenticeship and Trade Certification 4.1 PLAR in Apprenticeship As indicated earlier, each jurisdiction is responsible for administering and managing its own apprenticeship programmes. Similarities and differences among PLAR policies and practices are summarized in Table 1.
4.2 PLAR in Trade Certification Individuals may be eligible to challenge certification examinations without completing an apprenticeship programme. The process of challenging trade certification examinations acknowledges that trade skills may be acquired on the job. This process is unique to trade certification and is not available for college or university programmes in Canada (Belanger & Mount, 1998). This process is available for individuals who have;
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acquired extensive experience without formal training; or partially completed apprenticeship programmes; or acquired their skills or training outside the jurisdiction or outside the country.
The pre-requisites and application procedures to challenge trade certification examinations vary by jurisdiction. For example, one of the more significant differences across jurisdictions is the number of trade-related work hours required by applicants wishing to challenge a certification examination.
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B. Empey, C. Newton Table 1 Similarities and differences in PLAR among jurisdictions in Canada
Similarities
Differences
r
r
r
r
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Apprenticeship programmes consist of two components (on-the-job training and in-school technical training) and advanced standing may apply to either of these components, depending on the type of previous learning and policies within the jurisdiction. Credit for in-school technical training is given in the units of training delivery, such as blocks or modules; credit for a portion of a block or module is not granted. Assessments are usually undertaken by apprenticeship branch personnel, and are usually performed by comparing course outlines of previously completed formal training to the apprenticeship curriculum. Time credit may be given against the on-the-job portion of training. Employers are typically responsible for recommending the amount of work credit to be given, based on a subjective assessment of the apprentice’s skills. However, in some jurisdictions the apprenticeship branch plays a larger role in granting credit for the onthe-job portion of apprenticeship training. PLAR is typically undertaken once, upon initial registration of the apprentice or shortly thereafter. All new apprentices are eligible for a PLAR assessment.
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Policies vary in levels of formality and detail. Some policies are informal, leaving decisions to the discretion of the apprenticeship branch managers, who in turn may rely on the recommendations of apprenticeship field officers and employers. Other policies are very formal and have usually been vetted through trade or industry advisory committees for input and consultation, and have clearly spelled-out procedures that may be entrenched in trade regulations. The role of training providers varies across jurisdictions, depending on the extent to which individual apprenticeship branches delegate responsibilities to them. Policies for advanced standing in each jurisdiction may be applicable to all trades, while others may be tradespecific. The maximum amount of credit and the fees to undertake a PLAR assessment vary by jurisdiction. Candidates may or may not have to take examinations in writing.
According to recent statistics on Red-Seal trades,6 over 20% (76,965 out of 360,207) of Red Seals issued have been awarded to individuals who have challenged the interprovincial Red-Seal examination without having completed an apprenticeship programme. Percentages vary by trades.
4.3 PLAR for Foreign-Trained Tradespeople Tradespeople who have obtained a trade credential outside of Canada are generally not given automatic recognition of credential equivalency. Rather, the candidate
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would be given an opportunity to challenge the certification examination, or placement into an apprenticeship programme would be recommended.
5 Stakeholders in the Application of PLAR in Apprenticeship The key stakeholders who are directly involved in apprenticeship and trade certification include government apprenticeship authorities, industry and training providers.
5.1 Government As noted earlier, governments play a central role in PLAR for the trades. Some provinces and territories are more proactive than others regarding PLAR policies and practices. There are a number of reasons for institutional inertia regarding the improvement of PLAR practices and policies. For example:
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Recognizing prior learning is only a small part of the function of apprenticeship branch personnel and resources may be limited to expand this function. The number of apprentices is small, relative to college and university enrolments. According to Statistics Canada, there were over 1.3 million full-time and parttime students enrolled in Canadian colleges and universities. By comparison, there were approximately 150,000 apprentices in Canada at the end of 1999, a third of whom were new apprentices. Evaluation of skills for on-the-job credit is undertaken by employers, so a substantial amount of actual PLAR activity in apprenticeship is actually undertaken by industry, not the government. At this point, there appears to be no research linking credit given with examination pass rates or apprenticeship programme completion rates. As a result, there is a sense that credit-recognition is not one of the mechanisms that ‘needs fixing’. Other issues are commanding a higher priority within apprenticeship branches, such as increasing enrolment, retention and training delivery methods.
Despite these barriers, apprenticeship branches in some jurisdictions have become more active in reviewing PLAR-related policies and giving this issue more attention. As a result, centralization of administration presents an opportunity for harmonization both among jurisdictions and among trades within a jurisdiction. Also, targets for change are easy to identify. There are clear lines of responsibility and authority in a centralized administration system for apprenticeship and trade certification. This provides a clear focus for stakeholder input. On the other hand, decision-making can be slow and bureaucratic, and it may be difficult to change policies and practices. Policy can be influenced by stakeholders and political ideologies, but this may be counter-productive and have farreaching consequences. There is a lack of consistency in programmes and policies
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across jurisdictions, which compounds mobility issues. A lack of consistency in data collection, data reporting and data sharing makes it difficult to find and interpret information; this complicates understanding of what the issues are and how to address them. There may be uncertainty regarding the ability of non-subject-matter experts within apprenticeship branches to effectively conduct in-school and workcredit assessments, and to assess the eligibility of candidates to challenge certification examinations. Finally, resource availability is an issue for all jurisdictions, including both small ones with few resources and larger ones with many clients to serve.
5.2 Industry As key players in apprenticeship, employers commit to providing on-the-job training that is consistent with the provincial/territorial curriculum, and (in nearly all jurisdictions) they are actively engaged in assessing the competencies of new apprentices for advanced standing towards the on-the-job portion of apprenticeship training. Employers are often required to ‘sign off’ on each specific task or skill area once the apprentice has demonstrated competency in that task. In most jurisdictions, industry committees or apprenticeship boards are responsible for collaborating with apprenticeship branches to monitor apprenticeship and certification-related issues on a trade basis. As a result of these circumstances, industry has the opportunity to be plugged into the apprenticeship and trade certification process. As subject-matter experts, industry is in a good position to be more effective in PLAR. For example, industry can assess competencies of apprentices, and tradespeople monitor or evaluate the PLAR agreements between apprenticeship branches and colleges that offer nonapprenticeship trades training, and they can participate in the development of benchmarks and evaluation instruments. Industry can also recommend changes to policies and procedures that will improve the apprenticeship and certification system, as well as the quality of tradespeople coming out of this system. However, there are concerns regarding the effectiveness of PLAR for employers. First, the dual roles of industry as employers of apprentices and training providers of apprentices may come into conflict. Sometimes, self-interested employers may manipulate the amount of credit they grant to apprentices. In the short-term, it can lead to failure on the certification examination, which is a personal failure for the apprentice (who may become disenchanted with apprenticeship and may possibly leave the trades) and indicates a potential problem in the apprenticeship system overall. This practice does not serve the long-term interests of apprentices either, since apprenticeship is the venue in which critical skills are learned. If these skills have not been taught or practised, the apprentices will not be able to apply them in the workplace and may appear to be incompetent. Second, some employers may not have the resources or skills to undertake proper evaluations or to deliver effective on-the-job training. As a result, apprentices may not be successful at certification examinations even though they thought they were
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trained and assessed properly. Alternately, they may ‘slip through the cracks’ and become certified, only to find that they do not have the skills that they need. Third, the loudest voices in industry may not necessarily be the most representative voices. Particularly in industries where employers are fragmented, it is difficult to get a sense of what employers want and what the issues are. This leaves industry vulnerable and unable to voice its concerns—about PLAR, for example— effectively.
5.3 Training Providers Designated providers of apprenticeship training may be private trainers, such as union-operated training centres, or public training institutions, such as colleges. For nearly all jurisdictions, the apprenticeship branch administers the in-school technical training and co-ordinates training sessions. Training providers are responsible for adopting a curriculum that is developed at the provincial/territorial level. In a small number of jurisdictions, the training provider is called upon to undertake PLAR assessments for incoming apprentices on behalf of the government apprenticeship branch. The key benefit of accrediting training providers to provide technical apprenticeship training is that there is an existing educational infrastructure in place. Training providers have systems in place for the administration and management of students, instructors and programmes, including the development of course outlines. However, training providers often tailor at least part of their course outlines to meet the requirements of local industry. As a result, students may not learn the topics described in the provincial apprenticeship curriculum. Lack of coverage may result in failure during the certification examination, and it may also result in a less well-rounded tradesperson. Furthermore, some public training institutions offer full-length nonapprenticeship programmes that teach similar trade skills to apprenticeship programmes. The tuition fees for non-apprenticeship programmes are significantly higher and the duration of training may be longer. Students may not be aware of the distinction between apprenticeship and non-apprenticeship training, even though both take place at the same location.
6 Assessment Issues 6.1 Assessment Issues in PLAR for Apprenticeship There is a concern that subjective PLAR processes might compromise the integrity of apprenticeship. These concerns can be addressed in a variety of ways. For example:
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Candidates who are given exemptions for previous formal training should be required to write examinations at the end of each apprenticeship year, regardless of the extent of credit that has been granted. Candidates should be made to understand the purpose, process and methodology of assessments beforehand. A detailed task assessment should be undertaken which corresponds to the apprenticeship curriculum, in addition to the verification of previous trade-related employment. Employers should be encouraged to be diligent about the amount of credit they recommend and their responsibility to provide a full-breadth of supervised onthe-job training. Assessment methods should include hands-on demonstrations of competence in required skills. Assessors should thoroughly understand tasks that apprentices are required to complete during an apprenticeship programme. This includes familiarity with trade terminology, as well as a general understanding of how much time is needed to become competent at each core task.
These practices would increase transparency, help ensure the validity of the assessment process and improve the reliability of PLAR. In the long-run, the benefits accumulate in terms of efficiencies within the vocational training environment, as well as ensuring that the quality of skills is maintained within the skilled labour force.
6.2 Assessment Issues in the Trade-Qualifier Process A significant observation regarding Red-Seal statistics—other than the fact that it is heavily used—is that the examination pass rate for trade qualifiers is much lower than the pass rate for candidates who have completed apprenticeship programmes (Table 2). The higher pass rates for apprentices reflect the integrity of apprenticeship training. Conversely, the low pass rates for trade qualifiers may not reflect as well on the effectiveness of the trade-qualifier process. For individuals—particularly foreigntrained tradespeople in a compulsory trade—who are relying on the examination to determine whether or not they will be eligible to practise their trade at the journeyperson level, failure has significant consequences. There are several possible implications resulting from the lower pass rate for trade qualifiers (Cross-Canada Partnership on PLAR, 2003):
Table 2 2002 Red-Seal statistics for plumbers Apprenticeship candidates Total
Trade qualifiers
No. written
No. passed
% passed
No. written
No. passed
% passed
898
708
79
188
61
32
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The eligibility pre-requisites are not rigorous enough. This suggests that PLAR policies may need to be changed to make eligibility requirements more rigorous. The eligibility pre-requisites are appropriate, but assessment and verification of experience is problematic. For example, some jurisdictions verify that a tradesperson has been employed doing trade-related tasks by contacting previous employers and receiving verbal confirmation of trade-related employment. More comprehensive assessment by qualified assessors may be necessary to verify experience. The importance of theoretical and/or structured (supervised) training is underrated or ignored in the examination challenge process. In the past, this may have been appropriate; however, changes in technology and building codes may now make at least some formal training necessary to acquire trade competency. Therefore: – PLAR assessments for trade challengers should include a requirement to attend some sort of mandatory theoretical training prior to taking the examination; or – The examination should be rebalanced to reflect more practical elements and less theoretical elements.
The validity and reliability of the certification examination itself may be the cause for higher failure rates. For example:
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Apprentices who attend in-school sessions are more likely to be in ‘student mode’. They will likely have completed apprenticeship examinations at the end of each level, so they will be familiar with examination preparation. Tradequalifiers may not have written a comprehensive examination for some time, so the stress might affect their performance on the examination. The examination content might not accurately reflect actual tasks performed by tradespeople on the job. The text of the examination questions might require a higher level of literacy than the candidates possess. Examination formats (i.e. multiple-choice, pen-and-paper) might not be a valid means of testing trade knowledge because of weaknesses in essential reading, writing and math skills. Apprenticeship entrance examinations diagnose gaps in these essential skills. Tests of essential skills may be relevant for both incoming apprentices and trade qualifiers. Test items emphasize theoretical knowledge of the trade rather than practical or hands-on competencies.
7 Conclusions A key objective is to increase PLAR to accelerate the progress of qualified workers towards a C of Q credential, and to better measure the extent of skills in the trades
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in Canada. These plans to increase the use of PLAR must also ensure that PLAR does not dilute the depth or breadth of skills in the trades. It is clear that there are many ways in which PLAR processes can be strengthened. Unfortunately, there is a lack of transparency in PLAR within many jurisdictions, and an even greater lack in information that would help pinpoint ways to improve its overall effectiveness. Despite a strong foundation in Canada,
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apprenticeship and skilled trades are stigmatized as a ‘low achievement’ career path; apprenticeship enrolment is low; and completion rates are even lower.
Further, there is a lack of research in Canada on the effectiveness of PLAR and a lack of awareness outside the skilled trades’ community about the role of PLAR in trades training. In summary, the findings and observations described in this discussion permit us to make the following general conclusions:
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The quality of Canada’s skilled workforce in the trades depends on effective PLAR. This is because of the importance of trade qualifiers, multiple certificates, immigration and the unique need to evaluate on-the-job training. There are only two routes to trade certification (apprenticeship and certification through the trade-qualifier process). Both of these routes must be managed carefully to maintain the integrity of trade certification in Canada. Assessment of previous experience via employment documentation is a significant potential weakness in PLAR due to its subjective nature. There is a relationship between PLAR and skill shortages. ‘Bad’ PLAR can contribute to skill shortages if unqualified tradespeople acquire certification, or if skill gaps occur when apprentices are exempted from entire blocks/levels of technical training. This may ultimately undermine the quality of the workforce. ‘Good’ PLAR ensures that skill gaps are identified and can be addressed, thus reducing the possibility of skill shortages. Slow or inefficient PLAR processes can delay the recognition of skilled workers and deter new applicants. Standardizing PLAR policies and procedures for apprenticeship across Canada is difficult when the content of apprenticeship programmes varies across provinces/ territories. However, co-ordination of PLAR practices among the provinces/ territories is possible, and already exists in a limited way in some jurisdictions. Furthermore, it may be possible to standardize the qualification process for candidates who wish to challenge the interprovincial Red-Seal examination based on experience. There is an economic benefit to recognizing skills, and effective PLAR allows this process to occur more efficiently. This is particularly true where there is a mechanism to permit individuals to challenge a certification examination via a
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trade-qualifier process. Economic benefits also occur when the cost of vocational training is reduced by utilizing PLAR. Strengthening PLAR should be a priority initiative in apprenticeship and trade certification, and should be reflected both in added resources for government apprenticeship branches and additional scrutiny by all stakeholders.
Notes 1. In 2003, the authors were engaged by the National Pipe Trades Human Resources Committee (NPTHRC) to develop a report on PLAR entitled ‘Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition: Apprenticeship and Certification in the Pipe Trades’ (2004). Excerpts from the report were used in this chapter, with permission from NPTHRC. 2. ‘Credit transfer: acceptance or recognition of credits by a receiving institution for one or several courses or for a whole programme taken at another institution.’ (Source: Ontario College University Transfer Guide: <www.ocutg.on.ca>.) 3. ‘Articulation agreement: an official agreement between two or more institutions [. . .] that authorizes studies undertaken in specific programs at one institution to be credited toward [. . .] specific programs at another institution.’ (Source: Ontario College University Transfer Guide: <www.ocutg.on.ca>.) 4. A few jurisdictions offer other trade credentials in addition to a certificate of qualification, while some jurisdictions use slightly different terminology for their C of Q credential. 5. All Canadian jurisdictions participate in the Red-Seal programme. However, in order to be eligible for a Red-Seal endorsement, the trade must be designated for certification within the jurisdiction. 6. Statistics shown here are for Red Seals awarded to date for all trades, as of 31 December 2002. Many jurisdictions have adopted the interprovincial Red-Seal examination as the provincial/territorial C of Q examination. Therefore, some individuals may be writing the examination to acquire both a provincial/territorial C of Q, as well as the Red-Seal endorsement (i.e. concurrently). Others may already have a C of Q and are taking the examination to acquire the Red-Seal endorsement only. The Red-Seal statistics do not differentiate the two, although they do differentiate between candidates who have completed apprenticeship programmes and candidates who have not. Statistics on PLAR in trade certification for non-Red Seal trades are not readily available.
References Belanger, C.; Mount, J. 1998. Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) in Canadian universities. The Canadian journal of higher education, vol. 28, nos. 2/3, pp. 99–120. Cross-Canada Partnership on PLAR. 1999. A slice of the iceberg: cross-Canada study of Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition. Ottawa: Canadian Association of Prior Learning. <www.capla.org> Cross-Canada Partnership on PLAR. 2003. Feedback from learners: a second cross-Canada study of Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition. Ottawa: Canadian Association of Prior Learning. <www.capla.org>
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Chapter XV.10
Transformative Learning Theory and TVET Karen Magro
1 Introduction Globalization of the economy, the restructuring of the workplace and rapid technical innovation challenge the workplace today to prepare for continuous change and lifelong learning. As a way of reducing social exclusion, alienation, unemployment and the polarization of ‘professional’ and ‘technical’ jobs or trades, it may be valuable to examine how transformative learning theory can maximize motivation, participation, and educational and work opportunities for all (Tuijnman, 1997). Transformative learning is a ‘deeper level’ learning that involves creativity, critical thinking, emotional self-awareness and a change in one’s perspective leading to positive change. To address the challenges faced by individuals in the twenty-first century, researchers such as Hall (2002) and O’Sullivan, Morrell and O’Connor (2002) suggest that new directions in understanding personal, social and global change are needed. Criticizing a global market economy that is held together, in part, by coercion and force, Hall (2002) asserts that ‘we have the right to a New Utopian vision, a vision that responds to the collective needs of the majority of people in the world, not simply a few’ (p. 43). Part of the challenge to create this new vision involves innovative programming in education and training. This chapter will explore the application of transformative learning theory (Clark, 1993; Cranton, 1994; Daloz, 1990; Freire, 1997; Mezirow, 1981, 2000) to technical and vocational education and training (TVET). Factors such as the educational climate, the role of the educator, the process of learning, the nature of assessment and the limitations of transformative learning theory will be discussed. TVET has been influenced to a large degree by the behavioural and apprenticeship models of learning, where instructor-directed techniques, ‘hands-on activities’, practice and demonstration and formal assessment techniques that concentrate on skill competencies have been emphasized (see Taylor, 2000). Although traditional applied technical education is still offered, more holistic educational programmes emphasizing emotional intelligence and personal development are assuming greater importance (Goleman & Cherniss, 2001; Taylor, Marieneau & Fiddler, 2000; Spence, 1999). Blending or integrating different perspectives of learning can enhance and enrich education in diverse trade and skill areas, such as welding, refrigeration, carpentry, R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XV.10, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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auto body repair, costume design, computer software application, cosmetology and aircraft maintenance. Daloz (1990), for example, emphasizes the need for educators in all disciplines to align course content and curriculum with the larger context of learners’ lives and the global issues that challenge them. These issues include: technological change, nuclear threat, geopolitical shifts, over-population, spiritual longing and environmental degradation. Daloz asserts that part of education should help learners to empower themselves and to take an active part in improving the world. ‘We should work hard to help students make the connections between the micro and the macro, between the everyday details of their lives and the broader world in those details that finally do make a difference’ (p. 8). In a technical and vocational context, addressing global issues would serve to broaden and enhance the learner’s experience.
2 A Conceptual Framework The model of transformational learning can be an important framework for enhancing learning at many levels in TVET. Transformative learning can be examined within a TVET context as it relates to:
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the development of quality educational programmes that go beyond teaching functional literacy skills; the process of learning, the role of the educators, and teaching and learning strategies used to promote transformative learning; and professional staff development and applications to organizations.
Transformational learning involves deep-seated changes in existing values, attitudes, beliefs and, ultimately, the actions of individuals. Transformative learning can involve both personal and social change. The ideas of transformative learning theories have been applied to social and environmental movements (i.e. literacy education, ecological movements, the rights of the disenfranchized). Clark (1993) states that ‘transformational learning produces far-reaching changes in the learners than does learning in general, and that these changes can have a significant impact on the learner’s subsequent experience. In short, transformational learning shapes people; they are different afterward, in ways both they and others can recognize’ (p. 47). O’Sullivan et al. (2002) further write that: Transformational learning involves experiencing a deep, structural shift in the basic premises of thought, feeling, and actions. It is a shift of consciousness that dramatically and permanently alters our way of being in the world. Such a shift involves our understanding of ourselves and self-locations; our relationships with other humans and with the natural world; our understanding of relations of power in interlocking structures of race, class, and gender; our body-awareness; our visions of alternative approaches to living; and our sense of the possibilities for social justice and peace and personal joy (p. 11).
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3 The Nature of Change and Work in Adulthood Mezirow’s (1981, 1990, 2000) theory of transformative theory can be a particularly useful lens when looking at the nature of work and change in adulthood. Often, adults seek out new learning experiences to cope with life-changing events—a new job, a promotion, a move to a new city, divorce, marriage, etc. The more life-changing events an adult encounters, the greater the likelihood that they may seek out new opportunities to learn. In trade occupations, such as welding, construction and carpentry, there is a higher risk for accidents and accompanying job loss. Individuals need to be prepared to consider alternative work settings if they become ill or decide that their present job does not challenge them. Occupations in technical and vocational settings challenge individuals to be lifelong learners, open to keeping up with current trends and applying and transferring skills to new contexts. Mezirow’s ideas also emphasize the importance of educators being able to understand the barriers that can impede adult learners from achieving their potential. A recent Canadian Commission for UNESCO document (2003) identifies that, while lifelong learning offers adults the chance to be more creative and active in contributing to community life and to furthering their personal development, many adults are hindered because of the barriers they may experience. Lack of time and money, low self-esteem, limited work prospects, lack of easy access to information technologies, prior learning that is inadequate, scheduling problems or problems with childcare and transportation are frequently cited barriers to learning (see Canadian Commission for UNESCO, 2003). Technical and vocational educators sensitive to some of these barriers are in a greater position to work collaboratively with students and administrative personnel to create strategies that could reduce these barriers. ‘Adult learning can shape individuals’ identity and give meaning to their lives, as well as ensure active citizenship and full participation in a society for all adults. Learning throughout life thus becomes a joy, a tool, a right, and a shared responsibility’ (UNESCO/ILO, 2002). Patricia Cross’s (1981) ‘Chain of Response Model’ can provide a useful framework for understanding the complex psychological and social factors that lead to education. Attitudes toward education, life transitions, barriers and opportunities, as well as the importance of goals, can result in participation.
4 The Process of Learning and the Role of The Educator Mezirow (1981, 1990) describes transformational learning as ‘a psycho-educational process’ of helping individuals understand and challenge ‘distortions’ in their thinking patterns and life worlds. He asserts that adulthood is often a time for reassessing the assumptions of our formative years that may have resulted in distorted or limited self-perceptions. Mezirow’s (1981) early literacy work with college re-entry women highlighted the different stages and changes that learners may experience as
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they explore new personal and career roles and options. For many of the women in Mezirow’s pioneering study, risk taking, exploring new roles and acting on them challenged them to re-evaluate their more socially accepted roles as mothers and spouses. Through in-depth interviews, Mezirow identified a series of learning stages: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
A disorienting dilemma (i.e. a job loss, a divorce); Self-examination with feelings of fear, anger, guilt or shame; A critical assessment of assumptions; Recognition that one’s discontentment and the process of transformation are shared; Exploration of options for new roles, relationships and action; Planning a course of action; Acquiring knowledge and skills for implementing one’s plans; Provisional trying of new roles; Building competence and self-confidence in new roles and relationships; A reintegration into one’s life on the basis of conditions dictated by one’s new perspective.
Through collaborative problem-solving, in addition to academic and personal support, many of the women in Mezirow’s study went on to accomplish their personal and career goals. Cranton (2000) clearly emphasizes that not all learners go through these stages in a sequential manner; the process of learning is complex and influenced by many factors such as personality, learning style and motivational goals. From Mezirow’s perspective, the educator is described as an ‘empathetic provocateur’ and role model who is critically self-reflective; he or she encourages others to consider alternative perspectives. The process of transformative learning, notes Mezirow, helps learners gain a sense of agency over themselves and their lives. Mezirow (1991) contends that a central goal of adult education should involve creating conditions to help adult learners become more critically reflective and ‘advance developmentally’ toward more ‘integrated and discriminating meaning perspectives’ (p. 225). Educators ‘help learners link self-insights with social concerns and thereby realize that their dilemmas are shared’ (Mezirow, 1991, p. 206). Similarly, Cranton (2000) writes that ‘fostering transformative learning involves helping learners bring the sources, nature, and consequences of taken-for-granted assumptions into critical awareness so that appropriate action can be taken’ (p. 195). In describing the process of learning from the viewpoint of the learner, Mezirow et al. (2000) write that transformative learning can occur through a ‘reframing’ of assumptions—one’s own or others’. Subjective reframing, for example, can occur when the individual reflects on:
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A narrative—applying a reflective insight from someone else’s narrative to one’s own experience; A system—economic, cultural, political, educational or communal;
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An organization or workplace; Emotional and interpersonal relations as in psychological counselling or psychotherapy.
Critical reflection and thinking are at the heart of transformative learning. Apps (1991) emphasizes that the processes of critical thinking are not ‘skills’ individuals master immediately; rather, they may be viewed as continuing intellectual problems encountered at different levels of difficulty and sophistication throughout our lives. Brookfield (1995) and Cranton (2000) suggest that activities like journal writing, collaborative problem-solving, debates, autobiographies, presentations, critical questioning, research papers, role playing and demonstrations are among the teaching and assessment strategies and techniques that could be used to help learners work toward reflective and deeper-level thinking.
5 The Work of Paulo Freire and Literacy Education While Mezirow’s (1981) work centres primarily on the process of individual change, the transformative ideas of the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire (1973, 1997) address social, economic and political inequities and the importance of radical change. For Freire, education is never neutral—it has the power to either liberate or oppress individuals. Like Mezirow, Freire emphasized that the educator can play a key role as a catalyst of transformative change and learning. Personality characteristics that effective educators and mentors would possess include: empathy, enthusiasm, congruence or genuineness, and an unconditional positive regard. Effective educators are also critical thinkers who reflect about their own practice. From Freire’s (1997) perspective, the educator assumes the role of the co-learner who, with empathy and insight, understands the existential reality of the learners’ lives. The educator identifies more with roles, such as a facilitator, challenger, researcher, mentor, role model and resource person. Learning becomes more meaningful when students are actively engaged in exploring ideas and creating new knowledge in collaborative and self-directed ways. Within a supportive classroom environment, learners would be more likely to take risks, explore new ideas, confront erroneous assumptions and seek more effective solutions to existing problems. Education becomes democratic when educators participate collaboratively with adult learners in ‘critical and liberating dialogue that varies in accordance with historical conditions and the level at which the oppressed perceive reality’ (Freire, 1997, p. 57). Freire uses the term ‘conscientization’ to refer to the process of becoming critically aware of one’s life-world through an in-depth interpretation of problems and dialogue with others. Adult learners are actively involved in defining their own needs, interests and goals. Through ‘praxis’ or the interplay between critical reflection and action, individuals are able to move from being objects who are ‘carried away in the wake of change’ to individuals who create and intervene in a situation. The teacher’s conviction that she or he can learn from
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the student is a cornerstone in Freire’s problem-posing process of critical reflection. Stemming from his pioneering literacy work with disadvantaged youth and adults in Brazil, Freire (1997) believed that literacy programmes must offer more than ‘functional skills’ that would limit the individual’s opportunity to improve and participate in a democratic society. Freire emphasized that teachers must move from teaching ‘the word’ to helping individuals understand the world. Freire’s (1973, 1997) ideas have particular relevance in today’s world where many individuals are excluded from social, political and cultural arenas of life. Limited access to education, skills training, health care and employment—as a result of factors such as systemic racism, poverty and war—have created a world of ‘haves and have nots’. This strain can be felt on social security systems and in society more broadly (Chinien et al., 2002, p. 20). Individuals who are able to contribute in meaningful ways need to possess a wide range of cognitive and affective skills. In books like ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’, Freire (1997) wrote that too often disenfranchized youth and adults internalize negative self-perceptions leading to fear, anxiety and depression. According to Freire, individuals who internalize the role of the ‘illiterate’ or ‘unemployed’ can become ‘crushed, diminished, converted into a spectator, manipulated by myths which powerful social forces create; ultimately, they destroy and annihilate the individuals.’ Freire rejected literacy programmes that focused solely on individuals acquiring basic functional or technical skills; transformative literacy education, whether in the classroom or the workplace, should help individuals gain a critical awareness of the social and political systems that may be oppressing them. In this way, learners can move beyond a ‘culture of silence’.
6 Applications of Transformative Learning Theory to TVET How can the ideas presented by theorists like Freire and Mezirow enhance the quality of TVET? In his review of TVET programmes, Mair (1997) highlights the importance of technical and vocational students being able to have opportunities to think more creatively and critically. A strength of transformative learning theory as it relates to technical and vocational contexts is its emphasis on active participation, critical thinking, and divergent thinking through dialogue and discussion. The technical/vocational teacher is not only an ‘expert’ who demonstrates a particular skill or evaluates the competence level of the learner through preset objectives. Learners are not passive vessels, but active participants in their own learning. Knowledge is acquired from experience with complex, meaningful problems rather than from simply practising sub-skills and isolating fragments of knowledge. Researchers like Candy (1991) emphasize that, if learners are not given opportunities to develop metacognitive and critical thinking skills early on, they may enter educational programmes ‘conceptually underdeveloped’; the reproductive and limited nature of surface-level approaches to learning (i.e. memorizing, practice and drill) can bypass the complex
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or holistic understanding of the content material. Biggs (1988) notes that, if ‘deeper level’ learning is to be fostered, students must first be aware of ‘their motives and intentions, their own cognitive resources, and of the demands of the academic tasks; and second, that they are able to control those resources and monitor their consequent performance’ (p. 187). Writing summary statements, rephrasing content or formulating questions about new information or material, comparing the new material to what is already known, and explaining new material to peers in pairs or small groups are ways that educators can help learners develop ‘deeper-level’ thinking skills. Both Freire (1997) and Mezirow (2000) emphasize that learners bring prior knowledge and experience with them to class. The teacher works with the learners to confirm, critique, reflect, modify, replace and add to what is already there. Freire’s ‘problem posing’ education drew from the experiences of his students; literacy programmes evolved from the specific social context of the learners through their thoughts and aspirations. An important observation from Freire’s work is that skills and knowledge are best acquired in a meaningful context; individuals do not easily or predictably transfer learning from school to different work contexts. Participation and motivation are also enhanced when the learners’ experiences are valued, validated and integrated into the programme of study. In a technical vocational context, instructors are challenged to find more creative ways to assess the needs of their learners and design curricula that incorporate the experiences of their students. Freire’s ideas emphasize the importance of instructors understanding the way prior experiences, personality and motivation can influence learning and attitudes toward education.
7 Applications of Freire’s Ideas Spence (1999) writes that in many vocational work contexts where labour unions offer educational initiatives literacy issues surface. ‘One of the most dramatic changes in labor union-sponsored work force education is its broad scope. Although traditional applied technical education is still offered, liberal educational programs emphasizing personal development are assuming greater importance’ (p. 1). Companies are realizing the interrelationship between personal development, community development and vocational training. Spence further asserts that literacy issues underlie many educational initiatives. For example, production workers who need further skills in linguistic and numerical literacy may be excluded from promotion or management-sponsored skills-training programmes. Some labour unions are critically examining equity issues and barriers that low-paid, low-status or female employees’ experience. Increasing educational access would involve addressing barriers, such as lack of literacy skills, childcare, transportation and financial stresses. Spence suggests that situational barriers, such as childcare and transportation, could be dealt with by providing stipends and supportive services. Additional incentives to complete certificates and degrees would
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encourage workers to work toward long-term goals that would result in more personal and career satisfaction. By taking a holistic view of worker education, trade union educational programmes are no longer involved solely with vocational education, but have expanded to include programmes for literacy education in the workplace, aimed at eliminating the stigma of ‘illiteracy’ for those in need of ‘basic education’. Differentiated teaching strategies incorporating multiple-intelligence theory, technology, learning styles research and meta-cognitive strategies are suggested, in addition to using different terminology, such as ‘communications skills’ or ‘foundations skills’, to describe literacy courses. Such measures would help to attract more reluctant learners. In his book ‘Union Learning: Canadian Labour Education in the 20th Century’, Taylor (2001) also highlights the important roles that trade unions can play in establishing educational opportunities for their workers based on adult learning principles. ‘As employers and governments restructured the economy and dismantled public institutions in the 1980s, however, the terms of the training debate shifted. First, members were demanding that their unions assist them as they faced the prospect of finding a new line of work when their jobs were relocated to the southern United States, Mexico, or overseas’ (p. 155). National Education Advisory Communities (NEACs) were established to examine training and education programmes for union members. ‘A key feature of this activist education was that workers should teach other workers. The persons best suited to facilitate and lead discussions were workers themselves, and emphasis was placed on training and supporting working in the objectives and principles of adult and popular education’ (Taylor, 2001, p. 206). In his review of courses, workshops and conferences provided by unions across North America, Taylor found that an increasing shift was made from ‘technical training’ to themes involving: problem solving; communication; negotiating a family friendly workplace; health and safety; leadership and organization; globalization and free trade; and human rights education. A number of the programmes that Taylor reviewed in cities like Winnipeg and Saskatoon emphasized a holistic approach to learning that integrated the individual, the workplace, the family and the community. Innovative programmes developed by unions in Saskatchewan and Ontario highlighted Freire’s ‘problem posing’ approach: [Educational] activists use popular education techniques such as those promoted by Paulo Freire and Miles Horton to build what they believed to be learner-centered programs. Course leaders were equal members of the groups in which they participated, encouraging all participants to take an active and critical role in determining subject matter, learning methods, and class direction. [. . .] While participants learned how to read and write and do mathematics in these courses, these were presented as tools to be used for broader social purposes. In some cases the tools would facilitate individual career enhancement, but in others, they would be used in union work or in some other collective endeavor (Taylor, 2001, p. 222).
Further research is needed to investigate the long-term benefits that these educational programmes have on individuals and the quality of their workplace and their future career trajectories.
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8 Teaching and Learning Strategies Fostering Transformative Learning Educators in technical and vocational settings may not be familiar with the wide range of instructional strategies and techniques suggested by writers like Cranton (1994), Mezirow (1991) and Candy (1991). Opportunities to offer educational workshops for instructors interested in integrating transformative teaching and learning strategies could be provided. Instructors need to explore new ways that practical and technical skills can be integrated with the creative and artistic dimensions of learning. In addition, it is important for educators to reflect more critically on their own personal philosophy and on the quality of their students’ learning. Brookfield (1995) suggests that the critical incident questionnaire (CIQ) is one important way for educators to understand at a deeper level their students’ individual experience of learning. He writes that the critical incident questionnaires are brief written reports capturing different aspects of the students’ experiences of learning. These reports could be completed by the students after each class or workshop. Sample questions that could be asked might include:
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What have I learned this week about myself as a learner? What were the learning high points this week? What did I find difficult or confusing about this session or workshop? What did I feel surprised about? Of everything I did this week in my learning, what would I do differently if I had to do it again? What do I feel proudest about regarding my learning activities this week? What learning tasks did I respond to most easily this week? What learning tasks gave me the greatest difficulties this week? (Brookfield, 1995, p. 98).
Cranton (2000) suggests that educators use personality and learning style inventories to help learn more about their students’ individual interests and styles of learning. McMillan and Forsyth (1991) suggest several ways that intrinsic motivation and a positive attitude toward learning can be enhanced. They suggest that instructors can: 1. Introduce the course and each topic in an interesting, informative and challenging way. 2. Present material at a challenging level that communicates respect for the adults’ interests and abilities. 3. Use varied and creative styles of teaching to maintain the students’ interests. 4. Focus on higher-order learning outcomes, such as application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. 5. Model enthusiasm for the course. As stated earlier, the psychological climate of the classroom or learning environment is central to encouraging ‘deeper level’ or transformative types of learning
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(see Brookfield, 1987; Candy, 1993). Freire’s ideas challenge the teacher to create a ‘safe haven’ where learners can interact creatively with others. Encouraging critical thinking could involve instructors providing discussions where students question the basis for beliefs or when students are encouraged to reason deductively and hypothetically. Other processes involved in critical thinking might include:
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Becoming aware of one’s own reasoning processes and being able to select appropriate strategies for problem-solving; Stating a hypothesis and supporting it with appropriate reasoning and evidence; Welcoming diversity and accepting the tentativeness of knowledge; Identifying the values or ethical issues underlying a conflict; Probing for unstated assumptions; Articulating sympathetically the point of view of one who disagrees with you.
The experiential model of learning developed by David Kolb (1984) can also complement transformative learning models by providing more practical teaching and learning strategies in a wide range of technical and vocational contexts. The technical mastery of skills needed in fields such as carpentry and graphic design, for example, could be complemented by more artistic and creative opportunities to learn through different modalities. For Kolb, learning occurs through the active extension and grounding of ideas and experiences in the external world, and through an internal reflection about these experiences and ideas. The learning cycle begins with the learner’s personal involvement with an experience (i.e. case study, field work, film); the learner then reflects on this experience through different viewpoints (i.e. discussion, journals, response to questions). As a result of this reflection, the learner develops theories and logical conclusions about events that they might write about (i.e. theory building, reports). Thus, a balance of teaching and learning strategies that might include reading, field work, case studies, discussion, theory and model building, and both collaborative and self-directed projects, would maximize motivation and participation. While individuals have unique and preferred styles of learning, Kolb suggests that ideally individuals should have the opportunity to experience activities in all four dimensions of the learning cycle.
9 Integrating Transformative Learning with Apprenticeship Models Lynch (1997) states that the key role of vocational education should be ‘to facilitate construction of knowledge through experiential, contextual, and social methods in real-world environments’ (p. 27). The creative elements of transformative learning theory can serve to complement and enhance apprenticeship models of learning often applied in technical vocational settings. The classroom could be viewed as a creative workshop and forum for new designs and innovative products. Taking on the role of a co-learner, a guide and a reflective mentor, the teacher would not simply be expecting predictable learning outcomes and products. By integrating
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different learning strategies, far greater possibilities exist that students will generate more innovative designs, models and products in occupations like aerospace design, mechanical engineering, carpentry and the culinary arts. Constructivist learning theory emphasizes that individuals learn by constructing meaning in unique ways based on prior experience, personality traits and their interaction with others. By integrating academic content with situations meaningful to students, instructors can help adults develop skills more rapidly than through traditional ‘instructor-directed’ approaches, such as the lecture (see Imel, 2000). Imel states that constructivism challenges the technical-rational approach to education by redefining the process of learning and the way knowledge is created. Citing research conducted by Dirkx, Amey and Haston (1999), Imel (2000) asserts that constructivist learning theory is often underutilized in colleges and technical training centres. According to Imel, these studies found that the teaching/learning strategies employed, and the assessment procedures and curriculum choices reflected technical-rational interpretations of knowledge and that the learning goals reflected teachers’, policymakers’ or curriculum developers’ ideas of how knowledge should be constructed and applied in a given context. The technical literacy components of the courses in a large mid-western community college in the United States of America, for example, ‘reveal that the texts view literacy as a skill or task and thus take a particular political stance toward the creation of knowledge and the position of the learner, mainly that knowledge creation lies outside of the learner and that learners must passively react to rather than change social situations’ (Dirkx, Amey & Haston, 1999, p. 294). The emphasis remained not on helping learners construct their own meaning, but in the instructors reinforcing and projecting their own representations of meaning. Another criticism that these researchers found was that the texts used reflected a ‘deficit perspective’ toward the students. The lessons assumed that the students had little or no prior experience and knowledge with the skills being taught, and without ‘direct instruction’ the appropriate skill levels would not be reached. Imel (2000) suggests that instructors and programme planners should be more critically reflective of their own role and approach to teaching. They also need to examine the curriculum materials for bias and stereotyping. Moreover, ‘rather than making assumptions about the context of learner lives, instructors should engage in discussions with learners to more fully understand their worlds. Questions such as “what do they need to know and why?” and “how will this information be used?” should guide these discussions’ (p. 2). Imel suggests that instructors should realize that they are not the only resource for learning in the classroom and that expertise can be drawn from the diverse interests and experiences of their students. The concepts of ‘situated cognition’ and ‘cognitive apprenticeship’ emphasize that knowledge is inseparable from the contexts and activities within which it develops. Contextualized learning:
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Emphasizes problem-solving; Recognizes that teaching and learning need to occur in multiple contexts;
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Assists students in learning how to monitor their learning so that they can become self-directed learners; Anchors teaching in the diverse life contexts of students; Encourages students to learn from each other; Employs authentic assessment (Imel, 2000).
A key assumption to understanding the concept of situated cognition is that learning is a process of enculturation (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989; Pratt et al., 1998). The context of learning is just as important as the skill or knowledge to be learned; individuals learn best if they are embedded in the culture in which knowing and learning have meaning. A ‘cognitive apprenticeship’ approach to teaching and learning would involve:
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Modelling (demonstrating a task so that the students can observe it); Coaching (assisting the learner during the performance of the task); Scaffolding (providing guidance initially and gradually removing it); Articulating (reasoning process and knowledge in use); Reflecting (comparing students’ problem-solving processes with those of an expert); Exploring (encouraging learners to establish their own goals).
The teacher’s role involves mentoring, guiding, challenging and coaching. Goleman and Cherniss (2001), for example, identify ways that teachers and leaders can design training programmes and deliver feedback in ‘emotionally intelligent’ ways that motivate rather than discourage workers and students. Assessing readiness, systematic needs assessment of specific skills needed, positive feedback with constructive suggestions for improvement, encouraging self-direction and giving individuals more time to develop skills are ways to develop competence in the classroom and workplace. The concept of the teacher as mentor and expert is well known in technical and vocational education. However, theorists such as Daloz (1986) and English (2001) suggest that the concept of mentor can be examined more critically from a transformative context. Effective mentors, according to English, possess personality traits, such as empathy and enthusiasm. They encourage critical thinking and challenge students to take risks and develop innovative solutions to problems. A good mentor is also a co-learner, willing to learn new ideas from his or her students. Teaching and learning are dynamic processes that involve change and transformation for both the mentor and mentee. Citing Parker Palmer’s book ‘The Courage to Teach’, English writes that as a mentor you need to continuously examine your own practice and attitudes toward teaching, by taking time to reflect on the ‘inner landscape of teaching’ (English, 2001, p. 268). ‘The adult educator as mentor is engaged in the promotion of knowledge, skills, and attitudes through coaching, teaching, befriending, listening, and challenging the learner mentees’ (ibid., p. 269). English further notes that mentees can benefit from the commitment and ‘degree of intentionality’ that mentors can direct to teaching.
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10 Limitations to Transformative Learning Theory Taylor (2000) suggests that transformative learning theory has much to offer adult educators, but the process of transformative learning is complex and may depend on many factors such as: the readiness of the learner; the personality and learning styles of both the teacher and learner; the curriculum content; the personal philosophy of the educator; the other learners in the classroom; and the mission of the department and institution. Indeed, while the adult educator may believe that transformative learning may be in the best interests of their learners, ‘it may not reflect the wishes and desires of the learners themselves or the institution in which (they) teach’ (Taylor, 2000, p. 87). Taylor suggests that further research is needed to understand the complex intra- and interpersonal dynamics of the teaching/helping relationship as they relate to transformative learning. Similarly, in her book ‘Understanding and Promoting Transformative Learning’, Cranton (1994) suggests that instructors first examine their own philosophy, the learners’ needs, and the way that particular ‘transformative’ techniques and strategies can be introduced gradually and in an appropriate context. In highlighting the influence of a department and institution over teaching style and instructional design, Kember and Gow (1995) found that the specific guidelines of a department have ‘a fairly strong influence over the teaching of individual lecturers’ (p. 70). In departments where ‘effective teaching’ is conceptualized as ‘knowledge transmission’, didactic teaching methods are more likely to be the preferred departmental teaching orientation. ‘The extent to which a faculty member’s conception of teaching is a reflection of the individual or department presumably depends upon the balance of individual autonomy and department and institutional pressures’ (Kember & Gow, 1995, p. 71). Studies examining adult educators’ personal philosophy of practice suggest that instructors have diverse theories of teaching and do not necessarily share the ideals reflected in transformative theories of learning (Magro, 1999). Instructors often stated that they had to balance their teaching ideals with the practical realities of working in an education system that emphasized mastery learning, standardized testing and condensed teaching formats, where the transmission of knowledge rather than the exploration of ideas took precedence. One instructor at a technical college for applied arts and sciences explained: We have to fight to keep the word education in our programs. So many programs are becoming ‘training’ nowadays. The administration keeps asking for key productivity indicators and this is particularly frustrating when you work in basic literacy. When my students come to my class, I’m hoping that they will find some control over their lives in some other way beside the economic way (Magro, 2003, p. 30)
The extensive research by Pratt et al. (1998) also found that adult educators in a wide range of disciplines had diverse teaching philosophies. Each perspective or philosophy was linked to their views of the learner, the process of learning, their approach to programme design and planning, assessment, preferred strategies, and their own role and responsibility. Pratt concluded that, given the diverse and pluralistic nature of teaching adults, it is naive to think that there is ‘one best way’ to
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teach. Pratt encourages educators to articulate their personal philosophy and reflect more deeply into why they choose certain learning and assessment strategies and techniques over others. Teaching perspectives, asserts Pratt, represent ‘powerful but largely invisible frames of reference through which all of us make meaning of our world’ (ibid., p. 37). By becoming more aware of different theories and approaches to teaching, educators can enrich themselves as well as the educational opportunities they provide for their students.
11 Current and Future Directions Theorists like O’Sullivan et al. (2002), Hall (2002) and Clover (2002) have written extensively on transformative learning within a global economy. How do we reconcile socio-economic development with environmental protection and restoration? It is not enough for workers today to have skills and knowledge; they must be able to work toward creating an economy that ‘has at its core a fundamental transformation in human-Earth relations by weaving environmental issues into cultural, political, social, and economic discourses. It is about living to learn and learning to live in harmony and cooperation with each other and the rest of nature’ (Clover, 2002, p. 170). What are the consequences if workers have the skills and critical insights but are unable to apply their skills in a work context that may not encourage or acknowledge the importance of sustainable development? Resource scarcity, ethnic rivalries, war and the rise of consumerism are contributing to climate change, pollution and increasing poverty and violence. Clover suggests that the human separation from the rest of nature is at the root of many of our emotional, psychological and socio-ecological problems. For many human beings, ‘living close to the land and actively participating with it has become quite alien’ (Clover, 2002, p. 161). Citing the work of sustainable development theorists like Peter Sutton, Clover argues that we need to create opportunities for people to imagine and work toward lifecentred forms of development. Understanding and integrating the way that various indigenous philosophies revered the land is one way to create a sustainable future that transforms human attitudes toward nature, social justice, global awareness and peace. Clover explores a number of work contexts where sustainable development is a priority: In India, farmers have begun to reapply traditional knowledge, such as terracing and intercropping, to challenge the destructiveness of the so-called Green Revolution that resulted in heavy dependence on pesticides and herbicides. These practices have led to farmers making demands for land reform and sustainable agricultural practices. [. . .] Ecological adult literacy practices in Africa engage learners in old and new methods of farming the land, a holistic activity that incorporates a multitude of social and ecological issues and develops skills and knowledge of life and land (Clover, 2002, p. 161).
Clover suggests that educational, industrial and corporate systems must work within a sustainability framework that creates alternative work and educational opportunities reconciling economic development with environmental protection and a
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rehabilitation of the quality of life. ‘Being life-centered pushes back the boundaries of the purely economic and conceptualizes a way forward that is participatory and bio-regionally focused’ (p. 168).
12 Conclusion Collectively, theorists like Brookfield, Freire, Daloz, Cranton and Mezirow emphasize that learning can be enhanced when the cognitive and affective domains are integrated. Dialogue, critical reflection, choice and responsibility are recurring themes in their work. Transformative learning includes rational, analytical, imaginative and creative dimensions that have relevance and application on a personal, social and global level. Their writing emphasizes that the learners’ experiences can be viewed as both a resource and catalyst for learning. Imel (1999) notes that, although constructivist and transformative approaches to learning can be found throughout adult learning settings, they have been more prevalent in adult and family literacy, welfare-to-work and workplace education. The life experiences of the learners is used to make the curriculum context and skill acquisition for a particular occupation more meaningful. Technical and vocational educators can enhance their own teaching and learning strategies by further exploring the ideas that these theories present. Using a transformative and constructivist approach, teachers become facilitators, coaches, mentors, co-learners and challengers. Active inquiry, critical reflection and an approach that moves beyond the teacher disseminating selected knowledge would enable the teaching and learning process to be more dynamic and creative. Assessment would occur in multiple settings and would take into account differentiated instruction, individual learning styles, multiple intelligences, portfolio assessment, research projects and mini-presentations where students are responsible for teaching a part of the curriculum. Further research into the way that transformative theories of learning can be applied in technical and vocational contexts would serve to inform and enrich both researchers and practitioners.
References Apps, J. 1991. Mastering the teaching of adults. Malabar, FL: Krieger. Biggs, J. 1988. Approaches to learning and essay writing. In: Schmeck, R.R., ed. Learning strategies and learning styles, pp. 185–228. New York, NY: Plenum Press. Brookfield, S. 1987. Developing critical thinkers: challenging adults to explore alternative ways of thinking and acting. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Brookfield, S. 1995. Becoming a critical reflective teacher. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Brown, J.S.; Collins, A.; Duguid, P. 1989. Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational researcher, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 32–42. Canadian Commission for UNESCO. 2003. Celebrating adult learners: a world of possibilities through learning. Ottawa: Canadian Commission for UNESCO. [Information kit.] <www.unesco.ca/en/activity/education/documents/ENG KIT.pdf>
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Candy, P. 1991. Self-direction for lifelong learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Candy, P. 1993. The problem of currency: information literacy in the context of Australia as a learning society. In: Booker, D., ed. Information literacy: the Australian agenda. Adelaide, Australia: University of South Australia. Chinien, C. et al. 2002. Developing skills for the new economy: main working document. Winnipeg, Canada: UNEVOC Canada. Clark, C. 1993. Transformational learning theory. In: Merriam, S., eds. An update on adult learning theory: new directions in adult and continuing education, pp. 47–56. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Clover, D. 2002. Toward transformative learning: ecological perspectives for adult education. In: O’Sullivan, E.; Morrell, A.; O’Connor, M., eds. Expanding the boundaries of transformative learning, pp. 158–72. London: Palgrave Press. Cranton, P. 1994. Understanding and promoting transformative learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Cranton, P. 2000. Planning instruction for adult learners, 2nd ed. Toronto, Canada: Wall & Emerson. Cross, K.P. 1981. Adults as learners. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Daloz, L. 1986. Effective teaching and mentoring. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Daloz, L. 1990. Slouching toward Bethlehem. Continuing higher education, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 1–9. Dirkx, J.M.; Amey, M.; Haston, L. 1999. Teacher beliefs and subject matter boundaries: the struggle for curricular transformation among teachers of adults. <www.edst.educ.ubc.ca/aerc/ 1999/99symp dirkx.htm> English, L. 2001. Mentorship. In: Barer-Stein, T.; Kompf, M., eds. The craft of teaching adults, pp. 261–73. Toronto, Canada: Culture Concepts. Freire, P. 1973. Education for critical consciousness. New York, NY: The Seabury Press. Freire, P. 1997. Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: The Seabury Press. [Originally published in 1970.) Goleman, D.; Cherniss, C. 2001. The emotionally intelligent workplace. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Hall, B. 2002. The right to a new utopia: adult learning and the changing world of work in an era of global capitalism. In: O’Sullivan, E.; Morrell, A.; O’Connor, M.A., eds. Expanding the boundaries of transformative learning, pp. 35–47. London: Palgrave Press. Imel, S. 1999. Using groups in adult learning: theory and practice. Journal of continuing education in the health professions, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 54–61. Imel, S. 2000. Contextual learning in adult education. Practice application brief, no. 12 <www.cete.org/acve/docgen.asp?tbl=pab&ID=102> Kember, D.; Gow, L. 1995. Orientations to teaching and their effect on the quality of student learning. Journal of higher education, vol. 72, no. 1, pp. 58–73. Kolb, D. 1984. Experiential learning. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Lynch, R.L. 1997. Designing vocational and technical teacher education for the 21st century. Columbus, OH: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career and Vocational Education. McMillan, J.H.; Forsyth, D.R. 1991. What theories of motivation say about why learners learn. In: Menges, R.J.; Svinicki, M.D., eds. College teaching: from theory to practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. (New Directions for Teaching and Learning, no. 45.) Magro, K. 1999. Exploring English teachers’ conceptions of teaching and learning in adult education contexts. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Toronto.] Magro, K. 2003. Exploring teaching roles and responsibilities in adult literacy education: do teachers see themselves as transformative educators? New York journal of adult learning, pp. 21–33. New York, NY: Fordham University Press. Mair, D. 1997. The development of occupational essential skills profiles. In: Taylor, M., ed. Workplace education: the changing landscape, pp. 299–318. Toronto, Canada: Culture Concepts.
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Mezirow, J. 1981. A critical theory of adult learning and education. Adult education quarterly, vol. 32, pp. 3–24. Mezirow, J. 1990. How critical reflection triggers transformative learning. In: Mezirow, J. et al., eds. Fostering critical reflection in adulthood, pp. 1–21. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Mezirow, J. 1991. Transformative dimensions of adult learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Mezirow, J. et al. 2000. Learning as transformation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. O’Sullivan, E.; Morrell, A.; O’Connor, M. 2002. Expanding the boundaries of transformative learning. London: Palgrave Press. Pratt, D.D. et al. 1998. Five perspectives of teaching in adult and higher education. Malabar, FL: Krieger. Spence, J.G. 1999. Worker-centered learning: labor’s role. Eric digest, no. 211. (ED 434 247.) Taylor, E. 2000. Fostering transformative learning in the adult education classroom: a review of the empirical studies. In: Wiessner, C.A.; Meyer, S.R.; Fuller, D.A., eds. The third International Transformative Learning Conference. Challenges of practice: transformative learning in action, pp. 153–58. New York, NY: Columbia University. Taylor, A. 2001. Union learning: Canadian labour education in the 20th century. Toronto, Canada: Thompson. Taylor, K.; Marieneau, C.; Fiddler, M. 2000. Developing adult learners: strategies for teachers and trainers. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Tuijnman, A. 1997. The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS). Results and highlights from an international perspective: IALS in relation to economies and labour markets. (Paper prepared for a ‘Workshop on Literacy, Economy and Society’, Calgary, Canada, 4 November 1996.) <www.ibd.ab.ca/files/west-one.pdf> United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization—UNESCO; International Labour Organization—ILO. 2002. Technical and vocational training in the twenty-first century. Paris, UNESCO; Geneva, Switzerland: ILO.
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Chapter XV.11
The Implications of Cognitive Style to Adult Distance Education Cindy Marie Isaak-Ploegman and Chris Chinien
1 Introduction The purpose of this chapter is to examine the implications of the cognitive-style dimension of field independence/dependence for adult learners in distance learning environments. Chinien and Boutin (1992–93) suggest a student’s repertoire of cognitive skills can serve to facilitate or debilitate a student’s performance in a learning task. Cognitive skills also determine if a student performs cognitive tasks in a self-directed or independent manner. The cognitive style dimension of field independence/dependence refers to a student’s manner of processing information on a continuum between globally or analytically. The implications of this construct on learner achievement depends on three elements: (a) the nature of the learning task; (b) the effectiveness of the teacher in adapting the learning material to suit the learner; and (c) the capacity in assisting the learner to adapt to different learning requirements (Witkin et al., 1977). Psychologists doing research on perception were interested in the phenomena of army pilots during the Second World War flying into fog and emerging upside down, when others emerged right side up. Research revealed that some people perceived themselves as separate from their environment, while others perceived themselves as embedded in their environment (Kirby, 1979). The pencil-and-paper test used to measure this same perceptual construct is the hidden-figures test (HFT) (Ekstrom et al., 1976). The HFT requires a subject to disembed thirty-two separate figures from complex figures in twenty-four minutes. A subject’s ability to successfully disembed the hidden figures is correlated to his or her level of field independence (Witkin et al., 1977). The HFT has a reliability of r = .72 (Fleishman & Dusek, 1971) and its validity is established on many levels. The flexibility of closure test (HFT) is a valid tool for both genders (Beard, 1965) and it is also valid across different cultures (El-Abd, 1970; Irvine, 1969). The HFT has predictive validity (Hettema, 1968), is sufficiently generalizable (Messick & French, 1975) and measures cognitive ability (Mos, Wardell & Royce, 1974). Pemberton (1952) tested for the HFT’s validity to measure analytical ability and found it to be valid, and Sack and Rice (1974) found the HFT to be sufficiently discriminatory. The HFT measures a subject’s ability to restructure, which also includes their ability to break up an organized field so that a discreet background is separate from R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XV.11, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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its parts, to provide organization to a field lacking it, and to organize a different field than the initial one provided (Witkin & Goodenough, 1981). A subject’s level of field independence is set by pre-school (ibid.) and is measured on a continuum from 1 to 32 (scores between 1 and 16 subjects are field dependent, scores between 17 and 32 subjects are field independent). Field independence is stable over time (Cross, 1976; Witkin et al., 1977; Witkin, Goodenough & Karp, 1967; Vitols, 1985). Research reveals that a subject’s level of field independence affects that subject’s ability to function autonomously in the interpersonal domain (Witkin & Goodenough, 1981). Field-dependent subjects are more social, prefer physical closeness in social interactions, rely on other’s opinions and are more likely to share their feelings (Witkin et al., 1977). Field-independent subjects are more independent, show initiative, take responsibility, think for themselves and are self-reliant (ibid.). Field-dependent subjects are warm and friendly, whereas field-independent subjects are distant and manipulative (Witkin & Goodenough, 1981). Since the two groups are so polarized in their perspective, it is easy to understand the educational implications associated with subjects that are field independent when compared to field dependent. Thompson (1989) suggests that distance education courses self-select a different type of student. Typical distance education learners tend be more autonomous, independent and are less likely to seek support from instructors or peers. These learners also tend to learn by doing, set their own deadlines, make their own decisions, arrive at conclusions independently, are organized, follow directions, apply problemsolving principles and express themselves in an orderly, logical fashion (Thompson, 1989). Because these characteristics are consistent with those of a field-independent student, Thompson thought that if students were field dependent they would be more likely to drop out of distance education. Spanjer and Tate’s (1988) study confirmed this hypothesis. They found that field-independent students in a broadcast telecourse outperformed field-dependent students and had higher grade point averages (GPAs) than the latter for all their courses, by more than half a letter grade. Field-independent students had 60% less failure and withdrawal rates than fielddependent students. Additionally, field-independent students were more satisfied than their field-dependent counterparts with their distance education experiences. In spite of the fact that distance education is more suitable for some types of learners, there is a global increase in the popularity and demand for distance education. Truell (2001) speculates that Internet-assisted instruction will become the major method of course delivery in the upcoming century. The purpose of this study is to conduct an analytical survey of literature and research in order to gather evidencebased information to develop an instructional design model that could attenuate differential learning gains due to the cognitive-style construct field dependence/field independence for distance-learning environments.
2 Method The methodology used for this project was an integrative review (Marsh, 1991) of selected pieces of related literature and research in the area of field independence/
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dependence since 1950. Colin J. Marsh (1991) defines the method of integrative inquiry as compiling research on a particular topic in order to apply the findings to educational practice. The benefits of examining literature as a body of knowledge, as opposed to looking at an individual study, are that decisions are made on all relevant literature on a given topic. An integrative review allows practitioners to follow trends in literature, find evidence for particular conclusions (Smith, 1977) and decide on their course of action. A researcher engaging in an integrative review is motivated by a desire to answer a specific educational research question and to save busy practitioners time by synthesizing all the information from the review. A synthesis may be a review of research for contradictions, themes and implications, or a statistical analysis, and a report of recommendations. Different types of integrative reviews include meta-analyses and comprehensive research reviews. An integrative review may involve studies that examine the same research question, examine studies related to a specific topic, or focus on a specific need by a specific group of educators (Marsh, 1991). In this project the literature was examined for educational implications that apply to adult learning in distance education environments. The educational implications were analysed in order to draw inferences for creating a model to help practitioners to develop, design and implement distance education that may accommodate the information-processing needs of field-dependent and field-independent adult learners. The search term ‘field dependence’, ‘field theory (psychology)’, or ‘field dependence and field independence’ near each other in the article or as major or minor descriptor terms from 1963 to September 2002 were used to examine the electronic databases; ERIC, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, Global Books in Print and Ebsco Host. Searches were also completed on the following library catalogues: BISON, University of Manitoba Library; Mercury, University of Winnipeg; Aleph, Brandon University; Gate, University of Alberta; UTC, University of Toronto; Manitoba Union list of serials; and Western Canada Union list of serials, using the keyword ‘field dependence/independence’ as the subject heading. A basic search was carried out on the University of British Columbia library catalogue using the keyword ‘field dependence/independence’ as the subject heading, and an advanced search was completed using ‘field dependence (psychology)’ as the subject heading. A search was also conducted on the database Dissertation Abstracts Search from NetDoc using ‘education’ as the subject heading and the keywords ‘field dependence’ and ‘adult’ were selected as the subject heading. Other articles were found by using what Cooper (1982) calls the ancestry approach to retrieving information. Using the ancestry approach, citations are tracked from one study to another through bibliographies. Similarly, an advanced search for articles was conducted on the Internet (www.google.ca) using the exact phrase ‘field dependence’ with all of the word ‘distance education’.
2.1 Inclusion Criteria This review included articles or books that were written in the English language and those whose authors are educators, educational administrators or psychologists.
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Second, studies reviewed included those whose subjects were adults between the ages of 18 and 60 years. Third, studies included were those that examine constructs pertaining to graphics that have specific repercussions to instructional design in the context of adult distance education. In general, articles were selected based on their availability, relevance and soundness of research. Once these inclusion criteria were applied, a total of 115 articles, books and dissertations were accepted in this review.
3 Results The majority of the articles in this review are in the context of field independence research. A total of twenty-eight of the articles were in the area of distance education. Seventy of the articles were related to primary research done in the context of field independence. Eight articles were reviews of distance education research and did not provide primary data. Nine articles were reviews of field independence research and did not present primary data.
3.1 Differential Learning Gain The main finding after examining all the literature on differential learning gains and cognitive style is that field-independent learners generally outperform fielddependent learners in nearly all contexts (Cooperman, 1980; Copeland, 1983; Couch & Moore, 1992; Czarnecki, 1980; Griffin & Franklin, 1995–96; Guster, 1986; Lin & Davidson-Shivers, 1996; McCabe & McCabe, 1980; Mezoff, 1982; Rittschof, Griffin & Custer, 1998; Robertson & Alfano, 1985; Rupert, 1987; Walker, 1981). This difference could, in part, be attributed to intrinsic motivation. Since fieldindependent learners are task oriented, it is not surprising to find that their academic achievement is higher (Mezoff, 1982) and that they are motivated to excel. Fieldindependent learners approach learning tasks with the determination to succeed and, hence, take all steps necessary to reach that goal. Research findings also indicate that, in the specific context of distance education, field-independent students outperform field-dependent students (Boyce, 1999; Lyons-Lawrence, 1994; Post, 1987; Riddle, 1994; Weller et al., 1995; Williams, 2001). Studies do exist with distance education subjects that do not support this hypothesis (Brenner, 1997; Caruso, 1992; Fullerton, 2000; Jacobs & Gedeon, 1982; Shih & Gamon, 2001). It should be noted that some studies do not support the theory that field-independent students always outperform field-dependent students (Marrison & Frick, 1994; Raskin, 1986; Young, Kelleher & McRae, 1989). These contradictory findings are explained by literature and research that suggest that the cognitive divide between field-dependent and field-independent students may be bridged by adapting instruction. It is noteworthy, however, that most of the inferences made about the implications of cognitive style for distance education are on
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the whole speculative since they are drawn from the cognitive-style research conducted in traditional educational settings.
3.2 Constructivism Gibbs (2000) found that there was no interaction between students’ level of computer programming achievement in either coding or design within a constructivist environment. This hints to one of the ways that instructors can modify their teaching to reduce the differential learning gain between students of different cognitive styles. Constructivism assumes learning is dependent on an adult’s previous knowledge structure and that adults learn by constructing their own meaning (Merriam & Caffarella, 1999). The level of social contacts made possible by a particular mode of delivery determines the amount of construction that is applied to a particular distance-learning situation. For instance, learning activities can be adjusted to require students to contemplate their previous learning in or experience with particular subject-matter content and to create new learning experiences. Students’ evaluation may also be adjusted in either assignments or test questions, by requiring students to reflect on their previous experience and the relevance of the new learning in relation to the old. Through group projects, chat rooms, discussion webs and electronic mailings, students are able to construct knowledge through (experiencing) engaging in social activities (Liu & Ginther, 2000). An instructor may also facilitate social constructivism by making a decided effort to contact students personally, so that they do not feel detached or isolated, and to clarify potential confusion or address students’ questions.
3.3 Student Supports Research suggests that it is important to maintain adequate student supports for field-dependent learners in the context of distance education to ensure that they do not feel isolated. Access to a regional learning centre is important for the ‘true’ distance learner. Similarly, a variety of modes of communication—e-mail, memos, notes, telephone, letters, etc.—serve to compensate for the absence of face-to-face instruction in distance education. Additionally, the use of chat rooms and LISTSERV mailing lists can also encourage students to discuss course issues and engage in co-operative learning (Liu & Ginther, 2000).
3.4 Evaluation Adult educators may also accommodate learners’ cognitive style by providing various types of assignments and examination questions (Liu & Ginther, 2000). This accommodation may include instituting take-home exams, group and individual projects. Educators may chose to use test questions including
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fill-in-the-blanks, multiple-choice, matching and a selection of short and essay questions. Teacher hints in the form of verbal descriptions, diagrams and tables should be used during assessment to maximize learning for all cognitive styles. Multiple-choice questions are often used since they can easily be administered and can be graded by computer. Field-dependent people bring information together by assembling parts and compose information into simply structured patterns while, conversely, field-independent people have more complex strategies including the ability to encode information on their own and to create a knowledge structure (Richardson, 2000). Because of this difference between encoding ability across cognitive style, Richardson (2000) speculated that people of varying levels of field independence would experience differential success in multiple-choice questions. If field independent students can more effectively apply patterns of word meanings to a listing of multiple-choice word-meaning options, then they will ultimately have a higher achievement on multiple-choice tests than field-dependent students. Field-dependent students with less accurate and elaborate inherent encoding abilities will have to revisit the question and try to figure out the differences between the choice options. Cakan’s (2000) research confirmed that using exclusively multiple-choice questions can skew the performance to field independent eighth-grade students. Adejumo’s (1983) research, which was conducted in a traditional educational setting, reveals that inferential questioning may jeopardize a field-dependent student’s performance when compared to a field-independent student. In order to ensure an objective assessment of their student’s performance, instructors are cautioned to review their evaluation to ensure that it does not reflect their own cognitive style preference. Those elements of evaluation that can be affected by a student’s ability to disembed will need to be eliminated. From the literature findings, suggestions for evaluation include: diminishing the perceptual field factors in the learning task; not having the correct response compared to the one suggested by the field factor (Niaz, 1989); avoiding distracting students; grouping similar problems together (Reiff, 1996); and reducing any interfering conditions during learning and evaluation. Bearing these factors in mind will serve to prevent any bias of the evaluation process with respect to students’ level of field dependence/ independence.
3.5 Adjusting Learning Activities and Instructional Material Field-dependent students have limited abilities for disembedding. Therefore, a key element for achieving successful instruction to accommodate all students is to minimize the effect of the field factor throughout the instructional design process. Rasinski (1984) found that field-independent students were able to use their memory more effectively and efficiently when working with material with interfering conditions. In order to accommodate field-dependent students, Chen (2002) suggests in
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the context of hypermedia instruction that irrelevant links should be hidden, direct guidance provided and annotated links described. This review shows that by providing students with the opportunity to offer feedback on instructional material, accomplishing a bridge in the gap in differential learning gains across cognitive styles is possible. Liu and Ginther (2000) recommend also compensatory supplantation—supplying learners with specific processes that they cannot supply themselves—to compensate for any task-related deficiencies. They also recommend conciliatory supplantation, which involves changing the manner in which instructional materials are presented to link learners with their materials more effectively. Reardon et al. (1982) concluded that a student whose transactional distance has been increased may experience exaggerated forms of differences in learning academic tasks. Pairing students together based on their different cognitive styles may help students to acquire those skills not naturally associated with their cognitive style (Packer & Bain, 1978; Whyte et al., 1990–91). Collaboration may also be facilitated or reinforced through required class discussion on Discussion Web, peer teaching (Gilstrap, Bierman & McKnight, 1992) or chat rooms, or by using IBM Lotus Notes Learningspace or Centricity’s FirstClass for problem-based collaborative learning (Cuneo, Campbell & Harnish, 2002). Open-ended labs and assignments (Anderson & Reed, 1998), self-pacing and advance organizers for theoretical dialogue opportunities will give field-independent students the opportunity to capitalize on their natural ability to organize themselves. However, as previously discussed, this independence will need to be adjusted for a ‘happy medium’ so as not to jeopardize the field-dependent learner’s success. Specific strategies to help the field-dependent learner achieve their academic potential include using sound in multimedia instruction (Marrison & Frick, 1994), computer animation to teach concepts (Lee, 1997) and subliminal captions in television learning (Moore & Moore, 1984).
3.6 Structural Elements Another strategy to assist the field-dependent learner is to provide and instruct students to implement structural elements. This may take the form of teaching categorization, elaboration, thematic organization and keyword techniques. It can also take the form of teaching active note-taking, paraphrasing, the abstraction of important ideas (Frank & Keene, 1993) and providing signals for adequate note-taking (Rickards et al., 1997). Instructors can provide lecture outlines, structure charts, summaries (Reiff, 1996), and instructions on how to analyse and organize topics. Providing students with detailed course notebooks (Anderson & Reed, 1998) in the context of an Internet course is one example of providing students with structure, along with the use of tables, tree diagrams, charts and graphs (Liu & Ginther, 2000). Another strategy is to provide students with instructions on hypothetical approaches to solving problems to assist field-dependent learners who do not naturally approach
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problems in this manner (Witkin et al., 1977). To accommodate field-dependent learners, Liu & Ginther (2000) also suggest teaching generalities and then narrowing down to specific concepts or giving instructions stressing the whole and then the parts.
3.7 Instruction for Promoting Memory and Restructuring Though research is not specific to the context of distance education, authors in our review have found that one way to bridge the differential learning gain between field-dependent and field-independent learners is to include instructions on pegmnemonic memory techniques (Canelos & Taylor, 1981) and restructuring training (Rush & Moore, 1991). Mansoor (1987) examined the possibility that the cognitive differences between field-independent and dependent learners were due to the fact that field-dependent learners utilize less of their working memory or ‘M-space’. Case & Globerson (1974) theorized that field dependence is caused by either a decreased utilization of their working memory (or M-space) or an over-sensitivity to gestalt-like cues that are misleading—or both. Mansoor’s (1987) research confirmed that field-dependent students (Venezuelan chemistry majors) habitually use too little M-space (measured by the Raven test) when compared to field-independent students. This theory suggests that deliberate attempts to train field-dependent students to memorize more effectively would benefit them greatly and possibly address the differential learning gain. Although rote memory is considered a low level of learning, it is an initial step in a student’s process to higher levels of knowledge acquisition. Bloom’s (1956) taxonomy of learning reveals that initially students merely know information, then higher levels of learning occur when students analyse and synthesise the new information and are able to apply it to a different context (Kirby, 1979). Augmentation training in restructuring will benefit field-dependent students who struggle to organize their learning material.
3.8 Humanizing Instruction and Factors Related to Graphics Several authors also recommend presenting instructional material that has been modified in order to review the human side of the subject-matter content by providing personal examples, events, stories and anecdotes to accommodate the fielddependent learner (Guster, 1986; Kuykendall, 1992). In terms of graphics, several studies have demonstrated that differential learning gain for field-dependent learners can be minimized by colour-coding instructional material, using colour visuals instead of black and white (Moore & Dwyer, 1991, 1991–92; Myers, 1997), and not using visuals with a distracting background (Descy, 1990). It was also suggested that if line graphs were used, including many of them gave the field-dependent learner adequate practice in reading them (Brown, 1992).
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3.9 Implications of the Findings for Practice The implications of the research findings highlight specific features that can bridge the differential learning gain across cognitive style. Most of the implications discussed are beneficial for field-dependent learners and do not appear to be detrimental to field-independent learners. However, these features have only been studied in the context of various approaches for reducing differential learning gain due to cognitive skills. The main themes addressed include: (a) instructional design; (b) teaching strategy; (c) evaluation of achievement; (d) support and retention; and (e) cognitive augmentation.
3.10 Dick and Carey’s Model of Instructional Design for Practitioners Dick and Carey (1985) created a model of instructional design that starts by stating goals and objectives and, later, the theory is linked with the skills needed to implement the acquired theory (Seels & Glasgow, 1990). The basic elements are all present: goals are stated; the entry behaviours are identified; the performance objectives are written; and the test items are developed. The next step in instructional design is to develop instructional material followed by first formative and then summative evaluations. The instruction is subject to revision at every stage of the instructional design process. The evaluation is assessed in lieu of the improvement in students’ entry behaviours. Their model is outlined in Figure 1 (Dick and Carey, 1985). It should be noted that Seels & Glasgow (1990) thought that affective objectives were not handled adequately in Dick and Carey’s model. The final model (Figure 2) is a conglomeration of inferences drawn from the cognitive style research previously discussed, along with elements recommended by Murray (2001) that are part of distance education (content, services and technology) embedded in Dick and Carey’s model of instructional design.
Identify instructional goals
Conduct instructional analysis
Identify entry behaviours, characteristics
Revise instruction
Write performance objectives
Develop criterionreferenced test items
Develop instructional strategy
Develop and select instructional materials
Design and conduct formative evaluation Design and conduct summative evaluation
Fig. 1 Dick and Carey’s model of instructional design for practitioners
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C.M. Isaak-Ploegman, C. Chinien • Humanize instruction • Add structural elements
• Avoid field factors • Model cognitive style flexibility • Constructivist approach • Implement adult education theory
• Include a variety of test questions • Group similar problems together • Short assignments due within short periods
• Revise instruction based on student feedback • Upgrade subject matter content
Identify instructional goals
Cooperative learning
Conduct instructional analysis
Identify entry behaviours, characteristics
Write performance objectives
Develop criterionreferenced test items
Develop instructional strategy
Develop and select instructional materials
Design and conduct formative evaluation
Design and conduct summative evaluation Offer instruction on: • Restructuring • Promoting memory
Services for upgrading technological supports
Student support systems: • increased instructor communication • navigation buttons • collaboration
• Implement factors relating to graphics • Subliminal captions for T.V. • Computer animation • Sound
Fig. 2 Final model to bridge the gap of differential learning gain across cognitive style in the context of adult distance education
3.11 Modeling Cognitive Style Flexibility The model shows two pre-existing philosophical mindsets that determine how an educator should approach adult distance education endeavours with the hopes of bridging the differential learning gain between field-dependent and field-independent learners. One of these approaches includes maintaining an attitude of being constant in modelling cognitive style flexibility, which, in turn, serves as a visible example to students of the importance of stretching their ability to adapt to different situations requiring different cognitive processing. This modelling will affect students’ decision-making before they design courses and instructional material, and their decisions about learning activities, types of evaluation, types of supports, and advising/counselling for students’ choice of programmes and coursework. This attitude of cognitive style flexibility modelling is intended to benefit all students, regardless of their level of field dependence, by adequately preparing them for the workplace. It also ensures that the instructors themselves are always aware of their need to stretch themselves beyond their own cognitive style and adjust themselves accordingly. One example found in the review is to ensure that an instructor’s evaluation of students is not biased favourably toward a student of the same cognitive style. Another example is to ensure that instructors are not instructing in just one style
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but adapting to another style or providing students with alternative approaches to learning (such as problem-solving) that may be more conducive to their cognitive style. A field-independent instructor may deliberately want to interact more with students in small groups or individually, as he/she would tend not to do so naturally, and field-dependent instructors may want to ask more analytical questions, teach applying principles or provide corrective feedback. Though it may appear that modelling flexibility would only be relevant for lecture-style courses in the context of hybrid distance education courses, it may be even more important if the amount of face-to-face time is limited to a weekly lab or seminar session.
4 Discussion There were many challenges that presented themselves by using the integrative review methodology. One was that, of the 115 articles reviewed, there were only twenty-one current articles reviewed (those published since 1998) and only twentyeight articles reviewed were concerned with distance education. There is no control over what the keyword used will produce in terms of the year and the type of research highlighted. Another example of one of these challenges is that several of the articles compared do not share the same definition for field independence/dependence of subjects. Crow & Piper (1983), for example, defined field-dependent subjects as those possessing a score between 0 and 8 on the group embedded figures test (GEFT) and field-independent subjects as those with scores between 14 and 18. Copeland (1983), however, defines field-dependent subjects in his study as those possessing a score of 0 to 9 and field-independent ones as possessing a score between 16 and 18 on the GEFT. Copeland also differentiates between true field-independent subjects and those who are ‘mid’-field independent and ‘mid’-field dependent, whose scores are mid-way between the more extreme categories. Rush & Moore (1991) defined a third group as field neutral. This group were those subjects who scored between 11 and 15 on the hidden figures test, while field independents scored 16 or higher and field dependents scored 10 or below on the HFT. This third category is defined based on research by Garton et al. (1999), who believed that there was a third category of people who possessed both field-independent and field-dependent traits that enabled them to adapt to their learning situation as needed (Truell, 2001). Studies with differing initial definitions of the measured construct may even share the same stated outcome in the context of differential learning gain; for instance, ‘field-independent students achieve significantly higher scores than field-dependent students’. If their initial definitions of these categories of subjects differ, then it is obvious that their conclusions cannot be identical, even though stated as such. It should also be noted that several of the studies were unable to provide conclusive information due to the fact that they were trying to compare only moderately field-independent learners to true field-independent learners. One example is Whiteside (1986). Primary researchers could avoid this problem by performing pilot
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studies to determine if initially there was a sufficient spread across the level of field independence of their subjects for comparative purposes. Another challenge of comparing and contrasting articles for synthesis is that articles use different statistical measures depending on their specific research question. Some articles compare the mean academic grades of an extreme field-dependent versus field-independent group of students, treating two separate group means with a t-test. An example is Copeland’s (1983) study. Griffin and Franklin’s (1995–96) study, however, examines a potential correlation between a students’ achievement and his/her level of field independence, treating field independence and academic grades both as a continuum. In this case a correlation coefficient is calculated. This also serves to weaken the strength of the generalizations drawn from the body of articles as a whole, since they are not truly similar, although their results may be reported as similar. Both of the above examples found that field-independent subjects had higher course grades than field-dependent subjects. In the case of correlational studies using multiple regression tables, when accounting for the amount of variation between subjects due to their level of field independence, some studies account for gender, previous subject-matter knowledge and any other confounding variable, and some do not. Other challenges are that the difference in the number of subjects in each study varies and some studies are qualitative and some are quantitative. One study (McLeod & Adams, 1979) changed the timing of the hidden-figures test, allowing for fifteen rather than ten minutes. All these factors serve to weaken any inferences drawn from examining the findings. Studies examining the concept of how a student’s level of field independence affects differential learning gain most commonly had a pre-test/post-test methodology. The unfortunate drawback was that almost all studies, with few exceptions, used multiple-choice questioning as the format of determining differential learning gain, which our review found was a more suitable method of the evaluation for field-independent students than field-dependent students. This again is something beyond the control of the integrative reviewer, but serves as a potential confounding variable when examining concepts of differential learning gain.
5 Conclusions As previously mentioned, most of the inferences drawn from the cognitive-style research have not been verified in the context of adult distance education, but in traditional settings and are hence mostly speculative. However, the final model can be tested for validity with future research in the context of adult distance education and through feedback from educational and cognitive-style experts and distance learners themselves. The main finding that can be drawn from the literature reviewed was that it is possible for educators to bridge the gap in differential learning gain across cognitive style by implementing a few strategies in instructional design, implementation and evaluation. One of the most interesting factors revealed by the analytical survey was that adult education theory is congruent with the requirements of the adult
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distance education learner. This serves as an indirect support for future research in the area of adult distance education. Not only does this mode of delivery support how adults like to learn, it is also convenient. This does detract from the importance of the distance educator modelling cognitive flexibility and bridging the potential achievement gap between students of different levels of field independence. Although the majority of research supports the premise that field independent students outperform dependent students, the actual amount can only be determined through statistical calculations with a meta-analysis procedure. This aspect of literature analysis was not developed in this project and is a possibility for future research endeavours. Another recommendation for further research includes validating the adult distance education model created.
References Adejumo, D. 1983. Effect of cognitive style on strategies for comprehension of prose. Perceptual and motor skills, vol. 56, no. 3, pp. 859–63. Anderson, D.K.; Reed, W.M. 1998. The effects of Internet instruction, prior computer experience and learning style on teachers’ Internet attitudes and knowledge. Journal of educational computing research, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 227–46. Beard, R.M. 1965. The structure of perception: a factorial study. British journal of educational psychology, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 210–22. Bloom, B. 1956. A taxonomy of educational objectives: the classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New York, NY: Longmans-Green. Boyce, K.E. 1999. Delivering continuing professional education at a distance: the correlation of field dependence/independence and learning using the World Wide Web. Dissertation Abstracts International, 60, 1419-5A. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Oklahoma, 1999.) Brenner, J. 1997. An analysis of students’ cognitive styles in asynchronous distance education courses. Inquiry, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 37–44. Brown, P.E. 1992. The relationship between graphic aids in a business report and decision-making and cognitive style of a report reader. Delta pi epsilon journal, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 63–76. Cakan, M. 2000. Interaction between cognitive styles and assessment approaches Dissertation Abstracts International, 61, 3-A: 957. (Doctoral dissertation, Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, 2000.) Canelos, J.; Taylor, W. 1981. A networking information processing strategy and the learning of field dependents receiving visual instructional information. Journal of experimental education, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 42–46. Caruso, B.W. 1992. A comparison of field dependence and field independence in the instructional television student and the traditional student. Dissertation Abstracts International, A 52/10. (Doctoral dissertation, United States International University, 1991.) Case, R.; Globerson, T. 1974. Field independence and central computing space. Child development, vol. 45, pp. 772–78. Chen, S. 2002. A cognitive model for non-linear learning in hypermedia programmes. British journal of educational technology, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 449–60. Chinien, C.; Boutin, F. 1992–93. Cognitive style FD/I: an important learner characteristic for educational technologists. Journal of educational technology systems, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 303–11. Cooper, H.M. 1982. Scientific guidelines for conducting integrative research review. Review of educational research, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 291–302. Cooperman, E.W. 1980. Field differentiation and intelligence. The journal of psychology, vol. 105, no. 1, pp. 29–33.
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Chapter XV.12
Competency, Meaningful Learning and Learning Styles in TVET Richard Gagnon
1 Introduction Competency is a keyword in today’s world of education. It mirrors a major paradigm shift in our way of looking at a person whom we consider cultivated, educated and able to play a useful and valuable role in our modern society. Until recently, preparing for life in general and for a trade or a profession in particular meant, for the most part, acquiring knowledge deemed relevant; developing—by way of practice, imitation or otherwise—know-how and attitudes normally required from a citizen and a worker. The role of teachers then consisted in transmitting this knowledge to students, expecting them to use it correctly in each and every situation that would require it and permitting them, all by themselves, to make any necessary adjustment or transfer from the classroom setting where knowledge was acquired to the workplace setting where it was put to use; to propose problem-solving models and examples of applications to them together with models of behaviour that they could reproduce and adapt. Teaching (rather than learning) contents were emphasized and students had to subject themselves to the authority of the teacher; moreover, the separation between theory and practice was clear. Gradually, however, although more markedly since the end of the Second World War, students have been placed at the centre of the educational stage where they became the main actors in the training activity, being made responsible for their own learning. Henceforth, the decision of whoever would accompany learners in the construction of their own knowledge was transferred from the master to the student. They were no longer considered empty vessels to be filled, bare tables to be dressed at the teachers’ will, inexperienced beginners; and all the more so as they grew older and above all, obviously, into adults. They were instead granted a past, along with previous knowledge and a capacity to contribute through it to other people’s learning. From then on, one would rather look at them as an already laid table, with all previous knowledge arranged in their quite particular personal way, offered to everyone else for sharing perhaps, but necessarily to be taken into account in the teaching and learning process to limit in their minds incomprehension, misunderstanding and indifference. Approaching students in this manner, teachers necessarily came closer to their individuality, their differences, their singularities, their uniqueness even, stepping back from a counterproductive uniform R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XV.12, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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conception of training, increasingly accepting that nobody apprehends knowledge exactly in the same way as another, no more so than two individuals are exactly identical for genetic, historic, cultural, personal or social reasons. Pushed to their limits, such assertions lead quite naturally to the idea that there is no science in education but only art—since how would we generalize teaching to entire populations when every individual appears as a single-case, a unique problem to be solved? We have not yet, however, reached that extreme. Instead, we have conceived of families or classes of learners who present similar characteristics in their preferred manner of apprehending knowledge, which is designated as their dominant ‘learning style’. This idea suggests that, to facilitate optimum learning for every category of learners, it is mandatory to practise different teaching methods in each case. It also suggests, as a corollary, that knowledge acquired by any individual is always partly unique, customized to some extent and different at least minimally from another persons’ knowledge and that, like learning preferences, we can categorize individual knowledge by families or classes of representation.1 It suggests, finally, that competencies developed by different individuals are not identical but, nevertheless, in spite of quite often obvious observable differences between competencies, they must necessarily stand on the same footing at the social level in order to be certified as valid and relevant, both in school and in the workplace. These differences manifest themselves through different but equally acceptable working methods, greater appeal to theory or to empiricism depending on the individual, or through any other idiosyncrasy in a person’s way of thinking, doing or interacting. Inasmuch as the results remain acceptable for the people or organizations concerned, that healthy collaboration remains possible between teammates, the competencies of a given individual engaged in a given work would not then be further questioned. But how do we develop such competencies—socially justifiable and fully recognized, but at the same time intimately suiting individual characteristics and needs? How do we take into account, in practice, various learning styles and how do we bring teachers to take these differences into account in their own practices? Stone (2002) writes: There are mountains of research on the identification of student differences and an equally large number of studies showing degrees of relationship between student characteristics and success in school. However, what is lacking in most cases is any convincing evidence that teachers can fine-tune instruction to these differences in such a way as to produce significant improvements in measured achievement (p. 43).
These are the main concerns of this chapter in which we propose, first, a somewhat new definition of the concept of competence to better perceive its extent and its manifestations. Next, we pay attention to the conditions that make knowledge meaningful both for a single individual and for the community to which he/she belongs, thus emphasizing his/her feeling of being competent. We briefly review one of the most popular classifications of learning styles, that of David A. Kolb (1984). We analyse how classic teaching methods, such as lecturing, demonstrating or role-playing, can be adapted according to the particular students’ learning styles and we outline the modalities of application of such adapted methods.
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2 The Concept of Competence Carried by the historic current of behaviourism and Taylorism in North America, we proceeded in the second half of the previous century from an objective-based education aiming at the mastery of knowledge and behaviour—with emphasis on cognitive, psychomotor or attitude development—to a competency-based education aimed at the development of learners’ competencies, hoping to establish a narrower correspondence between the needs of the labour market and the workers’ capacities. By the same token, the efficiency and productivity of businesses would—so was it expected and hoped—increase. In Europe, meanwhile, a concept equally termed competency or competence was also invoked, but there it was motivated by a rising preoccupation for worker mobility, diploma recognition, prior learning assessment and wage policies. In an increasingly connected and unified environment—politically and economically—it was fragile still and incompletely defined judging by the number and the diversity of new member countries of the European Union and by the variable fortune of treaties of all kinds (Zarifian, 1999).2 On both continents, however, the concept of competency became a kind of standard to which one had to compare to establish one’s capacity to perform a given task or to gauge its economic value. Nonetheless, the definition of the concept remained imprecise—as it still does—encompassing a number of meanings. Among them: ‘behaviour’, ‘knowledge in action’, ‘knowhow’, perhaps at times ‘validated’, ‘recognized’, ‘exercised’, when one did not simply fall back on its legal definition of a legitimate right to practise such and such a profession, to perform such and such a professional act. All notions of qualification, certification, performance, task, competence, competency and the like became therefore thoroughly entangled (Toupin, 1998; Zarifian, 1999). But, of the numerous definitions that were then proposed, certain convergent elements on which we still generally agree, nevertheless, stand out. Hence, a competency would be a complex system of several attributes, allowing a person to impact successfully on his/her environment. It would evolve, but without ever exhausting its full potential of development. It would be observable, but never directly, only through its manifestations. Based on these premises, we propose, for our part, the following definition of competency. On one side, it stands on the four pillars of education advocated in the Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century, chaired by Jacques Delors (Delors et al., 1996)3 and, on the other, on the fundamental idea that education must serve both simultaneously the individual and the common good, in spite of inevitable and irreducible tensions between these two kinds of goods (Gagnon, 1996): Competency is an integrated collection of knowledge, know-how, know-how-to-be and know-how-to-live-together that can be mobilized when needed, both successfully for others and for oneself, throughout life.
Due to its generality, this definition of competency remains elusive and may leave dissatisfied anybody who is eager to employ it, for instance, in the preparation of a training programme, which normally has to specify clearly not only the prescribed learning contents but also the conditions expected to effectively mobilize these
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contents in relevant situations, as well as the means and conditions for evaluating the competencies aimed at. Unfortunately, we shall help no one to do so by adding that: The range of a particular competency, i.e. that upon which its mobilization impacts, is arbitrary. On this range depends the particular collection of knowledge, know-how, knowhow-to-be and know-how-to-live-together that supports the competency (Gagnon, 1996).
Stated differently, there is no predetermined format to define a competency, no more so than there are tight boundaries between several of these, nor that we must necessarily appeal to all four categories of knowledge to fully determine a particular competency when a lesser number suffices. For example, if a programme designer chooses to single out a well-defined generic competency—such as health and safety in the workplace, as is commonly found in quite numerous technical or vocational education and training (TVET) programmes—because he considers such a generic competency to be transferable to whatever working situation there is, another programme designer could just as well choose to integrate everything dealing with health and safety at work into much more specific and operational competencies that require health and safety measures, such as operating a metalworking machine or repairing a residential heating system. In that case, a specific generic competency on health and safety in the workplace would simply not exist since its potential constituents would have been made elements of those competencies more closely related to the job to be done. A third designer could arbitrarily select both types of competencies in his version of the programme because, according to his judgement, the first type would favour the development of general attitudes of caution and responsibility in the workplace and more generally in daily life, while the second type, being more topical, would rather emphasize specific health and safety measures in close connection to the work to be carried out. In other words, the range of a given competency depends on the particular intention of who defined it and, conversely, individual competencies can in principle be rewritten, customized or reconstructed according to specific needs.4 Nevertheless, in any event, assessing the level of mastery of any competency is only possible in an indirect manner because: A competency manifests itself in a situation and is not observable directly. However, elements of the process and of the product of this process can normally be observed. It is on these observable elements of the manifestation of a competency that its assessment, necessarily indirect, must focus (Gagnon, 1996).
In this perspective, competencies remain hidden in people or groups of people who possess them;5 they belong to them intrinsically, although they can be taken from them since, as we saw earlier, competencies are also social. Licences, permits and certificates are indeed everywhere delivered officially, granting to their holders a right of practice, certifying the holders’ competence in a field, but this right is also frequently revoked, notably in the case of immigrants. Moreover, competency is ‘organic’ and, therefore, metaphorically alive. Just like a person, it is born, develops, reaches its peak of maturity, then gradually grows old, decays and dies. It is constantly transforming, maturing to become wise and graceful under favourable conditions, and regrettably aging badly in other circumstances—as some of us do.
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In every case, however, competencies degenerating at the rate of the body and of the spirit become, so to speak, insignificant, meaningless, as if detached from a world where they would stay useless, inappropriate or perhaps clumsy, no longer able to successfully complete what they might have contributed at the start. That is why several professional bodies only grant rights of practice for limited periods of time and prescribe conditions to maintain their validity. Until this ultimate point when it sadly fails, competency retains its power to transform the world; this is its undeniable efficiency. It is rich and meaningful for those who command it, know about it and employ it, and every bit of knowledge contributing to its existence has a meaning directed towards a controlled transformation of oneself or of one’s environment. How does one get there?
3 Meaningful Knowledge and Learning Styles6 One sees here stated the question of meaning and of the development of meaning, when one must decide on the conditions of a personal or social attachment to a given knowledge, the range that one attributes to its working, the self- or the collective confidence that one has to master it, the credibility which one agrees to grant it, its full recognition by who employs to it: when is knowledge truly meaningful? We suggested determining it so that: Knowledge is meaningful for an individual to the extent that it is relevant to this individual and valid from his/her personal point of view, i.e. according to his/her own epistemological stand. Knowledge is meaningful for a community of people to the extent that it is relevant to this community and valid according to the epistemological stand of the community (Gagnon, 1996).
Through a careful analysis and a comparative study of numerous books and articles on the subject of meaning, through interviewing people able to circumscribe their own epistemological stand, Zourhlal (1998) tested the fundamentals of this definition of meaningful knowledge, at least inasmuch as it pertains to the individual aspect. More work needs to be done to assess the validity of the collective aspect but, in this case also, the proposed definition of meaningful knowledge retains all of its plausibility. Clearly, the quest for meaning varies from one individual to another, as it varies in a community of people from one cultural environment to another. One might then speak about general tendencies or collective trends, since individual differences are numerous and vital in any society—and which must be protected. All of us, however, initiate this quest only provided that it is relevant to ourselves, that it touches significantly on our concerns, our preoccupations, our desires, our interests, our plans. It must repay us well for our time and effort. Some of us look more than anything else for immediate use and practicality in almost everything we attempt, and any knowledge, therefore, any learning will only be worth the effort if it allows us to successfully overcome concrete situations in our daily lives, to obtain the expected and desired result. Others try to understand the world which surrounds them, to explain it without being too concerned about the practical consequences of
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their effort; for them, the mere fact of being able to situate themselves in this world is entirely satisfactory. Others long for an environment which they too understand, but in order to control it better, to drive it, shall we say; like demiurges, they build this environment. Still others choose the mystery, the harmony of wholeness, the Big Everything; nothing is alike for them, everything differs, unique in its singularity; if they could only feel integrated in this world, find a suitable place to be, have the inner feeling of participating in it, then they would be satisfied. Training bears fruit, delivers knowledge, develops useful and reliable competencies from the point of view of learners, only if it makes sense to them, according to their own criteria. One thus should identify these criteria and adjust training to them as best as one can, jeopardizing otherwise the very goal of everyone’s effort. In a seminal work on the question of meaning, Pepper (1970) investigated what he called world hypotheses, which an individual uses to make sense of the world, to admit it as his or her own, according to an understanding which echoes in him/her— indeed, its fundamental epistemological stand. Pepper retained four main hypotheses which reach, more or less intimately depending on people, the deepest and most widespread human convictions:
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Formism, a close relative of realism and positivism, through which things are seen as exact replicas of the ideas that conceive them, like a bridge constructed exactly to the plans designed by the architect; Mechanicism, according to which the world is an orderly abstract machine, a coherent mix of symbols logically assembled like a perfect and irreproachable physical theory; Organicism, which refuses to divide, to analyse, to break down a body into distinct elements, to separate it into independent parts, but welcomes in return the irreducible unity, the ever incomplete synthesis of a same body, the way Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony can be considered as the unending summing up of all possible interpretations; Contextualism or pragmatism, finally: all that matters is practical reasons for whatever idea might arise, without respect to their incomprehensibleness and how much useless transcendence, the way a key is thrown away with the lock that no longer works and that we then change with it.
Each of us feels attracted by one or the other of these epistemological stands, or hesitates between some of them, because it intimately corresponds to our relation to the world, to our own way to elucidate and prove the truth, to convince oneself personally, even obviously, if many other people remain unconvinced due to the fact that a given problem rightly solved for someone was indeed worked out for the wrong reasons by someone else: ‘What does the flask matter, if you get elated, heavily degenerates the soul of wine singing in the bottles!’7 Zourhlal (1998) showed that, according to a hypothesis of David A. Kolb (1984), the epistemological stand of an individual is closely connected to the dominant learning style, i.e. one’s personal preferences in one’s way to learn something; that, as much as possible, learners try to confirm their new knowledge using their own validation mechanism, their own way of making something true, credible, the way
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they would try normally to convince themselves. Kolb distinguishes four distinct learning styles, depicted in Figure 1, using characteristic features that allow us better to grasp the learning styles and to anticipate learners’ behaviour and the possible consequences on TVET. CE ACCOMMODATOR • • • • • • • • • •
Child archetype Favours action Centred on the here and now Values sensations Looks for utility, relevance Needs change (diversity, movement), to try (likes risk) Aims at replication Needs models, instructions, examples Wishes for feed-back (likes rewards) Values courage
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DIVERGER • • • • • • • • • • •
Mother archetype Favours integration Centred on life Values feelings Looks for harmony, originality Needs time (impregnation, confidence, security, evolution) Aims at implication Needs to belong, to be accepted by others Wishes for feed-forward (likes to give, to contribute) Values love Organicist
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Father archetype Favours realisation (carrying out) Centred on things Values methods Looks for conformity Needs efficient time planning Aims at controlled application Needs rules (principles), theories, equipment Wishes for feed-out (likes to provide, to produce) Values justice
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Bachelor archetype Favours understanding Centred on the universal, the eternal Values ideas Looks for logical consistency Needs time (to explain the past and present, to predict the future) Aims at explanation Needs ideas, data, information Wishes for feed-in (likes to be informed in order to be autonomous, to take) Values prudence
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Formist
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Mechanicist
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Fig. 1 Certain characteristics associated with Kolb’s learning styles
We notice two main axes which delimit, along the dimensions establishing them, Kolb’s four learning styles, confining at the same time Pepper’s four corresponding epistemological stands. Each of these axes opposes two different means to learn, which all human beings possess but favour differently according to their own subjectivity. These are the learning modes closely linked to the emotional, cognitive, sensori-motor and social capacities attributed to humans, one way or the other, in almost every culture, and that we have integrated above in our definition of competency. These learning modes have such important consequences for the extent and completeness of TVET that it is worthwhile looking at them in greater details.
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3.1 Concrete Experience Concrete experience (CE) consists in immersing oneself freely into a learning situation, emotionally alert, one’s sensori-motor channels wide open, available to whatever might occur, in order to perceive as intensely as possible all relevant external stimuli generated by the situation, such as colours, smells, sounds, textures and movements, as well as internal stimuli, such as feelings and physical sensations. This learning mode hardly bothers to be coherent or rational; it just wants to make contact with ‘reality’, phenomena, life, to provide to whoever cares the feeling that they exist, to produce perhaps pleasure or pain but to register, without any doubt, in the body and memory the kindness and the brutality of time. It is this learning mode that daily we activate unconsciously most of the time to live in society or just to cross the street. Concrete experience is certainly the most fundamental perceptive mode which one has, as a human being, the most animal, the shortest road between stimulus—internal or external—and response. Located in time and in space, lived as real, concrete experience requiring the physical presence of flesh and blood, of three-dimensional, tangible and material objects to smell and to feel like the current weather conditions or the actual state of everything else; this includes imagined and dreamed data, undeniable products of the situation. One can describe a concrete experience; one would not know how to fake one. It particularly pleases divergers and accommodators.
3.2 Abstract Conceptualization Abstract conceptualization (AC) opposes concrete experience with the full weight of reason to extract itself from a situation, to eliminate sensitivity, feelings and emotions from the learning process, so as to give free course to ideas, concepts and principles which, so to speak, ‘float in the air’ like Plato’s ideas. These ideas, concepts and principles take precedence then over perceivable stimuli, transforming a situation into a more-or-less explicit system of symbols made of words, numbers or well-stylized icons, possibly logically consistent. Abstract conceptualization is a conscious process since it necessarily goes through the intellect; it provides to the human mind confidence that the situation can be, at least partially, understood. It does not intend to state, like concrete experience, but searches, lacking substratum, for an explanation, an ideal form, a theoretical model. Following Plato’s road, abstract conceptualization gives to invisible ideas precedence over their material shadow. Convergers and assimilators thrive on it. These two learning modes constitute a dialectically opposed couple, well known to psychologists and philosophers. For Kolb, they form the axis of prehension (the vertical in Figure 1), making contact with both the external and the internal world, contrasting apprehension and comprehension of this world. For Jung (1991), they are two major constituents of human psychology developed unevenly in most of us: on the one side, the intuition of ideas, of underlying connections in a situation; on the other side, opposing it, the pure, immediate and uncritical sensations of the
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actual stimuli generated in the situation. According to our personal temperament, our culture, our history, we emphasize one or the other end of the prehension axes.
3.3 Reflective Observation and Active Experimentation The other two learning modes constitute another dialectically opposed couple. Together, they define the axis of transformation (the horizontal in Figure 1), which contrasts our preferences as to the way we handle our perceptions. Some—divergers and assimilators—trust their thinking and, consequently, select reflective observation (RO) in Kolb’s model; others—convergers and accommodators—prefer instead involving themselves in action and, therefore, choose active experimentation (AE). Reflective observation consists of developing in one’s mind a clear awareness of one’s perceptions, be they concrete sensations, feelings or emotions, or else abstract ideas, whole schemes perhaps intuitively grasped, to establish their existence, to set their limits, to name them, so that human thought may pursue them, impregnate itself with them, judge, decide. Oriented towards ideas, as assimilators are spontaneously, reflective observation leads to other ideas, concepts, principles, as well as to theories, which in turn explain the world, its past, its present, and predict its future. It thus engenders a definite if not absolute capacity to control the world, limiting the uncertainty and the risks incurred, and leads to assimilated actions, to organized and rational behaviour. When it attempts to conceptualize, reflective observation aims at the universal. Conversely, when it turns towards sensations and feelings, the way divergers do, reflective observation leads to quite different events, as it opens on life. It then allows the deep meaning of the world to be understood, to feel the weight of values rather than having to abstract them, to juxtapose origins, roots, previous history, events, without necessarily comparing them, and to accept contradictions; to grant to every human being, to every event, to everything its degree of specificity. Reflective observation engenders the acceptance of the mystery of the other, his/her unsolvable otherness, limiting intolerance and the risks incurred. When it looks for expression, metaphor or mere description, on the verge of the unspeakable, reflective observation aims at integration. Active experimentation, for its part, encrypts human beings into the world, registers through action their passage in time that makes and unmakes, modifies matter, moves it, reorganizes it, crystallizes human effort into a concrete work, perceptible to our senses. If it regularly fights reflection, wildly even, it also complements it to avoid disasters. Indeed, when active experimentation transforms a one-shot concrete experience, as accommodators like to do, it is with the hope of a better life: to solve a problem, to enjoy motion, to imitate one’s idol, to take advantage of the moment. To learn becomes an attempt, a test, even if it means making a mistake, stopping, restarting, destroying perhaps and trying again until success is finally achieved. There is then no valuable explanation to this world, only particular cases which keep popping up, identical or different. One simply tries again, just to see, just in case, as a matter of fact. Active experimentation thus generates mutual assistance, generosity, service without any judging, limiting totalitarianism and the
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risks incurred. When it strives for adaptation, active experimentation aims at usefulness. But when, instead, it transforms ideas, plans, theories, to the convergers’ delight, it is to conform to them, to make them real exactly as they were intended, to apply them systematically. To learn is then to give a shape, to methodically and rigorously process and materialize the outcomes of human thought, no matter how they were reached. There is then no mystery anymore, only matter governed by laws, well-controlled events. Active experimentation thus generates justice, without any care for inconsequential differences, limiting iniquity and messing and the risks incurred. When it attempts to accomplish, active experimentation aims at efficiency.
4 Learning Styles and Teaching Can we take advantage of all these learning modes in class when students demonstrate widely contrasting learning styles—not only differing ones but often frankly opposed? Are there teaching methods or strategies capable of adapting to so much heterogeneity? Kolb (1984), for one, proposed the cycle of experiential learning which consists in appealing sequentially to each of the four learning modes, starting first in concrete experience, immersing students in real, credible and relevant situations about which they would reflect afterwards, making use of their own observations and those of others; moving then, by inference, towards the formulation of hypotheses, models, theories, that they would next put to test in a controlled manner to secure whatever suitable learning would allow them to plunge later into new concrete experiences, better prepared than previously. For our part, we explored another avenue by trying to adapt traditional teaching methods, such as lecture, demonstration or role play—widely employed in TVET— to Kolb’s different learning styles. We wanted to explore up to what point this adaptation was possible and with what degree of difficulty. To do so, we made use of classes provided regularly to adults enrolled in TVET teacher-training programmes whose dominant learning style we had previously determined by means of Kolb’s ‘Learning Style Inventory’ (Kolb, 1976; Gauthier & Poulin, 1985). Over the years, we had learned to better understand the effective dynamics of the different learning styles, as expressed in real-learning situations, and to better adapt our teaching to each of them. To initiate the students into the different learning styles and to deepen our own understanding of this complex dynamic, to determine how to adjust individual teaching methods to the needs and inclinations of every learning style, we quite often separated the class into sub-groups of identical dominant learning style and, through a kind of action research, took advantage of the students’ reactions and observations when a particular teaching method was analysed and experimented with. With this in mind and under these circumstances, we prepared and, several times, presented in succession four short lectures on the same subject—namely, in this particular instance, the very subject of lecturing—imagining that the class consisted, for each short lecture, entirely of individuals sharing the same dominant learning style. Thus, assuming that a whole
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class consisted of divergers, we recounted teaching and learning experiences that we had personally lived or witnessed, adorned with numerous examples and factual or emotional details, allowing the students to imagine the scene for themselves and, to a certain extent, to experience the same feelings and emotions that were felt by people in the original situations. Physically, we favoured the human contact so dear to the learners of this learning style. Next, taking for granted that the whole class group consisted of assimilators, way up in front of the class to purposefully limit human contacts, we rigorously explained the basic concepts and principles of lecturing, defining them as precisely as possible, avoiding giving examples and insisting, in an impersonal manner, on the formal relations which link these concepts and principles between themselves and to others of the same conceptual family. In the case of a presupposed whole group of convergers, emphasis was put on the systematic, chronological and consistent application of these concepts and principles in situations relating to them, again in an impersonal manner and without supplying examples. Finally, intended for a class group consisting entirely of accommodators, rules of thumb, advice, recipes, things to do and to avoid were emphasized, presented to the students without any particular order as independent bits of information, constantly interacting with the students, inciting them to personally experiment with these tips, to play with them, try them out, even if it meant making mistakes, without concern for logical justifications—as suits people of this learning style—but almost convinced of their practical usefulness. Naturally, a real standard lecture is never presented in this weird manner and if it contains—obviously, on purpose or by intuition—elements adapted to each learning style, these are skilfully mixed, proportioned and balanced so as to maintain the optimal interest and attention of the entire audience throughout the lecture. In this normal way, however, it becomes much more difficult to track down and to identify common reactions of individuals sharing the same dominant learning style. We also experimented with other teaching methods but in a more classic manner, i.e. without systematically adapting our teaching to the individual learning styles8 but methodically gathering students’ reactions and comments, to generate instructions and indications that could be followed by whoever would care to adjust his/her personal repertoire of teaching methods to the individual learning styles of the students. Several teaching methods were investigated in this way and, for each of them, the contents and the teaching conditions suited to each learning style were identified, together with the typical behaviour of learners favouring this style. Two examples are illustrated in Figures 2 and 3 on lecture and on role play respectively. A careful comparison of these two examples reveals how much instructions and indications appropriate for each learning style, along with the typical learners’ behaviour, match from one teaching method to the other. They are obviously closely correlated to the learning styles discussed earlier (compare with Figure 1). Knowing that, it becomes possible, for those who understand Kolb’s learning styles adequately and the way they take place in a classroom, to better teach students of all styles, using almost whatever method.
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ACCOMMODATOR Teaching contents and conditions • Provide concrete examples • Link to actions to perform, things to do • Reduce information to the minimum necessary to act (and not to understand) • Discard nuances • Go for the show, the spectacular • Select concrete means and accessories (mime, real objects…) • Emphasize that learning is within students reach
DIVERGER Teaching contents and conditions • Share, speak about lived experiences (identify people, if possible) • Provide concrete examples closely related to the subject matter • Recount anecdotes, stories • Link to people rather than to objects or concepts • Value people
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Limited attention Active participation
Sustained attention Reserve
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C ONVERGER Teaching contents and conditions • Define relevant concepts and demonstrate relevant principles once and for all • Describe methodically practical applications of concepts and principles • Specify procedures, algorithms, methods, in detail and systematically • Link ideas to reality • Stay impersonal • Demonstrate methodological rigour
ASSIMILATOR Teaching contents and conditions • Systematically, justify concepts and demonstrate principles by means of hypothetico-deductive reasoning • Offer precise and rigorous definitions • Emphasize causes • Link ideas to ideas • Elaborate conceptual structures • Limit examples • Stay impersonal • Demonstrate intellectual rigour
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Conditional attention (beware repetition) Conditional active participation
Sustained attention Reserve
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Fig. 2 Teaching contents favoured by students of all learning styles and their typical behaviour during a lecture
Furthermore, the experiment also revealed that, if students are particularly alert and interested when the teaching was specifically adapted to their personal learning style, they then appreciate best the learning activities that are proposed to them. It is not necessarily with the teaching style that they like that they would necessarily learn any subject matter best, that any knowledge would become for them the most meaningful. On the contrary, it appears that the content of learning would be better grasped, i.e. students would know it better and more easily, when appealing to a learning style particularly suited to the content rather than the students, that there would be a sort of natural match between learning process and learning product. For instance, what relates to emotional involvement, the development of the feeling of capacity, compassion, empathy or any other similar matter, would rather solicit the divergent faculty in all learners, no matter what their dominant learning style was,
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EC ACCOMMODATOR Teaching contents and conditions • Present the subject matter, insisting on what actors and spectators have to do • Provide physical contact with pictures, gestures, motion, sounds, odours • Relate to down-to-earth reality • Favour the staging of a true and credible context
DIVERGER Teaching contents and conditions • Present the subject in a human and even a humanist perspective • Stage with sophistication and imagination • Draw attention to human behaviour and reaction
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Definite interest and participation (particularly as actors)
EA
Definite interest and participation (both as actor and spectator)
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CONVERGER Teaching contents and conditions • Provide a text presenting the theme, the argument and the act perspective of application of concepts and principles • Favour application or recourse to concepts and principles • Test theories aiming at validation
ASSIMILATOR Teaching contents and conditions • Provide a text presenting the theme, the argument and the actors’ roles in an explicative perspective • Infer explanations from observations • Appeal to consistent roles regarding concepts and principles • Analyse play in terms of concepts and principles
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Limited interest and participation
Limited interest and participation Prefer observing to participating
CA
Fig. 3 Teaching contents favoured by students of all learning styles and their typical behaviour during a role play
even though, for sure, divergers enjoy such contents more than the others and they learn it better and more meaningfully than, particularly, the convergers, who are so little enticed by these subject matters. To compensate, convergers would in turn be strongly favoured when learning and applying, for instance, rigorously structured intervention methods, and their knowledge would then acquire a high degree of meaningfulness. The same would be true for assimilators regarding logical understanding and theoretical formalization of abstract contents, and for accommodators when dealing with practical action conditions of the type ‘if . . ., then . . .’. Of course, the level of interest for a given type of content remains dependent on the learner’s dominant learning style, and the quality of learning too—as personal capacities and effort intensity should correlate well with one’s dominant learning style—but nobody would be able to change the fact that, most probably, everything does not become learned in one big powerful egocentric way, in spite of the stubbornness which we all show by persisting, more often than not, to learn everything systematically using the same learning style, alleging—unconsciously perhaps— that we prefer it.
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5 Conclusion Left alone, without any particular training on the individual differences between learners, on their respective preferences and tendencies in matters of teaching and learning, a TVET teacher often teaches to himself/herself. Without knowing it, teachers choose pedagogical methods and training activities that correspond mostly to their own learning style, assuming implicitly that all students learn the same way as they do. In doing so, teachers value and favour those students who learn just like them, emphasizing what they consider important. Teacher ask students the same questions that they asked themselves and expect the same answers they looked for themselves. They fill, thus, in those students like themselves, the same gaps that they had to fill in themselves, pleased with it, proud of themselves, believing that they are developing in every one of their students meaningful knowledge and competencies that will be clearly recognizable to them. Nevertheless, without knowing it, teachers are condemning those of their students who are different from them—probably the majority—to sometimes such great learning difficulties that they drive some of them directly to failure, creating and leaving in others, who manage to survive, wide zones of cognitive discomfort. The fundamental step in the training of a teacher acceptable to all is to recognize that significant differences exist in the way individuals learn, that everyone favours a particular course to acquire knowledge and develop competencies, foster a personal learning style; that the teacher too—as each of us—possesses a learning style that characterizes him/her, to which he/she resorts spontaneously to learn something, if he/she can have his/her own way. It is only once this is recognized and accepted that teachers will gradually learn how to master these differences, become able to play on them as a pianist plays his keyboard, without ever totally and completely mastering it, but ever fearing it and respecting it as if faced with a mystery, to sometimes facilitate the learning in their students by bringing them on to ground that they like, supplying them with what they are spontaneously looking for, following their dominant learning style, or else, by constraining them to follow other paths than those which they know best, to investigate, discover what on their own they would avoid, in a manner foreign to them; boring, even unpleasant, according to other learning styles, as a right-handed pianist leaves to his left-hand the low notes of the keyboard, increasing and balancing to a certain extent the cognitive range of his students. The teacher would thus contribute to mature in them those dimensions of competency equally necessary and good, but whose development would otherwise have died in the bud. Teacher and students then both would bloom better, accomplishing themselves according to their respective individual aspirations and according to what society also expects from responsible and competent citizens and workers, the way training programmes intend to define them (see Figure 4). Nobody, however, is completely certain about what he/she contributes to another person’s becoming; both influencing and mutually transforming, both teaching the other and learning from him/her. It is from this ambiguous relationship between teacher and student, between individual and individual, without really knowing what both make of this situation, that raises the pleasure and enjoyment of the different
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Fig. 4 Teacher and learner assist each other in their personal and professional development when the teacher takes into account their respective learning style
and unique, the assumed acceptance of who we are. More work will be necessary to confirm the veracity of these assertions.
Notes 1. This hypothesis is undoubtedly realistic considering research carried out in the framework of constructivism, a learning theory emphasizing that the learner is responsible for his/her own learning, constructing knowledge in his/her own personal way. It was found that, for example, in any given population, learning contents of a scientific nature, such as heat or the digestive system, are likely to be represented in people’s mind according to one of very few different and almost universal conceptions of the content considered (see, for instance, Giordan & de Vecchi, 1990). 2. In 1993, the Maastricht Treaty laid the foundations of modern Europe by instituting the European Union. In 1999, the Bologna Agreement, which aimed at harmonizing higher education in Europe by 2010 to, among other things, increase student and researcher mobility and facilitate diploma recognition, was signed by twenty-nine countries (forty-five by 2005). On the other hand, the ratification process of the proposed European Constitution appears more chaotic since, by referendum, France and Netherlands rejected the proposition while the United Kingdom hesitated about consulting its people. 3. According to this commission, the four pillars of education for the twenty-first century are: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be. 4. One, therefore, may specifically adapt competency profiles according to the requirements of jobs advertised without losing people’s professional identity, nor negatively altering their professional integrity.
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5. There are, indeed, what one may call collective competencies, i.e. competencies mastered collectively by a group of people but not individually by any single person. As an example, one may think about teams of players in a football or hockey team who are able to execute fancy manoeuvres, which would be badly impeded by the replacement of a single player in the unit. Combined with the players’ natural ability, the intimate knowledge of what, with time and practice, they acquire of each other and their highly trained capacity to collaborate, permits the development of these collective competencies. 6. This section is adapted from Gagnon, 2002. 7. We here refer to Alfred de Musset (1850, p. 160) [our translation of the original: ‘Qu’importe le flacon, pourvu qu’on ait l’ivresse’], pragmatist in this case, and to Baudelaire (1968, p. 207) [freely adapted from ‘Un soir, l’ˆame du vin chantait dans les bouteilles’], organicist. Again commenting on wine, Baudelaire renders clearly his own epistemological stand, which appears to be common among poets. He writes: ‘Wine is like man: one will never know up to which point one can praise it or despise it, like it or abhor it, neither of how many sublime actions or horrendous abuses it is capable’ (1966, p. 168; our translation). 8. Except for the grouping of students by dominant learning styles.
References Baudelaire, C. 1968. ‘L’ˆame du vin’ in Les fleurs du mal. Paris: Librairie Jos´e Corti. [Originally published 1857.] Baudelaire, C. 1966. Les paradis artificiels. Paris: Garnier-Flammarion. [Originally published 1860.] Delors, J. et al. 1996. Learning: the treasure within. Paris: UNESCO. (Report of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century.) Gagnon, R. 1996. Consid´erations sur les d´eterminants d’une didactique de disciplines techniques: essai sur un mode semi-m´etaphorique. Quebec, Canada: Universit´e Laval, Facult´e des sciences de l’´education. Gagnon, R. 2002. Le d´eveloppement du savoir technique signifiant dans le cadre d’une formation a` distance transculturelle. In: Br´esil@Montr´eal: penser les transferts culturels: pratiques et discours de pluralisme. [CD-ROM.] ISBN: 85-89273-03-2. ´ Gauthier, L.; Poulin, N. 1985. Savoir apprendre. Sherbrooke, Canada: Les Editions de l’Universit´e de Sherbrooke. Giordan, A.; de Vecchi, G. 1990. Les origines du savoir: des conceptions des apprenants aux conceptions scientifiques. Neuchˆatel, Switzerland: Delachaux & Niestl´e. ´ Jung, C.-G. 1991. Types psychologiques, 7th ed. Geneva, Switzerland: Georg Editeur. Kolb, D.A. 1976. The learning style inventory: technical manual. Boston, MA: McBer & Company. Kolb, D.A. 1984. Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Musset, A. de. 1850. ‘Un spectacle dans un fauteuil. D´edicace’ in Po´esies compl`etes. Paris: Charpentier. Pepper, S.C. 1970. World hypotheses: a study in evidence. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press. [First published 1942.] Stone, J.E. 2002. Teacher training and pedagogical methods. In: Izumi, L.T.; Evers, W.M., eds. Teacher quality. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press. (Publication no. 505.) ´ Toupin, L. 1998. La comp´etence comme mati`ere, e´ nergie et sens. Education permanente, no. 135, pp. 33–44. ´ Zarifian, P. 1999. Objectif comp´etence. Paris: Editions liaisons. Zourhlal, A. 1998. Contribution th´eorique et empirique a` l’´etude de la connaissance signifiante en contexte de formation professionnelle. Quebec, Canada: Universit´e Laval. [Unpublished Ph.D. thesis.]
Chapter XV.13
Workplace Essential Skills in Policy and Practice: A Canadian Perspective Erik de Vries
1 Introduction This chapter provides an account of the origins, anatomy and current challenges of the Government of Canada’s Essential Skills Initiative (ESI). It is divided into five sections. The first places the ESI in an international context which saw the emergence of core work competencies occurring simultaneously in numerous industrialized States beginning in the late 1980s. Second, the political and institutional foundation on which current federal skills development policy is sketched out. The third section explains the architecture and methodology of the Essential Skills Research Project (ESRP), as well as some examples of applications of its findings. The fourth describes the ESI and provides some examples of its outputs. The chapter closes with a short account of the primary research challenges confronting policy-makers.
2 Core Competencies in the International Context The ESI, developed since 1994, was the Canadian incarnation of a multi-country movement towards the articulation of a set of core skills or competencies responsive to the demands of modern citizenship and work. A complete account of the diverse origins of this movement is beyond the scope of this chapter, but the following overview illustrates both its drivers and effects. First, the goal of identifying a set of measurable, internationally comparable educational indicators was articulated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in the development of its International Education Statistics (INES) programme beginning in 1988. Network A, the INES group devoted to the development of educational indicators used in the annual OECD publication ‘Education at a Glance’, subsequently developed and now operates the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA assesses skills such as literacy, mathematics and science literacy among 15-year-olds, and is conducted triennially beginning in 2000 in thirty-two participating countries. Other indicators currently employed by Network A for ‘Education at a Glance’ include: R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XV.13, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), conducted every four years beginning in 1995. One incarnation of TIMSS in 2003 assessed math and science competencies of students in their fourth and eighth year of education in fifty countries; The 1999 Civic Education Study (CivEd), which compared knowledge, skills and attitudes concerning democracy, national identity and other related subjects among ninth-grade students in twenty-eight countries; The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS); this study, conducted in 2001, assessed reading ability and related variables, such as demographics, attitudes and learning strategies among fourth-grade students in thirtyfive countries.
The OECD also sponsored a second, closely related effort to articulate and measure a set of core competencies required by adults having completed education to age 18. In the early 1990s, the OECD’s Cross-Curricular Competencies (CCC) project set out to identify the skills required by adults to live ‘an individually worthy and socially valuable life’ (Salganik et al., 1999, p. 13), along with a set of corresponding indicators. The skill domains originally specified for inclusion covered those needed in political, social and economic contexts, problem-solving, communication skills, autonomy and perception of critical human values (ibid., pp. 13–14). While the composition of the skill domains covered by subsequent CCC efforts and those within different countries varied, its emphasis on adult competencies, abstracted or even divorced from school curricula, is a common defining element of numerous national projects undertaken at about the same time. The OECD-sponsored Definition and Selection of Competencies (DeSeCo) project that ran from 1998 to 2002 assembled and published country reports on national efforts of this kind, as well as critical analyses from a variety of perspectives (Trier, 2001; Rychen & Salganik, 2001, 2003). A third impetus for the identification of a set of core competencies specifically for the workplace arose from the observation by policy-makers and economists of a broad shift among industrialized States away from a Fordist production base reliant on highly specialized and narrow job tasks, and towards production rooted in the knowledge-based economy (KBE). Observers, beginning in the 1970s, had anticipated that this shift would bring about diverse changes for workers, such as an increase in job mobility, higher and different skills requirements, the emergence of a new professional class of knowledge workers, and the corresponding need for the ability to acquire new skills throughout adulthood (Bell, 1973; Mayer & Carroll, 1987; Rubinson & Browne, 1994). Indeed, by the early 1990s, the anticipated growth in both structural employment and income disparity between the relatively uneducated and the well-educated had materialized in many OECD countries (OECD, 1994), prompting new interest in identifying the skills most suited to the new economic environment. In the United States, for example, the Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) set out in 1990 to identify a catalogue of workplace skills needed for the KBE. Australia’s Mayer Committee established a set of ‘key competencies’ that were ‘not only essential for participation
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in work, but are also essential for effective participation in further education and in adult life more generally’ (Mayer Committee, 1992, p. 7). The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), conducted in twenty-two countries between 1994 and 1998 and sponsored by a diverse group of national and international agencies (including the OECD and UNESCO), was a logical extension of all three of these efforts. In at least three respects, IALS marked a major improvement over previous international human capital comparisons, such as those captured in early editions of ‘Education at a Glance’. First, IALS demonstrated a reliable method for assessing populations’ literacy and numeracy skills directly across cultural contexts and languages. Second, the difficulty scales used to rate test items operationalized the principle—long held by literacy practitioners and researchers— that literacy and numeracy are not dichotomous but continuous variables. Third, the integration of a wide-ranging background questionnaire with the assessment itself provided researchers and policy-makers with unprecedented information on correlates and potential causes and effects of high and low literacy and numeracy levels. The Adult Literacy and Lifeskills (ALL) Survey used similar instruments to assess the same three skills surveyed in IALS, but also responds to the core skills catalogues identified under the initiatives described above with the addition of a new direct assessment of problem-solving or analytical reasoning and indirect assessments of teamwork and information and communication technologies (ICTs).
3 Competencies in the Canadian Federal Context This section begins by linking the international projects described above to the Canadian experience in the development of the ESRP. It concludes with a brief account of the federal government’s historical role in the area of adult training, with a view to explaining its current role in skills development. The Canadian experience in cataloguing, scaling and assessing its population’s skills echoed that of many other industrialized States. Ahead of international assessments, such as TIMSS and PISA, a national assessment of a sample of 13and 16-year-olds, known as the School Achievement Indicators Program (SAIP), was introduced in 1993. SAIP assesses mathematics content and problem-solving, reading and writing, and science, with a rotating survey of each of these three skill domains every four years. The SAIP was established by the Council of Ministers of Education—Canada (CMEC) to answer the question of how well Canadian schools ‘prepare students for lifelong learning and for participation in the global economy’ (CMEC, 2002, p. 1). While there was no national high-profile attempt to identify a set of general core competencies for adults in Canada,1 the Conference Board of Canada, an independent think-tank, undertook the first catalogue of workplace skills for the knowledge economy beginning in 1992. The Employability Skills Profile distinguished academic, personal management and teamwork skill sets, each of which comprised
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more specific skills, including oral and written communication, thinking skills and working with others; also included were attitudes and behaviours employers identified as necessary for the workplace (Bloom & Kitagawa, 1999). The ESRP, initiated in 1994 by the federal department of Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC),2 drew on the Conference Board’s findings, as well as those of other national initiatives (including SCANS), to identify a set of core competencies required in all Canadian occupations. The Canadian set of workplace competencies, now called essential skills, was established through a process of literature review, consultation with experts in skills, and field-testing through workplace interviews with incumbent workers. In addition to specifying these skills, it also set out to create consistent complexity scales for each skill (with the IALS scales providing both the model for scaling all of the essential skills, as well as the prose literacy, document use and numeracy scales themselves). This research methodology supported the subsequent project to create distinct essential skills profiles for each Canadian occupation. The methodology and findings of the ESRP to date are described in detail later in this chapter. The rest of this section provides an overview of the political drivers that underpin the federal government’s approach to skills development in general and of the ESRP and the ESI in particular. Canadian policy on adult and worker skills and training has historically been permeated by both tension and collaboration between the federal government and the provincial and territorial governments. On the one hand, the constitutionallyestablished jurisdiction of the Canadian provinces over education, entrenched in section 93 of the British North America (BNA) Act, has, particularly in the last decade, been interpreted to include adult training. On the other hand, the federal government’s power to implement an unemployment insurance scheme, introduced by amendment to the BNA Act in 1940, remains the primary mechanism by which the federal government funds adult skills training. In practice, however, the federal government has principally relied on collaborative arrangements with provincial and territorial partners to provide worker training, a convention established through the 1919 Technical Education Act. Until 1995, these arrangements varied, but always entailed some form of inter-jurisdictional collaboration to fund and provide adult training for the labour market, both for those already working and for the unemployed (Hunter, 1991). During the 1990s, however, the Canadian training system was overhauled under pressure from two sources. First, federal training policy fell under the sway of the constitutional tensions characterizing federal/provincial relations from 1990 to 1995. Under the terms of the Charlottetown Accord, provisionally agreed to by the federal government and all provinces in 1992, worker training would be devolved to the provinces, but the Accord was subsequently defeated by national referendum. When then Prime Minister Jean Chr´etien was confronted with the prospect of Quebec’s secession in 1995, however, he resuscitated the offer to withdraw the federal government from training. Second, beginning in 1993, a commitment to fiscal discipline drove the government to tighten expenditures related to unemployment insurance by raising eligibility thresholds and reducing both the level and duration of benefits.
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Both pressures were addressed in the 1996 Employment Insurance (EI) Act. The Act outlined a process allowing the provinces and territories to negotiate devolution agreements, subsequently called Labour Market Development Agreements (LMDAs) that would give them the autonomy and the means to administer employment programmes. Since then, all provinces and territories, except Ontario, have negotiated an LMDA with the federal government. The new eligibility and benefit restrictions also reduced EI expenditures considerably, and notably excluded the training of incumbent workers. The EI Act specifies Employment Benefits and Support Measures (EBSMs) as the federally-funded instruments available to help the unemployed return to work. Employment Benefits are instruments designed to help EI beneficiaries return to and remain in employment. Support Measures fund organizations and research devoted to returning the unemployed to work. The ESRP and substantial portions of the ESI fall under the last category. An early example of the type of developmental work undertaken as a Support Measure—important because it was later adopted by numerous other outside partners—is the Test of Workplace Essential Skills (TOWES; pronounced to rhyme with ‘cows’) developed with project funding from the National Literacy Secretariat (NLS), an HRDC division founded in 1988 to research, support and promote literacy in family, community and workplace contexts. TOWES was developed beginning in 1998 as a joint venture by Bow Valley College in Calgary, Alberta, and the British Columbia Industry Skills Improvement Council (also called SkillPlan) in Vancouver. The resulting product is unmatched as a reliable and valid test of the three essential skills (reading text, document use and numeracy) which had been measured at the population level under IALS in Canada in 1994. Its reliability is manifested in an almost perfect correlation with IALS (and therefore also with the Essential Skills complexity levels) (Yamamoto & Kirsch, 2002). Its validity rests on its use of authentic workplace materials as test materials, each rated for complexity, so that test candidates are assessed realistically for their capacity to perform essential literacy skills tasks required in actual workplaces.
4 The ESRP The ESRP, initiated in 1994, set out to describe the applications and complexity levels of each of the nine essential skills required in Canadian occupations. Through a comprehensive review of comparable international efforts, consultations with experts and field-testing in workplaces, nine skills were identified as ubiquitous requirements in Canadian workplaces: reading text; document use; numeracy (encompassing distinct scales for numerical calculation and numerical estimation); writing; oral communication; thinking skills (including distinct scales for problem solving, decision making, critical thinking, job-task planning and organizing, significant use of memory and finding information); computer use; working with others; and continuous learning. See Box 1 for an overview of these essential skills.3
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Box 1: Essential skills at a glance Reading text (5-point ordinal scale):
r r r
refers to reading material in the form of sentences or paragraphs; generally involves reading notes, letters, memos, manuals, specifications, regulations, books, reports or journals; Includes forms and labels if they contain at least one paragraph, print and non-print media (for example, texts on computer screens and microfiche) and paragraph-length text in charts, tables and graphs.
Document use (5-point ordinal scale):
r
r
refers to tasks that involve a variety of information displays in which words, numbers, icons and other visual characteristics (e.g. line, colour, shape) are given meaning by their spatial arrangement. For example, graphs, lists, tables, blueprints, schematics, drawings, signs and labels are documents used in the world of work; Includes print and non-print media (for example, computer screen or microfiche documents, equipment gauges, clocks and flags) and reading and its interpretation, writing, completing and producing documents.
Numeracy (5-point ordinal scale):
r
refers to tasks using numbers, quantitative data, and the principles underlying their manipulation.
Writing (5-point ordinal scale):
r
includes writing texts and writing in documents (for example, filling in forms) and non-paper-based writing (for example, typing on a computer).
Oral communication (4-point ordinal scale):
r
is the use of speech to give and exchange thoughts and information.
Thinking skills (4-point ordinal scale in all cases) comprise six sub-scales:
r r r r r
Problem-solving entails the development of solutions to problems; Decision-making refers to the selection of one of a set of options. Job task planning and organizing includes a worker’s planning and organizing functions at both the individual and organizational level. Significant use of memory includes any significant or unusual use of memory for workers in the occupational group. It does not include normal memory use that is a requirement for every occupation. Finding information involves the use of various sources including text, people, computerized databases or information systems.
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Box 1: (continued)
r
Critical thinking is the process of evaluating ideas or information using rational thought and referring to objective criteria to reach a rational judgement about value, or to identify strengths of weaknesses.
Working with others (4-point nominal scale):
r
is the extent to which, and includes the settings in which, employees work with others to carry out their tasks.
Computer use (5-point ordinal scale):
r
encompasses the variety and complexity of computer use required by the worker.
Continuous learning (4-point ordinal scale):
r
is the degree to which continuous learning is required, and to which the worker requires the autonomy to establish learning goals and to infer from learning for workplace applications.
4.1 Scaling The method of establishing complexity levels for each skill varies with the characteristics of the skill in question. The reading text, document use and numerical calculation scales were pegged directly to the five-level complexity scales established for IALS. The four-point oral communication and five-point writing scales were developed on the basis of already extant twelve-point scales developed by the Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks, a non-governmental organization dedicated to supporting teachers and learners of English as a second language in Canada. The remaining complexity scales were created by pegging complexity levels or types to discrete workplace tasks; the scales were tested in workplace interviews with job incumbents and adjusted to reflect the actual span of required skills in Canadian workplaces. Eight of the nine resulting scales are ordinal; that is, competence at a given level implies competence at all levels below it. All four literacy skills and the computer use scales are built on five-point scales, while the thinking skills (each of which is independent of the others) and continuous learning use a four-point scale. The remaining essential skill—working with others—is built on a nominal scale for which competence in one application does not imply competence in another; the ‘working with others’ scale includes the categories working alone, working independently, working with a partner and working as part of a team. Most essential skills scales are composites of sub-scales or dimensions, each built around a task type. The document-use scale, for example, contains three
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dimensions: document complexity, complexity of finding or entering information, and complexity of information use.
4.2 Profiling Since 1996, HRDC and its successor department, HRSDC, have been profiling the essential skills requirements of Canadian occupations. With a few exceptions, occupations are delineated by the National Occupational Classification (NOC),4 a taxonomy that distinguishes occupations by skill level and skill type. For each occupation5 in the NOC, trained researchers interview a series of workers. Interviews are conducted with competent job incumbents with several years’ experience on the job; interviewers are directed to avoid exceptionally accomplished or underperforming workers or novices. Interviews are scheduled to include the greatest possible diversity to cover instances of an occupation across variables, such as geography, firm size, occupational specialization, industry and geography. At least nine interviews are conducted, but this number increases if initial interview findings differ substantially or if the occupation under study is already known to contain significant variations in skill requirements. Interviews typically take 90 to 120 minutes using an open-ended format. Interview questions are designed to identify typical tasks undertaken by the interviewee in the course of the workday; every interview should yield task examples of every essential skill at every complexity level typically required by the individual being interviewed. A writer collates interview findings into a profile. For each essential skill, the profile provides complexity ranges, task examples with complexity ratings, and frequency levels for tasks used in a given occupation. Figure 1, an extract from the essential skills profile for Airlines Sales and Service Agents (NOC 6433), describes the reading requirements for that occupation. Interviewers also collect, where possible, authentic workplace materials (AWMs) that serve as instructional tools for curriculum developers, counsellors, educators and researchers. Figure 2 contains a sample AWM for agricultural and fish products inspectors, rated at complexity level 3 for reading text.
4.3 Profile Applications The Essential Skills Profiles (ESPs) are used by employers, educators, trade unions, sector councils—independent creations of the federal government charged with responding to human resources requirements in their sectors of the economy—and employment counsellors as training and assessment benchmarks for new and current employees. For example, the North West Company, a retailer of food and other goods across northern Canada and Alaska, used ESPs to identify skills requirements for positions in the company; the company subsequently assesses employees’ skill gaps against
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Airline Sales and Service Agents (NOC 6433) A. Tasks
Reading Text Complexity Examples Level Airline sales and service agents:
Typical
1 to 3
Most Complex
2 to 3
• read notices on the computer screen, such as special handling requirements for a specific flight or weather information which will affect flight times and shipping conditions. (1) • read bulletins about customer-service issues and changes in customer policies. (2) • read notes, letters and memos from head office regarding problems, such as missing luggage. (2) • read fare rules outlining the conditions of a flight ticket and the restrictions that apply to various fares. (2) • read log books at the beginning of their shifts to be aware of unusual events that occurred on the previous shift. (1) • read procedures for selling tickets and handling destroyed tickets. (3) • read Ministry of Transport regulations about the shipment of dangerous goods. (3) • refer to an airport handling manual and to tariff and customer service manuals. The airport handling manual presents detailed information about all aspects of cargo handling and aircraft loading for various types of aircraft. (frequently) (3)
Reading Profile Type of text
Forms Labels Notes, letters, memos Manuals, specifications, regulations Reports, books, journals
>>> >> >
Purpose for reading To scan for specific To skim for overall To read the full text to information/To locate meaning, to get the 'gist'. understand or to learn. information
> > >>
>
>
>>
>>
>>>
>
>>>
To read the full text to critique or to evaluate.
>
indicates that most respondents use that skill indicates that some respondents use that skill indicates that few respondents use that skill indicates that none of the respondents use that skill
Fig. 1 Sample from an essential skills profile
those requirements and designs individual training plans for each employee (Conference Board of Canada, 2002). At the Preparatory Training Programme, an employment-focused literacy programme in Toronto, counsellors use ESPs to help clients establish learning plan goals that align with the requirements of their chosen career (Ewing, 2001).
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ENFORCEMENT Certificate to be produced 13. (1) An inspector shall be furnished with a certificate of his designation as an inspector and on entering any place described in subsection (2) shall, if so required, produce the certificate to the person in charge of that place. Powers of inspectors (2) Subject to subsection (2.1), an inspector may at any reasonable time enter any premises of a dealer or any other place in which the inspector believes on reasonable grounds there is any prepackaged product that is owned by a dealer and may, where the inspector believes on reasonable grounds that, for any purpose relating to the enforcement of this Act, it is necessary to do so, (a) examine any prepackaged product found therein; (b) open and examine any package found therein that he believes on reasonable grounds contains any prepackaged product; and (c) examine any documents or papers, including books, reports, records, shipping bills and bills of lading, or any data entered or recorded by any system of mechanical or electronic data processing or by any other information storage device, that he believes on reasonable grounds contain any information relevant to the enforcement of this Act and make copies thereof or extracts therefrom. Warrant required to enter a dwelling-house (2.1) Where any premises or place referred to in subsection (2) is a dwelling-house, an inspector may not enter that dwelling-house without the consent of the occupant, except under the authority of a warrant issued under subsection (2.2). Authority to issue warrant (2.2) Where on ex parte application a justice of the peace is satisfied by information on oath: (a) that the conditions for entry described in subsection (2) exist in relation to a dwellinghouse, (b) that entry to the dwelling-house is necessary for any purpose relating to the administration or enforcement of this Act, and (c) that entry to the dwelling-house has been refused or that there are reasonable grounds for believing that entry thereto will be refused, the justice of the peace may issue a warrant under his hand authorizing the inspector named therein to enter that dwelling-house subject to such conditions as may be specified in the warrant. Fig. 2 Example of authentic workplace materials (AWMs) Source: Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act (Canada, 1985)
Some employers have an interest in articulating the essential skills requirements of occupations not profiled under the ESRP, either because the profile has not yet been created or because the ESP provided does not profile occupations to the level of specificity required in a given industry or company. In such instances, the essential skills, complexity ratings and profiling methodology are adopted and applied to create proprietary ESPs.
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For example, the Canadian Trucking Human Resources Council, a sector council jointly managed by business and labour representatives of the industry, has conducted its own profiles of four occupations specific to the sector to a degree of specificity greater than that contained in corresponding profiles produced through the ESRP. The Trucking Council uses its profiles as a component of national occupational standards and to develop customized training programmes for these occupations. BHP Billiton took a similar approach when it planned the EKATI diamond mine in the Northwest Territories in 1997. BHP Billiton created four ESPs specific to diamond mining, subsequently developing or adopting essential skills-based assessment and training tools (including TOWES) to recruit, place and train workers.
5 The Essential Skills Index (ESI) and its Origins Adult education and skills attainment have enjoyed a high profile as instruments of economic growth in recent years in Canada. The economic advantages of a skilled labour force and a corresponding policy of human capital development have been recognized and increasingly well-articulated among Canadian and international scholars and non-governmental organizations. Three lines of argument are generally deployed to support the position that Canada requires an ambitious human capital development policy. First, a substantial body of recent research on human capital links it directly to economic growth (Maudos, Pastor & Serrano, 2003; Stevens & Weale, 2003; Agiomirgianakis, Asteriou & Monastirioti, 2002) and specifies measures of human capital, including essential skills, more precisely than years of education (Coulombe, Tremblay & Marchand, 2004; Hanushek, 2003). Second, observers have noted or anticipated an increase in many occupations’ knowledge requirements, driven by technological and organizational change. Finally, the perceived effects of demographic pressure on structural skill shortages provide an impetus for increasing investment in the training needs of younger Canadians. The importance of investment in skills for adults has been reflected in highlevel announcements by elected politicians. Following announcements in the 2000 and 2001 Speeches from the Throne, the Government of Canada (Canada. HRDC, 2002) articulated its commitment to a human capital development policy when it released ‘Knowledge Matters: Skills and Learning for Canadians’, a report laying out the framework within which the government’s Skills and Learning Agenda was to be carried out. ‘Knowledge Matters’ framed existing and new initiatives in policy fields, including early childhood development, youth education and employment, post-secondary education, workplace training, and immigrant recruitment and training. The 2004 Speech from the Throne renewed the government’s commitment to skills development, stressing literacy, workplace learning and lifelong learning. Before 2002, work under the ESRP was conducted separately from governmentsponsored projects that entailed essential skill elements. Federal support for external partner projects came primarily through two sources. First, the NLS had included essential skills projects focused on workplace literacy among those it funded,
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including TOWES, research studies, pilot projects and support for other organizations creating essential skills applications. Second, some sector councils implemented essential skills assessment and training projects specific to occupations in their sector. As part of the response to ‘Knowledge Matters’, however, the Government of Canada’s essential skills activities were consolidated under the ESI (although the NLS continues to fund workplace literacy projects). Under the ESI, HRSDC now conducts activities under four streams:
r r r r
The research stream continues the work of the ESRP and anticipated completing the profiles by 2007; under this stream, other essential skills-related research is also funded. The synergy stream’s goal is the integration of the essential skills framework into Government of Canada programmes where they can be beneficial. The outreach stream promotes essential skills among partners. Partner projects are funded under the applications stream; some examples of these projects appear below.
5.1 Essential Skills Applications Projects funded by the ESI6 fall under one or more of the following four categories: tool and information development; capacity building; outreach and awareness; and research and knowledge management. Projects with national scope—that is, having partners or applications in multiple regions—have a greater chance of being funded than those that do not. Funding recipients include non-profit organizations, provincial and municipal governments, charities and universities, but exclude profitmaking corporations. Examples of recently funded essential skills projects include:7
r
r
Integrating Literacy and Computer—Centre for Education and Work, Winnipeg, Manitoba. This project develops a practitioner training package for use in adult literacy classes in the community, the workplace or in adult learning centre programmes. The package includes a workshop and a facilitator guide that demonstrates strategies and techniques in using computers as teaching and learning tools. A Critical Analysis of the HRSDC Essential Skills Project from an Aboriginal Human Capital Perspective—Storytellers’ Foundation, Hazelton, British Columbia. This project examines the epistemological foundations of the ESRP and assesses its congruence with aboriginal knowledge systems. The strengths and weaknesses of essential skills resources and tools will be assessed for their ability to support the inclusion, increased participation and advancement of aboriginal persons in the labour market. Opportunities for the Essential Skills Initiative to contribute to the social and cultural capital development needs of First Nations communities will be explored.
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r
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Literacy Programmes in the Workplace: How to increase employer involvement— Canadian Council on Social Development, Ottawa. This three-year research study examines the incentives that encourage employers to invest in workplace essential skills programmes, and which programmes seem most effective in this area in Canada and internationally. The final report includes policy recommendations. Integrating Essential Employability Skills into the College Curriculum: Research and Sharing of Experiences—Association of Canadian Community Colleges. Seven case studies of community colleges integrating essential skills components in their curricula were produced featuring best practices and essential skills resources for different kinds of learners, such as aboriginals, immigrants, apprentices and applied degree learners, etc. In the longer term, the project is intended to increase the number of skilled graduates who are well qualified to meet the full range of skill demands of a knowledge economy.
6 Research Challenges Aside from the political and administrative obstacles associated with the implementation of any government initiative (particularly in a federal context), critical policy-related questions concerning the relationship between essential skills and their putative strengths remain under-researched. The following rubrics collectively comprise a broad policy-oriented research agenda, but are not comprehensive at any level of detail.
6.1 What is the Relative Importance of Essential Skills beyond Literacy? The emphasis on three literacy skills encompassed by IALS was well-placed; as several studies, including Coulombe et al. (2004), have demonstrated, literacy and numeracy have turned out to constitute a sizeable portion of the broader category of human capital. Consequently, literacy measures have demonstrated the ability to predict productivity and labour-market success at both the individual and national levels. Nonetheless, national and international surveys of workplace stakeholders have indicated the application of a broader set of generic workplace skills than just those included under conventional definitions of literacy.8 The inclusion of several additional skills in the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey marks some progress toward the creation of a national essential skills inventory comparable to those of other countries, but the methodological barriers to the development of an internationally comparable skills survey have proved to be considerable. The absence of population-level data on adults’ essential skills capabilities is not simply an impediment in comparing the relative capacities of nations; for many
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policy-makers, the correlations researchers have drawn between skill levels and indicators embedded in the background questionnaire of surveys, such as IALS, are crucial in identifying new areas for effective intervention. For instance, researchers have recently used data from the Ontario Immigrant Literacy Survey, as well as from IALS, to demonstrate that immigrants’ literacy skills explain about half the difference in their earnings compared to those of their Canadian-born counterparts (Ferrer, Green & Riddell, 2004); this difference alone accounts for considerably more of the native/immigrant income differential than do the well-publicized barriers to the recognition of foreign credentials held by new immigrants to Canada (e.g. Ferrer & Riddell, 2003; Aydemir & Skuterud, 2004). On the other hand, the extent to which the oral communication or teamwork skill requirements of Canadian workers constitute a barrier to both employment and earning parity is unknown.
6.2 Where Can Essential Skills Tools Be Deployed for Greatest Impact? Existing research on returns on investment in essential skills training—as for training in general—is generally confined to narrow foci, such as individual skills, small samples (often created in the context of pilot projects), highly distinctive workplace types and anecdotal findings.9 For policy-makers with limited resources and pressure to provide measurable results to citizens, the absence of data may result in both missed opportunities for high-return intervention and the creation of programmes skewed in favour of operations with measurable results. For example, the federal government has identified increasing the certification rate of Canadian apprentices as a policy priority, as a means of increasing both the supply of skilled labour and labour mobility.10 Two small-scale pilot studies conducted by the Government of Prince Edward Island and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton indicate that pre-apprenticeship literacy assessment, followed by additional training where individuals have skills gaps, contribute to apprentices’ success in passing their certification exams. There is anecdotal evidence from apprenticeship stakeholders, particularly employers, that apprentices’ essential skills, particularly literacy and numeracy, were in many cases inadequate to their jobs’ requirements (Canadian Apprenticeship Forum, 2004, pp. 42–44). These findings suggest, but do not demonstrate conclusively, that there may be value in providing apprenticeship training institutions, governments and employers with the tools to target apprenticeship candidates with weak essential skills to ensure their attempts to attain certification are successful. Similar research gaps exist for most other groups of citizens identified by the federal government as crucial to the effective functioning of the Canadian labour market over the coming decades: Aboriginal Canadians, immigrants, persons with disabilities, the unemployed and Canadians with low qualifications. For each group, there is some evidence of both essential skills deficits and labour-market barriers among sub-populations, but for each there are significant gaps in knowledge concerning
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the nature and size of the deficit, the degree to which barriers to labour-market integration result from it, and the best ways to remedy it.
6.3 What Lessons Can Be Learned from Other Jurisdictions? Several countries have already launched national labour-market development programmes devoted to the advancement of sets of workplace skills very similar to essential skills. In the United Kingdom (UK), for example, the national Key Skills Support Programme aims to embed key skills (including communication skills, numeracy and information technology) and ‘wider key skills’ (including working with others, problem-solving and improving learning) in conventional education and workplace training curricula. The collection of lessons learned from the UK experience, as well as the development of a dialogue with UK policy-makers and practitioners, is an outstanding task of great potential value. In general, the movement towards the devolution of labour-market and training policy in other Anglo-American states may provide Canadian policy-makers with lessons in areas where governance and policy are comparable. The historical Canadian model of reliance on federal partnership arrangements with agents from the private sector, trade unions, educational institutions, community organizations and other levels of government to implement labour-market (and many other types of) policy is evoked in the Blair government’s doctrine of ‘a new role for collective action—national and local government, voluntary and community organisations, trade unions—which advances the interests of the individual’ (Blair, 2001). Similar movements in the United States and New Zealand are devolving authority to regional governments and other partners in areas such as social policy and education (Hartley, 2003; Reddel, 2004). As evaluative data on the outcomes of projects implemented under devolved governance become available, they may provide valuable guidance for Canadian policy makers. Examples from outside the English-speaking world remain even more obscure, owing primarily to language barriers. For example, from 1998 to 2000, researchers at the University of Flensburg in Germany co-ordinated Tacitkey, a project to identify the key competencies that enabled re-integration with the labour force for people returning after an absence of several years (primarily women returning after childrearing). The applicability of these, and similar findings, to the Canadian context remains to be explored and articulated.
7 Conclusion Despite profound knowledge gaps, such as those described here, Canadian governments and non-governmental partners are looking for opportunities to deploy essential skills tools more broadly and effectively. At the federal level, work has begun on pilot projects to assess the value of integrating essential skills into the EBSMs administered to the unemployed under the EI Act and to incorporate
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workplace-specific essential skills materials into the language instruction provided to new immigrants. Some provinces, notably Manitoba (which has developed an essential skills framework for its training and education programmes), Ontario, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and Alberta, are already applying essential skills tools to a broad range of employment-related services, including secondary education and apprenticeship. Numerous employers, as well as national sector councils active in areas such as tourism and trucking, are developing or adopting essential skills tools to assess, place and train their employees, while a growing number of educational institutions, particularly community colleges, are integrating essential skills components into their technical curricula. There is every reason to expect that this kind of work will accelerate over the coming decades. The drivers, outlined above, underlying the Canadian ESI— new research concerning the nature of human capital, the growth of flexible and knowledge-based production, and demographic change—persist. New and on-going international direct studies of essential skills, such as ALL, PISA and TIMSS, will continue to provoke debate and policy responses among the educators and policymakers collectively charged with providing citizens with the skills they need to participate in their communities and workplaces.
Notes 1. The absence in Canada of a national curriculum or competency catalogue for non-work aspects of adult life (civic participation, social responsibility, etc.) in a democratic, free-market society, such as is found in the educational agendas of many other States, is likely attributable to the constitutional separation of educational policy (which falls exclusively under the purview of the provinces) from employment policy (which is less clearly delineated between jurisdictions). In a 1998 survey of provincial primary and secondary curricula, Sears, Clarke and Hughes (1998, p. 4) noted that citizenship goals are an important and increasingly explicit objective of all the provinces’ curricula. 2. In December 2003, HRDC was divided into two new departments: Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) and Social Development Canada. HRSDC has carried on the work related to essential skills. 3. A more detailed account of the essential skills and their underpinning dimensions can be found in the Essential Skills Reader’s Guide, available online at <www15.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/english/ general/readers guide whole.asp> 4. The NOC and a guide to its construction can be viewed at <www23.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/2001/e/ generic/welcome.shtml> 5. The NOC codes occupations using a nested classification taxonomy; for each additional level of specificity, a digit is added (to a maximum of five digits). For example, 723—a threedigit ‘minor group’ of occupations—contains ‘Machinists and related occupations’; within this group we find the four-digit ‘unit group’ 7232 titled ‘Tool and Die Makers’. Finally, this unit group is subdivided into three occupations (‘sub-groups’) with distinctive characteristics. Essential skills profiles are typically created for occupations at the four-digit level, although where requirements are comparatively homogeneous across a minor group, a single profile will be constructed for the entire minor group. 6. Projects funded under the ESI are selected from unsolicited proposals, as well as from a pool of project applications received jointly with the National Literacy Secretariat, itself a
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separate component of HRSDC; this joint funding programme is called the Essential Skills and Workplace Literacy Initiative. A more comprehensive list of funded essential skills projects can be found at <www15.hrdcdrhc.gc.ca/english/general/Tools Apps e.asp> The extent to which the term ‘literacy’ itself is stretched to accommodate other skills is perhaps a testament to the need to address other essential skills in workplace-related research and programming. For instance, the US National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) (2004) views literacy as ‘an individual’s ability to read, write, speak in English, compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job, in the family of the individual and in society.’ In Canada, the Council of the Federation, an organization that brings together government leaders from the provinces and territories, recently produced a report on literacy best practices (2004) that argued, ‘Today, the broad definition of literacy includes skills such as: reading text, document use, writing, oral communications, numeracy, thinking skills, computer use, working with others and continuous learning’ (p. 5). For an overview of this research and the reasons for the narrowness of these foci, see Desjardins, 2003. For the federal position on apprenticeship, see Canada. Human Resources Development Canada, 2002.
References Agiomirgianakis, G.; Asteriou, D.; Monastirioti, V. 2002. Human capital and economic growth revisited: a dynamic panel data study. International advances in economic research, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 177–87. Aydemir, A.; Skuterud, M. 2004. Explaining the deteriorating entry earnings of Canada’s immigrant cohorts: 1966–2000. Ottawa: Statistics Canada. Bell, D. 1973. The coming post-industrial society. New York, NY: Basic Books. Blair, T. 2001. Third way, phase two. Prospect, vol. 61, pp. 10–13. Bloom, M.; Kitagawa, K. 1999. Understanding employability skills. Ottawa: Conference Board of Canada. Canada. Human Resources Development Canada. 2002. Knowledge matters: skills and learning for Canadians. Ottawa: Human Resources Development Canada. Canadian Apprenticeship Forum. 2004. Accessing and completing apprenticeship training in Canada: perceptions of barriers. Ottawa: Canadian Apprenticeship Forum; Canadian Labour and Business Centre. Conference Board of Canada. 2002. Excellence in workplace literacy, large business winner, 2001: The North West Company. Ottawa: Conference Board of Canada. Coulombe, S.; Tremblay, J.-F.; Marchand, S. 2004. Literacy scores, human capital and growth across fourteen OECD countries. Ottawa: Statistics Canada and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. Council of the Federation. 2004. Government initiatives promoting literacy best practices. Ottawa: Council of the Federation. Council of Ministers of Education—Canada. 2002. Student writing: the Canadian context—School Assessment Indicators Program, 2002: Writing III. Toronto: Council of Ministers of Education, Canada. <www.cmec.ca/pcap/scribe3/public/ContextHighlights.en.pdf> Desjardins, R. 2003. Determinants of economic and social outcomes from a life-wide learning perspective in Canada. Education economics, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 11–38. Ewing, G. 2001. What doesn’t get written down. Toronto: Metro Toronto Movement for Literacy. Ferrer, A.; Green, D.A.; Riddell, W.C. 2004. The effect of literacy on immigrant earnings. Ottawa: Statistics Canada and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. Ferrer, A.; Riddell, W.C. 2003. Education, credentials and immigrant earnings. (Paper presented to the annual meeting of the Canadian Employer Research Forum, Ottawa, Canada, May 2003.)
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Hanushek, E. 2003. Some simple analytics of school quality. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. (NBER Working Paper, no. w10229.) <www.nber.org/papers/w10229. pdf> Hartley, D. 2003. Education as a global positioning device: some theoretical considerations. Comparative education, no. 39, pp. 439–50. Hunter, J. 1991. The employment challenge: federal employment policies and programs, 1900– 1990. Hull, Canada: Government of Canada. Maudos, J.; Pastor, J.M.; Serrano, L. 2003. Human capital in OECD countries: technical change, efficiency and productivity. International review of applied economics, vol. 17, pp. 419–35. Mayer Committee. 1992. Report of the committee to advise the Australian Education Council and ministers of vocational education, employment and training on employment-related key competencies for post-compulsory education and training. Canberra: Australian Education Council and Ministers of Vocational Education, Employment & Training. Mayer, K.U.; Carroll, G.R. 1987. Jobs and classes: structural constraints on career mobility. European sociological review, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 14–38. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 1994. The OECD jobs study: facts, analysis, strategies. Paris: OECD. Reddel, T. 2004. Third Way social governance: where is the State? Australian journal of social issues, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 129–42. Rubinson, R.; Browne, I. 1994. Education and the economy. In: Smelser, N.; Swedberg, R., eds. The handbook of economic sociology. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H., eds. 2001. Defining and selecting key competencies. G¨ottingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber. Rychen, D.S.; Salganik, L.H., eds. 2003. Key competencies for a successful life and a wellfunctioning society. G¨ottingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber. Salganik, L.H. et al. 1999. Projects on competencies in the OECD context: analysis of theoretical and conceptual foundations. Berne: Swiss Federal Office/DeSeCo. Sears, A.M.; Clarke, G.M.; Hughes, A.S. 1998. Learning democracy in a pluralist society: building a research base for citizenship education in Canada. Toronto: Council of Ministers of Education, Canada. Stevens, P.; Weale, J. 2003. Education and economic growth. London: National Institute of Economic and Social Research. (NIESR working paper, no. 221). <www.niesr.ac.uk/pubs/ dp2003.htm#dp221> Trier, U.P. 2001. Twelve countries contributing to DeSeCo: a summary report. In: Country Contribution Process, briefing materials prepared for DeSeCos 2nd International Symposium. Neuchˆatel, Switzerland: Swiss Federal Statistical Office. <statistik.admin.ch/stat ch/ber15/ deseco/sfso deseco ccpsummary report.pdf> Yamamoto, K.; Kirsch, I. 2002. Scaling TOWES and linking to IALS. Calgary, Canada: Bow Valley College.
Chapter XV.14
Adult Numeracy for Work and Life: Curriculum and Teaching Implications of Recent Research Gail FitzSimons and Diana Coben
1 Introduction In recent years there have been calls from business and political leaders of diverse countries for them to become ‘knowledge economies’, to make the most of their human capital. One significant area to emerge is research into adult numeracy practices, for citizenship rights and responsibilities and personal development, as well as in restructuring workplaces. However, there continue to be many and often contested definitions of adult numeracy, according to the various interests and perspectives adopted. Definitions in the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) fields are likely to be closely related to intended outcomes and, after an opening discussion of definitions, this chapter continues with a brief review of research into workplace numeracy which has informed conceptualizations of adult numeracy. Related to these has been the rise to prominence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the adult, technical and vocational areas, both as a medium of delivery and as tools for thinking with. In the particular case of adult numeracy, learning about and through the tools themselves is necessarily becoming problematic as the operation of these tools is often far from transparent. The press for numerate adults is also occurring in the so-called ‘developing’ countries, and we briefly address this issue, as well as the need for teacher preparation. Our discussions will be illustrated by taking a glimpse at recent developments in adult numeracy education in the United Kingdom.
2 Contested Definitions of Adult Numeracy From its nomenclature, the term ‘numeracy’ is suggestive of both literacy and numbers, perhaps literacy with numbers; and indeed it is widely accepted that it was coined in the 1957 Crowther Report as a counterpart to literacy.1 Forty years later, in 1997, the term was coined in the Danish language by researchers Tine Wedege and Lena Lindenskov as numeralitet. Over the years its conceptualization has broadened from being concerned with numbers alone—that is, the socalled ‘basics’ of the four operations on whole numbers, common (vulgar) and R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XV.14, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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decimal fractions, percentages, simple measurement, and so forth—to include, in some cases, aspects of algebraic, geometric, statistical thinking (or quantitative literacy), as well as problem-solving. Other terms include: mathematical literacy, even techno-mathematical literacy. (These will be discussed further below in the section on workplace numeracy.) Underlying the trend towards alternative conceptualizations of mathematics appears to be the recognition that, despite ongoing attempts at popularization, the discipline presents an image as cold and unfriendly, technocratic and asocial, with many adults worldwide having experienced pedagogies influenced by absolutist philosophies (e.g. one right answer, one correct method, new knowledge is discovered not created by people). This situation has been exacerbated by strident messages from business and industry in some places that, even with between ten and fifteen years of formal mathematics education, many school and university leavers are not able to apply what they have learned. However, the operationalization of the concept of numeracy also continues to depend on the interests of the more powerful groups in society, and a less-thanempowering approach to curriculum and assessment may be adopted, intentionally or unintentionally. One of the consequences is to keep adult workers positioned as docile and without agency by insisting that they follow curricula that differ very little from the elementary years of compulsory education, often with pseudocontextualizations drawn from shopping, home handiwork and so forth, whilst ignoring the deep and complex mathematical understandings developed by adults over their lifetimes of work, family and community responsibilities (Coben, 2000; FitzSimons, 2002).
2.1 Theoretical Distinctions between Mathematics and Numeracy One way of distinguishing between mathematics and numeracy may be with reference to Bernstein’s (2000) distinction between two fundamental forms of discourse: vertical discourse and horizontal discourse. In the educational field they are known as: school(ed) versus everyday common-sense knowledge, or ‘official’ versus ‘local’ knowledge. Common-sense knowledge is likely to be: ‘oral, local, context dependent and specific, tacit, multi-layered, and contradictory across but not within contexts’ (ibid., p. 157). Mathematics is an example of a vertical discourse on account of its coherent, explicit and systematically principled structure. The discourse of traditional school mathematics recontextualizes a selection from the abstract discipline of mathematics and is mostly only about mathematics, with very few external references. By contrast, the knowledges of horizontal discourses are ‘embedded in on-going practices, usually with strong affective loading, and directed towards specific, immediate goals, highly relevant to the acquirer in the context of his/her life’ (ibid., p. 159). We argue that the construct of numeracy is an example of a horizontal discourse. Whereas in mathematics there is a well-known hierarchy between so-called common sense and so-called uncommon sense, with numeracy, common sense is of the
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essence. High-level abstractions alone are insufficient and may even prove counterproductive in the workplace where the object is to achieve a practical outcome in a timely and efficient manner (see below). Numeracy cannot be said to have a specialized language, except at the most local level of use in context. For example, the use of the term ‘thou’ (i.e. thousandths of an inch) is widely used in the building and automotive industries, but may not have meaning elsewhere. Numeracy is not necessarily explicit or precise, and its capacity for generating formal models may be limited to the context at hand rather than generalizable. According to Bernstein (2000), the pedagogy of horizontal discourses is usually carried out face-to-face. It may be transmitted by modelling, by demonstration or by explicit means. If necessary, the pedagogy is repeated until the particular competence is acquired. Bernstein continues that: ‘From the point of view of any one individual [. . .] there is not necessarily one and only one correct strategy relevant to a particular context’ (ibid., p. 160). He concludes that horizontal discourse ‘facilitates the development of a repertoire of strategies [. . .] activated in contexts whose reading is unproblematic’ (ibid.). Our observations of workplace numeracy practices resonate strongly with Bernstein’s concept of horizontal discourse and its associated pedagogy. Kanes (2003, p. 84) develops a thematic approach to numerical practices: ‘the theme of visibility is about how we formalize and control numerical knowledge; the theme of usability is about its use; and the theme of constructibility is about its origins both as a cultural-historical phenomenon and as an individual attainment’ [italics added]. He argues that there are on-going tensions faced by teachers who must accommodate the needs of various stakeholders, such as students, educational bureaucracies and employers. A focus on any one approach may limit the intended outcomes and disadvantage the student. Steen (2001) also makes a clear distinction between mathematics and numeracy, arguing that students need both. Whereas mathematics requires a distancing from context, and has enabled comprehension of ideas of the scientific age, numeracy (or quantitative literacy, in his words) is anchored in real data that reflect engagement with life’s diverse contexts and situations, offering contingent solutions to problems about real situations. Steen describes numeracy as a natural tool for comprehending information in the computer age, embodying the capacity to communicate in the language created by digital data. Coben (2002, p. 28) discusses the concepts of use value and exchange value in the discursive domains of adult numeracy education, emphasizing distinctions between adult numeracy as skill, practice, learning and education. She summarizes the major differences in perspectives in Table 1, labelling the domains as ‘One’ and ‘Two’, and notes that ‘adults may engage simultaneously in more than one discursive domain of numerate practice and they may be aware of doing mathematics (or practising numeracy) only in Domain One’ (ibid., p. 29). While many definitions specify a range of cognitive outcomes (what numerical practices might be possible) and/or emphasize the individual’s need for adjustment to an increasingly technological society in a knowledge economy, Lindenskov and Wedege (2001) observe that numeracy can be both an analytically descriptive and a
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G. FitzSimons, D. Coben Table 1 Adult numeracy learning in Domains One and Two
Why?
What?
How?
Domain One use value low; exchange value high
Domain Two use value high; exchange value low
To gain access to institutions of modernity; based on the belief that to be numerate is beneficial both to the individual and to society. Through a formalized standardized certificated curriculum, positioned as ‘basic skills’.
To do something; to understand something (not necessarily something mathematical per se).
Through teaching; learning materials may be technologized, unitized, commodified.
Through social activity or alone ‘in your head’.
Through informal, non-standard mathematics practices which may be (dis)regarded as ‘just common sense’ by all concerned; invisible mathematics.
Who?
Learners: those deemed to be deficient in Learners: everyone, as part of promathematics (‘innumerate’). cesses of enculturation into ‘communiTeachers: professional experts (N.B. this is ties of practice’. problematic in adult numeracy as the ‘Teachers’: more experienced people, concept of numeracy is debated and the who ‘know the ropes’. field of professional practice is poorly defined); non-professionals; volunteers When? At set times (except in open and distance Anytime, incidental. learning—ODL). Where? In set locations, except in ODL. Anywhere, in context, in ‘real life’; ‘everyday life’; workplace; at home.
Source: Coben, 2002, p. 29.
normative concept of competence which involves judgements and estimations based on values and norms. The definition by Coben (2000, cited in Coben et al., 2003) emphasizes the individual’s judgements about the use (or not) of mathematics in a given situation: To be numerate means to be competent, confident, and comfortable with one’s judgements on whether to use mathematics in a particular situation and if so, what mathematics to use, how to do it, what degree of accuracy is appropriate, and what the answer means in relation to the context (p. 10).
It seems that a consensus is emerging around the notion of numeracy as being about application, for example, in the Adult Literacy and Life Skills (ALL) Survey (the successor to the International Adult Literacy Survey—IALS), numeracy is the ability to interpret, apply and communicate mathematical information (Gal et al., 2005). Accordingly, there remains the need to transform mathematical knowledge and skills into new knowledge to address each specific contextualized situation as it arises and as it evolves. As will be highlighted below, numeracy in this sense involves a range of generic competencies.
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3 Workplace Numeracy/Mathematics Distinguishing between school and the workplace, Harris (1991) notes the differences between the origin, usage and techniques of mathematics when information is embedded in context: In work [. . .] mathematical activity arises from within practical tasks, often from the spoken instruction of a supervisor and always for an obvious purpose which has nothing to do with the numbers working out well. Thus, students taught to react to isolated, abstract and written commands in the specialist language and carefully controlled figures of a school mathematics class, find themselves confronted with the urgent spoken, if not shouted, instructions in a completely different context and code (p. 138).
In the first of two major studies into (techno-)mathematical literacies, Hoyles et al. (2002) observe that these literacies are anchored in real data, in the context of a particular workplace. The mathematics may be ‘invisible’, that is, it is present quite implicitly in jobs and tasks which themselves are not obviously mathematical, involving many employees across different levels. Information technology (IT) and mathematical skills are interdependent. People need to understand what calculations mean in the context of the work. Expertise in mathematical techniques alone does not guarantee a satisfactory workplace outcome. Workers need to recognize immediately when a particular piece of mathematical information is implausible and possibly just wrong. Unlike traditional school mathematics, this is made possible by the deeply contextualized nature of workplace tasks. Hoyles et al. (2002) summarize mathematical literacy as involving: the need to know how to calculate and estimate and to have a feel for numbers, percentages and proportions. Mathematical literacy is, however, much more than a set of simple and disconnected skills; and it goes well beyond a command of number or basic numeracy. It is anchored in real data (often in the form of data output from spreadsheet models), and set in the local and global context of the work. It involves an appreciation of the thresholds and constraints of a model (such as the limitations on factory output, the costs of machinery, or throughput of production lines), flexibility in understanding different representations of the model (the columns of a spreadsheet; charts or graphs, or, less communal, symbolic forms), and being able to modify the model to improve the simulation of workplace practices and outcomes. Though it is often hidden, we maintain that mathematical literacy is of increasing importance (p. 12).
They noted common trends towards the generic competencies of team-based working and its importance in improving processes: (a) data entry, collection, monitoring and analysis at various levels; (b) the growing need for effective communication of information, based on mathematical data and inferences, and involving colleagues, customers and external inspectors; and (c) the need for hybrid skills. In the second study, Kent et al. (2004) observe that techno-mathematical literacies comprise ‘visible and invisible mathematics, bringing new “analytic power” to workplaces, consisting of tools and techniques that underpin necessary understanding to take control of that power and to use it responsibly’ (p. 3). They note that one outcome of the introduction of IT into the workplace has been the shift ‘from fluency in doing explicit “pen and paper” mathematical procedures to a fluency with using
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and interpreting output from IT systems and software, and the mathematical models deployed within them’ (p. 5). IT users need to combine explicit and tacit knowledge of workplace procedures possessed by individuals and teams and develop mental models of the system. In the case of what they term boundary objects (e.g. process control charts), there is a need for communication between the operator working with a model based on the physical experiences of production and the manager whose model is more likely to be based on formal mathematical models. Technomathematical literacy would enable such communication. Where employees are ‘required to manipulate qualitative and quantitative data to diagnose problems, search for solutions and carry out process improvement,’ they refer to this as complex modelling. This requires ‘some understanding of the sophisticated concepts of variable and functions, however [as noted above] not in an abstract (mathematical) sense but situated in the workplace context, and supported by intuitions for the meaning of these concepts’ (p. 9). The authors conclude that techno-mathematical literacy is useful for both thinking about and through technology (i.e. using technology to think with). Sometimes school mathematics is used by workers without question when it is frozen into formulae or computer software. However, when problems arise workers may abandon these mathematical methods and opt for technological solutions due to reasons of time pressure or because the methods may be poorly understood, contain errors, or because there is limited control over them, since they are built into equipment and programmes (Magajna & Monaghan, 2003). In summary, these studies (and others) show that mathematical elements in workplace settings are subsumed into routines, structured by mediating artefacts (e.g. texts, tools) and are highly context-dependent. The mathematics used is intertwined with professional expertise at all occupational levels, and judgements are based on qualitative as well as quantitative aspects. Unlike students in the majority of traditional school mathematics classrooms, workers are generally able to exercise a certain amount of control over how they address the problem-solving process, albeit within the parameters of the expected outcome of the task at hand, regulatory procedures and available artefacts. Finally, because the focus is on task completion within certain constraints (e.g. time, money), mathematical correctness or precision may be somewhat negotiable, according to the situation at hand.
3.1 Implications for Education and Training From the above it follows that mathematical literacy or numeracy skills for the workplace (and elsewhere) cannot be isolated and taught out of context. Although generic mathematical knowledges and skills may be developed in formal vocational or school education, the expectation that they will be directly transferred or applied without difficulty is unsustainable. Rather, mathematical knowledge must be transformed in the local environment into partly or potentially new knowledge,
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specific to the context without necessarily having validity in other contexts. This implies the integration of experience-based judgement with social and cultural norms, both explicit and implicit, of the particular workplace. Ideally, the training environment would employ simulation techniques, even though it is recognized that the object, constraints and affordances of training are necessarily different from those of workplace production. Students should be aware of the variability between the training and workplace environments, as well as the inherent variability, even unpredictability, of workplace tasks, due to conditions within and beyond their control. There is no definitive statement on the optimal site of learning for work (i.e. the academy or the workplace). Linear, hierarchical models of curriculum, unrelated to students’ lives, are not satisfactory. The research points instead to integrated curricula, problem-based pedagogies, and the need for the development of generic skills of communication and reflection, as well as problem-solving, modelling situations, planning and team-working skills (FitzSimons, 2002). Normatively, mathematics education for the workplace would be intended to enhance the knowing of workers both subjectively and objectively, so that as individuals they may be empowered as ‘knowledge producers’ as well as ‘knowledge consumers’—that is, to be technologically, socially, personally and/or democratically numerate. Mathematics would be presented in contexts that make sense to the learner. Qualitative and quantitative information would be valued; even an ethical approach to people and the environment. Learning how to question critically and to listen, as part of enhanced communication skills, would be important—particularly in the case of data handling and interpretation, whether transmitted by electronic or other means, and involving numeric, symbolic and/or graphical forms. Following Wake and Williams (2001), there would be an emphasis on: (a) using relatively ‘low level’ mathematics in quite complex situations and contexts; (b) encouraging experiences of a diversity of conventions and methods; (c) having students experience activities where the mathematics is embodied in context and to use artefacts with which they have become familiar; (d) preparing students to transform their existing mathematical knowledge to make sense of activities in unfamiliar workplace situations; (e) having students design spreadsheet programmes for modelling and for the recording, processing and analysis of data; and (f) making students aware that there are many and varied ways to solve any problem. In addition, Hoyles et al. (2002) recommend: (a) an ability to perform paper-and-pencil calculations and mental calculations, as well as calculating correctly with a calculator; (b) calculating and estimating (quickly and mentally), including understanding percentages; (c) multistep problem-solving; (d) use of extrapolation; (e) recognizing anomalous effects and erroneous answers when monitoring systems; (f) communicating mathematics to other users and interpreting the mathematics of other users; and (g) developing an ability to cope with the unexpected. They also include a sense of complex modelling, including understanding thresholds and constraints. However, as suggested above, the complexity would depend on the practical experience of the worker rather than the mathematics per se.
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4 Considerations of ICTs as Pedagogical Tools in Numeracy Teaching In this section we draw upon cultural-historical activity theory as interpreted by Engestr¨om (1987), following Vygotsky and Leont’ev, to help analyse the various, increasingly sophisticated, kinds of calculators and computer software packages that are being incorporated into numeracy teaching across the education spectrum, from return-to-study to technical, vocational and even undergraduate programmes. These technologies are utilized in complex ways as both a means of delivery, with a focus on communication between teacher and student(s), who may be distributed widely in time and space, and as tools for manipulation and enhancing understanding, where the material may ‘speak back’ to the user(s). Kuutti (1996) identifies three ascending levels of support for learning in relation to technology: 1. Operations level: automating and substituting human operations. This level is determined by the conditions of the activity. 2. Action level: (a) serving as a tool in manipulative and transformative actions; (b) helping in actions directed towards sense making, making tools, rules and procedures visible and comprehensible, supporting communicative actions. This level is determined by the goals of the activity. 3. Activity level: actions supporting communicative actions between participants. This level is determined by the motives of the activity. ICTs can support communicative actions between participants through supporting learning and reflection with respect to the whole object and activity. However, as Trouche (2004) points out, many ICTs are not transparent, particularly if they have been originally designed for non-educational purposes (e.g. spreadsheets). It takes time and effort for learners to transform a given technological artefact into an instrument which shapes, and can in turn be shaped by, mathematical activity and thinking. Following from the work of Trouche and Kuutti, the designers of pedagogies incorporating technological tools into adult numeracy or vocational mathematics education need to seriously consider their main and secondary objectives. At the operations level, students need to be able to learn the mechanics of ICT instruments and understand their limits; they should also be able to access their own automated mathematical routines, so that they are not conscious of working at this level. At the action level, where these instruments offer support through various means of representation and action modes, designers need to consider how to encourage debates and to make procedures transparent and explicit, in order to develop meaning. At the activity level, designers need to consider how these instruments may offer individual and collective means of reflection on and analysis of the activity, as well as enabling the construction of potentially ‘new’ knowledge (i.e. new to the particular group of learners) or new automated routines, through the negotiation of new rules, the formation of a new community, and/or the reorganization of the division of labour.
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The access provided by ICTs, at least in relatively developed countries, means that the community may encompass members from the local to the global. However, the potential opportunities afforded by ICTs on a local or global level are not without possible negative consequences, depending on the power relations that may determine, for example, the social and cultural values embedded in the technology, the choice of language used for communication, and so forth— simplistic notions of the universality of mathematics education cannot be allowed to prevail. ICTs in mathematics/numeracy education are more than just powerful tools to aid the autonomous, rational learner in developing and assessing higherorder thinking and modelling skills which enable the processing and interpretation of data in problem-solving exercises. An ethical approach would also seriously address issues of the user’s cultural, economic, social, political and natural environment.
5 Numeracy in Developing Countries Such an ethical approach is arguably particularly important in work with poor and vulnerable people in the so-called ‘developing countries’. Here, numeracy in Coben’s (2002) ‘Domain Two’ may be a matter of life or death, and numeracy in ‘Domain One’ may offer the possibility of escape from a life of grinding poverty. For these reasons, numeracy is often included in development education programmes, although often under the heading of ‘literacy’. Two approaches developed in the context of developing countries are considered here: ethno-mathematics; and REFLECT (Regenerated Freirean Literacy through Empowering Community Techniques). REFLECT is an educational and development programme of the international non-governmental organization (NGO) ActionAid, used by over 250 organizations in fifty countries (Newman, 2000). REFLECT programmes bring local people together with a trained co-ordinator to identify the resources and problems of their environment and community and represent these in graphic forms (maps, charts, calendars, etc.), which may be drawn up using whatever resources are available, such as pebbles and lines drawn in the earth. By these means, REFLECT places numeracy at the heart of the educational process in terms of curriculum content and focus, with the aim of encouraging sustainable and ethical development. Newman (2000, p. 41) argues that REFLECT should be used to: increase the practical skills of individual participants; enhance their belief in their own ability; and encourage examination of the wider issues affecting the situation of poor people. In this way numeracy could move beyond the limited conception of it as being solely about abstract arithmetic and make a real contribution to development.
While REFLECT is a specific programme, ethno-mathematics is a broad field encompassing anthropological, political and educational research and practice. It has been championed by the Brazilian educationalist D’Ambrosio from the mid-1970s and developed by Gerdes, Fasheh, Knijnik and others (see, for example, Powell
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& Frankenstein, 1997). Ethno-mathematicians recognize that mathematics may be embedded in a range of activities and practices that are cultural as well as technical; they are interested in the mathematical activities, practices and understandings of cultural groups and see education as having the potential to support the aim of social justice. Bishop has identified six ‘pan-cultural’ mathematical activities: counting; locating; measuring; designing; explaining; and playing, which, he contends, occur in all societies (Bishop, 1988). FitzSimons (2000) used this formulation as a basis for curriculum development in a production workplace in Australia, as it was a more accurate reflection of the workers’ activities than number work alone. For Knijnik, in her work with the Landless People’s Movement in Brazil, an ethno-mathematics approach implies a research-based approach with a commitment to social justice, expressed through education: the investigation of the traditions, practices and mathematical concepts of a subordinate social group [. . .] and the pedagogical work which is developed so that the group will interpret and decode its knowledge, acquire the knowledge produced by academic mathematicians and establish comparisons between its knowledge and academic knowledge, thus being able to analyze the power relations involved in the use of both these kinds of knowledge (Knijnik, 1996, p. 101).
She stresses the need for the group to ‘establish comparisons between its knowledge and academic knowledge’, in other words, between Domain One and Domain Two: she is not advocating education which deals only with Domain Two. Both ethno-mathematics and REFLECT are, to a degree, positioned as alternatives to prevailing approaches in parts of the world that are themselves defined as ‘other’ than the rich, ‘developed’, industrial countries. REFLECT has developed outside the formal education sector in what in Latin America is termed educac¸a˜ o popular; ethno-mathematics is positioned as an alternative to traditional ‘academic’ mathematics in Domain One (which itself could be considered a form of ethnomathematics insofar as it is the mathematics of a particular cultural group) simply because it acknowledges and engages with more than one form of mathematics (something which is denied in Domain One). However, both ethno-mathematics and REFLECT may be said to be moving from the margins closer to the mainstream. For example, it is now widely acknowledged in the scientific literature that forms of ethno-mathematics distinct from ‘academic’ mathematics are embedded in cultural activities and practices, such as street-selling, house-building and other work and craft activities. Ethno-mathematics education is also not necessarily a marginal activity in the non-formal sector. For example, the Landless People’s Movement now has schools in twenty-three of the twenty-seven states of Brazil; it is integrated into the state, while maintaining its political and educational integrity (Knijnik, 2005, personal communication). Recently, the Director of ActionAid, David Archer, said that NGOs should now be engaging with the formal education sector, rather than setting up alternative forms in the non-formal sector.2 In terms of international recognition, adult numeracy has been a late developer, often subsumed under ‘literacy’ in policy and practice. Numeracy was mentioned for the first time as one of UNESCO’s domains of interest in its Approved Programme and Budget for 1996–1997, under Programme 1.1, ‘Basic education for
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all’. Since 1997, UNESCO has also included ‘numeracy’ in the revised version of the International Standard Classification of Education. It appears as ‘08 Literacy and numeracy: Simple and functional literacy, numeracy’ under ‘General Programmes’ in the International Standard Classification of Education (UNESCO, 1997). Meanwhile, a committee of the International Statistical Institute (ISI) was established in 1994 to encourage the spread of quantitative, in particular statistical, skills worldwide, especially in developing countries and among the young. This led to the development of the International Statistical Literacy Project (ISLP) and the World Numeracy Project, under the auspices of the International Association for Statistical Education (IASE, 2003).3 The need to raise levels of numeracy in the general adult population of even some of the most technologically advanced countries was revealed in the 1996 IALS (OECD & Statistics Canada, 2000), which indicated unacceptably low levels of what was termed ‘quantitative literacy’ in the UK, Australia and elsewhere.4 We turn now to look at the place of adult numeracy within one government’s response to IALS: the ‘Skills for Life’ strategy in the United Kingdom.5
6 Adult Numeracy in the United Kingdom The publication in 2004 of the report of Professor Adrian Smith’s ‘Inquiry into Post-14 Mathematics Education’ (Smith, 2004) marked the emergence of numeracy and mathematics education for adults and young people into the mainstream of educational policy and practice in the United Kingdom. This is in contrast to the situation in recent decades, when adult numeracy education lagged behind adult literacy in policy, practice and research (the development of adult numeracy education in the period from the early 1970s to the present is reviewed in Coben, 2006). The ‘Moser Report’ (United Kingdom. DfEE, 1999) followed the UK’s poor showing in IALS and led to the inception of the UK Government’s ‘Skills for Life’ strategy in 2001, designed to improve adult literacy and numeracy in the United Kingdom. The strategy includes national standards and a core curriculum (based on the National Numeracy Strategy (NNS) in Primary Schools, for children aged 5–11 years), national tests for learners and specifications for teacher training at undergraduate level. The model is of adult literacy and numeracy as ‘basic skills’ underpinning further education, training, employment opportunity, civic and community engagement and personal development, although the emphasis in practice is mainly on enhancing basic skills for employment purposes. A target has been set of 1.5 million adults to improve their literacy and numeracy skills by 2007 (United Kingdom. DfES, 2003a). At the same time, official reports have revealed a very considerable extent of need for improvement in adult numeracy in the adult population. The ‘Skills for Life Survey’ of 2003 classified nearly half of all adults of working age in England (47%; 15 million adults) at or below the level expected of an average 11 year old in numeracy (United Kingdom. DfES, 2003b, p. 19). Also, a report by the inspectorate of teaching in 2003 found that: (a) numeracy is taught less frequently than
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literacy; (b) there is less demand for numeracy despite equivalent levels of need (rather, greater need, according to the ‘Skills for Life Survey’); (c) there is a need for greater expertise in teaching numeracy; and (d) numeracy is too often taught by rote learning rather than by developing understanding of numerical concepts (Office for Standards in Education, 2003). The Smith Report acknowledges that the adult numeracy strategy is challenging and demanding for teachers and learners alike, stating that progress could easily be undermined by uncertainties surrounding the teaching and assessment of mathematics; the limited pool of competent and confident teachers of mathematics and numeracy; and the lack of employer engagement in raising the skill base of new employees (Smith, 2004, para. 4.41). Work is currently underway on implementing the Smith Report recommendations, including the introduction of measures designed to raise the profile of mathematics, improve the supply of teachers and support continuing professional development (CPD), while reviewing the curriculum, assessment and qualifications frameworks for those aged 14+, including the infrastructure established through ‘Skills for Life’. ‘Functional mathematics’ has emerged as a key term, although one that has yet to be defined. The government’s Working Group on 14–19 Reform uses the term with reference to preparation for adult life ‘based on a common understanding of what learners need to develop [. . .] including both knowledge and capacity to apply it’ (Tomlinson, 2004, p. 31). This emphasis on the need for application in adult life is at odds with the Adult Numeracy Standards and the Adult Numeracy Core Curriculum (ANCC), which, as we have seen, are modelled on the numeracy strategy for primary schoolchildren, and which the UK Government claimed was based on evidence of ‘what works’. However, a review of the literature in each key area of the NNS found that in some areas, for example the use of calculators (which are, incidentally, in common use in adult life), the NNS recommendations run counter to the evidence (Brown et al., 1998). Rather than ‘basic skills’, Ma (1999) argues for what she calls a ‘profound understanding of fundamental mathematics (PUFM)’. It remains to be seen what curriculum and qualification pathways for adults and young people aged 14 and over will emerge in the wake of the Smith and Tomlinson Reports. Judging by the debates around the nature of numeracy, it may take a while for a common understanding of functional mathematics to emerge. The development of a curricular and assessment infrastructure, reflecting a deeper understanding of what it means to ‘function’ in adult life, may take longer.
7 Conclusion: Reflections on Adult Numeracy The last two decades have seen the burgeoning of new perspectives on the use of mathematical knowledge in practical situations of life and work which do not necessarily reflect the practices of the traditional mathematics classroom. Indeed, misconceived attempts to try to recall classroom practices (albeit imperfectly) often result in gross errors, and the suppression of common-sense—also learned over a lifetime in school mathematics classrooms—does nothing to alleviate the situation. Yet, on the other hand, all recent surveys stress the importance of a foundation
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of mathematical knowledge; numeracy also goes well beyond being a sub-branch of literacy, important as it is in this field. However, no model of numeracy can be culture or value free. What is needed is a model of numeracy informed by and geared to adults’ different purposes in learning and using mathematics, one that develops in adults a profound understanding of fundamental mathematics and the ability to transform and use that knowledge in both of Coben’s Domains One and Two, rather than one, as in the United Kingdom, organized around the stages of development of very young children, garnished with selected examples from everyday life.
Notes 1. These terms were used in the Crowther Report to refer to a sophisticated acquaintance with literature (in the case of literacy) and science and technology (in the case of numeracy). 2. He was speaking at the Latin American Perspectives in Education (LAPE) Forum, Institute of Education, University of London, 1 June 2005. 3. There is now a website focusing on resources to enhance the development of statistical literacy worldwide: 4. Blum et al. (n.d.) emphasize the need for extreme caution in interpreting the results in the light of what they argue are weaknesses of the survey. 5. <www.dfes.gov.uk/readwriteplus>.
References Bernstein, B. 2000. Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: theory, research, critique, rev. ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Bishop, A.J. 1988. Mathematical enculturation: a cultural perspective on mathematics education. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Blum, A. et al. No date. International comparisons of adult literacy. <www.ioe.ac.uk/hgpersonal/ international-comparisons-of-adult literacy.pdf> Brown, M. et al. 1998. Is the national numeracy strategy research based? British journal of educational studies, vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 362–85. Coben, D. 2000. Mathematics or common sense? Researching ‘invisible’ mathematics through adults’ mathematics life histories. In: Coben, D.; O’Donoghue, J.; FitzSimons, G.E., eds. Perspectives on adults learning mathematics: research and practice, pp. 53–66. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Coben, D. 2002. Use value and exchange value in discursive domains of adult numeracy education. Literacy and numeracy studies, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 25–35. Coben, D. 2006. The social-cultural approach to adult numeracy: issues for policy and practice. In: Tett, L.; Hamilton, M.; Hillier, Y., eds. Adult literacy, numeracy and language: policy, practice and research. Columbus, OH: Open Universities Press/McGraw-Hill. Coben, D. et al. 2003. Adult numeracy: review of research and related literature. London: National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy. <www.nrdc.org.uk> Engestr¨om, Y. 1987. Learning by expanding: an activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Helsinki: Orienta-Konsultit.
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FitzSimons, G.E. 2000. Lifelong learning: practice and possibility in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. Education & training, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 170–81. FitzSimons, G.E. 2002. What counts as mathematics? Technologies of power in adult and vocational education. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Gal, I. et al. 2005. Adult numeracy and its assessment in the ALL survey: a conceptual framework and pilot results. In: Murray, T.S.; Clermont, Y.; Binkley, M., eds. Measuring adult literacy and life skills: new frameworks for assessment, pp. 137–91. Ottawa: Statistics Canada. Harris, M. 1991. Looking for the maths in work. In: Harris, M., ed. Schools, mathematics and work, pp. 132–44. London: Falmer Press. Hoyles, C. et al. 2002. Mathematical skills in the workplace. Final report to the Science, Technology and Mathematics Council. Foreword and executive summary. London: University of London Institute of Education/Science, Technology and Mathematics Council. <www.basicskills.co.uk/> International Association for Statistical Education—IASE. 2003. History of the ISLP and the World Numeracy Project. Auckland, New Zealand: IASE. Kanes, C. 2003. Developing numeracy. In: Stevenson, J., ed. Developing vocational expertise: principles and issues in vocational education, pp. 81–109. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin. Kent, P. et al. 2004. Techno-mathematical literacies in workplace activity. (Paper presented at the International Seminar on ‘Learning and Technology at Work’, Institute of Education, University of London, March 2004.) <www.ioe.ac.uk/tlrp/technomaths> Knijnik, G. 1996. Intellectuals and social movements: examining power relations. In: Kjærg˚ard, T.; Kvamme, A.; Lind´en, N., eds. Numeracy, race, gender, and class: proceedings of the third International Conference on the Political Dimensions of Mathematics Education (PDME-III), pp. 90–113. Land˚as, Norway: Caspar Forlag. Kuutti, K. 1996. Activity theory as a potential framework for human-computer interaction research. In: Nardi, B.A., ed. Context and consciousness: activity theory and human-computer interaction, pp. 17–44. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Lindenskov, L.; Wedege, T. 2001. Numeracy as an analytical tool in adult education and research. Roskilde, Denmark: Roskilde University. (Centre for Research in Learning Mathematics, publication no. 31.) <www.statvoks.no/emma/> Ma, L. 1999. Knowing and teaching elementary mathematics: teachers’ understanding of fundamental mathematics in China and the United States. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Magajna, Z.; Monaghan, J. 2003. Advanced mathematical thinking in a technological workplace. Educational studies in mathematics, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 101–22. Newman, K. 2000. How can numeracy contribute to development? A case study of the REFLECT approach to adult education. London: University of London, London School of Economics. [Unpublished M.Sc. dissertation.] Office for Standards in Education. 2003. Literacy, numeracy and English for speakers of other languages: a survey of current practice in post-16 and adult provision. London: OfSTED/ALI. (HMI 1367.) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; Statistics Canada. 2000. Literacy in the information age: final report of the International Adult Literacy Survey. Paris: OECD; Ottawa: Statistics Canada. Powell, A.B.; Frankenstein, M., eds. 1997. Ethnomathematics: challenging Eurocentrism in mathematics education. Albany, NY: State University of New York. Smith, A. 2004. Making mathematics count: the report of Professor Adrian Smith’s Inquiry into Post-14 Mathematics Education. London: The Stationery Office. Steen, L.A. 2001. Epilogue: embracing numeracy. In: Steen, L.A., ed. Mathematics and democracy: the case for quantitative literacy, pp. 107–16. Washington, DC: National Council on Education and the Disciplines. Tomlinson, M. 2004. 14–19 Curriculum and qualifications reform: final report of the Working Group on 14–19 Reform. Annesley, UK: Department for Education and Skills. (The Tomlinson Report.)
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Trouche, L. 2004. Managing the complexity of human/machine interactions in computerized learning environments: guiding students’ command process through instrumental orchestrations. International journal of computers for mathematics learning, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 281–307. United Kingdom. Department for Education and Employment. 1999. A fresh start: improving literacy and numeracy. The report of the Working Group chaired by Sir Claus Moser. London: DfEE. (The Moser Report.) United Kingdom. Department for Education and Skills. 2003a. Skills for Life: the national strategy for improving adult literacy and numeracy skills. Focus on delivery to 2007. London: DfES. United Kingdom. Department for Education and Skills. 2003b. The Skills for Life Survey: a national needs and impact survey of literacy, numeracy and ICT skills. London: DfES. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 1997. International Standard Classification of Education: ISCED. Paris: UNESCO. Wake, G.; Williams, J. 2001. Using college mathematics in understanding workplace practice: summative report of research project funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Manchester, UK: University of Manchester. <www.education.man.ac.uk/lta/publications/index.shtml>
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Chapter XV.15
An Innovative System of Vocational Training in the German IT Sector Rita Meyer
1 Introduction The chapter describes the implementation since 2001 of a new system of advanced vocational training in the information technology (IT) sector in Germany. Given the fact that the information and communication sector is considered to be a significant career path in the future for the young in Germany, this chapter highlights the importance that has been given to the development of a system of continuing education for its IT workers. While initial vocational training in Germany is regulated by a system of wellestablished laws with shared responsibility in training, financing and standardization of curricula by the State, employers’ associations and trade unions, this system of execution and control of training has until recently been lacking with respect to the continuing education of IT workers. The first section of this chapter looks at the background against which the advanced training system was developed, highlighting the need for specialist training for adapting to innovations in this branch. Although learning through experience and learning embedded in work processes have played an important role in the further vocational training of IT personnel in the past, in this chapter it is argued that this highly individualized learning system has been considered to be insufficient for the future development of this innovative sector. The second section looks at the attempts by the State, trade unions and employers’ associations to regulate qualifications in the IT sector. In doing so, it discusses some of the innovative approaches in organizational and curricular developments with the system of advanced vocational training. Section three draws attention to the role of advisers and of counselling in general in supporting the advanced IT training system. The chapter concludes by highlighting the significance of the system of lifelong education of IT workers in providing a basis for improving human resource development, not only in Germany but also on an international plane, by providing new conceptual approaches in adult education as well as emphasizing learning elements that are central to laying the foundations for lifelong learning.
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2 Initial Situation and the Origins of IT Sector Regulations This section will describe the background against which the advanced IT training system was developed. In Germany, vocational training is highly institutionalized, i.e. regulated by laws. In comparison to other countries whose education systems are governed either by the State or the marketplace, Germany has a ‘dual system’ of vocational training that can best be described as a ‘State-controlled market model’ (Greinert, 1998). A key characteristic of the initial training system is the fact that responsibility for vocational training and its financing is shared by the school (where theoretical knowledge is imparted) and the workplace (where practical skills are acquired). Another key characteristic is that mobility and equal opportunity are guaranteed by national standardized curricula for trades developed together with representatives of the employers’ associations and the trade unions. We are justified in calling the organization of vocational training in Germany a ‘system’ because there are clearly defined tasks and responsibilities for the execution and control of training. In the past, this type of organization applied first and foremost to initial vocational training in Germany. There were few national regulations governing advanced training. That level of training was characterized to a great extent by regional variations and market control (the supply of and demand for advanced vocational training), which was particularly true of advanced training in the IT sector. In comparison to other branches of industry, the information and communication sector is often considered to be a ‘gateway to the future’, since it grew by 92% from 1995 to 2001. This was the greatest growth in sales of any industrial sector (IWD, 2004). Workers in the IT sector are predominantly young, mostly male and faced with considerable workloads (Dostal, 2004). Nevertheless, the IT sector is considered to be an example of the work of the future. The elements that are considered to be characteristic of modern work organization and that receive special attention include project- and process-oriented types of work organization, independence, the individualized acquisition of qualifications through informal learning and experience, the erasure of boundaries in work, the subjectivization of work and the individualized representation of interests (see, for example, Voß & Pongratz, 1999; Mickler, 2001; Moldaschl & Voß, 2002; Boes, 2003). Prior to the introduction of the advanced IT training system, further training in the IT sector was characterized by a lack of structure and transparency in comparison to other sectors. That was the reason why there were so few career paths for those who had completed advanced IT training (Rohs & Mattauch, 2001). The confusion in this field is reflected by the number of more than 400 different advanced training programmes that existed in 2002, already one year after the introduction of the new advanced IT training system (H¨acker, 2002). On account of the extraordinarily short innovation cycles that are typical for this branch of industry, companies were permanently looking for qualified specialist personnel with potential for innovation and development. There was thus a need for specialist training in this sector.
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The question arises as to how workers in the IT sector have in the past obviously successfully learned and adapted to innovations in this branch. Empirical studies have shown that in this field informal further education is predominant and takes place on the job and frequently during leisure time (Baukrowitz & Boes, 2002; Heyse et al., 2002; Dehnbostel, Molzberger & Overwien, 2003). Further education in the IT sector is carried out during the work process and in close contact with colleagues. In the past, there have been few structured—and thus stable over the long term—company-specific concepts and organized learning and teaching arrangements for further education. Consequently, it was recognized that the informal learning processes of IT personnel, if they are to make a lasting contribution to individual professional and corporate development, urgently require a professional training management scheme. This scheme would support formal and informal learning processes by designing working conditions conducive to learning, particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Owing to the massive shortage of specialist personnel at the end of the 1990s, Germany, among other countries, realized that the highly individualized learning strategies of IT specialists were obviously insufficient for the future development of this innovative sector. This is confirmed by activities at the European level to regulate basic and advanced training in the IT sector. Known as ‘Career Space’, a consortium of leading companies from the information and communication technology (ICT) sector was established. Together with university professors, this consortium prepared guidelines for curriculum development (Hernaut, 2003). These guidelines, however, are actually only recommendations and therefore not binding. They also apply exclusively to universities; lower qualification levels are expressly not included (CEDEFOP/Career Space, 2001). In Germany, by contrast, politicians have attempted to regulate the middle qualification level. Trade unions and employers’ associations agreed to regulate qualifications in the IT sector above and beyond the four training occupations that have existed since the mid-1990s.
3 The Advanced IT Training System With the implementation of a new system of vocational training in the IT sector, Germany maintained its traditional way of organizing initial vocational training on a more advanced level and also linked it to international standards. The structure and the didactic concept are the focus of the following section. This system can be analysed from two different perspectives. An organizational and structural perspective places emphasis on issues of the formal organization and institutional structure of advanced vocational training. Aspects of educational policy and the interests of social players play an important role here. A didactic and curricular perspective focuses on the conceptual and organizational— even the methodological—approach to specific work and learning situations in companies.
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In May 2002, the German Government issued the Regulations on Advanced Vocational Training in Information and Telecommunications Technology (Verordnung u¨ ber die berufliche Fortbildung im Bereich der Informations- und Telekommunikationstechnik), which are integrated into a complex system of advanced training in the IT sector. The objective of the partners involved in the development and organization of the advanced IT training system was to standardize the acquisition of vocational skills by workers after the completion of initial training on a national level. The initiative to create this system originated in the context of the Alliance for Jobs, Training and Competitiveness (B¨undnis f¨ur Arbeit, Ausbildung und Wettbewerbsf¨ahigkeit) and came from a scheme to reduce the shortage of IT personnel. As a result, representatives of industry, trade unions and employers’ associations developed principles that they laid down in a signed tenpoint agreement. Based on this agreement, the German Ministry of Education and Research instructed the Federal Institute for Vocational Training (Bundesinstitut f¨ur Berufsbildung—BIBB) to structure mid-level IT vocations in specialist profiles and, in a second step, to develop advanced training vocations at a higher level of qualification in accordance with the Vocational Training Act (Berufsbildungsgesetz). These steps were taken because it was widely recognized that advanced training in the innovation-driven IT sector is an important competitive factor for both workers and companies even—or especially—after the crash of the new economy. The target groups of the advanced IT training system are persons who have completed IT vocational training in one of the four areas recognized in Germany since the mid-1990s, as well as persons without formal qualifications who come from other fields or are returning to the IT sector (including unemployed workers). The latter group makes up some 80% of all employees in the IT sector. A total of thirty-five qualification programmes on three different qualification levels (IT specialist, operational professional, strategic professional) were developed to eliminate the confusion that had reigned in the field of advanced IT training. For six vocations of the two higher qualification levels, national laws stipulate that trainees must pass an examination at the chambers of industry and crafts to certify their vocational qualifications (in accordance with the Vocational Training Act). Of these six vocations, two are for management personnel at the level of ‘strategic professionals’ and four are for mid-level specialist and management personnel at the level of ‘operational professional’. The first level of the advanced training system with twenty-nine specialist profiles remains more or less ‘unregulated’ in comparison to the advanced training vocations and is not subject to the Vocational Training Act (Figure 1). The reasons for this are not clear. For this level there is a personal certification in accordance with European DIN standards instead of an official examination (at a chamber of industry and crafts). It is important to note that, for the first time ever, a didactic and curricular model for advanced training has been recommended for implementing specific qualification schemes in companies. This model is the workflow-embedded training concept
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advanced training: strategic professionals (2) Cert. IT Technical Engineer
Cert. IT Business Engineer
advanced training vocations: operative professionals (4) Cert. IT Systems Manager
Cert. IT Business Manager
Cert. IT Business Consultant
Cert. IT Marketing Manager
advanced training profile: IT specialists (29) Areas of activity:
access: • lateral entry • re-entry
Master
(of Engineering)
Bachelor
(of Engineering)
advanced training 3 qualification levels
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hardware and software development, administration, coordination/documentation, solution development/ consulting, customer service, system analysis
access: vocational training (3 years) IT systems electronic expert
IT specialist systems applications integration development
IT systems management assistant
IT management assistant
Fig. 1 Regulations on advanced vocational training in ICTs
(see Rohs, 2002). Self-directed and project-oriented learning on the job is the core of this concept, which has been developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and System Technology in Berlin. The idea behind this didactic and curricular concept of on-the-job learning is to link formal and informal learning processes through highly modularized learning structures. The first step in developing the curriculum was to identify typical vocational reference projects in actual work processes of IT specialists. These projects were then idealized and abstracted and rendered in flow diagrams. As curricular requirements, they serve as a basis for qualification and certification. IT companies and IT training service providers were involved in the development of these reference processes. The work processes typical of each profile are assigned sub-processes. Mastery of these sub-processes in conjunction with the skills in the various competence fields and vocational experience are the basis of vocational competence. For the specialist profile of an IT system administrator, for example, six typical work processes were identified (Germany, Bundesministerium f¨ur Bildung und Forschung, 2002): change management; fault management; performance management; security management (Figure 2); data security/backup; and organization/consulting. In addition, sub-processes were identified for all typical work processes. In order to attain the requisite qualification, advanced trainees must work on each sub-process of the typical work processes and document their work in order to qualify for certification. Qualification, which usually takes one year including certification, is carried out on the basis of these requirements on actual company projects
2752 Fig. 2 The work processes typical of security management
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security and quality management requirements
revision of data security systems
>< prepare a data security concept data security concept completed implement data security concept
>
data security system in use
restore data
carry out data security and monitoring
data are restored
in the work process (customer orders). The learning process thus takes place mainly on the job. It must be carried out, analysed and documented independently by the trainee with the support of professional counsellors and learning-process advisers. Professional counsellors are in-house contacts for general questions and are responsible for making advanced training measures possible in each company. They support trainees by co-ordinating learning processes with specific company features and by advising trainees on curricula matters. Learning-process advisers play a key role in the workflow-embedded training concept. Acting as coaches and learning advisers, they consult and accompany trainees during the entire learning process. Their tasks include conducting competence and potential analyses, determining—in co-operation with the trainees—the main areas of advanced training, and organizing and moderating regular reflective talks. In this way, they help trainees gain experience. At the beginning of a training measure, qualification agreements are concluded between the advanced trainees and the learning-process advisers. These agreements define the learning objectives that the trainees should actively pursue and achieve. The reflective talks are used to identify key situations in the learning process. It is assumed that trainees who are helped by learning-process advisers to reflect on key situations, which can be both positive and negative learning experiences, can increase their learning. This analysis of key situations and the documentation of the learning process, which advanced trainees carry out on their own, are the foundation for the examination talk conducted as part of the certification process (Grunwald & Rohs, 2002). In the final certification of IT specialists, individually acquired skills are reviewed and certified by independent certification agencies. The objective is to certify not the knowledge but rather the vocational competences of the person. For this reason, the certification process takes into consideration both available project documentation and informal skills acquired in the work process.
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A further methodological element of the workflow-embedded training concept is a media platform which makes available electronic learning aids. This platform helps trainees learn by making it possible for them to navigate through the reference processes of the advanced training profile. Supplementary learning materials are provided for all processes and can be individually chosen by each advanced trainee. Forums are also provided in which trainees can contact and consult branch experts. In addition, participants in a qualification measure can also play an active role in this platform by contributing their opinions and experiences in a discussion forum. From an organizational and structural perspective, the advanced IT training system represents what to date is the farthest-reaching institutionalization of advanced training structures in a branch. It should be emphasized that the concept of the advanced IT training system is based on the German concept of vocational categorization. As such, the advanced IT training system reflects the rise of a modern vocational form as compared to traditional vocational forms (Meyer, 2000). This modern job form can be summarized as follows. On the structural level and in terms of educational policy, this job form involves a high degree of flexibility. The primary approach to learning is learning on the job. Individualization and independent control over vocational skills development are guided by external counselling and support. The allocation of vocations to different levels of qualification signals an openness to individual development and career paths and thus to career advancement. In particular, the openness of the system for people with different or older educational backgrounds makes it possible to remove social barriers that were discernable in the traditional German concept of vocations. While it is true that the ‘flexibility’ of the system in principle allowed the development of advancement and career paths as a systematic continuation of the vocational training path above and beyond initial training, the recognition of vocationally acquired competences for access to the general education system has remained problematic. Germany is currently developing instruments for comparing vocational and general education and a credit system based on the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS). From a didactic and curricular perspective, innovative elements include the consistent process orientation, on-the-job learning, the use of reference processes to structure curricula and the process of personal certification. One positive aspect is that the link between the structural organization of the advanced IT training system and the methodological recommendation in favour of workflow-embedded learning has increased the importance of informal learning and work experience. It is thus possible to use on-the-job learning to connect individual skill development with corporate personnel and organizational development in companies. In terms of learning organization, however, the concept must still be adapted to the specific needs of small and medium-sized enterprises. They require external support to implement the new workflow-embedded forms of learning. Against this background, external training providers acquire special importance. Such providers must, however, become more innovative and break away from their traditional, course-oriented style of seminars. They must design and provide demand-oriented workflow-embedded qualification measures in terms of both
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didactics/curricula and methodology. In addition, they have to take on the role of learning consultants and learning-process advisers (Dehnbostel & Harder, 2004). In this process of change they need to rely on co-operation. For this reason, concepts must be developed that promote institutional co-operation and networking between organizations and persons—and especially between training providers and smalland medium-sized enterprises. In terms of content and methodology, the workflow-embedded training concept requires further theoretical foundations. It is necessary to develop suitable concepts and methods of on-the-job learning, above all for the organization of learning in companies. This is because the quality of advanced training measures can only be guaranteed at company level and through the creation of workflow-oriented forms of learning. Since advanced training measures are geared towards the work process and the learning process is, in principle, open, companies and educational personnel must be creative and willing to make changes. It is necessary to train and qualify personnel to support the learning process in project processing, documentation and reflective talks.
4 Learning-Process Advisers: Supporting on-the-Job Learning As counselling and advice play an important role in the system of advanced IT training described here, the following will focus on learning-process advisers and the skills they require. In the workflow-embedded training concept, learning-process advisers organize learning during the work process. To do this, they must determine together with the trainees which work processes would make suitable reference projects for on-thejob learning. These have to be extracted from the actual work processes. Over the course of the qualification, learning-process advisers provide systematic and educational support to the learning process. In day-to-day work, these advisers help transfer informal processes of knowledge acquisition and processing to vocational skills. So the challenge for learning-process advisers is to recognize learning potential in work processes and to convert it into projects or work and learning tasks, taking into consideration the learning interests of the trainees and the corporate qualification requirements. In the above-mentioned workflow-embedded training concept, they receive little concrete assistance for this task. For this reason, the role of learning-process advisers has been problematic in projects of the workflow-embedded training concept. Experience has shown that they must have an excellent knowledge of workflowembedded training concept methodology and must also be able to empathize in order to familiarize themselves with their new role as learning-process advisers (Manski & K¨uper, 2002). A basic prerequisite for learning-process advisers is a sound knowledge of how learning works. They must also be familiar with factors that impede on-the-job
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learning. Learning-process advisers must thus keep an eye on the following factors (from Simons, 1992, pp. 256 ff.):
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the subjective learning concept of each learner; the basic learning ability of each individual and the various learning strategies; the way each individual deals with the learning objectives—learning-process advisers must ensure that these objectives are clear to the learner; the motivation, willpower and affective structures of the learner, for example his/her past experiences, fears, worries, etc.; the self-control of learning by the learner, who must monitor his/her own learning activity; the degree to which learning processes are controlled from outside; the more this is the case, the fewer possibilities there will be for learners to develop independent learning skills; the interaction between teachers and learners.
In addition, learning-process advisers must have specific counselling and advisory skills. The following will attempt to answer the question as to whether we can define specific, interdisciplinary process skills. Any attempt to define process skills will result in the same problem already encountered in the discussion about learning and teaching social skills, namely that a definition can only be formulated in the context of work and in connection with concrete work and qualification requirements (Seyfried, 2000). This is why any description of the required abilities of learning-process advisers must be rather abstract. What is required of them is the ability to build structures, to engage in network thinking and to design innovative solutions to technical, work and social processes. In addition, they must be able to successfully interact and communicate regardless of field or hierarchy and be able to analyse, evaluate and continually correct these processes. These abilities are closely connected to an eagerness to learn, openness to new ideas, and the ability to recognize and tolerate contradictions and uncertainties that arise. In particular, learning-process advisers must help trainees deal with unreasonable expectations and contradictions that arise in the daily work and learning processes of the trainees during their IT specialist training. It can happen, for example, that reference processes that are achieved may not completely correspond to the day-today work of trainees in small and medium-sized enterprises. Trainees there may be unable to learn sub-processes at their place of work that are required for certification, or they may carry out activities that exceed requirements and that cannot be certified. A further relevant aspect that must be taken into consideration is that a trainee in a workflow-oriented qualification measure must explain his/her personal background to the learning-process adviser. This may be accompanied by the danger of the economization of individual psychological dispositions, which in turn can lead to a refusal to learn. Another problematic issue in this context is that in practice it will be difficult to determine the relationship between work and learning and thus the times for work and learning. This is especially true for IT specialists, since vocational learning in this group in particular takes place, as mentioned above, to a great extent
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in the private sphere. These, too, are factors that a learning process adviser must keep in mind. The work of a learning process adviser thus features individual and subject-related factors. This applies both to the physical and psychological prerequisites and the motivation and action structures of the trainee and, reflexively, to those of the learning-process adviser. A theoretical approach for this purpose is offered by the research of Lehmkuhl (2002). She assumes that a psychoanalytic theory of the unconscious can provide us with a better understanding of why available knowledge in the work process of the worker remains implicit and is not used for the learning process. When it comes to the execution of the workflow-embedded training concept, the question also arises as to whether vocational knowledge—in this case IT experience and skills—are a prerequisite for learning-process advisers. Experience has shown that participants in advanced training measures have obviously had problems identifying learning-related situations at their place of work and independently selecting suitable learning materials. This is where learning-process advisers must work together with participants to identify learning opportunities and create situations that support the actions and learning of participants in view of the special challenge of the field. This is very unlikely to happen for learning-process advisers without IT skills. In addition, participants in reflective talks often expected concrete feedback from process advisers who were unable to give such advice on account of their limited knowledge of IT (Manski & K¨uper, 2002). It is clear that learning-process advisers in the IT sector must have both sound communication skills and specialist knowledge.
5 Conclusion Despite the problems mentioned above, the advanced IT training system in Germany is currently considered to be the best means of organizing the form and curricula of advanced training. The innovative elements of this system are as follows:
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The transparency of the IT sector and the resulting certificates make qualifications comparable. The new system provides a basis for improving human-resources development in companies and on the IT labour market. The creation of career paths improves opportunities for individual career advancement and even for lateral entry to the field. The connection to other European and international education systems is guaranteed by a credit-point scheme that reflects vocational skills and even serves as an entry to higher education (especially universities), leading to bachelor and master degrees.
When it comes to the execution of the advanced IT training system, a decisive role is played by the training personnel and their professional approach. At the same time, both company personnel as well as learning-process advisers have limitations
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in terms of workflow learning. The question arises as to whether learning-process advisers and professional counsellors can be qualified and established as professions so that they can meet the requirements of workflow-oriented learning. Qualification here must emphasize above all coaching and advisory skills. The didactic approach and curriculum of workflow-oriented learning, however, places new challenges not only on learning-process advisers but also on educational institutions and especially small- and medium-sized enterprises. There are indications that neither the companies nor the educational institutions as providers of advanced training measures are in a position to independently cope with current qualification requirements. In this connection, co-operation in networks must be promoted in workflow-oriented advanced training. In summary, the advanced IT training system—including the workflow-embedded training concept—is a modern concept for designing vocational and corporate advanced training. The concrete problems already encountered in executing this concept contain many challenges that must still be met in terms of the practical and theoretical development of the concepts. This further development of the existing concepts, however, is a great opportunity for modernizing vocational training in Germany and in other developed and developing countries. Because of the importance it places on self-direction, which allows both autonomy and participation in the learning process, the new German system of advanced IT training provides conceptual approaches for adult education even from an international perspective. In the framework of continuing education, the formal structure of the advanced IT training system makes possible vocational training after initial training has been completed. The flexibility of the system and the recognition and certification of skills acquired on the job ensures professional development and organizational development within companies and sector-specific training institutes. It thus lays the foundations for lifelong learning. For this reason, the individual elements of the advanced IT training system provide a basis for advanced vocational and corporate training; this should be further developed in an international dialogue.
References Baukrowitz, A.; Boes, A. 2002. Weiterbildung in der IT-Industrie. WSI Mitteilungen, Schwerpunktheft: Aktuelle Aspekte beruflicher Bildung, no. 01, 2002, pp. 10–18. Boes, A. 2003. Arbeit in der IT-Industrie: Durchbruch zu einem neuen Kontrollmodus? Auf der Suche nach den Konturen eines postfordistischen Produktionsmodells. In: D¨orre, K.; R¨ottger, B., eds. Das neue Marktregime: Konturen eines nachfordistischen Produktionsmodells, pp. 135–52. Hamburg, Germany: VSA. CEDEFOP; Career Space, eds. 2001. Leitlinien f¨ur die Curriculumentwicklung. Neue IKTCurricula f¨ur das 21. Jahrhundert. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Dehnbostel, P.; Harder, D. 2004. Vom Bildungstr¨ager zu Lernagentur: beispielhaft dargestellt f¨ur Dienstleistungen in der IT-Branche. In: Meyer, R. et al., eds. Kompetenzen entwickeln und moderne Weiterbildungsstrukturen gestalten: Schwerpunkt IT-Weiterbildung. M¨unster, Germany/New York, NY: Waxmann.
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Dehnbostel, P.; Molzberger, G.; Overwien, B. 2003. Informelles Lernen in modernen Arbeitsprozessen: dargestellt am Beispiel von Klein- und Mittelbetrieben der IT-Branche, Schriftenreihe der Senatsverwaltung f¨ur Wirtschaft, Arbeit und Frauen. Berlin: BBJ Consult. Dostal, W. 2004. Berufs- und Branchenstrukturen im IT-Bereich. In: Bullinger, H.-J.; Bott, P.; Schade, H.-J., eds. Qualifizierungserfordernisse durch die Informatisierung der Arbeitswelt, pp. 27–49. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Germany. Bundesministerium f¨ur Bildung und Forschung, ed. 2002. IT-Weiterbildung mit System. Neue Perspektiven f¨ur Fachkr¨afte und Unternehmen. Bonn, Germany: BMBF Publik. Greinert, W.-D. 1998. Das “deutsche System” der Berufsausbildung. Geschichte, Organisation, Perspektiven, rev. ed. Baden-Baden, Germany: Nomos. Grunwald, S.; Rohs, M. 2002. Certification concept for workbased learning. In: Proceedings of New Patterns of Learning in Higher Education: exploring issues from combining work placement and study, pp. 56–67. London: City University. H¨acker, E. 2002. IT-Fortbildungsverordnung: systematische berufliche Fortbildung f¨ur die Informations- und Telekommunikationsbranche. Ausbilder-Handbuch, vol. 54, September, pp. 1–25. Hernaut, K. 2003. Neue IKT-Curricula f¨ur das 21. Jahrhundert: Curricula f¨ur die europ¨aische IKTBranche. In: Mattauch, W.; Caumanns, J., eds. Innovationen der IT-Weiterbildung, pp. 232–38. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Heyse, V. et al. 2002. Kompetenzprofiling: Weiterbildungsbedarf und Lernformen in Zukunftsbranchen. M¨unster, Germany: Waxmann. Informationsdienst des Instituts der Deutschen Wirtschaft—IWD. 2004. Informations- und Kommunikationssektor: Zugpferd in die Zukunft, no. 31, 29 July 2004, p. 3. Lehmkuhl, K. 2002. Unbewusstes bewusst machen: Selbstreflexive Kompetenz und neue Arbeitsorganisation. Hamburg, Germany: VSA. Manski, K.; K¨uper, K. 2002. Umsetzung der Weiterbildung zum Network Administrator. In: Bundesministerium f¨ur Bildung und Forschung, ed. IT-Weiterbildung mit System: neue Perspektiven f¨ur Fachkr¨afte und Unternehmen, pp. 77–86. Bonn, Germany: BMBF Publik. Mickler, O. 2001. Arbeitsverh¨altnisse in der Telekommunikation: Trends und Widerspr¨uche in der Organisation von Wissensarbeit. In: Claussen, D. et al., eds. Transformation der Arbeit, Reihe Hannoversche Schriften 5, pp. 119–34. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: Neue Kritik. Meyer, R. 2000. Qualifizierung f¨ur moderne Beruflichkeit: soziale Organisation der Arbeit von Facharbeiterberufen bis zu Managert¨atigkeiten. M¨unster, Germany/New York, NY: Waxmann. Moldaschl, M.; Voß, G. 2002. Subjektivierung von Arbeit, vol. 2. Munich, Germany: Hampp. Rohs, M. 2002. Workflow-embedded training in the IT-sector. In: Watson, D.; Anderson, J., eds. Networking the learner: computers in education, pp. 803–11. Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Rohs, M.; Mattauch, W. 2001. Konzeptionelle Grundlagen der arbeitsprozessorientierten Weiterbildung in der IT-Branche. ISST-Bericht, no. 59/01. Seyfried, B. 2000. “Stolperstein” Sozialkompetenz: Was macht es so schwierig, sie zu erfassen, zu f¨ordern und zu beurteilen? Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann. Simons, P.R.J. 1992. Lernen, selbst¨andig zu lernen: ein Rahmenmodell. In: Mandl, H.; Friedrich, H.F, eds. Lern- und Denkstrategien: Analyse und Intervention, pp. 249–64. G¨ottingen, Germany: Hogrefe. Voß, G.; Pongratz, H.J. 1999. Entgrenzte Arbeitskraft: entgrenzte Qualifikation. In: Hansen, H. et al., eds. Bildung und Arbeit: das Ende einer Differenz?, pp. 39–49. Aarau, Switzerland: Sauerl¨ander.
Part IX
Assessment of Skills and Competencies
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Section 16 Recognition, Certification, Accreditation and Quality Assurance in TVET
Karina Veal UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany
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Chapter XVI.1
Overview: Competencies, Qualifications and Recognition Karina Veal
1 Introduction What is a competence, a skill, a qualification? How are they valued, in learning and in the economy? How does that ‘value’ differ for skills and competencies acquired outside formal education settings? How useful (and how difficult) is it to group qualifications into a national qualifications framework? How universal are the factors that drive these reforms in diverse societies? These and related questions are examined in this section of the ‘International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work’. The authors of the chapters that follow raise questions that are more than technical. The various reforms described owe as much to the public sector environment of the countries in which they occur as to educational leadership; as much to the realities and possibilities of new globalized economies as to local concerns; and as much to the culture and structure of the social fabric as to the take-up of any externally generated model.
2 Issues Competencies have become popular as a way of measuring outputs and are part of the move away from teachers and curriculum (inputs) towards student-centred acquisition of learning outcomes (outputs). The concept of competencies has developed to signify a set of skills; this builds to a qualification (certification of skill) and results from learning (the process of acquiring competencies and qualifications). Classically, competencies focus on the outcome—on what learners can demonstrably do—rather than on what they may have learned through time-based education and training. Whilst not discussed in detail in this International Handbook, there is still a body of criticism of the competency-based approach to training. Earlier concern came from some educational providers who were concerned at industry becoming the acknowledged setter of competency standards—since competencies are generally defined by the skills and knowledge employees need to function effectively in the workplace. Related to this, a concern emerged regarding the focus on R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XVI.1, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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performance without adequately considering the underpinning of knowledge, values and attitudes. The view amongst some critics was that the importance of developing skilled and flexible workers, with an interest in the on-going acquisition of learning (the very features needed in tomorrow’s economy), was underplayed within the competency-based approach. In response to such criticism in the mid-1990s, Australia, for one, broadened its definition of competency standards to include the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values required to demonstrate competence. Additionally, the Australian competency standards were then required to identify more general skills, such as literacy and numeracy, as well as ‘soft skills’ such as communication (Stanwick, 2003). Modularization is related to and describes the more definite and formalized ways to ‘cluster’ the outcomes of learning and training. Modules/units of competence/units generally refer to the breaking down of a qualification into what Stanwick in his chapter calls a ‘useful sub-unit’ able to be assessed in its own right, as well as contributing to a larger whole. Perhaps as a sign of the extent to which competency-based training has now been accepted, none of the chapters in this section directly survey the take-up of competency-based training internationally. And yet, this major trend dominated so much discussion in the final decade of the twentieth century and is an underlying assumption of so many of the chapters in this section. The discussion of competencies is never far away from a discussion on national qualifications frameworks, since any successful national framework must be based upon an acceptance of measurable competencies. The countries that pioneered, or were early adopters of, many of the last wave of training reforms are firmly located in the developed world (although there are exceptions, most notably South Africa). But the partial reforms undertaken by countries like Malaysia and Indonesia should not be overlooked. The same applies to reforms in Latin America, with countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Brazil developing definite steps towards national qualifications frameworks. The adoption of the competency-based approach has spread quickly through Latin America since the mid-1990s and the link between competencies, national qualifications frameworks and lifelong learning is strong. The question of the value of qualifications is crucial since, in the absence of a clearly positive relationship, it is harder to argue the case for increased employer expenditure. Some recent research in Australia has tried to distil this very issue, with the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) commissioning a suite of five research projects examining this question from different perspectives and through different methodologies. In an overarching analysis of results, it was concluded that, in terms of the economic return given to workers with qualifications, compared to workers without, qualifications do matter, but not as much as one might think. The role of culture and the social value given to formal education also have a bearing on these matters. One of the NCVER-commissioned reports posits that in societies with a close relationship and trust between educational providers and the labour market, together with a higher general level of social trust, greater overall value is given to qualifications (Ridoutt et al., 2006).
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At the global level, recognizing what is learned outside formal settings has become increasingly important. Skills acquired in non-formal settings form a significant source of ability in many countries, affecting a vast number of individuals. Growth of this sector is spurred by a number of factors, including the potential of greater access and greater relevance to the labour market, and is driven by the need for greater skill levels in all parts of the economy. But if skills acquired within the formal educational settings are the only ones ‘recognized’, the value of the skills acquired is diminished. The practical value of the skills may be acknowledged in the workplace, but formal recognition is missing. In developed countries where the push for a qualified labour force, the impact of lifelong learning policies and an ageing workforce converge, recognition of competencies acquired outside formal education is an important mechanism to boost the overall quantum of qualified individuals. Recognition of non-formally acquired skills is potentially even more important in developing countries, where the formal sector has only partially met the demand for skills. The potential impact of improvements to this area is not insignificant. In developing countries the vast majority of people work in the informal sector, either in an agricultural setting or in an informal micro-enterprise (enterprises with low capital costs, a weak market position and fewer than five workers—who may often be unpaid family members). Since the numbers of people working in the informal economy can be very large, the impact of appropriate and accessible skills development on the social and economic structure of a society could be great. Whilst formal education systems continue to under-serve this sector of the economy, informal skills-development providers are often the only source of education and training (Singh, 2006). Simple and cost-effective ways to validate the skills resulting from this situation need to be found and implemented, and case studies of success disseminated. But if developing countries have the most to gain from the recognition of competencies acquired ‘after and outside’ formal educational settings, are they enabled to introduce such measures? A high level of functioning in the public sector system and a high degree of trust and transparency are necessary preconditions. Recognizing what is learned across jurisdictions/borders is another issue. Reference is made in a number of the following chapters to efforts towards regional harmonization of skills and qualifications. Typically, this involves establishing some sort of mutual recognition system of equivalence (the European Union approach) or converging existing mechanisms into one (the Caribbean approach). Mutual recognition is an easier way to align systems already in existence. If the qualification granted in Germany is good enough for Germany—the argument goes—it is good enough for the Netherlands, and vice-versa. These frameworks are based upon agreement and trust. Successful frameworks are built up gradually, upon examination, acceptance and trust of one another’s system. This is easier to achieve in countries with well-established systems and institutions. Success requires trust not only in one another’s systems, but also in one another’s officials. The notion of quality assurance, as dealt with in this International Handbook, is mostly in relation to the recognition of qualifications and the outcomes of training, although there are a couple of chapters at the end of this section that look
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at institutional and national quality issues. With quality through recognition of qualifications, there is an uncoupling of the traditional relationship between provider and output. Output is measured against other similar outputs, regardless of where the learning was undertaken. This is at odds with a system where the reputation of the educational provider sets the standard for the qualification. In many contemporary systems the actual registration of training providers now forms part of a separate quality assurance system. The development of national qualifications frameworks (NQFs) remains a particular reform dating from the final years of the twentieth century in technical and vocational education and training (TVET). The trend is continuing, with the experiences of a number of countries, such as Scotland, England, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland and South Africa, being used variously as prototypes or exemplars. NQFs, where they occur, usually replace either a government regulation model where the emphasis was probably on the provider of training, or a selfregulation model led by the providers of training themselves. With an NQF the emphasis is on defining and classifying the diverse skills and standards which may exist (or may not exist) in a country into one national framework and ascribing all existing methods of classification against the relevant levels of the new framework. Qualifications sort information into elements that we are able to understand. With a NQF in place, implementation shifts to assessment, with skills acquired assessed against competencies in the new framework. The International Labour Organization (ILO) has paid great attention to the issue of skills recognition and qualifications reform. It promotes an improved system for skills recognition that contributes to: (a) identification and deployment of skills by existing employees; (b) assistance and guidance in human-resources development (HRD) planning; (c) improved recruitment of staff for enterprises; (d) improved efficiency of the labour market; (e) improved credibility of qualifications and training provision; and (f) the creation of systems of certification of portable skills that are recognized across enterprises, sectors, industries and educational institutions, and which promote labour-market mobility (ILO, n.d.). Despite the undoubted benefits of a well-functioning NQF, further analysis of implementation issues for NQFs in developing countries is needed. Are the necessary legal and administrative features in place? In many developing countries, perhaps not, and the effort of introducing new legislative and regulatory frameworks needs to be carefully weighed against other options for TVET improvement. With their need for a new legislative base, management by an (often new) public sector body, active involvement of perhaps previously disaffected stakeholders and development of a new independent set of assessors, it is clear that the implementation of NQFs is seen as a challenge absorbing a great deal of resources. Underlying the introduction of reforms pertaining to competencies, qualifications and recognition is a concern to find a better way to measure the outcomes of technical and vocational education and training, and make clear to others the meaning of those measures. A stronger relationship between education and the labour market is at the core. Non-recognition of educational effort diminishes
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the returns to education. Recognition of qualifications, in whatever form, allows a more direct valuation of educational effort by the labour market. The returns to TVET are increased. Before returning to an exploration of the twelve other chapters contained within this section, let us consider some of the factors that have allowed and supported the development of the reforms described. The most important purpose for reform is usually stated as satisfying national domestic pressures and goals. However, these pressures and goals are themselves impacted upon by trends such as: (a) the ‘flattening’ of the world through globalization; (b) increased mobility of labour across borders; (c) the trend for integrated public-sector reform; (d) the outcomes of the success of lifelong learning strategies; and (e) the new individualism, with heightened expectations from consumers. Each of these is briefly discussed below; more detailed treatment can be found in other sections of this International Handbook. Globalization puts new pressures on nationally distinctive features of TVET systems and labour markets. The combination of human innovation and technological progress results in significant leaps in how business—and life—is conducted around the world. Globalization is, of course, not a new phenomenon and has progressed continuously from previous centuries. However, the current wave of globalization, which owes so much to the massive advances in information and communication technologies, has ‘flattened’ the world in hitherto unforeseen ways, and allowed worldwide business and financial transactions in hitherto unforeseen quantities (Freidman, 2006). Within this context, where knowledge is used to assess the implications for international business, understanding (and having some point of reference to) the capabilities of a country’s labour force is more important. Qualifications act as a ‘sorter’ in today’s global economy where it is not possible to personally understand the content and value of a given education, when the sources of that education may be so varied and so many. This is equally important for individuals who wish to take advantage of global opportunities. These trends can act as pressures for TVET reform in the areas of competencies, qualifications and recognition. Understanding variations in TVET, through international benchmarking and cross-country comparisons, is of more than academic interest. Labour mobility is another common trend. The people of the world are on the move in ever-increasing numbers. The numbers of international migrants are estimated to have doubled in the past twenty-five years, although total proportions are, on average, no more than around 3% (Global Commission on International Migration, 2005). There are a multitude of reasons why people leave the place where they were born or educated, but they fall outside the parameters of this chapter. Overall, there is a net movement from countries with lower economic prospects to countries with higher economic prospects, although there is also considerable South-South migration, especially within regions. Whilst there are important human aspects to these mass migrations, for the mostly developed countries that have embraced reforms in the areas of competencies, qualifications and recognition, the key advantage has been economic efficiency. Generally, labour mobility contributes to efficiency as the costs of long-term development of skills are replaced by short-term utilization of the skills acquired elsewhere. But, differences in ways that
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experience, skills and qualifications are recognized can reduce the efficiency of the labour market, particularly for the individual worker if his/her skills are therefore not appropriately remunerated. Hence, some part of the human capital may be left behind at political borders (Shah & Long, 2004). The reform of TVET in many countries is not an isolated event, and can be associated with a broader trend of public sector reform (Kearns, 2004). The overall success of TVET reform rests on the success of its component parts and also upon the way the component parts fit together. At odds with its public image, TVET is generally more complex than other sectors of education. It can offer both a labourmarket focus and social response to rapidly changing economies and societies—it has diverse objectives. Administratively, it may span various sectors and methods of provision (Holmes, 2003). There is a general trend in public policy towards solutions that integrate what remained, in earlier times, discrete initiatives. The reforms discussed in this section of the International Handbook are prime examples of this. The identification of competencies, the development of competency standards and the grouping of standards into qualifications—delivered as modules, assessed by perhaps a network of independent assessors with reference to initiatives in other countries—work best within an environment of integrated reform and of ‘joined up’ government. This trend is both a driver for change and a constraining factor, since successful implementation may rely upon a public sector environment not universally available. Greater demand for continuing education and training has been building for a number of years and forms a further influence on the reform to competencies, qualifications and recognition. Individuals are considered to be most employable when they have broad-based education and training with a set of portable skills (UNESCO, 1990). In developing countries an increase in general education is taking place as a result of global efforts in favour of Education for All (EFA) and in developed countries the pressures of economic development and globalization themselves brought about the implementation of lifelong learning strategies that have now had sufficient time to take effect. Multiple entry and exit points are necessary as the acquisition of skills is oriented away from ‘just-in-case’ and towards ‘just-in-time’. Reforms to TVET that allow for this will take on greater prominence, in all types of economies and societies. The final influencing trend to be mentioned is a related shift—towards the centrality of the individual in contemporary public policy (Kearns, 2004). In Western societies there is a rise of individualistic culture that some see as having almost an obsessive pre-occupation with ‘flexibility’ (Stiglitz, 2006). There is certainly an enormous demand for individualized services and consumer products and a faster responsiveness to client need. This is not confined to developed countries. How does this new individualism relate to vocational training? Where individuals now expect high levels of choice from commercial services, the pressure from learners themselves for high levels of choice with educational services may be as important as the pressure from employers. ‘Just-for-me’ solutions are demanded, and reforms that allow for modularized learning and recognition will need to adapt and evolve to new expectations.
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3 Overview of the Contributions Competencies, qualifications and recognition are core topics for TVET, and this centrality is reflected in a fast-growing body of research. The authors of the chapters in this section reflect some of the breadth and diversity available. Some authors are world-renowned professors, some are independent researchers and others are practitioners. Their work also shows elements of cultural specificity in the way issues are approached, as well as in the diversity of opinions on topics such as national qualifications frameworks, a topic in which some see elements of ideological tension.
XVI.2 The Certification of Competencies, by Danielle Colardyn Danielle Colardyn provides a clear and thoughtful overview of competencies and their certification. After a useful exposition of the main topics, Colardyn focuses on an important issue that arises not only in the context of TVET but also in the context of industrial relations. How can the economic value of learning be measured? As she points out, generally there is often no ‘signal system’ in employment to value learning, while the economic value attached to learning is not obvious, not straightforward and not inevitable. Colardyn also reminds us that the term ‘qualification’ can be nuanced and ambiguous—relating both to the educational certificate gained, and to the sense of being ‘able’ to perform the tasks of a given job. If there has been some progress regarding how the signals sent by certification of competencies have been taken up, Colardyn reports that there has been less progress with the issue of portability. A different angle on the issue of portability is separately picked up by Shah and Long in Chapter 12 during their examination of several sets of recent initiatives.
XVI.3 Modularization and Modular Delivery of TVET, by John Stanwick John Stanwick examines some of the policy drivers behind modularization of vocational training. He outlines the main reasons for modularization and suggests how the differences may be explained in terms of differing national objectives for TVET. For example, in South Africa it was hoped that modularization of TVET into small certifiable units linked to a national qualifications framework might provide a practical way to increase access and equity, whereas in New Zealand the clear driver for modularization was to enable greater flexibility of training to better meet economic goals. Stanwick cautions against seeing modularization as an end in itself. Rather, he regards modularization as a useful tool towards developing an NQF where the unit standard (module) is seen as the basic building block of an outcomes-based qualifications system. Within this context, Stanwick suggests that it is the close relationship of modularizations to an NQF that keeps it a contentious issue within TVET debates in Germany, where it can be construed as calling into question the accepted concept of ‘vocation’.
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XVI.4 Diverse Approaches to the Recognition of Competencies, by Danielle Colardyn Danielle Colardyn returns as the author of Chapter 4, examining diverse approaches to the recognition of competencies. If progress has been too slow for some regarding the recognition of skills and competencies from mainstream TVET, how more laborious is progress in the difficult area of recognition of competencies acquired outside education and training institutions? It is completely understandable that countries will first tackle broad measurement of skills acquired in the formal sector, but with the increased acceptance of the importance of informal skills training, and the active promotion of policies and strategies for lifelong learning, this question needs serious attention. Colardyn puts it thus in Chapter 4: ‘As learning comes to be viewed as something that occurs throughout life (and not just in formal institutions during traditional schooling years), appropriate recognition is needed to signal that it took place’. She outlines the various approaches currently being taken to recognize competencies acquired ‘after and outside’ educational institutions. She includes a discussion of strategies being developed by social partners, chambers of commerce and NGOs. These strategies are sometimes being developed ahead of national educational initiatives in areas where, presumably, a need for better recognition has emerged—for example, the case of sports volunteers in the Netherlands. It is to be hoped that, when national policies and strategies are formulated and implemented, educational institutions pay attention to the emerging bottom-up approaches.
XVI.5 How Do We Measure Up? Benchmarking the WorldSkills Competition, by David Hoey Chapter 5 by David Hoey gives an insight to the backroom of the WorldSkills Competition. Many readers know of the WorldSkills Competition. It plays an important role in promoting TVET and encouraging young people to aspire to excellence in their chosen occupation. At the 2005 WorldSkill Competition in Finland, 34,000 of the 120,000 visitors were under 20 years of age. Less well known (or even considered) is the topic in focus with this chapter—how international judges rank the efforts of competitors. Publicly the competition has the twin goals of raising standards of vocational training and also to encourage more young people to undertake skills training. This chapter gives us some insights into the challenges faced in developing an appropriate assessment methodology—one that needs to have ‘two way’ validity. It needs to be able to assess the skills across any given occupational area fairly; for instance motor mechanics, as performed by competitors trained from within thirty-eight different TVET systems, each of which will inevitably have a slight difference in emphasis. This requires some understanding of the impact of culture and society on what is considered core competence. How do participating countries view the results? Assuming their entrant in, say, auto-mechanics is good and assuming he/she does their best on the day, how can
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a low comparative score be interpreted? Does it mean that auto-mechanic skills are not as ably taught as in other countries? Or that auto-mechanics is ably and appropriately taught, but that there is a gap between the WorldSkills Competition and the national approaches? If a country does not include, for example, much study of computerized components because the auto-mechanic is unlikely to see many such examples once qualified, would it be fair to include such examples as part of an international competition? On the other hand, in a globalized world, fairness and a level playing field must not equate to the lowest common denominator. The WorldSkills assessment system not only needs to have validity across the same skill as taught in different countries, it also needs to have validity across thirty-nine different occupational skills ranging from cabinet-making to web-design, so that it is capable of producing an overall winner from amongst such different occupations. This provides a very interesting practitioners’ approach to comparative assessment as they take us through the assessment and measurement issues they face. In describing the detailed approach to measurement and assessment undertaken for the competition, Hoey invites us to think beyond this practical case study to broader questions of comparative value and comparative assessment.
XVI.6 Validation of Educational Programmes: Comparing Models and Best Practices, by Grazia Scoppio In contrast to the approach to assessment at WorldSkills, the chapter contributed by Grazia Scoppio describes an approach to less-obvious vocational skills. The chapter focuses on educational quality assurance developed to assess the outcomes of programmes run for the Canadian Armed Forces by the Canadian Defence Academy. The main interest of the chapter lies in the very effort of the endeavour, and the discussion of the issues considered during the development of the validation process. As a large employer that runs extensive education and training programmes for a geographically widespread staff, questions relating to maximizing quality outcomes are important. When the nature of the business demands an assured level of agreed competence, the questions are even more important. Dr Scoppio, who works with the Defence Academy, unpacks the differences between measuring outcomes from programmes that are predominantly educational in nature compared with programmes that have a more obvious and observable relationship between the learning undertaken and the utilization of that knowledge in the workplace. The description of the validation study that forms the bulk of the chapter shows how, through a considered process, an approach was developed that attempts to validate the outcomes of programmes that are more generalist in nature. Measuring the utility of an educational process resulting in the acquisition of knowledge that may be applied, or perhaps adapted and then applied later, requires a nuanced and different approach to validation and quality assurance. The discussion in the Scoppio chapter thus allows the reader to reflect afresh on the issues of validation as approached in the majority of the chapters in this section.
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XVI.7 Regional Accreditation and Certification of TVET Institutions, by Ligaya Valmonte and Man-Gon Park Chapter 7 describes the role currently being attempted by the Colombo Plan Staff College (based in Manila) to lead an accreditation and certification process for the Asia/Pacific Region. The question of greater regional co-operation and transparency is certainly important. In an increasingly global world, what assurance do potential learners have regarding the quality and acceptance of the institute to which they are considering applying, particularly if it is in another country and thus outside their usual network of information? Ligaya Valmonte and Man-Gon Park outline their approach to regional transparency and harmonization. They argue for an ambitious overall regional mechanism (the Asia-Pacific Accreditation and Certification Commission—APACC) through which institutes in the region would measured for quality and accredited. The success of the venture would be dependent upon participating institutions seeing the value of such an approach, and the notion of being an APACC institution as enhancing the prestige of the institution. CPSC describes a system of actual inspection and accreditation of training providers in the region by CPSC/APACC accreditors and the awarding of marks to define standards that signal such standards to the market place (employers, learners, parents). What is the cost/benefit of such a scheme? Would parents/employers in diverse parts of Asia/Pacific give sufficient weight to the ranking/trust in the accreditors? How would the ranking intersect with countries that have their own system? Are the underlying cultural norms sufficiently diverse to operate successfully in this diverse part of the world? The ILO tackles the question of regional harmonization from quite another angle, through the growth of the grassroots Regional Skills Network as a common platform for better co-operation and services on skills issues. The ILO approach gives more emphasis to the sharing of expertise and knowledge via networking, technical cooperation and joint programmes. The different emphases given by CPSC and by the ILO are illustrative of some of the variations in the field. These are innovations to watch over the coming years.
XVI.8 National Qualifications Frameworks: An Analytical Overview, by Michael F.D. Young This International Handbook is very fortunate in having two wide-ranging and analytical chapters by Michael Young, Professor of Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. These chapters, which were previously commissioned by the International Labour Office, Geneva, together deal with a number of issues relating to qualifications frameworks. Michael Young offers an overview and analysis based on solid, deep knowledge. Much of this material may be dealt with elsewhere, but from different perspectives. Usefully, this chapter gives some insight into the often unstated (as well as the stated) policy drivers behind the spate
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of reforms to qualification systems that were common in many countries during the final decade of the twentieth century. He argues that the way in which qualifications are organized is not a simple administrative matter but a reflection of the way qualifications fit with training. Any shift towards a new framework for qualifications, he writes, reflects ‘a complete change, not only in the way qualifications have traditionally been organized (and in many countries still are), but also in the deeply imbedded practices that underpin them.’ Young also offers a typography of national qualifications frameworks. In giving us descriptions of five different ‘types’ of frameworks in use around the world, the reader is afforded a useful and rare analytical overview of contemporary international practices in this field.
XVI.9 Developing a National System of Vocational Qualifications, by John Hart Chapter 9 gives a detailed account of issues to be considered in developing a national system of vocational qualifications. Written by John Hart, formerly Head of Qualifications Strategy at the Scottish Qualifications Authority, it draws heavily upon the case study of Scotland, recognized as a world leader in the field. The chapter aims to inform about the range of issues to be considered in the development of such reforms. Hart argues strongly for the benefits of a standards-based approach, but recognizes that none of these advantages will be achieved by the reform of the qualifications system alone.
XVI.10 National Qualifications Frameworks in Africa, by Bonaventure W. Kerre and Astrid Hollander In an earlier section of this International Handbook, Simon McGrath gives a detailed analysis of TVET reforms in South Africa, positioning them clearly within a framework of ambitious social change across the nation. Bonaventure Kerre and Astrid Hollander, in Chapter 10, also concentrate on the TVET reforms in South Africa, amongst other countries, approaching their topic as a survey of reforms relating in particular to national qualifications frameworks. Whilst systems in Africa usually inherited the characteristics of former colonial systems, they had also generally been racialized and had adapted to a reliance on expatriate skills at the higher levels. It is known that in developing countries there is often a wide gap between the focus of TVET policy and the skill-training needs of the majority of people. Generally, the focus of TVET is for individuals working for (or hoping to work for) the formal economy, whilst the skill-development needs of individuals working in (or hoping to work in) micro enterprises in the informal economy is overlooked. The lack of investment in formal skills training to meet labour-market needs and the lack of recognition of many of the skills informally acquired are two of a number of drivers that lead a number of countries in Africa to consider full or partial national
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qualifications frameworks. Kerre and Hollander survey the background issues and initiatives underway. The whole field of TVET in Africa is still largely neglected. Further exploration and analysis of the current initiatives, and some later assessment of the appropriateness of these reforms, is warranted.
XVI.11 Implementing National Qualifications Frameworks: Problems and Possibilities, by Michael F.D. Young ‘All countries implementing an NQF have faced problems’, writes Michael Young at the outset of Chapter 11, his second chapter in this section—and so the tone is set. Whilst he details challenges under the headings of political, administrative and technical (professional) difficulties, he argues that government overreach is at the heart of the problem, with governments failing to recognize the implications of the changes they seek to introduce. The three main inhibitors are identified as: (a) over-complex approaches; (b) over-ambitious visions; and (c) top-down strategies. The second half of the chapter provides cautionary tales for both smaller and developing countries, focusing on scope, cost and timing. He reminds us that the present Scottish arrangements had their beginnings some fifteen to twenty years before full implementation. Why should our expectations be so much higher for the developing countries currently contemplating such moves?
XVI.12 Labour Mobility and Mutual Recognition of Skills and Qualifications: The European Union and Australia/New Zealand, by Chandra Shah and Michael Long The next chapter in this section brings the focus and debate right back to a primary policy driver behind recent reforms: utilizing and recognizing the benefits of skilled labour. Chapter 12 provides perspectives on labour mobility and recognition of skills. It examines two different approaches: the approach underway within the European Union and the approach underway between the neighbouring countries of Australia and New Zealand. Whilst the actual initiatives for broader skills recognition within these countries have been discussed in other chapters, Chandra Shah and Michael Long bring a labour-market perspective to the debate. In focusing on the broader political, economic and sociological aspects of labour mobility, they can bring into play the relationship of the mobility of labour in comparison to the mobility of capital, goods and services, and the efforts of the EU to increase individual mobility. With the case of Australia, the impetus of immigration has always been to boost its labour force. Before moving on to the issue of mutual recognition between Australia and New Zealand, Shah and Long give a brief explanation of the moves within Australia’s federalist arrangements for mutual recognition across state/territory borders, commenting on how it illustrates, as they say:
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‘the difficulties of the process even when the parties covered by mutual recognition have a common language, a similar political system and substantial geographical movement of people across jurisdictions.’ By opting for simple mutual recognition of qualifications, and by having strong political will for success in this endeavour, the authors allow that some of the complexities and difficulties can be resolved. At the end of this section one chapter touches upon the issue of quality assurance from a national basis. The issue of quality assurance in TVET is worthy of considerable research and reflection, and the inclusion of this chapter is simply to introduce some of the concepts and concerns.
XVI.13 Quality Assurance in TVET in Romania, by Magdalena Balica The final chapter of this section provides a case study of the introduction of quality assurance into the national TVET system in Romania. Magdalena Balica gives a practitioners’ view of the reforms over the past ten years or so in Romania. In common with a number of other formerly communist countries adopting newer forms of economic and social operation, the development of quality assurance is largely new. Without much history of quality assurance in the previous system, and with the sudden growth of private providers, the need for a framework to send consistent messages to learners and to employers is necessary. Balica outlines the efforts taken to align quality assurance to Europe-wide initiatives, and shows how initial endeavours have latterly been linked into a broader framework for quality assurance. Documentation of reform is always important, not only as a record for the country involved, but as a case study of reform for the broader TVET community.
4 Conclusion The issues dealt with by the diverse chapters in this section are central to TVET. They go to the core of how learning is undertaken, in what sort of environment, leading to what kind of qualification, valued and understood in various ways. Whilst these issues may be central to learning, the debates are not confined to educationalists. Acceptance and implementation of these reforms has not been without questioning and resistance. Whilst enormous progress has been made, considerable room remains for researchers, theorists and practitioners to further explore ways to develop client responsive TVET which is efficient, effective and adaptive.
References Freidman, T.L. 2006. The world is flat: the globalized world in the twenty-first century. London: Penguin. Global Commission on International Migration. 2005. Migration in an interconnected world: new directions for action. Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations.
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Holmes, K. 2003. Background review paper to the UNESCO/IIEP experts’ meeting on the Reform of Public Technical and Vocational Institutions. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. International Labour Organization. Skills and Employability Department. Training Policies and Programmes Group. No date. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. <www.ilo.org/public/english/ employment/skills/> Kearns, P. 2004. VET in the 21st Century Global Knowledge Economy: an overview of international developments in vocational education and training. Brisbane, Australia: ANTA. Ridoutt, L. et al. 2006. What value do employers give to qualifications? Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Shah, C.; Long, M. 2004. Global labour mobility and mutual recognition of skills and qualifications: European Union and Australia/New Zealand perspectives. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University, CEET. (CEET Working Paper, no. 56.) Singh, M., ed. 2006. Meeting basic learning needs in the informal sector: integrating education and training for decent work, empowerment and citizenship. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Stanwick, J. 2003. Skills for life: lifelong learning systems in Australia. Seoul: UNESCOIIEP/KRIVET. Stiglitz, J. 2006. Making globalization work. London: Allen Lane. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 1990. World declaration on Education for All. Paris: UNESCO. <www.unesco.org/education/pdf/JOMTIE E.PDF>
Chapter XVI.2
The Certification of Competencies Danielle Colardyn
1 Introduction Various conceptions of ‘competencies’ and approaches to ‘certification’ co-exist at international and national levels, and between actors in particular countries. The concepts are in a state of flux, under pressure from public authorities, social partners, NGOs and communities. Policies and practices for assessment and recognition of competencies continue to evolve. Are the concepts interchangeable? How do they relate to each other and what influences their relationship? Does the national context or other variables explain the use of one rather than another? Do the choices indicate substantive differences at the foundation of education, training and lifelong learning? What are the roles of the State and of stakeholders in the certification processes? How does all this affect the recognition of competencies in the workplace? This chapter focuses on concepts. In the first part, the concepts of qualification, competencies and learning are examined in relation to changes in occupations and employment. In the second part, the concept of certification is presented and depicted as a signal for educational institutions and for employment. Certain signals, in particular, those conveyed by certification to employment, suffer from a lack of acceptance and recognition. Part three explores that lack of consequence for employment and summarizes possible explanations, with reference to arguments proposed a decade ago to support lifelong learning. Progress is noticeable in terms of transferability and visibility of certification. However, portability of certification in the labour market and employment follows a slower path. Education and training are more often taken into account in collective agreements. There are signs of inclusion of lifelong learning strategies that have recently appeared. Directions for future analysis are briefly indicated.
2 Competencies Versus Qualification and Learning The concept of ‘competencies’ is at the core of various debates on qualification and learning in formal, non-formal and informal settings. For years, the notions of the m´etier, the occupation and the craft were enough to explain occupational activities. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XVI.2, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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Then, with the Industrial Revolution, mass manufacturing and Taylorism intensified specialization—the concept of ‘qualification’ appeared. It limits the workers’ contributions to the required and prescribed elements of the post (stipulated by the hierarchy or an outside specialist).
2.1 Qualification Until the 1980s, the relationship between education and employment hinged on the term ‘qualification’. It always had a double meaning—one relating to education and the other to employment. That double sense made it a controversial concept insofar as it stipulated capacities acquired in education and training, as well as those reached through working life. As stated by CEDEFOP (Tissot, 2004):1 ‘Qualification is an official record (certificate, diploma) of achievement, which recognizes successful completion of education or training, or satisfactory performance in a test or examination and/or the requirements for an individual to enter or progress within an occupation’. The same ambiguity is expressed, for example in statements that qualification is the ‘possession of knowledge, skills, and experience for entry to an educational programme or practice in an occupation’ (CICIC, 2005). The end of the 1980s saw increased globalization of economic activity, the early emergence of a distinct ‘knowledge society’, the rapid evolution of the information age as well as the continuing long-term trend towards a service society. Those forces provoked radical changes in the approaches to qualification. A number of qualifications proposed by education systems disappeared with the changes and closing of industries.2 Because of the rapid pace of change in job content, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) no longer seem to prepare individuals in a once-and-for-all manner for their entire working lives. Collective bargaining frequently made it difficult to address ‘qualification’ differently (taking into account for example, parts of a qualification, modules, multiple qualifications resulting from merged occupations, etc.).
2.2 Competencies The discussion below summarizes the diversity of concepts and then examines progress in linking competencies acquired ‘out-of-school’ to education and training programmes and curricula. 2.2.1 Concepts The concept of ‘competencies’ appeared and evolved quite rapidly during the 1990s. Even more ambiguous than the concept of ‘qualification’, initially it broadly signified that ‘something else not assessed by the qualification’ was learned and achieved.3 The adult education movement largely nourished and sustained these developments: ‘nobody should learn a second time what he/she already knows’. In that respect, ‘competencies’ came to be seen as something acquired outside educational
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institutions, something that these institutions have difficulty inserting and integrating in their programmes. Soon, ‘competencies’ were seen as capacities acquired outside the formal education system and as an attribute of individuals that allowed them to achieve higher levels of performance (ILO, 2005).4 Competencies also refer to complex and multidimensional capacities acquired at work. In the face of huge changes, enterprises appreciated an approach that provided them with direct criteria for assessing the performance of individuals at work. However, competencies are not limited to learning and developing capacities at work: the concept also encompasses learning in social, cultural and familial settings. On a sociological level, the move from ‘qualification’ to ‘competencies’ is symptomatic of a substitution in approach: ‘qualification’ is centred on structures while ‘competencies’ focuses on stakeholders, actors and individuals (Stroobants, 1991). Amongst definitions in use, the following four are largely comprehensive: 1. Competencies signify a measurable skill or set of skills, level of knowledge and behavioural practices obtained through formal, non-formal or informal learning; the ability to perform occupation-specific tasks and duties (CICIC, 2005). 2. Competenc(i)es refer to the ability to apply knowledge, know-how and skills in an habitual or changing situation (CEDEFOP in Tissot, 2004). 3. ‘Competency standards’ describe the skills and knowledge required for a person to operate effectively in the workplace. They are defined by industry, are nationally recognized and form the basis of training for that specific industry (Victorian Qualifications Authority, 2005).5 4. ‘Real’ competencies represent ‘what you are capable of’ (Denmark. Ministry of Education, 2004). Within these broad definitions, the scientific literature proposes useful nuances. Competencies are linked to the content of a job (or any other situation), as well as to its environment; competencies are in a state of constant evolution keeping pace with professional (and other) experience; competencies are integrated into a social environment and are multidimensional (for an in depth discussion see Gaudart & Weill-Fassina, 1999). Scientists in the field of ergonomics agree on three general characteristics of competencies:
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They express themselves in action and specific context; They are developed by learning either in education or through work; they can be explicit (people can talk about them) as well as implicit and demonstrated by action; They are not observable per se: they are revealed by procedures, strategies and outcomes.
Many developments at a national level have attempted to ‘capture’ competencies in education and training programmes (the National Vocational Qualifications first launched in the United Kingdom is a well-known example). As education and training systems in several countries defined themselves as being ‘outcome’ rather than ‘input oriented’, they framed ‘outcomes’ in terms of ‘competencies’.
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Nevertheless, by the end of the 1990s, the meaning of the concept of ‘competencies’ remained ambiguous. As with the concept of ‘qualification’ a decade earlier, the concept of ‘competencies’ did not prove to be able to resolve the complex relationship between the outcomes of ‘what is learned in and what is learned out of school’. Once again, that complex relationship between education and employment, between what is learned at school and what is applied at work, between learning at school and learning at work, in the community, in the family, etc., were largely debated but failed to resolve certain issues and questions:
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How to prepare individuals better for the changing demands of employment? How to recognize valuable learning (competencies) acquired at work? How to improve access to education and training for adults and older workers?
These questions, fundamental to lifelong learning, are still being debated. However, there has been progress with regard to some aspects, such as the recognition that ‘out-of-school’ competencies exist and they have a role in facilitating access to education and training programmes. 2.2.2 Inserting ‘Out-of-School’ Competencies Acknowledging and certifying competencies raises difficult issues. Amongst others, one can mention legitimacy (what is the basis for the legitimacy of competencies?); the instability of the competencies (as having a strong situation-specific component; changes are frequent); and, finally, how are certified competencies translated into employment results (salary, promotion, others benefits)? Clearly, as the knowledge society develops, one will have to figure out ways to acknowledge the efforts made by individuals to increase their skills and competencies ‘after their initial educational attainments’. First, legitimacy of ‘qualification’ depends on the authority of the State (national, regional, local). How and under what conditions is the recognition (certification) of competencies judged and viewed as legitimate? In practical terms, recognition of competences often translates into the ‘certification’ of small units or modules. Too rarely have these competencies been fully recognized by employers and enterprises with regard to concrete decisions about hiring, salary and promotion. The major difficulty might well be the increase in salary, but a theoretical issue is also at stake: a newly acquired ‘qualification’ would be too big a unit to be easily re-evaluated to correspond to the collective bargaining agreements; ‘units of competencies’ would be too small a unit for financial recognition of them. Qualification is a negotiated ‘construct’ (between public authorities and social partners or between social partners); ‘competencies’ relate more to the individual in a context. Second, competencies differ from qualification also because of a link to a measurable result (for example, client satisfaction) (as underlined by authors such as Reynaud, 2001). This renders competencies more unstable than the qualification (the client is no longer satisfied). A qualification ‘measures’ a level of knowledge; the competencies add an element of individual responsibility concerning the results. The credibility of certification procedures is a matter as central for enterprises as
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it is for educational institutions. In enterprises, and especially in the service sector, assessment systems are a major concern and their ‘control’ is a priority. As with collective agreements and qualifications, evaluation based on the concept of competencies plays a strong social role. The qualification-model tends to reinforce the collective dimension of identification for workers while the competencies-model tends to favour the individual dimension (Paradeise & Lichtenberger, 2001). At the same time, the competencies-model embodies an idea that is absent in the qualification model: the responsibility of the worker, the employee, is clearly put forward. With qualification, prescribed roles have to be followed; with competencies, the obligation of results is added. Third, to take competences and learning outcomes into account in the job and in employment, it is necessary to involve the social partners, professional associations, chambers of commerce and other core actors in the negotiation processes. These actors are the ones in a position to decide what acknowledgement will be attached to proven competencies.6 Progress has been made in the education and training sphere to consider ‘outside competencies’ and to integrate them into the curriculum, as well as into the broad category of ‘certification’. However, less has been achieved in employment (setting salaries, career development). Lifelong learning strategies, largely accepted by 1996, made it crucial to better define the results of learning in educational institutions (at all levels), as well as the outcomes of learning elsewhere and at any time in life.
2.3 Learning By the end of the 1990s, there was a clear shift as questions about ‘qualification’ and ‘competencies’ began to be overshadowed by the concept of ‘learning’. Lifelong learning involves and translates a continuing process (any time, any place) that neither the concept of ‘qualification’ or ‘competencies’ could capture. Qualification is ‘a mark in time’ (completing an education or training phase at any level); ‘competencies’ add a sense of ‘context’. Both concepts raise an issue of transferability: will the newly certificated or graduated person be able to apply what was learned? Would the individual be able to apply competencies that have been acquired in one setting in another? The added approach through ‘learning’ focuses on the linkages: those between the different moments of life as well as those between the different settings. This ‘learning’ concept fits extremely well with the ambitions of lifelong learning: learning could take place in formal settings as well as in non-formal or informal settings. The sense of continuity is implicit in the concept of ‘learning’. Essentially, this concept is centred on the ‘individual’ who becomes the ‘centre and the key’ of a lifelong learning strategy (Denmark. Ministry of Education, 2004; FETAC, 2003). The positive step taken over the past decade in many countries is the recognition that learning takes place anywhere and at any time. It is a major improvement compared to a time not so long ago when learning was seen as being co-terminus with formal education whose completion marked the transition to adulthood (the
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implication was that an adult no longer learns). The acceptance of the ‘learning reality’ is a significant step forward (learning takes place; it emphasizes active participation in learning and that it is more or less intentional) (Kivinen & Ristela, 2003). The down side remains the value accorded to the learning: value can be granted through a formal certificate (diploma, qualification). However, ‘economic value’ has proved difficult to recognize through collective bargaining agreements. More generally, today there is no ‘signal system’ in employment to ‘value learning’. A simple reason is that prior to recognition, learning has to be ‘cut into manageable pieces’ that correspond to parts described in job analyses or occupational standards. Therefore, the economic value attached to learning is not obvious, not straightforward and not ‘inevitable’: the ‘piece’ of the learning has to be explicitly delimited and defined before any agreement can be reached as to its (economic) value. One can see that the core of the relationship between ‘education’ (in a generic sense) and employment has yet to be resolved:
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‘Qualification’ is too static; ‘Competencies’ are too nebulous; ‘Learning’ is too volatile.
3 The Certification Signals Evidently, with the acceptance of lifelong learning, more learning is more value. However, and more specifically, what can be the value added of an employee acquiring some new and unrecognized ‘piece’ of learning (new knowledge, knowhow, expertise)? Today, with the information age and globalization, information is acquired almost anywhere. Nevertheless, information is not knowledge; information is not competency, even if it implies being based on a learning process to a certain extent. Information is not automatically structured as ‘knowledge’ or as knowledge that can be applied in a particular setting (work or other). When it is useful, can it be recognized and eventually certified? In which case, what signals it? Qualification, competencies and learning do not find their ‘structure’ (pattern, configuration) per se: it is their relation to a set of standards (or references) that defines (shapes) them. Two types of standards are to be distinguished. The ultimate (and prime) reference is expressed by the description of the occupation or the ‘occupational standards’: a profession (a doctor, lawyer, etc.), a job (an electrician, a secretary, etc.), a function (a manager, an assistant, etc.). In our societies, this ultimate reference is hidden by educational standards (or references): the educational objectives that education fulfils to educate and train a physician, a lawyer, an electrician, a secretary, a manager, an assistant, etc. The precedence of educational objectives over the employment references causes or at least explains the origin of the troubled relationships between education and employment. This raises old questions—still largely unanswered:
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What comes first: education or employment? What is the final target: education or employment? What is the means to reach the target: education or employment?
In the last decade, there has been progress towards answering ‘what comes first’:
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Learning is no longer ‘an undefined arrangement of unrecognizable pieces’. The certification of competencies implies a ‘construction of knowledge’ into ‘something’ that education and training institutions can identify. That identification is possible because certification is deeply rooted in educational standards.
3.1 The Concept of Certification Certification is defined as the process of formally validating knowledge, knowhow and/or skills and competences acquired by an individual, following a standard assessment procedure. Certificates or diplomas are issued by accredited awarding bodies (Tissot, 2004). Another aspect of the certification process is that it imposes a structure to undefined pieces of learning. At the present time in many countries, it has become clear that, wherever acquired, competencies and learning outcomes should be taken into consideration by the education systems (at elementary, secondary as well tertiary levels). In this process of certification (as for example, the validation of knowledge acquired through experience—VAE, prior learning assessment—PLA, accreditation of prior experiential learning—APEL), the individual is required to demonstrate that parts of his/her experience, competencies and learning fit within the (pre-defined) structure of knowledge as ‘imposed’ by the education and training institutions. Learning and competences acquired outside the formal sector can be recognized and can open access to a programme and a curriculum without the individual having to learn again what he/she already knows. In employment, what is the role of certification and what are its functions in that troubled relation with education? Clearly, signals exist for certificates that emanate from educational institutions. Questions can be raised concerning the existence of such ‘signals’ for certifications emanating from certification bodies linked to enterprises and professional associations, trade unions, chambers of commerce (or other chambers representing employers or workers) or to non-profit-making organizations.
3.2 Signals for School Today, education and training institutions are able to take into account and recognize competencies acquired in non-formal and informal settings, insofar as the competencies are relevant for the educational objectives covered by the programme or the courses (Colardyn & Bjornavold, 2005; Gallacher & Feutrie, 2003; Livingstone,
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1999; O’Hagan, McAleavy & Storan, 2005). Competences acquired in non-formal or informal settings can be integrated into a diploma through some type of prior learning assessment (PLA) or accreditation of prior experiential learning (APEL) procedures. This signifies that competencies relevant for the educational programme are assessed. It also signifies that competencies that are not relevant to the specific educational programme will not be taken into consideration: thus, the final diploma or certificate endorses what is described in the educational standards—no more and no less. The individual may have other competencies that will not be ‘certified’ by that diploma (degree or other). This kind of certification gives access to education and training and can terminate in a formal certificate (or diploma) covering the entire programme. This type of certification can be seen as providing an ‘educational recognition’ as the educational institution acknowledges its ‘own products’: the signal sent by that certification is usually automatically7 recognized and acknowledged by other educational and training institutions. Certainly, this type of certification can be seen as created ‘by the schools’ and ‘for the schools’. The signal sent by certification is often strong, enabling the individual to enter higher levels of education: it signals a route for progression. In addition, the value is also strong as, for example, in vocational education certification gives access to a formal qualification, which can then be ‘accepted’ in collective bargaining agreements. That signal indicates that the individual is potentially able to practise the skills and competences acquired in a school or in a dual system. In that sense, the ‘certification for school’ has value in a work situation, as it provides an indirect signal of the individual’s potentials. Can certification provide direct signals to the employment of the actual (not potential) competencies of adults?
3.3 Signals for Employment Obviously, as lifelong learning has developed and as economic and technological changes continue to maintain their rapid advance, the recognition of competencies acquired at work, in the family, or in a social and cultural setting assumes more importance. What signals do these certifications convey to employment? One can mention the consortium for validation of competences in the French community of Belgium; the Belcert for welders, the construction sector and others in the Flemish community of Belgium; the European computer driving licence in Finland; the Association for Certification of Vocational Competences in France.8 Specific occupational areas, like the abattoir and electricity supply in Ireland (FETAC, 2003), are concerned, as are NGOs in the Netherlands and the former Swedish information technology programme—SWIT. Trade unions, such as Unison in the United Kingdom, created programmes such as ‘Return to learn’9 that illustrate a particular approach to the certification of competencies. In other cases, the ‘signals’ conveyed by certification can be perfectly clear, as in regulated professions, which indicate the education, training and learning levels
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required of their members. These certifications (autonomous from education and training programmes and curricula) are taken into consideration in professional agreements. The Educazione continua in medicina (ECM) in Italy is an example of a practice directly linking occupational development and competencies acquired in non-formal or informal settings. Technically speaking, it is possible to assess ‘against’ any standard (including an occupational one).10 Therefore, certification of competencies acquired after and out of school is largely feasible (Colardyn & Bjornavold, 2004, 2005) and is becoming more common (Kailis & Pilos, 2005). The remaining and central key question concerns the signals that such certifications send to employment. In other words, what lends an ‘economic value’ to certification? In a knowledge society, such certification directly linked to employment and specific occupations should have a social value for the individual, as well as for the enterprise. However, how to signal that economic value—how to ‘price’ it? Through better jobs? More employability? A better career? Better pay? There are certifications that relate directly to work using occupational standards and collecting existing evidence of actual competencies: does such ‘certification for work’ have a meaning in employment; does it have ‘social recognition’; is it taken into consideration in collective bargaining agreements, for example?
3.4 The Direct and Indirect Signals Thus, when certifying learning outcomes and competencies related to progression in professional life and career, the issue includes the ‘constructed knowledge’ by individuals as well as the ‘social construction’ involving (social) negotiations between social partners and probably with and between other actors and stakeholders. Kivinen and Ristela (2003, p. 369) mentioned the model developed by Bereiter and Scardamalia (1998), which distinguishes between the ‘learning connected with the individual’s knowledge and skills’ and the ‘knowledge building’ connected with developing the community-wide level of knowledge. In the case of these certifications, autonomous from educational purposes and directly related to employment, that ‘connection with a wider community-level of knowledge’ can be understood as the process taking place during the negotiation of collective agreements. Through that negotiation process, a particular employment-related structure is imposed to knowledge in order to be recognizable by the world of work (social partners, chambers of commerce, professional associations, etc.). This would be a process similar to the one by which a structure of knowledge is ‘imposed’ by the education and training institutions in order to acknowledge certification (diplomas, certificates, etc.). That connection with developing the community-wide level of knowledge justifies itself by the fact that learning is a ‘social action’ and that various types of (collective) agreements need to be constructed around the use of learning, knowhow, expertise, competencies or qualifications in the world of work. That distinction emphasizes the centrality of the individual, as well as of the social actions on the construction of knowledge (structuration). The construction of knowledge—the
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structure imposed on it by the collective negotiation processes—explains the direct or indirect signals communicated by certification. For education, certification attests to the ‘achievement’ of qualifications, competencies and learning outcomes. Certification is a function of educational institutions and certification is expressed in their terms: it attests that educational standards have been achieved. This is a direct signal: it functions as much for individuals as for educational institutions. The increases in educational attainment (primary, secondary and tertiary) show that the direct signal of this certification is understood. In addition, many countries in Europe and elsewhere have adopted and implemented systems for the validation of non-formal and informal learning, for the recognition of prior learning, of experiential learning, etc. These validations are more and more taken into consideration in ‘traditional’ education certifications. For employment, the certification attests and signals the actual achievement of competencies and learning outcomes. However, what does it signify? In fact, it sends and largely acknowledges an indirect signal, as well as a potential direct signal. The indirect signal is given by the collective agreements between social partners: it gives a social significance to a certificate (a diploma, a degree, etc.); similarly, professional associations for regulated professions specify professional requirements. This is an indirect signal because the constructed knowledge (structure given to the competencies and the learning outcomes) refers to educational and not occupational standards. In fact, the collective bargaining ‘rests’ on the decision taken by educational authorities to accept that ‘potentially’ the individual has reached a level or a degree of competence. Once more, that certification does not attest to the actual use of competencies in a precise working or other setting and context. The only signal that could be directly recognized by the world of employment and work is certification based on occupational standards and on evidence (documentation) of the actual use of competencies. With certification—such as, for example, the European Computer Driving Licence—what is exactly certified? The certification refers to occupational standards and no longer to educational standards. That signifies that the ‘constructed knowledge’ has a structure recognizable by the world of work and employment because of its reference to occupational standards. So, this should represent a direct signal for the world of employment and as a consequence should have a certain significance. Nevertheless, the signal does not seem so easily perceived by actors and stakeholders: what signals do such certificates send about the value of the competencies? Does such certification open the route to more employability, easier hiring, a better salary, a career development? What is attested to by certification depends on the standards against which the assessment is taking place (its structured information, knowledge and learning) and on the social construction (by educational institutions versus actors and stakeholders of the employment and economic world). Signals sent by certification can follow two paths: 1. When judged against educational standards, the ‘what’ attested to by the certificate is directly relevant to education. As a consequence, the signal that such
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certification conveys concerning employment issues will be indirect, depending on collective bargaining agreements or on the rules of professional associations. 2. When judged against occupational standards, the ‘what’ attested to by the certificate should be directly relevant to employment issues. Also, certification can be an indirect signal for education through validation of non-formal and informal learning (APEL and others).
4 The Lack of Consequences for Employment: Speculations about Reasons In the last decade, the (direct or indirect) signals sent by certifications of competencies have evolved and certain aspects have progressed. Noticeable and even quantifiable progress has occurred concerning transferability and visibility of skills and competencies. Portability is the one feature for which progress seems slow, if not lacking. Work undertaken at the international level in the 1990s stressed the need for a ‘common language’ between educational institutions and the labour market. Analyses (Colardyn & Durand-Drouhin, 1995; Colardyn, 1996) suggested that adjustments of skills and competencies to demand and conditions in the labour market could take place through the development of three essential features
r r r
Transferability within the education system; Visibility for social partners, and Portability in the labour market.
It was assumed that these three criteria would be useful to enhance the transparency of education and training institutions and to improve the linkages with the labour market, notably through the involvement of social partners and other actors or stakeholders. The knowledge society, as well as lifelong learning, made these changes imperative.
4.1 Transferability Transferability is the capacity to transfer certification from one area or sector of the education system into another one (between apprenticeships, vocational education, general education, or between initial and further education), as well as between institutions in and between countries. Enormous progress has been registered with regard to transferability: pathways between education sectors have been greatly facilitated—between vocational education and training and tertiary education. In addition, there has been political support for transfer between institutions. Practices, such as the National Academic Recognition Information Centres (NARIC) for higher education and the Europass with the certificate and the diploma supplements, illustrate the importance that is now attached to transfer. Transferability applies to
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all levels of education. For example, in elementary education, the efforts put forward by UNESCO with the Non-Formal Education Management Information System (NFE-MIS) (UNESCO, 2005),11 show that all learning has to be included in fighting illiteracy. Practices, as in Norway, illustrate transfer of non-formal/informal learning at upper secondary level. Finland demonstrates that transfers between university and non-university areas of tertiary education are not only feasible but respond to new demands of the knowledge society and are necessary on efficiency grounds. Finally, validation of non-formal and informal learning (with practices such as portfolios) is now widespread. Still, few individuals show interest in that procedure, which could certainly be more widely used: quantitative evaluation remains difficult (as certification does not always indicate that such a validation is part of the certification).
4.2 Visibility Visibility concerns the need for skills, competencies and learning acquired in nonformal and informal settings, such as work places, the family, social groups, etc., to be recognizable (visible) to employers, trade unions and other stakeholders. Crucial for initial qualifications, this visibility is often ensured by collective agreements. With the development of lifelong and life-wide learning, visibility is an even more central issue. The Eurostat survey of formal, non-formal and informal learning reveals that there has been greater awareness in Europe (Kailis & Pilos, 2005). It is widely acknowledged that learning occurs in various settings at different moments in life and competencies are acquired in many contexts. Learning and competencies are made visible (Bjornavold, 2000). If a decade ago the challenge was to make ‘invisible learning’ visible, we may note that today this objective has been achieved. Qualitative and quantitative analyses and studies have highlighted the phenomenon in such a way that it can no longer be ignored. The role and responsibility of adults in their own development is evident; the role of non-profit-making organizations, as well as social partners and stakeholders, is seen as complementary to that of the public authorities.
4.3 Portability Portability of certification focuses on the relation with employment, with the labour market. At stake is the economic value of certification: what are the consequences for human-resource management, including hiring and promotion decisions? In most cases, portability of certification is ensured through the mechanisms of collective bargaining. Practices and characteristics of collective bargaining vary greatly from country to country, as is underlined by several OECD analyses on the subject (OECD, 1994, 1997, 2004). Why has there been so little progress in the last decade? Why is the emphasis on higher skills and competencies, acquired through lifelong learning that are needed in the knowledge society, not finding any echo
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in the behaviour of economic actors and stakeholders? Are collective agreement mechanisms unable to consider new forms of certifications; especially those related to the emergence of new competencies and acceptance of lifelong learning? 4.3.1 Developments For some considerable time already, it is relatively frequent that the classifications expressed in collective bargaining agreements refer to initial qualifications. In recent decades, Ermida and Rosenbaum (1998, pp. 48–50) indicate that vocational training has become a more important component of collective bargaining agreements (a worker’s right to training; training as an economic instrument; changing needs of training to face technological changes). Agreements mention: (a) the promotion of vocational training; (b) time for training; (c) quality; (d) creation of bipartite commissions; and (e) funding schemes. The authors mention a few cases of connection between training policies and other aspects of employment, such as remuneration and productivity. In France, in the 1970s, the reference to national diplomas was an essential issue; today, its importance has tended to decrease, with reference made to validation of training and to new certifications proposed by branches and sectors (Jobert, 2002). The same author also mentions an agreement passed in 2000 in the telecommunication sector, which includes management of competences and career development in the annual individual staff evaluation. In Quebec, in some sectors with highly qualified personnel (aeronautic, petrochemical), unions have developed a strategy centred on the development of competencies. They emphasize transferability and recognition of competencies and training to favour qualification. This can be understood as a counterpoint to the 1% Law (Bernier, 2002).12 4.3.2 Innovations At the end of 2005, the European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF) held a conference on collective bargaining focusing on three key issues: collective bargaining co-ordination; the reduction of precarious employment; and the launch of a common demand on an individual right to training (European Industrial Relations Observatory, 2005).13 That demand includes: the promotion of the individual’s right to training; a proposal for a minimum of five days training for all employees; proposals that training is free and takes place during working hours; the requirement for access to lifelong learning. It also indicates that ‘employees should receive certification of their training and qualification, regardless of whether this is achieved through training or experience’. This last aspect illustrates a very recent trend in recognition of competencies and outcomes of non-formal and informal learning taking place in any setting: it could be a first step towards integrating lifelong learning policies and strategies into collective bargaining agreements. As underlined by Broughton (2005): ‘the common demand for an individual right to training can be seen as a landmark in terms of collective bargaining policy. [This] ties in with the goals of the Lisbon strategy14 proposed at the European Union level and which aims to build a knowledge-based society’.
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Another step worth signalling concerns the proposal by the Irish Presidency of the European Union (2004) and the acceptance by the European Council and Member States of ‘Common principles for the validation of non-formal and informal learning’. The proposal15 was agreed to by a large range of stakeholders in thirty-one countries, as well as the European social partners, civil organizations and the Commission. That European agreement was reached by using a negotiation mechanism very different from collective bargaining. It aims to promote the visibility of certifications, especially for outcomes of non-formal and informal learning. In that sense, it borrows from a consensual approach16 largely promoted when it comes to agreements on education, training, qualification and competencies. It certainly confirms a general dynamic underlined by many analysts. These steps towards greater co-operation are not considered to affect the ‘regular’ collective bargaining mechanisms of a more conflicting nature. The actual co-existence of conflicting and co-operative mechanisms may be the beginning of even deeper changes in labour relations, especially when it comes to issues including skills and competencies. The knowledge society and its implications for technologies, employment and working conditions push the collective bargaining approaches away from a ‘Fordism model’, linked to the industries. Indicative of a long-term movement, relations between employers and employees are characterized by words, such as ‘partnerships’, ‘co-operation’ and ‘consensus’. When it comes to recognition and certification of training, competencies and learning, it is certainly the route taken. It is probably the only route to start with. Ten years after the acceptance of the lifelong learning strategy, it seems reasonable to conclude that much work, negotiation and thinking remains to be done on the portability issue. It seems possible that traditional collective agreement mechanisms are unable to receive and send the signals of the new forms of certification, especially those that arise as a consequence of a larger acceptance of lifelong learning. To confirm that conclusion, deeper analyses of collective negotiation mechanisms would be required. They should focus on the recognition and certification of competences and examine both new dialogue structures and the substance of newly signed agreements.
Notes 1. The definition proposed by CEDEFOP serves as a reference as it represents an agreement reached by a certain number of countries (the European member States). 2. See policies in France and Germany adopted at the end of the 1970s and early 1980s to update the structure of qualifications. 3. Generally, if the term ‘competence’ refers to a broad and global understanding of a level, then the term ‘competencies’ refers to smaller ‘quantums’ of more easily measured outcomes (e.g. financial results of commercial activity) (Paradeise & Lichtenberger, 2001). 4. For detailed information, see: <www.ilo.org/public/english/region/ampro/cinterfor/temas/ complab/xxxx/index.htm> 5. For more information, see: <www.vqa.vic.gov.au/vqa/accreditation/glossary.asp>
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6. Especially if the competencies are not expressly integrated into the collective bargaining agreements. 7. There is no doubt that issues of recognition of diplomas and certificates exist and policies are being developed to increase transparency. The issue is one of ensuring quality, not one of denying ‘a value’ to the certification. 8. For example, see: 9. Return to learn, Unison, United Kingdom. See: <www.returntolearn.org.uk> 10. All the quality requirements (to ensure reliability and validity) would apply to any assessments. 11. (See section 16, article 16.7.). 12. Launched in 1996, the 1% Law makes it an obligation for enterprises with a certain wage bill to contribute 1% towards training. It is perceived by unions as an ‘obligation to train’ instead of a ‘right to training’. The developments of short-term types of training filling the immediate needs of enterprises is too often used as the solution, neglecting a broader training designed to increase the qualifications of the population. 13. <www.eiro.eurofound.eu.int/2005/10/feature/eu0510205f.html> 14. For more information, see: European journal of education, vol. 39, 2004, on the ‘Bologna process’ and vol. 40, 2005, on the Lisbon strategy. 15. <www.europa.eu.int/comm/education/policies/2010/doc/validation2004 en.pdf> 16. At the European level, it is called the ‘open method of co-ordination’ (OMC).
References Bereiter, C.; Scardamalia, M. 1998. Rethinking learning. In: Olson, D.R.; Torrance, N., eds. The handbook of education and human development. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Bernier, C. 2002. Syndicats et formation professionnelle au Qu´ebec: entre strat´egies globales et actions locales. In: Bernier, C. et al., eds. Formation, relations professionnelles et syndicalisme a` l’heure de la soci´et´e-monde, pp. 91–106. Paris: L’Harmattan; Quebec, Canada: Les Presses de l’Universit´e de Laval. Bjornavold, J. 2000. Making learning visible. Thessaloniki, Greece: CEDEFOP. Broughton, A. 2005. EMF holds fifth collective bargaining conference. In: EIROLINE: European Industrial Relations Observatory On-line. <www.eiro.eurofound.eu.int/2005/10/feature/ eu0510205f.html> Canadian Information Centre for International Credentials—CICIC. 2005. Guide to terminology usage in the field of credentials recognition and mobility in English Canada. Toronto, Canada: CICIC. <www.cicic.ca> Colardyn, D. 1996. La gestion des competences: perspectives internationales. Paris: PUF. (P´edagogie d’aujourd’hui.) Colardyn, D.; Bjornavold, J. 2004. Validation of formal, non-formal and informal learning: policy and practices in EU Member States. European journal of education, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 69–90. Colardyn, D.; Bjornavold, J. 2005. The learning continuity: European inventory on validating nonformal and informal learning. National policies and practices in validating non-formal and informal learning. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. (CEDEFOP Panorama series, no. 117.) Colardyn, D.; Durand-Drouhin, M. 1995. Recognising skills and qualifications. The OECD observer, April. Denmark. Ministry of Education. 2004. Recognition of prior learning within the education system. Copenhagen: Ministry of Education. Ermida, O.; Rosenbaum, J. 1998. Vocational training and collective bargaining. [Chapter translated from the original Spanish: Formaci´on professional en la negociaci´on colectiva.
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Montevideo: CINTERFOR. <www.cinterfor.org.uy/public/spanish/region/ampro/cinterfor/ publ/ ermida/index.htm>] European Industrial Relations Observatory. 2005. EMF holds fifth collective bargaining conference. Dublin: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. <www.eiro.eurofound.eu.int/2005/10/eu0510205f.html> Further Education and Training Awards Council—FETAC. 2003. Newsletter, no. 2, May. <www.fetac.ie/> Gallacher, J.; Feutrie, M. 2003. Recognizing and accrediting informal and non-formal learning in higher education: an analysis of the issues emerging from a study of France and Scotland. European journal of education, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 71–83. Gaudart, C.; Weill-Fassima, A. 1999. L’´evolution des comp´etences au cours de la vie professionnelle: une approche ergonomique. Formation et emploi, no. 67, pp. 47–62. International Labour Organization. 2005. Labour competencies. Montevideo: CINTERFOR. Jobert, A. 2002. La r´egulation de branche en Europe: un avenir incertain. In: Bernier, C. et al., eds. Formation, relations professionnelles et syndicalisme a` l’heure de la soci´et´e-monde, pp. 23–40. Paris: L’Harmattan; Quebec, Canada: Les Presses de l’Universit´e de Laval. Kailis, E.; Pilos, S. 2005. Lifelong learning in Europe. Eurostat: Statistics in focus, Population and social conditions, no. 8. <epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY OFFPUB/KS-NK-05008/EN/KS-NK-05-008-EN.PDF> Kivinen, O.; Ristela, P. 2003. From constructivism to a pragmatist conception of learning. Oxford review of education, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 363–75. Livingstone, D.W. 1999. Lifelong learning and underemployment in the knowledge society: a North American perspective. Comparative education, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 163–86. O’Hagan, C.; McAleavy, G.; Storan, J. 2005. Recognising prior learning: investigating the future of informal learning: a Northern Ireland study. Journal of adult and continuing education, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 29–42. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 1994. Collective bargaining: levels and coverage. In: Employment outlook, pp. 167–87. Paris: OECD. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 1997. Economic performance and the structure of collective bargaining. In: Employment outlook, pp. 63–92. Paris: OECD. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2004. Wage-setting institutions and outcomes. In: Employment outlook, pp. 127–77. Paris: OECD. Paradeise, C.; Lichtenberger, Y. 2001. Comp´etence, comp´etences. Sociologie du travail, no. 43, pp. 33–48. Reynaud, J.-D. 2001. Le management par les comp´etences: un essai d’analyse. Sociologie du travail, no. 43, pp. 7–31. Stroobants, M. 1991. Travail et comp´etences: r´ecapitulation critique des approches des savoirs au travail. Formation emploi, no. 33. Tissot, P. 2004. Terminology of vocational training policy: a multilingual glossary for an enlarged Europe. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Union. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2005. NFE-MIS handbook: developing a sub-national non-formal Education Management Information System. Paris: UNESCO. Victorian Qualifications Authority—VQA. 2005. Glossary of terms. Melbourne, Australia: VQA.
Chapter XVI.3
Modularization and Modular Delivery of TVET John Stanwick
1 Introduction Modularization in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is an area of increasing interest and debate. Many countries in and outside Europe have, to some extent, introduced modularization in their TVET systems over the past twenty years. The impetus behind this move has varied from country to country, but often involves reforming training systems due to reasons such as: rationalizing education and training systems; making education and training more responsive and flexible to the needs of students and industry; and improving access to education and training. This chapter discusses, firstly, what is meant by modularization in TVET. Following this, the reasons for the introduction of modularization are overviewed. We will see that there are various reasons for doing so, depending on the country context. The chapter then explores various approaches to modularization in TVET, examining differences in approaches across selected countries. Some of the main issues and criticisms associated with the implementation of modularization are then identified.
2 Definitions of Modularization For the purposes of this chapter, modularization specifically means the breaking down of whole educational qualifications into useful sub-units (a module), each of which has measurable outcomes that are assessed (and in some instances certified) in their own right, as well as contributing to a larger overall educational outcome (primarily a qualification).1 Modularization, as used in this chapter, does not refer to the packaging and delivery of courses, which is a process rather than an outcome issue.2 While we have provided a working definition of modularization and modules, the term can have slightly different emphases according to the context (and country) in which it is being used. Ertl (2000), for example, states that, while modules are part of a larger system, the relationship to that system varies depending upon the approach taken to TVET. In some systems, modules can be quite independent of one another, can be assessed separately and even certified separately. In other contexts, modules R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XVI.3, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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are seen in terms of their relationship to other modules and possibly as part of a qualification, i.e. modules only have relevance in terms of the qualification of which they form part. These different emphases will be discussed further in the section on approaches to modularization.
2.1 Rationale for Modularization The reasons for modularizing education and training vary according to country circumstances. However, the reasons often have much in common. Hart and Howieson (2004), in a discussion of the benefits of modularization in Scotland, have distilled some of the common reasons why various countries have decided to modularize their training system. The first reason discussed by Hart and Howieson is rationalization and simplification of training systems. This involves eliminating duplication and reducing qualifications available, or making the system more transparent/easier to follow. For example, in Scotland, an aim of their 1983 action plan (‘16–18s in Scotland’) was to rationalize qualifications and to bring together programmes that were common across various specialist areas. In theory, students can undertake modules that have applicability across a range of qualifications. The second reason proposed by Hart and Howieson is access and progression. This refers firstly to improving access to education and training, say for the disadvantaged groups in the community, and secondly to improving the ability to progress through education and training programmes. Modular programmes can potentially improve access to education and training by, for example, reducing financial costs (paying per module rather than for the whole qualification). They can also assist with regard to the time commitment as people can undertake modules one by one, rather than having to undertake an entire qualification. Modularization can assist progression by improving recognition of prior learning. This functions when modules are assessed on the basis of specifically established outcomes, which means that the assessment should be free of the complexities of mode, place and timing of delivery.3 South Africa is a prime example of a country that has adopted modularization to improve access to education. Their modularized National Qualifications Framework was introduced in the post-apartheid period mainly to create a more equitable education system, including increased access to education and training, improved mobility and progression (Matseleng Allais, 2003). Modules are seen to assist access because they specify learning outcomes at the national level, and so it should not matter where and how a person gains the knowledge and skills required to achieve the learning outcome. Nevertheless, Matseleng Allais argues that this may not always be the case, since there is scope for particular ideological approaches in the way courses are delivered. Linked to improving access is improving participation in education and training. This can be participation per se, or participation in education and training deemed to
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be economically useful or relevant. In Scotland, the introduction of modularization has increased numbers of people participating in TVET, with those registering for National Certificate Units more than doubling five years after their introduction. However, Hart and Howieson also say it is very difficult to determine whether these new enrolments were in economically relevant or useful areas. In Australia, following the introduction of competency-based training,4 student numbers have increased from about 1 million in 1991 to about 1.6 million in 2004 (Karmel & Stanwick, 2002; NCVER, 2005). Another major strand of thinking in the modularization of courses is an improvement in the flexibility and responsiveness of the education and training system. This is more of a demand-side approach to training, whereby the training is looking to address the skill needs of industry and employers. However, the flexibility and responsiveness can also extend to the people undertaking the qualifications by, for example, allowing them to undertake manageable amounts of learning or by just undertaking the modules needed for upskilling/reskilling, as opposed to completing a whole qualification in response, for example, to technological or economic change. Reviewing qualifications can also potentially be more timely and cost-effective with a modular approach. Rather than altering an entire qualification based on feedback from stakeholders, it may only be certain modules within the qualification that need updating. Australia is an example of a country where a major aim of modularization has been to better meet the needs of industry (Misko & Robinson, 2000). The next rationale for modularization discussed by Hart and Howieson is improved quality. This refers both to the quality of learning as well as to the quality assurance of the qualifications. Modularization can help quality of learning by clearly linking the teaching to the intended outcomes at the unit level and also by making the learning relevant to the workplace. This can, for example, involve students in undertaking actual work tasks. In terms of quality assurance, modularization can make assessment more valid, fair, standardized and transparent. It can make assessment more valid as it does not, for example, rely on written examinations but can involve examination of actual or simulated work conditions. In some countries modularization quality assurance was seen to make assessment more fair, standardized and transparent by introducing some element of external assessment. Finally, Hart and Howieson discuss recognition and mobility as part of the reason for modularization of TVET. Modularized programmes have the potential to facilitate movement between and within sectors. This is particularly true where there are modules that can be used in a variety of different programmes. Nationally recognized modules are also potentially valued by employers, particularly in countries such as Australia where industry plays a role in the development of the modules. Modularized programmes based on national standards, with quality assurance systems and transparent assessment systems, are also more likely to be taken seriously by other countries. International recognition of qualifications is of particular importance where there are mobile labour markets. While the presentation above has discussed rationales for modularization of training systems, it needs to be recognized that much of the impetus behind modularization has been the development of national qualifications frameworks. This
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development has been the major aim of reforming education and training systems, with modularization following from this, rather than the other way around. This has been the case in several countries. For example, in New Zealand, the National Qualifications Framework was developed as part of educational reform in a market(demand)-driven environment (Philips, 2003). Within this framework, the unit standard (module) is seen as the basic building block of an outcomes-based qualifications system. The South African National Qualifications Framework was established both to reform a discriminatory and divided education system and also to improve international competitiveness. Within this outcomes-based qualifications framework, the unit standard (module) is the smallest certifiable unit of educational achievement. Similar trends are also seen in other countries, such as England’s National Vocational Qualifications System and Scotland’s Scottish Vocational Qualifications System.
2.2 Modularization Approaches We saw earlier in this chapter that emphasis of modularization varies according to the intention within the TVET system. Le Mouillour (2004) discusses three variations within modular TVET systems. Firstly, modules can be essentially selfcontained. They have prescribed outcomes or competences that are assessed and certified separately. In essence, these modules are part-qualifications, although there are rules linking them. The second variation involves the modules being part of a greater qualification and has no inherent value on its own. Here, it is the whole qualification that is certified and recognized, not individual modules. In the third variation, modules are assessed and certified separately, but are intended to lead to a whole qualification rather than to stand alone. Ertl (2000, 2002), in discussing the modernization of Germany’s TVET system, also looks at three variations of modular structures, although more from the perspective of concepts as opposed to currently implemented structures. He discusses these concepts primarily in terms of restructuring initial vocational qualifications in Germany. This perspective is interesting as it is in the context of a country that traditionally has had no modularization within its education system. Ertl’s concepts do, however, overlap to a considerable degree with Le Mouillour’s (2004) variations. Firstly, Ertl discusses what he terms as the expansion concept, which leaves the current qualification as it currently exists, but adds on top self-contained modules as part of the qualification. So, for someone undertaking an initial vocational qualification, the extra modules can provide extra skills as part of the initial qualification. This can be done in two ways: either the contents of the initial and additional modules can be separated; or the new modules can be integrated into the existing qualification so as to produce a newly structured qualification. The second concept proposed by Ertl (called the differentiation model) restructures the curriculum of an existing initial qualification into modules. These modules,
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although self-contained, belong to a whole qualification and have no marketability as ‘part’ qualifications, similar to Le Mouillour’s second variation. The final concept discussed by Ertl is referred to as the fragmentation concept. Similar to Le Mouillour’s first variation, the fragmentation concept has modules that are assessed and certified individually, and that can also be used as stand-alone part qualifications.
3 Country Comparisons The intent and scope of modularization in TVET varies considerable between countries. We have noted above that the traditional German system does not have any modularization in its qualifications system. At the other end of the spectrum, Scotland’s National Certificate System modules are free standing, assessed and certified separately, and are part qualifications in their own right. Other countries have systems that fall in between the two extremes depending on the rationale of the modularization (see Figure 1). There are many countries in the world that have some level of modularization within their TVET systems. For example, most European Union (EU) countries and EU accession and candidate countries use modularized systems (e.g. France, Hungary, Netherlands, Spain) or are introducing such systems, for example Greece, Turkey, Poland and the Czech Republic (Hart & Howieson, 2004). In another part of the world, modularization is an intended component of the Palestinian TVET system. The rationale for developing a modular system in this case is to provide a TVET system that is responsive to changes in labour-market demand (Palestinian Authority. Ministry of Higher Education, 1997). For the purposes of this chapter, however, six countries are compared and contrasted on their approaches to modularization, namely Scotland, Germany, England, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. These six countries have been chosen as they provide interesting comparisons on the various intents and scope of modularization (see Table 1). Table 1 shows that, across these countries, there are slightly different approaches to the modularization of TVET, and that the context for modularization varies between countries. The table also includes information on Germany, which currently does not have a modularized system; however, reform of initial training is a matter Free standing modules Scottish NC system
Modules as part of a whole qualification
Australia England New Zealand South Africa Scottish SQV
Differing underlying philosophies
Fig. 1 Approaches to modularization across various countries
No modularization Traditional German vocational system
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Table 1 Comparisons of approaches to modularization across six countries Scotland
England
South Africa
Australia
New Zealand
Germany
National Vocational National Qualifications Australian National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Qualifications Qualifications (NVQs) and General Framework Framework NQF) National (AQF) and National Qualifications Certificate of (GNVQs) within the Educational National Achievement Qualifications (NCEA) Framework (NQF)
Dual system of education (college and work learning)
Country terminology re modularization
Unit
Units of competence
N/A
Scope of modularization
All of TVET
Mainly used in TVET, All of education and Available across Available across most Restricted to some restricted use in training, although not all TVET of TVET and also only a few senior schooling used by universities senior secondary narrow areas school
Main aim of modularization
The provision of a single qualifications framework. To increase training flexibility
Simplification of Social reform and in Greater focus on The provision of a qualifications system, particular providing developing common approach and to enhance the an equitable skills that meet to qualifications status of vocational education system in the needs of setting as well as a education the post-apartheid the workplace mechanism to period. Also to facilitate credit improve international transfer competitiveness
Unit standards
Standards or units of competency. Training package qualifications
Unit standard (NQF) Achievement standard (NCEA)
Main concern in Germany is meeting the demands of a changing economic environment
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Name of the National Certificate national system (NC) modules, or framework Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQs), General Scottish Vocational Qualifications (GSVQs)
Approach to modularization
England
South Africa
Australia
New Zealand
While NC units are Under NVQ units can Unit standards are used Units of Unit/achievement entirely free standing be certified as part to construct a whole competencies standards are used and certified qualifications qualification, are used in as the building separately, SVQ and although the intention although there are combinations blocks for a group GSVQ units form a is for units to be also whole to build whole award group qualification combined into a qualifications not qualifications. (qualification) and only the group award. Under constructed from unit Statements of qualification is GNVQ emphasis is standards attainment for certified on integrated delivery part of units assessed over qualifications longer periods of are available. time.
Germany N/A
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Table 1 (continued) Scotland
Source: This table has been derived from a variety of literature sources on modularization (see titles in the list of references).
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of considerable debate in this country at the moment (see, for example, Ertl, 2002; Pilz, 2002), with modularization being discussed as a possible vehicle for reform. We saw earlier in this chapter that the main aims of modularization included simplifying or rationalizing qualifications systems, improving access to and progression through education and providing a more flexible and responsive education system. These variations are reflected in the six countries described in Table 1. We see, for example, that in Scotland rationalization of qualifications frameworks and increasing training flexibility were major aims, while in South Africa, access and providing a more egalitarian training system were major aims, although economic development was also an objective. It is also interesting to note that in South Africa modularization was introduced across the entire education and training system (schools, TVET and higher education).5 This may be linked to the fact that South Africa was undergoing massive social change in the post-apartheid era. One of the most pressing issues in South Africa was to break down a system of discrimination throughout their education system. Modularization of the entire education system was seen as one way of overcoming this problem. In contrast, reform in other countries, such as Scotland, England, New Zealand and Australia, was influenced more by economic pressures rather than being a part of overall social change. While any introduction of modularization in initial vocational training in Germany is related to competitive pressures and the mobility of labour in Europe, it is likely to have a significant social impact. Initial vocational training in Germany has always centred on the concept of vocation (deutsches Berufskonzept) and goes beyond the ability of a person merely to obtain a job and earn a living. The concept of vocation is part of German culture whereby a person’s image is based on their particular vocation and so is related to status and identity (Ertl, 2000). Modularization is therefore a very controversial concept in Germany as it calls into question the concept of vocation (Kloas, 2000).
3.1 Scotland Scotland was one of the first countries in modern times to introduce modularization into its national TVET system with the publication of its action plan, ‘16–18s in Scotland’, in 1983. This action plan proposed a new qualification, called the National Certificate (NC), which was to be based on free-standing units of nominally forty hours in length, outcomes based and of standard design. Assessment was to take place in the college in which the student undertook the course. Each unit successfully completed was to be certified in a cumulative record (Gunning, 2000). These features make the Scottish NC system one of the purest forms of modularization in TVET (Pilz, 2002). The approach is akin to Le Mouillour’s (2004) first variation on modularization and Ertl’s (2002) fragmentation concept. However, since the development of the NC system, there have been further reforms in TVET in Scotland. In 1990, Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQ) were introduced followed in 1992 by General Scottish Vocational Qualifications (GSVQ). The introduction of these awards signified a move away from acknowledgement of
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individual units (modules) to certification of group awards (a grouping of modules which form a programme of study). While SVQs are awards based on a combination of modules to provide basic and specific competences in one occupational area, GSVQs are broader courses that combine general learning, core skills and vocational training (Hart & Howieson, 2004). The fragmentary nature of the NC system has resulted in a move toward more comprehensive group awards as they are seen as being more marketable to industry. Industry now also has responsibility for setting competence standards in the SVQ. In addition, the move is towards a more integrative assessment of the skills and knowledge gained through the award. From these developments it can be seen that initially Scotland went down a radical reform approach by changing a traditional TVET system to one comprised of independent units based on pre-set standards, internally assessed and individually certified. Over time, however, Scotland has pulled back from this extreme approach to one that includes elements of a more traditional TVET system, such as group awards, integrative assessment and external quality control.
3.2 Germany Germany provides a counterpoint to the Scottish system, in particular the Scottish NC framework. Germany’s system of initial vocational training is known as the ‘dual system’, because training takes place in both the classroom and in the workplace. As was mentioned earlier, Germany’s initial vocational training is based on the concept of vocation. This system is characterized by the following elements:
r r r r
A complex range of transferable skills are taught; There is transparency with regard to training being assigned to recognized occupations (about 360 occupations in total) with states playing a co-ordinating role; It is a long-term stable system with training for individuals being a sustained process of learning and socialization. The vocational approach also emphasizes the personal development of the individual; The occupation governs pay scale and status and, furthermore, the training produces occupational identity and a sense of purpose (Pilz, 2002).
This system has become the subject of debate and considerable controversy over the past few years. The reasons for challenging the efficacy of the dual system include the decreasing appeal of the system to potential trainees, a decline in training places provided by employers, an increase in the age of trainees and changing training practices within firms (Ertl, 2002). Other reasons put forward refer to economic integration, competition between the TVET systems of EU member States due to the mobility of labour, globalization and changing industrial relations environments (Ertl, 2000). Regardless of the reasons for challenging the traditional dual system, there seems to be agreement that a more flexible training system is required in terms of responsiveness to a changing work environment and also in terms of the
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individual needs of students. In response, modularization has been put forward as an approach to modernize the German system. As was mentioned earlier, the German concept of vocation is tied to peoples’ sense of identity and status. Hence, to date, modularization has been restricted to certain parts of TVET. Pilz (2002), however, describes an example of where there has been some move away from the rigid vocational approach in new occupations that include some elements of a more modular approach. The example Pilz provides is that of laboratory training in chemicals, biology and paints. Training in this area is divided into three skill areas. The first are compulsory basic skills, such as safety and communication, and the second are compulsory skills specific to the occupation. The third skill area, however, comprises optional units (modules) taken in the final third of the course chosen among a range of job-specific and more general skills. These optional units provide a degree of flexibility previously not present in German initial vocational training courses. However, this is the only shift away from the traditional vocational approach where the emphasis is still on teaching comprehensive vocational competence and where there are still intermediate and overall final exams. Nevertheless, with the introduction of optional modules, this example shows an incremental advance from the traditional rigid approach to vocational training.
3.3 England The genesis of the modular approach in England (and Wales and Northern Ireland) began in the 1970s with the creation of the Manpower Services Commission (MSC). Part of its ambit was the development of a system of vocational qualifications that was competence based for skilled occupations.6 It was, however, in the mid-1980s that the National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) were conceived as a way to bring vocational qualifications together under one transparent and marketable framework that covered all occupations. These are not specifically aimed at young people, but rather at opening access to training across the workforce (Ertl, 2000). The NVQs sit within the National Qualifications Framework. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA, 2004) in England defines NVQs as work-related, competence-based qualifications, which reflect the skills and knowledge to do the job properly.7 They are based on national occupational standards—standards of performance—describing what people are expected to do in a particular occupation. Qualifications in the NVQ are organized across five levels ranging from basic routine duties to complex duties involving competence across a range of areas and considerable autonomy. NVQs are built up from units of competence (modules), which in turn are composed of elements of competence. These are the smallest descriptions of outcomes within the NVQs. The units of competence can be considered part qualifications that are independently recognized and certified. They can also be used in more than one qualification lending a degree of flexibility to the system. However, the use of units is not entirely unrestricted with qualifications
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being awarded for only certain combinations of units. In addition, while individual units are certified, the intention is for the whole qualification to be the main focus of training (Ertl, 2000). The other main vocational qualification in England is the General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQ), which are focused more on providing general vocational qualifications. They currently exist at the foundation and intermediate skill levels. The main difference between GNVQs and NVQs is that evidence for assessment in GNVQs is accumulated over longer periods of time with units being organized more along the lines of whole-year courses. It has a more integrated mode of delivery than NVQs (Ertl, 2000). In recent developments, the QCA website (www.qca.org.uk) notes that GNVQs are to be withdrawn by October 2007 with alternatives currently being considered. Another major development currently underway in England is the introduction of a new ‘Framework for Achievement’. This framework is being introduced to rationalize and simplify the current system by making it more responsive to the needs of both employers and learners and to make qualifications and achievements easier to understand. The framework is based on units so that units already completed can be switched to new skill areas if needed, even if accredited through different awarding bodies (QCA, 2004).
3.4 New Zealand New Zealand introduced modularization into its TVET system in the early 1990s with the development of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). They used the Scottish and English systems as a basis for their system, although it is not the same as those systems (Hart & Howieson, 2004). Phillips (2003) regards New Zealand’s approach to modularization as one of the most comprehensive in the world. Similar to other countries, New Zealand was looking to reform its education system in the 1980s. In their case, there was the dual purpose of developing qualifications of relevance to the economy and also increasing the participation and achievement of Maori and Pasifika learners. The New Zealand Qualifications Authority was set up in 1990 to oversee the development of the new NQF focusing on outcomes. It was originally conceived as a unitary framework covering all sectors of education. The building block of the system is known as the unit standard. These are composed of elements forming descriptions of skills and knowledge that the learner has to demonstrate. In addition, they specify performance standards that describe levels of performance to be achieved and evidence of achievement. Unit standards are used as components of group awards across originally eight (but now ten) levels (ranging from basic to advanced skill levels). This approach tried to offset the fragmentary nature of some of the earlier modular systems, such as the Scottish NC system (Hart & Howieson, 2004). In 1996/1997 however the framework was rethought at the national level based on concerns and opposition to the modular approach to learning for academic subjects
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in schools and universities. Issues were also raised about the increased levels of funding required (Philips, 2003). In 1999, there was a change in policy direction which ‘broadened’ the qualifications framework. This meant that, in addition to qualifications registered under the NQF and based on unit standards, there was also recognition of whole qualifications that met certain external quality standards (in what is called the Register of Quality-assured Qualifications). Universities currently remain outside the NQF. As part of the broadened framework, there was also the introduction of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) in the schools sector. These are seen as flexible qualifications meeting the needs of a diverse range of students (Philips, 2003). The basic building block of these qualifications is known as achievement standards. They differ from unit standards in that achievement standards are graded in a range from ‘not achieved’ to ‘achieved with excellence’, whereas unit standards are either ‘achieved’ or ‘not achieved’.
3.5 South Africa Outcomes-based education and training was a paradigm shift in South Africa. The changes in education followed the election of a democratic government in 1994 and were a part of wider changes which included removing discriminatory policies and practices and developing a new economic strategy. The reform resulted in the development of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) in 1995 and covered all of education and training (Heitmann & Khosa, 2000). The South African Qualifications Authority defines the NQF as ‘the set of principles and guidelines by which records of learner achievement are registered to enable national recognition of acquired skills and knowledge, thereby ensuring an integrated system that encourages lifelong learning’ (SAQA, 2001). Outcomes-based education was seen as critical to the new framework as it placed the learner at the centre of the educational process and also encouraged more critical thinking (as opposed to rote learning) and thus a more democratic approach to education. Outcomes-based education was also seen as being more aligned with the market and economic competitiveness (Matseleng Allais, 2003). The basic building block of this outcomes-based system is called the ‘unit standard’. Similar to modules in other countries, unit standards specify education and training outcomes (including skills and knowledge, as well as attitudes and values to be assimilated), together with their associated assessment criteria. They are the smallest certifiable unit of education. Unit standards are used to construct qualifications registered under the NQF. It is also possible under the NQF to register whole qualifications not constructed from unit standards. Unit standards are developed by standards generating bodies. However, national standards bodies recommend standards for registration to the NQF. Within the South African system there are also education and training quality assurance bodies that have the responsibility for ensuring the quality of learning. One of the features of these bodies is that they are represented by a variety of stakeholders in the
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system in order to obtain objectivity (as part of the democratization push) (SAQA, 2001). The approach taken by South Africa was originally intended to apply to all sectors of education and training. A review of the implementation of the NQF by a study team in 2002 has since recommended that whole qualifications should be recognized under the NQF, with quality assurance and accreditation of higher education courses to be undertaken by the Council on Higher Education, an independent statutory body (Ensor, 2003). There is some similarity to the New Zealand experience here, with the modular approach originally being intended to apply across all education and training sectors, but over time a pulling back of this approach since universities did not adopt modular approaches.
3.6 Australia Competency-based training (CBT) was introduced in TVET in a comprehensive way in Australia in the late 1980s, although it was present before this in some areas (Misko & Robinson, 2000). CBT was a part of a larger reform of training in Australia aimed at meeting the needs of students and industry. CBT is an outcomesbased approach to training, similar to the approach adopted in some of the countries discussed above. It applies only to TVET qualifications within the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF).8 The framework through which CBT takes place is known as the National Training Framework (NTF). The NTF has two elements, the Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF) and training packages. The AQTF, which was fully implemented in 2002 (and which replaced the Australian Recognition Framework) emphasizes, through nationally agreed standards, quality TVET services in Australia. It includes features, such as registering organizations to undertake training and assessment services,9 auditing of registered training organizations, and the introduction of nationally agreed standards for both registered training organizations and State registering bodies (Karmel & Stanwick, 2002). The other part of the National Training Framework is industry-developed training packages. These are defined as ‘an integrated set of nationally endorsed standards, guidelines and qualifications for training, assessing and recognising people’s skills, developed by industry to meet the training needs of an industry or group of industries’ (Knight & Nestor, 2000). Within training packages, units of competency are combined to form a whole qualification. There can be many qualifications at different skill levels within any given training package. Training packages do not specify modes or places of delivery. While training packages are not used by all of TVET in Australia, all nationally recognized TVET programmes are based on units of competency. While the emphasis of the competency-based approach to training is on achieving whole qualifications, students can receive a statement of attainment by completing only some of the competency standards towards a qualification.
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4 Issues with Modularization of TVET Programmes The preceding section has discussed approaches to modularization across several countries, together with the rationales or perceived benefits of undertaking a modular approach. There have, however, been some issues and criticisms associated with the implementation of modularization. Some of the major issues that have arisen are noted here. One of the main issues is the possibility that the delivery of qualifications will become fragmented. For example, in New Zealand there was concern that the unit standard would result in an ‘atomistic’ approach to learning. That is, teachers would focus on what was required for assessment within these units and miss the breadth of a curriculum approach to delivery (Philips, 2003). This concern was recognized to some degree in the set-up of the South African NQF. In the process of setting up unit standards, there was recognition that a narrow approach to skills was inadequate and that education had a greater role in society, hence values and attitudes were included as outcomes in the development of unit standards, as well as skills and knowledge. Nevertheless, Matseleng Allais (2003) sees concerns with this in terms of its assumption that everything in education that is valuable can be defined up front and assessed. Similar concerns about fragmentary delivery were also raised in other countries, such as Australia, Scotland and England. In response to these concerns, some countries have revised their approach to modularization. For example, in Scotland, they have pulled back from their radical NC framework and introduced qualifications frameworks that focus on group awards (that is a grouping of modules forming a programme of study) and a more integrative assessment. Another issue raised has been the complexity of implementing modularized systems. In South Africa, concerns were raised about the complexity of their NQF, as well as the increase in bureaucratic structures required to support such systems (Matseleng Allais, 2003). Hart and Howieson (2004) note how in the Scottish and English vocational qualifications there have been many more units that have needed to be developed than at first envisaged—there being much duplication and overlap of units in the English system. Assessment systems can also be complicated under modularized systems. An early criticism of the modularized English approach was that the very large amount of assessment criteria resulted in a complicated and costly system (Ertl, 2000). Similarly, Hart and Howieson (2004) claim that flexibility of assessment systems in England and Scotland has led to complex verification systems and that there is a link between flexibility and high assessment demands. Associated with large numbers of units/modules and assessment demands is the cost of such systems. In South Africa, the never-ending specification of standards was seen to be a time-consuming and costly exercise (Matseleng Allais, 2003). The role of teachers has also been raised as an issue in the modularization of TVET systems. In Australia, the role of industry in the development of training packages has been seen by some commentators to marginalize the role of teachers in the system. That is, rather than setters of curriculum, they deliver the outputs
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already prescribed in the training packages (Wheelehan, 2001). There has also been concern about the role of teachers raised in the South African system. As part of their process of democratizing the education system, their standards generating bodies and national standards bodies are represented by a variety of stakeholders in the system. In the past, there was concern that expert educators would push particular ideological agendas under the curriculum approach to learning. However, Matseleng Allais (2003) has raised concerns about the stakeholder approach to the outcomesbased NQF in terms of why stakeholders should define qualifications, who should these stakeholders be, what their role should be and what their stake is. In particular, she raised concern about the representativeness of the stakeholders and also the possible inequalities in power between different stakeholder groups. Another point related to teachers is the quality or evenness of training delivery. Although outcomes are specified in a modularized approach, they still need to be packaged and delivered by teachers. In South Africa, the modularized approach, with its focus on observable outcomes, was supposed to strip back ideological components of training delivery. However, Matseleng Allais (2003) contends that it is possible for different groups to develop learning programmes, based on outcomesbased qualifications, consistent with their particular ideological approaches. In New Zealand, Philips (2003) questions teachers’ reliability in assessing the graded National Certificate of Educational Achievement. Modularization and higher education has been raised as an issue in several countries. In New Zealand, there was resistance from higher education to modularized systems of training, as this approach is believed by many not to be appropriate to the teaching of academic subjects. Universities still remain outside the NQF in New Zealand (Philips, 2003). In South Africa too there has been rejection of a modularized approach by the higher education sector, arguing that modularization is incompatible with the study of higher education. In particular, the higher education sector argued that the setting of standards could not be separated from the development of curricula, and furthermore that many of the important goals of education could not be specified on the basis of observable outcomes. There was also scepticism about the meaningfulness of the descriptors used in standards and concern about fragmentation in the provision of higher education. The South African example is interesting as modularization was envisaged to cover all sectors of education. However, as was mentioned in the description of the South African system earlier, a study team on the implementation of the NQF recommended that qualifications based on unit standards (modules) and whole qualifications were equally valid, with quality assurance and accreditation for higher education qualifications taking place through the Council on Higher Education (Ensor, 2003). In Australia, the concerns were slightly different. A modularized approach to training based on units of competencies was never envisaged to be a part of the higher education sector. However, there are issues regarding credit-transfer provisions. In particular, some higher education institutions have been reluctant to grant credit transfer to students moving from TVET to higher education. This is due to concerns about the level of underpinning knowledge gained through training
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packages. In addition, competencies achieved in the TVET sector are ungraded (either pass or fail) (Stanwick, 2002). Having said this, however, many universities in Australia now have credit-transfer arrangements for TVET students wishing to progress to university. Related to this point, Hart & Howieson (2004) mention that many universities in the United Kingdom context are suspicious of standards achieved in unitized (modularized) systems. The issues raised in this section suggest that the implementation of modularization is not without its difficulties. However, it is also noted that in the countries discussed above, the systems have been re-evaluated based on implementation problems and criticisms, with modifications being made over time.
Notes 1. In some countries (for example, the United Kingdom) the term ‘unitization’ is used to refer to the breaking down of courses into units of measurable outcomes. 2. There can be considerable confusion generated by the use of the term, particularly across countries, as in some places the term ‘modules’ is used to mean measurable outcomes that are assessable, whereas in other places ‘modules’ refers to the packaging and delivery of courses. 3. Hart and Howieson (2004), however, note that in some cases recognition of prior learning can be a cumbersome and resource-intensive process, both on the part of the training provider and on the part of the student. 4. Competency-based training can be defined as training that is based on outcomes and pre-defined standards; the training focuses on what students can actually do (Misko & Robinson, 2000). The basic assessable unit of training in Australia is known as a unit of competency or a standard. Australia’s system will be discussed in more detail later in the chapter. 5. Although, as will be noted later, modularization has been resisted by the higher education sector. 6. One of the initiatives arising from the MSC in the early 1980s was the Youth Training Scheme (YTS), which was characterized by a modular structure. However, it was seen to have had problems, for example, the low rate of young people who completed a qualification (Ertl, 2002). 7. See: www.qca.org.uk/14–19/qualifications/index nvqs.htm. 8. This framework, which was established in 1995, is a national set of qualifications for postcompulsory education in Australia. Qualifications range from senior secondary school certificates through to doctoral qualifications. 9. Known as registered training organizations.
References Ensor, P. 2003. The National Qualifications Framework in South Africa: some epistemological issues. Journal of education and work, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 326–46. Ertl, H. 2000. Modularisation of vocational education in Europe: NVQs and GNVQs as a model for the reform of initial training provisions in Germany? Oxford, UK: Symposium Books. Ertl, H. 2002. The concept of modularisation in vocational education and training: the debate in Germany and its implications. Oxford review of education, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 53–73. Gunning, D. 2000. A modular, outcome-based qualifications system: the Scottish experience. In: Kohn, G. et al., eds. Compatibility of vocational qualifications systems: strategies for a future demand-oriented development co-operation in vocation education and training, pp. 56–80. Berlin: Deutsche Gesellschaft f¨ur Technische Zusammenarbeit.
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Hart, J.; Howieson, C. 2004 Unitisation: benefits and issues. Glasgow, UK: Scottish Qualifications Authority. Heitmann, W.; Khosa, T. 2000. The South African skills development strategy. In: Kohn, G., eds. Compatibility of vocational qualifications systems: strategies for a future demand-oriented development co-operation in vocation education and training, pp. 92–100. Berlin: Deutsche Gesellschaft f¨ur Technische Zusammenarbeit. Karmel, T.; Stanwick, J. 2002. Vocational education and training through one’s lifetime: new approaches and implementation—Australia. (Paper presented to the KRIVET International Conference on VET, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 15–16 October 2002.) Kloas, P.W. 2000. Combining the modular concept and the occupation concept in Germany. In: Kohn, G., eds. Compatibility of vocational qualifications systems: strategies for a future demand-oriented development co-operation in vocation education and training, pp. 101–14. Berlin: Deutsche Gesellschaft f¨ur Technische Zusammenarbeit. Knight, A.; Nestor, M. 2000. A glossary of Australian vocational education and training terms. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Le Mouillour, I. 2004 European approaches to credit (transfer) systems in VET. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. (CEDEFOP Dossier series, no. 12.) <www2.trainingvillage.gr/etv/publication/download/ panorama/6014 en.pdf> Matseleng Allais, S. 2003. The National Qualifications Framework in South Africa: a democratic project trapped in neo-liberal paradigm? Journal of education and work, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 305–24. Misko, J.; Robinson, C. 2000. Competency-based training in Australia. In: Arguelles, A.; Gonzci, A., eds. Competency-based education and training: a world perspective, pp. 61–83. Mexico: Editorial Limusa. National Centre for Vocational Education Research—NCVER. 2005. Australian vocational education and training statistics: pocket guide. Adelaide, Australia: NCVER. Palestinian Authority. Ministry of Higher Education. 1997. Reference paper on the National Palestinian Vocational Technical Education and Training Strategy. Ramallah. Philips, D. 2003. Lessons from New Zealand’s National Qualifications Framework. Journal of education and work, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 289–304. Pilz, M. 2002. The contrast between modular and occupational approaches to modernising vocational training. Vocational training: European journal, no. 25, pp. 27–33. Qualifications and Curriculum Authority—QCA. 2004. A framework for achievement: recognising qualifications and skills and the 21 st century. London: QCA. <www.qca.org.uk/qca 8901.aspx> South African Qualifications Authority—SAQA. 2001. The National Qualifications Framework: an overview. Pretoria: SAQA. Stanwick, J. 2002. Skills for life: lifelong learning systems in Australia. (Paper presented at the IIEP/UNESCO-KRIVET International Policy Seminar on ‘Making Lifelong Learning a Reality’, Seoul, Republic of Korea, June 2003.) Wheelehan, L. 2001. Unwrapping training packages. Campus review, 18–24 July, p. 18.
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Chapter XVI.4
Diverse Approaches to the Recognition of Competencies Danielle Colardyn
1 Introduction The knowledge society and the information age have far-reaching implications for what individuals need to know and are able to do; where, when and how they learn; and the role of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in these processes. Qualification requirements are changing as the cognitive dimensions of work rapidly supersede physical or manual activities in importance. Because of the rapid pace of change, traditional vocational and technical qualifications acquired at secondary and tertiary levels of education no longer provide ‘once-and-for-all’ preparation for working life. Workers need to update and upgrade their initial qualifications regularly and frequently in order to stay employable. Moreover, birth rates have declined in many countries, such that the renewal of labour-force qualifications is achieved less through the entry of young workers and hinges increasingly on modernizing and enhancing the qualifications of those who are already adults. The skill formation process that originally occurred during initial TVET must now take place increasingly on a lifelong basis. For vocational education and training, this has consequences on the relationships between qualifications and competencies. The linkages between them are less stable and more varied, and it is no longer possible to capture them permanently through initial qualification and/or certification. In all societies, there is increased emphasis on policies and arrangements to facilitate lifelong—and life-wide—learning. ‘Education for All’, encompassing the young and adults, employment, social insertion and effective citizenship, has become a general aim (UNESCO, 1990; OECD, 1996; European Commission, 1995). This chapter examines progress concerning two main political issues in the field of recognition of competencies (acquired outside education and training institutions). It starts by considering the impact of the knowledge society and the information age on learning activities and their recognition. It then briefly outlines the diversity of conceptual and methodological approaches, and discusses in more detail the corresponding policies and practices presently debated by a wide spectrum of stakeholders in international and national settings. It concludes first by reporting progress in the diversity of recognition that has helped to improve access R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XVI.4, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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to education and training; and, second, it indicates areas for progress, where new forms of recognition and greater co-operation between public and private actors are required.
2 Lifelong Learning and Recognition With the development of lifelong learning, recognition of competencies faces two issues: recognition as a mean of access to education and training institutions at all levels; and recognition as a mean of signalling competencies. In the latter case, recognition does not necessarily aim at access to education or training. In addition, the question of ‘measuring learning’ is central to estimating educational attainments and to evaluating the importance of various learning activities throughout life.
2.1 Recognition as a Means of Access and of Signalling Competencies As learning comes to be viewed as something that occurs throughout life (and not just during traditional schooling in formal institutions), appropriate recognition is needed to signal that it took place (work, family, social and cultural activities, etc.). This raises two issues:
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How to ensure that such learning is taken into account when individuals try to access education and training programmes; How to recognize competencies acquired ‘after and outside’ educational institutions (primary, secondary and higher education) through, for example, independent certification.
Recognition is provided in a variety of ways, including established examinations and tests, as well as less-traditional measures of learning outcomes and achievements. However, recognizing competencies acquired ‘after and outside’ educational institutions presents major challenges to policy and practice. There is a political concern about the linkages between recognition of competences acquired ‘in’ and those acquired ‘out’ of formal education and training system. Recognition of learning has to connect in ‘someway’ to certification provided by schools and universities, through diplomas and certificates. However, recognition can also be a means of signalling competencies without any desire to access education or to achieve a formal qualification. It is a complex issue to solve and the situation varies from country to country. There is also the question of who recognizes what?
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2.2 Measuring Learning There is unambiguous evidence that participation in formal education is increasing; however, lifelong learning activity has been harder to document. Educational attainment levels are rising in virtually all countries, although they are only advancing slowly in many developing countries. In 2003, the proportion of 25–64 year olds having completed at least upper secondary education reached 66% on average for all countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The generational differences are striking: on average, 51% of older persons (55–64 years old) completed upper secondary education, compared to 75% of younger persons (25–34 years old) (OECD, 2005a, p. 36). However, learning also takes place ‘elsewhere’: in non-formal (activities not intended for learning but which can contain an important learning component); and in informal settings (learning resulting from daily activities related to work, family, leisure).1 For a long time, literature has argued on the basis of qualitative surveys and evidence from a limited number of countries that lifelong learning in non-formal and informal settings is more extensive than learning occurring in a formal setting (for example, Roberson & Merriam, 2005; Sang-Hyop & Andrew, 2005). Recently, internationally comparable survey evidence from a large number of European countries has provided information concerning ‘learning’ defined more broadly, more in phase with a lifelong learning approach. The European Community Labour Force Survey included questions on lifelong learning in twenty-five European countries in 2003 (Kailis & Pilos, 2005). It provides further details that confirm and refine the partial picture from earlier evidence, showing that 42% of the 25–64 year olds participated in some form of education, training or learning activity during the twelve months preceding the survey.2 Among these 25–64 year olds, 1.4% participated in formal education (education and training in regular schools, universities and colleges); 7.3% participated in non-formal learning (taught learning that is not part of formal education) and 22.5% participated in some form of informal learning. This last comprises: self-learning with printed materials; computer-based learning; educational broadcasting (audio and videotapes); and visiting facilities (libraries, learning centres). An additional 10.8% of 25–64 year olds participated in learning that overlapped with at least two of these categories. Participation appears to be related to the level of initial educational attainment and age (the two probably being linked). However, as some countries show very different results, there may be a need for more investigation to determine whether definitions are understood in the same way. Thus, the Community Labour Force Survey results confirm the importance of nonformal and informal learning for the adult population in a large number of countries and provide estimates of the volume of such learning. The results clarify the roles of learning in the formation of skills and competencies of the labour force (in Europe and by implication in other industrialized countries). This also implies that social partners, enterprises, stakeholders, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), communities and providers play important roles in the development of education, training and learning activities. In addition, it highlights the responsibility taken by adults to fulfil their
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own learning needs. It underlines the substantial and durable responsibilities taken by individuals. Participation of the population in learning activities shows that learning is not confined to formal settings; or, to put it another way, that adult participation in learning activities is much higher when non-formal and informal settings are taken into consideration. This may have consequences for the role and responsibilities of public authorities in charge of education, training and lifelong learning.
3 The Diversity of Concepts and Methods The field of recognition of competencies is a jungle of fundamental concepts revolving around the process of recognition (ranging from certification to the accreditation of prior experiential learning—APEL; and prior learning assessment—PLA), and around what is being recognized (for example, knowledge, qualification, competencies, know-how, outcomes of learning occurring in formal, non-formal and informal settings). Definitions differ too: they vary at international and nationals levels, as well as between stakeholders and actors within countries.
3.1 Multiple Concepts and Objectives In this chapter, recognition refers to the process of granting official status to skills and competencies, either through the award of certificates or through the grant of equivalence, credit units, validation, gained skills and/or competencies. Social recognition means the acknowledgment of the value of skills and/or competencies by economic and social stakeholders (Tissot, 2004).3 Diversity in concepts arises because recognition serves several different political objectives. The main objective is to address the needs for personal fulfilment, social and civic inclusion and valuing learning. A second objective is centred on the economic needs of society and intends to ameliorate economic performance by increasing the knowledge, skills and competencies of the population. A third objective concentrates on institutions—more especially, on improving the flexibility of primary and secondary schools, as well as academic or training institutions.
3.2 Methods to Assess and the Portfolio Regardless of the concepts and definitions one uses, at a practical level there is only a limited number of means to assess and recognize competencies. Colardyn and Bjornavold (2004) identify five categories of methods to collect evidence: examinations (traditional tests); declarative methods; methods based on observation; simulations; and evidence extracted from work (or other) situations. These methods fulfil different aims and are complementary: the results can be combined into a ‘portfolio’ (for further information, see Colardyn & Bjornavold, 2005). Assessment methods can be used for formative as well as for summative purposes (Bloom et al., 1971).
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When formal recognition is at stake (certificate, diploma), assessment, validation and recognition are necessarily linked to ‘standards’ describing either the education and training objectives or the job and occupational specifications. In this case, a portfolio synthesizes personal, social and occupational experiences to highlight competencies. It is used in several European countries (for example, France, Ireland, Portugal and the United Kingdom), as well as in Australia and Canada. Usually, it contains the ‘curriculum vitae’ (CV) and all relevant documents (certificates, diplomas, validation of competencies, testimonials, etc.). The portfolio is typically judged by an assessor, a jury or an independent teacher: they decide if the evidence provided by the candidate proves that the standard has been achieved. At the European level, the Europass4 is based on the same principle: it is a portfolio composed of selected relevant documents (see part 4.1 below).
4 Innovative Strategies to Sustain Recognition Since the 1990s, international and European organizations have supported policies that promoted lifelong learning by ‘valuing learning’ that occurs in formal, nonformal and informal settings. Over time, the opposition between ‘learning in formal settings’ and ‘learning in other settings’ has become more blurred; learning in different settings is viewed increasingly as complementary. Ultimately, lifelong and life-wide learning should make it possible to recognize acquired competencies regardless of where and when learning takes place. However, this is still an ambitious agenda. Today, what can one infer from progress in the area of recognition of competencies or validation of learning? Policies for recognition are present at four levels:
1. International organizations: they support recognition of competencies or recognition of non-formal learning (UNESCO, European Union) and conduct studies of it (OECD); 2. National level: it becomes widespread for countries at least to have a policy regarding recognition of competences; 3. Sub-national level: various stakeholders (social partners, enterprises, NGOs, communities, providers, etc.) assume responsibilities and propose different forms of recognition systems; and 4. Co-operation between the stakeholders and public authorities expand. They aim at creating and implementing recognition systems that may link to national frameworks (or curricula), but preserve a level of autonomy in the recognition procedures.
The following sub-sections debate and illustrate innovative policies and practices for recognition of competencies at these four levels.5
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4.1 International Monitoring During the mid-1990s, UNESCO, OECD and the European Union (EU) promoted lifelong learning. UNESCO and the EU developed policies and action programmes to help countries implement lifelong learning policies, including the recognition of competencies (or the validation of non-formal and informal learning). Not directly implicated in policy implementation, OECD has carried on in-depth analyses enabling better understanding of issues related to recognition (for example, OECD, 2001a, 2001b, 2002, 2003, 2005a, 2005b, 2005d). UNESCO plays a core role in ensuring that recognition of competencies embraces all levels of skills, qualifications and competencies. Fundamental for millions of illiterate adults and out-of-school children, recognition of ‘what is learned’ encompasses basic learning as well as higher and more sophisticated competencies. Within the framework of the World Declaration on Education for All (UNESCO, 1990) and the goals adopted by the Dakar Declaration (UNESCO, 2000), the vision of ‘basic education’ expanded (UNESCO, 2005). UNESCO (2002) emphasizes that: [T]he magnitude of the Education For All challenge implies that, in addition to seeking to assure that all primary school-age children have access to schooling, more efforts are needed to develop adult and non-formal education, so as to reach those children, youth and adults whose learning needs may not be adequately addressed by conventional or formal education. [. . .] It is impossible to achieve EFA goals and targets without reinforcing the non-formal education system, especially in poor countries.
To fulfil these aims, processes that take into account the learning occurring in all possible contexts (not limited to school or educational institutions) are highly relevant. As stated by UNESCO, most of the Dakar Goals relate directly to nonformal education (NFE) (UNESCO, 2002). Therefore, the issue of ‘measuring the outcomes of learning’ (literacy, numeracy and essential life skills) becomes ‘critical to the area of non-formal education’. The need for a ‘comprehensive picture’ is urgent and crucial. The question ‘who is doing what’ in political and practical terms at the national level to pursue the achievement of the Dakar Goals needs to be answered. In 2006, UNESCO launched the Management Information System for NonFormal Education (NFE-MIS) with the aim of achieving a ‘comprehensive picture’ in the participating countries. Each country will produce ‘directories’ that map ‘who does what’ at national, regional and local levels. In addition, countries will collect complete detailed information on programmes, objectives, duration, frequency, mode of delivery and participation (what learning outcomes are achieved, what links exist with formal certificates and diplomas). This particular set of information will enable the country to monitor its NFE. To summarize, NFE-MIS is an adaptable tool to map the actual non-formal education provision in a country and to monitor the system. The mapping and monitoring functions are consequential, as they will provide information on the linkages between formal and non-formal learning. The NFE-MIS represents an important step for countries, as it will provide detailed information covering a wide range of information from directories to learners’ profiles.
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The European Community, first created in 1957, promotes peace in Europe. In addition to economic objectives, areas such as education fulfil particular roles in European construction. Each member state is responsible for its education system (there is no harmonization). At the same time, there is a need to remove obstacles to mobility (for example, the incomplete recognition of diplomas). The ‘Lisbon Strategy’ was formulated in 2000 to, among other things, meet the challenges of globalization and make the future European economy knowledge-driven. It has major implications for education and training, one of which is the promotion of a lifelong learning strategy. Using the open method of co-ordination, the European countries established benchmarks to guide progress towards achieving by 2010 the education and training goals needed to implement the Lisbon Strategy. This involves increasing the transparency of qualifications and competences, the compatibility of education and training systems and access to lifelong learning for everyone. The enlargement of the European Union makes this task even more urgent. The Bologna Declaration (on higher education) (European Higher Education Area, 1999) and the Copenhagen Declaration (vocational education and training) (European Commission, 2002) pursue similar objectives of mobility and compatibility in the recognition systems.6 These European initiatives seek to increase the transparency of skills and competencies, of certification and diplomas. Systems for the recognition of competencies need to be understood by all (individuals, providers, employers, etc.) and need to be portable throughout Europe. Created recently, the Europass is composed of tools agreed upon by the twenty-five European member states. It is a European Portfolio consisting of five documents: the Europass curriculum vitae (CV) and the Europass Language Passport—both to be completed by individuals; the Europass certificate supplement; the Europass diploma supplement; and the Europass mobility—issued by competent national institutions. A network of National Europass Centres supports the Europass. The documents exist in several European languages.7 The various transparency tools included in the Europass were created and designed by countries and assembled at the EU level, expressing a bottom-up approach. They focus on the needs of citizens for a means of recognizing competencies (formal, non-formal and informal learning) in their own country as well as in other European countries.8
4.2 National Policies in Favour of Open Access At the national level, there are widespread and varied examples of policies for recognition of competencies. One well-known initiative is the French bilan des comp´etences [checklist of competencies] that enables individuals to analyse their occupational and personal competencies, aptitudes and motivation. This ‘checklist’ is a tool for guidance and counselling rather than for recognition and/or validation: it helps the candidate to carry out ‘self-assessment’ to build up a new occupational and training plan (career development, training possibilities). It does not provide
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formal recognition: there is no certification of competencies. An identical approach has been promoted in Denmark with the individual competence assessments (ICAs) that aim at guidance and counselling, and help individuals to prepare training plans. Under the 1995 Labour-Market Training Act, the labour-market training centres (AMU) and vocational education and training colleges (VET) have been offering ICAs. National policies for lifelong learning and recognition of competencies evolve, though today they are often still limited to the issue of broad access of adults to the formal education system (Kearns, 2004). There exist, for example, in Portugal and Norway, policies to promote competencies acquired by the adult population and to recognize them at the lower and upper secondary levels of qualification. In both countries, links to the education system are central to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the meaning of learning outcomes. In Portugal, the educational attainments of the population remain quite low compared to the EU and OECD averages. Among 25 to 64 year olds, 64% have completed only primary education (OECD, 2005a). Illiteracy also remains comparatively high (OECD, 2004). Since 1997/1998, substantial validation of learning activities took place: more than 10,000 individuals were found to have reached the level of proficiency associated with fourth grade primary school, 8,500 for sixth grade and 41,000 for ninth grade. Some 50% of this group of almost 60,000 were over 20 years old. An additional 35,000 were assessed at that time to have reached the secondary level. As the standards by which these assessments were defined remain the school curricula, ‘competencies not covered by the curriculum’ were not taken into consideration. All learning can be recognized provided it relates to the school curricula (meaning, the national education and training standards). The significance was that many aspects of the experiences of candidates (employment, social, cultural, family activities) could not be included in this review. In Norway, the educational attainment of the adult population follows a different pattern: more than half (53%) of 25–64 year olds have completed upper secondary education. While that level of educational attainment cannot be compared with the equivalent 12% in Portugal, it nevertheless indicates that close to one adult out of two has not completed upper secondary education. Therefore, the Competence Reform (Norway. Ministry of Education and Research, 1998) complemented the 1952 Act enabling individuals to take craft examinations based on practical work experience. As part of the reform, the Parliament granted all adults born before 1998 a legal right to complete upper secondary education. Concretely, by the year 2000, 14,000 to 15,000 candidates annually have used these schemes (for a country in which the average annual cohort comprises approximately of 60 000 people, these results are quite significant). Almost half of that group of adults (around 6,000) uses these policies to access higher education. With the Competence Reform, adults can access tertiary education based on individual assessment of formal, non-formal and informal qualifications (realkompetanse) related to the programme for which they apply. In 2002, the share of those applying for admission to higher education based on documented formal, non-formal and informal learning was 7%, and they constituted about 5%
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of those admitted (Helland & Opheim, 2004, quoted in OECD, 2005c). Policies and practices for recognition of competencies were well targeted, which certainly has contributed to their success. The Competence Reform (1999) acts as an overall umbrella for lifelong learning. The central aspect the reform is the implementation of measures for: assessing the combined formal, non-formal and informal qualifications of the individual adult, to use as a basis for professional recognition and/or entry into further formal education. Non-formal learning may be acquired through work, experience of working in organizations or through other informal learning. Schemes that have been developed are valid both in the workplace and in the education system through collaboration between the social partners, the education system, study associations and private providers of education (Norway. Ministry of Education and Research, 2003).
4.3 Creative Approaches by Stakeholders Other practices for the recognition of competencies exist. Stakeholders, such as social partners, chambers of commerce and/or NGOs—as opposed to national, public authorities—initiate them. These systems typically target recognition of competences acquired at work, in the family, community, or during social and cultural activities. The Finnish Information Society Development Centre (TIEKE),9 which developed the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL), an IT-proficiency test, illustrates the role of professional associations. It is independent of the European Union, of the Finnish public education authorities and of any computer software. The test is used in a large number of companies, organizations and countries in Europe and elsewhere. Much effort has been put into emphasizing the European character (covering a large geographic area) of the test, signalling a broad and strong basis. The test measures candidates’ skills in information technology at three levels ranging from beginner to advanced user. The assessment or examination takes the form of a skills test designed by training organizations and covering the upper classes of comprehensive schools to universities. Many companies also arrange tests for their staff. The successful candidates receive a certificate of IT proficiency. As evidence of the success of this certificate, TIEKE reported 160,000 examinations had been administered. Tests can be taken at some 500 training organizations or companies all over Finland, as well as abroad. The role of NGOs is illustrated by some examples from the Netherlands. Since the early 1990s, the Netherlands government has emphasized recognition of ‘informally acquired skills’ as part of a policy to increase access to education (formal qualification) and to award certificates (recognition of non-formal and informal learning). Social partners are strongly involved, sharing responsibilities for lifelong learning policies. The Kenniscentrum registers assessments and validations of non-formal and informal learning in enterprises, as well as in the third sector, composed of voluntary organizations and NGOs. In enterprises, the number of initiatives to recognize learning is growing: employers, trade unions and the training funds encourage new practices. The Kenniscentrum registers also the procedure for
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recognition (assessment and validation): they start mostly with intake interviews followed by portfolio or summative assessments (aiming at a certification). The third sector is important in the Netherlands where around one out of four persons is involved in voluntary activities, mostly in sports, religion and health and social care. The 35–44 year olds make up 51% of volunteers, which gives an indication of possible use of acquired learning and competencies. This learning can be useful for career purposes as well as for better functioning of volunteer organizations. Duvekot and Eggert (2005) report several practices and a snapshot of examples is instructive. The ‘Modernizing Sports-Training’ (NOC-NSF) comprises 70,000 volunteers between 16 and 65 years old. They are involved in training, coaching, administrative or technical functions. For each sport concerned, a training programme has been designed and it includes testing and/or validation of prior learning. The methods used comprise portfolio assessment, on-the-job assessment (by internal assessors of the volunteer organization) and traditional exams (Duvekot & Eggert, 2005, p. 163). Trade Union Activists (ABVAKABO) recruit learning representatives among volunteers aged 16 to 65, taking into account informal, non-formal and formal learning. They are recruited following a procedure of several steps: a portfolio is presented (recognition of competencies); the competencies are validated; individuals are given personal development counselling before eventual recruitment as a union learning representative. The assessment is based on ‘profile-matching’ (comparing the function profile with the qualification profile of the candidate); portfolio assessment and on-the-job assessment (by internal assessors) (ibid., p. 164). The ‘re-integration sector’ is targeted at 35 to 75 year olds. It aims to define the competences that volunteers develop in their work, and to recognize and validate them (in the form of a certificate or a diploma). A ‘list of voluntary competencies’ has been developed, as well as the procedure to recognize and validate it. Learning is assessed through a combination of self-assessment and validation by a coach (ibid., p. 166).
4.4 Synergies Progress regarding the two main issues of recognition of competencies—access to education and recognition of all learning—depends critically on linking the efforts of stakeholders and public authorities. As seen, many actors (professional associations, NGOs, social partners) fulfil responsibilities in the field of recognition of competencies. The following examples show that co-operation and synergies can take place between them and the public authorities. In Sweden, the SwIT programme (1997–2000) provided enterprises with an opportunity to develop their own standards and assessment criteria. SwIT was part of a larger public-sector policy programme to improve information technology competencies and the population’s skills. The lack of semi-professional ICT personnel necessitated co-operation between public authorities and the Federation of Swedish Industries (the employer organization). SwIT was mostly directed towards unemployed (75% of participants had to be registered at the employment office).
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B¨acklund (2003) reported that as a result of the SwIT initiative, 11,700 people were trained for an average training period of almost six-months. Amongst the large number of candidates (80,000 in 2000), selection was carried out using assessment methods and criteria tailored to the needs of the enterprises. The assessment methodology combined interviews and highly formalized tests on numerical, logical and language skills, as well as on social and relational skills. As mentioned in ‘The Learning Continuity’ (Colardyn & Bjornavold, 2005), the SwIT programme is a rare example of a programme carrying out assessment based on a limited set of criteria and standards established in connection with the work situation, context and environment. Workplace requirements had more than the usual influence over the assessment and training programme, considering that the initiative included the public labour-market authorities. In Ireland, policies place the learner at the centre as the ‘key reference point’. The Further Education and Training Awards Council (FETAC, 2003) ensures the promotion of ‘opportunities for all learners to develop to their full potential’. The collaboration between FETAC, the private sector and/or professional associations makes the ‘accreditation of prior learning’ a reality. The Electricity Supply Board (ESB) and FETAC created the ESB Craft Accreditation Programme, illustrating a comprehensive approach combining the efforts of public and private stakeholders. By the end of 2002, fifty recipients completed training and education that incorporated accreditation of prior learning, distance education and practical training. By doing so, these former ESB linesmen have achieved the full craft status. In accrediting not just learning in the traditional way, but also prior learning, this programme validates experience gained over the years. It is this accreditation of prior learning that sets this programme apart and what we have learned from this success story can be applied in the national system of qualifications. It is only through the collaboration between training agencies, public enterprise, government organizations and, indeed, the learners themselves that this could be achieved (FETAC, 2003).
In Denmark, similar co-operation between public authorities and stakeholders for ‘recognition of prior learning’ was promoted by the end of 2004. It calls upon individuals, enterprises, social partners and the stakeholders within liberal adult education and civil society to participate: all actors are responsible ‘for rendering competences visible and documenting them’ (Denmark. Ministry of Education, 2004). The assessment of competence takes place with reference to the standards of the Ministry of Education and are produced with a variety of methods and combinations of tools: CV or a personal document file; structured interviews; observation and practical tasks; and tests and examinations. At the end, the educational institution issues a ‘competence certificate’ documenting the results of the assessment.
5 By Way of a Conclusion: Achievements and Areas for Progress This chapter reports progress in the field of recognition of competencies, while underlining the considerable work that remains to be done in our societies. Broadly speaking, over a decade, recognition of competencies has gained acceptance, as is illustrated by the fact that the statement ‘individuals learn all life long and in
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a variety of situations’ has become an accepted reality. The Eurostat (2005) has estimated the amounts of formal, non-formal and informal learning in which the population participates. Behind recognition of competencies lie two issues: access to education and training programmes throughout life (to achieve a qualification); and recognition of specific competencies acquired in a variety of settings at any time in life. Recognition can complement a diploma or a certificate. It can also be independent of a qualification, a diploma and a certificate, but still be useful for the individual. Methods to assess are varied, allowing flexible responses to the specific needs of individuals. On access, progress has been made thanks to the steps taken at the international and national level. In the mid-1990s, integrated approaches to recognition were still looking like options for a distant future (Colardyn, 1994). Nowadays, formal education regularly integrates experiential learning and firm-based training; systems of credit units are established to sustain the approach. Nevertheless, little information exists as to how many individuals (adults) benefit from these innovations. How many achieve formal certification by recognition of competencies acquired outside formal education? How many would not have reached that educational level otherwise? Today, the impacts of these evolutions still remain largely unknown even if the very first evaluation-measuring tools now exist (Eurostat) or are ready to be launched (UNESCO’s NFE-MIS). Huge efforts have been made and already more people can enjoy the relative success of an open access to education and training for young adults and adults. This applies to primary education (developing countries), upper secondary (Portugal, Norway) as well as tertiary education, and hopefully more developments will come soon. The recognition of competencies has also developed independently from formal certification. It means that more of the learning acquired through various experiences is valuable for individuals and society (second issue). A positive direction includes the synergies developed by stakeholders and national authorities. The diversity of lifelong learning supposes the diversity in recognition of forms and options, without neglecting coherence, transparency and quality. If the co-existence of multiple recognition systems is accepted as a requirement to bring lifelong learning strategies to reality, then a significant policy step would have been achieved. Essential for experienced adults, for older workers, for women as well as for migrants, policies for the recognition of competencies reflect directly the level of co-operation between education, employment and economic actors in our societies. Today, foundations for lifelong learning policies tend to view individual competencies acquired any time in any setting as positive for society. This stimulates policies and initiatives that accept, promote and encourage diversity in approaches to recognition of competencies.
Notes 1. The CEDEFOP glossary (Tissot, 2004) defines core concepts as follows: Formal learning consists of learning that occurs within an organized and structured context (formal education, in-company training), and that is designed as learning. It may lead to formal recognition (diploma, certificate);
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Non-formal learning consists of learning embedded in planned activities that are not explicitly designated as learning, but which contain an important learning element; Informal learning is defined as learning resulting from daily-life activities related to work, family or leisure. It is often referred to as experiential learning and can, to a degree, be understood as accidental learning. Labour Force Survey, Ad hoc module of lifelong learning, 2003 in Kailis & Pilos, 2005. In practice, when examining the field of recognition of competencies, one can observe that: The term ‘recognition’ is used interchangeably with the term ‘validation’; The term ‘competencies’ is used interchangeably with the term ‘competences’; The expression ‘recognition and/or validation of competences’ is interchangeable with the expression ‘recognition or validation of learning in formal, non-formal and informal settings’. ‘Recognition’ is more widely used in North America, and ‘validation’ on the other side of the Atlantic, but not universally. On the European level, the concept of ‘validation’ is accepted even if single member States continue to refer to ‘recognition’ or to ‘accreditation’. For the purposes of international comparison, countries referring to policies and practices based on concepts such as ‘competences’ or ‘competencies’ or ‘learning in non-formal and informal settings’ will all be considered in the same frame. This does not mean that distinctions are not real. When particular conceptual precision are needed to clarify distinction, they are specially marked. See: <europass.cedefop.eu.int> For this chapter, the examples of national policies and of stakeholders practices are selected based on the quantitative results already achieved. This does not apply to the UNESCO ‘NFEMIS’ which has only recently been launched. In 1997, the Council of Europe and UNESCO developed the Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region. This Convention—usually referred to as the Lisbon Convention—has since been signed and ratified by most European countries. Eventually, all official European languages will be included. The proposed European Qualification Framework (EQF) also could help to achieve greater comparability between national certification. However, the EQF rests on a different paradigm, based on establishing equivalence between formal institutions, instead of equivalence between non- and informal learning and formal institutions. As such, it has been characterized as ‘institution imposition’ rather than ‘valuing individual learning’ (O’Hagan, McAleary & Storan, 2005). See: <www.tieke.fi>
References B¨acklund, A.-K. 2003. ICT learning and training: an exploration of data in the EU Work Package 1. Report on the state of implementing ICT strategies in Sweden. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen. Bloom, B.J. et al. 1971. Handbook on formative and summative evaluation of student learning. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Colardyn, D. 1994. Recognition and certification of skills. In: Hus´en, T.; Postlethwaite, T.N. eds. International encyclopaedia of education, 2nd ed., vol. 2, pp. 265–69. Oxford, UK: Pergamon, Elsevier Science Ltd. Colardyn, D.; Bjornavold, J. 2004. Validation of formal, non-formal and informal learning: policy and practices in EU member states. European journal of education, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 69–90. Colardyn, D.; Bjornavold, J. 2005. The learning continuity: European inventory on validating nonformal and informal learning. National policies and practices in validating non-formal and informal learning. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. (CEDEFOP Panorama series, no. 117.)
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Denmark. Ministry of Education. 2004. Recognition of prior learning within the education system. Copenhagen: Ministry of Education. Duvekot, R.; Eggert, J. 2005. VPL in the voluntary sector in the Netherlands. In: Duvekot, R.; Schuur, K.; Paulusse, J., eds. The unfinished story of VPL: valuation and validation of prior learning in Europe’s learning cultures. Utrecht, Netherlands: Foundation EC-VPL & Kenniscentrum EVC. European Commission. 1995. White Paper on education and training: teaching and learning— towards the learning society. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. <europa.eu/documents/comm/white papers/pdf/com95 590 en.pdf> European Commission. 2002. The Copenhagen Declaration: Declaration of the European Ministers of Vocational Education and Training, and the European Commission, convened in Copenhagen on 29 and 30 November 2002, on enhanced European cooperation in vocational education and training. <ec.europa.eu/education/copenhagen/copenahagen declaration en.pdf> European Higher Education Area. 1999. The Bologna Declaration: joint declaration of the Ministers responsible for higher education convened in Bologna on the 19th of June 1999. <www.aic.lv/bolona/Bologna/maindoc/bologna declaration.pdf> Further Education and Training Awards Council—FETAC. 2003. Newsletter, no. 2, May. <www.fetac.ie/> Helland, H.; Opheim, V. 2004. Kartlegging av realkompetansereformen. Oslo: NIFU. (Skriftserie 6/2004.) Kailis, E.; Pilos, S. 2005. Lifelong learning in Europe. Eurostat: Statistics in focus, Population and social conditions, no. 8. <epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY OFFPUB/KS-NK-05008/EN/KS-NK-05-008-EN.PDF> Kearns, P. 2004. Towards a learning revolution in Australia. Canberra: Adult Learning Australia. Norway. Ministry of Education and Research. 1998. The competence reform. Oslo: Ministry of Education and Research. (White Paper, no. 42.) Norway. Ministry of Education and Research. 2003. Education for All: National Action Plan for Norway in accordance with the World Education Forum Declaration, Dakar, 2001. Oslo: Ministry of Education and Research. O’Hagan, C.; McAleary, G.; Storan, J. 2005. Recognizing prior learning: investigating the future of informal learning, a Northern Ireland study. Journal of adult and continuing education, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 29–42. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 1996. Lifelong Learning for All. Paris: OECD. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2001a. Knowledge and skills for life: first results from PISA 2000. Paris: OECD. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2001b. Economics and finance of lifelong learning. Paris: OECD. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2002. Lifelong learning in Norway. Paris: OECD. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2003. Beyond rhetoric: adult learning policies and practices. Paris: OECD. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2004. Learning for tomorrow’s world: first results from PISA 2003. Paris: OECD. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2005a. Education at a glance: OECD indicators 2005. Paris: OECD. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2005b. Formative assessment, improving learning in secondary classrooms. Paris: OECD. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2005c. OECD thematic review of tertiary education: country background report for Norway. Oslo: Ministry of Education and Research. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2005d. Promoting adult learning. Paris: OECD.
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Roberson, D.N. Jr.; Merriam, S.B. 2005. The self-directed learning process of older, rural adults. Adult education quarterly, vol. 55, no. 4, pp. 269–87. Sang-Hyop, L.; Andrew, M. 2005. Mother’s education, learning-by-doing and child health care in rural India. Comparative education review, vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 534–50. Tissot, P. 2004. Terminology of vocational training policy: a multilingual glossary for an enlarged Europe. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Union. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 1990. World Declaration on Education for All. Paris: UNESCO. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2000. Dakar Framework for Action. Paris: UNESCO. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2002. An international strategy to put the Dakar Framework for Action on Education for All into operation. Paris: UNESCO. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2005. NFE-MIS handbook: developing a sub-national non-formal education management information system. Paris: UNESCO.
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Chapter XVI.5
How Do We Measure Up? Benchmarking the WorldSkills Competition David Hoey
1 Introduction Imagine an international event with 696 competitors and teams from thirty-eight countries competing in over thirty-nine skills ranging from cabinet-making to webdesign—judged by 636 experts and watched by 2,500 VIPs and observers and 120,000 spectators, about three-quarters of them children and young adults. Those, in summary, are the statistics of the thirty-eighth WorldSkills Competition held over four days in Helsinki in May 2005. WorldSkills is the world’s biggest skills competition where nations compete against each other. Like the Olympic Games, the WorldSkills Competition is not primarily about winning medals. It is a celebration of excellence that encourages and promotes ever greater achievement. And it is about international exchange and participation. Since early beginnings as the International Vocational Training Organization’s ‘Skill Olympics’ in 1950 in Spain, with only about twenty-four competitors from Spain and Portugal, this movement has grown into a truly global skills competition that shares much in common with the Olympic Games. This chapter examines not only the inter-skill and international benchmarking provided by WorldSkills, but also the many other benefits accruing to all involved in the competition.
2 What is WorldSkills? WorldSkills is a not-for-profit membership association open to agencies or bodies that have responsibility for promoting technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in their respective regions or countries. WorldSkills operates worldwide and is politically and denominationally neutral. WorldSkills’ core activity is the organization of the biennial WorldSkills Competition. Member countries or regions bid for the privilege of hosting this competition. Recent competitions have been held in Seoul (Republic of Korea) in 2001, St. Gallen (Switzerland) in 2003, Helsinki (Finland) in 2005 and Shizuoka (Japan) in 2007. In 2009 the competition will be hosted by Calgary (Canada). R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XVI.5, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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The competition is a vehicle for achieving goals rather than the goal itself. So what are the goals? Essentially, they are to raise standards of vocational training and the profile of skills in communities, and to encourage young people to undertake skills training. As Jack Dusseldorp—President of WorldSkills—put it: ‘WorldSkills is a powerful means for building a global skills’ culture. It enables the best of the world’s young skilled people to motivate and inspire successive generations to see that vocational skills can lead to secure and fulfilling lives in a fast-changing competitive world.’
3 The WorldSkills Competition The goal of the WorldSkills Competition is: ‘To challenge young people, their teachers, trainers and employers to achieve world-class standards of competence in commerce, services and industry, and to promote the status of vocational training’. How is this goal achieved? By its very nature, a competition promotes excellence. Young people who have undertaken training in skills compete against each other in regional and national competitions to qualify for the international competition team. They then compete against the best of their international peers. Clearly, competitors are motivated to do their best. Their teachers and trainers—who act as mentors and coaches in the process—are also motivated to provide the best possible training and preparation for the competition. As will be shown later, the tasks set for the various skills are very much in line with current industrial practice; this is ideal training for ‘real life’. Where companies are involved, they too are pursuing excellence—and will provide their own incentives and reward achievement. As described below, each skill category is administered by international experts from that field. This ensures accurate benchmarking of skill sets that are practical and relevant.
4 Benefits for Member Organizations The ‘members’ of WorldSkills are the agencies or bodies that have a national or regional responsibility for promoting TVET in their respective regions or countries. Regional and national skills competitions organized by the member body—the national/regional skills organization—raise awareness of vocational training and its profile with key groups: children and young people, educators and decision-makers in government and industry. If no national or regional competition exists, the member body has to create one in order to qualify for the WorldSkills Competition. This generates a competitive spirit at the regional and national levels, before the challenge of the international
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competition. To be competitive, teams must seek to achieve the highest level of skill. And their measure is no longer ‘academic’ or ‘theoretical’; their measure is now the best of their peers—nationally and, ultimately, internationally. Within each skill, experts, teachers, trainers and competitors look to see what methods and techniques others in their field are using—at the national and international levels. The clear definition of the competition rules for each skill in the technical descriptions (as described below) results in an internationally applicable benchmark. At all levels, those involved also benefit from networking and the exchange of ideas.
5 Benefits for Competitors A competitor on the floor of a WorldSkills competition has already achieved a great deal. In order to qualify, they have already been involved in regional and national competitions. They have no doubt undertaken special training motivated by the challenge and prestige of representing their country or region in a global competition. They have experienced working under time pressure to achieve the best possible results in a complex task. Their performance has been analysed and constructively criticized. During the competition, they come into contact with the best of their peers, both within their skill and in other skills. Their horizons are broadened and their technical and social competencies and professional discipline are enhanced. They can measure themselves against the best in their skill and receive recognition for their achievement. Increasingly, ‘soft’ skills such as planning—that is, skills not directly connected with the specific skill category—are becoming essential to success. Even where their formal training does not cover such topics, competitors automatically enhance valuable soft skills through participation in competitions. These skills include the planning and organization of work, workplace organization, the ability to work for sustained periods under pressure and intense scrutiny, and interpersonal and communication skills. When they return home, competitors are stars. With or without medals, participation in the WorldSkills Competition enhances a curriculum vitae. Employers and customers are impressed. Careers receive a kick start. Competitors’ enthusiasm is infectious and they become ambassadors for their skill and for excellence in vocational training. For every competitor, WorldSkills leaves behind an unforgettable experience of learning, friendship and, most importantly, a sense of belonging. A place where all competitors share not only common interest in skills but also a common goal: to show the world the importance of skills in the global economy. (Viridis Liew, winner of the Albert Vidal Award as the competitor gaining the most points overall at WorldSkills 2005. Viridis represented Singapore in the PC & Network Support category.)
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6 Benefits for Host Countries/Regions The benefits for host countries/regions can be clearly demonstrated by using the example of Skills Finland, the host member for the WorldSkills 2005 Competition. Planning and implementing an international event on the scale of the thirty-eighth WorldSkills Competition required Skills Finland, WorldSkills, member organizations around the world, a range of other stakeholders and an army of volunteers to put in thousands of hours of work. In Finland, 2005 was declared National Year of Vocational Training and the WorldSkills Competition in May became its main event. The competition brought 696 young competitors from thirty-eight different countries/regions to Helsinki, where they competed for the world championship in thirty-nine skills from a range of industrial and services sectors. In addition to five new official skills (polymechanics/automation, manufacturing team challenge, CNC machining, web design and beauty therapy), there were five demonstration skills (telecommunication distribution technology, printing, sheet-construction steelwork, tinsmith (roofing), and transport technology). Official skills are skills that have become established as WorldSkills ‘disciplines’, while demonstration skills are those seeking to achieve that status. Demonstration skills provide an opportunity for new skills to become established and for the host country to introduce new skills. The 636 experts were involved not only in running the competition and judging competitors, but also in preparing technical descriptions and test projects for the following WorldSkills Competition in Japan in 2007. The interest generated in vocational education and training by WorldSkills 2005 was huge. Nearly 120,000 spectators came to the Helsinki Fair Centre to see the Competition. Of these, two-thirds were under 17, over three-quarters under 20 (see Figure 1). The media showcased the competitors and their skills and highlighted the importance that skills play in modern societies.
Fig. 1 Pie chart of visitors’ age profile at WorldSkills 2005 in Finland
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Skills Finland had been awarded hosting rights at the fiftieth anniversary General Assembly of the WorldSkills Organization in 2000. The goals that the host country set itself were to:
r r r r r
Enhance appreciation of vocational education and training and the status of skills; Improve the quality of training, particularly skill levels; Highlight excellence in vocational skills; Consolidate national skills competitions and their role in developing training and skill levels; Establish new national and international skills networks in order to learn from each other and to strengthen the international capacity of vocational education and training.
Skills Finland can be proud of having largely achieved these ambitious goals. WorldSkills provided objective, practical and relevant international measures for excellence in vocational skills. Local, national and international skills networks have been established and strengthened. Clearly, all of this has contributed to achieving the WorldSkills mission of promoting worldwide awareness of the essential contribution that skills and high standards of competence make to the achievement of economic success and personal fulfilment—both in Finland and worldwide.
7 Benefits to Employers Employers who become involved in their national or regional skills organizations and WorldSkills enjoy a number of benefits. The association with WorldSkills brings prestige and helps to attract top-quality people to their company. Everyone associated with the competitions at various levels is motivated by the involvement— trainees, trainers and management. The company can assess the quality of its training—and of the trainees it produces—in direct competition with national and international peers. Scope for improvement is quickly identified and addressed. Finally, association with WorldSkills can be used as a selling point in marketing.
8 Keeping Skill Competitions Practical and Up-to-Date Each skill is governed by a technical description updated by the skill’s experts (one per country/region competing in the skill) under the guidance of the Deputy Chief Expert. Within the scope permitted by the WorldSkills Competition Rules, the experts may adapt and update the technical description to reflect the current state of the art and industrial practice. The technical description covers all topics required to define a competition for the specific skill (Table 1). The technical description is valid for one WorldSkills Competition. During each WorldSkills Competition, the experts review and update the technical description for the next competition. This allows it to be updated to reflect changes in current
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• Name and description of skill • Scope of work • Tasks to be carried out • Theoretical knowledge • Materials • Workshop installations
• Marking (objective and subjective) • Design criteria and procedure for development and implementation of the test project (the task or tasks to be completed) • Competition procedures and safety requirements • Workshop setup and layout
practice or to make improvements. The technical description is published at least one year in advance of a competition, allowing all member countries/regions ample opportunity to train. Attached to the technical description is the equipment list. This describes the equipment and materials to be provided by the host country, equipment to be provided by the competitor (if applicable) and prohibited equipment. Based on these rules and guidelines, the experts for each skill develop a ‘test project’. This is the task or series of tasks to be completed by the competitors in the twenty-two hours of the competition.
9 Marking A great deal of effort goes into the marking system for a WorldSkills Competition to ensure that it is fair, transparent and auditable, objective where possible, and balanced. A statistical method based on standard deviation is used to make marks comparable across skills despite the widely varying skills involved—from cabinet-making to confectionery, ladies’ dressmaking to landscape gardening, and from refrigeration to restaurant service. Marks are recorded on paper and entered into a computer system—the Competition Information System (CIS). Each competitor’s marks are printed out each day (for the modular competition) or at the end of the marking (for the non-modular competition) and signed by three experts, the competitor’s compatriot expert, and the Chief Expert. For the purposes of illustration, we will invent a skill called ‘Snowman Building’—Skill 56. The technical description for the skill contains details of the assessment criteria and the marks awardable (Table 2). Each criterion is then broken down into ‘aspects of criterion’ (described below), which are either objective (measurable) or subjective (a matter of opinion).
9.1 Objective Marking If we take Criterion A in Table 2, ‘Accuracy and scale of main components’, these will clearly be objective. A
Accuracy and scale of main components
20
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Table 2 Aspects of criterion for ‘Snowman Building’ Criterion ID
Assessment criterion
Maximum mark
A B C D E F G
Accuracy and scale of main components Design and appearance of extremities Selection and fit of clothing Design and stability of plinth Accuracy and scale of facial elements Design and appearance of face elements Background design and appearance Total
20 15 15 10 15 15 10 100
Table 3 Proposed objective marking for Criterion A Aspect ID Max. mark
Aspect of criterion
Requirement or nominal size
Result or actual value
Mark awarded
1 2 3 4 5
Size of head top to bottom Width of head cheek to cheek Depth of head forehead to back Length of neck Diameter of neck
25cm 16cm 29cm 7cm 12cm
24cm 14cm
1.50 2.00
2 3 2 1 1
There may be many aspects of criterion, but we will use five to illustrate our example (Table 3). In some cases, objective marking is simple binary: ‘yes’ or ‘no’/‘zero’ or ‘full marks’. For example, if the snowman has a coat, 1.00 marks are awarded. But if we look at our aspects of criterion above, Aspect 1 is ‘Size of head top to bottom’. The nominal (required) size is 25cm. In this case, the jury has decided that 0.5 marks will be deducted for each 1cm deviation, so an actual value of 24cm results in a score of 1.50, as shown in Table 3. Similarly, a result of 14cm for Aspect 2 (maximum mark: 3) will result in 2 × 0.5 being deducted. Marks are entered correct to two decimal places.
9.2 Subjective Marking If we look at Criterion F, it is clearly a subjective criterion: F
Design and appearance of face elements
15
Again, the criterion is broken down into aspects of criterion: ‘Suitably shaped’ is a subjective criterion—opinions will differ. Here, marking is carried out in a similar way to ice skating: five judges are asked to simultaneously hold up a score card showing a score in the range 0 to 10. The highest and lowest scores are removed; in the case of Aspect 1 above this leaves 7, 7 and 6. The average is then calculated: 7+7+6/3 = 6.7. This is then divided by 10 (0.67) and multiplied by the maximum mark (2) to give the mark awarded: 1.34. If the two highest or
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Aspect ID Max. mark Aspect of criterion
Expert score (out of 10) Mark awarded 1
1 2 3 4 5
2
3
4
5
Foot and ankle suitably shaped 7 6 − 5 7 − 8 Toes on foot suitably shaped Toenails detailed Hands and wrist suitably shaped Fingers on hand suitably shaped
2 3 2 2 5
1.34
lowest scores are duplicated (for example: 8, 8, 7, 5, 4) only one is removed (in this case resulting in 8, 7, 5) (Table 4). Some scores are unacceptable: 2
3
Toes on foot suitably shaped
1
9
9
5
1
Scores that differ by more than four points are rejected by the Competition Information System and new scores must be entered. When the form with the results of marking for an aspect of criterion with subjective marking is printed (see Figure 2), it shows all marks, who awarded each mark and how mark awards were calculated. This provides total transparency and an audit trail—and quickly identifies any judges guilty of bias or unprofessional behaviour. Finally, all marks for a competitor are printed on a single form as a summary. The total number of marks out of 100 is indicated.
Fig. 2 Form for subjective marking
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10 Making Marks Comparable If we took the marks for sixteen competitors in four different skills and plotted them on a scale of 0 to 100, the result might look something like Figure 3.
Fig. 3 Raw results from four different competitions
Clearly, it is unlikely that there is an objective difference between the best of two different skills of nearly 60% (υ and λ). Or that the least capable in two skills (ν and σ ) are twice as good as the least capable in the other two skills (υ and λ). To achieve comparable analysis, statistical analysis is applied. The first step towards comparable marks is to adjust marks so that the average competitors (numbers 8 and 9) in each discipline are on a common 0 axis (Figure 4). The second step is to adjust the marks by the standard deviation (see Figure 5). These marks are unsuitable for the competition, but multiplying marks by 30 and adding 500 results in a chart (for all four skills) as in Figure 6. The marks are now comparable. Average competitors are around the 500 mark, and throughout the scale, competitors of similar ability have similar scores.
11 Value of Comparable Marking Comparable marking has benefits within the WorldSkills Competition and beyond. For the competition, it allows a direct comparison of abilities across skills. It also allows an award to be given to the highest scoring competitor overall. During the Awards Ceremony, gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded in each skill, and medallions for excellence are awarded to all competitors achieving a score of 500 or more. Certificates of participation are awarded to all competitors who do not receive a medal or medallion.
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Fig. 4 Marks on a common axis
For teams and countries/regions participating in WorldSkills, comparative marking provides an opportunity to compare the standard of training and achievement in various skills within their countries and regions. For example, a member country may demonstrate an excellent performance in IT- and automation-related skills, but a comparatively poor performance in construction-related skills. This would provide strong arguments for increased resourcing of the less-successful skills or industries. Comparable marking also allows a country or region to see how it fares in international comparison. Again, a relatively poor performance will provide a strong case
Fig. 5 Marks adjusted by standard deviation
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Fig. 6 Marks adjusted for 400–600 range
for the application of greater resources—not primarily to do better in the next WorldSkills Competition, but to improve the overall standards of vocational training.
12 Futures WorldSkills has set clear goals for the future. WorldSkills will increase membership from the current forty-two members to fifty members, at the same time consolidating its position as the premier global skills competition and the leading global organization for skills excellence and innovation in trades and technologies. WorldSkills will provide an exchange network for skilled people and organizations, with competition events, forums, projects and websites. The competition will also be adapted to accommodate more members—and perhaps a larger number of skills—without compromising quality. While there is no doubt that the benefits are huge—as demonstrated by new countries/regions wanting to join, new skills being added, companies wanting to sponsor and support the organization’s mission and objectives—WorldSkills recognizes that currently there is not enough quantitative and qualitative information publicly available on the implicit benefits and return on investment on membership and participation.
13 Summary WorldSkills provides a unique means of exchange and comparison of world-class competency standards in the industrial trades and service sectors of the global economy. The continued growth of WorldSkills attests to the fact that both traditional
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trade and craft skills and the newer technology multi-skilled vocations make an essential contribution to the economic and social well-being of peoples everywhere. As a free standing, non-political organization WorldSkills provides a cost-effective means for international government and industrial co-operation to enhance both the standard and the status of vocational education and training worldwide.
Appendix 1. WorldSkills Skills (Helsinki, 2005) No.
Skill
No.
Skill
1 3 4 5 6 9 10 12 13 15 16 17 18
Polymechanics/Automation Manufacturing Team Challenge Mechatronics Mech. Eng. CADD CNC Machining IT/Software Applications Welding Wall & Floor Tiling Autobody Repair Plumbing Industrial Electronics Web Design Electrical Installations (Commercial Wiring) Industrial Control Bricklaying Stonemasonry Painting & Decorating Plastering Cabinetmaking Joinery
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 43 44 46 47 48
Carpentry Jewellery Floristry Ladies’/Men’s Hairdressing Beauty Therapy Ladies Dressmaking Confectioner/Pastry Cook Automobile Technology Cooking Restaurant Service Car Painting Landscape Gardening Refrigeration IT PC/Network Support Graphic Design Technology Telecommunication Distribution Technology Printing Sheet-Construction Steelwork Tinsmith (Roofing) Transport Technology
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Appendix 2. WorldSkills Member Organizations ISO
Country/region
Member
AU AT BE BR BN CA TW DK FI FR DE
Australia Austria Belgium Brazil Brunei Darussalam Canada Chinese Taipei Denmark Finland France Germany
WorldSkills Australia WorldSkills Austria – Berufsweltmeisterschaften Skills Belgium SENAI Ministry of Education (Department of Technical Education) Skills/Comp´etences Canada EVTA DK Skills, Cirius Skills Finland COFOM Deutscher Handwerkskammertag
XVI.5 How Do We Measure Up? Benchmarking the WorldSkills Competition
ISO
Country/region
HK ID IR IE
China Hong Kong Indonesia Iran Ireland
JM JP LI LU MO MY MA NL NZ NO PH PT KR SA SG ZA IT ES SE CH TH TN AE UK US VE
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Member
Vocational Training Council Ministry of National Education Technical & Vocational Training Organization (TVTO) Department of Education and Science, National Skills Competition Jamaica Vocational Training Development Institute Japan JAVADA Liechtenstein WorldSkills Liechtenstein Luxembourg Centre national de formation professionnelle continue (CNFPC) Macau Department of Labour & Employment Affairs, Head of Vocational Training Centre Malaysia Ministry of Works Malaysia, Corporate Management and Planning Division (BPPK) Morocco Minist`ere de l’emploi et de la formation professionnelle Netherlands Skills Netherlands New Zealand Youth Skills New Zealand Norway Skills Norway Philippines TESDA Portugal Instituto do Emprego e Formac¸a˜ o Profissional (IEFP) Republic of Korea Human Resources Development Services Saudi Arabia GOTEVOT Singapore Institute of Technical Education South Africa WorldSkills South Africa South Tyrol, Italy Landesverband der Handwerker (LVH) Spain Ministry of Education and Science Sweden Youth Skills Sweden AB Switzerland Swiss Competence Thailand Department of Skill Development Tunisia Agence tunisienne de la formation professionnelle United Arab Emirates Emirates Skills United Kingdom UK Skills United States of America SkillsUSA Venezuela INCE
For links to member organization websites, please visit <www.worldskills.com> and navigate to About WorldSkills. Members.
Further Reading Wilson, J.P. 2000. Citius, Altius. Fortius. Peritus: the Skill Olympics and skill competitions. Industrial and commercial training, vol. 32, no. 6, pp. 201–08. WorldSkills. Annual report. <www.worldskills.org/site/public/index.php?pageid= 646> WorldSkills. 2005. Helsinki final report. <worldskills.org/site/public/index.php?action=download resource& id= 932>
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Chapter XVI.6
Validation of Educational Programmes: Comparing Models and Best Practices1 Grazia Scoppio
1 Introduction The Canadian Defence Academy (CDA) is responsible for the quality control of educational and professional development programmes common to all members of the Canadian Forces (CF). A Validation Section was set up within the CDA Headquarters and its first task was to develop a validation methodology that reflected the greater educational focus of CDA’s courses/programmes versus the training focus of the rest of the courses in the CF, i.e. environmental training and occupational training. This chapter will describe the methodology developed and tested through different validation studies, and will also compare literature on evaluation/validation activities carried out in different educational institutions. The aim of the chapter is to share lessons learned, useful models and best practices.
2 Background and Definitions The CDA is an organization of the Department of National Defence (DND) and is responsible for professional development and educational programmes common to officers and non-commissioned members (NCMs) of all three services in the CF: Army, Air Force and Navy.2 CDA is a formation composed of a Headquarters in Kingston, and a number of educational institutions across Canada, including the Royal Military College. The CDA promotes lifelong learning and its programmes include: leadership; command; national security; academic degrees; and secondlanguage courses. These programmes provide members of the CF with the opportunity to develop the intellectual ability, critical thinking skills, and understanding of national policy and military doctrine that will enable them to effectively support operations, and function in a complex and information-rich global environment. The CDA is responsible for verification activities, including validation, to determine if these courses are successful in preparing officers and NCMs to perform their work effectively. Conventional validation activities in the CF have mainly involved training courses. According to the Canadian Forces Individual Training and Education System R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XVI.6, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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(CFITES), validation is the last of the six phases of the quality-control model. Although the CFITES manual has a greater focus on training than education, its guidelines provide a starting framework for the validation of educational courses for which CDA is responsible. In the manual, evaluation and validation are defined differently: evaluation checks whether instruction has satisfied the objectives of the instructional programme; validation seeks to determine whether the objectives themselves satisfy the performance requirements for which the programme was produced. Furthermore, a validation activity is usually carried out by an organization external to the teaching unit after graduates have been on the job for a period of time, typically six to twelve months after graduation. Traditional validation activities in the CF have typically focused on the impact of training on the performance of CF members in specific jobs or occupations after graduates have had the opportunity to apply what they have learned on a course in performing their duties on the job. The objective of most validation activities has been to measure relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of the skills acquired on a training course against specific job requirements. However, CDA’s programmes are, as mentioned, more educational in nature; thus, it was important to tailor the activity to reflect the course type and aim. One of the main differences between programmes of a predominantly educational nature and training courses is that the former focus on the transfer of a common body of knowledge and the acquisition of intellectual and ‘soft’ skills, such as communication and leadership skills, as opposed to the focus of training on development of job- or occupation-specific skills and knowledge. The overall aim of a training course is to provide skills and knowledge to perform specific tasks and duties, which usually can be clearly observed, and which have a beginning and an end, such as operating machinery or driving a vehicle. The relationship between the acquired learning and the job can be measured in terms of verifying whether: (a) the tasks are actually performed (frequency = relevance); (b) the right people learned the essential things at the appropriate level (efficiency); and, consequently, (c) performance has improved (effectiveness). In contrast, the overall aim of an educational/professional development course is to provide a base of knowledge and intellectual skills upon which information can be correctly interpreted and sound judgement exercised. For such courses, the relationship between the acquired learning and a specific job may not be as easily measured in terms of ‘frequency’, ‘efficiency’ and ‘effectiveness’. Nonetheless, educational/professional development courses can be validated through different indicators, such as the ‘importance’ of what was learned to the position, as well as questions on the broader learning objectives of the course, level of satisfaction and open-ended questions on the course overall. Thus, the validation of educational courses aims more broadly at verifying that courses are: (a) aligned and consistent with stated objectives; (b) providing the appropriate knowledge-base and intellectual/soft skills graduates need to successfully perform in their future positions; and (c) preparing graduates for the future ‘professions’. A further aim of a validation activity can be to confirm if courses meet changing professional requirements and needs.
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3 Comparing Approaches to Evaluation and Validation In addition to previously conducted research of other military organizations,3 new research was conducted to determine if civilian educational institutions in Canada and the United States are currently carrying out activities similar to validation, and if so what approach they are taking. During the course of this research, information was obtained from the following sources: 1. The Conference Board of Canada—Employability Skills 2000+; 2. Government of Ontario: Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities— Graduate Outcomes/Graduate Satisfaction Survey; 3. Alberta Universities and University Colleges—2002 Graduate Employment Survey; 4. Red River College—College-Wide Learning Outcomes; 5. University of Seattle—2003 Statement on Student Learning Outcomes; 6. University of Illinois—Graduate Survey; 7. Michigan State University: College of Engineering—Employer Survey; and 8. Ontario Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology (CAAT)—KPI Student Satisfaction Survey. Research into graduate surveys conducted by, or on behalf of, universities and colleges in Canada and the United States indicates that there is a limited focus on validation activities in the post-secondary education system. The surveys examined during this research are designed, for the most part, with a focus on one or more of the following areas:
r r r
Programme evaluation, with questions regarding the graduate’s level of satisfaction with their programme in general and of the services provided by the university; Graduate employment, with questions regarding the graduate’s success in finding employment and their current income level; and Programme validation, with the following types of questions: — relevance of their programme of study to their current job; — importance/relevance of college-wide or programme-specific learning outcomes to the graduate’s current or future job/career; and — level of satisfaction with the preparation and education provided to the graduate relative to these learning outcomes.
3.1 Learning Outcomes Given the emphasis on learning outcomes in the surveys conducted for college and university programmes, it is necessary to provide a definition of what is meant by a learning outcome. A learning outcome describes what the graduate will be able to do with the knowledge and skills acquired in an educational programme
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in their subsequent professional life. Learning outcomes are different from performance objectives, in that they are not linked to specific jobs or responsibilities, but are instead of a more general nature and can apply to many different jobs or occupations. Performance objectives, on the other hand, describe the discrete tasks that a graduate must be able to perform in their specific jobs or occupations, the conditions under which these tasks must be performed, and the standards to which they must be completed. While both learning outcomes and performance objectives are concerned with the performance of the graduate, the focus of learning outcomes is more on the application of a common body of knowledge and such ‘soft’ skills as critical thinking, decision-making, communication, leadership, etc., rather than on the specific tasks and skills associated with performance objectives. In the post-secondary education system, there are two main types of learning outcomes: 1. College-wide learning outcomes, which are the learning outcomes expected of every graduate regardless of their programme of study (i.e. verbal and written communication skills, decision-making, critical thinking, etc.); and 2. Programme outcomes, which describe what graduates of particular programmes will be able to do as a result of learning experiences within the programme. While these may sometimes overlap with college-wide outcomes to some extent, they typically require the graduate to demonstrate higher levels of a particular outcome, or performance of the outcome in a context unique to that discipline. When conducting the validation of an educational course, the following types of questions should be asked of graduates and supervisors:
r r
Questions regarding the importance of the educational objectives or main subject areas covered on the course and how well the education provided on these topics prepared graduates for their responsibilities; and Questions regarding how well the education provided helped the graduates to achieve the broader learning outcomes of the course or programme.
Since the main focus of educational courses is the transfer of knowledge and not the acquisition of physical skills, the statements about which questions will be asked of the graduates and supervisors need to be modified from those found in the course documents. For example, the verbs should be removed from the statements so that the question relates to the topic and does not sound like a performance statement (e.g. ‘Describe the CF career management system’ would become ‘The CF career management system’). By doing so, the respondents will be asked if it is important for them to possess and be able to apply the knowledge regarding this topic, as opposed to being asked if it is important for them to be able to describe the subject in question.
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4 Developing a CDA Validation Approach An initial strategic concept was developed in 2002 for the validation process of educational/professional development courses that fall under the responsibility of the CDA. This paper reviewed proven theoretical frameworks for course evaluation and validation, and suggested research methodologies to achieve proposed validation aims. A validation pilot project was conducted in the spring of 2003 focusing on one specific professional development course—the Advanced Military Studies Course (AMSC). The aim of the pilot project was twofold: first, to develop and test a methodology to validate an educational course (versus a more training-specific course); and second, to make recommendations on an overall CDA validation model based on the experience acquired during the validation activity conducted. After the report on the pilot project was completed in July 2003, a second strategic paper was produced in December 2003 to provide an interim model for a validation process, to be used as the basis for CDA validation activities involving the common educational/professional development programmes controlled by CDA. The model would be further refined through the experience acquired in the course of other validation activities. The lessons learned through that practical experience have further informed the CDA validation process and are outlined in the paragraphs below. The AMSC validation pilot project showed that the current CFITES methodology can be successfully modified and adapted to educational and professional development programmes. The choice of the sample should be made based on CFITES guidelines, including: (a) graduates have to be ‘on the job’ for at least six months following the course; (b) courses should not be undergoing major changes; and (c) an adequate sample size should be selected in order to produce statistically meaningful data. Similarly, the selection of the courses to be validated should be made in accordance with CF guidelines, giving priority to: (d) courses where problems have been identified (e.g. user dissatisfaction); (e) courses that have undergone major changes; and (f) courses that have not been validated in the past five years. The research tools, e.g. the survey questionnaire or interview protocol, should be tailored to the course type and aim. The examples shown in Figure 1 indicate the difference between the type of questions used for a validation survey of an educational course, such as the AMSC validation survey (a and b), and the type of questions for a training course validation survey (c, d, and e), as per sample in the CFITES manual. Validation tools should be reviewed by subject matter experts (SMEs) and/or user agency representatives and/or instructional staff, for feedback and input. Multiple sources of data should be used if necessary. As part of a comprehensive validation activity, supervisors’ surveys, interviews or focus groups with a small sample of graduates, supervisors and/or other stakeholders all provide additional data. Data collection and analysis should take full advantage of current technology. Web-based e-surveys streamline the collection of data for large cohorts, shorten
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(a) Is this important to my position(s)?
Has the education I received on this topic helped my performance?
Not Important Of some importance Very important Vital Importance Not at all To some extent Quite a lot Comprehensively 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 0
(b)
1
2
3
1. An ability to evaluate the concepts, theories, and techniques of command.
0
1
2
3
Are there any other skills and knowledge required in your position(s) that should be included on the course? If yes, please explain.
Type of questions provided in the CFITES manual as sample: (c) (d) (e)
From the course outline, list the tasks that were: Over trained, or under trained. List the task numbers that you have not performed since graduation (if any) List tasks that you were required to perform on the job, but were not included in the course (if any).
Fig. 1 Type of questions used in the AMSC validation questionnaire
turn-around time, reduce clerical tasks and facilitate tracking respondents. Three different software applications are used for validation studies: software for electronic surveys and data collection; for statistical data analysis; and for qualitative data analysis. A supportive context is critical to the success of any validation exercise so that its output provides value added to all stakeholders. Support and consultation with stakeholders are essential to ensure high rates of participation from graduates and to lend credibility to validation findings. Research instruments should be distributed in both official languages in the case of bilingual institutions. The CDA and its constituent units/institutions are designated bilingual language units (BLU). In accordance with the Official Language Act, communications intended for mixed readership, such as validation reports posted to a website, must be published in both official languages. Furthermore, to enable graduates and their supervisors to choose the official language in which they should participate in validation studies, survey questionnaires are made available in both official languages. Comprehensive validation activities may also aim at investigating whether the learning satisfies new ‘knowledge and educational needs’, i.e. mapping the relevance of the knowledge and skills acquired in relation to new professional requirements. This approach would ensure that future targets are reached concurrently to essential job performance competencies of today. A review of the course documentation should be conducted before undertaking a validation. If the documentation is found to be significantly misaligned (e.g. course content not reflecting the stated standards and requirements), then a thorough documentation review should be completed prior to the expenditure of resources on a validation study. Similarly, if substantial changes to the course content are forecast, then validation should be delayed until the course has produced a sufficient number of graduates who have followed the new content. Finally, it is important to bear in mind the limitations of a validation study. One possible limitation could be the difficulty that some graduates may encounter in distinguishing with certainty what they learned through formal education and what
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they acquired through on-the-job experience. However, while most of the data is collected via self-reported information, the responses received from some of the supervisors provide additional data to confirm or not the responses of the graduates.
5 CDA Validation Activities An overview of some validation activities carried out by CDA is provided in the following sections.
5.1 Advanced Military Studies Course The Advanced Military Studies Course (AMSC) is delivered through the Canadian Forces College (CFC) as part of officer Development Period 4 (DP4), and is an operational level of war course for officers in all three environments (Army, Navy and Air Force) at the lieutenant-colonel/commander (Navy) level and above. The main subject areas covered are: leadership, management and command; communications; joint and combined operations (operational and strategic levels); national security; strategic personnel management; and strategic resource management. As mentioned, a validation pilot project was conducted in 2003. The target population for this study was relatively small, reflecting the size of the course. However, a high response rate was achieved, and this allowed for a moderate level of confidence. As well, additional data was collected from supervisors (Table 1). The methodology used for the study was in line with the CFITES guidelines with some adaptation to reflect the content and aim of the course. The questionnaire design was influenced by an Australian model, developed by the Australian Defence College to validate their Command and Staff Course. This model used a more educational approach than prior CF validation questionnaires, which focused mainly on training courses. The model was adapted to reflect the content of the AMSC and CDA needs. For subsequent validation studies, questionnaires were further adapted to the course types. While some educational/professional development courses prepare graduates for specific CF ‘positions’, others provide broader knowledge and intellectual skills to support the military ‘profession’. For the AMSC validation, the questionnaire aimed at determining not only the importance of the education Table 1 Sample, returns and response rate for AMSC validation study AMSC3 AMSC4 Total
Supervisors
Graduates
Responses received
Response rate
19 19 38
16 14 30
84% 74% 79%
Supervisors
Responses received
Response rate
38
14
37%
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received but also attempted to measure the impact on performance. One survey questionnaire was developed for graduates and a similar one for supervisors. A mixed quantitative and qualitative approach was adopted, i.e. using closed questions with a Likert scale,4 as well as open-ended questions. Graduates were asked to rate on a dual scale specific knowledge and skills elements in terms of the importance relative to their position, and the impact on their performance. The questionnaire covered the course’s main learning objectives, and included open-ended questions on the course’s usefulness, successfulness and satisfaction level, as well as asking for suggestions on possible changes and additions. The questionnaire was developed using a collaborative approach, in that it was created by the CDA Validation Team and input was also received from the Canadian Forces College (CFC) Quality Assurance Department, as well as from CFC instructional staff. The AMSC validation was fairly comprehensive considering that the questionnaires covered the whole range of the course’s main learning objectives, and included open-ended comments. Follow-up activities, such as interviews or focus groups, were not conducted; however, the data gathered through the questionnaires was quite thorough.
5.2 Primary Leadership Qualification The Primary Leadership Qualification (PLQ) is a leadership course—part of the Non-Commissioned Members’ Developmental Period-two (NCM-DP2). The aim of PLQ is to provide NCMs of all three services with the necessary skills and knowledge required to perform their leadership duties at the rank of master corporal/master sergeant. The course focuses on the following areas: leading subordinates; conducting drills/instructing personnel; fundamentals of physical fitness; identifying/recommending administrative measures to enforce order and discipline; planning/conducting operations/activities. The PLQ is delivered in over twelve different CF schools across Canada. A validation study was conducted in 2004. The target population of PLQ graduates totalled 1,039. These graduates met the criteria outlined in the guidelines: they had completed PLQ and obtained the corresponding qualification six months before the survey or longer. To obtain statistically significant responses, assuming a response rate of 40%, 700 PLQ graduates were surveyed (Table 2). Stratified random sampling was used in the effort to obtain adequate representation of the population according to environment. A representative proportion of graduates from the Army, Air Force and Navy were surveyed. The response rate for this survey was sufficient to achieve a 95% confidence level, with a degree of accuracy of 0.05. The questionnaire was developed by adapting the questions used for the Advanced Military Studies Course (AMSC) validation to address the different focus of the PLQ course. Changes to the format of the questionnaire were dictated by the fact that the survey would be carried out by e-mail. Part 1 of the questionnaire contains only one question to confirm if graduates have used what they learned
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Table 2 Sample, returns and response rate for PLQ validation study Graduates surveyed
Returns/sample
Response rate
700
280
40%
Supervisors surveyed N/A
Returns/sample 60
Response rate N/A
on the course. Part 2 includes six questions on each of the thirty-five main skill and knowledge elements that graduates are expected to have upon arrival at their position after course completion. The questions are related to: the importance and relevance of the acquired skills and knowledge relative to their position; and the effectiveness and efficiency of the education received. Part 3 contains questions to obtain demographic information and open-ended questions on the course in general, including course successfulness, and suggestions to improve the course. The last question is a closed-ended question on the level of satisfaction with the course. Graduates are asked to contact their immediate superior so that they can complete the supervisor’s questionnaire. Supervisors’ questionnaires contain similar questions. Data collection was carried out through a web-based survey, due to the significant size of the cohort. Graduates were contacted via the Defence Wide Area Network (DWAN) e-mail and provided a link to the survey. E-mail reminders were sent and phone calls were made to increase the response rate. Some respondents encountered technical problems, mainly due to temporary server failures, which were addressed in the best possible way by the staff in the validation section. The following list includes some of the lessons learned in the process of this validation: 1. A load test should be carried out to verify the number of users/respondents that the server/software can support at one time; 2. A paper copy of the questionnaire should be ready in case of technological problems, and for graduates who do not have an active DWAN e-mail account; 3. If the server is down, respondents should see a message instructing them to try later—instead of an error message.
5.3 Officer Professional Military Education Programme The Officer Professional Military Education Programme (OPME) is completed as part of officer professional development periods one and two. OPME is intended to orient the junior officer to select topics within a common body of knowledge related to the military profession. From this body of knowledge, officers begin to enhance their critical thinking skills and develop innovative responses to a myriad of issues. The university-level courses are designed to provoke independent thought and to enhance an officer’s base for decision-making. The programme includes the following six courses: ‘Introduction to Military Law’; ‘Introduction to Defence Management’; ‘War and Military History’; ‘The CF and Modern Society: Civics,
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Politics and International Relations’; ‘Science and War’; ‘The Impact of Military Technology’; and ‘Leadership and Ethics’. The first two courses are at professional level, and the remaining four are university-level courses. The courses are delivered both through distance learning by the Royal Military College (RMC) and through the traditional residential format in different CF locations across Canada. An exploratory study was conducted in 2004 targeting officers who have completed four, five or all six courses of the OPME programme. The total target population was only 150 graduates; this is because officers who had received equivalencies, NCMs and Royal Military College cadets were all excluded. The great majority of the graduates were from the Navy, and some were serving on board ships with no access to DWAN e-mail. A back-up version of the questionnaire was sent via regular mail to graduates who were not reachable via e-mail, in both a paper and a disk version. Once the exploratory study was completed, a larger study of each of the six OPME courses was conducted over one year. This study was resource-intensive and complex, considering that six separate surveys were sent, one for each course. The target population for this study involved CF commissioned officers who graduated from one or more of the OPME courses in this timeframe. A total of 2,060 officers met these criteria. The survey population involved 1,916 officers reachable through the DWAN email system. A total of 1,341 officers responded to the survey—an average response rate of 70%. Graduates were also asked to provide contact information for their supervisors. A total of 455 supervisors were then contacted and 361 responded, an average response rate of 79% (Table 3). The response rate for this survey was sufficient to achieve a higher than 95% confidence level, with a degree of accuracy of 0.05, which means that the data compiled from this survey were more than 95% accurate, 95% of the time. Some of the lessons learned through the OPME validation studies were the following: 1. The importance of conducting an exploratory study: the exploratory study served to inform the larger study both in terms of methodology and in terms of the findings. The OPME programme is more academic than previously validated programmes; this meant that questions had to focus on broader educational outcomes acquired (knowledge and intellectual competencies) in relation to the military ‘profession’, rather than specific skills in relation to a ‘position’. Furthermore, many findings observed in the exploratory validation were confirmed through the larger study. Table 3 Sample, returns and response rate for OPME validation Total OPME graduates (target population) Survey population (DWAN access) Sample required Responses received Overall response rate
Graduates
Supervisors
2,060 1,916 1,053 1,341 70%
N/A 455 N/A 361 79%
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2. The importance of reliable technology: to address server failures and some limitation of the e-survey software used for PLQ validation, a new e-survey application and server were used for the larger OPME study. This upgrade significantly improved return rates from 40% obtained for PLQ validation, to 70–79% returns for OPME graduates and supervisors, respectively. 3. The importance of quality reports: to improve the readability of reports, software for business communication was used to write the OPME individual validation report, thus enabling readers to focus on and retain key information. This enhanced the quality of the reports and resulted in positive feedback.
6 Conclusion In conclusion, course validation is a quality-assurance process aimed at verifying the soundness of courses and their relevance to the graduates’ work and profession. Conventional validation activities only addressed training programmes; therefore, a new approach was necessary to address professional development and educational programmes for which the CDA is responsible. The CFITES manual provided starting guidelines; however, modifications to the methodology were necessary as the manual mainly addressed training. Through comparative research, different models of validation/evaluation of educational programmes were identified, and this research helped to inform the CDA validation approach. The CDA validation process also takes advantage of available technologies by using on-line questionnaires and different software for data collection, organization, analysis and reporting. Furthermore, support from all the stakeholders and educational institutions involved is essential in this process to obtain maximum participation in the studies, and ensure that report recommendations are implemented. Validation activities are an essential component of education and training systems to ensure that educational courses are providing the ‘right’ knowledge and intellectual skills needed by modern professionals.
Notes 1. I would like to acknowledge the role played in the writing of this chapter by my late thesis supervisor, Dr David N. Wilson. A few short months before he became ill in 2006 he met me at the CSSE/CIESC conference and asked me if I could email him a couple of my former conference presentations on course validation for possible submission to this Handbook. He then sent me a prospectus and I promptly sent him the two papers. A few months later the editors contacted me to accept one of them. Unfortunately, David is no longer with us, but I would like to dedicate this chapter to his memory. 2. Canadian Defence Academy: <www.cda-acd.forces.gc.ca/> 3. Scoppio, G. 2003. Education as a response to new global challenges: validation of educational courses for officers in the Canadian Forces as a case study with a comparative perspective. (Paper presented at the Conference of the Comparative International Education Society of Canada
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and Canadian Society for Studies of Education, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, 1–3 June 2003.) 4. A Likert scale is a type of questionnaire scale used for assessing attitudes, opinions and judgements. It is structured to reflect and measure degrees of intensity of opinions, e.g. agree, disagree, strongly disagree.
Chapter XVI.7
Regional Accreditation and Certification of TVET Institutions Ligaya Valmonte and Man-Gon Park
1 Introduction A regional accreditation and certification system seeks to promote the comparability of education and training systems among the concurring countries. It enables harmonization and standardization of their curricular programmes and qualifications. In addition, it accelerates the competitiveness of their workforce thereby facilitating mobility across national borders. Several regional bodies have been organized to adjust their programmes to regional and global standardized skills and qualifications. The Southern African Development Community, the European Community, the Pacific Islands Forum and Caribbean Community are some examples of successful initiatives. The Southern African Development Community (SADC), a regional grouping of fourteen countries in the Southern African region, aims to close the existing disparities in the education and training systems of its member States. The Technical Committee on Certification and Accreditation was established to analyse the benefits of a harmonized qualifications framework for the SADC region. The committee started its work with an examination of the existing educational qualifications in the region and progress made in the development of national qualifications frameworks (NQFs), wherein three countries (Angola, Malawi and Tanzania) had commenced background work, another three have embarked on initial developments and established task teams (Mozambique, Swaziland and Zambia). Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius, and Zimbabwe have formulated draft legislation and have some structures in place, and Namibia and South Africa are in an advanced phase of implementation. The European Union (EU) accreditation system covering technical and vocational skills was planned as an EU-based co-operative venture involving higher education, business, vocational sectors, local chambers of commerce and social partners, who together formed the European Forum on the Transparency of Vocational Qualifications. The work of the forum aimed to enhance the portability of credits by developing a credit system and encouraging transparency in awards and certifications and resulted in the development of two documents (‘The European CV’ and the ‘Certificate Supplement’) and a network of National Reference Points for Vocational Qualifications (NRPs). In 2002, the forum was replaced by a technical working group. ‘In 2003, following extensive consultation of national authorities R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XVI.7, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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and social partners, the European Commission prepared a proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on a single framework for the transparency of qualifications and competences (Europass), which was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council in December 2004.’1 The Pacific Islands Forum is in the very early stages of developing a Pacific Qualifications Register. The first phase entails consultation with countries in the Pacific as to their willingness and interest to participate in such a regional mechanism. A number of Pacific countries are undertaking work on national frameworks and it is envisaged that the regional mechanism will tie those national systems together at the regional level. It is called a ‘register’ rather than a framework, as it will not have the full quality-assurance capability that a framework implies. This work is being implemented by the South Pacific Board for Educational Assessment (SPBEA). The member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) amended their treaty in order to remove barriers within the region so there will be free movement of persons, services and capital. Protocol II of the amendment provides for the establishment of common standards and measures for accreditation or, when necessary, for the mutual recognition of diplomas, certificates and other evidence of qualifications of the nationals of member States in order to facilitate access to, and engagement in, non-wage-earning activities in the community. Pursuant to this Protocol, CARICOM developed a ‘Regional Framework for Vocational Qualifications’ and set up a working group put together by the CARICOM Secretariat to further develop a regional accreditation or equivalency framework for regional certification of vocational competencies. In addition, a Regional Accreditation Body is being formed. Currently there is no regional mechanism for accreditation and certification for Asia and the Pacific countries. There are enormous differences in these countries with respect to physical geography, economic performance and social structures, including education and training systems. Such disparities restrain the effective co-operation of institutions, access to quality education, and the mobility of both students and job-seekers within the region. The Colombo Plan Staff College (CPSC) has taken steps in pioneering regional accreditation and certification by starting to provide a clearing-house for all information related to these activities. This chapter examines the prospects for the member countries and identifies expected challenges as the region proceeds with its accreditation and certification ventures.
2 The Role of the CPSC in Accreditation and Certification 2.1 Why Should CPSC Accredit TVET Institutions in the Asia-Pacific Region? First, CPSC is the centre of excellence for human resource development in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in Asia and the Pacific. From its inception to the present time, CPSC is the only institution that provides leadership and addresses TVET-related issues and problems arising within member countries.
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After more than thirty years of involvement in training, research, publications, consultancy and information and communication technology, CPSC has to its credit an ISO Certification (9001–2000). Second, as inscribed in Goal 1, Strategy 1.2 of the Corporate Plan 2003–2008, CPSC aims ‘to assist and enhance TVET systems of member countries by facilitating capacity-building to develop an Accreditation and Certification System in TVET for Asia and the Pacific’. True to this mandate, the CPSC has been offering regional, in-country and customized programmes, as well as international conferences advocating in favour of accreditation and certification. Some member countries responded by drafting and implementing national accreditation and certification systems. But the forces of globalization, advanced technology and changing labour demand further increased the urgency for regional accreditation, hence the Asia-Pacific Accreditation and Certification Commission (APACC) was established. Third, CPSC, with nineteen member countries and a network of linkages, is in the best position to act as a regional accrediting body for TVET institutions in Asia and the Pacific. To be the glue that would bind the member countries even closer together, CPSC should develop a uniform protocol to evaluate TVET systems, not only for quality improvement but also for increased opportunities for co-operation and collaboration.
2.2 The Purposes of a Regional Accreditation and Certification Body A regional accreditation and certification body is fundamentally based on a demanddriven TVET system that is flexible and responsive to the economic and social needs of the Asia-Pacific countries. Quality education and training must be linked to identifiable job opportunities or to appropriate small-scale activities that have the prospect of generating sustainable income. Thus, TVET should become more relevant and responsive to the needs of industry and socio-economic development in the region. The two fundamental purposes of accreditation are the improvement of institutional capacity and educational effectiveness. To fulfil these purposes, CPSC is committed to improving the institution’s quality of education and training by ensuring that it follows regional standards prepared by the regional accreditation and certification body of CPSC.
2.3 General Functions of a Regional Accreditation and Certification Body 2.3.1 Evaluation of Institutional Capacity and Educational Effectiveness A regional body serves as a licenser by identifying and accrediting institutions that have attained institutional capacity and educational effectiveness. Such a body has to:
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1. Develop self-study and formal evaluation instruments for accreditation of programmes, institutions and accrediting bodies. 2. Accredit institutions with programmes accredited by national bodies of accreditation. 3. Act as an interim accreditor of programmes of TVET institutions in countries where there is no accreditation system. 4. Recognize national accrediting bodies and co-ordinate with them in the implementation of a regional accreditation framework.
2.3.2 Support to Workforce Mobilization In order to mobilize faculty, students and workers across the national borders and to facilitate the transfer of credits, qualifications should be practically recognized according to job requirements. Quality improvement in support of workforce mobilization hinges on the social and economic merits of globalization. Either through recognized institutional capacity or efficient programmes, TVET institutions are linked to social and economic progress in the trickle-down concept of benefits. Asia and the Pacific countries are also affected by the movement of the workforce at the transnational level. Not only will these countries be able to mobilize physical manpower and knowledge, but knowledge and skills will also stream across borders, presenting an open door for practical learning across borders. Standard-driven TVET institutions are the breeding grounds for the skilled manpower of the twentyfirst century.
2.3.3 Support to the Global Labour Market by Asia and the Pacific Countries To develop a quality-conscious system of TVET, where excellence, relevance to global market needs and participation by all stakeholders are major determinants, institutions must be able to recognize the support role that they should play in the increasingly global economy. Information and communications technology bridges the gap between labourmarket requirements and shortcomings, as well as limitations of skills. Where accreditation standards for TVET systems enter into force, technology comes as a handy tool in elevating business processes and management of TVET systems. New information technologies carry with them the principle of voluntarily updating oneself to keep abreast of new developments, to be responsive, to be relevant and to be in accordance with global standards. Part of this standard is preparing systematic mechanisms to tailor TVET systems to the required jobs. Bilateral and multilateral agreements are platforms for labour-market activities and information exchanges. In pursuit of agreements, labour-market trends are easily mapped out so that a mass requirement for a specific skill in one country could become the basis for national educational policy and priority in another country. Accreditation standards will unify perception between what skills are required and the level of skill that shall be made available. Global market analysis is thus linked to educational pursuits.
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2.3.4 Establishment of a Clearing-House The regional accreditation and certification body should act as a clearing-house targeted at meeting the needs and interests of the member institutions and promoting co-operation regarding quality assurance and accreditation. Activities related to this include: 1. The development of web-based e-teaching and learning systems on accreditation and certification of training services for member countries. 2. Analysis and evaluation of standards, criteria and benchmarking procedures used in regional accreditation. 3. Development of a computerized accreditation and certification system. 4. Promoting the sharing of information. 5. Establishment of an e-community for accreditation and certification.
3 The Asia-Pacific Accreditation and Certification Commission 3.1 History The Asia-Pacific Accreditation and Certification Commission (APACC) falls under the umbrella of the Colombo Plan Staff College. In both the Constitution of 1974 which located the CPSC in Singapore, and that of 1987 which transferred it to the Philippines, the improvement of the quality of technician education and training was specifically identified as the primary purpose of the CPSC. In 2003, a programme was adopted that would have a direct and profound effect on the quality of education. The CPSC Governing Board approved the CPSC Corporate Plan (2003–2008). Armed with this mandate, an International Conference on Accreditation and Certification was convened in December 2004 to explore the possibility of setting up a regional body. With participants representing sixteen member governments signing the CPSC Seoul Declaration, 2004—Afghanistan, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, the Republic of Korea and Sri Lanka—the Asia Pacific Accreditation and Certification Commission (APACC) was formed. It stipulated the implementation of the following specific activities: 1. To establish an inter-governmental accreditation and certification system to standardize and harmonize qualification standards in the TVET sector. 2. To facilitate the transnational mobilization of the workforce in the Asia and the Pacific Region, with CPSC as the lead organization in the establishment of the regional accreditation and certification body to be known as the Asia-Pacific Accreditation and Certification Commission (APACC). 3. To reconvene within a period of six months from the date of signing the Declaration for the full operations of the APACC.
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Pursuant to the above-mentioned agreement, a sequel undertaking, the InterGovernmental Workshop on Regional Accreditation Modeling and Accrediting the Accreditors, was conducted in August 2005. Thirty-five officials of nationally recognized agencies from member countries resolved to pledge their commitment and attain the goals of APACC through the ‘Manila Declaration of Commitment, 2005’. These officials recommended to their respective governments to fully support the APACC programmes: 1. To provide physical and human resources to APACC during its initial organizational stages. 2. To identify the focal office that will work and liaise with CPSC in the implementation of APACC programmes, projects and activities. To date, APACC is acting upon the recommendations of the workshop, which targets the finalization of the major APACC documents, further training of accreditors and accreditation of TVET institutions.
3.2 The Functions of APACC The CPSC Seoul Declaration, 2004, established the regional accreditation and certification body, now known as the Asia-Pacific Accreditation and Certification Commission. In compliance with this mandate, APACC has to accomplish the mission: As a Commission established by CPSC, the APACC aims to accredit and certify the TVET institutions for human resources development through the standardization and harmonization of education and training systems which will facilitate the mobility of the workforce across national borders in Asia and the Pacific region.
APACC is also authorized to perform the following functions: 1. To conduct accreditation and certify the corresponding accreditation status earned among technical education institutions in the Asia–Pacific Region, giving priority to institutions in Colombo Plan member countries. 2. To develop standards, evaluation instruments, processes and protocols for the accreditation of technical education programmes. 3. To establish linkages or partnership with quality assurance agencies. 4. To recruit, train, develop and retrain a pool of accreditors on a full-time or oncall basis. 5. To directly provide or seek other services to provide funds and other resources to carry out the programme of accreditation and certification. 6. To be a source of ‘good practices’ for the promotion of quality in technical and vocational training and education (TVET).
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3.3 The APACC Programme of Accreditation APACC accreditation is viewed as both a process and a result. It is a process by which a technical education and vocational training institution evaluates its programmes, and seeks an independent judgement to confirm that it substantially achieves its objectives, and is generally equal in quality to comparable programmes. As a result, it is a form of certification, or grant of formal status by a recognized and authorized accrediting agency to a programme possessing certain standards of quality. There are a variety of accreditation models. The most common are programme and institutional accreditation. An academic programme refers to a group of related courses, packaged in a curriculum and leading to a diploma or certificate. In contrast, an institution refers to the school, college, university or centre in its totality. Operationally, APACC accreditation will cover, initially, technical education institutions awarding certificates and diplomas in vocational training. APACC accreditation is characterized in the following manner: 1. It is voluntary on the part of the TVET institution that may wish its programmes to be accredited. 2. Assessment is carried out by certified accreditors, under the authorization of the national bodies accredited by APACC. 3. It adopts the APACC accreditation standards as defined in its manual. 4. It is a partnership endeavour between APACC and the applying institution. 5. It is governed by openness and transparency. 6. It takes the form of non-governmental self-regulation, as contrasted to compliance with national rules, regulations and codes. 7. Its immediate target is improvement, not excellence. In practical terms, the latter is the product of a series of improvements. 8. Each programme/institution should already have been accredited by the national accrediting agency. There are benefits derived from APACC as it: (a) lends prestige to the institution, justified by the possession of quality standards, and commitment to maintain these at a high level; (b) helps parents know which institution they may send their children to for quality education; (c) makes it possible for donors and other lending agencies to know which institutions, among those asking for funds, to support; (d) makes it possible for an evaluated institution to know its strengths and weaknesses, and in what aspects it needs to improve; (e) facilitates transferability of credits earned by a student among educational institutions. Receiving institutions take note of whether or not the credits a student needs to transfer have been earned at an accredited institution; and (f) creates employer confidence on the selection of employees coming from accredited institutions. Accreditation status is important to employers when evaluating the credentials of job applicants, and when deciding to provide support for current employees seeking further education.
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3.4 APACC Criteria for Evaluation APACC accreditation makes use of seven criteria upon which the programme under review will be evaluated. Each criterion contains more specific parameters called indicators. The indicators contain one or more sub-indicators called elements. Criteria, indicators and elements are generally called standards at different levels of specificity.
r r
r
r r
Criterion 1: Governance and management. The institution’s system of governance and management is sufficient to manage existing operations, and to respond to development and change. Criterion 2: Teaching and learning. The institution has a clearly defined mission, and has adopted academic/technical programmes with set objectives and learning outcomes at appropriate levels; and has effective mechanisms for delivery and testing to ensure success in meeting these objectives and to enable students to achieve the intended outcomes. Criterion 3: Faculty and staff. The standard of the institution is measured to a large extent by the qualification of the faculty. The institution maintains highranking members in terms of their academic qualifications, experience and professional competence. It maintains an effective system of recruiting, maintaining and developing an adequate number of highly qualified and appropriate faculty. Criterion 4: Research and development. Research is an avenue through which new knowledge is discovered, applied or verified and through which appropriate technologies are generated. The institution maintains an environment that firmly supports research and development. Criterion 5: Extension, consultancy and linkages. The presence of the institution is felt in the community. Its image is enhanced by extending its expertise through extension and consultancy, and sharing, or getting support to, its expertise through linkages. –
–
–
r
Extension. The extension function of the institution involves the application of existing and new knowledge and technology by graduates of the institution to improve the quality of life of the people. Through the extension programme, they are empowered with appropriate knowledge, attitudes and skills. Consultancy. Exploiting the services of the institution by inviting its faculty as consultants to provide expert services, whether paid or unpaid, and recognizing in this way the competence of the institution among the broader community. Linkages. The institution maintains strong links with industry, peer institutions and funding agencies to strengthen its curricular offerings, and forge mutually beneficial arrangements.
Criterion 6: Resources. The institution provides an environment which is conducive to effective teaching and learning and which supports the educational programmes offered by the institution. The adequacy of financial resources, physical
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r
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plant and facilities, library, classrooms, shops, laboratories, information technology, multi-media centre and general education laboratories are paramount. Criterion 7: Support to students. Students are the raison d’ˆetre of learning institutions. Thus, it is the responsibility of the latter to develop not only the intellectual ability of the students but their total personality. Towards this end, a robust programme of student personnel services is designed to help the students, throughout their academic life, attain his maximum potential and to become worthy social participants in the community. Student personnel support services complement the academic programme.
3.5 The APACC Rating System APACC is in the process of developing an interactive accreditation instrument—the tool to be used in the evaluation of the whole programme. It will adopt a rating system with a scoring level of 0%, 75%, 85% and 95% to be used against each indicator (see Table 1). The overall rating will numerically form a total of 1,000 points which are distributed as in Table 2. The weighted points assigned to each criterion are further sub-divided among the indicators within the criterion. The accredited programmes are then classified into three levels (Table 3).
3.6 APACC Pool of Certified Accreditors APACC is in the process of recruiting qualified, experienced and trustworthy educators and administrators who will evaluate TVET institutions in accordance with duly formulated APACC accreditation policies, processes and procedures, standards and requirements.
Table 1 The APACC scoring level Percentage
Degree of compliance
Percentage
Degree of compliance
0% 75%
0–70% compliance 71–80% compliance
85% 95%
81–90% compliance 91–100% compliance
Table 2 Distribution of points in the seven-point criteria Criteria
Weighted points
Criteria
Governance and management
100
Teaching and learning Faculty Research and development
300 200 50
Extension, consultancy and linkages Resources Support to students Total
Weighted points 50 200 100 1000
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Level
Total points
Status awarded
I
701–800
II
801–900
III
901–1000
Accredited for two years. Barely meets threshold of the standards with deficiencies which can be improved within a period of two years. Accredited for three years. Meets standards substantially above the threshold with minor deficiencies which can be improved within a period of one to two years. Accredited for four years. Meets standards substantially way above the threshold with minor deficiencies which can be improved within a period of six months to one year.
APACC will screen applicants in two steps: evaluation of paper qualifications; followed by training and workshops for accreditors. First, APACC will review the information provided by the applicant. If selected, he/she is eligible to attend workshops and trainings for accreditors. Second, the performance will be evaluated by continuous monitoring, written examination and actual accreditation exercises. A certificate will be issued to a successful participant thereafter recognizing him/her as a certified APACC accreditor. The applicant may be any person with the following qualifications: (a) a senior official holding a regular position in the Ministry of Education or Ministry of Labour and Employment in his/her country; (b) at least ten years’ experience in the education sector, five years of which are in human-resource development in the field of TVET; (c) preferably a doctorate degree holder, or at least a master’s degree holder or its equivalent; (d) holding an academic rank of at least an assistant professor/principal or its equivalent; and (e) computer literate, an effective communicator and an acknowledged leader in his/her discipline with a high standard of professionalism.
4 Future Plans and Prospects After the Seoul Declaration, 2004, member governments were formally informed of the establishment of APACC—its roles, functions, benefits and legal implications. CPSC established a Secretariat to develop three major documents: the accreditation manual; a handbook for accreditors; and the accreditation instrument. Since APACC is a major project that entails the investment of sizeable resources, preparations are underway in adopting a firm legal standing. It is also a long-term and continuing project that will stretch beyond the term of the actual and even future administrators. Moreover, it involves relationships with offices/agencies that are not under the administrative control of CPSC; and thus, it would need the sanction of the Governing Board to facilitate the commitment of the relevant co-operating offices in member countries. From 2005, the following planned and prospective activities will be pursued to operationalize the Commission and to implement its accreditation and certification programme:
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1. The further dissemination of information to concerned ministries and national accrediting bodies encouraging them to accept and support the implementation of accreditation by APACC. A Memorandum of Understanding should be entered into between three contracting parties to consolidate their agreement and commitment to accreditation with APACC. 2. Finalization of the APACC documents by integrating all appropriate corrections, suggestions and recommendations made by the participants during the workshop sessions. 3. Prepare an interactive instrument and update all contents of the APACC dedicated website. This will facilitate the flow of information between and among APACC officials, TVET agencies and national accrediting bodies. 4. Conduct a ‘roadshow’ visiting all member countries to promote APACC accreditation and closer rapport with national agencies and accrediting bodies by training accreditors and accrediting institutions. The purpose of this activity is to orient the participants on the criteria, procedures, roles, requirements, evaluation system and benefits of accreditation. 5. Conduct a series of workshops on accreditation for technical and vocational institutions in order to assist them in preparing for accreditation. It will also enable agreement and acceptance of standards that form part of the evaluation for the accreditation of qualifications.
5 Emerging Challenges APACC serves to accredit programmes, institutions and even accrediting bodies for their performance, quality and integrity. Like any other accreditation body, it provides an opportunity to re-examine the validity of vision, mission, goals and objectives, and to check how these are carried out to entitle them to the trust and confidence of the educational community, industry and the public. While the benefits of setting up a regional body are many, it cannot be denied that there are lots of challenges inherent in building this type of infrastructure. In the next section we list the challenges that still need to be addressed.
5.1 Human Capacity-Building Strengthening the capacity of human resources to undertake regional accreditation and certification activities is one major challenge. Although the leader need not necessarily be an expert on accreditation and certification, a working knowledge and experience must be possessed in tune with the subject and associated issues. In an environment rife with hype and hyperbole, to whom does one listen? Accreditors or assessors should possess the needed scientific skills and competence to assess relevance and appropriateness of standards and to conduct formal surveys, re-surveys and other types of evaluation.
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5.2 Institutional Capacity-Building A regional accreditation body is confronted with the need to promote harmonization and standardization of criteria used for evaluation. An initial action would be a review and strengthening of accreditation structures, systems and procedures in the individual countries. Once completed, this would be integrated into a regional accreditation system that seeks to harmonize all national accreditation systems. The challenge of institutional capability-building is not only the promotion of mutual recognition of standards and qualifications but also the strengthening of information centres for speedy sharing of information in and outside the region.
5.3 Resources The challenge of financial realities is often the most serious of all. An accreditation system is a highly specialized, knowledge-intensive endeavour involving significant costs. Regional accreditation schemes need substantial financial and human resources that are sometimes beyond the capability of most member countries. It is extremely important to pool resources together and explore alternative sources of funds in order to implement activities in every step of the accreditation process.
5.4 Involvement and Commitment The design of the accreditation structure, setting of standards and development of procedures must be consultative; hence, it is essential that there is support and commitment from all stakeholders. Stakeholder groups from education, industry, the public sector and all those who will be involved in the process should be convinced of the advantages, as well as the limitations, of the process.
5.5 Diversity with a Common Framework Accreditation and certification systems vary from one country to another. A regional approach should respect this political, cultural and methodological diversity. Currently, there is no regional mechanism for competency and comparability of standards and other criteria for evaluation. These disparities constrain the full and effective utilization of existing institutions, limit access to good-quality education and training, and limit the mobility of both students and staff within the region.
5.6 A System of Incentives and Awards A sensible accreditation system should identify a package of monetary and nonmonetary incentives to applicant institutions. If properly defined, this would inspire individual institutions to strive further for a higher level accreditation. Otherwise, their enthusiasm for accreditation could wane and later expire.
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6 Concluding Remarks A regional accreditation and certification body seeks to harmonize and standardize regional qualifications in order to produce a workforce with comparable and competitive knowledge, skills and values at least in a regional setting. A number of regional organizations, like the Southern African Development Community, the European Union, the Pacific Islands Forum and CARICOM, took steps to harmonize qualifications and standards in their respective regions. Acting to be the main voice for accreditation and certification of TVET institutions in the region, the Colombo Plan Staff College has spearheaded the creation of a commission which would facilitate all standardization endeavours: harmonize guidelines, pioneer regional assessment and accreditation structures, systems and procedures, and provide a clearing-house for all information related to accreditation and certification of TVET programmes. Entitled the Asia Pacific Accreditation and Certification Commission (APACC), it has become CPSC’s implementing arm for accreditation and certification by pioneering regional assessment activities. After its establishment in Seoul, Republic of Korea, in 2004, APACC is preparing for its full-blown operationalization. It has prepared three major documents: the APACC Accreditation Manual, the Handbook for Accreditors and the Accreditation Instrument. It has outlined plans of action, such as the training of accreditors, accreditation of institutions, consultancy visits, etc., for the next two years. Organizing a regional accreditation and certification body can be a very challenging task, especially when the member countries are diverse in terms of geography, economy and social structures. In the case of APACC, several challenges have been identified: human capacity-building, institutional capacity-building, resources, involvement and commitment, diversity with a common framework and a system of incentives and awards. For a successful implementation of APACC programmes, projects and activities, member governments continue to give their whole-hearted commitment to this undertaking and install framework qualifications and skills standards collaboratively based upon the needs and requirements of the Asia-Pacific Region without prejudice to the individual nations.
Note 1. Quote from <europass.cedefop.europa.eu/europass/home/botnav/Story/navigate.action>
Further Reading Asian Development Bank. Asian development outlook 2003. Manila: ADB, 2003. [Special chapter: ‘Competitiveness in developing Asia’.] Asian Development Bank. Key indicators, 2002. Manila: ADB, 2002. [Special chapter: ‘Population and human resources trends and challenges’.]
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Benavot, A. Educational globalization and the allocation of instructional time in national education systems. Geneva, Switzerland: UNESCO-IBE, 2003. Central Intelligence Agency. Long-term global demographic trends: reshaping the geopolitical landscape. <www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/Demo Trends For Web.pdf> Colombo Plan Staff College. Accreditation and certification for TET institutions. Manila: CPSC, 2004. Colombo Plan Staff College. TET Systems in some Asia and Pacific countries. Manila: CPSC, 2002. Colombo Plan Staff College. Transforming TET institutions: the CPSC way. Manila: CPSC, 2003. Cunning, D. Quality in vocational education: an international perspective. Glasgow, UK: Scottish Vocational Education Council, 1996. Eaton, J. Regional accreditation reform: who is served? Change, vol. 32, no. 2, 2001, pp. 38–45 Meyer, J. Globalization and the curriculum: problems for theory in the sociology of education. Lisbon: University of Lisbon, 1999. Park, Man-Gon. Asia Pacific Accreditation and Certification Commission: developments and challenges. Manila, Philippines: CPSC, 2005. (Paper prepared for the Inter-governmental Workshop on Regional Accreditation Modeling and Accrediting the Accreditors, Manila, Philippines, 15–26 August 2005.) Samuels, J. Towards a regional qualifications framework and the work of the SADC/HRD Technical Committee on Accreditation and Certification. (Paper prepared for the Conference on the Reform of Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Gaborone, Botswana, 4–6 August 2003.) Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation. Regional Centre for Vocational and Technical Education and Training—SEAMEO VOCTECH. The impact of policy systems in VTET in the Asia Pacific Region. Conference Proceedings. Brunei Darussalam: SEAMEOVOCTECH, 2002. Technical Education and Skills Development Authority—TESDA. National Technical Education and Skills Development Plan 2000–2004. Manila: TESDA, 1999. United Nations. Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Population Division. World population prospects: the 2002 revision. New York, NY: United Nations, 2003. United Nations. Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Population Division. International migration report. New York, NY: United Nations, 2002. Valmonte, L. Fundamentals of accreditation and certification. Manila: CPSC, 2004. (Paper presented to the International Conference on Accreditation and Certification of TET Institutions. Seoul, Republic of Korea, 2–3 December 2004.) Valmonte, L. The self-survey. Manila: CPSC, 2005. (Paper prepared for the Inter-governmental Workshop on Regional Accreditation Modeling and Accrediting the Accreditors, Manila, Philippines, 15–26 August 2005.) Valmonte, L. The APACC accreditation manual. Manila: CPSC, 2005. (Paper prepared for the Inter-governmental Workshop on Regional Accreditation Modeling and Accrediting the Accreditors, Manila, Philippines, 15–26 August 2005.)
Chapter XVI.8
National Qualifications Frameworks: An Analytical Overview Michael F.D. Young
1 Political and Economic Context to NQFs The idea of a national qualifications framework (NQF) has its intellectual roots in the competence approach to vocational education which was broadened by Jessup (1991) and others in England, who developed the idea that all qualifications could (and should) be expressed in terms of outcomes without prescribing any specific learning pathway or programme. However, neither the idea of competence nor those of an NQF were developed primarily to solve the problems of the qualification system. Both are best understood, at least in the cases of the United Kingdom (UK) and New Zealand, in the context of the emerging neo-liberal economic policies of the 1980s and early 1990s which emphasized the primary role of the private sector in economic development.1 It was assumed that employers themselves would be in the best position to identify training needs, and therefore to say what kind of vocational qualifications were needed. This emphasis on employer needs was seen as best expressed by allowing them to define qualifications in terms of workplace performance outcomes.2 At the same time, trade unions were largely excluded, being associated by the government of the time with a time-serving approach to work-based learning—the old craft apprenticeships—and other forms of restrictive practices. Likewise, giving priority to employer definitions of outcomes limited the role of education and training providers (especially colleges), which were seen as offering what their staff could teach rather than what employers in the different industrial sectors needed. Another important aspect of the political context in which the first framework for vocational qualifications (national vocational qualifications or NVQs) was developed was the need to identify those on youth training schemes for unqualified school-leavers who in a previous epoch would have entered unskilled manual jobs. For this reason, it is not surprising that NVQs became associated with low-level qualifications with limited currency on the labour market. NVQs were based on standards set by employer-led industrial lead bodies. However, as Raggatt and Williams (1999) point out, few UK employers were interested either in enabling their employees to gain vocational qualifications or in using these qualifications for recruitment. As a result, the lead bodies were far from representative and the NVQ framework became employment-led rather than R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XVI.8, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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employer-led, and over-dependent on consultants employed by the lead bodies to develop the occupational standards. The trade unions, though broadly more supportive of NVQs than employers, played only a marginal role in the UK context for reasons already mentioned; the anti-union political climate of the time and the high levels of unemployment gave them very little leverage on policy. The major political function of the NVQ framework in the UK was, therefore, that it provided a mechanism for transferring the control of vocational education from providers to employers. This was something to which an outcomesbased approach appeared peculiarly suited. However, with unenthusiastic employers and governments that were reluctant to legislate, the idea of an overarching NVQ framework made little progress; the most that the NVQs achieved were qualifications at levels 1 and 2 specifically funded by the government’s youth training scheme. In the mid-1990s the idea of a national framework resurfaced and was linked to the government’s new interest in lifelong learning. An NQF appeared to offer the possibility of promoting lifelong learning by accrediting all types of learning wherever they took place and whatever the age of the learner. At the same time, it appeared to fit in well with the idea that improving qualifications should be the responsibility of individuals—not of the government. This link between the idea of an NQF and the promotion of lifelong learning was by no means a specifically UK development; national initiatives were paralleled by a series of influential European Union White Papers. What might be seen as a third phase of government interest in NQFs dates from about the year 2000 and has adopted a number of forms. In the UK, an NQF has been seen as a way of encouraging learning among low achievers when they reach the age of 16 and end their schooling. In principle, an NQF can link adolescent learning to adult education, both of which have been given a more vocational role with the aim of improving people’s employability. This third phase has been associated with the development of credit-based frameworks which, at least in theory, allow learners to accumulate credits obtained at different times and in different contexts as a way of achieving a full qualification. While there is some evidence that a credit-based approach stimulates motivation to gain qualifications among adult learners, it is far less clear that credit-based qualifications provide a basis for progression, except in the special case when the credit framework is geared specifically to progress into higher education. This point will be returned to in Chapter XVI.11 in this Handbook. In some developing countries,3 NQFs have taken on a rather different and more overtly political purpose as part of a strategy for achieving redress and overcoming the inequalities of the past. Access to formal education in South Africa has been, and still is, characterized by sharp racial inequalities. This is a legacy of South Africa’s apartheid past, when many adult Africans were denied access to higher levels of schooling or to other opportunities for gaining qualifications. An NQF, by providing an accreditation basis for treating informal learning as equivalent to institutional learning or formal education, is seen by some as a way of overcoming these inequalities. There are, however, several problems with attempts to extend equality of opportunity through the use of outcomes-based frameworks. The first is that frameworks are essentially
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supply-side approaches to the problem of lack of skills and knowledge. Despite the rhetoric that NQF-based vocational qualifications are employer-led, changes in qualifications on their own can do very little to increase the demand for skills and knowledge, let alone employment. It is sometimes argued that, although an NQF can do little to increase the demand for qualifications, it can at least reduce confusion and be the basis for a clearer system. The problem with this argument is not that clarity is unimportant but that it only takes on a real significance in the context of new demands for knowledge and skills. Clarity is never a goal in itself. Most countries have relatively clear progression routes from upper secondary school to university, at least for a small section of each cohort—that is why progression from upper secondary education to university is often known as la route royale. For the large numbers who do not have access to such routes, the issue is how to improve their capabilities of ‘getting on the ladder’, rather than having clearer routes that they might follow. Another problem is that using an outcomesbased framework to claim that there can be formal equivalence between informal or experiential learning and institutional learning can appear to undervalue the latter, and deny the importance of the kind of knowledge that can only be acquired through institutional learning.
2 What Is a National Qualifications Framework? The organization of qualifications is one of the most basic features of any system of education and training. However, until recently it has been little debated or researched. It may be that it is for this reason that those proposing the introduction of NQFs rarely recognize the radical implications of the changes that are involved. Introducing an NQF based on levels, standards and outcomes is not a superficial reform that leaves most existing education and training provision able to go on as before. If taken seriously, it involves a complete change, not only in the way qualifications have traditionally been organized (and in many countries still are), but also in the deeply embedded practices that underpin them. It implies a shift from placing specialist educational institutions at the centre of the system of education and training to a system in which the learner and his/her opportunities to gain a qualification are at the centre. Whether the concept of the individual learner can bear such a responsibility when real learners differ so much in their capabilities is something that needs serious debate. Using a political analogy, it is a revolutionary not an evolutionary change.4 It is useful to refer to this change as a shift from qualification systems, which in most countries have developed in a relatively ad hoc way in response to specific needs, such as selection for university, license to practice or entry into occupations,5 to qualifications frameworks. Unlike the systems they are designed to replace, NQFs do not derive from specific needs (for example, those related to particular occupations), but from a national decision to establish a common framework that is as comprehensive as possible and covers as wide a range of sectors and as large a proportion of the population as possible. NQFs are top-down initiatives led by
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governments or government agencies, and based on a set of general principles about how qualifications should be designed and what they should achieve. Less recognized, but no less important, is that NQFs are also based on assumptions about the changing structure of occupations and their various modes of recruitment and promotion. It follows, not surprisingly, that implementing an NQF is likely to face considerable resistance from vested interests. These interests may be an expression of power relations (such as the different roles of employers, trade unions and different sectors of the teaching profession), or it may be that an NQF challenges the day-to-day practices of assessors, teachers or managers. Likewise, such interests may be defending out-of-date and unfair practices, or they may be defending educational values that are important in any system. What then are the differences that NQFs embody and why can they appear to pose such threats? The principles of a qualifications framework, such as portability and transparency of qualifications, lead to criteria with which all providers of qualifications are expected to comply. An NQF establishes commonality across different qualifications and specifies qualifications in terms of standards, levels and outcomes. As an approach to qualification design, these features of an NQF stand in stark contrast to traditional qualification systems, where most qualifications are tied to very specific forms of provision (or input), such as a period of school or college attendance, or the time served as an apprentice. Likewise qualifications in traditional systems vary widely in the forms of assessment they require. Some demand an examination or test, whereas others may depend on time served, or on the judgement of a master or employer. No attempt is made or expected that would claim these were equivalent. An NQF on the other hand embodies a principle of similarity which either involves a common approach to assessment across all qualifications or a set of criteria with which any specific assessment scheme has to comply. A third difference is that in previous systems vocational qualifications did not exist in some occupational sectors or fields of study, or did not exist at all levels; qualifications were only developed where a specific need arose and such needs usually related to selection for employment or a guarantee of quality of work. As a result, in most countries, qualifications are unevenly represented across sectors and between levels. A good example is the frequent absence of qualifications in the service sectors. In contrast, an NQF is a form of grid covering all levels in all sectors or fields. Developing an NQF implies that there can be qualifications at any level and in all sectors, regardless of whether there is a specific need for them. This grid approach creates problems. The main features that distinguish an NQF from previous qualifications systems can be summarized as follows: 1. Qualifications are described in terms of a single set of criteria or a single definition of what is to count as a qualification. 2. Qualifications are ranked on a single hierarchy expressed as a single set of levels—each with its distinct level descriptors. 3. Qualifications are classified (in the case of vocational qualifications) in terms of a comprehensive set of occupational fields.
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4. Qualifications are described in terms of learning outcomes that are independent of the site, the form of provision and the type of pedagogy and curriculum through which they may be achieved. 5. A national framework of qualifications provides a set of benchmarks against which any learning can be assessed in terms of its potential contribution to a qualification. 6. All qualifications are defined in terms of elements (sometimes referred to as units or unit standards), and ascribed a volume in terms of notional learning hours expressed as quantifiable credit. A learner has to achieve a given number of credits to gain a qualification. It is these features that, in principle, allow qualifications to be the basis of the goals claimed for them. For example, in principle, qualifications as part of an NQF are designed: r to be achieved by accumulation over time (credit accumulation and transfer); r to be transportable—units of one qualification can be used for other qualifications; r to be transparent—learners know precisely what learning outcomes they are required to demonstrate to achieve a qualification; and r not to require any specific prior learning programme. None of these possibilities were available within traditional qualifications systems. Whether these possibilities are realistic and to what extent they are more important than what is achievable through the bounded scope of traditional qualifications are questions that require further consideration. It is not being suggested that all NQFs express all these features; the list however, represents a model that can be used to compare different national frameworks. The contrast with traditional qualifications systems is highlighted when the list is compared with features of traditional systems largely relying on a combination of syllabuses, past examination papers, attendance at college and, in some cases, a requirement for time served on work experience. The introduction of an NQF involves two processes; the balance between them will depend on the level of provision in a country and the existing system that is being replaced. The first process is the redesign of existing qualifications to fit the criteria of the framework, and the second is the development of new qualifications based on the framework criteria in occupational sectors and at levels where they may not have previously existed. A successful example from the UK of the latter is the social-care sector, where most employees have traditionally been low paid and without qualifications. It is widely recognized that enabling unqualified employees in the social-care sector to gain qualifications based on their existing skills and experience has enhanced their self-esteem and in some cases motivated them to engage in further study leading to new opportunities for promotion.6 Another type of example is new occupations, such as customer service in the UK and, in a country like South Africa, the fast expanding tourism and heritage sectors, which have no previous tradition of qualifications. However, in these cases there are likely to be problems in establishing knowledge and skill requirements.
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The extent to which an outcomes-based framework leads to a complete replacement of the old system depends on how prescriptive the criteria of the new framework are, and whether the framework criteria are made a legal requirement by the government.7 The case of the NVQ framework in the UK is arguably an example of ‘the worst of both worlds’—a highly prescriptive framework in terms of how qualifications and assessment requirements are defined and a government unwilling to legislate. The original assumption of the national vocational qualifications review (RVQ) that led to the new framework was that it would be an instrument for accrediting existing qualifications. However, in practice this proved to be impossible8 and either existing qualifications continued to be provided independently of the framework, or completely new qualifications were developed that complied with the framework criteria. The key distinctions between an NQF and previous qualifications systems are that an NQF is designed independently of any education and training provision, and it is based on a single set of levels, standards and outcomes. It is these features of an NQF that have posed particular problems for those involved in implementation. An outcomes-based framework is fundamentally an assessment framework, not a framework for provision. However, only relatively few learners have the prior skills and knowledge to make use of such an assessment framework, and many (especially in developing countries) will lack skills and knowledge of any kind beyond that needed for survival. Most adults, as well as young people, need provision as well as assessment. This leads to the question of how an outcomes-based framework can be related to institutional provision—in other words to the curriculum, teaching and learning. The NQF developments that have had the fewest implementation problems (as in the case of the Scottish National Certificate (SCOTVEC, 1994) and some national sectors) have modified the criteria listed above and have taken into account the requirements of teaching programmes in the specification of their outcomes, criteria and assessment requirements. Constructing a framework based on levels, outcomes and standards that (in the case of vocational qualifications) describe learning at all levels, from basic manual operations to professional judgement and across sectors as different as plumbing and business administration, requires a completely new ‘generic’ language with which to describe learning. A wide range of very specific and specialist types of learning have to be describable in the same terms. It is this requirement of an NQF that leads to the widely experienced problems of jargon and obscure terminology, and the lack of connection between definitions of learning outcomes laid down in NQF documents and the specific skills and knowledge needed in particular workplaces.9
3 Types of National Qualifications Frameworks Although all emerging frameworks have common features that reflect their common origins in competence-based models of vocational education and training, and the fact that they have all borrowed from each other and from frameworks established earlier, specific national frameworks vary considerably. However, these variations
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are as important as the similarities because they offer different models that developing countries can draw on. These variations are usefully expressed in terms of a number of distinctions.
3.1 Frameworks of Communication and Regulatory Frameworks The distinction between communication and regulatory frameworks refers to the different goals or purposes that an NQF is designed to achieve, rather than its strength (or its capacity to achieve these goals). All NQFs have a ‘communication’ role, in the sense that they provide a map of qualifications; they give some indication of progression routes between levels and, at least in principle, across sectors. The ‘communication’ potential of an NQF means that, at a minimum, it can assist both learners and those involved in career and training guidance in making choices. For this reason frameworks with this more limited role can be described as ‘enabling frameworks’ to distinguish them from frameworks with a more overt regulatory role. Because enabling frameworks rely on agreement and their level of prescription is low, they are far less problematic to introduce.10 On the other hand, with very limited prescription, the potential use of a framework is also limited; its success in achieving its goals depends entirely on voluntary cooperation. No sanctions are imposed on the providers of qualifications who do not comply with common design criteria. As a result, with a limit to its communication role, many of the old barriers to progression are likely to continue. Likewise, qualifications outside the framework can still continue to be used. The Australian framework (the AQF), the Scottish framework (the SCQF) and the French framework represent different versions of an enabling framework. The AQF allows all qualifications to be placed on the framework at an appropriate level, but does not provide any prescriptive definition of a qualification or require qualifications to take a particular form (Keating, 2003). The SCQF defines qualifications in terms of levels, units and credits, but individual providers are allowed to continue to operate with institution-specific ways of organizing qualifications. The levels and credit are available rather than prescribed. In France, the framework acts as a map; however, provision of qualifications is regulated in other ways (Bouder, 2003). The question of balance between prescription and consensus is not to decide which is better, but of purpose and political capacity and therefore what is possible. Over-prescription that has no basis in how qualifications are actually used is unlikely to be effective. On the other hand, framework criteria can give a lead to negotiations between designers and users of qualifications which can assist them in achieving greater portability.
4 Weak and Strong Frameworks The distinction between weak and strong frameworks refers to the ‘strength’ or the capacity of a framework to achieve the goals set out by the government. It is best understood in terms of the features of a framework referred to earlier in this chapter.
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It refers both to the number of criteria that are listed in defining a framework and the degree of prescription that is used. It allows us to distinguish between strong frameworks, like the NVQ framework in the UK,11 the NZQF in New Zealand, as well as the NQF being developed in South Africa. In strong frameworks strict requirements are laid down for including a qualification on the framework, whereas in weak frameworks the requirements are less demanding.12 Again, the Australian framework (the AQF) is an example of a weak (or loose) framework. Governments tend to want to move towards strong frameworks as they provide greater potential leverage, both in relation to co-ordination and accountability. However, the stronger the framework, the less likely it will be to achieve agreement and for the framework to be able to include a wide diversity of learning needs.
4.1 Partial and Comprehensive Frameworks This distinction refers to the scope of an NQF and is a recognition that only in some countries does the NQF include all qualifications that are available. Scope may refer to:
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qualification type: e.g. academic or vocational or those that are publicly or privately owned. Examples of the latter are CISCO and Microsoft qualifications, which play an important role for people seeking employment in these companies or in companies using their software, but are rarely included in NQFs; qualification level: many NQFs exclude university qualifications, and there are countries like England which have specific frameworks limited to higher education qualifications; qualification sector: a framework could be specific to one occupational sector (for example, engineering), as in many cases in Latin American countries (Vargas, 2005). It could also be developed by a sub-national region, especially in a country with a federal government—an example is the proposed VQF (Victorian Qualifications Framework) in Australia.13 There are also cross-national and regional frameworks emerging in the Caribbean, Southern African (SADEC) countries, Oceania and the EU’s five-level framework.
4.2 Unit-Based and Qualification-Based Frameworks NQFs vary in terms of how qualifications are registered on the framework. The starting assumption, shared by most initial proposals for NQFs, is that qualifications should be unit-based; in other words, the learning outcomes assumed to be necessary for a particular qualification are divided up into their basic elements or units. This process of unitization draws on a familiar analytical type of methodology and derives from the functional analysis that was common to much occupational psychology in the United States (Callaghan, 1962). Step 1 involves breaking down the skill and knowledge demands associated with a qualification into its smallest
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parts (units). Each unit is then assigned to a level and given a credit rating in terms of the notional hours needed to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge. Step 2 involves specifying the minimum constraints14 on the ways in which the units can be combined together, as well as the number of units needed to gain a qualification. Step 3 then assumes that the user (employer and/or employee/trainee) chooses his or her set of units and accumulates enough credit to gain a qualification. The idea is that this approach to qualification design maximizes flexibility and choice for learners and employers to put together units in ways that suit their interests. In practice, the unitization model has created as many problems as it solves. Employers and employees (or students) invariably have different interests and the latter frequently lack the knowledge to make reliable choices. As a result, the NQFs in both New Zealand and South Africa have moved away from registering units and the NQF is increasingly based on whole qualifications with only limited opportunities for learners to choose individual units. However, despite the trend to whole qualifications-based frameworks, the idea of unitization remains extremely attractive to policy-makers, as the recent proposals by the QCA (2004) in England indicate.
4.3 Institution-Led and Outcomes-Led Sequencing This distinction refers to the process of implementation rather than to different framework structures. It is exemplified by the contrast between the sub-Saharan countries, which are establishing NQFs on the lines adopted by South Africa, and the approach recently adopted by Singapore. Singapore has a high level of institutional provision for both general and vocational education. The NQF is being introduced to further co-ordinate this provision and to link it to the accreditation of work-based learning. The sub-Saharan countries, on the other hand, are attempting to introduce an NQF with relatively low levels of institutional provision. They presumably hope that an NQF will either act as a substitute for the lack of institutional provision by encouraging the accreditation of informal learning, or that it will act as a catalyst to motivate new provision, especially from the private sector. The danger is that qualifications will proliferate where there is no provision leading to them—an expensive activity without obvious wider benefits.
5 Assumptions Underpinning National Qualifications Frameworks This section builds on section 2, ‘What is a National Qualifications Framework?’, and examines the main assumptions on which NQFs are based. It is organized around the idea that NQFs are based on a tension or conflict between two sets of assumptions involved in the design of qualifications. The section discusses these tensions and some of the possible implications of giving priority, as is the case in the design of NQFs, to the equivalence between different types of qualifications and
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to stressing outcomes rather than inputs. The section distinguishes between different principles and the tensions between them. It is important to stress, however, that these are analytical distinctions that refer to emphases and trends and not descriptive distinctions. I introduce them to make explicit certain implications of introducing an NQF. The first tension in qualification design is the extent to which either the principle of difference or the principle of similarity is emphasized. Traditional qualification systems, at least implicitly, assume that qualifications should emphasize differences. In other words, qualifications reflect particular purposes and assumptions about learning and knowledge; they do not assume that different qualifications (like academic and vocational qualifications) should necessarily have anything in common or be treated as equivalent. It follows that there was no attempt in traditional systems—until the first NQFs—to bring together academic and vocational qualifications, school and university qualifications or the different types of professional and vocational qualifications within a single framework. Inevitably this created problems of progression, transferability and portability, and was at odds with the much-repeated claim that, in the emerging global economy, occupational sectors are becoming more fluid, less insulated from each other and increasingly share common knowledge and skill requirements. Implicitly governments accepted what I refer to here as the principle of difference. From the late 1980s, policy-makers began to think that these problems could be solved by adopting an NQF that was based on the counter principle—the principle of similarity. In other words, they took the view that similarities were more important than differences between qualifications. The more comprehensive the proposed framework was, the stronger were the assumptions about equivalence. It followed that all qualifications were expected to comply with a single, generic definition of what counted as a qualification. The reality, however, is that differences in types of learning, and the skills and knowledge required by different occupational sectors and between qualifications related to general and vocational education, remain. Ensor (2003) gives a perceptive account of the problems that South Africa has had in trying to locate university and vocational qualifications in terms of the same framework criteria. Another way in which the principle of similarity is expressed is in the idea that all qualifications share certain knowledge and skill requirements, known as key or core skills or competences, that can be expressed in terms of a single set of outcomes.15 The problems involved in designing and accrediting (let alone teaching) key skills is a complex issue that can only be touched on here. No one doubts that there are important generic capabilities, such as team working, problem-solving and communication, that are not specific to particular occupational sectors. However, whether they can be taught or assessed independently of their links to specific contents and contexts is open to serious questions. At the most fundamental level, learning takes place in specific contexts and involves specific contents; it does not take place generically. The key types of common ‘skills’ pose different pedagogic and assessment issues. For example, people learn how to solve specific problems, be they in physics or in dealing with difficult customers, but there is no curriculum and no
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scheme of assessment that could teach or assess a form of generic problem-solving that would apply to both. Another example is team working, which may be better understood more as an aspect of personality than a skill or body of knowledge. Lists of key or common skills can act as guides to encourage specialist teachers or assessors to broaden their approach to their subject, whether vocational or academic. All the research evidence suggests that such ‘skills’ cannot be satisfactorily taught or assessed on their own. It can be argued that it is at the curriculum and institutional levels that those capabilities that are common to a range of domains and occupations are best dealt with. The focus of assessment then becomes the institution, not the individual student or trainee. It involves a form of inspection rather than an element of a qualification. The second tension in designing a qualifications framework is that between inputs and outcomes. Traditional (and many current) qualification systems not only rely strongly on inputs (usually in the form of syllabuses) in their definition of a qualification, but assume that qualifications could not be expressed independently of either the content of learning, or the process and institutional setting in which they took place. This principle was expressed in its most traditional and extreme form in the case of university degrees that required specific periods of residence within the university, and vocational and professional qualifications that were based on apprenticeships and ‘articles’. In their concern with access, equality and the importance of providing evidence of what a learner ‘could do’, as well as ‘what they know’, those introducing NQFs have tended to assume that outcomes and inputs can (and must) be separated in the design of qualifications. However, there are examples of outcomes-based frameworks that incorporate inputs. Perhaps the best known is the National (Vocational) Certificate framework developed in Scotland. National Certificates (and the later qualifications that became part of the Higher Skill Framework, Raffe, 2003) were designed in the form of outcomes, but with teachers who would have to convert outcomes into curricula. Separating outcomes from inputs creates a degree of flexibility; however, it is not clear how, independently of syllabus, an outcomes-based framework can ensure quality. Traditional qualifications in fields such as engineering or crafts have, in many countries, relied on close links between qualifications and the trust placed by employers and others in well-respected college programmes and companies with longestablished apprenticeship schemes. In other words, it was the trust established over time between providers and users that gave credibility to the qualifications, and underpinned the confidence that was placed in the examinations, the tests or the judgements by master craftsmen. The idea of an outcomes-based framework arose because, by the 1980s in the UK, this trust was breaking down and government and some employers felt that vocational qualifications were becoming too institution-led or provider-led. Freed from any link with institutional provision and expressed in terms of standards agreed by employer bodies, it was hoped that qualifications based on an NQF would provide a guarantee of both quality and relevance. In practice, outcomes-based approaches have underplayed the extent to which institutions continue to have a role in guaranteeing the quality of a qualification. Outcomes rarely, if ever, stand on their own; new forms of trust in the outcomes and the standards
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have to be developed as a result of usage over a period of time; this leads us back to the importance of institutions, especially in a developing country where there may be few traditions of trust to build on, other than those associated with local communities. One way in which outcomes-based frameworks seek to establish trust is through the registration of assessors. However, this is a new and largely untested procedure that itself relies on trust in the standards for assessors and in the provision of programmes for the training of assessors. It is unlikely that employers or others will value a set of standards when they are divorced—as in outcomes-based frameworks they necessarily are—from any institutional provision or practice. The question that I will return to in Chapter XVI.11 is that if the argument is accepted that any qualification system relies on trust, not criteria or definitions alone, how, in an outcomes-based system, is this trust established?
Notes 1. In the case of the UK, it is important to distinguish between the nationwide NVQ framework and the outcomes-based National Certificate Framework developed slightly earlier in Scotland (Raffe, 2003). The Scottish innovation in the early 1980s is important not only because it was a precursor to the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework developed in the late 1990s, but because it demonstrates that an outcomes-based framework does not preclude the close involvement of providers. The Scottish National Certificate was introduced to rationalize college-based qualifications, not work-based qualifications. It was designed with college providers in mind and became the basis for the more integrated approach to academic as well as vocational qualifications that was developed later. The publication ‘Guide to Unit Writing’ (SCOTVEC, 1994) provides an interesting example of how outcomes can be written with providers and not just assessors in mind. 2. Or National Occupational Standards, as they became known. 3. South Africa is an interesting example and shows signs of becoming a model for other countries in the SADC region. With its combination of leading-edge industries—such as motor vehicle manufacture—rural under-development and acute inequalities, South Africa has significant parallels with Brazil rather than with other developing countries. 4. Readers might like to compare my argument, that introducing an NQF is a revolutionary step, with Vargas’ account (Vargas, 2005) of NQFs in Latin America, which he sees as an evolutionary development from earlier competence models. 5. This trajectory is likely to take a somewhat modified form in developing countries, which may not have had more than the rudiments of a qualification system of the traditional type as it is found in industrial countries. 6. However, in seeking to generalize from this example, it is important to note that social care in the UK is a public, or publicly funded, sector over which the government has considerable leverage in requiring employers to offer their employees opportunities to gain qualifications. 7. For example, sectors that rely largely on small—and what are sometimes known as micro— businesses like beauty care and hairdressing, find it extremely difficult to comply with a common framework that lists requirements for opportunities for trainees to develop numeracy and literacy skills. 8. The new criteria were too prescriptive and too different from the old qualifications. 9. An interesting example of an attempt to develop a more context-specific approach to standards was the Education, Training and Development Practitioners (ETDP) Project in South Africa (NTB, 1997). The project put the case for both generic and context-specific standards;
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however, it was only the former that found favour within the South Africa Qualifications Authority (SAQA). Two senses of the term ‘prescription’ need to be distinguished. One refers to the degree of specification required for a qualification to be registered on the framework. Typical examples are: (a) whether a qualification is required to be available via the accreditation of prior learning; and (b) whether a qualification has to be expressed in a specific number of units to which credit is assigned. The second meaning of prescription refers to the role of the State and whether the registration of qualifications is a legal requirement. However, as was mentioned earlier, while the NVQ framework was strong in terms of its requirements, the government did not make it a legal requirement for all those using or providing qualifications. The term ‘weak’ is not used in an evaluative sense and, for this reason, some people have found the distinction between tight and loose frameworks more useful. It is important to stress that my typology of frameworks is itself open to debate and discussion. The only question is whether it is useful in clarifying issues. Although it has a small population, Australia is an interesting example for geographically large federal developing countries. The individual states in Australia are largely self-governing in the fields of education and training below the higher-education level. The Commonwealth Government (as the national government is known) has developed an Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) that has, up to now, remained relatively weak (and, some would argue, ineffective—Keating, 2003). At the same time, at least one state (Victoria) is developing its own ‘partial’ framework and is exploring ways of linking it to the AQF (VRQA 2003a, 2003b, 2004). The interesting possibility is that, as ways are looked for of bringing federal and state frameworks together, they could modify each other and point to a new type of developmental approach to implementation. An example of a constraint is the number of level 3 units that have to be achieved if a learner is to gain a level 3 qualification (around 75 to 80%). In South Africa, key skills are known as critical cross-field outcomes; however, the latter cover a far more extensive and ambitious list.
References Bouder, A. 2003. Qualifications in France: towards a national framework. Journal of education and work, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 347–56. Callaghan, R. 1962. Education and the cult of efficiency. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Ensor, P. 2003. The National Qualifications Framework and higher education in South Africa: some epistemological issues. Journal of education and work, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 325–46. Jessup, G. 1991. Outcomes: NVQs and the emerging model of education and training. London: Falmer Press. Keating, J. 2003. Qualifications frameworks in Australia. Journal of education and work, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 271–88. National Training Board—NTB. 1997. Phase 2 Report, Education, Training and Development Practices Project. Pretoria: NTB/GTZ. Qualifications and Curriculum Authority—QCA. 2004. Improving skills and qualifications: new thinking on reform. London: QCA. Raffe, D. 2003. Simplicity itself: the creation of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework. Journal of education and work, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 94–109. Raggatt, P.; Williams, S. 1999. Government, markets and vocational qualifications: an anatomy of policy. London: Falmer Press. Scottish Vocational Education Council—SCOTVEC. 1994. Guide to unit writing. Glasgow, UK: SCOTVEC.
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Vargas, F.Z. 2005. Key competencies and lifelong learning: three perspectives on these subjects in Latin America and the Caribbean. Montevideo: CINTERFOR/ILO; Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation. Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority—VRQA. 2003a. The credit matrix. Melbourne, Australia: VRQA Board. Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority. 2003b. The credit matrix: next steps. Melbourne, Australia: VRQA Board. Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority. 2004. The credit matrix: towards implementation. Melbourne, Australia: VRQA Board.
Chapter XVI.9
Developing a National System of Vocational Qualifications John Hart
1 Introduction and a Note on Terminology The aim of this chapter is to inform readers about the development of national qualifications systems and to provide guidance for countries aiming to set up or reform their systems. The chapter is written in the context of vocational qualifications— that is, qualifications that are designed to prepare people for work or to assess their performance in the workplace. Nevertheless, the contents are generally applicable to any qualifications based on standards of performance. It also gives some information about the development of a national qualifications framework that allows comparisons to be made between qualifications. The chapter draws on the experience of the Scottish system of vocational qualifications since the mid-1980s, when the system was subject to a series of major reforms. It looks at the background to vocational education and training (VET) reforms in Scotland and the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) in particular. The SCQF was launched in 2000 to bring together general, VET and university provision with a view to supporting and increasing lifelong learning in Scotland. There is a considerable variation in terminology between countries. This chapter uses the following general terms: Standard: a set of information about outcomes of learning against which learners’ performance can be judged in assessment; standards can also form the end-point of learning programmes. Unit: a coherent set of standards that form a short, unified programme of learning (sometimes called a ‘module’, although the term ‘module’ is often associated more with a package of teaching and learning materials, than with a package of standards for assessment). Programme: a package of standards or units which may or may not lead to a formal qualification. Qualification: a package of standards or units judged to be worthy of formal recognition via a certificate. Learner: any individual engaged in learning, whether in a school, college, university, training organization, home, workplace or through open, distance R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XVI.9, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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or technology-based approaches; the learner may be a student, a trainee, a professional undertaking development activities, a candidate for a qualification, etc. Assessment: the process of judging evidence produced by a learner against a standard and making a decision on whether or not the standard has been met by the learner. Centre: the organization responsible for the assessment of the learner’s achievements against the standards; centres can be schools, colleges, universities, training organizations, skills-testing services, workplaces and other appropriate organizations. Awarding body: the organization that decides whether the learner is entitled to the award of a qualification; awarding bodies can be organizations, such as examination boards, professional bodies or individual universities. Accreditation: a quality check carried out by a regulatory body and usually associated with approving institutions or organizations to carry out a particular function, or with the approval of draft standards. Validation: a quality check carried out by an awarding body and usually associated with the approval of draft qualifications. Other technical terms are defined as and when they arise in the chapter.
2 The Aims and Features of a National System of Vocational Qualifications In recent times, economies around the world have seen rapid changes. The role of technology has altered and grown, the scope and nature of available employment has altered, and international competition has increased. Many countries have also faced significant changes to their political circumstances. Scotland has experienced both kinds of change. Over the past half century, Scotland has had to come to terms with the decline and collapse of traditional heavy industry, such as coalmining, shipbuilding and steelmaking, the rise and fall of the oil industry, and the growth of new industries, notably those based on information technology and services of various kinds. There have also been significant changes in the way that some traditional industries, such as agriculture and whisky distilling, have been conducted, with increased mechanization and new production practices. At the same time, there have been significant political changes in the United Kingdom, where a devolved Scottish Parliament was established in 1999 and, in a broader context, in Europe as the European Union has developed a stronger identity and role. These have also added to the challenges facing the education and training system and, in particular, the world of vocational qualifications. (Scotland has always had its own distinctive national system of education, training and qualifications—this is now directly governed by the Scottish Parliament.) When changes such as these take place in a country’s economic and political circumstances, the national education and training system needs to be able to respond
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quickly and flexibly to emerging needs and to re-train and re-educate individuals to meet the new challenges. The system also needs to be able to recognize previous experience, so that re-training and re-education can build on the learning that this has given rise to. In Scotland the system of vocational education, training and qualifications was seen as crucial in preparing individuals to meet the challenges of the future. In the 1980s and 1990s, a programme of radical change to the vocational qualifications system was carried through to ensure that the system could:
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respond rapidly to changes in the economy and in employment practice; improve the quantity and quality of learning opportunities; make learning more relevant to employment needs; encourage the development of skills that equip individuals for the future, as well as for the present; and improve the competitiveness of the country’s economy by raising skill levels and filling skills gaps.
This was achieved by moving to a unitized, standards-based system with the aim of creating a qualifications system, which would be:
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coherent—creating clear progression routes between qualifications in a national framework; comprehensible—making the choice of qualifications easier for learners and providing clearer information for those who use qualifications for selection purposes; current—making the outcomes of learning more relevant to local and national employment and to enable learners to develop skills that would equip them for changes of employment in the future; credible—using forms of assessment that were valid and reliable and backed up by well-designed quality assurance.
The system was also designed to make it easy to respond to changes in requirements—the idea being that it would be easy to re-combine or update existing standards or to create new standards where these were components of qualifications. And, finally, the system was expected to be flexible, allowing more learnercentred approaches to the delivery of qualifications to be used: greater tailoring of content, methodology and the pace of learning to the needs of the individual learner; more distance learning; and more information technology-based (IT) learning. At the same time as these reforms were taking place in VET, changes were being brought about in school and university qualifications that made articulation between the new standards-based VET qualifications easier and allowed the development of a national qualifications framework—the SCQF—which could incorporate all the main qualifications in Scotland and make it easier for stakeholders to understand the whole field of education and training in Scotland. A detailed account of this framework is given in the final section of this chapter.
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3 Vocational Qualifications This part of the chapter looks at the qualifications that make up the national system of vocational qualifications. It considers the purposes of qualifications, the nature of a standards-based approach to qualifications and issues affecting their design. The national qualifications framework in Scotland (the SCQF) is designed to cover all national qualifications and aims to reduce the importance of labels such as ‘vocational’ and ‘academic’. The aim is to apply the framework to all qualifications and to stress that the true test of value is whether the qualification is fit for its purpose. Although this chapter focuses on vocational qualifications, much of the content could be applied to other qualifications.
3.1 The Purpose of Qualifications Much learning does not lead to the achievement of formal qualifications. Such learning may take place in the workplace, in the community and even in the home, and it may be planned or unplanned. Qualifications require the learner to be assessed in some way, but most qualifications in the kind of system being described here can be achieved through both formal and informal learning. Some may be wholly or partly achieved through non-formal learning. Qualifications can add value to learning in a number of ways. They can:
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Give structure to learning: — by providing targets in the form of nationally agreed outcomes; — by providing clear routes through which learners can progress to higher and/or wider levels of knowledge, understanding and skills.
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Give status and recognition to learning—for example, qualifications may be the basis on which wage rates are settled, membership of a professional body is secured, entry is allowed to further study, or credit is given towards further qualifications. Act as a source of motivation and reward for learners, for example when an enterprise is retraining its workforce; Provide a focus for labour-market planning and for monitoring of the national skills base.
While it is difficult to apply labels to qualifications, distinctions of purpose can usefully be made. Three purposes are distinguished in this chapter. These relate to underpinning knowledge and skills (general qualifications), workreadiness (vocational qualifications) and job competence (occupational qualifications).
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3.2 Types of Qualifications 3.2.1 General Qualifications: Delivering Underpinning Knowledge and Skills These qualifications are designed to recognize where learners have achieved standards that relate to general underpinning knowledge, understanding and skills. These might cover necessary personal, interpersonal and citizenship skills, and the development of a knowledge base which draws attention to the national cultural heritage and to important scientific, social and aesthetic developments. These standards, at a basic level, often form the basis of much of school-based learning, although they are not exclusive to schools. They lead to the achievement of general qualifications.
3.2.2 Vocational Qualifications: Delivering Work-Readiness These qualifications are designed to recognize where learners have achieved standards that prepare them for immediate or later entry to the workplace. Such qualifications provide evidence of the learner’s readiness to progress to further learning or to enter a job. These qualifications often build on the standards in general qualifications by applying an employment focus. For example, general skills in numeracy and mathematics may be deepened and broadened so that they can be applied to a specific employment area, such as engineering. They may also draw on occupational standards, but they will not attempt to develop full job competence. These qualifications can be completed off-the-job, provided that there are learning opportunities to allow for the development of the required knowledge, understanding and skills. Qualifications of this type are important in raising knowledge and skills levels for individuals who are preparing to enter the workforce, or who are planning for a change of employment, or who are unemployed. (In some systems these might be thought of as pre-vocational qualifications.)
3.2.3 Occupational Qualifications: Delivering Job Competence These qualifications are designed to recognize where learners have achieved standards confirming that the learner is fully competent in employment. These jobcompetence qualifications need to be completed in on-the-job workplace conditions or in conditions which realistically simulate those of the workplace. They may be used to prepare individuals for entry to employment, but are more likely to be used to train those who enter employment or to improve or upgrade the skills of those already in employment. This chapter goes on to describe an approach to the design of qualifications that is based on the specification of national standards. This approach can be used for all three types of qualification described above. Given the focus of the chapter on vocational qualifications, however, it concentrates on the qualifications described above as vocational and occupational.
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Generally, the relationship between these types of qualification is that a learner with a vocational qualification needs to add specific job experience in full workplace conditions before being able to achieve an occupational qualification.
3.3 Standards-Based Qualifications Standards-based qualifications may be general, vocational or occupational. They are specified in a way that requires the learner’s level of knowledge, understanding and skills to be assessed against a defined set of pre-determined national standards. In Scotland, as in a number of other national systems, each national standard is defined by specifying:
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The outcome(s) that the learner has to be able to demonstrate. The criteria that distinguish successful learners from unsuccessful learners (sometimes referred to as ‘performance criteria’). The nature of the evidence that is required as the basis for assessment.
They may also specify the contexts in which the learner is required to demonstrate achievement—this is sometimes referred to as the ‘range’. Other terms used for the same sort of qualifications system are ‘competence-based’ and ‘outcomes-based’. There are strong advantages to this kind of qualification:
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They focus on what the learner can do; they record positive achievement; and users can get a clear understanding of what they mean. They are based on pre-determined standards which can be determined by or in conjunction with industrial bodies and can be made publicly available. They do not depend on fixed syllabuses, fixed location or fixed time. (Many standards-based qualifications have notional design lengths and suggested teaching and assessment approaches, but these are usually for guidance purposes only.) They fit well with the development of a flexible and coherent qualifications framework.
Thus, for example, in an occupational qualification, the component standards might together cover all the work skills, knowledge and understanding required to be a fully-functioning employee in a particular job, with each individual national standard covering an aspect of that job. In a vocational qualification, the component standards might together cover all the practical skills, knowledge and understanding required to begin as a probationer in an occupation, with each individual national standard covering an aspect of the knowledge or skills required for the occupational area. For a specific job, the knowledge and understanding covered by the occupational and vocational qualifications may overlap strongly. Indeed, if a learner who has recently completed a vocational qualification moves into the occupation for which that qualification was designed to be a preparation, he or she would already meet some of the requirements (especially the knowledge and understanding parts) of
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the occupational qualification. The additional requirements for the occupational qualification would be to prove that the learner could apply the knowledge and understanding to the workplace and could produce work on a par with employment standards.
3.4 Combining National Standards into Qualifications 3.4.1 Standards or Units? The discussion in the chapter so far has assumed that qualifications are composed of combinations of individual standards—combined according to a set of design rules. However, in some national systems, including that in Scotland, there is an intermediate step. A single standard or a coherent set of standards may form a unit, and units, in turn, may be combined to form a qualification. Standards-based qualifications, as the name suggests, are defined by specifying which national standards or units, when achieved together, have a value and relevance related to the qualification’s purpose. In this system, a unit might consist of three or four standards—for example, all related to a particular aspect of carpentry skills such as installing doors—and covering the knowledge, understanding and skills required for that aspect. The two models are: Standards > Units > Qualifications (Units and Qualifications certificated) Standards > Qualifications (Standards and Qualifications certificated) In the first model, the unit is the smallest free-standing entity to appear on a national certificate. In the other model, the standards themselves might be recorded. Both models have advantages and disadvantages. Probably the key to the selection of a model is to decide the level of detail that is wanted on the national certificate, and the extent to which the fragmentation of learning and assessment is a problem. The first model leads to a less detailed certificate and encourages holistic approaches to learning and assessment. 3.4.2 Is there a Need for Integration? There is a further issue to be considered when deciding on the design rules for qualifications, i.e. whether it is standards or units that are used. The issue arises from the criticism levelled at standards-based learning that it does not properly recognize the need to pull knowledge and skills together to apply them in real-life situations. The issue is whether a qualification is simply the sum of its component standards or units—or whether it is that sum plus proof of the learner’s capacity to integrate the knowledge, understanding and skills in the standards or units and, perhaps, to apply them in unfamiliar contexts.
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The choice is therefore qualification = sum of selected standards/units or qualification = sum of selected/units + integrative component There are strong arguments in favour of each approach. In the development of a new qualifications system, the decision about which system to adopt may depend more on pragmatic issues than on high principle. If the approach including the integrative component is used, the achievement required of the learner in that component should be defined in terms of standards that might cover such aspects as:
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Sampling of knowledge, understanding and skills across the standards or units in the qualification (thus testing longer-term retention); Assessing the learner’s ability to integrate the knowledge, understanding and skills from separate units; Assessing the learner’s ability to apply the knowledge, understanding and skills to unfamiliar contexts.
The approach that does not include the integrative component has the advantage that learners can accumulate credit towards a qualification over time and in different centres. The disadvantage is that such accumulation may become ‘piecemeal’, with little appreciation on the learner’s part of how one standard or unit relates to any other. The approach that includes the integrative component is more likely to encourage the learner to appreciate the relationship between the units or standards which make up a qualification. 3.4.3 Defining Characteristics for a Vocational Qualifications System Pulling together the points covered in this section, a broad set of characteristics which should be present in any standards-based system of vocational and occupational qualifications emerges. These are:
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The range of vocational qualifications should be comprehensive across employment sectors and different job levels. This is to ensure that learners have opportunities for progression to further learning to broaden and deepen their knowledge, understanding and skills. The standards of achievement and the rules of combination involved in the award of each qualification should be defined, publicly-available and capable of valid and reliable assessment. The definition of the standards for the award of vocational qualifications should relate to the standards required in employment and should, wherever possible, also relate to future employment needs, wherever possible. The award of the qualification should be available to everyone who has been formally assessed and judged to have met the defined standards.
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The achievement of the standards and the award of the qualification should not be dependent on a fixed syllabus, the location, the nature of learning or time. The certificate issued to the learner in recognition of the award of the qualification should provide as much positive information about the learner’s achievements as users will find useful.
4 National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs) This part of the chapter considers the reason for the creation of a national qualifications framework (NQF) and looks at the characteristics and management of such a framework. In Scotland, the NQF is called the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework and it includes general, vocational and workplace qualifications at levels from very basic skills to the highest academic awards. Scotland was able to develop this framework by bringing together four well-developed systems of qualifications:
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the system of vocational qualifications with which this chapter is concerned; workplace qualifications that were part of a UK-wide system; qualifications offered in senior secondary schools; and qualifications offered by Scottish universities.
The SCQF was developed by a partnership of authorities responsible for these different systems, strongly endorsed by the policy and executive arms of government, particularly to support the Scottish Executive’s strategy for lifelong learning.
4.1 The General Aims of NQFs The range and diversity of needs that have to be met by a system of qualifications is very great. For individuals trying to use qualifications and for others, such as employers who need to understand the qualifications which prospective employees might have, this range and diversity can be daunting. The concept of a national framework is a means of bringing order into the complex world of qualifications. Examples of the aims for which NQFs have been developed include:
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Promoting lifelong learning for economic or social reasons; Regulating qualifications and qualifications bodies to improve the quality and comprehensiveness of their provision and/or to reduce duplication; Increasing the recognition of qualifications within the national systems or internationally; Improving the quality assurance of the qualifications system(s) which it incorporates; and Improving communication about and understanding of qualifications by stakeholders.
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An NQF may contribute to these aims by providing a guide—for individuals, employers, centres and all other stakeholders—that explains the relationship between qualifications. However, in order to ensure that users can have confidence in the information provided by the NQF, the framework is also likely to introduce some rules to ensure the quality of its contents. The main purpose of the SCQF was to create a common language for qualifications in Scotland that would consolidate and support learner achievement and progression. It was felt that a stage had been reached when a single way of representing the whole system of qualifications was needed, and that this would encourage and enable stakeholders to collaborate further on developing and improving articulation and progression, and increasing lifelong learning. In the ‘Introduction to the SCQF’, this is stated as follows: The general aims of the SCQF are to: – Help people of all ages and circumstances to access appropriate education and training over their lifetime to fulfil their personal, social and economic potential; – Enable employers, learners and the public in general to understand the full range of Scottish qualifications, how the qualifications relate to each other, and how different types of qualifications can contribute to improving the skills of the workforce. These SCQF aims relate to the accessibility and simplicity of the qualifications systems in the framework. The assumption is that more people will become engaged in learning if they can see the possibilities for progression routes from one qualification to another and can use the framework as the basis for planning personal development. In addition, colleges and organizations that offer training will be able to use it to plan their provision, and employers will be able to use it for selection and recruitment, and as the basis for planning to raise employees’ skills levels. In Scotland, the government has strengthened this approach by establishing agencies that can give advice on learning opportunities and ways in which learners can gain financial or other support. Many NQFs also establish nationally-agreed and consistently-applied rules that govern the specification of national standards and the design of national qualifications. Such rules can ensure consistency across the framework, for example to ensure that qualifications with a common name (such as, national diploma of . . .) have a common structure, irrespective of the subject involved. This is usually intended to helps learners, centres and employers to understand the qualifications system and to increase faith in the system. In the case of the SCQF, these rules already existed in the qualifications systems and were brought together. It was found that there was enough commonality for the SCQF to work. For example, all qualifications in the SCQF are based on outcomes. There remain some differences of approach and design between, for example, university qualifications and workplace qualifications, but these are seen as appropriate to the nature of the qualifications and are not a hindrance to the operation of the framework. Finally, NQFs are often designed to play a specific role in the education and training process. Governments and national agencies often see education and training
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as a means of bringing about national change—for example, to lower unemployment rates or to improve economic performance through re-training—and NQFs seem to offer a simple way of making the agencies responsible for education and training more accountable, and of making change and the management of change easier. It is not yet clear whether NQFs are effective in this respect, but it is already becoming clear from experience around the world that NQFs are unlikely to be truly effective unless they are linked to strong national and local policy initiatives.
4.2 The Characteristics of NQFs NQFs are essentially social constructs, which is to say that the form of an NQF will reflect the context in which it operates and the purposes for which it is designed. However, there are some common features around the world:
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There appears to be only one essential feature of an NQF: each NQF must have a system of levels with associated criteria—level descriptors—for determining the level at which standards, programme and qualifications should be placed. Most NQFs are constructed to accommodate outcomes-based qualifications or standards-based qualifications. Level descriptors are usually set out as typical outcomes of learning at a level, and qualifications are usually made up of units or modules that are made up of standards set out as outcomes of learning. NQFs commonly have a means of measuring the volume of learning required to achieve these national standards. In many cases this takes the form of a credit accumulation system that may also facilitate transfer. NQFs will vary in scope. The longest-established NQFs are intended to cover all qualifications regarded as ‘national’—for example, those achieved in formal education, vocational education and training, higher education, adult or community-based education and the workplace. However, there are also national frameworks that relate only to VET qualifications or higher-education qualifications. NQFs may also distinguish between types of qualification and may have design rules or rules of combination that govern the structure of qualifications. NQFs are likely to have some rules to quality-assure their contents and operation. These will vary considerably between frameworks, depending on the nature and maturity of the system(s) of qualifications which it incorporates, but they might apply to any or all of the following: — the standards on which qualifications are to be based and how these standards are devised; — the qualifications themselves (qualifications might have to meet certain technical specifications to be included in the framework—e.g. a clear link to occupational standards);
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— the assessment arrangements for the qualification, including the role of centralized and local bodies in carrying out and standardizing assessment; and — providers—they must have certain resources and processes in place if they are to be allowed to offer the qualification, etc. Whilst the qualifications within the SCQF are subject to external quality assurance, the SCQF itself is not regulated. The main aim of the SCQF is to support lifelong learning and is therefore an enabling framework; it is not designed to be regulatory. 4.2.1 Levels There is no fixed answer to the question: ‘How many levels should there be in a framework?’ The number of levels should be great enough to be able to locate knowledge, understanding and skills of different degrees of complexity, but should not be so great as to create difficulties in defining criteria that distinguish one level from another. It will also depend on the range of education and training sectors the NQF is covering, i.e. secondary school, vocational, further education and higher education. A survey of existing and proposed comprehensive frameworks around the world (Australia, England, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, Wales) suggests a figure of around ten levels is required to achieve this. In terms of employment skills, the standards will require a range to be covered that stretches from those where the learner is required to understand very basic instructions and to have basic levels of life skills, to those where the learner is operating at professional or senior managerial level and is required to apply complex skills and knowledge in a highly autonomous and ethical environment. Frameworks that deal solely with vocational qualifications will require fewer levels, such as the eight levels identified for the European Qualifications Framework by the European Commission. For each level of the framework, a set of criteria (level descriptors) should be defined. These will normally take the form of typical outcomes of learning to be expected at that level and will include outcomes related to knowledge, skills and other competences. The levels will be differentiated in terms of characteristics, such as:
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How extensive and complex are the knowledge and understanding that the learner has gained; The complexity of the skills acquired and the capacity of the learner to apply these skills in situations that are not routine and predictable; The degree of autonomy that the learner is capable of exercising safely and productively; and The extent to which the learner is able to take responsibility for the work of others.
The criteria for levels are very challenging to define. There is a danger in defining criteria for levels that the differences between levels are explained in very complex and subtle language. Given the range of purposes for which frameworks are developed and the range of stakeholders involved, it is important that those defining the
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levels should bear in mind that the criteria should be able to be used by those who are not specialists in the language of qualifications frameworks.
4.2.2 Volume Most frameworks require qualifications to be modular/unitized and have a means of measuring the volume of a unit or module. This measurement can be related to the concept of notional learning time, i.e. the amount of time it would normally take an individual to achieve the national standard, assuming that he or she has the appropriate prior experience and learning support. The idea of notional learning time normally includes all forms of learning, wherever it takes place (classroom, laboratory, workplace, community centre) and whatever method has been used (selfstudy, computer-based, traditional face-to-face instruction). Sometimes this is used to ensure that units or the qualifications they make up are of a standard size. An element of standardization can be useful in making the system understandable and in allowing comparisons to be made between qualifications. To avoid complexity, a broad approach is usually taken, rather than trying to calculate a measure for every standard. For example, in a number of national systems, the ‘currency’ used is that every ten hours of notional learning carries one credit point—and standards may be developed with this in mind, ensuring that all standards have volumes of 10, 20, 30, 40, etc. hours. In the SCQF, the concept of a notional full-time year of learning of 1,200 hours is used as a basis for some of these calculations—e.g. what is a reasonable programme for someone to achieve in a year and what proportion of this time would be spent on this standard or this unit? This kind of measurement is very useful where it is valuable to make comparisons between outcomes of learning—for example, to give recognition to prior learning. It also seems to be essential for the operation of credit accumulation and transfer, and the kind of approach to qualifications design that can make credit accumulation and transfer work. There is a danger, however, that too much standardization (standardization at a too detailed level) will make the system rigid and unable to respond to changing needs and may even distort standards where these are concerned with workplace competence.
4.2.3 Design rules (rules of combination) Design rules, or rules of combination, provide a template for the combination of individual national standards into units, programmes and full qualifications. These are likely to involve curricular or content requirements, including areas to be covered, the balance of mandatory and optional components, and more technical rules using the levels and credit points assigned to the components’ standards or units. The degree of prescription of the design rules will depend on the purpose of the qualification.
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For example, the design rules for a qualification attesting to full competence in a job might simply relate to the need for the qualification to contain a complete set of the knowledge, understanding and skills required for the full performance of the job. By contrast, qualifications designed to be the output of off-the-job training courses may need to be more standardized because of organizational or funding constraints. For example, a national diploma might traditionally represent the outcome of a year’s full-time learning, whatever the subject. It might consist of a fixed number of credit points at certain levels. An example of the design rules for a national diploma, therefore, might be a total of 120 credit points concentrated at level 3, with a maximum of 20 credit points at level 2; a minimum of 80 credit points at level 3; a maximum of 20 credit points at level 4. The option of gaining credit for some learning at level 2 and/or at level 4 does not change the overall concentration on level 3 achievements. It does, however, allow for the inclusion of some introductory learning and/or some extension work, if that is appropriate to the purpose of the qualification. The national standards from which the levels and credit points arise for the national diploma would be chosen to correspond to the purpose of the qualification. For example, a National Diploma in Carpentry would be composed of national standards providing knowledge, understanding and practical skills designed to prepare the learner to enter a job as a carpenter. It might also include elements designed to provide the learner with wider awareness of the work environment, with more general skills such as communication and problem-solving.
4.3 The Management of NQFs NQFs can play an important part in a country’s strategy for the development of a skilled and educated workforce and for well-informed, healthy members of the community. This means that the framework needs to be supported by a wide range of key national stakeholders, such as national and local government, education and training providers, employer and employee organizations and community organizations. NQFs around the world vary considerably in the way they are managed to ensure the necessary support and co-operation. The Scottish framework was developed by a partnership of bodies responsible for qualifications of different kinds. It is not a legal entity, and all involvement in the framework is on a voluntary basis. This is unusual in world terms, since most NQFs have a basis in law and are managed by a ministry or an independent authority set up for the purpose. Although the SCQF is managed on a voluntary basis, it receives government funding for aspects of its development and is formally supported at ministerial level. It also has a National Implementation Plan developed and reviewed by a high-level committee of stakeholders (users, providers and funders) and, in the eyes of the public, this commits these stakeholder organizations to aspects of the implementation. As the implementation period drew to a close in March 2006, new arrangements
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were under discussion to establish the continued management and maintenance of the SCQF for the future.
5 The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) By 2006, most of the qualifications offered by SQA and Scottish higher education institutions had been brought into an over-arching unified framework that describes qualifications and learning in terms of levels and credits points:
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This framework will help raise knowledge and understanding of the range of Scottish qualifications, the levels of qualifications and how they relate to one another. All learner achievement can be described in terms of the SCQF, including the number and level of credits and it is this common language that allows comparison between different qualifications. The SCQF will allow learning to be recognized for credit that has quality assured assessment of learning outcomes. This means not just learning offered in a formal context by schools, further education colleges, training providers or higher education institutions, plus work-based learning and learning as part of continuing professional development; but also learning that individuals have achieved though experience, or perhaps through voluntary work and community-based learning. The framework will support the development of clear routes for progression and transfer of credit from one programme/qualification to another. Where appropriate, and at the discretion of the receiving institution, credit may be transferred from one programme/qualification to another. Where learners have already achieved a defined set of outcomes required within a future programme or qualification, there should be no need for them to repeat this learning. The framework will further support providers of qualifications and programmes in working together to create better links between their respective programmes and qualifications.
Projects have already been undertaken to develop guidelines for the credit-rating of qualifications, for the recognition of prior learning, to map progression routes and to identify where bridging courses are needed. Work to establish systems that will allow students to be tracked along the progression routes which lead into higher education is also being undertaken. This tracking would make clear whether students following different routes are successful or not, and this can prompt reviews to see whether students on these routes need more support or whether the routes themselves can be improved. The potential benefits of the framework are therefore considerable. The introduction of this new education and training framework is an important development for Scotland. Although very few other countries have made such comprehensive progress, the SCQF has much in common with similar national initiatives in Europe
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and across the world. Most importantly, Scotland’s development of a qualifications framework is closely linked to national policies and strategies to widen participation in lifelong learning, in order to enhance the individual’s quality of life and social well-being.1
6 Conclusion The introduction of, or major change to, a national qualifications system has a huge impact on the life and work of many individuals—as learners, employees (including centre staff) and employers. This chapter provides information on one approach to the design of qualifications—a standards-based approach—and draws on lessons learned from the extensive reform of qualifications that has taken place in Scotland. The approaches to implementation discussed in this chapter will ensure that the introduction of, or major review of, the national qualifications framework has:
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The national will, and the national resources, behind it. The capability to develop standards and qualifications that are fit for the purpose. The means to deliver the new system locally through well-resourced, wellsupported centres with well-trained staff. An assessment and quality system that guarantees consistency and stability in the awarding of certificates. High levels of awareness among the general population and high levels of motivation on the part of learners and employers who want to be involved.
This chapter argues for major advantages in a standards-based approach to vocational qualifications as part of a national qualifications framework. Such an approach:
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Allows learners and stakeholders to plan progression routes from one successfully achieved qualification to the next. The standards-based approach also fits well with both traditional forms of assessment, such as written testing, projects and observation of performance, and with more flexible forms of assessment, such as IT-based assessment and assessment of prior experience. Provides increased flexibility in the design of qualifications and in the choice and use of qualifications by learners. It encourages a learner-centred approach to learning and fits well with traditional approaches to learning, such as classroom teaching and workplace training, and to more flexible forms, such as open and distance learning and IT-based learning. Is well matched to the needs of students in education and employees in the workplace. It can also meet the needs of those in informal learning settings and those who have not had positive experiences in the traditional education system. It provides the basis for lifelong learning.
Thus, a standards-based approach to vocational qualifications as part of a national qualifications framework should provide the kind of system described in section 2
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of this chapter and enable all members of society to gain credit and recognition for successfully completed and assessed learning, whether a single standard, a unit or a full qualification in a college or workplace. Individuals will meet their ambitions for personal development, employers will meet their needs for a more highly-skilled workforce and the nation will meet its needs for a more responsive and competitive economy.
Note 1. Further information on the SCQF can be found at: <www.scqf.org.uk>
Further Reading Gallacher, J. et al. Evaluation of the impact of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF). Edinburgh, UK: Scottish Government, 2005. <www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/ 2005/11/30173432/34323> Gasteen, A.; Houston, J. Projecting the demand for qualifications in the Scottish economy to 2009. Glasgow, UK: Scottish Qualifications Authority, 2005. (SQA Research Bulletin, no. 15.) Gasteen, A.; Houston, J. Scottish employers’ attitudes towards qualifications and skills. Glasgow, UK: Scottish Qualifications Authority, 2005. (SQA Research Bulletin, no. 10.) Hart, J.; Howieson, C. Unitisation: benefits and issues. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University, Centre for Educational Sociology, 2004. Hart, J.; Tuck, R. Policy continuity and policy learning in the Action Plan, Higher Still and beyond. In: Raffe, D.; Spours, K., eds. Policy making and policy learning, pp. 103–32. London: University of London, Institute of Education, 2007. Higher Still Development Unit. Principles for the post-16 Curriculum: consultation document. Edinburgh, UK: Scottish CCC, 1995. Raffe, D. Simplicity itself: the creation of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework. Journal of education and work, vol. 16, no. 3, 2003, pp. 239–57. Raffe, D.; Howieson, C.; Tinklin, T. The introduction of a unified system of post-compulsory education in Scotland: Full report. Edinburgh, UK: University of Edinburgh, Centre for Educational Sociology, 2004. Scottish Education Department. 16–18s in Scotland: an action plan. Edinburgh, UK: Scottish Education Department, 1983. Scottish Executive. Life through learning through life: the lifelong learning strategy for Scotland. Edinburgh, UK: Scottish Executive, 2003. Scottish Office. Education Department. Access and opportunity. Edinburgh, UK: HMSO, 1991. Scottish Office. Education Department. Higher still: opportunity for all. Edinburgh, UK: HMSO, 1994. Scottish Parliament; Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee. Final report on lifelong learning. Norwich, UK: The Stationery Office, 2002. Scottish Vocational Education Council. Guide to assessment. Glasgow, UK: SCOTVEC, 1993. Scottish Vocational Education Council. Guide to unit writing. Glasgow, UK: SCOTVEC, 1993. Scottish Qualifications Authority. External assessment moderation in national qualifications and higher national qualifications: a guide for centres. Glasgow, UK: SQA, 2001. Scottish Qualifications Authority. Guide to assessment and quality assurance for colleges of further education. Glasgow, UK: SQA, 2003.
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Scottish Qualifications Authority. Guide to approval for training providers and employers. Glasgow, UK: SQA, 2006. Scottish Qualifications Authority. An introduction to the Scottish credit and qualifications framework. Glasgow, UK: Scottish Executive, 2001.
Chapter XVI.10
National Qualifications Frameworks in Africa Bonaventure W. Kerre and Astrid Hollander
1 Introduction The role of education has been universally acknowledged as pivotal in national development and is the right of every citizen in any country. Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is an integral part of general education and must also be accessible to all learners. However, the practical implementation of this right is a major challenge for most developing countries and especially those on the African continent. Education is one of the sectors most vulnerable to political, economic and social forces in society. Today, there are even some countries where education systems have broken down. These are countries that have experienced prolonged periods of political instability, civil strife and a host of natural disasters, such as drought, famine and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This is especially true in a number of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. At odds with general international trends, reports on the state of education in Africa show a marked decline in participation and funding, especially during the 1990s (UNESCO, 1997). Total spending on education ranges from a low of 1% of gross domestic product in Sierra Leone to highs of around 10% in Zimbabwe and 13% in Lesotho. In 2000, half of the African countries with data available were spending less than 3.4% of national income on education. Most of this money goes towards recurrent expenditure, including teachers’ salaries and the purchase of materials, and the lion’s share is devoted to primary education. At the same time, bilateral and multilateral aid to education decreased overall between 1998/1999 and 2000/2001, although it increased for basic education (UNESCO, 2001, pp. 97–100; UNESCO, 2003, pp. 27–28). Adult illiteracy (age 15+) remains fairly high in Africa, affecting a greater proportion of women than men. In 2006, the literacy rate of the male population in Africa was 71.6%, while only 53.9% of the female population was literate (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2006). The participation of girls in education remains a challenge. Of the 44 million girls out of school worldwide, at least 20 million live in Sub-Saharan Africa. While the total number of children enrolled in primary education in Sub-Saharan Africa
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has gone up, there are still only 89 girls to every 100 boys enrolled in primary education (United Kingdom. DfID, 2007, p. 1). For both sexes, access to secondary education is still limited, with gross enrolment rates of no more than 26% in half of the countries. Although girls’ participation in secondary education rose during the 1990s, the gender disparities built up at primary level continue and girls are still more likely to miss out on secondary education than boys (UNESCO, 2003, p. 7; UNICEF, 2006, p. 3). They are most conspicuously excluded from scientific and technological programmes and careers. Despite the above challenges, some progress has been made where we find, for example, universal and compulsory primary education implemented in Uganda and Kenya. There are discussions on extending this policy up the education ladder to secondary education levels. The quality of education remains a major challenge. There is a need to ensure that whatever resources are available are used most effectively.
2 TVET in Sub-Saharan Africa Most education systems in place in Africa today are either adoptions or adaptations of education systems found in the former metropolitan countries. These included those from France, Portugal and the United Kingdom. They were basically elitist and mainly focused on the liberal arts. TVET systems and apprentice training systems were equally derivatives of the colonial era. These orientations, comprising both education and training, were often perceived as non-academic and thus reserved for trades and skills where practical skill was the main concern. These old structures became increasingly inadequate to respond to the new qualification and skills needs for the changing labour market. In the light of the economic crisis that has affected most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa since the 1980s, many governments considered TVET to be too expensive and reduced public funding for it, which consequently led to a further decline in quality. Most TVET institutions are still under-funded and the curriculum, methodologies, equipment and tools used are in most cases inadequate, outdated and/or of poor quality. This has had an obvious impact on the quality of graduates from the TVET systems. Concerns about the relevance of TVET programmes and their graduates to the needs of modern business and industries are a common feature in today’s discussions in conferences and workshops in Africa. Ultimately, governments have started to view skills development and TVET as important in the drive to enhance productivity, stimulate economic competitiveness and alleviate poverty, and efforts are being made to reconsider and reform policy and delivery patterns. Overviews of TVET in SubSaharan Africa (Kerre, 1996; Atchoarena & Delluc, 2002) reveal that considerable progress has been made in legislation and planning. Since most of these countries face similar challenges, some general trends in reform can be observed such as:
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a shift of policy focus from input to output, through new financing and certification mechanisms; the involvement of social partners in governance; granting more autonomy to institutions; the promotion of private training providers and company-based approaches (Atchoarena & Delluc, 2002, p. 2).
Furthermore, training for the informal sector has come to the forefront in view of the growing scarcity of formal wage employment. There are a number of TVET providers that produce large quantities of trainees for the informal sector. Governments often overlook training in this sector, yet it impacts on the quality of the labour force. It has been shown (Kerre, 1996; Haan, 2006) that the quality of production in the informal sector depends closely on the nature and quality of training. In many cases, informal trainers have acquired experience in cutting costs and providing more relevant training than formal TVET institutions because their training is workplace-based and they have better access to the latest technologies (Haan, 2006). Responsibility for TVET policy and planning is clearly manifested in existing legal frameworks. Management responsibility at the institutional level is very much diversified and varies from one country to another.
3 Reasons for a National Qualifications Framework The traditional way of rewarding educational and training achievement has been the award of a certificate based on the pursuit of a prescribed syllabus or curriculum in formal learning or training situations. This has worked well in such cases as the award of certificates after completion of primary and secondary education levels, as well as some post-secondary and college-level training. Universities offer certificates, diplomas and degrees for the completion of prescribed curricula. In most African countries, TVET institutions offer a wide range of certificate programmes of durations varying from days and months to years. Vocational courses are terminal in nature and there is no clear system that allows progression to and integration with the academic pathway. There is a proliferation of courses and certifications being awarded by various bodies in the public and private sector, as well as by non-governmental organizations. In this situation, it becomes difficult to judge the quality and standard of all those certificates. Reviewing and establishing some measure of standards to ensure quality in both education and training is important, especially for TVET where the rapid changes taking place in technologies and requirements in the work place lead to a growing demand for new qualifications. UNESCO has recommended that member States should ‘establish criteria and standards, subject to periodic review and evaluation, applying to all aspects of TVET
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including, to the greatest extent possible, non-formal education for [. . .] all forms of recognition of achievement and consequent qualifications’ (UNESCO, 2001, rec. 15). Equally, the General Conference of the International Labour Organization (ILO) recommended that: Members should [. . .] develop a national qualifications framework to facilitate lifelong learning, assist enterprises and employment agencies to match skills demand with supply, guide individuals in their choice of training and career and facilitate the recognition of prior learning and previously acquired skills, competencies and experience; this framework should be responsive to changing technology and trends in the labour market and recognize regional and local differences, without losing transparency at the national level (ILO, 2004, para. 5).
Many African countries have recognized the desirability of creating a system of equivalencies and standards of quality and have embarked on the development and implementation of national qualifications frameworks.
3.1 Definition: National Qualifications Frameworks This chapter turns now to the question of national qualifications frameworks (NQFs) and their application in Africa. The concept of an NQF is relatively new in its application in developing countries. It originated in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. It has now spread to Asia, the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa (Atchoarena & Delluc, 2002). A national qualifications framework is basically a quality-assured national system or structure for giving recognition to the attainment of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values in middle-level skilled occupations. It is meant to serve as a comprehensive, nationally consistent yet flexible framework for all qualifications in post-secondary TVET. There is no universal definition for an NQF. Each NQF is nation specific. It is based on the competencies required or expected in a setting of given occupations and training providers within a specific national policy framework. However, there are common principles and advantages that are worthy of comparison, especially given today’s highly mobile labour force.
3.2 The Advantages of NQFs A structured and delineated NQF is a vital tool for the co-ordination and harmonization of education and training in modern society. It has advantages for the nation, trainers, trainees, business and industry, and parents/sponsors as well. At the national level, it helps to equip the work force with the skills needed to meet the performance requirements of industry in a competitive global market. It also serves as a basis for articulation of programmes across all TVET providers and into higher education.
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For employers, it ensures the continued supply of competent employees who are trained at institutions and/or organizations that comply with established standards and criteria. It makes the search for competent employees easier by identifying candidates with qualifications from the nationally approved training providers. It brings together experts from industry and TVET institutions to collaborate and draw up national competency performance standards for business and industry. The NQF gives candidates a standardized qualification that can be widely recognized by employers. It also helps to establish standards for the acceptable transfer of credits among institutions.
4 International Take-Up An NQF is based on national occupational standards. Industry experts come together to define the standards for top performance in their industries. These experts then collaborate with educators/trainers to develop curricula or programmes and assessment procedures that encompass the standards identified. Such a framework must be anchored in the existing legal structure so as to facilitate a comprehensive and all-encompassing undertaking. In situations where such a legal provision is lacking, one must be put in place. Without a legal basis, it would be difficult to bring the stakeholders together and the framework may not have sufficient credibility, thus compromising its enforcement. It is often common practice to have a national body with a legal mandate to co-ordinate the development, installation and management of the NQF system. In the Philippines, for example, the Congressional Commission on Education’s recommendation to create the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) was adopted with the enactment of Republic Act no. 7796, known as the Technical Education and Skills Development Act of 1994, integrating the functions of the National Manpower and Youth Council (NMYC), the Bureau of Technical-Vocational Education (BTVE) of the former Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) and the apprenticeship programme of the Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE). The law was signed on 25 August 1994. In Trinidad and Tobago, a National Training Agency was created in 1999 with the aim of producing the Trinidad and Tobago National Vocational Qualifications System and to facilitate the development of Caribbean vocational qualifications. The Trinidad and Tobago National Vocational Qualifications body was adopted in 2001 and this was the first Caribbean country to include a quality assurance system for TVET. This approach has now spread throughout the Caribbean and in 2003 the Caribbean Association of Training Agencies (CANTA) was established and oversees a regional training and certification system. Soon, all TVET certificates in the CARICOM region will be harmonized. In Africa, which is the focus of this chapter, a number of countries have established and continue to develop their NQFs. The countries of the Southern African
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Development Community (SADC) are the most advanced in the introduction of NQFs. South Africa, Namibia and Mauritius are examples where NQFs are in place and functioning. Other countries of the SADC region are at different stages of development and implementation.
4.1 South Africa The South African example is well known and is also described in more detail in several other chapters of this Handbook. With the SAQA Act 58 of 1995, the development of a South African NQF officially started and it was followed by over a decade of constructive engagement by the government and the education and training stakeholders in the development and implementation process. The process is directed by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), which answers to the Ministries of Education and Labour. To ensure transparency and broad stakeholder participation, SAQA has a national board consisting of representatives of training and educational institutions, employers, business and industry, and trade unions. SAQA defines the NQF as ‘essentially a quality assurance system with the development and registration of standards and qualifications as the first important step in implementing a quality education and training system in South Africa’ and as a ‘set of principles and guidelines by which records of learner achievement are registered to enable national recognition of acquired skills and knowledge, thereby ensuring an integrated system that encourages lifelong learning.’ The five objectives of the NQF are to: 1. Create an integrated national framework for learning achievements; 2. Facilitate access to and mobility and progression within education, training and career paths; 3. Enhance the quality of education and training; 4. Accelerate the redress of past unfair discrimination in education, training and employment opportunities; 5. Contribute to the full personal development of each learner and the social/ economic development of the nation at large (SAQA, 2000, pp. 3–4).1 It becomes visible through these objectives that, next to improved access and progression, the South African NQF focuses very strongly on addressing issues of social justice: the South African NQF was set up to redress the effects of a hated order, and to promote new paths to recognition and access that would be real, and not merely symbolic corrective acts. The NQF was to be an instrument for human dignity and human rights. It was to encompass the whole provision of education and training, not merely post-secondary preparation for work. It was intent on revolutionizing both the curriculum and the institutions of provision (French, 2005, p. 54).
To measure the impact of the South African NQF on the transformation of the education and training system, in 2003 SAQA started a comparative longitudinal study in three cycles. The reports on cycles 1 and 2 can be downloaded from the SAQA
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website.2 The first two reports have shown that the NQF has so far had a moderate positive impact, but the report on the third cycle is not yet available and therefore a final and definite judgement cannot be made.
4.2 Namibia Similar to the case of South Africa, the development of an NQF in Namibia was also politically motivated and designed as a social construct to address injustices created by the previous racist regime. At the time of independence in 1990, the education and training system of Namibia was characterized by fragmentation and unco-ordinated mechanisms of quality assurance, certification and standards. In response to this situation, the first steps were taken in 1996 by an Act of Parliament (Act 29) to establish a National Qualifications Authority (NQA), which should develop and administer a competency-based NQF intended to be a register of all relevant and legal qualifications in Namibia and representing a set of agreements, rules and requirements. The NQA is governed by a council of thirty-seven members who are appointed by and report to the Minister of Education, including representatives of almost all industry in the country, the government, professional associations and the education and training sectors (Swartland et al., 2005, pp. 13–21). Among the different stakeholders, consensus was reached that the Namibian NQF should be based on the following principles:
r r r r r r r
Comprehensiveness in its recognition of all learning and all qualifications attained in the country; Recognition of the individual’s right and desire to access lifelong learning by providing different pathways for achieving success; Quality education and training through the development of standards-based qualifications that recognized outcomes, no matter how they were achieved; Redress for past injustices through, amongst other methods, the recognition of prior learning; Relevant education and training by relating standards to the competencies required to fulfil the roles and/or functions of a job on a certain level in a career structure; Democratization of education and training by providing for the stakeholders in education and training to participate in the system in a meaningful manner; Integration of the education and training systems to facilitate the movement of learners, both horizontally and vertically, in the framework, and to prevent learners from being locked into dead-end programmes.
4.3 Mauritius In Mauritius, work on the development of an NQF started in the late 1990s when the existing certification system was considered ‘as a hindrance to the effective
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realization of national goals in the field of human-resource development.’ A multitude of public and private providers and about thirty different certification systems were operating side by side with several different bodies issuing their certificates, resulting in confusion among students and employers. To address this situation, a study was carried out by the Scottish Qualifications Authority to advise the then Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development on the establishment of an NQF for Mauritius. As a result, a Project Steering Committee under the leadership of the Ministry of Training, Skills Development and Productivity was set up to develop an NQF in accordance with international standards. Mauritius is also taking a multi-stakeholder approach towards the development and implementation of the NQF, which involves several relevant ministries, representatives of employers and business, as well as of training and educational institutions and bodies. The Mauritius Qualifications Authority (MQA) was set up in 2002 to develop, implement and maintain the NQF. Its tasks were to:
r r r r
Formulate and publish policies and criteria for the registration and accreditation of all training institutions; Generate and register national standards for any occupation; Register qualifications obtained from primary to tertiary levels; Recognize and validate competencies for purposes of certification obtained outside the formal education and training systems (Dubois, 2000, p. 38).3
In recognizing vocational qualifications and all aspects of quality and accreditation, the MQA works together with another body—the National Accreditation and Equivalence Council. While the scope of the NQF extends from general academic education to TVET at the workplace, its main focus is on the harmonization of school/institute-based and workplace-based vocational training. For this purpose, the Industry Training Advisory Committee was set up by the MQA with the aim of ensuring that the content of the training courses is relevant to the labour market and reflects the changing needs of the economy.
4.4 Other SADC Countries In Botswana, the development of an NQF is underway and draft legislation and some structures are already in place. The Ministry of Education established a Quality Assurance and Assessment (QAA) Unit, which is the secretariat under the supervision of the board of management. Two sub-committees were also established to augment the functions of the QAA. The Assessment Committee was established to monitor the QAA Unit’s arrangements for external final assessment and ensure its effectiveness. The Quality Assurance Sub-committee was established to ensure that the QAA mechanisms are effective. In the area of vocational training, a framework is already operational under the leadership of the Botswana Training Authority (BOTA). The Vocational Training Act No 22 of 1998 established BOTA and outlined the requirements of the Botswana National Vocational Qualifications Framework (BNVQF). The BNVQF is an integrated system of nationally recognized qualifications and
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nationally endorsed standards for the recognition of vocational skills, knowledge and competencies, which will eventually link to a broader national qualifications framework.4 Other SADC member states, such as Lesotho and Zimbabwe, have also started to draft legislation and to put some structure into place for the development of an NQF. Most of the other SADC member States are at more initial stages of development. One of the driving factors behind this is the aim to develop a regional qualifications framework (RQF) for the SADC region. In 2005, the SADC Integrated Council of Ministers decided that ‘the development and implementation of the SADCQF would proceed in tandem with NQF development in SADC Member States’ (Swartland et al., 2005, p. 11).
4.5 Elsewhere in Africa Outside the SADC region, a few other African countries have taken steps towards introducing national qualifications frameworks. In Ghana, in 1990, the National Co-ordinating Committee for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (NACVET) was established under the joint responsibility of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Manpower, Development and Employment, with the task of formulating a policy for the TVET sector to effectively co-ordinate the public and private formal TVET systems, and to meet the country’s demands for skilled labour. It turned out that the committee was not able to meet its mandate adequately and new policies and structures were needed for technical and vocational education and training. In July 2006, the Ghanaian Parliament passed a bill to establish a Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET). The mandate of COTVET is to secure ‘quality in the delivery of and ensure equity in access to’ TVET (Government of Ghana, 2006, p. 3) and to ‘formulate national policies for skills development across the broad spectrum of formal, informal, and non-formal education. [. . .] It will seek to rationalize the assessment and certification systems for skills’ (King, Korboe & Palmer, 2006, p. 1). In the East African region, it is only Uganda that has embarked on the development of a Vocational Qualifications Framework (UVQF) with the support of GTZ. Kenya and Tanzania do not yet have such systems. They only have national examination bodies responsible for setting exams and awarding certificates in both the formal and informal sectors.
5 Levels of Qualifications: International Approaches Most qualifications frameworks have a set of qualifications established in a hierarchical manner from the low/simple to the high/complex levels. Trinidad and Tobago have five levels, of which Level 1 is the introductory level called Semi-Skilled, Level 2 Craft, Level 3 Technician, Level 4 Professional and Level 5—the highest level—which is equivalent to the Chartered and Advanced Professional Level.
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The New Zealand Qualifications Authority, which controls its NQF, has eight levels of progression:
r r r
Levels 1 to 3 are senior secondary education and trade training; Levels 4 to 6 are advanced trades, technical and business qualifications; Levels 7 and 8 are advanced qualifications of graduate and post-graduate standard.
The Philippine TVET Qualifications Framework has adopted four levels of competencies for the determination of qualification and certification of workers’ skills. Each category/level has corresponding assessment tools that serve as instruments in evaluating the level of knowledge and skills competence for a particular occupation/job. The Ghana National Qualifications Framework consists of a single hierarchy of qualifications nationally recognized for employment and further education. These are: Levels 1 & 2—Proficiency assessment only; Level 3—Certificate 1; Level 4— Certificate 2; Level 5—Diploma; Level 6—Higher National Diploma; and Level 7—B.Tech. In Kenya, formal education has a system of nationally recognized certification from primary through secondary, post-secondary and tertiary levels of education and training. In the informal training sector, the government has an established a mechanism for providing trade tests for certification at the artisan and craft level. Grade 3 is the initial qualification for artisans, followed by grades 2 and 1 culminating in master craftsman certification. However, this system is now obsolete due to rapid changes in the workplace and the arrival of new technologies. SAQA has adopted an eight-level framework, with levels 1 and 8 respectively being regarded as open-ended. Learning outcomes in the form of qualifications or unit standards are registered and their quality is assured in comparison to them (Atchoarena & Delluc, 2002). Level 1 accommodates three adult basic education and training (ABET) certification levels, as well as the General Education and Training Certificate (Table 1). In Namibia, the NQF consists of ten levels, each defined by a set of descriptors detailing the complexity of outcomes of learning attained, the context in which knowledge, understanding and skills are likely to be applied, and the level of autonomy for such application or responsibility for the application by other persons covered by a qualification or unit standard. Further, there are seven qualification types, in hierarchical order: certificates, diplomas, bachelor degree, bachelor honours degree, masters degree, doctoral degree (Figure 1) (Swartland et al., 2005, p. 17). In Mauritius, the NQF aims at integrating academic and vocational awards and consists of ten levels, which include all stages of education and training, starting with the Certificate of Primary Education (CPE) at level 1 and ending with Ph.D. at level 10 (Figure 2). It is made up of unit standards and qualifications (Swartland et al., 2005, p. 37). From these examples, it is quite apparent that an appropriate legal framework that sets out bodies or offices with clearly defined roles and responsibilities must be in place to support the establishment of a national qualifications framework.
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Table 1 The national qualifications framework in South Africa NQF Level
Band
Qualification type
8 7 6 5
Higher education and training
• Post-doctoral research degrees • Doctorates • Masters degrees • Professional qualifications • Honours degrees • National first degrees • Higher diplomas • National diplomas • National certificates
Further Education and Training Certificate (FETC) 4 Further National certificates 3 education 2 and training General Education and Training Certificate (GETC) 1 General Grade 9 | ABET Level 4 education and National certificates training Source: <www.saqa.org.za>
Fig. 1 Namibia: qualifications of the NQF Source: <www.namqa.org/Framework/NQFforNamibia/DiagrammaticForm/tabid/194/Default. aspx>
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LEVEL PRIMARY
/ TVET /
TERTIARY EDUCATION
LEVEL
SECONDARY WORKPLACE EDUCATION 10
Doctorate
10
9
Masters Degrees e.g. M.A., M.Sc., M.Phil.
9
Postgraduate
certificates,
postgraduate
diplomas 8
Bachelor
with
Honours,
Conversion 8
Programmes 7 6 5
Diploma HSC / GCE 'A' Certificate
Bachelor (ordinary degree)
7
Diploma
6
Certificate
5
Level /BAC / IBAC 4 3
4 SC / GCE 'O'
3
Level 2 1
2 Certificate of Primary Education
Fig. 2 Mauritius: qualifications of the NQF Source: <www.gov.mu/portal/site/mqa/menuitem.6097cfe0ee460352d252d51048a521ca/>
In most African countries, such mechanisms are either missing or—if present—at the fledgling stage. Major causes of this problem include: the lack of purposeful legal frameworks; the lack of appropriate manpower to undertake such broad and encompassing responsibilities; the lack of qualified technical personnel in respective occupational areas; and the lack of financial support. The establishment of a national industrial and occupational classification system would greatly enhance the development of the NQF framework. Unfortunately, this is not the case in many developing countries due to the lack of financial support and the lack of a developed industrial base.
6 Standard Setting Standards define the core function of a national qualifications framework. Setting standards is, thus, a crucial undertaking because it determines the critical common features for assessing and evaluating the education and training enterprise. Key elements in the setting of standards include:
r r
Identification and description of jobs, occupations and industries; Determination of performance levels and competencies—knowledge, skills and attitudes/values required for each job;
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Setting the duration and type of certification required—the fewer the tasks or competencies required, the shorter the duration for completion,
The above functions are carried out by teams of experts from business and industry in collaboration with those from education/training institutions co-ordinated by a legally constituted national agency. The focus should be the delineation of competencies required at performance level in each occupational area. However, this calls for a nationwide classification of industries and an occupational analysis, where this may not have already been done, before commencement of the setting of standards. In the case of Namibia, the National Qualifications Authority takes the overall responsibility for defining standards in all sectors where education and training take place, and establishes policy and procedures for the evaluation and accreditation of qualifications in education and training. This process establishes policy and procedures for accrediting providers of courses aimed at national standards. The development of standards is firmly the responsibility of industry and it does so in consultation with designated national standard-setting bodies.5 In South Africa, there are two sets of bodies responsible for the development of standards: national standards bodies (NSBs) and standards generating bodies (SGBs). There are twelve NSBs for each qualification field of the NQF. These twelve fields are formulated from a standard-setting point of view. An NSB is not a standard-generating body, but it plays a monitoring role for its field. Each field is subdivided by industry and job category and sub-fields are formed. SGBs are created in each sub-field and are responsible for generating standards and for making recommendations to NSBs.6
7 Assessment Assessment will have to be carried out to determine an individual’s progress or level of mastery or competence in an occupational area. This also becomes an assessment tool for the effectiveness of the NQF itself. Assessment and the award of a certificate of competency is based on gathering evidence that could attest to the competency of a person to perform a particular job. Evidence gathering may be done through any or a combination of the following methods:
r r r r r r
Observation of the candidate performing a range of basic competency assessments; Oral or written questioning to check the underpinning of knowledge; Feedback from peers and supervisors; Work samples completed by the candidate; Training records; Specific projects developed/managed by the candidate.
Candidates can be assessed under actual workplace conditions where there is more emphasis on competency-based assessment. However, there are situations when assessment or testing can be carried out in a simulated environment due to the fact
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that it might be too expensive to do it in the real workplace. Competent personnel appointed by an NQF body to assess an individuals’ evidence against the requirements of a vocational qualification should carry out assessment. This should be carried out at approved centres, which should be organizations approved to assess and verify qualifications. These are mainly places of employment or providers of vocational education and training, such as tertiary colleges.
8 Quality Assurance A national qualifications framework must be supported by an appropriate qualityassurance system if it has to fully realize its goals and objectives. Quality assurance ensures a consistent approach to monitoring and maintaining the quality of performance (i.e. ISO 9000). It is largely dependent upon the internal and external verification process. An external verifier is a person appointed by the awarding bodies to monitor the work of approved centres and ensure the consistency and quality of local assessments. An internal verifier is a person appointed by the approved centre to ensure consistency and quality of assessment within the centre. One of the important functions of a national body responsible for the NQF is to approve or accredit TVET programmes and providers in accordance with established standards and criteria. Such an exercise is vital to developing and maintaining quality in the TVET system. It also gives employers and individuals the assurance of an institution’s value and credibility. The NQF body should be committed to working together with all TVET providers to ensure that their programmes/centres meet the highest quality and standards. Accreditation of training programmes/centres involves the evaluation of institutions’ facilities and programmes against established standards and criteria. This evaluation determines the programme’s/centre’s capability to meet the minimum requirements of these standards and criteria. The Philippines, for example, has the Unified TVET Programme Registration and Accreditation System, which requires all public and private institutions offering or intending to offer TVET programmes to be registered. The registration process prescribes full compliance with prevailing training standards. In South Africa, the quality-assurance system is organized by the so-called Education and Training Quality Assurance Bodies (ETQAs), which are accredited by SAQA, and by learning providers that have been accredited by ETQAs. ETQAs are structured in three sectors: the economic sector; the social sector; and the education and training sub-system sector. These ETQAs sustain the quality of learning outcomes and standards by registering assessors and by accrediting providers. Accredited providers, in turn, are responsible for their learning programmes. ETQAs evaluate assessment and make recommendations to the national standards bodies on new qualifications and modifications to existing qualifications. The SAQA system is also supported by moderating bodies that ensure that fair and reliable assessment is carried out across the NQF.7
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9 Conclusion In summary, it can be seen that some common features characteristic of national qualifications frameworks in Africa (and elsewhere) will include the following:
r r r r
Recognition of prior learning: it facilitates ease of entry to and exit from the education system through the recognition of knowledge and skills acquired either in school or in the workplace. Two ways of achieving certification or licensing: — Institution-based learning, where learning evaluation is carried out; — Work-based learning, where performance evaluation is carried out. Modularized and competency-based learning based on occupational skills’ standards: each level of certification will have a set of qualifications requirements— competencies identified as duties are converted into modules, while tasks are converted into learning elements. Accumulation of competencies: competencies can be acquired over time and registered toward a specific certification.
The development and establishment of a national qualifications framework is a complex undertaking that requires resources, expertise and proper co-ordination. In the Africa region, some of the major constraints that must be faced in this important undertaking include the following:
r r r r r r
The decline in government funding and the lack of policy and legal frameworks; Employer investment is often low and they are unwilling to support TVET; Parents and sponsors lack interest in TVET as a viable employment option; Employment data is frequently lacking and often inadequate; Linkages between TVET institutions and industry are either absent or inadequate; The teacher-training system may lack competent TVET teachers and assessors, while teachers experience poor remuneration and a lack of career development opportunities.
The establishment of NQFs is still on-going in both developed and developing countries. However, the majority of African countries do not yet have such systems in place. The success of NQFs is yet to be concretized due to the involvement and interactions of many variables, including stakeholders who hold divergent views and expectations in each particular environment. Reviews in pioneer states, like the United Kingdom and Australia, are still on-going and, in some cases, inconclusive. However, there are positive signs that the establishment of NQFs brings some order in the TVET sector. It helps in the setting of standards and makes it easier for credit transfer from one programme to another or from one level of training to another, and even allows easy transfers from one occupation to another. It also brings together stakeholders who, inevitably, will exchange views and experiences about the latest developments in education/training and the world of work.
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Notes 1. See also ‘The NQF: an overview’ at: <www.saqa.org> 2. The first report is available at: <www.saqa.org.za/docs/reports/impactreport/> and the second at: <www.saqa.org.za/docs/reports/impactreport/cycle2/> 3. See also the International Labour Organization: <www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/ skills/hrdr/topic n/t18 mau.htm> 4. The Botswana Training Authority website is: <www.bota.org.bw/html/aboutBNVQ.shtml? page=2> 5. See: <www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/skills/hrdr/topic n/t18 nam.htm#7> 6. Ibid. 7. Ibid.
References Atchoarena, D.; Delluc, A. 2002. Revisiting technical and vocational education in Sub-Saharan Africa: an update on trends, innovations and challenges. Paris: UNESCO-IIEP. Dubois, P.R. 2000. National qualifications framework for Mauritius. In: UNESCO-UNEVOC; Ministry of Education of the Republic of Botswana. Workshop Report ‘Learning for Life, Work and the Future: stimulating reform in Southern Africa through sub-regional co-operation. Bonn, Germany: UNESCO-UNEVOC. French, E. 2005. Only connect? Towards an NQF research agenda for a new stage of atonement. SAQA bulletin, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 52–67. Government of Ghana. 2006. Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training Bill. Accra: Ministry of Education and Sports. Haan, H.C. 2006. Training for work in the informal micro-enterprise sector: fresh evidence from Sub-Sahara Africa. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. International Labour Organization. 2004. Recommendation 195 concerning human resources development: education, training and lifelong learning. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO. Kerre, B.W. 1996. Technical and vocational education in Africa: a synthesis of case studies. In: UNESCO-BREDA, ed. The development of technical and vocational education in Africa, pp. 9–41. Dakar: UNESCO-BREDA. King, K.; Korboe, D.; Palmer, R. 2006. The social composition of skills acquisition and its labour market outcomes in Ghana. (Briefing note.) <www.educ.cam.ac.uk/recoup/Ghana. Skills.Strand.%20Conceptual%20Framework%20and%20Stages%20of%20Research,%2031 %20July%202006.pdf> South African Qualifications Authority. 2000. The National Qualifications Framework and standard setting. Pretoria: SAQA. Swartland, J. et al. 2005. National Qualifications Frameworks in the SADC Region: impacts and achievements in Mauritius, Namibia and South Africa. (Paper presented at the UNESCO Regional Seminar on Secondary Education in Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 21–24 November 2005.) United Kingdom. Department for International Development. 2007. Fact sheet: girls’ education. London: DfID. (A DfID Practice Paper.) United Nations Children’s Fund. 2006. The state of the world’s children, 2007. New York, NY: UNICEF. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 1997. Report on the state of education in Africa: challenge and reconstruction. Dakar: UNESCO-BREDA. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2001. Revised recommendation concerning technical and vocational education (2001). Paris: UNESCO.
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United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2003. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2003/4: Gender and Education for All: the leap to equality. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 2006. Adult (15+) literacy rates and illiterate population by region and gender. Montreal, Canada: UIS. <www.uis.unesco.org/TEMPLATE/ html/Exceltables/education/Literacy Regional CurrentRel.xls>
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Chapter XVI.11
Implementing National Qualifications Frameworks: Problems and Possibilities Michael F.D. Young
1 Problems with Implementing NQFs All countries implementing national qualifications frameworks (NQF) have faced problems. Most of them relate, in one way or another, to the failure of governments to recognize the radical implications of the changes that they seek to introduce. This failure may be expressed in a lack of political support or adequate resources for the agency or authority with specific responsibility for the NQF. It may also be that initial expectations are too high in terms of both what can be achieved and how quickly the benefits of introducing an NQF are likely to become apparent. For understandable reasons, lack of government support is often given as an explanation of implementation difficulties by the new qualifications authorities themselves. However, lack of support or adequate resources are an endemic problem in most systems of education and training. They do not adequately explain the difficulties associated with implementing NQFs that may be specific to them. I will distinguish between political, administrative and what I shall refer to as ‘technical’ or professional difficulties (although the issues are not technical in the narrow sense of the term). Political difficulties can arise from the fact that the responsibility for an NQF is never easily located within one government department. In most national governments, the departments of education, labour and industry and trade are all likely to be involved and are likely to have different agendas concerning how an NQF should develop. Interdepartmental tensions have caused considerable—and as yet unresolved—difficulties in South Africa and various types of compromise have been proposed. In another case, New Zealand, the Qualifications Authority (NZQA) was itself seen as having too much power relative to the Department of Education, especially in the politically sensitive area of the school curriculum. This almost led to the complete collapse of the NQF itself; however, this was avoided as power over the school curriculum was returned from the NZQA to the department. The decision to develop distinct academic ‘achievement standards’ for the school curriculum in New Zealand were based on their own criteria (Phillips, 2003); in other words there was a recognition that the principle of similarity could not be extended to all types of learning and some differentiation was necessary. A broader political lesson from the New Zealand case is that the more an NQF seeks to be comprehensive, the more it can pose a threat to the very government departments that launched it. R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XVI.11, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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Administrative difficulties are most frequently expressed in the proliferation of new agencies and committees concerned with quality assurance, standard setting and assessment that NQFs invariably generate. Not only is there understandable uncertainty about the remit and responsibilities of these new agencies, but they frequently have difficulty in recruiting members and staff with appropriate expertise. Staff who lack the appropriate skills and knowledge can protect themselves behind bureaucratic procedures and delays in the registration of qualifications, rather than focusing on the quality of learning and the specific skills and knowledge to be acquired. This leads to a lack of confidence in the new qualifications and to complaints that the whole process is too slow. In the worst cases, it can lead to little more than ritual compliance by providers seeking to register qualifications. Technical or professional problems (in the sense used here) refer to assessment, previously limited to the relatively straightforward activity of setting and marking examinations, and for the need for a new language of standards, units and levels to define criteria that have to apply to very different qualifications. These descriptions are inevitably experienced as jargon by sectoral and other specialists and lay people who find it difficult to relate the new terms to the skills and knowledge with which they are familiar. Such problems are, of course, never just technical; they always involve judgements of value about learning and knowledge. The problems that such issues give rise to will be reduced if it is recognized that differences in the language used and in approaches to assessment are inevitable, because there are real differences in types of learning and how different types of knowledge are acquired. Common approaches can only be developed over periods of time as a result of shared experience and use—not through tightly specified definitions. A general point about the difficulties faced in introducing NQFs is that, in an outcomes-based framework, the processes involved, such as standard setting, inevitably lose contact with the practices of those involved in teaching, training, selecting and assessing. This poses real problems given that qualifications and the processes involved, such as standard-setting and assessment, rely on trust, but have been separated from the very practices on which the trust would need to be based. Institutions have in the past been the primary resources of trust; the problem this raises for those introducing NQFs is to develop a new basis of trust that relates to outcomes and standards. It is difficult to see what the alternative is to locating the framework in new forms of partnerships between institutions.
2 Approaches to Implementation: Lessons from ‘Success Stories’ Scotland, New Zealand and Ireland can be referred to as ‘success stories’ in relation to implementing an NQF. I refer to success stories with some reservations. However, there are some general implementation principles emerging from these three cases that minimize the conflict and antagonism that have been a feature of some NQF
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reforms. It stresses incrementalism, consensus and compromise, necessary building blocks and policy breadth. I will comment briefly on each of these points.
2.1 Incrementalism The countries that have tried to make a radical break with their previous qualifications systems have had the most acute difficulties. A radical break gives neither practitioners nor those involved in design any benchmarks to test the new ideas against their experience. Incremental approaches minimize the likelihood that ideologies will intervene, and as a result are more likely to avoid polarized positions. The problem with an incrementalist approach is that it is unlikely to appeal to governments who feel the situation of their country is one of great urgency, as in the case of South Africa. The point to remember, however, is that even if a more radical ‘break’ is attempted, the structural constraints on implementation may well extend the implementation period anyway.
2.2 Consensus and Compromise Consensus or agreement is the bedrock of trust and all qualifications depend on trust. Qualifications inevitably claim to represent more than they can demonstrate and therefore can only work on the basis of trust. Genuine consultation processes, such as those that have been a feature of the Irish NQF, are crucial and principled compromises, such as that reached over the relations between the schools and universities and the NQF in New Zealand, are important. The alternative which is typified by the rigid assertions followed by forced compromises over national vocational qualifications (NVQs) in England has meant that the whole idea of an NQF has tended to lose public and professional credibility. It is significant that despite being an early innovator in introducing the NVQ framework, seventeen years later very little progress has been made towards developing a broader national framework in England.
2.3 Building Blocks Scotland demonstrates very well the importance of ‘partial’ frameworks as building blocks for an NQF. Only when a range of partial frameworks—Higher Still, SCOTCAT, Higher National Diplomas and NVQs—was in place, was the comprehensive Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework introduced. It was the existence of the ‘building blocks’ that established both the confidence in, and the practicality of, a broader more comprehensive qualifications framework (the SCQF). Here, the term building block refers to specific levels (upper secondary or higher
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education) and sectors (vocational or academic or an industrial sector like engineering). It does not refer to the elements of a framework such as modules, units, standards, levels and credits, although these may well form elements of partial frameworks. The view taken in this chapter is that the idea of qualifications expressed as independent sets of outcomes in terms of units, standards, levels and credit is a radical and controversial change. However, this separation of qualifications as outcomes from the inputs that lead to them is also embodied in the competence-based approach to vocational education. It follows that, unlike Vargas (2005) in his very useful and comprehensive review of Latin American and Caribbean developments, I see the competence-based approaches to VET not as steps or building blocks towards NQFs, but as part of the implementation of qualification frameworks.1 It is not just a question of users and providers gaining familiarity with the idea of an outcomes-based framework, but how far it can become part of their practice without displacing other important educational priorities, such as the specification of knowledge content and the identification of particular learning experiences. Level descriptors, standards and credit are at odds with many traditional pedagogic practices. It follows that, at the very least, they have to be piloted carefully before they are incorporated formally into qualifications.
2.4 Policy Breadth Although this concept was initially suggested by David Raffe in relation to Scotland (Raffe, 2003), it has a far more general value. It refers to the other conditions, such as the availability of assessment systems, the adequate retraining of teachers, the existence of well-developed sectoral organizations and the new partnerships, without which an NQF can never be more than a ‘map’. Raffe (2003) in a review of an evaluation of Dutch reforms by Nijhof and Van Esch (2004) points out that, in contrast to developments in England, the Dutch case provides an excellent example of ‘policy breadth’.
2.5 Comments The implementation principles that I have developed cannot be straightforwardly generalized, especially to developing countries. Scotland, Ireland and New Zealand are geographically and demographically small, relatively well resourced and relatively homogeneous culturally. Many, but not all, developing countries are small, as in the Caribbean, but almost without exception they lack resources and the necessary building blocks for an NQF, and are rarely homogeneous. It is therefore not surprising that, for example, sub-Saharan and Caribbean countries have adopted more directive, even dirigiste,2 approaches. The question must be raised as to whether such countries have the necessary human resources distributed across sectors and
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institutions to make such an approach viable. It is also understandable that, in regions like the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa, smaller countries have followed uncritically the lead given by bigger countries (South Africa and Jamaica), even though the types of NQF that they copy may not be the most appropriate in their circumstances. It may be that more incrementalist approaches become the victim of political impatience; politicians always want quick results. However, the lessons from the three case studies, and from those countries that have followed a more directive route in moving towards an outcomes-based framework, are that it is mistaken for policy to move too far ahead of current practice. For example, it is no good developing sophisticated level criteria and forms of credit rating if they cannot be related to practitioner experience. Both are like certain kinds of complex tools; people have to learn to use them and modify them on the basis of experience; such processes take time.
3 Further Issues There are a number of further issues that inevitably arise as a result of attempting to introduce an outcomes-based qualifications framework.
3.1 Lifelong Learning and Employability The encouragement of lifelong learning and its contribution to employability is widely stated by governments as part of their rationale for introducing an NQF. Superficially, at least, the opportunity for adults to continue to learn throughout their working lives is supported by a framework that can be used to accredit this learning. However, this link needs to be carefully examined in each case. Two relevant issues are worth exploring; (a) the link between work-based learning and its accreditation; and (b) the relationship between the supply of and demand for qualifications. Learning is often a crucial aspect of doing a job well (or better) and it is important that both governments and senior managers find ways of encouraging it. However, it is only in specific cases that it is likely to be important that such learning is accredited. Two examples are worth mentioning. One refers to those employed in high-skill sectors where mobility between jobs is high, where it is likely that a higher qualification will enhance the chances of promotion. Nevertheless, this is likely to involve periods of study at a university or business school, rather than involving the accreditation mechanisms associated with a national framework. In another case, however, there is evidence of employees failing complete higher level NVQs in management and administration because they find no link between the learning that they are involved in at work and the task of completing the assessment portfolio with introducing an NQF (Gugulis, 2002). Another example is a sector like social care in which few employees in the past, at least at lower levels, had any qualifications at all. The success of NVQs in social care is a good example
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of how an accreditation approach to qualifications that forms an aspect of most NQFs can, when appropriately supported, enhance the self-esteem and capabilities of traditionally low-status employees. As has already been indicated, whether or not the outcome of introducing an NQF is positive for the promotion of lifelong learning is heavily dependent on changes in the demand for skills and knowledge, which the NQF itself can do little to stimulate. Recent developments in South Africa are an indication of how important complementary demand generating initiatives are, especially in a developing country. The South African government has become increasingly aware that the chronic problems of unemployment and poverty will not be solved by the free market or just by establishing an NQF that encourages people to become better qualified. As an alternative, they are beginning to develop a strategy of investment in public works and the development of local infrastructure (for example, water, sanitation, housing and electrification). These developments should not only increase employment (and therefore reduce poverty), but could increase the demand for skills and knowledge; in this context, the NQF can play a role in supporting and shaping this demand by encouraging new provision and promoting the accreditation of work-based learning (Ashton, 2005; RSA. DoE, DoL, 2002).
3.2 The Role of Stakeholders Depending on how the membership of the new NQF agencies, such as standard setting and quality assurance bodies, is defined, an NQF can considerably extend the range of the stakeholders involved. The benefits of this extension are the scope it provides for democratizing decision-making about qualifications and extending the sense of ownership of the framework. However, if this process is pushed too far, especially in shifting the balance from experts in different occupational fields to stakeholders, such as users, community organizations and trade unions, the design and development of qualifications can become increasingly bureaucratic and reduce, rather than increase, quality. There are a number of reasons for this. First, extending stakeholder involvement to groups in civil society, such as community associations and trade unions, makes considerable demands on the employed staff of already under-resourced organizations. This can well lead to excessive bureaucratic delays. Secondly, an overemphasis on stakeholders who have a political interest, but lack knowledge, can undermine the role of specialists from occupational sectors, and lead to downplaying the importance of knowledge content and quality in qualifications and approaches to assessment. Stakeholders should have a role that is similar to the governors of schools and colleges. If they are in a minority they can have a valuable role as guardians of the public interest. If they become a majority, or the boundaries between stakeholders and specialist becomes too blurred, there is a danger that special interests will dominate, and conflicts such as those between trade unions and employers are introduced into a field in which real expertise should be the main basis for resolving differences.
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3.3 Modularity, Unitization and Credit Most NQFs have been associated with developments variously referred to as unitization or modularization. Both are concerned with breaking up qualifications into smaller components known as modules or units. The evaluation literature suggests that these processes do introduce greater flexibility both for learners and users, such as employers, but offers little support for the claim that they are mechanisms for broadening the distribution of, and access to, qualifications. Unitized qualifications are often proposed for slower learners on the assumption that they will find it easier to learn in—what in the UK has become known as—‘bite-sized chunks’. The problem with such an assumption is that if slower learners are only offered ‘bite-sized chunks’, they are likely to become even less able to engage with more structured learning that can provide opportunities for progression. It is important to make a distinction which is sometimes blurred between modularization and unitization. Modularization is best seen as a teacher-led or institutionled process in which the curriculum or teaching programme is the starting point; modules are a formalization and standardization of the informal sequencing that any teacher undertakes. Modules divide up a programme into discrete but coherently linked components, with specific opportunities for students to make choices. Modules may, or may not, be linked to specific assessments. Unitization is a more radical departure from traditional approaches to the curriculum; it refers to the breakup of qualifications not the curriculum, and is concerned with assessment rather than teaching. Traditional qualifications assume that all students or trainees begin together and are assessed at the end of a programme. Unitized frameworks treat units as the building blocks of many different qualifications and each unit is assessed and given credit separately. Instead of the teacher deciding the sequencing of the programme in a specific field, the student or trainee registers for units and then combines the units achieved to make up a qualification. The standard-setting body lays down the rules of combination of units that lead to different qualifications. In a unitized framework it is units, not whole qualifications, which are registered on the framework for the purposes of quality assurance. Unitization maximizes flexibility and choice, but minimizes coherence and the importance of structure in the acquisition of knowledge and skills. Many kinds of knowledge in general education (such as physics) and many skills (such as cabinet-making) that are important in vocational qualifications depend on a particular sequencing of learning defined by subject specialists and are not amenable to unitization.
3.4 Levels and Level Descriptors An NQF is hardly conceivable without level descriptors for distinguishing the levels of difficulty involved in progressing from routine to more advanced capabilities in different occupational fields. However, while there are many statements of level descriptors, there are no examples of which I am aware of a system in fully successful
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operation. Levels depend on the principle of similarity discussed earlier; in other words that it is possible to assign capabilities in fields as different as plumbing and business administration to the same level. In practice, the concept of a level is extremely difficult to apply in other than a very loose way. Another problem is that most actual qualifications, especially vocational qualifications, are multidimensional. In other words, differences in capability reflect differences on more than one axis. For example, a level 3 or 4 qualification on the NVQ framework in the UK includes a level of knowledge and understanding and a capability to take responsibility for others with lower level qualifications and in positions of less seniority. This means that it is very difficult to have reliable descriptors based on a single set of levels. On the other hand, levelling—in other words making distinctions between levels of difficulty when assessing someone’s performance—is a normal feature of the judgements that people involved in work and education and training make. The problem is how to codify this informal levelling into level descriptors without losing touch with practice. A national qualifications authority publishes a set of levels with loosely defined descriptors. Providers of qualifications are invited to comment on how they relate to the occupationally specific levelling with which they are familiar. They are also invited to locate their qualifications on the levels without having to follow a prescriptive set of rules for level descriptors. More explicit prescription of levels is only proposed where it arises out of providers coming to practical agreements on equivalence. One of the more thoughtful attempts to develop an approach to levels is that undertaken by the Victorian Qualifications Authority in Australia (VRQA, 2003a, 2003b, 2004).
3.5 Assessment Issues An outcomes-based NQF implies a radically new approach to assessment based on formal criteria and the judgements of qualified assessors rather than the traditional approaches of examinations or tests. Whereas these new approaches arose from dissatisfaction with examination-type assessment that only measured what people could memorize in written answers, they pose almost insuperable difficulties. They represent an attempt to formalize the judgements of the ‘meister’ in the apprenticeship tradition when, in many cases, the organization of workplaces is no longer based on such roles and the actual ‘meister’ is no longer available. The new approaches rely on two assumptions, both of which need questioning. The first is that objective judgements that apply to specific cases can be adequately expressed in criteria. The research evidence (Wolf, 1995) suggests that it is not possible to reliably locate specific cases according to general criteria. The second assumption is that assessors can be trained, even when they are not necessarily specialists in that particular field; in other words, their specialism becomes assessment. However, there is little evidence of confidence being established in trained assessors. Assessment becomes seen more as an instrument of management and can become reduced to the activity of ‘ticking boxes’; in the process the professionalism of teachers (and trainers) is undermined and quality is threatened.
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There are two further problems with criterion-based assessment. The first concerns sampling. Whereas the meister, or master, drew on several years of observing an apprentice in a workshop in making his judgement, assessor judgements are made in relation to specific instances (or a small sample of them). It is rarely possible for them to generalize beyond the sample and even less possible to state with confidence that the person being assessed has the required broader knowledge and skill to cope with all circumstances. The second problem concerns whether the person being assessed has the appropriate knowledge, either for a particular job or for progressing to a higher level qualification. Assessment criteria based on standards cannot provide evidence of knowledge (Young, 2004). This can, as in the case of NVQs in the UK, lead to the serious neglect of knowledge with consequences for the quality and status of vocational qualifications. The only way that such difficulties can be overcome is if the NQF criteria are flexible enough to incorporate specific content, as well as outcomes in their definition of a qualification, and that these are linked to appropriate forms of assessment that are likely to include examinations. In cases where critical safety issues are involved (as in NVQs in electrical installation), or legal issues arise (as in the case of NVQs for accountancy technicians and financial services), the professional bodies involved in the UK have been able to insist on the specification of content. This situation points to the important role of professional associations in ensuring quality at lower levels of any NQF. However, it inevitably limits the scope of the framework in two ways. Firstly, not all sectors with lower-level qualifications have direct links to professional associations. Secondly, in accrediting informal learning, which is unlikely to include the specification of contents, it would inevitably favour those with access to institutionalized learning.
3.6 The Integration of Vocational and Academic Learning There are both administrative and political reasons for integrating all qualifications within a single framework. Administratively, a single integrated framework should be more coherent, easier to manage and ought to make all kinds of progression simpler. Politically, integration is tied to the idea of promoting parity of esteem between academic and vocational learning. In practice, integration can be a deeply divisive issue. Some in the general education community see it negatively as ‘dumbing down’ the rigour of academic learning and doing away with the idea of education ‘for its own sake’. Others see it as a way of broadening training by requiring it to be more educational. The training community is almost equally divided. Some welcome it as providing the basis for ensuring ‘parity of esteem’ between academic and vocational learning, whereas others see it as leading to academic drift and undermining the importance of vocational qualifications as indicators of competence. The underlying issue is about purposes, and the balance between the two principles of similarity and difference. General and vocational education pathways do have different purposes—intellectual development and occupational capability. However,
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they can be linked—in other words, a cross-over between them is possible because elements of general education can contribute to progression in vocational education and vice versa. On the other hand, at least at present, they cannot be integrated unless their different purposes are seen as unimportant. The possibility, therefore, is linked frameworks in which some of the components of each are ‘transportable’ between them. This approach is, however, based on the assumption that vocational education is always partly educational and only partly about preparation for employment.
3.7 The Accreditation of Prior Learning (APEL) One of the expectations that has been widely associated with the introduction of an NQF is its potential for accrediting informal (or, as it is frequently known, prior experiential) learning. This process is seen as shifting the balance of access to qualifications towards those who have unaccredited skills, but have been excluded from formal schooling. However, while undoubtedly people do acquire considerable skills and knowledge in informal ways, the promises of an NQF in this respect have not been realized. There are a number of reasons for this. First, there is only limited compatibility between informal skills and knowledge developed in specific circumstances of, for example, rural community life, and the kind of skills and knowledge that can be formally accredited. In the process of accreditation, some form of codification or formalization is unavoidable; however, in this process the distinctive contextually-specific character of informal learning is undermined without any compensating benefits. Second, when people do get formal qualifications through APEL, such qualifications are rarely recognized as equivalent to those obtained by formal study. The legacy of the link between provision and qualifications remains. Third, there is a discrepancy between the activities required to submit evidence of the learning engaged in at work and the actual learning involved; this inevitably inhibits the original motivation for gaining a qualification and is one explanation of why few people achieve qualifications in this way. Arguably, this is not just a technical difficulty to be overcome, but a reflection of fundamental differences between two types of learning—the learning that involves acquiring knowledge and skills that may be useful later, and the learning that is embedded in the problems that need to be solved in any everyday working environment. Fourth, a substantial infrastructure, including assessment centres and trained assessors that are widely distributed and accessible, is required if APEL is to be extended on a significant scale. This is rarely feasible even in well-resourced countries, while in less-resourced countries it can be argued that the money could be better spent establishing new programmes rather than assessment centres. Fifth, if a major goal of developing an APEL system is to improve people’s employability, it is more likely that they will need access to further opportunities to study than merely to obtain accreditation for their existing knowledge and skills. In the light of these observations, it is useful to make a distinction between ‘APEL for qualifications’ and ‘APEL for access’—in other words, APEL as a way of
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enabling people without conventional formal qualifications to gain access to further or higher education. There are many successful examples of the latter in the UK and elsewhere and it seems likely, especially when resources are limited, that it is the better investment. Indirectly ‘APEL for access’ has the advantage of providing staff development opportunities for teaching staff who may previously have had little experience of teaching students without formal qualifications.
3.8 The Professional Development of Teachers and Trainers The level of skills and knowledge of teachers (and work-based instructors) is a key determinant of the quality of any country’s system of education and training. Without a major policy focus on improving the teacher and trainer workforce, an NQF, which emphasizes the assessment more than the improvement of learning and which inevitably makes new and difficult demands on teachers to rethink their own practice, can play a negative rather than a positive role. This is especially true if a significant proportion of resources for the professional development of teachers is devoted to assessor training.3 The importance of professional development is another way of stressing the issue of institutional capability. However, in relation to the demands of an NQF, it is not just a question of a shortage of teachers but of the professional development of existing teachers.
3.9 Costs It is beyond the scope of this chapter to comment in any detail on the issue of costs, important though it is. Treated as a separate and distinct policy initiative as it has been in New Zealand, South Africa and the UK, an NQF is always seen as taking resources away from other activities. Treated as a way of reforming and extending examinations and testing, it takes on a more strategic role. There are, however, two principles that echo—trust and professionalism—that might be applied to the issue of costs. High-cost systems of assessment and examinations are a feature of lowtrust systems of education and training, like the UK where there is a considerable lack of confidence in teachers assessing their own students, at least below university level. As a result, the UK, especially England, has proliferated organizations known as awarding bodies, which specialize in testing and certificating students. As trust has been undermined in even traditionally high-trust sectors, such as universities, new forms of quality assurance have been introduced that have accentuated this high-cost trend. This trend is partly a consequence of the massification of education and training at all levels. However, it also reflects features of the educational and wider culture. High-cost systems of testing and certifying for qualifications do not feature to anything like the same extent in high-trust systems, such as in Germany, where
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much more assessment is left to teachers. The implications are that a developing country should opt for building institutional capacity and improved teacher training and professional development as the basis for developing trust in the educational community and within its different sectors. Costs will, at least, be minimized if the wider community develops trust in its teachers. As institutional capacity grows, an NQF can develop a loose and relatively low-cost guidance role. The role of international aid in developing countries is important.
4 Alternatives In earlier sections of this chapter I have stressed the problems involved in introducing an NQF which most governments seem, at least overtly, reluctant to recognize. One alternative approach is not starting with a grand design of an NQF, but to begin by looking for concrete evidence of common practice and where there is a will to explore common practices. This evidence could then be used to support the establishment of ‘partial’ frameworks, which might be ‘ends in themselves’ from the point of view of the participants, but be seen as building blocks leading towards a more comprehensive framework from the point of view of government. New countries have an advantage in that they can see how, in other countries, partial frameworks have led to a framework which progressively becomes more comprehensive, at the same time as retaining its basis in the work of practitioners. Another possibility is that small developing countries could, as in the Caribbean, identify the scope for a collaborative local framework and working with neighbouring countries that are in advance of them. Small countries need, however, to be cautious in adopting a comprehensive framework at the beginning rather than seeing it as the outcome of a series of steps over time. The present Scottish framework (SCQF) had its beginnings some fifteen to twenty years before it was launched. A second implication of existing experience is that the sectors where there has been the greatest resistance to NQFs have always been the universities and the upper secondary schools. The former have high prestige and usually have a long tradition of autonomy in relation to awarding qualifications. Not surprisingly, they are reluctant to lose this autonomy to a new national qualifications authority with little experience or expertise. In many developing countries, the university sector is relatively strong, albeit small and with a relatively good reputation for quality. It would be unfortunate if the development of an NQF is held up by the qualifications authority becoming distracted by negotiations with a reluctant university sector. The real weaknesses frequently lie in secondary and vocational and technical education. In virtually every country, the resistance of upper secondary schools to the introduction of an NQF has reflected their links with ‘high stakes’ examinations that are the basis of selection for university. As a result, they can call on powerful political support in resisting anything but a weak version of a framework. However, as with universities, academic upper secondary education is unlikely to be the weakest link in the education and training system of a developing country. A partial
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framework bringing together adult, vocational and further education on the lines being developed in Ireland is likely to lead to greater benefits (Granville, 2003). The implications of this analysis is that there is much to be said for leaving the universities and upper secondary schools out of any initial NQF and encouraging the universities (or higher education), in association with the upper secondary schools, to develop a framework of their own, which might, at a later date, be incorporated into a full national framework. This need not be seen as a political compromise giving way to vested interests, but as a principled decision that could, in the long term, pave the way for a more comprehensive framework. A very different way of looking at alternatives is to consider examples of those countries adopting an institution-based as opposed to an outcomes-based approach to qualifications (Young, 2002). The institution-based approach treats institutions, staff development, progression routes, certification and qualifications as all parts of an integrated system. Government policy focuses on the reform and expansion of institutions and the links between different types and levels of institution. Qualifications are not treated as separate instruments of policy, and qualification reform develops alongside institutional change. The dilemma for developing countries is that this is a high resource approach; change involves whole system change, which is difficult.
5 NQFs and Developing Countries 5.1 Implications of the Analysis Given the history of NQFs in the last twenty years, it is inevitable that most of the experiences on which this chapter draws (with the exception of South Africa), come from industrialized countries such as England, Scotland and New Zealand— all countries with relatively high levels of resources. It is therefore with caution that one extrapolates beyond the level of analysis to make prescriptions. On the other hand, my own research and experience in South Africa, although a far from typical developing country, suggests that it is extremely important that developing countries considering the introduction of an NQF do learn lessons from the experience of countries that have already moved in that direction. In particular, it is important not to assume that an NQF is any kind of ‘magic wand’ of educational reform. There are no prescriptions or ‘how-to-do-it’ manuals to read from other countries and the attempt to do so by the indiscriminate employment of foreign consultants is likely to lead to many of the problems discussed in this chapter. Anything other than a cautious approach, aware on the one hand of the limited role of an NQF in achieving change, and on the other hand that NQFs can never be seen in isolation, is likely to face the kind of difficulties experienced in the implementation of the NQF in South Africa (Young, 2003). An important, but less contentious, issue is that developing countries are under considerable pressure to get their qualifications recognized internationally. The
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development of the ‘referencing’ role of NQFs is consistent with the broader trend towards internationalization, which is a feature of European countries as the European Union drives the development of a European qualifications framework. In this regard, the idea of a referencing rather than a regulatory role for NQFs developed by CEDEFOP may be worth exploring (Coles & Oates, 2004). The trend towards international accreditation needs to be treated not just as an opportunity for developing countries to get their qualifications recognized internationally, but as an opportunity to learn about what really happens in other countries.
6 Conclusions and Future Possibilities The main thrust of this chapter has been cautionary. It has warned that NQFs, like the competence models of vocational education before them, have been over-hyped at government level and sometimes supported uncritically, both by educational activists who see them as an instrument of radical transformation, and for less scrupulous reasons by international consultants. The future of NQFs is likely to be far less dramatic than the hype. There is undoubtedly evidence of convergence and increased mobility, both within and between national economies, and this lends support to at least some of the assumptions of the movement to introduce NQFs. Qualification systems are likely to become more—not less—international and make more demands on NQFs as systems of reference or quality assurance. NQFs, even if undeveloped and relatively ‘loose’ in the sense described here, can contribute modestly to the greater integration of the developed and developing worlds from which both can benefit, provided lessons are learned from past experience, and they do not get bogged down in the complex and ultimately disastrous specifying of standards, units, levels and credit systems and quality assurance. It is also possible, if the implementation of NQFs is not forced through prematurely, that the existence of even a relatively ‘loose’ framework could contribute to cross-sector dialogues and agreements, which might not have happened without it. In the process, it is possible that those involved in formal education, employers and employees and the wider community will develop a greater understanding of the kinds of learning that are possible in such different contexts, and as a result develop a greater trust in the potential of equivalences. My argument, however, has been that this will only occur on the basis of recognizing the fundamental differences between the types of learning and knowledge, rather than assuming their equivalence beforehand. It is less clear that NQFs are a tool either for redistributing education and training opportunities, or for stimulating demand for more people to become qualified, as governments in many developing countries hope. Inequalities in education are a product of the institutional arrangements of a society; it is these institutional arrangements, more than the qualifications structure, that sustain wider inequalities. Another reason for being cautionary about the distributional possibilities of NQFs
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is that the potential, at least on its own, of accrediting the informal, the experiential and the tacit dimensions and types of learning and knowledge has been vastly exaggerated. All learning involves a tacit dimension; it is never as adequately described as it is in the transmission of formal knowledge or skills. However, much tacit or experiential learning, while important for everyday living, is limited on its own, because it remains cut off from the powerful bodies of knowledge that human societies have developed over the centuries, and from which so many in developing countries are excluded. The limitations of an NQF are inherent in the assumption that learning can be adequately expressed in terms of outcomes. Outcomes cannot grasp the nature of bodies of knowledge and the complex processes we describe as transmission, pedagogy and curriculum through which they are acquired and renewed. An effective NQF must expand the space for these processes and will be better able to do this if it is less, rather than more, prescriptive. Narrow prescription is always a product of insecurity and a search for certainty and accountability in a world which is neither certain nor accountable. These are understandable goals. However, not only are they unachievable, the price paid for trying, which involves routines replacing rigour, is too high. A major theme of this chapter has been the importance of trust and the dependence of qualifications, and therefore NQFs, on trust. Trust, especially in developing countries is scarce beyond that located in small communities; it has to be created. It is in creating trust that a developmental rather than a regulatory approach to an NQF needs to be supported; groups and sectors can be asked to pilot levels and standards and report back. Establishing trust is incompatible with a narrow prescription of outcomes, especially where both skills and bodies of knowledge are becoming more fluid and changing faster than ever before. In these new circumstances, establishing trust rather than merely setting and monitoring standards will be the major task of qualification agencies and authorities. Developing countries, as in all things, have acute difficulties hardly recognized by those of us in Europe and North America. Sometimes, as in the case of the invention of microcredit arrangements in Bangladesh, these difficulties can be sources of innovation. The analogy of qualifications as a currency can only be taken so far, even though banks also rely on trust. Education and training are institutions and processes that can dramatically extend and expand learning. Expanded local learning needs qualification frameworks to link the learning acquired in local institutions into more formalized systems and to provide pathways to their highest reaches. It is in institution-building, supported by a developmental approach to qualification frameworks, that developing countries must put their investment and their energies, not the other way round.
6.1 Options Three factors have been identified as inhibiting the implementation of NQFs. They are: (a) over-complex approaches; (b) over-ambitious visions; and (c) top-down
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strategies. None of these approaches to implementation take account of the realities in which qualifications actually work. A logical conclusion would appear to be that any future strategy, especially for a developing country with limited resources, should be based on simplicity, an incremental vision and encouraging local initiative. My own conclusion is that there is more merit in the latter two than in the former. Anyone looking at the complexity of the documents generated by the QCA, SAQA or the NZQA could not but endorse the merits of simplicity; they are jargon ridden and often unreadable except to those who have written them or who have explicitly learned to read them. Furthermore, there are no unambiguous ways in which the criteria and standards developed can be linked to specific and concrete examples of learning. However, simplification is not an answer because qualification frameworks that seek to include all types of institution- and work-based learning, at all levels and in all sectors, cannot avoid being complex. Simplification on its own would only lead to confusion and greater ambiguity. The real problem is that only those working in national qualifications authorities need to grasp all the complexities that frameworks try to include (just as only airline pilots need to be able to follow a route that stretches across continents). Most people need to understand some qualifications and where they lead to and the possibilities of progression from the routes and qualifications that they know or are interested in. This suggests that a beginning should be made where people, employers, students, trainees and other users find themselves and work out towards national frameworks as the need arises. Hence, there is a strong argument for encouraging locally generated (using local not just in the geographical sense) partial frameworks that link institutions and, where appropriate, their communities. The role of the national qualifications authority becomes that of seeking ways of supporting the development of partial frameworks and, at appropriate points when they have gained confidence and trust, helping them to link nationally and internationally. The second theme that I have referred to is incrementalism; however this poses two problems. The first is—what are the increments? The second is that the countries like Scotland that have developed an incremental strategy did not have an NQF in mind when they launched their first incremental step towards an NQF: the 16+ Action Plan for a National Certificate. New countries cannot begin in the way that Scotland did. However, they can draw on the experience of Scotland and begin where the need is greatest and where there is real political support and at least some expertise. They can link local regional and sector initiatives to a long-term vision. They can draw on the potential of collaborating with neighbouring countries—not necessarily in regional frameworks, but in pooling resources for research and development and pilots. NQFs need units, credits and level descriptors, but they are not increments in the sense used in this chapter. They have to be embedded in their uses, not developed as abstract lists as is so often seen. A fully workable NQF is not something that can be designed in advance of implementation; it will be the outcome of many different initiatives and reforms developed over many years. There is no other way.
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Notes 1. The danger of treating competence-based approaches as a step towards NQFs is that it can lead to a neglect of the extent to which the competence-based approaches themselves represent a break with institution- or input-based approaches. 2. I use this term to emphasize the way some governments have gone ahead with introducing an NQF as a consequence of a sense of urgency, but with relatively minimum consultation or experience. 3. In the UK, teachers wanting to assess students for the new outcomes-based national vocational qualifications were required to gain new assessor qualifications. They frequently experienced this requirement as deskilling and undermining their professionalism without offering them any new skills or knowledge (Lucas, 2004).
References Ashton, D. 2005. High skills: the concept and its application in South Africa. Journal of education and work, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 19–32. [Special issue on skill development in South Africa.] Coles, M.; Oates, T. 2004. European reference levels for education and training: promoting credit transfer and mutual trust. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. (CEDEFOP Panorama series, 109.) Granville, G. 2003. ‘Stop making sense’: chaos and coherence in the formulation of the Irish Qualifications Framework. Journal of education and work, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 259–70. Gugulis, I. 2002. Skill and qualification: the contribution of NVQs to raising skill levels. Oxford, UK: Economic and Social Research Council. (SKOPE Research Paper, no. 36.) Lucas, N. 2004 Teaching in further education: new perspectives for a changing context. London: University of London, Institute of Education. Nijhof, W.J.; Van Esch, W., eds. 2004. Unravelling policy, power, process and performance: the formative evaluation of the Dutch Adult and Vocational Education Act. ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands: CINOP. Phillips, D. 2003. Lessons from the New Zealand Qualifications Framework. Journal of education and work, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 289–304. Raffe, D. 2003. Simplicity itself: the creation of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework. Journal of education and work, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 94–109. Republic of South Africa. Department of Education; Department of Labour. 2002. Report of the Study Team on the Implementation of the National Qualifications Framework. Pretoria. Vargas, F.Z. 2005. Key competencies and lifelong learning: three perspectives on these subjects in Latin America and the Caribbean. Montevideo: CINTERFOR, ILO; Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation. Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority. 2003a. The credit matrix. Melbourne, Australia: VRQA Board. Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority. 2003b. The credit matrix: next steps. Melbourne, Australia: VRQA Board. Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority. 2004. The credit matrix: towards implementation. Melbourne, Australia: VRQA Board. Wolf, A. 1995: Competence-based assessment. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. Young, M. 2002. Contrasting approaches to qualifications. In: Evans, K.; Hodkinson, P.; Unwin, L., eds. Working to learn. London: Kogan Page. Young, M. 2003. A conceptual critique of an interdependent qualification framework system. Pretoria: Council on Higher Education. Young, M. 2004. Conceptualising vocational knowledge: some theoretical considerations. In: Rainbird, H.; Fuller, A.; Munro, A., eds. Work place learning in context. London: RoutledgeFalmer.
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Chapter XVI.12
Labour Mobility and Mutual Recognition of Skills and Qualifications: The European Union and Australia/New Zealand1 Chandra Shah and Michael Long
1 Introduction Migration is an age-old new phenomenon. Before the First World War there were few border controls and although the subsequent introduction of passports restricted the movements of people, the improvement in mass transportation has now increased the opportunities for migration. After the Second World War, labour shortages in many economies around the globe encouraged large migrations, not only to the traditional New World destinations, such as the United States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, but also to Europe (Chiswick & Hatton, 2002). Economic co-operation agreements between nations (e.g. Australia/New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement (CER); the European Union (EU); the North American Free Trade Agreement; and General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)) have facilitated the increase in migration over the last fifty years. Economic co-operation agreements deal with labour mobility in several ways, ranging from allowing permanent migration, including that of non-workers, to the temporary movement of service suppliers who are explicitly excluded from entry into the labour market and permanent migration. Temporary movements of persons across borders for the provision of services are allowed under Mode 4 of GATS. Geographic proximity, the level of economic development and the nature of labour shortages generally determine how liberal an approach is taken towards the movement of labour under these agreements. The agreements often include clauses streamlining regulations dealing with the mobility of goods and services across borders. Some agreements include mutual recognition of qualifications and occupational registration, mainly at the professional levels. Mutual recognition of qualifications, however, remains one of the most significant factors inhibiting the mobility of labour across borders. Not only has this been a problem in international structures, such as the EU, but until recently it was also the case within countries (e.g. Australia). This chapter looks at policies, programmes and measures that encourage the mutual recognition of qualifications and cross-border mobility. It describes developments in the EU and in Australia and New Zealand. The EU has evolved over the last half century from a union of six countries to twenty-five countries today. One of the founding principles establishing it was the free right of its citizens to live and R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XVI.12, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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work in different member States. The movement of goods, services and people has generally been unrestricted between Australia and New Zealand, although formal agreements to this effect were signed only in the last fifty years.
2 Mobility and Mutual Recognition in the European Union 2.1 Background The original six members of the EU enshrined the principle of free movement across their borders for their citizens in the original 1957 Treaty of Rome. The principle was politically inspired as it was envisaged that free movements of people would help to unite Europe. Freedom of movement was considered integral to the concept of the European citizen and the European social area. Subsequent directives, regulations, legislation and judicial rulings encouraged mobility and established the governing principles and the law on the rights of individuals to work and their rights of residence in member States (European Commission, 1996). Every EU citizen has a fundamental, personal right to move, reside2 freely and seek employment within any EU State (subject to some limitations and conditions). Accorded with this right is equality of treatment regarding working conditions and employment-related benefits. Within this liberal regime, restrictions on mobility can be applied on the basis of public policy, public security or public health (OECD, 2002). The charter on the free movement of people has been expanded to include citizens of all countries in the European Economic Area (EEA), and also those of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) States.3 Third-country residents in member States, however, do not enjoy the same rights as EU nationals, although some progress towards providing them with similar freedom is being contemplated. Legal barriers to labour mobility, in principle, do not exist in the EU, including for all practical purposes also in EEA/EFTA States. Yet, mobility within the EU4 still seemed rather low or even negligible in spite of the rather striking unemployment and wage differentials between member States (Fertig & Schmidt, 2002). In a Green Paper in 1996, the European Commission observed that capital, goods and services moved more freely within the EU than people and that this did not bode well towards the construction of the European Community (European Commission, 1996).5 The population share of EU nationals living in another member State hardly changed from around 1.5% between 1985 and 1998, while that of non-EU nationals increased from 2.3 to 3.5% in the same period. In comparison, inter-state mobility in the United States is several times higher (European Commission, 2001b). The reasons for the low intra-EU mobility are unclear, although partial explanations might be to do with the high cost of physical relocation to another country, the loss of country-specific human capital when people move and a lack of portability of pensions, health and social security benefits across borders. A sociological explanation suggested by van Houtum and van der Velde (2004) is that most workers do not
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seek employment across borders because of nationally habitualized indifference, which is understood as avoiding the uncertainty associated with working on the other side and wishing to establish one’s orientation and identity within the existing socio-spatial environment. Mobility of EU nationals tends to take one of four main forms: (a) temporary migration (limited stay often linked to specific job contracts); (b) mobility within multi-national enterprises (possibly involving a career-long peripatetic lifestyle, but also possibly short-term regular moves); (c) mobility between industry and academia; and (d) cross-border commuting of various kinds. Precise data on some of these movements are difficult to obtain, but half a million workers were involved in cross-border commuting, mainly in border regions, in the EEA in 1999 and, interestingly, the destination of 35% of these commuters was Switzerland, a non-EU country (European Commission, 2002). The 1990s saw EU economies affected by globalization, technological changes and a shift to services, just as were those of other developed economies. The creation of a genuine single market was, and still is, a priority policy concern among most member States, some of which adopted a common currency—the Euro—to accelerate the process. At the same time, skills shortages existed in some regions alongside high unemployment in other regions. In this context, the European Commission saw support for intra-EU mobility as an important policy response. The creation of an efficient pan-European labour market with fewer barriers to labour mobility, lower adjustment costs and fewer skills mismatches has become a high priority within the European Commission. It has been suggested that the problems related to the ageing of populations in many developed countries could be addressed through increased immigration. Increased intra-EU migration is, however, unlikely to be a solution to this demographic problem for EU States because almost all face similar problems. The European Commission has produced a number of reports identifying administrative, economic and informational obstacles to intra-EU mobility and recommended lines of action to overcome them. One of the first of these reports was a Green Paper, ‘The Obstacles to Transnational Mobility’ (European Commission, 1996). Even though the report was prepared in the context of encouraging mobility in the areas of education, training and research, its findings have wider implications. Three main reports subsequently followed this Green Paper, together with a progress report on the implementation of the action plans suggested in the previous reports:
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‘New European Labour Markets, Open to All, with Access for All’ (European Commission, 2001b); ‘High Level Task Force on Skills and Mobility’ (European Commission, 2001a); ‘Commission’s Action Plan for Skills and Mobility’ (European Parliament, 2002); and ‘Report on the Implementation of the Commission’s Action Plan for Skills and Mobility’ (European Commission, 2004).
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These reports dealt with the problem of mobility in a much wider context than the Green Paper, and included occupational (skills-based) and geographic or spatial dimensions of mobility. They identified three main challenges facing European labour markets. The reports also suggested lines of actions to meet these challenges. As a result, a number of programmes have been initiated by the European Commission and by member States to address the issues raised. In the following text, we first discuss the three challenges facing the European labour markets and then briefly list some of the programmes that have been implemented to meet these challenges.
2.2 The Three Challenges 2.2.1 Inadequate Occupational Mobility Labour mobility—the movement of workers between jobs, sectors or occupations within or between member States—has traditionally been low in the EU compared to one of its main competitors, the United States. In 2000, for example, it was estimated that 16% of workers in the EU had been with their employer for less than a year, compared with 30% in the United States (European Commission, 2003). The European Commission considers capacity for occupational mobility to be essential if the EU economy was to be efficient and competitive in the global market and if skills imbalances across sectors and regions were to be alleviated. The critical factor in building this capacity requires the development of the human capital potential of the union’s citizens, together with the processes for its recognition and transferability across borders. The European Commission emphasizes the importance of universal good quality initial education as the bedrock upon which future human capital capacity is built.6 The post-initial education and training that may be required for transition to work or lifelong learning should be a matter of shared responsibility between the government, individuals and social partners. At a time when fewer young people are expected to join the labour market, skilling the existing labour force to the highest possible level becomes more important. This includes providing opportunities for women, who have temporarily withdrawn from the labour market to raise families, to acquire skills that are currently needed in the workplace. The European Commission is concerned that education and training systems are not adapting sufficiently to the changing needs of the labour market. The European Parliament, however, noted that education systems have broader and more humane objectives than training systems and that transient skills shortages in the labour market should not determine the curriculum and content of education (European Commission, 2002). In addition to vocational skills, education systems should also seek to promote awareness of different cultures, language skills, the environment and citizenship, which also serve to promote mobility. Recognition of non-formal or informal learning can also enhance occupational mobility. For older workers, recognition of on-the-job learning and experience can be particularly beneficial for occupational mobility.
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2.2.2 Low Geographic Mobility The relatively low labour mobility in the EU was noted earlier in this chapter. Even within member States, mobility is relatively low. Improving geographic mobility is considered a way to address the problem of dual labour markets in the EU, with regions of high unemployment co-existing with regions suffering from skills shortages. Some of the barriers to geographic mobility are social, cultural, linguistic, economic and those connected with the recognition of qualifications. 2.2.3 Insufficient Relevant Labour-Market Information The potential for geographical and occupational mobility is often inhibited and labour-market adjustment slowed by a lack of quality labour-market information to firms, households and education and curriculum planners. Heijke and Borghans (1998) argue that efficient training and educational decision-making require transparency in the links between education and training courses and labour-market opportunities. Good information is the life-blood of an efficient market. In order to make informed decisions about employment opportunities, persons need to know about current wage rates, rates of return, necessary qualifications, unemployment rates, job openings and the supply of workers—not just in a particular labour market, but in all labour markets and in different sub-markets. Persons also require information on living conditions and the housing market. The diversity in the laws on taxation, labour, social security and pensions, not to mention differences in languages and culture, make comparison of information relating to different markets difficult. While there is abundant information on each national labour market, it is dispersed, fragmented, difficult to access and to compare—and sometimes unreliable. For the information to be useful, it has to be brought together into a format that facilitates comparisons. This requires efficient networking among organizations at the local, regional, national and the European level. Similarly, individuals and organizations need to be made aware of this information, its benefits and ways of accessing it.
2.3 Programmes to Encourage Mobility in the EU 2.3.1 Early Programmes: Mobility in Education, Training and Research The European Commission views personal mobility as a vital investment in human resources, which is seen as one of the keys to successfully meeting the economic, social and cultural challenges of the future. It is seen to foster improvement in the understanding of other European societies and cultures; to enhance the social skills of individuals, who learn how to communicate and live within those societies and to respect diversity; to encourage broader acquisition of linguistic skills; and to contribute to the development of the concept of a European citizen.
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Early attempts and programmes to encourage mobility by the European Commission were largely restricted to education, training and research. These included exchange programmes for students and staff from educational institutions to study or work in another member State. The exchanges also included workers and the unemployed undertaking training. Some of the main programmes were:
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Erasmus—allowed the creation of a European network of university co-operation via subsidizing student and staff mobility between institutions. The concept of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) resulted from the programme. Lingua—promoted learning of foreign languages. Assistance was provided for in-service training courses for teachers of foreign languages, the promotion of learning of foreign languages in universities, at work and in economic life. Support was also provided for exchanges of young people undergoing specialized vocational or technical training. Youth for Europe—promoted the development of young people’s exchanges and complementary activities outside the formal education and training structure. Petra—promoted inclusion of a European dimension in initial vocational training of young people. The programme included the placement of young job-seekers and those in training in enterprises and training institutes of member States to enable them to experience and come in contact with new training methods and equipment. It also included the establishment of working links between national systems for vocational guidance and for the training of vocational guidance counsellors. Comett—promoted co-operation between higher education and enterprises in the area of advanced technologies, which included transnational exchanges and placements. Leonardo da Vinci—promoted the improvement and innovation in initial and continuing vocational education and training systems in the EU, including placements for the trainees as well as trainers in other member States.
In 1995, a new umbrella programme called Socrates was launched, which covered education from school to university, including lifelong learning. Socrates incorporated a number of earlier programmes, as well as the following streams:
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Comenius—covers school education with the aim of enhancing the quality of teaching, strengthening its European dimension and promoting language learning and mobility. Grundtvig—aimed at covering the European dimension of lifelong learning. It supports activities designed to promote innovation and the improved availability, accessibility and quality of educational provision for adults within the framework of formal, non-formal and independent learning by means of European co-operation. Minerva—aimed to promote European co-operation in the field of information and communication technology and open and distance learning in education. Eurydice—aimed to create an institutional network for gathering, monitoring, processing and circulating reliable and readily comparable information on education systems and policies throughout Europe.
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National Academic Recognition Information Centres (NARIC) are a network of national centres created to help regulate qualifications recognition and facilitate the improvement in, integration and transparency of national education systems through exchange of good practice, information and experience. Each NARIC provides authoritative advice and information concerning the academic recognition of diplomas and periods of study undertaken in other States. The main users of this service are higher education institutions, students and their advisers, parents, teachers and prospective employers. NARIC works in co-operation with the Council of Europe/UNESCO, who developed the European Network of Information Centres (ENIC) on academic recognition and mobility. 2.3.2 Recent Programmes: Labour Mobility The commitments made at the 2000 Lisbon European Council meeting on the economy and social cohesion saw the European Union adopting a redesigned European Employment Strategy in 2003. It strengthened the focus on education and training and set EU-wide targets in these areas, as well as the labour market by 2010:
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at least 85% of 22 year olds should finish school with an upper secondary education; employment rate of 55–64 year olds to increase to 50%; participation rate in lifelong learning should be raised to at least 12.5% of the adult working age population; and the average number of early school-leavers may not exceed 10%.
One of the main policies developed to achieve the strategic goal was an action plan on skills and mobility. Increasing labour force mobility, in both occupational and geographical dimensions, is a central plank of this plan. The plan signalled a noticeable shift from regarding mobility not only as a vehicle for achieving cultural and linguistic understanding among the population but to also use it as an instrument for a more efficient allocation of labour at the European level and thus address the regional skills imbalances. Programmes to remove barriers to mobility for not only students, trainees, teachers and researchers but also workers were developed. Some of these initiatives are:
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The General System of Recognition of Qualifications; European Qualifications Framework; Diploma Supplement; Certificate Supplement; MobiliPass; European Curriculum Vitae; European Language Portfolio; European Certificate in Basic Skills; Europass; The Bologna Process; Portability of occupational pensions;
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European Health Insurance Card; EURES—the European Job-Mobility Portal.
2.4 Summary In summary, intra-EU labour mobility is low compared to the United States, although movements of third country nationals into the EU, especially economic refugees, have been high in recent times. Early mobility programmes focused on the learning of languages and cultural awareness through exchanges of students, teachers and academics. The main aim of these programmes was to extend cultural understanding between the peoples of Europe in the hope that this would unite them after the experiences of the Second World War. From the mid-1990s, the European Commission began to see intra-EU labour mobility as an important policy area for an efficient EU-wide labour market, including addressing the problem of skills shortages in some regions co-existing with high unemployment in other regions. The European Commission has developed a three-pronged strategy to overcome some of the barriers to occupational and geographical mobility. The first element of this strategy relates to transparency and transferability of skills, qualifications and experience across the EU borders. A number of programmes have been developed to facilitate this, including instruments to translate, record and electronically lodge different aspects of a person’s human capital at national employment service centres where they can be accessed by employers across the EU. The second element of the strategy relates to facilitating geographic mobility across borders. Lack of portability of social security, health benefits and supplementary pensions have been identified as major deterrents to mobility. The introduction of the European Health Card in 2004 has been the main achievement to date—with progress on other fronts rather slow. The third element of the strategy relates to the provision of information on various aspects of mobility, including that of the labour markets in other EU regions. The national employment services have been networked to form EURES—the European Job-Mobility Portal. To this has been added a portal on mobility and one on information on education and training opportunities.
3 Mobility and Mutual Recognition in Australia and New Zealand 3.1 Background Immigration has been a big factor in the population growth of both Australia and New Zealand since European settlement. Before the Second World War both countries competed with the United States, Canada and South Africa for immigrants mainly from the British Isles. After the war, Australia extended its sources of mi-
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grants first to other parts of Europe, mainly Southern Europe, and then, in the last twenty-five years, to Asia as the numbers available from the traditional European sources began to shrink. At the same time, New Zealand extended its sources to the South Pacific islands. Australia and New Zealand had an informal understanding allowing unrestricted movement across borders for their citizens for the purposes of visits, settlement and work. The 1973 Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement formalized this long-standing understanding. In 2001 the governments of the two countries announced new bilateral social security arrangements under which New Zealand citizens are required to obtain formal Australian permanent residence status if they wish to access certain social security payments, obtain Australian citizenship or sponsor people for permanent residence, unless they are covered by special transitional provisions. On the other hand, Australian citizens face fewer restrictions to access welfare benefits in New Zealand. Australia’s approach is an interesting case study in mutual recognition of qualifications, partly because it illustrates the difficulties of the process even when the parties covered by mutual recognition have a common language, a similar political system and face few other barriers to geographic movement across borders. When Australia was formed in 1901 by the federation of the states, the new Constitution gave relatively few powers to the federal government—immigration, defence and foreign affairs among them—and left the residual powers with the states, but over time the influence of the federal government has increased as its fiscal strength has grown. In 1992 the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), consisting of heads of federal, state and territory governments and the head of the Australian Local Government Association, was created to address some of the problems of Australia’s federal political structure. Its purpose is to initiate, develop and monitor the implementation of policy reforms that are of national significance and that require co-operative action by Australian governments. A number of ministerial councils parallel COAG’s role for specific issues. Relevant New Zealand ministers are also members of these committees and have full voting rights on any issue concerning New Zealand. One of the first reforms tackled by COAG was that on regulations relating to the flow of goods and services across state borders. It was felt that the current statebased regulations and licensing requirements were creating inefficiencies, including impeding labour mobility. Each of the states and territories has authority over registering persons who are legally permitted to practice certain occupations. There were often substantial differences in the requirements of the various states and territories that made it difficult for people wishing to practise an occupation in more than one state or territory as they had to satisfy separately the registration requirements of all the states and territories in which they wished to practice—a process that was often onerous and caused delays and other costs for businesses and individual service providers. The 1992 ‘Mutual Recognition Agreement between the Commonwealth, States and Territories of Australia’ addressed this problem.
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As a country with extensive immigration and an active skilled migration plan, Australia has devoted considerable resources to the problem of the recognition of overseas educational and professional qualifications. It has also had to confront the issue of the recognition of qualifications between its own states and territories. In Australia, all post-school qualifications come under the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF). The states and territories have agreed to abide by the Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF) to ensure uniform standards for vocational education and training. Any organization wishing to deliver nationally recognized training has to become a registered training organization (RTO) under the rules of the AQTF. RTOs registered in any state and territory can deliver training in any part of the country and the qualifications awarded are mutually recognized. This chapter does not address the qualifications system. Instead it focuses on a very different approach that Australia and New Zealand adopted to the issue of the mutual recognition of registration requirements for different occupations.
3.2 The Mutual Recognition Agreement (Australia) The Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) between the federal, state and territory governments addresses restrictions on the sale of goods and services across state borders created by different licensing requirements. From the perspective of individuals and enterprises, the MRA promised to remove the barriers associated with different occupational registration requirements in the various states and territories and therefore permit easier cross-border business activity and service provision. More generally, the MRA sought to contribute to the creation of a national market and a regulatory environment that would encourage business and industry to maximize their efficiency and promote international competitiveness. This section focuses on those aspects of the MRA that deal with the registration of individuals to provide services. In this context, the fundamental tenet of the MRA is that: A person who is registered to practise an occupation in one jurisdiction is entitled to practise an equivalent occupation in any other jurisdiction without the need to undergo further testing or examination.
The MRA covers all occupations that require an individual to have some form of legal registration to practise that occupation. It focuses on a person’s registration in their original jurisdiction. If a builder is registered in the state of Victoria, for instance, then mutual recognition allows that individual to be registered as a builder in the state of New South Wales, regardless of whether they would otherwise satisfy the requirements for registration in New South Wales. The MRA does not affect any laws regulating the way in which an occupation is conducted—only the eligibility of the person to legally practise that occupation. A person registered under the MRA and working as a builder in New South Wales must still comply in all respects with the laws governing the ways in which builders are to carry on their business in New South Wales, which includes any requirements
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for on-going registration in that occupation. These requirements, however, must not be based on attaining a certain qualification or level of experience.
3.2.1 Obtaining Registration under the MRA A person seeking registration under the MRA must lodge appropriate documentation, including that relating to their current registration. The person is then deemed to be registered and may carry on their occupation as if they had already been granted substantive registration. Such registration continues until the registration authority grants, postpones or refuses registration. If a registration authority does not formally respond to the applicant within one month of the application for registration being lodged, the applicant is entitled to immediate registration. If there is any irregularity with the application, a registration authority can postpone making a decision for up to six months. If registration is granted, a registration authority may impose conditions similar to any restrictions that apply to a person’s original registration or that are necessary to achieve equivalence between occupations. Registration may be renewed and, subject to the laws of the registering jurisdiction, the entitlement to registration will continue whether or not the person’s registration in their original jurisdiction ceases. Grounds for refusing registration include making a false or misleading application, the occupation not being considered an equivalent occupation and equivalence cannot be achieved by imposing conditions or limits on registration, or a person’s registration has been suspended in another jurisdiction as a result of criminal, civil or disciplinary proceedings. Decisions of a registration authority may be appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), an independent body that reviews a broad range of administrative decisions made by specified government ministers, officials and other bodies, as well as administrative decisions made by some non-government bodies. A refusal of registration by the AAT on the basis of a threat to health, safety or the environment has effect for twelve months. During this period, the government in whose jurisdiction the declaration applies must refer the matter to the relevant Ministerial Council to examine the registration requirements for the occupation in question and determine whether any changes to the standards applying to the occupation should be introduced. Mutual recognition is likely to highlight instances where registration authorities may wish to review the appropriate competency standards needed to gain registration to practise a particular occupation. First, if the issue substantially concerns the protection of public health, safety or the environment, a participating government may refer the matter to the relevant ministerial council for determination. Second, ministers from any two or more jurisdictions may jointly declare that specified occupations are equivalent. They may also specify or describe conditions that will achieve equivalence. Ministerial declarations only have effect in the jurisdictions of the parties making them, and prevail over any inconsistent decisions of the AAT.
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3.3 Mutual Recognition between Australia and New Zealand Given the small populations of Australia (20 million) and New Zealand (4 million) and their relative geographic proximity, co-operation that results in a larger single market for businesses in both countries is likely to produce economic benefits. 3.3.1 Australia/New Zealand Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Agreement A heavily qualified free-trade agreement had existed between Australia and New Zealand since 1965. The 1983 CER Trade Agreement extended and modernized this agreement. A Protocol to the CER on the Acceleration of Free Trade in Goods in 1988 provided for the elimination of all remaining tariffs and quantitative restrictions by July 1990 (Australia. DFAT, 1997). The agreement acknowledged that the further development of the relationship between the two countries would ‘be served by the expansion of trade and the strengthening and fostering of links and co-operation in such fields as investment, marketing, movement of people, tourism and transport’ [emphasis added]. Nevertheless, the agreement itself exclusively dealt with trade in commodities and detailed reductions in tariffs, quotas and export subsidies and a set of transitional arrangements. The CER did, however, include movement of people in a list of topics to be included in a proposed 1988 review of the agreement (Australia. DFAT, 1988). The 1988 review of the CER resulted in the ‘Trade in Services Protocol to the CER’, and Article 9 of the protocol contained two clauses that addressed licensing and certification. The import of the clauses was that Australia and New Zealand would:
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try to ensure that licensing and certification requirements will not impair or restrain, in a discriminatory manner, access of persons in each other’s countries to licensing or certification; and encourage the mutual recognition of each other’s qualifications for the purpose of licensing and certification requirements for the provision of services (Australia. DFAT, 1988).
3.3.2 Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Arrangement In 1996 the MRA between Australian states and territories was extended to New Zealand in the form of the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Arrangement (TTMRA), committing all jurisdictions to recognize each other’s licensing and registration requirements for the sale of goods and provision of services (Australia. DFAT, 1998). The expectation is that the arrangement will eventually be extended to other economies, including those in the South Pacific and belonging to the AsiaPacific Economic Co-operation (APEC). In so far as it relates to the registration of occupations, the TTMRA involves only some minor modifications required by its international nature and refers to the New Zealand tribunal—the Trans-Tasman Occupations Tribunal (TTOB)—that parallels Australia’s AAT.
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3.4 An Evaluation of the MRA and TTMRA The processes and effects of the MRA and TTMRA have been reviewed twice (COAG, 1998; Australia. Productivity Commission, 2003). The 2003 review placed a greater emphasis on effectiveness and included the TTMRA in its scope, but otherwise the issues addressed and conclusions reached by the two reviews were similar. Again, we focus here on those aspects of the reviews that address the mutual recognition of occupations. Both reviews recommended continuation of MRA and TTMRA. The 1998 review reported MRA to be achieving its objectives, although experiences with mutual recognition varied between occupations and between jurisdictions within the same occupations. The 2003 review found that mutual recognition has contributed significantly to increased labour mobility across borders. For instance, it found an increase in the inter-state mobility of persons in regulated occupations compared with those in other occupations. The review also found evidence of increased efforts to harmonize standards for a number of registered occupations and anecdotal evidence of decreased costs to industry as a consequence of the MRA and the TTMRA. 3.4.1 Problems with the MRA The reviews both record several reservations by stakeholders about the way in which the MRA and TTMRA were working—reservations with which the reviewers did not necessarily concur. Erosion of quality: Most importantly, stakeholders identified a lack of national consistency in registration requirements that provided opportunities for people to ‘shop’ for registration. In other words, people ineligible to practice in one state would apply for registration in another state with more lenient registration rules and then use the provisions of the MRA to apply for registration in the state in which they wished to practise. Stakeholders labelled this ‘the lowest common denominator’ effect—the jurisdiction with the most lenient registration requirements set the benchmark for other jurisdictions. State regulations governing registration of overseas applicants were also exposed to ‘jurisdiction shopping’ through the MRA. Lack of jurisdiction-specific knowledge: Lack of familiarity with the laws and procedures within specific jurisdictions is another example of a possible problem with MRAs. Some submissions to the reviews doubted that the knowledge required by one jurisdiction was necessarily sufficient to practice that occupation in other jurisdictions, with examples given in the case of real estate and building surveying and, more disturbingly, in the registration of pharmacists. Establishing equivalence: Establishing equivalence between occupations, that is, ‘when the activities authorized to be carried out under each registration are substantially the same’, is still difficult and is the basis for some appeals to the AAT and the TTOB. In some states, for instance, settlement agents and conveyancing agents do not draft their own documents and their work
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does not include commercial property and its components, while in other states they do. Other examples involved dental therapists and hygienists and chiropractors and osteopaths. The 1998 review noted that while the problems raised by some occupations could be dealt with by placing conditions on registration as allowed in the MRA, with other occupations the problems reflected flawed legislation and could only be addressed by reform of that legislation. National Competition Policy: National Competition Policy (NCP) is a significant Australian policy initiative that focuses on the removal of barriers to competition imposed by state and territory regulations. Overall the MRA is pro-competition legislation, especially in regard to those aspects dealing with occupational registration. Business licensing: A number of submissions to the 1998 review supported extending mutual recognition of occupations to business licensing. In some cases, registration to run a business is linked to the registration for an occupation. The review noted that conceptually these are two separate issues and that the requirements to have registered persons in charge of registered business are unnecessary and should be removed from legislation covering the registration of businesses. Negative licensing: Occupations in some jurisdictions (e.g. land salespersons in South Australia and builders in Tasmania) have what is termed negative licensing—a person is deemed to be eligible to practise an occupation unless he or she is explicitly barred from that occupation because of unacceptable or unsatisfactory conduct. Negative licensing is a low cost (for governments and persons) and light-handed approach to regulation. When moving between jurisdictions, however, persons in this situation may be at a disadvantage under the MRA because they are not explicitly registered and therefore have no basis on which to apply for registration in another state or territory. The reviews’ recommendation to extend mutual recognition to cover these nontraditional approaches to regulation has not so far been taken up.
3.5 Summary The MRA and TTMRA highlight the desirability of mutual recognition of qualifications. The 2003 review in particular reports some limited quantitative evidence of the contribution of the agreements to labour mobility between states and territories and between Australia and New Zealand. That review also reports numerous instances where stakeholders have found reduced costs and other advantages associated with the agreements. Mutual recognition of skills typically focuses on the equivalence of qualifications or registration requirements and seeks their harmonization between jurisdictions over time. The strategy behind the MRA and the TTMRA, however, is different. They focus on the mechanisms for occupational registration, declare them equivalent and sort out the problems after the event. In Australia and New Zealand, those
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problems are still being addressed, but the approach has initiated a focused review of some impediments to labour mobility and possibly unnecessary costs to industry. The consequences of the MRA and TTMRA provide possible lessons for other countries considering mutual recognition arrangements. They highlight both the difficulty of achieving mutual recognition agreements—even when language, cultural and other differences are small—as well as the potential threats to the standards governing occupations. The strategy did, however, produce results quickly. The problems surrounding ‘negative registration’ echo the problems of harmonizing skills, qualifications and registration requirement between two countries, one of which emphasizes formal qualifications and extensive regulation and the other which does not. There may be relatively little scope for negotiation in such circumstances.
4 Concluding Remarks The labour market no longer consists—and perhaps never did—simply of exchanges involving the time of the worker. Labour embodies increasing amounts of human capital in the form of skills, talents and knowledge. The migration of workers between regions and countries can contribute to efficiency. People are moving from areas in which they are underemployed or unemployed to areas in which there is greater demand for their labour. Frequently, the movement of people is across borders. Differences between jurisdictions in the way in which they recognize experience, skills and qualifications can subtract from the efficiency of migration. This problem reduces workers’ capacities to earn financial returns on their human capital and the benefits for the destination country or region. Better recognition of the experience, skills and qualifications of migrants is in the interests of most, but not necessarily all, stakeholders. Some employers may gain in the short term from their ability to employ (unrecognized) skilled labour at below-market rates. The creation of dual labour markets is unlikely to contribute to the broader social good in the longer term. This chapter has outlined the comprehensive steps taken in the European Union to improve the mobility of labour between EU countries. Earlier programmes focused on culture, training, education and language, all underpinned by the vision of a united Europe. More recently, programmes have been introduced to improve the portability of qualifications by creating greater standardization or more meaningful descriptions of content. The interface between qualifications and the labour market is being addressed by the creation of extensive electronic networks providing workers with more information about potential jobs and employers with more meaningful information about potential applicants. Mobility of labour can be further enhanced by improving the portability of social security, health and pension benefits. The EU has also recognized the economic importance of labour mobility for its long-term immigrant workforce. Any impediments to their mobility between EU countries reduces the efficiency of the contribution they can make—and, in terms
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of mobility, immigrants may be better placed than EU residents to take advantage of regional shifts in the demand for labour. Accordingly, the EU has liberalized restrictions on their movement between countries. The experience in Australia and New Zealand is both similar and different. It is similar in so far as it too recognizes the economic benefits to be derived from geographic labour mobility and especially of those aspects associated with the recognition of skills. It is different from the EU experience in two regards. First, the cultural differences present in Europe are far less apparent in Australia and New Zealand. Second, the strategy employed was far more dramatic—registration in one jurisdiction was a basis for eligibility for registration in all jurisdictions. The EU has made some apparently similar moves, but applicants can in effect be required to fulfil all local requirements for registration. The approach used in Australia and New Zealand was successful in part because of the political will behind its implementation in the face of often quite powerful professional bodies.
Notes 1. We acknowledge support from the International Labour Organization and the Monash Institute for the Study of Global Movements in carrying out this work. 2. Even though no visas or work permits are required, residence permits may be required for some States. 3. Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland are the four EFTA States, but only the first three come within EEA. Even though no visas are required, there are, however, some limits placed on movements and special rules govern frontier workers, public service and public authority activities, and the acquisition of real estate in Switzerland. 4. Refers to the EU-15 States: Germany, France, Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, UK, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland and Finland. Since 2004, ten new countries have joined and EU-15 has now become EU-25. Temporary restrictions apply to the citizens of the new member States looking for employment or residence in some of the member States. 5. This is not to say that some large-scale movements of people within the European Union have not taken place, for example, manual workers, both skilled and unskilled, moving from agricultural regions in the South to industrial regions in the North, particularly into steel and mining regions (European Commission, 2001b). 6. There is concern in the European Commission that initial education levels vary substantially across member States; for example, even though overall attainment of at least the upper secondary level of education across the EU population, aged between 25–64 years, was 60% in 2000, it varied from 78% in Denmark to 19% in Portugal.
References Australia. Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade. 1988. Protocol on Trade in Services to the Australia New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement. Canberra: DFAT. (Various press releases.) <www.dfat.gov.au/geo/new zealand/anz cer/215.pdf> Australia. Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade. 1997. Closer economic relations: background guide to the Australia New Zealand economic relationship. Canberra: DFAT. (Various press releases.) <www.dfat.gov.au/geo/new zealand/anz cer/cer.pdf>
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Australia. Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade. 1998. The Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Arrangement Canberra: DFAT. (Various press releases.)<www.dfat.gov.au/ geo/new zealand/ttmra.pdf> Australia. Productivity Commission. 2003. Evaluation of the mutual recognition schemes. Canberra: Productivity Commission. Chiswick, B.; Hatton, T. 2002. International migration and the integration of labour markets. Bonn, Germany: IZA. (IZA Discussion Paper, no. 559.) Council of Australian Governments. 1998. Mutual Recognition Agreement Legislation Review. Canberra: COAG. European Commission. 1996. The obstacles to transnational mobility. European Commission. 2001a. High level task force on skills and mobility (Final report). <ec.europa.eu/employment social/news/2001/dec/taskforce2001 en.pdf> European Commission. 2001b. New European labour markets, open to all, with access for all. (COM(2001)116 final.) <europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/cnc/2001/com2001 0116en01.pdf> European Commission. 2002. Commission’s action plan for skills and mobility (COM(2002)72 final.) <europa.eu.int/comm/employment social/news/2001/dec/taskforce2001 en.pdf> European Commission. 2003. Social agenda. <europa.eu.int/comm/employment social/skill mobility/doc/com 04 66 fin en.pdf> European Commission. 2004. Report on the implementation of the Commission’s action plan for skills and mobility (COM(2004)66 final.) <europa.eu.int/comm/employment social/ skill mobility/doc/com 04 66 fin en.pdf> European Parliament. 2002. Report on the Commission communication on the Commission’s action plan for skills and mobility (Final A5-0313/2002.) <www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/ sipade2PUBREF=-//EP//NONSGML+REPORT+A5-2002-0313+0+DOC+ PDF+V0//EN& L=EN& LEVEL=4& NAV=S& LSTDOC=Y> Fertig, M.; Schmidt, C. 2002. Mobility within Europe: what do we (still not) know? Bonn, Germany: IZA. (IZA Discussion Paper, no. 447.) Heijke, H.; Borghans, L., eds. 1998. Towards a transparent labour market for educational decisions. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2002. Labour mobility in regional trade agreements. Paris: OECD. (Working paper: TD/TC/WP(2002)16/FINAL.) van Houtum, H.; van der Velde, M. 2004. The power of cross-border labour market immobility. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, vol. 95, no. 1, pp. 100–07.
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Chapter XVI.13
Quality Assurance in TVET in Romania Magdalena Balica
1 Introduction This chapter presents the current national policies, practices, achievements and challenges concerning quality assurance in the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system in Romania. The analysis is focused on the main structure, conceptual and institutional quality-assurance mechanisms and concludes with a section that introduces a set of issues for further discussion. It starts with a description of the national policy context of the TVET system in Romania and an overview of the main developments over recent years. The policy and research backgrounds of the quality approaches in Romania emerge from a description of the historical context, needs and interests of the education system. This analysis is also placed in the context of developments in neighbouring countries: Hungary, Slovenia and the Czech Republic—particularly, in the way they address the quality-assurance system. The main concepts of and approaches to quality assurance in Romania are analysed and an outline of its structure, aims, definitions and characteristics is presented. The main achievements of the Romanian TVET system in achieving a qualityassurance system and the outcomes over several years of the PHARE-TVET programme are critically analysed. The main points for the development of the quality-assurance system for TVET in Romania and the outlook and further projects are also presented. The chapter ends with a retrospective comment. Some issues for debate are raised regarding the expected impact of the quality-assurance system on national and international aims of the TVET system in the near future.
2 Context 2.1 New Educational Policy Trends Over the last twenty years Romania, like other Central and Eastern European countries, has gone through fundamental changes in its education and vocational training R. Maclean, D. Wilson (eds.), International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1 XVI.13, C Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
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systems. Structural changes have aimed at reorganizing the education and TVET system based on levels and channels of education and training that are better adapted to the new socio-economic context. The reappraisal of curricula and the vocational training standards, as well as the creation of social partnership structures, represent the priorities of the reform programmes during the 1990s. Simultaneously, modernization measures affecting the infrastructure and training equipment, as well as training programmes for trainers and school managers, have been implemented. The structural reform of the initial TVET system, which started in the mid 1990s, has been developed and consolidated throughout the subsequent years with the support of a PHARE programme covering the period 2001–2003 and aimed at systematic aspects, such as:
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the development of vocational qualifications and the curriculum, and certification of learning outcomes in line with the European Qualifications Framework; quality assurance and school self-assessment in TVET; a new TVET methodology, i.e. competence-based learning, student-centred learning and special educational needs; educational planning and school/community partnerships.
The reforms concerning TVET have benefited from financial support and external technical assistance (PHARE-VET-RO-9405 and PHARE 2001–2003) and have been co-ordinated at the national level by the Unit on Implementation of the Reform Programme. At the beginning of 1999, this unit became a public institution, a legal entity (the National Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training Development—NCTVETD), under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth, with the purpose of pursuing the reform of technical and vocational education. The TVET reforms have also been sustained by Romania’s active participation in other European Union programmes, such as Leonardo da Vinci and Socrates, as well as other structures or workshops managed by the European Commission, the European Training Foundation, etc. The main challenges to the reforms that have been launched in the TVET domain have been:
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the lack of attractiveness to students of the vocational training route as compared to the academic one; divergence between rural and urban schools in regard to the availability of infrastructure, material and human resources and employment prospects for their students; A low level of involvement on the part of social partners in the planning of TVET programmes at the local and regional level; a gap between initial training and in-service training, which has resulted in relatively low flexibility for vocational training routes; an accelerating rate of school dropout in the 15–24 age category.
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A series of external evaluations of progress in the modernization of the education and vocational training systems has shown that these challenges have been resolved only to a certain extent. A solution has still not been found to the participation in the TVET system of disadvantaged groups, the involvement of social partners and the flexibility of vocational training routes. As for the in-service vocational training domain, for a long period of the 1990s a series of short-term training and employment measures attempted to cope with the important and rapid changes taking place in the workforce/labour market resulting from economic changes. As a consequence, special attention was directed towards the qualification and re-qualification of the unemployed, while the participation rate of employed persons in in-service training programmes remained among the lowest in Europe. The policies implemented through continuous vocational training (CVT) programmes and strategies of promotion in Romania have contributed towards a long-term prospective vision. A new law of adult vocational training was adopted (Law 375/2002) and the National Adult Training Board was founded—a tripartite organism with a consultative role in the preparation of CVT policies in Romania. More recently, the main initiatives in the CVT domain have aimed at the accreditation of the vocational training providers and the development of CVT partnerships through the constitution of sector committees for the improvement of occupational standards (within the framework of an institution-building project financed by the European Training Foundation—ETF). A report prepared by the ETF highlighted the fact that CVT displays a series of structural malfunctions in Romania: inadequate correlation between supply and demand for training; the provision of continuing training is insufficient; a rather low level of interest in acquiring and using the new skills in the workplace; and the lack of social encouragement to participate in continuing training (Deij, B˜adescu & Fragoulis, 2004).
2.2 Description of the IVET System Structure and Organization The most recent amendments to the Law on Education have introduced certain modifications to secondary education. The new structure of Romanian upper secondary education includes the following schooling routes:
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High school—lower cycle (grades 9–10), which is compulsory, and upper cycle (grades 11, 12 and 13). High school has a three-track structure: theoretical, vocational and technical. The lower cycle of high school is focused on education that is common to all types of high schools (approximately 75% of the programme) and the rest is specific to the profile of the respective school. Upper cycle highschool education is specialized. Technical high schools provide training for the third level of qualification.
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The course at the school of arts and trades (SAT) is two years long and provides training for the first level of qualification. SAT graduates may continue their studies in upper high school, on condition that they take the additional (completion) year of schooling. This year is equivalent to the second level of qualification. Post-high-school education lasts from one to three years and provides training for the third level of professional qualification. Post-high-school education allows access of high-school graduates with baccalaureate diplomas (who either do not go on to higher education or may simply wish to attend the courses), as well as high-school graduates without baccalaureate diplomas.
The selection and distribution of eighth grade candidates in the initial vocational education system (IVET)—the lower stage of high school (technical high schools included) and the school of arts and trades—takes place through an evaluation of skills acquired in lower secondary education, on the basis of national evaluation standards. The passage from the lower to the upper stage of high school is based on an evaluation of skills acquired in the lower stage.
3 Interest in Quality Assurance in Romania 3.1 The National Policy for Quality Assurance 3.1.1 Verifying the Quality of New Private Providers Interest in ensuring the quality of education first appeared in Romania in the early 1990s, following the development of private initiatives in education and the establishment of new schools, universities or training centres. With the declared objective of protecting the people from the risk of low-quality education, the government introduced a complex accreditation system that applied to the newly established private institutions. Two new bodies were established at the national level responsible for the accreditation process at the academic and pre-university level. The new institution that has played a role and is responsible for evaluating higher education is the National Council for Academic Evaluation and Accreditation, set up by Law no. 88/1993. The activity of this body covers both public and private higher education and has been carried out in two stages: evaluation for the award of a provisional authorization (giving the school concerned the right to hold admission examinations and to carry out educational activities); and evaluation for accreditation (giving the institution the right to hold licence, degree or graduation examinations, or to issue degrees recognized by the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth). The National Commission for Evaluation and Accreditation of Pre-university Education was established six years later in order to evaluate pre-university education. The components of each school evaluated according to national standards (quality standards in the International Standardization Organization’s 9000 category)
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were as follows: human resources and the quality of their activity; infrastructure; material and financial resources; the curriculum; internal and external efficiency of the school; school ethos; school/local community relationships; and relationships with other partners. Nevertheless, both bodies performed quality-control activity. Their activities were appreciated as very effective by the public and experts in general. The most significant reproach made was that, at that time, their activity was concentrated on the new private institutions, to the neglect of public ones. In 2003, the same quality-control approach was initiated in Romania for adult training providers. The main argument for this quality control was that private CVT training providers had proliferated in a rather deregulated environment and there was a need to guarantee the quality of the provision, from the point of view of both the beneficiaries as well as the providers themselves. Thus, the National Adult Training Board was placed in charge of designing and implementing a system of CVT training providers, via the newly established accreditation commissions at the local level. Similar bodies have been established in other countries throughout the region. Most of them are still operating, although the goals of their activities may have been modified.
3.1.2 A Legacy of Low-Quality Education In the first years of reform, especially up to 1998, quality in education was more of an implicit objective in the Romanian structural reforms. Usually, in the educational policy documents, better quality was understood as better education than before. At the beginning of the 1990s the challenges facing educational reforms were to overcome: (a) a curriculum embedded with communist ideology and indoctrination; (b) information and teacher-centred methodologies; (c) inappropriate school infrastructures; (d) centralized management and control of the education system; (e) outdated teacher-training facilities and supply; (f) vocational patterns that were irrelevant to the new economic environment, etc. The reforms to the economy also raised additional economic and social challenges, deepening some of the existing disparities between rural and urban education or introducing the idea of paying attention to the needs of specific groups, such as Roma students, students with special educational needs and people coming from disadvantaged family backgrounds. Furthermore, the starting point for all reforms was the situation of the system as it had existed before, in most cases without clear or specific quality criteria or standards. Some aspects of education were declared a priority: (a) better quality for rural education; (b) better education for minority groups; (c) better special needs education; and (d) better vocational education and training. The legacy of a lowquality education from the communist period and the anachronism of the system in the new social, economic and politic context in the first years of the 1990s made discussion on quality a necessity. But all of these activities did not amount to a quality-assurance approach.
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Moreover, even more than other countries in the region, Romania had to deal with the legacy of a highly centralized and planned economy. Concepts often used in the research and economic environments of other countries from the region at that time (for example, in Hungary, Poland and Slovenia) were almost unknown in Romania. Only after 1989 were the first studies on total quality management or other quality approaches to the economy published in Romania. At the same time, both in the economy and in education, the concept of quality held by individuals was an important obstacle for later initiatives in introducing and developing a qualityassurance approach. 3.1.3 Early Initiatives at Quality Control Quality-control approaches were embedded in the Romanian educational reforms. However, many measures targeting quality assurance failed between policy and practice. Despite the overall goal of improving the quality of the education system, the interest for quality-assurance approaches has a relatively short history in Romania. Even as late as 2003, Romania did not have a clear definition and policy on quality assurance and no specific legislative framework for it. In countries such as Hungary or Slovenia, explicit interest in quality assurance started already in the late 1990s. In 1998 Hungary started an important project—Comenius 2000—targeted at introducing a quality-management system for education, while in Slovenia, an important project aimed explicitly at a quality-assurance approach began in 1999 (Quality Assessment and Assurance in Education) initiated by the Ministry of Education. The most important systemic and structural reforms undertaken in education over the last eighteen years were based more often on top-down approaches, on the development of central institutions and on adapting the legal framework and regulations. All of these measures were accompanied in most cases by a quality-control approach. Neighbouring countries adopted a different tactic, where bottom-up approaches were much more often used. For instance, Hungary started with a model of recognition of excellence as one of the key success factors in quality improvement. The Hungarian Ministry of Education (Decree no. 3/2002 of 15 February 2002 on Public Education Quality Assurance and Quality Improvement) established the Quality Award for Public Education. The model of the Hungarian Quality Award for Public Education is based on the criteria of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Model (Public Sector Category) and the Hungarian National Quality Award Model, which is again based on EFQM. This model introduced the structured self-assessment process in the field of education/teaching that enables institutions to benchmark their own results. In Slovenia, meanwhile, the project implemented by the Ministry of Education in the field of quality assurance is founded on a voluntary principle, and schools themselves choose to participate in the project based on their own judgement. The goal of the project is not to select schools according to quality, but instead to encourage schools to develop a culture of constantly seeking ways to improve or maintain the quality of work and results.
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Starting in 1998, the Romanian system witnessed important measures targeted at the introduction of quality approaches. Some of them are highly relevant to a quality-assurance approach, as follows:
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Introducing a school-based curriculum. This measure enabled TVET provider to analyse their offer and to find the best solutions for their students’ needs, according to the local economic environment Testing a new model of school inspection based on quality-improvement approaches. A core group of school inspectors was trained in a new inspection approach and started to create a small community of practice among the schools interested in designing their own educational development plans. Such experience later helped those TVET schools involved in the quality-assurance piloting phase. New regulations attempted to introduce new quality criteria on different aspects of education (teacher monitors, institutional criteria, accreditation criteria, curriculum standards, examination and evaluation system, etc.). This measure created a good base to exercise the development of quality criteria and indicators for the TVET system. The development of new institutions with the role of ensuring quality in education. For those institutions that have been oriented to a quality-control approach, the experience gained through their institutional building phase might be a good lesson for the new proposed quality agencies.
Some of the measures were successful—some others failed. It is important to note that the successful developments were used, especially at the national and central level, for the new national system of regulation and design. Furthermore, Romania succeeded in designing one of the most modern national curriculum frameworks in the region, comparable with the most advanced education systems in Europe. It can also be reported that the newly established central institutions were effective and functional:
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the National Council for Academic Evaluation and Accreditation (1993) was very effective in accrediting universities and establishing the bases of the quality assurance system at the university level in Romania, in advance of many other European countries; the National Commission for Evaluation and Accreditation of Pre-university Education (1998) introduced discussion of school accreditation criteria, starting from accreditation procedures in private schools; the National Service for Evaluation and Examination (1998) provided information regularly about student achievements in different national examinations.
But most of the above measures failed in the complex process of implementation from the policy level to the local or school level. Different impact evaluations, as, for instance, the impact of the PHARE-VET Programme and other programme evaluations undertaken by different national or international research organizations, highlighted a common issue: the gap between policy and implementation. According to
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these evaluations, in spite of many achievements in implementing reforms, there are still some critical shortcomings:
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Teacher training still trails behind the changes. Training opportunities and incentives have not been appropriate to deal with the reforms. Most of the teachertraining measures developed in the framework of different programmes have not meet the real needs; School-based curricula (SBC) were not appropriately implemented, partly because of the inappropriate school infrastructures and partly because of a lack of skilled teachers to develop SBC—but also because of weak participation by social partners; Social partnership by stakeholders needs to be further developed; Although a lot of interesting tools for planning and improving quality at the school level have been developed, the new inspection system has failed in practice. The lack of a monitoring system and support for schools to develop their own resources and other centralized mechanisms, especially regarding the financing system, have been important obstacles. Planning of TVET is still a pending issue, partly because of the unstable economic environment and a lack of economic development strategies at the regional and local levels, and partly because of the low interest of employers to invest in training; There are still a lot of disparities between schools, regions or different target populations, in spite of different specific targeted programmes; The low level of infrastructure in schools has been a barrier in the implementation process.
All the above-mentioned shortages have been taken into consideration in recent years in a more explicit and targeted policy through quality assurance in education, as will be explained in the following sections.
3.2 Research Until now, there has been no perceptible research interest in the issue of quality assurance in education in Romania. Theoretical reflection and research work in this direction are relatively scarce, mainly due to the lack of specialists. Thus, such work has had a limited impact on educational policies. Research work concerned with issues related to quality assurance in education generally remains at a theoretical-explanatory level (defining concepts, designing theoretical models, etc.) (Lisievici, 1997). A more pragmatic approach is to be found in works dealing with concrete aspects of quality assurance in the various components of the education system (e.g. evaluation standards, occupational standards of the teaching profession) (Gliga, 2002). Most recent policy documents regarding quality assurance in TVET provide reference materials for concept definitions and terms, such as the European Commission
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documents recently issued by the Technical Working Group on quality assurance in TVET, and are less based on national definitions or shared understandings.
3.3 At the Level of Social Partners Apart from a few isolated initiatives, there has been little coherent interest in a system of quality assurance in education on the part of schools, teaching staff, parents, social partners or civil society. The constraints of finance and material and human resources training, especially in rural schools, as well as the lack of information and training about educational quality, have meant that the focus of priorities on institutional development has been on areas other than quality assurance. Some schools and NGOs (e.g. the Romanian Association for Quality of Linguistic Services—QUEST; the National Association of Trainers in Educational Management in Romania—ANFMER) have been interested in defining standards of institutional evaluation with a view to assuring quality. The models of self-evaluation and peer evaluation were seen as complementary to inspection-type external evaluation. Recently, small groups of specialists and teachers with an interest in the field established training and informal consultation networks. A study of a skills audit survey carried out on 100 companies in 2003 has shown that employers are usually dissatisfied with the quality of training and with the quality of vocational skills among graduates (Romanian National Observatory, 2003). They are not interested in employing young people without job experience. The present structure of TVET foresees greater involvement of social partners in the quality-assurance mechanism, but this is still a target for future programmes.
4 Approaches to Quality in the Romanian TVET System There is no doubt that the year 2004 has been extremely favourable for a series of events, debates and projects that gave rise to a more structured and explicit interest in quality assurance in TVET at the national level in Romania. Important steps towards a quality-assurance debate have been facilitated by the following processes:
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The new law on adult education published in 2003 became operational, particularly with regard to the accreditation system for training providers. Coordinated by the National Adult Training Board and applied through the newly established local accreditation commissions, the accreditation methodology and procedures were applied and the first adult training providers were accredited in 2004. The participation of Romania in European discussions on quality assessment. Starting in 2003, Romania became a member of the European Commission’s Technical Working Group on Quality Assessment in TVET. This participation has inspired a number of new initiatives and programmes. A new TVET policy
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on quality assurance aimed to provide a National Quality Assurance Framework based on the Common Quality Assurance Framework for TVET in Europe. The new PHARE-TVET programme has one component on quality assessment in each of the following areas: resource management; curriculum; assessment; accreditation; and validation. The extension of compulsory education from eight to ten years raised the need for new training standards and qualifications, with a direct impact on quality approaches in TVET. The Ministry of Education, Research and Youth presented for public debate the draft of the law on quality assurance: a system, institutions and a process based on a common set of standards, norms and performance indicators.
In conclusion, the debates on quality assurance in TVET in Romania have been determined by a series of internal events, but also by European initiatives in the field. Keeping the momentum, in 2005 the ministry expressed its explicit interest for a quality-assurance system accompanied by a decentralization policy as a top priority for educational reform in Romania. Also, in July 2005, the Law on Quality Assurance for the Education System was published.
4.1 Quality Assurance—Legal Provisions All the educational reforms implemented so far have had the implicit target of improving the quality of education, but only recently has quality assurance become an explicit goal at the educational policy level. The term ‘quality assurance in education’ as such has been introduced to public awareness and public discussions have begun, starting with the publication of the above-mentioned Law on Quality Assurance for the Education System. Furthermore, in Romania, quality assurance in education is regulated by the following set of legal provisions:
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Governmental Ordinance no. 75 of 12 July 2005 establishes the principles of the national policy regarding quality assurance in education for the entire national system. The ordinance refers to both pre-university and university education, including the TVET system. Assuring quality for CVT is carried out according to Law no. 375/2002 concerning continuous vocational training, with the subsequent implementation methodologies which make direct reference to the system of authorizing training sponsors.
As we can easily notice, there are separate legislative frameworks for initial vocational education and training (IVET) and continuous vocational training (CVT). In the IVET system, the phrase ‘quality assurance’ is explicitly approached and defined, while for the CVT, the authorization of the training sponsors explicitly aims at a rigorous control of the training offers.
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4.2 The Institutional Framework for Quality Assurance According to the present legislative framework, the quality assurance system in Romania is ensured through different institutions at the national and local levels. At a national level, the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance for Higher Education and the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance for Pre-university Education (including IVET) are currently being created on the basis of the former accreditation committees of the institutions for higher and pre-university education (Romania. Ministry of Education, Research and Youth, 2002). These new organisms are independent public institutions of national interest. However, the elaboration of methodologies and accreditation standards is supervised by the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth and is approved through a government decision. Given this statute, it is difficult to estimate to what extent the new institutions that deal with quality assurance will develop independently. Although the staff of these institutions will include experts in the domain of education, evaluation and quality assurance, they will have to act according to the policies established at the national level. At the local level, the school inspectorate for pre-university education is in charge of implementing the quality-assurance methodologies, while at the school level a committee for evaluation and quality assurance will be established. In the CVT domain, the National Adult Training Board is responsible for accrediting CVT providers. It has a tripartite structure, actively involving its social partners. At the local level, local commissions for the accreditation of CVT providers are implementing an appropriate methodology. An important role in the accountability of the quality-assurance system is played at the national level by the National Service for Evaluation and Examination (1998), which provides regular information about student achievements in different national examinations.
4.3 Definitions and Characteristics of Quality Assurance In recent years, we have witnessed different definitions of quality and qualityassurance concepts. As we have seen earlier in this chapter, in the 1990s quality simply meant achieving a better situation than before. The first coherent vision on quality assurance was described in the PHARETVET Programme documents. With the help of technical assistance, the National Centre for the Development of TVET in Romania drafted the first coherent policy document in the area of quality assurance. The paper proposed a coherent vision of quality assurance, proposing a ‘National Framework of Quality Assurance in Romania’ (IVET, CVT). The document also proposed an integrative approach to the different paths to education: formal, non-formal, informal learning, e-learning. Also, the policy document presented a set of consistent proposals, tools and implementation strategies from a lifelong education perspective. According to the paper ‘National Framework of Quality Assurance in Romania’, quality assurance has the following definitions:
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Quality in TVET: the level of satisfaction offered by the training provision, based on a shared set of standards between all interested actors. Quality assurance in TVET: all planned and systematic processes needed to ensure an appropriate level of trust so that TVET achieves the shared standards. Nevertheless, the definitions of and approaches to quality assurance in TVET have been directly influenced by the Romanian experience of working with the Technical Working Group on Quality Assurance at the European level. According to this approach, beneficiaries’ satisfaction is the central aspect of the quality-assurance system and standards are shared between all interested actors. Trust is also an important element of the quality-assurance approach. The 2005 Law on Quality Assurance for the Education System does not follow the same approach. Here, the concept of quality in education is defined in a different way: Quality: the assembly of characteristics of a study programme and of its provider, through which the beneficiary’s expectations and the previously established quality standards are fulfilled. Quality assurance: the assembly of actions aiming at the development of the institutional capacity of elaboration, planning and implementation of the study programmes. Quality-assurance approach: the organization’s capacity to offer educational programmes according to the formerly established standards. According to the law, the accent on the quality-assurance approach is placed on the characteristics of the study programme and the institutional setup, also taking into account the beneficiaries expectations. A significantly different approach could be noticed with regard to quality standards. When in the policy TVET document it is mentioned that the standards should be shared between all interested actors, the Law on Quality Assurance for the Education System speaks about prior standards. According to the same law, the responsibility for designing quality indicators falls on the central body in charge of implementing quality assurance, and it is not clear if those standards would be the subject of discussions or sharing between interested actors. In the CVT domain, quality assurance is still perceived as an accreditation process applied to the training programme or the training provider. As we can see, different definitions of quality assurance coexist in the TVET domain in Romania. This can also be observed in other East European countries, where different models of quality assurance are in operation at the same time.
4.4 Quality-Assurance Objectives According to the Law on Quality Assurance for the Education System, the objectives of quality assurance are as follows:
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Improving the quality of education; Producing and disseminating coherent, reliable and synthetic information, publicly accessible, on the quality of education; Ensuring the protection of beneficiaries; Creating a quality culture; Providing a background for policies in education.
As we can see, the main focus of the quality-assurance objectives is on accountability and beneficiaries’ protection. One important objective is creating a quality culture. In the context of Romania, this could be translated as a shift between a quality-control culture to a different one. Finally, the policy level seems to be an explicit beneficiary of the quality-assurance system.
4.5 Quality-Assurance Indicators According to the paper ‘National Framework of Quality Assurance in Romania’, it is clearly stated that quality indicators should be approved by all interested actors. The Law on Quality Assurance for the Education System presents a different perspective on quality-assurance standards and indicators. First, the standards system is a prerequisite for the quality-assurance system and is expected to be elaborated at the central level by a group of experts. According to the way of establishing quality-assurance standards presented in the law, standards should be consistent and always right (Baker, 1997).
4.6 Stakeholders in the Quality-Assurance Process According to the Law on Quality Assurance for the Education System, the most important stakeholder in the quality-assurance system is the State, represented by central institutions responsible for co-ordination and reporting. There are also some important responsibilities at the local and institutional levels, but the responsibility to report on the quality-assurance system takes place among central institutions. Even if the satisfaction of beneficiaries is taken into account, there are no specific tools to involve them in the quality-assurance process in the current law.
5 The Main Achievements in Implementing a Quality-Assurance System 5.1 Piloting the Quality-Assurance Tools The initial TVET system has been the champion of quality assurance in Romania. Even before the law was adopted, the initial TVET system started its own experimental model for implementing quality assurance in the system. In 2004/2005,
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twenty-two schools of education and vocational training, which act as resource centres, experimentally applied the criteria of the ‘National Framework of Quality Assurance in Romania’, which has been prepared primarily with the aim of evaluating the education and vocational training schools’ offer. The model was focused on teaching and learning processes in different contexts, the curriculum, qualifications, accreditation and self-assessment. The main activities carried out with a view to implementing a quality-assurance system in initial TVET were the following:
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Organizing training courses in the area of quality management addressed to teachers, headmasters and social partners; Elaborating a set of performance indicators for quality assurance in TVET; Drafting a manual for school inspection with a view to implementing the qualityassurance system in Romania; Drafting a self-assessment manual for TVET schools; Starting the pilot phase (2004–2005) of school self-assessment.
Regarding implementation, it was proposed to organize twenty-two external monitoring visits at the beginning of 2005 and the validation through inspection of twenty-two reports of self-evaluation by July 2005. In the CVT domain, the accreditation of training curricula and training providers advanced, an official list with the authorized training providers being published on the Internet. With some difficulty due to the lack of professional staff at the local level focused on internal relevance of the offer and not on the external consistency with the real market needs and the formal involvement of social partners, the accreditation system is becoming more efficient.
5.2 Steps towards a National Qualifications Framework Romania affirmed the will to adopt a national qualifications framework, relevant for both initial and in-service training. It is foreseen that the National Adult Training Board will become in the near future the National Authority for Qualifications in Romania. Some important steps have been accomplished through the establishment of sectoral committees consisting of the social partners in charge of the descriptions of occupational standards and qualifications. In this way, the involvement of social partnership is guaranteed in the framework of an important step towards quality assurance in TVET.
6 Challenges Future steps in the development of the quality-assurance system for TVET in Romania will depend on the effectiveness of the measures taken so far and the way that policy and law will be implemented. Therefore, some important questions should be asked, as follows:
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1. How best to disseminate the results of the PHARE-TVET Programme in order to avoid discrepancies? The piloting of the quality-assurance model is being carried out in the best twenty-two schools within the system. The reflection on the outcomes should take into consideration that there are important discrepancies inside the system, especially between rural and urban schools. The new law on quality assurance proposes a slightly different model and definition than those used in PHARE-TVET Programme, and this could lead to some mismatches in the widespread introduction of the experiences. According to the new law, the implementation of the quality-assurance model is compulsory for all schools and this is an important issue that should be addressed. A piloting phase on a voluntary basis would be desirable for generalizing the experience. 2. What steps should be carried out for a more real IVET/CVT common approach to quality assurance? The initial TVET system has made some important steps forward on quality-assurance approaches, while CVT is only practising an accreditation and evaluation system for quality. The fact that there is no common legislative framework for quality in initial and continuing TVET is a barrier to implementing a common approach to quality assurance within those systems. For example, it is not clear what kind of quality-assurance procedures training providers should follow when they are offering simultaneously initial and continuing TVET programmes. 3. How to increase awareness about the benefits of quality assurance in public opinion? So far, public opinion has been extremely critical about the qualityassurance approaches to education. This is especially true because, according to the law, quality will become the most important criteria in the financing of schools from public funds. It is necessary that the implementation of the qualityassurance system is preceded by an awareness campaign with all the interested actors involved. 4. How to enable schools to be more autonomous? The quality-assurance system can be effective only if schools have more autonomy. The decentralization policy for education in Romania was postponed for a long time, particularly due to budgetary constraints. Under these circumstances, it is very difficult to assess the way in which schools will be able to improve the quality of education if they do not have the appropriate autonomy. 5. More research on quality-assurance concepts, policy, methodology and practice is needed. The most important part of quality-assurance literature available in Romania is coming from abroad. There are few publications and little research on quality assurance available nationally. There is a need to encourage interest in quality-assurance approaches in Romania, in order to situate the experiences in a theoretical framework. 6. Is the quality of provision a guarantee for more participation in TVET? Apart of being synchronized with other European countries, the implementation of the quality-assurance system in Romania requires a great deal of investment, institution building and money. Meanwhile, the most important issue in the TVET system in Romania seems to be participation, especially in CVT. Further evaluation
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exercises should asses to what extent the quality-assurance system has influenced participation. Nevertheless, the implementation of the quality-assurance system in Romania could face some unexpected difficulties:
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Teachers’ and school managers’ resistance to the quality-assurance system (fear of hierarchy, fear of losing the job or position, etc.). This situation cannot be resolved unless more support and resources are placed at the schools’ disposal; The implementation of the quality-assurance system requires time. Since July 2005, when the Law on the Quality Assurance of the Education System was approved, the responsible bodies at the central level are still being created, while the need for better quality in education is a continuous pressure. The feeling that governmental institutions are losing control could lead to much pressure being placed on the schools. Romania faced a similar issue regarding the introduction of the school-based curriculum (SBC). Initially, schools were allowed 30% of SBC; a subsequent decision was made to diminish this to 10%. Even though the reason was explained, school autonomy has suffered. The same outcome might be expected with the implementation of the quality-assurance system. Lack of local resources could increase frustration for the most disadvantaged and could end with greater disparities between rural and urban schools, ‘good schools’ and ‘bad schools’, and so on. This inequity issue is raised especially by the schools that have to deal with different constraints, such as: lack of resources; location in disadvantaged areas; students who have no support from their families, etc. Some voices have said that the quality-assurance system will make poor schools poorer and rich schools richer.
7 Conclusions and Issues for Debate In Romania, interest in the issue of quality assurance in TVET is recent, but the first relevant steps have been taken. The education system witnesses an emerging framework and clear policy statements on quality assurance. A special law on quality assurance in education has affirmed in a structured way the national will for a coherent quality-assurance system in education. Although it started out as a pilot project on school self-evaluation, the general view of the policy documents is still that the approach is top-down, centralized and control-based. Standards against which quality assurance is measured are prepared at the central level and describe the perfect expectations for schools, independent of the context in which the schools are operating. Existing institutional frameworks could be useful as far as the quality-control function will decrease significantly and co-operation and support will increase. More still needs to be done on training and consultancy mechanisms for schools and training providers in order to make them fit for quality-assurance implementation.
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In spite of the declared intention for a general quality-assurance framework, the links between IVET and CVT approaches are still weak and unbalanced. There are different approaches and legal frameworks for quality assurance in initial and continuing TVET. Even in the domain of initial TVET, former experiences of quality-assurance approaches are not totally consistent with the new law on quality assurance in education. The decentralization process lay behind the quality-assurance system. Concerning human-resources management and financial management at the school level, school autonomy remains limited, affecting the quality-assurance process. Inasmuch as financing depends on the quality-assessment outcomes, there is a high risk for inequity. The poor schools are in danger of becoming even poorer, while the rich schools may become even richer. A strategy of quality-assurance implementation based on a voluntary approach would be welcome in order to avoid wide discrepancies between schools. There is a need to evaluate the impact of the quality-assurance system on different current issues of the TVET system at the national and international levels, such as: increasing participation in education; basic skills; better employment of graduates; civic dimensions of the TVET system; individual perspective of the qualityassurance system; lifelong learning perspectives; and social partner’s perspectives.
References Baker, J. 1997. Conflicting conceptions of quality: policy implications for tertiary education. (Paper presented at the AIC Tertiary Education in New Zealand Conference, 27–28 May 1997.) Deij, A.; B˜adescu, M.; Fragoulis, H. 2004. Achieving the Lisbon goals: the contribution of vocational education and training in Romania. Turin, Italy: European Training Foundation. Gliga, L., ed. 2002. Professional standards for the teaching profession. Bucharest: Ministry of Education and Research. Lisievici, P. 1997. Quality of education: concept outline, evaluation and development. Bucharest: Didactic and Pedagogic Publishing House. Romania. Ministry of Education, Research and Youth. 2002. The National Strategy for the Development of the Pre-university Education (2001–2004). Bucharest: Ministry of Education, Research and Youth. Romanian National Observatory. 2003. Modernization of the VET system in Romania: short country report. Bucharest: Institute for Educational Sciences.
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Author Index
A Abbott, A., 170, 1645 Abdala, E., 1111 Abdullah, M.H., 2618 Abma, T., 1485 Abrahart, A., c, civ Abreu, A., 1689 Abu Nahleh, L., 807, 809 Abu-Lughod, I., 800 Abuodha, C., 246, 248, 250, 251, 252, 258, 259 n.3, 4, 7 Achtenhagen, F., 1541 Adam, S., 1628, 1631, 1632 Adams, D., 516, 941, 942, 950, 953, 2593 Adams, V.M., 2690 Adams, A.V., cxiii, cxiv, cxx, cxxi, cxxii, cxxiii, cxxiv, cxxv, cxxvi, cxxviii, cxxx, cxxxii, cxxxiii n.2, 43, 464, 516, 517, 518, 520, 521, 542, 875, 881, 884, 904 n.4 Adams, A. v., 2543 Adams, V.A., 531 Addison, J., 947 Adejumo, D., 2684 Adick, C., 1670 Adolph, G., 1710 Adorno, T.W., 1295 Agar, M.H., 1559 Agiomirgianakis, G., 2723 Agrawal, P., 93, 189–201 Aguado, T., 140 Agulhon, C., 2279, 2282 Ahadzie, W., 237–238, 261–274 Ahamad, B., 792 Ahmed, M., 721, 2055 Ahn, S-e., 2600 Aichouni, M., 140 Ainley, J., 2275 Akhaluola, F.C., 135 Akoojee, S., 459, 462, 463, 464, 1100, 2605
Akyeampong, A.K., 2296, 2299, 2300, 2303 Akyeampong, A., 278 Albert, H., 1751 Alesi, B., 1396, 1401, 1404 Alexander, A., 840 Alexander, D., 2006 Alfano, P., 2682 Algozzine, B., 2190 Al-Haj, M., 800, 804 Alheit, P., 223 Allais, M., 456 Allen, C.R., 1662 Allen, V., 2608 Allison, J., 2359 Alpern, M., 2232 Alston, M., 2563 Alstyne, van M., 83 Altmann, R., 1753 Altvater, E., 1310 Alvarez, A., 224 Alwin, D.F., 1567 Amao-Kehinde, A.O., 136, 137, 138, 140 Amey, M., 2671 Amin, S., 109 Anaya, G., 1569 Andersen, L., 320 Anderson, D.K., 1167, 1472, 2359, 2685 Anderson, H., 2009 Anderson, J.R., 1335, 1355, 1615, 1713 Anderson, B., 422 Anderson, G., 205 Anderson, N., lxxiv Andersson, P., 2600 Andrew, M., 2813 Andruske, C.L., 2618 Angelides, P., 2599, 2607 Anker, R., 132, 133, 137, 184 Annan, J., 768, 769, 775, 776, 778, 779, 780, 781, 782, 783
2971
2972 Annus, T., 599, 600, 601, 604 Anschutz, J., 315 Aoshima, Y., 1497 Apostolou, B., 2171 Apostolou, N., 2171 Appiah, E.N., 2588, 2589 Apple, M.W., 2357, 2358 Apps, J., 2665 Apter, D., 1483 Archibald, S., 846 Arendt, H., 1669 Argy, F., 2357 Argyris, C., 463, 2362 Armstrong, L., 2274 Arnove, R.F., 1259 Aronowitz, S., 681 Arrighi, G., 1307, 1309, 1310 Ashton, D., 253, 258, 259 n.1, 463, 519, 874, 878, 879, 880, 883, 884, 885, 948, 2067, 2070, 2087, 2539, 2541, 2922 Asis, M.M.B., 570 Askov, E.N., 2544 Asmal, K., 967, 1971, 1983, 1986 Aspel, N.P., 2190 Assaf, S., 801, 802 Asteriou, D., 2723 Astin, A.W., 1564, 1565, 1566, 1567, 1569, 1570, 1571 Astin, H.S., 1570 Atchoarena, D., xcviii, cxx, cxxii, 365–378, 533, 535, 536, 537, 538, 539, 540, 541, 542, 543, 704, 725, 726, 878, 884, 917, 918 n.1, 951, 1029–1036, 1056, 1323, 2089, 2090, 2091, 2092, 2305, 2307, 2412, 2592, 2900, 2901, 2902, 2908 Attwell, G., 1368, 1369, 1370, 1371 Audretsch, D.B., 2364 Ausburn, F.B., 1890 Ausburn, L.J., 1890 Averianova, I., 913, 914 Avila, M., 724 Avis, J., 1588, 1725–1736 Awkerman, G., 955 Axiotis, A.D., 2608 Aydemir, A., 2726 Aynsley, S., 2348 Ayres, Q.W., 1567, 1571 B B¨uchtemann, C., 166, 2543 B¨unning, F., xi, xiii, xvi, 523–524, 597–608, 1183, 1393–1405 Babcock, P., 8
Author Index Bacchus, K., 2296 B¨acklund, A.-K., 2821 Bacon, F., 6, 97 Bader, R., 1190, 1703 B˜adescu, M., 2955 Badran, N.A., 801, 803 Badroodien, A., 456, 462, 464 Bae, S.H., 2202, 2211–2226 Bae, J.S., 681 Baer, R., 2189 Baer, L., 213 Baethge, M., 171 Baethge-Kinsky, V., 170 Bagnall, R.G., 2034–2035, 2163–2173 Bail, R.J., 1814 Bailey, T., 180, 2240 Bailey, T.R., 913, 914, 1769, 2166, 2172 Bain, J.D., 2685 Baker, D.A., 1261 Baker, J., 2965 Bakhtin, M.M., 2410 Bakia, M., 914, 915 Bakker, M.R., 1485 Balanskat, A., 1841 Balica, M., 2775, 2953–2969 Ball, R., 1565, 1566 Ball, S.J., 1732, 1806 Baltes, P.B., 185 Bamm´e, A., 1193 Bangasser, P., cxiii Barab, S., 328 Barakat, B., 769, 770, 771, 775–785, 799–810 Baramki, G., 801 Barbagelata, H.H., 1296 Barber, B.K., 802 Barber, B., 104 Barbezat, D., 132 Bardeleben, R. von, 1759 Bardsley, D., 2358 Barker, M., 183 Barlex, D., 1780 Barley, S.R., 177 Barlow, M.L., lxxxviii, xc, xciii Barnes, S-A., 1587, 1687–1698 Barnett, K., 2359, 2365 Barnett, M., 1811 Barnett, R., 1731 Barone, S., 792 Bartel, A.P., 180 Barton, D., 1261, 1262 Barton, J., 1901 Bassey, M., 203, 205 Basu, C. K., 1843–1844, 1923–1933
Author Index Bateman, A., 2172 Bates, I., 1733 Bates, R.A., 2538 Battezzati, L., 1186 Baudelaire, C., 2712 n.7 Bauer, J., 1361 Bauer, W., 1607 Baukrowitz, A., 2749 Bauman, Z., 342, 2167 Baumgartner, L.M., 2618 Bax, M., 1378 Bazerman, M.H., 2362, 2363, 2563 Beach, K.D., 2280 Beard, R.M., 2679 Beard, F., 215 Beare, H., 1268 Beaver, G., 2362 Beck, U., 108, 162, 1138, 1509, 1511, 1514 Becker, G.S., 519, 2082 Becker, M., 1560, 1632, 1634, 1635 Becker, W., 1465 Becker, H.S., lxxv Becker, K.F., cxiii, cxviii Beckett, D., 1731, 2363, 2364 Beder, S., 2198, 2358, 2360 Beelmann, G., 1466 Beer, A., 2563 Behrman, J.R., 885 Beicht, U., 1759 Belanger, C., 2651 B´elanger, P., 105, 326 Bell, D., 2714 Bell, R., 2201 Bellotti, V., 1913 Beluzzo, L. G. de M., 1314, 1315 Ben¨ohr, S., 1748 Benavot, A., 2025, 2111, 2112, 2116 Benington, J., 2359 Bennell, P., cxxii, cxxxiii, 303, 946, 947, 1777 Benner, H., 1629 Benner, P., 1236, 1452, 1554, 1582, 1584, 1623, 1630 Bennett, R.W., 1567, 1571 Bennett, C.A., 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 17 n.1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 11 Bennis, W., 2390, 2391 Berar-Awad, A., 122 Berdrow, I., 2232 Bereiter, C., 1619, 2785 Beresneviciene, D., 623 Berg, L., 213, 214 Berger, P.L., 1615 Berger, P.A., 164
2973 Bergmann, H., 2585 Bergmann, J.R., 1558 Berliner, D.C., 1352 Bernard, F., 1603 Bernhardt, A., 178, 184, 2232 Bernier, C., 2789 Bernstein, B., 493, 1829, 2732, 2733 Bernstein, I.H., 1569 Berrutti, E., 384, 390 n.5 Berryman, S., 178 Bertrand, O., 181, 940, 942, 943, 944 Bessega, C., 384 Best, F., 1145 Beven, F., 1179, 1243–1256, 1712 Beynon, H., 1689 Beywl, W., 1566 Bierman, C., 2685 Biesta, G., 487 Biggs, J., 2667 Biggs, B.T., 28, 31 Biggs, T., cxxiv, cxxv Billetoft, J., 2667 Billett, S., xi, 93, 175–186, 325, 328, 337, 341, 343, 344, 878, 879, 881, 1175–1184, 1244, 1245, 1246, 1248, 1251, 1252, 1253, 1254, 1333–1347, 1353, 1354, 1357, 1361, 1368, 1588, 1588, 1711–1722, 1767, 1769, 1773, 2198, 2201, 2271, 2359, 2559, 2560, 2604 Bimrose, J., 1587, 1687–1698 Birch, D., 2197, 2198, 2359, 2364 Bird, K., 344 Birdsall, N., 875, 879, 882, 883, 884, 885, 954, 956 Birkenholz, R.J., 1372 Birks, S., 246, 247, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 256, 257 Birrell, B., 2273 Bishop, A.J., 2740 Bishop, J., 2221, 2300, 2306, 2307, 2308 Bishop, J.H., 402, 947 Bishop, R., 226 Biswal, B., 2589 Biswal, U.D., 2589 Bjørnav˚ald, J., 2598 Bjornavold, J., 2783, 2785, 2788, 2814, 2821 Bl¨ochle, S.J., 1655 Blachford, K., 1248 Black, A., 2359 Blackburn, R.T., 1565, 1566 Blackman, D., 1503 n.1 Blair, T., 2727 Blamire, R., 1841 Blanchard, W., 671
2974 Blankertz, H., 1636 n.1, 1682 Blanks, W.E., 1628 Blasum, E., 693 Blattman, C., 768, 769, 775, 776, 777, 778, 779, 780, 781, 782, 783 Blau, F.D., 129, 130, 131, 132, 136, 531, 533, 541 Blaug, M., 2090, 2091 Blodget, H., 1889, 2521 Bloom, B., 2686 Bloom, B.J., 2814 Bloom, B.S., 1568, 1665, 1886 Bloom, M., 2716 Bloomer, M., 222 Blum, A., 2743 n.4 Blundel, R., 1526 Blunden, R., 2165 Blyton, P., 176, 178, 182 Boben, D.P., 2165 Bobrow, D.B., 869, 870, 872, 873, 874, 875, 876 Boden, M., 1524, 1530 Bodilly, S., 396, 401 Boehm, U., 350 Boer, P. den, 493 Boes, A., 2748, 2749 Bogue, E.G., 1563 Bohm, D., 663, 664, 665 Boll´e, P., 131, 133 Bologna, E., 1116, 1120 n.3 Bond, L., 1407 Bone, J., 1205 Bonk, J.C., 1858 Bonß, W., 1509, 1511, 1514 Boone, R., 2010 Booth, C., lxxiv Bopp, J., 2167 Bopp, M., 2167 Boreham, N., 1435 n.9, 1543, 1555, 1584, 1586, 1593–1607 Boreham, N.C., 1451, 2630 Borghans, L., 2939 Borko, H., 1368, 2235 Borkowski, J.G., 1765 Bosch, A.E., 882, 884, 952 Boshuizen, H.P.A., 1352, 1354 Botaya, A., 2197 Bottoms, G., 393, 2236 Boucher, L., 2068 Boud, D., 320, 661, 1368, 1472, 1716, 1825, 2363 Bouder, A., 2873 Boudria, T.J., 136
Author Index Boughton, B., 2172 Bourdieu, P., 1120 n.3, 1261, 1313, 1511 Bourne, G., 2359 Bourne, J.R., 1851 Bouteiller, D., 2279 Boutin, F., 81–94, 1566, 1567, 1569, 1843, 1879–1893, 2523, 2527, 2553–2567, 2679 Bowe, R., 1732 Bowles, S., 1829 Boyce, K.E., 2682 Br¨odner, P., 1598 Br´u, E., 124 Bradley, R., 1165 Bradley, L., 204 Brady, N., 1543 Bragg, D.D., 2243 Brand, W., 951 Brand˜ao, C.R., 1296 Brater, M., 162, 1585 Braun, E., 1497 Braverman, H., 161, 1444, 1555, 1640 Braxton, J.M., 1564, 1568 Bray, M., 263, 2563 Braziel, P.M., 2189 Bredo, E., 1612 Breier, M., 1261, 1264 Breisch, R.E., 211 Bremer, R., 1430, 1466, 1603, 1629, 1676 Brennan, R., 1208, 1209, 1213 Brennan-Kemmis, R., 1213 Brenner, J., 2682 Brewer, L., cxx, cxxii Brinke, G. van den, 494 Briscoe, D., 681 Brockett, R.G., 2617, 2618 Bromme, R., 1193, 1354 Brookes, D., 1377 Brookfield, S., 2665, 2669, 2670, 2675 Brookfield, S.D., 2615–2626 Broughton, A., 2789 Brown, A., xi, 1542, 1587, 1687–1698 Brown, A.L., 1336 Brown, B., 1895 Brown, B.L., 1368 Brown, C., 1498 Brown, J.S., 1336, 1338, 1339, 1360, 1696, 1714 Brown, K., 1618 Brown, L., 1472, 1473 Brown, M., 2742 Brown, N.J., 802 Brown, P., 463, 1729, 1733, 1734, 2067, 2082, 2086, 2168, 2171, 2172, 2686
Author Index Brown, S.J., 1618 Brown, A., xi, 1542 Browne, I., 2714 Bruce, D., 2475 Bruening, T., 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013 Bruijn, E. de, 492, 1483, 1484, 1485, 1486, 1490 Bruijns, V., 1485 Bruneau, W., 1565, 1568 Brunello, G., 179 Bruner, J.S., 1676 Brunner, J., 292 Buboltz-Lutz, E., 1633 Buchholz, R.A., 2357 Buchmann, U., 1670 Buchmann, M., 15 Buckland, H., 2554 Buckland, P., 767, 776, 849, 857, 859 Budke, W., 88 Buechtemann, C., 2543 Bullen, P., 2200 Bullock, K., 1360 B¨unning, F., 597–608 Burapharat, C., 525, 659–672 Burban, M., 209 Burchi, F., 721 Burge, P.L., 138 Burke, R.J., 137 Burke, G., 1035, 1155–1168 Burnett, G., 2331 Burnham, J.B., 84 Burns, B., 879, 954, 956 Bush, A., 1213 Bush, K., 802 Bush, T., 465 Buss, K.-P., 1498 Butcher, N., 1837, 1841 Butko, E., 475 Butler, E., 138 Buttler, F., 161 Buultjens, J., 1165 Buxton, M.J., 1473, 1476 Buydens, M., 1890 Bynner, J., 1542, 2559 Bysshe, S., 223 C C´ea, G.S., 1313 C´orvalan, O.V., 351 Cabrera, A.F., 1565, 1569 Caffarella, R.S., 2683 Caillods, F., 542, 2092, 2412 Cakan, M., 2684
2975 Caldwell, B., 2359 Calhoun, C., 262 Callaghan, R., 2874–2875 Callan, V., 1209, 2497 Callieri, C., 2577 Camdessus, M., 88, 2521 Cameron, N., 2493, 2495 Cameron, J., 480 Cammack, P., 683 Camp, W.G., 21, 1193, 2008, 2013 Campbell, B., 2685 Campbell, C.P., 878, 945, 951 Canagarajah, S., cxxix Candy, P., 2666, 2669, 2670 Candy, P.C., 2620 Canelos, J., 2686 Canto-Sperber, M., 2577 Cantwell, M., 205, 209 Cardoso, M., 2029–2030, 2032–2034, 2053–2065, 2095–2161 Carey, L., 2687 Carey, J., 97, 98 Carlson, R.V., 955 Carlson, K., 780, 781, 783, 784 Carnevale, A., 203, 208, 210, 2541 Carnevale, A.P., 23, 24, 178, 2178, 2190, 2212, 2232 Carnevale, D., 2004 Carnoy, M., 176, 370, 1186, 2169, 2171 Carr, M., 336 Carraher, T.N., 1612, 1616 Carroll, C.D., 2006 Carroll, G.R., 2714 Carstensen, P.H., 1911 Carswell, M., 2364 Carter, R., 1542, 1689 Carter, P.A., 134, 136, 138 Caruso, B.W., 2682 Casanova, F., 382 Case, R., 2686 Castellano, M., 1655, 1656 Castells, M., 82, 2025 Castleton, G., 1262, 1264 Castro, C.M., 1126 Castro, N.A., 1294 Castro, C.d.M., 43, 516, 518, 915, 1272, 1278, 1280 Catina, A., 1465 Caudell, L.S., 2240 Cavu, P., 524, 609–617, 2205–2206, 2329–2341 Chabbott, C., 516 Chafa, J. cxxviii
2976 Chambers, R., 725 Chand, A., 2330 Chand, S., 2330 Chandra, D., 2339, 2774–2775, 2935–2950 Chang, H-G., 2379–2380, 2431–2443 Chapman, B., 1164 Chapman, D.W., 885 Chapman, J., 898 Chappell, C., 1207, 1368, 1730, 2491 Charles, T., 788 Chase, B., 2241 Cheers, B., 2359–2360 Chelminsky, E., 1526 Chen, S., 986, 2684–2685 Chen, M.A., 336 Chene, A., 2616 Cheng, Y.C., 704 Cherniss, C., 2661, 2672 Chi, M.T.H., 1453 Chieco, N.W., 1180, 1271–1282 Chikarmane, P., 1263 Chin, P., 1589, 1763–1773 Chin-Aleong, M., 2305, 2307 Chinien, A., 526, 749–764 Chinien, C., 81–94, 526, 749–764, 1843, 1879–1893, 2521–2533, 2553–2567, 2679–2691 Chinoy, E., lxxvi Chisholm, L., 1542, 1771 Chissman, M., 210 Chiswick, B., 2935 Cho, E., 2211 Choi, J., 2380–2381, 2457–2467 Chossudvsky, M., 1314 Choy, S Choy, S.P. 1182, 1367–1380, 2233 Chrosciel, E., 1629, 1673 Chu, K.C., 1854 Churton, M., 573 Ciavatta, M., 1181, 1307–1317 Cicchinelli, L.F., 2233 Cingil, I., 1919 Clagett, C.A., 2232 Clandinin, D.J., 1825 Clark, B.R., 1824 Clark, C., 2661 Clark, R., 1765 Clark, D., lxxxvii, lxxxix Clarke, G.M., 2728 n.1 Clarke, P., 263 Claxton, G., 1770 Clayton, B., 1368, 1375, 1376, 1380, 2491, 2492, 2494, 2564
Author Index Clegg, S., 344, 1734 Clemans, A., 337 Clover, D., 2674 Coady, W.T., 2171 Cobb, R.B., 2008, 2013 Cobb, J.Jr, 104 Coben, D., 2531, 2731–2743 Cocklin, C., 2563 Cohen, E., 875 Cohen, R., 320 Cohn, E., 947 Colardyn, D., 2598, 2769, 2770, 2777–2791, 2811–2823 Colbeck, C.L., 1565 Cole, B.C., 2172 Cole, M., 224, 230, 1261, 1335, 1618, 2280 Colebatch, H.K., 872, 873 Coleman, S., 1726, 1728 Coles, A.M., 2348, 2350 Coles, M., 2930 Coles, T., 2009, 2010, 2013 Coles, M., 374, 375, 411–425, 439–452 Colley, H., 321, 322, 324, 325, 326, 327, 2363 Collier, K.G., 2607 Collins, A., 487, 1336, 1338, 1339, 1346, 1360, 1612, 1613, 1615, 1617, 1618, 1621, 1622, 1714 Collins, R., 1798 Comenius, J.A., 6 Comings, J., 2538, 2544, 2548 Company, F.J., 2205, 2313–2327 Comyn, P., 2173 Coney, M., 1542 Conn, M., 526, 735–747 Connell, J., 2330, 2340 Connelly, F.M., 1825 Conrad, C.F., 1565, 1566 Conroy, C.A., 140 Considine, G., 2365 Considine, M., 2201, 2359 Conway, G., 725 Conyer, M., 2268 Cook, T.D., 815 Cooke, F., 2330 Cooke, M., 2380 Cook-Gumperez, J., 182 Cooley, M.J.E., 1598 Coombe, C., 43, 1805, 2296, 2310 n.1 Coombs, P., 1483, 2055 Coombs, P.H., 721 Cooper, H.M., 2681 Cooperman, E.W., 2682 Copa, G.H., 25, 26
Author Index Cope, B., 1262, 1263, 1780, 1781, 1784, 1785, 1789 Cope, J., 2364 Copeland, B.D., 2682, 2689, 2690 Coppala, N., 1860 Corbett, J.M., 1598 Coria, A., 1118, 1120 n.1 Cornford, I., 2201, 2358, 2364 Cornford, I.R., 2172 Cornish, J., 2559 Cornwall, A., 954, 956 Corrigan, M., 2275 Cort, P., 1372, 1373, 1374, 1377 Corval´an-V´asquez, O., 192 Cosser, M., 463, 1103 Cotton, S.E., 2189, 2190 Couch, R.A., 2682 Coulombe, S., 2725 Coursey, S., 882 Courtney, B.C., 2618 Cowen, R., 1806 Cox, J.E., 792 Cox, R.W., 684 Craig, C.J., 1360 Cramer, G., 1759 Crane, R., 2419 Crane, R.I., 350 Cranton, P., 2360, 2661, 2664, 2665, 2669, 2673, 2675 Creamer, D.G., 1569 Cressey, P., 2363 Cressy, P.G., lxxiv Crompton, R., 130 Cross, P.K., 2680 Crouch, C., 463, 2067, 2069, 2541 Crow, L.W., 2689 Croxford, L., 1542 Crump, S., 2172 Crunkilton, J.R., lxxviii, 1459 n.1, 1837 Csikszentmihaly, M., 1193 Cullen, J., 1541 Cully, M., 2488, 2499 Culpepper, P.D., 519, 2543 Culver, S.M., 138 Cumming, A., 1809 Cumming, C.E., 2303 Cumming, J.J., 230 Cummings, W.K., 245 Cuneo, C.J., 2685 Cunha, L.A., 1277, 1279, 1317 n.2 Cunningham, D.J., 487 Curley, M., 155 Curtain, R., 2171
2977 Cury, C.R.J., 524, 637–647 Custer, R.L., 1813, 2189, 2190 Custer, W.L., 2682 Cuthill, M., 2563 Cutshall, S., 2008, 2013 Czarnecki, K.G., 2682 D D’Amico, C., 203, 208, 210, 2542 Dabalen, A., cxxiv, cxxv Daheim, H., 162 Dahlman, C.J., 880 Dahrendorf, R., 1756 Dale, R., 345 Dall, F.P., 245 Daloz, L., 2661, 2662, 2672, 2675 Daly, H.E., 104 Damon, W., 1193 Danford, A., 182 Daniel, J., 1879 Danileviˇcius, E., 602 Dar, A., cxxix, cxxxiii n.7, 429, 520, 878, 881, 884, 2544 Darcy de Oliveira, M., 99 Darrah, C.N., 179, 183 Darwin, A., 1773 Das Gupta, M., 2357, 2560 Date-Bah, E., 849, 852, 853, 857 Daune-Richard, A-M., 1264 Dausien, B., 223 Davidson, J.E., 1765 Davidson-Shivers, G.V., 2682 Davis, C., 940, 942, 944, 945, 946, 948, 949, 950 Davis, G.A., 1857 Davis, P., 1375 Davison, G., 1503 n.1 Dawe, S., 2408, 2409, 2413 Dawkins, J., 1245, 1246 Dayton, C., 2242 Dayton, C.U.C., 2242 De Bono, E., 1857 De Broucker, P., 89 De Bruin, A., 2475 De Groot, A.D., 1355 De Jong, T., 1356 de Leo, J., 44, 2169 De Mann, H., lxxiv de Montrichard, A., 373–374, 393–409 de Mooij, R., 151 de Moura Castro, C., 43, 915, 1272, 1278, 1280 De Muro, P., 721 de Rooij, P., 607, 2487, 2496
2978 De Soto, H., 247 de Vecchi, G., 2711 n.1 de Vries, E., 2531, 2713–2729 DeAngelis, K., 1186 Deci, E.L., 1773 Decker, P., 2233 Deen, T., 673 Dehnbostel, P., 1237, 1457, 1505–1517, 1530, 1607, 2528, 2629–2644, 2749, 2754 Deij, A., 2955 Deissinger, T., xc, xcii, 909, 1368, 1371 Deitmer, L., 1454, 1457, 1521–1532, 1603 Del Cid, M., 124 del Rio, P., 224 Delandshere, G., 1408 Delanty, G., 342 Delhaxhe, A., 1840, 1841 Delluc, A., 533, 535, 537, 538, 539, 541, 542, 543, 878, 884, 951, 1323, 2089, 2090, 2091, 2092, 2412, 2900, 2901, 2902, 2908 Delluc, A.M., cxx, 2592 Delors, J., vc, 44, 197, 1928, 1933, 2527, 2575, 2576, 2699 Demsky, T., 875, 877, 878, 884, 885 Demuth, B., 1515 Denniss, R., 2198, 2358, 2362 Denoyel, N., 1384 Denzin, N.K., 2560 Derivianko, I., xc Dertouzos, M.L., 1496 Descalzi, R., 1117, 1120 n.1 Descy, D.E., 2680 Descy, P., 148, 149, 153, 159 n.2, 1450 Desrochers, D.M., 2178 Devarajan, S., 1926 Devey, R., cxiv, cxviii Devia, S., 383 Devitt, K., 2347, 2348, 2349 Dewe, B., 1514 Dewey, J., xciv, 15, 20, 1612, 1614, 1662, 1664, 1667 n.6, 2639 Dhameja, S. K., 2381–2382, 2469–2485 Diamond, J., 2563 Diamond, M., 1925 Dick, W., 2687 Dickie, M., 1369, 2488, 2491, 2493, 2494 Diebold, F.X., 792 Diehl, W., 1261 Dienys, V., 623 DiFazio, W., 681 DiGeorgio, R.M., 1372 Dillenberg, P., 1855 DiLorenzo-Aiss, J., 214
Author Index Dirkx, J.M., 2671 Dittrich, J., 1183–1184, 1423–1435 Dixon, I., 2359 Dixon, P., 2456 n.10 Docherty, P., 2363 Dockery, A., 2275 Doeringer, P.B., 1449 Doets, C., 1489 Dogac, A., 1919 Dohmen, G., 2639 Dohms, A., 2643 Dominice, P., 326 Donald, G., 417 Donaldson, M., 1829 Donovan, F.R., lxxiv Dooley, C.R., 2546 Doolittle, P.E., 21 Doray, P., 326 Dore, R.P., 880, 2223 D¨orre, K., 2631 Dosi, G., 1766 Dostal, W., 162, 163, 1754, 2748 Dougherty, B.K., 837 Dougherty, C., 944 Dougherty, K., 914, 195 Dougherty, M., 1931 Douglas, D., 1741 Dourish, P., 1913 Dow, M., 2359 Downie, R., 2380 Downs, A., 1125 Doyle, W., 1670 Draxler, A., vcii, 1778, 1837, 1971, 1972, 2575 Dreyfus, H.L., 1429, 1452, 1555, 1623, 1665, 2009, 2358 Dreyfus, L.S., 1665 Dreyfus, S.E., 1429, 1452, 1555, 1623, 2358 Dreyfuss, C., lxxiv Driscoll, M.P., 503, 511 n.3 Drodge, S., 913 Drucker, P., 83, 205, 208, 1486, 2540 Dryzek, J.S., 869, 870, 872, 873, 874, 875, 876 du Bois-Reymond, M., 1139 Dubois, P.R., 2906 Ducci, M.A., 1079 Duffy, T.M., 487, 501, 1615, 1616 Duguid, P., 487, 1338, 2235, 2672 Dumazedier, J., 1138 Dumont, R., 721 Duncan, S.L., 28 Dupuy, J.P., 2577 Durand-Drouhin, M., 2042, 2787 Durant, W., lxxxv
Author Index Durkheim, E., lxxiii, lxxvii Durnan, D., 2172 Duschek, S., 1496 Dusek, R.E., 2679 Dusollier, S., 1890 Duvekot, R., 2606, 2610, 2820 Dwyer, F.M., 2680 Dyanko, A., 136, 142 Dybowski, G., 1463, 1512, 2631, 2635 Dychtwald, K., 2540 E Easton, P., 954 Eccles, C., 1961, 1962 Ecclestone, K., 1733 Eden, R., 2232 Edmonds, G.S., 1918 Edwards, R., 1731 Egberink, W., 1485 Egbo, B., 136, 137, 138, 140 Egger, P., 115, 116, 123, 124 Eggert, J., 2820 Ehn, P., 1598 Ehrich, L., 1346 Ehrlich, K., 1510, 1524, 1530 Eichler, M., 320 Eisner, W.E., 1826, 1830 Eklund, J., 1963 Ekstrom, R.B., 2679 El-Abd, H.A., 2679 Elder, S., 131, 133, 134 Elias, J., 355 Elkner, B., 1208 Ellerman, D., 499, 505, 511 n.7 Elliot, G., 1543 Ellis, S., 548, 549, 787 Ellyard, P., 2358, 2559 Elmhirst, R., 882, 956 Elvins, R., 2408, 2409, 2413 Emery, F.E., 1556 Emery, M., 1556 Empey, B., 2529 Emst, A. van, 490 Engberts, J., 490 Engestrom, Y., 221, 224, 228, 230 English, L., 2672 Ensor, P., 2805, 2807, 2876 Eraut, M., 322, 323, 325, 326, 327, 1360, 1543, 1691, 2598, 2608 Erickson, R., 2334 Erickson, T., 2540 Ericsson, K.A., 1352, 1355, 1359 Ermida, O., 2789
2979 Erpenbeck, J., 1466 Ertl, H., 2793, 2796, 2800, 2801, 2802, 2803, 2806, 2808 n.6 Esch, W. van, 1485, 2920 Eseryel, D., 1918 Esping-Anderson, G., 1793, 1801 Esquieu, P., cxxii, 540 Estlund, C., 132, 135, 136 Ethington, C.A., 1569 Etzioni, A., 1186 Euler, D., 1514 Evans, D.R., 877, 885 Evans, G., 1335, 1337 Evans, K., 141 Evans, R., 211 Evening, L.L., 2339 Evers, F.T., 2232 Everson, J.M., 2190 Ewell, P.T., 1566, 1567, 1569 Ewing, G., 2721 F Faherty, R.C., 803 Fahrenkrog, G., 1521 Fallon, P.R., 986 Faracalas, N., 1263 Farr, M.J., 1453 Farrell, G.M., 1883 Farrell, J.P., 940, 941, 942, 945, 950, 954 Farris, E., 2006 Farstad, H., cxxi, cxxii, 777 Fasheh, M., 802 Federighi, P., 105 Feher, K., 1759 Feinstein, L., 2559 Fejes, A., 2600 Fennessy, K., 241, 333–346 Fennessy, S., 341 Fenwick, T., xi, 140, 141, 142, 328, 1361, 2364 Ferber, M.A., 129 Ferguson, J., 2352 Ferguson, K., 241, 333–346 Ferguson-Hessler, M.G.M., 1356 Ferrer, A., 2726 Ferrier, F., 138, 1160, 1165, 1168 n.1 Fertig, M., 2936 Fetterman, D.M., 1524 Feutrie, M., 2783 Fiddler, M., 2661 Fidler, P., 249, 256 Field, J., xci, 342, 2608 Fields, J., 205 Fien, J., xi
2980 Figaji, B., 967 Filipiak, E., cxx, cxxv, cxxxiii n.4 Finch, C.R., 1459 n.1, 1837 Fine, M., 2332 Finegold, D., 463, 2067, 2069, 2541 Finkel, S., 1311 Finlay, I., 882, 950, 951, 953, 955 Finn, D., 1731 Finn, T.B., 1808 Finnigan, R., 14 Firkin, P., 2475 Fischer, M., 591, 1193, 1435 n.9, 1451, 1540, 1543, 1555, 1582, 1584, 1586 Fisher, T., 1368, 2492, 2494 Fisk, R., 850, 851 Fithen, C., 845, 846 Fitousi, J.P., 1311 FitzSimons, G., 2531, 2731–2743 Flannery, D.D., 2235 Flavell, J.H., 1614 Fleishman, J.J., 2679 Flexer, R.W., 2184, 2186, 2190 Flick, U., 1462 Flister, F., 2008, 2013 Fluitman, F., lxxx, cxxxiii n.7, 254, 259 n.4, 261, 264, 272, 350, 429, 520, 878, 881, 882, 884 Fogerson, D.L., 2618 Foley, G., 105, 321, 2564 Foner, A., 1145 Ford, G.W., 1676 Fordham, P., 2166 Form, W.H., lxxv, lxxvi Forrester, V., 1314 Forsyth, D.R., 2669 Fosen, G.-H., xcviii Foster, A.D., 2539 Foster, E., 1567, 1570 Foster, J.B., 1651 n.1 Foster, P., 278, 279, 288 n.3, 533 Foster, P.J., 531, 544 Foster, R.W., 1594 Foucault, M., 2608 Fowler, F.C., 400 Fox, D., 1473, 2620 Fox, M.L., cxiii, cxix, cxxviii Fox, R.D., 326 Fragoulis, H., 2955 Fraire, V., 1116, 1120 n.1 Frank, B.M., 2685 Franke, G., 1584 Frankenstein, M., 2740 Franklin, G., 2682, 2690
Author Index Frantz, N.R., 88, 2189 Frantz, N.R. Jr., 88, 2189 Fraser, N., 336 Freebody, P., 1259, 1260, 1265 Freeman, C., 880 Freidman, T.L., 2767 Freidson, E., 169, 1644 Freire, P., 108, 321, 661, 1263, 2665, 2666, 2667 French, E., 2904 French, J.W., 2679 Fretwell, D.H., 2322 Frey, K., 1632 Frey, R.E., 1813 Frick, M.J., 2682, 2685 Friedman, A., 1644 Friedman, T., 23, 2538 Frigotto, G., 1181, 1307–1317 Frommberger, D., lxxxix Fry, R., 2541 Fujimura, H., 2503, 2509 Fukuyama, F., 2201 Fullan, M., 1245, 1334 Fuller, A., 1209, 1718 Fullerton, K., 2682 Furst-Bowe, J., 1880 G G´omez, C.M., 1294 Gaal, M.S., cxiii, cxix, cxxviii Gagnon, R., 1182, 1383–1392, 2530, 2697–2712 Gainer, L., 2212 Gainer, L.J., 2190 Gajar, A., 2182, 2184, 2187 Gal, I., 2734 Galhardi, R.M.A.A., 1076 Gallacher, J., 2783 Gallart, M.A., 293, 294, 298, 381, 382, 390 n.3 Gallie, D., 130, 131, 132, 133 Gallinelli, J., lxxxvii, lxxxviii, xc, xciii, xciv Galloway, A., 1896 Galusha, J., 2003 Gamon, J., 2682 Ganesan, R., 1918 Gans, J., 1165 Gansewinkel, H. van, 1485 Gao, W., 1699 Garc´ıa Goette, C., 1118, 1120 n.1 Garcia, E., 1120 n.1, 2169 Gardner, H., 1193, 1584, 1623, 2234, 2235 Garfinkel, H., 1462, 1555, 1557, 1558, 1584 Garlan, D., 1901
Author Index Garman, N.B., 2560 Garrahan, P., 1731 Garratt, B., 2360 Garrett, W., 792 Garrick, J., 661, 665, 882, 883, 1730, 1731, 1734 Garton, B.L., 2689 Gasperini, L., 526, 721–733 Gasskov, V., 89, 519, 520, 876, 990, 1003, 1004, 1076, 1077 Gastil, J., 342 Gates, B. 1913, 1914 Gaudart, C., 2779 Gauld, D., 1367, 1372, 1373 Gault, J., 214 Gauthier, L., 2706 Gayondato, T.J.T., 2377, 2521–2398 Geddes, M., 333, 345, 2359 Gedeon, D.V., 2682 Gee, J.P., 222, 1260, 1261, 1262, 1264, 1360 Geer, B., lxxv Geijsel, F., 490 Genda, Y., 2504 Georg, W., 620 G´erard, F., 2279 Gerds, P., 1183, 1191, 1193, 1194, 1236, 1407–1422, 1430 Gersick, C.J.G., 1765 Gerstenmaier, J., 1617, 2640 Gessler, M., 1586, 1611–1623 Gettler, L., 2360, 2362 Geurts, J., 377, 483–495 Gewer, A., 459, 462, 463, 464 Gewirtz, S., 1727, 1732 Ghai, D., 112 Giardina, M.D., 2560 Gibb, A., 2364 Gibbons, M., 1485 Gibbs, D.C., 2599, 2607 Gibbs, P., 2683 Gibson, C.C., 1852 Gibson, K., 344 Giddens, A., 1138, 1516, 1727 Gilbert, T., 2542 Gill, A.M., 531 Gill, I., cxxxiii n.7, 429, 520, 2544 Gill, S., 878, 881, 883, 884 Gilleard, J., 1370 Gillett, G., 1831 Gilomen, H., 2573, 2575 Giloth, R.P., 2537, 2539, 2541, 2542, 2543, 2545 Gilstrap, B., 2685
2981 Ginifer, J., 838, 839, 840, 841, 842, 843, 844, 845 Ginther, D., 2683, 2685, 2686 Gintis, H., 1829 Giordan, A., 2711 n.1 Glaser, R., 1453 Glasersfeld, E. v., 1335, 1336, 1615 Glasgow, Z., 11, 2687 Glastra, F., 1139 Gleeson, B., 2358 Gleeson, D., 880 Glendenning, D., 1459 n.1 Gliga, L., 2960 Globerson, T., 2686 Gluck, S.B., 852 Glynn, T., 226 Godfrey, M., 942, 944, 945 Goedegebuure, L.C.J., 910 Gold, A., 1732 Goldberg, S., 2477 Goldberger, N., 2620 Goldberger, S., 2240 Golden, S., 2347, 2348, 2349, 2350, 2351, 2352 Goldin-Rosenberg, D.,108 Goldthorpe, J., 2334 Goleman, D., 2661, 2672 Goltz, M., 1516 Gomes, C.A., 1034, 1123–1135 G´omez, C.M., 1294 Gonzci, A., 2573, 2575, 2581 Goodenough, D.R., 2680 Goodman, K., 1261 Goodman, L., 2179, 2180, 2181, 2182 Goodnow, J.J., 1335, 1338 Gordon, E.E., 2178, 2190, 2544 Gordon, J., 591 Gore, A., 2198, 2362 Gore, J., 1826 Gorringe, S., 2359 Gott, S., 1336 Gough, A., 2203, 2263–2276, 2359 Goujon, A., 802 Gow, L., 2673 Gowen, S. 1261 Grabowski, G., 1313 Grace, L., 1209 Graff, H.J., 1259, 1261 Graham-Brown, S., 800, 853, 854, 855 Grandvoinnet, H., 2357, 2560 Granger, C.W.J., 792 Grant, J., 1963, 1964 Grant, S., 2201, 2358, 2360
2982 Granville, G., 2929 Gr¨asel, C., 1617 Graubner, B., 523, 597–608 Gray, K.C., lxxxviii, xcvii, 86, 87, 947, 2182, 2184, 2189, 2190, 2202, 2211–2226, 2523, 2542 Graybill, L., 841, 845 Green, A., 258, 259 n.1, 333, 463, 531, 534, 535, 548, 1206, 1397, 2030, 2031, 2032, 2055, 2067–2079, 2081–2093, 2345 Green, D.A., 2726 Green, F., 463, 874, 878, 879, 880, 883, 884, 885 Green, M., 662 Green, N., 1895 Greenberg, J., 1781 Greene A.B. Jr, 772, 827–834 Greenfield, T.B., 14, 1831 Greeno, J.G., 1612, 1613, 1614, 1615, 1617 Gregory, E., 1781 Gregson, J.A., 20, 21, 22 Greinert, W.-D., 196, 1658, 2748 Grevelle, J., 2243 Griffin, P., 1335 Griffin, R., 2682, 2690 Griffiths, T., 2279, 2280, 2281, 2283, 2291 Griggs, S.A., 2235 Grimm, S., 99, 1756 Grimmett, J., 99 Grindle, M.S., 875 Groen, G.J., 1356 Grollmann, P., xi, 1177, 1185–1199, 1424, 1451, 1458, 1535–1550 Groombridge, B., 2055 Grootings P., lxxxii, 365–378, 428, 434, 499–511 Grubb, N.W., 166 Grubb, W.N., 27, 28, 350, 401, 1590, 1791–1803, 2366, 2537, 2542, 2543 Gruber, H., 1352, 1353, 1354, 1360, 1363, 1615, 1616 Grudin, J., 1911 Grugulis, I., 1542 Gr¨unewald, U., 1463 Grunwald, S., 2752 Gruschka, A., 1581, 1582 Gstettner, P., 1509 Guba, E.G., 1524, 2332, 2560 Guerin, D., 2487 Guerrieri, M.A., 1296 Gugulis, I., 2921 Guile, D., 1368, 1369, 1373, 2279, 2280, 2281, 2283, 2291
Author Index Guillemard, A.M., 1144, 1146, 1147 Gunning, D., 2800 Guo, F.C., 978, 986 Gurskiene, O., 623 Guskey, T.R., 1334 Gustafsson, M., 1034, 1091–1105 Guster, D., 2682, 2686 Guthrie, H., 1205, 1206, 2382, 2487–2497 H Haan, H.C., xi, cxiii, cxix, cxx, cxxiii, cxxv, cxxvi, cxxxiii n.6, 259 n.4, 782, 902, 2901 Haase, P., 1463 Haasler, B., 1466 Habermas, J., 1510 Habisch, A., 2201 H¨acker, E., 2748 Hacker, W., 1465, 1584, 1699 Hackman, J.R., 1556, 1580, 1765 Haddad, S., 850, 851 Haddad, W., vcii, 850, 851, 1778 Haddad, W.D., 1837, 1971, 1972 Hagemann, J., 2589 Hager, P., 500, 1368, 2166, 2363, 2364 Haggerty, C., 2191 Haggis, S.M., 2169 Hake, B.J., 1035, 1137–1153 Halac, A., 1111 Halasz, I.M., 32 Hall, B.L., 2539, 2661, 2674 Hall, G., 1245, 2352 Hall, O., lxxv Hall, P., 1646, 1793 Hall, R., 2365 Hallaj, M., 804 Hallak, J., 1778, 1779 Halpern, A.S., 2188 Halsey, R.J., 2006 Halwachi, J., 1565, 1566 Ham, C., 1470 Hamadache, A., 611 Hamilton, C., 2198 Hamilton, M., 1261, 1262 Hamilton, S.F., 1653 Hammer, J., 850 Hammersley, M., 205 Hammond, A., 108 Hampton, C., 1993 Hanafi, S., 802 Handel, M.J., 175 Hanf, G., xci Hanke, J., 792 Hanley-Maxwell, C., 2188
Author Index Hanna, K., 182 Hanney, S., 1473, 1476 Hansen, R., 5–17, 1590, 1823–1832 Hanser, L.M., 397, 397 Hanushek, E., 2723 Harasim, L., 1853, 1855, 1856, 1857 Harder, D., 2734 Hardman, J., 2349, 2351 Hardman, W.E., xvc Hardy, M., 2204, 2279–2292 Hargreaves, A., 1194 Harkin, J., 2347, 2349 H¨ark¨onen, A., 1372 Harnish, D., 2240, 2685 Harper, R., 1895 Harries, S., 936 n.3 Harris, I., 2607 Harris, J., 2600, 2601 Harris, M., 2735 Harris, R., xi, xciii, 1205, 1206, 1210, 1212, 1214, 1368, 1371, 1373, 1375, 1931, 2273, 2279, 2488, 2491, 2564, 2567 n.1 Harrison, B., 2537, 2542, 2547 Harrison, C., 2365 Harryson, S., 1497 Hart, J., 2773, 2794, 2797, 2801, 2803, 2806, 2808 n.3, 2881–2897 Hartanto, F., 203 Harteis, C., 1182, 1351–1364, 2630 Hartley, D., 2727 Hartley, N., 2008, 2013 Hartley, R., 2268 Hartog, J., 1800 Harvey, A., 1780, 1781, 1784 Harvey, M. W., 2035, 2036, 2177–2192 Hassan, M., 1378 Haste, H., 2577, 2579 Haston, L., 2671 Hatano, G., 1358 Hatcher, M., 211 Hatton, T., 2935 Haukka, S., 1182, 1367–1380 Hauptmeier, G., 1663 Havighurst, R.J., 1581, 1582, 1676 Hawke, G., 24 Hawley, J. D., 373–374, 393–409, 515–527, 531, 660, 2522–2523, 2537–2549 Haxby, P., 1753 Hayes, F.B., 877, 885 Hayman, R., 288 n.12 Hayman, S., 1948 Hazelman, E., 2205–2206, 2329–2341 Heath, C., 328
2983 Heath, S.B., 1261 Heath-Camp, B., 1193 Heck, R.H., 869, 871, 872, 874, 875, 876 Hecker, D., 2191, 2214, 2217 Heid, H., 1359 Heidegger, G., 1236, 1427, 1444, 1556 Heier, J., 1510 Heijke, H., 2939 Heinemann, L., 1457–1458, 1521–1532 Heinz, W.R., 92–93, 161–172 Heisig, U., 1587, 1639–1651 Heitmann, W., 2804 Held, D., 336 Helland, H., 2819 Heller, S., 223 Hellpach, W., 1676 Hellriegel, D., 44 Hellwig, S., 1368, 1371 Helmke, A., 1621 Hennessy, S., 1769 Hennis, W., 1748 Heppell, S., 1836 Herfkens, E.L., 2586, 2588, 2591 Heritage, J., 1462, 1557 Hermalin, A.I., 569 Hernaut, K., 2749 Hernes, G., 2058 Hernon-Tinning, B., 1346 Herod, A., 104 Herr, E., 2218, 2219, 2221 Herr, E.L., 2542 Herschbach, D. R., 519, 520, 873, 874, 876, 877, 878, 880, 881, 884, 885, 886, 939–957 Hettema, P.J., 2679 Heuvelhof, E. ten, 1485 Heyneman, S.P., 531 Heyse, V., 2749 Heystek, J., 465 Hiemstra, R., 1372, 2617 Higonnet, M.R., 853 Higonnet, P., 853 Hill, D., 210, 213, 1211 Hill Duin, A., 213 Hill, M., 1470 Hillman, K., 2275 Hilmer, F., 1159 Hill, S., 184 Hiltz, S.R., 1860 Hinchliffe, K., 794 Hindle, K., 2364 Hindmarsh, J., 328 Hiniker, L., 87, 93, 203–216 Hinton, B.E., 28
2984 Hirosato, Y., cxxix Hoachlander, G., 25, 33, 36, 37, 2238 Hobsbawm, E., 1310, 1311, 1312, 1316 Hobsbawn, E., 103 Hochlander, G., 2190 Hochschild, A.R., 162 Hodgson, A., 2067, 2069 Hodireva, V., 598, 603 Hodkinson, P., 321, 2363, 2608 Hoey, D., 2770–2771, 2827–2839 Hof, R.D., 1906 Hoffman, L.M., 398 Hoffmann, E., 166 Hofstede, G., 665, 666 Holland, A., 1214 Holland, L., 1214 Holland, T., 1374 Hollander, A., 41–56, 2899–2914 Hollands, R.G., 1731, 1733 Holling, E., 1193 Holman, D., 1687 Holmberg, B., 2012 Holmes, K., 886, 905–918, 2030, 2042, 2044, 2047, 2048, 2768 Holoch, E., 1617 Holton, E.F., 2544 Holtz-Eakin, D., 2475 Holz, H., 1507 Holzkamp, K., 1555, 1584, 1680 Honey, M., 129 Hong, P., 1497 Hooge, E.H., 1485 Hooker, C.A., 14 H¨opfner, H.-D., 1410, 1588, 1699–1710 Hopkins, D., 1186 Hopkins, S., 89 Hopmann, S., 1670 Hoppers, W., 2295, 2310 n.1–2311 n.1 Horne, J., 2268 H¨orner, W., 1187 Horton, R., 768, 769, 775, 776, 778, 779, 780, 781, 782, 783 Hossler, D., 1566 Hostetter, R., lxxxvi Houle, C.O., 1884 Howard, D., 1165 Howell, D., 2167, 2171 Howey, K.R., 2235, 2238 Howieson, C., 1542, 2794, 2797, 2801, 2803, 2806, 2808 n.3 Hoyles, C., 2735, 2737 Hu, S., 1566, 1567, 1569, 1571 Huang, Y., 1229
Author Index Huberman, M., 1475, 1476 Hudecki, P., 394, 395 Huggins, S., 936 n.3 Hughes, A.S., 2728 n.1 Hughes, D., 223 Hughes, E., lxxv, lxxvi, 1368, 2492, 2494 Hughes, J., 1525 Hughes, K.L., 1769, 2172 Hughes, M., 1368, 1377, 1781 Hughes, P., 548 Hugo, G., 2487 Hui, C.H., 665 Huisinga, R., 1424, 1435 n.7, 1587, 1628, 1630, 1635 Hull, D., 2243 Hull, G., 1261 Humphreys, M., 770, 835, 836, 837, 838, 839, 840, 841, 842, 843, 844 Hung, D., 1769 Hunger, D.J., 705 Hunger, J.D., 43 Hunt, B., 2364 Hunter, J., 2716 Hunting, G., 986 Hussmanns, R., cxv Hutchby, I., 228 Hutchinson, N. L., 1589, 1763–1774 Hutton, W., 1729 Hyland, T., 2171 Hyslop-Margison, E.J., 21 I Idenburg, P.J., 1483, 1484 Illeris, K., 319, 323, 324, 2363, 2542 Illich, I., 241, 321, 324 Imada, S., 2500 Imai, M., 1496, 1499 Imel, S., 2544, 2671, 2672, 2675 Inagaki, K., 1358 Infante, I., 293 Inglehart, R., 2411 Inglis, A., 770, 771, 775–785, 1850 Ingram, H., 869, 871, 873, 875, 876 Inoki, T., 2067–2068 Ioannides, C., 1361 Irvine, S.H., 2679 Irving, B.A., 141 Isaacs, W.N., 663, 664 Isaak-Ploegman, C. M., 2530, 2679–2691 Ishumi, A.G.M., 192 Iskandar, L., 240, 307–317, 352 Issakainen, M., 8 Ives, B., 2521
Author Index J J˜ogi, K., 599, 601, 604 Jacinto, C., 295, 298, 373, 379–390, 390 n.1, 390 n.4, 2048 Jackman, D.K., 2006 Jackson, N., 320, 328, 1262, 1264 Jacobs, J., 97 Jacobs, R. L., 2522–2523, 2537–2549, 2632, 2682 Jacobsen, J.P., 184 Jagla, H., 1430 Jahoda, M., 162 Jain, C.L., 792 Jain, P., 1377 James, C., 222 James, D., 222 James, P., 2172 James, W.B., 2235 Jamieson, I., 1732 Jansen, D., 2170 Janson, N., 2493 Jaramillo Baanante, M., 384 Jarillo, C., 83 Jarousse, J., 259 n.4 Jarvis, P., 2164 Jatob´a, J., 1124 Jay, E., 1335 Jennings, P., 2362 Jessop, B., 339, 680 Jessup, G., 2867 Jha, R., 2589 Jobert, A., 2789 Johansen, R., 2232 Johanson, R.K., cxiii, cxiv, cxx, cxxiii, cxxiv, cxxv, cxxvi, cxxviii, cxxx, cxxxii, cxxxiii n.2, 43, 464, 516, 517, 518, 519, 520, 521, 542, 875, 881, 884, 904 n.4 Johnes, J., 1563, 1564, 1565 Johnson, D., 94, 219–231, 663, 664, 767–773, 1784, 1853, 2607 Johnson, F.P., 664 Johnson, L.J., 131, 133, 134 Johnson, M., 2236 Johnson, P., 881 Johnson, R., 1368 Johnson, S.D., 28, 2364 Johnson, W., 210 Johnston, R., 1207 Jonassen, D.H., 1615, 1616 Jones, A., 333 Jones, D.T., 1496 Jones, G.R., 1825 Jones, J., 1890
2985 Jones, K., 344 Jones, M., 1951 Jordan, B., 328 Joukes, G., 493 Joyee, B., 1853 Joyner, A., 817 Judy, R.W., 203, 208, 210, 1912, 1915, 1916, 2542 Justimbaste, B.S., 553 K Kaftarian, S.J., 1524 Kahn, R.L., 1145 Kailis, E., 2785, 2788, 2813, 2823 n.2 Kalantzis, M., 1262, 1263, 1780, 1781, 1784, 1785, 1789 K¨am¨ar¨ainen, P., 591, 1426 Kamau, D.G., 1805 Kamibeppu, T., 880 Kaminskien˙e, L., 524, 619–635 Kananoja, T., 8 Kane, L., 767–773, 775–785, 787–796, 842 Kaneko, M., 879 Kanes, C., 2733 Kantola, J., 8 Kaosa-ard, M.S., 574 Kaplan, R., 885 Kardoff, E. v., 1510, 1511 Karlsson, J., 465 Karmel, T., 86, 2375–2384, 2384 n.1, 2398 n.1, 2414 n.1, 2430 n.1, 2443 n.1, 2445–2456, 2455 n.1, 5, 2467 n.1, 2485 n.1, 2497 n.1, 2795, 2806 Karp, M., 401 Karp, M.M., 2166, 2172 Karp, S.K., 2680 Karpinska, Z., 770, 771–772, 813–824, 842 Karran, T., 1397 Katz, H., 680 Katzenstein, P.J., 1749, 1750 Kaufman, D., 1849 Kaufman, M., 1569 Kaufman, R., 1885, 2545 Kawakita, T., 2508 Kazis, R., 2240 Kearns, P., 1845, 1959–1970, 2173, 2201, 2565, 2768, 2818 Kearsley, G., 1848, 1854 Keating, D.P., 47, 2581 Keating, J., 1203, 1204, 1208, 1209, 2359, 2873, 2879 n.13 Keegan, J., 99 Keegan, V., 1835, 1836, 1840
2986 Keen, D., 835, 837 Keene, D., 2685 Keep, E., 880, 1542, 1726, 1728 Kefala, S., 1841 Kegan, R., 2577, 2580, 2581 Keilbach, M., 2364 Kell, A., 1262, 1540, 1670 Kell, P., 2366, 2564 Kelleher, W.E., 2682 Keller, S., 262 Kelly, A., 1262 Kember, D., 2673 Kemple, J.J., 2242 Kendall, J.S., 2233 Kent, P., 2735 Kenyon, P., 2359, 2559 Kerka, S., 23, 31, 32, 138 Kern, H., 161, 1508, 1647, 1648, 1651 n.3, 1757 Kerr, C., 1640 Kerr, L., 154 Kerre, B. W., 1181, 1319–1331, 2773–2774, 2899–2914 Kerschensteiner, G., 1540, 1612, 1613, 1614, 1662, 1664, 1667 n.6 Kessels, J., 2521 Kessels, J.P.A.M., 1826, 1831 Keuffer, J., 1359 Keursten, P., 2521 Kezuka, K., 2502 Khoo, S.T., 2275 Khosa, T., 2804 Kidder, L., 2332 Kiel, H., 1230 Kilpatrick, S., 2201, 2559 Kilpatrick, W.K., 2173 Kim, D.J., 678, 681 Kim, M.H., 581, 674, 675, 676, 1842, 1843, 1863–1877, 1911–1920, 2377, 2385–2398 Kim, M.M., 1566, 1567 Kim, S.S., 678, 681 Kim, Sangho, 2466 Kimbell, R.A., 1319 Kimmerling, B., 800, 801 Kincheloe, J.L., 31 Kindberg, T., 1901 Kindler, H.S., 1334 King, K., 9, 246, 247, 248, 250, 251, 252, 258, 259 n.3, 4, 5, 7, 288 n.2, 3, 12, 296, 463, 464, 465, 466 n.4, 499, 517, 520, 531, 533, 1033, 1037–1049, 1408, 2907 Kingston, L.S., 1566, 1570 Kinnear, D., 1949
Author Index Kinsella, K., 569 Kipp, M., 1677 Kirby, P., 339, 2273, 2679, 2686 Kircheldorff, C., 1633 Kirpal, S., xi, 1451 Kirsch, I., 2717 Kirshner, D., 328, 1615 Kirst, M.W., 2234 Kistan, C., 1974 Kister, J., 408 Kitagawa, K., 2716 Kiva, A.A., 1224, 1225 Kivinen, O., 1360, 2782, 2785 Klafki, W., 1194 Klausner, W.J., 671 Klees, S., 954 Klees, S.J., 518 Klein, R., 1473 Klein, S., 401 Kleiner, M., 1435 n.8, 1560, 1631, 1633, 1682 Kleining, G., 1461, 1462 Kliebard, H.M., 1675, 1678 Kloas, P.W., 2800 Knapp, M., 869, 870, 871, 875 Knepper, P., 2215 Knight, A., 2805 Knight, B., 2172 Knijnik, G., 2739, 2740 Knoll, M., 1677 Knowles, M., 1337 Knowles, M.S., 661, 662, 2615, 2616, 2624 Knox, W.E., 1567 Koch, H., 1699, 1710 Koch, K.R., 2189, 2190 Kohler, P.D., 2324 Koike, K., 2067–2068 Kok, J.J.M., 503 Koksal, P., 1919 Kolb, D. A., 501, 1390, 1567, 1627, 2530, 2698, 2702, 2703, 2704, 2705, 2706, 2707 Kolb, D., 2670 Kolb, M.N., 1567 Komarovsky, V., 693 Konietzka, D., 161, 164 Konrad, J., 2610 Koornheef, M., 1207 Korbijn, A., 485 Korboe, D., 2907 Korten, D.C., 875, 878, 883, 884 Kortering, L.J., 2189 Korthagen, F.A.J.K., 1826, 1831 Kosky, L., 344, 2265
Author Index Kosyrev, V.P., 1178, 1180, 1219–1228, 1285–1292 Kotsik, B., 1843, 1879–1893 Kouznetsov, A. N., 1178, 1180, 1219–1228, 1588–1589, 1739–1746 Kraak, A., 456, 466 n.4, 887, 961–974 Krapp, A., 1523 Kraska, M.F., 2167, 2189 Krathwohl, D.R., 1886 Kremer, H.-H., 1511 Kress, G., 223, 1784, 1786 Krikke, J., 1903 Krishnamurty, J., 2330 Kroger, R.O., 206, 228 Kromrey, H., 1523, 1525, 1528 Kronner, H., 2197 Krueger, C., 401 Kr¨uger, H., 162 Kruse, W., 1445, 1597 Krusts, G., 606 K¨ublb¨ock, K., 2585 Kubrushko, P.F., 1178, 1180, 1219–1228, 1285–1292 Kuh, G.D., 1566, 1567, 1569, 1571 Kuhl, D., 1949 Kuhn, T.S., 14, 1679 K¨uhne, A., 1658 Kulshrestha, M., 1995 K¨uper, K., 2754, 2756 Kurian, G.T., 195 Kurtz, J., 2607 Kurtz, T., 163, 167, 1445 Kurz, S., 1191, 1192, 1454 Kusakabe, M., 86 Kutscha, G., 1758 Kutt, K., 1505, 1515 Kuutti, K., 2738 Kuykendall, C., 2686 Kuznetsov, A.N., 1224, 1225 Kwak, N.K., 792 Kyvik, S., 1402 L Labruy`ere, C., 2606 Lacerda dos Santos, G., 1386 Lacey, J., 2359 Lacson, J.D., 553 Lagerweij, N., 1484 Lagerweij-Voogt, J., 1484 Lakes, R.D., 135, 136, 138 Lalis, S., 1903 Lamb, S., 2275 Landau, R.T., 1800–1801
2987 Lane, J., 262 Lang, M., 2642 Lange, R., 1676, 1853, 2587 Lanka, A., 601 Lankhuijzen, E., 486 Lankshear, C., 1262 Lanzendorf, U., 584 Lapham, L., 103 Lapp, J., viii, 2025–2036 Largo, J., 2545 Lasida, J., 383, 384, 385, 390 n.5 Lasonen, J., 140, 427, 519, 523, 583–594, 951, 1319, 2084, 2279 Lau, L.J., 879 Laudan, R., 1812 Lauder, H., 463, 1729, 1734, 2067, 2082, 2086 Lauglo, J., xi, xiii, lxxxii, 43, 517, 704, 871, 878, 885, 891–904, 904 n.6, 1777, 1778, 1805, 1809, 2204–2205, 2295–2311, 2310 n.1 Laur, U., 1509 Lauterbach, U., 1424, 1458, 1535–1550, 1587, 1653–1667 Lautze, S., 821 Lauˇzackas, R., 602, 620, 622, 625, 635 n.1 Lave, G., 1429 Lave, J., 325, 501, 1336, 1338, 1339, 1357, 1368, 1535, 1581, 1585, 1601, 1612, 1613, 1614, 1616, 1714, 1716, 1766, 1767, 2280 Law, L.-C., 1617 Lawn, M., 345 Lawrence, J., 351 Lawrenz, F., 2219 Layton, D., 14, 15, 1827, 1830, 1831 Lazerson, M., 1590, 1791–1803, 2537 Lazutova, M.N., 1817 Le Gallais, T., 2348, 2350 Le Mouillour, I., 2796, 2797, 2800 Le Play, F., lxxiv Lˆe Thanh Khoi, 721 Leach, F., 133, 137 Leach, J.A., 1372 Leach, L., 2618 Leadbeater, C., 679, 680 Lechaux, P., 2279 Leclerc, L.-P., 1386 Lednev, V.S., 1817 Lee, J., 679, 680, 682 Lee, J.L., 1569, 1571 Lee, K.679, 680, 682 Lee, S., 2685 Lee, W., 679, 680, 682 Lee, W.O., 2165, 2173
2988 Lee, Y.-h., 2544 Leeman, Y., 492 Leenders, H., 1486 Leeuwen, T. van, 223, 1784 Lehmkuhl, K., 2756 Lehner, F., 1360 Leigh, D.E., 531 Leite, E.M., 1180, 1271–1282 Lempert, W., 1193, 2167, 2171 Lempinen, J., 806, 808 Leney, T., 333, 374, 411–425, 1186, 1397, 1500, 1501, 2084 Leonard, D., 1502 Leonardos, A.C., 296, 302 Leone, L., 2167, 2171 Leont’ev, A.N., 1601, 2410, 2738 Lerman, R., 1451 Lerwick, L.P., 21 Leslie, D., 2493 Letelier, M.E., 387 Letteri, C.A., 1889., 2527 Leung, F., 1360 Levesque, K., 2233 Levin, H., 875 Levin, H.M., 1140 Levin, S.R., 2009 Levine, J.M., 1357 Levine, K., 1261 Levitas, R., 1727 Levy, F., 518, 2232, 2538, 2539, 2540, 2544, 2578 Lewai, V., 2339 Lewin, K.M., 515 Lewis, L., 2003, 2004, 2006 Lewis, T., 21, 27 Li, J., 887, 977–986 Li, L., 1229 Li, W., 1230 Lichtenberg, F.R., 180 Lichtenberger, Y., 2781, 2790 n.3 Lieberg, S., 1839, 1841, 1842 Light, D., 262 Liimatainen, M.-R., cxiii, cxix, cxx, cxxv, cxxviii Lillis, K., 1777, 2310 n.1 Lima, A.A.B., 1180, 1293–1306 Lin, C.H., 2593, 2682 Lincoln, A., xciii, 1757 Lincoln, Y., 2560 Lincoln, Y.S., 1524, 2332 Lindblom, C.E., 871, 872, 904 n.2 Lindeman, E., 16 Lindenskov, L., 2731, 2733
Author Index Lindsay, P., 1567 Lionel Siriwardene, P.P.G., 523, 547–563 Lipsig-Mumme, C., 178 Lipsmeier, A., 1190, 1507, 1530, 1540 Lisievici, P., 2960 Lisop, I., 1629, 1630, 1635, 1678, 1682–1683 Littek, W., 1647 Liu, J., 1238 Liu, Y., 2683, 2685, 2686 Livingstone, D.W., 168, 319, 320, 322, 323, 325, 326, 327, 2598, 2783 Lobley, G., 2348 Lockheed, M.E., 245, 875 Logan, L., 1334 Lohmar-Kuhnle, C., 350 Lohr, E., 1679 Lombard, G.F.F., lxxiv Lombardo, M.M., 326 Long, M., 2768, 2935–2950 Long, S., 1781 Loomis, D.G., 792 Lopes, F.A.M., 1180, 1293–1306 Lopez-Ospina, G., 1039 Lortie, D.C., lxxv Loucks, S., 1245 Louis, M.R., 1766 Loutfi, M.F., 184 Loveder, P., 1368, 1373, 2381, 2382–2383, 2487–2497 Lowrie, T., 1211 Lowyck, J., 501, 503 Loxley, W., 947, 2295, 2304, 2310 n.1 Lu, J., 887, 977–986 Lu, L., 1178–1179, 1229–1241 Lucas, N., 2206–2207, 2343–2354, 2933 n.3 Luckmann, T., 1615 Luff, P., 328 Luke, A., 1262, 1265 Lund, F., cxix Luria, A.R., 1334 Lutz, B., 1555 Lynch, R.L., 25, 27, 28, 32, 87, 88, 2008, 2013, 2202–2203, 2229–2243, 2670 Lyons-Lawrence, C.L., 2682 Lyotard, J.-F., 1485, 1669 M Ma, S. C., 986 McAfee, J., 2179, 2180, 2181, 2182 McAleary, G., 2823 n.8 McAleavy, G., 2784 McBrier, D.B., 175, 177 McCabe, G.P., 2682
Author Index McCabe, S.A.S., 2682 McCall, M.W., 326 McCallum, A., 2268 McCann, J., 417 McCarthy, C., 2488 McCord, B., xcv McCormick, A., 2215 McCoshan, A., 84, 86 McCrone, T., 2352 McCusker, C., 665 MacDonald, S., 1264, 1497 McDonald, J., 1852 McDonald, M., 1262 McDonald, R., 2172 McGauran, P., 90 McGaw, B., 1475, 1479 McGee, R., 2589, 2590 McGinn, N.F., 516 McGovern, P., 183, 184 McGrath, S., 376, 453–466, 1103, 2487, 2488, 2492, 2605 n.3, 2773 McGrew, A., 336 McGuire, M.D., 1566, 1568 Machado, L. R., 524, 637–647 McIntyre, J., 2170 McKay, V., 2525, 2602 Mackenzie, D., 1444 MacKenzie, J., 59 McKenzie, P., ii, 1157 McKenzie, S., xi, 2200, 2201, 2358 McKnight, T., 2685 McLagan, P.A., 205, 207 McLaren, P., 14, 17, 1825, 2619 McLaughlin, M.W., 1194, 1334 McLaughlin, S.D., 252, 253, 254, 259 n.4, 299 McLean, G.N., 1805, 2211, 2538 Maclean, R., viii, x, xi, xii, xvi, lxxiii–cvii, 871, 878, 1444, 1455, 1560, 1778, 2025, 2377–2378, 2382–2383, 2401–2414 McLeod, D.B., 2690 McMahon, W.W., 2588, 2589 McManus, P., 2358 McMillan, J.H., 1764, 2275, 2669 McMullin, J.-A., 2380 McMurty, J., 100 McNair, S., 185 McNickle, C., 2493, 2495 McNulty, K., 344 McOmish, E., 526, 749–764 McQuaig, L., 107 McRae, L.S.E., 2682 Mafanga, S., 1984 Magajna, Z., 2736
2989 Magalh˜aes, A. R., 1124 Magari˜nos, C. A., 678 Maglen, L., 1165 Magnus, P., 17 n.10 Magro, K., 2529–2530, 2661–2675 Mahmood, T., 581 Mahshi, K., 802 Mair, D., 2666 Maiworm, F., 591 Maja, B., 1103 Majumdar, S., 1842, 1843–1844, 1847–1860, 1923–1933 Malan, L., 1264 Malan, M., 838 Malcolm, J., 321, 2608 Malen, B., 869, 870, 871, 875 Malgen, L., 89 Malik, B., 140 Malley, J., 2494, 2495 Malloch, M., 141 Mancini, L., 768 Mandel, M. J., 23 Mandl, H., 1353, 1358, 1511, 1615, 1616, 1617, 2640, 2642 Ma˜ne, F., 402, 947, 2306, 2307, 2308 Manfredi, S.M., 1294 Mangal, S.K., 1851 Manning, S., 1320, 1486 Manske, F., 1522, 1555 Manski, K., 2754, 2756 Mansoor, N., 2686 Mantle-Bromley, C., 2008, 2013 Mar, N.Y., 41, 525–526, 548, 703–718, 1835–1846 Mar’i, S.K., 804 Marchand, S., 2723 Marcus, R.D., 1567 Marcuse, H., 2623 Marginson, S., 1806, 1808, 1811 Mariani, M., 1595, 1596 Marieneau, C., 2661 Marks, G.N., 2275 Marks, H., 2049 Marlow, S., 2198, 2363 Marriage, Z., 816, 820, 821 Marrison, D.L., 2682, 2685 Marsden, D.W., 1144 Marsden, K., 259 n.3, 881 Marsh, C.J., 1718, 2680, 2681 Marsh, D.D., 1334 Marshall, F.R., 208 Marshall, M.G., 768 Marshall, R., 2232
2990 Martin, C., 288 n.3, 517 Martin, I., 342 Martin, J.P., 2199, 2357 Martin, L.M., 1569 Martin, L.M.W., 182 Martin, R.E., 2171 Martin, S., 2199 Marx, K., lxxiii, lxxiv, 162 Marzano, R.J., 2233 Masarweh, I., 801 Masia, B.B., 1886 Maslankowski, W., 1673, 1674 Mason, A.D., 2590 Masri, M.W., 42, 375, 427–436 Matheson, K.E., 783 Mathisen, R.E., 214 Matlay, H., 2560 Matosas, A., 352, 354 Matseleng Allais, S., 2794, 2804, 2806, 2807 Matsumoto, J., 2504, 2509, 2510, 2511 Matta, A., 1110, 1113, 1118, 1120 n.1 Mattauch, W., 2748 Matveeva, N., viii, xii, xiv, 2025–2036 Maude, A., 2563 Maudos, J., 2723 Maurice, N., 2042, 2048 Mausio, A., 610, 2332 Mawer, G.E., 1594 Maxwell, J., 87 Mayer, E., 1809, 2266 Mayer, E.C., 1711 Mayer, K.U., 2714 Mayhew, K., 1542 Mayo, E., lxxiv Mayoux, L., 1038 Mazawi, A.E., 801, 807, 809 Mazmanian, P.E., 326 Mazurana, D, 780, 781, 783, 784 Mboya, M., 136, 137, 138, 140, 141 Medio, A., 179 Medrich, E., 2233 Meek, S., 838 Meers, G.D., 2189, 2190 Mehran, F., 111, 112 Mehrotra, V.S., 1845, 1989–2000 Mehta, A.C., 548 Meijers, F., 377, 483–495 Meiskins, P., 1651 n.2 Melendez, E., 2538, 2547 Mello, M.M., 1180, 1271–1282 Meltzer, A., 2212 M´enard, L., 2204, 2279–2292 Mendes, M.R., 571, 574
Author Index Merisotis, J., 2012 Merle, J., 2598 Merriam, S.B., 2616, 2617, 2618, 2813 Merritt, D., 2240 Mertens, D., 1450 Merton, R.K., 262 Messick, S., 2679 Messina, G., 300, 302 M´esz´aros, I., 1315 Metcalf, D.H., 947 Metcalf, G.S., 663 Meyer, R., 2747–2757 Meyser, J., lxxxix, xci Mezirow, J., 661, 2529, 2661, 2663, 2664, 2665, 2666, 2667, 2669, 2675 Mezoff, B., 2682 Mi, J., 525, 649–656 Michailow, M., 164 Michalak, D.F., 1885 Mickler, O., 1522, 2748 Middendorp, E., 1758 Middleton, D., 325, 328 Middleton, J., vii, 245, 516, 532, 872, 874, 875, 877, 878, 881, 884, 885, 950, 954, 2543 Miedema, S., 487 Mieg, H., 1193 Migdal, J.S., 800, 801 Migliore, S.A., 214 Mikulecky, L., 1261, 1262 Milani, B., 102 Miller, D.C., 135, 136 Miller, J.V., 135 Miller, M.D., 20, 21, 22, 25 Miller, P.F., 1367, 1372, 1373, 2171 Miller, S., 207 Miller-Kipp, G., 1677 Minear, L., 813, 819, 823, 824 Mingat, A., 259 n.4, 870 Miraftab, F., 2560 Mirowsky, J., 1569 Mische, M., 2390, 2391 Mishra, A.K., 550, 553, 1991 Misko, J., 2379, 2795, 2805, 2808 n.4 Mitcham, C., 1813 Mitchell, J., 2491 Mitnik, F., 1034, 1107–1120 Mittendorff, K., 493 Mizen, P., 1733 Moe, M.T., 806, 1889, 2521 Moen, P., 161, 162 Moffitt, R., 1120 Mohn, T., 2606 Mokyr, J., 1497
Author Index Moldaschl, M., 2748 Mole, R.L., 671 Moll, L., 1781 Molzberger, G., 1607, 2631, 2749 Monaghan, J., 2736 Monastirioti, V., 2723 Monk, C., cxxxiii Monod, A., 2279 Montagnier, P., 1889 Moodie, G., 2168 Mooney, T., 2273 Moore, D.M., 2682, 2685, 2686, 2689 Moore, D.T., 1769 Moore, J.F., 2685 Moore, J.L., 1613, 1615 Moore, M.G., 1854 Moore, P., 525, 673–687 Moore, R.W., 520, 1734, 1735 Moos, M., 1733 Moraes, C., 1313, 1314 Moratis, L., 81–94 Morgan, J., 1839, 1841, 1842 Morishima, M., 2502 Morison, R., 2540 Morrell, A., 2661 Morris, M., 2352 Morrison, A.M., 326 Morrison, D., 2525 Mortimer, J.T., 1655 Morton, L., 215 Mos, L., 2679 Moser, C., 219, 220 Moser, H., 1509, 1510, 1512, 1514 Moughrabi, F., 802 Mouhtouris, A., 2272, 2276 Mount, J., 2651 Mowbray, M., 2563 Muchomba, E., 815, 816 Muhumuza, R., 781 Mulcahy, J.D., 1375, 2172 Mulder, M., 1631 Mulder, R.H., 1490 Muller, E., 1889 M¨uller, K., 1759 M¨uller, W., 166 M¨ullges, U., 1462 Munby, H., 1589, 1763–1774 M¨unch, J., 198, 199 Mundy, K., 516 Munro, J., 747 Muravyeva, A., 376–377, 474 Murnane, R.J., 518, 2232, 2539, 2540, 2544, 2578
2991 M¯urnieks, E., 601 Murphy, L., 516 Murphy, M., 2532 Murphy, P., cxxix Murray, D., 2687 Murray, H.G., 1566 Musgrave, P.W., 262 Muskin, J.A., 237, 245–259 Musset, A. de, 2712 n.7 Mustapha, R., 1378 Muthukrishna, N., 1765 Mwiria, K., 2296, 2298, 2299, 2303, 2311 n.5, 2608 Myers, K., 89 Myers, R.G., 2686 Myers, W.E., 2587 N Nagler, B., 2643 Naidu, R., 1844, 1947–1957 Naik, J., 2420 Naisilisili, S., 524, 609–617 Narayan, D., 2200 Narayan, L., 1263 Narayan, P.K., 2330 N¨arman, A., 2304, 2305, 2310 n.1, 2311 n.3 Narottam, P., 190 Nascimento, C., 1297, 1304 Nathan, C., 354 Naylor, M., 28 Ndahi, H.B., 2013 Neal, J.E., 1563, 1565 Neath, G., 2359 Neathy, F., 2492 Nedwick, B.P., 1563, 1565 Nef, J., 103 Neisser, U., 1611 Nelson, A., 2607 Nelson, A.J.A., 1263 Nelson, D.L., 137 Nelson, J., 344 Nelson, R.R., 1766 Neng-Tang, H., 947 Nestor, M., 2805 Neubauer, B., 2610 Neudorf, R.., 606 Neuman, S., 521, 531, 853 Neuweg, G.H., 1536 Newman, D., 1335 Newman, K., 2739 Newman, M., 2358, 2366 Newman, S.E., 1360 Newton, C., 2529, 2647–2659
2992 Ngome, C., 531 Nguyen, N., 86, 2489, 2492, 2497 Ni Cheallaigh, M., 1361 Niaz, M., 2684 Nichols, R.C., 1564, 1566 Niedrig, H., 2587 Nielsen, S., 428, 434, 503, 509 Nielsen, S.P., 1371 Nielson, H.S., cxxiv, cxxv Niethammer, F.I., 1669 Niethammer, M., 1464, 1560 Nieuwenhuis, L., 1525 Nieuwenhuis, L.F.M., 1191 Nightingale, D.S., 2548 Nijhof, W., 1485 Nijhof, W.J., 2231, 2920 Nikandrov, N.D., 1817 Nilan, P., 2205, 2329–2341 Nishiguchi, T., 1497 Niven, S, 882, 951, 955 Noe, R., 2497 Nolutshungu, S.C., 248 Nonaka, I., 665, 1485, 1497, 1696 Noon, M., 176, 178, 182 Noonan, P., 886, 921–937 Nordvall, R.C., 1564, 1568 Norman, D.A., 1898 Norton, R.D., 2532 Norton, R.E., 1459 n.1, 1628, 1663, 1671, 1672 Nosow, S., lxxv, lxxvi Noyelle, T., 181 Nozawa, M., 2045 Ntshebe, F., 1244 Nunnally, J.C., 1569 Nyhan, B., 678, 1593 O O’Connor, A., 2364 O’Connor, M., 2661 O’Driscoll, P., 394, 395 O’Flanagan, M.K., 2240 O’Hagan, C., 2784, 2823 O’Hara, M., 215 O’Hara-Devereaux, M., 2232 O’Neill, M.H., 1806 O’Sullivan, E., 2661, 2662, 2674 Oates, T., 421, 2573, 2581, 2930 Ocampo, M., 1985 Ochanine, D.A., 1594 Ocitti, J.P., 263, 612 Oelkers, J., 1756, 1757, 1760 Oevermann, U., 1193 Ofori-Att, A., 284
Author Index Ohsako, T., 2383, 2384 n.1, 2499–2513 Okada, S., 553 Okaka, P., 1378 Okecho, C.W., 782 Oketch, M., 533 Oketch, M.O., 523, 531–544, 2030–2031, 2067–2079, 2081–2093 Oldham, G.R., 1556, 1580 Oleynikova, O., 376, 469–481, 525, 689–701 Oliveira, J., 2014 Olson, D., 205 Olson, S.J., 1372 Omona, G., 783 Ong, K., 2380, 2445–2456 Onstenk, J., 491 Onyx, J., 2200 Oosthoek, R., 491 Oostvogel, K., 1207 Opheim, V., 2819 Ord´on˜ ez, G., 1120 n.1, 1120 n.4 Ordonez, V., 2025, 2046 Ormond, H., 2171 Orr, J.E., 177, 1465 Ortmann, G., 1516 Osbourne, M., 2170 Osman-Gani, A.M., 2211 Østby, G., 768 Osterman, P., 2540, 2541, 2544 Otero, M.S., 84, 86 Othman, M., 140 Ouadoua, O., 248, 250 Ouane, A., 2573 Ovens, C., 341, 346 Overmaat, M., 492 Overwien, B., 352, 353, 883, 2524, 2585–2594, 2749 Owen, M., 1693, 1696 Oxaal, Z., 2591 Oxenham, J., 902 Oyeneye, O.Y., 262 P Pabst, A., 1453 Pace, C.R., 1569 Packer, J., 2685 Pae, H.K., 138 Paek, J., 660 Page, S., 1566 Pakulski, J., 2334 Palinscar, A.S., 1336 Palmer, G., 1470 Palmer, R., cxxxiii n.6, 238–239, 277–288, 1038, 1045, 1046, 1470, 2907
Author Index Panagos, R.J., 2189, 2190 Pandya, M., 2044 Panhuys, H.F. van, 249 Pannabecker, J., 17 n.3, 17 n.5 Panos, R.J., 1564, 1565, 1566, 1567 Papadopoulos, G., 1370, 1966 Paprock, K.E., 2211 Paradeise, C., 2781, 2790 n.3 Parayil, G., 1812 Parent, C., 2279 Parisi, A., 1110 Park, D.J., 684 Park, J., 684 Park, K., 1360 Park, M.-G., xi, lxxiv, 523, 565–581, 1842, 1843, 1863–1877, 1895–1909, 1911–1920, 2381–2382, 2469–2485, 2772, 2853–2865 Park, R.E., lxxiv Parkinson, K., 1949 Parnell, D., 2243 Parnes, H.S., 791 Parsons, T., 261 Pascarella, E.T., 1565, 1566, 1567, 1568, 1569, 1570, 1571, 1572 Passmore, D., 2213 Pastor, J.M., 2723 Patel, V.L., 1356 Paterson, A., 460, 464, 466 Patrinos, H., cxxix Patton, D., 2198, 2363 Patton, M., 2233 Patton, M.Q., 1524, 2332 P¨atzold, G., 1507, 1512, 1513, 1515, 1628, 1664, 1677, 2642 P¨atzold, G., 1507, 1513, 1515, 1628, 1664, 1667 Paulsen, M.F., 1856 Paulson, J., 772, 835 Pavalko, R.M., lxxvi Pavlova, M., xi, 1333, 1590, 1805–1819, 2377, 2378, 2401–2414 Peak, D., 215 P´eano, S., 250 Peattie, L., 259 n.4 Peel, M., 344 Peil, M., 259 n.4 Pelissier, C., 1714 Pellock, C., 2189 Pemberton, C., 2679 Pempel, T.J., 1751 Peng Boo Tan, 581 Penman, R., 2275 Penrose, P., 1049 n.9
2993 Pentland, B.T., 1765 Pepper, S.C., 2702 Perera, M., lxxx, 526, 749, 2533 Perkins, D., 1335, 1594 Perkins, D.N., 1857 Perkins, K., 2489, 2492, 2497 Perrenoud, P., 2577, 2580 Perrotta, C., 1300 Peteet, J.M., 851, 852 Peters, M., 1771 Peterson, A., 1094 Petroski, A., 1408 Phan, O., 133 Phelps, L.A., 2188, 2240 Philips, D., 2796, 2804, 2806, 2807 Phillips, D., 852, 2803, 2917 Phillips, D.R., 569 Phillips, J., 1962, 1963, 1966 Phillips, V., 2014 Phipps, R., 2012 Piaget, J., 1335, 1581, 1612, 1613, 1614 Piantinida, M., 2560 Pickhaus, K., 2631 Pieck, E., 239, 291–304 Pieters, J.M., 503 Pike, G.R., 1565, 1569 Pillay, P., 1034, 1091, 1092 Pilos, S., 2056, 2785, 2788, 2813, 2823 n.2 Pilz, M., 2800, 2801, 2802 Pinar, W.F., 1718 Pindus, N., 2542 Pindus, N.M., 2548 Piper, M.K., 2689 Plane, K., 2195–2208, 2357–2367 Plihal, J., 25, 26 Ploghaus, G., 1397, 1507 Plowman, K., 614 Plumbridge, W., 1629, 1673 Podger, D., 2564 Poell, R., 1207 Polanyi, K., 1747 Polanyi, M., 1555, 1618, 1747 Polesol, J., 1206 Pollard, R.R., 2189 Polt, W., 1522 Polvere, R-A., 59 Pomeroy, K., 223 Pongratz, H.J., 2748 Porter, L., 2358 Porter, M., 2216 Poschen, P., 92, 111–127
2994 Post, P.E., 2682 Posthuma, A.C., 641 Postlethwaite, T., 1472 Postlethwaite, T.N., 194, 199 Potter, J., 226 Potter, L., 2330 Pouligny, B., 835, 836, 843 Poulin, N., 2706 Poullet, Y., 1890 Pouwels, J., 491 Powell, A.B., 2739 Powell, M., 1377 Power, S., 344, 345 Prager, C., 2168 Prais, S., 2077 Prais, S.J., 878, 880 Pratt, D.D., 192, 2672, 2673, 2674 Pratzner, F.C., 26, 35 Preddey, G., 284, 286, 887, 989–1002, 1003–1025 Preece, J., 2026, 2525 Preisser, R., 2602 Prescott, L., 1377 Presser, H.B., 168 Presson, A., 2236 Preston, J., 548, 2030–2032, 2055, 2065 n.2, 2067, 2081–2093 Pries, L., 1752 Prilleltensky, I., 2620 Pring, R., 878 Pring, R.A., 1808 Prinsloo, M., 1262, 1264 Priore, M., 167 Pritchard, B., 2563 Probst, G.G., 1510 Prosser, C.A., 2235 Pryor, F.L., 2215 Psacharopoulos, G., 531, 532, 533, 947, 2295, 2304, 2310 n.1 Puamau, P., 2339 Pucel, D., 2221 Pucel, D.J., 2008, 2013 Pugno, L., 1676 Purcell, K., 130 Pursell, G., 879, 884 Pusey, M., 176, 177, 178, 184, 2358 Pusvaˇskis, R., 623, 626 Putman, R.W., 326 Putnam, A.R., 87 Putnam, R., 320, 342, 2200 Putnam, R.A., 203–216 Putnam, R.T., 1368, 2235 Pyarelal, L., 2424
Author Index Q Qamar, K., 726 Quednau, H.W., 1673 Quigley, T.H., 2235 Quinn, J., 2475 Quintini, G., 2199, 2357 Quisumbing, L.R., xiv, 44, 547, 2169 Qureshi, M.A., 523, 547–563 R Rabici, V., 524, 609–617 Raby, M., 2242 Rae, D., 2364 Raffe, D., 1542, 2877, 2878 n.1, 2920 Raffo, C., 2352 Rafique, A., 555 Raggatt, P., 2867 Rahn, M.L., 394, 395, 396, 397 Raihan, A., 1710 Rainey, L., 2273 Raizen, S.A., 1338, 1719 Rajora, R., 1931 Rajput, J. S., 2378–2379, 2417–2430 Rama Jois, M., 2418 Ramalho, J., 1689 Ramina, B., 598, 603 Ram´ırez, J., 300 Ramos, M.N., 1181, 1307–1317 Ramsey, K., 2232 Randle, K., 1543 Rapson, V., 2273 Rasinski, T., 2684 Raskin, E., 2682 Rasmussen, L.B., 1598 Rasool, H., 1098 Rathgeber, E., 259 n.4 Raub, S., 1510 Rauhala, P., 519, 951 Rauner, F., xi, 172, 1186, 1187, 1188, 1235, 1236, 1424, 1427, 1443–1459, 1461–1467, 1502, 1505, 1514, 1530, 1531, 1553–1560, 1579–1590, 1598, 1600, 1623, 1628, 1630, 1632, 1664, 1665, 1681 Razafindrakoto, M., cxv, cxvii Reardon, R., 2685 Recknagel, A., 2587 Reddel, T., 333, 2727 Redengton, J., 214 Reder, I.M., 1615 Reder, S., 2538, 2544, 2548 Redmann, D.H., 2538 Reed, W.M., 2685 Rees, G., 15, 222, 344
Author Index Rees, W.E., 101, 2362 Reetz, L., 1630, 1633, 1634 Reeves, E., 815 Rehrl, M., 1353 Reich, K., 2640 Reich, R., 23, 24, 203, 214, 1650, 1748, 2082 Reid, A., 2564 Reid, H. L., 138, 139 Reiff, J.C., 2684, 2685 Rein, G., 1148 Reindorp, N., 813, 823 Reinhold, M., 1560 Reinikka, R., 1926 Reinisch, H., lxxxix Reinmann-Rothmeier, G., 1511, 2642 Renaud, R. D., 1458–1459, 1563–1572 Renkl, A., 1353, 1615, 1616 Repo, J., 806, 808 Rerkasem, B., 574 Resnick, L.B., 1357, 1612, 1613, 1614, 1615, 2235 Reuling, M., 494 Revans, R.W., 1337 Reynaud, J.-D., 2780 Reynolds, H.T., 1858 Rhee, Y.W., 879, 884 Rhoades, G., 1566 Rhodes, C., 1730, 1731 Rhodes, E., 1542, 1689 Rhodes, R.A.W., 339 Rhone, N., 2010, 2013 Ribas, M.M., 1903 Rice, C.E., 2679 Richards, P., 835, 836, 837, 838, 839, 841, 842, 843, 844, 845, 846 Richardson, J.A., 2684 Richardson, S., 2563 Rickards, J.P., 2685 Riddell, W.C., 2726 Riddle, J.F., 575, 2682 Ridgeway, C., 2577 Ridoutt, L., 2764 Riegel, E., 1758 Rifkin, J., lxxxvi, 102, 161 Rikowski, G., 1731 Riley, M.W., 1145 Riley, T.A., cxxviii, cxxx, cxxxi Rimmer, M., 2456 n.10 R´ımolo, J.R., 1303 Riquarts, K., 1670 Rist, R., 1470 Ristel¨a, P., 1360, 2782, 2785 Rittschof, K.A., 2682
2995 Ritzer, G., 1642, 1643 R¨oben, P., 1560, 1595 Roberson, D.N. Jr, 2813 Robertson, R.J., 2682 Robertson, S., 345 Robinsohn, S.B., 1636 n.1, 1669, 1756, 1757 Robinson, C., 908, 912, 1470, 1948, 2615, 2795, 2805, 2808 n.4 Roe, J., 2264 Roehling, P., 161 Rogers, B., 14 Rogers, J., 1567, 1570 Rogers, P., 2009, 2010, 2013 Rohs, M., 2748, 2751, 2752 Rojewski, J.W., 19–38, 2189, 2279 Rojo, J., 1522 Rolt, L.T.C., 1497 Romani, M., 2357, 2560 Romantsev, G.M., 1221, 1224, 1225, 1286 Romhardt, K., 1510 Rondinelli, D.A., 872, 874, 950, 954 Roos, D., 1496 Ropohl, G., 1679 Rosavallon, P., 1311 Rose, J., 1715 Rosenbaum, J., 2789 Rosenbaum, J.E., 1191 Rosenberg, N., 1497 Rosenbrock, H.H., 1555, 1598 Rosenfeld, S.A., 1191, 1192 Rosenthal, S., 2357 Rosenzweig, M.R., 2539 Rosholm, M., cxxiv, cxxv Ross, C.E., 1569 Ross-Larson, B., 880 Roth, J.A., lxxv Rothe, G., 1654 Rothman, S., 2275 Rothwell, W., 1215 Rotter, N., 1860 Roubaud, F., cxv, cxvii Rowley, C., 680 Royce, J.R., 2679 Rozelle, S.D., 2590, 2594 n.1 Rubery, J., 131 Rubin, H.J., 2560 Rubin, I.S., 2560 Rubin, S., 915 Rubinson, R., 2714 Ru´etalo, J., 390 n.5 Ruhland, S.K., 1653, 1660 Rumble, G., 2014 Rupert, D.F., 2682
2996 Rush, G.M., 2686, 2689 Rush, J.C., 2232 Ruth, K., 1528 Rwabwogo, M.O., 778 Ryan, J.F., 1567 Ryan, P., 1794, 1797 Ryan, R.M., 1773 Rychen, D. S., 1967, 2571–2582 S Saarinen, T., 1400 Sabatier, P.A., 871, 872, 874, 876, 877 Sabel, C., 167, 1650, 1651 n.3, 1757 Sabot, R., 875, 879, 882, 883, 884, 885 Sabot, R.H., 954, 956 Sabot, R.N., 875, 879, 882, 883, 884, 885 Sacheti, A. K., 1845, 1989–2000 Sachs, J., 1923, 1924, 1925 Sachse-Lee, C., 1765 Sack, J.L., 2009 Sack, S.A., 2679 Sacks, H., 226, 228 Sadowski, D., 1759 Sahin, C., 1360 Sakamoto, A., 2067, 2069 Sakellariou, C., 519 Sako, M., 463, 880, 2067, 2069 Salganik, L., 1967 Salganik, L.H., 2572, 2573, 2574, 2575, 2581, 2582 n.2, 2714 Salhout, J., 801 Salm, R., 2631 Salomon, G., 1615 Salomon, O., 1675 Samurc¸ay, R., 1435 n.9, 1555, 1584, 1593, 1594, 1595 Samurcay, R., 1451, 1543 Sandefur, J., cxxxiii Sanden, J. van der, 491 Sanden, J.M.M. van der, 1490 Sanders, E., 1215 Sanders, M.E., 1807 Sanders, R.L., 1563 Sang-Hyop, L., 2813 Santema, M., 1191 Santos, B. de S., 1313 Sarkees-Wircenski, M., 21, 22, 2179, 2181, 2182, 2183, 2184, 2185, 2187, 2189, 2194 Sassen, S., 102 Sato, A., 2501, 2504 Sattel, U., 620 Saunders, M., 1844, 1947–1957 Savage, D.C., 1565, 1568
Author Index Saviani, D., 1295 Savidis, A., 1903 Sawchuk, P.H., 240–241, 319–329, 2540 Sax, L., 1569 Saxena, S., 1377 Sayed, Y., 465 Sayigh, R., 804, 851, 852 Scanlon, L., 1901 Scardamalia, M., 1619, 2785 Schaack, K., xiii, 516, 518, 1589, 1747–1760 Schaffer, D., 2215 Scheer, J., 1465 Schein, E., 1553 Scheinberg, A., 315 Scheirer, M., 1564 Schemme, D., 1511 Schenker, J.L., 1903 Schiff, B.N., 805 Schiller, D., 680 Schlager, T., 214 Schlechter, T.M., 1855 Schlefer, J., 2548 Schliemann, A.D., 1612, 1616 Schl¨ogl, P., 2610 Schmelkes, S., 297 Schmid, A., 1352 Schmidpeter, R., 2201 Schmidt, C., 2936 Schmidt, H.G., 1352, 1505, 1540, 1758 Schmidt, K., 1911 Schmidt, S.L., 152, 155, 158 Schmitter, P.C., 2541 Schmitz, C.C., 1566, 1567, 1568 Schmoll, H., 1396 Schneeberger, A., 2610 Schneider, A.L., 869, 871, 873, 875, 876 Schneider, D., 1855 Schneider, F., cxiv Schoeffel, P., 611 Schofield, K., 1161, 1963, 1968, 2172 Sch¨on, D.A., 486, 501, 1536, 1553, 1555, 1584 Schriewer, J., 1192 Schugurensky, D., 320 Schuler, T., 1489 Schuller, T., 2559 Schultz, H., 850 Schultz, T., 1310 Schulz, R., 1396, 1404 Schumacher, S., 1764 Schumann, M., 161, 1647, 1648 Schumpeter, J.A., 1495, 1497 Sch¨upbach, H., 1580 Schupp, J., 166, 2543
Author Index Sch¨utze, H., 1140 Schwaille, J., 15 Schwarze, J., 161 Schwatz, R., 1155 Scoppio, G., 2771, 2841–2852 Scott, J.L., 21, 22, 2179, 2180, 2181, 2182, 2183, 2184, 2185, 2187, 2189 Scott, K.F.N., 792 Scott, P., 964 Scribner, S., 182, 230, 325, 1261, 1719 Searle, J., 1179, 1259–1268 Sears, A.M., 2728 n.1 Seddon, T., 241–242, 333–346, 1474, 2201, 2359, 2559, 2563, 2604 n.1 Seels, B., 2687 Sefa Dei, G.J., 108 Seidl, P., 1509 Selby Smith, C., 1035, 1155–1168, 1469–1481 Sellin, B., 152 Sen, A., 336, 2026, 2333, 2348 Senge, P., 662, 663, 664, 2201, 2359 Sengenberger, W., 115, 116, 123, 124 Senghaas-Knobloch, E., 2643 Senker, J., 1497 Sennet, R., 111 Sennett, R., 168, 2631 Serafini, F., 1407, 1409 Serpell, R., 1780 Serrano, L., 2723 Serriere, N., cxxxiii n.6 Seth, M.J., 2223 Sethuraman, S.V., 349 Seubert, R., 1677 Severiens, S., 493 Seyd, W., 1630, 1634 Seyfried, B., 2755 Shackleton, J.R., 130, 131, 132, 134, 136, 137 Shacklock, G., 2274 Shah, C., 1163, 2769, 2274, 2774, 2935–2950 Shah, M., cxxiv, cxxv Shapiro, C., 82 Share, M., 945 Sharma, A., 610, 2329 Sharon, S., 1853 Sharp, B., 815, 816 Shavit, Y., 166 Shepherd, N., 800, 803 Sheridan, J., 15, 1830 Shi, W.P., 979, 980 Shield, G., 203 Shih, C.C., 2682 Shilela, A., xiii, 1183, 1393–1405 Shiva, V., 108
2997 Shoemaker, H., 2003 Short, S., 1470 Shulman, L.S., 1193 Siemens, G., 1965 Sigelman, C.K., 185 Sikora, A.C., 2006 Silina, S., 598, 603 Silveira, S., 352, 354 Silverberg, M., 401, 521, 2542, 2543 Silvern, L.C., lxxviii Silvestri, G., 2217 Silvey, R., 882, 956 Simmie, J., 1523 Simon McGrath., 376, 453–466 Simon, D.P., 1355 Simon, H.A., 1615 Simons, M., 1205, 1212, 1368, 1373, 2172, 2279, 2488, 2491, 2564 Simons, P.R.J., 2755 Simons, R.J., 487 Simonson, M., 2012 Singer, P.W., 789 Singh, M., xi, 141, 235–243, 304 n.1, 349–356, 881, 882, 883, 902, 2366, 2521–2533, 2564, 2597–2611, 2765 Sirotnik, K.A., 44 Sisco, B., 1372 Sisoutha, K., 1244 Sjenitzer, T., 493 Skell, W., 1699 Skilbeck, M., 1245, 1246 Skinner, T.J., 1259 Skinner, C., cxiv, cxviii, cxix Skuterud, M., 2726 Sloane, P.F.E., 1507, 1508, 1510 Slocum, J.W., 44 Slotnick, H.B., 326 Sluis, L.E.C. van der, 1485 Sluis, M.E. van der, 1486 Smart, J.C., 1565, 1567, 1569, 1570, 1571 Smeaton, D., 184 Smillie, I., 823 Smith, A., lxxiii, 2531, 2560, 2563, 2741, 2742 Smith, C.S., 1035, 1155–1168, 1456, 1469–1481 Smith, D.J., 1526, 2172 Smith, D.R., 1613, 1615 Smith, E., 1178, 1203–1216, 2173 Smith, F., 1261 Smith, J., 1355, 2563 Smith, L., 2174 Smith, R., 1309, 1336 Smith, S.B., 2010
2998 Smith, S.C., 2681 Smith, S.J., 2010 Smyth, J.C., 2564 Smyth, P., 333 Solga, H., 161 Soloff, D., 166, 2543 Somerville, M.A., xi, 180, 181, 3251361 Sommers, D., 2538, 2547 Sommers, M., 813, 814, 817, 821, 823, 824 n.1 Song, J.H., 2218 Soper, J., 1215 Sorokin, P.A., lxxvii Sosak, S., 870 Soskice, D., 1157, 1646, 1793 Sousa, J.P., 1901 Southall, R., 465, 466 Souza, A.M., 1126 Souza, P., 1126, 1131, 1133 Sowarka, B., 1358 Sp¨ottl, G., 1402, 1430, 1560, 1586, 1628, 1630, 1633, 1634, 1635, 1681 Spanjer, A., 2680 Spark, C., 2170 Sparkes, J., 2009 Spate, O.H.K., 2331 Speer, S., 1566 Speier, H.D., 1682, 1683 Spence, J.G., 2667 Spence, L.J., 2201 Spiezia, V., 2407, 2408, 2409 Spiro, R.J., 1612, 1614 Springer, R., 2631 Srivastava, P., cxxiv, cxxv Stables, A., 1360 Stafford, A., 1733 Stake, R.E., 2282 Stanwick, J., 2764, 2769, 2793–2808 Starke-Meyerring, D., 213 Starko, A.J., 1857 Stasz, C., 396, 401, 2232 Staudinger, U.M., 185 Stavrou, A., 837, 840 Stavrou, S., 783 Stecher, B.M., 397 Steedman, H., 2344, 2345, 2353 Steel, W.F., cxxviii, cxxx, cxxxi Steen, L.A., 2733 Stegliz, G., 336 Stehlik, T., 2564 Stehr, N., 168 Stein, D., 2544 Steinberg, A., 2240 Steinfort, J., 1633
Author Index Steinke, I., 1510, 1512, 1514 Stephanidis, C., 1903 Stephens, M., 2573 Stephens, D., 263, 2242, 2279 Stern, D., 1186 Stern, E., 1524, 1530 Stern, S., 879, 880 Sternberg, R.J., 1765 Stevens, G., 1887, 1888 Stevens, P., 2723 Stevenson, J., 1712, 1807, 1808, 1819 Stewart, P., 1731 Stewart, F., 768 Stewart, R., 783 Sticht, T., 1261 Stiglitz, J., 122, 1763, 2768 Stites, E., 780, 781, 783, 784 Stockdale, S.L., 2618 Stockmann, R., 1523, 1525, 1526 Stone III, J.R., 1655, 1656 Stone, B., 1885 Stone, H., 2470 Stone, J.E., 2698 Stone, M., 2470 Stoney, S., 2344, 2345, 2353 Stonier, T., 708 Stooss, F., 1754 Stopani, J., 2346, 2347 Storan, J., 2784, 2823 n.8 Storey, A., 2329 Storey, D.J., 1117, 2364 Stout, B.L., 2171 Strachan, G., 2330 Strasser, J., 1352 Stratmann, K., 1462, 1658 Strauss, A.F., 1511 Strauss, L.C., 1567 Strawn, C., 2548 Strebler, M., 2492 Street, B., 1261 Street, B.V., 1259, 1261 Streumer, J.N., 2630 Strickland, A., 2171 Stringfield, S., 1655, 1656 Stroobants, M., 2779 Stuart, L., 2232, 2233 Stuart, N., 2352 Subotzky, G., 961 Suchman, L., 328, 1615, 1616, 1617 Sullivan, A., 801 Sultana, R.G., 2322 Sum, A., 2538, 2544 Sumner, J., 2358
Author Index Sumner, R., 2273 Sun, D., 887, 977–986 Sung, J., 948 Supiot, A., 1147 Sutherland, E.H., lxxiv Sutton, R.I., 1766 Swan, M.H., 2006 Swanson, H.L., 1765 Swartland, J., 2905, 2907, 2908 Sweet, R., 2322 Sweetman, A., 86 Sydow, J., 1516 T Tabar, L., 802 Tackey, N., 2492 Tagicakiverata, I.W., 524, 609–617, 2205, 2329–2341 Takeuchi, H., 665, 1485, 1497, 1696 Talbert, J.E., 1194 Tam, M., 184 Tan, D.L., 1563, 1564, 1565 Tan, J.P., 870, 1082, 1083 Tan, H., cxxiv Tandon, R., 99 Tang, P., 151 Tarrant, M., 2264 Tavola, H., 610, 2329, 2330, 2332, 2332 Taylor, A., 2668 Taylor, E., 2673 Taylor, F.W., 1675 Taylor, J.C., 1563, 1564, 1565, 2547 Taylor, K., 2673 Taylor, S., 1806 Taylor, T., 1800 Taylor, W., 2686 Taylor, C., 344, 788 Te Hennepe, S., 226 Teal, F., cxxxiii Teasdale, G.R., 2331 Teasley, S.D., 1357 Teece, D., 1497 Teese, R., 2173 Teichler, U., 584, 591, 1540 Tekie, T.M., 2305, 2307 Terenzini, P.T., 1565, 1566, 1567, 1568, 1569, 1570, 1571, 1572 Terhart, E., 1194, 1361 Tessaring, M., ii, 87, 92, 147–159 Test, D.W., 2190 Thierack, A., 1396 Thijssen, J., 486 Thiollent, M.J.M., 1300
2999 Thomas, P., 2264 Thompson, B., 1570 Thompson, G., 2680 Thompson, K.D., 1372 Thomson, S., 2275 Thorn, F., 1474 Thorndike, E.L., 1614 Thurlow, M., 2190 Thurow, L., 203, 2211, 2214 Tibawi, A.L., 800, 804 Tight, M., 2055 Tikly, L., 906 Tilak, J., 533, 2089, 2090 Tilak, J.B.G., c, cv, 2427 Tilbury, D., 2564 Tilmanis, L., 599, 601, 604 Timmermann, D., 558 Timms, D.M., 1653, 1660 Tippelt, R., 516, 518 Tishman, S., 1335 Tissot, P., 1654, 1656, 2778, 2779, 2783, 2814, 2822 n.1 Tjaden, G.S., lxxxvi Tkachenko, E.V., 1221, 1224, 1225, 1286 Toffler, A.C., lxxxv, 88, 1895 Toffler, H., 88 Tokareva, N., 1843, 1879–1893 Toma, C., 1784 Tomlinson, M., 1736 n.2, 2742 Toolis, K., 2361 Torres, C.A., 1295 Torres, J., 1118 Torres, R.M., 1567, 1569, 1570 Toth, T., 2233, 2236 Tough, A., 321, 326, 2617 Toutkoushian, R.K., 1565, 1567 Towne, V.A., 2189, 2190 Townsend, B.K., 1882 Tremblay, J.-F., 2723 Trentin, A., 1848 Triandis, H.C., 665, 666 Trier, U.P., 2573, 2574, 2714 Troger, V., 1187 Troll, L., 1754 Trouche, L., 2738 Trowler, P., 2608 Truell, A.D., 2680, 2689 Truelove, W., 1991 Tschanz, Y., 2042, 2044, 2047, 2048 Tsui, L., 1571 Tucker, M., 208, 2232 Tuijnman, A., 87, 1143, 2521, 2661 Tullius, K., 170
3000 Tumushabe, J., 779 Turford, R., 2346, 2349, 2351 Turner, T., 100 Twomey, S., 2009, 2010, 2013 U Ugland, O.F., 850, 851 Ukiwo, U., 773 n.4 Ulich, E., 1556, 1580 Unwin, A., 1718 Unwin, L., 1209, 1726, 1733, 1734 Uriarte, O.E., 1303 Usher, G., 801 Usher, R., 1731 V Vacha-Hasse, T., 1570 Vald´es, T., 296, 301 Valmonte, L., 2772, 2853–2865 Valodia, I., cxiv, cxviii Valsiner, J., 1357 van Adams, A., vii, lxxix, 245, 805 van Baalen, P., 81–94 van Damme, D., 1139 van de Klundert, A., 312 van der Kamp, M., 1143 van der Linden, J., 487, 501 Van Der Mast, C., 1918 van der Veer, R., 1357 van der Velde, M., 2936 Van Esch, W., 1485, 2920 van Houtum, H., 2936 Van Kalmthout, E., 767 Van Leeuwen, T., 223, 1784 van Lieshout, H., 1139 Van Oosterom, W., 495 van Wieringen, F., 152 van Wieringen, F., 152 van Wyk, T., 963, 1978, 1981, 1984, 1987 Vandenberge, R., 1483, 1485, 1486 Vaneck, J., 336 Vargas, F.Z., 2874, 2878 n.4, 2920 Varian, H., 82 Varis, T., 1835–1846 Veal, K., 1426, 1446, 1448, 1454, 2763–2775 Veenker, P., 912 Veld, R., 1485 Velloso, A., 801 Venezky, R.L., 1260 Veramu, J., 611, 2205, 2329, 2335 Verdisco, A., 43 Verloop, N., 501, 503 Verme, P., c, civ Verschaffel, L., 503
Author Index Versnel, J., 1771 Verspoor, A.M., 245, 872, 874, 950 Vetter, L., 135 V´ezina, M., 1522 Vickers, M., 2275 Vickery, G., 1889 Vidal-Gomel, C., 1594, 1595 Vidovich, L., 738 Vielle, J.P., 300 Villet, J., 2190 Vincentas, D., 606 Vining, A.R., 877 Vishwanath, S., 2600 Vitols, R.M., 2680 Voikova, A., 2203, 2247–2262 Volk, D., 1781 Volkwein, F., 1567 Volman, M., 493 Volmari, K., 1372 Volpert, W., 1699 von Glasersfeld, E., 1335, 1336 von Hippel, E., 1496 Vose, K., 2348 Vosniadu, S., 1361 Voß, G., 2748 Voss, J.F., 1355 Voss, G.G., 166 Vries, M.J. de, 1813 Vygotsky, L.S., 1356, 1368, 1601, 1612, 1613, 1614, 1615, 1744, 1784, 2410, 2738 W Wachtel, P., 1564 Wackernagel, M., 101, 2362 Wacquant, L., 1313 Wade, J.A., 2564 Wade, N., lxxxv Wadley, J., 2477 Wagner, D., 1945, 2279 Wagner, K., 2077 Wagner, M., 2189, 2190 Wagner, G.G., 161 Wajcman, J., 133, 1444 Wake, G., 2737 Wald, A., 1486 Walgenbach, P., 1516 Walker, S.N., 2682 Walker, S.T., 875 Wall, J., 2213 Wallace, T., 1845, 1971–1987 Wallenborn, M., 427 Waller, W., lxxvi Walter, D., 1372
Author Index Walter, R.A., 2523 Walters, C., 1204 Walther, A., 1139 Walther, R., cxix, 1033, 1051–1074 Wandersman, A., 1524 Wang, H.B., 983, 986 Wang, J.P., 979 Wannan, J., 87 Waqausa, D., 2330 Wardekker, W., 487 Wardell, D., 2679 Warhurst, C., 1542 Waring, M., 320 Warr, P., 2408, 2409 Warwick, D., 874, 875, 950, 951, 953 Watanabe, M., 2507 Watanabe, S., 880 Watkins, M.D., 2362, 2363, 2563 Watson, A., 2352 Watson, I., 2365 Watson, J.B., 1611 Watson, K., 350, 898, 1549 Watts, A.G., 2318, 2322 Weale, J., 2723 Webb, N., 663, 1853 Weber, M., lxxiii, lxxiv, 162, 1125, 1130, 1754 Webster, D., 1565, 1566 Webster, J., 82 Webster, L., 249, 256 Weeks, S.G., 2296, 2299, 2300, 2301, 2304 Weib, M., 1853 Weidenfeld, U., 1757 Weighill, L., 803 Weighill, M.-L., 854 Weigland, P., 792 Weimer, D.L., 877 Weinberg, J., 2642 Weinert, F., 1621 Weinert, F.E., 2574 Weinstein, J.M., 770, 835, 836, 837, 838, 839, 840, 841, 842, 843, 844 Weinstein, B.L., 23 Weir, M., 2541 Weiser, M., 1895, 1896, 1907 Weishaupt, H., 1505 Weiss, C.H., 1473 Weiss, M., 2537, 2542, 2547 Weller, H.G., 2682 Weller, J., 380, 381 Wellington, J., 1726, 1733, 1734 Wells, G., 1779 Wells, J.L., 2171
3001 Welsch, W., 1679 Wendt, H., 1679 Wenger, E., 325, 501, 509, 662, 1336, 1338, 1339, 1353, 1357, 1429, 1535, 1581, 1585, 1601, 1612, 1764, 1766, 1767, 1769, 1773, 2280, 2364 Wentling, T.L., 28 Werner, M., 2173 Wernert, N., 2275 Werquin, P., 375, 439–452 Wertsch, J., 1784 Wertsch, J.V., 224, 1784 Wertsch, J.W., 1254 West, J., 2345 West, R., 1474 Westbury, I., 1670 Westerhuis, A., 1456, 1483–1491 Westhead, P., 1117 Westman, K., 2607 Westphal, L.E., 879, 880, 884 Whalley, J., 1079, 1088 n.1 Wheelahan, L., 2171 Wheelen, T.L., 43, 705 White, G., 1965, 1968 White, R., 396 Whitehead, A.N., 1612 Whiteside, J.A., 2689 Whitson, J.A., 1615 Whittaker, M., 2347 Whitty, G., 345 Whyte, M.M., 2685 Whyte, W.F., lxxv Wieczorek-Zeul, H., 2586 Wiehahn, N., 454 Wieman, A., 1943 Wiemann, G., xci, 1675 Wiggins, G., 31 Wilde, R. de, 1485, 1486, 1487, 1490 Wildeman, R., 1986 Wilensky, H.L., 170 Wiles, P., 813, 823 Will, H., 1523 Will, M., 2188 Williams, B., 1748 Williams, H., 1263 Williams, J., 1814, 2737 Williams, J.D., 874 Williams, J.G., 2005, 2009 Williams, M.E., 2682 Williams, R., 319, 1977, 1978 Williams, S., 2867 Williams, V., 1994 Willis, G., 1718
3002 Willis, P., xi, 1733 Willmann, O., 1675, 1676 Wilson, D., v, vii, viii, 245, 660, 665, 704, 2545 Wilson, D.N., x, lxxiii, 197, 531, 532, 533, 535, 544, 871, 1777, 1778, 1779, 1835–1846, 1975, 2296, 2851 n.1 Wilson, L., 2544 Wilson, P., 1911 Wilson, G., 175, 177 Wilson, R.A., 149, 153 Windeler, A., 1516 Windham, D.M., 885 Winkler, A.E., 129 Winteler, A., 1523 Winter, S.G., 1766 Wirth, A.G., 2232 Wirth, L., lxxiv Witkin, H.A., 2679, 2680, 2686 Wittig, W., 1458, 1535–1550 Wittke, V., 1498 Wittrock, M.C., 1765 Wizer, D., 1848 Woddman, R.W., 44 Wolf, A., 333, 463, 531, 1397, 1728, 1732, 1733, 1734, 1800, 2084 Wolf, H., 1522 Wolfensberger, J., 553 Womack, J.P., 1496, 1640 Wonacott, M., 2012 Wood, L.A., 228 Wood, S., 1209, 1692 Woodhall, M., 870, 940, 942, 945, 946, 947, 948, 949 Woodhouse, E.J., 871 Woods, D., 2452 Woodworth, R.S., 1614 Wooffitt, R., 228 Woolcock, M., 2200 Wright, C., 837 Wright, G., 1801 Wu, A., 525, 649–656 Wu, D.G., 978 Wyatt-Smith, C.M., 230 X Xinli Wu., 190
Author Index Y Yager, E.G., 1885 Yamada, K., 2505, 2507 Yamamoto, K., 2717 Yarnit, M., 2198 Yarrow, R., 769, 772, 840, 849–860, 2330 Yauas, B., 207 Yeaxley, B., 2608 Yencken, D., 2358 Youdi, R.V., 794 Young, J., 815 Young, J.D., 2682 Young, J.G., 1857 Young, M., 393, 456, 591, 1368, 1369, 1373, 1445, 1735, 1736, 2172 Young, M. F. D., 2772, 2774, 2867–2879, 2917–2933 Young, S., 882, 951, 955 Ysseldyke, J., 2190 Yu, G.-C., 684 Yusuf, M.D., 801 Z Zadek, S., 344 Zagha, R., 122 Zamberlan, F.L., 1300 Zanella, D., 1663 Zarifian, P., 1359, 2699 Zarini, M., xiv, 1835–1846, 1935–1945 Zee, H. van der, 494 Zeichner, K., 1826 Zelloth, H., 2322 Zepke, N., 2618 Zhang, C., 1229, 1230 Zhao, Z., xvi, 1178, 1229–1241 Zheng, X., 1230 Zhou, J., 978, 984 Zhuchenko, A.A., 1221, 1224, 1225, 1286 Ziderman, A., vii, cxxi, cxxviii, cxxix, 245, 516, 520, 521, 531, 805, 853, 875, 876, 881, 1034, 1075–1088, 2543 Zimina, N., 630, 631 Zimmer, G., 1453, 1509 Zinser, R., 2219 Zirkle, C. J., 1845, 1888, 2003–2015 Zourhlal, A., 2701, 2702 Zuboff, S., 182, 1641, 1645, 1646, 1715 Zuga, K.F., 92, 129–142
Subject Index
A Abductees, 780 Academic indicators, 409 Academic studies, ciii, 516, 738, 1126, 1805, 1828, 2351 Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD), 1545 Access to education, xcix, 24, 42, 60, 93, 124, 131, 293, 366, 474, 574, 586, 709, 724, 768, 789, 801, 1142, 1148, 1155, 1792, 1889, 1938, 2165, 2169, 2173, 2424, 2527, 2666, 2667, 2780, 2784, 2793, 2794, 2812, 2819, 2820, 2822 Accountability, cxx, cxxi, cxxviii, 32, 66, 68, 373–374, 393–409, 758, 925, 930, 933, 991–992, 1000, 1003, 1023–1025, 1768, 2965 Accreditation procedures, 694, 2959 Action -based learning, 1699, 1701–1705, 1706, 1707, 1709, 1710 competence, 1354, 1361, 1618, 1700, 1701, 1754, 1755, 2640, 2641 learning, xiii, 1181, 1213, 1333–1347, 1696 regulation theory, 1588, 1699–1701, 1702 research, 355, 1486, 1507–1508, 1509, 1510, 1511, 1512, 1517, 1525, 1627, 1930, 2706, 1480, 1481 Active participation, 342, 355, 429, 509, 622, 634, 808, 1304, 1387, 1431, 1464, 1696, 2253, 2313, 2483, 2666, 2708, 2782, 2954 Activity theory, 222, 1601, 1602, 1784, 2378, 2410–2412, 2413, 2738 Adaptability, 65, 200, 209, 221, 590, 678, 983, 1221, 1223, 1250, 1251, 1254, 1647,
1648–1651, 1712, 1780, 1808, 1811, 1819, 1912, 2232, 2248, 2267 Administrative difficulties, 2918 Adult education, cxxii, cxxxi, cxxxii, 60, 104–107, 296, 353, 354, 399, 525, 585, 630, 660, 694, 1447, 1956, 2055, 2269, 2419, 2521–2533, 2544, 2549, 2615, 2664, 2688, 2723, 2961 educators, 104, 660–661, 1362, 2529, 2538, 2616, 2673, 2683 learners, 94, 219, 220, 223, 225, 226, 661, 662, 746, 1190, 1570, 2200, 2425, 2530, 2606, 2615, 2649, 2663, 2664, 2665, 2679, 2681, 2868 learning theory, 2618 literacy, xcviii, 61, 114, 220, 229, 781, 902, 1259, 1262, 1264, 1952, 1955, 2039, 2040, 2055, 2056, 2070, 2268, 2548, 2572, 2674, 2715, 2724, 2725, 2734, 2741 numeracy, 2531, 2731–2743 Adult Literacy and Life Skills (ALL), 2572, 2579, 2715, 2725, 2728, 2734 Affirmative action, 137, 140–141, 1796, 2187, 2331 Afghanistan, 565, 567, 568, 569, 572, 573, 575, 576, 1924, 2160, 2473, 2474, 2857 Africa, vii, xi, xiii, lxxix, lxxx, lxxxii, lxxxiii, lxxxiv, xcviii, ci, cvi, cxiii, cxiv, cxvi, cxviii, cxix, cxxii, cxxiii, cxxiv, cxxv, cxxvi, 43, 66, 73, 90, 130, 184, 192, 199, 237–238, 249, 261, 263, 264, 265, 269, 270, 278, 453–466, 517, 531–544, 571, 728, 788, 887, 910, 962, 966, 968, 970, 973, 1041, 1044, 1055, 1075, 1091–1105, 1325, 1777–1789, 1845, 1925, 1943, 1971–1987, 2089–2090, 2100, 2299, 2309, 2405, 2412, 2472,
3003
3004 Africa (cont.) 2543, 2769, 2773–2774, 2804–2805, 2853, 2868, 2899, 2905, 2912, 2919, 2929, 2942 African Development Bank (ADB), 516, 1054, 2593 African Development Fund (ADF), 2593 Age equity, 2165 Ageing, lxx, 481 n.3, 2375–2384, 2386, 2388–2389, 2394, 2401–2414, 2429, 2431–2443, 2445–2456, 2457–2467, 2487–2497 Ageing population, 185, 566, 567, 570, 1376, 1952, 2385, 2386, 2398, 2401, 2406, 2407–2410, 2413, 2423, 2461, 2470, 2474, 2484, 2487 Ageing society, lxxxvi, 2375–2384, 2385, 2386, 2388–2389, 2393, 2394, 2395, 2431–2443, 2457–2458, 2464, 2483 Aid dependency, 1038, 1039, 1041, 1042, 1043, 1047, 1049 n.8 Albania, 2099, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2160, 2257, 2258, 2262 n.6 Algeria, 536, 539, 1051, 1054, 1055, 1056, 1057, 1058, 1059, 1064, 1065, 2091, 2160 Alternance education, 1653, 1656, 1657 Alternative entry, 962 Amputees, 772, 829, 830, 831 Andorra, 2116, 2160 Angola, 773, 1939, 2160, 2853 Anguilla, 2160 Antigua and Barbuda, 2160 Applied science, 1448, 1554, 1555, 1583, 1815, 1817, 1841 Apprenticeship/apprenticeships, xi, xiii, lxxvii, lxxxi, lxxxvii, lxxxviii, lxxxix, xc, xcii, xciii, xcviii, xcix, cxx, cxxi, cxxii, cxxiv, cxxv–cxxviii, cxxxi, cxxxii, 61, 237–238, 261–274, 285, 1057–1058, 1066, 1068–1072, 1360, 1586, 1587, 1589, 1611–1623, 1653–1667, 1747–1760, 2270, 2271–2272, 2650–2657, 2670–2672 Apprenticeship schemes, xcviii, 540, 778, 835, 1319, 1587, 1653, 1655, 1657, 1659, 1660, 1661, 1662, 1663, 1664, 1665, 1666, 1713, 2091, 2877 Apprenticeship systems, xc, 261, 264, 265, 1500, 1660, 1661, 1665, 1720, 1794, 2069, 2407 Arab Centre for Human Resources Development (ACHRD), 431, 432
Subject Index Arab countries, 431, 433, 434, 804 Arab Labour Organization (ALO), 427, 431–432 Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), 427, 432 Arab Union for Technician Education (AUTE), 427, 432 Argentina, 192, 199, 383, 386, 387, 682, 1034, 1107, 1113, 1116, 1303, 1313, 2048, 2101, 2106, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2118, 2119, 2120, 2160 Armenia, 2099, 2108, 2109, 2112, 2113, 2116, 2160 Artisans, lxxxvii, 9, 12, 236, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 281, 453, 454, 532, 980, 1319, 1320, 1994, 2091, 2298, 2412, 2592, 2908 Aruba, 2100, 2110, 2115, 2116, 2160 Asia and Pacific region, 523, 526, 565–581, 749–764, 1929 Asia and Pacific Skills Development Programme (APSDEP), 990, 1951, 1954 Asia and South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education (ASPBAE), 107 Asian Development Bank (ADB), 515, 516, 519, 550, 560, 754, 581, 1936, 2165, 2173, 2589, 2592 Asia-Pacific Accreditation and Certification Commission—-APACC, 2772, 2855, 2857–2862, 2863, 2865 Assessment procedures, 1158, 1161, 2189, 2606, 2671, 2903 requirements, 1243, 1244, 2872 Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), 1840 Association of Caribbean Tertiary Institutions (ACTI), 910, 911 Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), 527, 562, 580 Atrocities, 779, 827, 1748 Attrition rates, 2447, 2449, 2450, 2453, 2454, 2455 Australia, xciii, xciv, xcv, 928–937, 1035, 1155–1168, 1374–1376, 1536–1537, 1814–1816, 2264–2271, 2380, 2382, 2487–2497, 2774–2775, 2805, 2935–2950 Austria, 196, 585, 626, 901, 1192, 1371, 1401, 1501, 1527, 1547, 1660, 1661, 1798,
Subject Index 2069, 2075, 2084, 2086, 2099, 2113, 2114, 2160, 2610, 2838, 2950 n.4 Awareness-raising, ci, 609, 952, 1321, 1389 Azerbaijan, 2099, 2108, 2109, 2112, 2113, 2160 B Bahamas, 2160 Bahrain, lxxxiii, 122, 123, 2106, 2108, 2114, 2115, 2122, 2123, 2160 Bangladesh, 122, 123, 194, 549, 551, 552, 553, 554, 555, 556, 557, 558, 559, 565, 567, 568, 569, 571, 572, 749, 1784, 1787, 1924, 1930, 1932, 2041, 2044, 2048, 2160, 2427, 2473, 2931 Barbados, 2108, 2125 n.6, 2160 Basic education, xcix, c, cxxvi, cxxviii, cxxxi, 61, 120, 193, 301, 310, 1298, 1299, 1925, 1973–1976, 2040, 2588, 2604 Basic skills, xcviii, 22, 222, 228–229, 294–296, 603, 728, 731, 732, 2300, 2741, 2941 Basic skills acquisition, 294 Belarus, 2099, 2108, 2109, 2160 Belgium, 11, 198, 199, 585, 818, 1108, 1450, 1546, 1660, 1661, 1840, 2073, 2074, 2076, 2077, 2099, 2104, 2105, 2112, 2113, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2124, 2160, 2259, 2317, 2784, 2838, 2950 n.4 Belize, 518, 2099, 2121, 2160 Benin, cxviii, 263, 538, 542, 543, 1932, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2121, 2160, 2359 Bhutan, 565, 567, 568, 569, 572, 573, 749, 1924, 2160, 2473, 2474 Birth rate(s), lxix, lxx, 210, 481 n.3, 789, 884, 943, 1145, 2040, 2247, 2431, 2432, 2589, 2647, 2811 Blacksmithing, 7, 259 n.6, 265, 270, 303, 828 Blue-collar workers, lxxxvi, 1133 Bolivia, 682, 1108, 2160 Bologna declaration, xiii, 1183, 1393–1405, 2817 Botswana, lxxxii, ci, cxviii, cxix, cxxi, cxxii, 90, 277, 534, 536, 537, 538, 540, 541, 543, 704, 1042, 1244, 1378, 1939, 2054, 2076, 2091, 2092, 2099, 2108, 2160, 2296, 2297–2298, 2299, 2300, 2301, 2302, 2303, 2304, 2306, 2308, 2309, 2853, 2906 Brazil, xcii, xciii, xciv, c, cxxix, 192, 199, 383, 387, 388, 524, 637–647, 682, 1034, 1076, 1083, 1084, 1123–1135, 1175, 1188, 1271–1282, 1298, 1303, 1308, 1315, 1316, n.1, 1317 n.2, 1616, 1932, 2101, 2120, 2665, 2740, 2764, 2878 n.3
3005 British Virgin Islands, 2108, 2125 n.7, 2160 Brunei Darussalam, 1241 n.2, 2114, 2160, 2838 Bulgaria, 105, 586, 631, 2099, 2114, 2116, 2160, 2203, 2248, 2249, 2250, 2251, 2252, 2253, 2255, 2256, 2257, 2258, 2259, 2260, 2262 n.2, 2262 n.5 Burkina Faso, 90, 536, 537, 538, 542, 2100, 2114, 2116, 2118, 2119, 2120, 2121, 2160 Burundi, 773, 837, 2047, 2114, 2115, 2118, 2119, 2120, 2160 Business development services (BDS), 1108 C Cambodia, 704, 773, 1932, 2043, 2160, 2473 Cameroon, cxviii, 536, 537, 538, 542, 2115, 2160 Canada, xciii, xciv, xcv, 65, 84, 86, 89, 101, 102, 107, 171, 205, 320, 327, 526, 742–743, 829, 923, 1259, 1451, 1663, 1770, 1773 n.1, 1839, 1879, 1966, 2042, 2070, 2198, 2208 n.1, 2380, 2406, 2495, 2528, 2616, 2648–2651, 2658, 2681, 2715, 2728 n.1, 2728 n.2, 2729 n.8, 2827, 2843, 2942 Capacity-building, 45, 50–51, 52, 56, 338, 341, 345, 371, 414, 415, 417, 419, 430, 506, 565, 645, 646, 726, 795, 823, 883, 1131, 1229, 1241, 1271, 1272, 1275, 1276, 1279, 1282, 1294, 1923, 1928, 1997, 2197, 2358, 2361, 2367, 2560, 2562, 2563, 2564, 2565, 2566, 2567, 2855, 2863, 2864, 2865 Capacity-building strategies, 2197 Cape Verde, 2108, 2160 Career aspirations, 1167, 2201, 2334–2336, 2338 Career counselling, 62, 66, 407, 409, 759, 858, 2205, 2222, 2313–2326, 2336, 2423, 2429, 2440, 2510, 2511 Career education, 62, 140, 141, 966, 967, 1543, 1655, 1881, 1952, 1956, 2206, 2233, 2336, 2340, 2360 Career opportunity, 2218–2219 Career orientation, 1401, 1817, 1990, 2289, 2332, 2336 Career and technical education, lxxvii, 28, 32, 41, 62, 73, 374, 393, 394, 399, 404, 408, 518, 1544, 1545, 1546, 1845–1846, 2003–2015, 2177, 2182–2184, 2190, 2202–2203, 2229–2243, 2543, 2549 Caribbean Association of Training Agencies (CANTA), 2903
3006 Caribbean Community (CARICOM), cvi, 2853, 2854, 2865, 2903 Central African Republic, 90, 2160 Chad, 237, 245–259, 538, 542, 543, 2160 Changing role of work, 548, 2046 Chile, 198, 383, 386, 387, 682, 897, 899, 900, 952, 1083, 1303, 1313, 2048, 2101, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2160, 2764 China, xvi, lxxx, lxxxi, lxxxiii, lxxxv, lxxxviii, 98, 190, 194, 199, 200, 525, 548, 558, 561, 575, 649–656, 887, 903 n.1, 977–986, 1046, 1047, 1175, 1178–1179, 1229–1231, 1233, 1235, 1241 n.1, 1241 n.2, 1241 n.3, 1433, 1435, 1455, 1538, 1782, 1793, 1800, 1930, 2075, 2078, 2160, 2214, 2215, 2402, 2421, 2474, 2533, 2541, 2839 Chinese Taipei, 1241 n.2, 2838 Citizenship, xi, lxix, xcii, 21, 41, 43, 44, 45, 46, 49, 55, 229, 241, 337, 338, 343, 346, 384, 413, 464, 588, 589, 590, 638, 683, 705, 727, 747, 767, 768, 770, 1033, 1128, 1139, 1304, 1305, 1307, 1426, 1431, 1589, 1603, 1780, 1797, 1806, 1838, 2028, 2034, 2043, 2049, 2050, 2165, 2166, 2197, 2250, 2319, 2366, 2367, 2420, 2522, 2533 Citizenship rights, 2731 Clearing-house network, 1948, 1949–1950, 1952 Cognitive apprenticeship, 1336, 1360, 1361, 1362, 1586, 1611–1623, 2632, 2671, 2672 Cognitive processes, 1339, 1352, 1354, 1357, 1611, 1613, 1614, 1765, 2529, 2611 Cognitive skills, 32, 237, 880, 1308, 1611, 1618, 1765, 1889, 1890, 1891, 2573, 2577, 2580, 2601, 2679, 2687 Cognitivism, 1614–1616, 1965 Collaborative learning, 333, 740, 1264, 1346, 1587, 1687–1695, 1697, 1838, 1842, 1848, 1851, 1852, 1853, 1854, 1855, 1856, 1858, 1859, 1860, 2604, 2685 Collaborative technology, 1847, 1848–1849 Colombia, cxxix, 192, 246, 295, 304 n.3, 382, 383, 384, 729, 832, 1079, 1080, 1081, 1303, 2101, 2116, 2160, 2304, 2310 n.1, 2764 Colombo Plan Staff College (CPSC), 565, 576, 577, 581, 1842, 1863, 1877, 1927, 1928, 1950, 2375, 2377, 2381, 2394, 2395, 2772, 2854, 2857, 2865
Subject Index Commencement rates, 2447, 2448, 2453, 2454, 2455 Commercial enterprises, ciii, 1075 Commission of the European Communities, 127, 353, 1627, 1806, 2598 Commitment, v, vii, 168–169, 216, 2039, 2864 Common standards, 1550, 2854 Commonwealth of Learning, 753, 1928, 1939, 1943, 1945 n.1, Communication technology, 67, 81, 165, 577, 832, 1377, 1448, 1557, 1616, 1835, 1848, 1876, 1895, 1896, 1906, 1936, 1944, 1975, 1981, 1993, 2082, 2395, 2749, 2855, 2940 Community building, 242, 333, 337, 2563 development, 239, 241, 242, 322, 337, 660, 806, 915, 935, 1426, 1930, 2028, 2051, 2200, 2359, 2361, 2367, 2390, 2424, 2561, 2588, 2667 groups, 242, 337, 449, 883, 941, 1471, 2236 integration, 2188 of interest, 1587, 1687, 1694, 1695, 1696, 1697 of practice, 262, 510, 511, 663, 670, 1248, 1353, 1429, 1527, 1554, 1559, 1581, 1612, 1614, 1617, 1734, 1766, 1769, 2364, 2959 reintegration, 843–844 support, 30, 280, 281, 308–310, 951 Comoros, 2160 Comparative analysis, 154, 537, 573, 606, 893, 1052, 1053, 1180, 1285, 1286, 1409, 1410, 1884, 2031, 2528 Comparative Education Society of Europe (CESE), 1544 Competence -based approach, 473, 1313, 1742, 2920, 2933 n.1 -based vocational education, 483 requirements, 168, 441, 442, 592, 1247, 1593 Competency -based approaches, 760, 1248, 1807, 2035, 2171, 2172, 2173, 2763, 2764, 2805 -based system, 1155, 1208 -based training, xcviii, 521, 557, 1203, 1206, 1208, 1265, 1428, 1628, 1807, 1808, 1970 n.9, 2764, 2795, 2805, 2808 n.4 Competitive global market, 98, 579, 992, 2358, 2902 Competitive knowledge workers, 2443
Subject Index Complex social issues, 891 Compulsory contributions, 1056, 1059, 1061, 1062, 1272, 1273, 1275 Computer(s) -supported collaborative work environments, 1843, 1911–1920 Conceptual structure, 1505, 2708 Conflict situation, ix, x, cvi, 45, 48, 50, 771, 772, 775, 776, 793, 843, 849, 853, 857, 859, 1993, 2028, 2050, 2170, 2197 Congo, 90, 536, 537, 538, 543, 1939, 2160 Constructivism, 487, 1360, 1368, 1614–1616, 1850, 1851–1854, 1860, 1883, 1965, 2235, 2240, 2671, 2683, 2711 n.1 Consumer choice, 1139, 1806, 2269 Content analysis, 1456, 1463 Contextual learning, 1368, 1859, 2240 Continuing professional development, 1587, 1687, 1691, 1694, 1698, 1710, 1938, 2742, 2895 Continuing vocational education and training, lxxvii, 63, 88, 198, 470, 472, 474–475, 481 n.1, 632, 1539, 1997, 2069, 2256, 2940 Controversies, 891, 892, 899, 1749 Cook Islands, 565, 2161 Co-operative education, 31, 35, 36, 1433, 1543, 1653, 1654, 1660, 1773 n.1, 1798, 1826, 2543 Co-ordination structures, 814, 820–822 Core competencies, 670, 727, 1152, 1375, 2573, 2713–2715, 2716 Core skills, 120, 199, 1250, 1527, 1712, 1791, 2082, 2713, 2715, 2801, 2876 Correspondence courses, 200, 1848, 1851, 1989, 1991, 1993 Costa Rica, 192, 304 n.3, 382, 386, 1080, 2100, 2101, 2104, 2114, 2116, 2160 Cost-effectiveness, 448, 475, 476, 560, 870, 940, 941, 942, 948–949, 995, 1002, 1884 Cost redistribution, 1076, 1077–1078 Cost reimbursement, 401, 1076, 1077, 1078, 1082, 1083, 1085, 1086 Cˆote d’Ivoire, cxxviii, 536, 537, 538, 539, 543, 790, 1078, 1079, 1082, 1086, 2091, 2160, 2411 Council of Europe, 592, 1544, 1741, 1742, 2823 n.6, 2941 Course software providers, 2004 Course validation, 2845, 2851 n.1 Creative capacity, 1580
3007 Crime, 98, 99, 169, 373, 575, 610, 617, 788, 1134, 1748, 2269, 2361 Critical thinking, xcviii, 28, 206, 310, 711, 716, 727, 735, 740, 741, 743, 744, 746, 834, 1387, 1569, 1570, 1571, 1842, 1848, 1855, 1856, 1857–1858, 1927, 1975, 2026, 2235, 2241, 2661, 2665, 2666, 2670, 2672, 2717, 2719, 2804, 2841, 2844, 2849 Croatia, 2043, 2099, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2160, 2249, 2250, 2251, 2255, 2257, 2262 n.5, 2262 n.6 Cuba, 192, 1916, 2101, 2116, 2160 Cultural values, 134–135, 138–139, 1756, 2491, 2739 Curricular approaches, 1633, 1680 Curricular design, 385, 1288, 1663, 1669–1686 Curricular innovation, 295, 585 Curricular theory, 1670, 1675 Curriculum builders, 1605 design, xci, 1265–1266, 1423–1436, 1631, 1671 development, xcvi, ci, cii, ciii, cv, cxxii, 428, 753, 1286, 1291, 1439, 1579–1591, 1627–1637, 1999 implementation, 1585 innovation, 1782, 2344 management, 1003, 1014–1015 planning, 727, 1243, 1244, 1331, 1665 reform, 30, 51, 368, 708, 711, 732, 985, 1669, 1975, 1976, 2331 research, 1183–1184, 1423–1436, 1548, 1558, 1580, 1581, 1628, 1629, 1630, 1635, 1636 n.1, 1670, 1681–1682, 1684, 2725 standards, 394, 1248, 2959 Cyprus, 585, 2109, 2110, 2115, 2160 Czech Republic, lxxxii, 154, 443, 585, 631, 1660, 1661, 2079, 2099, 2114, 2116, 2160, 2797, 2953 D Dakar Framework for Action, xiii, 48, 704, 724, 725, 1937, 2027, 2525 Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), 49, 56, 1038, 1039, 1040, 1048 n.3, 1943, 2198, 2276, 2359, 2553, 2597 Decentralization, 23, 338, 368, 369, 370, 382, 464, 473, 475–477, 489, 554, 588, 602, 700, 716, 727, 729, 886, 898, 900, 905, 907, 909, 916, 984, 986, 1031, 1056, 1395, 1425, 1484, 1748, 2318,
3008 Decentralization (cont.) 2324, 2442, 2506, 2643, 2967, 2969, 1034, 1055 Decent work, xi, cxiv, 42–43, 64, 65, 86, 89, 92, 111–117, 119–128, 275, 315, 372, 547, 648, 882, 904, 1043, 1756, 2053, 2198, 2201, 2209, 2359, 2361, 2363 Decision-making, xcviii, 23, 24, 32, 36, 50, 85, 179, 216, 221, 323, 337–341, 344, 417, 445, 461, 476, 509, 611, 631, 662, 711, 756, 758, 870, 871, 875, 883, 908, 909, 922, 923, 925, 930, 939, 940, 942, 944, 947, 949, 953, 1072, 1148, 1342, 1456, 1470–1480, 1598, 1700, 1703, 1707, 1753, 1757, 1884, 2033, 2330, 2532, 2557, 2688, 2844, 2939 Declarative knowledge, 1352, 1353, 1355, 1356, 1358, 1359, 1595, 1620, 1769, 1770 Definition of literacy, 1260, 2729 Degradation of work, 161, 1640, 1641, 1645 Degree programmes, xvi, 555, 963, 969, 970, 1395, 1400, 1403, 1404, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2014, 2078, 2215, 2219, 2234 Delegation, 209, 993, 994, 1001, 1598, 1651 Demand-driven model, 620 Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, 2160 Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1939, 2160 Demographic changes, 185, 2206 Demographic revolution, 2358, 2405, 2471 Demography, lxxiii, 191, 600, 1574, 2499, 2591 Denmark, 9, 122, 123, 124, 156, 172, 199, 424, 585, 741, 895, 901, 1189, 1198, 1371, 1450, 1598, 1661, 1707, 1794, 1841, 1842, 2048, 2069, 2074, 2076, 2099, 2113, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2160, 2259, 2291 n.2, 2316, 2414 n.2, 2434, 2779, 2781, 2818, 2821, 2838, 2950 n.4, 2950 n.6 Dependency ratio, 2405, 2406, 2457, 2460, 2473, 2474, 2484 Deprived areas, 293, 302, 303 Design research, 1486 and technology, 17, 1319, 1324, 1332, 1589, 1777, 1779, 1781–1790, 2297, 2299, 2611 Development assistance, xv, civ, 53, 1037, 1050 co-operation, 53, 350, 464, 1410, 1937, 2585, 2586, 2591, 2593, 2808
Subject Index infrastructure, 511 policies, 365, 499, 915, 1302, 1530, 2442, 2549, 2554 priorities, 111, 116, 123, 527, 971, 1098, 1166 research, 103, 346, 722, 1486, 1627, 1889, 2860 Developmental goals, 609 Digital divide, 64, 265, 572, 576, 581, 645, 717, 831, 1887, 1889, 1908, 1938, 1983 Disadvantaged communities, 239, 1840, 1938 Disadvantaged groups, 148, 185, 199, 264, 295, 297, 298, 381, 384, 386, 423, 518, 759, 1036, 1079, 1543, 1889, 1994, 1997, 2047, 2048, 2051, 2170, 2247, 2255, 2261, 2425, 2466, 2543, 2609, 2794, 2955 Disadvantaged populations, 390 n.3, 1972 Disadvantaged youth, cxxvi, 32, 292, 382, 832, 2666 Disaffected school pupils, 2343 Disaffected young people, 1731, 2349 Disarmament, 771, 781, 790, 791, 824 n.9, 835, 837, 838, 843, 844 Discrimination, 21, 132, 133, 135, 136, 139, 184, 295, 296, 297, 303, 388, 723, 732, 751, 758, 911, 1091, 1262, 1601, 1977, 2034, 2035, 2169, 2181, 2187, 2317, 2380, 2457, 2484, 2525, 2590, 2800, 2904 Disengaged students, 2049 Distance education, 64, 65, 200, 201, 269, 558, 587, 609, 644, 710, 802, 970, 1413, 1781, 1840, 1845, 1846, 1930, 1939, 1991, 1994, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2268, 2530, 2679, 2680, 2681, 2682, 2691, 2821 Distance learning, 64, 118, 200, 445, 458, 584, 699, 760, 973, 1208, 1689, 1843, 1845, 1847, 1892, 1928, 1940, 1944, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2014, 2068, 2421, 2530, 2679, 2680, 2683, 2734, 2850, 2883, 2896, 2940 Djibouti, 2100, 2114, 2116, 2160 Domain-specific knowledge, 1353, 1355 Dominica, 1108, 2100, 2101, 2114, 2160 Dominican Republic, 1108, 2101, 2160 Donor agencies, xv, 53, 427, 499, 500, 549, 560, 617, 870, 876, 877, 1845, 1939, 1972, 1983, 2311 Drop-outs, 327, 352, 389, 552, 558, 611, 615, 708, 807, 2042, 2048, 2059, 2260, 2425
Subject Index E Economic collapse, 799, 860 Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), 293, 294, 295 Economic competitiveness, 886, 906, 1333, 1806, 1899, 2027, 2804, 2900 Economic considerations, 2043 Economic co-operation, xv, 53, 336, 412, 562, 599, 660, 726, 940, 1051, 1186, 1259, 1544, 1548, 2031, 2081, 2214, 2379, 2434, 2461, 2467, 2469, 2485 n.2, 2571, 2585, 2586, 2598, 2713, 2813, 2935, 2946 Economic development, ix, lxx, c, 13, 22, 45, 46, 49, 84–85, 92, 107, 123, 126, 197, 245, 321, 338, 350, 385, 420, 444, 478, 517, 552, 575, 598, 599, 600, 639, 654, 694, 754, 794, 805, 914–915, 922, 980, 1175, 1231, 1255, 1413, 1548, 1555, 1812, 1915, 1936, 1991, 2047, 2165, 2198–2199, 2222, 2313, 2358, 2418, 2526, 2537, 2558, 2586, 2587–2590, 2674, 2768, 2855, 2904, 2960 Economic environment, 81, 83, 85, 87, 89, 91, 93, 251, 598, 693, 732, 763, 802, 1030, 1043, 1046, 1226, 1536, 1589, 1747, 1962, 2190, 2420, 2581, 2714, 2798, 2957, 2958, 2959, 2960 Economic forecasting, 156, 770, 791, 792, 794, 796 Economic growth, lxxix, lxxx, 46, 84, 89, 119, 122, 235, 380, 412, 464, 519, 550, 576, 599, 678, 725, 753, 768, 791, 874, 879, 943, 1030, 1039, 1048 n.3, 1048 n.5, 1092, 1159, 1230, 1302, 1639, 1777, 1800, 1812, 1889, 1928, 1973, 2198, 2211, 2219, 2263, 2361, 2409, 2419, 2470, 2507, 2524, 2540, 2571, 2723 Economic progress, 84, 86, 532, 2856 Economic reconstruction, 799, 2256 Economic relevance, 1805, 2296, 2297, 2298, 2306 Economic restructuring, 123, 336, 1232, 2232, 2247 Economic return, 721, 802, 805, 879, 1030, 2764 Economic and social development, 26, 85, 105, 115, 117, 122, 196, 334, 547, 575, 631, 645, 649, 653, 654, 655, 704, 721, 767, 878, 996, 1165, 1166, 1281, 1435, 2443, 2523 Economic survival, 236, 299, 2082, 2381 Economic welfare, 236, 247, 2035
3009 Economic well-being, 246, 1811, 2418, 2549, 2576 Ecuador, 1108, 1114, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2160 Educated workforce, 83, 84, 204, 583, 879, 992, 2214, 2523, 2528, 2894 Educational access, 574, 586, 768, 2169, 2267 Educational change, 373, 1333, 1334, 1347, 2123 Educational disruption, 1152 Educational financing, 718 Educational goals, 485, 1176, 1245, 1252, 1564, 1566, 1579, 1582, 1711, 1712, 1937, 2242, 2576 Educational indicators, 291, 2062, 2713 Educational innovation, 486, 490, 494, 495, 1226, 1335, 1457, 1483–1486, 1491 Education for all, lxx, lxxvii, xcvii, xcviii, cxxvi, 34, 42, 46, 47, 48, 50, 51, 243, 349, 353, 516, 548, 704, 722, 726, 764, 767, 1031, 1040–1041, 1324, 1792, 1844, 1923, 1933, 1976, 1986, 2027, 2039–2051, 2089, 2166, 2525, 2527, 2585, 2598, 2768, 2811, 2816 Educational planning, lxi, 46, 354, 363, 519, 705, 726, 918 n.1, 1027, 1326, 1329, 1505, 1506, 1579, 2545, 2592, 2954 Educational policy, 15, 137–138, 279, 489, 490, 532, 586, 590, 607, 954, 1302, 1456, 1463, 1471, 1485, 1491, 1506, 1585, 1628, 1633, 1683, 1779, 1806, 1811, 1824, 1835, 1940, 1971, 2191, 2590, 2728 n.1, 2749, 2753, 2856, 2957, 2962 Educational practice, 53, 295, 356, 583, 587, 1227, 1296, 1313, 1485, 1491, 1541, 1859, 1882, 1956, 2681 Educational providers, 170, 333, 1166, 1472, 1473, 1474, 1789, 2276, 2763, 2764 Educational provision, 295, 334, 340, 610, 654, 800, 803, 887, 961, 1175, 1176, 1181, 1230, 1246, 1249, 1320, 1732, 1736, 1783, 1985, 2086, 2171, 2319, 2940 Educational psychology, 487, 1326, 1831 Educational qualifications, 69, 266, 610, 1165, 1209, 1752, 2793, 2853 Educational quality, 1160, 1302, 1458, 1563–1575, 1780, 1938, 2040, 2771, 2961 Educational reconstruction, 770, 772, 777, 799, 842 Educational reforms, 47, 84, 278, 280, 295, 370, 377, 500, 504, 507, 508, 655,
3010 Educational reforms (cont.) 707, 710, 715, 1311, 1313, 1316, 1506, 1806, 1940, 2598, 2957, 2958, 2962 Educational renewal, 493, 1791 Educational research, vii, lxii, 76, 79, 100, 419, 709, 979, 1226, 1290, 1352, 1360, 1443, 1536, 1537, 1540, 1541, 1542, 1544, 1545, 1546, 1548, 1846, 1860, 1950, 1956, 1990, 2012, 2264, 2274, 2322, 2375, 2378, 2418, 2565, 2604, 2681, 2739 Educational settings, 501, 1341, 1362, 1711, 1885, 2683, 2765 Educational statistics, 1548 Education for sustainable development, xi, xvi, 46, 48–50, 56, 314, 317, 1038, 1039, 1040, 1943, 2197, 2198, 2207, 2276, 2357, 2358, 2359, 2367, 2553, 2559, 2562, 2565, 2597 Education systems, lxxx, lxxxiii, lxxxiv, lxxxvi, xcii, xcvi, 31, 47, 67, 71, 90, 165, 199, 201, 238, 266, 279, 289, 295, 356, 400, 431, 455, 474, 483, 499–511, 551, 565, 590, 621, 649, 680, 707, 718, 822, 885, 909, 967, 981, 1019, 1033, 1157, 1229, 1234, 1251, 1291, 1309, 1394, 1449, 1476, 1506, 1539, 1627, 1628, 1666, 1712, 1732, 1777, 1847, 1971–1987, 2058, 2091, 2155, 2191, 2221, 2251, 2302, 2362, 2419, 2587, 2756, 2779, 2796, 2818, 2844, 2900, 2941, 2957, 2964, 2968 EFA, xiii, lxxvii, xcvii–xcix, 42, 47–48, 50, 56, 243, 349–356, 704, 708, 725, 732, 750, 753, 1037, 1038, 1040, 1046–1047, 1048 n.6, 1926, 1937, 1943, 2026, 2028, 2039, 2041–2043, 2045, 2047, 2048, 2049–2050, 2092, 2166, 2532, 2598, 2768, 2816 Egypt, lxxxvii, 90, 190, 240, 307–317, 352, 433, 434, 534, 536, 537, 539, 543, 1841, 1932, 1944, 2106, 2108, 2114, 2116, 2160 Elderly people, 2358, 2402, 2411, 2412, 2413, 2458, 2460, 2475 E-learning, 64, 142, 200, 213, 377, 420, 579, 583, 651, 661, 716, 831, 973, 1016, 1208, 1413, 1689, 1842, 1875, 1888, 1928, 1935, 1937, 1943, 1944, 1960, 1963, 1967, 1969 n.7, 1969 n.8, 1969 n.9, 2442, 2443, 2680, 2683, 2811, 2963 Electronic cyberspace, 1898
Subject Index El Salvador, 386, 1108, 2101, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2160 Emergency relief, 790 Emerging technologies, 1190, 1812, 1842, 1896, 1906, 1907 Employability, ix, xiii, lxx, xcvii, 36, 44, 45, 47, 55, 65, 88, 171, 200, 236, 238, 261, 299, 502, 572, 603, 673, 677, 679, 683, 686, 787, 836, 908, 1022, 1093, 1137, 1138, 1161, 1249, 1251, 1307, 1313, 1314, 1316, 1367, 1372, 1393, 1425, 1502, 1517, 1589, 1649, 1727, 1780, 1809 Employability skills, 36, 88, 1161, 1248–1251, 1372, 1780, 2173, 2179, 2204, 2220, 2233, 2238, 2263, 2264, 2266–2268, 2275, 2276, 2359, 2363, 2715, 2725, 2843 Employable skills, 116, 238, 277, 280–285, 680, 685, 1628, 1673, 1889, 2028, 2050 Employers’ associations, 273, 693, 1750, 2057, 2156, 2315, 2747, 2748–2750 Employers’ organizations, cv, 52, 118, 623, 626, 628, 635, 1187, 1748, 1749, 2327 n.30 Employment creation, 43, 119, 279, 284, 1045, 2200, 2357, 2362–2363, 2476 equity, 758, 1091, 1095, 1097 generation, 274, 317, 551, 725, 1918, 1925, 1929 opportunities, 105, 113, 116, 308, 316, 335, 373, 380, 389, 587, 739, 787, 790, 791, 794, 802, 842, 852, 854, 860, 882, 1402, 1403, 1777, 1781, 1926, 1999, 2036, 2040, 2084, 2177, 2178, 2181, 2187, 2220, 2274, 2276, 2317, 2319, 2330, 2341, 2364, 2389, 2398, 2470, 2513, 2602, 2904, 2939 options, 225, 723, 805, 1011, 2178, 2469, 2496 patterns, 48, 171, 725, 925, 1155, 2383, 2505 policies, 588, 695, 923, 946, 1052, 1304, 2030, 2224, 2256–2261, 2314, 2320, 2381, 2463, 9029 practices, 178, 2505, 2511 structures, 603 Empowerment, ix, xi, lxx, 45, 117, 211, 345, 355, 573, 733 n.7, 855–857, 876, 1096, 1097, 1263, 1302, 1370, 1410, 1524, 1828, 1892, 1923, 1930, 2043, 2044,
Subject Index 2169, 2200, 2357, 2364, 2390, 2391, 2398, 2424, 2425, 2588, 2622 England, lxxxix, xc, xcii, 11, 12, 219, 224, 225, 230, 262, 908, 912, 918 n.2, 1191, 1371, 1542, 1588, 1628, 1632, 1658, 1725, 1732, 1734, 1840, 2054, 2069, 2072, 2077, 2078, 2085, 2291 n.2, 2344, 2347–2351, 2354 n.1, 2531, 2741, 2766, 2796, 2797, 2799, 2800, 2802–2803, 2806, 2867, 2875, 2892, 2919, 2920, 2927, 2929 Enterprise(s) -based training, 265, 519, 1207 training, cxxiv, 1075, 1076, 1080, 1082–1084, 1085, 1087, 1161, 1207 Entrepreneurial skills, 125, 126, 252, 280, 385, 558, 1810, 2260 Entrepreneurial spirit, 471, 1128 Entrepreneurs, lxxxii, lxxxiv, 169, 247, 1650, 2381, 2475, 2476, 2477, 2478, 2480, 2483 Entrepreneurship, lxxxiv, c, ci, cxxi, 36, 238, 250, 277, 280, 284–287, 472, 558, 644, 693, 761, 762, 914, 1326, 1328, 1927–1928, 2260–2261, 2364, 2381–2382, 2396, 2469–2485, 2495 n.4 Environmental considerations, 1389 Environmental sustainability, 581, 723, 1038–1040, 1048, 1049 n.9, 2200, 2357, 2359, 2360 Equality of opportunity, 115, 768, 1756, 1801, 2426, 2428, 2868 Equatorial Guinea, 2160 Ergonomy, 1386, 1391 Eritrea, 90, 536, 537, 538, 543, 2113, 2115, 2160, 2295, 2305, 2307 Essentialism, 21, 22, 34, 2235 Estonia, 154, 523, 585, 597–600, 604–607, 630, 631, 2099, 2114, 2160 Ethics, xcviii, 44, 85, 169, 170, 262, 263, 342, 654, 743, 1128, 1230, 1288, 1295, 1683, 1927, 2034, 2035, 2165–2168, 2169, 2173, 2220, 2221, 2233, 2508, 2523, 2556, 2557, 2619, 2850 Ethiopia, cxvi, cxviii, 536–538, 542, 543, 816, 1183, 1412–1418, 1420, 1943, 2114, 2119, 2120, 2121, 2160, 2586 Ethnic diversity, 706, 718 EUDISED, 1544 European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI), 1546
3011 European Centre for Educational Research, 419 European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP), 419, 1443, 1838, 1950, 1956, 2316, 2326 n.8 European Commission, 127, 150, 151, 154, 155, 414, 417, 419, 420, 423, 424, 440, 450, 472, 583, 585, 586, 587, 588, 589, 590, 591, 606, 694, 701 n.3, 790, 1053, 1059, 1061, 1063, 1137, 1147, 1183, 1186, 1423, 1435 n.4, 1596, 1597, 1627, 2056, 2070, 2082, 2313, 2315, 2316, 2318, 2319, 2321, 2325, 2327 n.24, 2327 n.26, 2585, 2593, 2598, 2811, 2817, 2854, 2892, 2936, 2937, 2938, 2939, 2940, 2942, 2950 n.5, 2950 n.6, 2954, 2960, 2961 European Credit System for VET (ECVET), 422 European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), 422, 584, 1394, 1395, 1397, 2322, 2753, 2940 European Economic Community, 584, 2315 European Educational Research Association (EERA), 1546, 1550 n.6 European Forum for Academic Guidance (FEDORA), 2319, 2327 n.17 European Free Trade Association (EFTA), 586, 588, 2936, 2950 n.3 European Network of Information Centres (ENIC), 592, 594 n.3, 1394, 2327 n.18, 2941 European Qualifications Framework (EQF), 374, 413, 416, 418, 420–421, 422, 425 n.3, 440, 447, 450, 452 n.1, 452 n.2, 592, 1426, 1666, 2823 n.8, 2892, 2930, 2941, 2954 European Training Foundation (ETF), 152, 154, 420, 425 n.2, 427, 433–434, 472, 515, 606, 694, 1627, 2247, 2249, 2256, 2257, 2258, 2259, 2321, 2322, 2325, 2327 n.30, 2954, 2955 European Union, 84, 86, 89, 151, 198, 200, 207, 374, 413, 416, 422, 433, 440, 516, 522, 527, 583, 585, 589, 591, 594, 597, 606, 607, 624, 630, 698, 754, 923, 1033, 1051, 1053, 1068, 1137, 1186, 1222, 1303, 1393, 1426, 1544, 1598, 1627, 1655, 1791, 1935, 1984, 2068, 2205, 2257, 2262 n.1, 2313–2326, 2522, 2606, 2699, 2711 n.2, 2774, 2789, 2790, 2815, 2817, 2819, 2882, 2930, 2935–2950, 2954
3012 EURYDICE, 1544, 1840, 1957, 2318, 2940 Evaluation methods, 56, 1457, 1458, 1521, 1523, 1526, 1527, 1528, 1530, 1531, 1945 Evolving societies, 1879 Exchange programmes, 593, 594, 678, 1455, 2940 Ex-combatants, 772, 780, 790, 791, 794, 795, 835–846 Experience -based knowledge, 1359, 1499, 1555 -based learning, 1825, 2641, 2642 Expert knowledge, 150, 501, 503, 509, 1352, 1358 F Facilitator’s role, 2625 Farming, lxxxv, 176, 189, 283, 284, 610, 616, 723, 728, 730, 732, 762, 809, 818, 1107, 1124, 1892, 1915, 1924, 1925, 1995, 1998, 2219, 2309, 2467, 2674 Field-dependent subjects, 2680, 2689, 2690 Field-independent subjects, 2680, 2689, 2690 Fiji, 524, 565, 567, 568, 569, 572, 609, 610, 611, 612, 615, 617, 749, 1951, 2205, 2206, 2329–2341, 2341 n.1, 2473, 2857 Financial expenditure, 1051, 1055 Financial incentives, cxxix, cxxx, cxxxii, 674, 756, 912, 964, 1023, 1075, 1149 Financial management, 385, 1003, 1006–1009, 1010, 1024, 1058, 1095, 1278, 1425, 2969 Financial sustainability, 1038, 1039, 1040–1041, 1042, 2409 Financing strategies, 1030 Finland, 8, 9, 117, 153, 157, 327, 411, 417, 419, 424, 526, 585, 740–741, 742, 1367, 1376–1377, 1379, 1501, 1796, 1841, 2113, 2115, 2116, 2160, 2770, 2784, 2788, 2819, 2827, 2830, 2831, 2838, 2950 n.4 Food security, 721, 723, 725, 727, 731, 732, 733 n.3 Formal education, 66, 240, 248, 250, 283, 288, 294, 302–303, 314, 317, 321, 338, 356, 379, 385, 388, 389, 479, 500, 534, 588, 589, 611, 616, 637, 649, 671, 709–710, 722, 772, 782, 806, 828, 840, 871, 927, 1118, 1157, 1276, 1296, 1360, 1363, 1413, 1648, 1780, 1825, 1937, 1974, 1992, 2028, 2050, 2054, 2095, 2163, 2218, 2220, 2248, 2363, 2434, 2543,
Subject Index 2573, 2602, 2606, 2616, 2617, 2764, 2788, 2813, 2822, 2868, 2906, 2940 Formal education system, 294, 295, 373, 379, 500, 671, 836, 1157, 1824, 1825, 1837, 1937, 1992, 2032, 2054, 2090, 2095, 2248, 2603, 2765, 2779, 2816, 2818 Formal learning, 15, 16, 71, 75, 235, 243, 308, 312, 313, 315, 316, 325, 413, 439, 1139, 1152, 1264, 1354, 1359, 1363, 1364, 1502, 1824, 1884, 2030, 2067, 2166, 2322, 2526, 2563, 2597, 2598, 2602, 2606, 2629, 2634, 2637, 2640, 2643, 2648, 2813, 2815, 2816, 2819, 2820, 2822 n.1, 2884, 2901 Formal vocational education, 314, 317, 453, 649, 817, 818, 853, 1362 Formal vocational training, 350, 604, 817, 1991, 2419 The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, 2099, 2161 France, xc, xci, xcii, 10, 11, 17 n.3, 17 n.7, 154, 169, 195, 196, 440, 444, 469, 585, 908, 923, 1051, 1056, 1058, 1063, 1068, 1076, 1187, 1303, 1539, 1654, 1660, 1678, 1796, 2074, 2078, 2085, 2160, 2282, 2381, 2414 n.2, 2458, 2526, 2711 n.2, 2789, 2790 n.2, 2815, 2873, 2900, 2950 n.4 Freedom of movement, 2936 Functional qualifications, 1502 Funding mechanisms, 238, 273, 401, 458, 823, 912, 1031, 1036, 1075, 1145, 1148, 1149 Further education and training, 66, 73, 373, 456, 457, 458, 465, 603, 910, 967, 1092, 1098, 1100, 1148, 1237, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1982, 1984, 1987, 1990, 2067, 2257, 2261, 2274, 2352, 2605, 2821, 2909 Future skill needs, 147, 152, 157, 1522 G Gabon, 536, 537, 538, 543, 1082, 2160 Gainful employment, lxxviii, 124, 723, 814, 835, 1449, 1755, 1837–1838, 2043, 2235 Gambia, 90, 1788, 2113, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2160 Gender equity, 142, 197, 200, 2165, 2554 Gender parity, 2033, 2041, 2117–2121, 2124, 2156 Gender roles, 92, 129–142, 772, 791, 849, 852–853
Subject Index Gender stereotypes, 133, 853, 857–859 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), 207 General secondary education, cxxi, 192, 469, 537, 600, 638, 1792, 2296, 2302, 2412 General/vocational education interface, 375, 420, 439, 485, 723, 906, 917, 1010, 1030, 1331, 1432, 1443, 1484, 1903–1904, 1948, 1950, 1953, 1959–1960, 2949 Georgia, lxii, lxvi, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2160 Germany, vii, viii, xiii, xvi, xvii, lxxxi, lxxxvii, lxxxviii, xci, xcii, xcvii, 6, 10, 45, 46, 153–154, 165–166, 170–171, 195–197, 243, 433, 519, 626, 682, 908–909, 922–923, 1053, 1056–1060, 1068, 1072, 1153, 1175, 1179, 1188–1189, 1198, 1353, 1393–1405, 1424–1425, 1450, 1457, 1501, 1505–1517, 1540–1541, 1602–1603, 1629, 1662–1664, 1670, 1676, 1707, 1747, 1753, 1759–1760, 1800, 2073, 2099, 2166, 2258–2259, 2375, 2381–2382, 2434, 2458, 2528, 2533, 2543–2544, 2586, 2634, 2727, 2747–2756, 2765, 2798, 2801, 2808, 2838 Ghana, lxxxii, cxiii, cxiv, cxix, cxxv, cxxvi, cxxvii, cxxviii, cxxx, 90, 122–123, 238, 261, 269–270, 277–288, 539–543, 704, 789, 829, 1044–1045, 1081, 1841, 2074, 2078, 2091–2092, 2114, 2116, 2119–2121, 2160, 2296–2303, 2907–2908 Global citizens, 738 Global competition, cxv, 81, 119, 123, 165–166, 203, 580, 1312, 1791, 1835, 2190–2191, 2539, 2540, 2829 Global competitiveness, 550, 1248 Global considerations, 2566 Global economic competition, 1175, 1426, 2031, 2081, 2406 Global economic crisis, 106 Global economy, cxiv, 19, 53, 84, 103, 107, 117–119, 203–204, 220, 351, 455, 544, 593, 738, 751, 769, 906, 939, 1255, 1642, 1726–1727, 1730, 1781, 1881, 1915, 1917, 1971, 2031, 2081–2082, 2177–2178, 2211, 2213, 2225, 2308, 2406, 2412, 2528, 2558–2559, 2579, 2674, 2715, 2856, 2876 Globalization, lxxviii, lxxix, lxxx, xcviii, c, cv, 19, 22–23, 25, 27, 49, 50, 81–83, 87,
3013 91, 97–100, 103–104, 106–107, 111, 115, 117–119, 121 Globalized economy, 1155, 1304, 2275 Global knowledge environment, 1837 Global market, 82–83, 91, 97–108, 198, 411, 579–580, 660, 870, 881, 992, 1782, 1837, 1906, 2211, 2213, 2358 Governance, cii, 66, 89, 99, 104, 126, 149, 212, 242, 333, 338, 339, 343, 345, 368, 382, 396, 397, 401, 416, 428, 431, 434, 457, 464, 465, 472, 473, 475, 476, 480, 504, 511 n.1, 523, 573, 575, 683, 694, 700, 886, 898, 913, 915–916, 929, 990, 993, 999, 1009, 1010, 1024, 1197, 1395, 1402, 1549, 1657, 1800, 1929, 2205, 2357, 2360, 2559, 2560, 2562–2563, 2727, 2860, 2901 Government policy, cxxxi, 462, 490, 520, 675, 782, 872, 899, 931, 943, 951, 963, 1035, 1176, 1248, 1483, 2224, 2929 support, 257, 272, 281, 285, 495, 754, 755, 2223, 2917 Governmental action, 515, 1293 Governmental roles, 980–982, 984, 1750–1751 Greece, lxvii, 5, 198, 199, 320, 415, 443, 585, 1840, 1951, 2099, 2114, 2161, 2414, 2797, 2950 n.4 Grenada, 2099, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2160 Gross enrolment ratios, 1099, 2033, 2053, 2062, 2063, 2103, 2104, 2105, 2106, 2107, 2108, 2109, 2110, 2111, 2113, 2115, 2116, 2117, 2119, 2121, 2122, 2123, 2124, 2156 Group communication, 1911 Guidance networks, 1587, 1687, 1692–1697 Guinea, 538, 543, 565, 567, 568, 569, 572, 788, 830, 1263, 2114, 2115, 2160, 2161, 2473, 2857 Guinea-Bissau, 2160 Guyana, 2108, 2114, 2160 H Haiti, 259 n.2, 837, 2044, 2160 Handicapped students, 552, 830, 1046, 2182, 2255, 2591 Handicrafts, 5, 6, 8, 11, 303, 715, 977, 1229, 1360, 1639, 1642, 1644, 1645, 1989 Harmonization, cxvi, 808, 1387, 1670, 2261, 2653, 2765, 2772, 2817, 2853, 2858, 2864, 2902, 2906, 2948 Hierarchy of qualifications, 2908 Higher education, xi, xiii, lxxx, lxxxi, 64, 73, 93, 132, 149, 192–196, 211, 213, 298,
3014 Higher education (cont.) 366, 368, 414, 421, 422, 423, 427, 439, 440, 445, 447, 451, 457, 461, 463, 519, 555, 583–591, 638, 640, 641–644, 647 n.2, 651, 656, 689, 692, 695, 707, 713, 739, 747, 800, 801–810, 883, 906, 928, 933, 947, 962–973, 984, 1019, 1096, 1126–1133, 1150, 1158, 1161, 1180, 1235, 1272, 1320, 1393–1397, 1443 Higher-education teacher training, 440, 1288, 1326, 2879 n.13 Higher vocational education, 196, 649, 650, 651, 653, 909, 910, 1232, 1424 Highly-skilled workers, 23, 88, 89, 93 High-quality provision, 181, 205, 461, 968, 1597, 2480 High-school graduates, 28, 2205, 2217, 2218, 2221, 2230, 2234, 2237, 2243, 2329, 2501, 2956 Historical context, 1307, 1310, 1687, 2410, 2578, 2953 Historical development, 238, 262, 598, 1683, 1751–1752, 1801, 2383 History of technical learning, 5–13 HIV/AIDS, ci, 51, 567, 575, 726, 727, 781, 819, 1925, 1931, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1943, 1976, 2199, 2361, 2366, 2590, 2899 Home schooling, 2005 Honduras, 296, 304 n.3, 382, 386, 1080, 1081, 2160 Hong Kong, lv, 198, 570, 580, 1924, 1927, 1966, 2160, 2839 Human capital, 15, 81, 83, 132, 134, 151, 162, 164, 177, 185, 235, 237, 308, 356, 412, 518, 679, 749, 767, 948, 1029, 1030, 1035, 1083, 1108, 1111, 1118, 1119, 1165, 1294, 1307, 1310–1316, 1471, 1477, 1478, 1731, 1811, 1889, 1925, 2082, 2177, 2190, 2200, 2211, 2212, 2216, 2225, 2330, 2358, 2397, 2521, 2545, 2576, 2581, 2715, 2768, 2938, 2949 Human capital formation, cvi, 1030 Human capital investment, 1083, 1108, 1889, 2211, 2212, 2222, 2225 Human development, 9, 124, 235, 248, 336, 337, 353, 461, 573, 575, 767, 768, 770, 904 n.3, 1290, 1777, 1923, 1924, 1928, 1932, 2011, 2509, 2525 Human dignity, 112, 575, 2165, 2483, 2557, 2904 Human ingenuity, 189, 1914
Subject Index Humanitarian assistance, 813, 823 Humanitarian crisis, 788 Human potentiality, 1779, 1788, 1789 Human resource management, 675, 681, 1000, 1010, 1454, 1471, 1585, 1915, 2602, 2788 Human resources development, 116, 431, 436, 460, 660, 751, 764, 1185, 1281, 1303, 1536, 1770, 1843, 1889, 1907, 1944, 2034, 2224, 2247, 2431, 2440, 2443, 2512, 2522, 2531, 2716, 2729 n.10, 2756, 2766, 2858 Hungary, 585, 630, 631, 1076, 1401, 1840, 1841, 2074, 2075, 2099, 2161, 2255, 2291 n.2, 2797, 2953, 2958 I Iceland, 586, 589, 2075, 2113, 2115, 2161, 2950 n.3 ICTs, lxxviii, ciii, civ, 51, 64, 81, 88, 336, 387, 422, 547, 563, 566, 572, 579, 580, 585, 589, 603, 678, 704, 714, 760, 832, 899, 902, 1190, 1369, 1696, 1835–1846, 1879, 1880–1893, 1908, 1911, 1923–1933, 1935–1945, 1959–1970, 1972, 1975–1987, 2300, 2308, 2422, 2432, 2531, 2629, 2641, 2715, 2738, 2751 Illiteracy, 16, 130, 220, 292, 574, 645, 671, 724, 1259, 1260, 1309, 1879, 2268, 2473, 2525, 2668, 2788, 2818, 2899 ILO/CINTERFOR, cv Immigrant populations, 1588, 1739, 1746 Immigration, 98, 413, 422, 943, 1156, 1663, 2449, 2647, 2658, 2774, 2937, 2942, 2943, 2944 Implementation difficulties, 2917 Incentive-based training policy, 1119 Income inequalities, 81, 100, 114, 1315 India, lxxx, lxxxvii, 105, 136, 190, 193, 288 n.12, 466 n.2, 549, 554, 556, 565, 571, 573, 704, 749, 1045, 1049 n.14, 1263, 1288, 1377, 1845, 1924, 1989, 2007, 2015, 2016 n.12, 2041, 2115, 2160, 2330, 2339, 2375, 2404, 2417–2430, 2674, 2857 Indigenous education systems, 264 Indigenous people, 386, 722, 1155, 1166, 1993, 2170, 2341 n.1 Individual change, 1333, 1335, 2665 Individualism, 162, 327, 338, 682, 845, 1147, 2616, 2767, 2768 Individual needs, 21, 22, 163, 614, 908, 927, 1175, 1253, 2186, 2188, 2802
Subject Index Individual practitioners, 1209, 1471, 1472, 1481, 1692 Indonesia, 98, 196, 197, 199, 551, 554, 556, 558, 565, 567, 568, 569, 570, 572, 573, 575, 580, 749, 1108, 1241 n.2, 1424, 1425, 1435, 1455, 1932, 2073, 2074, 2075, 2076, 2114, 2116, 2160, 2473, 2590, 2764, 2839, 2857 Industrial attachment, ciii, 1182, 1325, 1367–1380 Industrial companies, 1127, 1276, 2629, 2636 Industrial development, 11, 116, 118, 534, 550, 645, 1124 Industrialized countries, 84, 119, 317, 366, 550, 552, 553, 687 n.3, 1079, 1185, 1536, 1639, 1927, 2033, 2082, 2087, 2124, 2198, 2279, 2361, 2521, 2633, 2813, 2929 Industrial practice, 1782, 2828, 2831 Industry consultants, 1333, 1334, 1339, 1341 Industry needs, 1472, 2491 Inequality, 24, 114, 133, 162, 164, 235, 295, 301, 453, 455, 573, 768, 896, 1103, 1282, 1309, 1310, 1314, 1732, 1799, 1802, 1986, 2117, 2361, 2589 Informal economy, cxiv, cxv, 67, 114, 120, 125, 141, 235, 236, 238, 274, 280, 285, 316, 336, 350, 351, 463, 882, 902, 1037, 1044, 1066, 2300, 2605, 2765, 2773 Informal education, 314, 322, 1363, 2055, 2363, 2559 Informal Employment, xxxix, cxv, cxvi, cxvii, cxviii, cxxx, 67, 284 Informal learning, 51, 71, 107, 236, 240, 307–317, 320–329, 357, 423, 442, 503, 632, 659, 665, 669, 732, 902, 1118, 1139, 1264, 1354, 1363, 1541, 2030, 2054, 2056, 2067, 2171, 2526, 2565, 2597–2611, 2632, 2648, 2748, 2753, 2779, 2787, 2790, 2813, 2818, 2823 n.1, 2875, 2884, 2896, 2926, 2938, 2963 Informal micro-enterprises, 237, 277, 278, 283, 288, 2765 Informal sector, xi, lxix, ci, cvi, cxiii, cxiv, cxv, cxvi, cxviii, cxix, cxx, cxxi, cxxii, cxxiii, cxxv, cxxvi, cxxvii, cxxviii, cxxix, cxxx, cxxxi, cxxxii, cxxxiii, 51, 55, 119, 199, 235–243, 245–258, 272, 279, 288 n.1, 291–304, 317, 349–356, 384, 423, 520, 539, 542, 882, 1030, 1038, 1079, 1081, 1135, 1272, 1413,
3015 1991, 2032, 2090, 2305, 2378, 2412, 2543, 2585, 2589, 2765, 2901, 2907 Information age, lxx, lxxxvi, xcvii, civ, 43, 93, 211, 213, 707, 716, 727, 1835, 1837, 1913, 1915, 1938, 2615, 2778, 2782, 2811 and communication technologies, x, lxxviii, 47, 55, 64, 81, 148, 151, 155, 165, 167, 336, 502, 547, 566, 585, 603, 678, 704, 1312, 1369, 1377, 1448, 1557, 1616, 1689, 1696, 1835, 1876, 1879, 1895, 1906, 1923, 1926, 1928, 1935, 1939, 1959, 1972, 1975, 1993, 2003, 2082, 2325 flow, 313, 345, 662, 914, 1475 management, 36, 576, 1001, 1003, 1010, 1017, 1020, 1130 provision, 1109, 1929, 2366 society, 67, 151, 572, 683, 1893, 1907, 1935, 1971, 2320, 2579, 2629, 2819 technology, 67, 82, 167, 178, 200, 219, 228, 370, 713, 738, 796, 832, 879, 955, 980, 1012, 1126, 1250, 1278, 1279, 1642, 1646, 1793, 1835, 1844, 1863, 1902, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1920, 1936, 1969 n.2, 1994, 2005, 2006, 2014, 2070, 2082, 2212, 2225, 2298, 2422, 2443, 2483, 2532, 2727, 2735, 2747, 2819, 2820, 2861, 2882 Initial vocational training, 66, 92, 152, 199, 535, 602, 633, 1052, 1055, 1549, 2067, 2084, 2747, 2800, 2940 Innovation agenda, 1480, 1489, 1491 Innovative approaches, ix, 55, 312, 420, 566, 936, 1697, 1991, 2003, 2013, 2532, 2747 Insecurity, 161, 502, 722, 780, 783, 815, 816, 1314, 2931 In-service teacher training, 640, 656, 1177, 1408, 1412, 1420, 2261 In-service training, cxxi, 67, 199, 264, 428, 470, 479, 689, 690, 696, 729, 985, 1076, 1084, 1204, 1219, 1220, 1223, 1271, 1279, 1376, 1413, 1793, 2324, 2432, 2940, 2954, 2955, 2966 Institutions autonomy, 464, 886, 905, 907, 909, 991, 997, 998, 1000, 1002, 1009, 1025, 1191 change, 212, 1752, 1832, 2929 characteristics, 1459, 1563, 1565–1571 environment, 907, 1185, 1191, 1458 learning, x, 1823, 1824, 2925 Integrated training programmes, 1266
3016 Interactive learning, 1836, 1860, 2632, 2637, 2638 Interactive strategies, 1967 Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), 383, 388, 516, 517, 518, 520, 521, 644, 1107, 1131, 1310, 2593 Internally displaced persons, 769, 777 International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), 1259, 2070, 2715, 2716, 2717, 2719, 2725, 2726, 2734, 2741 International Association for Statistical Education (IASE), 2741 International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), cv, 895, 1545 International Baccalaureate Organization, 522, 526, 735–747 International Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century, 44, 1928, 2699 International comparative studies, 1443, 2527, 2604 International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), 106, 118 International co-operation projects, 1183, 1423 International Council for Adult Education (ICAE), 106, 107 International development, v, c, 42, 103, 257, 447, 464, 516, 838, 873, 893, 903, 940, 945, 1048, 1936, 1986, 2045, 2398, 2545, 2585, 2591 International Development Research Centre (IDRC), 103 International educational co-operation, 583, 701, 1393 International Education Statistics (INES), 2713 International exchanges, 55, 1455, 1969, 2827 International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), 118, 721 International Institute for Educational Planning (UNESCO-IIEP), lv, lxi, 726, 918 n.1, 2592 International Labour Office (ILO), 463, 619, 1629, 1673, 1992, 2521, 2772 International Labour Organization (ILO), lxv, cxiii, 23, 24, 42, 44, 76, 111–127, 166, 246, 256, 307, 315, 427, 795, 940, 990, 1003, 1123, 1186, 1189, 1296, 1547, 1951, 2053, 2533, 2598, 2766, 2902, 2914 n.3, 2950 n.1 International Monetary Fund (IMF), 99, 118, 370, 1312, 2585 International organizations, 86, 118, 427, 431, 516, 580, 673, 678, 736, 816, 1023,
Subject Index 1310, 1315, 1544, 1545, 1943, 1952, 1954, 2059, 2260, 2526, 2575, 2580, 2585, 2590, 2815 International policy discussion, 891 International Reading Association (IRA), 1545 International schools, 735, 1290 International Society for Engineering Education (IGIP), 1223, 1547, 1550 n.10 International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), xlii, xliii, l, li, 589, 689, 807, 1501, 1547, 1549, 1654, 1666 n.1, 1840, 2030, 2031, 2032, 2033, 2035, 2053, 2054, 2055, 2057, 2059–2061, 2062, 2063, 2064, 2065 n.2, 2068, 2070–2079, 2079 n.2, 2083, 2086, 2087, 2088, 2090, 2091, 2095–2110, 2111, 2116, 2117–2123, 2124, 2125 n.6, 2125 n.9, 2125 n.12, 2131, 2155, 2156, 2157, 2252, 2257, 2741 International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO), 166, 895, 1446, 1547, 2252 International Technology Education Association, 2165 International trade, 124, 207, 626, 1532 n.3, 2358 International Vocational Education and Training Association (IVETA), 419, 1548, 1550 n.11 Internships, lxxxii, 214, 389, 408, 696, 701, 829, 985, 1189, 1233, 1653, 1660, 1794, 1797, 1798, 1856, 1882, 2221, 2223, 2237, 2242, 2280–2292, 2441, 2605 Inter-organizational learning, 1587, 1687, 1689, 1691 Interview, 33, 226, 227, 326, 328, 399, 400, 402, 534, 535, 674, 687 n.4, 789, 791, 795, 837, 840, 852, 1199 n.2, 1235, 1456, 1463, 1464–1465, 1558, 1560, 1635, 2332, 2720, 2845 Investment behaviour, 1747, 1759 Iran, 565, 567, 568, 569, 572, 749, 1262, 2108, 2160, 2473, 2839, 2857 Iraq, lxxxiii, 790, 2160 Ireland, 84, 85, 105, 153, 154, 157, 199, 415, 422, 585, 918 n.2, 1078, 1424, 1425, 1426, 1428, 1501, 1541, 1841, 1935, 2075, 2108, 2113, 2114, 2115, 2161, 2213, 2291 n.2, 2316, 2354 n.1, 2414 n.2, 2435, 2766, 2784, 2802, 2815,
Subject Index 2821, 2839, 2892, 2918, 2920, 2929, 2950 n.4 ISCED, 589, 689, 807, 1501, 1549, 1654, 1666 n.1, 1840, 2030–2035, 2053, 2054, 2055, 2057, 2059–2064, 2068, 2070–2079, 2079 n.2, 2083, 2086, 2088, 2090, 2095–2117, 2122, 2124, 2125 n.12, 2257 Israel, lxviii, 556, 771, 800, 801, 802, 803, 804, 805, 806, 850, 851, 852, 853, 855, 856, 857, 859, 2114, 2160 Italy, lviii, lix, 6, 157, 433, 585, 682, 1303, 1309, 1455, 1501, 1655, 1678, 2077, 2099, 2161, 2458, 2785, 2839, 2950 n.4 J Jamaica, 106, 913, 2110, 2125 n.6, 2160, 2839, 2921 Japan, ci, 98, 101, 194, 196, 206, 282, 443, 550 Job creation, lxxxi, 68, 82, 165, 287, 551, 795, 884, 1044, 1071, 1093, 1973, 1982, 1987, 2247, 2358 Job entry, 264, 387, 388, 531, 1061, 1063, 1071, 1072, 1324 Job insecurity, 161 Job market, 314, 379, 380, 381, 386, 389, 551, 555, 557, 560, 674, 858, 980, 984, 985, 1221, 1223, 1224, 1289, 1298, 1396, 1588, 1739, 1740, 1744, 1796, 2198, 2199, 2214, 2283, 2284, 2286, 2288, 2329, 2383, 2422, 2499, 2506, 2527 Job-market requirements, 556, 1223, 1740 Job-oriented training, 2586 Jordan, lxiii, 90, 328, 432, 433, 434, 435, 801, 805, 851, 860 n.1, 1944, 2114, 2116, 2160 K Kazakhstan, 52, 122, 123, 2099, 2108, 2109, 2114, 2160 Kenya, xiii, lxxxii, ci, cxiv, cxviii, cxix, cxxi, cxxii, cxxiv, cxxv, cxxvi, cxxx, 246, 250, 259 n.5, 259 n.7, 277, 288 n.12, 542, 704, 816, 818, 1049 n.11, 1080, 1081, 1085, 1108, 1320, 1322, 1325, 1924, 1932, 2090, 2092, 2118, 2160, 2297–2301, 2303, 2305, 2306, 2310 n.1, 2606, 2900, 2907, 2908 Key competencies, 502, 511 n.4, 1225, 1412, 1579, 2575, 2576, 2578, 2579 Kiribati, 101, 2161 Knowledge -based economy, 83–84, 90, 219, 471, 487, 679, 828, 1444, 1590, 1596,
3017 1695, 1824, 1912, 1915, 2263, 2443, 2522, 2714 creation, 662, 1472, 1497, 1588, 1596, 1597, 1688, 1691, 1692, 1725, 1730, 1819, 1855, 1891, 2671 economy, 68, 87, 235, 416, 450, 485, 490, 673, 678, 682, 683, 686, 905, 922, 1137, 1140, 1144, 1486, 1589, 1771, 1779, 1783, 1912, 1916, 1968, 2082, 2198, 2491, 2521, 2603, 2715, 2733 management, 54, 445, 486, 577, 659, 1363, 1485, 1486, 1508, 1517, 1687, 1691, 1917, 1939, 1940, 2247, 2724 retention, 1497 revolution, 1791, 2375 -sharing, 56, 343, 365, 374, 375, 419–420, 500, 510, 660, 661–663, 668, 669, 1838, 1872, 1876, 1877, 1940, 1941, 1943 society, 164, 168, 171, 197, 416, 548, 626, 678, 739, 1063, 1138, 1143–1146, 1153, 1186, 1307, 1310–1314, 1486, 1535, 1550, 1771, 1928, 1959, 1964, 2025, 2207, 2319–2323, 2379, 2778, 2785, 2788, 2811 workers, lxxviii, lxxxvi, xcvi, xcvii, ciii, 43, 81, 84, 88, 660, 665, 679, 680, 1644, 1645, 1779, 1789, 1808, 1819, 1835, 1838, 1874, 1912, 1975, 2051, 2073, 2379, 2438, 2439, 2443, 2714 workforce, 1843, 1911–1920 Kosovo, 2256, 2257, 2258, 2262 n.6 Kuwait, 90, 2108, 2160 Kyrgyzstan, 52, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2160 L Labour force, lxxiii, 68, 87, 113, 130, 171, 183, 298, 349, 370, 371, 540, 571, 621, 623, 673, 684, 703, 706, 781, 949, 954, 957, 982, 1124, 1145, 1312, 1646, 1650, 1794, 1990, 2070, 2178, 2212, 2248, 2249, 2250, 2261, 2341, 2378, 2431, 2454, 2460, 2461, 2463, 2464, 2467, 2472, 2488, 2500, 2505, 2521, 2656, 2767, 2774, 2811, 2813, 2823 n.2, 2901, 2902, 2938, 2941 Labour-force participation, 948, 2178, 2418, 2460, 2461, 2472, 2473, 2474 Labour-force qualifications, 2811 Labour-market demands, 403, 540, 600, 603, 717, 764, 893, 894, 895, 943, 983, 1044, 1101, 1241 n.3, 1281, 1527, 2026, 2086, 2217, 2438, 2593, 2797
3018 Labour-market needs, xcvii, ci, 272, 429, 576, 620, 925, 932, 940, 1020, 1725, 1732, 1806, 2034, 2219, 2251, 2261, 2340, 2358, 2773 Labour-market outcomes, 283, 395 Labour-market preparation, 2202, 2229 Labour-market trends, 627, 915, 917, 1697, 2027, 2030, 2333, 2856 Labour mobility, 68, 427, 699, 2726, 2767, 2774, 2935–2939, 2941–2943, 2945, 2947–2950 Labour relations, 323, 525, 675, 676, 677, 690, 1293, 1296, 1297, 1300, 1304, 1311, 1312, 1800, 2790 Labour supply, 84, 156, 158, 949, 1044, 2217, 2225, 2249, 2383, 2451, 2509 Lao PDR, 573, 749, 2047, 2108, 2593 Latin America, xcii, xcviii, cxxix, 127, 192, 239, 291–304, 351, 352, 373, 379–390, 515, 517, 519, 524, 534, 569, 571, 728, 921, 1033, 1076, 1108, 1111, 1134, 1272, 1276, 1280, 1296, 1309, 1311, 1316, 1923, 2041, 2101, 2117, 2386, 2472, 2525, 2740, 2743 n.2, 2764, 2874, 2878 n.4, 2920 Latvia, 523–524, 585, 597–608, 631, 2099, 2116 Learner achievement, 1564, 1568, 1571, 1974, 2679, 2804, 2890, 2895, 2904 Learner-centred approach, ciii, 200, 1848, 1975, 2896 Learner interactivity, 1568, 1848 Learner outcomes, 736, 1459, 1563, 1564, 1565, 1566–1568, 1569, 1570, 1571 Learning by, 6, 10, 68, 242, 338, 486, 489, 523, 669, 1181–1182, 1345, 1370, 1531, 1587, 1613, 1665, 1699, 1713, 1842, 1855, 2363, 2411, 2527–2528, 2597, 2632, 2633, 2634, 2639, 2640, 2641, 2644, 2755, 2781–2782, 2795, 2815, 2850, 2868, 2905, 2940 Learning arenas, 1604, 1605 Learning environments, cxxxii, 47, 76, 212, 239, 323, 324, 389, 487, 492, 500, 501, 591, 663, 669, 671, 717, 1016, 1021, 1139, 1153, 1265, 1359, 1362, 1368, 1415, 1420, 1572, 1617, 1618, 1620, 1622, 1675, 1694, 1708, 1717, 1765, 1847, 1850, 1852, 1859, 1886, 1892, 1985, 2234, 2512, 2530, 2606, 2643, 2679, 2680 Learning ethic, 1826, 2171
Subject Index Learning models, 15, 312, 313, 314, 322, 1346, 1847, 2528, 2629, 2631–2633, 2670 Learning networks, 333, 1165, 1687, 1688, 1689, 1692, 1693, 2528, 2604, 2609, 2615 Learning organizations, 21, 22, 68, 102, 203, 240, 486, 491, 659, 669, 691, 1264, 1387, 1485, 1522, 2635, 2637, 2638, 2753 Learning outcomes, 48, 69, 222, 292, 338, 342, 372, 421, 439, 440, 442, 444, 448, 450, 480, 502, 511 n.5, 740, 893, 1017, 1018, 1266, 1367, 1566, 1572, 1787, 1815, 1854, 1884, 1964, 2028, 2163, 2171–2172, 2581, 2610, 2669, 2670, 2781, 2785, 2786, 2794, 2816, 2843–2844, 2860, 2871, 2874, 2895, 2906, 2912, 2954 Learning processes, lxx, cvi, 69, 105, 170, 238, 292, 314, 342, 352, 354, 369, 372, 492, 502, 509, 510, 511 n.5, 511 n.9, 590, 631, 665, 704, 872, 1190, 1244, 1266, 1323, 1341, 1345, 1360, 1428, 1457, 1526, 1530, 1584–1585, 1612, 1615, 1633, 1662, 1699, 1718, 1839, 1852, 1959, 2254, 2280, 2602, 2630, 2708, 2752, 2754–2756, 2782, 2966 Learning society, 15, 69, 94, 222, 678, 707, 1032, 1137, 1138, 1139, 1145, 1147, 1152, 1952, 2383, 2505, 2506, 2581, 2582 Learning strategies, 356, 387, 424, 588, 603, 1255, 1620, 1715, 1716, 1717, 1720, 1842, 1845, 1848, 1859, 1886, 1891, 1966, 1977, 2323, 2383, 2511, 2528, 2581, 2629–2644, 2662, 2669–2670, 2671, 2714, 2749, 2755, 2767, 2768, 2777, 2822 Learning styles, 140, 660, 661, 746, 1390, 1826, 1828, 1854, 1881, 1884, 1886, 1891, 1895, 1995, 2010, 2235, 2240, 2243, 2298, 2350, 2530, 2616, 2664, 2668, 2673, 2697–2712 Learning through experience, 76, 321, 2634, 2635, 2637, 2747 Learning and training methods, 1463 Learning transfer, 440, 1614 Learning for work, lxix, 49, 55, 308, 314, 1809, 1810, 2034, 2044, 2050, 2051, 2166, 2533, 2537, 2541, 2719, 2737 Least-developed countries, xv, lxxx, 51, 721, 750, 751, 1043, 1314, 1315, 2089, 2386, 2411, 2533
Subject Index Lebanon, 433, 434, 849–857, 2100, 2114, 2115, 2160 Legal guidelines, 1229 Legal measures, 637, 638 Lesotho, 538, 543, 1939, 2114, 2160, 2853, 2899, 2907 Less-able students, 532 Liberia, 771, 772, 787–796, 827–834, 837, 2160 Libya, lxxxiii, 248, 431, 432, 2106, 2110, 2114, 2116, 2160 Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, 2106, 2110, 2114, 2116, 2160 Liechtenstein, 586, 589, 2099, 2161, 2839, 2950 n.3 Life expectancy, 610, 1117, 2040, 2329, 2418, 2471, 2499, 2589 Life experience, 63, 223, 322, 373, 1264, 1678, 2270, 2605 Lifelong education, 197, 301, 353, 390, 655, 683, 705, 913, 1127, 1151, 1157, 1295, 1977, 2320, 2387, 2747, 2963 Lifelong learning, xi, lxxviii, lxxxi, lxxxiii, xcvii, xcviii, cv, 15, 24, 36, 41, 42, 88, 89, 147, 148, 167, 168, 198, 216, 221, 236, 240, 241, 312, 316, 325, 327, 354, 365, 366, 375, 404, 414, 416, 421, 422, 423, 427, 433, 439, 449, 450, 461, 473, 501, 518, 522, 523, 525, 558, 578, 583–593, 597, 602–605, 656, 660, 661, 680–718, 721, 739, 747, 752, 754, 905, 907, 908, 917, 1019, 1029, 1032, 1033, 1035, 1058, 1060, 1061, 1062, 1063, 1066, 1073, 1093, 1137–1153, 1186, 1191, 1320, 1323, 1351, 1367, 1371, 1454, 1489, 1490, 1517, 1539, 1540, 1650, 1708, 1792, 1801, 1838, 1874, 1879, 1886, 1928, 1936, 1952, 1966, 1992, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2046, 2050, 2205, 2236, 2238, 2254, 2255, 2268, 2313, 2321, 2323, 2325, 2359, 2383, 2393, 2435, 2441, 2499–2513, 2526, 2542, 2543, 2560, 2566, 2571, 2580, 2588, 2597, 2602–2610, 2630, 2648, 2663, 2715, 2723, 2747, 2765–2770, 2777, 2780–2789, 2804, 2812–2822 Life skills, lxxx, xcvii, 48, 295, 309, 310, 312, 708, 711, 725, 732, 784, 819, 1783, 1817, 1990, 2025, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2039, 2046, 2050, 2056, 2185, 2197, 2358, 2360, 2366, 2367, 2387, 2389, 2511, 2572, 2573, 2606, 2725, 2734, 2816, 2892
3019 Literacy, xcviii, cxxii, cxxvi, cxxxi, cxxxii, 11, 15, 16, 32, 48, 61, 66, 70, 86, 114, 120, 130, 131, 132, 138, 189, 210, 219, 220, 223, 228–229, 245, 250, 252, 266, 291, 292, 293, 295, 299, 308, 310, 312, 313, 321, 344, 351, 352, 354, 356, 370, 552, 572, 574, 610, 615, 645, 662, 671, 708, 710, 716, 724, 725, 727, 732, 758, 781, 782, 784, 789, 809, 831, 833, 855, 878, 879, 883, 901, 902, 906, 951, 955, 1038, 1039, 1179, 1259–1268, 1280, 1288, 1309, 1319, 1324, 1466, 1589, 1601, 1639, 1719, 1768, 1777–1789, 1830, 1837, 1879, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1908 Lithuania, 154, 523, 524, 585, 597–608, 619–635, 1840, 2099, 2116, 2120 Loan programmes, 2586 Local community needs, 1997, 2424 Local cultures, 350, 370, 683, 2587 Local industry, 896, 898, 901, 1165, 1302, 1488, 1489, 2442, 2655 Local ownership, 313, 367, 375, 377, 499 Low basic skills, 94, 219, 220, 2462 Lower-income families, 293 Lower secondary education, cxxvi, 515, 535, 559, 1033, 1187, 1756, 2112, 2257, 2956 Low-income students, 1123, 1158, 1164, 1166, 1168 Low school attendance, 2040 Luxembourg, 199, 585, 1052, 2099, 2161, 2414 n.2, 2839, 2950 n.4 M Macao China, 2100, 2116 Madagascar, cxviii, 90, 539, 2091, 2160, 2411 Malawi, cxix, cxxviii, 90, 536, 537, 538, 543, 1378, 1379, 1939, 2112, 2113, 2160, 2853 Malaysia, cxxix, cxxxi, 98, 191, 197, 549, 550, 552, 556, 557, 565, 567, 568, 569, 570, 572, 573, 580, 749, 759, 1076, 1183, 1241 n.2, 1378, 1379, 1423, 1424, 1425, 1428, 1433, 1435, 1455, 1699, 1707, 1710, 1924, 1927, 1930, 2075, 2078, 2079, 2088, 2160, 2224, 2473, 2764, 2839, 2857 Maldives, 565, 567, 568, 569, 572, 575, 2160, 2473, 2474, 2604, 2857 Mali, cxviii, 90, 536, 537, 538, 539, 540, 542, 543, 2045, 2047, 2091, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2118, 2119, 2120, 2121, 2160, 2411
3020 Malta, 585, 1840, 2099, 2114, 2161 Management personnel, 914, 1237, 2750 Management practice, 23, 62, 210, 887, 989, 990, 1002, 1003–1025, 2395, 2396, 2560, 2561 Managerial control, 1640 Manpower, 23, 147, 157, 158, 251, 265, 280, 281, 444, 532, 544, 550, 554, 563, 620, 678, 710, 791–793, 794, 805, 828, 894, 940, 942–945, 949, 956, 1088, 1101, 1108, 1134, 1326, 1650, 1663, 1710, 1915, 1916, 1990, 1999, 2206, 2220, 2286, 2331, 2332, 2421, 2422, 2428, 2436, 2438, 2454, 2475, 2481, 2802, 2856, 2903, 2907, 2910 Manual arts, 5, 6, 10, 13, 17 n.1 Manual training, xc, xciii, 6, 8, 10–13, 17 n.1, 17 n.7, 17 n.8, 1675, 1678 Marginal groups, 721, 1138 Market competition, 870, 1155, 1167 Market economy, 21, 67, 163, 196, 469, 550, 598, 599, 602, 603, 619, 634, 649, 700, 796, 978, 981, 982, 983, 985, 1312, 1791, 2026, 2042, 2200, 2223, 2364, 2395, 2560, 2567, 2661 Marshall Islands, 2161 Mathematical knowledge, 2734, 2736, 2737, 2742, 2743 Mauritania, 90, 538, 542, 543, 2100, 2160 Mauritius, xlv, 90, 895, 1078, 1080, 1081, 1082, 1084, 1378, 1939, 1940, 2104, 2108, 2110, 2115, 2160, 2853, 2904, 2905–2906, 2908, 2910 Metacognition, 746, 1764–1768 Mexico, lxv, 99, 101, 102, 199, 292, 295, 296, 682, 1241 n.2, 1303, 1309, 2074, 2078, 2100, 2101, 2103, 2104, 2105, 2115, 2160, 2401, 2419, 2604, 2668, 2764 Microfinance, 286 Middle-level technicians, 532 Migration, 98, 116, 199, 210, 265, 350, 368, 380, 413, 422, 453, 566, 570–571, 574–575, 723, 732, 804, 852, 923, 943, 1139, 1156, 1663, 1952, 2090, 2247, 2297, 2378, 2417, 2449, 2456 n.12, 2478, 2647, 2658, 2767, 2774, 2935, 2937, 2942, 2943, 2944, 2949 Millennium Development Goals, lxx, lxviii, 42, 90, 119, 515, 527, 541, 571, 721, 725, 751, 764, 767, 1037, 1844, 1923–1924, 1945, 2089, 2092, 2197, 2199, 2358, 2412, 2525, 2585, 2589 Mixed ethnic groups, 1589, 1739
Subject Index Modern apprenticeship, xi, 1527, 1659, 1660, 1726, 1732, 1734, 1794, 2054, 2069 Modern economy, 651, 1033, 1123 Modernization, xcvi, ci, civ, 172, 192, 197, 303, 367, 377, 380, 441, 442, 470–477, 478, 480, 508, 537, 549, 560, 563, 591, 602, 630, 650, 656, 676, 694, 699, 700, 722, 754, 1032, 1039, 1133, 1139, 1178, 1279, 1297, 1424, 1431, 1458, 1483, 1598, 1661, 1728, 1730, 1735, 1778, 1818, 2247, 2389, 2796, 2954, 2955 Modularization, 808, 900, 1245, 1246, 1445, 1583, 1674, 2764, 2769, 2793–2808, 2808 n.5, 2923 Monaco, 2161 Mongolia, 552, 565, 2042, 2116, 2160, 2473, 2857 Monitoring, cxxxi, cxxxii, 31, 44, 56, 165, 181, 408, 422, 442, 476, 492, 556, 557, 578, 622, 645, 717, 750, 762–764, 894, 899, 911, 964, 999, 1000, 1012, 1022–1024, 1043, 1098, 1126, 1303, 1340, 1343, 1454, 1457, 1487, 1506, 1509, 1512, 1515, 1641, 1703, 1717, 1864, 1881, 1896, 1949, 1974, 2029–2030, 2053–2065, 2221, 2281, 2289, 2291, 2418, 2525, 2578, 2642, 2737, 2816–2817, 2862, 2912, 2931, 2940, 2966 Montserrat, 2108, 2115, 2116, 2160 Morality, 263, 1230, 2164 Moral upbringing, 264 Morocco, 90, 122, 123, 124, 125, 536, 537, 539, 542, 858, 1051, 1054, 1055, 1056, 1058, 1059, 1064, 1065, 2091, 2108, 2160, 2839 Motivation, xv, xcix, cxxi, 25, 27, 51, 94, 116, 220, 224, 227, 228, 229, 241, 255, 257, 258, 324, 483, 493, 503, 511, 603, 604, 632, 646, 662, 669, 694, 745, 801, 871, 875, 974, 1031, 1194, 1251, 1263, 1291, 1294, 1333, 1343, 1363, 1374, 1385, 1473, 1556, 1568, 1622, 1741, 1773, 1807, 1839, 1884, 1888, 1936, 2028, 2049, 2231, 2234–2235, 2237, 2240, 2254, 2257, 2285, 2349, 2352, 2478, 2493, 2512, 2575, 2581, 2599, 2633, 2661, 2667, 2670, 2682, 2756, 2817, 2868, 2896, 2926 Mozambique, 537, 538, 542, 543, 1298, 1841, 1939, 2100, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2160, 2295, 2305, 2307, 2309, 2835
Subject Index Multicultural societies, 593 Myanmar, 525–526, 552, 565, 568, 573, 703–718, 2114, 2115, 2160, 2473, 2857
N Namibia, cxxviii, 90, 536, 537, 538, 543, 1939, 2114, 2160, 2853, 2904, 2905, 2908, 2909, 2911 National collaboration, 590, 738, 1844, 1959 National development, 42, 53, 103, 115, 116, 122, 123, 125, 257, 296, 388, 431, 436, 447, 464, 516, 551, 561, 600, 604, 751, 752, 763, 796, 824 n.6, 838, 869, 873, 885, 893, 903, 940, 945, 1047, 1048 n.6, 1102, 1322, 1936, 1960, 1961, 1986, 2045, 2390, 2398, 2522, 2545, 2585, 2587, 2591, 2899 National economic development, 922, 1916, 2253 National economy, cxiv, 124, 248, 253, 471, 475, 673, 961, 970, 1043, 1806, 2391, 2507 National literacy levels, 1259 National prosperity, 81, 611, 2521 National qualifications frameworks, 121, 365, 375, 376, 433, 440, 455, 456, 473, 521, 632, 700, 897–898, 961, 1017–1018, 1019, 1022, 1097, 1725, 1974, 1999, 2072, 2168, 2172, 2607, 2764, 2766, 2769, 2772–2774, 2795, 2798, 2803, 2804, 2853, 2867–2879, 2881, 2884, 2896, 2899–2914, 2917–2933, 2966 National standards, 166, 207, 220, 440, 446, 447, 491, 758, 775, 793, 895, 926, 1023, 1096, 1409, 1423, 1446, 1547, 1666 n.1, 1955, 2030, 2065 n.2, 2070, 2087, 2095, 2198, 2421, 2741, 2749, 2795, 2804, 2886, 2887, 2893, 2894, 2906, 2911, 2912, 2956 National teacher qualification standards, 1183, 1407–1410, 1412 National training authority, 907, 929–930, 1075, 1076, 1077, 1087, 1159, 1204, 1213, 1537, 1949, 2165, 2308 National training policies, 990 National training system, cxxviii, 540, 929, 930–931, 933, 934, 1076, 1155, 1162, 1207, 1969 n.1, 2091, 2263, 2541 National TVET strategies, 237, 245 Nauru, 2161 Needs assessment, cxxviii, cxxix, 286, 609, 611, 776, 783, 1880, 1885, 2029, 2672
3021 Nepal, 553, 565, 567, 568, 569, 572, 573, 749, 1924, 1931, 1932, 2042, 2045, 2116, 2160, 2473, 2474, 2857 Net enrolment rates, 2053, 2062, 2063 Netherlands, 151, 153, 154, 199, 377, 483–495, 501, 511 n.10, 585, 795, 908, 909, 910, 913, 1151, 1401, 1450, 1456, 1483, 1488, 1489, 1501, 1546, 1661, 1707, 1963, 1966, 2084, 2099, 2105, 2113, 2114, 2116, 2124, 2160, 2414 n.2, 2434, 2711 n.2, 2765, 2770, 2784, 2797, 2819, 2820, 2950 n.4 Netherlands Antilles, 2104, 2105, 2115, 2160 Networking, 47, 50, 55, 56, 309, 377, 429, 432, 434, 435, 480, 578, 691, 701, 1016, 1331, 1356, 1378, 1692, 1693, 1836, 1837, 1838, 1895, 1898, 1907, 1911, 1913, 1919, 1928, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1951, 1980, 1983, 1991, 1997, 2241, 2508, 2643, 2754, 2772, 2829, 2939 Network of National Academic Recognition Information Centres (NARIC), 592, 594 n.4, 1394, 2327 n.18, 2787, 2941 Networks, xiv, lxx, civ, 23, 46, 50, 55, 62, 82, 97, 106, 152, 168, 213, 224, 242, 283, 288 n.6, 300, 333, 339, 342, 352, 419, 420, 444, 475, 480, 554, 576, 584, 589, 590, 639, 642–643, 679, 733 n.7, 738, 784, 882, 883, 892, 903, 910–911, 927, 952, 977, 1133, 1166, 1262, 1313, 1329, 1341, 1369, 1375, 1394, 1413, 1485, 1488, 1496, 1543, 1587, 1687, 1689, 1690, 1691, 1698, 1811, 1837, 1848, 1896, 1904, 1929, 1961, 2188, 2200, 2241, 2305, 2318, 2360, 2366, 2382, 2410, 2440, 2491, 2528, 2542, 2564, 2588, 2604, 2615, 2617, 2757, 2831, 2949, 2961 New economic age, 203 New economy, lxix, 22–24, 25, 36, 81–82, 83, 87–89, 92, 203, 624, 749, 827, 1373, 1763, 1773 n.1, 1795, 1889 New educational models, 1936 New funding instruments, 1140 New learner markets, 962 New learning spaces, 241–242, 333–346 New organizational models, 83 New role of teachers, 1703 New technologies, lxxxvii, cxx, cxxviii, cxxxi, 82, 88, 116, 120, 152, 206, 237, 252, 255, 258, 298, 352, 387, 388, 413, 549, 554, 580, 590, 603, 626, 679, 727,
3022 New technologies (cont.) 772, 827, 831, 834, 902, 1131, 1191, 1214, 1232, 1266, 1369, 1486, 1597, 1645–1646, 1659, 1740, 1836, 1841, 1881, 1907, 1924, 1961, 1968, 1987, 2013, 2325, 2388, 2481, 2492, 2524, 2579, 2592, 2599, 2641, 2642, 2647, 2908 New Zealand, 98, 440, 448, 555, 557, 558, 559, 565, 923, 926, 989, 990, 1002, 1003, 1025, 1078, 1782, 1915, 1917, 1997, 2079, 2099, 2108, 2114, 2170, 2487, 2528, 2727, 2766, 2774–2775, 2797, 2799, 2803–2804, 2807, 2867, 2875, 2892, 2908, 2917, 2918, 2927, 2935–2950 Nicaragua, 773, 2100, 2101, 2121, 2160 Niger, 536, 537, 538, 2112, 2113, 2115, 2160 Nigeria, cxiii, cxix, 90, 192, 256, 773 n.4, 788, 789, 1077, 1079, 1080, 1082, 1086, 1778, 2112, 2113, 2160 Niue, 2161 Non-formal education, cxxi, 240, 247, 302–303, 311, 317, 321, 322, 500, 588, 611, 616, 709–710, 716, 722, 727, 828, 1296, 2028, 2034, 2044, 2047, 2050, 2053, 2055, 2059, 2074, 2163, 2171, 2419, 2506, 2543, 2587, 2602, 2605, 2606, 2788, 2816, 2902, 2907 Non-formal learning, 75, 235, 243, 308, 312, 313, 314, 315, 316, 317, 413, 423, 439, 1139, 1152, 1500, 1502, 2030, 2055, 2067, 2166, 2322, 2526, 2563, 2597, 2598, 2602, 2606, 2813, 2815, 2816, 2819, 2823 n.1, 2884 Non-governmental organizations, cxxi, cxxiii, cxxxi, 47, 248, 297, 490, 600, 609, 640, 644, 754, 783, 791, 813, 828, 855, 951, 1035, 1096, 1110, 1133, 1137, 1271, 1279–1280, 1545, 1979, 2389, 2440, 2441, 2561, 2719, 2723, 2739, 2901 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 99, 207, 2935 O Objectivism, 1850–1851 Occupational development, 1445, 1582, 2425, 2785 Occupational domains, 593, 1445, 1446, 1584 Occupational fields, lxxxii, xci, 41, 70, 184, 603, 1323, 1354, 1427, 1430, 1431, 1432, 1463, 1467, 1584, 1634, 1654, 1664, 1712, 1838, 1992, 2026, 2077, 2165, 2870, 2922, 2923
Subject Index Occupational health and safety, xii, 1182, 1383–1392 Occupational knowledge, 409, 1369, 1373, 1691, 1712, 1717 Occupational profiles, 157, 422, 475, 478, 484, 485, 1424, 1427, 1430, 1431, 1432, 1433, 1444, 1458, 1553, 1580, 1584, 1603, 1604, 1635, 1647, 1879, 2318, 2319 Occupational segregation, 113, 129, 132–133, 135, 184 Occupational skills, 51, 65, 157, 169, 192, 263, 292, 350, 353, 486, 655, 758, 817, 1167, 1185, 1251, 1256, 1425, 1538, 1585, 1634, 1665, 2055, 2178, 2182, 2189, 2190, 2192, 2218, 2221, 2771, 2913 Occupational standards, cv, 89, 238, 273, 472, 473, 478, 632, 654, 693, 694, 759, 985, 1542, 2651, 2723, 2782, 2785, 2786, 2787, 2802, 2868, 2878 n.2, 2885, 2891, 2903, 2955, 2960, 2966 Occupational structures, lxxv, 166, 592, 602, 603, 1458, 1553 Occupational training, xcii, 13, 171, 291, 295, 296, 298, 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 382–385, 489, 521, 1125, 1181, 1307, 1308, 1311, 1315, 1415, 1580, 1654, 2007, 2068, 2074, 2076, 2084, 2182, 2841 Occupation-related work, 1462 Older workers, cxiii, cxxi, 81, 89, 115, 165, 185, 419, 423, 759, 1139, 1142, 1143, 1145, 1917, 1993, 2377, 2378, 2381, 2383, 2387, 2389, 2392–2397, 2408, 2423, 2463–2467, 2471, 2475, 2499–2500, 2504, 2505, 2508, 2509, 2510, 2511, 2512, 2513, 2544, 2780, 2822, 2938 Oman, 90, 2160 One-day release, 2347 On-line learning, 761, 1842, 1847–1860, 1926, 1991, 2166, 2528, 2625 On-the-job training, xciv, xcv, 61, 70, 74, 132, 279, 281, 288 n.6, 300, 695, 743, 760, 855, 894, 1085, 1118, 1125, 1162, 1167, 1222, 1449, 1527, 1532 n.4, 1543, 1655, 1660, 1666, 2030, 2067, 2217, 2220, 2259, 2396, 2440, 2441, 2508, 2512, 2632, 2650, 2658, 2652, 2654 Open and distance learning, 200–201, 458, 584, 760, 1843, 1845, 1892,
Subject Index 1928, 1940, 1989–2000, 2421, 2734, 2896, 2940 Optimum learning experiences, 1711 Organizational readiness, 1880 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), xv, cvi, 53, 83, 85, 86, 100, 108, 132, 133, 136, 153, 154, 168, 336, 343, 412, 414, 443, 449, 450, 451, 501, 503, 511 n.3, 678, 679, 738, 908, 922, 927, 940, 947, 1047, 1048 n.6, 1051, 1052, 1053, 1055, 1058, 1137, 1155, 1157, 1186, 1259, 1260, 1263, 1408, 1472, 1473, 1486, 1544, 1548, 1631, 1666 n.1, 1760, 1763, 1791, 1792, 1794, 1798, 1908, 1966, 1967, 2031, 2041, 2055, 2058, 2065 n.1, 2067, 2068, 2070, 2071, 2073, 2074, 2075, 2076, 2077, 2078, 2079, 2079 n.2, 2081, 2083, 2087, 2115, 2197, 2199, 2214, 2296, 2321, 2322, 2325, 2327 n.30, 2379, 2381, 2401, 2406, 2407–2408, 2409, 2434, 2435, 2436, 2443, 2461, 2463, 2465, 2485 n.2, 2499, 2500, 2507, 2508, 2524, 2528, 2559, 2571, 2572, 2573, 2574, 2575, 2576, 2577, 2580, 2582 n.1, 2582 n.2, 2587, 2588, 2598, 2713, 2714, 2715, 2741, 2788, 2811, 2813, 2815, 2816, 2818, 2819, 2936 Outcome indicators, 2571, 2572 Outcomes-based system, 2804, 2878 Over-education, 1800, 2202, 2211–2226 P Pacific Association of Technical, Vocational Education and Training (PATVET), 753, 758, 763 Paid employment, 61, 175, 184, 241, 287, 320, 787, 1144, 1146, 1149, 1150, 1151, 1156, 1247, 2274, 2276, 2352 Pakistan, lxvi, 190, 549, 551, 553, 554, 555, 556, 557, 558, 559, 565, 567, 568, 569, 571, 572, 573, 749, 1049 n.14, 1924, 2041, 2160, 2427, 2473, 2857 Palau, 565, 567, 568, 569, 572, 2161 Palestine, 434, 771, 799–810, 832, 860 n.1 Palestinians, 771, 772–773, 799, 800, 801, 802, 803, 804, 805, 806, 807, 808, 809, 849–860, 860 n.1, 2160, 2797 Panama, 122, 123, 124, 383, 1303, 2101, 2104, 2113, 2115, 2160 Papua New Guinea, 565, 567, 568, 569, 572, 2114, 2115, 2161, 2473, 2857
3023 Paraguay, 386, 1079, 1108, 1114, 1303, 2101, 2160 Part-time education, 1158, 1164, 1989 Part-time employment, 131, 133, 1377, 2056 Part-time work, 131, 133–134, 137, 1145, 1151, 1656, 2270, 2494, 2501, 2502, 2513 Peace-building, 721, 835, 836 Pedagogical framework, 1765, 1842, 1847–1860 Pedagogical readiness, 1880 Performance indicators, 32, 678, 895, 964, 1006, 1008, 1013, 1015, 1024, 1095, 1113, 1458, 1563–1566, 1571, 2311 n.3, 2607, 2962, 2966 objective, 2687, 2688, 2844 Permanent change, 953, 1351, 1490 Personal development, xiv, 43, 344, 356, 413, 444, 587, 684, 737, 952, 1141, 1224, 1247, 1289, 1357, 1367, 1567, 1569, 1669, 1692, 1818, 1992, 2027, 2261, 2282, 2285, 2289, 2296, 2297, 2319, 2360, 2661, 2663, 2667, 2731, 2741, 2801, 2820, 2890, 2897, 2904 Personal experience, 22, 319, 321, 689, 823, 1613 Peru, 383, 384, 1079, 1080, 1108, 1114, 2078, 2101, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2160 Philippines, lvii, lviii, lxi, lxiii, lxvii, 122, 123, 191, 199, 259 n.2, 551, 552, 553, 555, 556, 557, 558, 565, 567, 568, 569, 570, 571, 572, 573, 749, 759, 1674, 1842, 1930, 1950, 2160, 2375, 2473, 2604, 2839, 2857, 2903, 2912 Physical assets, 1003, 1020–1021, 1083 Pilot projects, 448, 511, 587, 588, 590, 683, 741, 743, 744, 746, 1160, 1391, 1428, 1457, 1505–1517, 1603, 1678, 1906, 1908, 1930, 1982, 1984, 1995, 2585, 2631, 2634, 2649, 2724, 2726, 2727, 2845, 2847, 2968 Planning, xl, l, lv, lxi, lxii, lxx, lxxx, lxxxii, xcviii, 70, 127, 176, 323, 552–553, 706, 726, 751–753, 761, 771, 775–785, 886, 914–915, 918 n.1, 922, 924–925, 932, 939–957, 978, 983, 1004–1006, 1240, 1250, 1413, 1420, 1450–1451, 1476, 1513, 1683, 1702, 1703, 1786–1787, 1882–1883, 1915–1917, 1927, 2418, 2421, 2422, 2547, 2592, 2664, 2830, 2839, 2960
3024 Poland, 105, 154, 158, 412, 448, 585, 630, 631, 1660, 1840, 2099, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2161, 2797, 2958 Policy development, xiii, lxxix, cxxxiii, 20, 375, 414, 420, 453, 458, 499, 505, 508, 510, 753, 885, 887, 891–903, 908, 922, 961, 972, 998, 1140, 1736, 1843, 1880–1883, 2035, 2168, 2177, 2314, 2363, 2393, 2413, 2506–2507, 2649 formulation, 90, 92, 111, 112, 126, 303, 355, 704, 750, 869, 871, 872, 873, 874, 875, 883, 885, 891, 892, 893, 962, 1331, 1473, 2298, 2392–2393, 2414, 2429 instruments, 345, 414, 415, 416, 813, 819, 824, 1035, 1137, 1138, 1142, 1146, 1521 -makers, v, vii, ix, xiv, lxx, lxxvi, lxxix, lxxxi, cvi, 45, 54, 159, 167, 240, 274, 316, 317, 378, 417, 420, 433, 434, 445, 477, 499, 504, 506, 508, 509, 510, 517, 532, 554, 677, 827, 870, 878, 886, 891, 917, 939, 942, 986, 1037, 1183, 1472, 1485, 1587, 1653, 1777, 1791, 1835, 1949, 2029, 2035, 2086, 2178, 2182, 2205, 2229, 2236, 2311 n.3, 2313, 2314, 2345, 2506, 2513, 2546, 2589, 2713, 2714, 2726, 2727, 2875, 2876 -making, 50, 116, 136, 344, 397, 417, 449, 490, 506, 510, 516, 891–892, 894, 907, 1179, 1230, 1456, 1457, 1470, 1483, 1484, 1485, 1487, 1491, 1521, 1974, 2036 Political difficulties, 2917 Polytechnic education, 1675 Population growth, ci, 413, 565, 566, 567, 568, 571, 574, 783, 801, 925, 1044, 2039, 2402, 2418, 2449, 2942 Portable education programmes, 1836 Portugal, 158, 192, 199, 415, 585, 1303, 1840, 2099, 2101, 2161, 2414 n.2, 2815, 2818, 2822, 2827, 2839, 2900, 2950 n.4, 2950 n.6 Post-conflict countries, xiii, 767–773, 2587 Post-conflict reconstruction, 768, 773, 776, 792, 813 Post-conflict situations, x, cvi, 45, 48, 50, 771, 772, 775, 776, 793, 843, 849, 853, 857, 859, 860, 1993, 2028, 2050, 2170, 2197 Post-conflict society, 769, 771–772, 795, 813–824 Post-graduate education, 184, 1219
Subject Index Post-industrial society, lxxviii, xcii, 167, 170, 680, 1639 Post-secondary institutions, 30, 536, 2202, 2230, 2233, 2648, 2649 Post-secondary non-tertiary education, 2096 Post-secondary programmes, 20, 28, 29, 32, 2012, 2077 Poverty alleviation, v, 41, 42, 43, 45, 433, 518, 571–572, 577, 724, 1047, 1838, 1843–1844, 1923–1933, 2026–2027, 2401, 2417 reduction, cxxiii, cxxviii, cxxx, 111, 120, 123, 125, 126, 238, 261, 278, 288 n.2, 288 n.9, 288 n.12, 571, 721, 723, 731, 732, 767, 1036, 1039, 1041, 1045–1046, 1589, 1778, 1925–1932, 2027, 2361, 2522, 2524–2526, 2533, 2585–2594 Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP), 2585, 2586 Practical instructors, 1232, 1237 Practical learning, 1500, 1501, 1502, 1828, 2856 Practical training, cxxvi, cxxviii, 73, 74, 196, 255, 264, 281, 283, 475, 479, 484, 553, 625, 626, 627, 630, 631, 632, 633, 655, 689, 697, 1085, 1234, 1291, 1374, 1396, 1400, 1404, 1553, 1579, 1654, 2044, 2253, 2254, 2259, 2420, 2632, 2634, 2821 Practice -based experience, 1351, 1358, 1363 Pre-employment training, 67, 280, 894, 1031, 1105 Pre-service teacher training, 1181, 2009, 2010 Pre-service training, cxxi, 640, 1189 Pre-vocational courses, 65, 70, 1805, 1808, 1819, 2075 Primary education, lxix, lxxix, lxxx, xcix, cxix, cxxvi, 47, 86, 195, 239, 293, 380, 532, 542, 552, 638, 708, 715, 722, 753, 782, 813, 879, 884, 978, 1033, 1040, 1041, 1043, 1049 n.11, 1277, 1324, 1778, 1840, 1926, 2025, 2039, 2040, 2045, 2059, 2071, 2092, 2296, 2472, 2533, 2589, 2602, 2818, 2822, 2899, 2900, 2908, 2910 Prior learning, cv, 60, 63, 71, 75, 89, 241, 324, 368, 423, 445, 459, 479, 758, 759, 1012, 1018, 1019, 1211, 1213, 1881, 1992, 2168, 2171, 2526, 2597, 2598, 2600, 2601, 2602, 2603, 2604, 2606,
Subject Index 2607, 2609, 2610, 2647, 2653, 2663, 2669, 2783, 2784, 2786, 2794, 2808 n.3, 2814, 2820, 2821, 2871, 2879 n.10, 2893, 2895, 2902, 2905, 2913 Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR), cv, 70, 758–759, 2065 n.3, 2526, 2529, 2647–2659, 2659 n.1, 2659 n.6 Private education, 215, 334, 1055, 1056–1057, 1278, 2434 Private educational institutions, 334 Private financing, 1062, 1072, 1273, 1274 Private initiatives, 1282, 2956 Private institutions, cxxii, 137, 248, 256, 379, 383, 540, 541, 561, 643, 777, 801, 807, 899, 990, 995, 996, 1096, 1100, 1151, 1180, 1272, 1508, 1991, 2075, 2078, 2092, 2432, 2912, 2956, 2957 Private management, 1273, 1274, 1275, 1276, 1279 Private sector, lxxxi, lxxxii, lxxxiv, ci, civ, cxxvii, 42, 47, 105, 177, 204, 258, 366, 369, 427, 430, 458, 505, 518, 540, 552–553, 558, 619, 724, 732, 754, 796, 881, 899, 913, 984, 996, 1002, 1010, 1081, 1156, 1180, 1271–1282, 1293, 1312, 1549, 1750–1751, 1758, 1845, 1972, 1986, 2053, 2247, 2421, 2482, 2507, 2543, 2546, 2592, 2727, 2867, 2901 Private training providers, 70, 285, 777, 912, 1204, 2901 Privatization, 198, 336, 345, 370, 517, 518–521, 598, 600, 754, 984, 1313, 2247, 2442 Problem-solving, xcviii, xcix, 9, 14, 22, 24, 28, 30, 32, 36, 120, 167, 198, 209, 252, 323, 342, 345, 594, 668, 711, 941, 1250, 1325, 1343, 1352, 1355, 1357, 1361, 1465, 1567, 1586, 1618, 1620, 1621, 1643, 1682, 1707, 1711, 1712, 1734, 1780, 1789, 1808, 1813, 1819, 1850, 1858, 1860, 1927, 1961, 2179, 2247, 2267, 2287, 2306, 2395, 2636, 2665, 2671, 2689, 2697, 2715, 2727, 2736, 2739, 2877, 2894 Procedural knowledge, 1335, 1341, 1345, 1352, 1353, 1355, 1357, 1359, 1595, 1769, 1770 Process knowledge, 1193–1194, 1196, 1198, 1236, 1432, 1435 n.9, 1451, 1465, 1554, 1555, 1557, 1558, 1584, 1586, 1593–1607, 1623, 1634, 1681, 1692
3025 Productive work, ix, lxx, 45, 64, 112, 113, 170, 193, 1531, 2025, 2043, 2045, 2177, 2267, 2423, 2428, 2457 Professional competence, lxxxix, 250, 1222, 1224, 1225, 1291, 1351–1354, 1358, 1359, 1364, 1426, 1451–1452, 1464, 1465, 1466, 1517, 1555, 1583, 1585, 1743, 2000, 2860 Professional development, 33, 36, 37, 63, 67, 179, 212, 213, 256, 424, 738, 744, 746, 759, 762, 1177, 1182, 1183, 1203, 1209–1215, 1238, 1290, 1333, 1336–1338, 1369, 1374, 1378, 1380, 1407–1422, 1432, 1587, 1687, 1694, 1710, 1823, 1928, 1962, 1978, 1983–1984, 2010, 2014, 2190, 2324, 2489, 2493, 2496, 2511, 2742, 2841, 2845, 2849, 2927, 2928 Professional development strategy, 1333, 1369, 2494 Professional identity, 490, 492, 493, 494, 594, 1427, 1485, 1489, 1674, 2711 n.4 Professionalization of teachers, 1185, 1198 Professional learning, 1182, 1190, 1351–1364, 1542, 1693, 1697 Professional practice, 1176, 1178, 1185, 1192, 1193, 1229, 1351, 1354, 1357, 1462, 1692, 2623, 2734 Professional requirements, 1176, 1225, 1289, 2786, 2842, 2846 Professional status, 253, 1186, 1228, 1999 Professional tasks, 1181, 1194, 1352, 1359, 1363, 1430, 1431, 1432, 1433, 1452, 1466, 1580, 1585, 2422 Profile education, 1810 Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA), cv, 895, 1157, 1465, 1758, 1760, 2064, 2572, 2579, 2588, 2713, 2715, 2728 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), 2714 Public education, cxx, cxxii, cxxxii, 13, 20, 21, 142, 280, 333, 334, 335, 345, 370, 422, 501, 507, 532, 533, 542, 883, 1099, 1407, 1657, 1755, 1796, 2180, 2181, 2182, 2184, 2190, 2609, 2819, 2958 Public financing, cxx, cxxviii, 777, 1062, 1273, 1274, 1276 Public funding, 335, 447, 476, 601, 879, 883, 915, 924, 995, 996, 997, 1005, 1006, 1008, 1010, 1023, 1025, 1100, 1140, 1151, 1155, 1168, 1204, 1544, 1659, 2440, 2900
3026 Public institutions, 465, 542, 801, 880, 898, 901, 906, 912, 996, 1002, 1100, 1101, 1167, 1189, 1191, 1233, 1308, 1312, 1454, 1659, 1749, 1750, 2092, 2668, 2954, 2963 Public investment, 533, 1140, 1151, 1282, 2214 Public policy, 211–212, 213, 296, 333, 337, 365, 382, 517, 645, 882, 899, 918, 995, 1029, 2177, 2178, 2187, 2190, 2211, 2214, 2409, 2505, 2512, 2523, 2768, 2936 Public sector training provision, 1076 Q Qatar, 2114, 2118, 2119, 2120, 2121, 2160 Qualification(s) frameworks, xcviii, cxxxii, 121, 365, 375, 421, 433, 439, 440, 441, 442, 443, 446, 448, 450, 451, 452 n.2, 473, 521, 631, 700, 758, 759, 897, 898, 926, 1017, 1019, 1022, 1726, 1736, 2072, 2168, 2172, 2603, 2607, 2742, 2764, 2769, 2773, 2795, 2798, 2800, 2806, 2853, 2869, 2870, 2877, 2883, 2886, 2896, 2902, 2908, 2912, 2913, 2917, 2919, 2930, 2966 requirements, 1458, 1580, 2913 requirements, 156, 296, 593, 621, 627, 1066, 1431, 1446, 1451, 1464, 1553, 1556, 1580, 1673, 1681, 1683, 2630, 2754, 2755, 2757, 2811 research, cxxvii, 1458, 1553–1560, 1583, 1584, 1628, 1629–1630, 1634, 1636, 1637 n.2, 1681 Qualified labour, 599, 1143, 2249, 2252, 2765 Qualified workers, 599, 699, 980, 1108, 1124, 1538, 2589, 2605, 2640, 2657 Quality assurance, viii, cxxiii, 51, 89, 368, 375, 416, 446, 447, 474, 491, 607, 740, 888, 897, 899, 922, 926–927, 999, 1016, 1095, 1167, 1395, 1453–1454, 1524, 1600, 2261, 2491, 2610, 2766, 2775, 2804, 2854, 2858, 2892, 2905, 2906, 2923, 2930, 2953–2969 control, 269, 310, 447, 491, 601, 910, 1204, 1598, 1607, 1656, 1950, 2481, 2801, 2841, 2842, 2957, 2958–2960, 2965, 2968 -control system, 910 of life, 55, 84, 111, 229, 353, 547, 566, 616, 682, 726, 948, 1047, 1092, 1113, 1474, 1530, 1680, 1782, 1836, 1929, 1935, 2034, 2051, 2314, 2418, 2425,
Subject Index 2504, 2506, 2512, 2523, 2554, 2556, 2557, 2559, 2675, 2860, 2896 R Racial inequities, 453 Rapidly ageing society, 2431, 2457–2458 Recognition of competences, 2780, 2812, 2815, 2819 Recognition of qualifications, cv, 69, 423, 436, 440, 448, 592, 1394, 2765, 2766, 2767, 2775, 2795, 2823 n.6, 2889, 2935, 2939, 2941, 2943, 2944, 2948 Redefining occupations, 163–164, 167–170 Reflective practitioner, 486, 1198, 1555 Reform measures, 710, 977, 1506, 1508 Refugees, 99, 225, 575, 769, 784, 788, 789, 790, 800, 801, 803, 805, 821, 824 n.9, 836, 837, 838, 841, 842, 849, 850, 851, 1993, 1994, 2170, 2361, 2942 Regional co-operation, 365, 371, 374, 375, 411, 424, 428, 429, 435, 436, 489, 562, 580, 634, 1939, 2772 Regional government, lxxxii, 37, 474, 603, 697, 921, 922–927, 1062, 2727 Regional integration, 375, 411, 412, 427–436 Regional mechanisms, 2772, 2854, 2864 Regional needs, 921, 922, 924, 925, 966, 1786, 2203, 2249 Regional Programme for Enterprise Development (RPED), cxxiv Republic of Korea, lxxvii, lxxx, lxxxi, 46, 98, 191, 195, 196, 198, 199, 525, 548, 549, 550, 552, 556, 557, 558, 561, 565, 567, 568, 572, 573, 576, 580, 673–687, 749, 899, 1042, 1241 n.2, 1321, 1791, 1904–1906, 1924, 1926, 1927, 2046, 2068, 2075, 2084, 2086, 2088, 2109, 2112, 2160, 2214, 2217, 2220, 2224, 2379–2381, 2431–2443, 2457–2467, 2473, 2474, 2544, 2827, 2857, 2865 Republic of Moldova, 2099, 2161 Research associations, 1536, 1538, 1542, 1545, 1546, 2567 n.1 database, 1844, 1947–1957 and development, xcviii, 46, 51, 66, 417, 433, 461, 471, 504, 511 n.10, 577, 611, 679, 915, 973, 1325, 1410, 1411, 1423, 1435, 1452, 1453, 1463, 1466, 1469, 1484, 1514, 1521, 1542, 1546, 1596, 1688, 1795, 1914, 1949, 1978, 1986, 2048, 2089, 2171, 2390, 2407, 2478, 2482, 2629, 2631, 2860, 2861, 2932
Subject Index methodologies, 1286, 1485, 1486, 1487, 2845 methods, xi, 227, 326, 328, 747, 1226, 1227, 1286, 1327, 1328, 1330, 1355, 1357, 1410, 1456, 1461–1462, 1463, 1466, 1467, 1485, 1486, 1487, 1512, 1513, 1540, 1825, 2279, 2560, 2716, 2845 organizations, 419, 1458, 1474, 1535–1550, 1952, 2253, 2344, 2604, 2959 Responsible autonomy, 1644–1645, 1651 Responsible citizenship, 41, 43, 44, 747, 1838, 2026, 2165 Retirees, 2394, 2431, 2434, 2546 Retirement, 413, 684, 1142, 1143, 1144, 1145, 1146, 1149, 1150, 1152, 2273, 2380, 2381, 2382, 2383, 2389, 2407, 2408, 2434, 2458, 2461, 2463, 2464, 2466, 2467, 2469, 2470, 2471, 2472, 2474, 2477, 2484, 2487, 2492, 2495, 2499, 2500–2505, 2509, 2510, 2511, 2529, 2540, 2541, 2647 Re-training, xcvii, cv, 478, 580, 600, 604, 634, 701 n.3, 712, 1222, 1367, 1739, 1870, 2316, 2492, 2544, 2883, 2891 Revenue generation, 1075, 1076, 1079 Right to education, 574, 1302, 1305, 2039, 2169, 2524 Role of research, 1456–1457, 1471, 1483–1491, 2413 Romania, 451, 586, 591, 630, 2099, 2116, 2249, 2250, 2251, 2255, 2258, 2260, 2262 n.5, 2775, 2953–2969 Rural areas, cxviii, cxxii, cxxiii, cxxvi, 98, 99, 278, 284, 288, 292, 299, 303, 307, 350, 524, 532, 551, 552, 566, 574, 575, 576, 609, 610, 611, 644, 647 n.4, 700, 705, 706, 709, 714, 718, 723, 724, 725, 731, 752, 755, 756–757, 915, 971, 983, 984, 1098, 1231, 1279, 1674, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1928, 1929, 1932, 1972, 1973, 1979, 1980, 1990, 1991, 1997, 2042, 2047, 2074, 2082, 2090, 2417, 2418, 2422, 2426, 2540, 2585, 2590, 2591 Rural communities, 265, 524, 609–617, 722, 723, 841, 915, 1993 Rural development, 526, 721–733, 762, 824 n.9, 1843–1844, 1923–1933 Rural labour market, 725 Rural populations, 724, 1929, 1931, 1979, 2424, 2425, 2478, 2591 Rural transformation, 562
3027 Russian Federation, lxxxii, 376–377, 469–480, 525, 689–701, 1178, 1219–1228, 1285, 1287, 1289, 1319, 1739, 1805, 1810, 1818, 1915, 2060, 2099, 2114, 2161 Rwanda, 90, 288 n.12, 832, 2043, 2160 S Safety equipment, 1387 Saint Kitts and Nevis, 2108, 2160 Saint Lucia, 2100, 2115, 2160 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 2100, 2104, 2160 Samoa, 2115, 2116, 2161 San Marino, 2161 Sao Tome and Principe, 2160 Saudi Arabia, 90, 2160, 2839 School-based management, 905 School-based programmes, 1655, 1656, 1657, 1795 School/industry links, 549, 553, 554 School-leavers, 157, 192, 194, 195, 236, 272, 278, 373, 469, 610, 611, 615, 709, 981, 996, 1005, 1006, 1011, 1033, 1037, 1204, 1603, 2203, 2264, 2268, 2269, 2298, 2306, 2307, 2310, 2320, 2322, 2345, 2423, 2586, 2592, 2867, 2941 School management, 490, 494, 495, 653, 1237, 1238, 1489 School-to-work transition, lxx, cvi, 36, 335, 337, 373, 516, 755, 1187, 1449, 1450, 1501, 1532 n.5, 1536, 1542, 1797, 1801, 2276, 2332, 2360 Science in the workplace, 1589, 1764, 1768–1770, 1773 Scientific communities, 1444, 1455, 1458, 1535–1550, 1560, 1583 Scientific monitoring, 1457, 1505, 1506, 1507, 1508, 1509, 1510, 1511, 1512, 1513, 1514, 1515, 1517 Scientific objectivity, 1507, 1580 Scotland, xcii, 11, 12, 440, 898, 918 n.2, 1191, 1371, 1541, 1628, 1840, 1997, 2354 n.1, 2766, 2773, 2797, 2799, 2800–2801, 2806, 2878 n.1, 2882, 2883, 2884, 2886, 2889, 2890, 2892, 2895, 2896, 2918, 2919, 2920, 2929, 2932 Secondary education, xi, xvi, xvii, lxxx, lxxxii, lxxxiii, xcix, ci, cxix, cxxi, cxxvi, 27, 32, 33, 34, 66, 75, 86, 168, 192, 194, 293, 298, 350, 380, 386, 394, 402, 405, 469, 481 n.1, 532, 552, 589, 606, 639, 647 n.2, 647 n.10, 722, 740, 800, 901, 978, 980, 981, 1019, 1044, 1049 n.11,
3028 Secondary education (cont.) 1187, 1237, 1272, 1277, 1301, 1319, 1590, 1756, 1778, 1805–1819, 1972, 1990, 2033, 2048, 2064, 2103, 2114, 2184, 2234, 2248, 2295–2311, 2330–2332, 2538, 2606, 2723, 2813, 2818, 2844, 2900, 2908, 2928, 2955, 2956, 2984 Secondary level, lxxx, lxxxiii, xcix, 19, 63, 191, 194, 197, 380, 394, 401, 481 n.1, 517, 518, 519, 520, 527, 536, 537, 541, 543, 548, 559, 639, 704, 711, 735, 738, 820, 947, 983, 1126, 1288, 1321, 1322, 1323, 1324, 1506, 1654, 1778, 1840, 1841, 1994, 2003, 2013, 2033, 2073, 2075, 2097, 2101, 2111, 2118, 2225, 2249, 2298, 2543, 2818, 2950 n.6 Secondary programmes, 20, 28, 29, 32, 33, 549, 2012, 2077, 2087 Secondary vocational education, lxxxii, 196, 404, 481 n.1, 517–518, 599, 649, 650, 978, 982, 1231, 1237, 1796, 2084, 2108, 2113, 2249, 2537 Second-language mastery, 1588 Self-directed learning, xi, 60, 65, 321, 322, 326, 355, 412, 493, 660, 671, 1264, 1374, 1426, 1807, 1884, 2167, 2511, 2527–2528, 2615–2626 Self-employment, xv, cxiii, cxx, cxxi, cxxiii, cxxvii, 51, 113, 130, 164, 178, 238–239, 265, 277–288, 300, 380, 385, 390 n.5, 558, 704, 727, 759, 783, 839, 842, 1095, 1421, 1926, 1927–1928, 1932, 2092, 2297, 2305, 2361, 2363–2364, 2378, 2381, 2412, 2466, 2470, 2475, 2479, 2513 Self-fulfilment, 473, 2385, 2389, 2398 Self-reliance, 44, 108, 190, 256, 840, 1701, 1702, 2387, 2557 Self-reliant learning, 1421, 1699, 1702, 1704, 1705, 1706, 1710 Senegal, xcvii, cxiv, cxix, 47, 90, 534, 536, 538, 539, 541, 542, 543, 704, 1051, 1054, 1055, 1056, 1057, 1059, 1065, 1937, 2039, 2045, 2091, 2121, 2160, 2412 Senior secondary vocational education, 649, 650, 982 Serbia and Montenegro, 2161 Seychelles, 90, 534, 536, 539, 1939, 1940, 2108, 2116, 2160 Shaping-orientation, 1502 Shortages of teachers, 559, 1223, 2298, 2927
Subject Index Short-term employment, 794, 795, 796 Short-term skills training, 277, 279 Sierra Leone, 90, 263, 772, 788, 790, 827–834, 835–846, 2160, 2899 Singapore, cxxix, cxxxi, 196, 198, 565, 567, 568, 569, 570, 572, 573, 580, 704, 711, 1076, 1699, 1924, 1927, 2160, 2388, 2473, 2474, 2538, 2829, 2839, 2857, 2875 Situated learning, 224, 227, 242, 346, 509, 1360, 1362, 1363, 1367, 1372, 1429, 1581, 1585, 1586, 1601, 1611–1623, 1670, 1854, 2363 Situated learning opportunities, 1367 Skill acquisition, 209, 267, 269, 274, 886, 921, 946, 1030, 1802, 1848, 1850, 2280, 2284, 2675 Skill development, 5, 72, 116, 149, 177, 180, 185, 191, 199, 488, 553, 558, 686, 710, 754, 757, 880, 1185, 1253, 1639, 1640, 1641, 1646, 1647, 1650, 1741, 1918, 1924, 1952, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2014, 2178, 2179, 2183, 2189, 2192, 2401, 2408, 2425, 2478–2480, 2510, 2512, 2571, 2753, 2773 Skill domains, 2714, 2715 Skilled labour, lxxxi, lxxxix, 6, 43, 257, 453, 454, 531, 752, 787, 791, 795, 796, 804, 808, 814, 816, 896, 1445, 1446, 1450, 1640, 1641, 1642, 1649, 1662, 2213, 2305, 2487, 2533, 2647, 2656, 2723, 2726, 2774, 2907, 2949 Skilled personnel, 82, 549, 655, 961, 1476, 1648, 1997 Skilled workers, lxxxi, lxxxix, xciii, cxxiv, cxxvii, cxxix, 11, 23, 24, 84, 86, 87, 89, 93, 100, 116, 168, 171, 194, 245, 413, 431, 555, 649, 655, 713, 980, 981, 1039, 1077, 1125, 1232, 1424, 1427, 1449, 1497, 1538, 1553, 1598, 1599, 1600, 1631, 1633, 1640, 1648, 1662, 1676, 1709, 1755, 1814, 1916, 1994, 2077, 2177, 2212, 2423, 2521, 2633, 2648, 2658 Skilled workforce, 86, 196, 213, 557, 651, 656, 678, 751, 1424, 1640, 1881, 1984, 2031, 2178, 2263, 2264, 2275, 2488, 2533, 2541, 2542, 2658, 2897 Skill formation, lxxviii, xcii, 164, 185, 242, 259 n.1, 345, 346, 879, 1213, 1243, 1244, 1729–1730, 2811 Skill levels, cxix, 112, 166, 219, 351, 386, 878, 880, 902, 1143, 1587, 1639, 1640,
Subject Index 1645, 1646, 1648, 1743, 1889, 2462, 2671, 2720, 2726, 2765, 2803, 2805, 2831, 2883 Skill requirements, cxx, cxxxiii, 88, 89, 92, 121, 147–159, 167, 179, 210, 680, 870, 880, 897, 908, 945, 1380, 1648, 1807, 2071, 2232, 2504, 2505, 2508, 2720, 2726, 2871, 2876 Skills competition, 2827, 2828, 2831, 2837 Skill shortages, 72, 413, 756, 760, 931, 2263, 2445, 2453, 2454, 2488, 2492, 2526, 2658, 2723 Skills market, 411 Skills recognition, 413, 2766, 2774 Skills training, cxx, cxxiii, cxxv, cxxviii, 44, 112, 126, 238, 254, 277, 278, 279, 284–287, 288 n.1, 288 n.4, 288 n.9, 294–296, 298, 517, 522, 558, 617, 715, 724, 732, 817, 818, 822, 828, 835, 839–843, 846, 1038, 1046, 1049 n.14, 1094, 1208, 1237, 1272, 1845, 1927, 1989–2000, 2050, 2078, 2088, 2178, 2182, 2190, 2204, 2308, 2310, 2529, 2545, 2633, 2635, 2666, 2726, 2773, 2828 Skills-training needs, 725, 2773 Skill training, 88, 189, 191, 199, 264, 269, 722, 725, 728, 730, 731, 753, 756, 880, 946, 957, 1972, 2055, 2424, 2586, 2773 Slovakia, 585, 2099, 2114, 2116, 2161 Slovenia, 105, 154, 158, 585, 630, 631, 1840, 2099, 2109, 2110, 2115, 2116, 2161, 2953, 2958 Small business development, 914, 1093 Small businesses, cxxii, cxxiii, cxxviii, cxxxi, cxxxii, 126, 300, 301, 333, 380, 558, 611, 614, 780, 791, 833, 914, 1034, 1093, 1094, 1107–1120, 1278, 1346, 1925, 1926, 1932, 2047, 2334, 2360, 2362, 2363–2364, 2365, 2381, 2435, 2436, 2441, 2470, 2483, 2513, 2559, 2560, 2561, 2567 n.1, 2587, 2609 Social change, 93, 161, 164, 263, 278, 464, 832, 978, 1640, 1792, 1813, 2316, 2542, 2662, 2773, 2800 Social cohesion, lxxvii, 45, 84, 86, 89, 111, 220, 230, 336, 371, 583, 590, 605, 721, 749, 753, 783, 996, 1029, 1035, 1036, 1139, 1142, 1260, 1261, 1726, 1892, 2320, 2321, 2522, 2524, 2533, 2571, 2577, 2578, 2941 Social constructivism, 1614–1616, 2683
3029 Social development, lxx, lxxvii, 26, 85, 105, 115, 117, 122, 150, 196, 257, 334, 384, 473, 547, 552, 575, 631, 645, 647 n.4, 649, 653, 654, 655, 694, 704, 721, 767, 878, 885, 906, 939, 980, 996, 1093, 1096, 1165, 1166, 1229, 1281, 1435, 1538, 1612, 1678, 1889, 1973, 2027, 2280, 2443, 2521, 2523, 2725, 2728 n.2 Social development policies, 878 Social dialogue, 89, 93, 112, 114, 115, 121, 122, 336, 472, 478, 622, 623, 624, 626, 627–629, 633, 686, 692, 693, 694, 917, 1293, 1296, 1297, 1303, 1304, 1451, 2326 n.3 Social exclusion, 87, 100–101, 165, 170, 299, 333, 344, 345, 370, 589, 1123, 1139, 1143, 1165, 1793, 1975, 2247, 2314, 2521, 2661 Social inclusion, 84, 297, 336, 337, 344, 345, 413, 420, 424, 464, 1126, 1128, 1137, 1138, 1142, 1159, 1187, 1304, 1305, 1729, 1792, 1796, 2027, 2035, 2522, 2600 Social interaction, lxxiv, lxxvi, 949, 1339, 1357, 1594, 1601, 1604, 1616, 1695, 1825, 1851, 1854, 2642, 2680 Socialization, lxxvii, 17 n.12, 47, 89, 238, 261, 262, 263, 267, 269, 270, 310, 335, 665, 670, 893, 1124, 1264, 1281, 1446, 1451, 1527, 1557, 1580, 1658, 1681, 1683, 1735, 1754, 1764, 1793, 1826, 1828, 2281, 2284, 2288, 2290, 2801 Social justice, 36, 138, 141, 142, 200, 320, 831, 882, 883, 1040, 1048 n.3, 1304, 1312, 1315, 1726, 1727, 1734, 1735, 1736, 1975, 2423, 2525, 2549, 2557, 2600, 2662, 2674, 2740, 2904 Socially disadvantaged citizens, 198, 199, 298, 385, 756, 1180, 1994, 2466 Social participation, 124, 338, 767–773, 922, 1139, 1784, 2499 Social partners, 415, 507, 695 Social partnerships, 52, 241–242, 308–310, 333–346, 356, 472, 473, 478, 479, 524, 602, 619–635, 692, 693, 695, 1036, 2200–2201, 2207, 2357–2367, 2523, 2553–2567, 2604, 2609, 2954, 2960, 2966 Social security, 112, 114, 115, 122, 124, 163, 172, 469, 604, 624, 628, 654, 690, 1061, 1068, 1070, 1071, 1072, 1079, 1080, 1144, 1146, 1149, 1276, 1297, 1889, 2257, 2381, 2405, 2410, 2417,
3030 Social security (cont.) 2431, 2464, 2474, 2475, 2502, 2511, 2666, 2936, 2939, 2942, 2943, 2949 Social software, 1587, 1687, 1693, 1694, 1695, 1696, 1697, 1698, 1837, 1967 Social status, ix, lxx, lxxiii, 42, 162, 163, 165, 192, 413, 723, 946, 947, 978, 980, 1128, 1230, 1231, 1792, 1930, 2166, 2365, 2474 Social sustainability, 235, 336, 581, 708, 2167, 2199, 2200, 2358 Social welfare, 281, 297, 338, 366, 644, 647 n.5, 683, 710, 715, 824 n.9, 1130, 1231, 1653, 2388, 2441, 2463, 2464, 2484 Social well-being, 384, 1260, 2313, 2524, 2545, 2549, 2559, 2572, 2838, 2896 Societal changes, 810, 860 Societal needs, 462, 1176, 2547 Socio-cultural context, 349, 351, 354, 355, 1268, 1305, 1359, 2608 Socio-cultural goals, 2296 Socio-economic development, ix, lxx, 45, 46, 197, 350, 385, 420, 575, 610, 914, 983, 2047, 2319, 2482, 2575, 2674, 2855 Solomon Islands, 749, 2161 Somalia, 2160 South Africa, ci, cxiv, cxviii, cxix, 66, 73, 90, 193, 288 n.12, 376, 453–466, 536, 540, 542, 887, 897, 898, 910, 926, 961–974, 1034, 1079, 1081, 1083, 1086, 1091–1105, 1108, 1262, 1263, 1410, 1589–1590, 1777–1789, 1841, 1845, 1939, 1941, 1971–1987, 1997, 2091, 2099, 2160, 2600, 2605, 2766, 2773, 2796, 2797, 2800, 2804–2805, 2807, 2868, 2875, 2878 n.3, 2878 n.9, 2879 n.15, 2904–2905, 2912, 2919, 2922, 2927, 2929, 2942 South-East Asian Ministers for Education Organization (SEAMEO), xcviii, 1951 South-East Europe, 2247, 2256 Southern African Development Community (SADC), 1378, 1939, 1940, 1941, 2853, 2865, 2878 n.3, 2904, 2906–2907 South Pacific Board for Educational Assessment (SPBEA), 2854 Spain, 156, 192, 199, 415, 443, 585, 682, 1051, 1053, 1056, 1059, 1060, 1063, 1068, 1072, 1303, 1424, 1425, 1426, 2099, 2101, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2161, 2291 n.2, 2414 n.2, 2417, 2797, 2827, 2839, 2950 n.4
Subject Index Special education, 72, 2035, 2036, 2177, 2179, 2180, 2184–2187, 2188, 2237, 2255, 2348, 2423, 2440, 2954, 2957 Specialized teachers, lxxxiii, 799, 807, 1189, 1232, 1237 Sri Lanka, 193, 246, 556, 565, 567, 568, 569, 570, 572, 575, 773, 773 n.2, 1782, 2078, 2079, 2160, 2473, 2474, 2857 Staff development, 753, 900, 911, 999, 1001, 1208, 1210, 1213–1214, 1370, 1374, 1378, 1881, 1966, 2256, 2343, 2350, 2492, 2635, 2662, 2927, 2929 Staff management, 1003, 1012–1014 Stakeholder involvement, 449, 472, 949, 952, 2922 Stakeholder roles, 1485 Standard of living, ix, lxx, cxxvii, 42, 215, 315, 353, 616, 723, 1728, 1915, 1923, 1991, 2212, 2402, 2524 Standards-based approach, 2773, 2884, 2896 Statistical monitoring, 442, 2053 Strategic planning, 44, 209, 212, 897, 915, 941, 955, 999, 1005, 1006, 1015, 1882–1883, 2267 Strategic readiness, 1880 Structural changes, cxiii, cxx, 120, 164, 176, 205, 208, 210, 211, 215, 377, 470, 480, 493, 508, 1098, 1144, 1311, 1315, 1431, 1458, 1683, 2438, 2623, 2954 Student achievement, 27, 402, 1017, 2012, 2180, 2182, 2186, 2234, 2236, 2240, 2241, 2242, 2243, 2959, 2963 Student-centred learning, 717, 1021, 2954 Student diversity, 1589, 1739, 1743–1745 Student management, 999, 1001, 1003, 1011–1012, 1017, 1239, 1421, 1865, 1870–1872 Sudan, 771–772, 776, 777, 790, 813–824, 824 n.1, 824 n.2, 824 n.3, 824 n.5, 824 n.6, 824 n.8, 824 n.9, 2160 Supply and demand, 147, 149, 150, 152, 155, 156, 157, 158, 163, 168, 196, 375, 411, 439, 443, 444, 494, 599, 631, 695, 943, 947, 949, 1004, 1976, 2029, 2091, 2203, 2383, 2389, 2438, 2453, 2455, 2509, 2955 Supply-driven model, 620–622, 1962 Suriname, 2100, 2104, 2105, 2113, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2119, 2121, 2160 Sustainable development, xi, xii, xiii, xvi, lxix, lxxvii, lxxx, 41, 42, 44, 46, 48–50, 55, 73, 84, 111, 127, 201, 314, 367, 518, 547, 565, 581, 611, 708, 721, 725, 752,
Subject Index 831, 855, 982, 1038–1039, 1040, 1047, 1048 n.5, 1048 n.6, 1310, 1389, 1778, 1812, 1879, 1924, 1943, 2026, 2027, 2051, 2197–2198, 2202, 2207, 2276, 2357, 2367, 2476, 2523, 2553–2567, 2581, 2597, 2674 Sustainable development approach, 1040 Sustainable economic growth, 84, 583, 1039, 1973, 2431, 2522, 2592 Sustainable infrastructure, 1045 Sustainable rural development, 727, 729 Sustenance, 111, 299 Swaziland, 704, 1939, 2100, 2160, 2853 Syrian Arab Republic, 2160 T Taipei-China, 1924, 1927 Taiwan, 98, 195, 580, 704, 711 Tajikistan, 52, 2099, 2106, 2160 Tanzania, cxviii, cxix, cxxvi, 90, 109, 117, 288 n.12, 897, 1076, 1080, 1081, 1939, 2090, 2160, 2302, 2304, 2310 n.1, 2853, 2907 Taylorism, 204, 1593, 1641, 1642, 1643, 1644, 1662, 1663, 1666, 2699, 2778 Teacher education, x, xvi, ciii, 9, 16, 34, 55, 200, 428, 559, 903, 985, 1179, 1185, 1188, 1189, 1196, 1198, 1220, 1234, 1237, 1241, 1319, 1323–1327, 1359, 1361, 1425, 1434, 1435, 1458, 1549, 1830, 1831, 1838, 1940, 1984, 2008–2010, 2012–2013, 2231, 2237, 2350, 2420 preparation, 12, 29, 1181, 1189, 1190, 1192, 1323, 1370, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2531, 2731 qualifications, 511 n.9, 701, 1183, 1219, 1230, 1231, 1236, 1407–1422 recruitment, 370, 984, 1189, 1192 shortages, 2012, 2013 training, xiii, lxxxiii, ciii, 9, 10, 13, 17 n.6, 212, 296, 303, 423, 558–559, 656, 710, 732, 741, 753, 854, 870, 1177, 1178, 1180, 1182, 1186, 1194, 1198, 1209–1210, 1219–1228, 1238, 1285–1292, 1319–1331, 1371, 1393–1405, 1413, 1418, 1423–1435, 1538, 1542, 1841, 1928, 1984, 2009, 2255, 2299, 2421, 2586, 2706, 2741, 2913, 2957, 2960 Teaching methods, 24, 27, 214, 240, 309, 548, 557, 715, 716, 802, 949, 1188, 1189, 1221, 1227, 1289, 1323, 1326, 1374, 1452–1454, 1452, 1484, 1540, 1547,
3031 1620, 1655, 1657, 1707, 1742, 1814, 1830, 1993, 2190, 2243, 2349, 2673, 2698, 2706, 2707 Teaching workforce, 1205, 1211, 2489 Teamwork, 198, 216, 409, 556, 659, 668, 669, 761, 762, 1602, 1651, 1707, 1712, 1780, 1860, 1913, 2027, 2241, 2254, 2267, 2636, 2637, 2638, 2715, 2726 Technical and Vocational Education for All (TVETA), 1926, 1933, 2425–2427 Technical difficulties, 2926 Technical education, vii, lxxvii, xciii, xciv, ciii, cxxi, 11, 12, 15, 17 n.11, 28, 41, 60, 62, 73, 75, 132, 133, 136, 137, 140–141, 142, 191, 194, 200, 298, 334, 350, 373–374, 393–409, 518, 532, 553, 577, 640, 712, 806, 819, 820, 932, 977, 981, 1066, 1131, 1186, 1237, 1277, 1319, 1324, 1443, 1543, 1545–1546, 1654, 1845–1846, 1927, 2003–2015, 2054, 2058, 2177, 2182–2184, 2202–2203, 2229–2243, 2297, 2360, 2425, 2487, 2491, 2543, 2549, 2592, 2667, 2716, 2858, 2903, 2928 Technical readiness, 1880 Technical and vocational education and training, vii, ix–xvii, lxix, lxxvii–lxxviii, lxxxii, 19–38, 41–56, 59, 62, 66, 73, 75, 81, 84, 92, 111, 123, 189, 236, 277, 333, 433, 515, 526, 535, 565, 619, 640, 660, 721–733, 814, 849, 869, 891, 905, 921, 936 n.4, 977, 1029–1036, 1039, 1048 n.2, 1048 n.5, 1155–1168, 1175–1184, 1185, 1203, 1271, 1285, 1319, 1360, 1367, 1385, 1412, 1443, 1470, 1495, 1505, 1535, 1563, 1666, 1669, 1739, 1777, 1792, 1844, 1889, 1923, 1945 n.4, 1948, 1954, 1991, 1999, 2041, 2050, 2081, 2095, 2197, 2238, 2263, 2295, 2344, 2375, 2385, 2412, 2433, 2455 n.1, 2485 n.1, 2497 n.1, 2538, 2545, 2559, 2605, 2661, 2766, 2793, 2811, 2854, 2899, 2953, 2954 Technicians, cv, 15, 86, 208, 209, 237, 253, 259 n.2, 427, 432, 518, 532, 555, 641, 642, 656, 713, 946, 1126, 1233, 1294, 1377, 1379, 1380, 1497, 1498, 1553, 1677, 1725, 1768, 1770, 1771, 1795, 1842, 1876, 1950, 2076, 2212, 2216, 2219, 2220, 2222, 2224, 2255, 2272, 2332, 2377, 2381, 2529, 2605, 2857, 2907, 2925
3032 Technological changes, 33, 49, 87, 88, 102, 123, 165, 197, 198, 422, 443, 454, 474, 544 n.6, 579, 637, 894, 900, 902, 940, 951, 956, 1032, 1063, 1088, 1165, 1376, 1476, 1550, 1553, 1631, 1659, 1663, 1792, 1806, 1811, 1812, 1835, 1836, 1843, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1992, 2003, 2004, 2015, 2532, 2539, 2540, 2662, 2784, 2789, 2937 Technological development, 151, 294, 427, 592, 640, 1427, 1453, 1522, 1555, 1584, 1635, 1659, 1676, 1709, 1814, 2388, 2395, 2505, 2522, 2599, 2615 Technological innovations, 147, 148, 413, 638, 752, 881, 943, 973, 980, 1280, 1445, 1813, 1817, 1879, 1893, 1912, 1948, 2571, 2579 Technological progress, 86, 599, 602, 603, 1320, 1497, 2767 Technology education, 36, 578, 1008, 1047, 1176, 1319, 1324–1325, 1326, 1327–1330, 1331, 1333, 1549, 1590, 1805–1819, 1838, 2005, 2010, 2011, 2165, 2229, 2238 Technology-enhanced learning, 1587, 1687–1698 Tertiary education, cxxi, 86, 118, 195, 292, 349, 532, 555, 589, 654, 725, 742, 909, 910, 940, 946, 1092, 1104, 1219, 1657, 1660, 1661, 1744, 1780, 1781, 1792, 1799, 1972, 1973, 2030, 2060, 2071, 2083, 2086, 2088, 2095, 2096, 2100, 2125 n.6, 2125 n.12, 2335, 2340, 2406, 2433, 2434, 2787, 2788, 2818, 2822, 2910 Thailand, lvi, 98, 102, 199, 549, 550, 551, 553, 556, 557, 558, 561, 565, 568, 570, 573, 580, 659, 660, 672, 704, 749, 909, 910, 918 n.4, 1040, 1924, 1927, 2028, 2039, 2075, 2078, 2084, 2160, 2169, 2473, 2474, 2544, 2589, 2839 Thesaurus, 76, 1744, 1745, 1948, 1953, 1954 Timor-Leste, 2160 Togo, 90, 259 n.2, 536, 537, 538, 543, 1082, 2160 Tokelau, 2161 Tonga, 749, 2161 Trade unions, lxxx, cv, 52, 94, 106, 118, 150, 159 n.4, 198–200, 207, 221, 225, 241, 302, 383, 388, 455, 464, 590, 624, 675, 686, 693, 695, 1133, 1180, 1228, 1273, 1279, 1293–1306, 1312, 1543, 1547, 1659, 1749, 1750, 1754, 1757, 1786,
Subject Index 2251, 2315, 2345, 2357, 2445, 2541, 2542, 2604, 2668, 2720, 2727, 2747, 2749, 2750, 2784, 2788, 2819, 2867, 2868, 2870, 2904, 2922 Traditional occupations, 69, 296, 382, 756, 1458, 1553, 1661 Traditional skills, 819, 860, 2590 Trainee-centred teaching, 1701–1705 Training course, xci, ciii, cxxix, 73, 159 n.3, 285, 302, 303, 379, 383, 384, 470, 557, 560, 641, 642, 643, 828, 833, 840, 914, 1000, 1019, 1076, 1112, 1114, 1128, 1134, 1210, 1221, 1222, 1289, 1298, 1300, 1371, 1434, 1594, 1654, 1865, 1869, 1875, 1879, 1941, 1960, 2035, 2078, 2260, 2302, 2317, 2393, 2421, 2440, 2442, 2634, 2841, 2845, 2894, 2906, 2939, 2940, 2966 institutions, x, lxx, lxxviii, xcii, cvi, cxx, cxxi–cxxii, cxxvi, 74, 91, 186, 223, 236, 242, 264, 334, 335, 356, 368, 376, 381, 383, 385, 469, 556, 607, 609, 611, 612, 633, 681, 753, 783, 784, 871, 876, 901, 907, 990, 1003, 1034, 1075, 1080, 1081, 1097, 1109, 1111, 1151, 1187, 1234, 1237, 1359, 1397, 1424, 1454, 1739, 1843, 1916, 1979, 1987, 1990, 2069, 2298, 2326 n.3, 2390, 2420, 2428, 2442, 2598, 2648, 2655, 2726, 2770, 2783, 2787, 2811, 2814, 2859, 2906, 2911 modules, 422, 693, 1179, 1243–1256, 1415, 2048, 2049, 2393, 2764 needs, xcii, cxxv, cxxviii, cxxix, cxxxii, 154, 156, 199, 236, 237, 245–258, 299, 304, 369, 519, 524, 609–617, 631, 690, 698, 699, 718, 725, 727, 732, 782, 883, 915, 1005, 1013, 1077, 1078, 1081, 1087, 1088, 1100, 1108, 1109, 1110, 1111, 1128, 1147, 1160, 1628, 1885, 1990, 1995, 2189, 2190, 2191, 2276, 2286, 2291, 2362, 2388, 2393, 2464, 2466, 2467, 2495, 2511, 2533, 2544, 2573, 2723, 2773, 2805, 2867 periods, xc, 268, 689, 701, 714, 841, 842, 1128, 1189, 1285, 1374, 1390, 1397, 1449, 2290, 2441, 2630, 2821 programmes, xciv, ci, 44, 60, 64, 70, 74, 125, 199, 238, 240, 267, 277, 295, 299, 301, 303, 335, 351, 381, 382–385, 390 n.1, 390 n.2, 480, 520, 554, 583, 586, 593, 604, 609, 632, 634, 671, 685, 693,
Subject Index 756, 757, 762, 818, 820, 834, 854, 858, 884, 954, 979, 985, 1047, 1086, 1100, 1101, 1102, 1104, 1107, 1125, 1160, 1176, 1214, 1266, 1339–1341, 1389, 1433, 1451, 1512, 1553, 1677, 1797, 1841, 1919, 1984, 1997, 2000, 2069, 2084, 2259, 2266, 2285, 2383, 2398, 2432, 2442, 2467, 2505, 2512, 2547, 2647, 2706, 2723, 2779, 2785, 2794, 2812, 2820, 2851, 2912, 2955, 2964 providers, 70, 74, 91, 242, 285, 286, 333, 335, 337, 339, 777, 884, 900, 902, 908, 912, 927, 934, 1032, 1034, 1079, 1100, 1160, 1162, 1204, 1208, 1209, 1215, 1367, 1411, 1412, 1476, 1479, 1480, 1602, 1753, 2264, 2272, 2280, 2285, 2289, 2609, 2652, 2653, 2654, 2655, 2753, 2754, 2766, 2772, 2808 n.3, 2867, 2894, 2895, 2901, 2902, 2903, 2955, 2957, 2961, 2964, 2966, 2967, 2968 systems, lxxxix, xci, xcv, c, cxxviii, cxxxiii, 84, 89, 120, 121, 147, 149, 150, 158, 164, 196, 240, 242, 264, 269, 273, 298, 303, 321, 365, 366, 370, 414, 420, 427, 433, 440, 444, 448, 450, 505, 510, 519, 540, 600, 619, 622, 869, 878, 929, 931, 951, 974, 1013, 1046, 1057, 1062, 1086, 1162, 1180, 1207, 1222, 1238, 1302, 1378, 1405, 1449, 1499, 1539, 1667 n.8, 1751, 1952, 1969 n.1, 2054, 2091, 2170, 2247, 2313, 2319, 2327n.22, 2327n.28, 2532, 2541, 2586, 2604, 2716, 2749–2754, 2757, 2812, 2853, 2858, 2882, 2900, 2904, 2928, 2938, 2955 of workers, cxxiv, 470, 695, 1133, 1308, 1317 n.2, 2380–2381, 2459, 2461, 2463, 2466 Transferability, xcvii, 74, 245, 502, 1236, 1342, 1507, 1515, 1525, 2777, 2781, 2787–2788, 2789, 2859, 2876, 2938, 2942 Transfer of credit, 442, 449, 2856, 2895, 2903 Transformation of societies, 2375 Transformative learning, 342, 661, 1695, 1884, 2529–2530, 2661–2675 Transitional economies, 1076, 1223, 1739 Transition countries, 366, 370, 371, 377–378, 420, 499–511, 1427, 1435, 1588, 2028, 2042–2043, 2580 Traumatized individuals, 779
3033 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), cv, 1091, 1758, 2714, 2715, 2728 Trinidad and Tobago, 2114, 2125 n.6, 2160, 2305, 2307, 2310 n.1, 2903, 2907 Tunisia, 534, 536, 537, 539, 1051, 1054, 1055, 1056, 1058, 1059, 1064, 1065, 1944, 2074, 2075, 2076, 2078, 2091, 2100, 2110, 2160, 2839 Turkey, 200, 586, 589, 1188, 2115, 2116, 2160, 2262 n.5, 2401, 2797 Turkmenistan, 2160 Turks and Caicos Islands, 2099, 2108, 2125 n.6, 2125 n.7, 2160 Tuvalu, 2161 TVET practitioners, 1203, 1207 strategies, 237, 245, 1290, 1413, 2032 Twenty-first century workplaces, 2231 U Ubiquitous society, 1895 Uganda, ci, cxxi, 90, 536, 537, 538, 769, 771, 775–785, 816, 818, 832, 2100, 2116, 2160, 2589, 2590, 2900, 2907 Ukraine, 1108, 2099, 2111, 2161 Unemployment, xii, c, c, 87, 100, 113, 119, 124, 134, 148, 168, 171, 178, 199, 220, 235, 245, 264, 277, 279, 284, 293, 298, 308, 366, 373, 381, 383, 406, 427, 453, 478, 520, 533, 541, 551, 599, 623, 673, 683, 685, 694, 758, 793, 836, 841, 884, 942, 1029, 1054, 1063, 1091, 1126, 1137, 1149, 1298, 1304, 1312, 1316, 1362, 1449, 1540, 1648, 1751, 1801, 1984, 2044–2045, 2247, 2258, 2305, 2320, 2361, 2401, 2412, 2463, 2500, 2510, 2661, 2716, 2868, 2891, 2936, 2939, 2942 UNESCO-APEID, ciii, cv UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO-IITE), lxi, lxvii, 1879 UNESCO Institute for lifelong learning (UIL), lxvii, 2597, 2598, 2601–2611 UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UNESCOUIS), xiii, lvi, lxv, lxxxi, lxxxiv, 534, 2054, 2079 n.1, 2081, 2093 n.1, 2095, 2096, 2097, 2098, 2099, 2100, 2101, 2102, 2104, 2105, 2106, 2107, 2108, 2109, 2110, 2111, 2112, 2113, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2119, 2120, 2121, 2122, 2123, 2124 n.1, 2899
3034 UNESCO-UNEVOC, ix, x, xii, xiii, xiv, xv, xvi, xvii, lxx, lxxvii, lxxxiv, xcviii, civ, cv, 41–56, 84, 427, 433, 560, 574, 581, 678, 808, 814, 850, 903, 904 n.1, 990, 1039, 1048 n.5, 1186, 1292, 1408, 1454, 1549, 1560, 1844, 1939–1944, 2027, 2041, 2049–2050, 2092, 2166, 2169, 2377, 2382, 2406, 2554 United Kingdom, lxxiii, lxxxiv, xcii, 12, 13, 94, 105, 153, 158, 165, 171, 176, 178, 184, 195, 219, 220, 225, 230, 282, 343, 453, 455, 585, 741, 815, 838, 908, 912, 918 n.2, 926, 989, 990, 1002, 1025, 1048 n.1, 1053, 1060, 1063, 1073, 1176, 1189, 1191, 1319, 1367, 1377, 1380, 1401, 1476, 1527, 1541–1543, 1660, 1688, 1782, 1791, 1811, 1840, 1997, 2072, 2113, 2171, 2346, 2381, 2470, 2528, 2727, 2741–2742, 2867, 2900, 2913 United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN/DESA), 118, 2401 United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), 849 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 248, 353, 565, 573, 575, 673, 725, 767, 790, 830, 838, 1923, 1924, 1929, 1932 United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), 566, 568 United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), cxxiv, 1045, 1280 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), ix–xvii, lxi–lxv, lxvii–lxxi, lxxvii, lxxviii, lxxix, lxxx, lxxxi, lxxxii, lxxxiii, lxxxiv, xcvii, xcviii, c, ciii, civ, cv, cvii n.1, 41–56, 84, 90–91, 197, 241, 324, 336, 427, 432–433, 515, 516–521, 532, 534, 550, 554, 560, 562, 566, 574, 581, 592, 645, 678, 704, 726, 736, 749, 758, 763–764, 807, 808, 814, 850, 856, 902, 903, 940, 989–990, 1003, 1038–1041, 1044, 1047, 1048 n.3, 1048 n.5, 1048 n.6, 1051, 1123, 1137, 1186, 1190, 1223, 1259, 1262–1263, 1408, 1443, 1446, 1456, 1544, 1547, 1548–1549, 1838, 1844, 1879, 1892, 1925–1926, 1937–1945, 1945 n.4, 1945 n.6, 1948, 1951, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1969, 1984, 1992, 1993, 2010, 2025–2028, 2030, 2031, 2034–2035,
Subject Index 2039–2041, 2043–2046, 2049–2051, 2053–2054, 2056, 2058, 2070, 2071, 2074, 2079, 2079 n.1, 2079 n.2, 2081, 2092, 2093 n.1, 2095, 2096, 2097, 2098, 2099, 2100, 2101, 2102, 2104, 2105, 2106, 2107, 2108, 2109, 2110, 2111, 2112, 2113, 2114, 2115, 2116, 2118, 2119, 2120, 2121, 2122, 2123, 2124 n.1, 2125 n.14, 2165, 2166, 2167, 2169, 2170, 2173, 2197, 2198, 2200, 2208 n.1, 2296, 2357, 2359, 2361, 2362, 2365, 2375, 2377, 2382, 2406, 2525, 2527, 2533, 2553, 2554, 2575, 2580, 2590, 2591, 2597, 2609, 2616, 2663, 2699, 2715, 2740, 2741, 2768, 2788, 2791 n.11, 2811, 2815, 2816, 2822, 2823 n.5, 2823 n.6, 2899, 2900, 2901, 2902, 2941 United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), 118, 1223, 1547 United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR), 73, 76 United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), 801, 803, 806, 807, 850, 853, 854, 855, 856, 858 United TVET Network on Innovation and Professional Development (UNIP), 1183, 1190, 1423, 1427, 1435 n.3, 1549, 1550 n.12 United States of America, xc, xciv, 103, 165, 176, 183, 184, 192, 520, 741, 915, 1156, 1157, 1241 n.2, 1285, 1319, 1407, 1543–1544, 1612, 1636 n.1, 1811, 1836, 1901–1902, 2172, 2212, 2268, 2537, 2617, 2671, 2839, 2935 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, lxix, 115, 682, 1040, 1319, 1935, 2039, 2050, 2169, 2524, 2575 Universal primary education, lxxx, xcix, 47, 542, 1033, 1037, 1040, 1041, 2039, 2040, 2092, 2589 Universities of technology, 887, 961, 968, 969, 971, 972, 973, 974 Unqualified teachers, 1220, 1233, 2350 Unskilled workers, 87, 315, 1640, 1648, 1650, 1916, 2423, 2521 Upper secondary education, 86, 418, 535, 589, 598, 606, 740, 978, 983, 1043, 1657, 2033, 2068, 2072, 2077, 2083, 2084, 2085, 2086, 2096, 2102,
Subject Index 2103, 2112, 2113, 2114, 2116, 2119, 2120, 2121, 2122, 2123, 2124, 2248, 2249, 2606, 2813, 2818, 2869, 2928, 2941, 2955 Upper secondary level, lxxxiii, 191, 194, 197, 520, 522, 548, 708, 735, 738, 1506, 1654, 1657, 1755, 1840, 1841, 2031, 2033, 2074–2077, 2084, 2101, 2103, 2106, 2110, 2111, 2113, 2117, 2118, 2122, 2124, 2249, 2305, 2788, 2818, 2950 n.6 Upper secondary vocational education, 2084, 2108 Urbanization, lxxviii, xc, 192, 197, 566, 571, 574, 778, 783, 980, 2418, 2429 Uruguay, 304 n.3, 383, 384, 1303, 2048, 2099, 2101, 2108, 2161 USSR, lxxxi, 99, 367, 469, 523, 623, 977, 1443, 1916 Uzbekistan, 52, 1699, 2114, 2115, 2160 V Validation methodology, 2841 Vanuatu, 749, 2161 Venezuela, cxxix, 105, 199, 1080, 2101, 2116, 2160, 2686, 2839 Viet Nam, 558, 565, 571, 573, 704, 749, 1405, 1699, 1932, 2043, 2160, 2473, 2474, 2539 Vocational competencies, 402, 405, 409, 518, 703, 705, 1374, 1755, 1797, 2183, 2253, 2254, 2255, 2262 n.2, 2854 Vocational education policy, 602, 653–656, 1538 reform, 365, 367, 521, 982 Vocational Education and Training Network (VETNET), 419, 1455, 1490, 1546 Vocational educators, 20, 129, 1043, 1179, 1181, 1185, 1186, 1243, 1244, 1245, 1249, 1256, 1333, 1334, 1351, 1444, 1548, 2538, 2549, 2663, 2675 Vocational guidance, 13, 66, 75, 476, 549, 559–560, 587, 806, 1012, 1302, 1421, 1547, 1805, 1997, 1999, 2046, 2205, 2252, 2260, 2313–2326, 2423, 2510, 2940 Vocational information, 2260, 2261 Vocationalism, 27, 28, 29, 33, 909, 1509, 1727, 1791–1803, 2171, 2345 Vocationalization, xi, lxxxii, ci, 194, 278, 350, 531, 533, 559, 645, 704, 711, 1315 n.1, 1320, 1590, 1778, 1805–1819, 2090, 2204, 2295, 2296–2297, 2298, 2299,
3035 2300, 2301, 2304, 2305, 2306, 2307, 2308, 2311 n.1, 2360 Vocationalized secondary education, lxxxii, 901, 2204–2205, 2295–2311 Vocational learning, vii, ix, x, xci, 239, 242, 243, 313, 314, 316, 317, 337, 346, 349, 356, 439, 710, 1186, 1187, 1188, 1190, 1500, 1543, 1579, 1584–1585, 1588, 1693, 1694, 1698, 1711–1722, 1809, 1845, 1959, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 2034, 2067, 2074, 2163, 2256, 2291, 2632, 2755, 2925 Vocational practice, 175, 179, 183, 639, 1180, 1238, 1245, 1338, 1351, 1586, 1588, 1711–1712, 1714, 1718, 1719, 1720, 1722, 1802, 2168 Vocational qualifications, xiii, lxxxix, 71, 219, 321, 412, 440, 521, 592, 654, 741, 745, 758, 1180, 1228, 1293–1306, 1377, 1408, 1444, 1539, 1540, 1585, 1660, 1753, 1997, 2072, 2074, 2085, 2206, 2248, 2260, 2262 n.2, 2343, 2348, 2353, 2354 n.6, 2773, 2796, 2802, 2853, 2867, 2870, 2878, n.1, 2881–2897, 2903, 2907, 2919, 2924, 2925, 2933 n.3, 2954 Vocational schools, lxxxi, lxxxii, xcii, 13, 73, 156, 171, 191, 196, 288 n.3, 350, 366, 399, 401, 408, 483, 504, 511 n.10, 517, 527, 531, 544, 622, 630, 639, 649, 655, 689, 711, 715, 853, 910, 977, 981, 1123, 1191, 1193, 1223, 1232, 1235, 1353, 1416, 1419, 1424, 1449, 1450, 1466, 1501, 1528, 1555, 1579, 1585, 1603, 1631, 1666, 1677, 1754, 1778, 1796, 2068, 2073, 2074, 2090, 2248, 2249, 2250, 2252, 2255, 2262 n.2, 2422, 2592, 2635 Vocational secondary education, 1778 Vocational teachers, 73, 75, 372, 1181, 1183, 1185, 1186, 1187, 1188, 1189, 1190, 1192, 1193, 1194, 1195, 1196, 1197, 1198, 1220, 1243, 1244, 1246, 1253, 1256, 1319–1331, 1333, 1339, 1371, 1410, 1411, 1433, 1443, 1542, 1939, 2007, 2008, 2165, 2299, 2666 Vocational training policy, 76, 2315, 2316, 2326 n.4, 2326 n.5 VOCED, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 71, 72, 74, 76, 1844, 1947–1957, 2271 Vulnerable communities, 308, 309, 1279, 1302, 1305, 1941, 2028, 2034, 2036, 2042, 2049, 2739
3036 W Wage labour, 320 Wage rates, 946, 947, 2211, 2212, 2884, 2939 Web-based instructional system, 1863 Well-educated workforce, 83, 84, 992, 2523, 2528 White-collar work, lxxv, 1647, 2205–2206, 2329–2341, 2428 Women and girls, c, 264, 755, 756, 758, 837, 893, 896, 2163, 2199, 2425 Women’s education, 184, 802 Work -based education, 204–205, 421, 1763, 1773, 1848 -based learning, 27, 30, 31, 36, 204, 205, 208, 209, 210, 211, 215, 216, 320, 369, 402, 407, 408, 740, 886, 921, 1212, 1375, 1588, 1596, 1601, 1602, 1725–1736, 1754, 1794, 1797, 1801, 1802, 1860, 2070, 2236, 2239–2240, 2242, 2243, 2279, 2280, 2281, 2284, 2288, 2289, 2603, 2867, 2875, 2895, 2913, 2921, 2922, 2932 -based learning system, 204, 208, 209, 210, 211, 215, 216 -based programmes, 26, 1095, 1656, 2605 -based training, 383, 1371, 2030, 2067, 2069, 2070, 2279, 2280, 2286, 2291 education, 193, 1296, 1302, 1809–1810, 1819, 2428, 2637 experience, xcviii, 31, 34, 60, 61, 72, 75, 184, 193, 195, 214, 281, 300, 382, 396, 470, 587, 590, 659, 689, 695, 697, 893, 900, 901, 1058, 1061, 1117, 1189, 1371, 1375, 1429, 1430, 1431, 1453, 1554, 1585, 1599, 1600, 1605, 1642, 1654, 1655, 1720, 1721, 1763, 1817, 1825, 1992, 1994, 2068, 2075, 2077, 2078, 2221, 2240, 2257, 2259, 2260, 2263, 2270, 2271, 2276, 2280, 2281, 2282, 2283, 2284, 2285, 2286, 2287, 2288, 2289, 2291 n.2, 2346, 2360, 2420, 2428, 2546, 2592, 2605, 2753, 2818, 2819, 2871 market, 692, 1272, 1299, 1302 organization, lxxiv, 83, 116, 125, 165, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 215, 236, 366, 412, 747, 880, 1190, 1236, 1369, 1431, 1450, 1522, 1557, 1580, 1597, 1642, 1643, 1644, 1646, 1647, 1683, 1707, 1710, 1792, 2082, 2083, 2450,
Subject Index 2633, 2634, 2635, 2636, 2637, 2638, 2641, 2748 placement, xci, cxxii, 478, 692, 697, 973, 1071, 1374, 1377, 1501, 1764, 2271, 3990 n.2 practice, 93, 175–186, 324, 421, 441, 681, 915, 1226, 1262, 1265, 1345, 1357, 1377, 1503, 1635, 1691, 1711, 1720, 1773 requirements, 93, 149, 175, 177, 181, 182, 185, 1678, 1712, 1798, 2637 Workforce development, 42, 394, 395, 396, 404, 408, 759, 914, 927, 936, 1370, 1843, 1911–1920, 1952, 2036, 2177, 2178, 2181, 2182, 2187, 2188, 2190, 2191, 2192, 2198, 2201, 2216, 2221, 2360, 2362, 2363, 2382, 2431, 2487, 2494, 2522–2523, 2537–2549, 2554, 2555, 2564, 2567, 2605 Workforce preparation, 29, 593, 869, 876, 936, 941, 946, 956 Workforce skills, 882, 929, 936, 1369, 2211 Working environment, 269, 272, 659, 700, 705, 1190, 1502, 1593, 1602, 1655, 1656, 1709, 1898, 2283, 2285, 2286, 2289, 2290, 2291, 2393, 2511, 2513, 2926 Working life, xi, 93, 148, 168, 175, 177, 184, 185, 186, 200, 243, 324, 349, 414, 554, 1080, 1140, 1145, 1148, 1175, 1320, 1361, 1369, 1376, 1380, 1654, 1660, 1713, 1992, 1993, 2041, 2200, 2254, 2262 n.4, 2270, 2271, 2306, 2316, 2318, 2326 n.9, 2778, 2811 Workplace competence, 179, 180, 1175, 1712, 2893 culture, 49, 323, 329, 1267, 1826, 2362, 2562 learning, 106, 225, 226, 1364, 1368, 1373, 1542, 1545–1546, 1589, 1631, 1715–1718, 1734, 1754, 1763–1774, 1952, 1991, 2167, 2171, 2173, 2288, 2360, 2723 mentors, v, 2204, 2279, 2363 performance, xcv, cxxviii, 178, 1256, 1357, 1714, 1715, 1716, 1767, 2543, 2867 settings, 222, 224, 228, 1249, 1371, 1712, 1718, 1719, 1720, 1721, 1769, 1944, 2697, 2736 skills, 30, 455, 459, 1093, 1097, 1765, 1807, 2714, 2715, 2725, 2727 training, 335, 1057, 1105, 1162, 1210, 1211, 1212, 1837, 1984, 2282, 2283,
Subject Index 2284, 2285, 2289, 2290, 2291, 2606, 2723, 2727, 2896 Work-process analyses, 1433, 1633, 1634, 1635, 1636 Work-process knowledge, 1236, 1432, 1435 n.9, 1554, 1555, 1557, 1558, 1584, 1586, 1593–1607, 1623, 1634, 1681, 1692 Work-related learning, 334, 335, 338, 341, 746, 1587, 1687–1698, 2351, 2352, 2528, 2629, 2630, 2631–2633, 2634, 2635, 2636 World Bank, vii, lv, lxxix, lxxxii, civ, cvi, cxiii, cxiv, cxix, cxxii, cxxiii, cxxv, cxxvii, cxxxi, 27, 43, 86, 99, 118, 130, 137, 246, 249, 256, 265, 279, 285, 288 n.6, 308, 336, 350, 370, 383, 387, 475, 516–518, 520, 521, 532, 547, 550, 560, 566, 567, 571, 574, 678, 722, 754, 767, 773 n.3, 776, 788, 790, 793, 794, 805, 806, 807, 808, 823, 838, 840, 853, 858, 940, 1040, 1041, 1042, 1044, 1051, 1053, 1055, 1137, 1259, 1274, 1282, 1310, 1312, 1544, 1549, 1778, 1805, 1979, 2025, 2199, 2200, 2215, 2296, 2321, 2322, 2329, 2357, 2359, 2361, 2377, 2325, 2533, 2545, 2575, 2580, 2585, 2591, 2592 World Business Council on Sustainable Development Global Compact, 2198, 2359 World Conference on Education for All (WCEFA), 353, 516, 722, 1037, 2027, 2169 World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES), 1544 World Education Indicators (WEI), 2058, 2065 n.1, 2070, 2081, 2115 World of work, v, ix, x, lxx, lxxiii, lxxvii, lxxxiv, xcv, xcvii, cvi, cxxi, 24, 28, 32, 36, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46, 48, 49, 90, 91, 122, 161, 192, 193, 198, 203, 213, 223, 239, 272, 277, 278, 287, 294, 535, 547, 555, 559, 638, 691, 692, 694, 699, 739, 741, 746, 747, 750, 759, 769, 814, 850, 852, 990, 1003, 1188, 1194, 1196, 1236, 1296, 1301, 1302, 1305, 1309, 1321, 1323, 1324, 1333, 1334, 1370, 1373, 1444, 1452, 1453, 1458, 1553,
3037 1555, 1556, 1627, 1628, 1629, 1632, 1636, 1660, 1669, 1701, 1709, 1710, 1725, 1735, 1829, 1835, 1838, 1936, 1939, 1940, 1999, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2041, 2045, 2048, 2049, 2067, 2072, 2091, 2169, 2264, 2269, 2270, 2271, 2275, 2276, 2296, 2298, 2345, 2381, 2466, 2508, 2605, 2631, 2718, 2785, 2786, 2913 World Trade Organization (WTO), 117, 118, 1065, 1310, 1312, 2541 Y Yemen, 90, 2120, 2121, 2160 Young men, cxxvi, 133, 854, 858, 1829, 2218, 2380, 2445–2456 Young parents, 2273–2274 Young people, lxx, lxxxii, xcii, 46, 47, 48, 81, 87, 106, 120, 133, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 236, 240, 262, 274, 279, 291, 295, 296, 300, 302, 313, 316, 337, 338, 340, 345, 350, 353, 366, 373, 379–390, 450, 475, 486, 515, 533, 535, 539, 567, 586, 590, 600, 612, 638, 689, 703, 704, 711, 717, 723, 725, 736, 746, 747, 752, 754, 755, 768, 776, 780, 828, 831, 834, 980, 1029, 1037, 1043, 1044, 1058, 1063, 1096, 1126, 1144, 1150, 1177, 1228, 1277, 1302, 1431, 1449, 1539, 1588, 1725, 1730, 1733, 1735, 1757, 1779, 1780, 1783, 1805, 1812, 1991, 2027, 2032, 2043, 2092, 2198, 2200, 2201–2202, 2223, 2234, 2253, 2254, 2260, 2276, 2310, 2329, 2344, 2360–2361, 2366, 2389, 2419, 2464, 2586, 2742, 2802, 2828, 2940, 2961 Youth unemployment, xii, ci, 87, 113, 264, 277, 366, 371, 373, 427, 531, 1044, 1053, 1054, 1058, 1062, 1063, 1449, 1450, 1540, 1751, 2044, 2203, 2256, 2257, 2258, 2259, 2261, 2262 n.4, 2305, 2320, 2345, 2463 Z Zambia, cxix, cxxiv, 90, 1378, 1780, 1939, 1940, 2114, 2121, 2160, 2853 Zimbabwe, cxix, cxxiv, cxxvi, 535, 536, 539, 541, 1076, 1082, 1085, 1086, 1939, 2076, 2160, 2853, 2853, 2899, 2907
